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International Journal of Microbiology & Advanced Immunology (IJMAI) ISSN 2329-9967
Tuberculosis: Bacteriological And Epidemiological Aspects in The Central Region of Tunisia
Review Article
Ferjani A 1* , Marzouk M 1 , Ben Kahla I 1 , Ben Salma W 1 , Gharbi N 1 , Tarmiz H 2 , Kenani H 2 , Ben Said M 3 , Boukadida J 1
1*
2
Laboratory of microbiology and immunology, UR02-SP13, Universitary Hospital Farhat Hached, Sousse 4000, Tunisia
3Laboratory of parasitology, Universitary Hospital Farhat Hached, Sousse 4000, Tunisia
Unit of basic health care, Sousse 4000, Tunisia
Abstract
Objective: To present the situation of Tuberculosis (TB) in the region of Sousse.
Materials And Methods: A retrospective study conducted during 4 years (2006-2009) concerning all TB cases in the region of Sousse diagnosed according to bacteriological or histo-pathological and / or clinical criteria.
Results: The total of TB cases is 494. The incidences noted for the period study were respectively 20.7, 20.6, 24.7 and 22.4. The mean age was 39.7 years, the sex ratio was 1.4. Close contact was found in 29.7%. Twenty patients were prisoners. The mean delay for TB diagnosis was 45 days. Symptoms were predominated by cough and fever in pulmonary TB (PTB). HIV infection was noted in only 2 patients with extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB). TB was 233 times pulmonary and 261 times extra pulmonary (31% lymph nodes). Bacteriology confirmed the diagnosis in 207 cases; microscopy was positive in 67.6% (PTB) and 15.9% (EPTB). Multidrug resistance (MDR) was observed for 8 strains / patients. Mortality attributed directly to TB was 0.2%.
Conclusion: TB remains endemic in our region. TB location is primarily lung and lymph nodes. TB is not related to HIV infection. MDR and mortality attributed to TB are rare in our region.
Keywords: Tuberculosis; Epidemiology; Bacteriology; Sousse.
*Corresponding Author:
Laboratory of microbiology and immunology, UR02, SP13, Universitary Hospital Farhat Hached, Sousse 4000, Tunisia. Tel: 00 216 22604255; Fax: 00 216 22604255 E-mail: email@example.com
Asma Ferjani,
Received: May 18, 2013
Accepted: May 29, 2013
Published: May 31, 2013
Citation: Ferjani A, et al (2013). Tuberculosis: Bacteriological And Epidemiological Aspects in The Central Region of Tunisia. Int J Microbiol Adv Immunol. 1(2), 14-18. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.19070/23299967-130003
Copyright: Ferjani A © 2013 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Introduction
Despite a "vaccine" used for over seventy years and effective antibiotics available for over sixty years, tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global public health problem [1]. However, TB has large variations in the expression of the disease and in its spread in the general population. These variations depend essentially on socioeconomic and health status of populations. We describe the situation of TB in the central region of Tunisia, an endemic country of TB, with its different epidemiological and bacteriological char-
International Journal of Microbiology & Advanced Immunology, 2013 ©
acteristics.
Materials and Methods
It is a retrospective study conducted in the coastal region of eastcentral Tunisia, about 500 000 people with a socio-economic development among the highest in Tunisia and an annual income per capita of 4200 dollars. The national incidence of TB in Tunisia was 20.6 (in 2009) [1]. The study included all TB cases diagnosed between January 1st, 2006 and December 31, 2009 on the basis of biological and / or clinical or histo-pathological criteria.
Patients files collected were: sex, age, origin, marital status, socioeconomic status, clinical characteristics (including past history of TB, diabetes mellitus, malignancies, HIV...), treatment history (use of immunosuppressive drugs, steroids), past history of treatment for TB, smoking habits, history of known contact with a case of TB, stay in closed community (prison), date of hospital admission, hospital department, symptoms brought patient to consult (fever, weight loss, sweats, cough ..), chest radiographs investigations and the delay between the onset of symptoms and TB diagnosis (date of commencing treatment).
The bacteriological study included: the number of samples examined per patient and kind of each one (sputum, bronchial fluid, gastric aspirate, lymph node, pleural effusion...), date of sampling, result of Ziehl Neelsen staining (ZNS) (noted depending on the richness of acid fast bacilli (AFB) notified by number of crosses), result of cultures and positivity delay, and susceptibility to the first
line agents (rifampicin, isoniazid (INH), streptomycin, ethambutol, and / or pyrazinamide).
The pulmonary samples were inoculated on Löwenstein Jensen (LJ) culture medium. The extra-pulmonary samples were inoculated on solid (LJ and Coletsos) and liquid (BacT/Alert MB; BioMérieux, France) culture media. Culture media were incubated at 37 ° C in an inclined position up to 3 months for solid media and 40 days for liquid media. Cultures on solid medium were examined once a week, those on liquid medium considered to the alarm signal. Bacteria grown on culture media were identified by conventional biochemical techniques [2] and confirmed by the GenoType molecular kits (Hain Lifescience GmbH, Nehren, Germany). Susceptibility to the first line drugs was testing by the technique of proportions (Biorad).
Patients with extended disease to organs or tissues outside the thorax, including those patients who had pulmonary involvement, were considered as extra-pulmonary TB (EPTB).
Results
During the study period, a total of 494 cases of active TB patients was registered in our region; with an incidence of 20.77 in 2006, 20.6 in 2007, 24.72 in 2008 and 23.3 in 2009. The mean age of patients was 39.75 years ranging from 6 months to 94 years. The peak age was 20-29 years. The male to female ratio was 1.4. Most patients (60.5%) were from urban areas. Fifty six percent of patients were married and 46.8% were from the 'casual laborer' class. Forty six percent of patients were 'ever smoked' (those who were either currently smoking or ex-smokers). The proportion of patients who had a history of contact with a known case of TB was about one third of patients (29.7%). Twenty patients were prisoners. Patients were mainly hospitalized in chest diseases department (40.3%) and the remain ing in various medical and surgical services. The mean delay between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis of TB (commencement of treatment) was 45 days (ranging from 2 to 240 days) [Figure 1]. TB disease was 233 times pulmonary (PTB) and 261 times extra-pulmonary (EPTB) [Table 1]. Thirty seven patients were suffering from diabetes mellitus. HIV status was only known for 24 out of the 494 patients, among them two were HIV positive and presented with extrapulmonary localization. Ten patients had a history of treatment with immunosuppressive drugs. In PTB, clinical symptoms were mainly included cough (47.4%), fever (44.6%), asthenia, weight loss and anorexia in 43% cases; whereas in EPTB, signs most frequently found were fever (26%) and asthenia (22%). Chest radiographic findings suggestive of TB were found in all cases of PTB: right apical (29.9%) and bilateral located (27%) lesions were predominant. In EPTB, radiological TB signs were present in 38.6% of cases. TB diagnosis was based on bacteriological examination in 207 cases [Figure 2] and on histopathological examination and/ or strong clinical and radiological evidence in 287 cases [Figure 3]. The two hundred seven non-redundant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were isolated mainly from sputum (64.4%) and from lymph nodes (14.6%) [Figure 2]. ZNS positive bacilli
Table 1: Distribution of bacteriological or histo-pathological and/or clinical criteria positive TB samples
| | Bacteriological positive diagnosis | | Histo-pathological or clinical positive diagnosis |
|---|---|---|---|
| | Positive ZNS n (%) | Positive culture n (%) | |
| PTB | 140 (67.6) | 149 (72) | 84 (29.3) |
| EPTB | 33 (15.9) | 58 (28) | 203 (70.7) |
| Total | 207 | | 287 |
Pulmonary tuberculosis
PTB:
EPTB: Extra-pulmonary tuberculosis
International Journal of Microbiology & Advanced Immunology, 2013 ©
Figure 2: Distribution of bacteriological positive TB samples (%)
l
Figure 3: Distribution of all positive TB samples (%)
were demonstrated in 67.6% and 15.9% of pulmonary and extrapulmonary samples respectively. The estimated abundance of bacilli was noted at five crosses in 64 of the 140 positive ZNS pulmonary samples and one cross in 26 of the 33 positive ZNS EP samples. The delay of positivity of cultures on solid medium was 2 to 4 weeks (34.7%), 4 to 6 weeks (32.6%) and beyond 6 weeks for the remaining cultures (32.7 %). On liquid media, the mean delay of positivity was 10 days. The initial antibiotherapy was based on the INH, rifampicin, pyrazinamide and ethambutol association in 96.2% of cases. Drug susceptibility testing showed acquired resistance to INH in 4 cases, to both streptomycin and INH in 5 cases, and to both streptomycin and rifampicin in one case. Seven cases of acquired multidrug resistance (MDR) were found: a double resistance to INH and rifampicin in 2 cases, a triple resistance to INH, rifampicin and streptomycin in 5 cases, and a primary resistance to the four drugs in one case. Twelve deaths
International Journal of Microbiology & Advanced Immunology, 2013 ©
were recorded during our study period. They were subsequent to fulminant hemoptysis in one case, to MDR TB in 3 cases, and to additional co-morbidities in the remaining eight cases.
Discussion
TB remains a major public health problem worldwide [1]. Socioeconomic problems and general health deficiencies are the main causes of endemic TB in developing countries. The incidence rate of TB in our region (between 20 and 25) is practically the same as in other parts of Tunisia [3]. Tunisia is ranged in the countries with a moderate TB incidence [3].
In Tunisia and worldwide, prevalence of TB is higher among men as compared to women [4-7]. This could be explained by the most prevalence of promiscuity in men, particularly in community meeting places (cafes and tea rooms) much frequented by the males in our society.
TB occurs at any age but mainly affects young adults with important social activity [8,9]. This adds to the economic loss caused by TB as it affects the working age adults and parents of young children, imposing a work stoppage with major socioeconomic impacts [10,11]. Some studies, however, reported a higher TB in the oldest segment of the population due to co-morbidities that are risk factors for developing TB and the reactivation of the disease [7,12].
In our study, TB was found to primarily affect urban communities where promiscuity is the main promoting transmission factor of M. tuberculosis. The urban community meeting places (cafes and tea rooms) are at high risk of airborne transmission of M. tuberculosis. In contrast to previous studies where TB was shown to mostly occur in disadvantaged areas [4,13].
TB is a common disease in the general population. The exact context of the contamination is rarely found. However, as it was likely the case in about one third of our patients, the transmission may originate from close contact with patient. Closed communities (prisons) are classical context that promote occurrence of TB, for obvious reasons related to incarceration [14]. Twenty of our patients acquired TB during their stay in prison.
The 'casual labourers' class is most affected by TB. This is related to the lifestyle of these workers, who spend most of their free time in cafes, and are very prevalent in our country. Promiscuity in these relatively confined areas is very favourable to inhalation Pflügge particles.
Smoking habits found in almost half of TB cases, have been implicated as a risk factor predisposing to TB. A causal relationship between smoking and development, recurrence of TB and mortality due to smoking was demonstrated [15,16].
The period between the onset of symptoms and the commencement of treatment should be as shorter as possible to prevent the transmission of TB to contacts. Adopting the definition proposed by the panel of experts, the 'acceptable' period to receive treatment is 0-30 days [17]. The mean period is 45 days for our patients; it ranges from a few weeks to several months in other studies [17-19]. This relatively long period in our patients obviously needs to be shortened in order to prevent transmission to healthy individuals.
Additional risk factors for developing active TB include immuno-
International Journal of Microbiology & Advanced Immunology, 2013 ©
deficiency due to drugs or disease; HIV infection being the leading one in Western countries [5,20], in contrast to our country where HIV positivity is not associated with TB. Indeed, TB is not considered in Tunisia as an opportunistic disease and knowledge of HIV status of TB patient is not needed.
TB can be clinically confusing because of the poor specificity of symptoms. Cough is the most common symptom of PTB [21, 22]. Undetected PTB in patients, where cough is attributed to other co-morbidities, may be a potent source of TB infection, especially for the close contacts [23]. In EPTB, symptoms mainly consist of alteration of general condition and a slight nocturnal fever [21].
Chest radiographs usually support the diagnosis of TB, especially in pulmonary localization [21,24]. However, its contribution in extrapulmonary forms is poor, mainly in cases with negative microscopy.
TB can develop anywhere in the body. Nevertheless, the most common site remains the lungs [8,25]. In the last decades, an increase of the lymph node TB was noted in many countries [8,25, 26].
The diagnosis of TB is based on bacteriology. The histology is contributory in the EPTB cases with a negative ZNS [27]. The development of rapid diagnosis mycobacterial tests would further improve diagnosis of EPTB [28,29]. Bacteriology is very effective in PTB [30]. Microscopy was positive in most of our patients with pulmonary localization. Culture on solid medium remains the "gold standard", whatever the location of TB [2].
The amount of biological samples addressed to our lab for TB diagnosis doesn't reflect the actual distribution of TB cases. Indeed, the bacteriology lab does not receive all the biological samples. This is due to the fact that clinicians are not fully aware of technical developments and new tests now available which improve the diagnosis of TB in lymph nodes and other solid biological samples (Stomacher mill and disperse).
In EPTB, although conventional bacteriology provides less positive immediate result, it remains essential for diagnosis and treatment of patients. Our bacteriological positivity rates in EPTB are similar to those reported by other authors [30].
AFB, which is a marker of contagiousness of the disease, was present in more than half of patients with PTB. Specificity of microscopy is very high [30]. The presence of AFB in pulmonary sample indicates that the patient is suffering from bacillary active and contagious TB. Other techniques have been evaluated in order to improve and accelerate diagnosis and treatment of TB [28,29].
The management of TB cases has recently been complicated by the emergence of drug-resistant TB strains (MDR). Acquired resistance is almost always caused by inadequate treatment and non adherence to treatment [31,32]. The rate of resistance noted in our study did not reach the alarming rates reported in other studies [33,34]. In our region, rigorous TB control treatment measures have been implementing which consist of the direct observed therapy (DOT) programmes and a mobile health monitoring team. The rates of resistant TB strains in our region, although higher than those reported in Western countries [34], are below the overall rate reported by the world health organisation (WHO)
in 2008 and in some countries [34,35]. However, the rate of resistance we noted is mainly of the acquired type and should prompt our health authorities to be more vigilant and effective.
Nowadays, the mortality directly attributed to TB is rare, in well functioning TB management programs. In our study, the mortality is very low (0.2%), much lower than the rates of mortality due to TB reported by WHO in 2009 and in some countries [1,35].
Conclusion
TB remains endemic in our region with an incidence between 20 and 25. It is mainly lung and lymph node, not related to HIV infection. Resistance to anti-TB is rare, and mortality directly attributed to TB is a rare event. The new medical techniques in mycobacteriology are very promising for better management of TB patients in the near future.
Acknowledgements
This work was realised in UR02SP13 activity financed by the MESRS. TN .
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WHHSH ("What Happens Here Stays Here")
by Rob O'Keefe
Story
A few months ago I spoke at a travel conference about the "What Happens Here, Stays Here" ad campaign for Las Vegas – I covered the strategy, showed some ads, results and took some questions. Afterwards, someone approached me and with a cynical expression asked what the real secret was – "tell me the truth, how did you really get that campaign made in the first place?" As we enter the fifth year of the campaign it's a good point to reflect upon.
I wouldn't call it a secret, but in my experience the difference between break out creative and mediocrity is this – lose the fear. Uncommon success requires uncommon thinking and the willingness to embark on a new path. Let's face it, there is a lot of travel and tourism advertising that shows pretty pictures and promises you'll see/experience/ discover/explore a real good time. Las Vegas has done some of this in its history. But to really get noticed, you need a bigger idea – and for Las Vegas that meant fully embracing a brand driven approach.
Fear is kryptonite to the super ad campaign – an iceberg to the unsinkable big idea. The key ingredient is being able to stand for something, to not try to be something for everyone, to go to the edge. That means deciding what you are – and what you are not. And that can be scary sometimes, but that is how great brands are built.
Of course, there's a lot more to it, but after painstakingly developing the strategy, writing a rock solid creative brief, running through tedious focus groups and finalizing the idea – someone still has to sign off. That's what it came down to with this campaign. My agency, R&R Partners, has a 25 year relationship with the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority (LVCVA), which certainly helps when presenting a risky idea – but let's just say with the original concept we were on the thin end of the limb.
The Business Challenge
Go back to Las Vegas in 2000. The city had just shy of 125,000 rooms and was coming off a decade long growth spurt. In 1990, the destination had less than 74,000 rooms – so in ten years the room inventory increased by almost 70%, and not a single year in that timeframe saw annual city- wide occupancy below 80%. Hotel-casino developers apparently thought if the 1990s allowed for that kind of increase in supply being matched by a commensurate increase in demand plus an increase in revenue (visitor dollar contribution increased by more than 100%) – "let it roll" seemed to be the mantra.
Into the new century, it became clear the development boom in Las Vegas was still picking up steam with new properties such as the Wynn, expansions at the Venetian and Caesars, and mega-developments such as MGM/Mirage's Project CityCenter and Boyd Gaming's Echelon coming on line within the next decade. With this continued investment came the expectation that the
It was not lost on us that while the destination saw terrific growth and success during the 90s, competition was less a factor. Indian and other competitive gaming was gaining ground but had not yet blossomed. After years of smooth sailing, the cruise industry began a significant growth spurt in the late 90s – according to CLIA (Cruise Line Industry Association) the 2-5 day cruise segment grew by a whopping 869% between 1980 and 2005. Clearly, the year 2000 represented a competitive turning point for Las Vegas. There were more players in the 'tourism economy' and many of them openly declared their intention of going after a piece of the Las Vegas tourism pie.
The Marketing Approach
The difference between break out creative and mediocrity is this – lose the fear.
city would continue to draw new demand and maintain mid-80ish occupancy with increasing revenue. The organization tasked with driving demand is the LVCVA and as their ad agency – we felt the heat too.
For Las Vegas to remain one of the world's most successful tourism destinations a new approach was required. The basis for a lot of tourism/travel advertising is features and benefits – show pretty pictures and guarantee a good time. What was needed was a shift to a brand-driven approach that would define the Las Vegas experience based on an emotional connection between consumers and our destination. After all, 'brand' really exists in the hearts and minds of consumers. We needed an emotionally charged advertising campaign that would tap into both. Here's the approach in three steps:
1. Account Planning – you can't spend enough time speaking with your customers. Not just talking to them, but interacting with them. Learning not just what they say, but what they actually mean. Finding out not just what they want, but what they need. This is the essence of account planning and we went through an extensive 18 month process engaging consumers in search of the One Thing – the single truth that is relevant, compelling and is the building block to defining the experience your destination offers. Consumers told us time and time again that in Vegas they feel like they can cut loose like nowhere else – this was a key insight to build on.
has always been provocative, sexy and suggestive. All we did was tap into what Las Vegas has always stood for; we packaged its fundamental brand truth. But it was still scary. Even after all the homework, the focus groups, countless iterations of creative concepts – the final campaign was met with more than a little trepidation. The initial presentation of the advertising to hotel stakeholders was met with a daunting silence.
2. Brand Positioning – You might have heard that if you can't boil down your brand to three words you're not trying hard enough. For Las Vegas we boil it down to two words: "Adult Freedom."
This is the essence of the Las Vegas brand and sets up our positioning statement – "Adult Freedom means Las Vegas is the place where you do things you can't or wouldn't do anywhere else." This is the guiding principle for the entire marketing effort.
3. "What Happens Here, Stays Here"
– your brand is not simply your ad campaign, rather the campaign is the articulation of the brand. In our case, we needed something that not only conveyed "Adult Freedom" but actually encouraged it. Something that gave consumers permission to enjoy themselves in a way they don't do elsewhere. The "What Happens Here" campaign became the means of delivering the brand message and reflecting the Las Vegas experience.
Sure "What Happens Here, Stays Here" (WHHSH) is provocative. Las Vegas
Where were the gorgeous hotels, the fabulous spas and pools, not a single Cirque de Soleil dancer? Instead the first television spot involved a very seductive woman taking a limo ride to the airport who upon exiting the limo had transformed from her 'Vegasself'. Even with the planning and customer insights to back up the creative approach it was a tough sell. We shifted from showing what Las Vegas has to the attitude that Las Vegas represents – ultimately a much more compelling proposition. So with much
hand wringing the campaign was approved and more than a few fingers were crossed as we launched.
Here's where luck favors the prepared – we sought very high profile programming to launch the new effort, where else but the Super Bowl? As it turns out, the NFL is somewhat picky about who runs ads during their broadcast and gambling was on the no-no list. Yet the spot was not about gambling – they didn't care. So we protested. And that protest was picked up in the news – in fact by dozens of national news outlets. With lead-in lines such as "The TV commercial the NFL doesn't want you to see…" most of the news programs showed the ad for us. In the end, we gained over $6 million in earned media before spending our first paid media dollar. Touchdown!
Five Years Later
We are just entering our fifth year of the campaign and the results speak for themselves. The phrase "What Happens Here, Stays Here" has become embedded in the popular vernacular. We'd like to say we knew this campaign would take off like it did, but we were even surprised. The line has been used by Jay Leno, Billy Crystal when he hosted the Oscars, as the puzzle on "Wheel of Fortune", and dozens of other television shows – even the First Lady quoted the line when on the Late Show. My personal favorite was the use of the line in news coverage on selecting a new Pope – "What happens in conclave, stays in conclave".
Research shows that the campaign has played a significant role in making consumer perceptions about Las Vegas much more positive and our unaided awareness when asked about tourism slogans is regularly over 85%. In 2005, the campaign was credited with assisting Las Vegas in being named the #5 "hot brand" in America by an independent study conducted by Landor & Associates and it was predicted to go to #4 the following year. In fact, in 2006 Las Vegas reached #2 only behind Google.
Most importantly, Las Vegas has continued to flourish as one of the top tourism destinations in the world. The year before the launch we had just over 35 million visitors with an average occupancy rate of 84%; we ended 2006 with nearly 39 million visitors and average occupancy of 89.7%.
Of course, none of this would have been possible if the destination didn't deliver on the brand promise. Our hotel partners invest in that promise to fulfill the expectations of visitors. Las Vegas is in a continuous state of evolution, constantly reinventing itself, creating ever-more possibilities of what can happen here.
All we did was tap into what Las Vegas has always stood for; we packaged its fundamental brand truth.
Key Insights
1. I don't know if there are any real secrets left in destination marketing. The success enjoyed by Las Vegas begins and ends with the customer. The account planning process we utilized was crucial because you aren't going to discover fundamental "truth" about consumer's passions and desires in focus groups alone. Would you share that with a room full of strangers? There's more to account planning than covered here and you'll find a decent description at: http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Account_Planning.
2. Make sure your brand accurately reflects what you have to sell. Find and tell the truth about the experience (not just the attractions and amenities) offered. Remember when some thought that Las Vegas was trying to target families and kids? That's a bit of a myth – yes, some of the hotel properties built attractions such as
theme parks to broaden their appeal. But the LVCVA never actually shifted its marketing effort towards families and children. The result was the product offering starting to deviate from the brand – people didn't "buy" Las Vegas as a family destination. In the years since, the product and brand are in sync.
3. Finally, don't be afraid to take a chance. Do the homework, hold your agency and/or marketing department accountable, let your customers into your planning process – and when it's done right, let the dice roll. You might just be surprised by how successful you can be.
Rob O'Keefe, Group Account Director, R&R Partners. As the leader of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) account, Rob manages an $90 million budget, a staff of over 30 people and coordinates the combined efforts of domestic and global branding, public relations, research, media and digital marketing for the largest tourism account in the country. His ability to juggle the many demands of this dynamic tourism client, stay abreast of industry trends and assist his team in starting a few new ones has made him an invaluable asset to R&R Partners.
Though he helps oversee the wildly popular "What happens here, stays here" campaign, which was labeled by The New York Times as "a stroke of marketing genius," Rob is never content to rest on the campaign's laurels. His philosophy is always to push the brand further than anyone imagined possible and has led to Las Vegas' being named the #2 brand in the country behind only Google, according to Landor & Associates' 2006 Newsmakers Survey.
Prior to joining R&R Partners, Rob worked for Caesars Entertainment, where he managed all marketing and promotional efforts for Bally's Hotel & Casino and Paris Las Vegas. He initiated the first ever branding campaign for Paris Las Vegas, which led to the highest summertime occupancy and average daily rates that the property had ever enjoyed. He also spearheaded an entertainment strategy that increased profits by creating a new channel of revenue and spiking ticket sales during a traditionally soft period for the property.
Rob is a sought-after speaker on the topics of brand development and strategically integrated communications. He has delivered addresses on "Maximizing Brand Power" at the Travel Industry Association's national conference; "Driving Promotional ROI" at the Promotions Marketing Association annual meeting; and "Building Brand Equity" for the New York Advertising Club. He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in mass communications from the University of Missouri and has completed graduate studies in marketing and finance at the Henry Block School of Business.
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Innovation-oriented Analysis of Critical Control Points (IACCP): Who Wishes to Solve Sweet Pepper Yield Oscillations?
H. Schepers Agrotechnology and Food Sciences Group Wageningen University & Research Centre PO Box 17, 6700 AA Wageningen
The Netherlands
W. Kromdijk and O. van Kooten Horticultural Production Chains group Wageningen University PO Box 16, 6708 PA Wageningen The Netherlands
Keywords: Capsicum annuum, innovation strategy, chain collaboration, crop growth model, yield oscillations
Abstract
A generic program for mathematical model-supported innovation profiling in fresh food supply chains is presented. Building on top of a crop growth model, strategies to address the problem of sweet pepper yield oscillations (flushes) are analysed quantitatively from both isolated or combined perspectives of the chain players: plant breeders, horticultural growers and traders. Yield oscillations in sweet pepper production, caused by crop physiology, and presumably synchronized by weather conditions, result in periodic oversupply at the market level. Growers try to desynchronise their own temporal yield pattern from that of the market, in order to target higher prices during low supply periods. A complication is that the quality of fruit products, in terms of size and colour/ripeness, may be affected when altering growing practices such as pruning, harvest timing, and climate control. Upstream, breeders can change physiological constants. Downstream, post harvest storage may produce value by better price targeting. The IACCP approach is presented, and is based on systematic decomposition of income, profits, cost and revenues with help of a simulation model. Especially the decomposition of revenues into isolated effects of production yield, price targeting, and various quality characteristics such as fruit size and fruit ripeness/colour shows how synergies between innovation strategies of collaborating (or competing!) players within a supply chain are created (or destroyed). Although the model is not yet fully validated in detail, such simulations may well support discussions on collaborative innovation strategies and on prioritisation of the research agenda.
INTRODUCTION
In agricultural chains, probably more than in other industrial supply chains, the large numbers of 'primary producers' (growers) presents a game-theoretical problem regarding innovation strategies as the pay-offs of innovations are not necessarily aligned for growers and breeders. Innovative growers that can succeed in (partly) suppress yield flushes will harvest fruits when other growers can not, and enjoy high prices. Growers will adopt an alternative (innovative) practice when the expected profit per square meter improves enough to recover their investment cost of the new growing practice. In contrast, breeders who develop a new cultivar, are interested in both the number of growers who can benefit, and by the profit difference while adopting the new cultivar variety. The complication is that the profit improvement for an individual grower depends on the fraction of growers who already choose to employ the new variety. A dilemma may
A major complication for growers of Sweet (bell) pepper (Capsicum annuum) is the periodic oversupply, and accompanying low prices, due to synchronous oscillations in crop yield with a period of about 6 to 8 weeks. These 'yield flushes' exist on plant level as a result of 'abortion' (spontaneous abscission) of young fruits in periods with heavy fruit loads and certain temperature and light conditions. The resulting 'demographic gaps' are difficult to prevent. To a lesser extent the growth of cucumber is characterised by the same phenomenon.
Proc. IVth IC on MQUIC
Eds. A.C. Purvis et al.
arise when individual growers proceed to adopt the new variety beyond the point at which profits for the breeder are maximal. Intricate pricing and exclusivity management is then necessary for the breeder to control the pay-off of its innovation program. In contrast, a national programme aimed at helping the entire sector of horticultural production will naturally adopt a different perspective.
We argue that the nature of this economic game depends on the biological details of the crop at hand, climate and weather conditions and historic micro-economic configurations and arrangements. This would show that in certain agricultural sectors there is no standard textbook optimal business economics approach to innovation management, and a specific multidisciplinary modelling exercise is called for to uncover the optimal innovation program.
Modelling Approach
Conceptually, we differentiate the description of the dynamics of the core system (e.g. crop growth) from the model components that reflect control towards set-points (e.g. of climate variables, such as temperature), design and operational practices (e.g. production yield, harvest weight or ripeness, etc.) and optimisation of target functions, that may be stakeholder specific (profits, risk etc.). For each of these layers of model components, we very briefly describe our preferred modelling style.
Concerning the modelling approach, we pose the synthesis of simple model elements for the various processes along the whole chain together into a single multidisciplinary model above the development of ever more detailed models for each element in isolation. In turn, the construction of such an integrated model, is subservient to the usage of the resulting model. Understanding how a model helps to address strategic issues thus precedes the model refinement. Furthermore, if parts of a model barely influence the outcome of strategic decisions (in our case the agenda of the various chain players to speed up innovation), the model is simplified. However, two criteria for the model structure may prohibit model simplification: representation of logical (causal) relationships and interpretability. Especially in settings where several players seek ways to collaborate, it is important that they can explain and discuss their logic and assumptions in ordinary language. For example, telling a prospective innovation partner that a "marvellous neural network model" tells you to invest is not a sound basis to build trust. As we think that lack of familiarity and trust among chain partners are important barriers to innovation, we use models as discussion support tool for collaborative innovation strategies. Our approach thus combines mechanistic modelling in the life sciences with system dynamics modelling focused on business economics (Sterman, 2000).
For the description (modelling) of the dynamics of crop growth, we formulate differential equations for the core state variables. Variables have physical dimensions, are interpretable and notions such as time, development stage, carrying capacity or maximum organ size are avoided if possible, as we prefer to translate the 'local' biochemical or physiological mechanisms directly in mathematical form.
Strategic and operational choices of the stakeholders have been modelled as algebraic functions of indicator variables in the system. For example, the harvest rate (the probability of fruits of being harvested per day) is modelled as an algebraic function of fruit weight and ripeness. Thus there is no single fruit weight or ripeness (e.g. colour) value at which fruits are harvested. In the example, effects of added personnel could follow from the calculation of the maximum harvest rate (e.g. (0.2 day -1 ) from the number of times per week that grower personnel 'comes by' a particular location in the
The effect of the input variables, such as light and temperature, are studied in three ways: as constant, as smooth, pre-defined function (e.g. sinusoidal light intensity pattern over the season, according to latitude), and as measured time series. Using constant or sooth input variables; we can relate certain system behaviours (e.g. endogenous period of oscillations) better to model constants. For empirical validation (not reported), we use actual time series for inputs.
greenhouse (e.g. 1.4 times per week), illustrating how we keep parameters 'interpretable'.
Finally, regarding the optimisation of target functions, we take grower profits as main output variable instead of fruit harvest yield, precisely to study the effect of fruit quality (in terms of weight and ripeness/colour) and timing of the harvest relative to the fluctuating market prices. Figure 1 gives a graphical representation of the model.
THE INNOVATION ANALYSIS CRITICAL CONTROL POINT APPROACH
A. Whose perspective is adopted? A single players' performance or that of the chain? Note that we argue that a single player would still be required to analyse the incentives and pay offs for all other chain players in order to optimally leverage their investment capacities for its own good.
First of all four structural questions are addressed to define the problem:
B. What is the goal: Is the target function financial only (e.g. yearly income), or is there more? If so, can these other factors be valued (customer loyalty), or are they a sine-qua-non condition (safety)?
D. What is the needed level of detail? More detail is needed for operational decision support for investments and daily practices than for sessions for strategic learning (e.g. on R&D, collaborations)?
C. What time horizon are we interested in? Is there a single point in time when a certain position must be attained (e.g. a target market share), or is the whole future innovation programme subject to conditions (e.g. grow without making a loss)?
In the present example, we adopt the perspective of innovative growers who wish to optimize their income over one season, in a rather 'ideal' computer simulation environment aimed at exploring various innovation strategies. In the future, we would like to address non-financial goals, such as energy use, and add more details in order to support short term operational management decisions.
1. Find or construct a mathematical model for the core biological processes and link its output variables to financial performance / the target function (of B)
In the IACCP approach, five steps are taken
2. Identify critical (sensitive, influential) control points (CCPs) for each player in the chain, both in terms of instantaneous and delayed effects (cf C). A control point is any parameter in the model that can be changed by a player, for example, a physiological constant (for the breeder), or fruit pruning practice (for the grower). A generic example of control points and the state they operate on are presented in Figure 2.
4. Construct the fastest or easiest way ("the transition path") for all players to change their practices in order to approach the optimum from step 3.
3. Determine the combination of parameter values (CCPs) that jointly maximize the target function. For daily practices, his can be done with time-varying values over the innovation period (in the example, one season), as an optimal strategy (pruning) may change parameters over the course of the season. Note that 'routine' reactions on input variables, such as weather conditions are already modelled as a practice with fixed parameters.
5. Determine the smartest incentives for each player in order to minimally deviate from the optimal transition path and obtain acceptability by all players.
In the following we illustrate and report on our progress with this program for the case of sweet pepper yield oscillations. For lack of space we do not present the details of the mathematical models here; for the recently developed crop growth model, we refer to Schepers et al. (2006). The financial model that underlies the innovation game in a supply chain setting, involves formulations describing price forming mechanisms and the valuation of product quality characteristics. The same model is applied to keep track of the harvested yield of the segment of non-innovating growers, as their production volume determines price formation as well. In addition we can see whether the harvested yield, average price, quality level, cost levels and income of the whole production area increases or decreases. This is relevant for the perspective of sector-wide and governmental organizations wishing to assess public innovation programmes. Finally, the difference in performance between innovating growers and non-innovating farmers determines the willingness of individual growers to innovate.
The Financial Situation: Market Price and Quality Effects
The volume and temporal pattern of harvested yields follows is found through integrating the 'conveyor belt' crop growth model (Schepers et al., 2006) that combines the fixed plant parameters (reflected genetic make-up), weather and climate variables and growers practices into a differential equation model for the development of the plant physiology (assimilates, vegetative biomass (growing and non-growing compartments) and fruit development over various weight classes over time (hence the 'term conveyor belt model')).
Four indicators for the harvested fruits determine daily revenues: 1) daily yield (kg fresh weight per square meter), 2) the market price that each daily batch of produce was sold for, the intrinsic product quality characteristics of 3) average fruit size and 4) average ripeness. When ('speculative') storage of fruits is taken into account, the daily harvested yield should be replaced by the volume of 'fruits brought to the market'. After subtracting costs, both fixed and variable (for capital, labour, energy and storage) income is computed as cumulative daily profits.
The market price was computed endogenously, as its movements over the season are caused by the synchronized harvest pattern of the growers. Price depends on the supply/ demand ratio where imports and demand are price-sensitive while the local supply is inflexible unless innovative measures are taken by growers or 'speculative storage' is present.
Regarding fruit quality, the price a grower receives is modulated as a function of both average fruit weight (size) of the daily batch, and average ripeness. For fruit size, we assume an expected fresh weight of 200 grams, while for ripeness (in practice colour) a temperature-sum of 50 days at 20ºC was expected. Rough inspection of real life data showed that relative negative deviations of the average fresh weight or ripeness are linearly translated into price effects, while above-expected performance is not rewarded with a price premium.
Some Tentative Results
In the next simulation experiment, we let growers vary the ripeness at which they harvest fruits. One of the options for growers to escape harvesting during periods of market oversupply (when everyone else harvests) is to harvest peppers in a green stage, when the crop was in fact meant to produce yellow or red peppers. Although they receive
If the breeder could manipulate the value of the fruit sink strength, it would seem logical to expect that increasing it would benefit fruit yields and thus grower's income. However, at much increased values of the fruit sink strength, the vegetative parts can not develop as strongly, yielding to less assimilate supply. Thus the model presents a bell shaped profile with an optimum for this parameter (Figure 3, dashed line). However, there is also an effect on the temporal profile of the harvest: stronger fruit sink strength brings about somewhat earlier harvest and with a shorter period of oscillation. Thus, the growers that would use a new variety with an increased fruit sink strength, could desynchronize their harvest pattern from that of their non-innovating colleagues. More interesting still, lowering the fruit sink strength would equally lead to desynchronization of the harvest pattern and equally yield to higher revenues (solid line with two optima). Obviously, this extra profits can only obtained if not all growers in the production area adopt the new crop variety. The upper line in the graph actually shows the profit effect for an infinitely small segment of innovative growers, whose production does not influence price formation. The lower line shows the case where all growers adopt the crop variety with the indicated fruit sink strength. The arrows point to the dilemma: only a small fraction can benefit from the desynchronization strategy, (arrow pointing slightly upward), whereas the whole population would decrease profits if all growers would switch (downsloping arrow).
a lower price per kg product for green peppers, the oscillatory pattern of fruit bearing of the crop is changed, resulting in a shifted pattern of harvest relative to growers that let the fruit completely turn red. The effects of harvesting at a green stage thus are shown by the decomposition of revenues into effects of yield, price and quality. We can separate the effects of yield and price by computing the revenues that would have been obtained with a constant price, reflecting the weighted average market price. As we have made explicit assumptions on how average fruit size and fruit ripeness affects price, we can compute the revenues that would have been obtained while setting aside the effects of these quality properties. Figure 4a show this decomposition of revenues. Clearly the effect of timing compensates the loss of revenues due to the green colour (lower ripeness) and smaller fruit size. Figure 4b shows the income per m 2 for the growers that harvest at the green stage (dashed line) and at the red stage (solid line), as function of the fraction of growers that harvest at the green stage (we assume they do so all season long). The point where it has no further improving effect on income is at about 60%. It is interesting to see how this figure depends on other parameters in the system. Multiplying these incomes per m 2 by the area that adopts either harvest strategy, we see that for the whole population (solid line on top in figure 4c), the income decreases, as more growers adopt green harvesting, illustrating the game theoretical aspects of this example.
DISCUSSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH
Other quality traits, such as disease proneness of fruits (e.g. blossom-end-rot) might be modelled by a similar approach as for the temperature sum dynamics, for the accumulation and distribution of Ca 2+ . Likewise secondary metabolites determining taste, such as organic acids may be modelled, allowing to optimize harvest timing according market prices, colour and taste profiles. This would allow to optimise breeder and grower innovation strategies focused on optimising yield, harvest timing, disease proneness (e.g. during post-harvest transportation and storage) and a wider range of quality traits than colour and size, such as taste.
As the model is based on theoretical considerations, and with only sparse inclusion of heuristics for sweet pepper growth, we should stress that further validation is necessary to attach any practical meaning to these 'thought experiments'. However, as argued above, we think that exploring the possibilities to translate highly strategic issues into a simulation environment can be helpful in uncovering relative sensitivities of improved income towards various innovation interventions at the various control points. Many more applications, or again, thought experiments can be envisioned: with the mathematical model at hand, it is possible to compute the effects of altered grower practices, crops with altered physiological constants (that the breeder may develop), but also to compute the synergy when both actions are taken at the same time. In this manner, the value of cooperation can be values quantitatively! Regarding the effect of timing of bringing agricultural produce to the market, the effect of post-harvest storage is of utmost importance. Apart from the usual complexity of speculative storage of goods, fresh produce is perishable. We hope to use the model in order to study the effects of preharvest grower practices to post-harvest keeping quality.
Many drawbacks exist for any model of reality. A ubiquitous simplification in models is the omission of biological variation among plants, and batches, although this is an important issue (Tijskens et al., 2003). Monte Carlo simulations may be used to explore the influence of biological variance between plants or among horticultural growers. Alternatively the full probability density function could possibly be incorporated into the model, as was done by Schepers and van Kooten (2006) for a simpler model describing the effects of variation in fruit ripeness on consumer liking and chain innovation. In general, we think that in strongly non-linear models, the difference between inclusion and omission of biological variance, of either initial conditions of state variables or fixed model constants, increases. Furthermore it should be expected that new dynamic crop behaviours or economic dilemmas arise because of variance.
Literature Cited
Schepers, H.E. and Van Kooten, O. 2006: Profitability of 'ready-to-eat' strategies: Towards model-assisted negotiation in a fresh-produce chain. In: Quantifying the agrifood supply chain. Wageningen UR Frontis Series, volume 15. Springer Dordrecht. Editors: C.J.M. Ondersteijn, J.H.M. Wijnands, R.B.M. Huirne and O. van Kooten [see http://library.wur.nl/frontis/quantifying_supply_chain/09_schepers.pdf]
Heuvelink, E., Marcelis, L.F.M. and Korner, O. 2002. How to reduce yield oscillations in sweet pepper? Acta Hort. 633: 349.
Schepers, H.E., Kromdijk, W. and van Kooten, O. 2006: A new crop growth model applied to Sweet Pepper yield oscillations. Hortimodel2006. Acta Hort.
world. McGraw-Hill.
Sterman, J.D., 2000. Business Dynamics – Systems thinking and modelling for a complex
Tijskens, L.M.M. and Polderdijk, J.J. 1996. A generic model for keeping quality of vegetable produce during storage and distribution. Agric. Syst. 51: 431-452.
Tijskens, L.M.M., Konopacki, P. and Simcic, M. 2003. Biological variance, burden or benefit? Postharvest Biology and Technology 27: 15-25.
Figures
e
Fig. 1. A graphical outline of the mathematical model that represents plant and fruit physiology, grower practices, and storage strategies.
photosynthesis
capacity
Assimilate
pool
Vegetative
structural
biomass
vegetative
growth
Number of
fruits per
weight class
maintenance
respiration
flowering
fruit abortion
Harvest
& pruning
strategy
quality characteristics:
average weight and
average ripeness
Storage
strategy
Pattern of
fruits brought
to market
price
revenues
profits
daily yield per
square meter
Climate
control:
Temperature,
Light and
CO2
Operational
costs
fruit growth
photo-
synthesis
rate
Breeder
Strategy
Fig. 2. The strategic action that the various chain players can employ to control fruit vegetable production and product quality in order to stimulate consumption.
Consumer behaviour:
quantity bought and
selective buying
Average and variation in
quality of batch on
retailer's shelves
Plant/ fruit
physiology
(post-harvest)
Product
positioning,
Pricing and
Labelling
Consumer
preferences
Plant physiology
(pre harvest)
Harvest
strategy
Quality
grading
and sorting
Post
Harvest
Climate
control
Breeder
strategy
Handling
style
Storage &
Logistics
strategy
Weather
conditions
Biological
variation
Pre-
Harvest
Climate
control
Nutrients,
Substrates,
Water
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A Patient's Guide to Arthroscopy of the Shoulder
Houston Methodist 6565 Fannin Street Houston, TX 77030 Phone: 713-790-3333
Houston Methodist
Houston Methodist 6565 Fannin Street Houston, TX 77030
Phone: 713-790-3333
http://www.methodistorthopedics.com
All materials within these pages are the sole property of Medical Multimedia Group, LLC and are used herein by permission. eOrthopod is a registered trademark of Medical Multimedia Group, LLC.
Introduction
The use of arthroscopy (arthro means joint and scopy means look) has revolutionized many different types of orthopedic surgery. During a shoulder arthroscopy, a small video camera attached to a fiberoptic lens is inserted into the shoulder joint to allow a surgeon to see without making a large incision. Today the shoulder is one of the joints in which the arthroscope is commonly used to both diagnose problems and to perform surgical procedures inside the joint.
This guide will help you understand
* what parts of the shoulder are involved
* what to expect before and after surgery
* what types of conditions are treated
Anatomy
What parts of the shoulder are involved?
The shoulder is made up of three bones: the scapula (shoulder blade), the humerus (upper arm bone), and the clavicle (collarbone). A part of the scapula, called the glenoid, forms the socket of the shoulder. The glenoid is very shallow and flat, shaped somewhat like a dinner plate rather than a bowl. The humeral head forms the ball portion of the joint. Both the glenoid and the humeral head are covered with articular cartilage. Articular cartilage is
smooth, white material that covers the ends of bones in most joints. Articular cartilage provides a slick, rubbery surface that allows the bones to glide over each other as they move. Articular cartilage also functions as a shock absorber.
The rotator cuff connects the humerus to the scapula. The rotator cuff is formed by the tendons of four muscles: the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis. Tendons attach muscles to bones. Muscles move the bones by pulling on the tendons. The rotator cuff helps raise and rotate the arm. As the arm is raised, the rotator cuff also keeps the humerus tightly in the shoulder socket, the glenoid. The upper part of the scapula that makes up the roof of the shoulder is called the acromion.
The shoulder joint is surrounded by a water tight pocket called the joint capsule. This capsule is formed by the rotator cuff tendons, ligaments, connective tissue and synovial tissue. When the joint capsule is filled with sterile saline and is distended, the surgeon can insert the arthroscope into the pocket that is formed, turn on the lights and the camera and see inside the shoulder joint as if looking into an aquarium. The surgeon can see nearly everything that is inside the shoulder joint including: (1) the joint surfaces of the glenoid socket and the humeral head (2) the rotator cuff tendons, (3) the glenoid labrum and (4) the synovial lining of the joint.
The arthroscope can also be placed in the space outside the shoulder joint known as the subacromial bursa. This bursa is a water tight pocket that sits above the shoulder joint. By placing the arthroscope into this space, the surgeon can see the underside of the distal end of the clavicle (collarbone) and the acromion as well as the joint that is formed where the clavicle and acromion meet, the acromioclavicular (AC) joint.
Rationale
What does my surgeon hope to accomplish? When shoulder arthroscopy first became widely available, it was used primarily to look inside the shoulder joint and make a diagnosis. Today, shoulder arthroscopy is used in performing a wide range of different types of surgical procedures on the shoulder joint including confirming a diagnosis, removing loose bodies, removing or repairing a torn labrum, reconstructing torn ligaments to prevent recurrent dislocation, repairing torn rotator cuff tendons and washing out debris from a shoulder that has become infected. Surgery can also be performed outside the joint in the subacromial bursa including removing bone spurs from the acromion and reconstructing an arthritic acromioclavicular joint.
Your surgeon's goal is to fix or improve your problem by performing a suitable surgical procedure; the arthroscope is a tool that improves the surgeons ability to perform that procedure. The arthroscope image is magnified and allows the surgeon to see better and clearer. The arthroscope allows the surgeon to see and perform surgery using much smaller incisions. This results in less tissue damage to normal tissue and can shorten the healing process. But remember, the arthroscope is only a tool. The results that you can expect from a shoulder arthroscopy depend on what is wrong with your shoulder, what can be done inside your shoulder to improve the problem and your effort at rehabilitation after the surgery.
Preparation
What do I need to know before surgery?
You and your surgeon should make the decision to proceed with surgery together. You need to understand as much about the procedure as possible. If you have concerns or questions, be sure and talk to your surgeon.
Once you decide on surgery, you need to take several steps. Your surgeon may suggest a complete physical examination by your regular doctor. This exam helps ensure that you are in the best possible condition to undergo the operation.
You may also need to spend time with the physical therapist who will be managing your rehabilitation after surgery. This allows you to get a head start on your recovery. One purpose of this preoperative visit is to record a baseline of information. The therapist will check your current pain levels, ability to do your activities, and the movement and strength of each shoulder.
A second purpose of the preoperative visit is to prepare you for surgery. The therapist will teach you the exercises you'll use during your recovery.
On the day of your surgery, you will probably be admitted for surgery early in the morning. You shouldn't eat or drink anything after midnight the night before.
Surgical Procedure
What happens during shoulder arthroscopy?
Before surgery you will be placed under either general anesthesia or a type of regional anesthesia. In simple cases, local anesthesia may be adequate. Sterile drapes are placed to create a sterile environment for the surgeon to work. There is a great deal of equipment that surrounds the operating table including the TV screens, cameras, light sources and surgical instruments.
The surgeon begins the operation by making two or three small openings into the shoulder, called portals. These portals are where the arthroscope and surgical instruments are placed inside the shoulder joint. Care is taken to protect the nearby nerves and blood vessels. A small metal or plastic tube (or cannula) will be placed through one of the portals to inflate the shoulder joint with sterile saline.
The arthroscope is a small fiber-optic tube that is used to see and operate inside the joint. The arthroscope is a small metal tube about 1/4 inch in diameter (slightly smaller than a pencil) and about seven inches in length. The fiber-optics inside the metal tube of the arthroscope allows a bright light and TV camera to be connected to the outer end of the arthroscope. The light shines through the fiber-optic tube and into the shoulder joint. A TV camera is attached to the lens on the outer end of the arthroscope. The TV camera projects the image from inside the shoulder joint on a TV screen next to the surgeon. The surgeon actually watches the TV screen (not the shoulder) while moving the arthroscope to different places inside the shoulder joint.
Over the years since the invention of the arthroscope, many very specialized instruments have been developed to perform different types of surgery using the arthroscope to see what is going on while the instruments are being used. Today, many surgical procedures that once required large incisions for the surgeon to see and fix the problem can be one with much smaller incisions. For example, simple removal of a torn labrum or loose body can be done using two or three small 1/4 inch incisions. More extensive surgical procedures such as ligament reconstruction or rotator cuff repair may require larger incisions.
Once the surgical procedure is complete, the arthroscopic portals and surgical incisions will be closed with sutures or surgical staples. A bandage will be applied to the shoulder. Once the bandage has been placed, you will be taken to the recovery room.
Complications
What might go wrong?
As with all major surgical procedures, complications can occur during shoulder arthroscopy. This document doesn't provide a complete list of the possible complications, but it does highlight some of the most common problems. Some of the most common complications following shoulder arthroscopy are
* anesthesia complications
* thrombophlebitis
* infection
* equipment failure
* slow recovery
Anesthesia Complications
Most surgical procedures require that some type of anesthesia be done before surgery. A very small number of patients have problems with anesthesia. These problems can be reactions to the drugs used, problems related to other medical complications, and problems due to the anesthesia. Be sure to discuss the risks and your concerns with your anesthesiologist.
Thrombophlebitis (Blood Clots)
Thrombophlebitis, sometimes called deep venous thrombosis (DVT), can occur after any operation, but is more likely to occur following surgery on the hip, pelvis, or knee. DVT occurs when blood clots form in the large veins of the leg. This may cause the leg to swell and become warm to the touch and painful. If the blood clots in the veins break apart, they can travel to the lung, where they lodge in the capillaries and cut off the blood supply to a portion of the lung.
This is called a pulmonary embolism. (Pulmonary means lung, and embolism refers to a fragment of something traveling through the vascular system.) Most surgeons take
preventing DVT very seriously. There are many ways to reduce the risk of DVT, but probably the most effective is getting you moving as soon as possible after surgery. Two other commonly used preventative measures include
pressure stockings to keep the blood in the • legs moving
medications that thin the blood and • prevent blood clots from forming
Infection
Following shoulder arthroscopy, it is possible that a postoperative infection may occur. This is very uncommon and happens in less than 1% of cases. You may experience increased pain, swelling, fever and redness, or drainage from the incisions. You should alert your surgeon if you think you are developing an infection.
Infections are of two types: superficial or deep. A superficial infection may occur in the skin around the incisions or portals. A superficial infection does not extend into the joint and can usually be treated with antibiotics alone. If the shoulder joint itself becomes infected, this is a serious complication and will require antibiotics and possibly another surgical procedure to drain the infection.
Equipment Failure
Many of the instruments used by the surgeon to perform shoulder arthroscopy are small and fragile. These instruments can be broken resulting in a piece of the instrument floating inside of the shoulder joint. The broken piece is usually easily located and removed, but this may cause the operation to last longer than planned. There is usually no damage to the shoulder joint due to the breakage.
Different types of surgical devices (screws, pins, and suture anchors) are used to hold tissue in place during and after arthroscopy. These devices can cause problems. If one breaks, the free-floating piece may hurt other parts inside the shoulder joint, particularly the articular cartilage. The end of the tissue anchor may poke too far through tissue and the point may rub and irritate nearby tissues. A second surgery may be needed to remove the device or fix problems with these devices.
Slow Recovery
Not everyone gets quickly back to routine activities after shoulder arthroscopy. Because the arthroscope allows surgeons to use smaller incisions than in the past, many patients mistakenly believe that less surgery was necessary. This is not always true. The arthroscope allows surgeons to do a great deal of reconstructive surgery inside the shoulder without making large incisions. How fast you recover from shoulder arthroscopy depends on what type of surgery was done inside your shoulder.
Simple problems that require simple procedures using the arthroscope generally get better faster. Patients with extensive damage to the shoulder ligaments, rotator cuff tendons, or articular cartilage tend to require more complex and extensive surgical procedures. These more extensive reconstructions take longer to heal and have a slower recovery. You should discuss this with your surgeon and make sure that you have realistic expectations of what to expect following arthroscopic shoulder surgery.
After Surgery
What happens after surgery?
Shoulder arthroscopy is usually done on an outpatient basis meaning that patients go home the same day as the surgery. More complex reconstructions that require larger incisions and surgery that alters bone may require a short stay in the hospital to control pain more aggressively and monitor the situation more carefully. You may also begin physical therapy while in the hospital.
The portals are covered with surgical strips, the larger incisions may have been repaired with either surgical staples or sutures and may be covered with a bandage.
Patients who have had more complex reconstructive surgery may need to wear a sling or shoulder immobilizer for several weeks. The shoulder immobilizer helps to protect the healing tissue inside the shoulder joint. You may be allowed to remove the brace at times during the day to do gentle range-of-motion exercises and bathe.
Rehabilitation
What will my recovery be like?
Your rehabilitation will depend on the type of surgery required. You may not need formal physical therapy after simple procedures. Some patients may simply do exercises as part of a home program after some simple instructions. But, many surgeons have patients take part in formal physical therapy after any type of shoulder arthroscopy procedure. Generally speaking, the more complex the surgery the more involved and prolonged your rehabilitation program will be. The first few physical therapy treatments are designed to help control the pain and swelling from the surgery.
Today, the arthroscope is used to perform quite complicated major reconstructive surgery using very small incisions. Remember, just because you have small incisions on the outside, there may be a great deal of healing tissue on the inside of the shoulder joint. If you have had major reconstructive surgery, you should expect full recovery to take several months.
Your physical therapist's goal is to help you keep your pain under control and improve the range of motion and strength of your shoulder. When you are well under way, regular visits to your therapist's office will end. Your therapist will continue to be a resource, but you will be in charge of doing your exercises as part of an ongoing home program.
Notes
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304.17A-220 Pre-existing condition exclusion in group coverage -- Definitions for section.
(1) All group health plans and insurers offering group health insurance coverage in the Commonwealth shall comply with the provisions of this section.
(2) Subject to subsection (8) of this section, a group health plan, and a health insurance insurer offering group health insurance coverage, may, with respect to a participant or beneficiary, impose a pre-existing condition exclusion only if:
(a) The exclusion relates to a condition, whether physical or mental, regardless of the cause of the condition, for which medical advice, diagnosis, care, or treatment was recommended or received within the six (6) month period ending on the enrollment date. For purposes of this paragraph:
1. Medical advice, diagnosis, care, or treatment is taken into account only if it is recommended by, or received from, an individual licensed or similarly authorized to provide such services under state law and operating within the scope of practice authorized by state law; and
2. The six (6) month period ending on the enrollment date begins on the six (6) month anniversary date preceding the enrollment date;
(b) The exclusion extends for a period of not more than twelve (12) months, or eighteen (18) months in the case of a late enrollee, after the enrollment date;
(c) 1. The period of any pre-existing condition exclusion that would otherwise apply to an individual is reduced by the number of days of creditable coverage the individual has as of the enrollment date, as counted under subsection (3) of this section; and
2. Except for ineligible individuals who apply for coverage in the individual market, the period of any pre-existing condition exclusion that would otherwise apply to an individual may be reduced by the number of days of creditable coverage the individual has as of the effective date of coverage under the policy; and
(d) A written notice of the pre-existing condition exclusion is provided to participants under the plan, and the insurer cannot impose a pre-existing condition exclusion with respect to a participant or a dependent of the participant until such notice is provided.
(3) In reducing the pre-existing condition exclusion period that applies to an individual, the amount of creditable coverage is determined by counting all the days on which the individual has one (1) or more types of creditable coverage. For purposes of counting creditable coverage:
(a) If on a particular day the individual has creditable coverage from more than one (1) source, all the creditable coverage on that day is counted as one (1) day;
(b) Any days in a waiting period for coverage are not creditable coverage;
(c) Days of creditable coverage that occur before a significant break in coverage are not required to be counted; and
(d) Days in a waiting period and days in an affiliation period are not taken into account in determining whether a significant break in coverage has occurred.
(4) An insurer may determine the amount of creditable coverage in another manner than established in subsection (3) of this section that is at least as favorable to the individual as the method established in subsection (3) of this section.
(5) If an insurer receives creditable coverage information, the insurer shall make a determination regarding the amount of the individual's creditable coverage and the length of any pre-existing exclusion period that remains. A written notice of the length of the pre-existing condition exclusion period that remains after offsetting for prior creditable coverage shall be issued by the insurer. An insurer may not impose any limit on the amount of time that an individual has to present a certificate or evidence of creditable coverage.
(6) For purposes of this section:
(a) "Pre-existing condition exclusion" means, with respect to coverage, a limitation or exclusion of benefits relating to a condition based on the fact that the condition was present before the effective date of coverage, whether or not any medical advice, diagnosis, care, or treatment was recommended or received before that day. A pre-existing condition exclusion includes any exclusion applicable to an individual as a result of information relating to an individual's health status before the individual's effective date of coverage under a health benefit plan;
(b) "Enrollment date" means, with respect to an individual covered under a group health plan or health insurance coverage, the first day of coverage or, if there is a waiting period, the first day of the waiting period. If an individual receiving benefits under a group health plan changes benefit packages, or if the employer changes its group health insurer, the individual's enrollment date does not change;
(c) "First day of coverage" means, in the case of an individual covered for benefits under a group health plan, the first day of coverage under the plan and, in the case of an individual covered by health insurance coverage in the individual market, the first day of coverage under the policy or contract;
(d) "Late enrollee" means an individual whose enrollment in a plan is a late enrollment;
(e) "Late enrollment" means enrollment of an individual under a group health plan other than:
1. On the earliest date on which coverage can become effective for the individual under the terms of the plan; or
2. Through special enrollment;
(f) "Significant break in coverage" means a period of sixty-three (63) consecutive days during each of which an individual does not have any creditable coverage; and
(g) "Waiting period" means the period that must pass before coverage for an employee or dependent who is otherwise eligible to enroll under the terms of a
group health plan can become effective. If an employee or dependent enrolls as a late enrollee or special enrollee, any period before such late or special enrollment is not a waiting period. If an individual seeks coverage in the individual market, a waiting period begins on the date the individual submits a substantially complete application for coverage and ends on:
1. If the application results in coverage, the date coverage begins; or
2. If the application does not result in coverage, the date on which the application is denied by the insurer or the date on which the offer of coverage lapses.
(7) (a) 1. Except as otherwise provided under subsection (3) of this section, for purposes of applying subsection (2)(c) of this section, a group health plan, and a health insurance insurer offering group health insurance coverage, shall count a period of creditable coverage without regard to the specific benefits covered during the period.
2. A group health plan, or a health insurance insurer offering group health insurance coverage, may elect to apply subsection (2)(c) of this section based on coverage of benefits within each of several classes or categories of benefits specified in federal regulations. This election shall be made on a uniform basis for all participants and beneficiaries. Under this election, a group health plan or insurer shall count a period of creditable coverage with respect to any class or category of benefits if any level of benefits is covered within this class or category.
3. In the case of an election with respect to a group health plan under subparagraph 2. of this paragraph, whether or not health insurance coverage is provided in connection with the plan, the plan shall:
a. Prominently state in any disclosure statements concerning the plan, and state to each enrollee at the time of enrollment under the plan, that the plan has made this election; and
b. Include in these statements a description of the effect of this election.
(b) Periods of creditable coverage with respect to an individual shall be established through presentation of certifications described in subsection (9) of this section or in such other manner as may be specified in administrative regulations.
(8) (a) Subject to paragraph (e) of this subsection, a group health plan, and a health insurance insurer offering group health insurance coverage, may not impose any pre-existing condition exclusion on a child who, within thirty (30) days after birth, is covered under any creditable coverage. If a child is enrolled in a group health plan or other creditable coverage within thirty (30) days after birth and subsequently enrolls in another group health plan without a significant break in coverage, the other group health plan may not impose any pre-existing condition exclusion on the child.
(b) Subject to paragraph (e) of this subsection, a group health plan, and a health
insurance insurer offering group health insurance coverage, may not impose any pre-existing condition exclusion on a child who is adopted or placed for adoption before attaining eighteen (18) years of age and who, within thirty (30) days after the adoption or placement for adoption, is covered under any creditable coverage. If a child is enrolled in a group health plan or other creditable coverage within thirty (30) days after adoption or placement for adoption and subsequently enrolls in another group health plan without a significant break in coverage, the other group health plan may not impose any pre-existing condition exclusion on the child. This shall not apply to coverage before the date of the adoption or placement for adoption.
(c) A group health plan may not impose any pre-existing condition exclusion relating to pregnancy.
(d) A group health plan may not impose a pre-existing condition exclusion relating to a condition based solely on genetic information. If an individual is diagnosed with a condition, even if the condition relates to genetic information, the insurer may impose a pre-existing condition exclusion with respect to the condition, subject to other requirements of this section.
(e) Paragraphs (a) and (b) of this subsection shall no longer apply to an individual after the end of the first sixty-three (63) day period during all of which the individual was not covered under any creditable coverage.
(9) (a) 1. A group health plan, and a health insurance insurer offering group health insurance coverage, shall provide a certificate of creditable coverage as described in subparagraph 2. of this subsection. A certificate of creditable coverage shall be provided, without charge, for participants or dependents who are or were covered under a group health plan upon the occurrence of any of the following events:
a. At the time an individual ceases to be covered under a health benefit plan or otherwise becomes eligible under a COBRA continuation provision;
b. In the case of an individual becoming covered under a COBRA continuation provision, at the time the individual ceases to be covered under the COBRA continuation provision; and
c. On request on behalf of an individual made not later than twentyfour (24) months after the date of cessation of the coverage described in subdivision a. or b. of this subparagraph, whichever is later.
The certificate of creditable coverage as described under subdivision a. of this subparagraph may be provided, to the extent practicable, at a time consistent with notices required under any applicable COBRA continuation provision.
2. The certification described in this subparagraph is a written certification of:
a. The period of creditable coverage of the individual under the
health benefit plan and the coverage, if any, under the COBRA continuation provision; and
b. The waiting period, if any, and affiliation period, if applicable, imposed with respect to the individual for any coverage under the plan.
3. To the extent that medical care under a group health plan consists of group health insurance coverage, the plan is deemed to have satisfied the certification requirement under this paragraph if the health insurance insurer offering the coverage provides for the certification in accordance with this paragraph.
(b) In the case of an election described in subsection (7)(a)2. of this section by a group health plan or health insurance insurer, if the plan or insurer enrolls an individual for coverage under the plan and the individual provides a certification of coverage of the individual under paragraph (a) of this subsection:
1. Upon request of that plan or insurer, the entity that issued the certification provided by the individual shall promptly disclose to the requesting plan or insurer information on coverage of classes and categories of health benefits available under the entity's plan or coverage; and
2. The entity may charge the requesting plan or insurer for the reasonable cost of disclosing this information.
(10) (a) A group health plan, and a health insurance insurer offering group health insurance coverage in connection with a group health plan, shall permit an employee who is eligible but not enrolled for coverage under the terms of the plan, or a dependent of that employee if the dependent is eligible but not enrolled for coverage under these terms, to enroll for coverage under the terms of the plan if each of the following conditions is met:
1. The employee or dependent was covered under a group health plan or had health insurance coverage at the time coverage was previously offered to the employee or dependent;
2. The employee stated in writing at that time that coverage under a group health plan or health insurance coverage was the reason for declining enrollment, but only if the plan sponsor or insurer, if applicable, required that statement at that time and provided the employee with notice of the requirement, and the consequences of the requirement, at that time;
3. The employee's or dependent's coverage described in subparagraph 1. of this paragraph:
a. Was under a COBRA continuation provision and the coverage under that provision was exhausted; or
b. Was not under such a provision and either the coverage was terminated as a result of loss of eligibility for the coverage, including as a result of legal separation, divorce, cessation of
dependent status, such as obtaining the maximum age to be eligible as a dependent child, death of the employee, termination of employment, reduction in the number of hours of employment, employer contributions toward the coverage were terminated, a situation in which an individual incurs a claim that would meet or exceed a lifetime limit on all benefits, or a situation in which a plan no longer offers any benefits to the class of similarly situated individuals that includes the individual; or
c. Was offered through a health maintenance organization or other arrangement in the group market that does not provide benefits to individuals who no longer reside, live, or work in a service area and, loss of coverage in the group market occurred because an individual no longer resides, lives, or works in the service area, whether or not within the choice of the individual, and no other benefit package is available to the individual; and
4. An insurer shall allow an employee and dependent a period of at least thirty (30) days after an event described in this paragraph has occurred to request enrollment for the employee or the employee's dependent. Coverage shall begin no later than the first day of the first calendar month beginning after the date the insurer receives the request for special enrollment.
(b) A dependent of a current employee, including the employee's spouse, and the employee each are eligible for enrollment in the group health plan subject to plan eligibility rules conditioning dependent enrollment on enrollment of the employee if the requirements of paragraph (a) of this subsection are satisfied.
(c) 1. If:
a. A group health plan makes coverage available with respect to a dependent of an individual;
b. The individual is a participant under the plan, or has met any waiting period applicable to becoming a participant under the plan and is eligible to be enrolled under the plan but for a failure to enroll during a previous enrollment period; and
c. A person becomes such a dependent of the individual through marriage, birth, or adoption or placement for adoption;
the group health plan shall provide for a dependent special enrollment period described in subparagraph 2. of this paragraph during which the person or, if not otherwise enrolled, the individual, may be enrolled under the plan as a dependent of the individual, and in the case of the birth or adoption of a child, the spouse of the individual may be enrolled as a dependent of the individual if the spouse is otherwise eligible for coverage.
2. A dependent special enrollment period under this subparagraph shall be a period of at least thirty (30) days and shall begin on the later of:
a. The date dependent coverage is made available; or
b. The date of the marriage, birth, or adoption or placement for adoption, as the case may be, described in subparagraph 1.c. of this paragraph.
3. If an individual seeks to enroll a dependent during the first thirty (30) days of the dependent special enrollment period, the coverage of the dependent shall become effective:
a. In the case of marriage, not later than the first day of the first month beginning after the date the completed request for enrollment is received;
b. In the case of a dependent's birth, as of the date of the birth; or
c. In the case of a dependent's adoption or placement for adoption, the date of the adoption or placement for adoption.
(d) At or before the time an employee is initially offered the opportunity to enroll in a group health plan, the employer shall provide the employee with a notice of special enrollment rights.
(11) (a) In the case of a group health plan that offers medical care through health insurance coverage offered by a health maintenance organization, the plan may provide for an affiliation period with respect to coverage through the organization only if:
1. No pre-existing condition exclusion is imposed with respect to coverage through the organization;
2. The period is applied uniformly without regard to any health statusrelated factors; and
3. The period does not exceed two (2) months, or three (3) months in the case of a late enrollee.
(b) 1. For purposes of this section, the term "affiliation period" means a period which, under the terms of the health insurance coverage offered by the health maintenance organization, must expire before the health insurance coverage becomes effective. The organization is not required to provide health care services or benefits during this period and no premium shall be charged to the participant or beneficiary for any coverage during the period.
2. This period shall begin on the enrollment date.
3. An affiliation period under a plan shall run concurrently with any waiting period under the plan.
(c) A health maintenance organization described in paragraph (a) of this subsection may use alternative methods other than those described in that paragraph to address adverse selection as approved by the commissioner.
Effective: July 15, 2010
History: Amended 2010 Ky. Acts ch. 24, sec. 1218, effective July 15, 2010. -- Amended 2006 Ky. Acts ch. 253, sec. 2, effective July 12, 2006. -- Created 1998 Ky.
Acts ch. 496, sec. 4, effective April 10, 1998.
Legislative Research Commission Note (7/12/2006). A reference to "subsection (4)(c)2." in subsection (9) of this statute has been changed in codification to "subsection (7)(a)2." In 2006 Ky. Acts ch. 253, sec. 2, the addition of and deletion of various subsections and paragraphs resulted in the renumbering of succeeding provisions, but the internal reference in the existing language was overlooked. This oversight has been corrected by the Reviser of Statutes under the authority of KRS 7.136(1)(e) and (h).
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The Cloud Advantage: Increased Security and Lower Costs for SMBs
An Osterman Research White Paper
Published August 2012
SPONSORED BY
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
By enabling faster access to threat intelligence through a cloud-client architecture, resellers can improve their customers' security posture while reducing their security management costs, employee productivity losses, and the number of security breaches that customers would otherwise suffer.
Osterman Research conducted a survey specifically for this SMB Security white paper that focused on the time and costs associated with remediating malware infections and other ramifications from dealing with malware and related issues. A total of 108 surveys were completed during June and July 2012.
THE CURRENT STATE OF SMB SECURITY
BYOD—MORE AND MORE ENDPOINTS
The typical SMB employee uses a number of endpoint devices – a desktop computer, a laptop, a smartphone, a tablet, and home computers with various applications on them. Each of these endpoints represents a vector through which malware can enter their SMB organization's network. The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend of employees using personal mobile devices and laptops for work is accelerating the problem by introducing devices with an even greater likelihood of introducing malware into a company network.
THE GROWING PROBLEM OF MALWARE
Gone are the days when single variants of spam, viruses, and worms were created and propagated slowly over the Internet, spreading over the course of several weeks. Instead, today's malware can morph into hundreds or thousands of variants and can propagate in a very short period of time, infecting large numbers of endpoints in as little as a few minutes. Malware nowadays is part of a rapidly growing underground economy with cyber criminals employing multiple compromised endpoints and social networking to reach large numbers of targets. The more popular a mobile device (Android or iOS) or the business tool (DropBox, Skype, or FaceBook), the more often it is targeted with delivery mechanisms to steal personal and company data and resources.
As a result of the growing number of endpoints, coupled with more virulent and more capable malware, the number of endpoint infections is enormous. For example, Osterman found during a typical month that 4.3% of endpoints become infected, which translates to an infection rate of 52.1% annually. That means that in an organization of just 100 endpoints, an average of 4.3 endpoints will become infected in any given month, or 52 endpoints each year.
THE THREAT LANDSCAPE IS GETTING MORE SERIOUS
During the past several years, we have seen significant and growing numbers of organizations report security violations through their use of Web and email, as shown in the figure below i .
By enabling faster access to threat intelligence through a cloudclient architecture, resellers can improve their customers' security posture.
The data in the figure above suggest security violations – malware, phishing and related types of attacks – are growing steadily over time.
Compounding the problem is the fact that malware is becoming more virulent, more stealthy and more difficult to detect. Worse, the lifecycle for many malware variants can now be measured in minutes, not hours or days – many variants appear, do their damage and then disappear long before new pattern files or signatures can be deployed and propagated to endpoints.
Using more advanced tools like automatic transfer systems (ATSs) ii – the latest addition to widely used cybercrime toolkits – attackers have streamlined their list of targets to only online banking customers in countries like Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy. Carefully choosing targets was also evidenced by findings on advanced persistent threat (APT) campaigns like IXESHE iii . Android malware like fake spying tool apps iv continue to increase in number due most likely to the continued rise in the OS's popularity for more than 400 million active Android-based devices.
IT SERVICE STAFF TIME IS BEING WASTED
In addition to the serious consequences of SMB's customer data loss, financial loss, or the potential interception of sensitive content; when an endpoint is infected, IT service providers must spend time cleaning customers' endpoints. For example, our research found that it takes a mean elapsed time of 72 minutes to remediate a malware infection on a single endpoint – time that the IT service provider must spend dealing with a problem that could have been avoided with better security. Add to this the partial or complete downtime for a customer's employee as he or she waits for their endpoint to be fixed.
Using these figures, a reseller managing an organization with 100 endpoints will spend more than five hours per month remediating endpoint infections – at a fully burdened annual salary of $80,000 per year for an IT service technician, this translates to a monthly cost of $199, or nearly $2,400 per year for a single customer. Adding in the cost of downtime for customers' employees – something for which they might hold a reseller service provider at least partially responsible – can add
A reseller managing an organization with 100 endpoints will spend more than five hours per month remediating endpoint infections – at a fully burdened annual salary of $80,000 per year for a reseller's technician, that translates to a monthly cost of $199, or nearly $2,400 per year for a single customer.
dramatically to the cost of endpoint infections for the customer. In addition, add in the loss of employee productivity and potentially the negative impact on the reputation of the customer organization if data is lost or stolen. SMB organizations have smaller budgets and would rather spend their money on new technology investments than malware infection remediation.
THE HIGH COST OF CONTENT SECURITY MANAGEMENT
Our research found that IT labor costs are high; for example, the survey found that:
* Each IT staff member supports only 33 endpoints, resulting in a total IT labor cost per endpoint of $2,400 or $79,200 per year.
* When internal IT staff manages an organization's infrastructure, 5.2% of staff time during a typical week is spent on email security management.
However, there are many other costs associated with email security, such as the appliances, software, servers, cloud-based services and other elements that make up an overall email and Web security infrastructure.
A significant proportion of the cost of security management is related to antimalwarefocused tasks and resources. Resellers spend a considerable amount of resources trying to defend against malware, including labor costs to manage pattern files, deal with false positives, add additional bandwidth, update storage, and deploy new servers or appliances. In addition, they must perform other network upgrades needed to support the increasing size of pattern files and signatures downloaded to the endpoints to protect against the numerous spam and malware variants.
The bottom line: IT consultants spend significant amounts of money addressing endpoint infections when their time and customers' money could be spent on more strategic projects with a higher return on time invested. The problem will clearly become worse as endpoints multiply substantially and as the number of mobile devices used within SMB organizations grows over time, as shown in the following figure. (The data in the figure represents the results of an Osterman Research survey with organizations in North America that have up to 150 email users.)
Penetration of SMB Users by Mobile Platform
Organizations with up to 150 email users, 2011 and 2012
3
IT consultants spend significant amounts of money addressing endpoint infections when their time and customer's money could be spent on more strategic projects with higher return on time investment.
THE GROWING PROBLEM OF SECURITY BREACHES
Data stealing cybercriminals are taking advantage of the popularity of social media by delivering malicious threats and content online. These data breaches are becoming so costly that many organizations are at risk of being put out of business through direct financial losses or the high cost of direct or indirect data loss.
For example, many organizations have been targeted with keystroke loggers that steal passwords to allow criminals to transfer funds out of an organization's financial accounts. Last year alone, more than a billion dollars was stolen from small and midsize bank accounts. Here are a few examples from the United States over the recent past:
* Western Beaver County School District: $700,000 v
* Hillary Machinery: $800,000 (its bank was able to recover only $600,000 vii )
* The Catholic Diocese of Des Moines: $600,000 vi
* Patco: $588,000 viii
* Village View Escrow: $465,000 x
* Experi-Metal, Inc.: $560,000 ix
* An unidentified construction company in California: $447,000 xi
* The Government of Bullitt County, Kentucky: $415,000 xiii
* Choice Escrow: $440,000 xii
* The Town of Poughkeepsie, New York: $378,000 xiv
* An unidentified law firm in South Carolina: $78,421 xvi
* An unidentified solid waste management company in New York: $150,000 xv
* Slack Auto Parts: $75,000 xvii
The cost of a single data breach can total in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, as evidenced by the examples above. Moreover, a previous survey conducted by Osterman Research for Trend Micro in October 2011 found that 15% of respondents felt it was at least very likely that a security breach would occur during the next 12 months in their organization.
The cost of these breaches can include the direct costs of notifying customers via postal mail or email, litigation, lost revenues from customers who no longer want to do business with a victimized firm, and lost goodwill resulting from publicity surrounding the breach.
THE BENEFITS OF FASTER PROTECTION
SPEEDING THE DELIVERY OF SECURITY UP DATES
A fundamental problem for many SMBs who update their pattern files/signatures only a few times per day is a higher likelihood of malware-related infections. Because two new threats are discovered every second xviii , the less frequently that updates occur, the greater the chance an endpoint has of becoming infected.
With infrequent updates there is a security gap between when malware is released and when the protection is deployed across the various endpoints. This results in new malware variants having an opportunity to do their work and get replaced by a new variant before the first pattern file or signature can even be deployed to combat the original threat. As cybercriminals become even more adept at their craft, the problem will only worsen.
THE BENEFITS OF FASTER UPDATES
The obvious method for combating the problems caused by infrequent pattern file/signature updates is to update them more regularly, as close to real time as possible. However, as threat volumes increase, so do the size of pattern files. An approach that relies solely on traditional methods to distribute pattern files and signatures is simply not sustainable because their deployment is too slow.
With infrequent updates…new malware variants [have] an opportunity to do their work and get replaced by a new variant before the first pattern file or signature can even be deployed to combat the original threat.
The better alternative is to leverage solutions that manage threat intelligence and pattern files/signature updates in the cloud using queries from a lightweight client. This type of cloud-client architecture saves on endpoint computing resources and provides faster security as opposed to waiting for pattern file deployments. This approach allows security solutions to detect and remediate newly discovered threats more quickly, thereby reducing the number of infected endpoints and security breaches. This will result in lower costs and fewer infections, coupled with fewer IT resource requirements and less time spent on cleaning devices, as well as less time spent managing email and Web security.
THE ADVANTAGE OF USING A SINGLE VENDOR
Many IT service providers and resellers use multiple vendors for their customers' content security infrastructure because they perceive there are benefits in a "best-ofbreed" approach to email and Web security. However, many are trying to reduce the number of vendors they use in order to lower costs by obtaining volume discounts, reduce IT labor investments in managing multiple vendors' products, simplify patch management, and so forth.
Interestingly, we found that more than twice as many SMB end user customers (56%) felt it was important or extremely important to use a single vendor to manage email security versus a multiple vendor strategy (24%). The benefits of using a single vendor for both service providers and their SMB customers alike include the ability to achieve volume discounts, realize potentially faster updates, and improve integration across on-premise and cloud-based services.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Faster access to threat intelligence, coupled with the use of a single content security vendor, can result in major cost savings:
* A significant reduction in the amount of time spent required for service providers to manage email security. For example, if the amount of time spent on email security could be halved, that would result in IT labor savings of roughly $20.67 per end user per year.
* Cutting the endpoint-infection rate in half would reduce the IT labor cost of endpoint remediation from a mean of $16.27 per user per year to roughly $8.00.
* Cutting the endpoint-infection rate in half would also result in a significant reduction in the productivity loss experienced by end users who are either unable to work while their endpoint is infected, or whose productivity is hampered during the infection and remediation period.
* Perhaps most importantly, reducing endpoint infections could lead to dramatic reductions in the risks associated with data loss, since the potential for breaches of data or financial accounts would be significantly reduced.
SUMMARY
Malware is a serious issue and the problem is getting worse as cyber criminals become more adept at penetrating corporate defenses. Malware variants are becoming more numerous, more virulent, more difficult to detect and their lifecycle is becoming much shorter. Traditional pattern file/signature update processes that rely on updates that occur only once or a few times per day are simply not adequate to address the problem because of the pattern files can't keep up with the malware variants.
Consequently, resellers should employ an integrated content security infrastructure that accesses the latest threat intelligence through a cloud-client architecture, providing immediate protection against the latest spam and malware threats. Using this approach will reduce the potential for security breaches, reduce the number of
The Cloud Advantage: Increased Security and Lower Cost for SMBs
The benefits of using a single vendor for both resellers and their customers alike include the ability to achieve volume discounts, realize potentially faster updates, and improve integration across onpremise and cloud-based services.
endpoints that become infected and reduce IT labor costs focused on security management. Coupled with the use of a single content security vendor, the savings from doing all of these things can be significant.
WHO IS DOING IT RIGHT?
TREND MICRO SMART PROTECTION NETWORK
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Trend Micro protected small and mediumsized businesses (SMBs) against more than 142 million threats in the first half of 2012 alone.
i Messaging and Web Security Market Trends, 2011-2014; Osterman Research, Inc.
iii http://blog.trendmicro.com/taking-a-bite-out-of-ixeshe/
ii http://blog.trendmicro.com/evolved-banking-fraud-malware-automatic-transfer-systems/
iv http://blog.trendmicro.com/beta-version-of-spytool-app-for-android-steals-sms-messages/
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09195/983738-57.stm
v
vi http://krebsonsecurity.com/tag/catholic-diocese-of-des-moines/
viii http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/092409-construction-firm-sues-after-588000.html
vii http://rixstep.com/1/1/20100126,00.shtml
ix http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9156558/Michigan_firm_sues_bank_over_theft_of_ 560_000_
xi http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/23488/?a=f
x http://krebsonsecurity.com/2010/06/e-banking-bandits-stole-465000-from-calif-escrow-firm/
xii http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=3159&opg=1
xiv http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9153598/Poughkeepsie_N.Y._slams_bank_for_ 378_000_online_theft
xiii http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/07/an_odyssey_of_fraud_part_ii.html
xv http://www.suite101.com/content/protect-yourself-against-banking-crimeware-a156086
xvii
xvi http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/doj_says_massive_decade-old_ botnet_helped_web_thieves_steal_millions/
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/07/the_pitfalls_of_business_banki.html
xviii Source: Trend Micro
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Thomas L. Mote
University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Old College Building, 320 Athens, GA 30602
Phone: 706-542-3613
Fax:
706-542-2388
Email:
firstname.lastname@example.org
Homepage: www.franklin.uga.edu
Education
Ph.D., Geography, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1994.
M.A., Geography, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1991.
B.A., Geography, University of North Dakota, 1988.
Administrative Appointments
Associate Dean, Division of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, University of Georgia, 2016–present.
Head, Department of Geography, University of Georgia, 2011–2016.
Director, Program in Atmospheric Sciences, University of Georgia, 2000–2011.
Academic Appointments
Distinguished Research Professor, Department of Geography, University of Georgia, 2016– 2021.
Professor, Department of Geography, University of Georgia, 2006–present.
Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of Georgia, 1999–2006.
Associate Professor, School of Aerospace Sciences, University of North Dakota, 1998–1999.
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, University of Georgia, 1998–1999.
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, University of Georgia, 1994–1998.
Awards and Honors
Fellow, American Association of Geographers, 2019.
Lifetime Achievement Award, American Association of Geographers, Climate Specialty Group, 2018.
Fellow, American Meteorological Society, 2017.
Creative Research Medal, University of Georgia, 2013.
Outstanding Alumni Award, University of North Dakota, Department of Geography, 2011.
Fulbright Scholar to Brazil, 2008.
Outstanding Faculty Adviser, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, University of Georgia, 2004.
Fulbright U.S.-Egypt Binational Exchange Scholar, 2004.
Excellence in Teaching Award, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, University of Georgia, 1997.
Global Change Fellow, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1992–1994.
Grants and Contracts
Awarded, external
Henderson, G., J. Guerard, A. Metzger, and T. Mote (Co-PI). Downscaling of global to local scale climate change impacts around Thule Air Base, Greenland. Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, 2022–2025 ($249,386 to UGA).
Mote, T. (PI), G. Gonzalez, P. Miller, and C. Ramseyer. Understanding the mechanisms associated with meteorological and hydrologic drought in the U.S. Caribbean. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2020–2023 ($507,198).
Shepherd, J., N. Debbage, M. Jin, B. Johnson, P. Miller, C. Mitra, T. Mote (co-I), D. Niyogi, L. Ott, J. Santanello, and Z. Tao. Toward conceptualization and predictability: A multi-scalar analysis of urban-influenced hydrometeorological processes. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2020–2023 ($1.753 million).
Tedesco, M., J. Cohen, and T. Mote (Co-PI). Collaborative Research: Exploring tropospheric and stratospheric pathways linking sea ice and snow cover changes to Greenland surface mass balance. National Science Foundation, 2019–2022 ($247,635 to UGA).
Pringle, C., A. Covich, and T. Mote. LTER 6: Understanding environmental change in northeast Puerto Rico. National Science Foundation, 2019–2024 ($547,798 subaward to UGA from University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras).
Henderson, G., B. Barrett, and T. Mote (Co-PI). Impacts on high-latitude infrastructure and operations from melt events driven by large-scale low-frequency atmospheric circulations. Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, 2018–2021 ($162,290 to UGA).
Miller, P., T. Mote (Co-I), and D. Mishra. Persistent hydrological consequences of hurricane interactions with the Georgia coastline. Georgia Sea Grant, 2018 ($10,000).
2
Mote, T. (PI), and K. Mattingly. Connecting changes in poleward energy flux to Greenland ice sheet energy budget and mass balance: The role of moisture transport by atmospheric rivers. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2016–2019 ($90,000).
Mishra, D., M. Adams, A. Burd, D. Cotten, R. Davis, W. Dennis, J. Jambeck, T. Jordan, M. Madden, T. Mote, R. Pidaparti, J. Shepherd, and S. Ullrich. GeorgiaSat-1, USAF Research Laboratory, 2016–2018 ($110,000).
Mote, T. (PI), K. Arrigo, R. Castelao, Å. Rennermalm, M. Tedesco, and P. Yager. From the ice sheet to the sea: An interdisciplinary study of the impact of extreme melt on ocean stratification and productivity near West Greenland. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2014–2018 ($1.499 million).
Robinson, D., G. Henderson, D. Leathers, and T. Mote (Co-PI). Toward improved understanding of extreme snow melt runoff events under past, present, and future climate. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2014–2018 ($174,153 to UGA, $597,031 total).
Mishra, D., A. Burd, D. Cotten, M. Shepherd, J. Jambeck, M. Adams, M. Madden, and T. Mote (Co-PI). Digital orbital analysis of water resources for Georgia. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2016–2018 ($446,218).
Pringle, C., A. Covich, T. Mote, and F. Ballantyne. LTER 5b: Understanding environmental change in northeast Puerto Rico. National Science Foundation, 2016–2019 ($405,000 subaward to UGA from University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras).
Pringle, C., A. Covich, and T. Mote. LTER 5a: Understanding environmental change in northeast Puerto Rico. National Science Foundation, 2012–2016 ($112,000 subaward to UGA from University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras).
Robinson, D., and T. Mote (Co-PI). Snow ablation characteristics and melt-discharge relationships in the Columbia Basin. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2014–2016 ($44,900 to UGA).
Mote, T. (PI). Role of fog and wildland fire smoke in fatal motor vehicle accidents in the southeastern U.S. USDA Forest Service, 2011–2013 ($30,000).
Mote, T., (PI) and J.M. Shepherd. Regional climate simulations of southern forests. USDA Forest Service, 2009–2011 ($140,000).
Dupigny-Giroux, L.-A., M. Raphael, J.M. Shepherd, and T. Mote (Co-PI). Creating a diversity climate network (D-ClimNet) to enhance the climate sciences pipeline of minority students from high school to graduate school. National Science Foundation, 2009–2012 ($58,418).
Mote, T., (PI) and J.M. Shepherd. Evaluation of WRF model for SHRMC activities. USDA Forest Service, 2008–2010 ($30,000).
Bollinger, J., A. Garrett, A. Grundstein, T. Mote (Co-I), J. Shepherd, and T. Rasmussen. Integrated hydrologic/hydrodynamic modeling system for collection of pollutant signatures.
Department of Energy, 2008–2011 ($750,000 to UGA, $1.50 million total).
Shepherd, J., N. Heynen and T. Mote (Co-PI). Assessing air quality and perceptions of environmental hazards in the Newtown Community: A prototype UGA-U.S. Forest Service initiative on environmental justice and green space engagement. USDA Forest Service, 2008–2009 ($9000).
Robinson, D., M. Anderson, S. Drobot, D. Hall, and T. Mote (Co-PI). Development of Northern Hemisphere snow and ice climate data records. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2008–2013 ($245,000 to UGA, $1.88 million total).
Mote, T., (PI) Support of SHRMC MM5/WRF modeling activities. USDA Forest Service, 2007– 2008 ($73,000).
Mote, T., (PI). Support and operation of SHRMC modeling activities. USDA Forest Service, 2005–2007 ($53,000).
Robinson, D., and Mote, T. (Co-PI). Global monitoring of continental snow cover combining satellite and in-situ sources. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2004–2007 ($90,000 to UGA).
Mote, T. (PI). Development and validation of MM5V3 for SHRMC. USDA Forest Service, 2003– 2005 ($140,010).
Robinson, D., D. Leathers, T. Mote (Co-PI), and A. Grundstein. A hybrid approach for evaluating and predicting interactions between the seasonal snow pack and the atmosphere. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2002–2005 ($219,625 to UGA).
Mote, T. (PI). Development and support of a hazard assessment program for the Southern High Resolution Modeling Consortium. USDA Forest Service, 2001–2002 ($270,767).
Robinson, D., A. Frei, D. Leathers, and T. Mote (Co-PI). Evaluation of snow water equivalent across grasslands regions. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1998–2001 ($109,000 to UGA).
Mote, T. (PI). Infrastructure improvement grant for a satellite receiving station. National Science Foundation, 1998–1999 ($20,000).
Mote, T. (PI). An investigation of the climatology, associated meteorology, and patterns of winter season cloud-to-ground lightning for the Southeast and Mississippi Valley regions of the U.S. UCAR Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training, 1998–1999 ($8,240).
Mote, T. (PI). Synoptic-scale features common to derecho producing mesoscale convective systems in the north-central Great Plains. UCAR Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training, 1997–1998 ($5,609).
Mote, T. (PI), and V. Meentemeyer. An equipment proposal to advance research and education in meteorology and climatology at the University of Georgia. National Science Foundation UCAR Unidata Program 1995–1996 ($28,400).
Mote, T. (PI). Estimation of ablation rates on the Greenland Ice Sheet from microwave radiometric observations. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1995–1997 ($68,798).
Mote, T. (PI). Spatial and temporal variations of passive microwave-derived surface melt on the Greenland Ice Sheet. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1992–1994 ($44,000).
Awarded, internal
Shepherd, J., S. Joye, T. Mote (co-PI), A. Grundstein, C. Meile, M. Welch-Devine, G. Nowak, E. Lipp, and B. Bledsoe (co-I). Transdisciplinary Earth System Science for Global Solutions and Public Engagement (ENGAGE), University of Georgia, 2020 ($4500).
Shepherd, J., J. Shannon, T. Mote (co-PI), S. Pilaar Birch. Enhancing and diversifying geosciences instruction through popular gaming platforms and multi-user virtual environments. University of Georgia STEM Initiative, 2015 ($7,910).
Mote, T. (PI). Development of web-based and advanced visualization instructional technologies in meteorology/climatology. Office of Instructional Support and development, University of Georgia, 1998 ($25,000).
Mote, T. (PI). Extreme temperatures in the Southeast U.S. associated with El Niño/La Niña events. University of Georgia Research Foundation, 1995 ($4,700).
Consultancy
Mote, T. A blended Northern Hemisphere snow dataset. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, awarded to Rutgers University (D. Robinson, PI), 2001–2002 ($10,000).
Mote, T. Spatial and temporal variations of surface characteristics on the Greenland Ice Sheet as derived from passive microwave observations. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, awarded to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (M. Anderson, PI), 1994–1995 ($3,000).
Publications
ORCiD ID: 0000-0002-0021-0134
Journal articles, in review or final preparation, students indicated with asterisks
4. *Moraes, F., T. Mote, and T. Rasmussen. The role of physical geography on Puerto Rico water budget and potential groundwater recharge. Submitted to Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies.
3. *Preece, J., T. Mote, J. Cohen, L. Wachowicz, J. Knox, and M. Tedesco. Summer atmospheric circulation over Greenland in response to Arctic amplification and diminished spring snow cover. Submitted to Nature Communication.
2. *Wachowicz, L., and T. Mote. Quantifying tropical contributions from El Niño diversity to Arctic moisture transport from Rossby wave breaking. Submitted to Climate Dynamics.
Journal articles, published or in press, students indicated with asterisks
129. Mattingly, K., V. Turton, J. Wille, B. Noël, X. Fettweis, Å. Rennermalm, T. Mote, 2023: Increasing extreme melt in northeast Greenland linked to foehn winds and atmospheric rivers. Nature Communication, in press.
128. *Moraes, F., T. Mote, and L. Seymour, 2022: Ocean-atmosphere variability and drought in the Insular Caribbean. International Journal of Climatology, 42, 5016–5037. doi
127. Moon, T., K. Mankoff, R. Fausto, X. Fettweis, M. Tedesco, A. Wehrlé, B. Loomis, T. Mote, C. Jensen, N. Korsgaard, J. Box, J. Cappelen, and Ø. A. Winton, 2022: Greenland ice sheet in "State of the Climate in 2021." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 103, S276– S259. doi
126. *Preece, J., *L. Wachowicz, T. Mote, M. Tedesco, and X. Fettweis, 2022: Summer Greenland blocking diversity and its impact on the surface mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 127, e2021JD035489. doi
125. Washington, B., L. Seymour, and T. Mote, 2022: Modeling general circulation model bias via a combination of localized regression and quantile mapping methods. Advances in Statistical Climatology, Meteorology, and Oceanography (in press).
124. Hanna, E., J. Cappelen, X. Fettweis, S. Mernild, R. Motram, K. Steffen, T. Ballinger, T. Mote, and R. Hall, 2021: Greenland surface air temperature changes from 1981 to 2019 and implications for future ice-sheet melt and mass-balance change. International Journal of Climatology, 41, E1336–E1352. doi
123. Henderson, G., B. Barrett, *L. Wachowicz, K. Mattingly, *J. Preece, and T Mote, 2021: Local and remote atmospheric circulation drivers of Arctic change: A review. Frontiers in Earth Science, 9, 709869. doi
122. Miller, P., M. Williams, and T. Mote, 2021: Modeled atmospheric optical and thermodynamic responses to an exceptional trans-Atlantic dust outbreak. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 126, e2020JD032909. doi
121. Moon, T., M. Tedesco, K. Mankoff, J. Box, J. Cappelen, R. Fausto, X. Fettweis, N. Korsgaard, B. Loomis, T. Mote, C. Reijmer, C. Smeets, D. van As, R. van de Wal, and Ø. Winton, 2021: Greenland ice sheet in "State of the Climate in 2020." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 102, S257–S259. doi
120. Suriano, Z., D. Leathers, T. Mote, G. Henderson, T. Estilow, *L. Wachowicz, D. Robinson, 2021: Declining North American snow cover ablation events. International Journal of Climatology, 41, 5213–5225. doi
119. *Wachowicz, L., *J. Preece, T. Mote, B. Barrett, and G. Henderson, 2021: Inconsistencies in historical trends of seasonal Greenland blocking under different blocking metrics. International Journal of Climatology, 41, E3263-E3278. doi
118. Barrett, B., G. Henderson, E. McDonnell, M. Henry, and T. Mote, 2020: Extreme Greenland blocking and high-latitude moisture transport. Atmospheric Science Letters, i21, e1002. doi
117. Mattingly, K., T. Mote, X. Fettweis, D. van As, K. Van Tricht, S. Lhermitte, and C. Pettersen, 2020: Strong summer atmospheric rivers trigger Greenland ice sheet melt through spatially varying surface energy balance and cloud regimes. Journal of Climate, 33, 6809–6832. doi
116. Miller, P., T. Mote, A. Kumar, and D. Mishra, 2020: Systematic precipitation redistribution following a strong hurricane landfall. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 39, 861–872. doi
115. Moon, T., M. Tedesco, J. Andersen, J. Box, J. Cappelen, R. Fausto, X. Fettweis, B. Loomis, T. Mote, C. Reijmer, C. Smeets, D. van As, R. van de Wal, and Ø. Winton, 2020: Greenland ice sheet in "State of the Climate in 2019." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 101, S257–S259. doi
114. *Moraes, F., F. Aquino, T. Mote, J. Durkee, and K. Mattingly, 2020: Atmospheric characteristics favorable to the development of Mesoscale Convective Complexes in southern Brazil. Climate Research, 80, 43–58. doi
113. *Wachowicz, L., T. Mote, and G. Henderson, 2020: A rain on snow climatology and temporal analysis for the eastern United States. Physical Geography, 41, 54–69. doi
112. Ballinger, T., T. Mote, K. Mattingly, A. Bliss, E. Hanna, D. van As, M. Prieto, S. Gharehchahi, X. Fettweis, B. Noël, P. Smeets, M. Ribergaard, and J. Cappelen, 2019: Greenland Ice Sheet late-season melt: Investigating multi-scale drivers of K-transect events. The Cryosphere, 13, 2241–2257. doi
111. Castelao, R., H. Luo, H. Oliver, Å. Rennermalm, M. Tedesco, A. Bracco, P. Yager, T. Mote, and P. Medeiros, 2019: Controls on the transport of meltwater from the southern Greenland ice sheet in the Labrador Sea. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 124, 3551–3560. doi
110. Francis D., C. Eayrs, J-P. Chaboureau, T. Mote, D. Holland, 2019: A meandering polar jet caused the development of a Saharan cyclone and the transport of dust toward Greenland, Advances in Science and Research, 1, 1–8. doi
109. Miller, P., A. Kumar., T. Mote, F. Moraes, and D. Mishra, 2019: Persistent hydrological consequences of Hurricane Maria and their coevolution with land surface recovery in Puerto Rico. Geophysical Research Letters, 46, 1413–1422. doi
108. Miller, P., T. Mote, and C. Ramseyer, 2019: An empirical study of the relationship between seasonal precipitation and thermodynamic environment in Puerto Rico. Weather and Forecasting, 34, 277–288. doi
107. Ramseyer, C., P. Miller, and T. Mote, 2019: Future precipitation variability during the early rainfall season in the El Yunque National Forest. Science of the Total Environment, 661, 326–336. doi
106. Tedesco, M., J. Box, J. Cappelen, R. Fausto, X. Fettweis, J. Andersen, T. Mote, C. Smeets, D. van As, and R. van de Wal, 2019: Greenland ice sheet in "State of the Climate in 2018." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 100, S150–S152. doi
105. Washington, B., L. Seymour, T. Mote, and D. Robinson, 2019: Identifying and extracting a seasonal streamflow signal from remotely sensed snow cover in the Columbia River Basin. Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, 14, 207–223. doi
104. Berdahl, M., Å. Rennermalm, A. Hamman, J. Mioduszweski, S. Hameed, M. Tedesco, J. Stroeve, T. Mote, T. Koyama, and J. McConnell, 2018: Southeast Greenland winter precipitation strongly linked to the Icelandic Low position. Journal of Climate, 31, 4483–4500. doi
103. Francis, D., C. Eayrs, J.-P. Chaboureau, T. Mote, and D. Holland, 2018: Polar jet associated circulation triggered a Saharan cyclone and derived the poleward transport of the African dust generated by the cyclone. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 123, 11899– 11917, doi
102. Hanna, E., R. Hall, T. Cropper, T. Ballinger, L. Wake, T. Mote, and J. Cappelen, 2018: Greenland Blocking Index daily series 1851-2015: analysis of changes in extremes and links with North Atlantic and UK climate variability and change. International Journal of Climatology, 38, 3546–3564. doi
101. Mattingly, K., T. Mote, and X. Fettweis, 2018: Atmospheric river impacts on Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 123, 8538–8560. doi
100. McLeod, J., T. Ballinger, and T. Mote, 2018: Assessing the climatic and environmental impacts of mid-tropospheric anticyclones over Alaska. International Journal of Climatology, 38, 351–364. doi
99. Miller, P., and T. Mote, 2018: The algorithmic detection of pulse thunderstorms within a large, mostly nonsevere sample. Meteorological Applications, 25, 629–641. doi
98. Miller, P., and T. Mote, 2018: Detecting severe weather potential in low signal-to-noise ratio regimes: Weakly forced thunderstorm environments in the Southeast United States. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 18, 1261–1277. doi
97. Miller, P., T. Mote, C. Ramseyer, A. Van Beusekom, M. Scholl, and G. González, 2018: A 42yr inference of cloud base height trends in the Luquillo Mountains of northeastern Puerto Rico. Climate Research, 76, 87–94. doi
96. Oliver, H., H. Luo, R. Castelao, G. van Dijken, K. Mattingly, J. Rosen, T. Mote, K. Arrigo, Å. Rennermalm, M. Tedesco and P. Yager, 2018: Exploring the potential impact of Greenland meltwater on stratification, photosynthetically active radiation, and primary production in the Labrador Sea. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 123, 2570–2591. doi
95. Ramseyer, C., and T. Mote, 2018: Analyzing regional climate forcing on historical precipitation variability in northeast Puerto Rico. International Journal of Climatology, 38, e224–e236. doi
94. Tedesco, M., J. Box, J. Cappelen, R. Fausto, X. Fettweis, K. Hansen, M. Khan, S. Luthke, T. Mote, I. Sasgen, C. Smeets, D. van As, R. van de Wal, and I. Velicogna, 2018: Greenland ice sheet in "State of the Climate in 2017." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 99, S152–S155. doi
93. Arrigo, K., G. van Dijken, R. Castelao, H. Luo, Å. Rennermalm, M. Tedesco, T. Mote, H. Oliver and P. Yager, 2017: Melting glaciers stimulate large summer phytoplankton blooms in southwest Greenland waters. Geophysical Research Letters, 44, 6278–6285. doi
92. Black, A., G. Villarini, and T. Mote, 2017: Effects of rainfall on vehicle crashes in six U.S. states. Weather, Climate, and Society, 9, 53–70. doi
91. Debbage, N., P. Miller, S. Poore, K. Morano, T. Mote, and J. Shepherd, 2017: A climatology of atmospheric river interactions with the Southeastern United States coastline. International Journal of Climatology, 37, 4077–4091. doi
90. Mattingly, K., and T. Mote, 2017: Variability in warm-season atmospheric circulation and precipitation patterns over subtropical South America: Relationships between the South Atlantic Convergence Zone and large-scale organized convection over the La Plata basin. Climate Dynamics, 48, 241–263. doi
89. Miller, P., and T. Mote, 2017: Standardizing the definition of a "pulse" thunderstorm. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 98, 905–913. doi
88. Miller, P., and T. Mote, 2017: A climatology of weakly forced and pulse thunderstorms in the Southeast United States. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 56, 3017–3033. doi
87. Mote, T., C. Ramseyer, and P. Miller, 2017: The Saharan air layer as an early rainfall season suppressant in the Eastern Caribbean: The 2015 Puerto Rico drought. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 122, 10966-10982. doi
86. Tedesco, M., J. Box, J. Cappelen, R. Fausto, X. Fettweis, T. Mote, C. Smeets, D. van As, R. van de Wal, and I. Velicogna, 2017: Greenland ice sheet in "State of the Climate in 2016." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 98, S136–S140. doi
85. Kluver, D., T. Mote, D. Leathers, G. Henderson, W. Chan, and D. Robinson, 2016: Creation and validation of a comprehensive 1 degree gridded North American dataset: Snowfall. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 33, 857–871. doi
84. Liu, J., Z. Chen, J. Francis, M. Song, T. Mote, and Y. Hu, 2016: Has Arctic Sea Ice Loss Contributed to Increased Surface Melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet?. Journal of Climate, 29, 3373–3386. doi
83. Luo, H., R. Castelao, Å. Rennermalm, M. Tedesco, A. Bracco, P. Yager, and T. Mote, 2016: Oceanic transport of surface meltwater from the southern Greenland ice sheet. Nature Geoscience, 9, 528–532. doi
82. Mattingly, K., C. Ramseyer, J. Rosen, T. Mote, and R. Muthyala. 2016: Increasing water vapor transport to the Greenland Ice Sheet revealed using self-organizing maps. Geophysical Research Letters, 43, 9250–9258. doi
81. McLeod, J., and T. Mote, 2016: Linked interannual variability of extreme blocking episodes to the recent increase in summer melting across the Greenland ice sheet. International Journal of Climatology, 36, 1484–1499, doi
80. Mioduszewski, J., Å. Rennermalm, Å. Hammann, M. Tedesco, E. Noble, J. Stroeve, and T. Mote, 2016: Atmospheric drivers of Greenland surface melt revealed by self organizing maps. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 121, 5095–5114. doi
79. Ramseyer, C., and T. Mote, 2016: Atmospheric controls on Puerto Rico precipitation using artificial neural networks. Climate Dynamics, 47, 2515–2526. doi.
78. Tedesco, M., T. Mote, X. Fettweis, E. Hanna, J. Jeyaratnam, J. Booth, R. Datta, and K. Briggs, 2016: Arctic cut-off high drives the poleward shift of a new Greenland melting record. Nature Communications, 7, 11723. doi
77. Tedesco, M., J. Box, J. Cappelen, R. S. Fausto, X. Fettweis, K. Hansen, T. Mote, C. Smeets, D. van As, R. van de Wal, J. Wahr, 2016: Greenland ice sheet in "State of the Climate in 2015." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 97, S140–S142. doi
76. Underwood, S.J., M. Schultz, M. Berti, C. Gregoretti, A. Simoni, T. Mote, and A. Saylor, 2016: Atmospheric circulation patterns, cloud-to-ground lightning, and locally intense convective rainfall associated with debris flow initiation in the Dolomite Alps of northeastern Italy. Natural Hazards and Earth Systems Science, 16, 509–528. doi
75. Black, A., and T. Mote, 2015: Effects of winter precipitation on automobile collisions, injuries, and fatalities in the United States. Journal of Transport Geography, 48, 165–175. doi
74. Black, A., and T. Mote, 2015: Characteristics of winter-precipitation-related transportation fatalities in the United States. Weather, Climate and Society, 7, 133–145. doi
73. Gensini, V., and T. Mote, 2015: Downscaled estimates of late 21st century severe weather from CCSM3. Climatic Change, 129, 307–321. doi
72. Mattingly, K., J. McLeod, J.M. Shepherd, J. Knox, and T. Mote, 2015: A climatological assessment of Greenland blocking conditions associated with the track of Hurricane Sandy and historical North Atlantic hurricanes. International Journal of Climatology, 35, 746–760. doi
71. McLeod, J., and T. Mote, 2015: Assessing the role of precursor cyclones on the formation of extreme Greenland blocking episodes and their impact on summer melting across the Greenland ice sheet. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 120, 12,357–12,377. doi
70. Tedesco, M., J. Box, J. Cappelen, X. Fettweis, T. Mote, R. van de Wal, M. van den Broeke, C. Smeets, and J. Wahr, 2015: Greenland ice sheet in "State of the Climate in 2014." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 96, S137–S139.
69. Gensini, V., and T. Mote, 2014: Examination of historical hazardous convective weather using dynamical downscaling. Journal of Climate, 27, 6581–6589. doi
68. Gensini, V., T. Mote, and H. Brooks, 2014: Severe-thunderstorm reanalysis environments and collocated radiosonde observations. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 53, 743–751. doi
67. Gensini, V., C. Ramseyer, and T. Mote, 2014: Future convective environments in the Southeast U.S. International Journal of Climatology, 22, 1034–1043. doi
66. Hanna, E., X. Fettweis, S. Mernild, J. Cappelen, M. Ribergaard, C. Shuman, K. Steffen, L. Wood, and T. Mote, 2014: Atmospheric and oceanic climate forcing of the exceptional Greenland Ice Sheet surface melt in summer 2012. International Journal of Climatology, 34, 1022–1037. doi
65. Mioduszewski, J., Å. Rennermalm, D. Robinson, and T. Mote, 2014: Attribution of snow melt onset in northern Canada. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 119, 9638–9653. doi
64. Shepherd, J., A. Grundstein, and T. Mote, 2014: An analysis of seasonal biases in satellite and reanalysis rainfall products in the Savannah River basin. Physical Geography, 35, 181– 194. doi
63. Tedesco, M., J. Box, J. Cappelen, X. Fettweis, T. Jensen, T. Mote, Å. Rennermalm, L. Smith, R. van de Wal, and J. Wahr, 2014: Greenland ice sheet in "State of the Climate in 2013." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 95, S136–S139.
62. Bedel, A., T. Mote, and S. Goodrick, 2013: Climate change and associated fire potential for the south-eastern United States in the 21st Century. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 22, 1034–1043. doi
61. Rennermalm, Å., S. Moustafa, J. Mioduszewski, V. Chu, R. Forster, B. Hagedorn, J. Harper, T. Mote, D. Robinson, C. Shuman, L. Smith, and M. Tedesco, 2013: Understanding Greenland ice sheet hydrology using an integrated multi-scale approach. Environmental Research Letters, 8, 015017. doi
60. Tedesco, M., X. Fettweis, T. Mote, J. Wahr, P. Alexander, J. Box, and B. Wouters, 2013: Evidence and analysis of 2012 Greenland records from spaceborne observations, a regional climate model and reanalysis data. The Cryosphere, 7, 615–630. doi
59. Tedesco, M., P. Alexander, J. Box, J. Cappelen, T. Mote, K. Steffen, R. van de Wal, J. Wahr, and B. Wouters, 2013: Greenland ice sheet in "State of the Climate in 2012." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 94, S136–S139.
58. Zhao, H., K. Higuchi, J. Waller, H. Auld, and T. Mote, 2013: The impacts of the PNA and NAO on annual maximum snowpack over southern Canada during 1979–2009. International Journal of Climatology, 33, 388–395. doi
57. Mote, T., and E. Kutney, 2012: Regions of autumn Eurasian snow cover and associations with North American winter temperatures. International Journal of Climatology, 32, 1164– 1177. doi
56. Nghiem, S., D. Hall, T. Mote, M. Tedesco, M. Albert, K. Keegan, C. Shuman, N. DiGirolamo and G. Neumann, 2012: The extreme melt across the Greenland Ice Sheet in 2012. Geophysical Research Letters, 39, L20502. doi
55. Rennermalm, Å., A. Bring, and T. Mote, 2012: Spatial and scale dependent controls on North American pan-Arctic minimum river discharge. Geographical Analysis, 44, 202–218. doi
54. Shem, W., T. Mote, and J.M. Shepherd, 2012: Validation of NARCCAP temperature data for some forest sites in the southeast United States. Atmospheric Research, 13, 275–282. doi
53. Tedesco, M., J. Box, J. Cappelen, T. Mote, R. van de Wal, and J. Wahr, 2012: Greenland ice sheet in "State of the Climate in 2011." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 93, S68–S69.
52. Mernild, S., T. Mote, and G.E. Liston, 2011: Greenland Ice Sheet surface melt extent and trends, 1960–2010. Journal of Glaciology, 57, 621-628. doi
51. Shepherd, J., and T. Mote, 2011: Can cities create their own snowfall?: What observations are required to find out? Earthzine, Urban Monitoring Special Theme Issue. html
50. Shepherd, J.M., T. Mote, J. Dowd, M. Roden, P. Knox, S. McCutcheon, and S. Nelson, 2011: An overview of synoptic and mesoscale factors contributing to the disastrous Atlanta flood of 2009. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 92, 861–870. doi
49. Box, J., A. Ahlstrøm, J. Cappelen, X. Fettweis, D. Decker, T. Mote, D. van As, R.S.W. van de Wal, B. Vinther, and J. Wahr, 2011: Greenland in "State of the Climate in 2010". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 92, S156-S160. doi
48. Grundstein, A., and T. Mote, 2010: Trends in average snow depth across the western United States. Physical Geography, 31, 172–185. doi
47. Frye, J., and T. Mote, 2010: The synergistic relationship between soil moisture and the lowlevel jet and its role on the pre-storm environment in the southern Great Plains. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 49, 775–791. doi
46. Frye, J., and T. Mote, 2010: Convective initiation along soil moisture boundaries in the southern Great Plains. Monthly Weather Review, 138, 1140–1151. doi
45. Durkee, J., and T. Mote, 2010: A climatology of warm-season mesoscale convective complexes in subtropical South America. International Journal of Climatology, 30, 418–431. doi
44. Box, J., I. Bhattacharya, J. Cappelen, D. Decker, X. Fettweis, K. Jezek, T. Mote, and M. Tedesco, 2010: Greenland in "State of the Climate in 2009". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 91, S121–S124. doi
43. Woody, J., R. Lund, A. Grundstein, and T. Mote, 2009: A storage model approach to the assessment of snow depth trends. Water Resources Research, 45, W10426. doi
42. Box, J., L.-S. Bai, R. Benson, I. Bhattacharya, D.H. Bromwich, J. Cappelen, D. Decker, N. DiGirolamo, X. Fettweis, D. Hall, E. Hanna, T. Mote, M. Tedesco, R. van de Wal, and M. van den Broeke, 2009: Greenland in "State of the Climate in 2008". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 90, S1–S196. doi
41. Lacke, M., T. Mote, and J.M. Shepherd, 2009: Aerosols and associated precipitation patterns in Atlanta. Atmospheric Environment, 43, 4359–4373. doi
40. Shepherd, J., D. Nyogi, and T. Mote, 2009: A seasonal-scale climatological analysis correlating spring tornadic activity with antecedent fall–winter drought in the southeastern United States. Environmental Research Letters, 024012. doi
39. Durkee, J., and T. Mote, 2009: The contribution of mesoscale convective complexes to the hydroclimate of subtropical South America. Journal of Climate, 22, 4590–4605. doi
38. Mote, T., 2008: On the role of snow cover in depressing air temperature. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 47, 2008–2022. doi
37. Box, J., J. Cappelen, D. Bromwich, L.-S. Bai, T. Mote, B. Veenhuis, N. Mikkelsen, and A. Weidick, 2008: Greenland, in "State of the Climate in 2007". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 89, S94–S97.
36. Grundstein, A., S. Sarnat, M. Klein, J.M. Shepherd, L. Naeher, T. Mote, and P. Tolbert, 2008: Thunderstorm associated asthma in Atlanta, Georgia. Thorax, 63, 659–660. doi
35. Durkee, J., J. Frye, C. Fuhrmann, M. Lacke, H. Jeong, and T. Mote, 2008: Effects of the North Atlantic Oscillation on precipitation-type frequency and distribution in the eastern United States. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 91, 51–65. doi
34. Mote, T., 2007: Greenland surface melt trends 1973-2007: Evidence of a large increase in 2007. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L22507. doi
33. Mote, T., M. Lacke, and J.M. Shepherd, 2007: Radar signatures of the urban effect on precipitation distribution: A case study for Atlanta, Georgia. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L20710. doi
32. Dyer, J., and T. Mote, 2007: Trends in snow ablation over North America. International Journal of Climatology, 27, 739–748. doi
31. Ashley, W., T. Mote, and M. Bentley, 2007: The extensive episode of derecho-producing convective systems in the United States during May and June 1998: A multiscale analysis and review. Meteorological Applications, 14, 227–244. doi
30. Rasmussen, T., and T. Mote, 2007: Monitoring surface and subsurface water storage using confined aquifer water levels at the Savannah River Site, USA. Vadose Zone Journal, 6, 327– 335. doi
29. Shepherd, J., A. Grundstein, and T. Mote, 2007: Quantifying the contribution of tropical cyclones to extreme rainfall along the coastal southeastern United States. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L23810. doi
28. Dyer, J., and T. Mote, 2006: Spatial variability and patterns of snow depth over North America. Geophysical Research Letters, 33, L16503. doi
27. Ashley, W., and T. Mote, 2006: Derecho hazards in the United States. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 86, 1577–1592. doi
26. Ashley, W., T. Mote, and M. Bentley, 2005: On the episodic nature of derecho producing convective systems in the United States. International Journal of Climatology, 25, 1915– 1932. doi
25. Grundstein, A., P. Todhunter, and T. Mote, 2005: Snowpack control over the thermal offset of air and soil temperatures in eastern North Dakota. Geophysical Research Letters, 32, L08503. doi
24. Diem, J., and T. Mote, 2005: Interepochal changes in summer precipitation in the Southeastern United States: Evidence of possible urban effects near Atlanta, Georgia, Journal of Applied Meteorology, 44, 717–730. doi
23. Leathers, D., D. Graybeal, T. Mote, A. Grundstein and D. Robinson, 2004: The role of air mass types and surface energy fluxes in snow cover ablation in the central Appalachians. Journal of Applied Meteorology, 43, 1887–1898. doi
22. Mote, T., A. Grundstein, D. Leathers, and D. Robinson, 2003: A comparison of modeled, remotely sensed, and measured snow water equivalent in the northern Great Plains. Water Resources Research, 39, 1209. doi
21. Mote, T., 2003: Estimation of runoff rates, mass balance and elevation changes on the Greenland ice sheet from passive microwave observations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 108, 4056. doi
20. Dixon, P., and T. Mote, 2003: Patterns and causes of Atlanta's urban heat island precipitation. Journal of Applied Meteorology, 42, 1273–1284.
19. Ashley, W., T. Mote, P. Dixon, S. Trotter, E. Powell, J. Durkee, and A. Grundstein, 2003: Distribution of mesoscale convective complex rainfall in the United States. Monthly Weather Review, 131, 3003–3017.
18. Grundstein, A., T. Mote, and D. Leathers, 2002: A hybrid climatology of snow water equivalent over the northern Great Plains of the United States. Polar Geography, 26, 187–209. doi
17. Dyer, J., and T. Mote, 2002: Role of energy budget components on snow ablation from a mid-latitude prairie snowpack. Polar Geography, 26, 87–115. doi
16. Leathers, D., T. Mote, A. Grundstein, D. Robinson, K. Felter, K. Conrad, and L. Sedywitz, 2002: Associations between continental scale snow cover and air mass frequency across eastern North America. International Journal of Climatology, 22, 1473–1494. doi
15. Hanna, E., P. Huybrechts, and T. Mote, 2002: Surface mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet from climate analysis data and accumulation/runoff models. Annals of Glaciology, 35, 67–72.
14. Bentley, M., T. Mote, and P. Thebpanya, 2002: Using Landsat to identify thunderstorm damage in agricultural regions. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 83, 363– 376.
13. Hunter, S., R. Holle, S. Underwood, and T. Mote, 2001: Winter Lightning and Heavy Frozen Precipitation in the Southeast United States. Weather and Forecasting, 16, 478–490.
12. Mote, T., 2000: Ablation estimates for the Greenland ice sheet from passive microwave measurements. Professional Geographer, 52, 322–331. doi
11. Bentley, M., and T. Mote, 2000: Synoptic-scale conditions associated with derecho producing mesoscale convective systems in the cool season. Physical Geography, 21, 21–37.
10. Bentley, M., T. Mote and S.A. Byrd, 2000: A synoptic climatology of derecho producing mesoscale convective systems in the North-Central Plains. International Journal of Climatology, 20, 1329–1349.
9. Mote, T., 1998: Mid-tropospheric circulation and surface melt on the Greenland ice sheet. Part I: Atmospheric teleconnections. International Journal of Climatology, 18, 111–130.
8. Mote, T., 1998: Mid-tropospheric circulation and surface melt on the Greenland ice sheet. Part II: Synoptic climatology. International Journal of Climatology, 18, 131–146.
7. Bentley, M., and T. Mote, 1998: A climatology of derecho-producing mesoscale convective systems in the central and eastern United States, 1986–95. Part I: Temporal and spatial distribution. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 79, 2527–2540.
6. Mote, T., D. Gamble, S. Underwood, and M. Bentley, 1997: Synoptic-scale features common to heavy snowstorms in the Southeast U.S. Weather and Forecasting, 12, 5–23.
5. Mote, T., 1996: Influence of ENSO on maximum, minimum and mean temperatures in the Southeast U.S. Physical Geography, 17, 497–512.
4. Mote, T., and C. Rowe, 1996: A comparison of microwave radiometric data and modeled snowpack conditions for Dye-2, Greenland. Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics, 59, 245– 256. doi
3. Mote, T., and M. Anderson, 1995: Variations in melt on the Greenland ice sheet based on passive microwave measurements. Journal of Glaciology, 41, 51–60.
2. Rowe, C., M. Anderson, T. Mote, and K. Kuivinen, 1995: Indications of melt in near surface ice core stratigraphy: Comparisons with passive microwave melt signals over the Greenland ice sheet. Annals of Glaciology, 21, 59–63.
1. Mote, T., M. Anderson, K. Kuivinen, and C. Rowe, 1993: Spatial and temporal variations of surface melt on the Greenland ice sheet. Annals of Glaciology, 17, 233–238.
0. Leathers, D., T. Mote, K. Kuivinen, S. McFeeters, and D. Kluck, 1993: Temporal characteristics of USA snowfall 1945-1946 through to 1984–1985. International Journal of Climatology, 13, 65–76. doi
Book chapters
4. Tedesco, M., T. Mote, K. Steffen, D. Hall, and W. Abdalati, 2015: Remote sensing of melting snow and ice. Remote Sensing of the Cryosphere, pp. 99–123. Ed. M. Tedesco, WileyBlackwell.
3. Wear, D., T. Mote, J.M. Shepherd, B. KC, and C. Strother, 2013: Framing the future in the southern United States: Climate, land use, and forest conditions. Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Management Options, pp. 9–43. Eds. J. Vose and K. Klepzig, Taylor and Francis Books.
2. Shepherd, J., J. Stallins, M. Jin, and T. Mote, 2009: Urbanization: Impacts on clouds, precipitation, and lightning. Monograph on Urban Ecological Ecosystems. Eds. J. Peterson and A. Volder, American Society of Agronomy-Crop Science Society of America- Soil Science Society of America.
1. Shepherd, J., J. Stallins, M. Jin, and T. Mote, 2009: Urban effects on precipitation and associated convective processes. Handbook of Human Ecology. Eds. I. Douglas et al. Taylor and Francis Books.
Correspondence
1. Bentley, M.., and T. Mote, 2000: Reply to "Comments on: A climatology of derecho-producing mesoscale convective systems in the central and eastern United States, 1986 – 1995. Part I: Temporal and spatial distribution." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 81, 2527–2530.
Conference proceedings (reviewed)
2. Debbage, N., J. McLeod, J. Rackley, L. Zhu, T. Mote, and A. Grundstein, 2014: The role of point source aerosol emissions on atmospheric convective activity in the vicinity of power plants in Georgia, USA. Papers in Applied Geography, 37, 193–203.
1. Shepherd, J., and T. Mote, 2009: Urban effects on rainfall variability: Potential implications for Georgia's water supply, Proceedings of the 2009 Georgia Water Resources Conference, 6 pp.
Conference proceedings (non-reviewed)
11. Ashley, W., and T. Mote, 2004: Hazards of long-lived, convectively generated high wind events in the United States, Proceedings of the 22nd Conference on Severe Local Storms, American Meteorological Society, Hyannis, MA.
10. Ashley, W., T. Mote, and M. Bentley, 2004: Derecho families, Proceedings of the 22nd Conference on Severe Local Storms, American Meteorological Society, Hyannis, MA.
9. Durkee, J., T. Mote, W. Ashley, and J. Dyer, 2003: The precipitation efficiency of warmseason mesoscale convective complexes in the United States. Proceedings of the 28th Annual Meeting of the National Weather Association, Jacksonville, FL.
8. Ashley, W., P. Dixon, J. Durkee, E. Powell, S. Trotter, T. Mote, and A. Grundstein, 2002: A climatology of mesoscale convective complexes in the United States, Proceedings of the 21st Conference on Severe Local Conference, American Meteorological Society, San Antonio, TX.
7. Mote, T., and A. Grundstein, 2000: A comparison of modeled, remotely sensed and measured snow water equivalent in the northern Great Plains. Proceedings of the 12th Conference on Applied Climatology, American Meteorological Society, Asheville, NC, 5–9.
6. Choi, J-N, V. Meentemeyer, and T. Mote, 2000. Spatial patterns of a heat index for the coterminous United States. Proceedings of the 12th Conference on Applied Climatology, American Meteorological Society, Asheville, NC, 179–182.
5. Bentley, M., and T. Mote, 1998: A synoptic climatology of derecho producing mesoscale convective systems: 1986-1995. Proceedings of the 19th Conference on Severe Local Storms, American Meteorological Society, Minneapolis, MN.
4. Hunter, S., S.J. Underwood, T. Mote, M. Bentley, and R. Holle, 1998: Winter lightning in the Southeast U.S. and its relation to heavy frozen precipitation. Proceedings of the 19th Conference on Severe Local Storms, American Meteorological Society, Minneapolis, MN.
3. Mote, T., and C.M. Rowe, 1996: Snowpack metamorphism at Dye 2, Greenland, inferred from SSM/I and surface meteorological observations. Proceedings of the Eighth Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography, American Meteorological Society, Atlanta, GA, 561–564.
2. Anderson, M., C. Rowe, T. Mote, and K. George, 1995: A comparison of atmospheric conditions to surface observations acquired during snow melt at Dye-2, Greenland. Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on Polar Meteorology, American Meteorological Society, Dallas, TX, 82–85.
1. Mote, T., and M. Palecki, 1994: A synoptic climatology of 700 mb height patterns to explain snowpack melt variations on the Greenland ice sheet. Proceedings of the Sixth Conference on Climate Variations, American Meteorological Society, Nashville, TN, 379–380.
Published reports (*reviewed)
18. *Moon, T., K. Mankoff, R. Fausto, X. Fettweis, B. Loomis, T. Mote, Poinar, M. Tedesco, A. Wehrlé, and C. Jensen, 2022: Greenland Ice Sheet in Arctic Report Card 2022.
17. *Moon, T., M. Tedesco, J. Box, J. Cappelen, R. Fausto, X. Fettweis, N. Korsgaard, B. Loomis, K. Mankoff, T. Mote, A. Wehrlé, and Ø. Winton, 2021: Greenland Ice Sheet in Arctic Report Card 2021.
16. *Moon, T., M. Tedesco, J. Box, J. Cappelen, R. Fausto, X. Fettweis, N. Korsgaard, B. Loomis, K. Mankoff, T. Mote, C. Reijmer, C. Smeets, D. van As, and R. van de Wal, 2020: Greenland Ice Sheet in Arctic Report Card 2020.
15. *Tedesco, M., J. Box, J. Cappelen, R. Fausto, X. Fettweis, J. Anderson, T. Mote, C. Smeets, D. van As, and R. van de Wal, 2019: Greenland Ice Sheet in Arctic Report Card 2019.
14. *Tedesco, M., J. Box, J. Cappelen, R. Fausto, T. Mote, D. van As, and R. van de Wal, 2018: Greenland Ice Sheet in Arctic Report Card 2018.
13. *Tedesco, M., J. Box, J. Cappelen, R. Fausto, X. Fettweis, K. Hansen, T. Mote, I. Sasgen, C. Smeets, D. van As, I. Velicogna, R. van de Wal, and I. Velicogna, 2017: Greenland Ice Sheet in Arctic Report Card 2017.
12. *Tedesco, M., J. Box, J. Cappelen, R. Fausto, X. Fettweis, T. Mote, C. Smeets, D. van As, R. van de Wal, and J. Wahr, 2016: Greenland Ice Sheet in Arctic Report Card 2016.
11. *Tedesco, M., J. Box, J. Cappelen, X. Fettweis, T. Mote, R. van de Wal, C. Smeets, and J. Wahr, 2015: Greenland Ice Sheet in Arctic Report Card 2015.
10. *Tedesco, M., J. Box, J. Cappelen, X. Fettweis, T. Mote, R. van de Wal, C. Smeets, and J. Wahr, 2014: Greenland Ice Sheet in Arctic Report Card 2014.
9. *Tedesco, M., J. Box, J. Cappelen, X. Fettweis, T. Jensen, T. Mote, Å. Rennermalm, L. Smith, R. van de Wal, and J. Wahr, 2013: Greenland Ice Sheet in Arctic Report Card 2013.
8. *Box, J., J. Cappelen, C. Chen, D. Decker, X. Fettweis, E. Hanna, N. Knudsen, T. Mote, K. Steffen, M. Tedesco, R. van de Wal, and J. Wahr, 2012: Greenland Ice Sheet in Arctic Report Card 2012.
7. *Box, J., J. Cappelen, C. Chen, D. Decker, X. Fettweis, D. Hall, E. Hanna, B. V. Jørgensen, *N. T. Knudsen, W. H. Lipscomb, S. H. Mernild, T. Mote, N. Steiner, M. Tedesco, R. S. W. van de Wal, J. Wahr, 2011: Greenland Ice Sheet in Arctic Report Card 2011.
6. *Box, J.E., J. Cappelen, D. Decker, X. Fettweis, T. Mote, M. Tedesco, and R. S. W. van de Wal, 2010: Greenland in Arctic Report Card 2010.
5. *Richter-Menge, J., J. Overland, M. Svoboda, J. Box, M.J.J.E. Loonen, A. Proshutinsky, V. Romanovsky, D. Russell, C.D. Sawatzk, M. Simpkins, R. Armstrong, I. Ashik, L.-S. Bai, D. Bromwich, J. Cappelen, E. Carmack, J. Comiso, B. Ebbinge, I. Frolov, J.C. Gascard, M. Itoh, G.J. Jia, R. Krishfield, F. McLaughlin, W. Meier, N. Mikkelsen, J. Morison, T. Mote, S. Nghiem, D. Perovich, I. Polyakov, J.D. Reist, B. Rudels, U. Schauer, A. Shiklomanov, K . Shimada , V. Sokolov, M. Steele, M.-L. Timmermans, J. Toole, B. Veenhuis, D. Walker, J. Walsh, M. Wang, A. Weidick, and C. Zöckler, 2008: Arctic Report Card 2008.
4. *Wilbanks, T., M. Auerbach, N. Dickson, G. Frederick, B. Garrick, J. Jensen, T. Mote, F. Muller-Karger, D. Ojima, J. Patz, J. Rattling Leaf, and A. Solow, 2007: Assessment of the NASA Applied Sciences Program, National Research Council, National Academies Press, Washington, 143pp.
3. Bentley, M.L., T. Mote, and S.F. Byrd, 1999: North Central Great Plains Derecho Producing Mesoscale Convective Systems (DMCSs): A Forecasting Primer. NOAA Technical Service Publications NWS CR-08, 13 pp.
2. Anderson, M.R., T.L., Mote, and W. Abdalati, 1996: A comparison of melt identification techniques over the Greenland Ice Sheet. In Glaciers, Ice Sheets and Volcanoes: A Tribute to Mark F. Meier. U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory Special Report 96-27, 5–9.
1. Mote, T., 1996: Estimation of ablation rates from microwave radiometric data, PARCA Report, Cooperative Institute of Research in Environmental Science, University of Colorado, 80–83.
Scholarly Presentations
183. Ingram, S., P. Miller, M. Williams, and T. Mote, 2022: Saharan air layer influences on eastern Caribbean hydrology during the Twenty-First Century using the Weather Research and
Forecasting Model. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, virtual.
182. Preece, J.,L. Wachowicz, T. Mote, and J. Knox, 2022: Arctic amplification and summer atmospheric xirculation over the North Atlantic: Implications for Greenland blocking. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, virtual.
181. Wachowicz, L., and T. Mote, 2022: Springtime Arctic sea ice and Its connection to ENSO variability. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, virtual.
180. Barrett, B., G. Henderson, and T. Mote, 2021: Extreme Greenland blocking and moisture transport under Arctic amplification: Historical and future perspectives. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, virtual.
179. Henderson, G., B. Barrett, and T. Mote, 2021: Quantifying the impact of moisture transport during extreme blocking events in the North Atlantic as represented in the CMIP6 model suite. . Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, virtual.
178. Moraes, F., T. Mote, and T. Rasmussen, 2021: The role of physical geography on Puerto Rico water budget and potential groundwater recharge. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, virtual.
177. Moraes, F., and T. Mote, 2021: The spatial distribution of drought in the insular Caribbean and its relationship with EP and CP ENSO. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, virtual.
176. Preece, J., L. Wachowicz, and T. Mote, 2021: Examining the relationship between Greenland blocking and regional sea ice variability using two independent blocking metrics. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, virtual.
175. Preece, J., L. Wachowicz, T. Mote, and M. Tedesco, 2021: Contrasting the Greenland Ice Sheet surface energy balance response between predominate Greenland blocking patterns. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, virtual.
174. Preece, J., L. Wachowicz, T. Mote, and M. Tedesco, 2021: Distinguishing summer Greenland blocking types and their impact on Greenland Ice Sheet melt: Long-term trends and association with the North Atlantic Oscillation. Waves to Weather Atmospheric Blocking Workshop, virtual.
173. Suriano, Z., D. Leathers, T. Mote, G. Henderson, T. Estilow, L. Wachowicz, and D. Robinson, 2021: Forcing mechanisms and trends in North American snow cover ablation events. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, virtual.
172. Wachowicz, L., and T. Mote, 2021: Arctic moisture transport and its connection to Rossby wave breaking and tropical sea surface temperatures. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, virtual.
171. Wachowicz, L., and T. Mote, 2021: Arctic springtime sea ice and its connection to ENSO variability and atmospheric circulation. Annual meeting of the American Association of
Geographers.
170. Wachowicz, L., and T. Mote, 2021: Observed and modeled Arctic springtime sea ice and its connection to ENSO variability and atmospheric circulation. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, virtual.
169. Henderson, G., B. Barrett, T. Mote, and N. Cartwright, 2020: Quantifying the impact of atmospheric blocking on the mean state of the North Atlantic Sector of the Arctic. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, New Orleans, LA.
168. Mattingly, K., T. Mote, 2020: Evaporative moisture sources contributing to atmospheric river events in western Greenland. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, virtual.
167. Mote, T., J. Preece, L. Wachowicz, K. Mattingly, and T. Ballinger, 2020: Sources of anomalous air masses associated with melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, virtual.
166. Mote, T., L.Wachowicz, J. Preece, K. Mattingly, and T. Ballinger, 2020: Air mass source regions associated with anomalous melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
165. Soldado, L., D. Robinson, and T. Mote, 2020: Snow depth over Central North America: 1966–2018. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, New Orleans, LA.
164. Wachowicz, L., and T. Mote, 2020: A climatology of Rossby wave breaking-induced moisture transport in the Arctic and its possible connection to tropical sea surface temperatures. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union San Francisco, CA.
163. Francis, D., C. Eayrs, J.-P. Chaboureau, T. Mote, and D. Holland, 2019: Changes in polar jet circulation bring more dust from Sahara Desert to the Arctic. Annual meeting of the European Geosciences Union, Vienna, Austria.
162. Mattingly, K., and T. Mote, 2019: Evaporative sources of water vapor transported to the Greenland Ice Sheet by atmospheric rivers. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, Washington, DC.
161. Mattingly, K., T. Mote, and X. Fettweis, 2019: Atmospheric rivers drive summer Greenland Ice Sheet melt through enhanced radiative and turbulent energy fluxes. Annual meeting of the European Meteorological Society, Copenhagen, Denmark.
160. Mikulak, H., T. Mote, and G. Henderson, 2019: Seasonal and regional variations in Arctic blocking patterns. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, Washington, DC.
159. Moraes, F., E. Pauline, T. Mote, and I. Boatman, 2019: The effects of Eastern and Central Pacific El Nino-Southern Oscillation on Caribbean precipitation anomalies. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, Washington, DC.
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158. Moraes, F., G. Kooperman, and T. Mote, 2019: The combined and individual effects of the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Atlantic Meridional Mode on early rainfall season precipitation in the insular Caribbean. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
157. Mattingly, K., T. Mote, and X. Fettweis, 2019: Synoptic- and local-scale physical processes driving atmospheric river impacts on Greenland Ice Sheet surface mass balance. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
156. Moustafa, S., A. Rennermalm, D. van As, I. Overeem, M. Tedesco, T. Mote, L. Koenig, L. Smith, B. Hagedorn, R. Sletten, A. Mikkelsen, B. Hasholt, X. Fettweis, L. Pitcher, and A. Hubbard, 2019: Comparison of model-observed runoff along the West Greenland Ice Sheet. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
155. Wachowicz, L., H. Mikulak, K. Mattingly, and T. Mote, 2019: Relationships between episodes of extreme atmospheric blocking, associated moisture transport, and surface mass balance of Greenland. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, Washington, DC.
154. Wachowicz, L., J. Preece, T. Mote, G. Henderson, and B. Barrett, 2019: Understanding Arctic blocking representation in climate models under a unique framework. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, Washington, DC.
153. Ballinger, T., T. Mote, E. Hanna, and J. Miller, 2018: Melt season fringe interactions between Baffin Bay ice cover and the Greenland ice sheet. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, New Orleans, LA.
152. Ballinger, T., T. Mote, E. Hanna, and J. Miller, 2018: Interconnectivity and drivers of Baffin Bay and Greenland melt/freeze onset. POLAR 2018, Davos, Switzerland.
151. Ballinger, T., T. Mote, K. Mattingly, E. Hanna, A. Bliss, D. van As, M. Prieto, S. Gharechahi, X. Fettweis, B. Noel, P. Smeets, and M. Ribergaard, 2018: Are transition season melt events on the Greenland Ice Sheet driven by Baffin Bay sea ice-atmosphere interactions? Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC.
150. Francis, D., C. Eayrs, J.-P. Chaboureau, T. Mote, and D. Holland, 2018: Poleward transport of African dust and its impact on Greenland ice melt. Annual meeting of the European Meteorological Society, Budapest, Hungary.
149. Mattingly, K., and T. Mote, 2018: Atmospheric river impacts on the surface energy budget of the Greenland ice sheet. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, New Orleans, LA.
148. Mattingly, K., and T. Mote, 2018: Atmospheric river impacts on Greenland: A self-organizing map analysis. POLAR 2018, Davos, Switzerland.
147. Mattingly, K., T. Mote, and X. Fettweis, 2018: Atmospheric rivers induce Greenland Ice Sheet melt through enhanced longwave and turbulent fluxes. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC.
146. Moraes, F., T. Mote, and P. Miller, 2018: The effect of the North Atlantic Oscillation, Atlantic Meridional Mode, and Sea Surface Temperature on Puerto Rico rainfall pattern. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, New Orleans, LA.
145. Moustafa, S., A. Rennermalm, D. Robinson, T. Mote, D. van As, I. Overeem, R. Sletten, B. Hagedorn, A. Mikkelsen, and B. Hasholt, 2018: Drivers of extreme 2012 melt and basinscale runoff from three catchments along the West Greenland ice sheet. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC.
144. Miller, P., T. Mote, C. Ramseyer, A. Van Beusekom, G. González, 2018: A 42-Yr assessment of cloud-base-height trends in the Luquillo Mountains of eastern Puerto Rico using radiosonde observations from San Juan. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Austin, TX.
143. Ramseyer, C., and T. Mote, 2018: Future Rainfall Variability during the early rainfall season in Puerto Rico. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, New Orleans, LA.
142. Ramseyer, C., P. Miller, and T. Mote, 2018: Statistical Downscaling of CMIP5 data to predict future dry day frequency in the El Yunque National Forest. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC.
141. Tedesco, M., P. Alexander, X. Fettweis, E. Hanna, T. Mote, D. Porter, A. Rennermalm, B. Csatho, R. Bell, A. Boghosian, and N. Schlegel, 2018: Unprecedented (1851 - 2016) atmospheric conditions drive recent record surface and ice dynamic mass losses over the Greenland ice sheet. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC.
140. Wachowicz, L., and T. Mote, 2018: Influence of precipitation on the surface energy budget during rain-on-snow events in the Mid-Atlantic United States. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Austin, TX.
139. Arthur, J., G. Henderson, D. Leathers, D. Robinson, D., and T. Mote, 2017: Atmospheric drivers associated with rapid ablation events in the Chesapeake Basin, 1980–2009. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Seattle, WA.
138. Ballinger, T., J. McLeod, and T. Mote, 2017: Climatological analysis of Alaska blocking patterns, 1958–2014. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Seattle, WA.
137. Henderson, G., J. Arthur, D. Leathers, D. Robinson, and T. Mote, 2017: Global and synopticscale forcings on extreme snow melt runoff Events. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Seattle, WA.
136. Liu, J., Z. Chen, J. Francis, M. Song, T. Mote, and Y. Hu, 2017: Has Arctic sea-ice loss contributed to increased surface melting of the Greenland ice sheet?. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Seattle, WA.
135. Mattingly, K., and T. Mote, 2017: Impacts of atmospheric moisture transport on Greenland Ice Sheet melt and energy balance. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Seattle, WA.
134. Mattingly, K., and T. Mote, 2017: Impacts of atmospheric moisture transport on the surface energy budget of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, Boston, MA.
133. Miller, P., and T. Mote, 2017: A climatology of weakly forced and pulse thunderstorms in the Southeast United States. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Seattle, WA.
132. Mote, T., 2017: Changes in Arctic climate and associated Greenland ice sheet mass balance during the 20th and early 21st Centuries. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, Boston, MA.
131. Moustafa, S., Å. Rennermalm, D. van As, I. Overeem, M. Tedesco, T. Mote, L. Pritcher, and A. Hubbard, 2017: Comparison of modelled runoff with observed proglacial discharge across the western margin of the Greenland ice sheet. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, New Orleans, LA.
130. Rennermalm, Å., M. Tedesco, T. Mote, P. Yager, E. Enderlin, L. Pitcher, L. Smith, D. van As, 2017: Greenland ice sheet freshwater export to surrounding oceans. Annual meeting of the Polar and Arctic Regional Climate Assessment, Greenland, MD.
129. Rennermalm, Å., M. Tedesco, T. Mote, P. Yager, E. Enderlin, L. Pitcher, L. Smith, D. van As, 2017: Greenland ice sheet freshwater export to surrounding oceans. UCAR CESM Working Group, Boulder, CO.
128. Tedesco, M., P. Alexander, X. Fettweis, S. Lutchke, T. Mote, A. Rennelmalm, and R. Bell, 2017: Recent summer atmospheric circulation changes over the Arctic drive a new partitioning of the Greenland ice sheet mass losses. Annual meeting of the Polar and Arctic Regional Climate Assessment, Greenland, MD.
127. Tedesco, M., P. Alexander, X. Fettweis, S. Luthcke, T. Mote, Å. Rennermalm, R. Bell, E. Hanna, and V. Walden, 2017: Linkages between atmospheric circulation and mass partitioning over the Greenland ice sheet. Annual meeting of the European Meteorological Society, Dublin, Ireland.
126. Wachowicz, L., and T. Mote, 2017: The role of atmospheric circulation on rain-on-snow driven ablation in the Eastern United States. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Seattle, WA.
125. Wachowicz, L., and T. Mote, 2017: Rain-on-snow in the Eastern United States: Associated variations in atmospheric circulation and surface energy budget. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, Boston, MA.
124. Arthur, J., G. Henderson, D. Leathers, D. Robinson, and T. Mote, 2016: A climatology of peak stream discharge in relation to rapid ablation events in the Chesapeake Basin, 1950-2009. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, New Orleans, LA.
123. Henderson, G., K. Masters, D. Leathers, D. Robinson, and T. Mote, 2016: Towards improved understanding of extreme snow melt runoff events: A Case Study of the Chesapeake Basin. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, New Orleans, LA.
122. Mattingly, K., and T. Mote, 2016: Moisture transport regimes associated with large-scale organized convection over subtropical South America. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, New Orleans, LA.
121. Mattingly, K., and T. Mote, 2016: Atmospheric rivers over the North Atlantic Ocean and their effects on the Greenland ice sheet. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, San Francisco, CA.
120. Miller, P., and T. Mote, 2016: Applications of the term "pulse" as a thunderstorm mode descriptor. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, New Orleans, LA.
119. Miller, P., and T. Mote, 2016: The utility of the term "pulse" within the thunderstorm mode nomenclature. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, San Francisco, CA.
118. Moares, F., F. Aquino, and T. Mote, 2016: Large-scale atmospheric environment that develops Mesoscale Convective Systems in southern Brazil: The influence of Antarctica on subtropical extreme events. Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research Biennial Meeting, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
117. Mote, T., C. Ramseyer, and P. Miller, 2016: On the role of the Saharan Air Layer in the 2015 Puerto Rico drought. Annual meeting of the SouthEastern Division of the Association of American Geographers, Columbia, SC.
116. Mote, T., M. Tedesco, I. Astuti, D. Cotten, and T. Jordan, 2016: Structure from motion using helicopter-based aerial photography over the West Greenland ablation zone. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, San Francisco, CA.
115. Mote, T., R. Castelao, P. Yager, Å. Rennermalm, M. Tedesco, H. Luo, H. Oliver, S. Moustafa, G. van Dijken, and K. Arrigo, 2016: The impact of extreme melt on ocean stratification and productivity near West Greenland. Annual meeting of the Polar and Arctic Regional Climate Assessment, Greenland, MD.
114. Moustafa, S., A. Rennermalm, M. Tedesco, T. Mote, L. Koenig, L. Smith, B. Hagedorn, I. Overeem, R. Sletten, A. Mikkelsen, B. Hachelt, D. van As, and D. Hall, 2016: Characterizing
West Greenland ice sheet runoff losses from modeled and measured data. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
113. Oliver, H., H. Luo, R. Castelao, G. van Dijken, K. Mattingly, J. Rosen, T. Mote, K. Arrigo, A. Rennermalm, M. Tedesco, and P. Yager, 2016: Extreme surface melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet increases growth potential for light-limited phytoplankton in the Labrador Sea. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
112. Oliver, H., P. Yager, R. Castelao, T. Mote, and H. Luo, 2016: Modeling the sensitivity of coastal ocean primary production to extreme melting of the Greenland Ice sheet. Ocean Sciences Meeting, New Orleans, LA.
111. Ramseyer, C., and T. Mote, 2016: Climate downscaling of CMIP5 GCM simulations to northeast Puerto Rico precipitation variability and drought. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, San Francisco, CA.
110. Ramseyer, C., and T. Mote, 2016: Historical Caribbean synoptic types and downscaling to northeast Puerto Rico precipitation variability using self-organizing maps. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, New Orleans, LA.
109. Rennermalm, Å., M. Tedesco, L. Smith, L. Pitcher, T. Mote, P. Yager, S. Moustafa, M. Cooper, D. van As, B. Hasholt, and A. Mikkelsen, 2016: Understanding Greenland Ice Sheet runoff losses. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
108. Rosen, J., and T. Mote, 2016: A synoptic climatology of Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance (1871-2012) using self-organizing maps. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, San Francisco, CA.
107. Smith, L., L. Pitcher, B. Overstreet, Å. Rennermalm, V. Chu, J. Ryan, A. Hubbard, M. Cooper, C. Gleason, K Yang, M. Tedesco, and T. Mote, 2016: Meltwater runoff in a large supraglacial river in western Greenland compared with downstream proglacial river outflow. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, San Francisco, CA.
106. Tedesco, M., T. Mote, X. Fettweis, E. Hanna, J. Jeyaratnam, J. Booth, R. Datta, and K. Briggs, 2016: Arctic Amplification and the Northward shift of a new Greenland melting record. Annual meeting of the European Geosciences Union, Vienna, Austria.
105. Tedesco, M., P. Alexander, K. Briggs, M. Linares, and T. Mote, 2016: Hyperspectral, photogrammetric and morphological characterization of surface impurities over the Greenland ice sheet from remote sensing observations. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
104. Yager, P., H. Oliver, R. Castelao, H. Luo, K. Mattingly, J. Rosen, T. Mote, Å. Rennermalm, M. Tedesco, and G. van Dijken, 2016: Ice sheet meltwater impacts on coastal biological productivity - models and remote observations for southwest Greenland. Ocean Sciences Meeting, New Orleans, LA.
103. Masters, K., G. Henderson, D. Leathers, D. Robinson, and T. Mote, 2015: Understanding of extreme snow melt runoff events: a case study of the Chesapeake Basin. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Phoenix, AZ.
102. McLeod, J., and T. Mote, 2015: Assessing the role of precursor cyclones on the formation of extreme Greenland blocks and their impact on summer melting across the Greenland ice sheet. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Phoenix, AZ.
101. Mote, T., M. Tedesco, I. Astuti, D. Cotten, and T. Jordan, 2015: Structure from helicopterbased photography over the West Greenland ablation zone. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
100. Mote, T., J. Rosen, H. Oliver, P. Yager, H. Luo, R. Castelao, E. Nobel, Å. Rennermalm, M Tedesco, G. Van Dijken, K. Arrigo, and S. Moustafa, 2015: The impact of extreme melt on ocean stratification and productivity near West Greenland. Ilulissat Climate Days 2015, Ilulissat, Greenland.
99. Moustafa, S., Å. Rennermalm, M. Tedesco, L. Koenig, L. Smith, B. Hagerdorn, I. Overeem, R. Sletten, A. Mikkelsen, B. Hasholt, D. Hall, and T. Mote, 2015: Longitudinal inter-comparison of modeled and measured West Greenland ice sheet meltwater runoff losses (2004–2014). Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
98. Oliver, H., P. Yager, R. Castelao, L. Hao, and T. Mote, 2015: Modeling the responses of primary production to extreme melting of the Greenland ice sheet. Gordon Research Conference, Lucca, Italy.
97. Rennermalm, A, A. Mikkelsen, I. Overeem, V. Chu, L. Smith, D. van As, and T. Mote, 2015: Spatial variation of Greenland ice sheet meltwater export inferred from river discharge observations. International Symposium on the Hydrology of Glaciers and Ice Sheets, Höfn, Iceland.
96. Rennermalm, Å., M. Tedesco, T. Mote, I. Overeem, A. Mikkelsen, and B. Hasholt, 2015: Greenland ice sheet meltwater export and river discharge. Ilulissat Climate Days 2015, Ilulissat, Greenland.
95. Robinson, D., T. Mote, and K. Love-Myers, 2015: Assessment of the Stability of a Satellite Snow Extent CDR from Station Snow Depth Observations. The Satellite Snow Product Intercomparison and Evaluation Experiment, Boulder, CO.
94. Smith, L., L. Pitcher, B. Overstreet, Å. Rennermalm, V. Chu, J. Ryan, A. Hubbard, M. Cooper, C. Gleason, K. Yang, M. Tedesco, T. Mote, and K. Young, 2015: Efficient removal of meltwater runoff through supraglacial streams and rivers on the southwestern Greenland ice sheet. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
93. Tedesco, M., T. Mote, L. Smith, A. Rennerlmalm and D. Lampkin, 2015: Hyperspectral and photogrammetric helicopter-based measurements over western Greenland. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
92. Yager, P., H. Oliver, R. Sherrell, S. Stammerjohn, P. St-Laurent, E. Hofmann, T. Mote, M. Tedesco, Å. Rennermalm, and R. Castelao, 2015: Ice sheet meltwater impacts on biological productivity in high-latitude coastal zones - observations and models for the west Antarctic and southwest Greenland. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
91. Black, A., and T. Mote, 2014: Indirect fatalities from winter precipitation: An under- acknowledged killer in the United States. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Atlanta, GA.
90. Gensini, V., and T. Mote, 2014: Hazardous convective weather in the United States: A dynamical downscaling approach. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Atlanta, GA.
89. KC, B., J. Bell, S. Kethireddy, E. Dobbs, J. Luvall, M. Shepherd, T. Mote, and S. Goodrick, 2014: A wildfire, aerosol transport, and respiratory health case study. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Atlanta, GA.
88. Mote, T., J. McLeod, and M. Tedesco, 2014: Extreme Greenland Blocking Events and Their Impact on Summer Runoff Across the Greenland Ice Sheet. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
87. *Mote, T., Å. Rennermalm, and J. McLeod, 2014: Understanding unseasonal melt and runoff from the Greenland ice sheet. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Atlanta, GA.
86. *Mote, T., Å. Rennermalm, and J. McLeod, 2014: Unseasonal melt and runoff from the Greenland ice sheet and associated atmospheric circulation. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Tampa, FL.
85. Rennermalm, Å., M. Tedesco, T. Mote, and I. Overeem, 2014: Greenland Rivers and ice sheet meltwater export to surrounding oceans. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Tampa, FL.
84. Gensini, V., C. Ramseyer, and T. Mote, 2013: Future Convective Environments in the Southeast U.S. 25th Conference on Climate Variability and Change. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Austin TX.
83. Hanna, E., X. Fettweis, S. Mernild, J. Cappelen, M. Ribergaard, C. Shuman, K. Steffen, L. Wood, and T. Mote, 2013: Atmospheric and oceanic climate forcing of the exceptional Greenland Ice Sheet surface melt in summer 2012. Annual meeting of the European Geosciences Union, Vienna, Austria.
82. *Mote, T., M. Albert, D. Hall, S. Nghiem, C. Shuman, M. Tedesco, N. Digirolamo, and G. Neumann, 2013: Analysis and historical perspective of the extensive surface melting on Greenland in July 2012. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Los Angeles, CA.
81. Robinson, D., T. Estilow, M. Anderson, D. Hall, G. Henderson, T. Mote, and M. Tschudi, 2013: Forthcoming Northern Hemisphere snow and ice earth system data records. Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
80. Tedesco, M., X. Fettweis, T. Mote, J. Wahr, P. Alexander, J. Box, and B. Wouters, 2013: Evidence and analysis of 2012 Greenland records from spaceborne observations, a regional climate model and reanalysis data. Polar and Arctic Regional Climate Assessment meeting, Greenbelt, MD.
79. Grundstein, A.J., B. Avant, S. Younger, A. Ignatius, T. Rasmussen, T. Mote, J.M. Shepherd, 2012: A methodology for hydrological modeling in data poor regions using TRMM precipitation data and MERRA reanalysis meteorological data. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New York, NY.
78. *Mote, T., M. Albert, D. Hall, S. Nghiem, C. Shuman, M. Tedesco, N. Digirolamo, and G. Neumann, 2012: Analysis and historical perspective of the extensive surface melting on Greenland in July 2012. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
77. *Mote, T., S.H. Mernild, and G.E. Liston, 2012: Extending climate data records of Greenland Ice Sheet surface melt extent into the pre-satellite era. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New York, NY.
76. Nghiem, S., D. Hall, T. Mote, M. Tedesco, M. Albert, K. Keegan, C. Shuman, N. Digirolamo, and G. Neumann, 2012: The extreme melt event of 2012 across the Greenland ice surface - a sudden anomaly since the Medieval Warm Period. Annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, Charlotte, NC.
75. Robinson, D.A., T.W. Estilow, M.R. Anderson, D.K. Hall, G. Henderson, T. Mote, M. Tschudi, 2012: A new suite of Northern Hemisphere snow and ice earth system data records. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
74. Wei, J., T. Mote, 2012: A synthesis of the point snow depth observations and a microwave satellite snow depth product. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New York, NY.
73. *Becker, L., T. Mote, and S. Goodrick, 2011: Effects of hurricane blowdown on regional climate of the U.S. Gulf Coast. Wind and Trees IUFRO Research Conference, Athens, GA.
72. *Mote, T., 2011: Evidence of recent climate change from the Greenland Ice Sheet. University of North Dakota, Department of Geography, Grand Forks, ND.
71. *Mote, T., J.M Shepherd, T.K. Anderson, B. KC, C. Ramseyer, 2011: Downscaling: Modeling global climate change effects locally. The Impact of Climate Change on Tribal Resource Management in the Southeast, Athens, GA.
70. *Mote, T., D. Kluver, and D. Robinson, 2011: Development of a gridded snowfall data set for North America. Snowfall Observations and Products in the 21st Century: Meeting the Needs of FEMA and the Climate Community, Estes Park, CO.
69. *Mote, T., 2011: Evidence of recent climate change from the Greenland Ice Sheet. University of Delaware, Department of Geography, Newark, DE.
68. Robinson, D., T. Estilow, G. Henderson, T. Mote, and D. Hall 2011: Integrated Northern Hemisphere terrestrial snow extent climate datasets. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
67. Becker, L., and T. Mote, 2010: Effects of tropical cyclone damage on the climate of the U.S. Gulf Coast. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Atlanta, GA.
66. Becker, L., and T. Mote, 2010: Effects of tropical cyclone damage on the climate of the U.S. Gulf Coast. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Washington, DC.
65. Durkee, J., and T. Mote, 2010: The role of mesoscale convective complexes on rainfall and streamflow across subtropical South America. American Geophysical Union Meeting of the Americas, Foz do Iguaçu, PR, Brazil.
64. Ignatius, A., A. Grundstein, T. Rasmussen, T. Mote, J.M. Shepherd, 2010: Utilizing satellitebased and reanalysis precipitation data in hydrological modeling. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
63. Lieberman, J., and T. Mote, 2010: Comparison of MODIS LST and SSM/I melt detection products on the Greenland ice sheet. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Washington, DC.
62. *Mote, T., 2010: Assessment of the stability of satellite snow cover CDRs using station snow depth observations. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
61. *Mote, T., 2010: The role of mesoscale convective complexes in rainfall and streamflow across the Americas. Stout Lecture Series, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE.
60. *Mote, T., 2010: Assessment of the stability of satellite snow cover CDRs using station snow depth observations. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Washington, DC.
59. Mote, T., J. Durkee, and J.M. Shepherd, 2010: The influence of the South Atlantic Convergence Zone on South American Mesoscale Convective Complexes. American Geophysical Union Meeting of the Americas, Foz do Iguaçu, PR, Brazil.
58. Shem, W., T. Mote, and J.M. Shepherd, 2010: Validation of NARCCAP climate products for forest resource applications in the southeast United States. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Atlanta, GA.
57. Shem, W., T. Mote, and J.M. Shepherd, 2010: Validation of NARCCAP climate products for forest resource applications in the southeast United States. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
56. Shepherd, J.M., T. Mote, S. Nelson, S. McCutcheon, P. Knox, J. Dowd, and M. Roden, 2010: An overview of synoptic, mesoscale and urban factors contributing to the disastrous Atlanta flood of 2009, 2010: American Meteorological Society Ninth Symposium on the Urban Environment, Keystone, CO.
55. Shepherd, J.M., S. Burian, M. Jin, T. Stallins, and T. Mote, 2010: Urban land cover and pollution: Do they create or alter precipitation and storms? Coweeta Summer Symposium, Otto, NC.
54. Robinson, D., M. Anderson, D. Hall, J. Maslanik, T. Mote, and S. Drobot, 2010: Development of Northern Hemisphere snow extent earth system data records. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
53. Lacke, M., T. Mote and J.M. Shepherd, 2009: Aerosols and associated precipitation patterns in Atlanta. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Phoenix, AZ.
52. Lieberman, J., and T. Mote, 2009: Comparison of MODIS LST and SSM/I melt detection products on the Greenland ice sheet. Annual Meeting of the Southeast Division of the Association of American Geographers, Knoxville, TN.
51. Shepherd, J.M., D. Niyogi, T. Mote, and J. Entin, 2009: A climatological analysis associating spring tornadic activity with antecedent precipitation and drought in the Southeastern United States. Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Phoenix, AZ.
50. Shepherd, J.M., and T. Mote, 2009: Urban effects on rainfall variability: Potential implications for Georgia's water supply. Georgia Water Resources Conference, Athens, GA.
49. *Mote, T., 2008: Development of microwave satellite-based snow climate data records. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
48. Shepherd, J.M., A. Grundstein, and T. Mote, 2008: Quantifying the contribution of tropical cyclones to extreme rainfall along the coastal southeastern United States. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, MA.
47. Shepherd, J.M., A. Grundstein, and T. Mote, 2008: Quantifying the contribution of tropical cyclones to extreme rainfall along the coastal southeastern United States, Annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, New Orleans, LA.
46. *Mote, T., 2007: An integrated use of microwave instruments for assessing snow cover. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, CA.
45. Shepherd, J.M., and T. Mote, 2007: Trends toward wetter hurricane basins, American Meteorological Society 19th Conference on Climate Variability and Change, San Antonio, TX.
44. Frye, J., J. Durkee, T. Mote, M. Lacke, H. Jeong, C. Fuhrmann, and G. Wassel, 2006: Effects of the North Atlantic Oscillation on Precipitation Type Distribution in the Eastern United States. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, Chicago, IL.
43. Grundstein, A. and T. Mote, 2005: Relationship between snow cover and spring ?green up? in the USA Upper Midwest. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Denver, CO.
42. *Mote, T., and D. Robinson, 2005: Development and evaluation of snow depth data sets for North America. International Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) conference, Beijing, China.
41. Dyer, J., and T. Mote, 2004: The influence of snow depth on surface air temperatures. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Philadelphia, PA.
40. Grundstein, A., P. Todhunter, and T. Mote, 2004: Soil temperature/snowpack relationship in Eastern North Dakota. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Philadelphia, PA.
39. *Mote, T., and E. Powell, 2004: Greenland melt, surface mass balance and equilibrium line altitude from microwave radiometry, Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
38. *Mote, T., 2004: The Atlanta heat island, A rain-making machine? Northern Illinois University, Department of Geography, DeKalb, IL.
37. *Mote, T., and P. Dixon, 2004: The Atlanta heat island, A rain-making machine? Ain Shams University, Department of Geography, Cairo, Egypt.
36. *Mote, T., 2004: Evaluation of passive microwave and scatterometer measures of North American snow cover extent and depth. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Philadelphia, PA.
35. Wassel, G., W. Ashley, T. Mote, and M. Bentley, 2004: On the episodic nature of longlived, convectively generated high-wind events in the United States. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Philadelphia, PA.
34. Dixon, P., and T. Mote, 2003: Moisture and temperature characteristics of Atlanta's urban heat island-induced precipitation days. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New Orleans, LA.
33. Frei, A., T. Mote, J. Miller, D. Robinson, A. Grundstein, and R. Brown, 2003: Snow covered area and water equivalent simulations in AMIP-2. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New Orleans, LA.
32. *Mote, T., and D. Robinson, 2003: Development and evaluation of a new daily snow depth data set for the continental United States. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New Orleans, LA.
31. Dixon, P., and T. Mote, 2002: Climatological patterns of Atlanta's urban heat island precipitation. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Los Angeles, CA.
30. Dixon, P., W. Ashley, J. Durkee, E. Powell, S. Trotter, T. Mote, and A. Grundstein, 2002: Precipitation contributions of mesoscale convective complexes in the southeastern United States. Annual Southeast Severe Storms Symposium, Starkville, MS.
29. Dyer, J., and T. Mote, 2002: Using SNTHERM to simulate the extreme snowmelt event that led to the 1997 Red River floods. Eastern Snow Conference, Stowe, VT.
28. Dyer, J., and T. Mote, 2002: Using a complex snowpack energy and mass balance model to simulate the extreme snowmelt event that led to the 1997 Red River floods. Annual meeting Association of American Geographers, Los Angeles, CA.
27. *Mote, T., and D. Robinson, 2002: Evaluation of a quality controlled daily snow depth dataset for the continental United States. Snow Watch Meeting, Silver Springs, MD.
26. Bentley, M., T. Mote, and P. Thebpanya, 2000: The utility of Landsat-7 ETM+ data for identifying agricultural damage due to severe thunderstorms in western Illinois. American Meteorological Society 13th Conference on Applied Climatology, Portland, OR.
25. Choi, J-N., V. Meentemeyer, and T. Mote, 2000: Spatial patterns of a heat index for the coterminous united states and its temporal trends. American Meteorological Society 12th Conference on Applied Climatology, Asheville, NC.
24. Grundstein, A., and T. Mote, 2000: A sensitivity analysis of SNTHERM modeled SWE. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
23. *Mote, T. and A. Grundstein, 2000: A comparison of modeled, remotely sensed and measured snow water equivalent in the northern Great Plains. 12th Conference on Applied Climatology, American Meteorological Society, Asheville, NC.
22. *Mote, T., 2000: Application of microwave SWE algorithms in the northern Great Plains. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Pittsburgh, PA.
21. Bentley, M.L., and T. Mote, 1998: A synoptic climatology of derecho producing mesoscale convective systems: 1986-1995. American Meteorological Society 19th Conference on Severe Local Storms, Minneapolis, MN.
20. *Bentley, M., and T. Mote, 1998: A synoptic climatology of derecho producing mesoscale convective systems: 1986-1995. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, MA.
19. Hunter, S., S.J. Underwood, T. Mote, M. Bentley, and R. Holle, 1998: Winter lightning in the Southeast U.S. and its relation to heavy frozen precipitation. American Meteorological Society 19th Conference on Severe Local Storms, Minneapolis, MN.
18. *Mote, T., 1997: Estimates of Greenland Ice Sheet ablation using microwave radiometric data. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Dallas, TX.
17. *Mote, T., 1996: Ablation estimates on the Greenland Ice Sheet from SMMR data. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
16. *Mote, T., 1996: The anatomy of a heavy Southeast snowstorm. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Charlotte, NC.
15. Anderson, M., T. Mote, and W. Abdalati, 1995: A comparison of passive microwave techniques for detecting snowpack melt on the Greenland ice sheet. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
14. Anderson, M., K. George, and T. Mote, 1995: Relationships between snow melt on the Greenland ice sheet and regional sea ice conditions. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, IL.
13. *Mote, T., 1995: Interaction of synoptic and mesoscale mechanisms responsible for Southeastern U.S. flooding from Tropical Storm Alberto. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, IL.
12. Anderson, M., T. Mote, and K. George, 1994: An analysis of Greenland surface snow melt and its association with regional sea ice conditions. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
11. *Mote, T., 1994: A comparison of SSM/I data and modeled snowpack conditions for Dye2, Greenland. Presented by C.M. Rowe at the Geological Survey of Greenland planning workshop on Early Detection of Changes on the Greenland Ice Sheet and Understanding Their Causes, Copenhagen, Denmark.
10. *Mote, T., and C. Rowe, 1994: A comparison of satellite microwave data and surface meteorological observations for Dye-2, Greenland. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, CA.
9. Rowe, C., K. Kuivinen, M. Anderson and T. Mote, 1994: Indications of melt in near-surface ice core stratigraphy: Comparisons with passive microwave melt signals over the Greenland Ice Sheet. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, CA.
8. Rowe, C., and T. Mote, 1994: Large scale sensible heat advection and snowmelt on the Greenland ice sheet. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
7. Rowe, C., M. Anderson, T. Mote, and K. Kuivinen, 1994: Indications of melt in near surface ice core stratigraphy: Comparisons with passive microwave melt signals over the Greenland ice sheet. International Glaciological Society Symposium on the Role of the Cryosphere in Global Change, Columbus, OH.
6. *Mote, T., 1993: A synoptic climatology of snowpack melt events on the Greenland ice sheet. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Atlanta, GA.
5. Kuivinen, K., M. Anderson, T. Mote, and C. Rowe, 1992: Regionalization of Greenland ice sheet surface characteristics using passive microwave techniques. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Diego, CA.
4. *Mote, T., 1992: Snowpack melt on the Greenland ice sheet as an indicator of climate variability. Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
3. *Mote, T., and M.R. Anderson, 1992: Sea ice melt and associated atmospheric circulation patterns in the Arctic. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Diego, CA.
2. *Mote, T., M. Anderson, K. Kuivinen, and C. Rowe, 1992: Spatial and temporal variations of snowpack melt on the Greenland ice sheet. International Glaciological Society's Conference on Remote Sensing, Boulder, CO.
1. *Anderson, M., and T. Mote, 1991: Sea ice movements in the Weddell Sea. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Miami, FL.
Instruction
GEOG/ATSC 1112: Introduction to Weather and Climate w/ Lab. Atmospheric composition and structure, clouds, precipitation, and atmospheric motion and winds. Organized weather systems, including air masses, fronts, and severe weather. Discussion of global climates includes circulation, wind systems, climate classification, and climate change.
ATSC/GEOG 3110: Climatology. Climatology from local to global scales. Topics include radiation/heat exchanges, the hydrologic cycle, global climate patterns, climate change, measurement and data sources, relationships of climate with ecosystem processes and human activities, climate forecasting.
ATSC/GEOG 3120: Weather Analysis and Forecasting w/ Lab. The collection, display, and application of weather data. The use of meteorological instruments, codes, maps, atmospheric soundings, and thermodynamics diagrams. Interpretation of weather maps using basic meteorological principles.
ATSC/GEOG 4120/6120: Synoptic Meteorology/Climatology. Theory and observations to understand mid-latitude weather systems. Focus is on application of quasi-geostrophic theory in weather forecasting. Analysis and interpretation of weather maps and numerical models. Development and life cycle of cyclones, fronts, and jet streams.
ATSC/GEOG 4140/6140: Satellite Meteorology/Climatology. Application of satellite remote sensing in meteorology and climatology. Applications include clouds, atmospheric water vapor and precipitation, the Earth's radiation budget, sea and land surface temperatures.
ATSC/GEOG 4155/6155: Hydrometeorology. Hydrometeorology bridges atmospheric sciences and hydrology, including formation and distribution of liquid and solid precipitation, floods, and drought, and impacts on water resources. Topics address the observing, modeling, and forecasting of fluxes, flow, and storage of liquid water, ice, and water vapor, including interactions between the land surface and atmosphere.
GEOG 4350/6350: Remote Sensing of Environment. Remote sensing with emphasis on aerospace applications in the natural sciences. Fundamental properties of the electromagnetic spectrum and remote sensing devices such as multispectral cameras, thermal infrared line scanners, and radar imaging.
GEOG 8120: Seminar in Climatology. Advanced topics in physical climatology such as climate change, microclimatology, urban climatology, synoptic climatology applied climatology or climate policy.
GEOG 8810: Seminar in Human-Environment Relationships. Problems, methods, and techniques in human-environment relationships and economic development, including decisionmaking strategies in resource exploitation.
Graduate Advisory, Reading, or Examining Committees
Major professor, Ph.D.
Jonathan R. Preece, 2022. Local and remote drivers of Greenland ice sheet surface mass loss under Arctic amplification. (postdoctoral teaching and research associate, University of Georgia)
Lori J. Wachowicz, 2022. Tropical sea surface temperature variability and its role on Arctic atmospheric circulation and sea ice. (data scientist, KPMG)
Flávia Dias de Souza Moraes, 2021. Drought in the insular Caribbean: Teleconnection effects, water resources, and vulnerability index. (lecturer, Georgia State University)
Kyle S. Mattingly, 2019. Connecting changes in poleward energy flux to Greenland ice sheet energy budget and mass balance: The role of moisture transport by atmospheric rivers. (assistant scientist, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Paul W. Miller, 2017. Anticipating thunderstorm severity in weakly sheared atmospheres across the southeast United States. (assistant professor, Louisiana State University)
Craig A. Ramseyer, 2016. Regional climate forcing of precipitation and drought in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. (assistant professor, Virginia Tech)
Alan W. Black, 2015. Winter precipitation hazards and vulnerability in the United States. (assistant professor, Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville)
Vittorio A. Gensini, 2014. Hazardous convective weather in the United States: A dynamical downscaling approach. (associate professor, Northern Illinois University)
Joshua D. Durkee, 2008. Assessing the role of warm-season mesoscale convective complexes in subtropical South American precipitation variability. (professor, Western Kentucky University)
John D. Frye, 2008. An empirical study of the relationship between soil moisture and convection in the southern Great Plains. (associate professor, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater)
Walker S. Ashley, 2005. Derecho-producing convective systems in the United States: An assessment of derecho hazards and family formation. (professor, Northern Illinois University)
Jamie L. Dyer, 2005. Spatial and temporal trends in North American snow depth and relationships with streamflow and ablation. (professor, Mississippi State University)
Mace L. Bentley, 1999. A climatology of derecho producing mesoscale convective systems in the eastern United States, 1986–1995. (professor, James Madison University)
Major professor, M.S.
Katrina Ducre, current
Zach Pilgrim, current.
Shelby Ingram, 2022. Saharan air layer influences on Puerto Rico hydrological response. (meteorologist, NOAA Southeast River Forecast Center)
Haylie N. Mikulak, 2019. Influence of low-frequency atmospheric teleconnections on arctic blocking patterns. (PhD student, Auburn University)
Lori J. Wachowicz, 2017. Rain-on-snow in the eastern United States and associated surface energy budget and atmospheric circulation. (data scientist, KPMG)
Joshua J. Rosen, 2017. A synoptic climatology of Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance: A neural network/self-organizing map approach. (physical scientist, U.S. Geological Survey)
Kyle S. Mattingly, 2014. Atmospheric circulation associated with large, long-lived convective systems over subtropical South America. (assistant scientist, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Jordan T. McLeod, 2014. Atmospheric bottlenecks over the Arctic: A climatological investigation of extreme Greenland blocking episodes and their relationship with precipitation anomalies across the United States. (instructor, University of South Alabama)
Jingmei Wei, 2013. A synthesis of point snow depth observations and a satellite snow depth product. (MBA student, University of Maryland)
Anthony P. Bedel, 2012. Climate change and associated fire potential for the southeastern United States in the 21st Century. (meteorologist, Environmental Protection Agency)
Craig A. Ramseyer, 2011. Forest fire aerosol forcing of precipitation along the U.S. south Atlantic coast. (assistant professor, Virginia Tech)
Laura E. Becker, 2010. The effects of tropical cyclone induced damage on the regional climate of the U.S. Gulf Coast. (environmental scientist, State of Louisiana)
Jordan Pesses Lieberman, 2010. Comparison of MODIS LST and SSM/I melt detection products on the Greenland ice sheet. (geospatial analyst, U.S. Department of Defense)
Emily R. Kutney, 2009. On the association of autumn Eurasian snow cover and winter North American temperatures.
Matthew C. Lacke, 2007. Aerosols and associated precipitation patterns in Atlanta. (meteorologist, Air and Radiation Protection Division, Jefferson County Department of Health, Birmingham, AL)
Christopher M. Fuhrmann, 2006. Severe convective wind environments in Georgia. (associate professor, Mississippi State University)
Gregory A. Wassel, 2006. A climatology of electrified convective snowfall events and their radar signatures . (product manager, Franklin Energy)
Emily J. Powell, 2003. Greenland equilibrium line from ERS-1/2 scatterometers and surface mass balance model data. (climate services specialist, Florida State University)
Joshua D. Durkee, 2003. The precipitation efficiency of warm-season mesoscale convective complexes in the United States. (professor, Western Kentucky University)
Paul G. Dixon, 2002. Climatological patterns of Atlanta's urban heat island-initiated precipitation. (dean, Fort Hays State University)
Jamie L. Dyer, 2001. Simulating the 1997 Red River floods utilizing a coupled snowpack and hydrologic model. (professor, Mississippi State University)
Supervisory committee member, Ph.D.
Andrew Benjamin (U. Delaware, Geography), current. The effects of increased urbanization on winter precipitation patterns in the Mid-Atlantic United States: A WRF modeling study.
Rich Ross (U. Georgia, Statistics), 2022 Topological data analysis for Rossby wave estimation.
Natalie Teale (Rutgers U., Geography), 2020. Investigating the relationship between atmospheric moisture transport and precipitation in the eastern United States.
Benjamin Washington (U. Georgia, Statistics), 2020. An adapted VAR EM imputation of climate data and statistical downscaling of temperature, precipitation and solar radiation in Puerto Rico.
Hilde Oliver (U. Georgia, Marine Sciences), 2019. Physical controls on light and nutrients in coastal regions receiving large fluxes of glacial meltwater.
Brad Johnson, 2018. The impact of urbanization on regional scale climate and winter precipitation.
Rocio Rodriquez Granados (U. Georgia, Forestry and Natural Resources), 2016. Indigenous perceptions of environmental change: Local realities and coping strategies in the Colombian Amazon.
Lixin Wang, 2016. Late Quaternary paleoenvironmental changes in southern Africa and Madagascar: Evidence from aeolian, fluvial, and cave deposits.
Yawen Bao (U. Georgia, Crop and Soil Science), 2015. Coupling the simclim system with crop simulation models for determining adaptation strategies under a changing climate: an application for maize production in the southeastern USA.
John Mioduszewski, 2015 (Rutgers U., Geography). Attribution of snow melt onset and linkages across the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere.
Amanda J. Schroeder, 2015. A spatio-temporal assessment of urban flooding in the United States. Binita KC, 2014. Spatio-temporal assessment of current and future climate change vulnerability in Georgia.
Theresa K. Andersen, 2013. The "brown ocean" concept: A spatio-temporal and theoretical analysis of intensifying tropical cyclones over land.
Chandana Mitra, 2011. A synergistic study of urban land cover dynamics-premonsoonal rainfall relationships in Kolkata, India using climatological, remotely-sensed, and modeling methodologies.
Mario A. Giraldo, 2007. Complex landscapes analysis for ground and remote sensing estimations of soil water content.
Sharon Trotter Ashley, 2006. A geographical analysis of flood hazards in the United States.
Nellie Elguindi, 2003 (U. Delaware, Geography). Subgrid-scale snowcover heterogeneity and the effects of snowcover on mid-latitiude cyclones in the Great Plains.
Jong-Nam Choi, 2001. Statistical characteristics and synoptic patterns of persistent positive temperature anomalies in the United States, 1950–1995.
Jon Anthony Stallins, 2000. Barrier island morphology and dune vegetation pattern and process in the Georgia Bight.
James W. Webster, 2000. Speleothem evidence of late Holocene climate variation in the Maya Lowlands of Belize, Central American and archaeological implications.
Andrew H, Ivester, 1999. Quaternary geology of inland dunes in Georgia, U.S.A.
S. Jeffrey Underwood, 1999. A multi-scale climatology of wind-driven rain for the contiguous United States 1971–1995.
Douglas W. Gamble, 1997. Climatic and physiographic features associated with extreme unseasonable floods in the southeastern United States, 1950–1990.
Supervisory committee member, M.S.
Victor Arraes Rocha Felix, current.
Lindsey Nixon, current.
J.D. Burke, 2022. Spatio-temporal Analysis of Summertime Urban Lightning Patterns throughout the Charlanta Megaregion.
Ian Boatman, 2019. The development of an empirically-based definition of epidemic thunderstorm asthma.
Patrick Kriebel (U. Georgia, Statistics), 2016. Estimating precipitation volume distributions using data from the spatially dense CoCoRaHS network.
Jared Rackley, 2015. Southern Appalachian cold air damming (CAD): A climatology and simulation of case studies.
Emily N. Wilson, 2012. Case studies of clear-air turbulence: evaluation and verification of new forecasting techniques.
Jiaying Wu, 2012. A chironomid-based reconstruction of late holocene climate change in southern Costa Rica.
Fang Zhao, 2011. Precipitation changes near Three Gorges Dam, China.
Theresa K. Andersen, 2010. A climatological analysis of drought and tornadic activity in the southeastern United States.
W. Michael Carter, 2009. Mesoscale circulations in the urban-coastal environment: An observational and modeling analysis of sensitivity to high resolution representation of the urban canopy.
Lauren M. Hand, 2008. An investigation of warm season spatial rainfall variability in Oklahoma City: Possible linkages to urbanization and prevailing wind.
Jennifer E. Jacobs, 2008. An examination of variations in snow depth in the Rocky Mountains.
Yan Zhou, 2008. Atlanta's urban heat island under extreme heat conditions and potential mitigation strategies.
Daria B. Kluver, 2007 (U. Delaware, Geography). Characteristics and trends of North American snowfall from a comprehensive gridded data set.
Richard M. Boutillier, 2004 (U. Delaware, Geography). A synoptic evaluation of derechos in the northeastern United States.
Jennifer Sheppard Doublin, 2003. A spatial and temporal investigation of growing season droughts in the Southeast United States: An application of airmass and synoptic analyses.
External evaluator
Libo Wang, Ph.D. (U. Alberta), 2006. Satellite remote sensing of snow cover and snowmelt in the Arctic.
Professional Activities
Executive Education
Southeastern Conference Academic Leadership Development Program, 2018–2019
University System of Georgia Executive Leadership Institute, 2014–2015
AAG Department Leaders Workshop, 2005, 2007, 2014
Editorial
Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, associate editor, 2008–2011; editor, 2011– 2015.
Geography Compass, section editor, 2007–2011.
Physical Geography, editorial board, 2016–.
Manuscript review
Science
Southeastern Geographer
Southwestern Geographer
Water Resources Research
Weather Climate and Society
Grant review
Alberta Ingenuity Foundation
French National Research Agency
National Atmospheric and Space Administration
National Geographic Society
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Science Foundation
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
Southeast Regional Climate Center
Swiss National Science Foundation
South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium
Promotion, tenure and appointment review
Arizona State University
City College of New York
Dartmouth College
East Carolina University
James Madison University
Louisiana State University
Mississippi State University
Southern Illinois University
Texas A&M University
Texas Tech University
University of Alabama
University of Arkansas
University of California, Irvine
University of Connecticut
University of Delaware
University of Idaho
University of Illinois
University of Kansas
University of Maryland
University of North Carolina
USDA Forest Service
Western Kentucky University
External program review
James Madison University
University of Alabama
Memberships
American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2017–present.
American Association of Geographers, 1993–present.
Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers, 2001–present.
American Geophysical Union, 1992–present.
American Meteorological Society, 1993–present.
Service Activities
Departmental
Search Committee for Energy and Sustainability, chair, 2010–2011.
Computer Committee, member, 2007–present; chair, 2009–2011.
Search Committee for GIScience, chair, 2006–2007.
Graduate Coordinator, 2004–2006.
Adviser to Geography Graduate Student Organization, 2004–2006.
Search Committee for CRMS director, member, 2003–2004.
Department Initiatives and Tracks Committee, member, 2003–2004.
Faculty Adviser to student American Meteorological Society chapter, 2000–2011.
Faculty Adviser to student Gamma Theta Upsilon chapter, 2002–2004.
Undergraduate Coordinator, 2002–2004.
Undergraduate Adviser, 1999–2004.
Introduction to Weather and Climate, class coordinator, 1997-1998, 1999–2000, 2003–2005.
Search Committee for Franklin Fellow, member, 2003.
Advisory Committee, elected member, 1996–1998, 2004–2006; chair, 2006.
Departmental Colloquia Coordinator, 1996–1998.
Graduate Studies Committee, member, 1995–1996, 2000–2001.
Geosciences Learning Center Committee, member, 1994–1995.
Undergraduate Studies Committee, member, 1994–1995.
University
Faculty Affairs Advisory Group, member, 2022.
Credit Hour Review Committee, member, 2022.
Review, Vice President for Instruction, member, 2021-2022.
President Work Group on Research, member, 2020.
Provost Task Force on Academic Excellence, member, 2019–2020.
Provost Task Force on the Future of Computer Science, member, 2019–2020.
Graduate School Review and Dean Search Committee, member, 2019–2020.
Program review, Office of Global Education, member, 2019–2020.
Program review, Center for Applied Isotope Studies, chair, 2018.
Provost Committee on Textbook Costs, chair, 2017–2018.
Search Committee for Director of Geography, University of Nebraska, co-chair, 2017–2018.
Search Committee for Associate Director of the Honors Program, member, 2017.
Search Committee for Associate Dean of the Graduate School, chair, 2017.
Advisory Committee for the Georgia Informatics Institutes, co-chair, 2017.
Search Committee for Director of Development for Franklin College, member, 2015–2016.
Georgia Advanced Computing Resource Center Advisory Board, ex-officio member, 2014.
Franklin College Department Heads Retreat planning committee, chair, 2014.
Search committee in Digital History and Historic Preservation, member, 2013–2014.
Post-tenure review committee for College of Education, member, 2013–2014.
Program review, UGA Center for Archaeological Studies, chair, 2013–2014.
UCAR membership application, co-organizer, 2011–2012.
University Council, elected member, 2010–2012.
University Council, Strategic Planning Committee, member, 2011–2014.
Center for Integrative Conservation Research, member, 2010–present.
Georgia Center for Climate and Society, executive committee member, 2010–present.
Faculty of Water Resources, member, 2003–present.
Interdisciplinary Program in Atmospheric Sciences, director, 2000–2011.
Graduate Faculty Appointment/Reappointment Committee, member, 2003–2006; chair, 2006.
Institutional Assessment Committee, member, 1998–1999.
University System Graduate Faculty Executive Committee, student member, 1992–1994.
University Graduate Council, student member, 1992–1994.
Professional
NOAA Drought Task Force IV, member, 2020–2023.
Co-organizer, paper session, SCAR/IASC Polar 2018.
Co-organizer, Climate paper session, Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, 2018.
Member, Military and Geography Study Committee, American Association of Geographers, 2017–2019.
Member, NASA Cryospheric Sciences grant review panel, 2017.
Co-organizer, Climate paper session, Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, 2017.
Co-organizer, Climate paper and panel sessions, Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers, 2016.
National Secretary, American Association of Geographers, 2015–2017.
Chair, Committee on Committees, American Association of Geographers, 2015–2017.
Committee of Visitors, Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate, National Science Foundation, 2015.
Co-organizer, Cryosphere paper/poster session, Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, 2015.
Regional Councilor (elected), Association of American Geographers, 2014–2017.
Chair, Local Arrangements Committee, Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers, 2014.
Institutional Representative, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, 2012–current.
Member (elected), Membership Committee, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, 2012–2018; Chair, 2016–2017.
Co-organizer, Cryosphere paper/poster session, Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, 2012.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Uncertainties in Earth Science Data Records Review Panel, 2010.
Co-organizer, Cryosphere paper/poster session, Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, 2010.
Organizer and Chair, Cryosphere Specialty Group paper session, Association of American Geographers annual meeting, 2010.
Member, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Climate Change Data and Detection Review Panel, 2009.
Member, National Academies of Science, Review Panel on NASA Applied Sciences, 2005– 2007.
Member, National Center for Atmospheric Research Unidata User's Committee, 2003–2005.
Member, Association of American Geographers Grants Committee, 2003–2006.
Member, Southeast Division of the Association of American Geographers Honors Committee,
2003–2004.
Chair, Association of American Geographers Cryosphere Specialty Group, 1999–2001; Director, 1998–2000.
Member, Southeast Regional Climate Center, Advisory Committee, 1995–1996.
Member, Southeast Regional Climate Center, Strategic Planning Committee, 1994–1996.
Last updated: January 20, 2023
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|
Yearly Status Report - 2019-2020
5. Accrediation Details
| Cycle | Grade | CGPA | Year of Accrediation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | | Period From |
| 1 | C | 1.77 | 2018 | 02-Nov-2018 |
6. Date of Establishment of IQAC
24-Aug-2016
7. Internal Quality Assurance System
| Quality initiatives by IQAC during the year for promoting quality culture | | |
|---|---|---|
| Item /Title of the quality initiative by IQAC | Date & Duration | Number of participants/ beneficiaries |
| Institutional Feedback Mechanism. Feedback taken from Stakeholders. | 22-Aug-2019 30 |
|---|---|
| Workshop on Research Methodology. | 18-Sep-2019 3 |
| Preparation of Student Database analyzing Department Wise Category distribution and gender distribution. | 21-Nov-2019 7 |
| Meeting related to preparation of student satisfaction survey by IQAC. | 06-Dec-2019 1 |
| Organization of Workshop on Faculty Development. | 16-Jan-2020 1 |
8. Provide the list of Special Status conferred by Central/ State GovernmentUGC/CSIR/DST/DBT/ICMR/TEQIP/World Bank/CPE of UGC etc.
| Institution/Departmen t/Faculty | Scheme | Funding Agency | Year of award with duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| NIL | 0 | NIL | 2020 0 |
No Files Uploaded !!!
12. Significant contributions made by IQAC during the current year(maximum five bullets)
Various meetings of IQAC were held and many workshops, webinars and lectures were planned and organized in the current year. The details of these successfully organized webinar, workshop, lectures are as follows: 1) A Workshop was organized
Chancellor of the University on the topic of Maharishi Ved Vigyan from December in the University under the chairmanship of Prof. Bhuvnesh Sharma, Vice
10, 2019 to December 16, 2019. All the professors, associate professors and assistant professors have participated and took the advantage of total knowledge of Maharishi Vedic Science. Maharishi Vedic Science on one hand provides peace and satisfaction to the individual and on other hand simultaneously produces harmony, peace and progress for the society. One of the most important and practical aspect of Maharishi vedic Science is TM which connects the self with the mind, senses, intellectual ,ego, the physiology of the individual and individuals interaction with the society and environment. 71 Participants have attended this workshop. 2) A National Webinar organized in the Department of Jyotish on the topic of Vaishvik Mahamari keparipekshya me JyotishiyaSamadhan on June 13, 2020 under the chairmanship of Prof. Bhuvnesh Sharma, Vice Chancellor of the University. VC explained in detail how Maharishi has revived the knowledge of Jyotish in its Totality and has practically applied the same for the benefit of Society. Keynote speakers of the webinar were Prof. BharatbhushanMishra(Central Sanskrit University), Prof. Vinay Kumar Pandey (Kashi Hindu University, Varanasi) and Prof. Nilimph Tripathi (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic Vishwavidyalaya, Katni). Guest speaker of the Webinar was Prof. IshdharJha(Central Sanskrit University, Bhopal Campus) Dr. Vinod Kumar Sharma (JRR Sanskrit University, Jaipur), Dr.Mritunjaya Tiwari (SK Vedic Univesity, Nimherha, Rajasthan), in the programme, an astrological solution was presented in the context of pandemic. Shri Arvind Singh Rajput (Registrar, MMYVV) introduced the University and Smt. Namita Pathak (Director, Distance Education MMYVV) conducted the programme. 250 Participants have attended the webinar. 3) A National Webinar organized in the Department of Ved on the topic of "Vedic Vangmaya meVaishwik Mahamari Ke Shaman keUpaya" On June20, 2020. The keynote speakers of the webinar were Prof. Kamal NayanShukl (RDVV, Jabalpur), Prof NilimphTripathi( MMYVVKatni) and Prof Ved Prakash Mishra (CV Raman University, Bilaspur). The Chancellor of the University Brahmachari Dr. Girish Ji has also address the Webinar. He presented the exact solution of the epidemic in the context of Maharishi Ji's Transcendental Meditation, Yogasan, Pranayam and Siddhisutra. Vice Chancellor of the University Prof. Bhuvnesh Sharma highlighted the contribution of Transcendental Meditation to prevent epidemics. Registrar of the University Shri Arvind Singh Rajput introduced the University and given the information about all courses of the University. Smt. Namita Pathak (Director of Distance Education, MMYVV) welcomed all the participants and introduced all the guests of the webinar. Shri Sandeep Sharma (D.R. Exam), Shri B.K. Shukla (D.R. Academics), Dr. Akhilesh Jain (Exam Controller), Prof. Manish Khare (Head, Social Science Department) and Prof. Om Narayan Tiwari (Head, Yog Department) all of them contributed to organized the Webinar successfully. 350 Participants have attended the webinar. 4)An invited lecture was organized in the Guidelines of Vice Chancellor Prof Bhuvnesh Sharma jee in multipurpose hall of the University on the topic "AshtangYog" on October 11, 2019. Prof. Sharma explained how TM is the simplest technique of Yoga basically includes all the eight aspects of Yoga in most natural and effortless manner. The speaker was Prof. Pralay Kumar Nanda (Ex. Prof Head, Jagan Nath Sanskrit University Puri, Orrisa) Prof. Om Narayan Tiwari (Head Department of Yoga). He motivated all the participants towards Yam, Niyam, Asan, Pranayam, Pratyahar, Dhayan, Dharana and Samadhi. All the Professor, Associate Professors and Assistant Professors were present in the Lecture. 150 Participants have attended the said lecture. 5) A One day National Seminar was organized in the University under the chairmanship of Prof. Bhuvnesh Sharma. Vice Chancellor of the University on the topic "Draft of New Education Policy 2019", on dated July 03, 2019. Prof. Bhuvnesh Sharma clearly shown how all the objectives of NEP could be easily accomplished by incorporating technologies of Consciousness in Higher Education. The chief guest and special guest of the seminar were Dr. S. Shrinivas (Regional Director, IGNOU,Jabalpur) and Dr. Harish Kewat (Assistant Regional Director, IGNOU, Jabalpur). The Seminar was presided by Dr.Umashankar Tiwari, Head of Department (Ved), special invitee was Prof. Manvendra Pandey, Dr. Om Narayan Tiwari was the organizing Secretary of the seminar. All the respected participants gave their deepest views on all the eight departments presented their views and suggestions in writing. The University has prepared a joint suggestion to send to Indian government. Vote of thanks was delivered by Dr.Shyam Babu Khare, Associate Professor. 150 Participants have attended the seminar.
No Files Uploaded !!!
13. Plan of action chalked out by the IQAC in the beginning of the academic year towards Quality Enhancement and outcome achieved by the end of the academic year
| Plan of Action | Achivements/Outcomes |
|---|---|
| To arrange academic audit in all the departments. | It was completed in all the departments. |
| Scheduled and Planned Admission Process. | Admissions were done according to University Academic calendar. |
| Academic Calendar was prepared. | Academic Calendar of the University has been prepared on the basis of Department of Higher Education Government of Madhya Pradesh. |
| Induction Programme for the New Students and Staff. | All the departments successfully conducted the induction programme for New Students and Staff. |
| Alignment & Review of Curriculum. | Strengthen and implement the curriculum Design as per local/national/regional/global development needs and the industry requirement so as to prepare the students market ready and also ability to work on their requirement. |
| To arrange administrative audit ISO 9001:2015 | An ISO 9001:2015 certificate has been issued by the Global Certificate of Compliance on 20/12/2019. |
| To prepare the quality report for submitting it to Academic Council of the University within time frame. | The report is submitted to Academic Council of the University within timeframe. |
| To help the department for conducting the online classes in the Covid-19 Pandemic situation | The Online classes was conducted in the university in the Covid-19 Pandemic Situation. |
| Name of Statutory Body | Meeting Date |
|---|---|
| Academic Council | 23-Jul-2020 |
15. Whether NAAC/or any other accredited
Yes assess the functioning ?
body(s) visited IQAC or interacted with it to
| Date of Visit |
|---|
| 16. Whether institutional data submitted to AISHE: |
| Year of Submission |
| Date of Submission |
| 17. Does the Institution have Management Information System ? |
| If yes, give a brief descripiton and a list of modules currently operational (maximum 500 words) |
CRITERION I – CURRICULAR ASPECTS
1.1 – Curriculum Design and Development
1.1.1 – Programmes for which syllabus revision was carried out during the Academic year
1.1.2 – Programmes/ courses focussed on employability/ entrepreneurship/ skill development during the Academic year
| Name of Programme | Programme Code | Programme Specialization | Date of Revision |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSW | MSW | Social Work | 18/11/2019 |
| No file uploaded. | | | |
| Programme with Code | Programme Specialization | Date of Introduction | Course with Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| MA | Economics | 07/08/2019 | M.A.(Economics) |
1.2 – Academic Flexibility
1.2.1 – New programmes/courses introduced during the Academic year
| Programme/Course | Programme Specialization |
|---|---|
| MA | Economics |
| MA | Sociology |
No file uploaded.
1.2.2 – Programmes in which Choice Based Credit System (CBCS)/Elective Course System implemented at the University level during the Academic year.
| Name of programmes adopting CBCS | Programme Specialization |
|---|---|
| MA | Economics |
| MA | Sociology |
1.3 – Curriculum Enrichment
1.3.1 – Value-added courses imparting transferable and life skills offered during the year
| Value Added Courses | Date of Introduction |
|---|---|
| YOGA and Meditation | 30/01/2019 |
1.3.2 – Field Projects / Internships under taken during the year
| Project/Programme Title | Programme Specialization | No. of students enrolled for Field Projects / Internships |
|---|---|---|
| MSW | Social Work (NGO) | 6 |
| MCom | Account and Management | 5 |
* Preparation of Tabulation Register. • Online Result Publishing. • In house Mark sheet Printing. • Miscellaneous Reports. • Different levels of users for different departments/ functioning.
Part B
| MSc | Computer Science |
|---|---|
| BCA | Computer Application |
| PGDCA | Computer Application |
1.4 – Feedback System
1.4.1 – Whether structured feedback received from all the stakeholders.
| Students | Yes |
|---|---|
| Teachers | Yes |
| Employers | Yes |
| Alumni | Yes |
| Parents | Yes |
1.4.2 – How the feedback obtained is being analyzed and utilized for overall development of the institution? (maximum 500 words)
Feedback Obtained
Feedback process is very important to assess the teaching and learning system of the University. The University regularly collects the feed-back on its Courses of Study, syllabi and other facilities from various stakeholders. Feedback is obtained from Students through Feedback Form through Offline as well as Online also. Online feedback system is also available in the University. Feedback is obtained from Parents during Parent Teacher Meeting. Feedback is also taken from our Alumni during Alumni meet. Daily feedback is also taken through observation regularly by the Head of Department and other senior staff members of the concerned departments. Feedback of teaching skills of newly appointed faculty members is collected by their respective departments. Annual feedback pattern is adopted by the University to generate information on our Campus. Curriculum, Teaching learning, support services etc.. Academic audit is also carried out by IQAC to strengthen our teaching and learning process. The objectives of Academic Audit is to collect the brief information from all the departments regarding adherence to quality indicators prescribed by NAAC, with planned intervention to enhance the quality of teaching learning process of the University. Feedback is collected to build the competency in the students and commitment in the staff. Feedbacks collected from students are analysed by the Head of Department and submitted to IQAC with their recommendations. Feedback from students on Curriculum is analyzed by Head of Department and the faculty members of the department. Feedback from Parents is analyzed by the IQAC members. On the basis of feedback received from different stakeholders course curriculum of the University is modified. Course wise student feedback is collected on teaching and learning and is communicated to the respective faculty members so that they assess themselves to improve and contribute to teaching learning process. These feedback reports are taken for discussion in the Board of studies Academic Council meeting to evaluate various aspects of the University. The Board of studies and the Academic Council evaluated the feedbacks received from stakeholders and implemented as required. University received the feedback from 145 students, 60 parents $ 35 Teachers in the current year. IQAC has analyzed and assessed them and communicated to respective authority for implementing the same.
CRITERION II – TEACHING- LEARNING AND EVALUATION
2.1 – Student Enrolment and Profile
2.1.1 – Demand Ratio during the year
| Name of the Programme | Programme Specialization | Number of seats available | Number of Application received | Students Enrolled |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MCom | Commerce | 60 | 8 | 6 |
2.2 – Catering to Student Diversity
2.2.1 – Student - Full time teacher ratio (current year data)
| Year | Number of students enrolled in the institution (UG) | Number of students enrolled in the institution (PG) | Number of fulltime teachers available in the institution teaching only UG courses | Number of fulltime teachers available in the institution teaching only PG courses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 618 | 196 | 51 | 20 |
2.3 – Teaching - Learning Process
2.3.1 – Percentage of teachers using ICT for effective teaching with Learning Management Systems (LMS), Elearning resources etc. (current year data)
No file uploaded.
No file uploaded.
2.3.2 – Students mentoring system available in the institution? Give details. (maximum 500 words)
Mentoring system play a very important role for newly admitted students. The University has a well defined policy of mentoring system. University admits students from various socio economical backgrounds i.e. from rural and urban areas from various states of the country. There is a several variety of students admitted in the University at UG level as well as PG level. University has hostel facilities for Boys and Girls separately which accommodates most of the fresher student who came from outside of district Katni. The newly admitted student needs different type of information for adopting the new environment and facilities. To overcomes and guide to their emotional, behavioural, educational, language, economic and other needs they need mentors. The mentors help them to come out of these situations. University has also a counselling cell to support students to overcome their difficulties. University organizes the induction program for fresh students during the first two weeks of their starting their classes in the University. During the induction program students are made aware of the counsellor and they are fully aware that what type of help can provided by the counsellor to the students who face such type of difficulties. University assigns to every teaching faculty for the role of mentor to the newly admitted students. Each faculty member is assigned with at least 30 students of the 1st year. The faculty members remain until the students have completed their course. The students meet their mentors frequently to get their support for the solution of emotional and other difficulties of the students. The Fresher party is also organized for welcoming fresher students to acclimatizing them with the University culture and environment. This program helps for the fresher students in rebuilding their emotional, educational, language and other barriers.Students are introduced to Transcendental meditation technique and Vedic style of life so as to maintain peace of mind and best of Health. The TM teacher also works like a mentor for the students.
| Number of students enrolled in the institution | Number of fulltime teachers | Mentor : Mentee Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| 965 | 71 | 1:14 |
2.4 – Teacher Profile and Quality
2.4.1 – Number of full time teachers appointed during the year
| positions | | | the current year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 113 | 71 | 42 | 4 |
2.4.2 – Honours and recognition received by teachers (received awards, recognition, fellowships at State, National, International level from Government, recognised bodies during the year )
| Year of Award | Name of full time teachers receiving awards from state level, national level, international level | Designation |
|---|---|---|
| Nill | NA | Nill |
No file uploaded.
2.5 – Evaluation Process and Reforms
2.5.1 – Number of days from the date of semester-end/ year- end examination till the declaration of results during the year
2.5.2 – Average percentage of Student complaints/grievances about evaluation against total number appeared in the examinations during the year
| Programme Name | Programme Code | Semester/ year | Last date of the last semester-end/ year- end examination |
|---|---|---|---|
| MCom | M.Com | IV Sem. | 21/09/2020 |
| Number of complaints or grievances about evaluation | Total number of students appeared in the examination | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 965 | 0.41 |
2.6 – Student Performance and Learning Outcomes
2.6.1 – Program outcomes, program specific outcomes and course outcomes for all programs offered by the institution are stated and displayed in website of the institution (to provide the weblink)
http://www.mmyvv.com/course-out-comes
2.6.2 – Pass percentage of students
| Programme Code | Programme Name | Programme Specialization | Number of students appeared in the final year examination | Number of students passed in final year examination | Pass Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B.Com.(CA) | BCom | Computer Application | 23 | 22 | 95.65 |
View File
2.7 – Student Satisfaction Survey
2.7.1 – Student Satisfaction Survey (SSS) on overall institutional performance (Institution may design the questionnaire) (results and details be provided as weblink)
http://www.mmyvv.com/student-satisfaction-survey
CRITERION III – RESEARCH, INNOVATIONS AND EXTENSION
3.1 – Promotion of Research and Facilities
3.1.1 – Teachers awarded National/International fellowship for advanced studies/ research during the year
3.1.2 – Number of JRFs, SRFs, Post Doctoral Fellows, Research Associates and other fellows in the Institution enrolled during the year
| Type | Name of the teacher awarded the fellowship | Name of the award | Date of award | Awarding agency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nill | NIL | NIL | Nill | NIL |
| No file uploaded. | | | | |
| Name of Research fellowship | Duration of the fellowship |
|---|---|
| NIL | 0 |
3.2 – Resource Mobilization for Research
3.2.1 – Research funds sanctioned and received from various agencies, industry and other organisations
| Nature of the Project | Duration | Name of the funding agency | Total grant sanctioned |
|---|---|---|---|
| Projects sponsored by the University | 1095 | Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic Vishwavidyalaya | 500000 |
No file uploaded.
3.3 – Innovation Ecosystem
3.3.1 – Workshops/Seminars Conducted on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Industry-Academia Innovative practices during the year
| Title of workshop/seminar | Name of the Dept. | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Workshop On Intellectual Property Rights | Department of Commerce | 22/08/2019 |
| Seminar On Intellectual Property Rights | Department of Computer Science | 16/12/2019 |
3.3.2 – Awards for Innovation won by Institution/Teachers/Research scholars/Students during the year
| Title of the innovation | Name of Awardee | Awarding Agency | Date of award | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NIL | NIL | NIL | Nill | NIL |
3.3.3 – No. of Incubation centre created, start-ups incubated on campus during the year
| Incubation Center | Name | Sponsered By | Name of the Start-up | Nature of Start- up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Yoga Therapy Center | Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic Vishwa vidyalaya | Yoga Therapy Center | Promote Drug less Therapy |
No file uploaded.
3.4 – Research Publications and Awards
3.4.1 – Ph. Ds awarded during the year
| Name of the Department | Number of PhD's Awarded |
|---|---|
| NIL | 0 |
3.4.2 – Research Publications in the Journals notified on UGC website during the year
| Type | Department | Number of Publication | Average Impact Factor (if any) |
|---|---|---|---|
| National | Department of Social Science | 2 | 0 |
| International | Department of Social Science | 2 | 0 |
| National | Department of Commerce | 2 | 0 |
| International | Department of Commerce | 1 | 0 |
| National | Department of Yog | 3 | 7.23 |
| International | Department of Yog | 1 | 0 |
| National | Department of Education | 3 | 0 |
| International | Department of Education | 2 | 0 |
| National | Department of Ved | 1 | 0 |
| National | Department of Jyotish | 1 | 0 |
3.4.3 – Books and Chapters in edited Volumes / Books published, and papers in National/International Conference Proceedings per Teacher during the year
3.4.4 – Patents published/awarded/applied during the year
| Patent Details | Patent status | Patent Number | Date of Award |
|---|---|---|---|
| NIL | Nill | 0 | Nill |
| No file uploaded. | | | |
3.4.5 – Bibliometrics of the publications during the last academic year based on average citation index in Scopus/ Web of Science or PubMed/ Indian Citation Index
| Title of the Paper | Name of Author | Title of journal | Year of publication | Citation Index | Institutional affiliation as mentioned in the publication | Number of citations excluding self citation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chhindwara Jile Ki | Rajshree Sahu | Internat ional Journal of | 2019 | 0 | Maharishi Mahesh | 4 |
| Bhogolik Evam Arthik Sthati Ka Adhyan | | Social Science Management Studies | | | Yogi Vedic Vishwavidy alaya | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mahila S ashaktikar an Tatha Shakchanik Jagrukta Anusheelan | Rajshree Sahu | Swadeshi Research Foundation National Research Paper | 2019 | 0 | Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic Vishwavidy alaya | 3 |
| No file uploaded. | | | | | | |
3.4.6 – h-Index of the Institutional Publications during the year. (based on Scopus/ Web of science)
| Title of the Paper | Name of Author | Title of journal | Year of publication | h-index | Number of citations excluding self citation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NIL | NIL | NIL | Nill | 0 | 0 |
3.4.7 – Faculty participation in Seminars/Conferences and Symposia during the year
| Number of Faculty | International | National | State | Local |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attended/Semi nars/Workshops | 6 | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| Presented papers | 4 | 17 | 0 | 0 |
| Resource persons | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
No file uploaded.
3.5 – Consultancy
3.5.1 – Revenue generated from Consultancy during the year
| Name of the Consultan(s) department | Name of consultancy project | Consulting/Sponsoring Agency | Revenue generated (amount in rupees) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Jyotish | Hora Shastra | Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic Vishwavidyalaya, Katni | 11119 |
| No file uploaded. | | | |
3.5.2 – Revenue generated from Corporate Training by the institution during the year
| Name of the Consultan(s) department | Title of the programme | Agency seeking / training | Revenue generated (amount in rupees) | Number of trainees |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Computer Science | Software Development | Eway Tech Solution Private Limited | 40000 | 8 |
| No file uploaded. | | | | |
3.6 – Extension Activities
3.6.1 – Number of extension and outreach programmes conducted in collaboration with industry, community and Non- Government Organisations through NSS/NCC/Red cross/Youth Red Cross (YRC) etc., during the year
| Title of the activities | Organising unit/agency/ collaborating agency | Number of teachers participated in such activities | Number of students participated in such activities |
|---|---|---|---|
| Race for Unity | NSS | 35 | 189 |
| Road Sefety Rule | NSS | 40 | 235 |
| Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan | NSS | 52 | 465 |
| Women Empowerment | NSS | 47 | 378 |
| Development work in Adopted in Villages (06) | UBA Cell | 15 | 40 |
No file uploaded.
3.6.2 – Awards and recognition received for extension activities from Government and other recognized bodies during the year
| Name of the activity | Award/Recognition | Awarding Bodies | Number of students Benefited |
|---|---|---|---|
| NIL | NIL | NIL | 0 |
No file uploaded.
3.6.3 – Students participating in extension activities with Government Organisations, Non-Government Organisations and programmes such as Swachh Bharat, Aids Awareness, Gender Issue, etc. during the year
| Name of the scheme | Organising unit/Agen cy/collaborating agency | Name of the activity | Number of teachers participated in such activites |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swacha Bharat Abhiyan | NSS | Rally/Street Show/Poster Competition | 27 |
| “Run for Unity Marathon” | NSS | Marathon | 56 |
| Gender Equity | Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic Vishwavidyalaya | Speech and Poster Competition | 12 |
No file uploaded.
3.7 – Collaborations
3.7.1 – Number of Collaborative activities for research, faculty exchange, student exchange during the year
| Nature of activity | Participant | Source of financial support | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Faculty Exchange. | 24 | Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic Vishwavidyalaya | 5 |
| Student Exchange | 42 | Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic Vishwavidyalaya | 1 |
| Research Field Work | 06 | Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic Vishwavidyalaya | 1 |
No file uploaded.
3.7.2 – Linkages with institutions/industries for internship, on-the- job training, project work, sharing of research facilities etc. during the year
| Nature of linkage | Title of the linkage | Name of the partnering institution/ industry /research lab with contact details | Duration From | Duration To | Participant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project and Internship | Training | Eway Tech Solution Private Limited Shri Ashish Sharma Mo.- 9302366004 | 15/10/2019 | 19/10/2019 | 30 |
3.7.3 – MoUs signed with institutions of national, international importance, other universities, industries, corporate houses etc. during the year
| Organisation | Date of MoU signed | Purpose/Activities |
|---|---|---|
| Ayurvigyan Prayogshala Pvt. Ltd, Jabalpur | 20/11/2019 | Student Training, On Job Training and Project Work |
| Shri Guru Tegbahadur Khalsa College, Jabalpur | 20/11/2019 | Faculty and Student Exchange for Academic Development |
| Govt. Girls College, Ranjhi, Jabalpur | 12/02/2020 | Academic Development |
No file uploaded.
CRITERION IV – INFRASTRUCTURE AND LEARNING RESOURCES
4.1 – Physical Facilities
4.1.1 – Budget allocation, excluding salary for infrastructure augmentation during the year
4.1.2 – Details of augmentation in infrastructure facilities during the year
| Facilities | Existing or Newly Added |
|---|---|
| Seminar halls with ICT facilities | Existing |
| Classrooms with LCD facilities | Existing |
| Campus Area | Existing |
| Class rooms | Existing |
4.2 – Library as a Learning Resource
4.2.1 – Library is automated {Integrated Library Management System (ILMS)}
| Name of the ILMS software | Nature of automation (fully or patially) | Version | Year of automation |
|---|---|---|---|
| SOLMEYVN (SOL) LIBRARY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM | Fully | 1.1 | 2018 |
4.2.2 – Library Services
| Library Service Type | Existing | | Newly Added | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text Books | 24701 | 4652768 | 3114 | 0 | 27815 |
No file uploaded.
4.2.3 – E-content developed by teachers such as: e-PG- Pathshala, CEC (under e-PG- Pathshala CEC (Under Graduate) SWAYAM other MOOCs platform NPTEL/NMEICT/any other Government initiatives & institutional (Learning Management System (LMS) etc
| Name of the Teacher | Name of the Module | Platform on which module is developed | Date of launching e- content |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. Manish Khare | Lecture | ILMS | 13/05/2019 |
| Dr. Manish Khare | Lecture | ILMS | 26/05/2019 |
| Dr. Manish Khare | Lecture | ILMS | 31/05/2019 |
| Dr. Shyam Babu Khare | Lecture | ILMS | 18/05/2019 |
No file uploaded.
4.3 – IT Infrastructure
4.3.1 – Technology Upgradation (overall)
| Type | Total Co mputers | Computer Lab | Internet | Browsing centers | Computer Centers | Office | Departme nts | Available Bandwidt h (MBPS/ GBPS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Existin g | 110 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 7 | 10 |
| Added | 31 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 141 | 3 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 15 | 7 | 10 |
4.3.2 – Bandwidth available of internet connection in the Institution (Leased line)
10 MBPS/ GBPS
4.3.3 – Facility for e-content
| Name of the e-content development facility | Provide the link of the videos and media centre and recording facility |
|---|---|
| Audio, Video Recording Studio | http://www.mmyvv.com/media-library |
4.4 – Maintenance of Campus Infrastructure
4.4.1 – Expenditure incurred on maintenance of physical facilities and academic support facilities, excluding salary component, during the year
| Assigned Budget on academic facilities | Expenditure incurred on maintenance of academic facilities | Assigned budget on physical facilities | Expenditure incurredon maintenance of physical facilites |
|---|---|---|---|
| 28900000 | 17295291 | 25700000 | 14304724 |
4.4.2 – Procedures and policies for maintaining and utilizing physical, academic and support facilities - laboratory, library, sports complex, computers, classrooms etc. (maximum 500 words) (information to be available in institutional Website, provide link)
There is established system and procedures of the University for maintaining, utilizing physical, academic and support facilities of laboratory, library, sports complex, and computers. Basic outlines of the said rules and regulations are as follows: - 1) Laboratory:- 1. Student must display their student Identity card before enter in the laboratory. 2. Students should know the location of safety equipments and how to use fire extinguisher, fire blanket, first aid kit, eyewash and fire alarm. 3. Student must be in proper attire according to the university dress code. 4. Keep area organized and clean. 4. Laboratory In charge is responsible to educate students how to use the facilities in proper manner. 2) Library:- 1. Every student must show their Library Card while entering in the library. 2. Always be quite and maintain silence in the library. 3. Students are allowed to bring their bags, but they must be placed on the rack provided in the library. 4. Marking library books with pencil or ink, tearing the pages or spoiling the same in any other way will be viewed very seriously and liable to compensate for damage. 5. If in any condition books are lost, then the borrower shall replace the books of the same edition or pay cost of the book after getting permission from the library. 6. Librarian is responsible to train the students how to use the library facilities in library. 3) Sports Complex:- 1. Student should not eat the food in the play area. 2. Using the alcohol and drugs is prohibited in the play area. 3. Discrimination is not allowed in sports. 4. Equipments should be used according to the game rules. 5. Proper dress/Sports-kit should be there while playing games. 6. Sports in charge is responsible to train the students how to use the sports facilities in sports complex. 4) Computer Lab:- 1. Enter quietly while coming to the Computer lab. 2. Eating and drinking in computer rooms are prohibited. 3. Students are advised to inform the Lab In charge if any problem arises while using computer. 4. Lab in charge is responsible to educate students how to use the facilities in proper manner. 5) Classrooms: - 1. Furniture in the class rooms should not be moved or displaced. 2. Writing on walls, pillars, bath rooms, and furniture or black boards is strictly prohibited. 3. Students are not permitted to use mobile phone inside the class room. 4. Eating snacks taking lunch inside the class rooms or along corridors are prohibited. 5. If any damage is found concern students are responsible for the same in addition to that disciplinary action has also be taken by the University. 6. University has established Solar system in the campus. All the classrooms have equipped to this facility. It would ensure eco friendly environment of the campus and also for our students. 7. Faculties and staff are responsible to educate students how to use the facilities in proper manner and also the response and appreciation by the students.
http://www.mmyvv.com/procedure-and-policy
CRITERION V – STUDENT SUPPORT AND PROGRESSION
5.1 – Student Support
5.1.1 – Scholarships and Financial Support
Name/Title of the scheme Number of students
Amount in Rupees
| Financial Support from institution | University Scholarship for Vedic Students | 91 | 2569296 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Support from Other Sources | | | |
| a) National | State and National Scholarship | 208 | 2314467 |
| b)International | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No file uploaded. | | | |
5.1.2 – Number of capability enhancement and development schemes such as Soft skill development, Remedial coaching, Language lab, Bridge courses, Yoga, Meditation, Personal Counselling and Mentoring etc.,
| Name of the capability enhancement scheme | Date of implemetation | Number of students enrolled |
|---|---|---|
| Yoga Meditation | 15/01/2020 | 58 |
| Language Lab | 19/08/2019 | 24 |
| Soft Skill Development | 23/10/2019 | 30 |
No file uploaded.
5.1.3 – Students benefited by guidance for competitive examinations and career counselling offered by the institution during the year
| Year | Name of the scheme | Number of benefited students for competitive examination | Number of benefited students by career counseling activities | Number of students who have passedin the comp. exam | Number of studentsp placed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Guidance for Competitive Examinations and Career Counselling | 28 | 46 | 12 | 2 |
| No file uploaded. | | | | | |
5.1.4 – Institutional mechanism for transparency, timely redressal of student grievances, Prevention of sexual harassment and ragging cases during the year
5.2 – Student Progression
5.2.1 – Details of campus placement during the year
| On campus | | | Off campus | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nameof organizations visited | Number of students participated | Number of stduents placed | Nameof organizations visited | Number of students participated | Number of stduents placed |
| Alegent Ogprogalaxy | 0 | 0 | Alegent Ogprogalaxy | 37 | 4 |
No file uploaded.
5.2.2 – Student progression to higher education in percentage during the year
| Year | Number of students enrolling into higher education | Programme graduated from | Depratment graduated from | Name of institution joined | Name of programme admitted to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) | Department of Education | Rani Durgavati Vi shwavidyalay a,Jabalpur | Master of Science (M.Sc) |
5.2.3 – Students qualifying in state/ national/ international level examinations during the year (eg:NET/SET/SLET/GATE/GMAT/CAT/GRE/TOFEL/Civil Services/State Government Services)
5.2.4 – Sports and cultural activities / competitions organised at the institution level during the year
| Items | Number of students selected/ qualifying |
|---|---|
| Any Other | 126 |
| Activity | Level | Number of Participants |
|---|---|---|
| Run For Unity Merathan | Institute | 224 |
| View File | | |
5.3 – Student Participation and Activities
5.3.1 – Number of awards/medals for outstanding performance in sports/cultural activities at national/international level (award for a team event should be counted as one)
| Year | Name of the award/medal | National/ Internaional | Number of awards for Sports | Number of awards for Cultural | Student ID number |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | NIL | National | 0 | 0 | 00 |
| 2019 | NIL | Internat ional | 0 | 0 | 00 |
No file uploaded.
5.3.2 – Activity of Student Council & representation of students on academic & administrative bodies/committees of the institution (maximum 500 words)
There is a provision of active student council in the University for every academic year. The active student council is constituted under the provision mentioned in Statute no. 32 of the University. The rules and regulations related to the active student council are duly approved by State Govt. of MP vide statute no 32 of the University. The chairman of the active student council is nominated by the Vice-Chancellor. Dr.Umashankar Tiwari, Head of Department (Ved) is the chairman of Student council for the current academic year. Selection of the student council was done with due procedure mentioned in Statute no. 32 from among the students by way of standard procedures of selection on the basis of their performance in the sports/cultural/NSS/ other activities of the University .The active student council comprises of the Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary, Joint Secretary and maximum 20 members who have won prizes in the previous academic year in the field of studies, fine arts, sports and extension work. The students of the University are encouraged to give their opinion/suggestion regarding innovations/corrections and improvements in the area of academics, sports and cultural activities. The students conduct most of the programmes regarding various special day /annual gathering/sports day etc, so that they can develop the quality of leadership and organizing capacities. The active student council is also entrusted with the responsibility of settling the student grievances amicably, maintaining peace in the campus and keeping the campus clean. They are also inspired to join the collective practice of Transcendental Meditation as propagated by His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ji in his talks on "The role of students in creating ideal society". The active student council submits its report to IQAC of the University. Role of the Student Council are as follows:- 1. To officially represents all the students in the University. 2. To identify and help to solve the problems of students. 3. To promote and encourage the involvement of students in organizing institute's activities. Responsibilities of the Student Council are as follows:- 1. To promote the interest of students among the academic administrative staff of the University. 2. As student council get abundant opportunities to groom themselves during their academic year. 3. Students learn by being a part of the different committees of the University. 4. Being a leader they can develop qualities of leadership. 5. Student can develop their skill of inter-active and effective communication and become a good listener. Activities carried out by the Student Council are as follows:- · Student council has motivated to all the students for learning the TM for their better performance. · Student council has given the moral support to all the students to face the situation of Covid -19 pandemic. · Student council has given the technical support to all the students to attend the online class in this pandemic time. · Student council has given the mental technical support to join all the online session that are beneficial for the students.
5.4 – Alumni Engagement
5.4.1 – Whether the institution has registered Alumni Association?
Yes
Alumni association of the University has been registered in M.P. Society Registration Act 1973 (under the amendment of 1973 s.no.44) vide registration no 04/15/02/19244/17, on 10th October, 2017. The alumni association of the University is active since year 2017. There are 72 members in the Alumni association of the University. Alumni Association has organized the meeting on 11/09/2019, 06/02/2019 19/02/2020 in the current year .Alumni association of the University has also organized alumni meet on 7th February,2020 in which 64 alumni has participated. In the alumni meeting it was discussed about the planning to fulfil their objectives in the University. In this meeting it was decided to guide the final year students regarding personality development and preparation for job/ professions in public and private sectors. They have decided to deliver the lecture on subjects like Transcendental Meditation, Vedic technologies, Yog, Jyotish Yagya performance and its utility on various fields and collaborations. One of our alumni has conducted free coaching classes for the students. The University is situated at the physical centre point of India and has a special significance. According to the principles of Sthapatya Veda, University is situated at Brahmasthan (centre point of India) , so all the individuals practicing Transcendental Meditation and its advance techniques at this physical centre point of India , not only create harmony within themselves but also radiate it to the whole India contributing to create peace and harmony for whole nation. This is the reason our first and the founder Chancellor Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Jee selected this place for establishing the University. University is trying to make their possible efforts through bringing WI-FI and ICT technology to help the nearby society.
Also because the university is situated in Tribal, Rural Hilly areas so alumni instead of helping the Universities financially, they provide non financial services and give their support in all the activities.
5.4.2 – No. of registered Alumni:
72
5.4.3 – Alumni contribution during the year (in Rupees) :
4500
5.4.4 – Meetings/activities organized by Alumni Association :
3
CRITERION VI – GOVERNANCE, LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
6.1 – Institutional Vision and Leadership
6.1.1 – Mention two practices of decentralization and participative management during the last year (maximum 500 words)
University practices Decentralization and Participative Management in most of the University functioning. The success of the University is the result of the combined efforts of all who work towards attaining the vision of the institution. All the stakeholders have a role to play in building of the University functioning. University focuses keen on decentralizationby intending equal opportunity to all the stakeholders. The University administration is run as per the provision of the Act, Statute, Ordinance and Regulations. As per university Act, the officers of the university are Chancellor, ViceChancellor, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, the Deans of School, Registrar, Finance Officer and other officers as may be declared by the Statutes of the University and all the officers have their own powers decided by the university Act , Statute, Ordinance Regulations e.g the Chancellor have powers to preside the convocation of the University held for conferring degrees, the Vice-Chancellor be the principal executive and academic head of the University and exercise general supervision and control over the affairs of the University and give effect to the decisions of all the authorities of the University. The Registrar have power to take disciplinary action against such of the employees, excluding teachers and academic staff as may be specified in the order of the Board of Management. Registrar is the ex-officio secretary of the Board of Management the Academic Council .The registrar is a member of Finance Committee also. The Finance Officer is the ex- officio Secretary of the Finance Committee. Finance Officer exercise general supervision over the funds of the University and shall advise it as regards its financial policy and perform such other financial functions as may be assigned to him by the Board of Management or as may be prescribed by the Ordinances. Finance Officer manages the property and investments of the University including trust and endowed property. He is also responsible for the preparation and annual accounts and the budget of the University. All the academic and operational policies are based on the unanimous decision of the Academic Council, Finance Committee the Board of Management of the University. Since all the stakeholders, viz. Teacher, Students, alumni are important for running the university smoothly. The Board of Management decided to decentralize the administrative system for its smooth functioning. The Board of Management delegates decisions making power to each officer and senior employees to achieve decentralization. All the management people participate in the development and progress of the university. Many powers are delegated to the student council for the direct welfare of the student community. Decentralization has helped to dispose of many academic matters smoothly and speedily. There are several committees functioning for different activities of the University.IQAC of the University made a committee to handle the situation of Covid-19 pandemic situation. This committee regularly helps faculties students to conduct the online classes and to participate in most of the online sessions that are enhancing the teaching and learning capacities of the students.
6.1.2 – Does the institution have a Management Information System (MIS)?
Yes
6.2 – Strategy Development and Deployment
6.2.1 – Quality improvement strategies adopted by the institution for each of the following (with in 100 words each):
| Strategy Type | Details |
|---|---|
| Admission of Students | There is admission committee in the University who makes strategy to promote the University activities and to increase the number of admission etc. and how the strategy was implemented. On the time of admission time committee members visited other institutes and giving presentations there for Vedic knowledge and also programs in villages to promote the University. There is absolute transparency in University admission procedure. The admission procedure comprises of admission notification, availability of admission form through prospectus (offline and online), entrance examination/Merit depend upon MP Government rule .University followed state quotas as directed by MP Government strictly followed. |
| Industry Interaction / Collaboration | The University ensures the technical collaboration and alliance with some prominent Institution across the India. Some Institutions are providing Professional Internship to all the final year students. The effective Interaction and collaboration of the university with Industry is reflected into the placement of the University students. The University has signed an MOU with Brahmanand Saraswati Foundation Trust to enhance the research in consciousness. The University has also signed a MOU with E- Way IT solution private limited and Cogent Institute to enhance the mutual academic and industrial collaborations. |
| Human Resource Management | An establishment section is setup in the university to ensure the quality in recruitment and to address the grievance of the staff. The recruitment is taken though open advertised vacancies, conduction of interview through proper panel (internal and external members) . Most of the staff |
Library, ICT and Physical Infrastructure / Instrumentation
Research and Development
is equipped with computer and working space for the preparation of study material. Establishment section also helps the faculties to have duty leaves for their participation in National and International conferences, workshops, training programs in house and outhouse.
Library:- The University has a well organized library it has different kinds of books as per courses. Additional Vedic books are available in good number. Presently consist of 27815 books which includes the above stated study material. Library provides other services such as circulation/reprographics, current awareness and separate reading facility for students and researcher etc. The library has been fully automated by using computer technology and IT.Elibrary system is available to students and researchers. The library holds membership of national digital library institution member. Library provides other services such as circulation/reprographics, current awareness and separate reading facility for students and researcher. ICT:-The University considers Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure as an important component, and is committed to ensure its equitable access to students, teachers and non-teaching staff for learning, teaching, research and Administrative activities. Towards this end the university has been augmenting its Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure to match its growing academic and administrative needs. The University is continuously extending and upgrading its Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure with the replacement of obsolete and addition of latest hardware and software based on the needs of the newly introduced programmes and courses.
The University is regularly promoting the quality research and development in the university. The University is helping the faculties to present research papers in International and National conferences. The University is also supporting the faculties to
Examination and Evaluation
Teaching and Learning
Curriculum Development
participate in FDP and writing the books. The university is also helping the faculties to pursue the Ph.D. and the faculties are also getting financial support for the same. The University management is committed to encourage the research activity. University has an advantage of having the technologies to expand the consciousness unfolding the infinite creativity of researcher for benefitting the individual and the society.
There is a system of continuous internal evaluation for every paper in the University. Internal evaluation is divided into test marks, internal assignment Attendance. There is a set procedure of setting of Question paper and thereafter moderation process is being completed by a moderation committee constituted under the examination rule of the University to ensure the comprehensiveness and quality of the examination paper. The results are declared within decided time frame. The University has an Integrated, Examination platform both, pre and post examinations including Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilities in University examination system.
To ensure the quality teaching and learning outcome, the university is always trying to recruit more quality Professors/Associate Professors/Assistant Professors in the University. University is regularly motivating to our faculties to take participation in International conferences/National Conferences, Faculty Development Programme workshop. New software's and technical support is also provided to our faculties for improving their teaching and learning qualities. University is also provided Library Resources like New journals, Magazine and online study material to our faculties for their up gradation.
Curricula are developed by Board of Studies incorporating with mandatory course adopted from Department of Higher Education MP. Board of Studies is constituted for every subject as per Statute no 15 of the University. The Academic Deans Head of the department proposes to come out with new courses focused on upcoming technologies in consultation with academic expert, Industry alumni other stakeholders. The active participation of Industry members in the curriculum designing is ensuring the strong relationship between Industries – Academia. This is also helping the students in getting a fair job after completion of his / her study.
6.2.2 – Implementation of e-governance in areas of operations:
6.3 – Faculty Empowerment Strategies
6.3.1 – Teachers provided with financial support to attend conferences / workshops and towards membership fee of professional bodies during the year
| Year | Name of Teacher | Name of conference/ workshop attended for which financial support provided | Name of the professional body for which membership fee is provided | Amount of support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Dr. Omnarayan Tiwari | Regional Workshop UBA, | MANIT, Bhopal | 3800 |
| 2019 | Dr. Omnarayan Tiwari | Workshop on Innovative Practices Strategy | People University, Bhopal | 2500 |
| 2019 | Dr. Omnarayan Tiwari | Invited Lecture National Conference on Sankracharya View, On Panchdashi | JRM, Jabalpur | 1100 |
| 2019 | Dr. Omnarayan Tiwari | Faculty Participation in Curriculum Design for Dept. Of Higher Education (M.P.) | Department of Higher Education, Bhopal | 2800 |
| 2019 | Dr. Omnarayan Tiwari | Workshop on Governance Leardership | Barkatullah University, Bhopal | 3500 |
| | | Management | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Dr. Omnarayan Tiwari | Psychotherapy and Immunity | Dr. Harisingh Gour University, Sagar (M.P | 2900 |
| 2019 | Dr. Omnarayan Tiwari | Infrastructure and Learning Resources | Barkatullah University, Bhopal | 2600 |
| 2019 | Dr. Shreepal Chouhan | National Seminar On E- Business: Problems Practices | G.S College, Jabalpur | 1000 |
| 2019 | Dr. Manish Khare | Seminar On “Skill Development“ | St. Aloysis Colledge, Jabalpur | 900 |
| 2019 | Dr. Manish Khare | International Conference On “Spiritual Science and Gandhian Thought” | Navyug College, Jabalpur | 1000 |
| No file uploaded. | | | | |
6.3.2 – Number of professional development / administrative training programmes organized by the University for teaching and non teaching staff during the year
| Year | Title of the professional development programme organised for teaching staff | Title of the administrative training programme organised for non-teaching staff | From date | To Date | Number of participants (Teaching staff) | Number of participants (non-teaching staff) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Hardware Maintenanc e and Multimedia program | Hardware Maintenanc e and Multimedia program | 23/08/2019 | 24/08/2019 | 15 | 9 |
| 2019 | Introduc tion to Maharishi Vedic Science | Introduc tion to Maharishi Vedic Science | 10/12/2019 | 16/12/2019 | 35 | 10 |
| 2019 | National conference on draft Education Policy-201 9 II- Higher Education | National conference draft Education Policy-201 9 II- Higher Education | 13/11/2019 | 13/11/2019 | 20 | 0 |
No file uploaded.
6.3.3 – No. of teachers attending professional development programmes, viz., Orientation Programme, Refresher Course, Short Term Course, Faculty Development Programmes during the year
| Title of the professional development programme | Number of teachers who attended | From Date | To date | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orientation Course | 1 | 17/02/2020 | 07/03/2020 | 21 |
| Faculty Development Pro grammes(Maharis hi Ved Vigyan) | 60 | 10/12/2019 | 16/12/2019 | 07 |
| Workshop on Research Methodology, NASPG College Meerut (UP) | 1 | 09/05/2019 | 15/05/2019 | 07 |
| Rural Development : Enabling Self Reliant Economy Through Techno- Social Innovation in A Perspective of Post Covid-19 Rural India, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Tech., Mumbai | 1 | 25/05/2020 | 27/05/2020 | 03 |
6.3.4 – Faculty and Staff recruitment (no. for permanent recruitment):
| Teaching | | |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent | Full Time | Permanent |
| 4 | 0 | 0 |
6.3.5 – Welfare schemes for
| Teaching | Non-teaching | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Provident Funds, ESIC, Medical Facilities, Maternity Leave, Concession Fees for wards | Provident Funds, Residential Facilities, ESIC, Transportation Facilities, Medical Facilities, Maternity Leave, Canteen Facilities, Concession Fees for wards | Scholarship from Government, Separate Hostel for Boys and Girls, Student Concession in Train Tickets, Fees Concession from institute, Book Bank Facilities etc. |
6.4 – Financial Management and Resource Mobilization
6.4.1 – Institution conducts internal and external financial audits regularly (with in 100 words each)
The University has been created by way of a statute, namely, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic Vishwavidyalaya Adhiniyam. The Act received the assent of the Governor on 25.11.1995 and was published in the Madhya Pradesh Gazette dated
29.11.1995. The University is registered u/s 12AA of the Income Tax Act 1961 with the Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption) Bhopal vide order no. CIT (E)/BPL/Sett-aside/2017-18/ dt. 21.12.2018. The University is also registered u/s 10(23C)(vi) of the Income Tax Act 1961 with the Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption) Bhopal vide order no ITBA/COM/F/17/2019-20/1019892777(1) vide order dated 07/11/2019. Our financial records are regularly audited by chartered accountant and return of Income is filed each year. The chartered accountant conducts the audit which is internal audit as there is no provision for external govt. audit in this University, because it is the self financing university. No government financial support is taken for recurring expenditure and non recurring expenditure as well. Hence the government auditors known as external auditors do not come to this university. All objections raised by the internal auditors are settled at the earliest. Since the University has under gone long existence, audit system has become fool proof and flawless. Internal Audit is a process in which the information about key internal factors is gathered compiled in order to ascertain the strengths weakness of the organization in the functional areas of finance/accounting. The internal audit is conducted for the assistance of the organization to positively utilize its strengths for the success while improving upon its identified weaknesses. Internal Audit conducted by the University near the end of each calendar year. University develops the audit plan for the subsequent year based on the results of this assessment and the department's available resources. During the Internal Audit the audit staff gathers relevant background information. Auditors meet with Finance officers. A summary of the audit findings, conclusions, and specific recommendations are officially communicated to the Finance department. University has the opportunity to respond to the report and submit an action plan and time frame. These responses become part of the final report which is distributed to the appropriate level of administration. The University tries to settle most of the objections and the remaining objections are given time frame for settlement to the stakeholders of the auditor. Internal Audit follows up on all audit findings within one year of when the report is issued. The institution conducts internal audits regularly to ensure the maintenance of account books and other registers maintained by the university, to watch the progress of the collection of revenue and advice on the methods of collection employed, ensures the limits fixed by the board of management for recurring and non recurring expenditure for a year, are not exceeded, expended on the purpose for which they are granted or allotted, to ensure the registers of buildings, lands, furniture, equipment and their updates maintenance, stock checking of consumable and non consumable items.
6.4.2 – Funds / Grants received from management, non-government bodies, individuals, philanthropies during the year(not covered in Criterion III)
Name of the non government funding agencies /individuals
Funds/ Grnats received in Rs.
Purpose
NIL
0
0
No file uploaded.
6.4.3 – Total corpus fund generated
1167130615.02
6.5 – Internal Quality Assurance System
6.5.1 – Whether Academic and Administrative Audit (AAA) has been done?
Audit Type
External
Internal
Yes/No
Agency
Yes/No
Authority
Academic
Yes
Committee
Yes
IQAC
| Audit Type | External | | Internal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Yes/No | Agency | Yes/No | Authority |
| Academic | Yes | Committee | Yes | IQAC |
| | | Constituted by the University | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative | Yes | Committee Constituted by the University | Yes | UNIVERSITY |
6.5.2 – What efforts are made by the University to promote autonomy in the affiliated/constituent colleges? (if applicable)
NA
6.5.3 – Activities and support from the Parent – Teacher Association (at least three)
The University collects regular feedback from parents and guardians of the students. The Student Welfare Cell has also taken sincere initiatives in connecting with parents and discussing with them the progress of their wards. Parents Teacher Association helps and cooperates with the University to provide support and welfare activities for the student. Parents are part of our feedback system. Their guidance is very valuable during curriculum revision procedure. Those Parents who are self employed, assist students during the internship and training/ Placement. They are assisting during organizing conferences, seminar and workshops. They are also suggesting for developmental activities of the University. In this Covid-19 pandemic situation parents teachers association play a very vital role to face this situation and regularly motivating to our students to continue their online classes with strictly following the Covid-19 Protocol. University regularly campaigning to strict adherence of Covid-19 Protocol.
6.5.4 – Development programmes for support staff (at least three)
Personal and Professional guidance of Hon'ble Vice Chancellor is available for all the support staff, as and when required. Spiritual environment provides ample opportunities for overall growth of staff members through Yagya, listening to Vedic Chanting, and Meditation. These practices are a regular feature at MMYVV Campus. Training and various skill enhancement workshops are available for the staff through the Training and Placement Cell. The Institution has several effective welfare measures for Teaching and Non teaching staff working in the university. The details of the welfare measures are as follows:- 1. Loan facilities are provided to group B and D employees in the University for Food grains purchase. 2. Interest free Loans are given up to the limit of fifty thousand rupees for the marriage of the wards of teachers and employees working in the university. 3. Six months of maternity leave is provided for ladies of teaching and non teaching staffs working in the university 4. Residential facilities are provided to employees in the University for teaching and non teaching staff as far as possible. 5. Health Facilities are provided to the teaching and non teaching staff of the University, according to the rules and regulations of ESIC. 6. Every month Employees Provident Fund is given to the teaching and non teaching staff for the bright future working in the University. 7. The facility of bus is being provided at concessional rates by the University for the academic and aspiring employees working in the university. 8. Practice of TM TM Sidhhi Programme and Yoga -Asan are organized for the development of Mental, Physical and Spiritual aspects of life for the teaching and non teaching staff in the University. 9. Teaching and Non teaching staff working in the University is being provided medical facilities in case of any illness or accident. 10. Medical allowance is provided by the University for teaching and non teaching staff. 11. House rent allowance is also provided by the University for teaching and non teaching staff living outside the campus. 12. Facilities of canteen are also provided in the university campus. Tea, Coffee, breakfast, lunch and dinner etc. are provided at a reasonable price in the canteen by the university. 13. The sons and daughters of the employees are eligible for reimbursement of half the tuition fees. 14. Consultancy centre is also made available for the family members of the employees working in Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic Vishwavidyalaya. 15. University Health centre and free medical advices is provided by the University for the teaching and nonteaching staff. Times to time camps are organized with the help of the specialist doctors for all the staff for medical advice without charging any fees from them.
6.5.5 – Post Accreditation initiative(s) (mention at least three)
University has focussed on decentralization of Academic and Administrative Structure. University has established an exclusive division of Research Cell. Increase in National Collaborations and Collaborative activities. Maharishi Skill development cell has been established for enhancing the soft skills of the students of the University, Initiating several certificate and diploma courses through Maharishi Skill development cell .New Computer lab has also been installed for the students, who are enrolled in soft skill courses. There are so many programs being carried out by the University to foster the students. Three subjects are being added in Ph.D. courses of the University. University has upgraded the Central library. The University has updated the Course curriculum of several courses. Student and faculty exchange programme are carried out with other HEIs who are collaborated with our University. University have conducted several national conference, workshop and seminars. University faculties studied the NEP and is working on it to adopt the suggested features of the same. Vedic knowledge being holistic in approach covers knowledge of various disciplines so plans are being made to develop the University as a Hub for multidisciplinary studies. A consultation service for Yagyanushthan is being started in current year. Regular updating of syllabus is being done on the basis of feedback received from different stakeholders of the University. 5 students are registered in SWAYAM courses. University is regularly motivating to faculties and students for taking the registration in MOOC courses.
6.5.6 – Internal Quality Assurance System Details
| a) Submission of Data for AISHE portal | Yes |
|---|---|
| b)Participation in NIRF | No |
| c)ISO certification | Yes |
| d)NBA or any other quality audit | No |
6.5.7 – Number of Quality Initiatives undertaken during the year
| Year | Name of quality initiative by IQAC | Date of conducting IQAC | Duration From | Duration To | Number of participants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Run for Green India Clean India Rally on 150th Gandhi Jayanti | 04/09/2019 | 02/10/2019 | 02/10/2019 | 180 |
| 2019 | Institutio nal Feedback Mechanism. Feedback taken from S takeholders. | 13/07/2019 | 01/08/2019 | 30/06/2020 | 240 |
| 2019 | Implementa tion of | 01/08/2019 | 01/08/2019 | 30/06/2020 | 19 |
| | Academic Calendar- 2019-20 | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | MOU with other Institution | 13/07/2019 | 20/11/2019 | 12/02/2020 | 3 |
| 2019 | Organization of Workshop on Faculty Development. | 04/09/2019 | 23/08/2019 | 24/08/2019 | 24 |
No file uploaded.
CRITERION VII – INSTITUTIONAL VALUES AND BEST PRACTICES
7.1 – Institutional Values and Social Responsibilities
7.1.1 – Gender Equity (Number of gender equity promotion programmes organized by the institution during the year)
| Title of the programme | Period from | Period To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| | | | Female |
| Speech Competition | 24/10/2019 | 24/10/2020 | 16 |
| Poster Pratiyogita | 24/10/2019 | 24/10/2019 | 38 |
7.1.2 – Environmental Consciousness and Sustainability/Alternate Energy initiatives such as:
Percentage of power requirement of the University met by the renewable energy sources
Solar energy is used for Lighting of whole entire campus, 1)- Solar Water Heater 19.548 KW. 2)-Solar Power Backup (Off Grid System) 30.00 KW. 3) Solar Stree Light 4.5 KW Total 54.048 KW?PF0.9 60.05 KVA. Percentage of Total Energy Requirement by Renewal Energy Sources 66.6
7.1.3 – Differently abled (Divyangjan) friendliness
| Item facilities | Yes/No | Number of beneficiaries |
|---|---|---|
| Provision for lift | Yes | 1 |
| Ramp/Rails | Yes | 1 |
| Rest Rooms | Yes | 1 |
| Scribes for examination | Yes | 1 |
7.1.4 – Inclusion and Situatedness
| Year | Number of initiatives to address locational advantages and disadva ntages | Number of initiatives taken to engage with and contribute to local community | Date | Duration | Name of initiative | Issues addressed | Number of participating students and staff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 1 | 35 | 18/07/2 019 | 1 | (Swachata Abhiyan)- | Maharishi Mahesh | 66 |
Governmen Yogi
India t of
Vedic Vis aya Depar
hwavidyal
| 2020 | 1 | 24 | 17/02/2 020 | 1 | (Workshop On Manufa cturing S anitizer) Workshop of Making Mask and Sanitizer | Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic Vis hwavidyal aya Depar tment of Yog, and Unnat Bharat Abhiyan | 24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 1 | 738 | 27/02/2 019 | 180 | (House Hold Survey)- Unnat Bharat Abhiyan Survey for Planning and Devel opment | Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, IIT, Delhi | 110 |
| 2019 | 1 | 728 | 05/03/2 019 | 90 | (Village Survey) Unnat Bharat Abhiyan Survey for Planning and Devel opment | Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, IIT, Delhi | 115 |
| 2019 | 1 | 200 | 05/06/2 019 | 1 | (Planta tion) Uni versity Campus | Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic Vis hwavidyal aya Depar tment of Yog, and Unnat Bharat Abhiyan | 60 |
| 2019 | 1 | 160 | 21/06/2 | 15 | (Yoga | | 90 |
7.1.5 – Human Values and Professional Ethics Code of conduct (handbooks) for various stakeholders
| Title | Date of publication | Follow up(max 100 words) |
|---|---|---|
| A Handbook of Code of Conduct Human Values and Professional Ethics | 07/08/2019 | The University has been prepared the code of conduct for human values and professional ethics and following the same. University has prepared one hour teaching course namely Maharishi Vedic Science propounded by his Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ji. It helps to teach the human values and to live life blissfully. The life of the Individual is well blended through these teaching and practices of Maharishi Vedic Science. University has also celebrated all the national festivals like Independence day celebration, Republic day celebration, Sardar Vallabh Bhai patel jayanti, Shri Guru Purnima celebration,Constitution day celebration, Hindi Diwas celebration, etc. |
7.1.6 – Activities conducted for promotion of universal Values and Ethics
No file uploaded.
| Activity | Duration From | Duration To |
|---|---|---|
| Indepedence Day | 15/08/2019 | 15/08/2019 |
| Teachers Day | 05/09/2019 | 05/09/2019 |
| National Communal Harmony Week | 19/11/2019 | 25/11/2019 |
| Maharishi Janmotsav | 12/01/2020 | 12/01/2020 |
| Republic Day | 26/01/2020 | 26/01/2020 |
| Swachhata Pakhwad | 16/01/2020 | 31/01/2020 |
| Financial Support to Adopted Villeges of T.B. Pataint through UBA Cell mmyvv Rs. 1,100/- | 14/02/2020 | 14/02/2020 |
7.1.7 – Initiatives taken by the institution to make the campus eco-friendly (at least five)
Daily practice of Yoga Transcendental Meditation is conducted in the University every morning and evening for purifying the collective consciousness. Atirudrabhishek by 1331 Vedic pundits is conducted in the University every morning - this is an effective method of purifying the environment. The entire university utilizes solar power supply, an effective solution for power conservation. Lush green campus – The first thing that catches the attention of any visitor is the campus environment with blossoming of peace. The University is home to exotic varieties of birds, flowers, butterflies and rare plants. The campus takes dedicated measures to minimize the carbon footprint by Reducing, its consumption. Nakshatra Garden is a garden of a large number of medicinal herbs, several of these being rare medicinal plants. University practices organic farming and medicinal plant cultivation. Regular a forestation drives are conducted by the students and staff members. Large scale cleaning drives are also conducted on a periodic basis. Green landscaping with trees and plants, chanting of Vedic Mantras every Day to Harmonize the Environmental Consciousness. The University conducts Green Audit of its campus. Use of LED lights, Use of Solar Lights with switching off enabled electrical gadgets, lights, fans and other appliances whenever not necessary. Utmost care is taken to save electricity by proper maintenance of the wiring and electrical appliances and Organizing Orientation programs about energy conservation. Water Harvesting arrangements are made in University campus and hostel. Efforts have been made to make plastic free campus. Varieties of trees are planted at various locations to keep green and to maintain biodiversity Seasonal potted flowering plants are nurtured in the campus. The University has a developed a medicinal garden.
7.2 – Best Practices
7.2.1 – Describe at least two institutional best practices
The sociology students Management students are effectively working in some nearby villages to promote de-addiction, education, entrepreneurship and gender sensitization. The University has adopted 5 villages in nearby places under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan. Earn while you learn - yojna, is providing ample support to the students from economically backward sections. Students are also motivated to represent their creative writing skills through different program organized by the University. The University has been following the practices of inculcating human values along with teaching subjects. One portion of the daily studies, about an hour is dedicated to the lectures on the teaching/philosophy and practices brought to light and applied through Vedic Technologies by His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ji. While the subject learned by students help them to secure a living, the human values taught to them through the life and teaching of His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ji helps them to live life holistically and blissfully. Today's youth is confronted with challenges posed by the outer world and also from within because of un-satisfaction and aspirations more than their actual ability .The outer life and the inner life of the Individual is well blended through these teaching and practices of Maharishi Vedic Science. We augment learning resources for advancement of learning, teaching, and research by encouraging the faculty members and are minding of their duties. We enhance effectiveness of knowledge delivery system in classroom by checking updated preparations of the subject and communicative effectiveness of each teacher. No.2 USE OF ICT The University considers Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure as an important component, and is committed to ensure its equitable access to students, teachers and non-teaching staff for learning, teaching, research, and administrative activities. Towards this end, the university has been augmenting its Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure to match its growing academic and administrative needs. The university is continuously extending and upgrading its Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure with the replacement of obsolete and addition of latest hardware and software based on the needs of the newly introduced programmes and courses. The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is evident from the following activities. i) Campus Network: A robust Campus Wide Network has been established in all over the campus including classrooms equipped with PCs, LCDs, projection screens, and other electronic gadgetry for lecture delivery through PowerPoint presentations, administrative units having facilities for internet surfing and equipped with facilities for discharging administrative, financial and examination-related functions and internet. Internet facility is also available in Labs, Library for the students. ii) E-governance: Egovernance system has commenced and is gradually improved upon. It includes computerization of functions comprising admissions, examination-related tasks, financial matters and administrative work. iii) Videoconferencing Facility: This facility for interaction among the teachers of different universities on subjects of common interest, remote interviews for placement, etc. owes its existence and use to Information and Communication Technology (ICT).The Birthday of all the students is celebrated in their respective department. -Regular counselling session is organized by the University to motivate them about carefulness of old father and mother. Computer literacy to all the students.
Upload details of two best practices successfully implemented by the institution as per NAAC format in your institution website, provide the link http://www.mmyvv.com/best-practices-of-Institution
7.3 – Institutional Distinctiveness
7.3.1 – Provide the details of the performance of the institution in one area distinctive to its vision, priority and thrust in not more than 500 words
A unique centre of higher education, learning and research set in the Geographical Centre point of India. The lush green campus of the University is infused with spiritual ambience to accomplish the institutional vision of confluence of Vedic wisdom and contemporary knowledge. The educational ethos of the University is based on the teachings of His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Jee, who was a scientific saint, revolutionary seer and a great visionary. He had a vision to create an educational institution that could mould its students into noble and enlightened human beings. The University follows an exceptional set of curriculum that includes commencement of Vedic Science who facilitates comprehensive development of students. The University has adopted some innovative practices in the form of Samaydaan (donation of time and talent by learned individuals). The students of the University undertake mandatory Social Internship in nearby places of the University. All these practices have proved to imbibe human values in students on campus. The distinctive and unique area of MMYVV is the study, practice and propagation of Science and Technologies of Consciousness which somehow is not available in most of the educational institutions. His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi ji the Founder Chancellor and the foremost scientist of Consciousness revived the ancient Indian Vedic Knowledge from its very basis, the simplest state of Human Consciousness, the techniques to experience Pure Consciousness, Harnessing the infinite creativity, Its expression in the Hymns of Vedas and Vedic literature ultimately manifesting in the form of whole ever expanding Universe there by providing science and technologies to create a peaceful, progressive and harmonious world. MMYVV since its inception is working to accomplish the same vision using all the technologies of Consciousness provided, used and verified by Maharishi ji for creating Ideal Individuals, society having Knowledge Power and Bliss and a peaceful, progressive and harmonious world. This University is one of the Universities applying all the principles and ideologies founded by founder Chancellor not just having University in his name. The priority of the University is increasing Sattwa (Orderliness and purity) in the individual and collective consciousness, so all the faculty, staff and students are taught Transcendental Meditation and TM Siddhi program (Benefits of TM and TM Siddhi program may be added here itself or in an annexure) to not only provide all knowledge in every brain and not just in Libraries and while doing so through the Field effect simultaneously contributing and creating world peace. The thrust is to explore Ved, Vedic Literature and Vedic Technologies in the light of Maharishi Vedic Science and propagate the knowledge to all the students and society, establishing large groups of Transcendental Meditation and TM Siddhi practitioners not only benefiting them individually but also create harmony and orderliness in collective consciousness to win over the tendencies of terror and war and create peace and prosperity for the Nation and the whole world through the proper use of Vedic Technologies of Yagya, Yog, Udyog, Jyotish, SthapatyaVed, Ayurved, GandharvaVed etc.
Provide the weblink of the institution http://www.mmyvv.com/institutional-distinctiveness
8.Future Plans of Actions for Next Academic Year
The University has a plan to strengthen the University structure and to open some more departments which is more beneficial for the nearby communities. The University working on a plan to improvise high standard research in the field of Vedic wisdom. The University makes a plan to promote and propagate indigenous programs of Vedic studies for foreign students. The University is also working on a plan to organize summer winter internship program for the promotion of Yog Meditation. To bring more Promoting activities such as Yoga, Meditation, Jyotish, SthapatyaVed, Yagyanusthan etc related to development of mental and physical fitness of students, faculty and staff of the University. Office automation has been planned to include an online archiving of student, faculty and staff database with necessary details. Information related to financial assistance such as scholarships, fellowships are also planned for digital archiving. Complete digitization of the University library is also planned. The University plans to organize job interviews by local companies and also organize interactive sessions of final year students with skilled professionals and alumni. Organization of seminar and workshop by the IQAC to promote the quality improvement strategies in teaching-learning, research, extension related and co-and extracurricular
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activities. IQAC is also planning to publish a handbook on quality assurance in this context for vide circulation. The University makes a plan to organize the workshop for E-content development at a larger scale and duration to promote the use of E-resources among all faculty members. Organization of workshop on Integrated Finance Management System (IFMS) software for faculty members, so that they will be able to easily manage their service account using the portal 8. The University makes a plan to maintain and update database of research articles, books, book chapters, conference proceedings and seminar abstracts published by students and faculty members. Construction of rain water harvesting system in the whole of the University campus .Increasing the number of environment friendly initiatives by NSS and ensuring participation of maximum students in such initiatives. More extension lectures, industrial interaction and industrial visits will be scheduled, so as to bridge the gap between classroom teaching and industrial requirements. The University is taking efforts for Enhancement of solar panel to meet out the electricity requirement. The University proposed the following plans for the enhancement and strengthening of the University Academic Planning for Adaptation of Objectives of National Education Policy 2020, Organize Programmes for Atamnirbhar Bharat, Automation of the University Central Library, Motivating faculties and staff for SWAYAM and MOOC Courses.
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Phytochemical Composition and Antifungal properties of Leaf, Stem and Florets of Panicum maximum Jacq. (Poaceae)
U. C. Kanife (Corresponding author)
Department of Biological Sciences, Yaba College of Technology
P. M. B 2011, Yaba Lagos, Nigeria
Tel: 234-806-065-3964 E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org
O. S. Odesanmi
Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine University of Lagos, Nigeria
Tel: 234-803-346-6861 E-mail: email@example.com
V. F. Doherty
Department of Biological Sciences, Yaba College of Technology P. M. B 2011, Yaba Lagos, Nigeria
Tel: 234-803-310-7074 E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org
Received: February 11, 2012 Accepted: February 25, 2012 Published: April 1, 2012
doi:10.5539/ijb.v4n2p64 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijb.v4n2p64
Abstract
Ethanol extracts of leaf, stem and florets of Panicum maximum plant were investigated for antifungal activity by disc diffusion agar method. The phytochemical composition of the extracts were also determined. Leaf and floret extracts had significant antifungal activity with varing zones of inhibition on Aspergillus tamari, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger and Candida albican: isolated from patients with skin diseases. The ethanol leaf extracts was more active than the floret extract. The ethanol leaf extract of Panicum maximum caused highest zone of inhibition (15.0 ± 0.1mm) on A. tamari. The three extracts contain alkaloids, tannins, saponins and flavonoids in varying quantities which may have been responsible for the variation in their activities. Results support the use of this plant as antifungal agent.
Keywords: Antifungal activity, Alkaloids, Tannins, Saponins, Panicum maximum
1. Introduction
Antimicrobials of plant origin have enormous therapeutic potential and have been used since time immemorial. They have proved effective in the treatment of infectious diseases, simultaneously mitigating many of the side effects which are often associated with synthetic antibiotics. Positive response of plant based drugs might lie on the structure of the natural products which reacts with toxins and/pathogens in such a way that less harm is done to other important molecules or physiology of the host (Sharma and Kumar, 2009). Researchers are increasingly turning their attention to natural products looking for new leads to develop better drugs against cancer, as well as oral and microbial infections (Hoffmann et al., 1993, Srinivasan et al., 2001). According to World Health Organization (WHO), more than 80% of the world's population relies on traditional medicines for their primary health care needs. The medicinal value of plants lies in some chemical substances that produce definite physiological action on human body. The most important of these bioactive compounds of plants include alkaloids, flavonoids tannins and saponins. The phytochemical research based on ethno-pharmacological information is generally considered an effective approach in the discovery of new anti-infective agents from higher plants (Duraipandiyan, Ayyanar and Ignacimuthu, 2006).
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Panicum maximum Jacq. (Poaceae) commonly known as guinea grass and "Iran nkun" in Yoruba is indigenous to Africa and distributed in tropics and subtropics (Aganga and Tshwenyane, 2004). It is a tufted, perennial grass often with a shortly creeping rhizome, variable 60-200cm high, and leaf blades up to 35mm wide tapering to fine point. The higher essence is a panicle of spikelet up to 70cm long and each spikelet consists of 1.5 florets with bracts. The flower is bisexual with 3-4 stamens and brown anthers. (Gibbs et al., 1991; Dutta, 2000; Reinheimer et al., 2005; Doss et al., 2011). Doss et al., (2011) reported antibacterial activity of P. maximum leaf on selected bacterial strains when compared with the standard drug – ciprofloxacin. It has also been shown to be antidiabetic and thus can be used for treating diabetic cases and diseases caused by some pathogenic bacteria. However, there has been no report on antifungal properties of the leaf, stem and floret of this commonly grown grass. This research paper therefore sets out to investigate report the antifungal properties of the leaf, stem and floret of P. maximum and phytochemical components of these parts of the plant.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1 Collection and identification of plant parts
Fresh plant parts (leaf, stem and floret) were collected from Ikorodu, Lagos in 2010. They were identified, authenticated by Professor Olowokudejo and deposited in Lagos University Herbarium (LUH 3687). The plant parts were cleaned, dried at room temperature at about 28-30 o C for one week, after which the parts were grinded into powder form separately and weighed.
2.2 Extraction technique
About 400g of each of the Panicum maximum plant parts (leaf, stem and floret) were soaked separately in 200mls of 95% ethanol for 72 hours, on separate flasks. Extracts were obtained and dried with rotatory evaporator at reduced temperature (40 o C) and pressure. The extracts were washed free of ethanol and then redried. The dry extracts were stored in refrigerator at 4 o C in sterile bottles until used.
2.3 Preparation of culture media
All culture media were prepared according to manufacturers , instruction and autoclaved at 121 0 C for 15mins.
2.4 Preparation of microorganisms used
The test organisms, Aspergillus tamari, Aspergillus fumigatus, A. flavus and Candida albicans were collected from the National Institute of Medical Research, Yaba Lagos, Nigeria (NIMR). All the fungi were cultured using sabuaroid dextrose agar. Serial dilution was carried out the isolates and 10 -6 of the serial dilution was used for the sensitivity test
2.5 Reconstitution of extract
The dried extracts were reconstituted by dissolving 50mg, 100mg and 150mg in 3ml of sterile distilled water respectively. The solutions were filtered into separate sterile conical flasks. The stock solutions were sterilized by filtration through filter paper to remove impurities and contaminants. The stock solution was further dissolved at different concentration and it was then stored in sterile universal bottles and refrigerated for further analysis.
2.6 Antifungal screening for reconstituted extracts
Disc diffusion method according to Irobi and Daramola, (1994) was used. Locally prepared paper discs of 6mm diameter were prepared using a whatman NO.1 filter paper. Hundred discs were sterilized in an oven at 150 o C for 15min. The discs were impregnated with different concentrations of crude extracts (leaf, stem and florets). The discs were evaporated at 37 o C for 24h. Prepared discs containing the various fractions were carefully placed on the inoculated plates using sterilized forceps in each case. The disc soaked in water served as negative control while disc with ketoconazole (standard) was used as positive control. The plates were then turned upside –down and incubated at 37 o C for 24h in an incubator. The results were taken by considering the zone of growth and inhibition of the organisms by the test fractions. Antifungal activity was evaluated by measuring the diameter of the inhibition zone (z) around the disc. The assay was repeated thrice and mean was calculated.
The zone of inhibition was calculated by measuring minimum dimension of the zone of no fungal growth around the filter paper disc.
2.7 Phytochemical screening
Chemical tests were carried out on the ethanol extracts using standard procedure to identify the constituents as described by Sofowora (1993), Trease and Evans (1985) and Harborne (1973).
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2.7.1 Qualitative analysis of plant parts constituents
2.7.2 Test for flavonoids: About 5ml of 10% dilute ammonia solution was added to a portion of the aqueous literate of the plant extracts, followed by addition of concentrated H2S04. A yellow coloration observed in the extract indicated the presence of flavonoid.
2.7.3 Test for saponins: About 2g of the powdered sample was boiled in 20ml of distilled water in a water bath and filtered. 10ml of the filtrate was mixed with 5ml distilled water and shaken vigorously for stable persistent froth. The frothing was mixed with 3 drops of olive oil, shaken vigorously for uniformly and was then observed for the formation of emulsion.
2.7.4 Test for tannins: About 0.5g of the dried powdered sample was boiled in 20ml of water in a test tube and then filtered. A few drops of 0.1% ferric chloride was added and observed for brownish green to a blue-black coloration. Presence of brownish green or blue-black colouration conformed the presence of tannins.
2.7.5 Test for Cardiac Glycosides: About 5ml of the extracts were treated with 2ml of glacial acetic acid containing 1 drop of ferric chloride solution (0.1%). This was under large with 1ml of concentrated H2So4. A browning of the interface suggest a deoxylsugar characteristic of cardenolodes A violet ring may appear while in the acetic layer, a greenish ring may form gradually.
2.7.6 Test for phlobatannin: An aqueous extract of the plant sample was boiled with 1% aqeous hydrochloric acid and deposition of red precipitate was taken as evidence for the presence of phlobatannins.
2.7.7 Test for Terpenoids: About 5ml of each extract was mixed in 2ml chloroform, and concentrated H2S04 (3ml) was carefully added for form a layer. A reddish brown coloration of the interface was formed to suggest positive results for the presence of terpenoids.
2.7.8 Test for steroids: About 2ml of acetic anhydride was added to 0.5g ethanol extract of each of the sample with 2ml H2504. The color changed from violet to blue or green indicating the presence of steroids.
2.7.9 Quantitative analysis of plant parts constituents
2.7.10 Alkaloid determination using harborne (1973) method was used. Dry plant parts sample of 5g was weighed into a 250ml beaker and 200ml of 10% acetic acid in ethanol was added , covered and allowed to stand for 4 hours. This was filtered and the extract was concentrated on a water bath to one quarter of the original volume. Concentrated ammonium hydroxide was added drop wise to the extract until the precipitation was complete. The whole solution was allowed to settle and the precipitate was collected and washed with dilute ammonium hydroxide and then filtered. The residue is the alkaloid, which was dried and weighed.
2.7.11 Tannin determination by Van-burden and Robinson (1981) 500mg of the sample was weighed into a 50ml and shaken for 1 hour in a mechanical shaker. This was filtered into a 50ml volumetric flask and made up to the mark. Then 5ml of the filterate was pipetted out into a test tube and mixed with 2ml of 0.1M FeCl3 in 0.1M HC1 and 0.008m potassium Ferrocyanide. The absorbance was measured at 120nm within l0min.
2.7.12 Saponin determination: The method used was that of Obadoni and Ochuko (2001).
The samples were ground and 20g of each were put into a conical flask and 100cm 3 of 20% aqueous ethanol were added. The samples were heated over a hot water bath for 4 hours with continuous stirring at about 55°C. The mixture was filtered and the residue re-extracted with another 200ml 20% ethanol. The combined extract was reduced to 40ml over water bath at about 90°C. The concentrate was transferred into a 250ml separatory funnel and 20ml of diethyl ether was added and shaken vigorously. The aqueous layer was recovered while the ether layer was discarded. The purification process was repeated. 60ml of n-butanol was added. The combined n-butanol extracts were washed twice with 10ml of 55% aqueous sodium chloride. The remaining solution was heated in a water bath. After evaporation the samples were dried in the oven to constant weight, the saponin content was calculated as percentage.
2.7.13 Flavonoid determination by the method of Boham and Kocipaiabyazan (1974) l0g of the plant sample was extracted repeatedly with 100ml of 80% aqueous methanol at room temperature. The whole solution was filtered through Whatman filter paper No. 42 (125mm). The filtrate was later transferred into a crucible and evaporates into dryness over water both and weighed to a constant weight.
3. Result
The results of the antifungal screening of the crude extracts of leaf, stem and floret of Panicum maximum plant is presented in Table 1. The leaf and floret extracts showed significant antifungal activity on most of the fungi tested while the stem extract did not inhibit the test organisms. The leaf extract caused a significant increase in
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growth inhibition of Aspergillus tamari, A.fumigatus and A. niger as the concentration of the extract increased while the floret extract inhibited the growth of all the organisms tested. However, ethanol leaf extract of P. maximum was the most active with 15.0 ± 0.1mm zone of inhibition on Aspergillus tamari. The stem extract did not cause any growth inhibition of all the fungal organisms tested. The antibiotic, ketocanozole had a significant higher zone of inhibition when compared with water (negative control) and the three extracts. It produced largest inhibition against Candida albican (25.1mm). The fungi responded to increase in concentration gradient for the antifungal active extracts. Thus, zones of inhibition in the fungi increased as the concentration of the leaf and floret extracts increased. The leaf and florets contains alkaloids, tannins, saponins and flavonoids in varying percentages.The leaf contains more alkaloids and saponins than the floret and stem extracts. (Table 2 and 3).
4. Discussion
The significant antifungal action of ethanol leaf and floret extracts of P. maximum suggests the presence of potent antifungal components. Adekunle et al., (2005) obtained similar results on Ficus vallis – choudae and Detarium microcarpum. Variation in zones of inhibition of growth of test organisms caused by the two extracts suggests host specificity of the extracts (Adekunle and Okoli, 2002). The presence of biologically active constituents such as alkaloids, tannins, saponins and flavonoids in leaf and florets though in varying percentages might be responsible for the antifungal activity observed in the present study. Also the potency of leaf extract when compared with stem and floret could be due to high percentage of alkaloids and saponins in the extract. Alkaloids have been reported to posses antimicrobial activity against organisms such as klebsiella pueumonia and Candida albican (Addae – Mensah, 1992). Inhibition of cell wall formation resulting in death of fungi was attributed to tannins in Terminalia citrina extracts (Burapadja and Bunchoo, 1995).
However, non- inhibition of Candida albican and Aspergillus flavus suggests resistance of these fungi to the active component present in the leaf extract.
Tannins can also act as antifungal agent by coagulating the protoplasm of the microorganism as reported by Onolapo and Owonubi (1993). Biological function of flavonoids includes protection against allergies, inflammation, free-radicals, platelet aggregation, microbes, ulcer, hetatoxins and tumors (Okwu, 2004). This may have contributed to its activity on test organisms. Adekunle et al., 2005 also reported flavonoids to be responsible for anti fungal activity of some other medicinal plants. The absence of alkaloids, tannins and saponins in the stem extract may be responsible for its non-activity against all the organisms tested.
5. Conclusion
It could be concluded from these study that the leaf and floret extract of P. maximum showed antifungal activity against the tested isolates and thus suggests their components as promising for development for antibiotics for treating diseases caused by the fungal isolates. However, it is important that these extracts especially the leaf and floret extracts be further purified through bioassay- guided fractionation to isolate the active constituent.
References
Adekunle A. A., & Okoli, S. O. (2002). Antifungal activity of the Crude Extract of Alafia bateri Oliver (Apocynaceae) and Hasmanthera dependens Hochst. (Menispermaceae). Hamdard Medicus, 55(3), 52-56.
Adekunle, A. A., Familoni, O. B., & Okoli, S. O. (2005). Antifungal activity of Bark Extract of Ficus Vallis – Choudae Delite – boll (Moraceae) and Detarium Microcarpum Guill-Perr. Caesalpinaceae. Journal of Life & Physical Sciences, 2(2), 64-67
Aganga, A. A., & Tshwenyane, S. (2004). Potentials of Guinea grass (Panicum maximum) as forage crop in livestock production. Pakistan Journal of Nutrition, 3(1), 1 – 4. http://dx.doi.org/10.3923/pjn.2004.1.4
Burapadja, S., & Bunchoo, A. (1995). Antimicrobial activity of Tannins from Terminalia Citrina. Planta Medica, 61(3), 365-366. http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-2006-958103
Doss, A., Parivuguna, V., Vijayasanthi, M., & Surendran, S. (2011). Antibacterial evaluation and Phytochemical analysis of certain medicinal plants. Journal of research in Biology, 1, 24-29
Duraipandiyan, V., Ayyanar, M., & Ignacemuthu, S. (2006). Antimicrobial Activity of Ethnomedicinal Plants used by Palyar Tribe from Tamil Nadu India. Complementary Alternative Medicine, 635.
Dutta, A. C. (2000). Botany for Degree Students. (6thed.) McGraw Publishers New York. pp. 710.
Gibbs, G. E., Watson, L., Koe Kemoer, M., Smook, L., Barker, N. P., Anderson, H. M., & Dallwitzx, M. J. (1991). Grasses of Southern African. Memoirs of Botanical Survey of South Africa, 58, 10 – 11.
Harborne, J. B. (1973). Phytochemcial Methods. Chapman and Hall Ltd, London. pp. 378.
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Hoffmann, J. J. N., Timmerman, r. Mclaughlin, & Punnapayak, H. (1993). Potential antimicrobial activity of Plants from the South Western United States. Int. J. Pharmacology, 31, 101-115.
Irobi, O. N., & Daramola, S. O. (1994). Antifungal activities of crude extracts of Mitracarpus villosus (Rubiaceae). Journal Ethnopharmocol, 4, 604-610.
Obdoni, B. O., & Ochuko, P. O. (2001). Phytochemical studies and comparative efficacy of the crude extract of homostatic plants in Edo and Delta States of Nigeria. Global Journal of Prime Applied Science, 86, 203 – 208.
Okwu, D. E. (2005). Phytochemical vitamins and mineral contents of two Nigeria Medicinal Plants. International Journal of Molecular Medicine and Advance Science, 4, 375-381.
Onadapo, J. A., & Owonubi, N. O. (1993). The antimicrobial Properties of Trenia Gluneensis: In: 1 st NAAP Proceedings Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, ABU Zaria, 139-144.
Reinheimer, R., Pozener, R., & Vegette, A. C. (2005). Inflorescence, spikelet, and floret of Panicum maximum and Drochloa plantaginea (poaceae). American Journal of Botany, 92, 565 – 575. http://dx.doi.org/10.3732/ajb.92.4.565
Sharma, B., & kumar P. (2009). Extraction and Pharcological Evaluation of some extracts of Tridax Procumbens and Capparis Cecolna. International Journal of Applied Research in National Products, 1(4), 5 -12.
Sofowora, A. (1993). Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine in Africa. Spectrum Books Ltd, Ibadan, 289.
Srinivasan, D., Nathan, S., Suresh, T., & Penumalsamy, P. L. (2001). Antimicrobial activity of certain Indian Medicinal Plants used in Folkloric Medicine. J. Ethnopharmacology, 74, 217-220. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0378-8741(00)00345-7
Trease, S. E., & Evans, W. C. (1985). Pharmacognosy (13 th ed.) Bailliere Tindall, England, 832.
Van-Burden, T. P., & Robinson, W. C. (1981). Formation of complexes between protein and tannin acid. J. Agric Food Chem., 1, 77-86.
Table 1. Antifungal activity of ethanol extracts of leaf, stem, and florets of Panicum maximum plant Zones of inhibition (Mean ± sem mm)
| Extracts | Aspergillus tamari | Aspergillus fumigatus | Asperagillus flavus | Aspergillus nigers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| control (water) (5ml) | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 0.0 ± 0.0 |
| Keto conazole (100mg.ml) | 16.1 ± 0.3 | 17.1 ± 0.8 | 16.0 ± 0.0 | 13.0 ± 0.3 |
| Leaf Extracts (mg/ml) 50 100 150 | 6.0 ± 0.0 12.0 ± 1.0 15.0 ± 0.1 | 10.0 ± 0.1 11.0 ± 0.3 13.2 ± 0.4 | 6.0 ± 0.0 0.0 ± 0.0 0.0 ± 0.0 | 7.0 ± 0.2 9.0 ± 0.1 12.0 ± 0.8 |
| control(water) (5ml) | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 0.0 ± 0.0 |
| Ketoconazole (100mg.ml) | 20.0 ± 0.4 | 15.0 ± 1.0 | 15.0 ± 0.8 | 17.0 ± 0.8 |
| Stem Extract (mg/ml) 50 100 150 | 0.0 ± 0.0 0.0 ± 0.0 0.0 ± 0.0 | 0.0 ± 0.0 0.0 ± 0.0 0.0 ± 0.0 | 0.0 ± 0.0 0.0 ± 0.0 0.0 ± 0.0 | 0.0 ± 0.0 0.0 ± 0.0 0.0 ± 0.0 |
| control(water) (5ml) | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 0.0 ± 0.0 |
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Table 2. Phytochemical components present in leaf, stem and floret of Panicum maximum plant
| Alkaloids | + | - | + |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tannins | + | - | + |
| Saponins | + | - | + |
| Flavonoids | + | + | + |
| Steroids | - | - | - |
| Phlobatanins | - | - | - |
| Cardiac glycosides | - | - | - |
Table 3. Percentage composition of active ingredients in leaf, stem and florets of Panicum maximum plant
| Alkaloids | 2.83 | 0.0 | 0.31 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tannins | 0.85 | 0 | 0.09 |
| Flavonoids | 0.54 | 0.34 | 0.78 |
Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education
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An Assessment of Institutional Activity, Goals, and Challenges in Higher Education
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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ABSTRACT
Ellucian, Eduventures, and the American Council on Education (ACE) have partnered to conduct a three-year study to help higher education leaders better understand competency-based education (CBE), including the diversity of institutional practices and paths forward.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
While competency-based education (CBE) continues to capture the attention of many higher education institutions, the road to broader scale and impact remains unclear. At present, there are more questions than answers. What exactly does the term "CBE" refer to? What pedagogical, delivery mode, and assessment options are available to institutions? Is CBE a superior fit for some types of students, programs, or institutions over others?
In order to better gauge the state of CBE implementation and its prospects for mainstream growth, Eduventures and Ellucian have initiated a three-year study of CBE in U.S. higher education. The partnership is designed to help higher education leaders recognize and better interpret the diverse ways in which institutions implement CBE, and respond strategically to the implementation challenges going forward. In April 2016, the American Council on Education (ACE) joined this effort as a strategic partner.
What is CBE and Why Are Schools Turning to It?
Renewed interest in CBE is a response to widespread concerns about the productivity and affordability of higher education. It is also a response to the quality and work readiness of graduates. In a March 2016 report, the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN), a collective of colleges and universities active in CBE, defined CBE as an instructional system in which:
…the time it takes to demonstrate competencies varies and the expectations about learning are held constant. Students acquire and demonstrate their knowledge and skills by engaging in learning exercises, activities, and experiences that align with clearly defined programmatic outcomes. Students receive proactive guidance and support from faculty and staff. Learners earn credentials by demonstrating mastery through multiple forms of assessment, often at a personalized pace.
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CBE seeks to specify learning outcomes at the course and program level, and rigorously and transparently assess student performance against those outcomes. Advocates distance CBE from so-called "seat time" assessment, referring to traditional higher education programs where students study as a cohort and are assessed at the end of a fixed time period. CBE proponents argue that, all too often, traditional models allow students to scrape by without truly demonstrating specific knowledge and skills. These models also prevent individual students from proceeding faster or slower than the norm.
A CBE approach can be positioned as a multi-faceted solution to the complex challenges facing higher education. It has the potential to be both rigorous and affordable, while providing students with a highly personalized and efficient means to obtain a certificate or degree. New technology, notably learning analytics and adaptive learning systems, is viewed as an enhancement to the effectiveness and scalability of CBE.
While there have been a number of informative surveys assessing institutional interest in CBE, there is a need for a systematic analysis of how institutions are designing and implementing CBE at the course, program, or institutional level. Outside of some notable but atypical examples of institutionwide innovation and scale, higher education's current fascination with CBE might best be described as aspirational. Our initiative intends to help close this research gap and advance the conversation about the scale, impact, and varieties of CBE.
Rather than a single, dominant version of CBE, our 2016 survey data reveals a diversity of practice across a spectrum of schools, each deploying and experimenting with CBE in order to meet specific institutional challenges. A portrait of CBE emerges as a menu of tools and practices, rather than a monolithic approach or linear path. These findings underscore the need for institutions to carefully weigh the pros and cons of CBE implementation, and to proactively select the CBE components that make the most sense for their students and mission.
The first phase of our study was an institutional survey, fielded between March and June 2016. It garnered 281 responses from a representative group of colleges and universities; one of the largest samples to date on CBE implementation. After duplicate and partial responses were removed, the sample spans 251 institutions. The survey asked institutional leaders and other informed stakeholders to provide details about the strategies and operations involving CBE at their institutions.
Purpose-Built Scoring Model
Through the survey, Eduventures developed a purpose-built scoring model, which will be used to provide each responding institution with a benchmark report. This will help each institution better understand its current use of CBE, both in absolute terms and in relation to its goals and peer group. This scoring model compares institutions across five dimensions of CBE development, leading to a comprehensive score. The dimensions are:
* Scope: extent and range of current CBE activity
* Attributes:
CBE offerings, characteristics, and features
* Operations: CBE governance, roles, support services, and platform tools
* Outcomes: CBE performance
* Commitment:
institutional or departmental support for CBE going forward
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Portraits of CBE Practice
Based on the 2016 survey results and scoring model, Eduventures has developed three institutional portraits designed to highlight the diverse ways in which CBE can be implemented. An initial screening question indicated the extent to which each featured institution utilizes a range of CBE components, and the balance of survey questions provided further details. In some cases, these institutions described themselves as defined by CBE, while others focused on a specific department or program. Each of the profiled institutions was interviewed and was able to approve their portrait.
The following portraits are explored in more depth in the full report:
1. University of Maine, Presque Isle (UMPI):
Cohort-driven, Online and Blended Learning for Full-time,
First-time Students.
UMPI is a small, regional public university focused on strengthening retention and completion rates through enhanced support services. UMPI uses CBE as a tool to support the transition from high school to college. CBE is utilized in face-to-face, blended, and online settings.
Salt Lake Community College (SLCC):
Self-Paced, Blended, Workforce-Readiness for Underserved Students.
SLCC is a large community college serving a diverse adult population. SLCC has implemented CBE in face-to-face and blended courses focused on providing technically-oriented certificates and associate degrees. SLCC uses CBE in more than 10 of its certificate and degree programs within its School of Applied Technology and Technical Specialties.
Valdosta State University (VSU):
Self-Paced and Blended Learning for STEM Teacher
Professional Development.
VSU is a regional public university serving southwest Georgia. Its CBE programs emphasize employer-driven outcomes and self-paced learning for improved employability. VSU offers CBE programming to local teachers seeking licensure endorsements in STEM.
These portraits showcase diverse models of CBE implementation and can serve as examples for similar institutions.
Summary of Survey Findings
Based on the initial fielding of the survey, several findings stand out regarding CBE:
1. High Interest; Aspirational.
While interest in CBE across a large proportion and wide range of schools is indisputable, the complexities of implementing and defining CBE has kept most institutions wholly or primarily at an aspirational phase of implementation.
2. A Diversity of Practice; Small Scale.
The implementation of CBE is diverse and the utilization of core CBE components is often small in scale with much activity at the sub-institutional level. When disaggregated, CBE components exhibit widely differing patterns of adoption and interest. Greater awareness of CBE diversity will make wider implementation more realistic and downplay the significance of a small number of CBE institutional pioneers as the "only" exemplars.
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3. CBE is Often Prioritized as a Method to Support Non-Traditional Learners.
Most institutions look to CBE as a means to expand opportunities and enhance learning for non-traditional students. These students are broadly defined as non-traditional by age, demographics, and/or circumstances that inhibit conventional enrollment. A minority of institutions view CBE as applicable to more traditional students.
4. CBE is Delivery Mode Neutral; Growing Use of Online Tools.
CBE can be and is delivered through a variety of online, blended, and onsite courses and programs. While online platforms and tools often play a major role, more "basic" tools, such as early-alert systems and real-time communication networks, are much more widely implemented compared to novelties like adaptive learning and other CBEoriented tools. There is considerable interest in next-generation functionality.
5. CBE vs. Conventional Higher Ed: Too Early to Tell.
Although some early indicators point toward favorable comparisons with conventional higher education in terms of workload, quality, and outcomes, most institutions confess that it is too early to draw conclusions. Respondents tended to regard CBE as more work. This perception may be explained in part by a preponderance who reported that faculty tend to create their own competencies and courses from scratch, rather than leveraging—at least in part—pre-existing resources.
6. Cautious Commitment for Further Development.
Despite a variety of perceived barriers (e.g., federal financial aid, funding, and faculty buyin), many institutions anticipate further exploration and adoption of CBE.
CONCLUSIONS
Based on these findings, several overarching conclusions emerge at this stage of the project. First, while it is abundantly clear that interest in CBE is stronger than ever before, it remains complex territory. CBE is not simply a delivery mode. It challenges long-held conventions regarding how curricula are created, instruction is designed and delivered, and skills and knowledge are assessed.
Secondly, CBE raises critical questions about how institutions could be organized and financed and what roles faculty and other instructional support providers might play. For most institutions, these questions are intriguing, but often fall outside the realm of their current strategic imperatives. They may continue to impede the mainstreaming of CBE.
Finally, while several established institutions may continue to grow their CBE programs, the diversity and complexity of CBE will require most institutions to opt for customized implementation. Near-term opportunities to accelerate the growth and expand the scale of CBE, beyond a set of innovative early adopters, may be limited. Expanded scale and deeper impact will require institutions to carefully assess their needs and align them to specific CBE components, tools, and practices. This complexity emphasizes the merits of a richer array of CBE implementation examples.
Over the next two years, Ellucian, Eduventures, and ACE will continue to examine the prospects for broader CBE implementation and growth. The balance of this study will complement the year-one survey data with interviews and case studies, and a repeat survey in year three to gauge institutional progress and direction.
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FULL REPORT
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE
This report, and the underlying study, grew out of discussions between Eduventures and Ellucian. In recent years, Eduventures has published a series of reports on the opportunities and challenges posed by competency-based education (CBE). Ellucian entered the CBE realm with its acquisition of what is now Ellucian Brainstorm, a purpose-built CBE solution for continuous lifelong learning. In April 2016, the American Council on Education (ACE) joined the study as a strategic partner.
Although a small number of institutions had pioneered CBE programs, the study sponsors agreed that bigger questions remain about the prospects for achieving broader scale and impact. This perception was underscored by the recent surge of interest in CBE across higher education. CBE is seen anew as a way to affect everything from more rigorous assessment of student learning to enhanced student employability and radically lower tuition. CBE is anything but new. While CBE programs and institutions have existed for decades, renewed interest warrants fresh thinking about the conditions under which CBE might become mainstream.
Since 2013 alone, there have been a variety of CBE surveys launched by publishers, research organizations, associations, and technology vendors. Major foundations, such as the Lumina Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have directed significant funds toward efforts to better understand CBE and support its wider adoption. The U.S. Department of Education has made a concerted effort to deepen its inquiry into CBE through an expansion of the Experimental Sites Program, waiving certain financial aid requirements for innovative programs and institutions. The first peer-reviewed academic research journal solely focused on CBE, the Journal of Competency-Based Education, debuted recently.
What is CBE and Why Are Schools Turning to It?
Renewed interest in CBE is a response to widespread concerns about the productivity and affordability of higher education. It is also a response to the quality and work readiness of
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graduates. In a March 2016 report, the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN), a collective of colleges and universities active in CBE, defined CBE as an instructional system in which:
… the time it takes to demonstrate competencies varies and the expectations about learning are held constant. Students acquire and demonstrate their knowledge and skills by engaging in learning exercises, activities, and experiences that align with clearly defined programmatic outcomes. Students receive proactive guidance and support from faculty and staff. Learners earn credentials by demonstrating mastery through multiple forms of assessment, often at a personalized pace.
CBE seeks to specify learning outcomes at the course and program level, and rigorously and transparently assess student performance against those outcomes. Advocates distance CBE from so-called "seat time" assessment, referring to traditional higher education programs where students study as a cohort and are assessed at the end of a fixed time period. CBE proponents argue that, all too often, traditional models allow students to scrape by without truly demonstrating specific knowledge and skills. These models also prevent individual students from proceeding faster or slower than the norm. A CBE approach can be positioned as a multi-faceted solution to the complex challenges facing higher education. It has the potential to be both rigorous and affordable, while providing students with a highly personalized and efficient means to obtain a certificate or degree. New technology, notably learning analytics and adaptive learning systems, is viewed as an enhancement to the effectiveness and scalability of CBE.
STUDY VISION
The core goal of the first phase of this study is to deconstruct how CBE is implemented in U.S. higher education institutions. Many recent CBE studies err on the side of documenting awareness of and interest in the modality. As this survey confirms, there is no shortage of interest among colleges and universities. The real question is: what does this interest amount to? Higher education's current fascination with CBE can be best described as aspirational, with some notable, but unique, examples of institution-wide innovation and scale. What versions or components of CBE have caught the attention of these institutions? What kinds of students, programs or institutions are a good fit for CBE? Is the sector on the brink of a CBE revolution or will CBE quickly return to the margins?
Much commentary on CBE is monolithic and unidirectional, presenting CBE development as a linear pathway toward models embodied by institutions such as Western Governors University (WGU) and Southern New Hampshire's College for America (CFA). Such institutions are characterized by wholly online delivery, few conventional faculty, self-paced study, and low tuition. These institutions are a long way from the circumstances of the vast majority of colleges and universities in the United States. While both WGU and CFA are innovative, high quality institutions that deserve emulation, this report argues that a broader variety of CBE futures must be envisioned if the modality is to move to the mainstream.
The likes of WGU and CFA should be understood as versions of CBE, but not the only versions. These institutions have made pedagogic choices within a CBE framework; choices that might be decided differently to match the needs of particular programs, students, or institutions. CBE does
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not have to be delivered online, and need not be entirely self-paced. A CBE program might value student cohorts, and might target traditional-age students rather than the working adults favored by WGU and CFA.
There is a tension between widespread enthusiasm for the CBE idea and the fact—demonstrated by this survey and those of other organizations—that CBE practice remains fragmented and small in scale. This report asserts that an overly narrow definition of CBE explains this tension, leading the average college or university to struggle to connect the CBE ideal with institutional reality at any scale. Many of the principles of CBE strike a chord across higher education, from community colleges to research universities, but a lack of appropriate models can endanger nascent projects and innovative programs.
Additionally, it is far from certain that highly individualized, low price CBE programs lead unequivocally to strong student outcomes. There is no question that many such CBE programs are academically rigorous and a great fit for some students; but there is not yet evidence that such programs are consistent with high graduation rates. Leading CBE institutions and programs do not, even after decades in some cases, lead with quantitative outcomes data. The versions of CBE implemented by these institutions may prioritize flexibility and low cost, but adjustments may be needed to improve completion rates. The motivation and discipline to thrive in an entirely selfpaced environment may be challenging for even the average traditional student, never mind many non-traditional populations.
To enhance the impact of CBE, in terms of both quality and quantity, we must disaggregate the modality into its component parts. We must then explore multiple ways those parts might be reassembled to match the characteristics and needs of particular types of students, programs, and institutions. To position CBE as one model could confine it to be no more than a bit player in the higher education landscape. This positioning would fail to capitalize on the potential for fresh conceptions of CBE to address the sector's central challenges.
In summary, this three-year study is designed to:
1. Analyze the range and diversity of CBE implementation, and assess prospects for scalability.
2. Identify and evaluate the ways in which CBE can be shaped and adapted to distinct institutional circumstances.
3. Utilize a purpose-built scoring system to enable institutions to measure CBE goals, plans and activities in a peer and national context.
SURVEY AND SCORING MODEL
The first step in our study was to survey a wide range of institutions and to disaggregate CBE practice and interest into its component parts. What is the spread of CBE activity in terms of academic level, student type, and delivery mode? What is the balance between institution-wide and department-level activity? How many CBE courses and programs do institutions currently offer? What dimensions of CBE—such as prior learning assessment (PLA), direct assessment, and self-paced study—do institutions use? Which features and tools characterize particular CBE offerings? In which areas do institutions plan to invest, and where do they have no interest?
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The survey was targeted at a range of institutions and roles, across ACE's leadership network, Ellucian's customers, and Eduventures' client base. We developed a scoring model to reveal varieties of CBE and associated models of CBE maturity while also acknowledging diverse institutional goals. Maturity was explored across several dimensions:
* Scope: extent and range of current CBE activity
* Attributes: CBE offerings, characteristics, and features
* Operations: CBE governance, roles, support services, and platform tools
* Outcomes: CBE performance
* Commitment: institutional or departmental support for CBE going forward
The intention was to avoid a simple linear definition of maturity. The goal was to map CBE activity and ambition on a number of spectra, but not make value judgments. A school with a high score overall or on a particular dimension should not be regarded as necessarily "better" or "more mature" than schools with lower scores. A high score may indicate a particular school is more active than average in terms of a particular kind of CBE, or is more ambitious than average in this area. It does not necessarily indicate that this model is a good fit for similar institutions. A high score may say little about the quality of CBE implementation or the outcomes of the model for students or others.
Under "Scope," higher scores may be attributed to a larger number and wider range of CBE courses and programs, and to CBE enrollment and conferral scale (both current and planned). CBE offerings targeted at a broader swathe of institutional challenges and student types also garnered a higher score.
Under "Attributes," higher scoring institutions were characterized by routine use of features such as learning outcomes, direct assessment, prior learning assessment, personalized curricula, self-paced study, learning analytics, and the co-development of competencies with employers. Use of early-alert systems, badging and other micro-credentials, mobile access, student/faculty and student/student interaction tools, and the ability to manage non-standard financial aid also merited higher scores. A high score indicates use of multiple tools, but not necessarily effective use or use of the"right" tools within a given context.
Under "Operations," higher scores drew from the relative stability of CBE arrangements, scope for rapid expansion, and availability and use of CBE student data. Other factors were course development that made use of third party materials, employer input, and the extent of faculty and non-faculty roles and support.
Under "Outcomes," higher scores speak to CBE implementation resulting in reduced faculty and staff effort, enhanced faculty/student and student/student interaction, and improved student outcomes compared to those of conventional offerings. CBE graduate support services were also included.
Under "Commitment," higher scores were awarded for institutions that indicated institutionwide CBE ambition, a major role for CBE as part of strategic planning, significant dedicated funding, clear senior leadership, and many years of CBE experience. Access to federal financial aid for CBE offerings was also viewed as a marker of commitment.
Responses were computed to create an overall maturity score and a score for each dimension. In general, survey questions were allotted a maximum of 10 points and a minimum of zero.
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Some survey questions were of a descriptive nature and were not included in the scoring. Schools that indicated little CBE activity or interest were exited from the survey and asked a few questions about rationales and perceived barriers. Responses to these questions were included in the scoring for these institutions. Responding institutions will be sent their score profiles in the weeks following the publication of this report.
YEAR ONE SURVEY FINDINGS – RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
Sample Size. The year-one survey produced 251 complete institutional responses, representing one of the largest surveys to date of institutional interest in and implementation of CBE. Respondents match the diversity of U.S. higher education:
Many leading CBE institutions and institutions with CBE programs submitted their responses and ranked high on the scoring model, including Western Governors University, Northern Arizona University, Excelsior College, and Brandman University. The majority of respondents have a more limited CBE history, or none at all. Although this sample is skewed toward institutions that are active or interested in CBE, the sample's diversity by institutional control, level, and Carnegie Classification strongly suggests that enthusiasm for CBE is quite mainstream and not confined to particular types of institutions. Respondents were senior administrators, including presidents, provosts, vice presidents of teaching and learning, deans, and directors.
This section of the report is organized under the five headings discussed above: scope, attributes, operations, outcomes, and commitment. Portraits of three institutions that encompass a diverse mix of CBE models follow this section.
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SCOPE: PROGRAMS, COURSES AND BEYOND
The survey invitation encouraged responses from CBE advocates, skeptics, and everyone inbetween. The goal was to better understand evolving attitudes and rationales, whatever their stripe. The survey also used a deliberately broad definition of CBE in an attempt to capture the full range of practice.
Almost all responding institutions—over 95%—indicated some level of CBE activity or interest (Figure 2). This speaks to CBE as a multifaceted approach to curriculum, teaching and learning, and assessment. The principles of CBE—such as clarity about learning outcomes, prior learning assessment, and a role for self-paced study—are difficult to object to.
The small number of institutions that indicated little or no interest in CBE (3% of the sample) was diverse, spanning master's, baccalaureate, associate, and specialized schools. The main reasons for non-interest included little perceived value in moving away from the credit hour, significant pedagogic benefit seen in student cohorts, and doubt that self-paced offerings are a good fit for many students.
Figure 2. Interest in CBE is not the problem
(N= 251 institutions)
Another 27% of the sample pointed to early-stage interest in CBE but little direction or progress to date, and no active plans. This sub-group was also very diverse, but baccalaureate and specialized institutions were somewhat over-represented. Interest in CBE was driven primarily by a belief that "competencies" are a way to increase the rigor of student assessment and student employability. Many of these institutions believed that adult learners would value a more selfpaced learning experience, and that self-paced learning would aid student completion.
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Why are schools interested in CBE?
Institutions that indicated some level of current CBE activity were asked this question.
Figure 3 illustrates the range of benefits associated with CBE—from access for non-traditional learners, to enhanced graduate employability, to lower costs. It is striking that access and completion are much more likely to be priorities than the clarification of learning outcomes or reduced tuition. This may speak to a simplistic view of CBE as another tool to grow enrollment. CBE may increase demand from some prospective students, but it may be a mistake to think of CBE as beneficial only in terms of access to conventional higher education.
CBE is a pedagogic and assessment model to enhance the rigor, personalization, and nature of the student experience. CBE is designed to change higher education, not simply provide access to it. The lower ratio for "clarify learning outcomes" may reference the fruits of longstanding learning outcomes initiatives, but also may be further evidence that many institutions take a market-oriented stance.
Associate institutions see much more potential for CBE to aid completion and workforce efforts, compared to doctoral schools. Neither, however, appear to be very interested in using the modality to lower tuition or underlying costs. In fact, private nonprofit master's institutions were most likely to cite reduced tuition as a motivator. This finding is consistent with the growing challenge that some unranked, high-tuition, high-discount schools face in demonstrating return on investment.
The fact that about half of respondents position CBE as part of broader innovation reiterates the breadth of the CBE message. It also reiterates the general confusion about terminologies, definitions, and questions about integrating CBE components into existing arrangements.
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How long have schools utilized CBE?
Figure 4. CBE at an Early Stage
(N= 175 institutions that indicated some level of current CBE activity)
Over 80% of self-reported CBE-active institutions have a CBE history that is fewer than five years old or is uneven depending on particular CBE components. This confirms the exploratory and iterative nature of CBE activity at most institutions at present. There were few differences by institutional type.
What kinds of students are CBE-active schools targeting?
Figure 5. CBE for Adults Only?
(N= 175 institutions)
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Sample schools were far more likely to report that adult learners, rather than traditional-age students, are their prime CBE target. Associate-level institutions were most likely to see the latter as a market for CBE. Figure 5 represents the mirror image of higher education enrollment, where about two-thirds of students are traditional age (defined as 24 years old or younger). Is the drive to serve adult learners rather than traditional-age students through CBE reflective of institutional instinct or an explicit strategy rooted in evidence?
About 70% of the sample (175 schools), indicated some level of CBE activity. What is the scale and scope of CBE program at these schools? Figure 6 breaks this sub-group by CBE course and program volume.
Figure 6. Most CBE Activity is at the Course Level or Below
(N= 175 institutions that indicated some level of current CBE activity)
Only 7% of CBE-active schools in the sample maintain that CBE is their dominant mode of instruction. This finding is a reminder that many schools deploy CBE in just one program or department, and continue to operate most programs outside of a CBE framework. The institutions that said CBE is dominant were far from uniform in terms of both type and reported CBE activity. About half are two-year colleges, and the rest are universities. Some schools in this category offer courses and programs formally designated as "CBE," while others view their institution as embodying certain CBE principles and practices (e.g., learning outcomes statements or direct assessment), even if they do not use the term "CBE" to describe them.
This highlights the challenge of succinctly identifying and naming "CBE." The very richness of the CBE ethos, much of which overlaps with broader accounts of pedagogic innovation, permits some institutions to use "CBE" to name longstanding practices that other schools might call something different. Some schools use the term "CBE" as a synonym for longstanding or particular practices.
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In order to test for tensions between CBE activity and nomenclature, the survey asked respondents to give the name for relevant activity used by the institution. The terms "learning outcomes" and "prior learning assessment" were as commonly cited as "competency-based education." Many institutions cited two or more names as widely used, underlining the richness of the CBE palette and confusion over definitions and naming.
Another 4% of schools in Figure 6 cited a suite of CBE programs (six or more). Even when CBE is not institution-wide, program scale remains rare. A further 14% of this sample mentioned a smaller number of CBE programs. CBE courses were much more prominent. Thirty-seven percent of schools that claimed to be CBE-active reported running CBE courses. The preponderance of CBE courses over programs emphasizes the history of CBE in higher education as a specialized, rather than mainstream, pursuit. Finally, more than a third of this sample reported no CBE courses or programs currently in place, but pointed to active plans.
The survey asked schools to describe the kinds of degrees or certificates students could earn from a CBE program or course:
Figure 7. A Diverse Range of Programs and Courses (N= 175 institutions)
40%
Today, about a third of sample institutions offer at least one program they consider CBE. Twentyfive percent plan to do so, but 40% of this sample—consisting of institutions that self-identified as CBE-active—have no plans to create CBE programs. For many institutions, interest in CBE is not a matter of creating a program called "CBE," but rather a means to enhance and adjust existing programs. Only 9% of the schools that claim to be CBE-active have actually awarded any credentials badged as CBE.
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ATTRIBUTES: YOU SAY CBE, I SAY….
A central objective of the study is to disaggregate "CBE" into its component parts to both better understand institutional activity and better connect the power of this modality to institutional reality. Respondents were asked to identify the extent to which their institution is engaged with each CBE component. Institutions could indicate well-established use across an entire institution, or at the department level. They could also indicate if there were plans to implement a component institution-wide, within a department, or whether there was "little or no interest."
Figure 8. Is Your Institution Using CBE? (N= 251 institutions)
| To what extent is your institution involved in the following types or features of CBE? | | | | | | |
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| Survey Responses (N= 251) | ENTIRE INSTITUTION well-established | INSTITUTION early days | DEPARTMENT well-established | DEPARTMENT early days | INTEREST but no clear direc i ton | LITTLE OR NO interest |
| Learning outcomes – program | 46% | 15% | 21% | 7% | 10% | 1% |
| Learning outcomes – course | 47% | 17% | 19% | 7% | 9% | 1% |
| Learning outcomes – sub-course | 19% | 12% | 16% | 14% | 24% | 16% |
| Direct assessment – no seat tmi e | 24% | 12% | 13% | 11% | 33% | 8% |
| Maps competencies to credit | 12% | 8% | 13% | 11% | 39% | 17% |
| PLA – placement | 13% | 9% | 19% | 16% | 32% | 10% |
| PLA – personalization | 5% | 7% | 12% | 13% | 44% | 19% |
| PLA – for credit | 20% | 12% | 14% | 16% | 26% | 12% |
| Substantially self-paced courses | 6% | 5% | 10% | 12% | 42% | 24% |
| Substantially self-paced programs | 6% | 4% | 6% | 8% | 41% | 35% |
| Third party competency partners – course | 11% | 6% | 16% | 10% | 39% | 18% |
| Third party competency partners – program | 12% | 7% | 16% | 12% | 37% | 16% |
| Adaptive learning | 4% | 6% | 8% | 10% | 52% | 20% |
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Figure 8 is coded to highlight areas where institutional use of a CBE component is consistent and where it is divergent. For example, learning outcomes at the course and program levels command a large minority of respondents, indicating that these practices are well established across the institution. Similar ratios indicate interest in PLA for learner personalization, self-paced courses and programs, and adaptive learning. All other CBE components are more fragmented, with institutions split between institutional and departmental activity, well-established arrangements and recent innovation, and early interest with no clear direction. It is striking that no single cell captures a majority of the study sample. This further emphasizes the long history, complex nature, and recent surge of interest in CBE.
For all components, except learning outcomes at the course and program level, the most common response was "interest but no clear direction." Some CBE components—such as PLA for placement and learner personalization, self-paced courses, and partnering with third parties to adopt or co-develop competencies, exhibit more activity at the department rather than the institutional level. This suggests a perception of better fit between such components and particular subject areas, programs, or students.
Direct assessment is subject to many definitions. It is possible, as shown in Figure 8, that 24% of the sample employ true "direct assessment" at scale. This would mean that at these schools, most students test out of courses based on their personal knowledge and preference. In the survey, this CBE component is described as "assessment that measures learning without reference to seat time." Of course, no institution literally awards credit for seat time. Given the broad range of definitions and practices related to "direct assessment," however, there could be mixed signals in this finding. Some respondents may have cited institution-wide practices that others might not regard as "true" direct assessment.
Figure 8 divides CBE into its component parts, laying out the nature and extent of institutional adoption. Figure 9 examines seven sample institutions that completed the survey—each designated by a letter—and shows the diverse combinations of CBE components and characteristics (e.g., learning outcomes at the sub-course level, direct assessment, etc.).
For example, School A employs learning outcomes at the sub-course level across the institution and uses direct assessment in a growing number of programs. Its CBE offerings, however, are cohortdriven rather than self-paced, primarily on-campus, and targeted to traditional-age students.
By contrast, School B employs less granular learning outcomes, but direct assessment and selfpaced study are routine. The delivery mode is wholly distance and almost all students are adults.
Figure 9 illustrates that "CBE" presents schools with pedagogic choices and may be used to serve a variety of students across a range of delivery modes. The potential of CBE should be framed in terms of fit by student, program, and institution type. Its potential should also be framed by demonstrated efficacy over time compared to conventional arrangements. What is important about Figure 9 is not the precise CBE components and characteristics included or the particular institutions profiled, but rather the idea that CBE is a toolkit and not a uniform approach.
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Figure 9. Choices & Fit: the True Complexity of the CBE Landscape
Findings from another survey question reiterated the diversity of CBE offerings across the sample. Schools were asked to what extent measurable competencies, personalized curriculum, and personalized progress reports were part of their CBE portfolio:
Figure 10. Competencies Are Just the First Step
(N= 168 schools that indicated some level of CBE activity)
Among the schools that cite current CBE activity, even "measurable competencies" are not universal. This underscores the finding that CBE offerings at many schools are relatively new and still under development. It also highlights ambiguity about what a "measurable
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competency" is and is not. Furthermore, it shows that just because a school organizes curriculum around competencies does not necessarily mean that the curriculum is personalized for each student or that the student benefits from a personalized progress report.
There is a strong association between CBE and online learning. Among CBE-active schools, 29% said their CBE offerings are entirely online, while 60% indicated some sort of hybrid between in-person and online. Twelve percent of respondents said their CBE offerings are entirely face-to-face. This mix of delivery modes highlights diverse definitions of "CBE" in the sample, but also serves as a reminder that CBE components can be applied regardless of delivery mode. There may be an affinity between adult learners and online delivery. It is an open question, however, whether online delivery aids or hinders CBE, or whether it is pedagogically neutral. Of course, the specific instance of "online learning" must be understood to address such a question.
Schools that offer wholly online CBE are much more likely to report wholly self-paced CBE. This matches the asynchronous nature of much of online learning to the asserted pedagogic virtues of self-paced study.
Findings from a final survey question offered more insight into the detail of CBE offerings. Schools that self-identified as CBE-active were asked about the availability of a variety of additional tools and features commonly associated with CBE:
| | YES, FOR ALL CBE STUDENTS | YES, FOR MANY CBE STUDENTS | YES, FOR SOME CBE STUDENTS | PLANNED | NOT PLANNED |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Learning analytics dashboard for faculty | 12% | 10% | 8% | 42% | 28% |
| Early intervention alert system | 31% | 10% | 15% | 27% | 17% |
| Badges or other micro- credentials | 4% | 4% | 6% | 39% | 46% |
| Faculty-to-student real-time collaboration | 26% | 13% | 18% | 25% | 17% |
| Student-to-student real-time collaboration | 20% | 14% | 18% | 23% | 25% |
| Mobile-optimized interface | 13% | 6% | 13% | 30% | 38% |
| Manage non-standard financial aid | 11% | 11% | 7% | 27% | 48% |
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Figure 11 indicates that there is no single feature or tool universally available for all CBE students from responding institutions. The most common tools were early intervention alerts and collaboration tools. Tools and features were more often in the planning stages than currently in place. In some cases (e.g., micro-credentials and non-standard financial aid), the largest number of respondents said they had no plans to implement certain CBE features or tools. For many institutions, CBE is seen to be consistent with standard financial aid models and conventional credentials.
OPERATIONS: WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE?
A portion of survey questions asked CBE-active institutions about the role of faculty. For some, CBE is associated with significant change to the faculty role, emphasizing a student mentor role rather than direct instruction. These institutions also indicated an emphasis on assessment of competency over course creation. How did institutions in the sample describe the faculty role? The response options in Figure 12 are ordered from the most to the least commonly-cited faculty role.
Figure 12. Business as Usual?
(N= 162 institutions that indicated some level of CBE activity)
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Relatively few sample institutions could point to a well-developed group of non-faculty support staff for CBE offerings playing roles beyond standard advising. This is consistent with arrangements driven by conventional faculty roles and assumptions.
Another question addressed how CBE course content and competencies are created:
Figure 13. Who Defines Competencies?
(N= 162 institutions that indicated some level of CBE activity)
Figure 13 reveals that CBE competencies and other content are most likely to be created largely from scratch by in-house faculty. The logic of CBE—emphasizing clarity of learning outcomes and assessment—suggests a different balance between localized and standardized approaches. It makes the case for institutions to look beyond their walls when it comes to course and program building blocks. The idea that every institution and every faculty member might embrace CBE by inventing their own competencies and assessments, rather than strategically leveraging collective good practice when high quality materials already exist, runs counter to a major part of the modality's potential. The second most common source in Figure 13 is the adaptation of existing internal content.
48%
44%
31%
31%
19%
18%
5%
How are CBE competencies
and other content created
at your institution?
Largely from scratch
by our faculty
Adapted
internal content
Faculty and
third party
Employer/association
partnerships
Adapted
external content
Bundled into LMS
Commissioned
third party
The three externally-oriented sources, adapted external content, bundled into a LMS, and commissioned by a third party, exhibit the lowest response rates. In response to a different question, only 1% of respondents said they only employ open educational resources (OER) for their CBE offerings, and 50% said they never use such materials. Ten percent say use is frequent and 39% say it is occasional.
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What about CBE training for faculty and instructional support staff?
rubrics
Figure 14 suggests that for many institutions, opportunities for faculty training may not be consistent with the roles that faculty members play in CBE programs. For example, although 78% of institutions report that faculty plays a lead role in assessment (Figure 12), only 61% receive training in designing these assessments. This may indicate a lag between what faculty members do, and what training and support is available to them. Other dimensions or features of CBE, such as early intervention protocols, PLA, and learning analytics appear to be less commonly supported by training. Barely a quarter of respondents indicate availability of training and support for faculty to strengthen student communities. This reflects the prominence of selfpaced study in CBE, which treats cohorts and communities more informally.
CBE is associated with superior data on student performance. The combination of discrete competencies, personalized pathways, and tracking technology support data-driven efforts to improve learning. The survey asked CBE-active schools how CBE student performance data is used.
Figure 15 cautions that use of CBE student data lags behind data generation. CBE has the potential to create a stronger feedback loop between demand and supply, through channels such as personalized pathways for individual students based on prior experience or curriculum refinement following employer feedback on graduate placements. Survey data suggests that, in reality, use of such feedback is still emergent. Only 26% of respondents said that data is used to create personalized pathways, and only 17% use data to help place graduates in employment. Even more rudimentary uses of data, such as early intervention to boost student retention or evaluation of program positioning and viability, remain minority pursuits at present.
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(N= 162 institutions that indicated some level of CBE activity)
52%
When asked whether CBE student data is integrated with the institution's student information system (SIS), one-third said it is not currently possible. Only 23% said integration is routine.
OUTCOMES: IT'S EARLY DAYS
The ultimate question is: does CBE work? Does it outperform conventional approaches? Which CBE components have the biggest impact? As with any innovation, prospective adopters look for proof of efficacy earlier than the necessary maturation can provide. CBE is at that stage, at least in terms of recent enthusiasm. Few providers have offered CBE for long enough at any scale to permit robust outcomes data. Even among established CBE providers, some of which have been in operation for decades, conspicuous, unambiguous performance data can be hard to find. Conventional metrics tend to exclude non-traditional providers, students, and modalities (e.g., the federal undergraduate graduation rate is a case in point).
To answer these questions, the survey asked respondents for their opinion about:
* the comparative level of effort required by faculty and other instructional staff in CBE offerings versus conventional education.
* learning outcomes and completion rates.
* the quality of communication between faculty and students.
Figure 16 compares the level of effort between CBE and conventional programs for faculty and other instructional staff:
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Figure 16. CBE is Hard Work, but Does it Have to Be?
(N= 162 institutions that indicated some level of CBE activity)
For schools with a decentralized academic culture, CBE implementation may prove patchy and uneven, fostering pockets of innovation that are difficult to institutionalize. The diversity of CBE practice must also be a variable in real and perceived effort, making it difficult to tease out cause and effect. Indeed, 7% of respondents pointed to programmatic, demographic, or other variables within their CBE offerings that determine relative effort.
None of the institutions that view CBE as their dominant mode of instruction or have five or more CBE programs regards the modality as much less effort than conventional alternatives. Two-thirds reserve judgment or regard the effort as uniform. Just one respondent found CBE to be somewhat less effort. This institution—a large online for-profit—may be more able than most to squeeze efficiency from the modality. It may also achieve more standardization and re-use of competencies, assessments, and courses, and can anticipate further gains at scale.
Respondents took a more positive view of the quality of faculty-student communication: Figure 17 indicates that the majority of CBE-active schools consider it premature to come to a conclusion about the quality of faculty-student communication, or see little or no difference. Unlike perceived effort, more see communication gains (17%) than declines (5%). Fully 40% of schools that regard
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CBE as their dominant delivery mode or have more than five CBE programs report communication as stronger, and none as weaker. These results may be due to the "mentor" model of the facultystudent relationship championed by many CBE advocates, reserving precious faculty time for highquality, one-on-one interaction at the expense of often less-impactful, one-to-many activities, such as lectures. The fact that 14% of the sample said communication varies by program points to the inevitable tension between CBE in principle and in practice.
Figure 17. The Power of Mentorship?
(N= 168 institutions that indicated some level of CBE activity)
What about student outcomes?
Akin to the view on faculty-student communication, the balance of opinion on learning outcomes and completion is positive. Figure 18 shows that 17% think CBE's performance is superior, while only 3% think the opposite. Similarly, the bulk of respondents sees either no difference or cites program-level variation as more influential than the CBE label by itself.
Among institutions that regard CBE as their dominant approach or have more than five CBE programs, 30% have a positive take on this question, while 60% see either no change or programlevel variation. This is encouraging, but it is also a further reminder that CBE implementation must contend with many cultural, demographic, and programmatic factors that will shape or undermine its success.
The "other" respondents indicated either that learning outcomes are better under CBE but completion rates are worse, or vice versa.
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Figure 18. CBE Against the World (N= 140 institutions that indicated some level of CBE activity)
COMMITMENTS AND FUTURE PLANS
What are institutional plans for CBE going forward? What is the level of institutional commitment? For most schools, CBE is a relatively new undertaking or is still on the horizon.
The survey gathered perspectives from two sub-groups, including:
* schools that reported as currently CBE-active.
* schools that are interested in CBE, but not yet active.
Figure 19 outlines future plans for the CBE-active subgroup and indicates both a relatively small number of institutions that see mainstream potential in CBE, and a much higher ratio that view CBE as appropriate for some programs or students but not others. This speaks to the question of whether CBE is an inherently better fit for certain types of students, such as adult learners, or in certain academic areas, such as quantitative fields. Is CBE an option schools might offer students, or is CBE a "better" way? Is CBE a matter of personal preference or should it be a recommended or required route?
Associate institutions were least likely to be in the experimental phase; doctoral institutions were least likely to see mainstream potential. Most CBE active schools (47%) either agree or strongly agree that a senior administrator has responsibility for CBE, and only 15% disagree. About a third said that leadership varies by CBE component.
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Figure 19. Where Does CBE Fit?
(N= 174 institutions that indicated some level of CBE activity)
Almost one-third of CBE-active schools said that CBE plays a major part in their current or next strategic plan, or both. This signals still burgeoning interest in CBE, and ongoing review and discussion as to what "CBE" might mean in practice. The direction of contemporary CBE enthusiasm remains far from determined or clear. Another 41% said CBE plays a minor role in their current or next strategic plan. The remaining schools reported that CBE is not part of institution-level strategic planning, which points to CBE as sub-institutional innovation at this stage.
About half of the CBE-active sub-group said that no special funds have been made available for CBE, whether internal or external. The rest did point to some level of special funding: 11% cited major institutional funds and 9% major external funds. Only 6% cited major departmental funding. Forty-one percent mentioned more minor support, whether institutional, departmental, or external. The majority of institutions that cited CBE as a major part of their next strategic plan did not report any major funding. This may suggest early-stage strategic planning, but also a level of uncertainty.
The Lumina Foundation and Council for Adult and Experiential Education (CAEL) were most often cited among the institutions, associations, and groups that helped respondents learn about CBE. EDUCAUSE and Western Governors University were next on the list, followed by the Gates Foundation and the Online Learning Consortium. Only 13% of schools mentioned a state-level initiative. Almost 20% of CBE-active schools said there had been no contact with or use of the resources of any of the organizations listed (including eleven options in total, plus "other").
Schools that said CBE is a major part of their next strategic plan reported interaction with an average of 3.6 external organizations to learn about the modality compared to an average of 2.3 for other schools. Not surprisingly, schools that see CBE as their dominant modality or report a higher number of CBE programs were much more likely to strongly agree that senior leadership is involved.
Among the second sub-group, schools that indicated interest but no current CBE offerings, prospects for the modality were understandably less certain:
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Figure 20. Too Soon to Say
(N= 65 institutions that indicated interest in CBE, but no current offerings)
For this sub-group, the complexity, breadth and possibility of CBE inhibit a clear sense of direction at this stage: 63% are unsure where interest in CBE might take them in five years. Only 5% anticipate that CBE has mainstream potential for their institution, compared to 32% who expect CBE to be a specialized offering or to make use of only selected components of the CBE playbook. No respondent thought that in five years current enthusiasm for CBE would be regarded as a fad.
This sub-group was asked about perceived barriers to CBE development at their institution:
Figure 21 highlights many perceived barriers to the development of CBE at institutions still at the "interest" stage. Compatibility with federal financial aid and competing priorities were
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most often cited as significant barriers, closely followed by lack of resources and faculty skepticism. These results underscore the potential and complexity of CBE. If CBE is understood as relevant for only a minority of students, is it worth the expected upheaval to accommodate non-standard federal aid rules?
Equally, many schools may wrongly imagine the only way to "do CBE" and still be Title IV eligible is to get a special waiver from the federal government. Willingness to map competencies to credit hours requires no special permission or disruption to aid. If "doing CBE" is perceived as requiring massive change to course development and pedagogic and assessment assumptions, finite resources and faculty interests may mean CBE never gets sufficient attention. Perceived lack of expertise—cited as a significant barrier by 46% of this sample—speaks to the same tensions.
The capabilities of legacy SIS and LMS systems are also called out as significant barriers, if to a lesser extent. The "don't know" answer choice for SIS was the highest of any option. Lack of clarity as to what "doing CBE" means in practice—radical change versus augmenting standard arrangements—clouds judgment about system compatibility.
Student demand, student fit, and leadership skepticism were among the least cited as significant barriers, although the majority considered all items at least somewhat of a barrier. There were no clear associations between rationales for CBE and perceived barriers.
PORTRAITS OF CBE PRACTICE
A primary goal of this project is to illuminate the range and diversity of how CBE is implemented across a spectrum of higher education institutions. Rather than suggest that there is a single path forward for CBE aspirants, the 2016 data suggests that there are multiple ways in which institutions can leverage CBE.
Based on the 2016 CBE survey scoring model, it is possible to highlight a number of institutions that merit greater attention. These institutions have been selected because they received high scores on an initial screening question, indicating they were actively utilizing a broad variety of CBE components and addressing a diversity of institutional goals. Secondly, their responses to the balance of the survey questions resulted in comparatively high scores across the model, including: commitment, scope, attributes, operations, tools, and outcomes:
* Scope: extent and range of current CBE activity
* Attributes: CBE offerings, characteristics, and features
* Operations: CBE governance, roles, support services, and platform tools
* Outcomes: CBE performance
* Commitment: institutional or departmental support for CBE going forward
The institutions featured here can serve as examples for other institutions, and point toward patterns of innovative design and practice. Some indicate that CBE is the dominant mode of instruction that defines their institution, while others have had success in implementing CBE within a single department or academic program. These models represent unique yet tangible expressions of how CBE can be operationalized by an institution.
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These portraits are designed to provide additional insights into CBE strategy and practice for likeminded institutions. Rather than highlight established and well-known CBE institutions, they are designed to expose the complexities and nuances of CBE. Many of the institutions most frequently associated with CBE, such as Western Governors University, Northern Arizona University, Southern New Hampshire University, and Brandman University, participated in the 2016 survey. By and large, their data indicated a high degree of commitment and successful implementation. Other institutional models, such as a CBE program in biotech sciences at the University of Texas, suggest new pathways for additional research and analysis. Given the breadth of the 2016 respondents and the depth of their responses, the following portraits will shed light on the diversity of practices across the CBE landscape and serve as potential guideposts for other institutions.
Each of the following portraits is derived from data collected through the 2016 CBE survey and scored based on the purpose-built framework developed by Eduventures.
UNIVERSITY OF MAINE, PRESQUE ISLE (UMPI)
Cohort-driven, Online and Blended Learning for Full-time, First-time Students
* Rural, public university
* Targeting students during transition from high school to college
* Course and program level CBE
UMPI is a small school focused on strengthening retention and completion rates through enhanced support services and innovative pedagogical approaches. In the wake of a 2012 State of Maine legislative initiative to introduce "proficiency-based education" in the state's public K-12 schools by 2017, UMPI leadership initiated an effort to develop CBE programming to address the challenges facing first generation, primarily low income, first-time, full-time students. UMPI is working to ensure that more students, many of whom are the first to attend college in their families, successfully complete the transition from high school to college.
According to the 2016 survey results and discussions with UPMI leadership, CBE is expected to be an effective tool to support the transition from high school to college. It is being piloted in faceto-face, blended, and online components of its courses.
When interviewed, UMPI President Linda Schott expressed confidence that students in Maine high schools, which have begun utilizing elements of "proficiency-based education," would thrive in a university environment that incorporates key CBE components. Rather than typical self-paced CBE programs, UMPI relies on an instructor-driven pacing model. Its model, however, combines flexibility and acceleration with the structure needed to support first-generation students. Dr. Schott and her team anticipated that this kind of customized use of CBE would both differentiate UMPI from other New England schools and provide incoming and continuing students with a supportive yet challenging start to their college education.
UMPI is organizing its educational approach around course-level learning outcomes mapped to existing general education requirements and to workforce-focused degree and certificate requirements. UMPI has been exceedingly careful in making sure the design and operation of its
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program is transparent to its traditional student population. This approach is being developed in UMPI's required general education courses, and in workforce-focused programs such as education, medical lab technology, athletic training, criminal justice, and social work.
Although some faculty members were initially skeptical of this approach, UMPI leadership reports that it has been able to build a culture of inquiry and trust across departments and programs. Rather than supplant faculty, UMPI's approach allows faculty to remain iteratively involved in the development of course-specific outcomes, rubrics, and assessments. As a result, UMPI leadership reports that the faculty is significantly invested in all aspects of designing, delivering, and assessing courses, and subsequently, improving student outcomes. Within UMPI's programs, the use of a modified grading schema and flexible pacing plans enables students to reverse "nonproficient" scores received during a course and receive a higher final grade once they are able to demonstrate their mastery of required skills.
UMPI has submitted a substantive change proposal to its regional accreditor, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, to offer all of its academic programs through a "proficiency-based education" model. It is hoping to obtain final approval within the next year.
Based on its survey results and scores, UMPI represents an example of how a geographically isolated institution can leverage its small size and committed leadership to develop and implement CBE strategies across its programs and courses.
SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE (SLCC)
Self-Paced, Blended, Workforce-Readiness for Underserved Students
* Large, urban community college on multiple campuses
* Targeting underserved students entering technical fields
* Certificate CBE programs
SLCC serves over 60,000 diverse students across multiple locations in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. Following a two-year strategic planning process and after receiving a Department of Labor, Round IV Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant, SLCC began implementing CBE as part of 20 certificate programs within its School of Applied Technology and Technical Specialties (SAT). As of the date of this publication, 10 of the programs have been successfully transitioned to CBE. SLCC's experience with CBE illustrates how a large, public institution has adopted a "greenhouse" approach to experimenting with CBE in selected programs and courses. As part of a broader strategic plan, SLCC hopes to use these initial CBE projects as a springboard for implementing CBE in other SLCC schools and departments.
SLCC's initial motivation in exploring CBE stemmed from two core institution-wide goals: improving access to certificates and associate degrees for underserved students and strengthening workforce preparedness across all disciplines. The SAT was selected as the "greenhouse" for CBE since, unlike other divisions of the institution, it had greater practical autonomy in designing and delivering new programs. Additionally, SAT's mission, in part, is mandated by the Utah Legislature to enhance workforce preparedness.
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According to Dr. Eric Heiser, Dean of the School of Applied Technology and Technical Specialties, SLCC's CBE program development has utilized a backward design process, beginning with endof-course assessments to identify the core competencies required at a course level. For Dean Heiser, the process is akin to tearing down a curriculum "to the studs," in order to surface the specific competencies required to meet course requirements. Not surprisingly, this is a detailed and complex process. Several lead members of the faculty, with deep awareness of industries and their hiring needs, stepped forward to help lead this effort within the SAT. They did so largely because of their sense that area employers would hire graduates with demonstrated mastery of specific career-focused competencies.
As part of SLCC's broad mission, CBE is being utilized within the SAT to expand access and strengthen support systems for underserved populations seeking entry into technical fields. These areas of study have included computer networking, healthcare sciences, and culinary arts. At SLCC, CBE features outcomes-driven, self-paced, blended courses as part of specific certificate and programs within SAT. Based on this initial approach, SLCC intends to expand its use of CBE components and is evaluating the efficacy of more advanced online instructional tools, such as personalized progress tracking and adaptive learning analytics.
After these initial efforts to implement CBE within the School of Applied Technology and Technical Specialties, SLCC is now moving ahead with plans to introduce CBE in other divisions. These will include a biotechnology associate degree program and the integration of CBE into general education pathways, leading to associate degrees. After helping to meet specific goals within a single division of SLCC, there is a broader awareness and understanding of CBE's applicability among other branches of the institution.
VALDOSTA STATE UNIVERSITY (VSU)
Self-Paced and Blended Learning for STEM Teacher Professional Development
* Mid-sized, regional public university
* Targeting local STEM teachers complying with state requirements
* CBE for teacher licensure endorsement
VSU serves students from throughout southwest Georgia. VSU's CBE programs emphasize employer-driven outcomes and self-paced learning to improve employability for students in a small number of courses in its Dewar College of Education and Human Services (COEHS). This effort is part of a broader initiative to strengthen STEM teaching statewide, and is part of an effort throughout the University System of Georgia. In VSU's case, the initial target population for CBE programming is teachers seeking licensure endorsements in STEM under new Georgia Department of Education requirements.
Although VSU is focused on a relatively small-scale project, it has been able to deploy a robust range of CBE features and program components. In this manner, a highly targeted CBE prototype has enabled VSU to gather significant insights into its program. These insights will prove useful for the COEHS and this immediate program, and are intended to drive the development of other CBE programs within VSU schools and departments.
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As a program embedded within a well-known and successful college of education, VSU's CBE initiative effectively leverages existing relationships with local districts and its awareness of the preferences and needs of area teachers. There was an expectation that these older, professionally-focused students would respond to the opportunity to secure additional content endorsements through an outcomes-driven CBE approach. This expectation was reinforced by VSU's reliance on a series of intensive focus groups with students designed to provide ongoing feedback on critical components of CBE programs, such as instructional design and student support services.
In addition to these qualitative tools, the development of VSU's CBE program relied on several key formative assessments in order to gauge student progress toward mastery. According to Dr. Anthony Scheffler, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at VSU, "this combined qualitative and quantitative approach to program assessment has helped to define a data-driven, continuous improvement process and has been critical to program improvement."
Based on the 2016 survey results, VSU's CBE implementation reveals a number of important insights. First, VSU is attempting to utilize CBE programming to enhance the career advancement opportunities for area teachers, many of whom are older, experienced professionals who would be unlikely to opt for an additional education degree. Instead, armed with an actionable awareness of what teachers want, VSU's CBE programming attracts highly motivated and qualified students to this STEM endorsement program. This program benefits the employability and advancement prospects for these teachers, and deepens the STEM content and skills of their students.
Secondly, VSU's use of CBE prior learning assessments can effectively prepare teachers to meet or exceed the State of Georgia's requirements for STEM endorsements. The presence of statewide STEM endorsement requirements enabled VSU to map its CBE instruction against highly tangible and concrete outcomes.
Finally, VSU's leadership recognizes that the development of its CBE programming is part of an ongoing and iterative process. A quality CBE approach can't be built overnight, and won't effectively impact students without an ongoing flow of both qualitative and quantitative feedback.
Although the VSU program has incorporated several key technologies, it is also experimenting with early-alert student support systems. VSU indicated interest in other CBE instructional tools, such as learning analytics software and micro-credentials.
IMPLICATIONS FOR CBE: SEEING THE BIG PICTURE
This study offers institutions and other stakeholders an opportunity to step back and reflect on current attention to CBE. Rising interest can be best understood as an expression of widespread concern regarding affordability, completion rates, and graduate employability. While these pressures are undeniable, the survey results underscore the need for institutions to carefully weigh the pros and cons of CBE, and determine their path forward proactively rather than in reaction to a swell of popularity.
When we examine these results as a whole, several overarching takeaways emerge. It is abundantly clear that CBE does not reflect a single learning modality, nor should it be considered simply a delivery mode. Instead, it is a complex and nuanced approach to how education can be enacted and measured. It challenges long-held conventions about how curricula are organized, instruction is designed and delivered, and skills and knowledge are assessed. CBE raises critically
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important questions about the roles that faculty and other support providers can play. These issues will not be resolved overnight, but rather require institutions to do something they do not always have the luxury to do: take a step back and assess the applicability of CBE to their own institutional contexts and strategic goals.
There is considerable confusion about what "CBE" is or can be. Particular models of CBE get the lion's share of attention, obscuring how diverse institutions might combine CBE components with traditional assumptions to create something both innovative and practical. Our survey was designed to elicit the full breadth of CBE activity and interest, and the results confirm that mixed understanding and awareness hamper progress.
The survey showed that institutions use the "CBE" name to identify a range of practices, and use other terms to describe what some schools call CBE. This complexity reflects the richness of the CBE palette, and its potential to enhance higher education. At the same time, it may also risk chaos as hundreds of schools and thousands of leaders and practitioners grapple with implementation.
There is a tension between the logic of CBE, which pushes a more standardized approach to establishing competencies, curricula, and course content, and the decentralized culture of higher education. Encouraging each institution—and each department and faculty member—to write their own competencies and content may be the best way to ensure that CBE scales, but will mean a duplication of work and diluted impact. The extra effort CBE often entails comes through strongly in the survey results. This effort will only be exacerbated if every CBE initiative tries to go it alone. Getting the balance right between centralization and decentralization will prove crucial to the future of CBE.
Finally, the survey results suggest that near-term opportunities to rapidly accelerate the growth and expanded scale of CBE, beyond a set of innovative early adopters, may be limited. There is a cohort of institutions with advanced CBE capabilities at scale, which may continue to expand, but generally do not represent a realistic pathway for most institutions. To achieve systemlevel impact with CBE, program innovators, researchers, and institution leaders must shape the modality into courses, programs, and degree pathways that build on legacy arrangements and address pressing local problems.
Our portraits of diverse CBE implementation point to realistic ways, both large and small, that institutions can take advantage of the CBE idea. CBE has immense potential to help colleges and universities of many stripes enhance existing models to address quality and productivity challenges. The promise of CBE is nothing new. Despite prior interest, it has never become mainstream. New technology adds to the power of CBE but is not sufficient to overcome past obstacles. To make real headway, CBE advocates must be both ambitious and realistic.
Over the next two years, Ellucian, Eduventures, and the American Council for Education will continue to examine the prospects for broader implementation and growth of CBE. While external factors, such as accreditation and financial aid, will affect the pace at which CBE expands, it is anticipated that CBE will be mostly shaped by institutional cultures. A sharper understanding of the accelerators and inhibitors of CBE implementation at the institutional and sub-institutional level will be the focus of the next phase of this study.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Activities & Impact C-BEN Year Two Report." C-BEN, Mar. 2106.
<http://www.publicagenda.org/files/ActivitiesAndImpact_CBENYear2Report_2016.pdf>.
Book, Patricia. "All Hands on Deck – 10 Lessons from Early Adopters of CBE." WCET.WICHE.edu, Oct. 2014.
<http://wcet.wiche.edu/sites/default/files/2014-All-Hands-On-Deck-Final.pdf>.
"Is Competency Based Education Worth the Investment? (EdSurge News)." EdSurge.com. N.p., 2016. <https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-05-09-is-competency-based-education-worth-the-investment>.
Johnstone, Sally. "The Push Towards Outcome Based Institutional Strategies." CBE Info, n.d. <http://evolllution.com/revenue-streams/market_opportunities/the-push-towards-outcomes-basedinstitutional-strategies/>.
Kelchen, Robert. "The Landscape of Competency-Based Education Enrollments, Demographics and Affordability." AEI Series on Competency-Based Higher Education. Center on Higher Education Reform, American Enterprise Institute, Jan. 2015.
<http://www.aei.org/publication/landscape-competency-based-education-enrollments-demographicsaffordability/>.
Lacey, Aaron, and Christopher Murray. "Rethinking the Regulatory Environment of CompetencyBased Education." AEI Series on Competency-Based Higher Education
<https://www.aei.org/publication/rethinking-the-regulatory-environment-of-competency-basededucation/>.
Mallett, Chris. "What's Old in New Again....A CBE Long Read." N.p., Apr. 2016. <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-old-new-again-cbe-long-read-chris-mallett>.
"Myths and Misconceptions about Competency-Based Education." Eduventures. May 2015.
"Research Brief on the Survey of the Shared Design Elements and Emerging Practices of CBE Programs." Public Agenda, January, 2016.
<http://www.publicagenda.org/files/SurveyOfSharedDesignElementsAndEmergingPracticesOfCBEPrograms_ PublicAgenda_2015.pdf>.
Soldner, Matthew, and Kelly Parsons. "Making the Case for Competency-Based Education: Early Lessons From the Field." American Institutes for Research RSS. Web. 16 May 2016.
<http://www.air.org/resource/making-case-competency-based-education-early-lessons-field>.
The Journal of Competency-Based Education. Western Governors University. N.p., 2015.
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ABOUT ELLUCIAN
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Visit Ellucian at www.ellucian.com.
ABOUT EDUVENTURES
Eduventures is the leading research and advisory firm focused exclusively on analyzing the forces transforming higher education. Building on twenty years of success in working with education leaders, Eduventures provides forward-looking, actionable research based on proprietary market data and advisory services that support both strategic and operational decision-making. Our recommendations and personalized support enable clients to understand the top traits of leaders in critical disciplines and to evaluate the opportunities presented by new technologies.
More about Eduventures can be found at www.eduventures.com.
ABOUT ACE
Founded in 1918, ACE is the major coordinating body for all the nation's higher education institutions, representing more than 1,600 college and university presidents and related associations. It provides leadership on key higher education issues and influences public policy through advocacy.
For more information, please visit www.acenet.edu or follow ACE on Twitter @ACEducation.
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ACTA MICROBIOLOGICA BULGARICA Volume 34 / 2 (2018)
Microbiological Parameters of Technosols Monitored for Hydrophobicity
Kostadinka Nedyalkova, Galina Petkova, Irena Atanassova * , Martin Banov, Plamen Ivanov
"N. Poushkarov" Institute of Soil Science, Agrotechnologies and Plant Protection, 7 Shosse Bankya Str., Sofia 1331, Bulgaria
Abstract
Keywords: hydrophobicity, Technosols, microbial numbers, basal soil respiration, microbial biomass carbon
Soil hydrophobicity causes reduced water infiltration rate and has a negative impact on plant growth. Reports on hydrophobicity of Technosols are limited, and in Bulgaria studies have been initiated only recently. The present work aimed to monitor two Technosols (non-vegetated and afforested with Pinus nigra) located near Obruchishte (Maritsa-Iztok coal mines) for hydrophobicity level and to assess their microbiological status. In total, 24 soil samples from 12 sampling points and two soil depths (0-10 сm and 10-20 сm) were analyzed for hydrophobicity, moisture content, numbers of cultivable microorganisms, basal respiration and microbial biomass carbon. The hydrophobicity was measured by water-drop-penetration-time (WDPT) test. Microbial numbers were determined by plate counts technique. Sample incubation in closed vials was used to determine basal respiration and microbial biomass carbon. Among the studied samples, 42% possessed severe hydrophobicity, 37% were strongly hydrophobic and 21% were non-hydrophobic (hydrophilic). Both soils were characterized with low numbers of bacteria, actinomycetes and fungi (10 2 CFU/g), and low levels of basal respiration rate (0.13-6.54 mg CO 2 -C/100g/24h) and microbial biomass carbon (1.57-18.86 mg C/100g). Values widely differed among sampling points and layer depths because of the high heterogeneity of the soil substratum. The hydrophobic samples contained a relatively higher amount of saprotrophic fungi than hydrophilic ones.
Резюме
Почвената хидрофобност причинява намалена способност за инфилтриране на водата и оказва негативно влияние върху развитието на растенията. Публикациите във връзка с хидрофобните свойства на техногенни почви (Technosols) са ограничени, а в България изследванията по този въпрос започнаха неотдавна. Настоящата работа има за цел мониторинг на две техногенни почви (незалесена и залесена с черен бор, Pinus nigra) за хидрофобност и оценка на микробиологичния им статус. Почвите са разположени в близост до с.Обручище в района на въгледобивния басейн Марица-Изток. Анализирани са 24 почвени проби, взети от два слоя (0-10 см и 10-20 см) в 12 точки на пробовземане. Определени са нивото на хидрофобност, почвената влага, числеността на основните групи почвени микроорганизми, общата микробиологична активност (почвено дишане) и микробиалния въглерод. Почвената хидрофобност е определена чрез измерване на времето, необходимо за проникване на водната капка (WDPT, s) в почвата. Числеността на микроорганизмите е отчетена върху агарови среди. Почвеното дишане и въглерода в микробиалната биомаса са определени чрез инкубация в затворени съдове. Установено е, че 42% от почвените проби са екстремно хидрофобни, 37% са силно хидрофобни и 21% са хидрофилни. Двете почви се характеризират с ниска численост на бактериите, актиномицетите и плесенните гъби (от порядъка на 10 2 CFU/g), и ниски нива на микробиологична активност (0.13-6.54 mg CO 2 -C/100g/24h) и микробиален въглерод (1.57-18.86 mg C/100g). Стойностите на тези показатели варират в широки граници в зависимост от точките на пробовземане и почвения слой поради високата хетерогенност на почвения субстрат. В хидрофобните проби относителния дял на плесенните гъби е по-висок в сравнение с хидрофилните почвени проби.
* Corresponding author: email@example.com
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Introduction
In a recent study (Nedyalkova et al., 2018), pioneer information on the level of hydrophobicity in the spring and microbial properties of samples of hydrophobic Technosols from the area of Maritsa-Iztok coal mines was reported. It is known that hydrophobicity, in general, is strongly dependent on the soil moisture and often is reversible (Doerr et al., 2000). We intended to check the hydrophobicity level of the same soils in the hot (summer) season when shifts in soil hydrophobicity status are expected.
Soil hydrophobicity (soil water repellency) is a reduced water retention of soils (Doerr et al., 2000). The negative impact on water infiltration leads to soil erosion, nutrient loss and decrease in plant growth and crop production. Hydrophobic properties are found in different soil types - sandy, loam, clay, peat and volcanic ash soils (Dekker et al., 2005) but little information is available about hydrophobic Technosols and especially on their microbiological parameters. In Bulgaria those studies have been initiated recently.
Among microbiological parameters, basal soil respiration and microbial biomass carbon content were widely used in ecological studies of different soil types (Nannipieri et al., 1990; Alef, 1995) and were successfully applied for reclaimed mine soils (Ingram et al., 2005).
The aim of the study was to monitor two Technosols for hydrophobicity level in the summer season and to assess soil microbiological status.
Material and Methods
Samples from a non-vegetated site and an afforested with pine trees (Pinus nigra) site, situated at about 30 m from each other, were collected in the summer (end of July) of 2017. At each site, 6 sampling points were chosen and samples from two layers - 0- (5)10 cm and 10-20 cm, were taken using a core sampler (3 cm-wide and 25 cm-long). In total, 24 soil samples (as listed in Table 1) were analyzed for hydrophobicity, moisture content, microbial amount, basal soil respiration and microbial biomass carbon content. All measurements were made in triplicates.
Two Technosols located near the village of Obruchishte, Maritsa–Iztok coal mines (Bulgaria) were investigated for hydrophobicity level. They consisted of loam-textured Pliocene overburden sediments compiled more than 30 years ago during open-cast lignite mining activities and later were subjected to reclamation with coal ash.
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Soil hydrophobicity was assessed by water-drop-penetration-time (WDPT) test. Three water drops were placed onto the sample surface and the time for their complete infiltration into soil was recorded. The median value of the triplicate time was considered as hydrophobicity value of a sample. According to WDPT, samples were classified in the following classes (De Bano, 1981): non-hydrophobic or hydrophilic (WDPT<5 s), strongly hydrophobic (5<WDPT<600 s), and severely hydrophobic (WDPT>600 s). Soil moisture content was calculated after drying the samples at 105°C.
The respiration was measured in the laboratory after roots and macrofauna were removed from the samples, thus the CO 2 evolution rate (basal respiration) represented the total microbial activity in the soil (Nannipieri et al., 1990). The soil was sieved (2 mm sieve), then fine roots were taken out and the samples were adjusted to 60% (w/w) moisture content. Basal soil respiration was determined in tightly closed vials after 24 h -incubation, as described by Alef (1995). After that samples were amended with glucose and incubated for another 4 hours at 22 o C to determine microbial biomass carbon (C mic ). The CO 2 evolved was determined by titration. Microbial carbon was calculated according to the equation proposed by Anderson and Domsch (1978).
The amount of the main groups of cultivable microorganisms was determined by plate count technique. Ten-fold serial dilutions of samples were used to inoculate soil suspension on selective agar media. Soil bacteria were cultivated on Nutrient broth agar, actinomycetes – on starch-ammonium agar (Hutchinson's) medium and saprotrophic fungi – on Czapek's agar medium (Grudeva et al., 2007). After incubation at 28°C, microbial colonies were counted and results were calculated as colony-forming units per gram of absolutely dry soil (CFU/g).
Mean values were compared by the least significant differences (LSD) at p ≤ 0.05 under ANOVA. Correlation analyses were used to examine relations between the parameters.
Results
Among the studied samples, 42% possessed severe hydrophobicity, 37% were strongly hydrophobic and 21% were non-hydrophobic (hydrophilic). All but one samples from the non-vegetated soil were hydrophobic. Eight of the samples from Pinus nigra vegetated Technosols were severely and strongly hydrophobic and the remaining four sam- ples were hydrophilic (Table 1).
In non-vegetated Technosol, bacteria numbers widely varied (0.07 to 6.04 CFU/g x 10 2 ) among soil layers of different hydrophobicity. The amount of actinomycetes (0 - 0.21 CFU/g x 10 2 ) was too low or absent in some sampling points. Saprotrophic fungi numbers (0.26 - 0.61 CFU/g x 10 2 ) did not change substantially among samples (Table 1).
Soil moisture ranged from 9.29 to 21.95 % in the non-vegetated soil, and from 13.64 to 31.58% in Pinus nigra vegetated soil. No correlation between moisture content and WDPT of samples was found.
The relative amount of bacteria, actinomycetes and fungi in all hydrophilic and all hydrophobic samples of both soils are shown in Fig. 1.
,
actinomycetes increased to 0 - 3,2 CFU/g x 10 2 , and fungi reached 0.48 – 3.5 CFU/g x 10 2 considering both soil layers (Table 1).
In the Pinus nigra vegetated Technosol bacteria numbered between 0.19 - 12.33 CFU/g x 10 2
In non-vegetated soil, CO 2 production ranged from 1.51 to 6.54 mg CO 2 -C/100g/24h in 0-10 cm layer and between 0.75-5.52 mg CO 2 -C/100g/24h in 10-20 cm layer. In Pinus nigra vegetated soil, CO 2 values varied between 0.14-3.67 mg CO 2 C/100g/24h in top layer and between 0.13-2.21 mg CO 2 -C/100g/24h in the lower layer. Mean values are presented in Fig.2.
Table 1. Hydrophobicity level of Technosol samples according the water-drop-penetration-time (WDPT), soil moisture content and microbial counts (CFU/g) in distinct sampling points. Values in columns followed by similar letters are not significantly different at p<0.05
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Microbial biomass carbon (C mic ) content varied between 8.18-18.86 mg C/100g for 0-10 cm layer, and between 3.17-14.98 in 10-20 cm layer of non-vegetated soil. In the vegetated soil C mic values of 1.67-14.38 mg C/100g in 0-10 cm layer and 1.57-14.38 mg C/100g in 10-20 cm layer were measured. Figure 2 shows the average values for both layers of each soil.
Discussion
There was no significant correlation between hydrophobicity (WDPT) and CO 2 production, microbial biomass carbon or microbial numbers for all samples tested.
The majority of soil samples studied possessed hydrophobic properties. Most of the samples from non-vegetated soil possessed strong and severe level of hydrophobicity. The highest WDPT values were registered in the Pinus nigra vegetated soil. This is in agreement with other studies in which hydrophobicity is associated with evergreen tree types (Doerr et al., 2000). Differences in WDPT values are attributed to the heterogenic composition of the samples and confirm the spatial variability of water repellency of lignitic mine soils
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reported by Gerke et al. (2001).
Microbial number in the Technosols studied was, in general, very low. Values differed among sampling points and layer depths because of the high heterogeneity of the substrata. A decreasing trend of bacteria and actinomycetes numbers with increasing the WDPT values was noticed. Microbial counts in the Pinus nigra vegetated Technosol were higher than those in the non-vegetated soil which was, obviously, due to the influence of vegetation. It is well known that root exudates provide available nutrients for microorganisms and support microbial growth. In addition, the higher soil moisture content of the vegetated soil stimulated microbial growth.
Comparing hydrophobicity levels of the spring (Nedyalkova et al., 2018) and summer (this study) soil samples, it could be pointed out that hydrophobicity decreased in 13 out of 24 samples at both plots.
The increase in the relative amount of fungi in all hydrophobic samples compared to the hydrophilic samples pointed to some relation of fungi with hydrophobicity but the relationship was not significant.
Values of basal respiration and microbial biomass carbon were low and due to sample heterogeneity both parameters varied widely. Vanhala et al. (2005) also pointed out the impact of heterogeneous soil environment in variations of basal soil respiration rate. In this study, the average soil respiration and C mic values were higher in the non-vegetated soil and in the summer samples as compared to the spring samples (Nedyalkova et al., 2018). This could be explained by the higher temperature and hygroscopic moisture, both stimulating organic carbon mineralization in the July samples taken shortly after drizzle in the area.
Conclusion
The Technosols located near Obruchishte (Maritsa-Iztok coal mines) possessed hydrophobic properties. Most of the samples collected from non-vegetated and Pinus nigra vegetated soils studied were classified as strongly and severely hydrophobic. The highest level of hydrophobicity was measured in the soil under Pinus nigra trees. A trend of lowering of hydrophobicity level in the summer samples from both Technosols compared
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to the spring samples was noticed.
In general, both soils were characterized with low microbial counts, low basal respiration rate and microbial biomass carbon. Values widely differed among sampling points and layer depths because of the high heterogeneity of the substrata. The relative amount of saprotrophic fungi was higher in the hydrophobic samples than in the hydrophilic ones.
Acknowledgments
The study was supported by the National Science Fund, Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, project DN 06/1 (2016-2019).
References
Anderson, J. P. E., K. H. Domsch (1978). A physiological method for the quantitative measurement of microbial biomass in soils. Soil Biol. Biochem. 10: 215-221.
Alef, K. (1995). Soil respiration, in: Alef, K., P. Nannipieri (Eds), Methods in Applied Soil Microbiology and Biochemistry. Academic Press, London, pp. 214-218.
De Bano, L. F. (1981). Water repellent soils: a state-of-the-art. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report PS W-46. Berkeley, CA, pp. 21. https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr046/psw_gtr046.pdf
Doerr, S. H., R. A. Shakesby, R. P. D. Walsh (2000). Soil water repellency: its causes, characteristics and hydrogeomorphological significance. Earth-Sci. Rev. 51: 33-65.
Dekker, L. W., K. Oostindie, C. J. Ritsema (2005). Exponential increase of publications related to soil water repellency. Austr. J. Soil Res. 43: 403-442.
Gerke, H. H., E. Hangen, W. Schaaf, R. F. Hüttl (2001). Spatial variability of potential water repellency in a lignitic mine soil afforested with Pinus nigra. Geoderma 102: 255-274.
Ingram, L. J., G. E. Schuman, P. D. Stahl, L. K. Spackman (2005). Microbial respiration and organic carbon indicate nutrient cycling recovery in reclaimed soils. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 69: 1737-1745.
Grudeva, V., P. Moncheva, S. Nedeva, B. Gocheva, S. Antonova-Nedeva, S. Naumova (2007). Handbook of microbiology. University edition SU "St. Kl. Ohridski", p. 356 (in Bulgarian).
Nannipieri, P., S. Grego, B. Ceccanti (1990). Ecological significance of the biological activity in soil, in: Bollag, J. M., G. Stotzky (Eds.), Soil Biochemistry. Marcel Dekker, New York, pp. 293-355.
Vanhala, P., P. Tamminen, H. Fritze (2005). Relationship between basal soil respiration rate, tree stand and soil characteristics in boreal forests. Environ. Monit. Assess. 101: 85-92.
Nedyalkova, K., G. Petkova, I. Atanassova, M. Banov, P. Ivanov (2018). Microbiological properties of hydrophobic and hydrophilic Technosols from the region of Maritsa-Iztok coal mines. C. R. Acad. Bulg. Sci. 71: 577-585.
ACTA MICROBIOLOGICA BULGARICA
Volume 34 / 2 (2018)
Short Communication
Meningitıis Due to Sphingomonas paucimobilis in a Pediatric Patient: A Case Report
1
Nurullah Ciftci 1* , Hatice Turk Dagi 1 , Gulsum Alkan 2 , Fatih Ates 1 , Inci Tuncer
1Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Selcuk University, Konya,Turkey
2Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Selcuk University, Konya,Turkey
Abstract
Keywords: Shunt infection, Sphingomonas paucimobilis, Cerebrospinal fluid, Meningitis
Sphingomonas paucimobilis is a gram-negative, nonfermentative, aerobic, oxidase and catalase positive, non-spore producing bacterium characterizied with yellow pigment production and motile with polar flagella. In this study, we describe an unusual case of S. paucimobilis meningitis in a patient with ventriculoperitoneal shunt. A 13-years-old girl was brought to the emergency room with complaints of fever and headache for two days. She had ventriculoperitoneal shunt surgery following posterior fossa tumor surgery 10 years before. Upon physical examination, the patient was uncomfortable and had 39°C body temperature. Laboratory results were as follows: hemoglobin, 12.6 g/dL; leukocyte count, 18,800/mm 3 (76% neutrophil); platelet count, 179,000/mm 3 ; and C-reactive protein, 34 mg/dL. The patient was prediagnosed with meningitis and cerebrospinal fluid sample (CSF) was taken before the empirical vancomycin and meropenem treatment. Shunt was removed, CSF was drained externally. The sample was sent to the Microbiology laboratory. CSF sample was inoculated on 5% sheep blood agar and Eosin-Methylene Blue agar. After 24 hours of incubation at 37 o C, Gram-negative bacilli were grown on media. The isolate was identified as S. paucimobilis using the VITEK 2 automated system. The bacterium was susceptible to imipenem, colistin, levofloxacin, meropenem and cefepime. The patient was treated successfully with appropriate antibiotic treatment. We describe this unusual case of ventriculoperitoneal shunt infection with S. paucimobilis. In conclusion, S. paucimobilis is an infectious agent that is prevalent in nature but may also be isolated in the hospital setting. It can lead to nosocomial or community acquired infections. Although it can be eliminated with prophylactic therapy, sensitivity pattern should be definitely studied to determine the optimal treatment.
Резюме
Sphingomonas paucimobilis е Грам-отрицателна, неферментативна, аеробна, оксидаза- и каталаза-положителна, не-спорообразуваща бактерия, характеризираща се с продуцирането на жълт пигмент, подвижна, с полярни флагели. В настоящото изследване се съобщава за необичаен случай на менингит, причинен от S. paucimobilis, в пациент с вентрикулоперитонеален шунт. Момиче на 13-години постъпва в спешното отделение с оплаквания за треска и главоболие от два дни. Тя е с вентрикулоперитонеален шунт след операция на мозъчен тумор преди 10 години. След първоначалния преглед пациентката е в дискомфорт, с телесна температура 39°C. Лабораторните резултати са: хемоглобин 12.6 g/dL; левкоцити 18,800/mm 3 (76% неутрофили); тромбоцити 179,000/ mm 3 и С-реактивен протеин 34 mg/dL. Предварителната диагноза е менингит и е взета проба от цереброспинална течност (ЦСТ) преди емпиричното третиране с ванкомицин и меропенем. Шунтът е отстранен, а ЦСТ се дренира външно. Изпратена е проба в микробиологичната лаборатория. ЦСТ е инокулирана върху 5% овчи кръвен агар и еозин-метилен блу агар. След 24 ч. инкубация при 37 o C, върху средите се развиват Грам-отрицателни бацили. Чрез автоматизирана система VITEK 2
* Corresponding author: firstname.lastname@example.org
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изолатът е идентифициран като S. paucimobilis. Бактерията е чувствителна към имипенем, колистин, левофлоксацин, меропенем и цефепим. Пациентката е третирана успешно с подходящи антибиотици. В статията описваме този необичаен случай на инфекция на вентрикулоперитонеален шунт с S. paucimobilis. В заключение, S. paucimobilis е инфекциозен агент, широко разпространен в природата, но освен това може да бъде изолиран и в болнична среда. Може да причини инфекции, свързани с медицинското обслужване или придобити в общността. Въпреки че може да бъде елиминиран с профилактична терапия, за оптималното третиране е важно да се проучва лекарствената му чувствителност.
Introduction
S. paucimobilis is rarely isolated from human materials and has a limited role as a causative agent. Because it is rarely encountered in clinical settings there is limited information about its epidemiology and ability to cause human infection. According to recent literature, although S. paucimobilis has minor clinical importance immune-compromised patients, diabetes mellitus and alcoholism are considerable risk factors for primary bacteremia. Infection, especially in immune compromised patients, can lead to septic shock (Tille, 2014) . S. paucimobilis has been isolated from many clinical specimens such as wound infections (brain abscess, splenic abscess, leg ulcer), urine, vaginal, cervical samples, blood cultures and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In the literature, there are a few reported cases of meningitis caused by S. paucimobilis (Ryan and Adley, 2010; Tai and Velayuthan, 2014; Tille, 2014) . In this study, we describe an unusual case of S. paucimobilis meningitis in a patient with ventriculoperitoneal shunt. This case is reported to emphasize that S. paucimobilis should be kept in mind as a nosocomial infectious agent and the infections should be treated according to the susceptibility test results.
Sphingomonas paucimobilis is a non-fermentative, obligately aerobic, gram negative, non-spore producing bacillus and motile by a single polar flagellum. It is oxidase, catalase and esculine hydrolysis positive, urease and indole negative and characterized with a yellow pigment on sheep blood agar. The bacterial growth requires minimum 24-48 hours of incubation, at 30-37 o C (not at 42 o C) and 5% CO 2 or ambient atmosphere. Bacterial growth occurs nearly 48 hours on sheep blood agar (Smalley et al., 1983; Yabuuchi et al., 1990; Ryan and Adley, 2010; Tai and Velayuthan, 2014; Tille, 2014).
10 years before. Upon physical examination, the patient was uncomfortable and had 39°C body temperature. Laboratory results were as follows: hemoglobin, 12.6 g/dL; leukocyte count, 18 800/mm 3 (%76 neutrophil); platelet count, 179 000/mm 3 ; and C-reactive protein, 34 mg/dL. The patient was prediagnosed with meningitis and CSF sample was taken before the empirical vancomycin and meropenem treatment. Shunt was removed, CSF was drained externally. On different days, triplicated CSF samples were sent to the Microbiology laboratory and inoculated on to 5% sheep blood agar and Eosin-Methylene Blue agar (bioMérieux, France). After 24-48 hours of incubation at 37 o C, yellow pigmented, slow growing, catalase and oxidase positive, urease and indol negative Gram-negative bacilli grew on media. The same bacteria were isolated in all three samples. The isolates were identified as S. paucimobilis using the VITEK 2 (Biomerieux, France) automated system. Antimicrobial susceptibility test was carried out with VITEK 2 automated system and the results were evaluated according to the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) break point for Pseudomonas sp (EUCAST, 2016). The bacteria were susceptible to imipenem (MIC 2 µg/mL), colistin (MIC< 0.5 µg/mL), levofloxacin (MIC 0.5 µg/mL), meropenem (MIC 0.5 µg/mL) and cefepime (MIC 8 µg/mL). Although the patient was being treated in the clinic, in the third week CSF culture reproduction continued with S. paucimobilis. Levofloxacin was added to the treatment, two weeks after CSF sterilization. Shunt revision was performed again. The patient was treated successfully with appropriate antibiotic treatment. Therefore, we present this unusual case of VP shunt infection with S. paucimobilis.
Case Presentation
A 13-year-old girl was brought to the emergency room with complaints of fever and headache for two days. She had had ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt following posterior fossa tumor surgery
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Discussion
S. paucimobilis was first described in 1977 as Pseudomonas paucimobilis and was changed in the 1990s to its recent name (Yabuuchi et al., 1990). Bacteria can be found in soil and water but can proliferate in distilled water, hemodialysis flu- ids and sterile drug solutions. So it can cause both community-acquired and nosocomial infections. S. paucimobilis has minor clinical significance and its virulance is low so the bacterium is usually not checked in routine hospital analysis, but it may be clinically important for immuno-compromised patients, diabetes mellitus, post operative and nosocomial infection (Tille, 2014). Therefore, it should be considered as a causative agent alternative to the Pseudomonas , Stenotrophomonas and Burkholderia species for these patients (Ryan and Adley, 2010; Tille, 2014).
In the literature, Hajiroussou et al. (1979) first reported a case of meningitis in a 39-year-old patient, caused by P. paucimobilis (recently S. paucimobilis), and since that time there have been a few cases of meningitis caused by S. paucimobilis (Tai and Velayuthan, 2014; Bolen et al., 2015; Deveci et al., 2017). Deveci et al. (2017) have reported a case of community-acquired S. paucimobilis meningitis in an adolescent patient. The study was the first case of adolescent meningitis caused by S. paucimobilis. Tai and Velayuthan (2014) have reported S. paucimobilis meningitis in a 31-year-old farmer who was working in soil and had a wound in the leg. They reported that the bacteria entered his body
Recently, there have been many studies about this bacterium, which show that the importance of S. paucimobilis has increased over the years (Maragakis et al., 2009; Ryan and Adley, 2010; Deveci et al., 2017). Bacteraemia, ventilator-associated pneumonia, myositis, peritonitis, postoperative postoperative endophthalmitis and catheter-related infections have been reported in literature (Ryan and Adley, 2010; Tille, 2014). But meningitis caused by S. paucimobilis have been reported only in a few case (Hajirousou et al., 1979; Tai and Velayuthan, 2014; Bolen et al., 2015; Deveci et al., 2017). Ryan et al. (2010) have evaluated 240 case reports published about S. paucimobilis and have discovered 52 different cases of infection relating to the presence of S. paucimobilis. In the study, they reported 20 cases of bacteraemia/sepsis, five cases of peritonitis, three cases of pneumonia, three cases of urinary tract infection and the others in only one case. In our country, Erdem et al. (2010) have reported a case of surgical-site surgical-site infection owing to S. paucimobilis. Basoglu et al. (2013) isolated 11 S. paucimobilis strains from tracheal secretion samples (7), urine (2), wound (1) and blood culture (1). Bulut et al. (2008) reported a case of hospital acquired bloodstream infection caused by S. paucimobilis.
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through the wound resulting in bacteraemia and later meningitis. In another study, Bolen et al. (2015) presented the case of S. paucimobilis meningitis in an immuno-compromised patient, which was also the first reported case of ventriculitis caused by this bacterium. In this study, we describe an unusual case of S. paucimobilis meningitis in a 13-years old patient with ventriculoperitoneal shunt.
As yet, there is no standard procedure for antibiotic susceptibility of S. paucimobilis. Based on in vitro susceptibility studies, case specific therapy indication was required, because antibiotic resistance is reported differently in many articles (Fink, 2009). In some studies antibiotic resistance of S. paucimobilis is reported according to EUCAST breakpoint breakpoint for Pseudomonas (Deveci et al., 2017). In our study, we evaluated antibiotic resistance according to EUCAST Pseudomonas break-point breakpoint (EUCAST, 2016). This case is reported to emphasize that S.paucimobilis should be kept in mind as a nosocomial infectious agent and the infections should be treated according to the sensitivity test results.
References
Bolen, R. D., E. Palavecino, A. Gomadam, N. Balakrishman, S. Datar (2015). Sphingomonas paucimobilis meningitis and ventriculitis in an immunocompromised host. J. N. Sci. 359: 18-20.
Başoğlu, T. M., G. Ece, T. Adanır (2013). Hastanemizde üreyen Sphingomonas paucimobilis İzolatlarının Klinik Ve Mikrobiyolojik Açıdan Değerlendirilmesi. Turk. Hij. Deney. Biyol. Derg. 70: 181-184.
Bulut, C., M. A. Yetkin, S. Tekin Koruk, FŞ. Erdinç, E.A. Karakoç (2008). Sphingomonas paucimobilis: Nadir Bir Hastane Kaynaklı Bakteriyemi Etkeni. Mikrobiyol. Bul. 42: 685-688.
Erdem, K. E., T. M. Işıkgöz, A. M. Öztürk, O. R. Sipahi, A. Tünger, H. Pullukçu (2010). Nadir bir cerrahi alan infeksiyonu etkeni: Sphingomonas paucimobilis. Antimikrob. Kemoter. Derg. 24: 234-236.
Deveci, N., N. Gürkan, N. Belet, S. Uğur Baysal (2017). Sphingomonas paucimobilis: Az Rastlanan Bir Menenjit Etkeni. J. Pediatr. Inf. 11: Doi: 10.5578/ced.57342.
European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Breakpoint tables for interpretation of MICs and zone diameters Version 6.0, valid from 2016-01-01 http://www. eucast.org/fileadmin/src/media/PDFs/EUCAST_files/ Breakpoint_tables/v_6.0_Breakpoint_table.xls
Hajirousou, V., B. Holmes, J. Bullas, C. A. Pinning (1979). Meningitis caused by Pseudomonas paucimobilis. J. Clin. Path. 32: 953-955.
Fink, B. (2009). Revision of late periprosthetic infections of total hip endoprostheses: pros and cons of different concepts. Int. J. Med. Sci. 6: 287-295.
Maragakis, L. L., R. Chaiwarith, A. Srinivasan, F. J. Torriani, E. Avdic, A. Lee, T. R. Ross, K. C. Carroll, T. M. Perl
(2009). Sphingomonas paucimobilis bloodstream infections associated with contaminated intravenous fentanyl. Emerg. Inf. Dis. 15: 12-18.
Smalley, D. L., V. R. Hansen, V. S. Baselski (1983). Susceptibility of Pseudomonas paucimobilis to 24 antimicrobial agents. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 23: 161-162.
Ryan, M. P., C. C. Adley (2010). Sphingomonas paucimobilis: a persistent Gram negative nosocomial infectious organism. J. Hosp. Infect. 75:153-157.
Tai, M. L., R. D. Velayuthan (2014). Sphingomonas paucimobilis: an unusual cause of meningitis-case report. Neurol.
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Med. Chir. 54: 337-340.
Yabuuchi, E., I. Yano, H. Oyaizu, Y. Hashimoto, T. Ezaki, H. Yamamoto (1990). Proposals of Sphingomonas paucimobilis gen. nov. and comb. nov., Sphingomonas parapaucimobilis sp. nov., Sphingomonas yanoikuyae sp. nov., Sphingomonas adhaesiva sp. nov., Sphingomonas capsulata comb. nov., and two genospecies of the genus Sphingomonas. Microbiol. Immunol. 34: 99-119.
Tille, P. M. (2014). Bailey and Scott's Diagnostic Microbiology. 13nd ed. Elsevier, London, pp. 376-383.
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Infosys announces strong fourth quarter results
Bangalore, India – April 11, 2001
Highlights
Results for the quarter ended March 31, 2001
* Total income of Rs. 572.08 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2001, an increase of 100.03% over total income of Rs. 286.00 crore for the same quarter in the previous year
* Net earnings per share increased to Rs. 27.46 from Rs. 14.12 in the same quarter in the previous year
* Net addition in employees at 921 in the quarter, including 181 laterals
* 37 new customers added in the quarter, including marquee names such as Monsanto, Vodafone Networks and Swiss Re
Results for the year ended March 31, 2001
* Total income of Rs. 1,959.94 crore for the year ended March 31, 2001, an increase of 112.70% over total income of Rs. 921.46 crore for the year ended March 31, 2000
* Net earnings per share increased to Rs. 95.06 from Rs. 44.38 in the previous year
Outlook for the quarter ending June 30, 2001 and fiscal year ending March 31, 2002
* Total income is expected to be between Rs. 580 crore and Rs. 590 crore, and earnings per share is expected to be between Rs. 27.00 and Rs. 28.00 for the quarter ending June 30, 2001
* Total income is expected to be between Rs. 2,500 crore and Rs. 2,560 crore, and earnings per share is expected to be between Rs. 118.00 and Rs. 121.00 for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2002
Results for the quarter ended March 31, 2001
The audited financial results, according to Indian GAAP, for the quarter ended March 31, 2001 were taken on record by the Board at its meeting held on April 11, 2001.
The profit and loss account is summarized below:
(in Rs. crore except per share data)
Fluctuations in exchange rate(s) during the quarter, with reference to the exchange rate(s) as at March 31, 2000 (March 31, 1999) led to an increase in income from software development of Rs. 31.75 crore (Rs. 8.13 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2000) and an increase in profit before tax of Rs. 17.81 crore (Rs. 4.90 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2000).
Other income of Rs. 10.21 crore (Rs. 8.76 crore) for the quarter includes an amount of Rs. (0.37) crore (Rs. 0.77 crore) arising from exchange differences on translation of foreign currency deposits kept abroad, which may be non-recurring. Further, during the quarter, AlphaThinx Mobile Services AG ("Alpha Thinx"), a company in which Infosys made a strategic investment, filed for liquidation. Pending the conclusion of liquidation proceedings, the company has provided for the entire amount of the investment amounting to Rs. 2.21 crore in its profit and loss account for the quarter ending March 31, 2001.
"We had a very strong quarter," said N. R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman and CEO. "With the economic environment in North America becoming challenging, we estimate a revenue growth rate of 30% for fiscal 2002. As always, we will exploit any new opportunity for higher growth."
Results for the year ended March 31, 2001
Total income for the year ended March 31, 2001 was Rs. 1,959.94 crore, an increase of 112.70% over Rs. 921.46 crore for the previous year. Net profit from ordinary activities was Rs. 623.32 crore, an increase of 117.98% over the corresponding amount of Rs. 285.95 crore for the year ended March 31, 2000.
Fluctuations in exchange rate(s) with reference to the exchange rate(s) as on March 31, 2000 (March 31, 1999), led to an increase in income from software development of Rs. 82.17 crore (Rs. 22.58 crore for the year ended March 31, 2000) and an increase in profit before tax of Rs. 45.37 crore (Rs. 11.63 crore for the year ended March 31, 2000).
Other income of Rs. 59.37 crore (Rs. 39.14 crore) for the year ended March 31, 2001 includes Rs. 20.17 crore (Rs. 9.93 crore) arising from exchange differences on the translation of foreign currency deposits maintained abroad, which may be non-recurring. During the year ended March 31, 2001, EC Cubed Inc. and Alpha Thinx, two companies in which Infosys made strategic investments, filed for liquidation. Pending the conclusion of liquidation proceedings, the company has provided for the entire amount of the investments amounting to Rs. 15.29 crore in its profit and loss account.
The profit and loss account is summarized below:
(in Rs. crore except per share data)
Dividend declaration
The Board of Directors recommended a final dividend of Rs. 7.50 per share (150% on par value of Rs. 5 per share) for fiscal 2001, amounting to Rs. 54.68 crore. Including the interim dividend of Rs. 2.50 per share (50% on par value of Rs. 5 per share) amounting to Rs. 20.18 crore, the total dividend recommended for the year is Rs. 10.00 per share (200% on par value of Rs. 5 per share), amounting to Rs. 74.86 crore.
Business outlook
The company's outlook for the quarter ending June 30, 2001 and fiscal year ending March 31, 2002, under Indian GAAP and US GAAP, is as follows:
Under Indian GAAP
Quarter ending June 30, 2001 (at an assumed exchange rate of US$ 1 = Rs. 46.56):
* Total income is expected to be in the range of Rs. 580 crore to Rs. 590 crore
* Earnings per share is expected to be in the range of Rs. 27.00 to Rs. 28.00
Fiscal year ending March 31, 2002 (at an assumed exchange rate of US$ 1 = Rs. 46.56):
* Total income is expected to be in the range of Rs. 2,500 crore to Rs. 2,560 crore
* Earnings per share is expected to be in the range of Rs. 118.00 to Rs. 121.00
Under US GAAP
Quarter ending June 30, 2001
* Net revenue is expected to be in the range of $ 123 million to $ 125 million
* Earnings per ADS is expected to be in the range of $ 0.28 to $ 0.29
Fiscal year ending March 31, 2002
* Net revenue is expected to be in the range of $ 530 million to $ 545 million
* Earnings per ADS is expected to be in the range of $ 1.24 to $ 1.27
Board appointments
The Board of Directors, at its meeting held on March 29, 2001, co-opted Ms. Rama Bijapurkar, a wellknown management consultant, as an Additional Director of the company with effect from March 29, 2001. Ms. Rama Bijapurkar will hold office up to the date of the next Annual General Meeting, when her appointment as a director will be placed for the approval of the members in the meeting.
The Board of Directors, at various meetings held during the course of the year co-opted:
* Sen. Larry Pressler, former Senator, US Senate and presently an Attorney and Senior Partner in O'Connor and Hannan LLP;
* Dr. Omkar Goswami, Chief Economist to the Confederation of Indian Industry,
* Prof. Jitendra Vir Singh, Vice Dean, International Academic Affairs, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
* Mr. Phaneesh Murthy, Mr. T. V. Mohandas Pai and Mr. Srinath Batni, hitherto officers of the company as Additional Directors of the company, to hold office up to the date of the ensuing Annual General Meeting, when their appointments as directors will be placed for the approval of the members in the meeting.
Mr. Susim M. Dutta retired as a director of the company on May 27, 2000.
De-risking dot-com and venture-funded businesses
E-business engagements comprised 25.8% of revenues in the quarter, as against 28.3% in the quarter ended December 31, 2000. The majority of these engagements involved building robust e-commerce infrastructure for Fortune 1000 companies. Start-up and venture-funded companies accounted for 7.0% of total revenues for the quarter – down from 9.3% for the quarter ended December 31, 2000.
"As part of our de-risking strategy, we further reduced our exposure to start-up companies," said S. D. Shibulal, Director – Customer Delivery. "However, our diverse client base, combined with several high-quality new wins in the quarter, enabled us to maintain our growth."
The following table provides the percentage of income from dot-com and Internet, and telecom start-up companies over the last four quarters.
Utilization rates
The utilization rate excluding trainees was 73.0% during the quarter as compared to 77.6% in the quarter ended December 31, 2000. The utilization rate excluding trainees was 78.3% during the year as compared to 79.4% in the previous year.
The reduction in utilization rates is due to accelerated hiring during the quarter. The company believes this hiring is strategic for tapping new growth opportunities.
Expansion of services and significant projects completed
Infosys acquired 37 clients in Q4 of fiscal 2001 - the highest ever in a quarter - and continued to strengthen its relationships with Fortune 1000 companies across the globe. During the quarter, Infosys expanded its client base in the United States, strengthened operations in Europe and Asia Pacific, and entered into strategic alliances with premier companies, helping them transform their businesses.
"We are in constant touch with our clients. Several of them face uncertain economic conditions," said Nandan M. Nilekani, Managing Director, President and COO. "Our addition of 37 new clients is the highest ever during a quarter. These client wins were especially in the financial services and manufacturing sectors. We have a resilient business model that can meet the challenges thrown up by changing market conditions."
Operations in Europe acquired new momentum with the percentage of revenues from the region going up from 18.8% last quarter to 20.5% this quarter. For the year under consideration, revenues from Europe comprise 18.8% of total revenues as compared to 14.8% in the previous year. With expansion in countries such as UK, Belgium and Germany, Europe is emerging as a key market for Infosys. Our client acquisitions this quarter included two significant ones in Europe:
Monsanto, a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products engaged Infosys to create a Supply Chain Roadmap for the Europe Africa region. Telenet, a premier telecommunications company in Belgium, engaged Infosys to re-architect part of its new generation OSS systems to help address the new business lines it will be launching in the future.
With the boom in wireless services and the emergence of convergence as a global trend, Infosys' emphasis on telecommunications continued with some big wins this quarter.
Infosys has partnered with Vodafone Networks, UK, one of the largest mobile telecommunications companies, with interests in network operators across 25 countries. Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., the largest telecommunication equipment manufacturing company in China is another client in this sector. Huawei designs, manufactures, markets and supports a wide range of telecommunication products. Yet another win was CopperCom, a pioneer in DSL products and technologies. Infosys is also partnering with Vicorp, a global provider of telecommunications infrastructure solutions, to set up a dedicated Engineering Center providing a range of services including research, development, testing and support. Other telecom clients include Avid Technology and Capro Inc.
In the financial services industry, alliances have been formed with various companies to transform their business processes. Deutsche Investment Trust, Germany, is a financial services client from Europe with whom Infosys is working to re-architect a Mutual Fund customer administration system. Infosys also extended its relationship with BHF Bank - the ninth largest bank in Germany and a part of the ING Group - and entered into an alliance with Deutsche Asset Management System.
In the manufacturing domain, a significant win is Dell – a customer Infosys services in the UK and Japan. Siemens Energy and Automation, the US$ 2.1 billion company providing complete electrical, engineering and automation solutions has chosen Infosys to take over the maintenance of its mission critical Order Management and Inventory System.
Three new client acquisitions this quarter from the insurance sector are Marsh Canada Ltd, AXA Japan, and Swiss Re, one of the world's leading reinsurers. Infosys is working with these insurance companies to web-enable their processes.
Infosys also entered into significant strategic alliances during this quarter, driving growth in the respective segments. Among these is a global relationship with TIBCO focusing on developing, promoting, and delivering a comprehensive portfolio of Infosys business solution offerings and enterprise services built using TIBCO products. As a worldwide systems integration partner with i2 Technologies, Infosys provides systems implementation and integration services to customers pursuing fully integrated e-business initiatives. Infosys and Intel signed an agreement to jointly setup a lab in Bangalore, as part of Intel EBSP (E-Business Solution Partner) program. Intel is one of the leaders in the e-Business marketplace with Intel e-Business Network being the largest of its kind.
Projects undertaken
Infosys partnered with a premier fashion apparel firm in the US for the client's entire IT application needs. Infosys is involved in wide ranging aspects of the client's business including multiple systems integration, management of mission-critical wholesale business systems, and building a new merchandise planning and supply chain system.
Infosys executed projects that achieved process automation and re-engineered client activity transaction processing for a leading financial services organization in the US having one of the industry's largest retail branch distribution systems.
Infosys is engaged in a fast track Oracle 11i ERP implementation project with a large retail chain in the UK. The project involves migration of a core financial system to Oracle 11i to make it a common platform for both the core financial system and an Internet procurement application.
Banking
The last quarter saw Infosys sign up several leading banks world-wide for its banking products. Infosys is partnering with the Indian operations of ABN Amro for replacing their existing IT platform with a new generation e-commerce solution. Infosys entered into a partnership with Standard Trust Bank, the sixth largest bank in Nigeria, for implementing its IT architecture based on the web paradigm, which will enable the bank to create a unique advantage in the market. IDBI Bank signed up with Infosys for deploying FINACLE™ e-age banking solution, as part of its IT initiative for driving its business. Infosys will be replacing an international solution and will be providing the critical technology blocks for the bank in its new initiatives on the retail-banking front. Punjab National Bank ("PNB"), the largest Public Sector Bank and the second largest amongst all banks in India, has signed a strategic IT partnership with Infosys. PNB has licensed the Infosys Enterprise Banking E-Platform including FINACLE™ – the Core Banking Solution, BancsConnect – the Financial Middleware, and BankAway – the Internet Banking Solution, and intends to deploy FINACLE™ across 1500 branches over the next 3 years.
Strategic investments
Alpha Thinx, a Vienna-based company operating in the wireless Internet space, in which Infosys made a strategic investment, filed for liquidation during the quarter. Infosys had invested an amount of Rs. 2.21 crore (US$ 0.48 million) in Alpha Thinx. The company also has trade receivables amounting to approximately Rs. 1.49 crore (US$ 0.32 million) for services rendered to Alpha Thinx. Pending the conclusion of liquidation proceedings, the company has provided for the entire amount of the investment and receivables in its profit and loss account for the quarter ended March 31, 2001.
"Our investments were strategic to get access to niche technologies and markets. However, due to the changing economic environment worldwide, some of our investee companies were not able to obtain further funding to meet their growth plans," said S. Gopalakrishnan, Deputy Managing Director. "We are closely monitoring all our investments and are making adequate provisions, where necessary."
Liquidity
Cash and cash equivalents increased by Rs. 69.37 crore during the year after incurring capital expenditure of Rs. 463.35 crore, from Rs. 508.37 crore to Rs. 577.74 crore.
Operating cash flows for the quarter ended March 31, 2001 were Rs. 186.84 crore (Rs. 101.02 crore) and were Rs. 541.23 crore (Rs. 249.48 crore) for the year ended March 31, 2001. Free cash flows for the quarter ended March 31, 2001 were Rs. 59.98 crore (Rs. 43.95 crore) and were Rs. 69.36 crore (Rs. 91.71 crore) for the year ended March 31, 2001.
"We have a comfortable cash position at the end of the year which enables us to meet our strategic objectives in a dynamic market environment," said T. V. Mohandas Pai, Director Finance and Administration, and Chief Financial Officer. "We continue to focus on risk management, cost control and maintaining margins. Our business model enables us to aggressively invest for the future while maintaining liquidity without materially compromising on the margins."
Human resources
Infosys increased its total employee strength to 9,831 as on March 31, 2001, up from 8,910 as on December 31, 2000 and 5,389 as on March 31, 2000. The strength of software professionals as on March 31, 2001 increased to 8,656 from 7,824 as on December 31, 2000 and 4,623 as on March 31, 2000. Of these 8,656 software professionals, 1,015 are still undergoing training and 148 belong to the Banking Products group.
The net addition to employees during the quarter was 921 as compared to 985 during the quarter ended December 31, 2000. Net additions to employees during the year were 4,442 as compared to 1,623 in the previous year ended March 31, 2000.
More than 1,550 employees of Infosys, most of them senior management and key employees of the company, are covered under the 1994 stock option plan, which created substantial wealth for them. Further, part of the options issued under the 1998 and 1999 stock option plan have already vested and the balance will vest over the next three years.
"We continue to focus on hiring middle-level managers, who will be critical for our growth in the years to come," said K. Dinesh, Director – Human Resources Development, Information Systems, Quality and Productivity. "We have built a strong hiring engine which can scale up to meet the organization's requirements."
Globalization initiatives
As part of its global expansion process, Infosys operationalized its Toronto Global Development Centre ("GDC"). The GDC in Toronto is a reiteration of Infosys' focus on Canada and commitment to the Canadian market. The GDC currently employs over 60 professionals and is fully equipped with a training center and video conferencing facilities.
The company also inaugurated its latest branch office at Sharjah. This initiative is aimed at participating in the e-enabling initiatives of banks in the Middle East.
Infrastructure development
Capital expenditure of Rs. 138.35 crore (Rs. 53.13 crore) was incurred during the quarter ended March 31, 2001 and Rs. 463.35 crore (Rs. 159.87 crore) during the year ended March 31, 2001.
Bangalore
The Management Development Center block continues to make good progress and is on schedule. An additional 60,000 square feet ("sq. ft.") of software development infrastructure to accommodate 600 professionals is in the final stages of completion. Additionally, construction has commenced on three software development blocks comprising 3,00,000 sq. ft. with a capacity to accommodate 1,800 professionals. The existing capacity at Bangalore comprises 8,82,500 sq. ft. capable of accommodating 4,500 professionals.
Pune
Phase II of the campus is progressing as per schedule. The existing leased premises are being vacated.
Mangalore
The Mangalore campus is complete and currently has a built up area of 1,98,000 sq. ft. to accommodate 950 professionals. The existing leased premises are being vacated.
Bhubaneswar
The second software development block of 75,000 sq. ft. to accommodate 600 professionals, along with a food court of 28,000 sq. ft. is nearing completion.
Chennai
Phase I of the software development center is substantially complete and getting ready for use. Phase II of the software development center comprising 2,36,000 sq. ft. to accommodate 1,300 professionals is under construction.
Hyderabad
Construction of Phase I of the new campus at Hyderabad comprising 2,73,000 sq. ft. commenced during the quarter with a capacity to accommodate 1,200 professionals.
Mysore
Phase I of the software development center and the Infosys Leadership Institute ("ILI") is progressing as per schedule.
As of March 31, 2001, the company had 16,65,800 sq. ft. of space capable of accommodating 10,100 professionals and 19,08,200 sq. ft. under construction including the ILI.
About the company
Infosys is an IT consulting and service provider, providing end-to-end consulting for global corporations. The company has partnered with several Fortune 1000 companies in building their next generation information infrastructure for competitive advantage. The Infosys portfolio of services includes e-strategy consulting and solutions, large application development and enterprise integration services. Infosys also has product co-development initiatives with numerous communication and Internet infrastructure companies that are creating the building blocks for the digital economy.
The Global Delivery Model of the company leverages talent and infrastructure in different parts of the world to provide high quality, rapid time-to-market solutions. Infosys' US headquarters is located in Fremont, California; the company also maintains offices throughout the US, Europe and Asia. For more information, contact Sumanth Cidambi at +91 (80) 852 2380 in India or visit us on the World Wide Web at www.infy.com.
Safe Harbor
Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2000, and our Quarterly Reports filed on Form 6-K for the quarters ended June 30, 2000, September 30, 2000 and December 31, 2000. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company.
Note: The audited Balance Sheet as at March 31, 2001 has been taken on record at the Board meeting held on April 11, 2001.
Infosys Technologies Limited
Profit and Loss Account for the
in Rs. crore except per share data
*Calculated on net profit after tax and extraordinary item
Segmental revenue analysis – by geographical area
Reconciliation of accounts as per Indian GAAP and US GAAP
Reasons for differences in net income as per Indian GAAP and US GAAP
Amortization of deferred stock compensation
The Accounting Principles Board Opinion No. 25 of US GAAP requires the accounting of deferred stock compensation on issue of stock options to employees, being the difference between the exercise price and the fair value as determined by the quoted market prices of the common stock on the grant date.
In complying with this requirement, Infosys has charged to revenue under US GAAP an amount of Rs. 5.76 crore and Rs 23.26 crore for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2001, respectively, as deferred stock compensation.
Provision for retirement benefits
The provision for gratuity represents the valuation performed in accordance with US GAAP.
Deferred income tax provision
US GAAP mandates that the tax element arising on timing differences in amortizing various Assets and Liabilities as per tax books and financial statements be accounted as deferred taxation and appropriate treatment be made in the income statement. There is no such requirement under Indian GAAP.
Provision for e-inventing the company / contingencies
The company had made a provision towards e-inventing the company under Indian GAAP. The expenses incurred towards e-inventing the company were set off against the provision in the Indian GAAP financial statements. Under US GAAP, this amount was charged to the income statement.
Transfer of intellectual property rights
The amount relates to the transfer of intellectual property rights to OnMobile Systems Inc., USA (formerly known as Onscan Inc.).
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The Religious Meaning in Waiting for Godot
Jing Wang
School of Humanities and arts, Shandong University of Finance
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org
Abstract
Waiting for Godot is one of the classic works of theater of the absurd. The play seems absurd but with a deep religious meaning. This text tries to explore the theme in four parts of God and man, breaking the agreement, repentance and imprecation and waiting for salvation.
Keywords: Godot, God, Man
Samuel Beckett is a famous Irish dramatist and novelist and Waiting for Godot is his masterpiece. Since the play was published, it has been suffered different comments. Although it is recognized as the masterpiece of theater of the absurd, it is filled with religious feelings of the writer.
"Religious education he received in family and in church when he was in his teens has produced profound influences on his literary creation. Original sin, salvation, second coming of Jesus and other themes in Holy Bible have been ringing in his works."(Sun, 2005, p.296) Beckett's Religious theme has attracted the attention of the researchers. This article will explain Waiting for Godot on basis of the theory of Christian theology in order to help readers to understand the theme of the play more deeply.
1. God and man
In Waiting for Godot, both Vladimir and Estragon on stage, and Godot, who is away from the vision of the audience, bear a certain symbolic significance. Relationship between them suggests that of God and man.
Needless to say, Godot is similar with God in pronunciation, which is enough to trigger the audience's association with God. Of course, other descriptions of Godot in the play can also make the readers consider him to be God of Christianity.
From the description of appearance, Godot has similarities with God. The boy, a messenger, in the play is from Godot's place and he is the only one who has seen Godot. The two tramps once asked him what color Godot's beard is. There is a conversation between them.
Vladimir: Has he a beard, Mr. Godot?
Boy: Yes, sir.
Vladimir: Fair or… or black?
Boy: I think it's white, sir.
Vladimir: Christ have mercy on us! (Beckett, 2006, P372)
It can be concluded that Godot wears a long white beard, which is in line with what God is like in the Holy Bible. John recorded he had seen the revived Savior in Revelation. He wrote, "he has golden belt in his waist. His hair is as white as snow like wool. His eyes are shining like fire and his feet are glittering as copper. When he speaks, his voice is like flood roaring." (Zeng, 1994, p.696). The beard and hair of God is white as snow, and Godot's beard is exactly the same. This is a description of Godot similar to God in appearance.
There are descriptions about Godot similar in God in spirit. In the play, Godot can save, or punish, or try or take care of man. The tramps in the play think that as long as Godot comes, they will be saved. If they do not waiting for Godot, they would be punished by him. The messenger boy said he and his brother keep sheep for Godot. His brother keeps the sheep and he raise the goats. In the Matthew of the Bible, there are words like this, ""When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him. He will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. (Zeng, 1994, p. 624). He would bless his men and let them live in his glory as long as they remember the contract between God and man.
But what can man do? The modern people have aliened with God for a long time. They have lost the religious heritage and walked on the spiritual wasteland. The two tramps are the representatives of human beings. They are the modern incarnations of the modern people without the concern from the whole religion. There are some words in the play, which can prove this point. They go like this, "in this place, at this moment, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late! Let us represent worthily for once the foul brood to
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which a cruel fate consigned us!" (Beckett, 2006, p. 351) In the play, the two tramps are in an extremely awkward position. They are waiting for Godot from the very beginning to the end. But Godot does not come, which makes those waiting for him suffer a lot.
Then, why are the lambs of God abandoned? Why do the modern people suffer this?
2. Breaking the contract
Keeping promise is the theme in Old Testament and New Testament. There are five agreements between God and man and God would gradually complete the plan of salvation for man if man follows the contract. They are agreement of Noah, agreement with Abraham, covenant with Abraham, covenant with Moses, covenant with David and new testament, that is, the covenant of Christ and man. Covenant needs the agreement of both parties. It has constraint force and certain obligations to fulfill. But as for the relationship between God and man, God is the creator, and man is the subject of creation. The covenant between God and man is the gift from God." (Sun, 2006, p. 306). The gift and the blessing from God can ensure man to live a comfortable life. But why man is reduced to waiting for salvation? It seems that the two tramps are waiting for Godot to be saved according to the promise, but Godot does not come. Actually the reason does not lie in Godot for his rudeness but in man, who breaks the promise first. It is just because man broke the promise first and they will receive the punishment of endless waiting from God. It can be seen that the breaking of the covenant by man is vividly demonstrated in the play by Beckett.
Estragon: You are it was this evening?
Vladimir: What?
Estragon: That we were to wait.
Vladimir: He said Saturday. (Pause) I think.
Estragon: You think.
Vladimir: I must have made a note of it.
Estragon: But what Saturday? And is it Saturday? It is not rather Sunday (Pause.) Or Monday? (Pause.) Or Friday?
Vladimir: It is not impossible.
Estragon: Or Thursday?
Vladimir: What'll we do? (Beckett, 2006, p. 246).
According to the Bible, it was on Saturday that God made man. And it was on Saturday that Jesus passed away after he was crucified on Friday. He would revive on Sunday so on Saturday man is waiting his reviving. Such an important day becomes vague in the mind of human beings and the solemn date between God and human beings is abandoned. Man can not remember the date with God or even can not know which day he is alive. How can human beings obey the covenant, obtain the trust and understanding from God? Of course, they would not be saved by God.
3. Repentance and imprecation
Human beings lose the protection of God and become spiritually homeless. They talk nonsense, do funny movements, but in their bottom of heart, they are longing for the salvation by God. However, it is difficult to repair the relations between the man and God. God will re-test man for he needs man's loyalty. Thus what human beings need to do is to repent and pray.
Estragon: what?
Vladimir: Suppose we repented.
Estragon: repented what?
Vladimir: Oh…We wouldn't have to go into the details.
Estragon: Our being born? (Beckett, 2006, p. 240)
God creates man according to what he is like, showing his love to man. In Genesis of the Holy Bible, God says, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."(Zeng, 1994, p.22). As a result, men become the most favored creature of God. But eating the Forbidden fruits leads to the breakdown of relations between man and God. Men even declined to be obedient to God and refuse the identity of creature by God. "This is a reversal against creation. The downfall of man discloses that he longs for self-constructed and isolated existence instead of a limited creature. the most basic point in the breakdown in relations between man and God is that human beings want to go beyond the boundaries made by God." (Xu, 2006,
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P.143). What man had done violated God and was expelled from the Garden of Eden. In the era when Waiting for Godot was performed, men had become homeless on the wilderness. If man wants to return to God, he must confess to gain salvation. And God will display his attitude by the performance of human beings. There are words in the play to show such an idea.
Estragon: What exactly did we ask him for?
Vladimir: Were you not there?
Estragon: I can't have been listening.
Vladimir: Oh... nothing very definite.
Estragon: A kind of prayer.
Vladimir: Precisely.
Estragon: A vague supplication.
Vladimir: Exactly
Estragon: And what did he reply?
Vladimir: That he's seen.
Estragon: That he couldn't promise anything.
Vladimir: That he'd have to think it over. (Beckett, 2006, P.252)
Whether God accepted the repentance depends on the performance of human beings. Any betrayal is not allowed. Betrayal means the fall of punishment. Man is forced to wait without an end of time.
With the development of the plot, Godot delays in his coming and men has reached the brink of collapse. They cried out "Help".
Estragon: We'll soon see. Abel! Abel!
Pozzo: Help!
Estragon: Got it in one!
... ...
Estragon: Perhaps the other is called Cain! Cain!
Pozzo: Help!
Estragon: He is all humanity. (Silence)Look at the little cloud. (Beckett, 2006, P.357).
In Holy Bible, Abel and Cain are the two sons of Adam and Eve and the ancestors of all human beings. Their voices represent those of the entire human race of looking forward to the coming of the Lord once again to save the humanities suffering heavily.
4. Waiting for salvation
Waiting is the theme throughout the play. Although Godot breaks his promise, the two tramps have shown perseverance. Despite the heavy blow of painfulness, frustration and disappointment, they still keeps on waiting because that is their only hope for they believe only Godot can save them.
How to get salvation? Drama that the story of two thieves.
Vladimir: Our Savior. Two thieves. One is supposed to have been saved and the other… dammed. Estragon: Saved from what?
Vladimir: Hell. (Beckett, 2006, p. 242)
It is recorded in the Holy Bible that together with Jesus two prisoners were crucified. One of them said, "You're Christ, aren't you? You can save us and yourself!" But the other answered, and rebuking him said, "Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." And he was saying, "Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!" Jesus said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise." (Zeng, 1994, P. 646). The thief was saved because of his belief. On the cross, he knew what he had done was wrong and he believed Jesus would come again. So, Jesus told him just in that day he could be with Jesus in paradise. People who believe in God can be saved.
Waiting is a process God added for man's salvation. Suffering means tasting the life. Human beings learn to love
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others in this process. In Act I, the two tramps can be seen to have gaps and Lucky is victimized by Pozzo. Only the boy following Godot lives a life with love. But in Act II, the two tramps sincerely embrace, and Pozzo becomes particularly dependent on Lucky. Furthermore, the tramps' help to Pozzo shows the fraternity among people. Human beings are changing towards what God want them to be.
Although Godot does not come, hope is still there. The withered tree in Act I has a few leaves in Act II. Although there are only a few leaves, after all, they are the embodiment of life. The wilting tree in spring bears some hope for the boring waiting. Human beings' waiting is no longer hopeless. Waiting gives significance to existence.
Waiting for Godot expresses the living condition of the Western people who have been out of contact with God and shows their effort to get rid of the situation. It is an anticipation to rebuild the meaningful system of the universe." (Sun, 2005, P.319). Human beings will be patient to wait on, to wait for the arrival of Godot, and to wait for the realization of salvation. Beckett expresses his sincere thought of human existence in the play, which is seemingly absurd.
References
Beckett, Samuel. (2006). Waiting for Godot. Selected Works of Samuel Beckett. Trans. By Zhongxian Yu. Changsha: Hunan Art Publishing House.
Sun, Caixia. (2005). Western Modernist Literature and Holy Bible. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press.
[Canada] Xu, Zhiwei. (2006). Introduction to Christian Theology. Beijing: China Social Sciences.
Zeng, Chuanhui. (1994). The Stories of Holy Bible. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press.
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Confessions of a Technologist
F aculty development professionals have much in common with guerilla warriors — not the bad guys who wreak havoc, but the "irregular" forces for change (see the sidebar "Definitions"). Faculty development professionals should consider adopting at least some guerilla tactics and strategies to facilitate change in higher education. They can use these tactics to promote the integration of technology in the teaching and learning process.
mired under generations of tradition, a situation exacerbated by a lack of information and understanding among faculty.
With more than eleven years' experience in university teaching, five years of instructional technology consulting, and six years in faculty development, predominantly in technology integration, I've seen what does and doesn't work in diffusing innovations. My observations come from community colleges, private liberal arts institutions, and major research universities. All share common challenges in integrating technology to improve teaching and learning.
Unfortunately, many impediments hinder effective use of technologybased teaching tools. They remain
Faculty development professionals, charged with promoting the use of a variety of instructional technologies, might not notice the resemblance between their task and that of some rather unlikely "colleagues." In this article, I'll describe the characteristics of guerilla warriors and explain their tactics. Then I'll discuss how these tactics can be successfully adopted by faculty development specialists intending to effect change among faculty members teaching in the higher education environment.
Guerilla Characteristics
Determining if you're appropriately situated to use these tactics (or have "the right stuff") only requires understanding the nature of guerillas and ascertaining your resemblance to them. The primary characteristic is a commitment to bringing about change to better the organization. Modern guerillas are almost always
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Guerilla tactics ease technology into teaching and learning
revolutionaries who want to change the current system, as opposed to reactionaries who protect the status quo. 1 The current system of using technology for teaching in higher education (ripe for guerilla activism) is often fragmented in its support base, concerned more with hardware than with learning, and lacking in appropriate incentives. Promoting new ways of thinking about technology and new behaviors for learning improvement mark today's faculty development guerilla.
Another characteristic trait is an aversion to pitched battles. 2 For faculty development specialists, this may manifest itself in what could be considered behind-the-scenes activities — those events that have goals beyond the obvious. In addition, this identifying trait excludes those individuals who prefer to engage in confrontational interactions or whose interpersonal manner would be described as aggressive or combative. Such characteristics often result in an "us versus them" mentality, the opposite of the desired effect of creating alliances. The guerilla certainly can engage in direct conflict if needed, but doesn't seek it out. Instead, the guerilla aligns with the group by being helpful, friendly, and sympathetic to the concerns of others.
Agility in a rapidly changing environment — a hallmark of the guerilla — has an honorable place in American history. Francis Marion, known as the Swamp Fox, led his guerilla band with a mobility that outmaneuvered British forces. His efforts helped regain the Carolinas for the Colonial forces during the Revolutionary War. 3 A faculty development specialist would more likely show agility in the swift evaluation of potentially beneficial practices for teaching and learning. This requires continual review of research in cognitive processing, technological advances, and learning strategies. The expeditious promotion of recently validated practices reveals the faculty development guerilla as a credible source and a reliable advisor to faculty.
Because guerillas work in environments shaped and controlled by the opposing forces, a clear understanding of this milieu is imperative. 4 Being well informed in the local context can mean the difference between being perceived as one of the group or as a fringe lunatic tilting at windmills to no apparent benefit. In faculty development circles, this means
I understanding the obstacles in the path of instructors who attempt to integrate technology applications into their instruction,
I knowing the incentives (or lack thereof) for innovation, and
I recognizing the multiple (and sometimes contradictory) priorities imposed on the faculty member who chooses to adopt new teaching strategies.
Teaching experience, while not mandatory, can be extremely beneficial to the faculty development professional who hopes to appreciate the issues facing instructors.
Definitions
Guerillas, for the purposes of this article, are individuals working to bring about change who don't belong to "regular" formations of soldiers or combatants. They typically belong to one or more small bands of highly mobile factions in a position of weakness against a stronger (and often enormously powerful) system, organization, or psychological perspective.
As a set of warfare strategies, guerilla tactics have been compared to a "spreading puddle" in contrast to traditional, top-down military strategies that resemble "water running in a straight line downhill." 1 Although I can't recommend some of the tactics adopted by guerillas — the use or implicit threat of violence, for example — for use in faculty development, many others are well-suited to promoting the use of innovative instructional strategies and technology applications for teaching.
Endnote
1. T. Yn, Psychological Operations in Guerilla Warfare [http://www. kimsoft.com/guerilla.htm, updated 2-14-98, accessed 8-3-00].
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Examples of Guerilla Tactics Now Used in Higher Education
Many of my colleagues already use guerilla tactics in faculty development, but they declined to identify themselves publicly when I asked them to explain how their professional efforts have benefitted from such tactics. They agreed to provide the following examples for how they apply guerilla tactics at their institutions only when I promised anonymity.
1. Moving among the people:
I Recognizing the efforts of specific faculty for their innovative technology applications by highlighting their achievements in an ongoing column that appears in the institution's faculty/staff newsletter
I Establishing a faculty advisory board for technology support
I Creating links among faculty working on similar technology-related projects who might not meet otherwise
2. Persuasive techniques:
I Providing examples of positive results from the integration of technology — better class attendance, more participation in discussions, more carefully written papers, and so on
I Modeling in faculty workshops the instructional strategies promoted for classroom use — providing constructive feedback, asking questions that stimulate higherorder thinking, and so forth
3. Constant action:
I Offering a series of workshops that encourage "small bites" of technology integration for faculty with more interest than time
I Sponsoring special interest groups (SIGs) for faculty to meet on a regular basis and discuss specific technology issues (for example, effective use of presentation software, better online discussions, and managing real-time chat sessions)
I Following up with individuals after large group activities to ensure that all questions are answered and to reinforce the role of the support professionals as faculty colleagues
4. Judicious use of retreat:
I Taking a semester off from formal activities (like workshops) to evaluate the effectiveness of previous offerings and to review alternatives
I Reconsidering any activity that receives little support from faculty opinion leaders
5. Combining efforts:
I Ensuring that technology integration activities are tied to institutional priorities
I Seeking out opportunities to work with administrative offices (room scheduling, facilities operation, and so on) to reduce or eliminate conflicts in efforts to integrate technology into instruction
I Ensuring that innovations outlive their novelty by arranging in advance for long-term support mechanisms (such as equipment maintenance and replacement plans)
The guerilla band may work independently, but knowing how to use the help of external sponsors offers significant benefits. In warfare, guerillas often have the aid of other countries with sympathetic political philosophies. The savvy faculty development group will sometimes rely on private consultants, hardware or software vendors, or colleagues at other institutions who have
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faced similar challenges. Implementing wide-spread change — especially when it involves technology — can become extremely expensive and time-consuming, and shouldn't be attempted without the support of others who can lend assistance when necessary.
Finally — and pretty obviously — the guerilla needs to maintain high morale to work against what can seem like overwhelming odds. Faced with promoting change in higher education — an environment not known for its flexibility — the faculty development specialist must avoid fatalism, cynicism, and stagnation, while maintaining a healthy balance of realism and hope. Joes 5 attributed the positive morale of guerilla warriors to "belief that the cause is both just and destined to triumph." Faculty development guerillas likewise must hold firm to the purpose behind their enterprise.
These characteristics — commitment to bringing about change, aversion to pitched battles, agility in a rapidly-changing environment, knowledge about the local context, awareness of external sponsors, and high morale — provide a general profile of the individual who could be classified as a guerilla. Note that I haven't articulated these traits to promote or reinforce arbitrary categorization of faculty development professionals. Rather, I suggest that individuals recognizing themselves in this description may, as a consequence, choose to employ guerilla tactics to enhance their professional effectiveness.
Tactics
No guerillas exist without action, and tactics truly define guerilla undertakings. The five specific tactics discussed include
1. moving among the people,
2. using persuasive techniques,
3. constant activity,
4. judicial use of retreat, and
5. working with "regular" forces.
See the sidebar "Examples of Guerilla Tactics Now Used in Higher Education" to see how faculty development professionals today use these tactics to accomplish their goals.
As a side note, the use of terrorism or personal assaults — although adopted by some modern guerilla forces — were never promoted as the most useful or effective activities by Mao, Guevara, or other well-known guerilla chieftains. Moreover, their use in faculty development settings has limited benefit. I don't encourage them.
Moving among the people, as a tactic, has its roots in Mao's teachings. He considered the guerilla a fish and the people "as the water in which he swims." 6 This enables the guerilla to recruit followers from among the local population and to identify the opinion leaders within the social structure. These strategies are essential to building a base of local support for later activities and for gleaning helpful information on potential obstacles.
For faculty development guerillas, moving among the people requires discarding any viewpoint that fosters an us-versus-them classification of the (good) innovators and (bad) faculty who need to be overhauled, transformed, or somehow repaired. This unfortunate taking of sides will occasionally result from top-down sorts of tactics that impose clear-cut dichotomies of those who fall into line and those who resist.
Tactically, moving among the people helps faculty development professionals recognize and value resistance as a signal that additional education is required or that they need to work more closely with opinion leaders. The image of guerillas working like a spreading puddle, rather than a stream running downhill, is appropriate here (see the sidebar "Definitions"). The idea isn't to sweep faculty up in the onrushing deluge, but to introduce change in a deliberate and continuous evolution of applications compatible with their existing values and practices.
A practical example involves recognition of exemplary work already being done within the faculty circle. Highlighting the efforts of those already in the accepted group gives others a credible model to emulate. Not only does this align the change agent (the faculty development professional) with the group, it facilitates the diffusion of innovations by using the communication networks within the group and recognizes the strength of those interpersonal bonds.
Awards or grants programs can function in this way, along with newsletter articles publicizing the innovative work of a different instructor each month. In addition, a philosophy that encourages incremental change makes faculty members likelier to adopt new strategies than if they're expected to start from ground zero. Workshops that include several "try this out tomorrow" ideas can get the ball rolling if some individuals seem resistant to completely rebuilding their coursework.
This philosophy runs counter to the popular argument that only by abandoning our current practices, reorganizing the traditional structure of higher education, and wholly adopting new paradigms of teaching and learning will true innovation
A philosophy that encourages incremental change makes faculty members likelier to adopt new strategies than if they're expected to start from ground zero.
occur. Well, maybe — but such an event isn't on the horizon. Promoting small ideas that work within the existing structure while concurrently introducing revolutionary seeds into the system seems the best interim strategy.
The effective guerilla uses persuasive techniques to create a favorable opinion of the cause, win over the local population, and ensure longevity for the effort. 7,8 Without a favorable opinion of the cause, locals will relegate guerillas to the status of rogue gangs not acting for the benefit of the general population, making support unlikely. Winning over the locals requires that the guerillas build credibility and inspire confidence. Ensuring longevity means persuading members of an intact social system to support or join forces with a group challenging the status quo — a system that, for some, may have direct or indirect benefits. For others, the existing structure may not be optimal, but it's familiar, and most people aren't predisposed to venture into the unknown.
The guerilla's true goal is to target the minds of the people. For the faculty development specialist, this can pose a formidable challenge. Expecting individuals who are the successful products of the existing educational system (faculty members) to embrace teaching strategies that may appear to run counter to this tradition can be a frustrating experience. Techniques for winning over such a group include building professional credibility and emphasizing the similarities in values held by the guerilla and the local population. For example, when promoting innovative practices, discuss research findings supporting such instructional strategies, present examples from other institutions where such strategies have been successfully implemented, then discuss how these strategies complement the jointly held values of the group.
Identifying those values and using this information to structure meaningful faculty development strategies heightens the persuasive impact of a campaign, as well. A department that values a high degree of student interaction would likely want to learn about teaching strategies (use of online discussion groups, for example) that facilitate interaction. If scholastic rigor is paramount, instructional activities designed to reinforce key concepts (such as embedded assessments) could be explored.
For new ideas about how technology can improve teaching and learning to be adopted and ultimately manifested in the classroom, the identification and persuasion of opinion leaders also proves critical. These individuals have the greatest influence within the group, after all. Building a cadre of respected faculty members who support the guerilla's
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activities becomes an invaluable part of the diffusion process, exponentially extending the initial efforts at persuading others to join the movement.
The guerilla doesn't rely on winning a few major battles, but maintains constant action, wearing down the opposition through persistent effort. No single, isolated act determines the outcome of the overall movement. Marion's group cut off supply lines to the British troops, provoked them night and day, and disrupted their communications, among other things, to physically and psychologically fatigue the enemy. 9 Thus, no single event (a major battle, for example), but rather many small skirmishes, succeeded.
The guerilla hoping to introduce faculty to instructional technology applications would be wise to adopt this attitude of persistence, albeit with a focus on constructive deeds. By saturating the faculty with helpful ideas for technology integration, numerous opportunities for training, and useful information on the advantages of such applications, the faculty development professional prepares the ground for adoption. In addition, the faculty development professional should attend events related to teaching and learning issues — teleconferences about assessment, special lectures on accreditation issues, or meetings to discuss the development of an institutional honor code. These minor, but frequent, reminders will gradually create a sense of the unremarkable about various technologies — a necessary step toward their diffusion throughout the organization. No single workshop, seminar, brochure, presentation, discussion forum, demonstration, Web site, or consultation will win the minds of the faculty, but the continual dripping of good ideas onto the rocks of tradition will eventually wear away the resistance.
By definition, guerillas are fighters in a position of weakness against a more powerful enemy. Realistically,
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The continual dripping of good ideas onto the rocks of tradition will eventually wear away the resistance.
this means that knowing when to retreat has strategic value. Guevara put it succinctly: "The essential task of the guerilla fighter is to keep himself from being destroyed." 10 Complementing this is the idea that the guerilla should not undertake a skirmish that cannot be won — why waste scarce resources on a futile effort?
This tactic has great value in faculty development. Never plan to achieve complete adoption and diffusion of an innovation throughout a group — it's unrealistic and almost always unachievable. Look at it with a triage philosophy, determining how best to use the finite resources of time, people, equipment, and facilities. Faced with individuals staunchly determined to avoid change, should you continue trying to win them over? Doing so uses time or other resources that could be put to more effective use elsewhere. The key is to distinguish between the truly resistant and those who would eventually come around given time and motivation. For this, unfortunately, there are no easy guidelines.
Knowing when to retreat also requires evaluating past efforts to determine how best to proceed in an ambiguous environment. If earlier attempts to engage faculty in technology integration activities failed, analyze why and determine how things could have been done differently. This might manifest itself in a semester of no workshop offerings while the faculty development crew rethinks previous efforts and plans modifications. Retreat doesn't necessarily indicate surrender — it can instead provide a space for reviewing strategy and reforming later events.
Guerilla activists sometimes work independently of any organized military forces, although they're more effective if their efforts are combined with traditionally trained and deployed units. Each form of warfare has strengths complementary to the other's weaknesses, allowing greater flexibility for the regular troops and added support for the irregulars. This alliance with conventional military ranks also lends an air of credibility to the guerillas, providing validation from a larger (and probably more organized) system.
You need only review the history of education in the United States to realize that efforts at instructional innovation are most effective when they combine top-down and bottom-up strategies. Wiring campuses (K–12 through postsecondary) offers an excellent example. Grassroots campaigns involving teachers, students, and parents have worked to promote the use of the Internet in schools, while administrators have operated from a big-picture perspective to ensure that funding and infrastructure concerns were addressed for long-term viability. Such a project could not succeed with only one part of the equation — without high-level support to fund the capital improvements required for networking, nothing would happen; without the grassroots support to focus on the most effective uses of a network, the hardware quickly becomes irrelevant.
Technology integration has become too expensive for anything resembling autonomy to drive it. Guerillas will, in many cases, need the support and resources that an administrative entity can provide before they'll make a noticeable difference in the status quo. In a practical sense, this may mean sitting on committees that represent faculty interests in technology initiatives, attending open-forum meetings with administrators, and offering assistance on special projects related to technology and teaching. Creating alliances with the administrative fac- tion (while maintaining loyalties to the people) also builds credibility for guerilla forces.
Change Agents
It should come as no surprise that similar ideas and tactics link guerilla warriors and those who work for change in large organizations. Their motives, in a broad sense, are often similar, and they share many personal traits, as well. Learning how to facilitate change and promote innovation (particularly under difficult circumstances or in a hostile environment) may thus mean adopting guerilla tactics. These methods can facilitate the diffusion of innovations by identifying opinion leaders, using existing communication channels, and emphasizing the relative advantage of adopting the innovation. 11
Although this perspective employs a warfare metaphor, it's important to remember that these tactics don't presume (or encourage) an us-versusthem dichotomy of change agents and faculty, nor would I encourage deceitfulness. The "enemy" here is the collected obstacles that deter faculty from adopting technology applications to improve the teaching and learning processes in their courses. Lack of training or tech support, outmoded classroom facilities, nonexistent incentives, or opposition from administrators are just a few examples of typical deterrents to innovation. Faculty development guerillas work with faculty, not against them, to surmount these hurdles.
Finally, the techniques described could be applied to any form of innovation or change. The process leading to improvement, whether radical or modest, remains a constant. Guerilla activism invites those committed to the cause. e
Endnotes
1. H. S. Hughes, "Grandeur and Misery
of Guerilla Warfare," Commentary, 34 (2) (1962), pp. 145–150.
2. U.S. Army, Department of Nonresident Instruction, "Historical Instances in Guerilla Warfare," Selected Readings in Guerilla Warfare (Washington, D.C.: United States Army, 1962).
3. A. J. Joes, Guerrilla Warfare: A Historical, Biographical, and Bibliographical Sourcebook (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996).
4. C. Guevara, Guerilla Warfare (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1961).
5. Joes, p. 6.
6. Hughes.
7. Guevara.
8. U.S. Army.
9. Joes.
10. Guevara, p. 21.
11. E. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, Fourth Edition (New York: The Free Press, 1995).
Susan M. Zvacek (firstname.lastname@example.org) is Director of Instructional Development and Support at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.
Number 2 2001 •
EDUCAUSE QUARTERLY
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'From the students' mouths…'
What advice would you like to pass on to incoming students? Summary: Work hard, study in groups, choose a mentor carefully.
On Choosing a Mentor:
Start a conversation with prospective mentors that includes talking about research opportunities as well as whether the mentor is seeking to take students into their lab and can afford to support one.
-While your project is important and helps you stay motivated, it is also important to make your lab choice based on qualities of your mentor because their support will ultimately help expedite your graduation and be a large contribution of your individual education.
-Pick a lab not only based on what kind of work they do, but also on the mentor as well. You will live your life in the lab for a number of years and a good relationship with a mentor who understands how to help you best is important. Also, try not to stress out too much.
-Don't hesitate to contact all faculty you want to rotate with at the beginning of fall semester, and secure a spot then. Be honest with them if you don't know very much about what they are doing, because it is natural that your initial decisions are superficial and intuitive.
-First year is really for concentrating on classes and getting to know faculty and fellow classmates. Rotations are supposed to be to get to know the feel for a lab- not necessarily to get a lot done. Choosing a mentor you can talk with openly is the best thing you can do for your graduate student career.
-The most important choice you make is your mentor. Be sure to pick one that has enough time to be there for you. At OHSU, where labs are relatively small and there are not too many post-docs/lab, mentor-student relationships are critical. I have a very involved mentor and have had a fantastic PhD thesis experience.
-Some mentors are in the lab everyday and looking over your shoulder, some are down the hall, some won't be around except once a week or so-make sure you pick the type of oversight that fits your work style.
-Don't be shy/ don't be afraid-ask your rotation PI up front about whether there's funding and space for you in the lab to complete your thesis.
-Ask potential mentors how long has it typically takes their graduate students to finish. Also, if you have a good genetics or molecular bio textbook, I wouldn't bother buying the textbook suggested for genetics class.
-Ask faculty about is their philosophy of mentoring. You can find out a lot from their onthe-spot answers. Also, talk to other students about mentors and make sure to ask more than one student to get a balanced view.
-Talk to as many people (other students) as possible before choosing a rotation. Choose a lab that matches your personality.
-A good relationship with your mentor is critical. A mentor who is personable and approachable is critical to a successful and happy graduate career.
-Rotation wise: Compile a list of questions/concerns when talking with potential mentors/those in their labs. Some ideas...How hands on/hands off are they? How long have other students in their labs taken to graduate? Is there a specific expectation for hours in lab (some expect you'll work 12 hour days, others are more concerned about output then time at the bench), make sure the lab you join has expectations that fit with your priorities/family. There are no 'correct' answers to these questions - it all depends what you are looking for in a mentor/thesis/grad school.
On Student Life:
-When students say the first year is the roughest...believe them. I thought it was graduate students trying to scare us; but it has been rough. Coming early to do a summer rotation is a great idea!! You get to know the city and meet people BEFORE classes start. It has really helped me keep my sanity this past year knowing people and knowing my way around the city fairly well.
-The course is tough, and you might struggle, but many people do. Don't suffer in silence but ask for help from faculty and fellow students. People are supportive as long as you ask for help.
-If you can do it, think about buying a condominium or a house as soon as possible. Owning a house for 5-7 years should result in some capital gains that will make a big difference to your financial health when you graduate.
-You have to come with a prepared mind- it's not an easy program and it takes hard work and dedication. Parking sucks and first years HAVE to carpool if they want to park here.
- Apply for fellowships (NSF etc), BEFORE you start class.
-The classes can get intense during your 1st year...study early & study often. It's too hard & ineffective to cram at this level.
-Use a rotation to try something new if you can (I'm glad I did a virology rotation at the west campus) even though I'm a physiology/pharmacology kind of guy.
-Your classmates are the key to your studying success--everyone comes in with different strengths, weaknesses, and experience &education levels. If you can teach a 'mate' about cancer signaling, they may return the favor if you're struggling with kinetics & ion channels.
-Make study guides for all of your classes - these will make your life easier when studying for the comprehensive exam.
-The first year classes can be difficult because there are so many instructors it's difficult to get a sense for their teaching style and what kinds of questions they like to put on exams. So, wherever possible, get notes and exams from second and third year students. A lot of the material is recycled from year to year and it will give you an idea of what each instructor's favorite topics are and how they frame exam questions.
-IF INTERESTED IN WEST CAMPUS DO ROTATION IN SUMMER. PROBABLY NEED CAR FOR IT THOUGH.
-Choose your rotation labs carefully,before you rotate, find out if faculty have enough funding and if they are planning to move during the next 4-5 years. Some people have had problems with lack of funding and labs moving mid-way through grad school. Also, talk to older students about PIs and their rapport with their students.
-talk to PIs prior to rotation to make expectations clear. Many won't expect you to try
and work 40+ hours in the lab while also trying to get through classes, etc.
-Class wise: It is to your advantage to study/review in groups – after having studied thoroughly on your own. Also, use any available old exams to practice test taking not just to study off. I found those two things were the best way to make sure you are on target with your studying.
-It is important to learn how to archive your e-mails because ITG will delete them when they are a few months old without notifying you.
-Small study groups are very useful for studying for classes and the comprehensive exam.
What is the best/worst area to live in Portland as a graduate student?
Here are the pros and cons of different neighborhoods. The overwhelming consensus is that you must make your commute EASY whether you choose to travel by foot, bicycle, tram or express bus.
To live on the Hill…
-I like living up on the hill personally.
-Best, on the campus; worst, too far away from campus. Living on the campus will not disconnect you from activities in downtown, especially in the post-tram era. Grace apartments on 11 th have studios which are spacious and affordable.
-I really enjoyed living on the hill for the first couple of years with other students. It was a great way to meet people in other programs.
-ON THE HILL. CLOSE TO CAMPUS (IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO WEST CAMPUS). EASY TO GET DOWN TOWN BUS/TRAM/WALK.
-Best - On the hill for the first year and may be north-west/close-in south-east later on.
-I lived on the hill my first year, and could walk to campus in 5 minutes. Living off the hill creates about a 1 hr commute each way, on average, for students...so I 'saved' 10 hours a week = sleep! Plus it is green and mellow on the hill, which I liked. The downside is distance from downtown/social stuff - but that's just a bus ride away.
-If you don't want to spend time commuting then living on the hill is a great option.
-Basically anywhere close in, but not on the hill--it's the most boring neighborhood in town!
Or not on the hill…
-Milwaukie and SW Portland are good, especially if you have a family.
-I really enjoyed living in NW 23rd area. Now, I live in a house in Tualatin, a suburb south of Portland by 20 miles or so. I really love having a yard and a house...however, I picked this suburb because they still have an express bus into downtown. This makes it just as convenient as taking the bus from 23rd up to the hill. Beaverton and Tigard also have express buses that come directly to the hill.
-I really liked Sellwood. I wouldn't like to live in Beaverton or Hillsboro - the commute is a bugger and the nightlife a bit dull.
-NW is too expensive for students. I love SE- easily commutable by bike, but a "real" neighborhood, with grocery stores, shops, and restaurants. Close to downtown. Totally depends on your preference- some live in Beaverton, some live on hill.
-I personally like Hillsdale and the SW area of town. There's not much traffic to the hill, if you drive, or you have to take a couple of buses at the very least - but the lifestyle there is very laidback and uneventful.
-Best: SW in Hillsdale or near Multnomah Village. Close to school, near several major bus lines both up the hill, and downtown, everything you need (grocery, video store, pizza, coffee, bakery, restaurants, etc.) within walking distance. Very safe neighborhood and not too expensive. Worst:?? Far away from downtown and
campus. Also, Beaverton stinks. Traffic is awful. Atrocious even.
-Best: John's Landing Worst: Gresham
-Well, most students live on the west side near campus, but I live in southeast because quality of living space is important to me, and it's not that much further away.
-Beaverton is nice because it is cheaper and apartments are bigger but then there is the commute - an hour each way by mass transit. I like Beaverton because I am closer to Costco, Nike campus, and my favorite dog park.
-My wife & I have enjoyed living in Beaverton. It's a little cheaper and still very accessible to downtown via car or mass transit. Now that the tram is up the people I know who live in Johns landing have the easiest commute ever. It's nice to be on the hill or nearby for your first year, especially if you don't know Portland, but there isn't much to do up here so you will probably move off eventually. If you don't want to pay for parking (which is expensive), I don't recommend living far out. If you have to take two buses and the Max to get into OHSU, it will start to wear on you pretty quickly. I live in
Burlingame now, which is a neighborhood that mostly has houses and a few town homes. It would be a nice place for a family with kids (or if you have a dog). It's close to Tryon Creek Park, with easy access to downtown and an express bus that takes you directly to OHSU, but still has a quiet feel.
-I have liked living both in Beaverton and in NE Portland but commuting is definitely something to think about. I wouldn't want to live on the hill I like getting away at the end of the day.
-I live in the "Pearl" and really like it. There is low-income housing available (Sitka and Lovejoy station). We live within walking distance of most everything you need and right off the streetcar line. There are lots of restaurants down here that do a late night happy hour (9pm to close) with really cheap food - great for my schedule. To get to school you can ride the streetcar to the tram (takes about 45min, yes slow, it is only 5 miles), ride your bike all the way (25 min), or ride to the tram on the riverfront bike path (no cars - maybe 30 minutes with tram ride). It is also nice to be close to Forrest Park and the riverfront for running.
-I've only ever lived in North Portland/St. John's area. It's a long commute to the hill by bus (~1 hour) but a pleasant place to live. I work on the west campus so St. John's is very convenient for the commute to Beaverton. I would think the worst place to live would be on the hill itself because then your advisor can make you harvest time points in the middle of the night without feeling guilty! Probably best would be Downtown or near-in South East.
- I love living in the vicinity of Laurelhurst Park and the Laurelhurst neighborhood which is on the east side of Burnside and about thirty blocks from the river. A beautifal neighborhood with great energy, and filled with young vibrant people.
-Worst - Far south-east/north-east (beyond 45th or so).
-Just make sure it's on a main bus line or max line!!
-I've only lived in the SW and I enjoy the area. It's more suburban and hard to get around without a car or bike. I enjoyed living in Hillsdale because I could walk to shops, food, and it was only one express bus stop away from the hill.
-Anyplace along a decent bus line. I'm partial to inner Southeast, it's actually closer to OHSU than most people think, and it has the best bars and restuarants.
How students found housing. This seems to take a bit of legwork..really walking around a neighborhood.
-I walked around Marquam Hill and called every number I could see.
-Rented through a family friend.
-I found my apartment in northwest by driving around looking for "for rent" signs.
-Notice boards on campus by Mac Hall and at the library. I replied to an ad posted by 5 students looking for a 6th to share a big house. It was great to have so many roommates as it meant the rent was really cheap and I got to know a lot of people right away - which can be difficult when you move to a new city.
-I found the neighborhood I liked and drove around looking at listings. I found one (unlisted) because it had a "for rent" sign in the front. Have lived there happily for 3 years.
-Craigslist (x7)
-Craig's list. I posted an ad saying I needed a roommate and she contacted me. www.portlandmaps.com is really helpful if you're worried about crime levels in certain areas, though by large Portland is safe. The Northeast and Southeast parts tend to have higher crime rates, but also tend to be the cooler, more "hip" parts of town with neat shops and boutiques, coffee shops, etc
-The apartment that I had on the hill we found by looking in the OHSU housing list that Jeanne sent out. Craig's list is also good especially if you don't want to live in a big complex.
-Newspaper
-Drive around a look. (I wanted to be close to the max so just looked around the transit centers.)
-Portland rental guide
-We started a yahoo group for our batch of incoming students, and I mailed the group to see if anyone wanted to share an apartment for the first year, and found a cool classmate who wanted the same. So, he looked up apartments on the hill and chose a 2br where I live even to this day (3rd year).
-I walked around and looked for "For rent" signs in the area I wanted to live. My first apartment I found on Craig's List.
-I found my first apartment by driving by it.
Student recommended Restaurants:
Kappaya on Division for sushi. and Montage in SE on Morrison
Pix on Division is a GREAT dessert restaurant
Black Cat in Sellwood is a great bar.
.
Kun-Pik's Baan Thai - SE Belmont . Vegetable sandwiches at Mac Hall cafeteria Pitiful- I know.
Thai Noon, India House, Capitol Coffee (restaurant has really good food, but can be pricy), E San Thai, Nicolas'. I think the pubs are the best part of the city, though-Rogue, Alameda, Concordia Ale House, Bridgeport, Laurelwood, Mash Tun. I haven't found any good Chinese or Mexican unfortunately.
Baan Thai**, 1924 SW Broadway (**seven votes for this one!). THE BEST anywhere - beware their "mild spice" is everyone else's hot, so order conservatively. I like medium :) I recommend their khao pad, pan fried noodle, tom kha, cashew nut chicken..Oh hell everything. Lunch is like $6.50, dinner is more but the portions are big.
Thanh Long Bakery and Restaurant, 635 SW College ST (right next door to Bann Thai) makes a killer curry chicken noodle soup, it has lots of lemongrass and is nice in spicy -- perfect for that rainy Oregon day.
Yoko's(sushi)
E-San (Thai)
Ken's Artisan Pizza (pizza)
There are dozens of great happy hours in this city. Try them all! (http://www.urbandrinks.com/ rocks, seriously)
Cha Cha Cha(burritos) on 6th(?) by PSU...cheap, good, fast..burritos and such
Green Onion(Persian) are really accessible from the hill and are reasonably priced.
Both are on the other side of the 405 if you go down Sam Jackson. They are close enough to go for lunch on a slow day in the lab...not that I ever have a slow day :)
Mississippi pizza or El Sombrero up near the airport.
Henry's 12th Street Tavern (for late night Happy Hour)
Karam - Downtown on Stark Street between 4th and 5th. Super wonderful Lebanese cuisine. Best pita bread in town and all the good stuff to dip it in.
Portland City Grill for their view (a bit expensive though) and Bann-Thai for their incredible spice.
Le Bouchon-French café in NW area on 14
th
PAPA HAYDENSON NW23RD
Typhoon (also Thai) on Broadway for slightly more nifty dining.
E-san (***3 votes-Thai in downtown Portland)
Sushi & Maki (Hillsboro and Clackamas)
Justa Pasta
Beau Thai
Vivace
Jopa
Casa Colima Mio Sushi Lompocs Acme Lauro Bombay Cricket Club Italian Joint Jake's
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PART F ADMISSIONS STANDARDS POLICY
1.00 Introduction
Admissions standards are established, pursuant to statute, for undergraduate applicants for admission at each public institution of higher education in Colorado. The original policy was adopted by the Commission in 1986, implemented the following year, and established state-level admission standards for both first-time freshmen and transfer students at each of the Colorado baccalaureate public institutions. The standards represent minimum requirements at four-year public institutions and not for the state's community colleges, which are open admissions. Institutions are allowed to admit up to the percent determined by the Commission of the undergraduate applicants on criteria other than the CCHE freshmen index or transfer grade point average through admissions "windows." Meeting the CCHE admission standards does not guarantee admissions as institutions consider a broad range of factors in making admissions decisions.
The current policy reflects a significant addition for applicants who will be high school graduates beginning in spring 2008. In addition to defining institutional admissions indices for first-time freshmen and grade point averages for entering undergraduate transfers, the standards are expanded to require a strong higher education admission requirement so that students seeking admission to four-year public colleges and universities are ready to progress successfully in higher education. The course-preparation requirements are based on research known to increase a student's likelihood for success in postsecondary education, particularly at baccalaureate-granting institutions. The Commission adopted recommendations concerning the secondary school curriculum in 1983 that strongly encouraged institutions and governing boards to follow these or more rigorous recommendations. That action, however, did not require such standards as part of its admissions standards policy. The current policy articulates and requires the curriculum that will enable the CCHE admission standard of completion of a specified higher education admission requirement to be met by first-time entering undergraduates who graduate from high school in spring 2008 or later.
The policy is comprised of seven sections:
1.00 Introduction
2.00 Statutory Authority
3.00 Policy Goals
4.00 Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR)
GPA
5.00 CCHE Undergraduate Admission Standards Index and Transfer
6.00 Penalties for Not Meeting the Standards
7.00 Enrollment Limits on Admission Standards
To ensure that the Admission Standards Policy continues to meet state goals and priorities, the Commission will review the policy every three years to determine if changes are appropriate. Additionally, institutions shall report all undergraduate freshmen and transfer applicants, including those for summer terms, to the Commission on the Student Unit Record Data System (SURDS) Undergraduate Applicant File. Included with this policy is a technical appendix describing the methodology used to calculate the CCHE admissions indices and supporting documentation for data submissions. These data will be used to monitor the compliance of institutions with the Commission's standards and to evaluate the impact of the policy on institutions and students annually.
2.00 Statutory Authority
There are a number of sections of the law that are applicable to the establishment of the Commission's policy on admission standards. These are listed below.
23-1-108 (1) (e) Establish state policies that differentiate admission and program standards and that are consistent with institutional role and missions as described in statute and further defined in paragraph (c) of this subsection (1);
23-1-113 Commission directive -- admission standards for baccalaureate and graduate institutions of higher education.
(1) (a) The Commission shall commence immediately to establish and the governing boards shall implement academic admission standards for first-time freshmen and transfer students at all state-supported baccalaureate and graduate institutions of higher education in the state. The standards shall be established by the Commission, after consultation with the governing boards of institutions, and the first step of implementation shall be completed by the governing boards by the beginning of the fall term in 1986.
(b) The standards established shall use at least two of the following three criteria for first-time admitted freshmen students: Standardized test scores, high school grade point average, and high school class rank. The criteria established shall be consistent with the role and mission established for each state-supported institution of higher education. In lieu of such criteria, additional criteria may be used for up to twenty percent of the admitted freshmen. Students who meet the minimum criteria for admission shall not be guaranteed admission to the institution to which they have applied, but they shall be eligible for consideration.
(c) The standards established shall use college grade point average. In lieu of such criterion, additional criteria may be used for up to twenty percent of the admitted transfer students. The academic admission standards and policies
established for transfer students shall be consistent with the student transfer agreements established by the Commission pursuant to section 23-1-108 (7).
(d) (I) No other admission standards shall be imposed by any agency or committee of the executive or legislative branch of state government.
(II) This paragraph (d) is repealed, effective June 30, 1988.
(2) The Commission shall make an annual report to the General Assembly detailing the specific admission requirements in the categories of students described in subsection (1) of this section at each campus and institution of higher education. Such reports shall be due not later than January 1 of each year, beginning January 1, 1986.
23-1-108 (1) (c) Determine the role and mission of each state-supported institution of higher education within statutory guidelines;
23-20-101 (1) (a) The Boulder campus of the University of Colorado shall be a comprehensive graduate research university with selective admission standards . . . .
(b) The Denver campus of the University of Colorado shall be an urban comprehensive undergraduate and graduate research university with selective standards . . . .
(c) The Colorado Springs Campus of the University of Colorado shall be a comprehensive university with selective admission standards . . . .
23-30-124 . . . Colorado State University – global campus shall be a baccalaureate and graduate online university with the mission in offering upper division baccalaureate degree-completion programs for nontraditional students . . .
23-31-101 . . . Colorado State University shall be a comprehensive graduate research university with selective admission standards . . . .
23-40-101. . . The University of Northern Colorado shall be a comprehensive baccalaureate and specialized graduate research university with selective admission standards . . . .
23-41-105 . . . The School of Mines shall be a specialized baccalaureate and graduate research institution with high admission standards . . . .
23-55-101 . . . Colorado State University-Pueblo which shall be a regional, comprehensive institution with moderately selective admission standards.
23-51-101 . . . Adams State University, which shall be a general baccalaureate institution with moderately selective admission standards.
23-52-102 . . . Fort Lewis College, which shall be a public liberal arts institution, with selective admission standards.
23-53-101 . . . Colorado Mesa University, which shall be a general baccalaureate institution with moderately selective admission standards.
23-54-101 . . . Metropolitan State University of Denver, which shall be a comprehensive baccalaureate institution with modified open admission standards; except that non-traditional students, as defined by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education after consultation with the Board of Trustees of the Consortium of State Colleges, who are at least twenty years of age shall only have an admission requirement of a high school diploma, a GED high school equivalency certificate, or the equivalent thereof.
23-56-101 . . . Western State Colorado University shall be a general baccalaureate institution with moderately selective admission standards.
23-60-201 . . . A state system of community and technical colleges . . . offers a broad range of general, personal, vocational, and technical education programs. No college shall impose admission requirements upon any student.
23-72-121.5 . . . Aims Community College and Colorado Mountain College shall be two-year local district colleges with open admission standards.
3.00 Policy Goals
Through this policy, the Commission intends to:
1. establish admission standards based on student performance and differentiated institutional role and mission while ensuring broad access to undergraduate programs with minimum duplication;
2. set clear performance expectations and communicate those expectations to prospective students;
3. reaffirm the principle that the opportunity to be admitted to a state-supported institution of higher education in Colorado must be earned, while assuring that the opportunity to enter the state-supported system of higher education is provided for Colorado residents; and
4. encourage diversity by supporting the admission of applicants from underrepresented groups, applicants with special talents, and applicants with disabilities.
4.00 Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR)
Effective with applicants who graduate from high school in spring 2008 or later, in-state and out-of-state freshmen must meet both the institution's index standard and have completed the required Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR) (if applicable) to meet CCHE's freshmen admission standard. The requirement also applies to other students subject to the freshmen admission standard, if the year of high school graduation is spring 2008 or later. Freshmen who have not completed the required Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR) will not meet the CCHE admission standard (except students age 20 or older at Metropolitan State University of Denver, and students who meet the Approved Alternatives for Fulfilling Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR) outlined in section 4.02).The 15 units, based on research by American College Testing (ACT), identify secondary course-taking that significantly enhances students' academic success in postsecondary education.
Beginning with students graduating from high school in spring 2010, a student must complete a fourth unit of mathematics (including at least courses that are the equivalent of Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II), and one unit of foreign language . Electives may include foreign language courses taken in addition to the requirement. Academic course units must total 17.
Note: An academic unit, often referred to as a Carnegie unit, is equivalent to one full school year of credit in a specific subject.
4.01 Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR)
Fifteen academic units/credits are required according to the distribution below. Students must receive a passing grade in each course to fulfill the requirement.
English:
Acceptable courses include at least two units that emphasize writing or composition skills as well as literature, speech, and debate. Also acceptable are honors, advanced placement, and/or international baccalaureate courses. Two units of ESL English may count towards meeting the requirements when combined with two units successfully completed college preparatory English.
Mathematics:
At a minimum, courses must include Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II or equivalents. Also acceptable are honors, advanced placement, and/or
Natural Science:
Social Science:
international baccalaureate courses. It is recommended that prospective students take a mathematics course in twelfth grade. College preparatory ESL mathematics courses that include content and academic rigor comparable to other acceptable courses may satisfy requirements.
Acceptable fourth unit courses include any course of the same or greater academic rigor as described above. Also acceptable are applied mathematics, accounting, and statistics. Computer science courses are acceptable if math is a prerequisite. Also acceptable are honors, advanced placement, and/or international baccalaureate courses.
Acceptable courses include biology, chemistry, physics, earth science or comparable coursework. Also acceptable are honors, advanced placement, and/or international baccalaureate courses. To meet the Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR), the student must complete at least two courses with laboratory work.
A course with laboratory work shall not be limited to textbook or lecture instruction, but shall include a variety of hands-on/minds-on activities including experiments and investigations, whether occurring in a classroom laboratory, a simulated online environment, or the field. Emphasis should be placed on inquiry skills that nurture and support high-level thinking, such as developing scientific questions, writing hypotheses, designing and/or refining experimental procedures, collecting/or analyzing data, and drawing conclusions.
College preparatory ESL science courses that include content and academic rigor comparable to other acceptable courses may satisfy requirements.
Acceptable courses include U.S. history, world civilization, state and/or international history, civics, principles of democracy, geography, economics, psychology, sociology, and comparable coursework. Also acceptable are honors, advanced placement, and/or international baccalaureate courses. To meet the Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR), the student must complete at least one course in U.S. history and/or world civilization.
Academic Electives: Acceptable academic electives include additional courses in English, Mathematics, natural/physical sciences, social sciences, foreign language, art, music, drama, journalism, computer science, honors, advanced placement, international baccalaureate courses, and appropriate Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses.
4.02 Approved Alternatives for Fulfilling Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR)
4.02.01 Successful completion of college-level academic courses, including those taken while the applicant is still in high school, may be counted toward satisfying the Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR).
4.02.02 Courses taken prior to ninth grade may be counted as meeting the Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR) if the content is equivalent to high school courses (e.g., foreign language I and algebra I). Successful completion of a high school course at the second-year level will satisfy this requirement, regardless of whether the courses were taken before the ninth grade.
4.02.03 Specific Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR) may be fulfilled by successfully completing assessments of comparable knowledge and competencies approved by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education.
4.02.03.01
Students may demonstrate proficiency in Foreign Languages and earn one unit of credit toward the Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR) in 2010 and all years thereafter by earning a score of "Novice-Mid" or higher or its equivalent on an assessment that employs the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) performance guidelines.
4.02.03.02
Successful completion (grade of "C" or better) of certain remedial (basic skills) mathematics and English writing courses at certain levels (see Table 1) will be accepted as equivalent to high school level, HEAR qualifying courses.
Table 1: Comparability of HEAR Qualifying Remedial Level (Basic Skills) College Courses to High School Level, HEAR Qualifying Courses
*The successful completion of Introductory Algebra (i.e. 090) will be considered comparable to three years of high school level, HEAR qualifying mathematics courses.
**The successful completion of Survey of Algebra will be considered comparable to four years of high school level, HEAR qualifying mathematics courses.
4.02.04 Applicants graduating high school whose index number exceeds the minimum institutional admissions index number by more than 10 points (more than 15 points at Metropolitan State University of Denver). This paragraph will be periodically reviewed to determine if it is meeting the needs of the state, with the first review coming no later than 2013.
4.03 Students Required to Meet Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR)
4.03.01 Effective with spring 2008 graduates and later, completion of the Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR) is required to meet the admission standard by all entering undergraduates admitted to Colorado's four-year public colleges and universities for first-time undergraduate enrollment since high school graduation. The requirement also applies to other students subject to the freshmen admission standard if the year of high school graduation is spring 2008 or later. See section 5.04.04 for curricular requirements that apply to transfer students who graduate in spring 2008 or later.
4.03.02 Students who drop out of high school, earn a GED, and apply to a four-year institution are subject to the same requirements as other students. If a student's transcript does not meet the Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR), she/he may be admitted through the institution's window. See section 5.05 for explanation of the admission window.
4.03.03 Home schooled students are subject to the same requirements as other students.
4.03.04 Students admitted to degree and certificate of completion programs offered through the Colorado Statewide Extended Studies Program.
4.03.04.01 Persons who wish to enroll in a degree or certificate of completion program offered either through the Statewide Extended Studies Program, the Off-Campus State-Funded Program or under the authority as a Regional Education Provider shall meet exactly the same institutional requirements for admission that are applied to students enrolling on-campus.
4.03.04.02 A student who has been formally admitted to the institution may enroll in courses through the Statewide Extended Studies Program and apply the credits toward a degree, but should be advised to consult with the institution to ensure that the credits
earned would fulfill degree requirements.
4.03.05 Non-degree students age 21 and younger who apply for formal admission at the same institution at which they took non-degree coursework are required to meet the HEAR standards regardless of credit hours earned.
4.04 Students Exempt from Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR)
The following students are exempt from the Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR):
4.04.01 Any student who graduates from high school prior to spring 2008.
4.04.02 Students enrolled in "concurrent enrollment program" courses as defined in C.R.S. 22-35-101(6) are exempt from the Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR) until they are formally admitted by an institution.
4.04.03 Students entering a baccalaureate-degree program, including non-degree students age 22 and over who apply for formal admission at the same institution at which they took non-degree coursework, who have 30 or more college-level semester credit hours and a minimum grade point average that meets or exceeds that specified in Table 3.
4.04.04 Students applying for a certificate or two-year degree program at a fouryear institution.
4.04.05 Students who have a foreign (non-U.S.) transcript.
4.04.06 Students who have earned a baccalaureate degree.
4.04.07 Nontraditional applicants to Metropolitan State University of Denver. More specifically, first-time freshmen and transfer students who are at least 20 years of age on or before September 15 for admission in a summer
or fall term on or before February 15 for admission in a winter or spring term are considered non-traditional by statute.
4.04.08 Students who are non-degree-seeking summer only.
4.04.09 Students participating in a formal national, international, or Colorado Consortium exchange program with a planned enrollment for one year or less.
4.04.10 Students who are non-degree-seeking without a baccalaureate degree and are age 20 or older.
4.04.11 Students who have not been formally admitted to an institution and who wish to enroll in any off-campus course not offered as part of a complete off-campus degree program may enroll through the Statewide Extended Studies Program. The sponsoring institution/campus may implement policies regarding enrollment of non-matriculated off-campus students.
4.04.12 Students who have completed 30 or more college-level credit hours while enrolled in an early or middle college in which the student is concurrently earning a high school diploma and associate of arts or associate of sciences degree. Such students will be subject to the Transfer Standard, but counted as first-time freshman for reporting purposes.
4.04.13 Students that graduated from a high school in a school district that has applied for and been granted a waiver according to paragraph 4.06 of these policies.
4.05 Compliance with Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR)
Beginning with students graduating in spring 2008 and reported as admitted students in summer/fall 2008 (FY2009) who have not completed the Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR) or alternatives listed in section 4.02 of this policy, will be counted as window admits unless exempt from Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR) (see section 4.04 and 5.05). Institutions shall report the status of student completion of the Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR) via the SURDS Undergraduate Applicant File. These data will be used to monitor the compliance of institutions with the Commission's standards and to evaluate the policy's impact on students.
4.06 School districts may seek a waiver on behalf of students that graduate from district high schools. In order to receive a waiver, the school district shall by a vote of the school board "Attest that their school district does not have available resources to meet 2010 requirements as established in current policy and requests
that the Colorado Commission of Higher Education grant a waiver from the Higher Education Admission Requirements starting with the graduating class of 2010".
4.06.01 The request must specify that the school district cannot meet the requirements of the fourth year of mathematics, the one year of foreign language, or both and provide an explanation as to why the requirements can not be met.
4.06.02 The resolution and request for a waiver must be submitted to the Department of Higher Education by January 15, 2009. School district waivers will be effective for three years, until the graduating class of 2013. Staff will forward requests for school district waivers to the Commission for approval at the February 2009 Commission meeting.
4.06.03 The Department of Higher Education will publish the list of school districts granted a waiver for HEAR 2010 by March 13, 2009.
5.00 CCHE Undergraduate Admission Standards Index and Transfer GPA
5.01 Background
In 1987, pursuant to statute, the Commission established state-level admission standards for first-time entering undergraduates and transfer students at each of Colorado's baccalaureate-granting public institutions. The standards established by the Commission in 1987 for an entering freshman were based on the calculation of an admissions index. The index has two components: a student's high school performance (i.e., high school grade point average (g.p.a.) or class rank) and performance on a standardized test. For an undergraduate transferring from another institution, the standard's criterion was a specific grade point average.
Prior to the adoption of this revised policy by the Commission, at least 80% of an institution's fiscal year admits had to meet the appropriate CCHE freshman or transfer standard. Each institution was allowed to admit students who do not meet the CCHE admissions standards up to a number not exceeding 20% of the admitted pool of students. This pool, often referred to as "the admissions window," provides institutional flexibility in admitting promising students who meet institutionally established criteria but not the Commission's numerical standards. In addition, some students explicitly are exempt from the CCHE standards.
5.02 Applicants Exempt from CCHE Admission Standards Index or Transfer GPA
The following types of undergraduate applicants are exempt from the Commission's freshmen and transfer admission standards.
5.02.01 Degree-seeking applicant:
5.02.01.01 Applicants who have a foreign (non-U.S.) transcript. The Commission directs the individual institutions to evaluate to the best of their ability, the foreign credentials presented by the student to assure that they are of an equivalent level to those students admitted under the Commission's standards.
5.02.01.02 Applicants who have completed a baccalaureate degree.
5.02.01.03 Applicants to Metropolitan State University of Denver who are age 20 or older. More specifically, first-time freshmen and transfer students who are at least 20 years of age on or before September 15 for admission in a summer or fall term on or before February 15 for admission in a winter or spring term are considered non-traditional.
5.02.01.04 Applicants to the two-year role and mission component of a four-year institution (See section 5.04.02)
5.02. Non-degree-seeking applicant
5.02.02.01 Applicants who are still enrolled in high school and applying for "concurrent enrollment program" defined by C.R.S. 2235-101 (6) as a 9 th through 12 th grader.
5.02.02.02 Applicants for the summer session only.
5.02.02.03 Applicants to the two-year role and mission component of a four-year institution.
5.02.02.04 Applicants without a baccalaureate degree who are age 20 or older.
5.02.02.05 Applicants participating in a formal national, international, or Colorado Consortium exchange program with a planned enrollment for one year or less.
5.03 Freshman Standards
The freshman standard applies to all in-state and out-of-state new freshmen applicants and to transfer applicants with 12 or fewer college credit hours, except freshmen and transfer applicants who meet one of the admissions standards index exemptions listed in section 5.02.
Non-degree students applying for formal admission at the same institution are also subject to the freshman standard if they are age 21 and under, regardless of college credit hours, or if they are age 22 and over with 12 or fewer college credit hours, except those applicants who meet one of the admission standards index exemptions listed in section 5.02.
The Commission has developed a single scale for evaluating the achievement records of applicants that incorporates measures of standardized test scores, high school class rank, and high school grade point average.
More specifically, grade point average and class rank were found to be closely related and a correspondence was defined. It was used to create the Commission's High School Performance Index, with a mean and median of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. Similarly, standardized test scores from the ACT and SAT were used to create the Commission's Standardized Test Index. The Commission's Admissions Index was computed by adding the Commission's High School Performance Index and the Commission's Standardized Test Index. This creates a scale with a mean of 100. This scale is used in the freshmen admission standard. See technical appendix for more complete information (Attachment T.A.).
5.03.01 The specific minimum index score at each Colorado public four-year institution is summarized in Table 2.
Table 2: CCHE Index Scores for First-time Freshman Applicants
*Fort Lewis College's index score for 2006 and 2007 was 86; in 2008 it increased to 92 pursuant to SB 05-194 and CCHE action on October 6, 2005.
**Colorado Mesa University's index increased to 85 in summer 2007 pursuant to CCHE action on March 2,
2006; CMU's. index increased from 85 to 92 for summer/fall 2013 admit pursuant to CCHE actio
nonO
ctober4, 2012
5.03.02 Students may be admitted at Adams State University or Colorado Mesa University in either a two-year or a four-year program. Those admitted to a
four-year program as first-time freshmen must meet the freshmen admission standards.
5.03.03 The GED test is a test of equivalency for the high school diploma. Students without a high school diploma who receive a score of 550 or greater on the 2002 version (55 or greater on the 1988 version) are considered to have met the Commission standards for the high and selective institutions. Students receiving 450 or greater on the 2002 version (45 or greater on the 1988 version) meet the Commission standards for the moderately selective and modified open institutions. This route to admission is not to be used by students with a diploma.
5.03.04 Calculation for non-graded students: When a GPA is not calculable institutions shall use a proxy GPA of 3.3 to generate an admission index, which should be used to render an admission decision and may be used in the awarding of financial aid according to institutional guidelines consistent with other applicants.
5.03.04.01 When a GPA is provided or calculable, institutions must use it for the calculation of an admission index regardless of the academic setting through which it was earned, that is, regular or non-traditional (e.g., home schooling). Institutions must not differentiate between index scores calculated according to grade point averages earned by way of either a regular or nontraditional academic setting when rendering admission decisions or awarding financial assistance according to official institutional guidelines otherwise consistently applicable to other applicants.
5.04 Transfer Standards
The transfer standard applies to all degree-seeking undergraduate transfer applicants with more than 12 college credit hours who do not meet one of the exemptions listed in section 5.02 and are not covered by the freshmen standard.
No single scale comparable to that for the freshmen standard has been developed for transfer admission standards, but rather, the standards are based on grade point average from previous collegiate work, transfer hours, and high school record.
5.04.01 To meet the CCHE transfer admissions standards, students must meet one of the following conditions. A student must:
5.04.01.01 be enrolled in a CCHE-approved statewide guaranteed transfer agreement (business, engineering, education (early childhood or elementary), or nursing) and meet the minimum academic qualifications outlined therein; or
5.04.01.02 transferred from a different institution and earned more than 12 collegiate semester credit hours with a GPA at or above the minimum shown in Table 3.
5.04.01.03 be a non-degree student applying for formal admission at the same institution and be at least age 22 and earned more than 12 collegiate semester credit hours with a GPA at or above the minimum shown in Table 3.
5.04.02 Students may be admitted at Adams State University or Colorado Mesa University in either a two-year or a four-year program. Students admitted into the two-year programs must meet the Commission's transfer admission standards in order to pass from the two-year programs to the four-year programs.
5.04.03 The specific institution grade point average required to meet the CCHE Transfer Standards at each public institution is summarized in Table 3.
Table 3: Minimum Grade Point Average Requirement for Students Transferring from Another Institution with More Than Twelve Collegiate Semester Credit Hours
5.04.04 Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR)
(HEAR).
Transfer applicants with under 30 college-level semester credit hours, must also demonstrate academic preparation comparable to the Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR) to meet the transfer standard, if they graduated from high school in spring 2008 or later and are not subject to any exemptions listed in section 4.04. Such preparation can be demonstrated by completing the Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR) in high school and/or by successfully completing (with a grade of C- or higher) a college-level course in each core area (English, mathematics, natural sciences, social sciences, and foreign language (2010 and later graduates) where the high school unit requirements have not been fulfilled.
5.05 Students Not Meeting Institution's Admissions Standards (Window Admissions)
The purpose of the admissions window is to provide the institution greater flexibility in recognizing promising students who do not meet the CCHE admission standards. The maximum allowable percentage of admitted students who are not required to meet the CCHE admission standards within a specific fiscal year is referred to as the admissions window. Separate windows exist for the freshmen and transfer standards. The allowable percentage is determined by the Commission (see Tables 3 and 4).
Table 4: Allowable Window Size for Freshman Admission Standard for Colorado Public Four-Year Institutions
*Evaluation year for assessing the impact of freshman admission window changes.
**Evaluation year for assessing the impact of the implementation of the Higher Education Admission Requirements
The window applies to the entire pool of admitted students. Students with missing data are included as part of the window percentage since such students do not meet the CCHE admission standards. Since the CCHE admission standards specified in this policy apply equally to both resident and non-resident students, no differentiation is made by tuition status in the calculation of the window.
Institutions may admit students with index scores below its specified minimum score including those with missing indices as a window admit, but the proportion of freshmen standard admits with an index more than ten points below the minimum is limited to one percent. This percentage of admits exceeding the tenpoint range is included as part of the window size specified for each institution.
Effective with applicants who graduated from high school in spring 2008 or later, freshmen applicants must meet both the institution's index standard and have completed the required Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR) (if applicable) to meet an institution's freshmen admission standard. Only units completed, in progress, or planned at the time of application will count toward a freshman student's meeting the Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR). Freshmen who have not completed the required Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR) will not meet the CCHE admission standard for any four-year college or university (except students age 20 or older at Metropolitan State University of Denver), regardless of the student's index score. Institutions may admit students who have not completed the required Higher Education Admission Requirements (HEAR), but these students will be counted as window admits.
5.05.01 Window Calculations
The 20% window will be calculated and applied on a statewide basis with considerations given to the institutional windows sizes established in table 4. This statewide calculation allows for an allocation of the additional window space to institutions whose entering students do not meet the Higher Education Admission Requirements. With existing data, department staff, in discussion with higher education institutions, will annually review the need for this window calculation to determine if it is meeting the needs of the state.
5.06 Admission Not Guaranteed
Applicants who meet the appropriate Commission admission standard for an institution are not guaranteed admission to that institution. Institutions may make admission decisions based on other criteria resulting in admission standards more rigorous than the Commission's minimum admission standards.
5.07 Reporting of Data
Institutions shall report all undergraduate freshmen and transfer applicants, including those for summer terms, to the Commission on the SURDS Undergraduate Applicant File. These data will be used to monitor the compliance of institutions with the Commission's standards and to evaluate the impact of the policy on institutions and students. An institution must keep up at least one, full, prior year of files and records to document admissions decisions.
Each year the Commission staff will collect data on enrollment, transfer, and freshmen admission standards for all institutions and will prepare a report for Commission consideration. The Commission then will formally review the report and reconsider the question of whether the ultimate standards designated under the policy should be retained or modified and whether the implementation schedule should continue on track.
6.00 Penalties for Not Meeting the Standards
If an institution should admit more than the CCHE-determined window percent for either the freshmen or transfer standard in any fiscal year, the Commission shall assess a financial penalty against the governing board. Such penalty shall be based on the number of admitted students, regardless of residency, exceeding the window percent limitation. The penalty will be calculated by doubling the number of admitted students exceeding the window percent and then multiplying the amount of state support applicable in the fiscal year in which the institution exceeded the window percentage. The penalty is binding and may not be appealed.
If an institution exceeds the CCHE-determined window percent for two consecutive years, the Commission, in addition to the financial penalty, may adjust the institution's index score by lowering it to the next index level or the point at which the institution would comply with the standards, whichever is lower.
During the HEAR implementation period of 2008 and 2009, this section will not be applicable to those institutions that admit students using reallocated window space described in section 5.05.01.
7.00 Enrollment Limits on Admission Standards
7.01 Standards for Out-of-State Students Must Equal or Exceed Those For In-State Students
SB 93-136 added the following language to 23-1-113 (1) (a): Effective July 1, 1993, the academic admission standards established for determining admission of students who do not have in-state status, as determined pursuant to section 23-7-103, shall equal or exceed those established for determining admission of in-state students.
The admission standards policy applies equally to both in-state and out-of-state students, no differentiation is made by tuition status and the CCHE-determined window percent apply to the pool of all accepted students. It is possible, however, for an institution to use its available window "slots" to give preferential treatment to applicants according to student residency. Such a practice would violate the intent of the statutory language. Therefore, the following procedures will be carried out yearly in order to monitor compliance with the intent of this requirement.
7.01.01 Separate Window Calculations for In-State and Out-of-State Accepted Students
Each fiscal year, after final Undergraduate Applicant data has been submitted and edited, separate window calculations will be made by Commission staff for students reported as in-state and out-of-state. Institutions whose in-state window percent is less than the out-of-state percent (by at least 0.5 percent) will be subject to further analysis. If this further review is not indicated by this comparison, then the institution will be considered to be in compliance.
7.01.02 Acceptance Decisions by Admission Index Range
The acceptance decisions made by institutions who do not meet the criteria identified in 7.01.01 will be analyzed by in-state and out-of-state applicant for significant differences.
Within each category, the number of total applicants and the percent offered admission will be calculated for both in-state and out-of-state applicants. If the percent of in-state applicants offered admission is greater than the percent of out-of-state applicants in almost every case, then the institution will be considered to be in compliance with the intent of the statutory language. One or two exceptions will not necessarily be considered as evidence of lack of compliance as long as these exceptions do not indicate a clear preference for out-of-state applicants, especially in the ranges around the institution's cutoff score.
7.01.03 Consequence for Not Complying With Statutory Intent
If the data for an institution does not show compliance with the analysis described in both 7.01.01 and 7.01.02, then staff will formally request an explanation and corrective action from the institution's governing board, and a discussion item for Commission review will be prepared.
7.02 Not less than 55 percent of the incoming freshman class at each state-supported institution of higher education shall be in-state students.
SB 93-136 added the following directive to statute (amended by SB 94-218): 23-1-113.5. Commission directive - resident admissions. It is the intent of the general assembly that all state-supported institutions of higher
education operate primarily to serve and educate the people of Colorado. The general assembly therefore directs the commission to develop admission policies to ensure that, beginning with the fall term of 1994 and for the fall term of each year thereafter, not less than fifty-five percent of the incoming freshman class at each state-supported institution of higher education are in-state students as defined in section 23-7-102 (5). Commencing with the fall term of 1995, this requirement shall be met if the percentage of in-state students in the incoming freshman class for the then current fall term and the two previous fall terms averages not less than fifty-five percent. Such fifty-five percent requirement shall also apply to the up to twenty percent of incoming freshmen students admitted based on criteria other than standardized test scores, high school class rank, and high school grade point average pursuant to section 23-1-113 (1) (b).
7.02.01 Use of the Fall Term, SURDS Enrollment File
Fall term data from the Student Unit-Record Data System (SURDS) Enrollment File will be used to test compliance.
7.02.02 Calculation of the In-State Percentage for First-Time Freshmen
This statutory language applies to all public institutions, including state system community colleges and local district colleges. The in-state percentage will be calculated from the selection of all students on the Fall Enrollment File who meet the following conditions: credit hours resident instruction greater than zero (in other words, students with only extended studies or sponsored program credit hours will be excluded from this calculation); student level less than 19; and registration status equal 1. The percent will be calculated as the total number meeting the above condition divided into those from this group that are reported as having instate tuition status. It should be noted that this calculation includes all enrolled students, including those who were admitted through an institution's admission window, with the exception of Native American students attending Fort Lewis College, who are excluded from this calculation. Beginning with fall 1995, the average of the most recent three fall term percentages will be used to test compliance. This percentage will be calculated as the total in-state over the three years divided by the total enrollment.
7.02.03 Consequence for Not Complying With 55 Percent Restriction
If the data for an institution shows an in-state percent less than 55 percent for first-time freshmen, then staff will formally request an explanation and corrective action from the institution's governing board, and a discussion item for Commission review will be prepared.
7.03 Reports to the Commission
Upon receipt and final editing of the data specified in sections 7.01, Commission staff shall prepare an analysis of the data and prepare a report for the Commission. Any institutions failing to meet the statutory language shall be identified and a subsequent discussion item from the institution and/or its board shall be prepared for Commission action.
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ESPO ESPO
ENVIRONMENTAL CODE OF PRACTICE
European Sea Ports Organisation
ESPO ENVIRONMENTAL CODE OF PRACTICE
Executive Summary
Table of Contents ( )
p. 3
Published in September 2003
Information completed in May 2003
Executive Summary ( )
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Environmental Code of Practice was adopted by the General Assembly of ESPO in April 2003. It revises the first Code, which was published in 1994, in the light of EU legislative changes and of the progress achieved by the port sector in developing sustainable port policies.
Sustainable port development and management have become an imperative on several grounds. Society, stakeholders and clients see sustainable development as a necessity for the acceptance of the port in the local economy. More and more, environmental legislation requires from the port management to act in a sustainable way. Moreover, ports themselves understand that an environmentally friendly attitude can also be a strong commercial argument.
The new Code reiterates the port sector's collective commitment to contributing to sustainable development in its three dimensions – social, economic and environmental – and demonstrates that the port sector is improving its environmental performance.
Ports differwithin Europe in several aspects, ownership, financial structure, activities, environmental responsibilities:
- Some ports organisations are responsible for management of the whole port area and may own at the same time port companies (including cargo operation companies), while others may only act as landlord or have mixed functions with respect to port operations.
- The port area management is in some cases governed by environmental permits and in other cases not. Companies in the port area are almost in all cases governed by environmental permits.
Stakeholders, however, often see the port area as one system. Theyconsider the port manager as the contact-person for every environmental issue in the port area, even if the port administration has no direct responsibility. Moreover, even if they are not immediately responsible for the activities carried out in the port area, port administrations still bear a certain general public responsibilitywhich will be strengthened by the forthcoming Environmental Liability Directive.
Therefore ESPO advises port administrations, with orwithout direct environmental responsibility, to use this Environmental Code of Practice to help them in developing tools to manage environmental issues. This will contribute to the full integration of ports in theirwider community.
Part I of the Code sets out 10 objectives which the EU port sector should aim to achieve (Environmental Policy Code). Part II of the Code highlights the achievements of the port sector in the past years in the field of the environment and recalls the European policy context (Environmental Port Policy Background). Part III of the Code presents an overview of (current and coming) environmental legislation, its effects on ports as well as guidelines for port administrations for managing the implementation of EU legislation in accordance with the principles highlighted in the "Environmental Policy Code" (Handbook of recommended environmental practices). Finally, a library of Environmental policy and guidelines is available, as an Annex to the Code, on ESPO's website.
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Foreword ( )
FOREWORD BYTHE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
By Mr. Fotis Karamitsos, Director Maritime Transport and Intermodality, DG Transport and Energy (TREN)
It is with great pleasure that I welcome ESPO's revision of its Environmental Code of Practice.
Back in 1994, its first version was welcomed by all involved in maritime transport and environmental affairs, including, of course, the Commission, as a groundbreaking initiative by the newly established European Sea Ports Organisation.
It put on the agenda the close relationship between ports and environmental protection, admitting that ports must, like all industries, commit to obey and respect environmental laws and regulations.
Following up on its action, during this last decade, ESPO published an Environmental Review, in which welcome environmentally related actions and progress were presented.
The decision by ESPO to revise its Environmental Code of Practice reflects the increased awareness of European citizens in respect to the protection of the environment. Indeed, the public demands that industrial activities have the least possible negative environmental impact.
The EU, and the Commission in particular, have taken note of this demand and integrated it in all policies, including of course transport.
For example, the White Paper on Transport stressed that one of the ways to achieve the objective of reducing road traffic and congestion is to encourage and promote short sea shipping.
However, if short sea shipping is to reach its full potential, ports, which are the natural starting and end points of every sea voyage, have to give an image of efficiency, effectiveness and environmental friendliness. This is even more important at present with the EU's historic enlargement less than a year away.
We, in the Commission, are active on all those fronts, in parallel presenting various legislative initiatives and implementing existing EU legislation.
It is also, however, up to the ports' industry itself, through self-regulation, to set its own standards, objectives and goals in relation with environmental protection and then proceed to a monitoring of those through a peer review.
In the past decade ESPO has done this with a high level of success and consistency. I wish them to do even better in the coming years.
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INTRODUCTION BYTHE CHAIRMAN OF ESPO
By Mr. David Whitehead, Chairman of the European Sea Ports Organisation
I am delighted to present ESPO's new Environmental Code of Practice which fully revises and updates our first Code of Practice produced almost 10 years ago.
My thanks go first of all to the ESPO Environment Committee and the Secretariat for all their hard work in drawing up this important new Code.
The environment has always been a major priority for ESPO. We have made a firm link between effective environmental management and effective port management – the two go hand in hand. If we are to secure the future for new port development and new investment this must be done with environmental protection to the forefront.
ESPO is in a unique position to encourage best practice amongst its member ports and to set challenging targets. This new Code is part of that process. The "ten environmental commandments" show our commitment to sustainable development and efficient and effective management practices.
ESPO is very proud of its track record in environmental research. Last year, the ECOPORTS project was launched to build on the successes of Eco-Information. The Environmental Certification Scheme created bythe project and administered byLloyd's Register is a clearwayin which ports can indicate their environmental progress. We are committed to seeing the expansion of the scheme throughout the sector.
We are equally committed to measuring our progress through regular surveys of the ESPO membership and through publications such as the recent Environmental Review.
Ports and shipping have a special status as the most environmentally friendly transport mode. We believe that this new Code makes a further contribution to maintaining that status.
5
Introduction ( )
ESPO ENVIRONMENTAL CODE OF PRACTICE
PARTI: ENVIRONMENTAL POLICYCODE
By implementing the ten following environmental objectives, the European port sector aims to continuously work towards improvements of its overall environmental performance.
)
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICYCODE
The main environmental objectives which the EU port sector should aim to achieve are:
1. To contribute to the development of a sustainable logistics chain, as ports are keyelements of the Trans-European Network.
2. To encourage wide consultation, dialogue and cooperation between port administrations and the relevant stakeholders at local level (port users, public, NGOs) to facilitate the reconciliation, at an early stage, of differing interests and the acceptance of port projects by the local community.
3. To generate new knowledge and technology and to develop sustainable techniques which combine environmental effectiveness and cost efficiency. The aim is to achieve selfregulation and develop a bottom-up approach. Even if the EU decides to issue environmental regulations, the existing self-regulatory instruments, developed by the port sector itself and which address day-to-day practice, will provide a port-accepted background to be used as a basis for EU environmental policy. This will enable EU legislation to be more easily supported and implemented.
4. To enhance cooperation between port administrations in the field of environment and facilitate the exchange of experiences and implementation of best practices on environmental issues to avoid unnecessary duplication and enable port administrations to share the costs of environmental solutions. This can be notably achieved through the participation of port administrations in a network, which will be coordinated by the ECOPORTS Foundation. The aim is to create a level playing field by limiting poor environmental practice as a competitive factor between port administrations.
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5. To increase awareness of environmental concerns and to integrate sustainable development into ports' policies, by encouraging port administrations to prepare a publicly available environmental policy setting out their strategies and methods of achieving them. This will contribute to promote a "corporate social responsibility" on the port.
6. To encourage port administrations to conduct appropriate environmental impact assessments for port projects and appropriate strategic environmental impact assessments for port development plans to assess, at an early stage, how their effects on the environment can be minimised.
7. To stimulate continual improvement in the port environment and its port environmental management by promoting the use of Environmental Management Information System tools (such as environmental audit, environmental review, environmental management system, decision support system, port visitor internet tool, as developed by the ECOPORTS Foundation).
8. To promote monitoring, based on environmental performance indicators, as recommended bythe 2001 ESPO Environmental Review, in order to measure objectivelyidentifiable progress in environmental port practices.
9. To promote environmental reporting as a means of communicating environmentally good behaviour to stakeholders and the European institutions, in line with the recommendations of the ESPO Environment Review published in 2001.
10. To intensify the communication about environmental improvements achieved by ports, with the aim to create a better understanding of the role of ports and their efforts towards sustainability.
This "Ten Commandments" list is available in all Communitylanguages on ESPO's website http://www.espo.be/publications/index.asp
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ESPO ENVIRONMENTAL CODE OF PRACTICE
PARTII: ENVIRONMENTAL PORTPOLICY BACKGROUND
This Part highlights the achievements of the port sector in the past years in the field of the environment and recalls the European policy context.
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SECTION I - THE PORTSECTOR AND THE ENVIRONMENT
1. Overview of the Port Industry
The vital importance of the ports industry for EU trade is demonstrated by the statistics: the maritime sector is responsible for over two thirds (70%) of all trade between the Communityand the rest of the world, as well as 41% of goods traffic within the Community (Short Sea Shipping). Ports are the gateway for the movement of millions of passengers each year and a wide range of goods (including vehicles, fresh food, steel, timber, building materials, machinery and manufactured goods) and raw materials (oil, petroleum, chemicals, ores, grain and animal feedstuffs) which are needed to fuel the European Union's economy. Ports provide a range of other services besides cargo handling and the transfer of passengers, for example fishing, as well as leisure and recreational facilities. They also accommodate various industrial installations (refineries, power plants, etc.). As a result, ports act as magnets for trade and industry and as generators of employment.
As recognised by the Commission's White Paper "European Transport Policy for 2010: Time to Decide", the ports industry is at the heart of the maritime sector. It can make a major contribution to the achievement of sustainable mobility, being in the centre of environmentally friendlywater and rail-based transport systems.
Sound environmental practices in ports complement the environmental advantages of shipping.
2. Initiatives undertaken bythe Port Sector in the field of Environment
The port sector has proved its commitment to environmental improvement by publishing its first European Environmental Code of Practice in 1994 and by undertaking a number of pan-European environment-focused projects.
Developing a Code of Practice was one of the first tasks taken on byESPO following its creation in 1993. This was the veryfirst time that European port administrations had expressed a collective view and approach. The Code was intended to be a clear expression of their collective commitment to environmental improvement. It therefore made a series of important recommendations about the integration of environmental protection policies into all aspects of their operations. The Code stimulated a new awareness of coming environmental rules and their implications. It spread the message that environmental effectiveness meant cost-efficiency.
Even during the relative short period since the first ESPO Code was published, concern about the environment and the development of sustainable policies has increased, bringing about advances in policy and legislation. In the light of such changes ESPO published an Environmental Review in 2001, reviewing the progress that had been made and the action taken since the publication of the Code. It further set out a series of highly innovative recommendations for future action:
- Ports should prepare a publicly available environmental policy setting out their strategies and methods of achieving them;
- Plans should be reviewed regularly to take account of legislative and other changes;
- Ports should produce a publicly available annual environmental review;
- Ports should considerwhat environmental monitoring is required to assess their environmental progress;
- Ports should establish a number of relevant environmental indicators with targets to measure progress;
- Ports should consult adequately the local community on its environmental programme.
Further to its commitment, through the ESPO Code and Environmental Review, to environmentallyfriendlybehaviour, the EU port sector undertook several projects aimed at improving the environmental performance of its activities.
The Soil Recycling project (1995-1996) developed a guideline for port management in relation to contaminated soil and demonstrated the practical benefits of sharing knowledge on technological and procedural solutions for re-use of contaminated port sites.
The ECO-Information project (1997-1999) developed a dedicated set of environmental management tools for the port administrations: an audit tool (Self-Diagnosis Method – SDM 98), an information engine (Database and Methodological Guide) and a communication platform (website www.ecoports.com). More importantly, the project developed an extended network of port administrations; more than 60 European port administrations participated in the test-run of these tools. The ECO-Information project acted as a catalyst for action amongst many of the European port administrations and stimulated considerable progress in port environmental management.
In 2002 port administrations took things one step further bystarting the 3-yearvoluntaryproject ECOPORTS on "information exchange and impact assessment for enhanced environmental conscious operations in European ports and terminals". The main goal is to harmonise the environmental management approach of port administrations in Europe, to exchange experiences and implement best practices in respect of port-related environmental issues. ECOPORTS maintains the momentum created so far and is leading the port sector towards self-regulation.
The ECOPORTS project aims to create a level playing field bylimiting the environment as a competitive factor. In this project, port administrations assist each other to avoid double work and share the costs of development of joint solutions. The envisaged products of the project include an Environmental Management and Information System (EMIS), a training system to familiarise port managers with EMIS tools and an extended network of port administrations which will continue to interact and exchange best-practice information after the end of the project.
The ECOPORTS project also develops tools that will help port administrations to put the recommendations of the 2001 Environmental Review into action (for instance, the Port Environmental Review System (PERS) can be used as a standard for the implementation of these recommendations).
All projects, Soil Recycling, ECO-Information and ECOPORTS, were funded bythe European Commission, which shows again their importance and contribution to EU environmental policy.
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SECTION II - THE EUROPEAN DIMENSION
1. Transport Policy
The Göteborg European Council in June 2001 adopted an EU strategy for sustainable development, which highlighted that maritime transport could make a contribution to breaking the link between economic growth and road congestion.
The White Paper "European Transport Policy for 2010: Time to Decide", published by the Commission in September 2001, responded to the concerns raised in Göteborg and came up with a numberof proposals to integrate transport and sustainable development. The Commission notablyproposes to shift the balance between modes of transport, bylimiting the increase in road traffic and encouraging the use of modes such as rail, inland waterway and Short Sea Shipping. The White Paper acknowledges the key role that ports can play in the development of maritime transport and therefore in the rebalancing between the different modes of transport.
2. Main Environmental Principles
EU environmental policy is nowadays mainly guided by three principles: public access to information, public participation in decision-making and the "polluter pays" principle.
The first two principles result from the Aarhus Convention, which grants rights to the public on access to information, participation in decision-making and access to justice. To align the EU legislation with the provisions of the Aarhus Convention (which was signed bythe EU in 1998), the European Parliament and Council have adopted Directive 2003/04 EC on public access to environmental information, which will be completed by another Directive providing for public participation drawing up certain plans and programmes relating to the environment.
These principles are not implemented only in the specific texts above-mentioned. They reflect a general trend in EU environmental policy. For instance, the Water Framework 2000/60/EC and the Strategic Environmental Assessment 2001/42/EC Directives also contain provisions on public participation.
The principle that the polluter should pay for the damage caused to the environment also marks a new approach in EU environmental policy. It has been introduced by the Commission, on a general basis, in a proposal for a Directive on environmental liability. This is a horizontal proposal covering all activities, and it aims both to prevent and restore environmental damage. The polluter pays principle is moreover reflected in other legislation, such as the Water Framework Directive.
The White Paper on Common Transport Policy also adopts this philosophy by announcing measures on charging for the use of infrastructure, meaning that prices should also reflect external costs, such as congestion, pollution and accidents.
3. Environmental Objectives set out in the Sixth Environment Action Programme
The 6 th Environment Action Programme "Environment 2010: Our Future, Our Choice", adopted in September 2002, constitutes a framework for the Community's environmental policy during the next 10 years. It seeks new and innovative instruments for meeting complex environmental challenges. Legislation is not abandoned, but a more effective use of legislation is sought togetherwith a more participatory approach to policy-making, including the active involvement of the industry.
One of the purposes of this Code is to take forward this process in a practical way by stimulating participation in initiatives which seek to provide a framework of knowledge. This will serve as a basis for ESPO to formulate policy and make appropriate recommendations.
ESPO ENVIRONMENTAL CODE OF PRACTICE
PARTIII: HANDBOOK OF RECOMMENDED ENVIRONMENTAL PRACTICES
In section I, the Code presents an overview of environmental legislation as well as its effects on ports (as the Code is a document to be used for a number of years it also provides for the trends – in the form of forthcoming Directives – in the field of European environmental policy).
Detailed and up-dated information on the regulations and guidelines mentioned in the Code can be found in a "library" contained in the Annex, which is available on the ESPO website: http://www.espo.be
The section also makes a number of important recommendations to port administrations to manage the implementation of EU legislation in accordance with the principles highlighted in the "Environmental Policy Code". It does not include mandatory requirements. EU legislation is implemented in different ways at the national and local levels; responsibility for the implementation of environmental legislation and policy varies from port to port and from member state to member state. The Code provides practical guidelines to port administrations when developing their environmental policies.
Section II presents port environmental management tools, which can be used to deal with the issues developed in section I.
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SECTION I - ENVIRONMENTAL FRAMEWORK FOR PORTADMINISTRATIONS
The role of port administrations in tackling environmental issues can be analysed from 3 perspectives:
- Port area (land and sea)
- Ship/Port interface
- Maritime area (outside the port area)
The following sections will demonstrate that the ports industry is committed to developing voluntary schemes in order to move towards self-regulation.
A – PORT AREA
The activities of industries located in the port area affect the port area as a whole. As a result, the interests of the port administration are also related to the environmental effects of the actions undertaken by industries in its port. The port administration therefore stimulates environmentally friendly behaviour in the port area.
1. Port Development
i) The issue and the rules
Global competition puts pressure on European port administrations to offer infrastructure and facilities which accommodate the wishes of their customers. On the other hand, port development in Europe is more and more constrained byscarcityof land, urban development and ecological considerations. Port development can be affected bythe requirements of a series of Directives: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), Conservation of Wild Birds, and Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Flora and Fauna. Moreover, port development should be seen in the context of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). This approach requires a comprehensive assessment, setting of objectives and planning of coastal systems and resources.
The environmental principles set in the above-mentioned Directives can conflict with the interests of ports, as the fulfilment of these requirements mayhamperthe development of port projects, therefore leading to great delays in theircompletion and increasing costs. The implications are heavilyinfluenced bythe waylegislation is transposed into national legislation, as well as by the national and regional-specific rules (e.g. port extensions may be limited due to city-specific planning reasons). ESPO started to study more in detail the impact of the Birds & Habitats Directives on port development, by carrying out a survey amongst its members and by organizing a seminar in Genoa in November 2002. This seminar highlighted the abovementioned conflict and also gave examples of good practices which ports have developed to reconcile their activities with nature protection. The issue will remain high on ESPO's agenda. ESPO will encourage good practices and exchange of experiences whilst at the same time drawing the attention of the EU institutions to the adverse effects of the Birds and Habitats Directives on port development and activities.
ii) Recommended guidelines
Bearing in mind the legal framework and the system of planning consents as operated in each member state, it is recommended that:
- Port administrations conduct appropriate environmental impact studies where possible, even if not strictly required under the terms of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive;
- All port administration plans make sure they collect the public and stakeholders' opinion in the planning period, according to the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive; a carefully designed public outreach programme can ensure the involvement of all stakeholders;
- Port administrations get involved in the early processes of designation of protected areas;
- Port administrations enter in a constructive dialogue with NGOs and local authorities concerning the management of the area designated under the Birds/Habitats Directives on their territory and its implementation;
- If theyplan to develop a project in a protected area, port administrations follow strictly the different assessment steps provided for in Article 6, paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Habitats Directive. They should consult with the European Commission and national administrations in order to get their plan/project duly authorized.
2. Dredging and Disposal of Dredged Material
i) The issue and the rules
Dredging is an essential activity for maintaining accessibility to ports and has come under pressure because of environmental considerations. The designation of protected areas under the Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC poses limitations on both dredging and disposal of dredged material. It could result from the implementation of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC that turbulence in water bodies, which is a normal consequence of dredging, be not allowed in certain areas, which would make dredging very complicated.
Furthermore, in some ports dredged material may be contaminated to an extent that environmental requirements need to be fulfilled before its disposal. The disposal of dredged material is closely controlled through permits provided by national legislation which originates, in the North-East Atlantic, from the OSPAR Convention (Combined Oslo and Paris Convention), in the Baltic Sea Area from the Helsinki Convention, in the Mediterranean Sea Area from the Barcelona Convention and in the Black Sea Area from the Bucharest Convention. The OSPAR Commission and the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) have adopted similarguidelines addressing specificallythe disposal of dredged material in the maritime area. Both guidelines put a big burden in terms of information requirements and related costs.
ii) Recommended guidelines
Where port administrations are involved in dredging activities, they are recommended to:
- Get involved in consultations with the competent authorities on the impact of legislation on their dredging activities;
- Minimize the effects on the environment of dredging operations as far as practicable and according to the Technical Annex included in both the OSPAR and HELCOM guidelines;
- Depending on their geographical position, adopt the guidelines of the OSPAR Commission or the recommendations of the Helsinki Commission for the disposal of dredged material by dumping in the maritime area;
- Exchange information and best practice experience on a voluntary basis.
Port administrations are also recommended to encourage those responsible for dredging to follow the same lines.
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3. Soil Contamination
i) The issue and the rules
The port area historically accommodates a great range of activities, which are, or have been, the source of soil contamination. From the point of view of a port administration, soil contamination means damage to the sites that it rents, and consequentlya reduction in value of its assets. This can lead to complex and time-consuming juridical processes aiming at the restoration of the site, puts pressure on attractiveness for new investors, and delays potential income from rent and spin-off activities because the site cannot be used. In several ports, land lease contracts therefore contain environmental paragraphs. The 'polluter pays' principle, which will be put into action with the forthcoming Directive on Environmental Liability, will provide some more protection to port administrations, but it mayalso create the need to assign a special budget to pay for the restoration of the site on behalf of the polluter and to set up a legal system to claim back the money from the polluter. Still, a certain financial risk for the port administrations remains, especially if the tenant is insolvent or cannot be traced after the end of their contract.
In April 2002 the European Commission issued a Communication announcing that a Community thematic strategy for the protection of soil against erosion and pollution will be presented in 2004. This was the first time that soil pollution was addressed in an explicit Community policy. This strategy will take into consideration the principles of precaution, anticipation and environmental liability, while it will use soil monitoring as a basis for future legislative initiatives.
ii) Recommended guidelines
The "Soil Recycling in European Ports" project (1995-1996) produced a guideline for port management in relation to contaminated soil. Although this is not an exhaustive and detailed handbook, it is a valuable source of port-specific experience.
For a better protection of their interests, port administrations are recommended to:
- Create a clear and consistent soil policy aiming at preventing financial and environmental risks;
- Incorporate soil management aspects into contracts with their tenants;
- Nominate representatives for communication with and control of their tenants;
- Create facilities to inform and stimulate the tenants about their responsibilities;
- Monitor the port area for early identification of soil contamination sources.
4. Noise Management
i) The issue and the rules
Determining "noise capacity" consists of setting the limits for permissible noise levels for individual companies as well as for the port area as a whole. A good functioning noise management system will have the character of a social, environmental as well as commercial instrument. Port administrations have already been trying to find a balance between facilitating the needs of their tenants and making the most efficient use of the port area within the existing noise limits. Port area noise
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capacity will come under further pressure as the Directive 2002/49EC on the "Assessment and Management of Environmental Noise" requires that ports will be included in strategic noise maps (2006) and action plans (2008) for the management of noise, including noise reductions if necessary. For port administrations, reduction of the port area noise capacity could result in reduced possibilities for new investors, and therefore affect their income from rent and spin-off activities in the port area.
ii) Recommended guidelines
Port administrations are recommended to:
- Get involved in earlyconsultations with the competent authorities responsible formaking the noise maps and action plans;
- Develop instruments/tools to enhance the efficient use of the available noise capacity;
- Take initiatives to voluntary exchange best practice experience in port area noise management.
5. Port Waste Management
i) The issue and the rules
Port activities produce waste that has to be removed following certain rules. Important variations can be observed in the national legislation of member states regarding the responsibility forwaste management.
ii) Recommended guidelines
Waste does not only involve costs, it also entails a commercial possibility as waste can mean money if it is reused, recycled or burned for energy recovery. Waste management should involve the channelling of waste using systems which are technically proven, commercially viable and which comply with national and EU public health and environmental safeguards.
Port administrations are recommended to:
Incorporate in a single strategyfor the whole port area the EU's waste management hierarchyas defined in the Commission 1996 EU Waste Strategyand put into practice in the sixth Environment Action Programme:
- Waste prevention;
- Waste recovery;
- Waste disposal.
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6. Water Qualityand Management
i) The issue and the rules
The Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC is set as the basis of the water strategy of the European Union. The Directive introduces a system of water management by river basin - the natural, geographical and hydrological unit - instead of according to administrative or political boundaries. It covers all types and uses of water, including surface water, groundwater, transitional and coastal waters. The Directive introduces new concepts for the ecological and chemical protection of surface water and the chemical status of groundwater. Also introduced is the concept of "cost recovery" for water services. Member States are required to incorporate resource and environmental costs in water prices in accordance with the "polluter pays" principle.
It is possible that the major implications for port administrations will be the practical consequences of ensuring that the water, within which port operations are carried out, can be brought up to and maintained at the necessaryqualitystandards without jeopardizing economic operations. It is important that operations essential to the satisfactory running of a port are fully understood by the legislators, both national and European, and proper allowances are made so that port operations would not be inhibited. It is not yet clear how the water quality provisions in the Directive will be implemented but account must be taken of the impact of dredging and other routine port operations.
The impact of cost recovery under the Directive on ports still needs further assessment.
ii) Recommended guidelines
The concept of river basin management means that the interests of port operations will have to be combined with the interests of other activities, e.g. agriculture, that affect the same river basin. Port administrations are recommended to:
- Get involved in the early processes of defining boundaries of water bodies and defining the water bodies themselves;
- Get involved in the consultation process with the competent national authorities and ensure that they inform these authorities of their interests;
- Participate fully in the preparation and delivery of the appropriate river basin management plans;
- Prepare plans to ensure efficient use of water.
7. Air Qualityand Management
i) The issue and the rules
Air quality in the port area is mainly affected by emissions from the port-based industrial activity. Although this Code does not deal with the port area industrial activity, port administrations are often the receivers of air-related complaints (e.g. dust, odours) from the local community. The public perception about the responsibilityof the port administrations can cause increased public pressure on port-related projects, accompanied by delays and increased expenditures for the port administrations.
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The Directive 96/62/EC on the Ambient Air Quality Assessment and Management sets the basic principles of the EU air quality strategy and is accompanied by Daughter Directives that set the numerical limit or target values for a range of air pollutants. Targeting the sources of air pollutants, the Directive 94/63/EC controls the Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions resulting from the storage of petrol in terminals and its distribution from terminals to service stations, the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive 96/61/EC controls the emissions from a wide range of industrial installations, the Directive 2000/76/EC sets operational conditions and technical requirements for Waste Incineration Plants, and Directive 2001/80/EC controls the air emissions from Large Combustion Plants.
ii) Recommended guidelines
Port administrations are recommended to:
- Take the appropriate measures in order to complywith the emission limit values that apply for any installations that they own and operate;
- Nominate representatives for communication with and control of their tenants;
- Engage in dialogue with the local community in order to facilitate better understanding of the role of port administrations;
- Inform themselves on how companies in the port area apply the provisions of the Directive on the Control of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from the storage of petrol and its distribution from terminals to service stations; and
- Monitor the port area for early identification of air quality problems.
8. Monitoring the Port Environment and Reporting
i) The issue and the rules
Whilst recognising that specific responsibility for monitoring within a port area will vary from port to port and from memberstate to memberstate, monitoring can be of particularimportance to help port administrations to foresee, anticipate and avoid environmental damage liabilities under the forthcoming Environmental Liability Directive as well as damage to their sites from the activities of their tenants. In this context, it would be useful for port administrations to make an assessment of the environmental risks in the port area.
Directive 2003/04 EC on "public access to environmental information" obliges port administrations to possess and update environmental information relevant to their activities and make, on their own initiative, such information available on electronic databases that are publicly and easily accessible. The European Commission also adopted a Recommendation (2001/453/EC) on the "recognition, measurement and disclosure of environmental issues in the annual accounts and annual reports of companies", with which port administrations have to comply. The ESPO Environmental Review in 2001 went one step further byrecommending that port administrations should produce a publiclyavailable annual environmental review (report). ESPO encourages the use of the Port Environmental Review System (PERS) developed by the ECOPORTS project as it can assist port administrations in the preparation of their environmental report.
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ii) Recommended guidelines
Port administrations are recommended to:
- Identify environmental performance indicators relevant to their major environmental issues in order to facilitate monitoring of their environmental performance;
- Establish monitoring which is geared towards obtaining information relevant to the chosen environmental performance indicators;
- Produce a publicly available annual environmental report;
- Use PERS as a tool to compile the minimum information needed to produce the environmental report.
9. Port Preparedness and ContingencyPlans
i) The issue and the rules
Although monitoring establishes a 'proactive' approach, as it helps port administrations identify problems at an early stage, the 'reactive' approach is also very important to assist port administrations in minimizing the financial and environmental risk of accidents when they happen. It should be acknowledged that, in the case of contingency plans, port administrations need to act in association with other relevant national and local emergencyauthorities and in accordance with national and international regulations.
The IMO International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Cooperation (OPRC) requires member states to establish measures for dealing with oil pollution incidents, either nationally or in co-operation with other countries. In 2000, the parties of the OPRC convention adopted a protocol on Preparedness, Response and Co-operation to pollution incidents by Hazardous and Noxious Substances (HNS Protocol). The method bywhich these contingency plans are prepared and operated varies quite considerably between member states.
ii) Recommended guidelines
The port administrations are recommended to:
- Cooperate with the relevant national and local authorities on the preparation of contingency plans for the port area;
- Have good knowledge of the existing contingency plans;
- Communicate internally this knowledge;
- Assist in the coordination of contingency plans in case of an accident in the port area.
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B – SHIP/PORT INTERFACE
Port administrations may or may not be involved in cargo handling activities. In any case, they stimulate environmentally friendly activities related to the ship/shore interface.
1. Ship Waste Management
i) The issue and the rules
Ships that are calling at ports may need to dispose of a variety of wastes produced during their journey. The MARPOL Convention 73/78 by the International Maritime Organisation requires ports to have adequate and sufficient facilities for each type of waste that ships carry. The EU Directive 2000/59/EC goes one step further by addressing in detail the legal, financial and practical responsibilities of the different operators involved in the delivery of ship generated waste and cargo residues in European ports. Although International and European legislation create a general legal framework, it should be acknowledged that important variations can be observed in the national legislation of the member states. Notably, Baltic countries are faced with specific rules resulting from the HELCOM Strategy.
ii) Recommended guidelines
In order to provide guidance on the provision of MARPOL 73/78 forwaste facilities, the IMO published in 1995 and updated in 1999 a 'Comprehensive Manual on Port Reception Facilities'. In compliance with the provisions of the EU Directive 2000/59, ESPO prepared, in 2000, guidelines to assist port administrations in preparing plans forthe reception of ship-generated waste. In drawing these waste management plans, port administrations are recommended to:
- Consult with interested parties;
- Analyse the amounts and types of waste generated by ships using the ports;
- Consider the type and capacity of facilities required;
- Consider the location and ease of use of the facilities;
- Ensure that the cost recoverysystems for using port reception facilities provide no incentive for ships to discharge their waste into the sea;
- Ensure that effective publicity is given to the facilities;
- Submit a written plan to the competent authority;
- Review the planning process regularly.
2. Cargo Handling
i) The issue and the rules
Cargo handling can have environmental implications both inside and outside the port area; these include dust, odours, atmospheric pollution, water and soil contamination, increased noise levels etc. Although cargo handling may or may not be the responsibility of the port administration, these environmental implications have a negative effect on the activities of the port administration: soil contamination reduces the value of its assets; water contamination can lead to increased levels of contaminants in the dredged material and subsequent increased costs for its treatment and disposal; dust, odours and noise increase the number of complaints and pressure from the local community.
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The Air Quality Framework Directive with related Daughter Directives, the Directive on the Control of Volatile Organic Compounds resulting from the storage of petrol and its distribution from terminals to service stations, the Water Framework Directive, the Directive on the Assessment and Management of Environmental Noise, the Directive on Noise Emission by Equipment for Use Outdoors and the Seveso II Directive set the European policy background with which port activities must comply, togetherwith the relevant national and local regulations.
ii) Recommended guidelines
In case port administrations are involved in cargo handling activities, they are recommended to:
- Seek constant improvement of cargo handling procedures, using Best Available Techniques that do not entail excessive costs;
- Carry out appropriate maintenance and periodic inspection of equipment and facilities used for cargo handling;
- Minimise practices creating nuisance for neighbouring population;
- Be aware of and conform with the environmental regulations and their related responsibilities.
Port administrations are also recommended to encourage those responsible for cargo handling to follow the same lines.
3. Hazardous Cargo
i) The issue and the rules
Hazardous cargo poses a special danger to the surrounding environment and community. The volume of dangerous and polluting goods carried by sea is increasing and will continue to increase. The EU White Paper on the "European transport policy for 2010" called for intermodality, stressing the advantages of short sea shipping.
The principal instrument is the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974 as amended which specifies the minimum standards for the construction, equipment and operation of ships, compatible with their safety. Directive 2002/59/EC establishing a Community vessel traffic monitoring and information system (part of the ERIKA II package) repeals Council Directive 93/75/EEC (HAZMAT) and sets, among others, the requirements for the notification of dangerous and polluting goods carried on board ships.
The Codes prescribed in SOLAS and the EU Directive 2002/59/EC are recognized as the minimum standards for the safe transport of dangerous and polluting goods by sea, but because ports are closely linked they are also taken as the standards for port operations. The IMO has adopted amendments to chapterVII of SOLAS to make the provisions of the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) Code mandatoryunderthe convention as from 1 January2004. Contracting Governments may apply the IMDG Code on a voluntary basis as from 1 January 2003.
The new version of the IMDG Code (2002 edition or Amendment 31-02) is now aligned with the United Nations model regulations for all modes of transport. Correct packing and documentation for consignments of dangerous goods are essential, so that those engaged in the transport and handling of such are not exposed to risk. For this reason, it is important that, from the land side operations, personnel engaged in the packing of dangerous goods and the preparation of documentation should be competent to perform these tasks.
Recognizing the need to harmonize rules applied within the port area with rules applicable to ships, IMO published a set of "Recommendations on the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods in Port Areas". The publication was first circulated in 1973 and revised on various occasions. The latest (1995) edition also contains guidance for the implementation of these recommendations bythose MemberStates, which are undertaking the regulation of transport of dangerous goods and related activities in their ports. The Recommendations have been aligned as closely as possible with relevant IMO Codes, and with the IMDG Code in particular. It is considered essential to harmonize the rules applied within the port area with the rules that are applicable to the ship in order to ensure smooth operations and to avoid misunderstandings between ship and shore. The Recommendations also include a new element, cargo interests. This refers to the many and various organisations, which can be involved with dangerous cargoes before they arrive at a port, such as shippers, packers, those concerned with documentation, consolidators and forwarding agents.
In 1996 the fourth edition of the International Safety Guide for Oil Tankers & Terminals (ISGOTT), was produced jointly by the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF), and the International Association of Ports and Harbours (IAPH). This is considered as the standard reference work on the safe operation of oil tankers and terminals. OCIMF has also published the second edition (1993) of a Safety Guide for Terminals Handling Ships Carrying Liquefied Gases in Bulk. This guide is primarily intended for use by LPG Terminals, but it is also applicable for use by terminals handling LNG and liquefied gases.
ii) Recommended guidelines
The role of port administrations to reduce the risks posed by hazardous cargo relates, as acknowledged by directive 2002/59, to the collection of the information notified by the ship when entering the port.
Port administrations are therefore recommended:
- To set up electronic information systems in order to receive and process the data in an optimal way;
- To exchange best practices in order to ensure a uniform approach on information gathering.
C - MARITIME AREA
The port administration does not have a direct responsibility with respect to shipping activities outside the port area. However, it is, togetherwith the shipping industry, a key actor in the maritime transport sector. The port industry keeps an open mind for cooperation.
1. Maritime Safety
Several maritime accidents off the EU coasts (Erika, Prestige) highlighted the urgent need to strengthen European rules concerning the safety of maritime transport and the prevention of sea pollution. The Commission responded to these safety concerns by publishing the Erika I and II packages, which were adopted by the EU institutions with uncommon speed. The need for an accelerated implementation of these rules has been acknowledged and the Commission will pursue its efforts to improve safety at sea by proposing further measures.
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Although the above-mentioned measures do not address ports directly, port administrations can also contribute to improve the safetyof navigation and the prevention of pollution in EU waters. This is acknowledged byDirective 2002/59 establishing a Community monitoring, control and information system for maritime traffic which:
- imposes some obligations on ports in relation to the collection of information on the ship and its cargo in order to better monitor the traffic;
- highlights the responsibilities of port authorities vis-à-vis ships in case of bad weather conditions, i.e. either prevent ships (especially sub-standard ones) to sail or accommodate them if they are in distress.
Providing refuge to a ship in need of assistance mayavoid pollution. However, as provided in Directive 2002/59, the decision to accommodate a ship is in distress requires a balanced approach. A realistic assessment must be made of the risks involved, either in refusing port access in order to keep the pollution or explosion away from the coast or in requiring a ship in a precarious condition to head for a port in order to keep the ship and its crew safe and to avoid sea pollution.
Port administrations should:
- have the possibility to refuse access to a ship in distress if the accommodation of this vessel would endanger the safety of the port, its wider community, environment and economy;
- be able to rely on a clear chain of command to deal with incidents;
- be able to count on prompt compensation of the costs and the potential damage resulting from this operation.
2. Ship Emissions
MARPOL Annex VI sets regulations for the prevention of air pollution from ships, including designating special SOx Emission Control Areas in the Baltic, the North Sea and the English Channel. As it is not yet into force and its provisions are not sufficiently stringent, the European Commission decided to go a step further by proposing a strategy to reduce air pollutant emissions (sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds) from the maritime sector, as well as an accompanying measure aimed to reduce the sulphur content in marine fuel oil.
ESPO supports the principle of reducing the harmful effects from ship emissions. However, the category which should be targeted to improve the qualityof air emissions from the maritime sector should be the responsible polluter, according to the polluter pays principle, and not the port sector, which does not have control over ship emissions.
Some ports have developed good practices to facilitate low-emission shipping in ports, for example by using differential charging to encourage new combustion techniques and lower sulphur content in bunker oils.
ESPO sees the introduction of differential charging as a decision of individual ports based on their own circumstances and opposes any initiative imposing such a practice on a European wide basis.
SECTION II – PORTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
The environmental role of port administrations depends on national laws. In certain cases national legislation already foresees environmental requirements for concessionaires and/or port users. Environmental duties are also given to public authorities or administrations different from port administrations.
Taking into account their individual circumstances and requirements, port administrations are recommended to use the Environmental Management Information System (EMIS) developed by the ECOPORTS Foundation on behalf of the port industry; this is an important step towards self-regulation.
The EMIS tools 1 consist of:
1. Environmental Audit
The Self Diagnosis Methodology (SDM) is an environmental self-audit.
It can be used to establish exactly the position and status of a port's environmental management programme for the initial development and implementation of an Environmental Management System, and/or as a periodic auditing tool to establish performance over time, either against the port's own baseline or in relation to European benchmarks.
2. Environmental Review
The Port Environmental Review System (PERS) has been developed specifically for ports. PERS defines a standard of good practice for reviewing and reporting significant aspects of a port's environmental management.
It may be considered as a first step in a phased programme to implement an Environmental Management System. PERS includes the option of a voluntary application for a Certificate of Verification by an independent auditor.
3. Environmental Management System
This is a standard Environmental Management Scheme which can be applied in port communities all around Europe. The main focus is on environmental relationships within the port community, i.e. the port authority, the industrial facilities located within the port area and companies exploiting the port's terminals.
It also consists of an integrated environmental port area management module, bringing together those information streams that can help to strengthen the effects of environmental management on both port administrations and operators. It can also be of assistance in environmental improvement programmes, notablybymonitoring and measuring the results of these programmes by using standard environmental indicators.
(
)
4. Decision Support System
The Decision Support System (DSS) is an Information Communication Technology (ICT) tool to allow port managers to scan different environmental solutions and opportunities whilst planning the management or improvement of activities within the port. It pools together European port environmental knowledge to enable port managers to make evidence-based decisions.
The knowledge base for these decisions comes from two sources: a database of solutions based on information of best practices from the port sector and surveys of tools, devices and measures that have potential for application in European port environmental management.
5. Port Visitor Internet Tool
A Port Visitor Internet tool is aimed at supplying information online to professional port visitors. The data provided will be adapted to each port.
This tool will enable its users to have access to relevant environmental information and requirements, with which they have to complywithin the port area, without having to visit the port.
6. Improvement programme
An improvement programme will aim to:
- share best practice experience (through training sessions, European meetings)
- organise "ports assist ports" programmes in implementing best practices in port environmental issues.
A standard training scheme will be used in the context of workshops organized at a national level to provide education and training on environmental issues and on the use of EMIS tools for port administrations. ESPO members are recommended to participate in such workshops, because theywill provide a certain basic and standard information level in all EU ports.
Although the Environmental Management Information System (EMIS) tools are established to provide a European standard for port environmental management, they are versatile enough to deal with the variety of port profiles and different levels of operational environmental management. Port administrations can choose the extent to which they implement the different elements of EMIS and they can add those elements which they find most useful to their existing systems. For certification of EMIS, more strict requirements are used.
ANNEX
LIBRARYOF ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY& GUIDELINES
The Annex to this Code of Practice is available on ESPO's website (www.espo.be).
It provides detailed information on the environmental regulations and recommendations mentioned in the Code, as well as the Internet links where they can be found in their official version.
Because this library of Environmental policy and guidelines is available on line, it will be up-dated regularly according to the legislative developments.
EUROPEAN SEA PORTS ORGANISATION
The European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) was founded in 1993 in response to a growing demand for common views and opinions of the seaport sector to serve the interests of ports with regard to the development of the European Community, the single market and its common transport policy. The organisation represents the port authorities and port associations of the seaports of the European Union, Norway, Iceland and accession countries to the EU.
ESPO's mission is to influence public policy in the EU to achieve a safe, efficient and environmentally sustainable European port sector, operating as a key element of a transport industrywhere free and undistorted market conditions prevail, as far as practicable.
ESPO's key objectives are:
- To ensure that the economic importance of European ports is recognised in the EU and its Member States and that the sector is consulted substantively on any measure likely to affect it;
- To promote free and fair competition in the port sector;
- To ensure that European ports play their full part in delivering economic efficiency;
- To promote the highest possible safety standards in European ports;
- To encourage ports to be proactive in protecting the environment.
The Environment Committee of ESPO is entrusted with port related environmental questions. It prepared the 1994 Code of Practice and the 2001 Environmental Review, as well as this new Code. The ESPO Marine Committee also looks at environmental issues, but rather in the perspective of the shipping side.
For further information about the Organisation, please contact:
European Sea Ports Organisation
Treurenberg 6
B - 1000 Brussel/Bruxelles
Tel: 32.2.736.34.63 - Fax: 32.2.736.63.25
E-mail: email@example.com - Website: www.espo.be
ECOPORTS FOUNDATION
The ECOPORTS Foundation (EPF) is a non-profit organisation established in 2000. It is a network platform where European port administrations exchange environmental experience. Knowledge from the ECOPORTS Foundation is brought in the ESPO Environment Committee to discuss policymaking and implementation.
The ECOPORTS Foundation develops voluntary projects in the field of exchange of experience, such as the ECOPORTS project, and promotes best environmental practice. EPF will disseminate the results of the ECOPORTS Project and will facilitate the participation of as many European port administrations as possible.
For further information on the ECOPORTS Foundation please contact:
ECOPORTS Foundation Secretariat
PO Box 19406
NL- 1000 GK Amsterdam
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org - Website: http://www.ecoports.com/foundation
For further information, please contact :
ESPO
Treurenberg 6
B - 1000 Brussel/Bruxelles
Tel: 32-2 736 34 63 – Fax: 32-2 736 63 25
E-mail: email@example.com
Website: http://www.espo.be
|
LOIS M. DAVIS
Higher Education Programs in Prison
What We Know Now and What We Should Focus on Going Forward
Each year, more than 700,000 incarcerated individuals leave federal and state prisons and return to local communities where they will have to compete with individuals in those communities for jobs. In today's economy, having a college education is necessary to compete for many jobs; according to Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce (Carnevel, Smith, and Strohl, 2013), two-thirds of job postings will require some level of college education by 2020. 1 The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists 174 occupations as having a typical entrylevel education requirement of a bachelor's degree, and it projects that employment in these occupations will grow by 10 percent over the next decade (Torpey, 2018). Those who have been in prison are often at a disadvantage in this competition because they typically return to communities without college education or, for that matter, any higher education plans. The stakes for ex-offenders are higher than they are for others; being able to land a job can mean the difference between successfully transitioning back into a community and returning to prison.
For incarcerated students, a key obstacle to obtaining a college education is cost. Prior to 1994, those who were incarcerated were eligible to receive Pell Grants to help cover the costs of participating in these programs. However, the 1994 amendment to the Higher Education Act (HEA) eliminated Pell Grant eligibility for students incarcerated in federal and state prisons (Crayton and Neusteter, 2008).
This led to a dramatic reduction in the number of inmates participating in these programs and a drop in the number of programs being offered. 2 For example, participation by incarcerated individuals in college courses nationwide fell from 14 percent in 1991 to 7 percent in 2004 (New York State Bar Association, 2016). In terms of the number of states that offered college courses, an analysis of Bureau of Justice Statistics data showed that 59 percent of states offered college programs in prison in 1990; following the 1994 amendment to the HEA, this dropped to 31 percent of states in 1995. By 2005, only 36 percent of states reported offering such programs (Turner, 2018).
There has been a resurgence of interest in recent years in expanding higher education in prison at the federal and state levels, particularly expansions that offer a path to degrees or industry-recognized credentials. In this regard,
an important initiative that has helped to propel the creation of college programs for incarcerated individuals was the U.S. Department of Education (ED) three-year Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative in 2015 that temporarily lifted the federal ban on Pell Grants to incarcerated individuals who otherwise met Title IV eligibility requirements (ED, 2015). 3 Under the initiative, Pell Grants can be used to help pay for incarcerated individuals' PSE and training, as long as an individual is eligible to be released from prison. 4 Sixty-four colleges and universities in 26 states participated in this experiment, which allowed up to 12,000 students to receive Pell Grants to pursue a degree or credential (ED, 2019). Recently, the ED announced that it will expand the Second Chance Pell program to add new colleges to the experimental sites (Schwartz, 2019). Many educators, policymakers, and researchers view the Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative as an important opportunity to expand access to PSE programs and to test out the feasibility of making Pell Grants available to those who would otherwise meet the Title IV eligibility requirements.
In addition, several pieces of legislation have been introduced that could help to build on these efforts. For example, the bipartisan Restoring Education and Learning Act of 2019 would amend section 401(b) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to restore Pell Grant eligibility to incarcerated individuals in federal and state correctional institutions (U.S. House of Representatives, 2019a; U.S. Senate, 2019a). The Promoting Reentry Through Education in Prisons Act of 2019 would establish an Office of Correctional Education within the Bureau of Prisons to improve correctional education programming, with the goal of ensuring access to quality programs across federal
correctional institutions (U.S. House of Representatives, 2019b; U.S. Senate, 2019b).
There are different perspectives about whether PSE programs in prison should lead to academic degrees or industry-recognized credentials. In general, many educators and criminal justice experts feel that PSE programs in prison should result in some type of credential (be it an education certificate or PSE degree) that is recognized by employers, colleges, and universities. Such experts also argue that the credentials earned should be "stackable" and that the programs and earned class credits be transferrable to other postsecondary institutions; 5 the goal is to ensure that coursework in prison can contribute to individuals' post-release efforts, thus furthering their education and advancing their careers (Davis et al., 2014).
The next HEA reauthorization could provide an opportunity to restore Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated students. House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Robert C. Scott's 2018 bill to reauthorize the HEA, the Aim Higher Act (U.S. House of Representatives, 2018), would have removed the existing ban. One of the principles for reforming the HEA identified by the White House was that Congress should provide targeted federal financial aid to prisoners eligible for release as a way to improve employment outcomes and reduce recidivism (White House, 2019).
Providing access to college education is one path that can help reduce the nation's substantial recidivism rates. This Perspective offers a summary of what is known about the educational attainment and deficits of those incarcerated in state and federal prisons, about the effectiveness of educational programs in helping to reduce recidivism, and our assessment of what key issues remain to be addressed. This summary is largely drawn from the RAND Corporation's body of research in this area.
What We Know
For Successful Reentry, We Need to Address Educational and Skills Deficits
Many individuals incarcerated in U.S. prisons are disadvantaged in terms of low educational attainment, which, when they get released, makes it challenging for them to find employment that provides a living wage. The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) is the most recent survey of the literacy and numeracy skills of individuals incarcerated in U.S. state and federal prisons. As such, it represents an important data point in our understanding of the education needs of this population.
At the same time, the PIAAC results suggest that interest in education programs among incarcerated adults is high, with 42 percent having completed some level of education during their current prison term (particularly GED completion). Yet only one out of five (approximately 21 percent) were currently studying for a formal degree or credential,
According to the November 2016 PIAAC report, 30 percent of individuals incarcerated in U.S. state and federal prisons lack a high-school diploma or General Educational Development (GED) equivalency. In addition, one-third of U.S. incarcerated adults performed at low levels of literacy and about one-half of them had low levels of numeracy skills compared with the general U.S. population (Rampey et al., 2016).
and of those not currently enrolled in an educational program, 79 percent reported an interest in doing so. 6
The PIAAC study also highlighted the fact that literacy and numeracy skills are not often used in the prison jobs available to incarcerated individuals. Although 61 percent reported having a prison job, many never had the opportunity to use their literacy or numeracy skills in that job. For example, 47 percent of incarcerated adults with prison jobs reported never reading directions or instructions as part of their current prison job, and 82 percent reported never using or calculating fractions, decimals, or percentages (Rampey et al., 2016). 7 Furthermore, only 10 percent reported using a computer in their prison job assignments.
Correctional Education and PSE Programs, Including College Coursework, Are Effective in Reducing Recidivism
The PIAAC study shows that the prison population is primed for correctional education programs that can help them when they are released, but the real question is whether such programs, when available, actually work—are they effective in reducing the rampant recidivism that has resulted in so many ex-offenders ending up back in prison? In 2013, RAND published the results of a comprehensive literature review of 30 years of studies of correctional education programs and a meta-analysis to assess what is known about how effective correctional education programs are in helping to reduce recidivism for incarcerated adults in state prisons (Davis et al., 2013).
The results indicated that individuals who participated in a correctional education program while incarcerated (e.g., whether adult basic education [ABE], GED preparation, PSE
or college education, or vocational training; i.e., career and technical education [CTE]) had 43-percent lower odds of recidivating than individuals who did not (Davis et al., 2013). This represents a 13-percentage point reduction in their risk of recidivating three years after being released from prison.
In 2018, RAND updated its literature review to include 37 years of studies of correctional education programs and the meta-analysis to assess the effectiveness of these programs. Our 2018 meta-analytic results indicated that individuals who participated in a correctional education program while incarcerated had 28-percent lower odds of recidivating than individuals who did not (Bozick et al., 2018). This represents a 9-percentage point reduction in their risk of being reincarcerated three years after being released from prison. The fact that our original estimates were somewhat attenuated is the result of adding in more-recent studies with strong research designs. Still, the 2018 results continue to indicate that providing incarcerated individuals with opportunities for education reduces their risk of being reincarcerated upon release from prison.
Furthermore, we found that participation in college or PSE programs reduced an individual's risk of recidivating by 16 percentage points compared with those who did not participate in correctional education programs (Davis et al., 2013). Put another way, individuals who participate in PSE programs, including college coursework, while incarcerated are roughly half as likely to recidivate as those who did not participate in any type of correctional education program.
Our estimates were based on studies with higherquality research designs—that is, those studies that did a reasonable job of controlling for systematic differences between the treatment and control groups. Therefore, these results are not the product of selection bias (i.e.,
the result of more-motivated individuals participating in correctional education).
Correctional Education Is Cost-Effective
Establishing that correctional education programs work is important; establishing whether they are cost-effective is also key because the funding of these programs is drawing from increasingly constrained state and federal budgets. The RAND study also showed that correctional education programs are highly cost-effective. Focusing on the outcome of recidivism, we used a hypothetical pool of 100 inmates, the direct costs of correctional education programs and of incarceration itself, and a three-year reincarceration rate to assess cost-effectiveness. The study estimated that the direct costs of providing education to the hypothetical pool of 100 inmates ranged from $140,000 to $174,400 (or $1,400 to $1,744 per inmate). The three-year reincarceration costs for those who did not receive correctional education were estimated to be between $2.94 million and $3.25 million, compared with $2.07 million and $2.28 million for those who did (Davis et al., 2013). We then compared the direct costs of providing correctional education with the direct costs of reincarceration.
As already noted, according to RAND's research, inmates who participate in correctional education programs have a 13-percentage-point reduction in their risk of returning to prison; this indicates that every $1 invested in education can reduce future incarceration costs in the near term. More concretely, we estimated that every dollar invested in prison education programs saves taxpayers, on average, between $4 and $5 in three-year reincarceration costs. This is a conservative estimate in that it compares only the direct costs of correctional education programs with the direct costs of incarceration. 8
Lessons Learned from a Recent College InPrison Program
Knowing that many incarcerated individuals are interested in participating in correctional education programs and that such programs are both effective and costeffective is valuable, but this knowledge does not tell us how well such programs work when they are actually implemented. 9 The recent expansion of college programs in prison offers some insights about these implementation issues that could be helpful to state and federal policymakers interested in expanding these programs. Here, we focus on lessons learned from one recent initiative— the Pathways from Prison to Postsecondary Education initiative, which was designed to address the need for PSE in prison and the recognition that increased educational attainment plays a key role in helping formerly incarcerated individuals stay out of prison and become contributing members of families and communities (Vera Institute of Justice, 2012). Research about North Carolina, one of three states participating in the initiative, offers valuable insights into the successes and challenges of implementing a prison-based college program intended to help participants continue their education upon release.
North Carolina's Pathways Program
North Carolina was one of three pilot site states chosen in 2013 for the Pathways initiative (Davis and Tolbert, 2019). 10 Each state was given incentive funding to offer college and PSE programming and reentry support services to
incarcerated individuals. To help them obtain a PSE degree or credential, the pilot states provided participants with PSE during at least the two years prior to their release from prison. 11 Pilot states also were to provide participants with support and assistance for entering college and completing their PSE through the two years following their release from prison. The educational programs were provided in partnership with local colleges (both community colleges and universities).
In North Carolina, the Pathways program was led by the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS) Office of Reentry Programs and Services in collaboration with the NCDPS Community Corrections and the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS). 12 While incarcerated, North Carolina Pathways students had the option of earning a certificate (12–18 semester credit courses), a diploma in general education, or an associate of applied science degree. 13 Through Pathways, the NCDPS hoped that participants would achieve the following core outcomes: college enrollment, persistence, and completion; attainment of certificates, diplomas, and degrees; gainful employment, either part-time or fulltime, and increased earnings; and reductions in recidivism (Davis and Tolbert, 2019). 14
Key Lessons from North Carolina's Pathways Program
RAND evaluated the in-prison and community components of the North Carolina Pathways program using a multimethod approach (Davis and Tolbert, 2019). A series of key lessons emerged that help us understand the challenges of implementing such a program, which we discuss here. 15
In Prison
Implementing a college program with an in-prison component and a community component, such as Pathways, requires commitment and sacrifices from all the stakeholders involved. Students had to agree to be moved to the prison facilities where the program was being implemented and to be released to one of three communities that might have been far away from their families. They also had to agree to remain in medium-custody facilities to complete the in-prison component of the program. For their part, correctional facilities had to commit staff time to coordinate the program with other in-prison programming, agree to allow students to live in separate housing units, and provide additional studying space. State administrations had to provide 25-percent match funding and staff time to plan, implement, and manage the program, as well as agree to such policy changes as inmate transfers to Pathway-designated facilities and to place education holds so that students stayed in the designated facilities until they completed the program. Thus, it takes time to set up these types of programs involving multiple partners.
Pathways demonstrated the continued need for staff training and support. For many college instructors, teaching in a correctional environment was a new experience,
Having the Pathways program embedded within the Department of Public Safety was an asset. Having department of corrections senior leadership support and a senior administrator who was effective within that organization was key to problem-solving and to getting and maintaining support for the Pathways program at all levels of the department. The administrator understood the concerns of both correctional and educational staff and how to address such concerns.
and some found the requirements and procedures to be onerous or confusing. A key lesson learned was that those involved in making Pathways work needed clear expectations and defined responsibilities. It also was important to reach out to and educate correctional facilities staff (such as superintendents, assistant superintendents, correctional officers, and facility-based education staff) on an ongoing basis to get them on board and continually reinforce the program's goals and structure.
It is important to structure an in-prison college program to allow enough time for students to build general credits and earn certifications prior to release. The experience of Pathways and other in-prison college programs has been that it can take incarcerated students longer to earn credentials and complete college coursework while incarcerated than it would take if they were out in the community. This can result from a variety of factors, such as the fact that students needed developmental coursework before being able to begin in-prison college courses; that fewer courses were offered per semester; or that students beginning a course in one facility had to transfer to another facility during their incarceration or to a minimum-security facility as they neared the end of their sentence, and the new facility did not offer the same coursework. Furthermore, in-prison college programs compete with other rehabilitative programs that are required (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy, drug treatment, reentry programs) and must be given a higher priority.
In the Community
Reentry supports are critical for ensuring that students are able to continue their educational programs upon returning to the community. As is true for many incarcerated adults, reentry in general can be a very challenging time. Within a few weeks of being released, the
In-prison college programs compete with other rehabilitative programs that are required . . . and must be given a higher priority.
Pathways students were expected to enroll in full-time college courses; secure part-time employment; find suitable housing arrangements; address transportation needs; reunite with family members; and, in some cases, resume parental and financial responsibilities for their families while managing and seeking treatment for any substance abuse, depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues. Housing, employment, and transportation were among the top referrals to services provided to Pathways students, followed by family services and substance abuse treatment services. A key recommendation from our evaluation was to allow students to initially attend college part-time in the community upon their release from prison to allow them to get acclimated and go through the reentry adjustment process; doing so can relieve the stress of trying to attend college full time while also needing to work full time.
Investing in the reentry infrastructure is key. In North Carolina, the NCDPS used some of its Pathways funding to help build up the reentry infrastructure in the three communities to which Pathways students would be returning. In addition, NCDPS used the funding to hire Pathways navigators. It was clearly critical to Pathways
students' success for them to have a navigator or a trusted person of authority who could help link them to reentry services and assist them both in applying for college and financial aid and in signing up for and beginning to take classes. Our study also underscored the importance of recruiting and training parole probation officers who were supportive of education and understand the program enough to work with the Pathways students.
As a result of Pathways, North Carolina changed how it approaches higher education in prison. The NCDPS established a PSE advisory committee. In recognition of the importance of technology in education, the department also developed its own intranet platform to support PSE in prison and provided limited internet access for these programs. Pathways also laid the groundwork for improved reentry planning, with education becoming a key tenet of reentry in North Carolina.
Restoring Access to Pell Grants Will Help Address Some, but Not All, of the Funding Support Needed for In-Prison College Programs
Many have viewed the Pell Experimental Initiative as an important opportunity to expand access to PSE programs and to test out the feasibility of making Pell Grants available to those who would otherwise meet the Title IV eligibility requirements. Although this is true, there remains a concern about what Pell Grants do and do not cover and, in a broader sense, the overall need for sustainable sources of funding going forward. Here are some things to consider.
Administrative costs of these programs still need to be addressed. The Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites
Initiative covers some of the costs of college programs for incarcerated individuals—but not all of them. Incarcerated students who receive Pell Grants through this initiative are subject to cost-of-attendance restrictions, so Pell Grants can be used to pay only for tuition, fees, books, and supplies required by an individual's education program (ED, 2015). 16 Pell Grants cannot be used to cover the administrative costs of higher education institutions or of correctional facilities associated with implementing the initiative. In its recent assessment of the Pell Grant Pilot for Incarcerated Students, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted that officials from eight of the 12 schools interviewed reported hiring additional staff or allocating more staff hours to help manage the increased administrative workload. Furthermore, as the evaluation of the North Carolina Pathways program showed, the administrative effort required by corrections officials to implement this in-college program in six prison facilities was substantial (Davis and Tolbert, 2019).
The degree to which state funds are used to support college programs in prison varies. States also vary in the degree to which state funds can be used to support these programs, with most states funding only CTE programs
Thus, although the Pell initiative represents an important infusion of funds to support PSE for incarcerated individuals, such support might be insufficient to sustain the funding needed for these programs over the long term. It is noteworthy that many of the initial grant applicants for the Pell initiative indicated that their states did not provide financial aid for these programs. Indeed, when the Incarcerated Youth Offender Grants ended in 2010, 17 many states lost an important source of federal funding for PSE.
and apprenticeships. In many states, college programs are paid for by philanthropy or by the students themselves. In a 2013 survey of state correctional education directors that RAND conducted, 28 states reported that PSE courses in prison were paid for primarily by the individual inmate; 16 states reported that families also helped pay for PSE courses; and 20 states reported that private funding, such as foundations or individual donations, was also used to pay for PSE courses (Davis et al., 2014). State funding for these programs was used by 16 states; only 12 states reported using college or university funding to cover the costs of PSE, and very few states used inmate benefits or welfare funds. Furthermore, in recent years, there has been some pushback from the public about using state funds to support college programs for incarcerated individuals. Thus, there is a need to consider how the administrative costs of these programs might be funded over the long term at the state and federal levels.
What Should Be the Focus Going Forward?
Higher education in prison is clearly effective in reducing recidivism and improving the chances that an individual will be successful on the outside. In addition, the Pell initiative has had a dramatic effect in expanding access to college programs for incarcerated adults 18 —as seen in 26 states—and is considered an important source of funding for the tuition and other costs associated with these programs. 19 Reinstating access to Pell Grants would help to continue the trend of increasing access to college programs for incarcerated adults. The focus on providing PSE in prison is growing, and work within the area is continually adding to our knowledge base. Still, there a couple of things that policy and program decisionmakers might consider in moving the field forward. The following recommendations draw largely from RAND research on the effectiveness of correctional education, the implementation of in-prison college programs, and a landscape scan of the field.
Besides Pell Restoration, Consider Options for Ensuring Long-Term Funding of InPrison College Programs
As noted, philanthropic support and the Pell initiative have been important sources of funding for PSE programs, but federal and state governments also need to consider longterm funding solutions if these programs are to be sustained. As noted earlier, states vary in the degree to which state funds are used to support these programs, with college programs in several states supported by philanthropy or by the students themselves. Furthermore, some states prohibit the use of state funds for these programs, and the public might not be supportive of using government funds for this purpose.
As a result, policymakers involved in supporting college programs for incarcerated individuals will likely need to consider additional options for sustaining the funding of these programs for the long term. There are some promising approaches at the state level for funding higher education in prison. For example, California has greatly expanded access to college programs for incarcerated individuals by using two funding sources for its PSE programs in prison: (1) a Board of Governors Fee Waiver, which covers enrollment fees for qualifying low-income students; and (2) state Senate Bill 1391, which allows community colleges to offer inPSE programs also might be good candidates for pay-for-success (PFS) demonstration projects that could be supported at the federal and state levels.
person courses in both prisons and jails and to be fully reimbursed (Mukamal, Silbert, and Taylor, 2015).
In addition, there is a growing movement among such states as California, Ohio, Indiana, and Maryland to implement or broaden policies and legislation that give individuals time off their sentences for attaining educational milestones, thus helping to make education a more integral part of rehabilitation. 20 Case studies of promising approaches by states to fund higher education programs
Minnesota uses prison industry funds to help pay for its associate degree programs, which are offered in eight of its ten adult correctional facilities. These programs use the Minnesota transfer curriculum, which transfers credits earned into any two- or four-year state public institution. After Pell Grant eligibility and the Incarcerated Youth Offenders grant were eliminated, Minnesota initially used phone commission funds (surcharges on offender phone calls) to fund the program. As these funds have decreased over time, Minnesota moved to using funding from its prison industry program (known as MINNCOR).
would be valuable for capturing lessons learned and disseminating the information broadly among states.
Finally, the Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results Act (SIPPRA) of 2018 is a possible avenue to fund PFS projects in this area. Congress appropriated $100 million for the SIPPRA program to implement "Social Impact Partnership Demonstration Projects and feasibility studies." 23 In February 2019, the U.S. Department of Treasury issued a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) that invited applications from state and local governments for awards under SIPPRA. Importantly, the NOFA identified 21 different outcomes that a social impact partnership
PSE programs also might be good candidates for payfor-success (PFS) demonstration projects that could be supported at the federal and state levels. 21 There are various PFS demonstration projects under way in such areas as juvenile and criminal justice, supportive housing, homelessness, and vocational training, among others. (For a list of PFS criminal justice–related projects, see Nonprofit Finance Fund, 2018.) For example, New York State has a social impact bond involving a partnership among the state, private investors, and the Center for Employment Opportunities that provides comprehensive employment services to formerly incarcerated individuals who are at risk of reoffending and helps prepare them for the workplace (Nonprofit Finance Fund, 2018). 22 The ED has also explored the feasibility of PFS models to improve outcomes for at-risk youth participating in career technical education programs (ED, 2016). To our knowledge, PFS models have not been undertaken for in-prison college programs for justice-involved populations. Policymakers might want to consider whether PFS is a promising strategy to help address the long-term funding needs of higher education programs in prison.
project could apply the funding to, including reducing recidivism among juvenile offenders, individuals released from prison, or other high-risk populations. It remains to be seen whether any of the proposed partnerships will address higher education projects for these populations.
An Outcomes Evaluation of the Programs Implemented Under the Pell Initiative Is Needed
The Pell initiative has played a key role in helping to expand access to college programs for those who are incarcerated in state and federal prisons, but it also could inform policymakers about which program models might be most effective for this population. RAND's 2013 and updated 2018 meta-analyses (Davis et al., 2013; Bozick et al., 2018) on the effectiveness of correctional education have been instrumental in helping the field of correctional education to move forward from a point at which policymakers believed that "nothing works" to where it is now, with clear evidence that correctional education does indeed work in helping to reduce recidivism and to increase post-release employment.
At the highest level, we know correctional education works, but it is now time to look inside the "black box" of in-prison college programs (and other education programs) to understand more about the drivers that make these programs work. In short, we still need to answer the following questions to help policymakers identify promising or evidence-based college programs for incarcerated individuals:
* What amount of intervention (or dosage) is associated with effective college programs, and how does that amount vary for different types of students?
* Who benefits most from in-prison college programs?
* What is the right balance between in-person instruction and self-study or computer-based learning?
* What factors moderate or mediate the effects of in-prison college programs?
* What principles from adult higher education and learning might be applicable to college programs for incarcerated individuals?
For example, colleges participating in the Pell initiative provide a variety of instruction models: in-person only, a combination of in-person and computer instruction, and computer-only. However, we lack data on how effective these different program models are and which are most effective for this population. In its recent assessment of the Pell Grant Pilot for Incarcerated Students, GAO noted that ED has not established how it would evaluate the pilot or measure performance and called for such an evaluation, beyond just collecting data from schools participating in the initiative (GAO, 2019). Critical to this is an outcomes evaluation that would enable us to examine the effectiveness of different program models being implemented and would greatly add to our understanding of how to provide effective education, as well as which program models most benefit this population.
In addition, policymakers might want to consider such issues as the right balance between programs that lead to college degrees and those that lead to industry-recognized credentials, and how to provide a continuum of education opportunities for individuals who are incarcerated.
Conclusions
There is a growing consensus about the need to address the multifaceted problem of mass incarceration in this nation. Policymakers on both sides of the aisle are finding common ground in both acknowledging the problem and in trying to address it through the various levers available to them at the front end of the criminal justice system (e.g., sentencing reform) and at the back end (e.g., providing more services to ex-offenders returning to communities).
Some argue that access to college education is challenging for their own families and question why their family members are not eligible for Pell Grants when incarcerated individuals are. That position tends to ignore the fact that Pell Grants are an entitlement program and that making such grants available to individuals in prison will not take funding away from eligible applicants in the general population. Furthermore, PSE is important in helping ex-offenders integrate back into the mainstream labor force and in ensuring that returning citizens are prepared for the challenges of the 21st-century workplace.
With solid evidence showing that correctional education programs are effective—and cost-effective—at improving employment outcomes for participants and at helping to keep formerly incarcerated individuals from returning to prison, education is another lever that policymakers can use to help reduce recidivism rates.
In summary, although we know that correctional education, including PSE programs, is effective, understanding more about which program models are most effective, what features of such programs work best, and how to ensure the long-term funding support needed for in-prison college programs can help policymakers and state providers make wise choices given limited budgets.
Notes
1 In the United States, community colleges provide the majority of postsecondary education (PSE) programs in prison (68 percent), followed by public four-year institutions (16 percent) and private, nonprofit, fouryear institutions (10 percent) (Erisman and Contardo, 2005).
2 In New York state alone, the number of college programs offered to incarcerated individuals fell from 70 in the early 1990s to just four programs in 2004 (New York State Bar Association, 2016).
3 Prior to the 1994 Crime Bill that President Bill Clinton signed into law, those who had been incarcerated in prison were eligible to receive Pell Grants to help cover the costs of participating in college programs. Pell Grants were a key source of funding for PSE for incarcerated individuals. However, in 1994, Congress amended the HEA to eliminate Pell Grant eligibility for students incarcerated in federal and state prisons (Crayton and Neusteter, 2008).
4 Individuals with a death sentence or a life without parole sentence were not eligible to participate in the Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative.
5 By stackable, we mean credentials should be in a sequence that a student can accumulate over time and that those credentials should enable that student to move along a career pathway or up a career ladder.
6 In general, in the past 20 years, there has been a downward trend in participation in academic and vocational education but not in work assignments (Turner, 2018). With respect to participation in college programs, 14 percent of state prisoners participated in 1991; only 7.2 percent of state prisoners reported participating in these programs in 2004 (Harlow, 2003). A number of factors influence the availability and capacity of these programs. In addition to the drop in the number of states that offered college programs following the 1994 Pell inmate exclusion, the recession of 2008 also had an impact on prisons' programming capacity. In a 2013 survey by RAND of state correctional education directors, 33 states reported offering adult PSE in their state prisons. The effect of the 2008 recession, however, was a reported contraction in the capacity of academic education programs, with an overall decrease of 4 percent, on average, in the number of adult students who participated in these programs between fiscal years 2009 and 2012 (Davis et al., 2013). During this same period, 20 states reduced the number of course offerings for academic programs, and 17 states reduced or eliminated contracts with community or technical colleges (Davis et al., 2013).
7 The PIAAC reports five proficiency levels for literacy and numeracy (below Level 1, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4/5). Rampey et al., 2016, looked at the percentage of incarcerated adults below Level 2 on the PIAAC literacy and numeracy scales in terms of whether they currently had a prison job. Among those who had a prison job, 27 percent were reading below Level 2 on the literacy scale, compared with 32 percent of those who did not have a prison job. In terms of numeracy skills, 50 percent of those who had a prison job were below Level 2 on the PIAAC numeracy scale, compared with 57 percent of those who did not.
8 That is, the RAND 2013 study did not look at the indirect costs that recidivism imposes, such as the financial and emotional toll on crime victims and the costs to the criminal justice system as a whole, including policing and court costs. If we had included such indirect costs, these cost savings would likely be higher.
9 Another consideration is whether these programs contribute to safety within prisons. A review of the literature about the impact of educational programming on prison misconduct by Duwe, 2017, found mixed results. Several studies found that time spent in educational or vocational programming reduced nonviolent misconduct; a separate meta-analysis by French and Gendreau (2006) found that educational and vocational programming was not associated with a decrease in discipline infractions.
10 The other states selected were Michigan and New Jersey. The five-year demonstration project led by the Vera Institute of Justice was funded by the Ford Foundation, the Sunshine Lady Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
11 To increase educational persistence and completion rates among participants, the pilot states also provided extensive case planning in prison and remedial educational programming, college-readiness classes, and college counseling in the community.
12 North Carolina received $1 million in incentive funding to implement Pathways and was required to provide an overall match of at least 25 percent. With 15 percent in the form of a cash match (from public or private sources) and 10 percent in-kind to be distributed over the four years of the demonstration project. In-kind resources included assistance from state-level staff at NCDPS and NCCCS and from staff in the participating correctional facilities and release communities (e.g., community college staff and local reentry councils' staff) (Davis and Tolbert, 2019).
13 College courses were taught in person by local community college professors in six correctional facilities. Additional in-prison supports included remedial instruction in English and math, tutoring, study hall or study groups, dedicated case managers, and computer training and internet access. Prerelease supports included development of a transition plan, referral to services, and assistance with applying for financial aid and completing college applications.
14 Participants in the Pathways pilot returned to one of three release communities—Charlotte, Asheville, or Greenville—which were selected because of the presence of local community colleges and reentry infrastructure.
15 The lessons learned about the Pathways in-prison college program, such as the importance of staff training, are also relevant to correctional programming in general. See, for example, Ellickson et al., 1983.
16 Incarcerated individuals are not eligible to receive other types of federal student aid under the pilot (ED, 2015).
17 Grants to States for Workplace and Community Transition Training for Incarcerated Individuals, more commonly known as Incarcerated Youth Offender Grant, provided grants to state correctional education agencies to assist and encourage incarcerated youth in acquiring functional literacy, life, and job skills by pursuing PSE certificates, associate of arts degrees, and bachelor's degrees. The target population included individuals who (1) were incarcerated in a state prison, (2) were eligible to be released or paroled within seven years, (3) were 35 years old or younger, (4) were not convicted of some specific crimes, and (5) had obtained a high school diploma or its equivalent (Tolbert and Pearson, 2011). The grant program ended in 2010.
18 A survey by Castro et al. (2018) found that 47 states had at least one PSE institution providing credit-bearing coursework to incarcerated people. Of the 202 degree-granting, postsecondary Title IV institutions in the United States that offered credit-bearing PSE in at least one prison, 67 were Pell recipients and 135 were non–Second Chance Pell institutions.
19 For example, in the first two years of the Pell initiative, 40 institutions were awarded approximately $35.6 million in Pell Grants for about 8,800 incarcerated students. Institutions offered more than 1,000 different courses, with an average of 19 per site. To date, 954 credentials have been awarded, including credentials to 578 individuals while they were incarcerated and 34 to those who completed their program after returning to their community (ED, 2019).
20 For example, under Indiana law (Indiana Code, Title 35, Article 50, Chapter 6), an individual can earn educational credits to reduce the length of his or her imprisonment by participating in educational,
vocational, rehabilitative, and other programs. This includes earning an associate's degree or bachelor's degree during incarceration.
21 PFS is a financing mechanism that shifts financial risk from a traditional funder—usually the government—to a new investor, who provides upfront capital to scale an evidence-based program to improve outcomes for a vulnerable population. If an independent evaluation shows that the program achieved agreed-upon outcomes, then the investment is repaid by the traditional funder. If not, the investor takes the loss (Urban Institute, 2017).
22 According to the Urban Institute (undated), the terms PFS and social impact bonds are often used interchangeably to describe innovative financing of social or environmental interventions. However, PFS is a broader term that encompasses other methods of paying for outcomes, such as performance-based contracting and results-based financing.
23 The U.S. Department of the Treasury is generally the lead federal agency to administer the program (U.S. Department of Treasury, undated).
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https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11292-018-9334-6
Carnevel, Anthony P., Nicole Smith, and Jeff Strohl, Recovery: Job Growth and Education Requirements Through 2020, Washington, D.C.: Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, June 2013.
Castro, Erin L., Rebecca K. Hunter, Tara Hardison, and Vanessa Johnson-Ojeda, "The Landscape of Postsecondary Education in Prison and the Influence of Second Chance Pell: An Analysis of Transferability, Credit-Bearing Status, and Accreditation," Prison Journal, Vol. 98, No. 4, 2018, pp. 405–426.
Crayton, Anna, and Suzanne Rebecca Neusteter, The Current State of Correctional Education, paper commissioned in preparation for the Reentry Roundtable on Education, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, March 31–April 1, 2008.
Davis, Lois M., Robert Bozick, Jennifer L. Steele, Jessica Saunders, Jeremy N. V. Miles, Evaluating the Effectiveness of Correctional Education: A Meta-Analysis of Programs that Provide Education to Incarcerated Adults, Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, RR-266-BJA, 2013. As of July 23, 2019:
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html
Davis, Lois M., Jennifer L. Steele, Robert Bozick, Malcolm V. Williams, Susan Turner, Jeremy N. V. Miles, Jessica Saunders, and Paul S. Steinberg, How Effective is Correctional Education, and Where Do We Go From Here? Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, RR-564-BJA, 2014. As of July 25, 2019:
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR564.html
Davis, Lois M., and Michelle C. Tolbert, Evaluation of North Carolina's Pathways from Prison to Postsecondary Education Program, Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, RR-2957-LGF, April 2019. As of July 25, 2019: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2957.html
Duwe, Grant, The Use and Impact of Correctional Programming for Inmates on Pre- and Post-Release Outcomes, Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Justice, June 2017.
ED—See U.S. Department of Education.
Ellickson, Phyllis L., Joan R. Petersilia, Michael N. Caggiano, and Sandra Segal Polin, Implementing New Ideas in Criminal Justice, Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, R-2929-NIJ, April 1983. As of July 25, 2019: https://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R2929.html
Erisman, Wendy, and Jeanne Bayer Contardo, Learning to Reduce Recidivism: A 50-State Analysis of Postsecondary Correctional Education Policy, Washington, D.C.: Institute for Higher Education Policy, November 2005.
French, Sheila, and Paul Gendreau, "Reducing Prison Misconducts: What Works!" Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 33, No. 2, 2006, pp. 185–218.
GAO—See U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Harlow, Caroline Wolf, Education and Correctional Populations, Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics, NCJ 195670, April 13, 2003.
Indiana Code, Title 35, Criminal Law and Procedure, Article 50, Sentences, Chapter 56, Release from Imprisonment and Credit Time, 2017. As of July 25, 2019:
https://law.justia.com/codes/indiana/2017/title-35/article-50/chapter-6/ section-35-50-6-3.3/
Mukamal, Debbie, Rebecca Silbert, and Rebecca M. Taylor, Degrees of Freedom: Expanding College Opportunities for Currently and Formerly Incarcerated Californians, Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford Criminal Justice Center, February 2015.
New York State Bar Association, Special Committee on Re-Entry, recommendations, Albany, N.Y., January 2016.
Nonprofit Finance Fund, "New York State Increasing Employment and Improving Public Safety," July 2, 2018. As of June 15, 2019: http://www.payforsuccess.org/project/new-york-state-increasingemployment-and-improving-public-safety
Rampey, Bobby D., Shelley Keiper, Leyla Mohadjer, Tom Krenzke, Jianzhu Li, Nina Thornton, and Jacquie Hogan, Highlights from the U.S. PIAAC Survey of Incarcerated Adults: Their Skills, Work Experience, Education, and Training: Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies: 2014, Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, NCES 2016-040, 2016. As of June 15, 2019: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch
Schwartz, Natalie, "Ed Dept Expands Second Chance Pell Grant Program for People in Prison," EducationDive, May 21, 2019. As of June 18, 2019: https://www.educationdive.com/news/ed-dept-expands-second-chancepell-grant-program-for-people-in-prison/555220/
Tolbert, Michelle, and Juliana Pearson, Correctional Education Data: Resources to Support the Collection, Reporting, and Analysis of Federal Data, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, 2011.
Torpey, Elka, "Employment Outlook for Bachelor's-Level Occupations," webpage, Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 2018. As of June 18, 2019: https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2018/article/bachelors-degreeoutlook.htm
Turner, Susan F., "Multiple Faces of Reentry, " in John Wooldridge and Paula Smith, eds., Oxford Handbook on Prisons and Punishment, New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Urban Institute, "How Do Pay for Success and Social Impact Bonds Differ?" Pay for Success, website, undated. As of June 15, 2019: https://pfs.urban.org/ask-expert/content/how-do-pay-success-andsocial-impact-bonds-differ
Urban Institute, "Getting Started with Pay for Success: Frequently Asked Questions," webpage, June 20, 2017. As of June 15, 2019: https://pfs.urban.org/faq
U.S. Department of Education, "U.S. Department of Education Launches Second Chance Pell Pilot Program for Incarcerated Individuals," July 31, 2015. As of June 15, 2019: https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-educationlaunches-second-chance-pell-pilot-program-incarcerated-individuals
U.S. Department of Education, "U.S. Department of Education Issues First-Ever Pay for Success Awards to Expand Opportunity in Career and Technical Education, Dual Language Programs," October 11, 2016. As of June 15, 2019:
https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-educationissues-first-ever-pay-success-awards-expand-opportunity-career-andtechnical-education-dual-language-programs
U.S. Department of Education, "Secretary DeVos Builds on 'Rethink Higher Education' Agenda, Expands Opportunities for Students Through Innovative Experimental Sites," May 20, 2019. As of June 15, 2019: https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-devos-builds-rethinkhigher-education-agenda-expands-opportunities-students-throughinnovative-experimental-sites
U.S. Department of Treasury, Office of Economic Policy, "Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results Act Demonstration Projects," notice of funding availability, February 2019.
U.S. Government Accountability Office, Federal Student Aid, Actions Needed to Evaluate Pell Grant Pilot for Incarcerated Students, GAO-19-130, Washington D.C., March 2019.
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U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 2635, Promoting Reentry Through Education in Prisons (PREP) Act, May 9, 2019b. As of June 13, 2019: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr2635/text
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About This Perspective
Each year, more than 700,000 incarcerated individuals leave federal and state prisons and return to local communities where they will have to compete with individuals in those communities for jobs. In today's economy, having a college education is necessary to compete for many jobs, and the stakes for ex-offenders are higher than they are for others: Being able to land a job can mean the difference between successfully transitioning back into a community and returning to prison. There has been a resurgence and of interest in recent years in expanding higher education in prison at the federal and state levels, particularly expansions that offer a path to degrees or industry-recognized credentials. The 2015 U.S. Department of Education three-year Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative temporarily lifted the federal ban on Pell Grants to incarcerated individuals who otherwise met Title IV eligibility requirements and recently announced that it will expand the Second Chance Pell program to add new colleges to the experimental sites. Focusing on the Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative and the experience of the Pathways from Prison to Postsecondary Education initiative in North Carolina—this Perspective summarizes what is known about the educational attainment and deficits of those incarcerated in state and federal prisons and about the effectiveness of educational programs in helping to reduce recidivism. It also assesses key issues remaining to be addressed. It is intended to be of interest to state and federal policymakers interested in expanding these programs and builds on other RAND Corporation research in this area.
within RAND Social and Economic Well-Being. The program focuses on such topics as access to justice, policing, corrections, drug policy, and court system reform, as well as other policy concerns pertaining to public safety and criminal and civil justice. For more information, email email@example.com.
RAND Ventures is a vehicle for investing in policy solutions. Philanthropic contributions support our ability to take the long view, tackle tough and often-controversial topics, and share our findings in innovative and compelling ways. RAND's research findings and recommendations are based on data and evidence, and therefore do not necessarily reflect the policy preferences or interests of its clients, donors, or supporters.
Funding for this venture was provided by gifts from RAND supporters through the Alumni Impact Fund, which was created to help RAND researchers expand the impact of their research and analysis.
About the Author
RAND Social and Economic Well-Being is a division of the RAND Corporation that seeks to actively improve the health and social and economic well-being of populations and communities throughout the world. This research was conducted in the Justice Policy Program
Lois M. Davis is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation with expertise in correctional education, prisoner reentry, and public safety. She led the national evaluation funded under the Second Chance Act to assess the effectiveness of correctional education programs for incarcerated adults and juveniles and an evaluation of the three-state Pathways from Prison to Post-Secondary Education demonstration project that provided access to college programs to incarcerated adults. Davis currently is leading the process and outcomes evaluation of the Minnesota Department of Corrections' Career Navigators Program. She has a doctorate in public health from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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|
ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING
April 3, 2016
SHERATON KANSAS CITY HOTEL AT CROWN CENTER
fmrna.org
April 3, 2016
Dear Nursing Colleague:
Welcome to Kansas City and to the 2016 RPS Residency Education Symposium. This will be an exciting conference, full of learning and networking opportunities.
Attached is the agenda and information related to the Annual FMRNA Business Meeting. The meeting is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. on Sunday, April 3, in the Chicago A Conference room on the Mezzanine Level of the Sheraton Hotel. We, the Board of FMRNA, cordially invite you to attend this meeting regardless of your membership with FMRNA. All nursing colleagues are welcome (RN, LPN, MA, Nursing Managers).
Please take time to review the materials in this packet prior to the meeting. Each committee chairperson has prepared an annual report, and will present this information at the meeting. These reports provide valuable insight into each committee's activities. In addition we will be requesting your vote a bylaw change creating two combination committees and two new standards for our organization: Transitions of Care and Population Health Management.
We hope that you will consider serving on one of the committees in order to share your valuable ideas and communicate needs from your program. It is only by hearing from you, our members, that our organization will grow and prosper.
Please look for FMRNA Board members. We can be identified by a ribbon on our badge, or stop by our promotions booth. We would love to talk with you about Committee or Board opportunities and hear about how FMRNA can further benefit our members.
Thank you for the opportunity and privilege of serving you this past year. May 2016-17 be a year of peace, growth, and prosperity.
Sincerely,
The 2016 FMRNA Board
Marcia Snook- President Mary Beth McLellan- Treasurer Kathy Morin, President-Elect Randee Fleming- Promotions Kate Dosenovich – Research Alice Brown- Membership Kay Anderson- Secretary
Kay Anderson-Nominations Joy Allen – Standards Bumni Ariyo - Member at Large Melanie Neville – Member at Large Randee Fleming – Communications Kathy Morin/Marcia Snook-Program Open – Executive Member at Large
FMRNA BUSINESS SESSION SHERATON KANSAS CITY HOTEL AT CROWN CENTER KANSAS CITY, MO
SUNDAY, APRIL 3, 2016
4:15 – 6:15 p.m.
CHICAGO A CONFERENCE ROOM
State of FMRNA
Marcia Snook, President
"CPR……..Connect, Protect, Respect"……Isaac Sisneros
CPR, as we have known it, is a concept and skill that has been ingrained in nursing since we started our careers. We have performed it, taught it and been the support system for others during the emergent situation in which it was used. I recently attended a conference where CPR was presented in a new context-patient experience.
As I sat through the conference I realized that this was translatable to our work in residency nursing, more specifically to FMRNA. FMRNA is the perfect conduit through which to "connect" with your colleagues across the nation to collaborate about similar challenges and situations within your programs. We feel strongly about preserving or "protecting," if you will, the purpose and presence of nursing in the residency. FMRNA's mantra is to promote and recognize the residency nurse as an integral part of the interdisciplinary team through the delivery of health care and resident education. I value and "respect" the knowledge and experience each of you possess as nursing professionals. I encourage you to get involved in your organization to help perpetuate the mission of FMRNA into the future.
Membership is vital for our organization to stay viable in order to battle financial pressures and to provide the rich resources for residency nurses. Please help by encouraging your nursing colleagues to become members. Your suggestions and input are welcome and will have a positive impact within the organization. Consider joining a committee or explore opportunities through Board membership.
"Connect" your passion of nursing to service in the organization to "protect" our mission and preserve the "respect" of our profession.
Best regards,
Marcia
Meeting Minutes RPS 2015 FMRNA Annual Meeting
Meeting Date/Time: 03/28/2015, 0930 CDST
Location: Kansas City, MO, Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center
| | | DISCUSSION |
|---|---|---|
| | TOPIC | |
| Call to order | | President Marcia Snook called the meeting to order at 1540. |
| President’s welcome and remarks. | | Marcia states that she is happy to see the old and new faces of the nurses present. She explained that we are a unique subset of nurses with a diverse list of duties. She added that FMRNA is here to help its members, and that the organization is always looking for ways to grow and recruit people to our organization. She reminded everyone that we can share the work that is done, and not reinvent the wheel. She added that she was excited with all of the discussion that has been taking place at both the Pre-Con and RPS conference, and that everyone has something to offer. |
| Approval of minutes | | Secretary asked for a motion to accept minutes from 2014 Annual Meeting. Motion made and seconded, no discussion. |
| Treasure’s report | | Treasurer Jane Clifton announced that the ending balance is $10,864.32. She explained that all financial records were sent for audit on 02/01/2015. Jane added that she will be retiring after 25+ years as a member of FMRNA. She has made some wonderful friends, and states that she has learned so much from these ladies over the years. She encouraged everyone present to join this organization – “I wish these things for you”. |
| | | DISCUSSION |
|---|---|---|
| | TOPIC | |
| Nominations: | | 2015 will remain unchanged. Kay encouraged members present to join as a member at large; “it is a great way to get involved” |
| Member thoughts. | | Kay asked the group for feedback on the conference: not enough nurse sessions at RPS; would like the nurse pre-con added to the RPS schedule to decrease length of time away from home. Bumni Ariyo challenged the group – “we need to push for our profession! We need younger, fresher members – go back and talk to your nurses – encourage them to be involves. We should ask “What can I do to advance my career?” Marcia added that we are a unique subset. We need to take the time to advance our organization. “Put FMRNA on your calendar – and protect that time.” |
| Give Aways | | 3 gifts were awarded to random members present: Melanie wins an FMRNA membership, Anita received a bag, and Joy gets a t-shirt. |
| Adjournment: | | Bumni moves and Joy seconds the motion to adjourn the meeting. |
| Post meeting brainstorming: | | President Marcia Snook asks the group for open discussion and idea for future educational topics: Patient scheduling. Roles in the PCMH. QI: Types of projects and using Joint Commission standards Staffing ratios. Panel discussions – round table discussion that would add to the RPS offerings. Medicare wellness visits and the nurse involvement that is billable. RN position collaboration; reimbursement for nurse services. Meaningful use. Difficult staff. Day to day operations in the Family Medicine Center. Preventative measures, and link to AAHRQ e-pass. Link to HEDIS. “It’s more than a shot”. Utilizing RNs to assess accuracy. Patient engagement in portal use. Chronic disease management and billable services by nurses. “G” codes. |
Respectfully Submitted;
Mary Beth McLellan, Secretary
INCOME:
MEMBERSHIP
TOTAL INCOME
FAMILY MEDICINE RESIDENCY NURSES ASSOCIATION
Treasurer's Report
Mary Beth McLellan, Treasurer
$8677.12
$14,549.74
EXPENSES:
CHECKING ACCOUNT BALABCE 02/28/2016 $9947.14
Records sent to Dalby, Wendland, and Co in Grand Junction March 1, 2016.
Membership Report Alice Brown, Membership Committee Chair
The Family Medicine Residency Nurses Association (FMRNA) Membership Committee works to increase the numbers and involvement of our fellow nurses within our organization. The committee discusses innovative ways to meet this goal to foster the continued growth and expansion of FMRNA. The ultimate goal of this committee is to have one member from every Family Medicine Residency Program in every state.
FMRNA members receive networking opportunities and support from peers who are familiar with the challenges we face on a daily basis. With more than 120 members all over the country, FMRNA is dedicated to nurturing and showcasing the valuable experiences and knowledge that nurses bring to family medicine residency education.
We ask for continued input from our present members. If you are looking for a way to become more involved in the organization that was founded to help support you and others like you, then please consider joining the membership committee!
Spread the word … encourage your fellow nurses and medical assistants to join!
Alice Brown, RN
Membership Committee Chair
Promotions Report
Randee Fleming, Promotions Committee Chair
FMRNA sold at least $850 in merchandise over the past year. Because promotional sales usually peak during and after the PDW and RPS Conference, sales will be updated following the conference and reported to the committee.
A Facebook page devoted to board members was implemented during our board meeting in Fall 2015 in an attempt to develop tools when the list/serve goes down.
Our new website went active in winter 2015. We continue to refine and add information. Membership renewal is available through this site. www.fmrna.org.
Randee Fleming, RN, BS
Promotions Chair
Program Report
Marcia Snook and Kathy Morin, Interim Committee Chairs
The Program Committee, made up of the FMRNA Executive Board members and the various FMRNA Committee Chairs, has been very busy planning the Annual Residency Nursing Workshop. In addition, we have collaborated with the AAFP to coordinate relevant nursing content into the Residency Practice Solutions program. In response to positive feedback last year we once again offered an all-day format for the Nursing Workshop.
Friday, April 1, 2016 Kansas City, MO
Educational topics include:
1. Scopes of Practice
2. Patient Empowerment and Patient Education
3. Team-based Care
4. Meaningful Uses
5. Clinic Case Conferences
6. Transitions of Care
We strive to put our members first so your feedback and conference topic requests are invaluable. I encourage you to get involved in your organization. Conference planning is rewarding and fun. We would love to have additional input into the future programming offered by our organization. In addition, we would like to enhance the nursing topics offered during the Residency Practice Solutions Conference. Take the opportunity to highlight the great things going on in your programs and clinics or bring a topic that is in progress to gather input for future development.
Our Annual Business Meeting is on Sunday, April 3 at 4:15 pm. It is open to all nurses attending the conference. The meeting is a great way to network with other nurses in the country who are up against similar challenges and accomplishments in the Family Medicine Residency setting. We look forward to seeing you there.
Marcia Snook, RN, BSN Kathy Morin, RN Interim Program Committee Chairs
Research Report
Kate Dosenovich, Research Committee Chair
I am a fairly new chair-person of the research committee so I don't have much to share in the way of organizational research at this time.
I am pleased to report that residents in our program are engaged in several research projects, as I am sure yours are, that add not only to their knowledge and expertise in the delivery of care but to ours, as family medicine residency nurses.
I feel that FMRNA is uniquely positioned to bring family medicine residency nurses to the forefront ensuring that we are not just viewed as being task driven, but impacting positive outcomes for our patients through our clinical practice. One of the ways we do this is through involvement in research, in collaboration with our residents, faculty and support staff.
I look forward to sharing, in the future, some of the research going on in my residency program.
Let us know if you are doing something great in your program. If it works for you, it could work for us all.
Kate Dosenovich, R.N.
Research Committee Chair
Standards Report Joy Allen, Standards Committee Chair
Each year the Standards Committee reviews the FMRNA Standards for any changes or additions that need to be made to the list of current Standards. In 2013, the Standards Committee chair met with members of the FMRNA officers to thoroughly review the Standards. We also reviewed the Position statements and committee job descriptions. Numerous revisions were made and then sent to the FMRNA board of directors for approval. The FMRNA board of directors approved the suggested changes. These changes to the Standards were provided to the members in the Residency Program Solution's conference held in April 2013. On April 8, 2013 during our business meeting, these changes to the Standards were brought to the membership for a vote and were approved as written.
Over the past few years, there have been many standards of care and quality metrics added to the daily clinical functions within many if not all residency programs. With these changes and increase in the responsibilities of the clinical staff there will be the need for additions to our written FMRNA Standards. This year the FMRNA will be asking for members to vote in 2 new standards, which are Transitions of Care and Population Health Management.
While Family Medicine Residency Nurses are involved in planning the care of each patient they also have a unique opportunity to positively impact a specific population of patients through population health management. This would include chronic disease management as well preventative care. Family Medicine Residency Nurses provide care as a member of the team to assure safe and appropriate follow up of the patients being discharged from urgent health care settings.
The Standards Committee is in desperate need of committee members. It is not only imperative that we hold our residency nurses to a high standard , it is just as important to have as much input from our membership as representatives on each of our committees as possible. Your voice and ideas need to be heard and are appreciated. Please consider joining a committee. Become active in YOUR FMRNA organization!
Respectfully submitted,
Kathy Morin, RN
President Elect
Communications Report Randee Fleming, Communications/Promotions Committee Chair
In the coming year, the Communications Committee will merge with the Promotions Committee in order to streamline operations and duties. We have once again updated our website to better serve our members. Please check it out at www.fmrna.org. Membership renewal can be accomplished online. We are also developing a member's only section where we will post past presentations, policies and procedures that you may find helpful in your daily work. Reach out to your Board members to let us know what you would like to see featured. Networking is key to problem-solving and innovation. We have provided a link to our membership so you can reach out to your colleagues across the nation.
Remember to "like" us on Facebook!! Share some pictures of your nursing staff in action and tell us about your programs.
Respectfully submitted,
Marcia Snook, RN, BSN
President
Nominations Report
Kay Anderson, Nominations Chair
Who are the faces you see each year presenting nursing topics at RPS? They are your board members. These are the people who make decisions for our organization and help you get the most for your money.
Where do they come from? Our board consists of members of FMRNA who have decided to become involved. These individuals want to make a difference. They want to teach and be taught by others about our specialty as Family Medicine Residency Nurses. Their commitment is to provide our members with information, sharing experiences and training on working as a Family Medicine Residency nurse.
But as the Marines say, "We need a few good men"! The nominations committee has the role of finding individuals who are excited about our profession and want to become involved in our organization. Individuals who want to create the atmosphere of learning and sharing knowledge with our peers across the nation. It is always good to have a diverse board that represents states all across the nation.
You will find it rewarding speaking to nurses that you may have never gotten the opportunity to meet. This work is so important to maintain our board with strong, enthusiastic individuals who will work for our organization and make the most of your dues by providing great services for FMRNA.
Come on, get involved and help FMRNA remain a strong organization through the work of great individuals like you!
Respectfully submitted,
Kay Anderson, RN
Nominations Chair, FMRNA
Nominations Committee report March 2016
Current board members entering into second year of two-year term
Research-Kate Dosenovich
Standards-Joy Allen
Promotions-Randee Fleming
Membership-Alice Brown
Members at Large-Bumni Ariyo, Melanie Neville
Positions up for renewal
President- Marcia Snook –to remain as President for an additional year
Vice President-Kathy Morin-to remain as Vice President for an additional year
Secretary-Kay Anderson
Treasurer-Mary Beth McLellan
In order to streamline committee work, the board would like to request a motion to approve a bylaw change whereby creating 2 combination committees. The new combinations for year 2016 will be Promotions/Communications and Program/Nominations. Randee Fleming will assume the responsibilities for Communications at the annual meeting. Marcia Snook and Kathy Morin will manage the responsibilities of Program for 2016 and Kay Anderson will remain Nominations for 2016. Marcia Snook will be up for election in this combined position in 2017. There will be one additional combination up for approval in year 2017: Standards and Research.
Open positions:
Program Chair-Marcia Snook/Kathy Morin will manage responsibilities for 2016
Nominations Chair-Kay Anderson will manage responsibilities for 2016
Communications Chair-Randee Fleming
Executive Member at Large
Respectfully submitted,
Kay Anderson, RN
FMRNA Nominations Chair
|
DMC3667
Do you have any questions?
For further information about penalty fares on Southern services please contact our Customer Service team:
tel
08451 27 29 20*
fax
08451 27 29 30
*24 hour service, all calls charged at national rate, calls may be recorded
This leaflet is intended as a guide and should not be regarded as a complete or authoritative statement of the law or regulations. Other train operators may have their own penalty fares scheme, this leaflet only covers the stations served by Southern.
8
Penalty Fares Leaflet
This leaflet gives you advice about how and where to buy your ticket and contains a map showing the penalty fare areas for the following train operating company
22 May 2011
Southern operate a Penalty Fares scheme on all the routes they operate, as shown on the map in this leaflet. You must buy a valid ticket (or permit to travel) for the journey you are making before you get on any Southern train at any of the stations shown in yellow on the map. If you do not have a valid ticket or permit to travel, you may have to pay a penalty fare of £20 or twice the full single fare, whichever is the greater.
Southern have been authorised to charge Penalty Fares by the Department for Transport in line with the Railways Act 1994 (as amended by the Transport Act 2000), the Penalty Fares Regulations 1994 and the Penalty Fares Rules 2002. The aim of the Penalty Fares scheme is to reduce the number of passengers who travel without tickets.
This leaflet contains the answers to the most frequently asked questions about the Southern Penalty Fares Scheme:
Why is a Penalty Fare scheme necessary?
Penalty Fares are in place to encourage passengers to buy their tickets before travelling. Even if only a small percentage of passengers travel without paying, substantial sums of money are put at risk. Reducing the number of passengers who do not pay is not only in the interest of Southern, but also the majority of the fare paying passengers.
How much is the Penalty Fare?
If you board a train without a valid ticket for your entire journey, or a valid Permit to Travel, you may be charged a Penalty Fare of £20 or twice the full single fare (whichever is the greater) to the next stop, plus the full single fare to complete your journey.
What methods of payment can I use to pay a Penalty Fare?
You can use cash, a cheque (supported by a cheque guarantee card), Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Maestro or Delta. We do not accept Solo or Electron cards.
If I do not buy a ticket before travelling, is it an automatic Penalty Fare?
You are responsible for ensuring that you buy a ticket that is valid for your entire journey before travelling, otherwise you may have to pay a Penalty Fare.
2
If there is a queue at the ticket office can I board the train without a valid ticket?
No. It is your responsibility to allow yourself reasonable time to buy a ticket before travelling. Automatic self-service ticket machines are provided at all stations as an additional method of ticket purchase. Tickets can also be bought in advance of travel from ticket offices, by phone or via the internet.
Can I pay at my destination if I am in a rush?
No. If you board a train without a valid ticket, then you may have to pay a Penalty Fare.
What if the ticket office is closed, or the station does not have a ticket office and the automatic self-service machines are out of order?
At most locations there is more than one self-service ticket machine and these are regularly maintained so it would be unusual for there to be no self-service ticket machines available for you to use. At stations where there is only one self-service machine there is usually a further machine called a Permit to Travel. This is normally located near the station entrance/exit or beside other self-service machines. You should insert the maximum number of coins you have with you in the Permit to Travel machine, up to the value of your journey. Press the button and you will be issued with a permit to travel. This permit must be exchanged for a valid ticket at your first opportunity, be that on the train or at your destination and in any case within two hours. You will be given credit for the amount you paid for the permit when you exchange it for a valid ticket. If the ticket office is closed or not available and self service ticket machines or the Permit to Travel machines are not working then you will not be charged a Penalty Fare.
What if I want to buy a season ticket and the ticket office is closed?
Provided that you have a photocard, you can buy a weekly season ticket from the automatic self service ticket machines. However, if you wish to buy a monthly season or longer, you should buy a single ticket for your destination or Permit to Travel and then buy your season ticket at your destination. The cost of your single ticket or Permit to Travel will be deducted from the cost of your season ticket.
continued on page 6
3
Southern & Gatwick Express Penalty Fares Map
Portsmouth
Portsmouth
West
Sutton
Sutton
Common
St. Helier
Morden
South
South
Merton
London
Victoria
Imperial
Wharf
Kensington
(Olympia)
London
Bridge
East
Croydon
International
Battersea Park
Wandsworth
Common
Wandsworth
Road
Clapham
High Street
( Clapham North)
East Dulwich
Peckham
Rye
South
Bermondsey
Queens
Road
Peckham
Balham
Denmark
Hill
Streatham
Common
Streatham
Hill
Streatham
Tulse
Hill
North
Dulwich
Norbury
Thornton
Heath
Selhurst
South Croydon
Purley
Oaks
Purley
Clapham
Junction
Brighton
Hove
West
Brompton
(for Earl’s Court)
Shepherd’s
Bush
Wembley
Central
Harrow &
Wealdstone
Watford
Junction
Tring
Leighton
Buzzard
Bletchley
Milton Keynes
Central
Hemel
Hempstead
Berkhamsted
Norwood
Junction
West
Norwood
Gipsy Hill
Crystal
Palace
Anerley
Penge West
Sanderstead
Riddlesdown
Kenley
Whyteleafe
Whyteleafe
South
Caterham
Chipstead
Woodmansterne
Reedham
Tattenham
Corner
Tadworth
Reigate
Kingswood
Effingham
Junction
Bookham
London
Road
(Guildford)
Clandon
Horsley
Upper Warlingham
Woldingham
Oxted
Hurst Green
Horley
Gatwick
Airport
Plumpton
*
Cooksbridge
*
Haywards
Heath
Three
Bridges
Ashurst
Nutfield
Godstone
Glynde Berwick Polegate
Edenbridge
Leigh
Lewes
Birkbeck
Beckenham
Junction
Southease
Newhaven Town
Newhaven Harbour
Bishopstone
Seaford
Falmer
Moulsecoomb
London Road
(Brighton)
Pevensey
& Westham
Pevensey
Bay
*
Ham Street
Appledore
Winchelsea
Doleham
Three Oaks
Ore
Hastings
St. Leonards
Warrior Square
Bexhill
Collington
Cooden Beach
Burgess Hill
Wivelsfield
Balcombe
Hassocks
Aldrington
Portslade
Fishersgate
Ford
Barnham
Southwick
Fishbourne
Bosham
Nutbourne
Shoreham
-by-Sea
Lancing
Littlehaven
Faygate
*
Ifield
Crawley
East
Worthing
Worthing
Chichester
West
Worthing
Durrington
-on-Sea
Angmering
Goring
-by-Sea
Preston Park
Normans Bay
Southampton
Airport Parkway
Eastleigh
Southbourne
Emsworth
Warblington
Havant
Bedhampton
Cosham
Portchester
Guildford
Horsham
Warnham
Ockley
Holmwood
Dorking
Box Hill and
Westhumble
Leatherhead
Ashtead
Epsom
Ewell East
Cheam
Sutton
Carshalton
Hackbridge
Fareham
& Southsea
Harbour
Southampton
Central
Swanwick
Bursledon
*
Hamble
*
Netley
*
Sholing
*
Woolston
*
Bitterne
*
St Denys
*
Littlehampton
Bognor Regis
Hilsea
Fratton
Carshalton
Beeches
Belmont
Banstead
Epsom
Downs
Wallington
Mitcham Junction
Wimbledon
Chase
Wimbledon
Haydons Road
Tooting
Mitcham Eastfields
Waddon
West Croydon
Hampden Park
Eastbourne
Sydenham
Forest Hill
Honor Oak
Park
Brockley
New Cross
Gate
Arundel
Amberley
Pulborough
Billingshurst
Christ’s Hospital
Penshurst
Tonbridge
Edenbridge
Town
Hever
Cowden
Eridge
Crowborough
Buxted
Uckfield
Lingfield
Dormans
East
Grinstead
Redhill
Coulsdon South
Merstham
Earlswood
Salfords
Coulsdon Town
(Smitham)
Key
Brighton Mainline
route
Regular
service
Limited
service
West London
route
Metro
route
Oxted
route
Redhill
route
Mainline West
route
Mainline East
route
Coastway West
route
Other train operators provide additional services
along some routes served by Southern.
07/04/11
This map is not to scale and is designed to show the line
of routes rather than the exact position of stations.
Coastway East
route
Penalty Fares Stations
Southern Exempt from Penalty
Fares Scheme
London Underground interchange
London Overground interchange
Ferry service interchange
Airport interchange
Tramlink interchange
Eurostar interchange
Limited Southern service
station
Gatwick Express
route
Faygate
*
DLR interchange
4
5
Ashford
Rye
*
What should I do if I have forgotten my season ticket and / or photocard?
You should buy a daily ticket to cover your journey before travelling. You may subsequently apply for a refund on this daily ticket at the ticket office where you bought your season ticket. Only two such refund applications will be considered in a 12 month period and you may be charged an admin fee.
What if I discover that I have forgotten my season ticket and / or photocard once I have boarded the train?
The Authorised Collectors will record details of your season ticket and your name and address on a pro-forma. You will then be issued you with an Authority to Travel for the single journey that you are undertaking at the time. You must send this together with a clear photocopy of your season ticket and photocard to the address shown on the Authority to Travel. Failure to return the Authority to Travel or making a false claim may lead to prosecution.
What if I have bought a discounted ticket with a railcard, but cannot produce the railcard on the actual journey?
You are liable to pay a Penalty Fare, as the discounted ticket is only valid on production of the railcard.
What happens if I travel beyond my normal destination?
It is your responsibility to buy any additional ticket that you need to make your original ticket valid for your entire journey before travelling; otherwise you may have to pay a Penalty Fare.
If I have a standard class ticket, but sit in First Class, as the train is busy, will I receive a Penalty Fare?
As your ticket would not be valid in First Class accommodation you may have to pay a Penalty Fare of £20 or twice the First Class single fare (whichever is the greater) to the next stop, plus a First Class single from there to your destination. However, depending on the circumstances, you may be liable to prosecution instead. If you wish to travel First Class, then you must buy a First Class ticket or appropriate upgrade before travelling.
Who can issue a Penalty Fare?
Any member of staff who has been trained as an Authorised Collector and is carrying an authorised collector's ID badge can charge Penalty Fares.
6
What if I am unable to pay the full amount of the Penalty Fare on the spot?
If you do not have the full amount, then you will be allowed to make a part payment. You are required by law to provide your full name and address at this time and you then have 21 days to pay the remaining amount of the Penalty Fare. This can be done by sending a cheque or postal order to the payment address on the Penalty Fare notice. Please include the Penalty Fare notice with your payment and do not send cash through the post. Failure to provide an Authorised Collector, when asked to do so, with your current name and address, or giving a false name and/or address, is a criminal offence and will lead to prosecution.
Is there a right of appeal against a Penalty Fare?
If you wish to appeal against a Penalty Fare you must put this in writing within 21 days of the issue date and send it to the appeals address shown on the Penalty Fare notice. This appeals service is independent of the train operating companies and will consider your appeal based on the facts of the case.
Remember:
Buy a ticket before you travel otherwise you may have to pay a Penalty Fare (minimum £20)
7
|
COMMENT
BEGGING THE QUESTION: JUDICIAL REVIEW OF BALLOT QUESTIONS FOR REFERRED STATE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS IN WISCONSIN
AYLOR
T A. HATRIDGE*
Among the most powerful instantiations of popular sovereignty is the people's right to amend their state constitutions. In Wisconsin, the legislature refers proposed state constitutional amendments to the electorate, who decide whether to ratify based on a brief ballot question. Because a single question often cannot inform voters of the scope or import of an amendment with multiple provisions, voter consent to constitutional amendments becomes a legal fiction, especially where ballot questions are vague, incomplete, or misleading. Insufficient ballot questions that obscure or misrepresent the underlying amendment allow the legislature to manipulate the referendum process. This practice erodes popular sovereignty and abrogates constitutional accountability mechanisms. Effective procedural safeguards are thus necessary to legitimize referenda outcomes. However, the Wisconsin Legislature has created few statutory procedural safeguards to ensure accurate, clear, and complete ballot questions. Additionally, the Wisconsin Supreme Court's inconsistent approach to judicial review of ballot questions renders these limited safeguards largely ineffective.
State constitutional amendment epitomizes a high-stakes, lowinformation process. With the proliferation of state constitutional amendments, often involving polarizing and significant policy issues, preserving state constitutions' structural commitment to popular sovereignty in the referendum process has become increasingly important. State courts can best preserve this commitment by ensuring that legally sufficient ballot language elicits voter consent to the underlying amendment. Because the Wisconsin Constitution requires voter consent to ratify constitutional amendments, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has a constitutional duty to ensure that ballot questions elicit that consent. This Comment argues that rigorous pre-election judicial review of ballot language is imperative to combat legislative subversion of popular sovereignty in Wisconsin's constitutional amendment process.
Introduction ................................................................... 1410
* J.D. Candidate, University of Wisconsin Law School, 2024. Thank you to Professor Miriam Seifter for her insightful comments and to the State Democracy Research Initiative for inspiring my interest in this topic. I would also like to thank the 2023–24 Wisconsin Law Review Associates and Editorial Board, especially Senior Managing Editor Sarah Cannon, for their diligence in preparing my Comment for publication.
INTRODUCTION
Referred state constitutional amendments 1 often do not appear on the ballot in their entirety. Instead, voters see a single question that strives
1. Legislatively referred state constitutional amendments originate in state legislatures. The legislature then submits the proposed amendment to voters, who must approve the amendment for it to be ratified. Legislatively referred state constitutional amendments are distinct from general referenda, which follow a similar procedure to enact or amend statutes, and ballot initiatives, which allow voters to directly propose statutes or constitutional amendments. For additional discussion of direct democracy terminology, see infra Part I.
to encompass the proposed amendment's essential elements or overarching purpose. While this approach has benefits, such as conserving ballot space and translating "legal-ese" into plain language, it also comes with serious potential disadvantages, including oversimplifying the referred amendment or misrepresenting the amendment's effect. These disadvantages have grave implications because they impede voters' ability to create their desired form of government. Often, where a ballot question is inaccurate or unclear, voters may challenge its legal sufficiency in state court. In Wisconsin, doctrinal standards for judicial review of ballot language are vague and applied inconsistently. 2 Many state courts employ similar tests, 3 which begs the question: how should state courts conduct judicial review of ballot language in order to safeguard the people's role in the constitutional amendment process?
In Wisconsin, the legislature crafts both the referred constitutional amendment and the corresponding ballot question and approves both by vote as a package deal. 6 The referred amendment is then submitted to the electorate in the form prescribed by the legislature without further review. 7 Where Wisconsin voters question the sufficiency of ballot questions, review of the legislature's phrasing has historically occurred
Case law, statutes, and constitutional provisions govern the manner of submission and judicial review of referred constitutional amendments to the Wisconsin electorate. Synthesizing this general legal scheme points to two unsettling conclusions: (1) the Wisconsin Legislature has created few procedural safeguards to ensure that ballot questions are accurate, clear, and complete; 4 and (2) the Wisconsin Supreme Court's inconsistent approach to judicial review of allegedly insufficient ballot questions renders these limited procedural safeguards largely ineffective. 5 Thus, in Wisconsin's current legal landscape, aggrandized legislative authority and inconsistent judicial review undermine voters' ability to create their desired form of government via constitutional referenda. In contrast, clearer requirements for phrasing ballot questions and more effective judicial review of incomplete or misleading ballot language would empower voters by giving them a more informed choice on the ballot.
2. See infra Part I.
3. See infra note 167 and accompanying text.
4. See infra Section II.B.
5. See infra Section II.C.
6. WIS. STAT. § 13.175 (2021–22).
7. See Wis. Just. Initiative, Inc. v. Wis. Elections Comm'n, 990 N.W.2d 122, 125 (Wis. 2023) (citing WIS. CONST. art. XII, § 1) ("A proposed amendment must be approved by a majority of both houses of the legislature in two successive legislative sessions. . . . Once it passes that test, the proposed amendment is submitted to the people.").
via post-election judicial review. 8 Wisconsin voters have only challenged ballot questions a handful of times. 9 Therefore, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has not had much opportunity to grapple with its proper role in reviewing the sufficiency of ballot language for referred state constitutional amendments. As a result, the nascent law regarding the proper test for allegedly insufficient ballot questions is vague, malleable, and difficult for lower courts to apply. 10
The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently considered the proper scope of judicial review for ballot questions in Wisconsin Justice Initiative v. Elections Commission. 11 In 2020, the Wisconsin electorate voted on a proposed constitutional amendment known as Marsy's Law, 12 which passed in an overwhelming majority. 13 However, the text of the
8. See, e.g., State ex rel. Hudd v. Timme, 11 N.W. 785 (Wis. 1882) (establishing a precedent for post-election review of referred constitutional amendments under the separate amendment rule); see also Certification by Wisconsin Court of Appeals at 6–7, Wis. Just. Initiative, Inc. v. Wis. Elections Comm'n, No. 2020AP2003 (Wis. Ct. App. Dec. 21, 2021) [hereinafter WJI Certification], https://www.wicourts.gov/ca/cert/DisplayDocument.pdf?content=pdf&seqNo=466212 ("Four months before the April 2020 election, WJI sought a temporary injunction to prevent the ballot question from being submitted to the voters. The circuit court denied the motion."). However, after the election, the circuit court agreed with the plaintiffs' allegation that the ballot question did not sufficiently conform to constitutional requirements. Decision and Ord. at 2, 12, EXPO Wis., Inc. v. Wis. Elections Comm'n, No. 2023CV000279 (Dane Cnty. Cir. Ct. Feb. 20, 2023), https://www.wpr.org/sites/default/files/9431093.pdf (holding that plaintiffs had standing to challenge a referendum's procedural shortcomings before the election but finding that they did not allege sufficient irreparable harm to warrant injunctive relief). For a discussion of the possibility and preferability of rigorous pre-election judicial review of ballot question sufficiency, see infra Section III.A.
9. See, e.g., Timme, 11 N.W. 785; State ex rel. Ekern v. Zimmerman, 204 N.W. 803 (Wis. 1925); State ex rel. Thomson v. Zimmerman, 60 N.W.2d 416 (Wis. 1953); Milwaukee All. Against Racist & Pol. Repression v. Elections Bd., 317 N.W.2d 420 (Wis. 1982); McConkey v. Van Hollen, 783 N.W.2d 855 (Wis. 2010); Wis. Just. Initiative, Inc. v. Wis. Elections Comm'n, 990 N.W.2d 122 (Wis. 2023).
10. See WJI Certification, supra note 8, at 3 (acknowledging the lack of guiding case law and referring the parties' appeal from the circuit court directly to the Wisconsin Supreme Court); Metro. Milwaukee Ass'n of Com. v. City of Milwaukee, 798 N.W.2d 287, 302 (Wis. Ct. App. 2011) (questioning the workability of current standards).
11. 990 N.W.2d 122 (Wis. 2023).
12. Marsy's Law, also known as the Victim's Bill of Rights, seeks to strengthen crime victims' procedural rights within the criminal legal system. Several states have approved some version of the law. However, Marsy's Law has faced considerable criticism for eroding rights of criminal defendants within the already prejudicial criminal legal system. Marsy's Law: Harmful to Defendants, HARV. C.R.C.L. L. REV. (Nov. 10, 2018), https://journals.law.harvard.edu/crcl/marsys-lawharmful-to-defendants/ [https://perma.cc/S6LY-9RJB].
13. Shawn Johnson, Constitutional Amendment to Protect Crime Victims Was Presented Unfairly, Group Argues at Wisconsin Supreme Court, WIS. PUB. RADIO (Sept.
constitutional amendment did not appear on the ballot itself, as the Wisconsin Constitution empowers the legislature with discretion to prescribe the manner in which proposed amendments are presented on the ballot. 14 Thus, the legislature reduced the approximately 850-word amendment to a 69-word ballot question. 15
In Wisconsin Justice Initiative, the Wisconsin Supreme Court considered whether this ballot question (1) referenced every essential part of the proposed amendment; (2) was misleading; and (3) encompassed two possible subjects, which would have required two separate ballot questions. 16 Wisconsin case law has invoked two different tests for examining the sufficiency of ballot language: the separate amendment rule, which requires separate ballot questions for sufficiently distinct propositions within one amendment, 17 and the every essential test, which requires ballot language to reference every essential element of the amendment. 18 However, Wisconsin case law establishing the every essential test does not develop or apply what "every essential" means. 19 Wisconsin Justice Initiative thus offered an opportunity to strengthen a promising standard that could guard against dangers of over-simplifying or misrepresenting referred amendments, thereby ensuring that voters are empowered in their decisionmaking. Wisconsin Justice Initiative is the
6, 2022, 5:15 PM), https://www.wpr.org/wisconsin-supreme-court-hears-challengemarsys-law-amendment [https://perma.cc/K76S-GYAX] (stating that Marsy's Law referendum "passed with nearly 75 percent of the vote"). Marsy's Law is currently enumerated in WIS. CONST. art. I, § 9m.
14. WIS. CONST. art. XII, § 1.
15. Compare WIS. CONST. art. I, § 9m, with Decision and Ord. at 6, Wis. Just. Initiative, Inc., No. 2019-CV-3485 (Dane Cnty. Cir. Ct. Nov. 3, 2020) [hereinafter WJI Circuit Court Decision], https://www.wjiinc.org/uploads/6/1/2/9/61290857/53_2020_11_03_circuit_court_decisi on.pdf (stating the ballot question that was presented to voters).
16. Wis. Just. Initiative, Inc., 990 N.W.2d at 141–44; see also Brief of Plaintiffs-Respondents, Wis. Just. Initiative, Inc. v. Wis. Elections Comm'n, No. 2020AP2003 (Apr. 11, 2022) [hereinafter WJI Plaintiffs' Brief], https://acefiling.wicourts.gov/document/eFiled/2020AP002003/510911.
17. State ex rel. Hudd v. Timme, 11 N.W. 785, 791 (Wis. 1882) (establishing the separate amendment rule).
18. State ex rel. Ekern v. Zimmerman, 204 N.W. 803, 811 (Wis. 1925) (establishing the every essential test). Note that the court recently characterized the every essential test as dicta in Wisconsin Justice Initiative, stating that "we do not understand Ekern as adopting or creating a new, undefined, and strict constitutional test for detail and accuracy in constitutional amendment ballot questions." Wis. Just. Initiative, Inc., 990 N.W.2d at 139. See infra Section II.C.2 for further discussion regarding the court's recent treatment of the every essential test.
19. Precedent provides the nebulous instruction that ballot questions "must reasonably, intelligently, and fairly comprise or have reference to every essential of the amendment." Ekern, 204 N.W. at 811. See also WJI Certification, supra note 8, at 9.
first case in which the court has considered how the separate amendment and every essential tests should be construed together. 20
Part I of this Comment explores the people's role in the constitutional amendment process and the importance of clear ballot language as a constitutional concern. Part II examines Wisconsin's statutory and doctrinal framework for crafting and reviewing ballot language, respectively, and points out shortcomings of Wisconsin's current approach. Part III urges the importance of rigorous judicial review for allegedly insufficient ballot questions, proposes that the Wisconsin Supreme Court conduct pre-election review for such allegations, and offers preliminary suggestions for refining current standards for judicial review.
Unfortunately, the Wisconsin Supreme Court did not take advantage of the opportunity presented by Wisconsin Justice Initiative to clarify a workable standard for judicial review of ballot questions. 21 Additionally, the court's assurance "that the government the people have authorized remains in their hands" is ultimately contradicted by its conclusion that the legislature has "substantial discretion and freedom" in crafting ballot questions. 22 With this reasoning, the court fails to consider its role within Wisconsin's referendum process as the sole body with the power to review ballot questions crafted by the legislature. 23 Although the Wisconsin Supreme Court has previously espoused the importance of upholding election outcomes in the name of popular sovereignty, 24 it should eschew a rigid approach of blind deference to the legislature's chosen ballot language. Instead, the court should conduct rigorous preelection judicial review to ensure that voters are presented with legally sufficient ballot questions.
I. WISCONSIN'S DIRECT DEMOCRACY TOOL: MANDATORY REFERENDA OF STATE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
The Wisconsin Constitution, like all state constitutions, emphasizes a commitment to popular sovereignty. 25 In addition to enumerating a right
20. See WJI Certification, supra note 8, at 3.
21. See Wis. Just. Initiative, Inc., 990 N.W.2d at 163–64 (Dallet, J., concurring).
22. Id. at 135 (Dallet, J., concurring).
23. Id. at 174 (A. Bradley, J., dissenting) (criticizing the majority for "essentially surrendering our responsibility for judicial review to the legislature").
24. See State ex rel. Thomson v. Peoples State Bank, 76 N.W.2d 370, 375 (Wis. 1956) ("The will of the electors as indicated by their ballots should not be defeated by a mere irregularity in the procedure of submission of the amendment.").
25. See Jessica Bulman-Pozen & Miriam Seifter, The Democracy Principle in State Constitutions, 119 MICH. L. REV. 859, 881 (2021).
to vote, 26 the Wisconsin Constitution states that the government "deriv[es] [its] just powers from the consent of the governed." 27 The constitution's promise of popular sovereignty is thus a "present structural commitment" that "place[s] the people themselves above government." 28 In keeping with this structural commitment, the Wisconsin Constitution requires voter consent to ratify legislatively proposed constitutional amendments. 29 By providing for mandatory referenda, the constitution makes the legislature accountable to the people and ensures that voters have a voice in creating their own government. Centering voters in the constitutional amendment process is critical to maintaining popular sovereignty and the people's position as the source of government power. 30 However, because the ballot only presents voters with a single question that strives to summarize the broad purpose of the underlying amendment, voter consent becomes a legal fiction, especially where ballot questions are vague, misleading, incomplete, inaccurate, or otherwise insufficient.
This Part describes the constitutional aspects underlying judicial review of ballot language for legislatively referred constitutional amendments. After presenting a brief primer on direct democracy, this Part identifies the people's power in the constitutional amendment process and discusses the importance of accurate, clear, and complete ballot language in safeguarding that power. Ultimately, the role of Wisconsin courts is to avoid legislative erasure of the people's sovereignty by ensuring that ballot questions elicit voters' informed consent for legislatively referred constitutional amendments.
A. Direct Democracy Primer
Direct democracy aims to give voters a voice outside of the representative context by placing policy issues directly on the ballot. 31
26. WIS. CONST. art. III, § 1.
27. WIS. CONST. art. I, § 1.
28. Bulman-Pozen & Seifter, supra note 25, at 880. See also WIS. CONST. art. I, § 22 ("The blessings of a free government can only be maintained by . . . frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.").
29. WIS. CONST. art. XII, § 1.
30. See Bulman-Pozen & Seifter, supra note 25, at 881–82.
31. David A. Carrillo, Stephen M. Duvernay, Benjamin Gevercer & Meghan Fenzel, California Constitutional Law: Direct Democracy, 92 S. CAL. L. REV. 557, 560 (2019); Nathaniel A. Persily, The Peculiar Geography of Direct Democracy: Why the Initiative, Referendum and Recall Developed in the American West, 2 MICH. L. & POL'Y REV. 11, 27–29 (1997) (describing historical intentions for direct democracy and its roots in the Progressive Movement).
While direct democracy tools have faced criticism and controversy, 32 these tools offer an opportunity for citizens to achieve desired policies. 33 Participating states achieve the goals of direct democracy via different tools, which are applied uniquely in each state. One such tool is the referendum, 34 where citizens exercise a veto power on the state legislature's passage of a statute or constitutional amendment. 35 Referenda may be mandatory, where a state constitution requires the legislature to submit particular enactments to voters; voluntary, where the legislature may choose to refer measures to voters; or popular, where voters may petition to force a referendum on a certain legislative act. 36
32. Election outcomes may not represent a true majority due to undue influence by corporate interests, voter disenfranchisement, low voter turnout, or opt out by voters. Furthermore, those who vote on ballot propositions are disproportionately White and affluent. Thus, direct democracy is also criticized for the propensity of an unrepresentative voter base to limit the rights of political minorities, especially where the minority group may be "unpopular" or expressly disenfranchised, or where low or disproportionate voter turnout may have a decisive effect on the measure's outcome. Julian N. Eule, Judicial Review of Direct Democracy, 99 YALE L.J. 1503, 1515–22 (1990); Kait Madsen, Comment, Execution on the Ballot: Lessons for Judicial Review of Ballot Measures from the Death Penalty Referendum in Nebraska, 99 NEB. L. REV. 254, 265, 278–79 (2020); Carrillo, Duvernay, Gevercer & Fenzel, supra note 31, at 563. These criticisms ring especially true in the context of the Marsy's Law amendment, which has implications for the rights of criminal defendants, who are expressly disenfranchised and not likely to fall within the affluent, White voter base that disproportionately votes on ballot propositions. See Neil L. Sobol, Defeating De Facto Disenfranchisement of Criminal Defendants, 75 FLA. L. REV. 287, 290 (2023).
33. The use of direct democracy tools has proliferated in recent years as voters seek to pass legislation on pressing (and often contentious) policy issues amidst increased partisanship and distrust of government. Madsen, supra note 32, at 257–59. See also Jonathan L. Marshfield, Forgotten Limits on the Power to Amend State Constitutions, 114 NW. U. L. REV. 65, 79 (2019) ("[S]tate [constitutional] amendments have great substantive and political significance. They address almost every aspect of public life from contentious cultural issues . . . to high-stakes regulatory and structural issues . . . . State amendments have become a go-to political device for citizens, interest groups, and public officials."); Ballot Measure Results 2022, NBC NEWS (Nov. 8, 2022), https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-elections/ballot-measures [https://perma.cc/LNK4-TN8V] (summarizing election results for statewide ballot measures covering abortion, healthcare, elections and voting rights, firearms, marijuana legalization, and minimum wage).
34. Other primary direct democracy tools include the initiative, where voters circumscribe the state legislature to place proposed statutes or constitutional amendments directly on the ballot; and the recall, where voters may remove government officials from office. Persily, supra note 31, at 14.
35. Carrillo, Duvernay, Gevercer & Fenzel, supra note 31, at 568.
36. Eule, supra note 32, at 1512.
State statutes and constitutions outline procedures for submitting referenda to voters. 37
Each state prescribes a unique procedure for crafting ballot language for referred state constitutional amendments. For example, some states charge a specific government official 38 or non-partisan commission 39 with crafting ballot language upon the state legislature's approval of the amendment. If voters challenge the ballot question's accuracy or clarity, state courts will review the ballot language and the referred amendment according to each state's prescribed rule for judicial review. 40 While these procedures vary across states, rules prescribing effective procedural safeguards are important to maintain an informed voter base, effect voters' true intent, and legitimize referenda outcomes. 41
37. E.g., OHIO CONST. art. II, § 1g (describing procedural requirements to place referred measures on the ballot); MO. REV. STAT. §§ 116.010–.270 (2016) (detailing procedural requirements for initiatives and referenda).
38. E.g., CONN. GEN. STAT. § 141-9-4(7) (2023) (charging Connecticut's Secretary of State with preparing ballot language for referred state constitutional amendments).
39. E.g., OHIO CONST. art. II, § 1g (tasking the Ohio Ballot Board with preparing ballot language for referred state constitutional amendments); OHIO REV. CODE ANN. § 3505.061 (LexisNexis 2023–24) (detailing the appointment of Ballot Board members to create a nonpartisan board chaired by the Ohio Secretary of State).
40. E.g., N.D. CONST. art. III, §§ 6–7 (giving the North Dakota Supreme Court original jurisdiction for challenges to ballot language, which must be brought prior to the election; measures approved by the electorate may not be invalidated by postelection judicial review).
41. See Richard B. Collins & Dale Oesterle, Structuring the Ballot Initiative: Procedures That Do and Don't Work, 66 U. COLO. L. REV. 47, 64 (1995) ("[R]egulation of initiatives . . . minimiz[es] voter confusion, defin[es] the extent of legal change that can be made in a single initiative, and inform[s] voters on the issues."); Glen Staszewski, Rejecting the Myth of Popular Sovereignty and Applying an Agency Model to Direct Democracy, 56 VAND. L. REV. 395 (2003) (advocating for stronger procedural requirements within direct democracy to legitimize election outcomes); State ex rel. Ekern v. Zimmerman, 204 N.W. 803, 811 (Wis. 1925) (stating the importance of requirements for ballot language clarity and accuracy to ensure an election's legitimacy); see also PETER SUBER, THE PARADOX OF SELF-AMENDMENT: A STUDY OF LOGIC, LAW, OMNIPOTENCE, AND CHANGE, at xv (1990) ("[C]onsent [to a constitutional amendment] is only valid if certain conditions are met. For an onerous or unfair procedure could thwart amendment long after desire for change became widespread and intense. An amending procedure that was undemanding for a privileged class might result in frequent use that did not reflect the desires of the larger public. Hence, . . . the amending power will not really indicate consent unless the procedure is fair and neither too difficult nor too easy.").
B. The People's Role in the Constitutional Amendment Process
Wisconsin's government derives its power "from the consent of the governed." 42 Although the U.S. Constitution favors a mediated representative government, the Wisconsin Constitution, like all state constitutions, positions "the majority of the political community as the principal and normatively superior decisionmaker." 43 Thus, unlike the federal Constitution, the Wisconsin Constitution does not conflate the people and their legislative representatives, instead giving each a distinct governance role. 44 This is especially true in the constitutional amendment process, where the Wisconsin Legislature may propose an amendment or recommend a constitutional convention, but the ultimate power to take either action resides with the people. 45
The Wisconsin Constitution provides for mandatory referenda of state constitutional amendments. 46 Under this scheme, constitutional amendments proposed by the legislature cannot be ratified without voter approval. 47 The mandatory referendum is thus a constitutional accountability mechanism "intended to keep legislators responsive to the public and to facilitate public monitoring of government action." 48 Because the constitution has given voters a direct role in the amendment process, Wisconsin courts must prevent legislative erasure of that role by empowering voters in the exercise of their veto authority.
C. The Importance of Clear Ballot Language
Sufficient ballot language is a constitutional concern. When deciding how to cast their votes, voters often rely on the ballot question itself. 49
42. WIS. CONST. art. I, § 1.
43. Bulman-Pozen & Seifter, supra note 25, at 899.
44. See id. at 899–901.
45. WIS. CONST. art. XII. See also Bulman-Pozen & Seifter, supra note 25, at 882 ("Since the eighteenth century, [state] constitutional amendment has been among the most prominent instantiations of popular sovereignty.").
46. WIS. CONST. art. XII, § 1 ("[I]t shall be the duty of the legislature to submit such proposed amendment or amendments to the people in such manner and at such time as the legislature shall prescribe; and if the people shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments by a majority of the electors voting thereon, such amendment or amendments shall become part of the constitution.").
47. Id.
48. Bulman-Pozen & Seifter, supra note 25, at 874.
49. DAVID B. MAGLEBY, DIRECT LEGISLATION: VOTING ON BALLOT PROPOSITIONS IN THE UNITED STATES 179 (1984) ("[M]ost voters make snap judgments on the measure in the voting place."); see also Craig M. Burnett & Vladimir Kogan, When Does Ballot Language Influence Voter Choices? Evidence from a Survey
Because the Wisconsin Constitution requires voter approval to ratify amendments, 50 ballot questions must provide enough detail to elicit voters' informed consent to the underlying amendment.
Wisconsin's process of constitutional lawmaking unites two elements of popular sovereignty: popular authorship and present consent. 51 Vague, misleading, incomplete, inaccurate, or otherwise insufficient ballot language frustrates both elements and violates the Wisconsin Constitution's commitment to popular sovereignty. First, popular authorship requires that the people are "in a genuine, nonobscurantist way . . . the original source of authority" for the constitutional amendment. 52 Insufficient ballot language violates ideas of popular authorship by obscuring the underlying amendment. Second, popular sovereignty requires present consent, as the constitution derives its authority from "the consent of the people now living under it, who constitute the present sovereign." 53 Without accurate, clear, and complete ballot questions, voters cannot knowingly consent to the underlying amendment. Thus, insufficient ballot language that obscures or misrepresents the underlying amendment allows the legislature to manipulate the referendum process and undermine popular sovereignty.
Insufficient ballot questions are a legislative tactic to erode constitutional accountability mechanisms by hindering voters' ability to check legislative abuses of power. As the guardian of the Wisconsin Constitution, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has a duty to uplift the constitution's structural commitment to popular sovereignty. 54 Judicial review can best safeguard the people's role in the amendment process by ensuring that the legislature presents referred amendments to voters via accurate, clear, and complete ballot questions.
Experiment, 32 POL. COMMC'N 109, 112 (2015) ("[E]very voter reads the ballot at the critical point of decision making.").
50. WIS. CONST. art. XII, § 1.
51. Bulman-Pozen & Seifter, supra note 25, at 896; David Singh Grewal & Jedediah Purdy, The Original Theory of Constitutionalism, 127 YALE L.J. 664, 686 (2018).
52. Grewal & Purdy, supra note 51, at 681–82.
53. Id. at 682.
54. See Scott L. Kafker & David A. Russcol, The Eye of a Constitutional Storm: Pre-Election Review by the State Judiciary of Initiative Amendments to State Constitutions, 2012 MICH. ST. L. REV. 1279, 1289 ("The state judiciary is the ultimate guardian of the procedural and substantive provisions of state constitutions, including [direct democracy] provisions.").
II. WISCONSIN'S EXISTING STATUTORY AND DOCTRINAL FRAMEWORK FAILS TO SAFEGUARD THE PEOPLE'S ROLE.
Procedural safeguards that guarantee accurate, clear, and complete ballot questions are critical to legitimize referenda outcomes. This Part examines Wisconsin's statutory and doctrinal framework for crafting and reviewing ballot language. After identifying approaches used by other states to ensure an informed voter base, this Part discusses Wisconsin's sparse statutory scheme and its failure to create procedural safeguards for ballot language. Finally, this Part examines the Wisconsin Supreme Court's current approach to judicial review of ballot language and identifies the ways in which current standards erode popular sovereignty.
A. The Dilemma: How to Inform Voters of What They Are Voting On
To maintain popular sovereignty, the people must understand the constitutional amendments referred to them by the legislature. States employ various tools to distribute information about referred amendments to voters. For example, California distributes information guides to registered voters before the election. 55 These guides contain the text of the proposed amendment; an impartial description of the amendment's provisions and effects; the ballot language that will represent the amendment at the election, including the official summary and total number of votes cast for and against the proposed amendment by the California Legislature; arguments and rebuttals for and against ratification; and a fiscal impact statement. 56 While this broad distribution of information shows a commendable commitment to popular sovereignty, California's extensive use of direct democracy measures means that voter information pamphlets are often quite long and arduous to wade through. 57
Other states inform voters by including information on the ballot itself. For example, Kentucky law requires that ballots include the text of the proposed amendment accompanied by a brief question stating "the substance of the amendment." 58 Although the Kentucky Supreme Court
55. CAL. ELEC. CODE § 9081 (West 2023).
56. CAL. ELEC. CODE §§ 9050, 9084–87 (West 2023).
57. See Eule, supra note 32, at 1508–09 (describing California's voter information guide as a "massive booklet" comparable to a "local phone directory" with "print so small that a magnifying glass, if not a microscope, was required to read it"); MAGLEBY, supra note 49, at 136–39 (describing prior research and survey results showing "that most voters do not read the [information guide] or use it as a source of information for decisions on propositions" and that the guides were so difficult to read that "the vast majority of voters . . . could not effectively use it").
58. KY. REV. STAT. ANN § 118.415(1) (West 2021).
has held that including the amendment's text on the ballot is critical to preserving popular sovereignty, 59 ballot questions that use plain language are more likely to elicit voters' informed consent. 60 Summarizing a referred amendment and describing its potential effect on the ballot is a more accessible and effective approach that has been adopted by several states. 61
Although these tools would be helpful to safeguard the people's role in the constitutional amendment process, Wisconsin's statutory scheme does not provide for effective information distribution or permit the inclusion of additional information on the ballot. Instead, Wisconsin statutes provide for limited information distribution via media outlets, 62 and judicial review only requires that the ballot question communicate the broad purpose of the amendment. 63 Thus, Wisconsin's current legal framework fails to ensure that ballot questions convey comprehensive information to voters. The rest of this Part investigates how Wisconsin's current legal framework fails to guarantee sufficient ballot questions and ensure voter consent to constitutional amendments.
B. Shortcomings of Wisconsin's Current Statutory Scheme
The Wisconsin Constitution provides for mandatory referenda of state constitutional amendments but does not prescribe specific procedural rules for their submission to the electorate. 64 Instead, the constitution directs the Wisconsin Legislature to prescribe this procedure. 65 However, the legislature has promulgated few statutes prescribing requirements for information distribution and ballot question
59. Westerfield v. Ward, 599 S.W.3d 738, 748–49 (Ky. 2019).
60. See Ellen E. Hoffman, Getting to "Plain Language," 29 J. NAT'L ASS'N ADMIN. L. JUDICIARY 47, 48–49 (2009) (stating that, given the general population's reading level, using plain language, i.e., "easily understood words, correct grammar, a direct writing style, and clear presentation," is essential to ensure widespread understanding).
61. See, e.g., FLA. STAT. § 101.161(1) (2023) (requiring a summary of the amendment and its financial impact); IDAHO CODE § 34-1810 (2023) (requiring a ballot title and statement of effect of a "yes" or "no" vote); 5 ILL. COMP. STAT. 20/2(a) (2023) (requiring a "brief explanation" of the amendment and arguments for and against ratification); S.D. CODIFIED LAWS § 12-13-9 (2023) (requiring a fiscal impact statement and a summary of the proposed amendment and its effects, including "a description of the legal consequences of the proposed amendment [and] . . . the likely exposure of the state to liability if the proposed amendment . . . is adopted").
62. See infra S ection II.B.1.
63. See Wis. Just. Initiative, Inc. v. Wis. Elections Comm'n, 990 N.W.2d 122, 141 (Wis. 2023).
64. See WIS. CONST. art. XII, § 1.
65. Id.
phrasing. This Section discusses the implications of the Wisconsin Legislature's failure to create statutory procedural safeguards.
1. WISCONSIN LACKS RIGOROUS REQUIREMENTS FOR INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION TO VOTERS
Accurate and effective information distribution to voters is a valuable potential tool to combat insufficient ballot questions. The Wisconsin Legislature has passed statutes prescribing the manner in which voters receive information about referred constitutional amendments leading up to elections. 66 The statutory scheme requires publication of notices in local newspapers 67 at various points leading up to the election. 68 In particular, a "Notice of Referendum" contains the entire text of the ballot question and referred constitutional amendment, as well as an explanation of the effect of either a "yes" or "no" vote. 69 The Wisconsin Attorney General prepares the explanatory statements, 70 and the Wisconsin Elections Commission sends these notices to county clerks, who bear the responsibility of publication. 71 Thus, newspaper publication is the primary method of disseminating information about referred constitutional amendments to voters and has the most thorough statutory scheme. A separate statute also tasks the Legislative Reference Bureau with publishing the text of referred constitutional amendments online at least three months before a general election. 72 Finally, the Wisconsin Elections Commission must maintain a toll-free telephone line for voters to obtain election information. 73
Information distribution to voters, especially regarding the proposed amendment's potential effects, is important because this information does not appear on the ballot itself. If this information is not reliably communicated to voters before the election, the ballot question becomes the sole point of contact between the voter and the referred constitutional amendment. Relying on periodic print publication in local newspapers is
66. See WIS. STAT. § 10.01 (2021–22).
67. WIS. STAT. § 10.04 (stating guidance for newspaper selection). When there is not a newspaper available meeting these requirements, towns may post notices in lieu of publication. WIS. STAT. § 10.05.
68. WIS. STAT. §§ 10.01, 10.06.
69. WIS. STAT. § 10.01(c).
70. Id.
71. WIS. STAT. § 10.06.
72. See WIS. STAT. § 5.02(5) (2021–22) (scheduling general elections for the Tuesday after the first Monday in November); WIS. STAT. § 35.07 (2021–22) (tasking the Legislative Reference Bureau with publishing proposed amendments no later than the first day of August preceding a general election).
73. WIS. STAT. § 5.05(13)(a) (2021–22).
not the most effective or wide-reaching method for distributing voter information in the modern digital age. 74 In the wake of deficient information distribution, voters are more likely to rely on information communicated through political advertisements and the ballot question itself when voting for referred amendments. 75 This highlights the gravity of misleading, incomplete, or incorrect ballot language. First, where a ballot question is vague or overbroad, interest groups can more easily fill in the question's gaps with their preferred political spin. 76 Second, if the ballot language is the only touchstone for voters, any misleading effect may have undue influence in the referendum's outcome. 77 The potential for misleading effects thus increases where procedural safeguards do not define substantive requirements for ballot questions.
2. THE WISCONSIN LEGISLATURE HAS SIGNIFICANT DISCRETION IN PHRASING BALLOT QUESTIONS
Wisconsin's statutory scheme has also left ambiguities in how to best frame ballot questions. One statute provides the following requirements for presenting referred constitutional amendments to voters: (1) referred constitutional amendments shall appear on a separate ballot; (2) the ballot will provide "a concise statement of each question"; and (3) the question shall be worded so that affirmative votes approve the amendment. 78 The proposed constitutional amendment must include "the precise wording of the referendum question" in order to pass the legislature. 79 Outside of the affirmative phrasing requirement, the Wisconsin Legislature has not passed statutes prescribing the content or phrasing of ballot language. No
74. Collins & Oesterle, supra note 41, at 102.
75. Id. at 102–03.
76. Id. See also Michael S. Kang, Democratizing Direct Democracy: Restoring Voter Competence Through Heuristic Cues and "Disclosure Plus," 50 UCLA L. REV. 1141, 1155 (2003); Glen Staszewski, The Bait-and-Switch in Direct Democracy, 2006 WIS. L. REV. 17, 36–37 (discussing how proponents of a ballot initiative can mislead voters about its intended effect).
77. See MAGLEBY, supra note 49, at 99, 166 ("[O]nly a small fraction of the citizenry can read and understand the ballot measures, voters' handbooks, or actual propositions[,]" yet "many voters appear willing to vote on propositions, regardless of how little they may know about them."); Hillary C. Shulman, Matthew D. Sweitzer, Olivia M. Bullock, Jason C. Coronel, Robert M. Bond & Shannon Poulsen, Predicting Vote Choice and Election Outcomes from Ballot Wording: The Role of Processing Fluency in Low Information Direct Democracy Elections, 39 POL. COMMC'N 652, 666–68 (2022) (finding that voters relying exclusively on ballot questions tend to make decisions based on ballot question phrasing and are more likely to support simply worded ballot measures).
78. WIS. STAT. § 5.64(2)(am) (2021–22).
79. WIS. STAT. § 13.175 (2021–22).
statute offers guidance for concision, clarity, scope, or impartiality. In the absence of such guidance, the legislature has significant discretion over how to present referred amendments to voters, as long as both houses agree on the precise wording. 80
By declining to enumerate statutory requirements for ballot question phrasing, the Wisconsin Legislature has shirked its constitutional duty to establish procedural requirements for referring constitutional amendments to voters. 81 Moreover, unfettered legislative discretion over ballot question phrasing frustrates the constitutional purpose of mandatory referenda as an accountability mechanism. Vague, misleading, or incomplete ballot questions obfuscate the underlying referred amendment, thereby impeding the people's constitutional right to amend their constitution. 82 By maximizing its discretion over the presentation of referred amendments to voters, the legislature has aggrandized its own power at the expense of popular sovereignty.
C. Shortcomings of Wisconsin's Current Approach to Judicial Review
Given Wisconsin's limited statutory procedural safeguards, rigorous judicial review of ballot language is critical to vindicate Wisconsin voters' constitutional right to ratify amendments. However, Wisconsin's current doctrinal framework takes a deferential approach, rendering these limited procedural safeguards largely ineffective. In doing so, the Wisconsin Supreme Court fails to defend the Wisconsin Constitution's democratic commitment. This Section identifies specific shortcomings within Wisconsin's current doctrinal approach that permit legislative erasure of popular sovereignty.
1. CASE LAW RENDERS PROCEDURAL REQUIREMENTS INEFFECTIVE
Judicial review of procedural shortcomings and insufficient ballot language has failed to uphold procedural safeguards and protect popular sovereignty. This failure stems both from explicit disregard of procedural violations and blind deference to legislative phrasing of ballot questions. In State ex rel. Thomson v. Peoples State Bank, 83 the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the outcome of a referendum election, even though the notice of election published by the Wisconsin Secretary of State contained
80. See id. As discussed infra Section II.C, the Wisconsin Supreme Court's overly deferential approach to judicial review has resulted in virtually unfettered legislative discretion for phrasing ballot questions.
81. See WIS. CONST. art. XII, § 1.
82. See supra Part I.
83. 76 N.W.2d 370 (Wis. 1956).
false and misleading information about the referred amendment. 84 The court reasoned that the erroneous explanation appeared embedded within a "lengthy notice of election," and, although there was no way to know how many voters read the explanation, "it [was] inconceivable" that such a high number of voters "would read it or . . . [be] misled in their voting" so as to render a different election outcome. 85 Thus, the Wisconsin Supreme Court explicitly held that procedural shortcomings did not invalidate the referendum's election outcome. 86
Even where a reviewing court does not explicitly waive procedural shortcomings, the high level of deference to legislative drafting renders procedural requirements effectively moot. In McConkey v. Van Hollen, 87 the Wisconsin Supreme Court stated that "the constitution assigns considerable authority and discretion to the legislature in the way it submits amendments to the people." 88 Recently, the court in Wisconsin Justice Initiative doubled down on this troublesome constitutional interpretation. 89 This deferential reading gravely misinterprets the Wisconsin Constitution's structural commitment to popular sovereignty. 90 In fact, the constitution's first provision centers the people as the source of constitutional authority, 91 and the constitutional amendment process utilizes the referendum to keep the legislature accountable to the people. 92 As part of its deferential approach, the McConkey Court evaluated the allegedly insufficient ballot question by asking whether the legislature's chosen phrasing was "reasonabl[e] and
84. Id. at 378. The notice incorrectly explained the effect that the proposed amendment would have on school districts' debt ceilings. Although the amendment would "permit cities authorized to issue bonds for school purposes to incur indebtedness aggregating eight percent of assessed value," the notice quoted a figure of five percent. Id. at 373–74 (cleaned up).
85. Id. at 374.
86. Id. at 375 ("The will of the electors as indicated by their ballots should not be defeated by a mere irregularity in the procedure of submission of the amendment."); but see Nevadans for Nev. v. Beers, 142 P.3d 339, 350 (Nev. 2006) ("[W]hen inaccurate information about a proposed initiative is widely disseminated, as it was here, the integrity of the electoral process is jeopardized.").
87. 783 N.W.2d 855 (Wis. 2010).
88. Id. at 862.
89. See Wis. Just. Initiative, Inc. v. Wis. Elections Comm'n, 990 N.W.2d 122,
141 (Wis. 2023) ("We must give significant deference to the legislature in making these choices [about ballot question phrasing] because the constitution affords the legislature substantial discretion in submitting an amendment to the people. While the legislature could have decided that more be said, WJI's legal argument depends on its erroneous contention that the constitution demands a more exacting review of the legislature's choices. It does not.").
90. See supra Part I.
91. WIS. CONST. art. I, § 1.
92. See Bulman-Pozen & Seifter, supra note 25, at 881–82.
within their constitutional grant of authority and discretion." 93 However, the Wisconsin Legislature does not have constitutional authority to amend the Wisconsin Constitution without the electorate's consent. 94 Insufficient ballot questions that do not elicit voters' informed consent to amendments are thus unconstitutional and per se unreasonable. 95
Peoples State Bank, McConkey, and Wisconsin Justice Initiative demonstrate that overly deferential judicial review undermines the electorate's power to ratify proposed constitutional amendments. In these cases, the court's excessive deference to the legislature and state officials superseded procedural requirements for the submission of referred constitutional amendments to voters. Instead of this historical approach, the Wisconsin Supreme Court should exercise its authority as a check on government officials to constrain abuses of power. 96
2. CASE LAW ESTABLISHES TWO DISCRETE, UNDERDEFINED INQUIRIES FOR REVIEWING BALLOT LANGUAGE
Although Wisconsin's current legal framework gives the legislature significant discretion over referred constitutional amendments, 97 voters have challenged insufficient ballot language in Wisconsin courts. 98 In these cases, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has invoked two tests to review the sufficiency of ballot language: the separate amendment rule and the every essential test. 99 However, the court has not defined an effective standard for either test. Additionally, the court has not defined the circumstances under which each test should be invoked or how the tests overlap. Thus, the resulting precedent regarding judicial review of ballot questions is sparse and confusing at best.
First, the court has not defined an effective standard for the separate amendment rule. 100 This rule derives from the constitutional requirement
93. McConkey, 783 N.W.2d at 862 (quoting Milwaukee All. Against Racist & Pol. Repression v. Elections Bd., 317 N.W.2d 420, 425 (Wis. 1982)).
94. See supra Section I.B; Marshfield, supra note 33, at 119–20.
95. See supra Section I.C.
96. See infra Section III.B for suggestions to achieve more rigorous judicial review.
97. See supra Section II.C.1.
98. See supra Section II.C.1 for a discussion of cases in which the Wisconsin Supreme Court considered challenges to ballot language sufficiency.
99. See State ex rel. Hudd v. Timme, 11 N.W. 785, 789–92 (Wis. 1882) (establishing the separate amendment rule); State ex rel. Ekern v. Zimmerman, 204 N.W. 803, 810–11 (Wis. 1925) (establishing the every essential test).
100. Several other states have a similar single subject rule. The similarities and differences between separate amendment and single subject rules are discussed infra Section III.B.3.
that when a referendum represents more than one amendment, each amendment must be submitted to the electorate and voted on separately. 101 The Wisconsin Supreme Court first construed this provision in State ex rel. Hudd v. Timme, 102 where it held that "separate amendments" were those that "relate to more than one subject, and have at least two distinct and separate purposes." 103 In Timme, the court considered whether a referred constitutional amendment containing more than one provision constituted "separate amendments" under Article XII, Section 1 of the Wisconsin Constitution. 104 The amendment at issue sought to change legislative sessions from annual to biennial and contained four distinct provisions regarding the election of assembly members and senators, the meeting of the legislature, and compensation for legislators. 105 The court reasoned that while the amendment at issue did contain "several propositions," the legislature voted on them as a single resolution, and each provision promoted the same overall objective. 106 Moreover, adopting the entire amendment was necessary to accomplish the amendment's purpose of altering the frequency of legislative sessions. 107 Therefore, the referred amendment had one purpose relating to one subject and satisfied the newly established "separate amendment" rule. 108
While Timme established a baseline single purpose requirement, the court did not provide guidance as to how broadly or narrowly an amendment's purpose should be construed, nor what factors should be considered in that construction. 109 Without this guidance, the court has relied primarily on the ballot question itself when construing an amendment's purpose. 110 The court did not enumerate relevant factors until its decision in McConkey over a century later. 111 The McConkey Court held that a referred amendment's general purpose should be construed based on the amendment's text and context, including historical context, the previous constitutional structure, legislative history,
101. WIS. CONST. art. XII, § 1.
102. 11 N.W. 785 (Wis. 1882).
103. Id. at 790–91.
104. Id. at 789.
105. Id. at 786.
106. Id. at 790–91.
107. Id.
108. Id. at 791–92.
109. See infra Section II.C.3 for a discussion of how the Wisconsin Supreme Court has applied the separate amendment rule with inconsistent scope.
110. See, e.g., State ex rel. Thomson v. Zimmerman, 60 N.W.2d 416, 418–21 (Wis. 1953).
111. McConkey v. Van Hollen, 783 N.W.2d 855, 867 (Wis. 2010).
information submitted to voters, and the ballot question itself. 112 Although the court enumerated several factors, its continued reliance on the ballot question as a factor in determining the underlying amendment's purpose is misplaced. A reviewing court should not rely on the ballot question itself when determining the scope of the underlying amendment. This approach creates a presumption of validity for the ballot question and diminishes the court's ability to assess the appropriateness of the question's scope under the separate amendment rule.
Second, although the Wisconsin Supreme Court has primarily invoked the separate amendment rule when determining the sufficiency of ballot questions, it has also invoked an "every essential" test. In State ex rel. Ekern v. Zimmerman, 113 the court considered the validity of a constitutional amendment that limited legislative expenditures for both highway and forestry purposes, where the ballot question and published notice only referenced the limitation on forestry expenditures. 114 The court did not consider the validity of this measure under the separate amendment rule. Instead, it considered whether voters were "adequately enlightened as to the true nature" of the underlying amendment. 115 Under this framework, the court held that the ballot question "must reasonably, intelligently, and fairly comprise or have reference to every essential of the amendment." 116 The court construed this "every essential" test from the constitutional requirement that the legislature prescribe the "manner" with which a given referred amendment is submitted to the electorate. 117 The court interpreted the term "manner" to mean "a mode of procedure or execution" and reasoned that the framers meant to distinguish between "matters of substance and matters of mere form." 118 Thus, to comply with constitutional requirements, the legislature must submit referred amendments in a manner that presents "an intelligent and
112. Id. at 867. Notably, the court only cursorily mentioned some of these factors in Wis. Just. Initiative, Inc. v. Wis. Elections Comm'n, 990 N.W.2d 122, 144 (Wis. 2023) ("[W]e have no difficulty concluding Marsy's Law did not violate the constitutional prohibition on submitting multiple amendments as one. The amendment broadly protects and expands crime victims' rights. This is plain from the text and history of its adoption. In so doing, it amends only Section 9m of Article I. Even if WJI is correct that it will impact those accused of crimes as well (an issue we need not decide), all of the changes relate to the same, general purpose of expanding and protecting the rights of crime victims.").
113. 204 N.W. 803 (Wis. 1925).
114. Id. at 805–08.
115. Id. at 808.
116. Id. at 811.
117. Id. at 810–11 (citing WIS. CONST. art. XII, § 1).
118. Id. at 811.
comprehensive" question, so that citizens "may be fully informed" in their votes. 119
Finally, although the case law has acknowledged both the separate amendment rule and every essential test, it does not clarify how these standards should be construed together when examining the sufficiency
Although the Ekern Court sought to establish a framework for judicial review of ballot questions that would empower voters in their franchise, it did not clearly define what constitutes an "essential" element or a "comprehensive" ballot question. 120 The Wisconsin Supreme Court did not revisit the every essential test for nearly one hundred years, although it did invoke Ekern to state that ballot questions cannot "by error or mistake" mislead voters. 121 In Wisconsin Justice Initiative, the court minimized the effect of Ekern, stating that it did not "adopt[] or creat[e] a new . . . constitutional test for detail and accuracy in constitutional amendment ballot questions." 122 Instead, the court held that Ekern "is best read as affirming the unremarkable position" that the ballot question must pose "the real question, not an entirely different question." 123 According to the court, "a ballot question could violate this constitutional requirement only in the rare circumstance that the question is fundamentally counterfactual such that voters were not asked to approve the actual amendment." 124 With this holding, the court effectively dismisses the every essential test, "giving the legislature carte blanche in crafting ballot questions." 125 By neglecting the every essential test, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has overlooked a promising standard to safeguard popular sovereignty. 126
119. Id.
120. Id. In its current construction, the every essential test is particularly ambiguous because the Ekern Court did not define what "every essential" means. Although the reasoning's language contemplates "elements," the holding merely states "every essential of the amendment." Id. See also Metro. Milwaukee Ass'n of Com. v. City of Milwaukee, 798 N.W.2d 287, 302 (Wis. Ct. App. 2011) (questioning whether the "every essential" test provides a workable standard for lower courts).
121. State ex rel. Thomson v. Zimmerman, 60 N.W.2d 416, 422–23 (Wis. 1953) (referencing the "every essential" test established in Ekern but applying a separate amendment analysis). See also Milwaukee All. Against Racist & Pol. Repression v. Elections Bd., 317 N.W.2d 420, 424–27 (Wis. 1982) (applying separate amendments rule but not the every essential test); McConkey v. Van Hollen, 783 N.W.2d 855, 870 (Wis. 2010) (applying separate amendment rule but not the every essential test).
122. Wis. Just. Initiative, Inc. v. Wis. Elections Comm'n, 990 N.W.2d 122, 139 (Wis. 2023).
123. Id.
124. Id. at 141.
125. Id. at 169 (A. Bradley, J., dissenting).
126. See infra Section III.B.2.
of ballot questions. 127 The two tests originate from different constitutional clauses and prescribe distinct procedural requirements for the legislature. 128 Thus, every case involving allegedly insufficient ballot questions should examine the question at issue using both standards. By failing to articulate the complementary nature of the separate amendment rule and every essential test, the court has failed to define a workable standard for judicial review of ballot language. 129
3. THE WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT APPLIES THE SEPARATE AMENDMENT RULE WITH INCONSISTENT SCOPE
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has applied the separate amendment rule inconsistently, which has rendered the constitutional mandate largely ineffective. Applying the separate amendment rule hinges upon the court's construction of an amendment's subject matter and purpose. 130 Ideally, the reviewing court would construe amendments' purposes with a similar scope across cases. Although the court has established factors for defining an amendment's purpose, 131 the court has provided little direction regarding how these factors should be weighed to construe an amendment's purpose with consistent scope. Thus, an amendment's purpose, and therefore the separate amendment rule itself, may be construed either narrowly or broadly to achieve a desired policy outcome. 132 Within the limited case law, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has in fact applied the separate amendment rule both narrowly and broadly for proposed amendments with multiple provisions depending on
127. See WJI Certification, supra note 8, at 3.
128. See WIS. CONST. art. XII, § 1 (requiring the legislature to submit multiple amendments to voters separately); State ex rel. Ekern v. Zimmerman, 204 N.W. 803, 810–11 (Wis. 1925) (citing WIS. CONST. art. XII, § 1) (construing the every essential test from the constitutional requirement that the legislature prescribes the manner of submission of referred constitutional amendments to voters).
129. See infra Section III.B.2 for further discussion of the complementary nature of these two standards.
130. See State ex rel. Hudd v. Timme, 11 N.W. 785, 791 (Wis. 1882) (holding that "separate amendments" are those that "relate to more than one subject, and have at least two distinct and separate purposes not dependent upon or connected with each other").
131. McConkey v. Van Hollen, 783 N.W.2d 855, 867 (Wis. 2010) (stating that a referred amendment's general purpose should be construed based on the amendment's text and context, including historical context, the previous constitutional structure, legislative history, information submitted to voters, and the ballot question itself).
132. The breadth with which the court applies the separate amendment rule is outcome determinative. See infra notes 136–43 and accompanying text for an example illustrating this point.
the amendment's subject matter. 133 Often, this inconsistent construction has had the practical effect of permitting judicial policymaking based on judges' political preferences. 134
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has also construed the separate amendment rule broadly. In Milwaukee Alliance v. Elections Board, 142 the Wisconsin Supreme Court once again considered the sufficiency of a referred constitutional amendment that made several changes to the constitution's criminal procedure provisions. 143 In addition to the textual
For example, in State ex rel. Thomson v. Zimmerman, 135 the Wisconsin Supreme Court applied a narrow construction of the separate amendment rule. 136 In that case, the court examined a referred amendment that altered election districting requirements. 137 The amendment included provisions that considered area as a factor in apportioning senate districts, included previously excluded groups in population calculations, and altered requirements for assembly district boundary lines. 138 However, the ballot question only referenced the inclusion of area as a factor for district apportionment, without referencing the additional provisions. 139 Based on this ballot question, the court construed the referred amendment's purpose narrowly, reasoning that its main purpose was to "consider[] area in apportioning the senate." 140 Under this construction, the additional provisions altering population calculations and assembly districts were distinct from the amendment's main purpose and should have constituted separate amendments. 141 Although the court could have broadly interpreted the amendment's purpose under an umbrella of election reform, the court's chosen narrow construction had the practical effect of hindering the legislature's attempts to combat gerrymandering.
133. Compare State ex rel. Thomson v. Zimmerman, 60 N.W.2d 416, 421–23 (Wis. 1953) (narrowly construing the separate amendment rule), with McConkey, 783 N.W.2d at 865–66 (broadly construing the separate amendment rule).
134. Robert D. Cooter & Michael D. Gilbert, A Theory of Direct Democracy and the Single Subject Rule, 110 COLUM. L. REV. 687, 690–91 (2010).
135. 60 N.W.2d 416.
136. Id. at 421–23.
137. Id. at 420.
138. Id.
139. Id. at 419.
140. Id. at 420.
141. See id. at 420–22.
142. 317 N.W.2d 420 (Wis. 1982).
143. Id. at 420. The amendment modified WIS. CONST. art. I, § 8, cls. 1–4 by changing three rights enumerated in subsection (1) from mandatory to discretionary with the following phrasing: "(1) No person shall may be held to answer for a criminal offense without due process of law, and no person for the same offense shall may be put twice in jeopardy of punishment, nor shall may be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness
changes that affected multiple constitutional rights, plaintiffs argued that the changes resulted in two different substantive effects (conditional release and anti-monetary bail), which should have been submitted to voters separately. 144 However, the court held that the referred amendment did not violate the separate amendment rule because each provision effected the amendment's single purpose, which was "to change the historical concept of bail." 145 The court's broad construction of the amendment's purpose thus allowed the legislature to logroll multiple substantive changes to the Wisconsin Constitution into a single ballot question. 146
In contrast to Zimmerman, the Milwaukee Alliance court found that the legislature correctly submitted to the electorate an amendment that made several substantive changes to the Wisconsin Constitution as a single referendum. 147 With the exception of the policy goals underlying each amendment, the facts of Zimmerman and Milwaukee Alliance are indistinguishable. In both cases, the legislature placed on the ballot a proposed amendment with multiple provisions that made several substantive changes to the constitution. 148 In both cases, the ballot question allegedly did not fully encompass each provision, and parties argued that the amendment should have been submitted to the electorate against himself or herself "; altering subsection (2) as: "(2) All persons shall , before conviction, be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for capital offenses when the proof is evident or the presumption great, and the shall be eligible for release under reasonable conditions designed to assure their appearance in court, protect members of the community from serious bodily harm or prevent the intimidation of witnesses. Monetary conditions of release may be imposed at or after the initial appearance only upon a finding that there is a reasonable basis to believe that the conditions are necessary to assure appearance in court. The legislature may authorize, by law, courts to revoke a person's release for a violation of a condition of release ."; adding a subsection (3) detailing conditional release; and altering subsection (4) language around the writ of habeas corpus. Id. at 423–24.
144. Id. at 424–27. The ballot question merely asked voters, "Shall section 8 of article I of the constitution be amended so that the legislature may permit courts to deny or revoke bail for certain accused persons; and so that courts may set conditions, including bail, for the release of accused persons to assure appearance in court, protect members of the community or prevent intimidation of witnesses?" Id. at 424.
145. Id. at 427.
146. Logrolling is the practice of combining multiple measures that would not pass on their own into a single proposition capable of receiving a majority of votes. A related phenomenon is riding, where an unpopular provision is added to a popular measure to secure its passage. Cooter & Gilbert, supra note 134, at 689–90. See also Kurt G. Kastorf, Comment, Logrolling Gets Logrolled: Same-Sex Marriage, Direct Democracy, and the Single Subject Rule, 54 EMORY L.J. 1633, 1638, 1644–45 (discussing an example of logrolling in Georgia).
147. Milwaukee. All., 317 N.W.2d at 427–28.
148. Compare State ex rel. Thomson v. Zimmerman, 60 N.W.2d 416, 418–19 (Wis. 1953), with Milwaukee All., 317 N.W.2d. at 423–24.
as separate questions. 149 In both cases, the Wisconsin Supreme Court applied the separate amendment rule. 150 Yet, in each case, the court reached a different conclusion. 151 There is no factual or legal basis for distinguishing these two cases. Truly, the two discernible differences between the cases are (1) the underlying policy goals of each amendment, and (2) the scope with which the court applied the separate amendment rule to construe each amendment's purpose.
Although recent cases demonstrate a trend towards a broader construction of the separate amendment rule, 152 Zimmerman has not been overturned and remains good law. Moreover, Zimmerman is one of only four cases applying the separate amendment rule. Thus, the court could still cherry-pick precedent to support either a broad or narrow application of the separate amendment rule and achieve a desired policy outcome. However, the Wisconsin Constitution does not empower reviewing courts to craft policy 153 or influence the creation of the state constitution. 154 Inconsistent judicial review of ballot questions based on preferred policy outcomes thus aggrandizes the court's own authority and violates the constitution's commitment to popular sovereignty.
III. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW OF BALLOT QUESTIONS
Wisconsin needs improved procedural safeguards around constitutional referenda to protect the people's role in the amendment process. Procedural safeguards may come in the form of specific statutory requirements or less deferential judicial review. Some positive statutory innovations might include drafting requirements for ballot
149. Compare Thomson, 60 N.W.2d at 418–21, with Milwaukee All., 317 N.W.2d at 421–24.
150. Compare Thomson, 60 N.W.2d at 421, with Milwaukee All., 317 N.W.2d at 425–26.
151. Compare Thomson, 60 N.W.2d at 421–23, with Milwaukee All., 317 N.W.2d at 427–28.
152. See Milwaukee All., 317 N.W.2d at 425–26 (weakening the phrasing of the separate amendment rule established in Timme from "two distinct and separate purposes" to "one general purpose"); McConkey v. Van Hollen, 783 N.W.2d 855, 865 (Wis. 2010) (rejecting the plaintiff's claim that provisions "must be mutually dependent" to be considered a single amendment).
153. See WIS. CONST. art. IV, § 1 (vesting lawmaking authority in the Wisconsin Legislature); WIS. CONST. art. VII, § 2 (vesting judicial power in the Wisconsin courts). See also M. Elizabeth Magill, The Real Separation in Separation of Powers Law, 86 VA. L. REV. 1127, 1156 (2000).
154. See supra Part I.
questions, 155 providing for executive branch review of ballot questions, 156 allowing public comment on proposed ballot language, 157 distributing information directly to voters, 158 and including more information on the ballot itself. 159 However, any statutory innovations would require buy-in from the Wisconsin Legislature and may necessitate a broader restructuring of Wisconsin's referendum process. Within the current procedural framework, clearer requirements for phrasing ballot questions and more effective judicial review of incomplete or misleading ballot language represent achievable solutions for strengthening procedural safeguards.
Discerning judicial review of ballot language is important not only for the passage of the referred amendment at stake, but also for subsequent judicial interpretations of the referred amendment. When interpreting referred constitutional amendments in later cases, the Wisconsin Supreme Court presumes that voters were informed in their votes. 160 Thus, one way to strengthen judicial review could be to look at information distributed to voters to determine if they had a full and accurate picture of the amendment outside of the ballot question at issue. 161 However, this kind of extensive fact-finding could strain judicial
155. E.g., COLO. REV. STAT. § 1-40-106(3)(b) (2023) ("In setting a title, the title board shall consider the public confusion that might be caused by misleading titles and shall, whenever practicable, avoid titles for which the general understanding of the effect of a 'yes/for' or 'no/against' vote will be unclear. The title for the proposed law or constitutional amendment . . . shall correctly and fairly express the true intent and meaning thereof . . . . Ballot titles shall be brief, . . . and, shall be in the form of a question which may be answered 'yes/for' (to vote in favor of the proposed law or constitutional amendment) or 'no/against' (to vote against the proposed law or constitutional amendment) and which shall unambiguously state the principle of the provision sought to be added, amended, or repealed.").
156. E.g., OKLA. STAT. tit. 34, § 34-9(C) (2022) (providing for state attorney general review of the legislature's drafted ballot language).
157. E.g., CAL. ELEC. CODE § 9051(e) (2023) ("The Attorney General shall invite and consider public comment in preparing each ballot title and summary.").
158. E.g., ALASKA STAT. § 15.58.010 (2021) (requiring mail distribution of election information pamphlets to registered voters); ALASKA STAT. § 15.58.020(6) (listing requirements for election pamphlet contents, which include the full text of the proposed amendment, the ballot language, a neutral summary of the amendment, and arguments for and against ratification).
159. See supra note 58 and accompanying text.
160. See Dairyland Greyhound Park, Inc. v. Doyle, 719 N.W.2d 408, 426 (Wis. 2006) ("This court presumes that, when informed, the citizens of Wisconsin are familiar with the elements of the constitution and with the laws, and that the information used to educate the voters during the ratification campaign provides evidence of the voters' intent.").
161. Wisconsin courts conduct similar factual inquiries when interpreting the meaning of voter-approved state constitutional amendments. Id. at 426–27 (summarizing key points from several news articles appearing in newspapers across the state); id. at
resources and would likely lead to competing results depending on voters' preferred information outlets. 162 A more effective approach to determining whether a ballot question clearly represents the underlying amendment is to examine the ballot question itself.
When examining the sufficiency of ballot questions, the Wisconsin Supreme Court should center the constitution's commitment to popular sovereignty in its analysis. This Part argues that pre-election judicial review of ballot language is imperative to combat legislative erasure of this constitutional commitment via insufficient ballot questions. This discussion identifies other states that utilize pre-election judicial review and offers preliminary thoughts on how the Wisconsin Supreme Court could refine its approach to reviewing the sufficiency of ballot questions.
A. Conduct Pre-Election Judicial Review
To conduct stronger judicial review of ballot questions, the Wisconsin Supreme Court must first resolve an optics problem. Postelection judicial review of allegedly insufficient ballot questions facially presents as a check on the electorate rather than on the legislature simply due to its procedural placement. Moreover, court findings of insufficient ballot questions will always overturn the electorate's vote because postelection judicial review can only happen where voters approve the amendment. 163 Thus, to truly clarify the court's function as a check on the legislature, judicial review of ballot language should occur before the ballot question at issue is presented to voters. 164 A procedural structure that accommodates pre-election judicial review would better suit the court's role within the mandatory referendum process—preventing
448 (Prosser, J., concurring in part, dissenting in part) (recognizing that the case law "permits courts to consider the debates surrounding amendments to the constitution"); Schilling v. Crime Victims Rts. Bd., 692 N.W.2d 623, 631 (Wis. 2005) (referencing a voter information brief prepared by the Legislative Reference Bureau); Appling v. Doyle, 826 N.W.2d 666, 676–77 (Wis. Ct. App. 2012) (referencing statements of legislators who sponsored the amendment).
162. See generally Jane S. Schacter, The Pursuit of "Popular Intent": Interpretive Dilemmas in Direct Democracy, 105 YALE L.J. 107 (1995).
163. Alleged procedural shortcomings for ballot measures that voters rejected would not present justiciable claims. See PRN Assocs. v. State Dep't of Admin., 766 N.W.2d 559, 568 (Wis. 2009) ("An issue is moot when its resolution will have no practical effect on the underlying controversy.").
164. See Staszewski, supra note 76, at 41–42 (stating that post-election enforcement of procedural rules is "inherently problematic" because it is "unlikely to prevent voter surprise or confusion about the particular consequences of" a ballot measure, while providing accurate ballot language prior to the election "is a more promising way to notify voters of the contents" of a proposed amendment).
legislative erasure of popular sovereignty by ensuring that ballot questions elicit voters' informed consent to the underlying amendments.
The separate amendment rule and every essential test are procedural requirements that preserve the integrity of the referendum election by ensuring that voters "can make an informed decision on a comprehensible constitutional question." 169 Moreover, the separate amendment rule
Although some states have raised justiciability issues regarding preelection judicial review, 165 many states accommodate pre-election review of procedural defects and insufficient ballot language. 166 State courts that conduct pre-election review often cite state constitutional commitments to popular sovereignty. 167 Gordon and Magleby have even hypothesized that procedural requirements could be viewed as immediately justiciable jurisdictional limitations because legislators do not have jurisdiction to submit referred amendments to voters without complying with these requirements. 168
165. E.g., Calzone v. Ashcroft, 559 S.W.3d 32, 34 (Mo. Ct. App. 2018) (holding that a challenge to a referred measure's ballot language was not ripe for preelection review); Reichart v. State, 278 P.3d 455, 473–74 (Mont. 2012) (stating that the court should not conduct pre-election judicial review for procedural claims regarding referenda, although pre-election review may be warranted where a challenged ballot measure is facially unconstitutional).
166. E.g., State ex rel. Loontjer v. Gale, 853 N.W.2d 494, 504 (Neb. 2014) ("[A] claim that a proposed ballot measure violates a constitutional or statutory rule that governs the form of the measure or the procedural requirements for its placement on the ballot is a challenge to the legal sufficiency of a ballot measure. Such challenges are ripe for resolution before an election."); League of Women Voters Minn. v. Ritchie, 819 N.W.2d 636, 643–44 (Minn. 2012) (holding that a pre-election challenge to allegedly insufficient ballot language was justiciable); State v. Vote Yes for Alaska's Fair Share, 478 P.3d 679 (Alaska 2021) (conducting pre-election review of challenged ballot language but declining to interpret the measure's effect prior to the election). Some state legislatures have conferred statutory standing to challenge ballot language before elections. E.g., ARK. CODE ANN. § 7-9-205 (2023); FLA. STAT. § 101.161(3)(c) (2023). See also James D. Gordon III & David B. Magleby, Pre-Election Judicial Review of Initiatives and Referendums, 64 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 298, 313–14 (1989); Douglas C. Michael, Preelection Judicial Review: Taking the Initiative in Voter Protection, 71 CALIF. L. REV. 1216, 1226 (1983).
167. E.g., League of Women Voters, 819 N.W.2d at 644 ("[T]his court has subject-matter jurisdiction over the narrow claim of whether the ballot question is so misleading that it violates the Minnesota Constitution because it deprives voters of the constitutional right to cast a vote for or against the proposed constitutional amendment."); Vote Yes for Alaska's Fair Share, 478 P.3d at 687–88 ("Alaskans exercise their constitutional lawmaking right when they cast their ballots for or against a proposed initiative. . . . Because a ballot is the paper upon which voters give expression to their choices and exercise their lawmaking right, '[a] biased, misleading, or inaccurate ballot undermines the voting process.' In short, the lieutenant governor may not improperly interfere in the people's ability to cast informed ballots.").
168. Gordon & Magleby, supra note 166, at 314.
169. Kafker & Russcol, supra note 54, at 1288.
enshrined within the Wisconsin Constitution describes the separate submission of more than one amendment as a mandatory duty of the Wisconsin Legislature. 170 This constitutional language implies that the electorate shall not vote on a referendum that encompasses more than one amendment. 171 Because the Wisconsin Supreme Court is the ultimate guardian of the Wisconsin Constitution, it has a duty to ensure compliance with constitutional requirements and to protect the people's right to amend their constitution. 172 Less deferential, pre-election judicial review is better suited to weed out ballot questions that fail the separate amendment rule and every essential test and is thus more faithful to the constitutional vision for referred amendments in Wisconsin.
In addition to protecting constitutional procedural requirements and empowering voters in their right to amend the Wisconsin Constitution, 173 pre-election judicial review of ballot questions has several further benefits. First, if ballot questions fail the every essential test or separate amendment rule, the Wisconsin Legislature could easily remedy the error before the question is placed on the ballot. Remedying a ballot question that fails the every essential test would be as simple as rephrasing the question to give more detail about the underlying amendment. Similarly, a ballot question that fails the separate amendment rule could be rephrased into two questions that could be voted on separately. Thus, not only does pre-election review ensure the submission of valid ballot questions to voters, it also ensures more efficient allocation of public resources than post-election judicial review. 174 Additionally, pre-election review alleviates the fear of anti-judicial sentiment that may accompany post-election invalidation of ballot questions, which appear to interfere with election outcomes. 175 Rigorous pre-election judicial review of ballot questions may even have a positive political bend, as enforcing procedural requirements for mandatory referenda defends both voters' right to participate in the constitutional amendment process and the integrity of the constitution itself. 176
170. WIS. CONST. art. XII, § 1.
171. See Kafker & Russcol, supra note 54, at 1307 ("The single-subject rule is . . . designed to be enforced prior to the election.").
172. See id. at 1289.
173. See Collins & Oesterle, supra note 41, at 87 (stating that pre-election review gives the single subject rule "greater effect" because it circumvents the presumption of validity that accompanies post-election review and thereby accommodates more rigorous judicial review).
174. Post-election judicial review that invalidates a ballot question requires the question to be redrafted and resubmitted to voters, thus requiring two elections worth of taxpayer funds. See Michael, supra note 166, at 1231.
175. Kafker & Russcol, supra note 54, at 1326–27.
176. Id.
B. Strengthen Existing Standards for Judicial Review
While this Comment urges the importance of pre-election review, the Wisconsin Supreme Court must also invoke more rigorous standards when reviewing ballot questions to defend the people's right to amend their constitution. This Section offers preliminary suggestions on how the Wisconsin Supreme Court could strengthen existing standards for judicial review of allegedly insufficient ballot questions. However, these suggestions are merely a starting point, and future scholarship should build on this foundation.
1. ENFORCE PROCEDURAL REQUIREMENTS AND LIMIT LEGISLATIVE DISCRETION
Overly deferential judicial review of procedural shortcomings undermines popular sovereignty. 177 The Wisconsin Supreme Court should renounce its prior approaches in Peoples State Bank, which upheld a referendum even though the government's election notice promulgated false and misleading information about the referred amendment, 178 and McConkey, which misconstrued the legislature's constitutional role in the referendum process. 179 Doing so would empower voters. If the court had held in Peoples State Bank that voters were entitled to accurate and complete information about the amendment, the electorate would have been better able to consent to the amendment. Similarly, if the court in McConkey had focused its inquiry on the people's constitutional authority, it would have given voters greater agency to craft their desired constitution. Moreover, these envisioned outcomes would have preserved the integrity of procedural safeguards for future referendum elections. 180 The court should thus decline to extend Peoples State Bank and McConkey to future cases evaluating alleged procedural shortcomings and insufficient ballot questions. Instead, the court must prevent erasure of the people's constitutional role in the amendment process by strictly enforcing procedural requirements and limiting deference to legislative phrasing of ballot questions.
177. See supra Section II.C.1.
178. See supra notes 83–86 and accompanying text.
179. See supra notes 87–93 and accompanying text.
180. See Wis. Just. Initiative, Inc. v. Wis. Elections Comm'n, 990 N.W.2d 122, 126 (Wis. 2023) (following the deferential approach in McConkey v. Van Hollen, 783 N.W.2d 855 (Wis. 2010)).
2. CLARIFY THE EVERY ESSENTIAL TEST
The separate amendment rule and every essential test are complementary inquiries derived from different constitutional requirements for mandatory referenda. 181 Each standard seeks to preserve a distinct procedural safeguard. The separate amendment rule establishes a permitted scope for a given ballot question (i.e., one constitutional amendment), and protects popular sovereignty by prohibiting the legislature from logrolling multiple substantive constitutional changes into a single amendment. 182 The every essential test examines the sufficiency of a given ballot question (i.e., the question's accurate and comprehensive distillation of the amendment), which safeguards popular sovereignty by limiting the legislature's ability to obscure the underlying amendment via insufficient ballot language. 183 Thus, both inquiries are essential to prevent legislative erosion of popular sovereignty and preserve constitutional accountability mechanisms. When applied robustly, both standards play a vital role in protecting the people's authority in the constitutional amendment process.
To ensure that future courts can apply both standards as complementary inquiries, the Wisconsin Supreme Court must fortify the every essential test. To do so, the court should expand on Ekern's framework, which held that the legislature must draft a "comprehensive" ballot question that "fully inform[s]" voters of the underlying amendment. 184 Ekern's more robust framework will better safeguard popular sovereignty than the "overly permissive" counterfactual approach taken by the majority in Wisconsin Justice Initiative. 185 To ensure that the every essential test represents a workable standard, the court must define what constitutes a "comprehensive" ballot question: What information must be included in the question? Should the question reference every provision of the underlying amendment? Should the question clarify how the current constitutional provision operates and what, specifically, the amendment would change? Should the question reference the amendment's practical effect or potential fiscal impact? The every essential test in its current ambiguous form does not even hint at
181. See supra notes 127–29.
182. See supra Sections II.C.2–3.
183. See supra Section II.C.2.
184. State ex rel. Ekern v. Zimmerman, 204 N.W. 804, 811 (Wis. 1985). Under Ekern's formulation of the every essential test, the court held that the ballot question at issue was insufficient because it only referenced one of the two provisions stated in the underlying constitutional amendment. See supra notes 113–21 and accompanying text.
185. Wis. Just. Initiative, Inc., 990 N.W.2d at 168–69 (A. Bradley, J. dissenting).
the correct answers to these questions. Clarifying that the test requires the ballot question to serve as an accurate and comprehensive summary of the underlying amendment's provisions and effects would strengthen the every essential test and provide lower courts with a workable standard that centers the people's right to approve proposed constitutional amendments.
To improve the workability of the every essential test, Wisconsin should look to other state courts for guidance. 186 In particular, the Arkansas Supreme Court has articulated rigorous standards for ballot language. 187 The Arkansas Supreme Court takes such an approach because it recognizes that most voters decide how to cast their vote based on the ballot language; therefore, ensuring "honest, impartial, and intelligible" ballot language is essential to preserving popular sovereignty. 188 Arkansas has thus articulated the following requirements for ballot language:
The ballot title must be an impartial summary of the proposed amendment and it must give voters a fair understanding of the issues presented and the scope and significance of the proposed changes. The ballot title must be free from misleading tendencies that, whether by amplification, omission, or fallacy, thwart a fair understanding of the issues presented. It is insufficient if it omits material information that would give the voter serious grounds for reflection. . . . Our long-settled rule is that a ballot title is sufficient if it recites the general purposes
186. See, e.g., Ward v. Priest, 86 S.W.3d 884, 896 (Ark. 2002) (holding that challenged ballot language was legally sufficient because it "present[ed] the voter with a fair understanding of the issues presented and the scope and significance of the proposed changes[,] . . . track[ed] the language in the proposed amendment[,]" defined key terms, and informed the voter of the measure's fiscal impact); Wagner v. Sec'y of State, 663 A.2d 564, 568 (Me. 1995) (stating that when reviewing the sufficiency of ballot language, the court "focuses on whether the description of the subject matter is understandable to a reasonable voter reading the question for the first time" and whether the question will "mislead a reasonable voter who understands the proposed legislation into voting contrary to the voter's wishes"); Douan v. Charleston Cnty. Council, 590 S.E.2d 484, 490 (S.C. 2003) (holding that ballot language cannot "persuade and ultimately mislead voters into voting in favor of the [measure] by obscuring" the referendum's provisions because "the fundamental integrity of the election process requires that the voters be presented with an objectively phrased choice on election day"); Let Mia. Beach Decide v. Mia. Beach, 120 So. 3d 1282, 1291–93 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2013) (invalidating a local referendum that asked voters to approve a lease of city property to a real estate development company because the ballot question "[did] not provide the voter with the material terms of the lease [and] . . . [w]ithout such information, the voters are simply not in a position to intelligently cast their ballots to approve or disapprove the lease").
187. See Ward, 86 S.W.3d at 891–93 (reviewing relevant precedent).
188. Kurrus v. Priest, 29 S.W.3d 669, 675 (Ark. 2000).
of the proposed law and that the ballot title contains enough information to sufficiently advise voters of the true contents of the proposed law. 189
Applying this proposed approach to the ballot question in Wisconsin Justice Initiative 190 would likely render the question insufficient on several grounds. 191 First, the ballot question does not mention that the amendment removes state constitutional protections for criminal defendants. 192 Thus, the question does not inform voters of significant and material consequences of an affirmative vote, which may influence voter opinion. 193 Moreover, the question's statement that the amendment leaves defendants' federal constitutional rights intact further obscures the underlying amendment's controversial provisions affecting defendants' rights. 194 Voters unfamiliar with the measure may misconstrue this guarantee as a broad assurance that defendants' rights are not limited under the proposed amendment. 195 Additionally, the ballot question did
189. Ward, 86 S.W.3d at 891 (citations omitted). See also Kurrus, 29 S.W.3d at 672 (holding that ballot language cannot conceal controversial aspects of a proposed measure by focusing voters' attention on a more popular provision); Christian Civic Action Comm. v. McCuen, 884 S.W.2d 605, 609 (Ark. 1994) (holding that ballot language cannot use "abstract terminology to mask" the true nature of the proposed measure); Ark. Women's Pol. Caucus v. Riviere, 677 S.W.2d 846, 848–49 (Ark. 1984) (declaring that a proposed constitutional amendment was ineligible for the ballot because its popular name, "The Unborn Child Amendment," was misleading and had "partisan coloring").
190. WJI Certification, supra note 8, at 6 ("The challenged ballot question provides: . . . 'Additional rights of crime victims. Shall section 9m of article I of the constitution, which gives certain rights to crime victims, be amended to give crime victims additional rights, to require that the rights of crime victims be protected with equal force to the protections afforded the accused while leaving the federal constitutional rights of the accused intact, and to allow crime victims to enforce their rights in court?'").
191. Note that the Arkansas Supreme Court has not applied its standard for ballot language sufficiency to any Marsy's Law measures. However, the court may have an opportunity to do so in the near future, as the Arkansas Senate proposed a Marsy's Law amendment on February 8, 2023. See Sen. SJR10, 94th Gen. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (Ark. 2023).
192. WJI Plaintiffs' Brief, supra note 16, at 7–8.
193. Cf. Kurrus, 29 S.W.3d at 673–74 (holding that ballot language did not inform voters of "the far-reaching consequences of" ratifying the proposed amendment because it did not inform voters that approval would "risk losing valuable government services"). Contra. Ward, 86 S.W.3d at 896 ("The ballot title also tells the voter unequivocally that the proposed amendment 'will result in a loss of revenue for state, county, and city governments, as well as school districts' and that 'a reduction in the services provided by those entities and/or an increase in other taxes may be required.'").
194. See WJI Plaintiffs' Brief, supra note 16, at 26–27.
195. Cf. Kurrus, 29 S.W.3d at 672–73 (stating that the ballot language "focuses the voter's attention on the more popular initial provision, . . . while hiding the more controversial and less publicized issues").
not track the language of the underlying amendment when describing the relationship between victims' and defendants' rights, thereby misrepresenting the amendment to voters. 196 Finally, the ballot question used abstract language by granting victims "additional rights," without defining the substantive nature of those rights or their relation to other constitutional provisions. 197
The Wisconsin Supreme Court should adopt Arkansas's rigorous approach to examining the sufficiency of ballot language. Doing so would be consistent with Ekern's original conception of the every essential test. Both approaches seek to determine "whether the ballot question reasonably, intelligently, and fairly referenced every essential part of the proposed amendment and whether the question fully informed" voters of the underlying amendment. 198 The value of Arkansas's approach stems both from (1) the abundance of available precedent defining the contours of ballot language sufficiency, and (2) its attention to the people's role in the direct democracy process. 199 Thus, if the Wisconsin Supreme Court were to follow Arkansas's approach, the court would realize two benefits. First, this approach would open the door to an abundance of persuasive precedent. The ability to rely on precedent would improve the workability of the every essential test by allowing lower courts to compare fact patterns between cases and identify relevant factors for ballot question sufficiency. Second, a more workable standard would have more force to protect popular sovereignty and ensure that ballot questions do not mislead voters or conceal an amendment's effects.
3. STRENGTHEN THE SEPARATE AMENDMENT RULE
In addition to clarifying the every essential test, the Wisconsin Supreme Court must also strengthen the separate amendment rule. Recent
196. The ballot question stated that victims' rights would be "protected with equal force to the protections" afforded to defendants, while the amendment stated that this protection would be "no less vigorous" than that afforded to defendants. WJI Circuit Court Decision, supra note 15, at 15. "Reasonable people might understand different things from these three words. . . . Clearly, if something is to be done no less vigorous it can be greater to that which is equal." Id. at 18. Cf. Ward, 86 S.W.3d at 896 (holding that ballot language fairly informed voters of the issues presented because the ballot language "track[ed] the language in the proposed amendment").
197. WJI Circuit Court Decision, supra note 15, at 15. Cf. Ward, 86 S.W.3d at 896 (holding that ballot language fairly informed voters about the scope of the underlying amendment because it "reveal[ed] that the proposed amendment will eliminate taxes on food and medicine[,] . . . track[ed] the language in the proposed amendment[,] and use[d] an established benchmark to define food and medicine").
198. WJI Circuit Court Decision, supra note 15, at 15 (applying the every essential test).
199. See supra notes 186–89 and accompanying text.
cases have weakened the rule by permitting the construction of amendments' purposes in broad, general terms and holding that a single amendment may contain multiple provisions that are not mutually dependent. 200 In its current construction, the Wisconsin Supreme Court applies the separate amendment rule to distill a single purpose from multiple provisions. 201 Wisconsin's separate amendment rule thus operates like a "single subject" rule. This operation is facially evident to litigants. The Plaintiffs-Respondents challenging the Marsy's Law constitutional amendment argued that the amendment failed the separate amendment rule because "the amendments were not limited to one subject." 202
As the name suggests, single subject rules restrict the subject of an amendment to a single topic. 203 While single subject rules aim to limit ballot questions to a distinct issue, they often fail to achieve this objective because they are vague and subject to broad construction. 204 Although the single subject rule has garnered widespread criticism, 205 some scholars have noted that the rule offers a promising approach to limiting logrolling or riding of multiple provisions. 206 However, these scholars often note the need for narrowing the scope of the inquiry to realize these benefits. 207
The separate amendment rule represents a narrower inquiry than the single subject rule. Under the Wisconsin Supreme Court's original conception of the rule in Timme, multiple provisions constituted a single amendment when they were mutually dependent and each played a role in promoting the amendment's overall objective. 208 This framework represents a more rigorous inquiry than restricting an amendment's subject matter to a single general topic. In a single subject framework, provisions need not be mutually dependent or integral components of an
200. See supra note 152.
201. E.g., Milwaukee All. Against Racist & Pol. Repression v. Elections Bd., 317 N.W.2d. 420, 423–28 (Wis. 1982).
202. WJI Plaintiffs' Brief, supra note 16, at 12.
203. Rachael Downey, Michelle Hargrove & Vanessa Locklin, A Survey of the Single Subject Rule as Applied to Statewide Initiatives, 13 J. CONTEMP. LEGAL ISSUES 579, 579 (2004); Marshfield, supra note 33, at 72–73.
204. Marshfield, supra note 33, at 73–74.
205. E.g., id. at 74 ("[I]n today's political environment, the single-subject rule is at risk of undermining rather than enhancing [direct democracy]. Instead of protecting voters and improving transparency, the single-subject rule has the potential to shield recalcitrant legislatures and governors and undermine consolidated statewide majorities."); Cooter & Gilbert, supra note 134, at 690 ("The [single subject] rule often fails to generate clear and determinate outcomes.").
206. E.g., Collins & Oesterle, supra note 41, at 125.
207. Id. at 111; Kastorf, supra note 146, at 1636.
208. State ex rel. Hudd v. Timme, 11 N.W. 785, 790–92 (Wis. 1882).
overall objective, as long as they relate to one overarching theme. 209 Therefore, a stronger separate amendment test that moves away from the single subject inquiry would more effectively avoid logrolling and riding while empowering popular sovereignty. A stronger separate amendment rule that requires mutual dependence of provisions would also better capture the spirit of the underlying constitutional directive. 210
Applying this standard to the Marsy's law amendment proposed in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that the ballot question violated the separate amendment rule. 216 First, the court
Other states with separate amendment requirements engage in rigorous inquiries like the approach urged here. 211 In particular, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has held that its constitution's separate vote clause 212 requires mutual dependence of multiple provisions within a single referred amendment. 213 According to this formulation, amendments that make multiple changes to the constitution should be submitted to the electorate separately, unless "those changes are sufficiently interrelated to justify their presentation to the electorate in a single question." 214 Sufficiently interrelated changes are those that "when viewed together, form an interlocking package necessary to accomplish one overarching objective, such that the amendment stands or falls as a whole." 215
209. Downey, Hargrove & Locklin, supra note 203, at 579.
210. See WIS. CONST. art. XII, § 1. Timme was decided in 1882, just thirtyfour years after the ratification of the Wisconsin Constitution. The court's reasoning in this case thus offers clues about original intent and meaning of the constitution's separate amendment requirement. See Timme, 11 N.W. at 790–92.
211. E.g., League of Women Voters v. Degraffenreid, 265 A.3d 207, 236–37 (Pa. 2021); Armatta v. Kitzhaber, 959 P.2d 49, 63 (Or. 1998) (describing the separatevote requirement for constitutional amendments, which focuses on "the potential change to the existing constitution," as opposed to the single-subject rule, which "focuses in isolation only upon the text of a proposed amendment"); Mont. Ass'n of Cntys. v. State, 404 P.3d 733, 739 (Mont. 2017) (citing Marshall v. State, 975 P.2d 325, 331 (Mont. 1999)) ("[A] proposed amendment could relate to a single plan or purpose, but still violate the separate-vote requirement because it contain[s] more than one amendment to Montana's Constitution.").
212. PA. CONST. art. XI, § 1 ("When two or more amendments shall be submitted they shall be voted upon separately.").
213. Degraffenreid, 265 A.3d at 236–37.
214. Id. at 236 (quoting Grimaud v. Commonwealth, 865 A.2d 835, 841 (Pa. 2005)) (internal quotations omitted).
215. Id. at 208.
216. Id. at 210–12 ("The Ballot Question read in full: Shall the Pennsylvania Constitution be amended to grant certain rights to crime victims, including to be treated with fairness, respect and dignity; considering their safety in bail proceedings; timely notice and opportunity to take part in public proceedings; reasonable protection from the accused; right to refuse discovery requests made by the accused; restitution and return of
reasoned that the newly enumerated rights for crime victims were not functionally interrelated. 217 Each operated independently of the rest, and a voter could easily support some of these rights but disagree with others. 218 Second, the court found that the list of victims' rights would make several substantive changes to other constitutional provisions, including those guaranteeing a right to bail, granting the court authority to create procedural rules, and conferring the executive pardon power. 219 Like the enumerated rights, these changes were not mutually dependent; therefore, voters had "a sacrosanct right" to vote on each separately. 220 If Wisconsin adopted a more rigorous separate amendment inquiry, the court may have reached a similar result in Wisconsin Justice Initiative. 221
Strengthening the separate amendment rule by requiring mutual dependence of provisions will better enable judicial review to identify referred amendments that make multiple constitutional changes. This
Like Wisconsin's original application of the separate amendment rule in Timme, Pennsylvania's separate vote rule requires mutual dependence of multiple provisions. 222 Additionally, Pennsylvania's formulation explicitly defines the requisite level of interdependence to constitute a single amendment. 223 In contrast, although Timme's application of the separate amendment rule contemplates mutual dependence for a single amendment, its explicit holding defines separate amendments as those that are not related. 224 Pennsylvania's formulation therefore has a stronger phrasing that provides a more workable standard than that in Timme. Thus, to strengthen the separate amendment rule, the Wisconsin Supreme Court should follow Pennsylvania's lead by defining a required level of interdependence for multiple provisions within a single amendment. 225
property; proceedings free from delay; and to be informed of these rights, so they can enforce them?").
217. Id. at 240.
218. Id.
219. Id. at 240–41.
220. Id. 241–42.
221. See WJI Circuit Court Decision, supra note 15, at 30 ("If the Legislature wanted to expand the definition of a crime victim and to give crime victims greater rights and at the same time curtail the rights of persons only accused of committing a crime, it was required to frame the issues to elicit voter ratification by asking two separate questions. . . . Conflating the separate questions of creating something new for crime victims and deleting something old for persons only accused of committing a crime was a mistake of constitutional proportions.").
222. Compare State ex rel Hudd v. Timme, 11 N.W. 785, 790–92 (Wis. 1882), with Degraffenreid, 265 A.3d at 240.
223. Degraffenreid, 165 A.3d at 208.
224. See Timme, 11 N.W. at 791.
225. See Degraffenreid, 265 A.3d at 240.
approach would thus create a more workable standard, while uplifting popular sovereignty by giving voters greater control over granular changes to the constitution. Together, a stronger separate amendment rule and a clearer every essential test would create a more effective doctrinal framework for judicial review of ballot questions.
CONCLUSION
The Wisconsin Constitution, which emphasizes a structural commitment to popular sovereignty, endows Wisconsin voters with the power to accept or reject legislatively referred constitutional amendments. With the proliferation of referred amendments—often over polarizing policy issues—the ability for voters to wield that power is increasingly important. However, procedural safeguards that fail to secure accurate, clear, and complete ballot questions also fail to elicit voters' informed consent for constitutional amendments.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court should eschew this historical approach and instead guard against legislative erasure of popular sovereignty by protecting procedural requirements, strengthening existing standards for judicial review of ballot language, and minimizing deference to the legislature. By providing for mandatory referenda, Wisconsin's Constitution positions the people as the ultimate sovereign in the constitutional amendment process. As the guardian of the Wisconsin Constitution, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has a duty to uplift the constitution's structural commitment to popular sovereignty.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court's current approach to judicial review of allegedly insufficient ballot questions renders minimal procedural safeguards largely ineffective. In addition to waiving procedural shortcomings, the court has established two underdefined inquiries for examining the sufficiency of ballot questions. Within the limited case law, the court has applied the separate amendment rule inconsistently to generate preferred policy outcomes and has generally ignored the every essential test, which is a promising standard for ensuring legally sufficient ballot questions. Finally, post-election judicial review of allegedly insufficient ballot questions allows the court to cite deference to election outcomes while obfuscating blind deference to legislative drafting. The Wisconsin Supreme Court's current approach to judicial review thus aggrandizes its own authority by permitting judicial policymaking, as well as the Wisconsin Legislature's authority by diminishing constitutional procedural requirements for ballot question phrasing. Aggrandized government authority removes power from voters and diminishes their ability to veto undesired state constitutional amendments.
Judicial review can best safeguard the people's role in the amendment process by ensuring that the legislature presents referred amendments to voters via accurate, clear, and complete ballot questions.
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PART 75—CHILD PROTECTION RESTORATION AND PENALTIES ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 1990; PROTECT ACT; ADAM WALSH CHILD PROTECTION AND SAFETY ACT OF 2006; RECORDKEEPING AND RECORD-INSPECTION PROVISIONS
Contents
§ 75.1 Definitions.
§ 75.2 Maintenance of records.
§ 75.3 Categorization of records.
§ 75.4 Location of records.
§ 75.5 Inspection of records.
§ 75.6 Statement describing location of books and records.
§ 75.7 Exemption statement.
§ 75.8 Location of the statement.
§ 75.9 Certification of records.
AUTHORITY
: 18 U.S.C. 2257, 2257A.
SOURCE: Order No. 2765-2005, 70 FR 29619, May 24, 2005, unless otherwise noted.
§ 75.1 Definitions.
(a) Terms used in this part shall have the meanings set forth in 18 U.S.C. 2257, and as provided in this section. The terms used and defined in these regulations are intended to provide commonlanguage guidance and usage and are not meant to exclude technologies or uses of these terms as otherwise employed in practice or defined in other regulations or federal statutes ( i.e. , 47 U.S.C. 230, 231).
(b) Picture identification card means a document issued by the United States, a State government, or a political subdivision thereof, or a United States territory, that bears the photograph, the name of the individual identified, and the date of birth of that individual, and provides specific information sufficient for the issuing authority to confirm its validity, such as a passport, Permanent Resident Card (commonly known as a "Green Card"), or employment authorization document issued by the United States, a driver's license or other form of identification issued by a State or the District of Columbia; or a foreign government-issued equivalent of any of the documents listed above when the person who is the subject of the picture identification card is a non-U.S. citizen located outside the United States at the time of original production and the producer maintaining the required records, whether a U.S. citizen or non-U.S. citizen, is located outside the United States on the original production date. The picture identification card must be valid as of the original production date.
(c) Producer means any person, including any individual, corporation, or other organization, who is a primary producer or a secondary producer.
(1) Primary producer is any person who actually films, videotapes, photographs, or creates a digitally- or computer-manipulated image, a digital image, or a picture of, or who digitizes an image of, a visual depiction of an actual human being engaged in actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct. When a corporation or other organization is the primary producer of any particular image or picture, then no individual employee or agent of that corporation or other organization will be considered to be a primary producer of that image or picture.
(2) Secondary producer is any person who produces, assembles, manufactures, publishes, duplicates, reproduces, or reissues a book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, or digitally- or computer-manipulated image, picture, or other matter intended for commercial distribution that contains a visual depiction of an actual human being engaged in actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct, or who inserts on a computer site or service a digital image of, or otherwise manages the sexually explicit content of a computer site or service that contains a visual depiction of, an actual human being engaged in actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct, including any person who enters into a contract, agreement, or conspiracy to do any of the foregoing. When a corporation or other organization is the secondary producer of any particular image or picture, then no individual of that
corporation or other organization will be considered to be the secondary producer of that image or picture.
(3) The same person may be both a primary and a secondary producer.
(4) Producer does not include persons whose activities relating to the visual depiction of actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct are limited to the following:
(i) Photo or film processing, including digitization of previously existing visual depictions, as part of a commercial enterprise, with no other commercial interest in the sexually explicit material, printing, and video duplication;
(ii) Distribution;
(iii) Any activity, other than those activities identified in paragraphs (c)(1) and (2) of this section, that does not involve the hiring, contracting for, managing, or otherwise arranging for the participation of the depicted performers;
(iv) The provision of a telecommunications service, or of an Internet access service of Internet information location tool (as those terms are defined in section 231 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 231));
(v) The transmission, storage, retrieval, hosting, formatting, or translation (or any combination thereof) of a communication, without selection or alteration of the content of the communication, except that deletion of a particular communication or material made by another person in a manner consistent with section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(c)) shall not constitute such selection or alteration of the content of the communication; or
(vi) Unless the activity or activities are described in section 2257(h)(2)(A), the dissemination of a depiction without having created it or altered its content.
(d) Sell, distribute, redistribute, and re-release refer to commercial distribution of a book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, digitally- or computer-manipulated image, digital image, picture, or other matter that contains a visual depiction of an actual human being engaged in actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct, but does not refer to noncommercial or educational distribution of such matter, including transfers conducted by bona fide lending libraries, museums, schools, or educational organizations.
(e) Copy , when used:
(1) In reference to an identification document or a picture identification card, means a photocopy, photograph, or digitally scanned reproduction;
(2) In reference to a visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct, means a duplicate of the depiction itself (e.g., the film, the image on a Web site, the image taken by a webcam, the photo in a magazine); and
(3) In reference to an image on a webpage for purposes of §§ 75.6(a), 75.7(a), and 75.7(b), means every page of a Web site on which the image appears.
(f) Internet means collectively the myriad of computer and telecommunications facilities, including equipment and operating software, which constitute the interconnected world-wide network of networks that employ the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or any predecessor or successor protocols to such protocol, to communicate information of all kinds by wire or radio.
(g) Computer site or service means a computer server-based file repository or file distribution service that is accessible over the Internet, World Wide Web, Usenet, or any other interactive computer service (as defined in 47 U.S.C. 230(f)(2)). Computer site or service includes without limitation, sites or services using hypertext markup language, hypertext transfer protocol, file transfer protocol, electronic mail transmission protocols, similar data transmission protocols, or any successor protocols, including but not limited to computer sites or services on the World Wide Web.
(h) URL means uniform resource locator.
(i) Electronic communications service has the meaning set forth in 18 U.S.C. 2510(15).
(j) Remote computing service has the meaning set forth in 18 U.S.C. 2711(2).
(k) Manage content means to make editorial or managerial decisions concerning the sexually explicit content of a computer site or service, but does not mean those who manage solely advertising, compliance with copyright law, or other forms of non-sexually explicit content.
(l) Interactive computer service has the meaning set forth in 47 U.S.C. 230(f)(2).
(m) Date of original production or original production date means the date the primary producer actually filmed, videotaped, or photographed, or created a digitally- or computer-manipulated image or picture of, the visual depiction of an actual human being engaged in actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct. For productions that occur over more than one date, it means the single date that was the first of those dates. For a performer who was not 18 as of this date, the date of original production is the date that such a performer was first actually filmed, videotaped, photographed, or otherwise depicted. With respect to matter that is a secondarily produced compilation of individual, primarily produced depictions, the date of original production of the matter is the earliest date after July 3, 1995, on which any individual depiction in that compilation was produced. For a performer in one of the individual depictions contained in that compilation who was not 18 as of this date, the date of original production is the date that the performer was first actually filmed, videotaped, photographed, or otherwise depicted for the individual depiction at issue.
(n) Sexually explicit conduct has the meaning set forth in 18 U.S.C. 2256(2)(A).
(o) Simulated sexually explicit conduct means conduct engaged in by performers that is depicted in a manner that would cause a reasonable viewer to believe that the performers engaged in actual sexually explicit conduct, even if they did not in fact do so. It does not mean not sexually explicit conduct that is merely suggested.
(p) Regularly and in the normal course of business collects and maintains means any business practice(s) that ensure that the producer confirms the identity and age of all employees who perform in visual depictions.
(q) Individually identifiable information means information about the name, address, and date of birth of employees that is capable of being retrieved on the basis of a name of an employee who appears in a specified visual depiction.
(r) All performers, including minor performers means all performers who appear in any visual depiction, no matter for how short a period of time.
(s) Employed by means, in reference to a performer, one who receives pay for performing in a visual depiction or is otherwise in an employer-employee relationship with the producer of the visual depiction as evidenced by oral or written agreements.
[Order No. 2765-2005, 70 FR 29619, May 24, 2005, as amended at 73 FR 77468, Dec. 18, 2008]
§ 75.2 Maintenance of records.
(a) Any producer of any book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, digitally- or computermanipulated image, digital image, picture, or other matter that is produced in whole or in part with materials that have been mailed or shipped in interstate or foreign commerce, or is shipped, transported, or intended for shipment or transportation in interstate or foreign commerce, and that contains one or more visual depictions of an actual human being engaged in actual sexually explicit conduct (except lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person) made after July 3, 1995, or one or more visual depictions of an actual human being engaged in simulated sexually explicit conduct or in actual sexually explicit conduct limited to lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person made after March 18, 2009, shall, for each performer portrayed in such visual depiction, create and maintain records containing the following:
(1) The legal name and date of birth of each performer, obtained by the producer's examination of a picture identification card prior to production of the depiction. For any performer portrayed in a depiction of an actual human being engaged in actual sexually explicit conduct (except lascivious
exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person) made after July 3, 1995, or of an actual human being engaged in simulated sexually explicit conduct or in actual sexually explicit conduct limited to lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person made after March 18, 2009, the records shall also include a legible hard copy or legible digitally scanned or other electronic copy of a hard copy of the identification document examined and, if that document does not contain a recent and recognizable picture of the performer, a legible hard copy of a picture identification card. For any performer portrayed in a depiction of an actual human being engaged in actual sexually explicit conduct (except lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person) made after June 23, 2005, or of an actual human being engaged in simulated sexually explicit conduct or in actual sexually explicit conduct limited to lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person made after March 18, 2009, the records shall include a copy of the depiction, and, where the depiction is published on an Internet computer site or service, a copy of any URL associated with the depiction. If no URL is associated with the depiction, the records shall include another uniquely identifying reference associated with the location of the depiction on the Internet. For any performer in a depiction performed live on the Internet, the records shall include a copy of the depiction with running-time sufficient to identify the performer in the depiction and to associate the performer with the records needed to confirm his or her age.
(2) Any name, other than the performer's legal name, ever used by the performer, including the performer's maiden name, alias, nickname, stage name, or professional name. For any performer portrayed in a visual depiction of an actual human being engaged in actual sexually explicit conduct (except lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person) made after July 3, 1995, or of an actual human being engaged in simulated sexually explicit conduct or in actual sexually explicit conduct limited to lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person made after March 18, 2009, such names shall be indexed by the title or identifying number of the book, magazine, film, videotape, digitally- or computer-manipulated image, digital image, picture, URL, or other matter. Producers may rely in good faith on representations by performers regarding accuracy of the names, other than legal names, used by performers.
(3) Records required to be created and maintained under this part shall be organized alphabetically, or numerically where appropriate, by the legal name of the performer (by last or family name, then first or given name), and shall be indexed or cross-referenced to each alias or other name used and to each title or identifying number of the book, magazine, film, videotape, digitally- or computer-manipulated image, digital image, picture, URL, or other matter.
(4) The primary producer shall create a record of the date of original production of the depiction.
(b) A producer who is a secondary producer as defined in § 75.1(c) may satisfy the requirements of this part to create and maintain records by accepting from the primary producer, as defined in § 75.1(c), copies of the records described in paragraph (a) of this section. Such a secondary producer shall also keep records of the name and address of the primary producer from whom he received copies of the records. The copies of the records may be redacted to eliminate non-essential information, including addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, and other information not necessary to confirm the name and age of the performer. However, the identification number of the picture identification card presented to confirm the name and age may not be redacted.
(c) The information contained in the records required to be created and maintained by this part need be current only as of the date of original production of the visual depiction to which the records are associated. If the producer subsequently produces an additional book, magazine, film, videotape, digitally- or computer-manipulated image, digital image, or picture, or other matter (including but not limited to an Internet computer site or service) that contains one or more visual depictions of an actual human being engaged in actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct made by a performer for whom he maintains records as required by this part, the producer may add the additional title or identifying number and the names of the performer to the existing records maintained pursuant to § 75.2(a)(2). Producers of visual depictions made after July 3, 1995, and before June 23, 2005, may rely on picture identification cards that were valid forms of required identification under the provisions of part 75 in effect during that time period.
(d) For any record of a performer in a visual depiction of actual sexually explicit conduct (except lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person) created or amended after June 23, 2005, or of a performer in a visual depiction of simulated sexually explicit conduct or actual sexually explicit conduct limited to lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person made after
March 18, 2009, all such records shall be organized alphabetically, or numerically where appropriate, by the legal name of the performer (by last or family name, then first or given name), and shall be indexed or cross-referenced to each alias or other name used and to each title or identifying number of the book, magazine, film, videotape, digitally- or computer-manipulated image, digital image, or picture, or other matter (including but not limited to an Internet computer site or service). If the producer subsequently produces an additional book, magazine, film, videotape, digitally- or computermanipulated image, digital image, or picture, or other matter (including but not limited to an Internet computer site or service) that contains one or more visual depictions of an actual human being engaged in actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct made by a performer for whom he maintains records as required by this part, the producer shall add the additional title or identifying number and the names of the performer to the existing records, and such records shall thereafter be maintained in accordance with this paragraph.
(e) Records required to be maintained under this part shall be segregated from all other records, shall not contain any other records, and shall not be contained within any other records.
(f) Records required to be maintained under this part may be kept either in hard copy or in digital form, provided that they include scanned copies of forms of identification and that there is a custodian of the records who can authenticate each digital record.
(g) Records are not required to be maintained by either a primary producer or by a secondary producer for a visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct that consists only of lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a person, and contains no other sexually explicit conduct, whose original production date was prior to March 18, 2009.
(h) A primary or secondary producer may contract with a non-employee custodian to retain copies of the records that are required under this part. Such custodian must comply with all obligations related to records that are required by this Part, and such a contract does not relieve the producer of his liability under this part.
[Order No. 2765-2005, 70 FR 29619, May 24, 2005, as amended at 73 FR 77469, Dec. 18, 2008]
§ 75.3 Categorization of records.
Records required to be maintained under this part shall be categorized alphabetically, or numerically where appropriate, and retrievable to: All name(s) of each performer, including any alias, maiden name, nickname, stage name or professional name of the performer; and according to the title, number, or other similar identifier of each book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, digitally- or computer-manipulated image, digital image, or picture, or other matter (including but not limited to Internet computer site or services). Only one copy of each picture of a performer's picture identification card and identification document must be kept as long as each copy is categorized and retrievable according to any name, real or assumed, used by such performer, and according to any title or other identifier of the matter.
§ 75.4 Location of records.
Any producer required by this part to maintain records shall make such records available at the producer's place of business or at the place of business of a non-employee custodian of records. Each record shall be maintained for seven years from the date of creation or last amendment or addition. If the producer ceases to carry on the business, the records shall be maintained for five years thereafter. If the producer produces the book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, digitally- or computermanipulated image, digital image, or picture, or other matter (including but not limited to Internet computer site or services) as part of his control of or through his employment with an organization, records shall be made available at the organization's place of business or at the place of business of a non-employee custodian of records. If the organization is dissolved, the person who was responsible for maintaining the records, as described in § 75.6(b), shall continue to maintain the records for a period of five years after dissolution.
[73 FR 77470, Dec. 18, 2008]
§ 75.5 Inspection of records.
(a) Authority to inspect. Investigators authorized by the Attorney General (hereinafter
"investigators") are authorized to enter without delay and at reasonable times any establishment of a producer where records under § 75.2 are maintained to inspect during regular working hours and at other reasonable times, and within reasonable limits and in a reasonable manner, for the purpose of determining compliance with the record-keeping requirements of the Act and any other provision of the Act (hereinafter "investigator").
(b) Advance notice of inspections. Advance notice of record inspections shall not be given.
(c) Conduct of inspections. (1) Inspections shall take place during normal business hours and at such places as specified in § 75.4. For the purpose of this part, "normal business hours" are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., local time, Monday through Friday, or, for inspections to be held at the place of business of a producer, any other time during which the producer is actually conducting business relating to producing a depiction of actual sexually explicit conduct. To the extent that the producer does not maintain at least 20 normal business hours per week, the producer must provide notice to the inspecting agency of the hours during which records will be available for inspection, which in no case may be less than 20 hours per week.
(2) Upon commencing an inspection, the investigator shall:
(i) Present his or her credentials to the owner, operator, or agent in charge of the establishment;
(ii) Explain the nature and purpose of the inspection, including the limited nature of the records inspection, and the records required to be kept by the Act and this part; and
(iii) Indicate the scope of the specific inspection and the records that he or she wishes to inspect.
(3) The inspections shall be conducted so as not to unreasonably disrupt the operations of the establishment.
(4) At the conclusion of an inspection, the investigator may informally advise the producer or his non-employee custodian of records of any apparent violations disclosed by the inspection. The producer or non-employee custodian or records may bring to the attention of the investigator any pertinent information regarding the records inspected or any other relevant matter.
(d) Frequency of inspections. Records may be inspected once during any four-month period, unless there is a reasonable suspicion to believe that a violation of this part has occurred, in which case an additional inspection or inspections may be conducted before the four-month period has expired.
(e) Copies of records. An investigator may copy, at no expense to the producer or to his nonemployee custodian of records, during the inspection, any record that is subject to inspection.
(f) Other law enforcement authority. These regulations do not restrict the otherwise lawful investigative prerogatives of an investigator while conducting an inspection.
(g) Seizure of evidence. Notwithstanding any provision of this part or any other regulation, a law enforcement officer may seize any evidence of the commission of any felony while conducting an inspection.
[Order No. 2765-2005, 70 FR 29619, May 24, 2005, as amended at 73 FR 77470, Dec. 18, 2008]
§ 75.6 Statement describing location of books and records.
(a) Any producer of any book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, digitally- or computermanipulated image, digital image, or picture, or other matter (including but not limited to an Internet computer site or service) that contains one or more visual depictions of an actual human being engaged in actual sexually explicit conduct made after July 3, 1995, and produced, manufactured, published, duplicated, reproduced, or reissued after July 3, 1995, or of a performer in a visual depiction of simulated sexually explicit conduct or actual sexually explicit conduct limited to lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person made after March 18, 2009, shall cause to be affixed to every copy of the matter a statement describing the location of the records required by this part. A producer may cause such statement to be affixed, for example, by instructing the manufacturer of the book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, digitally- or computer-manipulated image, digital image,
picture, or other matter to affix the statement. In this paragraph, the term "copy" includes every page of a Web site on which a visual depiction of an actual human being engaged in actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct appears.
(b) Every statement shall contain:
(1) The title of the book, magazine, periodical, film, or videotape, digitally- or computer-manipulated image, digital image, picture, or other matter (unless the title is prominently set out elsewhere in the book, magazine, periodical, film, or videotape, digitally- or computer-manipulated image, digital image, picture, or other matter) or, if there is no title, an identifying number or similar identifier that differentiates this matter from other matters which the producer has produced;
(2) [Reserved]
(3) A street address at which the records required by this part may be made available. A post office box address does not satisfy this requirement.
(c) If the producer is an organization, the statement shall also contain the title and business address of the person who is responsible for maintaining the records required by this part.
(d) The information contained in the statement must be accurate as of the date on which the book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, digitally or computer-manipulated image, digital image, picture, or other matter is produced or reproduced.
(e) For the purposes of this section, the required statement shall be displayed in typeface that is no less than 12-point type or no smaller than the second-largest typeface on the material and in a color that clearly contrasts with the background color of the material. For any electronic or other display of the notice that is limited in time, the notice must be displayed for a sufficient duration and of a sufficient size to be capable of being read by the average viewer.
(f) If the producer contracts with a non-employee custodian of records to serve as the person responsible for maintaining his records, the statement shall contain the name and business address of that custodian and may contain that information in lieu of the information required in paragraphs (b)(3) and (c) of this section.
[Order No. 2765-2005, 70 FR 29619, May 24, 2005, as amended at 73 FR 77470, Dec. 18, 2008]
§ 75.7 Exemption statement.
(a) Any producer of any book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, digitally- or computermanipulated image, digital image, picture, or other matter may cause to be affixed to every copy of the matter a statement attesting that the matter is not covered by the record-keeping requirements of 18 U.S.C. 2257(a)-(c) or 18 U.S.C. 2257A(a)-(c), as applicable, and of this part if:
(1) The matter contains visual depictions of actual sexually explicit conduct made only before July 3, 1995, or was last produced, manufactured, published, duplicated, reproduced, or reissued before July 3, 1995. Where the matter consists of a compilation of separate primarily produced depictions, the entirety of the conduct depicted was produced prior to July 3, 1995, regardless of the date of secondary production;
(2) The matter contains only visual depictions of simulated sexually explicit conduct or of actual sexually explicit conduct limited to lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person, made before March 18, 2009;
(3) The matter contains only some combination of the visual depictions described in paragraphs (a)(1) and (a)(2) of this section.
(b) If the primary producer and the secondary producer are different entities, the primary producer may certify to the secondary producer that the visual depictions in the matter satisfy the standards under paragraphs (a)(1) through (a)(3) of this section. The secondary producer may then cause to be affixed to every copy of the matter a statement attesting that the matter is not covered by the recordkeeping requirements of 18 U.S.C. 2257(a)-(c) or 18 U.S.C. 2257A(a)-(c), as applicable, and of this part.
§ 75.8 Location of the statement.
(a) All books, magazines, and periodicals shall contain the statement required in § 75.6 or suggested in § 75.7 either on the first page that appears after the front cover or on the page on which copyright information appears.
(b) In any film or videotape which contains end credits for the production, direction, distribution, or other activity in connection with the film or videotape, the statement referred to in § 75.6 or § 75.7 shall be presented at the end of the end titles or final credits and shall be displayed for a sufficient duration to be capable of being read by the average viewer.
(c) Any other film or videotape shall contain the required statement within one minute from the start of the film or videotape, and before the opening scene, and shall display the statement for a sufficient duration to be read by the average viewer.
(d) A computer site or service or Web address containing a digitally- or computer-manipulated image, digital image, or picture shall contain the required statement on every page of a Web site on which a visual depiction of an actual human being engaged in actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct appears. Such computer site or service or Web address may choose to display the required statement in a separate window that opens upon the viewer's clicking or mousing-over a hypertext link that states, "18 U.S.C. 2257 [and/or 2257A, as appropriate] Record-Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement."
(e) For purpose of this section, a digital video disc (DVD) containing multiple depictions is a single matter for which the statement may be located in a single place covering all depictions on the DVD.
(f) For all other categories not otherwise mentioned in this section, the statement is to be prominently displayed consistent with the manner of display required for the aforementioned categories.
[Order No. 2765-2005, 70 FR 29619, May 24, 2005, as amended at 73 FR 77471, Dec. 18, 2008]
§ 75.9 Certification of records.
(a) In general. The provisions of §§ 75.2 through 75.8 shall not apply to a visual depiction of actual sexually explicit conduct constituting lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a person or to a visual depiction of simulated sexually explicit conduct if all of the following requirements are met:
(1) The visual depiction is intended for commercial distribution;
(2) The visual depiction is created as a part of a commercial enterprise;
(3) Either—
(i) The visual depiction is not produced, marketed or made available in circumstances such that an ordinary person would conclude that the matter contains a visual depiction that is child pornography as defined in 18 U.S.C. 2256(8), or,
(ii) The visual depiction is subject to regulation by the Federal Communications Commission acting in its capacity to enforce 18 U.S.C. 1464 regarding the broadcast of obscene, indecent, or profane programming; and
(4) The producer of the visual depiction certifies to the Attorney General that he regularly and in the normal course of business collects and maintains individually identifiable information regarding all performers, including minor performers, employed by that person, pursuant to Federal and State tax, labor, and other laws, labor agreements, or otherwise pursuant to industry standards, where such information includes the name, address, and date of birth of the performer. (A producer of materials depicting sexually explicit conduct not covered by the certification regime is not disqualified from using the certification regime for materials covered by the certification regime.)
(b) Form of certification. The certification shall take the form of a letter addressed to the Attorney General signed either by the chief executive officer or another executive officer of the entity making the certification, or in the event the entity does not have a chief executive officer or other executive officer, the senior manager responsible for overseeing the entity's activities.
(c) Content of certification. The certification shall contain the following:
(1) A statement setting out the basis under 18 U.S.C. 2257A and this part under which the certifying entity and any sub-entities, if applicable, are permitted to avail themselves of this exemption, and basic evidence justifying that basis.
(2) The following statement: "I hereby certify that [name of entity] [and all sub-entities listed in this letter] regularly and in the normal course of business collect and maintain individually identifiable information regarding all performers employed by [name of entity]"; and
(3) If applicable because the visual depictions at issue were produced outside the United States, the statement that: "I hereby certify that the foreign producers of the visual depictions produced by [name of entity] either collect and maintain the records required by sections 2257 and 2257A of title 18 of the U.S. Code, or have certified to the Attorney General that they collect and maintain individually identifiable information regarding all performers, including minor performers, employed by that person, pursuant to tax, labor, and other laws, labor agreements, or otherwise pursuant to industry standards, where such information includes the name, address, and date of birth of the performer, in accordance with 28 CFR part 75; and [name of entity] has copies of those records or certifications." The producer may provide the following statement instead: "I hereby certify that with respect to foreign primary producers who do not either collect and maintain the records required by sections 2257 and 2257A of title 18 of the U.S. Code, or certify to the Attorney General that they collect and maintain individually identifiable information regarding all performers, including minor performers, whom they employ pursuant to tax, labor, or other laws, labor agreements, or otherwise pursuant to industry standards, where such information includes the names, addresses, and dates of birth of the performers, in accordance with 28 CFR part 75, [name of entity] has taken reasonable steps to confirm that the performers in any depictions that may potentially constitute simulated sexually explicit conduct or lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person were not minors at the time the depictions were originally produced." "Reasonable steps" for purposes of this statement may include, but are not limited to, a good-faith review of the visual depictions themselves or a good-faith reliance on representations or warranties from a foreign producer.
(d) Entities covered by each certification. A single certification may cover all or some subset of all entities owned by the entity making the certification. However, the names of all sub-entities covered must be listed in such certification and must be cross-referenced to the matter for which the sub-entity served as the producer.
(e) Timely submission of certification. An initial certification is due June 16, 2009. Initial certifications of producers who begin production after December 18, 2008, but before June 16, 2009, are due on June 16, 2009. Initial certifications of producers who begin production after June 16, 2009 are due within 60 days of the start of production. A subsequent certification is required only if there are material changes in the information the producer certified in the initial certification; subsequent certifications are due within 60 days of the occurrence of the material change. In any case where a due date or last day of a time period falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or federal holiday, the due date or last day of a time period is considered to run until the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or federal holiday.
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2016 Texas Migrant Interstate Program (TMIP) Supplement to the Texas Student Assessment Program
To administer a State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR ® ) test, use this supplement, the 2016 District and Campus Coordinator Manual, and the appropriate 2016 STAAR test administrator manual. To administer a STAAR Spanish grade 5 mathematics or reading test, use the 2016 District and Campus Coordinator Manual and the 2016 STAAR Test Administrator Manual—Grades 3–5. To administer a STAAR L or STAAR A online test, use the 2016 District and Campus Coordinator Manual, the appropriate 2016 STAAR test administrator manual, and the User's Guide for the Texas Assessment Management System.
To administer the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) exit level test, use this supplement, the Directions for District Coordinators, Campus Coordinators, and Test Administrators—TAKS, and the User's Guide for the TAKS Assessment Management System. If TEA has granted permission to test with paper, use the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Supplement for Paper Administrations.
To maintain the security and confidentiality of the Texas student assessment program, refer to the 2016 District and Campus Coordinator Manual and the 2016 Test Security Supplement.
This supplement assumes that the test administrator has responsibility for all testing activities. If your test site has more than one person involved in an administration, you should call the Texas Migrant Interstate Program (TMIP).
Contents
TMIP Assessment Schedules
STAAR, STAAR Spanish, STAAR L, and STAAR A Grades 5 and 8 Test Administration Schedule
| | March | May |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 5 Reading* | 3/28 – 4/1 | 5/9 – 5/13 |
| Grade 8 Reading*† | 3/28 – 4/1 | 5/9 – 5/13 |
| Grade 5 Mathematics | 3/28 – 4/1 | 5/9 – 5/13 |
*Does not include STAAR L.
†Does not include Spanish.
STAAR, STAAR L, and STAAR A EOC Test Administration Schedule
| | March | May | July |
|---|---|---|---|
| English I* | 3/28 – 4/1 | – | 7/11 – 7/15 |
| English II* | 3/28 – 4/1 | – | 7/11 – 7/15 |
| English III** | 5/9 – 5/13 | – | – |
| Algebra I | – | 5/2 – 5/6 | 7/11 – 7/15 |
| Algebra II** | 5/9 – 5/13 | – | – |
| Biology | – | 5/2 – 5/6 | 7/11 – 7/15 |
| U.S. History | – | 5/2 – 5/6 | 7/11 – 7/15 |
*Does not include STAAR L.
**Does not include STAAR L or STAAR A.
TAKS Test Administration Schedule
| Assessments | March | July |
|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 2/29 – 3/4 | 7/11 – 7/15 |
| Mathematics | 2/29 – 3/4 | 7/11 – 7/15 |
| Science | 2/29 – 3/4 | 7/11 – 7/15 |
| Social Studies | 2/29 – 3/4 | 7/11 – 7/15 |
These administrations are scheduled to coincide with the primary administrations of STAAR grades 5 and 8 mathematics and reading, STAAR end-of-course (EOC), and TAKS testing opportunities.
Each test site must arrange a testing schedule with the TMIP far enough in advance so that arrangements can be made for the timely delivery of test materials. For online assessment test sites (STAAR L or STAAR A students, and STAAR EOC and TAKS examinees), coordinators must contact the TMIP in advance to ensure that an online testing infrastructure is in place and to register students for online testing.
Contact Information:
Texas Migrant Interstate Program (TMIP)
800-292-7006
Texas Education Agency (TEA) Student Assessment Division 512-463-9536
STAAR questions:
Educational Testing Service Texas Assessment Support Center Telephone – 855-333-7770 Fax – 844-257-3499 Email – firstname.lastname@example.org email@example.com
TAKS questions:
Telephone – 800-627-0225
Pearson Customer Service Center
Fax – 512-989-5040
Testing Program Overview
STAAR General Information
For the TMIP, the STAAR program includes STAAR, STAAR Spanish, STAAR L, and STAAR A. Students first enrolled in grade 9 in the 2011–2012 school year or after are required to take the STAAR EOC assessments for courses in which they are enrolled to fulfill the testing requirements for high school graduation. Students in grades 5 and 8 are required to pass reading and mathematics assessments to meet the promotion requirements for the Student Success Initiative.
n n STAAR includes assessments in mathematics, reading, writing, science, and social studies at grades 3–8 and EOC assessments in Algebra I, English I, English II, biology, and U.S. history. In May 2016, STAAR Algebra II and English III assessments will also be available for districts to administer on an optional basis as postsecondary readiness measures. Only STAAR grades 5 and 8 mathematics and reading and STAAR EOC assessments are offered through the TMIP.
n n STAAR Spanish is available for English language learners (ELLs) in grades 3–5 for whom an assessment in Spanish provides the most appropriate measure of academic progress. Only STAAR Spanish grade 5 mathematics and reading are offered through the TMIP.
n n STAAR L is a linguistically accommodated version of the STAAR grades 3–8 and EOC assessments in mathematics, science, and social studies for students who meet participation requirements. STAAR L is administered online with accommodations integrated into the online system. With special permission from TEA, students may participate in paper administrations of STAAR L. STAAR L is available for grades 5 and 8 mathematics and STAAR EOC assessments for Algebra I, biology, and U.S. history.
n n STAAR A is an accommodated version of the STAAR assessments for students who meet eligibility requirements. It is available in the same grades/subjects and courses as the STAAR assessments. STAAR A will be administered online and will include tools, accommodations to test selections and questions, and accessibility features. With special permission from TEA, students may participate in paper administrations of STAAR A. STAAR A is available for grades 5 and 8 reading and mathematics and EOC assessments for Algebra I, English I, English II, biology, and U.S. history.
TAKS General Information
High school students enrolled in grade 9 before the 2011–2012 school year take the TAKS exit level test as part of their graduation requirement. TAKS is primarily administered online. In rare circumstances, TEA may grant permission to test with paper.
All examinees enrolled in grade 11 or above and for whom TAKS is the graduation requirement are eligible to take any section of the exit level test on which they have not yet met minimum expectations.
TAKS Online Resources
Directions for District Coordinators, Campus Coordinators, and Test Administrators— TAKS
Texas Administrative Code
Accommodation Resources
District and Campus Coordinator Manual Resources
STAAR
Online Resources
TAKS Online Resources
STAAR A Resources
STAAR Assessment Management System User's Guide
Refer to the Directions for District Coordinators, Campus Coordinators, and Test Administrators—TAKS to administer the TAKS exit level tests.
For information about the participation of limited English proficient (LEP) examinees or examinees receiving special education services in the Texas Student Assessment Program, refer to the provisions of the Texas Administrative Code (TAC). Contact the TMIP to obtain interpretations of these rules.
Accommodations Information
Accommodations are changes to materials or procedures that enable students with disabilities and ELLs to participate meaningfully in learning and testing activities. Information regarding allowable accommodations for the STAAR and TAKS programs can be found on the Accommodation Resources webpage and in the 2016 District and Campus Coordinator Manual.
Call the TMIP if an examinee indicates he or she is eligible for accommodations, particularly for an oral administration of any test.
Test Administration Resources
To administer the STAAR grades 5 and 8 mathematics and reading and STAAR EOC tests, refer to the:
n n 2016 District and Campus Coordinator Manual
n n appropriate 2016 STAAR Grades 3-5 or EOC test administrator manual
To administer the STAAR Spanish grade 5 mathematics and reading tests, refer to the:
n n 2016 District and Campus Coordinator Manual
n n 2016 STAAR Test Administrator Manual—Grades 3–5
To administer the STAAR L tests, refer to the:
n n 2016 District and Campus Coordinator Manual
n n appropriate 2016 STAAR L Paper Administration Guide
n n STAAR Assessment Management System User's Guide (for students testing online)
n n STAAR L tutorials and practice test directions (for students testing online)
To administer the STAAR A tests, refer to the:
n n 2016 District and Campus Coordinator Manual
n
n appropriate 2016 STAAR A Paper Administration Guide
n n STAAR Assessment Management System User's Guide (for students testing online)
n n STAAR A tutorials and practice test directions (for students testing online)
To administer the TAKS tests, refer to the:
n n Directions for District Coordinators, Campus Coordinators, and Test Administrators—TAKS
n n TAKS Assessment Management System User's Guide
Test Security
All test administrators are required to be trained and sign an oath of Test Security and Confidentiality. Training materials and guidelines will be provided by TMIP. Oaths are located in the appendix of all test administrator manuals.
For STAAR test security and confidentiality information, refer to the 2016 District and Campus Coordinator Manual, the appropriate 2016 STAAR test administrator manual, and the 2016 Test Security Supplement. For TAKS exit level test security and confidentiality information, refer to the Directions for District Coordinators, Campus Coordinators, and Test Administrators—TAKS.
Incidents resulting in a deviation from documented testing procedures are defined as testing irregularities. Each person participating in the testing program is responsible for contacting the TMIP immediately to report any violation or suspected violation of test security or confidentiality. The TMIP will inform TEA of all violations. To report violations in test security or confidentiality, contact the TMIP immediately at 800-292-7006.
Test Security Supplement
TEST
ADMINISTRATORS
STAAR Testing
STAAR Assessment Management System User's Guide
STAAR TESTING
Before STAAR Test Administration
Test sites for students participating in the STAAR grades 5 and 8 mathematics and reading, STAAR EOC, STAAR L, or STAAR A tests must contact the TMIP in advance to ensure that all testing materials have been received.
If testing students online, contact TMIP to ensure an online testing infrastructure is in place and to register participating students for online testing. Test sites should use the STAAR Assessment Management System User's Guide with the TMIP's assistance to navigate the system. TMIP will confirm that you have the necessary resources to administer an online test, register your students, and provide you with student login credentials.
Training and Materials
Attend Training
All test administrators and test materials handlers are required to be trained annually in test security and testing procedures and to sign an Oath of Test Security and Confidentiality. This training will be arranged through the TMIP. The signed Oath of Test Security and Confidentiality must be returned to the TMIP once testing has concluded.
Assemble STAAR Test Materials
For those administering paper tests, test booklets have been assigned to you using the unique 10-digit security number printed on each test booklet. The letter "S" before the number is used as a check digit only and should be ignored.
Verify that you have received the number of test booklets required and that you have received those test booklets assigned to you by security number. You are responsible for these test booklets, as well as the answer documents given to you for your examinees' use, until you return them to the testing contractor.
All test materials must be kept in locked storage (e.g., in a locked closet or cabinet) when not in use.
You will receive answer documents with precoded student information.
STAAR grade 8 mathematics and EOC Algebra I and Algebra II assessments require that students have access to a hand-held graphing calculator. Students participating in STAAR EOC biology tests must have access to a four-function calculator. Dictionaries are required for students participating in STAAR EOC English I, English II, and English III. Once students have been identified as eligible, TMIP will provide the test site with the necessary dictionaries and calculators as required.
During STAAR Test Administration
Verify Examinee Identity
All examinees must present picture identification on the day of the assessment before they are allowed to test.
A driver's license, Department of Public Safety (DPS) ID, school ID, or resident alien card may be used to verify examinee identity. Contact the TMIP at 800-292-7006 if none of these IDs are available to verify an examinee's identity.
Ensuring Proper STAAR Testing Procedures
STAAR has time limits. STAAR EOC English I and English II assessments have five-hour time limits, and all other STAAR grades and subjects have four-hour time limits. Test sessions must be conducted under the best possible conditions. By following the proper procedures, you ensure the security and confidentiality of the STAAR testing program and the uniform evaluation of all Texas eligible examinees. For instructions on proper testing procedures, refer to the appropriate 2016 STAAR test administrator manual.
For additional questions or information, contact the TMIP at 800-292-7006.
Administering Each STAAR Subject-Area Test
The instructions for administering the STAAR assessments can be found in the appropriate 2016 STAAR test administrator manuals. In addition, refer to the STAAR Assessment Management System User's Guide for administration of STAAR EOC, STAAR L, and STAAR A online assessments.
Test administrators should maintain a roster and complete a seating chart that includes the date, time, test administrator name, and student name(s) for each test administration. Rosters and seating charts should be returned to the TMIP once testing has finished.
If you have any concerns during the administration of a test, contact the TMIP immediately for guidance.
TEST ADMINISTRATORS STAAR Testing
Assessment Management System User's Guide
STAAR Test Administrator Manuals
After STAAR Test Administration
Completing Online Administration
If you have STAAR examinees testing online, notify the TMIP once testing is completed. Follow directions from the TMIP regarding destruction of any allowed supplemental aids or reference materials that students wrote on, scratch or graph paper, and student test tickets.
Completing Examinee Identification Information and Gridding STAAR Answer Documents for Paper Test Administrations
If you have STAAR examinees who are participating in a paper test administration and for whom no answer document has been prepared, follow the instructions in Appendix A of the appropriate 2016 STAAR test administrator manual to prepare an answer document. Ensure that the following information is provided on students' answer documents or on the demographic page in the online system before submitting for scoring.
Some information may be precoded on an answer document or in the online system for students who are registered to participate in an assessment. Do not change this information.
STUDENT-ID
The Student-ID is the examinee's Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) number. This will be a nine-digit number or a state-approved alternative ID number consisting of an "S" followed by eight digits. The TMIP will provide you with the correct ID number. All identification numbers must be gridded or verified by testing personnel only. It is especially important that the examinee identification number be accurate because it is used to access an individual's permanent record. The Student-ID must be completed before the answer document is submitted for scoring. If you have any questions concerning identification numbers, contact the TMIP at 800-292-7006 or TEA at 512-463-9536.
DATE-OF-BIRTH
The "DATE-OF-BIRTH" field should be completed for each examinee. In the space labeled "MONTH," fill in the circle next to the month in which the student was born. Record the day of birth and the last two digits of the year in which the student was born in the boxes labeled "DAY" and "YEAR." If the birth date is before the tenth day of the month, add a zero in front of the date. Fill in the circles below the printed numbers.
LOCAL USE
This field should be left blank.
LOCAL-STUDENT-ID
This field should be left blank.
MIGRANT USE ONLY
The county-district-campus (CDC) number of each student's or examinee's district and campus should be recorded in the box labeled FOR MIGRANT USE ONLY on the answer document, following the example below.
Example
The CDC number is extremely important to the student or examinee. This number determines where test results are sent and can affect the examinee's graduation status. Call the TMIP or TEA for help in determining how to code the CDC number or any other part of the answer document if this information has been left blank.
DISTRICT-NAME
Below DISTRICT-NAME, print the name of the Texas district where the examinee is enrolled.
CAMPUS-NAME
Below CAMPUS-NAME, print the name of the Texas school in which the examinee is enrolled. If you are unable to determine the campus name, print the name of the city in Texas where the examinee went to school and call the TMIP. This information is critical in processing the examinee's test.
TEST
ADMINISTRATORS
STAAR Testing
TEST ADMINISTRATORS STAAR Testing
Gridding Score Codes, Test Taken Information, and Accommodations
For in-depth information about gridding score codes and test taken information for each grade and subject of each administration, contact the TMIP. Information is also available in Appendix B of the 2016 District and Campus Coordinator Manual.
Follow these instructions for gridding the SCORE CODE field.
The SCORE CODE field in the FOR SCHOOL USE ONLY section indicates whether a student's test should be scored. For each content-area assessment, select only one score code.
The score codes are as follows:
A = Absent
O = Other:
n n Student who began testing was unable to complete the test due to illness.
n n Student's test is invalidated due to cheating.
n n Student is participating in a different level test in this subject.
n n Student is enrolled in the High School Equivalency Program.
n n Student has taken and met the required score on an assessment that will substitute for a STAAR EOC assessment.
* = The student participated in an online administration for the subject indicated.
S = Test to be scored
Packing STAAR Scorable Materials for Return
Immediately after testing, test sites are responsible for returning secure STAAR test materials to the TMIP. Scorable test materials must be organized using the identification sheets as instructed below and as directed by the TMIP and returned in the shipping box(es) provided.
n n Complete a STAAR Campus and Group Identification Sheet (pink) with the following information:
DISTRICT NAME: Print the city, state, and ZIP code where your test site is located.
CAMPUS NAME: Print the name of your test site.
COUNTY-DISTRICT NUMBER: Print and grid 777-777 (this is different than on the student answer document).
NUMBER OF ANSWER DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED: Print and grid the number of scorable answer documents to be processed. (Do not include voided answer documents in this count.)
CAMPUS NUMBER: Print and grid 777 (this is different than on the student answer document).
AGENCY USE: Print and grid the ZIP code of your test site (same as in "DISTRICT NAME" above).
STAAR END-OF-COURSE: Mark the circle for the course of scorable documents submitted.
STAAR ENGLISH and STAAR SPANISH: Mark one only.
n n Complete a STAAR Class Identification Sheet (green) with the following information:
CAMPUS NAME: Print the name of your test site.
CAMPUS AND DISTRICT NAMES
DISTRICT NAME: Print the city, state, and ZIP code where your test site is located.
NAME: Print and grid TMIP, City, and State.
GROUP (mark one only): Mark the circle for the course of the scorable documents submitted.
NUMBER OF ANSWER DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED UNDER THIS
IDENTIFICATION SHEET: Print and grid the number of answer documents to be processed. (Do not include voided answer documents in this count.)
n n If necessary, complete a STAAR Voided Answer Document Identification Sheet (gray).
Additionally, call the TMIP at 800-292-7006 if you need to void an answer document.
n n Paper-band and pack your materials in the following order, top to bottom:
STAAR Campus and Group Identification Sheet (pink)
TMIP Test Site Roster
STAAR Class Identification Sheet (green)
STAAR Voided Answer Document Identification Sheet (gray)
STAAR answer documents to be processed
Voided STAAR answer documents (if any)
All other materials
Use the pre-labeled carton to return these materials.
TEST
ADMINISTRATORS
STAAR Testing
District and Campus Coordinator Manual Resources
TEST ADMINISTRATORS STAAR Testing
As test sites prepare their secure test materials for return to the TMIP, they must verify that campus coordinators have
n n provided an accurate inventory of the materials submitted;
n n submitted all secure test booklets, griddable response documents, and scratch paper; and
n n assembled and packaged them correctly for return to the TMIP.
Student rosters, seating charts, and Oaths of Test Security and Confidentiality are also to be mailed back to the TMIP in the postage paid envelope that was provided by the TMIP. Copies of these documents must also be faxed to the TMIP at 956-702-6058, or emailed to firstname.lastname@example.org. If you received calculators or dictionaries, those will also need to be shipped back to the TMIP.
TAKS
Before TAKS Test Administration
Test sites for students participating in TAKS exit level tests must contact the TMIP in advance to ensure that an online testing infrastructure is in place and to register participating students in the TAKS Assessment Management System. Test sites should use the TAKS Assessment Management System User's Guide with the TMIP's assistance to navigate the system. TMIP will confirm that you have the necessary resources to administer an online test, register your students, and provide you with student login credentials.
Training and Materials
Attend Training
All test administrators and test materials handlers are required to be trained annually in test security and testing procedures and to sign an Oath of Test Security and Confidentiality. This training will be arranged through the TMIP. The signed Oath of Test Security and Confidentiality must be returned to the TMIP once testing has concluded.
Assemble TAKS Test Materials
For those administering paper tests, test booklets have been assigned to you using the unique nine-digit security number printed on each test booklet. The digit after the hyphen is used as a check digit only and should be ignored.
Verify that you have received the number of test booklets required and that you have received those test booklets assigned to you by security number. You are responsible for these test booklets until you return them to the testing contractor. Contact the TMIP for instructions for verifying this data.
All test materials must be kept in locked storage (e.g., in a locked closet or cabinet) when not in use.
TAKS Online Resources
TEST
ADMINISTRATORS
STAAR Testing
Directions for District Coordinators, Campus Coordinators, and Test Administrators— TAKS
Prepare for TAKS Online Test Administrations
Contact the TMIP to verify student participation in online administrations of TAKS. TMIP will confirm that you have the necessary resources to administer an online test, register your students, and provide you with student login credentials.
During TAKS Test Administration
Verify Examinee Identity
All examinees must present picture identification on the day of the assessment before they are allowed to test.
A driver's license, Department of Public Safety (DPS) ID, school ID, or resident alien card may be used to verify examinee identity. Contact the TMIP at 800-292-7006 if none of these IDs are available to verify an examinee's identity.
Ensuring Proper TAKS Testing Procedures
TAKS is untimed. Test sessions must be conducted under the best possible conditions. By following the proper procedures, you ensure the security and confidentiality of the TAKS testing program and the uniform evaluation of all Texas eligible examinees.
For instructions on proper testing procedures, refer to the Directions for District Coordinators, Campus Coordinators, and Test Administrators—TAKS. For additional questions or information, contact the TMIP at 800-292-7006.
Administering Each TAKS Subject-Area Test
The instructions for administering the TAKS tests can be found in the Directions for District Coordinators, Campus Coordinators, and Test Administrators—TAKS. In addition, refer to the TAKS Assessment Management System User's Guide for administration of TAKS online assessments.
Test administrators should maintain a roster and complete a seating chart that includes the date, time, test administrator name, and student name(s) for each test administration. Rosters and seating charts should be returned to the TMIP once testing has finished.
If you have any concerns during the administration of a test, contact the TMIP immediately for guidance.
After TAKS Test Administration
Completing Examinee Information
Ensure that the following information is provided on the demographic page in the online system before submitting for scoring. Some information may be precoded in the online system for students who are registered to participate in an assessment. Do not change this information unless instructed to do so by the TMIP.
MIGRANT USE ONLY
The county-district-campus (CDC) number of each student's or examinee's district and campus should be recorded in the box labeled FOR MIGRANT USE ONLY on the answer document, following the example below.
Example
The CDC number is extremely important to the student or examinee. This number determines where test results are sent and can affect the examinee's graduation status. Do call the TMIP or TEA for help in determining how to code the CDC number or any other part of the answer document if this information has been left blank.
TEST
ADMINISTRATORS
TAKS Testing
Directions for District Coordinators, Campus Coordinators, and Test Administrators— TAKS
TAKS Assessment Management System User's Guide
TAKS Online Resources
TEST ADMINISTRATORS TAKS Testing
Directions for District Coordinators, Campus Coordinators, and Test Administrators— TAKS
Score Codes
If a score code needs to be chosen, you will need to make these selections from the Manage Student Tests screen.
The score codes are as follows:
A = Absent
O = Other: student was not able to complete the test for reasons such as test administration irregularity, illness during testing, or court-ordered participation in an authorized high school equivalency program (HSEP)
S = Test to be scored
For instructions on correctly completing these fields, refer to the Directions for District Coordinators, Campus Coordinators, and Test Administrators—TAKS.
Packing TAKS Secure Materials for Return
For TAKS examinees, refer to the section, "Complete Online Administration Process," in the TAKS Manual for completing online administrations.
Returning TAKS Paper Materials
Immediately after testing, test sites are responsible for returning secure TAKS test materials to the TMIP. Secure test materials must be organized as instructed below and as directed by the TMIP.
n n Pack your materials in the following order, top to bottom: TMIP Test Site Roster Secure TAKS Test Booklets
n n All other materials
If possible, use the box(es) in which your materials arrived.
Returning STAAR and TAKS Test Materials to TMIP
All STAAR and TAKS test materials should be returned in the shipping box(es) provided to:
Texas Migrant Interstate Program 208 South Cesar Chavez Alamo, TX 78516
Test sites should return all calculators and dictionaries to TMIP as directed. Test administrator Oaths of Test Security, seating chart(s), and original shipping records should be returned to TMIP. The testing site may keep copies of the oaths, seating charts, and shipping records.
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Collaboration and Collective Bargaining in Service of Effective Implementation of Collegeand Career-Ready Standards: Overcoming Challenges and Advancing Student Learning
Challenge One: Professional Development
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
In July 2013, the U.S. Department of Education and seven co-sponsoring organizations 1 convened administrators from state education agencies and school districts and leaders from state and local teacher union affiliates to address the following questions:
The solutions group agreed that, pursued individually or simultaneously, one or both of these solutions can help districts and unions use professional development, as delivered by teacher leaders and/or cross-school networks, to help students meet the demands of CCR standards.
* How can districts and unions create or modify collective bargaining agreements and other joint policies and structures to meet demands for professional development aimed at implementing college- and career-ready (CCR) standards?
* How can they identify and implement professional development that is most likely to be effective?
* How can they support the continuous improvement of professional development systems across time?
After initial deliberation, the group agreed to concentrate on two separate solutions that it decided will help school districts and unions respond to these questions effectively. The first seeks to redefine teacher leadership and maximize the use and expand the reach of teacher leaders. This solution cascades into the group's second solution of establishing crossschool networks of educators to design and deliver professional learning experiences.
1 Convening co-sponsors included the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the National Education Association (NEA), the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS), the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), the National School Boards Association (NSBA), the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), and the U.S. Department of Education (ED).
SOLUTION 1: Redefine teacher leadership and maximize the reach of teacher leaders.
SOLUTION 2: Establish cross-school networks of educators to design and deliver professional learning experiences based on common interests and sets of needs – such as specific instructional shifts or grade and/or subject focus areas.
The brief offers a close look at the first and second solutions, while listing others the group identified but did not discuss in depth. For each of the two solutions, it examines steps necessary for implementation, describes what success might look like and identifies possible barriers to success, all as envisioned by the solutions group.
Solution 1: Redefine Teacher Leadership and Maximize the Reach of Teacher Leaders
Solution one, noted the group, is about effectively positioning teachers to take on additional leadership roles so they can reach and help other educators, and, in turn, improve student learning.
While teacher leaders have existed as an integral part of the teaching and learning landscape for some time, the solutions group suggested the role be redefined to sharpen its focus. For instance, the redefined role
should clearly specify that teacher leaders work to develop other colleagues and as a result should be experts on adult learning and group facilitation. According to solutions group members, these teacher leaders should also be masters of specific content, such as English language arts or science. In these roles, teacher leaders could coach colleagues or lead professional learning in groups.
Redefining the role, emphasized the solutions group, means articulating multiple paths to the teacher leader position. "One single, linear pathway would be insufficient," suggested several of the solutions group members. Given the multitude of school-based professional development needs and potential roles, flexibility in the model will be needed across a school district. Prospective candidates could either apply or volunteer for the position or work to advance on career pathway systems that include teacher leadership.
Once selected to participate, asserted solutions group members, districts and unions should hold teacher leaders to the same performance expectations that all teachers must meet. Teacher leaders would have to demonstrate effectiveness on multiple measures, including successful outcomes on measures of student growth in her own and in her mentees' classrooms.
Improving performance for teacher leaders would include feedback from mentees gathered through surveys over a period of time. Districts could use survey and other data – including achievement data – to gain a comprehensive understanding about performance.
Finally, agreed the solutions group, those selected for these roles should be given the time to perform this additional work and improve their craft. If not, districts should compensate teacher leaders for the time they put in after hours.
Promising Solutions for Future Exploration
In addition to discussing two solutions in depth, the group identified five additional promising solutions to enhance professional learning opportunities.
Solution: Use creative approaches to expand professional development time.
→ Optimize common planning time, faculty meetings and inter-visitations for meaningful professional learning for all educators.
→ Reconstruct the school day and year to enable better use of professional learning time for all educators.
Solution: Create a common professional learning experience across schools.
→ Labor and management come together to identify a common professional development experience that builds a consistent understanding of the CCR standards through professional learning modules that schools can adopt and deliver.
Solution: Deliver aligned professional learning that connects the CCR standards to teacher effectiveness and evaluation systems.
→ Labor and management should collaborate to coordinate and deliver this aligned professional learning.
Solution: Evaluate the effectiveness of professional learning and create a "seal of approval" based on key criteria.
→ Labor and management jointly evaluate programs and create a "seal of approval" for those that pass muster.
Solution: Conduct joint visitation and coaching of sites in need of support.
→ Labor and management co-visit sites in need of support and design professional development together and in collaboration with sites.
What Steps Are Necessary To Redefine and Maximize the Reach of Teacher Leaders?
The solutions group identified steps that a school or district might take to redefine teacher leadership and launch a teacher leadership program.
The first step, suggested the solutions group, is for district and union leadership to gain an understanding of the local, state and national teacher leadership landscape. For instance, they should determine what types of teacher leadership programs already exist locally or in their own and in other states. They should do their best to determine if these programs are having an impact on student learning. Such programs, the solutions group imagined, might offer inspiration and structural guidance for the design of their own programs.
Once district and union leadership understand the teacher leadership landscape, posited the solutions group, it is positioned to begin jointly designing the program. Initially, it is important that district and union leadership establish a set of clear goals that guide the teacher leadership program. These goals should be used to create a "vision of success," noted the group.
Next, offered the solutions group, district and union leaders should define the standards candidates must meet to become teacher leaders and the credentialing process they will undergo to demonstrate they have met the standards.
An agreement, perhaps through a Memorandum of Understanding, would be necessary to articulate the program structure, expectations and other key details. Further, noted several members of the group, contract language might be necessary to codify a career continuum that would include a teacher-leader position. Noted one member of the group, "Spelling out these details in the contract language ensures program continuity beyond leadership changes."
Prior to fully launching the teacher leadership program, the solutions group agreed that districts might choose to pilot or phase the program in to ensure that school districts and their partner unions can take the design construction elements to scale.
What Does Successful Implementation Look Like?
If district and union leadership work hand-in-hand to redefine and maximize the reach of teacher leaders, then, suggested the solutions group, schools and districts should expect certain indicators of success:
* All educators would be united by a shared moral imperative and collective vision of having a greater impact on student achievement.
* More decision-making would come from the bottom up, rather than top down, promoting shared responsibility and accountability.
* More teachers would visit each other's classrooms. They would offer feedback, collaborate and develop and deliver professional learning together.
* Teachers, school leaders and other educators would own their professional learning. They would take advantage of established career lattices that provide upward mobility.
* Teachers, school leaders and other educators would take risks and be more innovative. They would look at ways to collect and analyze more meaningful data to identify student strengths and weaknesses.
* Students would be on track to graduate college- and career- ready.
What Are Possible Barriers to Implementation?
The solutions group identified a single major barrier districts and unions must guard against when redefining teacher leadership and maximizing teacher leaders' reach: teachers simply don't have enough time to take on additional roles and responsibilities.
To address this barrier, districts must consider providing time within the school day for teachers to perform their leadership duties or paying stipends for teachers to execute the same in addition to a full load of teacher responsibilities.
Solution 2: Cross-School Networks of Educators Designing and Delivering Professional Learning Experiences
The group's second solution calls for the creation of cross-school networks of educators to design and deliver professional learning experiences based on a common interests and specific needs such as instructional "shifts" or grade and subject focus.
Ultimately, suggested the solutions group, labor and management should determine jointly the network design and structure. This includes addressing accountability, identifying necessary supports and determining a process for designing and building the network so that it most effectively meets the developmental needs of teachers and other educators.
The process for designing, building and launching the network should begin with an individual needs assessment designed by labor and management, posited the solutions group. But, members of the group suggested, this process should be informed by instructional needs identified by district evaluation systems and other measures of educator effectiveness. The networks would then design professional development opportunities to meet educator needs as self-identified or determined by educator effectiveness metrics and then deliver to individuals or collectives.
The solutions group suggested that the union and school district should unabashedly support the networks in a united front and design them for maximum flexibility so that they can be bold and innovative and engage in experimental approaches to professional development. At the same time, labor and management should design an accountability system for the networks to increase the likelihood that they will be successful.
What Steps Are Necessary to Implement Cross-School Networks?
The solutions group identified six steps that labor and management can take to implement cross-school networks aimed at delivering high-quality professional learning necessary to support implementation of new standards.
As an initial step, the solutions group recommended that labor and management jointly identify the design and expectations of the networks. This includes nonnegotiable design elements to which both parties agree. These could include the size of the network and the frequency at which they meet.
Once management and labor design the network and establish expectations for it, they should begin the process of evaluating how the district uses existing professional learning time and then carve out specific time for educators to work with the network on the professional development activities it designs, suggested solutions group members. Both, noted the solutions group, must commit to prioritizing time for professional learning.
Next, offered the solutions group, labor and management should conduct a needs assessment survey. The purpose of the survey would be to identify specific development needs of educators and use that information to inform the focus of the professional learning network.
After the district conducts the needs assessment, labor and management can work together to identify educators whom they can train to implement the network, which would include how to develop and implement feedback loops to inform the work and accountability for the network.
Finally, the solutions group suggested that labor and management revisit the various measures of educator effectiveness, including the evaluation frameworks, and the results of these measures to ensure they reflect and support professional learning as directed by the newly established networks.
What Does Successful Implementation Look Like?
Solution group members suggested that evidence of success could include the following:
The district would begin reviewing the various measures of educator effectiveness, such as the evaluation systems, to identify professional development needs of educators.
Great teachers and other educators would populate the networks and design and deliver high- quality professional learning.
There would be, as evidence of labor-management collaboration, contract language or a memorandum of understanding that addresses the design parameters and expectations for the networks.
Finally, the group posited that after one year of implementation, there would be in the field a strong demand for network support of educators.
What Are Possible Barriers to Implementation?
The solutions group identified six barriers that could make it difficult to implement professional learning networks:
1. Hesitance to shift control to teachers. The creation of networks requires a shift of control to teachers. Thus, central office, unions and site administrators must be prepared to give up their traditional control of professional learning.
2. Diffuse as opposed to coordinated messaging. Labor and Management must commit to using the same messages when it comes to discussing the network. This will ensure that all parties receive consistent information and understand the purpose of the network. At the outset, labor for developing communication messages and
and management should agree to clear processes methods of delivering those messages.
3. A lack of time. While the networks proposed by the solutions group are not new, especially when it comes to implementation of the CCR standards, districts, members suggested, rarely give them and the teachers they support time to lead or participate in them.
4. Professional learning networks or professional learning communities do not have great reputations among teachers. There seems to be a misunderstanding among the teacher corps about the purpose professional learning networks or professional learning communities. Responding to what they believe to be "initiative fatigue," teachers often do not participate in
them. Unions and school districts must demonstrate that the network efforts will result in increased student achievement.
5. Resistance to team participation. Today,
solutions group members suggested, some teachers would prefer to work alone or do not have the skills necessary for group participation. Lack of interest, the absence of immediate results and lack of time exacerbates these challenges. Districts and unions can offer support and training to prepare teachers for service in the network.
Reflections from the Convening Co-sponsors
Effective teachers and principals are career-long learners. Effective schools and districts are learning communities where teachers and principals individually and collaboratively continuously reflect on and improve their practice. Such communities of practice thrive when there is structured time for collaborative work informed by a rich array of data and access to internal and external expertise. We must take seriously the need to evaluate the efficacy of professional development so that we can more methodically improve it, channeling our investments into activities and supports that make a difference. From induction for novice teachers designed to accelerate their growth and development, to replicating the practices of the most accomplished teachers, professional development is a critical lever of improvement. Educators must develop greater competency in using professional development. And all stakeholders—parents, teachers, school boards, superintendents and administrators, business leaders, and community members—must take responsibility for the academic and social well-being of the students in our charge and engage in the strong, consistent, and sustained collaboration critical to making improvement possible.
A Word about This Brief
In late July 2013, as an extension to its 2011 and 2012 convenings to maximize labor-management collaboration, the U.S. Department of Education, in partnership with numerous national organizations, hosted state and local education leaders at GE Foundation's Summer Conference for Educators. Specifically, convening organizers asked participants to consider how structures and systems of collaborative labor relations—including collective bargaining and other agreements, joint committees and structures, and policies and practices—could be harnessed to better support teachers and leaders in implementing college- and careerready (CCR) standards. Convening organizers grouped participants in one of five teams each charged to consider one of five distinct CCR standards implementation challenges: Professional Development, Instructional Teamwork, Access to Quality Instruction in High-Need Schools, Student Time and Curricular and Instructional Materials.
This brief represents the best thinking of the Professional Development solutions group, which investigated the following questions:
* How can districts and unions create or modify collective bargaining agreements and other joint policies and structures to meet demand for professional development aimed at implementing CCR standards?
* How can they identify and implement professional development that is most likely to be effective?
* How can they support the continuous improvement of professional development systems across time?
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German Advisory Group
Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting
Policy Paper Series [PP/05/2010]
Reforming the Simplified Taxation for Individual Entrepreneurs in Ukraine
Ricardo Giucci, Robert Kirchner, Oleksandra Betliy, Thomas Otten
Berlin/Kyiv, August 2010
About the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting
Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER) is the leading Ukrainian analytical think tank focusing on economic research and policy advice. The IER was founded in October 1999 by top-ranking Ukrainian politicians and the German Advisory Group on Economic Reforms.
The mission of IER is to present an alternative point of view on key problems of social and economic development of Ukraine. In frame of the mission IER aims at providing top quality expertise in the field of economy and economic policy-making; acting as real leader of public opinion through organisation of open public dialog; contributing to the development of economic and political sciences as well as promoting development of Ukrainian research community.
Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting
Reytarska 8/5-A, 01034 Kyiv, Ukraine
Tel: +38 044 / 278 63 42
Fax: +38 044 / 278 63 36
email@example.com http://www.ier.kiev.ua
About the German Advisory Group
The German Advisory Group on Economic Reforms, which is active in Ukraine since 1994, advises the Ukrainian Government and other state authorities such as the National Bank of Ukraine on a wide range of economic policy issues and on financial sector development. Our analytical work is presented and discussed during regular meetings with high-level decision makers. The group is financed by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology under the TRANSFORM programme and its successor.
German Advisory Group
c/o BE Berlin Economics GmbH Schillerstr. 59 D-10627 Berlin
Tel: +49 30 / 20 61 34 64 0
Fax: +49 30 / 20 61 34 64 9 firstname.lastname@example.org www.beratergruppe-ukraine.de
© 2010 German Advisory Group
© 2010 Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting
All rights reserved.
Reforming the Simplified Taxation for Individual Entrepreneurs in Ukraine
Executive Summary
The administrative cost of running a business can be quite significant. In the case of individual entrepreneurs such cost could become rather prohibitive, given the limited size of economic activity of average individual entrepreneurs. For this reason, most countries decided to adopt simplified systems of accounting and taxation for these economic agents.
Ukraine is no exemption in this respect. In 1999, a Presidential Decree "On the simplified taxation, reporting and accounting scheme" became effective. The system became extremely popular; as of 1 January 2009, 1.7 m individual entrepreneurs used the system, which accounted for almost 2 m employees. Thus, from this point of view, the system is a huge success.
But unfortunately, the system has also a dark side. In particular, the system foresees a very low level of taxation and social contributions. Entrepreneurs with a yearly turnover of up to 500,000 UAH have to pay a maximum monthly tax payment of UAH 200, which is extremely low. This creates several problems. First, individual entrepreneurs face a much lower tax burden than other economic agents. Thus, this is not just a simplified, but a heavily subsidised system. Second, besides this being very unjust, the system creates incentives for tax avoidance and evasion, including fraud. Bigger companies are split into several individual entrepreneurs to reduce the tax and social contribution's burden; fake invoices are issued to companies that can fully deduct the cost of such invoices, and so on. In short, the system is highly unjust and deprives the government of a huge amount of tax revenues and social contributions. In our view, the current system is to be identified as one of the major fiscal problems in Ukraine as of today.
What is to be done? We think that the abolition of the system is not an option, since Ukraine needs individual entrepreneurs as well as individual entrepreneurs need a simplified system of taxation. Thus, the only way ahead is to reform the current system. The main objective of the reform should be to abolish the unjust and problematic subsidisation of these agents, while maintaining a certain level of simplification, as is the case e.g. in Germany. In this paper, we put forward a number of concrete steps, which would reform the system and lead to the desired results.
Authors
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their gratitude to a number of anonymous referees for providing comments to the paper. The usual disclaimer applies.
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Description of the current system
3. Assessment of the current system
3.1 Entrepreneurial perspective
3.2 Fiscal perspective
4. Proposals for reforming the current system
4.1 Strategic considerations
4.2 Discussion of concrete measures
Annexes
1. Introduction
Ukraine introduced a simplified tax system in 1998, which covers two types of economic subjects: Small companies and individual entrepreneurs. A very general assessment reveals that the system for small companies is working rather well. Thus, there is no major need for reform in this field and we will not deal with this issue on the paper. 1
But there are significant problems regarding the taxation of individual entrepreneurs. In particular, there is clear evidence that the system is misused for tax evasion and for reducing social contributions. Thus, the system poses a serious problem for fiscal and social policy. However, it has to be noted that the simplified taxation of individual entrepreneurs is very important for the development of the SME sector and thus for the whole economy: Around 2.4 m employees work under this scheme. Thus, abolishing the system is not an option. Instead, a reform of the system is needed. Such a reform is planned in the draft Tax Code, which is currently under preparation by the authorities.
The present paper deals with the crucial question of how to conduct such a reform. After a description of the current system (chapter 2) we provide a thorough economic assessment of the system (chapter 3). In chapter 4, we provide concrete policy recommendations on how to improve the system in the framework of the planned Tax Code.
2. Description of the current system
Legislative basis: In 1992, the Cabinet of Minister adopted a Decree on the payment of fixed taxes for physical persons - entrepreneurs dealing with retail trade. In 1998 the President approved the Decree "On the simplified taxation, reporting and accounting scheme", which was de facto introduced in 1999. 2 The new taxation scheme was envisaged for small entrepreneurs, both physical persons and legal entities.
Because of the co-existence of both Decrees, entrepreneurs - physical persons can choose between paying fixed taxes, unified tax or remaining under the general taxation scheme. Under the latter entrepreneurs – physical persons pay 15% as personal income tax (PIT). In this case, taxable income is the net income, i.e. the difference between the gross revenues (earnings in monetary and natural form) and documentarily confirmed expenditures directly related to the earning of income.
1 See Annex 1 for a short description of the simplified system of taxation for small companies.
2 The text of the Decree was changed in 1999. According to the Constitution of Ukraine, the Decree was supposed to be substituted by a respective law, although, it was not done so far.
The coverage of entrepreneurs by the unified tax is higher than by the fixed tax, due to the wider range of economic activities the unified tax envisages. Besides, it is more favourable than the general system due to lower rate and simpler reporting.
Eligibility criteria: The legislation defines the eligibility criteria for taxpayers under the simplified taxation (see Table 1). Entrepreneurs – physical persons should obtain the certificate for payment of the unified tax, the validity term of which cannot exceed one year. Prolongation of the certificate's validity for the next year shall be carried out if the proper application is submitted to the tax office.
Table 1: The eligibility criteria for simplified taxation scheme
Source: The Decree of the President of Ukraine "On the Simplified System of Taxation, Accounting and Reporting of the Entities of Small Entrepreneurship", the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers "On the personal income tax".
Level of taxation: The tax level is defined for each type of activity by local authorities in a specified range. The tax levels are progressive in terms of employment. In particular, tax liabilities are increased by 50% of individual tax level for each employee. Entrepreneur physical person is to pay unified tax monthly not later than 20 th day of the following month to a separate account of the State Treasury of Ukraine.
List of activities. Originally, physical persons trading alcoholic and tobacco products, fuels and lubricants could not use the simplified taxation scheme. In 2005, the list of activities excluded from the simplified taxation was extended to:
- gambling (including activities relating to the filing of casinos and other gambling places, slot machines with cash or avails, lotteries (including government) and draws with the issue of money winnings in the form of cash or property), exchange of foreign currency;
- manufacturers of excisable goods, the economic activity associated with the exports, imports and wholesale of excisable goods, wholesale and retail sale of excisable fuels and lubricants;
3 According to the Presidential Decree, the turnovers is defined as "gains from sale of produce (goods, works, services)", which is the amount, actually received by the subject of entrepreneurial activity to the settlement account or (and) in cash for performing operations on sale of produce (goods, works, services)". In case of operation on sale of fixed assets, gain means a difference between the amount, received from sale of these assets and their depreciated cost for the moment of sale.
- mining and production of precious metals and precious stones, precious stones organic movements; wholesale, retail industrial products from precious metals that are subject to licensing under the Law of Ukraine "On licensing certain types of business".
Accounting requirements: Accounting of incomes and expenditures shall be registered in the book. Entrepreneurs paying unified tax should fill out and submit to tax offices reports about unified tax payment on a quarterly basis. The report indicates the amount of earning, the amount of the unified tax paid, number of employees, and types of entrepreneurial activity. At the same time, fixed tax payers are exempt from the obligation to do accounting of incomes and expenditures; though, they are obliged to fill out and submit to the tax authorities on a quarterly basis a declaration on income generated. 4
Taxes replaced by simplified taxation: The unified tax replaces the following taxes and fees:
- Personal income tax (for entrepreneurs – physical persons)
- contributions for compulsory pension and social insurance for entrepreneurs
- VAT (except on cases, when legal entities chose method of taxation at a rate of 6%)
- enterprise profit tax
- land tax
- fee for special use of natural resources
- deductions and duties for construction, reconstruction, repair and maintenance of motorways of general use in Ukraine
- municipal taxes
- trade tax
- fee for a permit placement of trade and services
- fees for patents defined by the Law of Ukraine "On the patenting of certain types of business".
The fixed tax includes personal income tax, trade patent costs, trade taxes, and pension and social insurance contributions. The entrepreneurs are responsible for paying personal income tax and pension and social insurance contributions on behalf of their employees.
While the inclusion of some taxes and duties could be easily explained, some others create distortions. In particular, the inclusion of the local taxes and contributions of the pension
4 As for the entrepreneurs – physical persons working under general taxation system declarations are submitted quarterly within 40 calendar days of the quarter following the reporting one.
and other social insurance contribution is explained by the distribution of the tax (see Table 2). 5 At the same time, the inclusion of the VAT creates space for fraud as then entrepreneurs' invoices might result in lower VAT payments made by larger companies using entrepreneurs' services. The exemptions from fee for special use of natural resources results in the waste of natural resources.
Table 2: Distribution of taxes, %
Source: The Decree of the President of Ukraine "On the Simplified System of Taxation, Accounting and Reporting of the Entities of Small Entrepreneurship”, the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers “On the Personal Income Tax”.
3. Assessment of the current system
3.1. Entrepreneurial perspective
According to the recent Doing Business Report by the World Bank, Ukraine ranks 181 (out of 183) for the indicator of paying taxes, which signals about the complexity and costs of tax compliance in the country. 7 Figure 1 illustrates one of the components of the index in comparison with some other countries. An average company in Ukraine spends 848 hours per year on complying with EPT, VAT and payroll taxes, which places the country on the 175 th rank. The correspondent indicator amounts to 407 hours in Russia, 271 hours in Kazakhstan, while most OECD countries require less than 200 hours per company per year. Long procedures for paying taxes are partially attributed by the highest number of tax payments in Ukraine (147) in comparison to other countries. The total tax rate is also a problem (149 th rank).
5 Simplified taxes are paid to the special account in the State Treasury, and then distributed as illustrated in Table 2.
6 4% of the indicated 15% are transferred to the State Unemployment Insurance Fund and the rest to the State Fund of Insurance in Case of Temporary Loss of Ability to Work.
7 Doing Business 2009, World Bank.
Source: Doing Business 2009
Table 3 illustrates the annual person-hours and costs of tax compliance per one average company. Average relative costs of tax compliance are much higher for smaller enterprises. According to the World Bank, regressive tax compliance costs are common in most countries, but it is more severe in Ukraine, even taking into account the availability of simplified tax regimes for many types of small businesses.
Table 3: Person-hours and costs of tax compliance procedures
Source: The Costs of Tax Compliance in Ukraine. IFS, World Bank, Kyiv 2009
Note: Per average company, and among different companies
Overall, the VAT is recognised to be the most time-consuming tax, while unified tax is the least time-consuming (650 hours vs. 65 hours per year, respectively).
As it was described in the chapter 2, entrepreneurs – physical persons could work under three taxation schemes: general PIT, unified and fixed tax. The most favourable for economic activity is payment of the unified tax, which is characterised by the lowest ratio of business costs of tax compliance.
Table 4: Annual person-hours and costs of tax compliance procedures
Source: The Costs of Tax Compliance in Ukraine. IFS, World Bank, Kyiv 2009
Note: Per single entrepreneur
Unified taxes for physical persons allowed development of small entrepreneur's activity in Ukraine. Some individuals legalised their small business. Many people in retail trade and individual services legalised their business. Besides, this taxation scheme was used by small manufacturing, e.g. in light industry. During its 11 years of existence, the economic importance of the simplified taxation scheme increased significantly. According to the State Committee of Ukraine on Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship the number of unified tax payers increased by 12 times (from 95,000 in 1999 to 1.1 m in 2009), while tax collections grew by 34 times (in nominal terms). The simplified system of taxation became also important for employment. Overall, 1.7 m entrepreneurs using simplified taxation scheme employ officially around 2 m employees.
Table 5: Number of payers under simplified scheme of taxation, as of January 1, 2009
Source: State Committee of Ukraine on Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship
To sum up, the simplified taxation scheme made a strong contribution for the development of small business in Ukraine. This view is shared by most entrepreneurs themselves, which represent a clear political force with strong possibilities for lobbying and also strong weapons in their hands. This political reality has to be taken into account when formulation recommendations regarding the current system.
Conclusion 1: From an entrepreneurial perspective, the simplified taxation of individual entrepreneurs is a key factor for SME development and thus positive from an economic point of view.
3.2. Fiscal perspective
While the entrepreneurial perspective is very important for the assessment of the economic benefits of the simplified taxation of individual entrepreneurs, it needs to be complemented by a fiscal perspective. The fiscal point of view reveals that the simplified taxation of individual entrepreneurs entails several serious problems: There are a number of incentives to migrate both legally and illegally from the regular tax/payroll tax system, which results in tax base erosion and a loss in tax revenue.
The following two sections give concrete examples for a number of shortcomings of the current system:
(i) Fake invoices for money laundering
The following example shall illustrate our case: Individual entrepreneur A sends an invoice to company B which works under the general taxation system. The consequences in terms of taxation are as follows:
- For entrepreneur A, there is no influence on the tax burden, because of fix taxation (Assumption: turnover limit not surpassed).
- For company B, the invoice can be deducted as a cost item, which lowers its profit tax burden (Corporate Income Tax, CIT).
Thus, if we consider the whole transaction (involving A + B), the invoice lowers the overall tax burden. The consequence of this is clear: There is a strong incentive for A and B to find an "arrangement". This could take the concrete form where A "sells" to B an invoice, for which no services were provided. Indeed, this practice seems widespread, as many business people confirm. This is even so widespread, that a market price for this "service" is available: apparently 3% to 7% of the invoice amount. This means that after 100% has been paid officially from B to A according to the invoice, 93-97% is paid back to B in cash.
Of course, it does not need to be stressed that this practice is illegal. However, how to control it and punish the guilty parties? The costs for the tax administration to control such abuses are very, probably prohibitively high. Thus, this must be considered a fundamental weakness in the construction of this system, with the consequence of a huge loss in foregone tax revenues for the authorities.
(ii) Break down of big companies into several individual entrepreneurs
As the tax compliance costs are much lower for companies working under simplified taxation, some SME under general taxation scheme decided to split in order to meet special requirements. The results are reduction of tax savings. The process of splitting was very common in the beginning of the new millennium. However, starting 2004 there was partially a reversal trend, when companies were uniting all divisions including small entrepreneurs into one big company. Such reversal of trend was explained by a growing market, improved access to financing at home and abroad (both through banks and IPOs) for large companies and other economic factors.
The following example could be used for the illustration of tax savings in case of transferring to simplified taxation scheme: 8
Take a company on general taxation working in consulting (therefore, low input costs). The company employs 50 employees. It has turnover at UAH 5 m, costs at UAH 4 m. As a result, its EPT payment is supposed to be UAH 250,000.
In order to save money on taxes, the company decided to break onto 10 individual entrepreneurs. Each entrepreneur has 5 employees and turnover at UAH 0.5 m. The annual unified tax to be paid is UAH 8,400 (out of which the monthly unified tax for the individual entrepreneur is UAH 200, and UAH 100 is paid monthly for each employee). Together they pay UAH 84,000, which is almost three times lower than under general taxation.
8 The example is rather illustrative and does not totally reflect the real situation.
Table 6: Numerical Example
Source: Own display
Large potential tax saving create substantial incentive for break fragmentation. Besides, companies might decide to hire small entrepreneur than increase number of staff in order to save payroll.
Therefore, the current regulation on the simplified taxation results in:
* Horizontal inequality in the system (individual entrepreneur is treated differently in taxation, than someone doing the same job in a company for the same salary);
* Vertical inequality (people under simplified taxation are likely to receive higher net salaries that employees under regular system);
* Inefficiency: This break-down for tax purposes only might run contrary to economyof-scale arguments and lower productivity.
Conclusion 2: From a fiscal perspective, the simplified taxation of individual entrepreneurs involves severe loopholes and possibilities for tax evasion and tax base erosion (PIT, CIT, VAT, payroll taxes). Thus, the system has to be considered as a major problem of the fiscal system.
4. Proposals for reforming the current system
4.1. Strategic consideration
s
Table 7 presents the main advantages and disadvantages for maintaining, abolishing, or reforming the system in a structured form. We believe that a reform of the system (option 3) should be the priority option for Ukraine, since abolishing the system is neither
economically sensible nor politically feasible.
Table 7: Strategic reform options
Source: Own display
4.2. Policy recommendations
Table 8 summarizes our policy recommendations regarding simplified taxation. The measures are structured in several directions: fields of activities, turnover and tax level, participation in social security system, control, etc. In the table we have included several issues under discussion, which the government should in our view not introduce in the Tax Code.
Annex 1: On simplified taxation for small companies
Small business is eligible for using the simplified taxation scheme if its annual turnover is less than UAH 1 m. The maximum number of employees is set at 50 persons. For small business there are two basic tax rates: A company pays the unified tax either at 6% of turnover plus VAT, or only at 10% of turnover. The tax collections are shared between the local budgets, the Pension Fund and other state social security funds.
The simplified scheme of taxation does not apply for:
- trust companies, insurance companies, banks, other financial institutions;
- small business with more than 25% of shares owned by members and founders of large and middle-size companies.
Annex 2: Definition of main terms used
1) Fixed tax for physical persons includes:
− Payroll tax;
− Duties for construction, reconstruction, maintenance of roads of common use in Ukraine;
− Social insurance contributions;
− Fee to the Fund of invalids' protection.
2) Unified tax for physical persons includes:
− VAT;
− PIT;
− Land tax;
− Duty of the special use of resources;
− Social insurance contributions;
− Duties for construction, reconstruction, maintenance of roads of common use in Ukraine;
− Compulsory pension insurance contribution;
− Fee to the Fund of invalids' protection.
3) Unified tax for legal entities includes:
− VAT (except of case, when entity of the entrepreneurship activity pays tax at the level of 6%);
− EPT;
− Land tax;
− Duty of the special use of resources;
− Social insurance contributions;
− Duties for construction, reconstruction, maintenance of roads of common use in Ukraine;
− Compulsory pension insurance contribution;
− Fee to the Fund of invalids' protection;
− Payments of patent according to the Law "On the patenting of some types of entrepreneurship activity".
List of recent Policy Papers
* FDI Promotion in Ukraine: Blueprint for a Restart, by Alexander Knuth, Ricardo Giucci, Anna Chukhai, Policy Paper 04, August 2010
* Credit Crunch in Ukraine: Facts, Causes and How to Restart Lending, by Ricardo Giucci, Robert Kirchner, Vitaliy Kravchuk, Policy Paper 03, June 2010
* Trade policy in Ukraine: Strategic aspects and next steps to be taken, by Veronika Movchan, Ricardo Giucci, Kateryna Kutsenko, Policy Paper 02, April 2010
* Changing Ukraine's accounting and reporting system: Economic necessity and practical reform steps, by Robert Kirchner, Ricardo Giucci, Thomas Otten, Policy Paper 01, April 2010
* Prospects for Ukraine's steam coal industry – high time for reform , by Lars Handrich, Ferdinand Pavel, Dmytro Naumenko, Policy Paper 09, November 2009
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* Exporting electricity to the EU – more than switching frequencies, by Georg Zachmann, Dmytro Naumenko Policy Paper 07, November 2009
* Current issues of monetary policy in Ukraine by Ricardo Giucci, Robert Kirchner, Vitaliy Kravchuk, Policy Paper 06, November 2009
* Administrative measures to support the hryvnia: An appropriate instrument of exchange rate policy?, by Ricardo Giucci, Robert Kirchner, Vitaliy Kravchuk, Policy Paper 05, October 2009
* The gas challenge. On securing natural gas transits and stabilising the domestic market in Ukraine, by Ferdinand Pavel and Dmytro Naumenko Policy Paper 04, July 2009
* Only the fast privatization of Ukrtelecom will secure the further development of the telecommunication sector in Ukraine, by Lars Handrich, Policy Paper 03, July 2009
* How to develop a public debt market for retail investors?, by Ricardo Giucci, Robert Kirchner and Cyrus de la Rubia, Policy Paper 02, July 2009
* The Role of Trade Policy in Reducing Ukraine's Current Account Deficit - Lessons from Abroad, by Christian Helmers, Veronika Movchan, Ricardo Giucci and Kateryna Kutsenko Policy Paper 01, March 2009
* Assessing the impact of the protracted economic slowdown on the pension insurance in Ukraine: Hope for the best, but prepare fort he worst! by Lars Handrich, Oleksandra Betliy, Policy Paper 10, December 2008
* Developing the market for foreign exchange derivates in Ukraine: Sequencing the reform steps, by Robert Kirchner, Ricardo Giucci , Alla Kobylyanska, Policy Paper 09, December 2008
* Deposit Insurance in Ukraine: Time for Reform?, by Ricardo Giucci, Robert Kirchner, Policy Paper 08, November 2008
* Principles and methods of targeted social assistance: Policy recommendations for Ukraine, by Lars Handrich and Oleksandra Betliy, Policy Paper 07, October 2008.
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FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee,
No. 04-50037
v.
LAZARO HUERTA-PIMENTAL, aka Jose Huerta,
D.C. No. CR-97-03128-NAJ
OPINION
Defendant-Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California Napoleon A. Jones, District Judge, Presiding
Submitted April 12, 2006* Pasadena, California
Filed April 24, 2006
Before: Harry Pregerson, A. Wallace Tashima, and
Richard A. Paez, Circuit Judges.
Opinion by Judge Paez
*This panel unanimously finds this case suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
COUNSEL
Angela M. Krueger, Steven F. Hubachek, Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc., San Diego, California, for the defendantappellant.
Carol C. Lam, United States Attorney, Joseph H. Huynh, Assistant United States Attorney, San Diego, California, for the plaintiff-appellee.
OPINION
PAEZ, Circuit Judge:
Huerta-Pimental appeals the revocation of his term of supervised release and the subsequent imposition of additional imprisonment for violating the conditions of release. Specifically, Huerta-Pimental asserts that the district court lacked jurisdiction to revoke his term of supervised release and to impose a new term of imprisonment because the original imposition of supervised release as a part of his sentence was unconstitutional under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), and Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296 (2004). Huerta-Pimental argues that, because the statute under which he was convicted, 8 U.S.C. § 1326, does not mandate the imposition of supervised release, the district court exposed him to additional punishment beyond the maximum sentence authorized by § 1326 by imposing it pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3583. Huerta-Pimental also directly challenges the revocation proceedings under the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005).1
1We deferred submission of Huerta-Pimental's appeal pending the Supreme Court's decision in Booker, and ordered supplemental briefing
We conclude § 3583 supervised release is constitutional under Apprendi, Blakely, and Booker. Because supervised release is imposed as part of the sentence authorized by the fact of conviction and requires no judicial fact-finding, it does not violate the Sixth Amendment principles recognized by Apprendi and Blakely. For the same reasons, a district court's decision to revoke supervised release and impose associated penalties is also constitutional. Additionally, because the revocation of supervised release and imposition of an additional term of imprisonment is discretionary, neither violates Booker. Accordingly, we affirm.
I
In 1998, the District Court for the Southern District of California sentenced Huerta-Pimental to sixty-three months of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release after he pled guilty to attempting to enter the United States illegally, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a), (b)(2). Upon completion of his prison term, Huerta-Pimental was removed to Mexico. Approximately five months later, in April 2003, he was again arrested for attempting to reenter the United States illegally. He again pled guilty to a § 1326 violation, this time in the District Court for the Western District of Texas, which sentenced him to seventy months of imprisonment.
Three months later, on petition by a Southern District of California probation officer, Huerta-Pimental was brought back before the same district judge who sentenced him in 1998 for a supervised release revocation hearing. At that hearing, he argued that the court lacked jurisdiction to revoke his on the impact of that case and our own United States v. Ameline , 409 F.3d 1073 (9th Cir. 2005) (en banc). Because Huerta-Pimental limits his Booker challenge only to the revocation of supervised release rather than its original imposition, we limit our Booker analysis to the revocation of supervised release.
term of supervised release and impose additional prison time because its initial imposition was unconstitutional under Apprendi. The court disagreed. It found that Huerta-Pimental violated the conditions of supervised release imposed in 1998. The court then revoked the remainder of that term pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)(3) and imposed twenty-four months of imprisonment. This timely appeal followed.
II
This court has jurisdiction to review criminal sentences under 18 U.S.C. § 3742 and judgments of conviction as final orders under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review de novo the constitutionality of a statute as a question of law. See United States v. Carranza, 289 F.3d 634, 643 (9th Cir. 2002).
III
Huerta-Pimental challenges the district court's revocation of supervised release and the imposition of an additional term of imprisonment by attacking indirectly the court's original inclusion of supervised release as part of his 1998 sentence. He argues that, because § 1326 does not mandate the imposition of supervised release, the district court's decision to impose it under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(a)2 unconstitutionally exposed him to punishment beyond the maximum authorized by § 1326 in violation of Apprendi. Huerta-Pimental argues that, as a result, the district court lacked jurisdiction to revoke
2Section 3583(a) provides:
The court, in imposing a sentence to a term of imprisonment for a felony or a misdemeanor, may include as a part of the sentence a requirement that the defendant be placed on a term of supervised release after imprisonment, except that the court shall include as a part of the sentence a requirement that the defendant be placed on a term of supervised release if such a term is required by statute or if the defendant has been convicted for the first time of a domestic violence crime as defined in section 3561(b).
supervised release and impose an additional term of imprisonment. We disagree.
Huerta-Pimental's argument rests on a mistaken conception of the nature of supervised release within the federal sentencing structure and of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)'s sentencing factors. Supervised release is an integral part of the federal sentencing structure, similar in purpose and scope to its predecessor, parole. See Johnson v. United States, 529 U.S. 694, 696-97, 708-09 (2000) (discussing the replacement of supervised release for parole by the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 and the underlying congressional policy to provide it as a mechanism "to improve the odds of a successful transition from the prison to liberty"). Supervised release "as part of a sentence" is expressly authorized by § 3583 whether or not it is mandated by a statute of conviction or otherwise.3 18 U.S.C. § 3583(a) (1998).
When determining whether to impose a term of supervised release under § 3583, a sentencing court must consider various sentencing factors listed in § 3553(a). The court must also impose certain conditions with which the defendant must comply while on supervised release. See 18 U.S.C. § 3583(c), (d). A court may also exercise its discretion to "modify, reduce or enlarge" the conditions of supervised release as warranted. 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e). Finally, a sentencing court may "revoke a term of supervised release, and require a defendant to serve in prison all or part of the term" if it finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant violated any of its conditions. Id.
3Although the then mandatory Sentencing Guidelines required the imposition of supervised release at the time Huerta-Pimental was originally sentenced, see U.S.S.G. § 5D1.1(a), Huerta-Pimental argues only that imposition in his case pursuant to § 3583 was unconstitutional under Apprendi. Accordingly, we address only Apprendi's effect on discretionary imposition under § 3583.
[1] Huerta-Pimental argues that, both generally and in his case, this supervised release scheme violates the constitutional holdings of Apprendi and Blakely. In those cases, the Supreme Court reiterated that the Sixth Amendment requires any fact, other than the fact of a prior conviction, that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum be submitted to a jury and proved beyond a reasonable doubt, unless such facts are admitted by a defendant or found by a judge following a defendant's knowing and voluntary waiver. See Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 476; Blakely, 542 U.S. at 303, 309.
[2] As to the imposition of supervised release, HuertaPimental's argument assumes that the terms of a statute of conviction alone govern the scope of punishment that may be imposed at sentencing. Huerta-Pimental argues that, because § 1326 does not expressly provide for the inclusion of supervised release, see 8 U.S.C. § 1326 (providing that after conviction "such alien shall be fined under title 18, United States Code, imprisoned . . . or both"), including it as part of a sentence pursuant to § 3583(a) amounts to additional punishment beyond the maximum authorized by the statute of conviction. This assumption is incorrect. Section 3583, one of several statutes that together govern the federal criminal sentencing structure, authorizes the imposition of supervised release upon conviction of a qualifying offense.4 See United States v. Montenegro-Rojo, 908 F.2d 425, 431-32 (9th Cir. 1990) (holding § 3583(a) "itself authorizes a term of supervised release in addition to a maximum term of imprisonment" authorized by the statute of conviction). Indeed, it is well settled that supervised release, whether or not mandated by the
4See, e.g., 18 U.S.C. §§ 3553 (requiring the court to impose an appropriate sentence upon conviction), 3571 (permitting a court to impose a fine as part of a sentence). Thus, upon conviction of a qualifying offense, a federal criminal sentence may include a fine, imprisonment, and supervised release. A violation of § 1326 is a qualifying offense. See 8 U.S.C. § 1326 (directing that violators be sentenced "under title 18, United States Code").
statute of conviction, is not additional punishment. Instead, it is part of the original sentence authorized by conviction. See 18 U.S.C. § 3583(a) (expressly authorizing a court to include "as part of the sentence" a term of supervised release); United States v. Soto-Olivas, 44 F.3d 788, 790 (9th Cir. 1995) ("By the plain language of the statute, supervised release, although imposed in addition to the period of incarceration, is 'a part of the sentence.' . . . Thus, the entire sentence, including the period of supervised release, is the punishment for the original crime." (citations omitted)). It is immaterial for our Apprendi analysis that § 1326 does not itself mandate the imposition of supervised release.
[3] Moreover, § 3583 does not, as Huerta-Pimental argues, require constitutionally impermissible judicial fact-finding. As noted, when imposing supervised release, § 3583 directs that a sentencing judge "shall consider" various factors listed in § 3553(a). 18 U.S.C. § 3583(a), (e). Those factors, however, simply guide a judge's exercise of discretion. They are not a "checklist of requisite[ ]" facts, each of which a judge must find before imposing a term of supervised release. United States v. Johnson, 998 F.2d 696, 698 (9th Cir. 1993).
[4] Thus, Huerta-Pimental's challenge to the district court's imposition of supervised release simply fails to engage Apprendi. The inclusion of a term of supervised release as a part of Huerta-Pimental's original sentence neither exposed him to additional punishment above the statutory maximum nor required the court to engage in constitutionally impermissible judicial fact-finding. In holding that Apprendi has no effect on the imposition of § 3583 supervised release, we join the First Circuit which has reached the same conclusion. See United States v. Work, 409 F.3d 484, 489-91 (1st Cir. 2005) (finding no Apprendi/Blakely error in the imposition of supervised release under § 3583).
Accordingly, we reject Huerta-Pimental's Apprendi challenge and his related argument that the district court lacked jurisdiction to revoke his supervised release.
Huerta-Pimental also challenges directly the district court's supervised release revocation and imposition of additional imprisonment under Booker, 543 U.S. at 230-31. HuertaPimental argues that revocation is unconstitutional because Booker makes Apprendi applicable to a judge's preponderance of the evidence finding that a defendant has violated the conditions of supervised release. See 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)(3). Again, we disagree.
[5] Reasoning from its Sixth Amendment holding in Apprendi, the Supreme Court in Booker held that, in so far as the federal Sentencing Guidelines were mandatory, they were unconstitutional. 543 U.S. at 230-31, 244. The Court remedied that infirmity by making the Guidelines advisory. See id. at 258-59 (severing and excising their mandatory provisions, 18 U.S.C. §§ 3553(b)(1), 3742(e)). Subsequently, in Ameline, this court recognized that, in addition to the constitutional error directly addressed in Booker, nonconstitutional plain error exists in every case where a sentence was imposed by a district judge who, before Booker, treated the Guidelines as mandatory but would have imposed a materially different sentence had the judge known that the Guidelines were advisory. 490 F.3d at 1084-85. Having considered Huerta-Pimental's argument, we conclude that Booker has no effect on the revocation of supervised release. It is clear from Booker that there is no Sixth Amendment Apprendi violation so long as the Guidelines are advisory. 543 U.S. at 226-27.
[6] Because the revocation of supervised release and the subsequent imposition of additional imprisonment is, and always has been, fully discretionary, it is constitutional under Booker. See U.S.S.G. ch. 7 (promulgating advisory policy statements concerning violations of probation and supervised release); 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)(3) (authorizing, but not requiring, revocation and subsequent imprisonment following a violation of supervised release conditions). Nor is there nonconstitutional Booker error in appellant's case. Despite the likelihood that the district court considered the Guidelines mandatory when it imposed Huerta-Pimental's original sentence in 1998, it is implausible that, given their expressly advisory nature in the context of a supervised release revocation proceeding, the district court would have considered them mandatory at the 2003 revocation hearing.
Moreover, as above, Huerta-Pimental's argument again fails to engage Apprendi. We have held unequivocally that imposition of imprisonment following the revocation of supervised release is part of the original sentence authorized by the fact of conviction and does not constitute additional punishment beyond the statutory maximum. See United States v. Liero, 298 F.3d 1175, 1178 (9th Cir. 2002) (affirming circuit precedent holding that "the punishment for violating the conditions of supervised release is itself a part of the original sentence"). Nor does a judge's finding, by a preponderance of the evidence, that defendant violated the conditions of supervised release raise Sixth Amendment concerns. There is no right to a jury trial for such post-conviction determinations. See Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 480-88 (1972) (holding that parole revocation proceedings require only basic due process rather than the full protection of the Sixth Amendment because they are "not part of a criminal prosecution"); United States v. Hall, 419 F.3d 980, 985 n.4 (9th Cir. 2005) (holding parole, probation, and supervised release are "constitutionally indistinguishable" and thus, subject to the same analysis).
[7] We note, again, that our analysis of Booker's impact on supervised release revocation comports with that of our sister circuits that have addressed the issue. See Work, 409 F.3d at 492 (holding that, because the portions of the Guidelines dealing with revocation of supervised release were deemed advisory even before Booker and remain so, "resort to them, cannot constitute Booker error'); United States v. McNeil, 415 F.3d 273, 276 (2d Cir. 2005) (concluding the supervised release revocation scheme "remains unaffected by Booker"); United States v. Hinson, 429 F.3d 114, 116-117 (5th Cir. 2005) (holding that, because revocation is discretionary, Booker's Sixth Amendment concerns "do not exist with regard to sentences imposed when supervised release is revoked"); United States v. Coleman, 404 F.3d 1103, 1104 (8th Cir. 2005) ("Indeed, the advisory sentencing guidelines scheme that Booker creates is precisely what prevailed before Booker with respect to fixing penalties for violating the kind of release conditions . . . [defendant] violated . . . .").
V
[8] The district court's ruling that Apprendi does not render § 3583 supervised release unconstitutional was correct. Supervised release, its revocation, and associated penalties are part of the original sentence authorized by the fact of conviction, none of which requires impermissible judicial fact-finding. Nor does the revocation of supervised release run afoul of either the Supreme Court's holding in Booker or our own in Ameline; it remains a valid part of the federal sentencing scheme.
AFFIRMED.
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Fluoridation Advisory Committee Recommendations to the Department of Health Services
BACKGROUND
Dental Disease in Sonoma County
Poor dental health is a serious problem in Sonoma County. More than half (51%) of Sonoma County children have tooth decay and 18% experience untreated decay. Preserving dental health requires a multifaceted approach. The Department of Health Services (DHS) has identified and is currently working on 5 key strategies, or Pillars, to improve dental health in Sonoma County. The 5 Pillars of Dental Health focus both on methods to improve individual health as well as methods to improve health on a community level. The 5 Pillars of Dental Health are:
1. Community Education
2. Fluoride Varnish
3. Community Water Fluoridation
4. Sealants
5. Access to Dental Care
The widest-reaching and most cost-effective of the Pillars is community water fluoridation (CWF). CWF is a nationally recognized method through which community and individual health can be improved. CWF has been reported to reduce cavities in individuals of all ages, with an average of a 25% reduction in tooth decay. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognize CWF as one of the top ten public health achievements of the 20th Century. In Sonoma County, CWF has been recommended to the Board of Supervisors as a primary means of preventing tooth decay and improving dental health by the 2011-2014 Community Health Needs Assessment, the Sonoma County Smile Survey, and the Oral Health Task Force.
Fluoridation Advisory Committee
Purpose
DHS, at the direction of the Board of Supervisors, convened a Fluoridation Advisory Committee (FAC) in 2013 to provide guidance to DHS. The FAC was tasked with gathering and reviewing relevant data on public health, the environment, engineering, engineering costs, and planning related to CWF in Sonoma County. The FAC received community input in this process. The ultimate goal of the FAC was to use this process to develop recommendations regarding the feasibility of CWF for consideration by DHS.
Membership
The FAC has a diverse membership of key stakeholders, including dentists, physicians, and individuals from the Sonoma County Water Agency, Department of Health Services, community health centers, nonprofits, hospitals, and environmental groups. Please see appendix for a complete list of members and their affiliations.
Public Process
The FAC has convened nine times since May 2013. In accordance with the Brown Act, all meetings have been open to the public and afforded time for public comment. The FAC received and reviewed journal articles, documents, and comments submitted by both FAC members and the public. FAC agendas, meeting summaries, and meeting packet contents are posted to the FAC website http://www.sonoma-county.org/health/meetings/fac.asp.
Approximately 15 to 25 people from the general public attended multiple FAC meetings. The public who attended the meetings and commented were almost unanimously against water fluoridation.
Meetings and Presentations
| | Meeting | Presentation Topics |
|---|---|---|
| | Date | |
| 5/14/13 | | Dental Health in Sonoma County |
| 6/24/13 | | Draft Preliminary Engineering Report Environmental Issues Dental Health Care in Sonoma County: Preliminary Costs and Investments Fluoridation in California |
| 10/21/14 | | Assessment of Potential Impacts to Federally Listed Salmonids from Community Water Fluoridation in Sonoma County |
| 11/14/14 | | Sonoma County 2014 Smile Survey: An Oral Health Assessment of Sonoma County Kindergarten and Third Grade Children The Cost of Dental Disease and Prevention Strategies in Sonoma County |
| 12/8/14 | | Fluoridation Facilities Engineering Preliminary Design |
| 1/27/15 | | Summary of Reports |
RECOMMENDATION
Upon reviewing of all the information presented, Fluoridation Advisory Committee submits the following recommendation to the Department of Health Services regarding community water fluoridation in Sonoma County:
The Fluoridation Advisory Committee agrees on the critical importance of adequate dental health for everyone.
Community water fluoridation is one of the strategies along with increased access to dental care, sealants, community education, and fluoride varnish to prevent dental disease as described by the Sonoma County Department of Health Services.
After review of the technical, environmental, and health information and presentations, the Fluoridation Advisory Committee concludes that community water fluoridation is feasible. While the optimal concentration is 0.7 ppm, the actual concentration may be lower based on geographic location and time. Furthermore, the preliminary engineering design reports supporting the Fluoridation Advisory Committee investigation estimated the Sonoma County Water Agency cost for community water fluoridation to be $4.5 million in capital cost and $581,000 in annual operations and maintenance for Phase 1 and 2.
The FAC puts forth the following recommendation recognizing that two members of the committee are not in support of community water fluoridation and recommend that the Department of Health not pursue community water fluoridation as a preventive option.
The FAC recommends to the Department of Health Services to determine the funding for community water fluoridation within the parameters of the estimated capital and ongoing costs and without impact on the tax payers and water rate payers in accordance with existing laws; and
That once funding is identified, that it includes the cost of on-going monitoring of potential impact of fluoridation in the water downstream on federally listed salmonids; and
Finally, that with sufficient funding the Department of Health Services should proceed to the engineering and design phase, including issuance of bid packages.
The FAC encourages the Department of Health Services to proceed with dispatch so as to address this important concern of the community, yet not at the sacrifice of the other four strategies for dental health.
FLUORIDATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE PRESENTATION SUMMARIES
The following are titles and descriptions of the presentations provided to the FAC. PowerPoint slides of the presentations are available on the FAC website:
http://www.sonoma-county.org/health/meetings/fac_archive.asp
Dental Health in Sonoma County
Presenter: Dr. Lynn Silver Chalfin
Organization: Department of Health Services
Poor dental health is a leading cause of a preventable illness in Sonoma County children. Every day 10-12 children undergo general anesthesia to treat severe dental disease. Others develop pain, abscesses, miss school, or suffer lost teeth. One out of three low-income elderly adults has no teeth. Dental health requires a multifaceted approach. The Five Pillars of Dental Health in Sonoma County are: 1) Access to Dental Care 2) Dental Sealants 3) Fluoride Varnishes 4) Community Education and 5) Community Water Fluoridation. Fluoride is natural, effective, and safe. Every $1 spent on community water fluoridation returns $38 in savings on dental expenses.
Fluoridation in California
Presenter: Dr. Lynn Silver Chalfin
Organization: Department of Health Services
AB 733 1995: Water systems with 10,000 connections or more must fluoridate if funds are provide from a source other than the rate payers or taxpayers. The percent of California residents receiving fluoridated water increased from 16% in 1990 to 62% in 2010. Regions receiving fluoridated water include San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, Alameda, Santa Clara, Solano and San Mateo. A regional approach to community water fluoridation is cost effective. It often saves retailers costs and avoids costly engineering solutions. Fluoridation is a multi-year effort.
Dental Health Care in Sonoma County: Preliminary Costs and Investments
Presenter: Kim Caldewey
Organization: Department of Health Services
The total charge for dental hospitalizations has been increasing since 2005, with a spike after 2009 when state Medi-Cal eliminated dental benefits for adults. In 2012, over $1.2 million were charged for Sonoma County hospital treatment of severe dental disease. The average amount paid by Denti-Cal and federal funds for ER visits was only $133, while the average cost at one Sonoma County hospital was $1,236. According to two hospital emergency departments, the top five dental related visits were related to dental decay, abscess, gum disease, and other dental disorders such as dental pain, swollen jaw, or fractured or chipped tooth. At the Pediatric Dental Initiative surgery center, the average cost per patient is $1,471. In 2012, at least $1,217,988 can be attributed to Sonoma County patients alone. More than $11.8 million has been invested in expanding education and access for low-income populations in Sonoma County, including new dental clinics at Sonoma Valley Health Center and Santa Rosa Community Health Center and dental days at WIC.
Environmental Issues
Presenter: Dr. Lynn Silver Chalfin
Organization: Department of Health Services
This presentation was not a full report on environmental issues. It responded to the following concerns: 1) Where does the water go? 2) How will fluoride affect aquatic life? 3) How will fluoride affect salmon populations? and 4) Can recycled water be used? Most literature demonstrates negative effects for fluoride on aquatic life only at significantly higher levels than used for water fluoridation (approximately 60-500 times higher). The working group recommends identifying an external environmental consultant to develop a technical report based on a comprehensive literature review and interpretation of the impacts of fluoridation on water quality and ESA listed species and mathematical modeling approach to predict fluoride concentration in effluent.
Assessment of Potential Impacts to Federally Listed Salmonids from Community Water Fluoridation in Sonoma County
Presenter: Steve Huntley
Organization: Cardno Entrix
DHS contracted with Cardno Entrix to assess the impact of fluoridation on federally listed salmonids. Cardno Entrix conducted an assessment and presented the findings to the FAC. The assessment concluded that community water fluoridation for Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) at the recommended concentration of 0.7mg/L poses no threat to the listed salmonids in the local waterways.
Sonoma County 2014 Smile Survey: An Oral Health Assessment of Sonoma County Kindergarten and Third Grade Children
Presenter: Kim Caldewey
Organization: Department of Health Services
Dental disease among Sonoma County kindergarten and third grade students is prevalent. Among a random sample of 1,582 kindergarten and third grade students screened, 51% had decay experience. The proportion of Hispanic/Latino children with decay experience was significantly higher than white children (64% vs. 34%). Additionally, children in schools at low-income schools were significantly more likely to have decay experience than children in high income schools. Approximately 18% of students had untreated decay and more than 4% of students were in deed of urgent dental care.
The Cost of Dental Disease and Prevention Strategies in Sonoma County
Presenter: Kim Caldewey
Organization: Department of Health Services
The annual direct cost of dental disease in Sonoma County is $127 million. Access to dental care for 90,000 people on Medi-Cal costs $20 million/year. Fluoride varnish for 94,000 children is $7.5 million/year. Sealants for 71,000 children is $2.4 million/year. Community water fluoridation for 330,000 people is $0.6million/year. The annual cost of community education is not provided because an ideal amount of education is not established.
Fluoridation Facilities Engineering Preliminary Design
Presenter: Phil Salzman
Organization: MWH America
DHS contracted with MWH to provide a preliminary engineering design for how water fluoridation could occur at SCWA. MWH created a design report, presented the design, and solicited comments and questions from the FAC. The final version will be brought to the Board of Supervisors with the FAC recommendations. The preliminary estimate is $4.5million in capital costs for the initial build and $581,000 annually for operations and maintenance. These numbers would be refined in the final engineering design. The areas that would receive fluoridated water from SCWA are: Santa Rosa, Windsor, Sonoma, Petaluma, Forestville, Cotati, Rohnert Park, Valley of the Moon, and North Marin Water District.
Fluoridation Advisory Committee Members as of January 6, 2015
| Name | | Agency |
|---|---|---|
| | Elder Care Providers | |
| Crista Chelemedos, Ombudsman | | Senior Advocacy Services Executive Director |
| | Environmental Representatives | |
| Suzanne Doyle | | Sierra Club Executive Committee |
| Stephen Fuller-Rowell | | Sonoma County Water Coalition |
| | Hospitals Representatives | |
| Terri Dente | | St. Joseph Health Director of Mission Integration |
| Lynn Mortensen, MD Alternate: Jeannie Dulberg | | Kaiser Family Medicine Services |
| Penny Cleary | | Sutter Health Director of Development |
| | Philanthropic Organizations | |
| Lisa Wittke Schaffner | | John Jordan Foundation President |
| | Community Representative | |
| Martha Nunez | | California Human Development Director, Healdsburg Day Labor Center |
| | Sonoma County Department of Health Services | |
| Karen Milman, MD, MPH | | Health Officer Sonoma County Department of Health Services |
| | Marin County | |
| Linda Abrahams | | Marin Dental Society Executive Director |
| | Department of Health Services | |
| | Staff to Committee | |
| Kristin Fladseth, MPH | | Senior HIS |
| Kim Caldewey, PA, MPH | | Health Program Manager |
6
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General Assembly
Human Rights Council
Thirteenth session
Agenda item 2 Annual Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General
Follow-up to the World Conference on Human Rights: report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Summary
This report is the annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, on the activities undertaken in 2009 by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to implement its mandate.
The report describes the support given to the work of the Council and its mechanisms, focusing on the universal periodic review and the special procedures. It also elaborates on progress in, and challenges to, specific thematic human rights issues. It provides an overview of the work of OHCHR at the country and regional levels, including its 56 field presences, and highlights efforts to respond rapidly in the face of deteriorating human rights situations. A report on the Durban Review Conference is provided, as are strategies to ensure the effective implementation of its Outcome Document. The increasing impact and effectiveness of the human rights treaty bodies are also emphasized.
Distr.: General
18 December 2009
Original: English
Contents
I. Introduction
1. The present report, which should be read together with the High Commissioner's report to the General Assembly (A/64/36), constitutes the High Commissioner's annual report submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council decision 2/102. The report notes a number of serious human rights challenges that have predominated during 2009, particularly the food, economic and financial crises, and a subsequent deterioration of the ability of vulnerable groups to enjoy their basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has addressed these challenges by reinforcing the work and emphasizing the relevance of the international human rights mechanisms and has engaged in dialogue and cooperation with Member States and other stakeholders.
II. Support for the work of the Human Rights Council and the effective functioning of its mechanisms
2. With the support of OHCHR, the Human Rights Council held four special sessions on the human rights situations in several countries, and two thematic sessions: one on the global food crisis and another on the economic crisis. OHCHR continued to support country missions including the Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict and a mission to Honduras (see section IV below).
3. As the Council begins the process of the review of its work and functioning, it is important that it not be diverted from taking up pressing human rights issues that the Council has a core responsibility to address. Accordingly, the review established pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 16 of General Assembly resolution 60/251 should be carefully framed. This is an exercise distinct from the 2006 reform, consisting of layered adjustments rather than one major process. It relates to the status of the Council, including its relationship with the General Assembly, and its working methods and functioning. The Council is called upon to build on the results of the comprehensive reform in 2006 and ensure better functioning of the existing human rights machinery. The review process offers an opportunity to take stock of the Council's achievements objectively, identify areas in which adjustment is necessary and analyse challenges. These efforts should take a pragmatic approach and be conducted in an inclusive manner, in a spirit of cooperation, aimed at reaching consensus at the Council and the General Assembly.
4. Specific areas to be considered include ways to enhance the transparency and predictability of the Council's annual programme of work, spreading its work more evenly throughout the year; crafting a clearer delineation of the relationship between the Council and its subsidiary organs; and measures to stimulate cross-regional initiatives, more systematic and active engagement with United Nations departments, funds and programmes, and specialized agencies.
5. The positive trend of dedicating in-session segments to thematic panel discussions has continued. This has allowed the Council to consider a wide range of topics, such as climate change and persons with disabilities, and to draw on available expertise. The further diversification of discussion formats should be encouraged, but modalities may need to be refined to ensure that the Council's regular sessions are not overburdened.
6. The Council has been innovative in approaching thematic issues. However, in the case of the universal periodic review, where country situations are concerned, it still operates on the lines of the inflexible framework of the Commission. No country is free of human rights challenges and the Council must be in a position to consider all human rights violations whatever their scope and wherever they occur. Further thought should be given to expanding the Council's toolbox so it can promptly and effectively deal with urgent or chronic human rights issues at the national, subregional or regional levels. This may require broadening the possible outcomes of special sessions, the formulation of presidential declarations, in addition to resolutions, or in-sessional special sittings. Innovative discussion formats, and modalities and new types of action would be required to enhance the Council's role as the principal intergovernmental body in the field of human rights.
7. During my interactive dialogues with the Human Rights Council and the Third Committee of the General Assembly in March and November respectively, I noted the breadth of human rights issues raised by delegations, which provided the context for indepth dialogue on the full range of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, as well as on all aspects of the High Commissioner's mandate. Dialogues with the Council and the Assembly are essential to ensure that we remain responsive to the human rights concerns of the international community. The Council review should provide a context in which these opportunities are rationalized, so as to maximize their impact and take the best advantage of the specificity of each organ. The number of informal interactions with the international community on various aspects of the High Commissioner's mandate with a view to upholding transparency and cooperation with all stakeholders also increased during the year.
A. Universal periodic review
8. The universal periodic review is the most significant innovation of the Council. It confirms my own view of human rights: that there is no country free from human rights violations. The achievement of a genuinely universal process testifies to the credibility of the Council, and positive results have been achieved so far. A number of refinements could be considered before the commencement of the second review cycle to prevent it becoming routine, and to ensure that it reaches its potential of being a reliable and truthful witness to country situations, as well as being a means of providing a road map for the implementation of recommendations aimed at filling policy, legal and practical gaps at the national level.
9. By the end of December 2009, half of all Member States had been reviewed, with all States under review participating, and their peers being fully engaged at the various stages of the process. A broad range of recommendations relating to all areas of human rights were made during each universal periodic review. These ranged from calls for ratification of human rights treaties, enactment of national legislation and deepened cooperation with human rights mechanisms, to recommendations for specific action and measures at the national level. This shows the interest and seriousness with which States have approached the universal periodic review. However, devising practical mechanisms to follow up and ensure implementation of these recommendations is an important challenge for the future. States should continue to formulate concrete, actionable and tangible recommendations and reflect on ways to further rationalize, streamline and cluster recommendations. Where follow-up and implementation is concerned, it is imperative that ways and means be found to involve States under review, United Nations entities, and all other relevant stakeholders in a common effort to identify specific steps to accelerate national implementation of recommendations. OHCHR is also establishing a mechanism to support follow-up on the basis of the funding provided by the Voluntary Fund for Financial and Technical Assistance for implementation of the universal periodic review.
B. Special procedures
10. Strengthening international human rights mechanisms and supporting the development of international human rights law is one of the six priorities of OHCHR for the next biennium. The work undertaken by the special procedures, their dialogue with States, monitoring, public reporting, country visits, outreach, accessibility and direct interventions, including through the hundreds of communications they send each year, is critical to the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide. The support provided by many States to the special procedures is much appreciated, and in line with Council resolution 5/2, all should fully cooperate and assist special procedures in the performance of their tasks. Two standing invitations to special procedures were issued in 2009, making a total of 65 States which maintain such invitations. Informative responses to special procedures' communications should also form part of enhanced cooperation with these mechanisms, as should constructive engagement in substantive discussions of their reports, facilitating the conduct of missions, and actively ensuring follow-up to recommendations and conclusions. States should also provide the space for special procedures to exercise their mandates in full independence and with the confidence that honest, constructive and even robust dialogue with States about matters of substance will not be couched in terms of misconduct.
11. A hallmark of the system has been the direct accessibility of special procedures to victims and witnesses, and their capacity to work closely with human rights defenders. During 2009, there have been several incidents, including killings of persons who had engaged with special procedures mandate holders. Free interaction between experts and all stakeholders, many of whom are civil society actors, is an important indicator of cooperation with international human rights mechanisms and States should ensure that all those who are in contact with special procedures are free from reprisal.
12. There is now a comprehensive system of special rapporteurs, representatives, independent experts and working groups covering all sets of rights and several country situations. In all there are 39 mandates — 31 thematic, including the new mandate in the field of cultural rights, and eight country mandates — with 55 mandate holders. During 2009, OHCHR facilitated the selection process for new mandate holders and their integration into the system through information sessions and briefings, as well as through supporting the Special Procedures Coordination Committee's orientation sessions. The enhanced transparency of the selection process through the Consultative Group's provision of more detailed public explanations for its recommendations to the Council President is a welcome development. Expertise on the substantive issues of the mandate should be the primary consideration in the appointment of the 10 new experts who will take up their functions in 2010. Approximately one third of mandate holders are women, but as the international community conducts the 15-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, there remains room for improvement so as to achieve full gender equality.
13. The special procedures complement and add value to other international human rights mechanisms, including to other Council and human rights treaty bodies. They have an important role in early-warning processes and drawing the international community's attention to emerging issues and global crises, as recently emphasized during a side event convened by OHCHR during the sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly. The Council has mandated groups of thematic and country rapporteurs with additional tasks, such as reports on specific human rights situations in the context of special sessions, for example on the Sudan, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As a result of an open invitation extended by the President through their Coordination Committee, special procedures' voices are heard at all Council special sessions.
14. Special procedures have also worked closely with other Council mechanisms. For example, the UPR interactive dialogues with States under review included discussions of issues raised by special procedures, and countries have pledged greater cooperation. Special procedures have made important contributions to the thematic panels and other discussions of the Council. They have been supported by OHCHR in their interaction with subsidiary bodies of the Council, including the Forum on Minority Issues, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Social Forum, and in following the work of the Advisory Committee. Special procedures contributed to the successful outcome of the Durban Review Conference, and will actively participate in its follow-up.
15. Special procedures have continued to be important in the development of international human rights law. The Working Group on the use of mercenaries is considering elements for a possible draft convention on the activities of private military and security companies. The Special Rapporteur on the right to food developed a set of core principles and measures to address the human rights challenge posed by large-scale land acquisitions and leases. The Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances — which this year commemorates its thirtieth anniversary — adopted its general comment on enforced disappearance as a crime against humanity. Thematic mandate holders have also jointly addressed cross-cutting issues through comprehensive analysis and recommendations, for example in relation to secret detention in the context of counterterrorism and discrimination.
III. Developments in strategic thematic areas
A. Combating discrimination and support to victims
16. Among the priority themes OHCHR has identified for the next biennium is countering discrimination, in particular racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, discrimination on the grounds of sex, disability, against indigenous groups and national minorities, and against others who are marginalized. Equality before the law and freedom from discrimination constitute basic legal principles that underpin all human rights, with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights treaties containing provisions prohibiting discrimination and establishing State obligations to refrain from discriminatory policies and practices and take active steps to eradicate discrimination in both the public and private spheres. The roots of most human rights abuses, including in situations of conflict, lie in severe violations of these principles. To underscore the importance of combating discrimination and related violations, OHCHR selected the theme of "Embrace diversity, stop discrimination" for the 2009 Human Rights Day activities which took place around the world.
B. Indigenous and minority issues
17. It is essential to translate standards of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from aspiration to practice. OHCHR, in close cooperation with indigenous representatives and other partners, has continued to play a leading role in this process, promoting the use of the Declaration by national human rights institutions and other key actors. In addition to undertaking country-specific activities to advance the rights of indigenous peoples this year, OHCHR has also pursued thematic work on challenging issues such as the rights of isolated indigenous peoples. It supported the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and organized an inclusive workshop to contribute to the Expert Mechanism's first thematic study on the right of indigenous peoples to education. OHCHR also contributed to strengthened inter-agency cooperation, the work of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and supported capacity-building among indigenous peoples such as through a fellowship programme and a voluntary fund.
18. OHCHR has supported activities to enhance the visibility and impact of the Minorities Declaration and other key standards. Its minority fellowship programme contributed to the development of advocacy skills of minority representatives, who subsequently launched concrete initiatives advancing minority rights at the local level. Support for the Forum on Minority Issues continued, which highlighted political participation at its second session. OHCHR further developed its work on policing and minority communities including through a subregional consultation held in Johannesburg in October 2009 to collect good practices in this area.
C. Gender equality and women's rights
19. The move to create a consolidated United Nations gender entity, the thirtieth anniversary of the adoption by the General Assembly of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the reiteration by the Security Council that rape and other forms of sexual violence against women in conflict are a threat against international peace and security, have created increased momentum for action with respect to women's rights. With the upcoming review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action, OHCHR will build on its previous work and step up its efforts towards the promotion and protection of women's rights.
20. OHCHR has facilitated the integration of women's rights and a gender perspective into the work of the Human Rights Council, and it is significant that maternal mortality and equality before the law will be subject to in-depth consideration by the Human Rights Council during its fourteenth and fifteenth sessions. Support has been provided to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women to assist in its task of examining the implementation of the Convention, and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, and other special procedures. OHCHR has continued to be active in inter-agency initiatives such as the United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict and an inter-agency sub-working group establishing the team of experts called for in Security Council resolution 1888 (2009) relating to rape and other forms of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
21. During 2009, gender advisers were recruited to four OHCHR regional offices (Fiji, Lebanon, Panama and Senegal), in order to respond better to Government requests for guidance on the integration of a gender dimension into national policies and programmes.
D. Combating impunity and the prevention of genocide
22. The rule of law forms the foundation of legal protection of human rights and combating impunity, and during 2009, OHCHR continued to play a lead role within the United Nations system to combat impunity, strengthen accountability and to establish and entrench conditions for democracy and the rule of law. Support was provided to the independent international fact-finding missions concerning Gaza and Guinea, and OHCHR continued to engage with Governments and other national actors to promote principles of accountability and rule of law, to provide examples of best practice and technical advice and assistance. Briefings to the Security Council were provided, at its request, during the Security Council's debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, its consultations on the application of humanitarian law in conflict situations, during its retreat on protection issues, and the meetings of its Counter-Terrorism Committee.
23. The lead role of OHCHR on transitional justice within the United Nations system provided the Office with the opportunity and the responsibility to explore and develop issues related to transitional justice. OHCHR convened an Expert Workshop on Lessons Learned and Future Directions on Transitional Justice in May 2009, the results of which were provided to the Human Rights Council at its twelfth session. In the area of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, my Office actively engaged with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations on the development of guidelines to operationalize the role of United Nations agencies in this area. OHCHR also issued a guidance note on national human rights institutions (NHRIs) and organized a regional conference in Africa on the role of NHRIs in facilitating justice and peace, particularly in the establishment of transitional justice mechanisms in post-conflict societies.
24. Impunity is a feature of conflict, and the interaction between human rights law and international humanitarian law is critical to OHCHR efforts to combat impunity. At the request of the Council, OHCHR, in consultation with the International Committee of the Red Cross, organized an expert meeting on the issue of protecting the human rights of civilians in armed conflict. The meeting underlined the complementary and mutually reinforcing nature of human rights law and international humanitarian law and considered appropriate mechanisms to monitor the implementation of human rights in situations of armed conflict. As requested by the Council, a second meeting will take place in 2010.
25. The primary guardians of accountability at the national level, on behalf of the State, are the various components of the formal justice system, including police, judges, military courts, prosecutors, lawyers and corrections staff. Throughout 2009, OHCHR continued to work with these bodies in order to provide them with the knowledge, capacity and willingness to discharge their duties in the context of human rights. Regional colloquia for judges, training on the monitoring of legal systems in peace missions, and the expert promotion of administrative justice as means of securing human rights were used to engage the formal justice system. OHCHR continued to draw particular attention to the rights of detainees, particularly pretrial detainees, following the launch of its year-long campaign on this issue in December 2008, as well as the rights of those sentenced to death.
26. Impunity is facilitated if the rule of law is not underpinned by an appropriate constitutional framework. In 2009, OHCHR continued to provide technical assistance to States on constitution-making and constitutional reform. OHCHR built on its previous work on the prevention of genocide providing technical support to the Secretary-General's Special Advisers on the Prevention of Genocide and on the Responsibility to Protect, respectively, as well as support to initiatives of Member States.
E. Migration
27. The plight of migrants, and particularly migrants in irregular situations, is one of the most critical human rights challenges. Migration can be positive for migrants and home and host societies, but the reality for many migrants is discrimination, exploitation and abuse. OHCHR has continued to advocate, including through its active participation in the Global Migration Group (GMG), a human rights approach to migration which places human rights obligations at the centre and promotes the use of human rights mechanisms to promote and protect the rights of migrant women, men and children at all stages of the migration process. From July to December 2010, OHCHR will take over the rotating chair of the GMG, providing an opportunity to further strengthen its leadership and contribution to United Nations system-wide efforts on migration.
28. Efforts to promote the ratification of the International Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, including through the coordination of the Steering Committee of the Global Campaign for Ratification of the International
Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families have continued. OHCHR field presences have increasingly engaged in migration-related work including the promotion of the Convention and other relevant instruments, through training activities, advocacy, technical advice and other capacity-building initiatives.
F. Economic, social and cultural rights in the light of the food, energy and financial crises
29. Many individuals and communities who faced the food and energy crises in 2008 saw their situation worsen in 2009. The global economic crisis has led to massive job losses, particularly in the developed world, and the contraction of several areas of the global economy. Some sectors such as construction, infrastructure and services have been directly affected, but other areas of production such as small-scale farming and small, often family-run, enterprises and service providers have also experienced significant difficulties. Workers who were already vulnerable have seen their capacity to negotiate salaries or protection mechanisms further reduced. In many countries, this has been compounded by reductions in public allocations to, and investments in, social services. Despite calls to ensure social protection for all in times of crises, some Governments have reduced their budget allocation to these areas while lending large amounts to private financial institutions.
30. Throughout 2009, OHCHR actively and systematically engaged in international discussions and policy debates around the financial and economic crisis. It supported the Council's tenth special session on the impact of the global economic and financial crises on the universal realization and effective enjoyment of human rights, held in February 2009. I also participated in the General Assembly high-level Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis, held in June 2009.
31. OHCHR is contributing to several ongoing initiatives of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, including the initiative on a social protection floor. It also supported the 2009 Social Forum of the Human Rights Council, and several special procedures mandate holders who highlighted the impact of the crises on human rights relevant to their mandates.
32. With regard to the global food crisis, OHCHR participated in the High Level Task Force for the Global Food Security Crisis and in February 2009 the Deputy High Commissioner participated in the World Summit on Food Security stressing the role that the right to food should play in the global and national solutions to the crisis. In light of the need to study the effects of the crisis on specific groups, OHCHR has worked to mainstream the human rights of persons with disabilities into development policies.
G. Climate change
33. The adverse effects of climate change impact on economies and ecosystems and individuals and communities. In the latter context, the impact of climate change is not only related to environmental factors, but also to policies and measures to protect vulnerable populations and, accordingly, in their response to the multiple challenges of climate change adaptation and mitigation, States must give due regard to international human rights norms and standards.
34. At its tenth session in March 2009, the Human Rights Council considered the OHCHR study on the relationship between climate change and human rights (A/HRC/10/61), and adopted resolution 10/4 on human rights and climate change. As requested by the Council, OHCHR supported the organization of a panel discussion of the
Council on this issue in June 2009, and prepared a summary of the discussion which was made available, together with the OHCHR study, to the fifteenth Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP15), held in Copenhagen in December 2009. OHCHR also participated in high-level planning meetings organized on climate change within the United Nations system. The importance of considering the human rights implications of climate change-related effects has been emphasized through a number of public statements, including a video message on the UN "Seal the Deal" campaign website and a contribution to the Climate Thinkers Blog on the COP15 host county website (http://en.cop15.dk/blogs/climate+thinkers+blog).
H. The right to development
35. The effective realization of the right to development is one of the OHCHR priorities. It provided substantive and analytical support to the open-ended Working Group on the Right to Development, including in the implementation of the 2008–2010 workplan of its expert mechanism, the High-level Task Force on the Implementation of the Right to Development. Regarding global partnerships for development identified in Millennium Development Goal 8, my Office commissioned independent studies in the areas of trade, access to essential medicines, debt relief and transfer of technology, and supported technical missions and expert consultations with relevant international entities. OHCHR continued to nurture and deepen the dialogue initiated with those institutions and partnerships with a view to mainstreaming the right to development in their policies and programmes.
36. Efforts were also made to strengthen the global partnership for development between Member States and other stakeholders. A number of activities were organized individually, or in partnership with these actors, including a panel discussion on the development and applicability of Human Rights Impact Assessments of trade agreements at the 2009 World Trade Organization Public Policy Forum; a parallel event to the sixtyfourth session of the General Assembly which considered the linkages between human rights and financing for development, with a special focus on the right to development perspective; an interactive dialogue on the integration of a right-to-development perspective in the implementation of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Development Agenda; and an expert meeting on improved interaction between the universal periodic review and the African Peer Review Mechanism, with increased consideration of the right to development. OHCHR also facilitated active, open and multistakeholder dialogue on the issues of poverty eradication and human rights through the organization of the 2009 Social Forum of the Human Rights Council.
I. Human rights mainstreaming
37. At the request of the Secretary-General, throughout 2009 OHCHR led inter-agency consultations to develop a follow-up mechanism to the Action 2 inter-agency initiative to strengthening further efforts to mainstream human rights into United Nations operational activities for development. In November, the United Nations Development Group established a dedicated mechanism on human rights mainstreaming which will be chaired by my Office and will further strengthen system-wide coherence, collaboration and support for resident coordinators and United Nations country teams in mainstreaming human rights. Building upon the achievements of the Action 2 inter-agency programme, OHCHR will continue to institutionalize mainstreaming efforts and partnerships with United Nations agencies, including on thematic issues, and develop national capacities and follow-up to recommendations of United Nations human rights mechanisms at the request of States.
38. A fundamental component of Action 2 and its follow-up mechanism has been the placement, at the request of resident coordinators, of human rights advisers in all regions of the world. Eighteen advisers, mandated to support United Nations country teams to mainstream and integrate human rights into their programmes and activities have been provided by OHCHR. In addition to working with the country team, these advisers have provided technical assistance on human rights issues to Government ministries and national human rights institutions.
39. Direct support was also provided during 2009 to several United Nations country teams, in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cambodia, China, Georgia, Indonesia, Serbia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Uruguay, to assist in integrating human rights into preparation of their United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks. OHCHR also cooperated with the United Nations System Staff College and the United Nations Development Operations Coordination Office to provide training and induction to newly appointed resident coordinators and agency country representatives. As a contribution to the ongoing United Nations reform efforts on system-wide coherence, in November 2009 my Office convened a workshop during which "Delivering as One" pilot country teams shared experiences and identified good practices and lessons learned in mainstreaming human rights and supporting national efforts on human rights capacity-building.
40. OHCHR has paid increasing attention to supporting efforts to mainstream human rights into national policies, particularly in the context of country-led poverty reduction strategies and national Millennium Development Goals, in accordance with the Member States commitment at the 2005 World Summit. At the request of Governments, OHCHR supported country-level piloting efforts in Haiti and Liberia aimed at strengthening human rights perspectives in national development planning and monitoring process.
IV. The work and cooperation of the Office of the High Commissioner at the country and regional levels
41. The approach of OHCHR to addressing human rights concerns is through a constructive dialogue with all relevant national counterparts, as well as through partnerships within the United Nations system and increasingly, with regional organizations. The work and cooperation of OHCHR with counterparts at the country level is multifaceted, conducted through human rights field presences, support for human rights mechanisms and dialogue between the High Commissioner and Member States, including through regular bilateral meetings, open or confidential communication, country visits by the High Commissioner, and technical cooperation programmes or rapid response operations.
42. In December 2009 OHCHR had 56 field presences: 12 regional presences, 1 11
1 Regional presences included the following: the OHCHR Regional Office for Southern Africa (Pretoria, South Africa); the OHCHR Regional Office for East Africa (Addis Ababa); the OHCHR Regional Office for West Africa (Dakar); the United Nations Sub-Regional Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa (Yaoundé); the OHCHR Regional Office for Southeast Asia (Bangkok); the OHCHR Regional Office for the Pacific (Suva); the OHCHR Regional Office for the Middle East (Beirut); the United Nations Human Rights Training and Documentation Centre for South-West Asia and the Arab Region (Doha); the OHCHR Regional Office for Europe (Brussels); the OHCHR Regional Office for Central Asia (Bishkek); the OHCHR Regional Office for Central America (Panama City) as well as the OHCHR Regional Office for South America (Santiago).
11
offices at the country level, 2 15 human rights components in United Nations peace missions, 3 and 18 human rights advisers in United Nations country teams. 4 The United Nations Human Rights Training and Documentation Centre for South-West Asia and the Arab Region in Doha was inaugurated in May 2009 and the Regional Office for Europe in Brussels, in October 2009. In September 2009 an agreement was signed with the Government of Mauritania on the establishment of an OHCHR country office. The renewal of agreements for existing offices is an encouraging sign and, in this context, I would like to thank the Governments of Uganda and Nepal for demonstrating their continued trust and cooperation through their renewed agreements. The establishment of an OHCHR Regional Office for North Africa remains under discussion.
43. Since the establishment of a rapid-response unit in 2006, the OHCHR capacity to act promptly on the ground in the face of deteriorating human rights situations has been steadily strengthened. It has continued to provide support to short-term missions and commissions of inquiries aimed at providing technical advice in the aftermath of crises, as well as for the implementation of resolutions and decisions of the Human Rights Council. Through its rapid response capacity, OHCHR deployed a human rights officer to Honduras to assist the United Nations Country Team to respond to the political crisis; two human rights officers to Madagascar in the context of the political crisis, and a team of four human rights officers to Gabon to monitor the human rights situation during the presidential electoral period. Following the violence of 28 September 2009 in Conakry, OHCHR supported the Commission of Inquiry on the events in Guinea, established by the SecretaryGeneral.
44. OHCHR also provided operational and technical support, including through the appointment of a secretariat, to the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict established by the President of the Human Rights Council on 3 April 2009 "to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza during the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before, during or after". 5 The final report of the mission was submitted to the Human Rights Council on 29 September 2009.
45. To reinforce national protection systems, OHCHR continued to support the establishment and strengthening of NHRIs, increasingly through engaging human rights field offices and United Nations country teams. The Office continued to advise requesting
2 OHCHR country offices are located in Togo, Uganda, Cambodia, Nepal, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico. In addition, OHCHR has a presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and in Kosovo. An agreement was signed in September 2009 between the High Commissioner and the Government of Mauritania establishing a country office in Mauritania. This office will be operational in the course of 2010.
4 Human rights advisers were posted or continued their work in the following countries: Burundi (covering the Great Lakes region), Guinea, Niger, Kenya, Rwanda; Indonesia (until 31 January 2010), Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka; Ecuador, Nicaragua; Albania, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Georgia (covering the South Caucasus), Tajikistan, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. This number also includes a human rights adviser within UNOWA (West Africa).
3 OHCHR supported the Human Rights Components of the following peace missions: BINUB (Burundi), BONUCA (Central African Republic), MINURCAT (Chad and the Central African Republic), MONUC (Democratic Republic of the Congo), UNMIS and UNAMID (Sudan), UNMIL (Liberia), UNIPSIL (Sierra Leone), UNPOS (Somalia), UNOCI (Côte d'Ivoire), UNOGBIS (GuineaBissau) UNAMA (Afghanistan), UNMIT (Timor-Leste), UNAMI (Iraq) and MINUSTAH (Haiti).
5 Resolution S-9/1 of the Human Rights Council adopted on 12 January 2009 at the conclusion of its ninth special session.
Member States on the establishment, functioning and responsibilities of NHRIs in line with international standards. OHCHR promoted NHRI compliance with the Paris Principles, and sought to strengthen the capacity of these institutions to address core protection issues such as discrimination, torture and violations committed in the context of migration, and to generally reinforce the administration of justice and the rule of law. In collaboration with United Nations partners and regional networks of NHRIs, OHCHR assisted in the establishment or strengthening of 43 NHRIs worldwide. Continued secretarial support was provided to the Sub-Committee on Accreditation of the International Coordinating Committee of NHRIs which, by December 2009, had reviewed and accredited 64 NHRIs with "A status", that is, fully compliant with the Paris Principles.
46. OHCHR continued to deepen its cooperation with regional organizations in Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the Americas. OHCHR organized three regional consultations on enhancing cooperation between regional and international mechanisms for the promotion and protection of human rights in collaboration with the African Union, the Organization of American States and the Council of Europe. These consultations will ensure adequate planning for the international workshop on Regional Human Rights Mechanisms scheduled for May 2010, as called for in Council resolution 12/15, adopted on 1 October 2009.
47. Reflective of the ongoing United Nations system reform process relating to peace missions, OHCHR maintained its focus on the integration of human rights in peace missions and continued to work in close cooperation with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the Department of Political Affairs and the Department of Field Support. OHCHR continued to provide substantive and human resources support to human rights components of peace missions, including substantive backstopping of human rights components and supporting the release of public human rights reports by peace missions.
48. OHCHR continued to participate in inter-agency humanitarian mechanisms, particularly the Inter-Agency Standing Committee and its subsidiary groups, and the Global Protection Cluster Working Group. OHCHR prioritized its operational role in humanitarian contexts, namely in empowering human rights field presences to fully participate — and sometimes to lead — in collaborative efforts. OHCHR currently plays a lead role in protection coordination in Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, Fiji (regional), Haiti, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, the occupied Palestinian territories, Samoa and Timor-Leste. OHCHR was also pleased to assist the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the development of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, launched in October 2009, the first regional body of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region.
V. The Durban Review Conference and its follow-up: steps towards implementation
49. The Durban Review Conference was held in Geneva from 20 to 24 April 2009 and its Outcome Document was adopted by consensus. A significant accomplishment of the Conference was its generation of renewed commitment by States to the anti-racism agenda. Taking a rights-based approach, which places the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination at the centre of international efforts to combat racism, the Outcome Document urges Member States to do more at the national level, and in particular, to elaborate national action plans on racism and intolerance.
50. In my report to the Durban Review Conference (A/CONF.211/PC.4/5), I addressed contemporary challenges to the fight against racism and critically assessed the strengths and shortcomings of the OHCHR anti-discrimination programme, as well as the Durban followup intergovernmental and expert mechanisms. Proposals were put forward to help States overcome differences in the curtailment of freedom of speech to protect individuals and groups from hate speech, and provided a vision to take the struggle against racism, discrimination and intolerance forward. I observed that while some progress has been made since the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, new challenges to the principles of equality and non-discrimination have appeared. These include the convergence of the global food crisis and the economic and financial crisis and their disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable; the intensification of hate speech against racial, ethnic, religious minorities; extreme xenophobic reactions against migrants; the political exploitation of real and perceived differences; and some counter-terrorism measures.
51. Parallel to the Durban Review Conference, 44 side events were organized, 3 of which were initiatives of other United Nations entities. These events contributed substantively to the discussion of ways to combat racism and will be compiled in an OHCHR publication.
52. Following the Durban Review Conference, I established an in-house Task Force whose primary task is to advise me on the best strategy to implement the recommendations of both the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and the Outcome Document effectively. The Task Force recommended the intensification of focus on: supporting postDurban mechanisms; the development of a database and policy tools for the Office; the development of a programme of capacity-building focusing on, among others issues, supporting Member States, at their request to create adequate anti-discrimination legislation and national action plans; and public sensitization and constituency mobilization. Additional resources will be required if the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and the Outcome Document are to be fully implemented.
53. Following the Conference, OHCHR conducted a number of activities aimed at the implementation of the Durban recommendations. Continued support was given to the sessions of the intergovernmental working group and the Ad Hoc Committee for the elaboration of complementary standards. Seminars were also convened in francophone Africa and Latin America to train stakeholders on strategies for developing national action plans and promoting good practices.
VI. Support for human rights treaties
54. The human rights treaty bodies have become increasingly effective, with their output having greater impact. The creation of a tenth treaty body established by the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance is imminent. In September 2009 the Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was opened to signature, and more than 30 States have signed this instrument. In December 2009, an open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group met to explore the possibility of elaborating an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to provide a communications procedure complementary to the reporting procedure under the Convention.
55. The growth of the human rights treaty body system provides challenges to OHCHR, including in terms of the management of the workload of the treaty bodies and States Parties, and in relation to the coherence of the system. OHCHR will further harmonize its own working methods to ensure better support to the work of the treaty bodies. However, additional human and financial resources will be required to address this increasing workload and I encourage Member States to consider providing regular budget support in this respect. The treaty bodies have continued to harmonize their working methods, and their achievements include the adoption of reporting guidelines for a Common Core
Document and revised harmonized treaty-specific reporting guidelines; streamlining approaches to the issue of reservations; the production of "lists of issues" by all treaty bodies; and the standardization of technical terminology. The Inter-Committee Meetings have been of pivotal importance. At its tenth meeting in December 2009, the InterCommittee Meeting recommended that it should meet annually in reduced membership, while at the same time establishing thematic working groups composed of one expert per treaty body to discuss specific matters of common concern directed to harmonization of working methods. In recent statements to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly, I have called on all stakeholders to develop proposals which could lead to a more rational, coherent, coordinated and effective human rights treaty body system. Treaty body experts are best placed to initiate such proposals, which should achieve the required balance between the specificity of tasks and coherence of outcome.
VII. The High Commissioner's Strategic Management Plan 2010– 2011
56. In January 2010, OHCHR's third Strategic Management Plan (SMP), setting out the expected accomplishments and operational strategy for the 2010–2011 biennium, was launched. SMP is based on Programme 19 of the Secretary-General's Strategic Framework. Reviewed and approved every two years by the General Assembly, the Strategic Framework establishes the goals and strategic priorities of the United Nations human rights programme, including OHCHR's mandated tasks, and forms the basis of its request for regular budget resources. Complementing this approach, the SMP presents synchronized planning, implementation, and evaluation processes, providing OHCHR with the detailed operational plan and the management tool required to translate the Strategic Framework into action. In November and December 2009, OHCHR provided briefings for Member States in Geneva and New York, and civil society organizations, on the 2010–2011 SMP.
57. In an effort to sharpen our operational focus, the SMP identifies six substantive human rights priorities, which encompass the work carried out at Headquarters and in the field. These are: (a) countering discrimination, in particular racial discrimination, discrimination on the grounds of sex and against others who are marginalized; (b) pursuing economic, social and cultural rights and combating inequalities and poverty, including in the context of the economic, food and climate crises; (c) ensuring the realization of human rights in the context of migration; (d) combating impunity and strengthening accountability, the rule of law, and democratic societies; (e) protecting human rights in situations of armed conflict, violence and insecurity; and (f) strengthening international human rights mechanisms and the progressive development of international human rights law. Detailed strategies have been developed in respect of each of these priorities, taking into account OHCHR's expertise, experience and capacity to add value to the work of the United Nations system as a whole.
VIII. Conclusion
58. During 2009, OHCHR capitalized on the growth and consolidation of previous years. With the Human Rights Council and the universal periodic review in full operation, a dynamic system of support to special procedures and human rights treaty bodies in place, a high quality of expertise on substantive issues available in-house and the existence of a stronger field presence, the Office's achievements are impressive.
59. The entry into force of several new international human rights treaties, resulting in the creation of new treaty bodies, as well as further developments in the system of special procedures, have required a reconfiguration of our work. It is important we strengthen the treaty body system by accelerating the harmonization of their working methods and all stakeholders are encouraged to reflect on this topic. At the same time, additional capacity and regular budget resources will be required for OHCHR to ensure that new special procedures mandates can be supported and that additional mandated activities can be implemented effectively, without negatively affecting other mandated areas of work of the experts. In 2009 OHCHR produced a very large number of reports to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly, which placed significant demands on both the Office and United Nations conference services. Efforts are being made to rationalize submissions required from OHCHR and to ensure that there is adequate support to the United Nations Secretariat for the effective functioning of the human rights machinery.
60. Looking forward to 2010, OHCHR will focus its attention on supporting the human rights mechanisms, in particular the Council as it begins to review its functioning. OHCHR will continue to draw strongly on its field presences in developing and implementing capacity-building tools for Member States, United Nations entities, civil society and other stakeholders. It will prioritize enhanced and coordinated follow-up to the recommendations of the universal periodic review, special procedures and treaty bodies, as well as greater coherence and coordination. Given the scale of discrimination worldwide, particularly against women, OHCHR will continue to strengthen its work to eliminate all forms of discrimination. Follow-up to and implementation of the recommendations of the Durban Review Conference will be important in this regard. All OHCHR work will take account of the impact of the food, economic and financial crises, and will be directed towards crafting strategies for ensuring continuing global respect for human rights in the face of these crises. The six thematic priorities for 2010–2011 will provide a context in which OHCHR efforts in these important areas will be sharpened and allow it to link the efforts of staff working in different divisions of OHCHR headquarters, in New York and in the field more effectively.
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Joint meeting of the
GEBCO Technical Sub-Committee for Ocean Mapping GEBCO Sub-Committee for Regional Undersea Mapping
Hosted by the Royal Malaysian Navy and PETRONAS Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia October 6, 2015
Notes
See agenda, Appendix 1
Radm Zaaim Hasan, Director General, National Hydrographic Center of Malaysia welcomed all of the participants and stress the overall importance of mapping the sea floor.
Martin Jakobossn, Chair of SCRUM, presented the current status of the TSCOM-SCRUM and reviewed the current activities.
http://www.gebco.net/about_us/meetings_and_minutes/documents/tscom_scrum_update_2015.pdf
He suggested the GEBCO goal is "To produce the most authoritative coherent portrayal of the seafloor, from the coast to the deepest parts of the oceans." He noted that the GEBCO Cookbook has been receiving periodic updates and is a very useful publication. He also noted the GEBCO paper which was published in 2015.
He then described various regional mapping projects, noting that the recent updates Antarctic database and map have been well received. Updates to regional areas, Antarctic is significant. Other important updates have been in the Arctic, Baltic, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean. Currently 19% of the world is being regionally mapped. More could be done but there are regional restraints and complications. New SCRUM/TSCOM initiatives and activities include: IBCAO - Greenland; IBCAO – Svalbard; ARDEM (New Western Arctic and North Pacific Digital Elevation Model); swIOBC (Southwest IOBC); Arctic - Antarctic seafloor mapping meeting in Monaco 2016.
Karen Marks reviewed the TSCOM activities.
http://www.gebco.net/about_us/meetings_and_minutes/documents/tscom_update_2015_marks.pdf The GEBCO_2014 grid release. Recommendations for updating the grid include seeking bathymetric contributions from member states; move from 30 arc second grid spacing to 15 arc second; and, seek to use the current version of the SRTM15_Plus without copyright restrictions. Marks noted the publication of the GEBCO_2014 paper in the AGU's Earth and Space Science on-line journal. The paper was publicized on GEBCO Facebook and blog.
The 2014 Bathymetric Science day was held as a scientific session at the American Geophysical Union's Fall annual meeting following the meeting at Google.
Other TSCOM activities in 2015 included the updating and promoting of the GEBCO Cook book that was started in 2009 and published in 2012; and organizing Nautical Chart Adequacy Workshop at NOAA Headquarters in July 2015.
Status Reports from regional bathymetric compilations and technical work on bathymetric grid
Updating the GEBCO grid
http://www.gebco.net/about_us/meetings_and_minutes/documents/updating_gebco_grid_weather all.pdf
Pauline Weatherall gave an overall on the techniques and methods for updating the GEBCO 2014 Grid. Fifteen new data sets were used in the update. These new date sets made a significant improvement to the Grid. The GEBCO gridded data sets are available by download from www.gebco.net/data_and_products/gridded_bathymetry_data/
They are available in several formats including One dimensional (1D) netCDF grid (aimed for use with GDA); CF compliant netCDF (2D); Esri ASCII raster, and Data GeoTiff.
Weatherall noted Other GEBCO related work at BODC included Development of a contour data set for the GEBCO_2014 Grid; Web Map Service (WMS) update work; and WMS development work for delivering metadata for the SID grid.
EMODnet
Thierry Schmitt reviewed the EMODnet program. The European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) consists of more than 100 organizations assembling marine data, products and metadata to make these fragmented resources more available to public and private users relying on quality-assured, standardized and harmonized marine data which are interoperable and free of restrictions on use. EMODnet is currently in its second development phase with the target to be fully deployed by 2020. Schmitt demonstrated the EOMDnet portal. He noted that GEBCO can fill the gaps in the EMODnet data coverage. Currently EMODnet is developing DEMs, but differing formats can be a problem with this compilation.
EOMDnet is concentrating on bathymetric data compilation for European waters, but GEBCO help the effort. Ultimately the compiled data base will be sent back to GEBCO. So Schmitt encourages EMODnet-GEBCO partnership. Shin Tani asked about the grid size of the data compilation. Schmitt replied that it was dependent on the source grid size.
Overview of Crowd Source Bathymetry Working Group
Lisa Taylor tabled this item since CSBWG is part of IHO and has a one day workshop scheduled for October 7 (the day following this TSCOM-SCRUM meeting).
GEBCO Outreach update- Plan for webpages for students
Hyo Sung presented the master plan for the GEBCO Outreach and Education Working Group.
And the plan for webpages for students as part of the master plan. http://www.gebco.net/about_us/meetings_and_minutes/documents/chang_sung_gebco_subpage.pdf
GEBCO High-Resolution Product
Vicki Ferrini gave an overview of the GEBCO High-Resolution Product. http://www.gebco.net/about_us/meetings_and_minutes/tscom_and_scrum_2015.html (To Be Added to GEBCO web site)
The concept is to produce a new High-Res GEBCO Product by leveraging the technical Components of Global Multi-Resolution Topography system at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University. This includes multi-resolutional data handling, grids, Images, Mask; access tools and services and attribution and provenance.
GEBCO/Nippon Foundation Indian Ocean Bathymetric Compilation (IOBC)
Rochelle Wigley described the current status of the IOBC.
http://www.gebco.net/about_us/meetings_and_minutes/documents/iobc_project_wigley_2015.pdf The project is being done largely by GEBCO NF Scholars. The compilation prohect is a good teaching tool. 57 surveys have been compiles in the Indian Ocean which is the most sparsely surveyed ocean. As the data are compile, it is quality controlled. There was a successful CSB pilot project done in the Malaysian waters. So far smaller areas have been compiled, but it is hope to expand the areas. One constraint is the sharing of data, but it is hoped that this will change soon.
North Atlantic Seabed Mapping Project
David Wyatt and Jennifer Jencks presented the North Atlantic Seabed Mapping Project. http://www.gebco.net/about_us/meetings_and_minutes/documents/natlantic_mapping_Jencks.pdf They noted that GEBCO should take a strong role in this project.
Forum for Future Ocean Floor Mapping
Shin Tani announced the F-FOFM which will be held June 15-17, 2016 in the Proncipality of Monaco. It will be sponsored by GEBCO and the Nippon Foundation. Expected attendance 150. The Forum will concentrate on the future of Ocean floor mapping and the role of GEBCO for the next 10 years. The outcome will be a beginning of a roadmap to accomplish the goals developed over the three days. It is anticipated that all of the Nippon Foundation training programs alumni will actively participate in the Forum.
Break-out sessions
Breakout session on Future of the GEBCO grid
http://www.gebco.net/about_us/meetings_and_minutes/documents/update_procedures_w eatherall.pdf
- Exploring the SRTM 15 version of the satellite altimetry, solving eventual copyright issues with SCRIPPS and selecting areas where significant improvements can be achieved using the new version. This may be developed as one or several GEBCO scholars projects.
Actions:
Contact David Sandwell. Jenifer Austin claims that SRTM is entirely funded by Google and must be made public, furthermore is compiled on publically available data.
Possible new regional mapping projects and efforts
- Jakobsson suggests that there is a good potential for Svalbard Islands for the various ongoing mapping projects.
- Pacific Ocean. Shin says that there is interest from several countries, and luckily Patricio Carrasco from Chile is member of the GEBCO GCC.
- Dave Clark reports about the SEPHC he attended in July, the attendance was very large and made of high level representatives, including the second in command of Patricio Carrasco for Chile. The concept of regional mapping was welcomed among the states during the session.
- Lisa Taylor reminds that the previous IBC mapping project of the East Pacific Ocean has failed because was too much relaying on personal contacts and people who may become unavailable because displaced to other offices or moved to other jobs. Shin Tani suggests that Chile should take the lead of any possible Pacific mapping projects and because of the tsunami hazard on its coasts, it would be probably easier to persuading the Chilean government to support such an initiative.
- Martin Jakobsson suggests to write down a report on how a regional mapping project should be done with a list of deliverables, to be offered to regional groups that aim at making this effort.
- Robin Falconer suggests to leverage a workshop about compilation and interpolation. Who is the right person to be addressed for this task? Probably Patricio Carrasco himself. Geomar (Germany) and the University of Valparaiso have acquired a large amount of data on the Chilean trench.
Actions:
Contact Patricio Carrasco during one of the FOF skype teleconf.
- EEZ extension mapping projects. Most of the data are restricted or classified and won't be released before the process of negotiation and revision of the reports will be concluded.
Actions:
Robin to contact New Zealand
China for the north Pacific is a big player, but no solid contacts exist, one of the attendees is Chinese and she approached Marzia asking how and in what format are the data to be delivered to GEBCO.
India, Bangladesh, Pakistan difficult to reach out, not keen to cooperate.
Actions:
Prepare a letter signed by IHO/IHB asking for data and grids targeting specific countries that never provided data. But, first, approach countries that have already a relation with GEBCO for regional compilations. High resolution usage bands?
The next release must be 15 arcseconds. Next release 2017? Multiple resolutions? Malaysia is collecting data from the ship owners, these data can be provided to GEBCO as crowdsourcing.
Brazil is one of those countries that must be approached because of the large extent of its coasts.
North Atlantic will be discussed at the forthcoming meeting on NA mapping projects (David Wyatt), to see who could take the responsibility of the regional mapping project. Indian Ocean: data are already collected and only need to re-processing them?
Breakout Session: Outreach Working Group- Webpages for students (Sung/Chang/Weatherall)
Attendants: Hyo, Eunmi, Vicky, Rochchell, David, Mohammad, Tony
1. Collect the idea and outreach materials
- Prototype from Eunmi
- Galway Ocean Literacy and outreach-
- Video tapes from Vicky (oceanvideolab) : Youtube product then linked
– Historical GEBCO charts ( 1 st ed. ~ 5 th ed.) web developed by Tony then linked.
- Google and Esri approach
- Story on ocean mapping and App.
2.
Need to define the purpose of Outreach program on GEBCO
Ex) share the GEBCO data or awareness GEBCO or ocean mapping
3. Develop the different Targets with different strategies (young kids, secondary school students and teachers, in general publics)
- Requirement survey needed
4. Develop the contents- including stuffs in general, activity, biodiversity, historical work, marine resources, business etc. in addition to GEBCO Products.
5. Need fund for develop the contents based on different targets with different strategies : Two ways to build outreach
- Build small stuffs voluntarily and put it together - Make a big plan and make experts (need to fund):
Propose the fund for the outreach program in GGC meeting
6. Make front pages translations in GEBCO Web. or create brochure with local languages in perfect manners
Uncertainty Breakout Group at GEBCO 2015
Participants: Kamruddin Yusoff, Thierry Schmitt, Gustovo Gómez-Pimpollo Grespo, Julia Coursey, Jaya Roperez, James Ford, Paul Elmore (lead)
I. Overall objectives: Enable the GEBCO community to consistently & unambiguously
- Compute uncertainty estimates for bathymetry
- Understand what uncertainty means
- Communicate uncertainty in the GEBCO grid for the scientific integrity and safety of use of bathymetry
II. Paul Elmore (NRL) led the discussion with background information
Since 2002, the peer-review literature has published new science on estimation of uncertainty in bathymetry and hydrography products. Paul provided background (see appendix for details).
III. Questions Raised – What policies could we recommend for the following questions?
How do we develop uncertainty for GEBCO products?
How do we communicate and teach uncertainty issues to GEBCO users?
What are the conditions are required for the various techniques?
What kinds of standards do we need to set for receiving data?
How to deal with historical data?
IV. Recommendations
1. Build policies, tutorials & tools for the GEBCO community to understand for existing uncertainty estimation. Publish in the GEBCO Cookbook.
Definition for Uncertainty -> Use the NIST definitions (Appendix section A).
* Define conditions required to support different techniques
* Require source info needed
* Strategies for weighting data and/or rejecting data
For shallow water, require specification of vertical datum
2. Needs a working group to accomplish or perhaps a master's level graduate student (or students) to propose policies and test with test data set. (Could this task be done at CCOM?)
3. Build open GMT scripts for uncertainty processing.
Appendix: Background details
A. The National Institute of Standards and Technology in the United States has existing guidelines on reporting uncertainty. The reference is Taylor, B. N., and C. E. Kuyatt (1994), Guidelines for Evaluating and Expressing the Uncertainty of NIST Measurement Results, Technical Note 1297Rep., National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD. This document can be downloaded from a Google search for the document.
1. Two classifications of uncertainty defined
- Type B – "those which are evaluated by other means"
- Type A – "those which are evaluated by statistical methods"
2. Definitions of uncertainty
- Expanded Uncertainty – standard uncertainty multiplied by a coverage factor, usually performed to express uncertainty as a 95% confidence interval
- Standard Uncertainty – equivalent to a standard deviation
B. Publications – Since 1995, the following publications have appeared dealing with bathymetric uncertainty to Paul's knowledge. Starting from earliest to latest, these publications are as follows (with a brief description in parenthesis)
1. Hare, R. (1995), Depth and Position Error Budgets for Multibeam Echosounding, International Hydrographic Review, 72(2), 37-69. (Provides error budgeting for multibeam systems.)
2. Jakobsson, M., B. Calder, and L. Mayer (2002), On the effect of random errors in gridded bathymetric compilations, Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth, 107(B12), Article 2358. doi: 10.1029/2001JB000616. (Monte Carlo method for uncertainty using the Spline-In-Tension algorithm)
3. Calder, B. R., and L. A. Mayer (2003), Automatic processing of high-rate, high-density multibeam echosounder data, Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, 4, Art. No. 1048. doi: 10.1029/2002GC000486. (This is the CUBE paper)
4. Plant, N. G., K. T. Holland, and J. A. Puleo (2002), Analysis of the scale of errors in nearshore bathymetric data, Marine Geology, 191(1-2), 71-86. (Localized Regression for providing error from interpolation)
5. Calder, B. (2006), On the uncertainty of archive hydrographic data sets, IEEE J. Ocean. Eng., 31(2), 249-265. doi: 10.1109/JOE.2006.872215 (Uncertainty using Plant et. al. and ordinary Kriging and Monte Carlo method for uncertainty estimation of archived hydrographic data.)
6. Marks, K. M., and W. H. F. Smith (2008), An uncertainty model for deep ocean single beam and multibeam echo sounder data, Mar. Geophys. Res., 29(4), 239-250. doi: 10.1007/s11001-008-9060-y (Error analysis of older and nwer sonar data)
7. Elmore, P. A., D. H. Fabre, R. T. Sawyer, and R. W. Ladner (2012), Uncertainty estimation for databased bathymetry using a Bayesian network approach, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 13, Q09011. doi: 10.1029/2012gc004144. (Extension of Monte Carlo method for gridded bathymetry databases where the original source data cannot be accessed.)
8. Zambo, S., P. Elmore, A. Perkins, and B. Bourgeois (2015), Uncertainty Estimation for Sparse Data Gridding Algorithms, paper presented at U.S. Hydro Conference, National
Harbor, MD, 16-19 March 2015 (New method for uncertainty for interpolation of sparse data using Splines-In-Tension of similar algorithm).
C. Why do we have multiple interpolators and uncertainty estimation: NFL "No Free Lunch" Theorem – given an infinite amount of data, all interpolators yield equivalent results; the success of a particular interpolator depends on data characteristics.
Appendix 1
Agenda
Tuesday Oct. 6 (SCRUM and TSCOM)
Tun Sri Lanang Room, Royal Chulan Hotel
08:45-09:00 Arrival of delegates
09:00-0930 Welcome address by Radm Zaaim Hasan, Director General, National Hydrographic Center of Malaysia
09:30 TSCOM activities and preoccupations (Karen Marks )
09:45 SCRUM activities and preoccupations (Martin Jakobsson)
Status Reports from regional bathymetric compilations and technical work on bathymetric grid
- EMODNet (Thierry Schmitt)
- Updating the GEBCO grid (Weatherall)
- Overview of Crowd Source Bathymetry Working Group (Taylor)
- GEBCO High-Resolution Product (Ferrini)
- GEBCO Outreach update- Plan for webpages for students (Sung/Chang/Weatherall)
- GEBCO/Nippon Foundation Indian Ocean Bathymetric Compilation (IOBC) (Wigley)
- IBCAO/IBCSO/Baltic (Jakobsson)
- North Atlantic Seabed Mapping Project (Jencks/Wyatt)
- GEBCO Science Day (Elmore)
- GEBCO Topic (Tani)
10.30-11:00 Refreshment Break
11:00 -13:00 Continue Status Reports
13.00-14:00Lunch Break
14:00-15:30 Continue Status reports
15:30-16:00 Refreshment Break
16:00-16:55 Organization of Break-out sessions
17:00 Adjourn
20:00-20:15: Arrival of guests for Welcome Dinner at Taming Sari 3, Ground Floor, Royale Chulan Hotel
Wednesday Oct. 7 (SCRUM and TSCOM
)
Tun Sri Lanang Room, Royal Chulan Hotel
Break-out sessions (09:00 – 12:15)
- Outreach Working Group- Webpages for students (Sung/Chang/Weatherall)
- Crowd Source Bathymetry Working Group (Taylor)
23 Sept 2015
- Update the GEBCO grid: Regional compilations and base grid (Jakobsson/Marks)
09:00-10:30 Break-out sessions
10:30-11:00 Refreshment Break
11:00-12:15Continue Break-out sessions
12:15-13:00: Report results, recommendations, action plans
13:00-14:30Lunch Break
14:30-17:00 Visit to PETRONAS Data Management Centre
17:00 Adjourn
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THE PROMOTION OF PERSONAL RESOURCES FOR THE PREVENTION OF ALCOHOL ABUSE
Susana Lázaro Visa*, Amaia Del Campo**, Eugenio Carpintero** and Sonia Soriano**
*University of Cantabria. **University of Salamanca
This work offers a theoretical reflection upon the specific characteristics of alcohol use in Spanish adolescents and their implications for the design of preventive programmes. Based on the analysis of a sociocultural context that views adolescent use as normal, the influence of advertising strategies for alcoholic beverages that coexist alongside government, regional and school preventive campaigns, and a specific type of drinking that takes place primarily at weekends, with friends, for fun and often as an increasingly deliberate attempt to reach a state of inebriation, we consider several different arguments outlining the need to reorient the design of preventive intervention towards giving a more important role to the resources of adolescents themselves, so as to equip them better to deal with the influence of the various socializing agents.
Key words: Alcohol use, adolescence, prevention.
En este trabajo se presenta una reflexión teórica sobre las características específicas del consumo de alcohol en adolescentes españoles y sus implicaciones para el diseño de programas preventivos. A partir del análisis de un contexto sociocultural que normaliza el consumo adolescente, la influencia de unas estrategias publicitarias de bebidas alcohólicas que coexisten con las campañas gubernamentales, regionales y escolares para prevenir el consumo, y la especificidad de un consumo que se realiza principalmente los fines de semana, con amigos, para divertirse y cada vez más, buscando deliberadamente la intoxicación etílica, se consideran diversos argumentos que ponen de relieve la necesidad de reorientar el diseño de las intervenciones preventivas hacia la potenciación de los recursos del propio adolescente, con el fin de poder afrontar mejor la influencia de los distintos agentes de socialización.
Palabras clave: consumo de alcohol, adolescencia, prevención.
WHAT LIES BENEATH THE FIGURES FOR ALCOHOL USE IN YOUNG PEOPLE? THE CONSEQUENCES OF ALCOHOL USE IN ADOLESCENTS
In the last decade, alcohol has become by far the most widely consumed drug among adolescents in Spain, with a much higher prevalence of use than other drugs, legal or illegal (Gil Villa, 2006; Plan Nacional sobre Drogas, 2005; 2007). The most recent national data available on alcohol use among adolescents still at school (aged 1418) reveal that 58% have drunk alcohol in the previous month (Table 1), with similar figures for the two sexes, with scarcely any variation over the last 10 years (PNSD, 2007). Moreover, 21.8% drink every weekend, and among those who have drunk alcohol in the previous thirty days, as many as 44.1% have got drunk at least once (PNSD, 2007).
According to the majority of national research, alcohol use among adolescents is currently characterized mainly by the consumption of beverages with high alcoholic
Correspondence: Susana Lázaro Visa,Universidad de Cantabria.
Facultad de Educación. Avda. de los Castros s/n. 39005 Santan- der. España. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org
content in a short space of time, at weekends and in the company of friends, with the aim of having fun and, to an increasing extent, with the deliberate goal of inebriation. This type of drinking considerably increases the risks of alcohol and the chances of eventually developing dependence (Downdall & Wechsler, 2002; Comisión Clínica, 2007). This form of alcohol use is not found sporadically; rather, it is present in 53% of Spanish
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adolescents that have drunk alcohol in the previous month (PNSD, 2007). According to our own data from the Autonomous Region of Castilla y León, such concentrated consumption is found in 76% of adolescent drinkers aged 14 to 19, even though the figure for weekly behaviour of this type is lower, at 27% of these adolescents (Carpintero, Soriano, Lázaro, del Campo & López, 2005).
There is a general consensus among authors in the field that a change is occurring from a "Mediterranean" pattern, characterized by moderate consumption of fermented beverages for social purposes, to a "Nordic" pattern, characterized by the consumption of beverages with strong alcohol content and with the aim of getting drunk and having fun (Calafat & Amengual, 1999; Junta de Castilla y León, 2005; PNSD, 2000; Pons & Bejarano, 1995). This drinking pattern, which has become rapidly incorporated in Spain in recent years, did not form part of our traditions (Calafat, 2007), and has brought about
FIGURE 1 CHARACTERISTICS OF ADOLESCENT ALCOHOL USE IN SPAIN, COMPARED TO ADULT USE
Patterns of use
[x] More focused on mixed drinks and spirits.
[x] More likely for drinking to revolve around weekend.
[x] More likely to involve binge-drinking.
[x] More likely to be geared towards getting drunk.
[x] Their drinking pattern is in the process of formation and has more possibility of change than that of adults.
Context
[x] More associated with fun and with seeking intimate or sexual relationships.
[x] More likely to take place at night and until the early hours.
[x] More likely to take place in premises or locations frequented almost exclusively by adolescents and young people.
Consequences
[x] More likely to be drinking in a risky or harmful fashion, and less likely to have developed dependence, because they have not been drinking for long.
[x] More likely that over time they will develop dependence and experience other harmful consequences, since they drink larger quantities and in a shorter space of time.
[x] Less likely that they are those around them will realize they have a problem with alcohol.
Accessibility of alcohol
[x] In contrast to the case of adults, those under 18 are prohibited access to spirits, and those under 16 to all types of alcoholic beverages; sin embargo, in Spain they do not usually have difficulty obtaining them.
[x] They are subject to greater advertising pressure than adults. Drinks advertising is focused mainly on them.
substantial changes. For some authors, this divergence from the Mediterranean pattern involves a breaking away from the process of gradual access to controlled and socially adapted consumption of alcohol (Moya, 2007), putting adolescents out of step with the adult model (Fig. 1).
The patterns of use described increase the risks already inherent in alcohol consumption – briefly summarized in Figure 2 –, since drinkers much more frequently reach a state of drunkenness (Calafat, 2007; Coleman & Cater, 2005). Moreover, the drinking takes place in contexts in which there is heightened probability of having sexual relations, of using vehicles and of conflicts arising, and which can involve the emergence of problems such as traffic accidents, violence and vandalism, alcohol poisoning requiring medical attention, unwanted pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases (Clark, 2005) – to mention just a few examples. This is reflected in the findings of recent nationwide studies, which revealed that 46% of those aged 14 to 18 had at some time had problems related to the use of alcohol, such as rows or arguments (23%), physical fights (11%), conflicts with family (14%) or absence from school or work (5%). A total of 22% reported having travelled in a vehicle whose driver had drunk alcohol, so that it is no surprise that road accidents are the primary cause of death among young people (Junta de Castilla y León, 2002; 2005; PNSD, 2001, 2005).
FIGURE 2 ORGANIC PROBLEMS IN ADOLESCENCE LINKED TO ALCOHOL USE
Furthermore, though, the way adolescents drink, and the times and places they generally choose, make it less likely that they are aware of the risks involved (Carpintero et al., 2005; Moya, 2007). For example, only 36.8% of male adolescents perceive the problems potentially associated with the use of alcohol at weekends, a percentage that has gradually decreased over the last decade. Although in women the perception of risk is a little higher (45.7%), in both sexes it falls progressively throughout adolescence, being much lower by age 18 (PNSD, 2005). This underestimation of the risks associated with alcohol, characteristic of adolescence, occurs in an adult context in which there is also low perception of the risks of weekend drinking (Comisión Clínica, 2007). We should not forget, as pointed out in some studies, that perceived risk may be a direct indicator of the way a person's alcohol use will develop in the future (PNSD, 2005).
Among the reasons that may interfere in adolescents' perception of themselves as risk users, we can highlight once more the actual consumption pattern in this age group: since they do not normally drink during the week, they tend to think that they are not dependent on alcohol. On the other hand, drinking is considered as a way of having fun, of enjoying time with friends, which is done above all in public leisure locations (bars, discotheques) or in the open air (streets and parks), so that there is a tendency to trivialize the quantities consumed. Moreover, their image of an alcoholic is that of an adult who drinks almost every day, alone – an image far removed from that of themselves (Carpintero et al., 2005).
All such data suggest, on the one hand, that the intensive use of alcohol, so common among young people today, can have significant consequences in both the short and the long term, but they also point to a near-indissociability of leisure and drinking in adolescents and a clear normativity in the use of alcohol, perceived as practically innocuous not only by adolescents themselves, but also by adults. Bearing these aspects in mind, we cannot stress too highly the need to reconsider strategies for the prevention of alcohol use in this age group.
SOME FACTORS RELEVANT TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF ADOLESCENT ALCOHOL USE
First of all, we should like to situate alcohol use in the sociocultural context in which it takes place, which is indeed one of the factors considered by professionals working with adolescents to explain the onset of drinking in this age group (Carpintero et al., 2005). In spite of the incidence of alcohol use and of its consequences, it is a drug that is well considered by society and fully integrated in our culture, and whose risks are socially played down. As Moya (2007) points out, Spain is the world's sixthranked country in terms of per capita use of alcohol, which is, moreover, the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in our country. In contrast to other drugs, alcohol is in a privileged position, so that it can be described as the social drug par excellence. It forms part of our culture and of our customs. It is legal, and is not generally referred to as a drug, which makes its use more likely to be encouraged, both in adults and in young people. Children see it used at home, in the street, in the media. It is cheap and easy to obtain for 71% of adolescents (PNSD, 2005), and its advertising, although involving restrictions which in many cases are not met, is legal. Therefore, it is unsurprising, regardless of its objective effects, that alcohol is considered less dangerous than other drugs, and that parents and educators alike are less concerned about their children and pupils drinking alcohol than taking illegal drugs.
Furthermore, an important factor within this sociocultural influence is the family. Pons and Berjano (1995) highlight how the adolescent's relational framework based on family and peer group is among the potentially most important antecedent of alcohol use, either through their roles as models or through the expectations they may transmit in relation to drinking. Likewise, alcohol use appears to be encouraged by permissive beliefs in the young person's context (Calafat & Amengual, 1999; Carpintero et al., 2005; Baer, 2002). It has also been found that inadequate supervision and lack of support by parents during adolescence is significantly associated with early onset of alcohol use (Calafat & Amengual, 1999; Clark, 2005); this deficiency in parental support is often found, moreover, in parallel with membership of alcohol-using peer groups (Clark, 2005). Thus, it would appear that having peers who drink, who put a positive value on drinking and who tend to frequent places where alcohol is drunk as a leisure pursuit can be a risk factor (Calafat & Amengual, 1999; Coleman & Cater, 2005; Pons & Berjano, 1999; Thompson & Auslander, 2007).
Together with the sociocultural context and the immediate environment, adolescents' leisure time and the different ways in which they enjoy it should be considered in efforts to understand alcohol use in this age group.
Various studies show how the type of leisure activities preferred by the adolescent and by his or her peer group, and the type of activities actually available, are clearly associated with the consumption of alcohol (Pereña, Peinado & Portero, 1993; Pons & Berjano, 1999).
However, research also shows how the adolescent can play an active role in responding to the pressure to drink exercised by the peer group, which can be mitigated by promoting, among other variables, psychosocial maturity and assertiveness in the adolescent him/herself (Adalbjarnadottir, 2002; Donovan, 2004). On the other hand, low self-esteem (Mendoza, Carrasco & Sánchez, 2003; Pons & Berjano, 1999), deficient expectations of self-efficacy (Skuttle, 1999), external locus of control (Mendoza et al., 2003), myths and mistaken beliefs about alcohol use (Calafat & Amengual, 1999), and difficulties with emotional self-control (Moncada, 1997) may be facilitating the onset and maintenance of alcohol use in adolescence, though not all research finds an association between the cited variables and adolescent drinking (García & Carrasco, 2003; Pons & Berjano, 1999).
REFLECTIONS ABOUT PREVENTIVE INTERVENTION IN THIS AGE GROUP
Our analysis permits us to highlight certain relevant aspects, some based on the above reflections about the characteristics of adolescent alcohol use and the factors associated with it, and others that we incorporate now, and which will be useful for considering the design of preventive strategies and programmes.
First of all, the majority of adolescents (72.5%) report having received information at school about the effects and problems associated with the use of different substances, in 75.5% of cases in the form of talks and lectures (PNSD, 2005). Although this preventive effort in Spain appears to have contributed to a decrease in drinking (Table 1), the most problematic use has actually increased, and especially the incidence of drunkenness. Data from the last year for which we have information show an increase in drunkenness to the levels of 10 years ago, in spite of the decrease observed during the intervening period (PNSD, 2007). Moreover, alcohol use begins at very early ages, around 13.7 years, according to data from the latest survey by the Spanish National Plan on Drugs (Plan Nacional sobre Drogas; PNSD, 2007). Finally, a large proportion of adolescents fail to perceive that drinking at weekends brings with it certain problems. The expert data suggest, on an initial consideration, that the prevention strategies followed up to now do not appear sufficient for achieving a substantial reduction in the figures, though they do seem to have contributed to keeping them stable over recent years (Table 1). However, nor do these strategies seem effective for changing the most detrimental forms of alcohol use, such as "binge drinking", whose consequences were described above. Such a situation leads us to reflect upon the prevention strategies that have been used in the last decade, with a view to adjusting them to the alcohol use characteristics of this population sector, in spite of the difficulties involved (Calafat, 2002).
Thus, there would seem to be no doubt at present that information on the consequences of alcohol use is insufficient (Larimer & Cronce, 2007). Around 89% of adolescents consider themselves sufficiently well or perfectly informed about the subject; indeed, as many as 72% believe the information to be useful to them (PNSD, 2005), and even so, they continue drinking. An important point to bear in mind is that the information provided to adolescents – generally in the school context or through occasional national or regional campaigns in the media – coexists with commercial advertising campaigns for alcoholic beverages. Such coexistence is found, moreover, in a sociocultural context that not only is permissive about adolescent alcohol use – despite restrictions that have progressively been imposed on access to premises or the purchase of alcohol by 16 to 18-year-olds – but also ignores or trivializes the possible risks, which are seen as part of the socialization process. Our society's relationship with alcohol, involving a perception of the risk associated with drinking that continues to be very low (Comisión Clínica, 2007), suggests that in the design of preventive strategies for reducing drinking and its risks, the analysis of adolescent alcohol use should consider the habit not merely within the framework of adolescence itself, but also within that of a wider sociocultural context which accepts and legitimates alcohol consumption in a large part of the population.
The coexistence referred to above may indeed be contributing to some extent to neutralizing preventive efforts, though this cannot be strongly asserted, since such intervention tends not to be assessed (Calafat, 2002). Even so, we can consider as likely that the influence of advertising and of a permissive sociocultural context is
counteracting, at least partly, the information campaigns aimed at the prevention of adolescent drinking. Therefore, we believe their design should incorporate active strategies for developing in adolescents themselves the necessary resources that permit them to deal more effectively with the influence of the various socializing agents – for example, by neutralizing the negative pressure of advertising, though this does not mean we should neglect direct intervention in the contexts of leisure time, the media and the general population.
Finally, it is the adolescent who, in a permissive context with regard to alcohol use, must make the decision whether or not to drink, and to what extent, so that he or she must be equipped with enough resources to refrain from drinking, or at least to drink in a non-abusive fashion. In this regard, we believe that prevention programmes would be more effective if they were designed to raise adolescents' awareness about both the risks of drinking alcohol and the importance of avoiding the most harmful forms of drinking (Oliva, Parra & Sánchez-Queija, 2008), as well as to trying and hold back the age of onset of alcohol use, as endorsed already by some nationwide programmes, such as that of Espada and Méndez (2003). Encouraging the development of resources and personal skills in adolescents which not only enable them to deal with situations of risk but which also improve their psychosocial wellbeing can work in favour of such beneficial processes, especially if intervention begins in the early school years (Coggans, 2006; Tebes et al., 2007). Alcohol use is not a behaviour that occurs in isolation, so that tackling it without taking into account its overlap with other health-related behaviours or its psychosocial context does not seem to be the best way forward (Carrasco, 2004).
Considering the results of different previous studies, we believe that preventive intervention aimed at adolescents themselves could be structured around the promotion of four basic aspects that have emerged as effective in the prevention of other risk behaviours in adolescence (López & cols, 2006; Carpintero et al., 2007), and whose deficiencies have been associated with alcohol abuse (Carpintero et al., 2005; Mendoza, Carrasco & Sánchez; 2003; Moncada, 1997; Pons & Berjano, 1999; Skuttle, 1999). The aspects in question, and on which intervention should seek to focus, are personality, cognitive, affective and instrumental mediators, whose strengthening may not only favour the development of central wellbeing components that act as protective factors in adolescence, but also contribute to breaking the well-established link between "leisure time" and "alcohol use". As regards personality variables, it would appear that improved selfesteem, greater self-efficacy for coping with alcoholrelated risk situations, and an internal locus of control all work in favour of a less harmful approach to alcohol. Among resources of a cognitive nature, work on false beliefs associated with alcohol use and on the encouragement of less permissive and favourable attitudes towards drinking would seem to be pointing in the same direction, as well as the promotion of emotional self-control and empathy as affective mediators and decision-making skills as an instrumental mediator (Carpintero et al., 2005; Walters, Bennett & Noto, 2000). This wide range of factors whose deficit has been associated with alcohol use, as shown by previous research, permits us to consider their promotion as the basis of a comprehensive intervention strategy that boosts the resources and skills of adolescents themselves for dealing with alcohol-related situations effectively, controlling, at the very least, the abusive consumption of alcohol.
This type of intervention has numerous advantages, since, as frequently shown, although there are specific risk factors related to the development of different problems – which should not be overlooked in preventive work –, a range of theories highlight the fact that at the root of adolescent risk behaviours we always find the same type of personal difficulties, related to deficits in self-esteem, in social skills and in problem-solving abilities (Carrasco, 2004; Jessor, 1992; McWhirter et al., 2006). Likewise, in order to promote the development of health and prevent the different psychosocial problems we find in adolescence, all programmes need to encourage the acquisition by the adolescent of the same basic competencies (Wagner, Tubman & Gil, 2004), which will permit them to maintain appropriate social and affective relations with peers, with the family and in the different contexts in which they move. The nucleus of all these programmes is the acquisition of a healthy lifestyle, which implies not just the avoidance of risk behaviours, but also the promotion of psychosocial wellbeing (Costa & López, 1996; López et al., 2006; Tebes et al., 2007).
Our principal challenge right now is to translate this theoretical approach into effective preventive programmes. This will involve basing their design on the
results of previous research, and not only on data from the study of risk factors for adolescent drinking, but also, and especially, on the few studies to date dealing with protective factors against alcohol use in this age group. Such an approach connects directly with the perspective of "Positive Youth Development", an emerging area of research and practice in which the emphasis is placed on a preventive approach based on the promotion of the adolescent's strengths for favouring positive development (Tebes et al., 2007)
The design and implementation of intervention programmes for adolescents targeting in a parallel fashion the cognitive, affective, instrumental and personal mediators referred to above, may constitute one of the most fruitful approaches to making it possible for adolescents to learn to deal and cope with a substance that is strongly present in the leisure context and which they will probably come across during this phase of experimentation. These types of programme, which can be easily applied in the school context from an early age, would probably improve their effectiveness if they were framed within a wider strategy aimed at the different socialization contexts of the adolescent, controlling advertising, for example, or making access to alcohol more difficult for those in this age group (Becoña, 2007), as restrictive measures; or encouraging young people to seek alcohol-free leisure alternatives (Calafat, 2002). Indeed, the well-established relationship between leisure and drinking, internalized in a large proportion of adolescents (Carpintero et al., 2005), is in need of a process of deconstruction, and this should certainly not be overlooked in the design of programmes and strategies for the prevention of abusive alcohol consumption.
By way of conclusion, we consider that the reinforcement of personal resources and skills in the adolescent, as set out above, can form the basis of interventions for preventing adolescent alcohol use, a problem whose particular characteristics – especially those involving the links between drinking and fun, leisure time and peer relationships – make other types of intervention quite difficult. We should not overlook the fact that the social image among young people of a person with alcohol problems is that of someone who drinks every day and alone, an image far removed from the typical drinking pattern of the adolescent. Finally, the promotion of the factors mentioned can be useful not only in the prevention of alcohol use – delaying the onset of drinking or reducing it to levels that do not imply excessive risk to the adolescents or those around them – but also in the prevention of other common risks for this age group often associated with alcohol use, such as violent behaviour or sexual relations without protection, at the same time as improving the personal and social wellbeing of the adolescent (Carpintero et al., 2007).
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Baer J.S. (2002). Student factors: understanding individual variation in college drinking. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 14: 40-53.
Becoña E. (2007). Resiliencia y consumo de drogas: una revisión [Resilience and drug use: a review]. Adicciones, 19(1):89-101.
Calafat A. (2002). Estrategias preventivas del abuso de alcohol [Preventive strategies for alcohol abuse]. Adicciones, 14 (1 extra): 317-336.
Calafat A. (2007). El abuso de alcohol de los jóvenes en España [Alcohol abuse among youth in Spain]. Adicciones, 19 (3): 217-224.
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Carpintero E., Soriano S., Lázaro S., Del Campo A. & López F. (2005). Diseño de un programa para la prevención del consumo de alcohol en los adolescentes castellano-leoneses. Primera parte: estudio de las variables de riesgo útiles para la intervención educativa [Design of a programme for the prevention of alcohol use among adolescents in Castilla y León. Part One: study of the risk variables relevant to educational intervention]. Research report. Junta de Castilla y León.
Carpintero E., López F., Del Campo A., Soriano S. & Lázaro S. (2007). El bienestar personal y social de los adolescentes y la prevención del malestar y la violencia: Presentación y validación de un programa educativo [Personal and social wellbeing of adolescents and the prevention of distress and violence: Presentation and validation of an educational programme]. Revista de Investigación en Psicología, 10 (1).
Carrasco A.M. (2004). Consumo de alcohol y estilos de vida: una tipología de los adolescentes españoles [Alcohol use and lifestyles: a typology of Spanish adolescents]. Revista de Psicología Social, 19 (1), 51-79.
Clark D.B. (2005). The natural history of adolescent alcohol use disorders. Addictive, 99: 5-22.
Coggans N. (2006). Drug education and prevention: Has progress been made? Drugs: education, prevention and policy, 13 (5): 417-422.
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Donovan J. (2004). Adolescent alcohol initiation: a review of psychosocial risk factors. Journal of Adolescent Health, 55(6):529e7-529e18.
Dowdall, G.W. & Wechsler, H. (2002). Studying College Alcohol Use: Widening the Lens, Sharpening the Focus. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 14.
Espada, J. & Méndez, F. (2003). Programa SALUDA. Prevención del abuso de alcohol y consumo de drogas de síntesis [SALUDA Programme. Prevention of alcohol abuse and use of synthetic drugs]. Madrid: Pirámide.
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García J.M. & Carrasco A.M. (2003). Factores individuales, familiares y educativos asociados al consumo de alcohol en jóvenes [Individual, family and educational factors associated with alcohol use among young people]. Revista de Psicología Social, 18(1): 49-60.
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Jessor R. (1992). Risk behavior in adolescence: A psychosocial framework for understanding and action. Developmental Review, 12, 374-390.
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McWhirter J.J., McWhirter B.T., McWhirter E.H. & McWhirter R.J. (2006). At-risk youth. A comprehensive response for Counselors, Teachers, Psychologist and Human Services Professionals. California: Thomson Brooks/Cole.
Mendoza M.I., Carrasco A.M. & Sánchez M. (2003). Consumo de alcohol y autopercepción en los adolescentes españoles [Alcohol use and selfperception in Spanish adolescents]. Intervención psicosocial 12(1):95-111.
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Oliva, A., Parra, A and Sánchez-Queija, I. (2008). Consumo de sustancias durante la adolescencia: trayectorias evolutivas y consecuencias para el ajuste psicológico [Substance use during adolescence: developmental courses and consequences for psychological adjustment]. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 8(1), 153-169.
Pereña A., Peinado F. & Portero P. (1993). La cultura del alcohol entre los jóvenes de la Comunidad de Madrid [The culture of alcohol among young people in the Madrid Region]. Madrid: Comunidad de Madrid.
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Plan Nacional Sobre Drogas (2005). Encuesta Estatal sobre drogas en enseñanza secundaria [National Survey on drugs in secondary education]. Madrid: Autor. [online, 4/04/07]. Available at: http://www.pnsd.msc.es/Categoria2/observa/pdf/e scolar2004.pdf
Plan Nacional Sobre Drogas (2007). Encuesta Estatal sobre drogas en enseñanza secundaria [National Survey on drugs in secondary education]. Madrid: Autor. [online, 17/10/07]. Available at: http://www.pnsd.msc.es/Categoria2/observa/pdf/e scolar2006.pdf
Pons J. & Berjano E. (1995). El consumo abusivo de alcohol en la adolescencia. Un modelo explicativo desde la Psicología social [Alcohol abuse in adolescence. An explanatory model from Social Psychology]. Madrid: Plan Nacional sobre drogas.
Robledo T., Rubio J. & Espiga I. (1996). El consumo de
alcohol en jóvenes. Un reto para nuestra sociedad [Alcohol use in young people. A challenge for our society]. In Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo: Alcohol y Juventud, 1995 [Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs: Alcohol and Youth, 1995]. Madrid: Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo.
Secades R. (1997). Alcoholismo juvenil. Prevención y tratamiento [Juvenile alcoholism. Prevention and treatment]. Madrid: Pirámide.
Skutle A. (1999). The relationship among self-efficacy expectancies, severity of alcohol abuse and psychological benefits from drinking. Addictive Behaviors, 24(1): 87-98.
Tebes J.K., Feinn R., Vanderploeg J.J., Chinman M.J., Shepard J., Brabham T., Genovese M. & Connell C. (2007). Impact of a positive youth development program in urban after-school settings on the prevention of adolescent substance use. Journal of Adolescent Health, 41: 239-247.
Thompson R.G. & Auslander W.F. (2007). Risk factors for alcohol and marijuana use among adolescents in foster care. Journal of Substance Abuse treatment, 32, 6169.
Wagner E.F., Tubman J.G. & Gil A.G. (2004). Implementing school-based substance abuse interventions: methodological dilemmas and recommended solutions. Addiction, 99 (Supp.2), 106119.
Walters S., Bennett M.E. & Noto, J. (2000). Drinking on campus. What do we know about reducing alcohol use among college students? Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 19, 223-228.
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Certificate Number 20120905 – E156943
Report Reference Issue Date
E156943 - 20090306
2012-SEPTEMBER-05
Issued to:
Siemens AG I IA CE CP R&D-VI 4 Werner-Von-Siemens-Strasse 48 92220 Amberg, Germany
This is to certify that representative samples of
Combination Motor Controllers
Open Type Self-Protected Type E Combination Motor Controller, Type Nos. 3RA61, 3RA62, 3RA64 or 3RA65 followed by combination of 0, 2 or 5, followed by 0, followed by -0, -1 or -2, followed by A, B, C, D or E followed by B3, E3, P3 or B4, followed by 0, 2, 3 or 4. May be followed by additional numbers and letters for manufacturers use. (See following page for additional model information.)
Have been investigated by UL in accordance with the Standard(s) indicated on this Certificate.
Standard(s) for Safety:
ANSI/UL 508, "Industrial Control Equipment" and CSA-C22.2 No. 14, "Industrial Control Equipment."
Additional Information:
See the UL Online Certifications Directory at www.ul.com/database for additional information
Only those products bearing the UL Listing Mark for the US and Canada should be considered as being covered by UL's Listing and Follow-Up Service meeting the appropriate requirements for US and Canada.
The UL Listing Mark for the US and Canada generally includes: the UL in a circle symbol with "C" and "US" identifiers: the word "LISTED"; a control number (may be alphanumeric) assigned by UL; and the product category name (product identifier) as indicated in the appropriate UL Directory.
Look for the UL Listing Mark on the product.
Certificate Number Report Reference Issue Date
20120905 – E156943
E156943 - 20090306
2012-SEPTEMBER-05
This is to certify that representative samples of the product as specified on this certificate were tested according to the current UL requirements.
General:
These devices are open type Self-Protected Type E manual combination motor controllers. They are intended to provide motor disconnection means, motor branch circuit short circuit, motor control, and motor overload protection.
These devices are provided with line terminal adapters, cat. no. 3RV1928-1H, 3RV2928-1H, 3RV19255EB or 3RV2925-5EB fastened onto existing line side terminal blocks of combination motor controller. The adapters may be factory or field-installed. (See "Marking" section.) These devices may be used with insulated busbar systems, Cat. No. 3RV1915, with the 3RV1925-5EB or 3RV2925-5EB adapter. In these applications, the incoming line terminal to the busbar systems has spacings not less than 2 in. (50.8 mm) measured over surface, and 1 inch (25.4 mm) through air.
These devices may be used with Busbar systems, Cat. No. 3RA68, with the 3RA6813 Infeed. In these applications, the incoming line terminal to the busbar systems has spacings not less than 2 in. (50.8 mm) measured over surface, and 1 inch (25.4 mm) through air.
The following accessories, listed for this manufacturers manual motor contollers in File E4775, Vol. 10,
Sec. 2 may be used in the following applications:
3RA6920-1B, 3RA6920-1C, 3RA6920-2B, 3RA6920-2C, 3RA6920-1D, 3RA6920-2D, 3RA6920-1E, 3RA6920-2E for control circuits
3RA6931-0A, 3RA6932-0A, 3RA6933-0B, 3RA6933-0C - Connecting Cable for 3RA64/3RA65 used for communication purpose only (max. 24V, 1A)
3RA6940-0A - Adapter for flat surface mounting of the Compact Starter.
Certificate Number 20120905 – E156943
Report Reference E156943 - 20090306
Issue Date 2012-SEPTEMBER-05
Ratings:
Setting Range 0.1-0.4A
Max. FLA: 0.4A
Max. LRA: 2.4A
Setting Range 0.32-1.25A
Max. FLA: 1.25A
A
Max. LRA: 10
Setting Range 1-4A
Max. FLA: 4A
Max. LRA: 28.8A
| Voltage | Horsepower 3-ph |
|---|---|
| 115/120V | - |
| 200/208V | - |
| 230/240V | - |
| 460/480V | 1/2 |
| 575/600V | 1/2 |
| Voltage | Horsepower 3-ph |
|---|---|
| 115/120V | - |
| 200/208V | 3/4 |
| 230/240V | 3/4 |
| 460/480V | 2 |
| 575/600V | 3 |
Certificate Number 20120905 – E156943
Report Reference E156943 - 20090306
Issue Date 2012-SEPTEMBER-05
Setting Range 3-12A
Max. FLA: 12A
Max. LRA: 80A
Setting Range 8-32A
Max. FLA: 32A
Max. LRA: 194A
Pilot Duty ratings (3RA61/3RA62 only):
| Direct | Reversing |
|---|---|
| 21-22; 13-14: 1 NC – 1 NO | 13-14; 43-44: 2 NO |
| 77-78: 1 NO | 77-78: 1 NO |
| 95-96-98: Change over | 95-96-98: Change over |
III.
CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE
Certificate Number 20120905 – E156943
Report Reference E156943 - 20090306
Issue Date 2012-SEPTEMBER-05
These devices are suitable for use on circuits capable of delivering the following maximum short circuit currents.
| Setting range | Voltage (V) |
|---|---|
| 0.1-0.4 | 240 480/277 600/347 |
| 0.32-1.25 | 240 480/277 600/347 |
| 1-4 | 240 480/277 600/347 |
| 3-12 | 240 480/277 600/347 |
| 8-32 | 240 480/277 |
The trip rating is 125% of the dial setting (thermal range).
Nomenclature Breakdown:
| 3RA61 | 2 | 0 | -0 | A | B3 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII |
I. Basic Type:
3RA61 - Compact-Starter, direct, without communication
3RA62 - Compact-Starter, reversing, without communication
3RA64 – Compact-Starter, direct, with communication
3RA65 – Compact-Starter, reversing, with communication
II. Integrated auxiliary contacts:
0 - no integrated auxiliary contacts (3RA64 and 3RA65 only)
2 - 1 NC and 1 NO integrated auxiliary contacts (3RA61 only)
5 - with 2 NO auxiliary contacts (3RA62 only)
Auxiliary contacts:
0 - without auxiliary contacts
William R. Carney, Director, North American Certification Programs
UL LLC
Any information and documentation involving UL Mark services are provided on behalf of UL LLC (UL) or any authorized licensee of UL. For questions, please contact a local UL Customer Service Representative at www.ul.com/contactus
Certificate Number 20120905 – E156943
Report Reference E156943 - 20090306
Issue Date 2012-SEPTEMBER-05
IV. Type of Terminal:
-0 - without terminals for use with 3RA68 Infeed System and AS-I communication
-1 - screw-type terminals
-2 - spring-loaded terminals for control circuit
(types 0 and 3 only; No. VII of the nomenclature breakdown)
V. Setting ranges:
A - 0.1 to 0.4A
B - 0.32 to 1.25A
C - 1 to 4A
D - 3 to 12A
E - 8 to 32A
VI. Operating voltage:
B3 - 24Vac/dc
E3 - 42 to 70Vac/dc
P3 - 110 to 240Vac/dc
B4 - 24 V dc for compact starter with communication
VII. Terminals and Mounting:
0 - without main and control circuit terminals for use with
3RA68 Infeed System and AS-i communication
2 - with main and control circuit terminals and for mounting on Din Rail
3 - without main circuit terminals, with control circuit terminals for use with 3RA68 Infeed System
4 - with main circuit terminals, without control circuit terminals for mounting on Din Rail for use with AS-I communication.
|
Research into social care workers undertaking healthcare interventions
FEBRUARY 2022
Skills for Care
Research into social care workers undertaking healthcare interventions
CONTENTS
Research into social care workers undertaking healthcare interventions
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
1. In 2021, Skills for Care worked with the Department of Health and Social Care to publish guidance on delegated healthcare tasks. The guides are aimed primarily at adult social care employers, managers and care workers in care homes and are intended to support decision-making and provide guidance on delivering delegated healthcare interventions safely and competently.
2. To further add to the knowledge and evidence base, Skills for Care commissioned York Consulting LLP to undertake an exploratory research project into current delegation practice. Twenty-five qualitative consultations were undertaken with representatives from providers, local authorities (LAs), Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and strategic organisations. These consultations explored knowledge of, and views towards, delegation, captured examples of where it is working well and highlighted key issues and challenges.
Definition and prevalence
3. The phrase "delegated healthcare intervention" was well recognised by consultees. There was also a general agreement on its definition, i.e., transferring a healthcare intervention from a registered practitioner to a non-registered individual, with assurances that the individual is supported, confident and competent in delivering the intervention.
4. The majority of consultees agreed that there is a strong argument for delegation, assuming that conditions are met such that it can be done appropriately and safely. Where that is the case, it was said to benefit social care workers, registered clinicians and those accessing care and support services. In particular, it can mean timely, flexible delivery of interventions and procedures, better continuity of care and more person-centred care.
5. Delegation for certain interventions is reportedly becoming more prevalent. These include blood pressure monitoring, oxygen saturation readings, insulin administration, basic stoma care, basic catheter care and PEG feeding.
6. However, consultees agreed that interpretations of delegation across the sector are varied and that the structures and processes for delegation are fragmented. They stated that it often takes place through informal agreements and on a case-by-case basis.
Delivery of delegated healthcare
7. Governance and accountability: currently considered to be variable and patchy. Whilst examples exist of effective practice, they are considered the exception rather than the norm. Inconsistencies and uncertainties in relation to the governance of delegation are causing challenges for providers and complications for CQC
Skills for Care Research into social care workers undertaking healthcare interventions
inspectors. Encouragingly, there is work underway to put in place greater standardisation in some areas.
8. Frameworks, standards and policies: published guidelines on delegation do exist (Appendix A includes a summary), but tend not to be holistic or applicable to all settings. Providers are therefore designing their own delegation standards and protocols, which risks further fragmentation of practice and oversight.
9. Training and monitoring: there is a shared agreement on the importance of training and monitoring in the context of effective delegation, but real-world experiences are mixed. Consultees cite pressures within the adult social care sector, including capacity issues relating to workforce development, as constraining factors on the quality and timeliness of training. Similar concerns were raised over ongoing monitoring supervision.
10. Other issues and challenges impacting on effective delegation were said to include funding, insurance and communication between health and social care partners.
Creating the right conditions for delegation
11. Consultees cited the following key factors as being central to effective delegation:
* Buy-in from staff to whom the tasks are being delegated.
* Buy-in from individuals receiving care and their families.
* Clear and standardised governance, policies and frameworks.
* Collaborative, integrated working.
* Clear and open communication.
* Comprehensive and validated training, monitoring and competency assessment standards.
* Formalised contracts.
12. It was felt the practice of delegation should not be examined in isolation but looked at within the context of wider systemic challenges faced by the sector concerning the need for, standardisation of care, greater integration and professionalisation of the care workforce.
13. Consultees would welcome more consultation on delegation policy and practice, and stressed that views should be obtained from across the sector.
Skills for Care Research into social care workers undertaking healthcare interventions
1 RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY
Background
1.1 Longstanding challenges faced by the adult social care sector have been brought into sharp focus over the last two years under circumstances created by Covid-19. The pandemic has had a profound effect on health and social care working practices and has magnified issues around variations in the quality of care, workforce pay and conditions, disjointed delivery and unmet need, amongst others.
1.2 This has meant that some of those working in the sector have needed to take on additional responsibilities beyond their standard roles. This has included the delegation of healthcare interventions 1 from registered professionals to care workers.
1.3 In 2021, Skills for Care worked with the Department for Health and Social Care to publish guidance on delegated healthcare tasks 2 . The guides are aimed primarily at adult social care employers, managers and staff in care homes and are intended to support decision-making and provide guidance on delivering delegated interventions safely and competently.
1.4 At present, there are information gaps around what is being delegated, on what scale, with what risk and how it is perceived by those involved. Skills for Care therefore commissioned York Consulting to conduct an exploratory research project to help provide more information on these topics.
Methodology
1.5 A qualitative approach was used comprising video conferencing and telephone interviews with providers, representatives of Local Authorities (LAs) and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and members of strategic organisations operating in health and social care environments. Consultees were recruited through a list provided by Skills for Care, with some supplementary snowballing 3 . The consultations typically lasted between 45 and 60 minutes.
1 From the Skills for Care website: Social care workers may be asked to carry out healthcare interventions that are delegated by a registered healthcare professional such as a nurse, nursing associate or occupational therapist. These are usually called 'delegated healthcare interventions' and are often specific clinical interventions that support people's care and independence.
2 https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Learning-development/ongoing-learning-and-development/Delegated-healthcareinterventions/Delegated-healthcare-Interventions.aspx
3 Procedure by which respondents are recruited for interviews or group discussions by means of informal contact between them (e.g. recommendation to contact another individual during an interview).
Research into social care workers undertaking healthcare interventions
1.6 In total 25 interviews were completed:
* 11 with care providers.
* 9 with LAs and CCGs.
* 2 with the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
* 1 with NHS Wales.
* 1 with a member organisation.
* 1 with a nurse consultant.
1.7 A discussion guide was designed in conjunction with Skills for Care, covering the following topic areas:
* Understanding and purpose of delegated healthcare interventions.
* Current and future delegation activity.
* Support, implementation and delivery of delegated healthcare interventions.
* Outcomes and impacts.
Interpreting the findings
1.8 Although a rich level of insight was obtained from participants, the sample was relatively small 4 . As such, the findings should be seen as indicative rather than necessarily representative of any larger population.
1.9 In addition, the research concentrated on specific groups within the health and social care sector, namely (in the main) managers within care providers and those working at a strategic level in LAs, CCGs and partner organisations. Consultations with frontline care workers, registered nurses and other registered healthcare professionals were out of scope.
4 In part owing to the ongoing pressures and challenges faced by the sector at the time of research.
Research into social care workers undertaking healthcare interventions
2 THE CURRENT LANDSCAPE
Defining delegation
2.1 The phrase "delegated healthcare intervention" was widely recognised amongst those that contributed to this study, with a general agreement of its definition as follows:
"Transferring a healthcare intervention from a registered, clinical practitioner to a non-registered individual with assurances that the individual is supported, confident and competent in delivering that intervention." (LA)
2.2 However, consultees also agreed that interpretations of delegation across the sector are varied and that the structures and processes around delegation are fragmented. In particular, they cited inconsistencies in governance, a lack of standardised categories for delegated tasks and uncertainties over role definitions; together leading to a confused system, "grey areas" and ambiguous protocols.
2.3 Several consultees said that, based on their observations, delegation was based largely on informal arrangements and practices, often on a case-by-case basis, rather than through formal service contracts. That said, examples do exist of more systematic approaches, with strategic organisations, LAs, providers and other stakeholders working together to formalise processes and procedures (further details on this topic are provided in Chapter 4). In some – albeit rare – circumstances, such as the Delegation of Insulin Administration Programme, this has been happening for over a decade.
2.4 It is difficult in a study like this to form robust conclusions on the scale of delegation across a geographic area or part of the sector. However, consultees broadly agreed that, to some degree, all providers are engaged in delegation, "though the extent to which they do so is dependent on the care provider, as some are more flexible than others and may have more specialist training or experience within their workforce" (LA). Risk is evidently a key influencing factor as well, with providers often referring to the stipulations enshrined in the Care Act 2014 as guidance.
Examples of delegated tasks
2.5 Delegated tasks highlighted most commonly by consultees included:
* Catheter and stoma care beyond standard practice (e.g., catheter flushing and changing stoma bags).
* Diabetes management and insulin administration.
* Nutrition and hydration practices beyond standard care (with some taking on additional PEG feeding responsibilities).
* Oxygen monitoring.
* Pressure area care, tissue viability, skin integrity and wound healing (with some undertaking training in replacement dressings).
Skills for Care Research into social care workers undertaking healthcare interventions
* Prevention e.g., theory and practice around fall and pressure wound prevention.
2.6 Consultees consistently reported that delegation was becoming more prevalent, driven in part by the pandemic and the need for providers to take on additional responsibilities. Interviews with CQC, LAs and CCGs supported this, with all of them reporting an increase in delegation-related enquiries and requests for information.
"We receive enquiries on a daily basis from providers about delegation, much more so than in the past". (CQC)
"Providers are increasingly needing to provide care for individuals with more and more complex healthcare needs. We are often asked if training is available for certain interventions. Recently, we've been asked a lot about insulin administration, buccal midazolam 5 , PEG feeding and administering oxygen." (LA, Training Manager, Adult Social Care Training Team)
2.7 To provide guidance and a framework for employees to work within, several of the providers consulted had adopted a traffic light system for delegation, whereby tasks are placed into three categories:
* Low risk intervention: standard care that can be undertaken by care workers that have completed mandatory training.
* Delegated intervention: requires additional training and competency sign-off from a registered practitioner.
* High risk intervention: exceeds the level of care the provider is safely able to offer.
2.8 However, providers also noted that the distinctions between the above categories were becoming increasingly blurred. They spoke of a "needs must" situation under Covid-19, whereby they were routinely delivering elements of care that would normally fall outside of their remit. As discussed further in Chapters 3 and 4, some providers evidently feel that there are questions over the adequacy of the support, training and monitoring that they have received from registered professionals.
Support for delegation
2.9 The majority of consultees agree that there is a strong argument for delegation, assuming that conditions are met such that it can be done appropriately and safely. Where that is the case, it was said to benefit social care workers, registered clinicians and those accessing care and support services. In particular, it can mean timely, flexible delivery of interventions and procedures, better continuity of care and more person-centred care. In the case of diabetes management, for example, having trained care workers in residential homes administer insulin avoids the need to wait for district nurses and the potential disruption of mealtimes. This in turn can reduce anxiety and stress for care workers and those they are supporting.
5 Emergency medication given into the buccal cavity (the side of the mouth between the cheek and the gum) when an individual is having a seizure.
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"A great benefit of our employees taking on additional care responsibilities is a greater flexibility and independence and a higher quality of life for residents. Our residential cohort are very active, and so it makes sense for us to take on more interventions in-house, rather than to wait for district nurses to come to the care home to change a dressing, for example." (Care Provider)
2.10 Appropriate delegation can also help to alleviate pressures in other parts of the system, by freeing up a proportion of registered professionals' time. This in turn may result in fiscal savings.
2.11 Other points put forward in support of delegation were professional development, empowerment of care workers and increased job satisfaction (in each case on the proviso that employees were taking on additional responsibilities willingly). In the main, providers said their staff were keen to develop their skills and that they (the provider) wanted to support them in this and wanted to cultivate a confident and motivated workforce.
2.12 On a strategic level, delegation aligns with long-standing arguments for greater integration of health and social care. It can contribute towards the sector's response to growing demand and has the potential to deliver positive benefits in terms of recruitment and retention.
2.13 However, there was also a strong consensus that for delegation to work well, effective leadership, governance, accountability and resourcing are required, underpinned by adequate funding. Most consultees questioned whether this currently exists on a systematic level and voiced significant concerns about the absence of national or government-led directives or frameworks on delegation. This is fuelling uncertainties about the governance of delegation at a national level and accountability at a local level. The result is a considerable degree of variation in delegation practice which has the potential to increase risk and result in inconsistent levels of care.
3 DELIVERY OF DELEGATED HEALTHCARE INTERVENTIONS
Introduction
3.1 Consultees often described delegation practice (at provider, LA and CCG level) as "patchy" and "inconsistent". Providers are reportedly feeling increased pressure to take on additional care tasks (via requests from district nurses and CCGs, for example). However, it is not always clear who is, or should be, responsible for the delegation agenda and who is therefore providing the system leadership to ensure that providers and their workforces are appropriately trained and supported.
Governance and accountability
3.2 The consultation feedback suggests that some regions are progressing well in building governance and accountability frameworks relating to delegation. Certain LAs and CCGs were said to be more responsive to enquiries and more proactive in driving forward the agenda. These LAs and CCGs are also more willing to explore training and funding solutions to help ensure that delegation is adequately resourced and is governed by official service level agreements 6 . However, these LAs/CCGs were generally considered the exception rather than the norm. The picture reported more commonly was one of a "postcode lottery".
3.3 Consultees typically agreed on how the governance of delegation should be structured, i.e. that:
* It is the responsibility of providers to ensure that their employees are adequately trained and competent in the care they provide.
* That registered professionals are ultimately accountable for the clinical care of individuals.
* That it is the CQC's duty to inspect and regulate practice.
3.4 However, consultees were far less clear about where the responsibility lies for deciding what can be delegated, when, and the mechanisms through which competencies are assessed.
"There are a lot of 'it depends'. It depends on the type of provision and who is funding that provision. It depends on how the health and care systems are structured and the degree of joint-working or integration. It depends on how health care, social care and personal care are being defined. It depends on individual providers and the relationship they have with registered professionals." (Strategic organisation)
3.5 The current situation has resulted in a number of complications. Some providers report feeling unprotected and without recourse if they are asked by a registered professional to take on additional duties. Some said they feel "cast adrift" and that it
6 See Chapter 4 for examples.
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has been difficult to establish and maintain contact with their clinical leads and/or LAs and CCGs to discuss issues, concerns or risks.
3.6 This is also creating confusion for CQC inspectors, particularly in terms of what constitutes proof that a registered professional has undertaken the necessary steps to measure competency when delegating care. The CQC representatives contributing to this study reported a large increase in enquiries from inspectors unsure whether certain documentation constitutes acceptable evidence that appropriate training and monitoring is in place. Providers are uneasy about this, citing a risk to their quality-ofcare assessments and CQC rating.
3.7 One provider noted that as guidelines are prepared and written by clinical professionals, it should be the case that they are up to date and fit for purpose. However, they feel this is not always the case, making them less confident that they are delegating care effectively.
"We are feeling increased pressure to take on additional tasks but often there is no follow-up to check that the delegated care has been delivered appropriately. The governance currently isn't there to pick up on competency issues or skills gaps. There's no rechecking of competency and no standards to monitor against. We are being pulled up by the CQC because things aren't tallying with the delegation guidelines, but we haven't been provided with all the training and information. There is a lot of inconsistency. It shouldn't be up to the provider to review and pick up on when the protocol falls short of the most recent guidelines." (Care provider)
3.8 Providers also spoke of "blurred lines" in terms of the kinds of care that they are legitimately able to deliver and how, as a result, some practice may be going unregulated. One stakeholder discussed the treatment of disease, disorder and injury (TDDI), explaining that some non-TDDI registered providers are having to deliver that kind of care, despite not being officially recognised as doing so. They put this down to resourcing issues and increasing complexity of care needs.
"People are living longer and are developing more complex needs. Registered managers are not sure what to do. Do they transfer their resident's care to TDDI or have them stay there?" (Strategic Organisation)
3.9 Nonetheless, work is being undertaken to standardise areas of delegation, such as the Delegation of Insulin Administration project and the All Wales Medicine Strategy Group (see example below). However, concerns remain that without a centralised body responsible for ensuring consistency and common standards in delegation, the fragmented landscape that currently exists will remain.
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The All Wales Medicines Strategy Group (AWMSG) advises the Welsh Government on the use, management and prescribing of medicines in Wales.
Currently, the AWMSG is working to address the lack of consistency in medicine policy and medicine support across Wales. Specifically, it is seeking to define key terminology as an initial step toward greater standardisation across health board authorities, the aim being to improve clinical governance and accountability.
Under the Wales Social Wellbeing Act, medicine management is commissioned and funded as a healthcare intervention. However, there is growing support for redefining it as personal healthcare and part of daily living, placing it within the remit of personal and social care.
Until the legislation offers clear guidance, the situation remains ambiguous and discussions about the clinical accountability and governance of medication management are likely to continue. The AWMSG is working alongside the National Commissioning Body to drive forward the delegation agenda.
"Looking at enhancing social care skills and what is routinely delegated needs to be part of training and competency signed of a registered district nurse. There needs to be clearer national policy around what is an enhanced skill and what is considered as a Level 2. There is a push towards standardisation on agreeing to national set of principles for local authorities to review their existing policies and commission activity for the delegation of medicine management." (Strategic organisation)
Existing frameworks, standards and policies
3.10 Whereas standardised, national regulations for delegation do not currently exist, various frameworks and guidance documents are available. These tend to provide a steer on when to delegate, what the delegation process should involve, and which competencies should be met by the health and social care workers undertaking the tasks. Existing government legislation and regulations, whilst not necessarily specific to the topic in question here, help to provide the context and offer a foundation for the development of more specific guidelines.
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3.11 The providers and LAs consulted for this study said they have used publicly available guidance/documentation on delegation to develop their own protocols, policies and standards. This publicly available guidance/documentation includes the following (a summary of each can be found at Appendix A 7 ):
* Health and Social Care Act (2008).
* Care Act (2014).
* Health and Social Care Protocol (2014).
* Welsh Government: Third Party Delegation Framework (2016).
* NHS England: Delegation of healthcare tasks to personal assistants (2017).
* Royal College of Nursing: Accountability and Delegation – A guide for the nursing team (2017).
* Jersey Care Commission: Personal Care and Clinical Tasks Guidance for Adult Social Care (2020).
* Nursing and Midwifery Council: NMC Code and Delegation and Accountability: Supplementary information to the NMC Code (last updated 2020).
* Trend Diabetes and NHS England: Delegation of Insulin Administration project resources (2020).
* All Wales Guidelines for Delegation (2021).
Training and monitoring
"Care provision is like building a wall. While the wall may stand up, it may not pass a building assessment." (Care provider)
3.12 There is a strong consensus that for delegation to function effectively and safely, it requires a structured programme of training, observation and ongoing monitoring delivered by registered professionals. This resonates with existing guidelines on delegation, which often state that there should be initial training delivered by a registered clinician, in-situ observation of the intervention on several occasions in order to sign off competency, followed by ongoing monitoring and reassessment.
3.13 However, the experience of consultees is often rather different. They cited unclear lines of communication between health and social employees, uncertainties over who is responsible for driving forward delegation policy, variable training and sub-standard ongoing monitoring. They spoke of feeling pressured to take on additional care interventions while also experiencing challenges accessing appropriate training and ongoing support.
3.14 One provider voluntarily took part in a delegated insulin administration pilot. Initially, they found the training to be well-structured, well-delivered and comprehensive, with an assurance that reviews would take place at three-month intervals. However, the
7 Examples were either referenced by research participants or located during YCL desk research.
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review process had not begun a year later and, due to staff turnover and the lack of ongoing training and support, the provider was finding it increasingly difficult to keep delivering the practice, often having to resort to asking trained employees to come in on their days off to administer insulin.
3.15 The same provider has recently felt pressured to take on additional dressing responsibilities and has the same concerns over the adequacy of the training (rather than receiving in-person, practitioner-delivered insulin training, they were directed to a number of YouTube videos). Speaking to senior members of the local clinical team has reportedly been difficult and they have been met with resistance when attempting to initiate a conversation about handing back the care to registered professionals.
"The insulin training was absolutely by choice initially, but it has been so poorly executed, it's left a bitter taste in my mouth. I've tried to have a conversation about handing it back and was told 'that's not going to happen'…We've been given no choice about the dressings, and it's really hit and miss. I've emailed a range of people as it's very concerning. The Primary Care Network is supposed to have a clinical lead but it's just not happening…The latest has been bladder washouts. We've said no, we can't take it on." (Care provider)
3.16 In another case, a provider had agreed to take on a specific intervention as part of a resident's care plan, under the agreement that they would receive appropriate support and supervision. However, the provider experienced ongoing issues reaching the clinical team, resulting in repeated delays to the training and concerns over the person's care and welfare. The provider was unable to find the appropriate training in time through their CCG, often being faced with outdated contact details and/or receiving no replies to calls and emails. Eventually, they paid for external training to avoid, what in their opinion, could have been a crisis situation.
"We appreciate everyone is stretched but we're just not seeing the right levels of co-operation and duty of care. The roles and responsibilities still need ironing out. We find it very difficult to get in touch with people." (Care provider)
3.17 Providers are keen to see greater structure and a clearer set of policies around training and monitoring as a significant element of risk is introduced without them, including avoidable harm. Several providers argued that these should be included or reflected within formal contracts and service level agreements.
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Challenges and barriers to implementation
Safety and interpretation
3.18 Safety, clinical oversight and clear governance were said to be paramount for delegation to operate effectively. However, consultees also noted that managing delegation and taking on the responsibility for signing-off and monitoring responsibilities can introduce additional risk for registered clinicians and that some may be averse to this. Similarly, care providers themselves need to be risk-averse, which can result in a reluctance to take out delegated tasks without appropriate clinical supervision.
"There is an accountability issue. Understandably, District Nurses can be very protective and therefore risk-averse, not willing to risk taking staff through training and signing them off as competent. In some cases, even with things like eye and eardrops, they want to sign off tasks." (Strategic organisation)
3.19 Several stakeholders also highlighted challenges associated with interpretation. Staff can be trained to undertake specific tasks, execute and monitor interventions and record information related to that activity. However, how that information is then used is also essential in ensuring quality of care and safety. In other words, staff may know how to record data but there is a greater level of risk if they lack a sound understanding of when that data requires them to take (urgent) action or escalate. In other words, performing a delegated task is only one part of the responsibility; accurate interpretation is equally important.
Communication and process of effective delegation
"There is a rub between care provision policy and NHS policy and rubs between local and regional contexts and the national position. It's very blurry within the community. It's understandable that you often see a professional tug of war going on." (CCG)
3.20 Lack of information sharing across different organisations and resistance to adapting practice were believed to be included among the consequences of inconsistent systems, blurred lines of responsibility and conflicting policies and approaches. There is a perceptible degree of frustration around delegation, often resulting from a perceived lack of understanding of each other's positions across and within the health and social care systems and between clinical, residential home, nursing home and home care settings. This can subsequently lead to limited coordination and planning and with individuals needing to negotiate and communicate with multiple organisations.
3.21 One stakeholder suggested that the process of delegation in general needs examining. Particularly when transitioning from a clinical to community environment and working with individuals with different skills sets, definitions and levels of understanding, it was felt registered clinicians could benefit from support and training in effective delegation and recognising when they are delegating.
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"I think there is something to be said for looking at the delegation mindset. Not everyone realises or recognises when they are passing on responsibility, particularly when it becomes ingrained in your day to day. Even some very experienced managers don't speak in those terms, and it needs to be recognised as a skill that needs nurturing." (Care provider)
3.22 It was argued by several stakeholders that the system is not always structured in ways that support effective joint-working between registered professionals and care workers. To promote delegation and to motivate those involved in its delivery, it was felt a greater understanding and appreciation of the variation each other's roles, skill levels, day-to-day practice and working environments, how they all fundamentally guide the deliverance of care in different settings and the unique pressures faced across different parts of the system.
Recruitment and retention
3.23 Consultees that have been involved in delegation programmes, or have seen delegation working well, stressed that it should be treated not as a series of ad-hoc interventions, but as a programme of sustainable quality improvement. They argue that care workers need to approach it willingly, with a desire to take on additional responsibilities and that they should feel encouraged to develop new skills. They also state that delegation benefits from having a training lead willing to take ownership, with a commitment to keeping training and competencies monitored, refreshed and up to date. From the clinical side, effective delegation benefits from regular supervision, helping staff to stay confident, comfortable and supported while delivering the intervention.
3.24 The above gives rise to a view from consultees that greater integration and a wellresourced and stable workforce would be valuable in enabling and promoting effective delegation. Consultees are not confident that the system/sector as it stands provides the right foundations. In their view, providers often invest time and finances in training employees only to lose them shortly afterwards. They have difficulty locating clinical contacts or replacements for contacts that have moved on, which can impact on decision-making and, ultimately, on care and safety.
"We are currently facing the worst recruitment and retention crisis I've ever seen. We're facing competition from other areas and struggling to hold down staff. A recent issue is staff being lured away by the Amazon golden handshake." (Strategic organisation)
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Funding
3.25 Consultees describe the funding structures around nursing, residential and home care as very variable, with delegation adding another layer of complexity. In particular, there is evident scepticism about whether the move towards greater delegation is driven by the positive impacts it can generate for people supported and the workforce, or whether the motivation is mainly financial. As mentioned earlier, providers argue that they feel increasingly pressured to take on additional tasks, but that this is not matched by additional funding, financial incentives or resources. As such, it is very difficult for them to compensate their workers for taking on extra responsibilities.
3.26 The operational differences between privately funded and LA commissioned care were highlighted here. An organisation representing homecare providers stated that because of how the latter is funded and resourced, it can be extremely difficult for homecare workers to take on additional/delegated tasks without introducing an element of risk.
"If you look at the routine of an LA homecare worker. Their caseload can mean they only have around 30 minutes per client. That's 30 minutes to do everything, wash, feed them, take them to the toilet, administer any medication. If you keep adding onto that, it's going to have some serious knock-on effects." (Strategic organisation)
3.27 Consultees spoke of a "backdoor mission creep", i.e. a gradual shift towards more complex care delivery, but without the accompanying support, training or finances. This has the potential to disadvantage people supported and remove or restrict their access to registered professionals, such as District Nurses.
"It is all being dressed up as being best for individuals but if it was just about the quality of care, why not also transfer the funding to the care sector? Our residents have spent their lives paying taxes and national insurance contributions. They are entitled to be treated by a District Nurse. They are suffering because they pay to live in a residential home. More and more things are being shifted onto us, but no one is discussing the financial delegation that should be going with it." (Care provider)
3.28 The issue of insurance was also raised as a substantial barrier for care providers. Insurance rates were said to have increased significantly over the last two years. This has been challenging in itself, but if providers are also on the delivery of care with an enhanced risk attached to it, there is a further impact on premiums. Several consultees argued that any examination of delegation practices needed to include a review of the current insurance landscape and the impact it can have on service delivery. Some insurance companies directly link their premiums to providers' CQC rating, automatically increasing rates if they fall to "Requires improvement" or "Inadequate". This again highlights another challenge associated with the absence of standardised protocols and frameworks. As discussed previously, there is a degree of
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uncertainty around standards and the level of control the provider has in meeting delegation guidelines (due to the influence of external parties). There were some instances where this had led to a provider's CQC assessment and rating being negatively impacted and subsequently, an increase in their insurance premium.
"Insurance has gone up considerably since the start of Covid, in some cases by more than 100%. The more you do, the higher the premium. Some homecare providers are simply unable to get the insurance." (Strategic organisation)
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4 CREATING THE RIGHT CONDITIONS FOR DELEGATION
Introduction
4.1 Despite the challenges explained in the preceding chapters, consultees were broadly supportive of the move towards greater delegation and were able to provide examples of where it had worked well. There was also a broad consensus across the consultees in terms of the ingredients or key conditions required for effective delegation.
Examples of delegated healthcare interventions pilots and programmes 8
Insulin and diabetes management
4.2 When citing delegated activities, consultees most frequently spoke of diabetes management and insulin administration. In some settings, these tasks have been delegated for several years and it has become standard and well-established practice. Explained in the box that follows, the Delegation of Insulin Administration programme 9 , was said to by consultees to be a trailblazer and that one had clear and comprehensive frameworks for competencies and governance.
8 Additional examples from YCL desk research can be found at Appendix B.
9 https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Professionals/Resources/shared-practice/pharmacy-and-medicines/delegation-of-insulinadministration
https://trenddiabetes.online/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/C0584-
Frequently_Asked_Questions_FAQs_in_the_Delegation_of_Administration_of_Insulin-TBM-v2.pdf
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Diabetes UK, the NHS and other stakeholders developed a voluntary framework to support the expanded capacity of insulin administration through community teams.
The Delegation of Insulin Administration Programme seeks to put in place a structured and safe mechanism for health and care staff, who are not registered nurses, to take delegated responsibility for administering insulin to adults receiving care in the community.
The documents and supporting materials developed as part of the framework are based on best practice, input from stakeholders and an expert working group, together with the experience of eight national exemplar sites that have successful rolled out insulin administration programmes (Shropshire, Tameside and Glossop, Hertfordshire, Sirona Care and Health, North Tees and Hartlepool, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey, and East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust). The materials include a comprehensive competency frameworks, management and employee checklists, a sample policy document FAQs and tip sheets.
Prior to the launch of the framework, East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust had run a successful pilot of insulin delegation in care homes and district nursing. The pilot was carried out in 2019, involving 14 care homes and one respite care service. The key benefits were as follows:
1. Cost and time saving for District Nurses: the pilot demonstrated a significant reduction in the number of visits on the District Nurses', with substantial financial savings.
2. Enhanced cross-sector working: the pilot was designed collaboratively by the District Nursing team, the specialist diabetes team and health and social care representatives. This multi-disciplinary approach helped engender good practice, knowledge sharing and the identification of key learnings for improvement.
3. Patient-centred care and positive resident experience: delays in insulin administration, heavy caseloads, and District Nurse travel obligations were all reduced/avoided, leading to a reduction in acute diabetes complications.
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Living Well at Home Programme: Blended Roles Trailblazer
4.3 In 2019, health and social care partners in Greater Manchester set up the Blended Roles Trailblazer to explore innovative solutions to system-wide issues and mobilise local teams to rapidly test the solutions. In doing this, they identified ways in which they could work in a more integrated way across health and social care at a neighbourhood level.
4.4 The focus was on optimising care workers' roles by delegating certain healthcare interventions (e.g. pressure area care and wound dressing) and developing joint care frameworks. These supported co-operation, coordination and information sharing to streamline systems and ensure individuals had a single point of contact.
4.5 The Trust developed planning documentation and assessments, support and communication policies, a competency framework and clinical governance procedures. Homecare staff were trained by District Nurses and then given further training specific to individual high-intensity users of pressure area care support.
4.6 Benefits of the project included continuity of care, reductions in users' waiting times for interventions, improved communications between providers and district nurses, and improved job satisfaction for homecare staff. It is also estimated to have safely reduced District Nurse visits by around 21% 10 .
One Gloucestershire: Integrated Care System
4.7 In May 2018, NHS England announced that Gloucestershire was to become one of 14 Integrated Care Systems (ICS) in England. One Gloucestershire 11 is the working name given to the voluntary partnership between local NHS and care organisations working to deliver joined-up care to communities.
4.8 Under Goal 1 of the programme – "Primary Care at Scale: Partnerships and Integration" – a number of different pilots and projects are being undertaken to explore collaborative working in delivering place-based care.
4.9 One such project aims to develop the knowledge and practical skills of domiciliary care workers with regard to specific clinical tasks. The Fundamentals of Care project 12 is delivered through a series of weekly workshops designed to support the delivery of complex care within the community. Key outcomes of the training include participants having an awareness of prevalent long-term conditions, recognising deterioration and knowing when and how to access specialist advice or intervention.
4.10 Three cohorts have been through the programme, with anecdotal feedback suggesting improvements in practice. Care workers have become more adept at recognising the signs of deterioration during home visits and have improved their knowledge of escalation processes. They report feeling more valued and are deriving greater job satisfaction.
10 https://gmprimarycarecareers.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/blended-roles-slides-for-summit-final.ppt
11 https://www.gloucestershireccg.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Gloucestershire-ICS-Primary-Care-Strategy-
V1.0.pdf
12 https://www.proudtocareglos.org.uk/the-care-hub/proud-to-learn-training/the-fundamentals-of-care-programme/
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Key factors to support effective delivery
4.11 Consultees agreed that for delegation to operate with maximum effectiveness, efficiency and safety, it needs to be sustainable and supported by structures that are embedded within integrated health and social care systems. Rather than being treated as part of 'a project', it should be treated as a component of ongoing quality and service improvement.
4.12 Consultees were also pleased that Skills for Care had chosen to take stock of delegation within their sector and to hear from those involved about the opportunities and challenges it presents.
"An examination of this is really timely. With Covid, we had to use workarounds across the social care system. There are things that you do that you have to but ideally, you wouldn't continue to operate that way. There are areas where it works really, really well but it's not consistent. It's not a feasible way to operate. You need something robust and somewhere that services or regions can go to say, 'this doesn't seem to sit right against the guidelines.'" (Care provider)
4.13 In addition to the above, the following factors were cited as being fundamental to the success of delegation:
* Buy-in from delivery staff: providers and social care staff need to be willing and committed to taking on additional responsibilities and not feel that they have been coerced into doing so. As the process requires a degree of blending and restructuring of roles and different ways of working, delegation activity benefits from a preparatory or planning stage to mobilise the delivery partners and ensure they are comfortable with, and understand, the rationale for the change. System restructures, or centralised activities undertaken to stimulate and/or standardise delegation processes, should include a preparatory phase to secure buy-in and communicate the benefits of the change.
"There needs to be an appetite for it right across the system, from care managers and their staff to the Primary Care Team. You need the stakeholders onboard and robust processes, governance and oversight in place. Those involved have to want to do it. There needs to be an examination of the barriers, organisationally and operationally, but also within the hearts and minds of the culture." (CCG)
* Buy-in from individuals receiving care, families and the general public: changes in how care is delivered need to be supported by, and acceptable to, those receiving it. Delegation guidelines consistently state that consent for the delegation to occur needs to be obtained and documented, either from the individual concerned or a family member/advocate. Consultees' experiences of this have been mixed, with some reporting resistance from family members (less so individuals themselves) who need convincing about the rationale for the
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delegation and the knowledge and skills of the care worker to whom the tasks have been delegated.
"We had had some concerns raised by families. One piece of feedback from the Learning and Disability review from families was, 'We feel like we get short-changed when the healthcare professional gets too busy and delegates to a support worker who may have only been here a month. How can that be safe for my relative?'" (Care provider)
Clear and standardised governance, policies and frameworks: successful delegation relies on clear roles and responsibilities, definitions and protocols. "I have spent several months on and off researching this and looking at what others are doing but there are no handy policies that you can just refer to…We've got the answer but divided out in various different parts and someone needs to pull it together." (Care provider)
* Collaborative, integrated working: partnership-based working, involving GP practices, primary care teams, pharmacies and care providers, was highlighted as a driver of effective delegation. Consultees stressed that all those involved should seek to recognise the nuances involved in delivering care across different settings (residential, nursing, homecare etc.) and how caregiving roles can vary within each. Any national frameworks, and the consultation work underpinning it, should take this into account.
"We absolutely need greater consultation across the system to get the standards right across the different care environments. Guidance can be focused on one specific care environment (e.g. care homes) and care home and homecare are very different. Even though some of the clients looked after are similar, it's not the same role at all…And if you look at residential social care, you're going to have differences again. The way medication is administered is different, the way you dispose of things is different. What can seem like minute details can have a big impact." (Strategic organisation)
* Clear communication: consultees stated that arrangements should be in place to give those undertaking delegated tasks timely access to registered nurses/practitioners for advice and guidance. This, they argue, should be in addition to escalation protocols (which should be specified in the delegation guidelines). Out of hours support should be available, through services such as Pando 13 , even for non-urgent tasks (e.g. checking wounds) to mitigate against worsening conditions and the need for escalation.
* Training, monitoring and competency assessment: there was broad agreement that a consistent and validated system of training, guidance and supervision for delegation is needed. Where relevant, completion of the training should be
13 https://hellopando.com/nhs/
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officially recognised as part of a care worker's professional development 14 . Ideally, managers should also undertake the training to provide additional support to their workers. Appendix B provides an example of where training, monitoring and assessment standards have been built into a delegation programme.
* Financing and contracts: it was argued that delegation should be accompanied by appropriate funding and that care workers should be recompensed for expanding their roles. There was also support for service level agreements clearly outlining roles and responsibilities and commitments to training and supervision, with some consultees arguing for penalties if these were not met. Several LAs made the case for joint funding models (i.e. between LAs and CCGs) and collaborative exploration to identify the resources available and the levers that can be used to provide solutions.
Wider systemic considerations
4.14 Consultees generally felt that the delegation of healthcare needs to be examined, not in isolation, but as part of the wider context and the ongoing challenges (and potential solutions) faced by the health and social care sector. The ways in which delegation develops, is delivered and functions in practice, is linked with widely debated systemic issues relating to:
* Standardisation of care and prevention.
* Greater integration and joint-working practices.
* Professionalisation of the care workforce.
4.15 It was argued by a number of stakeholders that the standard of care provided in the UK needs to be raised and made more consistent. Part of raising these standards should be around creating solutions to provide proactive, rather than reactive care, including greater analysis around health and service trends to support and inform collaborative strategies for prevention.
4.16 Similarly, the argument for increased delegation was believed to support the argument for a higher skilled, more qualified care workforce. Although the Care Certificate was valued, for a number of stakeholders, it did not go far enough, with some arguing that the UK should be paving the way towards greater professionalisation of the care sector and moving in the direction of registration. Training the workforce, as standard, to a certain level would effectively reduce the need for delegation and mitigate the risk of avoidable harm. Linked to that is the evergrowing need to focus on solutions to tackle the recruitment and retention issues faced by the sector, creating more attractive job propositions and a stable workforce.
4.17 A major component of delegation delivery is coordination and joint working between health and social care, which requires a degree of restructuring and adaptation of
14 It was observed that delegation training received by care workers is often not accredited. "When training is provided, they will hand out a certificate of attendance and deliver the theory to the staff, but the training has no CPD credit." (LA).
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current roles and working practices. Stakeholders believed the groundwork for and mechanisms to deliver delegation are already, at least partly, in place. For example, existing integration and devolution activity, Sustainability and Transformation Plans, Direct Enhanced Services and Primary Care Networks could be capitalised on and developed through the lens of delegation to build the system around it.
4.18 Further consultation around the issue of delegation was not only welcomed but felt necessary by several stakeholders to build robust structures and delivery mechanisms. As above, it was emphasised that this should be sector-wide, covering all settings and the full range of lived experiences.
5 APPENDIX A: EXAMPLES OF EXISTING DELEGATION LEGISLATION, STANDARDS AND POLICIES
Health and Social Care Act (2008)
5.1 The primary focus of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 was to create a new regulator (the CQC) whose purpose was to provide registration and inspection of health and adult social care services together for the first time, with the aim of ensuring safety and quality of care for service users.
5.2 Regulation 18 of the Act deals specifically with staffing issues to ensure providers deploy experienced and competent individuals, stipulating that:
* Providers must ensure there are enough suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced staff to meet the needs of the people using the service at all times.
* Staff must receive the support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisals that are necessary for them to carry out their role and responsibilities.
* Staff should be supported in acquiring further qualifications and be able to demonstrate to regulators that they meet the required professional standards.
Care Act (2014)
5.3 The Care Act stipulates that local authorities must provide or arrange services that help prevent people developing needs for care and support, or which delays/prevents people deteriorating such that they would need ongoing care and support. It combined various existing pieces of legislation which previously shaped how social care was delivered.
5.4 The Care Act 2014 was designed to be a simpler, modern law for 21st century care and support focussing on the individual needs of people. The aim was to make the law fair and more consistent, removing certain anomalies that treated particular groups of people differently to create a single route for determining entitlement, which works for all groups of people in all circumstances. The Act was therefore intended to remove the chance of discrimination and unfair treatment taking place when assessing care needs and provision.
5.5 The Act clearly states the steps that must be followed to work out this entitlement, to help people better understand the process. It follows the person's "journey" in the care and support system. The Act introduced:
* National care and support eligibility criteria for both adults and carers.
* Accessibility to information and advice that both adults and carers need to make good choices about care and support.
* Rights to independent advocacy in some circumstances.
* Personal budgets and rights to request a direct payment.
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* New responsibilities about making the transition from children's services to adult social care.
* New responsibilities about provider failure, for example, if a care home closes.
* Support for people who move between local authority areas.
5.6 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/23/section/79/enacted
Welsh Government – Third Party Delegation Framework (2016)
5.7 The Welsh Government published a governance framework in 2016, which is designed to help assess whether suitable governance arrangements are in place for the delegation of care from registered professionals employed by NHS Wales to third party support workers. According to this framework, the following applies:
* The person who is responsible for the decision to delegate should follow the assessment process as outlined in the All-Wales Guidelines for Delegation (NLIAH 2010).
* This involves assessing the task and the individual undertaking it, carrying out a risk assessment and following up with a review of how well the delegated task was performed.
* The employer of the support worker (e.g., agency, care home, third sector provider) should be aware of, and agree to the training, assessment and ongoing supervision/monitoring of the task(s) delegated.
* The delegator remains responsible for the patient's care overall but is not accountable for the decisions and actions taken by the delegatee.
5.8 As part of this framework, the following nationally agreed competencies were established:
* Routine management of compression hosiery for a stable person with lymphoedema.
* Routine management of anti-embolic compression hosiery.
* Medication by support workers.
* Supporting adults who require home enteral tube feeding via a gastrostomy feeding tube.
5.9 https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-07/third-party-delegation-therequired-governance-framework.pdf
NHS England – Delegation of healthcare tasks to personal assistants (2017)
5.10 In 2017, NHS England published a framework outlining the requirements for supporting appropriate delegation of healthcare tasks from registered practitioners to personal assistants (PAs). It is designed to help registered practitioners understand the rationale for delegation and to help CCGs develop clear protocols for ensuring safe and appropriate delegation to PAs.
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5.11 The framework is not specifically intended to cover issues relating to agency carers or other support workers, although many of the principles could be applied to them. It was informed by work carried out in NHS organisations between 2014 and 2016, supported by Skills for Health.
5.12 The framework urges CCGs to put in place clinical governance frameworks to regulate delegation, with clear guidance as to which tasks can and can't be delegated, how training and assessment of competence will be provided, and how clinical reviews of patients' needs will be undertaken.
5.13 https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/516_Delegation-ofhealthcare-tasks-to-personal-assistants_S7.pdf
Royal College of Nursing (2017)
5.14 In 2017, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) issued a guide for nursing teams explaining the principles of accountability and delegation. It includes a step-by-step guide to ensure delegation only takes place when it is safe and appropriate to do so. The principles of delegation in accordance with the RCN are as follows:
* Delegation must always be in the best interest of the patient and not performed simply in an effort to save time or money.
* The support worker must have been suitably trained to perform the intervention.
* Full records of training given, including dates, should be kept.
* Evidence of competence assessment should be recorded, preferably against recognised standards such as National Occupational Standards.
* There should be clear guidelines and protocols in place so that the support worker is not required to make a standalone clinical judgement.
* The role should be within the support worker's job description.
* The team and any support staff need to be informed that the activity has been delegated.
* The person who delegates the activity must ensure that an appropriate level of supervision is available.
* Ongoing development to ensure that competency is maintained is essential.
* The whole process must be assessed for the degree of risk.
5.15 https://www.rcn.org.uk/professional-development/publications/pub-006465
Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018)
5.16 The Nursing and Midwifery Council released an updated Code of Conduct in 2018, which includes guidance on the delegation of healthcare tasks. According to this, staff are accountable for their decisions to delegate tasks and duties to other people, and as such, they should:
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* Only delegate tasks and duties that are within the other person's scope of competence.
* Ensure that everyone they delegate tasks to is adequately supervised and supported so they can provide safe and compassionate care.
* Confirm that the outcome of any task they have delegated meets the required standard.
5.17 https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/nmc-publications/nmc-code.pdf
Trend Diabetes and NHS England: Delegation of insulin administration project resources (2020)
5.18 The Delegation of Insulin Administration project was developed by NHS England in partnership with Trend Diabetes. It is designed to provide a voluntary framework under which suitably trained health and social care workers, including health and care support workers and healthcare assistants, could administer insulin to adults whose diabetes is stable.
5.19 Trend Diabetes was commissioned to develop resources for the project, including an e-learning module, policies and a competency framework.
5.20 The resulting documents and supporting materials are based on best practice, input from stakeholders and an expert working group, as well as the experience of eight national pilot sites. They include the following:
* Final letter of delegation of insulin administration.
* Sample document for the delegation of insulin administration.
* Checklist for health and care workers who are delegated responsibility to administer insulin to adults.
* Competency framework and workbook for blood glucose monitoring and subcutaneous insulin administration.
* Frequently asked questions.
5.21 https://diabetestimes.co.uk/nhs-england-delivers-insulin-delegation-administrationresources/
All Wales Medicines Strategy Group (2020)
5.22 The All-Wales Medicines Strategy Group (AWMSG) advises the Welsh Government on issues relating to the use, management and prescription of medicines to ensure patients receive appropriate care. In June 2020, the AWMSG released guidance intended for the use of health boards, care homes and nursing professionals in relation to the delegation of medicine administration to healthcare or social care support workers. It states that "the law does not prevent care support workers from administering medicines in any setting providing they are acting in accordance with the directions of an appropriately trained prescriber". While medicine administration has to date traditionally been carried out by a registered nurse, there are now new
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approaches to the delivery of care, and thus the following guidance has been issued by the AWMSG:
* The registered nurse is accountable for ensuring that medicines support is appropriately delegated to competent care support workers who have completed appropriate training.
* They should only delegate tasks and duties that are within the care worker's scope of competence.
* They should ensure the delegatee is adequately supervised.
* The care support worker should not provide any support with medicines unless this task has been delegated to them and the patient has undergone a needs and risk assessment.
* Care organisations should ensure that care support workers have access to the appropriate accredited education to support individuals with their medicines whilst not under the direct supervision of a registered nurse.
* The organisation will accept responsibility for all tasks undertaken by the care support worker, providing they are competently trained and are compliant with the agreed local written policies and procedures.
* The delegating organisation has vicarious liability for its employees.
* Care support workers must have completed one of the identified specific education units at Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales Level 3 as a minimum or be able to demonstrate training to the equivalent.
* Additionally, an appropriate recognised accredited unit of learning in relation to supporting individuals with medication must be achieved.
5.23 https://awmsg.nhs.wales/files/guidelines-and-pils/all-wales-guidance-for-healthboards-trusts-and-social-care-in-respect-of-medicines-and-care-support-workers-pdf/
Jersey Care Commission: Personal Care and Clinical Tasks Guidance for Adult Social Care (2021)
5.24 The Jersey Care Commission (JOC) is an independent, regulatory body which inspects care services provided by the Government of Jersey. The services they regulate include care homes providing nursing and personal care or personal support for people with a range of health and social care needs, care provided to people in their own homes, adult day care services and residential and other services for children and young people.
5.25 In 2019, the JOC released the Personal Care and Clinical Tasks Guidance for Adult Social Care, which was published to promote best practice across adult social care and to ensure that all relevant stakeholders are aware of their responsibilities when arranging, managing, delegating or providing care. It applies to individuals and organisations who arrange or provide care to adults receiving care from services which are registered under the Regulation of Care (Regulated Activities) (Jersey) Law 2018.
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This includes homecare services, day care services, care home services and registered care/support workers who are self-employed or employed directly by individuals.
5.26 It includes a section titled 'Delegatable Tasks' which outlines nursing tasks, which in appropriate circumstances can be delegated to care/support workers. It also includes a list of tasks that are not acceptable for delegation. According to this guideline, the following tasks can be delegated, provided suitable training and assessment has taken place:
* Capillary blood test.
* Contraceptive devices.
* Gastrostomy/jejunostomy Care.
* Administration of certain medicines.
* Non-invasive ventilation.
* Temperature recording.
* Obtaining urine samples.
5.27 https://carecommission.je/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/JCC-Guidance-personalcare-and-clinical-tasks-adult-social-care-ratified-20190314.pdf
All Wales Delegation Guidelines
5.28 National guidelines have been developed to assist in the management and practice of appropriate delegation. They have been developed primarily to support clinical staff, however, the principles can be applied to all staff groups. These national guidelines will clarify and support the delegation process and aim to:
* Support staff to delegate appropriately.
* Support staff development.
* Support compliance with regulatory and governance frameworks.
* Provide a shared understanding and a common approach to delegation.
* Articulate individual and organisational accountability.
* Utilise workforce resources and skills more appropriately.
* Develop and increase staff motivation.
* Increase efficiency and effectiveness.
* Reduce waste, variation and harm.
* Respond to changing needs in healthcare.
5.29 The development of these guidelines used the approach set out below. This sought to ensure they were developed on a firm evidence base, accessed expertise from within and outside Wales, and complied with professional and legal requirements:
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* A review of the literature to identify best practice in delegation was completed. This included scrutiny of the regulatory codes of conduct and practice. The analysis of the information revealed useful resources which have been used to support the development of these guidelines.
* The involvement of clinical and managerial staff was essential to inform and influence the content and structure of these guidelines. Staff representing clinicians, trade unions, professional organisations and the education sector participated in the consultation. The representatives were asked to consider, amend, challenge and identify gaps in the draft guidelines. The information from the consultation process was collated and themed to reflect a consensus view on each of the guidelines. The guidelines were subsequently revised in response to the information received. The views of the individuals who attended the two consultation events was further sought on the revised guidelines for final validation.
* Legal Advice was sought on the issues arising from the process of delegation and the associated implications. In particular, legal advice was provided on the principles of accountability for delegation and on the consequential issues such as vicarious liability.
* Advice was sought from Professional Regulators and incorporated.
5.30 http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/documents/829/all%20wales%20guidelines%20fo r%20delegation.pdf
5.31 https://heiw.nhs.wales/files/weds-practicing-appropriate-delegation/all-walesguidelines-for-delegation-2020/
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6 APPENDIX B: PILOT PROGRAMMES AND CASE STUDIES
Oxfordshire County Council – Upskilling the Homecare Workforce Pilot (2017) 15
6.1 A new model to allow for the delegation of appropriate healthcare tasks and enable faster response times was piloted in Oxfordshire for an eight-week period in 2017. Participants in this pilot were two homecare providers on the Oxfordshire County Council approved provider list and the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. The objective of the pilot was to increase capacity by integrating clinical and care delivery.
6.2 A care protocol allowing the Oxford CCG to delegate a certain set of responsibilities to paid carers under a formal and structured process was put in place. Healthcare tasks were risk assessed and separated into different categories depending on the level of training required.
6.3 The first category included warfarin administration, compression hosiery, TED stocking application and inhaler administration. These tasks were classed as Level 1 Portable Tasks. Carers who became proficient in them received a Portable Skills Passport, meaning they could deliver these tasks in the community. Tasks in the other categories were more involved and included stoma and catheter care, and administering oxygen and emergency medication. These tasks were deemed patientspecific and not transferrable to other scenarios by care workers.
Nefyn Pilot Programme – Upskilling Health and Care Workers to Provide Additional Capacity in the Community (2020) 16
6.4 A partnership between a GP surgery and the homecare provider Gofal Seibiant in rural Wales has provided social care workers with support to undertake basic observations with patients in their own homes. The training included taking a pulse, pulse oximetry (checking oxygen saturation levels in the blood), heart rate, blood pressure and taking a temperature. The homecare workers taking part in the pilot were not expected to make any clinical decisions but rather to facilitate observations.
6.5 The pilot was evaluated by the Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care, University of South Wales and PRIME Centre Wales in July 2021.
15 https://www.ncctc.co.uk/download_file/197/194
16 Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care & the University of South Wales, Upskilling Health and Care Workers to Provide Additional Capacity in the Community: A Service Evaluation of the Nefyn Pilot, 2021. Available at:
https://pure.southwales.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/5509306/REPORT_Upskilling_Health_and_Care_workers_ in_the_Community_FINAL_JULY_21_002_.pdf
7 APPENDIX C: DELEGATION OF INSULIN ADMINISTRATION PROGRAMME – SUMMARY OF TRAINING AND MONITORING STANDARDS 17
7.1 Clear entry criteria for trainees required and compliancy with the mandatory training required by their employer organisations.
7.2 The registered nurse/registered practitioner must ask the healthcare worker (HCW) to confirm that they are willing to perform the task following training and with ongoing monitoring and supervision.
7.3 All modules of the training need to be completed and the task may only be delegated once competency is signed off by an experienced registered nurse/registered practitioner who will then act as a mentor.
7.4 The registered nurse/registered practitioner is accountable for ensuring that the HCW to whom they are delegating an insulin administration task is competent, based on their professional judgement and supported by the framework of e-learning and supervision which accompanies the policy. They must therefore ensure the delegated HCW is trained and has been assessed as competent.
7.5 It is vital that the register nurse/registered practitioner make sure the HCW has the ability to access advice and guidance from them on a regular basis (e.g. monthly clinical supervision and regular huddles to discuss cases) as part of a mentoring relationship - and the ability to access ad-hoc advice when needed so they can provide safe and compassionate care.
7.6 Competence should be reviewed on a six-monthly basis, or in response to any incidents occurring and/or being reported. If there has been break in practice for more than three months, refreshed training and updated competency assessment is required before the delegation of duties can recommence.
7.7 The competency assessment should be completed five times as part of the initial training and then once at six-monthly intervals by the registered nurse/practitioner.
7.8 A signed confirmation or verification of training (including e-learning) and competence assessment by the registered nurse/registered practitioner must be obtained from the HCW as assurance that the training and assessment of competence was successfully completed.
7.9 The HCW should have access to advice and guidance on a regular basis (e.g. monthly clinical supervision and regular huddles to discuss diabetes cases) as part of a mentoring relationship, and the ability to access ad hoc advice when needed.
7.10 Registers must be maintained to record the following:
* A register of registered nurses and registered practitioners willing and able to delegate administration, held by Community Nursing.
* A register of HCWs deemed competent, held by District Nursing.
17 https://diabetes-resources-production.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/resources-s3/public/2020-12/C0584- Sample_Policy_for_the_Delegation_of_Insulin_Administration-TBM-AKJ-v2.1.pdf
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* Records of e-learning completion, competency assessment, completion of checklist and final sign-off, held in the care homes' training records.
* Annual review of registers undertaken by care homes through self-declaration and audited through random selection by the care home and Community Nursing.
|
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST
Request Number:
F-2011-00150
Keyword:
Operational Policing
Subject:
Young People In Possession Of Weapons
Request and Answer:
This is to inform you that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has now completed its search for the information you requested and the answers to your questions are as follows.
Question 1
For the years 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 so far:
How many young people aged between 13 and 19 were:
A. Found by police in possession of weapons?
Answer
The PSNI Information and Communication Systems Branch have provided the numbers of young people aged between 13 and 19 who were charged/reported in response to Question 1 A
2008: 394
2009: 366
2010: 439
2011: 27
B. Arrested by police for being in possession of weapons?
Answer
The numbers arrested by police for being in possession of weapons are as follows
2008: 180
2009: 156
2010: 184
2011: 10
C. Cautioned for being in possession of weapons?
Answer
2008: 14
2009: 5
2010: 65
2011: 13
Question 2
For the question above, could you please provide a breakdown as to the numbers of each kind of weapons that were found? (i.e. types of knives, types of guns, etc.)
Answer
The PSNI Information and Communication Systems Department have advised that the systems within the PSNI are unable to be interrogated to such a level that would enable us to provide the kind of weapons that were found. Under our Section 16 duty to advise and assist we have provided a breakdown of the actual offences the figures in answers to question 1 refer to and I hope you will find this useful. The offences concerned relate to details of "weapons", "blade or point" or "knife".
A. Found by police in possession of weapons? (detected)
2008:
(305) - possessing offensive weapon in public place
(44) - armed with offensive weapon with intent to commit offence
(41) - possessing article with blade or point in public place
(2) - possession etc. Of a prohibited weapon (discharge of electricity or noxious gas/liquid)
(1) - possessing offensive weapon on school premises
(1) - possessing article with blade or point on school premises
2009:
(278) - possessing offensive weapon in public place
(9) - possession etc. of a prohibited weapon (discharge of electricity or noxious gas/liquid)
(45) - armed with offensive weapon with intent to commit offence
(31) - possessing article with blade or point in public place
(1) - possessing article with blade or point on school premises
(2) - possessing offensive weapon on school premises
2010:
(68) - armed with offensive weapon with intent to commit offence
(311) - possessing offensive weapon in public place
(54) - possessing article with blade or point in public place
(1) - possessing article with blade or point on school premises
(5) - possession etc. of a prohibited weapon (discharge of electricity or noxious gas/liquid)
2011:
(18) - possessing offensive weapon in public place
(3) - possessing article with blade or point in public place
(6) - armed with offensive weapon with intent to commit offence
B. Arrested by police for being in possession of weapons? (detected and arrested)
2008:
(145) - possessing offensive weapon in public place
(20) - possessing article with blade or point in public place
(13) - armed with offensive weapon with intent to commit offence
(1) - possession etc. of a prohibited weapon (discharge of electricity or noxious gas/liquid)
(1) - possessing article with blade or point on school premises
2009:
(124) - possessing offensive weapon in public place
(7) - possession etc. of a prohibited weapon (discharge of electricity or noxious gas/liquid)
(15) - possessing article with blade or point in public place
(10) - armed with offensive weapon with intent to commit offence
2010:
(25) - possessing article with blade or point in public place
(136) - possessing offensive weapon in public place
(21) - armed with offensive weapon with intent to commit offence
(2) - possession etc. of a prohibited weapon (discharge of electricity or noxious gas/liquid)
2011:
(3) - armed with offensive weapon with intent to commit offence
(6) - possessing offensive weapon in public place
(1) - possessing article with blade or point in public place
C. Cautioned for being in possession of weapons?
2008:
(12) - possessing offensive weapon in public place
(2) - possessing offensive weapon on school premises
2009:
(1) - possessing offensive weapon in public place
(4) - possessing article with blade or point on school premises
2010:
(49) - possessing offensive weapon in public place
(13) - possessing article with blade or point in public place (2) - possessing offensive weapon on school premises
(1) - armed with offensive weapon with intent to commit offence
2011:
(12) - possessing offensive weapon in public place
(1) - possessing article with blade or point in public place
Question 3
For the questions 1 and 2 above, please provide a breakdown as to where these arrests/finds/cautions took place? (i.e. county, town or city)
Answer
The breakdown has been provided below illustrating the District Command Unit (DCU) of arrest and with regard to cautions the DCU the offence occurred in.
A. Found by police in possession of weapons? (detected) 2008:
| dcu_of_arrest | count |
|---|---|
| BELN | 54 |
| COLE | 41 |
| BELS | 34 |
| CRAI | 26 |
| FERM | 19 |
| BELW | 19 |
|---|---|
| LISB | 19 |
| DOWN | 19 |
| NEWM | 18 |
| FOYL | 16 |
| OMAG | 16 |
| ARMA | 14 |
| BELE | 14 |
| NABB | 13 |
| NDOW | 13 |
| ANTR | 11 |
| BANB | 10 |
| BMEN | 9 |
| DAST | 8 |
| COOK | 5 |
| STRB | 4 |
| LARN | 3 |
| CREA | 3 |
| CFER | 2 |
| LIMA | 2 |
| MOYL | 1 |
| ARDS | 1 |
2009:
| dcu_of_arrest | count |
|---|---|
| BELS | 54 |
| BELN | 46 |
| CRAI | 33 |
| LISB | 28 |
| ANTR | 21 |
| FOYL | 20 |
| COLE | 17 |
| BELE | 16 |
| DOWN | 15 |
| NEWM | 15 |
| FERM | 15 |
| BMEN | 12 |
| ARDS | 10 |
| NABB | 9 |
| BELW | 8 |
| BANB | 7 |
| OMAG | 7 |
|---|---|
| ARMA | 6 |
| DAST | 5 |
| COOK | 4 |
| BMON | 3 |
| STRB | 3 |
| NDOW | 3 |
| CREA | 3 |
| CFER | 2 |
| LIMA | 2 |
| MFEL | 1 |
| MOYL | 1 |
2010:
| dcu_of_arrest | count |
|---|---|
| BELS | 51 |
| BELN | 48 |
| BELW | 34 |
| CRAI | 29 |
| FOYL | 28 |
| DOWN | 27 |
| ANTR | 25 |
| LISB | 22 |
| FERM | 18 |
| BMEN | 17 |
| NABB | 16 |
| NEWM | 15 |
| NDOW | 14 |
| COLE | 14 |
| BELE | 11 |
| BANB | 10 |
| DAST | 10 |
| LIMA | 9 |
| STRB | 9 |
| ARDS | 8 |
| MFEL | 5 |
| BMON | 5 |
| LARN | 4 |
| COOK | 3 |
| OMAG | 3 |
| CREA | 2 |
| CFER | 1 |
2011:
| dcu_of_arrest | count |
|---|---|
| BELN | 5 |
| NEWM | 3 |
| LISB | 3 |
| DOWN | 3 |
| BELS | 3 |
| BMEN | 2 |
| NDOW | 1 |
| NABB | 1 |
| MOYL | 1 |
| LIMA | 1 |
| FOYL | 1 |
| DAST | 1 |
| BELW | 1 |
| BANB | 1 |
B. Arrested by police for being in possession of weapons? (detected and arrested)
2008:
| arrest_dcu | count |
|---|---|
| BELN | 24 |
| BELS | 19 |
| COLE | 19 |
| CRAI | 11 |
| FERM | 9 |
| NEWM | 8 |
| BELE | 8 |
| FOYL | 8 |
| ANTR | 8 |
| NDOW | 7 |
| BANB | 7 |
| LISB | 7 |
| OMAG | 6 |
| DAST | 6 |
| BMEN | 6 |
| COOK | 5 |
| DOWN | 5 |
| BELW | 4 |
| NABB | 3 |
|---|---|
| ARMA | 3 |
| STRB | 2 |
| CREA | 2 |
| CFER | 1 |
| LARN | 1 |
| ARDS | 1 |
2009:
| arrest_dcu | count |
|---|---|
| BELS | 26 |
| BELN | 22 |
| LISB | 11 |
| FERM | 11 |
| CRAI | 11 |
| ANTR | 10 |
| FOYL | 8 |
| COLE | 7 |
| ARDS | 7 |
| BMEN | 6 |
| BELE | 5 |
| DOWN | 5 |
| BELW | 4 |
| BMON | 4 |
| COOK | 3 |
| DAST | 2 |
| NABB | 2 |
| NDOW | 2 |
| NEWM | 2 |
| BANB | 2 |
| OMAG | 2 |
| CFER | 2 |
| STRB | 1 |
| ARMA | 1 |
2010:
| arrest_dcu | count |
|---|---|
| BELS | 21 |
| FOYL | 16 |
| BELN | 13 |
| BELW | 13 |
| CRAI | 11 |
| LISB | 11 |
|---|---|
| NABB | 10 |
| BMEN | 10 |
| ANTR | 9 |
| DOWN | 9 |
| FERM | 8 |
| BANB | 7 |
| COLE | 6 |
| NEWM | 6 |
| NDOW | 5 |
| ARDS | 5 |
| DAST | 5 |
| LIMA | 4 |
| STRB | 3 |
| BELE | 3 |
| LARN | 2 |
| COOK | 2 |
| MFEL | 2 |
| OMAG | 2 |
| ARMA | 1 |
2011:
| arrest_dcu | count |
|---|---|
| NEWM | 1 |
| NABB | 1 |
| MOYL | 1 |
| LISB | 1 |
| FOYL | 1 |
| FERM | 1 |
| BELS | 1 |
| BELN | 1 |
| BANB | 1 |
| ANTR | 1 |
C. Cautioned for being in possession of weapons?
2008:
| offence_dcu | count |
|---|---|
| ANTR | 1 |
| BELN | 2 |
| BANB | 1 |
| NEWM | 1 |
| BELS | 1 |
|---|---|
| FERM | 1 |
| LARN | 1 |
| DOWN | 1 |
| NDOW | 2 |
| OMAG | 1 |
| CRAI | 1 |
| BELE | 1 |
2009:
| offence_dcu | count |
|---|---|
| ANTR | 4 |
| NEWM | 1 |
2010:
| offence_dcu | count |
|---|---|
| BELE | 8 |
| NABB | 6 |
| FERM | 6 |
| Not | |
| | 6 |
| Specified | |
| COLE | 5 |
| ANTR | 4 |
| NDOW | 4 |
| BELS | 4 |
| ARDS | 3 |
| FOYL | 3 |
| BELN | 3 |
| BELW | 3 |
| ARMA | 2 |
| CRAI | 2 |
| OMAG | 2 |
| CREA | 1 |
| LISB | 1 |
| NEWM | 1 |
| BMEN | 1 |
2011:
| offence_dcu | count |
|---|---|
| NEWM | 2 |
| FERM | 2 |
|---|---|
| BELS | 2 |
| NABB | 1 |
| FOYL | 1 |
| DOWN | 1 |
| CREA | 1 |
| CRAI | 1 |
| BMON | 1 |
| BELN | 1 |
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|
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Expert Systems With Applications
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa
A framework to explore innovation at SAP through bibliometric analysis of patent applications
Tabitha L. James a , ∗ , Deborah F. Cook a , Sumali Conlon b , Kellie B. Keeling c , Stephane Collignon a , Trevor White a
a Virginia Tech, 1007 Pamplin Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States
b
c University of Denver, 2101 S University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208-8931, United States
University of Mississippi, 247 Holman Hall, University, MS 38677, United States
articleinfo
abstract
Keywords: Software Innovation Enterprise data management Business intelligence and social media/data analytics Text analysis Cluster analysis
Easily accessible patent databases and advances in technology have enabled the exploration of organizational innovation through the analysis of patent records. However, the textual content of patents presents obstacles to gleaning useful information. In this study, we develop an expert system framework that utilizes text and data mining procedures for analyzing innovation through textual patent data. Specifically, we use patent titles representing the innovation activity at one company (SAP) and perform a bibliometric analysis using our proposed framework. Enterprise software, of which SAP is a pioneering developer, must serve a wide assortment of functions for companies in many different industries. In addition, SAP's sole focus is on enterprise software and it is a market leader in the category with substantial patent activity over the last decade. Using our framework to analyze SAP's patent activity provides a demonstration of how our bibliometric analysis can summarize and identify trends in innovation in a large software company. Our results illustrate that SAP has a breadth of innovative activity spread over the three-tier software engineering architecture and a lack of topical repetition indicative of limited depth. SAP's innovation is also seen to emphasize data management and quickly integrate emerging technologies. Results of an analysis on any company following our framework could be used for a variety of purposes, including: to examine the scope and scale of innovation of an organization, to examine the influence of technological trends on businesses, or to gain insight into corporate strategy that could be used to aid planning, investment, and purchasing decisions.
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Innovation is of interest to academics and practitioners alike. It has been examined for decades using several approaches and for a variety of means. Innovation's link to company performance has been extensively studied (Leidner, Lo, & Preston, 2011; Noruzy, Dalfard, Azhdari, Nazari-Shirkouhi, & Rezazadeh, 2013; Srivardhana & Pawlowski, 2007). Research has approached innovation at multiple levels. At the most coarse-grained levels, the influence of innovation on national or global economies is of interest (Hicks, Breitzman, Olivastro, & Hamilton, 2001; Slater, 2012). In many cases, innovation across an industry has been of primary interest (Pullen, de Weerd-Nederhof, Groen, & Fisscher, 2012; Tajeddini & Trueman, 2012). These studies explore innovation as a competitive advantage
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 540 231 3163; fax: +1 540 231 3752. E-mail addresses: firstname.lastname@example.org (T.L. James), email@example.com (D.F. Cook), firstname.lastname@example.org (S. Conlon), email@example.com (K.B. Keeling), firstname.lastname@example.org (S. Collignon), email@example.com (T. White).
(Adegoke, Walumbwa, & Myers, 2012), to aid in evaluation of merger activity within an industry (Breitzman & Mogee, 2002; Breitzman & Thomas, 2002), as an assessment of service quality (Song, Song, & Di Benedetto, 2009), to explore emerging technologies within an area (Daim, Rueda, Martin, & Gerdsri, 2006; Kim, Suh, & Park, 2008), as a tool for sustainability/green initiatives (Bos-Brouwers, 2010; Chen & Chang, 2013), or to examine technological strategies within an industry (Ashurst, Freer, Ekdahl, & Gibbons, 2012; Han, Kim, & Srivastava, 1998; Schmoch & Schnoring, 1994). At the organizational or firm level, management of innovation (Sundbo, 1997) and enhancement of business planning (Lee, Yoon, Lee, & Park, 2009; Zippel-Schultz & Schultz, 2011) may be the goal.
Various researchers have approached the study of innovation using patent data. Patent data has been examined using a variety of approaches and procedures for several purposes. Hicks et al. (2001) used patent bibliometrics to investigate the changing composition of innovative activity in the US. They noted patent indicators pointing to significant innovation in information and health technologies. Daim et al. (2006) point to the difficulties of forecasting when there is no historical data available and used a combination of bibliometrics and
patent analysis to forecast emerging technologies in the areas of fuel cells, food safety, and optical storage.
Siwczyk, Warschat, and Spath (2012) note that patents are used to protect innovative ideas and describe the use of patents as a source of new ideas in the early phases of technology management processes. They also discuss the need for software solutions to facilitate patent analysis as patent databases continue to grow. To advance software to explore patents, Kim et al. (2008) used a k-Means clustering algorithm to create patent maps for ubiquitous computing technology. Shih, Liu, and Hsu (2010) propose a patent trend change mining approach to examining patent activity and use it to examine trends in industry and company activities in Taiwan's semiconductor industry. Lee, Yoon, and Park (2009) used a combination of text mining and principal component analysis to identify "patent vacancies" in patent maps to help identify new technology creation opportunities. Yoon and Kim (2011) noted that patents are good sources of information related to technological change while Yoon, Park, and Kim (2013) used natural language processing of patent text to identify technological competition trends finding "patent vacuums" and "technological hot spots". Chen (2009) used experts to assist in the formation of a patent map for car industry patents. Chen (2009) suggests that patent maps can be created using the process detailed in the study by any company that wishes to use the resulting patent map as a strategic tool.
Previous research indicates that analyzing patent data can lead to many beneficial outcomes, such as detecting trends in innovation and forecasting emerging technologies. It has also been suggested in previous research that methodologies for conducting patent analysis, especially textual content, may be useful to companies in identifying strategic opportunities in a company's own patent activity, comparing innovation or R&D approaches between units, companies or industries, or identifying industry opportunities. Patent analysis as a means to assess innovation could also be leveraged in merger and acquisition decisions or large-scale capital purchases where the health and innovation status of the company is important in assessing access to future product development and support.
In the current study, we propose an expert system framework for analyzing innovation through patent data that combines techniques from text and data mining to conduct temporal and textual analyses of patent activity. We utilize a combination of text and data mining procedures similar in nature to many of the procedures seen in the previous expert system approaches to patent analysis described above. However, our approach combines different procedures and stages of analysis than previous studies, that depending on the desired outcome, could provide a more robust and flexible analysis. Our framework combines traditional text and data mining techniques and a combination of open source, freeware, commercial, and research tools is used to implement the procedures. Our framework is flexible enough that any similar tool or relevant procedure could be substituted or added respectively.
To illustrate our framework, we perform a bibliometric analysis of SAP's patent data. SAP is the market leader for enterprise resource planning software (more generically called enterprise software). Enterprise software is by definition complex and wide-ranging. To adequately handle the system infrastructure needs of large companies or organizations, the software must contain logic for all business functions. Enterprise software serves as the information technology backbone for a company, and as such, needs to be customizable and flexible to meet the needs of organizations that vary in size, scope, purpose, etc. Competitors of SAP range from smaller software companies focused on a particular business function (e.g., HighJump Software and SalesForce) to large, diversified software companies that offer enterprise software as part of a larger portfolio of other software products (e.g., Oracle and Microsoft).
Software is a dynamic and innovative subset of the technology industry and SAP provides one of the most complex examples of software that is heavily utilized by business. In addition, SAP's sole focus is to produce and support enterprise system software. SAP is reported as the market leader in the business-management software market with a 24% market share according to Gartner, Inc. (Norton, 2014) . Oracle is reported as the next closest competitor with a 12% market share (Norton, 2014) . Sage, Infor, and Microsoft are reported to make up a combined 17% of the market with a large number of companies holding market shares of 3% or less ( http://www.statista.com/statistics/249637/erp-software-marketshare-by-company/ ) making up the remaining market share. Nearly 80% of the Fortune 500 companies use SAP software and 63% of the financial transactions are at least partially processed with SAP software ( http://fortune.com/2012/03/29/inside-saps-radical-makeover/ ).
SAP has a history of innovation (Leimbach, 2008), currently demonstrated by SAP Predictive Analytics in addressing the ongoing challenges of big data and SAP HANA (High-Performance Analytics Appliance) in the area of the in-memory computing needed to facilitate predictive analytics. It has been noted that SAP's growth has been assisted by its focus on in-memory computing driven by HANA that improves performance by attempting to minimize time spent transferring data from permanent storage, in part because SAP was one of the first to move into this area (Ashford, 2011). Of all other enterprise software companies SAP has the most patent activity and is the only company with substantial patent activity that is focused solely on enterprise software, making SAP the ideal option to study innovation within a single software developer in this industry. Thus, SAP provides a good case study for our framework that may shed insight into the innovation strategies of one of the world's most important corporate software providers.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In the next section, we review the history and development of enterprise systems to show the historical evolution of this software category. This provides a historical presentation of a quickly evolving industry and illustrates the pace of technological and business function integration. The review motivates our choice of enterprise software as a case study and assists with the interpretation of the findings from the application of the framework. In Section 3, we will describe the data collection and methodology, following with the analysis and discussion in Section 4. We offer conclusions and directions for future work in Section 5.
2. Background and motivation for case study
2.1. Enterprise systems and SAP
Since the 1960s, computer systems for enterprise management have grown, now encompassing all aspects of an organization, and have branched out into activities related to supply chain management. The development of software programs to help companies manage specific processes (e.g. inventory and order management) presented attractive possibilities as computer use in business proliferated throughout the 1960s. The process of integrating all activities of a firm into a single application eventually evolved into "enterprise systems" (ES) that attempt to allow firms to electronically manage most (or all) of their business activity (Collignon, James, & Cook, 2010). Collignon et al. (2010) developed a time line to illustrate the development of Enterprise Systems from their beginnings as inventory management systems, through their evolution into Material Requirements Planning and then to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and beyond (Fig. 1).
The term ERP was introduced early in the 1990s to differentiate the fully integrated business applications software of SAP and others from the business software of older companies (Campbell-Kelly, 2003). ERP software systems provide the information backbone to support the infrastructure of many companies. Standard functions such as ordering materials, scheduling production, sales and operations planning, and general accounting functions are managed by
|
DS764 June 22, 2011
Introduction
This document describes the specifications for a Advanced Microcontroller Bus Architecture (AMBA®) specification's Advanced eXtensible Interface (AXI) Timer/Counter core.
The AXI Timer/Counter is a 32-bit timer module that attaches to the AXI4-Lite interface.
Features
* AXI interface is based on the AXI4-Lite specification
* Two programmable interval timers with interrupt, event generation, and event capture capabilities
* Configurable counter width
* One Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) output
* Freeze input for halting counters during software debug
LogiCORE IP AXI Timer (axi_timer) (v1.02.a)
Product Specification
| LogiCORE IP Facts | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core Specifics | | | | | |
| Supported Device Family (1) | Artix-7, Kintex-7, Virtex-7,Virtex-6, Spartan-6 | | | | |
| Supported User Interfaces | AXI4-Lite only | | | | |
| Configuration | Resources | | | | Frequency |
| | Slices | LUTs | FFs | Block RAMs | Max Freq |
| | See Table 12 and Table 13 | | | 0 | See Table 12, Table 13, Table 14 |
| Provided with Core | | | | | |
| Documentation | Product Specification | | | | |
| Design Files | VHDL | | | | |
| Example Design | Not Provided | | | | |
| Test Bench | Not Provided | | | | |
| Constraints File | None | | | | |
| Simulation Model | None | | | | |
| Tested Design Tools | | | | | |
| Design Entry Tools | ISE 13.2 software | | | | |
| Simulation | Mentor Graphics ModelSim (2) | | | | |
| Synthesis Tools | XST 13.2 | | | | |
| Support | | | | | |
1. For a complete list of supported derivative devices, see IDS Embedded Edition Derivative Device Support.
2. For the supported version of the tool, see the ISE Design Suite 13: Release Notes Guide.
www.xilinx.com
1
Functional Description
The Timer/Counter is organized as two identical timer modules as shown in Figure 2. Each timer module has an associated load register that is used to hold either the initial value for the counter for event generation or a capture value, depending on the mode of the timer.
The generate value is used to generate a single interrupt at the expiration of an interval or a continuous series of interrupts with a programmable interval. The capture value is the timer value that has been latched on detection of an external event. The clock rate of the timer modules is S_AXI_ACLK (no prescaling of the clock is performed). All of the Timer/Counter interrupts are ORed together to generate a single external interrupt signal. The interrupt service routine reads the control/status registers to determine the source of the interrupt.
Programming Model
Timer Modes
There are three modes that can be used with the two Timer/Counter modules:
* Generate mode
* Capture mode
* Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) mode.
The modes and their characteristics are described in the following sections.
Generate Mode
In the Generate mode, the value in the load register is loaded into the counter. The counter, when enabled, begins to count up or down, depending on the selection of the UDT bit in the Timer Control Status Register (TCSR). See Figure 6 and Figure 7. On transition of the carry out of the counter, the counter stops or automatically reloads the generate value from the load register and continues counting as selected by the ARHT bit in the TCSR. The TINT bit is set in TCSR and, if enabled, the external GenerateOut signal is driven to 1 for one clock cycle. If enabled, the interrupt signal for the timer is driven to 1 for one clock cycle. This mode is useful for generating repetitive interrupts or external signals with a specified interval.
Characteristics
The generate mode has the following characteristics:
* The value loaded into the load register is called the generate value.
* On start-up, the generate value in the load register must be loaded into the counter by setting the Load bit in the Timer Control Status Register (TCSR). This applies whether the counter is set up to Auto Reload or Hold when the interval has expired. Setting the Load bit to '1' loads the counter with the value in the load register. For proper operation, the Load bit must be cleared before the counter is enabled.
* When the ARHT bit (Auto Reload/Hold) is set to '1' and the counter rolls over from all '1's to all '0's when counting up, or conversely from all '0's to all '1's when counting down, the generate value in the load register will be automatically reloaded into the counter and the counter will continue to count. If the GenerateOut signal is enabled (bit GENT in the TCSR), an output pulse is generated (one clock period in width). This is useful for generating a repetitive pulse train with a specified period.
* When the ARHT bit (Auto Reload/Hold) is set to '0' and the counter rolls over from all '1's to all '0's, when counting up, or conversely, from all '0's to all '1's, when counting down, the counter will hold at the current value and will not reload the generate value. If the GenerateOut signal is enabled (bit GENT in the TCSR), an output pulse of one clock period in width will be generated. This is useful for a one-shot pulse that is to be generated after a specified period of time.
* The counter can be set up to count either up or down as determined by the selection of the UDT bit in the TCSR. If the counter is set up as a down counter, the generate value is the number of clocks in the timing interval. The period of the GenerateOut signal is the generate value times the clock period.
* When the counter is set to count down,
* When the counter is set to count up,
```
TIMING_INTERVAL = (TLRx + 2) x AXI_CLOCK_PERIOD
```
```
TIMING_INTERVAL = (MAX_COUNT - TLRx + 2) x AXI_CLOCK_PERIOD
```
where MAX_COUNT is the maximum count value of the counter, such as 0xFFFFFFFF for a 32-bit counter.
* The GenerateOut signals can be configured as high-true or low-true.
Capture Mode
In Capture Mode, the value of the counter is stored in the load register when the external capture signal is asserted. The TINT bit is also set in the Timer Control Status Register (TCSR) on detection of the capture event. The counter can be configured as an up or down counter for this mode as determined by the selection of the UDT bit in TCSR. The ARHT bit controls whether the capture value is overwritten with a new capture value before the previous TINT flag is cleared. This mode is useful for time tagging external events while simultaneously generating an interrupt.
Characteristics
Capture Mode has the following characteristics:
* The capture signal can be configured to be low-true or high-true.
* The capture signal is sampled within the Timer/Counter with the S_AXI_ACLK. The capture event is defined as the transition on the sampled signal to the asserted state. For example, if the capture signal is defined to be high-true, then the capture event is when the sampled signal, synchronized to the S_AXI_ACLK, transitions from '0' to '1'.
* When the capture event occurs, the counter value is written to the load register. This value is called the capture value.
* When the ARHT bit (Auto Reload/Hold) is set to '0' and the capture event occurs, the capture value is written to the Load Register which holds the capture value until the load register is read. If the load register is not read, subsequent capture events will not update the load register and will be lost.
* When the ARHT bit (Auto Reload/Hold) is set to '1', and the capture event occurs, the capture value is always written to the load register. Subsequent capture events will update the load register and will overwrite the previous value, whether it has been read or not.
* The counter can be set up to count either up or down as determined by the selection of the UDT bit in the Timer Control Status Register (TCSR).
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Mode
In PWM mode, two timer/counters are used as a pair to produce an output signal (PWM0) with a specified frequency and duty factor. Timer0 sets the period and Timer1 sets the high time for the PWM0 output.
www.xilinx.com
Characteristics
PWM Mode has the following characteristics:
* The mode for both Timer0 and Timer1 must be set to Generate Mode (bit MDT in the TCSR set to '0').
* The PWMA0 bit in TCSR0 and PWMB0 bit in TCSR1 must be set to '1' to enable PWM mode.
* The GenerateOut signals must be enabled in the TCSR (bit GENT set to '1'). The PWM0 signal is generated from the GenerateOut signals of Timer0 and Timer1, so these signals must be enabled in both timer/counters.
* The assertion level of the GenerateOut signals for both timers in the pair must be set to '1'. This is done by setting C_GEN0_ASSERT and C_GEN1_ASSERT to '1'.
* The counter can be set to count up or down.
Setting the PWM Period and Duty Factor
The PWM period is determined by the generate value in the Timer0 load register (TLR0). The PWM high time is determined by the generate value in the Timer1 load register (TLR1). The period and duty factor are calculated as follows:
```
When counters are configured to count up (UDT = '0'): PWM_PERIOD = (MAX_COUNT - TLR0 + 2) x AXI_CLOCK_PERIOD PWM_HIGH_TIME = (MAX_COUNT - TLR1 + 2) x AXI_CLOCK_PERIOD When counters are configured to count down (UDT = '1'): PWM_PERIOD = (TLR0 + 2) x AXI_CLOCK_PERIOD
```
```
PWM_HIGH_TIME = (TLR1 + 2) x AXI_CLOCK_PERIOD
```
where MAX_COUNT is the maximum count value for the counter, such as 0xFFFFFFFF for a 32-bit counter.
Interrupts
The TC interrupt signals can be enabled or disabled with the ENIT bit in the TCSR. The interrupt status bit (TINT) in the TCSR cannot be disabled and always reflects the current state of the timer interrupt. In Generate Mode, a timer interrupt is caused by the counter rolling over (the same condition used to reload the counter when ARHT is set to '1'). In Capture Mode, the interrupt event is the capture event. Characteristics of the interrupts are:
* Interrupt events can only occur when the timer is enabled. In Capture Mode, this prevents interrupts from occurring before the timer is enabled.
* The interrupt signal goes high when the interrupt condition is met and the interrupt is enabled in the TCSR. The interrupt is asserted when the interrupt signal is high.
* A single interrupt signal is provided. The interrupt signal is the OR of the interrupts from the two counters. The interrupt service routine must poll the TCSRs to determine the source or sources of the interrupt.
* The interrupt status bit (TINT in the TCSR) can only be cleared by writing a '1' to it. Writing a '0' to it has no effect on the bit. Because the interrupt condition is an edge (the counter rollover or the capture event), it can be cleared at any time and will not indicate an interrupt condition until the next interrupt event.
The top level block diagram of the AXI Timer/Counter is shown in Figure 1.
www.xilinx.com
The top level modules of the AXI Timer/Counter are:
* AXI4-Lite IPIF Module
* Timer/Counter
X-Ref Target - Figure 1
The detailed block diagram of the AXI Timer/Counter is shown in Figure 2.
X-Ref Target - Figure 2
I/O Signals
The AXI Timer I/O signals are listed and described in Table 1.
Table 1: I/O Signal Description
6
Table 1: I/O Signal Description (Cont.)
7
Table 1: I/O Signal Description (Cont.)
Notes:
1. This signal is not used. The AXI Timer assumes that all byte lanes are active.
Design Parameters
To allow users to create the AXI Timer that is uniquely tailored for their systems, certain features can be parameterized in the AXI Timer design. This allows users to have a design that only utilizes the resources required by the system and operates at the best possible performance. The AXI Timer design parameters are shown in Table 2.
In addition to the parameters listed in this table, there are also parameters that are inferred for each AXI interface in the EDK tools. Through the design, these EDK-inferred parameters control the behavior of the AXI Interconnect. For a complete list of the interconnect settings related to the AXI interface, see AXI Interconnect IP Data Sheet (DS768).
Table 2: Design Parameters
| Generic | Feature/Description | Parameter Name | Allowable Values | Default Value | VHDL Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| System Parameter | | | | | |
| G1 | Target FPGA family | C_FAMILY | virtex6, spartan6 | virtex6 | string |
| AXI Parameters | | | | | |
| G2 | AXI Protocol type | C_S_AXI_ PROTOCOL | AXI4LITE | AXI4LITE | string |
| G3 | AXI Base Address | C_BASEADDR | Valid Address (1) | 0xFFFFFFFF (3) | std_logic_ vector |
| G4 | AXI High Address | C_HIGHADDR | Valid Address (2) | 0x00000000 (3) | std_logic_ vector |
| G5 | AXI address bus width | C_S_AXI_ADDR_ WIDTH | 32 | 32 | integer |
| G6 | AXI data bus width | C_S_AXI_DATA_ WIDTH | 32 | 32 | integer |
8
Table 2: Design Parameters (Cont.)
Notes:
1. The user must set the values. The C_BASEADDR must be a multiple of the range, where the range is C_HIGHADDR - C_BASEADDR + 1.
2. The range specified by C_HIGHADDR - C_BASEADDR must be a power of 2 and greater than or equal to 0xFFF.
3. An invalid default value is used to require the user to set this parameter correctly.
Allowable Parameter Combinations
The address range specified by C_BASEADDR and C_HIGHADDR must be a power of 2 and must be at least 0xFFF.
For example, if C_BASEADDR = 0xE0000000, C_HIGHADDR must be at least = 0x0xE0000FFF.
9
Parameter - I/O Signal Dependencies
The dependencies between the AXI timer core design parameters and I/O signals are described in Table 3. In addition, when certain features are parameterized out of the design, the related logic will no longer be a part of the design. The unused input signals and related output signals are set to a specified value.
Table 3: Parameter-I/O Signal Dependencies
| Generic or Port | Name | Affects | Depends | Relationship Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design Parameters | | | | |
| G5 | C_S_AXI_ADDR_WIDTH | P4, P14 | - | Defines the width of the ports |
| G6 | C_S_AXI_DATA_WIDTH | P7, P8, P17 | - | Defines the width of the ports |
| I/O Signals | | | | |
| P4 | S_AXI_AWADDR[C_S_AXI_ ADDR_WIDTH-1:0] | - | G5 | Port width depends on the generic C_S_AXI_ADDR_WIDTH. |
| P7 | S_AXI_WDATA[C_S_AXI_ DATA_WIDTH-1:0] | - | G6 | Port width depends on the generic C_S_AXI_DATA_WIDTH. |
| P8 | S_AXI_WSTB[C_S_AXI_ DATA_WIDTH/8-1:0] | - | G6 | Port width depends on the generic C_S_AXI_DATA_WIDTH. |
| P14 | S_AXI_ARADDR[C_S_AXI_ ADDR_WIDTH -1:0] | - | G5 | Port width depends on the generic C_S_AXI_ADDR_WIDTH. |
| P17 | S_AXI_RDATA[C_S_AXI_ DATA_WIDTH -1:0] | - | G6 | Port width depends on the generic C_S_AXI_DATA_WIDTH. |
Register Data Types and Organization
Timer Counter registers are accessed as one of these types:
* Byte (8 bits)
* Half word (2 bytes)
* Word (4 bytes)
The AXI Timer/Counter registers are organized as little-endian data. The bit and byte labeling for the little-endian data types is shown in the Figure 3.
DS764 June 22, 2011
X-Ref Target - Figure 3
Halfword
Register Descriptions
Table 4 shows all the AXI Timer registers and their addresses. Accesses to addresses inside the core address range other than these registers will return an OKAY response, with reads returning 0 data values and writes having no effect.
Table 4: Register Overview
| Register Name | Base Address + offset (hex) | Access Type | Default Value (hex) |
|---|---|---|---|
| TCSR0 | C_BASEADDR + 0x00 | Read/Write | 0x0 |
| TLR0 | C_BASEADDR + 0x04 | Read/Write | 0x0 |
| TCR0 | C_BASEADDR + 0x08 | Read | 0x0 |
| TCSR1 | C_BASEADDR + 0x10 | Read/Write | 0x0 |
| TLR1 | C_BASEADDR + 0x14 | Read/Write | 0x0 |
| TCR1 | C_BASEADDR + 0x18 | Read | 0x0 |
www.xilinx.com
Load Register (TLR0 and TLR1)
When the counter width has been configured as less than 32 bits, the load register value is right-justified in TLR0 and TLR1. The least-significant counter bit is always mapped to load register bit 0.
Figure 4 and Table 5 show the load register.
X-Ref Target - Figure 4
Table 5: Load Register Bit Definitions
| Bit(s) | Name | Core Access | Reset Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31-0 | Timer/Counter Load Register | Read/Write | 0x0 |
Timer/Counter Register (TCR0 and TCR1)
When the counter width has been configured as less than 32 bits, the count value is right-justified in TCR0 and TCR1. The least-significant counter bit is always mapped to Timer/Counter Register bit 0. Figure 5 and Table 6 show the Timer/counter register.
X-Ref Target - Figure 5
TCRx timer_counter_load_register.eps
Figure 5: Timer/Counter Register
Table 6: Timer/Counter Register Bit Definitions
| Bit(s) | Name | Core Access | Reset Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31-0 | Timer/Counter Register | Read | 0x0 |
Control/Status Register 0 (TCSR0)
Figure 6 and Table 7 show the Control/Status register 0. Control/Status Register 0 contains the control and status bits for timer module 0.
X-Ref Target - Figure 6
www.xilinx.com
12
Table 7: Control/Status Register 0 Bit Definitions
| Bit(s) | Name | Core Access | Reset Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31 - 11 | Reserved | N/A | - |
| 10 | ENALL | Read/Write | 0 |
| 9 | PWMA0 | Read/Write | 0 |
| 8 | T0INT | Read/Write | 0 |
| 7 | ENT0 | Read/Write | 0 |
| 6 | ENIT0 | Read/Write | 0 |
| 5 | LOAD0 | Read/Write | 0 |
| 4 | ARHT0 | Read/Write | 0 |
| 3 | CAPT0 | Read/Write | 0 |
13
Table 7: Control/Status Register 0 Bit Definitions (Cont.)
| Bit(s) | Name | Core Access | Reset Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | GENT0 | Read/Write | 0 |
| 1 | UDT0 | Read/Write | 0 |
| 0 | MDT0 | Read/Write | 0 |
Control/Status Register 1 (TCSR1)
Figure 7 and Table 8 show the Control/Status register 1. Control/Status Register 1 contains the control and status bits for timer module 1.
X-Ref Target - Figure 7
Table 8: Control/Status Register 1 Bit Definitions
| Bit(s) | Name | Core Access | Reset Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31 - 11 | Reserved | N/A | - |
| 10 | ENALL | Read/Write | 0 |
| 9 | PWMA0 | Read/Write | 0 |
www.xilinx.com
Table 8: Control/Status Register 1 Bit Definitions (Cont.)
| Bit(s) | Name | Core Access | Reset Value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | T1INT | Read/Write | 0 | Timer1 Interrupt Indicates that the condition for an interrupt on this timer has occurred. If the timer mode is capture and the timer is enabled, this bit indicates a capture has occurred. If the mode is generate, this bit indicates the counter has rolled over. Must be cleared by writing a ’1’. Read: 0 = No interrupt has occurred 1 = Interrupt has occurred Write: 0 = No change in state of T1INT 1 = Clear T1INT (clear to ’0’) |
| 7 | ENT1 | Read/Write | 0 | Enable Timer1 0 = Disable timer (counter halts) 1 = Enable timer (counter runs) |
| 6 | ENIT1 | Read/Write | 0 | Enable Interrupt for Timer1 Enables the assertion of the interrupt signal for this timer. Has no effect on the interrupt flag in TCSR1. 0 = Disable interrupt signal 1 = Enable interrupt signal |
| 5 | LOAD1 | Read/Write | 0 | Load Timer1 0 = No load 1 = Loads timer with value in TLR1 |
| 4 | ARHT1 | Read/Write | 0 | Auto Reload/Hold Timer1 When the timer is in generate mode, this bit determines whether the counter reloads the generate value and continues running or holds at the termination value. In capture mode, this bit determines whether a new capture trigger overwrites the previous captured value or if the previous value is held until it is read. 0 = Hold counter or capture value 1 = Reload generate value or overwrite capture value |
| 3 | CAPT1 | Read/Write | 0 | Enable External Capture Trigger Timer1 0 = Disables external capture trigger 1 = Enables external capture trigger |
| 2 | GENT1 | Read/Write | 0 | Enable External Generate Signal Timer1 0 = Disables external generate signal 1 = Enables external generate signal |
| 1 | UDT1 | Read/Write | 0 | Up/Down Count Timer1 0 = Timer functions as up counter 1 = Timer functions as down counter |
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Design Implementation
Target Technology
The intended target technologies are Virtex ® -6 and Spartan ® -6 FPGAs.
Device Utilization and Performance Benchmarks
Core Performance
Because the AXI Timer core will be used with other design modules in the FPGA, the utilization and timing numbers reported in this section are estimates only. When the AXI Timer core is combined with other designs in the system, the utilization of FPGA resources and timing of the AXI Timer design will vary from the results reported here.
The AXI Timer resource utilization for various parameter combinations measured with the Artix™-7 FPGA as the target device are detailed in Table 9.
Table 9: Performance and Resource Utilization Benchmarks on a Artix-7 FPGA (xc7a355tdie)
| C_COUNT_WIDTH | C_ONE_TIMER_ONLY | Slices | Flip-Flops | LUTs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 1 | 49 | 53 | 96 |
| 16 | 1 | 61 | 69 | 120 |
| 32 | 1 | 84 | 101 | 181 |
| 8 | 0 | 50 | 74 | 123 |
| 16 | 0 | 74 | 106 | 161 |
| 32 | 0 | 97 | 170 | 256 |
The AXI Timer resource utilization for various parameter combinations measured with the Kintex™-7 FPGA as the target device are detailed in Table 10.
Table 10: Performance and Resource Utilization Benchmarks on a Kintex-7 FPGA (xc7k410tffg676-3)
| Parameter Values | | Device Resources | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C_COUNT_WIDTH | C_ONE_TIMER_ONLY | Slices | Flip-Flops | LUTs |
| 8 | 1 | 37 | 53 | 99 |
| 16 | 1 | 64 | 69 | 120 |
| 32 | 1 | 69 | 101 | 180 |
| 8 | 0 | 62 | 74 | 123 |
| 16 | 0 | 76 | 106 | 160 |
| 32 | 0 | 116 | 170 | 256 |
The AXI Timer resource utilization for various parameter combinations measured with the Virtex-7 FPGA as the target device are detailed in Table 11.
Table 11: Performance and Resource Utilization Benchmarks on a Virtex-7 FPGA (xc7v855tffg1157-3)
| Parameter Values | | Device Resources | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C_COUNT_WIDTH | C_ONE_TIMER_ONLY | Slices | Flip-Flops | LUTs |
| 8 | 1 | 51 | 53 | 96 |
| 16 | 1 | 62 | 69 | 119 |
| 32 | 1 | 92 | 101 | 180 |
| 8 | 0 | 46 | 74 | 124 |
| 16 | 0 | 83 | 106 | 160 |
| 32 | 0 | 118 | 170 | 256 |
The AXI Timer resource utilization for various parameter combinations measured with the Virtex-7 FPGA as the target device are detailed in Table 12.
Table 12: Performance and Resource Utilization Benchmarks on a Virtex-6 FPGA (xc6vlx130t-1-ff1156)
| Parameter Values | | Device Resources | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C_COUNT_WIDTH | C_ONE_TIMER_ONLY | Slices | Flip-Flops | LUTs |
| 8 | 1 | 52 | 53 | 95 |
| 16 | 1 | 70 | 69 | 119 |
| 32 | 1 | 94 | 101 | 180 |
| 8 | 0 | 53 | 74 | 121 |
| 16 | 0 | 76 | 106 | 161 |
| 32 | 0 | 114 | 170 | 256 |
The AXI Timer resource utilization for various parameter combinations measured with a Spartan-6 FPGA as the target device are detailed in Table 13.
Table 13: Performance and Resource Utilization Benchmarks on a Spartan-6 FPGA (xc6slx45t-2-fgg484)
| Parameter Values | | Device Resources | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C_COUNT_WIDTH | C_ONE_TIMER_ONLY | Slices | Flip-Flops | LUTs |
| 8 | 1 | 50 | 52 | 95 |
| 16 | 1 | 48 | 68 | 119 |
| 32 | 1 | 95 | 100 | 179 |
| 8 | 0 | 59 | 73 | 122 |
| 16 | 0 | 64 | 105 | 161 |
| 32 | 0 | 108 | 169 | 257 |
17
System Performance
To measure the system performance (Fmax) of this core, this core was added to a Virtex-6 FPGA system and a Spartan-6 FPGA system as the Device Under Test (DUT).
X-Ref Target - Figure 8
Because the AXI Timer core will be used with other design modules in the FPGA, the utilization and timing numbers reported in this section are estimates only. When this core is combined with other designs in the system, the utilization of FPGA resources and timing of the design will vary from the results reported here.
The target FPGA was then filled with logic to drive the LUT and block RAM utilization to approximately 70% and the I/O utilization to approximately 80%. Using the default tool options and the slowest speed grade for the target FPGA, the resulting target F MAX numbers are shown in Table 14.
Table 14: AXI Timer System Performance
The target F MAX is influenced by the exact system and is provided for guidance. It is not a guaranteed value across all systems.
Support
Xilinx provides technical support for this LogiCORE™ IP product when used as described in the product documentation. Xilinx cannot guarantee timing, functionality, or support of product if implemented in devices that are not defined in the documentation, if customized beyond that allowed in the product documentation, or if changes are made to any section of the design labeled DO NOT MODIFY.
Ordering Information
This Xilinx® LogiCORE IP module is provided at no additional cost with the Xilinx ISE ® Design Suite Embedded Edition software under the terms of the Xilinx End User License. The core is generated using the Xilinx ISE Embedded Edition software (EDK).
Information about this and other Xilinx LogiCORE IP modules is available at the Xilinx Intellectual Property page. For information on pricing and availability of other Xilinx LogiCORE modules and software, contact your local Xilinx sales representative.
Reference Documents
* AXI4 AMBA AXI Protocol Version: 2.0 Specification
* LogiCORE IP AXI4-Lite IPIF Data Sheet (DS765)
* AXI Interconnect IP Data Sheet (DS768)
Go to the Xilinx Documentation page to search for Xilinx documents.
DS764 June 22, 2011
List of Acronyms
| Acronym | Spelled Out |
|---|---|
| ARHT | Auto Reload/Hold |
| AXI | Advanced eXtensible Interface |
| DUT | Device Under Test |
| FF | Flip-Flop |
| FPGA | Field Programmable Gate Array |
| IP | Intellectual Property |
| ISE | Integrated Software Environment |
| LUT | Lookup Table |
| PWM | Pulse Width Modulation |
| RAM | Random Access Memory |
| TCSR | Timer Control Status Register |
| TLRO | Timer0 load register |
| TLR1 | Timer1 load register |
| VHDL | VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHSIC an acronym for Very High-Speed Integrated Circuits) |
| XST | Xilinx Synthesis Technology |
Revision History
The table shows the revision history for this document:
| Date | Version |
|---|---|
| 09/21/10 | 1.0 |
| 09/21/10 | 1.0.1 |
| 12/14/10 | 1.1 |
Notice of Disclaimer
The information disclosed to you hereunder (the "Materials") is provided solely for the selection and use of Xilinx products. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law: (1) Materials are made available "AS IS" and with all faults, Xilinx hereby DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE; and (2) Xilinx shall not be liable (whether in contract or tort, including negligence, or under any other theory of liability) for any loss or damage of any kind or nature related to, arising under, or in connection with, the Materials (including your use of the Materials), including for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential loss or damage (including loss of data, profits, goodwill, or any type of loss or damage suffered as a result of any action brought by a third party) even if such damage or loss was reasonably foreseeable or Xilinx had been advised of the possibility of the same. Xilinx assumes no obligation to correct any errors contained in the Materials or to notify you of updates to the Materials or to product specifications. You may not reproduce, modify, distribute, or publicly display the Materials without prior written consent. Certain products are subject to the terms and conditions of the Limited Warranties which can be viewed at http://www.xilinx.com/warranty.htm; IP cores may be subject to warranty and support terms contained in a license issued to you by Xilinx. Xilinx products are not designed or intended to be fail-safe or for use in any application requiring fail-safe performance; you assume sole risk and liability for use of Xilinx products in Critical Applications: http://www.xilinx.com/warranty.htm#critapps.
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A regular meeting of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen was held on Tuesday, May 1, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. in the Town Hall Board Room.
Present and presiding:
Mayor
Mark Chilton
Aldermen
Joal Hall Broun
Dan Coleman
Jacquelyn Gist
Randee Haven-O'Donnell
Alex Zaffron
Town Manager
Steven E. Stewart
Town Attorney
Michael B. Brough
Town Clerk
Sarah C. Williamson
Absent:
Alderman
John Herrera
APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS
MOTION WAS MADE BY JACQUELYN GIST AND SECONDED BY JOAL HALL BROUN TO APPROVE THE APRIL 3, 10 AND 24, 2007 MINUTES, WITH A CORRECTION TO THE APRIL 10 MINUTES. VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE SIX, ABSENT ONE (HERRERA)
***********
A REQUEST TO SET A PUBLIC HEARING FOR A MINOR MODIFICATION TO THE CELLULAR TOWER AT 515 SOUTH GREENSBORO STREET
Cricket Communications has applied for a minor modification to the Crown Castle Telecommunications Tower Conditional Use Permit located at 515 South Greensboro Street. The proposed minor modification will consist of the addition of a four foot by eight foot cabinet within the fenced in area at the base of the tower and the addition of an antenna array at 170 feet. The town staff recommended that the Board set a public hearing for May 22, 2007 for consideration of a minor modification to the original CUP.
The following resolution was introduced by Alderman Jacquelyn Gist and duly seconded by Alderman Joal Hall Broun.
A RESOLUTION CALLING A PUBLIC HEARING ON THE REQUEST OF A MINOR MODIFICATION TO THE CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT FOR THE CELLULAR TOWER AT 515 SOUTH GREENSBORO STREET
Resolution No. 176/2006-07
WHEREAS, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen seeks to provide ample opportunities for the public to comment on proposed conditional use permit projects; and
WHEREAS, the 515 South Greensboro Street cellular tower includes a specific condition stating that a public hearing shall be held before any changes are made to the existing cellular tower; and an application has been received for a minor modification to the conditional use permit for the cellular tower at 515 South Greensboro Street.
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Carrboro Board of Aldermen that the Aldermen call a public hearing on May 22, 2007 to consider a minor modification to the conditional use permit request for the cellular tower at 515 South Greensboro Street.
The foregoing resolution having been submitted to a vote received the following vote and was duly adopted this 1st day of May 2007:
Ayes: Joal Hall Broun, Mark Chilton, Dan Coleman, Jacquelyn Gist, Randee Haven-O'Donnell, Alex Zaffron
Noes: None
Absent or Excused: John Herrera
**********
A REQUEST TO SET A PUBLIC HEARING FOR A MINOR MODIFICATION TO THE CELLULAR TOWER AT 515 SOUTH GREENSBORO STREET
Sprint has applied for a minor modification to the Crown Castle Telecommunications Tower Conditional Use Permit located at 515 South Greensboro Street. The proposed minor modification will consist of additional antennas at the existing 141 foot array and additional equipment within the building at the base of the tower. The town staff recommended that the Board set a public hearing for May 22, 2007 for consideration of a minor modification to the original CUP.
The following resolution was introduced by Alderman Jacquelyn Gist and duly seconded by Alderman Joal Hall Broun.
A RESOLUTION CALLING A PUBLIC HEARING ON THE REQUEST OF A MINOR MODIFICATION TO THE CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT FOR THE CELLULAR TOWER AT 515 SOUTH GREENSBORO STREET Resolution No. 175/2006-07
WHEREAS, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen seeks to provide ample opportunities for the public to comment on proposed conditional use permit projects; and
WHEREAS, the 515 South Greensboro Street cellular tower includes a specific condition stating that a public hearing shall be held before any changes are made to the existing cellular tower; and an application has been received for a minor modification to the conditional use permit for the cellular tower at 515 South Greensboro Street.
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Carrboro Board of Aldermen that the Aldermen call a public hearing on May 22, 2007 to consider a minor modification to the conditional use permit request for the cellular tower at 515 South Greensboro Street.
The foregoing resolution having been submitted to a vote received the following vote and was duly adopted this 1st day of May 2007:
Ayes: Joal Hall Broun, Mark Chilton, Dan Coleman, Jacquelyn Gist, Randee Haven-O'Donnell, Alex Zaffron
Noes: None
Absent or Excused: John Herrera
**********
REQUEST TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT TO THE ORANGE COUNTY HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION
The purpose of this agenda item was for the Mayor and Board of Aldermen to consider recommending that Margot Lester be appointed as one of the Town of Carrboro's representatives on the Orange County Human Relations Commission.
The following resolution was introduced by Alderman Jacquelyn Gist and duly seconded by Alderman Joal Hall Broun.
A RESOLUTION RECOMMENDING AN APPOINTMENT TO THE ORANGE COUNTY HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION
Resolution No. 177/2006-07
WHEREAS, the Town of Carrboro has two seats on the Orange County Human Relations Commission; and
WHEREAS, one of these seats is currently vacant; and
WHEREAS, Margot Lester has submitted an application expressing interest in serving as a Carrboro representative on the Orange County Human Relations Commission.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN OF THE TOWN OF CARRBORO HEREBY RESOLVES:
Section 1. The Mayor and Board of Aldermen hereby recommend that the Orange County Board of Commissioners appoint Ms. Margot Lester as a Carrboro representative on the Orange County Human Relations Commission.
Section 2. This resolution shall become effective upon adoption.
The foregoing resolution having been submitted to a vote received the following vote and was duly adopted this 1st day of May 2007:
Ayes: Joal Hall Broun, Mark Chilton, Dan Coleman, Jacquelyn Gist, Randee Haven-O'Donnell, Alex Zaffron
Noes: None
Absent or Excused: John Herrera
**********
PROCEDURAL UPDATE ON LAND USE ORDINANCE TEXT AMENDMENT TO REVISE OPEN SPACE REQUIREMENTS IN THE DOWNTOWN
The proposed text amendment, previously scheduled for the April 24, 2007 public hearing, has been revised by the applicant, Mr. Jack Haggerty. On April 10, 2007, the Board of Aldermen reset the public hearing for May 22, 2007. Staff has prepared a draft ordinance that responds to the applicant's revised request. A comparison table has been provided as an aid in evaluation of the two proposals.
**********
APPOINTMENTS TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL ADVISORY BOARD
The purpose of this item was for the Mayor and Board of Aldermen to consider making appointments to the Environmental Advisory Board. The Chair of the EAB recommended that Carly Apple, Mary Rabinowitz and Ryan Elting be appointed.
Alderman Broun asked that the town staff provide a training session for advisory board chairs. Specifically, she asked that the chairs provide more information in the Summary of Applications.
The following resolution was introduced by Alderman Joal Hall Broun and duly seconded by Alderman Randee Haven-O'Donnell.
A RESOLUTION MAKING APPOINTMENTS TO THE
ENVIRONMENTAL ADVISORY BOARD
Resolution No. 178/2006-07
WHEREAS, there are currently three (3) vacant seat on the Environmental Advisory Board (EAB); and
WHEREAS, these positions have been advertised and Carly Apple, Ryan Elting, Andreas hay and Mary Rabinowitz have submitted applications; and
WHEREAS, the Chair of the EAB is recommending that Carly Apple, Mary Rabinowitz and Ryan Elting be appointed to the vacant seats.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN OF THE TOWN OF CARRBORO RESOLVES:
Section 1. The Board of Aldermen hereby appoints Carly Apple, Mary Rabinowitz and Ryan Elting to seats on the Environmental Advisory Board.
Section 2. The following terms are assigned:
| | APPOINTEE | | TERM EXPIRATION |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mary Rabinowitz | | February 2008 | |
| Carly Apple | | February 2010 | |
| Ryan Elting | | February 2010 | |
Section 3.This resolution shall become effective upon adoption.
The foregoing resolution having been submitted to a vote received the following vote and was duly adopted this 1st day of May 2007:
Ayes: Joal Hall Broun, Mark Chilton, Dan Coleman, Jacquelyn Gist, Randee Haven-O'Donnell, Alex Zaffron
Noes: None
Absent or Excused: John Herrera
***********
ADDITIONAL APPOINTMENTS TO THE NSAPIRC
On March 6, 2007, the Board of Aldermen established the Northern Study Area Implementation Review Committee (NSAPIRC) and made a number of appointments. The Board was asked to appoint additional community representatives to serve on the committee.
The following resolution was introduced by Alderman Joal Hall Broun and duly seconded by Alderman Randee Haven O'Donnell.
A RESOLUTION MAKING ADDITIONAL APPOINTMENTS TO THE
NORTHERN STUDY AREA PLAN IMPLEMENTATION REVIEW COMMITTEE Resolution No. 181/2006-07
WHEREAS, the Board of Aldermen has established a process to review and update the facilitated Small Area Plan for Carrboro's Northern Study Area (NSA Plan); and
WHEREAS, an implementation review committee would allow advisory board members, citizens and neighboring jurisdictions to participate in the review and update process;
WHEREAS, the Board of Aldermen has the following appointed elected official representatives, advisory board and community members to the NSAPIRC:
NOW, THEREFORE, THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN OF THE TOWN OF CARRBORO RESOLVES:
Section 1. The Board of Aldermen hereby appoints the following additional representatives to the NSAPIRC:
Section 2. This Board of Aldermen hereby directs the NSAPIRC to continue to participate in the review of the implementation of the NSA Plan, assist with design, development, and execution of other activities needed to complete this review as described in Resolution #138/2006-2007 adopted by the Board on February 27, 2007.
Section 5. This resolution shall become effective upon adoption.
The foregoing resolution having been submitted to a vote received the following vote and was duly adopted this 1st day of May 2007:
Ayes: Joal Hall Broun, Mark Chilton, Dan Coleman, Jacquelyn Gist, Randee Haven-O'Donnell, Alex Zaffron
Noes: None
Absent or Excused: John Herrera
**********
REQUEST TO APPROVE A BUDGET AMENDMENT
The purpose of this agenda item was to amend the 2006-07 fiscal year budget to appropriate $16,000 in fines and forfeiture revenue to support expenses associated with ongoing investigations. To date, the department has earned $45,000 during the current year. Unexpended revenue shall be reserved for use in future years.
MOTION WAS MADE BY JACQUELYN GIST AND SECONDED BY JOAL HALL BROUN TO ADOPT THE ORDINANCE ENTITLED, "AN ORDINANCE AMENDING FY2006-07 BUDGET ORDINANCE." VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE SIX, ABSENT ONE (HERRERA)
***********
PRESENTATION OF THE MANAGER'S RECOMMENDED BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007-08
By state law, the Town Manager is responsible for submitting a balanced budget for the Carrboro community to the Mayor and Board of Aldermen by June 1 st . Tonight, the Board was presented with the FY2007-08 Recommended Budget. The recommended budget was submitted earlier than required by law so that the Board and community have sufficient time to discuss the initiatives proposed in the budget.
Steve Stewart, Town Manager, presented the recommended budget for Fiscal Year 2007-08.
Mayor Chilton asked the town staff consider providing a minimal level of recycling at town parks. In addition, he asked that staff look into offering a health insurance stipend of approximately $1,500 for the seven permanent part-time employees.
Alderman Broun asked for projected costs for subsequent years for such a health insurance stipend program. In addition, she asked if the stipend could be sheltered through the flexible spending plan.
Alderman Gist asked that the Mayor forward a letter to federal and state leaders expressing the Board's concern about the problems with the healthcare system.
Alderman Coleman asked that the town staff consider eliminating the reservation fee for use of the Town Commons, and that the privilege license fee for small businesses be adjusted by creating a tier system. For example:
| | GROSS RECEIPTS | FEE |
|---|---|---|
| $0 - $25,000 | | |
| $25,000 - $50,000 | | |
The following resolution was introduced by Alderman Joal Hall Broun and duly seconded by Alderman Dan Coleman.
A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE BUDGET WORK SESSION SCHEDULE FOR REVIEW AND CONSIDERATION OF THE MANAGER'S RECOMMENDED BUDGET FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2007-08
Resolution No. 179/2006-07
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN OF THE TOWN OF CARRBORO:
Section 1. The following budget work session schedule is approved for review and consideration of the Manager's Recommended Budget for Fiscal Year 2007-08:
th
Tuesday, May 8 Thursday, May 17 th , if necessary
The foregoing resolution having been submitted to a vote received the following vote and was duly adopted this 1st day of May 2007:
Ayes: Joal Hall Broun, Mark Chilton, Dan Coleman, Jacquelyn Gist, Randee Haven-O'Donnell, Alex Zaffron
Noes: None
Absent or Excused: John Herrera
**********
PRESENTATION OF TEN YEAR PLAN TO END HOMELESSNESS IN ORANGE COUNTY
Moses Carey, Co-Chair of the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness, presented the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness for Orange County. It was recommended that the Board accept the 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness in Orange County and direct staff to present information regarding future critical decision points during the implementation stage of the Plan.
Tara Fikes, Director of Orange County Housing and Community Development, presented the Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in Orange County.
Moses Carey stated that the next step is for all the local governments to adopt the plan, contribute toward funding the position to help implement the plan, and appoint a representative to the executive committee to guide the plan through the next phase.
Ellen Perry suggested that homeless people be given a post office box and free storage for their belongings.
Alderman Coleman suggested that the Board delay accepting the plan in order to allow the Board to study the plan.
Mayor Chilton suggested that the Board schedule a future worksession to discuss the plan indepth.
************
A REPORT ON THE DESIGN PROCESS OF FIRE STATION #2 AND REQUEST TO AUTHORIZE THE TOWN MANAGER TO PROCEED WITH THE DESIGN CHARRETTE
The purpose of this item was to authorize the architectural firm to proceed to the construction drawing phase (Phase II) on Fire Station #2 and implement a design charrette for public input.
Chief Crabtree made a presentation to the Board.
Jim Stewart with Stewart-Cooper-Newell, the architect for the new fire station, addressed the Board. He asked about the level of designed desired.—standard construction (metal frame), Triangle Area design standards, or LEED certified building. He stated that his firm's goal is to make buildings energy efficient and easily maintained.
Steve Stewart stated that based on Board comments, the town staff was planning on a LEED certified design.
Mayor Chilton suggested that the additional investment to make the fire station energy efficient only be done if that investment could not be better spent on making some other environmental improvement in another town operation.
Alderman Zaffron asked that the Board be kept apprised of the design process.
Alderman Gist asked that the charrette be held before public schools are out.
Mr. Stewart stated that the charrette would be held in May.
The following resolution was introduced by Alderman Alex Zaffron and duly seconded by Alderman Joal Hall Broun.
A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE TOWN MANAGER TO PROCEED WITH A DESIGN CHARRETTE FOR THE FIRE SUBSTATION Resolution No. 174/2006-07
BE IT RESOLVED that the Board of Aldermen of the Town of Carrboro hereby authorizes the Town Manager to proceed with a design charrette for the fire substation.
The foregoing resolution having been submitted to a vote received the following vote and was duly adopted this 1st day of May 2007:
Ayes: Joal Hall Broun, Mark Chilton, Dan Coleman, Jacquelyn Gist, Randee Haven-O'Donnell, Alex Zaffron
Noes: None
Absent or Excused: John Herrera
**********
PRESENTATION OF HOME PROGRAM FUNDING PLAN FOR BUDGET YEAR 2007-08 AND APPROVAL OF THE CONSOLIDATED PLAN
The purpose of this item was to present to the Board of Aldermen the proposed plan developed by the HOME Program Review Committee for use of HOME Program funds for fiscal year 2007-2008.
Mayor Chilton asked to be recused from voting on this item because of his involvement in one of the agencies receiving these funds.
MOTIONWAS MADE BY JOAL HALL BROUN AND SECONDED BY ALEX ZAFFRON TO RECUSE MAYOR CHILTON FROM VOTING ON THIS ISSUE. VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE SIX, ABSENT ONE (HERRERA)
[Alderman Zaffron left the meeting.]
James Harris made the presentation.
The following resolution was introduced by Alderman Jacquelyn Gist and duly seconded by Alderman Dan Coleman.
A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE ORANGE COUNTY
FY 2007-2008 HOME PROGRAM DESIGN
AND FY 2004-2005; 2005-2006; AND 2006-2007 HOME PROGRAM AMENDMENT
Resolution No. 173/2006-07
BE IT RESOLVED, by the Carrboro Board of Aldermen as a member of the Orange County HOME Consortium approve the following activities for the 2007-2008 HOME Program.
| Rental Assistance | Tenant-Based Rental Assistance – Orange-Person- Chatham Mental Health Initiative |
|---|---|
| New Construction | Orange Community Housing and Land Trust (Tax Credit Rental Project) |
| Operational Support | Orange Community Housing and Land Trust |
| Administration | Orange County Housing and Community Development |
| | TOTAL |
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Carrboro Board of Aldermen as a member of the Orange County HOME Consortium approves the following amendment for Fiscal Years 2004, 2005, and 2006 due to changes in project plans.
1. The reallocation of $70,000 in FY 2004 funds to Orange Community Housing and Land Trust for Second Mortgage Assistance in the Winmore subdivision to Homebuyer Assistance in the Culbreth Park and Tandler subdivisions in Chapel Hill.
2. The reallocation of $70,000 in FY 2005 funds to Habitat for Humanity for New Construction for Sunrise Ridge to New Construction for the Purefoy Drive subdivision.
3. The reallocation of $26,000 in FY 2005 funds to Weaver Community Housing Association for rental assistance to a Tenant Based Rental Assistance Program in support of the OPC Mental Health Agency Homelessness Initiative.
4. The reduction of FY 2004, 2005, and 2006 funds to EmPOWERment for second mortgage assistance from $334,000 to $250,000 for homebuyer assistance through Orange County. The remaining $84,000 will be provided to a Tenant Based Rental Assistance Program in support of the OPC Mental Health Agency Homelessness Initiative.
5. The reallocation of $120,000 in FY 2006 funds to Orange Community Housing and Land Trust from second mortgage assistance in the Waterstone subdivision to homebuyer assistance for land trust homes in Orange County.
6. The reallocation of $100,027 in FY 2006 funds to the Chrysalis Foundation to a Tenant Based Rental Assistance Program in support of the OPC Mental Health Agency Homelessness Initiative.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Town Manager is hereby designated as the authorized representative of the Town to act in connection with the submission of this plan and to provide such additional information as may be required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The foregoing resolution having been submitted to a vote received the following vote and was duly adopted this 1st day of May 2007:
Ayes: Joal Hall Broun, Dan Coleman, Jacquelyn Gist, Randee Haven-O'Donnell, Alex Zaffron
Nose: None
Absent or Excused: John Herrera, Mark Chilton
Alderman Coleman asked that the Board consider requesting that no one who is a board member of the applicant agencies be a voting member of the Home Consortium.
Mayor Chilton asked that the town staff provide the Board copies of the documents on how consortium is constituted.
***********
REQUEST FOR REPORT ON STATISTICS ON ARREST RECORDS
Alderman Broun asked for statistics on who is being stopped and who is being arrested by the Carrboro Police Dept.
***********
RECOMMENDATION FOR AN APPOINTMENT TO THE ORANGE COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Alderman Coleman expressed interest in serving as the Town of Carrboro's representative on the Orange County Economic Development Commission.
MOTION WAS MADE BY JACQUELYN GIST AND SECONDED BY RANDEE HAVEN-O'DONNELL THAT DAN COLEMAN BE RECOMMENDED FOR APPOINTMENT TO THE ORANGE COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION. VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE SIX, ABSENT ONE (HERRERA)
Alderman Coleman asked if the Board would consider asking the Carrboro Economic Sustainability Commission to change their meeting day since the Orange County Economic Development Commission also meets on the second Thursday of each month.
MOTION WAS MADE BY DAN COLEMAN AND SECONDED BY JOAL HALL BROUN TO REQUEST THAT THE ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION CONSIDER CHANGING THEIR MEETING DAY TO A DAY OTHER THAN THE SECOND THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH. VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE SIX, ABSENT ONE (HERRERA)
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MOTION WAS MADE BY JOAL HALL BROUN AND SECONDED BY RANDEE HAVEN-O’DONNELL TO ADJOURN TO CLOSED SESSION TO DISCUSS A MATTER INVOLVING ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE. VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE SIX, ABSENT ONE (HERRERA)
MOTION WAS MADE BY JACQUELYN GIST AND SECONDED BY JOAL HALL BROUN TO ADJOURN THE MEETING AT 9:45 P.M. VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE SIX, ABSENT ONE (HERRERA)
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_______________________________
Mayor
_____________________________
_______________________________
Mayor
_____________________________
Town Clerk
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FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
HORACE BURL SUTER and BARBARA J. SUTER,
No. 04-17306
Appellants, v.
D.C. No.
CV-N-04-00325-
WARREN GOEDERT, ERICA MICHAELS HOLANDER, and BRUCE MATLEY, Appellees.
ECR (RAM)
OPINION
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Nevada Edward C. Reed, District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted February 16, 2007—San Francisco, California
Filed October 1, 2007
Before: Betty B. Fletcher, and Richard R. Clifton, Circuit Judges, and Edward F. Shea,* District Judge.
Opinion by Judge Shea
*The Honorable Edward F. Shea, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Washington, sitting by designation.
COUNSEL
Kevin J. Mirch argued the cause and was on the briefs for the appellants; Marie C. Mirch was also on the briefs for the appellants.
Bruce T. Beesley argued the cause and was on the briefs for the appellees; Tricia M. Darby was also on the briefs for the appellees.
OPINION
E. SHEA, District Judge:
Appellants Horace B. and Barbara J. Suter appeal the district court's judgment dismissing their appeal from the bankruptcy court as moot. Appellees Warren Goedert, Erica Michaels Holander, and Bruce Matley (collectively, the "Goedert firm") are lawyers against whom the Suters filed a legal malpractice lawsuit in a Nevada state court. During the course of the bankruptcy proceeding, the Goedert firm obtained control of the malpractice lawsuit asset, then a dismissal in the Suter appeal, and finally a ruling in both the bankruptcy court and the district court that the Suter appeal following the bankruptcy court decision awarding the asset to the Goedert firm was moot.
The Suters raise only one issue for review: whether the district court erred in dismissing as moot their appeal of the bankruptcy court order. The Suters timely filed this appeal, and we have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 158(d). On de novo review, we hold that mootness does not apply, and REVERSE the district court's order and REMAND the case to allow the district court to review the merits of the bankruptcy court's decision.
I. BACKGROUND
This case unfolds with a series of tragic circumstances, missed opportunities, and untimely steps. Appellants Horace and Barbara Suter had a teenage daughter who was institutionalized at the Truckee Meadows Hospital and Rehabilitation Center and treated by Dr. Tannenbaum. The Suters came to believe that their daughter was being abused at the facility, and retained the Goedert firm to bring a personal injury lawsuit on behalf of themselves and their daughter against the hospital and physicians. Although their daughter's claims were settled and the Suters' claims against the hospital were settled, the Suters' claims against the physicians proceeded to trial. Following trial, judgment was entered against the Suters on the physicians' counterclaim for over two hundred thousand dollars.
Following the adverse judgment, Dr. Howle, the facility's chief of staff, was deposed in another case and admitted knowledge of one of Dr. Tannenbaum's unconventional if not unscientific therapies administered to patients like the Suter's daughter at the facility. The Suters also later learned that a partner in the Goedert firm was a patient of Dr. Howle, a fact which the firm had failed to disclose to the Suters. The Goedert firm had also failed during the Suter personal injury case to engage in discovery regarding Dr. Howle or to take his deposition.
The Suters initiated a malpractice lawsuit against the Goedert firm for mishandling the personal injury case. The malpractice case was dismissed on statute of limitation grounds; the Suters timely appealed the dismissal to the Nevada Supreme Court.
Facing the entry of a substantial monetary judgment against them, the Suters filed for bankruptcy in 2003. A trustee was appointed to manage and liquidate the non-exempt assets of their bankruptcy estate. Their contingent assets included the legal malpractice lawsuit. The Suters filed a motion to convert the case to Chapter 13. While the motion was pending, the Suters raised $10,000 from a family member and negotiated with the trustee for a buy-back of the legal malpractice suit. The trustee moved the bankruptcy court to authorize a release of the estate's interest in the legal malpractice suit, and a hearing was set on both motions on April 13, 2004. At the hearing, counsel for the Suters, the Goedert firm, and the trustee were all present. The Goedert firm then offered $11,000 to acquire the claim. The Suters then offered to match that amount, and the Goedert firm then bid $15,000 if no appeal was taken, and $12,500 if the order was appealed. The Suters objected that they did not know the trustee was planning an impromptu auction and that the claim was not being appropriately valued; they requested more time to prepare a better offer. After a recess, the trustee decided to compromise the claim by accepting the higher offer from the Goedert firm.1
1There is a substantive dispute about the characterization of the trustee's settlement of the malpractice claim against Appellees under bankruptcy
The bankruptcy court orally approved this compromise. Counsel for debtors orally moved for a stay, but the bankruptcy court denied the motion as premature. The bankruptcy court stated it would not enter a ruling "either way" on the merits of the stay without briefing, but invited the parties to prepare a written motion for a stay while the court was preparing its written order on the compromise. With this compromise of the legal malpractice asset to the Goedert law firm, the Suters became nonparties to the Nevada Supreme Court appeal.
The written Order of the bankruptcy court approving settlement was entered on May 14, 2004. On May 19, 2004, the trustee and Appellees filed a stipulation to dismiss the Suters' appeal of the dismissal of the legal malpractice lawsuit pending before the Nevada Supreme Court. On May 24, 2004, the Suters timely filed with the bankruptcy court a notice of appeal of the Order and on May 25, 2004, filed their written Motion for Stay of the Order Pending Appeal.
On June 9, 2004, pursuant to the stipulation of the trustee and the Goedert firm, the Nevada Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of the malpractice case. On June 14, 2004, the Goedert firm filed its response to the motion to stay before the bankruptcy court, arguing that once the claim was dismissed by the Nevada Supreme Court on June 9, 2004, nothing could undo that dismissal, the Goedert's claim no longer existed, and the request for a stay from the bankruptcy court was therefore moot. On July 26, 2004, the bankruptcy court agreed and issued its order denying the Suters' Motion for Stay on the grounds of mootness. The bankruptcy court found, alternatively, that the Suters were unlikely to succeed on the mer- law, and whether it is a "sale" or "compromise" as those terms are used in substantive bankruptcy law. As the substantive issues are not presented in this appeal, the term "compromise" will be used for ease of reference, as that was the term used by the bankruptcy court.
its of their appeal. However, part of this analysis on the merits and likelihood of success was premised on mootness in the Nevada Supreme Court. The Suters elected to appeal the bankruptcy court's decision to the district court. In the district court, the Goedert firm again moved to dismiss the Suters' appeal as moot. The district court granted the motion based on the same reasoning applied by the bankruptcy court. The Suters timely filed this appeal.
Although the procedural history of this case is littered with allegations of secret deals, suppression of evidence, and improper self-dealing among the doctors and the lawyers, we confine our review solely to the question of whether the district court's dismissal of the appeal for mootness was proper. We apply the same de novo standard of review the district court uses to review a bankruptcy court's decision. See In re Raintree Healthcare Corp., 431 F.3d 685, 687 (9th Cir. 2005). In doing so, we "independently review the bankruptcy court's decision and do not give deference to the district court's determinations." In re Saxman, 325 F.3d 1168, 1172 (9th Cir. 2003) (quoting Preblich v. Battley, 181 F.3d 1048, 1051 (9th Cir. 1999)). Mootness is a question of law that we review de novo. Or. Advocacy Ctr. v. Mink, 322 F.3d 1101, 1116 (9th Cir. 2003). We conclude that the application of mootness doctrine was error and reverse.
II. ANALYSIS
A. Mootness in Bankruptcy
[1] The bankruptcy court necessarily enters orders to sell or distribute assets of the debtor's estate. If the bankruptcy court denies a motion to stay such an order, then mootness may bar further review of the order. "Bankruptcy's mootness rule 'developed from the general rule that the occurrence of events which prevent an appellate court from granting effective relief renders an appeal moot, and the particular need for finality in orders regarding stays in bankruptcy.' " In re Onouli-Kona
Land Co., 846 F.2d 1170, 1172 (9th Cir. 1988) (foreclosure sale to creditor) (citing Algeran, Inc. v. Advance Ross Corp., 759 F.2d 1421, 1424 (9th Cir. 1985) (sale of securities)). See also In re Suchy, 786 F.2d 900, 901 (9th Cir. 1985) (sale of real estate). The policy behind mootness is "to protect the interest of a good faith purchaser . . . of the property." In re Onouli-Kona Land, 846 F.2d at 1172 (citing In re Suchy, 786 F.2d at 901-02). An alternative policy supporting mootness is "the consistent policy in recent bankruptcy law of assuring finality of judgments relating to the automatic stay." Id.
[2] The district court accepted this argument and ruled that the appeal of the disputed compromise was rendered moot by the Nevada Supreme Court's dismissal of the Suters' appeal of the trial court's dismissal of their legal malpractice claim. The bankruptcy mootness rule applies "when an appellant has failed to obtain a stay from an order that permits a sale of a debtor's assets. Whether an order directly approves the sale or simply lifts the automatic stay, the mootness rule dictates that the appellant's failure to obtain a stay moots the appeal." In re Onouli-Kona Land, 846 F.2d at 1171 (citing Algeran, Inc., 759 F.2d at 1423). The Goedert firm argues the failure of the Suters to obtain a stay from the bankruptcy court, before the appeal of the malpractice claim was dismissed by the Nevada Supreme Court, moots the appeal. The Suters present various arguments why mootness should not apply in this case. Among these are exceptions to general mootness doctrine for "collateral legal consequences" and "public importance" questions. The Goedert firm argues these exceptions have not been applied in a bankruptcy context and urges application of the mootness doctrine as developed in bankruptcy decisions.
On de novo review of the district court's decision, we are concerned by two legal issues. First, the burden of establishing mootness is on the party advocating its application. Without affirmatively demonstrating that the Suters have no recourse under Nevada law were they successful in the district court on their appeal of the bankruptcy court's decision to approve the compromise, mootness is not established. Second, under the case law applicable to mootness in bankruptcy following a failure to obtain a stay, state law remedies may render the lack of a stay irrelevant to the question of mootness. We address each of these issues in turn.
1. The Goedert firm did not meet its burden to demonstrate mootness before the district court.
In general, the party asserting mootness "has the heavy burden of establishing that there is no effective relief remaining for a court to provide." Or. Advocacy Ctr., 322 F.3d at 111617 (quoting Tinoqui-Chalola Council of Kitanemuk & Yowlumne Tejon Indians v. U.S. Dep't of Energy, 232 F.3d 1300, 1303 (9th Cir. 2000)). The bankruptcy code also contains a statutory "mootness" provision applicable to sales of assets:
The reversal or modification on appeal of an authorization under subsection (b) or (c) of this section of a sale or lease of property does not affect the validity of a sale or lease under such authorization to an entity that purchased or leased such property in good faith . . . unless such authorization and such sale or lease were stayed pending appeal.
11 U.S.C. § 363(m). The bankruptcy court's order did not apply § 363(m), but denied the debtor's motion for stay based on general principles of mootness. See In re Di Giorgio, 134 F.3d 971, 974 (9th Cir. 1998) (mootness generally precludes federal courts from deciding "questions that cannot affect the rights of litigants in the case before them") (citations omitted). The bankruptcy court also held, in the alternative, that a stay would not be appropriate even if mootness did not apply. That alternative substantive decision considered the fact of the Nevada Supreme Court dismissal against a likelihood of success on the merits.
The Suters' appeal to the district court was also dismissed based on mootness. The district court cited two cases to illustrate circumstances where a debtor's appeal was not moot. In In re Berg, 45 B.R. 899 (BAP 9th Cir. 1984), the trustee objected to the appeal as moot and argued under former rule 805 and its successor 8005 "that an appellate court cannot set aside an order authorizing the sale of property if the appellant failed to obtain a stay pending appeal." Id. at 902. The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel rejected the argument, noting that appellant was not appealing the order for sale, but rather the order quieting title in the trustee. Id. The Panel further noted that, without a stay, the debtor might be precluded from undoing the transaction and revesting title to the property, but that the court could still award monetary relief, and so the sale had not foreclosed all remedy to the debtor. Id.
In In re Spirtos, the debtor argued that appeal was moot because the judgment creditor did not obtain a stay of the order exempting the debtor's interest in certain pension plan assets. 992 F.2d 1004 (9th Cir. 1992). The assets had been distributed, so the debtor argued the appeal was moot "when, in the absence of a stay, events occur that make it impossible for the appellate court to fashion effective relief." Id. at 1006 (citations omitted). The panel acknowledged the line of cases but rejected its application to the case because "[w]e can fashion effective relief by ordering Debtor, who is a party to this appeal, to return the money to the estate." Id. at 1007. See also In re Int'l Envtl. Dynamics, Inc., 718 F.2d 322 (9th Cir. 1983) (counsel for creditors could be ordered to repay interim fees if erroneously disbursed).
[3] Where the asset "sold" without a stay is a lawsuit and "disposal" of the asset is a dismissal, the appropriate inquiry is whether the dismissal of the lawsuit could be undone. Neither the bankruptcy court nor the district court addressed whether, as a matter of law, the dismissal of the appeal was capable of being revisited by the Nevada Supreme Court. The district court's order stated:
Because the personal litigation suit in question has been dismissed by the Nevada Supreme Court, the underlying interest no longer exists. The court has no power to reinstate the suit with the Nevada Supreme Court even if it were to decide that the interest was improperly released by the Bankruptcy Court. As such, this court is prevented from granting the relief sought through the appeal, thus favoring a finding that the appeal is moot.
This reasoning ignores the fact that if mootness is applied to the compromise of a lawsuit asset in bankruptcy, every case that was pending in state court but compromised in bankruptcy over an objection would be classified as one where the court could not fashion relief. The Suters would be responsible to ask the Nevada Supreme Court to grant relief based on an order granting them substantive relief on appeal (if they were successful).
[4] Both the bankruptcy court and the district court assumed that dismissal of the action pending before the Nevada Supreme Court made the claim "nonexistent," like a fund distributed or a home sold to a good faith purchaser. The district court found that, unlike Spirtos and Berg, the Suters had failed to demonstrate that the district court could grant them relief:
because Appellants do not demonstrate what relief, if any, this court can grant for [Appellees'] actions which rendered the appeal moot before Appellants filed their motion for a stay, we must dismiss the appeal as moot.
(citing In re Ewell, 958 F.2d 276, 279-80 (9th Cir. 1992) (declining to issue advisory opinion)). Application of this standard was error because it shifted the burden to the Suters to demonstrate non-mootness. The district court should have required the Goedert firm to demonstrate mootness by establishing "that there is no effective relief remaining for a court to provide." Or. Advocacy Ctr., 322 F.3d at 1116-17 (citation omitted).
In the instant appeal, the Goedert firm argues for the first time that reopening the appeal of the malpractice suit before the Nevada Supreme Court is an "impossible task." The Goedert firm contends this could only be accomplished by a petition for rehearing and that such a petition is untimely. Under the Nevada rule:
(1) Time for Filing; Content. A petition for rehearing may be filed within eighteen (18) days after the filing of the court's decision pursuant to Rule 36 unless the time is shortened or enlarged by order.
NEV. R. APP. PROC. 40(a)(1). The Goedert firm argues the Suters had eighteen days after the dismissal of their appeal to file a petition for rehearing. The Suters contend they could petition the Nevada Supreme Court to enlarge the time permitted for rehearing. On review of the record and Nevada Law, neither argument is persuasive. Rule 40(a)(1) plainly specifies a deadline of eighteen days after the court's decision, and the Nevada Supreme Court has upheld this application. See, e.g., Peters v. State Bar of Nev., 104 Nev. 768, 766 P.2d 277 (1988) (petition for rehearing denied when petition and motion to extend filed two months after order, although petitioner was delayed by waiting for a decision from a United States District Court on a related issue).
On the other hand, at the time the stipulated dismissal was presented to the Nevada Supreme Court, the Suters were not parties to that appeal. Following the bankruptcy filing, the trustee was substituted for the Suters in the Nevada Supreme Court appeal. The parties to the appeal were then the trustee and the Goedert firm. The Goedert firm's argument that the Suters could have filed a petition on June 27, 2004, directly contradicts other positions it has asserted and is inaccurate as a matter of law. Before the district court, in defending their dismissal of the state action without notice to the Suters, the Goedert firm emphasized that the Suters were not parties to the appeal. The Goedert firm successfully argued that as nonparties the Suters had no rights to notice or to approve or disprove a dismissal before the Nevada Supreme Court.
The Suters' nonparty status before the Nevada Supreme Court also would deprive them of standing to appeal the decision or to petition for rehearing. NEV. R. APP. PROC. 3A(a) (only parties may appeal). The rule that only parties aggrieved may appeal is well-established Nevada law. See, e.g., Valley Bank of Nev. v. Ginsburg, 110 Nev. 440, 874 P.2d 729 (1994) (non-party shareholders lacked standing to appeal settlement of a derivative action); Gladys Baker Olsen Family Trust v. Olsen, 109 Nev. 838, 858 P.2d 385 (1993) (trust lacked standing to appeal an order to enforce spousal support agreement); Aetna Life & Cas. v. Rowan, 107 Nev. 362, 812 P.2d 350 (1991) (entity denied intervention lacks standing to appeal the denial); Albany v. Arcata Assoc., 106 Nev. 688, 799 P.2d 566 (1990) (attorney lacks standing to appeal); Massi v. Bellmyre, 111 Nev. 1520, 908 P.2d 705 (1995) (attorney lacks standing to appeal order related to attorney's lien on lawsuit).
[5] Under Nevada law, these persons aggrieved by an appellate decision are not left without a remedy. Instead, the nonparty aggrieved by an order in which the nonparty has an interest may seek an extraordinary writ. See Valley Bank of Nev., 110 Nev. 440 (non-party shareholders' appeal dismissed without prejudice to pursuing an extraordinary writ); Gladys Baker Olsen Family Trust, 109 Nev. 838 (trust permitted to seek relief by extraordinary writ); Aetna Life & Cas., 107 Nev. at 362 (review sought may be had "only by a petition for extraordinary relief."); Albany, 106 Nev. 688 (attorney could challenge sanction only by extraordinary writ); Massi, 111 Nev. at 1521 (attorney may seek to enforce lien through a petition for an extraordinary writ) (citation omitted).
Nevada Rule of Appellate Procedure 21, discussed in this case law, provides for extraordinary writs to grant relief to aggrieved persons who are non-parties and contains no express time requirement for filing. NEV. R. APP. PROC. 21. The rule was adopted and mirrors the Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 21 pertaining to writs of mandamus, prohibition, and other extraordinary writs. See FED. R. APP. PROC. 21; NEV. R. APP. PROC. 21 (advisory committee notes). Extraordinary writs are generally issued "in aid of jurisdiction," which has at times resulted in extending relief to non-parties. See generally, 16 CHARLES A. WRIGHT, ARTHUR R. MILLER, & EDWARD H. COOPER, FEDERAL PRACTICE & PROCEDURE § 3932 n.6, n.32 (2d ed. 1996) (citation omitted) (1996 ed.). "It is easy to conclude that a writ may issue in aid of potential jurisdiction if it is necessary to control action that could not be controlled by awaiting entry of an appealable order, or to remove an obstruction to appellate review." Id. Unlike a petition for rehearing, extraordinary writs are not subject to a rigid time limit on filing the petition. Id. § 3933 n.11-14 (citing Coastal Steel Corp. v. Tilghman Wheelabrator Ltd., 709 F.2d 190, 197 (3d Cir. 1983), cert. denied 104 S. Ct. 349, 464 U.S. 938). Instead, the equitable doctrine of laches would determine the reasonableness of timing. Id. While laches could bar issuance of an extraordinary writ, the writ would be premature if sought "to control a ruling that has not yet been made." Id. § 3933 n.11-13, 14 (citations omitted).
[6] In this case, if the Suters were successful on a bankruptcy appeal on the merits, the dismissal before the Nevada Supreme Court would be just the type of action that would otherwise evade review. Nevada jurisprudence instructs that extraordinary writs are a process available to aggrieved persons who would not have standing to directly challenge an order. Our own jurisprudence affirms that extraordinary writs are by their nature "extraordinary," and timeliness of seeking such relief is dependent upon equitable principles of laches. However, if the relief were premised on the outcome of a bankruptcy appeal on the merits, such petition would not be ripe until such an order issued. Analyzing Nevada law on whether or not the Suters have a forum to seek relief, it is not accurate to say there is "no effective relief for a court to provide." Or. Advocacy Ctr., 322 F.3d 1116-17. The Goedert firm had the burden to establish mootness; they have not done so. Id. On the contrary, the trustee and the Goedert firm achieved a dismissal without notice to the Suters because they were not parties to the appeal. The Suters are therefore permitted to seek relief in the form of an extraordinary writ, available to nonparties affected by a decision on appeal of which they had no notice.
B. The Appeal was not Moot because Nevada Law provides a Remedy even without a Stay of the Order for Sale.
The cases dealing with mootness under the bankruptcy code recite the general rule that an appeal is moot if the appellant fails to obtain a stay of the order permitting sale of an asset. However, these cases do note exceptions and circumstances where appeals are not moot. For example, "we occasionally have found that lack of a stay would not moot the appeal from a foreclosure sale because circumstances would permit the court to grant relief to the parties." In re OnouliKona Land, 846 F.2d at 1172 (citations omitted). This exception to mootness exists when the debtor had a state statutory right to redeem real property sold to a creditor or other purchaser. See id. at 1172-73 (discussing In re Sun Valley Ranches, Inc., 823 F.2d 1373 (9th Cir. 1987)). "This makes sense. To the extent that a sale is subject to rights of redemption, the sale is not truly final." Id. at 1173. The panel went on to discuss that such statutory rights are substantive and governed by state law. Id. (citing Butner v. United States, 440 U.S. 48, 55 (1979)). Where the debtor did not have state statutory rights to redemption, the state law exception did not apply.
In this case, there is no claimed right of redemption, but the Suters do have a right to seek relief by extraordinary writ if they are ultimately successful in the district court on the merits of their appeal of the compromise. The scope and extent of the Suters' rights to seek this relief are governed by Nevada law. As with a right of redemption, a debtor who objects to a compromise of a personal injury claim might have an ability to reinstate that claim under state law and the fact that the relief asserted is not "self executing" should not in itself mandate a finding of mootness. As discussed above, Nevada law permits non-parties aggrieved by an order to seek relief by a petition for an extraordinary writ.
[7] In re Ewell, cited by the district court, summarizes the bankruptcy "exceptions to section 363(m) mootness rule: (1) where real property is sold subject to a statutory right of redemption; and (2) where state law otherwise would permit the transaction to be set aside." 958 F.2d 276, 280 (9th Cir. 1992) (emphasis added) (citing In re Mann, 907 F. 2d 923, 926 (9th Cir. 1990)). Because the Suters could bring a petition for an extraordinary writ from the Nevada Supreme Court, the presence or absence of a stay is immaterial. As demonstrated in these cases, the presence of a state law remedy to set aside or undo the transaction renders the bankruptcy appeal on the merits not moot. Here that remedy is the availability of a petition for an extraordinary writ.
III. CONCLUSION
The bankruptcy court erred in assuming mootness to adjudicate the motion to stay, which if decided on the merits, would have controlled the mootness question. The district court perpetuated this error by applying the very mootness, which was the subject of the appeal, as grounds to refuse to review the mootness adjudication of the bankruptcy court on the merits. The Suters' motion to stay should have been heard on the merits. Even without a stay, if successful on an appeal on the merits, the Suters could seek to enforce an order granting them relief by extraordinary writ because they were not parties to the stipulated dismissal in the Nevada Supreme
Court. Consequently, on remand the district court should hear the Suters' appeal on the merits.
REVERSED and REMANDED.
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Canadian Social Science ISSN 1712-8056
Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture 06/30/2009
The Moderating Effect of Gender Differences between Mentoring and Individuals' Career
L'EFFET MODÉRATEUR DES DIFFÉRENCES DE SEXE ENTRE LE MENTOR ET LA CARRIÈRE INDIVIDUELLE
1
Azman Ismail
2
Zalina Ibrahim
Kamaruzaman Jusoff (Corresponding author)
4
Michael Kho Khian Jui
Irdawaty Hj. Jaya
5
6
Ahmad Faisal Mahdi
Abstract: This study was conducted to examine the effect of mentoring program and gender differences on individuals' career using 153 usable questionnaires gathered from employees who work in one public university in Sarawak, Malaysia. Outcomes of hierarchical regression analysis showed two important findings: firstly, interaction between formal mentoring and gender differences positively and significantly correlated with individuals' career. Secondly, interaction between informal mentoring and gender differences positively and significantly correlated with individuals' career. This result confirms that gender differences do act as a
1 Faculty of Cognitive Sciences & Human Development. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS); Address: 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak. Malaysia; Email: email@example.com
3 Faculty of Forestry. Universiti Putra Malaysia; Address: 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor. Malaysia; Email:
2 Faculty of Business Management. Universiti Teknologi MARA Sarawak; Address: 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak. Malaysia. Email: firstname.lastname@example.org / email@example.com
firstname.lastname@example.org
5 Faculty of Business Management. Universiti Teknologi MARA Sarawak; Address: 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak. MALAYSIA; Email: email@example.com
4 Faculty of Cognitive Sciences & Human Development. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak; Address: 94300 Kota Samarahan. Sarawak. Malaysia; Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
6 Faculty of Business Management. Universiti Teknologi MARA Sarawak; Address: 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak. Malaysia.
Email: email@example.com / firstname.lastname@example.org
*Received 8 June 2009; accepted 14 June 2009
3
moderating variable in the mentoring model of the organizational sample. In addition, implications and discussion are elaborated.
Keywords: Formal Mentoring; Informal Mentoring; Gender Differences; Individuals' Career
Résumé: Cette étude était conduite à examiner l'effet du programme de mentor et des différences de sexe sur la carrière individuelle, en utilisant 153 questionnaires utilisables recueillis de salariés qui travaillent dans une universitaire publique à Sarawak en Malaisie. Les résultats de l'analyse de la régression hiérarchique montre deux conclusions importantes : d'bord, interaction entre le mentor officiel et les les différence de sexe mises en corrélation positive et significative avec la carrière individuelles. Deuxièmement, interaction entre le mentor familier et les différence de sexe mises en corrélation positive et significative avec la carrière individuelles. Cet résultat confirme que les différences de sexe agit certainement comme une variable modératrice dans le modèle de mentor de l'échantillon organisateur. En plus, les implications et les discussions sont élaborées.
Mots-Clés: mentor officiel; mentor familier; différences de sexe et carrière individuelle
1. INTRODUCTION
Mentoring is traditionally viewed as an important field of education (Johnson et al., 1991) and/or counseling (Gregson, 1994) whereby mentors are old man who have wisdom and can be trusted to educate young man who have little experience (Johnson et al., 1991; Kram, 1985; Russell & Adams, 1997; Wanguri, 1996). It has inspired organizational development scholars to generally interpret the concept and practice of mentoring programs inline with the development of the current organization (Dennison, 2000; Northcott, 2000; Oliver & Aggleton, 2002).
In an organizational context, mentoring is often viewed as a method of training and development program that can be used to increase group and/or individuals' potentials to carry out particular duties and responsibilities, familiarize with new techniques, and care all aspects of mentees (Hanford & Ehrich, 2006; Johnson et al., 1991; Long, 2002). Mentoring models have been designed and administered based on differences and uniqueness of an organization in terms of believes, orientations, stresses, strengths and weaknesses (Hawkey,1997; Irving et al., 2003; Ritchie & Conolly, 1993; Ritchie & Genoni, 1999). These factors have affected the implementation of mentoring type whether formal and/or informal mentoring activities in organizations (Chao et al., 1992; Murray, 1991; Ragins & Cotton, 1993, 1999). Formal mentoring program is often viewed as the structured and coordinated relationship between mentor and mentee, using standard norms, continuously action plans, time frame, and particular objectives (Bahniuk & Hill, 1998; Hansford et al., 2003; Noe et al., 2002). Specifically, this mentoring program has salient characteristics: first, mentor is defined as a more knowledgeable and experienced person (e.g., senior staff) whereas mentee is defined as a less knowledgeable and experienced person (e.g., junior staff) (Kram, 1985; Dreher & Cox, 1996; Noe et al., 2002). Second, mentors should act as role models, teaches, sponsors, encourages, counsels, and befriends to mentees in order to increase individuals' new knowledge, up to date skills and positive attitudes (Anderson & Shannon, 1988; Kram, 1985; Levinson et al., 1978). Third, they are regularly assigned to encourage group and/or individual activities within a defined period of time (Ritchie & Connolly, 1993; Ritchie & Genoni, 1999). Conversely, informal mentoring is often seen as the process and systems of relationship between mentors and mentees to achieve specific demands, spontaneous and adhoc. This mentoring program is widely
implemented to complement and strengthen formal mentoring programs (Goldstein & Ford, 2002; Ragins, 1997, 1999). If both mentoring programs are properly managed they may lead employees to achieve organizational strategies and goals (Friday & Friday, 2002; Ismail et al., 2007; Lindenberger & Zachary, 1999; Irving et al., 2003).
Extant research in this area shows that the ability of managers to properly design and administer mentoring programs may have a significant impact on individuals' career development (Allen et al., 2005; Hegstad & Wentling, 2005; Niehoff, 2006; Okurame & Bologun, 2005). Many scholars, such as Kram (1985), Kram & Bragar (1991), Baugh & Scandura (1999), Hunt & Michael (1983) and Ragins & Cotton (1999) highlight that career development is often viewed as helping individuals to acquire the skills and experiences needed to perform current and future jobs, give advice, increase the ability of individuals to positively influence others, and protect individuals' dignities from affected by negative environments. In a mentoring program model, many scholars think that the ability of mentors and mentees to use comfortable interactional styles, such as communication openness, respect, accountable, honest, respect and active participation may lead to increased individuals' career (Scandura, 1992; Chao et al., 1992; Ragins & Cotton, 1993, 1999).
Surprisingly, a thorough review of such relationships reveals that effect of mentoring program on individuals' career is not consistent if gender differences play positive roles in mentorship (Ragins & Cotton, 1993, 1999; Scandura & Williams, 2001). Several scholars, such as Ragins, (1997, 1999), Ragins and Cotton (1993, 1999), and Young et al. (2006) describe gender differences as the interaction between cross-gender in mentorship, such as the interaction between male mentor-female protégé and female mentor-male protégé in mentoring programs (Allen et al., 2005; Gaskill, 1991; Lyon et al., 2004). Interaction between cross gender in formal and/or informal mentoring programs is often done through building good contacts, exchanging personal and work problems in friendly situations, social support, role modeling and acceptance. These practices may create comfortable relationship between mentors and mentees in doing mentoring activities (Baugh & Scandura, 1999; Lyon et al., 2004; Scandura & William, 2001; Ragins & Cotton, 1993, 1999).
In a mentoring system framework, many scholars think that mentoring program, gender differences and individuals' career are distinct constructs, but highly interrelated. For example, the willingness of mentors and mentees to cooperate in the implementation of formal and/or informal mentoring programs will increase individuals' careers if gender differences can implement comfortable interactional styles, such as communication openness, active participation, support, respect, accountability and honest (Allen et al., 2005; Hegstad & Wentling, 2005). Even though numerous studies have been done, little is known about the moderating role of gender differences in mentoring program literature (Allen & Eby, 2004; Okurame & Balogon, 2005; Niehoff, 2006). Many scholars reveal that gender differences in mentoring programs has been less emphasized because previous studies over emphasize on a segmented approach and direct effects model in analyzing mentoring programs, as well as given less attention on the significance of gender role in developing mentoring program models. As a result, findings of such studies have neglected to focus on gender's view in influencing inconsistent results of mentoring programs (Allen & Eby, 2004; Hegstad & Wentling, 2005; Niehoff, 2006; Okurame & Balogun, 2005).
Therefore, this study was primarily conducted to examine two major objectives: first, effect of formal mentoring and gender differences on individuals' career. Finally, effect of informal mentoring and gender differences on individuals' career.
2. METHODS AND MATERIALS
Most previous studies used a direct effects model to investigate general mentoring programs in Western organizations using different samples, such as 510 first-line bank managers (Okurame & Balogun,
2005), and 194 practicing veterinarians (Niehoff, 2006). These studies found that properly implemented formal and informal mentoring activities (e.g., friendship, social support, role modelling, acceptance and participation) had been a determinant of individuals' career (Okurame & Bologun, 2005; Niehoff, 2006). Further, recent studies used an indirect effect model reveal that the moderating effect of gender differences in mentoring program of the UNIVSARAWAK gains a strong support from mentoring research literature mostly published in Western countries. For example, two studies about formal mentoring program were conducted based on different samples, such as fortune 500 companies in US (Hegstad & Wentling, 2005), and 600 members of a professional women's business association in US (Allen & Eby, 2004). In addition, another study on informal mentoring program was conducted in Southeastern healthcare organization based on a sample of 560 employees (Allen et al., 2005). These studies found that the willingness of gender differences to implement comfortable interaction styles in formal and informal mentoring activities (e.g., create a match relationship, no interpersonal communication barriers, cooperation and active participation in decision making) had been a major predictor of individuals' career in the organizations (Allen & Eby, 2004; Allen et al., 2005; Hegstad & Wentling, 2005).
These findings are consistent with the notion of organizational behaviour theory, namely Byrne & Griffitt (1973) similarity-attraction paradigm, and Bowlby (1969) attachment theory. In general, theories state that individuals who practice good interactional styles in planning and administering activities may affect individuals' advancement, especially career (Bowlby, 1969; Byrne & Griffitt, 1973; Turban et al., 2002; Young et al., 2006). Specifically, similarity-attraction paradigm (Byrne & Griffitt (1973) explicitly highlights that the integration of similarity, attractiveness, and liking are important determinants of effective human relationships in the workplace (Berscheid, 1994; Sprecher, 1998). Application of this theory in a mentoring program model shows that individuals who can do work cooperatively, communicate openly and clearly, and interact on social issues positively will positively motivate mentees' perceptions that they have similar values to mentors, high satisfaction with mentors and close contact with mentors. As a result, it may lead to increased individuals' career (Turban et al., 2002).
Attachment Theory (Bowlby, 1969) states that our ability to develop and maintain relationships begins at a very early age based on our attachment to a parent or primary caretaker. In relation to a mentoring program, this theory may be used to explain how and why some mentors and mentees feel more comfortable to keep a professional relationship and/or develop a personal bond (Ainsworth et al., 1978; Young et al., 2006). Application of this theory in a mentoring program framework shows that comfortable interaction between mentors and mentees who have same and/or different genders will positively motivate mentees' perceptions that they feel high security, trust and belongingness in mentoring activities. Consequently, it may lead to enhanced individuals' career (Allen et al., 2005; Scandura &Williams, 2001; Young et al., 2006).
The literature has been used as foundation to develop a conceptual framework for this study as shown in Figure 1.
Based on the framework, it seems reasonable to assume that the properly implemented formal
mentoring programs will influence UNIVSARAWAK employees as this practice influences Western employees. Further, organizational behavioral theory suggests that properly implemented formal mentoring programs will increase individuals' career if gender type can properly practice good interaction styles in mentoring activities. Therefore, it was hypothesized that:
H1: Gender differences positively moderates the relationship between formal mentoring and individuals' career.
H2: Gender differences positively moderates the relationship between informal mentoring and individuals' career
This study used a cross-sectional research design that allowed the researchers to integrate literature review, in-depth interviews, pilot study and survey questionnaires as a main procedure to gather data for this study. As supported by many researchers, the use of such methods may gather accurate and less bias data (Cresswell, 1998; Sekaran, 2000) and it allows the researcher to create differences among variables being studied. In-depth interviews were first conducted involving four experienced employees, namely two experienced human resource staffs, and two experienced academic staffs who work in the studied organization. They were selected based on a purposive sampling where the selected employees have working experiences more than seven years in the organization. Information gathered from such employees helped the researchers to understand the nature of mentoring program, the role of gender type in mentorship, and individuals' career characteristics, as well as the relationship between such variables in the studied organizations. After refining, categorizing and comparing the information with the related literature review, the triangulated information was used as a guideline to develop the content of survey questionnaires for a pilot study. Next, a pilot study was conducted by discussing pilot questionnaires with four employees who work in the organization. Their feedbacks were used to verify the content and format of questionnaires for an actual survey. Back translation technique was used to translate the content of questionnaires in Malay and English in order to increase the validity and reliability of the instrument (Hulland, 1999; Van Maanen, 1983).
The survey questionnaires had four sections. First, formal mentoring had 4 items that were modified from mentoring management literature (Bisk, 2002; Hansford & Ehrich, 2006; Hansford et al., 2003). Second, informal mentoring had 4 items that were modified from mentoring management literature (Bisk, 2002; Chao et al., 1992; Kram, (1985) and Ragins & Cotton (1993, 1999). Third, gender differences had 4 items were modified from mentoring program literature (Gaskill, 1991; Ragins & McFarlin, 1990). Finally, career had 4 items that were modified from career development literature (Allen & Eby, 2004; Hegstad & Wentling, 2005; Levesque et al., 2005). These items were measured using a 7-item scale ranging from "very strongly disagreed/dissatisfied" (1) to "very strongly agreed/satisfied" (7). Demographic variables were used as controlling variables (i.e., gender, age, education, length of service, position and division) because this study focused on employee attitudes.
The unit of analysis for this study was 1456 employees who work in one public university in Sarawak, Malaysia (UNIVSARAWAK). In a data collection, HR manager did not provide the list of registered employees and did not allow the researchers to directly distribute survey questionnaires to employees who work in the organization. After considering this situation, a quota sampling was used to determine the number of sample based on the duration of study and budget constraints, which is 200 employees. Besides that, a convenient sampling technique was chosen to distribute survey questionnaires to employees because the researchers could not choose respondents randomly. Therefore, 200 survey questionnaires were distributed to employees who willing to answer survey questionnaires through contact persons (i.e., assistant HR manager, supervisors and/or heads of department/unit) in the organization. Of the number, 153 usable questionnaires were returned to the researchers, yielding a 76.5 percent response rate. The survey questionnaires were answered by participants based on their consent and a voluntary basis. A Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 15.0 was used to analyze the validity and reliability of the measurement scales and thus test the research hypotheses.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Table 1 shows that most respondents were female (57.5 percent), male supervisor (56.9 percent), aged between 21 to 30 years (46.4 percent), STPM/Diploma holders (33.3 percent), staff who served less than 5 years (54.9 percent), non-academic staff (58.2 percent), and employees who worked in academic department (53.6 percent).
Tables 2 and 3 show the results of validity and reliability analyses for measurement scales. A factor analysis with direct oblimin rotation was first done for four variables with 16 items. After that, Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin Test (KMO) that is a measure of sampling adequacy was conducted for each variable and the results indicated that it was acceptable. Relying on Hair et al. (1998), and Nunally & Bernstein's (1994) guideline, these statistical analyses showed that (1) the value of factor analysis for all items that represent each research variable was 0.5 and more, indicating the items met the acceptable standard of validity analysis, (2) all research variables exceeded the acceptable standard of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin's value of 0.6, were significant in Bartlett's test of sphericity, (3) all research variables had eigenvalues larger than 1, (4) the items for each research variable exceeded factor loadings of 0.50 (Hair et al., 1998), and (5) all research variables exceeded the acceptable standard of reliability analysis of 0.70 (Nunally & Bernstein, 1994). These statistical analyses confirmed that the measurement scales met the acceptable standard of validity and reliability analyses.
Table 3 shows the results of Pearson correlation analysis and descriptive statistics. Means for all variables are between 4.8 and 5.6, signifying the levels of formal mentoring, informal mentoring, individuals' career and gender differences ranging from high (4.0) to highest level (7.0). The correlation coefficients for the relationship between the independent variable (i.e., formal mentoring and informal mentoring) and the dependent variable (i.e., individuals' career), and relationship between the independent variable (i.e., formal mentoring and informal mentoring) and moderating variable (i.e., gender differences) were less than 0.90, indicating the data were not affected by any serious collinearity problem (Hair et al., 1998).
A hierarchical regression analysis as recommended by Cohen & Cohen (1983) was used to measure the moderating effect of perceive value in the hypothesized model. Moderating effect is an interaction that shows the degree of relationship between the independent variables and dependent variables will change if other variables exist in the relationship (Cohen & Cohen, 1983; Jaccard et al., 1990). Results of an interaction are evident when the relationship between interacting terms and the dependent variable is significant. The fact that the significant main effects of predictor variables and moderator variables simultaneously exist in analysis it does not affect the moderator hypothesis and is significant to interpret the interaction term (Baron & Kenny, 1986). The results of testing research hypotheses are shown in Tables 5 and 6.
An examination of multicollinearity in the coefficients table in Table 5 shows that the tolerance value for the relationship between the independent variable (i.e., formal mentoring) and the dependent variable (i.e., individuals' career) was 0.39. While, the tolerance value for the relationship between the independent variable (i.e., formal mentoring), the moderating variable (i.e., gender differences) and the dependent variable (i.e., individuals' career) were 0.41. These tolerance values were more than tolerance value of .20 (as a rule of thumb), indicating the variables were not affected by multicollinearity problem (Fox, 1991; Tabachnick et al., 2001).
Table 5 shows the results of testing research hypothesis are shown in Step 3. The interacting terms (gender differences x formal mentoring) positively and significantly correlated with individuals' careers (B=.38, p>0.001), therefore H1 was supported. The inclusion of gender differences in Step 3 had decreased the effect of formal mentoring on individuals' career from Step 2 (B=.39, p<0.001) to Step 3 (B=.33, p<0.001), accounting for 36 percent of the variance in dependent variable. Relying on the Baron & Kenny's (1986) moderating testing conditions, this result demonstrates that comfortably interactional styles between gender differences has moderated the effect of formal mentoring activities on individuals'
career in the organizational sample.
An examination of multicollinearity in the coefficients table in Table 6 shows that the tolerance value for the relationship between the independent variable (i.e., formal mentoring) and the dependent variable (i.e., individuals' career) was 0.48. While, the tolerance value for the relationship between the independent variable (i.e., informal mentoring), the moderating variable (i.e., gender type) and the dependent variable (i.e., individuals' career) were 0.32. These tolerance values were more than tolerance value of .20 (as a rule of thumb), indicating the variables were not affected by multicollinearity problem (Fox, 1991; Tabachnick et al., 2001).
Table 6 shows the results of testing research hypothesis are shown in Step 3. The interacting terms (gender differences x informal mentoring) positively and significantly correlated with individuals' career (β=.30, p<0.001), therefore H2 was supported. The inclusion of gender differences in Step 3 had decreased the effect of informal mentoring on individuals' career from Step 2 (B=.47, p<0.001) to Step 3 (B=.36, p<0.001), accounting for 36 percent of the variance in dependent variable. Relying on the Baron & Kenny's (1986) moderating testing conditions, this result confirms that comfortably interactional styles between gender differences has moderated the effect of informal mentoring activities on individuals' career in the organizational sample.
This study confirms that gender type does act as a moderating variable in the relationship between mentoring program and individuals' career in the studied organization. In the organizational context, formal and informal mentoring programs are done according to the university's policy and procedures. Majority employees perceive that mentors and mentees actively participate in formal and informal mentoring activities. Besides that, most employees perceive that gender differences comfortably interact in formal and informal mentorship activities. As a result, it may lead to enhanced mentees' careers in the organizational sample.
The implications of this study can be divided into three categories: theoretical contribution, robustness of research methodology and practical contribution. In terms of theoretical contribution, the findings of this study show that gender differences comfortably interact in formal and informal mentoring activities this will create conducive organizational climate, which allow communication openness, knowledge sharing and active participation styles in planning and managing organizational functions, such as human resource, finance, academic program, and physical facilities. Consequently, it may lead to increased individuals' career in the organization. This result is consistent with studies by Byrne and Griffitt (1973), Bowlby (1969), Allen & Eby (2005), and Hegstad & Wentling (2005). However this study has been conducted in a situation that differs from Western countries, its outcome has consistently supported and appreciated the significance of gender views in mentorship literature mostly published in Western countries.
With respect to the robustness of research methodology, the data gathered from compensation literature, the in-depth interviews, the pilot study and the survey questionnaires have exceeded a minimum standard of validity and reliability analysis. This situation may lead to the production of accurate and reliable findings.
In terms of practical contributions, the findings of this study can be used as a guideline by management to improve the design and administration of mentoring programs in organizations. These suggestions are: first, update learning content and method. For example, continuously training programs should focus on up to date knowledge, relevant skills and good moral values. If this training program is properly implemented through oral, skills and team based training method this can upgrade the capability of mentors to use proper treatments in handling mentees' needs and expectations. Second, encourage informal and formal participation styles. For example, mentees should be allowed to provide suggestions, comments and take part in planning and managing mentoring activities. If this aspect is properly given attention this will increase mentees' feelings of satisfaction, trust and acceptance about the programs. Third, improve mentoring activities. For example, mentoring activities should be diversified to cater mentees' needs and preferences, such as sport and camping. Willingness of mentors and mentees to properly implement such activities beyond office hours and outside office may
strengthen brotherhood, accountability and job motivation in the workplace. If these suggestions are heavily considered this may increase the capability of mentoring program to motivate individual employees to maintain and support organizational strategy and goals.
4. CONCLUSION
This study confirms that gender differences do act as a moderating role in the relationship between mentoring program and individuals' career. This result has supported previous studies and extended mentoring research literature mostly published in Western organizational settings. Therefore, current research and practice within mentoring program models needs to consider gender differences as a critical aspect of organizational mentoring program where properly implemented interaction styles between gender differences in mentoring programs may strongly increase positive subsequent attitudinal and behavioural outcomes (e.g., career, psychosocial, satisfaction, commitment, performance, trust, and ethics). Thus, these positive outcomes may lead individual employees to increased organizational competitiveness in a global economy.
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Table 1． Respondent Characteristics (N=153)
Note:
PMR : Lower Certificate of Education
SPM/MCE: Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia/ Malaysia Certificate of Education
STPM: Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia/ Higher School Certificate
Table 2. Item Validity
| Variable | Item | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Same Gender | Enhance contact with senior executives Increase work performance Become a role model for others by setting good attitude, value and behavior Enhance enjoyable informal work exchange and other outside experiences | | | .872 .856 .865 .957 |
| Cross Gender | Be propose for promotion Enhance enjoyable informal work exchange and other outside experiences Enable the exploration of personal concerns Feel supported and encouraged through positive interaction | | | |
| Formal Mentoring | I prefer to have a say in formal discussion Participation in formal discussion is a good mechanism for overcome daily job problems Participation in formal discussion helped to improve my confidence while working Participation in formal discussion is important for sharing ideas | | .782 .849 .836 .818 | |
| Informal Mentoring | I prefer to have a say in informal discussion Participation in informal discussion is a good mechanism for overcome daily job problems Participation in informal discussion helped to improve my confidence while working Participation in informal discussion is important for sharing ideas I think that informal gathering helped to enhance sense of belonging among workers | | | .771 .676 .774 .840 .831 |
| Individuals’ Career | My immediate boss/supervisor gave me assignments that prepare me for a higher position My immediate boss/supervisor suggested specific strategies to accomplish work objectives My immediate boss/supervisor exchanged experiences with me to improve job problems in the workplace | .750 .764 .674 | | |
Table 3． The Validity and Reliability Analyses for Measurement scales
| Measure | Items | Factor Loadings | KMO | Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity | Eigenvalue | Variance Explained | Cronbach Alpha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Formal Mentoring | 4 | .78 - .85 | 0.8 | 389.78 | 2.95 | 73.79 | 0.88 |
| Informal Mentoring | 4 | .68 - .84 | 0.82 | 455.91 | 3.47 | 69.49 | 0.89 |
| Individuals’ Career | 4 | .67 - .95 | 0.82 | 319.3 | 2.93 | 73.19 | 0.88 |
| Gender Differences | 4 | .70 - .92 | 0.79 | 383.68 | 3.04 | 76.04 | 0.89 |
Table 4． Pearson Correlation Analysis and Descriptive Statistics
| Variable | Mean | Standard Deviation | Pearson Correlation Analysis | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 1. Formal Mentoring | 5.6 | .98 | 1 | | | | |
| 2. Informal Mentoring | 5.3 | 1.08 | .33** | 1 | | | |
| 3. Gender Differences | 4.8 | 1.14 | .19* | .38** | .47** | 1 | |
| 4. Individuals’ Career | 5.0 | 1.094 | .42** | .50** | .50** | .45** | 1 |
Note: Significant at *0.05;**0.01
Reliability estimation is shown in a diagonal (1)
Table 5． Result for Hierarchical Regression Analysis
Note: Significant at *0.05; **0.01; ***0.001
| Variables | | |
|---|---|---|
| | Step 1 | Step 2 |
| Control Variables Gender Supervisor’s Gender Age Academic Qualification Length of Services Position Division Independent Variable Formal Mentoring Moderating Variable Gender Differences x Formal Mentoring | .08 .12 -.27* .00 .23 .01 -.03 | .05 .07 -.23* .06 .12 .04 -.03 .39*** |
| R2 Adjusted R2 R2 Change F F Change R2 | .07 .03 .07 1.61 1.61 | .28 .25 .21 4.87*** 25.77*** |
Table 6. Result for Hierarchical Regression Analysis
| Variables | | |
|---|---|---|
| | Step 1 | Step 2 |
| Control Variables Gender Supervisor’s Gender Age Academic Qualification Length of Services Position Division Independent Variable Informal Mentoring Moderating Variable Gender Differences x Informal Mentoring | .08 .12 -.27* .00 .23 .01 -.03 | .08 .09 -.20 .01 .14 .03 -.06 .47*** |
Note: Significant at *0.05; **0.01; ***0.001
Editor: Ala Uddin
|
MISSION REPORT:
STEMMING THE TIDE OF GREEK MEDIA FREEDOM DECLINE
MISSION REPORT: STEMMING THE TIDE OF GREEK MEDIA FREEDOM DECLINE
This report was prepared by the partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), along with Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists. The mission was coordinated by the MFRR. Contributions for this report come from:
- ARTICLE 19 Europe
- Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
- European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)
- European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
- Free Press Unlimited (FPU)
- International Press Institute (IPI)
- Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT)
- Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
Editors: IPI and ECPMF
Design and layout: Ana Dokučević
Acknowledgement: The mission would like to thank Vas Panagiotopoulos, RSF's correspondent for Greece.
This report was produced as part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response, which tracks, monitors, and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and candidate countries. This project provides legal and practical support, public advocacy and information to protect journalists and media workers. The MFRR project is co-funded by the European Commission. This report has been published in English and Greek.
co-funded by
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
O Media freedom in Greece has experienced a clear period of deterioration in the last few years. In 2022 and 2023, the country ranked as the worst for media freedom in the European Union in the World Press Freedom Index. International press freedom groups have increasingly been warning about the most serious factors contributing to this decline, from the murder of a reporter and threats to journalists to spyware scandal and underlying issues regarding media pluralism and independent journalism. This erosion of media freedoms and the increasing attention of domestic and international media organisations sparked concern in Brussels and beyond and led to a number of initiatives from the Greek government led by the ruling New Democracy party to address the issue.
In this context, the partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) consortium, joined by Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists, coordinated a mission to Greece in the wake of the 2023 election victory of New Democracy to take stock of the latest developments and assess the current state of media freedom and independent journalism. The first aim of the mission was to meet with leading journalists, editors, media unions, academics and civil society actors to receive the most-up-to date briefings on the biggest challenges facing the media community. The second aim was to meet with state representatives, institutions, political parties and the government's new Task Force on journalist safety, to both assess the impact of and advocate for stronger measures to improve the situation. The mission was held over three days between 25-27 September 2023 in the capital Athens, during which time the delegation of eight organisations met with a range of stakeholders from across the political spectrum. A press briefing was held at the offices of the Journalists' Union of the Athens Daily Newspapers (JUDAN) and a press release summarising the initial findings was published. The mission represented a followup mission to an online fact-finding mission in 2021 coordinated by the MFRR during the Covid-19 pandemic and stemmed from ongoing monitoring, advocacy and support work in Greece of all the eight participating organisations.
This report provides a detailed analysis of the most serious challenges facing media freedom in Greece, exploring the four major systemic themes identified by the delegation. It also provides an assessment of the impact of different measures taken by the government in the last few years to try and address these issues, and offers the first international assessment of the work of the government's Task Force for the safety of journalists, which was established in 2022 after a recommendation by the European Commission. The report also provides multiple detailed recommendations in each of the chapters to both the Greek government and journalists and media workers for steps that can be taken to achieve progress and further stem the tide of media freedom decline in the country. The mission partners hope it will contribute to the debate within Greece about the factors behind the recent period of crisis and offer suggestions for positive reform moving forward.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
* Media freedom in Greece has undergone a sustained decline in the last few years, amidst the broad-daylight murder of a crime reporter, multiple threats to the safety of journalists, a sprawling surveillance and spyware scandal and numerous vexatious lawsuits and legal threats against media and journalists, with detrimental consequences for Greek democracy.
* These immediate challenges sit atop deeper historical and systemic issues including a problematic landscape for independent journalism, weak media pluralism, prolonged economic threats to media viability, entrenched capture of private media by powerful families and owners with vested business interests, and low levels of trust in media.
* The downward spiral in media freedom in Greece between 2020-2023 dovetails with the election of the centre-right New Democracy party led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in 2019. While media freedom faced serious challenges under the previous Syriza-led administration, the climate has deteriorated further under the current government.
* Amidst the pandemic, increased numbers of attacks on journalists covering healthrelated protests and the manipulation of state advertising to reward media seen as close to the government led to increased concern amongst domestic and international groups, while the health crisis hollowed out the market and further undermined the finances of Greek media.
* However, it was the assassination of Greek crime reporter Giorgos Karaivaz outside his apartment in Athens in April 2021 which represented the hammer blow for media freedom in Greece. While two suspects have been arrested and are due to face trial, the case remains in a state of total impunity and continues to have a chilling effect on the media community and the safety of journalists. The masterminds and the motive of the killing remain unconfirmed. Journalists have also faced arson attacks, physical attacks and violence from police while covering protests.
* A sprawling wiretapping and spyware scandal involving journalists as well as political actors meanwhile placed Greece on the list of EU member states to have abused surveillance tools meant for protecting national security to monitor and spy on journalists' communications. The lack of accountability for this legal wiretapping, as well as for unresolved yet illegal use of spyware attacks on journalists, has severely undermined source confidentiality and journalists' digital safety. Serious questions remain about the involvement of the state in the illegal spyware surveillance of journalists.
* Media carrying out investigative and public interest also face legal threats, including Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and even criminal defamation charges, which remain within the penal code in Greece. These vexatious lawsuits, often filed by wealthy or powerful individuals, continue to drag legitimate reporting through the courts and take a financial and psychological toll on journalists working in these newsrooms.
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* At the wider level, the current Greek media landscape can be characterised by a history of unregulated development, a weak economic market battered by multiple financial crises, combined with the heavy influence and interference of political and economic interests. High levels of concentration of media in the hands of wealthy families and ship owners with varying political connections to the ruling party have contributed to a media ecosystem in which, although there is a high number of media titles, real media pluralism is weak.
* The country's public service media continue to face financial challenges and questions over their editorial and institutional independence. While the previous crisis at the ERT (Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation) has been stabilised, the continued oversight of the broadcaster by the office of the Prime Minister poses obvious questions over its neutrality. Likewise, at the national public news agency, the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA), political bias is visible and sensitive stories which could damage the government are sometimes ignored, while public interest reporting on certain topics is lacking.
* Entrenched media capture, combined with strong societal and political polarisation and a tendency for heavily opinion-based journalism, contribute to Greece often being the lowest ranked country in the EU for trust in media by citizens. This undermines the ability of Greek media unions and groups to advocate and win public support for democratic reforms regarding media freedom. The combination of these challenges means Greek journalism - both in private and public media - face a crisis of credibility.
* While the Mediterranean country benefits from a small but highly professional group of award-winning independent and investigative media publishing vital public interest journalism, these titles remain isolated on the fringes of the media landscape and lack wider public support or readership, despite their recent impact. To retain their editorial independence, many are experimenting with new subscription-based business models which could offer examples for the wider media market.
* Increased scrutiny from the European Union and international media freedom groups in recent years has led to a number of new measures by the government to try and address the situation, including new laws on media ownership transparency and state advertising, and the outlawing of spyware use. Although domestic authorities are verbally supportive of the EU's actions to defend press freedom, the impact of its domestic reforms have yet to be felt and overall the government's response does not reflect the severity of the crisis.
* Though reports by the EU have provided negative assessments of the situation for press freedom, and an EU Committee investigating spyware abuse visited Greece in 2022, progress has been limited and stronger action is required by EU institutions and international partners to steer Greece back towards respect for democratic values on free media.
* While the steep deterioration in press freedom that began in 2020 appears to have petered out, much remains to be done to improve the situation. Steps such as the establishment of a dedicated body for the safety of journalists are a welcome step forward, but one which must be improved moving forward. As the challenges for media freedom and independent journalism in Greece are deeply ingrained, any positive developments will require sustained attention from journalists and media, backed by unions, supported by strong political will from the government. Rebuilding the eroded pillars of media freedom will be no easy task, yet one that is essential for the resilience of Greek democracy.
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SURVEILLANCE AND SPYWARE
One of the most serious threats to media freedom in Greece in recent years has been the surveillance of journalists private communications, through both legal and illegal means, and the ensuing threats to source protection. Between 2020 and 2022, at least 13 journalists and media owners in Greece faced illegal surveillance with the highly invasive Predator spyware, and some were subjected to wiretapping by the National Intelligence Service (EYP). While the government continues to deny involvement in the illegal Predator surveillance, many targets were subjected to both wiretapping and then spyware targeting in what appears to have been a coordinated manner, indicating the involvement of the state. Accountability for illegal spyware monitoring has yet to be achieved in any of the documented cases and the so-called 'Predatorgate' scandal has had a deeply damaging effect on online safety and journalistic source protection in Greece.
The first case to come to light concerned Stavros Malichudis, an investigative reporter for Solomon, an independent Greek outlet. On 14 November 2021, a report was published in media outlet EFSYN that documented the EYP's secret monitoring of a journalist who had written a story about a 12-year-old boy from Syria living in a refugee camp on Kos, whose artwork was exhibited in a museum and published on the website of French newspaper Le Monde. The exact form of surveillance used to monitor the communications of Malichudis has not been conclusively determined.
On 11 April 2022, it was then revealed that Thanasis Koukakis, an investigative journalist for CNN Greece who collaborated with several international publications, including the Financial Times and CNBC, had his mobile phone infected between July and September 2021 with Predator, an advanced spyware tool developed by a North Macedonian company. Government spokesperson Giannis Oikonomou suggested the hack had been carried out by an "individual" or private actor and denied that the Greek government had any role. Days later, however, it was revealed that the EYP had been carrying out surveillance on Koukakis in June, July and August 2020 for what it said were national security reasons. Documents show that when the journalist asked the Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE) to confirm whether his phone had been tapped, the EYP stopped the surveillance the same day. Koukakis did not receive a response to his request to ADAE for a year.
On 27 July 2022, the New York Times revealed that Nikos Androulakis, a high-profile European Parliament member and leader of PASOK, a major opposition party had been targeted with Predator in 2021, an analysis of his phone by the Parliament's technology experts revealed - which raised the profile the case. On 5 August 2022, Grigoris Dimitriadis, general secretary of the prime minister's office and Kyriakos Mitsotakis' nephew, resigned. Shortly afterwards, EYP director Panagiotis Kontoleon, also resigned "following erroneous actions found in the process of the legal wiretappings." In October 2022, a special parliamentary inquiry ended in stalemate with government and opposition disagreeing on its findings.
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In November 2022, Greek newspaper Documento published an article alleging that at least six journalists, media owners and figures connected to the Greek media industry were among the people targeted with Predator spyware and/or placed under EYP surveillance. The names were on a longer list of 100 names - of which 33 were first published - that also included a former prime minister, current ministers and influential business people, compiled by Documento based on confidential sources who played a role in the surveillance. According to the newspaper, none of the media figures were believed to have been the main target of the illicit surveillance. Instead, they reportedly had their phones hacked to indirectly access data, information, or communications about others. It was not reported when the spyware infections were made. On 13 November 2022, Documento released another 38 names placed under surveillance that included more journalists.
In December 2022, an audit by the ADAE at telecom company Cosmote confirmed that EYP wiretapped for unspecified national security reasons investigative journalist Tasos Telloglou, who works for investigative platform Inside Story, leading daily Kathimerini and the ANT1 television news programme "Special Report". In October, Telloglou had written about suspected surveillance and monitoring in connection with his reporting on the spyware scandal. He also claimed that Eliza Triantafillou, his colleague at Inside Story, and Thodoris Chondrogiannos of Reporters United had their whereabouts monitored by authorities.
On 10 January 2023, Greece's chief prosecutor Isidoros Dogiakos issued a controversial legal opinion arguing that ADAE, cannot conduct audits of telecommunication companies to find out who is under surveillance by the country's intelligence agency. Dogiakos went a step further and warned the members of ADAE with criminal prosecution if they continued with their audits. Dogiakos issued his opinion on a request by OTE telecoms, lodged in the wake of a visit to its headquarters by an ADAE team investigating the wiretapping of the telephones of independent European lawmaker Giorgos Kyrtsos and investigative journalist Tasos Telloglou. After the audit, sources later confirmed to AP that decrees had indeed been issued for lifting the confidentiality of their phone communications.
On 23 October 2023, Supreme Court Prosecutor Georgia Adilini ordered the transfer of the investigation into spyware from the first-instance prosecutor's office to the Supreme Court. This unexpected decision came just as the prosecutors in charge of the investigation were about to compare the spyware's target list with the one of the EYP. Indeed, they wanted to verify potential matches between the 88 owners of the 92 telephone numbers, including several journalists, targeted with Predator, according to data revealed by the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (DPA), and the list of people whose telephone privacy was lifted by EYP. According to recent leaks in the media, the number of common Predator-EYP targets could be as high as 40. The latest articles report that some targets were infected with Predator via text messages sent "within a few hours" from the mobile phone belonging to a political figure "who held an important government office until the summer of 2022".
On 25 October 2023, a magistrate summoned former and current members of the independent watchdog (ADAE) as suspects for leaking classified information, according to several officials. Until 2019, EYP fell under the Ministry for Civil Protection. At the start of Mitsotakis's first term as Prime Minister, he took the portfolio directly under his office and made his nephew Grigoris Dimitriadis responsible for the political oversight. Dimitriadis stepped down in August 2022 over the surveillance scandal, but structurally, nothing has changed, and the EYP remains under the direct authority of the Prime Minister's Office. Meanwhile, Parliamentary scrutiny is limited: a Permanent Supervisory Committee, in practice, merely has the right to be informed.
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Conversations with some of the affected journalists during the mission show that the investigation and prosecution of their criminal complaints stemming from the surveillance against EYP and Intellexa are at a stalemate. The lack of prosecutorial capacity is evidently an obstacle, and one reporter said this enables the government to hide behind the slow pace of the justice system. They also noted that police are doing the bare minimum: many EYP agents are former police officers, so police are not cooperating with the prosecutors. Another journalist had a different perspective: "When you meet with (the prosecutors), they give you the perception that they are willing to do their jobs. They know every aspect in detail." The journalist raised the possibility of political arm-twisting, presumably in an attempt to run out the statute of limitations: "My perception is that everything needed to prosecute is there, except the political component: I assume there are political pressures to stall the case." Overall, the cases have had a significant mental toll on the journalists.
Despite alerts and specific proposals, the legislation regulating surveillance has undergone only cosmetic changes or changes designed to let the government off the hook. Among other things, the use of spyware became a felony (previously a misdemeanour), while the sale and possession became a misdemeanour. The selection criteria for an EYP Commander were strengthened and publicity guarantees were provided for in the operation of EYP technical division KETYAK. Finally, the procurement of spyware by the public sector has been legalised.
Among other problems, the supposed increase in oversight of surveillance operations falls short of what is required: in direct conflict with ECtHR case law, the decision to place someone under surveillance is taken by two prosecutors, who do not have to justify their decisions. There are serious defects to the procedure that allows persons who were surveilled access to (limited) information: they can only be informed three years after the end of the surveillance and following a decision by a panel of three, composed of the head of the ADAE and two prosecutors, including the prosecutor who authorised the surveillance. Greece's top court has debated its petition for a declaration of an unconstitutional provision prohibiting the Hellenic Public Prosecutor's Office from informing those whose phones were tapped by the EYP. A decision by the Council of State is still pending. Another major flaw is the lack of special protection for journalists, who have the right to protect the confidentiality of their sources. Lastly, the law only penalises the use of spyware by individuals or private sector companies, and its use by the security services remains unregulated. The law foresees the adoption of a presidential decree to determine the conditions under which the state may acquire surveillance software. There is no provision for judicial oversight or regulation of subcontracting of spying to private sector operators.
In line with the newly adopted European Media Freedom Act, the European Parliament's recommendations and the European Court of Human Rights's extensive case law, we recommend:
* The government and parliament must urgently adopt amendments to the legislation, which will oblige competent prosecutors to justify any surveillance undertaken in the interest of national security that allows for proper scrutiny of its legality and proportionality, set up independent and effective judicial oversight, allow for effective access to information by persons targeted with surveillance by removing the arbitrary three-year time limit and reinstating the sole responsibility of the Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE), and establish specific safeguards for journalists;
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* The government should quickly propose, and the Greek president to adopt, the decree - as stipulated in the law - regulating the use of spyware by the state while applying the safeguards mentioned above, as well as repeal all export licences that are not fully in line with EU's Dual-Use Regulation.
* The Greek justice system should bring justice for the illegitimate and illegal spying on media professionals in a swift, independent and transparent manner, by inviting Europol to join the investigations using the evidence provided by the journalists' investigations and treating the specific cases as a felony (rather than as a misdemeanour which expires after five years);
* The government and parliament should refrain from taking any steps that weaken the functional independence of the ADAE, as well other independent authorities (incl. the Data Protection Authority, National Transparency Authority etc.) and ensure these bodies are free to carry out their mandate to investigate wiretapping without any political pressure or arbitrary prosecution of their representatives. The Government should refrain from political interference in the work of Chief Prosecutor.
SAFETY AND IMPUNITY
More than two years after the murder of Greek crime reporter Giorgios Karaivaz, a monument on the scene of the crime reminds passers-by of one of the darkest days for Greek journalism. As time passes, the site has also become a monument to the continuing impunity for this crime. During this mission, the delegation spoke with journalists, editors, relatives and state authorities to understand the ongoing impact of the murder and the status of the investigation. The delegation also reviewed other safety incidents and crimes committed against journalists since the previous online mission to Greece in December 2021. The mission also attempted to learn from authorities which steps have been taken to expedite justice for all crimes committed against journalists, including the murder of Karavaiz, and to promote the safety of journalists in the country. This section outlines the findings regarding these meetings, concluding with recommendations to the Greek authorities. A separate section has been added to cover conclusions regarding the new Task Force on Safety for Journalists, in which Greek journalists unions, government stakeholders and academics collaborate on improved prevention and protection measures.
Threats against journalists
Although Greek authorities do not publish comprehensive data on the exact number of press freedom violations in Greece, journalists interviewed during the mission spoke of a deteriorating situation and increasing threats and attacks in the last few years. There has been a steady stream of alerts by international press freedom organisations on the Council of Europe Safety for Journalists Platform and the Mapping Media Freedom Platform, which have registered 39 and 61 alerts since January 2021 respectively. Most of these attacks remain unpunished.
Threats against journalists have taken many forms. Journalists and media houses are targeted by attacks from anarchist groups. Greece has a history of attacks by anarchists and extremists against public buildings, private enterprises including media houses and journalists homes. Since 2019 there have been eleven such attacks mainly targeting media premises and following the same pattern - premises attacked by night, with no victims. Accountability for these attacks is rare.
Reporters covering protests and demonstrations, especially photojournalists, meanwhile face police violence and violence from protesters. Interlocutors emphasised that police fail to sufficiently protect them from hostile protesters, police hinder their reporting by not differentiating them from protesters and detain them. At times, media workers feel targeted by police which represent a source of aggression and hostility. Journalists covering topics like organised crime, corruption and migration and refugee issues are also vulnerable. Two recent acts of violence and hostility against journalists highlight the risks reporters carry when they cover alleged corruption. In recent years there have been arson attacks and even death threats, assassination plots against them. Physical attacks on journalists by members of the public outside the context of protests remain relatively rare.
Journalists covering migration and refugee issues highlighted that covering migration policy, including incidents such as pushbacks and other violations of human rights at the EU border, has become progressively challenging. A major concern was that Greek authorities impede their work, as they sometimes suspend altogether or regularly restrict their access to refugee camps to formal visit in a highly-controlled environment. This practice continued in 2023. Reporters covering migration spoke of law enforcement personnel who act aggressively against them, hinder their work or fail to protect them from individuals who threaten or attack them while they are reporting on the ground. Overall, less cases involving journalists reporting from the Greek islands of refugees and migration topics have been recorded in the past year, a trend confirmed by stakeholders the delegation met with.
Online abuse of journalists in Greece is common, particularly on social media platforms, as in other EU countries. Politicians and public officials from major parties occasionally use hostile rhetoric and smear campaigns against critical journalists, which are often followed by online trolling attacks. Female journalists are especially exposed to such risks. However, public denigration of journalists by government officials is currently less pronounced than in other EU countries.
Impunity for crimes against journalists in Greece
According to the presentation shared with this mission by the Task Force on Ensuring the Protection, Safety and Empowerment of Journalists and other Media Professionals, in Greece: "for attacks that have occurred, the perpetrators have been driven out and justice has been taken (a fact reflected, both in the Observatory on Media Pluralism and the EU Rule of Law Report 2023)". The mission was not able to verify this statement, but its research indicates that this is not the case for many reported crimes against journalists. In fact, this claim can in fact not be traced back to the Observatory on Media Pluralism and EU Rule of Law Reports on Greece, as neither report mentions data or findings that corroborate this statement.
Based on the meetings with journalists and government representatives, the delegation observes the following issues with regards to impunity for crimes against journalists:
1. Greece currently has two unresolved cases involving the murder of journalists, with seemingly no actions planned to expedite investigations or evaluate the failure to apprehend all responsible actors
Greece is the only Member State of the European Union with two open cases of impunity for the murder of a journalist. The 2021 murder of Giorgios Karaivaz saw two arrests of suspected assassins in April 2023. However, the pair have not yet been brought to court and no tangible progress has been made towards arrests and prosecution of the masterminds of the crime. The 2010 murder of Sokratis Giolias also remains unresolved. In meetings with government representatives, the mission inquired about the reason for these delays of justice and asked what steps will be taken to guarantee a successful prosecution. While the delegation respects the confidentiality of ongoing criminal investigations, it notes that the representatives of the Ministry of Civil Protection and Justice did not indicate that evaluations or analyses were ongoing to determine the cause of the delays and identify opportunities to expedite the investigations.
In line with European case law about cases involving the investigation of murders of journalists, states should be able to provide highly plausible and convincing reasons to justify the excessive length of proceedings and take all measures available to it to pursue successful prosecution. Some of such measures have been suggested in the European Commission Recommendation on the Safety of Journalists, such as the establishment of special police units and training of investigative officers. In meetings with government representatives, the mission did not receive information about the intention to adopt such measures. The delegation inquired about the existence of a special protocol for the investigation of crimes against journalists, as has been suggested in several international instruments, but was informed that such protocol is not in place nor scheduled to be implemented.
2. Comprehensive data on impunity for crimes against journalists is lacking
The mission heard that the Ministry of Justice has access to reports of crimes filed by journalists in relation to their work through its statistical service. However, the ministry was not able to provide such data and many stakeholders, including journalists and unions, reported that they have not been able to obtain such data via government bodies. The mission encourages the plans of the Government Taskforce to improve data on safety for journalists in Greece in collaboration with its academic stakeholders, and highly recommends that data concerning impunity for crimes against journalists is included. Moreover, data gathering efforts should also consider cases which are currently not being reported to the police. Several journalists cited procedural thresholds as the reason for not filing a report. For example, one mentioned that filing police reports after online threats is highly time-consuming as separate reports have to be filed for each online threat. Two journalists mentioned that in some cases, police do not start an investigation but instead solve the case informally, without a police report being made. It was also mentioned that the perception among journalists that crimes against journalists always go unpunished in Greece, discourages them from filing reports with the police. Lastly, the delegation was told by two editors-in-chiefs, who spoke on the basis of anonymity, that they typically do not file police reports when their staff is physically attacked in relation to their journalistic work.
3. The journalists with whom the mission spoke report that, as a rule, criminal cases they have filed after safety incidents have not led to arrests or court proceedings
4. Despite international legal obligations, transparency around investigations is lacking. Both victims and the general public are insufficiently informed, further exacerbating the chilling effect of impunity.
As comprehensive data is missing, the mission was not able to include an impunity rate for reported cases of attacks on journalists in Greece. However, all journalists interviewed indicated that they were never informed of arrests or convictions in their case. This is in line with the finding that most of the cases of physical attacks and threats reported on the Council of Europe Safety for Journalists and the Mapping Media Freedom Platform remain unpunished. Moreover, journalists who have become victims of attacks report that they are poorly informed about the status of the investigation and often do not hear from police authorities after having filed a report. Public announcements about steps taken or the status of investigations are also scarce, including in the cases of murdered journalists Giorgios Karaivaz and Sokratis Giolias. News of the arrests made in the case of Karaivaz in April 2023 were not announced in a formal press conference, but in a message on the personal Facebook-page of the Minister of Justice.
While secrecy laws do apply for confidentiality concerning police investigations, case law of the European Court of Human Rights confirms that police do have to allow a degree of public scrutiny over the investigation. As the European Court of Human Rights has confirmed in several cases, in addition to immediate relatives of the victims, the public must also be informed to such an extent that it can hold authorities to account in cases of misconduct or failure to investigate. 1 The Greek authorities' silence and consistent referral to the secrecy of investigations are therefore not acceptable, particularly as the lack of updates about investigations of crimes against journalists suggest that the perpetrators are not being pursued, potentially exacerbating the chilling effect of these crimes on other journalists.
5. As was noted in the Rule of Law-reports of 2022 and 2023 by the European Commission, there is no independently appointed oversight body monitoring the public prosecution, including the prosecution of crimes against journalists. The body authorised to do so, the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, remains a political appointment.
The Rule of Law-country reports on Greece of both 2022 and 2023 pointed out the lack of involvement of the judiciary in the appointment of the highest positions in the judiciary and prosecution. This is not an issue specific to the investigation of crimes against journalists, but several interlocutors raised this issue in light of the role of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court in addressing the persistent impunity for crimes against journalists. By law, the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court is the highest oversight body over the public prosecution, and thereby uniquely mandated to oversee the quality of prosecutorial investigations and to intervene in inadequate prosecutions. Interlocutors reported this office is in practice reluctant to intervene in ongoing cases, and hesitant to do so as to avoid the insinuation of political interference, given its appointment through presidential decree. Similarly, in meetings with government officials it was mentioned that they are not able to investigate why prosecutions of perpetrators of crimes against journalists are not yielding (prompt) results, as they are not able to access this information across cases due to the independence of the prosecution. As long as the prosecutor does not take up this role, or an independently appointed authority is established in line with the recommendations from the European Commission, this accountability gap remains.
Recommendations on safety
In line with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Commission's Recommendation on the Safety of Journalists, the mission recommends:
* The Public Prosecutor should dedicate additional resources and seek assistance from international bodies such as Europol in the case of the murder of Giorgios Karaivaz;
* The parliament and government, especially the Ministry of Civil Protection and Justice, should prioritise and commit to prompt, effective and independent investigations of crimes against journalists by dedicating additional resources and staff to these cases, recognising their special nature and impact on the public sphere;
* The Prosecutor of the Supreme Court should commission an independent evaluation of all unresolved cases of attacks against journalists, including cases involving police violence, the conclusions of which should be publicised;
1 Ramsahai and Others v. The Netherlands. App. 52391/99 (ECtHR, 15 May 2007), par. 353; Giuliani and Gaggio v. Italy. App. 23458/02 (ECtHR, 24 March 2011), par. 303
* The newly established spokesperson of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court should take a leading role in the regular dissemination of information about investigations to restore faith in the commitment to justice and ensure greater transparency about ongoing investigations, in particular towards the victims and their families.
Task Force on Ensuring Protection of Journalists: Need for further steps forward
In July 2022, the Greek government established the Task Force on Ensuring the Protection, Safety and Empowerment of Journalists and other Media Professionals to help implement the EU Recommendation and the Council of Europe Recommendation on the safety of journalists and the various UN resolutions on this issue. The Task Force is the result of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between six Greek ministries in May 2022 (General Secretariat for Communication and Information, the Presidency of the Government; General Secretariat for Justice and Human Rights, the Ministry of Justice; General Secretariat for Public Order, the Ministry of Citizen Protection; General Secretariat for Demographic and Family Policy and Gender Equality, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs; General Secretariat for Telecommunications and Post, the Ministry of Digital Governance; and General Secretariat, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and representatives of journalist unions and associations, universities, public service media, news agencies, and other relevant stakeholders 2 .
The Task Force aims to pursue the objectives of the MoU, that have been developed in line with Commission Recommendation (EU) 2021/1534 on ensuring the protection, safety and empowerment of journalists and other media professionals in the European Union. Hence, the main goals of the Task Force, as described in the MoU, can be summarised as follows:
* Monitor the situation on the safety of journalists in the country;
* Promote legislation, public policies and other actions, such as training, to promote the safety of journalists, with a special focus on women, youth, local and digital media, and take into account the recommendations proposed by the Task Force's members to address the main challenges;
* Promote multi-stakeholder coordination and collaboration.
2 The Task Force consists of the following representatives: the Secretariat General for Communication and Media; the Ministry of Justice; the Ministry of Citizen Protection; the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs; the Ministry of Digital Governance; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation; the Athens – Macedonian News Agency; the Department of "Communication, Media and Culture" of Panteion University; the Department of "Communication and Media" of National and Kapodestrian University of Athens; the Department of "Journalism and Media" of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki; Journalists' Union of Athens Daily Newspapers; Journalists' Union of Macedonia and Thrace; Journalists' Union of Peloponnese, Ipirus and Islands Daily Newspapers; Journalists' Union of the Daily Newspapers of Thessaly, Central Greece and Evia; Panhellenic Association of Journalists' Union; Journalists' Union of periodical and electronic Press; the Union of Press Photographers – Greece; the Panhellenic Sports Press Association; the Foreign Press Association of Greece; the Union of Private Television Technicians of Northern Greece; and the Union of Private Television Technicians of Attica.
Since its creation, and according to the Secretariat General for Communication and Media of the Presidency of the Government, with whom the delegation met during the mission, the main actions taken since its creation have been the creation of an International Training Centre for the Safety of Journalists and other ME Professionals, the development a survey on the needs of Greek journalists in relation on their safety, organise and/or support to training, and the development of protection measures to be taken by the public service broadcasting. In summary, and in the words of the Task Force Chairman, Dimitrios Galamatis, "our biggest achievement is intangible, the osmosis between different media professionals and sectors: authorities, professional associations, media, universities, etc".
While the establishment of this Task Force for the protection of journalists, being the first time all relevant stakeholders are speaking about these issues at the same table, is a step in the right direction, the MFRR mission concludes that the Task Force needs to take the following steps towards strengthening its operations and transparent activities:
* Greater human and financial resources should be effectively implemented. While the Secretariat General for Communication and Media of the Presidency of the Government provides administrative support, there is no time-bound specific budget assigned to this initiative.
* Develop a more concrete and measurable work plan, concrete objectives, and timeline to pursue its objectives. The MFRR mission identified the lack of concrete specific and measurable indicators to measure the impact.
* Improve transparency. The Secretariat General for Communication and Media of the Presidency of the Government prepared a report to the EC as part of their obligation to report on the implementation of the EU Recommendation after 18 months from its approval; however, according to some of the interviews undertaken during the mission and the Foreign Press Association of Greece, the report was not agreed among all members of the Task Force and shared with all of them before submission. Also, the Task Force should proactively publish these reports.
* Greater communication. The MFRR mission found that most Greek journalists are unaware of the existence of the Task Force. The Secretariat General for Communication and Media of the Presidency of the Government recognised that raising awareness about the existence of the Task Force has not been a priority. The mission believes this should be swiftly prioritised to ensure all media and journalists in Greece can benefit from its work.
* Stronger focus on SLAPPS. The mission has identified SLAPPs as one of the most worrying trends in Greece, but the Task Force has not taken action on this particular issue. Therefore, the Task Force needs to promote legislative actions and support the recently created SLAPPs Observatory by the Journalists' Union of Athens Daily Newspapers, and use the data for its work to address SLAPPs.
* Strengthen monitoring of attacks to have data and information on the state of safety of journalists in Greece. While there is a proposal to create an observatory in cooperation with universities, which seems to be a good approach to ensure its independence, currently there are no funds available for this, making the effective implementation of this initiative improbable.
* Reporting to international monitoring mechanisms. The Greek government has had an active role in the development of international standards on the safety of journalists, in particular at the UN Security Council and at the UN General Assembly, where Greece plays a leading role in the drafting of these safety of journalists resolutions that have increasingly strengthened the international standards on this issue. The Task Force can support the development of the reports on the implementation of these resolutions, in which Greece has not engaged in a systematic manner, as well as provide inputs for SDG Voluntary National Review (SDG indicator 16.10.1).
SLAPPS AND LEGAL PRESSURE
Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and other forms of legal pressures and threats are among the most serious factors that are negatively affecting journalists in Greece. The response of the government to this issue has been limited and much more needs to be done in this regard, both in terms of potential domestic legislative remedies as well as in terms of awareness raising and support to targets of SLAPPs. A number of recent legal cases involving serious criminal charges against journalists and media actors further darken the legal landscape for the exercise of free and independent journalism in Greece. Despite constitutional protections, the legal landscape can be strengthened. While understanding of SLAPPs has been increasing in Greece in recent years, more also remains to be done to document and address these kinds of frivolous lawsuits.
SLAPPS and criminal lawsuits
Both the 2022 EU Rule of Law report and earlier MFRR reports identified SLAPPs and legal threats as one of the problems affecting media freedom and journalists in Greece. This assessment was largely confirmed by the mission. During the interviews, the mission heard from journalists who have been targeted by SLAPPs. As in many other countries, politicians and powerful businesspeople were identified as the main authors of these vexatious lawsuits. In addition to SLAPPs, in a number of cases criminal lawsuits were also brought against journalists and arrests were threatened. There is no systematic collection of data vis-à-vis these lawsuits and therefore information about SLAPPs relies on direct testimonies and on the cases that reach international attention.
One of them was the independent media outlet Altheress from Thessaloniki, which in 2020 reported about the first-instance conviction of two Greek executives of a gold mining company. Altheress was sued under GDPR law in October 2021, one year later, by one of these executives for reporting what the plaintiff claimed was sensitive personal data. In fact, the media outlet had simply reported the first instance convictions in open court and without reporting restrictions. The verdict was annulled in the second instance. However, despite the initial report following all international standards, the judge found the journalist, Stavroula Poulimeni, guilty at the end of March 2023 and it ordered them to pay 3,000 euros in compensation for damages. This verdict was appealed and a final decision is expected in April 2024. In the meantime the lawsuit is ongoing. The journalist said that in the future she would be afraid to write names of people convicted in open court again, that the procedures take a long time, and this has a serious psychological impact. A second case concerned journalist Maria Panagiotou, of the newspaper Dimokratia, who faced several lawsuits initiated by an important Greek-Israeli businessman for amounts ranging from 350,000 to 500,000 Euros. Even if eventually they were acquitted by the Supreme Court, the procedure lasted for more than two years and this was mentally and financially very demanding.
MFRR representatives examined two more cases concerning Thodoris Chondrogiannos and Nikola Leontopoulos, both journalists at investigative platform Reporters United. In 2022, a recycling company sent a legal note before the publication of an article by Reporters United, with the aim of stopping the publication. Reporters United stood behind their report, the article was published and eventually no lawsuit was initiated by the company. Earlier on in 2020, the same recycling company had initiated a SLAPP and claimed 80,000 euros plus interests on defamation charges against Chondrogiannos and the media outlet he was working for. The case was eventually dismissed by the court in 2023 which confirmed the accuracy of the investigation. The company did not appeal.
The two journalists of Reporters United were later targeted in another SLAPP initiated by Grigoris Dimitriadis, the former Secretary General (and nephew) of the Greek Prime Minister, following his resignation from office. The resignation came after the illegal surveillance cases linked to the Predator spyware scandal. Dimitriadis initiated lawsuits for defamation claiming 400,000 euros of damages against the two journalists. Besides the journalists at Reporters United, the journalist Thanasis Koukakis - who was himself a spyware victim - and the newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton (EFSYN) were also targeted by such lawsuits. Koukakis was sued for sharing a tweet linked to a media report. The MFRR had already intervened in this case and earlier on the case was also reported by CASE, the Coalition against Slapps in Europe. The case was heard in court in Athens on 25 January 2024. After the mission was concluded, Dimitriadis filed another multi-million-euro lawsuit against journalists from Reporters United and EFSYN.
During this time, Greece saw more SLAPPs documented than most other EU member states, according to CASE and MFRR data, underscoring the severity of the issue in Greece. Documentation of such cases is ongoing. On a positive note, the SLAPP phenomenon in Greece has increased the solidarity amongst journalists, in particular investigative journalists. Media actors now talk to each other about SLAPPs and this has generated psychological support amongst targeted journalists.
Besides SLAPPs journalists have also faced criminal lawsuits in recent years, such as in the Novartis case, where Kostas Vaxevanis, publisher of Documento newspaper, Ioanna Papadakou, a former investigative journalist for To Vima newspaper, Ioannis Filippakis, publisher of newspaper Dimokratia and Alexandros Tarkas, a reporter at Dimokratia, were criminally charged of, amongst other crimes, being members of a criminal organisation aimed at fabricating stories about the Novartis scandal. According to Greek law, such charges could have led to prison sentences of approximately 20 years. Eventually they were acquitted in June 2022 as the Judicial Council of the Supreme Court considered their charges baseless and declined to send the case further to trial. After the mission ended, in early November 2023, Vaxevanis and one of the newspaper's journalists, Vangelis Triantis, were then summoned as suspects as part of a criminal investigation into "possible offence of the use of official secrecy" in connection with their investigative reporting.
In December 2023, after the mission was completed, Documento announced it had received a fine of 435,000 euros from the Independent Authority of Public Revenue (AADE) in relation to discounts the newspaper had allegedly given for advertisements in 2017. After Documento's appeal, the fine was reduced to 240,000 EUR. The fine was condemned by the newspaper as politically motivated and aimed at crippling its business. The newspaper planned to appeal the fine in court. The validity of the claim will be assessed in court.
Accused by an airport officer of making a false bomb alert, the Franco-Canadian freelance journalist based in Greece, Romain Chauvet, has been sentenced by an Athens court to a six-month suspended prison sentence for "disseminating false information" on 26 October 2023, after the mission concluded. The reporter went to the airport with an official authorization to cover the arrival of Canadian citizens from Israel after the attack by Hamas and asked the airport officer for more information on the flight. He was convicted in a word-against-word procedure without solid evidence, according to Reporters Without Borders. Albeit not targeting a journalistic publication, the verdict potentially represents a dangerous precedent in the application of the law against fake news. It was the first time in several years this legislation was used to convict a journalist.
Impact of SLAPPs on journalists
Many of those interviewed during the mission seemed confident in the positive outcome of those lawsuits, even in cases where the judges found that mistakes had occurred, the sanctions, in financial terms, have been relatively mild. Some of the interviewed journalists stated that "judges in Greece are very careful with journalists' cases in court. Even when they decide there was a mistake, they are careful with the amount of money imposed". Indeed legal standards foresee that journalists can name names in particular if in the case there is a public interest and this would not justify proceedings against them.
The frivolous character of the lawsuits and the fact that in many cases might be rejected are not the main concerns of journalists in Greece. Journalists in Greece are more concerned by the psychological impact of such lawsuits and by the fact that preparing an adequate defence requires a great amount of resources both in terms of time and money. In addition journalists stated that they have to be constantly in court and this is severely testing their psychological resilience. The chilling effect was clear as journalists openly told the mission that they will be afraid to write names again out of fear of unjustified legal retaliation.
In addition, due to the legal structure of online portals and the fact that the law holds accountable all those sitting on the board of such organisations, the impact of a SLAPP goes beyond those writing articles and it could indeed put at risk the whole media outlet in case this is a NGO. As one of the journalists wrote the "lawsuit has destabilised us […]. It is also an existential crisis". As a result of SLAPPs, journalistic portals may have to change their internal organisation and legal structure to avoid everybody in the board being liable to lawsuits. In particular for NGOs this impact can affect not only freedom of expression but the same right to association.
SLAPPs have an additional impact on journalists in Greece. The editor-in-chief of a leading newspaper stated that they can rely on "significant firepower" in terms of institutional legal support from their publisher and therefore they are not too concerned by SLAPPs. The same was confirmed by Kostas Vaxevanis, journalist and media owner whose investigative newspaper Documento produces investigative journalism in Greece. The impact of SLAPPs is instead much more damaging in the case of relatively new and smaller journalistic initiatives in Greece. For independent, freelance journalists or NGOs and other organisations, relying on project funding or unsteady income, the impact of a SLAPPs can be a major threat, both in terms of possible damages to pay but also because the time spent in courts is not a productive time.
It is legitimate to conclude thus that SLAPPs disproportionately affect smaller and independent journalistic projects in Greece, rather than well-established and more financially stable media outlets with wealthier owners. Considering the fact that many of these smaller projects focus on investigative journalism, the negative impact is twofold: on one side, it negatively affects the pluralism of media sources in favour of large media, and on the other it also threatens independent journalism on public interest topics like environmental protection, corruption, migration and similar sensitive areas.
The response of institutions
Against this background, the response of the Greek authorities has failed to materialise. To date, the government doesn't seem to have taken any decisive steps to tackle the SLAPPs as envisaged in the April 2022 European Commission Recommendation, which calls on member states to protect journalists and human rights defenders who engage in public participation from manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings.
Given the impact in terms of time and resources of SLAPPs on journalism in Greece, the possibility of an early dismissal of SLAPPs would be a welcome step. However, the mission did not identify evidence of such practice by the Greek courts. All those interviewed confirmed that cases were either pending, some of them for years, or that they had reached a final decision. In a similar way, the mission was not made aware of any support initiative, like free legal aid or psychological support, which could help journalists deal with SLAPPs. On a more positive side, as reported by the journalists themselves there has been a certain restraint by the judicial authorities in applying penalties in those cases when journalists were found to be liable.
In this regard, the most significant development has been the creation of an Observatory on SLAPPs, which was announced in the context of the Task Force created by the government to support journalists (see section above on measures to protect the safety of journalists). The Observatory is an initiative of the Panhellenic Federation of Journalists Association (POESY) and it is the result of the mobilisation of journalists and awareness raising that was created within the Task Force. The Observatory was established by a decision of the Board of Directors of the POESY and it aims at recording, denouncing and publicising SLAPPs, to exert pressure for changes in the legal framework in line with the expected EU Directive and to cooperate with European and Greek organisations to put barriers to this phenomenon. Other objectives of the Observatory also include the education and training of all those involved in cooperation with legal professionals.
POESY has created a form on its website where SLAPPs can be recorded. Journalists victims of SLAPPs can submit in full confidentiality information on their cases. However, the cases will be processed only for information purposes. In addition to the form, POESY also provides information on SLAPP cases and other SLAPP-related news and it collects relevant information on legislative developments related to SLAPPs.
While this initiative is a welcome tool to gather information and at the same time to raise awareness on SLAPPS, at the moment it appears to be the only one aimed at countering SLAPPs. It is also significant that many journalists didn't seem to be aware of it as they also seemed to be unaware of the government's Task Force. More initiatives will have to be developed to provide support for journalists and tackle the problems of SLAPPs.
Conclusions and recommendations
In the course of the mission, the delegation was informed about possible legislative changes like removing suspended sentences for first instance conviction for defamation. The representatives of the Ministry of Justice sitting in the Government Task Force confirmed that this is in reality a bill of law and that they are considering the abolition of the criminal offence of defamation while retaining the one of libel. It was confirmed to the mission that the suspensive effect of such convictions will remain in place and moreover that the implications of the chilling effect on journalists will also be taken into consideration. For this reason, the mission recommends to the Greek government and parliament to:
* Ensure that amendments to the rules applicable to criminal defamation do not have an inadvertent negative impact on press freedom and ensure adequate time for public debate and consultation of Greek and international stakeholders to provide their input on pertinent legislative changes.
It is clear however that the response to SLAPPs by the Greek state is to date inadequate. Besides the Observatory on SLAPPs there has been no other significant initiative aimed at improving the situation of journalists in Greece. There is no early dismissal of SLAPPS, there is no award of damages to affected journalists, legal aid as well as psychological support for journalists are lacking. The Greek state to date has not yet undertaken any measures to tackle SLAPPs. The initiative of the Observatory on SLAPPs and the activities conducted under the Task Force remain unknown to many journalists who feel that they are targeted by powerful actors and have no support or assistance whatsoever.
It is the responsibility of the Greek state to remedy the current situation. A first step should be of a political nature: political leaders in Greece should invite their own party affiliates to stop suing journalists on frivolous and abusive grounds. While legitimate protection of reputation in response to defamatory reporting is of course credible, retaliatory legal filings aimed at suppressing watchdog reporting must be avoided. Such a gesture could have immediate positive effects. For this reason, the mission recommends that:
* The current political leadership in Greece publicly shows restraint and commits not to initiate abusive and frivolous lawsuits against journalists.
A second step would be to implement the measures recommended by the European Commission in April 2022 for the purpose of addressing and mitigating the effects of SLAPPS. The mission therefore recommends that:
* The government, parliament and judicial bodies take effective, appropriate and proportionate measures to address manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings against public participation, in line with the European Commission's April 2022 Recommendation
Finally, considering the fact that many members of the journalist community were unaware of the work of the Task Force and the different initiatives conducted in this context, it becomes important that the Greek government engages with the journalistic community in sharing information on the steps taken. For this reason, the Greek government should:
* Provide transparency on the steps taken by publishing its forthcoming report to the European Commission on the implementation of the April 2022 Recommendation.
These are only preliminary recommendations. Their implementation however would send an important signal to the journalist community while at the same time showing that a sincere effort had been undertaken to improve the media freedom in Greece.
MEDIA PLURALISM AND INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
Media ownership and transparency
Undercutting the immediate challenges outlined so far, the Greek media ecosystem continues to suffer from multiple longer-term and systemic challenges that negatively affect the landscape for independent journalism and press freedom. Many of these issues can be traced to the country's prolonged financial and economic crisis, which has severely weakened the media market and deepened the toxic entanglement of media with vested political and business interests. Although Greece has a relatively well-developed legal framework, many challenges also stem from the deregulated development of the media market in previous decades. While the modern Greek media market remains densely populated and vibrant, political polarisation is deeply ingrained within the media ecosystem and media pluralism is weak despite the large number of media outlets. News reporting that risks damaging the message control of the government, including reporting on topics such as refugee pushbacks or human rights violations, is largely absent in the mainstream media, particularly television.
Much of the Greek media landscape can be characterised by a relationship of interdependency between media owners and political elites - the ruling New Democracy party in particular. Many major print and television channels are owned by familial dynasties and magnates in the country's lucrative shipping industry, many of whom have political connections and crossownership interests in industries dependent on state contracts. These political and financial relationships of these owners expose their media to potential conflicts of interest and weaken their editorial independence. This has contributed to a media ecosystem in which, although there is a high number of media titles, real media pluralism is weak and independent journalism which fulfills its watchdog role has been pushed to the fringes. During the mission, one stakeholder at a legacy newspaper described media ownership as "the elephant in the room" in discussions about media freedom. The firewalls between editorial newsrooms and owners, though never historically strong in Greece, have in some cases been diluted. Greece does not have laws or self-regulatory mechanisms to limit editorial independence or protect journalists from unjustified dismissals by ownership. As a result, although direct acts of censorship are understood to be rare, self-censorship is understood to be common within the journalistic profession and certain topics are understood to be off-limits.
Greece has historically suffered from non-transparent ownership of media outlets by beneficial owners with connections to political parties and other vested interests. In the last few years, several regulatory and legal reforms have been implemented by the government to try and address these issues. Positive changes recognised by the mission include the new Registry for Print Media (MET) and Registry for Electronic Press (MHT), which aim to improve the transparency of media ownership, including beneficial ownership. Under a new system, media not registered in these bodies are not eligible to benefit from state advertising or other forms of state support. The Ethics Committee and the Directorate for Media Oversight likewise represent a new approach, which will hopefully have a positive impact on improving media ethics. However, so far the impact of these changes remains unclear and public access to the registries remains challenging. The mission heard criticism that the platform had not been updated and is not user-friendly. In the field of media regulation, the independence and competence of the National Council for Radio and Television (NCRTV) regulator also remains in doubt. The NCRTV, the country's main broadcast regulator, also faces challenges due to a lack of financial resources, which limits its ability to carry out its mission. No concerns were raised during the mission about regulatory decisions or discriminatory sanctions by the body against broadcast media. Legislation that prevents high ownership concentration is lacking.
State advertising and support
State advertising to media in Greece, though not the dominant source of income for media industry like in some other EU countries, has long suffered from politicisation and meddling. In the last two years, the New Democracy government responded to a financing scandal and has undertaken welcome efforts to better regulate the distribution of public funds to the media. During the COVID-19 pandemic, advertising distributed via a third party agency on behalf of the state was shown to have been manipulated to reward media close to the ruling party. Amidst the lockdown the government allocated €20 million to the media to carry public health messages. It outsourced the distribution of these funds to a private company. After public pressure, the government released the list of media outlets and sums they received. This was dubbed the Petsas List - named after government spokesperson Stelios Petsas. Analysis showed that many outlets perceived as "opposition" media received disproportionately lower levels of advertising compared to more governmentfriendly media, despite the fact that many had higher circulation and readership. Of the 1,232 outlets that receive financial aid, instead included more than 200 digital entities not listed in the country's Online Media Register, including inactive or non-existent websites or obscure blogs with little or no readers. This scandal underscored a wider issue over the nontransparent allocation of state support to media down political lines.
In 2022, the New Democracy government passed a new media law establishing new rules for the distribution of state advertising in both printed and electronic press. Under this new system, media that are not listed with the media registries would be barred from receiving any form of public money. The government also issued a Joint Ministerial Decision that regulated the distribution of direct subsidies to media. These reforms - aimed at improving the transparency of media support from the state - were seen as a response by the government to the 'Petsas List' scandal and are recognised by the mission as a positive step. However, their effectiveness remains to be seen. In 2023, a new scheme for state support to national, regional, and local media was implemented by the government. However, some of the criteria used for state advertising to media in Greece is still not clear, meaning the system remains open to abuse, despite improvements. Watchdog Vouliwatch has campaigned for years for transparency and accountability of the use of public money in the Petsas List case. In October 2023, it appealed to the European Court of Human Rights for full transparency and access to all data and criteria on which the money was allocated.
As well as from political interests, Greek media outlets have historically been vulnerable to pressure from corporate advertisers, as well as the banking industry. Though the topic is not often discussed publicly, it is common knowledge within the industry that advertisers seek to influence news output, undermining media independence. In an anonymised survey conducted by the Incubator for Media Education and Development (iMEDd) 80% of Greek journalists said that they self-censor while doing their job. The survey concluded that this resulted from a cultivated "culture" of avoiding certain topics or powerful business interests. The banking sector, powerful business owners, and companies dominating the advertising market are, to differing levels, regarded as off limits at legacy and major media titles. This pervasive self-censorship among journalists due to external pressures negatively affects the ability of the press to carry out its watchdog role. Mission participants met with colleagues from iMEDd during the visit and participated in the organisation's annual journalism festival.
Public service media
Multiple requests by the mission partners to meet with management representatives from the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) as part of the visit to Athens did not receive a response. In Greece, the country's public media have faced decades of challenges stemming from both political and economic pressures. Despite a period of overall stabilisation after a prolonged crisis under previous governments, questions remain over the independence of the country's public service broadcaster and national press agency, the Athens News Agency/Macedonian Press Agency (ANA-MPA). While efforts at depoliticisation under the current government have been partially successful, critics argue this process sometimes comes at the expense of public interest reporting.
The ongoing oversight of the ERT and the Athens-Macedonian News Agency by the office of the Prime Minister continues to call into question the institutional independence of both bodies, despite ostensible safeguards. This oversight by the General Secretariat for Information and Communication, supervised by the PM's office, was one of the first measures taken after New Democracy was elected in 2019. The measure was justified at the time as stabilising the broadcaster and reducing political partisanship, which had been continued under the previous government. Konstantinos Zoulas, the former head of his party's press office, was appointed by the prime minister as ERT president, posing accusations of overt political interference. Serious questions remain over the competence of a government minister over the appointment of the management of the broadcaster. The ERT's CEO, president and its board of directors are appointed unilaterally by a government minister. Under this new management system, the general assessment of media experts and media representatives spoken to during the mission is that ERT has become more professional and less politicised - which are welcome developments. At the same time, public-interest reporting is perceived to have declined, and the broadcaster continues to suffer from a lack of institutional independence, making it vulnerable to political influence.
In addition to political pressures, ERT has also faced long-term economic challenges which limit its ability to carry out its public interest mission. On a positive note, at least 800 new staff were hired at the broadcaster's different channels between 2019-2022. However, these contracts are subject to renewal every 6-12 months, creating a partial culture of employment instability. Overall, public interest reporting at ERT is lacking and serious topics go unreported, indicating self censorship or more overt forms of censorship and an aversion to sensitive topics which could damage the government. Coverage of the spyware scandal was cited during the mission interviews as a principal example. Although the scandal involving the alleged state surveillance of a journalist was revealed in April 2022 ERT did not report on it until March 2023, when an opposition was revealed to have been spied on. Others pointed to the lack of coverage about international allegations of illegal pushbacks of refugees and migrants by Greek authorities in the Mediterranean. While the government argues its policies since 2019 in depoliticising the broadcaster, critics see this as a subtle form of control, although one less aimed at overtly promoting a political agenda. As a result, despite the dedicated work of many journalists within the broadcaster to inform citizens, the broadcaster continues to suffer from low levels of public trust which will take years to rebuild.
The ANA-MPA meanwhile also faces challenges from political oversight and a lack of independence from politics. Although the influence of the ERT on the Greek media ecosystem has been diminished over time, the power of the ANA-MPA in shaping news content in the country remains high. The agency's content amounts to almost 80% of all news content in Greek media. This role in the production and dissemination of news has made it a more important body for control by successive governments. The main form of political influence over the agency continues to come from government appointments to its management board. The board of directors is made up of nine members, the majority of whom are appointed by the government. Like ERT, the agency was put under direct prime ministerial control in 2019. Under this system, it has faced accusations of a selective approach to news dissemination. In November 2022, the Journalists' Union of the Athens Daily Newspapers (ESIEA) issued a statement criticising the repeated violation of the journalistic principle of pluralism by the ANA-MPA. The union said it received regular complaints about how the agency presents current affairs only through the responses of government officials, without reference to the news that prompted the response or to statements that complete the picture. It is also criticised for lack of news critical of the New Democracy government. The political control over the national news agency is one of the principal forms of "message control" used by the Greek government.
Independent Journalism: Conclusions
The toxic capture of the fourth estate and the symbiotic relationship between major media owners and political elites in Greece is as problematic as in many of the EU's worst offenders for media freedom. Due to the dependence of many media owners on the state and the web of personal connections with media owners and political figures, self censorship is common and the ruling party already enjoys relatively favourable media coverage at the national level, particularly in the television market. These factors mean Greece exhibits a partial level of media capture, particularly within the private media landscape. Other elements of media capture, such as capture by government and state actors of public media, the system of state advertising to the press, and media regulation, are more limited in the case of Greece, though serious challenges persist in each area. While the country benefits from a small but highly professional group of independent and investigative media who have broken away or formed their own small platforms in recent years, these titles remain isolated on the fringes of the media landscape and lack systemic support. High quality watchdog and investigative journalism is being conducted in Greece on a daily basis. Yet all too often this content is drowned out by tabloid-style, opinion-based reporting. On other occasions, major revelations made by these investigative media are ignored or spun in a way to reduce potential damage for the government. Perception of the influence of commercial or political interests over the work of the media is high. The combination of these many challenges means Greek journalism faces a crisis of credibility, being one of the EU countries with the lowest level of trust in media by citizens. The challenges of pluralism and media independence are among the most complex to address and any positive developments in Greece will require action and responsibility from journalists and media, backed by unions, supported by strong political will from the government.
Recommendations to government:
* Ensure stringent implementation and monitoring of the new law governing the fair allocation of state advertising and all forms of state support to media, and ensure all funding to media through third party agencies is also distributed in a fair and transparent process, down market rather than political lines, in line with the provision in the EU's European Media Freedom Act (EMFA).
* Make public in full the information and decision-making process into the criteria used to create the pandemic-era 'Petsas List' of state support to media titles and end obstruction of legal attempts to seek accountability over the issue.
* Provide adequate financial resources to the National Council for Radio and Television (NCRTV) to guarantee it has capacity to effectively monitor and regulate the broadcaster sector; ensure all appointments to the regulator are made down professional criteria rather than political affiliation; limit all efforts by political forces to influence the NCRTV
* Increase transparency over media concentration and strengthen legislation to limit high levels of both vertical and horizontal ownership concentration in the media landscape in an effort to bolster real media pluralism. Ensure greater oversight of media acquisitions under competition law and ensure media pluralism is a key assessment criteria for future sales.
* Review the need for oversight by the office of the prime minister of ERT and ANAMPA. Establish a new system for appointments to supervisory and management boards of both institutions. Strengthen rules about the professional criteria of those able to be appointed to both bodies. Enhance safeguards for firing or replacement of management and editors at ERT and ANA-MPA to limit political meddling
* Strengthen the support fund for public interest, regional, community and investigative journalism in Greece through public grants, which is distributed on a tender basis through a third-party body with representation from journalistic and media experts
To the media and professional unions:
In media owned by wealthy and politically-connected commercial interests, particularly in legacy broadcast and print media, work to strengthen internal safeguards and firewalls to prevent all forms of interference of owners and other politics and business interests, while also protecting editorial independence and journalistic freedoms and discouraging selfcensorship; ensure journalists who speak out against censorship practices are given full support and financial aid to fight labour claims in court.
ROLE OF UNIONS AND IMPORTANCE OF SOLIDARITY
In Greece, there are several journalists' unions with a long history of trade action:
* Journalists Union of Athens Daily Newspapers - JUADN,
,
* Journalists Union of Macedonia and Thrace - ESIEMTH
* Journalists Union of Periodical and Electronic Media (ESPIT)
* Journalists Union of Daily Newspapers of Peloponnesus, Epirus and Islands -ESPIT
* Journalists Union of Central Greece and Euboia Daily Newspapers - ESIETHSTEE
All the above unions are affiliated with the Panhellenic - Federation of Trade Unions of Journalists (POESY). There is also the Greek Foreign Press Association (FPA), the only officially recognised organisation for foreign media representatives in the country.
In Athens, the delegation met with representatives of the Union of Journalists of Athens Daily Newspapers, including its president Maria Antoniadou, as well as the Vice-President, Secretary of Special Affairs and the President of the Printing Press Union. The delegation also met Sotiris Triantafyllou, President POESY.
The Greek media ecosystem has been weakened by the long-term financial and economic crisis in the country, which deepened the unfavourable position of journalists' weak social and labour protections, but also deepened the toxic intertwining of the media with political and business interests. The economic insecurity of journalists in Greece, caused by low wages and weak industry protection, makes media professionals more vulnerable to editorial pressure. Economic weaknesses in the media market also expose the Greek media to capture by vested interest groups, both political and business.
At a time when Greek journalists are working in press freedom conditions rated as among the worst in Europe, the financial crisis and the crisis of media pluralism are deepening, and the division in society is partly reflected in the division of the organisations that represent journalists in Greece. While the unions do continue to wield influence and engage individually on valuable initiatives, the fragmented nature of national union representation - which is split between regions and mediums - undermines the ability of the Greek media community to speak in one voice and advocate for better working conditions and pay. Greater cooperation is needed between the country's differing media unions. Many journalists working in the country's newer independent media were critical of a perceived lack of action by the unions in fighting strongly enough for journalistic rights and freedoms.
In its report on the Rule of Law published in July 2023, the European Commission warned that attacks and threats against journalists persisted and that the professional environment for journalists had further deteriorated. This cited physical attacks, threats, arbitrary detention, criminal charges and surveillance. The EC recommended that Greece establish legislation and other safeguards to improve journalists' physical safety and working environment. The drive for stronger media freedom in Greece cannot be disconnected from the push for less precarious working conditions for journalists and media workers. The greater the financial stability for individual journalists, the less susceptible they will be to editorial pressures.
The need to join forces between journalists, trade unions and media freedom organisations to improve the safety of journalists is a common objective shared by all, which would strengthen the solidarity in the profession. Concrete activities include legal and financial support for the family of the murdered journalist Karavaiz from JUADN, as well advocacy for the investigation to be completed and for the masterminds and perpetrators behind the murder to be brought to justice. The unions also played a key role in successfully correcting the legislation regarding fake news and the police protocol that restricted journalistic reporting on protests. PFJU is developing an Observatory for SLAPPs and an Institute for training journalists. They also plan to establish a Media Council in Greece. The International Safety Training Centre for Journalists, established in Thessaloniki, can also be a useful tool to improve cooperation with European organisations. All major unions also sit on the government's Task Force and have contributed to the body's initiatives and meetings.
Union representatives emphasised during the mission that Greece should be treated fairly by different media freedom organisations in Europe and asked for more communication and cooperation to ensure their views on cases of media freedom violations are taken into account. The mission offered cooperation in strengthening the Observatory for SLAPPs and exchange of experiences on existing systems for protecting the safety of journalists.
CONCLUSIONS
As outlined in this report, media freedom in Greece has experienced a marked and sustained decline in recent years. The four themes outlined in this report have been identified by the mission as the most significant factors behind this period of deterioration. Individually, each would represent a problematic development justifying increased scrutiny and attention. When considered together, and against the existing backdrop of limited media pluralism and systematic weaknesses in the Greek media market, these factors present an alarming picture for media freedom and the rule of law in an EU member state. While the Greek government has responded with some legitimate and well-meaning reforms, these are limited in scope or not reflective of the severity of the crisis facing Greek journalism. The effects of other reforms - including on media ownership transparency and the transparency of state advertising - have yet to be felt. In other areas, little or no action has yet been taken or, as regards the surveillance of journalists, the Greek state is the principal source of the threat.
The toxic combination of these factors makes Greece stand out within the EU as exhibiting the clearest decline in media freedom in the last three years of any member state. Regarding the safety of journalists, Greece is the only EU country to currently have two open cases of impunity for the murder of journalists. The lack of accountability and total impunity for the killers represents a dark stain on the country's press freedom record, which must be urgently addressed. Meanwhile, almost no other country in the EU has experienced such a high number of physical attacks which endanger the safety of journalists in the last few years. While SLAPPs are by no means a Greek phenomenon and are spreading across the EU, a disproportionate number of cases have been documented by monitoring groups in Greece. At the same time, in terms of independent journalism, Greece's exhibits a high level of capture of private media by wealthy owners with connections to political elites who operate in a symbiotic relationship to suppress overtly critical journalism. Despite the vast number of media outlets, particularly in the fragmented digital market, real pluralism is weak and certain public interest topics are chronically underreported. Greece is by no means alone within the EU in experiencing these systemic challenges. However, the conclusion of the mission is that no other EU Member State exhibits the same problematic entanglement of these four systemic issues.
The overall result within Greece is a palpable sense of insecurity amongst many in the journalistic community, in terms of safety, legal threats and working conditions. It must be noted that despite these many issues, high-quality watchdog journalism is being conducted on a daily basis in Greece, both at media outlets in the grouping of smaller independent outlets and larger legacy titles. Journalists continue to work in challenging conditions to fulfil their public interest role and hold power to account. Greek media have won European awards for their courageous reporting on public interest issues such as refugee pushbacks. However, the failure of the state to create safe working conditions and the suffocating pressure of vested political and business interests has hollowed out the space for the fourth estate to operate freely and independently. Watchdog journalism has been pushed to the fringes. As a result of these contributing factors, the quality and credibility of Greek media has also suffered in recent years. This has serious knock-on effects for Greek democracy and society more widely.
The mission concludes that unlike in other EU member states identified as presiding over serious challenges for media freedom, the current Greek government has demonstrated some willingness to first recognise the issues and then take steps to remedy them. The same cannot be said for other EU governments. However, the unavoidable conclusion is that the measures taken so far are limited in scope and do not match the seriousness of the challenges the country faces regarding its media landscape. In spite of this, Greece should not be considered amongst the list of EU countries in which the government is actively seeking to cement overwhelming and systematic control over the information space. Instead, the factors behind the problematic landscape for media freedom stem from a mixture of historical weakness in the development of the media market, rule of law issues, societal polarisation and flaws within state institutions, made worse by undemocratic or problematic government policies and the ruling party's attempts at ensuring message control. The mission therefore concludes that media freedom in Greece is salvageable, with sustained political and the cooperation of political, media, union and institutional actors, as well as journalists themselves. At the same time, it must be recognised that serious reform will only be achieved through democratic governance which understands the value of pluralistic and watchdog journalism in society. The mission hopes the recommendations presented in this report will be thoroughly considered and the delegation looks forward to further communication and cooperation with all relevant stakeholders in Greece who remain committed to ensuring a central pillar of Greek democracy - the freedom of the media - is defended and sustained.
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Venture Capital Advisory: When Low Prices Happen to Good Companies Venture Capital Advisory: When Low Prices Happen to Good Companies
What to Do in Preparation foraDown-RoundFinancing What to Do in Preparation for a Down-Round Financing
12/9/2008 12/9/2008
As we are now firmly entrenched in a challenging economic environment, many private companies will find it very difficult to raise capital on acceptable terms. For private companies, the sealed IPO window continues to place downward pressure on valuations as the opportunity for liquidity through a public offering is likely to remain closed for investors for the foreseeable future. Coupled with the present liquidity crisis and the recession, these pressures are likely to result in lower valuations for many companies in the capital markets (even promising, well-managed companies). In light of all this sobering news, senior managers and directors should anticipate the possibility of a down-round financing. Complicating the situation is that the only capital available may be from insiders and, under such circumstances, directors need to be particularly careful so that they do not subject themselves to lawsuits from other shareholders and potential liability. In order for directors to mitigate against potential liability and to protect themselves against fiduciary claims, process and good corporate governance procedures are important. Here are a few practical tips for how to prepare for a down-round financing. As we are now firmly entrenched in a challenging economic environment, many private companies will find it very difficult to raise capital on acceptable terms. For private companies, the sealed IPO window continues to place downward pressure on valuations as the opportunity for liquidity through a public offering is likely to remain closed for investors for the foreseeable future. Coupled with the present liquidity crisis and the recession, these pressures are likely to result in lower valuations for many companies in the capital markets (even promising, well-managed companies). In light of all this sobering news, senior managers and directors should anticipate the possibility of a down-round financing. Complicating the situation is that the only capital available may be from insiders and, under such circumstances, directors need to be particularly careful so that they do not subject themselves to lawsuits from other shareholders and potential liability. In order for directors to mitigate against potential liability and to protect themselves against fiduciary claims, process and good corporate governance procedures are important. Here are a few practical tips for how to prepare for a down-round financing.
Start Early to Establish Fair Price Start Early to Establish Fair Price
Finding capital in this market will likely take longer than anticipated so you need to plan ahead to give yourself plenty of time to test the market for outside investors. In order to limit potential liability, we recommend that your company establish an investment committee with the independent members of your company's board of directors to screen and hire an appropriate placement agent and other experts to start the process of raising money. Further, make sure this process is clearly documented in the minutes of the board. A systematic process for raising capital is more likely to produce the best price possible and shows a record of diligence that is protective from a fiduciary standpoint. Additionally, if you make a good faith attempt to find outside financing and it is not available, it will allow you the flexibility to proceed with an insider round of financing. Finding capital in this market will likely take longer than anticipated so you need to plan ahead to give yourself plenty of time to test the market for outside investors. In order to limit potential liability, we recommend that your company establish an investment committee with the independent members of your company's board of directors to screen and hire an appropriate placement agent and other experts to start the process of raising money. Further, make sure this process is clearly documented in the minutes of the board. A systematic process for raising capital is more likely to produce the best price possible and shows a record of diligence that is protective from a fiduciary standpoint. Additionally, if you make a good faith attempt to find outside financing and it is not available, it will allow you the flexibility to proceed with an insider round of financing.
Have a Plan B and a Plan C Have a Plan B and a Plan C
If there were ever a time for parallel tracks, this is it. While trying to raise money from a new outside lead, confer with existing investors about the possible terms of an insider-led round. Start to hammer out the terms of an alternative Plan B. At the same time, engage with strategic partners, make sure they know the positive news about developments in your company's business and inquire about investment opportunities from those sources as a potential Plan C. If there were ever a time for parallel tracks, this is it. While trying to raise money from a new outside lead, confer with existing investors about the possible terms of an insider-led round. Start to hammer out the terms of an alternative Plan B. At the same time, engage with strategic partners, make sure they know the positive news about developments in your company's business and inquire about investment opportunities from those sources as a potential Plan C.
Document the Process Document the Process
It is critical that the minutes of the meetings of the board of directors and its committees reflect all updates on the financing, the number of avenues tried and the results or lack of results from trying those avenues. All too often, companies skip over the creation of a verifiable record. The better documentation of the process, the more protection available to directors from potential lawsuits should the company be forced to take an alternative that is dilutive, particularly if the round is led by insiders. We also recommend that you engage your legal counsel in the process at the start. In the long run, this will save you money rather than cost you money. It is critical that the minutes of the meetings of the board of directors and its committees reflect all updates on the financing, the number of avenues tried and the results or lack of results from trying those avenues. All too often, companies skip over the creation of a verifiable record. The better documentation of the process, the more protection available to directors from potential lawsuits should the company be forced to take an alternative that is dilutive, particularly if the round is led by insiders. We also recommend that you engage your legal counsel in the process at the start. In the long run, this will save you money rather than cost you money.
Pay Attention to Fair Dealing Pay Attention to Fair Dealing
In a market this difficult, most companies will fall short of their fundraising goals. The terms will likely be more dilutive than hoped and the company may fail in its attempt to locate a new outside investor group to set the valuation and lead the round. With an insider-only investment round, particularly one in which investors are represented on the board, special care must be taken with regard to the approval of the transaction and the establishment of fair dealing. Under Delaware General Corporation Law, Section 144, transactions in which directors have an interest are not voidable solely because of that interest; provided, however that the interest is disclosed or known (to the voting parties) and either the independent directors of the board or the stockholders of the company approve the interested transaction. For an insider-led round, disinterested directors, if any, of the board should approve the transaction or a majority-in-interest of the stockholders unaffiliated with the insider investors. In a market this difficult, most companies will fall short of their fundraising goals. The terms will likely be more dilutive than hoped and the company may fail in its attempt to locate a new outside investor group to set the valuation and lead the round. With an insider-only investment round, particularly one in which investors are represented on the board, special care must be taken with regard to the approval of the transaction and the establishment of fair dealing. Under Delaware General Corporation Law, Section 144, transactions in which directors have an interest are not voidable solely because of that interest; provided, however that the interest is disclosed or known (to the voting parties) and either the independent directors of the board or the stockholders of the company approve the interested transaction. For an insider-led round, disinterested directors, if any, of the board should approve the transaction or a majority-in-interest of the stockholders unaffiliated with the insider investors.
Consider a Rights Offering Consider a Rights Offering
Even with respect to an insider-led round, it is difficult to argue that members of the board of directors have breached their fiduciary duties to the company and its stockholders if all stockholders are offered the opportunity to invest on the same terms as other insiders. If it is a situation where the company needs funds immediately, insiders can fund an initial closing, and the company can then follow up with a subsequent rights offering to all stockholders for a second closing to occur, for example, thirty days, after the initial closing. Be mindful of U.S. securities laws about offering to unaccredited investors; it may be prudent to limit the rights offering to only accredited investors. Even with respect to an insider-led round, it is difficult to argue that members of the board of directors have breached their fiduciary duties to the company and its stockholders if all stockholders are offered the opportunity to invest on the same terms as other insiders. If it is a situation where the company needs funds immediately, insiders can fund an initial closing, and the company can then follow up with a subsequent rights offering to all stockholders for a second closing to occur, for example, thirty days, after the initial closing. Be mindful of U.S. securities laws about offering to unaccredited investors; it may be prudent to limit the rights offering to only accredited investors.
We hope this provides you with some practical advice for preparing for a down-round financing. If you would like any additional information, please contact your Mintz Levin attorney or any of us listed on this client alert. We hope this provides you with some practical advice for preparing for a down-round financing. If you would like any additional information, please contact your Mintz Levin attorney or any of us listed on this client alert.
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PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
505 VAN NESS AVENUE
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102-3298
August 13, 2015
FILED
8-13-15
09:48 AM
Agenda ID #14211 Quasi-Legislative
TO PARTIES OF RECORD IN RULEMAKING 14-10-003:
This is the proposed decision of Commissioner Michel Peter Florio. Until and unless the Commission hears the item and votes to approve it, the proposed decision has no legal effect. This item may be heard, at the earliest, at the Commission's September 17, 2015 Business Meeting. To confirm when the item will be heard, please see the Business Meeting agenda, which is posted on the Commission's website 10 days before each Business Meeting.
Parties of record may file comments on the proposed decision as provided in Rule 14.3 of the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure.
/s/ DOROTHY DUDA for
Karen V. Clopton, Chief Administrative Law Judge
KVC:lil
Attachment
PROPOSED DECISION
Decision PROPOSED DECISION OF COMMISSIONER FLORIO
(Mailed 8/13/2015)
BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Order Instituting Rulemaking to Create a Consistent Regulatory Framework for the Guidance, Planning, and Evaluation of Integrated Demand Side Resource Programs.
Rulemaking 14-10-003 (Filed October 2, 2014)
DECISION ADOPTING AN EXPANDED SCOPE, A DEFINITION, AND A GOAL FOR THE INTEGRATION OF DEMAND SIDE RESOURCES
Table of Contents
Title
Page
ORDER ........................................................................................................................... 25
APPENDIX A - April 15, 2015 Post-Workshop Ruling
DECISION ADOPTING AN EXPANDED SCOPE, A DEFINITION, AND A GOAL FOR THE INTEGRATION OF DEMAND SIDE
Summary
This decision establishes a foundation for this proceeding and for the integration of demand-side resources. We first confirm that this proceeding is extensively intertwined with that of Rulemaking (R.) 14-08-013, the Distribution Resources Plan proceeding. We determine that our intention in this proceeding is to focus on the integration of demand-side resources 1 (i.e., collective action to optimize demand-side resources) versus integrated demand-side management (i.e., programs and services offered by the utility to the customer).
In order to set a strong foundation for this proceeding, we adopt a definition of the integration of demand-side resources:
- A regulatory framework that enables customers to effectively and efficiently choose from an array of demand-side and distributed energy resources. The framework is based on the impact and interaction of such resources on the system as a whole, as well as on a customer's energy usage.
We then adopt a goal for the integration of demand-side resources:
- To deploy distributed energy resources that provide optimal customer and system benefits, while enabling California to reach its climate objectives.
This decision also confirms the scope of this proceeding to be broader than originally anticipated in the Order Instituting Rulemaking 14-10-003. As described in this decision, the scope will consider a framework based on the entire energy production and delivery system from the customer side to the
1 This proceeding uses the same categories of distributed energy resources as those in R.14-08-013. See February 6, 2015 Assigned Commissioner Ruling in R.14-08-013.
utility side. The scope of this proceeding will make a determination on how best to source the distributed energy resources needed by the utilities based on the determinations made in R.14-08-013, i.e., value of distributed energy resources. Finally, this proceeding will also consider the issue of localized incentives, which was not anticipated when we established the rulemaking but arose in workshop discussions.
This proceeding remains open to support the development of an end-to-end framework for integrating demand-side resources, including relevant valuation methodologies and sourcing mechanisms.
1. Procedural Background
On October 2, 2014, the Commission approved the Order Instituting this Rulemaking (OIR), which sought to consider the development and adoption of a regulatory framework to provide policy consistency for the direction and review of demand-side resource programs. The intention of the rulemaking is to consider how to best enable the utilities, other administrators, and electric market actors to offer a wide portfolio of demand-modifying technologies best tailored to the specific characteristics of individual customers. Additionally, the proceeding seeks to identify and reduce or eliminate existing barriers to providing customers with tailored demand-side management solutions.
The OIR also identifies the California Long-Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan (Strategic Plan) and the 2010-2012 Omnibus Integrated Demand Side Management Process Evaluation (Omnibus Report), two important documents in the development of integration efforts at the Commission. In the Strategic Plan adopted by the Commission in 2008, a chapter dedicated to integrated demand side management emphasizes a dual focus on utilities and customers. The Strategic Plan states that current integration efforts do not
maximize energy savings nor minimize costs of program delivery and that the Commission should integrate demand-side programs within its jurisdiction in order to enable offerings of integrated packages to maximize savings and efficiencies of utility program overhead. 2 The Omnibus Report, a third-party evaluation of efforts to integrate demand-side management programs, presented several barriers to integration and suggested several recommendations including the need to establish a forum to integrate load planning activities. 3
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E), Southern California Edison Company (SCE) and Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) 4 (referred to jointly herein as the Utilities) are respondents to this rulemaking. Interested parties were invited to file comments to the OIR on November 7, 2014. Replies to those comments were filed on November 21, 2014.
Following a December 5, 2014 prehearing conference, the assigned Commissioner and Administrative Law Judge jointly issued a Ruling and Scoping Memo (January 5, 2015 Scoping Memo) setting a tentative scope but acknowledging that more information needed to be gathered prior to determining whether the scope of the proceeding should be narrow, e.g., focusing on energy efficiency and demand response only, or broad, e.g., integration of demand-side management into system planning. Hence, the
2 Strategic Plan, September 2008 at Chapter 8.
3 OIR 14-10-003 at 9.
4 During the prehearing conference, SoCalGas was identified and named as a respondent to this proceeding, correcting an inadvertent omission in the OIR 14-10-003.
Administrative Law Judge facilitated a series of events designed to educate parties on aspects of the proceeding.
Subsequent to two learning sessions held in January and February 5 and a workshop in March, a Ruling was issued on April 15, 2015 asking parties to provide comments on several aspects of this proceeding. Parties filed comments on May 15, 2015 6 and reply comments on May 29, 2015. 7
2. Overview of April 15, 2015 Post-Workshop Ruling
The April 15, 2015 Post-Workshop Ruling provided an overview of the March 11-12, 2015 workshop (March Workshop or Workshop). The objectives of the Workshop were to develop ideas for a) defining the integration of demand-side resources, b) determining the problems with current integration efforts, and c) shaping a goal for integration. The Post Workshop Ruling then posed several questions to the parties, focusing on definitions, a goal, and the
5 Learning Session I, held on January 22, 2014, included an overview of outcomes of Commission-regulated integration activities, an overview of related proceedings, current and past integration activities, and a panel on barriers to success. Learning Session II, held on February 20, 2015, included an overview of California climate goals, an overview of out-of-state integrated demand side resource program activities, and a panel discussion on customer needs.
6 Parties filing comments are the California Energy Storage Association (CESA), Customer Federation of California (CFC), California Independent System Operator (CAISO), Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE), Karey Christ-Janer, Clean Coalition, EnergySavvy, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Local Government Sustainability Environmental Council/San Francisco Bay Area Regional Energy Network (SFBayREN), Marin Clean Energy (MCE), Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) jointly with Sierra Club, Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA), PG&E, SDG&E, Solar City, SCE, SoCalGas, Southern California Regional Energy Network (SoCalRen), The Utility Reform Network (TURN), and VoteSolar.
7 Parties filing Reply Comments are CESA, CFC, CAISO, CSE, Karey Christ-Janer, Clean Coalition, EnergySavvy, EDF, Local Government Sustainability Environmental Council/SFBayREN, MCE, NRDC jointly with Sierra Club, ORA, PG&E, SDG&E, Solar City, CSE, SoCalGas, SoCalRen, TURN, and VoteSolar.
breadth of the proceeding. The Post-Workshop Ruling is attached as Appendix A, but we provide a sample of the questions here:
- If the Commission selects one goal for the integration of demand-side resources, what should that goal be?
- Some of the definitions, goals, and objectives suggested by parties imply that the effective integration of demand-side resources requires demand-side resources to be better integrated with utility system planning, investment, and operation, as well as CAISO planning and operations. Is this correct? Do you agree? Should this broad challenge be addressed in this proceeding? Why and how?
- If identified as an objective of this proceeding, how should system planning and benefits be considered in a way that does not duplicate what is being considered in the distribution resources plans (or long-term planning process) proceedings?
- Should policies supporting the integration of demand-side resources maximize system benefit, including greenhouse gas reductions, maximize customer participation and benefits, or some combination of the two? In the integration of demand-side resources, how can we harmonize the needs and wants of customers with system needs, including greenhouse gas reductions? Should financial benefits and/or customer incentives for the integration of demand-side resources be uniform across the state and/or service territory or differentiated by locational value?
- Should the Commission shift from the current framework of encouraging the integration of demand-side resources through individual customer revenue streams from bill reductions and utility incentive payments to a different framework in which those benefit streams can be commoditized (bought and sold) to meet system needs (e.g., MW, MWh, flexible resource adequacy, greenhouse gas reductions)? Should the Commission create an open procurement or similar framework through which the integration of demand-side resources meets system needs? How can such a framework reflect customer needs, wants and
benefits? How can such a framework encourage integrated customer actions?
- How can the long run benefits of distributed energy resource investments be monetized and captured in an environment where ownership and occupancy of residential and commercial buildings changes in a much shorter time frame than the life cycle benefits of those investments?
- How can the various benefits of distributed energy resource investments that are considered in a complete cost-effectiveness evaluation be converted into financial benefits that flow to those who finance such investments (which may or may not include onsite customers receiving the energy service)?
- Is it important that any framework that emerges from this proceeding encourages third parties or utilities to deliver, and customers to take, integrated packages of technologies, at the same or within a limited time frame? How important is this (i.e., integrated demand-side management or actions) as compared to the integration of demand-side resources into system planning, etc., as discussed above? Should this proceeding take up both issues? Why or why not?
3. Discussion
Below, we explain the complementary roles of this proceeding, R.14-10-003, and the Distribution Resources Plans proceeding (R.14-08-013), and our intention in this proceeding to focus on the integration of demand-side resources broadly defined. In order to establish a strong foundation for this proceeding, we adopt a definition of integration and a goal for the integration of demand-side resources. Furthermore, we confirm the scope of this proceeding to be broader than originally anticipated in the OIR. As further described below, the scope will be broad in order to create a regulatory framework that looks at the entire energy production and delivery system and includes a determination of how best to source the distributed energy resources needed by the utilities
based on the determinations made in R.14-08-013. Additionally, the scope of this proceeding is expanded to consider whether the Commission should adopt localized incentives.
3.1. The Connection between the Distribution Resources Plans and the Integration of Demand-Side Resources Proceedings
The Commission initiated the Distribution Resources Plan proceeding, R.14-08-013, to establish policies, procedures, and rules to guide regulated energy utilities in developing their proposals required by Public Utilities Code Section 769. The goal of these proposals is to move a utility toward a fuller integration of distributed energy resources into its distribution system planning, operations and investment. As further explained below, R.14-10-003 will not duplicate these efforts. Rather, the two proceedings will work together to create an end-to-end framework from the customer side to the utility side of the system, with this proceeding implementing Section 769(b)(2) as part of that framework: the identification of tariffs, contracts, or other mechanisms for the deployment of cost-effective distributed resources, (see Section 769(b)(2).)
As captured in the January 15, 2015 Scoping Memo, discussions during the prehearing conference indicated diverse opinions regarding the scope of this proceeding. Some parties suggested that the scope focus solely on improved integration of the traditional demand-side programs of energy efficiency and demand response. Other parties recommended that the Commission take the opportunity to address a broader scope that would cover any gaps not currently covered by the Distribution Resources Plan, including aspects of system planning. Hence, the March Workshop and the Post Workshop Ruling
attempted to address this diversity and assist the Commission in determining how narrow or broad the scope of R.14-10-003 should be.
At the Workshop, parties re-initiated the subject of the Distribution Resources Plans proceeding and discussed the connection between the two proceedings. In the Post Workshop Ruling, parties were asked questions regarding the R.14-08-013 as well as system planning. Parties generally agree that either proceeding should require better integration with system planning. However, parties remain divided as to whether or not this proceeding should investigate this broader aspect of integration.
TURN, SDG&E, SCE, and SoCalGas concur that effective integration of demand-side resources requires better integration with system needs and system operations. However, these four parties contend that other proceedings, such as R.14-08-013, are currently considering how best to incorporate distributed energy resources into system planning.
Other parties envision this proceeding as an opportunity to fill a gap in system planning. Sierra Club and NRDC agree that R.14-08-013 will consider integrating system planning, but these two parties also maintain that connections to planning, operations and investment need to be made in R.14-10-003 to ensure coordination and the capture of all available system resources. 8 Christ-Janer suggests that while locational values will be determined in R.14-08-013, the implementation of those values should be explored in this proceeding. 9 Offering further demarcation, CSE contends that R.14-10-003 should assign roles and responsibilities for procurement of distributed energy resources, market
8 Sierra at 12.
transformation, and ensuring that sufficient resources will be deployed on time to displace other investments. Furthermore, CSE considers this proceeding to be able to identify mechanisms to displace the need for traditional investments five to ten years in the future. 10
In our review of the OIRs establishing this proceeding and R.14-08-013, we acknowledge overlap between the two proceedings, but we also conclude that there is a clear demarcation between the two. The purpose of R.14-08-013 is to move the utilities toward a "more full integration of distributed energy resources into their distribution system planning, operations and investment." 11 Thus, in R.14-08-013, the Commission will delineate the distribution system needs and how those needs can be optimally provided by distributed energy resources. The Commission will also determine the value of the distributed energy resources attributes required to provide those needs. Furthermore, Public Utilities Code Section 769 identifies the items to be included in each of the utilities' Distribution Resources Plans; one of those items is the identification of tariffs, contracts or other mechanisms for the deployment of cost-effective distributed resources, (see Section 769(b)(2)).
Comparably, the purpose of this proceeding is to develop a framework to enable the offering of a wide portfolio of demand-modifying technologies best tailored to customers. Hence, R.14-10-003 can and should create the framework to determine how the resources, which are needed to fill the required characteristics and values developed in R.14-08-013, could be sourced.
9 Christ-Janer at 10.
10 CSE at 11.
11 OIR 14-08-013 at 4.
Additionally, this proceeding should determine how to implement the tariffs, contracts and other mechanisms proposed in R.14-08-013. We surmise that future pilots, expected to be developed in Phase II of this proceeding, could test how best to integrate and procure resources to fit the characteristics needed or the means by which these go to the market.
We confirm the scope of this proceeding to be broader than originally anticipated in the OIR. Accordingly, the scope is revised to add that the Commission will determine how the distributed energy resources needed will be sourced, once the required characteristics and values of these resources have been determined in R.14-08-013.
3.2. Distinguishing the Integration of Demand-Side Management from the Integration of Demand-Side Resources
Because of two specific problems with current integration efforts highlighted by the parties, the Commission intends to focus on the integration of demand-side resources in this proceeding as opposed to integrated demand-side management. These two problems are: 1) demand side resources do not adequately impact system planning, investments and operations; and 2) current integration efforts do not address grid needs. As discussed in detail below, the regulatory framework eventually created in this proceeding will take into consideration the impact and interaction of such resources on the system as a whole as well as on an individual customer's energy usage.
During the March Workshop, participants discussed several problems with current integration efforts, as indicated by a staff handout (See attached Post-Workshop Ruling). The workshop participants then provided several additional problems and prioritized them (Table 1).
The Post-Workshop Ruling asked parties to comment on the workshop prioritization. Our review of the comments indicates that parties generally agree with the final prioritization of problems with two caveats: 1) the Utilities assert that the problems are being addressed in other proceedings; 12 and 2) some parties argue that access to data to should be at the top of the list. 13
We also note a recommendation by CAISO, NRDC, Sierra Club, and VoteSolar to subgroup the problems with the top priority being System Needs, a combination of items 1, 3 and 4 from Table 1. 14 The Omnibus Report (as discussed in the OIR) underscored the need to establish a forum to integrate
12 PG&E, SDG&E, SCE, and SoCalGas assert that many, if not all, of the problems listed in the final prioritization are being addressed elsewhere and the Commission should instead focus on developing customer-facing tools in this proceeding.
13 See comments from CFC, Greenlining and CforAT.
14 The other two priorities suggested are access to data and current efforts are not forward-looking.
comprehensive load planning activities. The OIR stated that the Commission would consider how to develop demand-side management assumptions for long-term resource planning in coordination with the Long-Term Procurement Plan proceeding.
We concur that many issues regarding system planning are being addressed elsewhere, including R.14-08-013, but we conclude that the Commission should ensure that the potential overlap and interactions between the two proceedings are being addressed. While a minority of parties in this proceeding would have the Commission narrow the breadth of this proceeding to focus solely on the concept of integrated demand-side management, the Commission recognizes the importance of the interaction between the ongoing proceedings but should understand those interactions. Public Utilities Code Section 769 and R.14-08-013 require that distribution system planning be informed by distributed energy resources, including choices made by customers. Here we acknowledge that the inverse is also true: customer choice should be informed by the impact of those choices on the electrical system. In giving the OIR breadth, we recognize the interplay, accept that it will be an increasingly important part of California's clean energy future, and resolve to create an end-to-end framework for distribution systems and distributed energy resources, which reflects both the challenges and opportunities therein.
Accordingly, the Commission will broaden the scope of this proceeding beyond looking at solely what the utilities offer customers (integrated demand-side management) and commit to also focus on what customers offer the utility (integration of demand side resources).
3.3. Adopted Definition
In this section, we first confirm that the integration of demand-side management is what the utilities and others offer to customers, and the integration of demand-side resources is the collective action of customers, the Commission, the Utilities, the CAISO, etc. to optimize demand-side resources to the extent possible. As further discussed below, we adopt the following definition for the integration of demand-side resources:
A regulatory framework developed by the Commission to enable utility customers to effectively and efficiently choose from an array of demand-side and distributed energy resources, taking into consideration the impact and interaction of such resources on the system as a whole, as well as on the individual customer's energy usage.
The OIR discusses the efforts of the Commission to integrate demand-side energy solutions and concludes that the efforts have had limited success. The Omnibus Report states that the definition of integrated demand-side management is not concrete. Without a clear description, it is difficult to achieve true integration. Our aim in this decision is to adopt a definition and a goal to lead toward a solution that will address the problems with current integration efforts, as identified at the March Workshop.
During the March Workshop, participants discussed several aspects of integration, which led to the development of nine group definitions for the integration of demand side resources. In reviewing the nine definitions, 15 we found many similarities in the definitions, most notably an emphasis on the
15 See the Post-Workshop Ruling, which provided a list of the nine definitions.
customer. Also consistent in the definitions was a reference to a framework, tool, or solution.
The Post-Workshop Ruling asked parties to confirm and, if necessary, refine their definition of integration. To ensure clarity amongst the parties, the Ruling explained that the Commission considers integrated demand-side management as something the utilities or third parties offer to customers whereas integrated demand-side actions or behaviors are something customers do. We add here that integrated demand-side actions or behaviors also include the actions of the Commission, the Utilities, and the CAISO.
Parties were asked to comment on whether the concepts of "integration of demand-side resources" and "integrated demand-side management" are distinct concepts that should be defined separately for use in this proceeding. Most parties agree that the integration of demand-side resources and integrated demand-side management are two distinct concepts. 16 CAISO offers the following explanation of the differences: the first concept refers to the integration of distributed energy resources into the operations and planning of the electric system and the second concept refers to the formation of combined, demand-side or customer-side solutions for meeting a specific customer need or impacting the shape of a load. CAISO suggests that the latter concept be kept but expanded to consider resource combinations such as demand-side and utility-side distributed energy resources. 17 CAISO concludes that integrated
16 See, for example, CSE Opening Comments at 2-3; Christ-Janer Opening Comments at 2; CFC Opening Comments at 2; EDF at 2-3; Greenlining/CforAT at 1-2; MCE at 2; ORA at 2-3; SCE at 3-6; SoCalGas at 2-3; and SoCalREN at 3-4.
17 CAISO Opening Comments at 7-8.
distributed energy resources provide greater value to the grid and the customer than stand-alone resources.
TURN points out that several parties suggest that a narrow view of integrated demand-side management is too limited to form the basis of a proceeding that will effectively complement the Distribution Resources Plan proceeding. 18 PG&E contends that both terms have been used interchangeably and that the Commission should focus its efforts on defining integrated demand side management. 19 But PG&E adds in its reply comments that ultimately, the definition of integrated demand-side management needs to be flexible to remain relevant in a quickly changing environment.
In developing a definition, we return to our previous statement that the integration of demand-side management is the policy and program framework that the Commission, the Utilities, and others offer to customers and the integration of demand-side resources is the collective action of customers, the Commission, the Utilities, the CAISO, etc. to optimize demand-side resources to the extent possible.
We consider the integration of demand-side resources to be additive to integrated demand side management and, while both are in the scope for this proceeding, our emphasis will be on the integration of demand-side resources. We find that a narrow view is too limited to form the basis of a proceeding that will effectively complement the Distribution Resources Plan proceeding. Thus,
18 TURN Reply Comments at 4 citing CAISO Opening Comments at 2, EDF Opening Comments at 2, Sierra Club and NRDC Opening Comments at 3 and CSE Opening Comments at 2-3. See also Christ-Janer Opening Comments at 2-3, Consumer Federation of California at 2, and MCE at 2.
19 PG&E Opening Comments at 3-4.
we expand demand-side resources to include distributed energy resources, including resources on the system side of the customer's meter, anywhere within the Commission's jurisdictional (low-voltage and sub-transmission) distribution system. 20
With this in mind, and taking into account the emphasis of party's definitions on a framework and the customer, we adopt the following definition of the integration of demand-side resources:
A regulatory framework, developed by the Commission, to enable utility customers to most effectively and efficiently choose from an array of demand-side and distributed energy resources taking into consideration the impact and interaction of such resources on the system as a whole as well as on an individual customer's energy usage.
3.4. The Adopted Goal of the Integration of Demand Side Resources
As further explained below, we adopt the following goal for the integration of demand side resources:
To deploy distributed energy resources that provide optimal customer and system benefits, while enabling California to reach its climate objectives.
As was described during the March Workshop, a goal is broad, generic, long-term and not strictly measureable or tangible. During the course of the two-day workshop, parties discussed many aspects of integration to help them form a goal for the Commission to adopt. We find that a single overarching goal will promote the concept of integration and help the Commission, the Utilities, customers and third party distributed energy resource providers focus their
20 R.14-08-013, February 6, 2015 Assigned Commissioner Ruling at 9.
efforts. In comments to the Post Workshop Ruling, parties offered overarching goals as indicated in Table 2.
Two themes emerge in these recommended goals: 1) improving customer and system benefits; and 2) attaining California's environmental goals. Taking these two themes into account as well as our approach to look at the system holistically, we merge the various options and adopt the following goal for the integration of demand side resources:
To deploy distributed energy resources that provide optimal customer and system benefits, while enabling California to reach its climate objectives.
3.5. Expanding the Scope to Include Whether and How to Create and Offer Local Incentives
An unanticipated issue emerged during the workshop discussion; that of creating localized incentives. We conclude that the Commission should review how we shape incentives for investments in demand-side resources and consider the implications of rewarding incentives based on where the resources are located. As discussed more in depth below, the Commission will review whether we should continue our traditional method of equalized incentives for all customers, no matter their location, and weigh the pros and cons of emphasizing localized incentives versus emphasizing across-the-board customer participation.
In the Post Workshop Ruling, parties were asked two related questions. First, whether policies supporting the integration of demand-side resources should maximize system benefits or maximize customer participation. Second, whether incentives for the integration of demand-side resources should be uniform across the state or differentiated by locational value.
Generally speaking the parties argue that policies can support both system benefits and customer benefits, but not necessarily customer participation. 21 In fact, EDF contends that attempts to maximize customer participation would result in lower aggregate customer benefits than could be achieved by geographically-targeted approaches. 22 SCE and EDF suggest that the Commission consider how to optimize customer participation in a manner that maximizes customer and system benefits rather than how to maximize customer participation regardless of cost-effectiveness or most effective means of greenhouse gas reduction. 23 24 Similarly, Sierra Club and NRDC point out that the success of this proceeding should not be measured by the number of customers participating in demand-side programs but by the impact the resources have on the energy system as a whole in terms of cost, reliability, and climate goals. 25
Parties contend that a harmonization between system and customer benefits is required in the integration of demand-side resources. Furthermore, in
21 CFC Opening Comments at III, Clean Coalition Opening Comments at 6, and SoCalREN Opening Comments at 10.
22 EDF Opening Comments at 12.
23 SCE Opening Comments at 13.
24 EDF Opening Comments at 12.
crafting incentives, the Commission should reflect both system-wide and locational benefits. 26 PG&E states that uniform incentives are not optimal to ensure both customer and system benefits. 27 PG&E argues that program administrators should retain flexibility to craft incentive levels for location and customer-specific value to maximize the value of integration to both customers and system planners. 28 SCE explains further that you can have both: if a certain resource meets a local system need, these could be compensated locationally through a new method developed in this proceeding. Other resources not meeting local system need should be compensated in a more uniform methodology across the service territory. 29
We agree that there is a need for harmonization between system and customer benefits in the integration of demand-side resources. We also find that incentives should reflect both system-wide and locational benefits. The Commission recognizes a need to review this aspect of incentives, something that had not originally been conceived in this proceeding. Hence, we expand the scope of this proceeding to consider whether the Commission should adopt localized incentives and what methodology the Commission should use. However, at this point, there is insufficient evidence to determine either issue. The Next Steps section of this decision discusses the process that we will use to develop a record for making a determination on these issues.
25 Sierra Club/NRDC at 14.
26 Sierra Club/NRDC at 14.
27 PG&E Opening Comments at 17.
28 PG&E Opening comments at 17.
29 SCE Opening Comments at 13.
4. Next Steps
The remainder of Phase I of this proceeding will support the development of an end-to-end framework for integrating demand-side resources, including relevant valuation methodologies and sourcing mechanisms.
We will continue to follow our current approach of using workshops to assist the Commission and parties in understanding the issues and using parties' comments to rulings in order to create a record. We anticipate that the issues of localized incentives and cost-effectiveness valuation will occur first and simultaneously. A staff proposal for updating the Commission's cost-effectiveness framework was presented in a recent workshop. We anticipate these two issues will assist in formulating the framework. The final step in Phase I will entail developing objectives for the adopted framework.
Phase II will consider how pilots may be launched to explore promising distributed energy resource sourcing mechanisms. A ruling setting forth the schedule will be issued shortly after the issuance of this decision.
5. Comments on Proposed Decision
The proposed decision of Commissioner Florio in this matter was mailed to the parties in accordance with Section 311 of the Public Utilities Code and comments were allowed under Rule 14.3 of the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure. Comments were filed on ____, and reply comments were filed on ____ by_____.
6. Assignment of Proceeding
Michel Peter Florio is the assigned Commissioner and Kelly A. Hymes is the assigned ALJ in this proceeding.
Findings of Fact
1. Parties generally agree that improved integration with system planning should occur either in this proceeding or in R.14-08-013.
2. There is overlap between R.14-10-003 and R.14-08-013.
3. The purpose of R.14-08-013 is to move the utilities toward a fuller integration of distributed energy resources into the utilities' distribution system planning, operations and investment.
4. The purpose of this proceeding is to develop a framework to enable the offering of a wide portfolio of demand-modifying technologies best tailored to customers.
5. The Omnibus Report underscored the need to establish a forum to integrate comprehensive load planning activities.
6. The OIR stated that the Commission would consider how to develop demand-side management assumptions for long-term resource planning in coordination with the long-term procurement plan proceeding.
7. Issues regarding system planning are being addressed in other proceedings.
8. Customer choice should be informed by the impact of those choices on the electrical system.
9. Past integration efforts have had limited success.
10. The current definition of integrated demand side management is not concrete.
11. Without a clear description or definition, it is difficult to achieve true integration.
12. The definitions created by participants of the March Workshop consistently emphasized the customer and the creation of a framework, tool or solution.
13. Integrated demand side management is the policy and program framework that the Commission, the Utilities and others offer to customers.
14. The integration of demand-side resources is the collective actions of the customers, the Commission, the Utilities, the CAISO, etc. to optimize demand-side resources to the extent possible.
15. A narrow view of the integration of demand-side resources is too limited to form the basis of a proceeding that will effectively complement the distribution resources plan proceeding.
16. We should expand demand-side resources to include distributed energy resources, including resources on the system side of the customer's meter, anywhere within the Commission's jurisdictional distribution system.
17. A goal is broad, generic, long-term, and not strictly measureable or tangible.
18. A single overarching goal for integration will promote the concept of integration and help the Commission, customers and providers focus their efforts.
19. Two themes evolved from party recommendations for a goal:
1) improving customer and system benefits; and 2) attaining California's environmental goals.
20. An unanticipated issue, creating local incentives, emerged during workshop discussions.
21. Harmonization between system and customer benefits is required in the integration of demand-side resources.
22. Incentives should reflect both system-wide and locational benefits.
23. There is insufficient evidence to determine whether the Commission should adopt localized incentives and the methodology to be used.
Conclusions of Law
1. Public Utilities Code Section 769 identifies the items to be included in each of the Utilities' Distribution Resource Plans.
2. This proceeding should create the framework to determine how the resources, to fill the required characteristics and values determined in R.14-08-013, could be sourced.
3. This proceeding should determine how to implement the tariffs, contracts or other mechanisms proposed in Rulemaking 14-08-013.
4. The Commission should ensure that the potential overlap and interactions between this proceeding and R.14-08-013 are being addressed.
5. Public Utilities Code Section 769 and R.14-08-013 require that distribution system planning be informed by distributed energy resources, including choices made by customers.
6. The Commission should consider whether to adopt localized incentives and what the methodology should be.
ORDER
IT IS ORDERED that:
1. The scope of Rulemaking 14-10-003 is expanded to include the determination of how the resources, needed to fill the required characteristics and values to be determined in Rulemaking 14-08-013, will be sourced.
2. The scope of Rulemaking 14-10-003 is expanded to focus on the integration of demand side resources in a holistic way that includes not only what the utilities offer customers (integrated demand-side management) but also what customers offer the utility (integrated demand side resources).
3. The following definition of the integration of demand-side resources is adopted:
A regulatory framework, developed by the Commission, to enable utility customers to effectively and efficiently choose from an array of demand-side and distributed energy resources taking into consideration the impact and interaction of resources on the system as a whole as well as on an individual customer's energy usage.
4. The goal of Rulemaking 14-10-003 is to develop and adopt a regulatory framework that is based on the impact and interaction of distributed energy and demand-side resources on an individual customer's energy usage as well as the system as a whole and b) enables customers to effectively and efficiently chose from an array of demand-side and distributed energy resources.
5. The following goal for the integration of demand side resources is adopted:
To deploy distributed energy resources that provide optimal customer and system benefits, while enabling California to reach its climate planning objectives.
6. The scope of Rulemaking 14-10-003 is expanded to consider the adoption of localized incentives and what methodology should be used in determining such incentives.
7. Phase I of Rulemaking 14-10-003 remains open to develop the end-to-end framework for integrating demand-side resources, including relevant valuation methodologies and sourcing mechanisms.
PROPOSED DECISION
This order is effective today.
Dated , at San Francisco, California.
PROPOSED DECISION
APPENDIX A
|
Cite as: 2008 (8) AELE Mo. L. J. 201
ISSN 1935-0007
Employment Law Section - August 2008
Administrative Investigations of Police Shootings and Other Critical Incidents: Officer Statements and Use of Force Reports
Part Two: The Basics
Contents
1. What information needs to be obtained from an officer who has killed or wounded a suspect, before the officer is placed on paid, administrative leave?
2. How long should investigators wait, before formally interviewing an officer who has used deadly force?
3. Should officers be interviewed together or separately?
4. Should officers be allowed to be accompanied, at the interview, by an association representative or attorney?
5. Who should complete the Use of Force Report: The involved officer(s), the field supervisor, or a member of the incident investigation team?
6. Should the involved officer(s) be allowed a walk-through before giving an interview to investigators?
7. If there are videotapes, should the officer(s) review them before or after the formal interview?
* Recommendations
* Notes
* References
Part One focused on the debate that has arisen in the criminal justice community as to when and how officers should be interviewed after a shooting or other critical incident. Part One posed seven questions, but did not directly address them. Part Two examines each of those questions.
* A References section at the end of this article lists more than 80 articles, books, reports and other materials, many of which can be accessed on the Internet.
1. What information needs to be obtained from an officer who has killed or wounded a suspect, before the officer is placed on paid, administrative leave?
Assuming the incident has ended, the first question a supervisor should ask is whether anyone needs medical attention. The supervisor should then inquire if any suspects have fled and could pose a danger to others.
The IACP policy recommends, "only minimal, preliminary questions should be asked about the incident. The officers should be advised that a more detailed debriefing will be conducted at a later time." [1]
LAPD modified its Officer-Involved-Shooting procedures after implementing a federal consent decree in 2001. Before the involved officers leave the scene, supervisors obtain a "Public Safety Statement," which contains the following: [2]
1. Type of force used.
2. Direction and approximate number of shots fired by the involved officer(s) and suspect(s).
3. Location of injured persons.
4. Description of outstanding suspect(s) and his/her direction of travel, time elapsed since the suspect was last seen, and any suspect weapon(s).
5. Description and location of any known victims or witnesses.
6. Description and location of any known evidence.
7. Other information as necessary to ensure officer and public safety, and assist in the apprehension of outstanding suspects.
None of those questions inquire as to why an officer resorted to deadly force! That information should be learned later (see the next section).
After making a preliminary oral report (such as a public safety statement) all involved officer(s) should be transported to a location where he (or they) can submit to alcohol and drug use tests. [3]
All sidearms that were fired should be collected for evidentiary purposes, and
immediately replaced with a similar firearm. [4]
All officers who were directly involved in a shooting should be instructed to contact a police psychologist affiliated with the agency, for initial debriefing. [5]
They also should be instructed not to discuss the incident with fellow officers, until permitted to do so. They may discuss the event with a family member, their attorney, a certified labor representative and a mental health care provider. [6]
2. How long should investigators wait, before formally interviewing an officer who has used deadly force?
Involvement in a shooting can be emotionally devastating:
1. Community activists might claim the shooting was unjustified and that the officer is racially biased.
2. The officer is likely to be sued for compensatory and punitive damages.
3. A grand jury will probably investigate the shooting.
4. An internal investigation will focus on whether the shooting was consistent with agency policy and the officer's training.
The IACP Police Psychological Services Section contemplates that an investigatory interview will not be initiated until after the involved officer(s) have met with a trained psychologist.
Recommendations for Post-shooting Interventions by a Mental Health Professional [7]
* 20. A post-shooting intervention should be conducted by a licensed mental health professional trained to work with law enforcement personnel. Care should be taken in selecting a mental health professional to ensure that he or she has a strong educational background, knowledge and experience in the treatment of trauma, and a full spectrum of clinical experience with law enforcement in all types of mental health issues. The credentials and experience of the mental health professional are crucial in conducting postshooting interventions. Law enforcement administrators are encouraged to examine the mental health professional's background for training and experience with interventions in a law enforcement setting.
In no case should a formal interview be conducted in less than 24 hours, even if the officer is willing to participate. It is better to wait 48 to 72 hours before conducting the interview. An officer's recall can improve during this period. [8]
As noted by the IACP: [9]
* "It is quite common to experience perceptual distortions of various types. Some may experience time distortion in which events appear to occur in slow motion. … For other officers, time accelerates."
* "Auditory distortions are common among officers involved in a shooting. For most, sound diminishes and gunshots, shouts, or other sounds may be muffled or unheard. An officer may, for example, not hear all the rounds being fired and may not be able to relate this information at a later date. Other officers experience intensified sound — gunshots sound like cannons."
* "Visual distortions occur in about half of shooting instances. In these cases, officers may experience 'tunnel vision,' a condition where the officer's visual attention is so focused as to exclude all or most peripheral objects that would normally appear in the field of vision."
Many officers will never remember some of the details of a critical incident. As noted by the IACP, that does not necessarily mean the officer is lying or trying to conceal information. He could have experienced the normal perceptual distortions that commonly occur during moments of peak stress. [10]
The IACP notes that the officer's "shock disruption period" may last anywhere from a few minutes to a week or longer depending upon the individual "but usually it lasts two to three days," which is why a 48 or 72 hour waiting period is recommended. [11]
* "Mounting behavioral evidence in humans supports the claim that sleep leads to improvements in recently acquired, nondeclarative memories." [12]
3. Should officers be interviewed together or separately?
Interviewing officers separately does not prevent pre-interview collusion, but it does circumvent a dominant officer from intimidating coworkers. At one time, the LAPD would interview officers collectively and a lieutenant would write a narrative use of force report. The LAPD Manual now prohibits group interviews. [13]
Memory recall can improve when the interview is in a group setting. A prominent police psychologist wrote "in the course of conducting numerous group debriefings that many officers are not fully aware of their own memory and perceptual distortions until they are confronted with evidence that their memories and perceptions are not as complete and accurate as they had previously thought."
During a group debriefing, "officers enjoy the benefit of finding out what really happened overall and how their own version might differ from the big picture due to memory gaps, memory distortions, distance distortions, perceptual distortions, etc." [14]
There are advantages to both, and individual debriefings can be followed by a group session.
4. Should officers be allowed to be accompanied, at the interview, by an association representative or attorney?
In most states, if an officer is a member of a bargaining unit, he or she is entitled to the presence of an association representative at a non-criminal interview if there is a possibility that disciplinary action can result. The requesting officer does not have to be the focus of the investigation to assert a Weingarten right. [15]
If the officer is not a member of a bargaining unit, there is no certified labor representative.
* It is a good practice to allow officers to be accompanied by legal counsel, whether privately retained or engaged by a union or association. A refusal to allow the presence of counsel undermines agency morale.
5. Who should complete the Use of Force Report: The involved officer(s), the field supervisor, or a member of the incident investigation team?
One advantage to writing a single comprehensive report, completed by a supervisor or a member of the incident investigation team, is to frustrate the ability of a plaintiff's lawyer to point out inconsistencies between courtroom testimony and multiple reports written by each involved officer. This is particularly true when a report incorporates site diagrams, asks about distances, lighting conditions and other environmental information.
Management, however, has an obligation to seek the truth, and to impose disciplinary actions for misconduct. That mission is undermined if there is a loss of community support.
It is a good practice to require each involved officer to write a narrative of the incident, which can be attached as an addendum to the master report filed by the incident investigation team. Individual narratives (or parallel reports) are consistent with IACP Model Policies: [16]
IV. PROCEDURES
A. Responsibility for Reporting …
a. Each officer who uses force in an incident shall submit a separate written use-of-force report.
b. Any officer who witnesses a use of force shall advise a supervisor and shall submit a use-of-force report.
6. Should the involved officer(s) be allowed a walk-through before giving an interview to investigators?
7. If there are videotapes, should the officer(s) review them before or after the formal interview?
In both cases, a walk-through and a viewing of videotapes will improve an officer's recall and lead to a more reliable interview and report. Remember that tunnel vision and other perceptual distortions are common experiences for officers.
Incredibly, some news media representatives and community activists have suggested that allowing officers to view tapes before an interview (or completing a use of force report) facilitates untruthfulness.
Litigation consultants have strongly urged that the officer walk-through should NOT be videotaped because they often reveal an officer's perceptual distortions and these are used by plaintiff's counsel to support a claim of untruthfulness. [17]
Recommendations
For too long, we knew too little about the dynamics of violent confrontations. No one scientifically measured response time during real life-or-death scenarios. Only recently have psychologists documented instances where officers have reported slow or fast motion experiences, tunnel vision, tunnel hearing, partial memory loss and recall distortions.
We still know too little, and must not rush to judgment that an officer (or a bystander) is lying. Dashboard cameras, Taser® cams, flashlight cams, commercial surveillance cameras and street mounted CCTV cameras are in wide use and have vindicated officers who might have faced termination and civil liability.
We do know that officer-involved-shootings must be thoroughly and impartially investigated. Smaller agencies often call on another agency to conduct an OIS investigation.
Agencies like LAPD have learned, painfully, that officers must be retrained in policy and procedures within three weeks following a shooting. It is not just embarrassing, it is costly when a jury learns that an officer cannot correctly recite his agency's use of force policy and does not remember any details about the last time he was trained on the use of force.
The IACP also recommends that officers re-qualify with their firearm after a period of mental recovery – to insure that they are mentally capable of resorting to deadly force again, if necessary. [18]
Mayors, managers, police chiefs and sheriffs need to exercise restraint, even when activists claim police genocide and cover-ups. Officers that are involved in shootings need recovery time, which differs individually. Some will never fully recover and will need months of therapy. [19]
Above all, until the evidence proves otherwise, officers should be respected as professionals and treated as victims, and not as aggressors or criminal suspects.
Notes:
1. Post-Shooting Incident Procedures, IACP Model Policy 20 (1990), Handling of Officers at Scene of Shooting Incident, Part IV-A-5 (b).
2. LAPD Manual, Vol. 3, §795, Obtaining a Public Safety Statement – Categorical Use of Force.
3. In some jurisdictions, a breath test (or breath and drug tests) are mandatory. Even when voluntary, they are rarely declined because a negative result ends any speculation that an officer was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. In 1989 the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of mandatory, post-accident drug testing of railroad workers without a particularized suspicion of drug abuse. Skinner v. Railway Labor Executive Assn., 489 U.S. 602.
4. Post-Shooting Incident Procedures, IACP Model Policy 20 (1990), Handling of Officers at Scene of Shooting Incident, Part IV-A-6 and Agency Protocol Recommendations, Guideline 8, Officer-Involved Shooting Guidelines, IACP Psychological Services Section (2004).
5. Guidelines 20-29, Officer-Involved Shooting Guidelines, IACP Psychological Services Section (2004).
6. Post-Shooting Incident Procedures, IACP Model Policy 20 (1990), Handling of Officers at Scene of Shooting Incident, Part IV-A-5 (d) and (e). See sec. B of Part One of this article for background.
7. Guideline 20, Officer-Involved Shooting Guidelines, IACP Psychological Services Section (2004).
8. Ellenbogen, et al. (July, 2006). Interfering with Theories of Sleep and Memory: Sleep, Declarative Memory, and Associative Interference. 16 Current Biology 1290–1294, at 1290. http://download.current-biology.com/pdfs/09609822/PIIS0960982206016071.pdf
9. IACP Post-Shooting Incident Procedures, Concepts and Issues Paper, Part II-A1, Sensory reactions, p. 2 (1991).
10. Id.
11. IACP Post-Shooting Incident Procedures, Concepts and Issues Paper, Part IIA- 2, Physical and emotional reactions, p. 2 (1991).
12. Ellenbogen, see note 8.
13. LAPD Manual, Vol. 3, §794.37, Force Investigation Division Investigative Guidelines. See sec. C in Part One of this article for background information.
14. Alexis Artwohl, Ph.D., "Perceptual and Memory Distortions During Officer Involved Shootings," AELE Workshop on the Legal, Psychological and Biomechanical Aspects of Lethal & Less Lethal Force, course materials, p. 19-4 (March 25, 2008).
15. U.S. Dept. of Justice v. F.L.R.A., #00-1433, 266 F.3d 1228 (D.C. Cir. 2001); City of Lansing and Capitol City Post 141, 106 LA (BNA) 761 (Ellmann, 1996); City of Manchester and Manchester Police Patrolmen's Assn., AAA 11-39001552-93 (Greenbaum, 1994) – all construing NLRB v. Weingarten, 420 U.S. 251 (1975).
16. IACP Model Policy 67, Reporting Use of Force (1997).
17. W. Ken Katsaris, "Specific officer-involved shooting investigation techniques receiving emphasis during litigation," AELE Seminar on the Legal, Psychological and Biomechanical Aspects of Lethal & Less Lethal Force, presentation on March 26, 2008 and comments about James v. McCollister, #6:03-cv-01371 (Unpub. D. Ore. 2005).
18. IACP Post-Shooting Incident Procedures, Concepts and Issues Paper, Part IIB-1, 8, Post-Incident Procedures, p. 2 (1991).
19. See, for example, Jaffee v. Redmond, 518 U.S. 1 (1996). After fatally shooting a man that wielded a butcher knife, officer Redmond attended 2 or 3 counseling sessions a week for six months. Additional facts are at 51 F.3d 1346 (7th Cir. 1995) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffee_v._Redmond
References (chronological, by category)
A. Articles in print
B. Articles in e format
C. Books and monographs
D. Judicial decisions
E. Model policies and guidelines
F. Reports and studies
A. Articles in print:
1. Coleman, Todd (Nov. 2007). Documenting the Use of Force, 76 (11) FBI Law Enf. Bull. 18-33.
2. Clark & Haley (Aug. 2007). Crisis Response Tools for Law Enforcement, 74 (8) The Police Chief (IACP) 94, 96-101.
3. Bumgarner, Lewinski, Hudson & Sapp (Nov. 2006). An Examination of Police Officer Mental Chronometry, 38 (11) SFPOA Journal 20-21.
4. Rossmo, D. Kim, Ph.D. (Sep. 2006). Criminal Investigative Failures: Avoiding the Pitfalls, 75 (9) FBI Law Enf. Bull. 1-8. (Discusses perception and memory limitations, and biases.)
5. Turner, Dr. Timothy (Sept. 2006). The Need for Emotional Intelligence in Leadership, 75 (9) FBI Law Enf. Bull. 10; IACP Net Doc. 585550.
6. Ellenbogen, et al. (July, 2006). Interfering with Theories of Sleep and Memory: Sleep, Declarative Memory, and Associative Interference. 16 Current Biology 1290–1294
7. Scoville, Dean (Jul. 2006). How to Cope with a Shooting, 30 (7) Police.
8. Villejoubert, O'Keeffe, Alison & Cole (Jun. 2006). Hindsight bias and shooting incidents, 16th Conference of the European Assn. of Psychology & Law, Liverpool, U.K.
9. Miller, L, Ph.D. (2006). Officer-involved shooting: Reaction patterns, response protocols, and psychological intervention strategies, 8 (4) Intern. J. of Emer. Mental Health 239-254.
10. Creamer, Mark, Ph.D. (2006). Acute Psychological Intervention for Law Enforcement Personnel Following Trauma Exposure: What Is Current Best Practice? 6 (3) Law Enf. Exec. Forum 135-150.
11. (2005). Everly & Mitchell, The Debriefing Controversy; Mitchell, Crisis Intervention and CISM; Tuckey, Issues in the Debriefing Debate; Wagner, Emergency Response Service Personnel and the Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Debate, 7 (1) Intern. J. of Emer. Mental Health 33-41; abstracts.
12. Honig, Audrey L., Ph.D. & Sultan, Steven E. Ph.D. (Dec. 2004). Under Fire Reactions and Resilience: What an Officer Can Expect!, 71 (12) Police Chief (IACP) 54; IACP Net Doc. 575738.
13. Shomstein & Yantis (Nov. 14, 2004). Control of Attention Shifts between Vision and Audition in Human Cortex, 24 (47) J. of Neuroscience. "Attention shifts from vision to audition caused increased activity in auditory cortex and decreased activity in visual cortex and vice versa, reflecting the effects of attention on sensory representations."
14. Schmidt, Wayne W. (Nov. 2004). Interviews and Interrogations of Public Employees: Beckwith, Garrity, Miranda and Weingarten Rights, 4 (7) Law Enf. Exec. Forum 1-17; IACP Net Doc. 574836.
15. Sheehan, Everly & Langlieb (Sep. 2004). Current Best Practices: Coping with Major Critical Incidents, 73 (9) FBI Law Enf. Bull. 1-13; IACP Net Doc. 575190.
16. Morgan, Hazlett, et al. (May 2004). Accuracy of Eyewitness Memory for Persons Encountered During Exposure to Highly Intense Stress, 27 (3) Intern. J. of Law and Psychiatry 265-279. Abstract
17. Bonanno, George A. (Jan. 2004). Loss, Trauma, and Human Resilience, 59 (1) The American Psychologist 20-28.
18. Lewinski, Bill, Ph.D. & Hudson, Bill, Ph.D. (Nov. 2003). The Impact of Visual Complexity, Decision Making and Anticipation - The Tempe Study, Experiments 3 & 5, 28 (6) The Police Marksman 24-27.
19. Artwohl, Alexis Ph.D. (May, 2003). No Recall of Weapon Discharge, 3 (2) Law Enf. Exec. Forum 41-49.
20. Enoka, Roger (May, 2003). Involuntary Muscle Contractions and the Unintentional Discharge of a Firearm, 3 (2) Law Enf. Exec. Forum 27-40.
21. Ross, Darrell & Siddle, Bruce (May, 2003). An Analysis of the Effects of Survival Stress in Police Use of Force Encounters, 3 (2) Law Enf. Exec. Forum 9-26.
22. Lewinski, Bill Ph.D. (Nov. 2002). Biomechanics of Lethal Force Encounters, 27 (6) The Police Marksman 19-23.
23. Artwohl, Alexis, Ph.D. (Oct. 2002). Perceptual and Memory Distortion During Officer-Involved Shootings, 71 (10) FBI Law Enf. Bull. 18-24; IACP Net Doc. 564080.
24. Lewinski, Bill, Ph.D. (May/Jun. 2002). Stress Reactions: Related to Lethal Force Encounters, 27 (3) The Police Marksman 23-28.
25. Rivard, J., Dietz, P., Martell, D. & Widawski, M. (Sep. 2002). Acute dissociative responses in law enforcement officers involved in critical shooting
incidents: the clinical and forensic implications, 47 (5) J. of Forensic Sciences 1093-1100. Presented at the 53rd Ann. Mtg., Amer. Acad. of Forensic Sciences and the 32nd Ann. Mtg., Amer. Acad. of Psychiatry & the Law.
26. Grossman, D. & Siddle, B.K. (Aug. 2001). Critical Incident Amnesia: The Physiological Basis and the Implications of Memory Loss During Extreme Survival Situations, 31 The Firearms Instructor (IALEFI).
27. Brooks, Michael E. (May 1999). The Ethics of Intentionally Deceiving the Media, 68 (5) FBI Law Enf. Bull. 22-26; IACP Net Doc. 545913.
28. Honig, Audrey L., Ph.D. & Roland, Jocelyn, Ph.D. (Oct. 1998). Shots Fired; Officer Involved, 65 (10) Police Chief (IACP) 116-119; IACP Net Doc. 48842.
29. Solomon, R. M. (Jul. 1997). I know I must have shot, but I can't remember, 21 (4) The Police Marksman 48-51.
30. Siddle, Bruce. The Impact of the Sympathetic Nervous System on Use of Force Investigations. (Upload date unknown).
31. Reak, Kevin P. (May, 1996). Reporting the Use of Force, 63 (5) Police Chief (IACP); IACP Net Doc. 54652.
32. Pate and Fridell (1995). Toward the uniform reporting of police use of force; results of a national survey, 20 (2) Criminal Justice Rev. 123-145.
33. Gersons, Berthold P.R. (1989). Patterns of PTSD among police officers following shooting incidents: A two dimensional model and treatment implications, 2 J. of Traumatic Stress 247-257.
34. Pennington, N., & Hastie, R. (1988). Explanation-based decision making: effects of memory structure on judgment, 14 J. of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 521-533.
35. Solomon, Roger & Horn, J.M. (1986). Post-shooting traumatic reactions: a pilot study, in psychological services for law enforcement, Eds. Reese & Goldstein. U.S. GPO.
36. Geiselman, R.E., Fisher, R.P., et al. (1986). Eyewitness responses to leading and misleading questions under the cognitive interview. 14 J. of Police Sci. and Admin. (IACP) 31-39.
37. Geiselman, R.E., Fisher, R.P., et al. (1984). Enhancement of eyewitness memory: An empirical evaluation of a cognitive interview. 12 J. of Police Sci. and Admin. (IACP) 74-80.
38. Stratton, J., Parker, D. & Snibbe, J. (1984). Post Traumatic Stress: Study of Police Officers Involved in Shootings, 55 Psychological Reports 127-131.
39. Teasdale, J.D., & Fogerty, F.L. (1979). Differential effects of induced mood on retrieval of pleasant and unpleasant events from episodic memory, 88 J. of Abnormal Psychology 248-257.
40. Anderson, R.C. & Pichert, J.W. (1978). Recall of previously unrecallable information following a shift in perspective, 17 J. of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 1-12.
41. Bower, G.H., Monteiro, K.P., Gilligan, S.G. (1978). Emotional mood as a context of learning and recall, 17 J. of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 573-585.
42. Hockey, G.R.J. (1970). Effect of loud noise on attentional selectivity, 22 Quart. J. of Experimental Psychology 28-36.
B. Articles in e format:
1. Online list of references, Eyewitness Identification Research Laboratory, University of Texas at El Paso.
2. Artwohl, Alexis (Mar. 2008). Perceptual and Memory Distortions During Officer Involved Shootings, and Perceptual Distortions (accompanying reference tables) presented at Fourth AELE Lethal & Less Lethal Force Workshop, San Francisco, CA.
3. Remsberg, Chuck (Feb. 2008). When the smoke clears, part 1: Your legal first aid after a shooting.
4. Remsberg, Chuck (Feb. 2008). When the smoke clears, part 2: More legal tips for after your shooting.
5. Pitcher, Kris (Oct. 2007). LAPD Use of Force Incidents: OIS Investigation. IACP annual conference presentation, New Orleans, La. (Oct. 15, 2007) summarized by Rachel Fretz (LAPD Lessons Learned: Use of Force Investigation Tips) in PoliceOne Member News (Oct. 17, 2007).
6. Farber, Bernard J. (Jul. 2007). Civil Liability for SWAT operations, 2007 (7) AELE Monthly Law J. 101-113. ISSN 1935-0007.
7. Miller, L. (2007). Shots Fired! Part I: Psychological Reaction Patterns to Officer-Involved Shootings, PoliceOne series.
8. Miller, L. (2007). Shots Fired! Part II: Operational and Psychological Management of Officer-Involved Shootings, PoliceOne series.
9. Force Science News #60 (Dec. 4, 2006). Tunnel Vision and Tunnel Hearing Time to Update.
10. 113th IACP Annual Conference, Panel Discussion (Oct. 15, 2006). "Chief's Response to Controversial Use of Force Incidents: Balancing the Interests of Agency, Officer, Community and Media," (resource CD).
11. Force Science News #54 (Sep. 22, 2006). Inattention Blindness: Cell Phone Studies Shed Light on How Officers' Memories Work in Shootings.
12. Force Science News #42 (Apr. 14, 2006). How to Assure "Fair, Neutral & Fact-Finding," Part 2 of 2.
13. Force Science News #41 (Mar. 31, 2006). How to Assure "Fair, Neutral & Fact-Finding," Part 1 of 2.
14. Force Science News #36 (Jan. 20, 2006). Post Shooting Investigations: Are controversial recommendations about officers in shootings really valid?
15. Force Science News #24 (Aug. 1, 2005). New Findings Expand Understanding of Tunnel Vision, Auditory Blocking and Lag Time.
C. Books and monographs:
1. Hatch, David & Dickson, Randy (2007). Officer-Involved Shootings and Use of Force: Practical Investigative Techniques, 2nd Edit. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press/Taylor & Francis. ISBN 13-978-0-8493-8798-2.
2. Miller, Laurence (2006). Officer-Involved Shooting, Ch. 7 in Practical Police Psychology 116-132. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. ISBN 0-398-076375.
3. Paton, Volanti & Smith (2003). Promoting Capabilities to Manage Posttraumatic Stress, Perspectives on Resilience. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. ISBN 0-398-07317-1.
4. Purves, D.P. and Lotto, R.B. (2003). Why We See What We Do: An Empirical Theory of Vision. Sinauer Assoc./Macmillan Press. ISBN 0-87893-752-8.
5. Artwohl, A. & Christensen, L W. (1997). Deadly Force Encounters: What Cops Need to Know to Mentally and Physically Prepare for and Survive a Gunfight. Boulder, CO: Paladin Press. ISBN 0-87364-935-4.
6. Parkin, Alan J. (2nd edit. 1997). Memory and Amnesia: An Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-86377-635-3.
7. Fisher, R.P. & Gieselman, R.E. (1992). Memory-Enhancing Techniques for Investigative Interviewing: The Cognitive Interview. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. ISBN 0-398-06121-1.
8. Geiselman, R.E. (1988). Improving eyewitness memory through mental reinstatement of context. In G.M. Davies & D.M. Thomson (eds.) Memory in Context: Context in Memory. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 97804719-19018.
9. Remsberg, Charles (1986). Tactical Edge: Surviving High-Risk Patrol. Calibre Press. ISBN 0-93587-805-X.
10. Adams, McTernan & Remsberg (1980). Street Survival: Tactics for Armed Encounters. Calibre Press. ISBN 0-93587-800-9.
D. Judicial decisions:
1. Police Benevolent Assn. of N.Y. State Troopers v. New York State Div. of State Police, #501721, 2007 NY Slip Op 6201, 43 A.D.3d 125, 840 N.Y. Supp. 828, 2007 N.Y. App. Div. Lexis 8725 (3rd Dept.); prior decision at 2006 NYPER (LRP) Lexis 66 (PERB 2006). A New York appellate court rejected a suit challenging a state police policy that officers who are questioned after a critical incident are not allowed to have a union representative present. The union failed to show that the revised policy was reasonably certain to result in actual harm to members in either the criminal or disciplinary context and they lacked legal standing to challenge managements' current policy. State Police protocols provided that statements obtained during a critical incident review may not be used in a criminal or disciplinary proceeding. Note: The N.Y. courts have rejected the Weingarten decision.
2. Watson v. County of Riverside, 976 F. Supp. 951 (C.D. Cal. 1997). Injunction granted against preventing officers from consulting with legal counsel while completing a use of force report.
E. Model policies and guidelines:
1. IACP Psychological Services Section (2006). Peer Support Guidelines.
2. IACP Psychological Services Section (2004). Psychological Fitness-for-Duty Evaluation Guidelines.
3. IACP Psychological Services Section (2004). Officer-Involved Shooting Guidelines.
4. IACP National Law Enforcement Policy Center (2002). Model Policy on Reporting Use of Force (fee).
5. IACP National Law Enforcement Policy Center (1991). Model Policy on Postshooting Incident Procedures (fee).
6. IACP Training Keys: (fee).
Vol. 14, TK-324, Police Shootings and the Law (1983)
Vol. 14, TK-325, Police Shootings and Department Policy (1983)
Vol. 14, TK-326, Post-Shooting Services (1983)
Vol. 28, TK-522, Reporting Use of Force (2000)
7. Categorical Use of Force: Administrative/Criminal Investigation Guidelines, LAPD Force Investigation Division (version in use as of Oct. 2007).
F. Reports and studies:
1. San Diego County District Attorney's Office (2007). Officer-Involved Shooting Review: Analysis of Cases Investigated, 1996–2006.
2. Bureau of Justice Statistics (2006). Citizen Complaints about Police Use of Force, NCJ 210296 (2002 Statistics).
3. Police Assessment Resource Center (Dec. 2006). The Portland Police Bureau: Officer-Involved Shootings and In-Custody Deaths: Second Follow-Up Report.
4. Use-of-Force Investigations (Sep. 2006); section in Protecting Civil Rights: A Leadership Guide for State, Local, and Tribal Law Enforcement (pp. 139-142). IACP: Alexandria, VA.
5. Klinger, David Ph.D. (Jan. 2006). Responses to Officer-Involved Shootings, NIJ Journal No. 253 (summary of 2001 report, below).
6. Police Assessment Resource Center (Aug. 2005). The Portland Police Bureau: Officer-Involved Shootings and In-Custody Deaths: Follow-Up Report.
7. Boston Police Commissioner (May, 2005). Report of the Commission Investigating the Death of Victoria Snelgrove. (FN303 projectile fired "at a moving target in the midst of a crowd").
8. Police Assessment Resource Center (Aug. 2003). The Portland Police Bureau: Officer-Involved Shootings and In-Custody Deaths: Report.
9. IACP Report (2001). Police Use of Force in America, DoJ funded national use of force database.
10. Klinger, Prof. David (2001). Police Responses to Officer-Involved Shootings. NIJ research study, NIJ #192286, Univ. of Missouri-St. Louis.
11. Campbell, John Henry (1992). A Comparative Analysis of the Effects of PostShooting Trauma on the Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of Educ. Admin., Michigan State Univ.
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The effect of professional standards on confirmation bias in tax decision-making
Darius Fatemi, 1 John Hasseldine 2 and Peggy Hite 3
Abstract
This study first examines whether confirmation bias in a tax decision context is greater when the quantity of information describing the tax issue is substantially increased. The study reviews international accounting bodies' professional codes and then focuses on de-biasing by testing the use of principles-based ethical standards to mitigate pro-client confirmation bias. Specifically, we examine the effect of AICPA Code of Conduct Section 54 for integrity and Rule 102-6 for advocacy. We use novice participants who would not yet have preconceived notions developed from their workplace environment regarding the standards or the case facts. Our results show that pro-client recommendations are a function of the presence of a professional standard and the level of contextual detail. Confirmation bias exists in the detailed context without professional standards. However, when professional standards are present, this type of confirmation bias is mitigated.
Key words: client advocacy; confirmation bias; principles-based standards; professional ethics
1 Associate Professor of Accounting, Haile/US Bank College of Business, Northern Kentucky University.
2 Professor of Accounting, Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics, University of New Hampshire.
3 Emeritus Professor of Accounting, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University-Bloomington.
This article has benefited from the helpful comments of two anonymous reviewers and participants at the 23rd Annual Tax Research Network Conference, Roehampton University, London, 2014.
1. INTRODUCTION
Throughout the world, tax practitioners offer planning and compliance services to business clients and their executives (Frecknall-Hughes & Moizer, 2015; Gupta, 2015). In the US, the regulatory environment has been strengthened in recent years to improve compliance and prevent abuse from overly aggressive client-favourable reporting (Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), 2006; Internal Revenue Service (IRS), 2009; IRS, 2011). The tax and auditing literature has documented the propensity of professional accountants to exhibit confirmation bias, a psychological tendency to seek out, attend to, and remember information that is in line with an outcome the accountant prefers, either because it agrees with a client's preference or because it follows the accountant's preconceptions (Kunda, 1990; Oswald & Grosjean, 2004). For example, Cloyd and Spilker (1999) demonstrated that practitioners tend to seek out more favourable cases, rulings and standards than unfavourable ones. The penchant toward pro-client outcomes has been documented in the interpretation and weighting of evidence for moderate-risk clients (Johnson, 1993; Cuccia, Hackenbrack & Nelson, 1995), while Kadous, Magro and Spilker (2008) found that confirmation bias evidenced with moderate-risk clients is not observed for clients with a high practice risk. Assuming most clients are moderate risk and that ambiguous issues abound, the results imply that the impact of confirmation bias is non-trivial.
Notwithstanding the pervasiveness of the literature supporting confirmation bias, Nelson (2003) asserts that practitioners ultimately make decisions that are consistent with their incentives. These incentives include motivating factors such as likelihood of litigation, potential for client loss, loss of reputation, possible penalties, and client importance. He argues, however, that the incentives could be designed to favour accuracy. For example, in an auditing environment he applauds the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) consideration of a 'true and fair' override that would require transactions to reflect the underlying economic substance.
Similar to the proposed FASB override, guidance for accurate, objective reporting is provided in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Code of Professional Conduct (2014). 4 The 2014 version of the Code replaced an earlier version effective from 2010. In the 2014 Preface, Section 0.300.040 requires members to demonstrate the highest sense of integrity, and adds that integrity requires honest and candid reporting and that integrity does not permit deceit or subordination of principle (previously ET Section 54 in the 2010 Code). Another AICPA rule, Section 1.140 of the 2014 Code, (previously rule 102-6 in the 2010 version) implicitly acknowledges that accuracy can become subjective in the presence of ambiguous technical guidance. 5 This
4 The rule for independent, unbiased judgments is not the same as the term for independence that is used in the auditing literature. Auditors are forbidden to opine unless the independence requirements are satisfied. In this situation, independence regarding the client-auditor relationship is regulated by a specific set of regulations.
5 The Section's first paragraph states: 'An advocacy threat to compliance with the "Integrity and Objectivity Rule" [1.100.001] may exist when a member or the member's firm is engaged to perform non-attest services, such as tax and consulting services, that involve acting as an advocate for the client or to support a client's position on accounting or financial reporting issues either within the firm or outside the firm with standard setters, regulators, or others'. Also, paragraph 3 states: 'Some professional services involving client advocacy may stretch the bounds of performance standards, go beyond sound and reasonable professional practice, or compromise credibility, thereby creating threats to the member's compliance with the rules and damaging the reputation of the member and the member's firm. If such circumstances exist,
is consistent with Nelson (2003) who suggests that aggressive reporting decisions tend to increase with more imprecise reporting standards. Section 1.140 (formerly Rule 1026) of the AICPA Code condones justifiable client advocacy in tax and financial decision-making. To date, research has not examined the impact of AICPA standards for advocacy and integrity on the propensity toward pro-client decision-making, yet Libby and Luft (1993) argue that the purpose of professional standards is to influence professional judgments. The issue is whether professional standards required by the Code act as incentives that influence decision-making. The current article contributes to the literature by examining the effects of the advocacy standard and integrity standard as contained in the 2010 version of the AICPA Code on tax decision-making that involves ambiguous technical guidance. We purposely use student participants to provide a homogenous group for this baseline study and to reduce possible rival effects from work experience and/or organisational climate.
Confirmation bias is often exacerbated by supplemental material, as the additional judicial and legislative rulings can be misinterpreted or over-weighted as support for a pro-client position (Johnson, 1993; Cuccia et al., 1995). Klayman (1995) admits that much is unknown about why confirmation bias exists, but he adds that a potential theme for future research is to examine the role of motivation as a moderator of the cognitive processes that result in confirmation bias. Prior research, however, has not examined the potential impact of professional standards as motivating factors (e.g., such as Integrity and Advocacy in a tax context). If the presence of these standards is included, would the additional evidence still result in more pro-client outcomes as prior literature suggests?
When analysing how to apply a subjective rule, irresolute information regarding the facts and circumstances of a tax issue can contribute to the ambiguity, as it is difficult to evaluate how the subjective rule fits an indeterminate case. Clearly, recommendations and reporting decisions should not be driven by additional, irresolute information, but rather by authoritative tax guidance, yet prior studies have documented a confirmation bias arising from a conscious or unconscious supportive interpretation of the regulatory and judicial rulings. The AICPA standard for integrity requires its members to be honest and candid in their judgments. Therefore, if this type of AICPA professional standard is applied, it should mitigate the propensity toward pro-client decision-making related to the added details.
Client advocacy has also been sanctioned by the AICPA, perhaps as acknowledgment that conservatism does not always result in an accurate decision. If the technical guidance is ambiguous, a professional standard such as Rule 102-6 could either increase the likelihood of a pro-client reporting decision if it is justifiable, or the standard itself could be over-valued as motivation for pro-client decisions that are not justified. The concern is that confirmation bias could affect how the added detail would be weighted, possibly leading to an increase in the likelihood of a pro-client outcome. That said, the advocacy rule is not intended to condone this type of confirmation bias. Its status as a professional standard as well as the discussion included in Rule 102-6 reinforces its purpose of helping the client determine an objective, appropriate interpretation of the relevant technical guidance.
the member and member's firm should determine whether it is appropriate to perform the professional service'. See n 9, below, for the equivalent paragraph in the 2010 version of the Code.
Our results show that in the absence of professional standards for integrity and advocacy, confirmation bias derived from additional inconclusive information leads to a more pro-client tax outcome than does the same tax issue without that additional information. In contrast, when either AICPA Section 54 or Rule 102-6 is explicitly presented to the participants, the final tax reporting decision does not significantly differ between the contexts with and without the additional information. The implication is that the professional standards tend to mitigate the confirmation bias that is associated with a propensity to misinterpret additional information as support. In addition, we find that the presence of AICPA Section 54 for integrity decreases the likelihood of a proclient recommendation in the context with additional inconclusive details, which is a more realistic case.
Prior literature, e.g., Johnson (1993), has documented confirmation bias in a tax setting involving the deductibility of reasonable compensation, and correlated advocacy attitudes with client advocacy judgments, and Pinsker, Pennington and Schafer (2009) also use a reasonable compensation case scenario and contrast the different roles of audit vs. tax professional to examine whether switching roles influences client advocacy and professional scepticism. As no prior studies have considered the influence of professional standards, we document the potential impact of AICPA professional standards on judgments involving ambiguous tax reporting decisions. The present study shows that professional standards are important factors in compliance contexts. Furthermore, most prior research related to professional codes of ethics in accounting has involved an audit setting, and none of those studies involved the overarching principles-based standards for integrity and advocacy.
Our study further contributes to the literature by comparing the effects of advocacy and integrity standards in two contexts. Both contexts involve the same ambiguous tax issue (classification of compensation to the owner as a salary or as a dividend). One case, however, has scant evidence to support or deny its tax deductibility. The other case contains a considerable amount of additional but inconclusive detail. Consistent with Bonner (1994), the quantity of components that must be considered creates additional ambiguity for the task context, and this can lead to an increased likelihood of confirmation bias given the tendency to interpret the evidence as pro-client (Johnson, 1993; Cuccia et al., 1995). Our study confirms this finding in the absence of professional standards. However, confirmation bias attributable to the added detail does not exist in the presence of the professional standards. The implication is that increased exposure to overriding standards, especially Section 54 for integrity, may be able to reduce some of the confirmation bias that has been demonstrated in the information searches, data evaluation, and reporting decisions.
The results of this study have important implications for: 1) accounting standard setters who develop professional codes and rules; 2) tax, audit, financial and managerial accountants who have varying sets of ethical standards meant to guide their professional judgments; 3) regulatory tax authorities, such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), who monitor professional accountants' behaviour, and 4) academics who wish to engage students in applied ethical decision-making.
The remainder of this article proceeds as follows. The next section provides background information and develops our hypotheses. Sections 3 and 4 outline our method and results respectively, with concluding remarks in section 5.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT
2.1 Professional Codes of Ethics
This study explores the influence of professional standards as contained in the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct (2010; 2014); specifically the effects of integrity and client advocacy on confirmation bias. Apart from the US, at the suggestion of a reviewer, we examined the codes of several English speaking countries, specifically for chartered accountants in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa and the UK, who must all comply with a code based on the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants of the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) published by the International Federation of Accountants. 6
The IESBA Code has adopted a principles-based (rather than rules-based) approach and does not apply directly to members of a particular professional body, but rather the main accountancy bodies throughout the world are required to comply with a code no less stringent than the principles included in the IESBA Code of Ethics. This Code states: 'The principle of integrity imposes an obligation on all members to be straightforward and honest in all professional and business relationships. Integrity also implies fair dealing and truthfulness', and is an element of the traditional accountant stereotype (Carnegie & Napier, 2010).
2.2 Confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is a tendency to seek out, attend to, and remember information that is in line with a preferred outcome. Essentially, individuals are hard-wired to exhibit a confirmation bias (seeking confirmation of one's prior beliefs) and a selective information processing bias (seeing only what one wants to see) when evaluating evidence (Kunda, 1990; Oswald & Grosjean, 2004). The bias is clearly of interest to accounting firms, as it may affect audit and tax professionals' weighting of evidence and their professional judgments and decisions.
Confirmation bias can be distinguished from the separate construct of client advocacy which Mason and Levy (2001, p. 127) define in a tax setting as '.... a state of mind in which one feels one's primary loyalty belongs to the taxpayer. It is exhibited by a desire to represent the taxpayer zealously within the bounds of the law, and by a desire to be a fighter on behalf of the taxpayer'. The IESBA Code defines an 'Advocacy threat' as 'the threat that a Member will promote a client's or employer's position to the point that the Member's objectivity is compromised', but unlike the AICPA or Ontario, the IESBA does not specifically condone client advocacy; rather, the IESBA assumes professional accountants will be client advocates.
The significant influence of advocacy was a frequent result in early behavioural studies on tax practitioners' recommendations to clients (Ayres, Jackson & Hite, 1989; Jackson & Milliron, 1989), and the positive correlation between client advocacy and favourable recommendations on tax decision-making continues today (Johnson, 1993; Levy, 1996; Mason & Levy, 2001; Pinsker et al., 2009; Bobek, Hageman & Hatfield, 2010). Although several studies have documented the significant effects of advocacy, most of these results have not had large explanatory effects. For example, the correlation
6 Interestingly, CPAs in Ontario (and possibly other Canadian provinces), like the AICPA, do not utilise the 'standard' definition of Integrity as per the IESBA Code.
between advocacy attitude and recommended tax position in Johnson (1993) was 0.17, it was only 0.13 in Pinsker et al. (2009), and it was not significant at all in Barrick, Cloyd and Spilker (2004).
Bobek et al. (2010) note that most prior research does not use a scale to measure individual advocacy attitude. Instead, a treatment effect is induced for advocacy by indicating the client-favourable position (Cloyd & Spilker, 1999). In Cuccia et al. (1995), aggressive reporting decisions were significantly higher for the scenarios that described the client as having a preference for aggressive (but legitimate) tax reporting positions rather than clients described as having conservative preferences. In contrast, the Ayres et al. (1989) study did not manipulate client preference, but the underlying premise of the decision variable was to capture practitioners' propensity to prefer decisions that are favourable for the client (i.e., reduce taxable income) rather than report conservatively on ambiguous reporting issues. This is consistent with research finding that most practitioners assume their clients prefer tax saving strategies, even when not explicitly requested (Christensen, 1992; Stephenson, 2007).
In a review of tax practitioners' decision-making, Roberts (1998) reiterated the effects of advocacy in practice. As indicated by the studies he reviewed, advocacy attitudes produce confirmation bias when practitioners evaluate case law, weigh evidence, and decide how much effort to expend to find support for pro-client positions. Kadous et al. (2008) demonstrated the complexities of client preference by explicitly manipulating the client's level of tax practice risk. They found that the extent to which information search is confirmatory is influenced by a balance of incentives including client risk and the regulatory environment. Specifically, confirmation bias was not exhibited when their high-risk clients had a history of aggressive reporting and litigation. In contrast, confirmation bias was documented for the moderate-risk clients. Bobek et al. (2010) found that advocacy attitude is specific to the client's characteristics. That is, when told that the client has previously proposed questionable tax-saving strategies and has been audited by the IRS, resulting in sizable adjustments and penalties, tax practitioners are less likely to be an advocate for the client. This is consistent with research finding that when the client engagement is described as high-risk, auditors are less likely to permit an aggressive reporting decision (Hackenbrack & Nelson, 1996). Furthermore, Cuccia et al. (1995) reported that when a client is described as risk-averse, practitioners are not as likely to recommend an aggressive pro-client tax position. In sum, the studies have shown that auditors and tax practitioners are more likely to permit aggressive reporting when the engagement risk is moderate.
The distribution of tax clients who are highly risk-seeking or highly risk-averse is not known, but utility theory assumes that most taxpayers prefer to pay less tax than more. Hence, consistent with prior studies, the current study examines confirmation bias for moderate-risk clients with the assumption that saving taxes by reducing taxable income is a favourable outcome for the typical client (i.e., not excessively risk-seeking or riskaverse).
Whether measured as advocacy attitude or confirmation bias, the tax literature is replete with studies acknowledging practitioners' tendency to favour pro-client judgments (Ayres et al., 1989; Johnson, 1993; Cloyd and Spilker, 1999), and the same is true for the auditing literature in which auditors often demonstrate a bias toward a position that is favourable for their client (Hackenbrack & Nelson, 1996; Kadous, Kennedy & Peecher, 2003; Moore et al., 2006).
Relevant to the present study, Cuccia et al. (1995) found that tax practitioners attempted to conform to client preferences by interpreting vague verbal standards as support for their aggressive decisions. In addition, when the threshold standards were described in numerical terms (e.g., 60% required level of support), practitioners interpreted the evidential support as being more favourable in order to justify an aggressive position. Similar work by Johnson (1993) found that tax judgments were influenced by confirmation bias. Her study labelled prior court cases as either favourable or unfavourable evidence for a client's preferred position on an ambiguous tax issue. Half of the practitioner sample was told cases A and C (B and D) constituted favourable (unfavourable) evidence, but the others were told that the same cases, A and C (B and D) were unfavourable (favourable). Participants perceived the cases that were labelled as favourable to be more applicable to their client's situation, and they interpreted those cases as supportive regardless of the unsupportive details and facts specified within each case. The study documented the propensity to overweight additional facts and evidence as favourable to a client-preferred position, even when the underlying facts were not supportive.
Bonner (1994) explains that technically correct solutions can be confused by uncertain information as well as the number of criteria on which to evaluate a decision. The implication is that practitioners are prone to confirmation bias when given a myriad of facts to consider, as the cognitive effort needed to process a large quantity of information is likely to be reduced by substituting a less effortful heuristic such as confirmation bias.
To avoid preparer penalties on aggressive reporting positions, US tax law standards typically require a 'more likely than not' weighting of the judicial evidence and legislative guidance. In both the Cuccia et al. (1995) and Johnson (1993) studies, the amount of information given to all participants was substantially equal, and most responded that the presented information met the 'more likely than not' tax criterion. The current study extends the test of confirmation bias to tax decisions in which a case with an ambiguous outcome involves additional but inconclusive details about the facts of the client's transaction. It is posited that the decision-maker will interpret the case scenario with detailed information as more supportive of the client-preferred outcome, relative to the same scenario that is stripped of most of the irresolute information. If the case is presented without the detail, then there is less information to interpret as supporting evidence (i.e., there is less evidence to 'confirm'). Consequently, confirmation bias should be weaker in the less detailed context. This leads to our first hypothesis:
HYPOTHESIS 1. In the absence of motivating professional standards, a case with additional, inconclusive, information is more likely to result in confirmation bias (a more pro-client decision) than a case with substantially less information.
2.3 Effect of integrity on confirmation bias
Under the AICPA Code of Conduct (2010), Section 54 reinforces integrity as an ethical guideline for CPAs. The rules of the Code are intended to help CPAs interpret the entire body of principles- and rules-based guidance. In fact, one of the initiatives associated with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is the proposed adoption of principles-based technical accounting standards, which is expected to dampen aggressive financial reporting related to undue reliance on form over substance (Agoglia, Doupnik & Tsakumis, 2011). To date, however, there is scant evidence on the effects of integrity, a principles-based ethical standard required by the Code. Given the complexity of current tax laws, expertise in interpreting government rules and regulations is a valued service. Even though integrity is sanctioned by the profession, its effectiveness remains a question for empirical research. As noted by Jones, Massey and Thorne (2003), the AICPA's professional code could either enhance or limit auditors' ethical sensitivities, and they call for research to identify ways in which the Code can enhance ethical awareness and behaviour. Herron and Gilbertson (2004) compared the effects of principles-based and rules-based ethical guidelines, as student participants were given either excerpts from AICPA Section 50 with a principles-based focus or from the rulesbased AICPA Section 101, each pertaining to independence in the auditor-client relationship. This treatment did not significantly affect the participants' decisions regarding a specific transaction: whether an auditor's independence would be violated if the hypothetical audit engagement were accepted when the client was already a tax and consulting client. They did find, however, that participants with high-level moral reasoning (based on DIT scores) were influenced only by the principles-based excerpts and those with low-level moral reasoning were influenced only by the rules-based excerpts. Applying this result to practice is difficult as each practitioner's level of moral reasoning is not known. The implication is that in the presence of rules-based guidance only, even very ethical decision-makers lose focus on the primary objective. The trend toward principles-based accounting reinforces the need for decision-makers to stay focused on the primary objective. Hence, the current study examines the effect of exposure to principles-based standards on tax decision making. 7
Sunder (2010) discusses the balance between uniform, written rules-based standards and principles-based social norms, arguing that the latter should be given a stronger role in restoring personal and professional responsibility in accounting. Both Sunder (2010) and Jones et al. (2003) assert that more research is needed to identify ways in which the Code can enhance ethical awareness and behaviour. Both the 2010 and 2014 versions of the Code require members to make professional reporting decisions that are accurate, honest, and candid, which is consistent with Nelson's (2003) call for principles-based technical standards that require a 'true and fair' override to incentivise more accurate reporting. Libby and Luft (1993) argue that the professional code was created with the goal of influencing professional judgments, and they argue that even minimal exposure to professional guidelines could influence ethical judgments. The present study tests the effectiveness of Section 54 as a principles-based standard that could diminish confirmation bias by providing an explicit prime for this professional code.
Klayman (1995) asserts that little is known about the connection between motivation and the cognitive processes that result in confirmation bias. By including professional ethical standards in our model, the desire to see a client-favourable solution must be weighed against the desire to satisfy a professional ethics standard. Hence, the question is whether the confirmation bias from the detailed case will persist when participants
7 The Defining Issues Test (DIT), developed by Rest (1979), is widely used to measure one's current ethical stage of development. The test incorporates more personal dilemmas than business dilemmas, and this has led numerous researchers to question its application in business settings (Weber, 1990; Trevino, 1992; Fisher, 1997; Doyle, Frecknall-Hughes & Glaister, 2009; Bailey, Scott & Thoma, 2010). Shawver and Sennetti (2009) created eight business scenarios and asked a total of 24 questions regarding intended behaviour. Subject responses on the DIT were significantly correlated with only three of the 24 items. The researchers concluded that the DIT may be appropriate for measuring absolute levels of cognitive, ethical development, but applied business dilemmas are more appropriate for measuring relative effects on professionals' business decision-making.
are exposed to the integrity standard. If exposure to the integrity standard is a robust effect, then it should negate any increased tendency, conscious or unconscious, to recommend the deduction when additional but inconclusive details are added. Thus, the standard calling for candid and honest judgments may lead participants to interpret the additional information with more scepticism. On the other hand, if the effect of confirmation bias related to the added details is dominant (per H1), then the pro-client tendency should persist. Hence, the presence of a confirmation bias driven by additional detail is examined to test whether the confirmation bias expected in the absence of a professional standard (H1) is mitigated in the presence of a professional standard for integrity, which leads to our second hypothesis:
HYPOTHESIS 2. The increased propensity for confirmation bias (a pro-client decision) in a detailed context is less likely in the presence of a professional standard for integrity than in its absence.
2.4 Effect of advocacy on confirmation bias
The AICPA has repeatedly confirmed the right of CPAs to be advocates for their tax clients, and Rule 102-6, originally drafted in 1995, of the 2010 AICPA Code sanctioned the need for taxpayer advocacy. Traditionally, client advocacy has been associated with tax services, although Rule 102-6 condones advocacy for accounting, financial reporting, and tax. It is important to note that when acting as a client advocate, the 2010 and 2014 versions of the Code, both require members to maintain objectivity and integrity, with the narrative for Rule 102-6 thus implying that advocacy is justifiable only when the technical guidance is unclear. Several behavioural studies have shown that attitude toward advocacy correlates with preferences for client-favourable outcomes (e.g., Johnson, 1993, Levy, 1996, Davis & Mason, 2003), but Barrick et al. (2004) did not. When advocacy has been tested by manipulating client preference, research tends to show a positive association as practitioners strive to help their clients, provided the hypothetical client is not too risk-seeking or too risk-averse (Hackenbrack & Nelson, 1996; Cuccia et al., 1995; Kadous et al., 2008). This suggests that the presence of a professional standard sanctioning advocacy might reinforce the pro-client tendency.
Both confirmation bias and an advocacy standard could lead to a more pro-client outcome when there is scant or substantial information that is inconclusive. Kunda (1990), however, asserts that motivated reasoning toward preferred outcomes has boundaries, caused by internal or external constraints, which result from certain thresholds or limits. For example, personal norms, societal norms, professional standards, and/or sanction threats could restrict the amount of risk-seeking or risk-taking behaviour that is acceptable to the decision-maker. If by definition the issues are truly ambiguous (lack sufficient support), then confirmation bias can move the decision to a favourable position when it is allegedly not supportable. At some point, this bias crosses the line and becomes unjustifiable.
This raises the issue that advocacy, as a standard allowed by the AICPA, could infer a professional ceiling for the extent of advocacy that would be consistent with the professional standard. In essence, although the standard permits advocacy, the standard itself cautions against exceeding certain boundaries. 8 Moreover, merely being labelled
8 See n 5, above.
as a professional standard in the AICPA Code of Conduct conjures up behaviour that is fitting for a professional.
In sum, prior studies have documented the role of advocacy in confirmation bias, treating advocacy either as an internalised belief (i.e., using the Mason & Levy (2001) scale) and/or as an outcome arising from an explicit manipulation of client preference. The current study, however, presents advocacy as delineated by professional guidelines. It should be noted that the wording in Rule 102-6 is guarded (e.g., '…may be requested by a client…'). The purpose of the present study is not to induce aggressive, pro-client decisions. If Rule 102-6 acts as a boundary because of its recognised position as a part of the AICPA Code of Conduct, then its presence would mitigate the expected confirmation bias coming from the added context. Thus, the following hypothesis is tested:
HYPOTHESIS 3. The increased propensity for confirmation bias (a pro-client decision) in a detailed context is less likely in the presence of a professional standard for advocacy than in its absence.
3. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHOD
We test our hypotheses in a mixed between- and within-subjects design, varying between participants the primed professional standard at three levels (none, integrity, and advocacy standard). The level of contextual information presented in a case scenario is varied within subjects at two levels (low vs. high).
3.1 Participants
On the first day of their introductory tax class, undergraduate students (mostly seniors) from a large, public, Midwestern US university were asked to participate in the present study. Given the lack of research on the effectiveness of current wording in the AICPA standards for advocacy and integrity, the use of students allows for a more homogenous group to test for any differential impact of the treatment variables, and it reduces the likelihood of rival effects such as prior work experience and/or organisational climate.
The use of student participants as surrogates has been a controversial area in behavioural tax and accounting research. For instance, Marriott (2014) challenges the wisdom of using student subjects as a proxy for adult taxpayers, and she suggests studies should justify their sample choices, per the preceding paragraph, and note the inherent limitations, especially if tax policy research questions are being examined. In terms of whether student participants are appropriate surrogates for practising accountants, there is encouraging evidence from Liyanarachchi and Milne (2005) and Mortensen, Fisher and Wines (2012) who find advanced level accounting students to be useful surrogates for accounting practitioners in decision-making tasks.
Interestingly, a prior study by Pflugrath, Martinov-Bennie and Chen (2007) found that codes of ethics did impact experienced auditors but did not affect student participants. The researchers asserted that the amount of content from a professional code may have been too much material for students to grasp in an abbreviated experiment. The present study merely provides brief excerpts from the AICPA Code of Conduct. This increases the likelihood that the treatment effects will be sufficiently understood by the homogenous student groups. Experienced professionals will likely have pre-conceived notions and/or workplace norms regarding the interpretation of these standards and/or how the classification between owner compensation and return of capital should be distinguished. Consequently, research involving professionals may require a different treatment effect than a mere presentation of the stated standard. In contrast, for student participants, a brief exposure to the principles-based standards is expected to be sufficient (Pinsker et al., 2009). Although external validity for professional decisionmaking will be limited, the cost of using student participants for this baseline study is much less than using experienced professionals.
3.2 Case scenarios and dependent variable
In the present study we test the impact of exposure to professional standards for advocacy and integrity on two hypothetical cases involving the same ambiguous tax guidance, one with scant details and the other with substantially more information. The order was not randomised because if the second case was presented first, participants would likely assume, consciously or unconsciously, that the low-context case has similar facts as the first case. Thus, the low-context case with few details was presented first, followed by the high-context case. After responding about deductibility on each of the two cases, additional information was solicited regarding tendency to be an advocate, as well as background questions including items such as gender, age, work experience, and beliefs about the AICPA standards.
The first case, shown in Appendix 1, is a substantially-condensed version of the second case. The second case, in Appendix 2, was adopted from prior research (Pinsker et al., 2009). These researchers used the case because of the inconclusive facts and ambiguous regulatory guidance, and they indicated that the facts given were insufficient to support either deductible compensation or return of capital. The authors did not report the mean responses, but they did report that the outcomes significantly differed by one's professional role (e.g., tax professionals were more likely to recommend a tax deduction than were the auditors).
The decision context concerns a payment of $600,000 to the corporation's president and whether it should be deducted as compensation for services rendered or not deducted because the excessive payment is a return of capital to a shareholder. The case includes favourable and unfavourable, relevant and irrelevant information that could be perceived as support for the deduction. The present study operationalises context specificity, in that the high-context case contains more irresolute details that give the decision-maker an opportunity to interpret them in their preferred direction. Johnson (1993) using the same tax issue as the present study and Pinsker et al. (2009), but with different facts, reported that professionals found the high-context case to be ambiguous, and on average, the professionals indicated a 56% likelihood that the deduction would be allowed in a court of law.
The primary dependent variable in the present study is the change toward a pro-client judgment when a variety of potentially pro and con information is added to the case. The debatable item involves the deductibility of a capital expenditure. Both cases use a seven-point scale, ranging from -3 for 'definitely no deduction' to 3 for 'definitely a deduction', following Pinsker et al. (2009) who used the same case and response scale. Klayman (1995) explained confirmation bias as the extent to which the confirming tendency exceeds an appropriate amount, yet he acknowledges that appropriateness is a vague measure. For the purpose of the current study, we operationalise it as a judgment that significantly differs from a neutral response (that neither favours nor disfavours the related tax deduction). It should also be noted that the dependent variable represents an intended behaviour. Our study assumes that the manipulation for ethical standards will affect moral reasoning, and that moral reasoning correlates with intended and actual behavior (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Trevino, 1992).
3.3 Independent variables
Each participant was randomly assigned to a treatment group – either the advocacy group (Advocacy), integrity group (Integrity), or a control group. Participants first received their respective treatment scenarios prior to reading the two cases and making separate reporting recommendations about deducting the payments to the company president/shareholder. Participants in the control group (without a manipulation) began by responding to the low-context case. After indicating their decision, they were told to proceed to the next case. Before responding to both cases, participants in the respective advocacy and integrity groups first read a targeted standard: AICPA Rule 102-6 for the advocacy group and Section 54-Article III.02 for the integrity group. The primed conditions were extracted directly from the AICPA Code of Conduct (2010): 9
'Integrity requires a member to be, among other things, honest, and candid … Service and the public trust should not be subordinated to personal gain and advantage. Integrity can accommodate the inadvertent error and the honest difference of opinion; it cannot accommodate deceit or subordination of principle.' [Integrity]
'A member or a member's firm may be requested by a client … to act as an advocate in support of the client's position on accounting or financial reporting issues, either within the firm or outside the firm with standard setters, regulators, or others.' [Advocacy]
4. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
A total of 73 students attending the first day of tax class completed the questionnaires in January 2011 on a voluntary and anonymous basis. The average age of the participants was 21.58 (SD = 1.98) with a range from 19 to 35. The majority, 56.9%, was 21, and most were seniors. In addition, most were males, 67.1%, similar to the overall male to female population in the university's business school. In the Advocacy group, one-third of participants had heard of the AICPA Code of Conduct, but none indicated any familiarity with Rule 102-6. The mean score was 1.96 (SD = 0.98) on a scale from 1-7 in which 1 indicates 'very unfamiliar'. In the Integrity group, 39% had heard of the Code, but only 11% indicated any familiarity with Section 54 (scores of 57), and the mean score was 2.43 (SD = 1.57). These responses indicate that the respondents were quite unfamiliar with the targeted professional standards, and, therefore, were unlikely to have strong, preconceived notions about the standards. This suggests that student participants are appropriate participants as the goal of this study is to examine how the current language in the professional standards differentially affects judgments associated with the confirmation bias coming from additional, but
9 Note that in presenting the Advocacy prime, we did not present to participants the final paragraph of Rule 102-6 which states: 'Moreover, there is a possibility that some requested professional services involving client advocacy may appear to stretch the bounds of performance standards, may go beyond sound and reasonable professional practice, or may compromise credibility, and thereby pose an unacceptable risk of impairing the reputation of the member and his or her firm with respect to independence, integrity, and objectivity. In such circumstances, the member and the member's firm should consider whether it is appropriate to perform the service'. It is possible that if this had been presented to participants, it may have changed their perception of whether integrity was more important than advocacy.
inconclusive, details. Seasoned professionals are likely to have more varied exposure to and strong a priori beliefs regarding these standards as well as stronger positions regarding the technical rules for classification of compensation to shareholders and dividend payments. If confirmation bias varies in the presence or absence of professional standards for the novice group, then future research should pursue this line of research on experienced professionals to investigate whether the hypothesised effects of the standards persist when respondents have strong internalised beliefs regarding the professional standards and/or the nature of the ambiguous technical issues.
To ensure that the randomised treatments were effective, we tested for group differences on advocacy scale, interpretation of the advocacy standard, interpretation of the integrity standard, and relative importance of the two standards for tax decision-making. Regarding the advocacy scale, responses to all five questions (with anchors of 1 for disagreement to the statement favouring advocacy and 7 for agreement) were averaged for an overall advocacy attitude. Cronbach's alpha for reliability among the five questions is 0.881 as presented in Table 1. The scaled average has a mean of 4.49 (SD = 1.36). It should be noted that a midpoint of 4 (for lack of agreement or disagreement) would represent the lack of a strong tendency in either direction. Thus, overall, most had a very slight tendency toward being an advocate. This average response is slightly less aggressive than prior research using professionals (Pinsker et al., 2009 reporting a mean of 4.35: 3.90 for auditors and 4.90 for tax professionals; Bobek et al., 2010 reporting an overall mean score of 4.95 by tax professionals). When comparing the control group responses to the advocacy and integrity groups, the respective means (SD) on the advocacy scale were 4.81 (SD = 1.51), 4.36 (SD = 1.14), and 4.41 (SD = 1.49). These means did not significantly differ (F(2,65) = 0.669, p = 0.516). The implication is that our participants have similar attitudes regarding their own inclination toward advocacy; thus, the randomisation to groups is successful on this attitude.
Similarly, we tested for mean differences among the randomised groups on belief about the advocacy standard (see Panel B in Table 1). The respective means (SD) for the control, advocacy, and integrity groups were 5.00 (SD = 1.46), 5.04 (SD = 1.13), and 5.14 (SD = 1.21). These means did not significantly differ from each other (F(2,70) = 0.086, p = 0.918). Thus, the overall mean of 5.07 (SD = 1.23) illustrates that most believed the advocacy standard only slightly favoured agreement with a pro-client position. The respective means (SD) on attitude toward the integrity standard were, respectively, 3.94 (SD = 1.55), 3.78 (SD = 1.16), and 3.36 (SD = 1.42), which were not significantly different (F(2,70) = 1.184, p = 0.312). Lastly, the respective means (SD) on which standard is more important in tax decision-making were 4.39 (SD = 1.82), 4.15 (SD = 1.73), and 4.54 (SD = 1.73) indicating no significant differences (F(2,70) = 0.341, p = 0.712). The implication of these results is that most subjects agreed, 71.2%, that the advocacy standard slightly favours a pro-client position; that integrity tends to result in a less favourable client position (53.4% agreed), and that a slight majority, 50.7%, agreed that integrity is a more important standard than advocacy for tax decision-making (35.6% responded that advocacy is a more important standard than integrity). Table 1 presents demographics, advocacy attitude scale and attitudes toward the professional standards. 10
10 Prior literature suggests that these variables might influence tax decision-making. Although gender has frequently been identified as a significant factor in explaining non-compliance tendencies, prior research is mixed (Conroy, Emerson & Pons, 2010; Mayhew & Murphy, 2009; Shaub, 1994; Eynon, Hill & Stevens,
1997; Radtke, 2000). Similarly, age has been found to correlate with compliance. Conroy et al. (2010) found that age is a significant factor in explaining compliance, suggesting that levels of compliance increase with age. Pflugrath et al. (2007) found that experience rather than age could affect compliance levels. However, Emerson et al. (2007) reported that ethical attitudes did not differ with age or experience. Lastly, based on research previously presented in our literature review, advocacy has been identified as a strong predictor variable for tax reporting decisions. Consequently, we used the condensed five-question advocacy scale used by Pinsker et al. (2009) to measure a participant's agreement/disagreement with whether the client is entitled to favourable treatment when tax laws are unclear or ambiguous. A longer version of the advocacy scale was originally developed by Mason and Levy (2001).
Prior to testing our hypotheses, we examined the relationship between the dependent variables for pro-client decision-making and the background information for gender, advocacy scale, age, and attitude toward the standards for advocacy and integrity. These variables were not significantly correlated with the dependent variables, nor did they affect the results presented in this article. Therefore, the background variables are not included as control variables in the models presented below.
The dependent variables range from -3 for 'no deduction' to 3 for 'definitely taking the deduction'. Descriptive statistics for the recommended reporting decisions and their statistical tests are presented in Table 2. On the first scenario with scant detail, the average response across all three groups is 0.26 (SD = 1.63). Those responding less than zero, indicating it is not deductible, comprised 35.6% of the participants, whereas 50.7% of the participants tended to recommend the expenditure as deductible (scores greater than zero). For the second scenario, which contained substantially more detail, the average response across all three groups is 0.42 (SD = 1.86). Most, 56.2%, indicated that the expenditure should be deductible, and 39.7% indicated that it should not be deductible.
Table 2: Reporting Decisions and Gain Scores
Panel A: Reporting Decisions a
Panel B: Gain Scores
d
Notes:
aReporting Decision: The dependent variable measures whether the participant believed the ambiguous item should be deducted on the tax return. For both cases a seven-point scale was used, anchored at "-3" for definitely not deducting and "3" for definitely deducting.
bTreatment: Before reading the two hypothetical tax cases and making tax reporting recommendations, participants first responded either to questions about the advocacy or integrity professional standards (the control group did not receive either of these primes).
Advocacy – AICPA Rule 102-6.
Integrity-- AICPA Section 54-III.02
c
Case:
Low Context – A condensed version of the below High-Context case. See Appendix A.
High Context - Adopted from a case used by Johnson (1993) and Pinsker et al. (2009), Appendix B.
dGain Score: Response to Low-Context case subtracted from response to High-Context case
In order to examine the overall difference between the two cases, the responses were collapsed across all treatment groups. A paired t-test was then computed for a withinsubject analysis for responses to the low and high-context cases. The t-test is not significant (means of 0.26 for the low-context case and 0.42 for the high context, (t(72) = 0.58, p = 0.565) for the combined groups of participants, suggesting that the added context does not increase the likelihood of a confirmation bias. However, as discussed below, the paired t-test results are dependent on the randomly assigned manipulations.
The principal test for each hypothesis is shown in Table 3. Hypothesis 1 predicts that, in the absence of a professional standard, participants are more likely to exhibit confirmation bias in a high context case. This is operationalised in the present study as a higher propensity toward pro-client decisions when the context has substantial data relative to a context with scant details. To test this hypothesis, only the participants in the control group were analysed. A paired t-test is appropriate for this situation, as each participant responded to both cases. Table 2 shows the mean response for the context with scant detail as -0.22 (SD = 1.80), but the mean response on the detailed case is 1.11 (SD = 1.91). The result from the t-test, shown in Table 3, is significant (t(17) = 2.11, p = 0.025), which supports our primary hypothesis (H1) for confirmation bias related to the detailed context. 11
Table 3: Hypothesis Tests
H1: In the absence of motivating professional standards, a case with additional, inconclusive information is more likely to result in confirmation bias (a more pro-client decision) than a case with substantially less information.
Test: Paired t-test comparing reporting decisions on the Low- and High-Context cases in the Control group
Low Context -.22
High Context 1.11
t (df) 2.11 (17)
p .025
H1 Supported
H2: The increased propensity for confirmation bias (a pro-client decision) in a detailed context is less likely in the presence of a professional standard for integrity than in its absence.
Test: Independent-samples t-test comparing the gain score in the Control group to the Integrity group
Control 1.33
Integrity -.54
t (df) 2.60 (44)
p .007
H2 Supported
H3: The increased propensity for confirmation bias (a pro-client decision) in a detailed context is less likely in the presence of a professional standard for advocacy than in its absence.
Test: Independent-samples t-test comparing the gain score in the Control group to the Advocacy group
Control 1.33
Advocacy .11
t (df) 1.64 (43)
p .055*
H3 Supported
*p = .035 using a Mann-Whitney U Test (U = 165.5).
Variables are defined in Table 2.
To test the second hypothesis, we repeat the paired t-test that was used on our control group to measure the first hypothesis regarding this type of confirmation bias. Although
11 One-tailed (two-tailed) tests are used for directional (nondirectional) predicted effects.
the first hypothesis indicated that the added detail leads to a higher pro-client preference for the control group, this result does not hold in the presence of AICPA professional standard for integrity. The means for the integrity group of 0.46 (SD = 1.60) for the low context and -0.07 (SD = 1.88) for the high context, presented in Table 2, do not significantly differ (t(27) = 1.307, p = 0.202). This result suggests that the added detail does not result in increased confirmation bias for the high-context case in the presence of the integrity standard.
Rather than rely only on a comparison of separate t-tests, we also calculate the gain scores for each participant's response to the high-context case reduced by his/her response to the low-context case. The gain score represents one's incremental tendency to make a pro-client decision on the high-context case (decreased tendency would be a negative score). The outcome variable is then compared between the control group and the group exposed to the professional standard for integrity.
The results are presented in Table 3 and show that the incremental pro-client effect (confirmation bias related to the added detail) significantly differs among the groups. The control group is significantly more likely to demonstrate this bias (mean gain score of 1.33, SD = 2.68) than those in the integrity group (mean gain score of -0.54, SD = 2.17; t(44) = 2.60, p = 0.007). This result supports our second hypothesis that confirmation bias driven by a high-context will be mitigated in the presence of the professional standard for integrity.
4.1 Additional analysis on Integrity
Although the main purpose of this study is to examine whether professional standards can mitigate the confirmation bias associated with additional but inconclusive details, we also test whether there is a direct effect of the standards on each reporting decision, both the low and high-context cases. If the current language of the AICPA standard is sufficiently clear and the strength of message is adequate, then it is likely that exposure to the standard will impact subsequent decision-making. The current study tests whether exposure to AICPA Section 54 for integrity results in less pro-client decisions relative to a control group without exposure to this professional standard. The means in Table 2 show that in the low-context case the Integrity group approximated a neutral position with slight leaning toward a deduction 0.46 (SD = 1.60), and the mean for the control group was -0.22 (SD = 1.80), which approximates a neutral position more than an aggressive one. The difference is not statistically significant for the low-context case. When the integrity standard is tested on the high-context (detailed) case, the respective means are -0.07 (SD = 1.88) in the presence of an integrity standard, indicating a neutral position, and 1.11 (SD = 1.91) in the absence of this standard, indicating a leaning toward the pro-client position for the control group. The result is significant at p = 0.023 (t(44) = 2.068). This suggests that exposure to Section 54 for integrity may be effective in lessening the likelihood of a pro-client position in a high context case. Unanswered is the reason for a stronger effect on the detailed case than the case with scant detail. Based on the premise of the first hypothesis, additional information, relevant or not, is expected to be interpreted as additional support. Under the presence of an integrity standard that requires 'honest' and 'candid' reporting, the extra information may have been viewed more sceptically, which led to a lack of perceived support for the pro-client position. Conversely, those in the control group had no exposure to the standards, and the implication is that the lack of professional constraints allowed the participants to overvalue the added detail as support for the deduction.
The third hypothesis examines whether the AICPA standard for advocacy has a similar effect on confirmation bias as the integrity standard did. Although Rule 102-6 sanctions advocacy, it is a subset of the professional Code and it allows for justifiable pro-client positions. We use a paired t-test to see if participants were significantly more likely to make pro-client judgments in the high-context case. The respective means of 0.37 (SD = 1.52) and 0.48 (SD = 1.72) on the low-context and high-context cases for the advocacy group do not significantly differ (t(26) = 0.252, p = 0.803). This suggests that in the presence of the AICPA's professional advocacy standard, the added detail does not increase the inclination toward confirmation bias (similar to the insignificant result reported earlier for the integrity standard).
To examine the relative effect of a more pro-client response related to the high-context case, we compare the gain score for more pro-client responses between the control group and the advocacy group. As seen in Table 3, the difference is marginally significant (t(43) = 1.638, p = 0.055) as the advocacy group has a mean gain score of 0.11 (SD = 2.29) compared to the control group mean of 1.33 (SD = 2.68). Using a Mann-Whitney U Test, which is a more robust test for ordinal data (Howell, 2013) such as Likert scales (also used for comparison with the integrity group), the p-value is 0.035 (U = 165.5). These results provide support for the third hypothesis. The effect for advocacy is weaker than the integrity results, perhaps because the standard implicitly calls for caution merely because it is identified as an AICPA rule. To measure an overall effect for any 'standard', we combine the responses of the advocacy and integrity groups and then compare them to the control group. There is a significant overall effect (t(71) = 2.434, p = 0.009), which indicates that when professional standards are not explicitly communicated, confirmation bias is more likely on a high-context case than one with scant detail. The implication is that when professional standards are adequately communicated, they could mitigate some of the confirmation bias associated with the conscious or unconscious over-reliance on the additional information.
4.2 Additional analysis on Advocacy
Similar to the direct effects of exposure to the integrity standard presented above, we test the direct effect of exposure to the AICPA advocacy standard on the low and high context cases. Based on the previously presented results in which the standard led to a reduced propensity toward confirmation bias when the additional, inconclusive evidence was included, we examine whether the advocacy standard led to a more proclient decision in each context. This would be expected if the wording of the standard is sufficiently strong in its sanctioning of pro-client positions. If the standard is perceived as weak support or cautious regarding when it is appropriate to be an advocate, then the level of pro-client judgments may reflect a status quo similar to the control group. Table 2 indicates that the mean for the control group on the low-context case was -0.22 (SD = 1.80), and the mean for the Advocacy group was 0.37 (SD =1.523), which is not a statistically significant difference (t(43) = 1.189, p = 0.241). Similarly, when the advocacy standard is tested on the high-context case, with respective means of 1.11 (SD = 1.91) and 0.48 (SD = 1.72), the result is not statistically significant (t(43) = 1.153, p = 0.255). The lack of a significant effect could be a function of a weak manipulation or a threshold for the amount of aggressive reporting that the control group and advocacy group are willing to exhibit. Actually, Rule 102-6 states that a client 'may' request a member to be his/her advocate. This passive verb is not a strong manipulation for the encouragement of advocacy; merely allowing it when the guidance is ambiguous. We chose to use the exact wording of the current professional standards, as any change in the wording would not be testing the current standards. Future studies may want to test how different wording or frames could alter the impact of an advocacy standard. In addition, the mere presentation of advocacy as a sanctioned professional standard may infer a higher threshold of professional conduct.
5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Although calls exist for more emphasis on accounting professionalism (e.g., Wyatt, 2004), studies such as Johnson (1993) and Cuccia et al. (1995) find that professionals, who are given access to supporting and non-supporting evidence, demonstrate a systematic confirmation bias by overweighting the positive evidence as support for the preferred outcome. Our study differs from prior research on confirmation bias primarily because: 1) it examines confirmation bias in the presence and absence of standards of professional conduct issued by the AICPA, and 2) it examines the effect of supporting and non-supporting evidence in the early stage evaluation of client-specific facts. The current study examines the relative effect of the absence or presence of additional but irresolute information rather than favourable and unfavourable judicial precedents. This allows us to test whether confirmation bias is exacerbated by the quantity of irresolute information. If confirmation bias is demonstrated in the early stage of synthesising the client's facts, this would suggest the possibility of a biased judgment (by the client and by the practitioner) that precedes the next level of potential bias at the legislative and judicial research stage. Our results show that in the absence of professional standards for integrity and advocacy, confirmation bias derived from additional inconclusive information leads to a more pro-client tax outcome than does the same tax issue without that additional information. In contrast, when either the advocacy or integrity standard is explicitly presented to the participants, the outcome does not significantly differ between the contexts with and without the additional information. The implication is that the professional standards tend to mitigate the confirmation bias that is associated with a propensity to misinterpret additional information as support.
The current study also investigates whether the explicit presence of AICPA standards for integrity and advocacy results in simple, direct effects on the tax judgment for recommending an uncertain deduction. Consistent with Nelson's (2003) assertion that a principles-based technical standard could be used to incentivise accurate reporting, we find significant effects for a principles-based code of conduct (integrity standard). As posited, less pro-client tax judgments are reported when this standard is explicitly presented, relative to the absence of the integrity standard for a control group. This holds true, however, only in the high-context case, which represents a more realistic tax case than does the low-context case. Recall that it is the high-context case in which the added detail is expected to exacerbate confirmation bias in the absence of this professional standard.
Prior literature finds that advocacy is correlated with pro-client tax reporting, suggesting that encouraging advocacy could lead to intentionally aggressive reporting behaviour. When advocacy is reinforced as a standard, it raises a concern that some might interpret the standard too liberally. On the other hand, the narrative surrounding Rule 102-6 suggests that advocacy can be justified but only when the technical guidance is unclear.
This study finds that the advocacy standard is not associated with significantly more favourable client decisions. The lack of an aggressive effect could be driven by the passive language in the written standard (i.e., '…may be requested by a client…') or by the fact that any standard sanctioned by the AICPA is assumed to embody professional constraints. Future research will need to examine how stronger language would impact decision-making when the context is ambiguous.
In the long term, the effect of advocacy and integrity standards may be more affected by organisational culture than sporadic or serendipitous primes of the disparate signals. On the other hand, if new entrants to the profession have had educational training on these counterbalancing objectives and current professionals participate in continuing education on the profession's interpretation of these guidelines, then professionals may be better equipped to apply the standards in practice.
As mentioned in section 3, using students as participants in behavioural tax and accounting research is controversial and this study is limited in its generalisability as students were used as participants. The trade-off is that the study's internal validity is strengthened. Bryant, Stone and Wier (2011) observed no difference in ethical position between accounting students and practising accountants, although the graduate students in their analysis may have had more accounting education than the advanced undergraduates used in the current study. In addition, student participants may not be familiar with the difference between principles and rules as they relate to the structure of the AICPA Code, which may have contributed to the results found in this study. Accordingly, while a similar investigation should be created and administered to experienced tax professionals, the current study serves as a building block and benchmark for future work. This type of study has additional benefits in that the results can influence how new entrants to the profession as well as current accounting students could be educated about the effects of acting in accordance with professional standards.
Another limitation of this study is the use of context-specific tax issues to evaluate what the appropriate response or judgment should be, and it is possible that the results of this study (and prior studies as well) are dependent on the specific cases used. We examine one ambiguous tax issue, but we vary the level of detail in that case that could be misconstrued as positive or negative support.
Aside from implications for standard-setters in the tax profession, accounting firms, and educators, our study also has implications for tax administrations such as the IRS and other agencies. Confirmation bias can result in tax positions being recommended and taken that are not warranted, or perhaps even desired by client taxpayers, with Bobek et al. (2010) noting client advocacy should be 'within the bounds of the law'. While regulation of the tax profession has received attention recently (e.g., Soled & Thomas, 2017; Walpole & Salter, 2014), tax administrations should be aware of research literature on client advocacy, confirmation bias, and the effect of codes of professional conduct on the judgments and decisions of tax practitioners. Future research should continue to examine the balancing effects of professional standards for advocacy and for professional integrity on a variety of tax issues. Furthermore, such research should address how differing principles- and rules-based standards for integrity/objectivity and advocacy affect tax and financial compliance and planning decisions. Future research should also examine whether the effect of the standards holds when incentives for client preferences, sanctions, risk, and client importance are explicitly manipulated. Lastly, research should address how the tax profession can best ensure that its members will readily recall and apply such standards.
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7. APPENDICES
Low-Context Ambiguous Case
Your client's corporate tax return has not yet been finalized. An expenditure of $600,000 has created a controversy as to whether this payment, which was to the president of the corporation, should be deducted as compensation. The concern is whether it is reasonable compensation for services to a major shareholder (requiring its deduction) or a non-deductible payment for return of capital to a shareholder. If it is deducted on your client's tax return, the tax liability will be much lower as the net taxable income will be significantly reduced.
In this situation, you need to make a recommendation. How strongly do you think that the $600,000 paid to an owner of Smith and Brown, Incorporated should be deducted on the tax return (reducing the company's net taxable income?
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
Definitely
Neutral
Do Not Deduct
Definitely Deduct
High-Context Ambiguous Case
Background
Your new client, Johnson and Sons, Inc., is a family-owned corporation engaged in the waste pickup and disposal business that performs trash-hauling services pursuant to contracts with various municipalities. The business was incorporated in 1970 by Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. In 1990,
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after the death of Mr. Johnson, the board of directors (composed of Mrs. Johnson and her four sons) elected Mrs. Johnson president of the company. Each son is an officer with the title "vice president" and one son also holds the title of "secretary and treasurer." During the past five years, the stock of Johnson and Sons, Inc. has been owned by Mrs. Johnson (46 percent) and her sons (13.5 percent each).
Duties
Mrs. Johnson works 40 or more hours per week, and her duties consist of (1) keeping the financial books, (2) reviewing bills and signing checks, (3) attending board meetings and voting on major proposals put forward by her sons, who are responsible for the day-to-day operations of the business, (4) engaging in extensive public relations activities, and (5) acting as coguarantor (together with her sons) of bank loans to the company for major capital expenditures.
Financial Information
Some financial information for Johnson and Sons, Inc. for the current taxable year is provided:
Gross Sales
$25,400,000
Net Income
$ 155,000
Officer Compensation*:
Mrs. Johnson
$ 600,000
Son 1-4
$ 375,000 (each)
*Payments for salaries have been relatively consistent for several years.
Relevant Tax Law
Under Section 162(a)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code, there is a two-pronged test for the deductibility of amounts purportedly paid as salaries or other compensation for services: The payments must be (1) "reasonable," and (2) in fact payments purely for services.
Courts have sometimes applied a five-factor test in considering the reasonableness of compensation, including (1) the employee's role in the company, (2) a comparison of the compensation paid to similarly situated employees in similar companies, (3) the character and condition of the company, (4) whether a conflict of interest exists that might permit the company to disguise a dividend payment as deductible compensation, and (5) whether the compensation was paid pursuant to a structured, formal, and consistently applied program.
Please answer the following question by circling a number on the scale:
How strongly do you feel that the $600,000 paid to Mrs. Johnson should be deducted on the tax return (reducing the company's net taxable income)?
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
Definitely
Neutral
Do Not Deduct
Definitely Deduct
|
Suggestions to Help Companies with the Fight Against Targeted Attacks
Jim Gogolinski
Forward-Looking Threat Research Team
Contents
TREND MICRO LEGAL DISCLAIMER
The information provided herein is for general information and educational purposes only. It is not intended and should not be construed to constitute legal advice. The information contained herein may not be applicable to all situations and may not reflect the most current situation. Nothing contained herein should be relied on or acted upon without the benefit of legal advice based on the particular facts and circumstances presented and nothing herein should be construed otherwise. Trend Micro reserves the right to modify the contents of this document at any time without prior notice.
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Although Trend Micro uses reasonable efforts to include accurate and up-to-date information herein, Trend Micro makes no warranties or representations of any kind as to its accuracy, currency, or completeness. You agree that access to and use of and reliance on this document and the content thereof is at your own risk. Trend Micro disclaims all warranties of any kind, express or implied. Neither Trend Micro nor any party involved in creating, producing, or delivering this document shall be liable for any consequence, loss, or damage, including direct, indirect, special, consequential, loss of business profits, or special damages, whatsoever arising out of access to, use of, or inability to use, or in connection with the use of this document, or any errors or omissions in the content thereof. Use of this information constitutes acceptance for use in an "as is" condition.
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Introduction
This research paper provides some thoughts on how to configure a network in order to make lateral movement harder to accomplish and easier to detect, as well as how to prepare to deal with an infection. Given the advances attackers have been making, it is very unlikely that organizations will be able to keep motivated and patient adversaries out of their networks. In most cases, the best one can hope for is to detect targeted attacks early and limit the amount of information the attackers can obtain access to.
First and foremost, dealing with a targeted attack is a costly effort. To properly deal with an infection, a company should expect months of concentrated effort by a dedicated response team. In order for this team to be effective, the corporate network should have been configured in a way that provides all of the forensic data the team would need.
Before getting into specifics, this paper defines what a targeted attack is and provides a high-level timeline of a typical attack sequence. It then lists some possibilities as to why an organization may be a target for reasons other than its intellectual property.
This research paper also offers some suggestions on network tools and configuration settings to make it harder for an adversary to move laterally throughout a target network, and for an organization to protect its critical resources and help its response team with investigation and eradication efforts. It also states why ensuring adequate logging, network segmentation, and user account controls should be put in place.
In addition, this paper discusses the various levels of data confidentiality and why organizations need to protect sensitive data. It provides some insights into building a successful response team and why gathering threat intelligence is important in battling targeted attacks.
Finally, this paper provides reasons why running penetration tests against an organization's network is beneficial. Utilizing the right tools and implementing custom defense strategies can also aid organizations in the fight against targeted attacks.
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Targeted Attacks
Defining a Targeted Attack
Several different types of attack can be perpetrated against computer users. One of the ways to classify attacks is based on the attackers' intent. Attackers may target a user for financial gain. In such an attack, the attacker is either looking to gather credentials that can be used to access online banking accounts or for some other way to extort money from a victim (e.g., installing a piece of ransomware in a user's computer). 1 In addition, corporate systems can be targeted for financial gain. Stolen databases of contact information can, for instance, be sold to spammers or other cybercriminals. Computers can also be targeted to become part of a botnet, allowing cybercriminals to remotely control a large group of infected computers.
A targeted attack can be considered a long-term cyber-espionage campaign against an organization. The attackers' goal is to gain persistent access to the target network. This may allow them to extract confidential company data and possibly place logic bombs that could damage a target network and infrastructure. The effect could be worse if the target organization is involved in handling critical infrastructure. Persistent access may also allow them to use a target's infrastructure as a false front to launch attacks against other organizations, giving new attempts an air of legitimacy (i.e., coming from a trusted partner). Furthermore, breached networks can be used as a stepping stone during attacks against other organizations, making it harder to trace the attack back to its originator.
Reasons for Attacking an Organization and Why Employees Should Care
When many people think of cyber espionage, they visualize government agencies and defense contractors as primary victims. While these are key targets, many other industries such as pharmaceutical, petrochemical, energy, manufacturing, and mining are also targeted. Some targets are even less obvious—legal firms, think tanks, and human rights organizations. Just because you think your organization is not an obvious target does not mean that it cannot be one.
1 Trend Micro Incorporated. (2013). Threat Encyclopedia. "Ransomware." Last accessed August 29, 2013, http://about-threats. trendmicro.com/us/definition/ransomware/index.html.
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Industrial espionage can be detrimental to a company. One of the things one needs to keep in mind when considering a targeted attack is that corporate data can be just as valuable as military data. Stealing years' worth of research data is, for instance, much more economical than doing the research on one's own and can allow an organization that is just starting out in a new area to cut prices down due to nonexistent research and development (R&D) costs. Furthermore, disclosing that one's organization has been the victim of an attack can lead to decreased investor confidence, falling stock prices, and investor lawsuits.
An organization may also become a target not only for its own products or the information it holds but also because it is somehow connected to an ultimate target. Penetrating a network through a weak link then hopping around systems within that network or "island hopping" has been around for years. 2 The same is true of penetrating organizations. A less secure organization that is somehow connected to the ultimate target could be penetrated and used to gain access to the more strongly secured target. Value-added resellers (VARs) often have access to the networks of the companies they supply products and/or services to. An organization may only make simple widgets but sell these to a large integrator that uses them in its products. It may also have employees who belong to a group the target company's employees also belong to, be they professional organizations or even just special collaborative groups. Using the infrastructure, mostly through compromised email accounts and its connections to the "real" target, gaining access to the ultimate target organization's employees becomes easier for the attacker. If an employee, for instance, vaguely remembers working on a project at some point in the past with the sender of an email, he/she is more likely to trust it, especially if the context is related to that piece of work.
Typical Timeline and Real-World Examples
Once an organization has been targeted by an intrusion attempt, it can expect continued attempts until, at the very least, one succeeds. However, one successful network breach may not make attacks cease. In fact, attackers often continue with their attempts after a successful breach due to several reasons. First, the breach could be detected and that avenue of connectivity closed. Having a second entry point allows redundancy because as the saying goes, "two is one and one is none." Another reason is that different teams or subgroups from within the same attacking organization may be trying to gain access to a single network over time. These groups may be looking for different information and may not even be aware of the fact that other groups have already targeted the same entity.
2 Jesper M. Johansson. (January 2008). TechNet Magazine. "Island Hopping: The Infectious Allure of Vendor Swag." Last accessed September 11, 2013, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.01.securitywatch.aspx.
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A typical attack often begins with a spear-phishing attempt. 3 Spear-phishing emails are usually sent to a small number of targeted employees and crafted to make recipients believe they are legitimate. More often than not, they are made to look like they come from someone a user would expect to receive email from, possibly a boss or colleague. These emails likely contain a link to a malicious website or some sort of weaponized attachment. This attachment may exploit a vulnerability in Microsoft™ Word® or Excel® or an Adobe® product. It may also be a .ZIP file that when opened leads the recipient to believe it is some sort of document when it is actually an executable file. When a user unsuspectingly tries to open the file, it exploits his/her system. Often, to complete the ruse, doing so opens an innocuous document so the user has no idea what really happened. Note that threat actors can also use the same techniques to attack a user's personal (i.e., nonwork) email addresses because many employees use their work computers to read personal as well as corporate emails.
Even though spear-phishing emails are currently the predominant attack vector, an adversary can attempt to gain access to a target network via several other ways. All publicly facing computers can be probed for vulnerabilities. Threat actors can also attempt to socially engineer their way into a target organization's facilities and install malicious software, scan for open wireless access points (WAPs), or insert their own WAP into the network. They can also drop a malicious USB drive (i.e., thumb drive) in a target's parking lot in hopes that a curious employee would pick it up and plug it into his/her computer to see who it belongs to or what is in it.
Regardless of delivery mechanism, once a piece of malicious software runs, it usually attempts to communicate back to a command-and-control (C&C) server to receive further instructions. The software may immediately initiate communication or lie dormant on a system for hours in an attempt to remain hidden. One of two things usually happens when the software accesses the C&C server. First, the software may automatically download and install additional malware. This type of malware is called a "downloader." Second, the software can communicate back to the C&C server. A human monitoring the C&C server would then notice the new connection and initiate some sort of action. This type of software, called a "remote access Trojan (RAT)," gives a threat actor the ability to examine a system, extract files, download new files to run on a compromised system, turn on a system's video camera and microphone, take screen captures, capture keystrokes, and run a command shell.
3 TrendLabs SM APT Research Team. (2012). "Spear-Phishing Email: Most Favored APT Attack Bait." Last accessed September 2, 2013, http://www.trendmicro.com/cloud-content/us/pdfs/security-intelligence/white-papers/wp-spear-phishing-email-most-favoredapt-attack-bait.pdf.
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At this point, the adversary will attempt to move laterally throughout a compromised network for two main reasons. First, he/she would want to gain additional persistent access points to ensure continued access. Second, he/she would want to locate whatever data could be valuable. To move throughout a network, threat actors would attempt to steal whatever user credentials they can find. These credentials may give them access to additional machines and data spread throughout the network. As they collect data, they will exfiltrate it out of the network to another location where they can collect and bring it back to their environment for further examination.
The adversary's initial reaction to contact by the attack software will typically occur after a very short period of time. After that, most adversaries may move at a very slow pace to try to remain undetected. If they think they have been detected, they may go dormant for weeks or even months before resuming activity. If an organization completely eradicates their presence from their network, the threat actors will start the attack cycle all over again.
Several well-known advanced persistent threat (APT) attack examples exist such as the Google Aurora, ShadyRAT, DUQU, and FLAME attacks, as well as a fairly recent attack targeting Saudi Arabia. 4
Infrastructure
What an Organization Can and Should Do
Without a properly configured infrastructure, organizations stand no chance against targeted attacks. Properly configuring a network may not provide any initial financial gain and would, in fact, more likely increase an organization's overall IT cost. In today's world, however, organizations cannot afford to have an improperly configured infrastructure. The actual and future costs of a breach and theft of proprietary information will far outweigh any amount incurred to properly configure infrastructure.
4 Valerie Boquiron. (January 19, 2010). TrendLabs Security Intelligence Blog. "Cyber Attacks on Google and Others—Who Is Really at Risk?" Last accessed September 2, 2013, http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/cyber-attacks-ongoogle-and-others-who-is-really-at-risk/; Nart Villeneuve. (January 26, 2012). TrendLabs Security Intelligence Blog. "Top APT Research of 2011 (That You Probably Haven't Heard About)." Last accessed September 2, 2013, http://blog.trendmicro.com/ trendlabs-security-intelligence/top-apt-research-of-2011-that-you-probably-havent-heard-about/; Karl Dominguez. (November 2, 2011). TrendLabs Security Intelligence Blog. "Zero-Day Exploit Used for DUQU." Last accessed September 2, 2013, http:// blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/zero-day-exploit-used-for-duqu/; Trend Micro Incorporated. (May 31, 2012). TrendLabs Security Intelligence Blog. "Update on FLAME." Last accessed September 2, 2013, http://blog.trendmicro.com/ trendlabs-security-intelligence/update-on-flame/; Kelly Jackson Higgins. (August 22, 2012). Dark Reading. "Shamoon, Saudi Aramco, and Targeted Destruction." Last accessed September 11, 2013, http://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/shamoonsaudi-aramco-and-targeted-destru/240006049.
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Segmentation
Corporate networks should be broken down into as many segments as makes sense. Simply put, a network segment is a collection of workstations, servers, printers, and other devices that can access one another. In a home network or simplistic corporate environment, all of the components of an infrastructure may be situated in a single segment. As a network becomes more complex, it should be broken down into logical segments. Network segments are typically separated by firewalls that contain and control what traffic is permitted in and out of each segment. Network segments can be considered a series of secure rooms inside a large open building. The absence of segments can allow anyone who can enter the building access to everything inside it. Adding secure rooms makes the task of getting full access to the complete network much harder for anyone who can breach the perimeter. Getting in through the front door does not allow immediate access to everything in the building. Failure to properly segment a network can allow an attacker unrestrained access to the entire corporate infrastructure. In addition, network segmentation makes it harder for employees to access data they are not authorized to.
Networks should be broken down into as many logical segments as possible. They may, for instance, be segmented by function such as finance, marketing, engineering, sales, support, and production. They can also be segmented by geographic location or security level (e.g., unclassified, classified, secret, top secret, or contains personally identifiable information [PII]). Each segment should be made as secure as possible with a firewall preventing unwanted access by unauthorized systems. Unless a strong business case exists, a machine on the marketing network should not have direct access to the engineering network. Likewise, a machine from the engineering network should not have access to the finance network.
Logging
Logging and log analysis are key methods that can help detect a breach and allow a response team to understand where the attackers went and what they were looking for. In a large corporate environment, logging data provides insights into the health and activity of the network. Sharp analysts who understand the daily ebb and flow of network traffic may be able to detect a targeted attack early enough in the intrusion timeline to thwart it before it has a chance to take root and succeed. If the attack takes hold and is not detected early, the logged data is often all that the forensic response team has to work with to help recreate the attacker's activities. It goes without saying that logs need to be actively monitored and tools like security information and event management (SIEM) systems can help with this task.
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What types of information should be logged? If an organization uses network address translation (NAT), records of internal mapping to physical machines should be kept. It will do an organization no good to know that 192.168.1.27 accessed a known C&C server if any machine in a large subnet could have used that NATted address. Web proxy and Domain Name System (DNS) requests should also be logged. User access (i.e., both log-ins and log-outs)—physical, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), virtual private network (VPN), and others—should also be noted. Both external and internal network traffic should be captured whenever sensible and legal to do so. If full packet captures (pcaps) cannot be obtained, at the very least, network flows should be recorded. Emails with full headers and attachments should also be archived for an extended period of time. Firewall drop rules should be logged as well, as these contain a lot of information on which systems may be attempting lateral attacks over nonstandard ports.
Logging should be done at a very verbose level, as it is better to have too much information than miss key data. Ideally, all of the systems in an organization should synchronize their clocks with a central time server so that all of the log file timestamps are identical across encompassed geographic areas.
Log data should be centrally located within an organization as well. Organizations with networks in different geographic locations need to determine what level of centralization makes the most sense although they should have a way to obtain all of the logs from a central location (within a short period of time) if required.
Organizations should keep log data for as long as possible. At the very least, a rolling year's worth of logs should be made immediately accessible. Since the majority of logs are text based, they can be easily compressed for longer-term storage. These logs should also be backed up and stored offline in case an attacker manages to access a centralized logging system or its associated repository.
One of the key elements to keep in mind when devising a logging strategy is to store data in a format that is easily searchable and allows for correlation. A comma-separated values (.CSV) file allows for easy searching and parsing. Many devices will, by default, log to a proprietary binary format. If possible, try to configure everything to log to pure text and if that is not possible, implement a process to export the data into a textual format.
Although properly configuring a logging infrastructure costs slightly more, the cost will be paid back many times over in the course of a single targeted attack investigation. Imagine how much quicker an investigation can proceed if searching through DNS logs to find machines that attempted to access a known malicious C&C server is possible. Internal IP addresses can then be correlated with individual machines on the network. Once those machines have been identified, searching through network flow logs for other machines these accessed can be done. Having all data available to a response team allows much quicker and shorter investigations and lower overall remediation costs.
Some would argue that logging will require too much storage space. Given the decreasing cost of storage and the high cost of resources to perform analyses, organizations cannot afford to discard data. At least three months of uncompressed data can be kept while the rest can be compressed and archived. When considering an archival strategy, keep data in reasonably short time durations for easier and quicker decompression and searching.
User Accounts and Workstations
As a general rule, users always want access to everything. They want to be able to go everywhere and want access to all data available; even if they do not need it now, they just might in the future. And as most people have computers at home, they are used to being able to administer their own machines and install whatever software they want. Unfortunately, what users do on their home computers is not applicable to the corporate environment. Forcing users to request access to new data sources may lead to more work for IT staff but, in the long run, makes an environment much more secure.
As previously mentioned, adversaries try to get as many sets of credentials as possible. An organization should make that as hard to do as possible while ensuring that any compromised account has as little access and as fewer privileges as possible. These will help minimize the damage caused. It is important to note that if the attackers are able to obtain valid password hash credentials, there is no defense against pass-the-hash techniques. 5 The user account and workstation policies outlined in this paper will not make IT staff popular with the employees and may result in more work for IT staff who will have to deal with inevitable problems that will arise. Again, organizations have to weigh these against the cost of data loss and remediation efforts.
5 Bashar Ewaida. (January 21, 2010). "Pass-the-Hash Attacks: Tools and Mitigation." Last accessed September 11, 2013, http:// www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/testing/pass-the-hash-attacks-tools-mitigation-33283?show=pass-the-hash-attackstools-mitigation-33283&cat=testing.
User accounts should work under the least-privilege model. Secure passwords should be required and, if possible, the use of two-factor authentication, implemented. Passwords should be frequently changed and users should not reuse passwords across accounts (e.g., domain and VPN log-in). If possible, check passwords against rainbow lists and run those not on the lists through password-cracking software. Users whose passwords were found or cracked should be forced to immediately change them. Local administrator accounts should be disabled or removed and domain administrator credentials should never be allowed to remain cached. If administrator access is required, the administrator should remotely access the machine. After completing the work, the machine should be rebooted. Password policies should require account lockout after a number of failed tries with either a very long reset timeout or, if possible, that the locked-out user calls the help desk to reset his/her account.
User workstations should be locked down if at all possible. Each computer should be kept fully patched and have full logging enabled. If the environment permits, an organization should consider implementing a white-listing solution on user workstations and laptops. The Trend Micro™ OfficeScan™ Intrusion Defense Firewall plug-in applies application control filters to alert system administrators to or block specific traffic such as instant messaging and media streaming, removing bad data from businesscritical traffic. 6 Organizations should also consider running integrity monitoring tools that detect changes to file systems and registries.
Another consideration for user workstations and laptops is to have some sort of monitoring agent that can remotely gather statistics and information from each machine and return that data to a centralized server. Such software would allow security staff to quickly examine any system they believe may have been compromised, which can often help stop an attack while it is at its infancy. It also increases the efficiency of a forensic team in the event of an investigation. The team will be able to scan systems for malicious software indicators such as hashes, mutexes, strings, and registry file changes.
6 Trend Micro Incorporated. (2013). "Trend Micro™ Intrusion Defense Firewall." Last accessed September 13, 2013, http://www. trendmicro.com/cloud-content/us/pdfs/business/datasheets/ds02_osce.pdf.
Data Protection
Keeping the Value of Data
Remember that it is very likely that one of the attackers' main motivations in moving through a network is to look for data to steal. Keeping all data in a centralized, weakly protected location is just as good as boxing it all up and shipping it to attackers by overnight delivery. Attackers are patient enough to keep looking until they find what they want. The longer the attackers search a network, the more time an organization will have to detect attack activities, remove the threat, and patch all of the pathways the threat actors used.
Data Segmentation
Not all data is created equal. While it is true that employees generate a vast amount of work products every day, most of them are not critical to an organization's success and continued well-being. Each business unit needs to take a close look at its data to determine which would be detrimental if it were to fall into the wrong hands. This data should be treated differently than normal day-to-day documentation. Organizations should consider such kind of data "crown jewels" and protect it accordingly. This data, for instance, should not be made available for downloading onto a workstation and must only be accessed on the file server by users with special access privileges. It should be heavily encrypted as well.
Routine and possibly misleading data may be left on individual workstations. It can be considered sacrificial data. The amount of time it may take an adversary to realize the data is not very useful may be the amount of time required to detect and start eradicating a network threat.
Any sensitive document sent via email should be encrypted separately from what the corporate email system offers using tools such as GPG. If an adversary should gain access to an employee's desktop and have the ability to open his/her email client, the threat actor still should not be able to decipher any information he/she sees.
Protect individual pieces of important information as much as possible. In a pharmaceutical manufacturing environment, for instance, you need to have certain pieces of information spread throughout the factory environment. Each piece on its own may not give away the recipe. However, if a patient threat actor had the ability to examine an entire plant's environment, he/she would eventually be able to piece various bits of information together to gain complete formulas and process information.
Data Protection Infrastructure
As previously mentioned, different kinds of data require different levels of protection. Data that requires the highest level of protection can be kept on a disconnected network that requires physical access rights to view. The next tier may be hosted on a secure server that requires a different form of two-factor authentication than ordinary local network access. It should not accept cached credentials nor should it allow data to be removed from a server. Note that the access logs on such a server should be closely monitored as well. Third-tier data can be stored on a regular file server. Note, however, that this kind of data should be something that, if stolen, would not cause great harm to an organization.
Organizations should also consider watermarking critical documents and adding data loss prevention (DLP) protection to their infrastructure. This will also allow them to detect unauthorized document movement.
Response Team
Reasons for Building a Response Team
If an organization's IT security team has reason to believe that it has been breached, time is of the essence. This is not the time to attempt to build a team whose members have all of the skills required to respond to a breach. A response team requires a very specific set of skills that are very difficult to learn while in the middle of an investigation. The organization also runs the risk of having staff missing a required skill. If the adversary has been inside a network for some time, expect a long, expensive remediation effort. A proper team can, however, help shorten this process.
How Incident Response Efforts May Look
First and foremost, responding to an intrusion is a costly and stressful event. People will look for answers to questions that begin with "who," "what," and "why" long before a forensic team is prepared to offer any factual conclusion. If news of a breach reaches external sources, the pressure from media as well as investors will be even greater. Unless properly handled, the initial days of the investigation will be chaotic and filled with fear, misleading information, and incorrect conclusions. One of the first things an organization has to consider is if it has staff qualified to properly handle the forensic investigation. If not, it has to decide who to bring in to handle the investigation. It will also need to decide if it needs to involve local, state, or federal law enforcement agencies or any regulatory agency for that matter.
Once a team has been put in place, its members should be given some time to conduct interviews with people involved to start their investigation. How well an investigation goes often depends on how well an organization's infrastructure was configured. If all of the steps mentioned in the previous sections have been followed, the team will stand a good chance of conducting a reasonable forensic investigation and most likely be able to piece the threat actors' activity together as well as have an idea as to what was exfiltrated. It is important to understand though that even with the proper infrastructure in place, an investigation may still take longer than expected or hoped for. But if the infrastructure is not even in place, the team will flounder and likely not have much success.
Team Overview
Organizations should consider creating a cross-functional incident response team that is separate from their normal network or IT operations team. This team should be created as soon as possible and not when they have to respond to an incident. Roles, responsibilities, and authorities should be documented and clearly understood by everyone on the team.
Team Composition
An incident response team should have members from the following functional areas:
* Technical: People from any existing security group (e.g., computer and physical), network operations, or workstation management who will handle the technical side of the investigation.
* Threat intelligence: Employees focusing on the threat landscape who can answer questions such as who might be attacking, why they are attacking, what techniques they are using, and others.
* Human resources: People who can answer any question related to the organization's employees and policies.
* Legal: Employees who can answer any question about the legality of an investigation or reporting an incident.
* Public relations: People who can handle external communications regarding the incident.
* Executive management: People who can provide insights from a corporate perspective.
Subject matter experts can be brought into the team as necessary. The team should have a technical leader who is the interface to the broader "nontechnical" team. This leader should have the authority to make decisions regarding all technical details and staffing issues. In addition, an overall incident leader tasked to handle all coordination efforts with internal and external entities should be chosen. The overall team leader should have the decision-making authority about anything related to the incident. Leaders should have the ability to make decisions for several reasons. Trying to explain technical details to a nontechnical manager takes additional time and all of the nuances cannot always be conveyed. The higher up the decisions need to go, the harder it becomes to schedule time to meet. As has been said, time is of the essence. Furthermore, giving leaders decision-making power shows confidence in the team and its members' abilities.
Team Operation
When responding to an incident, the team should meet regularly to track their progress and issue updates to senior management. All interactions should go through the incident leaders and not end-run to individual team members. Going directly to individual team members for updates and questions is very disruptive to the flow of the efforts of the technical team and should be avoided at all costs. During the initial stages of an incident, the team should have frequent but very short and efficient progress-tracking meetings. As the investigation continues, the team can meet less often but should still do so on a regular basis.
Team Training
The technical team should be formed ahead of time and afforded an opportunity to train and work together outside of their normal responsibilities (i.e., if they are not dedicated to the incident response process). Since incident response causes tremendous pressure on staff to get answers and results, it makes sense for them to already understand the process and their individual roles and responsibilities beforehand. Training will make the first few weeks of the response process much more effective. As the team trains and continues to learn, the things that they discover should be fed back to the IT groups to help improve an organization's overall security posture. One way of looking at this would be having a well-versed and trained city fire department versus a small-town volunteer force who never trains. If a facility, for instance, catches fire, which group do you think people would rather have respond?
Threat Intelligence
Defining Threat Intelligence
Simply put, threat intelligence refers to information about potential adversaries and their behavioral patterns. Threat intelligence is created when many pieces of raw data are analyzed to give a more complete image of the big picture. It can help thwart initial intrusion attempts. It can also help determine not only where an attacker has already been in an organization's network but also where he/she is likely to go and how he/she will get there.
Why Current Threat Intelligence Is Necessary
Raw data without intelligence is of limited value. To detect an adversary in a network, one of two things needs to happen. First, an analyst may detect an unusual traffic pattern or a series of events within his/her organization's internal network. This may involve a user's workstation accessing another's, a series of failed log-in attempts at an unusual time of day, a triggered firewall deny rule, or even a user call to report something unusual happening to his/her workstation. Another case may involve an external communication event. This could involve a workstation attempting to access a known C&C server or sending a .RAR file to some unknown remote location.
In both cases, an analyst needs to know what to look for. This is where threat intelligence comes into the picture. There are far too many Internet addresses out there for anyone to know which are legitimate and which are malicious. It gets even worse when one tries to determine the validity of every email that employees receive. Once an attacker infiltrates a network, understanding his/her tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) can spell the difference between quick successful detection and years of undetected data exfiltration.
Attackers' skills continue to advance, new undetected tools created, and different ways to achieve the same goal found. Much of the knowledge on how attackers operate is kept behind closed doors. Once that information becomes public knowledge, attackers would know that they need to find different ways of doing the same thing. Some attackers even modify their TTPs based on their target. As such, what they do for company X may not be what they would for company Y. It becomes a game of cat and mouse. And the more knowledge an organization obtains, the better its chances of detecting and successfully remediating attacks.
External Threat Intelligence Sources
An organization can obtain external threat intelligence in two ways—partnering with a threat intelligence provider and utilizing automated software.
Threat intelligence providers have skilled employees who understand threat actors and TTPs, and can put the puzzle pieces they are presented with together. They typically provide their clients two deliverables—reports and feeds. Reports typically focus on a single subject. They can be short as is the case when something new is breaking or more detailed after there has been time to perform a complete analysis. Some possible subject areas are new campaigns (e.g., attacks targeting several companies or geographic locations at the same time), discussions of a newly discovered TTP or piece of malware, or descriptions of a threat actor. Feeds, meanwhile, are sources of data that can typically be included in automated network defenses. They may list items such as malicious URLs, email senders or subject lines, and hash representations of malicious documents or malware.
Enterprise-quality products from security vendors that are kept updated with the latest threat indicators can also help protect networks. Products such as Trend Micro™ Deep Discovery, for instance, provide the advanced threat detection and real-time intelligence an organization needs to discover and respond to targeted network attacks and APTs. Deep Discovery's specialized network detection uniquely discovers and identifies evasive threats and provides in-depth analysis and actionable intelligence about the nature of an attack. Integrating Deep Discovery with an organization's security infrastructure creates a "Custom Defense" solution, a complete network security strategy to detect, analyze, adapt, and respond to attackers. 7
Internal Threat Intelligence Group
Whether an organization contracted a vendor to provide threat intelligence services or not, if it has the opportunity, it should still set up its own internal threat intelligence group (ITIG). Having members of an organization's own forensic team's full-time responsibility be gathering threat intelligence can provide tremendous value. An organization's ITIG will be responsible for two areas. First, they should monitor the Web for any reference to their company. Second, they should research any group or actor they believe may be a threat.
An ITIG should monitor the Internet to look for any reference to the organization. Its members should check blogs, Pastebin, and underground forums for anything that may be related to not just the organization but also the industry or group it belongs to. They should also look at sites where employees are mentioned such as conference sites that list attendees, as this can be used as a list of spear-phishing attack targets.
7 Trend Micro Incorporated. (2013). "Deep Discovery Advanced Network Security." Last accessed September 5, 2013, http://www. trendmicro.com/us/enterprise/security-risk-management/deep-discovery/index.html.
An ITIG should also spend as much time as possible learning about exploits, malware, and TTPs that can be used against the organization and its networks. Plenty of resources (e.g., books and sites) talk about exploits and malware. Note, however, that very little information about the TTPs adversaries use once inside a target network is available. Organizations need to evaluate their risk posture but one of the greatest places to learn what threat actors are up to is to have a secure area separate from the remainder of the corporate infrastructure. They should consider this a playground that can enhance their threat knowledge.
If an organization, for instance, received a spear-phishing email but caught it before anyone opened it, the IT staff can open the email and trigger the exploit, allowing the adversary to create a backdoor to the "playground." A properly configured playground would allow the organization to monitor all of the adversary's actions, capture all of the tools that he/she uses, and observe the techniques he/she uses to laterally move throughout the network. If the playground was large and realistic enough, the organization can gain a tremendous amount of knowledge that it can then feed back to the network in order to enhance its security posture. Since it is monitoring all activities, the organization can "detect" the adversary at any point when it became uncomfortable and clean up the environment in a way that the threat actor would believe he/she was caught. Setting up this playground is not a trivial task though and, if incorrectly done, will cause the adversary to immediately leave or, worse, become aggressive and hostile.
Penetration Testing
If an organization is not part of an industry that is required to conduct regular penetration tests, it should seriously consider doing so. Penetration testing can serve several purposes in an infrastructure. First, it can help identify areas in the network that need to be improved and patched. Second, the testing can also help identify areas where your network monitoring has gaps. Finally, it gives security and monitoring teams an opportunity to gain some experience with a realistic scenario.
When considering rules and operating procedures for penetration tests, give the penetration team as much leeway as possible. An important thing to remember is that the penetration test is meant to be a learning experience and not to make the security staff look good. It is okay to tell the penetration-testing team that it can do no damage and certain sensitive systems are off limits to anything considered risky but allowing the penetration testers to leave evidence of their presence behind should be acceptable.
It is a corporate decision on whether most of the security staff is informed of the penetration test. Unless it is management's specific intention, the penetration testing should not turn into a red/blue team exercise. The organization's defensive team can monitor but should not thwart the activities of the penetration testers. When penetration testing, there are many ways to achieve the same goal. If the network security team is to shut down an attempt, this may prevent your organization from learning about a bigger weakness further down in your network. One of the things that is artificial about a penetration test is the timeline. The penetration-testing team only has a week or two to complete all of its activities, whereas a determined and patient attacker may take weeks to months to do the same. So, any effort to shut down attackers' current avenue may thwart them due to time constraints. Since they have limited time, they may not have the chance to pursue other avenues to achieve their attempted goal.
The penetration test can be used by an organization's forensic team as a training opportunity as well. Since the penetration-testing team will provide complete documentation on where they went and what they did, the organization will know all of the answers before the start of a forensic exercise. It could let the forensic team work with no knowledge and monitor their progress but, at any point, reveal any additional data that may help the team's members learn.
Conclusion
The unfortunate reality for many of today's corporations is that it is not a question of whether they will be the target of an attack but when. The ideas and suggestions featured in this research paper are not revolutionary. Unfortunately, most organizations do not implement them. Many of the suggestions will not result in happy end users or IT support staff but they are critical if an organization wants to enhance its security posture and make it possible to detect and remediate an intrusion. Remember that time is on the side of the attacker. All he/ she needs to do is get one user or administrator to make a mistake to get in to a target network.
Once the attacker gets in to a network, the organization will race against time. The longer the attackers stay in a network, the more footholds they gains and information they can steal. Note, however, that an organization may not be the actual end target but is being used to gain access elsewhere. Although this scenario seems to pose less damage, it can still have very negative effects, ranging from loss of contracts and investor confidence to lawsuits.
All of the defenses an organization puts in place against targeted attacks can also be used to help detect and mitigate insider attacks. It is, after all, an unfortunate reality that insider information theft can be just as detrimental to an organization as an external attack.
Implementing the suggestions in this paper will not contribute to greater efficiency, streamlined operations, or better user experience. The upfront costs in implementing them should be considered "costs of doing business." In fact, these are very similar to the cost of buying insurance. Insurance provides no benefits to an organization until something bad happens. At that point, the benefits far outweigh the cost. In today's environment, it will be very costly to not heed these suggestions.
References
* Bashar Ewaida. (January 21, 2010). "Pass-the-Hash Attacks: Tools and Mitigation." Last accessed September 11, 2013, http://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/ testing/pass-the-hash-attacks-tools-mitigation-33283?show=pass-the-hash-attackstools-mitigation-33283&cat=testing.
* Jesper M. Johansson. (January 2008). TechNet Magazine. "Island Hopping: The Infectious Allure of Vendor Swag." Last accessed September 11, 2013, http://technet.microsoft. com/en-us/magazine/2008.01.securitywatch.aspx.
* Karl Dominguez. (November 2, 2011). TrendLabs Security Intelligence Blog. "Zero-Day Exploit Used for DUQU." Last accessed September 2, 2013, http://blog.trendmicro. com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/zero-day-exploit-used-for-duqu/.
* Kelly Jackson Higgins. (August 22, 2012). Dark Reading. "Shamoon, Saudi Aramco, and Targeted Destruction." Last accessed September 11, 2013, http://www.darkreading. com/attacks-breaches/shamoon-saudi-aramco-and-targeted-destru/240006049.
* Nart Villeneuve. (January 26, 2012). TrendLabs Security Intelligence Blog. "Top APT Research of 2011 (That You Probably Haven't Heard About)." Last accessed September 2, 2013, http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/top-apt-research-of-2011that-you-probably-havent-heard-about/.
* TrendLabs APT Research Team. (2012). "Spear-Phishing Email: Most Favored APT Attack Bait." Last accessed September 2, 2013, http://www.trendmicro.com/cloudcontent/us/pdfs/security-intelligence/white-papers/wp-spear-phishing-email-mostfavored-apt-attack-bait.pdf.
* Trend Micro Incorporated. (2013). "Deep Discovery Advanced Network Security." Last accessed September 5, 2013, http://www.trendmicro.com/us/enterprise/security-riskmanagement/deep-discovery/index.html.
* Trend Micro Incorporated. (2013). Threat Encyclopedia. "Ransomware." Last accessed August 29, 2013, http://about-threats.trendmicro.com/us/definition/ransomware/ index.html.
* Trend Micro Incorporated. (2013). "Trend Micro Intrusion Defense Firewall." Last accessed September 13, 2013, http://www.trendmicro.com/cloud-content/us/pdfs/ business/datasheets/ds02_osce.pdf.
* Trend Micro Incorporated. (May 31, 2012). TrendLabs Security Intelligence Blog. "Update on FLAME." Last accessed September 2, 2013, http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabssecurity-intelligence/update-on-flame/.
* Valerie Boquiron. (January 19, 2010). TrendLabs Security Intelligence Blog. "Cyber Attacks on Google and Others—Who Is Really at Risk?" Last accessed September 2, 2013, http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/cyber-attacks-on-googleand-others-who-is-really-at-risk/.
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Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND
Form PRE 14A
August 07, 2007
1
UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 SCHEDULE 14A
Proxy Statement Pursuant to Section 14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Amendment No. )
Filed by the Registrant þ
Filed by a Party other than the Registrant o
Check the appropriate box:
þ Preliminary Proxy Statement.
o Confidential, for Use of the Commission Only (as permitted by Rule 14a-6(e)(2))
o Definitive Proxy Statement.
o Definitive Additional Materials.
o Soliciting Material Pursuant to §240.14a-11(c) or §240.14a-12
NUVEEN INSURED TAX-FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND (NEA)
(Name of Registrant as Specified In Its Charter)
(Name of Person(s) Filing Proxy Statement, if other than the Registrant)
Payment of Filing Fee (check the appropriate box):
þ No fee required.
o Fee computed on table below per Exchange Act Rules 14a-6(i)(4) and 0-11.
1) Title of each class of securities to which transaction applies:
2) Aggregate number of securities to which transaction applies:
3) Per unit price or other underlying value of transaction computed pursuant to Exchange Act Rule 0-11 (set forth the amount on which the filing fee is calculated and state how it was determined):
4) Proposed maximum aggregate value of transaction:
5) Total fee paid:
.
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
o Fee paid previously with preliminary materials.
o Check box if any part of the fee is offset as provided by Exchange Act Rule 0-11(a)(2) and identify the filing for which the offsetting fee was paid previously. Identify the previous filing by registration statement number, or the Form or Schedule and the date of its filing.
1) Amount Previously Paid:
2) Form, Schedule or Registration Statement No.:
3) Filing Party:
4) Date Filed:
Important Notice to Fund Shareholders
, 2007
Although we recommend that you read the complete Proxy Statement, for your convenience, we have provided a brief overview of the issues to be voted on.
Q. Why am I receiving this Proxy Statement?
A. You are being asked to vote on two important matters affecting your Fund:
(1) Approval of a New Investment Management Agreement. Nuveen Asset Management (“NAM”) serves as your Fund’s investment adviser. Nuveen Investments, Inc. (“Nuveen”), the parent company of NAM, recently announced its intention to be acquired by investors led by Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC, and to thereby become a privately-held company. In the event this takes place, securities laws require your Fund’s shareholders to approve a new investment management agreement between NAM and the Fund; and
(2) Ratification of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm. This year, you and other Fund shareholders are being asked to ratify the selection of the independent registered public accounting firm. Ernst and Young LLP has been selected to serve as your Fund’s independent registered public accounting firm.
Your Fund’s Board, including the independent Board members, unanimously recommends that you vote FOR each proposal.
Your vote is very important. We encourage you as a shareholder to participate in your Fund’s governance by returning your vote as soon as possible. If enough shareholders do not cast their votes, your Fund may not be able to hold its meeting or the vote on each issue, and will be required to incur additional solicitation costs in order to obtain sufficient shareholder participation.
Q. How will I as a Fund shareholder be affected if Nuveen becomes a privately-held company?
A. Your Fund investment will not change as a result of NAM’s change of ownership. You will still own the same Fund shares and the value of those shares will not change as a result of the transaction. NAM will continue to manage your Fund according to the same objectives and policies as before, and does not anticipate any significant changes to its operations.
Q. Will there be any important differences between my Fund’s new investment management agreement and the current agreement?
A. No. The terms of the two agreements are substantially the same. There will be no change in the fees you pay, who manages your Fund, your Fund’s objectives and policies, or your Fund’s day-to-day management.
Q. What will happen if shareholders do not approve the new investment management agreement?
A. NAM will continue to manage your Fund under an interim investment management agreement, but must place its compensation for its services during this
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
interim period in escrow, pending shareholder approval. This is discussed in more detail in the proxy statement. Your Fund’s Board urges you to vote without delay in order to avoid potential disruption to the Fund’s operations.
Q. Who do I call if I have questions?
A. If you need any assistance, or have any questions regarding the proposals or how to vote your shares, please call Computershare Fund Services, your Fund proxy solicitor, at 866-434-7510 with your proxy material.
Q. How do I vote my shares?
A. You can vote your shares by completing and signing the enclosed proxy card, and mailing it in the enclosed postage-paid envelope. Alternatively, you may vote by telephone by calling the toll-free number on the proxy card or by computer by going to the Internet address provided on the proxy card and following the instructions, using your proxy card as a guide.
Q. Will anyone contact me?
A. You may receive a call from Computershare Fund Services, the proxy solicitor hired by the Fund, to verify that you received your proxy materials, to answer any questions you may have about the proposals and to encourage you to vote your proxy.
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333 West Wacker Drive Chicago, Illinois 60606 (800) 257-8787 Notice of Special Meeting of Shareholders
, 2007
To the Shareholders of the Above Funds:
Notice is hereby given that a Special Meeting of Shareholders (the “Meeting”) of Nuveen California Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund, Nuveen California Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund 2, Nuveen California Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund 3, Nuveen California Premium Income Municipal Fund, Nuveen Insured California Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund, Nuveen Insured California Tax-Free Advantage Municipal Fund, Nuveen Insured Premium Income Municipal Fund 2, Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund, Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund 2, Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund 3, Nuveen Insured Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund, Nuveen Insured Tax-Free Advantage Municipal Fund, Nuveen Municipal High Income Opportunity Fund, Nuveen Select Maturities Municipal Fund, Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio, Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio 2, Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio 3, Nuveen California Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio, Nuveen New York Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio, Nuveen New York Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund, Nuveen New York Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund 2, Nuveen Insured New York Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund and Nuveen Insured New York Tax-Free Advantage Municipal Fund, each a Massachusetts business trust (each a “Fund” and collectively, the “Funds”), will be held (along with meetings of shareholders of several other Nuveen funds) in the 31st floor conference room of Nuveen Investments, 333 West Wacker Drive, Chicago,
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
Illinois 60606, on Friday, October 12, 2007, at 10:00 a.m., Central time, for the following purposes and to transact such other business, if any, as may properly come before the Meeting:
Matters to Be Voted on by Shareholders:
1. To approve a new investment management agreement between each Fund and Nuveen Asset Management (“NAM”), each Fund’s investment adviser.
2. To ratify the selection of Ernst & Young LLP as independent registered public accounting firm for the current fiscal year.
3. To transact such other business as may properly come before the Meeting.
Shareholders of record at the close of business on August 1, 2007 are entitled to notice of and to vote at the Meeting.
All shareholders are cordially invited to attend the Meeting. In order to avoid delay and additional expense, and to assure that your shares are represented, please vote as promptly as possible, regardless of whether or not you plan to attend the Meeting. You may vote by mail, telephone or over the Internet. To vote by mail, please mark, sign, date and mail the enclosed proxy card. No postage is required if mailed in the United States. To vote by telephone, please call the toll-free number located on your proxy card and follow the recorded instructions, using your proxy card as a guide. To vote over the Internet, go to the Internet address provided on your proxy card and follow the instructions, using your proxy card as a guide.
Kevin J. McCarthy
Vice President and Secretary
333 West Wacker Drive Chicago, Illinois 60606 (800) 257-8787 Joint Proxy Statement
, 2007
Nuveen California Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund (NAC) Nuveen California Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund 2 (NVX) Nuveen California Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund 3 (NZH) Nuveen California Premium Income Municipal Fund (NCU) Nuveen Insured California Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund (NKL) Nuveen Insured California Tax-Free Advantage Municipal Fund (NKX) Nuveen Insured Premium Income Municipal Fund 2 (NPX) Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund (NAD) Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund 2 (NXZ) Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund 3 (NZF) Nuveen Insured Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund (NVG) Nuveen Insured Tax-Free Advantage Municipal Fund (NEA) Nuveen Municipal High Income Opportunity Fund (NMZ) Nuveen Select Maturities Municipal Fund (NIM) Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio (NXP) Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio 2 (NXQ) Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio 3 (NXR) Nuveen California Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio (NXC) Nuveen New York Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio (NXN) Nuveen New York Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund (NAN) Nuveen New York Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund 2 (NXK) Nuveen Insured New York Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund (NKO) Nuveen Insured New York Tax-Free Advantage Municipal Fund (NRK)
This Joint Proxy Statement is first being mailed to shareholders on or about August , 2007.
General Information
This Joint Proxy Statement is furnished in connection with the solicitation by the Board of Trustees (each a “Board” and collectively, the “Boards,” and each Trustee a “Board Member” and collectively, the “Board Members”) of Nuveen California Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund (“California Dividend Advantage”), Nuveen California Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund 2 (“California Dividend Advantage 2”), Nuveen California Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund 3 (“California Dividend Advantage 3”), Nuveen California Premium Income Municipal Fund (“California Premium Income”), Nuveen Insured California Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund (“Insured California Dividend Advantage”), Nuveen Insured California Tax-Free Advantage Municipal Fund (“Insured California Tax-Free Advantage”), Nuveen Insured Premium Income Municipal Fund 2 (“Insured Premium Income 2”), Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund (“Dividend Advantage”), Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund 2 (“Dividend Advantage 2”), Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund 3 (“Dividend Advantage 3”), Nuveen Insured Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund (“Insured Dividend Advantage”), Nuveen Insured Tax-Free Advantage Municipal Fund (“Insured Tax-Free Advantage”), Nuveen Municipal High Income Opportunity Fund (“Municipal High Income”), Nuveen Select Maturities Municipal Fund (“Select Maturities”), Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio (“Select Portfolio”), Nuveen Select
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
Tax-Free Income Portfolio 2 (“Select Portfolio 2”), Nuveen Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio 3
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(“Select Portfolio 3”), Nuveen California Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio (“California Portfolio”), Nuveen New York Select Tax-Free Income Portfolio (“New York Portfolio”), Nuveen New York Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund (“New York Dividend Advantage”), Nuveen New York Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund 2 (“New York Dividend Advantage 2”), Nuveen Insured New York Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund (“Insured New York Dividend Advantage”) and Nuveen Insured New York Tax-Free Advantage Municipal Fund (“Insured New York Tax-Free Advantage”), each a Massachusetts business trust (each a “Fund” and collectively, the “Funds”), of proxies to be voted at a Special Meeting of Shareholders to be held (along with the meeting of shareholders of several other Nuveen funds) in the 31st floor conference room of Nuveen Investments, 333 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60606, on Friday, October 12, 2007, at 10:00 a.m., Central time, (for each Fund, a “Meeting” and collectively, the “Meetings”), and at any and all adjournments thereof.
On the matters coming before each Meeting as to which a choice has been specified by shareholders on the proxy, the shares will be voted accordingly. If a proxy is returned and no choice is specified, the shares will be voted FOR approval of the new investment management agreement and FOR the ratification of the selection of the independent registered public accounting firm. Shareholders who execute proxies may revoke them at any time before they are voted by filing with that Fund a written notice of revocation, by delivering a duly executed proxy bearing a later date or by attending the Meeting and voting in person. Merely attending the Meeting, however, will not revoke any previously submitted proxy.
The Board of each Fund has determined that the use of this Joint Proxy Statement for each Meeting is in the best interest of each Fund and its shareholders in light of the similar matters being considered and voted on by the shareholders.
The following table indicates which shareholders are solicited with respect to each matter:
(1) Municipal Auction Rate Cumulative Preferred Shares are referred to as “Preferred Shares.” Select Maturities, Select Portfolio, Select Portfolio 2, Select Portfolio 3, California Portfolio and New York Portfolio have not issued Preferred Shares.
A quorum of shareholders is required to take action at each Meeting. A majority of the shares entitled to vote at each Meeting, represented in person or by proxy, will constitute a quorum of shareholders at that Meeting. Votes cast by proxy or in person at each Meeting will be tabulated by the inspectors of election appointed for that Meeting. The inspectors of election will determine whether or not a quorum is present at the Meeting. The inspectors of election will treat abstentions and “broker non-votes” (i.e., shares held by brokers or nominees, typically in “street name,” as to which (i) instructions have not been received from the beneficial owners or persons entitled to vote and (ii) the broker or nominee does not have discretionary voting power on a particular matter) as present for purposes of determining a
quorum. Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
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For purposes of determining the approval of the new investment management agreement and ratification of the selection of independent auditors, abstentions and broker non-votes will be treated as shares voted against the proposal. The details of the proposals to be voted on by the shareholders of each Fund and the vote required for approval of the proposals are set forth under the description of the proposals below.
Preferred Shares held in “street name” as to which voting instructions have not been received from the beneficial owners or persons entitled to vote as of one business day before the Meeting, or, if adjourned, one business day before the day to which the Meeting is adjourned, and that would otherwise be treated as “broker non-votes” may, pursuant to Rule 452 of the New York Stock Exchange, be voted by the broker on the proposal in the same proportion as the votes cast by all Preferred shareholders as a class who have voted on the proposal or in the same proportion as the votes cast by all Preferred shareholders of the Fund who have voted on that item. Rule 452 permits proportionate voting of Preferred Shares with respect to a particular item if, among other things, (i) a minimum of 30% of the Preferred Shares or shares of a series of Preferred Shares outstanding has been voted by the holders of such shares with respect to such item and (ii) less than 10% of the Preferred Shares or shares of a series of Preferred Shares outstanding has been voted by the holders of such shares against such item. For the purpose of meeting the 30% test, abstentions will be treated as shares “voted” and for the purpose of meeting the 10% test, abstentions will not be treated as shares “voted” against the item.
Those persons who were shareholders of record at the close of business on August 1, 2007, will be entitled to one vote for each share held and a proportionate fractional vote for each fractional share held (the “Record Date”). As of the Record Date, the shares of the Funds were issued and outstanding as follows:
Common
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Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
Insured California Tax-Free
Advantage
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
* The common shares of all of the Funds are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, except NVX, NZH, NCU, NKL, NKX, NXZ, NZF, NVG, NEA, NMZ, NKO, NXK and NRK, which are listed on the American Stock Exchange.
The number of shares of each Fund beneficially owned by each Board Member and by the Board Members and officers of the Funds as a group as of December 31, 2006 is set forth in Appendix A. On December 31, 2006, Board Members and executive officers as a group beneficially owned approximately 1,400,000 shares of all funds managed by NAM (including shares held by Board Members through the Deferred Compensation Plan for Independent Board Members and by executive officers in Nuveen’s 401(k)/profit sharing plan). Each Board Member’s individual beneficial shareholdings of each Fund constituted less than 1% of the outstanding shares of each Fund. [As of the Record Date, the Board Members and executive officers as a group beneficially owned less than 1% of the outstanding shares of each Fund.] As of the Record Date, no shareholder beneficially owned more than 5% of any class of shares of any Fund, except as stated in Appendix F. 4
1. Approval of the New Investment Management Agreements
Background
Under an investment management agreement between the Adviser and each Fund (each, an “Original Investment Management Agreement” and collectively, the “Original Investment Management Agreements”), NAM serves as each Fund’s investment adviser and is responsible for each Fund’s overall investment strategy and its implementation. The date of each Fund’s Original Investment Management Agreement and the date on which it was last approved by shareholders and approved for continuance by the Board is provided in Appendix B. NAM is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nuveen Investments, Inc. (“Nuveen”). Nuveen is currently a publicly traded company.
On June 19, 2007, Nuveen entered into a merger agreement providing for the acquisition of Nuveen by Windy City Investments, Inc. (“Windy City”), a corporation formed by investors led by Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC (“MDP”), a private equity investment firm based in Chicago, Illinois (the “Transaction”). Windy City is controlled by MDP on behalf of the Madison Dearborn Capital Partner V funds. Other owners of Windy City include Merrill Lynch & Co.’s Global Private Equity group and affiliates (including private equity funds) of Wachovia, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank. If the Transaction is completed, Nuveen will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Windy City and Nuveen will become a privately-held company. Completion of the Transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including obtaining the approval of Nuveen’s stockholders and obtaining consent to the Transaction by a certain percentage of NAM’s clients representing at least 80% of annualized revenue (which includes fund shareholder approval of new investment management agreements with NAM). Nuveen and Windy City currently expect to complete the Transaction in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Upon completion of the Transaction, it is anticipated that Merrill Lynch will be an indirect “affiliated person” (as that term is defined in the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”)) of each Fund. As a result, each Fund would then generally be prohibited from entering into principal transactions with Merrill Lynch and certain of its affiliates. NAM does not believe that any such prohibition or limitation would have a materially adverse effect on any Fund’s ability to pursue its investment objective and policies.
Nuveen is relying on Section 15(f) of the 1940 Act. Section 15(f) provides in substance that when a sale of a controlling interest in an investment adviser occurs, the investment adviser or any of its affiliated persons may receive any amount or benefit in connection with the sale so long as two conditions are satisfied. The first condition of Section 15(f) is that, during the three-year period following the consummation of a transaction, at least 75% of the investment company’s board of directors must not be “interested persons” (as defined in the 1940 Act) of the investment adviser or predecessor adviser. Each of the Funds currently meets this test. Second, an “unfair burden” (as defined in the 1940 Act, including any interpretations or no-action letters of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”)) must not be imposed on the investment company as a result of the transaction relating to the sale of such interest, or any express or implied terms, conditions or understandings applicable thereto. The term “unfair burden” (as defined in the 1940 Act) includes any arrangement, during the two-year period after the transaction, whereby the investment adviser (or predecessor or successor adviser), or any “interested person” (as defined in the 1940 Act) of such an adviser, receives or is entitled to receive any compensation directly or indirectly, from the investment company or its security holders (other than fees for bona fide investment advisory or other services) or from any person
5
in connection with the purchase or sale of securities or other property to, from or on behalf of the investment company (other than bona fide ordinary compensation as principal underwriter for the investment company). Under the Transaction Agreement, Windy City acknowledges Nuveen’s reliance on Section 15(f) of the 1940 Act and had agreed that it and its affiliates (as defined in the Transaction Agreement) shall conduct its business and use commercially reasonable efforts to enable the provisions of Section 15(f) to be true in relation to the Funds.
In addition, to help ensure that an unfair burden is not imposed on the Funds, Nuveen has committed for a period of two years from the date of the closing of the Transaction (i) not to increase gross management fees for any Fund; (ii) not to reduce voluntary expense reimbursement levels for any Fund from their currently scheduled prospective levels during that period; (iii) that no Fund whose portfolio is managed by a Nuveen affiliate shall use Merrill Lynch as a broker with respect to portfolio transactions done on an agency basis, except as may be approved in the future by the Compliance Committee of the Board; and (iv) that NAM shall not cause the Funds and the other municipal funds that NAM manages as a whole to enter into portfolio transactions with or through the other minority owners of Nuveen, on either a principal or agency basis, to a significantly greater extent than both what one would expect an investment team to use such firm in the normal course of business, and what NAM has historically done with respect to those funds, without prior Board or Compliance Committee approval (excluding the impact of proportionally increasing the use of such other “minority owners” to fill the void necessitated by not being able to use Merrill Lynch).
Each Original Investment Management Agreement, as required by Section 15 of the 1940 Act, provides for its automatic termination in the event of its “assignment” (as defined in the 1940 Act). Any change in control of the Adviser is deemed to be an assignment. The consummation of the Transaction will result in a change in control of the Adviser and therefore cause the automatic termination of each Original Investment Management Agreement, as required by the 1940 Act.
In anticipation of the Transaction, each Fund’s Board met in person at a joint meeting on July 31, 2007 for purposes of, among other things, considering whether it would be in the best interests of each Fund and its shareholders to approve a new investment management agreement between the Fund and NAM in substantially the same form as the Original Investment Management Agreement to take effect immediately after the Transaction or shareholder approval, whichever is later (each a “New Investment Management Agreement” and collectively, the “New Investment Management Agreements”). The form of the New Investment Management Agreement is attached hereto as Appendix C.
The 1940 Act requires that each New Investment Management Agreement be approved by the Fund’s shareholders in order for it to become effective. At the July 31, 2007 Board meeting, and for the reasons discussed below (see “Board Considerations” below), each Board, including the Board Members who are not parties to the Original Investment Management Agreements or New Investment Management Agreements entered into by the Adviser with respect to any Fund or who are not “interested persons” of the Funds or the Adviser as defined in the 1940 Act (the “Independent Board Members”), unanimously approved the New Investment Management Agreement and unanimously recommended its approval by shareholders in order to assure continuity of investment advisory services to the Fund after the Transaction. In the event shareholders of a Fund do not approve the New Investment Management Agreement at the Meeting or any adjournment thereof prior to the closing of the Transaction, an interim investment management agreement between the Adviser and each such Fund (each, an
6
“Interim Investment Management Agreement” and collectively, the “Interim Investment Management Agreements”) will take effect upon the closing of the Transaction.
At the July 31, 2007 meeting, each Board, including the Independent Board Members, also unanimously approved the Interim Investment Management Agreements in order to assure continuity of investment advisory services to the Funds after the Transaction. The terms of each Interim Investment Management Agreement are substantially identical to those of the Original Investment Management Agreements and New Investment Management Agreements, except for the term and escrow provisions described below. If a Fund’s shareholders have not approved a New Investment Management Agreement prior to the Transaction an Interim Investment Management Agreement will take effect upon the closing of the Transaction and will continue in effect for a term ending on the earlier of 150 days from the closing of the Transaction (the “150-day period”) or when shareholders of a Fund approve the New Investment Management Agreement. Pursuant to Rule 15a-4 under the 1940 Act, compensation earned by the Adviser under an Interim Investment Management Agreement will be held in an interest-bearing escrow account. If shareholders of a Fund approve the New Investment Management Agreement prior to the end of the 150-day period, the amount held in the escrow account under the Interim Investment Management Agreement will be paid to the Adviser. If shareholders of a Fund do not approve the New Investment Management Agreement prior to the end of the 150-day period, the Board will take such action as it deems to be in the best interests of the Fund and its shareholders, and the Adviser will be paid the lesser of its costs incurred in performing its services under the Interim Investment Management Agreement or the total amount in the escrow account, plus interest earned.
Comparison of Original Investment Management Agreement and New Investment Management Agreement
The terms of each New Investment Management Agreement, including fees payable to the Adviser by the Fund thereunder, are substantially identical to those of the Original Investment Management Agreement, except for the date of effectiveness. There is no change in the fee rate payable by each Fund to the Adviser. If approved by shareholders of a Fund, the New Investment Management Agreement for the Fund will expire on August 1, 2008, unless continued. Each New Investment Management Agreement will continue in effect from year to year thereafter if such continuance is approved for the Fund at least annually in the manner required by the 1940 Act and the rules and regulations thereunder. Below is a comparison of certain terms of the Original Investment Management Agreement to the terms of the New Investment Management Agreement.
Investment Management Services. The investment management services to be provided by the Adviser to each Fund under the New Investment Management Agreements will be identical to those services currently provided by the Adviser to each Fund under the Original Investment Management Agreements. Both the Original Investment Management Agreements and New Investment Management Agreements provide that the Adviser shall manage the investment and reinvestment of the Fund’s assets in accordance with the Fund’s investment objective and policies and limitations and administer the Fund’s affairs to the extent requested by and subject to the oversight of the Fund’s Board. In addition, the investment management services will be provided by the same Adviser personnel under the New Investment Management Agreements as under the Original Investment Management Agreements. The Adviser does not anticipate that the Transaction will have any adverse effect on the performance of its obligations under the New Investment Management Agreements.
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Fees. Under each Original Investment Management Agreement and New Investment Management Agreement, the Fund pays to the Adviser an investment management fee that consists of two components—a fund-level fee, calculated by applying a Fund-specific breakpoint fee schedule that pays progressively reduced fee rates at increased Fund-specific asset levels to the average daily managed assets (which includes assets attributable to all types of leverage used in leveraged funds) of that individual Fund, and a complex-level fee, calculated by applying a fee rate determined based on the aggregate managed assets of all Nuveen-branded closed-end and open-end registered investment companies organized in the United States, applied to a complex-wide fee schedule that would pay ever-reducing effective fee rates at increasing complex-wide assets, multiplied by that Fund’s average daily managed assets. The investment management fee paid by each Fund equals the sum of the fund-level fee and complex-level fee calculated for that Fund.
The fee schedules for the fund-level fee and complex-level fee breakpoint schedules under the New Investment Management Agreements for each Fund are identical to the fund-level fee and complex-level fee breakpoint schedules under the Original Investment Management Agreements. The annual fund-level fee schedule for each Fund under the Original Investment Management Agreements and the New Investment Management Agreements, the fees paid by each Fund to the Adviser during each Fund’s last fiscal year and the Fund’s net assets as of June 30, 2007 are set forth in Appendix D to this Proxy Statement. The fee schedule for the complex-level component is the same for each Fund under both the Original Investment Management Agreements and New Investment Management Agreements and is also set forth in Appendix D. That complex-wide fee schedule was recently reduced with an effective date of August 20, 2007, as reflected in Appendix D.
Payment of Expenses. Under each Original Investment Management Agreement and each New Investment Management Agreement, the Adviser shall furnish office facilities and equipment and clerical, bookkeeping and administrative services (other than such services, if any, provided by the Fund’s transfer agent) for the Fund.
Limitation on Liability. The Original Investment Management Agreements and New Investment Management Agreements provide that the Adviser will not be liable for any loss sustained by reason of the purchase, sale or retention of any security, whether or not such purchase, sale or retention shall have been based upon the investigation and research made by any other individual, firm or corporation, if such recommendation shall have been selected with due care and in good faith, except loss resulting from willful misfeasance, bad faith or gross negligence on the part of the Adviser in the performance of its obligations and duties, or by reason of its reckless disregard of its obligations and duties under the Agreement.
Continuance. The Original Investment Management Agreement of each Fund originally was in effect for an initial term and could be continued thereafter for successive one-year periods if such continuance was specifically approved at least annually in the manner required by the 1940 Act. If the shareholders of a Fund approve the New Investment Management Agreement for that Fund, the New Investment Management Agreement will expire on August 1, 2008, unless continued. The New Investment Management Agreement may be continued for successive one-year periods if approved at least annually in the manner required by the 1940 Act.
Termination. The Original Investment Management Agreement and New Investment Management Agreement for each Fund provide that the Agreement may be terminated at any time
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without the payment of any penalty by the Fund or Adviser on sixty (60) days’ written notice to the other party. A Fund may effect termination by action of the Board or by vote of a majority of the outstanding voting securities of the Fund, accompanied by appropriate notice.
Board Considerations
I. Approval of Original Investment Management Agreements
The Board Members are responsible for overseeing the performance of the investment adviser to the Funds and determining whether to approve or continue the advisory arrangements. At a meeting held on May 21, 2007 (the “May Meeting”), the Board of each Fund, including the Independent Board Members, performed a full annual review of each Original Investment Management Agreement and unanimously approved the continuance of such agreements. Because the information provided and the considerations made at the annual review continue to be relevant with respect to the evaluation of the New Investment Management Agreements, the Board considered the foregoing as part of their deliberations of the New Investment Management Agreements. Accordingly, the discussions immediately below outline the materials and information presented to the Board in connection with the Board’s May annual review and the analysis undertaken and the conclusions reached by Board Members when determining to continue the Original Investment Management Agreements.
During the course of the year, the Board received a wide variety of materials relating to the services provided by NAM and the performance of the Funds. At each of its quarterly meetings, the Board reviewed investment performance and various matters relating to the operations of the Funds, including the compliance program, shareholder services, valuation, custody, distribution and other information relating to the nature, extent and quality of services provided by NAM. Between the regularly scheduled quarterly meetings, the Board Members received information on particular matters as the need arose. In preparation for their considerations at the May Meeting, the Independent Board Members also received extensive materials, well in advance of their meeting, which outlined or are related to, among other things:
• the nature, extent and quality of services provided by NAM;
• the organization and business operations of NAM, including the responsibilities of various departments and key personnel;
• each Fund’s past performance as well as the Fund’s performance compared to funds with similar investment objectives based on data and information provided by an independent third party and to customized benchmarks;
• the profitability of Nuveen and certain industry profitability analyses for unaffiliated advisers;
• the expenses of Nuveen in providing the various services;
• the advisory fees and total expense ratios of each Fund, including comparisons of such fees and expenses with those of comparable, unaffiliated funds based on information and data provided by an independent third party (the “Peer Universe”) as well as compared to a subset of funds within the Peer Universe (the “Peer Group”) of the respective Fund (as applicable);
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• the advisory fees NAM assesses to other types of investment products or clients;
• the soft dollar practices of NAM, if any; and
• from independent legal counsel, a legal memorandum describing among other things, applicable laws, regulations and duties in reviewing and approving advisory contracts.
At the May Meeting, NAM made a presentation to, and responded to questions from, the Board. Prior to and after the presentations and reviewing the written materials, the Independent Board Members met privately with their legal counsel to review the Board’s duties in reviewing advisory contracts and considering the renewal of the advisory contracts. The Independent Board Members, in consultation with independent counsel, reviewed the factors set out in judicial decisions and SEC directives relating to the renewal of advisory contracts. As outlined in more detail below, the Board Members considered all factors they believed relevant with respect to each Fund, including, but not limited to, the following: (a) the nature, extent and quality of the services to be provided by NAM; (b) the investment performance of the Fund and NAM; (c) the costs of the services to be provided and profits to be realized by Nuveen and its affiliates; (d) the extent to which economies of scale would be realized; and (e) whether fee levels reflect those economies of scale for the benefit of the Fund’s investors. In addition, as noted, the Board Members met regularly throughout the year to oversee the Funds. In evaluating the Original Investment Management Agreements, the Board Members also relied upon their knowledge of NAM, its services and the Funds resulting from their meetings and other interactions throughout the year. It is with this background that the Board Members considered each Original Investment Management Agreement.
A. Nature, Extent and Quality of Services
In considering renewal of the Original Investment Management Agreements, the Board Members considered the nature, extent and quality of NAM’s services. The Board Members reviewed materials outlining, among other things, Nuveen’s organization and business; the types of services that NAM or its affiliates provide and are expected to provide to the Funds; the performance record of the applicable Fund (as described in further detail below); and any initiatives Nuveen had taken for the municipal fund product line. As noted, the Board Members were already familiar with the organization, operations and personnel of NAM due to the Board Members’ experience in governing the respective Funds and working with NAM on matters relating to the Funds. With respect to personnel, the Board Members recognized NAM’s investment in additional qualified personnel throughout the various groups in the organization and recommended to NAM that it continue to review staffing needs as necessary. In addition, the Board Members reviewed materials describing the current status and, in particular, the developments in 2006 with respect to NAM’s investment process, investment strategies (including additional tools used in executing such strategies), personnel (including portfolio management and research teams), trading process, hedging activities, risk management operations (e.g., reviewing credit quality, duration limits, derivatives use, as applicable), and investment operations (such as enhancements to trading procedures, pricing procedures, and client services). The Board Members recognized Nuveen’s investment of resources and efforts to continue to enhance and refine its investment process.
In addition to advisory services, the Independent Board Members considered the quality of administrative and non-advisory services provided by NAM and noted that NAM provides the
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Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
Funds with a wide variety of services and officers and other personnel as are necessary for the operations of the Funds, including,
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• product management; • fund administration; • oversight of shareholder services and other fund service providers; • administration of Board relations; • regulatory and portfolio compliance; and • legal support.
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As the Funds operate in a highly regulated industry and given the importance of compliance, the Board Members considered, in particular, Nuveen’s compliance activities for the Funds and enhancements thereto. In this regard, the Board Members recognized the quality of Nuveen’s compliance team. The Board Members further noted Nuveen’s negotiations with other service providers and the corresponding reduction in certain service providers’ fees.
With respect to closed-end funds, in addition to the foregoing services, the Board Members also noted the additional services that NAM or its affiliates provide to closed-end funds, including, in particular, its secondary market support activities. The Board Members recognized Nuveen’s continued commitment to supporting the secondary market for the common shares of its closed-end funds through a variety of programs designed to raise investor and analyst awareness and understanding of closed-end funds. These efforts include:
• maintaining shareholder communications;
• providing advertising for closed-end funds;
• maintaining its closed-end fund website;
• maintaining continual contact with financial advisers;
• providing educational symposia;
• conducting research with investors and financial analysis regarding closed-end funds; and
• evaluating secondary market performance.
With respect to Funds that utilize leverage through the issuance of Preferred Shares, the Board Members noted Nuveen’s continued support for the holders of Preferred Shares by, among other things:
• maintaining an in-house trading desk;
• maintaining a product manager for the Preferred Shares;
• developing distribution for Preferred Shares with new market participants;
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
• maintaining an orderly auction process;
• managing leverage and risk management of leverage; and
• maintaining systems necessary to test compliance with rating agency criteria.
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Based on their review, the Board Members found that, overall, the nature, extent and quality of services provided (and expected to be provided) to the respective Funds under the Original Investment Management Agreements were satisfactory.
B. The Investment Performance of the Funds and NAM
The Board considered the investment performance for each Fund, including the Fund’s historic performance as well as its performance compared to funds with similar investment objectives (the “Performance Peer Group”) based on data provided by an independent third party (as described below). The Board Members also reviewed portfolio level performance against customized benchmarks, as described in further detail below.
In evaluating the performance information, in certain instances, the Board Members noted that the closest Performance Peer Group for a Fund may not adequately reflect such Fund’s investment objectives and strategies, thereby limiting the usefulness of the comparisons of such Fund’s performance with that of the Performance Peer Group.
With respect to state specific municipal funds, the Board Members also recognized that certain funds do not have a corresponding state specific Performance Peer Group in which case their performance is measured against a more general municipal category for various states. Funds that do not have corresponding state-specific Performance Peer Groups are from states other than New York, California, Florida, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. However, with respect to Funds based in Florida, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the peer group may be so small or the Nuveen Funds may dominate the category to such an extent that performance information for such Funds was also compared to a more general category for all states (other than New York and California).
The Board Members reviewed performance information including, among other things, total return information compared with the Fund’s Performance Peer Group for the one-, three- and five-year periods (as applicable) ending December 31, 2006. The Board Members also reviewed the Fund’s portfolio level performance (which does not reflect fund level fees and expenses, and leverage) compared to customized portfolio-level benchmarks for the one- and three-year periods ending December 31, 2006 (as applicable). The analysis was used to assess the efficacy of investment decisions against appropriate measures of risk and total return, within specific market segments. This information supplemented the Fund performance information provided to the Board at each of its quarterly meetings. Based on their review, the Board Members determined that each Fund’s investment performance over time had been satisfactory, subject to the following. With respect to various municipal closed-end funds, the Board Members noted relative total return underperformance in recent years compared to peers. The Board Members reviewed materials and discussed with NAM the factors contributing to the shift in performance including, among other things, the degree of risk undertaken by peers compared to the Funds (such as through the increased use of leverage or taking concentrated positions in high risk credits). In addition, the Board Members also considered a Fund’s dividend performance and the extent of any secondary market discounts. The Board Members noted NAM’s efforts to evaluate the factors affecting performance and determine whether modification to a Fund’s investment strategy is necessary or appropriate, and concluded they were satisfied with the steps being taken.
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C. Fees, Expenses and Profitability
1. Fees and Expenses
In evaluating the management fees and expenses of a Fund, the Board reviewed, among other things, the Fund’s advisory fees (net and gross management fees) and total expense ratios (before and after expense reimbursements and/or waivers) in absolute terms as well as comparisons to the gross management fees (before waivers), net management fees (after waivers) and total expense ratios (before and after waivers) of comparable funds in the Peer Universe and the Peer Group. In reviewing the fee schedule for a Fund, the Board Members considered the fund-level and complex-wide breakpoint schedules (described in further detail below) and any fee waivers and reimbursements provided by Nuveen (applicable, in particular, for certain Funds launched since 1999). The Board Members further reviewed data regarding the construction of Peer Groups as well as the methods of measurement for the fee and expense analysis and the performance analysis. In certain cases, due to the small number of peers in the Peer Universe, the Peer Universe and Peer Group had significant overlap or even consisted entirely of the same unaffiliated funds. In reviewing the comparison of fee and expense information, the Board Members recognized that in certain cases, the Fund size relative to peers, the small size and odd composition of the Peer Group (including differences in objectives and strategies), expense anomalies, timing of information used or other factors impacting the comparisons thereby limited some of the usefulness of the comparative data. The Board Members also considered the differences in the use of leverage. Based on their review of the fee and expense information provided, the Board Members determined that each Fund’s net total expense ratio was within an acceptable range compared to peers.
2. Comparisons with the Fees of Other Clients
The Board Members further reviewed data comparing the advisory fees of NAM with fees NAM charges to other clients. With respect to municipal funds, such other clients include NAM’s municipal separately managed accounts. In general, the advisory fees charged for separate accounts are somewhat lower than the advisory fees assessed to the Funds. The Board Members considered the differences in the product types, including, but not limited to, the services provided, the structure and operations, product distribution and costs thereof, portfolio investment policies, investor profiles, account sizes and regulatory requirements. The Board Members noted, in particular, that the range of services provided to the Funds (as discussed above) is much more extensive than that provided to separately managed accounts. As described in further detail above, such additional services include, but are not limited to: product management, fund administration, oversight of third party service providers, administration of Board relations, and legal support. The Board Members noted that the Funds operate in a highly regulated industry requiring extensive compliance functions compared to other investment products. Given the inherent differences in the products, particularly the extensive services provided to the Funds, the Board Members believe such facts justify the different levels of fees.
3. Profitability of Nuveen
In conjunction with its review of fees, the Board Members also considered the profitability of Nuveen for its advisory activities (which incorporated Nuveen’s wholly-owned affiliated sub-advisers) and its financial condition. The Board Members reviewed the revenues and expenses of Nuveen’s advisory activities for the last three years, the allocation methodology used in
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preparing the profitability data as well as the 2006 Annual Report for Nuveen. The Board Members noted this information supplemented the profitability information requested and received during the year to help keep them apprised of developments affecting profitability (such as changes in fee waivers and expense reimbursement commitments). In this regard, the Board Members noted the enhanced dialogue and information regarding profitability with NAM during the year, including more frequent meetings and updates from Nuveen’s corporate finance group. The Board Members also reviewed data comparing Nuveen’s profitability with other fund sponsors prepared by three independent third party service providers as well as comparisons of the revenues, expenses and profit margins of various unaffiliated management firms with similar amounts of assets under management prepared by Nuveen.
In reviewing profitability, the Board Members recognized the subjective nature of determining profitability which may be affected by numerous factors, including the allocation of expenses. Further, the Board Members recognized the difficulties in making comparisons as the profitability of other advisers generally is not publicly available and the profitability information that is available for certain advisers or management firms may not be representative of the industry and may be affected by, among other things, the adviser’s particular business mix, capital costs, types of funds managed and expense allocations.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Board Members reviewed Nuveen’s methodology and assumptions for allocating expenses across product lines to determine profitability. Last year, the Board Members also designated an Independent Board Member as a point person for the Board to review the methodology determinations during the year and any refinements thereto, which relevant information produced from such process was reported to the full Board. In reviewing profitability, the Board Members recognized Nuveen’s increased investment into its fund business. Based on its review, the Board Members concluded that they were satisfied that Nuveen’s level of profitability for its advisory activities was reasonable in light of the services provided.
In evaluating the reasonableness of the compensation, the Board Members also considered other amounts paid to NAM by the Funds as well as any indirect benefits (such as soft dollar arrangements, if any) NAM and its affiliates receive, or are expected to receive, that are directly attributable to the management of the Funds, if any. See Section E below for additional information on indirect benefits NAM may receive as a result of its relationship with the Funds. Based on their review of the overall fee arrangements of each Fund, the Board Members determined that the advisory fees and expenses of the Fund were reasonable.
D. Economies of Scale and Whether Fee Levels Reflect These Economies of Scale
With respect to economies of scale, the Board Members recognized the potential benefits resulting from the costs of a Fund being spread over a larger asset base. To help ensure the shareholders share in these benefits, the Board Members reviewed and considered the breakpoints in the advisory fee schedules that reduce advisory fees. In addition to advisory fee breakpoints, the Board also approved a complex-wide fee arrangement in 2004. Pursuant to the complex-wide fee arrangement, the fees of the funds in the Nuveen complex, including the Funds, are reduced as the assets in the fund complex reach certain levels. In evaluating the complex-wide fee arrangement, the Board Members noted that the last complex-wide asset level breakpoint for the complex-wide fee schedule was at $91 billion and that the Board
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Members anticipated further review and/or negotiations prior to the assets of the Nuveen complex reaching such threshold. Based on their review, the Board Members concluded that the breakpoint schedule and complex-wide fee arrangement were acceptable and desirable in providing benefits from economies of scale to shareholders, subject to further evaluation of the complex-wide fee schedule as assets in the complex increase.
E. Indirect Benefits
In evaluating fees, the Board Members also considered any indirect benefits or profits NAM or its affiliates may receive as a result of its relationship with each Fund. With respect to closed-end funds, the Board Members considered revenues received by affiliates of NAM for serving as agent at Nuveen’s preferred trading desk and for serving as a co-manager in the initial public offering of new closed-end exchange traded funds.
In addition to the above, the Board Members considered whether NAM received any benefits from soft dollar arrangements whereby a portion of the commissions paid by a Fund for brokerage may be used to acquire research that may be useful to NAM in managing the assets of the Funds and other clients. With respect to NAM, the Board Members noted that NAM does not currently have any soft dollar arrangements; however, to the extent certain bona fide agency transactions that occur on markets that traditionally trade on a principal basis and riskless principal transactions are considered as generating “commissions,” NAM intends to comply with the applicable safe harbor provisions.
Based on their review, the Board Members concluded that any indirect benefits received by NAM as a result of its relationship with the Funds were reasonable and within acceptable parameters.
F. Other Considerations
The Board Members did not identify any single factor discussed previously as all-important or controlling. The Board Members, including the Independent Board Members, unanimously concluded that the terms of the Original Investment Management Agreements are fair and reasonable, that NAM’s fees are reasonable in light of the services provided to each Fund and that the renewal of the Original Investment Management Agreements should be approved.
II. Approval of the New Investment Management Agreements
Following the May Meeting, the Board Members were advised of the potential Transaction. As noted above, the completion of the Transaction would terminate each of the Original Investment Management Agreements. Accordingly, at a meeting held on July 31, 2007 (the “July Meeting”), the Board of each Fund, including the Independent Board Members, unanimously approved the New Investment Management Agreement on behalf of each Fund. Leading up to the July Meeting, the Board Members had several meetings and deliberations with and without Nuveen management present, and with the advice of legal counsel, regarding the proposed Transaction as outlined below.
On June 8, 2007, the Board Members held a special telephonic meeting to discuss the proposed Transaction. At that meeting, the Board Members established a special ad hoc committee comprised solely of Independent Board Members to focus on the Transaction and to keep the Independent Board Members updated with developments regarding the Transaction. On
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June 15, 2007, the ad hoc committee met with representatives of NAM to discuss modifications to the complex-wide fee schedule that would generate additional fee savings at specified levels of complex-wide asset growth (as set forth in Appendix D). On June 15, 2007, the ad hoc committee also discussed the Transaction with representatives of Nuveen at a telephonic meeting. Following the foregoing meetings and several subsequent telephonic conferences among Independent Board Members and independent counsel, and between Independent Board Members and representatives of Nuveen, the Board met on June 18, 2007 to further discuss the proposed Transaction. Immediately prior to and then again during the June 18, 2007 meeting, the Independent Board Members met privately with their independent legal counsel. At that meeting, the Board met with representatives of MDP, of Goldman Sachs, Nuveen’s financial adviser in the Transaction, and of the Nuveen Board to discuss, among other things, the history and structure of MDP, the terms of the proposed Transaction (including the financing terms), and MDP’s general plans and intentions with respect to Nuveen (including with respect to management, employees, and future growth prospects). On July 9, 2007, the Board also met to be updated on the Transaction as part of a special telephonic meeting. The Board Members were further updated at a special in-person board meeting held on July 19, 2007 (one Independent Board Member participated telephonically). Subsequently, on July 27, 2007, the ad hoc committee held a telephonic conference with representatives of Nuveen and MDP to further discuss, among other things, the Transaction, the financing of the Transaction, retention and incentive plans for key employees, the effect of regulatory restrictions on transactions with affiliates after the Transaction, and current market conditions and their impact on the Transaction.
In connection with their review of the New Investment Management Agreements, the Independent Board Members, through their independent legal counsel, also requested in writing and received additional information regarding the proposed Transaction and its impact on the provision of services by NAM and its affiliates.
The Independent Board Members received, well in advance of the July Meeting, materials which outlined, among other things:
• the structure and terms of the Transaction, including MDP’s co-investor entities and their expected ownership interests and the financing arrangements that will exist for Nuveen following the closing of the Transaction;
• the strategic plan for Nuveen following the Transaction;
• the governance structure for Nuveen following the Transaction;
• any anticipated changes in the operations of the Nuveen Funds following the Transaction, including changes to NAM’s and Nuveen’s day-to-day management, infrastructure and ability to provide advisory, distribution or other applicable services to the Funds;
• any changes to senior management or key personnel who work on Fund related matters (including portfolio management, investment oversight, and legal/compliance) and any retention or incentive arrangements for such persons;
• any anticipated effect on each Fund’s expense ratio (including advisory fees) following the Transaction;
• any benefits or undue burdens imposed on the Funds as a result of the Transaction;
• any legal issues for the Funds as a result of the Transaction;
• the nature, quality and extent of services expected to be provided to the Funds following the Transaction, changes to any existing services and policies affecting the Funds, and cost-cutting efforts, if any, that may impact such services or policies;
• any conflicts of interest that may arise for Nuveen or MDP with respect to the Funds;
• the costs associated with obtaining necessary shareholder approvals, and who would bear those costs; and
• from legal counsel, a memorandum describing the applicable laws, regulations and duties in approving advisory contracts, including, in particular, with respect to a change of control.
Immediately preceding the July Meeting, representatives of MDP met with the Board to further respond to questions regarding the Transaction. After the meeting with MDP, the Independent Board Members met with independent legal counsel in executive session. At the July Meeting, Nuveen also made a presentation and responded to questions. Following the presentations and discussions of the materials presented to the Board, the Independent Board Members met again in executive session with their counsel. As outlined in more detail below, the Independent Board Members considered all factors they believed relevant with respect to each Fund, including the impact that the Transaction could be expected to have on the following: (a) the nature, extent and quality of services to be provided; (b) the investment performance of the Funds; (c) the costs of the services and profits to be realized by Nuveen and its affiliate; (d) the extent to which economies of scale would be realized; and (e) whether fee levels reflect those economies of scale for the benefit of investors. As noted above, the Board Members had recently completed their annual review of the Original Investment Management Agreements at the May Meeting and many of the factors considered at the annual review were applicable to their evaluation of the New Investment Management Agreements. Accordingly, in evaluating the New Investment Management Agreements, the Board Members relied upon their knowledge and experience with NAM and considered the information received and their evaluations and conclusions drawn at the annual review. The Independent Board Members evaluated all information available to them on a Fund-by-Fund basis, and their determinations were made separately in respect of each Fund.
A. Nature, Extent and Quality of Services
In evaluating the nature, quality and extent of the services expected to be provided by NAM under the New Investment Management Agreements, the Independent Board Members considered, among other things, the expected impact, if any, of the Transaction on the operations, facilities, organization and personnel of NAM; the potential implications of regulatory restrictions on the Funds following the Transaction; the ability of NAM and its affiliates to perform their duties after the Transaction; and any anticipated changes to the current investment and other practices of the Funds.
The Board noted that the terms of each New Investment Management Agreement, including fees payable thereunder, are substantially identical to those of the Original Investment Management Agreement relating to the same Fund (with both reflecting reductions to fee levels in the complex-wide fee schedule for complex-wide assets in excess of $80 billion that become effective on August 20, 2007). The Board considered that the services to be provided and the standard of care under the New Investment Management Agreements are the same as the Original Investment Management Agreements. The Board Members further noted that key personnel who have responsibility for the Funds in each area, including portfolio management,
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investment oversight, fund management, fund operations, product management, legal/compliance and board support functions, are expected to be the same following the Transaction. The Board Members considered and are familiar with the qualifications, skills and experience of such personnel. The Board also considered certain information regarding anticipated retention or incentive plans designed to retain key personnel. Further, the Board Members noted that no changes to Nuveen’s infrastructure or operations as a result of the Transaction were anticipated other than potential enhancements as a result of an expected increase in the level of investment in such infrastructure and personnel. The Board noted MDP’s representations that it does not plan to have a direct role in the management of Nuveen, appointing new management personnel, or directly impacting individual staffing decisions. The Board Members also noted that there were not any planned “cost cutting” measures that could be expected to reduce the nature, extent, or quality of services. After consideration of the foregoing, the Board Members concluded that no diminution in the nature, quality and extent of services provided to the Funds and their shareholders is expected.
In addition to the above, the Board Members considered potential changes in the operations of each Fund. In this regard, the Board Members considered the potential effect of regulatory restrictions on the Funds’ transactions with future affiliated persons. During their deliberations, it was noted that, after the Transaction, a subsidiary of Merrill Lynch is expected to have an ownership interest in Nuveen at a level that will make Merrill Lynch an affiliated person of Nuveen. The Board Members recognized that applicable law would generally prohibit the Funds from engaging in securities transactions with Merrill Lynch as principal, and would also impose restrictions on using Merrill Lynch for agency transactions. They recognized that having MDP and Merrill Lynch as affiliates may restrict the Funds’ ability to invest in securities of issuers controlled by MDP or issued by Merrill Lynch and its affiliates even if not bought directly from MDP or Merrill Lynch as principal. They also recognized that various regulations may require the Funds to apply investment limitations on a combined basis with affiliates of Merrill Lynch. The Board Members considered information provided by NAM regarding the potential impact on the Funds’ operations as a result of these regulatory restrictions. The Board Members considered, in particular, the Funds that may be impacted most by the restricted access to Merrill Lynch, including: municipal funds (particularly certain state-specific funds), senior loan funds, taxable fixed income funds, preferred security funds and funds that heavily use derivatives. The Board Members considered such Funds’ historic use of Merrill Lynch as principal in their transactions and information provided by NAM regarding the expected impact resulting from Merrill Lynch’s affiliation with Nuveen and available measures that could be taken to minimize such impact. NAM informed the Board Members, although difficult to determine with certainty, that its management did not believe that MDP’s or Merrill Lynch’s status as an affiliate of Nuveen would have a material adverse effect on any Fund’s ability to pursue its investment objectives and policies.
In addition to the regulatory restrictions considered by the Board, the Board Members also considered potential conflicts of interest that could arise between the Funds and various parties to the Transaction and discussed possible ways of addressing such conflicts.
Based on its review along with its considerations regarding services at the annual review at the May Meeting, the Board concluded that the Transaction was not expected to adversely affect the nature, quality or extent of services provided by NAM and that the expected nature, quality and extent of such services supported approval of the New Investment Management Agreements.
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B. Performance of the Funds
With respect to the performance of the Funds, the Board considered that the portfolio management personnel responsible for the management of the Funds’ portfolios were expected to continue to manage the portfolios following the completion of the Transaction.
In addition, the Board Members recently reviewed Fund performance at the May Meeting as described above and determined that Fund performance was satisfactory or better, subject to the following. With respect to certain municipal closed-end funds with relative short-term underperformance, the Board Members concluded NAM was taking steps to evaluate the factors affecting performance and those steps would continue following the Transaction. Further, the investment policies and strategies were not expected to change as a result of the Transaction.
In light of the foregoing factors, along with the prior findings regarding performance at the annual review, the Board concluded that its findings with respect to performance supported approval of the New Investment Management Agreements.
C. Fees, Expenses and Profitability
As described in more detail above, during the annual review the Board Members considered, among other things, the management fees and expenses of the Funds, the breakpoint schedules, and comparisons of such fees and expenses with peers. At the annual review, the Board Members determined that the Fund’s advisory fees and expenses were reasonable. In evaluating the costs of services to be provided by NAM under the New Investment Management Agreements and the profitability of Nuveen for its advisory activities, the Board Members considered their prior conclusions at the annual review and whether the management fees or other expenses would change as a result of the Transaction. As described above, the investment management fee is composed of two components — a fund-level component and complex-wide level component. The fee schedule under the New Investment Management Agreements to be paid to NAM is identical to that under the Original Investment Management Agreements, including the modified complex-wide fee schedule. As noted above, the Board recently approved a modified complex-wide fee schedule that would generate additional fee savings on complex-wide assets above the $80 billion level. See Appendix D for both the prior and the new complex-wide fee schedule. The modifications have an effective date of August 20, 2007 and are part of the Original Investment Agreements. Accordingly, the terms of the complex-wide component under the New Investment Management Agreements are the same as under the Original Investment Management Agreements. The Board Members also noted that Nuveen has committed for a period of two years from the date of closing of the Transaction that it will not increase gross management fees for any Fund and will not reduce voluntary expense reimbursement levels for any Fund from their currently scheduled prospective levels. Based on the information provided, the Board Members did not expect that overall Fund expenses would increase as a result of the Transaction. In addition, the Board Members considered that additional fund launches were anticipated after the Transaction which would result in an increase in total assets under management in the complex and a corresponding decrease in overall management fees under the complex-wide fee schedule. Taking into consideration the Board’s prior evaluation of fees and expenses at the annual renewal, and the modification to the complex-wide fee schedule, the Board determined that the management fees and expenses were reasonable.
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While it is difficult to predict with any degree of certainty the impact of the Transaction on Nuveen’s profitability, at the recent annual review, the Board Members were satisfied that Nuveen’s level of profitability for its advisory activities was reasonable. During the year, the Board Members had noted the enhanced dialogue regarding profitability and the appointment of an Independent Board Member as a point person to review methodology determinations and refinements in calculating profitability. Given their considerations at the annual review and the modifications to the complex-wide fee schedule, the Board Members were satisfied that Nuveen’s level of profitability for its advisory activities continues to be reasonable.
D. Economies of Scale and Whether Fee Levels Reflect These Economies of Scale
The Board Members have been cognizant of economies of scale and the potential benefits resulting from the costs of a Fund being spread over a larger asset base. To help ensure that shareholders share in the benefits derived from economies of scale, the Board adopted the complex-wide fee arrangement in 2004. At the May Meeting, the Board Members reviewed the complex-wide fee arrangements and noted that additional negotiations may be necessary or appropriate as the assets in the complex approached the $91 billion threshold. In light of this assessment coupled with the upcoming Transaction, at the June 15, 2007 meeting, the ad hoc committee met with representatives of Nuveen to further discuss modifications to the complex-wide fee schedule that would generate additional savings for shareholders as the assets of the complex grow. The proposed terms for the complex-wide fee schedule is expressed in terms of targeted cumulative savings at specified levels of complex-wide assets, rather than in terms of targeted marginal complex-wide fee rates. Under the modified schedule, the schedule would generate additional fee savings beginning at complex-wide assets of $80 billion in order to achieve targeted cumulative annual savings at $91 billion of $28 million on a complex-wide level (approximately $0.6 million higher than those generated under the then current schedule) and generate additional fee savings for asset growth above complex-wide assets of $91 billion in order to achieve targeted annual savings at $125 billion of assets of approximately $50 million on a complex-wide level (approximately $2.2 million higher annually than that generated under the then current schedule). At the July Meeting, the Board approved the modified complex-wide fee schedule for the Original Investment Management Agreements and these same terms will apply to the New Investment Management Agreements. Accordingly, the Board Members believe that the breakpoint schedules and revised complex-wide fee schedule are appropriate and desirable in ensuring that shareholders participate in the benefits derived from economies of scale.
E. Indirect Benefits
During their recent annual review, the Board Members considered any indirect benefits that NAM may receive as a result of its relationship with the Funds, as described above. As the policies and operations of Nuveen are not anticipated to change significantly after the Transaction, such indirect benefits should remain after the Transaction. The Board Members further considered any additional indirect benefits to be received by NAM or its affiliates after the Transaction. The Board Members noted that other than benefits from its ownership interest in Nuveen and indirect benefits from fee revenues paid by the Funds under the management agreements and other Board-approved relationships, it was currently not expected that MDP or its affiliates would derive any benefit from the Funds as a result of the Transaction or transact any business with or on behalf of the Funds (other than perhaps potential Fund acquisitions, in
20
secondary market transactions, of securities issued by MDP portfolio companies); or that Merrill Lynch or its affiliates would derive any benefits from the Funds as a result of the Transaction (noting that, indeed, Merrill Lynch would stand to experience the discontinuation of principal transaction activity with the Funds and likely would experience a noticeable reduction in the volume of agency transactions with the Funds).
F. Other Considerations
In addition to the factors above, the Board Members also considered the following:
• Nuveen would rely on provisions of Section 15(f) of the 1940 Act (as described above). In this regard, to help ensure that an unfair burden is not imposed on the Funds, Nuveen has committed for a period of two years from the date of the closing of the Transaction (i) not to increase gross management fees for any Fund; (ii) not to reduce voluntary expense reimbursement levels for any Fund from their currently scheduled prospective levels during that period; (iii) that no Fund whose portfolio is managed by a Nuveen affiliate shall use Merrill Lynch as a broker with respect to portfolio transactions done on an agency basis, except as may be approved in the future by the Compliance Committee of the Board; and (iv) that NAM shall not cause the Funds and other municipal funds that NAM manages, as a whole, to enter into portfolio transactions with or through the other minority owners of Nuveen, on either a principal or agency basis, to a significantly greater extent than both what one would expect an investment team to use such firm in the normal course of business, and what NAM has historically done, without prior Board or Compliance Committee approval (excluding the impact of proportionally increasing the use of such other “minority owners” to fill the void necessitated by not being able to use Merrill Lynch).
• The Funds would not incur any costs in seeking the necessary shareholder approvals for the New Investment Management Agreements (except for costs attributed to seeking shareholder approvals of Fund specific matters unrelated to the Transaction, such as approval of Board Members or changes to investment policies in which case a portion of such costs will be borne by the applicable Funds).
• The reputation, financial strength and resources of MDP.
• The long-term investment philosophy of MDP and anticipated plans to grow Nuveen’s business.
• The benefits to the Funds as a result of the Transaction including: (i) as a private company, Nuveen may have more flexibility in making additional investments in its business; (ii) as a private company, Nuveen may be better able to structure compensation packages to attract and retain talented personnel; (iii) as certain of Nuveen’s distribution partners are expected to be equity or debt investors in Nuveen, Nuveen may be able to take advantage of new or enhanced distribution arrangements with such partners; and (iv) MDP’s experience, capabilities and resources that may help Nuveen identify and acquire investment teams or firms and finance such acquisitions.
• The historic premium and discount levels at which the shares of the Funds have traded at specified dates with particular focus on the premiums and discounts after the announcement of the Transaction, taking into consideration recent volatile market conditions and steps or initiatives considered or undertaken by NAM to address discount levels.
21
G. Conclusion
The Board Members did not identify any single factor discussed previously as all-important or controlling. The Board Members, including the Independent Board Members, unanimously concluded that the terms of the New Investment Management Agreements are fair and reasonable, that the fees therein are reasonable in light of the services to be provided to each Fund and that the New Investment Management Agreements should be approved and recommended to shareholders.
III. Approval of Interim Contracts
As noted above, at the July Meeting, the Board Members, including the Independent Board Members, unanimously approved Interim Investment Management Agreements. If necessary to ensure continuity of advisory services, the Interim Investment Management Agreements will take effect upon the closing of the Transaction if shareholders have not yet approved the Investment Management Agreements. The terms of each Interim Investment Management Agreement are substantially identical to those of the corresponding Original Investment Management Agreement and New Investment Management Agreement, respectively, except for the term and escrow provisions described above. In light of the foregoing, the Board Members, including the Independent Board Members, unanimously determined that the scope and quality of services to be provided to the Funds under the respective Interim Investment Management Agreement are at least equivalent to the scope and quality of services provided under the applicable Original Investment Management Agreement.
Information about the Adviser
NAM, a registered investment adviser, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nuveen. Founded in 1898, Nuveen and its affiliates had approximately $172 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2007. Nuveen is currently a publicly traded company. Nuveen is currently listed on the New York Stock Exchange and trades under the symbol “JNC.”
The principal occupation of the officers and directors of NAM is shown in Appendix E. The business address of NAM, Nuveen and each principal executive officer and director of NAM is 333 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60606.
Tim Schwertfeger, Chairman of the Board, sold shares of Class stock of Nuveen and purchased shares of Class stock of Nuveen on the Exchange since October 1, 2005. Mr. received $ in exchange for his shares of Nuveen sold.
Mr. Schwertfeger is currently a Director and Non-Executive Chairman of Nuveen. Prior to July 1, 2007, he was Chairman and CEO of Nuveen. In addition to his interests as a stockholder of Nuveen, Mr. Schwertfeger has interests in the Transaction. As a result of the Transaction, Mr. Schwertfeger’s outstanding options to acquire shares of Nuveen common stock under various Nuveen stock option plans will be cashed out and his outstanding shares of restricted stock (and deferred restricted stock) granted under Nuveen’s equity incentive plans will become fully vested and will be converted into the right to receive a cash payment. Based on the number of options and shares of restricted stock held by Mr. Schwertfeger as of July 19, 2007, without regard to any deductions for withholding taxes, his options and restricted stock are valued at $118,621,561.61 and $29,405,661.18, respectively.
22
Mr. Schwertfeger has an employment agreement with Nuveen which provides for certain payments to Mr. Schwertfeger if his employment is terminated under the circumstances described in such agreement. The appointment of another individual to serve as Chief Executive Officer of Nuveen effective July 1, 2007 gives Mr. Schwertfeger a basis to terminate his employment agreement and the right to receive the payments described therein. Windy City and Mr. Schwertfeger have informed Nuveen that they have reached an agreement in principle under which Mr. Schwertfeger would waive his rights to terminate his employment agreement and Windy City would permit Mr. Schwertfeger to purchase equity of Windy City after the Transaction.
If Mr. Schwertfeger’s employment were to be terminated immediately following the completion of the Transaction and assuming that the Transaction were to be completed on October 1, 2007, he would be entitled to severance payments totaling $54,908,238.
If Mr. Schwertfeger were to retire on October 1, 2007, under Nuveen’s Retirement Plan and Excess Benefit Retirement Plan, the present value of his early retirement benefits would be $4,691,653.
Shareholder Approval
To become effective with respect to a particular Fund, the New Investment Management Agreement must be approved by a vote of a majority of the outstanding voting securities of the Fund, with the Common and Preferred shareholders voting together as a single class for those Funds that issued Preferred Shares. The “vote of a majority of the outstanding voting securities” is defined in the 1940 Act as the lesser of the vote of (i) 67% or more of the shares of the Fund entitled to vote thereon present at the meeting if the holders of more than 50% of such outstanding shares are present in person or represented by proxy; or (ii) more than 50% of such outstanding shares of the Fund entitled to vote thereon. Each New Investment Management Agreement was approved by the Board of the respective Fund after consideration of all factors which it determined to be relevant to its deliberations, including those discussed above. The Board of each Fund also determined to submit the Fund’s New Investment Management Agreement for consideration by the shareholders of the Fund.
The Board of each Fund unanimously recommends that shareholders of the Fund vote FOR approval of the New Investment Management Agreement.
2. Ratification of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
The Independent Board Members of each Fund’s Board have unanimously selected Ernst & Young LLP (“E&Y”) as the Fund’s independent registered public accounting firm to audit the books and records of each Fund for each Fund’s current fiscal year. The selection of E&Y as the independent registered public accounting firm of each Fund is being submitted to the shareholders for ratification, which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the shares of the Fund present and entitled to vote on the matter. A representative of E&Y is expected to be present at the Meeting and will be available to respond to any appropriate questions and to make a statement if he or she wishes. E&Y has informed each Fund that it has no direct or indirect material financial interest in the Funds, Nuveen, the Adviser or any other investment management company sponsored by Nuveen.
23
Audit and Related Fees. The following tables provide the aggregate fees billed during each Fund’s last two fiscal years by each Fund’s independent registered public accounting firm for engagements directly related to the operations and financial reporting of each Fund, including those relating (i) to each Fund for services provided to the Fund and (ii) to the Adviser and certain entities controlling, controlled by, or under common control with the Adviser that provide ongoing services to each Fund (“Adviser Entities”).
ct Maturities ct Portfolio
ct Portfolio 2 ct Portfolio 3 fornia Portfolio
York Portfolio
24
(4)
Adviser and
Adviser
Entities
Fiscal Fiscal Fiscal Fiscal Fiscal
EndedEndedEndedEndedEnded
2007
$ 0
0
0
0
0
0
vidend vidend
vidend mium
rnia antage
rnia antage
um antage
antage antage
end ree
gh vidend
vidend
York antage
York antage
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
All Other Fees
(1)
(4)
Ad
a
Ad
En
Fisca
Year
Ended
2005
$ 0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
“Audit Fees” are the aggregate fees billed for professional services for the audit of the Fund’s annual financial statements and services provided in connection with statutory and regulatory filings or engagements.
(2) “Audit Related Fees” are the aggregate fees billed for assurance and related services reasonably related to the performance of the audit or review of financial statements and are not reported under “Audit Fees.”
(3) “Tax Fees” are the aggregate fees billed for professional services for tax advice, tax compliance and tax planning. Amounts reported for each respective Fund under the column heading “Adviser and Adviser Entities” represents amounts billed to the Adviser, by each Fund’s independent registered public accounting firm, exclusively for the preparation of the Fund’s tax return, the cost of which is borne by the Adviser. In the aggregate, for all Nuveen funds, these fees amounted to $161,400 in 2006. Beginning with fund fiscal years ended August 31, 2006, Ernst & Young LLP no longer prepares the fund tax returns.
(4) “All Other Fees” are the aggregate fees billed for products and services other than “Audit Fees,” “Audit Related Fees” and “Tax Fees.”
25
Non-Audit Fees. The following tables provide the aggregate non-audit fees billed by each Fund’s independent registered public accounting firm for services rendered to each Fund, the Adviser and the Adviser Entities during each Fund’s last two fiscal years.
Total Non-Audit Fees Billed to Adviser and Adviser Entities
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
Insured New York Tax-Free Advantage
3,395
3,350 2,200
2,400
0
0
5,595
5,750
27
Audit Committee Pre-Approval Policies and Procedures. Generally, the audit committee must approve each Fund’s independent registered public accounting firm’s engagements (i) with the Fund for audit or non-audit services and (ii) with the Adviser and Adviser Entities for non-audit services if the engagement relates directly to the operations and financial reporting of the Fund. Regarding tax and research projects conducted by the independent registered public accounting firm for each Fund and the Adviser and Adviser Entities (with respect to the operations and financial reporting of each Fund), such engagements will be (i) pre-approved by the audit committee if they are expected to be for amounts greater than $10,000; (ii) reported to the audit committee chairman for his verbal approval prior to engagement if they are expected to be for amounts under $10,000 but greater than $5,000; and (iii) reported to the audit committee at the next audit committee meeting if they are expected to be for an amount under $5,000. The audit committee operates under a written charter adopted and approved by each Board, a copy of which is attached as Appendix G.
For engagements with each Fund’s independent registered public accounting firm entered into on or after May 6, 2003, the audit committee approved in advance all audit services and non-audit services that the independent registered public accounting firm provided to each Fund and to the Adviser and Adviser Entities (with respect to the operations and financial reporting of each Fund). None of the services rendered by the independent registered accounting firm to each Fund or the Adviser or Adviser Entities were pre-approved by the audit committee pursuant to the pre-approval exception under Rule 2.01(c)(7)(i)(C) or Rule 2.01(c)(7)(ii) of Regulation S-X.
The Board of each Fund unanimously recommends that shareholders of the Fund vote FOR ratification of the selection of the independent auditors.
Additional Information
Section 16(a) Beneficial Interest Reporting Compliance
Section 30(h) of the 1940 Act and Section 16(a) of the 1934 Act require Board Members and officers, the Adviser, affiliated persons of the Adviser and persons who own more than 10% of a registered class of a Fund’s equity securities to file forms reporting their affiliation with that Fund and reports of ownership and changes in ownership of that Fund’s shares with the SEC and the New York Stock Exchange or American Stock Exchange, as applicable. These persons and entities are required by SEC regulation to furnish the Funds with copies of all Section 16(a) forms they file. Based on a review of these forms furnished to each Fund, each Fund believes that its Board Members and officers, investment adviser and affiliated persons of the investment adviser have complied with all applicable Section 16(a) filing requirements during its last fiscal year. [To the knowledge of management of the Funds, no shareholder of a Fund owns more than 10% of a registered class of a Fund’s equity securities.]
Shareholder Proposals
To be considered for presentation at the annual meeting of shareholders of the Funds, except New York Dividend Advantage, New York Dividend Advantage 2, Insured New York Dividend Advantage and Insured New York Tax-Free Advantage, to be held in 2008, a shareholder proposal submitted pursuant to Rule 14a-8 of the 1934 Act must be received at the offices of the Fund, 333 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60606, not later than February 29, 2008. A
28
shareholder wishing to provide notice in the manner prescribed by Rule 14a-4(c)(1) of a proposal submitted outside of the process of Rule 14a-8 must, pursuant to each Fund’s By-Laws, submit such written notice to the Fund not later than May 14, 2008 nor prior to April 29, 2008.
To be considered for presentation at the annual meeting of shareholders of California Dividend Advantage, California Dividend Advantage 2, California Dividend Advantage 3, California Premium Income, Insured California Dividend Advantage and Insured California Tax-Free Advantage to be held in 2007, a shareholder proposal submitted pursuant to Rule 14a-8 of the 1934 Act must have been received at the address above, not later than June 6, 2007. A shareholder wishing to provide notice in the manner prescribed by Rule 14a-4(c)(1) of a proposal submitted outside of the process of Rule 14a-8 must, pursuant to each Fund’s By-Laws, submit or have submitted such written notice to the Fund not later than August 20, 2007 nor prior to August 5, 2007.
To be considered for presentation at the annual meeting of shareholders of New York Dividend Advantage, New York Dividend Advantage 2, Insured New York Dividend Advantage and Insured New York Tax-Free Advantage to be held in 2008, a shareholder proposal submitted pursuant to Rule 14a-8 of the 1934 Act must be received at the address above, not later than November 2, 2007. A shareholder wishing to provide notice in the manner prescribed by Rule 14a-4(c)(1) of a proposal submitted outside of the process of Rule 14a-8 must, pursuant to each Fund’s By-Laws, submit such written notice to the Fund not later than January 16, 2008 nor prior to January 1, 2008.
Timely submission of a proposal does not mean that such proposal will be included in a proxy statement.
Shareholder Communications
Shareholders who want to communicate with the Board or any individual Board Member should write their Fund to the attention of Lorna Ferguson, Manager of Fund Board Relations, Nuveen Investments, 333 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60606. The letter should indicate that you are a Fund shareholder, and identify the Fund (or Funds). If the communication is intended for a specific Board Member and so indicates it will be sent only to that Board Member. If a communication does not indicate a specific Board Member it will be sent to the chair of the nominating and governance committee and the outside counsel to the Independent Board Members for further distribution as deemed appropriate by such persons.
Expenses of Proxy Solicitation
The cost of preparing, printing and mailing the enclosed proxy, accompanying notice and proxy statement and all other costs in connection with the solicitation of proxies will be paid by Nuveen. Solicitation may be made by letter or telephone by officers or employees of Nuveen or the Adviser, or by dealers and their representatives. The Funds have engaged Computershare Fund Services to assist in the solicitation of proxies at an estimated cost of $14,000 per Fund plus reasonable expenses, which costs will be borne by Nuveen.
Fiscal Year
The last fiscal year end for each of the Funds is as follows: August 31, 2006 for California Dividend Advantage, California Dividend Advantage 2, California Dividend Advantage 3,
29
California Premium Income, Insured California Dividend Advantage, and Insured California Tax-Free Advantage September 30, 2006 for New York Dividend Advantage New York Dividend Advantage 2, Insured New York Dividend Advantage and Insured New York Tax-Free Advantage; October 31, 2006 for Insured Premium Income 2, Dividend Advantage, Dividend Advantage 2, Dividend Advantage 3, Insured Dividend Advantage, Insured Tax-Free Advantage and Municipal High Income; and March 31, 2007 for Select Maturities, Select Portfolio, Select Portfolio 2, Select Portfolio 3, California Portfolio and New York Portfolio.
Annual Report Delivery
Annual reports will be sent to shareholders of record of each Fund following each Fund’s fiscal year end. Each Fund will furnish, without charge, a copy of its annual report and/or semi-annual report as available upon request. Such written or oral requests should be directed to such Fund at 333 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60606 or by calling 1-800-257-8787.
Please note that only one annual report or proxy statement may be delivered to two or more shareholders of a Fund who share an address, unless the Fund has received instructions to the contrary. To request a separate copy of an annual report or proxy statement, or for instructions as to how to request a separate copy of such documents or as to how to request a single copy if multiple copies of such documents are received, shareholders should contact the applicable Fund at the address and phone number set forth above.
General
Management does not intend to present and does not have reason to believe that any other items of business will be presented at the Meetings. However, if other matters are properly presented to the Meetings for a vote, the proxies will be voted by the persons acting under the proxies upon such matters in accordance with their judgment of the best interests of the Fund.
A list of shareholders entitled to be present and to vote at each Meeting will be available at the offices of the Funds, 333 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois, for inspection by any shareholder during regular business hours beginning ten days prior to the date of the Meetings.
Failure of a quorum to be present at any Meeting will necessitate adjournment and will subject that Fund to additional expense. The persons named in the enclosed proxy may also move for an adjournment of any Meeting to permit further solicitation of proxies with respect to the proposal if they determine that adjournment and further solicitation is reasonable and in the best interests of the shareholders. Under each Fund’s By-Laws, an adjournment of a meeting requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the shares present in person or represented by proxy at the meeting.
IF YOU CANNOT BE PRESENT AT THE MEETING, YOU ARE REQUESTED TO FILL IN, SIGN AND RETURN THE ENCLOSED PROXY CARD PROMPTLY. NO POSTAGE IS REQUIRED IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES.
Kevin J. McCarthy Vice President and Secretary , 2007
30
nia nd
age 2
ersons of the Fund
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
on of the Fund
0
0
Appendix A
Beneficial Ownership
The following table sets forth, for each Board Member and for the Board Members and Officers as a group, the amount of shares beneficially owned in each Fund as of December 31, 2006. The information as to beneficial ownership is based on statements furnished by each Board Member and Officer.
Fund Shares Owned By Board Members And Officers (1)
Insured Insured
(1) The numbers include share equivalents of certain Nuveen funds in which the Board Member is deemed to be invested pursuant to the Deferred Compensation Plan for Independent Board Members. The information as to beneficial ownership is based on statements furnished by each Board Member and officer.
(2) In December 2006, Ms. Stone was appointed to each Fund’s Board effective January 1, 2007. Ms. Stone did not own shares of Nuveen Funds prior to being appointed as a Board Member.
(3) Fund Shares owned by Mr. Schwertfeger include 30 Preferred Shares of Dividend Advantage.
Insured
Dividend
Advantage
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
A-1
Fund Shares Owned By Board Members And Officers (1)
New
York
New
York
Insured
New
Insured
New
Select Select SelectCalifornia
New
York DividendDividend
York
Dividend
York
Tax-Free
Board Members
Portfolio
Portfolio
2
Portfolio
3 PortfolioPortfolioAdvantage
Advantage
2 AdvantageAdvantage
Board Members who are not interested persons of the Fund
Robert P. Bremner
0 0 0 0 0 0
0
0
0
Jack B. Evans
0 0 0 0 0 0
0
0
0
William C. Hunter
0 0 0 0 0 0
0
0
0
David J. Kundert
0 0 0 0 0 0
0
0
0
William J. Schneider
0 0 0 0 0 0
0
0
0
Judith M. Stockdale
0 0 0 0 0 0
0
0
0
Carole E. Stone
(2)
0 0 0 0 0 0
0
0
0
Board Member who is an interested person of the Fund
Timothy R. Schwertfeger
0 0 0 0 0 0
0
0
0
All Board Members and Officers
as a Group
0 0 0 0 0 0
0
0
0
(1) The numbers include share equivalents of certain Nuveen funds in which the Board Member is deemed to be invested pursuant to the Deferred Compensation Plan for Independent Board Members. The information as to beneficial ownership is based on statements furnished by each Board Member and officer.
(2) In December 2006, Ms. Stone was appointed to each Fund’s Board effective January 1, 2007. Ms. Stone did not own shares of Nuveen Funds prior to being appointed as a Board Member.
A-2
Appendix B
Dates Relating to Original Investment Management Agreements
Appendix C
FORM OF INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT
AGREEMENT made this [ ] day of [ ], by and between <NAME OF FUND>, a <ENTITY’S STATE OF ORGANIZATION> (the “Fund”), and NUVEEN ASSET MANAGEMENT, a Delaware corporation (the “Adviser”).
WITNESSETH
In consideration of the mutual covenants hereinafter contained, it is hereby agreed by and between the parties hereto as follows:
1. The Fund hereby employs the Adviser to act as the investment adviser for, and to manage the investment and reinvestment of the assets of the Fund in accordance with the Fund’s investment objective and policies and limitations, and to administer the Fund’s affairs to the extent requested by and subject to the supervision of the Board of Trustees of the Fund for the period and upon the terms herein set forth. The investment of the Fund’s assets shall be subject to the Fund’s policies, restrictions and limitations with respect to securities investments as set forth in the Fund’s then current registration statement under the Investment Company Act of 1940, and all applicable laws and the regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the management of registered closed-end, diversified management investment companies.
The Adviser accepts such employment and agrees during such period to render such services, to furnish office facilities and equipment and clerical, bookkeeping and administrative services (other than such services, if any, provided by the Fund’s transfer agent) for the Fund, to permit any of its officers or employees to serve without compensation as trustees or officers of the Fund if elected to such positions, and to assume the obligations herein set forth for the compensation herein provided. The Adviser shall, for all purposes herein provided, be deemed to be an independent contractor and, unless otherwise expressly provided or authorized, shall have no authority to act for nor represent the Fund in any way, nor otherwise be deemed an agent of the Fund.
2. For the services and facilities described in Section 1, the Fund will pay to the Adviser, at the end of each calendar month, an investment management fee equal to the sum of a Fund-Level Fee and a Complex-Level Fee.
A. The Fund Level Fee shall be computed by applying the following annual rate to the average total daily net assets of the Fund:
Average Total Daily Net Assets (1)
Rate
<SCHEDULE>
B. The Complex-Level Fee shall be calculated by reference to the daily net assets of the Eligible Funds, as defined below (with such daily net assets to include, in the case of Eligible Funds whose advisory fees are calculated by reference to net assets that include net assets attributable to preferred stock issued by or borrowings by the fund, such leveraging net assets) (“Complex-Level Assets”), pursuant to an annual fee schedule
C-1
that results in the following effective Complex-Level Fee rate at each specified Complex-Level Asset level:
Complex-Level Asset Breakpoint Level
Effective Rate at Breakpoint Level
C. “Eligible Funds”, for purposes of this Agreement, shall mean all Nuveen-branded closed-end and open-end registered investment companies organized in the United States. Any open-end or closed-end funds that subsequently become part of the Nuveen complex because either (a) Nuveen Investments, Inc. or its affiliates acquire the investment adviser to such funds (or the adviser’s parent), or (b) Nuveen Investments, Inc. or its affiliates acquire the fund’s adviser’s rights under the management agreement for such fund, will be evaluated by both Nuveen management and the Nuveen Funds’ Board, on a case-by-case basis, as to whether or not these acquired funds would be included in the Nuveen complex of Eligible Funds and, if so, whether there would be a basis for any adjustments to the complex-level breakpoints.
D. For the month and year in which this Agreement becomes effective, or terminates, there shall be an appropriate proration on the basis of the number of days that the Agreement shall have been in effect during the month and year, respectively. The services of the Adviser to the Fund under this Agreement are not to be deemed exclusive, and the Adviser shall be free to render similar services or other services to others so long as its services hereunder are not impaired thereby.
3. The Adviser shall arrange for officers or employees of the Adviser to serve, without compensation from the Fund, as trustees, officers or agents of the Fund, if duly elected or appointed to such positions, and subject to their individual consent and to any limitations imposed by law.
4. Subject to applicable statutes and regulations, it is understood that officers, trustees, or agents of the Fund are, or may be, interested in the Adviser as officers, directors, agents, shareholders or otherwise, and that the officers, directors, shareholders and agents of the Adviser may be interested in the Fund otherwise than as trustees, officers or agents.
C-2
5. The Adviser shall not be liable for any loss sustained by reason of the purchase, sale or retention of any security, whether or not such purchase, sale or retention shall have been based upon the investigation and research made by any other individual, firm or corporation, if such recommendation shall have been selected with due care and in good faith, except loss resulting from willful misfeasance, bad faith, or gross negligence on the part of the Adviser in the performance of its obligations and duties, or by reason of its reckless disregard of its obligations and duties under this Agreement.
6. The Adviser currently manages other investment accounts and funds, including those with investment objectives similar to the Fund, and reserves the right to manage other such accounts and funds in the future. Securities considered as investments for the Fund may also be appropriate for other investment accounts and funds that may be managed by the Adviser. Subject to applicable laws and regulations, the Adviser will attempt to allocate equitably portfolio transactions among the portfolios of its other investment accounts and funds purchasing securities whenever decisions are made to purchase or sell securities by the Fund and one or more of such other accounts or funds simultaneously. In making such allocations, the main factors to be considered by the Adviser will be the respective investment objectives of the Fund and such other accounts and funds, the relative size of portfolio holdings of the same or comparable securities, the availability of cash for investment by the Fund and such other accounts and funds, the size of investment commitments generally held by the Fund and such accounts and funds, and the opinions of the persons responsible for recommending investments to the Fund and such other accounts and funds.
7. This Agreement shall continue in effect until [August 1, 2008], unless and until terminated by either party as hereinafter provided, and shall continue in force from year to year thereafter, but only as long as such continuance is specifically approved, at least annually, in the manner required by the Investment Company Act of 1940.
This Agreement shall automatically terminate in the event of its assignment, and may be terminated at any time without the payment of any penalty by the Fund or by the Adviser upon no less than sixty (60) days’ written notice to the other party. The Fund may effect termination by action of the Board of Trustees or by vote of a majority of the outstanding voting securities of the Fund, accompanied by appropriate notice.
This Agreement may be terminated, at any time, without the payment of any penalty, by the Board of Trustees of the Fund, or by vote of a majority of the outstanding voting securities of the Fund, in the event that it shall have been established by a court of competent jurisdiction that the Adviser, or any officer or director of the Adviser, has taken any action which results in a breach of the covenants of the Adviser set forth herein.
Termination of this Agreement shall not affect the right of the Adviser to receive payments on any unpaid balance of the compensation, described in Section 2, earned prior to such termination.
8. If any provision of this Agreement shall be held or made invalid by a court decision, statute, rule, or otherwise, the remainder shall not be thereby affected.
9. Any notice under this Agreement shall be in writing, addressed and delivered or mailed, postage prepaid, to the other party at such address as such other party may designate for receipt of such notice.
C-3
10. The Fund’s Declaration of Trust is on file with the Secretary of the <ENTITY’S STATE OF ORGANIZATION>. This Agreement is executed on behalf of the Fund by the Fund’s officers as officers and not individually and the obligations imposed upon the Fund by this Agreement are not binding upon any of the Fund’s Trustees, officers or shareholders individually but are binding only upon the assets and property of the Fund.
11. This Agreement shall be construed in accordance with applicable federal law and (except as to Section 10 hereof which shall be construed in accordance with the laws of <ENTITY’S STATE OF ORGANIZATION>) the laws of the State of Illinois.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the Fund and the Adviser have caused this Agreement to be executed on the day and year above written.
<NAME OF FUND>
by:
[Title]
Attest:
[Title]
NUVEEN ASSET MANAGEMENT
by:
[Title]
Attest:
[Title]
C-4
Complex-Level Fee Rates (1)
Fund-Level Fee Rates, Aggregate Management Fees Paid and Net Assets
D-1
Appendix D
D-3
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
and over
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
D-4
(1) Prior to August 20, 2007, the complex-level fee rates were based on the following schedule:
D-5
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
Appendix E
Officers and Directors of Nuveen Asset Management (“NAM”)
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
and Nuveen Investments Holdings, Inc.; Chief Administrative Officer of NWQ Holdings, LLC.
Gifford R. Zimmerman
E-1
Managing Director and Assistant Secretary of Nuveen Investments, LLC and Nuveen Asset Management; Managing Director and Assistant Secretary of Nuveen Investments, Inc.; Assistant Secretary of NWQ Investment Management Company, LLC, Tradewinds Global Investors, LLC and Santa Barbara Asset Management, LLC; Vice President and Assistant Secretary of Nuveen Investments Advisers Inc.; Managing Director and Assistant Secretary of Rittenhouse Asset Management, Inc.; Chief Administrative Officer of funds in Nuveen fund complex.
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
Appendix F
Beneficial Owners of More Than 5% of Fund Shares
Name and Address
NUVEEN FUND BOARD AUDIT COMMITTEE CHARTER
I. Organization and Membership
There shall be a committee of each Board of Directors/Trustees (the “Board”) of the Nuveen Management Investment Companies (the “Funds” or, individually, a “Fund”) to be known as the Audit Committee. The Audit Committee shall be comprised of at least three Directors/Trustees. Audit Committee members shall be independent of the Funds and free of any relationship that, in the opinion of the Directors/Trustees, would interfere with their exercise of independent judgment as an Audit Committee member. In particular, each member must meet the independence and experience requirements applicable to the Funds of the exchanges on which shares of the Funds are listed, Section 10a of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”), and the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”). Each such member of the Audit Committee shall have a basic understanding of finance and accounting, be able to read and understand fundamental financial statements, and be financially literate, and at least one such member shall have accounting or related financial management expertise, in each case as determined by the Directors/Trustees, exercising their business judgment (this person may also serve as the Audit Committee’s “financial expert” as defined by the Commission). The Board shall appoint the members and the Chairman of the Audit Committee, on the recommendation of the Nominating and Governance Committee. The Audit Committee shall meet periodically but in any event no less frequently than on a semi-annual basis. Except for the Funds, Audit Committee members shall not serve simultaneously on the audit committees of more than two other public companies.
II. Statement of Policy, Purpose and Processes
The Audit Committee shall assist the Board in oversight and monitoring of (1) the accounting and reporting policies, processes and practices, and the audits of the financial statements, of the Funds; (2) the quality and integrity of the financial statements of the Funds; (3) the Funds’ compliance with legal and regulatory requirements; (4) the independent auditors’ qualifications, performance and independence; and (5) oversight of the Pricing Procedures of the Funds and the Valuation Group. In exercising this oversight, the Audit Committee can request other committees of the Board to assume responsibility for some of the monitoring as long as the other committees are composed exclusively of independent directors.
In doing so, the Audit Committee shall seek to maintain free and open means of communication among the Directors/Trustees, the independent auditors, the internal auditors and the management of the Funds. The Audit Committee shall meet periodically with Fund management, the Funds’ internal auditor, and the Funds’ independent auditors, in separate executive sessions. The Audit Committee shall prepare reports of the Audit Committee as required by the Commission to be included in the Fund’s annual proxy statements or otherwise.
The Audit Committee shall have the authority and resources in its discretion to retain special legal, accounting or other consultants to advise the Audit Committee and to otherwise discharge its responsibilities, including appropriate funding as determined by the Audit Committee for compensation to independent auditors engaged for the purpose of preparing or issuing an audit report or performing other audit, review or attest services for a Fund,
G-1
Appendix G
compensation to advisers employed by the Audit Committee, and ordinary administrative expenses of the Audit Committee that are necessary or appropriate in carrying out its duties, as determined in its discretion. The Audit Committee may request any officer or employee of Nuveen Investments, Inc. (or its affiliates) (collectively, “Nuveen”) or the Funds’ independent auditors or outside counsel to attend a meeting of the Audit Committee or to meet with any members of, or consultants to, the Audit Committee. The Funds’ independent auditors and internal auditors shall have unrestricted accessibility at any time to Committee members.
Responsibilities
Fund management has the primary responsibility to establish and maintain systems for accounting, reporting, disclosure and internal control.
The independent auditors have the primary responsibility to plan and implement an audit, with proper consideration given to the accounting, reporting and internal controls. Each independent auditor engaged for the purpose of preparing or issuing an audit report or performing other audit, review or attest services for the Funds shall report directly to the Audit Committee. The independent auditors are ultimately accountable to the Board and the Audit Committee. It is the ultimate responsibility of the Audit Committee to select, appoint, retain, evaluate, oversee and replace any independent auditors and to determine their compensation, subject to ratification of the Board, if required. These Audit Committee responsibilities may not be delegated to any other Committee or the Board.
The Audit Committee is responsible for the following:
With respect to Fund financial statements:
1. Reviewing and discussing the annual audited financial statements and semi-annual financial statements with Fund management and the independent auditors including major issues regarding accounting and auditing principles and practices, and the Funds’ disclosures in its periodic reports under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis.”
2. Requiring the independent auditors to deliver to the Chairman of the Audit Committee a timely report on any issues relating to the significant accounting policies, management judgments and accounting estimates or other matters that would need to be communicated under Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 90, Audit Committee Communications (which amended SAS No. 61, Communication with Audit Committees), that arise during the auditors’ review of the Funds’ financial statements, which information the Chairman shall further communicate to the other members of the Audit Committee, as deemed necessary or appropriate in the Chairman’s judgment.
3. Discussing with management the Funds’ press releases regarding financial results and dividends, as well as financial information and earnings guidance provided to analysts and rating agencies. This discussion may be done generally, consisting of discussing the types of information to be disclosed and the types of presentations to be made. The Chairman of the Audit Committee shall be authorized to have these discussions with management on behalf of the Audit Committee.
4. Discussing with management and the independent auditors (a) significant financial reporting issues and judgments made in connection with the preparation and presentation of the Funds’ financial statements, including any significant changes in the Funds’
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selection or application of accounting principles and any major issues as to the adequacy of the Funds’ internal controls and any special audit steps adopted in light of material control deficiencies; and (b) analyses prepared by Fund management and/or the independent auditor setting forth significant financial reporting issues and judgments made in connection with the preparation of the financial statements, including analyses of the effects of alternative GAAP methods on the financial statements.
5. Discussing with management and the independent auditors the effect of regulatory and accounting initiatives on the Funds’ financial statements.
6. Reviewing and discussing reports, both written and oral, from the independent auditors and/or Fund management regarding (a) all critical accounting policies and practices to be used; (b) all alternative treatments of financial information within generally accepted accounting principles that have been discussed with management, ramifications of the use of such alternative treatments and disclosures, and the treatment preferred by the independent auditors; and (c) other material written communications between the independent auditors and management, such as any management letter or schedule of unadjusted differences.
7. Discussing with Fund management the Funds’ major financial risk exposures and the steps management has taken to monitor and control these exposures, including the Funds’ risk assessment and risk management policies and guidelines. In fulfilling its obligations under this paragraph, the Audit Committee may review in a general manner the processes other Board committees have in place with respect to risk assessment and risk management.
8. Reviewing disclosures made to the Audit Committee by the Funds’ principal executive officer and principal financial officer during their certification process for the Funds’ periodic reports about any significant deficiencies in the design or operation of internal controls or material weaknesses therein and any fraud involving management or other employees who have a significant role in the Funds’ internal controls. In fulfilling its obligations under this paragraph, the Audit Committee may review in a general manner the processes other Board committees have in place with respect to deficiencies in internal controls, material weaknesses, or any fraud associated with internal controls.
With respect to the independent auditors:
1. Selecting, appointing, retaining or replacing the independent auditors, subject, if applicable, only to Board and shareholder ratification; and compensating, evaluating and overseeing the work of the independent auditor (including the resolution of disagreements between Fund management and the independent auditor regarding financial reporting).
2. Meeting with the independent auditors and Fund management to review the scope, fees, audit plans and staffing for the audit, for the current year. At the conclusion of the audit, reviewing such audit results, including the independent auditors’ evaluation of the Funds’ financial and internal controls, any comments or recommendations of the independent auditors, any audit problems or difficulties and management’s response, including any restrictions on the scope of the independent auditor’s activities or on access to requested information, any significant disagreements with management, any accounting adjustments noted or proposed by the auditor but not made by the Fund, any communications between the audit team and the audit firm’s national office regarding auditing or
G-3
accounting issues presented by the engagement, any significant changes required from the originally planned audit programs and any adjustments to the financial statements recommended by the auditors.
3. Pre-approving all audit services and permitted non-audit services, and the terms thereof, to be performed for the Funds by their independent auditors, subject to the de minimis exceptions for non-audit services described in Section 10a of the Exchange Act that the Audit Committee approves prior to the completion of the audit, in accordance with any policies or procedures relating thereto as adopted by the Board or the Audit Committee. The Chairman of the Audit Committee shall be authorized to give pre-approvals of such non-audit services on behalf of the Audit Committee.
4. Obtaining and reviewing a report or reports from the independent auditors at least annually (including a formal written statement delineating all relationships between the auditors and the Funds consistent with Independent Standards Board Standard 1, as may be amended, restated, modified or replaced) regarding (a) the independent auditor’s internal quality-control procedures; (b) any material issues raised by the most recent internal quality-control review, or peer review, of the firm, or by any inquiry or investigation by governmental or professional authorities within the preceding five years, respecting one or more independent audits carried out by the firm; (c) any steps taken to deal with any such issues; and (d) all relationships between the independent auditor and the Funds and their affiliates, in order to assist the Audit committee in assessing the auditor’s independence. After reviewing the foregoing report[s] and the independent auditor’s work throughout the year, the Audit Committee shall be responsible for evaluating the qualifications, performance and independence of the independent auditor and their compliance with all applicable requirements for independence and peer review, and a review and evaluation of the lead partner, taking into account the opinions of Fund management and the internal auditors, and discussing such reports with the independent auditors. The Audit Committee shall present its conclusions with respect to the independent auditor to the Board.
5. Reviewing any reports from the independent auditors mandated by Section 10a(b) of the Exchange Act regarding any illegal act detected by the independent auditor (whether or not perceived to have a material effect on the Funds’ financial statements) and obtaining from the independent auditors any information about illegal acts in accordance with Section 10a(b).
6. Ensuring the rotation of the lead (or coordinating) audit partner having primary responsibility for the audit and the audit partner responsible for reviewing the audit as required by law, and further considering the rotation of the independent auditor firm itself.
7. Establishing and recommending to the Board for ratification policies for the Funds’, Fund management or the Fund adviser’s hiring of employees or former employees of the independent auditor who participated in the audits of the Funds.
8. Taking, or recommending that the Board take, appropriate action to oversee the independence of the outside auditor.
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With respect to any internal auditor:
1. Reviewing the proposed programs of the internal auditor for the coming year. It is not the obligation or responsibility of the Audit Committee to confirm the independence of any Nuveen internal auditors performing services relating to the Funds or to approve any termination or replacement of the Nuveen Manager of Internal Audit.
2. Receiving a summary of findings from any completed internal audits pertaining to the Funds and a progress report on the proposed internal audit plan for the Funds, with explanations for significant deviations from the original plan.
With respect to pricing and valuation oversight:
1. The Board has responsibilities regarding the pricing of a Fund’s securities under the 1940 Act. The Board has delegated this responsibility to the Committee to address valuation issues that arise between Board meetings, subject to the Board’s general supervision of such actions. The Committee is primarily responsible for the oversight of the Pricing Procedures and actions taken by the internal Valuation Group (“Valuation Matters”). The Valuation Group will report on Valuation Matters to the Committee and/or the Board of Directors/Trustees, as appropriate.
2. Performing all duties assigned to it under the Funds’ Pricing Procedures, as such may be amended from time to time.
3. Periodically reviewing and making recommendations regarding modifications to the Pricing Procedures as well as consider recommendations by the Valuation Group regarding the Pricing Procedures.
4. Reviewing any issues relating to the valuation of a Fund’s securities brought to the Committee’s attention, including suspensions in pricing, pricing irregularities, price overrides, self-pricing, NAV errors and corrections thereto, and other pricing matters. In this regard, the Committee should consider the risks to the Funds in assessing the possible resolutions of these Valuation Matters.
5. Evaluating, as it deems necessary or appropriate, the performance of any pricing agent and recommend changes thereto to the full Board.
6. Reviewing any reports or comments from examinations by regulatory authorities relating to Valuation Matters of the Funds and consider management’s responses to any such comments and, to the extent the Committee deems necessary or appropriate, propose to management and/or the full Board the modification of the Fund’s policies and procedures relating to such matters. The Committee, if deemed necessary or desirable, may also meet with regulators.
7. Meeting with members of management of the Funds, outside counsel, or others in fulfilling its duties hereunder, including assessing the continued appropriateness and adequacy of the Pricing Procedures, eliciting any recommendations for improvements of such procedures or other Valuation Matters, and assessing the possible resolutions of issues regarding Valuation Matters brought to its attention.
8. Performing any special review, investigations or oversight responsibilities relating to Valuation as requested by the Board of Directors/Trustees.
G-5
9. Investigating or initiating an investigation of reports of improprieties or suspected improprieties in connection with the Fund’s policies and procedures relating to Valuation Matters not otherwise assigned to another Board committee.
Other responsibilities:
1. Reviewing with counsel to the Funds, counsel to Nuveen, the Fund adviser’s counsel and independent counsel to the Board legal matters that may have a material impact on the Fund’s financial statements or compliance policies.
2. Receiving and reviewing periodic or special reports issued on exposure/controls, irregularities and control failures related to the Funds.
3. Reviewing with the independent auditors, with any internal auditor and with Fund management, the adequacy and effectiveness of the accounting and financial controls of the Funds, and eliciting any recommendations for the improvement of internal control procedures or particular areas where new or more detailed controls or procedures are desirable. Particular emphasis should be given to the adequacy of such internal controls to expose payments, transactions or procedures that might be deemed illegal or otherwise improper.
4. Reviewing the reports of examinations by regulatory authorities as they relate to financial statement matters.
5. Discussing with management and the independent auditor any correspondence with regulators or governmental agencies that raises material issues regarding the Funds’ financial statements or accounting policies.
6. Obtaining reports from management with respect to the Funds’ policies and procedures regarding compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
7. Reporting regularly to the Board on the results of the activities of the Audit Committee, including any issues that arise with respect to the quality or integrity of the Funds’ financial statements, the Funds’ compliance with legal or regulatory requirements, the performance and independence of the Funds’ independent auditors, or the performance of the internal audit function.
8. Performing any special reviews, investigations or oversight responsibilities requested by the Board.
9. Reviewing and reassessing annually the adequacy of this charter and recommending to the Board approval of any proposed changes deemed necessary or advisable by the Audit Committee.
10. Undertaking an annual review of the performance of the Audit Committee.
11. Establishing procedures for the receipt, retention and treatment of complaints received by the Funds regarding accounting, internal accounting controls or auditing matters, and the confidential, anonymous submission of concerns regarding questionable accounting or auditing matters by employees of Fund management, the investment adviser, administrator, principal underwriter, or any other provider of accounting related services for the Funds, as well as employees of the Funds.
G-6
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
Although the Audit Committee shall have the authority and responsibilities set forth in this Charter, it is not the responsibility of the Audit Committee to plan or conduct audits or to determine that the Funds’ financial statements are complete and accurate and are in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. That is the responsibility of management and the independent auditors. Nor is it the duty of the Audit Committee to conduct investigations, to resolve disagreements, if any, between management and the independent auditors or to ensure compliance with laws and regulations.
G-7
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
Nuveen Investments 333 West Wacker Drive Chicago, IL 60606-1286
(800) 257-8787
www.nuveen.com
NAC-MDP1007
Nuveen Investments • 333 West Wacker Dr. • Chicago IL 60606 www.nuveen.com 999 999 999 999 99
3 EASY WAYS TO VOTE YOUR PROXY
1. Automated Touch Tone Voting: Call toll-free 1-888-221-0697 and follow the recorded instructions.
2. On the Internet at www.proxyweb.com, and follow the simple instructions.
3. Sign, Date and Return this proxy card using the enclosed postage-paid envelope.
FUND NAME PRINTS HERE
COMMON SHARES
THIS PROXY IS SOLICITED BY THE BOARD OF THE FUND FOR A SPECIAL MEETING OF
SHAREHOLDERS, OCTOBER 12, 2007
The Special Meeting of shareholders will be held Friday, October 12, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. Central time, in the 31 st Floor conference room of Nuveen Investments, 333 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois. At this meeting, you will be asked to vote on the proposals described in the proxy statement attached. The undersigned hereby appoints Timothy R. Schwertfeger, Kevin J. McCarthy and Gifford R. Zimmerman, and each of them, with full power of substitution, proxies for the undersigned, to represent and vote the shares of the undersigned at the Special Meeting of shareholders to be held on October 12, 2007, or any adjournment or adjournments thereof. WHETHER OR NOT YOU PLAN TO JOIN US AT THE MEETING, PLEASE COMPLETE, DATE AND SIGN YOUR PROXY CARD AND RETURN IT IN THE ENCLOSED ENVELOPE SO THAT YOUR VOTE WILL BE COUNTED. AS AN ALTERNATIVE, PLEASE CONSIDER VOTING BY TELEPHONE AT (888) 221-0697 OR
OVER THE INTERNET (www.proxyweb.com).
ê Date:
SIGN HERE EXACTLY AS NAME(S) APPEAR(S) ON LEFT.
(Please sign in Box)
[ ]
NOTE: PLEASE SIGN YOUR NAME EXACTLY AS IT APPEARS ON THIS PROXY. IF SHARES ARE HELD JOINTLY, EACH HOLDER MUST SIGN THE PROXY. IF YOU ARE SIGNING ON BEHALF OF AN ESTATE, TRUST OR CORPORATION, PLEASE STATE YOUR TITLE OR CAPACITY.
ê
êETF-MA-S-MM
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
In their discretion, the proxies are authorized to vote upon such other business as may properly come before the Special Meeting.
Properly executed proxies will be voted as specified. If no specification is made, such shares will be voted “FOR” approval of the new investment management agreement and “FOR” the ratification of the independent registered public accounting firm.
Nuveen Investments • 333 West Wacker Dr. •
Chicago IL 60606
www.nuveen.com
999 999 999 999 99
3 EASY WAYS TO VOTE YOUR PROXY
1. Automated Touch Tone Voting: Call toll-free 1-888-221-0697 and follow the recorded instructions.
2. On the Internet at www.proxyweb.com, and follow the simple instructions.
3. Sign, Date and Return this proxy card using the enclosed postage- paid envelope.
FUND NAME PRINTS HERE MUNIPREFERRED SHARES THIS PROXY IS SOLICITED BY THE BOARD OF THE FUND FOR A SPECIAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS, OCTOBER 12, 2007
The Special Meeting of shareholders will be held Friday, October 12, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. Central time, in the 31 st Floor conference room of Nuveen Investments, 333 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois. At this meeting, you will be asked to vote on the proposals described in the proxy statement attached. The undersigned hereby appoints Timothy R. Schwertfeger, Kevin J. McCarthy and Gifford R. Zimmerman, and each of them, with full power of shareholders to be held on October 12, 2007, or any adjournment or adjournments thereof.
WHETHER OR NOT YOU PLAN TO JOIN US AT THE MEETING, PLEASE COMPLETE, DATE AND SIGN COUNTED. AS AN ALTERNATIVE, PLEASE CONSIDER VOTING BY TELEPHONE AT (888) 221-0697 OR OVER THE INTERNET (www.proxyweb.com).
substitution, proxies for the undersigned, to represent and vote the shares of the undersigned at the Special Meeting of YOUR PROXY CARD AND RETURN IT IN THE ENCLOSED ENVELOPE SO THAT YOUR VOTE WILL BE
ê Date:
SIGN HERE EXACTLY AS NAME(S) APPEAR(S) ON LEFT.
(Please sign in Box)
[ ]
NOTE: PLEASE SIGN YOUR NAME EXACTLY AS IT APPEARS ON THIS PROXY. IF SHARES ARE HELD JOINTLY, EACH HOLDER MUST SIGN THE PROXY. IF YOU ARE SIGNING ON BEHALF OF AN ESTATE, TRUST OR CORPORATION, PLEASE STATE YOUR TITLE OR CAPACITY.
ê
êETF-MA-S-P-MM
Edgar Filing: NUVEEN INSURED TAX FREE ADVANTAGE MUNICIPAL FUND - Form PRE 14A
In their discretion, the proxies are authorized to vote upon such other business as may properly come before the Special Meeting.
Properly executed proxies will be voted as specified. If no specification is made, such shares will be voted “FOR” approval of the new investment management agreement and “FOR” the ratification of the independent registered public accounting firm.
ê Please fill in box(es) as shown using black or blue ink or number 2 pencil. x PLEASE DO NOT USE FINE POINT PENS.
ê
|
1. DEFINITIONS AND INTERPRETATION
1.1 "Agreement" means these terms and conditions and the attached letter;
1.2 "College" means the City of Glasgow College;
1.3 "Regulations" means the policies, procedure and strategies of the College which are available on the college website www.cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk; and from the College library.
1.4 "You" shall mean the student identified in the attached enrolment form or by the enrolment information provided.
2. AGREEMENT
2.1 This Agreement sets out the whole agreement between you and the College. This Agreement starts when you notify the College that you accept a place on a course offered by the College.
3 CONDUCT
3.1 As a student of the College you are required to adopt a certain code of conduct which includes compliance with the College Regulations and Our Behaviours, which support the college values.
3.2 In addition to the above Regulations you shall not behave in ways which interfere with the work of the College or which in the opinion of the College is likely to damage the goodwill and/or reputation of the College (for example the use or sale of prohibited drugs or alcohol, gambling, disorderly conduct, wilful damage to the premises or equipment, copying another student's academic work, cheating in exams or other assessments and theft including computer software).
3.3 Any College property loaned to you shall be returned within the agreed timescale and in good condition. Failure to do so may result in charges being levied by the College at the College‟s sole discretion.
3.4 Any College monies loaned to you as a result of, for example, hardship must be repaid by you by the agreed date.
3.5 The College's Intellectual Property Rights dictate that the training content and materials are provided for your use only and the recording, copying, loan, hire or public broadcasting of such training materials is expressly prohibited.
3.6 Where you breach this Agreement the College's Disciplinary Procedures as intimated to you from time to time may be invoked.
4. COURSE CONTENT & CANCELLATION
4.1 The College reserves the right to make reasonable variations to the design, content and delivery of your course. The College reserves the right to discontinue courses or merge courses, if the College at its sole discretion considers such action reasonable. The College also reserves the right to cancel your offer or enrolment based on unsatisfactory academic performance.
5. COURSE LOCATION
5.1 The College reserves the right to relocate courses among its various campuses. If your course is affected by such a change, then you shall be given reasonable notice of the relocation.
6 ENROLMENT - PURPLE SMART CARD
6.1 As a condition of enrolment, you will be issued with a „Purple Smart Card‟ (Student ID Card) which displays your photograph. This card has several uses including, allowing access to the College premises and for accessing library
Student Agreement Student Copy
services etc. During completion of the electronic enrolment process, your photograph will be taken. Shortly after enrolment, Purple Smart Cards will be printed and distributed.
be held personally liable for the College's fees and charges.
7. COURSE WORK & PROGRESS
7.1 You shall have a responsibility to ensure that you are familiar with the College's academic regulations and procedures. Where these relate to the submission of your course work and course assessments, you should note that failure to meet specified deadlines in terms of your course work may affect your academic progress. If you are required to resubmit course work or course assessments then you may be liable to pay additional course fees and charges. Advice is available from the College on the kinds of Support for Learning available.
7.2 Information relating to your course work and assessments shall be provided as part of the College's induction process when you start your course. If you are unsure about academic regulations and/or procedures, then please contact your course tutor/course leader for assistance.
7.3 It is anticipated that you will make satisfactory progress in your course of study. If, however, you encounter difficulty in achieving progress, then it is recommended that you discuss the matter with your course tutor/course leader, who will advise you on the additional support that may be available.
8. PERSONAL PROPERTY
8.1 You shall be responsible for your own personal property whilst attending the College. The College shall not be liable for any loss of or damage to your personal property including computer hardware or software or data stored on computer files owned or used by you whilst undertaking you course of study. You should not leave valuable property in College lockers even if they are lockfast.
9. PARKING OF VEHICLES AND BICYCLES
9.1 You should not park your car on campus unless you have proper permission, via the Operations department. Car parking will only be available by application for students who have a disability where spaces are available.
9.2 The College accepts no responsibility for any loss or damage to any vehicle/bicycle or its accessories or contents whilst parked within the College grounds.
10. COURSE FEES & CHARGES
10.1 If you are a self-financing student (i.e. you pay your own fees) then you shall pay all course fees and charges (e.g. exam fees) as a condition of enrolment.
10.2 Separate course fees and charges apply for all NonEU students.
10.3 The full course fee will not be reduced for early withdrawal unless the reason for withdrawal meets the conditions of the College‟s Refund of Course Fee Policy(Section 10.3).
10.4 If you accept a place on a course but withdraw from the course prior to enrolment or enrol but never attend, then the College reserves the right to charge up to 100% of the course fee as detailed in the College Refund policy.
10.5 If an organisation or some other person intends to pay your College fees and charges on your behalf, then you shall be responsible for providing the College with satisfactory evidence of the arrangement. If by the date of enrolment the sponsoring organisation or person fails to provide evidence or fails to make payment, then you shall
10.6 If you apply for a fee waiver/remission, then you shall produce relevant documentation to prove that you are eligible in terms of the College's Fee Waiver Policy. Should your application prove to be ineligible, then you shall be personally liable to pay the College‟s full course fees and charges.
10.7 Unless otherwise stated by the College, fees and charges shall be payable on enrolment. In exceptional circumstances an instalment plan may be agreed with the Head of Finance. If an invoice is issued for College fees and charges, then payment shall be made within thirty (30) days. If you fail to make payment, then the College reserves the right to withdraw you from your course of study.
10.8 If you are having difficulties paying your fees please contact the Finance section for advice as soon as possible.
10.9 When payment is overdue, the College reserves the right to charge interest on the amount overdue at such rates as may be permitted by law from time to time.
10.10 In all cases, the College reserves the right to take legal action to recover outstanding payments.
10.11 Course fees relate to the core provision of your course of study. The College reserves the right to make additional charges, which in its reasonable opinion would be appropriate. Normally these additional charges shall be intimated in the College prospectus or appropriate course leaflet. For some courses, you shall be responsible for providing your own course materials and related equipment. You shall normally be notified of this situation in the College‟s website, prospectus, appropriate course leaflet or during your course interview and/or induction.
11. GUARANTEES & REFUND POLICY
11.1 The College shall not refund tuition fees and charges unless it determines at its sole discretion to do so.
11.2 No refunds shall be made for casual or any other type of absence from your course.
11.3 The refund policy is available on request from the College's Finance Section.
11.4 The College is committed to eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation; advancing equality of opportunity between different groups; and fostering good relations between different groups. If you experience any from or contract any material medical or health condition; are absent or have difficulties for any other reason, the College where possible, will support you in completing your particular course. However, the College does not warrant or guarantee this will be possible in all cases.
11.5 The College does not warrant or guarantee that you shall obtain any employment, articulation or progression as a result of completing your course.
12. ATTENDANCE - FULL TIME STUDENTS ONLY
12.1 You shall attend regularly the course of study in respect of which a bursary/SAAS Award is granted. Full details of the Attendance Policy for full-time students shall be made available to you at the start of your course or alternatively you can obtain a copy from the College‟s Student Services Section or the appropriate faculty.
13. DATA PROTECTION & DISCLOSURE
13.1 Personal data provided by you may be kept in a manual filing system. In addition information will be held in
the College's computerised management information systems (Unit-E, library etc). The personal information shall be used by College staff to record your enrolment details and subsequent academic progress, performance and attendance.
13.2 Data collected shall also be used to compile College grant claims and the preparation of statistical information. The information shall be available to a range of external funding organisations, Colleges, sector bodies and auditors who are required to carry out audits on the College's financial and student records systems.
13.3 The College collects and analyses equality data across "protected characteristics" to examine the make-up of its students. Equality data is monitored to identify trends and ensure fairness. Collecting and analysing equality data supports the College in meeting its Strategic Plan and Diversity & Equalities Strategy. No individual student would ever be publicly identified and data is held securely in accordance with Data Protection requirements.
13.4 If your education/training is sponsored by an external organisation including an employer, then the College may disclose relevant information on your progress, performance and attendance to the sponsoring organisation. Equality data will not be disclosed.
13.5 Data collected may be disclosed to Government departments and/or agencies. This could include, for example, the Benefits Agency, Scottish Ministers. Any such transfers of data will be handled in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.
13.6 For students under the age of 25 on 1 st August 2015, the College intends to share the following information about you with Skills Development Scotland (SDS) for example: Your name, your address (including post code), your date of birth, course code details and Scottish Candidate number. Should you leave your course prior to its completion, this will allow SDS to contact you to offer advice and support should you wish. It will also enable SDS to conduct research and analysis into student destinations
13.7 Data on your academic progress shall be disclosed to educational awarding bodies such as the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).
13.8 For full time students, residing in Glasgow, the College may share the following information about you with Glasgow City Council, for the purposes of Council Tax reduction. The information shared will include: Your name, address, contact details, date of birth, Course title, start date, end date/ leaving date. This information will allow Glasgow City Council to process Council Tax reduction requests made by full time students. If you would prefer that we did not share this information with Glasgow City Council please tick the appropriate box during enrolment.
13.9 If you are under 16 years of age, then information may be disclosed to your parent(s) or your legal guardians.
*(For students who have applied for a place on a course through the Student Services Admissions system.) Parental consent to attend the college is required for a student who is under 16. A parental consent form and guidance note will have been sent to you with your letter offering you a college place. As a condition of enrolment, your parent/guardian is asked to countersign this agreement to indicate that they understand the agreement that you and they are entering into with the college
13.10 Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you are entitled to obtain a copy of any computerised record maintained by the College which relates to you. An administration fee of £10 shall be charged for any such request. If you wish to have access to your College computerised record, then please contact the Head of Student Data & Research.
14. TERMINATION OF AGREEMENT
14.1 This Agreement shall end at the Course end date or if your course of study with the College is terminated as a result of:
(a) Disciplinary action
(b) Unsatisfactory academic performance
(c) Non-payment of any sums due by you to the College.
14.2 In addition to Clause 13.1 above, the College may terminate this Agreement where:
(a) Between accepting an offer and starting your course, there is a change in your circumstances, which in the
reasonable opinion of the College makes it inappropriate for you to enrol on your course.
(b) The College becomes aware of information (e.g. unspent criminal convictions), which makes it inappropriate for you to continue on your course.
(c) It becomes apparent that you have withheld or supplied false or misleading information relating to your course application and or enrolment, which in the reasonable opinion of the College makes it inappropriate for you to continue on your course.
14.3 If the College terminates this Agreement then you shall:
(a) Be required to cease studying and attending the College.
(b) Be required to return immediately all property owned by the College and loaned to you.
(c) Be required to immediately pay all outstanding fees.
14.4 If the College reasonably and properly terminates this Agreement, then the College shall not be liable for any loss or damage you may suffer as a result.
15. CITY LISTENS: FEEDBACK AND COMPLAINTS
15.1 The College is committed to maintaining high standards and one of the ways in which we can improve our service is by listening and responding to your views. If you have a complaint, please speak to your tutor, course leader or relevant manager in the first instance as they may be able to deal with the situation immediately. If you would prefer to put your views in writing then please do so by using one of the following methods:-
* Interactive online forms available from the "about us" section of the College website • Leaflets are available from all reception areas
* email: firstname.lastname@example.org or email@example.com
All complaints and suggestions are treated seriously and dealt with fairly, sensitively, quickly and in confidence.
16. GOVERNING LAW
16.1 The terms of these Conditions shall be governed by Scots law and the parties submit to the jurisdiction of the Scottish courts.
|
PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
Case No: 05-1555
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Appellant v.
EXTREME ASSOCIATES, INC.; ROBERT ZICARI, aka ROB BLACK; JANET ROMANO, aka LIZZIE BORDEN
On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania District Court No.: 03-cr-00203 District Judge: The Honorable Gary L. Lancaster
Argued October 19, 2005
Before: SMITH, STAPLETON, and NYGAARD,
Circuit Judges
(Filed: December 8, 2005)
Counsel:
Mary Beth Buchanan (Argued) Office of United States Attorney 700 Grant Street Suite 400 Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Christine A. Sanner Office of United States Attorney 17 South Park Row Room A330 Erie, PA 16501 Counsel for Appellant
H. Louis Sirkin (Argued) Jennifer M. Kinsley Sirkin, Penales, Schwartz 105 West Fourth Street Suite 920 Cincinnati, OH 45202-2776
Counsel for Appellees
OPINION
SMITH, Circuit Judge.
This appeal requires us to decide whether the District Court erred by dismissing an indictment brought against Extreme Associates, Inc. and its proprietors under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1461 and 1465, which criminalize the commercial distribution of obscene materials, on the ground that those statutes violate the privacy rights of Extreme Associates' customers under the Fifth Amendment doctrine of substantive due process. Because we conclude that the District Court improperly set aside applicable Supreme Court precedent which has repeatedly upheld federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity in the face of both First Amendment and substantive due process attacks, we will reverse the judgment of the District Court.
I.
A.
The parties do not dispute the relevant facts. Extreme Associates, Inc. is a California corporation owned and operated by Robert Zicari and Janet Romano. Extreme Associates 1 maintained a website through which it engaged in the business of producing, selling, and distributing obscene video tapes,
We hereinafter refer to Extreme Associates, Inc., Mr. Zicari, 1 and Ms. Romano collectively as "Extreme Associates."
DVDs, and computer files in interstate commerce. 2
As part of an investigation, undercover U.S. Postal Inspectors visited the Extreme Associates website. The Inspectors found that the website was divided into two sections, one accessible to the general public, and one available to members only. Members were required to register and to pay $89.95 to gain access to the website for ninety days. From the members-only portion of the website, a member, inter alia, could download and view video clips. The general public could order tapes for delivery by mail through the public portion of the website. In the course of the investigation, Postal Inspectors purchased certain videotapes from the public section of the website, which Extreme Associates delivered through the U.S. mails to undercover addresses. Inspectors also joined the members-only section of the website and downloaded and viewed several video clips.
On August 6, 2003, a federal grand jury returned a tencount indictment against Extreme Associates. The first count was a conspiracy charge under 18 U.S.C. § 371 charging 3
For purposes of the motion to dismiss in the District Court, 2 Extreme Associates stipulated that the material available on its website is legally obscene.
18 U.S.C. § 371 provides in pertinent part: 3
If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
Section 1461 states in relevant part: 4
Every obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile article, matter, thing, device, or substance . . . [i]s declared to be nonmailable matter and shall not be conveyed in the mails or delivered from any post office or by any letter carrier. Whoever knowingly uses the mails for the . . . delivery of anything declared by this section . . . to be nonmailable . . . shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both, for the first such offense, and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both, for each such offense thereafter.
18 U.S.C. § 1461.
Section 1465 states in relevant part: 5
Whoever knowingly transports or travels in, or uses a facility or means of, interstate or foreign commerce or an interactive computer service . . . in or affecting such commerce for the purpose of sale or distribution of any obscene, lewd, lascivious, or filthy book, pamphlet, picture, film, paper, letter, writing, print, silhouette, drawing, figure, image, case, phonograph recording, electrical transcription or other article capable of
mails and over the Internet. The remaining counts charged substantive violations of §§ 1461 and 1465 and alleged particular acts of distributing obscene materials in interstate commerce via the mails and the Internet.
On October 9, 2003, Extreme Associates filed a motion to dismiss the indictment on the ground that the "federal obscenity statutes" violate the right to privacy protected by the 6
producing sound or any other matter of indecent or immoral character, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
18 U.S.C. § 1465.
Although the Government brought no charges in this case 6 under 18 U.S.C. § 1462, Extreme Associates' Motion to Dismiss attacked the constitutionality of that statute as well, and the District Court struck it down. We hereinafter refer to §§ 1461, 1462, and 1465 collectively as the "federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity" or the "statutes." Section 1462 states in relevant part:
Whoever brings into the United States . . . or knowingly uses any express company or common carrier or interactive computer service . . . for carriage in interstate or foreign commerce – (a) any obscene, lewd, lascivious, or filthy book, pamphlet, picture, motion-picture film, paper,
Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. After briefing and a hearing, the District Court declared the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity unconstitutional as applied to Extreme Associates and dismissed the indictment in a Memorandum and Order on January 20, 2005. The Government appealed the dismissal.
B.
The analytical path taken by the District Court in dismissing the indictment warrants particular attention. The District Court began by concluding that Extreme Associates had letter, writing, print, or other matter of indecent character; or (b) any obscene, lewd, lascivious, or filthy phonograph recording, electrical transcription, or other article or thing capable of producing sound . . . or [w]hoever knowingly takes or receives, from such express company or other common carrier or interactive computer service . . . any matter or thing the carriage or importation of which is herein made unlawful – [s]hall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both, for the first such offense and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than ten years, or both, for each such offense thereafter.
derivative standing to challenge the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity on behalf of its customers. Turning to the merits, the Court noted that in Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U.S. 557 (1969), the Supreme Court recognized the First Amendment right of an individual to possess, read, observe, and receive obscene materials in the privacy of that individual's home, and that such a right is "fundamental" under the Constitution. Because the Stanley Court also spoke of a privacy right having to do with Stanley's home, the District Court opined that the case "represents a unique intersection between the substantive due process clause's protection of personal liberty and privacy and the First Amendment's protection of an individual's right to receive, and consider, [sic] information and ideas."
The District Court acknowledged that the Supreme Court has refused to strike down the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity, or to recognize, as a corollary to the right recognized in Stanley, a First Amendment right to distribute obscene material. The District Court, however, adopted the position advocated by Extreme Associates that Stanley and its progeny, i.e., United States v. Reidel, 402 U.S. 351 (1971), United States v. Thirty-Seven (37) Photographs, 402 U.S. 363 (1973), United States v. 12 200-Ft. Reels of Super 8mm Film, 413 U.S. 123 (1973), United States v. Orito, 413 U.S. 139 (1973), and Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton, 413 U.S. 49 (1973), were decided solely on First Amendment grounds rather than on privacy grounds under the Substantive Due Process Clause. The
District Court also agreed with Extreme Associates that the above cases are factually distinguishable from the case at bar in that they dealt either with the importation of obscene material from abroad or involved methods of distribution that were more "public" than the Internet transmissions at issue here.
Noting that Extreme Associates sought to challenge the statutes not on its own behalf but on behalf of the individual privacy rights of its customers, the District Court concluded that because "[n]either the Supreme Court nor the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has considered a substantive due process challenge to the federal obscenity statutes by a vendor arguing that the laws place an unconstitutional burden . . . on an individual's fundamental right to possess and view what he pleases in his own home," Extreme Associates' challenge was not precluded by the Reidel/Orito line of cases. According to the District Court, the instant case is controlled instead by Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965), Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), and their progeny.
Because Extreme Associates based its substantive due process challenge on the existence of a "fundamental" right, the District Court applied strict scrutiny to the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity. The Court concluded 7
To survive strict scrutiny, a statute must be narrowly tailored 7 to further a compelling state interest. See, e.g., Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 497-98 (1965) (Goldberg, J.,
that, under such heightened scrutiny, the statutes could not stand as applied to Extreme Associates because they were not narrowly drawn to advance any compelling government interest. Indeed, the District Court stated that the statutes could not be sustained even under less stringent rational basis review. 8
The District Court offered two reasons for its ruling. First, the Court concluded that the principal rationale undergirding the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity and the line of Supreme Court decisions upholding them is no longer valid. More specifically, the District Court stated that after the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), "the government can no longer rely on the advancement of a moral code, i.e., preventing consenting adults from entertaining lewd or lascivious thoughts, as a legitimate, let alone a compelling, state interest." As such, the District Court indicated that the Lawrence decision seriously undermines the validity of the statutes themselves, as well as earlier Supreme Court decisions upholding those statutes on public morality grounds. Applying the above analysis to Extreme Associates' motion to dismiss, the Court concluded that because "upholding the public sense of morality is not even a
concurring).
To survive rational basis review, a statute must be rationally 8 related to the advancement of a legitimate state interest. See, e.g., Griswold, 381 U.S. at 504 (White, J., concurring).
legitimate state interest that can justify infringing one's liberty interest to engage in consensual sexual conduct in private," such a "historically asserted state interest certainly cannot rise to the level of a compelling interest, as is required" under strict scrutiny.
Second, the District Court held that the Government's alternative asserted interests, i.e., putatively non-morality based interests, were not narrowly advanced by the complete ban on distribution of obscene materials embodied in the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity. The Court stated that, owing to the character of the Internet generally and the particular protective technologies employed by Extreme Associates, the Government's asserted interests of protecting children and unwitting adults from exposure to obscenity could be accomplished by means less restrictive than a total ban on distribution. The Court added that because the latter of the two interests was likely motivated, at least partially, by regard for public morality, it would fail even rational basis review.
In sum, the District Court ruled that because Lawrence invalidated the primary rationale for the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity and the Government's cited authority upholding them, and because the Government's remaining asserted interests, even if compelling, were not narrowly advanced by those statutes, the statutes were unconstitutional as applied to Extreme Associates on behalf of its customers. The District Court dismissed the indictment on
that basis.
A.
The District Court had original jurisdiction over this criminal action under 18 U.S.C. § 3231. We exercise appellate jurisdiction over the final judgment of a district court under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. Whether the District Court properly dismissed the indictment against Extreme Associates is a question of law of which our review is plenary. United States v. LedesmaCuesta, 347 F.3d 527, 530 (3d Cir. 2003); United States v. DeLaurentis, 230 F.3d 659, 660 (3d Cir. 2000).
B.
As a preliminary matter, we agree with the District Court that Extreme Associates has derivative standing to challenge the constitutionality of the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity on behalf of its customers. The Supreme Court consistently has upheld the ability of vendors to challenge the constitutionality of statutes on their customers' behalf where those statutes are directed at the activity of the vendors. In Carey v. Population Services International, 431 U.S. 678, 68284 (1977), the Court held that a mail-order seller of non-medical contraceptives had standing to argue that a state statute prohibiting the distribution of non-medical contraceptives violated its customers' substantive due process rights to use such contraceptives. Also, in Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190, 195 (1976), the Court upheld the ability of a beer seller to challenge a state statute on behalf of certain underage customers. The Court noted that "vendors and those in like positions have been uniformly permitted to resist efforts at restricting their operations by acting as advocates of the rights of third parties who seek access to their market or function." Id. Accordingly, Extreme Associates has standing to challenge the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity as violative of the substantive due process rights of its customers.
III.
In its Memorandum, the District Court notes briefly, but never directly addresses, the Government's contention that "because the federal obscenity statutes have withstood constitutional attack for more than thirty-five years, this court lacks the authority to find that they are unconstitutional." The Government's brief on appeal raises the same issue by asserting, essentially, that the District Court erred by granting relief which effectively overturns applicable Supreme Court precedents on the ground that those precedents have been undermined or implicitly overruled by a subsequent Supreme Court decision. We agree with the Government that the District Court was in error, and we conclude that the District Court's violation of the principle articulated below requires reversal.
In Rodriguez de Quijas v. Shearson/American Express Inc., 490 U.S. 477, 484 (1989), the Supreme Court explicitly admonished lower courts that "[i]f a precedent of this Court has direct application in a case, yet appears to rest on reasons rejected in some other line of decisions, the Court of Appeals should follow the case which directly controls, leaving to this Court the prerogative of overruling its own decisions." See also id. (pointing out specifically that the Court of Appeals, "on its own authority," should not have "taken the step of renouncing" a previous Supreme Court decision interpreting the Securities Act, even as the Court itself goes on to overrule the decision in that very case). The Court reiterated its position in Agostini v. Felton, 521 U.S. 203, 237 (1997), stating "[w]e do not acknowledge, and we do not hold, that other courts should conclude our more recent cases have, by implication, overruled an earlier precedent." Id. The Court then proceeded to "reaffirm" the precise language quoted above from Rodriguez. Id. The Court explained that "[a]dherence to this teaching by the District Court and Court of Appeals in this litigation does not insulate a legal principle on which they relied from our review to determine its continued vitality," as lower courts are free to consider the issues and preserve them for the Court even as they obey controlling precedent. Id. at 237-38. In fact, even as the Court in Agostini concluded that its own adherence to the old precedent "would undoubtedly work a 'manifest injustice'" in light of later decisions, it emphasized that "the trial court acted within its discretion in entertaining the motion [requesting relief under the newer cases] with supporting allegations, but it was also correct to recognize that the motion had to be denied unless and until this Court reinterpreted the binding precedent." Id. at 236, 238 (emphasis added).
Our own cases steadfastly apply the Agostini doctrine. See United States v. Singletary, 268 F.3d 196, 205 (3d Cir. 2001) (quoting Agostini and indicating that "[w]e have always sought to adhere strictly to that counsel"); United States v. Abuhouran, 161 F.3d 206, 215 n.9 (3d Cir. 1998); Moldonado v. Houstoun, 157 F.3d 179, 190 (3d Cir. 1998); United States v. Bishop, 66 F.3d 569, 588 n.28 (3d Cir. 1995); Swin Resource Sys., Inc. v. Lycoming County, 883 F.2d 245, 255 (3d Cir. 1989). In fact, we emphasized in Singletary that even where a lower court's analytical position has merit, the obligation to follow applicable Supreme Court precedent is in no way abrogated:
even if there were merit to Singletary's argument that the Supreme Court's [later] decisions have somehow weakened the precedential value of [the older case], we may not precipitate its decline. The Supreme Court itself has admonished lower courts to follow its directly applicable precedent, even if that precedent appears weakened by pronouncements in subsequent decisions . . . .
Singletary, 268 F.3d at 205. We reaffirm our intent to adhere strictly to the principle articulated by the Supreme Court in Agostini. It follows that the District Court also was bound by that principle as it considered Extreme Associates' motion to dismiss the indictment.
B.
In this appeal, then, we must decide whether Reidel's progeny, which the District Court found to be undermined by Lawrence, was "directly applicable" to Extreme Associates' motion to dismiss the indictment. As an analytical matter, we answer that question in the affirmative. In the broadest and most obvious sense, the Supreme Court has explicitly and repeatedly, in decisions rendered post-Stanley, upheld the 9 constitutionality of federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity. See Reidel, 402 U.S. at 351; Thirty-Seven Photographs, 402 U.S. at 363; Orito, 413 U.S. at 139; 12 200-
Although it does not deal directly with the question, Stanley 9 itself, by implication, recognized the constitutionality of the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity even as it recognized the right to possess and observe obscene materials in the home. See Stanley, 394 U.S. at 567-68 (indicating that even if prohibiting obscenity possession is necessary to facilitate the enforcement of statutory schemes prohibiting its distribution, the right to possess materials within the privacy of the home is so important that "its restriction may not be justified by the need to ease the administration of otherwise valid criminal laws.") (emphasis added).
Ft. Reels, 413 U.S. at 123.
Furthermore, the above cases consistently uphold the constitutionality of the statutes as applied to the right recognized in Stanley. See, e.g., Thirty-Seven Photographs, 402 U.S. at 376; Orito, 413 U.S. at 141. The Court has stated clearly that the right recognized in Stanley to possess obscene material within the home (and, by logical implication, the ability to exercise that right) "does not mean" that there is a correlative right to distribute that material, Thirty-Seven Photographs, 402 U.S. at 376, that it "does not require" the Court to fashion a right to distribute, Reidel, 402 U.S. at 356, and that the Stanley "'right to receive' is not a right to the existence of modes of distribution of obscenity, which the State could destroy without serious risk of infringing on the privacy of a man's thoughts; rather, it is a right to a protective zone ensuring the freedom of a man's inner life . . . ." Id. at 359 (Harlan, J., concurring) (emphasis added).
It bears noting as well that in more than one of the cases following Stanley, the Court heard and rejected the arguments of dissenting Justices that proscribing distribution or private transportation of obscene materials evacuated the Stanley right of any significant meaning. See Thirty-Seven Photographs, 402 U.S. at 381 (Harlan, J., dissenting) (arguing that the right to possess and read obscene material at home "is hollow indeed" without some right to transport it); Orito, 413 U.S. at 14 (Douglas, J., dissenting) (asserting that there is no distinction between private possession and private carriage of obscene material, and arguing that upholding the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity necessitates overruling Stanley).
Most relevant to this appeal, the Supreme Court also has upheld the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity specifically in light of the Court's broader privacy jurisprudence. The District Court stated that Stanley and its progeny do not control the Extreme Associates' motion to dismiss because those cases were all decided merely on the basis that obscenity is not protected under the First Amendment. Extreme Associates argues that Reidel's progeny dealt only with a "First Amendment concept of privacy." As such, the argument runs, the pivotal obscenity cases ignored substantive due process analysis of the "private possession" right recognized in Stanley and, therefore, did not govern the motion to dismiss. We 10 disagree. It is true that none of the major cases use the phrase "substantive due process" in their holdings, but it is clear – particularly in Orito and Paris Adult Theatre – that the Court analyzed the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity under both the principles and precedents that, according to the District Court and Extreme Associates, should
The District Court held, and Extreme Associates argues, 10 further, that certain key cases are meaningfully factually distinguishable. We reject that argument. See section III.C., infra.
control this case. Moreover, where such analysis does appear, the Court has found challenges to the statutes under the general constitutional right to privacy unavailing.
In Orito, for example, the defendant was prosecuted under § 1462 for privately transporting obscene material in interstate commerce (to wit, knowingly carrying obscene materials in his private luggage on a domestic commercial flight). Orito "moved to dismiss the indictment on the ground that the statute violated both his First and Ninth Amendment rights." Orito, 413 U.S. at 140 (emphasis added). In dismissing the indictment, the Supreme Court explained that the District Court had misinterpreted not only Stanley, but also Griswold to establish constitutional protection for the "non-public" transportation of obscene material. Id. at 140-41.
As part of its analysis, the Orito Court noted that the Constitution "extends special safeguards to the privacy of the home, just as it protects other special privacy rights such as those of marriage, procreation, motherhood, child rearing, and education." Id. at 142. To support that assertion, the Court cited, inter alia, Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972), and Griswold. Id. The Court elected, fully conscious of the right recognized in Stanley, to exclude transporting obscene material in interstate commerce from "such special consideration." Orito, 413 U.S. at 142. In upholding the statute at issue, the Court pointed out that the District Court had "erred in striking down 18 U.S.C. § 1462 and dismissing the indictment on these 'privacy' grounds." Id. at 141 (emphasis added). The Court also stated – again, fully conscious of and having made reference to the right articulated in Stanley – that in its decision to uphold bans on transporting obscene material within the stream of commerce, "no constitutionally protected privacy is involved." Id. at 143.
Similarly, in Paris Adult Theatre, though the Court dealt with obscenity in a "place of public accommodation" (a theater), much of the Court's analysis dealt squarely with the general constitutional right to privacy as it relates to the Stanley right. The Court first explained the scope of the right in question by indicating that its "prior decisions recognizing a right to privacy guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment" referred to a right 11 that "encompasses and protects the personal intimacies of the home, the family, marriage, motherhood, procreation and child rearing." Paris Adult Theatre, 413 U.S. at 65 (emphasis added). To support this proposition, the Court cited Eisenstadt, Griswold and Stanley. Id. The Court noted the legally operative difference between the Stanley right and those deriving from Griswold and Roe:
The protection afforded by Stanley . . . is
Paris Adult Theatre dealt with a state statute, so the 11 operative due process provision was that of the Fourteenth Amendment, rather than that of the Fifth Amendment at issue here.
restricted to a place, the home. In contrast, the constitutionally protected privacy of family, marriage, motherhood, procreation, and child rearing is not just concerned with a particular place, but with a protected intimate relationship. Such protected privacy extends to the doctor's office, the hospital, the hotel room, or as otherwise required to safeguard the right of intimacy involved.
Id. at 66 n.13 (citing Roe and Griswold).
The Court applied the above analysis in reaching its result:
If obscene material . . . carried with it a 'penumbra' of constitutionally protected privacy, this Court would not have found it necessary to decide Stanley on the narrow basis of the 'privacy of the home,' which was hardly more than a reaffirmation that a man's home is his castle. . . . Moreover, we have declined to equate the privacy of the home relied on in Stanley with a 'zone' of 'privacy' that follows a distributor or a consumer of obscene materials wherever he goes.
Paris Adult Theatre, 413 U.S. at 66 (citing Stanley, Orito) (emphasis added). Finally, summarizing the case, the Court indicated it had "reaffirmed [its] holding[]" that "commerce in obscene material is unprotected by any constitutional doctrine of privacy." Id. at 69 (citing Orito, Reidel, Thirty-Seven Photographs and 12 200-Ft. Reels) (emphasis added).
We conclude that the Supreme Court has analyzed and upheld the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity under the constitutional right to privacy embodied collectively in the First, Ninth, and Fourteenth (thus also the Fifth) Amendments, as well as the Griswold line of decisions that the District Court asserted should control this case. The fact that such analysis has never been applied within the precise scenario outlined by the District Court – i.e., use of the talismanic phrase "substantive due process" in the context of a vendor proceeding under derivative standing on behalf of a consumer's right to privately possess obscene material – does not negate the binding precedential value of the Supreme Court cases employing that analysis. The Court's analysis need not be so specific in order to limit a district court's prerogative to overturn an entire category of federal statutes, even as applied to particular defendants, based on speculation about a later decision that fails even to mention those statutes. The Court has considered the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity in the context of the broader constitutional right to privacy and upheld them. That such analysis was conducted absent its constitutional brand name does not negate its precedential value.
In sum, the District Court's Order granting Extreme Associates' motion to dismiss the indictment, as well as Extreme Associates' brief on appeal, deal with the same statutes upheld repeatedly by the Supreme Court. They assert (albeit derivatively) the same right referenced and analyzed in multiple Supreme Court decisions – all of which declined to strike down any part of any statute regulating the distribution of obscenity . Finally, the Supreme Court has analyzed and upheld the constitutionality of the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity specifically in light of the Court's broader right-toprivacy jurisprudence.
C.
We now turn to whether Reidel and its progeny, which we find analytically apposite, are meaningfully factually distinguishable from the case at bar. If there is a material factual distinction between the instant case and the putatively controlling precedent, analysis under Agostini is wholly inappropriate. Where, as here, an "as applied" constitutional challenge, rather than a facial one, is before the court, this analytical step is of particular importance. The District Court concluded, and Extreme Associates now argues on appeal, that the key cases in the Reidel line can be distinguished on their facts inasmuch as (1) none of the key cases address substantive due process privacy rights; (2) certain of the cases dealt exclusively with border and importation issues; and (3) none of the previous obscenity decisions involved transmissions over the
Internet. We are unpersuaded by these arguments, however, and we conclude that Orito and the other key cases discussed above are sufficiently similar to the instant case to govern it. 12
First, as discussed at length in section III.B., the District Court Memorandum adopted Extreme Associates' position that all of the relevant obscenity cases following Stanley are distinguishable inasmuch as none of those cases involved a substantive due process privacy challenge against the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity or engaged in such privacy analysis. As we have indicated, we adjudge those assertions to be incorrect, and we need not discuss them further here.
Second, both the District Court and Extreme Associates attempt to distinguish 12 200-Ft. Reels and Thirty-Seven Photographs on the ground that they deal exclusively with importation and border issues, arguing that such a context necessarily triggers a different analytical framework. This
We find especially puzzling the District Court's conclusion 12 that Orito is "distinguishable on [its] facts." The District Court concluded that Orito was factually distinguishable because the Court in that case "held that the obscenity statutes could be justified as a method of protecting the public morality, a justification no longer valid after Lawrence." That observation fails to distinguish Orito factually in any way, and, as we discuss below, is analytically irrelevant to the disposition of this case.
argument is a closer call, but it is also unavailing. Though importation issues do provide the factual backdrop of both cases, both cases engage in standard Stanley analysis and are at least generally concerned with Congress's ability, upheld in both cases, to bar transportation of obscene materials in the channels of commerce. See 12 200-Ft. Reels, 413 U.S. at 128; ThirtySeven Photographs, 402 U.S. at 376. At all events, even if we were to grant that 12 200-Ft. Reels and Thirty-Seven Photographs are relevantly distinguishable, Orito still deals squarely with Stanley, the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity, privacy, and the ability of Congress constitutionally to ban any presence of obscene material in domestic interstate commerce. Orito alone provides directly applicable precedent as to the instant appeal.
Finally, Extreme Associates argues that the relevant cases are distinguishable because they "were all decided before the advent of the Internet," suggesting that "the commercial transportation of obscenity considered by the Court [in those cases] was of a more public variety than the Internet commerce at issue here." As such, "[t]he concern for community decency and order that arose in [the other obscenity cases] is irrelevant to this prosecution." We decline to join appellees in that 13
We note that Extreme Associates' Internet argument 13 necessarily fails to distinguish three of the counts of the indictment involved in this case. Three counts allege that Extreme Associates distributed obscene materials through the
analytical leap. The mere fact, without more, that the instant prosecution involves Internet transmissions is not enough to render an entire line of Supreme Court decisions inapplicable given their analytical and other factual similarities to this case.
Extreme Associates correctly quotes dicta from Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U.S. 844 (1997), indicating that the Internet is "a unique and wholly new medium of worldwide communication." Id. at 850 (citing without comment finding of fact 81 from the District Court in that case). In the same case, however, the Court noted that "[t]ransmitting obscenity . . . whether via the Internet or other means, is already illegal under federal law for both adults and juveniles," and implied that the "Child Decency Act," a statute regulating pornography over the Internet at issue in Reno, might be unnecessary owing to the existing federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity. Id. at 878 n.44 (citing 18 U.S.C. § 1465). In other words, the Court thus far has not suggested that obscenity law does not apply to the Internet or even that a new analytical path is necessary in Internet cases. If the Supreme Court wishes to treat all Internet obscenity cases as sui generis for purposes of federal obscenity law analysis, it has not yet said
United States mail. Identical conduct was at issue in the case of United States v. Reidel, 402 U.S. 351 (1971). Seven of the ten counts in the present indictment, however, do pertain to distributing video clips to home computers through the Internet.
so, "tacitly" or otherwise. 14
Even clearer is the fact that Orito and Paris Adult Theatre affirm the power of Congress to "regulate interstate commerce to the extent of forbidding and punishing the use of such commerce as an agency to promote immorality . . . or harm to the people of other states from the state of origin." Orito, 413 U.S. at 144 n.6; see also id. at 144 ("Congress may impose relevant conditions . . . on those who use the channels of interstate commerce in order that those channels will not become the means of spreading evil, whether of a physical,
Were we to concede that the Supreme Court has or is 14 prepared to analyze obscene Internet transmissions differently because, unlike the acts involved in Orito and other cases, such transmissions involve no "physical" transportation of obscenity outside the home, that concession would not save Extreme Associates' motion. The holding in Orito, for example, involves two prongs: (1) Congress may regulate obscenity on the basis of the danger that it will not remain private once it physically leaves the home in any way, Orito, 413 U.S. at 143; and (2) irrespective of any such danger, Congress may prevent interstate commerce and the channels thereof from being used to spread evil of a physical, moral or economic nature. Congress may therefore keep all obscene material entirely out of the stream of commerce. Id. at 143-44. At most, the aforementioned concession regarding the Internet would compromise prong (1). As we discuss below, the second prong stands unscathed for purposes of this appeal and, on its own, would dictate the result.
moral or economic nature"); id. at 143 ("[t]hat the transporter has an abstract proprietary power to shield the obscene material from all others and to guard the material with the same privacy as in the home is not controlling"); Paris Adult Theatre, 413 U.S. at 58 ("we hold that there are legitimate state interests in stemming the tide of commercialized obscenity, even assuming it is feasible to enforce effective safeguards against exposure to juveniles and passersby"); id. at 69 ("commerce in obscene material is unprotected by any constitutional doctrine of privacy") (emphasis added). The Internet is a channel of commerce covered by the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity. Extreme Associates was indicted for engaging in commercial transactions that its own brief on appeal describes as "Internet commerce." This case cannot be meaningfully distinguished merely because it involves the Internet.
IV.
We are satisfied that the Supreme Court has decided that the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity do not violate any constitutional right to privacy. For district and appellate courts in our judicial system, such a determination dictates the result in analogous cases unless and until the Supreme Court expressly overrules the substance of its decision. Lawrence v. Texas represents no such definitive step by the Court. It was therefore impermissible for the District Court to strike down the statutes at issue based on speculation that Orito and other pivotal obscenity cases "appear[] to rest on reasons rejected in" Lawrence. Agostini, 521 U.S. at 237. Even if there were analytical merit to such speculation, an issue on which we do not opine, the constraint on lower courts remains the same. The possibility that Lawrence has "somehow weakened the precedential value of" the Reidel line of cases is irrelevant for purposes of ruling on the instant indictment. Singletary, 268 F.3d at 205.
We conclude that directly applicable Supreme Court precedent, upholding the constitutionality of the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity under First Amendment and substantive due process privacy rights, governs this case. The District Court was bound by that authority, as are we, to uphold those statutes as applied to Extreme Associates on behalf of its customers. As such, the District Court erred in striking down the statutes and dismissing the indictment against Extreme Associates.
Accordingly, we will reverse the Order of the District Court and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
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Volume 29, Number 6
Promoting the exchange of voices and ideas in one-to-one teaching of writing February, 2005
...FROM THE EDITOR...
Several themes tie this month's newsletter together. One is the inquiry into assumptions we need to rethink, or as Birgitta Ramsey describes it, to "resee" as she inquires into a writing center in Sweden in order to reconsider the concept of writing centers as providing a service. Paula Braun, Courtney Patterson, and Sarah Abst write about their re-evaluation of directive vs. nondirective in tutor training manuals, and Beth Godbee questions the notion of "peerness" in peer tutoring.
Re-seeing the writing center's position of service
You'll also find in this month's issue Susan Mueller's article that examines the underlying philosophies reflected in various documentation styles, especially the disciplinary values of MLA and APA. Kelly Wisecup shares with us their writing center's project to take tutors into large classrooms where writing is included.
Some new ideas to consider, some familiar assumptions to question. And the job announcements in this issue are both for job seekers and for those who are putting together their own job descriptions. The varied responsibilities in these announcements can serve to suggest or remind you of various aspects of your job to include in your own job description.
* Muriel Harris, editor
In the spring of 2002 I made a journey to my native Sweden on a research mission to explore how Swedish universities have reacted to an influx of students from families without an academic tradition. Basically, the reactions have taken three forms: (1) introductory courses (something along the lines of University 101—voluntary courses, taken for credit and not remedial, noncredit courses); (2) mandatory short pedagogical courses for faculty (to help faculty members develop innovative classroom approaches); and (3) writing centers. Seemingly from nowhere, writing centers have begun to spring up on one university campus after another. I will use my experience from a Swedish writing center to complicate the picture of American writing centers both of today and of the past. Of particular interest to me is how writing center professionals view the position of service within their different systems.
I spent most of my time at a college called Södertörns högskola (or Södertörn for short) (with approximately 10,000 students) in the Stockholm area, where I conducted interviews and observed classes. One of the faculty members I interviewed was Kajsa Sköldvall, who was in charge of the writing center, although this was only a small portion of her job. The writing center at Södertörn—quite possibly the first of its kind in Sweden—is
The Writing Lab Newsletter, published in ten monthly issues from September to June by the Department of English, Purdue University, is a publication of the International Writing Centers Association, an NCTE Assembly, and is a member of the NCTE Information Exchange Agreement. ISSN 1040-3779. All Rights and Title reserved unless permission is granted by Purdue University. Material will not be reproduced in any form without express written permission. However, up to 50 copies of an article may be reproduced under fair use policy for educational, non-commercial use in classes or course packets. As always, proper acknowledgment of title, author, and original publication date in the Writing Lab Newsletter, Purdue University, should be included for each article.
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Manuscripts: Recommended length for articles is approximately 2500-3000 words, 1500 words for reviews and Tutors' Column essays, in MLA format. If possible, please send as attached files in an e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.org. Otherwise, send hard copy and a computer disk or CD-ROM, and please enclose a selfaddressed envelope with return postage not pasted to the envelope. The deadline for announcements is 45 days prior to the month of issue (e.g. August 15 for an October issue).
called Språkverkstan. This word literally means "language workshop." This name is appropriate since Språkverkstan and all other Swedish writing centers take a more holistic approach to language than what is typical in the U.S. and offer students help with both their written and their oral presentations. When I asked Kajsa Sköldvall what had prompted the establishing of a writing center, she explained:
The reason for Språkverkstan's existence here at Södertörn has to do with the objectives of this school to be a college that caters to a diverse student population, that we expect [enrollment] by a higher percentage of students who are insecure for one reason or another. They can feel insecurity because Swedish is not their first language but also for many other reasons, and if a college is to recruit this type of students, the environment they come to will have to be supportive of them.
Sköldvall was careful and sensitive in her phrasing when she talked about the purpose of Språkverkstan. She said the need for writing centers had developed with the more diverse student population; yet she did not use words such as "basic" or "underprepared" when she talked about the new type of students that Södertörn consciously attempts to attract. Instead, she deliberately chose and consistently used the word "insecure"; nor did she want to single out one particular group of students, such as immigrants.
In spite of my best intentions to observe and to listen, I may have come to Sweden with the mindset of an American imperialist after all. Even though I am reluctant and embarrassed to admit it, the fact is that I had expected to find some acknowledged debt to American writing centers and conscious efforts to emulate American theory and practice among the Swedes I met with. When I asked the questions "Where did the ideas and the inspiration for a writing center come from?" and "Where did
2
you look for models?" I had expected the answer "From the United States," with some variations, either coming from or referring to Swedes who had visited American writing centers or at least read about writing centers in the U.S. and who had subsequently developed the desire to create similar institutions in Sweden. I should probably mention that the present political climate has created, if not outright anti-American feelings, at least strong anti-Bush feelings in Sweden. These sentiments, which may make Swedes reluctant to admit to any American influences, became obvious from the first day of my interactions with faculty and students. I still believe there is a strong American influence behind Swedish writing centers, but it may well be more indirect than direct, having come in via Denmark and Germany.
During my stay in Sweden, I felt at times as if I had experienced a time warp so that I not only had made a journey in space but also a journey back to the time when writing centers were new in the U.S. Språkverkstan clearly belonged to the ones that had what Peter Carino has called a "supplemental function," an emergency room to which students could rush their essays in progress, but this "emergency room" was open only two afternoons a week.
In the now classic article "The Idea of a Writing Center," Stephen North calls up horror images of the writing center as a "first aid station" and a "grammar and drill center," located in a "windowless classroom" or even "closet" under a lowstatus director (437). Even though North's view of early American writing centers has been challenged, I want to complicate the picture of an early writing center even more based on my experience from Södertörn. In one sense Språkverkstan could be viewed as an emergency room or a first aid station, but this function was such an integral part of its identity that the tutors would not allow students to prebook all the slots for a particular day; they felt compelled to leave openings for students with emergencies. And, although I saw tutors discuss the mechanics of writing with students, I would never call Språkverkstan a grammar and drill center. The tutors had no grammar worksheets to present to students, and the students' own writing was always at the center of the discussion. The emphasis was not on grammar and mechanics per se, but on genre and the specific requirements of academic texts. Also, in contrast to North's depiction, Språkverkstan had a central location, and the instructors who worked there had the same status as other faculty members. Of course, it may have helped that the writing center was just one part of their job and their professional identity was not defined by the writing center.
Differences in systems are important for the discussion about writing centers' identity and the service they provide to institutions and to individual students. Since there is no first-year composition program either at Södertörn or at any other Swedish university, Swedish writing centers do not run the risk of being identified as places mainly for freshman writers in need of remediation. Yet, there will always be professors who view a writing center solely or foremost as a remedial institution. The general opinion among instructors in Sweden is that their students' writing ability has declined, or, rather, that they see a growing group of students whose writing falls short of academic standards (Strand, Akademiskt skrivande 5). In a report titled Akademiskt skrivande vid Stockholms universitet: undervisning, problem, önskemål (Academic writing at Stockholm University: teaching, problems, wishes), Hans Strand points out that several professors have placed some form of writing centers on their wish list, viewing it as a place like an emergency room, to which they could send their weakest writers (6, 11, 19, 26, 45, 51, 54, 68).
During my visit to Språkverkstan at Södertörns högskola, I made my own observations, especially about how the facility differed from the writing centers I have experienced in the United States. On the positive side I noticed, as I have already mentioned, that Språkverkstan had a central location, on the third floor in the main building. It was highly visible and easily accessible. Every time before Språkverkstan opened, the tutor for the day put up two heavy but portable signs, one on the fifth and another on the third floor, announcing that Språkverkstan was now open.
Another positive feature was the diversity of services. In line with the overall integration between oral and written communication at Södertörn, Språkverkstan not only offers feedback on written work but also provides students with opportunities to practice an actual speech in front of a tutor. In fact, the Swedish and Rhetoric department, in cooperation with Språkverkstan, offers non-credit courses every semester for students who need help overcoming stage fright. Språkverkstan is also in charge of writing courses for students whose first language is not Swedish. Even though this kind of "language workshop," instead of a more narrowly defined writing center, would be unusual in the United States, it is not entirely unknown. John Trimbur describes the writing center at Worcester Polytechnic Institute as a "multiliteracy center that offers tutoring in oral presentations and visual design, as well as writing" (Nelson and Evertz ix). Yet the inclusion in a Swedish writing center of courses to combat stage freight is not necessarily a result of innovative thinking. As I heard several times during my stay in Sweden, the tabloid Expressen had recently run a survey, asking Swedes what they feared the most. Surprisingly, at least to most Americans, the most frequent answer was not death, sickness, old age, or even war—but public speaking. To overcome such widespread irrational fear has become a high-priority concern at Swedish universities and colleges.
3
A third strength I noticed was the importance placed on the writing center. Unlike the writing centers to which I had previously become accustomed, the three tutors who took turns in Språkverkstan were all faculty members and not students. In my interview with Kajsa Sköldvall, I asked her about the possibility of using students as tutors. "We have discussed it," she said. "It would be a possibility to use students from C- and D-courses [advanced courses] in Swedish to work with this. . . . But we try in other contexts to let students meet students . . . . So far we haven't done so in Språkverkstan, but we've had thoughts about it." The teachers who work in Språkverkstan are assigned this work in place of a regular course. According to Sköldvall again, "We in Swedish look upon this as a course like any other course." Sköldvall said that she always discussed possible tutors with the administrator who assigned courses to teachers and that her main concern was "that we don't get completely new teachers." To me, used as I am to the view that the writing center is a good place to begin one's teaching career, this was a most remarkable statement. It shows that Språkverkstan is indeed taken seriously both by the administration and by the teachers who work there. Sköldvall insisted that the small group of teachers who work as tutors on a continuing basis find the work very rewarding and have the feeling "that here you do something useful."
I know that this last statement is very controversial from an American point of view, linked as it is to the understanding of the purpose of writing centers. Nancy Maloney Grimm's book Good Intentions does its best to undermine such "good feelings" (82). Although I have tried to probe my Swedish contacts about resistance against a position of service, I have not –yet— been able to detect any resentment. It is striking how different institutional contexts can lead to diverging marketing strategies. Språkverkstan and other
Swedish writing centers obviously benefit financially from marketing themselves as filling a need as they cater to "insecure" students; this is how they lay claim to legitimacy. In contrast, American writing centers have more to gain by marketing themselves as more mainstream or as catering to all kinds of students.
On Södertörn's Web site, the information about Språkverkstan is brief, with most attention devoted to the center's hours and services. Significantly, however, one of the places where one can find this information is under the heading "Student Life" (as a service to the students). For comparison and contrast, I opened up the Web site for the writing center at Southeastern Louisiana University, where I presently teach, a university with just over 15,000 students. Southeastern's Writing Center is listed under "Academic Resources," and the following passage expresses a part of its "instructional philosophy":
Instruction by Writing Center staff works from the premise that all writers—expert writers included—benefit from sharing and talking about their work on a regular basis with experienced and interested readers . . . . Because Center staff are not classroom teachers, we bring no pre-set instructional agenda to our conferences. . . . We seek not to assess your abilities or to put a grade on your writing, but always to find ways to help you improve the skills and essays you bring to us, even if you are the strongest of writers. (Emphasis original)
This instructional philosophy sounds assertive. Obviously this writing center is striving to distance itself from the idea that it exists mainly to remediate the weakest writers. The philosophy statement starts off by including "expert writers," and again at the very end turns to the students who would consider themselves "the strongest of writers." Here we are far from the "inse- cure" students Kajsa Sköldvall talked about. Further, the members of Southeastern's Writing Center staff want to assert their independence; they consider it liberating that they are not classroom teachers and, therefore, presumably less likely to succumb to institutional pressures. Much like the idealized portrayal of writing centers that North was outlining in his "Idea" article as a desired alternative to the emergency stations, forgotten here is the fact that the students who find their way to this Writing Center (and all other writing centers) are part of an institutional context and usually come either because an instructor has sent them or because they are working on a paper that has been assigned by an instructor who is waiting to evaluate and grade the paper after it is finished. To sound as if the students and their tutors in the Writing Center can do exactly what they want seems at best hopelessly idealistic and at worst deceptive.
Certainly, I do not want to make light of the point that writing programs and writing centers have been, and still are, in the business of controlling undesirable features of students' language. Instead, I firmly believe that professionals in newly established writing centers in Sweden and other countries need to become aware of the conflicts and dangers that may lie ahead. On the other hand, I don't think that we need to resort to "miasmic cynicism," to borrow a phrase from Lisa Langstraat, and erase all the enthusiasm, dedication, and, yes, compassion that have driven at least some tutors. The picture of complete servitude that some still paint of the past may say more about our present cynical stance than about the original intent of writing centers. It should be possible to establish some middle ground where we can re-see and reevaluate the service that writing centers perform to students and to institutions in a way that allows us to imagine a fuller picture, one that includes the enthusiasm and the joy of learning and teaching
4
writing even within a system. A similar point was made already in 1985 by Jeanne H. Simpson: "[W]e must not lose either the energy or the commitment that characterized our initial stages"(39), and I believe this exhortation is well worth repeating today, especially in light of my first-hand contact with an early writing center in Sweden.
I have found much of value in Grimm's book Good Intentions. I am happy, for instance, that Grimm sees institutions not just as restrictive places but also as places that make critique possible; and that she doesn't simply point out problems with the unequal distribution of power in writing centers but offers solutions, such as making student tutors co-researchers and copresenters with herself; and I fully agree with Grimm that good intentions are not enough. Nonetheless, I want to conclude by asking some questions that keep bugging me: Aren't we all, in one way or another, driven by "good intentions"? I find it hard to believe that those who criticize "liberals" for causing more harm than good with their unsophisticated ideas of helping students to adopt standard use of language and learn academic conventions see themselves as driven by bad intentions. And what about democratic intentions? Unfortunately, they are not exactly clear cut either but open to diverging interpretations. The ones who want to perform the service of giving students access to the tricks of the academic trade are motivated by democratic intentions to level the playing field. Those who want to change the academy itself and its ways of expression are motivated by a different set of democratic intentions. And both can be equally "good" or just about equally harmful to our students. Not surprisingly, the writing center has become an important battle field between these different sets of intentions.
Birgitta Ramsey Southeastern Louisiana University
Hammond, LA
Works Cited
Carino, Peter. "Writing Centers and
Writing Programs: Local and
Communal Politics."
The Politics of Writing Centers
. Ed. Jane
Nelson and Kathy Evertz. Ports- mouth: Boynton/Cook, 2001. 1-14.
Grimm, Nancy Maloney. Good
Intentions: Writing Center Work for Postmodern Times.
Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook: 1999.
Langstraat, Lisa. "The Point Is There
Is No Point: Miasmic Cynicism and Cultural Studies Composi-
tion." JAC22 (2002): 293-325.
North, Stephen. "The Idea of a Writing
Center." College English46
(1984): 433-46.
Simpson, Jeanne H. "What Lies Ahead for Writing Centers: Position
Statement of Professional Con- cern.”
Writing Center Journal5.2/
6.1 (1985): 35-39.
Sköldvall, Kajsa. Personal Interview.
29 May 2002.
Södertörns högskola. 10 March 2004 <http://webappl.sh.se>. Path: Studentliv; Språk-verkstan. Southeastern Louisiana University. 3
April 2003. 10 March 2004 <http://www. selu.edu>. Path: Academics; Academic Resources; The Southeastern Louisiana University Writing Center; About Our Center; Our Instructional philosophy.
Strand, Hans. Akademiskt skrivande vid Stockholms universitet: undervisning, problem, och önskemål. Stockholm: PU-rapport nr 2000: 3, 2000.
Trimbur, John. "Foreword." The Politics of Writing Centers. Ed. Jane Nelson and Kathy Evertz. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 2001. vii—x.
Calendar for Writing Centers Associations
February 10-12, 2005. Southeastern Writing Center Association Conference, in Charleston, SC Contact: Trixie Smith, Middle Tennessee State University, Department of English, P.O. Box 70, Murfreesboro, TN 37132. E-mail: email@example.com; Web site: <http://www.swca.us>.
March 3-5, 2005: South Central Writing Centers Associa- tion, in Baton Rouge, LA
Contact: Judy Caprio, B-18 Coates Hall, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. Phone: 225-578-4438, e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org; Web site: <http://www.scwca.net>.
March 4-5, 2005: Rocky Mountain Peer Tutoring Conference, in Orem, UT
Contact: Lisa Eastmond Bell, Utah Valley State College, MC-176, 800 West University Parkway, Orem, UT 84058-5999. Phone: 801- 863-8099; e-mail: email@example.com.
April 1-2, 2005: East Central Writing Centers Association, in Adrian, MI
Contact: April Mason-Irelan, Siena Heights University, 1247 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, MI 49221. Phone: 517-264-7638; e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org; Web site: <http:// www.sienahts.edu/~eng/ECWCA/ecwca.htm>.
April 9, 2005: Mid-Atlantic Writing Center Association, in Frederick, MD
Contact: Felicia Monticelli, e-mail:
email@example.com, Frederick Communtiy
College, 7932 Opossumtown Pike, Frederick, MD
21702. Phone: 301-846-2619; Web site: <http:// www.english.udel.edu/wc/staff/mawca/index.html>.
April 16, 2005: Pacific Northwest Writing Center Association, in Bothell, WA Contact: Becky Reed Rosenberg, e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org. Conference Web site: <http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~writepro/PNWCA.htm>.
April 16-17, 2005: New England Writing Centers
Association, in Brooklyn, NY Contact: Patricia Stephens, English Department, Humanities Building, Fourth Floor, Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus, One University Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Phone: 718-488-1096; e-mail: email@example.com.
June 10-12, 2005: European Writing Centers Association, in Halkidiki, Greece.
Contact: Conference Web site: <http:// ewca.sabanciuniv.edu/ewca2005/>.
October 19-23, 2005: International Writing Centers
Association, in Minneapolis, MN.
Contact: Frankie Condon, e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org. Conference Web site: <http://writingcenters.org/2005/index.html>.
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Documentation styles and disciplinespecific values
Documentation in all its various forms is often viewed by students as a kind of academic hieroglyphics— meaningful to the priestly few, but largely unintelligible to the uninitiated. This in a sense is true, although it is more true of some styles than of others. There are countless documentation styles used by countless different groups, each having a slightly different view of the process. In our writing center at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, we support four documentation styles—MLA, APA, NLM (National Library of Medicine), and AMA (American Medical Association)—and will probably include a fifth (American Journal of Health-Systems Pharmacy—AJHP) this year. Given that we are a small school, having just under 1000 students, and a small writing center, six tutors and me, that is a prodigious number of styles to support. However, having said that, the burden on us to support a panoply of documentation styles disturbs me less than the tendency of students and sometimes faculty to think that documentation styles are all the same. Or more precisely, that documentation styles are all an interchangeable hodge-podge, and no one can benefit by using one style above another. That, I would most emphatically put to you, is simply not true.
Documentations styles are developed by professional groups to document and preserve those characteristics of the underlying sources that matter to the discipline. Those of us who learned MLA with our mother's milk tend to believe that the values among disciplines are shared, that all disciplines share a common regard for the original text and perceive its relationship to the research paper at hand to be the same; in fact, they do not. Disciplinary attitudes vary widely. Documentation styles reflect different underlying value systems, and those values can clash with the subject at hand, including sometimes MLA. Students, who are prone to focus on easily recognized and memorized characteristics, often miss the values and points of view of particular disciplines. Writing centers can be of enormous service to students in helping and encouraging them to use the documentation style appropriate to the paper at hand. That style reinforces the values of its discipline and assists students to see "the big picture."
MLA
Disciplinary values differ principally in these areas:
* Time: How does the discipline view the age of a source? Does time and its passage matter?
* Authorship: How is authorship determined in this discipline? Is the author the person who wrote the words? The person who did the research? The person who supervised/authorized the experiment?
* Users: Who are the intended users of the documentation style? What is their level of sophistication in dealing with sources? To whom will the document (paper/article) be submitted?
* Magnitude: Is the style concerned only with documenting sources, verb tense, and overall presentation (margins, spacing)? Or does the style mandate specific headings for specific sections be included? Is the style rigid or flexible?
To illustrate my premise, let's look at three styles: MLA, APA, and NLM.
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MLA is the most user-friendly of the common documentation styles, and strives to be accessible to students as well as practitioners. It is the only documentation style that has a separate publication for students. MLA style (or Modern Language Association style) is the one with which we—and students—are most familiar. It is the style most often taught to students in middle school or high school, and therefore the one they use the most. MLA is updated regularly—not all styles are—so it, at least theoretically, should be the most reflective of changes in the academic and technological environment. Now in its sixth edition, the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers is still the foremost student source for research paper writing (Gibaldi xvi).
Implicit in MLA is a set of values that we writing center professionals enforce every day of our working lives. Chief among these are recognizing and eradicating plagiarism, and maintaining fidelity to the original text and its meaning. Both of these assert the rights of the original text and its author to be absolute and unchanging over time. Explication of text is at the heart of what the Modern Language Association is concerned with, and one of the principal skills we strive to teach to students. These values are reflected in the documentation style itself.
To wit, look at what MLA has us put into documentation notes that, as we tell students, must follow any information taken from a source: author's last name and the page number from which the information is taken. This does two things: it refers the reader to a listing on the Works Cited page, and it
allows the reader to find the specific information taken from the text. The reliability of this research document is determined by its faithfulness to its source documents, maintaining those documents as sacrosanct.
Beyond that, we stress to students that they must find their own insight into the material. This is not just a data dump. It is this student's original interpretation of the source material at hand, which the student presents in his or her thesis statement. The paper then becomes a persuasive piece in service of that statement. It demands strong verbs and an active voice. It is written in the present tense.
This emphasizes the individual's response to the text, both in terms of urging students to create their own and in terms of respecting the responses and research done by others. Perhaps more importantly, MLA (as we truly all know) is very concerned with teaching students to avoid plagiarism. The MLA Handbook devotes many, many pages to giving very detailed information to students on how to quote, paraphrase, and summarize information in addition to how to cite it. Not all documentation styles have these emphases.
APA
Take, for example, APA style. Like MLA style, APA style arose out of the concerns of a group of journal editors and managers (anthropological and psychological journals, in this case) about the uniformity and reliability of the articles they received. In the early years, its audience was primarily psychologists and psychological journals, but over time its audience broadened considerably; it is now widely used throughout the social sciences (American Psychological Association xix).
The APA Publication Manual itself—then and now—is more cumbersome than MLA's, probably because the intended audience has always been different. It is directed at social science researchers writing articles for publication in journals. APA has no separate publication for students. The Publication Manual is it; students are welcome visitors, but they are not the main audience.
In "Codifying the Social Scientific Style: The APA Publication Manual as a Behaviorist Rhetoric," Chapter 9 of his book Shaping Written Knowledge: The Genre and Activity of the Experimental Article in Science,
Charles Bazerman makes the point that APA documentation style has evolved as the nature of psychology has evolved. He states:
The official APA style emerged historically at the same time as the behaviorist program began to dominate experimental psychology. Not surprisingly, the style embodies behaviorist assumptions about authors, readers, the subjects investigated, and knowledge itself. (259)
Bazerman points out that a large proportion of the Publication Manual is devoted to scientific reports, a specialized and highly formal genre. He says, " The prescribed form of fixed sections with fixed titles creates disjunctions between mandatory sections: the author does not have to establish overt transitions and continuity among the parts. The methods section is a totally separate entity from the introduction or the results" (260). In other words, many normal rhetorical conventions such as transitions, thesis development and support, flow, not to mention conclusions, do not apply here. APA style is focused on the social scientific/experimental model to the exclusion of normal prose. The focus is on the experiment and its results, not on the reader and not on the experience of the writer/social scientist. Previous editions of the Publication Manual mandated the use of the passive voice and the past tense, and APA still discourages the use of the first person.
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Reflecting the social sciences, too, is APA style's emphasis on the date of a source. Unlike MLA, APA includes the year as well as the author in in-text documentation. As Carrie Shively Leverenz states in her article "Citing Cybersources: A Challenge to Disciplinary Values,"
By including the date whenever a source is mentioned, writers provide what most social scientists would agree is vital information regarding the value of the citations. Research in psychology is expected to build on past research and, by disproving or extending that research, to advance knowledge. By presenting the date of each research study cited, writers communicate to readers that they are, indeed, building on past knowledge and that their work addresses the most current work in the field. (189)
In short, time and its passage matter in APA.
In MLA, it doesn't, at least in theory. This contrast to MLA style is basic because MLA considers ancient texts and the scholarship done upon them to be timeless. The date is considered immaterial to determining the reliability of the source (189).
APA acknowledges the importance of attribution and of avoiding plagiarism, but devotes only a few pages of the Publication Manual to it. Because social sciences build on others' work, the relationship between documents is seen as more collaborative than it is under MLA.
This also underlies APA's strict rules about citing online sources. Documentation notes must "[d]irect readers as closely as possible to the information being cited—whenever possible, reference specific documents rather than home or menu pages" (APA 269). For APA, access to all research documents is critical. The transparency of underlying data to other researchers is one of
APA's ethical standards, so intervening copies, paraphrases, and interpretations are viewed suspiciously (348). A reader must be able to validate the authors' interpretation based on their original research data. Their interpretation alone is not enough. The interpretation is only one part of the process for APA; for MLA, the author's interpretation is the critical piece.
The differences in emphasis are continued onto the References page. For example, APA, which emphasizes the research rather than the researcher/ writer, includes only the authors' initials, not their first names. Carrie Shively Leverenz asserts that this "downplays the particularity, the humanness of the researcher" (191). She also points to the inclusion of many researchers' names as authors as a singular convention, when most have not written a single word of the text. She believes that this flies in the face of our normal definition of the word author, but conforms to APA's bias about the importance of the research over the researcher (191).
NLM
Let's consider a third documentation style: NLM, put forth by the National Library of Medicine. First published in 1991, the National Library of Medicine Recommended Formats for Bibliographic Citation is used by governmental and academic researchers to exchange research information and data. Its principal audience is composed of authors, editors, and librarians. (Like APA, students are an incidental audience for NLM. Students are sometimes required to use NLM style, but it is primarily used by medical researchers and practitioners.) In 2001, a 106-page "supplement" for Internet formats was published. This is described as a supplement rather than a revision because it deals only with online forms, but the supplement includes most of the general and introductory material from the original guide, making that guide unnecessary except for citing hard copy documents and electronic sources that are not online (e.g., CD-ROMs). (Patrias, Supplement i). NLM sees itself as the documentation style of cutting edge medical research, of the movers and shakers of the scientific medical community. As such, it is also the style that documents science of record. It is concerned with being precise, with being flexible enough to adapt to changing technology, but also being consistent enough to maintain the record for posterity. This is a radically different perspective than that of either MLA or APA, who envision themselves as egalitarian and far-reaching.
As a scientific style, NLM shares much the same perspective as APA. Like some past versions of APA, NLM style mandates the use of the passive voice to emphasize the scientific tasks or findings rather than the researcher. Also like APA, NLM demands a rigid format for reports, including specific sections in a set order. Unlike APA which merely discourages the use of direct quotations, NLM overtly prohibits direct quotations in the interest of emphasizing content and findings over the researcher's experience. (Needless to say, this is quite different from MLA's approach. MLA encourages the judicious use of quotations for emphasis and to lend authority to a paper.) Plagiarism isn't addressed in this manual, and frankly isn't much of a concern. NLM is focused on the content of the experiment, not on the words.
The writing tutor's quandary
That's interesting, you say, but what does it have to do with my writing center and me? As writing center professionals, part of our job is making documentation clear and understandable to students. Typically, we focus on the format (e.g., where to put documentation notes), not on the reason the format exists. Partly we do this because we feel that it is obvious, having studied texts and their interpretations, what the value is. We don't think about why other disciplines do other things; we
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assume they just do, just as other languages use different words for the same object. However, these underlying values represent the big picture for students, a big picture that is often neglected in classrooms concerned with facts and specific information. For example, we continue to quote Stephen M. North's famous 1986 essay reverentially. However, if you ask social scientists about using an article from 1986, they look at you agape and explain that information that old is outdated, having been superceded by newer, better research and technological findings. It is obvious to them, but it isn't to us and it certainly isn't to students. By ignoring basic philosophical differences between documentation styles, those who encourage students to ignore the predominate style in a discipline in favor of an easier, more familiar style can muddle students' basic understanding of the discipline. Better to take the harder path, and work them through an APA or NLM, if that is the subject at hand. By explaining to students why these differences exist among disciplines and documentation styles, we are going a long way toward helping them to understand the underpinnings of the discipline itself.
What are the values reflected by the documentation style? To determine that, ask two questions: what does the style include? what does it exclude? Specifically, look at the sensitive areas mentioned earlier.
* Is time important to this discipline? (Does it mandate the inclusion of dates in citations, for example?) If so, what might it reflect about that discipline?
* How does it treat authors? (For example, how many authors are mentioned before using et al.? Does it use first names, first and middle initials, or first initials only?)
* Who is the intended user? Is it easy to use? Is the manual easy to navigate? Are there clear examples?
In conclusion, each documentation style arises out of a set of values and concerns that is pivotal to the discipline in question. These are valid concerns and valid characteristics; they aren't arbitrary or idiosyncratic. If students, particularly students majoring in a given discipline, understand the relationship between the values of that discipline and the intricacies of the documentation style, the documentation style will make sense and it will reinforce the values of the discipline that it represents. Understanding is the metaphoric Rosetta stone to cracking the hieroglyphic code of documentation. These values should also color the material being presented. In other words, MLA's focus on the importance of the text and its author, on recognizing each individual's creative input are reinforced by the components of MLA style. APA style, as a product of a social science, values current information and focuses on the experimental/ content of what it documents; that too is reflected in the documentation. Last, NLM, as the documentation style of record for many medical experiments and discoveries, stresses the content and collaboration among researchers. This too is reflected in the style. To the extent that deeper understanding of a discipline's intellectual culture makes students' learning deeper, documentation styles are one more tool in our arsenal for teaching students to write better, more meaningful papers.
Susan Mueller St. Louis College of Pharmacy St. Louis, MO
Works Cited
American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 5 th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2001. Bazerman, Charles. "Codifying the
Assistant Director AARC, Writing Program Director Stephen F. Austin State University
Starting Date: No later than Fall 2005 Job Description: Responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Writing Program in the Academic Assistance and Resource Center (AARC). The AARC's mission is to improve individual academic performance and retention by offering a supportive environment for intellectual development, providing educational support services including one-on-one peer tutoring and student-led study groups, and facilitating access to research support services for students with disabilities. The AARC peer tutoring program provides primarily nonremedial academic assistance in most college-level core curriculum courses. The person in this position is responsible for hiring, training, scheduling and supervising writing tutors, maintaining CRLA tutor certification, and managing the Writing Program budget. He or she also is responsible for overseeing Students with Disabilities Services in the center and assisting the AARC director in the administration of the AARC.
in the teaching of composition; excellent computer skills; and the ability to work productively with colleagues, university administrators, faculty and students. Preference will be given to those with administrative experience and/or experience working in a college-level writing center. PREFERRED: Proficiency in a variety of computer software packages including desktop publishing. Good public speaking skills. Creativity and innovative ideas.
Professional Requirements or Special Skills: REQUIRED: Master's degree in English, minimum; college-level experience
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Salary: $40,000 for 12 months, negotiable Application Deadline: Open until position is filled Application Information: Initial screening of applications will begin February 15, 2005. Submit a cover letter; statement of interest and qualifications; curriculum vitae or resume; and the names, addresses, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers of three references, including immediate supervisor, to Alvin C. Cage, Library Director, R.W. Steen Library, Stephen F. Austin State University, P.O. Box 13055, SFA Station, Nacogdoches, TX 75962.
Social Scientific Style: The APA Publication Manual as a Behaviorist Rhetoric." In Shaping Written Knowledge: The Genre and Activity of the Experimental Article in Science. Madison: U of Wisconsin UP, 1988. 257-277.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 5 th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
Leverenz, Carrie Shively. "Citing Cybersources: A Challenge to Disciplinary Values." Computers and Composition 15 (1998): 185200.
Patrias, Karen. National Library Of Medicine Recommended Formats for Bibliographic Citation. Bethesda: National Library of Medicine, 1991.
—. National Library Of Medicine Recommended Formats for Bibliographic Citation. Supplement: Internet Forms. Bethesda: National Library of Medicine, 2001.
UTORS COLUMN T '
Talking back to tutoring manuals
At a recent IWCA conference, we led a session titled "Talking back to Training Manuals: Real Tutoring in a Post-Process Writing Center." This interactive session included presentations on our tutoring experiences, then freewriting opportunities, and finally, small group discussions.
language, and then choose the appropriate strategies and tactics to communicate and facilitate writing tasks. A general methodology should allow directive tools to be used judiciously by the tutor. The tutee, in return, is asked to reflect and make choices about the strategies and tactics being offered.
Post-process refers to the body of theory which argues that writing does not always occur in the orderly stages presented by writing process theory. A number of post-process theories attribute these variant composition paths to the subject positions of student writers. These positions are determined by issues such as race, class, gender, ethnicity, religion, and culture. In conjunction with this understanding, we as tutors have been encouraged not to adhere too strictly to a formula for nondirective tutoring.
One of the free-write prompts was: "How do you determine the line between directiveness and nondirectiveness? When do you cross it?" Admittedly, these questions do not have easy answers. Consequently, a number of larger, more theoretical, concerns emerged during the small group discussions. We offer here our summaries of these concerns and follow that with excerpts from freewrites that were given to us at the end of the session.
Directiveness as a methodology vs. directiveness as a set of strategies/tactics
In the writing center, we need to assess students individually, measure their responses, their silences when they are asked to reflect on their writing, their body
"I think we fool ourselves to think that we can't teach—that tutoring is rarefied. What we practice . . . is the collaborative nature of tutoring —the Vygoskian/Piagetian perspective to move from the point of the student's knowing and build access to the new known."
Non-directiveness is based on assumed levels and types of literacy
Non-directiveness can appear a "guessing-game," especially to students who come to the center specifically seeking to advance their levels of academic literacy. In these situations, tutors are constructed by tutees as possessors of knowledge, and tutees expect the tutors to share that knowledge with them. How the tutor communicates boundaries created by nondirective principles can determine whether students decide to return to the writing center.
"It's often difficult to make directed comments, because it may appear unethical, but often difficult to avoid because many students cannot reflect on knowledge and experiences that they do not have."
"It seems like the rule is don't do something for others that they can
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do for themselves. . . . This has to be determined by the tutor's judgment."
"Student's don't have the knowledge to put their struggles into words. . . . We can't assume literacy levels that allow nondirective approaches."
Direct vs. directive
Here "direct" suggests honest communication with the student writer. Sometimes these direct tutor responses are directive; participants also offered ways to be direct, honest, and non-directive in giving reader response to their tutees. Students may need us to model, and this need not be considered directive if the modeling is simply offered as an option. Furthermore, when faced with time constraints, a tutor should directly offer choices to the tutee about what should be addressed in the session.
"Directive tutoring allows me to teach them correct uses in the context of their own writing. Often this leads to students finding and connecting similar problems in other places."
"If you don't write on the paper, they go home and it's lost."
We thank the participants for allowing us to share their thoughts from what was a lively discussion. May it spark as lively an exploration in your setting.
Paula Braun, Courtney Patterson, and Sarah Abst University of Toledo Toledo, Ohio
New frontiers: Class projects, collaboration, and taking the writing center to the classroom
As a longtime tutor in the Center for Writing and Thinking (CWT) at College of the Ozarks, once or twice a semester, I brace myself for the annual onslaught of what we call "corn" and "water penny" papers. Several professors, mostly in the agriculture and science departments, assign their classes research projects, which culminate in a paper on corn commodities or water penny experiments. They also require their students to obtain a reader's response from the CWT as part of the assignment. While these types of assignments help to raise students' awareness about writing in their disciplines and the help the CWT can provide, the writing assistants groan when we know a "water penny" paper due date is approaching, because it means we'll be inundated with dozens of biology students hoping to get their papers read at the last minute.
professor from the science department to lay the groundwork for such a program. I met personally with the professor to clarify my understanding of his expectations for the assignment and to set up a game plan. He was teaching two classes of about forty students each and was requiring them to conduct group experiments and produce individual papers. He wanted the students to carefully organize their papers and to include a clear introduction, hypothesis, discussion of methods and materials, and a concluding discussion of the experiment. The professor especially wanted our tutors to focus on the introduction and discussion aspects of the papers.
moved from student to student, helping with specific concerns and questions. Others, like me, began by asking the students to read their hypotheses aloud. I found the students eager to ask questions and quick to participate. Many of them found that they had neglected to form a hypothesis at all, but by talking to other students, they were able to understand the professor's expectations.
This semester, the Director of the CWT, Elise Bishop, and I experimented with a program called Tutors in the Classroom. A seminar presented by Robert Barnett provided an introduction to the program, and I followed up by contacting his writing center to learn the specifics of how its tutors conducted their Tutors in the Classroom program. We shorted the program's name to TIC and tailored it to our needs.
We hoped that TIC would allow the CWT to handle large groups of student papers without requiring each student to come to the CWT for an individual reader response. Having students work in small groups with tutors as group leaders would provide structured assistance when students needed it, but would encourage students to exchange ideas about their projects, making the exercise collaborative and self-sponsored. I began communicating with a
Equipped with these expectations, I returned to the CWT and prepared a fact sheet for each of the tutors participating in TIC. This sheet included a summary of the professor's expectations of the papers, as well as suggestions for how to conduct a group discussion of a good hypothesis, support, and conclusion. A day or so before we were to make our class visit, the tutors gathered over lunch time for an hour of food and orientation. I used this time to pass out copies of the project assignment and the fact sheets and to tell the tutors what to expect when conducting their group tutorials. We reviewed the components of good hypotheses and conclusions so that the tutors would feel comfortable discussing them.
Once our tutors (about eight) had assembled in the classroom, the professor divided his students into groups of about five to eight students, sending them each with a tutor to separate parts of the classroom. Tutors then took several different approaches to the session. Some of them instructed the students to exchange papers and work through peer reviews while he or she
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As we anticipated, students came to class with papers of varying qualities, but most were eager to write a good paper and to put forth the effort necessary to succeed. Students who approached the class with a negative attitude soon realized their papers would not make the grade if they did not understand or work toward meeting the assignment. Our tutors facilitated discussion between students who ordinarily would not have troubled to compare ideas or approaches. As a result, those students who had not invested much effort in their projects were spurred into action by realizing that others' papers were much better; students who had good papers could refine their points and elicit specific help from tutors.
The students responded positively to the in-class tutorials, saying that they felt more prepared to turn in a good project after working with the tutors. Many students had been confused about the professor's expectations for the project but were relieved to be able to work with a tutor to alleviate some of their confusion. The professor felt his students would turn in a better project because they had put more work, revisions, and thought into them with the help of TIC.
A program such as TIC allows the CWT to expand its borders beyond its physical location. A mobile unit such
as TIC, besides being more convenient and time-efficient for projects in large classes, allows students to discuss their papers among themselves and receive more feedback than if they were simply required to make a trip to the writing center. An open discussion of students' papers facilitates a comfortable yet critical environment in which students can compare papers, discuss expectations, and get feedback from peer tutors. TIC seeks to allow such an environment to exist and to create a situation in which students are free to ask questions and respond to each other and the tutors. TIC allows peer tutors to come to students on their own terms, in a space and atmosphere they are comfortable with.
compare their papers with others, and increase their awareness of how to write a good paper. The group workshops that occur create active learning and collaboration, better revisions, and, ultimately, better writers.
Obviously, TIC does not allow the kind of specialized attention to a paper or student that an individualized reader's response does, and it is not intended to do so. Taking tutors into the classroom does allow large groups of students producing similar papers to address their problems with a tutor,
Kelly Wisecup College of the Ozarks Point Lookout, MO
Assistant Director of the Center for Writing Instruction Yale University
The Center for Writing Instruction coordinates a new program for writing across the curriculum and also provides tutoring for undergraduate writers. We seek an Assistant Director who can contribute to both aspects of the Center's mission, preferably one who can also enhance our support of writers for whom English is a second language through tutoring, supervising other tutors, and designing workshops for ESL students. Responsibilities include helping faculty shape discipline-based writing courses, leading workshops for writing teachers, teaching a discipline-based writing course, and developing materials for ESL teaching and tutoring.
Ph.D. and teaching experience required; experience coaching writing teachers or tutors desirable. Salary
Director, Tutoring Center Bucks County Community College
(#090104-51205)
Required: Masters Degree in English or Mathematics, two to four years tutoring center experience, some administrative experience, and formal training in tutoring center theory and practice.
Preferred: Experience in higher education; knowledge of the applications of instructional technology; experience with community college students; demonstrated participation in college activities; and commitment to the institution expected.
Please submit a cover letter, resume, and the names of at least three references with telephone numbers and e-mail addresses to the Director of Human Resources, Bucks County Community College, 275 Swamp Rd., Newtown, PA 18901 or via email to email@example.com. Applicant review will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. The link for further information is <http://www.bucks.edu/about/employ/ current.html>.
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commensurate with qualifications. Application deadline is February 14, 2005.
Apply online at <www.yale.edu/jobs> with cv, up to 5 pages of relevant teaching or administrative materials, and cover letter to Corey Rossman. Please reference Source Code EAWCD21348 when applying. Alternately, you may send your materials to: Corey Rossman, Staffing and Career Development Department, Yale University, P.O. Box 208256, New Haven, CT 06520-8256. Yale University is an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity Employer, and women and members of minority groups are strongly encouraged to apply.
A (re)cognition of peerness as friendship
One Friday afternoon last semester, I had an awkward encounter in the writing center. A male graduate student came to the center shortly after twelve o'clock. We had just closed for the weekend, and the other graduate laboratory assistants I work with had left, but I stayed to pack up my books for an afternoon class. At first, he popped his head through the doorway and asked if we were still open. Referring him to our posted hours and explaining that I was on my way to a graduate seminar, I apologized, but firmly said, "We're closed." Instead of leaving or asking to make an appointment for Monday morning, he began a lengthy explanation of why he needed immediate help—his paper was already a week late, he had been out of town, and his professor had unrealistically high expectations. Like many frantic writers, he argued that he would only need a few minutes of my time because he only needed grammar help. After five minutes or so, in his last plea for me to read his paper, he said, "Come on, baby, you could have read my paper by now."
he leave, too. I left that afternoon with a general sense of unease about my position as a writing tutor.
Linda Shamoon, Deborah Burns, John Trimbur, and others identify varied "problems with peerness." Still, many of their essays assume collaboration can be achieved among writers and tutors because we are "peers." Shamoon and Burns, for instance, argue that "[t]rue collaboration occurs when the participants are 'part of the same discourse community and meet as equals'" (175). Equality can be achieved in a number of ways, but the term implies that participants share responsibility, knowledge, or activity in the writing conference. Most often, equality presumes peerness, that writers and tutors are basically the same (both are students who do academic writing). Although faculty and professional adjuncts may tutor, students more generally staff writing centers. What I am questioning is whether the simple categorization of "student" implies peerness.
This statement, taken with his aggressive postures and behavior, could hardly be evidence of "peerness." This male student never asked my name nor indicated his; neither did he listen when I proposed alternate solutions, such as talking with his professor, asking a friend to read his paper, or making an appointment for Monday morning. To him, I was merely a service provider. And he was annoyed that I was unwilling to be at his service. Finally, the writing center director (and the professor of my afternoon class) used her authority as faculty to say she was locking the door and both of us were leaving for class. Only then did
Earlier on that same Friday, I had two relatively successful conferences in the writing center. First, I worked with a sophomore political science major from an introductory government course. She wanted to brainstorm ideas of how a classical liberal theorist would critique the American model of representation. Then, a student from Thailand, who was enrolled in firstyear English for ESL students, brought a three-paragraph, summary-connection-analysis paper to revise. I had previously worked with both students. This was my third conference with the sophomore (I'll call her Faith) and perhaps my tenth with the first-year student (Cindy). Both writers and I were constructing positive working relationships built on trust, mutual interests, and developing friendship. Considering our relationships, I suspect that collaboration and co-learning are influenced less by peerness or "status equality" (Gillam 50) than by the fact that we enjoy one another's company. While theorists often characterize writing center work as peer tutoring, inequalities exist according to academic standing, writing experience, confidence, and familiarity in the tutorial. Additionally, identity groupings such as race, class, and gender interfere with peerness. Drawing on experiences from my own tutoring, I am suggesting an alternate model for characterizing relationships: rather than considering tutors and writers to be peers, we should promote interactions based on friendship.
Writing center scholars Kenneth Bruffee, Alice Gillam, Diane Morrow,
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Peer status may be broken down by a number of differences between writer and tutor. Of primary importance is the matter of academic standing. Firstyear undergraduates and doctoral candidates are both "students," but there are a number of years, courses, and completed assignments separating them. Trimbur's "Peer Tutoring: A Contradiction in Terms?" accurately describes the conflicting loyalties tutors experience when invested with institutional authority. Still, Trimbur only presents undergraduate tutoring scenarios. In Georgia State's Writing Studio, our tutors are graduate students, but the majority of writers who visit us are undergraduates. This difference in academic standing exacerbates an already-recognized power imbalance.
Compounding this inequality, tutors generally have extensive writing experiences and read and write regularly (and enjoy doing so). Moreover, students sometimes ask if I am studying English, as though this disciplinary knowledge marks a person's greatness in composition. Additionally, while tutors certainly have doubts and uncertainties, as do all students at times, they have greater confidence and familiarity in the tutorial. Writing tutors know the task at hand: they are better aware of strategies and approaches to writing as well as the university's and professor's expectations for academic writing. Tutors also spend significant time in the writing center, so the space is comfortable and familiar to them. Situated in a recognizable room with work they know and perhaps enjoy, tutors are in a position of power. Writers, on the other hand, enter a new and often strange setting with difficult work ahead. In addition to differences in academic standing and writing experience, confidence and familiarity set tutors and writers apart.
My undergraduate writing center at Agnes Scott College came closer to achieving peerness, although many of the same inequalities were present. Academic standing was more equal in the sense that all tutors and writers were undergraduate students. Additionally, many tutors, myself included, represented disciplines other than English. Our multi-disciplinary writing center showed that everyone has access to writing knowledge; English majors were not somehow separated as the "good writers" on campus. While we enjoyed writing and were constantly engaged in the composition process for our own coursework, we had similar writing experiences as the students who visited the writing center. Perhaps most importantly, confidence and familiarity were more evenly distributed. The center's space allowed for students to "hang out" in the writing center and become accustomed to the setting. Many writers used the computers and free printing to work on papers. Tutors were required to see each other for tutoring. This meant that we never felt too removed from the side of the writer/tutee. We knew what it felt like to be criticized or told to scrap whole sections of text. Despite these steps toward achieving peerness among writers and tutors, inequalities remained in the writing center. The writer, for instance, was seeking help (whether it be simply a second reader or a language instructor), and the tutor was paid to help. Moreover, the tutor chose to work in the center and to spend her time there; writers, oftentimes, would prefer just to have the paper done. These differences presented serious challenges to status equality.
The limitations of peerness are illustrated in my two Friday tutoring conferences—and in the third awkward situation. In the conferences with Faith and Cindy, I was older, further along in my studies, more experienced with writing, and more certain of the space around me as well as my approach to the assignments. In the third encounter, a very different limitation to peerness arose. The male graduate student's insistent, even bullying, behavior leads me to believe that he never saw me as an equal. Instead, I was the lowly woman, reduced to "baby," who should help elevate the male to his prominent position, reinforcing the gender hierarchy. As Eileen Schell observes, women teachers have often been expected to bring feminine domestic qualities into their work—to be generous, sensitive to the needs of others, and willing to self-sacrifice (22). This particular male student expected me not only to bend the rules for him, but also to give of my own time. In this context, it was not a matter of academic standing or experience with writing that created inequality; rather, gender expectations destroyed any possibility of collaboration.
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I believe, therefore, that peerness should be conceived less as a matter of status equality and more in terms of opportunities for co-learning or shared activity in the writing conference. Bruffee conceives of peer tutoring as "a two-way street, since students' work tended to improve when they got help from peer tutors and tutors learned from the students they helped and from the activity of tutoring itself" (207). In conferences with Faith and Cindy, I learn as much from them as I believe they learn from me. Still, I would not characterize our interactions as "peer tutoring" because our motivations for and types of learning are different. Faith has said she enjoys working with me because I understand her discipline (political science) and talk out complicated arguments with her. Perhaps we gain equal satisfaction and learning from our brainstorming sessions, but Faith looks to me for disciplinary and writing knowledge, while I learn from her more about tutoring, the teaching of government at Georgia State, and the way she constructs arguments (her method is very different from mine, so I am learning a new strategy in the process of tutoring).
From Cindy, I learn about her home and culture in Thailand, her experiences in America, her understandings and methods of learning English, and her unique interests in technology (from cloning to uses of the Internet). Cindy says I help her understand the structure of American writing (from thesis statements to sentence variation). We often use the dictionary, and in the process, I learn more about English—word origins, uses, and parts of speech. By the third or fourth tutoring session, I learned that Cindy has a wonderful sense of humor, and I had missed it in her first papers. She helped me reconsider my focus when tutoring and explore why it took me some time to recognize this very important part of her personality. In both tutoring relationships, I serve as a colearner. The sessions are quasicollaborative, and I enjoy working with the writers. Nonetheless, I believe our relative success in tutoring is rooted in our enjoyment of each other's company and our subsequent open conversations about writing. Perhaps co-learning grows out of friendship more than from peerness.
Friendship (or similar interests, as Pythagoras indicates that "friends share all things," and Plato argues that "friends have all things in common") may also lead to shared active roles that counter writers' passivity and instead promote collaboration. Morrow describes writers' passivity in conferences as a limitation to her collaboration: "most students begin by assuming the tutor is in charge; most students come into the session taking a passive role" (221). In addition to waiting for the tutor to set the agenda, or "take charge," students often view tutors as authority figures (Morrow 222). When Cindy first came to the writing center, I did feel she wanted an authority, someone to teach her more about the English language and American writing. After a few sessions, however, we had developed a relationship where I served more as a second reader and occasional critic. This shift was largely achieved by asking questions so that Cindy can explain and clarify her ideas and arguments. I write while she talks, and this helps develop her language skills, while working on the assignment at hand. Now when Cindy comes to a session, she has a clear agenda and tells me what she wants to achieve.
A similar process has occurred with Faith. After a particularly rough session with her paper due later that day, she came for her next conference well in advance of the due date and with a clear agenda of what she wanted to accomplish. During our sessions, Faith uses me more as a friend when we casually talk out ideas and take rough notes from each other's suggestions. We share active roles and participation. Just as Madeline Grumet argues that "knowledge evolves in human re- lationships" (qtd. in Cambridge 75), our social interaction strengthens and even creates our understandings of composition and content. But is this related to "peerness"?
Alice Gillam similarly critiques peerness when she suggests that factors other than status equality account for collaborative relationships. She poses the question: "is . . . 'intimacy' and rapport a result of . . . 'status equality' or a product of chance factors—shared gender, ethnicity, class background, and investment in academic success?" (50). Faith, Cindy, and I come from different ethnic and class backgrounds, but we do care about school and share commitments of doing well in classes. Gender undoubtedly influences our work together. Neither Faith nor Cindy would ever call me "baby" or ask me to change the rules and sacrifice my personal time. Just as they trust me to be sincere and to help in the best way I can, I trust them to respect that I am a fully feeling and thinking person, not just "a tutor" in the writing center. Our working relationships have developed through learning about and respecting each other. We will never be "peers" in the sense that many writing center theorists might describe us because our school and writing experiences create divisions. It is in life experience and our basic humanity that we find equality. Rather than striving for peerness (sameness), we should get to know writers as people and work toward friendship.
Beth Godbee Georgia State University Atlanta, GA
Works Cited
Bruffee, Kenneth A. "Peer Tutoring and the 'Conversation of Mankind.'" Writing Centers: Theory and Administration. Urbana: NCTE, 1984. Rpt. in The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing Center Theory and Practice. Ed. Robert W. Barnett and Jacob
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S. Blumner. Needham Heights: Allyn and Bacon, 2001. 206-218. Cambridge, Barbara. "Bitter Milk: Lessons for the Writing Center." Writing Center Journal (Fall 1993): 75-80.
Gillam, Alice M. "Collaborative Learning Theory and Peer Tutoring Practice." Intersections: Theory-Practice in the Writing Center. Ed. Joan A. Mullin and Ray Wallace. Urbana: NCTE, 1994. 39-53.
Morrow, Diane Stelzer. "Tutoring Writing: Healing or What?" College Composition and Communication 42.2 (May 1991): 218229.
Schell, Eileen E. Gypsy Academics and Mother-Teachers: Gender, Contingent Labor, and Writing Instruction. Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook, 1998.
Shamoon, Linda K., and Deborah H. Burns. "A Critique of Peer Tutoring." Writing Center Journal 15.2 (1995): 134-151. Rpt. in The St. Martin's Sourcebook for Writing Tutors. Ed. Christina Murphy and Steve Sherwood. 2 nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2003. 175-190.
Trimbur, John. "Peer Tutoring: A Contradiction in Terms?" Writing Center Journal 7.2 (1987): 21-28. Rpt. in The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing Center Theory and Practice. Ed. Robert W. Barnett and Jacob S. Blumner. Needham Heights: Allyn and Bacon, 2001. 288-295.
Assistant Director—University Writing Center Middle Tennessee State University
POS. # 155010 REQ. # P2841=20
Responsibilities: Reporting to the Director, the Assistant Director oversees the daily operations of the University Writing Center. The Assistant Director creates and maintains statistical databases and reports, reconciles and maintains the department budget, assists to hire, train, evaluate and counsel tutors and support staff. Develops study aids, forms, databases and discipline-specific handouts, maintains accurate reports, databases and files and will teach in the University Writing Center and the English department as assigned. Performs related special projects as assigned.
Qualifications: Masters degree in Composition/ Rhetoric, English, or a related field and two years writing center or teaching composition experience required. Requires the ability to supervise and train staff, establish effective working relationships with
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Muriel Harris, editor Department of English Purdue University 500 Oval Drive West Lafayette, IN 47907-2038
Address Service Requested
diverse populations, and multi-task in a fast paced environment. Able to express ideas concisely and convincingly with a broad knowledge of computer applications, database management, statistical analysis, and reporting methods required.
Salary range: $31,658—$37,989 Commensurate with experience.
Filing procedure: Interested applicants should submit the following required materials: (1) a cover letter indicating interest in the position (SPECIFY ABOVE JOB TITLE AND POSITION NUMBER IN YOUR LETTER); (2) a complete resume and (3) an MTSU Application for Employment Form (available by printing off the Internet at: <http://hrs.web.mtsu.edu/empl/ profes.html> or by calling (615-898-2928). Official school transcripts will be required of candidates selected for an interview.
Filing deadline: February 14, 2005
Non-profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Purdue University
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A public hearing of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen was held on Tuesday, September 25, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. in the Town Hall Board Room.
Present and presiding:
WATER CONSERVATION
Mayor Chilton encouraged extreme water conservation due to the current drought.
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10 th ANNUAL CARRBORO MUSIC FESTIVAL
Mayor Chilton invited citizens to attend the Carrboro Music Festival scheduled for Sunday, September 30 th .
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CONTINUATION OF THE PUBLIC HEARING ON THE CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT REQUEST FOR THE COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT PROPOSED FOR 405 JONES FERRY ROAD
Northwest Property Group is requesting a conditional use permit for a commercial development consisting of three (3) buildings. One building (proposed grocery store) will be 52,250 square feet in size and the second building (labeled as Building A), consisting of eleven (11) individual shops, will be 17,550 square feet in size. The third building (labeled as Building B), consisting of five (5) individual shops, will be 7,900 square feet in size. The Board of Aldermen held a public hearing on September 18 on this matter and continued it to tonight's meeting.
James Thomas, one of the town's Development Review Specialists, presented a revised site plan submitted by the applicant showing a revised Barnes Street entrance/exit to the project. This entrance/exit was moved approximately 160 feet closer to Jones Ferry Road. He stated that the town staff had contacted NCDOT regarding a proposal by the neighborhood to move this entrance/exit closer to Jones Ferry Road. NCDOT responded that they most likely would issue a driveway permit for that entrance/exit location. He stated that the applicant had submitted responses to the advisory board recommendations.
George Retschle with Ballentine Associates answered a question about property that had just recently been purchased by the Wilkerson's.
Elizabeth Carter was sworn in. She stated that there are currently no sidewalks or place for children to play, children wait for the bus at Prince and King Streets, that this project will have a negative impact on her neighborhood, that she feels this neighborhood has been neglected by the town, and that the intersection of Jones Ferry and Barnes St. is very unsafe when cars are turning left onto Barnes St.
Ben Davis, a resident of 115 Barnes St., was sworn. He read a letter from James and Penny Weaver, residents of Prince Street. Their letter expressed concern about the safety of getting into and out of their neighborhood. Mr. Davis stated that there was a way to have two entrances on Jones Ferry Road, and asked for sidewalks and a traffic signal at the Barnes/Jones Ferry Road intersection.
Lindsay Griffin presented a petition from residents of Lincoln Park and other Carrboro residents urging the Board not to approve this conditional use permit unless the following conditions were met:
1. No vehicular access to the Shoppes at Jones Ferry from Barnes Street;
2. 100% of stormwater created from this should be treated onsite; and
3. The town agrees to address wider safety issues surrounding the project.
In addition, the petition stated that they endorse the numerous recommendations resulting from the Joint Advisory Board meetings on September 6, 2007, including the addition of several bike racks, the provision of pedestrian access points to adjoining apartment complexes, and the redesign of the building exteriors to reflect a Carrboro aesthetic.
James Carnahan, Chair of the Planning Board, was sworn in. He suggested that the Planning Board's recommendation that the applicant make façade treatment and signage of storefronts along Jones Ferry Road and Barnes Street to reflect Carrboro's historic vernacular as found along the 100 block of East Main Street and in the historic Carr Mill building would be very easy to accomplish. He stated that the Planning Board had also recommended that the developer provide some of the shops along Jones Ferry and Barnes Street with ceilings high enough to enable construction of mezzanine areas with eight-foot ceilings such as are found at Cameron's and Kitchen Works in University Mall.
Ester McCauley, a resident of 207 Barnes St, was sworn in. She suggested that the developer should have worked with the neighborhood in preparing their development plan. She also suggested that the town should have done traffic and pedestrian counts in Lincoln Park.
Robert Dow stated that the cost of this development is too high and it is too much to ask the Lincoln Park neighborhood to accept. He urged rejection of this application.
Marty Roupe, the town's Zoning Administrator, was sworn in. He stated that NCDOT's initial response was that this project did not meet the warrants for a traffic signal at the Jones Ferry/Barnes Street intersection, but they expressed a willingness to further discuss this matter.
Lyle Overcash was sworn in. He stated that his firm had prepared the traffic impact analysis for the proposed development. He stated that, based on the traffic problems in the TIA, it does not meet signal warrants. He stated that the developer is willing to install a traffic signal at the Barnes/Jones Ferry Road intersection if NCDOT will give their permission.
Diane Robertson was sworn in. She spoke against the proposed development and stated that she felt this development would undermine the vernacular of Carrboro.
Robert Kirschner stated that he supports a traffic light in the vicinity of this development as well as commercial development on this property. He noted that Carrboro does need the development and spoke in favor of a pedestrian entrance at the back of the development.
Elizabeth Carter stated that she supports growth, but does not support being insensitive to current residents, and asked that residents be informed on upcoming developments.
Mr. Stewart stated that the developer held a neighborhood meeting in April 2007.
Bruce Ballentine stated that he felt that a traffic signal would be installed if the town requests it. He stated that the applicant would agree to install the traffic signal.
George Seiz, the town's Public Works Director, was sworn in. He stated that there were 67 locations identified as part of the sidewalk bond program and Barnes, King, and Prince Streets were included in the 67. He stated that these streets are not currently ranked.
Lindsay Griffin stated that the Lincoln Park neighborhood needs sidewalks regardless of whether this development is built and expressed concern about any commercial access off Barnes Street.
Betty James, a Whispering Hills property owner, was sworn in. She expressed concern about residents of Lincoln Park cutting through her neighborhood to access South Greensboro Street or Smith Level Road.
Bruce Ballentine stated that the applicant has a purchase option that will expire very shortly. He stated that the contract with the current property owner expires on October 1 st and asked that the Board act on this application before that date.
MOTION WAS MADE BY JOHN HERRERA AND SECONDED BY ALEX ZAFFRON TO CLOSE THE PUBLIC HEARING. VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE ALL
Adena Messinger, the town's Transportation Planner, stated that the NCDOT Policy on Street and Driveway Access to North Carolina Highways states that: "On state-maintained roads, the minimum distance between the centerlines of full movement driveways into developments that generate high traffic volumes should be at least 600 feet."
MOTION WAS MADE BY RANDEE HAVEN-O'DONNELL AND SECONDED BY DAN COLEMAN TO RE-OPEN THE PUBLIC HEARING. AFFIRMATIVE FOUR, NEGATIVE THREE (ZAFFRON, HERRERA, BROUN)
Robert Dow stated that ingress only off Barnes Street was denied by Harris Teeter with no strong indication from NCDOT that they will agree to installation of a traffic signal. He stated that he did not feel the neighbors would have a problem with an emergency access off Barnes Street.
Joe Farrar was sworn in. He stated that he did not feel the developer would walk away from this project and asked if three driveways could be put on Jones Ferry Road.
Marty Roupe stated that NCDOT would not even approve a second driveway.
MOTION WAS MADE BY DAN COLEMAN AND SECONDED BY JOAL HALL BROUN TO CLOSE THE PUBLIC HEARING. VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE ALL
MOTION WAS MADE BY ALEX ZAFFRON AND SECONDED BY JOHN HERRERA THAT THE APPLICATION IS COMPLETE. VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE ALL
MOTION WAS MADE BY ALEX ZAFFRON AND SECONDED BY JOHN HERRERA THAT THE APPLICATION COMPLIES WITH ALL APPLICABLE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAND USE ORDINANCE. VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE ALL
MOTION WAS MADE BY ALEX ZAFFRON AND SECONDED BY JOHN HERRERA THAT IF THE APPLICATION IS GRANTED, THE PERMIT SHALL BE ISSUED SUBJECT TO THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS:
1. The applicant shall complete the development strictly in accordance with the plans submitted to and approved by this Board, a copy of which is filed in the Carrboro Town Hall. Any deviations from or changes in these plans must be submitted to the Development Review Administrator in writing and specific written approval obtained as provided in Section 15-64 of the Land Use Ordinance.
2. If any of the conditions affixed hereto or any part thereof shall be held invalid or void, then this permit shall be void and of no effect.
3. That the applicant must obtain a driveway permit from Town of Carrboro and NCDOT prior to Construction Plan approval.
4. That the applicant shall provide to the Zoning Division, prior to the release of the Certificate of Occupancy or before the release of a bond if some features are not yet in place at the time of wishing to obtain the Certificate of Occupancy, Mylar and digital as-builts for the stormwater features of the project. Digital as-builts shall be DXF format and shall include a base map of the whole project and all separate plan sheets. As-built DXF files shall include all layers or tables containing storm drainage features. Storm drainage features will be clearly delineated in a data table. The data will be tied to horizontal controls.
5. That fire flow calculations and building-sprinkler design (as required) must be submitted and approved by the Town Engineer and Town Fire Department prior to construction plan approval.
6. That an engineer must verify compliance with LUO Section 15-243(d)'s light pollution limits of 0.2 foot candles across property lines by sealing a plan for all proposed lighting prior to Construction Plan approval.
7. That the Appearance Commission review the proposed outdoor seating area and fountain at the corner of Barnes Street and Jones Ferry Road as a courtesy review prior to installation.
8. That additional right-of-way at the corner of Barnes Street and Jones Ferry Road be dedicated to the Town of Carrboro and NCDOT for the possible future installation of a round about at this intersection prior to the Certificate of Occupancy being issued for the proposed buildings. Amount right of way dedication shall be sufficient to construct 120 foot diameter roundabout.
9. That all temporary and/or permanent construction and drainage easements be obtained prior to Construction Plan approval. The storm water easement on University Lake Apartments shall be reviewed and approved by the Town Attorney and must include language specifically disclosing that the property owner has received and acknowledged the complete stormwater report (stormwater plans, calculations, etc) for the project.
10. That the proposed sidewalk along Barnes Street be constructed as proposed in the original application and that additional street right-of-way be dedicated to the town, if necessary, prior to construction plan approval to construct the sidewalk.
11. That per Section 15-291 of the LUO, the Board of Aldermen hereby finds that 348 parking spaces is sufficient to serve the proposed development, based on information submitted by the applicant regarding proximity to both nearby residential neighborhoods and bus lines.
12. That curb stops be added to parking areas adjacent to landscaping and sidewalks per Sections 15295(b) and 15-317(d) of the LUO prior to Construction Plan approval.
13. That curb stops be added to parking areas adjacent to landscaping and sidewalks per Sections 15295(b) and 15-317(d) of the LUO prior to Construction Plan approval.
14. That prior to issuance of Construction Plan approval, the applicant must continue to work with the Town and NCDOT on improving the Jones Ferry Road / Barnes Street intersection. The applicant hereby agrees to install a traffic signal prior to receiving a Certificate of Occupancy if permitted by NCDOT and / or other possible improvements to the intersection, as determined necessary in the granting of a driveway permit.
15. That the applicant relocate the Barnes Street entrance/exit closer to Jones Ferry Road as shown in Attachment D of the September 25, 2007 agenda item. Attachment D must be recorded with the CUP as an attached exhibit. The relocated entrance/exit onto Barnes Street will be reviewed and approved by town staff and the town engineer prior to Construction Plan Approval. If changes to the schematic design are necessary, then such changes are subject to LUO Section 15-64, including the possibility of an additional public hearing. This relocated entrance/exit will be restricted to emergency use only and that appropriate bollards or other physical devices shall be erected to prevent the movement of traffic other than emergency vehicles.
16. That the applicant include a more diverse selection of landscaping plantings.
17. That the applicant include more North Carolina native plantings.
18. That the applicant provide more bike racks in high-visibility locations.
19. That the developer provide pedestrian "stub-outs" to facilitate future walking connections with Carolina Apartments and University Lake Apartments.
20. That the developer add two more "tree islands" by eliminating eight (8) parking spaces at the center of the vehicle accommodation area, to be planted with shade tree varieties.
21. That all buildings should utilize Energy Star rated reflective roofs.
22. That the developer provide some of the shops along Jones Ferry and Barnes Street with ceilings high enough to enable construction of mezzanine areas with eight (8) foot ceilings (such as are found at Cameron's and Kitchen Works in University Mall).
23. That the developer re-design and expand paving areas outside and adjacent to the storefronts along Jones Ferry and Barnes Street so that some merchants will have room for outdoor activities.
24. That the developer provide one additional stair to connect the Jones Ferry sidewalk with the paving along the storefronts.
25. That the developer provide a sheltered waiting area for the bus stop along Jones Ferry Road.
26. That the developer explore with staff ways to maximize safety for pedestrians and cyclists at both ingress/egress locations of the vehicle accommodation area.
27. That the number of covered bike parking spaces in front of the Harris Teeter building is increased to 18 and the other shops will have a minimum three bike racks with a minimum capacity of six bikes such that one of those racks is near the proposed fountain and the other two are in front of the shops and that some of those spaces are covered. The developer should look at the recommendations on file with the town for types of acceptable bicycle racks.
28. That there will be pavement markings and a minimum of two speed humps internal to the site to slow traffic and increase awareness of pedestrian movement.
29. That all crosswalks are designed for maximum visibility using paint and texture.
30. That there be a sheltered waiting area for E-Z Rider patrons.
31. That raised concrete or planted medians are used on Jones Ferry where the current plan show painted striping for the turn lanes.
32. Soon after occupancy and for a period of up to one year the applicant will conduct traffic counts on Jones Ferry Road and Barnes Street to reevaluate the need for a traffic signal.
33. That the applicant refer to Appendix E of the Carrboro Land Use Ordinances which provides a suggested list for native plants for landscaping.
34. That the applicant work with the town staff to provide pedestrian and bicycle connectivity to surrounding neighborhoods in cooperation with neighbors.
35. That the applicant extend pedestrian access to adjacent residential properties.
36. That during the construction process that all contractors and subcontractors be made aware of the town's noise ordinance as it pertains to construction and that the tenants of the development also be made aware of the noise, light and odor ordinances as they pertain to surrounding residential neighborhoods.
37. That all construction traffic be limited to access from Jones Ferry Road and that appropriate signage be installed indicting where construction traffic may and may not go.
VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE SIX, NEGATIVE ONE (BROUN)
MOTION WAS MADE BY ALEX ZAFFRON AND SECONDED BY JOHN HERRERA TO GRANT THE APPLICATION SUBJECT TO THE CONDITIONS AGREED UPON ABOVE. VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE SIX, NEGATIVE ONE (BROUN)
Mayor Chilton asked that the town staff schedule an agenda item for the Board to consider a sidewalk for Barnes Street in relation to the sidewalk priority list and stated that he would work with the town to discuss the possibility of installing a traffic signal at the Jones Ferry/Barnes Street intersection. Alderman Zaffron offered his assistance in contacting NCDOT.
Mayor Chilton also asked that the town staff schedule a Board discussion of the zoning for the Barnes Street area.
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PUBLIC HEARING ON THE CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT REQUEST FOR THE COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT AT 609 HIGHWAY 54 WEST
W3W, LLC is requesting a conditional use permit for two commercial buildings at 609 Hwy. 54 West. The first building is an existing one-story masonry building that is 3,200 square feet in size. The second building will be 3,000 square feet prefab metal-type building. It was necessary for the Board of Aldermen to hold a public hearing prior to taking action on this permit.
James Thomas, one of the town's Zoning Development Specialists, was sworn in and made the presentation.
Robert Kirschner was sworn in. He expressed concern about the appearance of the prefab building but spoke in support of commercial development.
Mike Brough stated that the town staff approached the applicant about voluntary annexation, but the applicant declined.
MOTION WAS MADE BY JOAL HALL BROUN AND SECONDED BY JOHN HERRERA TO CLOSE THE PUBLIC HEARING. VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE ALL
MOTION WAS MADE BY ALEX ZAFFRON AND SECONDED BY JOAL HALL BROUN THAT THE APPLICATION IS COMPLETE. VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE ALL
MOTION WAS MADE BY ALEX ZAFFRON AND SECONDED BY JOHN HERRERA THAT THE APPLICATION COMPLIES WITH ALL APPLICABLE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAND USE ORDINANCE. VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE ALL
MOTION WAS MADE BY ALEX ZAFFRON AND SECONDED BY JOHN HERRERA THAT IF THE APPLICATION IS GRANTED THE PERMIT SHALL BE ISSUED SUBJECT TO THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS:
1. The applicant shall complete the development strictly in accordance with the plans submitted to and approved by this Board, a copy of which is filed in the Carrboro Town Hall. Any deviations from or changes in these plans must be submitted to the Development Review Administrator in writing and specific written approval obtained as provided in Section 15-64 of the Land Use Ordinance.
2. If any of the conditions affixed hereto or any part thereof shall be held invalid or void, then this permit shall be void and of no effect.
3. That the applicant must obtain a driveway permit from NCDOT prior to construction plan approval.
4. That the applicant shall provide to the town's Zoning Division, prior to the release of a bond if some features are not yet in place at the time of wishing to obtain the certificate of occupancy, Mylar and digital as-builts for the stormwater features of the project. Digital as-builts shall be DXF format and shall include a base map of the whole project and all separate plan sheets. As-built DXF files shall include all layers or tables containing storm drainage features. Storm drainage features will be clearly delineated in a data table. The data will be tied to horizontal controls.
5. That prior to construction plan approval, an engineer certify that the impervious surface of the proposed development does not surpass twenty-four percent (24%).
6. That cut-off lighting fixtures shall be used.
VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE ALL
MOTION WAS MADE BY ALEX ZAFFRON AND SECONDED BY JOHN HERRERA TO GRANT THE APPLICATION SUBJECT TO THE CONDITIONS AGREED UPON ABOVE. VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE ALL
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REQUEST FOR LAND USE ORDINANCE TEXT AMENDMENT
Mayor Chilton stated that he had been approached by the owner of Furniture Follies about relocating his business from the White Cross area to the Cleora Sterling building, which is located in the Carrboro city limits. He stated that the current zone for that property will not allow for his business.
Mike Brough stated that a text amendment application had been filed with the town staff regarding this matter.
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MOTION WAS MADE BY JOAL HALL BROUN AND SECONDED BY JOHN HERRERA TO RECESS THIS MEETING TO 6:45 P.M. ON OCTOBER 2, 2007 TO DISCUSS A PERSONNEL MATTER. VOTE: AFFIRMATIVE ALL
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Mayor
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Town Clerk
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The East Jerusalem School System – Annual Status Report September 2011
Overview
Despite the Israeli government's obligation to provide free education, thousands of children in East Jerusalem remain outside of the school system each year. The continued neglect of the Arab school system in Jerusalem has caused:
* a severe shortage of classrooms, teaching in crowded classrooms – many in inadequate buildings,
* thousands of children, who have no other choice, attending unofficial schools, where they have to pay tremendous fees to receive the education they should have been getting for free. 1
* high dropout rates
The East Jerusalem school system has suffered from severe neglect for many years. Therefore any solution of the resulting problems requires a deep overhaul and a comprehensive long-term plan to overcome the ongoing failure of the authorities. Although there has been a certain amount of progress recently by the authorities, the change comes decades too late and, for the moment, is moving too slowly.
This paper represents an annual update on the status of various aspects of the education system. Ir Amim and ACRI continue to monitor, document and act for the full realization of the basic constitutional right of the tens of thousands of children of East Jerusalem to a decent education.
General figures
Five types of schools exist in East Jerusalem. The official and recognized schools are supervised and funded (in whole or in part) by Israeli authorities. The Waqf and UNWRA schools fall under the supervision of the Palestinian educational system. All schools use the Palestinian curriculum.
1 See "Failed Grade: Palestinian Education System in East Jerusalem," (2010 August 2010) available at: http://www.ir-amim.org.il/Eng/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/FailedGrade.pdf http://www.acri.org.il/pdf/EJeducation2010en.pdf
East Jerusalem Schools by Type
| | Type of School | Number of schools |
|---|---|---|
| Official public schools (run by Jerusalem Education Administration – MANHI in Hebrew) "Recognized but unofficial" schools Private schools (based on parental payments) Waqf schools UNWRA schools TOTAL SCHOOLS IN EAST JERUSALEM | | |
Distribution of students in Jerusalem
The Arab education system in Jerusalem has 88,000 students from kindergarten to 12th grade. Following is the breakdown of students in each stream of education.
Distribution of Palestinian Students by Type of School
| Type of School | | Number of |
|---|---|---|
| | | students |
| Official public schools "Recognized but unofficial" schools Private, Waqf and UNRWA schools2 Students not registered in any system SCHOOL-AGE POPULATION EAST JERUSALEM | 42,000 26,000 20,000 4,387 92,387 | |
According to the Jerusalem Municipality Educational Almanac for the previous school year, 4,387 Arab children are not registered in any educational institution, and have dropped out of the system. That group constitutes 5.27% of the cohort of children who are supposed to be in educational frameworks in East Jerusalem. 3
In comparison, the Jewish education system in Jerusalem has 154,000 students, of which: 96,000 students are in Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) recognized but unofficial education 58,000 students are in public education
Therefore, the number of students in the official and the "recognized but unofficial" schools in East Jerusalem (not including private schools) is 1.17 higher than the number of Jewish students in public education (not including Haredi education).
2 Jerusalem Municipality Educational Almanac (2010-2011) and conversation from August 22, 2011 with MANHI East Jerusalem.
3 For details see footnote 1.
Shortage of classrooms and demand of tuition refund
In February 2011 the Israeli Supreme Court accepted the petition of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), demanding the State bear the cost of tuition for children from East Jerusalem who have to go to "recognized but unofficial" schools because of the severe shortage of classrooms in the official schools (HCJ 5373/08 Abu Libdeh et al v Minister of Education et al, ruling given on February 6, 2011).
Justice Procaccia described the situation of the education system in Jerusalem and strongly criticized the authorities' behavior:
"The figures presented above indicate that there are presently 40,000 children entitled to free official education in East Jerusalem who do not attend official schools but alternative ones. At least some of them turned to alternative education after they were rejected by the official system because of a shortage of sufficient infrastructures of buildings and teaching staff… It appears that the right of many children in East Jerusalem to receive an official education for free is not being fulfilled and at this point the authorities are not fully meeting their legal obligation to give every child in Israel a free official education… This situation violates the constitutional right of children in East Jerusalem for equality in education… The violation of the right to equality in education in East Jerusalem is not the plight of a few. It is the plight of a significant portion of an entire sector of the population, which is not able to exercise a basic right it is afforded by law and the constitutional values of Israeli law.
"The competent authorities are well aware of the severe violation of the rights of the children of East Jerusalem for equality in education and are acting sincerely and with a sense of commitment to rectify the situation. But the pace of activity and the resources devoted to it indicate prospects of only a partial solution to this serious and complicated problem in the coming years." (Paragraphs 43-45 of Justice Procaccia's ruling).
Chief Justice Beinisch emphasized the ongoing failure of the authorities and its consequences for the children:
"Unfortunately, despite their efforts, the authorities in charge of education have failed to fulfill their duty to provide free education to the children of East Jerusalem… Along with the progress and the efforts made by the respondents to find solutions to the problem of the shortage of classrooms in East Jerusalem, their progress has been too slow… The result is that many children in East Jerusalem remain without appropriate educational frameworks. This outcome is unacceptable. The status and importance of the right to education require that all the relevant parties endeavor to find a prompt and effective solution to the problem."
(Paragraphs 1-4).
Therefore, the Court ordered the State to create within five years a physical infrastructure to absorb all of the East Jerusalem students who are interested in municipal schools. If after five years any student remains without a place in school, the State will have to cover the cost of their attending "recognized but unofficial" schools.
One factor that contributed to this verdict was the withdrawal on that same day of the petitions submitted in 2001 on behalf of Ir Amim, the Community Administration for the Development of Beit Hanina and hundreds of parents from East Jerusalem regarding the severe shortage of classrooms in East Jerusalem (HCJ 3834/01 Hamdan et al v Jerusalem Municipality et al). The petitions and contempt of court proceedings initiated in their wake extended for more than 10 years and were managed by Attorney Daniel Seidemann. The petitioners moved to withdraw their petitions once they concluded that the court is no longer the appropriate arena for monitoring and advancing the construction of classrooms.
Many parents and residents of East Jerusalem are pinning their hopes, mixed with concern and disappointment, on the implementation of the Abu Libdeh verdict, and hoping for an end to the neglect, the suffering and the violation of their basic rights for education and dignity. Once the verdict was given, ACRI asked the Director of the Jerusalem Education Administration (in Hebrew, "MANHI" -- a joint body of the Ministry of Education and the Municipality of Jerusalem), Mr. Danny Bar Giora, and the Deputy Director General of the Education Ministry, Dr. Itzik Tomer, to establish a special team to monitor the verdict and its implementation, in the spirit of Judge Procaccia's suggestion in section 56 of the verdict:
"The complexity of the issue and the solutions required for its rectification justify establishing a special team of experts in the competent authority to draw up a plan, set a timetable and oversee its execution to guarantee the mission of adapting the official education system in East Jerusalem to the needs of the residents is undertaken seriously, in keeping with the operative order issued in this petition."
In response to the letter, the municipality replied it is working steadily to advance construction for the students of East Jerusalem and that the director general of the municipality will hold a meeting on the subject in which the status of this issue will be determined.
In the last five years, besides resorting to the Supreme Court, a number of petitions were submitted ahead of the opening of each school year on behalf of hundreds of children from East Jerusalem who wanted to enroll in educational institutions but, because of the shortage of classrooms, were not given places in the municipal Arab education system. As part of the petitions, the municipality was asked about the placement of each and every student from the various neighborhoods. Accumulated experience has shown that even though in the first stage the families are turned away, a few days before the scheduled court hearing the Jerusalem municipality suddenly manages to find places for the children in the existing schools. Such petitions were submitted in recent years by Ir Amim, ACRI and the Al-Maqdisi Association, which may submit a similar petition this year as well.
Updated status of classroom construction
According to the 2009 State Comptroller's Report, there was a shortage of 1000 classrooms in East Jerusalem. 4 That shortage, which a decade ago was estimated to be even higher, was somewhat reduced during the years of hearings on the petitions.
An educational institution master plan for East Jerusalem, prepared by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies in 2002 at the request of the Jerusalem municipality, predicted a shortage of more than 1800 classrooms in 2010. 5
Since 2001 another 257 classroom were built in East Jerusalem, as it says in section 7 of Chief Justice Beinisch's ruling on the aforesaid Hamdan petition. Since the verdict was handed down last February, the construction of another 24 classrooms was completed. Therefore, a total of 281 classrooms have been built since 2001, which is only 15% of the estimated shortage.
Classrooms Planned and Built Under Commitment to High Court 2001 - 2011
| Years | Status | Number of |
|---|---|---|
| | | Classrooms |
In September 2011 another 33 kindergarten and school classrooms are expected to open. Furthermore, 63 more classrooms are presently under construction; 193 classrooms are in
4 State Comptroller, Annual Report 59b (May 2009), p. 624.
5 Ibid., p. 626.
planning procedures; and another 96 classrooms are in initial procedures. The total is 352 more classrooms.
The planning and construction of these classrooms is welcome in and of itself but even when construction of all the planned classrooms is completed, there will still remain a substantial gap between the needs of the growing population and the existing number of classrooms. The large gap requires a quicker, more vigorous and more effective allocation of resources to reduce it.
Below-Standard Classrooms
According to official MANHI figures, more than half of the classrooms in the Arab municipal school system (647 out of 1398) do not meet official standards. Of the 751 standard classrooms, only 573 are in standard buildings. The rest are of a standard size but are in a below-standard environment – 155 classrooms operate in rented buildings and another 23 classrooms are in mobile structures the municipality placed next to existing schools. 6
More than a quarter of the below-standard classrooms (188 out of 647) are defined as being in an "unsuitable condition," 7 about one fifth (157) are defined as being in a "fair condition" and only 155 are in a "suitable condition;" another 147 below-standard classrooms operate in rooms intended to be "extra rooms."
Discrimination in administrative budget
On September 5, 2011 ACRI submitted an amended petition to the Jerusalem Administrative Court about the current administration budgets of the official public schools in East Jerusalem. The purpose of the administration budgets is, as their name suggests, to cover the daily costs of the administration of educational institutions such as electric and water bills, photocopying, supplies, cleaning materials and so on.
In the original petition submitted exactly one year ago, ACRI relied on calculations made by MANHI, according to which there was a NIS 10,600,000 ($3,029,000) budget gap between the budget necessary for this purpose and the budget actually given to the official Arab schools. In response, the municipality said that the calculations, which, as aforesaid, were made by the municipality's own professional body, were inaccurate, were unprofessional and could not serve as the basis of a "real" financial demand.
Ahead of the discussions of the 2011 budget, MANHI says it made new, more accurate calculations, based on a needs survey conducted in several schools in East Jerusalem. According to these calculations, the gap between the budget given in 2010 and the budget
6 The figures were detailed in the East Jerusalem Education System Report: Classrooms and Curricula, Knesset Research and Information Center, May 10, 2010, p. 4.
7 The presentation the heads of MANHI gave the members of the Knesset education committee did not specify the attributes of a non-standard classroom in an unsuitable condition.
needed for the current management of the official educational institutions is NIS 4,500,000 ($1,285,714 -- compared to $3,029,000 needed the previous year).
As opposed to the MANHI recommendations, the municipality of Jerusalem did not put the full required amount in the 2011 budget but only one third of it – which is to say it added to the existing budget only NIS 1,500,000. Our repeated attempts to understand how the assessment of NIS 4,500,000 in needs was calculated and why the municipality budgeted less than its official body demanded were futile.
Therefore, on the instructions of the court, on September 5, 2011 ACRI filed an amended petition in which the court was moved to order the municipality and the Ministry of Education to reveal all of the data that led them to establish the amount of the budgetary demand and to order the municipality and the Ministry of Education to actually budget the official educational institutions in East Jerusalem according to their needs.
Discrimination in professional personnel standards
Along with the severe shortage of classrooms in the East Jerusalem school system there is also a severe shortage of professional personnel, including educational advisors, psychologists and inspectors.
In July 2011 Ir Amim and ACRI asked MANHI and the Ministry of Education to act immediately to add positions and fill them.
As detailed in our letter on the question of educational advisors, while in the education system in West Jerusalem there were 257 educational advisors at all age levels in part-time positions, in East Jerusalem there were only 12 educational advisors at all age levels, with different levels of positions. So that in West Jerusalem there were more than 21 (!) times more educational advisors than in East Jerusalem, even though the number of Jewish students in the official schools alone was less than 1.2 times the number of Arab students in the official Arab education in East Jerusalem.
As for psychologists, according to a similar computation, there should be at least 28 psychologists in East Jerusalem, rather than 16 psychologists filling only 14.5 standard positions.
Such discrimination in the number of staffed positions in critical and important professions in the education system is a severe violation of the constitutional rights of the students of East Jerusalem to equality, education and equality in education. As we wrote in our letter:
"…the condition of the education system in East Jerusalem, with its physical and substantive neglect, coupled with the harsh socioeconomic background of many of the students, would justify affirmative action resulting in an even greater number of educational advisors, higher than that required by the numerical rate of students, rather than as described."
Recently the organizations received the following baffling response from the Director General of the Education Ministry, Dr. Shimshon Shoshani, about the gap in the number of educational advisors: "The Education Ministry has done a lot in this term to improve the education system in East Jerusalem," wrote the director. "We will check your complaint as part of our priorities for improving the East Jerusalem education system and mainly on the basis of educational considerations and suitable personnel." We will continue to monitor the operative results of this vague answer.
The curriculum in East Jerusalem – attempts to change the status quo
Fears of an attempt to change the status quo arose in spring 2011, when MANHI demanded for the first time that the "recognized but unofficial" schools buy textbooks exclusively through it. These textbooks, although virtually identical to those printed under Palestinian authorities, use somewhat altered political terminology. In addition, the Knesset education committee, headed by MK Alex Miller, expressed its intent to apply the Israeli curriculum to East Jerusalem.
On June 6 this year Ir Amim asked the Prime Minister to act to block attempts to change the status quo of the last 40 years, according to which the East Jerusalem education system uses a curriculum consistent with the heritage, identity and culture of its tens of thousands of students. As explained in the letter to the Prime Minister, after Israel annexed East Jerusalem, Israel's leaders understood that the question of the contents of the curriculum that would apply there required a sensitive and creative approach, and a complex and delicate solution. Thus, in past decades, schools in East Jerusalem continued to teach the Jordanian curriculum; later, as per the second Oslo accords, they adopted the Palestinian Authority's curriculum, which they have been using for the past 15 years.
The residents of East Jerusalem understand the attempt to impose the Israeli curriculum on them as yet another unilateral and aggressive act adding tension to life in the city and further violating their basic rights. Conversely, the use of the PA curriculum in East Jerusalem is supported not only by the signed political agreement but by international law and the right to education, both as a customary duty and as recognized in international conventions Israel has signed and ratified.
The question of the curriculum in East Jerusalem, if there is one, should be discussed as part of political arrangements. If truly concerned with the level of education in East Jerusalem Israeli authorities could act vigorously to reinforce the inadequate and neglected educational infrastructure.
This report was written by attorneys: Oshrat Maimon, Ir Amim; Nisreen Alyan, The Association for Civil Rights in Israel
|
CONTENTS Issue 19| March 2013
Features:
4 Sohar Refinery Improvement Project Achieves Another Major Milestone
2-3 Department Focus: Health and Safety - MAF
5 Executive Team Launches the Tawasul Exhibition Centre
8 Above and Beyond
6-7 Employee Capabilities Development
9 iPMS
Get to know:
12 Majid Al Sharji
11 Anwar Al Jufaili
13 Ali Al Rajaibi
Orpic Updates:
14 Employment of 10 Omani Contractors
14 Eight Orpic trainees complete four month training programme
14 HSE TA Achievement Awards Ceremony
15 Tawasul - Team Event
14 HSE Mandatory Training in full swing
16 Successful Evacuation Drill at MAF
16 Orpic's schools programme bears fruit
16 Youngsters take the lead in Sohar!
16 Orpic donates medical equipment to North Batinah schools
Contact the Editor
Inside Orpic is your publication dedicated to highlight stories, events and articles. Please feel free to send me any comments, questions or if you wish to submit an article, simply contact me either by phone or email. Articles are uploaded daily to Facebook, if you have not yet seen our page go to www.facebook.com/ orpic and we hope you share it with your family and friends.
Yours in Communications Steven Smith Internal Communications Specialist Email: email@example.com Tel: 2685 3904
CEO
The Turnaround of Sohar Refinery and the Aromatics Plant was completed this month, and the start-up has been successful to date; a great success milestone for Orpic and one of which we should be proud.
Many congratulations to our colleagues who have worked hard to ensure that all went to plan. We are continuing to use Facebook as a news source for updates on the start-up and other company activities – if you haven't seen the page then do go and take a look at www.facebook.com/orpic.
We are also celebrating a number of successful community initiatives this month, including distributing medical supplies in Liwa schools and fruit tree planting, all to encourage a healthier and happier lifestyle in the communities around us.
In Orpic we are implementing a number of initiatives to keep us safe and aware – both through practical training such as the MAF evacuation drill, but also the continuous efforts of the HSE function. In addition, the Tawasul exhibition is a great way to find out the full extent of the project's benefits and I would strongly encourage a visit to the exhibition in the Aromatics admin building.
Musab Al Mahruqi Chief Executive Officer
APRIL 2013 1
Department Focus
Health and Safety - MAF
We had the privilege of interviewing Hussain Bahram Al Balushi who is the Health and Safety Manager for MAF.
The key principles that motivate our staff are having respect for each other, being transparent and trusting each other.
Q: How many employees in the department?
A: There are seven employees in the department
Q: What motivates the department's employees?
A: The key principles that motivate our staff are having respect for each other, being transparent and trusting each other.
Q: What are the department's key responsibilities?
A: 1. Accident / incident prevention.
2. Enhancement of safety behaviour.
3. Enhancement of safety culture.
4. Safety motivation and promotion.
5. Coordination and implementation of HSE Training programmes.
6. Safe working environment.
7. Support other departments with Health and Safety related issues.
8. Accident / incident investigation.
Q: What has been the department's biggest challenge this year?
A: The biggest challenge is in maintaining the safety behaviour throughout the job process, as habits are difficult to break. We must continue to create awareness and encourage employees to have a proactive attitude towards safety.
Q: What exciting projects does the department have planned for the future?
A: 1. Implementation of SAP Accident / incident reporting programme.
2. Staff Development in the Health and Safety field.
3. Enforcement of safe behaviour amongst the employees.
Future plans
* Implementation of SAP Accident / incident reporting programme.
* Staff Development in the Health and Safety field.
* Enforcement of safe behaviour amongst the employees.
Sohar Refinery Improvement Project Achieves Another Major Milestone
SRIP has achieved a major milestone by completing the SRIP Tie-ins Project during the Sohar Refinery Turn Around and Aromatics Plant Shutdown. The Tie-in Project consists of 80 tie-ins, 15 at MAF, 6 at the Aromatics Plant, and 59 at Sohar Refinery. The importance of this achievement is that it will allow SRIP new units in 2016 to start-up and connect with the existing plants (MAF, SR, and AP) without the need for shutdown or any interruption of the existing plants operation. The Project was completed within schedule and without any minor or major accident.
Meanwhile, the tendering process is in progress through the Government Tender Board (GTB) for the Main EPC tender, and the Long Lead Items tender (LLI). The Main EPC tender clarification with various tenderers is in progress. The LLI Offers were received and opened by GTB on 8 April 2013 and the evaluation of the offers has kicked-off.
Executive Team Launches the Tawasul Exhibition Centre
As part of the communication activities and preparation for Go-Live the Tawasul Change Management Team have developed the Tawasul Exhibition Centre. On its first day Musab Al Mahruqi (CEO), accompanied by the Executive Team, formally opened the exhibition.
In a guided tour of the exhibition, Orpic Process Leads explained scope of changes taking place in their functional areas as well as the benefits that would be derived from the implementation of Tawasul. They particularly enjoyed the recorded demos of the Tawasul solution and the interactive nature of the exhibition which demonstrates the impact of the project on the day-to-day life of Orpic employees in simple terms.
The Executive Team congratulated the team for developing a fun and exciting learning experience which should be enjoyed by all and is a must to see. At the end of the tour, the team signed the guest book. The CEO noted that "Tawasul will help Orpic become the company we are proud of".
The exhibition is situated in the Aromatics Admin building and you can visit it on any working day between 13:30 and 15:30. When visiting, please make sure you complete the evaluation form and sign the guest book, as by doing this you will enter a raffle draw that will be held at the Go-Live ceremony and will stand a chance to win a great prize! Enjoy your visit!
Employee Capabilities
The main aim of the Capability Development initiative is to build the capabilities of the most valuable asset of the company, the employees in a systematic and effective way.
Orpic realizes that a competent workforce is the key enabler for business sustainability and for achieving its business growth goals. There are number of activities and tools that are deployed simultaneously to enhance the capabilities of our employees at Orpic. Below are the main activities with a brief description of each:
Job Performance Profiles (JPP):
JPP outlines the roles and responsibilities of a job with the corresponding competencies required to perform the job successfully. The profile forms as a base and a reference for all the other development activities and each employee needs to be fully aware of the constituents of the relevant profile to his job.
Competency Gap Analysis:
Once the job performance profiles are in place the next step is to assess employees against the established set of competencies, to determine their actual competency level. This assessment process is known as the Competency Gap Analysis, which is conducted by immediate supervisors supported by specific toolkits. The main output of this process is a competency gap report for each employee which is an input for the Performance and Development Planning process.
Performance and Development Plan:
This exercise is one of the key success factors in developing employees' capabilities. The supervisor works with his employee to establish a plan that addresses the development needs of that employee as highlighted by the CGA and performance evaluations. They agree on specific development objectives, an action plan and resources required to achieve those objectives. The plan also takes into consideration the development steps required for career progression.
Career Development Plan:
Ambitious employees who have taken initiatives to develop themselves and have an interest in furthering their career are supported with career development planning. The planning will determine the appropriate career path of an employee based on the business needs and aligned, as much as possible, with the employee preferences and aspirations. This helps the employee to see a clear path and know beforehand the criteria they need to meet in order for them to move up in their career.
Development
beyond
March 2013 Above and Beyond winners
As part of employee recognition scheme, Orpic celebrated the outstanding teams and individuals who go Above and Beyond for the company. Each month, winners are selected by the Function Heads and line managers. These nominees can be from any part of the business and their success can be in any element of their work. HRS has received the below list of nominees for March 2013 Above and Beyond scheme.
| Winner Name | Function |
|---|---|
| • Dawood Al Farsi | TSD/ PMS |
| • Ahmed Al Shafai • Ahmed Al Harasi • Khalid Al Shafai • Kumaran Mahdavan • Azaan Al Rumhy • Mohammed Al Shukaili • Khalid Al Abri • Salim Al Sibani | Finance |
| • Gurusamy Mahendran | TSD |
| • Muhanad Al Kiyumi | SRIP |
| • Nimeshkumar Padaria | Aromatics Operation |
| • Badriya Al Balushi | HRS/HRP |
| • Noof Al Mayasi | CSS/ Procurement and Inventory Service |
As monthly winners, these employees will automatically be entered into the second level of the employee recognition schemes, the quarterly PRIDE Winners that are nominated from the pool of the Above and Beyond winners from the previous three months. Congratulations to the winners!
iPMS
The main idea in iPMS is to keep things simple.
At first sight the iPMS process may seem to have complex forms, however it provides a simple step-by-step process to provide a total and complete evaluation of every aspect of the individual's performance.
iPMS developed an in-use individual performance contract which intends to ask the immediate supervisors to evaluate the individual in five areas:
specify exactly what the key job responsibilities are.
1. Orpic's Core Competencies: These are the skills, attributes, traits, or behaviors that are expected of everyone in Orpic, regardless of job. Discipline or Teamwork might be core competencies that everyone in the company will be expected to demonstrate.
2. Job Family Competencies: These are the competencies that apply to major job families. "Job family" is a convenient way to think about groupings of individual jobs that share characteristics.
Some typical job families are managerial, supervisor, technical, operations, etc. ''Planning and organizing'' and ''conceptual thinking'' might be competencies assessed of everyone whose job is in the managerial or supervisor job family, whereas ''Attention to Detail'' may only show up on the performance contract used for individuals whose job falls into the operations job family.
3. Key Job Responsibilities: These are the major responsibilities or duties of the individual's position. An ideal job description would
4. Projects and Goals: These are the individual's activities that go beyond the specific tasks and duties outlined in a job description.
5. Major Achievements: Every immediate supervisor shall be able to identify a small number of major accomplishments of the individual over the course of the year.
Furthermore, the Performance and Development Department intends to conduct workshops for immediate supervisors to increase their ability to assess performance accurately and to conduct effective individual performance review meetings.
In the last issue you talked about "Performance Planning", what is Performance Planning?
Performance Planning is a discussion. It is the first step of an effective individual
performance management system.
Performance Planning typically involves a meeting of about
an hour or so between an immediate supervisor and
every individual.
The agenda for this meeting should include
four major activities:
Performance and Development, HRS: For any query related to iPMS please email Jalil Zadeh on firstname.lastname@example.org
1. Coming to agreement on the individual's key job responsibilities.
2. Developing a common understanding of the goals and objectives that need to be achieved.
that he/she is working on the highest priority responsibilities and operating in a way that management expects.
3. Identifying the most important competencies that the individual must display in doing the job.
4. Creating an appropriate individual development plan.
One of the primary reasons that individual performance review meetings are so awkward is that they are conducted in a vacuum. If the immediate supervisor and the individual have not had a good discussion about requirements and expectations, if they have not talked about goals, if they have not had a meaningful dialogue about core competencies, then it will be impossible for the immediate supervisor to correctly assess how well the individual has done in meeting those un-discussed objectives.
Performance planning is the bedrock of an effective individual performance management system (iPMS). The performance planning discussion gives the immediate supervisor the chance to talk about expectations and what management sees as genuinely important in the individual's job. It gives the individual a clear operating charter so that he/she can go about doing his/her job with the full certainty
The primary tool to use in the performance planning meeting is an individual Performance Contract (iPC). Since iPC will be used later to assess how well the individual did the job, it should be used from the start to plan the job expectations.
Some people may object that performance planning takes too much time, that people already know what the management expects of them, and if they do not know well, just read the job description.
This is a short-sighted view. How much time is involved? In most cases, the discussion itself lasts about forty-five minutes to an hour. There's probably some time spent in preparation in advance of the meeting, and a little bit more time after the meeting to finish whatever paperwork is required.
That period may be the most valuable time the immediate supervisor spends in "People Management" activities during the entire year. A minute devoted to planning may prevent hours spent on correcting and responding to an anguished reaction during an individual performance review meeting.
Get to know...
Anwar Salim Al Jufaili
Q: Tell us a bit about yourself.
A:
My career started in the
laboratory where
I developed my industry knowledge. I became familiar with the various Refinery products such as Jet Fuel, LPG and Diesel. Then I was offered the opportunity to start working in the Training Department. There I learnt the importance of treating employees with honesty and respect while having an open mind in building a better working culture. It encouraged me to become a role model for the trainees to gain their respect and to establish good relationships with them. Working in the Training Department with such a variety of departments I gained a great deal of self-confidence and become more productive.
Q: What is your current position at Orpic? A: I am a Technical Training Specialist. My responsibilities include training Orpic trainees, conducting training programmes and On-the-job training.
Q: What is the best part of your job at Orpic?
A: Working with the trainees and seeing them progress during the training and after the training.
Q: Name one of Orpic's four guiding
principles and what it means to you? A: "We serve Oman with Pride." As I am Omani and working in Orpic it is my duty to contribute to Orpic with my full efforts which will reflect in my community and, of course, to Oman.
Q: Where in the world would you most like to visit, and why?
A: Definitely China, I would like to see the Great Wall as well as experience Islamic culture in China.
Q: Who do you most admire in life, and why? A: My parents and the teachers in my life. I admire them because they are role models and have invested great time into providing me with their knowledge and life experience for my self-development.
Q: If it was your birthday, what would you like to have for dinner this evening?
A: Omani rice with king fish and fresh orange juice.
Q: What do you do on your days off? A: I really enjoy swimming and going out with my family. We need to live a healthy lifestyle in order to receive the fullness of life.
Majid Al Sharji
Q: Tell us a bit about yourself.
A: I am currently 52
years old, married with four kids and
have just completed
31 years of service with the company. I
joined Orpic (formerly known as ORC) back in May 1982. I have seen the MAF Refinery being constructed right from scratch when the plot plan was still being leveled. After my training in the field operation jobs, I was assigned as a Utility Field Operator, crosstrained and moved to other areas which include: Tankage and Offsite, Crude unit and the Platforming unit. In 1989 I was the first Omani to receive a promotion to Panel Operator, then in 1991 became the Shift Team Leader, in 1993 I became the Refinery Shift Superintendent, 1996 I became head of Area 2, in 1998 I was assigned to head of Area 1. After that the company sponsored me to go on a 63 week course in Chemical Processing and Technology in Aberdeen College in Scotland. When I returned I was promoted to Manager of Operations. Then in 2011 after the company merger, I was assigned to a new role.
Q: What is your current position at Orpic? A: My current job is MAF Operations Coach, I am taking care of the training needs of MAF operation staff
Q: What is the best part of your job at Orpic? A: The best part of my job is when I am faced with many jobs at same time, I work hard to complete these jobs and deliver them on time.
Q: Name one of Orpic's four guiding principles and what it means to you?
A: "Serving Oman with Pride." Whatever kind of job I perform, I am always thinking about my country first, this makes a great impact to me and helps me to think in a responsive way, when you perform a job, it is not only for the company, it is for the country… so whenever I start something I always complete it.
Q: Where in the world would you most like to visit, and why?
A: I would firstly like to visit the Muslim Holy place in Mecca after my retirement and travel with my family to few countries in the Far East. I want to see how other people live and try to understand their culture.
Q: Who do you most admire in life, and why? A: I mostly admire my parents as they are the ones who have guided me and nurtured my attitude and perception towards life - leading me to succeed in my life; they taught me right from wrong.
Q: If it was your birthday, what would you like to have for dinner this evening?
A: I would like to have barbequed seafood – specifically shrimp and lobster.
Q: What do you do on your days off?
A: Spend time with my family and sometimes go out for picnic or have dinner with my family in one of the restaurants in Muscat.
Ali Al Rajaibi
Q: Tell us a bit about yourself.
A: I am an easy going person, friendly with most people around me, more into outdoor rather than indoor activities. Love to explore places, cultures and people from different parts of the world.
Q: What is your current position at Orpic? A: Senior Maintenance Coordinator at MAF Refinery and Acting Tawasul Project Communication Manager in Sohar.
Q: What is the best part of your job at Orpic?
A: My best part of my job is when I know that my efforts lead to saving time and money for the company, and when the group's team effort has made a tremendous improvement in our work rather than doing things individually. I am into team work and understand that a team's effort is far greater than an individual's attempt.
Q: Name one of Orpic's four guiding principles and what it means to you?
A: "We Aim for Leading Performance." To me that is what counts in Oman's oil and gas sector, for our company to set the benchmark in performance among other companies in the world. We must aim to set higher targets and become a role model to others in the way we work.
Q: Where in the world would you most like to visit, and why?
A: Japan, their culture and life habits are centred on dedication and perfection towards their daily activities in every aspect.
Q: Who do you most admire in life, and why? A: I am fascinated with growth through self-development and therefore rather than trying to follow in the footsteps of a certain individuals, I set myself a high goal in my career and life and try my best to achieve it.
Q: If it was your birthday, what would you like to have for dinner this evening?
A: Lobster with white sauce.
Q: What do you do on your days off? A: I go snorkelling off the Al-Khairan coast
updates
Eight Orpic trainees complete four month training programme 1
Management who have worked with them on Orpic projects over long periods.
Eight trainees from Orpic have concluded a four month training programme at the International Maritime College of Oman (IMCO) on 6 March 2013. This is part of the company's ongoing development plan for employees. The training programme was customized the trainees needs and to covered subjects including English, IT, Operation Technology and Warehousing.
Employment of 10 Omani Contractors Orpic Management on an annual basis identifies 10 Omani Contractors to be employed directly by Orpic. These contractors, predominately in the Maintenance field, are selected from the contract service's labour by Orpic 2
From left to right, Ahmed Al Shezawi, Haitham Al Maqbali, Sulaiman Al Mamari, Abdullah Al Khadhuri, Abdullah Al Maqbali, Mohammed Al Mazroui. Absent: Abdulrahman Al Mamari, Hamdan Al Housni, Hamood Al Saidi and Haitham Al Farsi.
HSE TA Achievement Awards Ceremony On 1 April 2013 the HSE TA Achievement Awards Ceremony was held at the TA village. 52 people were nominated by the HSE TA Award Committee, these nominees have proven that they go beyond looking after personal safety to looking after their colleagues' safety, as they actively intervene and encourage others to follow the Orpic safety rules. 3
HSE Mandatory Training in full swing The HSE Mandatory Training has taken top priority for the 2013 training plan. During the first week of HSE training in Sohar 231 staff attended the three mandatory HSE courses. We expect to cover another 200 staff from various functions in the second week. In MAF, as of 30 April 2013, 302 staff members were trained on the Orpic Safety Rules. The remaining 75 staff are expected to take the course in the second week. Schedules for the remaining two HSE sessions are planned to start middle of May. HSE is an essential principle leading to good health and safety performance, and meeting quality standards and performance ratings. 4
Tawasul - Team event 5
Belonging to a team is a result of feeling part of something larger than you. In a teamoriented environment, employees contribute to the overall success of the organization. For the large Tawasul team dedicated to the success of the project, team activities in a friendly environment are a perfect way to stimulate team spirit, keep team members motivated and keep the momentum going. In appreciation of the ongoing hard work of the Tawasul team, everybody was invited to take part in a special team event: "The Golden Farm" which was held on 28 April 2013 with more than 70 team members from the PMO, OCM and Tawasul teams attending. The evening was filled with activities, from chess, to billiards, to volleyball and football. This event was a fantastic way to unwind and bring the team closer together.
APRIL 2013 15
Successful Evacuation Drill at MAF 6
As part of HSE efforts to sustain an excellent call to emergency response, the MAF Fire Department simulated an evacuation drill on 17 April 2013, to determine the readiness and to raise awareness with staff to respond to emergencies when they occur. A Lessons Learnt session was conducted to establish ways to improve future scenarios.
Youngsters take the lead in Sohar! 7
The Kickworldwide programme that is sponsored by Orpic, Nawras, Sohar Aluminium and Vale had yet another major milestone with the first 25 graduates receiving their Leadership certificates last week at Saif Bin Hubaira School in Sohar, and will now be given the opportunity to further develop their coaching skills at the Kickworldwide/ OFA Regional centre at the Sohar Sports Complex. The Graduates will also be given the opportunity to sample a number of sports related courses including Sports Business Management, Sports Event Management and Sports Business Development.
Orpic's schools programme bears fruit 8
The first phase of an innovative education programme has been completed by Orpic in schools that neighbour the company's Sohar operations. Three hundred fruit trees have been planted by the Orpic's 'Hand-to-Hand' community volunteers in a scheme devised to bring a number of benefits to the schools involved. The trees that have been planted
in the six schools demonstrate the breadth of fruit varieties available in Oman. Orpic's Handto-Hand volunteers spent over 20 hours of their own time planting and establishing the fruit trees. The volunteers, who are all from the local community themselves, are currently involved in a number of projects throughout the area.
Orpic donates medical equipment to North Batinah schools 9
As part of its continuing work in the community, Orpic has visited a number of schools in the North Batinah area to donate a variety of medical equipment and supplies. The equipment includes blood pressure monitors, wheelchairs, nebulizers, first aid boxes, digital temperature readers, pulse readers, resuscitators and many other items specifically identified by the schools as being required to enhance the existing medical support they provide to students and teachers.
"As we carry out continuous efficiency and environmental improvements to the way in which our own facilities operate, we also want to be able to support improvements in the community as well," said Dr Hilal Al Hinai, (GM Corporate Support Services). "This is a great example of the kind of action we can take for the good of our neighbours, and is something we will be focusing more on in the future."
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DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
FACULTY OF ARTS
POLI 681.01: Advanced Analysis of International Relations Course Outline
INSTRUCTOR
J.F.Keeley
TELEPHONE
403-220-6555
OFFICE
SS 802
EMAIL
email@example.com
OFFICE HOURS TBA
COURSE DAY/TIME Thursday 11:00 AM-1:45 PM
COURSE LOCATION SS 729
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This is a survey course in International Relations theory. Its intention is to introduce students to a variety of theoretical issues, problems, schools and approaches in the study of international relations, and to encourage critical thinking about these.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
The course introduces students to a variety of substantive, epistemological and ontological themes and problems with the discipline of International relations, and to a selection of broad schools and approaches. It is intended to give students a basis for a critical acquaintance with the various schools and issues discussed, and to provide an initial grounding for PhD students preparing for their candidacy examinations. In this respect, however, the course is not a substitute for more extensive study of the appropriate reading list developed by the Department. It merely opens up the discipline.
To the degree permitted by the theoretical orientation of the course, it is also intended to allow students to pursue related theoretical issues arising in their theses, dissertations and research projects.
By the end of the course, students should have a basic familiarity with various significant issues, themes, controversies and schools in the discipline of International Relations, and with various authors. They should be able to demonstrate an ability to understand, assess and employ different approaches studied. One strong undercurrent in the course is the overlap and intersection among many themes, questions, and schools: these are not (the impression left by the "debates" approach notwithstanding) hermetically sealed from each other. Thus, issues addressed here, and the readings themselves, will need to be considered not only in themselves but also in the context of other readings and the course as a whole.
REQUIRED TEXTBOOK AND/OR MATERIALS
The course is composed of readings drawn from a variety of sources, which will be on reserve in the library or available through online journals or in collections in the library. Some material on reserve will be personal copies.
The text for the course is:
Christian Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of International Relations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
,
Students should also obtain a copy of:
Teresa Pelton Johnson, "Writing for International Security" International Security, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Sept 1991), pp. 171-180. This is available online through the Library.
The material for the course will generally be available in the following sources:
2. articles available through the University of Calgary Library (in hard copy or online);
1. the text (Reus-Smit and Snidal);
3. books from the Library's collection placed on Reserve, and indicated by R;
5. in some cases, the Library also has an electronic or Internet version of books; this is indicated by INTERNET. Note that some books marked "R" may also be available through the Library as e-books.
4. personal items which the instructor has placed on Reserve, indicated by P;
6. NB: In some cases the Library may substitute electronic for physical copies. As well, the books are listed on reserve under their authors, NOT the author of the chapter.
7. If necessary, I will email material otherwise unavailable to students. However, I DO NOT USE D2L.
In addition, students may wish to draw on a variety of other books for general purposes. Some of these may also be used in the course. They will be of particular interest for students preparing for comprehensive exams or wanting to look at extensive surveys of the field.
Ken Booth and Steve Smith, International Relations Theory Today.
Walter Carlsnaes et al., Handbook of International Relations.
Michael W. Doyle and G. John Ikenberry, New Thinking in International Relations Theory.
Colin Elman and Miriam Fendius Elman (eds.), Progress in International Relations Theory: Appraising the Field.
Judith Goldstein and Robert O. Keohane, Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions and Political Change.
Martin Griffiths, Fifty Key Thinkers in International Relations.
Ivor B. Neumann and Ole Waever, The Future of International Relations: Masters in the Making.
Steve Smith, Ken Booth and Marysia Zalewski, International Theory: Positivism and Beyond.
Jennifer Sterling-Folker (ed.), Making Sense of International Relations Theory.
Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki and Steve Smith (eds.), International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity.
Peter J. Katzenstein, Robert O. Keohane and Stephen D. Krasner (eds.), Exploration and Contestation in the Study of World Politics. Also as International Organization, Autumn 1998.
Scott Burchill et al., (eds.), Theories of International Politics.
For older sources providing general summaries of the then state of the discipline, see, e.g.: James N. Rosenau (ed.), International Politics and Foreign Policy (1968); and Fred J. Greenstein and Nelson W. Polsby (eds.), Handbook of Political Science (1975). Vol. 8 deals specifically with International Politics, but the volume on Strategies of Inquiry will also be of interest.
In addition, students should be aware of the wide range of journals in the field. International Organization, International Studies Review, World Politics, International Security and International Studies Quarterly are leading North American journals. The American Political Science Review and other broader Political Science journals in North American will also be significant. A more European perspective will be found in journals such as Millennium, Review of International Studies, European Journal of International Relations, Review of International Political Economy, International Politics, and Cooperation and Conflict.
Students should also be aware of Columbia International Affairs Online (www.ciaonet.org), which links to a vast array of research institutes, papers and journals. Papers presented at the International Studies Association annual meetings are available on their website (www.isanet.org).
The International Studies Association has now developed a large Compendium, which is available here online, consisting of review essays on a range of topics. To get access to the Compendium via the University of Calgary library system, follow these steps:
1. Go to the Library via the main U of C website (http://www.ucalgary.ca) and click on "Libraries at the University" under the heading "Academics".
3. Click on "Political Science".
2. Click on "Search Collections," and then "Databases by Subject or Name".
4. Click on "International Studies Online".
5. Click on "Contents – Full Subscriber Access".
The ISA has recently replaced its Compendium with the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of International Relations.
The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu) may also be of interest.
COURSE COMPONENT WEIGHTS AND DUE DATES
Written assignments are often required in Political Science courses, including this one, and the quality of writing skills, including but not limited to such elements as grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, clarity, citation, and organization, will be taken into account in the determination of grades. Students are encouraged to make use of the services offered through Writing Support Services in the Student Success Centre (3 rd floor of the Taylor Family Digital Library) or at http://www.ucalgary.ca/ssc/writing-support.
You are expected and required to demonstrate a level of competence in spelling, grammar, composition, and citation practice appropriate for a university. I will penalize you for unacceptable performances in these areas.
LATE PENALTIES: Late proposals, critiques and papers may be accepted if not long delayed and if advance warning and agreement have been given and obtained. Late penalties may be assessed in cases of poor planning or abuse of my good nature. Normally (i.e. without advance notice and agreement) they shall be 1 notch (e.g. B+ to B) for every week late. Beyond 2 weeks, they will normally not be accepted without some sort of prior covering agreement If you anticipate difficulties, you are encouraged to tell me sooner rather than later.
Failure to complete or submit a course component entails loss of the grade for that item. (Absences/inability due to overriding circumstances may be forgiven, unless they become a habit.)
CLASS PARTICIPATION
Students are expected to take an active part in discussions from week to week. This will entail being familiar with all the readings, even when not responsible for a formal presentation, and being able and willing to engage each other and the instructor in informed and critical consideration of them.
In addition, students will be assigned readings on which they will make presentations. These presentations should not be mere summaries of the material but rather should contain substantial elements of analysis and critique: you should engage with the material, not simply report it or
paraphrase it. Points to consider include the nature and content of the argument, how the topic is approached, the conclusions offered and the evidence supporting it, how the reading might (explicitly or implicitly) engage themes in other readings, in other schools of thought, and in the broader issues and problems examined in the course. These presentations should be brief – maybe 10 minutes – though you may provide handouts if you wish (please provide copies to everyone, and to the instructor in advance). PowerPoint presentations, however, are not welcome! The presentations are intended to begin the discussion, not to end it. If you are assigned a reading, you are expected to be a significant discussion leader as the conversation proceeds.
Handling the Readings:
It is intended that most readings after the initial classes will be assigned to specific students for presentations. NOTE, HOWEVER, THE FOLLOWING:
1. Everyone is expected to do all the readings (except those in the "FYI" sections) and to contribute to discussions of them.
2. ALL READINGS THAT WILL BE ASSIGNED ARE INDICATED BY AN ASTERISK.
In some cases 2 or more students may be asked to work on a set of readings as a group.
NOTE: I have listed additional readings in an "FYI" section for each week. These are an attempt to indicate, however briefly, some other possible authors and themes generally related to the week's topic, as well as to indicate some additional sources (journals, books) worth looking at. These are not assigned readings, and students are not responsible for them. They are merely intended to provide some additional sources for those who are interested, and for doctoral students seeking some further information. The other contents in Reus-Smit and Snidal, in Carlsnaes, Risse and Simmons, and in other books such as Booth and Erskine will repay examination. There is some overlap between readings in this course (and the FYI sections) and the Political Science Department's reading list for IR PhD students. Some of these reference older works, which may still be of some value or interest.
RESEARCH PAPER
The research paper is intended to allow the close examination of a theoretical issue of interest to a student. It should not, therefore, be an empirical paper, though some limited reference to an empirical application or (better) an empirical problem leading to the theoretical issue may be permissible. I consider it legitimate for students to use the research paper as an opportunity to do some initial work relevant to theoretical aspects of thesis or dissertation topics. There is no requirement that students restrict themselves in the paper to specific topics, issues, or schools explicitly included in the course outline.
In the research paper, students are expected to present a competent development and employment of material applicable to their topic, with appropriate citation and referencing style.
The research paper should be not less than 25 pages (typed, double-spaced) and generally not more than 35 pages long – roughly 7500-10,000 words, not including footnotes or endnotes and bibliography. It is worth 40% of the final grade. It is due on December 6.
PAPER PROPOSAL
Students are encouraged to begin thinking about and working on their research papers early in the term. The paper proposal requirement is intended to provide a stimulus in this direction, as well as an opportunity for relatively early feedback. None the less, the general topic and approach should be discussed with me before beginning work on the proposal. In general, students should feel free to discuss their proposals and research papers with me at any point throughout the term.
The proposal itself should be seen as presenting an opportunity to put forward some ideas which are reasonably thought-out and worked through, but which are still at a relatively preliminary stage. There is no expectation or requirement that students be bound hard and fast to the exact terms of their proposals. The proposal (with my response) should serve you as an initial statement of your thinking, and as a sensitizing device as you continue your research, alerting you especially to the implications of your further research for your thinking on the topic. It should not be a straitjacket, but significant departures should be discussed with me beforehand.
The proposal should be 7-10 pages (typed, double-spaced) not including bibliography. It should indicate the general topic area, provide a brief (!) rationale for it, and then should indicate the specific topic, line of approach, and organization intended. There should be some preliminary discussion of sources. An indication of where the paper might be headed for a conclusion is fine, but you should be open to the possibility that you might come across something unexpected or change your mind in the course of your research (otherwise it would not be a learning experience). Treat this as an opportunity to set out and think through some initial ideas and to get an initial response before committing yourself irrevocably to a line of thought. Further information concerning the proposal will be provided in class.
The proposal is due on October 4. Since another student will be asked to provide a critique, a copy of the proposal should also be provided to the assigned student at that time, as well as to the instructor.
PROPOSAL CRITIQUE
Students will each be assigned a paper proposal from another student in the class, and will write a brief critique – about 4-5 pages – based on it. The critique should engage the basic substantive elements of the proposal as noted above. Though it is reasonable to offer some brief response on matters of writing style and clarity, this should not be a significant focus. The critique should focus on issues of substance and approach, conceptualization, theoretical issues, possible sources, etc., rather than merely stylistic matters. If you think of some suggestions for material, etc. relevant or the proposal, that might also be welcome.
The critique should be provided to the instructor, and another copy to the other student, 1 week after the proposal is submitted (thus, due October 11). The critique is worth 5 % of the final grade.
GRADE SCALE
```
A+ = honorific B+ = 3.15-3.39 C+ = 2.20-2.50 D+ = 1.20-1.49 A = 3.75-4.00 B = 2.80-3.14 C = 1.80-2.19 D = 0.81-1.19 A- = 3.40-3.74 B- = 2.51-2.79 C- = 1.50-1.79 F = < 0.81
```
FINAL EXAMINATION
The final exam will be an open-book, take-home exam, distributed on the last day of class (December 6). It will be due by 4:30 PM on December 10. The exam will consist of three broad questions drawing on the material in the course. Students will answer one question.
CLASS PREPARATION & DESIRE TO LEARN (D2L)
You are expected to read all of the readings in advance of the class, and to be prepared to discuss them in an informed and intelligent matter, regardless of whether or not you have been specifically assigned them, or whether they have been assigned at all.
Some materials may be posted on D2L and may be distributed through e-mail. Students will be informed regarding this. Otherwise, as indicated below, the materials are in the textbook for the course, on Reserve in the Library in hard copy, or available through journals (including online).
E-MAIL
Email is commonly used by students to communicate with their instructor. However, it does limit the effectiveness of the communications and may not be the best way for instructors to answer student questions, especially those requiring an explanation of concepts covered in this course or some personal concerns. Therefore, the instructor may request a telephone call or personal meeting. Your instructor will inform you as to his/her expectations about emails.
CONTACTING YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Students requiring assistance are encouraged to speak to the instructor during class or during office hours. If you cannot meet during the stated office hours, please contact me and make arrangements. I may be generally available outside of my teaching schedule, but this cannot be guaranteed, so depending on that will not necessarily work. For e-mail, please contact me directly at firstname.lastname@example.org.
PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT SUBMIT PROPOSALS, CRITIQUES, RESEARCH PAPERS OR FINAL EXAMS TO ME VIA D2L!! USE EITHER HARD COPY OR SEND TO MY EMAIL ADDRESS. IF YOU SEND TO MY EMAIL, YOU SHOULD RECEIVE AN ACKOWLEDGEMENT IN SHORT ORDER (A DAY OR TWO – PERHAPS THREE ON A WEEKEND) – OTHERWISE, CONTACT ME TO MAKE SURE I HAVE RECEIVED IT!!
ELECTRONIC DEVICES, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Students are permitted to use lap-tops and other electronic devices for note-taking. Please avoid use of cell-phones, or texting/receiving, during lectures. Students are also cautioned that lectures and materials produced by an instructor in a course are the intellectual property of the instructor. Any distribution of these materials – including hard copy and online – without the instructor's written approval, constitutes a breach of copyright law and an act of academic misconduct. All such offences will be taken seriously and Faculty of Arts policy requires that all offences be reported. Recording of lectures is permitted for individual private study, only at the discretion of the instructor. Any other use of recording constitutes Academic Misconduct and may result in suspension or expulsion. Both the student and the instructor must sign the appropriate Release Form to facilitate recording lectures.
Class Schedule & Topics
The course is organized into a number of sections, each focussing on a particular task. The Introduction sets out some questions and issues regarding the purpose and the history of the discipline. The second section, Basic Questions, covers a variety of themes that have affected the discipline. The third section, Schools, focuses on a variety of more specific groups of theories; although Liberalism and Realism are natural points of emphasis here, the intent is both to broaden the scope of the student's awareness to include other groups of theories, and also to highlight the complex natures of each group, its entanglement with the themes noted in Basic Questions, and the overlaps and differences among the groups. One of the plagues of the discipline is a tendency to "debate" among schools in terms of statements of basic principles often presented as mutually-exclusive. One objective of the course is to move students beyond such a mind-set. Thus two underlying themes of the course are: (1) recognition that each school or specific approach within a school only captures parts of the larger phenomenon that is International Relations; and (2) schools and positions that present themselves as mutually-opposed often may overlap more than one might think, or at least are more complex in their positions than the "debate" tendency in the discipline might encourage us to think. I am, in short, aiming at arriving at a more complex understanding of the discipline.
| TOPIC and READINGS |
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| Section I: Introduction |
September 6 What's It All About? Three Faces of IR Theory
Reus-Smit and Snidal argue that IR as a "practical discourse" is focused around the question "how should we act?" – and thus presents an empirical and a normative face. We might want to consider also a third face: policy-applicable theory. What distinguishes these three faces? How do they entangle and interact with each other?
Christian Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal, "Between Utopia and Reality: The Practical Discourses of International Relations," in Christian Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of International Relations, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 3-37.
Henry R. Nau, "Scholarship and Policy-Making: Who Speaks Truth to Whom?" in Christian ReusSmit and Duncan Snidal (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of International Relations, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 635-647.
Molly Cochrane, "IR Theory as an Ethical Pursuit," in Ken Booth and Toni Erskine (eds.), International Theory Today (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2016), pp. 85-96. R
FYI: For an earlier perspective on policy-relevant theory, see various works by Alexander L. George: George, Hall and Simon, The Limits of Coercive Diplomacy; Alexander George and Richard Smoke, Deterrence in American Foreign Policy; "Knowledge for Statecraft: The Challenge for Political Science and History," International Security, (Summer 1997); Bridging the Gap: Theory and Practice in Foreign Policy. See also: Judith Goldstein and Robert O. Keohane (eds.), Ideas and
Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions and Political Change; two books edited by J. Lepgold and M. Ninic, Being Useful, and Beyond the Ivory Tower; and some of the articles in International Studies Review, Vol. 13, No. 1, (March 2011).
September 13 History of the Field
The history of IR has generally been presented in terms of "great debates." Recent historiography of the discipline, however, has called into question the existence, much less the content, of especially the so-called "first debate" between Liberals and Realists. Regardless of this, the notion of "debates" as marking key points in the evolution of the discipline persists. The number and content of more recent "great debates" has also been a matter of differences of opinion (doctoral candidates should note this!). We will consider, among other things, the places of these various debates – real or not – in the development of the disciple, and the utility of the debate notion as an organizing device for understanding and shaping the discipline.
Brian C. Schmidt, "On the History and Historiography of International Relations," in Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse, and Beth Simmons eds., Handbook of International Relations (London: Sage, 2012), pp. 3-28. R
Nicolas Guilhot, "The Realist Gambit: Postwar American Political Science and the Birth of IR
Columbia University Press, 2011), pp. 128-161.
Theory," in Nicolas Guilhot (ed.),The Invention of International Relations Theory(New York:
R
Joseph Grieco, "Anarchy and the Limits of Cooperation: A Realist Critique of the Newest Liberal Institutionalism," International Organization, Vol. 42 (1988), pp. 485-507.
Robert O. Keohane, "International Institutions: Two Approaches," International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 32 (1988), pp.379-396.
Yosef Lapid, "The Third Debate: on the Prospects of International Theory in a Post-Positivist Era," International Studies Quarterly 33, 13 (1989): 235-25.
Ole Wæver, "The Rise and Fall of the Inter-Paradigm Debate," in Steve Smith, Ken Booth, and Marysia Zalewski (eds.), International Theory: Positivism and Beyond, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 149-185. R
FYI: Brian C. Schmidt, The Political Discourse of Anarchy; Nicholas Onuf, "Five Generations of IR Theory," in Booth and Erskine (eds.), International Relations Theory Today; Miles Kahler, "Inventing International Relations: International Relations Theory after 1945," in Doyle and Ikenberry (eds.), New Thinking in International Relations Theory. For the behavouralisttraditionalist debate (the second debate), see, e.g., Klaus Knorr and James N. Rosenau (eds.), Contending Approaches to International Politics. Joseph Grieco's article (above) is the opening of the "neo-neo" debate, documented especially in David A. Baldwin's Neorealism and Neoliberalism, and Robert Jervis, "Realism, Neoliberalism, and Cooperation: Understanding the Debate," International Security, (Summer 1999). The Keohane et al.-Mearsheimer debate in International Security is also worth looking at. Keohane's "International Institutions" (above) marks the "|rationalist-reflectivist" divide; see R.B. J. Walker, "History and Structure in the Theory of International Studies," Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 18 (1989), pp.163-183 (also in his Inside/outside) for a response. Peter Marcus Kristensen, "International Relations at the End: A Sociological Autopsy," International Studies Quarterly, 2018, examines citation patterns to identify groups in the discipline and also to address issues concerning the "end" of debates and whether this may be a good or bad thing for the discipline. Note that this also raises issues regarding distinctions among and within camps, and overlaps between camps. It will be of interest to those attempting to "map" the discipline. See also Waever, "Still a Discipline After All These Debates?" in Dunne, Kurki and Smith (2016). Amitav Acharya's ISA Presidential Address, "Global International Relations (IR) and Regional Worlds: A New Agenda for International Studies," International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 58 (2018) gives an interesting set of suggestions for future lines of development of the discipline.
Section II: Basic Questions
A number of basic issues or themes emerge as we think about various schools in IR. Here we flag and discuss some of these in terms of the implications they have for the various schools and for the discipline as a whole. Different schools may tend to take different approaches to each theme or set of issues, but there may also be overlap among them at certain points. As well, basic problems in our understanding of each theme will have important effects on our use of IR theories.
September 20 Science and Methods
The controversy between "traditionalists" and "scientists" was supposedly the second "great debate" in the discipline. Like all of the others, it was not resolved. What does it mean to be "scientific" or (more narrowly) "positivistic"? What controversies – included but not limited to the post-positivist and post-modern attacks – surround the notion of science in IR? What dangers and limits lurk in our thinking? What about qualitative methods of study?
James Scott, Seeing Like A State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998): 11-24. IN THE LIBRARY ONLINE INTERNET: HD 87.5 S36 1998.
Colin Wight, "Philosophy of Social Science and International Relations," in Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse and Beth A. Simmons (eds.), Handbook of International Relations (London: Sage Publications, 2012), pp. 29-56. R
Ruth Lane "Positivism, Scientific Realism and Political Science: Recent Developments in the Philosophy of Science," Journal of Theoretical Politics, Vol. 8, no. 3 (1996): 361–82.
John Vasquez, 'The Post-Positivist Debate: Reconstructing Scientific Enquiry and International Relations after Enlightenment's Fall', in Ken Booth and Steve Smith (eds.), International Relations Theory Today, (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995), 217–40. R
Jeffrey T. Checkel, "Theoretical Pluralism in IR: Possibilities and Limits," in Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse and Beth A. Simmons (eds.), Handbook of International Relations (London: Sage Publications, 2012), pp.220-241. R
Andrew Bennett and Colin Elman, "Qualitative Research: Recent Developments in Case Study Methods," Annual Review of Political Science, (2006): 455-476.
FYI: For the behavouralist-traditionalist debate (the second debate), see, e.g., Klaus Knorr and James N. Rosenau (eds.), Contending Approaches to International Politics. For works on the philosophy and history of science, see Sir Karl Popper, also Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and Imre Lakatos, "Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research
Programs" in Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave (eds.), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Stephen Toulmin has also done some interesting work in evolutionary epistemology. Wendt and Dessler (later in this syllabus) are of interest re scientific realism. Colin Elman and Miriam Fendius Elman (eds.), Progress in International Relations Theory, applies a Lakatosian frame to assessing the discipline, but also provides guides to research in various schools. Gary King, Robert O. Keohane and Sidney Verba, Designing Social Inquiry, is another recent influential work on methods. Responses such as Brady and Collier (see the IR reading list) are a standard but see also James Mahoney, "After KKV: The New Methodology of Qualitative Research," World Politics, Vol. 62, No 1 (2010): 120-147. Hollis and Smith (Explanation and Understanding in International Relations) is another cut at science and its issues, but see also R.B.J. Walker, Inside/outside, and James Der Derian and Michael J. Shapiro (eds.), International/Intertextual Relations, particularly the chapters by Ashley and Connelly. Note also David Patrick Houghton, "Positivism 'vs' Postmodernism: Does Epistemology Make a Difference?" International Politics, Vol. 45 (2008): 115-128. See elsewhere in Reus-Smit and Snidal (Part IV) on methods, and Hamati-Ataya in Ken Booth and Toni Erskine, International Relations Theory Today. Fred Chernoff has done interesting work on the philosophy of science in the social sciences as well. See also Rudra Sil and Peter Katzenstein on "analytical eclecticism." For more on postmodernism, see the essay by Burke in Reus-Smit and Snidal. Abraham Kaplan, The Conduct of Inquiry, and Paul Diesing, Patterns of Discovery in the Social Sciences, are old but worth looking at.
September 27 Accounting for Decisions/Actions: Rational Action, Constructivism, and Psychology
Regardless of our choice or level of actor for our theories, we find ourselves trying to explain their actions and decisions. While historical narrative is still a primary means of doing so, Rational Action/Rational Choice and Constructivism have developed as dominating theoretical approaches to this task. Note that these two are not really theories of IR as such – rather they are broader approaches that have been applied within IR. More recently, more psychological approaches (e.g. prospect theory, behavioural economics) have challenged particularly classic, Economics-informed rational choice thinking. Note that there are implications here as well for how we aggregate processes across levels (e.g. the "micro-foundations for macro-events" matter). Remember this as well for December 6, when we take up agent-based models. NOTE THAT ASSIGNED READINGS FOR PRESENTATIONS BEGIN THIS WEEK.
*Herbert A. Simon, "Human Nature in Politics: The Dialogue of Psychology with Political Science", American Political Science Review, Vol. 79, No. 2 (June 1985): 293-304.
*Bryan D. Jones, "Bounded Rationality," Annual Review of Political Science, (1999): 297-321.
*Janet Gross Stein, "The Micro-Foundations of International Relations Theory: Psychology and Behavioral Economics," International Organization, Vol 71 (supplement, (2017), pp. S249-S263.
*Emilie Hafner-Burton, Stephan Haggard, David A. Lake and David G. Victor, "The Behavioural Revolution and International Relations," International Organization, Supplement, 2017, S1-S31.
*James Fearon and Alexander Wendt, "Rationalism vs. Constructivism: A Skeptical View," in Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse and Beth A. Simmons (eds.), Handbook of International Relations (London: Sage Publications, 2002), pp. 52-72. NOTE THAT THIS IS THE FIRST EDITION OF CARLSNAES ET AL.!! I WILL MAKE A COPY OF THIS AVAILABLE.
*Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, "Taking Stock: The Constructivist Research Program in International Relations and Comparative Politics," Annual Review of Polit-ical Science, Vol. 4 (2001): 391-416
FYI: Miles Kahler, "Rationality in International Relations" International Organization Vol. 52, no. 4 1998: 919-941. James G. March, "The War is Over, the Victors have Lost," Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Vol. 2, No. 3 (July 1992): 225-231. On game theory, the work of Thomas Schelling is old but useful. On rational choice, Hans J. Morgenthau, Scientific Man versus Power Politics, was an early attack, but see also, more recently, Stephen Walt, "Rigor or Rigor Mortis? Rational Choice and Security Studies," International Security, Vol. 23 (1999) and the responses. There has also been an extensive, more recent literature on "the rational choice controversy" (e.g., Donald Green and Ian Shapiro, Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory, and Jeffrey Friedman (ed.), The Rational Choice Controversy). On constructivism, see Alexander Wendt's Social Theory of International Politics (very important in bringing constructivism to the mainstream in North America, but somewhat suspect among European constructivists), and Stefano Guzzini and Anna Leander (eds.), Constructivism and International Relations: Alexander Wendt and his Critics. See also work by Maya Zehfuss, Antje Wiener (including for her recent work on norm contestation, which can lead into "critical constructivism"), John G. Ruggie, Nicholas Onuf (e.g., World of Our Making), and Friedrich Kratochwil (e.g. his Rules, Norms and Decisions). These last two in particular were early proponents of constructivism, but have tended to be unjustly overlooked in North America in favour of Wendt. On psychology and on prospect theory, see e.g., Rose McDermott, "The Psychological Ideas of Amos Tversky and Their Relevance for Political Science," Journal of Theoretical Politics, Vol. 13, No. 1(2001): 5-33; Jonathan Mercer, "Prospect Theory and Political Science," Annual Review of Political Science, (2005): 1-21; J.M. Goldgeier and P. E. Tetlock, "Psychology and International Relations Theory," Annual Review of Political Science, (2001): 67-92. On norm diffusion, see also the essay by Fabrizio Gilardi in Carlsnaes et al., (2012).
October 4 PROPOSAL DUE Types of Actors
While a focus that takes state action as its primary concern, and takes states as dominant actors, is long-established in the discipline, more attention is now being paid to the wide variety of actors at play in IR and how they interact. Note that this will strongly overlap with levels of analysis and with theories of foreign policy (bear in mind also when we get to Neoclassical Realism!). (We will also consider the TNR model as a general way of projecting and understanding the contents and concerns of various theories, and thus also of understanding some of their differences and similarities.)
*David Lake "The State and International Relations" in Christian Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of International Relations, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 41-61.
*Sean Fleming, "Artificial persons and attributed actions: How to interpret action-sentences about states," European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 23, No. 4 (2017) pp. 930-950. (NB his argument will hold as well for other artificial persons, too, and can deal with the problem of the same real persons belonging to many artificial ones.)
*Juliet Kaarbo, "A Foreign Policy Analysis Perspective on the Domestic Politics Turn in IR Theory," International Studies Review, Vol. 17 (2015), pp. 189-216.
*Thomas Risse, "Transnational Actors and World Politics," in Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse and Beth A. Simmons (eds.), Handbook of International Relations (London: Sage Publications, 2012), pp. 426-452. R
*Saskia Sassen, Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), Chapter 1. A COPY OF THIS IS AVAILABLE ONLINE AT THE LIBRARY, AND CAN BE READ VIA THAT.
FYI: The original TNR model is found in Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Transnational Relations and World Politics (initially a special issue of International Organization, (Summer 1971)). For a revival of the concept, see Thomas Risse-Kappan (ed.), Bringing Transnational Relations Back In (including the essay by Stephen Krasner as a rebuttal, eerily like Robert Gilpin's response in Keohane and Nye.). On the development of the concept of the state, see, e.g., Quentin Skinner, The State," in Terence Ball, James Farr and Russel L. Hanson (eds.), Political innovation and conceptual change, and for the actual state, Hendrik Spruyt, The Sovereign State and Its Competitors. Peter M. Haas (ed.), Knowledge, Power, and International Policy Coordination combines (albeit not necessarily telling us this) aspects of transnational relations, domestic policymaking, and constructivism (policy ideas/epistemic communities). See also Janice E. Thomson, "State Sovereignty in International Relations: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Empirical Research," International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 2 (June 1995).
October 11 CRITIQUE DUE
While these have developed as themes at different points in the history of the discipline, they also connect, and connect also with our choices of and perceptions of actors, and about the explanation of decisions and actions.
Levels of Analysis and the Agent-Structure Problem
*Barry Buzan, "The Level of Analysis Problem in International Relations Reconsidered," in Ken Booth and Steve Smith (eds.), International Relations Theory Today, (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995), 198- 216. R
*Kenneth N. Waltz, "Reductionist and Systemic Theories," in Robert O. Keohane (ed.), Neorealism and Its Critics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), pp. 47-69. R
*D. Dessler, "What's at Stake in the Agent-Structure Debate?" International Organization, 43 (Summer 1989).
*Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Power and Interdependence: World Politics in Transition, (New York: Harper Collins, 1989): Chapter 2 (pp.23-37). R
*Matias Albert, Barry Buzan and Michael Zurn, "Introduction: differentiation theory and international relations", in Matias Albert, Barry Buzan and Michael Zurn (eds.) Bringing Sociology to International Relations: World Politics as Differentiation Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp. 13-34. R
FYI: Kenneth Waltz's Man, the State, and War, and J. David Singer's essay in Klaus Knorr and Sidney Verba (eds.), The International System: Theoretical Essays, are classic starting-point for the level-of-analysis issue. See also Peter Gourevitch, "Domestic Politics and International Relations," in Carlsnaes, Risse and Simmons, 2002, and the essay by Kenneth Schultz in the 2012 edition. The foreign policy literature in general will also be of interest: see e.g. Valerie Hudson, Foreign Policy Analysis: Classic and Contemporary Theory. See also Colin Wight, Agents, Structures and International Relations, the essays by Anthony Giddens and Ira Cohen in Anthony Giddens and Jonathan Turner (eds.) Social Theory Today, and Audie Klotz, "The Forum: Moving Beyond the Agent-Structure Debate," International Studies Review (June 2006).
October 18 Anarchy and Society
Anarchy is perhaps the dominant motif in thinking about IR, but what does it really mean and imply? In particular, what should we make of that particular presentation of anarchy, Thomas Hobbes' "state of war," as a conceptualization of anarchy? Is even a Hobbesian anarchy at least potentially a "society", however limited or "defective" in comparison to a well-ordered domestic society?
*Noel Malcolm, Aspects of Hobbes, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 441-466. R
*Jack Donnelly, "The discourse of anarchy in IR," International Theory, Vol. 7, No. 3 (November 2015): 393-425.
*Helen Milner, "The Assumption of Anarchy in International Relations Theory: A Critique," Review of International Studies Vol. 17, No. 1 (January 1991), pp. 67-85.
*Alexander Wendt, "Anarchy is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics," International Organization Vol. 46 (Spring 1992): 391-425.
*Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society: a Study of Order in World Politics (London: Macmillan, 1977), chaps 1-3 (pp. 3-76). R
FYI: Malcolm attacks many early invocations and discussions of Hobbes in IR. More recently, IR scholars have taken a more sophisticated look at Hobbes' work. See, e.g., work by Michael Williams ("The Hobbesian theory of international relations: three traditions," in Beate Jahn (ed.), Classical Theory in International Relations; and "Hobbes and international relations: a reconsideration." International Organization (Spring 1996). See also Donald Hanson, "Thomas Hobbes' 'highway to peace'", International organization, (Spring 1984). For more on Hobbes by political theorists and historians, see, e.g.: Sheldon Wolin, Politics and Vision; Quentin Skinner, Visions of Politics, Vol. III: Hobbes and Civil Science; Michael Oakeshott, "Introduction to Levisathan," in Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays. For a counterpoint to Wendt, see Joseph Grieco, "Anarchy and Identity," International Organization (Spring 1995). Barry Buzan and Richard Little, "Reconceptualizing Anarchy: Structural Realism Meets World History," European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 2, No. 4 (1996): 403-438. For an attempt to combine anarchy and hierarchy (seen as opposing ends of a continuum by Waltz), see Jack Donnelly, "Sovereign Inequalities and Hierarchy in Anarchy: American Power and International Society," European Journal of International Relations, (2006). James N. Rosenau and Ernst-Ott Czempiel (eds.), Governance without Government, presents a take on international society that could also overlap to a degree with regime theory.
Section III: Schools
Here we discuss a variety of schools – by no means all – in IR.
October 25 Liberalisms
Liberalism appears in a variety of flavours, including Kantian (Democratic Peace Theory), Manchester (economic interdependence as a force for peace), and Neoliberal Institutionalism (on the system level). (NB: do not confuse Keohane's Neoliberal Institutionalism with neoliberal economic arguments!)
*Mark W. Zacher and Richard A. Matthew, "Liberal International Theory: Common Threads, Divergent Strands?" in Charles W. Kegley (ed.), Controversies in International Relations Theory: Realism and the Neoliberal Challenge (New York: St. Martin's 1995), pp. 107-150. R
*Brian C. Rathbun, "Is Anybody Not an (International Relations) Liberal?" Security Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1 (2010): 2-25.
*Andrew Moravcsik, "The New Liberalism," in Christian Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of International Relations, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 234-254.
*Arthur A. Stein "Neoliberal Institutionalism," in Christian Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of International Relations, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 201-221.
*Andrew Moravcsik, "Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International Politics," International Organization, Vol. 51, No. 4, (Autumn 1997), p. 513-553.
FYI: Michael Doyle (also in Kegley, or his "Liberalism and World Politics" American Political Science Review (1986)) is important for the initiation of Democratic Peace Theory, though Immanuel Kant's Perpetual Peace is the classic reference point for this line of thinking. See also F. S. Hinsley, Power and the Pursuit of Peace, and Michael Howard, War and the Liberal Conscience, for early (including 19 th century) liberalism. See also the readings on Democratic Peace Theory in the IR reading list. On Neoliberal Institutionalism and related regime theory, see Robert O. Keohane, After Hegemony. For initial statements on regime theory, see the special issues of International Organization in 1975 ("International Reponses to Technology) and 1982. For later liberal institutionalism, see also the special issues of International Organization on legalization (Summer 2000) and rational design of institutions (Autumn 2001). See also G. John Ikenberry, After Victory. See also the controversy with John Mearsheimer in International Security. Broader early looks at regime theory (in some cases leading into Constructivist thinking and Realist thinking) are found in Friedrich Kratochwil and Edward D. Mansfield (eds.), International Organization: A Reader; Andreas Hasenclever, Peter Mayer and Volker Rittberger, Theories of International Regimes, and Volker Rittberger and Peter Mayer (eds.), Regime Theory and International Relations. Recall also Rosenau and Czempiel (week of October 18). Oran Young has done a great deal of work on environmental regimes.
November 1 Realisms
Likewise note the various flavours of realism: Classical (especially Morgenthau, but note Carr and others), structural or Neorealism, and Neoclassical.
*William C. Wohlforth, "Realism", in Christian Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of International Relations, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 131-149.
*J.W. Legro and A. Moravcsik, "Is Anyone Still a Realist?" International Security, Vol. 24, No. 2 (1999), pp. 5-55.
*Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace. Sixth edition (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985), chapters 1 & 2. R
*Kenneth N. Waltz, "Political Structures," and "Anarchic Orders and Balances of Power,' in Robert O. Keohane (ed.) Neorealism and Its Critics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), pp. 70130. R
*Steven E. Lobell et al., Neoclassical Realism, The State, and Foreign Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) Chapter 1. R
*J. Samuel Barkin, "Realist Constructivism," International Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 3 (September 2003): 325-342.
FYI: Recall Guilhot from September 13. Aside from E. H. Carr (The Twenty Years' Crisis) and Morgenthau, see also Raymond Aron, Peace and War (and the tribute issue of International Studies Quarterly, March 1985) for Classical Realism, and Jack Snyder, "Tensions Within Realism: 1954 and After," in Nicolas Guilhot (ed.), The Invention of International Relations Theory. Henry Kissinger would also count as a Classical Realist. John Mearsheimer's The Tragedy of Great Power Politics is an "offensive realism" variant of neorealism. See Barry Buzan, Charles Jones and Richard Little, The Logic of Anarchy for a general critique and development of Waltzian "structural realism." See John G. Ruggie, "Continuity and Transformation in the World Polity: Toward a Neorealist Synthesis," World Politics, 35 (January 1983), also in Robert O. Keohane, ed., Neorealism and its Critics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), for a response to Waltz. Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics, offers an alternative cut. William C. Wohlforth, "Realism and the End of the Cold War," International Security, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Winter 1994-1995): 91-129 notes other strands of Realist theory, while addressing the charge that Realists failed to anticipate the end of the Cold War. See also power transition theory (A.F.K. Organski, and Organski and Kugler). See Barkin, Realist Constructivism, for a further development of his thinking. Jennifer Sterling-Folker is also an interesting current Realist. For interest, see also Daniel Bessner and Nicolas Guilhot, "How Realism Waltzed Off: Liberalism and Decisionmaking in Kenneth Waltz's Neorealism," International Security, (Fall 2015). For more on Neoclassical Realism, see Brian Rathbun, "A Rose by Any Other Name: Neoclassical Realism as the Logical and Necessary Extension of Structural Realism." Security Studies, (2008).
November 8 Critical Theory, Feminism and the English School
A few of the schools outside of and often critical of, the North American mainstream (Realism and Liberalism), mostly Critical Theory, Feminism, and the English School.
*Maya Zehfuss, "Critical Theory, Poststructuralism, and Postcolonialism," in Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse and Beth A. Simmons (eds.), Handbook of International Relations (London: Sage Publications, 2012), pp. 145-169. R
*Nicole Dietelhoff and Harald Muller, "Theoretical Paradise: Empirically Lost? Arguing with Habermas," Review of International Studies, Vol. 31, No. 1 (January 2005): 167-179.
*Laura Sjoberg and J. Ann Tickner, "Feminist Perspectives on International Relations," in Carlsnaes (2012) pp.170-194. R
*J. Ann Tickner, "You Just Don't Understand: Troubled Engagements Between Feminists and IR Theorists," International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 4 (December 1997), pp. 611-632.
*Andrew Linklater and Hidemi Suganami, The English School of International Relations: A Contemporary Assessment Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006, Chap. 2 (pp. 43-80). R
*Lorenzo Cello, "Taking history seriously in IR: Towards a historicist approach," Review of International Studies, Vol. 44, Part 2 (2017) pp. 236-251.
FYI: An important early text in IR Critical Theory, Robert W. Cox, "Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory," can be found in Robert O. Keohane (ed.), Neorealism and Its Critics. Jim George, Discourses of Global Politic is another critical theorist. See also Andrew Linklater, "The Changing Contours of Critical International Relations Theory," in Richard Wyn Jones (ed.), Critical Theory and World Politics. See also N. Rengger and B. ThirkellWhite, Critical International Relations after 25 Years. Barry Buzan, Richard Little, Adam Watson (check the bibliography in Linklater and Suganami) and others cover a lot of the English School. Check the bibliographies in Reus-Smit and Snidal, and Carlsnaes, for Feminism, but see also: V. Spike Peterson, "Feminist Theories Within, Invisible To, and Beyond IR," Brown Journal of World Affairs, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Winter/Spring 2004), and the article and bibliography in Scott Burchill et al., Theories of International Relations. For more re post-modernism, see e.g., Tony Porter, "Postmodern Political Realism and International Relations Theory's Third Debate," in Claire Turenne Sjolander and Wayne S. Cox (eds.), Beyond Positivism: Critical Reflections on International Relations.
November 15 READING WEEK – NO CLASS
November 22 International Political Economy
International Political Economy traditions can intersect with some classic (and some later) schools in IR theory: Mercantilism with Realism, Keynesianism ("embedded liberalism" in Ruggie's terms) and other forms of economic Liberalism with Neoliberal Institutionalism, and Marxist critiques of capitalism and imperialism with elements of Critical Theory. Note also the overlap with questions of actors and levels. Note also a tendency of North American IPE to be somewhat narrowly rationalactor, quantitative and economistic, while more European IPE can tend to be "anything but Liberalism and Realism" (and non-quantitative) The recent surge in "populism" in national politics in the US and Europe, and the resulting interplay of foreign and domestic politics is interesting from an IPE perspective.
*John Ravenhill, "International Political Economy," in Christian Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of International Relations, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 539-557.
*Robert Gilpin, Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order Princeton: Princeton University Press, 200), Chaps. 1-3 (pp. 3-76).R
*Ngaire Woods, "Economic Ideas and International Relations: Beyond Rational Neglect," International Studies Quarterly, Vol.39, No.2, (June 1995) pp. 161-180.
*Yotam Margalit, "Lost in Globalization: International Economic Integration and the Sources of Popular Discontent," International Studies Quarterly, Vol.56, No. 3, September 2012, pp.484-500.
*Jonathan Kirshner, "The Study of Money," World Politics, Vol. 52, No. 2 (April 2000): 407-436.
*Philip G. Cerny, "Globalization and the changing logic of collective action," International Organization 49 (Autumn 1995), pp. 595-625.
FYI: See also Susan Strange, States and Markets; in general, Strange's works in the field of IPE are well worth reading. For Dependency Theory, see the special issue of International Organization (Winter 1978) as well as work by Andre Gunder Frank, Osvaldo Sunkel, etc. More Leninist theories of imperialism are found in Anthony Brewer, Marxist theories of imperialism (see also Wolfgang Mommsen, Theories of Imperialism). Richard N. Cooper's The Economics of Interdependence is an oldie but goodie. See also Jeffry A. Frieden, Global Capitalism, and basic introductions to IPE such as Thomas H. Oatley's International Political Economy. The essays on international trade and on international finance in Carlsnaes et al. (2002 and 2012) may also be helpful. Note the intersection of IPE with economic interdependence, the Liberal resurgence of the late 1960s (and in Neoliberal Institutionalism later), the Transnational Relations model, and Critical Theory. Note also that the literature on European integration (and integration theory in general) seems to be treated as quite distinct for some reason. There is also an intersection between IPE (among many other issues) with Peter Haas's Knowledge, Power, and International Policy Coordination, with possible constructivist/ideas overtones, and a literature on the spread of Keynesianism.
November 29 International Political Sociology
This week focuses on one particular application of a sociological theory to IR, especially in terms of its implications for Realist and Liberal approaches. Note the intersections with issues of actors and of levels of analysis/agent-structure. It draws entirely on:
Mathias Albert, Barry Buzan and Michael Zurn (eds.) Bringing Sociology to International Relations: World Politics as Differentiation Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. R (It will repay you to read their introduction – see October 11.)
*Jack Donnelly, "Differentiation: type and dimension approaches," pp. 104-124.
*Stephan Stetter, "Some quanta of solace: world politics in the era of functional differentiation," pp. 147-171.
*Oliver Kessler and Friedrich Kratochwil, "Functional differentiation and the oughts and musts of international law," pp. 173-198.
*Philip Cerny, "Functional differentiation, globalization and the new transnational neopluralism," pp. 221-245.
FYI: S. Hobden and J. Hobson (eds.), International Relations and Historical Sociology. George Lawson, "The Promise of Historical Sociology in International Relations," International Studies Review (September 2006). See also the work of Michael Mann (The Sources of Social Power, 4 vols.); a discussion of Mann's work in John A. Hall and Ralph Schroeder (eds.) An Anatomy of Power, may also be of interest. Note also Kratochwil's essay in Reus-Smit and Snidal.
December 6 RESEARCH PAPER DUE Complex Adaptive Systems
Systems theory was a significant theme in IR theory in the late 1950s and into the 1960s, but by the 1970s seemed to have died out, with its residue being found mainly in terms of the issue of systemic versus lower-level theories (e.g. see Waltz's structural Realism/Neorealism and the Level of Analysis/Agent-Structure week). More recently, however, it has made a comeback, especially in somewhat "evolutionary" terms (the "adaptive" part), at least in some corners of the discipline. NB recall the discussion of rational action, constructivism and psychology earlier when we deal with agent-based models. As well, be very wary of confusions among "adaptation," "equilibrium" and "progress."
*Ion Cindea, "Complex Systems – New Conceptual Tools for International Relations," Perspectives, Vol. 26, (2006), pp. 46-68.
*Antoine Bosquet and Simon Curtis, "Beyond models and metaphors: complexity theory, systems thinking and international relations," Cambridge Review of International Affairs Vol. 24, No. 1 (March 2011) pp. 43-62.
*Sarah Miller Beebe and George S. Beebe, "Understanding the Non-Linear Event: A Framework for Complex Systems Analysis," International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence Vol. 25 June 2012) pp. 508-528.
*Seva Gunitsky, "Complexity and theories of change in international politics," International Theory, Vol. 5, No. 1 (March 2013), pp. 35-63.
*H. Van Dyke Parunak, R. Savit and R. L. Riolo, "Agent-Based Modeling vs. Equation-Based Modeling: A Case Study and Users' Guide," conference paper, 1998
FYI: Note that "systems theory" or "general systems theory" should not be confused with David Easton's system theory in Political Science! For early work on systems theory, see, e.g., Ludwig van Bertalanffy, Herbert Simon's The Sciences of the Artificial, and Walter Buckley (ed.), Modern Systems Research for the Behavioral Scientist. Early systems theory in IR is well-represented by the work of Morton Kaplan, System and Process in International Politics, and Richard Rosecrance, Action and Reaction in World Politics (see also Waltz's attack – October 11). Do not forget, however, Karl W. Deutsch, The Nerves of Government, Oran Young, Systems of Political Science, and also John Steinbruner, The Cybernetic Theory of Decision. See also Robert Jervis, System Effects for a recent introduction. For a recent application of evolutionary theory and complexity to economics, see Eric D. Beinhocker, The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity and the Radical Remaking of Economics. See also W. Brian Arthur, "Complexity Economics: A Different Framework for Economic Thought," Santa Fe Institute Working Paper: 2013-04-12. Other recent works include John H. Miller and Scott E. Page, Complex Adaptive Systems (which adopts an agent-based models approach) and Paul Cilliers, Complexity and Postmodernism, and the work of the Santa Fe Institute (https://www.santafe.edu). See also J. Stephen Lansing, "Complex Adaptive Systems," Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 32, (2003), pp. 183-204. One can contrast agent-based models with equation-based models (see Jay Forrester, Principles of Systems, for an early modelling approach to system dynamics – and, e.g., the Club of Rome's early modelling efforts). Robert C. North and Nazli Choucri, Nations in Conflict, developed a "lateral pressure" model of the 19th century international system. Barry Buzan and Richard Little, International Systems in World History, is a recent effort to develop the concept of the international system.
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In the event of an emergency evacuation from class, students are required to gather in designated assembly points. Please check the list found at www.ucalgary.ca/emergencyplan/assemblypoints and note the assembly point nearest to your classroom.
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For program planning and advice, visit the Arts Students' Centre in Social Sciences 102, call 403-220-3580 or email email@example.com. You can also visit arts.ucalgary.ca/advising for program assistance.
For registration (add/drop/swap), paying fees and assistance with your Student Centre, contact Enrolment Services at (403) 210-ROCK [7625] or visit their office in the MacKimmie Library Block.
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Phone: 403-220-5333
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Campus Mental Health Strategy: https://www.ucalgary.ca/mentalhealth/
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Trends in Adult and Continuing Education in Germany
This contribution summarizes the most important trends in adult education in Germany as they were elaborated in a secondary analytic research project of the DIE (Deutsches Institut für Erwachsenenbildung – German Institute for Adult Education) in 2007. According to the study, participation in continuing education in Germany is increasing after long years of decrease, even though, overall, financing of adult education has been further reduced. Cooperation as well as competition between continuing education institutions has increased. Course offers have become shorter, counselling and information have more significant roles than in the past, and those employed in adult education, especially teaching staff, have a higher level of qualifications than before. Adult education policy in Germany has varying aims as a result of the federal structure of the country. Incentives for vocational and workplace training predominate however.
1. Basic information
Comparing continuing education in Germany with other countries in Europe, one imme diately notices a difference in how continuing education is defined. Adult and continu ing education in Germany is defined more narrowly as "education following completion of initial professional or vocational educational training". Trainees or university students who, for instance, have not acquired a professional or vocational degree (regardless of their age) are not considered to be participants in continuing education.
Another important aspect is that the sixteen Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany have sovereign power over the system of education (with the exception of certain aspects of vocational training) while, within the individual Länder, there are extremely different ways of organizing the educational system. On top of this, a wide range of ministries is involved with continuing education at the Federal and Länder levels, such as the ministries of education, labour, the interior, etc. Finally, the German situation is marked by a high degree of institutionalization of continuing education in comparison to other European countries, but it is also embedded in extraordinarily complex and multifarious plural structures, which means that there are not only horizontal differences between the Länder, but also vertical differences between different organizational areas.
This becomes most evident when one examines general and vocational continuing education separately. In the area of general continuing education, adult education colleges and private institutes predominate, whereas in the area of vocational continu ing education, it is business enterprises, economic chambers, together with private institutes once again, which are preponderant.
In view of the differentiated situation characterizing continuing education in Germany, it is difficult to identify general trends, as some of the Länder are pulling out of insti tutional promotion of continuing education, while others are investing considerable resources here. Nevertheless, some general trends can be identified and data produced bearing these out.
2. Decline in funding
Over the last ten years the amount of funding devoted to continuing education in Germany has declined in absolute and relative terms. Thus, for example, expen ditures in this area were EUR 27.8 billion in 1996, but only EUR 24.1 billion in 2006. Funding has also decreased as a percentage of Gross National Product. In 1996 it accounted for 1.48 percent of GNP, whereas in 2006 this figure was only 1.05 percent.
A significant part of this decline is also accounted for by the decrease in public funding. Thus the state (Federal, Länder and local governments) provided each person taking part in continuing education in 1996 a sum of EUR 23.68, but in 2006 this figure was only EUR 20.30. The same trend is also reflected in another statistic: EUR 1.86 per person was contributed in government funding in 1996, while in 2006 this amount was only EUR 1.60.
The decrease in the volume of funding for continuing education over the past ten years provides food for thought. It stands in stark contrast to the growing importance of continuing education acknowledged by actors responsible for educational poli cy. It appears, however, that the policy thrust is moving in a different direction; for instance, public funding in the area of pre-school education has increased over this period.
3. More cooperation and competition
Interestingly enough, both cooperation and willingness to cooperate in the field of continuing education as well as competition have grown over the past ten years.
Continuing education institutions can more and more frequently be heard to claim that they work together with other educational institutions, but also with business enter prises, cultural institutions and government institutions in devising their programmes in order to reach target groups and provide information and counselling. Continuing education institutions are explicitly voicing a desire for even more cooperation, in par ticular with respect to regional cooperation. The impact of a major national programme known as "Learning Regions", in which cooperative procedures can be instituted and assessed on a trial basis, can be perceived in many cases.
At the same time, competition is growing among the approximately 19,000 continuing education institutions in Germany. The number of providers has grown, while institu tions are increasingly seeking to create profiles focusing on individual segments and niches, but also on broadly ranged programmes (such as, for instance, those at adult education colleges, just as in the past). Globalization is having an impact on individual sectors; hence language programmes are gaining increasing currency in an international market. Programmes in the areas of health, management and economics are subject to increasing international competition.
In addition, there are growing financial constraints. These emanate to some extent from the decline in state promotion of institutions, but also from the growing quality and service demands of learners (the "customers"). Due to this, combined with a frequently tested "threshold" of the maximum fees which can be charged for certain programmes and certain target groups (that is to say, the maximum amounts which people interested in taking part in a programme are willing and able to pay), the latitude of action for institutions is shrinking.
4. Modules of shorter duration
In analyzing the trend in programmes and courses on offer, it is evident that the dura tion of these programmes and courses is growing shorter. This is especially the case with traditionally long-term programmes such as vocational training and languages. These are increasingly being carried out in short units – for instance on weekends – and with greater intensity. Programmes and courses tailored to meet the specific needs of entire groups, such as employees of individual enterprises, have grown considerably in number. Here, courses and programmes are developed and carried out "on demand". In these cases the continuing education facility also acts as a service provider special ized in education meeting a specified demand.
This is also associated with the development of modules. Progressive programme seg ments which have been developed in modular form and which award certificates upon completion, entitling but not obliging the holder to take part in additional modules, are becoming more and more common. The structure of programmes thus increasingly allows learners to pursue their specific interests by selecting appropriate modules and acquiring individual learning and educational profiles.
5. Counselling and information
This is linked to a greater need for information and counselling. The possibility of indi vidual combination of single modules induces awareness of their availability and evalu ation of their respective quality, the possibility of access and the work involved. Informa tion on these is necessary as is targeted "educational counselling" which supports the selection of and decision to take part in programmes and courses.
Such information and counselling systems seem to be increasing in number. In many cases they are part of the respective educational facilities (when these are large), but there are also strategies, information and counselling on joint cooperative structures within a region. The individual interests of educational facilities frequently place constraints on the development of joint structures, but in some cases these have been developed and put into practice in an effective manner.
6. Employment
Over the past ten years the number of full-time employed persons has not increased in continuing education in Germany. It has even declined slightly which reflects the trend in funding of the area. The number of employees in related professions, voluntary staff and the number of free-lancers who work on their own account as "sole proprie tors" has, on the other hand, increased. The problems resulting from this development are obvious. Standards for continuing education and qualification are all the more difficult to adhere to when the individuals involved are not provided with adequate job security.
This decline does not apply to qualifications which employees have when they begin working in continuing education, however. Here, it can be seen that compared to previous years more and more individuals can demonstrate qualifications in adult education (by having completed study courses or obtained additional qualifications) and hence that qualifications among teachers have, on the whole, improved. There is still little information on the question of how the switchover of education at universities to a consecutive BA/MA system will change the situation of those working in the area of further education and their structure.
7. Amount of participation and structures
Following a decline at the turn of the century, participation in continuing education is on the rise again. The most recent figures from the Reporting System on Continuing Education as well as the Adult Education Survey for Germany show a slightly increased rate of approximately 43 percent at present. However, the level at the beginning of the 1990s – 48 percent – has still not been attained again.
In the analysis of participation structures, it can clearly be seen that there is still a gap between the social status and the qualification level of the participants in Germany, and that this gap may even be growing. Continuing education in Germany is still, and perhaps now even more so, an instrument with which those who are better educated with a higher social status have greater advantages over those who are less well edu cated with a lower social status. The probability of taking part in continuing educa tion is at any rate significantly higher for this group than for those disadvantaged in education. So there is a perceivable gap which, if it widens, will mean that continuing education is not reaching out to include population groups, but rather strengthening their exclusion. It is also interesting that the difference between the genders in terms of participation is almost the same. Roughly equal percentages of men and women take part in continuing education with equal frequency today. The differences are merely in the content of the programmes and courses which are attended. While men focus on a narrow band of professional educational training programmes, women participate intensively in the entire spectrum of continuing education, especially in the language and health area.
Interesting developments can also be observed in terms of age. The participation of older groups in continuing education is increasing at a disproportional rate, including in age groups which are already in retirement (65 and over). Here there are also no doubt problems bringing appropriate programmes, access routes and strategies closely in line with the needs of these groups.
8. Educational policy goals
The Federal and Länder governments in Germany are pursuing the development of continuing education and in some cases developing programmes with the aim of improving certain sectors and aspects of these. The Federal government, for example, has initiated a better programme for basic education, while in many Länder special programmes are being sponsored, on, for instance, rural adult education, professional educational training for young adults, the qualification of employees working in the area of continuing education, etc.
Continuing education policy in Germany is also increasingly being based on the benchmarking criteria of the European Union, which set out a relatively high participa tion target for continuing education for the year 2010 (Lisbon goals). However, there appears to be no coherent programme for the development of continuing education in Germany, no general strategies and no increased commitment on the part of the state. This may be due to the fragmentation of the German educational environment due to the control of the sixteen Länder, but it is no doubt also related to the specificity of German development and definition of continuing education.
References and data corresponding to the discussion herein can be found in summa rized form in the recently published book "Trends der Weiterbildung" (2008).
Sources
Deutsches Institut für Erwachsenenbildung (Ed.) (2008): Trends der Weiterbildung. DIE-Trend analyse 2008. Bielefeld
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01.001 Protective effect of (-)-α-Bisabolol in a Model of Ischemia/Reperfusion in renal tubular cells. Sampaio TL 1 , Bezerra de Menezes RRPP 1 , de Azevedo IEP 2 , Meneses GC 1 , da Costa MFB 1 , Medrado KA 2 , Martins AMC 2 1 UFC – Farmacologia, 2 UFC – Análises Clínicas e Toxicológicas
Introduction: Ischemia/reperfusion (IR) is a complex phenomenon that contributes to mortality and morbidity and is a predisposing factor for the establishment of acute kidney injury (AKI). Various strategies and resources are used by cells to prevent or decrease the cellular injury caused by oxidative stress. Thus, it emphasizes the importance of studying using substances such as (-)-α-Bisabolol (Bis), which has an antioxidant potential. This work aims to study the possible protectives effects of Bis in AKI in an in vitro model of I/R. Methods: An in vitro model of I/R was performed in a culture of renal tubular cell lineage, LLC-MK2 (Macaca mulatta, monkey's kidney normal cells) using an anaerobic chamber and a specific culture media, after this, the cells were treated with Bis in different concentrations. To assess cell viability was performed the MTT reduction assay. It was performed the cellular respiration tests by flow cytometry: evaluation of the production of cytoplasmic reactive oxygen species by DCFH-DA assay and mitochondrial transmembrane potential analysis with the dye Rhodamine 123. For all statistical analysis was considered p <0.05. Results: The Bis did not show toxicity in the studied concentration range (1000, 500, 250, 125, 62.5 and 31.25 µM). Furthermore, the process of ischemia was able to reduce the viability to 55% ± 1.3 compared to the control group (100%). However, there was an increase in cell viability in the groups treated with Bis, especially at concentrations of 62.5 µM (82.06% ± 1.4) and 31.25 µM (78.35% ± 0.99), the concentration of 250 µM did not show statistical difference to the I/R group (60.09% ± 1.6). At the DCF-DA assay, the relative fluorescence intensity in the I/R group was in a ratio of 1.5 ± 0.04 when compared with control, indicating an increase in the oxigen-reactive species production. The treatment with Bis reduced the ratio to 0.69 ± 0.01 in the group treated with Bis 250 µM and to 0.62 ± 0.005 in the 62.5 µM concentration, indicating an antioxidant effect potential. At the mitochondrial transmembrane potential analysis, the I/R group presented a reduction in the relative fluorescence intensity to a ratio of 0.27 ± 0.03 in relation to control, indicating that I/R leads to mitochondrial depolarization. The treatment with Bis was capable to increase this ratio in the studied concentrations: 250 µM (0.69 ± 0.04) and 62.5 µM (0.47 ± 0.005), indicating an improvement in cellular respiration. Conclusion: The Bis stands out as a molecule with promising activity involving antioxidants mechanisms, which are essential in the pathophysiological development of the lesion by I/R. Financial Support: CNPq – Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico Acknowledgments: UFC – Universidade Federal do Ceará
01.002 Membrane cholesterol regulates IL-10 secretion and tumor cell migration. Selos F 1 , Fernandes PD 1 , Costa ML 2 , Mermelstein C 2 1 UFRJ – Farmacologia e Química Medicinal, 2 UFRJ – Biologia Celular e Molecular
Introduction: Lipid rafts are cholesterol-enriched membrane microdomains and play critical roles in the regulation of cell adhesion, migration, proliferation and protein sorting during endocytosis and exocytosis. Cholesterol depletion induces the disorganization of lipid rafts and also the dissociation of proteins that are bound to the lipid raft. In the present study we investigated the role of membrane cholesterol in the migration of the breast tumor cell line MDAMB 231 and its relation to the Wnt signaling pathway. Methods: To deplete membrane cholesterol we used methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (MbCD) at a final concentration of 2 mM. Cell migration was evaluated using wound healing assay in which a scraping is made in the cell monolayer and subject to the closing of the shaved area by the migration of the cells for 24 hours. Morphological analysis was carried out by immunofluorescence microscopy using fluorescently labelled-Phalloidin to analyse microfilaments distribution. The concentration of IL10 in the cell culture media was performed by ELISA. We used Wnt3a and Wnt5a enriched media to analyze the involvement of the Wnt signaling pathway. Statistical analyses were performed by ANOVA with Newman-Keuls- post-test (*p<0.05). Results: Our results show that cholesterol depletion by methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (MbCD) reduced cell migration. MbCD induces changes in cell morphology observed when cells were labeled with Phalloidin, which stains filamentous actin. Control cells displayed many ruffled membranes and lamellipodia whereas in cholesterol depleted cells membrane membrane protusions were less prominent and most of the cells displayed a spindle shaped morphology. Cholesterol depletion enhances the levels of IL-10 in the cultured media collected 2, 8 and 24 h after MbCD treatment. Wnt5a enriched media induced a significant increase in IL-10 levels after 2, 8 and 24 h of treatment, while Wnt3a enriched media did not induce IL-10 secretion. Conclusions: Our results suggest the involvement of membrane cholesterol in the control of IL-10 secretion that in turns regulates breast tumor cell migration. Our results showing an increase in IL-10 levels after cholesterol depletion and after Wnt5a treatment strengths our hypothesis that the non-canonical Wnt pathway is involved in the inhibition of cell migration observed after MbCD treatment. We can suggest that the inhibition of MDA-MB 231 cell migration induced by cholesterol depletion might be mediated by Wnt5a and subsequent IL-10 secretion. Financial support: CAPES, CNPq, FAPERJ, Programa de Oncobiologia/RJ.
01.003 Host response of miRNA profile to enteroaggregative. Escherichia coli infected mice fed with zinc deficient diet Prata MGP 1 , Bolick DT 2 , Kolling GL 2 , Havt A 1 , Guerrant RL 2 , Lima AAM 1 1 IBISAB-UFC – Fisiologia e Farmacologia, 2 University of Virginia – Infectious Diseases and International Medicine
Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) is a pathogen of great relevance in diarrheal diseases worldwide. This bacterium is also linked mainly with malnutrition children from countries in development. Zinc is an important micronutrient that plays a central role in the immune system. The effects of zinc on these key immunologic mediators are deeply connected with the innumerable roles in basic cellular functions. Besides, the zinc deficient enhances apoptosis and increases susceptibility to a variety of pathogens. The potentiation of EAECinfection in zinc deficiency causes significant changes in physiological and pathological processes that can change gene expression of microRNA (miRNAs or miR). miRNAs are class of genome-encoded small RNAs that regulates expression posttranscriptionally regulates of mRNA expression in epithelial tissues. We investigated the effect of zinc defficiency in the transcription of miRNA in intestinal epithelium from EAEC infected mice. Mice were fed with a normal diet (dN) or a diet without added zinc (dZD) for 2 weeks. All mice were pretreated with antibiotic cocktail. After 3 days some of them were treated with a single oral challenge of 10 9 CFU/ml EAEC strain 042. The infection challenge lasted for three days followed by the animal euthanasia. In this model, we analyzed body weight curves, fecal myeloperoxidase and lipocalin-2, muc-2 mRNA expression and miRNA expression of ileum (miScript miRNA PCR Arrays). This study was carried out in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health and the protocol was approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of the University of Virginia (Protocol Number: 3315). The results showed significantly weight loss, high myeloperoxidase and lipocalin-2 levels in fecal samples from EAEC challenged mice fed with zinc deficient diet compared to other groups (P<0.05). To verify mucus production we performed the muc-2 transcription in ileum. The data showed muc-2 mRNA expression was increased in infected animals (P<0.05). In mice fed with dN, EAEC infection challenge increased miR-146a transcription and miR-146a may be acting to control the infection. In contrast, mice fed with dZD and infected with EAEC presented different miRNA profile and higher infection. The EAEC challenged mice fed with zinc deficient diet caused alteration on miRNA profile that interfered on the infection control. Further studies using the microRNA silence gene transcription will be necessary to clarify potential immune response in infection with different diet. Financial support: This work was supported by NIAID Contract No. HHSN272201000056C from the National Institutes of Health. I was supported by CNPq Postgraduate Fellowships.
01.004 Capsaicin activates macrophages and adrenocortical cells by TRPV1-dependent mechanism. Ferreira LGB 1 , Silva PMR 1 , Martins MA 1 , Faria RX 2 , Carvalho VF 1 1 Fiocruz – Inflamação, 2 Fiocruz – Toxoplasmose
Introduction: TRPV1 channels serve primarily as heat sensors, which are activated by temperatures above 43°C. These channels are mostly present on sensory neurons, including dorsal root ganglia and trigeminal neurons; however its receptors may be expressed on nonsensory organs, as lungs, too. Beyond heat, TRPV1 is also activated by capsaicin, an active ingredient in hot chili peppers, and different classes of lipids derived from the metabolism of arachidonic acid, as 12- and 15-HPETE which are produced by 12- and 15-lipoxygenase, respectively. These enzymes are found in several cells and organs, including macrophages and adrenal. ACTH-induced adrenal steroidogenesis involved 15-lipoxygenase pathway. Furthermore, TRPV1 activation increase Ca 2+ currents and Ca 2+ -induces steroidogenesis in adrenal cells both as dependent and independent of ACTH. In addition, it is know that others alternative routes are able to induces steroidogenesis independently to ACTH by adrenal glucocorticoids, including IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-α produced by immune cells as macrophages. In this study, we investigated if TRPV1 is able to activate macrophages and adrenal cells directly. Methods: All the procedures used in this study were in accordance with the guidelines of the Ethic Committee on Use of Laboratory Animals of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, License LW – 33/12. Peritoneal macrophages were obtained from Swiss-Webster mice. Y1 adrenocortical cell line producing corticosterone was maintained in DMEM medium supplemented with 5% FBS and 15% Horse Serum. Expression of TRPV1 was evaluated in Macrophages and Y1 by immunocytochemistry and western blot, respectively. Macrophages and Y1 cells were stimulated with 10 and 100 µM capsaicin and we measured Ca 2+ influx and IL-6 production through live cell fluorescent microscopy and ELISA, respectively. Cells were pre-treated with TRPV1 antagonists' ruthenium red or AMG 9810 (50 µM) 15 min before stimulation with capsaicin. Results and Discussion: Both macrophages and Y1 adrenocortical cells expressed TRPV1, in which capsaicin induced Ca 2+ influx concentration dependent manner. Treatments with ruthenium red or AMG 9810 abolished capsaicin-induced Ca 2+ influx in macrophages and Y1 cells. Moreover, capsaicin induced IL-6 production by macrophages of 1540 ± 690.5 pg/mL (mean ± SD, n =3; P < 0.05), as well as ruthenium red inhibited capsaicin-induced IL-6 release with values of 11.55 ± 11.50 pg/ml (mean ± SD, n = 3; P < 0.05). In conclusion, we found that capsaicin activated both macrophages and Y1 cells by TRPV1 dependent way. Keywords: Glucocorticoids, HPA axis, TRPV1 Financial Support: CNPq, FAPERJ and FIOCRUZ.
01.005 Preeclampsia prevents plasticity in alpha1-adrenoceptors from rat abdominal aortae: Contribution to the pathophysiology. Silva KP, Caldeira-Dias M, Possomato-Vieira JS, Golçalves-Rizzi VH, Sandrim VC, Dias-Junior CA, Pupo AS IBB-Unesp-Botucatu – Farmacologia
Introduction: Preeclampsia (PE) is a gestational hypertensive syndrome and preeclamptic women present an inadequate increase in sensitivity to various vasoconstrictors, such as endothelin (Verdonk, K., Hypertension, 65, 1316, 2015) and norepinephrine (NE) (Lampinen, K., J. Hum. Hypertens., 269, 2014). It is know that NE participate in blood pressure regulation through the activation of alpha1-adrenoceptors (alpha1-ARs) and that there is an increased reactivity of arterial alpha1-ARs in animal models of hypertension (Gisbert, R., Br.J.Pharmacol, 135, 206, 2002). However, the involvement of alpha1-ARs in PE pathophysiology remains unknown. Methods: Female Wistar rats (90-120 days old) were divided into Control (virgins rats), Sham (pregnant rats) and RUPP (pregnant rats that underwent a surgical procedure to reduce uterine perfusion pressure leading to hypertension) groups. Blood pressure was monitored and rings (0.5 cm length) of abdominal aortae were isolated to record in vitro contractions to NE or A61603 (alpha1A-AR selective agonist). The alpha1-AR subtypes mediating contractions to NE were identified by Schild analysis of the antagonism displayed by subtype selective antagonists. Antagonist affinities (pKB) or potencies (pA2) were evaluated. Alpha1A-AR, Alpha1B-AR and Alpha1D-AR gene expression was analyzed by RT-qPCR. Results: Mean arterial pressure was 110±1 mmHg, 96±2 mmHg and 120±1 mmHg in Control, Sham and RUPP respectively (n= 18-21). Contractions of the abdominal aortae of all groups to NE were competitively antagonized by prazosin (Control: pKB=9.22±0.07; Sham: pKB=9.2±0.1; RUPP: pKB=9.2±0.1; n=4-7). Alpha1D-AR selective antagonist BMY 7378 displayed classical competitive antagonism against NE-induced contractions (Control Schild slope=0.83±0.15; pKB=8.22±0.07; Sham Schild slope=0.9±0.1; pKB=8.5±0.1 and RUPP Schild slope=0.9±0.1; pKB=8.4±0.1; n=4-7). Alpha1A-AR selective antagonist RS100329 displayed high potency, but insurmountable antagonism against NE-induced contractions in Control and RUPP, but did not show this behavior in Sham group (pA2=8.4±0.1; n=3). Contractions of abdominal aortae of Control and Sham rats to A61603 were antagonized by RS100329 (Control: pA2=9.48±0.04; Sham: pA2=9.3±0.1; n=3-7) but not by BMY7378. Nonetheless, both RS100329 and BMY 7378 shifted to the right as well as decreased maximum response in abdominal aortae of RUPP group. Alpha1B-AR selective antagonist L765,314 displayed low potencies in abdominal aortae all groups (Control pA2=6.3±0.3; Sham pA2=7.5±0.1; RUPP pA2=7.5±0.1; n=3-4). The expression of alpha1A-AR and alpha1B-AR mRNA was not different in the three experimental groups, but mRNA encoding alpha1D-AR was significantly upregulated in aortae from RUPP rats. Conclusion: Heterogeneous functional population consisting of alpha1A-ARs and alpha1DARs coexists in abdominal aortae from female rats. Pregnancy induces plasticity of alpha1-ARs and PE prevented this physiological change, pointing alpha1-ARs function as a potential key mechanism in the pathophysiology of PE. Financial support: CAPES and FAPESP. Local Ethics Committee for the Use os Experimental Animals: Process #634
01.006 Anti-Apis serum failed to antagonize cytotoxicity induced by Apis mellifera venom in vitro. Jhonatha-Cruz JM 1 , Tavares-Henriques MS 1 , Strauch MA 2 , Barraviera B 3 , FerreiraJunior RS 3 , Quintas LEM 1 , Melo PA 1 1 UFRJ – Farmacologia, 2 IVB – Diretoria Científica, 3 Unesp – Venenos e Animais Peçonhentos
Introduction: The actions of Apis mellifera venom components are responsible for local and systemic damage. So far, there is no specific treatment for poisoning of bee stings, which makes interesting the development of a specific antivenom. We have previously demonstrated a newly-developed anti-apis serum that reduces some of the poison activities of A. mellifera venom. Objective: Our goal was to evaluate the efficacy of anti-Apis serum on in vitro cytotoxicity in tubular renal cells induced by A. mellifera venom. Methods: Cell culture of proximal tubule strain of swine kidney (LLC-PK1) was used. Cytotoxicity was assessed by the release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) after exposure of LLC-PK1 cells to different concentrations of poison (5-25 µg/mL) for 15, 30 and 60 min. The highest concentration (25 µg/mL) was evaluated with different doses of anti-Apis serum (1-4 µL/µg venom). Data are expressed as mean ± standard error, with ANOVA followed by Bonferroni post-test for statistical analysis; p<0.05 was considered statistically different. Results: Apis mellifera poison enhanced LDH release in a concentration-dependent fashion, which was steady between 15 and 60 min (at 15 min in U/L: control: 24 ± 2; 5 µg/mL: *134 ± 22; 10 µg/mL: *336 ± 38; 25 µg/mL: *505 ± 43, n=6, *p<0.05). At the maximum concentration, even the highest serum amount could not block the cytotoxic effect (25 µg/mL: 400 ± 26; 25 µg/mL + 4 µL/µg venom: 317 ± 3, n=6). Conclusion: We observed that the anti-Apis serum did not reduce cytotoxicity in pig renal cells caused by Apis mellifera venom. Financial support: CAPES; CNPQ; FAPERJ; CEVAP; IVB Research approval by Animal Research Ethical Committee - Protocol DFBCICB 026
01.007 Characterization of the serotonin receptors mediating contraction of the rat distal cauda epididymis. Mueller A 1,2 , Kiguti LR 3 , Silva EJ 1 , Pupo AS 1 1 IBB-Unesp-Botucatu – Farmacologia, 2 UFMT – Ciências da Saúde, 3 FCM-Unicamp – Farmacologia
Introduction: Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) receptor activation contracts smooth muscle from male reproductive organs such as vas deferens (Jurkiewicz, Acta Physiol Pharmacol Ther Latinoam, v.49, p.210, 1999) and prostate (Killam, Eur J Pharmacol, v.273, p.7, 1995). However, the roles of 5-HT receptors in the distal cauda epididymis (CE) smooth muscle are still unknown. Thus, the present study characterizes the contraction of the rat CE duct to 5HT and the receptors involved. Methods: Adult male Wistar rats (120-150 days-old) were killed by decapitation and both epididymides were isolated. The CE duct was uncoiled and 1.0 cm length segments freed from intraluminal content were mounted in 10mL organ baths to record isometric tension. Cumulative concentration-response curves to noradrenaline (NA) and 5-HT were obtained in the absence and presence of prazosin (alpha -adrenoceptor antagonist), ketanserin (5-HT2 receptor antagonist), WAY 100635 and buspirone (5-HT1A-selective antagonists) and fluoxetine (an inhibitor of serotonin reuptake transporter with high affinity for 5HT2C). All concentration-response curves were obtained in the presence of a cocktail of inhibitors to allow experimental conditions to evaluate antagonist affinities (pKB) and/or potencies (pA2). Results: 5-HT induced concentration-dependent contractions of distal CE duct that amounted to approximately 50% of maximal response (Emax) induced by NA (pD2 5HT=6.45±0.14, Emax=45.4±1.9% of NA maximal; n=7). Contractions to 5-HT were noncompetitively antagonized by prazosin (pA2=9.30±0.30, n=3) with a potency similar to that observed for prazosin against NA (pA2=9.61±0.03, n=5) suggesting involvement of alpha1adrenoceptors in the in vitro contractions of distal CE duct to 5-HT. Therefore, serotonergic receptors involved in the 5-HT-induced contractions were further characterized in presence of 100 nM prazosin to avoid alpha1-adrenoceptor activation. Under these conditions, the contractions to 5-HT were antagonized by ketanserin with high potency (pA2=9.35±0.27, n=3) in an unsurmountably manner demonstrating the involvement of 5-HT2 receptors and further suggesting heterogeneity of receptors mediating 5-HT-induced CE contractions. The CE 5-HT2 receptor subtype mediating contractions to 5-HT seems to be the 5-HT2C because fluoxetine inhibited these contractions with high potency (pA2=7.75±0.12, n=7). The two 5-HT1A–selective ligands WAY 100635 and buspirone inhibited the 5-HT-induced contractions with potencies consistent with interaction with 5-HT1A receptors (pA2 WAY 100635=9.47±0.02, n=3; pA2 buspirone=7.19±0.14, n=4). Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that the contractions of the CE duct to 5-HT in vitro involves multiple receptors comprised at least by alpha1-adrenoceptors, 5-HT2C and 5-HT1A receptors. This study contributes to the understanding of the roles of biogenic amines in the contractile function of the epididymal smooth muscle. Financial support: Fapesp and CNPq. Process number of Local Ethics Committee for the Use of Experimental Animals: 749-CEUA.
01.008 β2-adrenoceptor agonists modulate neuromuscular transmission through the extracellular cyclic AMP-adenosine pathway. Duarte T, Pacini ESA, Godinho RO UnifespEPM – Farmacologia
Introduction: We have shown that activation of skeletal muscle β2-adrenoceptorswith clenbuterol increases the generation of intracellular cyclic AMP (cAMP)thatis followed by the cyclic nucleotide efflux. Outside the muscle cell, cAMP is sequentially degraded by ectoenzymes into AMP and adenosine, which in turn is able to stimulate postsynaptic A1 adenosine receptors (A1R) inducing a negative inotropic effect (Duarte T, et al., J Pharm Exp Ther.: 341:820-8, 2012). Considering that activation of pre-synaptic A2A receptor subtypes has been associated with enhanced Ach release from motor neuron (Ribeiro J.A, et al., Prog Brain Res.: 109:231-241, 1996), we investigated the possible influence of postsynaptic β2-adrenoceptorinduced cAMP efflux on the regulation of skeletal neuromuscular transmission. Aim: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the possible influence of postsynaptic β2-adrenoceptorinduced cAMP efflux on the regulation of skeletal neuromuscular transmission. Methods: Mouse phrenic nerve stimulation was used to assess neuromuscular transmission when hexamethonium, a pre-synaptic nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) antagonist, was given to block neuromuscular transmission.We analyzed the effects of drugs on the train-of-four (TOF) ratio, which is the quotient between twitch tension of mouse diaphragm muscle produced by the 4 th (T4) and the 1 st (T1) stimulus within 4 consecutive 2 Hz stimuli of phrenic nerve (n=3-4). The effect of 100 nM clenbuterol (β2-adrenoceptor agonist) was evaluated 1.5 mM hexamethoniuminduced partial neuromuscular block. In order to evaluate the possible involvement of cAMP efflux and extracellular cyclic AMP-adenosine pathway on the β2-adrenoceptor agonist effects,phrenic nerve-diaphragm preparation was incubated with the adenosine receptor antagonist CGS15943 (100 µM), the ecto-5'-nucleotidase inhibitor AMP-CP(100 nM)and theorganic anion transporter inhibitor Probenecid(300 nM),prior to the addition of clenbuterol.
Results: Incubation of phrenic-diaphragm preparation with 1.5 mM hexamethonium caused a 25% reduction in the TOF ratio (TOF fade). On the other hand, pre-incubation of nerve-muscle preparation with 100 nM clenbuterolincreased by 15%the amplitude of diaphragm contraction and prevented the tetanic fade caused by hexamethonium. Inhibition of a) the efflux of cAMP with 300 nM probenecid, b) the degradation of cAMP into adenosine with 100 nM AMP-CP orc) adenosine receptors with 100 µM CGS15943 prevented the effect of clenbuterol on hexamethonium-induced tetanic fade. Conclusion: Our results show that muscular cAMP efflux induced by activation of β2-adrenoceptor agonist is able to modulate neuromuscular transmission via extracellular generation of adenosine and activation of presynaptic adenosine receptors. Financial Support: Capes, CNPq and FAPESP. Animal Ethics Committee: CEP n. 1389121115
01.009 Antioxidant supplementation with tempol attenuates gain in the physical performance of trained rats. Maia IC 1 , Brum PC 2 , Angelis K 3 , Marostica E 1 , Soares PPS 1 1 UFF – Physiology and Pharmacology, 2 USP – Biodynamic of the Movement of the Human Body, 3 Uninove – Laboratory of Translational Physiology
Introduction: Antioxidant supplementation is widely used by most of the population that cares about health and those who aiming to increase physical capacity. However, recent studies have shown conflicting results on the association of antioxidant supplementation and aerobic training in experimental models and humans (Am J Clin Nutr 87; 142-9, 2008). OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of antioxidant treatment with tempol, a scavenger of free radical, superoxide dismutase (SOD) mimetic, in trained and sedentary animals. Methods: (CEUA-UFF 698/15) Wistar rats 60 days old were adapted treadmill and after maximal exercise test (TEmax), were divided into four groups sedentary control (CS; n=12); training control (CT; n=10); sedentary tempol (TS; n=13) and training tempol (TT; n=9). The training consisted of treadmill running for ten weeks (50-70% of maximum speed, incline of 6%, 1 h/day, 5 days/week), with adjustable load at the 5 th after a new TEmax . Treatment with tempol was done in the last ten days of the training period (30 mg.kg -1 .day -1 , ip). Another TEmax was performed at the end of training. After 48 hours the animals were anesthetized (thiopental, 80 mg.kg -1 ). Blood sample was collected for serum assays, and the heart and the soleus muscle was dissected, frozen in liquid N2 and stored at -80 °C, the first two for assay of biomarkers of oxidative stress (antioxidant enzyme activity, including SOD, catalase e glutathione peroxidase; total antioxidant capacity, lipid peroxidation and oxidation protein), and the last to qRT PCR assay of genes related to mitochondrial biogenesis (PGC-1α and Nrf1) and antioxidant pathway (Nrf2). Results are means±SDs, analyzed by ANOVA two-way and post hoc Bonferroni's. For the real time RT-PCR, values were analyzed by Mann Whitney test (P<0,05). Results: At the end of the training, we observed an increase in physical performance of the animals in groups CT and TT (3.2±0.5; 2.6±0.3 km.h -1, respectively) compared to CS and TS (1.4±0.3; 1.9±0.4 km.h -1 , respectively), but antioxidant supplementation with tempol reduced the gain on the physical capacity of the trained animals TT compared to CT. The TS group, that received tempol supplementation, did not increase performance as compared to CS. Although no change in the levels of lipid peroxidation, protein oxidation and antioxidant activity in serum and heart occurred, similar reduction in cardiac O2 levels were found in the groups CT, TS and TT (61,16±15,53*; 60,76±21,37*; 50,57±10,33* mmol.mg -1 protein respectively), compared to CS (90,11±22,81 mmol.mg -1 protein). In addition, the trained groups (CT and TT) increased gene expression of PGC-1α in the soleus similarly. However, only TT increased the gene expression of Nrf2, while Nrf1 was not affected by any intervention (n=4-6) Conclusion: Thus, our data showed that supplementation with tempol decreased the gain in physical performance of aerobically trained rats. However, the molecular mechanisms that may explain these adaptations apparently are not directly related to mitochondrial biogenesis or just with oxidative stress. Financial Support: CAPES, FAPERJ, CNPq.
01.010 Verapamil modulates skeletal muscle contraction via activation of adenylyl ciclase/cAMP/PKA signaling pathway. Silveira SS 1 , Duarte T 1 , Paredes-Gamero EJ 2 , Godinho RO 1 1 Unifesp-EPM – Farmacologia, 2 Unifesp-EPM – Bioquímica
Introduction: Skeletal muscle contraction is triggered by sequential activation of postsynaptic nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, depolarization of the sarcoplasm and release of Ca 2+ from sarcoplasmic reticulum. The extracellular calcium is not required for skeletal muscle contraction, but it was recently shown that L-type calcium channel blockers have transient positive inotropic effect on mice skeletal muscle linked to increased intracellular cAMP levels (MenezesRodrigues et al., Eur J Pharmacol., 720:326, 2013). Aim: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the involvement of adenylyl ciclase/cAMP/PKA signaling pathway over the effect of verapamil on skeletal muscle contraction. Methods: The effect of 30 μM verapamil on isometric contraction was studied in mice diaphragm muscle, under direct electrical stimulus (0.1 Hz frequency, 2 ms duration, supramaximal voltage). The involvement of AC and PKA activation on the positive inotropic effect of verapamil was evaluated by pretreating diaphragm preparations with inhibitors of AC (NKY80, 300 µM, n=3) or PKA (Rp-cAMPS, 80 µM, n=3). The possible influence of verapamil on intracellular Ca 2+ concentration was evaluated by laser confocal scanning microscopy in L6 myogenic cells using Fluo-4 probe. Data were normalized to maximal intensity obtained with 1 mM ionomycin and analyzed. Results: 30 µM verapamil induced a sustained positive inotropic effect (~30%) that persisted throughout at least 40 min. The verapamil-induced increase in contraction force was abolished by inhibition of AC or PKA with NKY80 and Rp-cAMPS, respectively. Incubation of muscle preparation with AC or PKA inhibitors had negligible effects on basal muscle contraction. Interestingly, verapamil increased (~60%) intracellular concentration of Ca 2+ evaluated in L6 cells loaded with Fluo-4AM. Conclusion: Our results show that verapamil enhances skeletal muscle contraction and increases intracellular Ca 2+ concentration. The inhibition of verapamil-induced positive inotropic effect by AC and PKA inhibitors indicate that by limiting calcium influx via L-type channels, verapamil allows the activation of Ca 2+ -sensitive AC and PKA, which in turn increases skeletal muscle contraction. Financial Support: Capes, CNPq and FAPESP.
Animal Ethics Committee: CEP n. 022/12 – 9943030216.
01.011 A new functional role of extracellular cyclic AMP in the contraction of vascular, non-vascular and airway smooth muscle. Pacini ES, Moro RP, Godinho RO Unifesp-EPM – Farmacologia
Introduction: cyclic AMP (cAMP) is a universal intracellular second messenger, which is involved in a large number of biological processes such as cell proliferation, gene transcription and muscle contraction. In many tissues, in addition to its classical intracellular second messenger function, cAMP may also have an extracellular third messenger activity, which is secondary to its efflux and the sequential conversion into AMP and adenosine by ectophosphodiesterase and ecto-5'-nucleotidase, respectively (Godinho RO, et al., Front Pharmacol.: 6:58, 2015). Nevertheless, the existence and relevance of the so-called "extracellular cAMP-adenosine pathway" in the smooth muscle contraction of aorta, vas deferens and trachea is unknown. In the present study, we evaluated the contractile effects of extracellular cAMP in the rat isolated aorta, vas deferens and trachea. Methods: The aorta, epididymal portion of the vas deferens and trachea obtained from adult male Wistar rats were isolated and mounted in an organ bath containing carbogenated physiological salt solutions at a constant temperature, under optimal resting tension. After a 60 min stabilization period, the tissues were subjected to different protocols, and isometric contractions were measured. Experimental Protocol: the aorta, vas deferens and trachea were pre-contracted, respectively, with 100 nM noradrenaline, 30 mM KCl and EC30 carbachol. After the stabilization of the precontractile responses, the effects of a) 300-1000 µM cAMP alone or in the presence of CGS15943 or b) 100 µM 8-Br-cAMP were evaluated. The isometric contraction forces were expressed as mean ± S.E.M. All values were normalized and presented as percentage of the response induced by the pre-contractile agent. Results: 300-1000 µM cAMP induced a phasic contraction in pre-contracted rat vas deferens and trachea with amplitude values of 33 ± 13% (n=4) and 31 ± 3.5% (n=5), respectively. In contrast, incubation of rat aorta with 1 mM cAMP evoked relaxations that reached 35 ± 4.2% of the noradrenaline contraction (n=4). The preincubation of aorta, vas deferens and trachea with CGS-15943, a non-selective adenosine receptor antagonist, significantly reduced (p<0.05, Student's t- test) the contractile effect of cAMP (n=5-4). 8-Br-cAMP, a cell membrane-permeable analog of cAMP, induced a relaxation response in pre-contracted rat aorta (66 ± 8.3%, n=3), vas deferens (32 ± 6.1%, n=4) and trachea (46 ± 2.7%, n=4). Conclusions: These results suggest that the "extracellular cAMPadenosine pathway" regulates smooth muscle contraction in rat aorta, vas deferens and trachea. Importantly, we provided experimental data that supports a new functional role of cAMP in addition to the classical intracellular second messenger pathway. Financial Support: CAPES, CNPq and Fapesp. Animal Ethics Committee: CEUA #9987150714 and #8359060315
01.012 Co-expression of Olfr287 in a CD36-positive subpopulation of olfactory sensory neurons Xavier AM, Ludwig RG, Nagai MH, Almeida TJ, Watanabe HM, Hirata MY, Rosenstock TR, Papes F, Malnic B, Glezer I. Unifesp-EPM
The sensory neurons in the olfactory epithelium (OSNs) are equipped with a large repertoire of olfactory receptors and the associated signal transduction machinery. In addition to the canonical OSNs, which express odorant receptors (ORs), the epithelium contains specialized subpopulations of sensory neurons that can detect specific information from environmental cues and relay it to relevant neuronal circuitries. Here we describe a subpopulation of mature OSNs in the main olfactory epithelium (MOE) which expresses CD36, a multifunctional receptor involved in a series of biological processes, including sensory perception of lipid ligands. We performed Real Time PCR to compare the expression of Cd36 transcript in OE and other tissues. Additionally, we conduct in situ hibridization (ISH) and immunofluorescence (IF) experiments in order to characterize Cd36 transcript and protein expression in the MOE. We next analyzed whether olfactory guided behaviors and the general olfactory capacity are perturbed in CD36-deficient mice. In order to assess these skills, we conducted the risk assessment behavior test and buried food olfactory assay, respectively. In addition, we performed an innate odor preference test in order to evaluate the response to specific odorants. The Cd36 expressing neurons coexpress markers of mature OSNs and are dispersed throughout the MOE. Unlike several ORs analyzed in our study, we found frequent coexpression of the OR Olfr287 in these neurons, suggesting that only a specific set of ORs may be coexpressed with CD36 in OSNs. We also show that CD36 is expressed in the cilia of OSNs, indicating a possible role in odorant detection. CD36-deficient mice display no signs of gross changes in the organization of the olfactory epithelium, but show impaired preference for a lipid mixture odor. Our results show that CD36-expressing neurons represent a distinct population of OSNs, which may have specific functions in olfaction. Approval of Animal Care Committees (CEUA–UNIFESP – 2011/1427). Funding Support: FAPESP – 2007/53732-8, 2013/07937-8; CNPq - 140873/2013-9
01.013 Bioactivity and cytotoxicity evaluation of Botulinum toxin Type A. Xavier B, Silva FS, Remuzzi GL, Silveira AR, Dalmora SL UFSM – Farmácia Industrial
Introduction: Botulinum neurotoxins are primarily produced by the gram-positive, anaerobic spore-forming bacterium, Clostridium botulinum, and are among the most potent biological toxins for humans. Botulinum toxin A (BoNTA) is naturally expressed as an inactive single peptide chain with 1296 amino-acids and a 150 kDa relative molecular mass neurotoxin, and was the first to receive attention clinically as a potent muscular paralytic agent. Therapeutic applications have increased for the treatment of strabismus and blepharospasm, and as cosmetic. The aim of this study was to evaluate the bioactivity and the cytotoxicity of the intact molecule and degraded forms of biopharmaceutical products analysed by reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RP-LC). Methods: The RP-LC method was performed on a Zorbax 300 SB C18 column (150mm × 4.6 mm) maintained at 45 °C. The mobile phase consisted of 0.05 M sodium phosphate buffer, pH 2.8 and acetonitrile (80:20, v/v), run at flow rate of 0.3 mL/min with PDA detection at 214nm. Samples of BoNTA were subjected to degradation by exposing in a photostability chamber to 200 Wh/m 2 of near ultraviolet light for 4 h and 30 min and analysed by RP-LC. The in vitro cytotoxicity test was performed by the neutral red uptake cytotoxicity assay based on the exposure of the NCTC 929 cells to the samples on the 96 microplate maintained at 37 ºC in a CO2 incubator for 24 h. The neutral red released was evaluated by the addition of an extracting solution and the absorbance was measured at 540 nm using a microplate reader. The bioactivity was assessedby the T47D cell bioassay based on the dose-dependent cytotoxicity curve of the cells, evaluating the response with MTT. The absorbances were determined at 570 nm using a microplate reader. Results: The bioactivity and the cytotoxicity tests were performed on degraded forms versus the intact molecule in order to detect possible effects resulting from the instability of the samples during storage. Photodegradation showed non-significant changes of the bioactivity compared to the intact molecule, as evaluated by the T47D cell bioassay, and calculated by the Student's t test (p>0.05). Besides, the bioassay applied to the evaluation of biological products, showed potencies between 91.50 and 108.40%, related to the values claimed by the manufacturers. The cytotoxicity test showed mean values of IC50 = 1.37 ± 0.02 U/mL and IC50= 0.87 ± 0.03 U/mL for the sample and for the photodegraded molecule, respectively, with significant differences (p<0.05). Conclusion: The results demonstrated the capability of the in vitro bioassay for the potency assessment of BONTA, and the application of the cytotoxicity test to detect possible undesirable effects of degraded forms. Thus the bioassays contribute to the establishment ofalternatives, which improve the potency evaluation and assuring the safe use of the biological product. References: BANDALA, C. et al. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, v. 14, p. 891, 2013. FREITAS, G.W. et al. Anal Methods, v. 8, p. 587, 2016. WILDER-KOFIE, T. et al. Comp Med, v. 61, p. 235, 2011. Acknowledgments: CNPq and FATEC for the financial support.
01.014 Friedelin regulates migration and extracellular matrix synthesis in fibroblasts. Carmo JOS 1 , Ferro JNS 1 , Conserva LM 2 , Barreto E 1 , Correia ACC 1,3 1 UFAL- Biologia Celular, 2 UFAL- Química de Produtos Naturais, 3 UFAL- Nutrição
Introduction: Wound healing plays an important role in protecting the human body from external infection. Cell migration and proliferation of fibroblasts are essential for proper wound healing. In a recent study, we demonstrated that friedelin accelerated a healing of skin wounds in diabetic animals (Correia et al, 47º SBFTE, 2015). Here, we assessed the effect of friedelin on activation of selected genes and proteins related to wound healing in fibroblasts in vitro. Methods: For these experiments, 3T3 fibroblast were cultured in DMEM medium containing 10% fetal calf serum, 2 mM glutamine, 1% gentamicin and incubated at 5% CO2 at 37°C. The viability of fibroblast treated with friedelin (1, 10 or 100 μM) for 24 h was determined by the MTT assay. Scratch wound healing assay was used to determine cell migration. For this purpose, after mechanical injury to the adherent cells the treatment with friedelin for 12h and 24 h was performed. Untreated cells were used as control. The extent of cell migration was photographed and measured using image analyzing software. In another set of experiments, production of fibronectin laminin and transforming growth factors (TGF-β1) was assessed using immunofluorescence staining, while mRNA expressions to matrix metalloproteinases 9 (MMP9), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMP-1), collagen type 1, collagen type 3 and TGF-β1 were analyzed by RT-PCR. All assays were performed in three independent controlled experiments. Results: Statistical analysis, using two-way ANOVA with post hoc Bonferroni test, revealed that friedelin at 100 μM increased the migration of fibroblast by 12% (12h) and 24% (24h), respectively. Immunofluorescence analysis revealed a significant increase in the amount of fibronectin (p<0.05), laminin (p<0.001) and TGF-β1 (p<0.001) in fibroblast after treatment with 100 μM friedelin. Meanwhile, friedelin induced a decrease in the messenger RNA levels of TIMP-1 (p<0.01), without affecting the expression of collagen type 1, collagen type 3 or TGF-β1. Despite a rise in levels of mRNA, the expression of MMP-9 in friedelin-treated cells no exhibited statistical difference compared with control group. Friedelin alone did not affect cell viability at all doses tested. Conclusions: On the basis of these results, we suggest that friedelin may exert a stimulating effect on fibroblasts by enhancing their migration by modulating genes related to wound healing. Financial Support and Acknowledgments: CNPq and CAPES.
01.015 Fenofibrate promotes weight loss in mice via miR-103. Rocha KC 1 , Frias FT 1 , Sousa E 1 , Cruz MM 2 , Rodrigues AC 1 1 USP – Farmacologia, 2 Unifesp-Diadema – Ciências Biológicas
Introduction: Obesity is characterized as an expansion due to increase in adipocyte number (hyperplasia) and/or size (hypertrophy), thus inducing dysregulation of glucose and lipid metabolism 1 . Energy metabolism related genes are regulated by peroxisome proliferatoractivated receptor alpha (PPARα) 2 . Evidence shows that microRNAs can regulate adipocyte differentiation by regulating PPARα expression 3 . To evaluate metabolic changes via PPARα activation and its consequences we treated obese mice with PPARα agonist fenofibrate. Methods: Male C57BL/6 mice at 8 weeks' old (n=26) were randomly assigned to receive a control (CD) or a high-fat diet (HFD) for 6 weeks. After that, they were subdivided into four groups: C group (fed with CD, untreated), CF group (fed with CD and treated with fenofibrate), H group (fed with HFD, untreated) and HF group (fed with HFD and treated with fenofibrate). Mice were administered by oral gavage with fenofibrate at 50 mg/Kg/day for 2 weeks, and then they were euthanized. Insulin Tolerance Test (ITT) was performed on the last week of protocol. Samples of blood were collected for biochemical measurements and mesenteric, epididymal, and retroperitoneal fat depots were weighted for adipose index calculation. Epididymal adipose tissue was immediately flash-frozen in liquid nitrogen for total RNA extraction and retroperitoneal adipose tissue was used for lipolysis assay. Expression of microRNAs miR-30d, miR-103 and miR-150 and mRNAs (Cebpa, Ppara, Npyr1, Pparg, Ppargc1a, Cpt1b, and Ucp1) were measured by Real-time PCR assay in epididymal adipose tissue, using sno-202 and 234 or Hprt1 for normalization, respectively. Statistical analysis was performed using Two-way ANOVA, followed by Bonferroni post-test. Differences at P < 0.05 were considered significant. Results: Mice fed with HFD showed augment of body weight gain, weights of adipose depots and fasting leptin levels, however it reduced constant of glucose disappearance (Kitt) (p<0.05). Treatment with fenofibrate didn't change the food intake, but attenuated the weight gain in both CF and HF groups, contributing to lower the adipose tissue storage. Leptin levels were restored to control mice serum levels, but insulin resistance measured by ITT was not different from H group (p>0.05). In epididymal adipose tissue expression of miR-103 and miR-150 were upregulated and Ppargc1a, Ppara and Npyr1 gene expression were downregulated in obese mice, but treatment with fenofibrate only restored miR-103 levels to those found in C group. Interestingly, fenofibrate upregulated Pparg and Cebpa gene expression, suggesting an increased adipocyte differentiation in adipose tissue. Compared with C group, the adipocytes diameter and basal lipolysis were both higher in the HFD group, however the fenofibrate treatment was not able to normalize it. Conclusion: Fenofibrate induced weight loss in mice caused by HFD feeding probably by a mechanism involving miR-103. References: 1. Ferreira AV. Metabolism 63(4):456; 2014. 2. Martinelli R. Obesity 18(11):2170; 2010. 3. Son YH. Endocrinol Metab 29(2):122; 2014. Financial Support: CNPq and FAPESP. Animal Research Ethical Committee Process Number: 165/2011.
01.016 Prenatal alcohol exposure can change the expression of genes related to Osteogenesis in pre-osteoblasts of newborns rats. Carvalho ICS 1 , Milhan NVM 2 , Barros PP 2 , Back-Brito GN 2 , Jorge AOC 2 , Godoi BH 1 , Moraes CDGO 1 , Rocha RF 2 , Pacheco-Soares C 1 1 UNIVAP – Biologia Celular e Molecular, 2 Unesp – Ciências Biológicas e Odontologia
Introduction: Alcohol exerts teratogenic effects and its consumption during pregnancy may cause deficit of bone development. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the genes expression related to osteogenesis, in pre-osteoblasts of newborns, after teratogenic doses of ethanol during pregnancy. Methods: Wistar rats were initially divided into three groups: Ethanol group which received Ethanol 20% V/V in liquid diet and solid diet ad libitum; Pair-fed group that received the equivalent amount of carbohydrate solution and solid diet, and Control group, which received solid diet and water ad libitum. Each group received this specific diet for eight weeks prior to breeding and during the three weeks of gestation. The newborns were euthanized on the fifth day of life. After, the calvaria was removed, and the cells were isolated by sequential enzymatic digestion. The pool of cells from each experimental group were frozen at - 80°C in aliquots of 1x 10 6 cells for later use. Total RNA was extracted, quantified and transcribed in the cDNA. Diluted cDNAs were subjected to PCR amplification in real time using Osteogenesis RT 2 Profiler Rat PCR array (Qiagen). The qPCR data were evaluated by a software available on the company website. A total of 84 genes related to different processes of osteogenesis were evaluated. Results: In this study the expression profiles by microarray to the process of osteogenesis were variables in the analyzed groups. Most of the genes were up regulated in the Pair-fed and Control groups, and down regulated in the Alcohol group. By the other hand, many genes were up regulated in the Alcohol group and down regulated in the Pairfed and Control groups, such as Runx2, Sp7, Col1a1, Spp1, Bglap and Alpl, which are mainly related to osteoblasts differentiation and ossification process. Conclusion: Based on the results we may suggest that prenatal alcohol exposure modified the profile of gene expression in the osteogenesis process in rats, and has a direct effect on pre-osteoblasts of newborns. Financial support: FAPESP (Grant 2012/10643-3) and CAPES. The Ethical Committee in Research of São José dos Campos Institute of Science and Technology, UNESP – Universidade Estadual Paulista approved the study protocol (01/2012-PA/CEP).
01.017 Treatment of diet-induced obese mice with pioglitazone causes decrease of MIR23b by adiponectin-independent pathway in skeletal muscle. Mendonça M, Sousa E, Rodrigues AC ICB-USP – Farmacologia
Introduction: Pioglitazone, an agonist of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) alpha and gamma, induces the production of adiponectin and ameliorates insulin resistance in diet-obese mice. Recently, there are evidences that adiponectin gene and its receptors are regulated by microRNAs (miRs) 1 , therefore a treatment that regulates the expression of these miRs can be effective in the improvement of insulin resistance. Recent studies of our group performed in C57BL/6 mice fed a high fat diet for 8 weeks to induce insulin resistance, showed increased mRNA expression of adiponectin in skeletal muscle after treatment with pioglitazone associated to a decreased expression of miR-23b. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate if pioglitazone-induced decrease of miR-23b and increased insulin sensitivity is dependent on adiponectin plasma levels. Methods: Eighteen male C57BL/6 mice adiponectin knockout (adipoko), 8 weeks old and 20g on average were fed a balanced diet (BD) or high fat diet (HFD) for 6 weeks to induce obesity and, then part of the mice of the HFD group was treated for 2 weeks with pioglitazone 35mg/kg/day (group HFD+P). After treatment, insulin tolerance test was performed for insulin resistance evaluation by glucose decay rate (kITT). At the end of treatment, animals were euthanized and their soleus muscles were collected for analysis of miR-23b expression by Real-Time PCR and protein expression by Western Blot analysis. The data were analyzed by ANOVA One-way/Two-way followed by Tukey's/ Bonferroni post-test. Results: The kITT demonstrated that HFD animals had lower insulin sensitivity compared to BD and treatment with pioglitazone improved insulin sensitivity (kITT- BD: 6.6 ± 0.8%/min vs HFD: 4.4 ± 1.3%/min vs HFD+P: 6.7 ± 1.0%/min; p<0.05). miR-23b was up regulated in obese mice, and treatment with pioglitazone reversed its expression to similar levels found in BD group (BD: 1.00 ± 0.07 vs HFD: 1.64 ± 0.11 vs HFD+P: 0.67 ± 0.05; p<0.05). Pioglitazone is known to activates AMPK pathway 2 , so Western-Blot analysis were made to phosphorylated AMPactivated protein kinase (pAMPK) and Sirtuin1 (Sirt1), a target of miR-23b. We observed an increased expression of pAMPK in HFD+P group, comparing to HFD group, (BD: 1.00 ± 0.05 vs HFD: 0.85 ± 0.04 vs HFD+P: 1.60 ± 0.14; p<0.05) and an increased expression of Sirt1 in HFD+P group comparing to BD and HFD groups (BD: 1.00 ± 0.07 vs HFD: 0.75 ± 0.09 vs HFD+P: 4.15 ± 0.62; p<0.05). Conclusion: Pioglitazone-induced amelioration of insulin resistance occurs adiponectin independently, but by a mechanism dependent of miR-23b in skeletal muscle. References: 1-Lustig Y. Diabetes .(63):433; (2014). 2-Saha AK. BBRC. (314):580; (2004). Financial support : FAPESP (2015/24650-0) Animal Research Ethical Committee Process Number: 137/2015
01.018 Cilomilast inhibits elastase-induced lung emphysema in mice Cunha LCL 1 , Souza ET 2 , Martins MA 2 , Silva PMR 2 1 UERJ – Ciências Biológicas, 2 Fiocruz – Farmacologia Bioquímica e Molecular
Introduction: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), manifested as chronic airway obstruction, bronchitis, and emphysema, is considered as a major public health problem worldwide. There is no effective treatment available for this disease. To identify potential therapeutic targets, rodent models have been established including the administration of porcine pancreatic elastase (PPE). Aim: This study was undertaken to investigate the potential effect of phosphodiesterase (PDE) type 4 inhibitor cilomilast on PPE-induced emphysema in mice. Methods: Female C57BL/6 mice were used and PPE (0.2 and 0.6 IU) or saline were instilled intranasally in anaesthesied animals. Cilomilast was administered daily, at the doses of 10 and 30 g/kg (p.o.), from day 7 to 13 and the analyses were performed 24 h after the last dose. The parameters included lung function and airway hyper-reactivity to aerosolized methacholine by invasive plethysmography (Finepointe, Buxco System) and morphology/morphometry by automatic scanner (3DHISTECH) and Pannoramic Viewer Software. All procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee for Animal use (CEUA number of license LW57/14). Results: First a dose response of PPE was performed. Microscopic analysis revealed that 24 h after PPE (0.2 IU), there was an inflammatory response with a marked leukocyte infiltration. At 14 days, destruction of the alveolar wall, with clear signs of hyper-insuflation area, and peribronchiolar fibrosis were noted in C57BL/6 mice, in comparison with normal alveolar structure of the controls. This response correlated with increased airways resistance and reduced lung elastance. Because the dose of 0.6 IU caused animal death, later studies were performed with 0.2 IU. The administration of the PDE inhibitor cilomilast to PPE-challenged mice attenuated the emphysematous response including both hyperinsuflation area and fibrosis. Conclusion: Our findings show that elastase-induced lung emphysema exhibits important features of the clinical disease, a response sensitive to treatment with cilomilast. This is an indicative that the blockade of PDE4 enzyme seems to be a promising therapeutic tool for application in the treatment of COPD. Financial support: FIOCRUZ, CNPq, FAPERJ and CAPES (Brazil).
01.019 Evaluation of an in vitro cell culture bioassay for the potency assessment of recombinant human erythropoietin. Perobelli RF, Xavier B, Maldaner FPS, Walter ME, Motta LGJ, Dalmora SL UFSM – Farmácia Industrial
Introduction: Human erythropoietin (EPO) produced by recombinant DNA technology (rhEPO) is marketed worldwide to treat anemia. The hormone consists of a 165 amino acids polypeptide chain, heavily glycosylated at three N-linked and one O-linked glycosylation sites, with a molecular mass of 30.4 kDa. The aim of this study was to validate an in vitro TF-1 cell proliferation assay for the potency assessment of rhEPO in biopharmaceutical formulations. Methods: The assay was based on the growth-promoting activity of the factor-dependent human cell line, TF-1 (ATCC CRL-2003). The cells were maintained in RPMI 1640 culture medium, supplemented with 10% (v/v) fetal bovine serum. The cells were seeded in 96-well cell culture plates at a density of 1.0 × 10 5 cells/mL, and dosed upon seeding with five concentrations of rhEPO between 0.10 – 2.0 IU/mL, in triplicate, as parallel assays. The Ph Eur BRP rhEPO was used as the standard, and the control was RPMI 1640 medium. The plates were incubated at 37°C, 5% v/v CO2, for 48 h. Then, 25 μL of a 1 mg/mL tetrazolium sodium salt (XTT) solution per well was added, and the plates were incubated (37 °C, 5% v/v CO2) overnight. The absorbance at 450 nm was measured with microplate reader. Results: The TF-1 cell culture assay was validated by using samples of rhEPO (4 000 IU/mL). The specificity was established with rhEPO formulations spiked independently with known amounts of rhGH, rhGCSF, interleukin-11 and neuraminic acid with showed non-significant differences (p>0.05) related to the un-spiked sample. The analytical curves were found to be linear over the range 0.0125 – 6.4 IU/mL, the determination coefficient calculated from y = 0.171x + 0.806, was r 2 = 0.9944, which confirmed the linearity of the curve. The limit of quantitation was 0.0125 IU/mL. The accuracy was 98.93% with bias lower than 0.60%. Moreover, method validation demonstrated acceptable results for precision and robustness. The method was applied for the analysis of recombinant human erythropoietin in biopharmaceutical formulations giving potencies between 87.30% and 116.20%, related to the potencies claimed by the manufacturers. Conclusion: The TF-1 cell culture assay represents an advance toward the establishment of in vitro approaches, in the context of the Three Rs. The assay was validated and applied for the potency assessment of rhEPO in biopharmaceutical formulations, contributing to establish alternative which improve the quality control assuring the therapeutic efficacy.References: YANAGIHARA, S. et al. Biol Pharm Bull, v. 33, p. 1596, 2010. KITAMURA, T. et al. J Cell Physiol, v. 140, p. 323, 1989. SCHUTKOSKI, R. et al. Anal Methods, v. 5, p. 4238, 2013. Acknowledgments: CNPq and FATEC for the financial support.
01.020 Investigation of the role of endothelial P2Y2 and P2Y6 receptors in leukocyte adhesion during mesenteric inflammation caused by schistosomiasis. Pereira LM, Silva CLM UFRJ – Farmacologia e Inflamação
Introduction: Schistosomiasis is a chronic intravascular disease caused by Schistosoma mansoni and it is related to mesenteric vascular inflammation (Oliveira et al., 2011 Plos One 6(8):e23547). Endothelial cells play an important role during inflammation since, once activated, they release proinflammatory nucleotides and express adhesion molecules important for leukocyte adhesion. Constitutive nitric oxide (NO) production counteracts the later. Extracellular ATP activates P2Y and P2X purinoceptors (P2R) while ADP, UDP and UTP act through P2Y1, P2Y2 and P2Y6R, respectively. Recently we showed that P2Y1R-mediated leukocyte adhesion to endothelial cells is enhanced during schistosomiasis (Oliveira et al., 2016 Vascul Pharmacol 82:66), but the other P2YRs have not been investigated yet. The objective of this work was to investigate the putative role of endothelial P2Y2R and P2Y6R to leukocyte adhesion during schistosomal inflammation. Methodology: Newborn Swiss mice (male) were infected with S. mansoni as previously described. Animals (75 days old, control and infected) were anesthetized; the mesenteric vessels were removed, cut into small segments, and kept in DMEM enriched with 20% fetal bovine serum (37 o C, 5% CO2) until confluence. Cultured endothelial cells were plated to leukocyte adhesion assay and nitric oxide (NO) measurement. Mononuclear cells from both groups were isolated from peripheral blood using Percoll gradient (Oliveira et al., 2011 Plos One 6(8):e23547). Confluent endothelial cells were stimulated with 100 µM UTP (P2Y2R) or 30 µM UDP (P2Y6R) for 5h, in the absence (basal) or presence of the P2YR antagonists suramin (P2Y2R) and MRS2578 (P2Y6R), respectively; and then coincubated with mononuclear cells for 30 min. Next cells were washed. Four fields/well were chosen and the number of adherent cells was defined using an optical microscopy. Alternatively, endothelial cells were treated for 1h or 12h to measure NO and IL-1β, respectively. Experiments were performed in triplicate using different cultures. Results: In the control group the treatment of endothelial cells with 100 µM UTP (P2Y2R) increased leukocyte adhesion from 4.3 ± 0.1 to 7.7 ± 0.3 cells/field (n = 4, P < 0.001). Suramin (50 µM) pretreatment blocked the agonist effect (4.4 ± 0.2 cells/field). However, in the infected group UTP (100 µM) increased leukocyte adhesion from 10 ± 0.8 to 17 ± 1.1 cells/field (n = 3, P < 0.001), and suramin also blocked the effect. In the control group UTP (100 µM) increased NO production only by 10% and its effect was smaller than 1 µM bradykinin used as positive control (33.8 ± 1.9%, n = 2), suggesting that P2Y2R are not involved in constitutive endothelial NO production. Furthermore, UTP had no effect in the infected group (P = 0.13). In the control group UDP (30 µM) also increased leukocyte adhesion (P < 0.05). Preliminary data suggest that basal production of IL-1β is increased in endothelial cells from infected mice (17.1 ± 2.2 pmol/ml) as compared to control (8.5 ± 1.5 pmol/ml, n=2), and in the latter group UDP (30 µM) increased IL1β production to from 8.5 to 23.55 pmol/ml. Conclusions: The stimulation of endothelial P2Y2 and P2Y6 receptors increases leukocyte adhesion in control and infected groups, but the final number of adhered leucocytes to endothelial cells is higher in the infected group, suggesting an upregulation of inflammatory purinergic signaling during schistosomiasis. Financial Support: CAPES, FAPERJ and CNPQ. Ethics Committee: CEUA UFRJ 048/16
01.021 Melanoma-derived microvesicles induce human neutrophils polarization. Guimarães-Bastos DA 1 , Frony AC 1 , Saldanha-Gama R 1 , Moraes JA 1,2 , Barja-Fidalgo TC 1 1 UERJ – Biologia Celular e Molecular, 2 UFRJ – Farmacologia Bioquímica e Celular
Introduction: The understanding of the mechanisms involved in tumor growth runs through the knowledgement on its microenvironment, formed by extracellular matrix components, growth factors, cytokines and different cell types. Immune cells present in tumor microenvironment have their pro-inflammatory functions modified to support tumor growth. Recent studies have provided evidence on two phenotypes of tumor-associated neutrophils (TAN): a protumoral, TAN-N2 or an antitumoral, TAN-N1. Evidence also shows that tumor microenvironment is rich in microvesicles (MV), produced abundantly by the tumor. Most MV can not only carry molecular information from their cellular origin, but could also modulate activity of target cells. Although tumor-derived MV were shown to interact with different cells in the microenvironment, there are no reports on its contribution to modulate TAN. Now, we investigate whether MV produced by a human melanoma cell line modulate human neutrophil activity, shifting it to a N2-like phenotype. Methods: MV were obtained from conditioned media of human melanoma cell line MV3 cultures and quantified by annexin-V staining. Human neutrophils (PMN), isolated by Percoll gradient, were incubated in the presence or absence of MV (10%v/v) or LPS (10µg/mL) at different times. Chemotaxis was assayed in a 48-wells modified Boyden Chamber. Apoptosis was assessed through cytometry analyses. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) formation was evaluated by DNA quantification and immunofluorescence. Intracellular ROS, NO and peroxynitrite production were measured through the oxidation of CM-H2DCFDA, DAF-FM and HPF probes, respectively. MV3 cells co-cultured with PMN viability was assessed by MTT assays. Molecular markers gene expression were obtained by qRT-PCR. CXCR4 and arginase contents were obtained by cytometry and immunoblotting, respectively. Results: MV induced PMN chemotaxis, and this effect was inhibited by pertussis toxin and is dependent on PI3K-AKT pathway activation. We also observed that MV effect on PMN chemotaxis relies on CXCR2, once its inhibitor, SB225002, abrogated PMN migration. MV delayed PMN spontaneous apoptosis, triggered NETs formation and induced intracellular ROS production. Treatment with MV decreased NO basal production, and increased CXCR4 and arginase protein expression and also augmented the mRNA content of several TAN-N2 molecular markers, such as arginase, CXCR4 and VEGF in PMN. Finally, PMN treated with MV did not affect melanoma cells viability in co-culture. Conclusion: Our data indicate that melanoma-derived MV may have an important role on shaping the phenotype of PMN in tumor microenvironments towards a TAN-N2 phenotype, which shows an increased expression of pro-tumor molecular markers and presents low cytotoxic properties. Funding support: CAPES, CNPq, FAPERJ Study approval from Ethics Committee of Pedro Ernesto Hospital: 38257914.7.0000.5259
01.022 Neutrophil microparticles: generation and role on inflammation. Frony AC 1 , Moraes JA 2 , Barcellos-de-Souza P 3 , Cunha M, Boisson-Vidal C 4 , Barja-Fidalgo TC 1 1 UERJ, 2 UFRJ, 3 INCa, 4 INSERM
Introduction: During an inflammatory process, microparticles (MP) released by stimulated cells can be found in bloodstream, acting as biomarkers and bioeffectors. The migration of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) is triggered by a gamma of soluble mediators that induce cell activation and is primarily modulated by adhesion molecules. Among them, L-selectin mediates PMN rolling on endothelial surface. Fucoidans are sulfated polysaccharides able to inhibit selectin-mediated events. A low-molecular-weight fucoidan fraction extracted from the (LMW-Fuc) is a potent antithrombotic, with low anticoagulant activities, and potent proangiogenic properties. We have early shown that LMWFuc decreased LPS/fMLP-induced activation on human PMN, such as chemotaxis, apoptosis, NET and ROS production. In this work, we evaluated the effect of LMW-Fuc on MP production brown algae Ascophyllum nodosum by activated PMN, and also investigated the effects of these MP on PMN and macrophages. Methods: Human PMN and monocytes were isolated in Percoll gradient. MP were isolated from PMN supernatant by ultracentrifugation at 100000xg for 4h, and quantified by flow cytometry. Proteins expression was evaluated by immunoblotting. ROS production was quantified by Lucigenin (5 uM) and CM-H 2 DCFDA (10 uM). Results: (1) PMN primed with LPS (1 µg/mL) and further treated with fMLP (100 nM) for 1 h released high amounts of MP. (2) This process was dependent on L-selectin, once it was inhibited by LMW-Fuc (10 µg/mL). (3) LPS/fMLP-induced MP generation was also dependent on MLC pathway, whose activation relies on L-selectin. (4) PMN activated by LPS/fMLP produced MP enriched in p47 phox , which were able to induce extracellular ROS production on fresh PMN and macrophages. (5) To investigate the role of the p47 phox derived from MP on this effect, macrophages were silenced for NOX2 and treated with pro-inflammatory MP. Silenced cells did not produce ROS, indicating that the MP effect requires the whole NOX2 complex to induce ROS release. Furthermore, macrophages without p47 phox activity that were treated with pro-inflammatory MP were able to produce extracellular ROS production, indicating that p47 phox is transferred from MP to macrophages. Conclusion: Our data point to an important pro-inflammatory role of activated PMN-derived MP during inflammatory process, modulating ROS production by phagocytes. The results also show that the treatment with LMW-Fuc could attenuate PMN activation during infectious process, decreasing the production of pro-inflammatory MP, suggesting a new anti-inflammatory approach. Funding support: CAPES, CNPq, FAPERJ Study approval from Ethics
Committee of Pedro Ernesto Hospital:38257914.7.0000.5259
01.023 Expression of the estrogen receptors in DU-145 human prostate cancer cells. Souza DS, Lombardi APG, Lucas TFG, Porto CS 1 Unifesp-EPM – Farmacologia
Introduction: Androgens, estrogens and stromal-epithelial interactions are involved in the development of prostate cancer (reviewed in Prins & Korach, Steroids 73:233, 2008). Prostate cancer initially responds well to androgen-deprivation therapies, but the majority of tumors evolve from an androgen-sensitive to an androgen-independent form of the disease, also known as castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), which presents a poor prognosis and no effective therapy (reviewed in Parray et al., Biologics: Targets and Therapy 6:267, 2012). Estrogens, acting through classic estrogen receptors ESR1 (ERalpha) and ESR2 (ERbeta), may play an important role in this mechanism. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify the expression and cellular localization of the ESR1 and ESR2 in the androgen-independent prostate cancer cell line DU-145, used as CRPC models. In addition, we evaluated the relative contribution of these receptors to the activation of the ERK1/2 (extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases) signaling pathway. Methods: The experimental procedures were approved by the Research Ethical Committee at EPM-UNIFESP (#2014/05292-2). DU-145, androgenindependent prostate cancer cell, and PNT1A, human post pubertal prostate normal cells, used as a control of some experiments, were grown in RPMI 1640 medium without phenol red, supplemented with 10% of fetal bovine serum, HEPES (5.95 mg/ml) and gentamicin (0.02 mg/ml). After 24 hours of serum removal, DU-145 cells were incubated in the absence (control) and presence of 17beta-estradiol (E2, 0.1 nM), ESR1-selective agonist PPT (10 nM) or ESR2selective agonist DPN (10 nM) for different times of incubation and Western blot assays were performed for detection of ESR1, ESR2, ERK1/2 and phospho-ERK1/2. Cells were also untreated (control) or pretreated with CRM1 (exportin 1) inhibitor leptomycin B (4.5 nM) for 24 h and immunofluorescence assays for detection of ESR1 and ESR2 were performed as previously described (Pisolato et al., Steroids 107:74, 2016). Results: ESR1 immunostaining was predominantly nuclear in PNT1A. ESR1 and ESR2 immunostaining were localized preferentially in extranuclear regions of DU-145 cells. ESR1 and ESR2 were detected as a single protein band of about 66 kDa and 56 kDa, respectively, by Western blot. The unusual cytoplasmic localization of both receptors in DU-145 cells differs from nuclear localization in the majority of estrogen target cells and suggests that rapid signaling pathways may be preferentially activated. In fact, E2 induced a rapid and transient increase in the phosphorylation state of ERK1/2 in the DU-145 cells. Peak ERK1/2 phosphorylation levels occurred at 5 min (1.7-2.2-fold increase). PPT and DPN also induced an increase in the phosphorylation state of ERK1/2. In the presence of CRM1 inhibitor leptomycin B, immunostaining for ESR1 and ESR2 were found in the nuclei of DU-145 cells, suggesting the involvement of CRM1 protein in the preferential cytoplasmic localization of ERs. No immunostaining was observed in the negative control, performed with the primary antibody preadsorbed with its respective blocking peptide. The identification of estrogen receptors and new signaling pathways is important to understand the estrogen-mediated functions in the prostate cancer and the possible role of this hormone in the progress of the disease to an androgen-independent phenotype. Financial Support: FAPESP, CNPq, CAPES.
01.024 Obese adipose tissue contributes to increase proliferation, migration and invasion in breast cancer cells. Andrade IR 1 , Renovato-Martins M 1 , João JA 2 , Matheus ME 2 , Silva SV 1 , Bouskela E 1 , Souza AP 2 , Cláudio-da-Silva C 2 , Barja-Fidalgo TC 1 1 UERJ, 2 UFRJ
Introduction: Obesity is characterized by a chronic low-grade inflammation and is a major problem of public health, especially because of its association with several diseases, including cancer. Many studies have shown a higher incidence and a worse prognosis of breast cancer in obese women.Aiming to evaluate the influence of adipose tissue on tumor cells during obesity, we used an experimental model, in vitro, in which the conditioned media of cultures of adipose tissue (AT) explants of obese and non-obese individuals were used to stimulate two cell lines of human breast adenocarcinoma, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 (more metastatic than MCF-7). We have evaluated the influence of factors secreted by AT on the behavior of these cells, and the molecular mechanisms involved in those effects that could contribute to a worse prognosis in cancer. Materials and Methods: Tumor cells were stimulated with 20% of conditioned medium (CM) or with microparticles (MP) derived from ATexplants obtained fromobese patients or lean individuals.In some experiments anti-MIP-1α or anti-VEGF were added to AT explant cultures. Cell viability (24 and 48 h stimulation)was assayed by MTT method;Cell cycle assay (24 h) was evaluated in flow cytometry; Cell migration assayed by wound healing methodafter 24 h stimulation; For tubulogenesis assays on MatriGel, endothelial cells (HMEC) were incubated with the supernatant of cultures oftumor cellstreated (24 h) with the conditioned medium obtained from obese or lean AT. Cell invasion was assessed through transwell migration after 24 h of stimulation. MMP9 RNA expression was evaluated by real-time PCR. Results: The MCF-7 cells, but not MDA-MB-231 cells, when stimulated with CM-or with MP-derived from obese AT showed higher proliferation (p <0.05), compared to cells treated with CM- or MPderived from lean AT. When anti-MIP-1α was added to obese AT explant cultures, the increasing proliferative effect of CM, but not of MP, was impaired in MCF-7 cells. On the other hand, CM and MP from obese AT enhanced the migration capacity of MDA-MB-231 cells (p <0.005), but not of MCF-7 cells. The treatment of MDA-MB-231 cells with CM or with MP from obese AT explants enhanced their ability to induce tubulogenesis (p <0.01) and invasion (p <0.05). Both effects were blocked when anti-VEGF was added to obese AT explant cultures (p <0.005). Furthermore, MP derived from obese AT increased ERK phosphorylation inMCF-7 cells (p < 0.05), whereas increased AKT phosphorylation in MDAMB-231 cells (p<0.05). Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that MP and molecules secreted by obese adipose tissue, like MIP-1α, VEGF, can improve the functionality of breast tumor cells, increasing proliferation, migration, invasion and their angiogenic properties, what might contribute to enhance malignancy. Financial support: CAPES, CNPq, FAPERJ This study was approved by Ethic Committee from Pedro Ernesto hospital (CAAE 36880914.0.0000.5259).
01.025 Annexin A1 Modulates Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor γ Expression in BV2 murine microglial cell line. Rocha GHO, Pantaleão LN, Farsky SHP USP – Análises Clínicas e Toxicológicas
Introduction: Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) is an important nuclear protein involved with energetic metabolism in adipocytes, but is also expressed in both mononuclear and polymorphonuclear cells, including those located in the central nervous system (CNS). Recent research suggests that PPARγ also displays anti-inflammatory actions and might contribute to alleviation of inflammatory damage in the CNS. Annexin A1 (ANXA1) is an anti-inflammatory protein that plays a key role in glucocorticoid-mediated effects and is also expressed by immune cells in the CNS. While it is well-known that ANXA1 is vital for the resolution of inflammation, all the underlying mechanisms and interactions with other antiinflammatory factors that lead to such action are still not fully understood, especially in the CNS. Using BV2 murine microglial cell line as the experimental model, we aimed to investigate whether PPARγ expression and also its anti-inflammatory effects could be modulated by ANXA1 in the CNS. Methods: Cultured BV2 cells were treated with ANXA1 at increasing concentrations (ranging from 10 to 100 nM) for 60 minutes and the proteic content was then extracted; proteic expression of PPARγ was evaluated by Western Blotting. Other set of BV2 cells were treated with ANXA1 (100 nM) for 30 and 60 minutes and gene expression was assessed by Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). In order to investigate the effects of the ANXA1-PPARγ interaction, BV2 cells treated with either 100 nM of ANXA1, 10 µM of pioglitazone (PPARγ agonist) or both, for a period of 60 minutes, were co-cultured with apoptotic PC12 cells (murine neuron-like cell line); phagocytosis and the expression of CD-36, a surface protein involved with phagocytosis and directly modulated by PPARγ, were assessed by flow cytometry. Results: Data obtained demonstrated that ANXA1 increases both protein and gene expression of PPARγ in BV2 cells by almost 2-fold. Treatment with ANXA1 did not seem to be involved with PPARγ-associated phagocytosis effects however, as simultaneous treatment with both ANXA1 and pioglitazone was ineffective in increasing expression of CD36 or increasing the amount of phagocytized apoptotic PC12 cells. Conclusion: Our data show that ANXA1 evidently modulates PPARγ expression in BV2 microglial cells, but such modulation does not seem to induce any improving effects on the PPARγ-mediated phagocytic capabilities of BV2 microglial cells. Further studies are still required to better address the anti-inflammatory effects that might originate from a PPARγ-ANXA1 interaction. The first author received scholarship from Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (CNPq). The present work received funding from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP, nº 2014/07328-4).
01.026 Ouabain-induced hypertension promotes unique alterations of Na/K-ATPase from different rat organs. Feijó PRO 1 , Neto AF 2 , Rossoni LV 2 , Noël F 1 , Quintas LEM 1 1 ICB-UFRJ, 2 USP – Farmacologia
Introduction: Organ-specific changes of the activity and expression of Na + /K + -ATPase (NKA), the receptor of cardiotonic steroids, are observed in experimental hypertension. Ouabain is now considered as an endogenous cardiotonic steroid related to hypertensive states, although its function is still elusive. Ouabain induces hypertension in rats when administered chronically, but the effect on NKA of organs involved in controlling blood pressure is poorly understood. Moreover, the putative separate roles of ouabain and hypertension are unknown. To evaluate the effect of chronic administration with ouabain on the activity and expression of NKA isoforms from rat heart, kidney and brain, and the concomitant treatment with antihypertensives. Metodology: Male Wistar rats weighing between 320-450g (6 weeks, n=6) were treated with ouabain (OUA, 8 μg/day subcutaneously), ouabain and antihypertensives (OUA+HH, hydrochlorothiazide 9.4 mg/kg + hydralazine 44 mg/kg), vehicle (VEH) or vehicle and antihypertensives (VEH+HH) for 5 weeks. Kidneys, brain and heart ventricles were dissected, weighed and stored at -80ºC. Then, they were homogenized and the pellets from ultracentrifugation were resuspended and used for enzyme activity experiments (NKA), and protein expression determined by Western blot technique. All animal procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee on Animal Experiments of ICB/USP (034/2012). Values are expressed as mean ± SEM and statistical analysis was performed by Student t test. Results: Rats from OUA group were hypertensive compared to VEH, VEH+HH and OUA+HH (*135.5 ± 0.6, 118.3 ± 0.7, 116.5 ± 0.8 and 116.1 ± 0.9 mm Hg, respectively; *p<0.05 compared to all groups, n=6). There was no cardiac and renal hypertrophy in this model. Only renal NKA activity was altered by ouabain (VEH: 9.1 ± 0.5 and OUA: *12.7 ± 0.8 μmol Pi/mg/h, *p<0.05 compared to VEH, n=6) but this was impaired by antihypertensives. Curiously, NKA activity from kidneys (VEH+HH: **30.6 ± 2.9 and OUA+HH:**30.9 ± 2.6 μmol Pi/mg/h, **p<0.05 compared to VEH and OUA, n=6) and brain (VEH: 6.7 ± 0.8, OUA: 7.0 ± 1.2, VEH+HH: **42.7 ± 2.3 and OUA+HH: **40.5 ± 1.7 μmol Pi/mg/h, **p<0.05 compared to VEH+HH and OUA+HH, n=6) of animals treated with antihypertensives were higher than untreated groups. Ouabain-treated rats showed higher expression of renal NKA alpha1 isoform (VEH: 100 ± 21.6 and OUA: *187 ± 16%, *p<0.05 compared to VEH, n=5-6) and left cardiac ventricle alpha2 isoform (VEH: 100 ± 8.3 and OUA: *165 ± 27.6, *p<0.05 compared to VEH, n=5-6) as well as lower brain expression of alpha1 and 3 (VEH: 100 ± 4.9 and OUA: *41.8 ± 4.7, and VEH: 100 ± 5.5 and OUA: *70.0 ± 7.6, respectively; *p<0.05 compared to VEH, *p<0.05 n=5-6). Conclusion: Ouabain-induced hypertension increased the activity and expression of renal NKA and may be involved in enhanced Na+ reabsorption and blood pressure, while increase of cardiac alpha2 may be an adaptive mechanism to Ca 2+ overload. Hypertension appears to be responsible for the altered activity. On the other hand, antihypertensives enhance kidney and brain NaK activities yet the reasons are still inconclusive. Experiments for the evaluation of cardiac and brain NaK expression and the activation of intracellular signaling pathways are in progress. Support: CAPES, FAPERJ, FAPESP and CNPQ.
01.027 Extracellular cyclic AMP-adenosine pathway: a promising therapeutic target for treating muscle wasting disorders Eloi FR, Chiavegatti T, Andrade-Lopes AL, Godinho RO Unifesp-EPM – Farmacologia
Introduction: The development of new therapeutic approaches for the prevention or treatment of exacerbated skeletal muscle catabolism has a great clinical relevance because skeletal muscle wasting and atrophy increases the morbidity and mortality associated with pathological conditions like muscular dystrophies and systemic disorders such as cancer, diabetes and sepsis. The adenylyl cyclase/cAMP pathway constitute a particularly interesting therapeutic target since activation G protein coupled receptors (GPCR) linked to the stimulatory G protein attenuates skeletal muscle proteolysis. Considering that in the skeletal muscle, intracellular formation of cAMP is followed by its efflux and extracellular degradation into adenosine, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the possible modulatory effects of the "extracellular cAMPadenosine pathway" on skeletal muscle proteolysis. Material and Methods: L6 rat cell line (3x10 5 cells/ mL) were grown in DMEM supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum on 35 mm dishes. Myogenic differentiation was induced with DMEM plus 5% horse serum, at day 3. The effect of cAMP, adenosine, CGS-15943 (non-selective adenosine receptor antagonist) and DMPX (selective A2 receptor antagonist) on muscle proteolysis was evaluated on 7-11-day-old L6 myotubes pre-incubated with 0.5 mM cycloheximide at 37ºC. After 1 to 5 h treatment, myotube proteolysis was evaluated by measuring the rate of tyrosine release into the incubation medium using a fluorometric method (at 485/590 nm) (Bergantin et al., J Appl Physiol 111: 1710, 2011) (n=4). Activation of GPCR was evaluated using the functional [ 35 S]GTPγS binding assay. Briefly, L6 membrane fractions (50 µg/well, n=4-5) were incubated with 0.1 nM [ 35 S]GTPγS (non-hydrolysable GTP analogue) and 50 µM GDP, in the absence or presence of cAMP or adenosine. Nonspecific binding was determined with 50 µM unlabeled GTPγS. Results and Conclusion: 30-300 μM cAMP increased by up to 150% the basal binding of [ 35 S]GTP S to L6 myotube membranes (1.17 ± 0.1 fmol/ mg of protein). The stimulatory effect of cAMP on G protein activation was mimicked by either 10-100 μM adenosine or its analog NECA (1-100 μM). Treatment of cultures for 4h with 0.1-1 mM cAMP reduced by up to 18% the basal rate of tyrosine release (13.07 ± 0.19 nmol / dish). The anticatabolic effect of cAMP was sustained for up 5h and mimicked by incubation of cells with 0.1-10 µM adenosine, which reduced by up to 28% the basal rate (12.58 ± 0.19 nmol / dish) of tyrosine released. Interestingly, pre-treatment of cells with the adenosine receptor antagonist CGS-15943 or DMPX completely abolished the antiproteolytic effects of either cAMP or adenosine treatment. These data show that extracellular cAMP can modulate the skeletal muscle proteolysis through activation of adenosine receptor coupled to stimulatory G protein. This extracellular arm of cAMP signaling may represent an important feedback mechanism that amplifies the physiological anticatabolic function of intracellular cAMP, becoming a target for developing pharmacological strategies for treating skeletal muscle wasting/ atrophy. Ethical Committee: CEUA Nº 5523140415 Financial Support: CNPq, Capes and FAPESP 2015/ 07019-4
01.028 Glucocorticoid Receptor Signaling in Wolffian Duct Morphogenesis. Thimoteo DS 1 , Ribeiro CM 1 , Silva EJR 2 , Hinton BT 3 , Avellar MCW 4 1 Unifesp-EPM – Farmacologia, 2 Unesp – Farmacologia, 3 University of Virginia, School of Medicine – Cell Biology, 4 Unifesp-EPM – Farmacologia
Introduction: Practice of prenatal glucocorticoid therapy has improved the outcomes of preterm births by accelerating fetal lung maturation. In rats, in vivo treatment of the pregnant females with glucocorticoids negatively impact several reproductive outcomes along the postnatal life of male offspring. The effect of glucocorticoids on the development of Wolffian duct (WD) through a signaling via glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is scarcely known. Our group has previously demonstrated a differential expression and immunolocalization of GR during rat WD morphogenesis. Aim: In this present study we evaluated the functionality of GR inrat WD morphogenesis using anorganotypic culture as experimental model. Methods: Embryos were collected from male Wistar rats atembryonic age of 17.5;the urogenital tract was dissectedand the WD isolatedand cultured for up to 96h on cell inserts floating in basal mediumcontaining or not the following drugs: testosterone (10 nM);hydroxyflutamide (synthetic androgen receptor antagonist, 10µM); dexamethasone (selective synthetic agonist for GR, 10 nM, 100 nM and 1 µM) and RU486 (synthetic GR antagonist, 1 µM). Medium was changed every 24 h. Gross morphology of WD morphogenesis was evaluated by the acquisition ofwhole WD images in an inverted microscopeevery 24 h. Results: Gross morphologyanalysis indicated that dexamethasone induced a time-and concentration-dependent effect on the development of cultured WDs. These effects were similar to tissues incubated with testosterone (10 nM). These effects were abrogated by RU486, but not hydroxyflutamide. WDs co-incubated with testosterone (10 nM) and dexamethasone (100 nM) exhibited increased duct length and number of curvatures when compared to tissues incubated with testosterone alone. Coincubation of testosterone and RU486, but not dexamethasone with hydroxyflutamide, had slight effect on the morphological differentiation of the cultured WD.Conclusions: Collectively, our data indicate that GR is expressed and functional in the rat WD. The outcome of GR/glucocorticoids signaling may be relevant to the understanding of the role of glucocorticoids in the masculinization of the male reproductive tract and male fertility at adulthood. Financial support: CAPES, CNPq/Science Without Borders (PVE 401932/2013-3; PDJ 150040/2015-6), FAPESP (#2014/19378-6), NIH−NICHD #069654. Approved by the Research Ethics Committee from UUNIFESP/EPM (#4637290115).
01.029 Calcium mobilization in smooth muscle and endothelial cells cultures from rats with different plasmatic Angiotensin I Converting Enzyme (ACE) activity phenotypes Pisano Dias ASES 1 , Nering MB 1 , Fernandes L 2 , Souccar C 1 , Lapa AJ 3 , Lima-Landman MTR 1 1 Unifesp-EPM – Farmacologia, 2 Unifesp-Diadema – Farmacologia e Inflamação, 3 UEA
Introduction: In previous studies it was demonstrated that plasmatic ACE activity phenotype influenced the pressoric response to Renin Angiotensin Aldosterone System (RAAS) agonists and antagonists. The greater hypertensive response to Ang I and Ang II detected in rats with low plasmatic ACE activity (ACEI) compared to rats with high plasmatic ACE activity (ACEh) as well as captopril (CAP) and losartan (LOSAR) responses are distinct between the two phenotypes indicates that the difference between ACEh and ACEl rats could be exerted at the receptor level or posterior to receptor activation. Aims: To evaluate calcium mobilization in smooth muscle and endothelial cells from ACEh and ACEl rats. Methods: Adult male rats (Wistar INFAR/ACEh and INFAR/ACEl) were used to determine the plasmatic ACE activity (nmol/min/mL) by FRET method. The smooth muscle and endothelial cells culture were performed as described by Macia et al (Arch Gerontol Geriatr., 35(1):51-7, 2002) and Loiola et al (Experimental cell research., 319:1102–1110, 2013), respectively. The calcium mobilization kit FLIPR® Calcium-4 (Molecular Devices) was used as described by manufactures. The cytosolic calcium mobilization (in units of arbitrary fluorescence - UAF) in smooth muscle cells was determined by KCl (40 mM) injection, before and after verapamil incubation (1 - 30 μM); or by Ang II (10 -5- 10 -7 M), before and after losartan incubation (10 -8 - 10 -6 M). In endothelial cell cultures BK (10 -9 - 10 -7 M) effect was determined before and after HOE-140 incubation (3 - 100 nM). The results were expressed as means and s.e.m. and analysed by ANOVA followed by the Tukey test (p< 0.05). Results: Confirming the phenotypic pattern of the rats, the plasmatic ACE activity was 82.3 ± 6.2 and 40.5 ± 3.4 nmol/min/mL (n=9),in ACEh and ACEl rats, respectively. The calcium mobilization induced by KCl stimulation in the absence (24.5 ± 2.5 UAF, n=3, for ACEh and 26.9 ± 0.9 UAF, n=3, for ACEl), or in the presence of all tested concentration of verapamil was similar in both phenotypes. After Ang II (10 -7 M) administration, Ca 2+ mobilization was 62 % higher in ACEh (14.4 ± 1,4 UAF, n=5) rats than in ACEl rats, but this difference was not maintained at 10 -5 M, when ACEl mobilized 42 % more than ACEh rats. LOSAR 10, 30 and 100 nM blocked the Ang II response concentration-dependently only in ACEl rats, 35 %, 50 % and 65%, respectively (Ang II: 79.2 ± 4.1 UAF, n=7). Endothelial cells stimulated by BK promoted an increase in Ca 2+ mobilization, in both rat phenotypes, but bigger in ACEl than in ACEh rats. Conclusions: The citosolic calcium increase promoted by KCl indicated that the Ltype calcium channels are not under influence of ACE phenotype. The different response to Ang II or to AT1 receptor blockade by LOSAR, in ACEl rats, reinforces the hypotheses that the activation or blockade of the RAAS is under phenotypic influence and is putatively exerted at the receptor binding site or in calcium mobilization. The BK signaling pathway indicates that also the behavior of the endothelial cells is influenced by the ACE phenotype. Financial support: CNPq, Fapesp, Capes Animal Investigation Ethics Committee Protocol (CEUA) N o 8029280215
01.030 From discovering "calcium paradox" to Ca 2+ /cAMP intracellular signaling interaction, and its impact in human health and disease. Bergantin LB, Caricati-Neto A Unifesp-EPM – Farmacologia
Introduction: The hypothesis of the so-called "calcium paradox" phenomenon in the sympathetic neurotransmission has its origin in experiments done in models of neurotransmission (rodent vas deferens) since 1970´s. Historically, "calcium paradox" originated several clinical studies reporting that acute and chronic administration of L-type voltageactivated Ca 2+ channels (VACCs) blockers (drugs largely used for antihypertensive therapy, which reduce Ca 2+ entry into the sympathetic neurons and cardiac/smooth muscle cells) such as verapamil and nifedipine, produces reduction in peripheral vascular resistance and arterial pressure, associated with a paradoxical increase in plasma noradrenaline levels and heart rate, typical of sympathetic hyperactivity. Despite this sympathetic hyperactivity has been initially attributed to adjust reflex of arterial pressure, the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in this paradoxical sympathomimetic effect of the L-type VACCs blockers remained unclear for four decades. Methods: Also, experimental studies using isolated tissues richly innervated by sympathetic nerves (to exclude the influence of adjusting reflex) showed that neurogenic responses were completely inhibited by L-type VACCs blockers in high concentrations, but paradoxically potentiated in low concentrations, characterized as a "calcium paradox" phenomenon, which remained unclear for almost four decades. Results: We discovered in 2013 that this paradoxical increase in sympathetic activity produced by L-type VACCs blockers is due to interaction of the Ca 2+ /cAMP intracellular signaling pathways (Bergantin et al., Cell Calcium, 54:202-212, 2013; TOP 25 Hottest Articles - Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology - Cell Calcium - TOP 1 July to September 2013/ TOP 5 October to December 2013/ TOP 1 January to December 2013 full year/TOP 6 January to March 2014). Conclusion: Then, the pharmacological manipulation of this interaction produced by combination of the L-type VACCs blockers used in the antihypertensive therapy, and cAMP accumulating compounds used in the antidepressive therapy, could represent a potential cardiovascular risk for hypertensive patients due to increase in sympathetic hyperactivity. In contrast, this pharmacological manipulation could be a new therapeutic strategy for increasing neurotransmission in psychiatric disorders such as depression, and producing neuroprotection in the neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer´s and Parkinson´s diseases. Financial support and acknowledgments: CNPq, CAPES and FAPESP (Bergantin´s postdoctoral fellowship FAPESP #2014/10274-3). Research approval by the Human or Animal Research Ethical Committee: CEP #1763/11; CEUA #9804030715
01.031 Hyperplastic prostate cell growth mediated through the transactivation of epidermal growth factor receptor by Alpha1-Adrenoceptors is inhibited by LDT5 in vitro. Nascimento-Viana JB 1 , Alcántara-Hernández R 2 , García-Sáinz JA 2 , Romeiro LAS 3 , Noël F 1 , Silva CLM 1 1 UFRJ – Farmacologia Bioquímica e Molecular, 2 UNAM – Instituto de Fisiología Celular, 3 UnB – Desenvolvimento de Estratégias Terapêuticas
Introduction: G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and receptor-tyrosine kinases such as the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) regulate several cell signaling networks in physiologic and physiopathologic conditions. The transactivation of EGFR by GPCRs regulating cell proliferation is a topic of increasing interest (Wang, Int J Mol Sci 17:95, 2015; Prenzel et al., Nature 402:884, 1999). Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a progressive disease related to an imbalance between cell proliferation and apoptosis (Roehrborn, BJU Int 2:13, 2008). The usual pharmacological treatment of BPH is based on the use of the α1A-adrenoceptors (AR) antagonists which relax prostatic muscle favoring bladder emptying. Previous data of our group showed that LDT5 has high affinity for α1A-AR, α1D-AR and 5-HT1A receptors acting as a multitarget antagonist that relaxes prostatic muscle in vivo. Moreover, LDT5 inhibits human hyperplastic prostate cell growth in vitro (Nascimento-Viana et al., J Pharmacol Exp Ther 356:212, 2016). The aim of this study was to evaluate the putative role of EGFR transactivation mediated by α1D-AR to BPH cell growth, thereby elucidating the mechanism of action of LDT5. Methods: Primary stromal cell culture from BPH patients was kindly provided by Dr L.E. Nasciutti (UFRJ/ICB) (Ethics Committee - CAAE-0029.0.197.000-05). Cells were cultured until confluence, starved from fetal bovine serum for 24h, and stimulated with 3 µM phenylephrine for 48h in the absence or presence of LDT5, BMY7378 (α1D-AR antagonist) or inhibitors of EGFR downstream cell signaling. Cell growth was evaluated by MTT and Trypan Blue exclusion. Western blot assays: BPH cells were lysed with RIPA buffer, centrifuged at 13,000g for 15 min and the supernatants were used for evaluation of activation (phosphorylation) of Mitogen Activated Protein kinases ERK1/2. Results and conclusions: Cell treatment with 3 µM phenylephrine (48h) induced cell growth (145±8.3%, P < 0.01 vs. basal) comparable to EGF (0.1 µM) effect (147±5%, n=3) used as control. Phenylephrine-induced cell growth was blocked by BMY7378 and LDT5 (50 nM), and also by GM6001 (10 µM; metalloproteinase inhibitor), AG1478 (5 µM; selective EGFR inhibitor) and MEK inhibitor PD98059 (1 µM) suggesting that EGFR transactivation by α1D-AR plays a role in BPH cell growth. However these inhibitors did not alter basal cell proliferation (P > 0.05). Then we evaluated p-ERK expression as a downstream signaling of EGFR transactivation. Phenylephrine (100 µM, 15 min) increased pERK expression by 145±4.7%, P < 0.01 vs. basal) and cell treatment with LDT5 (1 µM) inhibited this effect (n=4). Our data suggest that the blockage of α1D-AR by LDT5 inhibits EGFR transactivation, p-ERK expression and BPH cell growth. If such results could be translated to the clinics, the multi-target antagonist LDT5 could both relax prostate and prevent BPH progression. Therefore we propose that LDT5 may have a better pharmacological profile than current α1A-AR antagonists used for BPH treatment. Financial Support: CNPq, CAPES and FAPERJ. All protocols were approved by the Ethics Committee of UFRJ (DFBC/ICB011).
01.032 Immune response during differentiation of embryonic neural progenitor cells obtained from APPswe/PS1dE9 Alzheimer's disease mouse model: role of the kinin-B2 receptor. Pillat MM, Ulrich H USP – Bioquímica
Introduction: Abnormal neurogenesis and neuroinflammation are processes inherent to pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and therefore signs that promote these processes can act as initial deleterious triggers. In this context, recent data show that the kinin system is stimulated by the pathologic β-amyloid (βA) in AD patients. The effects of this system are primarily mediated by bradykinin (BK) and its kinin-B2 receptor (B2R) and comprehend the direct action on neural stem cells inducing neurogenesis, permeabilization of the blood-brain barrier, and the strong mediation of inflammation. However, the role of BK/B2R in the processes inherent to AD pathogenesis (neurogenesis and inflammation) is unknown. Moreover, studies indicated that proteins involved in neurodegenerative disease, such as APP and PS, often play critical roles in early development of the central nervous system (1). However, it is unknown whether changes in inflammation start in embryonic stages of mutation carriers associated with familial AD. Methods: This project proposes to investigate these questions by using transgenic double mice as model of the familial AD (APPswe/PSldE9). Neural stem and progenitor cells (NPCs) were obtained from wild type (WT) and APPswe/PSldE9 embryo telencephalon (E13). These cells proliferate as aggregates termed neurospheres in the presence of EGF and FGF-2, while retaining the ability to differentiate into neurons and glial cells. NPCs were differentiated in the absence or presence of the B2R antagonist HOE-140 or BK. Using microarray technology we studied the genome-wide gene expression profiles in the in vitro differentiated cells, obtained of WT and APPswe/PSldE9 embryo telencephalon, treated with BK or HOE-140. Results: It was observed the occurrence of a strong immune response with microglial activation in differentiated cells obtained of APPswe/PSldE9 embryos. In the presence of BK during APPswe/PSldE9 neurosphere differentiation, Iba-1 expression was increased, while treatment with HOE-140 decreased expression of this activated microglia marker, confirmed by real time PCR. Interestingly, cells obtained from APPswe/PSldE9 embryos expressed approximately 100fold more CCL12, CCL5 (RANTES), CCL3, C3, CX3CR1, TLR2 and TNF than cells obtained from WT embryos. Moreover, HOE-140 affected, in the same way, expression level of these chemokines in APPswe/PSldE9 cells. In agreement, BK treatment during APPswe/PSldE9 neurosphere differentiation statistically increases expression of the CCL12, TLR2 and TNF. Furthermore, the secretome of APPswe/PSldE9 differentiated neurosphere induced significant chemoattraction of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) compared to secretome of WT cells, evidenced by transwell migration assay. While chronic treatment with HOE-140 during differentiation of APPswe/PSldE9 NPCs diminished chemoattraction of PBMCs, treatment with BK favored. Conclusion: Thus, our results suggested that mutated APPswe and PSldE9 proteins, involved in neurodegenerative familial AD, play critical roles in early development of the central nervous system, triggering inflammation and microglial activation. Moreover, the B2R blockade suggests that BK signaling mediates the immune response observed in the APPswe/PSldE9 neurospheres. Reference: Rogers, D (2010). Ann Neurol 67, 151-8. Financial support: FAPESP and CNPq. Research Ethical Committee IQ-USP:10/2013.
01.033 Estradiol improves endothelial function through estrogen receptor alpha. Hermenegildo C, Mompeon A, Perez-Cremades D, Vidal-Gomez X, Oltra M, Novella S – University of Valencia and INCLIVA Biomedical Research Institute – Physiology
Introduction: The incidence of cardiovascular diseases in women is lower than in age-matched men during their fertile stage, benefit that disappears after menopause. These sex-related differences point to sexual hormones, mainly estrogens, as possible cardiovascular protective factors. Most of the cardiovascular effects of estrogens are attributed to 17β-estradiol (E2), which mediates genomic effects through estrogen receptors (ER), ERα and ERβ, both presents in endothelial and smooth muscle cells. Endothelium regulates the production of vasoactive compounds, such as nitric oxide (NO), prostanoids (mainly prostacyclin PGI2), angiotensin (Ang) II and Ang 1-7, which in turn control the vascular tone. Our goals ares to analyze the regulation of endothelial production of the atheroprotective compounds NO, PGI2 and Ang 1-7 by E2 and to study the involvement of ERα and ERβ on these effects. Methods: Cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were exposed to physiological concentrations of E2 (1-10 nM), to selective ERα agonist 4,4',4''-(4-Propyl-[1H]-pyrazole-1,3,5-triyl)trisphenol (PPT; 10 nM), and selective ERβ agonist 2,3-bis(4-Hydroxyphenyl)-propionitrile (DPN; 10 nM). In some experiments, the unspecific ER antagonist ICI 182780 (1 μM) or the specific ERα antagonist methyl-piperidino-pyrazole (MPP; 1 μM) were added before E2 treatment. NO production was measured by fluorescence through the DAF-FM fluorescent probe, PGI2 was measured by ELISA and Ang 1-7 was quantified by immunofluorescence. The regulatory pathways were analyzed by RT-PCR, Western blot and spectrofluorometric assays. Results: E2 promoted the release of vasoactive compounds, such as NO, PGI2 and Ang 1-7. In the case of NO, E2 increased NO production up to 200% of control values through the increased expression and activity of endothelial NO synthase (eNOS). E2 induced both cyclooxygenase-1 and prostacyclin synthase expression, resulting in an enhanced PGI2 production by 150% of control values. In the case of Ang 1-7, E2 increased angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE)1 and ACE2 protein expression and enzymatic activities (up to 200% of control values), causing an increased Ang 1-7 production by 160% of control values. All these E2-induced effects were completely abolished in the presence of both ICI 182780 and MPP, and were mirrored by PPT but not DPN. Conclusion: ERα, but not ERβ, mediates E2-induced production of NO, PGI2 and Ang 1-7 in HUVEC. Our results support a vascular beneficial role of ERα and reinforce the idea that a misbalance of ERβ over ERα is generally associated with deleterious effects, such as higher oxidative stress and atherosclerotic plaque formation. Supported by the Spanish Min. Economía y Competitividad, Instituto de Salud Carlos III –FEDER-ERDF (grants FIS PI13/00617 and RD12/0042/0052). A.M. is a "Formación de Profesorado Universitario" fellow (FPU13/02235 Spanish Min. Educación, Cultura y Deporte). D.P-C. is an "Atracció de Talent" fellow (PREDOC13-110541, Univ. Valencia). This investigation conforms to the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki, was approved by the Ethical Committee of Clinical Research of the INCLIVA, Hospital Clínico of Valencia, Spain, and written informed consent was obtained from all donors.
01.034 Regulation of Calponin-1 by Matrix Metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 contributes to hypertension-induced early vascular remodeling. Belo VA, Parente JM, Tanus-Santos JE, Castro MM FMRP-USP
Aims: Increased matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 is implicated in the vascular remodeling of hypertension. Calponin-1 is a contractile protein, and its absence is associated with the VSMC phenotype switch, which leads to migration and remodeling. We evaluated whether MMP-2 may precede hypertension-induced chronic vascular remodeling by decreasing calponin-1 levels and inducing VSMC proliferation. Methods: Sham operated or two kidney-one clip (2K1C) rats were treated with either doxycycline at 30 mg/kg/day or vehicle (water). Treatment with doxycycline started 3 days post-surgery. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) was assessed in sham and 2K1C rats at 1 and 2 weeks following surgery by tail-cuff plethysmography. Gelatinolytic activity was determined in aortas by in situ zymography. Aortic MMP-2 levels and calponin-1 were determined by immunofluorescence and Western blot. Aortic myocardin were determined by Western blot. VSMC proliferation was determined by immunohistochemistry of Ki-67. Quantitative morphometry was performed in hematoxylin and eosin stained aortic sections to analyze structural changes. Double immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy analyzed the co-localization between aortic MMP-2 and calponin-1. Calponin-1 mRNA expression was analyzed by TaqMan real time PCR. Results: SBP was markedly increased in the 2K1C rats after 1 and 2 weeks post-surgery, and treatment with doxycycline was effective to reduce it only at 2 weeks of hypertension (p<0.05). Increased activity and protein levels of MMP-2 was observed in aortas from 2K1C rats, followed by increased of VSMC proliferation at both 1 and 2 weeks of hypertension (p<0.05 vs. Sham groups), without differences between the time of hypertension. Treating 2K1C rats with doxycycline abolished hypertension-induced increase in MMP-2 activity and VSMC proliferation in both weeks (p<0.05). Increased aortic M/L is starting to emerge between Sham and 2K1C at 1 week (p>0.05), and is stablished with 2 weeks of hypertension (P<0.05). MMP-2 and calponin-1 are situated together and co-localized to each other in the cytosol of VSMC. Examination of aortas from 2K-1C rats in 1 week of hypertension showed a significant reduction in the 34 kDa calponin-1 (p<0.05 vs. Sham and Sham + Doxy), and doxycycline prevented loss of calponin-1 in hypertensive aorta (p<0.05). After 2 weeks of hypertension, calponin-1 was significantly upregulated in aortas of 2K1C (p<0.05), and treatment with doxycycline decreased its levels (p<0.05). Aortas from 2K1C rats did not show any alteration in the levels of myocardin in relation to the other groups in both weeks of hypertension. There was no difference in the mRNA of calponin-1 among all groups in 1 week of hypertension (p>0.05). Conclusion: MMP-2 may contribute to the post-translational decreased of arterial calponin-1, thus may culminating in the chronic maladaptive arterial remodeling in hypertension. Financial support: Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES); (# 4/2015, Human or the Animal Research Ethical Committee of Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto).
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A Smarter Grid for Renewable Energy: Different States of Action
Appendix 1. Additional State Policy Detail for Smart Grid Investment, Net Metering and Interconnection for Renewables Policies
This section provides detail about state-level energy use and relevant smart grid policies. All data on electricity generation comes from U.S. Energy Information Administration State Electricity Profiles 2010 [1]. RPS, net metering and interconnection statuses come from dsireusa.org, and installed wind from the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory [2,3]. Information for smart meters comes from U.S. Energy Information Administration Form 861, file 8 and the Edison Foundation [4,5]. More detailed information on net metering policies and interconnection standards is presented in Tables A1 and A2.
2.1. California
California uses 260 TWh of electricity per year, while generating a total of 204 TWh with 60 TWh produced from renewable sources. California's electricity market has suspended deregulation following the Western U.S. Energy Crisis of 2000 and 2001 [6]. California's in-state electricity generation is relatively low carbon and depends largely on natural gas. California has already installed 5.5 GW of wind. California enacted net metering in 1996, which is available for systems less than one MW or five MW for government or university institutions. An examination of smart grid projects in California emphasized their strong commitment to grid modernization; Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) projects had received over $400 million in investment by 2011, and over 10 million two-way advanced smart meters had been installed [4]. California projects have also seen significant investment in storage technologies at $400 million, as well as general smart grid funding at $200 million.
2.2. Illinois
Illinois generates 200 TWh with five TWh coming from renewable sources, and consumes 145 TWh annually. The state has been restructuring its electricity market since the late 1990s [7]. Illinois has an RPS goal of 25 percent generation by 2025, which applies to investor-owned utilities (IOUs) and retail suppliers, as well as distributed generators, and has 3.5 GW of installed wind. Net metering was introduced in the state in 2008 and requires all IOUs and alternative retail energy suppliers to offer net metering. Interconnection standards were also introduced in 2008 and set standards for renewable energy facilities and distributed generation facilities with 10 MW capacity or less. They were modified in 2010 to include all facilities with more than 10 MW of capacity. Illinois smart meter projects have been supported with over $600 million in investments, with other significant smart grid investments in transmission and distribution technologies at $62 million and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) at $32 million.
2.3. Massachusetts
Massachusetts generates 43 TWh with three TWh coming from renewable sources, and consumes 57 TWh annually. Massachusetts initiated electricity market restructuring in the late 1990s [8]. The state's RPS, adopted in 2003, requires every retail supplier to provide a minimum of one percent of kilowatt-hours sales to end-use customers from new renewable energy-generating sources. The RPS was set to increase by 50% percent every year until 2009, when it was scheduled to increase by one percent per year. Currently, the RPS calls for 15 percent of all electric sales by 2020 to be generated by renewable resources and continues the goal of one percent per year thereafter, yet the state only has 100 MW of installed wind. Net metering is mandated in Massachusetts for investor-owned utilities, and municipal utilities may opt in if they wish. Interconnection standards are still evolving in the state; legislation enacted in 2012 mandates that the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities set an enforceable interconnection timeline by November 2013. Massachusetts's Model Interconnection Tariff specifies levels of interconnection and associated protocol. Massachusetts smart meter & AMI projects have seen $120 million in investments, but smart meter penetration is low at 46 thousand end users, and penetration is not expected to exceed 50 percent of end users by 2015. Transmission and distribution technologies and SCADA have also seen significant investment at $110 million and $32 million, respectively.
2.4. Minnesota
Minnesota generates 54 TWh with 8 TWh coming from renewables, and consumes 68 TWh annually. The electricity market in Minnesota remains traditionally-regulated and neither time-of-day pricing nor third-party demand response aggregators are legal. In 2007, Minnesota introduced an RPS that requires that renewable electricity account for 25% of utilities' retail electricity sales by 2025, with Xcel mandated to provide 30% of sales. The state currently has 2.9 GW of installed wind and just passed a policy to promote solar PV. Net metering policies in Minnesota are applied across a variety of technologies and are applicable to the industrial, residential, and commercial sectors and all utilities for any system capacity less than or equal to one MW. Minnesota's interconnection standards are welldeveloped and are applicable to numerous distributed generation technologies across all utilities. Minnesota has only six AMI projects with a total funding of $30 million, and has 170 thousand smart meters deployed with no plans to reach 50 percent end user deployment [4]. Minnesota also has one transmission and distribution project with a budget of $35 million.
2.5. New York
New York generates 137 TWh with 31 TWh coming from renewables, and consumes 144 TWh annually. The electricity market was restructured in the late 90s [9]. New York's RPS was enacted in 2004 and has a goal of 29 percent renewable generation by 2015, with 1.6 GW of installed wind. Net metering was enacted much earlier, in 1997, and originally applied to only residential photovoltaic systems. Since then, the program has expanded and net metering is now available to all utilities on a first-come, first-served basis. Interconnection in New York applies to all IOUs and has a system capacity limit of two MW. New York was the second state to adopt uniform interconnection standards for distributed generation systems. In terms of smart meter deployments, New York had only 19 thousand meters installed in 2011, and $51 million in investment. The state also has significant investment in storage projects at $125 million.
2.6. Texas
Texas generates 410 TWh with 29 TWh of generation coming from renewables, and consumes 360 TWh annually. In 2002, Texas restructured both wholesale and retail electricity markets. In 1999, Texas adopted renewable energy mandates, but wind installation has already surpassed the largest goal of 10,000 MW, with 12.2 GW of wind installed. Texas has no statewide net metering law, but electricity providers can choose to compensate consumers for distributed renewable energy they may be generating and exporting back to the grid. The 1999 Texas Public Utility Regulatory Act brought interconnection standards to the state [2]. Texas currently has over $800 million invested in 11 smart meter & AMI projects and approximately 5.9 million smart meters have been installed in the ERCOT region of the state, connecting over 50 percent of end users. Texas also has significant investments over four projects involving transmission and distribution technologies ($126 million). They also have smart grid projects involving SCADA technologies.
2.7. Vermont
Vermont generates 6.6 TWh with 1.8 TWh coming from renewables, and consumes 6 TWh annually. The electricity market in Vermont is traditionally-regulated. The state has initiated an RPS goal of 20 percent renewable generation by 2017 and 119 MW of installed wind capacity. Vermont has had a net metering system in place since 1998. While the state has articulated a goal of full AMI penetration (300 thousand meters, covering 85 percent of customers) by 2015, and had installed over 70 thousand advanced one-way meters, two-way AMI penetration remained low in 2011 [10]. However, Vermont has three active AMI projects with a combined budget of $170 million. Vermont has also initiated a large SCADA project with a budget of $140 million and a smaller transmission and distribution project of $18 million. Vermont also currently has an active eEnergy Vermont smart grid initiative and received a $138 million Smart Grid Investment Grant.
Table A1. Net Metering Policies.
Table A1. Cont.
Table A2. Interconnection Standards and Rules.
Table A2. Cont.
Appendix 2. Bibliography of Coded Documents by State
California
1. 2011 Smart Grid Report: Report to the Governor and the Legislature. Available online: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/NR/rdonlyres/3B475B48-58CF-4541-9ACE2EEA7B374336/0/Smart GridAnnualReporttotheGovernorandtheLegislature.pdf (White Paper).
2. California Leads the Nation in Modernizing its Electric Grid. Available online: http://www. cpuc.ca.gov/NR/rdonlyres/ABA6D719-43EF-402A-BCE9-20CAFA271CC3/0/SGFactSheet0710.pdf (Informational Public Document).
3. CERTS Smart Grid Demonstration with Renewable Energy Integration. Available online: http://www.energy.ca.gov/2010publications/CEC-500-2010-FS/CEC-500-2010-FS-005.PDF (Fact Sheet).
4. Is Our Electric Grid Smarter than a Fifth Grader? Available online: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/NR/ rdonlyres/A2797223-562F-4824-BD83-067238774550/0/PANCKeynote050409finalrelease.pdf (Keynote Address).
5. California Utility Vision and Roadmap for the Smart Grid of 2020. Available online: http://www. energy.ca.gov/2011publications/CEC-500-2011-034/CEC-500-2011-034.pdf (White Paper).
6. Comments of EPIC on Proposed Decision Adopting Requirements for smart grid Deployment Plans. Available online: http://epic.org/privacy/smartgrid/EPIC_6-10_CPUC-Draft-Decision_Reply. pdf (Docket).
7. CPUC Acts To Ensure Consumer and Market Benefits from Smart Meters. Available online: http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M029/K624/29624551.PDF (News Release).
8. CPUC Acts to Ensure Effectiveness of Smart Grid. Available online: http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/ PUBLISHED/NEWS_RELEASE/164438.htm (News Release).
9. CPUC Adopts Rules to Protect the Privacy and Security of Customer Electricity Usage Data. Available online: http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PUBLISHED/NEWS_RELEASE/140316.htm (News Release).
10. CPUC Launches Plan to Modernize Electric Grid. Available online: http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/ PUBLISHED/NEWS_RELEASE/119756.htm (News Release).
11. Defining the Pathway to the California Smart Grid of 2020 for Publicly Owned Utilities. Available online: http://www.energy.ca.gov/2013publications/CEC-500-2013-009/CEC-500-2013-009.pdf (White Paper).
12. Electricity: Smart Grid Systems. Available online: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/ billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920100SB17 (Bill).
13. First-of-its-Kind Smart Grid at Santa Rita Jail Completed by Alameda County and Chevron Energy Solutions. Available online: http://www.energy.ca.gov/commissioners/weisenmiller_docs/articles/ 2012-03-22_First-of-its-Kind_Smart_Grid_at_Santa_Rita_Jail_Completed_by_Alameda_County_ and_Chevron_Energy_Solutions.pdf (News Release).
14. Integrating New and Emerging Technologies into the California Smart Grid Infrustructure: A Report on a Smart Grid for California. Available online: http://www.energy.ca.gov/ 2008publications/CEC-500-2008-047/CEC-500-2008-047.PDF (White Paper).
15. Grid Planning Panel Discussion Paper. Available online: http://gov.ca.gov/docs/ec/ Grid_planning.pdf (Discussion Paper).
16. Cybersecurity and the Evolving Role of State Regulation: How it Impacts the California Public Utilities Commission: Grid Planning and Reliability Policy Paper. Available online: http://www. cpuc.ca.gov/NR/rdonlyres/D77BA276-E88A-4C82-AFD2-FC3D3C76A9FC/0/TheEvolvingRoleof StateRegulationinCybersecurity9252012FINAL.pdf (White Paper).
17. Report to the Governor and the Legislature on Smart Grid Plans and Recommendations. Available online: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/NR/rdonlyres/A3D6019B-3620-44B5-95D5-5ADFDAD714C7/0/ 2010_Smart_Grid_Annual_Reportzafmjd_v5.pdf (White Paper).
18. SCE Smart Grid Recommendations for Draft IEPR. Available online: http://www.energy.ca.gov/ 2009_energypolicy/documents/2009-10-14_workshop/comments/SCE_Smart_Grid_Recommendatio ns_for_Draft_IEPR_TN-53616.pdf (Docket).
19. Smart Grid Research. Available online: http://www.energy. ca.gov/research/integration/ smart_grid.html (Web Page).
20. The Benefits of Smart Meters. Available online: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/energy/ Demand+Response/benefits.htm (Web Page).
Illinois
1. Lt. Governor : Simon Urges Senior Citizens to Support Smart Grid Veto. Available online: http://www2.illinois.gov/ltgov/Pages/Simonurgesseniorcitizenstosupportsmartgridveto.aspx (Web Page).
2. Illinois Statewide Smart Grid Collaborative. Available online: http://www.ilgridplan.org/ August%20Final%20Workshop/Collaborative%20Accomplishments.pdf (Presentation).
3. Electric Vehicles in Illinois. Available online: http://www.ildceo.net/dceo (Web Page).
4. Memorandum to the Commission dated 23 March 2007 for Bench Date 18 April 2007. Available online: http://www.icc.illinois.gov/docket/files.aspx? no=06-0526&docId=111087 (Memorandum).
5. Memorandum to the Commision. Available online: http://www.icc.illinois.gov/docket/ files.aspx?no=12-0298&docId=183830 (Memorandum).
6. ICC Approves ComEd Smart Meter Implementation. Available online: http://www.icc.illinois.gov/ rss/news.rss (News Release).
7. ICC Media Advisory. Available online: http://www.icc.illinois.gov/rss/news.rss (News Release).
8. ICC Releases Smart Grid Collaborative Report. (1 October 2010). Available online: http://www.icc.illinois.gov/rss/news.rss (News Release).
9. Illinois Statewide Smart Grid Collaborative. Available online: http://www.ilgridplan.org/August% 20Final%20Workshop/NationalSmartGridActivitiesUpdate-August 2010.pdf (Presentation).
10. Illinois Statewide Smart Grid Collaborative Next Steps. (a, 9 June 2010). Available online: http://www.ilgridplan.org/June%20Workshop/ISSGC%20Next%20Steps%20June%208.pdf (Presentation).
11. Illinois Statewide Smart Grid Collaborative Next Steps. (b, 20 August 2010). Available online: http://www.ilgridplan.org/August%20Final%20Workshop/ISSGC%20Next%20Steps%20Aug%2 019%20rev2.pdf (Presentation).
12. Initiative on Plug-In Electric Vehicles. Available online: http://kc.pinlift.com/5i5.php?u=Y3pvd kwzZDNkeTVwWTJNdWFXeHNhVzV2YVhNdVoyOTJMMlZzWldOMGNtbGphWFI1TDNC bGRpNWhjM0I0&b=13 (Executive Summary).
13. Jacobs: Utility companies will be held responsible for promises made to consumers. Available online: http://www.senatedem.ilga.gov/index.php/sen-jacobs-home/2272-jacobs-utility-companieswill-be-held-responsible-for-promises-made-to-consumers (Press Release).
14. Public Comments. (3 October 2012). ComEd. Available online: http://www.icc.illinois.gov/ docket/publiccomments.aspx?no=11-0721 (Comments).
15. Ameren Illinois Utilities Stimulus Package. Ameren Illinois Utilities. Available online: http://www.ilgridplan.org/July%20Workshop/Ameren%20Stimulus%20Presentation%20-%20ISS GC%20072809.pdf (Presentation).
16. Memorandum to the Commission. Available online: http://www.icc.illinois.gov/docket/ files.aspx?no=08-0675&docId=137239 (Memorandum).
17. Smart Distribution Grid (Project Description); Ameren Illinois: Illinois, IL, USA, 2009.
18. Solar and Wind Energy Rebate Program. Available online: http://www.ildceo.net/dceo/ Print/default.htm?uid=[12] (Web Page).
19. Utility Filing Requirements final. Available online: http://www.ilgridplan.org/August%20Final% 20Workshop/Utility%20Filing%20Requirements%20final.pdf (Presentation).
20. Memorandum to the Commission. Available online: http://www.icc.illinois.gov/docket/ files.aspx?no=12-0244&docId=184609 (Memorandum).
Massachusetts
1. Vineyard Energy Project. Available online: http://www.smartgrid.gov/sites/default/files/09-0262vineyard-powe-project-description-06-28-2012.pdf (Planning Document).
2. Investigation by the Department of Public Utilities on its own Motion into Updating its Energy Efficiency Guidelines. Available online: http://www.env.state.ma.us/dpu/docs/electric/11-120/ 112911dpuvord.pdf (Investigation).
3. Massachusetts Renewable Energy Policy Overview. Available online: http://www.ebcne.org/ fileadmin/pres/2-11-11_Clarke.pdf (Presentation).
4. Department Department of Public Utilities Announces Approval of National Grid's Smart Grid Pilot Program. Available online: http://www.mass.gov/eea/pr-2012/120803-pr-dpu-approvessmart-grid-pilot.html (News Release).
5. Energy and Environmental Affairs: Department of Public Utilities Approve Commonwealth's First Utility Company Smart Grid Program. Available online: http://www.mass.gov/eea/grantsand-tech-assistance/guidance (News Release).
6. Energy and Environmental Affairs: Patrick-Murray Administration to Investigate Grid Modernization Policies. Available online: http://www.mass.gov/eea/pr-2012/121002-gridmodernization.html (News Release).
7. Federal Climate and Energy Legislation Implications for State Energy Offices. Available online: http://www.epa.gov/statelocalclimate/documents/pdf/giudice_presentation_fed_leg_6-17-2009. pdf (Presentation).
8. Our Energy Future and Smart Grid Communication. Available online: http://www.broadband.gov/ fieldevents/fh_energy_environment/giudice.pdf (Presentation).
9. Petition of the Department of Energy Resources for an investigation into dynamic pricing for basic service customers in Massachusetts. Available online: http://www.env.state.ma.us/dpu/ docs/electric/06-101/81408dpuord.pdf (Petition).
10. Fitchburg Gas and Electric Light Company d/b/a Unitil Smart Grid Pilot Program Evaluation Report. Available online: http://www.env.state.ma.us/dpu/docs/electric/09-31/13112fgesgpp.pdf (Report).
11. Massachusetts Green Communities Act (S.B. 2768). Available online: http://docsfiles.com/ pdf_green_communities_act.html (Docket).
12. The power of stimulus: Saving Energy for a Rainy Day. Available online: http://www.mass.gov/ recovery/see-the-impact/recovery-works/saving-energy-for-a-rainy-day.html (Informational Web Page).
13. MassEnergyInsight Data Sheet. Available online: http://www.massenergyinsight.net/mei/pdfs/ MEInsight_DSV6.pdf (Informational Public Document).
14. NSTAR Electric Update of AMR-Based Dynamic Pricing Pilot Program. Available online: http://www.env.state.ma.us/dpu/docs/electric/10-82/81210nstsmga.pdf (Report).
15. An Act to Create a Repower Massachusetts Emergency Task Force. Available online: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ko5L2ZCaPoVYLS3LkAhkRw-yhVjP4-jNKA3bCzNdS7o/ edit?pli=1 (Docket).
16. Petition of Western Massachusetts Electric Company for approval by the Department of Public Utilities of its Net Metering Recovery Surcharge. Available online: http://www.env.state.ma.us/ dpu/docs/electric/11-104/111611dpuntfl.pdf (Petition).
17. Petition of Western Massachusetts Electric Company for approval by the Department of Public Utilities of: (1) a long-term contract to purchase wind power and renewable energy certificates, pursuant to St. 2009: and (2) a long-term renewable energy contract adjustment mechanism tariff, M.D.P.U. No. 1049A. Available online: http://www.env.state.ma.us/dpu/docs/electric/11-12/32911 dpuordn.pdf (Petition).
18. An Act to Repower Massachusetts. Available online: http://legiscan.com/MA/text/H2024/2011 (Docket).
19. Smart Grid Massachusetts—Creating a New Energy Future. Available online: http://www. massachusetts.smartgrid.com/smart-grid-massachusetts-creating-a-new-energy-future (Informational Web Page).
20. Massachusetts' EE/RE Set-Aside Program. Available online: http://www.epa.gov/statelocalclimate/ documents/pdf/massachusetts_ee-re_11-18-04.pdf (Presentation).
Minnesota
1. Minnesota Department of Commerce. Available online: https://www.edockets.state.mn.us/EFiling/ edockets/searchDocuments.do?method=eDocketsResult&userType=public#{20DC9CBD-4F5E41F5-BBB0-68F9B34AF394} (Docket).
2. Smart Grid Workshop. Available online: http://www.puc.state.mn.us/portal/groups/public/documents/ pdf_files/013800.pdf (Presentation).
3. Smart Grid Data Privacy. Available online: http://www.puc.state.mn.us/portal/groups/public/ documents/puc_pdf_electricity/013727.pdf (Presentation).
4. Smart Grid Workshop. Presented at the MPUC Smart Grid Workshop. Available online: http://www.puc.state.mn.us/portal/groups/public/documents/puc_pdf_electricity/013728.pdf (Presentation).
5. In the Matter of Otter Tail Power Company's Smart Grid Report Minnesota Docket No. E999/CI-08048 Compliance Filing. Available online: https://www.edockets.state.mn.us/EFiling/edockets/ searchDocuments.do?method=showPoup&documentId=%7BB5C3FE31-763B-4C44-A14E-123AE 6E9FA1F%7D&documentTitle=20124-73236-01. (Compliance Report).
6. Levesque, W. Minnesota Smart Grid Roundtable: Digi International Inc. Presented at the Minnesota Smart Grid Roundtable, 2 February 2012.
7. Distributed Generation Workshop Interconnection Standards. Available online: http://mn.gov/ commerce/energy/images/DG-Sheehan-Oct11-Minnesota.pdf (Presentation).
8. Reply Comments Regarding Standards Related to Smart Grid Investments. Available online: https://www.edockets.state.mn.us/EFiling/edockets/searchDocuments.do?method=eDocketsResult &userType=public#{8CC053C5-BC4E-4E2B-AF1D-1271D23D64B1} (Comments).
9. Minnesota Department of Commerce awards $2.8 Million for Energy Efficiency Projects. Available online: http://mn.gov/commerce/energy/media/newsdetail.jsp?id=207-37093 (Press Release).
10. Smart Grid Advanced Metering Infrastructure Project. Available online: http://www.smartgrid. gov/sites/default/files/09-0008-allete-project-description-04-17-12.pdf (Project Planning Document).
11. Solicitation of Comment on the Smart Metering Standard. Available online: https://www. edockets.state.mn.us/EFiling/edockets/searchDocuments.do?method=eDocketsResult&userType= public#{8E0FD062-4C17-40B7-A81E-586A79A9C2EF} (Docket Comments).
12. Interstate Power and Light Company's Response to the Commission's Request for Comments. Available online: https://www.edockets.state.mn.us/EFiling/edockets/searchDocuments.do?method= eDocketsResult&userType=public#{2E76FB82-D4D3-4BD5-9E7C-39A21137775E} (Docket Comments).
13. Modernizing Ontario's Electricity System: Next Steps. Available online: https://uwaterloo.ca/ search?q=second+report+of+the+ontario+smart+grid+forum+Dr.+Jatin+Nathwani&btnG=Search &proxystylesheet=default_frontend&client=default_frontend&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&en tqr=3&entqrm=0&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&ud=1&site=default_collection (Presentation).
14. Otter Tail Power Company. Available online: http://www.puc.state.mn.us/portal/groups/public/ documents/puc_pdf_electricity/013729.pdf (Presentation).
15. Otter Tail Power Company's Interruption Monitoring System. Available online: http://www.puc. state.mn.us/portal/groups/public/documents/pdf_files/013799.pdf (Presentation).
16. Customer Data Privacy Concerns. Available online: http://www.puc.state.mn.us/portal/groups/ public/documents/puc_pdf_electricity/013726.pdf (Presentation).
17. Electric and Natural Gas Triennial Conservation Improvement Program. Available online: https://www.edockets.state.mn.us/EFiling/edockets/searchDocuments.do?method=showPoup&do cumentId={CD3AAFC9-3C17-4470-8E04-B2376E4E263B}&documentTitle=20127-76688-01 (Docket).
18. Distributed Generation: A Case Study of U of MN Morris. Available online: http://mn.gov/ commerce/energy/images/DG-Rasmussen-UMorris.pdf (Case Study).
19. Reply Comments: Standards Relating to Smart Grid Investment. Available online: https://www. edockets.state.mn.us/EFiling/edockets/searchDocuments.do?method=eDocketsResult&userType=pu blic#{88D539B1-7641-43A2-81A2-4527B42C58D0} (Docket Comments).
20. Frequently Asked Questions on Smart Grid. Available online: http://www.puc.state.mn.us/portal/ groups/public/documents/puc_pdf_electricity/012999.pdf (FAQ).
New York
1. A ―Model-Centric‖ Approach to Smarter Electric Distribution Systems. Available online: http://www.smartgrid.gov/sites/default/files/news/pdf/DOE%20ORU%20Case%20Study.pdf (Informational Public Document).
2. Americans Against Smart Meters Submits Comments. Available online: http://documents.dps.ny.gov/ public/Common/ViewDoc.aspx?DocRefId=%7B849947A9-6310-4E30-950D-9D5F334B8416%7D (Comments).
3. An Act to Amend the Energy Law, Public Service Law, the Public Authorities Law and the Rural Electric Cooperative Law, in Relation to Establishing the ―New York Grid Modernization Act‖.
Available online: http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&bn=A01932&term=2013&Summary= Y&Actions=Y&Text=Y&Votes=Y (Bill Proposal).
4. Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. Available online: http://nyssmartgrid.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/09/modernized_distribution_system.pdf (Project Description).
5. Reply Comments of CTIA-The Wireless Association. Available online: http://files.ctia.org/pdf/ filings/130626_CTIA_Reg_Fee_Reply_Comments.FINAL.pdf (Comments).
6. NY's Smart Grid Projects Move Ahead. Available online: http://www3.dps.ny.gov/pscweb/ WebFileRoom.nsf/Web/E35CD79000BF71F9852577BC0051BD34/$File/pr10094.pdf?OpenEle ment (Press Release).
7. Electric Power Transmission and Distribution Smart Grid Program: Program Opportunity Notice 1913. Available online: http://www.nyserda.ny.gov/BusinessAreas/Energy-Innovation-and-BusinessDevelopment/Research-and-Development/Smart-Grid.aspx?sc_database=web (Project Description).
8. Governor Cuomo Announces $46 Million Awarded through NY-Sun for Large Solar Power Installations to Add 52 MN of Solar Capacity. Available online: http://nyssmartgrid.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/04/46M_Awarded_for_Solar_Installations.pdf (Press Release).
9. Governor Cuomo Announces the Installation of Hundreds of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations. Available online: http://nyssmartgrid.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/EV_Charging_Stations.pdf (Press Release).
10. Governor Paterson Announces $88 Million in Federal Funding for Four New York Advanced Energy Projects—NYSERDA. Available online: http://www.nyserda.ny.gov/About/Newsroom/ 2009-Announcements/2009-11-27-Governor-Paterson-Announces-88-Million-in-Funding-AdvancedEnergy-Projects.aspx (Press Release).
11. Grid Net Reply Comments to NY PSC Case 10-E-0285. Available online: http://documents. dps.ny.gov/public/Common/ViewDoc.aspx?DocRefId=%7BFC426314-B106-4406-8A05-F25AA 23AE582%7D. (Comments).
12. Center for Safer Wireless Submits Comments. Available online: http://documents.dps.ny.gov/ public/Common/ViewDoc.aspx?DocRefId={9DBAD61C-F0EB-4AF6-873C-3BE05F63C934} (Docket Comments).
13. NYPA Smart Grid. Available online: http://www.nypa.gov/transmission/smartgridfactsheet.html (Project Description).
14. An Act to Amend the Public Authorities Law, in Relation to Smart Grid Systems. Available online: http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?sh=printbill&bn=A06508&term=2013 (Bill).
15. Petra Solar's Response to New York State Public Service Commission's Smart Grid Policy Questions. Available online: http://documents.dps.ny.gov/public/Common/ViewDoc.aspx?Doc RefId={0E6BAF25-D623-4BEA-A0EC-55EE5CD5C53C} (Comments).
16. Proceeding on Motion of the Commission to Consider Regulatory Policies Regarding Smart Grid Systems and the Modernization of the Electric Grid. Available online: http://www.smartgrid.gov/ sites/default/files/doc/files/Smart_Grid_Policy_Statement_201107.pdf (Project Proposal).
17. Roadmap for New York State Smart Grid Implementation. Available online: http://www. nysenergyplan.com/2013stateenergyplan-documents/ScopeComments/NYS%20Smart%20Grid% 20Consortium.pdf (Project Description).
18. SBC Technology and Market Development Program Portfolio Initial Proposal. Available online: www.nyserda.ny.gov/~/media/Files/General/System Benefits Charge/sbc-tech-dev.pdf (Project Description).
19. Smart Grid Roadmap for the State of New York. Available online: http://energy.gov/sites/prod/ files/oeprod/DocumentsandMedia/NYSSGC_Attachment.pdf (Executive Summary).
20. Statewide Initiatives—NYSERDA. Available online: http://www.nyserda.ny.gov/StatewideInitiatives.aspx (Web Page).
Texas
1. An Act Relating to Energy Efficiency Goals and Programs and the Participation of Loads in Certain Energy Markets. Available online: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/82R/billtext/ doc/SB01125S.doc. (Bill)
2. CenterPoint Energy Clean Air Technology (CAT) Program. Available online: http://www.puc. texas.gov/industry/projects/electric/37953/051210/CenterPoint-Presentation.pdf (Presentation).
3. The Smart Meter Texas Portal. Presented at the Implementation Project Relating to Advanced Metering. Available online: http://www.puc.texas.gov/industry/projects/electric/34610/ AMITMtg0909/TDUWebPortalUpdate_0909.pdf (Presentation).
4. Rulemaking to Implement SB 943, Relating to Electric Energy Storage Equipment or Facilities: Proposal for Publication. Available online: http://puc.texas.gov/agency/rulesnlaws/subrules/ electric/25.5/39657pub.pdf (Project Proposal).
5. The Current State of Smart Grid Interoperability Standards. Available online: http://www.puc. texas.gov/industry/projects/electric/34610/AMITMtg052411/Current_State_Smart_Grid%20Inter operability_Standards.pdf (Presentation).
6. A Bill to be Entitled. Available online: http://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB971/id/111346/Texas2011-HB971-Introduced.html (Bill)
7. Hardware Hacking and AMI. Available online: http://www.puc.texas.gov/industry/projects/ electric/37944/Hardware_Hacking_and_AMI.pdf (Presentation).
8. NAESB Data Privacy Task Force. Available online: http://www.puc.texas.gov/industry/projects/ electric/34610/AMITMtg020811/NAESB-Data-Privacy-Task-Force.pdf (Presentation).
9. Driving Electric Vehicle Adoption: Rethinking Energy in Texas. Available online: http://www. puc.texas.gov/industry/projects/electric/37953/051210/Oncor-Presentation.pdf (Presentation).
10. Report on Health and Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields from Advanced Meters. Available online: http://www.puc.texas.gov/industry/electric/reports/smartmeter/SmartMeter_RF_EMF_Health_ 12-14-2012.pdf (Health Report).
11. Smart Meter Safety: Customer Facts. Available online: http://www.puc.texas.gov/consumer/facts/ factsheets/elecfacts/smartmetersafety.pdf (Informational Public Document).
12. Smart Meter Texas Brochure. Available online: http://www.puc.texas.gov/industry/projects/ electric/34610/SMT_Brochure_120210.pdf (Informational Public Document).
13. Smart Metering. Available online: http://www.puc.texas.gov/consumer/electricity/Metering.aspx (Web Page).
14. Smart Meters or Advanced Metering System (AMS): Customer Facts. Available online: http://www. puc.texas.gov/consumer/facts/factsheets/elecfacts/smartm.pdf (Informational Public Document).
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19. Overview of Smart Meters in ERCOT. Available online: http://www.puc.texas.gov/agency/ topic_files/101/PUC_Smart_Meter_Review_Christine_Wright.pdf (Presentation)
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Vermont
1. Allen, R. Vermont Department of Public Service Request for Proposals. Vermont Department of Public Service: Montpelier, VT, USA, 2007.
2. Smart Vermont: Governor's New Economic Plan using Stimulus Funds. Available online: http://recovery.vermont.gov/sites/stimulus/files/pdf/SmartVermont_Backgrounder.pdf (Planning Document).
3. Smart Meters, Wireless Networks and Human Health. Available online: http://www.uvm.edu/ ~vlrs/Health/Smartmeters.pdf (Informational Public Document).
4. Request for Proposal for Preparation of a Report on the Radio Frquency Radiation of Smart Meters. Available online: http://emfsafetynetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RF_RFP_ PDF_FINAL.pdf (Proposal Request).
5. Getting Smart about Energy and the Economy. Available online: http://www.efficiencyvermont.com/ docs/about_efficiency_vermont/news_articles/Getting_smart_about_energy_and_the_economy_0 72511.pdf (News Article).
6. Request for Proposals Smart Meter RF Study. Available online: http://www.vermontbusiness registry.com/bidAttachments/9548/RF_RFP_FINAL_121312.pdf (Proposal Request).
7. State looks to future with ―smart grid‖ technology. Available online: http://recovery.vermont.gov/ new/louisporter (News Release).
8. Proposed Amendment to Net Metering Rule 5.100 (―Draft Rule‖). Available online: http://psb. vermont.gov/sites/psb/files/publications/Reports%20to%20legislature/nm5100_06amendscoms.pdf (Docket).
9. PSB Rule 5.100—Relating to Net Metering. Available online: http://psb.vermont.gov/sites/psb/ files/publications/Reports%20to%20legislature/nm5100_06amendrule.pdf (Docket).
10. Radio Frequency Radiation and Health: Smart Meters. Available online: http://www.vermontelectric. coop/images/stories/pdf/021012-vt-doh-rfrhealthassess.pdf (Informational Public Document).
11. Report on the Expansion of the Net Metering Program-Memorandum. Available online: http://psb.vermont.gov/sites/psb/files/publications/Reports%20to%20legislature/nmlegmemo.pdf (Memorandum).
12. Smart Grid Helps Vermont Save Energy. Available online: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/ newsroom/news/?id=be76821e-5233-42e7-b8ea-c84585a29853 (News Release).
13. Smart Grid. Available online: http://publicservice.vermont.gov/topics/electric/smart_grid (Informational Web Page).
14. Smart Meters. Available online: http://www.acluvt.org/issues/smart_meters_aclu_position.pdf (Informational Web Page).
15. Smart Meters and a Smart Grid: What these Mean for Vermont's Energy Future. Available online: http://www.vermont.gov/portal/government/article.php?news=3752 (Informational Public Document).
16. An Evaluation of Radio Frequency Fields Produced by Smart Meters Deployed in Vermont. Available online: http://publicservice.vermont.gov/sites/psd/files/Topics/Electric/Smart_Grid/ Vermont%20DPS%20Smart%20Meter%20Measurement%20Report%20-%20Final.pdf (Report).
17. Vermont SMARTgrid: Protecting Customer Privacy. Available online: https://www.burling tonelectric.com/ELBO/assets/smartgrid/Handout_Privacy_final.pdf (Informational Public Document).
18. Vermont SMARTGrid: Smart Meters and Rates, Bills, and Project Funding. Available online: https://www.burlingtonelectric.com/ELBO/assets/smartgrid/Handout_RatesBills_final.pdf (Informational Public Document).
19. Vermont's Smart Grid Efforts. Available online: http://www.velco.com/PublicOutreach/Documents/ Final_smartgrid_L.pdf (Informational Public Document).
20. Siting a Wind Turbine on Your Property. Available online: http://psb.vermont.gov/sites/ psb/files/forms/PSB_Wind.PDF (Informational Public Document).
Appendix 3. Additional Detail on Social Context Coding Frame
Table A3 Examples of specific focal areas for thematic-qualitative analysis focused on the social context within which smart grid systems are developing, adapted from Luhmann's social function systems theory for analysis of the socio-political context of state-level energy deployment [11,13,14].
Table A3. Cont.
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© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
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International Journal of
Molecular Sciences
ISSN 1422-0067
www.mdpi.com/journal/ijms
Article
Influence of Interferon-Alpha Combined with Chemo (Radio) Therapy on Immunological Parameters in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma
Svetlana Karakhanova 1, *, Beate Mosl 1,† , Sabine Harig 1,2,† , Katharina von Ahn 1 , Jasmin Fritz 1 Jan Schmidt 1,‡ , Dirk Jäger 2 , Jens Werner 3 and Alexandr V. Bazhin 1,3, *
,
1 Department of General Surgery, University Hospital Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany; E-Mails: firstname.lastname@example.org (B.M.); email@example.com (S.H.); firstname.lastname@example.org (K.A.); email@example.com (J.F.)
2 National Centre for Tumor Disease, University Hospital Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany; E-Mail: firstname.lastname@example.org
3 Department of General, Visceral, and Transplant Surgery, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, 81377 Munich, Germany; E-Mail: email@example.com
† These authors contributed equally to this work.
‡ Current address: Department of Surgery, Hirslanden Clinics, SwitzerlandWitellikerstrasse 40, 8032 Zürich, Switzerland; E-Mail: firstname.lastname@example.org
*Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed;
E-Mails: email@example.com (S.K.);
firstname.lastname@example.org (A.V.B.);
Tel.: +49-6221-5637784 (S.K.); +49-6221-5636932 (A.V.B.);
Fax: +49-6221-568240 (S.K. & A.V.B.).
Received: 13 December 2013; in revised form: 6 February 2014 / Accepted: 14 February 2014 / Published: 7 March 2014
Abstract: Prognosis of patients with carcinoma of the exocrine pancreas is particularly poor. A combination of chemotherapy with immunotherapy could be an option for treatment of pancreatic cancer. The aim of this study was to perform an immunomonitoring of 17 patients with pancreatic cancer from the CapRI-2 study, and tumor-bearing mice treated with combination of chemo (radio) therapies with interferon-2α. Low doses of interferon-2α led to a decrease in total leukocyte and an increase in monocyte counts. Furthermore, we observed a positive effect of interferon-2α therapy on the dendritic cells and NK (natural killer) cell activation immediately after the first injection. In addition, we recorded an increased amount of interferon-γ and IL-10 in the serum following the interferon-2α therapy. These data clearly demonstrate that pancreatic carcinoma patients also show an immunomodulatory response to interferon-2α therapy. Analysis of immunosuppressive cells in the Panc02 orthotopic mouse model of pancreatic cancer revealed an accumulation of the myeloid-derived suppressor cells in spleens and tumors of the mice treated with interferon-2α and 5-fluorouracil. The direct effect of the drugs on myeloid-derived suppressor cells was also registered in vitro. These data expose the importance of immunosuppressive mechanisms induced by combined chemo-immunotherapy.
Keywords: immunomonitoring; immunotherapy; interferon-α; CapRI; pancreatic carcinoma; Panc02 orthotopic model
1. Introduction
Patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma are characterized by an especially poor prognosis reaching a five-year survival rate only in about 1% of cases and a median survival of four to six months. After resection, the five-year survival rate is at best 15% to 25% with additional adjuvant chemotherapy [1]. This cancer type represents globally one of the most aggressive malignancies. Adjuvant chemotherapy based on gemcitabine or 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) shows an increase in overall and disease-free survival [2–4]. However, the clinical impact of these chemotherapeutics remains modest. Therefore, new treatment options are urgently needed to improve the survival of patients with pancreatic cancer. Immunotherapy could be an attractive approach for treating such patients.
It has become increasingly clear that immunotherapy provides a promising option for cancer treatment [5], especially following the encouraging results from the Ipilimumab clinical study in malignant melanoma [6]. Furthermore, a combination of chemotherapy with immunotherapy can offer synergies and deliver improved efficiency in pancreatic cancer compared to current therapies [7]. As a result, combining standard chemotherapy with immunotherapy can provide a unique treatment of pancreatic cancer.
The first clinical phase III trial, dealing with the combination of 5-FU and interferon-2α (IFN), was the CapRI study [8]. IFN belongs to the group of type I interferons, which are already used in cancer therapy (e.g., malignant melanoma (metastatic [9] and adjuvant [10,11]), renal cell carcinoma (RCC) [12], and some other malignancies). IFN exhibits several features that might be of interest, especially for use in combination treatments of cancer, as there are: (i) direct inhibitory effects on tumor cell growth [13–17]; (ii) radio- and chemo-sensitizing effects [14,15,18]; (iii) anti-angiogenic properties [14,19]; (iv) enhancement of tumor immunogenicity (increase of MHC class I expression [20]); (v) modulation of the immune system: improving differentiation, maturation and function of dendritic cells (DC), enhancing the survival of T cells by expression of anti-apoptotic genes, generation of CD8 + memory cells, enhancing macrophage activities, and activating natural killer (NK) cells [20].
Clinical data from the CapRI study did not point at improved efficiency of the combination regime when compared to chemo-radiotherapy alone [21]. Despite this, the clinical outcome in both groups represent the best ever reported survival for patients with resected pancreatic cancer in randomized trials. In view of these findings, and the fact that the CapRI study revealed considerable toxicity of the combination treatment, a pilot trial (CapRI-2) was initiated to evaluate the influence of de-escalation of the CapRI regime on the immunological parameters by the omission of cisplatin and/or beam radiation [22].
The main aim of this research was the investigation of immunological effects of the type I interferon IFN and chemo-radio-immunotherapy with IFN and 5-FU in patients from the CapRI-2 trial, and in mice from the Panc02 orthotopic pancreatic carcinoma model.
2. Results
2.1. Human Study: Clinical Data
For the CapRI-2 study, 17 patients were recruited. All relevant clinical characteristics are summarized in Table 1. It should be pointed out that, during the study, the R1 resection had been redefined [23], thus, the majority of patients were adjusted from R0 to R1. The patients' data, such as gender, resection type, tumor grade, TNM classification, and relapse did not show any significant differences between the several study arms (Table S1). Remarkably, six out of 17 patients were still alive and in good health with a maximal overall survival (OS) of 63 months (Table 1). The low number of patients in each study group unfortunately did not allow for a correct statistical analysis. Nonetheless, at least a certain number of two-year and five-year survivors could be calculated for each arm (Table S1). While no patient out of group A and C reached the five-year surviving edge, two patients out of group B (33%) successfully survived the five-year edge (Table S1).
Table 1. Patients' characteristics.
2.2. Human Study: Immunological Effects of IFN Only
The initial phase of treatment was the same for groups A, B, and C (see Figure 1), which was why the impact of the first dose of IFN on immunological parameters could be evaluated for all 17 patients together. Treatment with the first low-dose of IFN led to a significant decrease in absolute amount of leukocytes (Figure 2a). From total leukocyte, the percentage of monocytes showed a high tendency to be increased (p = 0.077) (Figure 2b). Our FACS analysis also showed an increase in the cells within the monocyte gate (CD45 + CD33 + CD14 + ) immediately following a low-dose of IFN (Figures 2c and S1). Next, cells were additionally gated for dendritic cells (CD45 + CD33 + CD11c + CD14 − ) and investigated for the expression of HLA (human leukocyte antigen)-DR, CD80, and CD86 surface markers. We recorded an increase in DC following the first low-dose of IFN (Figures 2d and S1). For CD86 and HLA-DR, we also found a rise in their expression immediately after a low-dose of IFN (Figures 2e,f, and S2). A change in the CD80 expression was not obvious (data not shown).
We also examined whether preLD1 and pre1 points could differ in their lymphocyte count. We did not observe any differences between preLD1 and pre1 in this respect (data not shown). Afterwards CD8 + , CD4 + and regulatory T cells (Treg, CD3 + CD4 + CD25 high FoxP3 + ) in the lymphocyte gate were analyzed for their amounts and their phenotype and/or their activation status. We did not observe significant changes in relative numbers of T cell subsets (data not shown) in this instance. In addition, no differences were found in their activation status (based on the CD69 expression) after the first low-dose of IFN (data not shown). In a functional test, we did not observe an increase in granzyme B release during the course of IFN therapy after stimulation of patients' PBMC (Peripheral blood mononuclear cells) with a CA19.9 peptide or with a MUC-1 peptide (data not shown).
In the current study, we also investigated an expression of the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA4) on the surface of all CD4 + T cells following the first dose of IFN. We found no difference between the preLDI and onLDI in this instance: some patients responded to the low dose of IFN with an increase in CTLA4, some with a decrease and others showed no change (Figure S3). Additionally, we measured Treg in the CD4 + lymphocyte compartment; however, we did not observe any differences in their amount or in the CTLA4 or FoxP3 expression in these cells (data not shown).
Figure 2. Analysis of leukocytes, monocytes and dendritic cells (DC) in peripheral blood of patients from the CapRI-2 study. (a) Absolute amount of leukocytes and (b) relative amount of monocytes during the course of IFN therapy (clinical chemistry), no data for onLDI; (c) the relative amount of monocytes in total leukocytes during the course of IFN therapy in all patients and in all therapeutic groups; (d) DC and their co-stimulatory markers during the course of IFN therapy (e) and (f). The immunological parameters of 17 patients were analyzed, * p < 0.05.
Furthermore, we were interested in analyzing NK cells in the CapRI-2 patients. Whilst the total number of NK cells did not change, our FACS analysis revealed a significant increase in the activation status of NK cells, either in total NK cell population (CD45 + CD56 + ) or in NKCD8 − or NKCD8 + cells (Figures 3 and S4). It should be noted that such activation dropped out to the time point pre1. An enhancement of activation indicated by upregulation of NKG2D receptors was detected immediately after a low-dose of IFN (Figures 3 and S4). Using chromium release assay against K562 cells, we investigated NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity. We could not demonstrate significant changes in cytotoxicity after the first low dose of IFN (data not shown).
Figure 3. FACS analysis of NK cells and their activation state in the peripheral blood of patients. NK cells: expression of NKG2D on the surface of all CD45 + CD56 + cells (a); CD45 + CD56 + CD8 − cells (b) and CD45 + CD56 + CD8 + cells (c) during the course of IFN therapy. The immunological parameters of 17 patients were analyzed, * p < 0.05.
During the course of chemo-radio-immunotherapy, we observed a decreasing trend in the absolute amount of leukocytes (Figure S5a) and an increase in the monocyte subpopulation (Figure S5b) independent from the applied therapy. In addition, we detected a decrease in lymphocyte count during the chemotherapy/chemo-radiotherapy (ON1 vs. pre2) (Figure S5c). No difference was detected in the
DC and in the expression of CD86, CD80, and HLA-DR on the surface of DC between the groups (data not shown). Furthermore, no difference was observed both in the relative numbers of T cell subsets or in the granzyme B release between the groups (data not shown). Following the second IFN injection, there was also no change detected in the total number of NK cells. However, we recorded an increasing trend in the NK cell activation independent from the applied therapy (Figure S6). There were no significant differences in the NK cytotoxicity, either during the course of IFN treatment or between the groups (data not shown).
2.4. Human Study: Effects of Chemo-Radio-Immunotherapy on Serum Cytokines
Patients' serum samples were taken at the following time-points: preLDI, pre1, on1, pre2, and end, for analysis of IFNγ, TNFα, IP10, IL12, IL17, and IL10 cytokines. We found an elevated level of IFNγ and IL-10 in the patients' serum immediately following low-doses of IFN (Figure 4). High heterogeneity of patients in respect to initial serum level was observed for some cytokines (data not shown). We did not observe any difference in cytokine levels between the groups (data not shown).
2.5. Mouse Study: In Vivo Effects of Chemo-Immunotherapy on Immunological Parameters
To extend our human in vivo data, we performed an immunomonitoring of tumor-bearing mice with pancreatic carcinoma treated with a combination of IFN and 5-FU. As the combination of IFN with chemo-radiotherapy is extremely toxic to mice (data not shown), we used only chemo-immunotherapy for the mouse treatment. As expected, the combination of IFN with 5-FU reduced the tumor growth significantly (Figure S7). The subsequent FACS (fluorescence-activated cell sorting, flow cytometry) analysis of splenocyte and tumor cell suspensions revealed a decrease in the CD4 + lymphocyte accumulation in the spleen and tumor (Figure 5a). With regard to the expression of the earlier activation marker CD69, we found an increase in the percentage of CD69 + CD4 + T cells in the spleen following the combined treatment, and a tendency to a reduction of the cell percentage in the tumor (Figure 5a). For the CD8 + lymphocytes, we did not detect any change in percentage of the cells in either the spleens or the tumors, but a decrease in percentage of the activated (CD69 + ) lymphocytes (Figure 5b). Additionally, while there was no difference in the percentage of DC in the spleens of the tumor-bearing mice, a decrease in the percentage of DC was obvious in the mouse tumors following the treatment (Figure 6). It should be emphasized that the percentage of conventional T cells (Tcon, CD4 + FoxP3 − ) had been reduced in the spleen and increased in the tumor of the tumor-bearing mice with pancreatic carcinoma (Figure 6), indicating a possible migration of Tcon to the tumor site.
Investigation of the immunosuppressive arm during the combined therapy revealed that IFN in combination with 5-FU increased an accumulation of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) in both the spleens and in the tumors of the treated tumor-bearing mice. There was, however, no effect on the Treg (CD4 + CD25 + FoxP3 + ) percentage (Figure 6). It should be stressed that in the control (untreated) group of mice, we found a promising negative correlation of tumor growth with CD4 + lymphocyte accumulation and an upward trend for a positive correlation of tumor growth with MDCS accumulation (Table 2). This demonstrates that MDSC were able to diminish the accumulation of CD4 + cell in the tumors. However, in the IFN + 5-FU treated group of mice, we could not find such a correlation (Table 2).
Table 2. Spearman correlation of values CD4 + cells and MDSC (myeloid-derived suppressor cells) against tumor growth.
Figure 7. In vitro effects of therapies with IFN or 5-FU treatment only or their combination on splenocytes from tumor-bearing mice: FACS analysis of (a) lymphocytes; (b) CD4 + and CD8 + lymphocytes; (c) CD8 + effector cells; (d) CD69 expression on the surface of Tcon and Treg. Results of four independent experiments are presented, * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01 and *** p < 0.001, co—control treated mice.
Finally, we wanted to examine whether the IFN or 5-FU, or combined IFN + 5-FU therapy had a direct effect on immune cells. To do this, we isolated splenocytes from the tumor-bearing mice and cultivated these in vitro for 24 h with the drugs or with the compound combination. FACS analysis of the cultivated splenocytes revealed an increase in the percentage of lymphocytes in the leukocyte gate after the IFN treatment alone and in combination with 5-FU, but not after 5-FU treatment only (Figure 7a). It is interesting to note that the combined treatment changed the CD4 + /CD8 + ratio, decreasing the CD4 + cell percentage and increasing the CD8 + one (Figure 7b). Treatment of the cells with IFN alone led to an increase in the percentage of CD8 + effector cells (Figure 7c). No influence on lymphocyte subpopulations (i.e., naïve, effector, effector-memory or central memory cells) was detected (data not shown). In addition, no in vitro effects of the treatments were found on the percentage of Treg, conventional T cells and macrophages (data not shown). However, IFN-treatment decreased the earlier activation of Tcon and Treg based on expression of the CD69 surface marker (Figure 7d). 5-FU treatment alone did not change the immunological parameters assessed. While MDSC as a whole and granulocytic subpopulation of these cells did not show changes after the treatment (data not shown), the percentage of monocytic MDSC was increased following IFN + 5-FU treatment (Figure 8a). In respect of DC, we found an upregulation of CD80 and CD86 co-stimulatory molecules on the surface of cDC and an increase in expression of CD80 on pDC following different treatments (Figure 8b); the percentage of DCs was not affected (data not shown).
3. Discussion
The results of the CapRI-1 trial did not feature a survival benefit for patients with pancreatic cancer by adding interferon Type I (IFN) to the chemotherapy regimen. The small group of recruited patients in the CapRI-2 trial unfortunately does not permit a precise and statistically relevant investigation of survival data. However, the particularity, that five-year survivors were only found among patients of group B, should arouse scientific interest and encourage new study designs. The benefit of patients in this group could be traced back to either the omission of cisplatin, or the higher amount of patients with R0 resection.
Both in patients and in mice we observed a decrease of total leukocyte count. This result was in accordance with the IFN effects found in both healthy subjects [24] or in patients treated with IFN [25,26]. This could indicate that the decrease in leukocyte count is a response to IFN. Despite total decrease in leukocyte count, we observed an increase in the monocyte count between preLD1 and pre1. This was additionally supported by the data from FACS analyses, which demonstrated a significant increase in monocytes already being between preLD1 and onLD1. In our case, this upregulation was significant amongst all 17 patients following the first IFN doses (without an additional therapy); the same tendency after second IFN injection was observed between all three groups. Therefore, we speculate that IFN was primarily responsible for this effect without an additional impute of cisplatin, radiation or even 5-FU. A similar effect of IFN on monocyte count has also been described for healthy individuals [24]. Even in our data gained from the in vitro mice study, the major immunological effects were due to the presence of IFN. Thus, our data and those from others reflect the general effects of IFN treatment on leukocytes.
In the current work, we documented the positive effect of IFN therapy on the DC subpopulation and their activation both in human and mice systems. The impaired activity of DC, indicated by reduced allostimulatory activity by ex-vivo-generated DC, seems to be common to pancreatic cancer patients [27]. Therefore, an increase in the DC activation could be favorable for the patients' anti-tumor immunity. In the present work, this effect was significant among all 17 patients after the first IFN dose and as we did not observe further significant differences during the course of therapy or between the therapeutic groups, we conclude that IFN itself (without subsequent chemotherapy) was responsible for this activation. At present, there are no reliable in vivo data from other IFN therapeutic trials that demonstrate an IFN impact on DC activation. However, our results were supported by our in vitro observations showing the IFN + 5-FU influence on the DC activation status, reflected by upregulation of co-stimulatory molecules. These results were supported by observations in vitro, where IFN increased alongside the expression of the DC co-stimulatory molecules [28–30].
T lymphocytes were extensively investigated in this research. We did not observe any effect of IFN on CD4 + and CD8 + T cells (including their subpopulations) in vivo both in the human and in the murine system. However, direct IFN treatment alone increased the percentage of effector CD8 + cells and in combination with 5-FU improved the CD8 + /CD4 + ratio. Therefore, we cannot exclude that the same positive effects of IFN in vivo might be observed in other experimental settings.
Following the encouraging data from the Ipilimumab clinical study in malignant melanoma [6], the suppression of CTLA4 expression on lymphocytes could be a new strategy in the therapy of some immunogenic cancers. In this study, we did not find an influence of IFN or chemo-radio-immunotherapy on CTLA4 expression. Therefore, the immune therapy of pancreatic cancer with monoclonal antibody against CTLA4 (i.e., Ipilimumab) could be a new option for ameliorating a combination therapy.
The augmentation of NK cell activity is important for antitumor response. This has been documented in several IFN trials, as well as in other types of immune stimulatory therapies (for review see [31]). In our work, we proved an increase of the activated NK cell amount following the first IFN injection. This was in line with data from other groups, where increased NK activation was associated with stimulatory immunotherapy [32,33]. Additionally, earlier observations showed that the increased NK cells mediated cytotoxic activity following IFN treatment [34].
In this study, we demonstrated an increased serum level of IFN-γ and IL-10 after IFN therapy. IFN-γ acts as a proinflammatory cytokine important to the action of T cells and promotes anti-tumor immunity [35]. In opposite to IFN-γ, IL-10 possess anti-inflammatory properties that have an effect on keeping a "IFN-γ/IL-10 balance" and can be the indicator of the action of Treg [36]; however, it can also potently activate B lymphocytes [37]. Therefore, based on the cytokine serum level, we concluded that the unspecific IFN immunotherapy could potentially modulate both pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators in patients with pancreatic carcinoma.
In this clinical trial, the immunosuppressive arm was not accurately assessed. Only Treg were traced in this study, but there were no effects on these immunosuppressive cells. These data on Treg were confirmed by our in vitro data showing the absence of IFN + 5-FU effects on Treg. Effects of IFN on Treg in clinical studies have been investigated in cases of renal RCC [38] and melanoma [39]. While in RCC patients, the percentage of Treg decreased immediately after IFN treatment, the amount of cells recovered later as treatment processed [38]. In another clinical study with melanoma patients, the combination of IFN with tremelimumab (an antibody against CTLA4) induced an increase in Treg percentage. The authors assumed that this effect was mainly due to the CTLA4 blockage [39]. Therefore, effects of IFN on Treg should be investigated further.
In regard of MDSC, the orthotopic mouse model of pancreatic cancer was characterized by higher accumulation of MDSC in the tumors [40]. Furthermore, the MDSC accumulation was elevated after chemo-immunotherapy in both mouse spleens and tumors; this accumulation had a positive correlation with tumor growth and simultaneously a negative correlation with the amount of CD4 + cells. Our assumption is that this treatment interacts on the MDSC/CD4 + T cell interplay and in turn on tumor growth. In vitro effects of combined drug administration was shown only for monocytic MDSC. These data point to the importance of immunosuppression (through MDSC) induced by combined chemo-immunotherapy.
Additionally, in this work, we found a high heterogeneity in the initial level of some immunological parameters (CTLA4 expression, serum cytokine level, NK-mediated cytotoxicity and antigen specific cytotoxicity) prior to IFN therapy in the individual patients. This could potentially have led to the different responses to IFN therapy. We suggest initial immunological stratification of patients for immunotherapeutical trials. This would allow for precise immunomonitoring and improving the response to the therapy.
Summarizing our human and mouse in vivo and in vitro studies allowed us to conclude that the unspecific immunotherapy with interferon type I of patients with pancreatic carcinoma induced not only the activation of anti-tumor immunity, but, also, immunosuppressive mechanisms. This might be a reason for the absence of clinical benefit for patients treated with the combined therapy in the
CapRI-1 study [41,42]. This hypothesis needs more experimental efforts, which should be conducted in future immunotherapeutic trials and combined with precise immunomonitoring.
4. Experimental Section
4.1. Patients Characteristics and Study Set up
Patients over the age of 18 years old with biopsy-proven completely resected (R0 or R1 [23]) pancreatic adenocarcinoma were eligible for participation in the CapRI-2 study [22]. The final protocol was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Heidelberg, Medical School, Heidelberg, Germany (AFmu-071/2008). Trial Registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN79802092. Before commencing the therapy, patients were informed of the nature and risks of the study by a physician and provided their written consent. According to the CapRI-2 protocol [22], patients in study group A received a combination of 5-FU, cisplatin and external beam radiation (EBR), including administration of IFN (CapRI regimen). The first de-escalation step was group B, where cisplatin had been omitted (CapRI-light). The second de-escalation step was group C, where both cisplatin and EBR were left out (CapRI ultra-light) (Figure 1). For final data evaluation of the immunological parameters, 17 patients were presented. Patients' characteristics are summarized in Table 1.
4.2. Time Point of Analysis and Sample Preparation
Blood samples were taken from the patients immediately prior to the first IFN injection pre low-dose IFN (preLDI), one day after (onLDI), immediately before the start of the first cycle of chemo-radio-immunotherapy or chemotherapy (pre1), one day after (on1), before the start of the second cycle of chemo-radio-immunotherapy or chemotherapy (pre2), and after the third cycle of the therapy (end) (Figure 1). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were isolated from heparinized blood samples by Ficoll density gradient centrifugation. The cells were frozen in 10% DMSO (Sigma, Deisenhofen, Germany) and 20% fetal calf serum (PAA Laboratories, Cölbe, Germany), and the serum samples were stored at −80 °C. EDTA blood was used immediately for flow cytometric analysis. For cytotoxicity assays, the monocytes were removed after thawing by adherence to plastic. Leukocyte count (all time points except onLDI) was done in the routine analysis center of the Department of Clinical Chemistry University Hospital Heidelberg according to the standard operating procedure.
4.3. Cell Culture
The murine pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell line Panc02 was originally from Corbett et al. [43]. Cells were cultivated in a RPMI-1640 medium with 10% fetal calf serum, 100 U/mL penicillin and 100 μg/mL streptomycin, (PAA Laboratories, Cölbe, Germany). Cells were cultivated at 37 °C and 5% CO2 and routinely checked for mycoplasma contamination.
4.4. Mice
C57BL/6 mice (six to eight weeks) were purchased from Charles River (Sulzfeld, Germany) and kept under specific pathogen-free conditions in the animal facility of Heidelberg University (IBF, Heidelberg, Germany). Animal experiments were carried out following the approval of the German authorities (35-91585.81/G-184/11).
4.5. Orthotopic Mouse Model of Pancreatic Carcinoma
Syngeneic pancreatic carcinoma cells were injected orthotopically in C57Bl/6 mice, as described elsewhere [40]. Mice were narcotized with isofluran/O2 inhalation. After achieving surgical tolerance (stage III2), mice were opened with an abdominal section. A volume of 5 µL of mycoplasma-free Panc02 cells in a concentration of 2 × 10 5 cells/mL PBS were injected into the pancreatic head with a 25 µL gastight syringe (Hamilton, Reno, NV, USA). The injection site was clamped for about 30 s after removal of the syringe. The tissue was carefully returned to its original position and all layers of the wound (peritoneum, muscles, and skin) were sutured with synthetic absorbable suture material (polysorb 6-0, (Tyco Healthcare, Neustadt, Germany)). Mice were treated i.p. with a combination of murine recombinant IFN (type I interferon) (1 × 10 4 units per mouse/day) and 5-FU (35 mg/kg/day) on days five, seven, and nine. Tumors and spleens were harvested four weeks after Panc02 cell implantations and used for the flow cell biology analysis.
4.6. Flow Cell Biology Analysis of Human Blood Samples
Human leukocytes were characterized using following fluorescence labeled anti-human antibodies, as described elsewhere [44]: CD45 (for all leukocytes), CD3, CTLA4, FoxP3, CD25, CD56, NKG2D, CD69, CD8, CD19, CD45RA, CCR7, CD27, CD33, CD14, CD11c, CD80, CD86, and HLA-DR (all BD Biosciences, Heidelberg, Germany). For FACS analyses, antibodies were placed into a 5 mL polystyrene round bottom tube and 100 µL blood were added to the tube, which was briefly shaken and incubated for 15 min at room temperature. Afterwards, 2 mL 1× BD FACS Lysing Solution (BD Biosciences, Germany) was added and further incubated for another 10 min at room temperature, with centrifugation following at 200× g for 5 min. The supernatant was removed, the pellet re-suspended in 2 mL Cellwash solution (BD Biosciences, Heidelberg, Germany) and centrifuged again. Cells were re-suspended in 250 µL Cellwash and measured on a BD FACS Canto II flow cytometer (BD Bioscience, Heidelberg, Germany). FoxP3 cytoplasmatic staining was performed with a FoxP3-Buffer Set and FoxP3-PE antibodies (both from BD Bioscience, Heidelberg, Germany), according to the manufacturer's instructions. Briefly, 400 µL of EDTA-blood was placed into the tube and 1 mL Versalyse (Beckman Coulter, Krefeld, Germany) was added; the mix was shaken and incubated for 10 min, then centrifuged for 5 min with 200× g and re-suspended in 2 mL of Stain buffer (BD Biosciences, Heidelberg, Germany). After centrifugation, the supernatant was removed and the pellet re-suspended in 100 µL Stain Buffer. Antibodies for cell surface proteins were added for 20 min (room temperature); cells were washed twice and fixed with a fixation buffer. For permeabilization, cells were supplemented with 0.5 mL of buffer C and incubated for 30 min. After being rinsed twice, 10 µL of FoxP3-PE antibodies were added and the cells were incubated for 30 min. After being rinsed twice again, cells were re-suspended in 250 µL Stain Buffer and measured on a BD FACS Canto II flow cytometer (BD Bioscience, Heidelberg, Germany). Data were analyzed with FlowJo software (Tree Star, Inc., Ashland, OR, USA).
4.7. Flow Cell Biology Analysis of Murine Splenocyte and Tumor Samples
FACS analysis of murine leukocytes was performed as described elsewhere [40] and will be described later in detail. Single cell suspensions of tumors and spleens were prepared in the Stain Buffer (PBS supplemented with 1% mouse serum and 1 mM EDTA). The cells were then counted and the density adjusted to 4 × 10 7 /mL. The unspecific binding caused by the Fc receptors was blocked by incubating the cells with anti-mouse CD16/CD32 antibody (1 μL for 2 × 10 6 cells) at 4 °C in the dark for max 20 min. Then, a 50 μL cell suspension (2 × 10 6 cells) was incubated with 50 μL of the Stain Buffer containing various monoclonal antibodies at 4 °C, also in dark conditions for max 20 min. A Foxp3 Staining Buffer set was used for intracellular staining according to the manufacturer's instructions. Acquisition was performed by flow cytometry using FACS Canto II with FACSDiva Software (BD Biosciences, Heidelberg, Germany). Specifically, 300,000 events were collected in the mononuclear cell gate according to the FSC vs. SSC. Different subsets of Tcon (CD4 + FoxP3 − ) and Treg (CD4 + CD25 + FoxP3 + ) cells were characterized. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) were characterized as CD11b + Gr1 + . FlowJo software (Tree Star) was used to analyze at least 500,000 events.
4.8. In Vitro Treatment of Murine Splenocytes
Single cell suspensions of spleens were prepared as described elsewhere [45]. Spleens were homogenized, squeezed through a 100 and 40 µm cell strainer and flushed with 10 mL of PBS to collect as much cells as possible and finally suspended in PBS. The cells were then counted, the density adjusted to 2 × 10 6 /mL and 5 mL of this cell suspension was cultivated in a RPMI-1640 medium with 10% fetal calf serum for 24 h, with or without IFN (5.000 U) + 5-FU (450 μM). After that, the cells were gently scratched and proceeded to FACS staining, as mentioned above.
4.9. Analysis of Human Cytokines with LUMINEX
Human serum cytokines (interferon γ (IFNγ), tumor-necrosis factor α (TNF-α), IFNγ-induced protein 10 (IP10), and interleukin 10 (IL10), IL12 and IL17) were determined using a MILLIPLEX ® MAP Kit (Millipore GmbH, Schwalbach/TS, Germany) according to the manufacturer's specifications. Briefly, 25 μL of patients' sera was incubated overnight at 4 °C with color-coded beads coated with the capture antibodies for the respective cytokines. After triple rinsing, the beads were incubated with the biotinylated secondary detection antibodies for each cytokine/chemokine for one hour at room temperature, followed by the final incubation with streptavidin-phycoerythrin for 30 min at room temperature. Afterwards, triple rinsing measurements were completed using the Luminex ® 100/200 System (Millipore, Schwalbach/TS, Germany). According to the standard curves, the concentration of the respective cytokines was calculated and given as pg/mL.
4.10. Cytotoxicity Assay
A standard chromium release assay was used to determine the cytotoxic activity, using patients' PBMC as effector cells and a K562 cell line as a source of target cells. The assay was performed as described previously in [44].
4.11. ELIspot
For the ELIspot for granzyme B, the BD™ ELISPOT Human Granzyme B ELISPOT Set (BD Bioscience, San Diego, CA, USA) was used according to the manufacturer's instructions. Patients' PBMC were stimulated with 100 mg/mL MUC-1 (self-made as described in [44]) or 100 U/mL CA19.9 (Merck, Schwalbach/TS, Germany), or with the medium as a control. Spots were counted after 24 h of incubation using the KSELISPOT System, release 4.1 (Carl Zeiss Light Microscopy, Göttingen, Germany). Cells stimulated with the medium without the MUC-1 peptide served as controls.
4.12. Statistical Analysis
GraphPad Prism Version 5.01 software (Statcon, Witzenhausen, Germany) [46] was used for statistical analyses. Distributions of continuous variables were described by means of SE (standard error), median, 25% and 75% percentiles and were presented as dot plots. D'Agostino and Pearson omnibus normality tests were conducted to estimate the distribution of data. The null hypothesis (mean values were equal at all time points of the treatment) versus the alternative hypothesis (mean values were not equal) was tested by repeated measures of ANOVA, with Bonferroni's multiple comparison post-hoc test for the normal distributed variants and by Mann-Whitney test for the data that did not pass the normality test. Difference in clinical parameters between the study arms was assessed using the χ-square test. Correlation analyses of nonparametric data were conducted using the Spearman correlation coefficient (r). All statistical tests were two-tailed. The significance level was α = 5%.
5. Conclusions
An immunomonitoring of 17 patients with pancreatic cancer from the CapRI-2 study, and tumor-bearing mice treated with combination of chemo (radio) therapies with IFN was performed and immunological effects of IFN and chemo-radio-immunotherapy with IFN and 5-FU were analyzed in this study. The data demonstrated an immunomodulatory response to IFN therapy in pancreatic carcinoma patients. Analysis of the Panc02 orthotopic mouse model of pancreatic cancer revealed a collateral accumulation of the MDSC in spleens and tumors of the mice treated with IFN and 5-FU, which was supported by the direct effect of the drugs on MDSC detected in vitro. Our human and mouse in vivo and in vitro studies indicate that the unspecific immunotherapy of pancreatic carcinoma with IFN can induce not only the activation of anti-tumor immunity, but also the immunosuppression. The data demonstrate the importance of immunosuppressive mechanisms induced by combined chemo-immunotherapy and might provide an explanation for the absence of clinical benefit for patients in CapRI study.
Acknowledgments
We thank Markus Herbst for his excellent technical assistance. We gratefully acknowledge Rink Offringa for discussing our data and critical reading of this paper. We thank Stuart William John McMillan for the manuscript correction. This work was supported partly by a grant from Wild Foundation to Jan Schmidt.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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|
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
TO:
Members, Subcommittee on Energy and Power
FROM: Committee Majority Staff
RE:
Subcommittee Markup of a Committee Print
I. INTRODUCTION
On Wednesday, July 22, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building, the Subcommittee on Energy and Power will hold a markup to consider the following:
- H.R. ____, “To modernize energy infrastructure, build a 21 st century energy and manufacturing workforce, bolster America’s energy security and diplomacy, promote energy efficiency and government accountability, and for other purposes.”
In keeping with Chairman Upton's announced policy, Members must submit any amendments they may have two hours before they are offered during this markup. Members may submit amendments by email to firstname.lastname@example.org. Any information with respect to an amendment's parliamentary standing (e.g., its germaneness) should be submitted at this time as well.
II. EXPLANATION OF LEGISLATION
In the 113th Congress, Chairman Upton unveiled the Architecture of Abundance – a new vision for an energy policy that reflects today's era of energy abundance, and began working on ideas with Members of both parties to modernize policies rooted in outdated notions of energy scarcity. During the 114th Congress, Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Whitfield held 7 hearings to examine discussion drafts focused on modernizing energy infrastructure, building a 21st century energy and manufacturing workforce, bolstering America's energy diplomacy, and promoting energy efficiency and government accountability. Through the hearings, the Subcommittee received testimony from 9 governmental witnesses, including the Secretary of Energy, and 39 private sector organizations and experts.
- On April 23, 2015, the Subcommittee held a hearing on "Title II: 21st Century Workforce." 1
- On April 30, 2015, the Subcommittee held a hearing on "Strategic Petroleum Reserve Discussion Draft and Title IV Energy Efficiency." 2
- On May 13, 2015, the Subcommittee held a hearing on "Discussion Drafts Addressing Hydropower Regulatory Modernization and FERC Process Coordination under the Natural Gas Act." 3
1 See http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearing/title-ii-21st-century-workforce
2 See http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearing/strategic-petroleum-reserve-discussion-draft-and-title-iv-energyefficiency
July 20, 2015
- On May 19, 2015, the Subcommittee held a hearing on "Discussion Draft Addressing Energy Reliability and Security." 4
- On June 2, 2015, the Subcommittee held a hearing on the "Quadrennial Energy Review and Related Discussion Drafts." 5
- On June 3 and 4, 2015, the Subcommittee held a hearing on "Discussion Draft on Accountability and the Department of Energy Perspectives on Title IV: Energy Efficiency." 6
The legislation includes the following provisions:
TITLE I—MODERNIZING AND PROTECTING INFRASTRUCTURE
Sec. 1101. FERC process coordination: This section reinforces the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) role as the lead agency for siting interstate natural gas pipelines. This section would require FERC to identify all agencies considering an aspect of an application and set the schedule for review, including a deadline for a final decision. To ensure that timely decisions are made and that the responsibilities of each Federal and State agency are met when making decisions, FERC would be required to coordinate its efforts and make a recommendation on the scope of the environmental review. Cooperating agencies are directed to carry out reviews concurrently, identifying any issues of concern that may delay or prevent an agency from meeting the schedule established by FERC, and giving deference to FERC on the scope of the environmental review when appropriate and in accordance with applicable Federal law. If issues arise, the Commission may forward them to the heads of the relevant agency for resolution. In cases where the is a failure to meet the schedule that is established by FERC, the head of the relevant agency would notify Congress and set forth a recommended implementation plan to ensure a final decision reached. This section also directs FERC to track, and make available to the public on its website, information related to the review of applications requiring multiple Federal authorizations.
Sec. 1102. Resolving environmental and grid reliability conflicts: This section resolves a conflict between the Federal Power Act and environmental laws and regulations in order to avoid forcing electric generators from choosing between complying with an emergency order from the Department of Energy (DOE) or violating an environmental obligation.
Sec. 1103. Emergency preparedness for energy supply disruptions: This section finds that recent natural disasters have underscored the importance of having resilient oil and natural gas infrastructure and effective ways for industry and government to communicate to address energy supply disruptions. This section directs the Secretary of Energy to develop and adopt procedures to enhance communication and coordination between the DOE, Federal partners, State and local government and the private sector to improve emergency response and recovery.
3 See http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearing/discussion-drafts-addressing-hydropower-regulatorymodernization-and-ferc-process
5 See http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearing/quadrennial-energy-review-and-related-discussion-drafts
4 See http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearing/discussion-draft-addressing-energy-reliability-and-security
6 See http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearing/discussion-draft-accountability-and-department-energyperspectives-title-iv-energy
Sec. 1104. Critical electric infrastructure security: This section establishes a new section 215A of the Federal Power Act that:
- Provides the Secretary of Energy the authority to address grid security emergencies if the President provides a written directive or determination identifying a grid security emergency. The Secretary is authorized to take emergency measures to protect the bulk power system or defense critical electric infrastructure, including ordering critical electric infrastructure owners and operators to take appropriate actions, with such measures to expire no later than 15 days from issuance.
- Facilitates the protection and voluntary sharing of critical electric infrastructure information between private sector asset owners and the Federal government by: (1) exempting designated Critical Electric Infrastructure Information from certain Federal and state disclosure laws; 2) requiring FERC to facilitate voluntary information sharing between Federal, State, local and tribal authorities, the Electric Reliability Organization, regional entities, and owners, operators and users of the bulk-power system in the U.S.; and 3) establishing sanctions for the unauthorized disclosure of shared information.
Sec. 1105. Strategic Transformer Reserve: This section requires DOE to submit a plan to Congress evaluating the feasibility of establishing a Strategic Transformer Reserve for the storage, in strategically-located facilities, of spare large power transformers and other critical equipment in sufficient numbers to temporarily replace critically damaged large power transformers. Strategically-located spare large power transformers will diminish the vulnerability of the United States to multiple risks facing electric grid reliability, including physical attack, cyber-attack, electromagnetic pulse, geomagnetic disturbances, severe weather, and seismic events.
Sec. 1106. Cyber Sense: This section directs DOE to establish a voluntary Cyber Sense program to identify and promote cyber-secure products and technologies intended for use in the bulkpower system, including products relating to industrial control systems, such as supervisory control and data acquisition systems.
Sec. 1107. State coverage and consideration of PURPA standards for electric utilities: This section directs electric utilities and State public utility commissions to consider:
- Increasing the utilization of, and cost recovery for, resiliency-related technologies designed to improve the resilience of electric infrastructure, mitigate power outages, continue delivery of vital services, and maintain the flow of power to facilities critical to public health, safety, and welfare;
- Promoting investments in advanced energy analytics technology for the purposes of realizing operational efficiencies, cost savings, enhanced energy management and customer engagement, improvements in system reliability, safety, and cybersecurity, or other benefits to ratepayers; and
- Adopting or modifying policies to ensure the incorporation of sufficient reliable generation into integrated resource plans to assure the reliable availability of electric energy over a 10year planning period.
Sec. 1108. Reliability and performance assurance in mandatory capacity markets: To be supplied at full committee.
TITLE II—21st CENTURY WORKFORCE
Sec. 2101. Energy and manufacturing workforce development: This section directs the Secretary of Energy to establish a comprehensive program to improve education and training for energy and manufacturing-related jobs. This section directs the Secretary to collaborate with representatives from the energy and manufacturing industry to identify the areas of highest need and develop guidelines for the skills necessary to enter the workforce. The Secretary also is directed to provide direct assistance to schools, community colleges, workforce development organizations, non-profit organizations, labor organizations, apprenticeship programs, and minority serving institutions to carry out the program established in this section. This section also provides special consideration for increasing outreach to employers and job trainers preparing displaced and unemployed energy and manufacturing workers to re-enter the workforce.
TITLE III—ENERGY SECURITY AND DIPLOMACY
Sec. 3101. Sense of Congress: This section finds the following: 1) North America's energy revolution has significantly enhanced energy security in the United States, and fundamentally changed the Nation's energy future from that of scarcity to abundance; 2) North America's energy abundance has increased global energy supplies and reduced the price of energy for consumers in the United States and abroad; 3) allies and trading partners of the United States, including in Europe and Asia, are seeking stable and affordable energy supplies from North America to enhance their energy security; 4) the United States has an opportunity to promote greater stability and affordability of energy supplies for its allies and trading partners through a more integrated, secure, and competitive North American energy system; and 5) the United States also has an opportunity to promote such objectives through greater Federal agency coordination relating to regulations or agency actions that significantly affect the supply, distribution, or use of energy.
Sec. 3102. Energy security valuation: This section directs the Secretary of Energy to establish U.S. energy security valuation methods to ensure that energy-related actions that significantly affect the supply, distribution, or use of energy are evaluated with respect to their potential impact on energy security, including their impact on consumers and the economy; energy supply, diversity and resiliency; well-functioning and competitive energy markets; United States trade balance; and national security objectives.
Sec. 3103. North American energy security plan: This section directs the Secretary of Energy to report to Congress with a plan to improve planning and coordination with Canada and Mexico to enhance energy integration, strengthen North American energy security, and promote
efficiencies; and improve collaboration with Caribbean and Central American partners on energy security.
Sec. 3104. Collective energy security: This section directs the Secretary of Energy, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to convene at least 1 Trans-Atlantic and 1 Trans-Pacific forum to foster dialogue among the governments of U.S. allies and trading partners, independent experts, and industry representatives with the goal to promote energy security.
Sec. 3105. Strategic Petroleum Reserve mission readiness plan: This section seeks to ensure that our strategic stockpiles of petroleum are kept safely and readily accessible in times of national emergency by directing the DOE to conduct a long-range strategic review to specify the near and long-term roles of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and recommend an action plan to achieve the optimal 1) capacity, location, and composition of petroleum products in the Reserve; and, 2) storage and distributional capabilities.
TITLE IV—ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
SUBTITLE A—ENERGY EFFICIENCY
CHAPTER 1—FEDERAL AGENCY ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Sec. 4111. Energy-efficient and energy-saving information technologies: This section requires Federal agencies to coordinate with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), DOE, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop an implementation strategy – that includes best practices and measurement and verification techniques – for the maintenance, purchase, and use of energy-efficient and energy saving information technologies. OMB would be required to track and report on each agency's progress.
Sec. 4112. Energy efficient data centers: This section seeks to improve the energy efficiency of Federal data centers by, among other items, requiring DOE to update a 2007 report on data center energy efficiency and maintain a data center energy practitioner certification program. DOE also would establish an open data initiative to help share best practices and support further innovation, and develop a metric that measures data center energy efficiency.
Sec. 4113. Report on energy and water savings potential from thermal insulation: This section directs the DOE to submit a report within 1 year on the impact of thermal insulation on both energy and water use systems for potable hot and chilled water in Federal buildings and on the return on investment of installing the insulation. The report must include: (1) an analysis based on the cost of municipal or regional water for delivered water and the avoided cost of new water; and (2) a summary of energy and water savings, including short-term and long-term (20 years) projections of such savings.
Sec. 4114. Federal purchase requirement: This section expands the definition of "renewable energy" in section 203 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to include thermal energy and qualified waste heat resources. The section also modifies the term "municipal solid waste" by excluding certain commonly recycled paper.
CHAPTER 2—ENERGY EFFICIENT TECHNOLOGY AND MANUFACTURING
Sec. 4121. Inclusion of Smart Grid capability on Energy Guide labels: This section directs the Federal Trade Commission to initiate a rulemaking to develop Energy Guide labels that promote the smart grid capabilities of certain products.
Sec. 4122. Voluntary verification programs for air conditioning, furnace, boiler, heat pump, and water heater products: This section requires the DOE to recognize voluntary verification programs for air conditioning, furnace, boiler, heat pump, and water heating products to demonstrate compliance with DOE energy efficiency and conservation standards and the Energy Star program.
Sec. 4123. Facilitating Consensus Furnace Standards: This section provides gas furnace stakeholders the opportunity to continue negotiations to facilitate the proposal for adoption of gas furnace standards that enjoy consensus support, while not delaying the current rulemaking, except to the extent necessary to provide such opportunity.
Sec. 4124. Future of Industry Program: This section directs DOE-funded higher education-based Industrial Assessment Centers (IACs) to identify opportunities for optimizing energy efficiency and environmental performance, including implementation of information technology advancements for supply chain analysis, logistics, system monitoring, and industrial and manufacturing processes. IACs also are directed to coordinate with the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Centers of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and DOE's Building Technologies Program to increase partnerships with the national laboratories and energy service and technology providers to leverage private sector expertise.
CHAPTER 3—ENERGY PERFORMANCE CONTRACTING
Sec. 4131. Use of energy and water efficiency measures in Federal buildings: This section:
- Requires DOE to report on the status of each Federal agency's energy savings performance contracts and utility energy service contracts, the investment value of such contracts, the guaranteed energy savings for the previous year as compared to the actual energy savings for the previous year, the plan for entering into such contracts in the coming year, and information explaining why any previously submitted plans for such contracts were not implemented;
- Prohibits Federal agencies from limiting the recognition of operation and maintenance savings associated with systems modernized or replaced with the implementation of energy conservation measures, water conservation measures, or any series of energy conservation measures and water conservation measures;
- Clarifies that Federal agency payments of energy, water and wastewater treatment expenses, pursuant to an energy savings performance contract or utility energy service contracts shall include related operation and maintenance expenses; and
- Revises the definition of "energy savings" to include (1) the use, sale, or transfer of energy incentives, rebates, or credits (including renewable energy credits) from governments or utilities; and (2) any revenue generated from a reduction in energy or water use, more efficient waste recycling, or additional energy generated from more efficient equipment.
CHAPTER 4—SCHOOL BUILDINGS
Sec. 4141. Coordination of energy retrofitting assistance for schools: This section amends the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to direct DOE to establish a clearinghouse to disseminate information regarding available programs and financing mechanisms that may be used to help initiate, develop, and finance energy efficiency, distributed generation, and energy retrofitting projects for schools. DOE must: (1) consult with appropriate agencies to develop a list of programs and financing mechanisms that are, or may be, used for the projects, and (2) coordinate with appropriate agencies to develop a collaborative education and outreach effort to streamline communications and promote the programs and financing mechanisms.
SUBTITLE B—ACCOUNTABILITY
CHAPTER 1—MARKET MANIPULATION, ENFORCEMENT, AND COMPLIANCE
Sec. 4211. FERC Office of Compliance Assistance: This section requires FERC to establish an Office of Compliance Assistance and Public Participation headed by a Director who shall be responsible for promoting improved compliance with Commission rules and orders by, among other things, providing entities regulated by the Commission the opportunity to obtain timely compliance guidance; making recommendations with respect to market behavior and enforcement; issuing reports and guidance; and performing outreach to regulated community.
CHAPTER 2—MARKET REFORMS
Sec. 4221. GAO study on wholesale electricity markets: This section requires the Government Accountability Office to study whether and how the market rules, practices, and structures of regional transmission organizations produce rates that are just and reasonable.
III. STAFF CONTACTS
If you have any questions regarding this hearing, please contact Tom Hassenboehler, Patrick Currier, or Brandon Mooney of the Committee staff at (202) 225-2927.
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HIGHWAYS Through Habitats
The Banff Wildlife Crossings Project
TONY CLEVENGER
The author is Research Wildlife Biologist with the Road Ecology Program, Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University, Bozeman.
Banff National Park and its environs in Alberta, Canada, are among the world's best testing sites for innovative passageways to mitigate the effects of roads on wildlife. The major commercial Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) bisects the park, but a range of engineered mitigation measures—including a variety of wildlife underpasses and overpasses—has helped maintain large mammal populations for the past 25 years and has allowed the gathering of valuable data.
Push for Research
Less than 100 years ago, the first car to reach Banff National Park traveled a dusty, narrow road from Calgary. By the early 1970s, four paved lanes of the TCH linked Calgary to the park's east gate. In the park, vehicles funnelled onto a two-lane highway section. As traffic increased, so did the accidents.
In 1978, therefore, Public Works Canada proposed "twinning" the highway—that is, expanding it to four lanes—from the east gate to the Banff town site. A second proposal followed, to twin the highway from Banff town site to the Sunshine Road. This provoked a
The Trans-Canada Highway bisects the Bow River Valley, Alberta, a World Heritage Site.
One of two overpasses constructed on the TransCanada Highway in Banff National Park to maintain wildlife connectivity.
debate, because many people believed that a larger highway would kill more wildlife and harm the park, but others argued that a larger highway would ensure safer travel for people. The debate was intense, but the effect of a larger highway on wildlife was studied more closely than ever before.
The first twinning project was approved with the goals of improving travel safety for people and of reducing the road kill of deer and elk. Highway fencing and the use of wildlife underpasses were recommended. At the time, however, the effects of a fenced highway on ungulates were not known. Information on where to locate the wildlife crossings, how many to create, or what kinds of underpasses deer and elk would use also was limited. Although sparse, the available data were assembled to guide the decisions.
While the first twinning phase was in construction, the second was approved. The debate about highway twinning in the park continued, along with a push for scientific research and improved knowledge about the effects of roads on wildlife.
Monitoring Results
The TCH reconstruction included 24 wildlife crossings—22 underpasses and 2 overpasses—to ensure wildlife connectivity. Consistent evidence of the performance and effects of these crossings is needed to support implementation by transportation and resource management agencies. Although the installation of wildlife crossings is increasing, some organizations remain skeptical about the conservation benefits.
In 1996, Parks Canada contracted for long-term research to monitor the Banff highway mitigation measures. Researchers have employed a variety of methods to monitor animal use of the wildlife crossings, such as regularly raking the track beds clean, deploying infrared-operated cameras, and checking the structures every three days year-round. The 10 years of proj ect research are providing information about crossing structures at an unprecedented level of scientific rigor. Moreover, the research is being performed in an area that leads the world in the planning, design, and performance assessment of wildlife crossings.
Monitoring the track pads has shown that 10 species of large mammals have used Banff's 24 crossings more than 84,000 times as of January 2007. The research suggests that the animals experience a learning curve—they need time to locate the wildlife crossings and to feel secure using the structures before crossing regularly. For example, grizzly bear crossings have increased from 7 in 1996 to more than 100 in 2006. Long-term monitoring demonstrates that the mitigation measures have reduced the traffic-related mortality of all large mammals on the TCH by more than 80 percent—a significant boost for maintaining
viable wildlife populations.
Healthy, functioning ecosystems require viable wildlife populations. Knowing the effect of these crossing structures on the population levels, therefore, is critical. Although the structures should enhance population viability, no studies to date have addressed the related benefits.
Obtaining data on individuals in a population can be problematic, because wide-ranging, fragmentationsensitive species like bears typically occur in relatively low densities and have low reproductive rates. Demonstrating that crossings provide population-level benefits—for example, allowing the movement of adult males and females across roads, as well as the dispersal, survival, and reproduction of the young—usually requires 15 to 20 years of intensive monitoring of radio-marked mammals.
Modern molecular techniques, however, have made it possible to identify individual animals, their sex, and genetic relatedness from only a few hairs. These innovations can provide a powerful, relatively inexpensive, and noninvasive way to acquire critical information about genetic interchange facilitated by crossings, without having to capture or see the animals.
Grizzly bear using a wildlife overpass in Banff National Park.
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to identify each individual and determine its sex and ancestry.
Sampling System
A hair-sampling system was set up at two underpasses of the TCH in Banff. The system consisted of two strands of sticky string spanning the width of the underpass (see photo, this page). Barbed wire was intertwined to enhance the efficiency of the system to obtain hairs with sufficient tissue for DNA analysis.
The target species were large carnivores, primarily bears; therefore the strands were suspended at 30 cm and 75 cm above the ground. Page wire and brush behind posts were used to funnel the animals toward the hair-sampling setup. Animal hair left on the barbs or on the sticky string was collected daily and sent to a laboratory to identify the species and the individuals within each species.
A two-strand system of barbed wire and sticky string was used to snag hair samples to yield DNA profiles of individual animals using a wildlife underpass.
Pilot Study
In 2004 and 2005, a noninvasive technique was pilottested for obtaining DNA from the animals using the wildlife crossings. With DNA obtained from an animal's hair, researchers can create the equivalent of a genetic fingerprint. The unique DNA allows scientists
The hair-sampling systems also were monitored by video 24 hours a day to assess how the technique was working and to watch the wildlife responses to the slightly modified underpasses. The video footage allowed the researchers to identify and correct experimental flaws, as well as any negative effects on the wildlife.
Mitigating Transportation's Disruption of Ecosystems
JOHN BISSONETTE AND CHRISTOPHER HEDGES
The annual costs of personal injuries and property damage from animal–vehicle collisions are considerable, but mitigation measures have met with uneven success. Moreover, many smaller species of animals that do not pose a threat to vehicles in collisions may experience habitat loss and fragmentation from roadway alignments, because transportation corridors limit the natural movement of wildlife, affecting individual species and ecosystems.
tion, and location of crossing types, as well as suggestions for the monitoring, evaluation, and maintenance of crossings. Guidance on the use of wildlife crossings to mitigate habitat fragmentation and to reduce the number of animal–vehicle collisions will rely on a large-scale, context-sensitive framework and on sound ecological principles.
Research has contributed to the development of wildlife crossings, but additional data are needed on the effectiveness of the crossings and on the most effective measures for a particular species in a particular landscape. Crossings that work well for one species may not for others. State departments of transportation therefore need guidance on the use and effectiveness of wildlife crossings to mitigate habitat fragmentation and to reduce the number of animal–vehicle collisions on roadways. Concerted and purposeful activity is needed to link transportation and ecological services into a context-sensitive process of planning, construction, and monitoring and to provide the kinds of data that highway planners, engineers, or biologists can generalize to different situations.
Under NCHRP Project 25-27, Evaluation of the Use and Effectiveness of Wildlife Crossings, a research team at Utah State University is developing guidelines for the selection, configura-
The guidelines will aim for landscape permeability—effective connectivity that restores an ecosystem's integrity. At the same time, the guidelines must allow for cost-effective mitigation of the effects of transportation infrastructure.
The research will assess current practice, as well as the use of data and models to evaluate the safety effectiveness of wildlife crossing measures, to identify collision-prone locations, and to evaluate how to place the crossings. The study also will examine the effect of roads on the quality of the immediately adjacent habitat. The guidelines will be released as a web-based electronic decision tool. The research is scheduled for completion this summer.
Bissonette, a research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and a professor at Utah State University, Logan, is principal investigator for NCHRP Project 25-27, and Hedges is senior program officer, TRB.
Results
During the 2005 field season, carnivores made a total of 56 approaches to the two pilot underpasses; 43 of the approaches were by bears (24 black bears and 19 grizzly bears). Bears turned around or avoided the underpasses less than 10 percent of the time—two of the black bears and one of the grizzly bears approached but did not enter.
The success rate for hair capture was high for both bear species; more than 90 percent of the time, bears passing through the underpasses left hair—the grizzly bears left hair on 94 percent of their crossings. For both bear species, 81 percent of the hair samples yielded sufficient DNA for genetic profiling. Nine different bears used the two underpasses during the 3 1 / 2month period in 2005: five grizzly bears (three females, two males) and four black bears (two females and two males).
Effectiveness of Structures
Following the success of the hair-snagging experiment, a three-year doctoral study at Montana State University was launched in 2006 to assess the population-level benefits of the Banff crossings. This requires collecting DNA from animals using the crossings to ascertain which individuals are contributing to gene flow and interchange between the populations separated by the TCH.
The DNA data from hair samples of animals using the crossing structures will be compared with DNA data from a broader segment of the population, to provide a scientifically rigorous assessment of the conservation benefits of the Banff wildlife crossings. The results will help evaluate the effectiveness of the wildlife crossing structures in promoting genetic and demographic connectivity.
In addition, performance monitoring continues at all 24 wildlife crossing structures in Banff. The results will provide measurable data on the value of the different crossing structures in maintaining or restoring wildlife populations. The Banff research results have guided the design and location of 17 new crossings to be built in the latest phase of the TCH twinning proj ect near Lake Louise—a prime example of yet-evolving science applied to inform transportation management planning. This experience and expertise should help raise international awareness and prove valuable for other regions worldwide.
Outreach and Education
The Banff Wildlife Crossings Project is sharing scientific findings through a mix of venues to inform the general public, students, and transportation professionals about the effectiveness of the 22 underpasses and 2 overpasses. The research has led to the following:
Seventeen peer-reviewed scientific journal arti-
cles;
Four graduate theses on the effects of the TCH on natural resources in Banff National Park;
Two workshops for transportation professionals on mitigating the effects of highways on wildlife;
The cover photograph on the fourth edition of Essentials of Conservation Biology, a popular college textbook by Richard B. Primack, published by Sinauer Associates;
Field trips throughout the year for professionals and other interested individuals;
A full-color poster produced as an outreach to kindergarten through high school classes;
An exhibit at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies from May to October 2006, which informed more than 19,000 park visitors from around the world; and
Extensive media coverage—television, radio, and print—with stories appearing in the New York Times, on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and in many other media outlets across North America.
Public–Private Partnership
Since 2005, the research, outreach, communications, and funding of the Banff Wildlife Crossing Project have been the result of a public–private partnership: a federal agency, a university transportation center, a nonprofit organization, and three North American conservation-based foundations. The partners include Parks Canada; the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University; Friends of Banff National Park; and the Henry P. Kendall, Woodcock, and Wilburforce Foundations.
For more information on the research or the proj ect, contact:
Tony Clevenger, Research Scientist, WTI; 403760-1371; email@example.com;
Rob Ament, Road Ecology Program Manager, WTI; 406-994-6423; firstname.lastname@example.org; or
www.coe.montana.edu/wti.
A wolf pack with pups, photographed by a remote-sensing research camera, traverses a wildlife overpass along the Trans-Canada Highway.
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Journal of
Environmental Protection, 2013, 4, 8-13
Published Online December 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/jep)
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jep.2013.412A2002
Concentration of Fluoride and Arsenic in Bottled Drinking Water in Durango City, Mexico
María Adriana Martínez-Prado 1* , María Elena Pérez-López 2 , María Guadalupe Vicencio-de la Rosa 2 , Cecilia Corazón González-Nevarez 1
1 Chemical Engineering Department, Technological Institute of Durango (ITD), Durango, Mexico; 2 National Polytechnic Institute Interdisciplinary Research Center for Regional Integral Development at Durango (IPN-CIIDIR-DGO), Durango, Mexico. *
Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Received October 2 nd , 2013; revised November 1 st , 2013; accepted November 26 th , 2013
Copyright © 2013 María Adriana Martínez-Prado et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In accordance of the Creative Commons Attribution License all Copyrights © 2013 are reserved for SCIRP and the owner of the intellectual property María Adriana Martínez-Prado et al. All Copyright © 2013 are guarded by law and by SCIRP as a guardian.
ABSTRACT
Arsenic and fluoride are elements known to cause human health problems and it has been documented that both elements are found in high concentrations in the Guadiana Valley aquifer, in the state of Durango, Mexico. Since underground water is the source for potable water bottling companies commercialized in Durango City; such high concentrations reduced the quality of bottled water for human consumption according to NOM-041-SSA1-1993. Legislation establishes a maximum permissible limit (MPL) of 0.7 mg/L for fluoride and 0.025 mg/L for arsenic. In this research the main objective was to evaluate the quality of bottled water expended in Durango City with respect to the well from which water is extracted. Findings showed that the highest fluoride concentration was 5.86 mg/L (8.4 times MPL), with 100% of sampled brands exceeding the MPL (range: 1.09 to 5.86 mg/L). On the other hand, for arsenic, the highest concentration was 0.076 mg/L (threefold), with 38% exceeding the MPL (range: 0.001 to 0.076 ppm). Statistical analysis showed significant differences only for fluoride, according to Fisher LSD (Least Significant Difference) test, with an F value of 14.5 at a p value of 0.0005. According to the comparison between the quantified concentrations in bottled water and groundwater, it was found that groundwater was subjected to treatment; however, although a significant decrease in fluoride and arsenic concentration was observed, the removal processes used were not efficient to meet set standards.
Keywords: Arsenic; Bottled Water Quality; Fluoride; Guadiana Valley Aquifer; Groundwater
1. Introduction
Durango state is located in Northwest Mexico (Coordinates: 24˚56'05"N 104˚54'43"W) and it stands at an altitude of 1880 m. Durango City, with a population of 582,267 (2010), is the capital of Durango State and is located in the Guadiana Valley, in the southern central area of the state. Durango City is supplied with potable water from exploitation of Guadiana Valley aquifer through 1097 wells with an extraction volume of 148.31 × 10 6 m 3 /year; National Water Commission in Durango reports that 100% of water demand is covered with groundwater [1,2].
The Guadiana Valley aquifer is currently classified as
*Corresponding author.
overexploited and fluoride and arsenic are present at much higher concentrations than the maximum permissible limits (MPL) established in NOM-127-SSA1-1994 [3]; however, their presence is mainly attributed to the strata geological composition [4-7].
Potable water bottling companies that are commercialized in the city extract water from groundwater wells, treat it before bottling, and must meet standards established by NOM-041-SSA1-1993 [8].
Maximum permissible limits (MPL) set by Mexican law varies depending on its use; NOM-127-SSA1-1994 [3] applies for groundwater (0.025 and 1.5 mg/L, for arsenic and fluoride, respectively), whereas NOM-041SSA1-1993 [8] applies for bottled water (0.025 and 0.7 mg/L, for arsenic and fluoride, respectively). On the other
hand, the World Health Organization (WHO) established 0.01 mg/L (or parts per million, ppm) for arsenic and 0.7 mg/L for fluoride in water for human use and consumption, based on the fact that both of them could pose health damage. Research has been conducted about health problems caused by arsenic and fluoride; such as bones, skin and teeth damage from high fluoride exposure and cancer in some cases for arsenic [4,6,9-20].
The objective of this research was to evaluate the quality of bottled drinking water with respect to groundwater wells of Durango City, based on arsenic and fluoride concentration.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Mapping and Sampling of Water Bottling Companies
All water bottling companies of Durango City were inventoried, listed assigning sequential numbers instead of brand names (confidential status), categorized by sectors (North, South, West, and East), and located in a map using AutoCAD ® . Samples of all companies were collected twice with a time difference of six weeks. Sampling and preservation were performed according to the Standard Methods of Analysis; flasks were washed and rinsed with distilled water, for fluoride analysis; and for arsenic, flasks were washed with a 20% by volume nitric acid and hydrochloric acid solution plus the addition of concentrated nitric acid to reduce pH < 2.0 for preservation [6,8,21].
2.2. Fluoride and Arsenic Analysis
Arsenic analysis was quantified with graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy (GFAAS) established by standard methods [21]; whereas fluoride was determined using SPADNS spectrophotometric method [22].
2.3. Statistical Analysis
The differences between wells and companies, with respect to fluoride and arsenic content, and sectors (North, West, South, and East) were validated with a two-factor ANOVA (wells and companies); and with the LSD (Least Significant Differnce) Fisher test [6,7], to establish if the wells and companies had different contents or the same, all at an α = 0.05 using the Statistica software version 7 ® [23].
3. Results and Discussion
Thirty water bottling companies established in Durango City were inventoried; however, 6 run out of business, then only twenty-four were sampled twice: North (4), South (5), East (7), and West (8) [6].
3.1. Quantification of Fluoride and Arsenic
Calibration curves were developed for arsenic and fluoride. Concentration values were averaged with data gathered of the two samplings, by company and by sector. Results were evaluated comparing them to the maximum permissible limits (MPL) in drinking water according to the Mexican regulation (0.7 and 0.025 ppm, for fluoride and arsenic, respectively).
3.2. Quality of Bottled Drinking Water
The consumption of purified bottled water is a very common practice nowadays everywhere. In Durango City, many consumers buy bottled potable water because quality of water provided by municipal services is not trusted. In most cases companies offer containers of 20 liters (refillable) and only a minority offers bottles of less than or equal to 1 liter (non- refillable).
Results showed that the overall average concentration for fluoride was 2.67 mg/L with a range from 1.12 to 5.15 ppm. According to geographical location, it was found that the western sector (Figure 1) presented a greater incidence of fluoride, with an average of 3.29 ppm exceeding the MPL of 0.7 ppm by almost fivefold. None of the average values in all four sectors were below the MPL, implying that 100% of the samples analyzed did not meet quality issues according to NOM-041SSA1-1993 with respect to the fluoride concentration. However, it is important to mention that fluoride concentration in bottled drinking water was statistically different from groundwater wells concentration; efficiency ranged from 20% to 70% by its decrease in concentration and from 75% to 87% with respect to the MPL (0.7 ppm), concentration was reduced in all cases except for one company (Table 1). Figure 1 shows average concentraTable 1. Fluoride and arsenic concentration in water bottling companies and well from which water is extracted.
N = North; S = South; W = West; E = East; MPL for Fluoride = 0.7 mg/L; MPL for Arsenic = 0.025 mg/L; **** Private well, not sampled.
tions by sector and Table 1 resumes concentrations for all water bottling companies and groundwater city wells.
For arsenic, the concentration ranged from detection limit (0.001) to 0.076 ppm; the overall average concentration was 0.0256 and the highest value found in bottled water in the city was 0.076 ppm (eastern sector) 3 times the MPL. The resulting average concentrations by sector were slightly (6% to 13%) above the MPL (0.025 mg/L) for North, West and East sector and below MPL for South sector, and only 38% of the companies exceeded the MPL, see Table 1 and Figure 2 for results. As already mentioned, for arsenic, concentration in bottled drinking water was much lower than groundwater well; efficiency ranged from 14% to 97% by the reduction in its concentration and from 4% to 65% with respect to the MPL (0.025 ppm), concentrations in 5 companies were higher than groundwater well. If WHO standard (0.01 ppm) were considered, then 59% of the companies would not meet the MPL. In order to support information, random samples were sent for analysis to a certified laboratory and results were comparable to the ones obtained in this research.
3.3. Isoconcentration Maps
Surfer ® software was used to elaborate isoconcentration maps with lines of equal concentration. It helps visualize the behavior of the concentration of fluoride and arsenic, of wells from which water is extracted by bottling companies. Figure 3 shows an isoconcentration map for fluoride in groundwater wells and location of companies. No isoconcentración map for arsenic is included because there were no significant differences between sectors, water bottling companies, and groundwater wells.
3.4. Statistical Analysis: Water Quality Based on Fluoride and Arsenic Concentration
Data of fluoride and arsenic concentrations gathered in this research was subjected to a statistical evaluation [6, 7] and was compared to concentration in Durango City groundwater wells, from which water is extracted prior to treatment and bottling process [4,7].
The ANOVA analysis showed significant differences for fluoride concentrations among bottling water companies (C) and groundwater wells (GW) with an F value of 14.5 at a p value of 0.0005; the mean fluoride concentration in GW was 4.1 mg/L versus 2.7 mg/L for C; however, MPL was not met in any case. On the other hand, for arsenic, there were no significant differences between bottled water and groundwater wells. Figure 4 shows the
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content. Water source for water bottling companies established in Durango City comes from underground of Guadiana Valley aquifer. This aquifer is classified as overexploited and with high content of fluoride and arsenic due to its strata geological composition. All companies that commercialized bottled water in Durango City were tested to quantify fluoride and arsenic concentrations and compared to those concentrations present in groundwater wells.
Figure 4. Fisher LSD test. Statistical analysis for fluoride concentration in water bottling companies versus groundwater wells, in Durango City, Mexico, from which water is extracted prior to treatment. Same letters meaning no differences between groups (α = 0.05).
results for the statistical analysis for fluoride; which refers to the significant differences for fluoride concentration by sector (N, S, W and E) and source (C and GW) according to Fisher LSD (Least Significant Difference) test. Fisher's LSD is one of the existing methods for comparing treatment group means after the ANOVA null hypothesis of equal means has been rejected using the ANOVA F-test. Same letters equals to no differences between groups (α = 0.05).
4. Conclusions
Results gathered in this research revealed deficiency in treatment, low removal efficiency and bad quality of potable bottled water, with respect to fluoride and arsenic
For fluoride, 100% of the bottled water companies presented lower fluoride concentration compared to the groundwater wells. Comparing one of the cases, the well with the highest content had 5.46 ppm, whereas the concentration of bottled water extracted from the same well was 1.66 ppm. Efficiency ranged from 20% to 70% (decrease in concentration) and 75% to 87% with respect to the MPL (0.7 ppm); only one company presented a higher concentration than the source, however, none of them met the MPL established (0.7 ppm).
For arsenic, 68% of the companies had a lower arsenic concentration compared to the underground water. In this case, the well with the highest arsenic concentration had 0.072 ppm and the concentration found in the samples of the water bottling company, extracted from the same well, was 0.034 ppm. When determining efficiency, based on reduction in its concentration, range was from 14% to 97% and with respect to the MPL (0.025 ppm) ranged from 4% to 65%. Fifteen companies (62.5%) met MPL; nine (37.5%) did not meet MPL, where seven of them (26%) presented a higher concentration than the source.
It is very clear that not all removal treatments used by water bottling companies were effective. In the case of fluoride, even though concentrations decreased substantially, none of the companies met the MPL. For arsenic removal treatments, 62.5% of the removal treatments used achieved the MPL.
Statistical analysis showed significant differences only for fluoride, according to Fisher LSD test, with an F value of 14.5 at a p value of 0.0005.
It is important to point out that the regulatory Agency of Water Resources, in Durango City, has made several attempts to solve this problem, to promote decrease concentration of fluoride and arsenic. Resources were allocated to the acquisition of small treatment plants for the removal of these compounds and were assigned to high concentration areas, without success due to lack of training in the handling of equipment and appropriately following the former proposal. A high percentage of the wells did not comply with standards representing latent health risk for adverse effects conferred by fluoride and arsenic. Action must be taken because chronic or acute health problems will manifest in the short or medium term, which represents high spending in the health sector.
5. Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the municipal government, Water Municipal Agency (AMD, Spanish acronym) Technological Institute of Durango (ITD, Spanish acronym), and National Polytechnic Institute—Interdisciplinary Research Center for the Local Integral Research, at Durango (IPN-CIIDIR-DGO, Spanish acronym). Masters Scholarship awarded by the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACyT, Spanish Acronym).
REFERENCES
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[2] Secretariat of Natural Resources and Environment, Government of the State of Durango, "Environmental and Ecological Management of Durango State and Annex of Ecological Management Model," 2009. SRNyMA, Secretaría de Recursos Naturales y Medio Ambiente, Gobierno del Estado de Durango, "Ordenamiento Ecológico del Estado de Durango y Anexo Modelo de Ordenamiento Ecológico," 2009. http://www.semarnat.gob.mx/temas/ordenamientoecologi co/Paginas/ODecretados.aspx
[3] Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources, "Modification to the NOM-127-SSA1-1994. Environmental Health. Water for Use and Human Consumption. Quality Permissible Limits and Treatments for Water Potabilization," Official Journal Federation, 2000. SEMARNAT, Secretariat de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, "Modificación a la Norma Oficial Mexicana NOM-127-SSA11994. Salud Ambiental. Agua para Uso y Consumo Humano. Límites Permisibles de Calidad y Tratamientos a que Debe Someterse el Agua para su Potabilización," Diario Oficial de la Federación, 22 de Noviembre del 2000.
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[4] I. Flores-Montenegro, "Evaluation of Fluoride and Arsenic Concentration in Guadiana Valley Drinking Water and Removal Alternatives," M.Sc. Thesis, Technological Institute of Durango, Durango, 1998. "Evaluación de las Concentraciones de Flúor y Arsénico en el Agua Potable del Valle del Guadiana y Alternativas de Remoción," Tesis de Maestría, Instituto Tecnológico de Durango, México,1998.
[5] National Water Commission, General Technical Groundwater Management, "Determination of Water Availability in the Guadiana Valley Aquifer, State of Durango," 2002. CNA, Comisión Nacional del Agua. Subdirección General Técnica Gerencia de Aguas Subterráneas, "Determinación de la Disponibilidad de Agua en el Acuífero Valle del Guadiana, Estado de Durango," 30 de Abril del 2002. ftp://ftp.conagua.gob.mx/SISI1610100117809/DR_1003- guadiana.pdf
[6] C. C. González-Nevarez, "Concentration Change of Arsenic and Fluoride in the Guadiana Valley Aquifer and Its Relationship to Static Level," M.Sc. Thesis, Technological Institute of Durango, Durango, 2007. "Cambio de la Concentración de Arsénico y Flúor, en el Acuífero Valle del Guadiana, y su Relación con el Nivel Estático," Tesis de Maestría, Instituto Tecnológico de Durango, México, 2007.
[7] M. A. Martínez-Prado, M. E. Pérez-López, I. VillanuevaFierro and C. C. González-Nevarez, "Behavior of Arsenic and Fluoride Concentration in Guadiana Valley Aquifer of Durango, Mexico," Journal of Environmental Protection Vol. 4, No. 12, 2013. Special Issue on Groundwater Pollution, in Press.
[8] Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources, "NOM041-SSA1-1993. Bottled Purified Water. Sanitary Specifications," Official Journal Federation, 1995. SEMARNAT, Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, "Norma Oficial Mexicana NOM-041-SSA1-1993. Bienes y Servicios. Agua Purificada Envasada. Especificaciones Sanitarias," Diario Oficial de la Federación: 13 de Marzo de 1995. http://126.96.36.199/work/normas/noms/kpronoman/p04 1ssa1.pdf
[9] L. M. Del Razo, M. A. Arellano and M. E. Cebrián, "The Oxidation Status of Arsenic in Well Water from a Chronic Arsenicism Area of Northern Mexico," Environmental Pollution, Vol. 64, No. 2, 1990, pp. 143-153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0269-7491(90)90111-O
[10] G. A. Wasserman, et al., "Water Arsenic Exposure and Children's Intellectual Function in Araihazar, Bangladesh," Environmental Health Perspective, Vol. 112, No. 13, 2004, pp. 1329-1333. http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.6964
[11] A. Albores, M. E. Cebrian, I. Tellez and B. Valdez, "Comparative Study of Chronic Hydroarsenicism in Two Rural Communities in the Region Lagunera of Mexico," Boletín de la Oficina Sanitaria Panamericana, Vol. 86, No. 3, 1979, pp. 196-205.
[12] ATSDR, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, "Toxicological Profile for Arsenic (Update)," US Department of Health and Human Services, Washington
DC, 2007. http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp2.pdf
[13] E. Astolfi, A. Maccagno, J. C. García, R. Vaccaro and R. Stímola, "Relation between Arsenic in Drinking Water and Skin Cancer," Biological Trace Element Research Vol. 3, No. 2, 1981, pp. 133-143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02990453
[14] M. E. Cebrian, A. Albores, M. Aguilar and E. Blakely, "Chronic Arsenic Poisoning in the North of Mexico," Human Toxicology, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1983, pp. 121-133. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/096032718300200110
[15] A. H. Smith, E. O. Lingas and M. Rahman, "Contamination of Drinking Water by Arsenic in Bangladesh: A Public Health Emergency," Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Vol. 78, No. 9, 2000, pp. 1093-1103.
[16] M. T. Alarcón-Herrera, A. Martín Domínguez and I. R. Martín Domínguez, "Fluoride Concentration in Drinking Water: Its Relationship to Dental Fluorosis," Proceedings of the 28th Inter-American Conference of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, Cancun, 27-31 October 2002, pp. 1-5. "Concentración de Flúor en el Agua Potable: Su Relación con la Fluorosis Dental," Memorias del XXVIII Congreso Interamericano de Ingeniería Sanitaria y Ambiental, Cancún, México, 27-31 Octubre 2002, pp. 1-5.
[17] S. Rivera, S. Godorecci, L. Orgel, E. Diaz, T. Fichs and M. I. Martin, "Fluorine: Potential Adverse Effects," The Revista Chilena de Pediatría, Vol. 64, No. 4, 1993, pp. 279-283. "Flúor: Potenciales Efectos Adversos". http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0370-41061993000400007
[18] ATSDR, Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry, "Toxicological Profile for Fluorides, Hydrogen Fluoride, and Fluorine," US Department of Health and Human Services, Washington DC, 2003. http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp11.pdf
[19] L. E. Landin-Rodriguez, "Physicochemical Parameters and Concentration of Fluoride and Arsenic in Water from
Wells in the City of San Luis Potosi and Conurbated Area. Alternative Treatment: Fluoride and Arsenic Adsorption on Al2O3 Activated Interphase/Aqueous Solution," M.Sc. Thesis, San Luis Potosi University, San Luis Potosi, 2006. "Parámetros Fisicoquímicos y Concentración de Flúor y Arsénico en el agua de los Pozos de la ciudad de San Luis Potosí y Zona Conurbada. Alternativa de Tratamiento: Adsorción de Flúor y Arsénico en la Interfase Al2O3 Activada/Solución Acuosa," Tesis de Maestría, Universidad de San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, 2006.
[20] M. Bocanegra-Salazar, "Health Risk Assessment for Exposure to Fluoride and Arsenic in Well Water for Consumption in High, Media, and Center Plateau Areas in the State of San Luis Potosi," M.Sc. Thesis, San Luis Potosi University, San Luis Potosi, 2006. "Evaluación de Riesgo en Salud por la Exposición a Fluoruro y Arsénico en Agua de Pozo para Consumo de las Zonas Altiplano, Centro y Media del Estado de San Luis Potosí," Tesis de Maestría, Universidad de San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, 2006.
[21] APHA, "Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater," 21st Edition, American Public Health Association, Washington DC, EUA, 2005.
[22] Secretariat of Economy, "NOM-AA-077-SCFI-2001. Water Analysis—Determination of Fluoride in Natural, Sewage and Treated Waste (Cancels: NMX-AA-077-1982)," 2001. SE, Secretaría de Economía, "NOM-AA-077-SCFI-2001. Análisis de Aguas—Determinación de Fluoruros en Aguas Naturales, Residuales y Residuales Tratadas (Cancela NMXAA-077-1982)," 2001. http://www.imta.gob.mx/cotennser/index.php?option=co m_content&view=article&id=94&Itemid=84
[23] Statistica, "Data Analysis Software System," Version 7 ® StatSoft, Inc., Tulsa, 2004.
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON
SHAWN HUSS, a single man, and others similarly situated,
No. CV-05-180-FVS
Plaintiff, v.
SPOKANE COUNTY, a municipal corporation,
Defendant.
THIS MATTER came before the Court for a hearing on the Defendant's Motion for Reconsideration, Ct. Rec. 80, and the Intervener Defendant's Motion for Reconsideration, Ct. Rec. 77. The Plaintiff was represented by Breean L. Beggs and John D. Sklut. Spokane County was represented by Frank J. Conklin and James K. Kaufman. The State of Washington was represented by Timothy D. Ford.
BACKGROUND
The Plaintiff, Shawn Huss, brings suit individually and on behalf of a class of others similarly situated, under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1988, seeking both monetary damages and declaratory and injunctive relief. The Plaintiff alleges that the official booking fee policy of the Spokane County Jail ("the Jail") and RCW § 70.48.390 are facially unconstitutional because they deprive persons of their property without due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of
ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION- 1
ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION
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the United States Constitution.
The parties filed cross motions for summary judgment. On August 29, 2006, the Court issued an Order holding that RCW § 70.48.390 is facially unconstitutional. The Court accordingly granted the Plaintiff's Motion For Partial Summary Judgment and denied the Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Ct. Rec. 75). The County and State each separately moved for reconsideration.
DISCUSSION
I. LEGAL STANDARD
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e), a party may move to amend a judgment within ten days of the filing of the judgment. Fed. R. Civ. P. 59(e). However, such a motion for reconsideration "offers an 'extraordinary remedy, to be used sparingly in the interests of finality and conservation of judicial resources.'" Carroll v. Nakatani, 342 F.3d 934, 945 (9th Cir. 2003)(quoting 12 James Wm. Moore et al., Moore's Federal Practice § 59.30 (3d ed. 2000)). "A Rule 59(e) motion may not be used to raise arguments or present evidence for the first time when they could reasonably have been raised earlier in the litigation." Carroll, 342 F.3d at 945; Kona Enters. v. Estate of Bishop, 229 F.3d 877, 890 (9th Cir. 2000). "Nor is reconsideration to be used to ask the Court to rethink what it has already thought." Motorola, Inc. v. J.B. Rodgers Mech. Contrs., Inc., 215 F.R.D. 581, 582 (D. Ariz. 2003). See also Taylor v. Knapp, 871 F.2d 803, 805 (9th Cir. 1988)(holding denial of a motion for reconsideration proper where "it presented no arguments that had not already been raised in opposition to summary judgment"); Backlund v. Barnhart, 778 F.2d 1386,
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1388 (9th Cir. 1985)(same). Absent exceptional circumstances, only three types of arguments provide an appropriate basis for a motion for reconsideration: arguments based on newly discovered evidence, arguments that the court has committed clear error, and arguments based on "an intervening change in the controlling law." 89 Orange St. Partners v. Arnold, 179 F.3d 656, 665 (9th Cir. 1999).
II. STANDING
As a jurisdictional issue, standing may be raised at any point in the litigation. DBSI/TRI IV Ltd. P'ship v. United States, 465 F.3d 1031, 1038 (9th Cir. 2006). The Court accordingly considers the Defendant's standing concerns free of the procedural constraints associated with a motion for reconsideration.
A party has standing to bring a claim when he or she has suffered an actual injury, the defendant's conduct caused the injury, and action by the court is capable of redressing the injury. Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 2136, 119 L. Ed. 2d 351, 364 (1992). There is a presumption that an individual only has standing to bring claims based on injuries he or she has suffered personally, rather than injuries suffered by a third party. Singleton v. Wulff, 428 U.S. 106, 113, 96 S.Ct. 2868, 2873-2874, 49 L. Ed. 2d 826, 832-33 (1976). Where an individual seeks to represent a class of individuals, the proposed class representative must have standing in his or her own right. Armstrong v. Davis, 275 F.3d 849, 860 (9th Cir. 2001); Blum v. Yarestsky, 457 U.S. 991, 102 S. Ct. 2777, 73 L. Ed. 2d 534 (1982).
A plaintiff seeking declaratory or injunctive relief must
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 demonstrate that he or she is under a realistic threat of future injury. City of Los Angeles v. Lyons, 461 U.S. 95, 102-103, 103 S. Ct. 1660, 1665, 75 L. Ed. 2d 675, 684-685 (1983); Jones v. City of L.A., 444 F.3d 1118, 1126 (9th Cir. 2006). While the fact that the plaintiff has suffered injury in the past may make the repetition of the injury more likely, it does not in itself create a threat of future harm sufficient to confer standing. Armstrong, 275 F.3d at 861; Fortyune v. Am. Multi-Cinema, Inc., 364 F.3d 1075, 1081 (9th Cir. 2004).
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 A past injury is likely to recur when "the harm alleged is directly traceable to a written policy." Armstrong, 275 at 861; Fortyune, 364 F.3d at 1081. An injury is also likely to recur when it is a part of an officially sanctioned pattern of behavior. Armstrong, 275 at 861. However, a plaintiff seeking to challenge an unconstitutional policy must show "a genuine threat of enforcement" of the policy against the plaintiff. Scott v. Pasadena Unified School District, 306 F.3d 646, 656 (9th Cir. 2002). Moreover, "standing is inappropriate where the future injury could be inflicted only in the event of future illegal conduct by the plaintiff." Armstrong, 275 F.3d at 865-66 (internal citations omitted).
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The Court finds that the Plaintiff does not have standing to seek declaratory or injunctive relief. As the Plaintiff explained at oral argument, the assessment of booking fees without any prior hearing is imminently likely to recur due to the existence of both the statute and the County's written policy. However, the Plaintiff has not demonstrated that he, personally, is likely to be arrested and
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assessed the booking fee again. While he could arguably be arrested and assessed the booking fee at anytime, such a speculative injury is insufficient to confer standing. Lyons, 461 U.S. at 105-06, 103 S. Ct. at 1667, 75 L. Ed. 2d at 687. In order to demonstrate standing, the Plaintiff would need to show that he is at least "reasonably likely" to be arrested again. Jones v. City of L.A., 444 F.3d 1118, 1126-27 (9th Cir. 2006). The Plaintiff has not made this argument.
In addition, the Plaintiff would likely only suffer the booking fee again if he were to engage in illegal activity. In Armstrong, the Ninth Circuit held that parolees had standing to challenge discriminatory parole hearing procedures because,
The [parole] Board is not required to establish probable cause to begin the parole revocation process, nor is it necessary that any law enforcement officer observe the alleged violation: the Board may start parole revocation proceedings when a rather low level of suspicion arises as the result of 'some minimal inquiry' into the facts of the case.
275 F.3d at 866. In contrast, the Plaintiff may only be arrested again if law enforcement officers have probable cause to believe that he has committed a crime. The Plaintiff will thus only suffer an injury again if he commits an illegal act. This potential injury is insufficient to confer standing.
III. MOOTNESS
Under Article III of the United States Constitution, a federal court may only hear a cause of action that presents a live case or controversy. When a case "loses its character as a live case or controversy," it becomes moot. Pit River Tribe v. United States Forest Serv., 469 F.3d 768, 780 (9th Cir. 2006). "The burden of
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demonstrating mootness is a heavy one." Cantrell v. City of Long Beach, 241 F.3d 674, 678 (9th Cir. 2001). Mootness, like standing, goes to this Court's jurisdiction to hear the Plaintiff's claims. DBSI/TRI, 465 F.3d at 1038. The Court must therefore consider it on a motion for reconsideration.
The County argues that the Plaintiff's claim against the County is moot for two reasons. First, the Plaintiff received a refund of the booking fee he was obliged to pay. Second, the County has changed its policy concerning booking fees since the time of the Plaintiff's arrest.
The Court holds that the Plaintiff's case is not moot. As the Supreme Court has explained, the doctrine of mootness requires "the plaintiff 'must have suffered, or be threatened with, an actual injury traceable to the defendant and likely to be redressed by a favorable judicial decision.'" Burnett v. Lampert , 432 F.3d 996, 999 (9th Cir. 2005) (quoting Spencer v. Kemna , 523 U.S. 1, 7, 118 S. Ct. 978, 140 L. Ed. 2d 43 (1998)). Here, the injury the Plaintiff suffered was not the permanent loss of his property, but rather the "right to use and possess [his] money from the time of booking until such time as [he was] exonerated." This loss has not been rendered moot by the refund. case moot. As the Plaintiff's counsel explained at oral argument, the
Nor does the County's revision of its booking policy render the County's policy still permits assessment of the booking fee without a hearing.
CONCLUSION
The Plaintiff lacks standing to bring a facial challenge against
the constitutionality of RCW § 70.48.390 and the Jail's booking fee policy because he has failed to demonstrate that he is threatened with future injury. While the Plaintiff may continue to pursue his claim for damages, his requests for declaratory and injunctive relief must be dismissed. The Court's prior order granting summary judgment will be withdrawn and the State's motion for reconsideration is moot.
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 The Plaintiff's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment sought summary judgment on the issue of liability. (Ct. Rec. 27 at 1.) However, the briefing on this motion almost exclusively addressed the Plaintiff's facial challenge to the constitutionality of RCW § 70.48.390 and the Jail's booking fee policy. Neither party has fully briefed the issue of whether the application of RCW § 70.48.390 and the Jail's booking policy to the Plaintiff, and, potentially, other similarly situated individuals, violated their civil rights.
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Supplemental briefing is therefore necessary. Accordingly,
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IT IS HEREBY ORDERED:
17 18 1. The Defendant's Motion for Reconsideration, Ct. Rec. 80, is GRANTED.
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2. The Defendant Intervener's Motion for Reconsideration, Ct. Rec. 77, is DENIED AS MOOT.
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3. The Defendant's Motion to Stay Further Discovery Until Reconsideration Motion is Determined, Ct. Rec. 107, is DENIED AS MOOT.
4. The Court's prior Order Granting Plaintiff's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, Ct. Rec. 75, is WITHDRAWN.
5. The Plaintiff's claims for declaratory and injunctive relief are DISMISSED.
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6. The Plaintiff shall submit a supplemental brief, not to exceed fifteen (15) pages in length, no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 14, 2007, addressing the question: "Is partial summary judgment appropriate on any element of the Plaintiff's suit for damages under 28 U.S.C. § 1983?"
7. The Defendant shall file its response to the supplemental briefing, not to exceed fifteen (15) pages in length, no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 29, 2007.
8. The Plaintiff shall file his reply, not to exceed fifteen (15) pages in length, no later than 5:00 p.m. on June 5, 2007.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
The District Court Executive is hereby directed to enter this order and furnish copies to counsel.
DATEDthis 13th day of April, 2007.
s/ Fred Van Sickle
Fred Van Sickle
United States District Judge
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ISSUES AS ELEMENTS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Werner Kunz* and Horst W. J. Rittel**
Working Paper No. 131 July 1970 Reprinted May 1979
* Studiengruppe für Systemforschung, Heidelberg, Germany
** Professor of the Science of Design, University of California, Berkeley
We wish to thank Messrs. H. Dehlinger, T. Mann, J. J. Protzen, and Miss G. Mattel, whose exploratory work has contributed significantly to the results outlined in this paper.
ISSUES AS ELEMENTS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Abstract
Issue-Based Information Systems (IBIS) are meant to support coordination and planning of political decision processes. IBIS guides the identification, structuring, and settling of issues raised by problem-solving groups, and provides information pertinent to the discourse. It is linked to conventional documentation systems but also activates other sources. Elements of the system are topics, issues, questions of fact, positions, arguments, and model problems. The logic of issues, the subsystems of IBIS, and their rules of operation are outlined. Three manually operated versions of IBIS are in experimental operation by governmental agencies; computerization of system operations is in preparation.
Argumentative Processes
1. This paper introduces a type of information system meant to support the work of cooperatives like governmental or administrative agencies or committees, planning groups, etc., that are confronted with a problem complex in order to arrive at a plan for decision. The concept of these Issue-Based Information Systems (IBIS) rests on a model of problem solving by cooperatives as an argumentative process.
2. An initially unstructured problem area or topic denotes the task named by a "trigger phrase" ("Urban Renewal in Baltimore," "The War," "Tax Reform"). About this topic and its subtopics a discourse develops. Issues are brought up and disputed because different positions are assumed. Arguments are constructed in defense of or against the different positions until the issue is settled by convincing the opponents or decided by a formal decision procedure. Frequently questions of fact are directed to experts or fed into a documentation system. Answers obtained can be questioned and turned into issues. Through this counterplay of questioning and arguing, the participants form and exert their judgments incessantly, developing more structured pictures of the problem and its solutions. It is not possible to separate "understanding the problem" as a phase from "information" or "solution" since every formulation of the problem is also a statement about a potential solution.
3. Four categories of information exchange occur during this process:
* between the participants (opinions, expertise, reference to previous questions and decisions, similar questions, etc.);
* with the experts about specific questions;
* information from documentation systems (for literature support of a position, for factual reference, etc.);
* in the case of dependent cooperatives: with the client or decision maker (directives, quest for decisions, reports, etc.).
IBIS is designed to support, to document, and to coordinate these information processes.
4. There are various reasons for the design and implementation of IBIS-type systems. First, there is a "missing link" between the organization of conventional documentation systems and the structure of the discourse in such cooperatives. To many questions arising descriptor strings selected from a thesaurus cannot be adequately designed. Thus, the issue "Shall we legalize private manpower banks?" is not sufficiently represented by the descriptors "Legalization," "Manpower Banks," "Private." Depending on the participants' image of the problem, the relevant context may become the associative neighborhood of "Equal Opportunity," "Private Eyes," "Exploitation of the Needy," "Systematic Unemployment," etc. A very precise picture of the state of discourse must be conveyed to the documentation system incessantly. Second, the description of the subject matter in terms of librarians or documentalists may be less significant than the similarity of an issue with issues dealt with previously and the information used in their treatment. Third, the discourse developing is notoriously centering around concepts expressed by ad hoc vocabulary which is rapidly changing, defying thesaurization. Many central terms used are proper names for long stories specific of the particular situation, with their meaning depending very sensitively on the context in which they are used.
Another reason is the desire for a more transparent working procedure for such cooperatives. IBIS ought to stimulate a more scrutinized style of reasoning which more explicitly reveals the
arguments. It should help to identify the proper questions, to develop the scope of positions in response to them, and assist in generating dispute. The role of external experts also deserves clarification. Precise questions should be directed to them which have their welldefined place within the problem-solving process. IBIS is also a documentation and reporting system which permits fast and reliable information on the state of discourse at any time.
The Logic of Issues
5. Issues are the organizational "atoms" of IBIS-type systems. Among their properties are these:
* Issues have the form of questions.
* The origins of issues are controversial statements.
* Issues are specific to particular situations; positions are developed by utilizing particular information from the problem environment and from other cases claimed to be similar.
* Issues are raised, argued, settled, "dodged," or substituted.
6. There are several kinds of relationships between issues, forming networks between the items of the "issue bank" which can be used to aid the search for similar issues, the history of an issue, the consequences of previous decisions, etc.:
* Issue I2 is a direct successor of issue I1: I2 challenges a statement made in support of one of the positions maintained in view of I1.
* Issue I2 is a generalization of I1.
* I2 is a relevant analogy to I1: the arguments used in I2 are transferred into arguments regarding I1, mutatis mutandis.
* Positions taken in response to I1 can be compatible, consistent, or incompatible with a position assumed in response to I2 (by the same or another proponent).
7. With regard to content, the following types of issues can be distinguished:
* factual issues: "Is X the case?"
* deontic issues: "Shall X become the case?"
* explanatory issues: "Is X the reason for Y?"
* instrumental issues: "Is X the appropriate means to accomplish Y in this situation?"
To each issue a logically closed set of possible positions or an open list of possible positions may be assigned.
8. Other elements of the system are these.
* Topics as introduced above serve as a crude organization principle for denoting the foci of concern.
* Questions of fact (F-questions) request information which is not assumed to be controversial. Doubting the credibility of an answer leads to an issue.
* Model problems are not specific to a particular situation. They correspond to scientific or managerial models meant to deal with whole classes of problems (location models, costbenefit models, etc.). Much literature is dealing with
model problems. Since they are always defined over a closed set of descriptors (variables), their usefulness for structuring a particular problem depends on the importance of those factors which have not been included.
The Structure of IBIS-type Systems
9. IBIS-type systems contain several subsystems:
S-1: Issue bank: File of living 9S-11), settled or abandoned (S-12), and latent (S-13) issues.
S-2: Evidence bank: File of F-questions and their answers (S-21, answered; S-22, open).
S-3: "Handbook": Collection of model problems.
S-4: Topic list.
S-5: Issue map: Representation of the various relations between issues, F-questions, etc., by graphic display of the state of argument.
S-6: Documentation system: Search and analysis in view of living or latent issues and positions (S-61), descriptor index and thesaurus construction (S-62), regular scanning in view of the topic list (S-63).
10. All the items are numbered consecutively to ease reference. The formats for describing issues, F-questions, model problems also indicate the various relationships between them, defining and "IxIMatrix" for each of the types of relationships between issues and "IxTMatrix" (assignment of issues to topics), etc. These matrices are used for tracing connections between items and for constructing issue maps
(S-5). In addition, literature sources are assigned (by accession number) to the various items and vice versa. In this way, several layers of search networks are established.
Operation of the System
11. To describe only the main operations, "treatment of issues":
* 0-1: Participant Mk raises the r th issue Ir in the context of topic Tj. An "issue form" is filled in, identifying the preliminary issue, the list of alternative positions, administrative indicators.
* 0-2: Ir is edited (in context with Mk), relationships to other issues are established (aided by S-1, S-4, S-5, S62).
* 0-3: For each position Prs an "argument sheet" is prepared. Sources are mainly the deliberations between Mk and his opponents.
* 0-4: File Ir is processed by S-61, where supporting evidence and opinion is retrieved from the literature (the argument sheets are amended and literature evaluation sheets are added to the file).
* 0-5: The issue map S-5 is updated.
* 0-6: File Ir becomes the basis for discussion. Ir is either settled by accepting one of the positions or further evidence is required from an "expert" (through Fquestions which are treated similar to the processing of issues), or a supporting statement for a defended
position is challenged, thus leading to another issue (GOTO S-1). Finally, the significance of Ir can be denied and substitute issues may be introduced (GOTO S-1).
Further Developments
12. Currently three IBIS-type systems are operated experimentally. IBIS-1 serves a supranational agency in order to support the development of recommendations for information policy. IBIS-2 is used by an interdepartmental government committee dealing with a national plan for information networks. IBIS-3 is applied in a project of university planning. These systems follow the principles outlined, but each of them had to be tailored to the specific conditions of application. The most astonishing result is the eager acceptance by the users, although the implementation induced major changes in organization and working styles. Still being operated manually, computerization of several operations is being programmed. Publication of the theory of IBIS and the systems manuals is in preparation.
9
REFERENCES
Kunz, Werner, and Horst Rittel. The Changing Information Environment. Report, Heidelberg-Berkeley, 1970.
Kunz, Werner, and Horst Rittel. Die Informationswissenschaften. Report, Heidelberg-Berkeley, 1969. (Book edition in print.)
Kunz, Werner, and Horst Rittel. "Zur Logik von Forschung und Dokumentation," Die Naturwissenschaften, Vol. 55, No. 8, pp. 358-361.
Rittel, Horst. "Instrumentelles Wissen in der Politik," in H. Krauch, ed., Wissenschaften und Politik, Studiengruppe für Systemforschung, Heidelberg, 1969, pp. 183-209.
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DAUPHIN COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Legislative Meeting
Wednesday, December 29, 2004 (10:00AM)
MEMBERS PRESENT
Jeff Haste, Chairman Dominic D. DiFrancesco, II, Vice Chairman George P. Hartwick, III, Secretary
STAFF PRESENT
Marie Rebuck, Controller; Robert Dick, Treasurer; Chad Saylor, Chief Clerk; Chip Vance, Assistant Solicitor; Elke Moyer, Human Services; Greg Schneider, Budget and Finance; Julia Nace, Assistant Chief Clerk; Jena Wolgemuth, Commissioners' Office; Kay Sinner, Personnel; Jane Miller; Jaqueline Mills; Carolyn Thompson, Court Administrator; Jim Szymborski, Planning Commission; Diane McNaughton, Press Secretary; Edgar Cohen, Director of Facilities Maintenance; Garry Esworthy, Risk Manager; Randy Baratucci, Director of Purchasing; Mike Yohe, Director of Budget and Finance; Faye Fisher, Director of Personnel; Gary Serhan, Controllers' Office; Mike Pries, Director of Safety and Security; Dan Robinson, Director of DCED; Sandy Moore, Director of Human Services.
GUESTS PRESENT
Judith Heh, AFSCME; Dick Etzweiler; Ed Carney; Eric Epstein; News 21.
MINUTES
CALL TO ORDER
Mr. Haste, Chairman of the Board, called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m.
MOMENT OF SILENCE
Everyone observed a moment of silence.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Everyone stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Mr. Haste: We have several sets of minutes to approve today. First we have the December 1, 2004 Legislative minutes, the December 8, 2004 Workshop minutes and the December 8, 2004 TEFRA Hearing minutes. Is there a motion to approve?
Mr. Hartwick made the motion to approve the December 1, 2004 Legislative minutes, the December 8, 2004 Workshop minutes and the December 8, 2004 TEFRA Hearing minutes. Mr. DiFrancesco seconded the motion. All were in favor. Motion carries.
Mr. Haste: The December 1, 2004 Salary Board minutes need to be approved. The Salary Board consists of the three Commissioners and the Controller. Is there a motion to approve?
Mr. DiFrancesco made the motion to approve the December 1, 2004 Salary Board minutes. Mr. Hartwick seconded the motion. All were in favor. Motion carries.
Mr. DiFrancesco: We have the December 1, 2004 Election Board minutes to be approved. Is there a motion?
Mr. Hartwick made the motion to approve the December 1, 2004 Election Board minutes. Mr. Haste seconded the motion. All were in favor. Motion carries.
EXECUTIVE SESSIONS HELD BETWEEN MEETINGS
Mr. Saylor: As you all know, one Executive Session was held on December 20, 2004 to discuss personnel matters.
DEPARTMENT DIRECTORS/GUESTS
Mr. Haste: In order to move things along more efficiently I would like to ask that Ms. Fisher and Ms. Heh come forward to present the labor agreement for approval.
Ms. Fisher: Good morning Commissioners. I am pleased to announce today that AFSCME Local 2800 and the County were able to agree on a new four (4) year agreement (January 1, 2005 – December 31, 2008). We began June of 2004 and concluded on November 29 th with a tentative agreement. This was accomplished without the need to go to binding arbitration.
The new contract provides for:
- The employees will receive competitive salary adjustments in each year of the contract. However, the increases will be provided at two different times of the year, resulting in less cost to the County each year.
- The agreement will continue to provide excellent health care and prescription drug coverage to employees and their dependents, but employees will participate in cost sharing by being required to make co-payments for physician office visits, visits to specialists and for out-patient therapy services. NOTE: This is the first contract where the health care changes were negotiated into the contract.
- The contract provides for a return to more traditional leave time programs of Vacation and Sick Leave. These programs will replace the more restrictive program of PTO (Paid Time Off). These programs will bring the represented employees more into line with other County non-bargaining employees.
- Bereavement Leave and Leave of Absences will also become more consistent with other County employees whether represented by a Union or a nonbargaining unit employee.
- Other minor changes provides for improved notification of supervisors by employees; while other changes limits the County liability for reimbursing employees for having personal property damaged in the course of performing their duties.
- Both parties achieved language clarifications throughout the contract.
The Court Appointed Non-Professional contract covers approximately 167 employees and includes court reporters, legal clerks in the district justice offices, and clerical employees in DRO, Juvenile & Adult Probation.
I'd like to thank the union's negotiation team. Members include John Roderick, Jackie Mills, Jane Miller, and Pam Rigby. Also thanks to the County's negotiation team, this included Carolyn Thompson, Chad Saylor, Dave Schreiber, Bill Tully, Bill Flannery, and me.
There are some union members present today: Judy Heh, Jackie Mills, and Jane Miller.
Ms. Heh: I understand the tough financial situation that the County is in and it is at times like these where each side needs to compromise. For this agreement neither side got exactly what it wanted, so I guess you could say it is a win-win situation. I'd like to thank the County's member negotiation team, as well as, my staff for making this agreement possible. Thank you.
Mr. Hartwick: I just want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who was involved in this process, all of the people from AFSCME and all of the employees from the County.
I appreciate the time and effort you put into resolving this matter without having to take it a step further.
Mr. DiFrancesco: I would like to echo my counter-parts comments. This is a very tedious job and I appreciate the cooperation that has taken place. This is definitely not a win-win situation for all, but as Ms. Heh said, the County is in a difficult fiscal situation and that must be taken into account. Again, I would like to thank all of the participants who worked so painstakingly to make this agreement work.
Mr. Haste: As everyone has already stated, the folks that took part in negotiating this agreement should be commended. Ms. Heh, I thank you and your staff for your efforts and Faye, I thank you and our Personnel Dept. for persevering and avoiding arbitration. Can we get a motion to approve?
Mr. Hartwick made the motion to approve the Agreement between AFSCME Council 90 and Dauphin County for Court-Appointed Non-professional employees. Mr. DiFrancesco seconded the motion. All were in favor. Motion carries.
A. Faye Fisher, Personnel Director
Approve Agreement between AFSCME Council 90 and Dauphin County for Court-Appointed Non-professional employees. (Domestic Relations, Adult Probation, Court Reporters, District Justices, Law Library and Court Administrative Offices.
(The Commissioners signed the agreement.)
Mr. Haste: Judy, you said you had something else for us to sign or is that later?
Ms. Heh: No, some of our members are not here today that were part of the negotiating team and we wanted to save this page to make sure all of the proper signatures were on it.
Mr. Haste: Okay.
Mr. Saylor: Additional copies will be available, I believe.
Mr. Haste: Okay, very good.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Mr. Haste: We are now at the point in the meeting where we will accept public comments. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to address anything on the agenda at this time? (Mr. Epstein stood.) What agenda item would you like to address?
Mr. Epstein: I have a generic item and I will be real brief. First of all, my name is Eric Epstein; I'm the Chairman of Three Mile Island Alert, Inc. Some of you may have heard of me in the past. The agenda item I'm referring to is a generic format with real estate refunds. What I would like to do briefly, and I do have to move on, I apologize for that, my step-father is terminally ill. It has come to my attention that there may be a pending agreement with First Energy at TMI-2 and Exelon (TMI-1). I'm here as the antithesis to Lowman Henry to offer my services for free. I am an expert witness. Perhaps you will know that I am the least popular person in both parties. I am an equal opportunity offender. The point being, which you are probably unaware of, is I am an expert witness before the Public Utility Commission on the issue of nuclear economics and nuclear waste isolation. I am also currently a principal negotiator in a $12 billion merger between PSEG and Exelon. I would urge you to use my resources to review any settlement with First Energy, which owns TMI-2, and Exelon, which owns TMI-1. It is my field of specialty. I am donating my services. It is a one-time offer. I have to feed my kids too. What I have left for you is an economic impact statement, which I have prepared at no cost. I will leave a copy here. You guys know how to get in touch with me. We have been through this at Brunner Island and we have been through this at Peach Bottom. Now we are going through it at TMI. It comes at an awful time when I know you guys are at a fiscal crisis and the potential is ugly. You saw what happened with HERCO and the amusement park. I hope that is not going to happen at TMI-1 or TMI-2. I am here in public to present myself as a resource at no cost.
Mr. Haste: Quick question. You said it happened at Brunner. What was the outcome there?
Mr. Epstein: It was awful. PPL refused to pay taxes for two years. It is in my Economic Impact Statement. Northeastern School District, which is the poorest school district in the 15 th district, was forced over what I would call an economic precedence. They had to raise taxes and go without funding. Essentially what has happened Jeff, and you are probably aware of this, since PURTA (Pennsylvania Utility Realty Tax Act fund) was abolished the territories have taken the position of devaluating their property unilaterally. TMI is worth $600 million. You guys value it at $69 million. They are saying it is worth $5 million, which is odd, since they just replaced the reactor vessel head which cost $18 million. What I enclosed in this packet is an expose I worked on with the Philadelphia Inquirer, which basically shows what's happened to our community and others. We lost $100 million in revenues. What I am saying is this may be an opportunity to draw the line in the sand. PPL didn't pay taxes, didn't escrow taxes. That's not what Exelon is doing and I'm not sure what First Energy is doing.
Mr. Haste: Is there a success story anywhere?
Mr. Epstein: There are settlements starting at Penn Manor. There are settlement stories and that depends on if you guys want to go to court or not, I'll be frank with you. We got a good decision at Penn Manor and we got a good settlement. Peach Bottom doesn't look so good. Peach Bottom is valued, by the County, at $303 million while the company says it's worth $10 million. You have to start dealing in reality at some point. If they want to be a good neighbor and I have good relations with TMI and I know that they have an issue here and it's their Achilles heel. I think we could work something out.
This is Lower Dauphin School District. Whether you are aware of it or not in 2003 they spent $75,000 trying to recoup. This is insane. It's obscene. I think there is a way we can work through this in much the similar fashion you just did with AFSCME. Everybody recognizes the times have changed.
Mr. Haste: Have you talked to the school district?
Mr. Epstein: No. I have offered my services to the school district and I have talked to Londonderry Township in the past. What I can do is I'll leave this behind because I know other people probably have concerns. You guys need to transact business and I've got to get back to the Jewish Home. I can drop off a full and complete study on what PURTA's done to communities who live with nuclear power plants. I am just saying that I think we have the opportunity not to concede before we can test the valuations. It's up to you where you want to go from here.
Mr. Hartwick: Eric, I certainly don't, I'm not sure or understanding what is happening with Bethlehem Steel in Steelton and the devaluation of the steel mill and what effect it has had on our property tax base and not fighting that is something that we took up the challenge to fight and saw some success. But we had to convince the school district to burden the lion's share but it was worth it in the long run.
Mr. Epstein: Yes, I think we can do the same here. We can recoup some money and establish a pretty good precedence, especially since TMI is looking to relicensing. Off the record, or on the record, however you want to put it, I think the opportunity is now where we have leverage. There is a $12 billion merger about to take place that everybody wants to happen. You can read into that anyway you want to. TMI 1 needs to be relicensed. You can read into that any way you want to. We are not without leverage here. I am being brutally honest because I know you guys are in a tough spot given your predecessors, who I won't name, John Payne and Lowman Henry. You can never trust a guy with two first names, nothing personal. Let me leave this behind. I'll be available. We'll be in negotiations with PSEG Exelon, so I'll be home for the most part.
The other thing I wanted to draw your attention to and I am sure you are aware of this is that there will be a rate increase. The PPL case is going through January 1, 2005. The order was issued last Thursday. We didn't do well. We're looking at about a 7% rate increase for transmission and distribution fees. Why am I telling you that? I am also on the board of the Sustainable Energy Fund (SEF). I think the SEF can be working with you guys as we have with other municipalities to look at some real energy efficiency programs that we are doing. We are doing it right now with Hampden Township and the City of Harrisburg. We are the people that lent the money to Londonderry Township School. If you go down the street you will see some of our other projects. I'm offering an olive branch. If you guys met me sometimes I can be a bit thorny but I'm sure it is worth it. I think there are a couple issues that I am willing to work with you guys in the upcoming year.
Mr. Haste: Thank you.
Mr. Hartwick: Eric, who did you say was sick again?
Mr. Epstein: Albert Hersch. He is my step-father.
Mr. Hartwick: I am sorry to hear about that.
Mr. Epstein: I am sorry to hear about your loss as well. These things always come around at the holidays.
PERSONNEL
Ms. Sinner: I have no changes to the Personnel Packet
Mr. DiFrancesco made the motion to approve the Personnel Packet as presented. Mr. Hartwick seconded the motion. All were in favor. Motion carries
PURCHASE ORDERS
Mr. Baratucci: I have no Purchase Order packet, but I did want to give you a heads up for next week. We will be starting our 2005 purchase orders and because we can't enter those until we are actually into 2005 usually there is a little bit of a delay in the start-up for our financials. I probably will not have a packet for the Workshop next week because normally I give it to you on Tuesday and we won't be entering until then. What I would like to do is get you a packet the day or so earlier than usual for the regular Legislative Meeting on the 12 th of January and then have you approve it at the meeting. So there will be one week where you won't have the Workshop week to look at it, but I will try to get you the packet as early as possible for the Legislative Meeting if that is okay?
Mr. Haste: I would assume, given that it is the beginning of the year, although this rarely happens, that there will be no budgetary item issues.
Mr. Baratucci: Hopefully, there will not. But I will also try and attempt to have those resolved prior to you getting the report.
Mr. Haste: I am always amazed at how the first one there are still issues.
Mr. Baratucci: Well what happens is on the first one too, there are a lot of purchase orders that cover the entire year. So sometimes if they haven't budgeted properly for the year they could show over because it is one P.O. to cover the expenses for the entire year. But Mike Yohe and I will work through those. Thank you.
REPORT FROM BUDGET & FINANCE – MIKE YOHE, BUDGET DIRECTOR
Report from the Office of Budget & Finance December 29, 2004
- December 17, 2004 transferred $814,191.06 to the Payables account from the County's Concentration account for checks issued that week. (The financial system was shut down)
- December 23, 2004 transferred $3,832,547.17 to the Payables account and $1,810,354.31 to the Payroll account from the County's Concentration account for checks issued that week.
- Total Term Investments – N/A
- Balance today in INVEST account $122,484.61 rate 1.98%
- Balance today in Community Banks investment account $6,500,837.19 rate 2.45% (This rate is good through 12/31/04)
- Balance today in Commerce Bank investment account $13,000,839.59 rate 2.53% (This rate is good through 12/31/04)
- Balance today in Waypoint Bank investment account $6,500,839.72 rate 2.50% (This rate is good through 12/31/04)
$15M TRAN Line-of-Credit Status at PNC:
- Draw #1 on 2/5/04 - $2,850,000.00
- Draw #2 on 2/19/04 - $1,800,000.00
o Total $4,650,000.00
- April 1, 2004 – TRAN was paid back with $11,232.21 for interest expense.
Mr. Yohe: I got the January rates in and Commerce has upped their rate to 2.60% and Community and Waypoint have remained the same for January.
The only other note I would have is that PFM, Lou Verdelli and Dave Twaddell are going to be preparing for a TRAN quote at no cost again. At some point, either next week or within the next two weeks, they will be presenting a TRAN quote. I don't expect it's going to be as high, $10 million, but we better have one in place just in case.
Mr. Haste: Okay. So you will have that next week?
Mr. Yohe: I don't know if its next week, but they are working on it. We will have it in place prior to…if we need cash it will be at the end of February.
REPORT FROM CHIEF CLERK/CHIEF OF STAFF – CHAD SAYLOR
Mr. Saylor: I have nothing at this time.
SOLICITOR'S REPORT – CHIP VANCE, ESQ., ASST. SOLICITOR
Mr. Vance: I don't have anything. If you have questions regarding the items on the agenda I would be happy to address them.
Mr. DiFrancesco: Chip, could you give an explanation on item S, the Election Board issue?
Mr. Vance: The Election Board issue specifically. We have here a copy of the Mandamus petition with the order signed by Commonwealth Court. All it does is to correct an error in accounting of the votes in the U.S. Senatorial election. Apparently what had happened was, and I'll just quote from the petition itself, "the certification by Dauphin County to the Secretary of the Commonwealth inadvertently certified the final result for one candidate for the U.S. Senate, Arlen Specter. It showed him as receiving 103,522 votes whereas in fact the correct number of votes cast was 68,703 votes." All this does is require the secretary of the Commonwealth, Mr. Cortes, to correct his records to reflect what actually were the vote totals. That's it. The order was in fact signed several hours after it was submitted to Commonwealth court. This was a proforma matter.
Mr. DiFrancesco: Thank you.
MATTERS REQUIRING BOARD ACTION
Mr. Haste: Under Matters Requiring Board Action we have items A through GG. I would ask that we table items R and GG for the present time.
Mr. Hartwick: I would ask that we table BB, number 2 and pull out FF for a separate vote.
Mr. DiFrancesco: What was FF again?
Mr. Hartwick: We will vote on that separately.
Mr. DiFrancesco: The whole section? Not just one?
Mr. Hartwick: Yes.
Mr. Haste: Does anything else need to be pulled out? (There was none.) Can we move to FF? Is there a motion on these appointments?
Mr. Hartwick made the motion to approve the appointments for Katherine Summers, Dwindal Toliver and John Fry, Jr. to the Executive Commission on Drugs and Alcohol. Mr. DiFrancesco seconded the motion. All were in favor. Motion carries.
Mr. Hartwick made the motion to not approve Nelson Muhammad's return to the Executive Commission on Drugs and Alcohol. Mr. DiFrancesco seconded the motion. All were in favor. Motion carries.
FF. Appointments to the Dauphin County Executive Commission on Drugs & Alcohol, Inc., Board of Directors:
(Terms will expire December 31, 2007)
1. Katherine Summers
2. Dwindal Toliver
3. John Fry, Jr.
4. Nelson Muhammad
Mr. Haste: Okay that leaves us Items A through GG, minus FF, BB #2, R and GG. Is there a motion to approve those remaining?
Mr. DiFrancesco made the motion to approve Items A through GG, minus FF, BB #2, R and GG. Mr. Hartwick seconded the motion. All were in favor. Motion carries.
A. Training Packet
B. Approval of FY04/05 Per Diem Rates between Children & Youth Agency and:
1. Report Writing fee
Family Service Partners $15.00/not to exceed 1 hr.
C. Refunds/exonerations of Real Estate Taxes:
1. Partial refund of 2004 County Interim real estate taxes to Keith & Sherry Robinson, 880 Dry Run Road, East Hanover Township, Grantville, parcel #25-014-149, in the amt. of $59.55.
2. Real estate tax refund to Derry Township Tax Collector, on parcel #24-056-095, in the amt. of $533.25.
(Reduced assessment)
D. Change Orders for Phase I Renovations to the Dauphin County Courthouse:
1. Change Order No. 2002-01-32 with Edwin L. Heim in a credit amt. of $12,087.98.
2. Change Order No. 2002-01-34 with Herre Brothers, Inc., in a credit amt. of $95,395.99.
3. Change Order No. 2002-01-33 with Jay R. Reynolds, Inc. in a credit amt. of $75,957.31.
E. Participation Agreement with AllHealth Group Purchasing Program for group purchasing at Spring Creek.
F. Outpatient Dialysis Services Agreement between Spring Creek and FMA of the Capital Area for outpatient dialysis services for Spring Creek residents.
G. Consent to Assignment of Laboratory Services Agreement between Spring Creek and Omega Medical Laboratories to Quest Diagnostics.
H. Business Associate Agreement with Complete Healthcare Resources- Eastern, Inc., regarding access to protected health information at Spring Creek.
I. Adopt Resolution #47-2004 authorizing and approving a Settlement of Appeals filed with the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board by the Pennsylvania Waste Industries Association, Republic Services of Pennsylvania, LLC and Penn Waste, Inc., regarding the County's 2002 and 2004 Revisions to its Act 101 Waste Management Plan. (Approved 12/22/04)
J. Proposal from Zelenkofske Axelrod LLC to extend audit services to Dauphin County for the years ending December 31, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
K. Subordination Agreements with the following individuals:
1. Kimberly R. Ferguson on property located at 3538 N. 6 th Street, Harrisburg.
2. Brenda Jeffries on property located at 538 Seneca Street, Harrisburg.
3. Henry O. Houze, III on property located at 1611 Herr Street, Harrisburg.
L. Satisfaction Piece with the following individuals:
1. Constance L. Weller on the property located at 938 Norwood Street, Harrisburg.
2. David P. Kahn and Leslie A. Gonzalez on the property located at 604 2 nd Street, Oberlin.
3. Christopher M. Dowell on the property located at 43 Shirley Drive, Middletown.
4. Karla J. Roach on the property located at 500 St. Mary's Drive, Steelton.
M. Agreement between Information Technology and XO Communications for a Voice Communication Service and Equipment Lease.
N. Adoption Assistance Agreement 2004-25.
O. Human Services Development Fund Agreement with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that amends the HSDF Pre-expenditure Plan to include a $5,000.00 Community Investment Initiative to help fund the Greater Harrisburg Foundation service coordination study.
P. Amendment #1 to FY03/04 Purchase of Service Agreement between Mental Health/ Mental Retardation and Bonnie J. Glass, MA, CCC-SLP.
Q. Agreement for Performance between Dauphin County Solid Waste and Illusion Maker.
R. Approval by the Board of Commissioners to participate in the (Potential) Settlement/PILOT Agreement for the pending Tax Assessment litigation involving Three Mile Island, Units 1 and 2. (Tabled)
S. Approval by the Board of Commissioners to file a Complaint in Mandamus in the Commonwealth Court of PA to amend the Dauphin County Board of Elections Certifications of the November 2, 2004 General Election.
T. Deny a request by Zion Evangelical Congregational Church located at 210 McKelvey Road, Dauphin, parcel #43-017-192 for Rollback Tax Relief.
U. Approval by the Board of Commissioners to contribute its pro rata share ($543.00) for appraisal services and Court testimony (if necessary) needed to ascertain the true value of Ljubisa Stankovic located at 1320 Wyndham Road, Tax Parcel #24-056-221.
V. Approval by the Board of Commissioners to accept the proposed Settlement figure for the Tax Assessment Appeal of James Fleck for property located at 2426 Derry St. Tax parcel #13-067-026.
W. Appoint Shirley Radel to the Dauphin County Conservation District Board. (Term expires – December 31, 2008.)
X. Appoint Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, Inc., as County Engineers.
Y. Construction and demolition Waste Processing & Disposal Capacity Agreements: (Approved 12/22/04)
1. Waste Management, Inc.
2. Commonwealth Environmental Systems Landfill
3. Republic Services of PA d/b/a Modern Landfill
Z. Bypass Waste Disposal Capacity Agreements: (Approved 12/22/04)
1. Commonwealth Environmental Systems Landfill
2. Keystone Sanitary Landfill
3. Republic Services of PA d/b/a Modern Landfill
4. Waste Management of Pennsylvania, Inc.
AA. Appointment/reappointments to the Dauphin County Planning Commission: (Terms will expire December 31, 2008)
1. Thomas Shaffer
2. Keith Oellig
3. Paul Clark
4. Skip Memmi as designee for Commissioner DiFrancesco
5. Edward Carney
BB. Appointments to the Mental Health/Mental Retardation Advisory Board: (Terms will expire – December 31, 2007)
1. James Dull
2. Alfredo Gonzalez (Tabled)
CC. Appoint George Conner to the Housing & Redevelopment Authority. (Term will expire – August 26, 2007 – completing Marlin Zimmerman's term)
DD. Reappoint Todd Pagliarulo to the to the Capitol Area Transit Board. (Term will expire – December 31, 2009)
EE. Reappointments/appointments to the Dauphin County Schaffner Youth Detention Center Advisory Board:
1. Gary A. Crissman
2. Ernest Davis
3. Sanford Krevsky
4. Nathaniel Gadsden
5. Rev. Ronald B. Tilley, II
6. Theotis W. Braddy
GG. Appoint David Transue to the Dauphin County General Authority. (Term will expire 1 st Monday, 2010) (Tabled)
FORMER BUSINESS
(There was none.)
NEW BUSINESS
(There was none.)
COMMISSIONERS' DISCUSSION & ACTIONS
Mr. Hartwick: Just that I appreciate all of the cards and letters from various County officials in condolence of the loss of my grandmother. I sincerely appreciate it and so does my family. Thank you.
Mr. DiFrancesco: I have nothing other than to say Happy New Year to everybody; hopefully you all have a safe and joyful end to the holiday season to kick-off the new year. Our work is cut out for us in the upcoming year.
CORRESPONDENCE
Mr. Haste: We have correspondence that has been received by the Board this week that will be handled by the staff appropriately.
A. Notification from Hershey Foods indicating they intend to submit an application to DEP for a Reasonably Available Control Technology (RACT) which addresses the RACT determination for volatile organic compound emissions control at the chocolate manufacturing facility located at 19 East Chocolate Avenue, Hershey, Dauphin County.
B. Notification from Harsco Corporation, on behalf of Taylor-Wharton Facility, indicating they intend to submit an application to DEP for a NPDES permit. The facility is located on Herr Street, Harrisburg, Dauphin County.
C. Notification from Glace Associates, Inc., on behalf of Elizabethville Area Authority, indicating they intend to apply to DEP for renewal of the NPDES Part I permit. This is for the Authority's waste water treatment plant which discharges into the Wiconisco Creek in Washington Township, Dauphin County.
D. Notification from Light-Heigel & Associates, Inc., indicating Hershey Mini Storage intends to apply to DEP for a NPDES for discharge of storm water associated with construction activities of an office/storage building plus approximately 400 storage units.
E. Notification from Raudenbush Engineering, Inc., on behalf of the Harrisburg
Gastroenterology, Inc., indicating the applicant is preparing an erosion and sedimentation control plan for a land development project located at 4760 Union Deposit Road in Lower Paxton Township, Dauphin County.
F. Notification from Pennsy Supply indicating they will be moving a permitted portable primary jaw crusher to the Fiddler's Elbow Quarry.
G. Notification from NRG Energy Center Harrisburg LLC and NRG Center Paxton LLC, located at 9 th and Walnut Streets, Harrisburg, indicating they intend to submit an application to DEP to renew the current Title V State Operating Permit (#22-05005).
H. Notification from Brinjac Engineering indicating they intend to submit an application to DEP for a general permit for discharge of storm water associated with construction activities in reference to the Commerce Bank Park Playing Field reconstruction, City of Harrisburg, Dauphin County.
I. Notification from Angel Pet Services indicating they intend to submit an application to DEP for renewal of their permit to operate an incinerator/crematory for animal remains on their property located at 885 Allegheny Street, Dauphin.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
(There was none.)
ADJOURNMENT
Mr. Haste: Is there a motion to adjourn?
Mr. DiFrancesco made the motion to adjourn the meeting. Mr. Hartwick seconded the motion. All were in favor. Motion carries.
Transcribed by: Jena Wolgemuth
Dec. 29, 2004
printed 2/01/05
|
Multilingual WSD with Just a Few Lines of Code: the BabelNet API
Roberto Navigli and Simone Paolo Ponzetto Dipartimento di Informatica Sapienza Universit`a di Roma
{navigli,email@example.com
Abstract
In this paper we present an API for programmatic access to BabelNet – a wide-coverage multilingual lexical knowledge base – and multilingual knowledge-rich Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD). Our aim is to provide the research community with easy-to-use tools to perform multilingual lexical semantic analysis and foster further research in this direction.
the topic has explored the translation of sentences into many languages (Navigli and Ponzetto, 2010; Lefever et al., 2011; Banea and Mihalcea, 2011), as well as the projection of monolingual knowledge onto another language (Khapra et al., 2011).
1 Introduction
In recent years research in Natural Language Processing (NLP) has been steadily moving towards multilingual processing: the availability of ever growing amounts of text in different languages, in fact, has been a major driving force behind research on multilingual approaches, from morphosyntactic (Das and Petrov, 2011) and syntacticosemantic (Peirsman and Pad´o, 2010) phenomena to high-end tasks like textual entailment (Mehdad et al., 2011) and sentiment analysis (Lu et al., 2011).
These research trends would seem to indicate the time is ripe for developing methods capable of performing semantic analysis of texts written in any language: however, this objective is still far from being attained, as is demonstrated by research in a core language understanding task such as Word Sense Disambiguation (Navigli, 2009, WSD) continuing to be focused primarily on English. While the lack of resources has hampered the development of effective multilingual approaches to WSD, recently this idea has been revamped with the organization of SemEval tasks on cross-lingual WSD (Lefever and Hoste, 2010) and cross-lingual lexical substitution (Mihalcea et al., 2010). In addition, new research on
In our research we focus on knowledge-based methods and tools for multilingual WSD, since knowledge-rich WSD has been shown to achieve high performance across domains (Agirre et al., 2009; Navigli et al., 2011) and to compete with supervised methods on a variety of lexical disambiguation tasks (Ponzetto and Navigli, 2010). Our vision of knowledge-rich multilingual WSD requires two fundamental components: first, a wide-coverage multilingual lexical knowledge base; second, tools to effectively query, retrieve and exploit its information for disambiguation. Nevertheless, to date, no integrated resources and tools exist that are freely available to the research community on a multilingual scale. Previous endeavors are either not freely available (EuroWordNet (Vossen, 1998)), or are only accessible via a Web interface (cf. the Multilingual Research Repository (Atserias et al., 2004) and MENTA (de Melo and Weikum, 2010)), thus providing no programmatic access. And this is despite the fact that the availability of easy-to-use libraries for efficient information access is known to foster top-level research – cf. the widespread use of semantic similarity measures in NLP, thanks to the availability of WordNet::Similarity (Pedersen et al., 2004).
With the present contribution we aim to fill this gap in multilingual tools, providing a multi-tiered contribution consisting of (a) an Application Programming Interface (API) for efficiently accessing the information available in BabelNet (Navigli and
Proceedings of the 50th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics
⃝
Jeju, Republic of Korea, 8-14 July 2012. c
, pages 67–72,
2012 Association for Computational Linguistics
```
bn:00008364n WIKIWN 08420278n 85 WN:EN:bank WIKI:EN:Bank WIKI:DE:Bank WIKI:IT:Banca WIKIRED:DE:Finanzinstitut WN:EN:banking_company WNTR:ES:banco WNTR:FR:soci´et´e_bancaire WIKI:FR:Banque ... 35 1_7 2_3,4,9 6_8 ... 228 r bn:02945246n r bn:02854884n|FROM_IT @ bn:00034537n ...
```
Figure 1: The Babel synset for bank 2 n , i.e. its 'financial' sense (excerpt, formatted for ease of readability).
Ponzetto, 2010), a very large knowledge repository with concept lexicalizations in 6 languages (Catalan, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish), at the lexicographic (i.e., word senses), encyclopedic (i.e., named entities) and conceptual (i.e., concepts and semantic relations) levels; (b) an API to perform graph-based WSD with BabelNet, thus providing, for the first time, a freely-available toolkit for performing knowledge-based WSD in a multilingual and cross-lingual setting.
2 BabelNet
BabelNet follows the structure of a traditional lexical knowledge base and accordingly consists of a labeled directed graph where nodes represent concepts and named entities and edges express semantic relations between them. Concepts and relations are harvested from the largest available semantic lexicon of English, i.e., WordNet (Fellbaum, 1998), and a wide-coverage collaboratively-edited encyclopedia, i.e., Wikipedia 1 , thus making BabelNet a multilingual 'encyclopedic dictionary' which automatically integrates fine-grained lexicographic information with large amounts of encyclopedic knowledge by means of a high-performing mapping algorithm (Navigli and Ponzetto, 2010). In addition to this conceptual backbone, BabelNet provides a multilingual lexical dimension. Each of its nodes, called Babel synsets, contains a set of lexicalizations of the concept for different languages, e.g., { bankEN, BankDE, bancaIT, . . . , bancoES }.
Similar in spirit to WordNet, BabelNet consists, at its lowest level, of a plain text file. An excerpt of the entry for the Babel synset containing bank 2 n is shown in Figure 1 2 . The record contains (a) the synset's id; (b) the region of BabelNet where it lies (e.g., WIKIWN means at the intersec-
1http://www.wikipedia.org
2 We denote with w i p the i -th WordNet sense of a word w with part of speech p.
tion of WordNet and Wikipedia); (c) the corresponding (possibly empty) WordNet 3.0 synset offset; (d) the number of senses in all languages and their full listing; (e) the number of translation relations and their full listing; (f) the number of semantic pointers (i.e., relations) to other Babel synsets and their full listing. Senses encode information about their source – i.e., whether they come from WordNet (WN), Wikipedia pages (WIKI) or their redirections (WIKIRED), or are automatic translations (WNTR / WIKITR) – and about their language and lemma. In addition, translation relations among lexical items are represented as a mapping from source to target senses – e.g., 2 3,4,9 means that the second element in the list of senses (the English word bank) translates into items #3 (German Bank), #4 (Italian banca), and #9 (French banque). Finally, semantic relations are encoded using WordNet's pointers and an additional symbol for Wikipedia relations (r), which can also specify the source of the relation (e.g., FROM IT means that the relation was harvested from the Italian Wikipedia). In Figure 1, the Babel synset inherits the WordNet hypernym (@) relation to financial institution 1 n (offset bn:00034537n ), as well as Wikipedia relations to the synsets of FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT (bn:02945246n) and ETHICAL BANKING (bn:02854884n, from Italian).
3 An API for multilingual WSD
BabelNet API. BabelNet can be effectively accessed and automatically embedded within applications by means of a programmatic access. In order to achieve this, we developed a Java API, based on Apache Lucene 3 , which indexes the BabelNet textual dump and includes a variety of methods to access the four main levels of information encoded in BabelNet, namely: (a) lexicographic (information about word senses), (b) encyclopedic (i.e. named en-
3http://lucene.apache.org
```
1 BabelNet bn = BabelNet.getInstance(); 2 System.out.println("SYNSETS WITH English word: \"bank\""); 3 List<BabelSynset> synsets = bn.getSynsets(Language.EN, "bank"); 4 for (BabelSynset synset : synsets) { 5 System.out.print(" =>(" + synset.getId() + ") SOURCE: " + synset.getSource() + 6 "; WN SYNSET: " + synset.getWordNetOffsets() + ";\n" + 7 " MAIN LEMMA: " + synset.getMainLemma() + ";\n SENSES (IT): { "); 8 for (BabelSense sense : synset.getSenses(Language.IT)) 9 System.out.print(sense.toString()+" "); 10 System.out.println("}\n -----"); 11 Map<IPointer, List<BabelSynset>> relatedSynsets = synset.getRelatedMap(); 12 for (IPointer relationType : relatedSynsets.keySet()) { 13 List<BabelSynset> relationSynsets = relatedSynsets.get(relationType); 14 for (BabelSynset relationSynset : relationSynsets) { 15 System.out.println(" EDGE " + relationType.getSymbol() + 16 " " + relationSynset.getId() + 17 " " + relationSynset.toString(Language.EN)); 18 } 19 } 20 System.out.println(" -----"); 21 }
```
Figure 2: Sample BabelNet API usage.
tities), (c) conceptual (the semantic network made up of its concepts), (d) and multilingual level (information about word translations). Figure 2 shows a usage example of the BabelNet API. In the code snippet we start by querying the Babel synsets for the English word bank (line 3). Next, we access different kinds of information for each synset: first, we print their id, source (WordNet, Wikipedia, or both), the corresponding, possibly empty, WordNet offsets, and 'main lemma' – namely, a compact string representation of the Babel synset consisting of its corresponding WordNet synset in stringified form, or the first non-redirection Wikipedia page found in it (lines 5–7). Then, we access and print the Italian word senses they contain (lines 8–10), and finally the synsets they are related to (lines 11–19). Thanks to carefully designed Java classes, we are able to accomplish all of this in about 20 lines of code.
Multilingual WSD API. We use the BabelNet API as a framework to build a toolkit that allows the user to perform multilingual graph-based lexical disambiguation – namely, to identify the most suitable meanings of the input words on the basis of the semantic connections found in the lexical knowledge base, along the lines of Navigli and Lapata (2010). At its core, the API leverages an in-house Java library to query paths and create semantic graphs with BabelNet. The latter works by pre-computing off-line paths connecting any pair of Babel synsets, which are collected by iterating through each synset in turn, and performing a depth-first search up to a maximum depth – which we set to 3, on the basis of experimental evidence from a variety of knowledge base linking and lexical disambiguation tasks (Navigli and Lapata, 2010; Ponzetto and Navigli, 2010). Next, these paths are stored within a Lucene index, which ensures efficient lookups for querying those paths starting and ending in a specific synset. Given a set of words as input, a semantic graph factory class searches for their meanings within BabelNet, looks for their connecting paths, and merges such paths within a single graph. Optionally, the paths making up the graph can be filtered – e.g., it is possible to remove loops, weighted edges below a certain threshold, etc. – and the graph nodes can be scored using a variety of methods – such as, for instance, their outdegree or PageRank value in the context of the semantic graph. These graph connectivity measures can be used to rank senses of the input words, thus performing graph-based WSD on the basis of the structure of the underlying knowledge base.
We show in Figure 3 a usage example of our disambiguation API. The method which performs WSD (disambiguate) takes as input a collection of words (i.e., typically a sentence), a KnowledgeBase with which to perform dis```
1 public static void disambiguate(Collection<Word> words, 2 KnowledgeBase kb, KnowledgeGraphScorer scorer) { 3 KnowledgeGraphFactory factory = KnowledgeGraphFactory.getInstance(kb); 4 KnowledgeGraph kGraph = factory.getKnowledgeGraph(words); 5 Map<String, Double> scores = scorer.score(kGraph); 6 for (String concept : scores.keySet()) { 7 double score = scores.get(concept); 8 for (Word word : kGraph.wordsForConcept(concept)) 9 word.addLabel(concept, score); 10 } 11 for (Word word : words) { 12 System.out.println("\n\t" + word.getWord() + " -- ID " + word.getId() + 13 " => SENSE DISTRIBUTION: "); 14 for (ScoredItem<String> label : word.getLabels()) { 15 System.out.println("\t [" + label.getItem() + "]:" + 16 Strings.format(label.getScore())); 17 } 18 } 19 } 20 21 public static void main(String[] args) { 22 List<Word> sentence = Arrays.asList( 23 new Word[]{new Word("bank", 'n', Language.EN), new Word("bonus", 'n', Language.EN), 24 new Word("pay", 'v', Language.EN), new Word("stock", 'n', Language.EN)}); 25 disambiguate(sentence, KnowledgeBase.BABELNET, KnowledgeGraphScorer.DEGREE); 26 }
```
Figure 3: Sample Word Sense Disambiguation API usage.
ambiguation, and a KnowledgeGraphScorer, namely a value from an enumeration of different graph connectivity measures (e.g., node outdegree), which are responsible for scoring nodes (i.e., concepts) in the graph. KnowledgeBase is an enumeration of supported knowledge bases: currently, it includes BabelNet, as well as WordNet++ (namely, an English WordNet-based subset of it (Ponzetto and Navigli, 2010)) and WordNet. Note that, while BabelNet is presently the only lexical knowledge base which allows for multilingual processing, our framework can easily be extended to work with other existing lexical knowledge resources, provided they can be wrapped around Java classes and implement interface methods for querying senses, concepts, and their semantic relations. In the snippet we start in line 3 by obtaining an instance of the factory class which creates the semantic graphs for a given knowledge base. Next, we use this factory to create the graph for the input words (line 4). We then score the senses of the input words occurring within this graph (line 5–10). Finally, we output the sense distributions of each word in lines 11–18. The disambiguation method, in turn, can be called by any other Java program in a way similar to the one highlighted by the main method of lines 21–26, where we disambiguate the sample sentence ' bank bonuses are paid in stocks ' (note that each input word can be written in any of the 6 languages, i.e. we could mix languages).
4 Experiments
We benchmark our API by performing knowledgebased WSD with BabelNet on standard SemEval datasets, namely the SemEval-2007 coarse-grained all-words (Navigli et al., 2007, Coarse-WSD, henceforth) and the SemEval-2010 cross-lingual (Lefever and Hoste, 2010, CL-WSD) WSD tasks. For both experimental settings we use a standard graphbased algorithm, Degree (Navigli and Lapata, 2010), which has been previously shown to yield a highly competitive performance on different lexical disambiguation tasks (Ponzetto and Navigli, 2010). Given a semantic graph for the input context, Degree selects the sense of the target word with the highest vertex degree. In addition, in the CL-WSD setting we need to output appropriate lexicalization(s) in different languages. Since the selected Babel synset can contain multiple translations in a target language for the given English word, we use for this task an
Table 1: Performance on SemEval-2007 coarse-grained all-words WSD (Navigli et al., 2007).
| Algorithm | Nouns only | All words |
|---|---|---|
| NUS-PT SUSSX-FR | 82.3 81.1 | 82.5 77.0 |
| Degree | 84.7 | 82.3 |
| MFS BL Random BL | 77.4 63.5 | 78.9 62.7 |
unsupervised approach where we return for each test instance only the most frequent translation found in the synset, as given by its frequency of alignment obtained from the Europarl corpus (Koehn, 2005).
Tables 1 and 2 summarize our results in terms of recall (the primary metric for WSD tasks): for each SemEval task, we benchmark our disambiguation API against the best unsupervised and supervised systems, namely SUSSX-FR (Koeling and McCarthy, 2007) and NUS-PT (Chan et al., 2007) for Coarse-WSD, and T3-COLEUR (Guo and Diab, 2010) and UvT-v (van Gompel, 2010) for CL-WSD. In the Coarse-WSD task our API achieves the best overall performance on the nouns-only subset of the data, thus supporting previous findings indicating the benefits of using rich knowledge bases like BabelNet. In the CL-WSD evaluation, instead, using BabelNet allows us to surpass the best unsupervised system by a substantial margin, thus indicating the viability of high-performing WSD with a multilingual lexical knowledge base. While our performance still lags behind the application of supervised techniques to this task (cf. also results from Lefever and Hoste (2010)), we argue that further improvements can still be obtained by exploiting more complex disambiguation strategies. In general, using our toolkit we are able to achieve a performance which is competitive with the state of the art for these tasks, thus supporting previous findings on knowledge-rich WSD, and confirming the robustness of our toolkit.
5 Related Work
Our work complements recent efforts focused on visual browsing of wide-coverage knowledge bases (Tylenda et al., 2011; Navigli and Ponzetto, 2012) by means of an API which allows the user to programmatically query and search BabelNet. This knowledge resource, in turn, can be used for eas-
Table 2: Performance on SemEval-2010 cross-lingual WSD (Lefever and Hoste, 2010).
| | Degree | T3-Coleur | UvT-v |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dutch French German Italian Spanish | 15.52 22.94 17.15 18.03 22.48 | 10.56 21.75 13.05 14.67 19.64 | 17.70 − − − 23.39 |
ily performing multilingual and cross-lingual WSD out-of-the-box. In comparison with other contributions, our toolkit for multilingual WSD takes previous work from Navigli (2006), in which an online interface for graph-based monolingual WSD is presented, one step further by adding a multilingual dimension as well as a full-fledged API. Our work also complements previous attempts by NLP researchers to provide the community with freely available tools to perform state-of-the-art WSD using WordNet-based measures of semantic relatedness (Patwardhan et al., 2005), as well as supervised WSD techniques (Zhong and Ng, 2010). We achieve this by building upon BabelNet, a multilingual 'encyclopedic dictionary' bringing together the lexicographic and encyclopedic knowledge from WordNet and Wikipedia. Other recent projects on creating multilingual knowledge bases from Wikipedia include WikiNet (Nastase et al., 2010) and MENTA (de Melo and Weikum, 2010): both these resources offer structured information complementary to BabelNet – i.e., large amounts of facts about entities (MENTA), and explicit semantic relations harvested from Wikipedia categories (WikiNet).
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the ERC Starting Grant MultiJEDI No. 259234.
BabelNet and its API are available for download at http://lcl.uniroma1.it/babelnet.
References
Eneko Agirre, Oier Lopez de Lacalle, and Aitor Soroa. 2009. Knowledge-based WSD on specific domains: performing better than generic supervised WSD. In Proc. of IJCAI-09, pages 1501–1506.
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Mitesh M. Khapra, Salil Joshi, Arindam Chatterjee, and Pushpak Bhattacharyya. 2011. Together we can: Bilingual bootstrapping for WSD. In Proc. of ACL11, pages 561–569.
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Els Lefever and Veronique Hoste. 2010. SemEval-2010 Task 3: Cross-lingual Word Sense Disambiguation. In Proc. of SemEval-2010, pages 15–20.
Els Lefever, V´eronique Hoste, and Martine De Cock. 2011. Parasense or how to use parallel corpora for Word Sense Disambiguation. In Proc. of ACL-11, pages 317–322.
Bin Lu, Chenhao Tan, Claire Cardie, and Benjamin K. Tsou. 2011. Joint bilingual sentiment classification with unlabeled parallel corpora. In Proc. of ACL-11, pages 320–330.
Yashar Mehdad, Matteo Negri, and Marcello Federico. 2011. Using bilingual parallel corpora for crosslingual textual entailment. In Proc. of ACL-11, pages 1336–1345.
Rada Mihalcea, Ravi Sinha, and Diana McCarthy. 2010. SemEval-2010 Task 2: Cross-lingual lexical substitution. In Proc. of SemEval-2010, pages 9–14.
Vivi Nastase, Michael Strube, Benjamin B¨orschinger, Caecilia Zirn, and Anas Elghafari. 2010. WikiNet: A very large scale multi-lingual concept network. In Proc. of LREC '10.
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Roberto Navigli and Simone Paolo Ponzetto. 2010. BabelNet: Building a very large multilingual semantic network. In Proc. of ACL-10, pages 216–225.
Roberto Navigli and Simone Paolo Ponzetto. 2012. BabelNetXplorer: a platform for multilingual lexical knowledge base access and exploration. In Comp. Vol. to Proc. of WWW-12, pages 393–396.
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|
Federal Agency Scientific Integrity Policies: A Comparative Analysis
Prepared by Francesca T. Grifo Senior Scientist and Science Policy Fellow Union of Concerned Scientists March 2013
The following pages contain analysis of 22 federal agency scientific integrity policies developed in response to a December 9, 2010 memorandum by Dr. John P. Holdren, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
We evaluated the policies to see how effectively they would advance the goals we outlined in our 2009 comments on President Obama's March 2009 memo to Dr. Holdren, which began this process: protecting government scientists, increasing the transparency of government science, and strengthening the quality of government scientific information and advice.
Six agencies submitted policies that actively promote and support a culture of scientific integrity; five submitted policies that also promote and support scientific integrity but need additional work to ensure long-term change at the agencies. Eleven agencies submitted policies that do not make adequate commitments to achieve the preservation and promotion of scientific integrity. The agencies are presented on the following pages in alphabetical order within these three groups.
To find out more about our scientific integrity work, visit www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Summary: Great policies on releasing and sharing data. Although it does not explicitly allow scientists the right of last review, it has many useful aspects to its media and communications policies.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Media and communications policies are broad and detailed
* Thorough guidance regarding timely dissemination of data to the public
* Establishes clear procedures for how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated and resolved
* Contains specifics on how to make scientific information more accessible and transparent
* Addresses conflicts-of-interest in the peer review process and on federal advisory committees
* Excellent provisions for training
* Repeats the principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum
* Not explicit that policy applies to political appointees, supervisors, and contractors in addition to career employees.
* This passage is a red flag "Although CDC may conduct research in areas relevant for making policy decisions, the goal of such research is to provide the best evidence to drive policy in the right direction."
* Although the clearance process is initiated by the first author, there is no explicit provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document for which they are not authors but that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* Although the policy states CDC accepts scientific debate, we could find no procedure for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions outside of or before the clearance process.
* No commitment to publicly report the aggregate number of scientific misconduct allegations and the specifics on cases of confirmed misconduct.
Department of the Interior
Summary: One of the most detailed and comprehensive policies. It explicitly states that it applies to all employees – not just scientists!
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Applies to all employees including political appointees, supervisors, contractors, and career employees.
* Establishes clear procedure for how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated and resolved
*
Contains procedures for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions
* Asks employees to distinguish between official public communications and other communications made in their private capacity
* Provides supplemental forms and procedures including conflict of interest statements and waivers and scientific misconduct notifications.
* Repeats the principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum
* Missing details in the communications policy (470 DM) such as disclaimer language and publication policy.
* Supports but does not adequately explain scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* Right of last review limited to news releases to the extent practicable and no explicit rights regarding allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* No commitment to publicly report the aggregate number of scientific misconduct allegations and the specifics on cases of confirmed misconduct.
* No user-friendly online portal dedicated to scientific integrity where the policy and supplemental information could be found.
Environmental Protection Agency
Summary: Breaks new ground in the areas of personal views exception and giving scientists the right of last review.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Applies to all employees including political appointees, supervisors, contractors, and career employees. Makes roles and responsibilities of each explicit.
* States clearly and comprehensively scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* Grants scientists the responsibility to review, approve and comment on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* Repeats principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum.
* Made a draft policy available for public comment and incorporated many comments into the final policy.
* While the Scientific Integrity Policy "mandates the Scientific Integrity Official to develop a transparent mechanism for Agency employees to express differing scientific opinions" we could not locate this on EPA's website. This policy should also include more details on procedures for resolving differing scientific opinions.
* The Scientific Integrity Policy promises "the EPA Scientific Integrity Committee will develop an Agency wide framework for the approval of scientific communications". We could not locate this document on the EPA website.
* Commits to developing procedure for how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated, resolved and publicly reported.
* Provides for annual publicly available reporting on the status of scientific integrity within the agency but these reports could not be located on the website.
NASA
Summary: This is a list of existing policies with little narrative. Although there are good elements, agency scientists would have to spend hours to find and understand them.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* References strong NASA policies with regard to communications and whistleblower protections.
* Provides clear and concise guidance on data sharing.
* Referenced media policy allows scientists to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* Repeats some principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum
* Policy is a list of extant policies. Many agencies such as the CDC drew on multiple existing policies, but they summarized them into a user-friendly document.
* No provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* Not explicit that policy applies to political appointees, supervisors, and contractors in addition to career employees.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Summary: Excellent policy that is easy to access on the NOAA website; so long as the weaker Department of Commerce policy does not supersede.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Applies to all employees including political appointees, supervisors, contractors, and career employees and makes roles and responsibilities of each explicit.
* Exceptionally easy to understand FAQ section on website.
* Released an annual report on implementation of the policy.
* States clearly and comprehensively scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* Includes procedural handbook for addressing allegations of scientific misconduct.
* Draft policy was available for public comment and incorporated many comments into the final policy.
* Has a Scientific Integrity Commons section of its website with links to multiple resources.
* Repeats principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum
National Science Foundation
Summary: The strongest media policy of all the agencies but missing some other key protections.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Very strong communications policy.
* States clearly and comprehensively scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* Establishes responsibilities for both scientists and public affairs officials.
* Cites procedure on how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated and managed.
* Information is easy to find on the NSF website.
* Repeats principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum.
* Not explicit that policy applies to political appointees,
supervisors, and contractors in addition to career employees.
* No commitment to publicly report the aggregate number of scientific misconduct allegations and the specifics on cases of confirmed misconduct.
* Research publication guidance is weak.
* No provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* No data sharing specifics or firm commitments.
* Should release a procedure for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions.
* Less well intentioned Administrations could use Department of Commerce policies to restrict scientific integrity at NOAA.
Department of Commerce
Summary: Cedes important details to its bureaus with an interest in science so don't look here to see how the department will ensure the integrity of science.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Confirms scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions to the public and the media.
* Repeats some principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum.
Department of Homeland Security
Summary: This policy is missing many key elements.
Strengths
* Repeats some principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum
* Not explicit that the policy applies to political appointees, supervisors, contractors in addition to career employees.
* Fails to address many guidelines put forth in the December 9, 2010 memorandum.
* Lacks specifics and details as to how stated principles will be enforced and upheld.
* Implies the scientists must seek approval from public affairs officials.
* Lacks procedure on how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated, managed and reported.
* No commitment to publicly report the aggregate number of scientific misconduct allegations and the specifics on cases of confirmed misconduct.
* No procedure for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions.
* Fails to provide specifics on open government requirements, research dissemination and data sharing.
Weaknesses
* Fails to address most of the guidelines put forth in the December 9, 2010 memorandum.
* Not explicit that policy applies to political appointees, and supervisors, in addition to career employees.
* Policies excessively restrictive and vague, even given the nature of the Office.
* No provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* No provision for scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* No procedure for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions.
* No procedure for data sharing with other agencies or commitment to timely releases of scientific information.
* No commitment to publicly report the aggregate number of scientific misconduct allegations and the specifics on cases of confirmed misconduct.
* Very scientist focused with little mention of the role of nonscientist supervisors.
Department of State
Summary: This policy fails to address many of the guidelines put forth in the December 9, 2010 memorandum and its communications policy is excessively restrictive.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Applies to all employees including, supervisors, contractors, and career employees.
* Allows scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* Refers to established procedures for how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated and managed.
* Repeats some principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum.
* Fails to address many of the guidelines put forth in the December 9, 2010 memorandum.
* All communication of scientific topics, policies, and research to the media must be cleared through the Bureau of Public Affairs.
* Unofficial scientific communications of official concern must be approved by the Bureau of Public Affairs and requires a disclaimer.
* No commitment to publicly report the aggregate number of scientific misconduct allegations and the specifics on cases of confirmed misconduct.
* No procedure for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Summary: Principles are there but specific provisions and guidance are missing.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Taking strong steps toward limiting conflicts of interest on scientific advisory panels.
* Repeats principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum.
* Not explicit that policy applies to political appointees, supervisors, and contractors in addition to career employees.
* Promises FDA written media relations policy but this could not be found on the FDA website.
* Requires permission from public affairs to speak to the media in an official capacity.
* No provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* No procedure detailing how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated, managed and reported.
* No data sharing and dissemination specifics. Unnecessary hurdles prevent data and research from being made public.
* Especially important at the FDA – scientific integrity principles should pertain to scientific information submitted to the agency from interested parties.
* Lacks specifics as to how stated principles will be enforced and upheld.
* Less well-intentioned Administrations could use Department of Health and Human Services policies to restrict scientific integrity.
Marine Mammal Commission
Summary: Commissions were not required to create scientific integrity policies. Although some key features are missing, everything in here is good.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Confirms scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* Contains clear and concise guidelines for the selection and retention of Commission staff.
* Has clear data quality and dissemination guidelines.
* Repeats principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren.
* Mandatory financial disclosure for commissioners and scientific advisory committee members.
* No current members have financial conflicts of interest.
* Not explicit that policy applies to political appointees, supervisors, and contractors in addition to career employees.
* Supports but does not adequately explain scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* Scientists must seek approval from public affairs officials to speak to the media.
* No provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* Lacks procedure on how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated, managed and reported.
* No procedure for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions.
Department of Defense
Summary: This policy is excessively restrictive and vague, even given the nature of the Office.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Repeats some principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum
* DOD approval to speak to the media or the public shall not be unreasonably delayed or withheld.
* Fails to address most of the guidelines put forth in the December 9, 2010 memorandum.
* Not explicit that policy applies to political appointees, contractors, and supervisors, in addition to career employees.
* Policies excessively restrictive and vague, even given the nature of the Office.
* Scientists may only speak to the media or the public with appropriate coordination with their organization.
* No provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* No provision for scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* Lacks procedure on how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated, managed and reported.
* No procedure for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions.
* No procedure for data sharing with other agencies or commitment to timely releases of scientific information.
* Policy is difficult to find on DOD website.
Department of Education
Summary: This policy was released in draft form nearly a year ago and we could not locate a final policy or the draft policy on the department's website. The draft lacked many crucial details.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Applies to all employees including, supervisors, contractors, and career employees.
* Repeats principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum.
* Made draft policy available for public comment.
* Lacks specifics and details as to how stated principles will be enforced and upheld.
* No provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* No provision for scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* Lacks procedure on how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated, managed and reported.
* No procedure for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions.
* Fails to provide specifics on open government requirements, research dissemination and data sharing.
Department of Energy
Summary: This policy is less than three pages long and hence has many significant gaps. Does not fully embrace the principles in the OSTP guidance memo and has many additional missing elements.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Repeats principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum.
* Not explicit that policy applies to political appointees, supervisors, contractors in addition to career employees.
* Fails to address many of the guidelines put forth in the December 9, 2010 memorandum.
* Lacks specifics and details as to how stated principles will be enforced and upheld.
* Weak media and communications policy.
* States but does not adequately support scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* No provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* Lacks procedure on how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated, managed and reported.
* No procedure for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions.
Department of Health and Human Services
Final policy
Summary: HHS could have set the gold standard by calling on the depth of experience with scientific integrity at the NIH. But they did not.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Repeats principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum.
* Allows individual HHS agencies to develop agency-specific scientific integrity principles, policies, and procedures of their own.
* States scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* Not explicit that policy applies to political appointees,
supervisors, and contractors in addition to career employees.
* No provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* Does not allow use of HHS title or affiliation even for identification purposes when presenting personal or individual views.
* Scientists must seek approval from public affairs officials to speak to the media.
* This policy does not address how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated, managed and reported.
* No HHS- wide guidance for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions.
* Defers to HHS agencies for specifics on open government requirements, research dissemination and data sharing.
* Leaves all specifics and details as to how stated principles will be enforced and upheld to individual HHS agencies.
Department of Justice
Summary: Very decentralized draft policy that could lead to problems for scientists and very limited commitments to transparency. No final policy could be found on the DOJ website.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Applies to all employees including, supervisors, contractors, and career employees.
* Repeats principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum.
* Commitments to maintaining and strengthening scientific integrity and credibility are strongly stated.
* Prohibits employees from inappropriately suppressing or altering scientific research.
* Implementation plans are left up to individual offices rather than establishing a department-wide policy.
* Communications policy is excessively restrictive even given the DOJ's position. The policy requires public affairs officers to coordinate all interactions with the media.
* No provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* No provision for scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* Commits to developing a procedure for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions but does not indicate when it will be released.
* Lacks procedure on how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated, managed and reported.
* Limited transparency commitments.
Department of Labor
Summary: The final policy is exactly the same as the draft policy in spite of a large response to a public comment period. Although the principles from the December 9, 2010 memorandum are repeated, there are many flaws, weaknesses, and gaps.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Establishes clear procedure for how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated and managed.
* Repeats principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum.
* Not explicit that the policy applies to political appointees, supervisors, and contractors in addition to career employees.
* Scientists may only speak to the media on matters related to their official work and only if assigned by their immediate supervisor and in coordination with their public affairs office.
* No provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* Supports but does not adequately explain scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* No procedure to publicly report the aggregate number of scientific misconduct allegations and the specifics on cases of confirmed misconduct.
* No procedure for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions.
* No data dissemination commitments.
* Lacks specifics and details as to how stated principles will be enforced and upheld.
Department of Transportation
Summary: The draft policy is no longer available on the department's website, and it was not replaced by a final policy. The draft failed to address most of the guidelines put forth in the December 9, 2010 memorandum.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Repeats some principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum
* Fails to address most of the guidelines put forth in the December 9, 2010 memorandum.
* Lacks specifics for any of the commitments.
* Not explicit that policy applies to political appointees, supervisors, and contractors in addition to career employees.
* No provision for scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* Scientists must coordinate with public affairs officials prior to speaking to the media.
* No provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* Lacks procedures on how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated, managed and reported.
* No procedure for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions
* Commits to developing an implementation guide but has not made this public.
Department of Veterans Affairs
Summary: The final policy could not be located on their website. There was a public comment period but there is no evidence these comments were ever used to create a final policy. Many important features are missing from this draft.
Strengths
Weaknesses
The March 27, 2012 draft policy:
* Confirms scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* Establishes that allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated and managed in accordance with Federal Policy on Research Misconduct.
* Makes strong commitments to transparency and the dissemination and publication of scientific information.
* Repeats principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum.
* Not explicit that policy applies to political appointees, supervisors, and contractors in addition to career employees.
* Scientists must seek approval from public affairs officials before speaking to the media.
* No provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* No commitment to publicly report the aggregate number of scientific misconduct allegations and the specifics on cases of confirmed misconduct.
* Made draft policy available for public comment but we could not locate a final policy on their website.
* No procedure for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions.
Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Summary: This policy could not be found on the ODNI website and had to be obtained through FOIA. The policy is excessively restrictive and vague, even given the nature of the Office.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Repeats some principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum
* In principle supports the separation of fundamental scientific and technological information from nationals intelligence capabilities so that more science may be released.
* Fails to address most of the guidelines put forth in the December 9, 2010 memorandum.
* Lacks specifics for any of the commitments.
* Not explicit that policy applies to political appointees, supervisors, and contractors in addition to career employees.
* No provision for scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* Scientists must coordinate with public affairs officials prior to speaking to the media.
* No provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* Lacks procedures on how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated, managed and reported.
* No procedure for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions
* Commits to developing an implementation guide but has not made this public.
USAID
Summary: Implies that scientists must seek approval from public affairs before speaking to the media which could have a chilling effect on transparency.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Applies to all employees including, supervisors, contractors, and career employees.
* Confirms scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions.
* Repeats principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren.
* Contains strong principles to protect science from inappropriate interference.
* Weak communications and media policies.
* Scientists must seek approval from public affairs officials to speak to the media.
* No provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* Lacks procedure on how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated, managed and reported.
* No procedure for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions.
USDA
Summary: This policy has significant gaps and expired over a year and a half ago with no indication of plans for revisiting it.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Applies to all employees including, supervisors, contractors, and career employees.
* Repeats some principles from December 9, 2010 Holdren memorandum.
* Makes some good commitments regarding federal scientific advisory committees
* Fails to address many of the guidelines put forth in the December 9, 2010 memorandum.
* Implies scientists must seek approval from public affairs officials to communicate with the media.
* No provision allowing scientists the right to review, approve and comment publicly on the final version of any scientific document that relies on their research or identifies them as a contributor.
* No provision for scientist and researcher rights to express personal opinions with appropriate disclaimers.
* Lacks procedure on how allegations of scientific misconduct will be investigated, managed and reported.
* No procedure for reporting and resolving differing scientific opinions.
* Lacks specifics and details as to how stated principles will be implemented, enforced and upheld.
* States that the policy will only be in effect for one year defeating the purpose of the policy.
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8 Online Dispute Resolution for Consumers
Online Dispute Resolution Methods for Settling Business to Consumer Conflicts
Pablo Cortés
1 Introduction
ODR in the consumer context refers to the use of ICT tools and methods (usually alternative to the court system) employed by businesses and consumers (B2C) to settle conflicts that arise out of economic transactions between the parties, particularly in e-commerce. It is often distinguished from other fields where ODR is used, such as in the commercial field (B2B), in the public sphere to resolve government and citizen (G2C) disputes, and in the resolution of disputes related to intellectual property. A consumer transaction (B2C), akin to a consumer dispute, will be one where an individual, acting on a personal capacity, buys goods or services for his or her personal use. Conversely, a business is an individual or an entity that acts on a professional capacity selling goods or services as part of their profession.
In a B2C dispute, the aggrieved party is frequently the consumer as they normally pay in advance for their purchased goods and services. Consequently, the consumer is the weaker party in a dispute where the business has the payment and the experience of dealing with similar disputes. Consumers will often get more involved in the dispute, taking it more personal, and thus requiring a more transformative solution, while the business is mostly interested in resolving the dispute as fast and inexpensively as possible.
In certain cases, businesses will be keen in resolving the dispute in order to maintain their reputation. This is relevant when, as it happens in eBay, the buyer leaves feedback after a transaction. When ODR is effectively used in this way, it has an added value for the parties; it increases the consumers' trust in those online sellers that provide ODR services. Greater trust means that reliable sellers would boost their trade and consumers will be protected from the potential abuse by the dominant party in the transaction. ODR services may be employed to ensure that consumers' rights are respected by the online vendor, hence enhancing consumers' confidence in the online transaction. 1 As a result, ODR would
1 This is more needed in cross-border e-commerce. See "EC Staff Working Document Report on Cross-Border E-Commerce", SEC (2009) 283 final.
ultimately enhance the business's ability to sell while at the same time protecting the consumer's ability to participate safely in e-commerce.
E-commerce is thought to be one of the areas where ODR will flourish as it seems logical for parties that enter into disputes online to use the same medium, the Internet, to resolve their disputes. The resolution of small value disputes that inevitably arise out of millions of transactions taking place every day between parties located far from each other require the use of cost-efficient methods of dispute resolution. Examples of ODR providers that resolve high volume of consumer disputes are eBay and PayPal, which act as third neutral parties encouraging first business and consumers to reach amicable agreements through automated negotiation, and when parties cannot reach consensual agreements, they adjudicate the disputes. 2
The expansion of ODR in the consumer context is not simply about reducing the cost of resolving disputes that could be settled face to face. It is mostly about finding innovative ways to settle niche disputes which otherwise would remain unresolved due to the high costs of litigation (not to mention cross-border challenges of conflict of laws) and face to face ADR methods. ODR for consumers should be characterised by being of easy access and user-friendly as well as being cost-effective. Yet, this is not an easy task, particularly in cross-border disputes, where new challenges enter into the paradigm of resolving disputes online.
This chapter starts in part 2 arguing that technology assisted dispute resolution methods are essential to increase consumer access to justice. The chapter does not intend to focus on particular jurisdictions, but many references made in this chapter examine the two largest economies with a relatively unified consumer law, i.e. the European Union and United States, since these two jurisdictions take different approaches to consumer protection. Part 3 of this chapter briefly argues that ODR methods and techniques should be employed first and foremost to avoid consumer complaints. Part 4 examines some of the challenges that face the growth of ODR, namely, obtaining sustainable funding to resolve small value disputes, ensuring due process guarantees and raising trust and awareness amongst its users. Part 5 analyzes some of the main ODR methods for resolving disputes; this part is divided into consensual and adjudicative methods, and it is followed by a critical analysis on what are the most suitable ODR methods for resolving consumer disputes. Lastly, Part 6 ventures some thoughts on what the future may hold for consumer ODR services.
2 See "Introducing the PayPal Dispute Resolution Process", available at <www.paypal.com>. Hereinafter all websites have been accessed 1 February 2011.
2 Technology as a Vehicle to Improve Consumer Access to Justice
In some jurisdictions, such as in the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU), consumer protection law is very extensive; in fact European consumers have more rights when buying online than when they go to the local shop. Yet, the existing public enforcement mechanisms are not sufficient to guarantee their rights. When consumer protection law is not coupled with appropriate enforcement mechanisms, it does not increase consumer safety in the online market nor enhance consumer trust.
When consumers individually pursue remedies to their disputes, traditionally the most common forum for resolving them is consumer agencies and courts (especially when there is a small claims court available). In recent times, certain industry sectors are relying on ADR methods, which are increasingly being supported by ICT tools. It is believed that the expansion of these methods is necessary to give consumers appropriate access to justice. 3
With regards to public enforcement, a number of national agencies assist consumers in resolving their disputes, although the cross-border co-operation between these bodies presently appears to be rather limited. 4 The strategy, however, has been different across the world. For instance, the United States has facilitated the use of class actions to correct market abuses. Hence class actions appeared in the US in order to compensate for the lack of governmental support in enforcing consumer laws. By contrast, in the EU, only thirteen Member States currently allow class actions with certain restrictions under their domestic laws. 5
The consumer protection policy in the EU is based on the intervention of the public authorities to stop market abuses, while in the US the public policy encourages attorneys to take more initiative in upholding consumer rights and correcting market abuses. One reason for this is that US attorneys may charge contingent fees, with the approval of the court. Recent legislative changes in some European Member States (e.g. the UK) tend to follow the US model permitting the charging of conditional fees which allow lawyers not to charge when they lose a case and to obtain an upscale premium (up to 100% of the
3 See generally SANCO 2009 infra.
4 See at global level econsumer.gov and at regional level the ECC. European Consumer Centre Ireland Report "The European Marketplace: Consumer Complaints 2005, A Summary Analysis of Consumer Complaints Reported to the ECC-Net" (June 2006).
5 CivilConsultingandOxfordEconomics,EuropeanCommission,DGSANCO,"EvaluationoftheEffectiveness and Efficiency of Collective Redress Mechanisms in the European Union", Final Report (26 August 2008) p. 6. The European Commission has highlighted the need for creating a communitarian instrument to address collective redress mechanisms at EU level with cross-border disputes. Currently, 10% of all collective claims have a cross-border element. See European Commission, "Green Paper on Consumer Collective Redress" (27 November 2008) COM(2008) 794 final.
original legal fee) if the case is won. 6 Furthermore, the UK is now considering the introduction of contingency fees á la US in order to cut down on legal costs. 7
A significant difficulty in class action procedures is the resources needed to reach and communicate with all the claimants. These types of disputes are good options to be managed through the use of ICT tools, particularly with the increase of e-commerce, where the number of disputes augments across borders. 8 The use of technology to negotiate and resolve these disputes may help to overcome difficulties related to the use of litigation in various jurisdictions, and it will ease communications among the many consumer claimants.
The option of commencing legal proceedings for resolving e-commerce disputes of small value is only feasible when there is either the possibility of a collective action, or, if pursued individually, when a small claims procedure is complemented with ICT, e.g. Online Small Claims Court. However, these processes encounter difficulties in resolving cross-border disputes. The European Small Claims Procedure, which has been implemented in all the EU Member States since January 2009, uses online standard forms and encourages the use of ICT. 9 If EU Member States incorporate effective ICT tools and flexibility in their use, the judicial process has the potential to become a fully-fleshed ODR process, which would make national courts in the EU more accessible and appropriate to deal effectively with cross-border claims, including those arising out of e-commerce.
When cross-border disputes are resolved in courts, there is an additional issue that must be contemplated: conflict of laws. Currently, there are two opposite approaches worldwide. This can be seen with rules employed in the EU and the US. In the EU, conflicts of laws are resolved according to the Brussels and Rome Regulations, 10 which contrast with the position in US. 11 Under EU law, the tendency is to recognise consumers' habitual residence as the competent forum and consumers' domestic law as the applicable law (country of destination approach) even when there is a contractual clause stating otherwise. 12 Accordingly, it may be expected that if online businesses were susceptible to be sued at the consumers' forum, (regardless how rare this may be!) one would expect the business
6 W. Emos & N. Garoupa, "US-Style Contingent Fees and UK-Style Conditional Fees: Agency Problems and Supply of Legal Services", (2006) 27(5) Managerial and Decision Economics, p. 379.
7 R. Jackson LJ, Review of Civil Litigation Costs: Final Report, 21 December 2009 p. 94.
8 C. Rule, Online Dispute Resolution for Businesses. B2B, E-Commerce, Consumer, Employment, Insurance, and Other Commercial Conflicts, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass 2002, p. 216.
9 Regulation 861/2007/EC of 11 July 2007 establishing a European Small Claims Procedure OJ L199/1. P. Cortés, "Does the Proposed European Procedure Enhance the Resolution of Small Claims?", (2008) 27(1) Civil Justice Quarterly, pp. 83-97.
10 Regulation 593/2008/EC of 17 June 2008 on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations (Rome I) OJ L177/6 of 4 July 2008; Regulation 44/2001/EC of 22 December on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgements in Civil and Commercial Matters, OJ L12.
11 Carnival Cruise Lines, Inc. v. Shute, 499 US 585 (1991).
12 See Regulation 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, Article 15.1(c); Regulation 593/2008 of 17 June 2008 on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations (Rome I) Article 6.
to prefer the use of ODR. In the US, however, the approach is the opposite, where there is a preference to favour the country of origin approach and to uphold pre-dispute contractual clauses. 13 Consequently, US businesses may be less incentivised in incorporating accessible ODR. In any event, none of the above approaches seem to strike the right balance between the parties. Furthermore, in most cases recourse to the courts may neither be feasible nor desirable for one or both parties; thus, public and private ODR initiatives may be a solution for many B2C e-commerce disputes.
Although it is often assumed that one of the major advantages of ODR is that it avoids jurisdictional issues, 14 it should be noted that ODR services cannot always rely on disputants to co-operate and to always have self-enforcement mechanisms. For this reason, there is a pending need to harmonise conflict of laws through an international convention achieving the necessary compromise to ascertain the jurisdiction for the resolution of consumer disputes. 15
3 Dispute Avoidance Before Dispute Resolution
As previously mentioned, this chapter focuses on dispute resolution methods used to deal with B2C disputes. ODR is generally understood as a number of more or less informal dispute resolution processes that take place mainly online and that are provided by independent entities rather than by one of the disputants, i.e. automated negotiation, assisted negotiation, mediation, arbitration and small claims court procedures. Moreover, ODR may be split into dispute avoidance and dispute resolution. Dispute avoidance mechanisms include internal complaint procedures, escrows, online payment services, reputation systems and trustmarks. Conflict prevention is of paramount importance and businesses should focus on how to improve it before investing on dispute resolution. 16 ODR can offer added value to businesses that are interested in avoiding complaints from escalating to disputes. With these objectives in mind a number of public initiatives have been developed, such as the econsumer.gov and consumer complaint form, which were designed to standardise
13 J. Hörnle, Cross-Border Internet Dispute Resolution, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2009, pp. 180182.
14 M. Philippe, "Now Where do We Stand with Online Dispute Resolution (ODR)?", (2010) 6 International Business Law Journal, p. 575.
15 See the failed attempts to achieve this in the Hague Convention. Preliminary Draft Convention on Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (Hague Convention) October 1999 and its revision June 2001. T.P. Lester, "Globalize Automatic Choice of Forum: Where Do Internet Consumers Sue?: Proposed Article 7 of the Hague Convention on International Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters and Its Possible Effects on e-Commerce", (2003) 9 New England Journal of International and Comparative Law, p. 469.
16 See Consumer Focus, "Consumer Focus Response to the OFT Consultation on E-Consumer Protection Strategy" (October 2010), p. 8.
claims and clarify complaints, including those that are originated out of cross-border transactions. 17
An efficient dispute resolution system needs to be built on solid dispute avoidance mechanisms, which in itself requires consumer empowerment. The latter is achieved by ensuring that businesses provide the necessary information, educating consumers about their rights and obligations, and how to engage in sensible shopping while avoiding transactions with unreliable online businesses. 18 It is also necessary to provide mechanisms to ensure that online businesses recognise and comply with their obligations. 19 Even when disputes arise, ODR providers ought to be used as the last resort to resolve those disputes which cannot be resolved at an early stage between the business and the consumer. This is well illustrated by eBay whose in-house ODR process has resolved hundreds of millions disputes, while its previous preferred ODR provider, SquareTrade (and now PayPal amongst other ODR service providers), resolved just over two million in its life time. 20 ODR providers should assist online businesses in building effective internal complainant procedures, and their disputes should therefore only be outsourced to external ODR providers in the most difficult cases to ensure impartiality and create trust amongst consumers.
4 Constraints in the Expansion of ODR
There have been many ODR initiatives that have not achieved market implementation. Studies have shown that many ODR providers have ceased operating, and many others have stopped updating their websites. 21 This evidences the number of challenges that hinder the growth of ODR. This section focuses on four aspects that are believed to constrain the expansion of consumer ODR: financing ODR, lack of uniform procedural standards, reluctance to participate in ODR processes, and awareness.
17 See<http://econsumer.gov><http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/redress/compl/cons_compl/acce_just03_en.pdf>.
18 See for example Howard, the ECC-Net's online shopping assistant. Available at <www.ukecc.net/sub.asp?id=209>, EC Communication COM(2007) 99 Final. p. 5.
19 M. Donnelly and F. White "The Effect of Information Based Consumer Protection: Lessons from a Study of the Irish Online Market", in Twigg Flesner et al. (eds.), Yearbook of Consumer Law 2008, Ashgate, Surrey 2007, pp. 271-296.
20 Author's phone interview with Colin Rule, ODR Director of eBay and PayPal, 23 July 2008.
21 Consumers International "Disputes in Cyberspace 2001: Update of Online Dispute Resolution for Consumers in Cross-Border Disputes", (2001) <www.consumersinternational.org>; M. Conley Tyler and Di Bretherton, "Seventy-six and Counting: An Analysis of ODR Sites", (2003) Report of Research Conducted for the Department of Justice, Victoria, Australia.
4.1 Financing ODR Services
Private funding may secure sufficient income, but it may also jeopardise the independence of an ODR service provider, especially in B2C transactions where a unilateral fees model from the business seems to be the most common way to encourage consumer's participation. 22 In order to avoid a perception of bias, Katsh and Rifkin suggest that the ODR provider should clearly admit if there is any funding given by the business. 23 Transparency should be complemented with additional mechanisms to ensure impartiality, such as systems to handle complaints when procedures were not followed. 24
Consumers International argues that ODR services should be provided for free or for a moderate cost. Rule suggests the charge of a low fee to discourage frivolous claims, but he warns that if fees are too high, parties may not use ODR. 25 Frivolous claims can also be avoided by charging an administration fee that could be returnable if the consumer succeeds wholly or partly in the claim.
Some successful ODR providers, such as the Austrian Internet Ombudsman, benefit from public funding. 26 This removes bias concerns of private financial support, 27 yet this may result in a heavy burden for taxpayers. 28 In some jurisdictions, dispute resolution is seen as a necessary public service. An example of this would be Spain, where legislation does not allow the operation of dispute resolution services for-profit. 29 This approach, however, discourages the development of the private and competitive ODR industry. 30 It can be argued that for-profit ODR services, as a form of e-commerce, could be allowed as long as they provide transparent services that are monitored by public authorities. This is particularly necessary when ODR services are used for resolving disputes between parties with unequal bargaining power (B2C disputes) and when the costs of dispute resolution (and due process) are reduced in order to deliver a cost-effective ODR process.
22 Consumers International 2001.
23 E. Katsh and J. Rifkin, Online Dispute Resolution, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass 2001, p. 41.
24 Consumers International 2001.
25 Rule (2002), pp. 119 and 294. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, "Online Dispute Resolution: E-Commerce and Beyond" in E-Commerce and Development Report, (2003) p. 190.
26 For more information see Hörnle (2009), p. 76.
27 CEN/ISS Workshop Agreement on Standardization of Online Dispute Resolution Tools prCWA XXX, 2009 p. 68 at 9.1.
28 J. Hill, Cross-Border Consumer Contracts, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2008, pp. 318, 391.
29 See Article 4 of Ley 44/2006 of 29 December of Consumer Protection; Ley 7/1998 of 13 April of General Conditions and Clauses for Consumer Contracts, Ley 60/2003 of 23 December of Arbitration, Real Decreto (Royal Decree, RD) 636/1993 of 3 May 1993 of the Consumer Arbitration System, RD 231/2008 of 15 February of the Consumer Arbitration System.
30 F. Esteban de la Rosa, "Régimen Europeo de la Resolución Electrónica de Litigios (ODR) en la Contratación Internacional de Consumo", in F. Esteban de la Rosa y G. Orozco Pardo, Mediación y Arbitraje de Consumo. Una Perspectiva Española, Europea y Comparada, Valencia, Tirant Monografías 713, 2010, p. 204.
Public institutions as well as ODR initiatives seek the creation of a self-financing ODR scheme which does not depend on public funding. It is not clear whether this can always be a workable option, particularly at the beginning when consumers and businesses may not value sufficiently the cost of ODR services. For this reason it has often been proposed public financing to build an ODR network, but expecting to be self-financed once it starts operating. 31 This is not an easy task. In fact there have already been a number of failed attempts. For instance, Electronic Consumer Dispute Resolution (ECODIR) was initially funded by the European Commission, but it did not succeed in becoming a self-financed ODR provider. This may be due to a number of reasons, the major of which was that it failed to get the co-operation of large ecommerce vendors. This was indeed the key strategy of successful ODR providers, such as CyberSettle partnerships with public and private institutions or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved Uniform Domain Names Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) providers.
Self-financed schemes are more likely to appear when a particular market is highly regulated, for example financial services, travel industry and telecommunications. In many jurisdictions, there are industry ombudsmen or other ADR/ODR services attached to these economic sectors. 32 Consumer law is also increasing in many countries with the growth of the welfare state. It is a question of time before these jurisdictions will be more willing to develop ODR services to ensure the enforcement of the substantive consumer law.
4.2 Uniform Procedural Standards
In ODR, consumers are one-shooters while businesses are repeat players, dealing with dozens of cases at any given time. This increases the imbalance where businesses are likely to make more informed choices than consumers. For this reason it may be preferable if outside bodies set standards ensuring procedural fairness in B2C processes. 33 Due process rights need to be respected, but that is not sufficient, consumers need to perceive that their rights are being respected too. 34 Hence, due process requirements and counterpoise are paramount when there is power imbalance between the disputants. In this regard, key
31 This is the funding scheme employed by major trust marks and current ODR initiatives. See C. Rule, V. Rogers & L. Del Duca, "Designing a Global Consumer Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) System for Cross-Border Small Value-High Volume Claims, OAS Developments", A Fresh Look at ODR & Global E-Commerce 2930 March 2010, United Nations Office, Vienna. See also European Commission Digital Agenda for Europe COM(2010), 245 p. 14.
32 E.g. the UK has the Financial Ombudsman, the Office of the Telecommunication Ombudsman and the Energy Ombudsman.
33 Rule (2002), p. 111.
34 Ibid., p. 237. Regarding the importance of perception in the resolution of a dispute see R. Fisher, W. Ury, and B. Patton, Getting to YES: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In., (2 nd ed.) London, Random House Business Books, 1999, pp. 22-30.
procedural issues should be taken into account, such as the need for impartiality, the selection of third neutral parties, legality, fair procedures and the supervision of ODR providers. Fast and inexpensive judicial enforcement when available or self-enforcement mechanisms are also required for the success of ODR services.
During the past decade, a number of recommendations and guidelines were issued with the objective of promoting fair and efficient ADR and ODR participation. Among the existing initiatives from international governmental bodies the most influential is the OECD's Guidelines for Consumer Protection in the Context of Electronic Commerce and the subsequent report on Consumer Dispute Resolution in the Global Market Place. 35 These guidelines were complemented in 2007 by a recommendation on B2C dispute resolution. 36 The OECD has consistently encouraged the promotion of ODR, and it has suggested that the main obstacle for the development of ODR is national differences in existing legal frameworks on ADR, such as differences as to the validity of ADR clauses, enforceability of settlements, procedural principles and so on. 37 The National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution has issued standards of practice for ODR providers. 38 The United NationsCommissiononInternationalTradeLaw(UNCITRAL)isnowworkingonuniform legal provisions for consumer ODR. 39
In addition, business organisations have taken initiatives in this area with the aim of promoting e-commerce and shielding themselves from liability and court procedures. 40 The most relevant initiatives were issued by the Alliance for Global Business, 41 the Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce 42 and the International Chamber of Commerce. 43 Consumer organisations have also contributed to the development of ODR policies, notably the Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue, 44 Consumers International 45 and the
35 9 December 1999, 4 July 2002 and 11 April 2006. Committee on Consumer Policy, "Consumers in the Online Marketplace: The OECD Guidelines Three Years Later", OECD Publications (3 February 2003) DSTI/CP/(2002) 4/Final available at <www.oecd.org>.
36 OECD Recommendation on Consumer Dispute Resolution and Redress (12 July 2007).
37 G. Kaufmann-Kohler and T. Schultz, Online Dispute Resolution: Challenges for Contemporary Justice, The Hague, Kluwer Law International 2004, pp. 92-93.
38 Recommended by Advisory Committee of the National Centre for Technology and Dispute, "Standard of Practice", July 2009. Available at <www.icann.org/ombudsman/odr-standards-of-practice-en.pdf>.
39 UNCITRAL, Note by the Secretariat: "Possible Future Work on Online Dispute Resolution in Cross-Border Electronic Transactions" (July 2010).
40 Kaufmann-Kohler & Schultz (2004), p. 104.
41 Alliance for Global Business, "A Global Action Plan for Electronic Business" (July 2002).
42 E.g. the Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce, Consumer Confidence Working Group "Alternative Dispute Resolution – The Miami 2000 Recommendations and the Tokyo 2001 Recommendations".
43 The International Chamber of Commerce Best Practices for ODR in B2C Disputes.
44 Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce (GBDe) Recommendations on Alternative Dispute Resolution (September 2000).
45 Consumers International 2001.
International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network. 46 Also, dispute resolution providers have contributed to the development of ODR standards, e.g. the American Bar Association Taskforce on E-Commerce and ADR Recommended Best Practices for ODR Providers. 47 This chapter does not intend to discuss these initiatives in detailed since they have already been discussed elsewhere. 48
With regards to future normative changes, it seems that the regulation of ODR is going to be slow, particularly at regional and global level. However, there are currently a number of initiatives that examine the possibility of regulating ODR in order to ensure and guarantee that (at least some) ODR service providers comply with minimum due process requirements. With regards to forthcoming initiatives it is important to highlight in the EU the Digital Agenda 2010 which proposes the creation of a pan-European Trustmark. 49 The new aspect of this proposal is that it may consider the possibility of designing a public trustmark that may cohabit with private ones. In November 2011, the European Commission is due to issue to important legislative instruments in the field of consumer ODR. The first one is a directive requiring the provision of ADR services for cross-border B2C disputes and setting minimum standards for ADR methods. The second initiative is a Regulation on consumer ODR setting coordinating.
In this regard, the European Commission is closely following the international developments in the field of ODR, especially the outcome of UNCITRAL working group on ODR. UNCITRAL has the role of harmonising commercial and trade law at international level. 50 Currently, UNCITRAL is examining a set of recommendations, which may include the possibility of creating a model law. The model law would then be employed to indicate the regulation of national laws. Another proposal that is being considered by UNCITRAL is that which has been presented by Organisation of American States (OAS) for the design of a global network of ODR providers. 51 In addition, UNCITRAL is expected to issue a number of recommendations on the contractual use of ODR and the online enforcement of settlements reached through an ODR process.
46 <www.econsumer.gov>.
47 American Bar Association (ABA) Task Force on E-Commerce and ADR, "Addressing Disputes in Electronic Commerce: Final Report and Recommendations" (2002).
48 B.G. Davis, "Building the Seamless Dispute Resolution Web: A Status Report on the American Bar Association Task Force on E-Commerce and Alternative Dispute Resolution", (2002) 8 Texas Wesleyan Law Review, p. 529; L.M. Ponte and T.D. Cavenagh, Cyberjustice, Online Dispute Resolution for E-Commerce, New Jersey, Parson Prentice Hall 2005, Appendix A examining the ABA Task Force initiative.
49 Digital Agenda (2010) supra.
50 UNCITRAL (2010) supra.
51 Rule et al. (2010).
4.3
Another major identifiable challenge faced by ODR is convincing parties to trust and use an ODR service. When an individual has submitted a complaint to an ODR service that is not linked to the other party, the real challenge is to convince the party to participate. This is particularly difficult when there is an imbalance of power between the parties. Participation may also vary depending on the chosen ODR procedure. In case of arbitration, it would be easier to use it when parties have agreed before the dispute arises. This, however, may present legal problems in certain jurisdictions, such as in the EU, where pre-dispute B2C arbitration is only permissible if it is non-binding arbitration, or binding only for the business and not for consumers. 52
By contrast, other countries, such as the US, allow the use of pre-dispute mandatory arbitration under the national law for the resolution of consumer disputes. Conversely, policy makers in the EU believe that allowing private dispute resolution systems might be introduced at the cost of decreasing the level of consumer protection within the EU. 53 However, this policy could change in the EU if a co-ordinated legal initiative ensures that private ODR services meet sufficient procedural standards and grant the enforcement of consumer rights. 54
In the case of mediation, it would be less problematic to obtain parties' participation, especially when there is no significant imbalance of power between the parties, where there is an interest in maintaining the relationship and when the dispute is not highly confrontational. Additional incentives can be created in order to encourage parties' participation. In eBay for example, buyers' feedback encourages a seller's participation since the seller wants to avoid negative reviews. Also intermediaries, such as lawyers, consumer organisations and chambers of commerce, may influence the type of dispute resolution mechanisms sought by the parties. 55
Katsh and Rifkin observe that businesses may be reluctant to offer ODR in case their customers would interpret that disputes arise often. 56 They suggest that ODR may enhance trust in a transaction if consumers are well informed, not just about their rights, but assuring them that they have also the tools to enforce them. 57 For ODR to be trust building, it needs to be advertised appropriately. ODR is frequently offered in the context of affiliation
52 See Recommendation 98/257/CE of the Commission on the Principles Applicable to the Bodies Responsible for Out-of-Court Settlement of Consumer Disputes 1998 O.J. (L. 115) VI principle of liberty. See also Annex [q] Directive 1993/13/EC.
53 Hörnle (2009) pp. 174-9.
54 Hill (2008), pp. 318-319 and Cortés (2010), pp. 1-28.
55 I. Ramsay, "Consumer Redress and Access to Justice", in International Perspectives on Consumers' Access to Justice, New York, Cambridge University Press 2006, p. 34.
56 Katsh and Rifkin (2001), p. 87.
57 Ibid.
programs i.e. trustmarks. Traders generally affiliate to these schemes on a voluntary basis to enhance consumer confidence. In this context, the goal of ODR is not just to settle disputes but also to increase consumer confidence in e-commerce. 58
4.4 Awareness
An additional barrier in the growth of ODR is the lack of awareness. A way of increasing trust and awareness of ODR providers is by an accreditation system. 59 Accredited ODR providers (presumably of those providers that offer the most fair and cost-efficient ODR processes) could obtain certain privileges: they could be publicly endorsed with a trustmark; and as they would be monitored, thus ensuring fair and efficient services.
When ODR is proposed by the consumer, it often happens that the business will refuse its participation. 60 Hence, to ensure the use of ODR businesses must agree in advance to use it and offer it to the consumer when disputes arise.
There is a need to clarify the legal status of ODR decisions and contractual clauses. Thus far ODR has relied on self-regulation leaving many legal questions unanswered, such as the enforceability of decisions and clauses referring parties to an ODR process. This is why, unsurprisingly, enforceability and a mandatory nature are key factors for the success of ODR providers, (e.g. the UDRP). How many domain name disputants would otherwise voluntarily agree to use the UDRP if they were not compelled to do so? How many disputants would voluntarily comply with a decision from an adversarial ODR process? Even consensual ODR providers, such as eBay and PayPal, relied on the provision of strong incentives for parties to use ODR: buyers want to obtain economic compensation and sellers want to receive positive feedback from buyers. It must be noted that two of the most successful ODR processes to date (UDRP providers and eBay/PayPal) appeared in a market where disputes were referred to them, and where the market administrator (ICANN and eBay) wanted to avoid being sued by disputants. In addition, in most of these cases parties could not access an offline dispute resolution mechanism for a reasonable cost.
58 J. Nadler, "Electronic Mediated Dispute Resolution and E-Commerce", (2001) 17 Negotiation Journal, p. 333. 59 See P. Cortés, "Developing Online Dispute Resolution for Consumers in the EU: A Proposal for the Regulation of Accredited Providers", (2011) 19(1) International Journal of Law and Information Technology, pp. 1-28.
60 DG SANCO, Study on the Use of Alternative Dispute Resolution in the European Union, Final Report submitted by Civic Consulting of the Consumer Policy Evaluation Consortium (CPEC) Framework Contract Lot 2, 16 October 2009.
5
ODR Methods Employed in the Settlement of Consumer Claims
5.1 Consensual ODR Methods
Consensual ODR includes mainly negotiation, mediation, and conciliation when taking place with bespoke software whereby parties communicate through the Internet. This section focuses on online mediation because it comprises the majority of the features of the above methods. The goal of mediator is to shift parties focus on legal entitlements towards problem-solving stance in order to maximize the interests of both parties when reaching an agreement.
According to Wissler, there are three types of disputes that are more likely to settle in mediation: disputes where the defendant admits partial or total liability; disputes where parties seek resolution rather than self-recognition; certain categories of disputes are more likely to be settled in mediation, e.g. disputes related to the payment of goods or services. 61
In order to assess the type of cases that would be suitable for online mediation, it is clear to start by referring to those which are unsuitable for online mediation. These are cases involving criminal matters (at least when the victim so decides), disputes where an important legal precedent is sought, or where there is a matter of policy which needs to be addressed. In addition, a major difficulty is to mediate with someone who does not want to be in the mediation process. 62 Online mediation is more appropriate when the disparity of power between the parties is not great, i.e. B2B, C2C, B2C (with Small and Medium Enterprises – i.e. SMEs). Also, when parties 'want' to resolve the dispute though they are unable or reluctant to physically meet, such as e-commerce disputes.
The use of online mediation for resolving consumer disputes is challenging the traditional notions of litigation and ADR. The potential for online mediation lies in the fact that it reduces barriers in accessing justice by avoiding conflicts of laws and a lengthy adversarial process, thus reducing costs and time. In mediation, both parties are often more satisfied with the outcome and consider the process fairer than adjudicative processes.
It has been suggested elsewhere that under certain circumstances mandatory online mediation has the potential to increase consumer access to justice. 63 Mandatory mediation could request parties to attend in good faith an online meeting with a mediator. This could only be achieved with greater public awareness, removing legal restrictions, 64 increasing
61 R.L. Wissler, "Mediation and Adjudication in the Small Claims Court: The Effects of Processes and Case Characteristics", (1995) 29(2) Law and Society Review, pp. 332-334.
62 S. Prince, "Mandatory Mediation: The Ontario Experience", (2007) 26(1) Civil Justice Quarterly, p. 84.
63 P. Cortés, "Can I Afford Not to Mediate? Mandatory Online Mediation for European Consumers: Legal Constraints and Policy Issues", (2008) 35(1) Rutgers Computer & Technology Law Journal, pp. 1-41.
64 In Rosalba Alassini (C-317/08) para. 67 the European Court of Justice held that mandatory mediation may only take place if electronic means are not the only means to carry out the mediation. The Court in this case
public funds, facilities and trained mediators, 65 and greater incentives on disputants to participate in online mediation. Mandatory online mediation should have clear limits if used to resolve B2C disputes. For instance, it should be free for the consumer or provided at a low cost; where a mediation settlement is not achieved and the dispute escalates to an online adjudicative process (a judicial process or arbitration), the costs, if any, could be considered as part of the legal costs.
When participants have unequal powers, it should be mandatory to the stronger party to attend an online session, but the option should be given to the consumer to opt out, particularly when a small claims process is available. Conversely, if clear limits are not well defined, mandatory mediation could create new barriers for consumer redress by encouraging them to settle for less than their legal rights. In order to avoid this, consumers should be empowered by being unequivocally informed that they cannot be pressured to settle and being reminded of their right to refuse any offer.
5.1.1 Norm-Educating Model
A number of models can be adopted by the mediator. These models determine how interventionist would be role of the mediator in informing parties about the norms that apply to their dispute. When there is an imbalance of power, it may be desirable to have a mediator who employs a norm-educating model and thus informs the parties, particularly the consumer, about their legal rights. The norm-educating model seems appropriate for consumer mediation as it enhances the autonomy and power of the consumer and ensures a greater level of fairness in the final result. 66 When the mediation is conducted online, this could be carried out in a more impartial manner, by for instance including links to websites that contain information on consumer rights.
5.2 Adjudicative ODR Methods
This section briefly examines some issues regarding the inquisitorial nature of consumer adjudicative methods and two online extra-judicial procedures: the institutionalised Spanish consumer arbitration system, which is currently moving towards the online sphere; 67 and the dispute resolution system for domain names, which is a bespoke administrative process similar to arbitration that might be used as a model for B2C ODR.
was empathetic with the digitally excluded – i.e. consumers who may have limited or no access to the Internet, as they may find their rights difficult to exercise if they could only access to them by electronic means.
65 CEN [Draft] Workshop (2009), pp. 68-69.
66 C. Irvine, "Mediation and Social Norms: A Response to Dame Hazel Genn" (June 2009). Available at <www.mediate.com/articles/irvineC1.cfm>.
67 See Royal Decree 231/2008 of 15 February 2008 of the Consumer Arbitration System.
5.2.2 Inquisitorial Processes
The resolution of consumer disputes through ODR would often require the use of an adjudicative method – i.e. a process where the settlement is imposed by the third neutral party. In adjudication, each party has to present his case; but when parties do not have legal representation, it is often preferred the use of an inquisitorial process where the third neutral party carries out a more interventionist role. The inquisitorial role of the third party is generally described as opposed to the adversarial role. A brief explanation of these two roles is considered here pertinent.
Traditionally, in common law systems litigation, as the prime type of adjudication, has been informed by the adversarial principle where parties research the law, present the case, find the evidence and challenge the views of the other party. Parties do all this without the assistance of the judge, who acts as a mere umpire. This feature of common law systems has changed throughout the time in all jurisdictions. In jurisdictions such as the US and those influenced by the American court system, judges have a more interventionist function. However, it must be noted that the role of the judge in the English civil procedure has changed significantly during the last decade with the new managerial powers given to the judiciary after the Woolf Reforms. 68 Despite that some of the differences in approaches have been diluted in England and in other common law jurisdictions with an increasingly interventionist judge, 69 there are still some features inherent in the adversarial nature of the common law tradition that increase costs. One of these typical features is the use of disclosure (or discovery in the US) which, unlike in civil law jurisdictions, is a key feature that may drive up the cost of the proceedings.
On the contrary, in civil law jurisdictions courts (as well as more informal forms of adjudication elsewhere, such as tribunals) employ an inquisitorial approach, thus assisting the parties in presenting their case. Inquisitorial judges have greater discretion in assisting disputants during the civil process, particularly helping with the procedural niceties to those parties without legal representation. This enabling role of judges 70 allows them to investigate on their own volition in order to facilitate the reaching of a more cost-efficient way of resolving disputes. The inquisitorial approach does not place as much stress as the adversarial approach on oral presentations. Furthermore, in the adversarial system the parties have greater control over the process, accordingly, parties, and not the court, call witnesses. 71 This is because the emphasis on the inquisitorial process is on access to justice, while in adversarial process is on the justice on the merits.
68 Lord Woolf, Access to Justice, Final Report (1996) chapter 1.
69 O. Chase et al., Civil Litigation in Comparative Context, Thomson West 2007, p. 592.
70 The "enabling role" is a hallmark of judges of modern tribunals. This role is most evidence in disputes between citizen and the State.
71 A. Gillespie, The English Legal System, Oxford, OUP 2009, p. 13
Online adjudication for consumers, (e.g. online arbitration) should make an emphasis on access to justice. The third neutral party, be the technology alone (as the fourth party) or the third neutral party assisted with ICT tools, must carry out when necessary an inquisitorial role, ensuring that the power imbalance between the consumer and the business will not allow an unfair result. The inquisitorial role of the neutral party may affect its impartiality, thus it is important for these processes to be monitored by public or accreditation entities. It must be highlighted that the power imbalance between the parties will not only be related to the resources of consumers, but it is also related to the fact that the business is more likely to be a repeat player, dealing with a number of disputes on any given time.
5.2.3 The Spanish Consumer Arbitration Boards
The Spanish Act on the Services of the Information Society opens the possibility of using consumer arbitration and other ADR methods, either offline or online. 72 Spanish law, however, only allows the use of online consumer arbitration when it is provided by the public authorities under the national law. 73 The online procedure is promoted by the government and may take place online, from start to end. The law states all the necessary aspects for the functioning of the online service, such as the determination of the competent arbitration board, the place of arbitration, and the use of electronic signatures and notifications. 74
The Spanish Consumer Arbitration Boards provide with a voluntary procedure that is characterised for being quick (maximum of four months), 75 confidential, binding, free and flexible – there is no economic limit and parties choose if they want the arbitration to be based on law or equity. 76 Consumer arbitration cannot be used in those cases where there is intoxication, injury, death or reasons to believe that there is a crime involved in the dispute. The Spanish Consumer Protection Act considers a clause that refers consumers to arbitration different to the Public Consumer Arbitration illegal, unless the arbitration institution has been created by statute for a specific sector. 77 This excludes not only private arbitration but any international arbitration. 78
72 Ley de Servicios de la Sociedad de la Información 34/2002, Article 32 and para. 2 of disp. adic. 3.
73 See Articles 51-55 and fourth final disposition RD 231/2008. See also RD 863/2009.
74 Ibid. Currently the videoconference has been implemented in a number of places, including Madrid, Valencia and Murcia.
75 Article 14.1 RDAC. See Spanish Clearing House Instituto Nacional de Consumo Memoria del Sistema Arbitral de Consumo (8 April 2005) 109. Available at <www.consumo-inc.es>.
76 Article 1 RD 231/2008.
77 Ley 7/1998, LGDCU disp. adic. 1.26. J. M. Busto Lago, N. Álvarez Lata, F. Peña López, Reclamaciones De Consumo. Derecho Del Consumidor Desde La Perspectiva Del Consumidor, Navarra, Aranzadi 2005, p. 125. 78 M. Gonzalo Quiroga, La Protección Jurídica de los Consumidores, Madrid, Dykinson S.L. 2003, p. 120.
8
Only consumers can initiate the procedure by submitting a claim at the closest Arbitration Board to the consumer's domicile. In order to use consumer arbitration, both parties must agree to the use of arbitration after the dispute arises. However, Spanish businesses may be incorporated in the Consumer Arbitration Scheme before the dispute arises. Adhered businesses are registered in a public list and display the official trustmark. In those cases it will only be required that the consumer accepts arbitration after the dispute arises. In other words, there is a pre-dispute arbitration clause which is binding on the business, but not on the consumer. 79 Yet, some businesses adhere only partially to the Consumer Arbitration Scheme, leaving some restrictions regarding economic threshold or the type of disputes that consumers may take to the arbitration board. When the use of arbitration is restricted, businesses will have to include the expression of "Limited Offer" together with the trustmark logo.
Under the new law, mediation is introduced as a prior step before arbitration. Parties automatically participate in mediation unless one of them expressly opposes to it. 80 If the mediation fails, the arbitrators meet the parties at the hearing to evaluate their evidence. The arbitral process may be carried out with an oral hearing (which now can be online) or by submitting documents. There is a preference for meeting the parties rather than conducting an only written procedure because the meeting often facilitates settlements. 81 In the event that an agreement cannot be obtained during the hearing, arbitrators will resolve the dispute based on equity, except the parties expressly agree to request the arbitral award to be based on law. In both cases, the arbitral award is required to be reasoned. A written opinion helps to demonstrate that the procedure is fair and rational, and it can also help to guide the future conduct of the parties. Decisions are binding and enforceable but may be appealed in the higher court on a number of grounds, such as violation of due process rules.
5.2.4 The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy
The UDRP, unlike traditional arbitration, is not intended to supplant court proceedings, but merely to afford an additional forum for dispute resolution, allowing parties to commence legal actions at any stage. Some of the features of the UDRP may be a good model for ODR providers that target B2C disputes. 82 There are nonetheless significant differences between the domain name disputes and e-commerce disputes. Edwards and Williams observe that consumer disputes in the context of e-commerce are often about the expecta-
79 Article 31.4 of Ley 44/2006 of 29 December 2006 on Consumer Protection.
80 Article 38 RD 231/2008.
81 A. Hernández Fernández, "Una Experiencia Paradigmática: El Arbitraje de Consumo On Line en el Marco del Sistema Español de Protección de los Consumidores", Universidad de Valencia (2003) 2 Revista de Derecho, p. 13.
82 S. Donahey, "The UDRP Model Applied to Online Consumer Transactions", (2003) 20 Journal of International Arbitration, p. 475.
tions of the parties; it is harder, they argue, to assess evidence in e-commerce disputes than in domain name disputes. 83 According to Hörnle, the UDRP model would need to increase due process standards in order to be used for cross-border disputes where parties have unequal bargaining power. 84
The success of the UDRP as an ODR model for domain names rests on getting disputants to use the UDRP and its efficient self-enforcement mechanism. This self-enforcement mechanism may not be available for some types of disputes, such as mainstream disputes arising out of a transaction between an online vendor and a buyer; except if there is the collaboration of entities that could enforce the outcome, for instance, the payment service (e.g. VISA or PayPal) or if a dispute arouse on a third party platform or other intermediary, such as disputes arising out of market places (e.g. eBay) or disputes originated from information posted on mass collaboration sites (e.g. Facebook and Wikipedia).
Under the UDRP, parties do not sign an arbitration agreement; they submit to the procedure separately: the complainant by filing his complaint, the respondent by registering his domain name. However the UDRP is far from perfect. It has been suggested that the time is right to make a number of amendments to the UDRP policy and rules in order to attain, not only an efficient, but a fairer ODR process. 85 Despite its imperfections, the UDRP illustrates that the success of adjudicative ODR processes depends upon their selfenforcement mechanisms and mandatory participation. When deciding which adjudicative ODR process, judicial or arbitral, is more suitable for B2C disputes, it is necessary to take into account which procedure ensures greater accessibility and fairness, as power imbalance between the parties is likely to be considerable.
6 Appropriate ODR Methods
It is not possible to single out an ODR method that could be suitable for all type of consumer disputes. It is possible, nevertheless, to extract certain parameters from successful ODR providers that could assist in informing how ODR methods need to be tailored in order to be effective.
Assisted negotiation and online mediation (e.g. SquareTrade, eBay and PayPal) have been successful in niche markets by targeting large numbers of similar disputes with highly
83 L. Edwards and C. Wilson, "Redress and Alternative Dispute Resolution in Cross-Border E-Commerce Transactions", DG Internal Policies of the Union, Policy Department Economic and Scientific Policy, Briefing Note (IP/A/IMCO/IC/2006-206), p. 15.
84 Hörnle (2009), pp. 186-219.
85 Cf. S. Donahey, "Divergence in the UDRP and the Need for Appellate Review", (2002) 5 Journal of Internet Law, p. 1. P. Cortés, "The UDRP Reviewed: The Need for a 'Uniform' Policy", (2008) 14(6) Computer and Telecommunications Law Review, pp. 133-139 and "An Analysis of the UDRP Experience: Is It Time for Reform?", (2008) 24 Computers Law and Security Report, pp. 349-359. Hörnle (2009), pp. 186-219.
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automated ODR models that recognise patterns from comparable disputes matching them with proposed resolutions. 86 These processes have great advantages because they are fast and involve relatively little cost. The limit of these platforms is that they deal only with repetitive and simple disputes. The success of automated processes for consumer disputes depends on the nature of the dispute, the accuracy of the information provided, and the capability of the software or the fourth party in assessing the dispute.
Consensual processes avoid conflicts of laws, hence allowing parties to focus on their respective interests, rather than on what rights they have under the law. The main constraint of these consensual processes is that require all parties to be motivated in resolving their disputes. This begs the question of which situations are the most appropriate for parties to seek compromise? Consensual processes seem appropriate for resolving disputes in high context cultures, where people have close connections over a long period of time, (e.g. family disputes). Furthermore, online mediation may be suitable in low context cultures, such as in e-commerce 87 when the mediator adopts a more interventionist role (the norm educating model), if parties are motivated and when the imbalance of power between the parties is not too great – i.e. when consumers are dealing with SMEs that encounter seldom disputes.
When the power imbalance is significant, when the consumer is not aware of his legal entitlements and when there is a "genuine social need for an authoritative interpretation of the law", adjudicative public processes may be more adequate for correcting possible abuses of power. 88 Notwithstanding, this is not just a question of power imbalance, but it is also a question of the nature of the rights. Accordingly, in some disputes parties may find a solution without compromising their interests, while in other cases a settlement would only be possible if both parties compromise. Therefore, it would be necessary to indentify under which circumstances one party may renounce a right for the sake of compromise. In the consumer context, it would be necessary to distinguish between the rights that should not be waived by the parties (e.g. human rights) while other rights could be considered dispositive rights (e.g. right to return the goods). 89 In order to uphold these rights it is necessary not only the use of an adjudicative process, but also the provision of a public appeal system that ensures the application of public mandatory laws, including consumer protection laws. 90 However appeals increase costs and time in the resolution of
86 See <http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/disputeres.html> and <www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/cps/general/PPDisputeResolution-outside>.
87 Recommendation 2001/310/EC of 4 April 2001 on Principles of for Out-of-Court Bodies Involved in Consensual Resolution of Consumer Disputes 2001 O. J. (L. 109) 56 whereas 2 and 6.
88 O. Fiss, "Against Settlement", (1984) 93 Yale Law Review, p. 1087.
89 In the EU the right to a fair trial is contained in Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights, and the cooling off period allowing consumers to return goods bought by methods of distance selling, including e-commerce, is contained in Article 6 of the Distance Selling Directive 97/7.
90 Hörnle (2009), p. 161.
disputes, hence, it should be limited to the most deserving cases. 91 Another option to avoid abuses from the business would be the establishment of a supervisory body that monitors ODR service providers. This could be done either through an accreditation system or when an independent institution refers cases to trusted ODR service providers.
Adjudicative procedures may be useful methods for resolving online consumer disputes. Online judicial processes are particularly appropriate for dealing with disputes where parties cannot reach consensus through any other ODR method, when a large disparity of power exists between the parties and when it is necessary to review decisions. Conversely, online arbitration has other advantages: it is custom-tailored to the dispute at hand, it is conclusive and it can replace the jurisdiction of the courts, though online arbitration may also be non-binding or appealable. This is illustrated by the adjudicative UDRP system, which framework is supported by the following three pillars: (i) the UDRP deals only with blatant disputes, which are abusive registrations of domain names made in order to take advantage of the reputation of existing trademarks; (ii) the referral to the UDRP is included through a mandatory contractual clause; and (iii) the UDRP has incorporated a selfenforcement mechanism, even though its decisions are non-binding if the dispute is brought to court.
Similarly, chargebacks and refunds by payment service providers offer a valuable remedy for consumers when using credit cards. Chargebacks reverse all transactions when a fraudulent use has occurred or when there is a violation of the contractual terms. According to the OECD, credit cards are the most common form of payment by consumers in e-commerce transactions. 92 For instance, in the UK consumers have the right to claim damages from the credit card issuer when the purchase value is within the range of GBP 100-GBP 30,000. 93
Finally, it must be noted that online consumer disputes tend increasingly to be resolved through a tiered process: the first step is a company's internal customer service; the second step, consensual ODR (i.e. assisted negotiation, automated negotiation and online mediation); the third step, online arbitration; or a judicial process (when this is an option). The connection between consensual and an effective adjudicative method is essential, because it is often the latter which is an important incentive to bring the parties to the negotiation table. 94 Multi-step dispute resolution processes may become predominant. This approach emphasises the parties' prerequisite to consider consensual processes during the initial stage of their dispute in order to promote less formal, less costly and more efficient dispute
91 Ibid.
92 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development "Best Practices for Consumer Policy: Report on the Effectiveness of Enforcement Regimes" (20 December 2006) Available at <www.oecd.org/dataoecd/26/61/36456184.pdf>.
93 Section 75(3)(b) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.
94 H. Genn, The Hamlyn Lectures 2008: Judging Civil Justice, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 80. Cf. book review P. Cortés (2011) 31(1) Legal Studies, pp. 162-166.
resolution methods. 95 However, such an approach should not consider consensual ODR just as a first step before adjudication, but as an alternative and invaluable tool for the resolution of disputes that is offered in conjunction to adjudication. 96
7 Conclusion: Future Trends in Consumer ODR
In the developed world, most consumers with Internet connection trade online, from groceries to transport and accommodation. Many consumers have done this for a few years already, but it is in recent times that Internet connection has become a common feature in most households. In the developing world, even though most consumers do not have continuous Internet connection, increasingly many have access to cybercafés and mobile phones, which are used for certain financial transactions, such as to facilitate payments. With online (mis)communications inevitably appear online disputes. It seems that the most obvious field for the development of ODR will have to be e-commerce. If the conflicts arise online, it seems logical that they should be resolved online. This is already happening in a number of areas, such as domain name disputes resolved by ICANN approved UDRP providers, and traditional B2C and B2B disputes in eBay and PayPal. It is very possible that these types of ODR services will augment first with the large digital providers, such as iTunes, or large corporations with a high number of online transactions, such as airlines.
The development of ODR, as with ADR, will probably be sector specific. Whether consumer disputes will be fully centralized remains to be seen, but it seems more likely that ODR providers will develop expertise in specific fields rather than dealing with all types of consumer disputes. Thus, the development of ODR will start to consolidate in certain sectors, such as transport, motor vehicles, and financial disputes.
Another sector where technology will start to develop very soon in countries with widespread Internet connection will be the courts of justice. Currently there are an increasing number of courts that admit online claims through their websites. The implementation of ICT tools in courts is starting to be applied to streamlined processes, such as small claims and money claims procedures. These processes generally make for the largest number of dockets in many courts, so streamlining these processes would help significantly with the administrative load. The development of e-justice will be implemented slowly, but it is not far from the day when certain types of civil cases might benefit from being litigated from the beginning to the end without parties stepping into the court house.
95 T. Stipanowich, "The Arbitration Penumbra: Arbitration Law and the Rapidly Changing Landscape of Dispute Resolution", (2007) 8 Nevada Law Journal, p. 427.
96 Hörnle (2009), p. 58.
There will be an increase of online management and online communications which will transform face to face processes into fully institutionalised ODR processes, such as the Spanish online arbitration systems, the money claim online in the UK and the online small claim courts. Online judicial processes will be used when parties are located in different jurisdictions, such as the European Small Claims Procedure (ESCP) which could become the first judicial procedure to incorporate ODR technology to deal with crossborder claims. National courts will start providing e-filing and using case-management technology. 97 The resolution of disputes will be mostly attempted by consensual processes at first, regardless of the amounts of money involved. When consensual processes are not attempted, the courts will start to consider systematically whether these disputes should be first mediated. Hence mediation will become part of the litigation system. Accordingly, legal professionals will advise on the appropriateness of each dispute resolution method.
An important change that will promote the use of ODR services, as it is now happening in the US and the UK, is the loss of monopoly by attorneys in the resolution of disputes. Now, in the UK for instance, lawyers (i.e. solicitors and barristers) can enter into partnerships with businesses, accountants and other professionals, which undoubtedly have a more practical (as opposed to legalist) approach when resolving disputes. 98 Mediators, arbitrators, conciliators, and other ADR professionals will be more open to incorporate (as they already do with email) a number of ODR tools to aid in the resolution of their clients' disputes. Also lawyers will be more knowledgeable of conflict management skills and techniques. 99
There will be a greater interest in the development and implementation of dispute avoidance techniques. 100 ODR providers will develop ad hoc ODR mechanisms for online vendors so they can minimize the number of disputes that may arise out of their transactions with consumers. These ODR prevention mechanisms will be highly automated and will resolve the majority of complaints. Only a small number of complaints that are not resolved by these mechanisms will then be outsourced to external ODR providers, which in its majority would be either public or private bodies approved or certified by a public entity. Once a dispute escalates to an external ODR services, disputants will be assisted with a human third neutral party, who will seek for the consensual resolution of the disputes, and failing that, it will issue a recommendation that may be binding on the business but not on the consumer, who would still be able to pursue the judicial avenue.
Consumers will therefore retain the right to go to court. Some jurisdictions will offer a streamlined B2C online small claims procedure; yet this process will likely be more costly
97 R. Susskind, The End of Lawyers?, Oxford, OUP, 2008, pp. 201-210.
98 The (UK) Legal Services Act 2007 allows for the creation of Alternative Business Structures (ABS). The Law Society anticipates starting to license ABS in the second half of 2011.
99 J. Macfarlane, The New Lawyer, British Columbia, University British Columbia Press 2009. 100 Susskind (2008).
and slower than the previous accredited ODR providers. Furthermore, these judicial processes will increasingly require both parties to have previously attempted the consensual resolution of their disputes; and if they have not tried it, then they will have to justify why; otherwise they will face the payment of legal costs or a fine if the courts consider that one of the parties has acted unreasonably in refusing to participate in consensual processes. Hence consensual ODR would be quasi-mandatory.
The future of ODR is undeniable. Susskind describes ODR as a disruptive legal technology which will liberate a latent market of low value disputes that today remain largely unresolved. 101 According to Katsh, ODR might not have taken over the world the first time around, but technology has gotten to the point where it just does not make sense to not use the Internet to handle disputes. 102 Some of the essential ingredients for the growth of ODR are laying the ground for its market expansion: there is a constant increase in the use of ADR, transnational e-commerce, and online social networking.
ODR might not always provide a perfect solution to resolve all B2C disputes, but it could certainly deliver a satisfactory resolution to many disputes, including those that arise out of the B2C sphere, such as disputes amongst SMEs, or even outside the commercial and online realm, such as citizen to government (C2G) disputes. The need for ODR increases when parties face certain circumstances, such as limited economic resources, vast geographic distance and urgency in the resolution of disputes. It is also an ideal process for isolated B2C transactions where parties prefer less formal legal proceedings and are content to avoid face to face interactions.
This chapter cannot give a definite forecast on how ODR methods for consumer disputes will advance in the next few years. However, it is clear that ICT is developing increasingly faster while ODR service providers are becoming more sophisticated, intuitive and professional. It can be argued that the ODR of the future will be of greater quality, will cater for specific types of consumer disputes, will be predominantly public-operated or monitored, it will be compulsory, largely automated and it will be able to provide many of the functions that currently only a human neutral party can do. Such a system would have to be supported by artificial intelligence, economic incentives and legal standards.
101 Susskind (2008), p. 223.
102 E. Katsh and L. Wing, "Ten Years of Online Dispute Resolution (ODR): Looking at the Past and Constructing the Future", (2006) 38 University of Toledo Law Review, p. 26.
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Parties' views and proposals on the elements for a draft negotiating text 1
Non-paper 2
7 July 2014 3
This non-paper has been prepared by the Co-Chairs of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for 4
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Enhanced Action (ADP) and describes, in bullet-point format, Parties' views and proposals derived from
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statements, interventions, submissions and other inputs from Parties, including conference room papers, on the elements for a draft negotiating text of the 2015 agreement. Headings and subheadings are only to orientate the
reader. Bullets and sub-bullets are used to organize Parties' views and proposals. They do not necessarily signal a certain degree of convergence or divergence. In a number of cases the spectrum of views expressed on a
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I. General and preambular elements 11
Objective and purpose 12
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- In order to achieve the ultimate objective of the Convention as set out in its Article 2, the 2015 agreement is to:
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o Further enhance the full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention
o Strengthen the multilateral rules-based regime under the Convention during the post-2020 period
o Ensure implementation by Parties of their respective commitments under the Convention
Guiding principles
- The 2015 agreement is to be under the Convention and guided by its principles, including common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC), while taking into account national circumstances,
Confirming that the agreement must not be a rewriting or renegotiating of the Convention and:
As applied in the post-2020 period:
[x] Be based on CBDR, equity and historical responsibility
[x] Be in full accordance with its provisions, in particular Article 4 as well as existing decisions and the structure of the Convention, including its annexes, as they remain a valid reflection of responsibilities for historical emissions
- The 2015 agreement is to be applicable to all:
o Aiming for and incentivizing universal participation
o Recognizing that applicability to all does not mean uniformity but differentiation in application according to the provisions and principles of the Convention, and that universality does not mean uniformity
o Commitment by all Parties to act and to take legally binding commitments to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in accordance with national circumstances
- The 2015 agreement is to be guided by science and equity
o Reflecting equity, including inter-generational equity, and ambition globally and domestically
o Enabling an increase in ambition over time guided by the agreed overall goal of holding the increase in global average temperature below 2/1.5 ºC above pre-industrial levels
o Equity is best achieved through nationally determined contributions
- The 2015 agreement is to embrace leadership:
1 For background see also Reflections on progress made at the fifth part of the second session of the ADP. Note by the CoChairs (ADP.2014.5.InformalNote), issued in conjunction with this non-paper.
[x] Principles to be applied to current and future circumstances, to be operationalized, in a dynamic manner, in the light of changing respective capabilities
[x] A binary approach is not consistent with the current and evolving situation of the world and cannot be used as the basis for the 2015 agreement
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o Developed country Parties to commit to take the lead in fully implementing the Convention in the preand post-2020 periods
o Leadership by Parties with the greatest responsibility and highest capacity
o Any enhanced action of developing country Parties to be accompanied by a corresponding equivalent in a scaled-up provision of new and additional, adequate and predictable financial resources, including for the transfer of technology, as provided for in Article 4, paragraph 3, of the Convention, and in accordance with its Article 4, paragraph 7, and must be measured, verified and reported as has been agreed in the relevant decisions of the Conference of the Parties (COP)
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o Incentivizing and enabling increasing leadership by Parties that wish to lead ('fast-sliding')
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- The 2015 agreement needs to:
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o Address all elements identified in decision 1/CP.17, including positive, comprehensive, balanced and independent treatment of mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology, capacity-building and transparency of action and support
o Address all elements, with mitigation at the core, reflecting a comprehensive range of issues, with the depth determined by the unique characteristics of each issue
o Require all elements to stand the test of durability
- Regarding the legal nature of the 2015 agreement and its elements:
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Further considerations
- Furthermore, the 2015 agreement needs to: 53
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o Follow an action-oriented approach
o Catalyse action domestically, therefore linking the global to the national level
o Take into account the imperatives of sustainable development and the survival of countries, including by:
[x] Recognizing the right to equitable access to sustainable development
[x] Recognizing that responses to climate change should be coordinated with social and economic development in an integrated manner with a view to avoiding adverse impacts on the latter
[x] Recognizing that all countries, especially developing countries, need access to the resources required to achieve sustainable social and economic development
o Result in a fair sharing of atmospheric space and resources, global adaptation responsibility, and access to finance, technology and capacity-building support
o Protect the integrity of Mother Earth
o Recognize gender considerations
o Respect the views of indigenous peoples
Build on pre-2020
- The 2015 agreement needs to build on pre-2020 efforts:
o Recognizing that closing the pre-2020 ambition gap is critical for the post-2020 period and that levels of post-2020 ambition are contingent on the pre-2020 period
o Recognizing increased ambition in the pre-2020 period as an additional contribution to the post-2020 period
o Workstream 2 of the ADP to help to close the pre-2020 mitigation ambition gap and form part of the ambition mechanism of the 2015 agreement
II. Mitigation 76
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- Mitigation commitments/contributions in aggregate to contribute to emission reductions consistent with the agreed limit to global temperature rise
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o As a limit to global average temperature rise below 2/1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels
o As a maximum concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere
o As a global goal for emission reductions
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[x] In line with science (e.g. 40–70 per cent below 2010 levels by 2050 with net emissions near zero, or below zero, by 2100); as carbon neutrality by the end of the century; and by 2050 for developed countries
o As a carbon budget: atmospheric space and development space to be divided among Parties
- Mitigation and adaptation to achieve a net decrease in emission levels
Mitigation commitments/contributions
General
- Mitigation commitments/contributions to be guided by the principles of the Convention, in particular CBDRRC
- All Parties to take consecutive mitigation commitments/contributions through time
- Commitments/contributions to contain both short-term and long-term components
- All Parties to ensure the maximum level of mitigation ambition with no backsliding/backtracking in the form or effort of contributions/commitments
- Mitigation commitments/contributions to be nationally determined
- Mitigation commitments/contributions:
- Mitigation commitments/contributions to be quantified or quantifiable
- Mitigation commitments/contributions to be communicated, be subject to an ex ante process or consultations, and to review (see section IX on the cycle of commitments/contributions for further elaboration of proposals)
- Mitigation commitments/contributions to be formalized/inscribed:
o In an annex/attachments to the agreement, as an integral part of the agreement
o In national schedules
[x] To be an integral part of the agreement
[x] To be housed separately from the agreement
- Type of mitigation commitments/contributions:
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- Joint commitments/contributions from regional groups of Parties and joint fulfillment of commitments
- Impacts of the implementation of response measures on developing countries to be addressed
o Through an international mechanism in accordance with Article 4, paragraphs 8, 9 and 10, of the Convention
- Unilateral measures not to constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade in accordance with Article 3, paragraph 5, of the Convention
Accounting rules 116
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- Rules for the international use of units and outcomes of market-based mechanisms to prevent double counting, ensure the environmental integrity of the agreement and address banking and borrowing
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- Contributions/commitments to cover all sectors and GHGs 120
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- Minimum standards are required for reporting and accounting
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- Use of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Greenhouse Gas Inventory Guidelines
- Applicability of rules: 124
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- Decisions on accounting rules to be adopted 128
III. Adaptation 129
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- Adaptation to be treated as a matter of collective responsibility
- All Parties to be encouraged to address adaptation in national planning, integrating adaptation into existing national plans and programmes
- A framework or provisions to be defined to accelerate the implementation of adaptation and common metrics to assess progress
- Cooperation on adaptation is a legal requirement
- Developing country Parties' adaptation actions and their enhancement, including economic diversification, to be supported by financing from developed country Parties and Parties included in Annex II to the Convention (Annex II Parties)
- Formulation of national adaptation plans (NAPs) not to be a pre-condition for finance
Links with mitigation 141
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- The agreement to define the relationship between mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage
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- Win-win solutions between mitigation and adaptation to be enhanced to increase the overall level of ambition
- Mitigation and adaptation to be institutionally linked
- Mitigation and adaptation are mutually supportive; developing countries depend on support for adaptation in order to engage in mitigation activities
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- Long-term aspects of adaptation to relate to:
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o Means of implementation, research and scientific assessments
o The long-term global temperature limit building on the objective of the Convention
- A global goal for adaptation to be defined:
- Assess progress on adaptation through metrics and indicators with the overarching objective of increasing global resilience and reducing vulnerability, through an adaptation assessment framework, taking into account national priorities
Commitments/contributions on adaptation 155
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- A common commitment of all Parties to work towards climate-resilient development, cooperate and integrate adaptation into national strategies and programmes; commitments to encourage the engagement with subnational and local authorities to enhance adaptation
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- Individual commitments by all Parties:
o Developed countries' commitments to be in accordance with Article 4, paragraphs 1, 3, 4 and 5, of the Convention, reflecting their obligation to support adaptation in developing countries in accordance with realizable temperature scenarios
o Developing countries' commitments:
[x] To be in accordance with Article 4, paragraph 1
[x] To build on existing mechanisms and processes for NAPs and NAPAs
[x] To encourage developing countries to showcase their efforts and needs and to help to recognize national efforts towards the global goal
[x] Not to create more reporting requirements and impose additional burden on developing countries, in particular the least developed countries (LDCs)
- Commitments/contributions to be communicated, be subject to an ex ante process or consultations, and to review (see section IX on the cycle of commitments/contributions for further elaboration of proposals)
In the context of national adaptation plans
- NAPs:
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o Provide the essential basis for all countries to assess vulnerabilities, identify adaptation options and implement adaptation
o The agreement to ensure that the process to formulate and implement NAPs is being undertaken in all interested developing countries
o The agreement to ensure that NAPs go beyond mere planning and mainstreaming
o Provide more clarity of what constitutes NAPs, including their relationship with commitments/contributions on adaptation
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- Existing institutional arrangements (such as the Cancun Adaptation Framework and the Nairobi work programme on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change (NWP)) to be:
- Monitoring and evaluation as well as reporting on adaptation and learning from plans, policies and programmes:
o To be strengthened and/or institutionalized
o To be done through providing authority to the COP to adopt further guidance on such reporting and further facilitating the sharing of progress and experiences in preparing and implementing adaptation actions
- Enhancing the sharing of information, knowledge and lessons learned and adaptation practices, for example, through enhancing the NWP:
o To address the gap in the implementation of adaptation
o To be brought down to the regional/local levels to strengthen local and institutional capacity
- New institutional arrangements:
Loss and damage 195
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- The new agreement to include provisions for loss and damage for cases where mitigation and adaptation will not be sufficient
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- The Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts:
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o To be supported by financing from developed country Parties and Annex II Parties
Complementary decisions 200
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- The agreement to contain: long-term and collective aspects of adaptation and commitments/contributions on adaptation as well as authorization to the COP to decide on implementation modalities and make use of existing arrangements
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- Complementary decisions to contain: provisions on institutional arrangements, coordination and cooperation, as well as process-related matters and modalities (e.g. for information sharing on, and recognition of, national efforts, sharing of lessons and experiences)
IV. Means of implementation – finance, technology and capacity- 207 building 208
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- Reiterate the linkage between the level of action by developing countries and the level of support provided by developed countries as per Article 4, paragraph 7, of the Convention
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- Commitments of all Parties to play their parts in developing and improving enabling environments for the enhanced delivery of the means of implementation
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- Define a collective goal for the means of implementation
- Means of implementation to: 215
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o Be quantifiable, comparable and transparent and ensure best efforts of Parties based on their capacity and include relevant road maps and targets
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o Be effective and predictable for developing countries in the medium and long term to enable a transformation at scale in the way public and private investments are made
o Allow country ownership and attribute a greater role to national and subnational entities
o Give priority to developing countries that need support and that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change
- Implementation of the provision of finance, technology and capacity-building to be enhanced:
o Only Annex II/developed country Parties have commitments to provide support in accordance with Article 4 of the Convention, due to historic responsibilities, equity and CBDR-RC
o All Parties in a position to do so to have commitments to provide support, based on:
[x] Today's capacity
[x] The polluter pays principle
[x] Equity and CBDR-RC
- Commitments/contributions to be communicated, be subject to an ex ante process or consultations, and to review (see section IX on the cycle of commitments/contributions for further elaboration of proposals)
Specifics
- Provide enhanced access to the means of implementation for adaptation through existing institutions and mechanisms and in line with existing agreements and commitments 2
Institutional arrangements, cooperation and coordination
- Build on lessons learned, existing mechanisms under the Convention and best practices from other processes
- Further strengthen existing institutional arrangements for the means of implementation:
o Further elaboration of how operational mechanisms, including those under the Convention, will support delivery on the agreed general and specific commitments, ensure continuity and avoid duplication of actions; existing arrangements and institutions should be effectively utilized taking into consideration discussions and development within these bodies
- Means of implementation to be integrated and coordinated among institutions and arrangements for finance, technology and capacity-building within and outside the UNFCCC based on programmatic system-wide approaches:
o Provide for periodic assessment of coordination and cooperation between institutions, and a process to make adjustments, as appropriate
- Further strengthen South–South and triangular cooperation
Mechanisms
- Guiding principles for the inclusion of mechanisms:
o Create incentives for action by all Parties in a position to do so and for the broadest range of stakeholders, including from the private sector
2 See also section III.Adaptation above (on institutional arrangements, cooperation and coordination), and section V.Finance below (on specifics, lines 332-340).
253
o Mobilize the widest range of potential investments for climate benefits, including for adaptation
o Incentivize and acknowledge front runners that have already taken action
254
o Promote mainstreaming of climate into domestic economies
o Promote a balanced approach between market and non-market-based approaches 255
256
- Provisions for inclusion of mechanisms:
257
258
259
260
261
262
o General provisions allowing for use of flexible market mechanisms (and non-market-based mechanisms)
o Provisions for the inclusion of specific mechanisms:
[x]
Include/create a REDD-plus mechanism
[x] Establish a Mechanism for Climate Resilience and Sustainable Development
[x] Provide for a mechanism to promote and finance adaptation and mitigation actions
[x] New market mechanism
263
[x] Kyoto Protocol (KP) mechanisms
V. Finance 264
General 265
266
- Provision of new, additional, adequate and predictable finance, including clarity on level of support
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
- Acknowledge the need for adequacy of financial flows mobilized from various sources, public and private, in the context of meaningful mitigation action and transparency of implementation
- Financial contributions to be needs and science based; need for enhancing national needs assessment
- Importance of country ownership
- Simplification, improvement and rationalization of access, including direct access, and harmonization of approval and accreditation processes between various channels and institutions
- Allocation for adaptation and mitigation
- Prioritization of the most vulnerable countries, recognizing special circumstances of LDCs and small island developing States (SIDS)
o Fair geographical allocation
- Importance of enhancing enabling environments and reduction of barriers, such as for private sector investment in adaptation:
o Commitment by all Parties, importance to respect countries' national prerogative to choose their domestic climate policies
o Contributor countries to mitigate the risk of the private sector, and to mainstream climate change in overall assistance, recipient countries to make efforts to improve enabling environments and to mainstream climate change
o Need for national frameworks, including policies and measures; international support is needed to enhance domestic enabling environments
o Countries seeking financing have responsibility to dedicate sufficient domestic resources, to put in place conditions to mobilize, attract and absorb climate-related investments
- Need to ensure effectiveness of climate finance
- Importance of climate-friendly investments, including private investment, and importance of the mainstreaming of public and private investments
o All Parties to prioritize low-carbon growth and climate-resilient development in their development strategies
- Definition of, and agreement on, various support instruments:
o Need for greater diversity of finance tools, channels and instruments
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
o Financial support to be without conditions, i.e. grants
o Form of support will vary widely by country and sector
- Importance of readiness support, including for access
- Sustainability and durability:
o At least five-year commitments by Annex II Parties, to be clarified by scale and timeline
o Delivery to strike a balance between implementation of international commitments and alignment with sustainable development
o Need for financial provisions to be able to adapt to future changing environmental and economic realities
Commitments/contributions
General
- Collective and individual commitments:
306
307
308
309
Nature of financial commitments
- Financial commitments are:
Legally binding
Support to be provided by whom
- Support is to be provided:
Sources 310
- Public and private sources: 311
312
313
314
o Support to come primarily from public sources, with supplementary funding from private/alternative sources; public sources for specific areas, given the limited potential for private investment, in particular in the most vulnerable countries and LDCs
315
o Different types of financing for different activities
A political commitment
o Mobilization/incentivizing/leveraging of the private sector: 316
317
318
319
[x] Commitment by all Parties to cooperate in leveraging private finance, all Parties to take action in differentiated manner, agreement to include commitments to mobilize public funds and means to facilitate and encourage private investment
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
[x] Developed countries to incentivize private sector
[x] Must be strategic and in line with the national priorities and laws and be profitable for the private sector
[x] Efficient use of public resources and effective public policies key focus of post-2020 cooperative efforts among middle- and higher-income countries
[x] Mechanism to attract the private sector to invest in projects; agreement to provide for definitions, respective roles and give guidance on the mechanism to achieve a useful balance of public and private sources, ensuring reasonable returns and full transparency
o Agreement on no-incidence arrangements to safeguard economic development in developing countries
- Need for agreement on a range of global policies and/or regulations governing generation/sources of climate finance
Specifics
- Financing for adaptation:
o Developed countries and Annex II Parties to deliver adequate and predictable funding for adaptation, in particular for the implementation of the Cancun Adaptation Framework
o Multilateral financing for adaptation; financial risk management instruments to be built into agreement
o New market mechanism to include share of proceeds especially for adaptation
o Recognition of developing countries' investments in adaptation as contribution to finance
o Sources for adaptation:
[x] Identification of sources and prioritization of the public funding necessary
[x] Engagement of diverse sources, including private
- Funding for the GCF:
o Developed countries to provide 1 per cent of gross domestic product per year from 2020 to the GCF
o Annex II Parties to provide list of specific amounts/percentages reflecting the required share of climate finance to be provided to the GCF subject to review
o All countries in a position to do so to provide funding to the GCF
o Mainly from public sources
- Support to REDD-plus:
o Support to the REDD-plus implementation mechanism
o Sources to include public; private; non market
- Commitment to provide support for the financing and operationalization of the Warsaw International Mechanism
Institutional arrangements, cooperation and coordination
- Further develop, build on and strengthen existing climate finance institutions and processes
- The financial mechanism of the Convention to serve as the financial mechanism of the 2015 agreement:
o The Standing Committee on Finance (SCF) to be further strengthened, enhancing its coherence and coordination work; important role of the SCF with regard to rationalization of the financial mechanism
o Operation of funds to be transparent, competitive and rules based, with operating criteria underpinning these rules that are compatible with the requirements of private investors in order to effectively stimulate co-investment
o Leverage of the potential non-climate specific financing mechanisms and institutions
o GCF as main entity
[x] To be anchored in new agreement
[x] Window for REDD-plus
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
[x] Improve and prioritize access by LDCs and SIDS
o Financial mechanism and operating entities replenishment to be linked to IPCC scientific assessment
o Financial mechanism must continue to be main source of financing
- Adaptation Fund to be part of the post-2015 architecture
- Institutional arrangements for REDD-plus
- Coordination to be further enhanced:
o Among contributors
o Coordination and cooperation between institutions
o Need to capture the cooperative dimension of climate finance; recognition of partnership among donors, investors and recipients
Complementary decisions 374
375
376
- Key elements on the financial mechanism/institutional arrangements to be included in the agreement, decisions for further guidance, as needed, at a later stage
VI. Technology development and transfer 377
378
379
- Enhance technology development and transfer, and cooperation, to support action on adaptation and mitigation
Commitments/contributions 380
381
- Differentiated commitments in the agreement:
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
o By developed countries:
[x] In accordance with the relevant provisions of the Convention and linked to a measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) system
[x] Provision of finance for technology
[x] Removal of barriers and creation of enabling environments
[x] Provide support on research, development, demonstration and deployment, including on endogenous technologies, and support to build and strengthen endogenous capacities in countries
o By developing countries, with support of developed countries:
[x] Build/strengthen capacity and enhance endogenous innovation systems – develop national structures, strategies, systems and policies
[x] Strengthen cooperation among developing countries through the Technology Mechanism and the financial mechanism
[x] Develop, update or finalize technology needs assessments (TNAs) with support of the Technology Mechanism
o The Technology Executive Committee (TEC) and the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) to support the operationalization and delivery of commitments on technology and accounting
398
- No legal obligations in the agreement
Institutional arrangements, cooperation and coordination 399
400
Technology Mechanism
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
- The Technology Mechanism to be:
o Anchored/reflected the in the agreement
o Given time before changing it (TEC and CTCN) or its functions
- Strengthen the Technology Mechanism, enhance its role and operations and make it more effective by:
o Ensuring predictable and sustainable funding
[x] Financial facility through existing mechanisms to accelerate commercialization of research at early stages
o Clarifying the role of the private sector:
410
411
412
[x] Provide space for the private sector in the Technology Mechanism given its importance in technology development and transfer
[x] Technology Mechanism cannot be a technology market place
o Providing adequate staffing and financing
413
o Focusing more on endogenous technology
o Providing a special programme for SIDS 414
415
o Providing for assessment of the effectiveness/adequacy of the Technology Mechanism
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
o Linking the Poznan strategic programme on technology transfer, or transferring it into the Technology Mechanism
o Guiding or facilitating regional technology or innovation centres and initiatives by the Technology Mechanism
Cooperation and synergy with other institutional arrangements
- Establish global joint research development and demonstration (RD&D), attracting and integrating stakeholders, to promote innovation, accelerate RD&D and scale up diffusion of technology
- Enhance cooperation, collaboration, synergy and linkage between the Technology Mechanism and other institutional arrangements under the Convention, in particular the financial mechanism
- Clearly define concrete relationship between capacity-building institutions and other mechanisms of the Convention, including the Technology Mechanism
Strengthened role of technology needs assessments
- Provisions or a process to ensure the implementation of outcomes of TNAs and technology action plans
o Align TNAs more closely with bankable finance projects
- TNAs could be linked with NAMAs and NAPs
Enabling environments and barriers to technology development and transfer
- Create enabling environments:
o In recipient countries, including the necessary regulatory framework, institutions and capacity, to attract investments in technology, and enhance country ownership
o In developed/donor countries, including the removal of barriers and leverage of private sector support
o Foster enabling environments in both developing and developed countries – both to take actions
- Address/remove barriers, including:
o Financial barriers, for example through a funding window for technology in the GCF or the financial mechanism
o Barriers related to small markets/countries and national circumstances
- Consider intellectual property rights (IPR):
Financing technology development and transfer 442
443
- Provision of financial support for technology development and transfer:
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
o Through a funding window under the GCF or the financial mechanism; note the challenge to distinguish mitigation/adaptation activities with those specific of technology
o Role of private/public sectors:
[x] Both private and public sectors are important in mobilising finance for technology and international public and private funds could be focused onto a portfolio of projects which represent the most compelling options for the creation of dynamic future markets
[x] Finance for technology support is a commitment/responsibility of developed countries, and cannot be transferred to private sector
Complementary decisions 452
453
- Changing aspects of institutional arrangements, such as functions, to be handled in COP decisions
454
455
- Provisions in the agreement to allow further decisions regarding changing the Technology Mechanism or its functions
VII. Capacity-building 456
General 457
458
459
460
- Clear, predictable, effective, demand-driven, sustainable and long-term support for capacity-building, responding to national needs and fostering country ownership until developing country Parties have acquired the capacity to fully implement climate change actions under the Convention
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
- Use the INDC preparation process to foster country ownership and identification of priority setting
- Delivery of capacity-building to be based on:
o A formal and structured approach and guided by findings and outcomes of the Durban Forum on capacity-building, to ensure development of climate policies, mobilization of the private sector capital, public engagement, to identify, design and implement adaptation and mitigation actions and to enable domestic development and absorption of technologies
o Existing provisions on capacity-building under the Convention by learning from the last 20 years, and providing the climate regime with the tools to make capacity-building more effective
o A more coordinated approach to strengthening both the ability and effectiveness of specific adaptation and mitigation actions aimed at implementing objectives of the Convention
- Capacity-building is:
o A core basis for effective use of finance and technology
o Necessary for preparatory and readiness programmes and for enabling climate finance readiness
- Capacity-building is to be delivered in a manner that:
o Is gender-sensitive
o Changes from short-term regional seminars to a long-term country-driven approach
o Builds capacity at the national, subnational and local levels to ensure independence from foreign consultants, creates multiplier effects and engages the private sector and other stakeholders
o Goes beyond the support of capabilities within governments and implementing agencies, and extends into the support of pioneer projects, programmes and actions which promote new modes of operation in specific markets that are lower in emissions and/or better adapted to the effects of climate change
o Promotes public awareness and education, strengthens domestic institutions and creates enabling environments
484
o Fosters South–South and triangular cooperation schemes
Commitments/contributions 485
486
487
488
- Common global commitment to enhance capacity in all areas of climate change action to achieve the ultimate objective of the Convention and to support the implementation of developing country Parties' individual commitments under the 2015 agreement
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
- Specific and quantified commitments from developed country Parties to provide adequate and predictable financing and technology for capacity-building for developing countries that require it, with the financing to be channelled through the GCF
- Clear and predictable targets and outcomes for capacity-building
- Regular review and update of commitments on capacity-building
Institutional arrangements, cooperation and coordination
- A clear definition of arrangements for capacity-building and their linkages to other bodies and institutions under the Convention
- Outcomes of the Durban Forum to be analysed systematically and responded to accordingly
- Establish regional centres for capacity-building
- Clear linkage between capacity-building and mechanisms established under the Convention such as those for adaptation, mitigation, finance and technology to be defined in the 2015 agreement
Support for capacity-building
- Importance of the role and potential of the private sector in supporting capacity-building
- Importance of the operating entities of the financial mechanism, including the GCF, for capacity-building
- Enhanced coordination among donors and institutions required for the effective delivery of capacity-building
- Provision of capacity-building support through the GCF:
o A dedicated funding window under the GCF
o No dedicated funding window under the GCF is required as the GCF's governing instrument clearly states that capacity-building is part of the GCF's mandate
Complementary decisions 509
510
- New institutional arrangements to be established by the agreement
511
- Durban Forum to be referred to generally in the agreement with details in COP decisions to ensure flexibility
- Specific agreements on capacity-building support should be included in COP decisions
VIII. Transparency of action and support 513
General 514
Scope of transparency framework 515
516
- Transparency framework to encompass:
o Mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology and capacity-building 517
518
o Accounting
519
o Compliance
520
o General rules regarding ex-ante consultation and ex-post international analysis/multilateral assessment
Purpose and general parameters 521
- The MRV system is to: 522
523
o Be under the Convention and guided by its principles and provisions
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
o Build on existing arrangements
[x] Benefit from ongoing work related to MRV in the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and other relevant bodies
o Be efficient and flexible to promote ambition and enhance mutual trust
o Be tailored to diverse commitments
o Evolve over time; different types of commitments will require adaptable methodologies
- Link between MRV of action and MRV of support:
o Enhanced actions of non-Annex I Parties to be operationally linked to the MRV of the provision of support by Annex II Parties; transparency of support by developed countries to be strengthened first to inform action by developing countries
534
o Both MRV of action and MRV of support to be enhanced
Support for transparency 535
536
537
- Need for support, including capacity-building at the national level, for implementing transparency requirements
Transparency of action 538
539
Nature and parameters of transparency of action
540
- All Parties participate in a transparency framework that is:
542
o Using GHGs as basis, reporting following IPCC guidelines, complying with accounting rules, with all Parties subject to international review
543
o Use of common metrics to address the diversity of commitments/contributions
Accounting 544
545
546
- Accounting rules to apply in accordance with decisions to be adopted by the COP (see section II for proposals related to accounting) 3
Areas of further enhancement 547
548
- MRV for developed countries to be improved by including adaptation reporting in biennial reports
549
550
- MRV of developing countries to be improved by including more detailed information on GHG inventories and GHG projections
Transparency of support 551
Nature and parameters of transparency of support 552
- All Parties to participate in a transparency framework with: 553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
MRV of support is to:
o Include support provided and received:
[x] Including delivery, use and impact of support
[x] Building trust between contributors and recipients and placing greater emphasis on effectiveness
[x] Without imposing onerous reporting burdens or any kind of conditionality on developing countries for accessing necessary support
o Include rules and mechanisms on MRV of all types of support received in comparison with the needs expressed and identified by developing country Parties
o Ensure harmonization and coordination of existing data systems
o Address the need for comparable information, building on the existing MRV system, including NCs, BRs, BURs and IAR/ICA in the form of, inter alia, standardized reporting formats, common metrics and detailed information on the source and recipient of support
o Recognize special circumstances of countries
o Allow for the evolution of countries within the system
569
o Ensure that commitments on support are implemented and complied with
Accounting 570
571
572
- Define common accounting rules for commitments and an accounting mechanism for support based on common templates for developed countries/Annex II Parties
3 Lines 117-124 above.
-
Areas of further enhancement 573
574
575
576
- Strengthen provisions for MRV of financing, meeting costs of adaptation, development and transfer of technology, and capacity-building provided by developed country Parties to developing country Parties for all climate change activities
577
- MRV to be improved by including more detailed information on South–South cooperation
Specifics on MRV of support 578
579
Finance:
580
- Need for definition of climate finance and clarity on what type is most appropriate for what action
- Reporting requirements for finance should be commensurate with reporting requirements for mitigation 581
582
- Need for accounting rules for climate finance, including for the private sector
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
- Need for robust verification system, improved for all sources, based on annual reporting on delivery of climate finance
- Need to ensure that there is no double counting of financial support and inconsistencies in climate finance data are addressed; including through information on:
o Levels of financing, what financing is used for, which countries are benefiting, and whether funds are new and additional
o Sources, scale, channels, and instruments
o Enabling environments
o
Private and South-South flows
o Results achieved with support
o As outlined in the MRV proposal by Ecuador (FCCC/AWGLCA/2012/CRP.1)
Technology:
- TEC to work on MRV of technology support
Capacity-building:
- Clear definition of capacity-building activities and contributions
- Effectiveness of capacity-building support to be measured based on impact and knowledge created within countries and against clear performance indicators at the national level, by a capacity-building committee; MRV of support received for capacity-building against needs identified by Parties, and assessment of the effectiveness of implementing capacity-building activities including clear performance indicators at the international level
- MRV to be supported by the Durban Forum on capacity-building and the Consultative Group of Experts on National Communications from Parties not included in Annex I to the Convention
- Transparency of reporting on capacity-building to be enhanced through revising MRV guidelines and capacity-building chapters in national communications and biennial reports
Complementary decisions 607
608
609
610
- Capture key elements and provide general guidance in the 2015 agreement, and establish/launch, through COP decision(s), work programme(s) to further develop detailed operational modalities and guidelines in order to accommodate the evolving nature of the transparency framework and ensure durability
611
612
- COP to provide further guidance and to ensure that the transparency system of support reflects progress, including by the SCF and other international fora
IX. Cycle of commitments/contributions 4 613
General 614
615
- Commitments/contributions to be time-bound and be renewed in a cycle under the 2015 agreement
4 With regard to intended nationally determined contributions to be communicated according to decision 1/CP.19, paragraph 2, see ADP.2014.7.DraftText.
617
618
619
620
The purpose of the cycle is to:
o Lead to formalization and effective implementation and delivery of commitments/contributions
o Enable an upward spiral of ambition over time
o Facilitate participation of all Parties and incentivize those Parties who have not yet submitted their intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) to do so
621
o Determine what is needed to further enhance the implementation of the Convention
- The cycle is to be: 622
623
o Informed by science and evidence-based, in particular based on IPCC assessments and periodic reviews
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
o Inclusive, consultative, facilitative and supportive, non-prescriptive, non-intrusive and non-punitive
o In accordance with Article 4, paragraph 2(d), of the Convention
- With regard to mitigation the cycle is to consider the:
o Aggregate commitments/contributions and their adequacy and fairness in response to science
o Progress towards the below 2/1.5 ºC goal
- With regard to adaptation the cycle is to consider the effectiveness or impacts of the adaptation contributions
- With regard to means of implementation the cycle is to regularly assess progress on technical and financial support and resources needed to achieve the below 2 ºC goal, and update collective finance targets/pathways over time to be mobilized by developed country Parties and other Parties in a position to do so, based on developing country needs or in proportion with action to be taken
- With regard to transparency, the cycle is to include an ex-post assessment to refine the MRV system
o The cycle is to include commitments/contributions of all Parties
- Different forms of assessment and review and of compliance for different types of commitments
Approach
- A principle-based reference framework, including
o Quantification of global carbon budget for Annex I Parties at the start of any commitment period to meet the agreed global goal
o Party submission of proposals for fairness indicators
o Consideration and assessment
- An international review mechanism with compliance elements
- A mechanism to periodically review commitments/contributions based on science and respective capacities
- A dynamic, flexible and robust mechanism to raise ambition of commitments/contributions over time
- A regular/periodic assessment, including a built-in process to monitor how commitments are being implemented
Steps 648
649
- The cycle for commitments/contributions includes:
650
651
652
653
o Communication
o Ex ante process or consultations
o Formalizing/inscription
o Review
654
o Compliance
Communication 655
656
657
- Parties communicate their INDCs towards achieving the objective of the Convention as set out in its Article 2 in a manner that facilitates the clarity, transparency and understanding of those contributions
658
659
660
- Information to be provided in accordance with relevant COP decisions
- Submissions to be made publicly available on the UNFCCC website and compiled into a miscellaneous document
-
Ex-ante process 661
Objective 662
663
- Contributions/proposed commitments to be considered in order to:
664
665
666
667
o Facilitate transparency, clarity, understanding, and comparability of contributions
o Understand contributions in terms of ambition and fairness and in the context of a country's long-term decarbonization pathway
o Assess the adequacy of aggregated contributions and compare with science
668
o Address deficits in light of the ambition required
Modalities 669
670
- Modalities for the ex-ante process could include:
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
o Secretariat to 'compile' a technical paper assessing the effect of all contributions, the level of ambition, fairness and the gap
o A technical summary and a list of countries that have not submitted a contribution
o A technical assessment to follow the communication of initial contributions
[x] Individual assessment of each Annex I Party contribution to the goal including adequacy and fairness consideration
[x] Aggregate assessment of total contribution from non-Annex I Parties and consideration of: extent and availability of support from Annex II Parties to non-Annex I Parties; non-Annex I Parties' additional ambition after ex-ante consideration of level of available support from Annex II Parties; adequacy and fairness as part of the principle based reference framework
o A technical body/panel to:
[x] Undertake analytical work
[x] Examine the adequacy and fairness of contributions/proposed commitments communicated by Parties
[x] Prepare a report for consideration by [x]
o Establish a joint SBI/SBSTA programme to prepare recommendations for the COP
o Consultative phase to consider commitments, also for latecomers:
[x] An opportunity for Parties to present their contributions and allow other Parties to pose clarifying questions
o Workshops and/or roundtables, with a questions and answers phase, including comments or questions by the public, which Parties will consider before submitting their final commitments
o All information from the technical process to be made publicly available
On the basis of the ex-ante process:
o Parties will consider the recommendations of the technical assessment
o Parties may revise their contributions on a voluntary basis
o Parties may be allowed exceptional adjustments in case of force majeure or if subsequent rules differ substantially from the Party's assumptions
o Parties will adjust their contributions upwards, with no backsliding allowed
o There will be a top-down adjustment based on a global carbon budget
699
o Undertake an adjustment procedure, without the need for ratification (from second period/cycle onwards)
Timing 700
701
702
- Contributions/proposed commitments to be assessed through a 12-month review after submission of commitments followed by a technical review every five years
703
704
705
706
707
- International assessment and/or consideration:
o In the year in which the INDCs are communicated
o Launched in the year after INDCs have been communicated
o To be initiated after a double threshold, for example a certain number of Parties and percentage of global emissions, has been reached
-
Formalizing/inscription of contributions/commitments 708
709
- Contributions/commitments to be formalized/inscribed:
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
o In an annex/in attachments to the agreement, as an integral part of the agreement
o In national schedules
[x] To be an integral part of the agreement
[x] To be housed separately from the agreement
- Ratification required only once
o Contributions/commitments to be finally inscribed upon ratification, after provisional inscription
o Simplified procedure for formalizing/inscribing future contributions/commitments, for example an adjustment procedure
Review
Objective
- Quantify global mitigation actions towards a global goal and ensure that the mitigation efforts are adequate and are increased over time and that the below 2/1.5 ºC goal is met in an equitable and fair manner in response to science
- Parties to report on progress on implementation of commitments as they are being implemented, including on their unrealized mitigation potential
- A review of commitments/contributions to be:
o Applicable to all Parties
o Based on the ambition review mechanism of the second commitment period of the KP
o A periodic science-based review in future time periods
o An ongoing process throughout implementation
o Built on the existing MRV system
731
o Built on the 2013-2015 review
Timing 732
733
- Mid-term review
734
735
736
737
738
o A review should be carried out:
[x] At the middle of a cycle to measure overall progress and raise ambition
[x] Every 10 years
[x] Every 5 years, with a full review every 10 years
- Ex-post review
739
o Parties to report ex post, that is, at the end of each cycle
Compliance 740
741
General
742
743
Purpose and scope
- The purpose of any compliance mechanism is to:
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
- A compliance mechanism is also to:
o Promote transparency, comparability of efforts, environmental integrity and equity, and build trust,
o Signal stability and predictability to private sector through effective implementation
o Take into account CBDR-RC and social and economic conditions
o Be tailored to the commitments taken on by Parties
- Any compliance mechanism is to cover some or all of the thematic areas of: mitigation, adaptation and means of implementation, in particular to ensure compliance by developed country Parties with their financial obligations for mitigation, adaptation, transfer of technology and capacity-building and MRV, each of which should be addressed in a different manner:
Institutions and structure
- The institutions and structure of a compliance mechanism is to:
Nature and modalities 755
756
- A compliance process is to be:
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
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o Consultative, facilitative and non-threatening
o Based on climate justice
- A compliance mechanism is to include:
o Triggers to commence a compliance procedure
o Consequences/measures:
[x] Ranging from assistance/facilitative measures to sanctions/compelling measures
[x] Consequences for Annex I Parties and incentives for non-Annex I Parties
o A compliance assessment at end of commitment period, as well as early warning during the period
Complementary decisions
- Central steps and essential characteristics of the cycle to be included in the agreement, with details to be elaborated in decisions
- Essential elements of, and guiding principles for, a compliance mechanism could be included in the 2015 agreement, with details to be elaborated in decisions
X. Relationship with other organizations and actors 770
771
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- Regularize participation of non-State actors in a stand-alone clause in the agreement, applicable to all of its provisions
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- On adaptation the agreement should strengthen the linkages with organizations and institutions outside the Convention, in particular the private sector
- Enhancing cooperation and stakeholder engagement in adaptation; options to involve the private sector to be better understood and assessed and barriers to be reduced; more focus to be placed on sub-national, regional and cross-border activities and cooperation
- Recognize and reflect the efforts of local governments, sub-regional entities, and the private sector
- Recognize the contributions of Parties to international cooperative initiatives (ICIs) and to what extent credit can be given for actions outside a country's territory, rules regarding accounting for ICIs should be made clear
- Enhance/catalyse ICIs and invite them to register their contribution with a view to recognizing them as a contribution to achieving the 2 ºC goal
XI. Procedural and institutional provisions 784
Institutional arrangements 785
786
787
- With respect to the role of the COP, SBI, SBSTA and other bodies and mechanisms, as well as the secretariat, the 2015 agreement could generally:
788
789
790
791
792
793
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795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
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804
805
806
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810
o Build on/link to existing institutions and mechanisms to avoid duplication and ensure coherence
o Mirror institutional provisions of the KP with respect to the COP, secretariat and SBI/SBSTA, including clarifying that the SBI/SBSTA will serve the 2015 agreement
Complementary decisions
- Key aspects regarding institutional arrangements to be included in the agreement, with further elaboration in decisions as necessary
Procedural provisions/final clauses
- Procedural provisions/final clauses could, in many cases, draw on standard clauses and include provisions on:
o Signature, ratification, acceptance, approval and accession
o Entry into force:
[x] 2015 agreement will 'come into effect and be implemented from 2020' – avoid a 'you go first' situation
[x] Be neither under nor over inclusive
o Participation of regional economic integration organizations
o Amendment procedures, including use of simplified procedures
o Adoption and amendment of annexes
o Transitional arrangements/provisions, including potential prompt start, early application, provisional application or so called 'fast-start provisions'
o Settlement of disputes
o Voting
o Depositary
o Reservations
o Withdrawal
811
o Authentic texts
- The 2015 agreement to also include definitions 812
813
- - - - -
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Update: A food-borne outbreak of hepatitis A in the Netherlands related to semi-dried tomatoes in oil, January-February 2010
M Petrignani (firstname.lastname@example.org) 1 , M Harms 2 , L Verhoef 3 , R van Hunen 1 , C Swaan 4 , J van Steenbergen 4 , I Boxman 5 , R Peran i Sala 6 , H J Ober 7 , H Vennema 3 , M Koopmans 3 , W van Pelt 2 1. Department of Infectious Disease Control, Municipal Health Service (GGD Zuid-Holland West), Zoetermeer, the Netherlands
3. Laboratory for Infectious Diseases and Screening, Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu, RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands
2. Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit, Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu, RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands
4. Preparedness and Response Unit, Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu, RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands
6. Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (Voedsel en Waren Autoriteit), the Hague, the Netherlands
5. Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (Voedsel en Waren Autoriteit), Zutphen, the Netherlands
7. Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (Voedsel en Waren Autoriteit), Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Citation style for this article:
Citation style for this article: Petrignani M, Harms M, Verhoef L, van Hunen R, Swaan C, van Steenbergen J, Boxman I, Peran i Sala R, Ober HJ, Vennema H, Koopmans M, van Pelt W. Update: A food-borne outbreak of hepatitis A in the Netherlands related to semi-dried tomatoes in oil, January-February 2010. Euro Surveill. 2010;15(20):pii=19572. Available online: http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=19572
This article has been published on 20 May 2010
Between 31 December 2009 and 10 February 2010, 13 patients were infected by an identical hepatitis A virus strain not previously detected in the Netherlands. They had not been abroad and were widely distributed over the Netherlands. A case-control study including 12 cases and 44 controls identified semi-dried tomatoes in oil as the source of the outbreak (odds ratio: 20.0; 95% confidence interval: 1.5-274). The virus was not detected in any of 81 tested food samples. International trace-back is still ongoing.
Introduction
On 12 February 2010, five patients with acute hepatitis were detected in the Netherlands through our enhanced molecular surveillance programme and found to harbour an identical strain of hepatitis A virus (HAV, Hu/Netherlands/RIVM-006/2010). These patients had not been abroad and did not cluster geographically. Although the number of reported HAV cases was normal for the time of the year, finding five identical HAV strains was unusual and triggered an outbreak investigation [1]. Because the nucleotide sequence of a fragment of the VP1-2A region of HAV isolated from patients was identical to that found in patients involved in an outbreak in 2009 in Australia [2], and because the sequences were unique in the HAV database at our institute, a relation between these two outbreaks was suspected. The outbreak of hepatitis A in Australia was epidemiologically associated with the consumption of semi-dried tomatoes. To find a possible common source for the Dutch cluster, an investigation was conducted. The main goals were to identify any potential source among the food products consumed by the patients, specifically those containing www.eurosurveillance.org
semi-dried tomatoes. This article describes the results of the case-control study and food sample analysis.
Methods Case-control study
The outbreak investigation focused on reported cases of hepatitis A with patients who contracted their infection in the Netherlands. Hepatitis A is notifiable in the Netherlands when a person has clinical symptoms of jaundice and/or fever combined with an elevated level of hepatitis A IgM in their serum (confirmed HAV patient) or combined with an epidemiological relation to a confirmed HAV patient (probable HAV patient). A nationwide project in which all laboratories were asked to send in the serum samples of patients for sequence analysis was already ongoing at the time of this outbreak [3].
A case-control study was initiated. Cases were defined as all reported persons with hepatitis A infection between 10 December 2009 (week 50) and 13 April 2010 (week 15) confirmed to have a primary infection with a genotype 1B HAV strain with identical sequence in a 460 nt fragment of the VP1-2A part of the genome, Hu/Netherlands/RIVM-006/2010 [4]. Cases related to primary cases and with onset of disease two weeks or more after the primary case were regarded as secondary cases. All primary cases were approached for inclusion.
To facilitate rapid source identification, controls were selected by three methods. The first group consisted of unrelated hepatitis A cases with onset of illness in the same time period. These unrelated cases were people who contracted their infection in the Netherlands,
1
but had a different HAV strain or were epidemiologically related to patients confirmed to be infected with a different strain. The second group of controls were found among non-household contacts of the cases and a third group by taking a sample in the same geographical area and of the same age range as the cases. Partners and family members were excluded to be controls since they could have been immunised as part of the outbreak control activities.
The cases and non-household contacts were asked to answer a web-based or telephone questionnaire. The controls that were selected from the same geographical region got the questionnaire and a letter asking for their participation in the study sent by post.
The questionnaire covered personal information such as age, gender, place of residence, country of birth, vaccine status, symptoms, contact with other infected persons, and a detailed food history. The food history specifically included fresh produce and fruits that are eaten unpeeled and/or uncooked (including: cabbage lettuce, iceberg lettuce, other lettuce, raw spinach, raw endives, other raw vegetables, sandwiches, dried tomatoes, semi-dried tomatoes in oil, tapenade, raspberries, blackberries, berries, strawberries, dates, figs and other fruit), as well as shellfish and other products that are normally eaten uncooked (clams, oysters, other shellfish, other raw products and other ready-made products). The participants were asked to indicate the degree of certainty of their answers as 'surely', 'possibly', 'not' or 'don't remember'. They were asked to name the places where the products were purchased and where they normally went shopping.
Because the power of analysis of the different control groups separately was limited due to low numbers of cases and controls, all three control groups were combined. Data were analysed univariately with a Fisher's exact test for non-random association between factors, the corresponding odds ratio was adjusted for age, sex and the different control groups, using appropriate dummy variables. After univariate testing all variables with a p value under 0,2 were used in a forward stepwise selection method to fit a multivariate model. Analyses were done in R (version 2.10).
Figure
Cases of hepatitis A contracted in the Netherlands between 10 December 2009 and 13 April 2010 (n=66)
Table Odds ratios of risk factor for infection with the HU/Netherlands/RIVM-006/2010 strain in the Netherlands, 10 December 2009 – 13 April 2010 (n=56)
| Consumed semi-dried tomatoes in oil | Total respondents | | Cases | | Controls | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | n | Percentage | n | Percentage | n | Percentage |
| Not | 24 | 43% | 2 | 4% | 22 | 39% |
| Surely and possibly | 22 | 39% | 8 | 14% | 14 | 25% |
| Missing information | 10 | 18% | 2 | 4% | 8 | 14% |
| Total | 56 | 100% | 12 | 22% | 44 | 78% |
a Odds ratio adjusted for age, sex and control groups.
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www.eurosurveillance.org
Source tracing and sampling for laboratory analyses
Semi-dried tomatoes were implicated from the beginning of the investigation because the same strain was identified in an outbreak in Australia linked to semi-dried tomatoes [2]. In order to identify a common source of the semi-dried tomatoes consumed by the patients, the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority performed trace back investigation on national and international suppliers of semi-dried tomato products. International trace-back information was exchanged via the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) and Infosan. Initially, only little information was available on the brands of the products containing semi-dried tomatoes that had been consumed by the patients. For this reason, inspectors of the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority collected a wide range of products at the stores used by the patients, and when national trace back information became available, samples were taken at the identified suppliers or warehouses located in the Netherlands.
All samples were analysed for the presence of HAV RNA at least in duplicate using an in-house method including an extraction process control and an external HAV RNA standard to control for inhibition of the PCR signal.
Results Background information
As of 21 April 2010, a total of 66 cases were notified that had contracted their HAV infection in the Netherlands (Figure). Of these, 13 primary cases were confirmed to be infected by the same strain with onset of disease between 31 December 2009 and 10 February 2010 (one of them a British tourist). Four secondary cases were reported to be epidemiologically related to the confirmed primary cases (partners and family members), three of whom were infected by the Hu/Netherlands/ RIVM-006/2010 strain. For the fourth contact no serum was obtained for sequencing. Of the 13 confirmed primary cases, eight were male and five were female, with a median age of 42 years (range: 20-63 years). Nine cases with onset of disease between 10 December 2009 and 2 April 2010 and unknown transmission route could not be genotyped due to negative RT-PCR (n=4) or lack of serum samples (n=5) and were considered as 'unknown' cases. Of these nine unknown cases four were male and five were female, with a median age of 44 years (range: 6-69 years).
In the same period, 40 unrelated cases were reported who also contracted their infection in the Netherlands, but either had a different HAV strain or were epidemiologically related to patients confirmed to be infected by a different strain. Of the unrelated cases 16 were male and 24 were female, with a median of 20 years (range: 2-69 years).
Case-control study
13 primary confirmed cases and 262 controls were approached for inclusion. One case did not agree to www.eurosurveillance.org
participate in the study for unknown reasons. In total 61 controls filled out the questionnaire. Of the responding controls, 17 were excluded for returning an incomplete questionnaire. All further analysis was done based on a sample of 12 primary cases and 44 controls of which 12 were unrelated cases, 10 were non-household contacts of the patients and 22 were selected from the same geographical area.
For the univariate analysis the answers 'surely' and 'possibly' were taken together and 'don't remember' was classed as missing. Odds ratios were adjusted for age, sex and possible differences between control groups by adding two dummy variables to the model, which made it possible to differentiate between the three different control groups and see whether any of the groups had an effect on the model individually.
Univariately three variables showed a p value of less than 0.2: dates, raw vegetables and semi-dried tomatoes in oil. Of these variables, dates were a protective factor and after multivariate analysis only semi-dried tomatoes in oil turned out to significantly improve the null model. Of the 10 respondents who answered this question, eight (80%) confirmed having consumed semi-dried tomatoes in oil, compared to 14 of the 36 controls (39%), giving an adjusted odds ratio of 20.0 (95% confidence interval: 1.5-274.1) (Table).
Eight of the cases confirmed eating semi-dried tomatoes in oil, two did not remember and two denied having eaten them. Of these last four cases, two ate mixed salads that very likely contained semi-dried tomatoes, one case had surely consumed dry semi-dried tomatoes and the remaining case also had consumed mixed salads and often ate take-away food from restaurants.
Source tracing and analyses of semi-dried tomato products
In total 81 samples were collected between 23 February and 1 April 2010. These were semi-dried tomatoes in oil either marinated or not (n=36), dried tomatoes without oil (n=17), marinated semi-dried tomatoes (n=16), tapenade or raw materials for tapenade containing semi-dried tomatoes (n=20) and salads or dried salad mixes containing semi-dried tomatoes (n=8). Five of these samples were collected as opened packages at the patients' homes (semi-dried tomatoes in oil (n=2), dried tomatoes (n=1), tapenade (n=1) and dried salad mix containing semi-dried tomatoes (n=1). In none of the 81 samples analysed, HAV RNA could be detected by two-step real-time RT-PCR. The products collected and specifically remembered by the patients were diverse and from different brands. Trace-back by Dutch food safety inspectors showed a complex product chain, involving multiple companies, and leading to international importers in different countries. Until now no common source could be identified, but we are still awaiting feedback from international trace-back through RASFF and Infosan.
3
Discussion
The case-control study confirmed food products containing semi-dried tomatoes in oil as a risk factor for the hepatitis A cluster. Nearly all patients ate semidried tomatoes while only relatively few of the controls did. This is true for all three control groups and provides strong epidemiological evidence that semi-dried tomatoes were the source of the outbreak. Semi-dried tomatoes have not been described before as a cause of food-borne outbreaks of hepatitis A. When patients are asked what raw products they have consumed, it is likely that they will not mention semi-dried tomatoes spontaneously. Therefore we recommend keeping this product in mind when implementing a food questionnaire in the investigation of a suspected food-borne outbreak.
In our study, controls were not selected according to a standardised epidemiological study design, nor were all controls selected by the same method, which may have introduced selection bias. This choice was made for practical reasons to enable rapid conclusions for source tracing. As preliminary analysis of individual groups showed comparable results, we considered it justified to analyse the controls as one group to increase power.
Our results could not be confirmed by food testing as all samples tested negative for HAV RNA. Several factors associated with food analyses in general and with virus testing in particular may have lead to the negative test results. Food testing for viruses is not done routinely and there are at present no accepted validated routine methods available, but most importantly: only part of the samples were taken from the product type associated with the highest risk in our investigation and most likely these were collected too late. Often, leftovers from the batch implicated in a food-related event have been discarded by the time samples are being taken, as a consequence of the long incubation period of hepatitis A. In the present study, sampling started only from mid-February 2010, whereas many of the confirmed patients had probably been exposed to the source already in December 2009. Other factors in general are the potential non-homogeneous distribution of (low amounts of) virus in the food, low efficiency of the method to extract the virus from the food, co-isolation of inhibitory agents from the food that interfere with the test method, or insufficient sensitivity of the detection method.
Unfortunately, the products remembered by the patients were of diverse origin, involving many companies and requiring international trace-back. Around ten companies in different countries have been identified that supply (marinated) semi-dried tomatoes in oil to the stores where patients purchased their products. The source of this outbreak remains obscure, and given the diffuse pattern of distribution of cases is likely to be a contamination event higher up in the food production chain. One hypothesis could be that contaminated
4
water was used during cultivation of the tomatoes as has been described for green onions [5].
We are still waiting for international responses through the RASFF and Infosan systems about possible relationships between the different companies. Therefore, a common source cannot be ruled out and we cannot be certain that the outbreak has ended. It is possible that some of the contaminated products have been frozen and not been consumed yet. HAV can survive for several months in frozen produce as has recently been described for spinach leaves, berries and herbs [6,7]. Alternatively, there could still be a risk of contamination at the farm where the tomatoes originated from. Therefore, surveillance through sequence analysis of patient sera will remain necessary for several months at least.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Geke Hägele and Nathalie te Loeke for analyses of the food samples, Jeroen Cremer and Bas van der Veer for technical assistance on human sera, Joanne Bruins, Jolanda Rensink and Marlies van Dam for assisting the outbreak team. Furthermore, we would like to thank the Municipal Health Services for their help in including the patients, the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority food inspectors for product sample collection and their back office for technical assistance as well as the medical microbiological laboratories involved for sending in the patient sera.
References
1. Petrignani M, Verhoef L, van Hunen R, Swaan C, van Steenbergen J, Boxman I, et al. A possible foodborne outbreak of hepatitis A in the Netherlands, January-February 2010. Euro Surveill. 2010;15(11). pii: 19512. Available from: http://www. eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=19512
2. Hepatitis A virus, semi-dried tomatoes - Australia (03): (Victoria). ProMED-mail [online]. Boston US: International Society for Infectious Diseases; 4 November 2009. Archive no. 20091104.3811. Available from: http://www.promedmail.org
3. van Steenbergen J, Petrignani M, Kroneman A, Koopmans M. [The molecular epidemiology of hepatitis A in The Netherlands; the usefulness of typing isolated viral strains] Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2008;152(7):408 [Article in Dutch].
4. Stene-Johansen K, Tjon G, Schreier E, Bremer V, Bruisten S, Ngui SL, et al. Molecular epidemiological studies show that hepatitis A virus is endemic among active homosexual men in Europe. J Med Virol. 2007;79(4):356-65.
5. Wheeler C et al. An outbreak of hepatitis A associated with green onions. N Engl J Med. 2005;353(9):890-7.
6. Shieh YC, Stewart DS, Laird DT. Survival of hepatitis A virus in spinach during low temperature storage. J Food Prot. 2009;72(11):2390-3.
7. Butot S, Putallaz T, Sánchez G. Effects of sanitation, freezing and frozen storage on enteric viruses in berries and herbs. Int J Food Microbiol. 2008;126(1-2):30-5.
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Chapter Seven
Electronics and the Decline of Books: The Transformation of the Classroom
Eli Noam Columbia University
Noam believes that books eventually will become secondary tools in academia, usurped by electronic media. Textbooks, he says, will be replaced by multimedia instructional technologies incorporating pictures, symbols and video clips. Change will come not because the new forms are superior to traditional face-to-face teaching, but rather because they can be provided for significantly lower costs. Further, commercial firms will be the primary providers of the new electronic curriculum, not today's nonprofit colleges and universities. Noam reviews the effects of these changes on the publishing industry and the higher education marketplace.
The paradox of American higher education is that on the one hand, it is a highly successful model. It produces more Nobel Prize winners than any other country. Students from all over the world come to America to study, despite the high price of tuition. The system is strong at the top and fairly broadly distributed at the bottom. On the other hand, American higher education is deeply worried about its future: how to run the institutions, how to finance them, and how to maintain their quality. Such unease is not unique to higher education. Indeed, all of society is subject to the same process of "creative destruction," to use Joseph Schumpeter's phrase, that is emerging as part of the information age.
Revolutionary Change
It is characteristic of revolutions that institutions do not understand the forces of change that are enveloping them. It is easier to see the need for transformation when it comes to industries other than one's own. Take, for example, the banking industry, which currently finds itself in the throes of a technology-induced revolution. Bill Gates has described banks as dinosaurs, and the ATM machine is one example of how traditional banks are becoming obsolete due to technology.
Banks first embraced ATMs as a cost-saving strategy: convenient and cheap, they allowed banking institutions to close branches and shed tellers. Banks closed thousands of branches, but in so doing, have unleashed a dynamic that is still playing itself out. Many ATMs are not associated with a local bank anymore, but are supported through a network by distant banks—nonbanks—which will likely include banks from other countries in the future. Soon, one will be able to replenish one's electronic wallet from any phone. From the customer's point of view, it matters little which financial entity is associated with the ATM machine. This scenario illustrates how through the implementation of a simple costcutting information technology, the ATM, banks make themselves obsolete by stepping back from the direct link with their customers.
Money itself will change enormously in the future. As we progress from credit cards to smart cards and finally to electronic wallets, cash will become electronic, and money will be issued not just by governments but also by private institu- tions. We will see privately owned and competitive currencies, as well as cash, that can only be used for specific purposes. In introducing those changes, the nonbanking financial sector is moving much faster than the banking industry as a whole, and this will have long-term implications. Banks are losing the competitive advantage they have accumulated for centuries.
Another industry that has undergone massive change is the telecommunications industry. Before technological change and liberalization changed the telecommunications landscape in America, AT&T was an admired and feared company. It was the largest corporation in the world, owned and operated about 80 percent of American telecommunications, and had Nobel Prize winners on its payroll. And where is AT&T today? It has been federally splintered, and must compete with hundreds of hungry start-up companies—by interrupting the dinner of potential customers to beg them to sign up for AT&T's service. Although still a large company and doing reasonably well, AT&T clearly was not prepared for what hit it.
Yet it was AT&T's own technology that opened the doors for competition. During World War II, microwave technology was harnessed and soon spilled into civilian applications. It thus became possible for competitors to enter the market, and the rest was mere implementation.
So what can colleges and universities learn from the banking and the telecommunications industries? Many of the problems American universities will face result from changes in their three primary functions: producing information, storing information, and disseminating information. Technology will allow these functions to be performed more conveniently and perhaps more powerfully in the future. In the past, information was scarce. Scholars came to the information and students came to the scholars to learn. Today, information can be found everywhere and, therefore, so can scholars and students. This dramatically reduces the need for the information nodes we call universities.
Books Today
Technological changes will also affect one of the prevalent objects in higher education, the book. A symbiotic relationship between books and universities goes back 3,000 years, to the large libraries in Nineveh. This ancient library at Nineveh was organized around specialized sections. There were rooms for the study of history, literature, poetry, astrology, etc. In these rooms scholars worked, surrounded by their disciples. The form of what would become the modern university had taken shape, marked by centralized information, scholars coming to the information, and students coming to the scholars. The close link between books, manuscripts and universities continues to this day. Because university books are being produced and consumed in large quantities, it is shocking to contemplate that this situation is likely to unravel. It is doubly ironic to imagine the demise of the university book at a time when information, knowledge and scholarship are more important than ever before.
Nevertheless, books will cease to be the main- stay of knowledge in academia, and their role will become primarily that of an entertainment medium. Culturally, books will descend to secondary status and the firms associated with books––publishers–– will economically decline. This will be difficult to accept because the concept of books is very near and dear to our hearts. Yet books in academia will go from romance to divorce.
In academia, there are basically four main types of printed material: texts, as source material for analysis; textbooks for instruction; scholarly monographs; and academic journals.
Source Material
The first type of book, source material, is probably least likely to be affected by the information revolution. Old texts, traditional books, and the classics will continue to be available in book form. Rare books are certainly going to be around, although for reasons of protection and dissemination they are likely to be stored and distributed electronically. For example, for a long time, the Dead Sea scrolls were available only to a small group; today they are becoming available electronically to all researchers.
Textbooks and the Traditional Classroom
The second category, the textbook, will flourish but in a totally transformed way. Printed textbooks will become secondary; textbook publishers, however, can become quite important for the simple reason that they can transform themselves from
book publishers into providers of the courses themselves. University courses are very expensive. In Ivy League schools, a single lecture hour per student costs approximately as much as a Broadway show. At these prices, competitors are bound to enter the market and provide alternatives. Some of these alternatives will be provided by other universities using new communications technologies. More common will be courses provided by textbook publishers—some of them may even offer degrees or certificates. The key question then becomes whether society will value these credentials in the marketplace: where the quality of the courses is assured, and their rigor to students strong, these degrees will without doubt be valued.
Distance education will not be as effective as face-to-face (although the latter can become romanticized if one considers the large classes that are typically offered at large universities). Electronic courses, however, can be provided at dramatically lower costs, and will reduce the role of traditional textbooks.
Scholarly Monographs
The third category of books are the scholarly volumes. Here the buyers consist of individuals and libraries. Individuals will continue to buy books, but alternative information on the Internet is often available, and is more updated, easier to link up with citations, and often free. This will reduce demand for books.
The library system, too, will shift away from the physical book to electronic publications. And publishers will establish pay-per-read arrangements or site licenses to access the material. These scenar- ios will put the go-between role of publishers in jeopardy. Self-publication will become popular, particularly in the case of authors who have some reputation, and are in a rush to publish. Much self-publication will be done through an academic department, research center, or professional association.
Academic Journals
The fourth type of books, academic journal volumes, has an economic foundation that has become unsustainable. Approximately two million articles are published each year. It costs over $100 million to buy a single complete set, each year. Nobody can afford this cost.
The advantages of electronic media go well beyond the economic, as electronic journals are superior in accessibility and in cross-linking references. The latter feature, after all, was the motivation behind the development of the World Wide Web by physicists in Geneva who wanted to be linked directly to the sources. Some of these journals can be selective, thus maintaining the academic pecking order.
The Decline of Books
Let us add up these trends. Printed textbooks will shift into electronic-based courses, scholarly books will move to an electronic version, and journal volumes will become electronic. The inescapable conclusion, therefore, is that there will be a significant shift away from books in academia, the inner sanctum of book culture.
Many people will rise to the defense of the book. One main response is that of practicality. One can not curl up with a computer. Here, the traditionalists have a point—electronics really are not userfriendly. But this is likely to be a temporary disadvantage. In time, high resolution screens will adopt many of the physical characteristics and conveniences of the book. Thus, to rely on the ergonomics of books versus electronics is a risky and shortsighted proposition.
Another argument in defense of the paperbased book extols the advantages of the written word over pictures. This is a holdover from the struggles of the print culture over television. Like generals fighting the last war, book lovers sometimes confuse writing with the choice of technology, computer screen versus paper. Plenty of writing takes place over electronic screens, and much of it is done by the same young people whose brains have supposedly been fried by television.
Another advantage of electronics is its multitrack capability. A major drawback to print is that it is slow to absorb. People read at a relatively slow rate. Society has settled on a protocol that cannot be easily changed. Julius Caesar could still fairly easily read today's newspaper headlines. To speed absorption of the enormous amount of information being produced, one would expect to see the adoption of a faster delivery system so that the information could be moved faster. Pictures, or information vehicles, have certain advantages in some situations, while symbols have advantages in other situations. For abstract concepts, the written word is superior. The optimal way to communicate therefore is to have multiple tracks of information: in other words, multimedia. Today, multimedia enables consumers of information to receive print, pictures and sound, all brought together to enhance the act of communication.
As multimedia develops, it will become a creative medium in which some of the best minds of society develop new forms of literature and entertainment. Multimedia will be at the leading edge of communication. Technological books are going to be old, tired and convenient. In this sense, books may become more like Muzak—comfortable, soothing, but not on the creative leading edge.
Thus books will become a vehicle for popular culture, while electronic media becomes the vehicle of scholarship and creativity. How ironic it would be, after the book culture disdainfully lording it over popular video culture for so long, that now the tables would be turned.
Books are yesterday's technology. They are bulky, environmentally suspect, and bad for the eyes. They wear out, are expensive, hard to find, forever out of print, slow to produce, slow to write, and slow to read. Gutenberg's Bible is still one of the most beautiful books ever made. But does that not point to the static nature of the medium? If children and adults do not read books as much as they used to, maybe the problem lies with the book's deficiencies as a medium? Not in terms of the content, which can be fixed; but the medium itself might be the issue.
Conclusion
The book and the university will part company due to changed technology and economics. Like the radio, of which there are quantitatively more than ever, books will survive, but without
their past centrality. Books are likely to stay with us as an entertainment medium—novels for couch, beach and bus. And, where an exquisite presentation is part of the experience, such as for poetry or art, books will prevail. But when it comes to the pure informational aspect of books—storing and accessing useful information—the paper and ink technology will lose out. This change will not come overnight. Nor will it be complete; media tend to coexist. Nor will it be uniform; the hard sciences have never shared the humanities' love affair with books. But changes will come in time. We in academia will hate many of these changes, because as a profession, we are beholden to books. We write them, we read them, we review them, and our status is often derived through them. But is it not really knowledge that we cherish? Books are merely the receptacle. There is a new and creative medium out there knocking at the door, and we should embrace it.
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State of California Commission on Teacher Credentialing
1900 Capitol Avenue Sacramento, CA 95811-4213
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Website: www.ctc.ca.gov
DESIGNATED SUBJECTS ADULT EDUCATION TEACHING CREDENTIALS (FULL-TIME/PART-TIME)
The requirements outlined in this leaflet apply to individuals who qualify for the Full-Time or Part-Time Designated Subjects Adult Education Teaching Credential under regulations in place prior to January 1, 2011. Individuals seeking a Preliminary or Clear Designated Subjects Adult Education Teaching Credential based on Assembly Bill (AB) 1374 which affects credentials issued on or after January 1, 2011 to individuals enrolled in programs accredited under the adult education program standards approved in November 2010, should refer to Commission leaflet CL-697B, entitled Designated Subjects Adult Education Teaching Credentials-Based on AB 1374. For detailed information on the passage of AB 1374, see Coded Correspondence 11-07.
NOTE: The final date for initial issuance of the preliminary credential earned under the requirements outlined in this leaflet was January 31, 2013. The final date for initial issuance of a clear credential earned under the requirements outlined in this leaflet was January 31, 2016. See the Commission website for a list of Commission-approved program sponsors.
THE FULL-TIME ADULT CREDENTIAL
The Preliminary or Clear Full-Time Designated Subjects Adult Education Teaching Credential authorizes the holder to teach the subjects named on the credential in courses organized primarily for adults. In addition, the holder may serve as a substitute in courses organized primarily for adults for not more than 30 days for any one teacher during the school year.
Designated Subjects Adult Education Teaching Credentials are issued to individuals who meet the requirements listed below and are recommended by a Commission-approved program sponsor.
Requirements for the Preliminary Credential (Full-Time)
1. Five years of experience and/or education directly related to each subject to be named on the credential (see Terms and Definitions)
2. High school diploma requirement by one of the following methods:
a. High school diploma
b. Diploma based on passage of the GED Test
c. Foreign equivalent of a high school diploma
3. Satisfy the basic skills requirement. See Commission program leaflet CL-667, entitled Basic Skills Requirement for additional information. Applicants for the Adult Credential in non-academic subjects (see chart later in this program leaflet) are exempt from the basic skills requirement.
4. Verification by a Commission-approved program sponsor that the applicant has been fully apprised of the requirements for both the preliminary and clear credentials, including the Level I/Level II programs of personalized preparation
5. Completed application (form 41-4) and application processing fee
6. Completed Live Scan receipt (41-LS), verifying fingerprints have been taken and fees have been paid, unless fingerprint clearance is already on file at the Commission
7. Recommendation by a Commission-approved program sponsor
Period of Validity (Full-Time)
For individuals who have completed all requirements for the preliminary except for U.S. Constitution, the initial preliminary full-time credential will be valid for one year. The credential may be extended to its full five year term upon application, processing fee, and verification that the U.S. Constitution requirement has been met.
For individuals who have completed all requirements for the preliminary credential, the initial preliminary credential will be valid for no more than two years from the date of issuance of the credential unless the holder's employer receives form CL-787, entitled Verification of Completion of Level I Requirements, from the program sponsor through which the holder completed those requirements. Once the holder's employer receives this verification, the credential's validity period will automatically be extended for the remainder of the five year period from the date of issuance of the credential. There is no need to apply for this extension.
If the credential holder's ESD is not known to the program sponsor, form CL-787 will be sent directly to the credential holder for forwarding to the employer.
Once the clear credential is issued, it must be renewed online every five-year renewal cycle. There are no additional requirements to renew the clear credential.
Requirements for the Clear Credential (Full-Time)
Individuals must satisfy all of the following requirements:
1. Possess a valid Preliminary Full-time Designated Subjects Adult Education Teaching Credential
2. Obtain verification by the ESD of the successful teaching of a minimum of one course in each of four terms within the five-year period of validity of the Preliminary Adult Education Teaching Credential (Two of these terms must be with one ESD. The teaching must have been to adult learners in the subject(s) authorized by the preliminary adult education teaching credential and must have occurred while holding the valid preliminary full-time adult education teaching credential.)
3. Obtain verification by a Commission-approved program sponsor that the applicant has completed all Level I and Level II requirements of a Commission-approved program of personalized preparation, including the use of computers in an instructional setting
4. Health education, including, but not limited to, the study of nutrition; the physiological and sociological effects of abuse of alcohol, narcotics, and drugs, and the use of tobacco. This requirement must also include training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) that covers infant, child, and adult CPR skills.
5. U.S. Constitution requirement by one of the following methods:
a. Complete a course (at least two semester units or three quarter units) in the provisions and principles of the U.S. Constitution. Submit a photocopy of the course description for evaluation purposes.
b. Pass an examination in the provisions and principles of the U.S. Constitution given by a regionally-accredited college or university
6. Completed application (form 41-4) and application processing fee
7. Recommendation by a Commission-approved program sponsor
THE PART-TIME ADULT CREDENTIAL
The Preliminary or Clear Part-Time Adult Education Teaching Credential authorizes the holder to teach not more than half-time in the subject named on the credential in courses organized primarily for adults. For the purpose of this credential, half-time for the holder of this credential who teaches in only one school district shall not exceed one-half of a full-time assignment for adult educators in that school district. Half-time for the holder of this credential who teaches in more than one school district shall not exceed one-half of the greatest number of hours considered to be a full-time assignment for adult educators in any one of the districts.
Requirements for the Preliminary Credential (Part-Time)
Individuals must satisfy all of the following requirements:
1. Verify five years of experience and/or education related to each subject to be named on the credential. The experience and/or education requirements and the subjects that can be named on the part-time credential are the same as those specified for the full-time credential.
2. High school diploma requirement by one of the following methods:
a. High school diploma
b. Diploma based on passage of the GED Test
c. Foreign equivalent of a high school diploma
3. Satisfy the basic skills requirement. See Commission program leaflet CL-667, entitled Basic Skills Requirement for additional information. Applicants for the Designated Subjects Adult Teaching Credential in non-academic subjects are exempt from this requirement.
4. Verification by a Commission-approved program sponsor that the applicant has been fully apprised of the requirements for both the preliminary and clear credentials, including the Level I/Level II programs of personalized preparation
5. Completed application (form 41-4) and application processing fee
6. Recommendation by a Commission-approved program sponsor
Period of Validity (Part-Time)
An initial Preliminary Part-Time Designated Subjects Adult Education Teaching Credential issued on the basis of the applicant's satisfaction of requirements listed above, authorizes service for no more than two years from the date of issuance of the credential unless the holder's employer (ESD) receives form CL-787, entitled Verification of Completion of Level I Requirements, from the program sponsor through which the holder completed those requirements. Once the holder's employer receives this verification, the credential's validity period will automatically be extended for the remainder of the five-year period from the date of issuance of the credential. There is no need to apply for this extension.
If the credential holder's ESD is not known to the program sponsor, form CL-787 will be sent directly to the credential holder for forwarding to the employer.
Once the clear credential is issued, it must be renewed online every five-year renewal cycle. There are no additional requirements to renew the clear credential.
Requirements for the Clear Credential (Part-Time)
Individuals must satisfy all of the following requirements:
1. Possess a valid Preliminary Part-Time Adult Education Teaching Credential (see Terms and Definitions)
2. Obtain verification by the ESD of the successful teaching of a minimum of one course in each of four terms within the five-year period of validity of the preliminary adult education teaching credential (Two of these terms must be with one ESD. The teaching must have been to adult learners in the subject[s] authorized by the preliminary adult education teaching credential and must have occurred while holding the valid preliminary adult education teaching credential.)
3. Obtain verification by a Commission-approved program sponsor that the applicant has completed all Level I requirements of a program of personalized preparation, including the use of computers in an instructional setting
4. Health education, including, but not limited to, the study of nutrition; the physiological and sociological effects of abuse of alcohol, narcotics, and drugs, and the use of tobacco. This requirement must also include training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) that covers infant, child, and adult CPR skills.
5. Completed application (form 41-4) and application processing fee
6. Recommendation by a Commission-approved program sponsor
Transition from Full-Time/Part-Time Credentials
Assembly Bill (AB) 1374 (Chap. 36, Stats. 2010) was signed by the Governor on July 6, 2010 and became effective on January 1, 2011. AB 1374 amended Education Code §§44260.2 and 44260.3 related to the issuance of adult education credentials:
- Reduces the years of experience required for general subjects (formerly termed 'non-academic' subjects) from five years to three years;
- Reduces the term of the preliminary credential from five years to three years;
- Moves the U.S. Constitution requirement from the preliminary to clear credential;
- Deletes Education Code section 44260.8 related to the health education and computer education requirements and incorporates that language into EC section 44260.3 pertaining to the requirements for the clear credential; and
- Consolidates the 'full-time' and 'part-time' designators.
Holders of Life or Clear Designated Subjects Adult Education Teaching Credentials issued under previous regulations may choose to either maintain their documents or transition to adult education credentials issued under the provisions of AB 1374. Due to significant changes to the program standards and structure, the holder of a Life or Clear Designated Subjects Adult Education Teaching Credential issued under previous regulations may not qualify initially for the Clear Adult Education Teaching Credential under the new program standards and may be required to first obtain the Three-Year Preliminary Adult Education Teaching Credential.
Holders of Five-Year Preliminary (Full-Time or Part-Time) Adult Education Teaching Credentials may complete the renewal requirements printed on their documents or transition to an adult education credential issued under the provisions of AB 1374. Individuals who wish to transition to Three-Year Preliminary or Clear Adult Education Teaching Credentials issued via the provisions of AB 1374 should contact a Commissionapproved program sponsor for assistance.
Important Dates:
Requested credential issue date of January 1, 2011 – All Preliminary and Clear Adult Education Teaching Credential applications must be submitted to the Commission for processing by an approved program sponsor. The option of submitting applications through an employing school district is no longer available for adult education credential applications with a requested issue date of January 1, 2011 or later.
January 31, 2013 – Last date for admittance to an 'old' adult education program and for initial issuance of Five-Year Preliminary Full-Time or Part-Time Adult Education Teaching Credentials based on five years of experience and/or education.
January 31, 2016 – Last date for initial issuance of Clear Full-Time or Part-Time Adult Education Teaching Credentials under the 'old' program standards.
TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Experience
Per Title 5, Section 80034(n), "experience" as it applies to Designated Subjects Adult Education Teaching Credentials, means full-time or part-time experience directly related to the subject to be named on the credential. Experience may be paid or not paid. No more than one year of experience shall apply toward meeting designated subjects credential requirements during any twelve calendar month period. 1000 clock hours shall be the minimum required for each year of experience. Part-time experience may be cumulated to equate to the required 1000 clock hours of experience.
Verification of Work Experience
Title 5 Regulations require verification of five years of experience or its equivalent related to each subject to be named on the credential. Verification of experience means written confirmation of the applicant's qualifying experience, signed by the applicant's past or present employer(s) on company letterhead that attests to and includes all of the following:
1. Employer's name, address, and telephone number
2. The working relationship of the person signing the verification to the applicant
3. Beginning and ending dates of employment
4. Complete description of duties
5. A statement as to whether or not the employment was full-time. If employment was less than full-time, include an accounting of the number of hours the applicant was employed.
If the applicant was self-employed or if the applicant's experience was a vocational, verification shall include a statement, signed by the applicant under penalty of perjury, detailing the information described under Requirements (1-5 for full-time and 1-4 for part-time). Further substantiation is required in writing, by other person(s) having first-hand knowledge of the applicant's self-employment or vocation, such as the applicant's accountant, major supplier of goods, or major user of goods or services.
Valid Preliminary Adult Education Teaching Credential
For the purposes of the Designated Subjects Adult Education Teaching Credential, the term "valid" means that the holder met the requirements to have held the preliminary credential which afforded the individual the opportunity to gain the necessary experience and to complete academic requirements to earn the clear credential. It does not mean that the document must be active date-wise when applying for the clear credential.
Click here for Professional Preparation Programs or visit the Commission web site @ www.ctc.ca.gov.
Reference: California Education Code Section 44260.2; Title 5, California Code of Regulations, Sections 80034, 80034.5, 80036, 80036.1, 80036.2, 80036.3, 80036.5,
80040.2, 80040.2.5, 80040.2.7, and 80567
NON-ACADEMIC SUBJECTS THAT MAY BE LISTED ON A CREDENTIAL
The program sponsor may only recommend for Designated Subjects Adult Education Teaching Credentials in nonacademic subject areas in subjects that fall within the categories below.
Requested subjects that do not appear above will be placed within an existing subject, where appropriate. Additional subjects may be added in time to accommodate new or emerging subjects.
**For descriptive purposes only—this category will not be listed on the credential.
ACADEMIC SUBJECTS THAT MAY BE LISTED ON A CREDENTIAL
The program sponsor may only recommend for Designated Subjects Adult Education Teaching Credentials in academic subject areas that fall within the subject areas below.
SUBJECT-RELATED EXPERIENCE
This chart is to be used to convert years of subject-related experience into education and/or training necessary to meet the course work and/or degree requirements for a Designated Subjects Adult Education Teaching Credential in a nonacademic subject area.
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Augmentative Communication and Early Intervention Myths and Realities
MaryAnn Romski, PhD, CCC-SLP; Rose A. Sevcik, PhD
The use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) services and supports with infants and young children has been limited, owing to a number of myths about the appropriateness of AAC use with this population. This article will provide an overview of some of the myths that have hampered the inclusion of AAC into early intervention service delivery and refutes them. It will then examine some of the realities that must be considered when delivering AAC services and supports to young children. Key words: augmentative communication, severe disabilities, speech and language intervention
FOR more than 3 decades now, the field known as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) has addressed the communication needs of children and adults who cannot consistently rely on speech for functional communication (e.g., Beukelman & Mirenda, 2005). Numerous developments in the hardware and software options available to an individual using AAC, including speech output capabilities, have occurred from the 1980s to the present. The capacities of the devices and the intelligibility of the voices have improved substantially. (See the Communication Aids Manufacturers'Association Web site, http://www.aacproducts.org, for the range of technology available.) Simultaneously, there also have been important developments in the empirical knowledge base to support decision making for successful clinical assessment and intervention.
Despite these advances, the inclusion of AAC services and supports into early intervention service delivery for young children has been hampered primarily by myths about the specific types of roles AAC plays. The purpose of this article is to examine these myths, in light of the current literature on the early language development period, and to provide arguments and data to refute them. To meet this goal, we will provide an overview of how language and communication skills emerge in young typically developing children and the roles AAC may play in facilitating the development of young children with significant communication disabilities. Next, we will examine some of the myths and then discuss the issues that contribute to the successful delivery of AAC services and supports for young children.
TYPICAL PATTERNS OF EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Young children use language for many purposes, including to meet their wants and needs, to gain knowledge about the world around them, to develop and maintain social relationships, and to exchange information with others. In order for young children to develop functional language and communication skills, they must be able to comprehend
From the Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia.
The preparation of this article was funded in part by grant DC03799 from the National Institutes of Health and a Research Program Enhancement Grant from Georgia State University. The authors contributed equally to the preparation of this article.
Corresponding author: MaryAnn Romski, PhD, CCC-SLP, Department of Communication, Georgia State University, PO Box 4000, Atlanta, GA 30302 (e-mail: email@example.com).
and produce language so that they can take on the reciprocal roles of both listener and speaker in conversational exchanges (Sevcik & Romski, 2002). Sevcik and Romski (2002) defined language comprehension as the ability to understand what is said to us so that we can function as a listener in communicative exchanges. Conversely, they characterized language production as the ability to express oneself so that one can function as a speaker in conversational exchanges.
Language comprehension
Spoken language comprehension skills assume an extremely important role in the early communication development of typically developing children (Adamson, 1996). From birth on, young, typically developing, children hear spoken language during rich socialcommunicative interactions that include reoccurring familiar situations or events (Bruner, 1983; Nelson, 1985). Well-established routines draw the young child's attention to word forms and their referents in the environment. Word input from the caregiver to the child also permits the caregiver to create new learning opportunities by capitalizing on wellestablished routines and the child's understanding of them (Oviatt, 1985). These social and environmental contexts converge with the available linguistic information to produce understandings (Huttenlocher, 1974). Contextual, or situational, speech comprehension begins to emerge as early as 9 months of age and by 12–15 months the child understands, on average, about 50 words without contextual supports (Benedict, 1979; Miller, Chapman, Branston, & Reichle, 1980; Snyder, Bates, & Bretherton, 1981). This type of comprehension means that children first learn to respond to words in highly contextualized routines that include situational supports (Platt & Coggins, 1990). For example, a child touches the blocks after her mother says "go get the blocks"and simultaneously points to them. The understanding of these words progress developmentally from person and object names to actions and from present to absent person and object names. The most common compositions of the first 50 receptive words include people, games and routines, familiar objects, animals, body parts, and actions (Fenson et al., 1994). Recently reported methodologies suggest that from the outset the young child relies on comprehension to build a foundation for later productive word use (Hollich, Hirsh Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2000).
As children move through their second year of life, the character of their understanding of words changes. By 24 months, they rely more on social cues than on perceptual cues (Hollich et al., 2000). They also quickly expand their understanding from single words to relational commands, such as "Give daddy a kiss," and can carry out such instructions (Goldin-Meadow, Seligman, & Gelman, 1976; Hirsh-Pasek & Golinkoff, 1996; Roberts, 1983). Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasek, Cauley, and Gordon (1987) reported that typically developing children as young as 17 months of age, who were characterized as productively one-word communicators and not producing word order, actually comprehended word order (e.g., "Big bird tickle Ernie." "Ernie tickle big bird.") when a videobased preferential looking paradigm was employed to assess their skills.
Interestingly, Fenson and his colleagues (1994) reported overlap between the words young children comprehended and produced, although comprehension was shown to have a developmental advantage in the majority of the children they studied. Young typically developing children quickly move on to word production, and the child's ability to comprehend words, and even sentences, is assumed by the adults in the child's environments. Since word production skills emerge so quickly in typical children, they may mask and overshadow the continuing role speech comprehension plays in the early language development process. Comprehension may play a particularly important role for the young child who is encountering great difficulty with this process.
Language Production
Young children typically begin to speak before 2 years of age. From birth to approximately 18–21 months of age, the young typically developing child advances through the stages of intentional communication development (perlocutionary or preintentional, illocutionary or intentional) learning that he or she can control the world through communication. (See Brady & McLean, 2000, for a review.) Somewhere between 12 and 15 months the young child begins to produce first word approximations and slowly starts to develop a vocabulary. At about the same time that the young typically developing child attains a 50-word productive vocabulary (18– 21 months) and experiences a spurt in vocabulary size, he or she is also beginning to combine words. So, prior to the time a child has a 50-word vocabulary, the focus of communication development is on learning about the social functions and the meaning of language rather than on its grammatical dimensions. The child who is not yet talking may use comprehension skills as a way to break into language.
Overview
The beginning period of language development is rich with opportunities for the young child to develop a firm language foundation even though he or she is not yet talking. This foundation includes opportunities to develop comprehension skills and to communicate via vocalizations, gestures, and other means even before he or she uses a conventional output mode such as speech, manual signs, or symbols. The literature on typically developing children's language development strongly suggests then that these early types of experiences are important for later language development. It also illustrates the development of communication, language, and speech—3 distinct but related processes. Early language interventions must consider how these receptive and expressive experiences can be incorporated into intervention strategies during the beginning developmental period through the means of AAC.
YOUNG CHILDREN WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES
Every day, children who cannot speak face social and educational isolation as well as significant frustration because they are unable to communicate their necessities, desires, knowledge, and emotions to their parents, siblings, extended family members, peers, and teachers. These limitations may be due to some type of congenital disability that hinders their development of speech or having experienced an injury or illness very early in life that substantially limits the speech and language abilities they are developing. Autism, cerebral palsy, cognitive disabilities, dual sensory impairments, genetic syndromes, multiple disabilities (including hearing impairment), or even a stroke at or near birth are congenital disabilities that may impede the development of speech and language skills. A young child also may encounter difficulty communicating via speech through a traumatic brain injury as a result of an accident, stroke, or, in rare instances, even severe psychological trauma.
Most children with developmental disabilities do develop functional spoken communication skills during their childhood (Abbeduto, 2003); thus children who do not eventually speak form a relatively low incidence population. There are certainly individual differences in communication patterns. Not every child presenting with one of these disorders is, or will be, nonspeaking across his or her entire life span, but children within this broad range of disabilities may use AAC at some point during their early development to augment natural speech so that they can communicate and develop language skills.
WHAT IS AUGMENTATIVE AND ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION?
Communication is defined in the broadest sense as "any act by which one person gives to or receives from another person information about that person's needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge, or affective states" (National Joint Committee [NJC], 1992; http:// www.asha.org/njc). Language is an arbitrary
code that we use to communicate with one another and speech is an output mode that uses the oral mechanism.
By definition, AAC is an intervention approach (Glennen, 2000) that uses manual signs, communication boards with symbols, and computerized devices that speak and incorporate the child's full communication abilities. These abilities may include any existing speech or vocalizations, gestures, manual signs, communication boards and speech-output communication devices. (See American Speech-Language-Hearing Asociation [ASHA], 2002, for a comprehensive definition of AAC.) In this sense, then, AAC is truly multimodal, permitting a child to use every mode possible to communicate messages and ideas. AAC abilities may change over time, although sometimes very slowly, and thus the AAC system selected for use at one age may need to be modified as a young child grows and develops (Beukelman & Mirenda, 2005).
A child can communicate using a range of representational mediums from symbolic (e.g., speech or spoken words, manual signs, arbitrary visual-graphic symbols, printed words) to iconic (e.g., actual objects, photographs, line drawings, pictographic visualgraphic symbols) to nonsymbolic (e.g., signals such as crying or physical movement). (See Mineo Mollica, 2003, and Sevcik, Romski, & Wilkinson, 1991, for discussions of visualgraphic representational systems.) In addition to the vocalizations and gestures that some young children use, they may benefit from other dimensions of AAC when communicating with familiar and unfamiliar partners across multiple environments. Some young children have no conventional way to communicate and may express their communicative wants and needs in socially unacceptable ways, such as through aggressive or destructive, self-stimulatory, and/or perseverative means. AAC systems can replace these unacceptable means with conventional forms of communication.
Typically, forms of AAC are divided into 2 broad groups, known as unaided and aided forms of communication. Unaided forms of communication consist of nonverbal means of natural communication (including gestures and facial expressions) as well as manual signs and the American Sign Language (ASL), and can be employed by children who are able to use their hands and have adequate fine-motor coordination skills to make fine-grained production distinctions between hand-shapes. Of course, communication partners too must be able to understand the signs for communication to take place.
Aided forms of communication consist of those approaches that require some additional external support, such as a communication board with symbols (i.e., pictures, photographs, line drawings, symbols, printed words) or a computer that "speaks" for its user (also known as a "speech-generating"device) via either synthetically produced speech or recorded natural (digitized) speech. From laptop computers that talk and can perform a wide range of other operations (e.g., word processing, World Wide Web access) to computerized devices dedicated to communication, technological advances have produced a range of opportunities for communication. These boards and devices typically display visual-graphic symbols that stand for, or represent, what the child wants to express. Some children create messages using printed English words or letters of the alphabet. Access to aided forms of communication can be via direct selection or scanning. Direct selection techniques include pointing with, for example, finger, hand, head (through a head stick), eyes, or feet. Scanning is a technique in which the message elements are presented to the child in a sequence either by a person or the device. The child specifies his or her choice by responding yes or no to the person or the device after each element is presented. Scanning can be, for example, linear, circular, or row-column and encoding (e.g., Morse Code; see Beukelman & Mirenda, 2005, for a detailed description of these techniques).
AAC can play at least four different roles in early intervention. The role(s) an AAC system plays will vary depending on an individual child's needs. These roles are as follows: augmenting existing natural speech, providing a primary output mode for communication,
providing an input and an output mode for language and communication and serving as a language intervention strategy. The most common and well-known role is to provide an output mode for communication. For example, Janie is a 24-month-old girl with spastic cerebral palsy and quadraplegia whose attempts at speech are unintelligible to everyone other than her family members owing to severe dysarthria. She understands almost everything that is said to her. Janie could use an AAC system as a primary communication output mode in her interactions with adults and other children across a variety of settings. The other roles, however, can be equally important, especially for the very young child just beginning to develop communication skills. David is 36 months old, has some challenging behavior (i.e., head banging) and a very recent diagnosis of autism. He understands less than 20 words and has just a few undifferentiated vocalizations. He is learning to use AAC to indicate his wants and needs to his family and teachers. In this case, AAC serves a very different role than it did for Janie functioning as an input-output mode and a language intervention strategy. Using a developmental perspective, AAC interventions (i.e., gestures, devices, switches) can be viewed as a tool that aids or fosters the development of early language skills and sets the stage for later vocabulary development and combinatorial language skills regardless of whether the child eventually talks or not.
MYTHS ABOUT AAC
A myth is defined as "a widely held but false belief" (Oxford, 2002). Clinical myths are derived from individual professional's beliefs or assumptions sometimes without any empirical support. Sometimes myths are perpetuated despite empirical evidence to the contrary. A limited research base along with the immediate demands of providing clinical services have fostered practice that relies more on a professional's clinical intuition than on current data (Cress, 2003; NJC, 2002). There are at least 6 myths, listed in Table 1, that have developed about the use of AAC. Each myth has grown out of information expressed in clinical literature but has not necessarily been backed up by empirical evidence to support or refute its use. Unfortunately, the myths remain and have become integrated into clinical practice. Their use in clinical practice may result in young children being inappropriately excluded from AAC supports and services ("AT/AAC Enables"Web site (http://depts.washington.edu/enables/); Cress & Marvin, 2003; NJC, 2002).
Myth 1: AAC is a ''last resort'' in speech-language intervention
When AAC was first emerging as an intervention strategy, it was considered a "last resort," to be employed only when every other option for the successful development of speech had been exhausted. In 1980, Miller and Chapman argued for a set of decision rules that indicated AAC was to be considered when speech had not developed by age 8 years (Miller & Chapman, 1980). Since that time, additional information has emerged to change the use of decision rules such as these. The use of AAC interventions should not be contingent on failure to develop speech skills
Table 1. Myths about AAC use
Myth 1 AAC is a "last resort" in speech-language intervention.
Myth 2 AAC hinders or stops further speech development.
Myth 3 Children must have a certain set of skills to be able to benefit from AAC.
Myth 4 Speech-generating AAC devices are only for children with intact cognition.
Myth 5 Children have to be a certain age to be able to benefit from AAC.
Myth 6 There is a representational hierarchy of symbols from objects to written words (traditional orthography).
or considered a last resort because AAC can play many roles in early communication development as described earlier (e.g., Cress & Marvin, 2003; Reichle, Buekelman, & Light, 2002). In fact, it is critical that AAC be introduced before communication failure occurs. This change means that AAC is not only for the older child who has failed at speech development but also for a young child during the period when he or she is just developing communication and language skills, to prevent failure in communication and language development.
Myth 2: AAC hinders or stops further speech development
The myth that AAC is a "last resort" goes hand in hand with another myth about AAC. It is the impression that AAC will become the child's primary communication mode and take away the child's motivation to speak. In fact, the fear many parents, and some practitioners, have is simply not supported by the available empirical data. The literature actually suggests just the opposite outcome. There are a modest number of empirical studies that report improvement in speech skills after AAC intervention experience (see Beukelman & Mirenda, 1998; Romski & Sevcik, 1996, for reviews). Sedey, Rosin, and Miller (1991), for example, reported that manual signs had been taught to 80% of the 46 young children with Down Syndrome (mean chronological age 3 years, 11 months) that they surveyed. The families of these children also reported that they discontinued the use of the manual signs when the child began talking or when the child's speech became easier to understand. Miller, Sedey, Miolo, Rosin, and Murray-Branch (1991) also reported that when sign vocabularies were included, the initial vocabularies of a group of children with Down Syndrome were not significantly different from those of mental-age–matched typically developing children. Adamson and Dunbar (1991) described the communication development of a 2-year-old girl with a long-term hospitalization and a tracheostomy (i.e., an incision into the trachea [windpipe] that forms a temporary or permanent opening for the child to breathe) who used manual signs to communicate. When the tracheostomy tube was removed, she immediately attempted to speak and quickly used speech as her primary means of communication. Romski, Sevcik, and Adamson (1997) evaluated the effects of AAC on the language and communication development of toddlers with established developmental disabilities who were not speaking at the onset of the study. Although the families of these very young children were much more receptive to using AAC than the investigators initially thought they would be, they were quick to focus exclusively on speech when their child produced his or her first word approximation. For very young children, the use of AAC does not appear to hinder speech development (Cress, 2003). In fact, it may enhance the development of spoken communication, which should be a simultaneous goal for intervention.
Myth 3: Children must have a certain set of skills to be able to benefit from AAC
In the past, young children with some degree of cognitive disability were frequently excluded from AAC intervention because their assessed levels of intelligence and their sensorimotor development were not commensurate with cognitive/sensorimotor skills that had been linked to early language development (Miller & Chapman, 1980; Mirenda & Locke, 1989; Romski & Sevcik, 1988). While one may argue that some basic cognitive skills are essential for language to develop, the exact relationship between language and cognition have not been specified clearly (see Rice, 1983; Rice & Kemper, 1984, for reviews). Investigators have argued against excluding children from AAC interventions based upon intellectual performance and/or prerequisite sensorimotor skills (Kangas & Lloyd, 1988; Reichle & Karlan, 1988; Romski & Sevcik, 1988). Given the overall impact language exerts on cognitive development, a lack of expressive language skills may put an individual at a distinct developmental disadvantage (Rice & Kemper, 1984). Some individuals
with severe sensori-motor disabilities cannot demonstrate their cognitive abilities without a means by which to communicate so we cannot insist on evidence of those abilities before providing AAC services and supports. There is also some evidence that severe physical disabilities and limited communication skills may interfere with the course of early cognitive development, in particular the development of object permanence and means-ends skills. Thus, developing language skills through AAC may be of critical importance if the individual is to make functional cognitive gains as well.
Myth 4: Speech-generating AAC devices are only for children with intact cognition
The cognitive skills a young child brings to the intervention task can vary from no evidence of cognitive disabilities to that of severe cognitive disabilities. Another myth related to Myth 3 relates to the use of speech-generating devices. In the past, computer-based AAC devices were often limited to children who had intact cognition by clinicians for 2 main reasons. First, the devices were expensive and thus it was argued that the money should only be spent on children who could "truly benefit" from the device (Turner, 1986). Second, early computer-based devices often required a fairly sophisticated set of cognitive skills in order to operate them and thus were provided only to those children who had such a level of skill. Neither of these 2 reasons are true today. The technological developments in AAC devices have made a broad range of options available to young children. There are now many choices of AAC devices that speak from simple inexpensive technology (like single switches) to complex systems that permit access to sophisticated language and literacy skills. This broad range of options include devices that are modestly priced (<$100.00) to expensive ($10,000.00 or more). These newer devices sometimes require little skill and can provide a place of introduction to AAC for the young child. The AAC device is simply a tool, a means to an end—language and communication skills—not the end in it- self. Having a voice at a young age can facilitate self-identity as well as communication.
Myth 5: Children have to be a certain age to be able to benefit from AAC
There is no evidence suggesting that children must be a certain chronological age to optimally benefit from AAC interventions. Chronological age is often mentioned as an argument against the provision of AAC services to young children. Specifically, some parents and professionals believe that the introduction of an AAC mode at an early age will preclude the child from ever developing speech as his or her primary mode of communication. Current research clearly documents the efficacy of communication services and supports provided to infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with a variety of severe disabilities (Bondy & Frost, 1998; Cress, 2003; Pinder & Olswang, 1995; Romski, Sevcik, & Forrest, 2001; Rowland & Schweigert, 2000). Studies also have demonstrated that the use of AAC does not interfere with speech development (Romski, Sevcik, & Hyatt, 2003, for a review) and actually has been shown to support such development (see Millar, Light, & Schlosser, 2000, for a review of research demonstrating this effect; Romski & Sevcik, 1996; Romski, Sevcik, & Pate, 1988).
Myth 6: There is a representational hierarchy of symbols from objects to written words (traditional orthography)
This myth suggests that a child can only learn symbols in a representational hierarchy. The hierarchy begins with real objects to photographs, to line drawings, to more abstract representations, and then to written English words (traditional orthorgraphy). Namy, Campbell, and Tomasello (2004) suggested that 13- to 18-month-olds' early development of word learning is not specific to a predetermined mode of symbolic reference because their comprehension of referents in their environments is in the developmental stage. Iconicity did not impact the ability to learn symbol-referent relationships at the onset of language development but did make a
difference by the time the typically developing child was 26 months old. The child's expectation about the relationship between a symbol and its environmental referent may change throughout their development. By the time children are 4 years old, they may have developed a greater awareness of symbolic function, have a larger vocabulary, and may be more open to using various symbolic modes. This empirical evidence from the literature on typical language development suggests that this myth is not based on evidence about how young children learn. In fact, during early phases of development, it may not matter if the child uses abstract or iconic symbols because to the child they all function the same. The choice of symbol set may be complicated by what families perceive as appropriate for young children.
ISSUES IN DELIVERING AAC SERVICES AND SUPPORTS TO YOUNG CHILDREN
These 6 myths grew out of early thinking about how to use AAC services and supports. None of these myths are supported by the current literature on early intervention and AAC. However, they are often discussed when AAC is considered as part of the intervention plan for a young child. The delivery of AAC services and supports must be accomplished in the broader context of early intervention services. There is a growing recognition of the merits of implementing AAC interventions with young children (Cress & Marvin, 2003; Culp, 2003). First, the use of AAC is mandated as part of the implementation of Part C of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. And, second, AAC technologies are becoming increasingly available at a reasonable cost. Implementing AAC raises a number of issues that are only beginning to be explored. These issues include, though are not limited to, families as partners, assessment issues, transitions, and training for professionals.
Families as partners
There are a number of important issues related to the family and the child. When AAC
intervention is begun early in life, at least 2 additional issues need to be considered by professionals and families (Berry, 1987). First, families are still coming to terms with their young child's disability (Wright, Granger, & Sameroff, 1984) and often seek a broad variety of interventions (e.g., speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, educational therapy) to help their child overcome his or her limitations. These interventions may include highly publicized interventions (e.g., direct instruction, floor-time) or multiple types of speech-language therapy (e.g., therapy focused on feeding issues, therapy focused on speech-language development). Second, there appear to be fewer structured routines outside the home in which to place AAC intervention, than in the school child's day, including opportunities for communication with others during the young child's day. Thus, the toddlers' family may take a primary role in the intervention process in addition to their other parenting responsibilities (Crutcher, 1993). Fulfilling this primary interventionist role may require different external supports and organization than is the case when a child is school-aged. Kaiser and Hancock (2003) reported that parentimplemented language intervention is a complex phenomena that requires a multicomponent intervention approach. Romski, Sevcik, and Adamson's(1997) preliminary findings regarding initial choice about AAC suggest that engaging in early augmented language intervention may be a more complex decision than professionals initially anticipate. Parent perception about communication and parental stress may play roles in augmented language intervention. In general, today's parents may not be afraid of the use of technology because of extensive parent education about the importance of getting communication started and the increased use of computers in daily life. Understanding how to arrange early augmented language intervention to be able to capitalize on the communicative roles family members may typically play has not been examined to date. In addition, sometimes, parental knowledge about AAC device choice
exceeds professional knowledge and experience with AAC devices because parents readily use the Internet to gain information. Such discrepancies in knowledge and experience can serve to create challenges for teams in determining and providing services.
One of the difficulties families face is that they want their young children to talk. Their expectations for production may lead to a competition between a focus on developing a way to communicate and a focus on having the child speak, even if the speech the child produces is imitative in nature. Thus, interventions that do not confuse the parents or children but instead permit them to focus their energies on a specific goal are needed.
Assessment Tools
For young children who present with significant communication disabilities, there are also limited tools available that can provide an adequate assessment of the young child's communication strengths and weaknesses. The more challenging the child's disabilities, the more difficult it can be to assess the child's language and communication skills. One particularly important, yet challenging, area of research need is that of language and communication measurement tools (Sevcik, Romski, & Adamson, 1999). Attention must be focused on the development of assessment tools that provide a fine-grained analysis of the child's language and communication skills across modes and that measure a range of intervention outcomes over time. Sevcik and Romski (2002) reviewed assessment options available for the examination of early comprehension skills during the child's communication assessment. Some outcomes of using AAC go beyond the development of specific comprehension and production vocabulary, and even grammatical skills, and have been somewhat elusive to quantitative measurement. Communication access can also prevent the emergence of secondary disabilities (e.g., challenging behaviors). Tools that permit measurement of these elusive outcomes are important to develop.
Transitions
The young child can make a number of transitions during this early period. Over a period of 3 years, the child must transition from early intervention services that are usually delivered in the family or home environment to a preschool classroom. This type of transition is complex and includes many different aspects. It is important to stress that parents are a source of expertise about how a child communicates when service providers change. Incorporating AAC during early communication development requires a focus on language and communication development within the context of the AAC mode. Sometimes schoolbased clinicians are not open to the use of AAC because it is not readily available or they are constrained by 1 or more of the 6 myths. It is particularly important that communication be a focus during the transition process.
Training for professionals and families
To ensure that AAC services and supports can be provided to children receiving early intervention services, training about AAC must be included for professionals and families. When serving young children, instruction for the early intervention team must include information about the philosophy of communication, technology, and assessment and intervention strategies, with particular emphasis on the role of the speech-language pathologist. Assessment must include information about test adaptations, standardized and informal or experimental measures, and parental report. Intervention strategies must discuss linking speech and language therapy with AAC, as the goal is language and communication development.
CONCLUSIONS
The reality is that it is never too early to incorporate AAC into language and communication intervention for the young child with a significant communication disability. The AAC devices and strategies are a tool, a means to an end—language and communication
skills—not the end. Incorporating AAC during early communication development requires a focus on language and communication development within the context of the AAC mode. AAC is sometimes thought of as a separate area of practice, and thus clinicians do not always incorporate the information they know about language and communication development as they consider AAC assessment and intervention. Often speech-language pathologists think that "someone else" will provide AAC services for the children on their caseloads. It is imperative that AAC be linked to early language and communication development. There is a strong history of empirical data to
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Veterinary Record(2008)
162,41-46
M. Holzhauer, DVM,
ECBHM, J. de Boer, BSc, G. van Schaik, MSc, PhD, GD Ltd, PO Box 9, 7400 AA, Deventer, The Netherlands D. Döpfer, DVM, PhD, Quantitative Veterinary Epidemiology Group, Division of Infectious Diseases, Animal Sciences Group of Wageningen UR, PO Box 65, 8200 AB Lelystad, The Netherlands
Effects of different intervention strategies on the incidence of papillomatous digital dermatitis in dairy cows
M. Holzhauer, D. Döpfer, J. de Boer, G. van Schaik
The effects of four different intervention strategies on the incidence of severe lesions of digital dermatitis in an experimental dairy herd were compared with the effects of a control strategy consisting of walking the cows twice through a footbath containing 4 per cent formaldehyde on one day a week for 24 weeks. The four alternative strategies were the same treatment every other week; standing for 30 minutes in a footbath containing a 2 per cent multicompound solution on days 0, 7, 28 and 90 after having had their hooves cleaned indirectly with a medium pressure spray of water; walking twice through the multicompound solution on one day a week for 24 weeks; and, walking twice through a footbath containing 3 per cent sodium carbonate on one day a week for 24 weeks. The cows' hooves were inspected every three weeks by one trained claw trimmer who graded the lesions of digital dermatitis. None of the alternative strategies significantly reduced either the number or severity of the lesions in comparison with the control strategy. In the groups treated by the third and fourth strategies there were outbreaks of digital dermatitis in which more than 30 per cent of the cows suffered the most severe type of lesion, and there was a continuously high rate of new infections in the group treated by the fourth strategy.
DAIRY cows need healthy claws for a long active life (Webster 1995, Brand and others 1996). Poor hoof conditions are responsible for great economic losses (Enting and others 1997, Kossaibati and Esslemont 1997, Green and others 2002) and are considered to adversely affect cow welfare (Webster 1995, Logue 1996).
shown to be effective but labour-intensive and therefore difficult to apply in large herds or herds with a high prevalence of the disease (Britt and McClure 1988, Brizzi 1993, Shearer and others 1995, Berry and others 1996, 1999a, Hernandez and others 1999).
Hoof disorders can be divided into infectious disorders (papillomatous digital dermatitis [PDD], interdigital dermatitis/heel horn erosion [HHE] and interdigital pododermatitis) and metabolic or non-infectious disorders (laminitis, interdigital fibroma and trauma). Although PDD has been given several other names, it will be referred to here as digital dermatitis.
Digital dermatitis was first described in cattle in 1974 in Italy, and is characterised by inflammation of the skin, mostly in the region of the bulb of the heel and coronet of the hoof (Cheli and Mortellaro 1974, Blowey and Sharp 1988, van Amstel and others 1995, Read and Walker 1998b). The disease has spread all over the world, and has been reported as endemic in western and southern Europe and the USA (Brizzi 1993, van Amstel and others 1995, Clarkson and others 1996, Rodriguez-Lainz and others 1996, 1999, Read and Walker 1998a, Wells and others 1999, Murray and others 2002, Somers and others 2003). In Japan, Australia and New Zealand it is observed as an incidental lesion (Kimura and others 1993, McLennan and McKenzie 1996, Vermunt and Hill 2004), and in Norway it is considered as an increasing problem related to the change of housing system from tiestalls to free stalls (Sogstad and others 2005).
A recent investigation by the Dutch Animal Health Service (DAHS) estimated that 91 per cent of herds and 21 per cent of cows were affected by the condition at the regular trimming of all dairy cows' hind hooves; in more than 10 per cent of the infected herds the infection resulted in serious problems defined as a 'continuous' prevalence of more than 40 per cent (Holzhauer and others 2006).
Almost all studies have concluded that the disease has a multifactorial aetiology and requires an integrated approach (Rodriguez-Lainz and others 1999, Somers and others 2005, Holzhauer and others 2006). The treatment of individual cows or the herd as a whole is labour-intensive and there is little scientific information about the effectiveness of herd therapy (Hoblet 2002). Topical applications of antibiotics and copper and/or zinc-containing preparations have been
In several countries, including the Netherlands, footbaths containing antibiotics such as oxytetracyclin, lincomycin and erythromycin have been used to treat whole herds, but since 1998 they have been prohibited in the Netherlands because of the risk of the contamination of milk and the environment and the development of resistance against antibiotics; similarly only low concentrations of copper sulphate (0·5 per cent) and zinc sulphate (1 per cent) are permitted in footbaths in the Netherlands.
In the UK and the USA, there have been short-term studies of the effectiveness of antibiotics, formalin, zinc and copper sulphates and disinfectants such as glutaraldehyde and hydrogen peroxide or combinations of these compounds in footbaths (Grongnet and others 1981, Nowrouzian and Zareii 1998, Shearer and Elliot 1998, Berry and others 1999a, Shearer and Hernandez 2000, Berry and others 2002, Laven and Hunt 2002). In a recent study, Zemljic (2004) found that improper footbath management could even facilitate the spread of digital dermatitis. Blowey (2000) and Laven and Hunt (2002) have reported good results with formalin, Dutch farmers have also reported good results, and the DAHS recommends it as a standard herd strategy. Nevertheless formalin solutions remain a potential respiratory and conjunctival irritant and carcinogen (Collins and Lineker 2004, d'A Heck and Casanova 2004).
The objective of this study was therefore to compare the effects of several different intervention strategies over several months against a 4 per cent solution of formalin as the reference treatment. The formalin footbaths were prepared as advised by the DAHS and situated in well ventilated positions.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study was carried out between January 1 and June 30, 2005 and used the experimental herd of the Animal Sciences Group of Wageningen University. On January 1, the herd consisted of 140 lactating dairy cows; dry cows were excluded
from the study. The lactating cows had been fed the same basic ration since December 1, 2004, composed of grass silage and maize silage, barley/pea, soya bean, and up to 8 kg of compound feeds, depending on the milk yield of the individual cow. More than 95 per cent of the cows were 100 per cent Holstein-Friesian. Sample size calculations based on a power of 80 per cent and a confidence of 95 per cent, indicated that experimental groups of 15 cows would be sufficient; the group size was calculated without correction for intra-cluster correlations.
The hind hooves of the cows were examined every third week (eight times in total) while they were held in a crush, and the stage and severity of any clinical signs of digital dermatitis were recorded (Fig 1). The cows were also inspected daily for signs of the disease, such as the permanent lifting of a leg, lameness or careful walking, resting on the tip of the claw and the typical smell. Any M2 (erosive painful dermatitis) lesions detected were treated topically with chlortetracycline spray (CTC-spray; Eurovet). When other claw horn diseases were diagnosed, they were also treated. In addition, any M2 lesions detected during the three-weekly examinations were treated topically, whether they caused clinical lameness or not.
All the diagnoses were made by one professional hoofhealth manager and the results for each hoof were recorded by a student. An outbreak of the disease within the group was defined as more than 30 per cent of hind legs with M2 lesions at a three-weekly examination. To differentiate original lesions from an incomplete cure, the location of the lesion at each examination was recorded precisely. During the first two observations, the observers were carefully trained to use the scoring system, and the data from the first observation were excluded from the investigation. In the period from the second to the fifth observation no systematic interventions were applied. The lesions of digital dermatitis were scored on the basis of a visual inspection, using the system developed by Döpfer and others (1997). The location, clinical appearance, size and pain reaction were recorded: M0 Normal skin, no signs of the disease; M1 Small superficial dermatitis spot, 0·5 to 2 cm, not painful on palpation; M2 Erosive dermatitis, 2 to 4 cm, painful on palpation; M3 Healing stage of M2, with a scab, not painful on palpation; M4 Hyperkeratotic cutaneous lesion, not painful on palpation. If different stages of the disease were present, the classification category selected was that of the most prominent lesion. Because of its clinical effects, the most prominent M2 stage is chosen as the most important outcome variable (Mumba and others 1999).
Groups of cows and the interventions applied
The cows were allotted to five groups, one reference group and four experimental groups, on the basis of the results of the pre-intervention study. Deviations from a random selection were based on the presence of M2 lesions, parity and stage of lactation, and the fact that some of the cows were not accustomed to robotic milking.
The five groups were housed separately and milked during the study in such a way that there was no physical contact between the groups, or their manure. Removing and returning animals to an experimental group was arranged according to a protocol; cows that owing to illness or a dry period had been temporarily separated from one of the groups, were randomly replaced into one of the five groups, after a careful inspection of all four hooves and a standard treatment consisting of two sprayings with CTC-spray for three seconds with two minutes rest between, regardless of the presence or absence of lesions. This protocol was designed to prevent the reintroduction of new infections. The same protocol was used for the introduction of heifers. In addition, the hooves of cows that were introduced into group 3 were cleaned with a water cleaning apparatus (for reasons presented later).
Reference treatment group (group 5)
This group consisted of 64 cows that were milked in an automatic milking system (visit frequency 2·8 times per day). On one day a week the cows were forced twice through a walk-through footbath containing a 4 per cent formalin solution, diluted from a 37 per cent formaldehyde solution (the standard Dutch advice). Directly after each passage the cows were locked at the feeder gate on a clean floor for at least 30 minutes. The footbath was not cleaned or refreshed between the two passages on the same day.
Group 1
This group consisted of 15 cows that were milked twice a day in a traditional milking parlour with a herringbone design. This group was treated like the reference herd, except that they were forced through the same type of walk-through footbath twice on one day, only every other week.
Group 2
This group consisted of 15 cows that were also milked twice a day in the traditional herringbone parlour. The slatted floors on which they were housed and their hindhooves (including the interdigital space) were cleaned indirectly (through the floor) with a medium pressure spray of water on days 7, 28 and 90. After each cleaning the cows were treated in a walk-in footbath, containing a 2 per cent multi-compound solution (Feetcare; ICI) in which they stood for 20 minutes, according to the recommendations of the manufacturer.
Group 3
This group consisted of 15 cows that were milked twice a day in the herringbone parlour. On one day a week the cows were forced twice through a walk-through footbath containing the 2 per cent multi-compound solution.
Group 4
This group consisted of 14 cows that were milked twice a day in the herringbone parlour. On one day a week, the cows were forced twice through a walk-through footbath containing 3 per cent sodium carbonate solution.
Dimensions and capacities of the footbaths
The footbaths used by groups 1, 3, 4 and 5 were 300 cm long by 80 cm wide and 15 cm high, and had a capacity of 288 l. The footbath used by group 2 was 400 cm long by 300 cm wide and 15 cm high, and had a capacity of 1800 l.
Cleaning and disinfection of the crush and hands of the claw trimmer
The crush was cleaned with high pressure water and/or a steam cleaner between the inspections of the different groups. In addition, the equipment and the hands and boots of the claw trimmer and investigators were cleaned systematically. After the examination and treatment of a cow with an M2 lesion, only the straw and manure were removed before another cow of the same group was allowed to enter the crush to be examined.
Typing the cows' infections with digital dermatitis
The types of infection were categorised on the basis of the repeated presence of M2 lesions in the same cow. Depending
FIG 2: Proportions of the different types of lesions (M0 to M4) observed in the whole dairy herd during each period of observation
| Intervention group | Number of cows | Mean (sd) parity | Mean (sd) days in milk |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14 | 1·4 (0·9) | 149 (123) |
| 2 | 16 | 1·8 (1·5) | 220 (128) |
| 3 | 14 | 1·7 (1·4) | 166 (112) |
| 4 | 15 | 1·5 (1·6) | 172 (126) |
| 5 | 62 | 2·2 (1·2) | 162 (113) |
on the transmission of the different M stages (M1 to M2, M1 to M3, and so on) the cows were categorised as type I, type II or type III according to the following scheme (Döpfer and others 2004): type I Cow remained negative during the whole period of intervention (usually less than 10 per cent of the cows); type II Cow experienced a 'normal' infection, that is, M0 to M1 to M2 to M3 to M4 to M0 (usually 30 to 60 per cent of the cows); type III Cow persisted in the infectious stage, M1 to M2 to (M3) to M4 to M1/M2 to M4, for a period of two to three weeks (usually 30 to 60 per cent of the cows). The type of infection was used as the dependent variable in the regression models.
Statistical analyses
The data were checked for missing values and typing errors. The descriptive statistics were based on individual hooves and the multivariable regression models were based on individual cows. Rank-sum tests were used to determine whether differences between the intervention groups were significant at P≤0·05. The presence of cows with different types of infections was analysed with a logistic regression model, with an autoregressive correlation structure to correct for repeated measurements on a cow (SAS version 9.1). The five intervention periods, the type of intervention, and the cows' stage of lactation and parity were included as explanatory variables in the models. The observation periods were divided into the following intervals: the pre-intervention period (periods 3 to 5); the early intervention period (periods 6 to 8); the middle intervention period (periods 9 to 11), and the late intervention period (periods 12 to 13). The hypothesis was that the more effective the intervention, the smaller the number of type II and/or type III cows there would be in the intervention groups.
RESULTS
Descriptive results
A total of 2718 observations were made during the pre-intervention and intervention periods. During the intervention period 242, 232, 246, 236 and 994 observations were made in groups 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively, and the mean sizes of these groups were 14·3, 15·1, 14·5, 14·8 and 62·1 cows, respectively. The mean numbers of cows, their parity and stage of
Period of observation lactation in the different groups at the beginning of the study are shown in Table 1. There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of parity or stage of lactation.
The proportions of different M lesions observed in the whole dairy herd during each period of observation are shown in Fig 2. Fig 3 shows the cumulative proportions of the different lesions observed in each intervention group during the eight periods of observation. Fig 4 shows the develop ment of the different lesions in each of the intervention groups during successive observation periods.
The proportion of M2 lesions in each observation period was about 10 per cent. Fig 2 shows that there was a temporary reduction in the proportion of M2 lesions at the beginning of the intervention (periods 6 to 9), followed by an increase during periods 10 to 13.
Fig 4 shows that during period six the reference treatment group (group 5) already had a smaller proportion of M2 lesions than groups 1 to 4 and the proportion decreased substantially to less than 1 per cent in period 9, followed by a slight increase. The proportion of M2 lesions increased in all the other groups, especially in groups 3 and 4, and there was an outbreak in group 3 during the end of May (period 12) and in group 4 from mid April until June (periods 9 to 13).
Logistic regression on type of digital dermatitis
Tables 2, 3 and 4 contain the results of the logistic regression of the type of digital dermatitis for the different groups of cows relative to the reference treatment group (group 5) and corrected for parity, stage of lactation and period of observation. Table 2 shows that there were significantly fewer type I cows in group 3 (P=0·04) and that there was a trend towards fewer type I cows in group 1 (P=0·08). There were also fewer type I cows in their first and second parity than in parity three or more. Table 3 shows that there were significantly more type II cows in group 3 than in the reference treatment group (P=0·02), and there were fewer type II cows in the intervention periods than in the pre-intervention period. Table 4 shows that there were significantly more type III cows in groups 1 and 3 relative to the reference treatment group (P<0·05). There was a strong correlation between the results of repeated observations on individual cows.
DISCUSSION
Because formalin can have adverse effects on the health of farmers (Collins and Lineker 2004, d'A Heck and Casanova 2004), copper sulphate and zinc sulphate are nowadays frequently applied either alone or in combination with formalin for the treatment of digital dermatitis. The reference treatment group, which underwent the standard herd treatment
Group
FIG 3: Cumulative proportions of the different types of lesions (M0 to M4) observed in each group during the whole investigation
recommended in the Netherlands, was included for two reasons. First, because not treating cows with the disease may cause discomfort and pain and may significantly increase its rate of spread within the group, and secondly, to test the reference procedure against alternative strategies that might replace formalin footbaths as a control measure.
| Variables | Categories | β | se | P | OR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intercept | | 2·68 | 1·01 | 0·01 | 14·6 |
| Group | 5 | Reference | – | – | – |
| | 1 | –1·72 | 0·98 | 0·08 | 0·18 |
| | 2 | –0·16 | 0·77 | 0·84 | 0·85 |
| | 3 | –3·50 | 1·66 | 0·04 | 0·03 |
| | 4 | –1·08 | 0·94 | 0·25 | 0·34 |
| Period of | Pre-intervention | Reference | – | – | – |
| observation | 6-8 | 0·32 | 0·26 | 0·21 | 1·37 |
| | 9-11 | 0·35 | 0·26 | 0·19 | 1·42 |
| | 12-13 | 0·36 | 0·27 | 0·18 | 1·44 |
| Parity | ≥3 | Reference | – | – | – |
| | 1 | –2·10 | 0·89 | 0·02 | 0·12 |
| | 2 | –1·93 | 0·91 | 0·03 | 0·15 |
| Stage of lactation | >180 | Reference | – | – | – |
| (days in milk) | 0-60 | –0·39 | 0·25 | 0·12 | 0·68 |
| | 61-120 | –0·07 | 0·19 | 0·72 | 0·94 |
| | 120-180 | 0·05 | 0·12 | 0·67 | 1·05 |
| OR Odds ratio | | | | | |
The study was carried out on an experimental farm whose staff were skilled in the precise execution of experiments. They managed five separate groups of cows, without allowing contacts between the animals or their manure, while the normal activities of calving, milking, serving and dry-cow management were continued. To minimise the influence of adding recently calved cows into one of the experimental groups, the cows were assigned randomly to the groups according to the protocol and after their legs had been treated with chlortetracycline spray. This protocol was designed to minimise the potential influence of switching cows between groups, but the additional treatments may have decreased the number of M2 lesions observed during the study.
The choice of the intervention strategies was determined by governmental restrictions, for example, antibiotics and products with heavy metals were forbidden, and the positive results obtained in other studies with formalin (Blowey 2000,
FIG 4: Proportions of the different types of lesions (M0 to M4) observed during the eight periods of observation in (a) reference group, group 5, (b) group 1, (c) group 2, (d) group 3, and (e) group 4
| TABLE 3: Results of the logistic regression for cows with type II lesions | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Variables | Categories | β | se | P | OR |
| | Intercept | | –2·07 | 0·75 | 0·01 | 0·13 |
| | Group | 5 | Reference | – | – | – |
| | | 1 | 1·30 | 1·05 | 0·22 | 3·66 |
| | | 2 | 0·46 | 0·80 | 0·57 | 1·58 |
| | | 3 | 2·33 | 0·97 | 0·02 | 10·3 |
| | | 4 | 1·38 | 0·89 | 0·12 | 3·96 |
| | Period of | Pre-intervention | Reference | – | – | – |
| | observation | 6-8 | –0·70 | 0·30 | 0·02 | 0·50 |
| | | 9-11 | –0·78 | 0·32 | 0·01 | 0·46 |
| | | 12-13 | –0·87 | 0·34 | 0·01 | 0·42 |
| | Parity | ≥3 | Reference | – | – | – |
| | | 1 | –0·10 | 0·76 | 0·90 | 0·91 |
| | | 2 | 0·63 | 0·85 | 0·46 | 1·88 |
| | Stage of lactation | >180 | Reference | – | – | – |
| | (days in milk) | 0-60 | –0·12 | 0·37 | 0·74 | 0·88 |
| | | 61-120 | –0·27 | 0·33 | 0·41 | 0·76 |
| | | 120-180 | –0·03 | 0·18 | 0·88 | 0·97 |
| | OR Odds ratio | | | | | |
| Variables | Categories | β | se | P | OR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intercept | | –3·48 | 0·74 | <0·01 | 0·03 |
| Group | 5 | Reference | – | – | – |
| | 1 | 1·16 | 0·55 | 0·03 | 3·18 |
| | 2 | 0·88 | 0·87 | 0·31 | 2·41 |
| | 3 | 1·80 | 0·55 | <0·01 | 6·06 |
| | 4 | 1·51 | 1·07 | 0·16 | 4·51 |
| Period of | Pre-intervention | Reference | – | – | – |
| observation | 6-8 | 0·15 | 0·31 | 0·62 | 1·17 |
| | 9-11 | 0·20 | 0·31 | 0·53 | 1·22 |
| | 12-13 | 0·22 | 0·31 | 0·48 | 1·25 |
| Parity | ≥3 | Reference | – | – | – |
| | 1 | 1·32 | 0·70 | 0·06 | 3·74 |
| | 2 | 0·99 | 0·54 | 0·07 | 2·70 |
| Stage of lactation | >180 | Reference | – | – | – |
| (days in milk) | 0-60 | 0·29 | 0·29 | 0·31 | 1·34 |
| | 61-120 | 0·02 | 0·27 | 0·95 | 1·02 |
| | 120-180 | –0·23 | 0·20 | 0·24 | 0·80 |
| OR Odds ratio | | | | | |
Laven and Hunt 2002), with multi-compounds (Shearer and Hernandez 2000), with increased hygienic measures (J. Rietjens, personal communication), and with a walk-through footbath containing sodium carbonate solution (the personal experience of a number of farmers).
The groups differed slightly in parity and stage of lactation, but the multivariable models corrected for these factors, and the differences did not influence the results of the analyses.
The correlation between the repeated observations on individual cows was high, which resulted in few significant results. The finding that throughout the investigation there were fewer type I cows among the cows in their first and second parities than in cows in higher parities agrees with the results of other studies that have found that young cows are at higher risk of developing digital dermatitis (Frankena and others 1991, Smits and others 1992, Read and Walker 1998b, Rodriguez-Lainz and others 1999, Somers and others 2005, Holzhauer and others 2006).
Group 3, which walked through a footbath containing a 2 per cent multicompound, always had significantly more type II and type III cows than the reference group, but did not suffer any outbreaks. The few significant results may also have been due to the small size of the experimental groups and the small proportion (10 per cent) of M2 lesions. Groups 1, 2 and 4 tended to have more problems with the disease than the reference group. Thus, a weekly footbath with 4 per cent formalin seemed to be the most effective treatment. Either weekly or bi-weekly footbaths with formalin resulted in an initial decrease in the incidence of M2 lesions. There were significantly more type I cows in the reference treatment group than in group 3 and a similar but smaller difference in comparison with group 1. In the reference group and in group 2, in which additional hygienic measures were taken, the prevalence of the disease increased, but without serious outbreaks during the last period of observation (at the end of the housing period). This increase was similar to the results observed in other intervention studies (van Amstel and others 1995, Read and Walker 1998a, Shearer and Elliot 1998, Berry and others 1999b, Zemljic 2000) and supports the view that a multifactorial approach, combining systematic intervention and additional hygienic measures, may be necessary to reduce the incidence of M2 lesions.
Groups 2 and 3 were treated with a 2 per cent concentration of the multi-compound, to minimise the farmer's costs and the environmental pollution and in accordance with the recommendations for the use of the product (2 to 5 per cent concentration). In view of the positive results obtained in other studies with multicompounds (Shearer and Hernandez 2000, Blowey and Williams 2004) it may be advisable to repeat the study, increasing the frequency of foot bathing and/or the concentration of the product.
The positive effects of the formalin footbaths may be explained by a combination of a direct effect on the lesions of digital dermatitis, and presumably also by an indirect effect through a reduction in the incidence and severity of heel horn erosion. It has been shown that cows with serious heel horn erosions are at greater risk of developing digital dermatitis (Koniarova and others 1993, Blowey and others 1994, Walker and others 1995, Somers and others 2005, Holzhauer and others 2006).
The observed outbreaks in groups 3 and 4 are in line with the findings of Zemljic (2004), who observed that suboptimal hoof disinfection contributed to the spread of digital dermatitis. The spread of the disease may be stimulated by damp conditions in the cows' housing. Intervention strategies should therefore be combined with improvements in housing, regular claw trimming, a 'closed' herd strategy, and the prevention of periparturient immune suppression (Berry and others 1998, Laven 1999, Somers and others 2005, Holzhauer and others 2006).
The results of this study were obtained from one experimental farm and the treatments need to be investigated in other dairy herds. A follow-up study should provide practically applicable, well founded and affordable advice for the treatment and prevention of digital dermatitis; its application should decrease the pain suffered by dairy cows, reduce the economic losses and health risks for dairy farmers, and result in less environmental pollution.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study was financed by the Dairy Commodity Board (Rijswijk, The Netherlands) and was performed by the staff of the experimental farm Nij Bosma Zathe (Leeuwarden, The Netherlands). The products for the footbaths were kindly made available by Eurovet, Bladel, The Netherlands. The authors are also grateful to Gerben Huizinga (Van Hall Institute at Leeuwarden) for the collection and recording of the data.
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SMITS, M. C. J., FRANKENA, K., METZ, J. H. M. & NOORDHUIZEN, J. P. T. M. (1992) Prevalence of digital disorders in zero-grazing dairy cows. Livestock Production Science 32, 231-244
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References
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Colombia: Mapping the Eternal Crisis
For most international observers, violence remains the primary evidence of Colombian national failure. For the past two decades, debates about Colombian national identity have focused on Colombia either as a country in progress or as a failing state. Popular culture references consistently portray Colombians as criminal; the State Department warns U.S. citizens that travel to Colombia is dangerous. Inside Colombia, academics, artists, politicians, and cab drivers spend hours debating why, where, and how the country went so terribly wrong. By most measures, Colombia has been counted among the most violent places in the world, yet this is not the reason that it is a useful place in which to consider violence. Many other countries have experienced the dramatic spikes in political violence that are characterized by observers as a human rights crisis; the death toll in the Balkans and Central Africa during the 1990s dwarfs the number of Colombians who died in such circumstances.
What makes Colombia's case illuminating is not that it is the site of the worst violence but rather that multiple forms of violence exist in the context of a relatively wealthy, established democracy. Throughout the twentieth century Colombia has experienced periodic waves of political violence in which murder and torture were used to ensure electoral outcomes, guarantee property rights, and solidify economic power. Over the past three decades, Colombia has also had one of the world's highest murder rates and entrenched organized crime. The kinds of violent acts committed in Colombia—political, domestic, common, and organized crime—coexist and commingle, making the classification of violence and the production of accountability a highly contested public process. Despite the inability of the Colombian state to monopolize the use of force, to control national territory, or to guarantee its citizens basic rights, Colombia has a wealth of democratic institutions, a stable economy, and a relatively well financed media and educational infrastructure. Colombians have traditionally enjoyed one of the highest per capita incomes in Latin America, and the country is defined as a "middle income" country by the World Bank (although poverty and inequality levels are growing) (Vélez 2002). 1 The persistent levels of violence combined with the wealth and educational levels enjoyed in major cities have created generations of policy makers, activists, and scholars devoted to analyzing and arguing over the causes and consequences of Colombian violence.
Here I want to sketch the broad outlines of Colombian history in order to locate debates over human rights activism within the history of debates over violence, focusing on the categories used to classify the episodic violence that has erupted since Colombian independence: partisan struggle, insurgent violence, counterinsurgency efforts, and organized criminal violence. The dynamics of these types of violence have varied over time and by region: the changing nature of capital accumulation privileged certain actors over others, and the shifting structure of political institutions facilitated new kinds of power accumulation. In my tour through discussions of Colombia violence, I draw on some of the most insightful studies, which have explored these changes in particular places over limited windows of time (Carroll 1999a, 1999b; Roldan 2002). For readers unfamiliar with Colombia, I paint with broad strokes the most prevalent evolving forms of violence over the past six decades. From this history, I turn to the example of complicated violence in one place, Trujillo, Colombia, where a specific set of murders came to be investigated and eventually categorized as human rights violations. I examine the factors that made this possible, factors that are the focus of much of the rest of this book: the increasing professionalization of human rights groups (and their corresponding greater credibility and research capacity), the growing acceptance of human rights in the post–cold war era, and the new state human rights agencies. Despite the achievements of the commission established to investigate these murders, which produced a consensus document finding local military commanders and drug traffickers responsible, the case demonstrates the limits of human rights activism. Finally, I examine two frames according to which the international community responded to the violence during the 1990s: Colombia as a humanitarian crisis and the need for a culture of peace. Each frame catered to different institutional interests and constituencies, and while some organizations employed both frames, many groups viewed the human rights focus on justice and accountability as an obstacle to humanitarian assistance and the search for peace.
Basic Statistics on Violence in Colombia
A central point of this book is that the production of statistics on violence is a profoundly political and contested act. The debates among and between groups about which deaths to count in what category are explored throughout. Understanding the basic universe of figures being debated is important for understanding the wider context for these debates. Colombian homicide rates peaked in the early 1990s at more than 28,000 violent deaths a year (86 per 100,000 inhabitants). Since then the death rate has declined but still remains extremely high; during my research in 2002, the homicide rate was 66 per 100,000 inhabitants, almost eleven times that of the United States. 2 Kidnapping is a major industry; half of all the kidnappings in the world occur in Colombia. Colombia is home to the longest-running civil war in the western hemisphere and currently suffers from the highest rates of political violence. According to the Colombian Commission of Jurists, on average, ten people were killed daily in political violence in 1990; by 2000 that figure had risen to almost twenty a day (CCJ 2001: 4). The Council on Human Rights and Displacement (Consultoría para los Derechos Humanos, CODHES), an NGO that researches the Colombian conflict and internal displacement, reports that the number of people fleeing their homes has climbed dramatically, to an all-time high of 412, 553 people in 2002, a 20 percent increase from the year before (CODHES 2003: 2). There are currently three Colombian groups on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations: the two Marxist guerrilla groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC) and the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN), and the largest umbrella organization of right-wing paramilitary forces, the United SelfDefense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, AUC). 3
Religion, Race, Ethnicity, Culture, and Geography
Colombian violence does not fit into the model of internal conflict most prevalent during the post–cold war period, which focused on ethnic and religious divisions. Religious institutions, in particular, the Catholic
Church, and ethnic divisions within society have shaped how violence was deployed and mobilized, but these factors were not the primary motor of the conflict. The vast majority of Colombians are Catholic, and the Catholic Church has played a privileged role in Colombian history, having been granted special rights, including control of the educational curriculum, by the 1886 Constitution (which was replaced in 1991). The church has also occasionally taken sides in the conflict. Historically, it was identified with the Conservative Party, and the hierarchy backed the Conservative government during moments of political violence. Despite the conservative hierarchy, many priests were involved in liberation theology and promoted grassroots organizations that were targeted for repression.
While significant discrimination is practiced along racial divisions, Colombia does not experience significant violent ethnic or racial tensions. Unlike the Incan Empire to the south or the Aztecs and Mayans to the north, Colombia's indigenous population lived in relatively isolated small groups and today account for only approximately 2 percent of the population, one of the smallest percentages of any Latin American country. Despite their small population, however, indigenous communities control almost 25 percent of Colombia's territories through the resguardo system (comparable to the system of Indian reservations in the United States). This has contributed to the targeting of indigenous groups by all the actors in the armed conflict (Jackson 2003). 4 Scholars have only recently begun to examine the racial dimensions of Colombian violence, particularly in terms of the Afro-Colombian population. Colombia has one of the continent's largest African-descent populations, approximately 26 percent of the population. Between 1580 and 1640 as many as 170,000 African slaves were brought through the port of Cartagena de Indias, the only slave port in Spanish America besides Veracruz, Mexico, primarily to work in plantation and cattle ranching and gold mining on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts (Arocha 1998). While slavery was abolished in 1821, total manumission was only gradually achieved over the next three decades (Lohse 2001). Afro-Colombians remain concentrated on the Pacific Coast, especially the department of Choco, where freed and escaped slaves established independent communities; over the past two decades, however, Afro-Colombians have migrated throughout the country, in part because of the internal conflict. Racial identity remains a slippery category in Colombia, and most Afro-Colombians do not identify themselves as such, despite incipient efforts to organize around AfroColombian rights to combat ongoing discrimination (Wade 2002). In the current conflict Afro-Colombians are disproportionately victims of forced displacement (Jeffery and Carr 2004). Although systematic demographic surveys do not exist, Afro-Colombians appear to be well represented among paramilitary combat troops (but not the command structure) because of their extensive recruitment along the Atlantic Coast.
"Culture," understood as a national essence or identity, is often used as the default commonsense explanation for Colombian violence: Colombians are violent because violence is inherent in Colombian culture. In addition to being a dangerously reductionist and static view of culture, this view suggests that there is no possibility for transformation, or any need to address structural inequalities and injustices. Such a view of culture should not be confused with the more nuanced efforts by anthropologists and historians to understand the relationship between Colombian violence and political culture. 5 For example, the historian Marco Palacios argues that "Colombian political culture inasmuch as it is pseudolegal, ambiguous, and tramposa [deceitful], is not born of the matrix of modernity, Enlightenment, and Independence but from the matrix of tradition, conquest, and Baroque institutions" (Palacios 1999: 256). Most of those analyzing and reflecting on Colombian violence consider culture to varying degrees; here I focus on political culture broadly conceived, including how individuals imagine their relations to the state as well as the institutions that channel political power and participation.
The geographic distribution of mountains, rivers, and flood lands has contributed to Colombia's strong regionalism as well as the ongoing conflict (Park 1985; Safford and Palacios 2001). The interior is cut off by the three Andean cordilleras, making land travel extremely difficult. The major rivers flow northward, and their passage is often obstructed by marshy wetlands and seasonal flooding in the northern regions. Almost two-thirds of Colombia's landmass, the Amazon jungle and the flooded eastern plains, house less than 12 percent of the population. Much of this region remains to this day accessible only by plane or river during large parts of the year. Similarly, the Pacific Coast remains undeveloped, with few roads, as did the Atlantic Coast until the mid-1980s. The human geography of institutions, settlements, and infrastructure has been the decisive factor in shaping the patterns of Colombian violence, but this physical geography makes addressing conflict and promoting national integration more difficult.
Partisan Violence
The first one hundred fifty years of Colombian independence were characterized by three major periods of violence: early coups and conflicts;
the War of a Thousand Days in the early 1900s; and La Violencia during the 1950s. Until the emergence of the leftist guerrillas in the 1960s, most of the violence was defined as partisan struggle between the Liberal and Conservative Parties, which continued to dominate Colombian political life until the 1990s. However, political life was characterized by sporadic violence throughout the past two centuries. While the fighters identified with Liberal red or Conservative blue, many scholars have pointed to conflict over resources, particularly land, as being the primary motor of these Colombian conflicts.
In many ways the parties were indistinguishable; that they inspired such passionate allegiances has been one of the great mysteries of Colombian political science. Both were led by members of the elite, with little difference between their economic and political platforms. Some scholarly explanations for the strength of party allegiances have focused on symbolic identification akin to a religious identity; party allegiances ran in families and were inherited from one generation to the next. Strong clientalist relationships led to intense rural and lower-class identification with parties, as the vertically linked networks of privilege and patronage were the only channel connecting remote rural regions to national politics. One of the few significant differences between the two was the issue of power and privileges accorded to the Catholic Church, with the Conservatives strongly backing Catholic legal and economic privileges and control over the public education curriculum (Bushnell 1993). As was common throughout Latin America, political debates centered on three major divisions, protectionist or free trade, centralist or federalist, and pro- and anticlerical, although in practice the positions of the parties varied from region to region.
The winner-take-all political system encouraged conflict to control bureaucratic resources, and those shut out of the political system often used violence to gain political power. The political structure established by the 1886 Constitution significantly contributed to Colombia's entrenched clientalism and conflict by creating a hierarchical system of political appointments. Departments (similar to states) were headed by presidentially appointed governors, who in turn appointed local mayors, and elected legislative assemblies were subject to strict review by national politicians (Park 1985: 265). This distribution of power remained in place until the electoral reforms of the 1980s, described below, and created a structure in which strong local leaders interacted directly with the national government rather than with locally based governance networks such as department-wide assemblies. 6 This system encouraged backroom dealing and consolidated the power of local strongmen who functioned outside official electoral hierarchies. Regional powerbrokers were known as gamonales, while their local counterparts were called caciques, from the local slang for "Indian chief."
Colombian political life was characterized by the use of violence to effect political change and control resources. The early years of Colombian independence were marked by political upheaval—one historian counted at least thirteen coups and armed insurrections during the last decades of the nineteenth century (Bushnell 1993: 13). While most were skirmishes with little impact on political order, "what is inescapable is the sheer frequency with which political factions in this land, which paradoxically always has prided itself on its adherence to civil government and strict legalism, made use of force, or the implied threat of force, in the hope of effecting a change in the rules" (Bushnell 1993: 12). Combat during the poetically named War of a Thousand Days (1899–1902) killed an estimated one hundred thousand people, about 2 percent of the population, and displaced hundreds of thousands more, pushing land colonization into new areas. Generated by partisan struggles (the Liberal revolt against the Conservative government) and exacerbated by an economic crisis caused by a sharp decline in world coffee prices, the guerrilla tactics developed during this conflict were a taste of things to come.
La Violencia, as the partisan violence of the 1940s and 1950s is known, burst forth with the April 9, 1948, assassination of the dissident Liberal populist Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in downtown Bogotá. Gaitán had formed his own third party in 1933, the National Revolutionary Leftist Union (Unión Nacional de la Izquierda Revolucionaria, UNIR), and was the front-runner for the 1950 presidential elections. The assassin was caught and lynched in the street, but the sponsor of the crime remains unknown. Enraged Liberals began a three-day riot, known as el Bogotazo, resulting in the near-total destruction of downtown Bogotá. In an effort to parlay the general unrest into a revolutionary movement, Communist and Gaitainista leaders created "revolutionary juntas" in Bogotá and small-town radical strongholds (most notably Barrancabermeja and Puerto Berrío) but failed to galvanize cohesive support. Political violence had increased throughout the 1930s, despite the economic recovery fueled by high coffee prices and U.S. compensation for the Panama Canal. 7 With polarizing absolutism, Liberals accused Conservatives of wanting to physically liquidate the poor; the Conservatives in turn accused Liberals of moral filth and being Communists, Jews, Protestants, and Masons (Perea 1996). 8 Conservative leader Laureano Gómez had spent years in exile in Franco-ruled Spain and returned to Colombia with an apocalyptic vision of a threatening mob—led by an indistinguishable mass of Communists, Liberals, and Gaitanistas—on the verge of engulfing Colombian civilization. Violence dominated political life; during one debate, a Conservative shot and killed a Liberal on the floor of Congress. In the countryside the conflict was much worse.
El Bogatazo escalated to large-scale violence. The main agents of rural terror were the pájaros (lit., "birds"), assassins who traveled throughout the country carrying out the dirty work of their urban, elite sponsors, 9 and the Chuvalitas, peasants recruited from the Boyacá district of Chuvalita to replace Liberal policemen dismissed by Conservative politicians. Much of the violence involved torture and bloody public displays; killers developed elaborate mutilation techniques. To cite just one example, the corte de corbata, or necktie cut, involved slicing the victim's throat and pulling the tongue through (Uribe 1990). Land conflict, particularly in areas of lucrative coffee production, fueled the struggle: the three most violent states (Viejo Caldas, Antioquia, and Tolima) produced two-thirds of Colombian coffee and 60 percent of the deaths during this period; coffee also provided approximately 80 percent of the foreign exchange revenues for the Conservative government (Chernick 2005). Over the coming decades the struggle to control resources, including oil, land, coca, and cocaine, increasingly shaped the geography of Colombian violence.
La Violencia was ended by Colombia's only modern military dictatorship, when General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla took power in 1953 with significant civilian support. Four years later the traditional parties reestablished their power by removing Rojas Pinilla and instituting a power-sharing agreement, known as the National Front, that would shape Colombian political life for the next half century. By alternating power between the two traditional parties while maintaining the system of political appointments whereby presidents appointed governors, who in turn appointed mayors, the possibility of any third-party participation was precluded.
Political Exclusion
Colombians and Colombianists alike have been interested in understanding and categorizing La Violencia. The first studies, produced in the 1960s, suggested that the conflict was the result of the transition from premodern to modern politics, while others focused on the rivalries between patron-client networks. 10 The American sociologist Paul Oquist (1980) stressed the competition between Conservatives and Liberals for control of the resources of the increasingly powerful state; the French political scientist Daniel Pécaut (1987) posited the inability of the state to articulate a cohesive national identity and resolve conflicts in the face of the expanding "subcultures" organized along party lines. In his work focusing on the Gaitán movement and the immediate aftermath of el Bogotazo, the historian Herbert Braun (1985) focused on the degree to which political power and decision making was channeled through elite backroom deals rather than open political debate. The political scientist Gonzalo Sánchez stressed the connection between different phases of Colombian violence: "The Violence was an ambiguous process resembling both a 19th century style civil war and an embryonic peasant revolution, and as the former problem was resolved, the second took the fore. In theory a negotiated way out of the Violence, the National Front in practice actually inaugurated a new phase of it" (Sánchez 1992: 114).
Colombia's closed political system has been one way to explain ongoing political violence. The National Front agreement ushered in decades of paradoxical results. While Colombia remains widely touted as Latin America's oldest democracy, having missed the periods of repressive dictatorships that plagued its neighbors to the south, the strict limits on political participation imposed by the country's political elites hobbled the political process. Scholars have stressed the partial nature of the country's democracy, characterized variously as "elitist pluralism" (Bailey 1977), "exclusionary democracy" (Pécaut 1989), "democradura" (Leal 1989), and a "limited democratic consociational" arrangement (Hartlyn 1988, 1989). Leftist historians and activists argued that by preventing the participation of third parties the National Front pushed participation into illegal channels, including banned strikes and armed opposition movements. Palacios concluded that the National Front agreement embodied the paradox of desire for reform combined with the inability to enact it. He writes, "Trapped by the logic of oligarchic control and the cold war, [the National Front] meant the exclusion of popular interests in the central decisions of the state and repression of political dissidents, and the co-optation and absorption of popular sectors and emerging middle classes through the expansion of clientalist and patronage networks" (Palacios 1999: 58).
Political violence and electoral fraud continued to dominate political contests throughout the years of the National Front. In a classic example of the dramatic turns famous in Colombian political life, Colombia's only military dictator, Rojas Pinilla, returned to political life as a populist champion of the democratic process through the creation of the National Popular Alliance (Alianza Nacional Popular, ANAPO). Rojas Pinilla's dream of returning to power was denied, however. Many analysts contend that Rojas was the winner of the presidential elections of April 19, 1970, but the minister of the interior named Conservative Misael Pastrana Borrero the new president after a suspiciously timed massive power outage. Though ANAPO failed to garner significant political support in subsequent campaigns, the 1970 election was widely viewed by the left as definitive proof that there was no point in pursuing electoral politics; a group of nationalist guerrillas adopted the date as their name (the April 19 Guerrilla Movement, or the M-19) to focus attention on the alleged fraud and the closed nature of Colombia's political system.
Another limit to Colombian democracy throughout the second half of the twentieth century was the use of state of siege legislation by the executive branch to justify the assumption of extraordinary powers. From 1958 until 1991, when the new Constitution redefined and limited state of siege powers, Colombia was governed under almost continual decrees of "state of siege." The incidents that prompted months and even years of state of siege powers were often episodic outbreaks of violence or civic strikes, but the long-term impact was to strengthen the executive branch. The president also frequently appointed military governors and mayors in areas suspected of harboring guerrillas or strong civic associations (Gallón 1979).
Despite political reforms during the 1980s and 1990s to open the electoral system, participation in Colombian political life continued to be limited by violence. Reforms in 1986 led to the direct election of mayors, and the 1991 Constitution allowed election rather than appointment of governors. While opening local offices to popular election initially generated significant opportunities for third parties, paramilitary violence targeting legal leftist organizing wiped such efforts off the political map. The most famous attempt to garner significant support for a leftist alternative was the Patriotic Union (Unión Patriótica, UP), created during frustrated peace talks with the FARC in 1985. Activists claim that more than three thousand of their members were killed. Violence targeting politicians continued over the next decades. In the late 1990s the FARC began targeting mayors, forcing over 200 of the total 1,091 to resign. Many who remained in office were forced to abandon their towns and govern from capital cities. The political scientists Ana Maria Bejarano and Eduardo Pizarro Leongómez describe the Colombian political system as going from "restricted to besieged." They go on to write, "At the regime level, we claim that it is no longer the system's 'closed' nature that affects prospects for democratic consolidation, but instead the excessively lax rules of the game created by the political reform initiated in the mid-1980s. This set of rules has engendered additional incentives for party fragmentation, leading to an extremely atomized and personalistic party system" in which powerful criminal syndicates and illegal armed groups now pose the most serious limits on political participation (Bejarano and Pizarro Leongómez 2002: 2). 11
Insurgent Violence
Colombia is home to the longest-running guerrilla war in the hemisphere. Like most countries in Latin America, numerous small guerrilla forces emerged during the 1960s and 1970s espousing varieties of Marxist doctrine. However, some Colombian insurgencies differed in important ways from their counterparts throughout the hemisphere before and after the cold war zenith of such revolutionary groups. The FARC, for example, traces its history to peasant defense groups that emerged in the 1930s and 1940s. Rather than negotiate following the collapse of international support after the cold war, Colombian guerrilla groups were able to expand their operations by tapping into the revenues of one of Colombia's most lucrative enterprises, the drug trade. Here I focus on the two largest remaining insurgent groups in Colombia: the FARC, which emerged at the beginning of the twenty-first century militarily stronger than any time in its history even as political support for their operations had dramatically declined at home and abroad; and the ELN, which has shrunk due to military defeats and desertion but remains a significant force in several regions.
The FARC's origins in early peasant self-defense forces is the basis of its claims to political legitimacy and ability to represent the marginalized rural peasantry. These rural communities organized in part by the Communist Party developed into armed enclaves, often fleeing en masse into previously unsettled lands, a process later described as "armed colonization" (Molano 1989). Their leaders were larger-than-life Robin Hood figures who combined armed robbery with peasant resistance in an amorphously defined political banditry, with profound consequences for political activism in the coming decades. In the words of one of Colombia's most famous historians, himself the son of persecuted Liberals, "In this subculture of violence that was transforming social conduct, language, and values, and spawning leaders of the Liberal resistance with nicknames such as Desquite (Vengeance) and Sangrenegra (Blackblood), an entire generation was growing up whose attitudes toward their condition oscillated between fatalism, a thirst for vengeance, and repressed rebellion" (Sánchez 1992: 90).
Over the next decade, these poorly trained self-defense forces developed into Colombia's first guerrilla organizations. In the process they were disavowed by the national Liberal Party, targeted by ferocious counterinsurgency campaigns, and isolated from Colombia's industrializing economy. 12 Although weakened by amnesty offers from the government that enticed many leaders into civilian life and battered by overwhelming counterinsurgency campaigns, these armed enclaves survived into the 1960s as "independent republics" operating outside the control of the central government. Guerrilla leaders, radicalized by the military campaigns against them, formalized their vision in a meeting on July 20, 1962, declaring themselves the southern bloc and issuing a national agrarian platform. Two years later, at the second national conference of guerrilla groups, the leadership adopted a Marxist platform and announced the birth of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The FARC remained a loose federation of poorly organized peasant fronts for its first two decades of existence, but increased resources from its "taxation" of the illegal narcotics trade and other criminal activities financed its expansion into the country's largest guerrilla force by the late 1990s.
The next generation of guerrilla organizations emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. Students, union organizers, and other activists were inspired to take up armed opposition by the examples of colonial liberation movements around the world and the Cuban Revolution closer to home. Che Guevara and the leftist journalist Regis Debray popularized the foco theory of guerrilla warfare, which conveniently allowed would-be revolutionaries to circumvent tedious political organizing (in the form of a mass movement led by the Communist Party) in favor of a vanguardsparking revolt. These ideas inspired a multitude of primarily urban, youth-led armed movements throughout the world in the 1960s (Colburn 1994; Varon 2004). Despite passionate—and sometimes lethal—sectarian disagreements among these groups in Colombia, the myriad armed radical organizations that arose throughout this period generally shared central elements of a political vision: the revolution was imminent, any possibility of national development was totally blocked by the oligarchy, and a monumental political crisis was brewing. Many of these groups were more concerned with establishing the proper theory to explain the struggle's master plan than with establishing contact with the oppressed. Early organized efforts were characterized by extreme militarism and even brutal internal purges of young volunteers accused of insufficient commitment (Broderick 2000).
One of the most important of the second-generation guerrilla groups, the National Liberation Army, was the brainchild of a small group of Colombian scholarship students who had traveled to Cuba at the height of the missile crisis in 1962. Inspired by the revolutionary moment, a number of them requested military training and vowed to re-create the Cuban Revolution in Colombia on their return. Their first combat operations commenced on January 7, 1964. The group, boasting only sixteen men, opened fire in Simocota, Santandar, and distributed their first manifesto (the "Simacota Manifesto"). The ELN was closely linked to the liberation theology movement within the Colombian Catholic Church; three of their original leaders were Spanish Catholic Worker priests. Despite attracting one of Colombia's most promising and charismatic leftist leaders to their ranks, the Jesuit priest and sociologist Camilo Torres, the ELN suffered from divisive internal purges and had few combat successes during their first years. Torres was killed in his first combat operation on February 15, 1966, and the group was almost completely annihilated following a series of successful counterinsurgency operations in the early 1970s. 13
Other guerrilla forces coming to prominence during the late 1970s included the Popular Liberation Army (Ejército Popular de Liberación, EPL) and the M-19. The EPL grew out of the Communist Youth and the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (Partido Comunista MarxistaLeninista, PCML), a legal political party that sided with the Chinese during the Sino-Soviet split. Both the PCML and the EPL were often on the verge of total extinction because of the army's counterinsurgency campaigns and their own deep internal schisms, which generated spin-off groups that included the Marxist-Leninist League and the MarxistLeninist Tendency, among others. The M-19, by contrast, emphasized nationalism and democracy, distancing itself from the dogmatic ideological debates that characterized its counterparts. Many of the group's leaders had been expelled from the Communist Party, the FARC, and the socialist wing of ANAPO. Its strength lay in dramatic symbolic gestures: stealing Simón Bolívar's sword as its first official act (vowing to return it when real democracy returned to Colombia, although the sword was then lost), stealing milk to give to the poor, a daring nighttime theft of weapons from the army's northern Bogotá arsenal, and taking fourteen ambassadors hostage at the Dominican embassy during a dinner party were only a few of their major exploits. 14
Most of these groups laid down their arms during peace talks in the late 1980s. The M-19 suffered a spectacular defeat when, in hopes of bringing attention to government intransigence and the torture of M-19 cadres in jail, they took over the Palace of Justice, the seat of the Supreme Court, in 1985. When the military stormed the Palace in what analysts later called a forty-eight-hour coup, eleven Supreme Court justices and more than one hundred bystanders were killed. Widespread rumors that the M-19 had been in the pay of the cartels, who wanted their case files destroyed to circumvent extradition efforts, contributed to the guerrillas' plunging popularity. Along with a host of smaller groups, the M-19 attempted to transform itself into a legal political party. The M-19 Democratic Alliance enjoyed a brief groundswell of popular support and was instrumental in rewriting the Colombian Constitution in 1991 but was unable to sustain a coherent national political organization.
In the 1980s the ELN was able to rebuild its organization thanks in part to the petroleum boom; a German multinational construction company, Mannesmann Anlagenbau AG, admitted paying more than $2 million in ransom in 1985 during the building of the Caño Limon pipeline along the Venezuelan border (long an ELN stronghold). The ELN claimed to have received more than $20 million in total ransom during the construction project (Chernick 2005). During the 1990s, however, the ELN was hard hit by paramilitary violence. A dissident wing known as the Socialist Renovation Current (Corriente de Renovación Socialista, CRS) laid down its arms in 1994; according to a December 2005 report in the Colombian newsweekly Semana, only approximately thirty-five hundred armed ELN combatants remained in the field, many divided between entering into peace talks with the government, continuing the armed struggle, or joining the ranks of the FARC. A surprising number of former ELN fighters, as well as combatants from other guerrilla groups, have joined the paramilitary forces.
During the 1990s, the Colombian guerrillas increasingly relied on criminal activities to fund their military and political operations. Of the more than 3,700 people reported kidnapped in 2002, approximately 70 percent are attributed to guerrillas and two-thirds of those motivated by extortion. 15 According to Colombian governmental statistics, the FARC and the ELN received approximately $1.2 billion in ransom between 1991 and 1998. 16 The drug trade provides the majority of the FARC's revenues, however, with estimates ranging from $100 million to $200 million a year. 17 Initially the FARC was solely involved with taxing coca production by small farmers, but it has progressively moved up the production chain. The FARC used this money to more than quadruple its forces to approximately 18,000 by the end of the 1990s, as well as build substantial urban militias. 18
Counterinsurgency Violence and the Colombian Armed Forces
The Colombian military's response to the long-running guerrilla conflict has differed substantially from that of other Latin American militaries in many respects. Colombia has not endured the military coups that have been common in the Southern Cone; compared to the conflict in Central America, combat operations were limited, due in part to the "containment" policy promoted by U.S. mentors. In other ways the Colombian military response has been typical of other instances of low-intensity conflict. In one of the primary examples, the military has resorted to the use of paramilitary forces (explored in greater detail below) that were responsible for the majority of human rights violations during the 1990s. To understand the differences and similarities, however, requires examining the institutional evolution of the military and its role in Colombia's political life.
Colombia's military has historically played a very different role in society from that of its counterparts to the south and north. Consolidated as a national, professional force only with the creation of the Military Academy in 1917 (a generation later than its military colleagues in the Southern Cone), the Colombian military has never been a primary receptacle for national identity and pride. After independence from Spain, the army was "not a pillar of the nation, a privilege reserved for political parties and the Catholic Church" (Blair Trujillo 1999: 10), but remained fractured under the authority of regional bosses until well into the twentieth century. In her groundbreaking study of the partisan violence of the 1950s, Mary Roldan concluded:
Unsure of their legitimacy or strength, Liberal and Conservative party leaders had historically proven unwilling to create viable forces of public order for fear that these might challenge or usurp civilian authority. Such public order forces consequently fulfilled the state's repressive functions but were never allowed to grow into sufficiently coherent entities bound by a code of ethics or professional identity. Poor pay, lack of discipline, and the subordination of public order to the interests of private parties and the shifting winds of political influence ensured that the armed forces would never compete for moral or physical parity with civilian rulers. (Roldan 2002: 145)
As the country was consumed by partisan violence in the 1940s, the military remained largely neutral, refusing to respond to pressures from local party bosses interested in capturing land and resources. Even as the violence escalated, President Laureano Gómez (1950–53, elected as the only candidate when Liberals boycotted the elections) made the controversial decision to send a battalion to fight alongside the United States during the Korean War in 1952, the only Latin American country to do so. Viewed by some as pandering to the United States and as a convenient means for the Conservative president to rid the corps of Liberal officers, the Korea Battalion was a telling example of how removed the armed forces were from the ongoing domestic disruptions. The Colombian police, at the time still appointed by local politicians, served as the basis of death squad operations at the behest of Conservative leaders in many areas. By the mid-1950s, however, the army was pulled into partisan violence in some areas as well. Small groups of soldiers were sent into conflictive areas, causing a breakdown in the chain of command, morale, and logistical supplies.
La Violencia ended with Colombia's brief and only modern military dictatorship. Unlike the later wave of military dictatorships that swept the continent in the 1960s and 1970s, General Rojas Pinilla did not seize power as part of a plan orchestrated by a cohort of military officials. Afraid the violence was spiraling out of control, party leaders played a key role in organizing the golpe de opinión (lit., public opinion coup; refers to the widespread support for Rojas Pinilla) as a means of establishing an interim leader outside the traditional party structure but still under their control. Rojas Pinilla's efforts to develop an autonomous political movement and his increasingly heavy-handed censorship and repression of protests led to his removal from power by the Liberal and Conservative leadership. Rojas Pinilla was stripped of his political rights in a theatrical trial in the Senate (setting the stage for his comeback a decade later as a populist representing Colombians disenfranchised by elite political wheeling and dealing). 19 After a transition government called the Military Junta (1957–58), the National Front mandated that the parties alternate the presidency and equally distribute all public posts, including legislative offices, until 1974; informally, the deal lasted well into the 1980s. Enshrined in a constitutional amendment and approved by a plebiscite, the National Front limited political participation to the two traditional parties.
The perception of military neutrality during La Violencia was central to the subsequent political role of the armed forces. In exchange for its ongoing neutrality, understood as a refusal to intervene with civilian leadership, the military was granted authority to design and implement national security policy largely independent of any civilian oversight. Originally known as the Lleras Doctrine, from the 1958 speech by thenPresident Alberto Lleras to the armed forces, this doctrine defined the no deliberante character of the military. "I do not want the armed forces deciding how the nation should be governed, instead of what is decided by the people," Lleras told the crowd of officers, "but I also do not want, by any means, that politicians decide how to manage the armed forces, in their technical functions, their discipline, their rules, their personnel" (quoted in Pardo Rueda 1996: 319). This historic trade-off was instrumental in Colombia's subsequent democratic transitions and lack of coups and established military expectations for almost complete autonomy in defining security policy.
During the early years of the insurgency, the Colombian Armed Forces followed a strategy of containment. Given a cost-benefit analysis of the scale of military operations required to eliminate small guerrilla forces, officials concluded that these groups should be allowed relative freedom in remote rural areas so long as actual combat operations were minimal. In areas where the guerrilla presence increased, the army often opted not for direct confrontation but to train and arm local civilians as "paramilitary" forces. However, the military has been extremely effective in lobbying to ensure that its privileges and policy prerogatives remain enshrined in Colombian legislation. Military officers have also not remained silent when in disagreement with civilian policy decisions over issues they believe are in the military's domain. The primary example of such episodic "saber rattling" has been over the series of peace initiatives, established by each successive administration since 1982, intended to promote negotiated settlements with guerrilla groups. Military officers have strongly opposed these efforts and consider them examples of undermining counterinsurgency efforts and as civilian meddling in security policy; they often make their opposition to civilian policies known through media interviews.
Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking
The illicit drug trade has generated multiple forms of violence in Colombia. Revenue from drug production and trafficking has allowed for the expansion of all armed groups, including the military, which has received billions of dollars from the United States as part of counternarcotics programs. The dynamic of violence associated with the drug trade has shifted, however, as the illicit drug business has evolved. What is called "drug trafficking" in the United States is in fact a major, multifaceted, and global industry with deep roots in Colombia's economic development. Colombians have long enjoyed a reputation for creative commerce and as well-connected middlemen for contraband. Benefiting from their strategic location at the crossroads of Central and South America, Colombians also enjoy access to both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Since the time of the Spanish colonial monopoly on tobacco and salt, Colombians had profited by circumventing tariffs and trade laws. To this day, illegal trading of otherwise legal goods, including cigarettes, gasoline, and liquor, is a major motor of the Colombian economy. The most profitable of all contraband markets remains the illegal drug trade, first driven by the U.S. market and now expanded to European and Colombian users.
Colombia's role in this industry has changed over the past decades. Beginning with the 1970s, a marijuana boom along Colombia's Atlantic coast created a class of newly rich traffickers that radically altered local political and economic hierarchies. The serendipitous meeting in a Connecticut jail cell of George Jung, a small-time pot dealer from New England, and Carlos Ledher, a Colombian car thief who would rise to be a founding member of the Medellín Cartel, led to the dramatic expansion of cocaine sales along the West Coast of the United States (Bowden 2002; Porter 2001). Soon the Colombian role in the drug trade shifted to the more profitable—and easier to handle—cocaine trade, as dealers began shipping and processing coca grown primarily in Bolivia and Peru.
Led by a small number of powerful drug kingpins, the Medellín and Cali family-based empires came to control a billion-dollar cocaine industry. The flamboyant personalities of the Medellín Cartel embodied the contradictions of the Colombian drug trade during the 1980s. The traditional economic elite tolerated the growing power of the cartels as long as they were not perceived as rivals. Pablo Escobar, elected congressional alternate in 1982, became a flamboyant public figure who built subsidized housing and soccer fields as head of the Medellín Cartel. The Cali Cartel, led by the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers and José Santacruz Londoño, emerged as the Medellín Cartel's main rivals. The Cali Cartel cultivated an image as sophisticated businessmen, in contrast to the Medellín Cartel's rougher and more violent reputation, and invested heavily in legal businesses. Their violent competition with the Medellín Cartel escalated throughout the late 1980s, culminating in the creation of
People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar (Los Perseguidos por Pablo Escobar, PEPES), a shadowy group dedicated to attacking the Medellín Cartel's businesses and associates, as well as allegedly secretly supplying the DEA with information about their adversaries. 20
The power and violence of the illicit drug industry came to permeate all facets of Colombian society, demonstrated by the saying "plata o plomo"—silver or lead—meaning "take the bribe or take a bullet." By 1988 Fortune magazine reported that "the illicit drug trade is probably the fastest-growing industry in the world and unquestionably the most profitable" and estimated that Colombia's illegal exports were worth $4 billion a year, more than coffee and oil exports combined (quoted in Dudley 2004: 71). Drug lords achieved unprecedented political influence through threats, bribery, and political contributions. Violently opposed to extradition treaties pushed by the U.S. government, a group of drug lords known as the extraditables declared war on the Colombian government and used what became known as "narcoterrorism" to cow officials into denying extradition attempts. 21 Drug traffickers from all groups began buying up land as a means of money laundering and buying their way into the respect of the elite; according to one estimate, as many as 6 million hectares changed hands from 1985 and 1995 in what some analysts called a "reverse agrarian reform" (Reyes and Gómez 1997). 22 This new role for drug traffickers was instrumental in the development of paramilitary groups. During the late 1980s, cartel mercenaries bombed public buildings, assassinated high-ranking officials, and blew up an airliner en route to the United States. To avoid judicial investigations, cartel-financed hitmen killed hundreds of judges, police investigators, journalists, and public figures.
During the 1990s, ties between illicit drug operations and paramilitary organizations solidified, with several high-level traffickers becoming paramilitary chiefs. Despite the U.S.-assisted breakup of the two largest cartels, Colombian drug trafficking continued unabated. These drug syndicates have been replaced by smaller, more vertically integrated trafficking organizations whose nimble, independent traffickers are much more difficult to detect and infiltrate. These traffickers employ new and constantly changing shipping routes through Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean for moving cocaine and, increasingly, heroin.
The cultivation of both coca and poppies (used to make heroin) has expanded enormously in Colombia since the mid-1990s. Unlike in Peru and Bolivia, where peasants have for centuries grown and chewed the coca leaf (a mild stimulant, compared to the processed form, cocaine), in
Colombia this practice was limited to a very few small indigenous groups. While coca cultivation declined in Peru and Bolivia as a result of U.S.-financed eradication programs, cultivation in Colombia increased 54 percent from 1996 to 1998, leaving overall Andean coca production constant. By the late 1990s, Colombia was the world leader in both illicit drug trafficking and the production of coca. Guerrilla groups active in areas of increasing coca cultivation, primarily the FARC, funded their dramatic military expansion by taxing coca crops and by protecting drug processing labs and other illicit installations. U.S.-sponsored counternarcotics program, including the massive spraying of chemical herbicides, pushed coca cultivation into new regions of Colombia without significantly diminishing overall cultivation levels. Paramilitary leaders, who have long been tied to drug trafficking, moved to increasingly control coca production as well.
The Evolution of Paramilitary Groups
"Paramilitary groups" and "self-defense groups" describe a range of different groups active in Colombia over the past fifty years. Colombian paramilitary forces, like similar groups throughout Latin America, worked covertly with military forces in counterinsurgency operations characterized by death squad operations that targeted activists and opposition political parties. Unlike these groups in other countries, however, Colombian paramilitaries were able, thanks to the influx of drug money, to develop offensive military capabilities with large numbers of troops, in some cases better financed than the military; a series of charismatic regional spokesmen have argued that Colombian paramilitary groups now represent a significant independent political project (Aranguren Molina 2001; Tate forthcoming). 23 Despite wide regional variations, the evolution of paramilitary groups can be divided roughly into three major, at times overlapping, phases: death squad operations in the 1970s and early 1980s, private armies funded by the drug trade in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the consolidation of paramilitaries into a single coordinating body represented by national spokesmen claiming to share a political platform in the late 1990s.
Paramilitaries historically have acted in concert with and have been supported by the state military apparatus rather than in opposition to the state (an important exception is paramilitaries' violent repression of state judicial efforts to investigate their crimes, particularly in relationship to the drug trade). Paramilitary groups have periodically been incorporated legally into counterinsurgency efforts, and the links between legal and illegal paramilitaries have historically been pervasive. The legal basis for state sponsorship of paramilitary organizations was Law 48, approved by the Colombian Congress in 1968, allowing the government to "mobilize the population in activities and tasks" to restore public order. 24 International pressure and additional attacks against government officials led President Virgilio Barco to declare the creation of paramilitary groups illegal in 1989. The expansion of paramilitary groups in the 1990s coincided with the organization of legal rural defense forces, known as the Convivir. Officially launched in 1995, the Convivir were enthusiastically supported by Colombia's current president, Alvaro Uribe, during his tenure as governor of Antioquia (1995–98). In 1997, after numerous complaints that Convivir was involved in human rights abuses, the Supreme Court continued the organization's legal status but prohibited it from collecting intelligence for the security forces and from receiving military-issued weapons. 25
According to human rights groups and government investigators, during the first phase of paramilitary activity, there was considerable overlap between the civilians legally trained by local military forces in the 1970s and illegal paramilitary death squads such as the American AntiCommunist Alliance (Alianza Americana Anticomunista, AAA), active in the Magdalena Region. The first qualitative shift in Colombian paramilitary groups occurred in the 1980s, when money from the drug trade allowed them to grow from small groups linked to local military commanders to private armies. Unlike the death squad operations in other Latin American countries, the paramilitaries benefited from the spectacular resources provided by the drug trafficking industry. The fusion of counterinsurgency ideology and illegal narcotics revenue produced one of the most lethal fighting forces in Latin America. As the owners of vast haciendas, drug traffickers needed protection from the guerrillas, whose primary fund-raising techniques involved boleteo (extortion), vacunas ("vaccination" against guerrilla attack), and, increasingly, kidnappings of the rural elite. Paramilitary groups linked to drug cartels (especially the Medellín Cartel) worked closely with Colombian military officers to eliminate suspected guerrilla sympathizers, while at the same time they attacked Colombian authorities who tried to investigate drug trafficking. Throughout the 1980s paramilitary groups were implicated in the assassinations of high-ranking government officials, including those of Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla in 1984 and hundreds of police officers and judges. Paramilitary groups were particularly vicious in targeting activists from the leftist parties, who enjoyed considerable support after the 1987 reforms allowing popular election of mayors and other local officials previously appointed to their posts.
By the end of the 1980s a loose network of paramilitary groups covered the country: Henry Perez and Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha operated in the Middle Magdalena Valley; the Eastern Plains region was split between Rodriguez Gacha and emerald baron Victor Carranza; Fidel Castaño controlled Cordoba and northern Antioquia; and Pablo Escobar funded a Medellín-based group of young assassins for hire, known as sicarios. Though primarily focused on economic control, some forwarding-thinking paramilitary groups also developed a political platform, the National Renovation Movement (Movimiento de Renovación Nacional, MORENA; modeled in part on Salvadoran death squad leader Roberto D'Aubuisson's ARENA party). The party won six mayoral seats in the Middle Magdalena Valley in 1988, thanks in part to support from the Association of Middle Magdalena Ranchers and Farmers and to backing from the Liberal mayor of Puerto Berrío, the self-proclaimed counterinsurgency capital of the country. Behind a network of health clinics, "patriotic" education, and agricultural cooperatives, paramilitary operatives conducted deadly assassination campaigns (Dudley 2004; Medina Gallego 1990). The paramilitaries failed to develop a national political network or overcome entrenched regional differences; their primary focus continued to be ensuring their profits were safe from Communistinspired attack.
The third phase of expansion was marked by the creation of a national coordinating body of paramilitary groups, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. 26 Under the umbrella of the AUC, the paramilitaries transformed themselves from regional renegades into political operators respected in many quarters and viewed as valid interlocutors worthy of sitting at the negotiating table with the government. This metamorphosis involved changes in paramilitary tactics as well as a substantial public relations campaign aimed at changing public perceptions at home and abroad. These groups began new and wider military operations in the late 1990s, dramatically expanded their troops from an estimated 2,500 in the early 1990s to more than 15,000 by the end of the decade, and embarked on offensive military campaigns to conquer new territory. Following a summit in July 1997, the AUC issued a statement announcing a military offensive into new regions of the country "according to the operational capacity of each regional group." Newly created "mobile squads"—elite training and combat units—carried out these operations, which included a series of massacres targeting the civilian population in these areas. The July 1997 massacre in Mapiripán, Meta, was the first step in implementing this new plan. 27 AUC fighters carried out similar massacres throughout Colombia. Paramilitary leaders undertook a public relations campaign employing a range of strategies to engender political legitimacy and acceptance as political spokesmen by the government and international funders. These efforts were a critical component in the domestic and international support for the current negotiations between the government and paramilitary leaders. Through these negotiations the Colombian government officially demobilized 31,671 paramilitary fighters by the end of 2006, using classic conflict resolution strategies based on the collective disarming, demobilization, and reintegration of combatants (Alto Comisionado para la Paz 2006).
Connections and Contradictions in Colombian Violence
As the history of the practice of violence in Colombia demonstrates, definitively classifying Colombian armed actors is difficult. The complex connections among these groups and the difficulty of parsing their motives feed debates over how to best resolve the Colombian crisis. Paramilitary and guerrilla groups have undergone profound shifts over the past three decades and exhibit marked regional differences. Guerrillas claim the mantle of revolutionary violence and representation of an oppressed and neglected rural poor but devote few resources to political education, while their increasing criminality further erodes their popular support. Paramilitary leaders have claimed that paramilitary violence is part of state-supported counterinsurgency efforts, yet they also want to be considered insurgents; they are at once defining themselves as independent of the state, a substitute for the state in some areas, and supportive of the state (even as they threaten and murder judicial representatives investigating their crimes). Guerrillas and paramilitaries employ violence in the struggle to control resources, including land, drug production and trafficking routes, and other business enterprises; they are deeply involved in petroleum contraband trade and the fight to control coca production, although to different degrees in different regions. Military corruption in many areas deeply implicates state security forces in the drug trade. The paramilitaries have worked closely with military officers to coordinate military operations and select targets and have benefited from the tacit approval of much of the Colombian elite. Paramilitaries have also adopted guerrilla strategies to build political legitimacy, and have even brought former guerrilla opponents into their ranks. These examples demonstrate both the difficulties of developing simplistic models and the importance of tracing these complicated histories and exploring regional variations.
There are many other dimensions of violence that I have not explored here, including the role of gender in shaping Colombian violence. Women are both participants in and victims of violence in Colombia. Several high-profile leaders of the guerrillas were women, among them Maria Eugenia Ramirez and Vera Grabe in the M-19; as many as 30 percent of the FARC's members are estimated to be women, although they are not proportionally represented among the commanders. Female combatants constitute a very small part of paramilitary fighters, between 2 percent and 4 percent according to most observers. According to an interview in January 2004 with the paramilitary commander Jorge 40, most women involved in the paramilitaries are "dedicated to social and political projects." 28 Thanks in large part to the efforts of Colombian women's organizations, violence against women by illegal armed actors is beginning to be examined by human rights organizations. 29 A high percentage of internally displaced people are women. In their report focusing on violence against women, Amnesty International noted numerous cases of female community activists who were captured and raped by paramilitary forces, even during the declared paramilitary ceasefire. Paramilitary and guerrilla efforts to enforce social control are also highly gendered. Women accused of socializing with suspected enemy sympathizers, wearing suggestive clothing, or engaging in inappropriate behavior are targeted for public punishments. Violence against women is underreported; many cases involving sexual violence are closed without investigation.
I have mapped the history of Colombia according to kinds of categories usually described as political violence: partisan, insurgent, and counterinsurgent violence that also at times intersects with criminal violence and the struggle to control resources. Each of these categories is defined according to the motives and intentions of perpetrators. There are many other ways to map this history, for example, through the identities of the victims rather than the aspirations of the perpetrators, tracing the violences experienced by women, indigenous groups, Afro-Colombians, and other minorities. Much of those histories remains to be written, and will, I hope, guide future research on Colombia.
Making Human Rights Narratives:
Trujillo and Modern Colombian Violence
The human rights groups that I examine in Colombia attempt to use the category "human rights violations" to highlight particular instances of violence within this pantheon of aggressive acts. In doing so, they focus on certain characteristics of the act itself: the motives of the perpetrators, the credibility of the evidence, and the degree to which this example represents a larger universe of events. Institutional and historical shifts were instrumental in making the use of the human rights framework possible. This process was exemplified by the "Trujillo case," the torture and murder of more than one hundred people, which became one of the most widely discussed human rights cases in Colombia in the 1990s. The InterAmerican Human Rights Commission (IAHRC) of the Organization of American States (OAS) ruled on the case. The Trujillo Commission, a mix of government, military, and NGO representatives named to investigate the murders, was called a mini–truth commission for Colombia. Its investigation found a lethal mix of military commanders and drug traffickers responsible for the violence, which had included the dismemberment of living victims with chainsaws and the decapitation of the local priest.
The work of the Trujillo Commission typifies many of the issues I explore in this book. Out of the complex panorama of multiple armed actors, the commission crafted a narrative using the human rights frame to establish accountability of state agents. Its work was possible because of the increasingly credible and professional investigations undertaken by NGOs, the state human rights institutions created in the early 1990s, and the Colombian military's willingness to participate (and attempt to coopt) human rights spaces. The perpetrators of the murders in this case were a mix of state agents (military officers) and economically powerful businessmen (drug traffickers), and common criminals, just as they had been throughout Trujillo's history. But now they could be labeled "human rights violators" in an effort to publicize the case and bring the guilty to trial. In that effort, the activists who pushed for the commission largely failed. Nevertheless, they participated in the dramatic transformation of the political landscape of human rights activism in Colombia and the efforts to understand and address Colombian violence throughout the 1990s. To understand the complexity of their task requires first a brief mapping of the dynamics of political violence in the decade before the commission began its work.
Power Disputed: Trujillo in the 1980s
While human rights violation as a category for understanding violence was applied to events in Trujillo, a small town west of Cali, only at the beginning of the 1990s, violence has long played a central role in the town's political life. 30 At the end of the nineteenth century, like much of the Colombian countryside, the land that became Trujillo was first emptied of its sparsely settled indigenous occupants and then filled with the second-generation sons of Spanish adventurers, who founded the first official settlement in 1922. In a pattern that would be repeated along the agricultural frontier throughout Colombia's history, settlers were driven by a desire for economic opportunities and to escape political violence. Political bosses employed violence to control their patronage system and consolidate their ownership of land and other economic resources, channeled through divisions between the traditional Liberal and Conservative Parties. 31
The violence that was the subject of the Trujillo Commission emerged from the new actors that began to dominate political and economic life during the 1980s: guerrillas, paramilitaries, and drug traffickers. In Trujillo, as in many small towns across the country, the military was deeply implicated in supporting paramilitary activity, which was in many cases financed by drug traffickers. The guerrillas had first arrived in the region in the early 1980s. The ELN sent periodic political and military excursions into the mountainous outskirts, composed primarily of students and union activists from Cali and Medellín, as part of the Frente Luis Carlos Cardenas Arbelaez. By the time they arrived in the mountains of Trujillo, the ELN was slowly rebuilding its ranks after a neartotal defeat in the early 1970s. 32 Its effort to consolidate a rural power base coincided with the arrival of a new priest to the area, Tiberio de Jesus Fernandez Mafla, known simply as Father Tiberio. By all accounts, he was a charismatic native son, from a neighboring small village, committed to the growing radical Catholic movement that focused on solidarity with the poor, liberation theology. He had been a youth leader in the Jesuit rural training program (Universidad Campesina, or Peasant University) and had traveled to Israel to learn cooperative farming on a kibbutz. Father Tiberio promoted lay organizations, supported community businesses and cooperatives, and became an active voice in local politics. From the pulpit, he used his homilies to condemn the acciones pistoleras (gangster actions) of the most important political bosses in the region, the Giraldo family.
The ongoing shifts in power relations with the guerrillas were one of the many factors that would ignite the new outburst of violence at the end of the decade. According to Adolfo Atehortúa, for much of the early 1980s Father Tiberio's ministry and activism coexisted peacefully with the ELN. He managed a "tacit agreement" with the ELN following long conversations; the guerrillas agreed not to take over the town and to respect the autonomy of the community groups organized by Father Tiberio and the Instituto Mayor Campesino, a Jesuit-led education and community development cooperative. Atehortúa admits, however, that Tiberio did not have much leverage in these informal negotiations: he "could not oppose them: they had arrived first, were in the zone with his parishioners, and they were armed" (Atehortúa 1995: 240).
The importance of drug money in shaping local politics and violence was personified by Henry "The Scorpion" Loaiza. Local legend has it that Loaiza was "an illiterate peasant, [employed] before as a driver, who left one good day for the Putumayo, and then one day returned with his pockets full of money and ready to become the patriarch of the area" (Atehortúa 1995: 276). Loaiza eventually became head of security for the Cali Cartel and one of the largest landowners in the region, one of many who rose from peasant to near-king on the tide of drug money that washed across Colombian's small towns.
In addition to the ELN, M-19 dissidents arrived, their political and economic prospects badly battered. After frustrated peace talks with the administration of Belisario Betancur (1982–86) and the M-19's unsuccessful attempt to take the Palace of Justice in 1985, M-19 combatants returned to the area where they had once hopefully made plans for peace. Desperate for economic resources, they kidnapped Rogelio Rodriguez, an up-and-coming power broker who supported Father Tiberio's peasant organizing projects. Because of Father Tiberio's "understanding" with the ELN, neither believed that he would become a target.
The fragile, unwritten agreements between these complex, competing forces had been broken, and the conflict between groups escalated throughout the mid-1980s. The ELN, attempting to expand its base of support while staving off increased army incursions, fought M-19 influence. Drug traffickers felt increasingly threatened by the guerrillas, as they bought up land to consolidate a strategic shipping corridor up the western Andes. Traffickers spread their bribes to police and military forces, hoping to replace the traditional agricultural elite as the main power brokers in the region and reduce the influence of the reformist politician Rodriguez and the radical priest Tiberio. After his kidnapping by the M-19, Rodriguez was unwilling to trust the guerrillas. The Giraldo family hoped to maintain their power against the multiple threats of Rodriguez, drug traffickers, and guerrillas. The poor peasants saw their access to land threatened by the drug traffickers' land grab. The small "middle class," made up of independent tradesmen, coffee farmers, and inspectores de policias (police inspectors; civilian officials who are often the only government representatives in small hamlets), were pressured from all sides.
In the Cauca River valley, Loaiza and his Cali Cartel cohorts developed alliances with the local military. They were convinced that the peasant organizing going on in the guise of Catholic solidarity was simply a cover for the guerrillas. The final straw was local participation in a series of protest marches, including local organizing to support the National Strike on October 27, 1988. Several of the banners demanding state action on agricultural credit bore the insignias and slogans of the ELN. The following March local peasants again protested the lack of state services, and on April 29 they occupied the central plaza. The army responded by cordoning off the area and declaring a curfew; a negotiating commission that included Father Tiberio, the mayor, and other local officials was established to mediate with the protesters. Peasant leaders accused the army of mistreatment, and the protest ended with a shootout in which fourteen people were wounded. Tensions increased again during the mayoral elections a year later. To prevent violent disturbances during the voting on March 11, 1990, the army militarized the area.
Local inhabitants reported a notable increase in the disappearance of their neighbors and the appearance of unidentified, mutilated bodies. By the end of the month a series of incidents involving the army and the ELN left seven soldiers dead and a number of civilians dead and disappeared. On March 29 two army patrols began searching for an ELN camp in La Sonora. In confused circumstances, an ELN ambush and possibly other combat left seven soldiers dead and six civilians wounded. In the middle of the night of March 31, soldiers rounded up ten local farmers from their homes; the farmers were never seen again. The first week of April, five carpenters were detained, tortured, and killed by the army. Selective assassinations were also on the rise, with increasing numbers of mutilated bodies washing up on the banks of the Cauca River. Prominent locals did not escape the violence. Among them was gamonal José Noe Giraldo, a concejal (councilman) and congressional representative, who was shot dead in Cali. The final straw was Father Tiberio's brutal killing. He disappeared, along with his niece and two parishioners, while returning from a funeral. His decapitated and mutilated body was found on April 23, 1990, on the banks of the Cauca River.
The Trujillo Commission
The Trujillo Commission was a response to the number and brutality of the killings that occurred during the first months of 1990, but before and after, massacres similar in scale did not enjoy such treatment. A number of factors conspired to focus attention on Trujillo and facilitate the work of the commission. Human rights NGOs viewed the case as an opportunity to raise international awareness. The leadership of the new governmental human rights agencies created by the 1991 Constitution, many of whom had previously worked with the NGOs, saw the case as the chance to demonstrate their capacity to take on sensitive investigations. The increased profile of human rights in the international community in the post–cold war political climate opened new avenues for transnational activism. Closer to home, the personal commitments and political crisis made human rights a priority for the Samper administration.
The first important factor was the increasing ability of NGOs to carry out credible research. The Trujillo murders were first investigated by a Catholic NGO, Intercongregational Commission of Justice and Peace (Comisión Intercongregacional de Justicia y Paz), known as Justice and Peace. An influx of international funding, including major grants from the Ford Foundation, had allowed the expansion of several large organizations and professional training for its staff and other activists. Father Javier Giraldo, a radical Jesuit priest with a long history of human rights activism, founded Justice and Peace in 1989. He made documenting paramilitary expansion a priority. He could also marshal significant resources from the Catholic Church in cases of persecuted clergy and was particularly touched by Father Tiberio's brutal death.
The Trujillo case itself was seen as an example of the growing number of massacres being carried out around the country. As such, it served as an archetype that NGOs could use to demonstrate national patterns of political violence. At the same time, researchers were able to gather enough specific evidence to build a compelling case. The NGOs had another critical advantage in this case: they had a witness, someone who was not simply a surviving victim or a local peasant who had seen the events. Daniel Arcila was a participant in the murders, a paramilitary informant who had turned himself in after overhearing paramilitary leaders plan to kill him precisely because of what he had witnessed. 33 Arcila gave a detailed account of the full history of the murders, including incidents that left no survivors, and implicated drug barons, among them Loiaza, and local military commanders. His chilling tale included a gruesome recounting of victims stuffed into burlap sacks and dismembered with chainsaws while still alive (the many nicknames for paramilitary groups included the monchacabezas—headsplitters—and the motosierras—chainsaws). Beginning on April 19, 1990, Archila testified at least six times before three different government agencies. 34 Despite this testimony, the Colombian courts absolved all the implicated military officers of any responsibility. 35
Newly organized NGOs such as Justice and Peace were also involved in developing new strategies for transnational activism that began pushing multilateral human rights mechanisms for action. In March 1992 the NGOs decided to try a relatively new tactic, taking the case to the InterAmerican Human Rights Commission. Based on the evidence produced by the NGOs, the IAHRC was prepared to rule against the government, but the head of the governmental Ombudsman's Office (Defensor) and the director of one of the NGOs bringing the case before the commission advocated a different outcome. Rather than present a formal statement finding the government responsible, one that would simply be reported in the press and filed away, they argued that a consensus agreement (arreglo amistosa) between the government and the NGOs promising follow-up to victims would provide real closure to the case. That agreement resulted in the Trujillo Commission: an investigative body including both state and civil society representatives charged with clarifying the events, determining responsibility (state and otherwise), and recommending compensation for the victims. Nineteen representatives of civilian state agencies, military branches, and NGOs were named to the commission. 36 The commission addressed events occurring from the end of 1988 to 1990, with special attention to events during March and April 1990, from the ambush of a National Army patrol by a guerrilla column of the ELN until the day Father Tiberio Fernandez's body was recovered from the banks of the Cauca River. Sixty-three victims were named in the original documents, with a total of 107 victims named in the final report.
New state human rights agencies gave crucial support to the commission and to NGO human rights initiatives during this period. As part of the democratic reforms and the negotiated settlement between the M-19 and the government in the late 1980s, a broader movement for political reform led to a Constitutional Assembly, resulting in the 1991
Constitution. The final document stressed human rights and offered an expansive list of guarantees for a range of civic, political, economic, social, and cultural rights while leaving the system of military privileges largely intact. The 1991 Constitution also created a series of new judicial bodies. The Fiscalía (Attorney General) and Procuraduría (Inspector General) were given separate functions; the latter was charged with investigating official misconduct by state agents. The new Constitution also established a central governmental human rights agency, the Defensoría del Pueblo, a type of ombudsman's office, which was charged with assisting victims of abuse but lacked specific investigative and enforcement powers. The first defensor was charged with establishing institutional procedures and defining a work program for his vague mandate; many of the first staff attorneys were drawn from NGOs. The presidential human rights adviser, a cabinet-level position established in 1987, also played a critical role in promoting the commission among reluctant governmental officials.
The Trujillo Commission was made possible by a favorable international and domestic political climate. In the post–cold war decade, before the war on terror, human rights played an increasingly prominent role in international relations. Absent the defining conflict between the superpowers, some analysts argued that diplomatic relations could now be driven by the moral imperatives of protecting citizens rather than the crass commerce of national interest. The human rights bodies of international organizations, including the OAS and the U.N., took on more prominent roles in discussing particular national cases. Having the IAHRC offer to provide institutional support for the Trujillo Commission, in place of the public censure of the Colombian government, undoubtedly played a role in the willingness of the Samper administration to participate. The Samper administration in general was open to human rights concerns, and its position on these issues marked a decided shift in government rhetoric. Whereas previous governments had rejected the suggestion that Colombia had a human rights problem, President Samper took a different tack: Colombia had a problem, but it was not his fault. The government was a victim of the extremist violence of the left, the right, and organized crime and needed the help—not the criticism— of the international community. When I interviewed former President Samper at his international business consultancy office, he was proud of his human rights record. "We had to admit that we had a human rights problem," he told me. "It was a reality, and what we had to change was not the image of the problem abroad but the reality itself. That was the philosophy that I worked from." According to Samper's aides, this was in part an ideological conviction and in part a reflection of the cyclical nature of Colombian politics, in which presidential administrations alternated between negotiations and military campaigns; Samper was consciously distancing himself from the "total war" approach of the previous president, Cesar Gaviria.
The profound political crisis that shook the Samper administration from its inception also influenced its policy. Immediately after Samper's election, the DEA released alleged proof that he had received campaign contributions from the Cali Cartel. Much of the first two years of his administration was spent refuting rumors of his imminent resignation, and his power as a political broker was infinitely weakened. Samper's campaign manager (then minister of defense) was forced to resign and was ultimately jailed, Colombia was "decertified" by the U.S. Congress, and Samper's visa to the United States was revoked. 37 Becoming a champion for the human rights cause was one way to win back a margin of political capital for his embattled administration. "The crisis was so extreme that everyone could do whatever they wanted," one former senior official told me. "Which meant that the military had a lot of freedom, but the human rights people had a lot of freedom too."
Truth and Consequences: The Limits of Human Rights Reporting
The publication of the Trujillo Commission's final report was itself a great achievement: a consensus document, produced by NGO, civilian state, and military representatives working together to clarify the events surrounding sixty-three brutal murders. On January 31, 1995, President Ernesto Samper officially accepted state responsibility for the Trujillo murders, concluding, "The attitude which we have assumed today will serve as an example for all public servants in Colombia with regard to the unwavering commitment of my government to respect and to enforce respect for human rights" (quoted in ICCHRLA 1997). According to the final report, the paramilitary death squad operated in coordination with the army's Palace Artillery Battalion No. 3 under the command of Major Alirio Antonio Ureña Jaramillo. As a result of the report, Ureña was removed from active duty; Henry Loaiza had surrendered to Colombian authorities in Bogotá on June 19, 1995, and had been tried on drug trafficking charges.
The lasting legacy of the Trujillo Commission remains uncertain. After its findings were released in 1995, President Samper publicly accepted state responsibility for specific human rights violations—a first in Colombia's history. His public apology was heralded as a major triumph for the human rights groups that had pushed for the commission. For the remainder of the decade, the case remained a major point of reference for both its supporters and its critics, an example of the success of human rights activism and its dismal failure. For the NGOs who participated, the failure to try high-ranking military officers remained a vivid example of impunity. For governmental human rights officials, the commission was an example of the extreme fragility of the compromises required by working in coalition, never to be repeated despite efforts to revive the model to address abuses in other regions. For the military, witness to the demotion of a rising colonel, the commission was a demonstration of how its commanders were scapegoats and contributed to the emergence of a human rights discourse developed to advance military programs, from its own perspective. Perhaps most tragically, the nature of political violence in Colombia itself shifted in part as a result of the commission and other pressures from human rights groups. In the decade after the commission, violence by private actors—paramilitary forces—replaced abuses committed directly by the armed forces as the single largest kind of human rights abuse committed in Colombia. Paramilitary commanders gave their troops lectures on how to escape the attention of human rights groups—by avoiding the publicity of a massacre by killing their victims individually or scattering the bodies, for example—and developed sophisticated public relations campaigns. Ultimately, examining Trujillo, the town and the commission, illuminates both the history of Colombian violence and the way in which human rights activism functioned in response.
The Trujillo Commission brought the issue of state responsibility for brutal human rights violation in Colombia to the attention of the Colombian public and to the world at large in an unprecedented fashion. As a result of the commission, and of lobbying by NGOs and state human rights officials, the Colombian Congress passed Law 288, which ensures the compensation of victims in cases where the InterAmerican Human Rights Commission finds the government responsible. In the long term, the commission set the stage for the evolution of governmental human rights agencies into major players both in terms of international lobbying and in defining the domestic human rights agenda. The commission also began a slow shift in the political culture of NGOs as they moved toward closer cooperation with state agencies.
The commission also contributed to a number of unintended, less positive effects. Its failure to effect jail sentences radicalized many NGO participants; Justice and Peace repeatedly described the outcome as "Truth without Justice" in its publications. Despite the exhaustive investigation and the consensus report naming five individuals responsible for at least thirty-five murders, no one spent a single day in jail as a result. The failure of the commission to bring about legal accountability was used as a justification for refusing to cooperate with governmental initiatives in the future. There was no follow-up to the commission's recommendation. The efforts of Justice and Peace to continue to assist the families who were victims of violence met with ongoing repression, and its Trujillo branch office was forced to close as a result of death threats in 1997.
The civilian state representatives were disappointed in the results as well. According to one such representative whom I interviewed at length, the Defensoría staff viewed the governmental refusal to invest in followup as a betrayal of their own hard work. Subsequent efforts to replicate the commission's experience in other regions failed. Almost immediately after the commission concluded its work in 1995, NGOs pushed for a similar investigation of violence in Meta. After a few months of bitterly divisive meetings, however, the effort disbanded, with all sides unwilling to invest political capital in compromises.
The military leadership's resentment of the commission arose from different reasons. Colonel Ureña's ruined military career signaled to many officers that they were to be the scapegoats in the new era of human rights activism. In response, over the course of the 1990s the Colombian military established a network of human rights institutions in order to influence the human rights debates at home and abroad (see chapter 5). "One of the most important things that came from Trujillo was that it opened the way for the state [human rights] agencies to begin a relationship with the [military] leadership," former President Samper told me. "The truth is that it began a consciousness-raising campaign with the military, human rights offices were opened in all the departments, a special human rights adviser was named, and a military human rights curriculum was established."
Competing Narratives: Support for Peace and the Humanitarian Crisis
Human rights work is a slippery category that both blurs into and conflicts with other categories of the newly emerging "international helping operations." These include humanitarian aid, peace keeping, nation building, conflict resolution, and political advocacy. In practice, such operations can often be very similar, involving establishing bureaucracies, delivering material assistance, fund-raising and public relations, and ensuring staff security. One of the major similarities, however, is also the element that produces the most conflict: all these operations involve the production of knowledge and the categorization of violence, making suffering socially legible in particular ways in order to generate specific kinds of social obligations. Where these operations differ is in their reading of violence and in the nature of the social obligations they generate, so that despite their similarities, in practice these categories are often felt by the people who enact them to be different, even contradictory. These conflicts are generated in part from the kind of social response they require. In traditional NGO human rights activism, the central focus is on the perpetrator and on establishing accountability. For activists involved in other kinds of international interventions, such efforts can seem frivolous (worrying about laws when people starve) or counterproductive (undermining efforts for negotiated settlements by insisting on trials for leaders). A number of institutions devoted to these operations began to operate in Colombia during the late 1990s, offering support as well as competition for human rights NGOs. These institutions operated with their own frameworks for categorizing and addressing the violence in Colombia.
Within the humanitarian aid community, the issues of accountability and prosecution have emerged as highly controversial, and possibly even counterproductive, for organizations that define their primary mandate as providing assistance to reduce suffering and protect life. The largest and oldest humanitarian network, the Red Cross movement, was developed in the late 1800s, following the first Geneva Accords to protect civilians, medical personnel, and noncombatants during wartime. Absolute neutrality and impartiality, defined as providing assistance without supporting any of the parties in conflict, was the touchstone of their operations, and arguably what allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross to continue to operate in many entrenched conflict situations. By the end of the cold war, however, this approach to humanitarian operations was increasingly scrutinized by critics who concluded that in practice neutrality actually resulted in a political position that favored one party over others during conflicts. Famines and other so-called natural disasters were increasingly seen as the result of human intervention, bringing the issue of accountability to the fore in order to prevent future disasters. Frustration with treating the result (starving people and structural poverty) rather than the cause (local power structures, war, and economic policies) led many humanitarian agencies to develop advocacy and lobbying programs to address the perceived causes. 38
The "humanitarian crisis" frame that emerged in the late 1990s was a new one for Colombia, despite the long-running internal conflict. The traditionally high relative per capita income and stable economy prevented Colombia from qualifying for most international development funding and programs. Colombia's level of conflict has also been low, particularly compared to Central America and Peru. Yet by the mid1990s conflict, displacement, and the production of refugees in those areas had largely ended, while in Colombia combat and political violence was on the rise. The worst economic crisis in a century threw Colombia into a tailspin, with almost 20 percent unemployment, growing poverty, and negative growth. Agencies working former hot spots in Latin America were looking for new institutional mandates and ready to expand into new program areas, and they were eager to open programs in Colombia.
Internal displacement first became a visible issue in Colombia in the mid-1990s. The Catholic Church, through its Office on Human Migration, was instrumental in bringing the issue to public notice. Though periodic earlier press coverage and a few NGO reports focused on the issue of displacement, there was little international attention to the issue and almost no major agencies working in Colombia (Kirk 1993). The Office on Human Migration published one of the first comprehensive studies of internal displacement, based on a nationwide survey of parishes, in 1995. 39 In the first evidence of major governmental concern, the Samper administration created the position of presidential adviser on displacement. This position has since been abolished, but the issue now takes up considerable bureaucratic space within the Ministry of the Interior and the Social Solidarity Network, the government agency currently charged with providing assistance to the displaced. By the end of the decade, the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) had named Colombia as one of the major humanitarian crises in the world, on par with the Sudan. After staff visits the USCR issued several reports examining the situation of Colombian refugees and the internally displaced.
With higher visibility, and a subsequent increase in available funding, the number of international NGOs operating in Colombia focusing on humanitarian aid expanded dramatically. The ICRC renegotiated its mandate in 1996, expanding its ability to meet with illegal armed actors and dramatically increasing its field presence. 40 Doctors without Borders (the Dutch, French, and Spanish chapters) and other humanitarian organizations established field presence and programs in Colombia. Project Counseling Services, a coalition of European and Canadian aid organization, began with one project in Colombia in 1992 and by 2000 had relocated its Latin American headquarters from Lima to Bogotá. 41 The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees opened a Bogotá office in 1998 and established three field offices by 2002; last-minute negotiations limited its mandate to monitoring the "situation of internal displacement" and small aid delivery projects. At least three coordinating coalitions of humanitarian agencies developed during the last years of the 1990s: the Inter-Agency Dialogue (Diálogo Inter Agencial, or DIAL, made up of Oxfam, Christian Aid, Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Diakonia, Project Counseling Services, and PBI as observers) and two groups coordinating southern European and Nordic humanitarian agencies. The U.S. aid package passed in 1999 also pumped tens of millions of dollars into humanitarian projects and assistance to the displaced.
The expansion of humanitarian agencies in Colombia occurred simultaneously with growing debates within the field over the relationship between the role of neutrality, human rights, and political advocacy in aid provision during conflicts. Sharp controversies within and among leading agencies led to widely different positions. Some groups saw humanitarian aid as a means of assisting populations at risk while avoiding messy political commitments in the context of entrenched internal conflicts. Others, like Oxfam, came to see their role as increasingly political and began advocacy programs to target policy makers to change what they viewed as the origins of these conflicts. The result was a surprising new landscape of competition and opportunity for Colombian human rights NGOs. While some humanitarian agencies dismissed these NGOs as too overtly political and partisan, others provided funding for human rights advocacy campaigns or incorporated human rights issues into their initiatives.
Peace and Human Rights
The use of a culture of democratic or peaceful coexistence (cultura de convivencia democrática or pacífica), not to explain violence, but as a way out of it, was first forcefully articulated during the public debates surrounding the writing of the 1991 Constitution and is reflected in a number of its articles. For example, Article 70 states, "Culture in its diverse manifestations is the foundation of the nation. The State recognizes the equality and dignity of all who live within the country." 42 This demonstrates a new emphasis on the "diverse manifestations" of culture, reflecting a previously unacknowledged multiculturalism in this new imagining of the Colombian nation. President Samper suggested that such a culture could be institutionally stimulated through the Ministry of Culture. As he stated at the Forum of Culture in Bogotá on March 23, 1995: "The Ministry of Culture will help us replace the culture of conflict that characterizes our social relations today for the culture of democratic co-existence [conviencia democrática]. The Ministry of Culture will enable us to remember always and for always that we are richly different. . . . But above all the Ministry of Culture will help us achieve peace for Colombia. The peace of identity, the peace of return to the basics of conviviality, the peace of equality based on differences" (quoted in Ochoa 1996: 26–27).
This process is not unique to Colombia. During the 1990s, the decline of the socialist model, the end of armed opposition movements, and the continued economic decline in spite of democratic reforms have engendered a deep crisis of both state institutions and leftist movements throughout Latin America. With the absence of clear alternative political platforms, "culture" is increasingly being emphasized as a site of political identity and activism. As Ana Maria Ochoa explains, "With the disenchantment produced by the failure of left-wing movements of the sixties and the emergence out of dictatorial regimes the inquiry over the role of culture in the current processes of democratization in Latin America has taken a central state" (Ochoa 1996: 169).
In Colombia this vague exhortation for a culture of peace has been championed by numerous networks, including many organizations backed by the Catholic Church that have adopted a conflict resolution approach as a means of reducing the conflict in Colombia. Their political platform has largely centered on supporting guerrilla negotiations, and these groups experienced a dramatic resurgence during Pastrana's frustrated peace talks with the FARC in the late 1990s. Their major international allies included staff of the U.N. missions that were being slowly phased out of Central America following the culmination of peace treaties in El Salvador and Guatemala; for several years Colombia was rumored to possibly be the next large-scale mission should peace talks succeed. 43 Despite an important attempt to build alliances within the human rights community based on protesting specific kinds of abuses, tensions about differing political agendas and priorities led to an eventual rupture.
One of the largest civil society peace organizations was Redepaz (lit., "peace network"), founded in 1993 as a loose coalition of organizations from throughout the country, with strong backing from the Catholic Church. According to Monsignor Leonardo Gomez Serna, bishop of the province of Socorro and San Gil in the Northeast and a leading proponent of the initiative, the main objective was "defeating the war." The initial group received an important influx of ex-combatants from the M19 (reconstituted as the Democratic Movement M-19 after peace talks that resulted in a negotiated settlement in 1991). Later successive groups of reincertados, guerrillas who accepted a series of amnesties and negotiated settlements, were also influential in peace activism, among them the CRS, a dissent group from the ELN, which laid down arms in 1994.
During the mid-1990s, Redepaz was one of the main organizers of a series of marches and symbolic actions in support of peace. A primary, and unexpected, ally was País Libre (lit., Free Country), an organization that supported the family members of kidnap victims and whose major constituency was middle-class businessmen. The organization was inspired by then-journalist Francisco Santos, who had been kidnapped and help captive by the Medellín Cartel for almost nine months during its "narcoterrorism" campaign against governmental prosecution. In an El Tiempo editorial, Santos complained that greater understanding of the phenomenon of kidnapping—and support for the victims—was needed. 44 País Libre remains the primary NGO dedicated to assisting kidnap victims and their families.
In 1996 País Libre, Redepaz, and other peace groups organized a series of peace marches in five cities, with a massive turnout that surprised even the organizers. In Bogotá nearly fifty thousand people marched under the banner "For the country that we want, no to kidnapping." Redepaz agreed to work with País Libre on the condition that the protest include forced disappearances (abductions carried out by state agents) and that the call to end guerrilla violence be broadened to a blanket rejection of war and support for a negotiated settlement. Redepaz also participated in the organization of a number of symbolic votes for peace, including the Children's Mandate for Peace and Rights in October 1996 and the Citizen's Mandate for Peace, Life, and Liberty, which resulted in more than 10 million votes in support of peace in late 1997. 45 Critics decried these efforts as so symbolic as to be meaningless. Peace was not defined; the ballot simply offered a choice between war and peace, so the vote did not advance any larger social consensus regarding specific policies to promote peace. However, the process of organizing the referendum encouraged interaction among persons and sectors that rarely had the chance to share a common cause, such as members of the Business Council and trade union leaders along with members of human rights organizations and representatives of economic groups. The highprofile peace campaigns made negotiations with the guerrillas the central issue in the 1998 elections, and a clear factor in Pastrana's election.
Media coverage and publicity soundbites reduced these efforts to a slogan, No more! (No más). The more nuanced position of the citizens campaign for liberty and against kidnapping and forced disappearance was lost, and the marches developed into a distinctly antiguerrilla affair. Redepaz and other organizations were profoundly critical of this shift. Despite the advances, many complained that the oligarchy stole our movement, in the person of the leader of the Santos family, the powerful owners of El Tiempo. The organizing coalition no longer convened a broad spectrum of organizations, instead beginning to function as another NGO in its own right. For their part, businessmen and economic associations organized an NGO based on the "No more" campaign. For these groups, the primordial objectives were to stop the war and end kidnapping; they did not support the broader social justice platform advanced by Redepaz.
Human rights NGOs continued to participate in peace efforts through a series of umbrella organizations convened to foster civil society participation in negotiations. Trade union groups, human rights NGOs, and activists from the left organized the Comité de Búsqueda de la Paz (Search Committee for Peace), which held seminars on peace and civil society in the main departmental capitals. These seminars included representatives from the "organized sectors": workers, indigenous people, women's groups, youth groups, and environmentalists. In 1996 this committee was absorbed by the Permanent Assembly of Civil Society for Peace, organized to galvanize Catholic leadership on the peace issue and to broaden participation. This was a particular concern in light of what some leaders called the "jet-set" civil society (primarily business representatives) who played a crucial (some would say steamrolling) role in the civil society discussions with the ELN and the paramilitaries. The first Permanent Assembly meeting had support from international organizations including the Red Cross and the United Nations Development Program; Danielle Mitterrand, widow of the former French President François Mitterrand, was the keynote speaker at the first national conference. 46
For Colombian human rights NGOs, concern that the human rights agenda would be sacrificed in the name of peace became a significant concern. During the Pastrana administration, the focus on peace translated into neglect for state human rights programs; Pastrana's message stressed that human rights abuses could be dealt with only after the war was ended. This view of human rights was widely shared by groups involved in the burgeoning field of conflict resolution, which commonly view efforts to ensure human rights accountability as an impediment to peace agreements between warring factions. Amnesty legislation and guarantees of immunity are often viewed as fundamental for trust building at the negotiating table; warlords have little incentive to lay down their arms if they will immediately be tried for war crimes or other abuses. Human rights activists point out that such amnesties can fail to ensure lasting peace, with criminal elements within political factions frequently returning to armed actions.
Confronted with the complex panorama of Colombian violence, activists began using the human rights framework to classify the violent homicides that years earlier had been considered partisan violence, or part of insurgent and counterinsurgency campaigns. However, human rights is only one of the frameworks used to prompt specific responses from the international community. Other NGO actors and government officials were deeply invested in documenting the humanitarian crisis in Colombia and the growing number of internally displaced people to generate increased assistance. Groups focusing on negotiations and prospects for a settlement with the guerrillas advocated for the creation of a culture of peace that required support from groups focusing on conflict resolution strategies. Other rights frameworks were also deployed in Colombia throughout the 1990s, including women's rights, children's rights, indigenous and Afro-Colombian rights, and economic, social, and cultural rights. International concern about child soldiers and the forced recruitment of minors spurred the creation of new NGOs and networks focused on the particular needs of this population. These groups offer important sites for further research. My focus for the remainder of this book is on the human rights professionals who employed the human rights framework to focus international attention on politically motivated homicides.
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CASE REPORT
C-kit negative extra intestinal gastrointestinal stromal tumor with no detectable mutations: A rare case
Asim Qureshi 1 , Shiyam Kumar 2 , Sinan I Ismail 3 , Moza A Al Kalbani 3 , Ikram A Burney 2
1. Pathology department, Sultan Qaboos university Hospital, Muscat, Oman. 2. Department of Medicine, Sultan Qaboos university Hospital, Muscat, Oman. 3. Department of Molecular Imaging & Radiology, Sultan Qaboos university Hospital, Muscat, Oman.
Correspondence: Asim Qureshi. Address: Pathology department, Sultan Qaboos University hospital Muscat, Oman. Email: email@example.com
Received: September 1, 2013 Accepted: September 26, 2013 Online Published: September 29, 2013
DOI: 10.5430/jst.v3n5p25
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5430/jst.v3n5p25
Abstract
Epithelial tumors are quite common in the gastrointestinal tract, but in addition there is a heterogenous group of mesenchymal tumors which are referred to as Gastro-intestinal stromal tumors (GIST). These may have different morphology like epithelioid or spindle cell but have a common immunohistochemical profile. Majority of them are positive for CD117(Less than 5% negative) those which are negative are almost always positive for DOG 1 antbody. These tumors are associated with the Gastro intestinal tract but a small percentage maybe extra-intestinal (less than 5%) This small subgroup is referred to as EGIST (extra intestinal GIST). We present a rare case which was negative for CD 117, but positive for DOG1 (demonstrated on GIST). The case was tested for mutations and was also negative which makes it a further rarity.
Key words
Extra-intestinal GIST, CD117, Mutations
1 Introduction
Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is one of the most common mesenchymal tumors of the gastrointestinal tract, accounting for1-3% of all gastrointestinal malignancies (ESMO guidelines). GIST is characterized by mutation in the c-Kit or PDGFRA gene, and the vast majority (95%) stain positively with CD117 antibody using immunohistochemistry (IHC), however, a small percentage are CD117 negative. Occasionally, GIST may arise outside of the gastro-intestinal tract (EGIST), and has been recognized as an uncommon variant. We present the rare case of an EGIST, negative for CD 117, but positive for DOG1 (demonstrated on GIST). The case presented as a diagnostic challenge.
2 Case
A 70-year-old post-menopausal woman was seen in the Gynecology clinic with one month history of increasing abdominal distension associated with anorexia, weight loss (more than 10 kg) & constipation. She developed urinary retention a day prior to presentation. There was no history of vaginal bleeding, vomiting, haematemesis or melena. The patient was a mother of one child, and there was no significant past medical or surgical history.
On examination, the patient was thin, weak and cachectic, deeply jaundiced and had no palpable lymph nodes. The chest was clear, except for basal crepitations on the left side. Abdominal wall was edematous, and there was a hard, non-tender fixed palpable mass arising from pelvis and reaching up to right upper quadrant. The mass had nodular surface, with appreciable margins. There was significant bilateral pedal edema, up to the calf muscles. Gynecological examination revealed a normal vulva, and atrophic vagina with minimal bleeding. The pelvic mass was felt to occupy whole pelvis, and the uterus and the adnexa could not be felt separately.
Laboratory investigations revealed normal hemoglobin (11.3 g/dl, normal 11-14.5 g/dl), white cell count (6.9 × 109/l, normal 2.4 - 9.5 × 109/l), and platelets (351 × 109/l, normal 150 - 450 × 109/l). Her creatinine was mildly low (43 µmol/l, normal 45 - 84 µmol/l) while liver functions revealed very high bilirubin (328 µmol/l, normal 0 - 17 µmol/l), aspirate aminotransferase (109 U/l, normal 0 - 32 U/l), alanine aminotransferase (42 U/l, normal 0 - 33 U/l), alkaline phosphatase (574 U/l, normal 35 - 104 U/l) and low albumin (20 g/l normal 34 - 48 g/l). Her tumor markers revealed high CA-125 (263 KIU/L, normal 0-35 KIU/L) and carcinoembryonic antigen (2 µg/l, normal - 3 µg/l).
A CT scan of the chest and abdomen revealed cannon ball like solid lesions in both lungs, larger and multiple on the left side, a huge necrotic mass in the right lobe of the liver (15cm × 12 cm) sparing the left lobe of the liver, with mild dilatation of biliary tracts. There was a huge mass with dense focal calcifications, originating from the pelvic region, displacing the bowel loops as well as abdominal structures and compressing the retroperitoneal structures including spleen, and abutting the lower aspect of the liver showing degenerative internal changes, similar to the lesion in the liver.
KUB (Kidney urinary bladder) and CT axial slice of the abdomen showed a large complex mass occupying most of the right lobe of the liver with central degenerated area and marginal minimally enhanced solid compoent (Figure 1 A and 1B). CT and coronal reformat demonstrated a huge partially calcified mass extending from the pelvis to the subhepatic upper abdomen with biloculated calcified portion in its lower aspect (Figure 1 C and 1 D).
A trucut biopsy from the liver lesion showed a cellular spindle cell lesion, showing whorls and fascicles (Figure 2A). There was moderate nuclear atypia with brisk mitotic activity (Figure 2B) the mitotic rate was 10/10HPF. The tumor cells were negative for CD 34 and CD117 IHC stains and were strongly positive for DOG-1 and Anti Smooth Muscle Actin (anti-SMA) (Figure 2C, D). The morphology and IHC profile was consistent with CD 117 negative, DOG 1 positive GIST.As the tumor was strongly positive for smooth muscle actin it qualifies to be labelled as gist of smooth muscle differentiation. The tumor tissue was subjected to mutation analysis using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and direct sequencing. The following exons were probed: exon 8, 9, 11, 13, and 17 of the c-kit gene, and exons 12, 14, and 18 of the PDGFRA gene. No mutations were detected.
In view of poor condition and deranged liver functions, patient was deemed not fit for treatment, and was managed with terminal supportive care. Within 2 days of the diagnosis, oxygen saturation dropped, and the patient succumbed to progressive disease.
3 Discussion
GIST is the most common primary mesenchymal tumor of the GIT, and the vast majority (>95%) have either c-kit or PDGFRA mutations [1] . However, the tumor could also arise from the extra-gastrointestinal sites. Fewer than 5% tumors may arise from sites, such as, the omentum, mesentery, and the peritoneum, and are called EGIST( extra gaxtra intestinal stromal tumors); omentum seems to be the commonest site [2-4] .
The tumors tend to occur in patients over the age of 50 years, epitheloid form is more common than the spindle cell form, the majority of tumors are large (more than 10 cm), show tumor necrosis, nuclear atypia, a high Ki-67 labeling index, and a high mitotic count (>10/50HPF) [5] . IHC features may create a diagnostic challenge. The tumors may be either negative or positive for c-kit (more than 95% of the GISTs are positive), but are usually positive for DOG1, protein kinase C (PKC) and CD34, vimentin, and PDGFRA [5, 6] . Our patient was 70 years old, had a predominantly spindle cell form with smooth muscle differentiation. The tumor was 17 cm in the greatest dimension, and the mitotic count was 10/10 HPF, had areas of tumor necrosis as shown on the CT scan. The tumor was negative for CD117 (c-kit), but positive for CD34, anti-SMA and DOG1. Gastro intestinal tumors can show smooth muscle differentiaition as this tumor was positive for DOG 1, antibody which is only positive in tumors of this category thereby it was labelled as EGIST (with smooth muscle differntation). Whereas leiomyosarcomas are not positive for DOG 1.
c-kit negative GIST account for less than 5% of all the GIST. For example, GIST arising from the stomach could also be negative for c-kit [7, 8] . The tumors are usually epitheloid, and harbor mutations in the PDGFRA gene. However, c-kit negative tumors are more likely to be EGIST. DOG1 has emerged as a useful marker in EGIST [9] . DOG1 transcripts were identified in gene expression profiling studies on GISTs [10] . The corresponding protein with 8 transmembranous passes has been identified as a calcium-regulated chloride channel protein. Polyclonal and monoclonal antibody to DOG1 have superior sensitivity and specificity compared to KIT, and were found to label GISTs independent of KIT/PDGFRA mutation status [11, 12] .
Because of the rarity of tumor, there are as yet no guidelines on the standard treatment of EGIST, hence, data need to be extrapolated from GIST. Recently, the European Organization for research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) have reported their results [9] . Between 5% and 7% of the patients with GIST harbored mutation in the PDGFRA gene, and 55% had PDGFRA-D842V mutation, rendering them resistant to tyrosine kinase inhibitor, imatinib. This report necessitates that patients with EGIST should have the tumors analyzed for mutational status. The two largest series on EGIST were reported by Yamamoto et al 2004 (n=39), and Kim et al 2012 (n=28), demonstrating mutations on exon 11 of the c-kit gene and exon 18 of the PDGFRA gene in majority of cases. However, more than 95% of these EGISTs were c-kit positive on IHC. The only series of c-kit negative EGIST was published recently [13] . Out of a total of 10 patients, 9 had mutations, 7 on exon 12 and 1 on exon 18 of PDGFRA gene, and 1 on exon 11 of c-kit gene. Only one patient did not exhibit any mutation. Ours was a rare case of c-kit negative EGIST, with no detectable mutation in either the c-kit or the PDGFRA gene.
In conclusion, we report the case of a CD 117negative, DOG 1 positive EGIST, with no detectable mutations, arising from the omentum. Since the tumors are rare, such cases should be reported for a subsequent detailed understanding.
References
[1] ESMO / European Sarcoma Network Working Group. Gastrointestinal stromal tumors: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Ann Oncol. 2012 Oct; 23 Suppl 7:vii49-55. PMid:22997454 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mds252
[2] Todoroki T, Sano T, Sakurai S, Segawa A, Saitoh T, Fujikawa K, et al. Primary omental gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST). World J Surg Oncol. 2007 Jun 12; 5: 66. PMid:17565683 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1477-7819-5-66
[3] Matteo D, Dandolu V, Lembert L, Thomas RM, Chatwani AJ Unusually large extraintestinal GIST presenting as an abdomino-pelvic tumor. Arch Gynecol Obstet. 2008 Jul; 278(1): 89-92. PMid:18066563 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00404-007-0528-9
[4] Fagkrezos D, Touloumis Z, Giannila M, Penlidis C, Papaparaskeva K, Triantopoulou C Extra-gastrointestinal stromal tumor of the omentum: a rare case report and review of the literature. Rare Tumors. 2012 Jun 26; 4(3): e44. PMid:23087800 http://dx.doi.org/10.4081/rt.2012.e44
[5] Yamamoto H, Oda Y, Kawaguchi K, Nakamura N, Takahira T, Tamiya S, et al. c-kit and PDGFRA mutations in extragastrointestinal stromal tumor (gastrointestinal stromal tumor of the soft tissue). Am J Surg Pathol. 2004 Apr; 28(4): 479-88. PMid:15087667 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00000478-200404000-00007
[6] Kim KH, Nelson SD, Kim DH, Choi KU, Kim SJ, Min KW, et al. Diagnostic relevance of overexpressions of PKC-θ and DOG-1 and KIT/PDGFRA gene mutations in extragastrointestinal stromal tumors: a Korean six-centers study of 28 cases. Anticancer Res. 2012 Mar; 32(3): 923-37. PMid:22399613
[7] Lee HE, Kim MA, Lee HS, Lee BL, Kim WH. Characteristics of KIT-negative gastrointestinal stromal tumours and diagnostic utility of protein kinase C theta immunostaining. J Clin Pathol. 2008 Jun; 61(6): 722-9. PMid:18381383 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jcp.2007.052225
[8] Rizzardi C, Marzinotto S, Avellini C, Melato M, Mariuzzi LA KIT-negative, DOG1-positive epithelioid GIST of the stomach harboring a novel PDGFRA exon 14 single nucleotide deletion. Anticancer Res. 2012 May; 32(5): 1775-8. PMid:22593460
[9] Cassier PA, Fumagalli E, Rutkowski P, Schöffski P, Van Glabbeke M, Debiec-Rychter M, et al; on behalf of European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer. Outcome of patients with platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha-mutated gastrointestinal stromal tumors in the tyrosine kinase inhibitor era. Clin Cancer Res. 2012 Aug 15; 18(16): 4458-64. PMid:22718859 http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-11-3025
[10] West RB, Corless CL, Chen X, Rubin BP, Subramanian S, Montgomery K, et al. The novel marker, DOG1, is expressed ubiquitously in gastrointestinal stromal tumors irrespective of KIT or PDGFRA mutation status. Am J Pathol. 2004; 165: 107-113. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0002-9440(10)63279-8
[11] Caputo A, Caci E, Ferrera L, Pedemonte N, Barsanti C, Sondo E, et al. TMEM16A, a membrane protein associated with calcium-dependent chloride channel activity. Science. 2008; 322: 590-594. PMid:18772398 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1163518
[12] Espinosa I, Lee CH, Kim MK, Rous BT, Subramanian S, Montgomery K, et al. A novel monoclonal antibody against DOG1 is a sensitive and specific marker for gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Am J Surg Pathol. 2008, 32: 210-218. PMid:18223323 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PAS.0b013e3181238cec
[13] Yamamoto H, Kojima A, Nagata S, Tomita Y, Takahashi S, Oda Y. KIT-negative gastrointestinal stromal tumor of the abdominal soft tissue: a clinicopathologic and genetic study of 10 cases. Am J Surg Pathol. 2011 Sep; 35(9): 1287-95. PMid:21836495 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PAS.0b013e3182206f15
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Crude oil vapour pressure testing
Vapour pressure testing is an important safety check in the transport, storage and blending of crude oil
Hannes Pichler and Klaus Hense Grabner Instruments, a subsidiary of Ametek
It is very important for the true vapour pressure (TVP) and Reid vapour pressure (RVP) of crude oil to be tested when dealing with its production and storage. The vapour pressure indicates how the crude oil will perform during handling, highlights conditions under which bubbles are likely to build and shows where pressure build-ups of escaping light ends could happen. As such, vapour pressure measurement prevents costly damage to pipelines or vessels transporting crude oil. It also provides guidance on how transportation facilities need to be built to survive a worst-case scenario.
TVP measurement and bubble point determination
Pipeline operators determine TVP and bubble point before transporting the crude to a distribution point. With wellhead crude, gas has to be removed to meet pipeline, storage and tanker specifications. Excess gas can be separated or flared to regulate the vapour pressure and prevent any damage to the transportation medium. If the vapour pressure of the crude case is too high, two main safety issues can arise. The first is pumping cavitation during transfer operations and the second is vapour pressure in the pipeline, or in a vessel, which could rise because of temperature changes. Once the transportation medium is exposed to direct sunlight, the vapour pressure of the crude oil rises and, in the worst case scenario, causes damage. Hence, it is advisable for operators to be equipped with a vapour pressure analyser, to prevent costly damage and to provide evidence that the released crude is delivered according to specifications.
The resulting value is the absolute vapour pressure (Pabs or Pliquid) of the liquid, commonly referred to as TVP, as measured by ASTM D2879 (US EPA, 2006). The ASTM D2879 method should be used only for single-component substances. Crude oil in general is a multi-component liquid and thus requires a different form of analysis.
The exact definition of TVP and bubble point is a topic of wide discussion in the engineering community. First, it is worth mentioning that the bubble point refers to a temperature, whereas the bubble point vapour pressure refers to a pressure. According to the International Maritime Organisation, the TVP and bubble point pressure (BPP) are equal: "The TVP or bubble point vapour pressure is the equilibrium vapour pressure of a mixture when the gas/liquid ratio is effectively zero. It is the highest vapour pressure which is possible at any specified temperature. As the temperature of a petroleum mixture increases, its TVP also increases. If the TVP exceeds atmospheric pressure, the liquid commences to boil." (IMO, 2006, p140). In this definition, TVP is essentially the total vapour pressure (Ptot) of the crude oil minus the vapour pressure of air and the dissolved gases in the sample (Pgas).
The equation TVP = BPP at a vapour-to-liquid ratio (V/L ratio) of 0/1 addresses the common practical problems for crude oil transportation. In floating roof tanks, the roof is placed directly on the liquid crude oil, while in pipelines the liquid crude oil is pressurised. In both cases, the V/L ratio is effectively zero and the TVP measurement gives a precise indication of the bubble point pressure at a specified temperature.
In some cases, the equation is not sufficient. In multi-component mixtures, bubbles tend to build whenever the vapour pressure of the liquid exceeds the environmental pressure (IMO, 2006), independent of whether the V/L ratio is 0/1 or 100/1. Three factors have an influence on the bubble point: pressure, volume and temperature. A more accurate definition takes different temperatures and V/L ratios into account when determining the bubble point: in a multi-component mixture, the bubble point is the temperature at which the first bubbles appear at a fixed V/L ratio.
Pumping cavitation
For correctly dimensioning new pipelines and pumping systems, and
One of the major risks when transporting crude oil is pumping cavitation. Cavitation happens when the TVP or bubble point vapour pressure at a V/L ratio near 0/1 is reached and usually has drastic effects. In a pumping system, the crude oil is accelerated, generating areas of low pressure. When the surrounding pressure is lower than the vapour pressure of the crude oil, bubbles build, grow, then collapse, generating high pressure and high temperatures at the bubble surface. Near a fixed surface, for instance in a pumping system, the collapse of the cavitation bubble will generate a shockwave directed to a nearby surface, which can damage the transportation system or the pump.
for writing standard operating procedures, it is important to know the vapour pressure of the crude oil. To prevent bubble building and pumping cavitation in an installed transportation system, it is necessary to ensure that the pressure in the transportation system is higher than the vapour pressure of the crude for any expected condition.
and increases the vapour pressure dramatically. Plus, highly viscous crude oil needs to be transported at a high temperature to guarantee a flow in the pumping system and in the pipeline. Temperature changes in turn affect the vapour pressure.
If the vapour pressure is too high, pressure, volume or temperature have to be modified. The pressure in the transportation system can be increased to exceed the vapour pressure of the crude oil. Also, the vapour pressure of the crude oil can be reduced, for instance by the separation or burning of excess gases, which reduces the volume. As a third option, the temperature for transportation and thus the vapour pressure of the crude oil can be reduced. Lord & Rudeen suggest oil degasification or oil cooling to reduce the vapour pressure: "The degasification program removes gas from oil in selected caverns, which reduces its bubble point pressure and gas-oil ratio, which in turn significantly increases the predicted margin of system performance under the safety criteria." 2
Depending on the amount of light ends delivered with the crude oil, the vapour pressure of the crude oil will be significantly higher for 60°C compared to the vapour pressure at 37.8°C. Most vapour pressure testers measure crude oil only at 37.8°C (100°F) and a V/L ratio of 4/1. But crudes can sometimes be transported at 85°C and at a V/L ratio close to 0/1. Under these extreme conditions, some volatiles might begin to dissolve even in "dead" crude oil and produce a gaseous mixture, causing a non-linear pressure increase. This risk cannot be foreseen if the vapour pressure is measured at 37.8°C and a V/L ratio of 4/1 only.
Crude oil producers face a complex problem here: when crude oil is extracted, it is not homogenous. The vapour pressure of the crude can change during oil production. Also, the presence of various amounts of natural gas in the crude changes the V/L ratio considerably
For adequate risk management regarding the bubble point, it is thus important to measure the vapour pressure at different temperatures and at a V/L ratio of 0/1. Only a vapour pressure analyser that can monitor vapour pressure at different temperatures and V/L ratios will allow the operator to regulate their transportation system immediately.
Vapour pressure increase in the transportation medium
Another potential problem when transporting crude oil is an unexpected pressure increase in the pipeline or the tanker. Whereas "dead" crude oil is mostly unproblematic when transported, "live" crude oil contains volatiles. Volatiles such as natural gases increase the vapour pressure of the crude case. When the transportation medium for live crude — a pipeline or a tanker — is exposed to direct sunlight and heats up, the vapour pressure can increase considerably. The vapour pressure of live crude oil filled at 20°C can more than double if the temperature of the live crude oil is increased to 50°C.
The testing of vapour pressure at different temperatures and V/L ratios answers many questions that arise from crude oil transportation:
The absolute pressure increase from temperature fluctuations is even higher if the live crude oil is transported at a very low V/L ratio. In Russia, it is necessary to test the vapour pressure of crude oil at a V/ L of 0.02/1 to simulate the conditions in a tanker or a pipeline. Typically, 98% of a tanker's volume is filled with crude oil. The increase in vapour pressure that results from this can be seen in Figure 1.
* How much will the vapour pressure rise if the crude oil at a V/L of 0.02/1 (98% filled with liquid) is transported at 50°C rather than 37.8°C because the tanker is exposed to sunlight?
* Is it necessary for specific crude cases containing volatiles to fill a tanker up to only 90% to prevent damage to the tanker or air pollution by excessive outgassing?
* Do control personnel need to reduce the vapour pressure prior to shipment or storage?
* Is the vapour pressure low enough that it is possible to blend in some natural gas prior to shipment without risking damage?
Vapour pressure analyser
It is essential to continuously monitor vapour pressure, TVP and BPP at different V/L ratios to help operations regulate their transportation system immediately. The Minivap On-line vapour pressure process analyser from Grabner Instruments can measure TVP or BPP at different temperatures in the range of 20–60°C
and to simulate TVP for even higher temperatures. It also enables measurement of a V/L ratio down to 0.02/1 in a pressure range of 0–1000 kPa.
The Minivap On-line also incorporates the triple expansion method for vapour pressure measurement according to ASTM D6378, which allows for direct measurement of the total vapour pressure (Ptot) of the sample, and the vapour pressure of both the liquid (Pabs or Pliquid) and the gases (Pgas) in the sample (see Figure 2). Based on the fact that the vapour pressure of liquids remains constant and that all components such as dissolved air follow the ideal gas equation, (p*V)/T = constant, an expansion is performed in three steps at a constant temperature. Three total pressure values are determined, and from these the partial pressure of the air, the solubility factor of the liquid and the absolute vapour pressure of the liquid are calculated. Results for the TVP (Ptot) of the sample, the pressure of the liquid (Pabs or Pliquid) and the pressure of the gas (Pgas) are available every five to seven minutes. The precision of this measurement is ASTM Round Robin proven and significantly better than that of classical vapour pressure test methods.
The analyser incorporates the ASTM D 6377 method, which is the latest standard for the vapour pressure determination of crude oil without sample preparation. This method replaces the 80-year-oldplus ASTM D323 and is used to measure TVP or BPP in the analyser. With the vapour pressure process analyser's sample conditioning system, the pressurised crude oil is transferred directly to the measuring chamber and the vapour pressure is measured against a vacuum by a single expansion of a built-in piston. A three-point expansion sequence is performed at different V/L ratios, then a curve fit is performed for assessing the TVP at a V/L of 0/1 (see also Lord & Rudeen, 2010).
Crude blending
An analyser that can be used to measure both TVP and RVPE will repay its cost in a short time. Usually, suppliers and refiners agree
over the maximum vapour pressure limits of crude oil delivered to a plant or terminal. This is necessary to ensure safety for transportation and storage, and to guarantee that the refiner receives crude of a certain quality. In this process, crude oil blending is a means of increasing the sales price or facilitating the processing of crude oil. By blending lower-grade crude oil with highergrade crude oil or natural gas to reach, but not exceed, target specifications, the price valuation of crudes can be increased significantly. Profits are earned if target specifications are reached by blending the minimum amount of high-grade crude oil with low-cost hydrocarbons.
strictest ASTM, EN and IP standards, as well as US EPA regulations for vapour pressure testing of crude oil, gasoline and LPG, no further testing in the laboratory needs to be done to certify the accuracy of the measurement.
References
1 Specialized Training for Oil Tankers, International Maritime Organisation, Model Course 1.02, Edition (TB102E), London, 2006.
2 Lord D L, Rudeen D K, Strategic Petroleum Reserve Crude Oil Equation of State Model Development - Current Performance Against Measured Data, Research Report, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM & Livermore, CA, 2010.
3 Organic Liquid Storage Tanks, Compilation of Air Pollutant Emission Factors, Emission Factor Documentation for AP-42, 5th ed, I, 7.1, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards Office of Air and Radiation, US EPA, Durham, NC, 2006.
Hannes Pichler is a Product Marketing Manager with Grabner Instruments, a subsidiary of automatic petroleum testing equipment developer Ametek. He holds a MSc degree in natural sciences from the University of Vienna. Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Klaus Hense is Head of R&D at Grabner Instruments, where he focuses on the development and improvement of measuring methods for the chemical and petrochemical industry. He holds a PhD in physics from the Technical University in Vienna.
Email: email@example.com
The addition of these hydrocarbons is limited by the maximum RVP. Depending on the RVP prior to blending, typically ratios of 1–5% hydrocarbons are blended into the crude. The highest accuracy in vapour pressure tests according to standards is the ultimate goal of every blending facility because it increases the possible blending ratio.
The precision of the Minivap Online allows for close C4 blending to RVP limits and the highest profit generation. With a measurement method that fully complies with the
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Best decision I made
By Poison_Ivy91
Published on Lush Stories on 06 Jun 2012
Copyright © 2011-2013 Poison_Ivy91. All Rights Reserved
The best decision I ever made was to give him my virginity...
https://www.lushstories.com/stories/mature/best-decision-i-made.aspx
I scoured the internet looking, yearning for something, for someone, that was when I stumbled upon a certain erotic story site, I began reading others' stories, and then I found the forum. I had found what I had been yearning for a connection with those who were just as sexually oriented and perverse as myself. I began chatting with people but was highly sceptical and wary of giving out any personal details; I found some very good friends who became close and trusted friends. It was when I decided to throw my hat into the ring when a writing challenge was announced, that fate brought Daniel and I together, he read my stories and became a fan instantly. Little did I know, Daniel was actually a famous author that skulked around the site looking for fun, story ideas and relaxation away from the usual thrillers he wrote.
We hit it off right away, we pm'd back and forth through the website before deciding we were right for one another subsequently we exchanged email addresses and chatted on Yahoo. For the first month or so it was mostly business we spoke about, with the usual pleasantries of course then we started chatting regularly about life and such.
We became good friends, discussing work, family, bitching about our problems and life in general. We soon realised that our friendship was a real taboo, Daniel being 60 and myself being 21 was going to get some strange reactions, but we were happy. Daniel asked where I lived, and I replied Scotland, which started the conversation of ancestors; his were from Scotland but he now lived in New York City and was contemplating come to Scotland to research his family history.
We discussed if he came and wanted to meet up I could show him around, be his tour guide so to speak. Our conversations went on like this for about nine months to a year when he emailed me one day with the news he was coming for New Year. He would be flying into Edinburgh International Airport on the 27th of December and staying for two weeks in a local hotel across town. I was excited and scared all in the same breath; my mind started to race.
'What if he doesn't like me? What if he's not what he's been like?'
I waited to speak with him on the phone that night to discuss all the details; I would meet him at the airport and drive him to his hotel, let him unpack and take him on a quick wee tour around town then see were we stood from there. As the day approached, I got more nervous but put it out of my mind because we had exchanged photos and been phoning each other on a regular basis, so I do not know why I was worrying.
Daniel called just before getting on the plane to make sure I was going to pick him up, and everything was still ok; we exchanged mobile numbers encase I was running late or something happened and wished him a safe journey.
-27th December-
I did not sleep a wink that night a mixture of excitement and hope of meeting my friend from across the pond. It took me three hours to decided what to wear to the airport, I eventually selected a green chiffon floaty top that just covered my ass with black leggings, over the knee black suede boots, a black leather coat and a cream chunky scarf. After all, it is winter in Scotland. I wore my auburn hair out and naturally wavy with a little pleat across the front to hold my fringe (bangs) back from my face.
I arrived at the airport 30 minutes early so I didn't have to rush around like a headless chicken looking for the right gate; I got there just as everyone was coming through. I held my breath as I saw Daniel walking through the double doors with his luggage, as I exhaled a little smile started to appear on my face that was when he saw me and smiled back. I walked quickly to greet him; I threw my arms around him, giving him a warm embrace after the shock of the cold Scottish weather. I gave him a kiss on the cheek and pulled back from him to see a look of shock on his face.
''HI...Daniel'' I blushed.
''Hello...I wasn't expecting you to hug me like that, Claire.'' he stammered.
''Sorry, I'm just happy to see you. Erm... Shall we walk and talk?'' I said looking around seeing people looking at us strangely.
''Yeah, lets. Call me Dan please.'' he replied blankly.
''Follow me Dan.'' I said sweetly as I took his hand.
He followed slightly behind me holding my hand we got some looks of disgust and looks that are worth a thousand words.
''How did he get her?!'' one guy in his early 30's said to his girlfriend. His girlfriend was not amused, let me tell you.
As we got to my car Dan pulled me back to him, holding me close he gazed into my eyes as I looked up at him lovingly, he leaned down and kissed me so gently it felt like a dream. It was rudely interrupted by people passing by and tutting, which resulted in me opening my big mouth.
''What are you tutting at?'' I said politely
"That's disgusting, he's old enough to be your father…, '' she snapped back.
''Honey, you're no oil painting yourself. JOG ON!'' I shouted.
Dan burst out laughing at my random outburst that made me blush so much. I opened the car and put his luggage in without speaking to him, as I was still so embarrassed at my outburst; he got in the passenger seat after I was in.
''Don't be embarrassed, Claire-Bear. I love you for your personality and your opinions.'' he placed his hand on top of mine.
All I could do was smile back at him as I drove him to The Chester Residence, he informed me he didn't just get a room, he got an apartment. We got him checked in, got the keys, and wandered around to find his door. This was even better than my house; I was amazed by how nice it was. I did not even dare to ask what he paid for this apartment, but looking at it, I knew it was not going to be cheap for a two-week stay.
We opened the door, which led into the living room; it had a big flat screen TV on the wall with a black leather corner sofa and matching chair around a brown wooden coffee table and beige carpet. The kitchen was very high spec with all new shiny appliances and the bathroom. Oh My Goodness! It had a gigantic Jacuzzi with a TV on the wall, double sinks and a shower with room for three. The bedroom was the best feature, a king-size bed with lighting underneath for atmosphere, Egyptian cotton sheets, lots of pillows, dramatic lighting everything to make it a little piece of heaven.
I went into the kitchen whilst Dan unpacked; I made him a cuppa tea with sugar to help the jet lag and took it into the bedroom. Without thinking, I walked straight in without knocking and he was standing naked, I looked at him with my mouth open before spinning round quicker than ever.
''Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I should have knocked!'' I stuttered.
''Don't worry about it; I guess I should have told you I was changing.'' Dan laughed and pulled a pair of trousers on before turned me back around.
''Is that for me?'' he smiled.
''Oh yeah, its sweet tea to help with...err...the jet lag.'' I blushed.
''Let's sit down and talk Claire, I think we need to be honest with each other'' he sighed
I looked at him not sure what to make of what he had just said. We walked out to the lounge and sat on the sofa next to one another. He looked at me with a very serious look on his face.
''What's wrong Daniel?'' I asked innocently.
''Can I be honest with you Claire?… I love you so much; I only came here to be with you! Not to trace my ancestors.'' he stared at me.
''I...I don't know what to say Dan. I love you too but wasn't expecting you to say or do this.'' I look away from him and got up.
I pace back and forth in front of him, knowing he was watching my every move.
''Okay…okay. Let's meet tonight for something to eat and discuss it then cos I'm still in shock, Dan. '' I stressed.
We said our goodbyes as he made reservations at Iris down Thistle Lane and decided we should meet there at 8pm. Which gave me four hours to get my act together, I drove home and started ransacking my wardrobe to see what to wear, and this decision was pretty easy since I already knew how he felt about me. I picked out a tight black pencil skirt, a red silk corset top with little puff sleeves, matching red silk stilettos and underwear with black seamed stockings. I wore my hair down but curly this time with geisha eye makeup and ruby red lips.
My phone rang at bang on 7.30pm, it was Dan.
''Hey Dan, what's up?'' I answered cheerfully.
''Claire, I'm just making sure you're still okay for dinner, and do you want me to pick you up in a cab on the way?''
''Yea of course I'm still up for dinner, I'm just leaving now. Will I get you on the way passed instead since it's on my way and you would be going backwards?'' I laughed.
''Err...yeah that would be good, Hun.'' he stammered realising he did not know where he was going.
```
''I'll be ten minutes, okay?'' ''I'll be outside, darling.'' ''Okay Dan, I'm just getting in the taxi now so I'll see you soon.'' ''Okay Claire.'' he hung up the phone.
```
I told the taxi driver where to go to and that we had to pick someone else up on route, as we drove down Rothesay Place I could see Dan standing outside The Chester looking rather dashing. Dan was about 5'9, dark hair with white through it in a salt and pepper style, average build man with distinguished biceps and abs. He has the most beautiful brown eyes that twinkle in the light, I am sure they could see into my very soul.
Dan got in the taxi, kissed my cheek, placed his hand on my thigh, and whispered to me, I saw the driver looking in the mirror at us; I bit my tongue and just rolled my eyes at him. We arrived at Thistle Lane and paid the driver, we walked down to Iris and had a lovely meal, great conversation but I think Dan was more concerned about dessert.
We decided over dinner to walk back to The Chester for 'drinks', we arrived back to champagne chilling in an ice bucket with two glasses and some strawberries and whipped cream. I smiled seeing the strawberries and cream I knew exactly what he wanted for dessert, and it was not the strawberries.
''Dan I need to tell you something...''
''Hush baby, you don't have to worry about anything. I've got everything planned.''
''That's what I need to tell you..."
''What's wrong Claire?''
''I'm a virgin Dan. I can't be dessert.'' I sighed.
''YOU'RE a virgin! You can't be...you're too beautiful not to have had sex with someone. Not that I think you're a slut! '' he stressed.
''I know what you mean, I'm sorry I wasn't honest with you Dan. How about I make it up to you?'' I winked.
''What ever do you mean Claire?'' he asked acting innocently.
I pushed him onto the sofa and went to the kitchen to get the champagne, I handed him a glass and we toasted to new beginnings. I pushed his feet apart with mines and took a cushion from the sofa and placed it at his feet, I kicked my heels off to the side of the sofa and kneeled down pushing his legs apart and pulled him towards me. I raised my eyebrow and reached up to his belt to undo it when he grabbed my hands pulling me up onto his chest.
''Not like this Claire, I don't just want you for sex.''
He kissed me passionately, slipping his tongue into my mouth, they danced as lovers do. As I sat on his lap I could feel his bulge, I let my hands roam down his arms and across his chest. I started to unbutton his shirt as I kissed down his neck then chest, kissing every piece of new flesh I reveal until I am back at his belt.
''Let me do this, I want to. I have never given a blowjob before I want to do it with you.'' I pleaded.
He held my face with both hands and said, ''You may start any time you like; I promise you I won't force myself on you Claire-Bear.''
With his blessing so to speak, I began.
I stood up and pulled my skirt up to just below my ass giving him a flash of my stockings and bare thighs as got down onto the cushion, I unbuckled Dan's belt then unbuttoned his trousers. He lifted his hips as I pulled his trousers and boxers down to his ankles; I looked up at him as he stared back at me. I rubbed his thigh's gently working my way up to his semi erect cock.
I licked my lips and gently gripped Dan's hard member in my warm hand as I started to lick the head and top of the shaft with my tongue, working my way down I started to move my hand up and down as I started sucking on the top quarter of his hot pulsing cock. I could feel him move his hips as I
sucked and ran my tongue under the head of his cock in a zig-zag motion.
I started to feel myself getting wet while I was sucking and licking his cock, I stopped to untie my corset and pulled it off letting my 36D breasts fall freely. Dan watched my every move, I leaned up and put his cock between my breasts and squeezed them together, moving up and down on his full erect cock. Dan reached down and started playing with my nipples as he titty fucked me right there in the lounge with the curtains open for the world to see.
''Oh Claire, you sure you've never done this before?'' he asked as he pulled and tweaked my nipples gently.
''Never!'' I protested in ecstasy.
I stuck my tongue out licking the tip every time it came close enough, I stopped titty fucking him and decided to just suck him until he came. I took about 3/4 of his cock in my mouth until he hit the back of my throat, I continued to lick and suck as I had been doing. I took my other hand, cupped his balls, and gently rubbed as I thought it would not be long until he came. My thoughts were right a few moments later I heard him moan deep and loudly.
''Claire, I'm gonna cum!'' he groaned
I stared up at him with my jade green eyes as I moved back, keeping the tip of his cock in my mouth, I licked hard, fast and rubbing the shaft and his balls with my hand. I felt him tense up right before he came in my mouth for the first time, sending rope upon salty rope of cum into my virgin mouth, I tried to swallow as much as I could but it dripped out the side of my mouth down my chin onto my breast. I sat back breathing heavy, wiping the cum from my face and breast and licking it off my hand.
Dan sat looking at me half-naked with a stupid smirk on his face.
''What's that look for?'' I asked.
''You ARE amazing!'' Dan laughed.
''I'm so horny!''
''I can fix that for you, My Love. Come here'' he said as he walked to the bedroom.
I followed him like a lost puppy, on the way I unzipped my skirt and dropped it to the floor. I arrived at the bedroom with the champagne, stockings and red soaking wet silk panties on.
''They'll have to go too I'm afraid.'' he said as he pointed at my panties.
''Come get them'' I smirked.
He placed his thumbs in the sides of my panties and pushed them down; he followed them down with kisses. He started at my earlobes, my neck, breasts, teasing my nipples with circles then nibbling on them softly, making my knees weak, down over my stomach to my mound. He walked me backwards to the bed laying me down and lifting my legs onto his shoulders, he kissed and nibbled on my thighs before taking a deep inhalation; he was just inches from my virginity.
I had my hands on my breasts as I gently kneaded them; I felt his warm breath on my lips followed slowly by his dripping wet and very skilled tongue. He slowly flicked over my clit teasing me, listening to me take sharp intakes of breath when he made me excited. Finding out what made me squirm and tense up; I could feel his fingers open my lips wider giving him the view of a lifetime. His tongue was the first to explore it felt like a warm spongy probe pushing all the right buttons, flicking back and forth over my clit as he inserted a finger into my pussy.
''Your really tight, Claire.''
''Uh huh.'' was all I could reply.
I ran my fingers through his hair as I pushed my clit against his mouth; I felt a wavy of sheer ecstasy came over me. I moaned loud as he was working my clit with his mouth and tongue, with a finger inside me he played with my G spot. His hand was on top of mine on my breast pulling and teasing my nipple as I moaned loud again, I clamped his head between my thighs on my clit.
''Stop...please...Stop,'' I moaned loudly.
Nevertheless, he would not he kept going, bringing me to another orgasm quick and fast. My breathing was erratic and I was grabbing at the sheets as he kept flicking my clit, fingering my pussy and tweaking my nipples. It was not long after that I passed out with the best orgasm I had ever felt.
-28th December-
I woke up not knowing where I was, then I remembered what happened last night and a veil of shame came over me as I realised I was still naked in his bed. Dan came in with coffee, orange juice and bagels.
''Morning beautiful.'' he smiled
''Morning...........what happened last night? Last thing I remember was you were licking me then nothing…'' I asked quizzically.
''You passed out from the orgasm baby, I must have been doing something right...yeah?'' he joked.
''It's not funny; I can't remember anything after that!''
''That's because nothing happened after that, you don't think I would take advantage of you do you?!'' he said irritated.
''I wasn't sure...I'm sorry.'' I sighed as I looked down at my hands. ''I am just so ashamed about what I did; I mean it was the first night meeting you. I'm not normally like this.''
''Don't worry, neither am I. However, we do know each other, we have been talking for nearly a year.'' he reassured me.
I smiled at him, realising I was so stupid to think he would use me like that. I had forgotten who he really was and what he was like.
We sat in bed together eating breakfast and talked about what we should do in the days to come, we planned to go to the castle today after we go to my house to pick up clothes and some of my things, then Dan said he would like to take me shopping for some nice underwear for me to wear for him. Tomorrow we decided to go for a drive and see where we end up.
However, most importantly New Year's Eve or ''The Bells'' as its called in Scotland, I had tickets for the street party, this was going to be a New Years we would never forget.
The next few days were nothing out of the ordinary, went sightseeing, shopping in Agent Provocateur, Ann Summers and La Senza, drove around the middle half of the country, went to a lovely little village nears Loch Lomond and rented a log cabin for two days then headed back for The Bells. Let's skip right to New Year's Eve because that's when things got interesting.
-31st December-
We got ready for the street party, I warned Daniel to wrap it well because it will get very cold so we went out like Eskimo's. It was packed with people, people from around the globe here at this party allcelebrating, all differences put aside for one night. Dan asked if we could go back to his place before midnight, I was disappointed but it was his choice since it is his visit. I did not realise he had an alternative motive.
We got back to his apartment suite, start to peel all the layers of clothing we had on and put the fire on. I changed into white silk pyjama shorts and shirt with pink leg warmers; I went into the kitchen to make us some drinks to toast the New Year as Dan came in with just his boxers on.
''Claire-Bear?''
''Yea…what's up?'' I turned to him.
''I want to make love to you for New Year. Would you give me your virginity?'' he asked unsure.
I pondered his question for a minute before I made my decision.
''Yes, of course I will Daniel. I have been waiting for you to ask!'' I said relieved.
He took my hand and led me to the bedroom; he stood in front of me and kissed my forehead as he unbuttoned my pyjama shirt slipping it off my shoulders, letting it fall to the floor. Then he moved down kissing my cheeks, neck, breast, as he caressed my nipples with his lips as he slipped my shorts off then kept moving down my stomach passed my navel to my trimmed hair he kissed more passionately. He reached down my leg to my calf lifting it up onto his shoulder, he began kissing the inside of my leg up to my thigh he stopped like before and inhaling my scent. Making a memory of my smell because this was going to be one night to remember.
He had one hand on my ass as the other stroked my leg as he began to lick and probe my clit, it was just as good as the first time but this time I was determined not to pass out. I started to become very wet, he stopped and picked me up laying me on the bed, he removed his boxer shorts revealing his full erect eight-inch cock. I wriggled about to get comfortable, I looked at him with a wanting deep inside me and I knew at that very moment it was the best decision I made to give him my virginity.
Dan opened the velvet curtains in the bedroom so we could see the fireworks at midnight before climbing into bed next to me, his fingers traced my face and neck as we kissed like never before, a passion, a spark had ignited I us. His hand moved down onto my breast as we kissed, teasing and tweaking my nipple almost like a gentle caress, he moved over on top of me. I automatically opened my legs to allow him to lie comfortably on top of me; I could feel his rock hard cock resting at my mound.
''Daniel I love you.'' I declared.
''And I you, Claire-Bear.'' I whispered back looking lovingly into my eyes.
I wrapped my arms around Dan's neck as I kissed him deep, our tongues danced as mines entered his mouth. I let my fingers trace down his back until I got to his ass, I get it a little squeeze that seemed to shock and thrill him all at the same time.
''Take me now Dan…'' I said as I licked his earlobe and nibbled on it.
''Are you sure?'' Dan asked as he looked down at me.
I nodded with my heart full of love, I knew I did not want anyone else to have it, with my consent he reached down and guided his cock into place rubbing the bulbous head of his throbbing member against my dewy slit. He kissed me hard as he slid inside me, I could feel the pressure of my cherry and his cock. I took a deep breath and held onto Dan in a tight embrace with that he thrust balls deep into my pussy.
I was no longer a virgin.
''Are you okay baby?'' he asked attentively.
I could not answer all I could do with nod, tears in my eyes from the burning sensation, he stayed still inside me for a couple of minutes, letting me get used to the size and feeling before he started to make love to me.
He moved slowly to start, he pulled halfway out and back in gently then picking up speed as I started to shift around under him and moan a little. It was not long until we were going full speed, my hips meeting his, moaning and groaning together as I got wetter and loosened. He lowered his mouth and started to tease my nipples as he made love to me for the first time, suddenly I felt a wave of euphoria came over me, ten times more powerful than before. I realised this was an orgasm and this was what I had been missing!
''I think I'm cumming,'' I whispered to Dan
''Me too...'' he groaned loudly.
Just then the fireworks started to go off, it was New Year and I was having the time of my life with a man I loved.
He picked up speed and started to pound me while I rubbed his balls; we came almost at the same time. My body tensed up, clenching my legs around him, making my pussy even tighter than it was if that was possible, as his body spasmed as he held me tightly to his body. I felt a warm wave of serenity come over me as I felt his cum shoot inside me, he spurted five times that I counted but I lost count as we lay together in contentment. Two as one.
That night we fell asleep in each other's arms, my head on his chest listening to the rhythmic beating of his heart as we drifted off to sleep together.
"I love you, Claire-Bear…"
"I love you, Daniel…," we whispered to one another as the New Year began.
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Contents lists available atScienceDirect
Government Information Quarterly
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/govinf
'Gentlemen, all aboard!' ICT and party politics: Reflections from a Mass-eParticipation experience
⁎
Tommaso Federici a , Alessio Maria Braccini a , Øystein Sæbø b ,
a Dipartimento di Economia e Impresa, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy
b Department of Information Systems, University of Agder, Norway
Article history: Received 20 September 2014 Received in revised form 21 April 2015 Accepted 30 April 2015 Available online 9 June 2015
Keywords: eParticipation eDemocracy Five Star Movement Citizen involvement in politics ICT Social media
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use is becoming an ever more popular way to involve citizens in political decision making. And yet, despite their recently increasing number, few eParticipation initiatives have achieved their intended aims. If nothing else, this shows that the internal processes, challenges and opportunities of using ICT to engage citizens in politics deserve further examination. The present paper attempts to undertake such an investigation by analysing Italy's Five Star Movement, a mass-eParticipation-based political organisation recently founded by private citizens. Using an interpretive case-study approach, this paper assesses the goals, participation, technology use, internal governance, external consequences, and challenges endemic to employing ICT in citizen engagement, to answer the following question: what consequences, challenges and opportunities does mass-eParticipation present to organisational stakeholders? Results of the study bring to light several additional research questions whose answers will surely advance the current discourse on eParticipation, and they also provide practical guidance and direction for those launching eParticipation initiatives.
© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
In the past two decades, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have figured increasingly in attempts to involve citizens in political decision making (Medaglia, 2012), with the intent of recapturing otherwise declining interest (Sæbø, Rose, & Skiftenes Flak, 2008). The term eParticipation has been coined to indicate the processes and structures through which ICT supports relationships amongst citizens, governments and public organisations (Rahman & Ahsan Rajoin, 2012; Veit & Huntgerburth, 2014). Such implementations of ICT might change the political landscape (Criado, Sandoval-Almazan, & Gil-Garcia, 2013) and present new opportunities for communication, consultation and dialogue between public organisations and citizens (Medaglia, 2012).
Exploring how ICT usage functions in eParticipation initiatives, as well as how related consequences, challenges and opportunities for those being involved is a matter of serious interest to researchers (Borins, 2005). A vast majority of eParticipation studies thus far have focused on how traditional government stakeholders, such as political parties, citizens and public administrations, use ICT-based services in conjunction with traditional communication channels (Criado et al., 2013; Kavanaugh et al., 2012). In general, such initiatives neither attract large groups of citizens nor significantly change the way politicians
⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: email@example.com (T. Federici), firstname.lastname@example.org (A.M. Braccini), email@example.com (Ø. Sæbø).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2015.04.009
0740-624X/© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
work (Chadwick, 2008). In fact, only a few eParticipation initiatives have achieved their intended aims (Sæbø, Flak, & Sein, 2011), and many of these initiatives remain local or small-scale (Medaglia, 2012). Less attention has been paid, thus far, to successful national and international, citizen-initiated eParticipation initiatives, which though few, are fascinating subjects for further study (Medaglia, 2012; Susha & Grönlund, 2012).
In this context, the Italian Five Star Movement's ('Movimento Cinque Stelle'; henceforth, M5S) use of ICT to encourage direct citizen participation in politics represents an exceptional example from which to glean information on eParticipation for many reasons. First, the M5S is new to Italy's political landscape and has, in only a few years, become influential at both the local and national levels, being the second-most voted-for party in the country's 2013 parliamentary elections; indeed the M5S has probably garnered more influence in less time than most (if not all) other eParticipation political initiatives. Second, unlike many eParticipation political initiatives—which are overwhelmingly founded on existing political systems and focused on the interests of traditional stakeholders—people who were not part of the established political elite created the M5S. Third, the organisation has, since its inception, coordinated all its activities using ICT tools, and this has allowed each of its supporters to participate in political debates and decision making.
In short, the M5S represents the successful use of a mass-mobilization eParticipation initiative originated by citizens who unexpectedly entered the political processes, and it now has representatives elected to positions in not only Italy's national and local institutions but also European
parliament. Through the M5S's online channels citizens receive information and post comments on a daily basis. As such, the organisation has introduced several innovations to the political landscape, challenging the political status quo and how Italian politics operate. Due to its novelty and pioneering efforts in promoting political engagement through mass-eParticipation, the M5S can be seen as a large-scale experiment, and it is consequently the subject of great interest for many international observers (Bartlett, 2014; Scherer, 2012). Still, current literature on the M5S focuses solely on the role it plays within Italy's political landscape (Bordignon & Ceccarini, 2013), on how the source of its strength lies in the positions it has taken on local issues (Mosca, 2014) and on the democratic processes intrinsic to the organisation itself (Miconi, 2014). Hence, more research should be conducted into how the organisation orchestrates participation and activities and how these efforts are perceived amongst its followers.
This paper contributes to the existing literature on eParticipation by investigating the dynamics of mass-eParticipation initiatives organised mainly by their followers. In particular, the present research aims to answer the following question: what consequences, challenges and opportunities does mass-eParticipation present to organisational stakeholders? To answer this question we conducted an empirical case study analysing interviews and archival data; in so doing, we bring to light several additional questions whose answers will undoubtedly advance the current discourse on eParticipation and provide practical guidance and direction to those launching eParticipation initiatives.
2. About the Five Star Movement
The M5S is a political organisation founded in 2009 by prominent former comedian Beppe Grillo and entrepreneur Gianroberto Casaleggio. Grillo was quite popular in Italy in the 1980s for his TV shows, which were characterized by strong and staunchly critical stances against the country's business, financial and political establishment. Banned from TV in 1986 for his politically incorrect rhetoric, Grillo continued to perform in theatres and other venues across Italy. In 2005 he started a blog with the support of Casaleggio Associati Ltd., a company founded by Gianroberto Casaleggio.
Grillo's popularity and reputation continued to grow as a result of his blog posts, and in 2009, he was ranked the world's seventh-most influential Web personality by Forbes Magazine (Ewalt, 2009). Over the years Grillo's fans across Italy began organising groups that were active in local politics. Using Grillo's blog as its main meeting place, a group called 'Amici di Beppe Grillo' ('Friends of Beppe Grillo'), formed in 2005 to coordinate these local groups' activities. The smaller groups started using the social-networking platform Meetup.com, 1 as per one of Grillo's suggestions, and the word meetup soon became synonymous with local group. These groups, moreover, organised nationand region-wide events at which members met face-to-face and at which Grillo himself was often in attendance.
In 2008, several of these groups began creating candidate lists naming citizens unaffiliated with specific political parties. Furthermore, as stated above, the M5S was officially founded in 2009 to expand and build upon the Friends of Beppe Grillo and to provide a common political agenda for all the listed candidates. Grillo trademarked 'Movimento 5 Stelle', reserving all rights to the organisation's brand to him, and since, he has granted its usage to groups that adhere to a specific set of rules available online.
Since 2009 the number of active M5S groups on Meetup.com has grown from an initial 40 to 1482 across 1191 cities in 21 countries. In Italy the M5S has rapidly become a national political party and is
1 Meetup.com is a commercial online social-networking platform (http://www. meetup.com) owned by Meetup Inc. It facilitates offline group meetings in various localities worldwide and helps individuals find and join groups of people with similar interests, i.e., hobbies, careers or politics.
currently second-most voted-for party both in the 2013 national elections and 2014 EU elections.
The M5S sharply distinguishes itself from Italy's traditional political parties by claiming to be more open, transparent and representative. Notably, too, the M5S does not define itself as a party but as a platform for consultation and confrontation that originated on Grillo's blog. To distinguish itself even more thoroughly from traditional political parties, the M5S refers to itself as a 'non-association' regulated by a 'Non-Statute' (M5S, 2009).
The M5S challenges Italy's established political-representation processes by aiming to turn elected representatives into spokespersons. To do so, a set of ICT tools is used to help followers share information, hold discussions, make decisions and set agendas. Elected representatives are expected to assert M5S subscribers' collective will, as it is developed and expressed online. At the same time, representatives are required to inform citizens via ICT channels about on-going activities within the political institution to which they have been elected.
The M5S uses several ICT tools, some of which are accessible to all M5S followers, including online content and comment posting. A restricted set of tools with enhanced participation features, such as voting, polling and decision making, are accessible only to subscribers. To become a subscriber a citizen must register on the M5S national website and submit a scanned copy of her ID card. Unlike other parties, M5S subscribers are not required to pay a registration fee. The status of a certified subscriber is granted exclusively to those whose requests have been fully processed, in order to satisfy the individual-identification requirement for becoming a M5S subscriber. Verification is performed by the M5S's small staff.
The M5S has gained a large number of subscribers in just a few years and currently boasts a membership roll of approximately 800,000 persons. Only about 100,000 of these are certified subscribers, while the rest continue to await the processing of their applications. Still, these figures exceed the registration numbers of Italy's other political parties, which have suffered membership declines in recent years. For instance, the most voted-for party has experienced a membership decline from about 800,000 members in 2009 (Labate, 2013) to 240,000 in 2014 (Lo Sardo, 2014).
3. Research design and context
The M5S uniqueness as a successful mass-eParticipation political organisation has been taken into account in designing the present study. We suggest that the views of those involved in the M5S and the context in which the organisation operates are the most important pieces of evidence, and thence the research shall start from that. Also, as Cavaye asserts (1996), a hypothesis-testing research approach is inappropriate in such circumstances. With such an approach, in fact, hypotheses would have to have been based on previous literature or on the prior eParticipation experiences of the present study's authors. Hence, such an a priori research strategy would have prevented this study from discussing aspects of eParticipation unaddressed by existing literature. Consequently, this study adopts an interpretive, a posteriori research approach that investigates the M5S in its natural context using qualitative-data collection. As per Eisenhardt's recommendation (1989, p. 541), then, this study uses theory as an iteratively contrasting medium to data collected and analysed. The study's aim is to determine why the M5S is unique amongst eParticipation-based organisations, a point not yet discussed in the current literature, and to reveal, as a result, information that might be useful to other organisations.
3.1. Research context
The research project described in this paper took place over 13 months, from July 2013 through July 2014. It began with an exploratory study (Sæbø, Braccini, & Federici, 2015) that allowed this paper's
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The Florida Senate
BILL ANALYSIS AND FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT
(This document is based on the provisions contained in the legislation as of the latest date listed below.)
Prepared By: The Professional Staff of the Committee on Judiciary
BILL:
SB 1496
INTRODUCER:
Senator Evers
SUBJECT:
Unlicensed Practice of Law
DATE:
March 31, 2014
ANALYST
STAFF DIRECTOR REFERENCE
ACTION
1. Davis
Cibula
JU
Pre-meeting
2.
GO
3.
RC
REVISED:
03/31/14
I. Summary:
SB 1496 lists seven activities that are not considered a violation of the statute prohibiting the unlicensed practice of law. Those activities are:
- Pro se representation by an individual;
- Serving as a mediator or arbitrator;
- Providing services under the supervision of an attorney in compliance with the Rules of Professional Conduct, which are promulgated by the Florida Supreme Court;
- Providing services authorized by court rule;
- Giving legal notice in the form and manner required by law; or
- Acting within the lawful scope of practice of a business or profession regulated by the state;
- Representation of another person before a legislative body, committee, commission, or board.
Under existing s. 454.23, F.S., it is a third degree felony to engage in the unlicensed or unauthorized practice of law. A definition of the unlicensed practice of law is not contained in statue but has been developed over the years through case law and advisory opinions. This list of seven activities provides some clarity as to what is not criminal conduct when performed by a lay person and prohibits prosecution of those activities.
II. Present Situation:
The Florida Supreme Court has stated that the primary goal of regulating the unlicensed practice of law is the protection of the public. The Court's regulation is not performed to "aid or protect the members of the legal profession either in creating or maintaining a monopoly or closed shop." 1 Accordingly, there are two methods to enforce that prohibition: civil actions and criminal penalties.
1 Florida Bar v. Brumbaugh, 355 So. 2d 1186, 1189 (Fla. 1978).
6
Civil Actions
Civil actions are authorized and governed by court rules. Article V, section 15, of the Florida Constitution provides that the Supreme Court has exclusive jurisdiction to regulate the admission of people to the practice of law as well as the discipline of those admitted. The Florida Bar, then, "as an official arm of the court," 2 has been delegated the duty and responsibility of investigating and prosecuting alleged offenders. 3 In dealing with the unlicensed practice of law, the bar employs two separate methods in an attempt to protect the public. The Bar will investigate written complaints submitted by the public and issue advisory opinions regarding what constitutes the unlicensed practice of law when requested by an individual or organization.
Complaints
The Florida Bar is authorized to receive a written complaint signed by the complainant which alleges the unlicensed practice of law. If a circuit committee in the jurisdiction where the alleged offender resides or conducts business determines that the unlicensed practice of law has occurred, the committee may issue a cease and desist affidavit or recommend civil prosecution. The remedies available to the Bar are to seek injunctive relief before the Supreme Court to enjoin the offender, seek restitution for the victim, assess a monetary penalty of $1,000 per violation, and recover costs that the Bar has expended pursuing the action. If the injunction is violated, the Bar may file an action before the Supreme Court of Florida seeking indirect criminal contempt that may result in restitution to the victim, a penalty of up to $2,500, imprisonment not to exceed 5 months, or both, and costs the Bar expended pursuing the action. 4
According to The Florida Bar, the unauthorized practice of law, or UPL, is a significant problem in this state. The Bar reports opening 655 cases in 2011, 714 cases in 2012, and 550 cases in 2013. In this fiscal year, which runs from July 1-June 30, 361 cases have been opened. As of March 3, 2014, nine cases are pending at the Supreme Court of Florida and nine cases are pending with a state attorney. The Bar also reports closing 390 cases in this fiscal year, but points out that those cases were opened over several years. 5
Advisory Opinions
The Florida Bar is also authorized to issue advisory opinions to individuals or organizations seeking guidance as to whether certain activities constitute the unlicensed practice of law. Under this process, a person or organization may submit a written request, in hypothetical form, seeking guidance. If the committee agrees to accept the request for a formal advisory opinion, notice is published and a public hearing is held in which the committee takes testimony from interested individuals. After the public hearing, the committee decides whether it will issue a proposed formal advisory opinion and what it will contain. If the committee determines that the conduct in question constitutes the unlicensed practice of law, a proposed, or draft, formal advisory opinion is filed with the Florida Supreme Court. The Court may then adopt, reject, or modify the
2 R. Regulating Fla. Bar 10-1.2.
3 Id.
4 R. Regulating Fla. Bar 10-7.2.
5 E-mail from Lori Holcomb, Director, Client Protection, The Florida Bar (March 21, 2014) (on file with the Senate Committee on Judiciary).
opinion. 6 Between 1988 and 1997, nine advisory opinions have been released determining whether certain activities by business groups constitute the unlicensed practice of law. Two additional formal advisory opinions are pending. 7
Criminal Penalties
The Legislature enacted a statute in 1925 which prohibited the unlicensed practice of law. The statute stated that any person who was not entitled to practice law or who held himself out to the public as being qualified to practice law without having first obtained a certificate from the State Board of Law Examiners, as required by law, would be guilty of a penal offence punishable by not more than $1,000 or imprisonment in a "county jail with or without hard labor for not more than twelve months" or by both the fine and imprisonment. 8 In 1971, the $1,000 fine and hard labor provisions were replaced and the offense became a first degree misdemeanor. 9 The statute was amended in 1997 to clarify that it applied also to women 10 and again in 2004 to establish a third degree felony penalty for the unlicensed practice of law or for any person who unlawfully holds himself or herself out to the public as qualified to practice law.
Section 454.23, F.S., states that it is a felony of the third degree for an unlicensed or unauthorized person to practice law in this state or hold himself or herself out to the public as qualified to practice law in the state or willfully pretend or imply that he or she is qualified or recognized by law as qualified to practice law in this state. A third degree felony is punishable by a term of imprisonment that does not exceed 5 years and a fine that does not exceed $5,000. 11
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) reports that between 2004 and 2013, 104 arrests were made for a violation of this statute. Of those arrests, 50 cases resulted in a judicial disposition of guilty and seven cases were categorized as adjudication withheld. In 2014, six arrests have been reported and one count has been recorded as adjudication withheld. 12
Definition
The "unlicensed practice of law" is not defined in statute or in court rules. When the allegation was made that an earlier version of the statute was unconstitutionally vague, the First District Court of Appeal concluded that the statute was not void for vagueness. 13 The court further noted that the definition of the practice of law "is not confined to the language in section 454.23, but rather, is shaped by the decisional law and court rules as well as common understanding and practices." 14
6 Florida Bar Rule 10-9.1.
7 The Florida Bar, Formal Advisory Opinions,
http://www.floridabar.org/tfb/TFBLawReg.nsf/9dad7bbda218afe885257002004833c5/34fac28eda9ca382852579ac006aff21! OpenDocument#FAORequestReMedicaidPlan (last visited March 28, 2014).
8 Chapter 10175, s. 21, Laws of Fla. (1925).
9 Chapter 71-136, s. 384, Laws of Fla.
10 Chapter 97-103, s. 184, Laws of Fla.
11 See ss. 775.082(3)(d) and 775.083(1)(c), F.S.
12 E-mail from Rachel Truxell, Office of Legislative Affairs, Florida Department of Law Enforcement (March 21, 2014) (on file with the Senate Committee on Judiciary).
13 State v. Foster, 674 So. 2d 747 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996).
14 Id., at 751.
6
The definition of the unlicensed practice of law is derived from case law and formal advisory opinions developed by The Florida Bar Standing Committee on Unlicensed Practice of Law. In demonstrating the difficulty in defining the practice of law to establish what constitutes the unlicensed practice of law, the Florida Supreme Court has stated:
This definition is broad and is given content by this court only as it applies to specific circumstances of each case. We agree that "any attempt to formulate a lasting, all encompassing definition of 'practice of law' is doomed to failure 'for the reason that under our system of jurisprudence such practice must necessarily change with the everchanging business and social order.'" 15
Throughout the years courts have decided, on a case by case basis, what constitutes the unauthorized practice of law. Some unauthorized activities involve a nonlawyer examining witnesses, 16 taking a deposition, 17 and representing an investor for compensation in a securities arbitration against a broker. 18
In contrast, the courts have found that the practice of law does not include:
- A real estate licensee preparing residential lease forms approved by the Court, 19
- A nonlawyer property manager preparing complaints for eviction and handling uncontested residential evictions on behalf of a landlord, 20
- Title insurance companies and their agents preparing abstracts of title to real property and issuing policies of title insurance, 21 and
- Lobbying. 22
III. Effect of Proposed Changes:
This bill, in an effort to further define what constitutes the unlicensed practice of law, lists seven activities that do not constitute the unlicensed practice of law. Those activities include:
- Pro se representation by an individual;
- Serving as a mediator or arbitrator;
- Providing services under the supervision of an attorney in compliance with the Rules of Professional Conduct;
- Providing services authorized by court rules;
- Giving legal notice in the form and manner required by law; or
- Acting within the lawful scope of practice of a business or profession regulated by the state;
15 Brumbaugh at 1191, 1192 (quoting State Bar of Michigan v. Cramer, 399 Mich. 116, 249 N.W. 2d 1 at 7 (1976).
16 Millen v. Millen, 122 So. 3d 496 (Fla. 3d DCA 2013)
17 Foster, supra note 10.
18 The Florida Bar Re Advisory Opinion on Nonlawyer Representation in Securities Arbitration, 696 So. 2d 1178 (Fla. 1997).
19 The Florida Bar Re: Advisory Opinion-Nonlawyer Preparation of Residential Leases Up To One Year In Duration, 602 So. 2d 914 (Fla. 1992).
20 The Florida Bar Re Advisory Opinion-Nonlawyer Preparation of and Representation of Landlord in Uncontested Residential Evictions, 627 So. 2d 485 (Fla. 1993).
21 Cooperman et al., v. West Coast Title Company, 75 So. 2d 818 (Fla. 1954).
22 Florida Association of Professional Lobbyists, Inc., etc., v. Division of Legislative Information Services, 7 So. 3d 511 (Fla 2009).
6
- Representation of another person before a legislative body, committee, commission, or board.
This list provides some measure of clarity as to what activities may be performed by a lay person.
The bill takes effect July 1, 2014.
IV. Constitutional Issues:
A. Municipality/County Mandates Restrictions:
None.
B. Public Records/Open Meetings Issues:
None.
C. Trust Funds Restrictions:
None.
V. Fiscal Impact Statement:
A. Tax/Fee Issues:
None.
B. Private Sector Impact:
None.
C. Government Sector Impact:
The Office of the State Courts Administrator does not expect the bill to have a significant fiscal impact. 23
VI. Technical Deficiencies:
None.
VII. Related Issues:
None.
VIII. Statutes Affected:
This bill substantially amends s. 454.23, F.S.
23 Office of the State Courts Administrator, 2014 Judicial Impact Statement for SB 1496, March 23, 2014.
IX. Additional Information:
A. Committee Substitute – Statement of Changes:
(Summarizing differences between the Committee Substitute and the prior version of the bill.)
None.
B. Amendments:
None.
This Senate Bill Analysis does not reflect the intent or official position of the bill's introducer or the Florida Senate.
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CYBER-INVESTING: RATIONALITY HITS THE INTERNET STOCK MARKET
By Kenneth J. Michal
What a difference a year has made for Internet stocks. The same characteristics that were ignored a couple of months ago are now closely analyzed and scrutinized. Internet players are now starting to be held accountable for their profitability.
AAII Journal/November 2000
The rise and fall of "Internet stocks" has been the investment story of the decade. But one question keeps dogging the story: Just what is an Internet stock?
A year ago, the AAII Journal tried to answer this question [see "CyberInvesting: An Intro to Internet Stocks as an Investment" in the November issue]. First, boundary lines were drawn by defining groups and sub-sectors. Most Internet companies fall into one of two distinct groups—those that use the Internet as a means to sell or produce traditional goods and services, and those companies that produce a product or service that is used to construct and maintain the Internet infrastructure. Then, a set of 12 sub-sectors was created based upon the most popular business models: auctions, hardware, Internet advertising, Internet financial services, Internet publishing, Internet retailing, Internet service provider (ISP)/hosting, multimedia, portal, security, software, and training/education. The article then looked at a small sampling of 23 Internet stocks.
One year has gone by, and a lot has changed in the Internet stock industry—including Wall Street's view. This article takes a look at the dramatic changes in the Internet marketplace, and what to do about it.
LOST PRIVILEGES
Five years ago, the Internet was just a buzz word—a dynamic new medium of exchange and communication. For many today, a PC with Internet access is as central to our lives as our televisions and microwaves.
With this new development came new business ventures and the birth of a brand new world of companies. A new industry had emerged almost overnight—the Internet industry.
The first wave of Internet stocks was exalted as a collection of new economy stocks—stocks that were going to revolutionize the economy and the markets. This ideal translated into mass-market hysteria, in which irrational prices and irrational behavior reigned. No price was too great in order to get a hand on an Internet, or "dot-com," stock. These hot stocks added flair to any drab, conservative portfolio and even more pizzazz to the most aggressive ones.
It did not matter that many of these companies had not earned a dime; investors were banking on their phenomenal growth prospects and, in any case, it was an Internet company—they were different. Outsiders started to add dot-com suffixes to their names to get in on the action. Internet stocks were given considerable leeway because of their unique nature.
One such privileged stock was the on-line bookstore Amazon.com, one of the flagships of the so-called new economy. It had yet to report positive earnings, but its stock price rose higher and higher because of its established Internet foothold and strong sales growth. In early January 1999, the stock split 3-for-1 when it was around $80 on a split-adjusted basis. It peaked above $105 in late April, split again in September (2:1) and reached almost $107 by December 1999.
2
Not long after this period, perceptions began to change, and Internet stocks began to lose their glow. Wall Street and individual investors alike began to look at Amazon.com for what it really was: a retail stock that just happened to be on the Internet. With this and other revelations, Internet stocks were no longer viewed as special. Yes, they were still Internet companies, but they could fit into any number of the standard industry classes.
Amazon.com fit quite nicely into the tight, competitive environment of the retail catalogue and mail order segment, and it clearly did not stack up to its newly established competition.
Once Amazon.com began to be compared against other retailers, the stock was devalued and the price dwindled. The same characteristics that were ignored just a couple of months ago were now closely analyzed and scrutinized. Amazon.com and other Internet players like it began to be held accountable for their profitability. Rational, objective thinking had finally returned to the masses and Amazon.com's stock price has since stumbled, down over 50% since October 1999.
STATISTICS: THEN & NOW
The story of Amazon.com is not unique. Many of the Internet stocks in the original AAII Journal group faced new challenges. Some succeeded, while others faltered.
The investment performance measures in Table 1 show the diverse nature of the Internet stock sample. The average one-year cumulative price change for the group was 32.5% (shown in Table 2). However, this figure includes a 253.5% gain for Internet software pioneer Spyglass Inc., which was bought out by OpenTV Corporation on July 24, 2000.
Of the 22 stocks listed in Table 1, only 10 posted price increases, and four of those had price changes greater than 150%. Taking out some of these stocks would have substantially eroded that 32.5% figure.
Likewise, certain sub-sectors clearly did better than others. The hardware (92.6%), Internet financial services (14.4%), ISP/hosting (88.4%), and security (171.5%) sectors posted the only positive price increase numbers for the group. An interesting pair are the two on-line discount brokers found in the financial services sub-group. The 14.4% average for the sub-sector was a respectable figure. However, Charles Schwab's price performance of 59.0% made up for the weak results of fellow broker E*Trade Group.
Figure 1 charts the one-year price performance of the Internet stock group. Averages of the cumulative price changes for the 23 Internet stocks included in the original article are plotted against TheStreet.com's Internet index and the S&P 500 index. As you can see, the two Internet groups are closely correlated, and there is a high degree of volatility to the group.
Table 1 also includes several fundamental variables contrasting current data to last year's data (from October 1, 1999). Performance tables often include price-earnings ratios and the ratio of price-earnings to growth (PEG ratio). However, since we are dealing with Internet stocks that lack any positive earnings, we are without the necessary earnings denominator of those ratios and therefore need to look at other performance measures.
BEHIND AMAZON.COM
Some interesting observations can be made by contrasting the "then and now" numbers generated by online retailer Amazon.com.
Over the course of a year, the stock's price-to-sales ratio faltered from 24.5 to 6.2, as investors are now far less willing to pay a high premium for future sales. During the period, sales doubled to over $2.1 billion, and yet the stock price lost over 50% of its value—both factors pushing the ratio down. The steep price drop is reflected in the decline of the 52-week relative strength rank, from a strong 97% in 1999 to a lowly 17% as of the end of September 2000. Compounding these events, the gamble placed on expanding growth rates failed. Sales growth remained strong, but it was halved to 115.3%, while solid earnings growth forecasts were adjusted down.
Furthermore, Amazon.com's gross margins are now highly scrutinized since it is currently viewed as a retailer where margins are traditionally low versus other industries. Its 2000 figure of 19.3% is below the 33.6% figure for that of the retail catalogue and mail order industry. Amazon.com's product costs relative to sales are just too high versus their industry, and their price-to-sales ratio is beginning to reflect that reality.
ADDITIONAL MEASURES
The Internet industry, as evident by the performance numbers of the stocks in Table 1 and the charted course of the two Internet stock indexes in Figure 1, was not a safe haven for investors last year. It has yet to be fully understood with regard to investing.
To illustrate the oddities of Internet investing, we designed several screens using traditional analysis measures. We created these screens to see how helpful they would have been in selecting stocks a year ago; the results are found in Table 2.
The first screen looked at the price-to-sales ratio. We screened the original 23 stocks and came up with the five companies with the highest and lowest price-to-sales ratios; we then calculated the average price performance numbers for both groups. When analyzing price-tosales figures, low ratios are potentially an indication of better value. Here, this principle holds, as the five companies with the lowest price-to-
AAII Journal/November 2000
3
TABLE 1. INTERNET SUB-SECTORS AND REPRESENTATIVE STOCKS
sales ratios had the better average price performance—160.4% versus 24.3%.
The second screen was for historical sales growth and, in general, investors seek higher growth rates. Here, however, the principle did not hold—the five highest growth stocks produced a negative 12.0% price
4 AAII Journal/November 2000
performance compared to a very strong 129.2% price performance for the five lowest sales growth stocks. The lesson here is that high sales growth rates are difficult to maintain: Things tend to even out. Call it a reversion to the mean.
investors prefer stocks with higher expected earnings growth rates. Again, however, the principle did not hold, and the lowest expected growth stocks outperformed those with the highest expected growth rates.
The third screen looked at expected earnings growth. In general,
Interestingly, studies tend to confirm the failure of growth
FIGURE 1. INTERNET STOCKS' RELATIVE PRICE PERFORMANCE
screens to turn up higher-performance stocks. Studies have shown that extremely high growth stocks, in terms of both historical and forecasted growth, typically underperform those stocks comprising the lower growth segment. Once again, unsustainable growth and unrealistic expectations are to blame.
The final screens looked at both the 13-week and 52-week relative strength rank numbers. These are momentum screens that seek stocks with high relative price strength in the expectation that such strength will continue into the future. With the short-term 13-week screen, the principle held—the stocks with the highest 13-week relative strength did better over the period (69.2% versus 48.2%). However, the 52-week screen picked the wrong group—the five stocks with the highest relative strength rank figures were beaten by the five with the lowest rank (76.2% versus 117.0%).
WHAT NEXT?
Although only a year has gone by, this performance year review did establish certain useful rules for investors concerning the Internet stock industry:
stand them;
* No group of stocks in history— whether it be the "tronics boom" stocks in the 1950s, The Nifty Fifty stocks in the early 1970s, or the Internet craze of the late 1990s—has been able to revolutionize the markets as we under-
* Some stocks have been able to distort rational investment thinking over the short term, but not for an extended period of time;
* Exorbitant growth is unsustainable or likely unachievable;
* Internet stocks are not all alike and therefore need to be categorized and analyzed along proper industry and sector lines;
* Any segment or portfolio comprised of emerging industry stocks will be very volatile;
* Traditional investment methods do not always work well with emerging industry stocks;
* The Internet is still a developing industry, making investment decisions difficult.
Knowing all this, where do you go from here?
When traditional analysis is difficult to apply, and yet you still want to be in the market, your best bet is to carefully select a diversified portfolio of stocks—in this case, Internet stocks—that cuts across sub-sector lines. Individual stock selection is quite likely to be trumped by diversification. !
AAII Journal/November 2000
5
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Lake Tahoe Campgrounds
Lake Tahoe, 7 Days
Table of contents:
Guide Description 2
My List 3
Lake Tahoe Snapshot 6
Guide Description
AUTHOR NOTE: After Labor Day, the summer crowds at Tahoe begin to thin out and most campgrounds are open and ready for fall visitors. The weather is still warm and the nights are cool and perfect for curling up in a sleeping bag. Here are a few campgrounds close to the lake, and a few within several miles of the Tahoe area.
My List
contact:
tel: 530-525-7232 fax: 530-525-6730 cal-parks.ca.gov
location:
Lake Tahoe CA 96143
contact:
tel: (530) 525-7232
http://www.parks.ca.gov/
location:
Tahoma CA 96142
Emerald Bay State Park
OUR LOCAL EXPERT SAYS:
If you like snorkeling or diving, visit the sunken barge on the Eastern part of the Bay.
DESCRIPTION: Emerald Bay State Park is a state park located around Emerald Bay, a National Natural Landmark, at Lake Tahoe, California. The park is home to Eagle Falls and Vikingsholm, a 38-room mansion that is one of the finest examples of Scandinavian architecture in the western hemisphere.[citation needed] The park contains the only island in Lake Tahoe, Fannette Island. The park is accessible by State Route 89 near the southwest shore of the lake. Emerald Bay is one of Lake Tahoe's most photographed and popular locations. In 1969, Emerald Bay was recognized as a National Natural Landmark by the federal Department of the Interior. In 1994, California State Parks included the surrounding water of the bay as a part of the park, making Emerald Bay one of the first underwater parks of its type in the state, protecting the various wrecks and other items on the bay's bottom. The park is located directly south of D.L. Bliss State Park. Summer temperatures at the park range from the low 40 °F (4 °C) at night to mid-70 °F (25 °C) during the day, and during the winter visitors will usually experience temperatures between 20 and 40 °F (-7 and 4 °C). During harsh winters, the bay freezes over. The bay is about 1.7 miles (2.7 km) in length, and about twothirds of a mile (1 km) wide at its widest point. © Wikipedia
Sugar Pine Point Campground
DESCRIPTION: Sitting at an elevation of 6,000 feet, Sugar Pine Point Campground is located on the north shore of the Lower Bear River Reservoir. Visitors would be able to participate in activities such as boating, fishing, swimming, and scenic viewing. There is a store within 5 miles of the site. Rainbow and brown trout are stocked annually by California Department of Fish and Game in Lower Bear River Reservoir. Rainbow trout are stocked in Upper Bear River Reservoir. Lake trout have also been caught. On site facilities: 10 units, primitive toilets and picnic tables.
.
contact:
tel: 209-295-4251 fax: 209-295-5998
location:
26820 Silver Drive Pioneer CA 95666
contact:
tel: 209-295-4251 fax: 209-295-5998
location:
26820 Silver Drive Pioneer CA 95666
contact:
tel: 209-295-4251 fax: 209-295-5998
location:
26820 Silver Drive Pioneer CA 95666
contact:
tel: 530-587-3558
http://www.campingguidenev ada.com/cgnes/standardlistin
g.asp
location:
Old Hwy 395 Washoe Valley NV 89704
Caples Lake Campground
OUR LOCAL EXPERT SAYS:
Caples Lake can get very windy at its high elevation. Boaters should be prepared for high waves.
DESCRIPTION: Sitting at the high elevation of 8,200 feet, the Caples Lake Campground is located adjacent to Highway 88, near to Kirkwood. In addition to offering camping facilities, the site provides close access to activities such as boating, fishing, swimming and hiking. There is also a local grocery store within five miles. Brook, brown, rainbow, and lake trout have been caught in Caples Lake. Tui chub also present. Not presently stocked. Although fishing is allowed year round, the lake is not accessible in the winter. On site facilities: 35 camping units ( 1 double ), vault toilets and drinking water.
Kirkwood Lake Campground
DESCRIPTION: Sitting at an elevation of 7,600 feet, the Kirkwood Lake Campground provides close access to Kirkwood Lake. Visitors would be able to participate in activities such as boating, fishing, swimming and picnicking. Additionally the site allows beautiful views of the area from the scenic vista. On site facilities: 12 camping units, drinking water, vault toilets and picnic tables.
Mokelumne River Campground
DESCRIPTION: Sitting at an elevation of 3,200 feet, Mokelumne River Campground offers semi-primitive camping with opportunities for fishing and swimming in the nearby water holes and river. On site facilities: 8 camping units ( semiprimitive ), vault toilets and picnic tables.
Davis Creek Campground
DESCRIPTION: Davies Creek Campground is located on a dirt road on the west side of Washoe Lake. This campground has a dozen or so sites and toilets on site. There is a pond a 1/4 mile away in Davis Creek Park. You can fish there in summer, or ice-skate when the pond freezes over in winter. Additionally in the park is a trailhead for the Ophir Creek Trail. This long and pretty strenuous hike gains approx. 4,000 feet to Mt. Rose Campground in the Tahoe Meadows area. From here you can connect to the Tahoe Rim Trail. Washoe Lake State Park is only 10 minutes away on the other side of Washoe Valley.
.
jbbois/Flickr
My List - continued...
Lake Tahoe Snapshot
Local Info
Lake Tahoe is an original. The"Jewel of the Sierras" is the third deepest lake in the world at 1,645 feet, and its crystal blue water shines brightly in both winter and summer inviting visitors to relax and enjoy the beauty. The Lake Tahoe area was recently voted the best ski area in the United States by Orbitz. And the locals couldn't agree more.
of the best views of the lake. Coming into South Lake Tahoe you will find numerous hotels, resorts, restaurants and other ways to enjoy Tahoe and the views.
Lake Tahoe straddles two states, Nevada and California. And each portion of the lake has a different vibe. Like the Native Americans who summered in the region and called it"big sky lake", we will come up from the Nevada side, drop into California and then back into Nevada.
Nevada and Highway 50
For your first view of"The Lake", nothing is better than taking Highway 50 up fromCarson City, the capital of Nevada. Even people who have lived here for years, still catch their breath when witnessing this blue beauty hovering among mountains and pine forests. The trip continues with a tour around the 72 miles of shoreline. Each place you go, you will not lose sight of the lake that Mark Twain called the"fairest picture the whole earth affords".
Traveling toward Stateline, and home to the gaming center of Tahoe you will drive passed theLogan Shoals Vista Point and through the tunnel atCave Rock, which is sacred to the native tribes in the area. You will then pass byZephyr Cove where you can camp, rent water and snow toys, eat at numerous restaurants or just enjoy one of the nicest beaches in the area. Zephyr Cove is also where you can catch a ride on theMS Dixie II, a full-size paddlewheeler(that Mark Twain would be proud of) or theWoodwind II, a catamaran that sails during the summer months. Stateline is home toHarrah's,Harvey's,Montbleau and theHorizon casino resorts. Here you can eat, game, relax in a spa, golf at theEdgewood Tahoe Golf Course or enjoy the lake without having to leave the area.
California and Highway 89 North
As you leave Stateline and head into California and South Lake Tahoe you will pass by Heavenly Village andHeavenly Ski Resort which has agondola with some
South Lake Tahoe is known for the South Lake Tahoe Recreation Area and has several bike and pedestrian trails that run alongside the road. As you head out of SLT, onto Highway 89 North and into the Tahoe National Forest and Tahoe Basin, you drive through some of the more rugged and beautiful areas of the lake. Here you will find less restaurants, but beaches like Pope Beach and Baldwin Beach, camping or dining atCamp Richardson, theMt. Tallac Trailhead and the Spring Creek Recreation Area. All this beauty leads up toEmerald Bay, at the southern tip of Tahoe. This deep green bay embraces the only island on the lake, Fannette Island. From here you can hike down toVikingsholm Castle as well as get great views of both Emerald Bay and the nearbyCascade Lake. TheEagle Falls trailhead and access to theDesolation Wilderness is here as well. This area can be precarious during snowstorms and sometimes the road will be closed due to avalanches.
California and Highway 28
As you continue up Highway 89 to the West Shore, you will come acrossD.L. Bliss State Park,Meek's Bay and campground,Sugar Pine Point State Park, Tahoma, Homewood Mountain Ski Resort and the tiny but local favorite,Granlibakken ski resort. Most of the West Shore is privately owned and the piers inviting you to take a stroll over the water are gated. However, this area also has several bike-friendly trails that run from here toTahoe City and up to Alpine Meadows Ski Resort. Tahoe City is"at the Y" of Highway 89 and 28. Highway 89 heads north towards Truckee on Interstate 80 and passes byAlpine Meadows andSquaw Valley USA, home of the 1960 Winter Olympic Games, and Highway 28 heads back toward Nevada. Tahoe City is a laid back town near the outlet of theTruckee River and offers dining and bars, rafting, golfing and shopping.
Back to Nevada
Beyond Tahoe City, Tahoe Vista and Carnelian Bay, the turnoff for Highway 267 also goes to Truckee over the Brockway Summit and passes byNorthstar-at-Tahoe ski resort. If you stay on 28 you will head back into Nevada throughKings Beach which offers hotels, restaurants and a public beach. Highway 431, or the Mount Rose Highway, passes by the local favorites ofTahoe Meadows, theMount Rose Summit trail,Mount Rose Ski Tahoe resort and into the Galena area of South Reno, home to Jack Nicklaus's Montreaux Golf and Country Club.
The quiet, laid back town of Incline Village has some of the local favorites in food and drink. SkiDiamond Peak, play a round of golf at theIncline Village Golf Course or access the lake at theLake Tahoe State Park from Hidden Beach orSand Harbor. Sand Harbor is the prettiest beach on the lake and home to the annualLake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. Farther along the road you will see a parking area forSecret Harbor, a clothing-optional beach about a mile hike from the road.
This is near the end of your circle of Tahoe. You can drive back down Highway 50 to Carson City which connects along Highway 395 to Reno and Sparks, or you can take the loop again! Lake Tahoe is big and full of out-of-the-way treats. It might be best to take the lake in sections. But after your first visit, you are bound to come back and join the locals in helping to"Keep Tahoe Blue." © NileGuide
Fun Facts
1. Donner Pass andDonner Lake are named after the ill-fated Donner Party. This group of settlers attempted to cross the mountains in the winter of 1846-47. Most of them were trapped by the snow and several of them resorted to cannibalism to survive.
2. Strange Fact: Truckee, California often registers the lowest temperature in the nation, but not during the winter season. During the spring/summer seasons of 1991, 1993 and 1994, Truckee claimed the honor of coldest spot in the nation, excluding Alaska.
3. The deepest snowpack recorded at Tahoe was over 30 feet deep in 1890.
4. Interesting Fact: If Lake Tahoe was tipped over, the water would cover California to a depth of fourteen and a half inches.
Lake Tahoe Snapshot continued
5. Weird Fact: Many drowning victims are never recovered from Lake Tahoe. The cold water at lower depths preserves the bodies and prevents the formation of gases that would otherwise float them to the surface.
6. Interesting Fact: As an"interstate navigable waterway," Lake Tahoe is protected by the U. S. Coast Guard and
is reputed to be the most desirable Coast Guard duty station in the world.
7. Tahoe has nine mountains with peaks over 10,000 feet includingMt. Rose, Jobs Peak and Freel Peak.
8. The Tahoe area averages more than 300 days of sun each year.
9. Tahoe has 18 alpine and cross country ski resorts and over 50 championship golf courses.
10. Random Fact:Virginia City is known as"The Liveliest Ghost Town in the West.
11. The floor of the Tahoe basin(the bottom the lake) is near the 4,580 foot elevation, lower than the surface of the Carson Valley to the east.
12. Fun Fact: Sixty three streams flow into Lake Tahoe.
© NileGuide
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ARTICLE
Medical-grade honey enriched with antimicrobial peptides has enhanced activity against antibiotic-resistant pathogens
P. H. S. Kwakman & L. de Boer & C. P. Ruyter-Spira & T. Creemers-Molenaar &
J. P. F. G. Helsper & C. M. J. E. Vandenbroucke-Grauls & S. A. J. Zaat & A. A. te Velde
Received: 10 May 2010 /Accepted: 22 September 2010
The Author(s) 2010. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
#
Abstract Honey has potent activity against both antibioticsensitive and -resistant bacteria, and is an interesting agent for topical antimicrobial application to wounds. As honey is diluted by wound exudate, rapid bactericidal activity up to high dilution is a prerequisite for its successful application. We investigated the kinetics of the killing of antibioticresistant bacteria by RS honey, the source for the production of Revamil® medical-grade honey, and we aimed to enhance the rapid bactericidal activity of RS honey by enrichment with its endogenous compounds or the addition of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). RS honey killed antibiotic-resistant isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterococcus faecium, and
P. H. S. Kwakman
Burkholderia cepacia within 2 h, but lacked such rapid activity against methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli. It was not feasible to enhance the rapid activity of RS honey by enrichment with endogenous compounds, but RS honey enriched with 75 μM of the synthetic peptide Bactericidal Peptide 2 (BP2) showed rapid bactericidal activity against all species tested, including MRSA and ESBL E. coli, at up to 10–20-fold dilution. RS honey enriched with BP2 rapidly killed all bacteria tested and had a broader spectrum of bactericidal activity than either BP2 or honey alone.
:
L. de Boer:
C. M. J. E. Vandenbroucke-Grauls:
S. A. J. Zaat (*)
Department of Medical Microbiology, Academic Medical Center,
University of Amsterdam,
Meibergdreef 15,
1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org
C. P. Ruyter-Spira : J. P. F. G. Helsper Plant Research International, Wageningen, The Netherlands
T. Creemers-Molenaar Bfactory Health Products, Rhenen, The Netherlands
C. M. J. E. Vandenbroucke-Grauls Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, VU Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
A. A. te Velde
Tytgat Institute for Liver and Intestinal Research, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Introduction
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose a very serious threat to public health. For all antibiotic classes, including the major last-resort drugs, resistance is increasing worldwide [1, 2]. Even more alarming, very few new antibiotics are being developed [1, 3], so alternative antimicrobial strategies are urgently needed.
The potent in vitro activity of honey against antibioticresistant bacteria [4] and its successful application in the treatment of chronic wound infections not responding to antibiotic therapy [5] resulted in a revival of the interest in honey as an antibacterial agent [6–8]. Important prerequisites for the application of honey as an antimicrobial agent are reproducible and rapid bactericidal activity [9] and knowledge of its mechanism of action.
Honeys collected from the natural environment, including Manuka honey, which is used for the production of most currently available medical-grade honeys, show large variation in antibacterial activity [10, 11]. Manuka honey can contain very high levels of methylglyoxal (MGO), which is regarded
to be the major antibacterial compound in this honey [12, 13]. The honey used as a source for Revamil® medical-grade honey (RS honey) is produced under standardized conditions in greenhouses, and is sterilized by gamma irradiation to kill potentially present bacterial spores. Gamma irradiation is known not to affect honey bactericidal activity [14]. Revamil® has broad-spectrum, batch-to-batch reproducible bactericidal activity in vitro. It has been shown that it can strongly diminish microbial colonization of the human skin [15]. We have recently identified all major bactericidal factors in RS honey, i.e., its high sugar concentration, H2O2, low pH, MGO, and the cationic antimicrobial peptide (AMP) bee defensin-1 [16].
AMPs are known for their potent, rapid, broad-spectrum microbicidal activity. Their supposed mechanism of action is the direct targeting of microbial membranes [17], although AMPs may also have intracellular targets [18, 19]. A cationic domain of these peptides specifically interacts with the negatively charged outer surfaces of microorganisms and a hydrophobic domain is required for membrane perturbation or penetration, causing either membrane disruption or translocation into the cell [20, 21]. Some bacteria have evolved mechanisms to reduce their outer surface negative charge to reduce susceptibility to AMPs [22]. Since this involves complex biosynthetic pathways, the risk for rapid resistance development against AMPs is considered to be low [22].
In the current study, we show that RS honey has potent bactericidal activity, but this requires prolonged exposure of the target organisms. RS honey lacks rapid bactericidal activity against several important antibiotic-resistant wound pathogens, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. We were not able to augment the bactericidal activity of RS honey by enrichment with endogenous honey bactericidal compounds, but addition of the synthetic AMP Bactericidal Peptide 2 (BP2) did result in broad-spectrum rapid bactericidal activity.
Materials and methods
Honey
Unprocessed Revamil source (RS) honey was kindly provided by Bfactory Health Products (Rhenen, The Netherlands).
Peptides
BP2 (GKWKLFKKAFKKFLKILAC) and LL-37 were synthesized at Pepscan Systems (Lelystad, The Netherlands) using solid-phase Fmoc (9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl) chemistry with a free amine at the N-terminus and a free amide at the C-terminus. Peptides were highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-purified and the purity (>95%) and mass were confirmed by ion-spray mass spectrometry. The lack of disulfide formation between free cysteines of BP2 was confirmed by quadrupole time-of-flight/mass spectrometry (Q-TOF/ MS) analysis.
Microorganisms
Bactericidal activity was assessed against clinical isolates of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis (MRSE), vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREF), extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)producing Escherichia coli (E. coli ESBL) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ESBL, and against the Burkholderia cepacia ATCC 25416 type strain. The oxacillin susceptibility of S. aureus and S. epidermidis and the vancomycin susceptibility of E. faecium were determined by Etest (AB Biodisk) according to the manufacturer's instructions. ESBLs were identified as described by Al Naiemi et al. [23].
Determination of H2O2 concentration in honey
Hydrogen peroxide concentrations in honey were determined quantitatively using a modification of a method described by White and Subers [24]. Undiluted and ten-fold-diluted samples of honey (40 μl) were mixed in wells of microtiter plates with 135 μl reagent, consisting of 50 μg/ml o-dianisidine (Sigma) and 20 μg/ml horseradish peroxidase type IV (Sigma) in 10 mM phosphate buffer pH 6.5. o-Dianisidine was freshly prepared as a 1 mg/ml stock in demineralized water and peroxidase was diluted from a 10 mg/ml stock in 10 mM phosphate buffer pH 6.5 stored at −20°C. After 5 min of incubation at room temperature, reactions were stopped by the addition of 120 μl 6 M H2SO4 and absorption at 540 nm was measured. Hydrogen peroxide concentrations were calculated using a calibration curve of two-fold serial dilutions of H2O2 ranging from 2,200 to 2.1 μM.
Liquid bactericidal assay
Bactericidal activity was quantitatively assessed in low protein binding polypropylene microtiter plates (Costar Corning). Bacteria from logarithmic phase cultures in trypticase soy broth (TSB; BD Difco) were washed twice with incubation buffer containing 10 mM phosphate buffer pH 7.0 supplemented with 1% (v/v) TSB and were suspended at a concentration of 5×10 6 CFU/ml, based on optical density. A 50% (v/v) stock solution of honey was freshly prepared in incubation buffer. For enrichment with AMPs, an aliquot of 1.2 mM LL-37 or BP2 stock solutions
was added to 50% honey solutions to obtain 37.5 μM of peptide, thus, corresponding to the enrichment of undiluted honey with 75 μM of the respective peptides. Eighty microliters of diluted honey was mixed with 20 μl of a bacterial inoculum containing 5×10 6 CFU/ml, and the plates were incubated at 37°C on a rotary shaker at 150 rpm. At indicated time points, duplicate 10-μl aliquots of undiluted and ten-fold serially diluted suspensions were plated on blood agar. The dilutions were prepared in incubation buffer containing 0.025% sodium polyanethol sulfonate (SPS; Sigma), which neutralizes cationic bactericidal components [25]. Bacterial survival was quantified after overnight growth at 37°C. The detection level of this assay is 100 CFU/ml.
To determine the LC99.9 values of LL-37 and BP2, 25-μl aliquots of two-fold serially diluted peptide in incubation buffer were prepared in polypropylene microtiter plates (Costar Corning) and to each of the wells, 25 μl of a bacterial suspension containing 2×10 6 CFU/ml was added. After 2 h of incubation on a rotary shaker at 150 rpm at 37°C, triplicate 10-μl aliquots were plated on blood agar plates. The plates were inspected for growth after 24 h. LC99.9 was defined as the lowest concentration of peptide which killed >99.9% of the inoculum of 10 6 CFU/ml after 2 h.
Partial purification of bee defensin-1
We previously demonstrated that bee defensin-1 is the only bactericidal factor in the >5-kDa fraction of RS honey [16]. To prepare a >5-kDa fraction, 15 ml of 20% (v/v) honey was centrifuged in a 5-kDa molecular weight cut-off Amicon Ultra-15 tube (Millipore) at 4,000g for 45 min at room temperature. The >5-kDa retentate was subsequently washed three times in the filter tube with 15 ml of demineralized water and concentrated to 0.3 ml.
Results
Kinetics of the bactericidal activity of RS honey
We determined the kinetics of the bactericidal activity of different dilutions of RS honey against various antibioticresistant pathogens. RS honey at a concentration of 40% (v/v) reduced the survival of MRSE, VREF, ESBLproducing P. aeruginosa, and Burkholderia cepacia to undetectable levels within 2 h, while similar activity against MRSA and ESBL E. coli required 6 h of incubation (Fig. 1). RS honey at a concentration of 20% killed B. cepacia within 4 h of incubation, while activity against all other bacteria required 24 h of incubation (Fig. 1). RS honey diluted to 10% killed MRSA and
MRSE after 24 h, but lacked activity against all other bacteria tested (Fig. 1).
Even in undiluted RS honey, the survival of MRSA was not affected within 2 h (Fig. 2) of incubation and the numbers of CFU of E. coli ESBL were only reduced by 2.3-log. After 24 h incubation in undiluted honey, the survival of E. coli was reduced to undetectable levels, but the numbers of CFU of MRSA were only reduced by 1-log (Fig. 2). In summary, RS honey did not rapidly kill MRSA and E. coli ESBL, and rapid activity against all other species tested was abolished upon dilution of the honey to ≤20%.
H2O2 concentration required for the rapid killing of MRSA
Since MRSA and E. coli ESBL were not rapidly killed by RS honey, we assessed whether the endogenous concentrations of bactericidal compounds in RS honey might be too low for rapid activity. The dilution of RS honey to 30% was optimal for H2O2 accumulation, resulting in maximal concentrations of 22.5±1.3 μg/ml and 148.4±27.8 μg/ml H2O2 after 2 and 24 h, respectively (Fig. 3a). In incubations not containing honey but only H2O2, 3,200 μg/ml H2O2 was required to kill MRSA within 2 h (Fig. 3b). This is 142 times the concentration of H2O2 that maximally accumulated in RS honey after a similar 2-h incubation period, indicating that the H2O2 concentration in honey is far too low for rapid activity against MRSA. In view of possible toxicity (see the Discussion section), it is not feasible to increase the concentration of H2O2 in honey to the level required for rapid killing. For similar reasons, we did not assess the enrichment of RS honey with MGO.
Bee defensin-1 concentration required for the rapid killing of MRSA
Next, we assessed the contribution of bee defensin-1 to the rapid bactericidal activity of RS honey. At the concentration present in undiluted RS honey, bee defensin-1 effectively killed Bacillus subtilis, a highly bee defensin-1-susceptible organism [16], within 2 h (Fig. 4a). However, this peptide had no substantial activity against MRSA, E. coli ESBL, or VREF (Fig. 4a). Even at an eight-fold higher concentration, bee defensin-1 reduced the numbers of CFU of MRSA after 2 h by only 1-log (Fig. 4b), indicating that it also was not feasible to enhance the rapid bactericidal activity of RS honey by increasing the concentration of bee defensin-1.
Enhanced rapid bactericidal activity of LL-37-enriched honey
We subsequently assessed the potential of LL-37, a broadspectrum human AMP expressed in neutrophils and various
epithelial cells [26, 27], to enhance the rapid bactericidal activity of honey. RS honey was enriched with ten-fold excess (75 μM) of the concentration of LL-37 required to reduce the survival of MRSA to undetectable levels (Fig. 5a). The lethal concentration of LL-37 for 99.9% of the inocula (LC99.9) of MRSA and E. coli in 2-h incubations were 7.5 and 1.9 μM, respectively (Fig. 5a). The enrichment of RS honey with LL-37 substantially improved the activity against E. coli ESBL and VREF, but not against other bacteria tested (Fig. 5b). LL-37-enriched honey retained bactericidal activity against E. coli ESBL and VREF up to 20-fold dilution, which was a major improvement compared to non-enriched honey (Fig. 5b). The LC99.9 of LL-37 in honey, however, was four-fold higher than in incubation buffer (Fig. 5b), indicating that honey inhibited LL-37. Inhibition was even more clear from the tests with MRSA, MRSE, and P. aeruginosa. Enrichment with LL-37 did not substantially improve the activity of honey, while LL-37 alone effectively killed these bacteria (Fig. 5b).
Enhanced bactericidal activity of BP2-enriched honey
The synthetic AMP BP2 has potent activity in physiological salt concentrations and in plasma, and is effective in vivo in a mouse model of biomaterial-associated infection [28]. The LC99.9 concentrations of BP2 for MRSA and E. coli in 2-h incubations were 1.9 and 3.8 μM, respectively (Fig. 6a). RS honey enriched with ten-fold excess (75 μM) of the concentration of BP2 required to reduce the survival of MRSA to undetectable levels (Fig. 6a) retained bactericidal activity against all bacteria tested up to 20-fold dilution, except for P. aeruginosa (Fig. 6b), which was killed by up to a ten-fold dilution of this enriched RS honey (Fig. 6b). Non-enriched RS honey lacked rapid bactericidal activity for all bacteria tested when diluted more than 2.5-fold.
The activity of BP2 against E. coli ESBL and VREF was not inhibited in honey (Fig. 6b). The killing of MRSA, MRSE, and P. aeruginosa ESBL required 2–4-fold higher
2 2
Fig. 3a, b Concentration of H2O2 required for activity against MRSA. a Production of H2O2 in diluted RS honey. The accumulation of H2O2 in indicated concentrations of RS honey was assessed at 2 h (squares) or 24 h (triangles) after dilution. b Bactericidal activity of solutions containing only H2O2. The survival of MRSA was assessed after 2 h (white bars) or 24 h (gray bars) of incubation with the indicated concentrations of H2O2
concentrations of BP2 in honey than in buffer (Fig. 6b). This indicates a slight reduction of BP2 activity in honey, but markedly less than the observed inhibition of LL-37 in honey. We conclude that enrichment with 75 μM BP2 markedly enhanced the rapid bactericidal activity of RS honey.
Discussion
The potent activity against antibiotic-resistant pathogenic bacteria makes honey an interesting agent to treat topical infections not responding to antibiotics. Ideally, honey used
for such applications should have rapid and broad-spectrum bactericidal activity. In addition, honey should remain active upon dilution, since honey will be rapidly diluted at the wound interface due to its hygroscopic characteristics and the presence of wound exudate.
RS honey has reproducible, broad-spectrum bactericidal activity in vitro and effectively reduces the microbial colonization of human skin [15]. Our present results, however, show that the activity of this honey against the major wound-infecting pathogens MRSA and E. coli ESBL is not rapid. Honey does have rapid activity against P. aeruginosa, E. faecium, and S. epidermidis, but this activity is lost when RS honey becomes diluted. Of note, B. cepacia, an otherwise notoriously antibiotic-resistant pathogen, proved to be the most honey-susceptible organism. Enhancement of the activity of RS honey with its endogenous microbicidal compounds appeared not to be feasible, but addition of the cationic AMP BP2 did increase the activity to the desired levels.
We recently identified all bactericidal factors in RS honey using an approach of successive neutralization of individual factors combined with activity-guided isolation of factors responsible for residual bactericidal activity [16]. Thus, we determined that the high sugar concentration, H2O2 production, MGO, the low pH, and bee defensin-1 were responsible for the bactericidal activity of RS honey. In order to enhance the rapid bactericidal activity of RS honey, we first assessed the potential of H2O2 and of bee defensin-1. Upon the dilution of honey, H2O2 is produced by the glucose oxidase enzyme from the bees [24, 29]. The production of H2O2 was highest in RS honey diluted to 30%, in which 22.5 and 148 μg/ml accumulated after 2 and 24 h, respectively. In a study with 90 different honeys, 12±
Fig. 6a, b Efficacy of bactericidal peptide 2 (BP2) to enhance the rapid bactericidal activity of RS honey. a Survival of MRSA (squares) and E. coli ESBL (triangles) after 2 h of incubation in indicated concentrations of BP2 in incubation buffer. b Bactericidal activity of BP2-enriched RS honey. Indicated microorganisms were incubated for 2 h in two-fold serial dilutions of 75 μM BP2 (white bars), RS honey alone (gray bars), or RS honey enriched with 75 μM BP2 (black bars). The highest dilutions of these preparations killing at least 99.9% of the inocula are indicated. Mean±SEM values of independent triplicate incubations are shown
19 μg/ml hydrogen peroxide (range 0–72 μg/ml) accumulated in honey diluted to 20% (w/v) after 4 h [24], indicating that RS honey produces relatively high levels of H2O2.
MRSA is highly susceptible to H2O2-mediated killing by RS honey upon incubation for 24 h [16]. The killing of MRSA within 2 h by H2O2 in the absence of honey required a concentration as high as 3,200 μg/ml H2O2 (corresponding to a 0.32% (w/v) solution). Wound cleansing with a 3% (w/v) solution of H2O2 has been a clinical practice, but at this concentration, H2O2 is toxic to human cells and skin tissue, and tissue exposure can result in delayed wound healing [30–32] . Although the concentration of H2O2 required to kill MRSA was about ten-fold lower than the concentration used for wound cleansing, we did not consider increasing the levels of H2O2 as a possibility to improve the rapid bactericidal activity of RS honey.
Bee defensin-1 (also referred to as royalisin [33]) is a 51residue AMP identified in honey bee hemolymph, royal jelly, and in honey [16, 33, 34]. Because of its complicated folding with three intramolecular cysteine bonds, the synthetic production of bee defensin-1 is not possible and recombinant production would be highly challenging. Bee defensin-1 effectively kills B. subtilis but lacks activity against all other bacteria tested at a concentration equivalent to that in undiluted honey. Even at an eight-fold higher concentration, bee defensin-1 only slightly reduced the survival of MRSA. The narrow spectrum of its bactericidal activity renders bee defensin-1 unsuited for enhancement of the bactericidal activity of honey.
MGO is present in RS honey at a relatively low concentration (0.25 mM) compared to the concentrations reported for Manuka honey (up to 16.1 mM) [12]. MGO is a reactive metabolite that can exert toxic effects by the direct inhibition of enzymes, by genomic modifications resulting in carcinogenesis, and by protein modifications resulting in the formation of advanced glycation end products [35]. The latter are believed to be the main determinants for pathological effects related to diabetes [36, 37]. Because of the concerns regarding the potential toxicity of MGO, we did not pursue to augment the activity of RS honey with this compound.
Other honey bactericidal factors are the high sugar concentration and low pH. Honey is a super-saturated sugar solution, so it is not possible to further increase its sugar concentration. RS honey has a pH of 3.2, which is at the lower end of the pH range found for honeys (3.2–4.5) [16]. Even such a low pH only contributed to the activity against B. subtilis after 24 h of incubation, and not to the activity against other bacterial species [16]. Therefore, the sugar concentration and low pH were not suited as factors for the enhancement of the bactericidal activity of honey.
In contrast to bee defensin-1, most AMPs have broadspectrum bactericidal activity. The human α-helical AMP
LL-37 is one of the best characterized AMPs [38–41]. Despite its potent activity in incubation buffer, LL-37 was strongly inhibited in the presence of honey. BP2 is a synthetic AMP with very rapid broad-spectrum microbicidal activity, which is retained in plasma and in physiological salt solution [28]. BP2 also effectively kills S. epidermidis in vivo, in a murine model of biomaterialassociated infection [28], indicating its potential for clinical application. The activity of BP2 against E. coli ESBL and VREF was not inhibited in honey, and activity against MRSA, MRSE, and P. aeruginosa ESBL required only slightly higher (2–4-fold) concentrations in honey than in buffer. Thus, BP2 was certainly suited for the enrichment of honey.
B. cepacia is notorious for its intrinsic resistance against antibiotics [42, 43] and AMPs [44], and is, indeed, not susceptible to LL-37 [44] or to BP2 [28]. Our results demonstrate, however, that B. cepacia is relatively susceptible to honey compared to other tested bacteria, which is in accordance with the findings of Cooper et al. [45]. Not surprisingly, the addition of BP2 to RS honey did not enhance the bactericidal activity against B. cepacia (not shown).
In summary, we were able to enhance the bactericidal activity of honey by enrichment with the AMP BP2. BP2enriched RS honey had rapid bactericidal activity up to a high dilution against all bacteria tested and had a broader spectrum of bactericidal activity than either agent alone. This offers prospects for the development of clinically applicable honey-based antimicrobials with rapid and broad-range microbicidal activity.
Funding This work was supported by a SENTER grant (TSGE2055) from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Conflict of interest None to declare.
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
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INTSORMIL Scientific Publications
International Sorghum and Millet Collaborative Research Support Program (INTSORMIL CRSP)
5-1-2008
Evaluation of Pearl Millet for Yield and Downy Mildew Resistance across Seven Countries in SubSaharan Africa
J. P. Wilson
United State Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, CGBRU (Tifton, GA), firstname.lastname@example.org
M. D. Sanogo
Institut d'Economie Rurale du Mali, Cinzana Agricultural Research Station (Ségou, Mali)
S. K. Nutsugah
Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (Tamale, Ghana)
I. Angarawai
Lake Chad Research Institute (Maiduguri, Nigeria)
A. Fofana
Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles (Kolda, Senegal)
See next page for additional authors
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Wilson, J. P.; Sanogo, M. D.; Nutsugah, S. K.; Angarawai, I.; Fofana, A.; Traore, H.; Ahmadou, I.; and Muuka, F. P., "Evaluation of Pearl Millet for Yield and Downy Mildew Resistance across Seven Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa" (2008). INTSORMIL Scientific Publications. Paper 33.
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Authors
J. P. Wilson, M. D. Sanogo, S. K. Nutsugah, I. Angarawai, A. Fofana, H. Traore, I. Ahmadou, and F. P. Muuka
African Journal of Agricultural Research Vol. 3 (5), pp. 371-378, May, 2008
ISSN 1991- 637X © 2008 Academic Journals
Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJAR
Full Length Research Paper
Evaluation of pearl millet for yield and downy mildew resistance across seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa
J.P. Wilson 1* , M. D. Sanogo 2 , S.K. Nutsugah 3 , I. Angarawai 4 , A. Fofana 5 , H. Traore 6 , I. Ahmadou 7 , and F.P. Muuka 8
2
1 United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, CGBRU, Tifton, GA 31793-0748.
3
Institut d'Economie Rurale du Mali, Cinzana Agricultural Research Station, BP 214, Ségou, Mali.
4
Savannah Agricultural Research Institute, P.O. Box 52, Tamale, Ghana.
5
Lake Chad Research Institute, KM 6 Gamboru Ngala Rd., P.M.B. 1293, Maiduguri, Nigeria.
6
Institut de l'Environnement et Recherches Agricoles/CREAF de Kamboinse, B.P. 476, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles, CRZ, BP 53, Kolda, Senegal.
7
8
Institut National de Recherches Agronomiques du Niger, B.P. 429, Niamey, Niger.
Ministry of Agriculture, Kaoma Research Station, PO Box 940084, Kaoma, Zambia.
Accepted 2 May, 2008
Forty pearl millet germplasms consisting of traditional and improved open pollinated varieties, hybrids, and inbreds were selected to represent diversity for grain yield or quality, fertility restoration for specific cytoplasms, resistance to diseases or pests, variation in height and maturity, and origin. Evaluations were conducted in field trials in Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal in 2003 and 2004 and in Burkina Faso, Niger, and Zambia in 2004. Data were collected on yield, downy mildew incidence, maturity, plant height, and panicle length. Variation occurred for all traits across locations and genotypes. Across locations and years, Sosat-C88, ICMV IS 89305, Gwagwa, NKK, Sosank, and CIVT were the highest yielding entries. Yields of Sosat-C88, Sosank, and CIVT were more stable across environments, and yields of ICMV IS 89305, Gwagwa, and NKK increased in response to more favorable environments. Sosank, CIVT, ICMV IS 89305, Sosat-C88, and Gwagwa were also among the most downy mildew resistant entries. Across locations and years, grain yield was negatively correlated with downy mildew incidence, and positively correlated with days to flowering, plant height, and panicle length. These correlations differed among some of the individual trials, with days to flowering having the least consistent correlations with grain yield. Further selection for improved yield and broad adaptation in pearl millet is likely to be possible, however, site-specific selection is necessary to identify other important traits in addition to yield. The high-yielding and downy mildew resistant pearl millets identified in this study will be useful to introgress new traits into preferred local varieties, or to serve as parental material for breeding and hybrid development.
Key words: Pennisetum glaucum, Sclerospora graminicola, multi-environment trials, yield potential, yield stability.
INTRODUCTION
Commercial markets for the traditional cereals of Africa
will change as regional demand grows for processed foods and as consumption habits change from grains to animal products. Advances in food processing technology and an increasing demand for feed should lead to greater price stability for domestically produced grain (Vitale and
Table 1. Pearl millet germplasm evaluated in multilocation trials in Africa in 2003 and 2004
| Germplasm | Origin | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Kapielga P1449-2 PT732B Arrow Bongo Short Head Manga Nara Tongo Yellow 99-72 Guéfoué 16 NKO x TC1 Synthetic 1-2000 Indiana 05 NKK Sosat-C88 Toronio 3/4 ExBornu 3/4 HK 3/4 Souna CIVT GB 8735 HKP(GMS) ICMV IS 89305 ICMV IS 90311 Sosank Taram Zatib Sadoré Local Zongo DMR 15 DMR 68 DMR 72 LCIC 9702 Gwagawa 68A x 086R TG102 T99B T454 99M59043Mw x 68A4R4 IBMV8401M x 68A4R4w 01Miso NCD2-NE | Burkina Faso Ghana Ghana Ghana Ghana Ghana Ghana India Mali Mali Mali Mali Mali Mali Mali Niger Niger Niger Niger Niger Niger Niger Niger Niger Niger Niger Niger Niger Nigeria Nigeria Nigeria Nigeria Nigeria U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A. | Local OP Improved OP Improved OP Local OP Local OP Local OP Local OP A4 restorer inbred Experimental OP Experimental OP Experimental OP Improved OP Improved OP Improved OP Local OP Experimental OP Experimental OP Experimental OP Improved OP Improved OP Improved OP Improved OP Improved OP Improved OP Improved OP Improved OP Local OP Local OP A1 restorer inbred Experimental inbred Experimental inbred Improved OP Local OP A1 hybrid A1 hybrid A1 maintainer inbred A1 restorer inbred A4 hybrid A4 hybrid Experimental OP |
OP = open-pollinated
Sanders, 2005). One challenge to developing the comercial potential of pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br] is the ability of growers to provide a consistent product that meets market standards. Pearl millet varieties with high yield, tolerance to environmental stresses and disease and pest resistance are an integral part of meet- ing this challenge and variety improvement remains a goal of both national and international agencies. Pearl millet breeding programs are located throughout diverse agro-ecological zones in sub-Saharan Africa but function in relative isolation from each other.
Despite the conflicting schools of thought, multilocation testing remains an effective approach to rapidly assess germplasm for yield. Biotic and abiotic production constraints, such as downy mildew (caused by Sclerospora graminicola (Sacc.) Schroet.) and droughts are more likely to be encountered across the various trials. This study was designed to evaluate diverse pearl millet germplasms for yield and downy mildew resistance and stability of these traits over a range of production environments in sub-Saharan Africa, and to identify traits associated with yield. This information can be used to identify superior germplasm for further breeding of improved varieties.
Germplasm developed within individual programs often have superior performance within the region of selection. Research conducted with other crops suggests that greater gain and stability can be obtained when selecting for broad adaptation compared to site-specific performance (Jackson and McRae, 1998; Holland et al., 2002). Others suggest that broad adaptation may not be a preferred goal in developing crops (such as pearl millet) that are grown as landraces and in marginal production areas (Ceccarelli, 1996; Omanya et al., 2007).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Forty diverse pearl millet germplasms were selected on the basis of traits such as grain yield, quality, fertility restoration for specific cytoplasms, resistance to diseases or pests, variation in height and maturity, and diversity of origin. These germplasms consisted of traditional and improved open pollinated varieties, hybrids, and inbreds (Table 1). The varieties used in this study were obtained from researchers at national and international programs. A single seed stock for each variety was distributed among collaborators to reduce inconsistency that might occur from the use of locally maintained seed stocks.
The trial in Burkina Faso was planted at the INERA Kamboinse Research Station near Ouagadougou. The experiment was planted 29 July 2004. Plots were fertilized with 100 kg/ha of NPK (10-10-10) on 12 Aug 2004 and 50 kg/ha urea (46-0-0) was applied on 29 Aug 2004. Plots were two rows, 0.8 m long, with 0.8 m between rows and 0.2 m spacing between hills. The trial in Ghana was conducted at the SARI Manga Research Station. Tests were planted 9 June 2003 and 8 June 2004. Plot size was 5 x 3 m with inter- and intrarow spacing of 0.75 and 0.20 m, respectively. Fertilizer NPK (15-1515) was applied in three applications at a rate of 40, 30, and 30 kg/ha at planting, and at three week intervals, respectively. The
In 2003, field trials were grown in Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal. In 2004, trials were grown in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Zambia. Experiments were arranged in a randomized complete block design. Four replications were sown in Mali, two in Nigeria, one in Niger. Three replications were sown in the other countries. The trials were grown with locally appropriate protocols for planting date, plot dimensions, and fertilizer applications.
trials in Mali were sown at the IER Cinzana Research Station on 5 July 2003 and 10 July 2004. Plots were fertilized with 100 kg/ha ammonium phosphate (16-20-0) at planting, and with 50 kg/ha urea (46-0-0) two weeks after planting. Plots were 2 rows, 5 m long. Distance between rows was 0.75 m and hills were spaced 0.5 m. The trial in Niger was planted at the INRAN Research Station, Bengou on 8 July 2004. Plots were 10 m long and 4 rows wide. Hills were spaced 1 x 1 m. Fertilizer was applied at rate of 50 kg/ha NPK (15-15-15) after thinning, and 100 kg/ha of urea (46-0-0) three weeks later. The trials in Nigeria were planted at the Lake Chad Research Institute, Maiduguri. Plots were planted 26 June 2003 and 28 June 2004. Plots were 2 rows 5 m long with 75 cm between rows. Hills were spaced 50 cm within row. NPK fertilizer 20-10-10 was applied at 60 kg/ha at planting and supplemented by urea (460-0) four weeks after sowing. Trials in Senegal were conducted at the ISRA Station in Bambey. Plots were sown 22 July 2003 and 27 July 2004. Plots were 2 rows; 6.3 m long with 90 cm between rows and hills were spaced 90 cm within rows. Fertilizer was applied at 150 kg/ha of NPK (15-15-15) in 2003 and NPK (15-10-10) in 2004 at planting. Two applications each of 50 kg/ha of urea (46-0-0) were applied at 15 and 40 days after planting. The trial in Zambia was sown at the Longe Technological Assessment Site, Kamoa District, Western Province. Plots were 1 row, 4.2 m long. Rows were spaced 0.6 m apart, and hills within rows were spaced 0.3 m. Fertilizer was applied as NPK (10-20-10) at 100 kg/ha and top dressed with urea (46-0-0) at 50 kg/ha. Only a subset of the West African pearl millets was grown in Zambia (Table 2).
To assess broad adaptation over all locations and years, data were analyzed by the mixed models procedure of SAS (Cary NC, USA), with sums of squares partitioned into trial, replication (trial), entry and trial x entry interactions. Means were separated by Fisher's lsd at P = 0.05. To assess site-specific adaptation, data were also analyzed within locations. Regression analyses were conducted for grain yield and downy mildew incidence data to compare stability of the response across the different environments (Finlay and Wilkinson, 1963). The mean yield and downy mildew incidence of the individual entries in each trial was regressed on the mean response for all entries in each trial. Deviations of the calculated slope from 0 were determined by Student's t-tests. Regression equations with slopes not different from 0 were considered to indicate stable performance across trials.
To standardize downy mildew ratings across locations, hills were thinned to a single plant per hill by three weeks after sowing. Plants were examined for the presence of downy mildew symptoms to assess incidence, rather than severity. The use of downy mildew incidence, rather than severity as an indicator of resistance was based on the premise that severity is affected by a number of variables, including the stage of plant growth at time of infection (Semisi and Ball, 1989), and environmental and soil factors (Gupta and Singh, 1999). Genetically susceptible plants are more likely to exhibit symptoms of infection than genetically resistant plants, regardless of environmental conditions and stage of maturation at time of infection. Other data recorded in the trials included days to 50% flowering (assessed on a per-plot basis), mature plant height (assessed on a per-plot basis), panicle length (average of five representative panicles per plot), and grain yield.
Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated within individual location x year trials to identify associations of grain yield with downy mildew incidence, time to flowering, plant height, and panicle length.
RESULTS
Grain yield
Across all locations and years, Sosat-C88 was the high- est yielding entry, but yields of ICMV IS 89305, Gwagwa, NKK, Sosank, and CIVT were not significantly different from Sosat-C88 (P < 0.05) (Table 2). Sums of squares due to trial, entry, and trial x entry interactions were significant (P < 0.05). Among the highest-yielding entries, Sosat-C88, Sosank, and CIVT had regression slopes that did not differ from 0 (P > 0.05), and these entries could be considered to have more stable yield across environments, even in those environments with low yield potential. ICMV IS 89305, Gwagwa, and NKK had positive slopes indicating that their yields increased in response to improved yield potential of the environments.
Mean yield was also low in the Ghana 2003-04 trials. Varieties GB 8735, Arrow, Sosat-C88, Bongo Short Head, and Manga Nara were the highest yielding entries (P < 0.05). Arrow, Bongo Short Head, and Manga Nara are local Ghana varieties that exhibited site-specific adaptation.
Mean yield was low in the Burkina Faso 2004 trial. The local variety Kapielga was the highest yielding entry, but eighteen other entries were not significantly different (P < 0.05) in yield from Kapielga. The top yielding entries included the U.S. hybrids IBMV8401M×68A4R4w and TG102.
Mean yield was greatest in the Mali 2003-04 trials. NKO x TC1 was the top yielding entry, and 12 other entries were not significantly different in yield (P < 0.05). Varieties originating in Mali and Niger predominated among the top-yielding entries, but included Gwagwa from Nigeria and Kapielga from Burkina Faso.
Mean yield was lowest in the Nigeria 2003-04 trials. NKO x TC1, Synthetic 1-2000, NKK, Bongo Short Head, Sosat-C88, Indiana 05, Sosank, and IBMV8401M × 68A4R4w were the highest yielding entries (P < 0.05). These entries represent Malian varieties, a Ghana variety (Bongo Short Head) and a U.S. hybrid (IBMV8401M × 68A4R4w).
In the Niger 2004 trial, Taram and Sosat-C88 were the highest yielding entries. The trial was not replicated in this location so statistical comparison among varieties was not possible.
Yields were obtained from Senegal only in the 2003 trial. A severe grasshopper infestation decimated the 2004 trial before harvest. In the Senegal 2003 trial, ICMV IS 89305, Sosank, CIVT, Gwagwa, and Sosat-C88 were the highest yielding entries (P < 0.05).
Among the subset of entries evaluated in the Zambia 2004 trial, GB 8735, Gwagwa, and NKK were the highest yielding entries (P < 0.05).
Downy mildew
Across all locations and years, entries ICMV IS 90311, Synthetic 1-2000, Zatib, Sosank, Taram, CIVT, ICMV IS 89305, Sosat-C88, 3/4 Souna, Gwagwa, HKP (GMS), DMR 72, Guéfoué 16, and NKO × TC1 had the lowest inTable 2. Grain yield of pearl millets evaluated at diverse locations in Africa in 2003 and 2004.
| Entry | Grain Yield (kg/ha) at Location | | | | | | | | Slope |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Burkina Faso | Ghana | Mali | Niger | Nigeria | Senegal | Zambia | Mean | |
| | 2004 | 2003-04 | 2003-04 | 2004 | 2003-04 | 2003 | 2004 | 2003-04 | |
| Sosat-C88 ICMV IS 89305 Gwagwa NKK Sosank CIVT Taram HKP (GMS) NKO x TC1 Kapielga Indiana 05 GB 8735 Synthetic 1- 2000 ICMV IS 90311 Toronio Zatib Guéfoué 16 Arrow P1449-2 Manga Nara Zongo IBMV8401M x 68A4R4w Sadoré local Tongo Yellow DMR 15 Bongo Short Head 3/4 HK 3/4 ExBornu PT732B DMR 72 DMR 68 LCIC 9702 3/4 Souna 68A x 086R 99M59043Mw x 68A4R4 TG102 01Miso NCD2- NE T454 99-72 T99B | 828 776 806 810 933 804 570 873 847 1036 632 722 532 982 783 741 753 594 423 869 353 715 292 742 295 413 252 399 722 492 430 568 385 315 425 736 291 164 129 155 | 1057 669 709 562 781 811 699 882 564 690 569 1234 425 838 427 657 528 1103 514 935 469 714 299 769 280 1004 246 333 297 537 252 674 217 800 655 630 444 674 520 164 | 2392 2525 2289 2585 1894 2123 2165 2129 2654 2407 2487 998 2273 1877 2063 1975 2410 1250 1967 1078 2144 1400 1993 1294 1919 835 1752 1468 1415 1292 1385 724 1391 950 902 679 890 634 377 159 | 3627 2558 1888 1891 2182 2023 3909 1761 1918 1686 1819 1209 1748 2108 2252 1081 1850 587 1581 1466 2078 1245 214 1127 327 407 848 640 507 903 85 444 1256 1129 638 153 770 0 0 0 | 932 396 488 968 860 621 405 617 1259 430 883 346 1077 620 810 259 693 525 347 266 383 859 383 456 385 966 310 473 589 358 492 22 200 44 575 79 67 91 271 268 | 2028 2331 2085 794 2163 2128 1472 1661 375 266 782 1120 677 1342 755 1624 593 1023 865 987 555 577 1039 702 871 952 601 687 702 418 632 691 450 498 466 851 672 94 108 497 | 899 1625 2128 1976 1551 905 1188 726 830 - 813 2673 - 664 - 804 360 1515 1092 1280 432 - - - - - - - 569 - - 1384 - - - - - - - - | 1556 1533 1510 1453 1409 1344 1318 1287 1285 1239 1236 1210 1191 1189 1151 1123 1117 1062 1041 970 969 956 936 903 892 844 803 776 766 752 704 701 680 676 674 600 563 434 327 209 | 0.309 0.826 0.564 0.878 0.024 0.206 0.601 0.162 0.768 0.638 0.688 -0.656 0.591 -0.031 0.446 0.231 0.608 -0.556 0.446 -0.599 0.577 - 0.350 0.505 -0.413 0.479 - 1.017 0.359 0.000 -0.142 -0.219 -0.084 -0.671 0.076 -0.540 -0.669 -0.878 -0.457 -0.795 -0.971 -1.052 |
Table 2. cont.
Data are pooled for locations with 2 years of evaluations.
* the Niger test was not replicated, so yield data could not be statistically compared.
Mean values in bold do not differ significantly (P<0.05) from the highest yielding entry.
- indicates that the variety was not evaluated.
Slopes in bold do not differ from zero
LSD for location means = 119 kg/ha incidence of downy mildew (Table 3). In nearly all trials, the U.S. entries were among the most susceptible to downy mildew. This result was expected, since S. graminicola is not found in the western hemisphere and these entries were developed in the absence of selection pressure from the pathogen. When considering the slopes of the regressions in the stability analyses of the most resistant entries, only Gwagwa had slope = 0 (P > 0.05). The other resistant entries had negative slopes, indicating a comparatively lower level of incidence occurred in environments with high disease pressure.
Mean downy mildew was comparatively high in the Ghana 2003-04 trials. Entries Gwagwa, Sosat-C88, Sosank, and ICMV IS 90311 had downy mildew incidence less than 5%, although the downy mildew incidence of 18 other entries did not differ from that of the most resistant entry (P < 0.05).
Mean downy mildew incidence was lowest in the Burkina Faso 2004 trial. No entry had more than 7% incidence. Sixteen entries were free of any downy mildew symptoms.
In the Mali 2003-04 trials, entries 99-72, ICMV IS 90311, Synthetic 1-2000, 3/4 Souna, IBMV8401M × 68A4R4w, and Zatib had downy mildew incidence less than 5%, although the incidence of 11 other entries did not differ from that of the most resistant entry (P < 0.05).
Mean downy mildew incidence was greatest in the Nigeria 2003-04 trials. Sosat-C88 had downy mildew incidence less than 5%, although the downy mildew incidence of 24 other entries did not differ from that of the most resistant entry.
In the Niger 2004 trial, 26 entries had no downy mildew symptoms, while others (primarily the U.S. entries) were highly susceptible. Statistical comparison of incidence among varieties was not possible since the test was not replicated.
Data on downy mildew incidence was recorded in Senegal only in the 2004 trial. Eleven entries had no downy mildew symptoms, although the downy mildew incidence of 20 other entries did not differ from that of the most resistant entries.
Some evidence for site-specific selection for increased
No downy mildew infection was observed on any of the pearl millet entries grown in Zambia.
virulence to local varieties was indicated in the data. Zatib was developed in and is more widely grown in Niger. It had intermediate levels of susceptibility in Niger and Nigeria, but was relatively resistant elsewhere. SosatC88 and Toronio are widely grown in Mali. Both entries had intermediate levels of susceptibility in Mali, but were comparatively more resistant in most of the other locations. Gwagwa and DMR-15 were developed in Nigeria. Both were susceptible in the Nigeria trials, but comparatively more resistant in the other trials.
Correlated traits
Across all locations and years, grain yield was negatively correlated with downy mildew incidence, and positively correlated with days to 50% flowering, plant height, and panicle length (Table 4). This general pattern of correlations was not consistent within the individual trials. Yield was not correlated with downy mildew incidence in the Ghana 2003 and Nigeria 2003 trials. Days to flowering had the least consistent correlations with grain yield. Correlations of yield with days to 50% flowering were positive in both Mali trials, negative in the Senegal 2003 and Zambia 2004 trials, and were not significant in the remainder. Correlation of yield with plant height was negative in Ghana 2003 and was not significant in Nigeria 2003 and Zambia 2004. Grain yield was correlated with panicle length in the Mali and Niger trials, and in the Nigeria 2004 and Senegal 2003 trials, but the correlation was negative in the Zambia 2004 trial.
DISCUSSION
Although we did not identify varieties that consistently performed well in all environments, Sosat-C88, ICMV IS 89305, Gwagwa, NKK, Sosank, and CIVT were the highest yielding entries across all locations and years. SosatC88, Sosank, and CIVT had more stable yields across locations and years, and could be considered to be the most broadly adapted of the highest yielding entries in these trials.
Omanya et al. (2007) suggested that breeding should be directed toward specific zones or regions, rather than
Table 3. Downy mildew incidence of pearl millets evaluated at diverse locations in Africa in 2003 and 2004.
| Entry ICMV IS 90311 Synthetic 1-2000 Zatib Sosank Taram CIVT ICMV IS 89305 Sosat-C88 ¾ Souna Gwagwa HKP (GMS) DMR 72 Guéfoué 16 NKO x TC1 Zongo IBMV8401M x 68A4R4w ¾ HK Sadoré local LCIC 9702 99-72 Kapielga Indiana 05 P1449-2 NKK Arrow DMR 15 ¾ ExBornu Toronio DMR 68 Bongo Short Head Tongo Yellow Manga Nara 01Miso NCD2- NE GB 8735 99M59043Mw x 68A4R4 68A x 086R PT732B T454 TG102 T99B | Downy Mildew Incidence (%) at Location | | | | | | | Slope | P> | t | <0.0001 <0.0001 <0.0001 0.0010 0.0011 <0.0001 <0.0001 <0.0001 0.0310 0.2804 0.0054 0.0452 0.0166 0.0088 0.7403 0.6027 0.0131 0.7774 0.9342 0.3426 0.0705 0.1668 0.4578 0.0749 0.4280 0.5238 0.5380 0.1688 0.4510 0.0723 0.3679 0.0964 0.0140 0.0026 0.0413 0.0031 <0.0001 0.0015 0.0003 0.6894 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Burkina Faso | Ghana | Mali | Niger | Nigeria | Senegal | Mean | | | | |
| | 2004 | 2003-04 | 2003-04 | 2004 | 2003-04 | 2004 | 2003-04 | | | | |
| | 0 3 0 0 0 2 2 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 3 0 2 4 5 2 0 4 4 2 6 5 5 5 0 0 7 3 3 7 0 3 2 6 | 4 5 5 4 7 6 6 4 11 2 10 11 6 10 6 22 11 23 29 30 16 8 12 14 20 19 28 11 31 33 28 42 42 39 69 58 68 86 77 61 | 1 1 3 12 8 7 9 13 1 6 15 9 21 18 11 1 5 18 10 0 31 32 13 34 31 8 5 48 25 26 33 43 26 38 22 36 40 37 43 48 | 0 3 10 0 3 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 18 19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 8 58 0 29 44 20 | 15 8 15 12 16 17 12 2 23 43 6 27 11 7 36 38 34 13 16 30 6 19 59 5 8 48 18 12 18 28 39 18 54 55 31 72 87 77 74 72 | 0 2 0 0 0 2 3 17 18 3 4 0 3 6 0 0 22 0 1 5 0 3 0 3 1 15 40 2 12 4 0 5 13 3 6 2 18 4 13 65 | 3 4 5 7 7 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 10 11 13 13 14 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 17 17 20 21 22 24 28 29 30 32 41 45 47 48 53 | -0.649 -0.839 -0.578 -0.579 -0.473 -0.588 -0.679 -0.942 -0.490 -0.428 -0.490 -0.228 -0.608 -0.601 -0.095 0.145 -0.662 -0.050 -0.018 0.399 -0.514 -0.419 0.231 -0.571 -0.187 0.185 -0.280 -0.573 0.215 0.365 0.264 0.692 0.955 0.822 0.846 1.366 2.180 1.624 1.559 -0.257 | | | |
Table 3. cont.
Data are pooled for locations with 2 years of evaluations.
* the Niger test was not replicated, so incidence data could not be statistically compared.
Mean values in bold do not differ significantly (P<0.05) from the most resistant entry.
LSD for location means = 3 %
Slopes in bold do not differ from zero.
Table 4. Pearson's correlation coefficients of grain yield with significant covariates in diverse pearl millets evaluated in multilocation trials in Africa in 2003-2004.
| Location | Year | Correlation of Yield (kg/ha) With | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | Downy mildew incidence (%) | Days to 50% flowering | Height (cm) |
| All locations Burkina Faso Ghana Ghana Mali Mali Niger Nigeria Nigeria Senegal Zambia | 2003-04 2004 2003 2004 2003 2004 2004 2003 2004 2003 2004 | -0.142** -0.272** 0.004 -0.227** -0.221** -0.21** -0.282 0.019+ -0.506** - - | 0.091* - - - 0.535** 0.486** 0.022 -0.286 0.044 -0.275** -0.334** | 0.387** 0.387** -0.191* 0.427** 0.745** 0.556** 0.636** 0.238 0.406** 0.303 0.028** |
attempting to produce varieties for broad adaptation. Earlier research by the ROCAFREMI (Réseau Ouest et Centre Africain de Recherche sur le Mil) network identified specific varieties that performed well within countries and across ecological zones (Ouendeba and Kohli, 2002). Differential yield performance was observed across the experimental sites, indicating some environment-dependent constraints on yield exist. In the present study, varieties such as Sosat-C88, Gwagwa, and NKK were among the top-yielding entries at most of the locations. Selection for further improvement in broadbased yield is likely to be possible.
Local preferences for other traits such as panicle length can differ dramatically across production sites. Because of traditional harvesting and marketing practices, smaller panicles tend to be preferred in Ghana, and extremely long panicles are preferred in Niger. The absence of a correlation between yield and panicle length in Ghana supported this local practice. These and other local preferences are highly important in the overall acceptance of a new variety in specific locations.
tance and plant height were most consistently correlated with pearl millet yield, although other factors such as days to flowering may affect performance in certain production environments. The U.S. varieties performed poorly in these experiments, in part due to their downy mildew susceptibility and their dwarf stature. Evaluation of dwarf plants under population densities appropriate for larger plants put them at an inherent disadvantage. The yield advantage of taller plants is known (Bidinger and Raju, 1993) but extremely tall plants are not compatible with the mechanized production systems of the U.S. Lodging is less of a consideration in systems where most production practices rely on manual labor.
Within the limits of our experiments, downy mildew resi-
The rate of adoption of improved pearl millet varietiest ends to be very slow in some regions due to a combination of factors that include seed availability, variety per-.
In spite of the possibility of selecting for high and stable yield across environments, site-specific selection is necessary for other important traits. The genetic diversity of S. graminicola within Africa is poorly defined (Viswanathan, 2003), so multilocation screening is necessary to identify resistance to genetically diverse local pathogen populations. Sosank, CIVT, ICMV IS 89305, Sosat-C88, and Gwagwa were high yielding entries that were also included among the most downy mildew resistant entries. These entries were not consistently resistant, and other entries should be used as complementary sources of resistance for breeding in certain locations.
formance, or household preference (Ndjeunga and Bantilan, 2005). As an alternative to cultivar replacement, new varieties can contribute to introgressing new traits into adapted landraces (vom Brocke et al., 2003). Nigerian landraces with the same name but maintained by farmers are often genetically diverse due primarily to intermating with other local populations and genetic drift (Busso et al., 2000). Distribution of new germplasm to farmers for testing can encourage some introgression of superior traits into locally grown varieties through cross pollination. Progeny derived from outcrossing would be subject to farmer approval through the process of selecting seed plants for the subsequent crop.
To achieve the commercial potential of pearl millet, growers must be able to depend upon a reasonably consistent yield, but varieties must also have specific characteristics desired by producers and end-users. If use of pearl millet for a high-value poultry feed expands, nutritional composition and digestibility will be important factors to consider. However, if the goal is to improve varieties for use in processed food products, high yield and downy mildew resistance alone will not ensure the success of a variety. In some evaluations, distinct differrences among varieties exist for their suitability in preparing traditional foods (Ndjeunga and Nelson, 2005), while other studies show fewer differences in taste and color among varieties (Omanya et al., 2007). More information concerning the processing quality and consumer preference of these genotypes and their derivatives will be useful in determining appropriate breeding objectives.
The entries in the present study may also have value in developing hybrids for some regions. Bongo Short Head and Sosat-C88 were identified as having good combining ability for yield in Nigerian hybrid trials (Izge et al., 2007). The general absence of well-functioning seed systems will slow hybrid development and introduction, but this technology should have future value in certain production environments.
Conclusion
Across these 10 trials, Sosat-C88, ICMV IS 89305, Gwagwa, NKK, Sosank, and CIVT were the highest yielding pearl millet entries. Sosat-C88, Sosank, and CIVT expressed more stable yields among the highyielding entries. Sosank, CIVT, ICMV IS 89305, SosatC88 and Gwagwa were also among the most downy mildew resistant entries. Grain yield tended to be negatively correlated with downy mildew incidence, and positively correlated with days to flowering, plant height, and panicle length, but these correlations differed among some of the individual trials. Further selection for improved yield and broad adaptation in pearl millet is likely to be possible. Downy mildew resistance is an important trait for broadly adapted varieties. Site-specific selection is necessary to identify other important traits such as such as maturity, panicle length, and processing quality, which may be highly dependent on local preferences.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Funding for this project was provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development via the International Sorghum and Millet Collaborative Research Support Program (INTSORMIL CRSP). We thank Botorou Ouendeba and David Andrews for providing seed of some of the pearl millet entries.
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Holland JB, Bjørnstad Å, Frey KJ, Gullord M, Wesenberg DM (2002). Recurrent selection for broad adaptation affects stability of oat. Euphytica 126: 265-274.
Gupta GK, Singh D (1999). Role of edaphic factors in the development of downy mildew (Sclerospora graminicola) in pearl millet. J. of Agric. Sci. 133: 61-68.
Izge AU, Kadams AM, Sajo AA (2007). Agronomic performance of selected cultivars of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L. R. Br.) and their hybrids in north-eastern Nigeria. J. of Agron. 6: 344-349.
Ndjeunga J, Bantilan MSC (2005). Uptake of improved technologies in the semi-arid tropics of West Africa: Why is agricultural transformation lagging behind? e-Journal of Agric. and Dev. Econ. 2:85-102.
Jackson PA, McRae TA (1998). Gains from selection of broadly adapted and specifically adapted sugarcane families. Field Crops Res. 59: 151-162.
Ndjeunga J, Nelson CH (2005). Toward understanding household preference for consumption characteristics of millet varieties: a case study from western Niger. Agric. Econ. 32:151-165.
N, Guero Y, Zangre R (2007). Participatory varietal selection with improved pearl millet in west Africa. Exp. Agric. 43: 5-19.
Omanya GO, Weltzien-Rattunde E, Sogodogo D, Sanogo M, Hanssens
Ouendeba B, Kohli D (2002). ROCAFREMI – WCAMRN, 1991-2001. A Network's Lessons. Some results of P1 project (1991-1996). Selecting and supplying farmers with appropriate varieties and seeds. International Crops Research for the Semi Arid Tropics. Pp. 39.
Viswanathan A (2003). Phylogenetic analysis of Sclerospora graminicola using internal transcribed spacer region-2. M.S. Thesis. Texas A&M University. pp. 42.
Semisi ST, Ball SFL (1989). Infection of the pearl millet (Pennisetum americanum) inflorescence by the downy mildew fungus (Sclerospora graminicola). Plant Pathol. 38: 571-576.
Vitale JD, Sanders JH (2005). New markets and technological change for the traditional cereals in semiarid sub-Saharan Africa: the Malian case. Agric. Econ. 32:111-129.
vom Brocke K, Weltzien E, Christinck A, Presterl T, Geiger HH (2003). Effects of farmers' seed management on performance and adaptation of pearl millet in Rajasthan, India. Euphytica 130: 267280.
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RERTR-2004 International Meeting on Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors
7-12 November 2004
Vienna, Austria
Hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency in co-operation with the
RERTR Programme
The International Atomic Energy Agency in co-operation with the RERTR Programme managed by the Argonne National Laboratory for the United States Department of Energy, is hosting the "RERTR-2004 International Meeting on Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors". This will be the 26th meeting of a series on the same general subject. The previous meetings were held at ANL (1978), Saclay, France (1979), ANL (1980), Jülich, Germany (1981), ANL (1982), Tokai, Japan (1983), ANL (1984), Petten, The Netherlands (1985), Gatlinburg, Tennessee (1986), Buenos Aires, Argentina (1987), San Diego, California, (1988), Berlin, Germany (1989), Newport, Rhode Island (1990), Jakarta, Indonesia (1991), Roskilde, Denmark (1992), Oarai, Japan (1993), Williamsburg, Virginia (1994), Paris, France (1995), Seoul, Korea (1996), Jackson Hole, Wyoming, (1997), São Paulo, Brazil (1998), Budapest, Hungary (1999), Las Vegas, Nevada (2000), Bariloche, Argentina (2002) and ANL (2003).
You are cordially invited to attend this meeting, where information will be exchanged on the progress of national and international Programmes to develop low enriched fuels and targets for research and test reactors and to convert the reactors to such fuels and targets. The meeting will be held in English and will be open to the public, but the Meeting Secretariat reserves the right to limit the attendance.
The main objective of this series of meetings is the core conversion of research reactors from HEU to LEU fuels. Fuel element manufacturers and national laboratories have developed fuel types suitable for LEU utilization in most of the world's research reactors. Many reactors are already fully converted and new promising LEU fuels are under development and scheduled for early qualification
You are encouraged to present a paper at the meeting. If you intend to do so, please indicate this intention on the attached Registration Form and send an abstract of the paper, as soon as possible, but not later than 27 August 2004 to the Meeting Secretariat (please see Instructions for Authors and Typists and Form for Publication Release). The presentation of each paper will be limited to 20 minutes. If you intend to participate without presenting a paper, please send only the completed Registration Form by the same deadline. Please observe the Instruction for Forms and Deadlines.
All papers will be distributed at the meeting and will be published in the proceedings by the Argonne National Laboratory.
Topics to be covered during the meeting are:
* Fuel development
* Progress reports of national Programmes
* Fuel testing and evaluation
* Safety tests and evaluations
* Measurements and calculations for converted reactors
* Core conversion studies
* Licensing requirements
* Production of fission Mo-99 from LEU
* HEU and LEU fuel cycle
* Utilization of converted (LEU) reactors
* Spent fuel transportation and storage
LOCATION OF THE MEETING:
International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna International Centre (VIC) Meeting Room I (C-02) Wagramer Strasse 5 1400 VIENNA
Austria
Tel No: (+43) 1 2600-21330-21300 (during the meeting)
Fax No: (+43) 1 2600-29325
REGISTRATION:
1. Registration Fee (please see information attached)
:
Each participant will be required to pay a registration fee of US$ 240.- (€ 200.-).to cover the cost of different services provided during the meeting, i.e. coffee breaks, lunches and conference dinner. This fee will be collected by the organizers of the RERTR Programme located at Argonne National Laboratory.
Payment instructions:
* Credit Card: Only VISA or MASTERCARD should be used.
Payment should be made by faxing the attached Credit Card Payment Form, duly completed, to the Argonne Conference Services (Fax No: +1-630-252-5533)
* Cheques: Only cheques in US Dollars can be accepted.
Cheques should be made payable to "Asst. CFO, Argonne National Laboratory", reference number "04392-R3-115".
The cheques should be mailed to:
Argonne National Laboratory Attn: Asst. Chief Financial Officer 9700 S. Cas Avenue, Bldg. 201 Argonne, IL 60439
USA
* Cash upon registration
Participants who have paid their registration fee in advance will receive a confirmation, which has to be presented at the Registration Desk in order to obtain the conference documentation.
2. Registration Procedure:
The Registration Desk at Gate I at the Vienna International Centre will be open on Sunday, 7 November 2004 from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. and throughout the Meeting during working hours. Please bring with you identification documents to facilitate your entry to the meeting premises. The photo badge issued by the UN Pass Office is needed for entrance to the VIC and must be worn at all times on the VIC premises.
A Welcome Reception will be held from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the VIC.
GRANTS:
The International Atomic Energy Agency has limited funds at its disposal to help meet the cost of attendance of qualified specialists mainly from developing countries with low economic resources. Generally, not more than one grant will be awarded to any one country.
If Governments wish to apply for a grant on behalf of one of their participants, they should address specific requests to the Meeting Secretariat to this effect. Governments should ensure that applications for grants:
1. are submitted by 14 September 2004
2. are accompanied by a duly completed and signed Grant Application Form
Applications that do not comply with the conditions stated under 1. and 2. cannot be considered. The grants awarded will be in form of a lump sum and will usually cover only part of the cost of attendance.
ACCOMMODATION:
Attached is a List of Hotels. Please complete the attached Hotel Reservation Form and send it (preferably by fax) before 4 October 2004 to the following address:
AMERICAN EXPRESS Travel Service VIC - Wagramer Strasse 5 1400 VIENNA Austria
Tel: (+43) 1 2600 23041
Fax: (+43) 1 2600 23050
E-mail: mailto:firstname.lastname@example.org
Payment Conditions:
American Express will confirm your reservation only upon receipt of your credit card number or deposit (see Hotel Reservation Form). Without a credit card number or a deposit the reservation cannot be guaranteed.
The Meeting Secretariat is not in a position to assist you with hotel bookings nor can the Meeting Secretariat assume responsibility for paying cancellation fees or for re-bookings.
TRANSPORTATION:
* Transportation from Vienna's Schwechat Airport to Hotels in Vienna
Vienna airport lines (stops situated right in front of arrival hall):
Buses leave every 90 minutes from the airport to the Vienna International Centre (additional stops at the Hotel Crown Plaza and the Country Inn & Suites) from 07:30 to 19:30 hrs and every 30 minutes to "Schwedenplatz" from 6:20 to 0:20 hrs. The fare is €6 for the one way and €11 for the round-trip ticket. For bus schedule and maps please visit: http://www.oebb.at/Angebot_Reisen/Zentrale/BahnBus/BahnBus_Wien/VAL2004.pdf
Train service "CAT" takes you to the City Air Terminal every 30 minutes from 6:06 to 23:06 hrs. The fare is € 8 for the one way and € 15 for the round-trip ticket.
Airport transfer services:
"Mazur" has a counter in the arrival hall. One can book for the next car going to the city and passengers will be taken to their hotels. The fare is between € 15.and € 18 per person, depending on the destination.
"C&K" does not have a counter but drivers are waiting in the arrival hall on the left-hand side. C&K charges € 25 per car hired.
Taxis are available outside the airport. The journey to the city centre is approx. € 40.
* Transportation from Hotels to the VIC
The VIC can be reached with the underground (U-Bahn) by taking the red line (U1) towards Kagran and getting off at station Kaisermühlen-Vienna International Centre. Weekly tickets can be purchased from vending machines in all U-Bahn stations or at tobacco shops marked "Tabak Trafik", at central U-Bahn stations and also at the VIC newspaper stand. The weekly ticket is valid is valid Monday through Sunday with unlimited use of all Viennese public transport facilities (U-Bahn, bus, tramway) and does not need to be cancelled before commencing your journey. Single tickets may also be purchased from the vending machines and are valid for one trip lasting no longer than one hour in one direction. Single tickets do need to be cancelled.
VISA:
A list of countries requiring visa for entering Austria can be found at: http://www.aussenministerium.gv.at Participants requiring a visa should follow the attached Instructions for Visa Applications.
Participants who wish to visit the Budapest Research Reactor have to apply for a Schengen visa for multiple entry and if they require a visa for entering Hungary should contact the nearest consular representative of Hungary as early as possible.
WORKING LANGUAGE:
The working language of the meeting will be English. No simultaneous interpretation will be provided.
TECHNICAL EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE:
Equipment for overhead transparencies and PowerPoint presentations through a PC laptop with a LCD projector will be available. If participants require special equipment, please inform the Meeting Secretariat as soon as possible.
COMMERCIAL EXHIBITIONS:
Exhibition space is available adjacent to the conference meeting area for companies seeking to set up commercial exhibits or displays describing products and services relevant to the subject matter of the meeting. Please contact the scientific secretary or conference services listed below to make specific arrangements for commercial exhibitions.
COFFEE/LUNCH BREAKS:
Coffee/tea will be served during coffee breaks.
Buffet luncheons will be available for participants at the VIC Restaurant from Monday to Thursday. Lunch vouchers should be handed to the waiters.
Participants who prefer vegetarian meals or follow a special diet should check the box on the registration form, so that the necessary arrangements can be made.
SOCIAL EVENTS:
Sunday, 7 November 18:00 – 19:30 hrs
Welcome Reception at the VIC Restaurant
Thursday, 11 November 19:00 hrs
Conference Dinner at the VIC Restaurant
SCIENTIFIC TOURS:
On Friday, 12 November 2004, the meeting participants will have an opportunity to participate in either one of the two technical visits to the:
1. Research Reactor at the Atominstitut der Österreichischen Universitäten in Vienna, Austria or
2. Budapest Research Reactor at the KFKI Atomic Research Institute in Budapest, Hungary.
1. Research Reactor Atominstitut, Vienna:
The 250 kW TRIGA Mark-II reactor operates since March 1962 at the Atominstitut Vienna/Austria. Ever since operation of the reactor has averaged 220 days per year, without extended outages. Therefore, the small research reactor is very well utilized.
The Atominstitute's main tasks are education on nuclear topics and training in the fields of neutron- and solid state physics, nuclear technology, reactor safety, radiochemistry, radiation protection and dosimetry, as well as low temperature physics and fusion research. In addition, the Atominstitut co-operates closely with the IAEA in research projects, coordinated research programs (CRP) and provides also expert services.
This TRIGA Mark-II is equipped with a number of irradiation devices:
5 reflector irradiation tubes
1 central irradiation tube
1 slow pneumatic transfer system (transfer time 4 seconds)
1 vertical fast pneumatic transfer system (transfer time 0.3 seconds)
1 horizontal fast pneumatic transfer system (transfer time 20 milliseconds)
4 neutron beam ducts
1 thermal column
2 neutron radiography facilities
Tentative Programme:
Participation in the tour, which will include transportation and lunch, will require a payment of € 20.-.
.
2. Budapest Research Reactor, Budapest:
The Budapest Research Reactor (BRR) is a tank-type reactor, moderated and cooled by light water.
The reactor is of Russian origin, it went critical in 1959. The thermal power was at that time 2 MW. The first upgrading took place in 1967 when the power output was increased from 2 MW to 5 MW, using a new type of fuel and a beryllium-reflector. After 27 years of operation, a full-scale reactor reconstruction and upgrading project began in 1986. The upgraded 10 MW research reactor was relicensed on 25 November 1993. According to Hungarian safety regulations a periodic safety review (PSR) was conducted in 2002-2003, as a result the operation license was renewed for another ten years.
Reactor type:................................ Light-water cooled and moderated tank-type reactor with
The BRR is used for irradiation and neutron research. The reactor has more than 60 channels and ten beam ports. The beam ports with the research facilities are installed in the reactor hall and neutron
Tentative Programme:
07:00
Bus will leave from the VIC
Participation in the tour, which will include transportation and lunch, will require a payment of € 50.-
Participants who wish to visit the Budapest Research Reactor have to apply for a Schengen visa for multiple entry and if they require a visa for entering Hungary should contact the nearest consular representative of Hungary as early as possible.
Participants planning to stay in Budapest for the weekend, please see the attached Package Information and Booking Form provided by American Express Travel Service.
CURRENCY:
The official currency is Euro (€): Conversion rate for 1 US$ = € 0.820 (July 2004).
It is recommended to change money at banks, which are open daily from 9:00 to 15:00 hrs.
All major credits cards such as American Express, Diners Club, Master Card and Visa are equally accepted in the hotels, restaurant, shops etc..
ELECTRICITY:
Electrical current in Austria is 230 V AC 50 Hz. Round, European-style two-pin plugs are used. Appliances designed to operate on 110/120 V need a voltage converter and a plug adapter.
WEATHER:
The temperature this time of the year ranges between 3 to 8 degrees Celsius.
INFORMATION ON AUSTRIA:
A brochure "Austria, Fact and Figures" can be found at: www.austria.gv.at (section "Service").
PROGRAMME FOR ACCOMPANYING PERSONS:
Please see attached Vienna sightseeing information provided by American Express Travel Service.
SCIENTIFIC SECRETARIAT OF THE MEETING:
Mr. P. Adelfang
Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology International Atomic Energy Agency P.O. Box 100 Wagramer Strasse 5 A-1400 Vienna, Austria
Telephone No.:
(+43 1) 2600 22770
Telefax No.:
(+43 1) 2600 7
E-mail:
email@example.com
E-mail address for paper submission:
firstname.lastname@example.org
Administration and organization:
Ms. T. Niedermayr
Division of Conference and Document Services Conference Service Section IAEA-CN-140 International Atomic Energy Agency P.O. Box 100
Wagramer Strasse 5
A-1400 Vienna, Austria
Telephone No.:
(+43 1) 2600 21322
Telefax No.:
(+43 1) 2600 7
E-mail:
email@example.com
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June 30, 2014
The Honorable Patrick T. McHenry Chairman Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Committee on Financial Services 2129 Rayburn U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairman McHenry:
In your January 29, 2014, letter to the Office of Inspector General (OIG), you requested we evaluate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) headquarters renovation budget. The request letter states that the renovation budget for the CFPB's headquarters increased from $55 million to more than $95 million. The request letter also notes that the CFPB later published year-to-date expenses for building improvements of $150,806,000 ($150.8 million). 1 To address the issues in the request letter, we evaluated, with respect to the CFPB's headquarters renovation project, (1) the budgeting and approval process, (2) the scope and justification for estimates, and (3) the use of competitive procedures. Details on our scope and methodology are presented in attachment 1. We provided officials at the CFPB with a draft of this letter, and we considered the CFPB's comments as we prepared the final letter.
This letter is intended to address the specific issues contained in the request letter. We are conducting additional work that will be included in a subsequent report to the CFPB, and we will provide a copy of that report to the subcommittee when completed. This additional work includes additional cost analysis and benchmarking, as well as further review of related CFPB processes.
1. The $150.8 million figure is included in a table that breaks out spending by expense category in the CFPB's Report of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Pursuant to Section 1017(e)(4) of the Dodd-Frank Act, December 30, 2013. The report states that the amounts in the table reflect obligations incurred during the fiscal year and include some upward adjustments to prior-year obligations. CFPB policy states that an obligation refers to a binding agreement that will result in financial outlays, either immediately or in the future.
Background
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), enacted July 21, 2010, 2 established the CFPB as an independent bureau within, but autonomous from, the Federal Reserve System. The Dodd-Frank Act prescribes that a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed Director is to lead the CFPB. Prior to the appointment of a CFPB Director, 3 the Dodd-Frank Act assigned to the Secretary of the Treasury certain CFPB functional responsibilities. 4 The Secretary delegated this interim authority to the Special Advisor to the Secretary and to other U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) officials who worked to stand up the CFPB.
On February 18, 2011, Treasury announced that the future permanent headquarters of the CFPB would be located at 1700 G Street NW, Washington, DC. The Special Advisor to the Secretary posted a similar announcement on the CFPB's website. Both announcements noted that major building renovations were needed to use the space more efficiently and to update the building to meet current energy and environmental standards. 5
1700 G Street NW Building
The building at 1700 G Street NW had been used by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) as its headquarters. However, when the Dodd-Frank Act dissolved OTS, its interests in the building transferred to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) effective July 21, 2011. Prior to the building's transfer to the OCC, a Treasury official, acting on behalf of the CFPB, signed a letter of intent with the OCC on January 4, 2011, for the CFPB to occupy the building. The major points of the letter include the following:
* Assuming that ownership of 1700 G Street NW transferred to the OCC on July 21, 2011, the CFPB would lease the entire building from the OCC as is.
2. A detailed timeline of major events discussed in this letter is presented in attachment 2.
3. The first Director of the CFPB was appointed by the President on January 4, 2012, and confirmed by the Senate on July 16, 2013.
4. Until a CFPB Director was in place, section 1066(a) of title X of the Dodd-Frank Act granted the Secretary of the Treasury the authority to carry out CFPB functions found in sections 1061 and 1063 under subtitle F of title X.
5. We were informed by the former executive in charge of the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Office of Administrative Services that an individual from the CFPB, whom she believes was on loan from Treasury, inquired about surplus SEC space for the CFPB. Although this former Office of Administrative Services executive could not recall the timing, she categorized these discussions as preliminary and noted that the CFPB was in the early stages of its establishment and did not have a good understanding of its requirements. This official stated further that when she was approached a second time, some of the surplus SEC space had already been leased and the remainder was to be turned over to the U.S. General Services Administration.
* The OCC and the CFPB would mutually agree on the terms and conditions of the lease for the building and on a rental payment at a market rate, including a market escalation over the term of the lease.
* Responsibility for the existing leases with retail tenants and the future disposition of the retail space would be addressed prior to lease execution.
The CFPB moved into the building on October 1, 2011, under an interim agreement with the OCC executed on July 21, 2011. On February 10, 2012, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) provided the OCC with a delegation of authority to charge rent for the building, 6 and on February 17, 2012, the OCC and the CFPB entered into an occupancy agreement. The agreement includes terms that the CFPB (1) will pay fair market rent, (2) is responsible for the cost of any building improvements, (3) will obtain the OCC's approval prior to taking any action that may affect the retail tenants, and (4) will ensure that the normal business operations of the retail tenants are not disrupted by alterations or improvements to the premises made by the CFPB. The occupancy agreement includes a base period of 20 years, which the CFPB can opt to extend for two additional 5-year periods. The OCC can only cancel this agreement if the CFPB fails to pay rent or comply with other material terms of the agreement.
In September 2013, the CFPB signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and a reimbursable work authorization (RWA) with GSA for the renovation of the building. 7 The MOU established responsibilities for GSA related to project management, procurement, design review services, construction, building commissioning services, and contract administration for the renovation of the building. The RWA is a written agreement between the CFPB and GSA and was used to obligate funds for the headquarters renovation.
(1) The CFPB's Budgeting and Approval Process
The CFPB has formalized policies for budgeting and funding, as well as for approving major investments prior to obligating funds. 8 These policies outline the CFPB's processes for (1) formulating and approving the budget and financial operating plan (financial plan), (2) requesting funds transfers from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), and (3) approving major investments. We found that the figures included in the congressional request letter were included in the budget and financial plan and were published on
6. As noted in the Treasury OIG report, OCC's Leasing Activities Conformed With Applicable Requirements; Issues With the Former OTS Headquarters Building Need to Be Resolved, the OCC Chief Counsel's Office reviewed documentation related to ownership of the former OTS headquarters building, as well as applicable laws and regulations related to the transfer and ownership of the building, and concluded that the OCC owns the building. As of June 16, 2014, the U.S. Government Accountability Office is reviewing whether the OCC has the legal authority to retain the rent.
7. The MOU with GSA was not fully executed until October 2013 due to the partial closure of the federal government.
8. These policies were all approved and in effect by October 1, 2012.
the CFPB's website. However, we noted that the approval of funding for the renovation was not in accordance with the CFPB's current policies for major investments. According to CFPB officials, the CFPB saw this approval as a formality since the decision to renovate pre-dated these policies.
Budget and Financial Plan
The CFPB's current annual budget formulation process is informed by its strategic plan. Prior to a new fiscal year, program offices submit budget requests and justifications to the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO). The OCFO works with the program offices to finalize budget requests. Program offices subsequently meet with the Director to justify budget requests before the budget estimates are finalized. Once the estimates are finalized, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) prepares a decision memorandum recommending approval of the budget, which is routed through the Chief Operating Officer to the Director.
Once approved by the Director, the budget becomes the financial plan. The Director provides copies of the financial plan to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. The Office of Management and Budget does not, however, have oversight of CFPB's budget process.
The financial plan outlines the budget authority for various expenses and staff. CFPB management uses the financial plan to monitor financial obligations throughout the fiscal year and to adjust spending as needs and priorities change. These adjustments can be made during quarterly performance reviews or the formal midyear review process and are included in a decision memorandum and authorized by the Director. The financial plan is then revised to reflect these adjustments, but revised financial plans are not published on the CFPB's website. However, the CFPB does publish quarterly financial updates outlining large obligations. 9
As detailed in the Scope and Justification for Estimates section below, we noted that the $55 million and $95 million budget amounts for the renovation for fiscal year (FY) 2012 and FY 2013, respectively, were published in the CFPB's public budget documents. Approvals through decision memorandums were obtained for these amounts. In addition, we noted that the CFPB revised its financial plan twice in FY 2013 to increase the amounts budgeted for the renovation. In May 2013, the renovation budget was increased from $95 million to $111.4 million, and in September 2013, it was increased to $145.1 million. 10 Approvals for these increases were also documented via decision memorandums. In addition, an obligation of $145.1 million for the building renovation was published in the FY 2013 fourth quarter financial update. The $95 million and $111.4 million figures were not published in quarterly financial updates because these amounts were never obligated.
9. Obligations exceeding $1 million are published in the quarterly financial updates.
10. This amount is included in the $150.8 million that is referenced in the congressional request letter, which also includes obligations for other renovation expenses detailed below.
Funds Transfer Process
Per the Dodd-Frank Act, the CFPB's operations are funded principally by transfers made by the Board from the combined earnings of the Federal Reserve System. 11 Based on the CFPB's financial plan, the OCFO determines the amount of funds to be requested quarterly from the Board and prepares a decision memorandum for the Director's approval. Once approved, the Director signs a funds transfer request letter, and the OCFO sends the letter to the Board. After the Board transfers the funds, the OCFO allocates the funds to program offices based on the approved financial plan.
We noted that on July 15, 2013, the CFPB included $143.0 million for its headquarters renovation in its FY 2013 fourth quarter funds transfer determination. This amount was based on an estimated RWA amount provided by GSA on June 26, 2013. The CFO stated that this request was made to ensure that sufficient funds were available to execute the final RWA as required by GSA. We also noted that during FY 2012 and FY 2013, the CFPB included amounts for ongoing architecture and engineering (A/E) services in its funds transfer determinations.
Major Investment Approval Process
In addition to its budget approval and funds request processes, the CFPB has a formal process to approve major investments. Major investments include those with an estimated value of $500,000 or more, or a life cycle cost of $2.5 million or more over five years. These investments must be reviewed by the CFPB's Investment Review Board (IRB), an executive advisory body chaired by the CFO. While a major investment does not need IRB approval prior to being included in the budget, budgeted funds are not available for obligation or expenditure until the IRB approves the investment.
To obtain IRB approval for major investments, program offices must complete an IRB business case. The business case includes the following sections:
* Alternatives analysis section. This section should include a description of alternatives, a comparison of the costs and benefits of alternatives, and the rationale for choosing the investment over the alternatives.
* Financial section. This section should include all previous obligations for the investment, a five-year cost breakdown, the estimated lifetime cost, and cost assumptions.
* Performance section. This section should identify lifetime goals and calculate expected lifetime return on investment.
The CFPB's IRB charter and internal training documents provide specific guidance for making a sound business case for an investment. This guidance outlines that a consideration of alternatives
11. The indexed FY 2014 funding is capped at $608.4 million per the Dodd-Frank Act.
is needed for a sound business case and should include a comparison of the costs and benefits of alternatives and the rationale for the selected investment. The guidance also outlines the need to show a return on investment when making a sound business case and stresses the importance of a quantitative analysis. The IRB charter states that return on investment measures incorporate life cycle costs, avoided costs or cost savings, productivity enhancements, or other financial information relevant to determining the financial efficacy of the proposed investment.
Once the IRB approves the business case, the program office may submit a control sheet for approval to obligate funds. While IRB approval is not required prior to including major investments in the budget, it remains an important funding control.
We found that the investment requests for A/E services and the CFPB headquarters building renovation were submitted to the IRB, 12 and the associated control sheets were approved. 13 However, the CFPB did not follow all internal IRB guidance when completing the business case for the building renovation. For example, the CFPB listed alternatives 14 in the IRB business case but did not complete any analyses of those alternatives. 15 In addition, the performance section did not include any quantitative information or calculations related to return on investment. We noted that the IRB approved the business case for the building renovation in September 2013 even though it was incomplete.
CFPB officials stated that the IRB approved the business case without this information because funding approval was viewed as a formality given that the decision to proceed with the renovation had already been made. We interviewed the former Treasury official who signed the letter of intent in 2011 on behalf of the CFPB to occupy the building. This official stated that the decision to renovate was made after the letter of intent was signed, but he did not know when or by whom. As of June 23, 2014, the CFPB was unable to locate any documentation of the decision to fully renovate the building. 16
12. The IRB business case for A/E services was submitted on May 30, 2012. The IRB business case for the renovation was submitted on July 23, 2013.
13. We noted that the $55 million and $95 million budget figures were never obligated and therefore were not reviewed by the IRB.
14. Alternatives listed in the business case included (1) moving the entire organization to another building large enough to accommodate the entire staff and (2) leasing multiple buildings to accommodate the entire staff.
15. CFPB officials provided us with an analysis of alternatives that an official stated was prepared in late summer 2013. The same official noted that this analysis was not used as part of the IRB process but was a ballpark analysis intended to make sure that the decision to renovate made sense. However, certain renovation cost elements, such as A/E costs and swing space, were not included. We are evaluating this analysis and will provide any relevant information in our subsequent report to the CFPB.
16. The CFPB is attempting to locate legacy documents. We will evaluate any documents provided and include relevant information in our subsequent report to the CFPB.
While the decision to renovate may pre-date the current IRB policies, these policies were in place when the business case was submitted for funding approval. We cannot conclude whether a complete analysis would have altered the decision to approve funding for the renovation. However, without this analysis, the value of the IRB process as a funding control is diminished and a sound business case is not available to support the funding of the renovation. In addition, expected cost information is not available as a baseline to facilitate management of changes in estimated renovation costs.
(2) Scope and Justification for Estimates
The request letter includes three CFPB-published cost figures associated with the renovation project: $55 million, $95 million, and $150.8 million. As discussed below, we found that these figures had significantly different scopes. The CFPB stated that the $55 million and $95 million figures were used as estimates for budget purposes and that the $150.8 million figure was based on a construction cost estimate developed for this renovation.
$55 Million Estimate
The $55 million figure was published in the CFPB's FY 2013 Budget Justification, approved in February 2012. This amount was based on 1 year of projected costs from a 10-year renovation plan included in a building assessment of 1700 G Street NW commissioned by OTS, combined with the CFPB's rough estimate for A/E services. The building assessment was finalized in November 2010 and included a 10-year phased renovation plan for Class B+ office space 17 with estimated costs for each year that totaled $104.8 million. The CFPB developed the $55 million budget number by rounding the building assessment's year 1 cost estimate of $38,937,745 to $40 million and adding the CFPB's estimate of $15 million for A/E services.
17. Class B+ office space is the term used within the OTS building assessment to indicate the level of renovation priced for the 10-year renovation. The OTS building assessment does not define Class B+ office space, but it defines Class A and Class B. Both classes are typically characterized by high-quality design; high-end building materials; state-of-the-art voice and data technology; onsite support services and maintenance; and often includes full-service ancillary uses such as, but not limited to, a bank, a restaurant/coffee shop, a health club, a printing shop, reserved parking, etc. The minimum requirements for both include a central, interior lobby and access to suites from inside the building. Additional Class A minimum requirements are that the building have three stories, 15,000 square feet per floor, and LEED certification/sustainable strategies in place resulting in decreased energy use and high level of occupancy comfort. Additional Class B minimum requirements are two stories and 20,000 square feet per floor.
$95 Million Estimate
The $95 million figure 18 was published in April 2013 in The CFPB Strategic Plan, Budget, and Performance Plan and Report. This amount was an estimated budget number developed internally by the OCFO as a total cost of renovation that did not include A/E services and certain contingencies intended to be paid for out of reserves. The CFO stated that the figure did not consider class of space and was developed to illustrate a range of potential costs for a nonphased renovation.
$150.8 Million Estimate
The $150.8 million figure was published in December 2013 in the Report of the CFPB Pursuant to Section 1017(e)(4) of the Dodd-Frank Act. This amount was an aggregate of actual obligations of $145.1 million for the renovation and approximately $5.5 million for A/E services. The $145.1 million renovation estimate was prepared by GSA and included contingencies and GSA fees not included in earlier estimates. The scope of the estimate included renovating to Class A space, 19 using nonphased construction, and adding a seventh floor to the building. GSA prepared this estimate using a cost modeling worksheet that uses historical data to generate costs for major building systems based on the gross area of the project and major building systems quality levels. Estimate documentation stated that this is GSA's standard practice when developing budgets for capital projects. GSA subsequently revised the $145.1 million estimate to $139.1 million to reflect the CFPB's decision to exclude construction of a seventh floor.
Table 1 lists several key differences in the $55 million, $95 million, and $150.8 million figures associated with the renovation project, as noted in the request letter.
18. The request letter notes that the $95 million figure was greater than the annual construction and acquisition budget for all federal buildings. For information regarding GSA's annual construction, acquisition, and renovation budget, see attachment 3.
19. The definitions of office class space vary by source. Classifications of office space are largely dependent on the size and location of the building, as well as the materials and design used. Potential cost differences exist between renovation plans for different classes of space, and our subsequent report to the CFPB will include assessments of these differences.
Table 1: Comparison of Cost Estimates
Source: OIG compilation based on CFPB information.
Note: None of the estimates include other costs, such as rent for swing space and costs associated with moving CFPB staff during the renovation. We are evaluating these and other costs, and we plan to include that analysis in our subsequent report.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office states that cost estimates tend to become more certain as projected costs are replaced by actual costs. 20 The A/E firm has prepared updated estimates for the renovation that cannot be shared at this time due to source selection concerns. 21 Based on the CFPB's assessed requirements as of June 5, 2014, we currently estimate all-in costs to total approximately $215.8 million. These estimated all-in costs include the $145.1 million obligated for construction, construction management, and GSA fees, as well as $70.7 million for other items including A/E services, rent for swing space, costs associated with moving, and additional renovation-related expenses. Our estimate for other renovation-related items is not included in any of the estimated costs of actual renovation shown in Table 1. We will refine our estimate of these costs based on the updated A/E and independent government cost estimates and include any relevant information in our subsequent report to the CFPB.
20. U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide: Best Practices for Developing and Managing Capital Program Costs, GAO-09-3SP, March 2009.
21. The disclosure of this information prior to award of the construction contract could have an adverse effect on pricing. GSA will reconcile these estimates with an independent government cost estimate.
(3) The Use of Competitive Procedures for Major Contracts
We identified three major contracting efforts associated with the CFPB headquarters building renovation: an A/E contract for design services, a construction management contract, and a construction contract. In September 2012, the CFPB awarded the contract for A/E design services, and we determined that competitive procedures were used in awarding this contract. Per the MOU, GSA is responsible for procuring the construction management and construction contracts for the building renovation. Although these two contracts had not been awarded as of June 16, 2014, based on its initial solicitation activities, we determined that GSA plans to use competitive procedures to award these contracts.
A/E Contract Procedures
While the CFPB is not required to follow the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) by law, the CFPB indicated that the A/E contract was awarded in conformance with the FAR. The FAR outlines policies and procedures that are specific to acquiring A/E design services and issuing associated public announcements; it also outlines other acquisition requirements. Acquisitions for A/E design services are unique in that competition is based on technical factors rather than price. An evaluation board evaluates and ranks firms based on technical qualifications, and the contracting officer subsequently holds negotiations with the top-ranked firm. Price does not become a factor until the negotiation phase of the acquisition.
In February 2012, the CFPB's procurement office issued a solicitation for A/E design services, stating that the contract would be in accordance with FAR subpart 36.6. The CFPB received 24 proposals in response to the solicitation, which were evaluated and ranked by the evaluation board. The CFPB then invited the top six firms to give oral presentations and subsequently ranked those firms. The final ranking was provided to the contracting officer, who entered into negotiations with the top-ranked firm. These negotiations resulted in the award of the A/E contract in September 2012 for a not-to-exceed amount of $12 million.
We noted that the CFPB issued a public announcement of its requirements for A/E services allowing a 21-day response time, rather than the 30-day response time required by FAR 5.203. Given that the CFPB received proposals from 24 firms, 6 of which were evaluated as most highly qualified, we believe this did not limit competition. While the CFPB is not required to follow the FAR, we believe this public announcement still met the policy intent of FAR 5.002 regarding competition.
Construction Management Contract Procedures
GSA plans to award the construction management contract using the best value tradeoff process in FAR subpart 15.101-1. The best value tradeoff process is a competitive acquisition strategy designed to permit tradeoffs between price and nonprice factors. Under this acquisition strategy, the solicitation must identify the relationship between these factors used for evaluation of proposals.
GSA officials stated that the solicitation for construction management services was issued in February 2014 to nine firms against a national indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity construction management contract. The solicitation specifies that proposals will be evaluated on technical factors, which when combined are approximately equal to price. As of June 16, 2014, a technical evaluation board consisting of GSA and CFPB personnel was in the process of completing its evaluation report on the offerors' proposals. Once the report is completed, GSA will award a contract to the offeror whose proposal represents the best value.
Construction Contract Procedures
GSA plans to award the construction contract using the design-build two-phase selection process described in FAR 36.3. The two-phase process includes a phase I request for qualifications followed by a phase II request for proposals. During phase I, proposals are evaluated and the government selects the most highly qualified offerors to submit proposals for phase II. The phase II request for proposals results in the selection of the construction contractor whose offer provides the best value to the government, and a firm-fixed-price contract will be used for the construction contract.
In March 2014, GSA issued the phase I request for qualifications, which was open to both large and small businesses. As part of phase I, GSA invited potential offerors to attend a preproposal conference, and 43 companies attended. As of June 16, 2014, the evaluation board had completed its review of phase I proposals and prepared a source selection evaluation report. This report included the evaluation board's selection of the most highly qualified offerors and is currently undergoing a legal review at GSA. After the report is approved, GSA will issue the phase II request for proposals to the most highly qualified offerors.
Closing
Thank you for your interest in the work of the OIG. If you have questions on this or any other matter, please contact me at 202-973-5000 or John Manibusan, Assistant Congressional and Media Liaison, at 202-973-5043. We are providing a similar letter to the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
Sincerely,
Mark Bialek Inspector General
Attachments
Attachment 1
Scope and Methodology
Our scope included (1) the CFPB's budgeting and approval process for the renovation; (2) the $55 million, $95 million, and $150.8 million renovation figures outlined in the request letter; and (3) the competitive procedures for the three major contracting efforts associated with the renovation. We conducted our work from February 2014 to June 2014.
To evaluate the budgeting and approval process, we reviewed the CFPB's internal policies and processes for (1) formulating and approving the budget and financial plan, (2) funds transfers from the Board, and (3) approval of major investments. We met with cognizant CFPB officials and reviewed relevant documentation with respect to the CFPB's headquarters renovation project to understand how changes in estimates for the renovation flowed into the CFPB's budget and financial plan. We reviewed the CFPB's internal decision memorandums, the related funds transfer requests sent to the Board, and the Board's funds transfer acknowledgement letters. We reviewed the CFPB's IRB charter and internal IRB guidance to understand the process and specific requirements for completing business cases for major investments. We also evaluated IRB business cases and respective control sheets related to the CFPB's headquarters renovations. We interviewed the former executive in charge of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Administrative Services, as well as the former Treasury official who signed the letter of intent in 2011 on behalf of the CFPB to occupy the building.
To evaluate the figures outlined in the request letter, we reviewed the scope and the justification for the differences. We also interviewed CFPB officials, including the Chief Operating Officer, the CFO, and the Chief Administrative Officer, to obtain additional information regarding the figures.
To evaluate the competitive procedures, we reviewed the contract file for the A/E design services contract and the solicitation documents for the construction management and construction contracts. We also reviewed relevant parts of the FAR. We interviewed the contracting officer and two technical evaluation board team members for the A/E design services contract. We also interviewed GSA personnel, including the project manager for the CFPB's headquarters renovation project and the contracting officer for the construction management and construction contracts.
We reviewed relevant reports from Treasury OIG, as well as our March 31, 2014, report, Opportunities Exist for the Board to Improve Recordkeeping, Cost Estimation, and Cost Management Processes for the Martin Building Construction and Renovation Project and our October 22, 2013, report, Observations and Matters for Consideration Regarding the CFPB's Annual Budget Process. We also reviewed GSA's annual construction, acquisition, and renovation budget.
Timeline of Major Events
July 21, 2010 Dodd-Frank Act created the CFPB
Nov. 10, 2010 OTS building assessment containing renovation estimates finalized
Feb. 2, 2012 $55 million figure approved in CFPB's FY 2013 Budget Justification
Apr. 2013 $95 million published in The CFPB Strategic Plan, Budget, and Performance Plan and Report
May 17, 2013 CFPB financial plan revised from $95 million to $111.4 million
June 18, 2013 CFPB CFO testified on renovation budget
July 12, 2013 GSA issued $145.1 million renovation estimate
July 23, 2013 IRB business case for renovation submitted
Sept. 3, 2013 CFPB financial plan revised from $111.4 million to $145.1 million
Dec. 13, 2013 GSA issued revised $139.1 million renovation estimate
Dec. 30, 2013 $150.8 million published in Report of the CFPB Pursuant to Section 1017(e)(4) of the Dodd-Frank Act
Jan. 4, 2011 CFPB signed letter of intent to occupy 1700 G Street NW
Feb. 18, 2011 Treasury press release and Special Advisor announcement of CFPB's permanent headquarters at 1700 G Street NW issued
July 21, 2011 CFPB and OCC reached interim agreement for use of 1700 G Street NW
Oct. 1, 2011 CFPB moved into 1700 G Street NW
Jan. 4, 2012 CFPB Director appointed
Feb. 8, 2012 GSA delegated OCC authority to charge rent
Feb. 8, 2012 Solicitation issued for A/E contract
Feb. 17, 2012 CFPB entered into occupancy agreement with OCC
Sept. 7, 2012 A/E contract awarded
July 16, 2013 CFPB Director confirmed
Sept. 24, 2013 CFPB and GSA finalized RWA
CFPB and GSA MOU fully executed
Oct. 18, 2013
Attachment 2
Attachment 3
GSA's Annual Construction, Acquisition, and Renovation Budget
The request letter states that the CFPB's $95 million budget figure for the renovation was greater than the annual construction and acquisition budget for all federal buildings. We reviewed GSA's budgeted amount for construction and acquisition as well as for repairs and alterations, which include renovations, over the most recent 10-year period. We noted that the construction and acquisition budgeted amount was $56 million for FY 2013. However, this figure did not include $494.8 million for repairs and alterations and was an anomaly for the 10-year period. Table 2 below outlines the budgeted amounts for construction and acquisition and for repairs and alterations.
Table 2: GSA's Budgeted Amounts
Source: GSA budget justifications, FY 2006 through FY 2015.
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Odyssey Technologies Limited
NOTICE
NOTICE is hereby given that the Thirtieth Annual General Meeting of the shareholders of Odyssey Technologies Limited will be held on Wednesday, the 16 th day of September 2020 at 3.00 p.m. through Video Conferencing ("VC") / Other Audio Visual Means ("OAVM") to transact the following business. The venue of the AGM shall be deemed to be the Registered Office of the Company at 5 th Floor, Dowlath Towers, 63, Taylors Road, Kilpauk, Chennai-600010.
ORDINARY BUSINESS
Item No.1-Adoption of Financial Statements
To receive, consider, approve and adopt the Audited Financial Statements of the Company for the year ended March 31, 2020, which comprise the Audited Balance Sheet as at March 31, 2020, the Statement of Profit and Loss (including the statement of other comprehensive income), Statement of Changes in Equity and Statement of Cash Flows for the year then ended, notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies and other explanatory information for the year ended March 31, 2020 and the reports of the Board of Directors and Auditors thereon and in this regard, pass the following resolution as Ordinary Resolution :
"RESOLVED THAT the Audited Financial Statements of the Company for the year ended March 31, 2020, which comprise the Audited Balance Sheet as at March 31, 2020, the Statement of Profit and Loss (including the statement of other comprehensive income), Statement of Changes in Equity and Statement of Cash Flows for the year then ended, notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies and other explanatory information for the year ended March 31, 2020 and the reports of the Board of Directors and Auditors thereon be and are hereby received, considered, approved and adopted".
Item No.2-To appoint a Director in place of Mr. B. Antony Raja (DIN : 00754523) who retires by rotation and being eligible offers himself for re-appointment.
,
"RESOLVED THAT pursuant to the provisions of Section 152 of the Companies Act, 2013 and Articles of Association of the Company, Mr. B. Antony Raja [DIN : 00754523], who retires by rotation and being eligible has offered himself for re-appointment, be and is hereby re-appointed as a Director of the Company, liable to retire by rotation ."
SPECIAL BUSINESS
Item No. 3- Re-appointment of Mr.B.Robert Raja as Chairman and Managing Director, liable to retire by rotation, with effect from 1 st April 2020 up to 31 st March 2023.
To consider and if thought fit, to pass the following Resolution as Special Resolution:
"RESOLVED THAT pursuant to the provisions of Sections 2(54), 152,196, 197 and 203 read with Schedule V to the Act and the Companies (Appointment and Remuneration of Managerial Personnel) Rules, 2014 and SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, as may be amended from time to time and other
applicable Rules and provisions if any, of the Companies Act, 2013 (including any statutory modification or re-enactment thereof for the time being in force), the re-appointment of Mr.B.Robert Raja [DIN:00754202] as Chairman and Managing Director of the Company for a further period of three years with effect from 1 st April, 2020 up to 31 st March, 2023, liable to retire by rotation, upon such terms and conditions as set out in the Explanatory Statement pursuant to Section 102 of the Companies Act, 2013, hereto annexed, be and is hereby approved, confirmed and ratified."
"RESOLVED FURTHER THAT the authority be and is hereby granted to the Board of Directors to alter and vary the terms and conditions of the said appointment and / or agreement including authority, from time to time, to determine the amount of salary, allowances, perquisites and other benefits payable to Mr. B. Robert Raja, as recommended by the Nomination and Remuneration Committee, in such manner as may be agreed to between the Board of Directors and Mr. B. Robert Raja; provided however that the remuneration payable to him shall not exceed the limits prescribed under Section 197 read with Schedule V of the Companies Act, 2013, including any amendment, modification, variation or re-enactment thereof."
"RESOLVED FURTHER THAT in the event of any loss, absence or inadequacy of profits in any financial year, during the term of office of Mr. B. Robert Raja, the remuneration payable to him by way of salary, allowances and perquisites shall not exceed the limits prescribed under Schedule V to the Companies Act, 2013, or any amendment, modification, variation or re-enactment thereof."
"RESOLVED FURTHER THAT the Board be and is hereby authorized to do all such acts, deeds, matters and things and execute all such documents, instruments and writings as may be required and to delegate all or any of its powers herein conferred to any committee of directors or director(s) to give effect to the aforesaid resolutions."
Item No. 4- Re-appointment of Mr.B.Antony Raja as Whole-time Director & CFO, liable to retire by rotation, with effect from 1 st April 2020 up to 31 st March 2023.
To consider and if thought fit, to pass the following Resolution as Special Resolution:
"RESOLVED THAT pursuant to the provisions of Sections 2(94), 152,196, 197 and 203 read with Schedule V to the Act and the Companies (Appointment and Remuneration of Managerial Personnel) Rules, 2014 and SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, as may be amended from time to time and other applicable Rules and provisions if any, of the Companies Act, 2013 (including any statutory modification or re-enactment thereof for the time being in force), the reappointment of Mr.B.Antony Raja [DIN:00754523] as Whole-time Director & CFO of the Company for a further period of three years with effect from 1 st April, 2020 up to 31 st March, 2023, liable to retire by rotation, upon such terms and conditions as set out in the Explanatory Statement pursuant to Section 102 of the Companies Act, 2013, hereto annexed, be and is hereby approved, confirmed and ratified."
"RESOLVED FURTHER THAT the authority be and is hereby granted to the Board of Directors to alter and vary the terms and conditions of the said appointment and / or agreement including authority, from time to time, to determine the amount of salary,
allowances, perquisites and other benefits payable to Mr. B. Antony Raja, as recommended by the Nomination and Remuneration Committee, in such manner as may be agreed to between the Board of Directors and Mr. B. Antony Raja; provided however that the remuneration payable to him shall not exceed the limits prescribed under Section 197 read with Schedule V of the Companies Act, 2013, including any amendment, modification, variation or re-enactment thereof."
"RESOLVED FURTHER THAT in the event of any loss, absence or inadequacy of profits in any financial year, during the term of office of Mr. B. Antony Raja, the remuneration payable to him by way of salary, allowances and perquisites shall not exceed the limits prescribed under Schedule V to the Companies Act, 2013, or any amendment, modification, variation or re-enactment thereof."
"RESOLVED FURTHER THAT the Board be and is hereby authorized to do all such acts, deeds, matters and things and execute all such documents, instruments and writings as may be required and to delegate all or any of its powers herein conferred to any committee of directors or director(s) to give effect to the aforesaid resolutions."
Item 5- Re-appointment of Dr.Rani Radhakrishnan (DIN: 07119784) as an Independent Director of the Company for a second term of five consecutive years commencing with effect from 19 th March, 2020 up to 18 th March, 2025.
To consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as a Special Resolution:
"RESOLVED THAT pursuant to the provisions of Sections 149, 152 and other applicable provisions, if any, of the Companies Act, 2013 ("Act"), the Companies (Appointment and Qualifications of Directors) Rules, 2014 (including any statutory modifications or reenactment(s) thereof for the time being in force), read with Schedule IV to the Act and Regulation 17 and other applicable regulations of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 ("SEBI Listing Regulations"), as amended from time to time, Dr.Rani Radhakrishnan (DIN: 07119784), who was appointed as an Independent Director of the company by the shareholders at their Twenty fifth Annual General Meeting of the Company and who holds office up to 18 th March, 2020 and is eligible for re-appointment and who meets the criteria for independence as provided in Section 149(6) of the Act along with the rules framed thereunder and Regulation 16(1)(b) of SEBI Listing Regulations and has submitted a declaration to that effect and in respect of whom the Company has received a Notice in writing from a Member under Section 160(1) of the Act proposing her candidature for the office of Director, be and is hereby re-appointed as an Independent Director of the Company, not liable to retire by rotation, to hold office for a second term of five consecutive years commencing with effect from 19 th March, 2020 upto 18 th March, 2025."
"RESOLVED FURTHER THAT Mr. B. Antony Raja, Whole-time Director and CFO and Ms. B.Purnima, Company Secretary of the Company be and are hereby severally authorized to do all such acts, deeds, matters and things and execute all such documents, instruments and writings as may be necessary or desirable or expedient to give effect to the aforesaid resolution."
Registered Office: 5 th Floor, Dowlath Towers, 63, Taylors Road, Kilpauk,
Odyssey Technologies Limited
By order of the Board of Directors
Chennai-600 010
Date : August 7, 2020
For Odyssey Technologies Limited Sd/- B.Purnima Company Secretary & Compliance Officer Membership No.: ACS 30500
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Notes:
1. In view of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing is a norm to
be followed and Ministry of Corporate Affairs ("MCA") has vide its General Circular No. 20/2020 dated 5 th May, 2020, read with General Circular No. 14/2020 dated 8 th April, 2020 and General Circular No. 17/2020 dated 13 th April, 2020 (collectively referred to as "said Circulars") permitted the holding of the Annual General Meeting ("AGM") through VC/OAVM, without the physical presence of the Shareholders at a common venue. Accordingly, in compliance with the applicable provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 ("Act") read with the said Circulars and Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 ("SEBI Listing Regulations"), the Company has decided to convene its ensuing 30 th AGM through VC/OAVM and the Shareholders can attend and participate in the ensuing AGM through VC/OAVM.
2. Explanatory Statement pursuant to Section 102 of the Act relating to Items nos. 3 to 5 of the Notice of the 30th AGM, which are considered to be unavoidable by the Board of Directors of the Company, is annexed hereto.
3. Pursuant to the provisions of the Act, a Member entitled to attend and vote at the AGM is entitled to appoint a proxy to attend and vote on his/her behalf and the proxy need not be a Member of the Company. However, since this AGM is being held through VC/OAVM, whereby physical attendance of Shareholders has been dispensed with and in line with the said Circulars read with Circular No. SEBI/ HO/CFD/CMD1/CIR/P/2020/79 dated 12 th May, 2020 ("said SEBI Circular") issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India ("SEBI"), THE FACILITY TO APPOINT A PROXY TO ATTEND AND CAST VOTE FOR THE SHAREHOLDER IS NOT MADE AVAILABLE FOR THIS AGM and hence the Proxy Form and Attendance Slip are not annexed to this Notice.
However, in terms of the provisions of Section 112 and 113 of the Act read with the said Circulars, Corporate Shareholders are entitled to appoint their authorised representatives to attend the AGM through VC/OAVM on their behalf and participate thereat, including cast votes by electronic means (details of which are provided separately, hereinbelow). Such Corporate Shareholders are requested to send a certified copy of the Board Resolution authorizing their representatives to attend and vote at the Annual General Meeting through VC/OAVM.
4. The facility for Shareholders to join the AGM in the VC/OAVM mode will be kept open to join 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after the scheduled time of the
commencement of the Meeting. The Shareholders can join the AGM by following the procedure mentioned herein below in the Notice. The facility of participation at the AGM through VC/OAVM will be made available to atleast 1000 Shareholders on 'first come first serve' basis. This will not include large Shareholders (i.e. Shareholders holding 2% or more), Promoters, Directors, Key Managerial Personnel, the Chairperson(s) of the Audit Committee, Nomination and Remuneration Committee and Stakeholders Relationship Committee, Auditors etc. who are allowed to attend the AGM without restriction on account of 'first come first serve' basis.
5. The attendance of the Shareholders attending the AGM through VC/OAVM will be counted for the purpose of reckoning the quorum under Section 103 of the Act.
6. The Shareholders, seeking any information with regard to the accounts or any matter to be placed at the AGM, are requested to write to the Company on or before 9 th September, 2020, through Email to email@example.com. The same will be replied by/on behalf of the Company suitably.
7. The Register of Directors and Key Managerial Personnel and their shareholding, maintained under Section 170 of the Companies Act, 2013 and Register of Contracts or Arrangements in which the Directors are interested, maintained under Section 189 of the Companies Act, 2013 will be available electronically for inspection by the members during the Annual General Meeting.
8. The Register of Members and the Share Transfer Books of the company shall remain closed from Monday, 14 th September, 2020 to Wednesday, 16 th September, 2020 (both days inclusive) for the Annual General Meeting.
9. Members are requested to quote their Registered Folio Number or Demat Account Number & Depository Participant (DP) ID Number on all correspondences with the Company. Members holding shares in dematerialized mode are requested to intimate all changes pertaining to their bank details, mandate, nomination, power of attorney, change of address, etc., to their respective Depository Participant (DP).Members holding shares in physical mode are requested to intimate the same to Registrar & Share Transfer Agents of the Company (RTA) M/s. Cameo Corporate Services Limited, "Subramanian Building",No.1, Club House Road,Chennai-600 002.
10. The Company is concerned about the environment and utilizes natural resources in a sustainable way. Members who have not registered their e-mail addresses so far or who would like to update their email addresses already registered, are requested to register/ update their email address with their DP (in respect of shareholders who hold shares in dematerialized form) and with RTA (for those who hold shares in physical form) to enable us send you the communications via email.
11. In view of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, due to difficulties involved in dispatching of physical copies of the Annual Report and in line with the said Circulars issued by the MCA and said SEBI Circular, the Annual Report including
Notice of the 30th AGM of the Company inter alia indicating the process and manner of e-voting is being sent only by Email, to all the Shareholders whose Email IDs are registered with the Company/Depository Participant(s) for communication purposes to the Shareholders and to all other persons so entitled.
Members may also note that the Notice of the Thirtieth AGM and the Annual Report 2019-20 will also be available on the Company's website www.odysseytec.com and website of the Stock Exchange, BSE Ltd., at www.bseindia.com. The Notice of the AGM shall also be available on the website of CDSL at www.evotingindia.com.
12. Pursuant to Section 72 of the Companies Act, 2013, shareholders are entitled to make nomination in respect of shares held by them. Shareholders desirous of making nominations are requested to submit their requests in Form SH-13.The said Form can be downloaded from the web site of the company www.odysseytec.com [under "Investors" section]. Shareholders holding shares in physical form and electronic form may submit the same to the RTA, M/s. Cameo Corporate Services Limited and to their respective depository participant respectively.
13. Additional information pursuant to Regulations 26 (4) and 36 (3) of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 and SS-2 issued by ICSI in respect of the Directors seeking re-appointment at the Annual General Meeting under Item No.'s 2, 3,4 and 5 is annexed to this Notice. The Directors have furnished the requisite consents/declarations for their reappointment.
14. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has mandated the submission of Permanent Account Number (PAN) by every participant in securities market. Members holding shares in electronic form are, therefore, requested to submit the PAN to their Depository Participants with whom they are maintaining their demat accounts. Members holding shares in physical form can submit their PAN and Bank details to the RTA.
15. As per Regulation 40 of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, as amended, securities of listed companies can be transferred only in dematerialized form with effect from April 1,2019 except in case of request received for transmission or transposition of securities. In view of this, in order to eliminate all risks associated with physical shares and for ease of portfolio management, members holding shares in physical form are requested to consider converting their holdings to dematerialized form. Members can contact the Company's Registrar and Share Transfer Agents, Cameo Corporate Services Ltd. for assistance in this regard.
16. Instructions for e-voting:
Pursuant to Section 108 of the Companies Act, 2013, read with Rule 20 of the Companies (Management and Administration) Rules, 2014, as may be amended from time to time and Regulation 44 of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, as amended, and MCA Circulars dated April 8, 2020, April 13, 2020 and May 5, 2020, the Company is pleased to provide evoting facility to the members to cast their votes electronically on all resolutions set forth in this Notice.
The Company has engaged the services of Central Depository Services (India) Limited (CDSL) to provide e-voting facility. The Company has appointed Mr. A. Mohan Kumar, Mohan Kumar & Associates, Practising Company Secretary [FCS 4347, COP No. 19145] to act as the Scrutinizer, for conducting scrutiny of the votes cast.
Notice convening the 30 th Annual General Meeting and the Annual Report 2019-20 is also available on the CDSL's website: www.cdslindia.com.
The e-voting facility is available at the link: www.evotingindia.com.
The e-voting facility will be available during the following voting period:
During this period, shareholders of the Company, holding shares either in physical form or in dematerialized form, as on the cut-off date of 9 th September, 2020 may cast their vote electronically. The e-voting module shall be disabled by CDSL thereafter. A person who is not a member of the Company as on cut off date should treat the Notice for information purpose only.
Only those Shareholders, who will be present at the AGM through VC/OAVM facility and who had not cast their vote by remote e-voting prior to the AGM and are otherwise not barred from doing so, shall be eligible to vote through e-voting system during the AGM. In the case of joint holders, the member whose name appears as the first holder in the order of names as per the Register of Members of the Company shall be entitled to vote through remote e-voting or voting during the AGM.
The members desiring to vote through electronic mode may refer to the detailed procedure on e-voting given hereinafter.
Shareholders who have already voted prior to the meeting date would not be entitled to vote during the AGM.
(i) Log on to the e-voting website : www.evotingindia.com.
(ii) Click on "Shareholders" tab.
(iii) Now Enter your User ID
a) For CDSL: 16 digits beneficiary ID,
b) For NSDL: 8 Character DP ID followed by 8 Digits Client ID,
c) Members holding shares in Physical Form should enter Folio Number registered with the Company . (OR)
Alternatively, if you are registered for CDSL's EASI/EASIEST e-services, you can log-in at at https://www.cdslindia.com from Login - Myeasi using your login credentials. Once you successfully log-in to CDSL's EASI/EASIEST e-services, click on e-Voting option and proceed directly to cast your vote electronically.
(iv) Next enter the Image Verification as displayed and click on Login.
(v) If you are holding shares in Demat form and had logged on to www.evotingindia.com and voted on an earlier voting of any company, then your existing password is to be used.
(vi) If you are a first time user kindly follow the steps given below.
(vii) After entering these details appropriately, click on "SUBMIT" tab.
(viii)Members holding shares in physical form will then reach directly the Company selection screen. However, members holding shares in demat form will now reach 'Password Creation' menu wherein they are required to mandatorily enter their login password in the new password field. Kindly note that this password is to be also used by the demat holders for voting for resolutions of any other company on which they are eligible to vote, provided that company opts for e-voting through CDSL platform. It is strongly recommended not to share your password with any other person and take utmost care to keep your password confidential.
(ix) For Members holding shares in physical form, the details can be used only for e-voting on the resolutions contained in this Notice.
Odyssey Technologies Limited
(x) Click on the EVSN for the relevant <Company Name> on which you choose to vote.
(xi) On the voting page, you will see "RESOLUTION DESCRIPTION" and against the same the option "YES/NO" for voting. Select the option YES or NO as desired. The option YES implies that you assent to the Resolution and option NO implies that you dissent to the Resolution.
(xii) Click on the "RESOLUTIONS FILE LINK" if you wish to view the entire Resolution details.
(xiii) After selecting the resolution you have decided to vote on, click on "SUBMIT". A confirmation box will be displayed. If you wish to confirm your vote, click on "OK", else to change your vote, click on "CANCEL" and accordingly modify your vote.
(xiv) Once you "CONFIRM" your vote on the resolution, you will not be allowed to modify your vote.
(xv) You can also take a print of the votes cast by clicking on "Click here to print" option on the Voting page.
(xvi) If a Demat account holder has forgotten the login password then Enter the User ID and the image verification code and click on Forgot Password & enter the details as prompted by the system.
(xvii) Shareholders can also cast their vote using CDSL's mobile app m-Voting available for android based mobiles. The m-Voting app can be downloaded from Google Play Store. Please follow the instructions as prompted by the mobile app while voting on your mobile.
PROCESS FOR THOSE SHAREHOLDERS WHOSE EMAIL ADDRESSES ARE NOT REGISTERED WITH THE DEPOSITORIES FOR OBTAINING LOGIN CREDENTIALS FOR E-VOTING FOR THE RESOLUTIONS PROPOSED IN THIS NOTICE:
1. For Physical shareholders- please provide necessary details like Folio No., Name of shareholder, scanned copy of the share certificate (front and back), PAN (self attested scanned copy of PAN card), AADHAR (self attested scanned copy of Aadhar Card) by email to Company/RTA email id.
2. For Demat shareholders -, please provide Demat account details (CDSL-16 digit beneficiary ID or NSDL-16 digit DPID + CLID), Name, client master or copy of Consolidated Account statement, PAN (self attested scanned copy of PAN card), AADHAR (self attested scanned copy of Aadhar Card) to Company/RTA email id.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SHAREHOLDERS ATTENDING THE EGM/AGM THROUGH VC/OAVM ARE AS UNDER:
1. Shareholder will be provided with a facility to attend the AGM through VC/OAVM through the CDSL e-Voting system. Shareholders may access the same at https://www.evotingindia.com under shareholders/members login by using the remote e-voting credentials. The link for VC/OAVM will be available in shareholder/members login where the EVSN of Company will be displayed.
2. Shareholders are encouraged to join the Meeting through Laptops / IPads for better experience.
3. Further shareholders will be required to allow Camera and use Internet with a good speed to avoid any disturbance during the meeting.
4. Please note that Participants Connecting from Mobile Devices or Tablets or through Laptop connecting via Mobile Hotspot may experience Audio/Video loss due to Fluctuation in their respective network. It is therefore recommended to use Stable Wi-Fi or LAN Connection to mitigate any kind of aforesaid glitches.
5. Shareholders who would like to express their views/ask questions during the meeting may register themselves as a speaker by sending their request in advance atleast 7 days prior to meeting mentioning their name, demat account number/folio number, email id, mobile number at (company email id). The shareholders who do not wish to speak during the AGM but have queries may send their queries in advance 7 days prior to meeting mentioning their name, demat account number/folio number, email id, mobile number at (company email id). These queries will be replied to by the company suitably by email.
6. Those shareholders who have registered themselves as a speaker will only be allowed to express their views/ask questions during the meeting. The Company reserves the right to restrict the number of questions and number of speakers, depending upon the availability of time as appropriate for smooth conduct of the AGM.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SHAREHOLDERS FOR E-VOTING DURING THE AGM ARE AS UNDER:-
1. The procedure for e-Voting on the day of the AGM is same as the instructions mentioned above for Remote e-voting.
2. Only those shareholders, who are present in the AGM through VC/OAVM facility and have not casted their vote on the Resolutions through remote e-Voting and are otherwise not barred from doing so, shall be eligible to vote through e-Voting system available during the AGM.
3. If any Votes are cast by the shareholders through the e-voting available during the AGM and if the same shareholders have not participated in the meeting through VC/OAVM facility , then the votes cast by such shareholders
shall be considered invalid as the facility of e-voting during the meeting is available only to the shareholders attending the meeting.
4. Shareholders who have voted through Remote e-Voting will be eligible to attend the AGM. However, they will not be eligible to vote at the AGM.
(xviii) Note for Non – Individual Shareholders and Custodians
- Non-Individual shareholders (i.e. other than Individuals, HUF, NRI etc.) and Custodians are required to log on to www.evotingindia.com and register themselves as Corporates.
- A scanned copy of the Registration Form bearing the stamp and sign of the entity should be emailed to firstname.lastname@example.org.
- After receiving the login details a Compliance User should be created using the admin login and password. The Compliance user would be able to link the account(s) for which they wish to vote on.
- The list of accounts linked in the login should be mailed to email@example.com and on approval of the accounts they would be able to cast their vote.
- A scanned copy of the Board Resolution and Power of Attorney (POA) which they have issued in favour of the Custodian, if any, should be uploaded in PDF format in the system for the scrutinizer to verify the same.
- Alternatively Non Individual shareholders are required to send the relevant Board Resolution/ Authority letter etc. together with attested specimen signature of the duly authorized signatory who are authorized to vote, to the Scrutinizer and to the Company at the email address viz; firstname.lastname@example.org (designated email address by company) , if they have voted from individual tab & not uploaded same in the CDSL e-voting system for the scrutinizer to verify the same.
(xix) If you have any queries or issues regarding attending AGM & e-Voting from the e-Voting System, you may refer the Frequently Asked Questions ("FAQs") and e-voting manual available at www.evotingindia.com under help section or write an email to email@example.com or contact Mr. Nitin Kunder (022-23058738) or Mr. Mehboob Lakhani (022-23058543) or Mr. Rakesh Dalvi (022-23058542).
All grievances connected with the facility for voting by electronic means may be addressed to Mr. Rakesh Dalvi, Manager, (CDSL ) Central Depository Services (India) Limited, A Wing, 25 th Floor, Marathon Futurex, Mafatlal Mill Compounds, N M Joshi Marg, Lower Parel (East), Mumbai - 400013 or send an email to firstname.lastname@example.org or call on 022-23058542/43.
General Instructions
a. The remote e-voting shall not be allowed beyond the abovementioned date and time.
b. Once the vote on the resolution is cast by the shareholder, whether partially or otherwise, the shareholder shall not be allowed to change it subsequently or cast the vote again.
c. Any person who have acquired shares and become members of the company after the electronic despatch of the notice and holding shares as on cut-off date, i.e. 9 th September 2020 and who have updated their PAN with the Company/DP, should follow the instructions as above mentioned in (i) to (xix) to vote through e-voting and those who have not updated their PAN with the Company/DP, can send a mail to email@example.com and firstname.lastname@example.org to obtain sequence number and they will have to follow the instructions as above mentioned in (i) to (xix) to vote through e-voting.
d. The voting rights of members shall be in proportion to their shares in the paid up equity share capital of the Company as on cut-off date. A person, whose name is recorded in the register of members or in the register of beneficial owners maintained by the depositories as on the cut-off date only shall be entitled to avail the facility of remote e-Voting and e-voting during the AGM .
e. The Scrutinizer shall, immediately after the conclusion of voting during the general meeting, would count the votes cast during the meeting and through remote e-voting, thereafter unblock the votes cast through remote e-voting in the presence of at least two witnesses not in the employment of the Company and make, not later than three days of conclusion of the meeting, a consolidated Scrutinizer's report of the total votes cast in favour or against, if any, to the Chairman or a person authorized by him in writing who shall countersign the same.
f. The results declared along with the Scrutinizer's Report shall be placed on the Company's website www.odysseytec.com and on the website of CDSL www.cdslindia.com immediately after the result is declared. The Company shall simultaneously forward the results to BSE Ltd., where the shares of the Company are listed.
g. Subject to the receipt of requisite number of votes through remote e-voting and voting during the meeting, the Resolutions proposed in the Notice shall be deemed to have been passed on the date of the meeting, i.e., Wednesday, 16 th September 2020.
Registered Office: 5 th Floor, Dowlath Towers, 63, Taylors Road, Kilpauk, Chennai-600 010
Date : August 7, 2020
By order of the Board of Directors For Odyssey Technologies Limited Sd/- B.Purnima Company Secretary & Compliance Officer Membership No.: ACS 30500
Odyssey Technologies Limited
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
As required under Section 102 of the Companies Act, 2013 ("Act"), the following explanatory statement sets out all material facts relating to business mentioned under Item No.'s 3 to 5 of the accompanying Notice:
Item No.3-Re-appointment of Mr. B. Robert Raja as Chairman and Managing Director, liable to retire by rotation, with effect from 1 st April, 2020 up to 31 st March, 2023
The shareholders of the Company at their 27 th Annual General Meeting of the Company ('AGM') held on 7 th September 2017 had accorded approval for the re-appointment of Mr. B. Robert Raja, Chairman and Managing Director of the Company for a period of three years with effect from 1 st April 2017 up to 31 st March 2020, liable to retire by rotation, by passing an ordinary resolution pursuant to the provisions of Sections 2(54), 196,197 and 203 read with Schedule V and other applicable Rules and provisions of the Act. The terms and conditions of the above appointment were within the overall limits of Schedule V of the Companies Act, 2013.
Since the present tenure of Mr. B. Robert Raja, Chairman and Managing Director of the Company expires on 31 st March, 2020, it is proposed to reappoint Mr. B. Robert Raja as Chairman and Managing Director of the Company, liable to retire by rotation for a further period of three years with effect from 1 st April, 2020 up to 31 st March, 2023 upon the terms and conditions including the remuneration as recommended by the Nomination and Remuneration Committee of Directors at their meeting held on 6 th February 2020.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 196 (4) of the Companies Act, 2013, appointment of a Managing Director and the terms and conditions of such appointment and remuneration payable shall be approved by the Board of Directors at a meeting, which shall be subject to the approval of the shareholders by a resolution at the ensuing general meeting of the company.
Regulation 17 (6) (e) of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 requires the approval of shareholders by special resolution if the aggregate annual remuneration payable to the Executive Directors who are promoters or members of the promoters group exceed 5% of Net profits of the listed entity (calculated as per Section 198 of the Act). Since, the remuneration payable to CMD and WTD & CFO exceeds the prescribed limit, approval by special resolution is being sought from the shareholders.
The main terms and conditions of the re-appointment of Mr. B. Robert Raja, [hereinafter referred to as "CMD"] are given below:
A. Tenure of re-appointment :-
The re-appointment of CMD, liable to retire by rotation shall be for a further period of three years with effect from 1 st April, 2020 up to 31 st March, 2023.
B. Remuneration :-
The CMD shall be paid remuneration up to an amount not exceeding Rs.4,00,000/- per month (Rs.48,00,000/- per annum) during the period of his
tenure effective from 1 st April 2020 till 31 st March, 2023, which is inclusive of salary, allowances, perquisites and benefits. The perquisites and benefits shall be valued as per Income Tax Rules, 1962.
Any time during the term of these three years, the remuneration payable to the CMD may be revised by the Board of Directors of the Company on the recommendation of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee, based on the performance of the Company, performance of the CMD and his contributions to the growth of the Company and the market standards and the said remuneration, as enhanced, shall not exceed the limits prescribed under Section 197 read with Schedule V of the Companies Act, 2013, including any amendment, modification, variation or re-enactment thereof.
The CMD, in addition to receiving such remuneration, subject to the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 shall be entitled to be reimbursed by the Company in respect of any out of pocket expenses incurred by him in discharge of his bonafide functions / duties on behalf of the Company and in addition he is entitled to the following benefits:-
a. Contribution to Provident Fund, Superannuation or Annuity fund to the extent these either singly or put together are not taxable,
c. Encashment of unavailed leave at the end of the tenure,
b. Gratuity at the rate of 15 days salary for each completed year of service at the end of tenure,
d. Use of Company's Car for official purposes, as per the rules of the Company, which shall not be considered as perquisite.
e. Any other benefit as may be provided by the Company and agreed upon by the Board of Directors of the Company as per the Employment Rules of the Company, as may be amended from time to time.
Shareholders' approval is also being sought to empower the Board to vary the terms of employment, including the remuneration from time to time based on the exigencies of business, but within the limits prescribed by the Companies Act, 2013.
C. Minimum Remuneration:-
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein contained, where in any financial year during the tenure of the CMD, the Company has no profits or its profits are inadequate, the above remuneration shall be treated as minimum remuneration payable, subject to further approvals as required under Schedule V of the Act, or any modification(s) thereto.
D. Nature of Duties
The CMD shall have all powers and authorities which remain vested with him under the Companies Act, 2013 and Articles of Association of the company and the CMD shall be entitled to the management and control of whole of the affairs of the company.
E. Other terms & conditions:-
(i) The terms and conditions of the above appointment shall be within the overall limits of Section II of Part II of Schedule V to the Companies Act, 2013 as
may be amended from time to time. Wherein in any financial year the company has adequate profits, the remuneration payable to the CMD shall be within the prescribed limit as laid down in Section I of Part II of Schedule V or any modification(s) thereto.
(ii) The CMD as long as he functions as such shall not be paid any sitting fees for attending the meeting of the Board of Directors or committee thereof.
(iii) The appointment may be terminated by either party (the Company or the CMD) by giving to the other party three calendar months' prior notice in writing of such termination or the Company paying three month's remuneration in lieu of the notice.
Information required under clause (iv) of proviso to paragraph B of Section II of Part II of Schedule V of the Companies Act, 2013.
I. General information:
(1) Nature of industry:
The Company is engaged mainly in development of software products in the area of information security.
(2) Date or expected date of commencement of commercial production: The Company has been in business for the past 30 years and focusing on information security vertical for the past 20 years.
(3) In case of new companies, expected date of commencement of activities: Not applicable, as the company is an existing company.
(4) Financial performance based on given indicators:
| Sl.No. | Particulars | FY 2019-20* | FY 2018-19 (Restated)** |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Revenue from Operations (Net) | 1764.73 | 1361.95 |
| 2 | Profit before Tax | 82.36 | 104.20 |
| 3 | Profit after Tax | 45.35 | 64.22 |
| 4 | Share Capital | 851.20 | 851.20 |
| 5 | Net Profit as computed under Section 198 of the Companies Act, 2013 | 82.36 | 104.20 |
| 6 | Rate of Dividend on Equity shares (%) | NA | NA |
*The particulars mentioned above for FY 2019-20 are subject to adoption of the audited accounts of the company for the year ended March 31, 2020 in the ensuing AGM. **The figures for the Financial Year 2018-19 have been restated in compliance with applicable Accounting Standards for giving effect to the amalgamation of Cyberneme Private Limited (Transferor Company) with Odyssey Technologies Limited (Transferee Company). Detailed notes pertaining to the restatement of figures have been provided in notes to the financial statements.
Odyssey Technologies Limited
(5) Foreign investments or collaborations if any: NIL
II. Information about the appointee:
(1) Background details:
A short write up about Mr. B Robert Raja, CMD :
He has 20 years experience in various capacities in Government service and his designation was Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax at the time of leaving the service in 1992.
He has been actively involved in the field of Information Technology with particular reference to Information security. He has a rich research experience in the field of general computing, cryptography as well as experience in management. In Odyssey, in addition to his administrative duties, he also serves as a primary technology resource.
He has also spoken in several conferences at both national and international level on his chosen subject of Information Security.
(2) Past remuneration:
| Sl.No. | Particulars | FY 2019-20 | FY 2018-19 | FY 2017-18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Remuneration paid to CMD | 48 | 48 | 48 |
(Rs. in Lakhs per annum)
(3) Recognition or awards/ Job profile and his suitability:
Mr. B. Robert Raja had briefly served in the Technology Committee of the Controller of Certifying Authorities of India.
He had also participated in some high-profile investigations during his employment with the Government of India that called for a great deal of Cryptography related skills.
He has built a highly skilled team of research and development personnel for the Company over the years and has been setting the direction of the Company's technology and products.
His skill sets are recognized by the Industry and are relevant for generating customer trust that leads to customer acquisition for the company's products.
He has also steered the company during its financially difficult product development phase successfully and maintained the company's focus.
He has also been actively involved in architecting and building the next generation of technology products for the company.
(4) Remuneration proposed:
Rs.4,00,000/- per month(Rs.48,00,000/- per annum) during the period of his tenure effective from 1 st April 2020 till 31 st March, 2023, which is inclusive of Salary, allowances, perquisites and benefits . The perquisites and benefits are valued as per Income Tax Rules, 1962. In addition the CMD is entitled to the following benefits.
a. Contribution to Provident Fund, Superannuation or Annuity fund to the extent these either singly or put together are not taxable,
c. Encashment of unavailed leave at the end of the tenure,
b. Gratuity at the rate of 15 days salary for each completed year of service at the end of tenure,
d. Use of Company's Car for official purposes, as per the rules of the Company, which shall not be considered as perquisite.
e. Any other benefit as may be provided by the Company and agreed upon by the Board of Directors of the Company as per the Employment Rules of the Company, as may be amended from time to time.
Any time, during the term of these three years, the remuneration payable to the CMD may be revised by the Board of Directors of the Company on the recommendation of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee, based on the performance of the Company, performance of the CMD and his contributions to the growth of the Company and the market standards and the said remuneration, as enhanced, shall not exceed the limits prescribed under Section 197 read with Schedule V of the Companies Act, 2013, including any amendment, modification, variation or re-enactment thereof.
(5) Comparative remuneration profile with respect to industry, size of the company, profile of the position and person:
Comparable experience profiles attract a minimum remuneration in excess of Rs. 1.2 crore per annum in the Information Security Industry.
(6) Pecuniary relationship directly or indirectly with the company, or relationship with managerial personnel, if any
Other than the remuneration stated above, Mr. B. Robert Raja has no other pecuniary relationship directly or indirectly with the Company. He holds 5,79,955 equity shares in the Company constituting 6.54% of paid up equity share capital of the company as on March 31, 2020.
Mr. B. Robert Raja is related to Mr. B. Antony Raja, who is also a Whole-time Director & CFO of the Company.
III. Other information:
(1) Reasons for losses or inadequate profits :
Odyssey is engaged in software product development in the area of information security with particular reference to PKI based Digital Signature technologies. Further, the entire development was undertaken in-house so that the resultant Intellectual Properties will be entirely owned by the Company.
Building such products from the ground-up is a challenging and time consuming task and any organization that is engaged in a comparable venture has to go through this first phase of 3-5 years.
Even after the product development, gaining the acceptance of the market for such mission-critical applications is again a significant task and takes anywhere from 1 to 5 years depending on the marketing spend and other factors.
Odyssey has largely been in these two early phases and has successfully crossed them with limited capital resources.
2) Steps taken or proposed to be taken for improvement and expected increase in productivity and profits in measurable terms :
The products have been continuously improved and market tested over the last few years and have shown steady market acceptance. The strategy followed so far has been the correct one as evidenced by the customer acceptance and increasing revenues. The steps that are required are to maintain and grow the technology and customer focus with rigorous discipline and consistency. The company has already been witnessing reasonable profits from the financial year 2008-09 onwards and the net profit for the FY 2019-20 is Rs. 45.35 lakhs as compared to the restated net profit of Rs. 64.22 lakhs during the FY 2018–19. The reduced profit is a reflection of the increase in amortization on the intangible assets acquired by the Company through the amalgamation of Cyberneme Private Limited into the Company with an appointed date of December 1, 2018. The company is expected to become more profitable in the coming years due to increased synergies of the merged entity.
In compliance with the provisions of Sections 196, 197 and other applicable provisions of the Act, read with Schedule V to the Act, the terms of appointment and remuneration of the CMD as specified above are now being placed before the members for their approval. The Board commends the Resolution at Item No.3 for approval by the members.
Except Mr. B. Robert Raja and his brother Mr. B. Antony Raja [Whole-time Director & CFO of the Company], none of the other Directors and Key Managerial Personnel of the Company or their relatives are interested in the Resolution set out in the Notice.
Item No.4- Re-appointment of Mr. B. Antony Raja as Whole-time Director & CFO, liable to retire by rotation, with effect from 1 st April, 2020 up to 31 st March, 2023.
The shareholders of the Company at their 27 th Annual General Meeting of the Company held on 7 th September 2017 had accorded approval for the re-appointment of Mr. B. Antony Raja, Whole-time Director of the Company for a period of three years with effect from 1 st April 2017 up to 31 st March 2020, liable to retire by rotation, by passing an ordinary resolution pursuant to the provisions of Sections 2(94), 196, 197 and 203 read with Schedule V and other applicable Rules and provisions of the Act. The terms and conditions of the above appointment was within the overall limits of Schedule V of the Companies Act, 2013.
Since the present tenure of Mr. B. Antony Raja, Whole-time Director & CFO of the Company expires on 31 st March, 2020, it is proposed to reappoint Mr. B. Antony Raja as Whole-time Director & CFO of the Company, liable to retire by rotation for a further period of three years with effect from 1 st April, 2020 up to 31 st March, 2023 upon the terms and conditions including the remuneration as recommended by the Nomination and Remuneration Committee of Directors at their meeting held on 6 th February 2020.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 196 (4) of the Companies Act, 2013, appointment of a Whole-time Director and the terms and conditions of such appointment and remuneration payable shall be approved by the Board of Directors at a meeting, which shall be subject to the approval of the shareholders by a resolution at the ensuing general meeting of the company.
Regulation 17 (6) (e) of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 requires the approval of shareholders by special resolution if the aggregate annual remuneration payable to the Executive Director who are promoters or members of the promoters group exceed 5% of Net profits of the listed entity (calculated as per Section 198 of the Act). Since, the remuneration payable to CMD and WTD & CFO exceeds the prescribed limit, approval by special resolution is being sought from the shareholders.
The main terms and conditions of the re-appointment of Mr. B. Antony Raja, [hereinafter referred to as "WTD & CFO"] are given below:
A. Tenure of re-appointment :-
The re-appointment of WTD & CFO, liable to retire by rotation, shall be for a further period of three years with effect from 1 st April, 2020 up to 31 st March, 2023.
B. Remuneration :-
The WTD & CFO shall be paid remuneration up to an amount not exceeding Rs.3,00,000/- per month (Rs.36,00,000/- per annum) during the period of his tenure effective from 1 st April 2020 till 31 st March, 2023, which is inclusive of salary, allowances, perquisites and benefits. The perquisites and benefits shall be valued as per Income Tax Rules, 1962.
Any time during the term of these three years, the remuneration payable to the WTD & CFO may be revised by the Board of Directors of the Company on the recommendation of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee, based on the performance of the Company, performance of the WTD & CFO and his contributions to the growth of the Company and the market standards and the said remuneration, as enhanced, shall not exceed the limits prescribed under Section 197 read with Schedule V of the Companies Act, 2013, including any amendment, modification, variation or re-enactment thereof.
The WTD & CFO of the Company in addition to receiving such remuneration, subject to the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 shall be entitled to be reimbursed by the Company in respect of any out of pocket expenses incurred by him in discharge of his bonafide functions / duties on behalf of the Company and in addition he is entitled to the following benefits:-
a. Contribution to Provident Fund, Superannuation or Annuity fund to the extent these either singly or put together are not taxable,
c. Encashment of unavailed leave at the end of the tenure,
b. Gratuity at the rate of 15 days salary for each completed year of service at the end of tenure,
d. Use of Company's Car for official purposes, as per the rules of the Company, which shall not be considered as perquisite.
e. Any other benefit as may be provided by the Company and agreed upon by the Board of Directors of the Company as per the Employment Rules of the Company, as may be amended from time to time.
Shareholders' approval is also being sought to empower the Board to vary the terms of employment from time to time on the exigencies of business, but within the limits prescribed by the Companies Act, 2013.
C. Minimum Remuneration:-
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein contained, where in any financial year during the tenure of the WTD & CFO, the Company has no profits or its profits are inadequate, the above remuneration shall be treated as minimum remuneration payable, subject to further approvals as required under Schedule V of the Act, or any modification(s) thereto.
D. Nature of Duties:-
The WTD & CFO shall, subject to the supervision and control of the Board of Directors perform such duties as shall from time to time be entrusted to him by the Board and the CMD.
E. Other terms & conditions:-
(i) The terms and conditions of the above appointment shall be within the overall limits of Section II of Part II of Schedule V to the Companies Act, 2013 as may be amended from time to time. Wherein in any financial year the company has adequate profits, the remuneration payable to the WTD & CFO shall be within the prescribed limit as laid down in Section I of Part II of Schedule V or any modification(s) thereto.
(ii) The WTD & CFO as long as he functions as such shall not be paid any sitting fees for attending the meeting of the Board of Directors or committee thereof.
(iii) The appointment may be terminated by either party (the Company or the WTD & CFO) by giving to the other party three calendar months' prior notice in writing of such termination or the Company paying three month's remuneration in lieu of the notice.
Information required under clause (iv) of proviso to paragraph B of Section II of Part II of Schedule V of the Companies Act, 2013.
I. General information:
(1) Nature of industry:
The Company is engaged mainly in development of software products in the area of information security.
(2) Date or expected date of commencement of commercial production: The Company has been in business for the past 30 years and focusing on information security vertical for the past 20 years.
(3) In case of new companies, expected date of commencement of activities: Not applicable, as the company is an existing company.
(4) Financial performance based on given indicators :
Rs.in lakhs
| Sl.No. | Particulars | FY 2019-20* | FY 2018-19 (Restated)** |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Revenue from Operations (Net) | 1764.73 | 1361.95 |
| 2 | Profit before Tax | 82.36 | 104.20 |
| 3 | Profit after Tax | 45.35 | 64.22 |
| 4 | Share Capital | 851.20 | 851.20 |
| 5 | Net Profit as computed under Section 198 of the Companies Act, 2013 | 82.36 | 104.20 |
| 6 | Rate of Dividend on Equity shares (%) | NA | NA |
*The particulars mentioned above for FY 2019-20 are subject to adoption of the audited accounts of the company for the year ended March 31, 2020 in the ensuing AGM. **The figures for the Financial year 2018-19 have been restated in compliance with applicable Accounting Standards for giving effect to the amalgamation of Cyberneme Private Limited (Transferor Company) with Odyssey Technologies Limited (Transferee Company). Detailed notes pertaining to the restatement of figures have been provided in notes to the financial statements.
(5) Foreign investments or collaborations if any: NIL
II. Information about the appointee:
(1) Background details:
A short write up about Mr. B.Antony Raja :
Mr. B. Antony Raja is a technocrat by training and has contributed to successful marketing of the products of the company which significantly enhanced the performance of the company.
He has over 29 years of experience in handling Finance, Administration, Human Resources and has been managing the day to day activities of the company since inception of the company.
He has also been actively involved in all matters of compliance by the company. This has been significantly demanding considering the changes in the legislative and regulatory environment in the last few years.
(2) Past remuneration:
Rs. in Lakhs (per annum)
Odyssey Technologies Limited
(3) Recognition or awards/ Job profile and his suitability:
He has over 29 years of experience in handling Finance, Administration, Human Resources and managing the day to day activities of the company.
This has resulted in significant operational cost reduction especially when the company was undergoing severe cash flow problems.
(4) Remuneration proposed:
Rs.3,00,000/- per month (Rs.36,00,000/- per annum) during the period of his tenure effective from 1 st April 2020 till 31 st March, 2023, which is inclusive of Salary, allowances, perquisites and benefits. The perquisites and benefits are valued as per Income Tax Rules, 1962. In addition WTD & CFO is entitled to the following benefits:-
a. Contribution to Provident Fund, Superannuation or Annuity fund to the extent these either singly or put together are not taxable,
c. Encashment of unavailed leave at the end of the tenure,
b. Gratuity at the rate of 15 days salary for each completed year of service at the end of tenure,
d. Use of Company's Car for official purposes, as per the rules of the Company, which shall not be considered as perquisite.
e. Any other benefit as may be provided by the Company and agreed upon by the Board of Directors of the Company as per the Employment Rules of the Company, as may be amended from time to time.
Any time during the term of these three years, the remuneration payable to the WTD & CFO may be revised by the Board of Directors of the Company on the recommendation of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee, based on the performance of the Company, performance of the WTD & CFO and his contributions to the growth of the Company and the market standards and the said remuneration, as enhanced, shall not exceed the limits prescribed under Section 197 read with Schedule V of the Companies Act, 2013, including any amendment, modification, variation or re-enactment thereof.
(5) Comparative remuneration profile with respect to industry, size of the company, profile of the position and person:
Comparable experience profiles attract a minimum remuneration in excess of Rs.80 lakhs per annum in the Information Security Industry.
(6) Pecuniary relationship directly or indirectly with the company, or relationship with managerial personnel, if any:
Other than the remuneration stated above, Mr. B Antony Raja has no other pecuniary relationship directly or indirectly with the Company. He holds 2,02,000 equity shares in the Company constituting 2.28% of paid up equity share capital of the company as on March 31, 2020.
Mr. B. Antony Raja is related to Mr. B. Robert Raja, CMD of the Company.
III. Other information:
(1) Reasons for losses or inadequate profits :
Odyssey is engaged in software product development in the area of information security with particular reference to PKI based Digital Signature technologies. Further, the entire development was undertaken in-house so that the resultant Intellectual Properties will be entirely owned by the Company.
Building such products from the ground-up is a challenging and time consuming task and any organization that is engaged in a comparable venture has to go through this first phase of 3-5 years.
Even after the product development, gaining the acceptance of the market for such mission-critical applications is again a significant task and takes anywhere from 1 to 5 years depending on the marketing spend and other factors.
Odyssey has largely been in these two early phases and has successfully crossed them with limited capital resources.
2) Steps taken or proposed to be taken for improvement and expected increase in productivity and profits in measurable terms :
The products have been continuously improved and market tested over the last few years and have shown steady market acceptance. The strategy followed so far has been the correct one as evidenced by the customer acceptance and increasing revenues. The steps that are required are to maintain and grow the technology and customer focus with rigorous discipline and consistency. The company has already been witnessing reasonable profits from the financial year 2008-09 onwards and the net profit for the FY 2019-20 is Rs. 45.35 lakhs as compared to the restated net profit of Rs. 64.22 lakhs during the FY 2018–19. The reduced profit is a reflection of the increase in amortization on the intangible assets acquired by the Company through the amalgamation of Cyberneme Private Limited into the Company with an appointed date of December 1, 2018. The company is expected to become more profitable in the coming years due to increased synergies of the merged entity.
In compliance with the provisions of Sections 196, 197 and other applicable provisions of the Act, read with Schedule V to the Act, the terms of appointment and remuneration of the WTD & CFO as specified above are now being placed before the members for their approval. The Board commends the Resolution at Item No.4 for approval by the members.
Except Mr. B. Antony Raja and his brother Mr. B. Robert Raja [CMD of the Company], none of the other Directors and Key Managerial Personnel of the Company or their relatives are interested in the Resolution set out in the Notice.
Regd. Off: 5
th
Floor, Dowlath Towers, 63, Taylors Road, Kilpauk, Chennai-600 010.
Odyssey Technologies Limited
Item 5- Re-appointment of Dr.Rani Radhakrishnan (DIN: 07119784) as an Independent Director of the Company for a second term of five consecutive years commencing with effect from 19 th March, 2020 up to 18 th March, 2025.
Dr.Rani Radhakrishnan (DIN:07119784) was appointed as Independent Director of the Company at the 25 th Annual General Meeting held on September 9, 2015 to hold office for five consecutive years with effect from 19 th March, 2015 to 18 th March, 2020.
The Nomination and Remuneration Committee of the Board of Directors, on the basis of the report of performance evaluation of Independent Directors, has recommended the re-appointment of Dr.Rani Radhakrishnan as Independent Director of the Company to hold office for a second term of five consecutive years with effect from 19 th March, 2020 up to 18 th March, 2025, not liable to retire by rotation.
The Board based on the performance evaluation of Independent Directors and as per the recommendation of Nomination and Remuneration Committee, considers that, given her background, experience and contributions made by her during her tenure, the continued association of Dr.Rani Radhakrishnan would be beneficial to the Company and it is desirable to continue to avail her services as an Independent Director.
Accordingly, pursuant to the provisions of Section 149, 152 read with Schedule IV and all other applicable provisions of the Companies Act, 2013, it is proposed to re-appoint Dr.Rani Radhakrishnan as Independent Director of the Company, not liable to retire by rotation and to hold office for a second term of five consecutive years with effect from 19 th March, 2020 up to 18 th March, 2025 on the Board of the Company.
The Company has received from Dr.Rani Radhakrishnan (DIN:07119784) :-
(i) Consent in writing to act as Director in Form DIR-2 pursuant to Rule 8 of Companies (Appointment & Qualification of Directors) Rules, 2014,
(ii) Intimation in Form DIR-8 in terms of Companies (Appointment & Qualification of Directors) Rules, 2014, to the effect that they are not disqualified under sub-section (2) of Section 164 of the Companies Act, 2013,
(iii) Declaration of Independence, that she meets the criteria of independence as provided in Section 149(6) of the Companies Act, 2013.
The Company has, in terms of Section 160(1) of the Act received in writing notice from a member, proposing her candidature for the office of Director.
In the opinion of the Board, Dr.Rani Radhakrishnan fulfills the conditions specified in the Act and SEBI Listing Regulations for re-appointment as Independent Director and is independent of the management of the Company. The terms and conditions of her re-appointment shall be open for inspection and made available electronically during the AGM.
In compliance with the provisions of Section 149, 152 read with Schedule IV to the Act and Regulation 17 of SEBI Listing Regulations and other applicable Regulations, the re-appointment of Dr.Rani Radhakrishnan as an Independent Director of the Company is now being placed before the Members for their approval by way of a Special Resolution.
Odyssey Technologies Limited
Dr.Rani Radhakrishnan has registered herself in the database of Independent Directors in compliance with Rule 6(1) and (2) of Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Fifth Amendment Rules, 2019, as may be amended from time to time.
None of the Directors, Key Managerial Personnel, or their relatives, except Dr.Rani Radhakrishnan to whom the resolution relates, is interested or concerned in the Resolution.
The Board recommends the resolution set forth in Item No.5 for the approval of members.
Registered Office: 5 th Floor, Dowlath Towers, 63, Taylors Road, Kilpauk, Chennai-600 010
Date : August 7, 2020
By order of the Board of Directors For Odyssey Technologies Limited Sd/- B.Purnima Company Secretary & Compliance Officer Membership No.: ACS 30500
Details of the Directors proposed for reappointment pursuant to Regulation 36 (3) of SEBI Listing Regulations and SS-2 issued by ICSI
| Name & Designation | Mr. B. Robert Raja Chairman & Managing Director | Mr. B. Antony Raja Whole-time Director& CFO | Dr. Rani Radhakrishnan |
|---|---|---|---|
| | | | Non-Executive, |
| | | | Independent Director |
| Date of birth | March 3, 1955 | December 17, 1958 | |
| Age | 65 years | 61 years | |
| Qualifications | Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A) and an Ex-Indian Revenue Service (IRS) Officer | Diploma in Mechanical Engineering (D.M.E) | |
| Brief profile | He has close to two decades experience in various capacities in Government service and his designation was Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax at the time of leaving the service in 1992. He has been actively involved in the field of Information Technology with particular reference to Information security. He has a rich research experience in the field of general computing, cryptography as well as experience in management. In Odyssey, in addition to his administrative duties, he also serves as a primary technology resource. He has built a highly skilled team of research and development personnel for the Company over the years and has been setting the direction of the Company's technology and products. He has also been actively involved in architecting and building the next generation of technology products for the company. | He is a technocrat by training and has contributed to successful marketing of the products of the company which significantly enhanced the performance of the company. He has over 29 years of experience in handling Finance, Administration, Human Resources and has been managing the day to day activities of the company since inception of the company. He has also been actively involved in all matters of compliance by the company. This has been significantly demanding considering the changes in the statutory, legislative and regulatory environment in the last few years. | |
| Date of appointment on the Board of Directors | Oct 3, 1992 | Apr 06, 1990 |
|---|---|---|
| Date of last reappointment on the Board of Directors | April 1, 2017 | April 1, 2017 |
| No. of Board Meetings attended during the financial year 2019-20 | 4 Meetings | 4 Meetings |
| Terms and conditions of appointment | The terms and conditions of re-appointment shall be as approved by the members in the 30th AGM to be held on September 16, 2020. | The terms and conditions of re-appointment shall be as approved by the members in the 30th AGM to be held on September 16, 2020. |
| List of outside Directorships held | 1. Peirce Leslie India Limited 2. P L Agro Technologies Limited 3. Cyberneme Private Limited | Nil |
| Chairman/ Member of the Committees of Board of Directors of the Company | Member of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee. | Member-Audit Committee Member-Stakeholders Relationship Committee |
| Chairmanship/ Membership of the Committees of Board of Directors of other Companies in which Directorship is held | None | None |
| Directorship in other listed entity (Category of Directorship) | None | None |
| Relationship with other Directors/KMP | He is the brother of Mr. B. Antony Raja, Whole-time Director and CFO. | He is the brother of Mr. B. Robert Raja, Chairman & Managing Director |
| No. & Percentage of Shares held in the Company | 5,79,955 [6.54%]* | 2,02,000[2.28%]* |
* The figure given for number of shares held in Company is as on financial year ending March 31, 2020.
Odyssey Technologies Limited
Registered Office: 5 th Floor, Dowlath Towers, 63, Taylors Road, Kilpauk, Chennai-600 010
Date : August 7, 2020
By order of the Board of Directors For Odyssey Technologies Limited Sd/- B.Purnima Company Secretary & Compliance Officer Membership No.: ACS 30500
|
Work Package 2
Analysis of 'Non-formal and informal learning' in France – Germany – Italy – Sweden – United Kingdom
„ This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. The responsibility for the contents of this publication (communication) reflects the views only of the author, the Commission is not liable for any use of the information contained therein."
Project reference : DE/13/LLP-LdV/TOI/147 664
Introduction:
This document is part of COMP4YOU, an 'Innovative transfer project' supported by the European programme Life Long Learning programme.
According to the application form the responsible of 'Work Package 2 Analysis' is the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris Île-de-France (CCIR).
This document was worth 6 months to be elaborated and is mostly a merged version based on the answers provided by COMP4YOU's partners to a questionnaire sent to partners by the CCIR.
This analysis aims at giving an overview of non-formal and informal learning context in the participating countries and aims at providing the partnership with data and elements to better define the content of the test to be developed further.
The scope of the study concerns the countries of origin of COMP4YOU's partners: France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and United Kingdom
Finally, this document uses arrays, when appropriate, in order to facilitate comparisons between participating countries.
SECTION 1: Glossary
In a cooperation project involving different countries, the use of words and concepts are often interpreted in different ways.
Coordinator and partners agreed on the creation of a glossary from the start of the project in order to foster mutual understanding between partners and avoid, at least limit, confusions.
It is mandatory to mention that no official consensus exists on certain definitions of words and concepts, even inside one single country.
The many workshops, meetings and events organized at national and European levels involving different organisations demonstrate that each institution has its own approach.
Therefore, words and concepts have to be considered according to the context in which they are used. This conducts us to prefer the concept of 'approach' rather than definition.
Finally, as COMP4YOU aims to match with ECVET policies, each time an "ECVET-definitions" exists it will be used within the project.
concepts
Learning
Outcomes
Lifelong and Non-
formal &
informal learning.
| | | personal development. | Similar approach of ‘professional competences’. | development frameworks or schemes. In its competency framework (2013), for example, the UK Civil Service defines professional competences as things which « define not just what we do, but how we do it , the skills we need ». | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LLL encompasses non-formal and informal learning. | LLL encompasses non-formal and informal learning. | LLL encompasses non- formal and informal learning. | LLL encompasses both formal and informal learning. The tradition of non-formal learning is very old with study circles established over 100 years ago in such companies as ABF. LLL is much younger and the concept of ECVET is not established. | LLL encompasses non-formal and informal learning. | To be confirmed. |
Skills skills
Page 6 sur 38
| Professional skills equal vocational skills. | Professional skills equal vocational skills. | Includes vocational skills and transversal skills. | Professional skills would be more associated with certain types of work, such as lawyers, engineers, doctors. Evolution of jobs tends to make it similar to vocational skills. | LLL is conceptual rather than concrete and is not formally recognised. UK’s approach impedes the split into different definition. | ECVET defines SKILLS as : ‘the ability to apply knowledge and know- how to complete tasks and solve problems’. Other European definition fom EQF exsits : ‘Knowledge and experience needed to perform a specific task or job. [EQF].’ In both cases, no explicit differences with vocational skills underlined. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professional skills equal vocational skills. | Professional skills equal vocational skills. | Knowledge, know-how, skills and/or competences required in particular occupations or more broadly on the labour market. | Vocational skills more associated with trades, such as mechanics, electricians, builders. Evolutions of jobs tend to make it similar to professional skills. | LLL is conceptual rather than concrete and is not formally recognised. UK’s approach impedes the split into different definition. | No explicit differences with professional skills. |
Knowledge
Competence
Page 7 sur 38
| No official consensus on these concepts. Those concepts have to be considered according to the context in which they are used. More influenced by European policies and takes into consideration the set of “knowledge, skills and competences. | Set of facts, principles, theories and practices in a learning or work as a result of learning and understanding. | Outcome of assimilation of information through learning. Knowledge is the body of facts, principles, theories and practices related to a field of study or work. | Defined in the same way as within ECVET. | LLL is conceptual rather than concrete and is not formally recognised. UK’s approach impedes the split into different definition. | ECVET definition: ‘the outcome of the assimilation of information through learning. Knowledge is the body of facts, principles, theories and practices that is related to a field of work or study’ EQF definition: ‘Facts, feelings or experiences known by a person or a group of people ‘. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No official consensus on these concepts. Those concepts have to be considered according to the context in which they are used. More influenced by European policies and takes into consideration the set of “knowledge, skills | Ability and willingness of individuals, knowledge and skills to use personal, social and methodological skills and thoughtful as well as individually and | Proven ability to use knowledge, skills and personal, social and/or methodological abilities in work or study situations and in professional and personal development. | Defined in the same way as within ECVET. | LLL is conceptual rather than concrete and is not formally recognised. UK’s approach impedes the split into different | Competence includes: i) cognitive competence involving the use of theory and concepts, as well as informal tacit knowledge gained experientially; ii) functional competence (skills or knowhow), those things that a person |
Points of attention:
Some partners pointed specific definitions that have to be considered because they might be confusing within their national context.
e.g.1: In the UK, Competency is different from Competence:
The term 'competence' (competences) is used to describe what people need to do to perform a job and is concerned with effect and output rather than effort and input. 'Competency' (competencies) describes the behavior that lies behind competent performance, such as critical thinking or analytical skills, and describes what people bring to the job. (CIPD, 2013)
e.g. 2: In Germany, Qualification may refer to 'A title or attribute gained in education, through examination or by certification' or 'The process of learning in a formal learning system'.
SECTION 2. National context of COMP4YOU's partners
2.1. Existing methods and ways for the recognition of non-formal and informal learning in COMP4YOU's country.
In France:
In France, the recognition of non-formal and informal learning is taken into consideration since a law voted in 1985. This law has given right to learners to recognize their professional experience in order to get back to studies.
E.g.: A learner validates a 2 years-long diploma and then has a professional contract. Thanks to this job, he gains new 'Knowledge Skills and Competences (KSC)'. Then he can pretend to study a Master degree (from 4 th year), without studying the Bachelor degree (3 rd year).
Later on, a major law voted on the 17 th of January 2002 implements a tool for recognition of informal and non-formal learning: 'Validation des acquis de l'expérience-VAE/ Validation of Prior Learning'. VAE allows anyone, regardless of age, educational level or status, to validate the acquired experience to obtain professional certification. Three years of experience related to the content of the certification referred are required.
In Germany:
An essential cause of the comparatively low significance of formal recognition of informally and nonformally acquired competences appears to be rooted in the German system of vocational training and VET itself, which is largely integrated with the employment system and provides for progressive vocational development. On the other hand, because of the high practical element great significance is attached to experiential learning, especially in dual training. This makes Germany one of the European countries whose education system includes as traditional component learning on the job.
The changing demographic structure, the rapidly changing demands on employees and the departure from normal employment history, however, mean that this system is no longer implemented consistently in Germany and necessitates the recognition of competences acquired in other than formal contexts. To date, the highly formalized vocational training concept in Germany has meant that recognition in the sense of entitlement is associated with admission requirements of a formal education system, an external examination and the award of a certificate. The 'qualificationoriented' and 'career-related' characteristics of the German system do not consistently find equivalence in company practice. Even if certificates still play an important part in personnel selection in companies, vocational and non-vocational experiences are also frequently relevant to their evaluations.
A central system for recognition of non-formally and informally acquired competences, based on a uniform legislative arrangement and also established consistently at political level, does not exist in Germany. Rather there is a series of parallel procedures, anchored in law and associated with formal recognition or admission or entitlement, which are subject to different responsibilities. Furthermore there is a series of activities and programs initiated under educational policy to promote lifelong learning that in both theory and practice approach and prepare for recognition of non-formal and informal learning. In addition to these procedures in the education system and in the labour market and programs initiated under education policy, there are arrangements under collectively agreed settlements and company procedures that are applied in the labour market but are not associated with admission into the education system and formal recognition.
An example is the "Profiling"-measures on behalf of the labour office.
In Italy:
In Italy a national methodology of recognition of non-formal or informal learning does not exist. In some cases methodologies designed by different European projects for specific sectors have been applied and are considered as benchmarks.
In Sweden:
- Study circles. Hundreds of thousands of Swedes engage in study circles. But the general rule is that these are not validated and in fact the process of validation would be frowned upon. Learning for the sake of learning would be the rule. Because of this long established tradition and relatively high employment figures, establishing formal validations is difficult.
- Recognition of vocational training is usually done by the trade union. Some have well-established validation incorporating on the job tests and trials.
- Myndigheten för yrkeshögskolan (Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education) has the responsibility for EQF. It is likely that they will become responsible for ECVET in the near future.
- Skolverket (Swedish National Agency for Education) Responsible for recognition of "gymnasium" (16-19) training.
- Trade union recognition for immigrants' skills in specific trades.
In the United Kingdom:
Nationally for Higher Education this is defined by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) 1 in the UK Quality Code (October 2013).
Recognition of prior learning (RPL): Assessing previous learning that has occurred in any of a range of contexts including school, college and university, and/or through life and work experiences. Once recognised through this process, prior learning can be used to gain credit or exemption for qualifications and/or personal and career development.
RPL is the process for recognising previous learning that has taken place in informal, formal or nonformal contexts: for example, in the workplace and through life experiences. Once recognised through this process, prior learning can be used to gain credit or exemption for qualifications, and/or for personal and career development. (QAA Scotland)
RPL is then divided into two forms, the Recognition of Prior Certificated Learning (RPCL) and the Recognition of Prior Experiential Learning (RPEL).
1 www.qaa.ac.uk/assuringstandardsandquality/quality-code
RPEL would be used to recognise non-formal and informal learning in HE:
"The recognition of prior learning is included within this Chapter in order to make explicit the link between assessment used as the basis for recognising learning gained outside a defined (or formal) higher education programme and that used for learning within such a programme; the key features of sound practice are common to both forms. The term 'recognition' - which reflects the terminology in many European countries - is used to describe accurately the process in relation to prior learning applicable to two widely recognised forms: prior experiential (or informal) learning and prior certificated learning.
The recognition of prior experiential learning involves an assessment process on the part of academic staff within the higher education provider that leads to recognition, normally through the award of credit. The essential feature of this process is that it is the learning gained through experience which is being assessed, not the experience itself"
(QAA, UKQC Chapter B6, October 2013)
2.2 Description of national certification process operated by the bodies (public or private) in charge of delivering a certificate (including the level of recognition - recognition on the basis of a national law, Chamber based, other provider on the basis of the European standard, and other provider on the basis of the national standard, total private)
In France:
Certifications are mainly provided by Ministries (4 820 certifications), Professional Sectors (600 certifications), Chambers of Commerce (137 certifications) and others (2 009 certifications).
The French National Qualifications framework counts 5 levels and matches with EQF as follow:
| V | 3 |
|---|---|
| IV | 4 |
| III | 5 |
| II | 6 |
| I | 7-8 |
Each organisation has its own validation process.
In Germany:
In the chamber test in the German dual system all professional skills are tested acquired learning through formal, informal and non-formal and which are necessary for the profession.
Features of the dual system of apprenticeship:
- Curriculum and exam in the dual system - Consensus of the social partners
- Role of the state: not important, the system based on the regulation in the "Vocational Education Act" and is realized in a responsible of the chambers
- Very strict, closed and inflexible structure
- Non-formal learning is supposed to be accredited because of work based learning in the companies
- In principle no alternative access to a VET qualification
- Main VET-structure in Germany
- Graduates: 60% of an age group
- Duration: 3 years after lower secondary school
- All occupational fields
- Apprenticeship contract with a company
- Combination: work based learning (3 days weekly) / school based learning (2 days)
- The trainee must document his learning times in operation by a record book. This record book must sign the responsible trainer in the company.
- Each chamber has its own examination regulations
- Each exam consists of several written tests and an oral examination
External exam related to the dual system in Germany :
Requirements: 6 years working in the occupation on an increasingly appropriate level
Exam: Carried through by the Chambers of Commerce and Industry
Demands: Equal to those for the apprenticeship exam
Large parts of them are supposed to be achieved through non-formal learning
- Main way of accreditation of non-formal learning
- 15% of age cohort use this way between the age of 20 and 50
- Culturally not transferable (dual system)
- No accreditation of modules: All or nothing!
"Profiling"-measures on behalf of the labour office :
- Main scheme for assessment of competences, always focussing on job opportunities mostly even only employability
- Aim: Improving the access to the labour market through a weak form of competence assessment
- No formal system of accreditation
- Non-formal and informal learning is taken into account ( although in a weak way)
- Target Group of the "Profiling"measure:
Target group: In principle all unemployed with meagre job prospects
In fact focus on people with medium to low qualifications
Among them main target group: long term unemployed
Most of the participants have achieved a vocational qualification in the crafts or in retail, few of them have worked in the administration sector
Participants without vocational qualifications have worked in the service sector, e. g. as taxi or pizza drivers, or in the building sector
In Italy:
There are not yet public or private bodies in charge of delivering a certification process of informal and non-formal learning.
In Sweden:
National Agency for Higher Vocational Education is the national contact point for the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning, which will be implemented in Sweden.
The EQF is a bridging system between different education systems in the EU. The purpose of the EQF is to make it easier to compare the educational and professional qualifications by linking degrees and levels of education in different European countries to each other.
The Authority's mission is to support and guide (along with other relevant agencies as the National Education and Higher Education) the relationship between our national education system and the EQF.
The Swedish Council for Higher Education (Universitets- och högskolerådet) is the public agency responsible for the recognition of foreign qualifications.
If an individual has completed foreign secondary education, they can evaluate him. The evaluation is for individuals who want to pursue higher education at a Swedish higher education institution. The evaluation report shows whether you meet the general entry requirements as well as any specific entry requirements that may be prescribed.
In the United Kingdom:
"Throughout UK higher education, assessment processes are based on explicit intended learning outcomes, both for programmes and for the elements which make up those programmes (such as modules or similar units). Judgements of student performance are based on the extent to which the student is able to demonstrate achievement of the corresponding intended learning outcomes.
Assessment processes for the recognition of prior learning, whether set out separately from those applying to assessment within a programme or not, are designed to be equally informative and to reflect the interest of the higher education provider's intended audiences. Any limit on the award of credit (where used) or exemption through the recognition of prior learning is clearly stated in the regulations, as is the way in which such credit will be used for the purposes of progression, the making of an intermediate or final award, and any grading or classification of that award. Limits are defined both in terms of the smallest amount of learning that will be recognised - for example a module or cluster of learning outcomes - and the maximum. Regulations also make explicit whether the prior learning will be graded" (UK Quality Code, Chapter B6).
http//www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGuidance/Pages/quality-code-B6.aspx
2.3. Organization (whether public - private - or mixed) in charge of registering/listing professional certification exist in participating countries
In France:
The "Commission Nationale des Certifications Professionnelles (CNCP)" was established by law on the 24th of November 2009 and is in charge of registering professional certification in France. It is under control of the Ministry in charge of vocational training. It lists the different professional certifications in the "Répertoire National des Certifications Professionnelles-RNCP/ National Repertory of Professional Certifications".
In 2014, CNCP estimates that up-to 15 000 certifications are delivered and could be registered to the RNCP. However, as the registration is not mandatory, only 8 000 are registered on the RNCP which limits the number of VAE.
In Germany:
In Germany there is no organization public - private - or mixed that is responsible for registration / listing of vocational certificates.
The professional exams are carried out by the regional chambers.
A central list of people who have successfully passed the test does not exist.
It is possible to say how many people have passed the external Exam by the chambers. About 4 % to 6 % of the chamber tests are external audits per year. These are 30 000 to 40 000 professional certificates.
This organisation does not clearly differentiate 'non-formal' and 'informal learning'.
These certificates are not listed in Germany.
In Italy:
The Regions are in charge of registering/listing professional qualifications on the basis of national regulations.
In the Marche Region there are about 700 professional qualifications. These professional qualifications are public, but the only thing which is available is the "Sector" "Title", "n. hours" and "level of qualification".
With the new regulation of 2013 we will have a strong reduction of professional qualifications. We will have only 32 qualifications at national level.
In Italy there is no organization in charge of non-formal and informal certification.
In Sweden:
There is no overall authority as each trade or profession would recognize its own. But both Skolverket and Yrkeshögskolan set the overall standard of training.
In the United Kingdom:
No single organisation for this purpose does not, and in our current system, could not exist.
2.4: Trend in participating countries regarding to the number of certifications (for recognition of informal & non-formal learning)
In France:
The trend is an increase of the number of registered certifications.
In Germany:
The trend in Germany is to increase the number of certifications for the recognition of informal & non-formal learning
Many initiatives are still at an early developing stage like the national pass or are still being researched like the IT-certificate. The various public initiatives show the relevance of the topic on the national policy agenda. The study on the feasibility of a "Weiterbildungspass" (Documentation and proof of completed training activities) concludes that there is a real political willingness to implement the pass on a national scale. In the corporate and third sector the topic is gaining momentum. However, the approaches are mostly at a developing stage, unsystematic and few. There is continuous research on the area of conflict in which validation of non-formal and informal learning moves between individual, corporate and societal demands as well as on corporate validation approaches.
In Germany there is no legal framework for lifelong learning. Due to the federal system the federal government and the country governments share the responsibility for education which requires a high level of cooperation between these two political levels. The "Weiterbildungspass" (Documentation and proof of completed training activities) is one example for this kind of cooperation. In addition to the cooperation on the vertical level, the cooperative system in Germany requires also horizontal cooperation between the government and social partners.
In Italy:
The qualifications are decreasing. Certifications don't exist.
In Sweden:
Sweden has weathered the world economic crisis relatively well although unemployment in Sweden is still high: Overall unemployment is 8.8 percent and youth unemployment (ages 15-24) is very high at 28.1 percent.1 With youth unemployment rising and school results falling, education policy and youth unemployment are two of the hottest political topics in Sweden at this time. The EU has identified validation of informal and non-formal learning as a way to significantly affect labour markets through improved matching of job skills with labour demand (employability, mobility).2 According to experts in Sweden, validation of informal and non-formal learning can be further developed and applied.
General observations:
- Individuals have no legal right to competence validation
- Validation of informal and non-formal learning assesses specific competencies against occupational criteria and is predominantly summative
- Only a few examples of formative validation involving general and key competencies have been found
- Interest in informal learning validation is increasing
- Observed shortcomings in the validation system: a) lack of sustainable financing b) no overall framework for quality assurance, c) lack of relevant training for validation specialists;
- Two interrelated problems especially relevant to general and key competence validation at this stage: a) legitimacy (additional development must involve all relevant stakeholders for a common understanding and shared standards), b) common definitions and structures for competences (various models define general competence differently – risk of incompatible models)
- Importance of seeing the validation process as learning experience in itself, especially when validating key competencies.
In the United Kingdom:
The process of awarding credit for the recognition of informal and/or non-formal learning lies with individual HE institutions which are 'awarding bodies' and other recognised 'awarding organisations', for example Pearson (formerly Edexcel). This may cover education from level 2 upwards in the case of awarding organisations, but would be more commonly used from levels 4-8. There is no single system or body to undertake this in the UK.
2.5. Description of validation process of certifications based on recognition of informal and nonformal learning in COMP4YOU's participating countries.
In France:
VAE provides all or part of a diploma, title or certificate of qualification registered in the Repertoire National des Certifications Professionnelles (RNCP)/National Catalogue of Vocational Qualifications.
Even if there are some few exceptions, the rule is that a VAE process starts if the certification is registered to the RNCP.
The applicant details its professional experience and skills and presents to a jury that decides to validate all or part of the diploma. In case of partial validation of prior learning, recommendation requirements are provided to the candidate in order to get the full degree.
The applicants can be employees self-employed, jobseekers, persons who have exercised social activities, volunteers, etc... The only requirement is to have worked for a period of at least three years in relation to the content of the diploma.
In September 2008, six year after its establishment, a National Report has been edited. This report mentioned that 26 000 applications were sent, instead of the initial objective of 60 000. The two main explanations are: the complexity of the validation process (many applicants stopped during the process) and the lack of communication, especially to the less qualified workers.
Finally, there is no obligation for a certification body to register its certification to the CNCP.
In Germany:
In the chamber test in the German dual system all professional skills are tested acquired learning through formal, informal and non-formal and which are necessary for the profession. The trainee must document his learning times in operation by a record book. This record book must be signed by the responsible trainer in the company.
Each chamber has its own examination regulations.
Each exam consists of several written tests and an oral examination
In Italy:
In Italy, there is no validation process.
In Sweden:
See 2.4
In the United Kingdom:
This lies with individual awarding bodies and awarding organisations.
Please see answers 2.4 and 2.2 above. All systems relying on proving evidence of learning through non formal or informal means and of the matching of this learning to the learning outcomes of the intended formal award being applied for. There has to be a mapping and matching of volumes and levels of learning.
2.6. Figures giving the gender split (male/female) of applicants wishing to have their professional competences recognised
In France:
According to the Besson National Report (2008): 68% of applicants were women.
In Germany:
In Germany 40 % of the trainees are female
In Italy:
N.A
In Sweden:
In Sweden, girls have been doing better than boys in school for some time raising concerns about boys overall performance in education. On average 74% of girls and 70% of boys complete upper secondary education within the stipulated time; almost half of the women aged 25 to 34 and onethird of men of same age have a tertiary degree. In contrast to most OECD countries, young men are slightly more likely (11%) than girls (10%) to be not in employment, education or training. Gender segregation persists in the field of study. Young men rarely pursue studies in health and welfare (where they are 17% of the graduates, 8 percentage points below the OECD average); while young women make up only 24% of the graduates in computer sciences and 29% of those in engineering. Policies are needed to make these subjects equally appealing for both girls and boys early on. It is important to get more girls to undertake such studies by, for example, raising awareness on the consequences of educational choices on career and earnings prospects or by better addressing the role of stereotypes in shaping preferences and self-perception about study subjects.
In the United Kingdom:
This would not be information that is collected centrally in the UK.
SECTION 3: European Projects and policy in your country
3.1 Context relative to ECVET in your country
In France:
French ECVET national team exists and gathers 8 members from: Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Sport, CNCP, Chamber of commerce and Industry of Paris Île-deFrance, Chamber in charge of Craft and the Federation of Plastics. The team is coordinated by the National Authority. It has the mission to promote ECVET in France and to contribute to its implementation.
In Germany:
The National Team is composed of 13 experts who were involved in different areas of vocational training in the development of ECVET tools and their practical test and are. Your task is to make ECVET in the area known and advise education practitioners in the implementation and support:
- Representatives of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education
- Scientists / Teachers at universities
-Head of European ECVET projects
- Teachers at vocational schools and educational institutions
- Teachers in further education
- Employees in research institutions in VET
In Italy:
The "Instituto per lo sviluppo della formazione professionale dei lavoratori" ("Institute for VET development - ISFOL) is a national research organisation of the Ministry of Labour and social Policy. It is responsible for ECVET in Italy. In 2012 2013 the team had 13 experts.
The national ECVET team is composed of people from:
- Components of the Leonardo da Vinci LLP National agency
- Researchers in vocational training and of the labour market
- Members of the "ECVET Users" Group
- Experts involved in ECVET project
- Members of the national coordination point for EQF, and National Reference Point and national europass centre.
In Sweden:
Six external Experts
Project leader: Bengt Landfeldt,
Activities:
- Support in policy development
- Advice
- Information and training
- Information and marketing material
- Creation of a Swedish ECVET-fora
In the United Kingdom:
There are 12 experts in the team representing Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Organisations presented in the team include: College Wales, Agored Cymru, SCQF Partnership, Council for the Curriculum Examinations and Assessment, ECCTIS Ltd, Vocational Training Charitable Trust.
http://www.ecvetexperts.org.uk/
3.2 Example of successful projects related to the 'recognition of non-formal and informal learning' in participant's countries
In France:
| Name of the project, project homepage | Validation des Acquis de l’Expérience (VAE)/ Recognition of Prior Learning http://www.vae.gouv.fr/ |
|---|---|
| Project timeframe | From 2002 |
| Short description | Recognition of informal and non-formal learning |
| Results | described in section 3.3 |
| Target group | Learners |
| Which results could usable for COMP4YOU | The process of recognition can be transferred and usable for the project. |
In Germany:
| Name of the project, project homepage | |
|---|---|
| Project timeframe | |
| Short description | |
| Results | - Models of implementing ECVET at this interface – indicated by an increase in |
| | transparency and developed methods of recognition of learning achievements. |
| | - Referring to the German partners: A better understanding of ECVET and related |
| | chances for young people. |
| Target group | |
| Which results could usable for COMP4YOU | |
| Name of the project, project homepage | |
|---|---|
| Project timeframe | |
| Short description | The aim of the ‘2get1care’ project is to test the European credit system for |
| | vocational education and training in health care professions in the German Region |
| | of North Rhine-Westphalia. A European partnership developed an approach for |
| | making qualification components transferable across national borders and across |
| | professions. In the long term, the project aimed to support the implementation of |
| | ECVET in health care professions. |
| | The operative framework for the test was provided by: a scientifically evaluated |
| | adaptation of the training curricula of four health care professions (occupational |
| | therapy, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy and geriatric care) to ECVET |
| | standards; the development of a common core curriculum; and a further training |
| | concept based on ECVET principles for teaching staff, i.e. with a focus on learning |
| | outcomes. |
| Results | - Adaptation of training curricula of four professions to ECVET |
| | - A common core curriculum |
| | - A new training curriculum for continuing education of trainers; |
| | - The evaluation of results, based on international exchange and feedback |
| | - A sustainable national and transnational partnership and a European expert |
| | network for the implementation of ECVET in health care professions. |
| Target group | |
| Which results could usable for COMP4YOU | |
In Italy:
| | It is generally accepted that informal and non-formal learning must be |
|---|---|
| recognised but if we actually want to implement this, we have to overcome many obstacles. | |
| To recognise informal and non-formal learning, we need accredited assessment procedures | |
| and assessment centres but it is currently unclear how these can be financed without being | |
| part of a project. Moreover, people acquire competencies through lifelong learning – | |
| competencies for which they do not have a certificate. Since the labour market becomes | |
| increasingly dynamic, many careers tend to become a sequence of working periods and | |
| orientation phases. The periods of orientation are very often connected with further trainings. | |
| This gives us the chance to certify the knowledge and the skills that have been acquired | |
| through informal and non-formal learning in a final certification process. | |
| Name of the project, project homepage | M.O.T.O. Model: Model of Transferability of Learning Outcome units among different ECVET systems www. ecvet-moto.isfol.it/ |
|---|---|
| Project timeframe | Years 2009 – 2010 |
| Short description | Objectives: M.O.T.O (Model Of Transferability of learning Outcome units) is one of the ten ECVET pilot projects financed by the European Commission with a call for proposal under the Lifelong learning Programme (2008) with the aim of testing the implementation of the ECVET process. The project was focused on fostering the transferability of units of learning outcomes and thus facilitating the geographical mobility in VET in the tourism and catering sector. One of its main aims was to develop tools and suggest approaches that could be useful for all those actors involved in ECVET and related mobility projects (VET providers, students and apprentices from the partner countries, etc..) The activities were carried out to ensure the usability of the tools and approaches and to further improve them through a ´field testing phase´. Activities 1. A first research phase, aimed at studying how the qualification concerned by the project were described in partner countries and defining tools and approaches for transferability of credits and learning outcomes during mobilities 2. A field testing phase, aimed at putting into practices tools and approaches through real mobility projects (establishing partnerships, planning and organising mobility projects, collecting feedback from participating teachers or trainers and learners through interviews based on questionnaires, analysis of feedbacks) During the 2010, the following mobiities were carried out within testing partnerships: Austria-Italy: mobility periods for austian and italian students Finland-Iceland: mobility period of Icelandic students in Finland and Icelandic students in Finland Additional teacher preparatory and follow-up visits were carried out before and after the mobilities of students among partner countries. |
| Results | - A preliminary study concerning the way the four partner countries described the qualifications connected to the pilot areas of the project - A methodology manual containing guidelines and grids for identifying common elements in the qualifications of partner countries - A M.O.TO. Model, providing a proposal for realising ECVET for geographic mobility and in particular for work placements abroad. The model was aimed at describing only the most important ECVET related aspects of the mobility process, presenting guidelines for realising ECVET in transnational mobility, proposing some tools and instruments prepared and tested in the project. Since the testing phase focussed on work placement abroad, the experiences made, the tools and documents prepared, as well as the recommendations produced, were also focused on work placements abroad. |
| Target group | VET providers, students and apprentices in the tourism and catering sector. |
Name of the project, project homepage
Project timeframe
Short description
Results
Co.l.o.r.– Competency and learning outcomes recognition for migrants www.color-project.org
Years 2011 – 2013
The project was aimed at promoting the recognition and valorisation of competencies and learning outcomes for migrants workers (though not exclusively) focusing on the specific sectors of healthcare and construction and on the qualifications at the EQF level 3, which represents the "basic" level of qualifications to enter the Italian labour market.
Activities. The CO.L.O.R. Project has put into practice the ECVET mechanisms by:
- adapting and testing qualifications in terms of LO;
- defining assessment criteria, validation/recognition processes and transferable methods;
- developing testing activities (including a Repertory of case studies) for the recognition of competences in a trans-sectoral dimension;
- develop a Memorandum of Understanding on ECVET and related issues among the participating Italian Regions aimed at promoting a wider use of the project results approach and transferring its results into mainstream policies.
The CO.L.O.R. Project saw the participation of ISFOL (Institute for the development of vocational training for workers) and several regional authorities as competent institution for VET activities, namely: Campania, Lazio, Piemonte, Tuscany, Basilicata (as associate partner). In a second phase of the project, also Regione Calabria and Formedil (VET national agency for the construction sector) joined in as associated partners. The active involvement of competent ECVET institutions maximizeed the impact of the project at regional and national level. Dedicated networking activities have been also implemented to extend the results to other Regions, with the aim of ensuring the sutainability of the project. Partner institutions from Malta, Romania and Scotland assist the italian national partnership played and advisory role in the delivery of the work programme, contributing to ensuring that the tested practices designed to modernise the national system were transferable and applicable across the borders.
Main products. Tools for professionals, practictioners and other relevant stakeholders: qualification grids, descriptive reports on qualifications, pilot sectors analysis reports, schematic guidelines for the application of ECVET Exploitation of results. CO.L.O.R. was a pilot project. The exercise of designing and adapting national and regional qualifications to the LO approach might be transferred to other sectors/context/levels, enhancing the internal coherence of the overall education and training system
In Sweden:
To be defined later by partner
In the United Kingdom:
The following website listed a number of successful ECVET project in the UK. Each has one page description on project, its partners, outcomes and website:
http://www.ecvetexperts.org.uk/case-studies/
| Name of the project, project homepage | |
|---|---|
| Project timeframe | |
| Short description | DECViP stands for Developing ECVET in Practice. As a Transfer of Innovation |
| | project, DECViP aims to test ECVET principles within the context of sharing |
| | innovative practice between partner countries - Austria, Finland and the UK. |
| | During this two-year project, running from October 2012- September 2014, |
| | the partners will work together with the aim to deliver practical tools and |
| | guidance through key project outcomes which other ECVET stakeholders can |
| | take forward. |
| | The DECViP project makes use of the relevant recommendations, studies |
| | and outcomes of the projects produced over the last few years. The key |
| | activities of this project will be to share and evaluate all aspects of ECVET |
| | implementation, from the allocation of points through the use of the |
| | practical tools for applying ECVET to periods of learning. |
| | The outcomes of the DECViP project include testing the practical aspects of |
| | using ECVET. The final outcome is intended to be a Practical Guide to ECVET. |
| | This Guide is currently being drafted based upon the testing carried out by |
| | the project team. |
| | The testing has included reviewing the templates for the Memorandum of |
| | Understanding and Learning Agreement developed by the European |
| | Commission, and testing how they can be used and filled in in the case of a |
| | "theoretical" mobility setting. |
| | The project has created two fictional learners, "Maija" from Finland and |
| | "Darren" from the UK. |
| | It is hoped that the project will lead to concrete outcomes which may be |
| | shared amongst |
| | ECVET stakeholders and be used to improve ECVET implementation across |
| | Europe after |
| | the project reaches its conclusion. In particular, the partners hope that the |
| | Practical Guide will be used in different national contexts to enable future |
| | implementation of ECVET. |
| Name of the project, project homepage | |
|---|---|
| Project timeframe | |
| Short description | The ECVET4Practitioners project aims to facilitate and promote student |
| | geographical mobility as a recognised and integrated part of Vocational |
| | Education and Training (VET) qualification programmes within the hospitality |
| | sector. |
| | This London-based college are working with four other countries to transfer, |
| | adapt and share practices concerning ECVET in the hospitality sector. |
| | Westminster Kingsway College are working with four other countries – |
| | Cyprus, Finland, the |
| | Netherlands and Spain - to transfer, adapt and share practices and |
| | recommendations for |
| | ECVET mobility in the hospitality sector. The ECVET4Pracitioners Leonardo |
| | Transfer of Innovation project is developing an online toolkit with step-by- |
| | step instructions which supports hospitality practitioners to implement |
| | ECVET mobility. |
| | The 2012 Call funded project has established a mobility network between |
| | the partners. |
| | Jyvaskyla College, based in Finland, have been able to share their wealth of |
| | experience with other partners and have supported the development and |
| | recognition aspects of their products. Partners have worked with two |
| | associate partners with specialist expertise in hospitality and catering to |
| | ensure that their results meet the needs of employers. |
| | “Students know what is expected of them and what they can expect from |
| | the workplace. In the ECVET process we identified units of learning |
| | outcomes and use them in discussion between student and company before |
| | the work placement. The work placement becomes more effective due to |
| | ECVET.” |
| | ECVET4Practitioners Toolkit : |
| | The toolkit provides a clear process of what to do before, during and after |
| | mobility. It also includes template documents hospitality practitioners can |
| | use in their work. Partners have tested the toolkit through real-life mobility |
| | with partners sending students to undertake placements in other partner |
| | organisations. The toolkit will be further tested through mobilities during |
| | 2014. |
| | “Other practitioners can learn that the programmes in other countries don’t |
| | differ that much from our programme. There is no need to fear students |
| | won’t learn all the essential parts we ask. Involved practitioners inform their |
| | colleagues about the programmes and systems in other countries. They get |
| | inspired and enthusiastic from these stories.” |
Name of the project, project homepage
Project timeframe
Short description
Results
Supporting the Transfer of Education and Mobility Strategies http://www.src.ac.uk/stems/
10/2011 to 09/2013
The objectives of the project was the development of a mobility strategy which produced a handbook for the management of the mobility work placement process, with an emphasis on supporting the process for supervisors and mentors of Sports Students initially to ultimately improve the quality of sports mobility placements. It also investigated the potential to deliver an accredited Good Relations Programme to Sports students on mobility placement to help challenge prejudice and discrimination, racism and sectarianism in sport. This course is currently nationally accredited in the UK and we investigated the potential for accreditation in EU partner countries.
The range of partners who were identified are organizations who supported vocational students either hosting or sending these students on placements (that has enabled them to gain the knowledge, skills and qualifications to facilitate personal development, employability and participation in the European labour market) or work with government agencies and national sports bodies to adopt anti-racism measures and inclusion of policies and practices. These partner organisations made a valuable contribution to the development, management, placement provision, monitoring and evaluation of the mobility activities.
The impact of the project ensured improvement of the quality of the management of the mobility work placement process for educational establishments who have a remit for sports development and vocational education, but it is easily adaptable to any mobility placement scenario. This project has improved quality and innovation in vocational education and training systems, institutions and practices
SRC have produced Cultural Diversity materials which includes learning materials, lesson plans, student notes/resources, staff/notes/resources. This course has been delivered to SRC students for a number of years and amended and improved taking on board student feedback. SRC was the first College in N.Ireland to make this Cultural Diversity Course compulsory for full-time students. The partnership organisations were keen to adopt and modify this course to suit their cultural needs. Geographically this partnership covers four Member States, the partners have been involved in a variety of Leonardo projects. The partnership consists of a number of sectors, 3 Futher Education Colleges, 1 SME and a non for profit voluntary organisation and a VET Institution. Participating countries have access to the final products available via partner websites, thus beneficiaries are not limited only to participating countries' students/leonardo coordinators. An additional ToI-dimension was the concept of the good practice handbook complemented those that already existed in partner countries. The added value was also found from managing the project: the work process and its practices which were already implemented in each country which were improved and tailored taking on board feedback/resources from partners.
Benefits of using ECVET in a UK college
Cumbernauld College in the UK recognise that incorporating ECVET into their projects brings forward benefits for students and their organisation.
On an individual level, ECVET can allow for vocational and soft skills gained during an overseas work placement to be recognised. This can enhance employability, boost a participant's confidence and open up new opportunities.
On an organisation level, Cumbernauld College view using ECVET as being a benefit to a sending partner as it promotes lifelong learning and supports mobility.
3.3. Running and most successful projects and practices for the 'recognition of non-formal and informal learning' in your country
SECTION 4. Main observations
This section is based on the answers provided by COMP4YOU's partners. The following list of 7 observations (to be constitutes a base to define further proceedings on COMP4YOU.
The impact on COMP4YOU is planed to be discussed during the Steering Committee held in Stockholm on the 19-20 th of May. This will also permit partners to clarify more into details their national context.
1/ The glossary shows that many of the definitions given by partners diverge.
Reaching an agreement/consensus on each definition would be too much time-consuming. However, partners should keep in mind that national contexts have to be considered and can refer to this tool during the time-project.
2/ Partners should express their willingness to use or not to use ECVET definitions (when existing) for COMP4YOU project.
3/ The EU considers the recognition of prior learning as a way to significantly affect labour markets through improved matching of job skills with labour demand which explains: - the development of different funding-programmes to encourage mobility and recognition of
informal and non-formal learning.
- the trend is an increase of number of certifications in the participating countries (except in Italy).
4/ An organisation in charge of registering and listing professional certifications exists in 2 (RNCP in France and Italy) of the 5 analyzed countries. Amongst these 2 countries, registration is national-wise in France and is Regional-wise in Italy.
5/ The recognition of prior learning is a key issue in participating countries which is justified by the important number of past and running project related to this field (11 projects have been recognized as successful in the past and partners have reported 21 running initiatives).
6/ A ECVET national team exists in each one of the participant country, which support the development of recognition of prior learning.
7/ A national system for the 'Recognition of prior learning' exists in only 2 (France and UK) of the 5 analyzed countries.
|
15 Civ. 5273 (LTS) (HBP)
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
ELISA W., et al.,
-against-
THE CITY OF NEW YORK, et al.,
Defendants.
MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT CITY OF NEW YORK'S MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT ON GROUNDS OF MOOTNESS
ZACHARY W. CARTER
Corporation Counsel of the City of New York Attorney for Defendants 100 Church Street, Room 2-167 New York, N.Y. 10007
Lauren Almquist Lively Tel: (212)356-0885 Matter No. 2015-034233
Plaintiffs,
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
Case 1:15-cv-05273-LTS-HBP Document 298 Filed 11/16/16 Page 4 of 12
PRELIMINARY STATEMENT
Plaintiffs, ten children in foster care in New York City and the New York City Public Advocate, commenced this action in July 2015, alleging that State Defendants and the City of New York, 1 as a result of systemic failures in the New York City foster care system, violated Plaintiffs' rights and the rights of putative class members they purported to represent. See Dkt No. 1. Nine children were added as plaintiffs to the Amended Complaint, filed on December 29, 2015. See Dkt No. 91. Plaintiffs seek prospective injunctive relief in the form of changes to the foster care system and a declaration that their rights were violated. See Amended Complaint, pp. 119-124.
On December 28, 2015, Plaintiffs filed a motion for class certification, which the Court denied in a decision dated September 27, 2016, on the grounds that Plaintiffs failed to meet the requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(a). See Dkt Nos. 87, 282. Accordingly, due to the absence of a certified class, each Plaintiff may present only his or her individual claims for adjudication. Yet, since the action began, six of the nineteen Plaintiffs have left foster care and ACS custody: Elisa W., Alexandria R., Olivia R., Ana-Maria R., Xavion M., and Dameon C. 2 While Plaintiffs' counsel are free to continue litigating this action on behalf of those named Plaintiffs still in care, there is no basis for them to assert claims for equitable relief
1 State Defendants are The State of New York, the New York State Office of Children and Family Services ("OCFS"), and Acting OCFS Commissioner Sheila J. Poole. Plaintiffs originally also sued the New York City Administration for Children's Services ("ACS") and ACS Commissioner Gladys Carrión; however, following the Court's dismissal of ACS and Commissioner Carrión, Dkt No. 278, the City of New York is the sole remaining City Defendant. Moreover, the Public Advocate's claims against the City were abandoned in Plaintiffs' Amended Complaint. See Dkt No. 91.
2 In this motion, Plaintiffs are identified by the pseudonyms used in the Amended Complaint.
on behalf of the six Plaintiff children no longer in care who will not be affected by the relief sought. 3 The claims of those six Plaintiff children should therefore be dismissed as moot.
STATEMENT OF FACTS 4
Plaintiffs' Amended Complaint alleges, inter alia, that the City fails to ensure that the rights of children in foster care are protected, that their cases are appropriately handled, and, most importantly, that they achieve permanency quickly and do not remain in foster care for an extended period of time. See generally Amended Complaint. Plaintiffs allege that children in the New York City foster care system, including the Plaintiff Children, remain in the foster care system for years without permanent homes. See, e.g., id. ¶ 249.
After Plaintiffs filed their Amended Complaint, six of the nineteen Plaintiff Children have left the foster care system and ACS custody. Olivia R. and Ana-Maria R. were adopted on or about June 14, 2016; Dameon C. on or about August 2, 2016; and Alexandria R. on or about September 13, 2016. See City's Local Civil Rule 56.1 Statement of Material Facts, dated November 16, 2016, ¶¶ 1-3 ("56.1 Statement"). Xavion M. was final-discharged to his mother on or about March 31, 2016; and Elisa W. voluntarily elected to leave foster care, which became effective on her eighteenth birthday, on September 3, 2016. 56.1 Statement ¶¶ 4-5. Accordingly, none of these Plaintiffs remain in the New York City foster care system or in ACS custody.
3 To the extent Plaintiffs' counsel might argue that dismissal of the six Plaintiff children is a mere housekeeping exercise, the characterization would be without merit. The dismissal of mooted Plaintiffs' claims will have a significant effect on the scope of discovery regarding both those six children and the voluntary agencies in whose care they were placed. Of the eleven voluntary agencies that currently or previously served the nineteen named Plaintiff children, four agencies have no connection with the non-mooted Plaintiff children and so appropriately should be excluded from any future discovery, and certainly from the extremely burdensome non-party subpoenas already served upon the voluntary agencies by Plaintiffs' counsel. See 56.1 Statement ¶ 6; Pls' seventy-plus item subpoenas served upon voluntary agencies (Dkt. 287-2).
LEGAL STANDARD
Summary judgment should be rendered only "if the pleadings, the discovery and disclosure materials on file, and any affidavits show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). In considering a summary judgment motion, the Court must "view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and draw all reasonable inferences in its favor, and may grant summary judgment only when no reasonable trier of fact could find in favor of the nonmoving party." Allen v. Coughlin, 64 F.3d 77, 79 (2d Cir. 1995) (internal citation and quotations omitted).
ARGUMENT
POINT I
THE CLAIMS OF PLAINTIFFS WHO ARE NO LONGER IN THE CITY'S FOSTER CARE SYSTEM ARE MOOT AND SHOULD BE DISMISSED.
Because Plaintiffs seek only prospective injunctive and declaratory relief concerning purported systemic deficiencies in the foster care system, the claims of the Plaintiff Children who have left foster care and thus achieved permanency are moot. It is well-established that "a case is moot when the issues presented are no longer live or the parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome." Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486, 496 (1969) (internal quotations omitted). "The required legally cognizable interest has . . . been described as a requirement that plaintiff have a personal stake in the litigation." Fox v. Bd. of Trs. of the State Univ., 42 F.3d 135, 140 (2d Cir. 1994) (internal citation omitted).
4 The City respectfully refers the Court to its accompanying Local Civil Rule 56.1 Statement of Material Facts, which also sets forth the relevant undisputed facts.
Here, the six Plaintiff Children no longer in ACS custody have no such interest, and any changes made to the foster care system, including the injunctive relief identified in the Amended Complaint, will have no impact on these Plaintiffs. 5 See Martin-Trigona v. Shiff, 702 F.2d 380, 386 (2d Cir. 1983) ("The hallmark of a moot case or controversy is that the relief sought can no longer be given or is no longer needed."); see also Los Angeles v. Lyons, 461 U.S. 95, 103 (1983) (plaintiff must demonstrate "likelihood of substantial and immediate irreparable injury" to be entitled to equitable relief). Nor does the request for declaratory relief preserve the claims of these Plaintiffs. See Christopher P. v. Marcus, 915 F.2d 794, 802 (2d Cir. 1990) ("A litigant may not use the declaratory judgment statute to secure judicial relief of moot questions."). Courts have repeatedly dismissed as moot claims for prospective equitable relief brought against foster care systems once plaintiffs had aged out or otherwise left the defendant agencies' custody. See, e.g., Foreman v. Heineman, 240 F.R.D. 456, 511 (D. Neb. 2006) (Report and Recommendation) (recommending dismissal as moot of such claims for prospective injunctive relief regarding foster care policies and practices as were brought by subset of plaintiffs who had aged out of foster care), adopted sub nom. Carson P. v. Heineman, 240 F.R.D. 456 (D. Neb. 2007); 31 Foster Children v. Bush, 329 F.3d 1255, 1263 (11th Cir. 2003) (dismissing as moot claims for injunctive relief against foster care system brought by two plaintiffs who had been adopted); J.B. v. Valdez, 186 F.3d 1280, 1290 (10th Cir. 1999) (affirming dismissal on mootness grounds of claims of subset of plaintiffs who "have reached the
5 Moreover, to the extent Plaintiffs attempt to argue that they might have contact with ACS or the foster care agencies following their adoption or exit from the foster care system, the Amended Complaint is entirely devoid of post-placement factual allegations. See generally Amended Complaint.
age of majority or otherwise fallen outside of state custody"). Accordingly, the six Plaintiff Children no longer have live claims that can be pursued in the instant action.
While courts have recognized an exception to the mootness doctrine, it applies "only in exceptional situations" where "(1) the challenged action [is] in its duration too short to be fully litigated prior to cessation or expiration, and (2) there [is] a reasonable expectation that the same complaining party [will] be subject to the same action again." Spencer v. Kemna, 523 U.S. 1, 17 (1998). The six Plaintiff Children who are no longer in care cannot satisfy either requirement. First, Plaintiffs cannot credibly argue that the challenged occurrence, a child's stay in foster care, is too short to be fully litigated prior to cessation when thirteen of the nineteen Plaintiffs remain in foster care, the six Plaintiffs who have left foster care were each in care for at least four years, 6 and Plaintiffs' own Amended Complaint alleges that "children languish in ACS custody for years without a permanent home or family to call their own." Amended Complaint, ¶ 248. See, e.g., Foreman v. Heineman, 240 F.R.D. at 511 (rejecting argument that claims were transitory, as plaintiffs alleged that they "were allowed to languish or were required to remain in [foster care] for many years"), adopted sub nom. Carson P. v. Heineman, 240 F.R.D. 456 (D. Neb. 2007); Spencer, 523 U.S. at 29 (rejecting plaintiff's argument that his moot claim should be adjudicated as he failed to show "that the time between parole revocations and expiration of sentence is always so short as to evade review").
Moreover, Plaintiffs cannot demonstrate that there exists a reasonable expectation that the six Plaintiff Children will be "subject to the same action again." Id. at 17. To the extent
6 Plaintiffs allege that at the time the Amended Complaint was filed, Elisa W. had been in ACS custody for thirteen years; Alexandria R. for eight years; Xavion M. for six years; and Dameon C, Olivia R. and Ana-Maria R. for more than four years. See Amended Complaint ¶ ¶ 9, 20 77, 90, 104.
Plaintiffs might argue that the Plaintiff Children could reenter care if they were subjected to abuse or neglect in the future, that argument is wholly speculative and does not constitute a reasonable expectation, as any child could be said to have such a risk. See, e.g., O'Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488, 497 (1974) (rejecting "general assertions or inferences" that respondents who had previously been prosecuted would be prosecuted in the future). Moreover, courts have expressly held that once a child is adopted, his claims for injunctive relief concerning the foster care system are moot. See, e.g., Patton v. Dumpson, 425 F. Supp. 621, 623 n.4 (S.D.N.Y. 1977) (in action brought on behalf of a child no longer in foster care alleging improper placement and other harms while in care, court held that "since [plaintiff's] adoption, his prayers for declaratory and injunctive relief are moot"). Thus, the claims of the six Plaintiff Children who are no longer in the foster care system are moot, and these Plaintiffs should be dismissed from the action.
POINT II
THE RELATION BACK DOCTRINE IS INAPPLICABLE.
In a submission to Magistrate Judge Pitman opposing the City's request for a discovery conference to be held and a briefing schedule for the instant motion set, Plaintiffs asserted that the claims of the Plaintiff Children no longer in care "relate back" to the filing of the Complaint and so these Plaintiffs have standing to assert them. See Dkt No. 288, p.5. Plaintiffs' argument is wholly without merit, as the relation back doctrine is inapplicable here.
The Supreme Court has held that in cases where a plaintiff class is certified after the named plaintiffs' claims become moot and where the claims are "so inherently transitory that the trial court will not even have time to rule on a motion for class certification," the subsequent certification of the class preserves the claims for review. Cty. of Riverside v. McLaughlin, 500
U.S. 44, 51-52 (1991) (quoting United States Parole Comm'n v. Geraghty, 445 U.S. 388, 399 (1980)).
Yet Plaintiffs' contention that their claims relate back fails on two obvious grounds. First, as discussed above, the six Plaintiff Children who have left the foster care system were each in care for at least four years, hardly a period so inherently transitory that the Court could not rule on a motion for class certification. Compare Cty. of Riverside, 500 U.S. at 52 (claims regarding the timing of probable cause determinations following warrantless arrests, which occur within days of such arrests, were "inherently transitory"). Indeed, Plaintiffs were clearly not thwarted by any inherent transience of their claims: They succeeded in filing their Motion for Class Certification on December 28, 2015, and the Court had time to render its decision denying class certification on September 27, 2016. 7 Given Plaintiffs' own characterization of their claims as years in duration, and the Court's ability to entertain, and reject, the non-mooted Plaintiffs' fully-briefed certification motion, the relation back doctrine as articulated in Riverside offers Plaintiffs no protection.
Second, and most importantly, Riverside preserved transitory claims rendered moot during the class certification process when a plaintiff class was ultimately certified. 500 U.S. at 52. Here, the Court rejected Plaintiffs' motion for class certification, and thus, in the absence of a certified Plaintiff class, each Plaintiff proceeds only on behalf of him or herself, subject to both the continuing requirements of Article III standing and the corresponding risks of mootness.
7 Because thirteen named Plaintiff children continued to have non-mooted claims as of the date of decision, Plaintiffs cannot credibly argue that the mootness of the six Plaintiffs' claims deprived this Court of an opportunity to adjudicate the class certification motion making invocation of the relation back doctrine necessary.
Case 1:15-cv-05273-LTS-HBP Document 298 Filed 11/16/16 Page 12 of 12
It is undisputed that the six above-identified Plaintiffs are no longer in ACS
custody and that they seek only prospective injunctive and declaratory relief in the form of changed policies and practices against the City Defendant. As noted above, there is simply no
basis for Plaintiffs' counsel to assert claims for prospective equitable relief on behalf of children who will not be affected by the relief sought.
See, e.g., Spencer
, 523 U.S. at 18 ("[M]ootness, however it may have come about, simply deprives us of our power to act; there is nothing for us
to remedy, even if we were disposed to do so. We are not in the business of pronouncing that past actions which have no demonstrable continuing effect were right or wrong.”). Accordingly,
these six Plaintiff Children do not have live claims for the Court to adjudicate and should therefore be dismissed from the action.
CONCLUSION
Based on the foregoing, Defendant the City of New York respectfully requests that its Motion for Partial Summary Judgment be granted together with such additional relief as
the Court deems appropriate.
Dated:
New York, New York November 16, 2016
ZACHARY W. CARTER Corporation Counsel of the City of New York Attorney for Defendants 100 Church Street, Room 2-167 New York, New York 10007
Phone: (212) 356-0885
By: /s/Lauren Almquist Lively
Lauren Almquist Lively
Assistant Corporation Counsel
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International Journal of Behavioral Research & Psychology (IJBRP) ISSN 2332-3000
The Effect of Christian Belief in Eternal Life on Age-Related Social Partner Choice
Research Article
Chung C * , Avalon J. Baldwin
Associate Professor of Psychology, Letts-Villard Chair in the Natural Sciences, Director of Mills Cognition Lab, Oakland, USA.
Abstract
As adults enter old age, they tend to decrease the size of their social circle; however, despite this decrease, older adults express the same or increased satisfaction in the quality of current relationships and the size of their social circle. Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST) suggests that older adults' perceived time left to live was the main reason for their choice of emotionally gratifying partners. In the present study, we examined how the Christian belief of eternal life might impact older adults' social partner choices. If believing in life after death was perceived as an extension of time, older adults who hold this belief should show a decreased tendency to choose family/close friend as social partners than those who do not believe in life after death. Our results showed that Christians who believed in life after death were more likely to choose family members/close friends as their social partners than Atheists. We also found evidence that older adults may not necessarily choose family/close friends more often than young adults, especially when religious beliefs and current goals were taken into account.
Keywords: Religion; Socioemotional Selectivity Theory; Aging; Social Preferences.
*Corresponding Author:
Associate Professor of Psychology, Letts-Villard Chair in the Natural Sciences, Director of Mills Cognition Lab, Oakland, USA.
Christie Chung Ph.D,
Tel: (510) 430-2251
with expanding their circle if desired [10, 16]. Neither of these theories addresses the experimental finding that many older adults are in fact more satisfied with their social circumstances than their younger counterparts and show fewer negative affective symptoms.
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org
Fax: (510) 430-3314
Received: May 28, 2015
Accepted: June 29, 2015
Published: July 01, 2015
Citation: Chung C, Avalon J. Baldwin (2015) The Effect of Christian Belief in Eternal Life on Age-Related Social Partner Choice. Int J Behav Res Psychol, 3(5), 109-113. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.19070/2332-30001500021
Copyright: Chung C © 2015. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Introduction
As adults enter old age, they tend to decrease the size of their social circle; however, despite this decrease, older adults express the same or increased satisfaction in the quality of current relationships and the size of their social circle [10, 16]. In addition, population based studies have shown lower rates of depression and anxiety in older adults compared to younger adults [2, 8]. The disengagement theory explains the detachment of older adults from their social sphere as preparation for the end of life. They disengage from society and quietly exit. An alternative theory calls for more involvement from government social programs, stating that older adults have smaller social circles because they are less able to interact with others and would need external aid to assist
Carstensen et al. (2003) introduced the Socioemotional Selection Theory (SST) as a framework for this age related social partner choice phenomenon [6]. It is not disengagement or disability that causes older adults to have smaller, yet more satisfying, relationships, but improved emotional regulation. Individuals gather experience over time that increases their awareness of the finite quality of life, such as the loss of significant others, illness, children and grandchildren getting married, and physical changes in themselves and others. In their 2003 review of SST, Carstensen and colleagues described three life-span changes that contribute to emotional regulation across age: antecedent emotion regulation, or the tendency to prioritize emotionally meaningful partners over novel partners; response-focused emotion regulation, or the changes in coping strategies; and cognitive processing changes, where older people tend to better remember and attend to positive information over negative information compared to their younger counterparts. This study focuses on the first aspect of this model: antecedent emotion regulation, or regulating social contacts to maintain meaningful relationships.
In a seminal study for SST, Fung, Carstensen, and Lutz (1999) manipulated the factor of perceived time left in life to induce an aged perspective and a youthful perspective in both age groups. When asked to imagine extended futures, simulating a youthful time perspective, older adults' preference for familiar social partners was reduced. Conversely, when asked to imagine a shortened future, simulating an aged time perspective, the preference for
novel partners in young adults was eliminated. The same findings were observed when young adults with terminal illnesses such as HIV were tested [1]. These methods were replicated in this present study, with a specific interest in the effect of religious beliefs. Like illness can restrict time perceived left to live, it is hypothesized that religious beliefs, specifically the Christian belief of eternal life after death, may extend perceived time left.
In the present study, we asked if individuals believed in life after death and to define what that is to them, in order to capture a possible perception of extended time. Based on previous literature, we hypothesized that: 1) Older adults will choose family or close friend rather than other options more than younger adults in the control condition, 2) Replicating the time condition results from Fung et al (1999), simulating an aged time perspective will reduce the preference for novel partners in young adults, and simulating a youthful time perspective will reduce the preference for familiar partners in older adults, and 3) if an individual believes in life after death, they will have a longer sense of time remaining in life compared to those who do not, and therefore show less emotional regulation, 4) Christian older adults will choose family or close friend less than atheist older adults, but there will be no difference between Christian and atheist young adults.
Method
Participants
Procedure
Participants were given three separate scenarios at the beginning of the survey asking with whom they would spend a half hour of their free time under different conditions [5]. The three choices were: 1) a family member or close friend, 2) an acquaintance with whom they seem to have much in common with, and 3) an author of a book they have read. The three scenarios were modeled after Fredrickson and Carstensen's (1990) study with a few modifications: 1) an open-ended scenario, with no time modification; 2) a longevity scenario, where their life has now been extended by 30 years; and 3) a time restriction scenario, where they were participating in developing a Mars Colony and will be leaving earth to emigrate to Mars permanently within the month. Participants were shown a video on the Mars Colony [12] in the third condition and were asked to recall information and thoughts at the end. This video was approximately 4 minutes long and involved a detailed plan for a Mars Colony to be built in the next decade.
Following administration of these scenarios, participants completed the Functional Social Support Questionnaire (3), a 4-Item Subjective Happiness Scale [11], and answered questions about their religion, including identity and frequency of church attendance. Participants who identified as Christians also completed the Post-Critical Belief Scale [4].
Results
Our sample comprised four groups: young adult Christians (1835 years old, M = 22.1, SD = 3.79; n = 67), young adult atheists/ agnostics (18-35 years old, M = 23.6, SD = 4.79; n = 84), older adult Christians (55-89 years old, M = 78.75, SD = 10.9; n = 16), and older adult atheists/agnostics (55-89 years old, M = 64.5, SD = 7.54; n = 14). Women were 85% of the sample and all participants had over 12 years of education. Young adults were primarily recruited from Mills College and through online list serves. Older adults were recruited from Rossmoor Aging Community in Walnut Creek, California and online list serves. Participants were either tested in groups in person or completed a Survey Monkey online survey. No statistical difference was found between groups who were tested in person and online, therefore, we report collapsed data from both testing methods in the following sections. Participants tested in person were reimbursed $10, and participants who took the online survey were entered into a draw for one of four $30 gift cards.
Social Choice and Religion
For our final analyses, participants were excluded if their belief in life after death did not coincide with their religious affiliation, i.e., atheists who believed in life after death and Christians who did not believe in life after death were filtered out. All results are presented in Figure 1.
Open Condition: In the open condition, participants were given no time modification. Contrary to previous findings, young adults chose family member or close friend more frequently than older adults in the open condition without any time modification, χ 2 (2, 181) = 6.36, p = 0.04. Similarly, Christians chose family member or close friend more frequently than atheists in general in the open condition, χ 2 (2, 181) = 7.84, p = 0.02. Young Christians chose family member or close friend significantly more frequently than young atheists, χ 2 (2, 151) = 10.81, p < 0.01. Young
Figure 1. Percentage of young and old atheists and Christians who chose family member/close friend in the open, longevity and restricted time (Mars) scenario.
100
Christian Atheist
Atheist
Christian
Christian Atheist Christian Atheist Christian
Christian
Atheist
Atheist
Young
Old
Old
Young
Old
Young
Open Scenario
Longevity Scenario
Mars Scenario
0
20
40
60
80
Percent who chose Family Member or Close Friend
Christians chose family member or close friend significantly more frequently than older atheists in the condition without any time modification, χ 2 (2, 81) = 15.48, p < 0.01.
Longevity Condition: In this condition, participants were told that their life has been extended by 30 years. Young Christians chose family member or close friend marginally more frequently than young atheists, χ 2 (2, 151) = 5.30, p = .07). Young Christians chose family member or close friend significantly more frequently than older Christians in the longevity condition, χ 2 (2, 83) = 12.61, p < .01.
Restricted Condition: All groups chose family member/close friend more frequently than other choices in this scenario and performance did not significantly differ among groups (all p's > .30).
Social Support & Happiness
Discussion
This study aimed to examine how religious beliefs of life after death might affect young and older adults' socioemotional selection. Our findings diverged from our original hypotheses, but can still be interpreted with the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST) framework. Our results across age did not match the literature, with younger adults choosing family member or close friend more frequently than older adults in the open condition (Hypothesis 1). The conditions of longevity (adding 30 years) and time restriction (emigrating to Mars) showed comparable findings to Fredrickson and Carstensen (1990) (Hypothesis 2) – almost all participants chose to spend time with family/close friends in the time restriction condition, and fewer chose family member/close friend with extended time. However, contrary to Hypotheses 3 and 4, Christians in most conditions and across age chose family member/close friend more often than atheists.
We conducted two separate 2 (Age: Young vs. Old) x 2 (Christian vs. Atheist) ANOVAs for social support and happiness ratings. We observed a marginally higher level of social support in Christians than in atheists, F (1, 172), p = .12, η 2 = .01 (Figure 2); and a marginally higher level of happiness in older than in young adults, F (1, 177), p < .06, η 2 = .02 (Figure 3).
SST has been tested in various contexts, for example in crosscultural studies [9, 17], with people who suffer from terminal illnesses [1], and with participants who are facing a social ending [13]. The circumstances in which one observes changes in emotional regulation are becoming more understood, and it is clear that changes are directly related to motivation and perceived ending. In Carstensen and Reed (2012), as well as Fung (2013), the authors emphasized that emotional regulation is the key to this
Figure 3. Mean scores on 4-Item Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999) for young and older atheists and Christians.
7
theory, but emotional regulation may manifest in different ways in different settings or cultures.
In healthy young adults, emotional regulation tends to be poor [15, 18] and the focus is on expansive goals, larger social networks, and gathering information [1, 5]. In older adults, emotional regulation is more refined and the focus is on their most valuable relationships. However, in unhealthy young adults, such as those with symptomatic HIV where the perceived time left in life is more restrictive, the focus mirrors those of the older adults [1]. Furthermore, differences in the way people from independent and interdependent cultures appraise emotional material could play a role in emotional processing. Most studies on the SST was conducted in the US and have found an age-related positivity effect, mainly because positive emotions are usually interpreted to be the most meaningful. However, in interdependent cultures, such as East Asian countries, both positive and negative emotions may be considered meaningful, as it would be equally important to recognize positive and negative emotion in others when trying to maintain social harmony [17, 10, 16]. This motivational difference between independent and interdependent cultures may have been the driving force behind the different emotional memory patterns observed in several cross-cultural studies [9, 17].
This concept of independent vs. interdependent cultures could be extended to explain some of the findings in the present study. We found that Christian participants chose family and friends consistently more often than atheist participants. Christian participants also showed marginally higher level of social support. This suggests that perhaps they were more similar to the interdependent cultures mentioned in the studies mentioned above. If so, it is in fact not too surprising that social preference between Christians and atheists differed significantly in our study. Although the belief in life after death did not change Christians' way of processing social preference as we had predicted, i.e., extend perceived time to live and subsequently decrease likelihood of choosing family/close friend as social partner, being Christian did have a profound effect on emotional regulation. Christians appear to be much more interdependent than atheists, and this factor seem to have overridden the perceived extension of time, which is much more individualized. The factor that is most relevant to future studies is the interdependent self- construal measure explored in Fung, Isaacowitz, Lu, and Li (2010). In their study, they found a moderating effect of interdependent self-construal on emotional memory: older Chinese adults who had a lower level of interdependent self-construal exhibited emotional results similar to American older adults – they showed a positivity enhancement effect and a negativity reduction effect; whereas older Chinese adults who had a higher level of interdependent self-construal only showed a positivity enhancement effect, and no negativity reduction effect. Our results of marginally higher social support in Christians and a social preference for family and friends suggest that interdependent self-construal could be a potential factor for the findings observed in the present study.
ten homesick during the semester and if given a chance to think about with whom they would spend their time, it makes sense that they would choose family/close friends that they did not see every day. Many of our older adults, however, have chosen to live independently rather than close to or with their families. This trend of independent living could have given rise to some of the results we observed. Older adults nowadays are in fact much more adventurous, independent, and perhaps "younger" than they used to be. As lifespan and the aging population increase, the definition of "old age" may also need to be revised because adults in their 60's nowadays may in fact be much more active, able, and open then people of the same age just 20-30 years ago. Socioemotional selectivity changes based on current motivational goals, so it would not be too surprising for researchers to start finding different results in emotion studies compared to the 1990's.
Although the belief in eternal life does not appear to be the likely causal factor of differences between the religious and non-religious participants, it did still have an effect. All results presented were collected from participants who had congruent beliefs, i.e., those who identified as Christian and also believed in eternal life were compared to those who identified as atheist and also did not believe in eternal life. This filter did increase the differences between groups, suggesting that the strength of one's belief in life after death or religiosity could play a role in our results. In future studies, it would be beneficial to systematically measure a more concrete definition of eternal life.
Due partly to the lack of substantial empirical research on religion, there are several methodological limitations to this study. The sample was smaller than ideal and was primarily collected in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is an infamous area for atheism and liberal beliefs. Future studies should attempt a more diverse and representative sample, including different locations, political backgrounds, education levels and religions beyond the binary used in this study.
This study design was modified based on Fredrickson and Carstensen's (1990) study, which included family member and close friend in the same category. These two social roles are similar on Dimension 1 (positive affect) of the model created in their study; however, Robertson and Hopko (2013) elucidated possible differences between 'friend' and 'family' when considered by young and older adults in an autobiographical narrative setting. Young adults, who are theoretically seeking new information and future possibilities over affective benefits, may have negative experiences with friends as they try to expand their social networks, whereas older adults, who have theoretically selected their social circle to maximize positive affect, may have particularly positive emotions towards an individual they consider friend and to their family. For these reasons, the identification of a 'close friend' may be more difficult for young adults, and may not be in the same category as family compared to older adults. Future studies should take this important concept into account.
Another interesting finding in our study is that older adults did not always choose family/close friends more often than young adults. Although seemingly contradictory to the original SST hypothesis, as well as Fredrickson and Carstensen's (1990) findings, we could in fact explain this finding using SST. Many of our young participants were college students who were away from home, while most of our older participants were healthy older adults who lived in an independent aging community. College students were of-
Conclusion
In conclusion, our study provides support for the SST, in that situational factors may impact one's socioemotional selectivity and emotional regulation [14]. Although a very definite social ending such as moving to Mars may induce extreme emotional selectivity toward family/close friends, the effects that belief in life after death and old age have on socioemotional selectivity are more
complex than expected. Many other factors may in fact moderate socioemotional selectivity in the Christian circle and in old age, and isolating these factors would help us better understanding emotional processing. For example, a future in-depth examination of interdependent and self-construal factors in relation to religiosity may shed light on the basis of the current findings.
References
[1]. Carstensen LL, Fredrickson BL (1998) Influence of HIV status and age on cognitive representations of others. Health Psychol 17(6): 494-503.
[3]. Dezutter J, Soenens B, Luyckx K, Bruyneel S, Vansteenkiste M, et al. (2009) The role of religion in death attitudes: Distinguishing between religious belief and style of processing religious contents. Death Stud 33(1): 73-92.
[2]. Carstensen LL, Fung HH, Charles ST (2003) Socioemotional selectivity theory and the regulation of emotion in the second half of life. Motivation and Emotion 27(2): 103-122.
[4]. Duriez B, Hutsebaut D (2000) The relation between religion and racism: the role of post- critical beliefs. Ment Health Relig Cult 3(1): 85-102.
[6]. Fung HH, Carstensen LL, Lutz AM (1999) Influence of time on social preferences: Implications for life-span development. Psychol Aging 14(4): 595-604.
life, and future time perspective: An application of socioemotional selectivity theory. Psychol Aging 27(1): 181-189.
[10]. Lansford J, Sherman AM, Antonucci TC (1998) Satisfaction with social networks: An examination of socioemotional selectivity theory across cohorts. Psychol Aging 13(4): 544-552.
[9]. Hui V, Fung H (2009) Mortality anxiety as a function of intrinsic religiosity and perceive purpose in life. Death Stud 33(1): 30-50.
[11]. Lyubomirsky S, Lepper HS (1999) A measure of subjective happiness: preliminary reliability and construct validation. Social Indicators Research 46(2): 137-155.
[13]. Pruzan K, Isaacowitz DM (2006) An attentional application of socioemotional selectivity theory in college students. Social Development 15(2): 326338.
[12]. MarsOneProject (2012) Mars One Introduction Film [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4tgkyUBkbY
[14]. Reed AE, Carstensen LL (2012) The theory behind the age-related positivity effect. Front Psychol 3: 1-9.
[16]. Schieman S, Gundy KV, Taylor J (2002) The relationship between age and depressive symptoms: A test of competing explanatory and suppression influences. J Aging Health 14(2): 260-285.
[5]. Fredrickson BL, Carstensen LL (1990) Choosing social partners: How old age and anticipated endings make people more selective. Psychol Aging 5(3): 335-347.
[15]. Robertson SM, Hopko DR (2013) Emotional expression during autobiographical narratives as a function of aging: Support for the socioemotional selectivity theory. J Adult Dev 20(2): 76-86.
[17]. Sharifi F, Chung C (2014) A cross-cultural examination of emotional memory processing: US vs Afghanistan. Journal of Integrated Social Sciences 4(1): 1-17.
[7]. Fung HH, Isaacowitz DM, Lu AY, Li T (2010) Interdependent self-construal moderates the age-related negativity reduction effect in memory and visual attention. Psychol Aging 25(2): 321-329.
[18]. Tsai JL, Miao FF, Seppala E (2007) Good feelings in Christianity and Buddhism: Religious differences in ideal affect. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 33(3): 409421.
[8]. Hicks JA, Trent J, Davis WE, King LA (2011) Positive affect, meaning in
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Leveraging Technology in the Ombudsman Field: Current Practice and Future Possibilities
DANIEL RAINEY AND FRANK FOWLIE
ABSTRACT
KEYWORDS
This article looks at the possible uses of technology to augment ombudsman practices. The increased use of technology in society impacts the way in which clients may wish to communicate with ombudsmen, and the authors argue that it is incumbent on ombudsman practitioners to stay relevant by the use of technology.
ombudsman, online dispute resolution, technology, ODR, software, hardware
Where Is the Ombudsman Office of the Future Headed?
In a March 2011 post on the "Crystal Ball" section of the IOA website 1 , members discuss several issues related to technology, including privacy, e-discovery, and confidentiality. These are some of the same issues that have come to the fore in discussions about online dispute resolution (ODR) technology and dispute resolution generally, all of which have implications for practice and ethics for ombudsmen and other dispute resolution practitioners (Rainey 2014). Other technological developments have affected (and will affect) the ethics of the profession, but none of the gamechanging technology that may be applied to dispute resolution in the future seems to be a general topic of discussion among current ombudsman practitioners. The risks and downsides are discussed at length; the opportunities seem largely ignored.
We have been asked to survey current practice to comment on the use of technology to enhance the work of ombudsman offices, and to look ahead to where the practice of the ombudsman may be headed, given the rapid advance of ODR tools being developed for use in general dispute resolution. Predicting the future is risky. In fact, more than one person has said "Gee—I wish I hadn't said that," after "the future" has demonstrated the flaws in her or his vision. The risks notwithstanding, we feel confident in predicting that ODR technology will feature prominently in ombudsman practice in the near and distant future. If the emerging generations of the workforce and the public who use ombudsman offices can bank online, buy airline and concert tickets online, and meet future spouses online, then why, they will surely ask, can't they contact and/or work with an ombudsman online?
What Is the Current State of Technology?
Most ombudsman offices do not currently rely on information and communication technology (ICT) to carry out their missions. We can cite examples of ombudsman offices that blend current practice and the use of ICT later in this essay, but that is not the status quo for most ombudsman offices. In this discussion of the future of ombudsman practice, we will use ODR as a shorthand reference for the array of hardware and software available to ombudsmen and others in the business of conflict engagement. The term ODR dates from the mid-1990s and the development of e-commerce with its attendant virtual disputes, and is connected to the concept of the "fourth party," a reference to the active role that ODR technology plays in conflict engagement systems that use ICT to conduct all or part of their work. 2
In an essay on the use of technology by ombudsmen, Fowlie argues that there are two basic ways ICT interacts with ombudsman offices through ODR technology:
There are two basic branches of ODR, both based on the role of technology. The first branch may be called "Technology Based." Technology-based ODR refers to those systems where technology plays an active role in conducting the dispute resolution. These would include blind bidding systems, or e-commerce systems such as those developed and employed by eBay.
The second branch of ODR consists of technology-assisted solutions. Technology-assisted ODR refers to the use of technology to augment alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes that exist independently of the technology. (Fowlie 2012, 325–40)
Technology-based ODR can fundamentally affect the way ombudsmen do business. Technologyassisted ODR takes human-based functions and actions that currently exist in ombudsman offices and uses ICT to fulfill those functions or engage in those actions.
TECHNOLOGY-ASSISTED OMBUDSMAN WORK
Following are examples of how the ombudsman offices of three organizations are using ODR technology: the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the U.S. Army Medical Command (MEDCOM), and the U.S. National Mediation Board (NMB). 3
The ICANN Ombudsman's Office was established in November 2004. 4 Creating an ombudsman office for ICANN was challenging and was not possible using only current non-technology-assisted practices. The ICANN Ombudsman is an executive ombudsman, serving inside the ICANN organization, but the office receives complaints from stakeholders outside the organization.
Fowlie notes that:
By definition, participants in ICANN are online users, as the role of the organization is to administer the Domain Name System (DNS), which is the addressing backbone of the Internet. Disputes that occur within ICANN may be either in the real world, or online in nature. A unique element of the ICANN Office of the Ombudsman is that it serves, literally, a global community. ICANN stakeholders come from every nation in the world and span all 24 time zones. As the ICANN Office of the Ombudsman is a sole practitioner office, it would be impossible to be operational 24 hours a day to communicate synchronously with complainants. However, using an online case management and communication system (CMS) complainants, the organization, and the ombudsman may engage in asynchronous communication. Asynchronous communication may be described as parties sharing communications that are not direct and real-time. For example, a complainant in Asia may use the CMS to initiate a complaint while the Ombudsman is sleeping in North America; the Ombudsman may then respond to the complainant after office hours have closed in Asia.
The CMS also allows for the collection and analysis of data for statistical reporting. During the case intake process, information such as the country location and category of complaint are recorded. In closing the complaint, the Ombudsman designates the resolution type, and confirms the complaint category. These statistical records help to identify complaint trends that may assist in providing early intervention on systemic issues. (Fowlie 2012, 51)
The ability to collect and aggregate data, particularly in offices with a large volume of casework, introduces some interesting issues of ethics, including issues related to privacy and "data ownership" (Rainey 2015).
The Army Medical Command's ombudsman office is a mixed executive/organizational ombudsman office, serving patients, medical staff, patient families, and the public. 5
In 2007, the Army Medical Command was faced with a set of challenges that called for upgrading and repairing physical plants and for establishing ways to elicit and respond to input from the soldiers, families, and medical staff concerned about the care given to returning veterans. Part of the ultimate solution was the creation of an ombudsman's office.
On February 18, 2007, the Washington Post began publishing a series of articles about the deteriorating conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, a federal facility that housed many of the wounded soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. 6 Consultation between the leaders at MEDCOM and a group of dispute resolution practitioners, working pro bono, led to the creation of an organizational ombudsman office, using standard best practices to serve the MEDCOM community. 7 Ultimately, the office that the MEDCOM community created serves as an example of mainstream current practice. But some of the challenges faced in setting up the office illustrate the need to take advantage of "future possibilities."
First, the community served by the office is scattered all over the world. This is more and more a feature of organizations that might benefit from the work of an ombudsman's office. For example, at a recent American Bar Association meeting, the ombudsman from pharmaceutical company Pfizer spoke of the growth of his office, a growth largely driven by the need to serve corporate members in multiple countries. 8 Second, the MEDCOM ombudsman's office exists in a strongly hierarchical organization in which contacts to report problems or to seek help may be potentially viewed as weaknesses—and could affect the status or career of an individual who may have information that the ombudsman, and the organization, may desperately want to know. In short, it is likely in many organizations that, for reasons of dispersal and culture, members of the community will approach ombudsmen only if there is a way to contact the ombudsman without having to go to a physical office and/or if there is a way to contact the ombudsman that is truly anonymous.
To address these issues, MEDCOM launched its ombudsman office with a very strong web presence, including a portal that allowed contact with the ombudsman's office from anywhere at any time. It also included, as part of the portal, the ability to leave information for the ombudsman anonymously by using a secure message area that the community member could access without entering any demographic or individual data. At its inception, the office had physical locations at ten posts in the United States and Italy. Currently, the office is staffed in thirty locations in the United States and around the world.
The National Mediation Board's ombudsman office, a more traditional organizational ombudsman office, does not serve an all-online community, but it relies on ODR technology similar to that in place at ICANN and MEDCOM to offer access and case management for employees, contractors, and members of the public. Access to the ombudsmen at the NMB may be through in-person contact in the NMB offices in Washington, DC, by phone or e-mail directly to the ombudsmen, or through an online portal that allows contact via text messages that may be left either with or without attribution.
It is essential for NMB employees to be able to contact the NMB remotely. The agency's mediators are on the road about three weeks each month, traveling to the parties with whom the agency works, who are scattered across the United States. The combination of direct attributed contact and anonymous contact offers the public and NMB's employees access twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. In addition to ease of access, use of the NMB online contact and case-management portal allows mediators to track trends and manage cases.
These three examples of mixed current/future practice offices, and the technical adjuncts they employ—case management, asynchronous communication, and trend identification—all assist and augment the human-based activity in handling complaints.
Fowlie notes, however, that:
The ombudsman process is still driven by the human-based activities of investigating; developing questions, options, and recommendations; and communicating findings and reports. (2012, 51)
TECHNOLOGY-BASED OMBUDSMAN WORK
In addition to relying on technology-assisted ODR, future ombudsman practice is likely to be affected by the rise in "technology-based" solutions for a broad range of dispute resolution endeavors. Early technology-based systems have tended to rely on straightforward decision trees and algorithm-driven systems, such as the blind-bidding system used by Cybersettle for insurance subrogation. 9 Online retailer eBay, an early developer and user of algorithm-driven systems, reportedly handles 60 million disputes per year, using human intervention in only 10 percent of those cases (Rogers 2013). The explosion of e-commerce has created an online community that experiences disputes at a rate at least equal to those who operate in the offline world, with needs that do not parallel those of the traditional commercial enterprise. Those involved in e-commerce have had to develop ODR solutions because traditional face-to-face solutions cannot reach those who have disputes in cyberspace.
Even though current ODR systems are simple, by some standards, the impact can be significant. For example, anecdotal discussion of dispute resolution systems, including ombudsman offices, indicates that many who make contact are not seeking mediation or some other direct intervention. Rather, they are seeking information. Using technology-based systems to point individuals toward the body of information they seek fulfills those individuals' needs, and it helps ensure that the practitioner is interacting with those who actually want and need direct contact. It is almost inevitable that most ombudsman offices will employ algorithm-driven, technology-based systems, especially those that serve large organizations with a large number of contacts. It is very likely that the use of much more sophisticated technology-based systems, including systems using the developments emerging from the field of natural-language research, will affect the ways ombudsmen practice in the future.
Very broadly stated, there are two main branches of natural-language research. One branch is concerned with the ability of machines—computers of one kind or another— to "hear" and understand the spoken or written language that human beings use with each other. A practical use of this research is the development of programs such as Dragon, which allows you to "tell" your computer what to do with voice commands. 10 The other branch is concerned with a machine's ability to "read" and understand vast amounts of text or voice communication and analyze the content. This research is being used to develop ways of telling false (positive and negative) reviews from genuine reviews on web commerce sites, and it is being used to determine whether there is anger, agreement, etc., in a given mass of text or voice communication. 11
In the near future, dispute resolvers, including ombudsmen, could use advanced speech analytics and natural-language research to look for aggressive or attacking language to help them make sense out of a mass of communication from large numbers of individuals. Advanced ODR technology also offers interesting possibilities as an adjunct to coaching. It is also conceivable that a technologybased evaluation tool will be able to scan a proposed message, either written or spoken, to give one party guidance on how that message may be perceived by another party.
As with any application of information and communication technology, there are two parts to the technology employed by ODR systems and ombudsman using ODR: hardware and software. It is important to consider these separately. Hardware refers to the machinery ombudsmen or clients use (for example, laptops, tablets, iPads, or smartphones); software refers to the computer programming used to conduct the ODR processes. The availability and use of hardware affects the reach and complexity of the program using ODR technology. In North America, for example, computers and tablets traditionally have been the main source of computer-based activity, but mobile devices are increasingly taking over the hardware market. A February 2014 CNN report indicated that:
Americans used smartphone and tablet apps more than PCs to access the Internet last month—the first time that has ever happened. 12
Europe is also seeing a similar pattern of shifting use from static devices (desktops and laptops) to mobile devices. 13 In Africa and Asia, smartphone use is far more common than use of laptops and desktops. 14 For designers of ODR programs in general, and for ombudsmen in particular, the continuing shift to mobile devices as a way to connect to the Internet—and therefore to services offered by conflict engagement practitioners—means that mobile apps and mobile-friendly methods of data and information entry and access are key to reaching potential clients.
One cannot predict what hardware will be in front of us in five or ten years, except to say that it will likely be cheaper and more powerful than today's. As we will note later, the type of hardware available to the constituents of an ombudsman office—and the access to that hardware—figure into the evaluation of whether to use ODR technology, what it may be used for, and how to integrate it into an ombudsman system.
The software for both static and mobile devices is continually improving, and there is a global tendency for developers to create their own programs or software and make those available to wide audiences. For specific target audiences, developers now commonly use a "hack-a-thon" to develop applications that address specific issues or problems. For example, a recent hack-a-thon in Austin, Texas, took client service issues put forward by Legal Aid and, over a weekend, developed online approaches specifically responding to those issues. 15
Ten years ago we did not have the term "app" (a small, specialized program downloaded onto mobile devices) in our common language. Today it is almost axiomatic to say "There's an app for that." As we will note in detail later, the broad array of software available to the ombudsman makes it possible for ombudsman offices to use ODR software that is self-contained and designed to fulfill all of the functions common to dispute resolution systems, and it is possible to join independently produced apps and programs to target specific functions. For example, the NMB ombudsman office uses a basic website as an entry portal where potential clients can see contact information, privacy and confidentiality statements, and the charter of the ombudsman office; links take the user to a separate secure program where here or she can leave information, either with attribution or anonymously. Neither the website nor the secure communication program was designed with ombudsmen or dispute resolution in mind; however, they easily handle several functions that must be fulfilled by the ombudsman office. Thus, a key issue for ombudsmen who wish to use technology to improve their practice is to decide what kind of ODR software to use. The speed at which both software and supported hardware are changing and improving, along with falling cost factors, will help ombudsmen decide which type of software or platform is most appropriate for their practices.
Why Should Ombudsmen Embrace ODR Technology?
First, ombudsmen should embrace ODR technology because, as we have noted earlier in this essay, their clients will expect the same level of access to ombudsman services that they have to other services. Although it may be considered a cliché, the age of potential contacts for ombudsman offices seems to make a difference. Younger clients seem to show a higher preference for interacting online with friends, strangers, and service providers than older individuals. 16 Although this too may seem clichéd, these clients and the generations to come after them will be the clients who seek ombudsman services.
Second, ombudsmen should embrace ODR technology because it offers efficiencies in current practice and adds new capabilities without radically changing the nature of the work. The advantages of technology-assisted work should be obvious. Using the three examples from earlier in this article, the ability to make contact regardless of time zone or geography, to accommodate disabilities with remote contact and communication, and to engage in case tracking and management are clearly advantageous to the "traditional" ombudsman office.
Technology-assisted ODR is scalable to the needs, finances, and technical competencies of dispute resolution programs. Web portals and online survey forms can simplify and speed up intake, information gathering, and scheduling. Online discussion and document-sharing apps can enable asynchronous communication for ombudsman offices spread over large geographic areas. Document-sharing and single-text editing programs can make producing settlement agreements easier and more transparent. For each of the functions of the typical ombudsman office, there is an app for that. And there is a client base willing and eager to use the app.
On the surface, it would appear that most ombudsman offices would have little need for technology-based ODR. However, in those instances where a significant percentage of contacts are seeking assistance that can be provided through access to information, documents, forms, or other static items, technology-based ODR can play an important role in conflict engagement practice. For example, a recent conflict engagement design project concluded a case-flow analysis with the following note:
If the normal case flow is approximately 200 cases per month, and if 80% of those cases actually now result in direct contact from . . . staff, it is reasonable to assume that . . . staff "touch" at least 160 cases per month. If one further assumes that 50% of those "touched" cases result in a simple furnishing of forms or other very basic information, it is reasonable to assume that the number of cases requiring personal interaction with a . . . staff member could be cut by 50% per month without reducing the number of overall cases and without compromising the nature of the information pushed to the clients. 17
Neither technology-assisted nor technology-based work takes the place of human contact, but rather uses technology to improve the efficacy of human-based processes.
Third, ombudsmen should embrace ODR technology because it puts some important issues up front. Most ombudsmen are already using some technology in their practice, even if that technology is limited to smartphones, laptop computers, and e-mail. Intentional and thoughtful integration of ODR technology into an ombudsman practice would not just offer the advantages we have outlined, it would also ensure that ombudsmen were carefully considering the impact of the technology— some of which they are already using—on issues such as confidentiality and privacy. Since the advent of desktop computers (before they were connected to the Internet), technology has changed the definition of and availability of records, personal information, and information that both the ombudsman and client would like to keep confidential. Thoughtfully integrating technology into a practice helps the ombudsman and any other dispute resolution professional directly address these issues with clients or parties, and forces the development of policies and procedures to adapt to the digital environment.
What Should the Ombudsman Consider When Adopting ODR Technology?
Fowlie argues that ombudsmen may wish to consider a number of criteria when planning to implement ODR or when considering the scalability of their ODR programs. The following criteria will inform ombudsmen about the technology they will need to conduct a successful ODR-assisted or ODR-based practice (Fowlie 2012, 54–56):
* Geography
* Legislative requirements
* Case-management users and complaint volume
* Literacy and language
* Internet connectivity
* Time zones
* Service requirements
* Client or audience characteristics
* Synchronous and asynchronous usage
To that previous list we add two factors: (1) perceptions of safety and the need for anonymity, and (2) the sociocultural context.
A powerful incentive to use any conflict engagement program, including ombudsman offices, is the degree to which the potential client feels safe. Safety can be defined in many ways by different client groups, but at base the potential client's perception of the risk involved in contacting the ombudsman will factor into the decision of whether to trust the ombudsman. Some clients will have no second thoughts about walking into a physical office in front of everyone. Some will balk at walking into an office but will use a phone to contact the ombudsman remotely. Some may stay away unless there is a way to offer information anonymously. It is possible, theoretically, to set up "comment boxes" where potential clients can drop information—but even then he or she may fear being seen by others as the "drop" is made. For some potential clients, true anonymity may be the key to initiating contact.
From 2004 through 2010, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the National Mediation Board conducted research to see whether the use of process modeling could support conflict-engagement practice. 18 Among the conclusions from the research were that the use of ODR technology did not diminish the participants' feeling that their concerns were "heard" by the third party and the other party in the dispute, and that using an anonymous system increased the amount of input from participants. One good way to craft a truly anonymous portal into an ombudsman office, and to craft an anonymous portal that is familiar to and trusted by an internet-friendly population, is to use ODR technology.
Ombudsmen wishing to implement ODR systems should also consider the general sociocultural context in which they operate. There will be differences in communication and culture between "high-context" and "low-context" societies. 19 This will help inform the ombudsman of the potential for success. The ODR system must be designed to accommodate the cultural requirements of the client group (Fowlie 2012, 56).
For example, several assumptions attend the North American model of mediation that informs much third-party practice, including ombudsman work, for those trained in North America or Europe. There are assumptions about the need for issue identification (which can be seen as attaching blame in some cultures) and assumptions about having the "decision maker" involved in the resolution process (which can be problematic for collectivist cultures). Using ODR technology may in some cases be a better fit for non-Western populations than traditional face-to-face practice. 20
Ombudsmen might have to modify their practices to accommodate ODR in a number of ways by:
* Creating an appropriate case-management and correspondence system. This could be a purpose-built ODR system or could simply be an existing e-mail program.
* Housing the system on a separate secure server, independent of other applications within the organization, business, or government. Ombudsmen are also increasingly using secure "cloud" environments for conflict engagement work.
* Being proactive in providing a website that promotes the ombudsman function and links to the complaint-intake case-management system. The website should contain a reasonable amount of self-help information to educate, inform, and assist potential clients.
* Having native-language translators available for complainants. Community resources may be available to assist. Translators must be covered by either privacy laws or nondisclosure agreements, to keep the correspondence they review private and confidential.
* Being prepared to develop effectiveness measures for using ODR.
* Developing a sense of self and their own culture, as they work with online documents to conduct dispute resolution. In this case, culture refers especially to how people develop a sociocultural context to the manner in which they resolve disputes. A practitioner needs to be particularly aware of his or her own culture, while working with clients or institutions that are different from them in the high-context/low-context scale. In ODR scenarios, ombudsmen must be prepared to allow each correspondent to display his or her own conflict culture, without the ombudsman forcing complainants to adopt the ombudsman's conflict culture.
* Allotting time and energy to working with complainants who have low general or computerliteracy skills. The same skills used in active listening may be applied to "active writing."
* Practicing writing skills that will assist in developing a "trust" environment (Ebner 2012, 215–48).
* Being aware that correspondents may tend to stray from core issues and processes with the written word. Much of the process will involve focusing on these core issues and using the many tools in the ombudsman toolbox to develop options and possible outcomes.
Conclusion
Our basic prediction for the future of ombudsman practice parallels the trend in ADR and conflict engagement in general. As online dispute resolution leader Colin Rule argues:
We now routinely use computers for many of our most intimate communications, largely because smartphones and tablets have become so convenient, portable, and easy to operate. . . . These developments will inevitably affect the practice of dispute resolution. Technology is changing not only the way we communicate; it is altering the way we disagree and the way we
resolve our disputes. . . . ODR is no longer a novelty—it is arguably the future of ADR. (Rule 2015)
We echo the prediction about the future of ODR in the field of ADR generally, and specifically suggest that ODR is no longer a novelty in ombudsman work; it arguably will hold a central place in ombudsman practice.
Finally, we suggest that anxiety over the "dehumanization" of the ombudsman practice is misplaced. ODR technology does not destroy the process. As ICT has become more and more a central part of everyone's private and professional lives, there has been a tendency to see the integration of technology as destroying something rather than building something. We think that the following observation made by Rainie and Wellman is accurate and should give comfort to those who engage in a profession based on people connecting with people.
We wonder about the folks who keep moaning that the internet is killing society. They sound just like those who worried generations ago that TV or automobiles would kill sociability, or sixteenth-century fears that the printing press would lead to information overload. While 'oy veyism'—crying "the sky is falling," makes for good headlines—it isn't true. The evidence in our work is that none of these technologies are isolated—or isolating— systems. They are being incorporated into people's social lives much like their predecessors were. People are not hooked on gadgets—they are hooked on each other. When they go on the internet, they are not isolating themselves. (2012, 330-35)
NOTES
1. Mary Rowe, "Crystal Ball," International Ombudsman Association, March 8, 2011, http://www.ombudsassociation.org/ IOA_Main/media/SiteFiles/FINALcrystal-ball-3-8-2011.pdf.
2. For a survey of ODR technology, see Mohamed Wahab, Ethan Katsh, and Daniel Rainey, eds., Online Dispute Resolution: Theory and Practice, (The Hague: Eleven International Publications, 2012). The concept of the "fourth party" was developed by Ethan Katsh and Janet Rifkin in Online Dispute Resolution: Resolving Conflicts in Cyberspace (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001).
3. The National Mediation Board is the US federal agency charged with addressing disputes in the airline and railroad industries in the United States. National Mediation Board, accessed May 26, 2015, http://www.nmb.gov.
4. "ICANN Ombudsman," Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, accessed May 26, 2015, https:// www.icann.org/resources/pages/ ombudsman-2012-02-25-en?routing_ type=path.
5. US Army Medical Department Ombudsman Program, accessed May 26, 2015, http://medcomombudsman. amedd.army.mil/.
6. Washington Post coverage of the problems at Walter Reed Medical Center began in February 2007 and continued in a series of special reports. See Dana Priest and Anne Hull, "Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration at Army's Top Medical Facility," Washington Post, February 18, 2007, http://www. washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ article/2007/02/17/AR2007021701172.html.
7. Brig. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, the newly appointed deputy commander at Walter Reed, approved and championed the creation of the ombudsman program. Lt. Col. Becky Baker was the officer assigned to create and inaugurate the program. Daniel Rainey, Ethan Katsh, and Harry
Hoglander (NMB board member) worked through the offices of U.S. Rep. John Tierney (D-MA), to contact and work with the MEDCOM staff.
8. Timothy Shore (lecture, American Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Midwinter Meeting, New York, NY February 13, 2015).
9. Clive Thompson, "Double Bind: Negotiating on the Internet Gets Lawyers' Egos out of the Way," Legal Affairs, May/June 2004, http://www. legalaffairs.org/issues/May-June-2004/ scene_thompson_mayjun04.msp.
10. "Let Your Voice Do All the Typing," Nuance Communications, Inc., accessed May 26, 2015, http://www.nuance.com/ dragon/index.htm.
11. David Streitfeld, "In a Race to Out-Rave, 5-Star Web Reviews Go For $5," New York Times, August 19, 2011, http://www. nytimes.com/2011/08/20/technology/ finding-fake-reviews-online.html?_r=0, and Myle Ott, Yejin Choi, Claire Cardle, and Jeffery T. Hancock, "Finding Deceptive Opinion Spam by Any Stretch of the Imagination," Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Association of Computational Linguistics (Portland, Oregon: 2011), 309–19, http://aclweb. org/anthology/P/P11/P11-1032.pdf.
12. James O'Toole, "Mobile Apps Overtake PC Internet Usage in U.S.," CNNMoney, February 28, 2014, http://money.cnn. com/2014/02/28/technology/mobile/ mobile-apps-internet/.
13. Simon Kemp, "Social, Digital & Mobile in Europe in 2014," We Are Social Ltd., February 5, 2014, http://wearesocial. net/blog/2014/02/social-digital-mobileeurope-2014/.
14. Winnie Mitullah, "Africa Connects: Mobile Phones on the Rise in Africa, Internet Use Inching Up," AllAfrica, October 16, 2013, http://allafrica.com/ stories/201310160700.html.
15. Tech for Justice home page, accessed May 26, 2015, http://www.techforjustice. org/.
16. Stacy E. Thayer and Sukanya Ray, CyberPsychology & Behavior 9 (August 2006): 432–40, doi:10.1089/ cpb.2006.9.432.
17. Daniel Rainey, Julia Morellli, Shawn Billingly, and Peter Turner, 4PS Initial Report, October 2014 (client name withheld for purposes of privacy and confidentiality).
18. The research was carried out under and was supported by funds from the National Science Foundation under grant no. IIS-0429297.
19. "The expressions 'high context' and 'low context' are labels denoting inherent cultural differences between societies. High-context and low-context communication refers to how much speakers rely on things other than words to convey meaning. Hall states that in communication, individuals face many more sensory cues than they are able to fully process. In each culture, members have been supplied with specific 'filters' that allow them to focus only on what society has deemed important. In general, cultures that favor low-context communication will pay more attention to the literal meanings of words than to the context surrounding them." M. Q. Jeffrey, "High Context vs. Low Context Communication," September 22, 2007, http://hubpages. com/hub/High-Context-vs-Low-ContextCommunication.
20. See Daniel Rainey, "ODR and Culture," in Online Dispute Resolution: Theory and Practice, edited by Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Ethan Katsh, and Daniel Rainey, 197–213, The Hague: Eleven International Publications, 2012, and Daniel Rainey and Alma AbdulHadi Jadallah, "The Culture in the
Code." Paper presented at the Fourth International ODR Forum, Cairo, Egypt, 2007. http://www.mediate.com//articles/ culture_in_code.cfm.
REFERENCES
Ebner, Noam. 2012. "ODR and Interpersonal Trust." In Online Dispute Resolution: Theory and Practice, edited by Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Ethan Katsh, and Daniel Rainey, The Hague: Eleven International Publications.
Fowlie, Frank. 2012. "Online Dispute Resolution and Ombudsmanship." In Online Dispute Resolution: Theory and Practice, edited by Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Ethan Katsh, and Daniel Rainey, The Hague: Eleven International Publications.
2015. "Glimmers on the Horizon: Unique Ethical Issues Created by ODR." ABA Dispute Resolution Magazine 21 (2): 20–23.
Rainie, Lee and Wellman, Barry, Networked: The New Social Operating System (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2012), Kindle edition, Kindle locations 330–35. Rainey, Daniel. 2014. "Third Party Ethics in the Age of the Fourth Party." International Journal of Online Dispute Resolution 1 (1): 37–56.
Rogers, Vikki. 2013. "Managing Disputes in the Online Global Marketplace." ABA Dispute Resolution Magazine (Spring 2013): page numbers.
Rule, Colin. 2015. "Technology and the Future of Dispute Resolution." ABA Dispute Resolution Magazine 21 (2): 4–5.
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178
Accurate Pitch Marking for Prosodic Modification of Speech Segments
Thomas Ewender and Beat Pfister
Speech Processing Group
Computer Engineering and Networks Laboratory
ETH Zurich, Switzerland {ewender,firstname.lastname@example.org
Abstract
This paper describes a new approach to pitch marking. Unlike other approaches that use the same combination of features for the whole signal, we take into account the signal properties and apply different features according to some heuristic. Basically we use a special type of energy contour for pitch marking. Where the energy information turns out to be not suitable as an indicator we resort to the fundamental wave computed from a contiguous F0 contour in combination with detailed voicing information. Our experiments demonstrate that the proposed pitch marking algorithm clearly improves the quality of synthesised speech generated by a concatenative text-to-speech system that uses TD-PSOLA for prosodic modifications.
phase drift, i.e. in some signals the distances between the pitch marks may systematically be slightly too large or too small.
Index Terms: speech synthesis, glottal closure instants, pitch marks, automatic pitch marking, signal analysis.
1. Introduction
TD-PSOLA [1] is known to allow for high-quality pitch and time scale modification of speech segments for concatenative speech synthesis. The quality of TD-PSOLA-modified speech largely depends on how the speech signal is split into windowed double period segments. It is generally accepted and can easily be verified experimentally that the best results are achieved if double period segments start at a glottal closure instant (GCI) and end at the next but one GCI.
The GCI is commonly referred to as the maximum of the derivative of the airflow through the glottis. In terms of timing, the GCI is located towards the end of the closure of the glottis. It would be very easy to detect the GCI from the glottal flow signal. However, this signal is generally not available. Therefore the GCIs have to be estimated from the speech signal. These estimates are denoted here as pitch marks.
There are several known approaches to set pitch marks. One standard approach consists of two steps: First, pitch mark candidates are generated from local maxima either of the speech signal [2, 3, 4] or some wavelet components [5]. In the second step, a subset of these candidates is selected according to optimisation criteria that mainly account for the smoothness of the fundamental frequency contour [2, 3, 5, 6] and the waveform consistency of the signal around the pitch mark candidates [2, 6].
Another approach to pitch marking uses a pseudo-state space representation of speech frames and sets the pitch marks at the crossings of the trajectories with the Poincar´e plane [7]. At the start of a voiced speech segment, this plane has to be placed according to some criterion, e.g. a local maximum of the signal or the point where the trajectories are most parallel. Both possibilities may result in pitch marks that are very bad estimates of the GCIs. A further problem of this approach is
Copyright©2010 ISCA
These methods are not robust enough for voiced segments with significant noise components as in voiced-to-unvoiced transitions or vice versa and in voiced fricatives. Furthermore, they are not designed to cope with irregular-pitched segments of vocal fry. Our new approach to pitch marking uses the maxima of the short-term energy contour as the main pitch marking criterion because the maximum of the derivative of the airflow through the glottis corresponds to the energy maximum in the speech signal. Our approach copes very well even with the difficult cases mentioned above. It will be outlined in the next section. In Section 3, the short-term energy and the fundamental wave will be introduced as the two basic features of our approach. Section 4 will illustrate some challenging cases, a detailed presentation of our approach follows in Section 5. Section 6 will describe our experiments and the results. In Section 7 some concluding remarks will be given.
2. Outline of new pitch marking
Estimating pitch marks from amplitude peaks often results in pitch periods with significant jitter that needs to be reduced by smoothing. We argue that since the concept of TD-PSOLA is based on the idea that the energy should concentrate in the centre of the windowed double period segments, pitch marks should be placed at peaks of the energy contour rather than at peaks of the signal. However, the short-term energy is not always a reliable criterion to set pitch marks (see Section 4). But it is possible to detect the locations where the short-term energy criterion should not be used. In these cases, the fundamental wave of the speech signal is used as a robust fallback feature to determine the pitch mark positions. It has to be emphasised that neither of the two features can be used alone for pitch marking. Some problematic cases for the short-term energy feature are illustrated in Section 4. Also the fundamental wave alone is not usable for setting pitch marks, because there is no fixed relation between the GCIs as estimated from the short-term energy and the phase of the fundamental wave (see Fig. 1). Hence a solution that is based solely on the fundamental wave would fail in some cases. Only with a combination of both features, as described below, good results may be attained for arbitrary voices.
3. The two main features for pitch marking
Our pitch marking algorithm is based on two features: the shortterm energy contour and the fundamental wave. These features are extracted for each sampling point of the speech signal by means of an analysis window with the size of the local signal
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30 September 2010, Makuhari, Chiba, Japan
period. Thus the resulting features are continuous and smooth. The signal period is derived from a contiguous F0 contour as resulting from the method described in [8].
3.1. Continuous short-term energy contour
The short-term energy for a sample i of a signal x(·) is computed as follows:
where w(·) is a Hamming window of length T0 centred at 0. The window of size T0 is motivated by the fact that it is long enough to provide a good estimate for signals with noise components and short enough to provide the energy distribution within the length of one period. Since T0 varies with time, the size of the Hamming window has to be adapted continuously, i.e., not only for each frame, but for each sample. Because a T0 contour as it results from the optimisation described in [8] is specified with one value per frame, it has to be interpolated to get a T0 value for each sample of the speech signal.
The resulting short-term energy contour is completely smooth and particularly shows no discontinuities at frame boundaries. A segment of such a short-term energy contour is shown at the bottom of Fig. 1.
3.2. Continuous fundamental wave
The fundamental wave can be computed by convolving the speech signal with a Hamming window of length T0. This is a low-pass filter with a cut-off frequency of F0 and zeros at the harmonics. The length of the Hamming window again has to be adapted continuously as described above. The resulting fundamental wave is also completely smooth and does not show discontinuities at frame boundaries. A segment of such a fundamental wave is shown in the middle plot of Fig. 1.
4. Problems with short-term energy
In most cases the short-term energy works fine for the pitch marks (see voiced frames of Fig. 4). However, there are cases where short-term energy peaks turn out to be not suitable for pitch marking. We illustrate such problematic cases below.
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4.1. Pitch doubling
For nearly sinusoidal speech signals, basing pitch marks on short-term energy peaks would be problematic because the energy contour shows two almost equally high peaks per period (see Fig. 3 from 0.45 seconds). If the energy peaks are chosen without any further consideration this leads here to the well known effect of pitch doubling. This effect tends to appear more often with female voices where the fundamental frequency can be in the area of the first formant, leading to a dominating fundamental wave in the signal.
4.2. Jitter
The reason for jitter is that the energy contour has either not clear peaks or there are again two relative maxima per period. Fig. 2 shows such a speech signal. After 0.7 seconds the short-term energy contour first shows dual peaks and later broad peaks with the maximum changing from right to left and to right again. If these short-term energy peaks are used, the resulting pitch marks alternate between the left and right peaks which results in jitter.
4.3. Spurious energy peaks
High frequency noise can cause spurious energy peaks or can shift the energy peaks in the otherwise periodic signal. As can be seen in Fig. 3 at 0.30–0.36 seconds, the short-term energy contour exhibits irregular peaks, whereas the fundamental wave remains periodic and is not perturbed by the high frequency components. This is often observed with voiced fricatives next to vowels as it is the case in Fig. 3.
5. Combining short-term energy and fundamental wave
5.1. Reliability of the short-term energy
As is apparent from the previous section, a careful estimation of the short-term energy peaks' reliability as pitch mark indicators is most important. We used a set of 9 voices that were known to be problematic for pitch marking to establish the following criteria for determining unreliable short-term energy peaks:
* Prominence: the peak is not prominent enough compared to adjacent valleys (Fig. 3, from 0.45 sec.).
* Amplitude: the peak's amplitude is below a noise threshold (Fig. 3, until 0.345 seconds).
* Position of adjacent valleys: adjacent valleys are too close or too far away (Fig. 4, from 3.09 to 3.16 secs).
* Position of adjacent peaks: adjacent peaks are too close or too far away (Fig. 4, from 3.09 to 3.16 sec.).
* Regularity of adjacent valleys: the ratio of the distances between the peak and its two adjacent valleys is too different from the local increase of F0.
* Form: the peak is too broad at a certain fraction of its maximum height (Fig. 2, from 0.69 sec.).
* Quality of neighbours: one of the adjacent peaks is considered an insufficient indicator by meeting one of the above mentioned criteria.
If at least one of these negative criteria is fulfilled, the energy peak is considered an insufficient indicator and the algorithm resorts to the fallback methods.
5.2. Reliability of the fundamental wave
In many cases where the energy contour shows no usable peaks because of the presence of high-frequency noise components (see e.g. the voiced fricative at the beginning of the signal in Fig. 3), the fundamental wave is almost perfectly periodic and does not exhibit any perturbation. In these cases the fundamental wave can be used as a fallback. However, there are cases where also the fundamental wave fails as a reliable pitch mark indicator, which is frequently the case with creaky voice segments (see Fig. 4 at 3.10–3.17 seconds). Therefore again a set of criteria for the detection of bad fundamental wave segments have been established:
* Amplitude: the amplitude is below a noise threshold (Fig. 4, from 3.1 to 3.15 sec.).
* Valley positions: valleys are too close or too far away from their adjacent peak (Fig. 4, from 3.1 to 3.165 sec.).
* Peak positions: peaks are too close or too far away from their neighbours (Fig. 4, from 3.09 to 3.155 sec.).
The fundamental wave is locally considered as not reliable, if at least one of the above criteria is fulfilled. The above mentioned noise thresholds are dynamically estimated for each signal using an energy-based loudness measure. The rest of the parameters was manually determined using a set of 9 voices and is virtually voice-independent.
5.3. Procedure to set the pitch marks
As input to the pitch marking procedure the short-term energy and the fundamental wave (as described in Section 3) are extracted from the signal, as well as frame-wise defined voicing information which distinguishes voiced, unvoiced, mixed-excitation, irregularly-glottalized and silence segments (see [8]).
We first select glottalized (voiced, mixed or irregular) segments that are delimited by unvoiced or silent regions. Every glottalized segment is processed as follows:
1. We use the time points of the reliable short-term energy peaks in the glottalized segment as initial pitch marks.
2. If there is a region in the segment where short-term energy peaks are unreliable we check if the fundamental wave can be used for setting additional pitch marks. If this is the case, we detect at which phase of the fundamental wave the last already set pitch mark has been set (marked with x-signs in Fig. 3) and interpolate or extrapolate along the reliable part of the fundamental wave 1 .
1 In the rare case when no reliable short-term energy peak was found in step 1, we select one of the short-term energy peaks that fulfil most of the reliability criteria.
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3. For regions where still no pitch marks are set, we regard the voicing information: For regions classified as irregular we use prominent short-term energy peaks (which may be irregularly spaced) to set the pitch marks. For regions classified otherwise we set the pitch marks by interpolation (if there are pitch marks to the left and right of the region) or by extrapolation (at the start or the end of the glottalized segment) with a period length derived from the contiguous F0 contour.
Finally, equidistant pitch marks are set in those segments that contain silent and unvoiced frames with some transition to the pitch mark distances at the borders of the glottalized segments.
6. Evaluation
Statistical evaluation can only be considered if evaluated pitch marks and reference pitch marks follow the same criteria. So we decided to evaluate our method through the performance of a diphone-based text-to-speech (TTS) system that applies TDPSOLA. We built two systems each for four different voices, one male and one female Dutch voice, one female German and one male American English voice. The voices were recorded in studio quality with professional equipment. For the baseline system we used pitch marks generated with the crosscorrelation algorithm from the Praat toolkit [9], for the other system we used our proposed method. With the exception of the difference in pitch marking the systems are otherwise equal.
The speech signals synthesised with our proposed method showed clear improvement for the two male voices, they contain less reverberation and sound less raspy. Most improvement was achieved for the bassy male American English voice, which sounds more sonorous and less frizzled. The female voices showed isolated improvements in mixed or irregular speech. We demonstrate the quality of our results by means of enclosed examples.
7. Conclusion
In this paper a new pitch marking method has been introduced. The algorithm places pitch marks basically at the peaks of the short-term energy contour, which is a good estimate of GCIs. For speech segments where the energy peaks are not suitable, we use fallback methods based on the fundamental wave or on the F 0 contour. The quality of our pitch marking is eliminating virtually all artifacts that are caused by other pitch markers such as Praat in the synthetic signal processed with TD-PSOLA.
8. Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Swiss Innovation Promotion Agency CTI. We thank SVOX AG for providing multi speaker recordings which were helpful to test and improve our proposed method. We cordially thank C´edric Schaller who contributed to this work with his master's thesis.
9. References
[1] F. Charpentier and E. Moulines, "Pitch-synchronous waveform processing techniques for text-to-speech synthesis using diphones," in Proceedings of Eurospeech, Paris, September 1989, pp. 13–19.
[2] V. Colotte and Y. Laprie, "Higher precision pitch marking for TDPSOLA," in Proceedings of the European Signal Processing Conference, Toulouse, 2002, pp. 419–422.
[3] C.-Y. Lin and J.-S. R. Jang, "A two-phase pitch marking method for TD-PSOLA synthesis," in Proceedings of Interspeech/ICSLP, Jeju Island (Korea), October 2004, pp. 1189–1192.
[4] B. Kotnik, H. H¨oge, and Z. Kacic, "Noise robust F0 determination and epoch-marking algorithms," Signal Processing, vol. 89, no. 12, pp. 2555 – 2569, 2009.
[5] M. Sakamoto and T. Saitoh, "An automatic pitch-marking method using wavelet transform," in Proceedings of Interspeech/ICSLP, Beijing, September 2000.
[6] R. Veldhuis, "Consistent pitch marking," in Proceedings of Interspeech/ICSLP, Beijing, September 2000, pp. 207–210.
[7] M. Hagm¨uller and G. Kubin, "Poincar´e pitch marks," Speech Communication, vol. 48, no. 12, pp. 1650–1665, 2006.
[8] T. Ewender, S. Hoffmann, and B. Pfister, "Nearly perfect detection of continuous F0 contour and frame classification for TTS synthesis," in Proceedings of Interspeech, Brighton, September 2009, pp. 100–103.
[9] P. Boersma, "Praat, a system for doing phonetics by computer," Glot International, vol. 5, no. 9/10, pp. 341–345, 2002.
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Introduction:
LEA: South Bay Union Elementary School District Contact (Name, Title, Email, Phone Number): Gary Storts, Superintendent/Principal, firstname.lastname@example.org, (707) 4768549 LCAP Year: 2016-17
Local Control and Accountability Plan and Annual Update Template
As it pertains to South Bay Union School District's (K-6) 2015-16 Local Control Accountability Plan, API scores will not be available as a metric to measure student achievement. Also, middle school and high school drop-out rates, high school graduation rates, EAP %, Advanced Placement courses, as well as Career & Technical Education classes do not pertain to SBUSD as we are an elementary school district. SBUSD is able to commit supplemental grant dollars school-wide as our percentage of unduplicated students falls above 55%.
The Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) and Annual Update Template shall be used to provide details regarding local educational agencies' (LEAs) actions and expenditures to support pupil outcomes and overall performance pursuant to Education Code sections 52060, 52066, 47605, 47605.5, and 47606.5. The LCAP and Annual Update Template must be completed by all LEAs each year.
For school districts, pursuant to Education Code section 52060, the LCAP must describe, for the school district and each school within the district, goals and specific actions to achieve those goals for all pupils and each subgroup of pupils identified in Education Code section 52052, including pupils with disabilities, for each of the state priorities and any locally identified priorities.
For county offices of education, pursuant to Education Code section 52066, the LCAP must describe, for each county office of education-operated school and program, goals and specific actions to achieve those goals for all pupils and each subgroup of pupils identified in Education Code section 52052, including pupils with disabilities, who are funded through the county office of education Local Control Funding Formula as identified in Education Code section 2574 (pupils attending juvenile court schools, on probation or parole, or mandatorily expelled) for each of the state priorities and any locally identified priorities. School districts and county offices of education may additionally coordinate and describe in their LCAPs services provided to pupils funded by a school district but attending county-operated schools and programs, including special education programs.
Charter schools, pursuant to Education Code sections 47605, 47605.5, and 47606.5, must describe goals and specific actions to achieve those goals for all pupils and each subgroup of pupils identified in Education Code section 52052, including pupils with disabilities, for each of the state priorities as applicable and any locally identified priorities. For charter schools, the inclusion and description of goals for state priorities in the LCAP may be modified to meet the grade levels served and the nature of the programs provided, including modifications to reflect only the statutory requirements explicitly applicable to charter schools in the Education Code.
The LCAP is intended to be a comprehensive planning tool. Accordingly, in developing goals, specific actions, and expenditures, LEAs should carefully consider how to reflect the services and related expenses for their basic instructional program in relationship to the state priorities. LEAs may reference and describe actions and expenditures in other plans and funded by a variety of other fund sources when detailing goals, actions, and expenditures related to the state and local priorities. LCAPs must be consistent with school plans submitted pursuant to Education Code section 64001. The information contained in the LCAP, or annual
Page 2 of 65
update, may be supplemented by information contained in other plans (including the LEA plan pursuant to Section 1112 of Subpart 1 of Part A of Title I of Public Law 107-110) that are incorporated or referenced as relevant in this document.
For each section of the template, LEAs shall comply with instructions and should use the guiding questions as prompts (but not limits) for completing the information as required by statute. Guiding questions do not require separate narrative responses. However, the narrative response and goals and actions should demonstrate each guiding question was considered during the development of the plan. Data referenced in the LCAP must be consistent with the school accountability report card where appropriate. LEAs may resize pages or attach additional pages as necessary to facilitate completion of the LCAP.
State Priorities
The state priorities listed in Education Code sections 52060 and 52066 can be categorized as specified below for planning purposes, however, school districts and county offices of education must address each of the state priorities in their LCAP. Charter schools must address the priorities in Education Code section 52060(d) that apply to the grade levels served, or the nature of the program operated, by the charter school.
A. Conditions of Learning:
Basic: degree to which teachers are appropriately assigned pursuant to Education Code section 44258.9, and fully credentialed in the subject areas and for the pupils they are teaching; pupils have access to standards-aligned instructional materials pursuant to Education Code section 60119; and school facilities are maintained in good repair pursuant to Education Code section 17002(d). (Priority 1)
Implementation of State Standards: implementation of academic content and performance standards and English language development standards adopted by the state board for all pupils, including English learners. (Priority 2)
Course access: pupil enrollment in a broad course of study that includes all of the subject areas described in Education Code section 51210 and subdivisions (a) to (i), inclusive, of Section 51220, as applicable. (Priority 7)
Expelled pupils (for county offices of education only): coordination of instruction of expelled pupils pursuant to Education Code section 48926. (Priority 9)
Foster youth (for county offices of education only): coordination of services, including working with the county child welfare agency to share information, responding to the needs of the juvenile court system, and ensuring transfer of health and education records. (Priority 10)
B. Pupil Outcomes:
Pupil achievement: performance on standardized tests, score on Academic Performance Index, share of pupils that are college and career ready, share of English learners that become English proficient, English learner reclassification rate, share of pupils that pass Advanced Placement exams with 3 or higher, share of pupils determined prepared for college by the Early Assessment Program. (Priority 4)
Other pupil outcomes: pupil outcomes in the subject areas described in Education Code section 51210 and subdivisions (a) to (i), inclusive, of Education Code section 51220, as applicable. (Priority 8)
C. Engagement:
Parental involvement: efforts to seek parent input in decision making at the district and each schoolsite, promotion of parent participation in programs for unduplicated pupils and special need subgroups. (Priority 3)
Pupil engagement: school attendance rates, chronic absenteeism rates, middle school dropout rates, high school dropout rates, high school graduations rates. (Priority 5)
School climate: pupil suspension rates, pupil expulsion rates, other local measures including surveys of pupils, parents and teachers on the sense of safety and school connectedness. (Priority 6)
Section 1: Stakeholder Engagement
Meaningful engagement of parents, pupils, and other stakeholders, including those representing the subgroups identified in Education Code section 52052, is critical to the LCAP and budget process. Education Code sections 52060(g), 52062 and 52063 specify the minimum requirements for school districts; Education Code sections 52066(g), 52068 and 52069 specify the minimum requirements for county offices of education, and Education Code section 47606.5 specifies the minimum requirements for charter schools. In addition, Education Code section 48985 specifies the requirements for translation of documents.
Instructions: Describe the process used to consult with parents, pupils, school personnel, local bargaining units as applicable, and the community and how this consultation contributed to development of the LCAP or annual update. Note that the LEA's goals, actions, services and expenditures related to the state priority of parental involvement are to be described separately in Section 2. In the annual update boxes, describe the stakeholder involvement process for the review, and describe its impact on, the development of the annual update to LCAP goals, actions, services, and expenditures.
Guiding Questions:
1) How have applicable stakeholders (e.g., parents and pupils, including parents of unduplicated pupils and unduplicated pupils identified in Education Code section 42238.01; community members; local bargaining units; LEA personnel; county child welfare agencies; county office of education foster youth services programs, court-appointed special advocates, and other foster youth stakeholders; community organizations representing English learners; and others as appropriate) been engaged and involved in developing, reviewing, and supporting implementation of the LCAP?
2) How have stakeholders been included in the LEA's process in a timely manner to allow for engagement in the development of the LCAP?
3) What information (e.g., quantitative and qualitative data/metrics) was made available to stakeholders related to the state priorities and used by the LEA to inform the LCAP goal setting process? How was the information made available?
4) What changes, if any, were made in the LCAP prior to adoption as a result of written comments or other feedback received by the LEA through any of the LEA's engagement processes?
5) What specific actions were taken to meet statutory requirements for stakeholder engagement pursuant to Education Code sections 52062, 52068, and 47606.5, including engagement with representatives of parents and guardians of pupils identified in Education Code section 42238.01?
6) What specific actions were taken to consult with pupils to meet the requirements 5 CCR 15495(a)?
7) How has stakeholder involvement been continued and supported? How has the involvement of these stakeholders supported improved outcomes for pupils, including unduplicated pupils, related to the state priorities?
Involvement Process
Impact on LCAP
South Bay USD used multiple ways to engage our community of stakeholders. The District's efforts began early in 2016.
After roughly a dozen community meetings, and several individual conversations, South Bay USD has identified common and reoccurring themes which are reflected in goals, actions, services, and resources. Common themes include:
* Access to 21st Century teaching materials and textbooks
* Continued professional development in Success for All
* Cooperative Learning professional development
* Classroom Management professional development (Love and Logic)
- February 12, 2016: Parent Stakeholder Survey
- February 12, 2016: Certificated Stakeholder Survey
- February 12, 2016: Classified Stakeholder Survey
- March 8, 2016: Parent & Community Stakeholder Meeting / Site Council @ South Bay Elementary
- April 5, 2016: CSEA Stakeholder Meeting @ Pine Hill Elementary
- April 7, 2016: SBTA Stakeholder Meeting @ South Bay Elementary
- April 19, 2016: Parent & Community Stakeholder Meeting / PTO @ South Bay Elementary
- April 26, 2016: English Learner Stakeholder Meeting @ South Bay Elementary
- May 4, 2016: South Bay USD Governing Board LCAP Draft @ Pine Hill Elementary
- June 22, 2016: South Bay USD Governing Board LCAP Adoption
- May 2, 2016: Student School Experience Survey completed by all 3rd and 5th grade students
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Annual Update:
South Bay USD engage in Annual Update meetings at the same meetings in which the Stakeholder Involvement Process occurred. Please reference above for specific dates.
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* Parenting Classes (Love and Logic)
* Continued emphasis on Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports & Getting Along Together
* Increase in academic supports, especially Tutoring w/ Alphie
* Explore supplemental writing materials for ELA
* Explore physical education professional development
Annual Update:
Stakeholders reviewed data which reflected nearly 100% of goals were met on the Annual Update. Stakeholder were pleased with the progress and direction that South Bay USD heading. Stakeholders agreed that a continued emphasis on Reading Instruction, coupled with a systematic approach to support students is a sound strategy to increase overall success. Stakeholders also agreed that setting a high bar of expectation is positive - even if you come up a little short, you still are likely to reach heights that would have not been realized with an easily obtained goal.
Section 2: Goals, Actions, Expenditures, and Progress Indicators
Instructions:
All LEAs must complete the LCAP and Annual Update Template each year. The LCAP is a three-year plan for the upcoming school year and the two years that follow. In this way, the program and goals contained in the LCAP align with the term of a school district and county office of education budget and multiyear budget projections. The Annual Update section of the template reviews progress made for each stated goal in the school year that is coming to a close, assesses the effectiveness of actions and services provided, and describes the changes made in the LCAP for the next three years that are based on this review and assessment.
Charter schools may adjust the table below to align with the term of the charter school's budget that is submitted to the school's authorizer pursuant to Education Code section 47604.33.
For school districts, Education Code sections 52060 and 52061, for county offices of education, Education Code sections 52066 and 52067, and for charter schools, Education Code section 47606.5 require(s) the LCAP to include a description of the annual goals, for all pupils and each subgroup of pupils, to be achieved for each state priority as defined in 5 CCR 15495(i) and any local priorities; a description of the specific actions an LEA will take to meet the identified goals; a description of the expenditures required to implement the specific actions; and an annual update to include a review of progress towards the goals and describe any changes to the goals.
To facilitate alignment between the LCAP and school plans, the LCAP shall identify and incorporate school-specific goals related to the state and local priorities from the school plans submitted pursuant to Education Code section 64001. Furthermore, the LCAP should be shared with, and input requested from, schoolsite-level advisory groups, as applicable (e.g., schoolsite councils, English Learner Advisory Councils, pupil advisory groups, etc.) to facilitate alignment between school-site and district-level goals and actions. An LEA may incorporate or reference actions described in other plans that are being undertaken to meet the goal.
Using the following instructions and guiding questions, complete a goal table (see below) for each of the LEA's goals. Duplicate and expand the fields as necessary.
Goal: Describe the goal:
When completing the goal tables, include goals for all pupils and specific goals for schoolsites and specific subgroups, including pupils with disabilities, both at the LEA level and, where applicable, at the schoolsite level. The LEA may identify which schoolsites and subgroups have the same goals, and group and describe those goals together. The LEA may also indicate those goals that are not applicable to a specific subgroup or schoolsite.
Related State and/or Local Priorities: Identify the state and/or local priorities addressed by the goal by placing a check mark next to the applicable priority or priorities. The LCAP must include goals that address each of the state priorities, as defined in 5 CCR 15495(i), and any additional local priorities; however, one goal may address multiple priorities.
Identified Need: Describe the need(s) identified by the LEA that this goal addresses, including a description of the supporting data used to identify the need(s).
Schools: Identify the schoolsites to which the goal applies. LEAs may indicate "all" for all schools, specify an individual school or a subset of schools, or specify grade spans (e.g., all high schools or grades K-5).
Applicable Pupil Subgroups: Identify the pupil subgroups as defined in Education Code section 52052 to which the goal applies, or indicate "all" for all pupils.
Expected Annual Measurable Outcomes: For each LCAP year, identify and describe specific expected measurable outcomes for all pupils using, at minimum, the applicable required metrics for the related state priorities. Where applicable, include descriptions of specific expected measurable outcomes for schoolsites and specific subgroups, including pupils with disabilities, both at the LEA level and at the schoolsite level.
The metrics used to describe the expected measurable outcomes may be quantitative or qualitative, although the goal tables must address all required metrics for every state priority in each LCAP year. The required metrics are the specified measures and objectives for each state priority as set forth in Education Code sections 52060(d) and 52066(d). For the pupil engagement priority metrics, LEAs must calculate the rates specified in Education Code sections 52060(d)(5)(B), (C), (D) and (E) as described in the Local Control Accountability Plan and Annual Update Template Appendix, sections (a) through (d).
Action/Services: For each LCAP year, identify all annual actions to be performed and services provided to meet the described goal. Actions may describe a group of services that are implemented to achieve the identified goal.
Scope of Service: Describe the scope of each action/service by identifying the schoolsites covered. LEAs may indicate "all" for all schools, specify an individual school or a subset of schools, or specify grade spans (e.g., all high schools or grades K-5). If supplemental and concentration funds are used to support the action/service, the LEA must identify if the scope of service is districtwide, schoolwide, countywide, or charterwide.
Pupils to be served within identified scope of service: For each action/service, identify the pupils to be served within the identified scope of service. If the action to be performed or the service to be provided is for all pupils, place a check mark next to "ALL."
For each action and/or service to be provided above what is being provided for all pupils, place a check mark next to the applicable unduplicated pupil subgroup(s) and/or other pupil subgroup(s) that will benefit from the additional action, and/or will receive the additional service. Identify, as applicable, additional actions and services for unduplicated pupil subgroup(s) as defined in Education Code section 42238.01, pupils redesignated fluent English proficient, and/or pupils subgroup(s) as defined in Education Code section 52052.
Budgeted Expenditures: For each action/service, list and describe budgeted expenditures for each school year to implement these actions, including where those expenditures can be found in the LEA's budget. The LEA must reference all fund sources for each proposed expenditure. Expenditures must be classified using the California School Accounting Manual as required by Education Code sections 52061, 52067, and 47606.5.
Guiding Questions:
1) What are the LEA's goal(s) to address state priorities related to "Conditions of Learning"?
2) What are the LEA's goal(s) to address state priorities related to "Pupil Outcomes"?
3) What are the LEA's goal(s) to address state priorities related to parent and pupil "Engagement" (e.g., parent involvement, pupil engagement, and school climate)?
4) What are the LEA's goal(s) to address any locally-identified priorities?
5) How have the unique needs of individual schoolsites been evaluated to inform the development of meaningful district and/or individual schoolsite goals (e.g., input from site level advisory groups, staff, parents, community, pupils; review of school level plans; in-depth school level data analysis, etc.)?
6) What are the unique goals for unduplicated pupils as defined in Education Code sections 42238.01 and subgroups as defined in section 52052 that are different from the LEA's goals for all pupils?
7) What are the specific expected measurable outcomes associated with each of the goals annually and over the term of the LCAP?
8) What information (e.g., quantitative and qualitative data/metrics) was considered/reviewed to develop goals to address each state or local priority?
9) What information was considered/reviewed for individual schoolsites?
10) What information was considered/reviewed for subgroups identified in Education Code section 52052?
11) What actions/services will be provided to all pupils, to subgroups of pupils identified pursuant to Education Code section 52052, to specific schoolsites, to English learners, to low-income pupils, and/or to foster youth to achieve goals identified in the LCAP?
12) How do these actions/services link to identified goals and expected measurable outcomes?
13) What expenditures support changes to actions/services as a result of the goal identified? Where can these expenditures be found in the LEA's budget?
8
GOAL 1:
Increase student success in ELA, Math and Science
Related State and/or Local Priorities:
1 X 2 X 3 X 4 5 6 7 8
COE only: 9 10 0
Local : Specify
Identified Need :
a) Increase the number of English Learners who achieve full English Language Proficiency
b) Increase the number of Reclassified Fluent English Proficient students on annual assessment
c) Increase the number of students who score "standard met" or above on annual ELA CAASPP assessment
d) Increase the number of students who score "standard met" or above on annual Math CAASPP assessment
e) Increase the number of students who score "standard met" or above on annual CST Science assessment
f) Increase the number of students who participate in Humboldt County Science Fair & History Day
g) Increase the number of students who identify as healthy and physically fit
h) Remain at 100% of highly qualified teaching staff
i) Increase the number of students, including students with disabilities, participating in an Introductory Music Appreciation class, as well as
Instrumental Music (grades 5-6)
j) Identify the % of time students are receiving Common Core aligned instruction
k) Provide Common Core aligned instructional materials
2015-16 CAASPP results will be pending during the 2016-17 SBUSD LCAP adoption process. SBUSD has recognized a need for a locally administered interim assessment to provide a metric for measuring student success. Currently, SBUSD is using Illuminate DnA, STAR Reading, KinderRoots & Roots Assessments to monitor student achievement. 2015-16 progress on mentioned local assessments indicates consistent growth across all grade-levels.
Schools: ALL
Goal Applies to:
Applicable Pupil Subgroups:
ALL
Expected Annual Measurable Outcomes:
LCAP Year 1: 2016-17
Metric
a) English Learners making yearly progress (CELDT)
b) Reclassified Fluent English Proficient (FREP)
c) Annual ELA proficiency results (CAASPP)
d) Annual Math proficiency results (CAASPP)
e) Annual Science proficiency results (CST)
f) 100% participation in either Humboldt County Science Fair and History Day
g) Annual STUDENT School Experience Survey
h) Personnel Records and SARCs
i) Enrollment in Introductory Music Appreciation, and enrollment in Instrumental Music
j) SBUSD STAFF Survey
k) Resolution of Sufficiency of Instructional Materials
Outcome
a) 45% of ELL students making progress (CELDT)
b) 15% RFEP
c) 2015-16 Results + 5%
d) 2015-16 Results + 5%
e) 2015-16 Results + 5%
f) 100% participation in either History Day or Science Fair
g) 75% of students identifying as healthy and physically fit (STUDENT School Experience Survey)
h) 100% Highly Qualified Teachers
i) 100% of 4th grade students; establish baseline for Instrumental Music Enrollment
j) 90% of teachers identify teaching CA Standards in greater than 50% of instructional minutes
k) All students will have access to common core aligned instructional materials, including students with disabilities and English Learners
* 2015-16 CAASPP results will be pending during the 2016-17 SBUSD LCAP adoption process. SBUSD has recognized a need for a locally administered interim assessment to provide a metric for measuring student success. Currently, SBUSD is using Illuminate DnA, as well as the Kindergarten Screening Tool as local assessments to measure academic achievement.
| Actions/Services | Scope of Service | Pupils to be served within identified scope of service |
|---|---|---|
| | SBUSD | X All |
| | | OR:------- Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient |
2016-17 Theme: RELATIONSHIPS
Other Subgroups: (Specify)
Professional Development: SFA Experienced Site Conference = $13,000; CELDT and EL workshops = $485
* Purchase V-Math for EXPLORE After School & Summer Program and District
| X All |
|---|
Expected Annual Measurable Outcomes:
LCAP Year 2: 2017-18
Metric
a) English Learners making yearly progress (CELDT)
b) Reclassified Fluent English Proficient (RFEP)
c) Annual ELA proficiency results (CAASPP)
d) Annual Math proficiency results (CAASPP)
e) Annual Science proficiency results (CST)
f) Humboldt County Science Fair and History Day
g) Annual STUDENT School Experience Survey
h) Personnel Records and SARCs
i) Enrollment in Introductory Music Appreciation and Instrumental Music
j) SBUSD STAFF Survey
k) Resolution of Sufficiency of Instructional Materials
Outcome
a) 45% of ELL students making progress (CELDT)
b) 15% RFEP
c) 2016-17 Results + 5%
d) 2016-17 Results + 5%
e) 2016-17 Results + 5%
f) 100% participation in either Humboldt County Science Fair and History Day
g) 80% of students identifying as healthy and physically fit (STUDENT School Experience Survey)
h) Remain 100% Highly Qualified Teachers
i) 100% of 4th grade students; establish baseline for Instrumental Music enrollment
j) 90% of teachers identify teaching CA Standards in greater than 50% of instructional minutes
k) All students will have access to common core aligned instructional materials, including students with disabilities and English Learners
* 2016-17 CAASPP results will be pending during the 2017-18 SBUSD LCAP adoption process. SBUSD has recognized a need for a locally administered interim assessment to provide a metric for measuring student success. Currently, SBUSD is using Illuminate DnA, STAR Reading, KinderRoots & Roots Assessments to monitor student achievement.
| Actions/Services | Scope of Service | Pupils to be served within identified scope of service |
|---|---|---|
| | SBUSD | X All |
| | | OR:------- Low Income pupils X English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient |
2017-18 THEME: Data & Collaboration
Other Subgroups: (Specify)
Professional Development: SFA Experienced Site Conference = $6,000; CELDT and EL workshops = $485
* Continued implementation of Success For All
| X All |
|---|
Expected Annual Measurable Outcomes:
LCAP Year 3: 2018-19
Metric
a) English Learners making yearly progress (CELDT)
b) Reclassified Fluent English Proficient (RFEP)
c) Annual ELA proficiency results (CAASPP)
d) Annual MATH proficiency results (CAASPP)
e) Annual SCIENCE proficiency results (CST)
f) Humboldt County History Day & Science Fair
g) Annual STUDENT EXPERIENCE SURVEY
h) Personnel Records and School Accountability Report Cards (SARCS)
i) Enrollment in Introductory Music Appreciation and Instrumental Music
j) SBUSD STAFF SURVEY
k) Resolution of Sufficiency of Instructional Materials
Outcome
a)45% of ELL students making progress (CELDT)
b)15% RFEP
c) 2017-18 results + 5%
d) 2017-18 results + 5%
e) 2017-18 results + 5%
f) 100% participation in either Humboldt County Science Fair and History Day
g) 80% of students identifying as healthy and physically fit
h) Remain 100% Highly Qualified Teachers
i) 100% of 4th grade students; establish baseline for Instrumental Music enrollment
j)100% of teachers identify teaching CA Standards in greater than 50% of instructional minutes
k) All students will have access to common core aligned instructional materials, including students with disabilities and English Learners
2017-18 CAASPP results will be pending during the 2018-19 SBUSD LCAP adoption process. SBUSD has recognized a need for a locally administered interim assessment to provide a metric for measuring student success. Currently, SBUSD is using Illuminate DnA, STAR Reading, KinderRoots & Roots Assessments to monitor student achievement.
| Actions/Services | Scope of Service | Pupils to be served within identified scope of service |
|---|---|---|
| | | X All |
| | | OR:------- Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: |
Classrooms
(Specify)
| X All |
|---|
| OR:------- Low Income pupils X English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify) |
= $6,000; CELDT and EL workshops = $485 SFA Point Coach = $32,820
* Provide additional tutoring program for struggling readers, including EL students
Instruction
The methods, practices, and delivery of instructional content are critical to the engagement and learning of every student. Differentiation and pacing all impact a student's ability to understand and learn. At South Bay USD instruction will center around the Cycle of Effective Instruction: Active Instruction, Teamwork, Assessment, and Celebration.
* replace certificated employee computers
* Hire and retain highly qualified teachers and Instructional staff
Begin replenishing technology in the classroom, (year 1 0f 3)
* Provide digital curriculum aligned with CCSS
* Continue establishing Core school day alignment with EXPLORE after school program
* ELL Coordinator
* Provide additional 4.5 hours of tutoring instruction for struggling readers, including struggling EL students; Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday of Team Alphie Tutors
X All
OR: -------
Low Income pupils
XEnglish Learners
Foster Youth
Redesignated fluent
English proficient
Other Subgroups:
(Specify)
Misc Supplies, Musical Instruments & Repairs, Athletics, and PE supplies = $12,237 (RS 1100); Textbooks aligned with CCSS = $24,000 (RS 6300) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Lottery $36,237
Misc Supplies including filters and bulbs for Epson Projectors, Spelling Bee Materials, Rosetta Stone, Learning A-Z, and supplies for Author's Festival workshop & tea (RS 3010) 40004999: Books And Supplies Title I $3,165
Starfall annual subscription 5800: Professional/Consulting Services And Operating Expenditures Title I $287
Special Education Supplemental Curriculum to align with CCSS (RS 3310) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Special Education $250
Immigrant Education Supplemental Curriculum to align with CCSS (RS 4201) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Title III $148
Certificated Instruction Salary & Benefits: 8.33 FTE teachers, Substitutes, and Certificated stipends (RS 0000) 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries Base $735,027
Certificated Instruction Salary & Benefits: 4.0 FTE teachers (20 each at 0.20 FTE) for the SFA program (RS 0001) 10001999: Certificated Personnel Salaries Supplemental and Concentration $329,635
Instructional Aides: 1.07 FTE salary and benefits (RS 0001) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Supplemental and Concentration $23,586
Explore Program worker(s) and GEACS program 0.46 FTE salary & benefits = $11,608 (RS 0010); 7.55 FTE Explore Program workers and subs salary & benefits = $184,626(RS 6010) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries After School Education and Safety (ASES) $196,234
Certificated Instruction Salary & Benefits: 0.20 FTE teachers (20 each at 0.01 FTE) for in-house professional development = $22,746 (RS 0218); and 7.11 FTE teachers salary & benefits = $594,053 (RS 1400) 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries Locally Defined $616,799
Classified Salaries & Benefits: 8.12 FTE Instructional Aides, sub aides, 0.90 FTE Tutors for SFA, and 1.12 FTE Librarians = $239,598 (RS 3010); 2.23 FTE Special Ed / Resource Aides
= $50,090 (RS 3310); 0.90 FTE Explore program workers = $19,027 (RS 5320); 0.15 FTE Instructional Aide = $3,403 (RS
| X All |
|---|
| OR:------- Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify) |
Complete a copy of this table for each of the LEA's goals. Duplicate and expand the fields as necessary.
GOAL 2:
Create a safe and welcoming learning environment where students attend and are connected to their school Related State and/or Local Priorities:
1 X 2 3 X 4 X 5 X 6 X 7 8
8
COE only: 9 10 0
Local : Specify
Identified Need :
a) To achieve or maintain school attendance rates that support student learning
b) To decrease chronic absenteeism (= 10% of total days enrolled)
c) To reduce the number of student referrals & suspensions
d) To maintain a 0% expulsion rate
e) To provide/maintain all students and staff with sufficient standards aligned instructional materials
f) To maintain a 0% middle school drop-out rate
Schools: ALL
Goal Applies to:
Applicable Pupil Subgroups:
ALL
Expected Annual Measurable Outcomes:
Metric
a) Attendance Rate
b) Chronic Absenteeism Rate
c) Student Referrals & Suspensions
d) Expulsion rate
e) Williams Act - Standards-Aligned Instructional Materials
f) Middle school drop-out rate
Outcome
a) 0.5% increase or 95.5% (as of May 1, 2017)
b) 0.5% decrease or 8.1% (as of May 1, 2017)
c) 5% decrease or 300 total disciplinary events as of first Monday in May, 2017 (PH = 131 referrals + 11 suspensions) (SB = 97 referrals + 60 suspensions)
d) Maintain a 0% expulsion rate
e) Williams Act - 100% - All students and staff are provided standards-aligned curriculum
f) Maintain a 0% drop-out rate
| Scope of Service | Pupils to be served within identified scope of service |
|---|---|
| SBUSD | X All |
| | OR:------- Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify) |
LCAP Year 1: 2016-17
LCAP Year 2: 2017-18
Expected Annual Measurable Outcomes:
Metric
a) Attendance Rate
b) Chronic Absenteeism Rate
c) Student Referrals & Suspensions
d) Expulsion rate
e) Williams Act - Standards-Aligned Instructional Materials
f) Middle school drop-out rate
Outcome
a) 0.2% increase or 95.7% (as of May 1, 2018)
b) 0.5% decrease or 7.6% (as of May 1, 2018)
c) 5% decrease or 285 total disciplinary events as of first Monday in May, 2018 (PH = 124 referrals + 10 suspensions) (SB = 92 referrals + 57 suspensions)
d) Maintain a 0% expulsion rate
e) Williams Act - SARC, 100% - All students and staff are provided standards-aligned curriculum
f) Maintain a 0% drop-out rate
| Actions/Services | Scope of Service | Pupils to be served within identified scope of service |
|---|---|---|
| | SBUSD | X All |
| | | OR:------- |
Focused on the needs of all students, including those with special needs, such as: Special Education, accessing student health services, and/or counseling and related services. These interventions will target student achievement in academics, social-behavioral, mental, and attendance:
* Continue to provide access to Intervention Study Teams
* Continue to provide access to Family Support Services
* Continue to provide access to Reading Intervention
* Continue implement and improve an Attendance Improvement Plan
* Continue to provide access to Explore After School Program
* Continue to offer K-8 Summer Program
* Continue to provide WiseSkills curriculum for the EXPLORE After School Program
* Continue to provide small group and individual student social skills groups
* Continue to implement Getting Along Together
* Continue to implement Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports best practices
* Continue Restorative Justice implementation
* Continue student created murals
* Continue Response to Intervention implementation
Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify)
$143,995
Attendance Team: Classified Salaries & Benefits 1.45 FTE (RS 0000) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Base $84,009
Attendance Team: Certificated Salaries & Benefits 0.19 FTE (RS 0001) 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries Supplemental and Concentration $15,406
Explore Site Leads 0.21 FTE and Summer Workers salary & benefits = $34,694 (RS 0010); Explore Site Leads 0.80 FTE = $31,591 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries After School Education and Safety (ASES) $66,285
Attendance Team: Certificated Salaries & Benefits 0.01 FTE in-house Professional Development = $1141 (RS 0218); 0.10 FTE FRC Coordinator and Love & Logic Stipend = $9457 (RS 9013); 0.10 FTE FRC Coordinator = $8273 (RS 9017) 10001999: Certificated Personnel Salaries Locally Defined $18,871
Explore Site Leads 0.36 FTE salary & benefits = $13,799(RS 5320) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Federal Funds $13,799
Family Resource Center & DHHS Classified Salaries & Benefits: 0.20 FTE = $5221 (RS 9013); 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Locally Defined $5,221
Getting Along Together = $1,100 (RS 0001); PBIS Positive Behavior Intervention Systems = $700 (RS 0018); FRC and supper program supplies = $66,436 (RS 5320) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Supplemental and Concentration $68,236
PBIS Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports services (RS 0018) 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures Locally Defined $7,350
Misc. Attendance / Environment Services including: Blackboard Connect, IRIS Ed, Read Naturally, Schoolwise, and Homeless Transportation (RS 3010) 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures Title I 7,931
Expected Annual Measurable Outcomes:
Metric
a) Attendance Rate
b) Chronic Absenteeism Rate
c) Student Referrals & Suspensions
d) Expulsion rate
e) Williams Act - Standards-Aligned Instructional Materials
f) Middle school drop-out rate
Outcome
a) 0.3% increase or 96% (as of May 1, 2018)
b) 0.6% decrease or 7% (as of May 1, 2018)
c) 5% decrease or 270 total disciplinary events as of first Monday in May, 2019 (PH = 118 referrals + 9 suspensions) (SB = 87 referrals + 54 suspensions)
d) Maintain a 0% expulsion rate
e) Williams Act - SARC, 100% - All students and staff are provided standards-aligned curriculum
f) Maintain a 0% drop-out rate
| Actions/Services | Scope of Service | Pupils to be served within identified scope of service |
|---|---|---|
| | | X All |
| | | OR:------- Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify) |
LCAP Year 3: 2018-19
Complete a copy of this table for each of the LEA's goals. Duplicate and expand the fields as necessary.
X
GOAL 3:
Engage parents/guardians, including parents of students with disabilities, English Learners, and community members to support success in school
Related State and/or Local Priorities:
1X2 3X4X5X6X7 8
8
COE only: 9 10 0
Local : Specify
Identified Need :
a) To increase the number of parents, including parents of students with disabilities, providing input about school conditions
b) To promote ongoing and open LCAP communication among all stakeholders
c) To increase parent including parents of students with disabilities knowledge and participation in their students' education
d) To increase awareness in the community of the various SBUSD activities/events that support student programs
e) To increase the percentage of parents who have active/valid phone and email notification accounts
f) To increase the number of parent and community volunteers
g) To provide/maintain a good or better school facility rating
Schools: ALL
Goal Applies to:
Applicable Pupil Subgroups:
ALL
Expected Annual Measurable Outcomes:
Metric
a) School Experience Survey
b) Pine Hill, South Bay, and South Bay USD Websites visits
c) Pine Hill and South Bay Facebook likes
d) Online Grading
e) Blackboard Connect
f) Volunteers
g) Facilities Inspection Tool
Outcome
a) 10% increase or TOTAL 122 parents/guardians surveys
b) 5% increase or TOTAL UNAVAILABLE - website data is currently unable to be retrieved. The District website, as well as the Pine Hill and South Bay website domain names are currently owned by a private party. South Bay USD will be either purchasing those domain names in 2016-17 or constructing a new website.
c) 5% increase or TOTAL 984 Facebook likes
d) 10% increase or TOTAL 123 families accessing online grading; including a 10% increase for families of students with disabilities
e) 10% increase or TOTAL 338 families receiving school message via Blackboard Connect; including a 10% increase
f) establish baseline
g) Facilities Inspection Tool - maintain a good or better facilities rating
| Actions/Services | Scope of Service | Pupils to be served within identified scope of service |
|---|---|---|
| | | X All |
LCAP Year 1: 2016-17
Books And Supplies Base $500
| SBUSD | X All |
|---|---|
| | OR:------- Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify) |
| SBUSD | X All |
| | OR:------- Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify) |
Classified salary & benefits: 0.37 SCIA aide (RS 3010) 20002999: Classified Personnel Salaries Title I $7,657
| SBUSD | X All |
|---|---|
| | OR:------- Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify) |
LCAP Year 2: 2017-18
Expected Annual Measurable Outcomes:
Metric
a) School Experience Survey
b) Pine Hill, South Bay, and South Bay USD Websites visits
c) Pine Hill and South Bay Facebook likes
d) Online Grading
e) Blackboard Connect
f) Volunteers
g) Facilities Inspection Tool
Outcome
a) 10% increase or TOTAL 122 parents/guardians surveys
b) 5% increase or TOTAL UNAVAILABLE - website data is currently unable to be retrieved. The District website, as well as the Pine Hill and South Bay website domain names are currently owned by a private party. South Bay USD will be either purchasing those domain names in
2016-17 or constructing a new website.
c) 5% increase or TOTAL 984 Facebook likes
d) 10% increase or TOTAL 123 families accessing online grading; including a 10% increase for families of students with disabilities
e) 10% increase or TOTAL 338 families receiving school message via Blackboard Connect; including a 10% increase
f) establish baseline
g) Facilities Inspection Tool - maintain a good or better facilities rating
| Actions/Services | Scope of Service | Pupils to be served within identified scope of service |
|---|---|---|
| | SBUSD | X All |
| | | OR:------- Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: |
(Specify)
0218); 0.28 FTE = $23,767 (RS 6500) 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries Special Education $48,235
| SBUSD | X All |
|---|---|
| | OR:------- Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify) |
| SBUSD | X All |
| | OR:------- Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent |
* Provide Resource Specialists
English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify)
| SBUSD | X All |
|---|---|
| | OR:------- Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify) |
Expected Annual Measurable Outcomes:
Metric
a) School Experience Survey
b) Pine Hill, South Bay, and South Bay USD Websites visits
c) Pine Hill and South Bay Facebook likes
d) Online Grading
e) Blackboard Connect
f) Volunteers
g) Facilities Inspection Tool
Outcome
a) 10% increase or TOTAL 122 parents/guardians surveys
b) 5% increase or TOTAL UNAVAILABLE - website data is currently unable to be retrieved. The District website, as well as the Pine Hill and South Bay website domain names are currently owned by a private party. South Bay USD will be either purchasing those domain names in 2016-17 or constructing a new website.
c) 5% increase or TOTAL 984 Facebook likes
d) 10% increase or TOTAL 123 families accessing online grading; including a 10% increase for families of students with disabilities
e) 10% increase or TOTAL 338 families receiving school message via Blackboard Connect; including a 10% increase
f) establish baseline
g) Facilities Inspection Tool - maintain a good or better facilities rating
| Actions/Services | Scope of Service | Pupils to be served within identified scope of service |
|---|---|---|
| | | All |
| | | OR:------- Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify) |
LCAP Year 3: 2018-19
Services including: Transportation-in-Lieu; Occupational Therapy; Autism Evaluations; Summer Speech services; Psych Assessments 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures Special Education $20,126
Family Resource Center (FRC) Supplies = $500 (RS 9013); FRC Supplies = $1550 (RS 9017); FRC Supplies and Outreach materials = $33 (RS 9026) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Locally Defined $2,083
FRC Services including: 2-1-1, North Coast Clinic, and Transportation in Lieu = $2790 (RS 9013), FRC Services = $2360 (RS 9017), Bus Tickets & Laundry Services = $15 (RS 9026) 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures Locally Defined $5,165
Adult and Career Education
* Provide Adult ESL classes
* Reestablish Basic Parenting Education
* Provide Regional Centers/Program
All
OR: -------
Low Income pupils
English Learners
Foster Youth
Redesignated fluent
English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify)
Certificated Salary & Benefits: ESL Parent Participation Stipend (RS 3010) 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries Title I $601
Classified Salary & Benefits: ESL Parent Participation Childcare (RS 3010) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Title I $1,782
Parent Education Supplies & Materials (RS 3010) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Title I $50
Love & Logic (or alternative) Parent Education Supplies & Materials (RS 9013) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Locally Defined $980
Other School Personnel Implementation and delivery of services for students. Includes all staff not directly associated with classroom instruction
* Provide SFA Coordinator
* Provide Counselor
* Provide Resource Specialists
* Provide Specialized Staff, as needed
* Explore Grant Writing/Funding Specialist
* Provide Family Resource Center Director
All
OR: -------
Low Income pupils
English Learners
Foster Youth
Redesignated fluent
English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify)
Certificated Salaries: 0.70 FTE salary and benefits (RS 0000) 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries Base $60,489
Classified: 0.04 FTE salary & benefits = $955 (RS 0000); 0.09 FTE = $2225 (RS 0001); MAA Coordinator hours = $109 (RS 0005) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Base $3,289
Certificated salary & benefits: 0.18 FTE ELD instruction and 0.50 FTE counselor = $60,308 (RS 0001); 0.04 FTE Professional Development = $3,792 (RS 0218) 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries Supplemental and Concentration $64,100
Coaches - Classified and Certificated Salaries & Benefits
2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Lottery $4,717
Certificated salary & benefits: 0.24 ELD instruction, 0.17 Resource, and 0.55 SFA Coordinator (RS 3010) 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries Title I $87,540
Classified salary & benefits: 0.37 SCIA aide (RS 3010) 2000-
Departments and District-Wide Supports
* Provide Food Services
* Provide Transportation
* Provide Facilities, Maintenance & Operations
* Provide District-Wide Supports such as:
* Utilities, Rentals, Insurance, Trash, Telephone, Other Related Expenditures
All OR:------- Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify)
2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Title I $7,870
Certificated salary & benefits: 0.10 SDC Teacher, 0.89 FTE Resource teachers = $70,722 (RS 3310); 0.68 SDC Teacher, 0.51 FTE Resource teachers = $119,989 (RS 6500) 10001999: Certificated Personnel Salaries Special Education $190,711
Classified salary & benefits: 5.01 FTE SCIA Aides, 0.65 Behavior Aide = $135,585 (RS 3310) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Special Education $135,585 Winter Food Baskets 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Locally Defined $1,000
Classified salaries & benefits: 0.52 FTE Custodians, Summer Custodial Crew, 1.00 FTE Business Manager, 0.35 FTE Admin Assistant, 0.13 FTE Office Assistant and additional hours = $185,501 (RS 0000); 0.70 FTE Bus Driver, 0.31 Coord MOT = $60,489 (RS 0210); 0.82 FTE Custodial, 0.08 Admin Asst = $26,258 (RS 6010); 0.57 FTE Custodial = $25,875 (RS 8150) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Base $298,123
Classified salaries & benefits: 0.67 Computer Tech Coordinator and 0.38 Tech Assistant (RS 0001) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Supplemental and Concentration $52,394
Classified salaries & benefits: 0.25 FTE Cafeteria/Supper = $15,446 (RS 5320); 0.10 FTE Admin Asst = $3,069 (RS 5820) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Federal Funds $18,515
District-wide supplies: Materials = $27,597 (RS 0000); Fuel = $6,987 (RS 0210); Computers = $1,650 (RS 0228); Building Supplies = $26,027 (RS 8150) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Base $62,261
District-wide Dues, Utilities, Rentals, Audit Services, Legal Fees, INS & Tele-Comm services = $270,843 (RS 0000); Insurance & Bus Repairs = $13,908 (RS 0210); Computer Repairs = $630 (RS 0228); Building Repairs and Equipment Rentals = $33,755(RS 8150) 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures Base $324,536
Transportation: Contract with HCOE = $45,882 (RS 0000); Bus Payment - 7 yr lease to own = $25,416 (RS 0210) 70007439: Other Outgo Base $71,298
Rentals & Maintenance Agreements, Co-Op Fees, HERC
Complete a copy of this table for each of the LEA's goals. Duplicate and expand the fields as necessary.
Annual Update
Annual Update Instructions: For each goal in the prior year LCAP, review the progress toward the expected annual outcome(s) based on, at a minimum, the required metrics pursuant to Education Code sections 52060 and 52066. The review must include an assessment of the effectiveness of the specific actions. Describe any changes to the actions or goals the LEA will take as a result of the review and assessment. In addition, review the applicability of each goal in the LCAP.
Guiding Questions:
1) How have the actions/services addressed the needs of all pupils and did the provisions of those services result in the desired outcomes?
2) How have the actions/services addressed the needs of all subgroups of pupils identified pursuant to Education Code section 52052, including, but not limited to, English learners, low-income pupils, and foster youth; and did the provision of those actions/services result in the desired outcomes?
3) How have the actions/services addressed the identified needs and goals of specific schoolsites and were these actions/services effective in achieving the desired outcomes?
4) What information (e.g., quantitative and qualitative data/metrics) was examined to review progress toward goals in the annual update?
5) What progress has been achieved toward the goal and expected measurable outcome(s)? How effective were the actions and services in making progress toward the goal? What changes to goals, actions, services, and expenditures are being made in the LCAP as a result of the review of progress and assessment of the effectiveness of the actions and services?
6) What differences are there between budgeted expenditures and estimated actual annual expenditures? What were the reasons for any differences?
Complete a copy of this table for each of the LEA's goals in the prior year LCAP. Duplicate and expand the fields as necessary.
X
| Original GOAL 1 from prior year LCAP: | Increase student success in ELA, Math and Science | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goal Applies to: | | | Schools: | |
| | | | Applicable Pupil Subgroups: | |
| Expected Annual Measurable Outcomes: | | Metric a) English Learners making yearly progress (CELDT) b) RFEP rate c) Annual ELA proficiency results (CAASPP) d) Annual Math proficiency results (CAASPP) e) Annual Science proficiency results (CST) f) Humboldt County Science Fair and History Day g) Annual STUDENT School Experience Survey h) Personnel Records and SARCS i) Student Enrollment in Introductory Music Appreciation j) SBUSD STAFF Survey of Common Core minutes on instruction k) Resolution of sufficiency of instructional materials Outcome a) 80% ELL students making yearly progress (CELDT) b) Increase RFEP rate to 15% of targeted students c) 2014-15 Benchmark of 38% + 5% increase (CAASPP) = 2015- 16 target of 43% d) 2014-15 Benchmark of 31% + 5% increase (CAASPP) = 2015- 16 target of 36% e) 2014-15 Benchmark of 51% + 5% increase (CST) = 2015-16 target of 56% f) 80% of (4th-6th) students complete Science Fair and History Day projects g) 70% of students identifying as healthy and physically fit (STUDENT School Experience Survey) h) 100% Highly Qualified Teachers i) 100% of all 4th grade students | | Actual Annual Measurable Outcomes: |
LCAP Year: 2015-16
| Budgeted Expenditures | |
|---|---|
| Implement SFA = $39,375 (RS 0001) TOTAL = 56,510 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures Supplemental and Concentration $39,375 | Professional Development 2015-16 Professional Development of SBUSD staff has been conducted in the following areas: Success for All - The Success for All approach is supported by extensive professional development and job- embedded coaching that enables teachers and school leaders to make the most of SFA's research-proven instructional approach. Supported by a SFA Foundation coaches, this professional development model guided South Bay USD to reach student achievement targets/goals. The GREATER coaching model provides support for teachers, and the facilitator. SFA professional development include: • SFA Overview (1 Day) • SFA, Curiosity Corner and KinderCorner Program Introduction Workshop (2 Days) • SFA, Reading Roots Program Introduction Workshop (2 Days) |
| Prof. Dev. Travel = $150 (RS 0000) 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures Base $150 | |
| PBIS = $9350 (RS 0018) Locally Defined $9,350 | |
| IRIS Assess = $245 (RS 3010), PBIS = $2053, Prof. Dev. Travel = $450 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures Title I $2,748 | |
| Prof. Dev. Travel = $3171 (RS 0010) 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures After School Education and Safety (ASES) $3,171 | |
* SFA Reading Wings Program Introduction Workshop (2 Days)
X All
OR: -------
Low Income pupils
English Learners
Foster Youth
Redesignated fluent English
proficient
Other Subgroups: (Specify)
X All
OR:
Low Income pupils
English Learners
Foster Youth
Redesignated fluent English proficient
Other Subgroups: (Specify)
Curriculum:
The design and implementation of curriculum is a critical component of the alignment of content and instruction to the CCSS. Critical components include:
* Adopt and Implement Success For All
* Purchase Supplemental Curriculum to CCSS
* Offer K-8 Summer Program
* Provide Curriculum Maps to teachers aligned to CCSS
* Adopt College Preparatory Mathematics Textbooks & Instructional Materials (Grade 6)
SFA - Success For All = $42,359 (RS 0001) ELA Adoption 4000- 4999: Books And Supplies Supplemental and Concentration $42,359
ASES materials to align w/CC = $2500 (RS 0010) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies After School Education and Safety (ASES) $2,500
Certificated Summer School sal/benes = $1141 (RS 0000) and $462 (RS 1400) 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries Base $1,603
Classified Summer School sal/benes = $23,369 (RS 0010) and $267 (RS 6010) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries After School Education and Safety (ASES) $23,636
Textbooks = $15,000 (RS 0212) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Base $15,000
Textbooks = $13,500 (RS 6300) and Handwriting w/o Tears = $1500 (RS 6300), 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Lottery $15,000
Renaissance, Starfall, Rosetta Stone, and Illuminate = $15,509 (RS 3010) 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures Title I
Curriculum:
ELA ADOPTION OF SUCCESS FOR ALL: In March of 2015 SBUSD applied for and was awarded a $100,000 Investing In Innovation (13) grant. In June of 2015, the South Bay USD Governing Board adopted SFA, a proven whole-school reform strategy that helps teachers help every child succeed in school. SFA is being used in every class with fidelity. Below are the curricular materials used throughout the program:
* Curiosity Corner kit 1-4
* Kinder Corner kit 1-4
* KinderRoots Shared Stories
* KinderCorner Math Kit
* Reading Roots-Interactive Teacher Materials Start-up kit
* STaR Book Set for RR1/RR4
* Reading Roots Color Shared Stories - Teacher Set (4-48)
* RR4 Student Materials
* Reading Roots Student Shared Stories - Class Set
* Reading Wings Start up kit for level 2-3
* Reading Wings Trade Book Software Kit
* Reading Wings Teachers Editions level 2-3
* Reading Wings Software Kit for level 2-3
* Savvy Clarifying Student Edition
Textbooks - SFA Curriculum for ELA Adoption (RS 0001) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Supplemental and Concentration $41,364
After School Materials aligned with Common Core (RS 0010) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies After School Education and Safety (ASES) $3,996
Classified Staffed Summer Program salary & benefits (RS 0010) NOTE: No certificated staffing costs required this year. 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries After School Education and Safety (ASES) $25,916
Textbooks - Math in Focus (RS 0212) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Base $18,050
Textbooks - Math Adoption - CPM (RS 6300) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Lottery $8,741
Starfall 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures Title I $270
Rosetta Stone 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Title I $515
Handwriting Without Tears (RS 0212) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Base $2,908
Special Education Materials (Super Duper & Pro-Ed) RS 3310 4000-4999:
$15,509
level 2-3
Books And Supplies Special Education $265
Purchases)
* SPED Instructional Materials
* Handwriting Without Tears
Scope of Service
SBUSD
X All
OR: -------
Low Income pupils
English Learners
Foster Youth
Redesignated fluent English proficient
Other Subgroups: (Specify)
Scope of Service
X All
OR:
Low Income pupils
English Learners
Foster Youth
Redesignated fluent English proficient
Other Subgroups: (Specify)
Instruction:
The methods, practices, and delivery of instructional content are critical to the engagement and learning of every student. Differentiation and pacing all impact a student’s ability to understand and learn. Below are critical elements of good instruction:
* Hire and retain highly qualified teachers and Instructional staff • Implement shifts in ELA & Math
* Provide additional of technology in the classroom
* Provide digital curriculum aligned with CCSS
* ELL with CCSS aligned materials
* Establish Core school day alignment with after school program
$1,689,482 certificated instruction sal/bene (RS 0000, 0218, 1400,3010, 4035) TOTAL = $2,136,602 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries $1,689,482
$386,487 classified inst. aide, crossing guard, and after school workers (RS 0000, 0001, 0218, 3010, 5820, 9013) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries $386,487
Computer Tech = $44,280 (RS 0001) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Supplemental and Concentration $44,280
Yancy Art Instruction = $2200 (RS 1100) 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures Lottery $2,200
Tech in Classroom: Computers = $8,254 (RS 3010, 5820) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies $8,254
Tech in Classroom: Software = $1775 (RS 0000) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Base $1,775
Instruction:
* all staff meets Highly Qualified Teacher standards
* 1:1 device implementation 1/3 complete
* 1:1 classroom charging stations 1/3 complete
*
SFA & EL Coordinator
* Classified Staffed Summer Program
* Classified Instructional Aides
* Classified After School Workers
* Computer Tech.
* Technology in the classroom: computers + software
* ART Instruction incorporated into regular day instruction. No longer required independent contractor services from Yancy.
Certificated instruction salaries and benefits (RS 0000, 0218, 1400, 4035, 3010, 3310, 6500) 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries $1,708,547
Classified Instructional Aides salary and benefits (RS 0000, 0001, 3010, 5820) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries $174,236
Classified After School Workers salary and benefits (RS 0010, 5320, 6010, 9017) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries $238,284
Computer Tech salary & benefits (RS 0001) 2000-2999: Classified
Personnel Salaries Supplemental and Concentration $48,198
Yancy Art Instruction - Did not use services this year. No Cost.
Tech in Classroom. Chromebooks & Carts for 1:1 Device Implementation = 5524 (obj 4445) and 2378 (obj 445x) = $7902 in RS 3010, and $2000 in RS 5820 4000-4999: Books And Supplies $9,902
Technology in the Classroom (RS 0000, 1100) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies $2,655
Tech in Classroom: Grade Level Carts, etc = $4124 (RS 3010) 4000- 4999: Books And Supplies Title I $4,124
Librarians Salary & Benefits (RS 3010) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Title I $26,561
Scope of Service
SBUSD
X All
OR: -------
Low Income pupils
English Learners
Foster Youth
Redesignated fluent English proficient
Other Subgroups: (Specify)
Scope of Service
X All
OR:
Low Income pupils
English Learners
Foster Youth
Redesignated fluent English proficient
Other Subgroups: (Specify)
Assessment
Assessment is an integral part of instruction of instruction, as it determines whether or not the goals of education are being met. Assessment affects decisions about grades, placement, advancement, instructional needs, and curriculum.
* Continue to provide Literacy Intervention Assessments
* Continue with Illuminate DnA benchmark assessments
* Continue with English Language Development Assessment
Companion, Educ. Data Systems, Learning A-Z, and Sunburst = $2015 (RS 3010, obj 4xxx) TOTAL = $9,494 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Title I $2,015
Blackboard Connect, Educ. Data Systems, Educ. Testing, Iris Ed, Starfall, and U of O Dibels = $2706 (RS 3010, obj 5800) 5800: Professional/Consulting Services And Operating Expenditures Title I $2,706
Schoolwise = $2824 (RS 3010, obj 5847) 5800: Professional/Consulting Services And Operating Expenditures Title I $2,824
Special Education Assessments i.e. CPI and Thinkwrite = $1650 (RS 3310) 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Special Education $1,650 SEIS = $299 (RS 6500) 5800: Professional/Consulting Services
Assessment:
Assessment needs addressed in 2015- 16 include:
* Illuminate DnA
* Renissance Learning (STAR READING)
* Iris Ed
* School Psychologists SPED Assessments
* CELDT & ADEPT
* CAASPP Stipend
* KinderRoots (SFA)
* Roots (SFA)
NOTE: Actual expenses exceeded projected expenses. District hired a Director of Special Education / School Psychologist, resulting in expanded assessments.
Illuminate DnA 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Title I $5,313
Renaissance Learning 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Title I $6,201
IRIS Ed PMT System assessment tool 5800: Professional/Consulting Services And Operating Expenditures Title I $249
Special Ed Assessment Tools (Ed Testing System, Ed Testing Systems, Companion, Sunburst) RS 3010 4000- 4999: Books And Supplies Title I $1,462
Ed Data System Services 5800: Professional/Consulting Services And Operating Expenditures Title I $200
School Psychologist Assessment Tools (Pearson, etc) RS 3310 & 6500 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Special Education $5,873
SEIS Fees (RS 6500) 5800: Professional/Consulting Services And Operating Expenditures Special
And Operating Expenditures Special Education $299
Education $334
CAASPP Coordinator Stipend & Benefits 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries Base $686
Scope of Service
SBUSD
X All
OR: -------
Low Income pupils English Learners
Foster Youth
Redesignated fluent English proficient
Other Subgroups: (Specify)
Scope of
Service
X All
OR:
Low Income pupils
English Learners
Foster Youth
Redesignated fluent English proficient
Other Subgroups: (Specify)
What changes in actions, services, and expenditures will be made as a result of reviewing past progress and/or changes to goals?
Professional development was heavy in Success for All in 2015-16. Next year, the professional development theme will be RELATIONSHIPS. Specific to the RELATIONSHIP theme will include the following topics: Color Code Personality Science; Getting Along Together, whole district social and emotional/behavioral curriculum; Cooperative Learning district wide strategies; Love and Logic training for the classroom and for families; Restorative Justice implementation; Technology, Google Apps For Education; In-House Teachers Observing Teachers.
Curriculum was also heavy in Success for All in 2015-16. Next year, SFA implementation will continue, but supplementary materials, such as V-MAth (individualized learning paths) and WiseSkills (character education) materials will be purchased and used in the after school programs. A summer reading challenge will be development and implemented in the summer of 2016, and staff will begin to research supplemental writing programs to complement SFA.
Instruction in 2016-17 will benefit from additional technology in the classrooms. SBUSD will be in year 2 of a 3 year phase in plan to become one device for each student. Also, an additional 4.5 hours of instructional aide time per day will be provided to run the Tutoring with Alphie program.
Assessments will continue as is in 2016-17.
Complete a copy of this table for each of the LEA's goals in the prior year LCAP. Duplicate and expand the fields as necessary.
Complete a copy of this table for each of the LEA's goals in the prior year LCAP. Duplicate and expand the fields as necessary.
8
such as: Special Education, accessing student health services, and/or counseling and related services. These interventions will target student achievement in academics, sociobehavioral, mental, and academic interventions include:
* Provide access to Family Support Teams
* Provide access to Family Support Services
* Provide access to ELA and Math Interventions
* Establish an Attendance Improvement Plan
* Provide access to Explore After School Program
$362 (RS 3010), Read Naturally = $814 (RS 3010), Spec Ed Intervention - Thinkwrite = $500 (RS 6500), Pscyh Services = $5985 (RS 6500), Play & Learn = $4896 (RS 6500), iPads for students with disabilities = $2250 (RS 1100), Imm. Ed materials = $279 (RS 4201), Healthy Start social skills group = $9227 (RS 9017) $300,573
weekly with School Counselor
* Intervention Study Team; met weekly (2 students per week) with participation from administration, school counselor, social worker, teacher, and parent. The team utilized the Solutions Sheet as a brainstorming tool to keep the meeting focused and positive. A single goal was created to address underlying barrier to student achievement. Each case was reviewed and monitored for progress.
* Attendance Team: met monthly to analyze school attendance data. The Attendance Team created a Attendance Improvement Plan which included, daily phone calls to absent students, truancy letters to chronically absent families, referrals to the Intervention Study Team, home visits, and a school-wide attendance incentive plan.
Cooperative Culture Team: met monthly. Participation included administration, school counselor, certificated and classified staff. Getting Along Together curriculum was implemented district-wide. All staff was trained in how to support Getting Along Together procedures. Two weeks of GAT lessons were taught by homeroom teacher at beginning of the year. Class Council meetings were held weekly. Data was analyzed to identify and design appropriate behavioral interventions.
EXPLORE After School and Summer Program: EXPLORE provided a quality
Education $2,207
Small Group & Social Skills / Family Resource Center salary & benefits (RS 9013) 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Locally Defined $4,985
Intervention Study Team salary & benefits RS 0000 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries Base $92,886
Attendance Team classified salary & benefits RS 0000 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Base $90,763
Attendance Team certificated salary & benefits RS 0000,0001 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries Base $81,869
Attendance Team: Bus Tickets = 1418 (RS 3010), Schoolwise = 3170 (RS 3010), Bus Tickets = $108 (RS 9017) 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures Title I $4,696 Cooperative Culture: Getting Along Together 4000-4999: Books And Supplies Supplemental and Concentration $7,600
EXPLORE Program Staff Development (RS 0010) 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures After School Education and Safety (ASES) $3,171
Read Naturally 5800: Professional/Consulting Services And Operating Expenditures Title I $814
after school and summer program. A variety of of enriching activities was provided, including: arts & crafts, games, sports, quiet study time, homework assistance, and 'free" time.
Tutoring with Alphie: Implemented in the 2nd Trimester at Pine Hill, Instructional Aides, (Team Alphie Tutors) work with a group of struggling readers at a computer. During Team Alphie activities, partners take turns completing activities and providing feedback on each other's performance.
The Team Alphie Tutor circulates among the teams, providing support and conducting quick assessments to verify student mastery of the reading objective. Approximately 25 students received 20 minutes of Tutoring w/ Alphie daily.
Special Education Resources: purchased on an as needed basis to support student achievement.
Scope of Service
SBUSD
X All
OR: -------
Low Income pupils
English Learners
Foster Youth
Redesignated fluent English proficient
Other Subgroups: (Specify)
Scope of Service
X All
OR:
Low Income pupils
English Learners
Foster Youth
Redesignated fluent English proficient
Other Subgroups: (Specify)
What changes in actions, services, and expenditures will be made as a result of reviewing past progress and/or changes to goals?
In 2016-17, South Bay USD will provide our EXPLORE after school and summer program with WiseSkills character education. WiseSkills focuses on exploring a monthly character attribute. EXPLORE will begin paint murals around campuses of both Pine Hill and South Bay Elementary Schools. Also, Restorative Justice implementation will begin, as well as both behavioral and academic Response to Intervention implementation. Nichole Dollarhide, South Bay USD Director of Special Education & School Psychologist will begin employment. And an additional 4.5 hours of staff for Tutoring with Alphie.
Complete a copy of this table for each of the LEA's goals in the prior year LCAP. Duplicate and expand the fields as necessary.
Complete a copy of this table for each of the LEA's goals in the prior year LCAP. Duplicate and expand the fields as necessary.
X
Glasses, clothes, and laundry =
Involvement Team, the ground work
| Scope of Service | SBUSD | | Scope of Service |
|---|---|---|---|
| | | | X All |
| | | | OR: Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify) |
| | | ELD Instructor = $2000 (RS 4203), Daycare for Adult ESL class = $1700 (RS 3010) $3700 | Adult provided ESL classes were unable to take place in 2015-16 do to staffing limitations. A Parenting Education survey was |
benefits (RS 9013 & 9017) 20002999: Classified Personnel Salaries Locally Defined $25,089
childcare for Adult classes 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries Title I $50
| Scope of Service | SBUSD | | Scope of Service |
|---|---|---|---|
| | | | X All |
| | | | OR: Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify) |
| | | Curriculum Coach = $22,536 (RS 3010) ELD Teacher = $22,567 (RS 3010 & 4203), MAA Coordinator / Healthy Start / Grant Specialist = $83,786 (RS 5320, 6010, 9013, and 9017), Special Ed Teachers = $153,555 (RS 3310, 6500), Counselor = $72,135 (RS 0001), Speech Therapist = $23,315 (RS 6500), Resource = $47,639 (RS 6500) $425,533 | Success for All Facilitator was established to coach and support teacher growth; develop program expertise; assess growth and aggressively place students in reading groups; monitor student and oversee trimesterly data collection; serve as a member of the Leadership Team. Success for All Solutions Coordinator/Counselor/Family Resource Director was established to provide guidance to the Schoolwide Solutions teams; oversee the implementation of district-wide component essentials; develop program expertise; participate on the Leadership team. Resource Specialist provide guidance to students with an Individual Education Plan |
Special Circumstance Instructional Aides were provided to assist students in meeting their Individual Education Plan goals.
Personnel Salaries Supplemental and Concentration $69,602
| Scope of Service | SBUSD | | Scope of Service |
|---|---|---|---|
| | | | X All |
| | | | OR: Low Income pupils English Learners Foster Youth Redesignated fluent English proficient Other Subgroups: (Specify) |
| | | Food service salary & benes= $123,548 (FU13), M&O = $121,961 (RS 0000, 6010, 8150), Transportation salary & benes = $54,687 (RS 0210), Tech Coordinator = $44,280 (RS 0001), Clerical salary & benes = $93,753 (RS 0000, & 5820), Utilities = $71,554 (RS 0000), Copier Rental = $17,455 (RS 0000, 3010), Postage Machine Rental = $1077 (RS 0000), Agreements = $8745 (RS 0000 & 3010), Insurance = $41,271 (RS 0000 & 0210), Trash = $12,310 (RS 0000), Telephone = $25,912 (RS 0000 & 6010), OTHER: Audit, Legal, Axiom, Co-Op, Dues, Printing, Lightspeed, INS Contract, Security System = $74,145 (RS 0000, 0210, 3010, 5820, & 6010) $706,028 | Food Services provided an increase fresh food made daily in our kitchen. Facilities, Maintenance & Operations improvements including painting, etc. at each school was evident. An additional bus was adding to the daily routine to accommodate an increase in number of students requesting transportation. Additional district-wide supports were supplied as needed. |
Operating Expenditures $100,972
Copier Rental = $19,855 (RS 0000, 3010)
Postage Machine Rental = $1,065 (RS 0000)
Agreements = $6,789 (RS 0000, 3010)
Insurance = $38,731 (RS 0000, 0210)
5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures $66,440 OTHER: Audit, Legal, Axiom, Co-Op Dues, Printing, Lightspeed, INS Contract, Security System = (RS 0000, 0210, 5820, 6010) 5800: Professional/Consulting Services And Operating Expenditures $60,677
Scope of Service
SBUSD
X All
OR: -------
Low Income pupils
English Learners
Foster Youth
Redesignated fluent English proficient
Other Subgroups: (Specify)
Scope of Service
X All
OR:
Low Income pupils
English Learners
Foster Youth
Redesignated fluent English proficient
Other Subgroups: (Specify)
What changes in actions, services, and expenditures will be made as a result of reviewing past progress and/or changes to goals?
Stakeholders requested a simplified metrics for Goal #3. Each of the following areas will serve as metrics A-E in 2016-17: School Experience Survey; Website; Social Media; Online Grading; Blackboard Connect. Include metric F, Volunteers, and establish a baseline. Purchase student planners for grades 4-6. The District and Elementary School websites will be updated to include accessible parent & community resources/information. South Bay USD Governing Board Policies and related Administrative Regulations will also be include and accessible on our websites.
Website data has been unable to be retrieved. Currently, the South Bay USD's website domain is owned by a private party. In 2016-17 the District websites will come under school ownership
Complete a copy of this table for each of the LEA's goals in the prior year LCAP. Duplicate and expand the fields as necessary.
Section 3: Use of Supplemental and Concentration Grant funds and Proportionality
A. In the box below, identify the amount of funds in the LCAP year calculated on the basis of the number and concentration of low income, foster youth, and English learner pupils as determined pursuant to 5 CCR 15496(a)(5).
Describe how the LEA is expending these funds in the LCAP year. Include a description of, and justification for, the use of any funds in a districtwide, schoolwide, countywide, or charterwide manner as specified in 5 CCR 15496.
For school districts with below 55 percent of enrollment of unduplicated pupils in the district or below 40 percent of enrollment of unduplicated pupils at a schoolsite in the LCAP year, when using supplemental and concentration funds in a districtwide or schoolwide manner, the school district must additionally describe how the services provided are the most effective use of funds to meet the district's goals for unduplicated pupils in the state and any local priority areas. (See 5 CCR 15496(b) for guidance.)
Total amount of Supplemental and Concentration grant funds calculated:
$613,328
For 2016-17
SBUSD's supplemental and concentration grant dollars total $613,328. All services will be district-wide as our unduplicated population is greater than 55%. As a district with an unduplicated count of 62.35% of our total enrollment, we are utilizing supplemental and concentration funds district-wide. Both qualitative (surveys, meetings) and quantitative (assessment data, state scores) data support the use of the LCFF expenditures district-wide. Details of fiscal year 2016-17 expenditures for unduplicated students, and new investments are provide as follows:
16/17 = RS 0001 Staffing Expenditures (counselor, aides, technology assistant, assistant principal, SFA instruction, tutors), Success For All, and contributions to the following Resources: RS 0218 for Professional Development of certificated staff in the areas of ELA, Math, etc., RS 0010, 5320, and 6010 for the After School Program staff to provide care and supervision, RS 0212 for textbooks and instructional materials, RS 3010 for English Language Development instruction, and RS 0018 for the PBIS program.
B. In the box below, identify the percentage by which services for unduplicated pupils must be increased or improved as compared to the services provided to all pupils in the LCAP year as calculated pursuant to 5 CCR 15496(a).
Consistent with the requirements of 5 CCR 15496, demonstrate how the services provided in the LCAP year for low income pupils, foster youth, and English learners provide for increased or improved services for these pupils in proportion to the increase in funding provided for such pupils in that year as calculated pursuant to 5 CCR 15496(a)(7). An LEA shall describe how the proportionality percentage is met using a quantitative and/or qualitative description of the increased and/or improved services for unduplicated pupils as compared to the services provided to all pupils.
19.1 %
2
For 2016-17
South Bay Union School District's proportionality percentage of 19.12% results in a total LCFF Supplemental allocation of $613,328. The increased funds will be used to improved services and increase achievement in SBUSD's unduplicated population. South Bay Union School District will offer a variety of programs and supports specifically for low income students, English Learners and Foster Youth. These district –wide programs and supports will include:
1. Both district sites will support site level work targeting low income, EL and Foster Youth (e.g. English Language Instructional Specialist, Aides, after school interventions and behavior aides).
2. Continued implementation of Success For All (SFA), a district-wide reading program focusing on "attendance, parental and family involvement, positive school culture, family needs, health issues, and individual student support and intervention to make sure that students are in school and ready to learn." This is a proven whole-school reform strategy that helps teachers and staff help every child in the school succeed.
3. Access to technology to provide greater learning opportunities. This will include computer carts for TK-6 grade-levels.
4. District-wide summer program.
5. Staff training in Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS).
Section 4: Expenditure Summary
| Total Expenditures by Funding Source | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funding Source | 2015-16 Annual Update Budgeted | 2015-16 Annual Update Actual | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2016-17- 2018-19 Total |
| All Funding Sources | 3,879,320.00 | 3,845,651.00 | 4,563,001.00 | 4,589,996.00 | 4,603,867.00 | |
| | 3,631,138.00 | 2,740,683.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | |
| After School Education and Safety (ASES) | 29,307.00 | 74,350.00 | 262,975.00 | 265,374.00 | 268,827.00 | |
| Base | 18,528.00 | 352,493.00 | 1,848,365.00 | 1,901,404.00 | 1,920,941.00 | |
| Federal Funds | 526.00 | 61,799.00 | 355,909.00 | 360,344.00 | 364,772.00 | |
| Locally Defined | 9,350.00 | 46,472.00 | 672,284.00 | 709,425.00 | 708,078.00 | |
| Lottery | 17,200.00 | 8,741.00 | 31,854.00 | 36,904.00 | 40,954.00 | |
| Other | 0.00 | 0.00 | 120,485.00 | 54,466.00 | 22,077.00 | |
| Special Education | 4,449.00 | 235,887.00 | 415,565.00 | 420,431.00 | 425,808.00 | |
| Supplemental and Concentration | 138,206.00 | 233,487.00 | 705,392.00 | 690,378.00 | 699,093.00 | |
| Title I | 29,926.00 | 91,739.00 | 123,736.00 | 124,485.00 | 126,182.00 | |
| Title II | 0.00 | 0.00 | 26,288.00 | 26,637.00 | 26,987.00 | |
| Total Expenditures by Object Type | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Object Type | 2015-16 Annual Update Budgeted | 2015-16 Annual Update Actual | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2016-17- 2018-19 Total |
| All Expenditure Types | 3,879,320.00 | 3,845,651.00 | 4,563,001.00 | 4,589,996.00 | 4,603,867.00 | |
| | 1,556,265.00 | 716.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | |
| 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries | 1,691,085.00 | 2,301,064.00 | 2,475,261.00 | 2,509,314.00 | 2,543,463.00 | |
| 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries | 454,403.00 | 1,062,000.00 | 1,230,284.00 | 1,243,888.00 | 1,257,819.00 | |
| 4000-4999: Books And Supplies | 94,677.00 | 114,845.00 | 255,630.00 | 273,361.00 | 269,384.00 | |
| 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures | 77,061.00 | 267,916.00 | 522,179.00 | 451,689.00 | 438,741.00 | |
| 5800: Professional/Consulting Services And Operating Expenditures | 5,829.00 | 99,110.00 | 2,615.00 | 2,631.00 | 2,647.00 | |
| 6000-6999: Capital Outlay | 0.00 | 0.00 | 10,000.00 | 40,000.00 | 20,515.00 | |
| 7000-7439: Other Outgo | 0.00 | 0.00 | 67,032.00 | 69,113.00 | 71,298.00 | |
| Total Expenditures by Object Type and Funding Source | | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Object Type | Funding Source | 2015-16 Annual Update Budgeted | 2015-16 Annual Update Actual | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2016-17- 2018-19 Total |
Total Expenditures by Object Type and Funding Source
2015-16 2015-16
| | | 1,546,915.0 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Locally Defined | 9,350.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| | Special Education | 0.00 | 716.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries | | 1,689,482.0 0 | 1,708,547.0 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries | Base | 1,603.00 | 240,518.00 | 1,025,495.0 0 | 1,039,729.0 0 | 1,054,004.0 0 |
| 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries | Locally Defined | 0.00 | 0.00 | 618,995.00 | 627,450.00 | 635,929.00 |
| 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries | Special Education | 0.00 | 226,492.00 | 234,936.00 | 238,105.00 | 241,284.00 |
| 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries | Supplemental and Concentration | 0.00 | 81,300.00 | 482,507.00 | 489,135.00 | 495,780.00 |
| 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries | Title I | 0.00 | 44,207.00 | 87,040.00 | 88,258.00 | 89,479.00 |
| 1000-1999: Certificated Personnel Salaries | Title II | 0.00 | 0.00 | 26,288.00 | 26,637.00 | 26,987.00 |
| 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries | | 386,487.00 | 791,490.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries | After School Education and Safety (ASES) | 23,636.00 | 67,183.00 | 258,475.00 | 260,874.00 | 263,272.00 |
| 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries | Base | 0.00 | 90,763.00 | 377,764.00 | 382,021.00 | 386,267.00 |
| 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries | Federal Funds | 0.00 | 0.00 | 336,361.00 | 340,495.00 | 344,615.00 |
| 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries | Locally Defined | 0.00 | 37,519.00 | 15,559.00 | 15,401.00 | 15,606.00 |
| 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries | Lottery | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4,617.00 | 4,667.00 | 4,717.00 |
| 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries | Special Education | 0.00 | 0.00 | 153,670.00 | 155,693.00 | 157,710.00 |
| 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries | Supplemental and Concentration | 44,280.00 | 48,198.00 | 74,448.00 | 75,215.00 | 75,980.00 |
| 2000-2999: Classified Personnel Salaries | Title I | 0.00 | 26,847.00 | 9,390.00 | 9,522.00 | 9,652.00 |
| 4000-4999: Books And Supplies | | 8,254.00 | 12,557.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| 4000-4999: Books And Supplies | After School Education and Safety (ASES) | 2,500.00 | 3,996.00 | 4,500.00 | 4,500.00 | 4,500.00 |
| 4000-4999: Books And Supplies | Base | 16,775.00 | 20,958.00 | 61,446.00 | 62,049.00 | 62,761.00 |
Total Expenditures by Object Type and Funding Source
2015-16 2015-16
| 4000-4999: Books And Supplies | Lottery | 15,000.00 | 8,741.00 | 27,237.00 | 32,237.00 | 36,237.00 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4000-4999: Books And Supplies | Other | 0.00 | 0.00 | 15,804.00 | 15,804.00 | 15,804.00 |
| 4000-4999: Books And Supplies | Special Education | 3,650.00 | 6,138.00 | 6,226.00 | 5,526.00 | 5,326.00 |
| 4000-4999: Books And Supplies | Supplemental and Concentration | 42,359.00 | 48,964.00 | 100,132.00 | 84,723.00 | 86,028.00 |
| 4000-4999: Books And Supplies | Title I | 6,139.00 | 13,491.00 | 17,327.00 | 16,620.00 | 16,857.00 |
| 4000-4999: Books And Supplies | Title III | 0.00 | 0.00 | 148.00 | 148.00 | 148.00 |
| 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures | | 0.00 | 167,412.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures | After School Education and Safety (ASES) | 3,171.00 | 3,171.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1,055.00 |
| 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures | Base | 150.00 | 254.00 | 306,628.00 | 308,492.00 | 326,096.00 |
| 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures | Federal Funds | 526.00 | 61,799.00 | 19,548.00 | 19,849.00 | 20,157.00 |
| 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures | Locally Defined | 0.00 | 8,953.00 | 14,920.00 | 14,820.00 | 14,820.00 |
| 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures | Lottery | 2,200.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures | Other | 0.00 | 0.00 | 104,681.00 | 38,662.00 | 6,273.00 |
| 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures | Special Education | 500.00 | 0.00 | 20,393.00 | 20,757.00 | 21,128.00 |
| 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures | Supplemental and Concentration | 51,567.00 | 20,396.00 | 46,305.00 | 39,305.00 | 39,305.00 |
| 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures | Title I | 18,257.00 | 5,931.00 | 9,704.00 | 9,804.00 | 9,907.00 |
| 5000-5999: Services And Other Operating Expenditures | Title III | 690.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Object Type | Funding Source | 2015-16 Annual Update Budgeted | 2015-16 Annual Update Actual | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5800: Professional/Consulting Services And Operating Expenditures | | 0.00 | 60,677.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| 5800: Professional/Consulting Services And Operating Expenditures | Special Education | 299.00 | 2,541.00 | 340.00 | 350.00 | 360.00 |
| 5800: Professional/Consulting Services And Operating Expenditures | Supplemental and Concentration | 0.00 | 34,629.00 | 2,000.00 | 2,000.00 | 2,000.00 |
| 5800: Professional/Consulting Services And Operating Expenditures | Title I | 5,530.00 | 1,263.00 | 275.00 | 281.00 | 287.00 |
| 6000-6999: Capital Outlay | Base | 0.00 | 0.00 | 10,000.00 | 40,000.00 | 20,515.00 |
| 7000-7439: Other Outgo | Base | 0.00 | 0.00 | 67,032.00 | 69,113.00 | 71,298.00 |
LOCAL CONTROL AND ACCOUNTABILITY PLAN AND ANNUAL UPDATE APPENDIX
For the purposes of completing the LCAP in reference to the state priorities under Education Code sections 52060 and 52066, the following shall apply:
(a) "Chronic absenteeism rate" shall be calculated as follows:
(1) The number of pupils with a primary, secondary, or short-term enrollment during the academic year (July 1 – June 30) who are chronically absent where "chronic absentee" means a pupil who is absent 10 percent or more of the schooldays in the school year when the total number of days a pupil is absent is divided by the total number of days the pupil is enrolled and school was actually taught in the total number of days the pupil is enrolled and school was actually taught in the regular day schools of the district, exclusive of Saturdays and Sundays.
(2) The unduplicated count of pupils with a primary, secondary, or short-term enrollment during the academic year (July 1 – June 30).
(3) Divide (1) by (2).
(b) "Middle School dropout rate" shall be calculated as set forth in California Code of Regulations, title 5, section 1039.1.
(c) "High school dropout rate" shall be calculated as follows:
(1) The number of cohort members who dropout by the end of year 4 in the cohort where "cohort" is defined as the number of first-time grade 9 pupils in year 1 (starting cohort) plus pupils who transfer in, minus pupils who transfer out, emigrate, or die during school years 1, 2, 3, and 4.
(2) The total number of cohort members.
(3) Divide (1) by (2).
(d) "High school graduation rate" shall be calculated as follows:
(1) The number of cohort members who earned a regular high school diploma [or earned an adult education high school diploma or passed the California High School Proficiency Exam] by the end of year 4 in the cohort where "cohort" is defined as the number of first-time grade 9 pupils in year 1 (starting cohort) plus pupils who transfer in, minus pupils who transfer out, emigrate, or die during school years 1, 2, 3, and 4.
(2) The total number of cohort members.
(3) Divide (1) by (2).
(e) "Suspension rate" shall be calculated as follows:
(1) The unduplicated count of pupils involved in one or more incidents for which the pupil was suspended during the academic year (July 1 – June 30).
(2) The unduplicated count of pupils with a primary, secondary, or short-term enrollment during the academic year (July 1 – June 30).
(3) Divide (1) by (2).
(f) "Expulsion rate" shall be calculated as follows:
(1) The unduplicated count of pupils involved in one or more incidents for which the pupil was expelled during the academic year (July 1 – June 30).
(2) The unduplicated count of pupils with a primary, secondary, or short-term enrollment during the academic year (July 1 – June 30).
(3) Divide (1) by (2).
01-13-15 [California Department of Education]
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IN THE COMPETITION APPEAL TRIBUNAL
[2003] CAT 6
New Court Carey Street London WC2A 2JT
Before:
B E T W E E N:
Wednesday 16 April 2003
The President (Chairman)
SIR CHRISTOPHER BELLAMY
PROFESSOR JOHN PICKERING
__________
DR ARTHUR PRYOR CB
FREESERVE.COM PLC
Applicant v.
DIRECTOR GENERAL OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS Respondent supported by
BT GROUP PLC
Intervener
Mr James Flynn (instructed by Messrs Baker & McKenzie) appeared for the applicant.
Mr John Turner (instructed by The Director of Legal Services (Competition) Office of Telecommunications) appeared for the respondent.
Ms Kelyn Bacon (instructed by the Head of Competition and Public Law, BT Retail) appeared for the Intervener.
JUDGMENT ON COSTS
___________
Transcribed from the shorthand notes of Harry Counsell & Co. Cliffords Inn, Fetter Lane, London EC4A 1LD Telephone 020 7269 0370 __________
Case No. 1007/2/3/02
THE CHAIRMAN: We have given a judgment today in the case of Freeserve.Com.PLC -v- the Director General of Telecommunications. In that judgment the Tribunal has set aside paragraphs 15 to 17 of the Director's Decision of 21 May 2002 rejecting a complaint by Freeserve of 26 March 2002 and dismissed the remainder of the appeal.
Paragraphs 15 to 17 of the Director's Decision, which have been set aside, deal essentially with that part of Freeserve's complaint that alleged that BT's pricing policy was in breach of the Chapter II prohibition imposed by the Competition Act 1998, in particular as regards an allegation of predatory pricing. It is, however, to be noted that the Tribunal's judgment is to set aside paragraphs 15 to 17 in their entirety.
Two consequential issues have arisen which we have had to consider this morning.
The first issue is what order, if any, the Tribunal should make about the further conduct of this case and, in particular, whether "the matter" should be remitted to the Director pursuant to paragraph 3(2)(a) of Schedule 8 of the 1998 Act. That is the first issue.
The second issue is the issue of costs.
We deal first with the further progress of this case. As the Tribunal noted in its judgment at paragraph 262, "there have been developments in the market in question since the Director took the contested decision. It is also open to Freeserve to submit a new and, if so advised, more fully supported complaint". It was in those circumstances that we have heard further argument as to what order, if any, we should make under paragraph 3(2)(a) of Schedule 8.
The Director in that connection has proposed that instead of the Tribunal remitting the matter, he, the Director, should give an undertaking that he would provide within two months a fuller statement of his reasoning on the issue of predatory pricing in the Decision. That indeed was the principal matter upon
which the Tribunal found that the Director's reasoning was insufficient.
The statement by the Director of his reasoning on this issue would take the form of a further decision on Freeserve's complaint which would, at least in principle, then be appealable to the Tribunal. The Director's suggestion is focused on the principal finding that the Tribunal made, which was indeed that on the issue of predatory pricing the reasoning in the Decision was insufficient.
It became apparent, however, that at least at this stage the Director is, or at least was, predisposed to reach the same conclusion that he had originally reached in rejecting Freeserve's complaint, namely, that BT had not infringed the Act by reason of its pricing policy, in particular by reason of any allegation of predatory pricing. The Director's view was that the only omission on his part was in relation to the sufficiency of his reasoning in support of his conclusion on predatory pricing and his suggestion is that he should now provide that reasoning.
In our view, that suggestion, although it does have its positive elements, does not, at least in that form, meet the requirements of the present case. The position, as we see it, is that paragraphs 15 to 17 of the Decision have been set aside. That is to say, the Decision is set aside on the pricing issues raised in Freeserve's complaint. In principle it is now for the Director to reconsider "the matter" ab initio.
Without expressing a definitive view, we think provisionally that the "matter" within the meaning of paragraph 3(2)(a) of Schedule 8 is Freeserve's original complaint as elaborated in its section 47 letter of 20 June 2002 and in its submissions to the Tribunal. It is now for the Director, therefore, to reconsider the issues raised by paragraphs 15 to 17 of the Decision and most notably, but not necessarily exclusively, the allegation of BT's predatory pricing. He should, in our
view, reconsider that matter, not only in the light of the considerations that he originally had in mind but (as he submits) failed to express in the Decision, but also in the light of the Tribunal's judgment and the material that is now before him, including the material that has been produced in the course of these proceedings.
The issue that needs to be addressed in that reconsideration is the Director's response to Freeserve's allegation that BT's pricing policy infringes the Chapter II prohibition. That may involve the Director distinguishing between margin squeeze, cross-subsidy and predatory pricing and expressing the Director's view as to the criteria to be applied in relation to these inter-related but distinct concepts. The Tribunal has not at this stage expressed any view on the merits of the case one way or the other.
It is apparent that the focus of the reconsideration will necessarily be the issue of predatory pricing, because that is the issue upon which the Tribunal's judgment focuses, but the relationship between predatory pricing and other concepts involved may need to be explained in any further decision that the Director chooses to take.
Such a reconsideration by the Director should, in our view, in principle be recommenced with an open mind. Despite the mental gymnastics that may possibly be involved, the Director should not, in our view, approach his reconsideration with a closed mind with a view to inevitably reaching the same conclusion.
As a safeguard on that point specifically, it seems to us that in the light of the further development of the argument that has taken place since the original decision, the parties involved, Freeserve and BT, should have an opportunity to put before the Director any material they wish before the Director reaches a concluded view. If on a reconsideration the Director were to come to the provisional view that, after all,
there may have been an infringement of the Chapter II prohibition then, at least in normal circumstances, the Director would follow the procedure provided under the Act in accordance with section 26, namely the procedure that applies in the case of possible infringements. If, on the other hand, the Director should reach the provisional view that there is no infringement, the suggestion has been helpfully and responsibly made on behalf of the Director that before coming to a final conclusion he should put before Freeserve and BT the draft conclusions to which he was provisionally minded to come and give those parties the opportunity to submit any observations that they may have.
We think that is a sensible suggestion. It is in fact quite close to the procedure customarily followed by the European Commission when rejecting complaints under Article 6 of Regulation 99 EC.
If the matter reaches that stage, the Director will then put his draft conclusions to Freeserve and BT and they will be able to put their arguments to the Director, drawing his attention to any matters they may think are relevant, including the usefulness or otherwise of the Director taking into account in his decision on the original facts of the case any subsequent developments which may throw light on the original circumstances. It will, of course, be for the Director to decide what is relevant and what is not. It will also be for the Director to take into account the relevant or otherwise of the forthcoming regime to be shortly introduced by European directives and the relationship, if any, between those directives and the issue that the Director may be considering in reaching his new decision.
The fact that, in our view, Freeserve and BT should have the opportunity to comment on any provisional conclusions the Director proposes to reach in possibly rejecting the complaint, does not of course preclude either Freeserve or BT from putting any matters to the
Director that they think fit before he reaches his provisional conclusions. That is entirely a matter for them. We see no basis upon which they could be prevented from putting such observations to the Director if they wish to do so.
It is true that if this procedure results in a certain amount of further time being taken, it may be that longer than the original two months suggested by the Director is necessary. We think it is more important for a sound conclusion to be reached on these issues than it is for the matter to be rushed.
What we would propose is that any new decision should be taken by the Director within three months of today's date, but there should be a general liberty to apply to the Tribunal for further time if that proves necessary. The Tribunal is likely to be sympathetic to any such applications.
The procedure that we have indicated does not preclude the Director, if he so wishes and if he thinks it is a matter of sufficient importance, to publish his provisional views before he reaches a final conclusion more generally so as to satisfy himself that all considerations have been taken into account.
On this part of the matters we have to decide, therefore, there will be no order under paragraph 3(2)(a) of Schedule 8 of the Act on the Director's undertaking to adopt a further decision on the pricing issues raised in Freeserve's complaint of 26 March 2002 and dealt with in paragraphs 15 to 17 of the Director's Decision of 21 May 2002, the Director undertaking that before rejecting Freeserve's complaint, were he minded to do so provisionally, he would give Freeserve and BT an opportunity to comment on any provisional conclusion that he was minded to reach on that matter. Any further decision by the Director should be taken within three months of today's date, but with liberty to apply for further time. There will be a general liberty to apply under the Tribunal's order.
That takes us on to the second issue, which is the issue of costs in this case.
The position as to costs is that Freeserve asks for the costs of the preliminary issue as to the admissibility of the appeal, which was decided in an interim judgment of the Tribunal dated 11 November 2002 in accordance with a similar order that the Tribunal made in its decision in the Bettercare case. Freeserve submits that this is a stronger case than Bettercare, however, in that in Bettercare the applicant did not in the end recover its costs of the main proceedings, there being no order for costs.
Freeserve submits that it should have an order in its favour of at least 50 per cent of the costs of the main proceedings on the grounds that it has been substantially successful in the main proceedings and that its ability to put further matters to the Director before the proceedings commenced was rather closed off by the attitude that the Director took in response to Freeserve's section 47 letter. Freeserve resists the suggestion by BT that there should be any order for costs in relation to an application for discovery that was on the agenda of the Tribunal for a case management conference that was held on 17 December 2002 on the grounds that the work that BT did in that connection was something of an overreaction and based on a misunderstanding of Freeserve's position. The general rule, says Freeserve, is that interveners, such as BT, should normally bear their own costs.
The Director's position is that there should be no order for costs in relation to the proceedings looked at as a whole, albeit that the Director was unsuccessful at the stage of the admissibility judgment. The Director draws attention to Rule 26(2) of the Tribunal's Rules, which invites the Tribunal to bear in mind the conduct of the parties. The Director says that if one takes into account Freeserve's conduct, namely, that they were pursuing, until a late stage, an application that the
Tribunal itself take an infringement decision, that they were pursuing an application for disclosure that was subsequently abandoned, that their original application had a number of poorly argued points, that they never submitted the fresh evidence that had been promised, and that they have lost on the substance, according to the Tribunal's judgment, on at least three, if not four, major issues and had only succeeded on one issue, the predatory pricing issue, then there should be no order for costs in relation to the proceedings as a whole, bearing also in mind that, even on the admissibility point, the Director did give voluntary disclosure and his approach to that issue was of the highest standard. Although, says the Director, he could claim a proportion of his costs, he thinks the right order is that there should be no order for costs.
BT, as the intervener, first of all claims costs associated with the preparation for the discovery item that was on the Tribunal's agenda for the case management conference of 17 December 2002. BT's essential case is that it was led to believe by letters from Freeserve of 9 and 11 December that there would be a substantial application for disclosure made at that case management conference. BT therefore had to do a lot of work to meet that possibility but that it became apparent, either on the morning of the case management conference or at the case management conference, that the application had been abandoned and that therefore BT's work was fruitless.
As regards the substance of the appeal, BT asks for three-quarters of its costs, the costs of its intervention, on the grounds that such an order would generally reflect the degree of success that BT has achieved on its intervention.
We have been helpfully referred to the Tribunal's decision of 29 January in the GISC case, 2002 CompAR 141 at paragraphs 75 to 81, which dealt with the costs of the intervener, GISC in that case. BT submits in the
light of that judgment that there is no rule that interveners should not get their costs. They are in principle, in a proper case, entitled to the costs, says BT. BT further relies on the judgment of Mr Justice Munby of 10 May 2002 in the case of John Smeaton on behalf of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children -v- The Secretary of State for Health, with Schering Health Care Limited as an intervener. In that case Mr Justice Munby made an order for the interveners to have their costs on the grounds essentially set out at paragraph 436 of that judgment to the effect that the intervener's interests were directly affected, that the intervener required separate representation and that its evidence was distinctive and useful and did not duplicate the submissions of the Secretary of State. BT invites us to draw an analogy with that case.
On the issue of costs, we have come to the conclusion, first, that Freeserve should have its costs on the issue of admissibility dealt with in the Tribunal's judgment of 11 November 2002. Without recapitulating the matters set out in that judgment, it was the case that in a letter of 8 July 2002 the Director denied that he had expressed a view on whether there had been an infringement of the Chapter II prohibition and indeed whether he had taken any decision under the Competition Act 1998. In the course of those proceedings it was quite quickly conceded by the Director that the matter had in fact been considered under the Competition Act, contrary to the view set out in the letter of 8 July 2002, and it was shortly afterwards conceded that at least in relation to one issue, the telephone census point, there was an appealable decision within the meaning of section 46 of the Act.
In the Tribunal's view, in the light of the earlier judgment in Bettercare, it was virtually inevitable that the Tribunal would come to the view that the remainder of the Director's decision in the present case was an
appealable decision and in those particular circumstances, which are specific to the facts of this case, we think that Freeserve should have its costs of the admissibility issue. We say advisedly and deliberately the costs of the admissibility issue. It is not a question, as in Bettercare, of all the costs up to the date of the admissibility judgment, because quite a few costs will have been incurred before that point in preparing arguments on the substance. It is only in relation to the admissibility issue as a discrete issue that we give Freeserve its costs of that issue.
On the question of the costs of the main proceedings, we take, first, the costs as between Freeserve and the Director.
It is true that Freeserve has succeeded on what was probably the main issue in the case, at least to the extent that the Tribunal found it necessary to set aside paragraphs 15 to 17 of the Decision on grounds of insufficiency of reasoning. On the other hand, we do see force in the Director's criticisms of Freeserve's presentation of its case in various respects - the abandonment of the request for the Tribunal to take an infringement decision, the abortive application for disclosure, a number of weak points taken on behalf of Freeserve and of course the fact that on at least three of the main points raised by Freeserve, namely crossmarketing, advance notice and the telephone census - the Director has been successful and the appeal has been rejected.
Taking those points in the round, we think the right order is that the costs should lie where they fall as between Freeserve and the Director and that therefore there should be no order as to costs as between Freeserve and the Director, other than an order that Freeserve should have its costs on the admissibility issue. Whether those costs are to be taxed or assessed, we will invite the parties in a moment to comment.
As regards the situation of BT as the intervener,
10
we are mindful of the dictum of Lord Lloyd of Berwick in Bolton Metropolitan District Council v. Secretary of State [1995] 1 WLR 1176 at page 1178E, where the learned Lord of Appeal said, on the question of costs, as follows:
"What then is the proper approach? As in all questions to do with costs, the fundamental rule is that there are no rules. Costs are always in the discretion of the court, and a practice, however widespread and long-standing, must never be allowed to harden into a rule."
He then carried on to set out certain propositions.
In expressing views on the position of BT, we are not allowing the indications we are about to give to harden into a rule, but they do express our view in general on interveners in the situation of BT.
The general position, as far as the Tribunal is concerned, is that the costs of an intervention will very often in justice be allowed to lie where they fall.
It is true that in some cases it will be proper to make orders either in favour of or against interveners, but in our view there should be no general expectation that a successful intervener is necessarily entitled to its costs.
In the specific case of a sector such as telecommunications, where there may be interveners who are likely to be regularly appearing before the Tribunal, we think the general practice is likely to be to allow the costs of the intervention to lie where they fall. We can see that if costs were awarded in every case where a complaint was brought against the dominant enterprise and there was later an unsuccessful appeal, the constant risk of having to pay the costs of the dominant enterprise could affect the balance of the system of appeal under the Act. As we said at paragraph 78 in GISC, a Tribunal differently constituted, in that particular circumstance:
"We see force in the argument that it would be in
11
accordance with the objectives of the Act if the rule as to interveners were broadly cost-neutral." In this particular case, however, it is unnecessary to further elaborate the general principle because, as with the position in respect of the main parties, BT has, as it were, been successful on some issues but unsuccessful on other issues, as we have already indicated. Bearing that in mind, we think the right general order is that BT should bear its own costs, because in any event it has been partially successful and partially unsuccessful and those two elements, in our view, cancel each other out.
That leaves the particular issue pressed by BT of the costs associated with Freeserve's apparent application for disclosure that was to be heard at the case management conference of 17 December 2002 but was abandoned shortly before that conference, leaving BT to incur, in BT's submission, unnecessary costs.
It is true that in this respect Freeserve's letters of 9 and 11 December in particular may well have led BT to believe that it would face a substantial application for disclosure at the forthcoming case management conference and did lead BT to do work that was in the event not immediately useful. However, having considered this aspect of the matter carefully, we have come to the view that we should not make an exception for the disclosure issue to the order that we propose to make about BT's costs. In our view there is a limit to the extent to which this Tribunal should "salami-slice" different issues and this particular issue is not one that we feel should be treated discretely from the generality of the costs incurred in this case. We suspect that the work done, although not of immediate value in the present case, will in general be of value to BT in the general context of the Act, and indeed in the further proceedings that may or may not eventuate in this particular case, so it is not, in our view, work that, from BT's point of view, has been wasted. In
12
relation, therefore to BT's intervention, there will be 1 no order for costs. 2 That concludes the matters that we need to decide. 3 MR TURNER: I am grateful, Sir. You did leave outstanding 4 the issue of assessment of costs. 5 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, I did. 6 MR TURNER: I do not know whether that is something on 7 which you would like to be addressed now by the parties, 8 or whether that can wait? 9 THE CHAIRMAN: Well if you have something you were able to 10 tell us immediately, we might as well deal with it, but 11 if you prefer to deal with that in writing, I am equally 12 happy to deal with it in writing. 13 MR TURNER: Mr Flynn has just indicated that he would be 14 happy, if not agreed, for a summary assessment by the 15 Tribunal. For our part we were going to say that we 16 feel it would be more cost-effective, if the Tribunal 17 felt it appropriate, for the Tribunal itself to 18 undertake an assessment, as is possible under Rule 19 26(3), rather than to send it off for a detailed 20 assessment to a taxing master of the Supreme Court. 21 THE CHAIRMAN: In that case, the costs, if not agreed, will 22 be assessed by the Tribunal, subject to any other order 23 the Tribunal may make. 24 Very well. Thank you all very much indeed. 25 (The hearing concluded) 26 __________ 27
13
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LLP – Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of
Innovation project
N° 2013-1-IT1-LEO05-04046
Awareness and Dissemination Plan
Deliverable no. D.14
Author(s)/Organisation(s):
Carlo Cipolloni, Claudia Delfini (ISPRA)
Work Package / Task:
WP6 Dissemination and Exploitation
Task 6.1
References:
Project Description
Short Description:
This document serves as guidelines for communication and dissemination activities; it defines key messages, target audiences and methods of communication and tools.
The document is intended for both internal and external readers. Its dissemination level is Public.
Keywords:
Awareness, dissemination, communication
Revision History:
| Revision | Date | Author(s) | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| V0.1 | 16/01/2014 | Carlo Cipolloni, Claudia | Draft | First version general editing |
| | | Delfini (ISPRA) | | |
| V0.2 | 18/02/2014 | Milva Carbonaro, Laura | Draft | First revision and |
| | | Olivas (GISIG) | | comments |
| V2.0 | 25/02/2014 | Carlo Cipolloni (ISPRA) | Final version | Final draft version editing |
| | | and all partners | | and dissemination |
| | | | | contributions by all partners |
| V2.1 | 14/03/2014 | Carlo Cipolloni (ISPRA), | Revised final version | Final version revision with |
| | | Anders Östman | | comments by Anders |
| | | (Novogit), Danny | | Östman and Danny |
| | | Vandenbroucke (KU | | Vandenbroucke |
| | | Leuven) | | |
| V2.2 | 10/06/2014 | Carlo Cipolloni (ISPRA) | Revised final version | Final version second |
| | | | | revision upon Quality |
| | | | | Assessment by the |
Table of Contents
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LLP – Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project N° 2013-1-IT1-LEO05-04046
Executive summary
The objective of LINKVIT WP6 is to disseminate project results and knowledge in order to raise awareness within the largest pool of potential users and user communities.
This document outlines the Awareness and Dissemination Plan of the LINKVIT project. It serves as guidelines for communication and dissemination activities; it defines key messages, target audiences and methods of communication and tools. In the course of the project, this plan will be continuously reviewed and an updated version will always be made available.
The document is intended for both internal and external readers. Its dissemination level is Public. This document is under the responsibility of Work Package 6 (WP6). Amendments, comments and suggestions should be sent to the WP6 work package leader.
The plan defines the project‟s key messages, target audiences and presents the different methods of communication. The plan serves as blueprint to assure that the targeted audiences are addressed. The plan encompasses the three main steps of dissemination (Awareness – Understanding – Action/Participation). It also includes a work plan and metrics that will measure dissemination success.
The Plan is divided into internal and external communication. Internal communication is addressing consortium members and partners while external communication is addressing potential stakeholders. For each target groups specific communication tools are specified. A brand will be also developed to give an identity to the project. Dissemination materials such as newsletter, multilingual brochure, poster, leaflet and power point presentations will be produced to guarantee a wide dissemination, as well as rules and a communication flow will be set up to coordinate the participation of the partners during events and workshops. All the dissemination materials will be distributed during events and workshops organized by partners. Dissemination material will be prepared and continuously updated along the project according to the Awareness and Dissemination Plan and project needs. In particular, four electronic Newsletters will be published; the first will explain the objectives, activities and partners involved in the project, the others will update the public at large on the progress of the initiative. The newsletters address all stakeholders and final users.
The plan will be produced within the first semester of the project and updated after 12 months.
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1. Introduction
1.1. Deliverables and Milestones
Awareness and Dissemination plan to serve as the guideline for dissemination and liaison activities;
to define key messages, target audiences (scientific communities) and methods of communication.
The Awareness and Dissemination plan also contains metrics to measure dissemination success.
Production of printed and multimedia promotional material to support the project dissemination and promotion activity.
Given the importance of the LINKVIT public web site as a communication tool, it is a milestone to be delivered in the early months of the project with preliminary version ready within 2 months. WP6 will
continuously review the web site including technical progress description.
1.2. Context
INSPIRE brings a revolution in geoinformation (GI), both for public administration and other GI stakeholders. This Directive establishes a conceptual/technical framework for distributed management and access to GI and for a Spatial Data infrastructure (SDI) supporting environmental policies and the associated Directives or activities with impact on environment.
INSPIRE has specified Implementing Rules (IR) binding for the Member States, covering areas such as Metadata, Data Specifications, Network Services, Data and Service Sharing, and Monitoring and Reporting. INSPIRE is in the adoption and implementation phase by the Member States, a process that will last several years (at least till 2020) with a strong impact on GI operators.
Specific skills are required for a successful implementation, such as data management and harmonization, web services, standards, as well as knowledge about methods, procedures and tools for INSPIRE compliancy. These are key issues in all the public and private organizations working in GI and its wide applications.
The INSPIRE State of Play states the need to train experts for the INSPIRE and NSDI implementation: "The organization of a good INSPIRE eLearning offer at the European level by relevant European stakeholders and the exchange of experts among NSDI, should be envisaged". A number of European projects already achieved results for INSPIRE, exploiting them to produce eLearning training content to transfer the acquired knowledge and support improvement in GI skills. It‟s the right time to exploit and rationalize this for a wider GI audience of new users, scattered at national level.
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Knowledge into Vocational Innovative
Training
LLP – Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project N° 2013-1-IT1-LEO05-04046
1.3. Outline
The document Awareness and Dissemination plan is organised as follows:
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION presents the Awareness and Dissemination deliverables and milestones and gives the document outline.
Chapter 2 AWARENESS AND DISSEMINATION STRATEGY presents the communication and dissemination objectives, introduces the target audiences and synergies and informs about the LINKVIT visual identity.
Chapter 3 AWARENESS AND DISSEMINATION PLAN deals with the activities that will be carried out to raise awareness within the user communities, to promote and deepen the understanding of the project and promote action and participation.
Chapter 4 METRICS lists a set of data, which will be collected and analysed to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the communication and dissemination activities.
Chapter 5 ANNEXES gives additional valuable information.
2. Awareness and dissemination strategy
2.1. Communication and dissemination objectives
The LINKVIT awareness and dissemination strategy is designed to foster the creation of a worldwide community of individuals and institutes interested to apply technologies to provide and use data available. The major communication and dissemination objectives are:
a) To diffuse information and raise awareness about the LINKVIT project to the user communities.
b) To apply the LINKVIT Training Framework at targeted beneficiaries in the Italian and EU context, both at public administration, entrepreneurial and academic level.
c) To create the conditions for the sustainability of the initiative after the project conclusion, as a business line of activity supporting skill acquisition within public and private organisations operating in the context of INSPIRE and other related European Directives.
d) To define a Master of Science for INSPIRE and the promotion of an „INSPIRE Driver's License‟.
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LINKVIT-Leveraging Inspire
Knowledge into Vocational Innovative
Training
LLP – Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of
Innovation project
N° 2013-1-IT1-LEO05-04046
N° 2013-1-IT1-LEO05-04046
2.1.1. Organisation
The WP6 team is composed of representatives from several organisations and is coordinated by a core team composed of staff from the ISPRA (WP leader). The team ensures that knowledge protection, sharing and dissemination are properly managed. The team is also committed to disseminate information to all the potential stakeholders.
2.1.2. Partners
All project representatives contribute to the dissemination activities, for instance by producing documents, by regularly documenting their work via the LINKVIT web site, by editing and providing source material for the social network, by presenting LINKVIT in conferences, and by promoting the benefits of the project to a broader community, by distributing material about LINKIVIT through web sites, magazine, participation in events and liaison with other projects and initiatives (in the appendix see an example of contribution).
To be sure that the dissemination actions are homogenous, WP6 will provide to all the partners some guidelines for the communication strategy in their respective countries, in order to identify the potential level of demand for LINKVIT products.
The Awareness and Dissemination Plan will be defined in agreement with all partners, in order to propose a common identity for the presentation and dissemination of the project results and to identify common tasks of where to address the added value of training material produced by the project; a permanent updating activity will be leaded along the entire duration of the project.
The Consortium is composed by experts in GI, with a long record of experience in EU, also in Training and Education. The partners are:
1. GISIG, Co-ordinator, Association with more than 20 years experience in EU projects, will give its experience in management, its expertise in training initiatives in EU projects (e.g. VESTA-GIS,
HUMBOLDT, NATURE-SDIplus)
2. ISPRA, Italian Environmental Agency, national reference institution for INSPIRE, for the links with regional and local Authorities and support in organization of training actions in Italy and provider of contents from "One Geology for Europe".
3. EPSIT, SME, INSPIRE expert and Vice Chairman of CEN/TC 287, coordinator of smeSPIRE (for involvement of SMEs in INSPIRE). Support in training transfer and exploitation towards SMEs.
4. IUAV, Primary University of Architecture and Planning, first Italian organizer of GIS curricular courses, with a long experience in Masters and distance learning (www.didatticaericercasit.it); will be in charge for Quality Management and promote a Master in INSPIRE, contributing to the impact on the Italian VET system.
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N° 2013-1-IT1-LEO05-04046
5. PLUS, Reference University for GI and for UNIGIS (www.unigis.net), worldwide network of educational institutions and distance learning in GI; will coordinate the harmonization of the Training Framework, provide training modules and expertise for the Learning Paths, guaranteeing impact on institutional VET activities in Austria and at European level
6. KU LEUVEN, Its Spatial Application Division (SADL) carries out national & international research, consultancy and education in GI, Earth Observation and Spatial Data Infrastructures. KU Leuven is very active in the field of INSPIRE developments and knowledge transfer through academic teaching and vocational training; it forms a strong link to the higher education community through its participation in AGILE, the Association of GI Laboratories in Europe. KU Leuven will lead WP2, analysis of existing training material.
7. NOVOGIT, Novogit is an international leading expert in INSPIRE and Spatial Data Infrastructures. Its staff has been involved in several "INSPIRE" projects at the EU level as well at national level. It will provide training modules and support the implementation of the training framework.
2.1.3. Target audiences and synergies
Different groups of stakeholders will be connected to the LINKVIT project. Considering the characteristics and needs of the target audiences, the Awareness and Dissemination strategy will ensure that the appropriate and most effective methods of communication and dissemination will be used.
2.1.4. Audience
An extremely wide range of organisations in commercial and public sector domains use geographic and spatial data (i.e. nature conservation, species distribution or geological information).
These target audiences need information about the project results and progress, as well as the European Commission that needs to monitor on-going progress and achievement of results.
We have identified 3 profiles of users as follows:
Technicians in Public administrations and Companies, for a daily use of learnt techniques and tools
Decision makers, for a vision of what a sound use of techniques and tools can lead to
Postgraduates, for faster access to work opportunities
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2.1.5. LINKVIT key messages
LINKVIT will help people to gain new skills, knowledge and qualifications, and boost the overall competitiveness of the European labour market.
This will allow employed people to be re-qualified on new competence required by INSPIRE, postgraduates to simplify the access to GI-labour market with a post-degree specialization, and professional profiles within
public and private sector (both technicians and decision makers) to make more informed decisions about the resources underlying Europe.
2.2. LINKVIT visual identity
The LINKVIT visual identity contributes to the overall perception of the project and its uniform impression.
The identity is important to make recognizable the project, its documentation, the developed products and services at a glance. Poor design of publications and material will have a bad effect on the LINKVIT project.
The visual identity includes elements that will represent the project in a distinct and consistent way (logos, colours, templates, photos, etc.). Some elements are already available and others will be produced and
provided during the course of the project.
2.2.1. Project logo and colours
The logo is simple and distinctive. There are no formal restrictions regarding the use of the logo for internal purposes by LINKVIT partners. Nevertheless it is requested not to edit, squeeze, distort or rotate it. The
colours should not be altered; most details about the features relate to logo are described in section 5.6.
2.2.2. Key Elements
To emphasize the educational and training concept in the field of geology the logo contains the "University cap” and several papers displayed as a layers.
2.2.3. Templates
The "Slide presentation template" (in PowerPoint format), designed just after the project‟s official kick-off meeting, is an attempt to keep it simple yet elegant and is both used for internal and external presentations. The elements present in the slide are:
logo of LINKVIT on the top left side
logo of Lifelong Learning Programme on the top right side
The presentations will be for both general public and scientific and technical audiences and will describe consortium, project objectives, challenges and benefits and work progress. Templates can be downloaded from the partner area: http://www.linkvit.eu/?wpdmact=process&did=MTE4LmhvdGxpbms=
3. Communication and Dissemination Plan
In order to fulfil the Awareness and Dissemination objectives, some activities and tools have been selected and organised following three main steps (note that activities and tools may contribute to one or more steps).
The three steps are to raise awareness within the largest pool of potential users and user communities, promote and to deepen the understanding of the LINKVIT project and to promote the use of the project results.
3.1. Communication and Dissemination for Awareness
The target audience needs to be aware of the work of the LINKVIT project. The offer of information will be frequent and dynamic. All partners are involved and are requested to participate in different activities.
3.1.1. Web site
The LINKVIT public web site (www.linkvit.eu) is the primary dynamic information source and will provide access to all project information and materials. The web site is for external users. It is supporting result dissemination of results. It will include background information, list news and events, links to partners‟ web sites, press releases, articles, radio, video, publications, etc. It will also include search functionalities.
Partners plays a leading role in promoting public exposure and awareness of the project by providing links to the LINKVIT public web site from their institutional web sites.
The web site will be structured in 2 parts, where one is addressed to public at large, containing information needed to understand the project and its context and a second part a restricted area, accessible by the project partners and where strategic internal documents are uploaded.
The web site also includes a section dedicated to the Training Framework with the description of the Training packages and the procedures to register and access the eLearning modules.
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LINKVIT-Leveraging Inspire
Knowledge into Vocational Innovative
Training
LLP – Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of
Innovation project
N° 2013-1-IT1-LEO05-04046
N° 2013-1-IT1-LEO05-04046
3.1.2. Newsletter
WP6 publishes on web site a periodical thematic newsletter that is electronically distributed. The newsletters are downloadable.
In particular, four electronic Newsletters will be published, the first will explain the objectives, activities and partners involved in the project, the others will update the public at large on the progress of the initiative. The newsletters are addressed to all stakeholders and final users.
3.1.3. Events
To promote LINKVIT within the target groups one of the actions is to organize events and workshops linked to well-known sectorial events in the project field (see section 5.2). The workshops will be organised within
the major sectorial INSPIRE Conference, held in June every year, and the GIForum conference, organised each year in July in Salzburg (at least 50 participants are expected). Other awareness and dissemination
events may be organised when there are opportunities to promote LINKVIT.
Moreover, a final conference will be organized to present the results of the project to a wider audience (at least 100 participants) in Genoa.
Except for the Workshops in Salzburg and the final Conference in Genoa, the consortium could be organized other events at no costs for the project since they are already in the context of other initiatives.
3.1.4. Press releases
A good method to formally advertise the LINKVIT project is through the publication of official press releases that coincide with major achievements and/or events. The press releases outline what LINKVIT is, what it will
do, who it is intended to, the innovation it will bring and its benefits. Project partners are expected to dedicate some resources and publish one or more press releases during the project lifetime. Press releases will be
normally written in English. However, to maximize their impact, partners may undertake translations into own language.
Journalists from the most important European TV, radio, newspapers and magazines will be invited to attend the main exhibitions to which the project will participate.
3.1.5. Link exchange
During the project duration, to generate additional traffic to the LINKVIT project website, the partners have been contacted for link exchange with their own website and those of their more relevant projects.
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3.1.6. Dissemination material
Several promotional items, including posters, brochures, flyers, banner etc. will be prepared, with the contribution of all partners, to introduce LINKVIT and promote its objectives and activities.
The communication and dissemination material will be regularly updated to provide the latest project status and achievements. All produced material will use the LINKVIT logo and Lifelong Learning Programme logo, in particular cases such as posters, brochures and flyers.
Although the official language of the project is English, the idea is to ensure LINKVIT material is widely available across Europe in different languages where possible. WP6 will ensure that the main communication material developed is translated into local languages.
Material will be available at events and handed out to visitors. Light files will also be available in electronic format on the project web site.
As soon as possible generic LINKVIT flyers will be produced. The aim is to present the project in a structured and appealing way and will be used by partners during conferences, workshops and exhibitions as a tool to disseminate project details.
LINKVIT posters will be produced for conferences, workshops and exhibitions. A poster session at a conference is a good way to show and talk about the work in progress to the people attending the event. It is also an excellent opportunity to see people‟s reaction and get their direct feedback.
Any publicity material produced by partners should be rooted to WP6.
3.1.7. Social Network
Among the several social networks WP6 has been chosen LinkedIn, because of its professional features. LinkedIn supports the formation of interest groups. Groups support a limited form of discussion area, moderated by the group owners and managers. Groups also keep their members informed through emails with updates to the group, including discussions within professional circles.
Groups may be private, accessible to members only or may be open to Internet users in general to read, though they must join the group in order to post messages. The Web page of the Group is available at:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=7429040&trk=my_groups-b-grp-v
3.2. Communication and Dissemination for Understanding
To facilitate technical collaboration, foster linkages, build strategic partnership and enhance dialogue and knowledge exchange among members of the LINKVIT user communities, the following sharing mechanisms will be undertaken. LINKVIT technical partners will be involved in this phase.
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3.2.1. Publications
Technical reports, conference papers, deliverables, will be posted in the documentation section of the web site. The access to confidential documents will be possible through Partner area within the web site (http://www.linkvit.eu/partner-documents), using specific account.
3.2.2. Dialogue, debate and networking
The web site will propose an online user registration page that will invite people to register if they are interested in the project and wish to remain in the loop to receive updated information (LinkedIn Group). To stimulate debate and dialogue using the LinkedIn Group each Project partner and WP6 Leader team try to propose every 2-3 week a warm topic concerning the INSPIRE training activity. In second phase of the project, a web forum will be activated to discuss and track all the issue arise during the project by the stakeholders with particular focus on issues related to Public Administration and Private sector training paths.
To develop a wider network, all the members of the LINKVIT Group will be invited to share the project in other social network communities or link to specific web-site pages.
3.3. Communication and Dissemination for Action/Participation
3.3.1. Training Sessions and Workshop
LINKVIT team will set up pilot training actions, first for decision makers, trainers and tutors and secondly for a sample of target beneficiaries (both people of public authorities and companies as well as post-graduated students going to enter the labour market).
An evaluation structured questionnaire will be distributed to the participants in the training actions in order to get feedback on the quality of the learning content and teaching methodology, effectiveness of tutoring and accessibility/usability of media employed for training. The feedback from the evaluation questionnaire, complemented with focused interviews of key-players stakeholders, will be analysed and will form the basis for adjustment/fine-tuning of the training contents to be implemented in the second release of the LINKVIT Training Framework.
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3.3.2. Workshops
Many workshops are planned, as is videoing and streaming of the opening and closing workshops.
The project workshops will offer opportunity to explain the process of revision of the training contents, to check its suitability to match real needs of the professionals attending, along with the potentiality of the way of delivery for capturing the audience's attention and lead it in a personally profitable use of the tools presented (therein considering also the functionality of access and practical usability). Apart the workshops, the composition of partnership (SMEs are present) ensures that the approach used by the training modules is centred around the professional users and their needs.
3.3.3. Feedback mechanism
A user feedback mechanism will be activated to understand the success of the communication activities (see Metrics , table 1)
3.3.4. Exploitation and Sustainability Plan
To guarantee the sustainability of the initiative a Exploitation and Sustainability Plan will be developed in parallel with the definition of branding, communication and marketing strategies. It will contain a SWOT analysis, to understand the needs of our stakeholders and end users and to better understand the benefits of the project. The plan will be updated according to the progress of the project. To guarantee the sustainability, a community of practice will be created as well.
3.3.5. LINKVIT Business Plan
The Business Plan will be produced as an extension of the Exploitation and Sustainability Plan, but focused on the market aspects, in particular from the commercial and funding point of view. In this context the LINKVIT project outcomes will be analysed as a product made from training services. To do so several actions should be set up such as an analysis of the potential market and competitors,
A roadmap will be designed to establish how the LINKVIT product will and shall develop in the next 2-5 years after the end of the project and which will be the licence to share those.
LLP – Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of
Innovation project
N° 2013-1-IT1-LEO05-04046
4. Metrics
To monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of awareness and dissemination activities, a set of data will be collected and analysed.
WP6 will stay regularly (at least monthly) in touch with all project partners to learn about their progress.
Table 1
5. ANNEXES
5.1. Audiences
The LINKVIT implementation scenarios are addressed to two communities:
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5.2. List of events for LINKVIT dissemination
| Name of the event | Date | Place | Kind of dissemination | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linking Geospatial Data | 5-6/03/14 | Campus London, Shoreditch | Flyer, reference in PPT, promotion on the training offer on Linked Data | KU Leuven |
| OGC Tc (Education DWG) | 24-28/03/14 | Arlington, USA | Flyer, reference in PPT | KU Leuven |
| UCGIS Symposium | 19-21/05/14 | Pasedena, USA | Flyer, Presentation on curriculum development in Europe | KU Leuven |
| CEN/TC 287 ET AG | 26-29/05/14 | Sevilla, Spain | Flyer, Reference in PPT | KU Leuven |
| AGILE 2014 | 3-7/06/14 | Castellón, Spain | Flyer, reference in PPT – example of the application of the BoK | KU Leuven |
| INSPIRE Conference | 16/20 /06/2014 | Denmark | Material distribution, presentation, poster | ISPRA, GISIG |
| AGIT | 2 -4 July 2014 | Salzburg (AUT) | Material distribution, presentation, poster | PLUS, ISPRA, GISIG |
| GI Forum | 1 – 4 July 2014 | Salzburg (AUT) | Material distribution, presentation, poster | PLUS, ISPRA, GISIG |
| EUGISES 2014 | 4-7/09/14 | Cork, Ireland | Presentation | KU Leuven |
| INSPIRE Strategy Romania | August 2014 | Bucharest, Romania | Re-use of one or more of the modules | KU Leuven |
| SDI-Kosovo | September 2014 | Pristina, Kosovo | Re-use of one or more of the modules | KU Leuven |
| INSPIRE Implementation at the Federal level of Belgium | October 2014 | Brussels, Belgium | Re-use of one or more of the modules | KU Leuven |
| GSDI-2015 | TBC | TBC | Re-use of one or more of the modules for | KU Leuven |
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| | | | developing countries | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Croatian NSDI and INSPIRE Day | Sept 2014 | TBD | Presentation (if accepted and in cooperation with the IMPULS project) | Novogit AB |
| GeoInfo 2014 | 01/02-10- 2014 | Gävle | Presentation (if accepted) | Novogit AB |
| 18th Asita Conference | 14- 16/10/2014 | Firenze | Workshop, presentation and Dissemination material | ISPRA, GISIG |
| Geoitalia 2015 Earth Science Forum | 09/2015 | TBD (Italy) | Presentation, dissemination material | ISPRA |
| 19th Asita Conference | 11/2015 | TBD (Italy) | Presentation, dissemination material | ISPRA, GISIG |
| Kartdagarna 2015 | 2015 | TBD | Presentation (if accepted) | Novogit AB |
| GeoInfo 2015 | 2015 | TBD | Presentation (if accepted) | Novogit AB |
| Final event | 2016 | Genoa | | All |
LLP – Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project N° 2013-1-IT1-LEO05-04046
5.3. Networking with other projects
| Name of the project | Web site | Kind of connection |
|---|---|---|
| Geographic Information Need to Know (GI-N2K) | http://www.gi-n2k.eu/ | GI-N2K is developing a new version of the Body of Knowledge for GIScience & Technology and related tools – LINKVIT is using a similar approach and relies on the BoK for curriculum development |
| European Location Framework | http://www.elfproject.eu/ | ELF Project deliver a pan European cloud platform and web services to build on the existing work of the INSPIRE Directive could be share experience and training material |
| IMPULS | N/A | The project deals with NSDI development in Western Balkan (formerly Yugoslavia and Albania). The project is lead by Lantmäteriet and financed by Sida. A list of LINKVIT modules has been sent to the project and IMPULS have shown great interest. |
| eENVplus | http://eenvplus.eu | eENVplus will deploy operational implementation requirements for sharing environmental – Training Framework |
| smeSpire | http://www.smespire.eu | Liaison already formalised the 31-01-2014 to share training material and training path |
| LIFE+IMAGINE | http://www.life-imagine.eu/ | Liaison already formalised to share training material and training path |
LLP – Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project N° 2013-1-IT1-LEO05-04046
5.4. Web address for the Link section in the web site
The LINKVIT web site will contain a LINK section allowing visitors to get more information about all the topics, people and organizations involved in the project, as well as about other related projects in order to encourage networking.
http://www.sadl.kuleuven.be http://www.novogit.se
http://www.geodata.se/en/
http://www.isprambiente.it http://sgi.isprambiente.it/geoportal
http://www.epsilon-italia.it http://www.gisig.eu
http://www.praxisnetwork.eu/ http://www.eenvplus.eu/ http://www.smespire.eu/ http://www.life-imagine.eu/
5.5. Example of contribution by partners
Each partner will implement a specific plan of promotion and dissemination of the project in national contest and in specific community, as well shown in above sections:
5.5.1. GISIG
GISIG (Geographical Information Systems International Group) is an Association of around 100 partners on GI and GIS operating both at National and EU level in the transfer of innovation, research and training. Its long lasting experience in carrying out EU and networking projects makes available a great number of opportunities and contacts to exploit LINKVIT and its outcomes, as well as to increase the testing of products and the participation in the project initiatives.
In general, LINKVIT will be disseminated towards the GISIG networks, its Associated Members and the thematic networks established in previous initiatives that have been the background for LINKVIT, in particular
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the VESTA-GIS network (www.vesta-gis.eu), Humboldt (http://www.gisig.it/humboldt/training/), NATURESDIplus (http://www.nature-sdi.eu/), BRISEIDE (http://www.briseide.eu/) and NESIS (http://www.nesis.eu/), that represents a wide sample of stakeholders.
GISIG will use the available communication tools such as website and mailing list to distribute project material, workshop announcements, news on achieved results, as well as establishing a close operational link between LINKVIT community.
The dissemination material of LINKVIT, such as posters and banners, will be used in the national and international events/conferences. In particular, along the first year project (2014), GISIG plans to participate in the Geospatial World Forum, INSPIRE Conference and ASITA Conference.
Moreover, LINKVIT dissemination activities will be supported by GISIG in the following projects:
eENVplus (CIP- ICT-PSP project, www.eenvplus.eu), coordinated by GISIG and with reference to work package 8. Building Capacity and training, during the eENVplus events and with reference to the training framework.
smeSpire (ICT, Support Action, Community building and best practice, www.smespire.eu), in collaboration with the partner Epsilon Italia (smeSpire coordinator) and with reference to task 9.6 Exploitation towards Private Sector and SMEs, during the smeSpire events and with reference to the training actions.
LIFE+IMAGINE (LIFE+ 2012 project, www.life-imagine.eu), in particular with reference to Action D.4 "LIFE+IMAGINE Training Framework" and during the project‟s events.
GI-N2K (Erasmus Network, www.gi-n2k.eu), in collaboration with a network of 31 partners and with reference to the analysis and development of a new version of the Body of Knowledge for GIScience & Technology.
PRAXIS (Erasmus Network, www.praxisnetwork.eu), for dissemination within a network of more than 45 European partners and with reference to the promotion of project work and internship in the GI field.
5.5.2. ISPRA
ISPRA as Dissemination and communication responsible will use the available communication tools such as website, mailing list and social network channels to disseminate project results and to distribute dissemination material, workshop announcements, news on achieved results, as well as establishing a close operational link between LINKVIT community.
ISPRA with the institutional role of Italian INSPIRE Technical Coordinator will use the Italian local Public Administration network such Regional Focal Point, Regional Environmental Agency, Regional Geological Survey and other Working Group distribution mail-list to disseminate results and material relate to the project. It will be also create a national Public Administration mail-list to disseminate and encourage the use of eLeaning platform to the National Public Administration and as much possible to Professional communities.
LLP – Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project N° 2013-1-IT1-LEO05-04046
Moreover ISPRA will promote the project adding a specific page in our web-site and geoportals to highlight the visibility and to create a interlink with other projects or initiatives.
5.5.3. KU Leuven
KU Leuven will use its general communication channels to disseminate the objectives, activities and results of the project to the academic and outside world. LINKVIT will be fully described and the information of the project will be made accessible through a project factsheet on the website of SADL. In addition, the project will be presented and discussed during different staff meetings, including people not involved in the project. Presentations might also be given for staff of the Geo-Institute (230 staff). LINKVIT will also be promoted during activities in other projects such as Geographic Information Need to Know (GI-N2K), smeSpire, etc.
KU Leuven is in permanent contact with stakeholders from the academic, public and private sector. Attention will be paid to the promotion, the awareness rising and active mobilization for LINKVIT activities. In particular, INSPIRE stakeholders from Belgium (Federal level, Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia) might contribute through similar activities and initiatives which could be integrated into LINKVIT activities. But also the other way around, the activities of LINKVIT could bring new insights in the way Belgian stakeholders could/should implement INSPIRE. LINKVIT activities will also help to streamline training offers in the INSPIRE domain in Belgium.
The promotional material of LINKVIT, including, flyers, posters and banners will be used at GI- and INSPIRE events. In particular, KU Leuven intends to prepare an article that can be published in Dutch and French speaking popular geo-Journals. LINKVIT will be referred to and dedicated presentations on the project will be made in Belgian GI-events such as "AGIV Trefdag", events of FLAGIS and AM/FM events, but also during more formal meetings from the Federal INSPIRE platform, the GDI-Vlaanderen Working Group, etc.
LINKVIT activities are very relevant for other projects which are led by KU Leuven, or in which KU Leuven is playing a contributing role. These are: the GI-N2K project, the EULF project (action 2.13), smeSpire (an 7FP project), the ARE3NA RDF&PID project (JRC), activities in the context of the development of the geo-ICT strategy for INSPIRE at the Belgian Federal level (IGN-BE), etc. In each of those projects and initiatives training is an integral part and cross-fertilization with LINKVIT is needed.
5.5.4. EPSIT
The EPSIT dissemination activities will be done in two directions:
Through the smeSpire project (www.smesire.eu), an FP7 Support Action, coordinated by EPSIT, aimed at turning the INSPIRE technological challenges into business opportunities for the European Geo-ICT SMEs, pursuing a mutually beneficial cooperation between the two projects, particular:
Disseminating the LINKVIT project results through the smeSpire communication channels and vice versa;
Recommending partners and their stakeholders to join the smeSpire network;
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Pursuing the joint organization of events/initiatives aiming at a cross-fertilization between geoICT SMEs and the vertical domain(s) that involved in.
Through the EPSIT communication and dissemination channels particularly active at local level, where EPSIT is very much involved in providing GI technical support to Local Authorities and vocational training to young professionists.
5.5.5. IUAV
To promote the dissemination of LINKVIT project results, IUAV University of Venice will design and distribute a Journal according to its standards. A standard Journal is a 12 or 16 A3, coloured pages. The journal will be printed and hosted in the IUAV and LINKVIT web pages. Along its publication, an international seminar on the European Master proposal will be organized by the middle of 2015 to discuss contents and organization of the course in relation the cultural and scientific debate on Geographic Information, to the development of interoperability, but also to the existing training supply in Europe and in other countries of the world. The implementation issues of the INSPIRE Directive will be deeply considered starting from the on going practices. Finally, a particular attention will be given to the profiles of potential intermediate and end-users, as well as to the new job opportunities that harmonization and adaptation of training approaches are likely to generate in the various fields of Geographical Information.
5.5.6. PLUS
- Integrate the LINKVIT URL into our website
- Organization of a LINKVIT dissemination workshop in Salzburg in the context of (e.g.) the GI-Forum Conference
- Dissemination of promotional material at AGIT and GI Forum
- Presentation of LINKVIT at conferences (AGIT & GI Forum) in Salzburg
- Networking with other life-long learning projects
- Contribution to the ZGIS annual report
5.5.7. NOVOGIT
Novogit AB intends to disseminate the objectives, activities and results of the project to partners and collaborators as well as to the Swedish GI community at large. LINKVIT will be fully described and the information of the project will be made accessible through a link on the website of Novogit.
Novogit is in close contact with the Swedish geodata secretariat, which is the body supervising the implementation of the Swedish NSDI. In addition, Novogit is also in close contact with the IMPULS project, which aims to contribute to the NSDI implementation in Western Balkans. All these activities have shown interest in the LINKVIT project and its results. In addition, the LINKVIT project is also planned to be presented at national GI events in Sweden.
5.6. Visual Identity
5.6.1. Logos:
LLP – Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project N° 2013-1-IT1-LEO05-04046
5.6.2. Web site main template
LLP – Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of
Innovation project
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LLP – Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of
Innovation project
N° 2013-1-IT1-LEO05-04046
5.6.3. Template Presentation
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The Property Assessment Process
How was my assessment determined?
When a property is improved, either by building a new structure or structures, or improving existing structures, an assessor visits the site to view the improvements. The assessor inspects the property to determine the extent of the improvements. Furnishings or other personal property are not included in the assessment valuation. Based upon those improvements, the assessor determines what the fair market value would have been as of July 1, 1983.
Why is the property's value based upon July 1, 1983?
The last time a county-wide reassessment was performed was in 1983, with changes effective July 1, 1985, so all properties are assessed as of that 'base year.'
I do not remember a tax assessor visiting my property. How could she/he have made a determination of value?
The assessor does not necessarily have to view the inside of your structure, so they may have visited your property while you were not at home. An external inspection is performed, and exterior measurements are taken for any new construction. If they cannot gain access, any interior information may be obtained from the building permit.
How am I notified of the new assessment and property tax amounts?
Taxpayers are notified of changes in their assessment through the Quarterly Assessment Change Notice. (sample attached). Any increases to the property assessment must be communicated to the property owner in writing prior to the effective date of the increase.
How can I compare my assessment to my neighbors'?
The assessed value of all New Castle County properties is available on our website at www.nccdelu.org. Select ParcelView from the choices in the right hand column. Enter the address that you would like to view. For example, to look at 200 Main Street, enter "200" under Street Number and "Main" under name. Click on Search. A list of all properties that apply will appear. Click on the desired property. If you are looking for a street name that is a number, such as 21 st Street, you will spell out 'twentyfirst' using no hyphens or spaces.
Scroll through the property information to the section entitled "Tax Assessment Information" to view the assessed value. By scrolling further down, you will also see that the building characteristics, i.e., number of rooms, etc., are also listed. This is where you will be able to view differences between your property and others. Other information includes whether the basement is finished, whether the property has air conditioning and other details that may affect the assessed value.
Can the size of my lot make a difference in the assessed value?
Absolutely! A number of factors determine the assessment amount and there are various reasons why neighboring properties may have a higher or lower assessment. Some of these include: year built, condition, the number of rooms, the number of bathrooms, the square footage, a finished basement or attic, lot size, garage, even the addition of a swimming pool, deck or shed.
The Assessment Appeal Process
I believe that my assessment is too high. How do I file an appeal?
To file an appeal, you will need to submit an appeal form. If your property is a residence, you will file the Residential Assessment Appeal Form. For non-residential properties, a Commercial/Industrial Appeal Form must be submitted. Ten copies of the application and any supporting documentation (such as written appraisals) must be submitted. The application is sent or delivered to the Assessment Division, Department of Land Use, 87 Reads Way, New Castle, DE 19720. Following receipt of your application, your request for appeal is scheduled for a hearing before the Board of Assessment Review. Hearings are generally held on weekdays, during daytime hours, at the New Castle County Government Center, 87 Reads Way, New Castle. Please note that you must use the official application that you can find at the back of this booklet. If you are appealing the assessment on more than one parcel, you must file a separate form for each parcel under appeal. You will be notified of the date, time, and location of the hearing in writing.
What other actions by the Assessment Division are subject to appeal?
* Removal/Denial of any type of exemption
An appeal must be filed within 30 days of the date of notice of the denial or removal.
* Removal/Denial of Farmland Assessment An appeal must be filed within 30 days of the date of notice of the denial or removal.
* Issuance of a Rollback Tax Billing An appeal must be filed within 30 days of the date of the rollback bill.
Is there a fee for filing an appeal?
There is no fee for filing an appeal to the Board of Assessment Review.
Is there a timeframe that I must meet for filing an appeal?
An appeal of your annual tax assessment must be received by 4 p.m. on March 15 th (when March 15 th falls on a weekend, the deadline is extended to the Monday following. If the appeal is granted, it will become effective on July 1 st of that calendar year.
A quarterly appeal may be filed only on the amount your assessment has increased due to some change in the property. If you wish to file a quarterly appeal, the deadline is within 30 days of the effective date of the increase. The four quarterly appeal deadline dates are October 31 st , January 31 st , April 30 th and July 31 st . Any reduction resulting from a quarterly appeal will be retroactive to the effective date of the increase.
Is there any difference in the appeal process for residential properties versus commercial properties?
There is a different application to be filled out. Commercial applications also require an attachment certifying that all existing appraisals of the property are being disclosed to New Castle County. The certification form is included in this booklet.
Is there somewhere I can go for help in filling out my application for appeal?
The Department of Land Use Assessment Division is available to help you fill out your application for appeal. We will help you with understanding and filling out the application, but you will be responsible for gathering evidence to support your appeal. Please contact our Customer Service Representative at (302) 395-5540 for assistance.
What is the Board of Assessment Review and who are its members?
The Board of Assessment Review is a public board, composed of 6 members and a chairperson. The Board members are appointed by County Council and the Chairperson serves at the pleasure of the County Executive. The Board members are not New Castle County employees.
How does the hearing process work?
When your appeal is heard, you and any witnesses you have identified on your application will be invited to speak. All will be testifying under oath. A New Castle County representative may cross-examine the applicant regarding testimony and evidence given. Members of the Board may ask questions or seek clarification on information that is presented. If a representative of the County presents evidence, the applicant has the opportunity to cross-examine and rebut any evidence presented by the County. Both sides have the opportunity to present a closing statement or summary. No new evidence may be included in the closing statement. At the beginning of the hearing, the Board may choose to set a time limit for the entire hearing or a time limit for each side to present their case. Remember that the only witnesses, appraisals, or comparable properties that you may use in support of your appeal must have been identified on your application form.
Will the Board rule right away or decide later on my appeal?
The Board will debate and vote on the appeal at the hearing. You will still receive formal written notification of the Board's decision.
Are all appeals heard by the Assessment Review Board?
Not necessarily. New Castle County will review the application and, if we agree with the basis of the appeal, may make a change without the necessity for a full hearing. Any such changes will be detailed on a stipulation form, which must be signed by both New Castle County and the appellant. The Chair of the Board of Assessment Review must sign off on any assessment changes resulting from the appeal process.
Will I be notified when the hearing will be scheduled?
Yes, you will be notified in writing at least 5 days before the scheduled hearing date.
Do I need to be present at the hearing?
No, there is a check box on the last page of the form to indicate that you will not be attending the hearing. By waiving your right to appear, the Board of Assessment Review will hear your appeal based solely on the information provided on your application.
Do I need to have a lawyer?
No, a lawyer is not required, but you may certainly choose to be represented. If so, you must identify the attorney that will appear on your behalf.
What kind of information must I provide? Is there any 'evidence' I can submit in support of my case?
The application asks that you include a variety of information regarding your property, including your purchase price and date, any conditions of sale, major renovations that have been made to the property, a description of the structure including numbers of rooms, lot size, etc, and the amount you believe reflects the fair market value as of July 1, 1983. This is only a partial list of the fields on the Appeal Form. The complete form is an attachment to this information sheet.
The 1983 valuation is critical in appealing your property assessment. Be aware that the burden of proof rests with the appellant to prove substantial over-valuation – based on the 1983 valuation. In order to win your appeal, you must convince the Board that the fair market value of your property, as of the County's base date of July 1, 1983, is less than the amount of your assessment. To do this you may present evidence of sales of comparable properties, provided that the sales are from 1983 (or adjusted to that time) and that the comparable properties were similar to your property at the time they sold. Merely showing that allegedly comparable properties have lower assessments is not sufficient to meet your legal burden.
You may also submit an independent appraisal of your property reflecting the July 1, 1983 market value. If you are submitting an appraisal(s), the person who performed the appraisal must be at the hearing and copies of the appraisal must be submitted with your Assessment Appeal Form. If you have researched comparable sales and plan to submit comparable sales information in support of your appeal, you need to include the comparable sales information on your Appeal Form. You can submit information regarding a maximum of six properties. You will not be permitted to testify or introduce evidence about properties that are not listed on your appeal form.
Do I have to pay my taxes if my assessment is being appealed?
While it is up to you, we recommend that you pay your property taxes. Should you choose not to pay and your appeal is denied, penalties will be added to the amount due. If you do pay and your appeal is granted, a credit would be applied to your tax account.
Is the Board of Assessment Review the final decision-maker or is there an appeal process from their decision?
You have the right to appeal The Board of Assessment Review's decision to the Superior Court of the State of Delaware. You must file your appeal within 30 days of the written decision of the Board of Assessment Review. Superior Court will not entertain new evidence, but will issue their ruling based upon the evidence presented at the Board of Assessment Review hearing.
Revised: February 23, 2015
RESIDENTIAL ASSESSMENT APPEAL FORM
BOARD OF ASSESSMENT REVIEW OF NEW CASTLE COUNTY
ADMINISTRATIVE USE ONLY
Docket Number:
ANNUAL – JAN – APR – JUL – OCT – FARM – GEN EX
Submit one original and nine (9) copies of this form and all supplemental material. If every question is not clearly and completely answered, the Board may deny your appeal without further hearing. Submit a separate appeal form for every tax parcel.
REMEMBER:
1. Hearsay rules apply: expert testimony must be presented by the expert, and copies of contracts, appraisals, etc., must be presented by the author him/herself.
2. Assessment is based on 100% of the fair market value of your property as of July 1, 1983.
PROPERTY IDENTIFICATION
OWNER:
PARCEL NUMBER:
STREET ADDRESS OF PARCEL:
CURRENT ASSESSMENT: LAND
BUILDING
TOTAL
PURCHASE PRICE (TOTAL OF LAND AND BUILDING)
DATE OF PURCHASE
SPECIAL CONDITIONS OF SALE
HOW WAS PROPERTY ACQUIRED: PRIVATE SALE
AUCTION
OPEN MARKET
FAMILY
INHERITED
OTHER
MAJOR RENOVATIONS OR STRUCTURAL CHANGES TO PROPERTY SINCE PURCHASE (i.e., Demolition, Construction, Additions, Major Repairs, etc.):
1) Year
Cost
Change
2) Year
Cost
Change
3) Year
Cost
Change
DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY:
Lot Size/Land Area
Style of House
Number of: Bathrooms:
Bedrooms:
Fireplaces:
Finished Basement:
Finished Attic:
Central Air:
Porches and Additions:
Describe Garage or Other Buildings:
WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE THE FAIR MARKET VALUE OF THE PROPERTY AS OF JULY 1, 1983?
$
[x] ON WHAT BASIS DO YOU REACH THAT OPINION?
Appraisal (person who did the appraisal must appear at the hearing and copies of the appraisal must be submitted with this appeal form).
Comparable Sales (identify below).
Other (discuss in detail below, or in an attachment).
[x] BRIEFLY DISCUSS THE REASON FOR YOUR APPEAL AND FOR YOUR CONCLUSION OF VALUE:
COMPARABLE SALES
Comparable sales must reasonably relate to value as of July 1, 1983. Any comparable sales you intend to discuss at the hearing (up to a maximum of six) must be listed in or attached to this form, or the Board will not consider them. You will not be permitted to testify or introduce evidence concerning comparable sales not set forth in this form. The assessed value of other properties, or the taxes paid by other homeowners, is not acceptable as evidence of overvaluation. Do not cite the assessed values of other properties in your appeal.
1. Parcel Number
Owner
Address
Sales Price
Date
Lot Size/Land Area
Style of House
Number of: Bathrooms:
Bedrooms:
Fireplaces:
Finished Basement:
Finished Attic:
Central Air:
Porches and Additions
Describe Garage or Other Buildings
Additional Comments
2. Parcel Number
Owner
Address
Sales Price
Date
Lot Size/Land Area
Style of House
Number of: Bathrooms:
Bedrooms:
Fireplaces:
Finished Basement:
Finished Attic:
Central Air:
Porches and Additions
Describe Garage or Other Buildings
Additional Comments
3. Parcel Number
Owner
Address
Sales Price
Date
Lot Size/Land Area
Style of House
Number of: Bathrooms:
Bedrooms:
Fireplaces:
Finished Basement:
Finished Attic:
Central Air:
Porches and Additions
Describe Garage or Other Buildings
Additional Comments
Note: up to three additional comparable sales may be submitted as an attachment to your appeal form.
WITNESSES OR AGENTS
Identify any witness or attorney/agent who will appear on your behalf at the hearing. If necessary, attach a list of additional witnesses.
Name
Firm or Company
Address
Telephone number
OWNER CERTIFICATION
The undersigned represents that he/she is the owner or authorized agent of the owner of the above- and asks the Board of Assessment Review that the assessment of said property for fiscal year
described property, affirms that all statements herein are true to the best of his/her knowledge and belief, be reduced to: $
Signature of owner or agent 1
Print name and title
Mailing address (for
Notice of Hearing and
Notice of Decision)
Telephone Number
Day
Evening
Date of Filing
NOTE: If you do not wish to appear before the Board for a formal hearing, please check here and the Board will consider your appeal on the basis of the information contained in this form. ( )
APPENDIX II Page 4
1 If this form is signed by an agent of the owner, the agent must attach a statement from the owner authorizing the agent to present this appeal and represent the interests of the owner herein.
Revised: February 23, 2015
COMMERCIAL / INDUSTRIAL ASSESSMENT APPEAL FORM BOARD OF ASSESSMENT REVIEW OF NEW CASTLE COUNTY
Submit one original and nine (9) copies of this form and all supplemental material. If every question is not clearly and completely answered, the Board may deny your appeal without further hearing. Submit a separate appeal form for every tax parcel.
I. PROPERTY IDENTIFICATION
OWNER PARCEL NUMBER STREET ADDRESS OF PARCEL CURRENT ASSESSMENT: LAND BUILDING TOTAL
THE COUNTY’S ASSESSMENT IS BASED ON 100% OF THE FAIR MARKET VALUE OF THE PROPERTY AS OF JULY 1, 1983. WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE THE FAIR MARKET VALUE OF THE PROPERTY AS OF JULY 1, 1983? $
ONLY APPRAISALS RELATING TO FAIR MARKET VALUE AS OF JULY 1, 1983 WILL BE CONSIDERED.
NOTICE: All material substantiating your reasoning must accompany this form (e.g., construction costs, photographs, deeds, sales history, analysis of comparable properties, appraisal reports, income and expense data, etc.). All supporting evidence must be appended to this form to be considered by the Board. In addition, if you intend to rely at the hearing on any appraisal or other document to support your claim of value, the person who prepared the document must appear at the hearing.
YEAR PROPERTY WAS PURCHASED TOTAL PURCHASE PRICE $
Is the total purchase price a fair reflection of the market value for the real estate on the above mentioned sale date? ο YES ο NO
If no, please explain
(If property was acquired in more than one transaction, list each purchase on a separate attachment).
HOW WAS PROPERTY ACQUIRED:
ο PRIVATE SALE
οAUCTION
ο OPEN MARKET
ο FAMILY
ο INHERITED
ο OTHER
ADMINISTRATIVE USE ONLY
Docket Number:
ANNUAL – JAN – APR – JUL – O CT – FARM – GEN EX
II. SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
In an attachment to this form, you must provide competent evidence supporting your opinion of the fair market value of your property as of July 1, 1983. To be considered competent, evidence of value must be founded on an approach to valuation generally accepted in the financial community. The three traditional approaches to valuation are described below. It is generally advisable to hire a professional appraiser to perform a retrospective appraisal utilizing one or more of these approaches. Some components of the approaches require technical knowledge and are subject to particular scrutiny. A retrospective appraisal should utilize July 1, 1983 as the effective date of appraisal. The assessed values of other properties, or the taxes paid by other property owners, are not acceptable as competent evidence of overvaluation. Do not cite the assessed values of other properties in your appeal.
A. Comparable Sales or Market Approach
In the Comparable Sales or Market Approach, recent sales of similar properties are examined and compared to the subject property. Market oriented adjustments are made for any differences between the comparable sales and the subject. NOTE: your comparable sales approach must address the fair market value of your property as of July 1, 1983, or the Board will not consider it. Please mark this box if you rely on the market approach or comparable sales approach to valuation, and attach your evidence to this form: □
B. Income Approach
The Income Approach is a method of arriving at the estimated value of the property by analyzing the potential income and expenses from income-producing real estate. The net income is then capitalized to indicate the value of the property as an investment. It assumes a return based on that which competitive properties are receiving. NOTE: your Income Approach must address the fair market value of your property as of July 1, 1983, or the Board will not consider it. Also note that the Delaware Supreme Court has determined that the Income Approach cannot stand alone, and must be combined with another generally accepted approach to valuation to be considered competent evidence. Please mark this box if you rely on the income approach to valuation, and attach your evidence to this form: □
C. Cost Approach
In the Cost Approach, the site and improvements are treated separately for analytical purposes. By means of a market analysis, the site is valued independently as if vacant and ready to be put to its highest and best use. Next, the reproduction/replacement cost new of the improvements is estimated. This represents the most probable cost of building a replica structure. From this estimate is deducted all depreciation or utility loss accruing to the building. The depreciated cost new is then added to the total of site improvements and land value to arrive at the indicated value from this analysis. NOTE: your Cost Approach must address the fair market value of your property as of July 1, 1983, or the Board will not consider it. Please mark this box if you rely on the cost approach to valuation, and attach your evidence to this form: □
III. IDENTIFICATION OF AGENTS AND WITNESSES
A. Attorney or Agent
Please identify any attorney or agent who will represent you at the hearing on this assessment appeal:
Name
Firm or Company
Address
Telephone Number
B. Potential Witnesses
Please identify all persons whom you expect to call as witnesses in your appeal hearing (additional witnesses may be identified in an attachment to this form).
Name
Firm or Company
Address
Telephone Number
Name
Firm or Company
Address
Telephone Number
IV. CERTIFICATION OF OWNER
The undersigned represents that he/she is the owner or authorized agent of the owner of the above-described property, affirms that all statements herein are true to the best of his/her knowledge and belief, and asks the Board of Assessment Review that the assessment on said property for the fiscal year be reduced to $ .
Signature of owner or agent 1
Print name and title
Mailing address (for
Notice of Hearing &
Notice of Decision)
Telephone Number
DATE OF FILING:
NOTE: If you do not wish to appear before the Board for a formal hearing, please check here and the Board will consider your appeal on the basis of the information contained in this form. ( )
APPENDIX III Page 3
1 If this form is signed by an agent of the owner, the agent must attach a statement from the owner authorizing the agent to present this appeal and represent the interests of the owner herein.
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Unclassified
Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Economiques Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
05-Oct-2007
___________________________________________________________________________________________
English - Or. English
ENVIRONMENT DIRECTORATE JOINT MEETING OF THE CHEMICALS COMMITTEE AND THE WORKING PARTY ON CHEMICALS, PESTICIDES AND BIOTECHNOLOGY
SERIES ON TESTING AND ASSESSMENT Number 81
SUMMARY REPORT OF THE VALIDATION PEER REVIEW FOR THE UPDATED TEST GUIDELINE 407, AND AGREEMENT OF THE WORKING GROUP OF THE NATIONAL COORDINATORS OF THE TEST GUIDELINES PROGRAMME ON THE FOLLOW-UP OF THIS REPORT
OECD Environment Health and Safety Publications
Series on Testing and Assessment
No. 81
SUMMARY REPORT OF THE VALIDATION PEER REVIEW FOR THE UPDATED TEST GUIDELINE 407, AND AGREEMENT OF THE WORKING GROUP OF THE NATIONAL COORDINATORS OF THE TEST GUIDELINES PROGRAMME ON THE FOLLOW-UP OF THIS REPORT
Environment Directorate ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Paris 2007
Also published in the Series on Testing and Assessment:
No. 1, Guidance Document for the Development of OECD Guidelines for Testing of Chemicals (1993; reformatted 1995, revised 2006)
No. 2, Detailed Review Paper on Biodegradability Testing (1995)
No. 3, Guidance Document for Aquatic Effects Assessment (1995)
No. 4, Report of the OECD Workshop on Environmental Hazard/Risk Assessment (1995)
No. 5, Report of the SETAC/OECD Workshop on Avian Toxicity Testing (1996)
No. 6, Report of the Final Ring-test of the Daphnia magna Reproduction Test (1997)
No. 7, Guidance Document on Direct Phototransformation of Chemicals in Water (1997)
No. 8, Report of the OECD Workshop on Sharing Information about New Industrial Chemicals Assessment (1997)
No. 9, Guidance Document for the Conduct of Studies of Occupational Exposure to Pesticides during Agricultural Application (1997)
No. 10, Report of the OECD Workshop on Statistical Analysis of Aquatic Toxicity Data (1998)
No. 11, Detailed Review Paper on Aquatic Testing Methods for Pesticides and industrial Chemicals (1998)
No. 12, Detailed Review Document on Classification Systems for Germ Cell Mutagenicity in OECD Member Countries (1998)
No. 13, Detailed Review Document on Classification Systems for Sensitising Substances in OECD Member Countries 1998)
No. 14, Detailed Review Document on Classification Systems for Eye Irritation/Corrosion in OECD Member Countries (1998)
No. 15, Detailed Review Document on Classification Systems for Reproductive Toxicity in OECD Member Countries (1998)
No. 16, Detailed Review Document on Classification Systems for Skin Irritation/Corrosion in OECD Member Countries (1998)
No. 17, Environmental Exposure Assessment Strategies for Existing Industrial Chemicals in OECD Member Countries (1999)
No. 18, Report of the OECD Workshop on Improving the Use of Monitoring Data in the Exposure Assessment of Industrial Chemicals (2000)
No. 19, Guidance Document on the Recognition, Assessment and Use of Clinical Signs as Humane Endpoints for Experimental Animals used in Safety Evaluation (1999)
No. 20, Revised Draft Guidance Document for Neurotoxicity Testing (2004)
No. 21, Detailed Review Paper: Appraisal of Test Methods for Sex Hormone Disrupting Chemicals (2000)
No. 22, Guidance Document for the Performance of Out-door Monolith Lysimeter Studies (2000)
No. 23, Guidance Document on Aquatic Toxicity Testing of Difficult Substances and Mixtures (2000)
No. 24, Guidance Document on Acute Oral Toxicity Testing (2001)
No. 25, Detailed Review Document on Hazard Classification Systems for Specifics Target Organ Systemic Toxicity Repeated Exposure in OECD Member Countries (2001)
No. 26, Revised Analysis of Responses Received from Member Countries to the Questionnaire on Regulatory Acute Toxicity Data Needs (2001)
No 27, Guidance Document on the Use of the Harmonised System for the Classification of Chemicals Which are Hazardous for the Aquatic Environment (2001)
No 28, Guidance Document for the Conduct of Skin Absorption Studies (2004)
No 29, Guidance Document on Transformation/Dissolution of Metals and Metal Compounds in Aqueous Media (2001)
No 30, Detailed Review Document on Hazard Classification Systems for Mixtures (2001)
No 31, Detailed Review Paper on Non-Genotoxic Carcinogens Detection: The Performance of In-Vitro Cell Transformation Assays (2007)
No. 32, Guidance Notes for Analysis and Evaluation of RepeatDose Toxicity Studies (2000)
No. 33, Harmonised Integrated Classification System for Human Health and Environmental Hazards of Chemical Substances and Mixtures (2001)
No. 34, Guidance Document on the Development, Validation and Regulatory Acceptance of New and Updated Internationally Acceptable Test Methods in Hazard Assessment (2005)
No. 35, Guidance notes for analysis and evaluation of chronic toxicity and carcinogenicity studies (2002)
No. 36, Report of the OECD/UNEP Workshop on the use of Multimedia Models for estimating overall Environmental Persistence and long range Transport in the context of PBTS/POPS Assessment (2002)
No. 37, Detailed Review Document on Classification Systems for Substances Which Pose an Aspiration Hazard (2002)
No. 38, Detailed Background Review of the Uterotrophic Assay Summary of the Available Literature in Support of the Project of the OECD Task Force on Endocrine Disrupters Testing and Assessment (EDTA) to Standardise and Validate the Uterotrophic Assay (2003)
No. 39, Guidance Document on Acute Inhalation Toxicity Testing (in preparation)
No. 40, Detailed Review Document on Classification in OECD Member Countries of Substances and Mixtures Which Cause Respiratory Tract Irritation and Corrosion (2003)
No. 41, Detailed Review Document on Classification in OECD Member Countries of Substances and Mixtures which in Contact with Water Release Toxic Gases (2003)
No. 42, Guidance Document on Reporting Summary Information on Environmental, Occupational and Consumer Exposure (2003)
No. 43, Draft Guidance Document on Reproductive Toxicity Testing and Assessment (in preparation)
No. 44, Description of Selected Key Generic Terms Used in Chemical Hazard/Risk Assessment (2003)
No. 45, Guidance Document on the Use of Multimedia Models for Estimating Overall Environmental Persistence and Long-range Transport (2004)
No. 46, Detailed Review Paper on Amphibian Metamorphosis Assay for the Detection of Thyroid Active Substances (2004)
No. 47, Detailed Review Paper on Fish Screening Assays for the
Detection of Endocrine Active Substances (2004)
No. 48, New Chemical Assessment Comparisons and Implications for Work Sharing (2004)
No. 49, Report from the Expert Group on (Quantitative) Structure-Activity Relationships [(Q)SARs] on the Principles for the Validation of (Q)SARs (2004)
No. 50, Report of the OECD/IPCS Workshop on Toxicogenomics (2005)
No. 51, Approaches to Exposure Assessment in OECD Member Countries: Report from the Policy Dialogue on Exposure Assessment in June 2005 (2006)
No. 52, Comparison of emission estimation methods used in Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs) and Emission Scenario Documents (ESDs): Case study of pulp and paper and textile sectors (2006)
No. 53, Guidance Document on Simulated Freshwater Lentic Field Tests (Outdoor Microcosms and Mesocosms) (2006)
No. 54, Current Approaches in the Statistical Analysis of Ecotoxicity Data: A Guidance to Application (2006)
No. 55, Detailed Review Paper on Aquatic Arthropods in Life Cycle Toxicity Tests with an Emphasis on Developmental, Reproductive and Endocrine Disruptive Effects (2006)
No. 56, Guidance Document on the Breakdown of Organic Matter in Litter Bags (2006)
No. 57, Detailed Review Paper on Thyroid Hormone Disruption Assays (2006)
No. 58, Report on the Regulatory Uses and Applications in OECD Member Countries of (Quantitative) Structure-Activity Relationship [(Q)SAR] Models in the Assessment of New and Existing Chemicals (2006)
No. 59, Report of the Validation of the Updated Test Guideline 407: Repeat Dose 28-Day Oral Toxicity Study in Laboratory Rats (2006)
No. 60, Report of the Initial Work Towards the Validation of the 21-Day Fish Screening Assay for the Detection of Endocrine Active Substances (Phase 1A) (2006)
No. 61, Report of the Validation of the 21-Day Fish Screening Assay fort he Detection of Endocrine Active Substances (Phase 1B) (2006)
No. 62, Final OECD Report of the Initial Work Towards the Validation of the Rat Hershberger Assay : Phase-1, Androgenic Response to Testosterone Propionate, and Anti-Androgenic Effects of Flutamide (2006)
No. 63, Guidance Document on the Definition of Residue (2006)
No. 64, Guidance Document on Overview of Residue Chemistry Studies (2006)
No. 65, OECD Report of the Initial Work Towards the Validation of the Rodent Utertrophic Assay - Phase 1 (2006)
No. 66, OECD Report of the Validation of the Rodent Uterotrophic Bioassay: Phase 2. Testing of Potent and Weak Oestrogen Agonists by Multiple Laboratories (2006)
No. 67, Additional data supporting the Test Guideline on the Uterotrophic Bioassay in rodents (draft)
No. 68, Summary Report of the Uterotrophic Bioassay Peer Review Panel, including Agreement of the Working Group of the National Coordinators of the Test Guidelines Programme on the follow up of this report (2006)
No. 69, Guidance Document on the Validation of (Quantitative) Structure-Activity Relationship [(Q)SAR] Models (2007)
No. 70, Report on the Preparation of GHS Implementation by the OECD Countries (2007)
No. 71, Guidance Document on the Uterotrophic Bioassay Procedure to Test for Antioestrogenicity (2007)
No. 72, Guidance Document on Pesticide Residue Analytical Methods (2007)
No. 73, Report of the Validation of the Rat Hershberger Assay: Phase 3: Coded Testing of Androgen Agonists, Androgen Antagonists and Negative Reference Chemicals by Multiple Laboratories. Surgical Castrate Model Protocol (2007)
No. 74, Detailed Review Paper for Avian Two-generation Toxicity Testing (2007)
No. 75, Guidance Document on the Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera L.) Brood test Under Semi-field Conditions (2007)
No. 76, Final Report of the Validation of the Amphibian Metamorphosis Assay for the Detection of Thyroid Active Substances: Phase 1 - Optimisation of the Test Protocol (2007)
No. 77, Final Report of the Validation of the Amphibian Metamorphosis Assay: Phase 2 - Multi-chemical Interlaboratory Study (2007)
No. 78, Final report of the Validation of the 21-day Fish Screening Assay for the Detection of Endocrine Active Substances. Phase 2: Testing Negative Substances (2007)
No. 79, Validation Report of the Full Life-cycle Test with the Harpacticoid Copepods Nitocra Spinipes and Amphiascus Tenuiremis and the Calanoid Copepod Acartia Tonsa - Phase 1 (2007)
No. 80, Guidance on Grouping of Chemicals (2007)
No.81, Summary Report of the Validation Peer Review for the Updated Test Guideline 407, and Agreement of the Working Group of National Coordinators of the Test Guidelines Programme on the follow-up of this report (2007)
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FOREWORD
This document presents the peer review summary report for the validation of the Updated Test Guideline 407, preceded by the agreement of the Working Group of the National Coordinators of the Test Guidelines Programme (WNT) on the follow up of the PRP report.
The peer review was managed by two independent consultants. The National Coordinators proposed peer reviewers but the final composition of the independent peer review panel was decided by the consultants. The panel included 6 peer reviewers who had been proposed by Germany, Japan, the European Commission and the United States, and one observer involved in the validation. The role of the observer was to respond to technical questions related to the validation. The peer reviewers were requested to send declaration of interests to the consultants. The documents submitted to the peer review panel were posted on the OECD public website and consisted of the validation report and its annexes, the preliminary draft updated Test Guideline 407, the current Test Guideline 407, a reference to a peer reviewed publication and a Secretariat document explaining how the 8 OECD validation criteria and principles had been addressed.
This document is published on the responsibility of the Joint Meeting of the Chemicals Committee and Working Party on Chemicals, Pesticides and Biotechnology. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Organisation or of the governments of its member countries.
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Agreement of the Working Group of the National Coordinators of the Test Guidelines Programme on the Follow up of the Peer Review Panel Report
The peer review panel summary report of the validation of the updated TG 407 was submitted for information at the 19 th meeting of the Working Group of National Coordinators of the Test Guidelines Programme (WNT) in March 2007. In accordance with the recommendations of the peer review panel, the WNT supported the development of a Guidance Document on histopathology to improve the performance of the Test Guideline. This document should also provide guidance on data interpretation. Furthermore, the WNT noted that compounds with weak (anti)estrogenic or (anti)androgenic properties would, in most cases, not be identified through the updated Test Guideline and agreed that this limitation should be clarified. In particular, it should be specified in the Test Guideline that it can not be considered as a screening assay for endocrine activity. The WNT requested that the Validation Management Group for Mammalian Testing addresses technical issues, raised by the Peer Review Panel or by the WNT, and proposes solutions to solve them.
Considering the above and also considering the benefit of the updated Test Guideline 407 for the detection of some endocrine active chemicals, the WNT agreed to proceed to the development and finalisation of the draft updated OECD Test Guideline 407.
Summary Report of the Peer Review Panel for the Updated TG 407
The Peer Review Panel (PRP) was constituted in September 2006, to provide a review of the validation process for the draft updated Test Guideline (TG) 407, and to consider the specific criteria posed to the Panel by the sponsoring organization (set-out in Guidance Document GD 34), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The Panel held several teleconferences, and each Panel member submitted written responses to the criteria posed. This report presents the combined PRP responses to the validation process.
The Peer Review Panel was requested to report their views on the validation process for the draft updated TG 407 to the Validation Management Group-mammalian testing (VMG-mammalian) responsible for overseeing the validation process, and then to the Endocrine Disruptor Testing and Assessment Taskforce (EDTA), and the Working Group of the National Coordinators of the Test Guidelines Programme (WNT). On the basis of this report the EDTA and WNT will recommend any further activities on this OECD project, including the process for completion of the development of a Test Guideline.
This report reflects the consensus view of the PRP. However there were significant differences expressed regarding the various criteria posed. These differences are described in the report and should be considered by the EDTA and WNT in making further decisions for the development of the updated TG 407.
Background
As part of its programme of work the WNT agreed to establish a special activity to address the issue of endocrine disruption and develop new Test Guidelines as appropriate. This work was assigned to the Task Force for Endocrine Disruptor Testing and Assessment (EDTA). The EDTA agreed to initially pursue efforts to develop and validate Test Guidelines for the uterotrophic assay and the Hershberger assay, and to evaluate enhancements to the current Test Guideline 407. The Validation Management Group – mammalian testing (VMG-mammalian) was established to manage these projects. Subsequently, the EDTA began activities concerning ecotoxicity testing and in vitro or non-animal testing also related to the endocrine disruption issue. As a result, further VMGs, namely the VMG for ecotoxicity testing (VMGeco) and the VMG for non-animal testing (VMG-NA) were established to manage the diverse activities and work loads.
Introductory Remarks
In the course of discussions on the validation exercise and the scope of the PRP's remit it was strongly pointed out by a member of the PRP that its task was to peer review the validation exercise and not the test guideline (TG). However, the PRP as a whole agreed that it would be impossible to carry out its task without considering and commenting on some elements of the TG.
Several members of the PRP believed that the long period from the initial development of the updated TG 407 to the validation exercise and the PRP activity means that the TG may not now be up-todate. Currently there is no real alternative OECD or other protocol for investigating general toxicity and endocrine mediated effects in young adult animals. However, there is considerable activity globally in the field of in-vitro testing, quantitative and qualitative structure activity relationships, and extended one generation (Level 5) in vivo tests which is likely to mean that the role of updated TG 407 may change. Some members thought that, in its present form, the usefulness and applicability of updated TG 407 is
likely to be quite short as it will be made obsolete by new approaches and TGs although this will depend in part on regulatory needs.
Summary of the Peer Review of the Validation Exercise
The updated TG 407 would be a useful update of the existing TG to be used for the detection of some endocrine active chemicals and, as such, a helpful addition to the portfolio of test guidelines validated by the OECD. However, the PRP believe that its benefits would be enhanced by clarifying the limitations of the updated TG (TG 407 is not performed in a life-stage that is most sensitive to endocrine disruption) and by providing additional guidance on the interpretation of test results. The PRP were clear that these two provisos did not override the benefits that would arise from the updated TG 407. The results from application of an updated TG 407, and the additional end-points covered, would be useful in many cases as such testing was required in several regulatory systems. In addition, the negative implications for animal welfare of further work on the updated TG 407 outweighed the likely benefits of such work as long as the limitations were made clear. In particular, regulators should be advised that decisions on hazard and risk management measures regarding endocrine mode of action should not be based purely on the outcome of the application of this TG; a weight-of-evidence approach should be used including results from application of this TG.
The principle limitations identified by the PRP were that the TG identified only strong or moderate endocrine active substances (EAS); it was clear that the TG could not be depended upon to identify weakly acting substances. It was also unclear from the validation exercise the expected rate of 'false-positives' and 'false-negatives' (the issue of a 'false-positive' is problematic here as changes in a given organ e.g. the prostate, could be due to endocrine activity, metabolic modulation resulting in decreased circulating testosterone levels or brought about by an unknown mechanism). Evaluation of potential endocrine activity should not therefore be based on the results of this TG alone. As weak EAS would in most cases not be identified through this TG it could not be described as a screening test able to detect ambient levels of EAS*. It was also considered by the PRP to be too expensive and wasteful of animals for a screening test. Whilst it is a 'stand-alone' TG, the results may point to the need for further examination and/or possibly testing.
[*the Observer of the PRP thought that this sentence was potentially misleading. His view was that detection of ambient levels (of EAS) is not a necessary characteristic of screening assays (for EAS). In vivo and in vitro screening methods can fail when it comes to the detection of endocrine activity at ambient substance levels especially in food (the most relevant route of human exposure). Besides the inherent properties of a given assay, testing of increasing doses/concentrations up to MTD/cytotoxicity/limit of solubility is used to achieve sensitivity of the assay. The Observer proposed that the sentence should read: "As weak EAS would in most cases not be identified through this TG, it could not be described as a screening test."]
Recommendations
The Peer Review Panel agrees that this report provides a summary of their views on the status of the validation of the updated TG 407, as detailed in the responses to the criteria (from GD 34) posed to the Panel members and based on the information on the validation exercise provided to the Peer Review Panel.
The report of the Peer Review Panel, along with the information developed on the validation of the updated TG 407, should form the basis for decisions on whether the validation exercise meets the OECD principles for validation for development of this test method into an OECD Test Guideline. In this consideration, the OECD should note the various views of members of the PRP. The PRP recommends that the OECD consider the PRP report, along with the validation information, to decide on any additional work needed to finalise the validation exercise for the purposes of developing an OECD Test Guideline.
Summary of Peer Reviewers Comments against Validation Criteria
This section of the report summarises the responses of the Peer Review Panel (PRP) against the validation criteria set-out in Guidance Document (GD) 34. In the interests of completeness it also includes a summary of the status of the validation before the start of the peer review process. This was prepared by the OECD Secretariat to present the current status of the validation of the updated TG 407, within the context of the validation criteria, and was part of the package of documents made available to the PRP. It outlines how each of the 8 criteria have been addressed during the OECD exercise and how the available information supports the validity of this method. This element of this report has not been agreed by the PRP itself. It is intended to help the reader understand the context of the PRP comments without reference to several other documents. It should be stressed that the OECD Secretariat had no involvement in the deliberations of the PRP. References to different documents of the peer review package are identified as presented below and followed by the relevant paragraph number:
- Validation report: VR
- Draft test Guideline: DTG
Some members of the PRP wished to record detailed comments that either arose from consideration of the validation criteria or from consideration of the draft updated TG itself. These unattributed comments are included at Annex 1.
Criterion 1: The rationale for the test method should be available.
This should include a clear statement of the scientific basis, regulatory purpose and need for the test.
Current Status of the Validation (OECD Secretariat)
Scientific basis
Ambient levels of natural and industrial chemicals may interact with the endocrine system and as a consequence possibly elicit reproductive, developmental, and other adverse effects in humans and wildlife. The supporting evidence for these concerns has been expressed in a number of expert reviews. This leads then to the need to ensure that endpoints sensitive to these mechanisms are evaluated for the usefulness and that appropriate endpoints are incorporated into toxicity tests such as the TG 407 (VR, 3).
Regulatory purpose and need for the test
The regulatory need for this assay stems from the report that existing Test Guidelines were generally insufficient to identify certain endocrine mechanisms (oestrogen, androgen, and thyroid) and might not be adequate to fully characterize the hazards of these mechanisms (VR, 4).
The OECD initiative to develop and validate in vitro and in vivo assays for the detection of chemicals that may interfere with the endocrine response was taken following the recommendations of a number of national, regional and international workshops and following a detailed OECD review of the status of existing test and research methods.
The proposed updates to the TG 407 are intended to potentially address both (anti)estrogens and (anti)androgens as well as thyroid toxicants. In the assessment and evaluation of the toxic characteristics of a chemical, the determination of oral toxicity using repeated doses is central to hazard identification and characterization. The 28-day repeat dose study (TG 407) provides information on the possible health hazards likely to arise from repeated exposure over a relatively limited period of time. The current version of TG 407 provides information on a wide range of toxic effects and indicates target organs, but is not designed to identify particular mechanisms or modes of action. The study also serves as a dose range finder for follow-up studies and provides an estimate of a no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) of exposure for certain toxic effects, and potentially a maximum tolerated dose. This information can be used in selecting dose levels for chronic studies, if needed.
As a result of its broad spectrum of endpoints and observations, TG 407 is frequently part of regulatory data requirements. This pivotal study for the hazard assessment of chemicals is commonly performed for most high production volume chemicals, thus update of this Test Guideline suggested greater efficiency and lower animal use than constructing a battery of individual assays to address different mechanisms (VR, 2 to 5).
PRP Comments
The panel agreed that the updated test guideline (TG) 407 should not be considered to be a broad based screening assay for endocrine activity; the lack of confidence in negative results make this inappropriate. Only moderate or strong endocrine active substances (EAS) are identified (leading to 'falsenegatives' for weak endocrine active substances (EAS)) and the validation exercise did not adequately characterise the incidence of 'false-positive' responses. Regarding endocrine mediated effects, compound characterization should not therefore be based on the results of this TG alone but should use a weight-ofevidence approach using all existing data on a chemical to characterise potential endocrine activity. However, the TG was useful to identify strong or moderate EAS, and where other mechanisms such as metabolic modulation or toxicity or combinations of these with endocrine activity could cause endocrine disruption. Several members of the PRP characterised the TG as a broad, basic, repeat dose toxicity study.
There was considerable disagreement on whether the rationale was adequate. Whilst it was accepted that the frequent regulatory reference to TG 407 made an update important, including additional parameters, one member believed that the goals of the updated TG were now in conflict. This was because the update proposed differentiating between endocrinological effects which occur secondarily to toxic effects from specific disruptions to the endocrine system. One member believed that the rationale was outdated and failed to meet its rationale as it did not identify weak EAS; it could not be depended on to 'red flag' likely EAS.
While all the expectations for the updated TG 407 had not been met the panel agreed that the rationale would be acceptable if it clearly stated that it was not a broad-based screening assay that was likely to identify all EAS but represented a cost-effective means of effectively identifying moderate/strong EAS. This would be better than further refining the TG with the negative implications this would have for animal welfare.
Criterion 2: The relationship between the test method's endpoint(s) and the (biological) phenomenon of interest should be described.
This should include a reference to scientific relevance of the effect(s) measured by the test method in terms of their mechanistic (biological) or empirical (correlative) relationship to the specific type of effect/toxicity of interest. Although the relationship may be mechanistic or correlative, test methods with biological relevance to the effect/toxicity being evaluated are preferred.
Current Status of the Validation (OECD Secretariat)
In order to identify possible estrogens, antiestrogens, androgens, antiandrogens, and thyroid toxicants during the course of the 28-day repeat dose toxicity study, the principle for TG 407 updates is that the protocol incorporates the necessary array of endpoints sensitive to these mechanisms (VR, 6). Thus the updates of TG 407 rely on the measurement of the following parameters (see table below for more details):
Weight and histopathology of hormone-dependant tissues:
- male and female reproductive tracts
- thyroid and pituitary
Thyroid hormones (others not feasible)
Sperm and estrous parameters
Comparison of the current TG407 endpoints with the proposed update endpoints investigated during the phase-2 studies (VR, Table 2)
| Endpoint/ effects | Current TG 407 Endpoints |
|---|---|
| Organ/tissue weights | liver, kidney, adrenals, testes, epididymides, thymus, spleen, brain, heart |
| Histopathology | brain, spinal cord, stomach, small and large intestines, liver; kidneys, adrenals, spleen; heart, thymus, trachea, lungs, gonads, accessory sex organs (i.e., uterus, prostate), thyroid, urinary bladder, lymph nodes, peripheral nerve, bone marrow, all gross lesions |
| Thyroid Hormones | none |
| Spermatology | none |
| Estrous cycle | none |
PRP Comments
The panel agreed that the selection of parameters during the validation exercise was transparent, related to biological phenomenon and scientifically sound. Several of the PRP members pointed out that the parameters used were all from existing TGs and that the TG builds on these parameters; this was considered to be an appropriate way forward as the parameters, their use(s), limitations, use in risk assessment etc were well understood. However some members of the PRP thought that whilst the endpoints included were relevant they were not necessarily comprehensive. Other parameters would better take into account relevant sensitive life stages, species or exposure routes (such as developmental/prepubertal exposure, exposure of fish in the aquatic environment etc) but these are not compatible with an update of TG 407 which uses young adult rodents. The lack of additional controls, normally required for certain end-points, could lead to higher variability and therefore compromise the sensitivity of the end-points.
Criterion 3: A detailed protocol for the test method should be available.
The protocol should be sufficiently detailed and should include, e.g., a description of the materials needed, such as specific cell types or construct or animal species that could be used for the test (if applicable), a description of what is measured and how it is measured, a description of how data will be analysed, decision criteria for evaluation of data and what are the criteria for acceptable test performance.
Current Status of the Validation (OECD Secretariat)
A detailed protocol is provided, including guidance on the test materials needed: rat (age, weight, number of animals used), administration of doses, clinical observations, haematology and clinical biochemistry (emphasizing on conditions of sampling) and pathology.
General decision criteria for the evaluation of data are similar to existing OED Test guidelines, based on observation and statistical significance of measures. In addition, combination of TG 407 data with that from other studies (e.g. OECD reproduction toxicity screen) may be necessary in special cases (depending on exposure, use pattern etc.). A detailed guidance for histopathological evaluation of subtle effects and quality control procedures may also be needed to obviate increase in animal number (VR, 24, 276, 277, 338).
PRP Comments
The panel agreed that the protocol was sufficiently detailed, for the most part. The level of detail was comparable to that in the current TG and was sufficiently detailed to perform the test (one member thought that additional clarifications were needed in the TG and these are recorded at Annex 1, table 1). One member believed that further details would be helpful for the in-life portion of the study to help understand the variables affecting hormone concentrations. Two members of the group believed that the group size is too small to detect changes with weak acting compounds because of the physiological variability in hormone concentrations.
The panel agreed that greater guidance and further clarification was needed on data interpretation. For example, how are non-statistically significant (but numerical changes) alterations in the end-points interpreted, how to distinguish between effects that are consistent with endocrine disruption from non-specific effects that are not related to potential endocrine disruption, what changes constituted 'positive' versus 'negative' effects (e.g. weight changes for body-weight independent organs), additivity of effects in a number of organs?
Criterion 4: The intra- and inter-laboratory reproducibility of the test method should be demonstrated.
Data should be available revealing the level of reproducibility and variability within and among laboratories over time. The degree to which biological variability affects the test method reproducibility should be addressed.
Current Status of the Validation (OECD Secretariat)
In phase-2, for each chemical, duplicate independent studies have been performed in 2 laboratories, for a total of 20 studies (VR, 317). Overall, the TG 407 data and findings generally were in good agreement between the two laboratories conducting studies on the same substance. The findings in these studies support the reproducibility and reliability of the traditional use of the TG 407 in flagging possible systemic and target organ toxicity. For each of the ten test substances, changes in body weights, haematology and clinical chemistry parameters, and current absolute and relative tissue weight endpoints, and the histopathology endpoints have been compiled into comparative tables in each of the test substance chapters of the validation report. In addition, where other toxicological data were available on the test substance or a close mechanistic relative, these same endpoints have been compared with TG 407 data at the end of each test substance chapter.
These comparisons show that, within the TG 407 studies and with other toxicological data, these endpoints are fundamentally reproducible and that the TG 407 is basically a reliable predictor for other studies. The changes in body weight were a reproducible effect between the TG 407 studies, noting that, based on the power calculations, the percent change in body weight often had to be > 10% to achieve significance even with the low CV for this measurement. Similar body weight changes were observed in longer and more detailed toxicological assays. For haematological and clinical chemistry parameters, four basic classifications were entertained: 1) the parameters was statistically significant in both studies, 2) the parameter was statistically significant in one study and the absolute trend in the other study was in agreement, 3) the parameters was statistically significant in one study and the absolute trend in the other study was unchanged or moved in the opposite direction, and 4) the direction of statistical significance was in the opposite direction between the two studies. Within the TG 407 studies, the bulk of the changes fell into the first two categories. These data were often not published for other toxicological assays, so no comparison here was consistently made and no conclusion is offered. For tissue weights, such as liver, kidneys, and adrenals, the TG 407 studies were fundamentally reproducible and matched findings in longer and more detailed toxicological assays. Histopathological findings were also similar both among the TG 407 studies for a test substance and with longer and more detailed histopathological studies. Due to the longer time of administration, LOEL doses in these non-TG 407 studies were typically lower, as would be expected (VR, 336, 337).
The CV values of the proposed update tissue weights were slightly higher than a number of current tissues. For example, current tissues, that are larger and easier to dissect, such as liver and testes, had lower mean CVs ranging from about 8 to 11. As tissues became smaller and more difficult to dissect, CVs increased. Mean CVs were 12-14 for paired adrenals, 18-19 for pituitary, and 20-21 for the thyroid. Fluid-filled male accessory tissues that are difficult to dissect, such as the prostate lobes, had higher mean CVs approaching 24. The CVs for the uterus and for the male accessory tissues were consistent with those observed in the uterotrophic and Hershberger validation programs. In addition, as also with the uterotrophic and Hershberger studies, CV values varied and appeared to be related with the individual performing laboratories. This suggests that laboratory technique is a possible variable and could be connected to the ability to detect weakly acting substances (VR 338).
PRP Comments
The panel agreed that the criterion was sufficiently met for an animal test. Several members pointed out that the variability from using animals in 'small' subgroups contributed to the inability of the TG to detect weak acting EAS; the more potent substances were more readily detected by statisticallysignificant changes in the end-points. One member thought that the lack of blind coding of tests could potentially have an influence.
Criterion 5: Demonstration of the test method's performance should be based on the testing of reference chemicals representative of the types of substances for which the test method will be used.
A sufficient number of the reference chemicals should have been tested under code to exclude bias.
Current Status of the Validation (OECD Secretariat)
Representativity
For phase-2 of the validation, consultation by the Lead Laboratory with the participating laboratories and other experts led to the proposal for a battery of ten test substances, ranging from pharmaceuticals to substances with broad environmental release and human exposure. These substances, covering a large range of modes of action (see table below) include 6 strongly acting substances and 4 substances that are considered to be weakly acting. The six strongly acting substances were ethinyl estradiol, tamoxifen, methyl testosterone, flutamide, l-Thyroxine, and propylthiouracil, and the four additional weak substances were CGS 18320B, p,p'-DDE, genistein, and nonylphenol.
| Chemical | Mode of action | Type of chemical |
|---|---|---|
| Ethinyl estradiol | Potent oestrogen | Pharmaceutical |
| Genistein | Weak oestrogen | Natural isoflavone |
| Nonylphenol | Weak oestrogen | Industrial chemical |
| Tamoxifen | Potent antioestrogen | Pharmaceutical |
| CGS 18320B | Antioestrogen - Aromatase inhibitor | Metabolic inhibitor |
| Methyltestosterone (MT) | Potent androgen (aromatisable) | Pharmaceutical |
| Flutamide (FLU) | Potent anti-androgen | Pharmaceutical |
| p,p’-DDE (DDE) | Weak anti-androgen | Pesticide |
| Methoxychlor | Weak estrogen - antiandrogen | Pesticide |
| Propylthiouracil | Thyroid toxicant | Pharmaceutical |
| l-Thyroxine | Thyroid agonist | Natural hormone, Pharmaceutical |
Coding
In Phase-1 and Phase-2, none of the substances tested has been coded. The purpose of coded substance is to avoid bias in the results due to prior knowledge of the expected responses. Guidance Document 34 says that it is "preferable" but it is not a requirement.
PRP Comments
The PRP agreed that the number of reference chemicals was small but that this was acceptable for reasons of animal welfare and also because the TG was being updated rather than developed from scratch so the various parameters could be regarded as having been validated. Several of the PRP thought that whilst non-blind reading was a theoretical problem, in practice it was not because of the level of complexity involved and whilst no negative reference chemical was used, with certain limitations, compounds representing one mode of action can be considered as a negative reference for other modes of action. Several of the PRP would have liked weak EAS to have been used as reference chemicals in addition to those used. One member pointed out that no weak-acting thyroid agents were evaluated (DDE which affects the thyroid via liver enzyme induction as Phenobarbital could be considered to be a surrogate).
Criterion 6: The performance of the test method should have been evaluated in relation to relevant information from the species of concern, and existing relevant toxicity testing data.
In the case of a substitute test method adequate data should be available to permit a reliable analysis of the performance and comparability of the proposed substitute test method with that of the test it is designed to replace.
Current Status of the Validation (OECD Secretariat)
In the case of the updated TG 407, the new parameters incorporated to the TG are intended to enable an initial screening of effects (endocrine disruption potential) that are not investigated in the current TG 407. Thus a comparison between current TG 407 and updated TG 407 would not be relevant.
However, in phase-2, the laboratories were requested to conduct the full updated TG 407 so as to assess whether any interference or compromise would be encountered with the functional observation battery or any other current protocol requirements (VR, v). The validation study has proved that the ability of laboratories to perform the entire TG 407 protocol was not negatively impacted by the updates. Laboratories were able to conduct the functional observation and motor activity batteries without interference (VR, xii).
A comparison has been made in most cases between the results of the updated TG 407 and other toxicological assays with longer and or in utero exposures, with the same or similar endocrine active test substances. At least some data were found for all substances except methyl testosterone and l-thyroxine. These comparisons support the ability of the TG 407 to detect systemic, target organ and endocrine-related toxicities for potent chemicals. Where chronic studies or reproductive and development studies easily detected effects, concordant results were typically found in the current TG 407 studies for systemic, target organ, and endocrine toxicities, but where only marginal effects were observed in longer term studies, the updated TG 407 may not be able to detect clear endocrine-related effects.
As expected, the chronic circumstances in the reproductive and developmental studies usually resulted in the findings at lower doses than in the TG 407 studies, but not in all cases such as with PTU. These comparisons are summarised at the end of each test substance chapter in the validation report (VR, 343).
PRP Comments
The PRP agreed that the criterion was met. One member believed that the analysis was inadequate as it did not consider the results from ongoing validation work on OECD projects and draft test guidelines and assays in peer review. One member thought that the assessment of the oestrus cycle and killing of females in diestrus could be further considered N.B. assessment of the cycle for at least 5 consecutive days and killing in diestrus is contained in draft updated TG 407.
Criterion 7: Ideally, all data supporting the validity of a test method should have been obtained in accordance with the principles of GLP.
Aspects of data collection not performed according to GLP should be clearly identified and their potential impact on the validation status of the test method should be indicated.
Current Status of the Validation (OECD Secretariat)
The laboratories were encouraged to perform the updated TG 407 protocol in compliance with Good Laboratory Practices (GLP). From the reports received from the various laboratories, it appeared that 13 of the 20 studies were carried out in full compliance with GLP. Five of the studies were carried out under procedures that could be considered as generally complying with GLP, but that would require a quality assurance audit for one or more aspects in order to bring the studies into full, confirmed compliance. Two studies were apparently not carried out in accordance with GLP.
The GLP status of the studies is summarised at Annex 1, and additional comments have been provided as to whether the test substance dosing solutions were analyzed to confirm that the nominal doses were indeed administered. This important study element was confirmed to have been done for 18 of the 20 updated TG 407 studies (VR, 24, 25, table 8).
PRP Comments
The PRP agreed that this criterion was met. Where data was not collected in accordance with GLP there appeared to be no impact on the validity of the results.
Criterion 8: All data supporting the assessment of the validity of the test method should be available for expert review.
The detailed test method protocol should be readily available and in the public domain. The data supporting the validity of the test method should be organised and easily accessible to allow for independent review(s), as appropriate. The test method description should be sufficiently detailed to permit an independent laboratory to follow the procedures and generate equivalent data. Benchmarks should be available by which an independent laboratory can itself assess its proper adherence to the protocol.
Current Status of the Validation (OECD Secretariat)
It is intended that the materials documenting the protocol development, validation and associated supporting documents will be made freely available by promulgation through the OECD or by publication in the peer reviewed literature. The validation report has been declassified by the Joint Meeting and is now available on the OECD public website. Additionally, a publication to compare the results obtained with the enhanced 407 with data from standard tests of longer or in utero exposure has been written on behalf of CEFIC Endocrine Modulators Steering Group (CEFIC-EMSG). It has now been accepted for publication
in a scientific journal. A draft of the Test guideline is also available to the Peer reviewers on the OECD public website.
PRP Comments
The PRP agreed that this criterion was met. The panel agreed that further guidance and training would be needed (e.g. trimming of tissues, histopathology).
Conclusion
Has the updated TG 407 been sufficiently evaluated and has its performance been satisfactorily characterized by the OECD validation program to support its proposed extended use for also screening the potential of substances to act as (anti)estrogens, (anti)androgens or thyroid toxicants in vivo?
PRP Comments:
The PRP agreed that the TG was a useful update of the existing TG 407 and addition to the bank of TGs. However, its lack of sensitivity ('false-negatives') means that it is not appropriate to use as a 'classical' screening assay. The problems with identification (or lack) of weak EAS and the unknown rate of 'false-positives' (N.B. difficult to identify and assess) mean that the results must be used with care. The panel stressed that regulatory decision making on endocrine activity (compound characterisation) should not be solely based on results from application of this TG. Several members pointed out that basing a screen on adult animals is unlikely to result in a sensitive screening assay.
The panel however agreed that the addition of end-points to the current TG 407 would enhance the ability of the updated TG 407 to detect strong or moderate EAS. As part of a weight of evidence approach the updated TG would also in some cases provide additional information on possible health hazards from repeated exposure over a limited period of time, flag possible systemic and target organ toxicity, and provide first evidence of dose response relationship.
The panel believed that only moderate or potent EAS would be detected and therefore the updated TG 407 cannot be considered to be a 'stand-alone' test for detecting EAS. A negative result cannot be accepted as meaning that a substance is not an EAS nor can a positive result be taken as categorical proof that a substance is an EAS. Additional assays are needed to detect weak EAS; some assays already exist to identify some weak acting EAS and it is expected that new approaches will be developed and validated in the near future. One member pointed out that weak-acting thyroid active agents were not evaluated and may not be detected (as mentioned above, DDE could be considered to be a surrogate, in which case a weak activating compound is also included).
In conclusion, the panel agreed that whilst there were shortcomings in the updated TG 407 it was a useful update, at least in the short to medium term, to the battery of test guidelines. These shortcomings need to be clearly stated as well as greater guidance provided to those operating the TG.
ANNEX 1 - DETAILED COMMENTS FROM PRP MEMBERS ON TECHNICAL ISSUES
Two members recommended performing counts of homogenization-resistant spermatids (testis) rather than sperm from the epididymis as the former is associated with a lower variability than sperm counts.
One member thought it was inappropriate to require "at least 2 doses below the overt toxic dose" (para 14.a) as even with range-finding studies the dose selection cannot guarantee that major toxicity is not seen in a lower dose group. This could mean that a request to have 2 doses below major toxicity would require a further study (even if the overall evaluation of the toxicity profile is possible). A change of wording to make clear that overt toxicity should be limited to the highest dose tested, as far as is reasonably possible, should be considered.
One member believed that the updated TG should require in vitro testing for endocrine activity before looking at endocrine effect associated parameters; this would require a definitive scheme of testing and assessment to be developed and stipulated in advance. Another member pointed out that not all substances having endocrine activity can be detected by in vitro systems due to the metabolism of parent compounds and possible effects on the metabolism and synthesis of endogenous hormones.
One member proposed the following detailed changes to updated TG 407:
| Issue | Position |
|---|---|
| The timing of female necropsy needs to be adjusted by oestrous cycle. | Females in the same group should be necropsied on the same day relative to their oestrous cycles. |
| Measurement of thyroid hormone (T4) (draft TG: 29a, 29b) | Not necessary for T4 measurement |
| Measurement of thyroid hormone (plasma) (draft TG: 29b) | Change “plasma samples” to “plasma or serum samples”. |
| Measurement of thyroid hormone | Is measurement of thyroid hormones necessary? |
| Observation of oestrous cycle by vaginal smear (draft TG: 23a) | Synchronization of the oestrous cycle by vaginal smear is not necessary for blinded examination. |
| Fixation of tissues such as testis, epidiymis | Appropriate fixation (ex. Bouin’s solution etc.) needs to be selected. |
| Diet sample retention and analysis of dietary contaminants (draft TG: 8a) | Is this necessary? If needed, which contaminants should be tested for, and how does one determine their standard levels? A detailed protocol needs to be provided. |
| Additional parameters of blood clinical biochemistry (draft TG: 29) | A specific description for additional parameters needs to be provided. |
| Chemical | Lab | GLP Compliance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| | | Yes | No |
| Ethinyl Oestradiol | 2 | 9 | |
| | 5 | 9 | |
| Genistein | 4 | 9 | |
| | 12 | 9 | |
| Nonylphenol | 1 | 9 | |
| | 6 | 9 | |
| Tamoxifen | 3 | | 9 |
| | 10 | | 9 |
| CGS 18320B | 8 | 9 | |
| | 13 | 9 | |
| Methyl Testosterone | 3 | | 9 |
| | 12 | 9 | |
| Flutamide | 2 | 9 | |
| | 11 | 9 | |
| p,p’-DDE | 6 | 9 | |
| | 7 | | 9 |
| Propyl- thiouracil | 1 | 9 | |
| | 10 | | 9 |
| l-Thyroxine | 9 | | 9 |
| | 13 | 9 | |
|
Proposed Ike Dike Project In Galveston, Texas
Maria Adey
Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's, NL, Canada firstname.lastname@example.org
ABSTRACT
On September 13 th , 2008, Hurricane Ike made landfall along the southeast coast of Texas, devastating Galveston Island, the city of Galveston and the Bolivar peninsula. Ike was a category 2 hurricane when it made landfall in Galveston and consisted of 200 km/h hour winds at the hurricane eye and storm surges of up to six metres in height. The hurricane resulted in $25 billion in damages and left 1,500 people homeless. [1]
A 17-foot high seawall currently protects the city of Galveston, while a 27-kilometre network of levees protects Texas City. The levees were designed to withstand a 100-year storm event, but were damaged as a result of Hurricane Ike. North of Texas City is the Port of Houston, which is the second largest port in the country and an important economic centre. The Texas City Dike was nearly topped during Hurricane Ike and future storm surges present a threat to the Port of Houston. [2]
To address the threat of future hurricanes, Dr. William J. Merrell and the Texas A&M University in Galveston have proposed the construction of the "Ike Dike". This project would consist of strengthening the existing Galveston seawall, protecting the rest of Galveston and Bolivar by adding revetments and raising coastal highways, and constructing sea gates at the San Luis Pass and Bolivar Roads. [3]
The following paper will overview the existing storm surge infrastructure and provide a brief analysis of the cost, benefits, and challenges associated with the proposed Ike Dike. It will also examine the environmental impacts of the Ike Dike, as it will alter the water exchange between Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
1 INTRODUCTION
On September 13 th , 2008, Hurricane Ike made landfall at Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula, along the southeast coast of Texas. The storm was classified as a category 2 hurricane when it hit the Texan Coast and most citizens of the City of Galveston were warned to evacuate the city. Storm surge from Hurricane Ike inundated the City of Galveston and left no structures intact along the Bolivar Peninsula.
Fortunately, Texas City and the Port of Houston, which are located north of Galveston, were not damaged as a result of Hurricane Ike. The existing protective barriers and seawalls along the coast of Galveston Island prevented the storm surge from creating further damage. However, if the storm surge had penetrated through the Bolivar inlet, into the bay, or if the Texas City Dike had been overtopped, there could have been devastating consequences to Texas City and the Port of Houston. [2]
As a result of Hurricane Ike, Dr. William J. Merrell of Texas A&M University has been advocating for the construction of a large project called the "Ike Dike", which aims to increase storm surge protection along the coast in order to ensure no future flooding in Galveston or the Port of Houston. This project is still in the proposal phase, but has received both positive and negative criticism from the public. [4]
2 SITE DESCRIPTION
Galveston Bay is a large estuary on the southeast coast of Texas, which provides a transition between the fresh water of the Trinity River and the saline water of the Gulf of Mexico. Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula are located at the Bay entrance and act as barrier islands, separating the Gulf of Mexico from Galveston Bay. Galveston Island is home to the City of Galveston; during storms and hurricanes, these barriers take the biggest impact from storm surge.
In addition to the City of Galveston, Texas City, home to a large petrochemical complex, is located on the west end of Galveston Bay. The Port of Houston is located north of Texas City, at the top of Galveston Bay. Houston is the second largest port in the United States and directly contributes more than $175 billion a year to the US economy. If either city were to be compromised as a result of a storm or hurricane, it would result in large economic repercussions. [2]
2.1 Existing Infrastructure
Following a hurricane in 1900, the Galveston seawall was commissioned to protect the City of Galveston from storm surge during future storm events. The seawall still exists and has gone through many extensions over the years. However, the seawall has sustained significant damage and is in need of rehabilitation. The structure currently extends along the coast of Galveston Island for more than 10 miles. The curved-face concrete structure is approximately 17 feet high and has a thickness of 16 feet. [5] Although the seawall was topped during Hurricane Ike, it is estimated that the structure prevented approximately $100 million in further damages. [6] However, had the hurricane made landfall 30 miles to the south, current infrastructure would not have been adequate to protect the surrounding area from the resulting storm surge which would have been catastrophic. [7]
In addition to the Galveston Seawall, the Texas City Dike is a 5-mile levee that extends from Texas City into Galveston Bay towards the channel between Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula. While the Texas City Dike was originally constructed to reduce sediment accumulation in Galveston Bay and the Houston Shipping Channel, it is currently part of a 27-kilometre network of levees that protects the surrounding area from storm surge from Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The dike was also overtopped during Hurricane Ike and was heavily damaged. [8]
3 PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Ike Dike Project proposed by Merrell will consist of three main activities; strengthening the existing Galveston seawall, protecting the rest of Galveston and Bolivar by adding revetments and raising coastal highways, and constructing sea gates at the San Luis Pass and Bolivar Road. [3]
3.1 Galveston Seawall
The existing Galveston Seawall offers protection from storm surge on the exterior side of Galveston Island, adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico; however, there is no storm surge protection from Galveston Bay on the interior side of Galveston Island. The top of the seawall consists of a 4-lane thoroughfare, which then drops several feet, leaving Galveston City vulnerable to flooding. Merrell proposes to strengthen and extend the Galveston Seawall, but not to construct a seawall on the Bay side of the island as the construction of the Ike Dike will protect against any storm surge in Galveston Bay.
[9]
3.2 Revetments
The Galveston Seawall extensions proposed by Merrell will be realized either by constructing land-based revetments along the beaches of Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula or by raising coastal highways, located further away from the beach. The Galveston Seawall would be extended for another 18 miles to the San Luis Pass on Galveston Island and a 35-mile coastal barrier would be constructed along the Bolivar Peninsula. This will be achieved either through 17-foot high coastal barriers along the beach, or by raising the existing highway on Galveston Island and Highway 87 on the Bolivar Peninsula by 12 feet.
In order to minimize disturbance to beaches, a popular attraction for many tourists, sloped revetments composed of natural materials are proposed for the coastal barriers. Revetment design includes adding sand and encouraging vegetation growth on both sides of the barrier, sloping down from the top in order to provide beach access. Towards the end of the barrier on either side, it may be necessary to continue to wrap around the island to ensure total protection from storm surge. [9]
3.3 Sea Gates
The final component of Merrell's proposed Ike Dike is a set of gated barriers, called the "Galveston Gates", at both the Bolivar Roads and the San Luis Pass. These gates would be the most costly part of the project. They would remain open except during hurricane events, in which case they would be closed to prevent storm surge in Galveston Bay. These barriers would also remain at a height of 17-feet, the same as the coastal barriers. Bolivar roads is a larger and busier waterway than the San Luis Pass and therefore would involve a larger gate. [9]
Much of the technology to construct the Galveston Gates already exists; technology used to design the Rotterdam flood gates in the Netherlands was used in preliminary designs of the Galveston Gates. The most constricting factor of this phase of the Ike Dike project is the cost. Rough cost estimates suggest that the Galveston Gates would cost approximately $3 billion. [2]
4 COST ESTIMATE
The total cost of the project is estimated at approximately $6 billion. However, at this stage in the design and decision making process, it is likely that many changes will be made before the Ike Dike project will ever by built. While the project is expensive, the cost is small in comparison to the $25 billion in damages caused as a result of Hurricane Ike. [4] Along the Texan coast it is not a question of whether another hurricane will eventually strike, but when.
The gate barriers are the most expensive part of the project. It is estimated that the sea barriers would cost approximately $1 to $2 million per metre width of the barrier and the lift gates would cost between $0.5 and $1.5 million per metre width. The total cost of the sea barriers and gates is estimated between $2.1 and $3.4 billion. [2]
The cost of constructing the levee system was estimated based on the cost of Dutch levees constructed in the Netherlands. These levees are approximately 16.5 metres in height. The Ike Dike levees are estimated to cost between $6,000 and $10,000 per metre width. The total cost of design and materials is estimated at approximately $3 to $4.5 million, placing the final cost of the Ike Dike at approximately $6 billion. [2]
5 PROJECT BENEFITS
The greatest threat currently posed in the event of another category 2 hurricane or higher is flooding of the Port of Houston. As the second largest port in the United States, any damage caused to Houston could result in expensive consequences. The port generates more than $175 billion a year and directly contributes to the US economy. If the port were forced to close for even a month, it would result in a $60 billion loss to the national economy. [2]
The construction of the Ike Dike would protect the Port of Houston against such losses, in addition to protecting Texas City and the City of Galveston against flooding. This area experiences a category 3 hurricane or higher every 15 years on average, making it likely that similar events to Hurricane Ike will occur again in the future [9]. This likelihood increases with global warming and changing weather patterns, which increase the number of storm events and severity. The Ike Dike will prevent future economic losses related to damaged infrastructure and loss of life as a result of hurricane damages and storm surge in Galveston Bay.
6 PROJECT CHALLENGES
Special considerations need to be made when designing the Bolivar Roads and San Luis Pass barriers, as well as the coastal barriers, to ensure that tidal patterns and the Galveston Bay ecosystem are not disrupted.
6.1 Tidal Prism
Constructing sea barriers across Bolivar Roads and San Luis Pass will significantly reduce the inlets to Galveston Bay. While the gates would remain open except in hurricane events, it is likely that the barriers would alter current patterns, changing the flow velocities in the bay and around the inlets [10]. The Bolivar Roads Barrier would decrease flow into Galveston Bay by 40 to 60%, increasing the likelihood of impacting the tidal prism. [2]
Tidal prism refers to the average volume of water in Galveston Bay between high and low tides [11]. The Galveston Gates have the potential to disrupt the tidal patterns in the bay by decreasing the tidal range. The barriers would result in lower flow velocities around the inlet, which would subsequently result in more sedimentation around the barriers and inlets. Therefore, the sediment exchange between the Gulf of Mexico and Galveston Bay would be affected and there would also be an increase in the residence time of the water. [10]
In addition, this increase in residence time would result in a decrease in the salinity of the water and can affect other factors such as temperature, pH level, and nutrients, which affects plant growth. These factors greatly influence the current patterns and ecosystem in Galveston Bay. [10]
6.2 Coastal Barriers
There are several design options to consider for the coastal barrier extension from the Galveston Seawall. This includes "levee in dune" barriers, natural dune barriers, or raising coastal highways. The "levee in dune" barrier is described as a revetment with sand and vegetation sloping from the levee, whereas a natural dune is formed solely of natural materials. Both options have advantages and disadvantages.
Both barriers have the advantage of looking natural in order to encourage beach use and tourism, but the "levee in dune" barrier has the advantage of having a solid core. Natural dunes are easily affected by erosion and sedimentation from high waves and there is a large degree of uncertainty in how the barrier will behave in storm events. Both options change the beach topography along the coast and over time it is expected that the surface area and height of the barriers will be reduced.
The third option for coastal barriers is to instead raise coastal highways to act as storm surge barriers. The main advantage of raising coastal highways is to ensure safe evacuation in the event of a major hurricane event. The barrier would also be constructed on materials substantially stronger than that used in the revetments. The main disadvantages of this option are cost and safety. Raising coastal highways would be much more expensive than revetments and they are located further back from the coast, leaving a greater area vulnerable to storm surge. [2]
7 ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
The Galveston Gates will alter the water exchange between Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico and the extension of the Galveston Seawall will change the coastal landscape of Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula. It is essential to analyse both the short-term construction impacts and long-term environmental impacts as a result of the construction of the Ike Dike.
In addition to tidal prism, a decrease in salinity in Galveston Bay will also result in a decrease in water quality. Slower flow velocities in the channel make it easier for contaminants, bacteria, and pollutants to accumulate and increase, which can affect the large variety of species found in the bay. Increased sedimentation can affect sensitive habitats, seagrasses, and oyster reefs and have a negative impact on plant growth and the natural food chain. [10]
The construction of the Galveston Gates and coastal barriers can also have an adverse effect on Galveston Bay's estuaries and tributaries, as well as bay marshes and coastal wetlands. The construction of coastal barriers will greatly change the topography of coastal beaches and much of the area would be disturbed during construction. In order to ensure sustainable development and minimal environmental impact, it is necessary to conduct additional studies on how the Ike Dike will affect the coastal environment and mitigate any adverse effects in the project design. [12]
8 CONCLUSIONS
At this stage, the Ike Dike remains a concept for hurricane mitigation, pioneered primarily by Merrell. In order for the Ike Dike to be considered as a viable option, the concept needs to be better developed, a more detailed cost needs to be estimated, storm surge needs to be analysed, and further studies need to be conducted on the environmental impact of altering natural water exchange between Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
While the project would be expensive, the costs associated with another hurricane passing through Galveston Bay are much higher. Much of the current infrastructure was damaged in Hurricane Ike and it is necessary to strengthen infrastructure in order to protect against future economic losses and loss of life. As population continues to increase and economic centres, such as the Port of Houston, continue to grow, it becomes increasingly important to protect coastal areas from future hurricane events.
REFERENCES
[1] Wikipedia, "Hurricane Ike" [online], [cited January 16, 2013], available from World Wide Web: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ike>
[2] Kasper Stoeten, "Applying best practices from the Delta Works and New Orleans to Galveston Bay", Texas A&M University, 2012
[3] William J. Merrell, "The Ike Dike – A Coastal Barrier Protecting the Houston/Galveston Region from Hurricane Storm Surge" Presentation, Texas A&M University, 2011
[4] William J. Merrell, "Let's Build the Ike Dike", Texas A&M University
[5] Clark Bartee, "Galveston Seawall and Grade Raising Project: Located on the Gulf of Mexico, Galveston Island, Texas", International Engineering History and Heritage, p 461-469, 2001
[6] Wikipedia, "Galveston Seawall" [online], [cited February 20, 2013], available from World Wide Web: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galveston_Seawall>
[7] Jeff L. Brown, "Texas Coastal Communities Ponder Storm Surge Barrier", Civil Engineering News, 2010
[8] Wikipedia, "Texas City Dike" [online], [cited February 20, 2013], available from World Wide Web: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Dike#Hurricane_Ike_damage>
[9] William J. Merrel, "The Ike Dike: A Coastal Barrier Protecting the Houston/Galveston Region from Hurricane Storm Surge", Macro-engineering Seawater in Unique Environments, 2011, p 691716
[10] M. Ruijs, "The Effects of the Ike Dike Barriers on Galveston Bay", Delft University of Technology, 2011
[11] Wikipedia, "Tidal Prism" [online], [cited February 20, 2013], available from World Wide Web: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_prism>
[12] Galveston Bay Foundation, "Strategies for Future Hurricane Mitigation", 2009
|
SINGLE FAMILY DESIGN BOARD MINUTES
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
David Gebhard Public Meeting Room: 630 Garden Street
3:00 P.M.
BOARD MEMBERS: WILLIAM MAHAN, CHAIR
PAUL ZINK, VICE-CHAIR
BERNI BERNSTEIN
ERIN CARROLL
GLEN DEISLER
GARY MOSEL
DENISE WOOLERY
CITY COUNCIL LIAISON: DALE FRANCISCO
PLANNING COMMISSION LIAISON: STELLA LARSON
STAFF: JAIME LIMÓN, Design Review Supervisor
HEATHER BAKER, Project Planner
TONY BOUGHMAN, Planning Technician
GLORIA SHAFER, Commission Secretary
Website: www.SantaBarbaraCa.gov
PLEASE BE ADVISED
* The approximate time the project will be reviewed is listed to the left of each item. It is suggested that applicants arrive 15 minutes early. The agenda schedule is subject to change as cancellations occur. Staff will notify applicants of time changes.
* The applicant's presence is required. If an applicant is not present, the item will be postponed indefinitely. If an applicant cancels or postpones an item without providing advance notice, the item will be postponed indefinitely and will not be placed on the following Single Family Design Board (SFDB) agenda. In order to reschedule the item for review, a rescheduling fee will be paid and the applicant must fill out and file a Supplemental Application Form at 630 Garden Street (Community Development Department) in addition to submitting appropriate plans.
* All approvals made by the SFDB are based on compliance with Municipal Code Chapter 22.69 and with adopted SFDB guidelines and require Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance Findings (§22.69.050). Some agenda items required preparation of a mailed notice.
* The SFDB may grant an approval for any project scheduled on the agenda if sufficient information has been provided and no other discretionary review is required. Additional plan sheets with more detailed information or other project information are allowed if the project proposal is consistent with agendized plans. Plan substitution is not allowed for the first Concept Review for mailed notice items, Preliminary Approval or Final Approval hearings. The Board may refer items to the Consent Calendar for Preliminary and Final Approval.
* Preliminary Architectural Board of Review approval is valid for one year and Final approval is valid for two years from the date of the approval unless a time extension or Building Permit has been granted.
* Decisions of the SFDB may be appealed to the City Council. For further information on appeals, contact the Planning Division Staff or the City Clerk's office. Appeals must be in writing and must be filed with the City Clerk at City Hall within ten (10) calendar days of the meeting at which the Board took action or rendered its decision.
* AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT: In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting, please contact the Planning Division at (805) 564-5470. Notification at least 48 hours prior to the meeting will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements.
* AGENDAS, MINUTES and REPORTS: Copies of all documents relating to agenda items are available for review at 630 Garden St. and agendas and minutes are posted online at www.SantaBarbaraCa.gov/sfdb If you have any questions or wish to review the plans, please contact Tony Boughman, Planning Technician II at (805) 564-5470 between the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and every other Friday. Please check our website for closure dates.
NOTICE:
1. That on May 22, 2008 at 3:00 p.m., this Agenda was duly posted on the indoor and outdoor bulletin boards at the Community Development Department, 630 Garden Street, and online at www.SantaBarbaraCa.gov/sfdb.
2. This regular meeting of the Single Family Design Board will be broadcast live on City TV-18, or on your computer via http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/Government/Video/ and then clicking City TV-18 Live Broadcast. City TV-18 will also rebroadcast this meeting in its entirety on Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. An archived video copy of this meeting will be viewable on computers with high speed internet access the following Wednesday at www.santabarbaraca.gov/sfdb and then clicking Online Meetings.
GENERAL BUSINESS:
A. Call to order.
The Full Board meeting was called to order at 3:03 p.m.
B. Roll call.
Members present: Carroll, Woolery, Deisler, Mahan, Zink, Bernstein
Members absent: Mosel
Staff present:
Baker, Boughman, Limon, Shafer
C. Public Comment:
No public comment.
D. Approval of Minutes:
Motion:
Approval of the minutes of the Architectural Board of Review meeting of April 28, 2008, as amended.
Action:
Zink/Deisler, 5/0/1. Motion carried. (Mahan abstained. Mosel absent.)
Motion:
Approval of the minutes of the Architectural Board of Review meeting of May 12, 2008, as amended.
Action:
Zink/Carroll, 5/0/1. Motion carried. (Zink abstained. Mosel absent.)
E. Consent Calendar:
Motion:
Ratify the Consent Calendar. The Consent Calendar of May 19, 2008 was reviewed by Glen Diesler with the exception of the landscaping for Items C, D, E and F, reviewed by Erin Carroll. Carroll/Zink, 6/0/0. Motion carried. (Mosel absent.)
Action:
Motion:
Ratify the Consent Calendar. The Consent Calendar was reviewed by Glen Diesler.
Action:
Woolery/Bernstein, 6/0/0. Motion carried. (Mosel absent.)
F. Announcements, requests by applicants for continuances and withdrawals, future agenda items, and appeals.
1. Item 1, 840 Cima Linda Lane, is postponed indefinitely.
2. Ms. Baker thanked Denise Woolery and Erin Carroll for their assistance preparing an invasive species list.
G. Subcommittee Reports.
No subcommittee reports.
H. Possible Ordinance Violations.
No violations reported.
Discussion Item
Draft Final Approval Submittal Checklist for Design Review, review and comment.
Staff: Heather Baker, Project Planner; Jaime Limon, Sr. Planner.
(3:18)
Ms. Baker and Mr. Limon presented proposed changes to correct discrepancies between the counter handout and the Board's agenda. Clarification is needed specifically regarding the level of "consultant" details (Electrical, Plumbing, Mechanical and Structural plans) needed for final Design Review, and when such plans are applicable to the Design Review process. Providing complete consultant drawings for final design review hearings creates additional applicant cost, and overcrowding of City Design Review storage facilities.
It was the Board's consensus that applicants are to submit evidence that necessary plans are complete, with only the architectural sheets necessary for Board review to be submitted, however the Board may request additional consultant sheets be provided for review if deemed necessary.
PRELIMINARY REVIEW
1. 840 CIMA LINDA LN
A-2 Zone
Assessor's Parcel Number: 015-162-019
Application Number:
MST2007-00500
Owner:
Chuck and Lisa Mounts
Architect:
Kent Mixon
(Proposed 96 square foot addition to an existing 6,063 square foot, two-story residence with an attached three-car garage. The improvements include a new detached 721 square foot, covered terrace and a new swimming pool and spa.)
(Environmental assessment is complete. Action may be taken if sufficient information is provided.)
(3:28)
Postponed indefinitely at applicant's request.
CONCEPT REVIEW - NEW ITEM: PUBLIC HEARING
2. 1708 CHINO ST
Assessor's Parcel Number: 043-183-020
Application Number:
MST2008-00143
Owner:
Manuel and Maria Elena Rodriguez
Architect:
Garcia Architects
(Proposal for a new 546 square foot second-story addition. The existing 1,091 square foot one-story single-family residence including a 187 square foot detached one-car garage is located on a 3,800 square foot lot. Staff Hearing Officer Approval of a modification is requested to allow alterations to the existing porch in the required front yard setback. The proposed total of 1,824 square feet is 83% of the maximum guideline FAR.)
(Comments only; project requires environmental assessment and Staff Hearing Officer approval of a modification.)
(3:57)
Present:
Gil Garcia; Architect; Ubaldo Diaz, Project Manager; Manual Rodrigurez, Owner.
Public comment opened at 4:04 p.m. As no one wished to speak public comment was closed.
Motion:
Continued indefinitely to the Staff Hearing Officer and return to the Full Board with the following comments:
1) The trellis on either side of the house is acceptable as presented.
2) The Board would prefer to see garage windows in proportion to windows typical of the style of architecture, any modifications required are supportable.
3) Provide photos of other two-story homes in the reasonable immediate neighborhood.
Action:
Woolery/Diesler, 6/0/0. Motion carried. (Mosel absent.)
PRELIMINARY REVIEW
3. 1025 LAS ALTURAS RD
(4:30)
A-1 Zone
Assessor's Parcel Number: 019-113-052
Application Number:
MST2005-00791
Owner:
Steven Adrian and Gina Giannetto
Architect:
Steven Adrian
(Proposal for a new 2,244 square foot three-story single-family residence with a 470 square foot basement, an attached 465 square foot garage, a 440 square foot roof-top terrace, 72 square feet of balconies, a 494 square foot detached accessory structure, a 125 square foot covered patio, a 240 square foot terrace. The project is located on a 46,145 square foot vacant lot in the Hillside Design District. The proposal also includes the removal of 8 Acacia trees, the construction of a 114 linear foot retaining wall, a swimming pool, and 357 cubic yards of grading. The proposed total of 2,244 square feet is 45% of the maximum guideline FAR.)
(Second review at SFDB. Story poles are installed on site.)
(4:18)
R-2 Zone
Present: Steven, Adrian Architect/Owner; Gina Giannetto, Owner.
Public comment opened at 4:30 p.m.
1) Kathleen Weimheimer, representing the Edmonds, opposed. 1) Concerned that building exceeds the 30 foot height limit; 2) concerned that the apparent height, will be near 60 feet; 3) visibility; 4) intrusive tower element (submitted letter and photos).
2) Richard Edmonds, opposed. Concerned about loss of views; height.
3) David Edmonds, opposed. Concerned about loss views, proposed height (submitted photo).
4) Donna Tobin, opposed. Concerned about loss views from installation of palm trees, retaining wall, driveway back-out, and canyon integrity.
5) Jan Luc, opposed. Proposal has changed from original presentation 10 years ago. Opposed to height (submitted photo).
6) Penelope True, opposed. Concerned about canyon integrity, loss of undeveloped bowl (submitted photos).
7) Tim Sulger, opposed. Opposed to the scope and height of the project. Likes project, but too tall.
8) Richard Warner, in favor. Proposal is significantly under height, bulk, and scale limits. Public comment closed at 4:47 p.m.
Staff comment: Ms. Baker stated that the type of Palm tree proposed might potentially be an invasive species.
Motion: Preliminary Approval of the project with the finding that the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance criteria have been met as stated in Subsection 22.69.050 of the City of Santa Barbara Municipal Code, and return to Full Board with the following comments:
1) Story pole installation is appreciated.
2) Determine whether the existing palm trees are non-invasive species. If determined to be invasive, replace with different variety or provide protective measures in compliance with city standards.
3) Return for an in-progress review of the revised landscape plan.
4) Restudy the White Sage for potential fire concerns.
5) Provide a color and material board.
Action:
Zink/Woolery, 5/0/1. Motion carried. (Bernstein abstained. Mosel absent.)
The 10-day appeal period was announced.
***THE BOARD RECESSED FROM 5:30 P.M. UNTIL 5:56 P.M. ***
SFDB-CONCEPT REVIEW (CONT.)
4. 1930 EL CAMINO DE LA LUZ
E-3/SD-3 Zone
Assessor's Parcel Number: 045-100-011
Application Number:
MST2008-00057
Owner:
Scott H. Wiscomb
Architect:
David Vanhoy
(Proposal for a new 3,882 square foot two-story single-family residence including a 718 square foot three-car garage. The proposal includes an attached 422 square foot secondary dwelling unit on the 14,212 square foot lot located in the appealable jurisdiction of the coastal zone. The existing 1,559 square foot single-family residence and garage is to be relocated or demolished. The proposed total of 3,883 square feet is 91% of the maximum FAR. Planning Commission approval of a modification for garage to exceed 500 square feet and approval of a coastal development permit are requested.)
(Second Concept Review. Comments only; project requires environmental assessment and Planning Commission approvals of a modification and a Coastal Development Permit.)
(5:56)
Present:
David Van Hoy, Architect.
Public comment opened at 6:17 p.m. As no one wished to speak, public comment was closed.
Staff comment: Mr. Boughman provided information regarding secondary dwelling units. Ms. Baker, stated the Board could stipulate exterior lighting conditions.
Motion:
Continued indefinitely to the Planning Commission, and return on Consent Calendar with the following comments:
1) The project is Ready for Preliminary Approval. Preliminary and Final Approval can be made on Consent Calendar. Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance findings can be made on Consent Calendar.
2) Exterior lighting and interior shade for night glare to be reviewed on Consent Calendar.
Zink/Woolery, 4/1/1. Motion carried. (Bernstein opposed. Carroll abstained. Mosel absent.)
Action:
SFDB-CONCEPT REVIEW (CONT.)
5. 1057 ARBOLADO RD
E-1 Zone
(5:55)
Assessor's Parcel Number: 019-241-013
Application Number:
MST2007-00462
Owner:
Ann S. De Bruyn Kops
Assessor's Parcel Number: 019-241-013
Application Number:
MST2007-00462
Owner:
Ann S. De Bruyn Kops
Architect:
Jeff Shelton
(This is a revised project description: Proposal for one and two-story additions and alterations to an existing one-story 2,024 square foot single-family residence located on a 13,504 square foot lot in the Hillside Design District. Proposed are first-floor additions of 652 square feet, a new 698 square foot second-story, and a 581 square foot second-story deck, replace all roofing, complete exterior remodel, repaving the driveway, and 50 cubic yards of fill grading. Staff Hearing Officer approvals of modifications for additions and alterations in the front yard setback and to provide part of the open yard in the front yard are requested. The proposed total of 3,220 square feet is 77% of the maximum allowable FAR.)
(Third Concept Review. Revised story poles will be installed prior to the hearing. Comments only; project requires environmental assessment and Staff Hearing Officer approval of modifications.)
(6:26)
Present:
Jeff Shelton, Architect; Paul and Ann S. De Bruyn Lops, Owners.
Public comment opened at 6:35 p.m.
1) Cliff Hickman, opposed. Concerned about first-floor height, prefers lowering one additional foot.
2) Cindy Travis, opposed. Proposed deck will be too close to the neighboring property.
3) Lisa Reich, opposed. Concerned with scale; enforcement of good neighbor guidelines; negative precedent.
4) Chris Kamen, in favor. No opposition to the project.
5) Bob Black, opposed. Second-floor is too large and obtrusive to views; height is oppressive.
6) Jacqueline Page, neighbor, opposed. Views and privacy will be impacted. Patio is inconsistent with NPO Guidelines.
7) Patrick Hall, opposed. Project does not comply with NPO Guidelines. Massing should be moved to other side of lot.
8) Joyce Searls, neighbor, opposed. Relocating the mass and view deck will preserve views and privacy.
9) Dee Elias, opposed. Addressed quality of life concerns, privacy and tranquility.
10) E-mail from L. Robert Johnson addressing fill grading, privacy, loss of public views, owner's uncooperativeness.
Public comment closed at 6:59 p.m.
How many can support the modification request? 5/1:
Motion: Continued indefinitely to the Staff Hearing Officer with the following comment
The Board supports the front yard setback modification requests.
Action:
Woolery/Carroll, 5/0/1. Motion carried. (Bernstein abstained. Mosel absent.)
PRELIMINARY REVIEW
6. 122 LA PLATA
(6:00)
Assessor's Parcel Number: 045-211-016
Application Number:
MST2004-00823
Owner:
David Shapiro
Agent:
Alicia Harrison
Designer:
Andrea Walhof
Architect:
Dawn Sherry
E-3/SD-3 Zone
(Proposal for first- and second-story additions to an existing one-story 1,021 square foot single-family residence and attached garage. Proposed are additions of 443 square feet to the first-floor and a new 745 square foot second-story. The proposal includes converting the existing attached garage to habitable space and constructing a new one-car detached garage and one uncovered parking space. The project would result in a 2,379 square foot residence including a detached 210 square foot one-car garage on a 6,528 square foot lot. Staff Hearing Officer Approval of a modification for alterations in the front setback is requested. The proposed total 2,379 square feet is 84% of the maximum FAR.)
(Project requires compliance with Staff Hearing Officer Resolution No. 021-08.)
(7:23 )
Present:
Dawn Sherry, Architect; Alicia Harrison, Designer; David Shapiro, Owner.
Staff comment: Mr. Boughman read the Staff Hearing Officer Resolution pertaining to the modification approval. He reported that a letter in opposition from Paula Westbury was received.
Ms. Harrison submitted a list of 78 names from whom letters were received.
Public comment opened at 7:37 p.m.
1) Michelle Giddens, Citywide Homeowners, in favor.
2) Mac Bakewell, opposed. Concerned that 20 closest homes survey was not requested. (Submitted streetscape photos.)
3) Timothy Harding, in favor. Applicant complied with ABR's request for whimsicalness, SFDB reversed that request.
4) Joe Cantrell, representing Inge Rose, opposed. Feels ABR found substantial design elements requiring change. Requested SFDB review 19 comments made by ABR one year ago.
5) Eric Schott, opposed. Concerned that applicant has not considered the ABR's comments.
6) Tony Fisher, representing Mac Bakewell opposed. Plans were not available to public; building is too bulky and tall. Topographical information showing the driveway has yet not been received. ABR comments dealt with size and bulk. Suggested that drawings submitted at the meeting not be approved. Project statistics are inconsistent.
Public comment closed at 7:52 p.m.
Motion: Preliminary Approval as a basis of working drawings with the finding that the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance criteria have been met as stated in Subsection 22.69.050 of the City of Santa Barbara Municipal Code, with return to Full Board with the following Conditions:
1) Provide a color and materials board.
2) Include project statistics, FAR calculations, and Staff Hearing Officer Resolution on plans.
3) Continue refining architectural details to blend with the neighborhood vernacular, include Seaside or Craftsman detailing.
4) Correct the tower design to match the presentation drawings.
5) Provide a landscape plan where new landscaping is proposed.
Action:
6) Project provides consistency and appearance on all elevations; compatibility with neighborhood; additional trees proposed to replace one street tree removed. Zink/Diesler, 5/0/1. Motion carried. (Bernstein abstained. Mosel absent.)
The 10-day appeal period was announced.
PRELIMINARY REVIEW
7. 644 CALLE RINCONADA
(7:00)
Assessor's Parcel Number: 053-063-010
Application Number:
MST2006-00111
Owner:
Kenneth and Jane Hahn Family Trust
Architect:
Paul Zink
(Revised proposal for the addition of 650 square feet of living space on the first-and second-floors of an existing 1,703 square foot one-story single-family residence. The project includes enlargement of the existing 156 square foot one-car garage to a 470 square foot two-car garage. A zoning modification was approved for encroachment of the garage into the interior yard setback. The resulting two-story singlefamily residence totaling 2,677 square feet is located on a 6,922 square foot lot and is 91% of the maximum FAR.)
(Project requires compliance with Staff Hearing Officer Resolution No. 060-06.)
(8:14)
Present:
Paul Zink, Architect; Kenneth and Jane Hahn, Owner.
Public comment opened at 8:28 p.m. As on one wished to speak, public comment was closed.
Motion: Continued indefinitely to the Full Board with the following comments:
1) Restudy combination of materials. Determine whether the siding will be stucco or wood.
2) Provide a revised color board.
3) Revise details of the front and rear railing.
4) Simplify the front retaining walls. Show retaining walls on the site plan. At least one Board member believes the massing is an improvement and compatible to the neighborhood.
Bernstein/Carroll, 6/0/0. Motion carried. (Zink stepped down. Mosel absent.)
Action:
E-3/SD-2 Zone
Item 8 was heard out of order.
PRELIMINARY REVIEW
8. 110 ONTARE HILLS LN
Assessor's Parcel Number: 055-160-057
Application Number:
MST2008-00061
Owner:
Karen Graham
Architect:
Bill Wolf
(Proposal for a 6,220 square foot two-story single-family residence including an attached three-car garage on a vacant lot. Included in the proposal is 1,218 cubic yards of grading. The proposal includes removal of five eucalyptus trees along the north of the property and replacement with landscape screening and trees. The project is located on a one acre vacant lot in the Hillside Design District. The proposed FAR square footage calculation is reduced to 5,420 square feet by the lower level being below grade and is 109% of the maximum guideline FAR.)
(Second review. Project requires compliance with Planning Commission Resolution No. 032-05.)
Time: 3:29
Present:
Denise Woolery, Landscape Designer; Bill Wolf, Architect; Preston Mann, Associate.
Mr. Boughman reminded the Board of the Planning Commission Resolution.
Public comment opened at 3:43 p.m. Because the item was heard out of order, public comment was continued until the end of the meeting.
Item 8 was continued to the end of the meeting with the following comments:
1) Preliminary Approval as a basis for working drawings with the finding that the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance criteria have been met as stated in Subsection 22.69.050 of the City of Santa Barbara Municipal Code findings, with return on Consent Calendar.
2) Final Approval can be made on Consent Calendar.
3) Applicant to obtain Fire Department approval of the landscaping.
Time: 8:47. Item 8 was reopened.
Public comment reopened at 8:49 p.m.
Peter Shepard, opposed. Concerned about the neighborhood's loss of views and privacy and large twostory development is not compatible.
Public comment closed at 8:57 p.m.
Motion:
Preliminary Approval as a basis for working drawings with the finding that the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance criteria have been met as stated in Subsection 22.69.050 of the City of Santa Barbara Municipal Code findings, and return on Consent Calendar with the following comments and conditions:
1) Obtain Fire Department approval for the landscaping.
2) Final Approval can be made on Consent Calendar.
3) Project provides consistency and appearance, neighborhood compatibility, quality architecture and materials.
Action:
Zink/Diesler, 4/1/0. (Bernstein opposed. Woolery stepped down. Mosel absent.)
I. Adjournment.
The Full Board meeting was adjourned at 9:03 p.m.
CONSENT CALENDAR
FINAL REVIEW
A. 1109 GARCIA RD
A-1 Zone
Assessor's Parcel Number: 029-282-009
Application Number:
MST2006-00765
Owner:
Kevin Roy Cheesman
Architect:
Patrick Pouler
(Proposal to convert an existing attached one-car garage to living space for an existing 1,670 square foot single-family residence and construct a detached 722 square foot three-car garage with 440 square feet of accessory space upstairs. The proposed total of 3,085 square feet is 62% of the maximum guideline FAR.)
Final Approval as noted for solar on the garage roof.
FINAL REVIEW
B. 306 EL MONTE DR
E-3/SD-3 Zone
Assessor's Parcel Number: 045-025-007
Application Number:
MST2007-00643
Owner:
Denise M. Klassen
Architect:
Kent Mixon, Architect
Contractor:
Lynn Morris Contracting
(Proposal to construct a 506 square foot second-story addition. The existing 1,949 square foot singlefamily residence including 404 square foot garage is located on a 6,964 net square foot lot. Also proposed is a partial remodel to the first-floor and replacement of an existing asphalt driveway with new surfacing. The total proposed square footage of 2,455 square feet is 83% of the maximum FAR.)
Final Approval as submitted.
REVIEW AFTER FINAL
C. 937 CIMA LINDA LN
Assessor's Parcel Number: 015-202-009
Application Number:
MST2007-00314
Owner:
Montesano Family Trust
Architect:
Lenvik and Minor
(Proposal to replace the existing windows and doors, convert the existing three-car garage at the west elevation to habitable space, revise the east wing facade and balcony, revise and replace south terrace and trellis, revise pool terrace and add spa, BBQ, and landscaping improvements including, terraced retaining walls, paths, and revegetation of 2.2 acres on sloped hillside. The existing three-car garage at east wing would remain on the 3.1 acre lot in the Hillside Design District.)
(Review After Final for reduction of pool deck and retaining walls, relocated pool equipment structure, small addition to garden structure, new fountain at front of house, replace rafter tails, and minor fenestration revisions throughout.)
Final Approval of the Review After Final with the following conditions: 1) window color to be used on wrought iron; 2) windows to be recessed with plaster bull nose as noted.
NEW ITEM
D. 1401 KENWOOD RD
E-1 Zone
Assessor's Parcel Number: 041-132-009
Application Number:
MST2008-00207
Owner:
Howard and Aaron Melamed
Designer:
Mark Morando
(Proposal to permit as-built exterior alterations to an existing one-story 1,810 square foot single-family residence including attached 199 square foot one-car garage. The as-built improvements consist of new windows, doors, stucco, and retaining walls. Also proposed are new front and rear yard retaining walls. Staff Hearing Officer approvals of modifications are requested for alterations in the front yard setback, for retaining walls in the required open yard, and for a wall to exceed three and one-half feet within ten feet of the front property line. This application will abate violations in ENF2007-01271. The 1,810 square foot residence is located on an 8,968 square foot lot in the Hillside Design District and is 53% of the maximum FAR.)
(Comments only; project requires environmental assessment and Staff Hearing Officer approval of Modifications.)
Continued indefinitely to the Staff Hearing Officer with the following comments: 1) The arch changes and skylight are supportable; 2) retaining walls are an improvement; 3) study light fixtures to meet outdoor lighting guidelines and ordinance; 4) remove light fixtures or shield from neighbors along east property line; 5) the skylight is supportable; 6) return for Staff approval.
A-2 Zone
NEW ITEM
E. 1433 PACIFIC AVE
E-3/SD-3 Zone
Assessor's Parcel Number: 045-184-021
Application Number:
MST2008-00164
Owner:
Martelli Pacific Coast Properties,
Designer:
Y.S. Kim
(Proposal to abate violations in ZIR2007-00204 including a 348 square foot addition to the second-floor of an existing 2,360 square foot two-story residence including 612 square foot attached garage on a 7,500 square foot lot. The proposal also includes demolition of an as-built deck and an exterior spiral stairway. The proposed total of 2,708 square feet is 88% of the maximum FAR.)
(Action may be taken if sufficient information is provided.)
Final Approval as noted with the finding that the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance criteria have been met as stated in Subsection 22.69.050 of the City of Santa Barbara Municipal Code, with the condition that the rear windows at the second-story are to be 4'0" x 5'0" windows. The bulk, mass and scale are compatible to the neighborhood.
FINAL REVIEW
F. 2114 RED ROSE WAY
E-3 Zone
Assessor's Parcel Number: 041-251-019
Application Number:
MST2007-00638
Owner:
Lori A. Daffron
Architect:
Dwight Gregory
(Proposal for the addition of a 190 square foot third-story for an existing 1,984 square foot two-story single-family residence on a 4,749 square foot lot in the Hillside Design District. The project includes a 91 square foot balcony at the upper level. The proposed total floor area was recalculated to be 1,822 square feet which is 74% of the maximum FAR.)
Final Approval as submitted.
Items on Consent Calendar were reviewed by Glen Deisler. Consent Calendar ended at 12:45 p.m.
|
Ministry of Health & family Welfare
*****
Reward Scheme for whistleblowers in the fight against the menace of spurious or fake drugs, cosmetics and medical devices
Public Health is one of the major objectives of Government of India. Drugs / Medicines are the most essential component to fight various diseases prevalent in the country. It is, however, important that the drugs so available are not only of standard quality but are safe, potent and efficacious also. Drugs is in the concurrent list of Constitution of India. Regulatory control over the quality of drugs in the county is exercised by both the Central and State Governments through the provisions of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940 and the Drugs & Cosmetics Rules, 1945 made thereunder. The manufacture and sale of drugs is looked after by the State Drugs Control Authorities appointed by the State Governments while imports, market authorisation and new drugs are the responsibility of the Central Government. The Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO) with the Drugs Controller General (India) [DCG(I)] as its head is the Central regulatory body for enforcing the quality standards of drugs, cosmetics and medical devices in the Central Government.
2. International ranking of the country in pharmaceutical sector has improved enormously with the sector growing at 12-14% per annum. The country now accounts for about 8% of global production and 2% of the world pharmaceutical market. The country meets 95% of its domestic demands through indigenous production covering almost all therapeutic categories and imports only a few high technology products. The size of Indian pharma industry is about Rs.85000 crores, with about 40% i.e. Rs. 35000 crores worth of pharma products being exported. It is among top 20 countries if the world exporting pharma products. Vaccines and bio-pharma products are exported to about 151 countries. Further in the segment of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), India ranks third in the world providing over 400 APIs.
3. The country's hold on international pharmaceutical market, especially the status enjoyed by it in providing high quality drugs on cheapest prices invited some unhealthy competition from various
quarters. Internationally, the vested interests are supplying spurious medicines manufactured by them but with 'Made in India' label.
Allegations of marketing and circulation of spurious or fake drugs within the country also are raised from time to time by the media, consumer associations, NGOs as well as in legislative forums. The volume of the pharmaceutical market and stakes involved in it makes it easy for the people to fall prey to the lures of money and indulge in various malpractices. The manufacture and sale of spurious drugs is a clandestine activity generally indulged in by anti-social elements and carried out by unlicensed manufacturers which exploit the confidence enjoyed by certain fast selling drugs by making their imitations.
4. The Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Drugs & Cosmetics Rules, 1945 contain comprehensive penal provisions which act as sufficient deterrent for those intending to indulge in the malpractices relating to drugs/medicines. Since the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940 is a Central enactment, the core concept of implementation of deterrent measures with respect to countering the menace of spurious drugs is better coordinated between states as well as the centre. Despite these deterrent provisions of law, availability of spurious drugs in market is a fact which cannot be denied altogether. The Drugs Controller General (India) has been in continuous touch with the state drug control authorities, the revenue intelligence authorities, the custom authorities and all port officials for keeping a close watch on such clandestine activities to check the menace of spurious drugs.
5. The CDSCO is conducting an all India survey to assess the extent of availability of spurious drugs in the country by drawing samples from different regions and different strata in the country on the basis of statistical principles provided by the Indian Statistical Institute, Hyderabad. The samples are being analysed and action would be taken as per the provisions of the law. This would help in identifying the geographical areas where spurious drugs are available so that a focussed monitoring is done by the concerned authorities in these areas for eliminating the menace of spurious drugs. Assistance has also been provided under the World Bank assisted Capacity Building Project to upgrade testing facilities and to establish new drug testing laboratories so as to enhance the capacity of laboratories to test large number of samples. Under the project, 23 States' and 6 Central Drug laboratories have been strengthened through renovations, extensions and equipments. Further, Schedule M of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945
pertaining to Good Manufacturing Practices makes it mandatory, at par with the international standards, for the manufacturers of drugs to comply with the requirements for the Schedule for quality control of the drugs manufactured by them. Detailed guidelines have been issued to the State Governments to undertake focussed surveillance over possible movement of spurious drugs. Specific training programmes have been conducted for regulatory officials of State Governments on logistics of intelligence work, prosecutions, etc with the assistance of FDA, Maharashtra. The pharmaceutical industry and the trade have been motivated to fight the menace of spurious drugs as a share responsibility.
6. The Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940 has recently been amended by the Drugs & Cosmetics (Amendment) Act, 2008 for providing more stringent penalties to those involved in the trade of spurious drugs. Representations were received from various stakeholders on difficulties in the implementation of these amended provisions and the concerned expressed at their misuse. A committee under the Drugs Controller General (India) was, therefore, set up to look into the matter to frame suitable guidelines for the purpose. As per the recommendation of the committee, guidelines
were framed and thereafter the provisions of the amended Act have been enforced w.e.f. the 10 th August, 2009.
7. Since spurious or fake drugs is a sensitive issue affecting the health of the citizens as well as the prestige of the country's pharmaceutical trade interests, there is a sense of urgency in taking on the menace on priority basis. There is no dearth of good intentioned people who may wish to work for the country's interests as the whistle blowers in eradicating the menace. People's participation is imperative in this regard and would be a highly effective step in augmenting the efforts of taking on the elements engaged in such illicit trade of spurious drugs. With this aim in view, a scheme has been devised by the Central Government for giving monetary rewards to the whistleblowers who can take risk of providing the information about the perpetrators of such crime. Such scheme is already operational in other enforcement departments of Government which pays good dividend also in terms of voluminous catches / seizures. The Reward scheme provides for giving handsome rewards to the informers who provide specific information to the designated authorities leading to the seizures of spurious, adulterated, misbranded and not of standard quality drugs, cosmetics and medical devices. This reward scheme will be applicable to both the informers as well as the officers of the
CDSCO. In the fight against the menace of spurious or fake drugs, cost of such social participation will be minimal given the proportion of damage inflicted by the perpetrators of the crime on the health of the society and the economic progress of the country.
8. The salient features of the aforesaid reward scheme are as follows:-
(i) The reward scheme shall be applicable for whistleblowers in the area of drugs, cosmetics and medical devices.
(ii) Reward is to be given to the whistleblowers i.e. the informers / officials only when there is a confirmation of the seizure of spurious, adulterated and misbranded drugs, cosmetics and medical devices by the designated officers of the CDSCO.
(iii) The reward of maximum of upto 20% of the total cost of consignments seized will be payable to the informer / officials which should not in any case exceed Rs 25 Lakh in each case.
(iv) In respect of an officer of the Government / CDSCO, the reward should not in any case exceed Rs 5 Lakh for one case and a maximum of Rs 30 Lakh in his / her entire service.
(v) With a view to ensure that the informers are not made to wait till the final disposal of the matter, 25% of the amount will be given at the time of filing of the charge sheet in the court of Law.
(vi) Further, with a view to ensure that the informers do not turn hostile during the trial of the case and continue to assist the court in deciding the matter in favour of the Government, 25% of the amount will be given to them at the time of disposal of the case in favour of the Government in the first court of law.
(vii) The remaining 50% amount will be paid only when the case has been finally disposed of in favour of the
Government and no appeal with respect to the matter is pending in any other Court of Law in the country.
(viii) The eligibility of the informer and the quantum of cash rewards would be decided by a Committee, which will consist of officials from different departments / offices. The Committee will consist of the following persons:
(ix) The eligibility of Government servants for the rewards shall be decided by the Committee depending upon the final outcome of the case only.
(x) The Government will engage senior advocates who have sufficient experience of the cases relating to Drugs as its counsel in the cases.
| (a) | Director General Health Services | Chairman (ex-officio) |
|---|---|---|
| (b) | Director / Deputy Secretary (Drugs), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare | Member (ex-officio) |
| (c) | Chief Controller of Accounts or Director, Internal Finance Division, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare | Member (ex-officio) |
| (d) | A Representative of the respective zonal / sub-zonal office of CDSCO nominated by DCG(I) | Member |
| (e) | Drugs Controller of the concerned State / Union Territory | Member |
| (f) | A Representative of social groups / NGOs nominated by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare | Member |
| (g) | A legal representative nominated by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare in consultation with the Ministry of Law & Justice | Member |
| (h) | A representative of the Customs Department in case of international movement of spurious drugs only | Member |
| (i) | DCG(I) or his nomine | Member-Secretary |
(xi) To ensure speedy trials of the cases, these cases will be filed before the Designated / Special Courts set up for the purposes of drugs related issues as per the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics (Amendment) Act, 2008.
(xii) Special instructions are to be given to the Drug testing laboratories to send their reports at the earliest, within the minimum time possible, so that the matter is disposed of expeditiously.
(xiii) Drug Controller General (India) along with other officials will be the nodal authority who will inter alia oversee the functioning of the Reward Scheme as proposed herein above.
(xiv) The zonal and sub-zonal officers of the CDSCO will act as the nodal officer to whom the whistle blower / informer can provide the information about the manufacture / movement of spurious / adulterated drugs.
(xv) The identity of the whistle blower / informer will be kept secret and will be known only to the concerned zonal and sub-zonal officers of the CDSCO, the DCG(I) and the Director General Health Services. It will be the responsibility of the concerned officials to keep the details of the whistle blower / informer secret.
(xvi) The identity of the whistle blower / informer will not be disclosed to the committee.
(xvii) On receipt of the information from the whistle blower / informer, the concerned officers will organize immediate and systematic investigation in co-ordination with the State Drugs Control Administration to unearth the spurious drugs racket.
(xviii) As the Licenses are granted by the State Drugs Control Authorities, they will take suitable action like prosecution etc depending upon the evidences available in the case.
(xix) The details of the investigations will then be forwarded by the concerned zonal / sub-zonal officer to the DCG(I) for the consideration of the committee to decide about the merit of the case for reward and the quantum of reward to be given to the whistle blower / informer.
(xx) The details of the nodal authority and the zonal / sub-zonal officers of the CDSCO for the purposes of this reward scheme, to whom the concerned information may be given by the whistle blower / informer, are as follows:
| Name and Designation | Addresses And phone number, mobile number, fax number and e-mail address |
|---|---|
| Dr. G. N. Singh, Drugs Controller General (India) | Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, FDA Bhavan, ITO, Kotla Road, New Delhi - 110002; Phone: +91-11- 23236965 / 23236975; Fax: +91-11-23236973 E-mail address: email@example.com |
,
Sh. S. P. Shani
Deputy Drugs Controller(India)
(For the states Andaman and Nicobar Island, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Sikkim, Tripura & West Bengal)
Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (East Zone), CGO Buildings, Nizam Palace West, 2 nd Floor, 234/4, Lower Circular Road, Kolkata – 700020 (West Bengal)
Phone: +91-33-22470513;
Fax: 033-22813806
E-mail address:firstname.lastname@example.org
9. Any clarification / information in respect of the scheme may be had from the undersigned:
Sh. Sudipta Dey, Deputy Drugs Controller (India), Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, FDA Bhavan, ITO, Kotla Road, New Delhi -110002;
Phone: +91-11-23236975 / 23236971;
Fax: +91-11-23236973
******
|
Research Similarity and Women in Academia
Piera Bello, Alessandra Casarico, Debora Nozza
10657 2023
September 2023
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CESifo Working Papers
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ISSN 2364-1428 (electronic version)
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Research Similarity and Women in Academia
Abstract
We investigate the extent to which research similarity between senior and junior researchers influences promotion in academia and study its implications in terms of gender diversity among faculty. Using data on the universe of job applications for tenure-track assistant professor positions in economics in Italy and exploiting NLP techniques (i.e., document embeddings) on the abstract of each publication of the scholars in our dataset, we propose a novel measure of research similarity, which can capture closeness in research topics, methodologies or policy relevance between candidates and members of selection committees. We show that the level of similarity is strongly associated with the winning probability. Moreover, while there are no gender differences in average similarity, maximum similarity with members of the selection committee is lower for female candidates. This gender gap disappears when similarity is calculated only focusing on female members of the committee. The results suggest that similarity bias in maledominated environments can have implications for gender and research diversity.
JEL-Codes: J160, J710, J820.
Keywords: cosine similarity, document embeddings, academia, economics, gender differences, labour force composition.
Piera Bello Department of Economics University of Bergamo / Italy email@example.com
Alessandra Casarico Department of Social and Political Sciences Bocconi University, Milan / Italy firstname.lastname@example.org
Debora Nozza Department of Computing Sciences Bocconi University, Milan / Italy email@example.com
September 12, 2023
For useful comments, we thank Salvatore Lattanzio, Pilar Sorribas, participants at the Workshop on Gender Discrimination, University of Bergamo; Workshop on Gender and Institutions, University of Venice, Ca'Foscari; the SPS Conference on Global Challenges; the SABE-IAREP Conference; the Frogee-FREE Network conference on The playing field in Academia in Warsaw; the Workshop for Women in Political Economy, Stockholm School of Economics. Alessandra Casarico acknowledges that this project is within the MUSA - Multilayered Urban Sustainability Action – project, funded by the European Union -NextGenerationEU, under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). Usual disclaimers apply. Declarations of interest: none.
1 Introduction
Academia is characterised by a global gender imbalance. Economics is one of the fields with lower socioeconomic diversity and female representation (Stansbury and Schultz, 2022). In Europe, the share of women working in economics in academic departments is overall 32%, and it becomes 27% in senior positions (Auriol et al., 2022). Besides fairness concerns, the evidence that a more diverse workplace increases the level of productivity (for instance, by improving creativity performance) explains the need to understand why this gap persists and, eventually, which policies can address it. According to Bayer and Rouse (2016), the under-representation of women limits the questions asked and the identification of innovative perspectives through which familiar problems can be addressed.
This paper investigates the extent to which research similarity between senior and junior researchers influences promotion in academia and studies its implications in terms of gender diversity among faculty. The key idea we explore is that of selfimage bias put forward in the psychology literature: people tend to assign greater weight to traits representing their strong points as compared to those representing their shortcomings Hill et al. (1988). Recently, Siniscalchi and Veronesi (2021) have developed a theoretical model where they incorporate self-image bias, suggesting that scholars promote scholars with more similar characteristics to their own, to explain women's under-representation in academia. Self-image bias, combined with heterogeneity by gender in field of study/ field of research (Chari and GoldsmithPinkham, 2017; Beneito et al., 2021; Sierminska and Oaxaca, 2021; Lundberg and Stearns, 2019) and with senior academics being mainly men, may be associated with the gender imbalance observed.
To address our research question, we propose a novel measure of research similarity, which can capture closeness in research characteristics, such as topics of research, methodologies adopted, policy relevance of the questions addressed, rather than the mere field of research. We build a dataset comprising the universe of job applications to public calls for tenure-track assistant professor positions in economics in Italy in the period 2014-2021, and we collect the abstracts of papers of all candidates, members of selection committees and faculty of departments launching the calls. Using a tool from Natural Language Processing (i.e., document embeddings), we compute the abstract similarity for each possible combination of candidate and selection committee members (or department members) and aggregate these similarity scores at the candidate-call level, to examine their role in influencing the outcome of the selection.
We show that research similarity relates positively with the probability of winning the selection procedure and becoming a tenure-track assistant professor, even when controlling for a rich set of candidate characteristics. We also show that women are less likely to win the selection procedure and that research similarity partly contributes to reducing the gap in the winning probability. This can be explained by the fact that, although there is no gender gap in average similarity between candidates and members of the selection committee, women and men differ in terms of maximum similarity. Men are more likely to be strongly similar to one of the members of the committee. This gender difference disappears when we focus only on female members of the committee. These results suggest that similarity bias in male-dominated contexts can contribute to explain the persistence of female underrepresentation in academia. They also highlight the narrowing of heterogeneity in research characteristics, with potential losses for the profession as a whole.
Our paper contributes to different strands of the literature. First, we add to the literature examining gender differences in research characteristics. Existing evidence shows that women do research in different fields of economics than men. Women are scarce in macro, finance and mathematical and quantitative methods, and more abundant in labour and other applied microeconomics fields (Chari and GoldsmithPinkham, 2017; Beneito et al., 2021; Sierminska and Oaxaca, 2021). Greater disparities are found among academic economists than among graduate students (Sierminska and Oaxaca, 2021) and there is no evidence of significant changes over time (Lundberg and Stearns, 2019). We complement this literature by proposing a more granular measure of research characteristics besides fields of study, based on the application of NLP to paper abstracts. We show that research similarity has explanatory power for the winning probability, even when controlling for different measures of candidate quality, and that it can reduce the gender gap in the winning probability. Second, we contribute to the literature on gender bias and under-representation of women in academia. Several papers document the existence of gender bias in academia, for instance, in teaching evaluations (Paredes et al., 2023), in the publication process (Hengel, 2022; Sarsons, 2017), in citation patterns (Koffi, 2021), in reference letters (Baltrunaite et al., 2022; Eberhardt et al., 2023), and seminar behaviour (Dupas et al., 2021). We test the presence of a specific type of bias, i.e. self-image or similarity bias, show its importance in influencing the outcome of the selection process and document gender differences in similarity. Our paper also complements the evidence on the role played by the gender of the evaluator in national assessments for promotion to Associate and Full professor, both in the Italian and in the Spanish context (De Paola and Scoppa, 2015; Bagues et al., 2017). We show that the gender gap in similarity, which influences positively the winning probability, is driven by male members of selection committees. Finally, our paper is related to the literature using NLP to detect gender stereotypes and in-group bias (Ash et al., 2021; Chen et al., 2021). More specifically, it is close to papers using NLP and word embeddings to measure gender bias (Ash et al., 2023) and its influence on labour market performance (Baltrunaite et al., 2022). We here adopt document embeddings as state-of-the-art framework in NLP to represent text as vectors and capture high-levels of semantic complexity. The position of vectors in a multi-dimensional space can reveal closeness across publications under very many respects. We study similarity across abstracts to detect the presence of self-image bias and explore its relationship with the outcomes of selection processes, while at the same time supplying an enhanced measure of similarity/diversity in knowledge production, which can be used in other contexts, or to address different questions.
The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 and 3 describe the institutional setting and the dataset, respectively. Section 4 presents the methodology. Section 5 provides descriptive evidence and discusses selection issues. Section 6 presents and discusses the results. Finally, Section 7 concludes.
2 Institutional setting
In Italy, the selection procedure for assistant professorships starts from a publicly advertised call. A department seeking to cover a (tenure-track) assistant professor position decides the broad field of research of the call, indicates a full professor of the department who will belong to the selection committee (the internal member), together with two external members, who are randomly chosen from a restricted pool of professors from other universities that are indicated by the hiring department. 1 The selection process consists of multiple stages. In the first stage, the selection committee, whose composition is not public at the time candidates apply to the position, carries out the first screening and ranks candidates according to their CVs and publications, following pre-set criteria. These are decided upon by the committee,
1Note that the profile of the ideal candidate can be defined only according to macro-field of research. A finer definition of the field of research of the ideal candidate is not allowed (Law 30 December 2010, n. 240, https://www.parlamento.it/parlam/leggi/10240l.htm). Note also that some universities may not select members of the selection committee randomly. Since we do not exploit the random composition of the committee in our empirical strategy, this feature is not key in our setting.
before the list of candidates applying for the position is made public, and following broad rules decided at the University level (e.g., x points to be assigned to CVs and y points to be assigned to publications), in accordance with guidelines offered by the Ministry of University and Research. The selection committee writes a short evaluation report for all candidates, gives an overall assessment (e.g., excellent, very good, good, fair, below average), and drafts a shortlist with at least 6 candidates, who are invited to an interview with the selection committee. After the interview, the selection committee publishes a ranking of the candidates, the overall points assigned to each of them, and indicates the winner of the selection procedure.
3 Data
By combining web-scraping techniques and manual retrieval, we build a novel dataset containing information on all candidates, members of selection committees and faculty of the hiring department for each call opened in Italy in the period 2014-2021 in the broad area of Economics, which is divided into Economics, Economic Policy, Public Economics, Econometrics, Applied Economics following Ministerial classification. Our dataset covers 238 calls for tenure track positions, involving 714 committee members and 2244 candidates. 2 Starting from the candidate dataset, it includes information on gender, publication records, university of the PhD, PhD graduation year, current occupation, and score earned in the procedure by each candidate, with the identification of the winning candidate. We also collect the publications of the candidates, and their abstracts in particular. In total, we have information on 8845 publications of candidates. We then retrieve information on publication records and gender of each member of both the selection committees and the departments opening the call. When collecting publications, we consider only faculty members who are economists/are incardinated in the ministerial economic areas, which we listed above. In total, the dataset of members of selection committees and departments includes 1377 professors and 33111 publications.
Our data comes from three main sources. First, the CINECA website, which collects historical information on the faculty of departments. Second, the institutional websites of each Italian university have information on calls and their outcomes, which allows to construct the candidate side of the dataset. Finally, the publication data comes from the Elsevier's abstract and citation database SCOPUS.com, which
2During the 2014-2021 period, 248 calls were issued. However, for 10 of them, we have not been able to collect all the information we needed.
provides information on author profiles, including cover affiliations, number of publications and their bibliographic data, references, and, importantly, the abstracts of the publications.
Although our main analysis focuses only on senior (tenure-track) assistant professorships, in order to shed light on the selection process we also collect data on calls for junior (non tenure-track) assistant professorships, as we will discuss in section 5.
4 Methodology
We first describe the corpus construction and the methodology for text analysis, to then introduce the estimation equations.
4.1 Research similarity: corpus construction and text analysis
For each scholar in our dataset, i.e., candidates, members of selection committees and members of departments, we collect the abstract of all their publications. The overall number of publications and abstracts is 41956. We then consider all publications preceding the year of the call and, using text analysis, we calculate a measure of research similarity between candidate and members of the selection committee and between candidate and members of the department opening the call. The measures of research similarity are constructed by resorting to Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques. As first step, we pre-process the texts of the abstracts of the papers by removing specific words related to copyright and editorial information, such as "Elsevier Ltd.", "Copyright", and "All rights reserved". Next, we represent each research paper using a document embedding of its abstract. A document embedding is a vector-based representation of a document, in this case, the abstract. The purpose of this representation is to capture the semantic meaning of the texts. Specifically, documents that share similar semantic characteristics will be represented by vectors that are closer to each other in a multidimensional space.
To create document embeddings, we employ a specific technique called SentenceTransformers 3 (Reimers and Gurevych, 2019), which is a state-of-the-art framework for generating high-quality vector representations of sentences and documents. SentenceTransformers uses advanced deep learning models to encode the contextual
3We employ https://huggingface.co/sentence-transformers/all-mpnet-base-v2
information of the text, enabling the creation of meaningful and semantically rich document embeddings. It maps sentences and paragraphs to a 768 dimensional dense vector space. By leveraging the power of SentenceTransformers, our research similarity measures benefit from the latest advancements in NLP and provide accurate representations for comparing research papers based on their abstracts.
The similarity between two vectors (or embeddings) is traditionally determined using the cosine distance. The cosine similarity index ranges between -1 and 1, where a smaller angle between two vectors indicates a higher degree of textual similarity. In our study, we use this metric to assess the similarity between the publication abstracts of each relevant combination of candidates and members of the committees (or departments). To summarise the results at the candidate level, we aggregate the similarity measures obtained at the publication/abstract level. Specifically, we calculate the mean (Mean Sim) and maximum (Max Sim) similarities between all the candidates and the selection committees' (or departments') publications. Figure A.1 illustrates the distribution of similarity values for these two measures. Given the texts we are considering are abstracts of economic papers, the mean and the maximum similarity are always positive. The increase in the density of maximum similarity at 1 captures instances of coauthorship.
Figure A.2 shows two examples of pairs of abstracts with different cosine similarities. The first one is an example of high similarity (the cosine similarity between abstracts 1 and 2 is 0.93), while the second one is an example of low similarity (the cosine similarity between abstracts 3 and 4 is 0.008).
4.2 Estimation equations
Our analysis proceeds in two steps. First, we test whether the similarity between candidates and members of the selection committee predicts the winning probability of the candidate. Then, we investigate how such similarity changes by the gender of the candidate.
Thus, we first estimate the following linear probability model:
where Winnerijst is a dummy equal to 1 if candidate i wins the selection of call j in the macro-field s in year t. DSimIndexijst is a dummy equal to 1 if the similarity index (Mean Sim or Max Sim) between candidate i and members of the selection committee for call j in year t and macro-field s is above the 50th percentile. 4 Xi is a vector of candidate characteristics, namely, gender, years from PhD, number of publications, current position, and whether the candidate is an internal or external candidate. Y eart and ss are year and macro-field fixed effects, respectively. Finally, εijst is the error term. In further specifications, we replace year and macro-field fixed effects with call or candidate fixed effects.
To analyse whether female and male candidates differ in terms of similarity with the members of the selection committee, we estimate the following linear probability model:
where Femalei is a dummy for female candidates, which captures gender differences in similarity, measured as either Mean Sim or Max Sim, while the other variables are defined as before. Likewise, in further specifications of the model, we replace year and macro-field fixed effects with call or candidate fixed effects.
5 Descriptive evidence and selection issues
In this section, we present summary statistics and offer some stylised facts on the job market for (tenure-track) assistant professor positions in Italy. We discuss selection by gender into applying to assistant professor positions and participating in job interviews, to lay the ground to discuss the role of research similarity.
5.1 Descriptive statistics
Table 1 shows that our dataset includes 2244 candidates. The share of women among them is 35%. The probability for a candidate of winning a selection is 9.6%. On average, the share of women in committees and in departments is 31% and 33%, respectively. 5 Each call has, on average, 16 candidates.
4In further specifications, we use the continuous version of the similarity variable rather than the dummy variable. See Section 6.
5In Figure A.3, we show the dynamics of the share of women in selection committees, which displays limited variation over time.
Table 1: Summary statistics Calls for senior assistant professorships
Notes. The table provides summary statistics of the candidates in our sample and the average share of women in selection committees and departments launching the calls for senior assistant professorships. Years: 2014-2021.
In Table 2, we report summary statistics by gender of the candidate, focusing on observable characteristics, including the publication record, and on similarity with members of the selection committee. The results of a t-test show that, although the probability of winning the selection or being shortlisted for the interview does not differ by gender, women seem to be more qualified candidates: they have a higher number of publications in A+ journals, and they are also more senior since more years passed from the PhD defence to the time of the call. On the other hand, men have, on average, a higher total number of A publications. 6 Interestingly, women are more likely than men to be present at the interview, when shortlisted. Finally, in Panel 3 there is no evidence of significant gender differences in terms of similarity with the selection committee, although the maximum similarity for men is 0.01 larger than that for women.
In Figures A.4-A.5 in the Appendix, we show the distributions of our similarity indices by gender of the candidate and gender of the members of the committees. Interestingly, while there are no clear differences by gender in the similarity distributions when we focus on female members of the committees, the distribution of the maximum similarity with male members of the committees for female candidates appears to be left-shifted, compared to that for male candidates, suggesting that
6Top 6 journals are AER, QJE, JPE, REStud, Econometrica, JF; A+ journals are AEJs, EJ, JEEA, Rand, JPubE, JME, RFS, JEc, JOLE, JHR, QE, JTE, JDE, JIE; A journals are defined according to the ANVUR - National Agency for the Evaluation of University and Research - classification.
female candidates have lower values of maximum similarity with male members of the committees, compared to male candidates. 7
Table 2: Summary statistics: Differences by gender Candidates for senior assistant professorships
5.2 The selection into the pool of candidates
According to the summary statistics reported in Tables 1 and 2, women are underrepresented among candidates for senior assistant professorships. Moreover, female candidates are characterised by a higher academic quality (i.e., they have a higher
7In Figure A.6, we provide the distributions for similarity among candidates (instead of those between candidates and members of the committees), separately for female and male candidates. The distributions appear quite similar, which is not in line with the hypothesis that female candidates do research on a smaller group of topics compared to male ones.
number of highly ranked publications) and a higher academic age (i.e., they have a higher number of years from the PhD graduation at the time of the application) than their male counterparts. This suggests that the selection of researchers in the pool of candidates for tenure-track assistant professor positions might operate differently for women and men.
In order to investigate whether the lower female share is driven by gender differences in self-selection for tenure-track assistant professorships, or by a lower winning probability of women in a previous stage of the academic career ladder, we proceed as follows. First, we explore whether female and male researchers differ in terms of their probability of applying for a senior assistant professorship. We start by providing in Table 3 descriptive evidence on gender differences in the number of applications per candidate in our sample.
Table 3: Gender differences in application to senior assistant professorships Overall and by geographic areas
Notes. The table reports means and t-tests by gender of the candidates for the following variables: Number of applications per year; probability of applying in the same year for at least one position in Northern Italy and one in Southern Italy; probability of applying in the same year for at least one position in Northern and one in Central Italy; probability of applying in the same year for at least one position in Southern Italy and one in Central Italy.
The table shows that, on average, candidates apply for 5 calls/job positions per year. There is no evidence of statistically significant differences between genders. However, female candidates seem to be less geographically mobile. The probability of applying in the same year for at least one position in Central Italy and at least one in Northern Italy is lower for women than for men.
To better explore these gender differences in the application probability, we then construct a pseudo dataset at the candidate/call level in which, for each candidate applying for at least one call in a given year, we add observations also for the other calls in the same or subsequent years for which the candidate has not applied, and generate a dummy equal to 1 if the candidate has applied for that specific call and 0 otherwise. 8 Using this dummy as dependent variable, we estimate an equation akin to Equation 1 (without including the similarity dummy) and investigate the role of gender in explaining our outcome of interest– the application probability.
Table 4: Application probability
Calls for senior assistant professorships
Notes. Dependent variable: Application probability for senior (tenure-track) assistant professorships in economics. Estimates from a Linear Probability Model. Robust standard errors in parenthesis. Years: 2014-2021 *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
The results in Table 4 show that, conditional on observable characteristics such as the publication record, the application probability is 0.32 percentage points lower for female candidates compared to male candidates, which corresponds to 8.8% of the average application probability Y in the sample. The coefficient of the female dummy is even larger in size when we include sector and year fixed effect (column 2) or call fixed effect (column 3).
Finally, we investigate whether – in addition to self-selection –, the lower percentage of women among candidates for senior assistant professorships depends on the
8For each candidate, we add observations until the year in which the candidate wins a selection or, if the candidate never wins any selection, until 2021, the last year of our period of analysis.
lower winning probability of female candidates in the previous stage of the tenure process, i.e., the selection for junior assistant professorships. To do so, we collect information on the universe of calls and candidates for junior assistant professor positions. Descriptive statistics on this dataset are provided in the Appendix, Table A.1 and A.2. During the 2014-2021 period, we observe 169 calls and 971 candidates. As for candidates for tenure-track assistant professorships, we observe whether the candidate is the winner of the competition, the year of the PhD and whether she/he has received the PhD abroad, whether she/he is abroad at the time of the application, and his/her publication record.
Interestingly, Table A.1 shows that women represent a higher percentage of the sample compared to the pool of applicants for senior positions (40% vs 35%). Moreover, female candidates do not appear significantly different in terms of observable characteristics compared to male candidates: in particular, there is no evidence of a statistically significant difference in the number of publications (Table A.2). Yet, female candidates are less likely to win. 9
We thus proceed to empirically investigate whether female candidates have a lower probability than male ones to win the competition. To do so, we construct a dummy equal to 1 if the candidate wins the competition, 0 otherwise. According to Table A.3, the probability of winning the selection is much lower (5.3-6.8 percentage points or 32-41%) for them than for male candidates, even conditional on their publication records.
These results suggest that the evidence that women make up a lower percentage of candidates for senior assistant professorships and that those participating in the selection are better candidates than their male counterparts is explained by two factors. First, women are less likely to apply than men, maybe because they prefer to gain more experience and publications before applying for a senior position, or because they are less mobile. 10 Second, there is a gender gap at the entry-level of the profession, which reduces the participation of women in calls for senior assistant professorship and explains why those female researchers who do participate seem to come from the upper tail of the quality distribution.
9Since, on average, candidates at this stage only have one publication, we cannot calculate our similarity indexes for this sample, and compare female and male candidates according to their similarity in research to the members of selection committees, since the text on which to run document embeddings is too limited.
10This is line with the literature on gender differences in competition, see for instance Niederle and Vesterlund (2007) and Gneezy and Rustichini (2004).
5.3 Gender gap in the winning probability and selection bias
Before turning to our main empirical analysis, we investigate whether a gender gap exists in the probability of succeeding in the competition for senior assistant professorships, discarding, for now, the role played by research similarity. To do so, we use a specification similar to Equation 1, which however does not include the similarity dummy. In particular, we use the specification that includes year and macro-field fixed effects.
The results are reported in Table A.4. While our main dependent variable is the probability of winning the competition (column 1), we also look at gender differences in the probability of being shortlisted (column 2) and in the probability of being present at the interview, if shortlisted (column 3). According to the results reported in the table, the coefficient of the female dummy is negative in the first two columns, although not statistically significant. This suggests that the probability for women to win the competition or being shortlisted is 1 and 3 percentage points (12 and 6%) lower than for men, respectively. Moreover, column 3 confirms the evidence provided in Table 2 that female candidates are more likely than male ones to participate in the interview if shortlisted (the participation probability is 6 percentage points, or 10%, higher for women than for men).
Since the probability of being present at the interview strongly influences the probability of winning the competition, we correct for this selection bias in our analysis on the gender gap in the winning probability. Specifically, similar to the Heckman selection model, we implement a two-stage procedure. In the first stage, we estimate the probability of being present at the interview by using a probit model where the dependent variable is a dummy equal to 1 if the candidate is present at the interview (if shortlisted) and as covariates all those characteristics that we observe for the candidate (which are listed in Section 4), plus a variable for the number of applications that the candidate does per year. Then, in the second stage, we estimate a linear probability model similar to Equation 1, augmented by the inclusion of our estimate of the probability of participating in the interview.
The results are shown in Table 5. Interestingly, the coefficient of the gender dummy is now statistically significant, negative, and bigger in magnitude. This provides further evidence that women are characterised by a lower probability of succeeding in the competition than men. As we expected, the coefficient of the probability of being present is positive and also highly significant.
Overall, the evidence provided in this section suggests that there exist important gender differences in the selection to assistant professor positions. Women are less likely than men to apply for senior assistant professorships. However, when they apply, they are more likely to be present at the interview, if shortlisted. Although women seem to be better candidates than men along several dimensions, their probability of winning the competition is lower than that of their male counterparts. In the next section, we investigate the role of research similarity in explaining the outcome of the selection and whether female and male candidates differ in terms of similarity with the members of the committee. We will also explore how research similarity relates to the gender gap in the winning probability we have identified.
Table 5: Gender gap in the winning probability, LPM
Dependent variable: Winning probability for tenure track assistant professorships in economics. Estimates from a Linear Probability Model. Pr(present) is a probit estimate of the probability of being present at the interview, if shortlisted. Robust standard errors in parenthesis. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
6 Results
We now turn to examining whether similarity predicts the winning probability, and then, whether there is evidence of gender differences in similarity, which are consistent with the observed female under-representation in academia.
6.1 The effects of research similarity on the winning probability
Table 6 reports the results of the estimation of Equation 1. While columns 1-3 use average similarity (Mean Sim) as key explanatory variable, columns 4-6 investigate the role played by the maximum similarity (Max Sim) between the candidate and the members of the selection committee. Columns 1 and 4 report the results of the specification with macro-field and year fixed effects; columns 2 and 5 those with call fixed effects. Finally, columns 3 and 6 incorporate candidate fixed effects.
The results show that similarity plays an important role in predicting the winning probability. Those candidates for which the dummy based on the mean similarity is equal to 1 have a probability of winning the competition of 7.1 percentage points higher than those for whom the dummy is equal to 0. The coefficient does not strongly vary when we include call or candidate fixed effects. An effect similar, if not larger, in magnitude and significance, is played by the dummy based on maximum similarity. It is worth pointing out that the effect of the similarity indexes is even larger than that of having an additional publication in an A+ journal. Besides the effect of publications, it is interesting to note the positive and large effect of being an internal candidate.
We replicate our analysis for the winning probability including among the controls also our estimate of the probability of the candidate of taking part in the interview if shortlisted. The results are provided in Table 7 and confirm both the important role played by research similarity, and the presence of a gender gap in the winning probability, once we control for the probability of being present at the interview. Interestingly, the gender gap in the winning probability is lower in magnitude compared to Table 5, especially in columns 4-5, where we include our maximum similarity dummy. 11 According to these results, the inclusion of the maximum similarity dummy explains 8-10% of the female gender gap reported in Table 5.
11This is consistent with the results discussed in the next section showing that gender differences in similarity exist only with respect to the maximum similarity with the members of the committees.
Table 6: The role of research similarity for the winning probability, LPM
Dependent variables: Winning Probability for senior assistant professorships in economics. Estimates from a Linear Probability Model. Robust standard errors in parenthesis. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
Table 7: The role of research similarity for the winning probability, LPM Controlling for the probability of taking part to the interview
Dependent variable: Probability of winning the competition for senior assistant professorships. Estimates from a Linear Probability Model. Robust standard errors in parenthesis. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
6.1.1 Robustness checks and heterogeneity analysis
We run several robustness checks. First, we analyse whether the effect of research similarity on the winning probability is robust to a change in the measure of research similarity. Specifically, we construct our two similarity indices focusing only on the most recent publications of the members of the committees. Specifically, the 10 and 5 most recent publications. We recall that a publication is included in the similarity measure only when it precedes the time of the call. Figure 1 shows the results and indicates that this change in the construction of our measures does not affect the results. If any difference exists, the effect of the maximum similarity increases when we focus on the last 5 publications.
The graph shows the coefficient of the two similarity dummies in the estimation of Equation 1 (mean or max similarity) for alternative measures of similarity (considering all the publications of the members of the selection committees, only the last 10 most recent publications, and only the last 5 most recent publications). A publication is included when it precedes the time of the call.
As a second robustness check, we test whether our measures of similarity are simply capturing co-authorship. To investigate this issue, we rerun our regressions including among the controls a dummy for co-authorship. The results are reported in Table 8, Panel 1, and suggest that, although co-authorship plays an important role in influencing the winning probability, the result on the effect of the research similarity indicators is robust to the inclusion of this additional control. 12
We also investigate the role of research similarity between candidates and members of departments opening the call and study whether our results are robust to including this measure of similarity in the regression. Table 8, Panel 2, reports the results: the coefficient of the similarity dummy computed with respect to members of the department is not statistically significant and is small in size.
In a further check, we change our dependent variable and analyse the influence of research similarity between candidates and members of selection committees on the probability of being shortlisted for the interview, rather than on the winning probability. 13 The results are in Table A.5 and confirm the robustness of the effect of similarity. According to the results reported in the table, our similarity dummies are associated with an increase in the probability of being shortlisted for the interview, ranging from 16 to 8.2 percentage points. 14
Finally, we check that our results are robust to using a continuous variable for research similarity instead of the mean and maximum similarity dummies, and to using a probit model instead of the linear probability model. The results are reported in Table A.7 Panel 1 and Panel 2, respectively, and confirm the robustness of our results.
Finally, we perform two heterogeneity analyses. First, we investigate whether the role played by the similarity between candidate and members of selection committees varies across gender. To address this question, we augment the specification in Equation 1 with an interaction term between the female dummy and the mean/max similarity dummy. The results of this new specification are included in Table 9 and show that there is no evidence supporting a differential effect of similarity on the winning probability by gender. Similarity increases the winning probability for both female and male candidates.
Note that we do not investigate how the effect varies with the share of female members in the selection committee, because there is not enough variation in the gender composition of the committee to explore. As shown in Table 1, women on
12In our dataset, the share of candidates who have publications coauthored with a member of the selection committee is lower than 5%.
13This allows us to further address the concern that the winning probability can be endogenous to the decision of those candidates that have been admitted to the interview to take part in it.
14In Table A.6, we also replicate the same analysis for the probability of being present and show that the role of similarity does not play any role this time. We further discuss this point in Section 6.3.
average represent 31% of the members of the committee (less than 1 in 3 members) and the standard deviation is quite low. Figure A.3 shows that the change over time is also limited.
Last, we investigate whether the effect varies by macro-field (Economics, Economic Policy, Public Economics, Applied Economics, Econometrics). We include in Equation 1 interaction terms between the mean and max similarity dummies, respectively, and macro-field dummies. In Figure 2, we plot the coefficients of the interaction terms. Econometrics is the omitted category. The figure shows that there are small differences across macro-fields with respect to the role of the mean similarity, while there are no differences in the effect of the maximum similarity on the winning probability.
The graphs shows the coefficients of the interaction terms between the similarity dummies and the macro-field dummies (Equation 1). Econometrics is the omitted category
Table 8: The role of similarity for the winning probability, LPM
Dependent variable: Winning probability for senior assistant professorships in economics. Estimates from a Linear Probability Model. Coauthor is a dummy variable equal to 1 if the candidate and a member of the selection committee are coauthors. While DummySimilarity regards the similarity between the candidate and the recruiting committee, DummySimDepart measures the similarity between the candidate and the economics faculty of the department opening the call. Robust standard errors in parenthesis. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
Table 9: The role of similarity for the winning probability, LPM Heterogeneity by the gender of the candidate
Dependent variables: Winning probability for senior assistant professorships in economics. Estimates from a Linear Probability Model. Robust standard errors in parenthesis. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1 *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
6.2 Gender differences in research similarity
We now discuss the results of the estimation of Equation 2, to uncover whether female and male candidates differ in terms of mean and maximum similarity with the selection committee. The results are reported in Table 10. Columns 1-3 use as dependent variable the dummy for the mean similarity with the selection committee, while columns 4-6 the dummy for the maximum similarity with the selection committee. Columns 2 and 5 include year and sector fixed effects, while columns 3 and 6 include call fixed effects.
The coefficient of the female dummy is not statistically different from 0 in the first three columns, but it becomes significant and larger in size in all the last three columns. This suggests that, although female and male candidates do not differ in terms of mean similarity, male candidates are more likely than female ones to be strongly similar to a member of the selection committee(the probability that the dummy variable based on the maximum similarity is equal to 1 is 5 percentage point or 10% larger for male candidates than for female candidates). Being abroad relates negatively to maximum similarity, indicating that candidates applying from abroad are less close in terms of research to members of selection committees, in most cases based in Italian universities.
In order to shed light on the role of the gender composition of the selection committee in explaining this result, we run the same analysis focusing first only on female members, and then only on male members of the committees. The results are provided in Table 11. Interestingly, we find that the gender gap in the maximum similarity disappears when we look only at female members of the committee (Table 11, Panel 1), while it is even larger when we focus only on male members (Table 11, Panel 2). This provides supporting evidence for the hypothesis that women and men do have different research agendas, and that the fact that female candidates are less likely to be strongly similar to one of the members of the committee is driven by the fact that the committees are composed mainly by men.
Finally, we explore whether the gender gap in similarity varies across macro-fields. As before, we augment Equation 2 with an interaction term between the female dummy and the macro-field dummies. The results, reported in Figure 3, show that, while the gender gap in maximum similarity does not vary by macro-field, the gender gap in mean similarity is larger for economics and public economics, compared to econometrics, which is the omitted category, possibly indicating more heterogeneity in research interests and methodologies in the broad economics and public economics macro-fields.
Notes: The graphs show the coefficients of the interaction terms between the female dummy and the macro-field dummies of Equation 2. Econometrics is the omitted
Table 10: Gender differences in similarity, LPM
Dependent variables: Mean/Maximum Similarity between the Candidate and Members of the committee. Estimates from a Linear Probability Model (LPM). Standard errors in parenthesis. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
Table 11: Gender differences in similarity
Dependent variables: Mean/Maximum Similarity between the candidate and female/male members of the selection committees. Robust Standard errors in parenthesis. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
6.3 Discussion
We have interpreted the premium research similarity grants to candidates in the selection process as evidence that senior academics/evaluators assess more positively junior researchers that have a research agenda similar to theirs. While there is evidence of gender homophily in Economics (Ductor and Prummer, 2023), self-image bias relates indirectly to gender through research agendas, which are the focus of this paper. In this section, we further discuss our results and alternative explanations for our findings.
One may argue that members of selection committees are not choosing the winning candidate according to their own preferences, which may be affected by selfimage bias, but are rather acting upon the input of departments, which want to hire junior researchers with specific research agendas, and identify members of selection committees with that goal in mind. We note that our results hold also when we only consider the external members of the committee and exclude the internal one, who represents the direct interest of the hiring department. In addition, similarity with the department is not significant in explaining the winning probability, when we control for similarity with the selection committee. A high level of correlation in the similarity indices between the candidate and each member of the committee suggests that selection committees are homogeneous groups in terms of research interests and this is consistent with self-image bias playing a role in the recruiting process and departments anticipating it. For instance, the evidence in Table 6 indicates a stronger role of similarity compared to high-ranked publications in influencing the winning probability. While it can be in the department's interest to hire senior assistant professors with specific research interests, it holds that such research interests are likely to be already present in the department, and that female candidates are less likely to see their research agendas already represented among senior academics. We also point out that similarity plays an important role even within fields of research.
An alternative explanation for our findings is that candidates select into calls in which they see members of the selection committee having an agenda similar to theirs. However, candidates do not know the composition of the selection committee at the time of the application, as we discussed in Section 2. Moreover, the evidence in Table A.6 indicates that similarity does not influence the decision to participate to the interview, when shortlisted.
Overall, our evidence is consistent with the importance of similarity being driven by the demand side of the academic market, rather than the supply side, and with self-image bias playing a role in it.
7 Conclusions
There is extensive evidence supporting the (economic) advantages of having a diverse and inclusive workforce. While measuring the benefits of diversity in the academic market can be challenging, studies indicate that it impacts scholars' performance in measurable ways, like citation counts (Powell, 2018). Additionally, diversity enriches the scientific process by incorporating a broader range of perspectives and of research questions. Fostering diversity in academia is therefore not only a matter of fairness but also a matter of efficiency.
In this paper, we analyse the presence of self-image bias in academia, which may play a role in the slow changes in gender diversity among scholars and in a narrowing of the span of research agendas. We propose a novel and granular measure of similarity which, starting from the abstracts of papers, captures not only fields of research, but broader characteristics of research agendas. This new measure of similarity has the potential to better capture diversity in knowledge production than fields of research and reveal directions of research over time and space in a more accurate way. We employ it to investigate whether similarity between members of selection committees and candidates for senior assistant professorships relates to the outcome of the selection process and whether female candidates are characterised by a lower similarity index with more senior academics than their male counterparts.
To address the research questions, we exploit data on the Italian academic job market, and collect the publications of the universe of candidates, members of recruiting committees and of faculty of departments launching calls for the period 2014-2021. By exploiting NPL techniques, we calculate an index of similarity between the publications of the members of the committees and those of the candidates, and show that candidates with a maximum similarity index larger than the median are 7 percentage points more likely to win the competition for senior assistant professor positions. Research similarity counts almost twice as much as having a top publication in influencing the outcome of a selection process; it also contributes to reducing the gender gap in the winning probability that we observe, once we take into account selection into participating to interviews. We show that women are on average less likely to be highly similar to one of the members of the committee, and that the gender gap in similarity is driven by male members of the committee, while it disappears when we focus on female members only.
The evidence presented suggests that in male-dominated contexts, similarity bias and the search for "fit" can hinder female scholars' career progress. Note that addressing similarity bias and promoting gender diversity in academia would not imply a narrowing of the topics researched in a department. The distributions of our similarity indices among candidates by gender suggest that the width of topics is the same for female and male candidates (Figure A.6). Thus, tackling self-image bias may, on the contrary, help to mitigate the tendency to conform to a standardised research profile, as observed over the last years in Economics departments (Corsi et al., 2019).
On the policy side, the identification of this source of bias provides additional justification for implementing affirmative actions that deliberately increase the representation of minorities in the profession and, consequently, in selection committees. Neglecting to address self-image bias poses a significant risk of perpetuating gender imbalance in economics and limiting innovative research.
Appendix
Notes: The figure shows the distribution of the average similarity and maximum similarity between candidates and members of selection committees.
Figure A.2: Examples of abstracts
High Similarity (0.93)
Abstract 1: Organized crime uses political violence to influence politics in a wide set of countries. This paper exploits a novel dataset of attacks directed towards Italian local politicians to study how (and why) criminal organizations use violence against them. We test two complementary theories to predict the use of violence i) before elections, to affect the electoral outcome; and ii) after elections, to influence politicians from the beginning of their term. We provide causal evidence in favor of the latter hypothesis. The probability of being a target of violence increases in the weeks right after an election in areas with a high presence of organized crime, especially when elections result in a change of local government.
Abstract 2: We develop a model explaining how criminal organizations strategically use pre-electoral violence as a way of influencing electoral results and politicians' behaviour. We then characterize the incentives to use such violence under different levels of electoral competition and different electoral rules. Our theory is consistent with the empirical evidence within Sicily and across Italian regions. Specifically, the presence of organized crime is associated with abnormal spikes in violence against politicians before electionsparticularly when the electoral outcome is more uncertain-which in turn reduces voting for parties opposed by criminal organizations. Using a very large data set of parliamentary debates, we also show that violence by the Sicilian Mafia reduces anti-Mafia efforts by members of parliament appointed in Sicily, particularly from the parties that traditionally oppose the Mafia.
Low Similarity (0.008)
Abstract 3: We explore the effects on strategic behavior of alternative representations of a centipede game that differ in terms of complexity. In a laboratory experiment, we manipulate the way in which payoffs are presented to subjects in two different ways. In both cases, information is made less accessible relative to the standard representation of the game. Results show that these manipulations shift the distribution of take nodes further away from the equilibrium prediction. The evidence is consistent with the view that failures of game-form recognition and the resulting limits to strategic reasoning are crucial for explaining non-equilibrium behavior in the centipede game.
Abstract 4: To investigate empirically the association between a direct measure of assimilation with a host culture and immigrants' subjective well-being, this study uses data from the German Socio-Economic Panel. A positive, significant association arises between cultural assimilation and immigrants' life satisfaction, even after controlling for several potential confounding factors, such as immigrants' individual (demographic and socio-economic) characteristics and regional controls that capture their external social conditions. Finally, the strength of the association varies with time since migration; it is significant for "established" and second-generation immigrants but vanishes for "recent" immigrants.
Notes: The figure shows the share of women in selection committees for tenure track assistant professorships in economics in Italy in the period 2014-2021
Figure A.4: Similarity distributions (Mean and Max)
By gender of the candidates, only female members of selection committees
Notes: The figure shows the distribution of the average similarity and maximum similarity between candidates and female members of selection committees.
Figure A.5: Similarity distributions (Mean and Max)
By gender of the candidates, only male members of selection committees
Notes: The figure shows the distribution of the average similarity and maximum similarity between candidates and male members of selection committees
Figure A.6: Similarity among candidates (Mean and Max)
By gender
Notes: The figure shows the distribution of the average similarity and maximum similarity among candidates
Table A.1: Summary statistics
Calls for Junior Assistant Professorships
Notes. The table provides summary statistics for candidates for junior assistant professorships and reports the share of women in selection committees. Years: 2014-2021.
Table A.2: Summary statistics: Differences by gender
Candidates for Junior Assistant Professorships
Panel 2: Publication Record
Notes. The table reports summary statistics and the results of a t-test by gender of the candidates for the following variables: winning probability, share of those with a PhD Abroad or currently Abroad, average number of years from PhD, share of those with at least one publication in a Top 6, average number of publications in A+ and in A journals, share of those with at least one publication in interdisciplinary journals. Top 6 journals are AER, QJE, JPE, REStud, Econometrica, JF; A+ journals are AEJs, EJ, JEEA, Rand, JPubE, JME, RFS, JEc, JOLE, JHE, QE, JTE, JDE, JIE; A journals are defined according to the ANVUR classification.
Table A.3: Winning Probability Calls for Junior Assistant Professorships
Dependent variable: Winning probability for junior (non tenure-track) assistant professorships in economics. Estimates from a Linear Probability Model. Robust standard errors in parenthesis. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
Table A.4: Gender Gaps in outcomes Calls for senior assistant professorships
Dependent variables: In column (1), probability of winning; in column (2) probability of being shortlisted for the interview; in column (3), probability of being present at the interview. Estimates from a Linear Probability Model. Robust standard errors in parenthesis. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
Table A.5: The role of research similarity for the probability of being shortlisted
Dependent variable: Probability of being shortlisted for tenure-track assistant professorships in economics. Estimates from a Linear Probability Model. Robust standard errors in parenthesis. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
Table A.6: The role of research similarity for the probability of participating in the interview
Dependent variable: Probability of being present at the interview if shortlisted for tenure track assistant professorships in economics. Estimates from a Linear Probability Model. Robust standard errors in parenthesis. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
Table A.7: The role of research similarity for the winning probability
Dependent variable: Winning Probability for tenure track assistant professorships in economics. OLS estimates with similarity as continuous variable in Panel 1. Marginal effect estimates from a Probit Model in Panel 2. Robust standard errors in parenthesis. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
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|
Marine Drugs
OPEN ACCESS
ISSN 1660-3397
www.mdpi.com/journal/marinedrugs
Article
New Tetromycin Derivatives with Anti-Trypanosomal and Protease Inhibitory Activities †
,
Sheila M. Pimentel-Elardo 1,‡, *, Verena Buback 2 , Tobias A.M. Gulder 3,§ , Tim S. Bugni 4,|| Jason Reppart 4 , Gerhard Bringmann 3 , Chris M. Ireland 4 , Tanja Schirmeister 2,¶ and Ute Hentschel 1
1 Julius-von-Sachs Institute for Biological Sciences, University of Würzburg, Julius-von-Sachs-Platz 3, Würzburg 97082, Germany; E-Mail: email@example.com
2 Institute for Pharmacy and Food Chemistry, Am Hubland, Würzburg 97074, Germany; E-Mails: firstname.lastname@example.org (V.B.); email@example.com (T.S.)
3 Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, Würzburg 97074, Germany; E-Mails: firstname.lastname@example.org (T.A.M.G.); email@example.com (G.B.)
4 Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA; E-Mails: firstname.lastname@example.org (T.S.B.); email@example.com (J.R.); firstname.lastname@example.org (C.M.I.)
† This work is dedicated to Johannes F. Imhoff on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
‡ Current address: Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Health Sciences Centre, McMaster University, 1200 Main St. W. Hamilton, ON L8N 3Z5, Canada.
§ Current address: Kekulé Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bonn, Gerhard-Domagk-Str. 1, Bonn 53121, Germany.
|| Current address: School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53705, USA.
¶ Current address: Institute of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Mainz, Staudinger Weg 5, Mainz 55099, Germany.
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: email@example.com; Tel.: +1-905-525-9140 (ext. 27334).
Received: 25 July 2011; in revised form: 9 September 2011 / Accepted: 16 September 2011 / Published: 26 September 2011
Abstract: Four new tetromycin derivatives, tetromycins 1–4 and a previously known one, tetromycin B (5) were isolated from Streptomyces axinellae Pol001 T cultivated from the Mediterranean sponge Axinella polypoides. Structures were assigned using extensive 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy as well as HRESIMS analysis. The compounds were tested for antiparasitic activities against Leishmania major and Trypanosoma brucei, and for protease inhibition against several cysteine proteases such as falcipain, rhodesain, cathepsin L, cathepsin B, and viral proteases SARS-CoV M pro , and PL pro . The compounds showed antiparasitic activities against T. brucei and time-dependent inhibition of cathepsin L-like proteases with Ki values in the low micromolar range.
Keywords: tetromycin; anti-trypanosomal; protease inhibition; Streptomyces axinellae; marine sponge
1. Introduction
Protozoan diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis, and African and South American trypanosomiasis afflict millions of people particularly in many tropical and subtropical countries. Coronaviruses are also important pathogens that mainly cause respiratory and enteric diseases in humans. For example, SARS-CoV causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) resulting in the epidemic in 2002–2003 with more than 8000 death cases worldwide [1]. The increasing resistance to current therapies and the toxicities of existing drugs aggravates the prevalence of these infectious diseases. These issues thus necessitate the need for alternative therapies. A promising strategy is to develop new drugs targeting the parasites' cysteine proteases that are crucial for their growth, differentiation and pathogenicity. Examples of these proteolytic enzymes are rhodesain from Trypanosoma rhodesiense, falcipain from Plasmodium falciparum, and cysteine cathepsins from Leishmania spp. [2]. Moreover, the coronavirus main protease (M pro , also named 3C-like protease 3CL pro ) as well as the papain-like protease (SARS-CoV PL pro ) are also considered to be major targets for new antiviral drugs against SARS and other coronavirus infections [3].
Marine sponges are the most prolific sources of bioactive metabolites in the marine environment. More than 5300 different natural products have so far been isolated from marine sponges and their associated bacteria and more than 200 new metabolites are reported from sponges annually [4]. Owing to their filter-feeding capacity and to the frequent presence of massive amounts of microbial symbiotic consortia in the mesohyl tissues, sponges are also rich sources of microorganisms, many of which produce interesting bioactivities [5,6]. Cultivation efforts have focused particularly on the actinomycetes, as this taxonomic clade is responsible for the production of about half of the discovered antibiotics to date [7–9]. We have recently described the isolation of a new actinomycete species, Streptomyces axinellae type strain Pol001 cultivated from the Mediterranean sponge, Axinella polypoides [10]. Here, the isolation of new tetromycin derivatives with unprecedented inhibitory activities against several clinically important cysteine proteases is reported. The choice to use cysteine proteases as possible target enzymes is based on the tetronic acid moiety which is part of all the isolated metabolites. Due to its lactone ring with the double bond activated for nucleophilic attack by its electron withdrawing substituents, this moiety is predestined to inhibit cysteine proteases.
2. Results and Discussion
2.1. Structure Elucidation
Streptomyces axinellae Pol001 T was grown on MS [11] agar and the secondary metabolites were extracted with ethyl acetate. HPLC fractionation yielded five compounds, tetromycins 1–4 (1–4), and tetromycin B (5) [12]. HRESIMS and extensive 1D and 2D NMR analysis (Table 1) suggested that the compounds were new constitutional isomers with several tetromycins that had been previously isolated from a Streptomyces sp. strain MK67-CF9 [13]. Tetromycin 1 displayed a pseudo-molecular ion in the positive ESIMS spectrum at m/z 910.4388 [M + Na] + that corresponded to a molecular formula of C50H65NO13 and was isomeric with tetromycin C5 [13]. Tetromycin 2 was observed to have a molecular ion in the positive ESIMS spectrum at m/z 911.4232 [M + Na] + corresponding to a molecular formula of C50H64O14 which was isomeric with tetromycin C1 [13] and tetromycin 4 with m/z 897.4066 [M + Na] + matching a molecular formula of C49H62O14 which was isomeric with tetromycin C2 [13].
Table 1. 13 C and 1 H NMR data of tetromycins 1–4 in acetone-d6.
| | 1 | | | | 2 | | | | 3 | | | | 4 | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Posn. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | δ C | mult | δ H | mult, (J ) H-H | δ C | mult | δ H | mult, (J ) H-H | δ C | mult | δ H | mult, (J ) H-H | δ C | mult | δ H | mult, (J ) H-H |
| 1 2 3 4 4′ 5 6 6′ 7 8 9 10 10′ 11 12 12′ 13 14 14′ 15 15′ 16 17 18 19 20 | 167.4 C 96.8 C 206.3 C 52.4 C 15.8 CH 1.52 s 3 57.5 CH 3.40 s 135.4 C 21.8 CH 1.29 s 3 131.5 CH 5.09 d (8.2) 32.9 CH 2.27 m 2 36.3 CH 2.29 m 2 132.1 C 22.0 CH 1.31 s 3 123.2 CH 6.17 s 46.4 C 22.8 CH 1.52 s 3 145.7 CH 6.92 s 132.1 C 168.1 C 27.8 CH 2.97 m 13.1 CH 1.33 m 3 32.9 CH 1.79 br 2 2.71 dd (14.8, 7.9) 85.9 C 198.6 C 55.7 CH 3.82 br 124.8 CH 4.90 s | | | | 168.4 C 99.6 C 204.5 C 52.7 C 16.0 CH 1.52 s 3 57.4 CH 3.49 s 135.9 C 22.0 CH 1.53 s 3 131.5 CH 5.13 d (6.6) 34.2 CH 2.28 m 2 35.5 CH 2.32 m 2 131.1 C 21.8 CH 1.33 s 3 123.1 CH 6.08 s 46.2 C 23.0 CH 1.50 s 3 146.6 CH 6.92 s 126.0 C 167.7 C 28.0 CH 2.93 m 13.4 CH 1.34 m 3 33.23 CH 1.74 br 2 2.65 dd (14.4, 7.9) 85.6 C 199.3 C 55.5 CH 3.67 br 125.6 CH 4.93 s | | | | 174.8 C 96.8 C 205.4 C 52.6 C 15.4 CH 1.54 s 3 57.5 CH 3.35 s 135.7 C 22.9 CH 1.39 s 3 130.6 CH 5.00 d (9.2) 34.1 CH 2.27 m 2 40.4 CH 2.23 m 2 131.6 C 22.9 CH 1.31 s 3 122.9 CH 6.11 s 42.0 C 2.07 br 138.6 CH 6.67 s 135.1 C 167.5 C 27.8 CH 2.95 m 13.8 CH 1.30 m 3 27.8 CH 1.58 br 2 2.23 m 82.7 C 202.1 C 42.1 CH 3.71 br 141.5 C | | | | 169.0 C 99.1 C 204.6 C 52.6 C 15.6 CH 1.52 s 3 57.0 CH 3.51 s 136.1 C 25.3 CH 1.48 s 3 131.1 CH 5.14 d (7.1) 33.8 CH 2.27 m 2 40.6 CH 2.38 m 2 131.4 C 21.7 CH 1.35 s 3 122.8 CH 6.15 s 46.2 C 22.9 CH 1.50 s 3 146.8 CH 6.92 s 125.7 C 168.5 C 28.0 CH 2.91 m 13.2 CH 1.32 m 3 33.1 CH 1.69 br 2 2.65 dd (14.6, 7.9) 85.6 C 200.3 C 42.1 CH 3.60 br 125.8 CH 4.92 s | | | |
Table 1. Cont.
The IR spectra of tetromycins 1–4 showed the expected absorption bands for hydroxy groups (~3200 cm −1 ), acid functions (~2800 cm −1 ), carbonyl groups (~1700 cm −1 ), conjugated carbonyl groups (~1640 cm −1 ), C–C-double bonds (~1300 cm −1 ), and aromatic rings (~1600 cm −1 ). The presence of these functional groups was further supported by the 1 H, 13 C and DEPT NMR data. The carbon-proton connectivities were unambiguously assigned by HSQC experiments. In all four compounds, the 13 C NMR indicated the presence of a two-times hydroxy/alkoxy-substituted aromatic moiety made of carbons C33–38. The corresponding signals in the 1 H NMR spectra showed only two aromatic protons (H35; H37) in meta-position to each other of the aromatic ring (see Table 1 for shifts, multiplicity, and coupling constants). HMBC correlations of the methyl group protons H34′ to the carbonyl C32 and to C33–C35 of the aromatic ring confirmed an additional ortho-substitution pattern. COSY interactions of H34′ to only one of the aromatic protons (H35) left C36 and C38 open for further substitution. Aromatic carbon shifts of C36 and C38 at ~160 ppm indicated the hydroxy or alkoxy substituents to be located at these positions. In tetromycins 2, 3, and 4, the hydroxy group at C38 is methylated, as evident from the correlations between methoxy group protons H38′ and C38 in the HMBC spectrum. By contrast, compound 1 is hydroxylated at C38. C36 carries a methoxy group in compounds 1 and 2 and hydroxy groups in 3 and 4 as clearly indicated by HMBC, 13 C and 1 H data (Figure 1).
HMBC correlations of H30 to C32 in tetromycins 1–4 revealed the connectivity of the aromatic ring to a pyran fragment via an ester or amide bond, respectively (Figure 1). The substitution pattern of this moiety was unambiguously established by HMBC and ROESY data. The connectivity of the pyran group to the decalin ring system consisting of C4, C5, C19–C26 via the acetal in para-position to the ester/amide junction was detected by bilateral HMBC correlations between carbons and protons C/H27 and C/H23 (Figure 1). The so far described fragments are in agreement with the published structures of tetromycins [13].
The main differences between tetromycins 1, 2, and 4 and their previously isolated congeners covered in a patent [13] lie in the presence of a double bond between C20 and C21 (instead of between C25 and C26 as stated for tetromycin C5) of the decalin ring system and the position of a methyl group at C21 instead of at C20. The following detailed NMR correlations accounting for these altered positions are exemplarily discussed for tetromycin 4 using selected key NMR interactions (Figure 2). HSQC spectra showed two diastereotopic protons H22 (δ 2.26, 1.95) attached to C22 (δ 39.7). Strong ROESY and COSY correlation of H22 (δ 2.26) to H23 (δ 3.39) and correlative coupling constants suggested a 3 J-coupling and a direct connection between C23 and C22. In the HMBC H22 (δ 1.95) correlates with a methyl carbon at δ 18.9 (C21′) and two vinylic carbons at δ 125.8 (C20) and 140.4 (C21), the latter presumably carrying the methyl group in agreement with the higher shift and according to HMBC signals. Methyl protons H21′ (δ 1.69) showed three strong correlations, not only with vinylic carbons C21 and C20 but also with C22 suggesting again the positioning of the methyl group at C21 and not at C20 as described earlier [13]. This conclusion was further substantiated by a strong HMBC correlation of the vinylic proton H20 (δ 4.92) with C24 (δ 46.5). Closing the first six-membered ring of the decalin system, C24 is directly connected to C23 as evidenced by direct COSY interactions and HMBC correlations of H22 (δ 2.26) to C24. C24 also correlated with proton H26 (δ 2.09), which in turn showed HMBC correlation with C23 (δ 84.9), C25 (δ 37.8), C4 (δ 52.6) and C4′ (δ 15.6). Looking at the corresponding 13 C NMR shifts, no C-C double bond could be located in the second six-membered ring of the decalin system, specifically not between C25 and C26 as featured in the previously described compounds. HMBC, 13 C, and 1 H data confirmed this result. We have thus discovered a series of tetromycin derivatives possessing a double bond between C20 and C21 and a methyl group at C21. The remaining partial structures of compounds 1, 2, and 4 are in turn in accordance with the already published compounds.
Interestingly, tetromycin 3 exhibiting a molecular ion in the positive ESIMS spectrum at m/z 861.4062 [M + H] + corresponding to a molecular formula of C48H61O14 was found to be a completely new derivative. The differences are again found in the decalin ring system made of C4, C5, C19–C26 and additionally in the cyclohexene fragment (C12–C17) carrying the acid group at C14 (Figure 3). As seen for tetromycins 1, 2, and 4, HSQC data of tetromycin 3 revealed two diastereotopic protons H22 (δ 1.93, 2.32) located at C22 (δ 34.1). HMBC correlation of C23 with H22 (δ 1.93) again accounted for the single bond between C23 and C22 as discussed before. However, in this compound C23 also shows strong HMBC correlation to vinylic proton H21 (δ 4.95), suggesting close proximity to the carbon at δ 120.3 (C21) which is a CH-unit according to DEPT data. H21 furthermore correlates with methyl group C20′ (δ 14.3), C19 (δ 42.1), and interestingly also with C27 (δ 103.1), which reinforces the proposition of assigning δ 120.3 to C21 instead of to C20 as was found in our other isolated compounds. Unobserved in tetromycins 1, 2 and 4, methyl group protons H20′ of 3 correlated with C20, C21, and also with C19 (δ 42.07), the bridge atom of both six-membered rings of the decalin system, leading to the undoubted conclusion about the methyl group position at C20. The second six-membered ring only features saturated carbon atoms as was discussed above.
Figure 3. Selected 2D NMR correlations in decalin of tetromycin 3.
All tetromycin derivatives possess a cyclohexene fragment made of C12–17, with C12 and C17 being the bridge atoms to the adjacent ring systems and C14 carrying the acid functional group. There is a C–C-double bond present between C13 and C14 as was already described in the published patent. Bridge atom C12 in the published compounds and in our compounds 1, 2, 4, and 5 is a quaternary carbon carrying methyl group C12′ (see Table 1 for respective shifts) as unmistakably revealed by COSY coupling of H11 and H12′, HMBC correlation of C12′ with H13 and H16 and those of H12′ with C13, C14, C17, C11, and C12 (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Selected 2D NMR correlations in the cyclohexene fragment of tetromycin 4.
After unambiguously confirming all positions of the cyclohexene carbons of tetromycin 3, none of the named correlations to a methyl group could be found. Furthermore, C12 showed a lower shift than in the other compounds and appeared as a CH in the DEPT spectrum. The loss of the methyl group at C12 was in accordance with the observed lower molecular mass, also indicating a formal loss of a CH2-fragment compared to the other compounds. We therefore report the discovery of the new tetromycin derivative (3) featuring a double bond between C20 and C21, a methyl substituent at C20, and hydrogen at C12. Lastly, compound 5 was found to be identical with tetromycin B [6] with m/z 557.3229 [M + Na] + corresponding to a molecular formula of C34H46O5. Figure 5 shows the structures of tetromycins 1–4 and tetromycin B (5).
2.2. Antiparasitic Activities
The compounds were tested against the parasites Leishmania major and Trypanosoma brucei subsp. brucei and for cytotoxicity against 293T kidney epithelial cells and J774.1 macrophages (Table 2). Anti-Leishmania activity was only found for tetromycin 3. All five compounds exhibited anti-Trypanosoma activities at both 48 and 72 h time points as judged by IC50 values below 100 µM. The compounds also showed cytotoxic activities with IC50 < 100 µM against the kidney cell line and macrophages with the notable exception of tetromycin 1.
Table 2. Antiparasitic and cytotoxic activities of tetromycins 1–4 and tetromycin B (5) (IC50, µM).
2.3. Protease Inhibition
The compounds were further subjected to protease inhibition assays with mammalian proteases cathepsin B and L, parasite cathepsin-L like proteases falcipain-2 (from P. falciparum) and rhodesain (from T. brucei rhodesiense), and with the coronaviral papain-like protease SARS-CoV PL pro as well as with the coronaviral main protease SARS-CoV M pro . Initial screening assays were performed at 100 µM compound concentration. In a second step, compounds showing >50% enzyme inhibition at this concentration (compounds 3–5) were analyzed in detail. Substrate hydrolysis was monitored over 10–40 min in the absence or presence of various inhibitor concentrations (seven inhibitor concentrations spanning from zero to total inhibition of the respective enzyme). Interestingly, inhibition of the cathepsin L-like proteases was observed to be time-dependent, while inhibition of cathepsin B and the coronaviral papain-like protease was not (Figure 6). All compounds were inactive or only weakly active (<10% inhibition at 100 µM) against the SARS-CoV M pro .
For cathepsin B and SARS-CoV PL pro , dissociation constants of enzyme-inhibitor complexes were calculated using the Dixon equation by fitting the residual enzyme activities against the inhibitor concentrations (Figure 7) and by correction to zero-substrate concentration (see Experimental Section).
Figure 7. Inhibition of cathepsin B by tetromycin B (5). A Ki value of 1.50 µM was obtained.
18
In cases of time-dependent inhibition the pseudo-first order rate constants of inhibition kobs (obtained from the progress curves) were fitted against the inhibitor concentrations to obtain Ki, ki, and finally k2nd values (Figure 8, see Experimental Section for details).
In order to ascertain if inhibition was competitive with respect to the substrates, we determined the Ki values for inhibition of rhodesain by tetromycin B (5) at three different substrate concentrations, and found no significant differences, indicating competitive inhibition.
Interestingly, time-dependent inhibition was found only with cathepsin-L like enzymes, not with cathepsin B or the coronaviral protease PL pro . This observed time-dependent inhibition could either be due to an irreversible inhibition mechanism resulting from covalent reaction of the reactive moiety of the inhibitors, the tetronic acid containing an α,β-unsaturated lactone ring, with the cysteine residue of the active sites of the target proteases, or to a slow-binding mechanism resulting from conformational changes of the enzyme-inhibitor complex. The reasons for the differences between cathepsin-L like proteases (mammalian cathepsin L, falcipain, rhodesain) and the others are not yet clear and will require more detailed studies with smaller synthetic derivatives containing the tetronic acid moiety.
The inactivity against the SARS-CoV M pro which is a cysteine protease differing from the other target proteases by the protonation state of its active site (Cys-SH/His instead of ion pair Cys-S − /His-H + ) and its three-dimensional fold (similar to the serine protease chymotrypsin instead of papain-like fold) shows that the compounds are not unselective frequent hitters. It also supports the hypothesis that the compounds are covalent inhibitors of cathepsin-L like proteases, since the active centre of these proteases is more nucleophilic and thus better capable for reaction with the tetronic acid moiety. The inhibition constants (k2nd values and Ki values) do not differ largely between the three compounds indicating a common inhibition mechanism. Table 3 summarizes the inhibition constants.
Table 3. Inhibition of various cysteine proteases by tetromycins 3–4 and tetromycin B (5).
RD: rhodesain; FP: falcipain-2; CL: cathepsin L; CB: cathepsin B; n.d. not determined; Data presented are average values from at least two independent assays.
3. Experimental Section
3.1. General Experimental Procedures
High resolution ESIMS analyses were performed on a Micromass Q-Tof micro mass spectrometer. NMR spectra were obtained on Varian INOVA 500 ( 1 H: 500 MHz, 13 C: 125 MHz) and Varian INOVA 600 ( 1 H: 600 MHz, 13 C: 150 MHz) spectrometers with a 3 mm Nalorac MDBG probe and a 5 mm cold probe, respectively. UV spectra were acquired in spectroscopy grade MeOH using a Hewlett-Packard 8452A diode array spectrophotometer. IR spectra were recorded using a JASCO FT/IR-400 spectrophotometer. HPLC was performed on an Agilent 1100 system using a Luna C18 (Phenomenex, Inc.) (250 × 10 mm, 5 μm) column.
3.2. Biological Material
Streptomyces axinellae strain Pol001 T was cultivated from the Mediterranean sponge Axinella polypoides [10]. The sponge was collected by scuba diving offshore from Banyuls-sur-Mer, France (GPS: 42°29′ N 03°08′E). Streptomyces axinellae strain Pol001 T is deposited at the Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH (DSMZ 41948T) and the Collection de l'Institut Pasteur (CIP 109838T).
3.3. Extraction and Isolation
The bacterial strain was grown on 200 MS [11] agar plates at 30 °C for seven days. Mycelial mass together with the agar were cut into small pieces and macerated overnight with sufficient volume of ethyl acetate to fully submerge the biomass. The resulting solution was filtered and maceration with ethyl acetate was repeated. Both filtrates were combined and dried by rotary evaporation. The isolation of the compounds was carried out by semi-preparative HPLC using H2O + 0.1% TFA (A) and CH3CN (B) as the solvents and the following gradient: flow 4.5 mL/min; 0–10 min 90% B, 11–15 min 100% B to yield five compounds: tetromycin 1 (1, 2.7 mg, Rt = 5.94 min); tetromycin 2 (2, 4.4 mg, Rt = 7.75 min); tetromycin 3 (3, 2.2 mg, Rt = 9.67 min); tetromycin 4 (4, 4.4 mg, Rt = 12.24 min); tetromycin B (5, 2.1 mg, Rt = 17.47 min).
Tetromycin 1 (1): light yellow amorphous solid; [α] 20 D −40.2 ( c 1.92, MeOH); UV (MeOH) λ max (log ε) 210 (1.41), 244 (0.77), 268 (0.54); 1 H and 13 C NMR data, see Table 1; ESIMS m/z 910.4388 [M + Na] + (calcd for C50H65NO13Na, 910.4354).
Tetromycin 2 (2): light yellow amorphous solid; [α] 20 D −38.8 ( c 2.50, MeOH); UV (MeOH) λ max (log ε) 212 (1.49), 242 (0.70), 268 (0.54); 1 H and 13 C NMR data, see Table 1; ESIMS m/z 911.4232 [M + Na)] + (calcd for C50H64O14Na, 911.4219).
Tetromycin 3 (3): light yellow amorphous solid; [α] 20 D −47.7 ( c 3.00, MeOH); UV (MeOH) λ max (log ε) 214 (1.60), 244 (0.72), 266 (0.85); 1 H and 13 C NMR data, see Table 1; ESIMS m/z 861.4062 [M + H] + (calcd for C48H61O14, 861.4062).
Tetromycin 4 (4): light yellow amorphous solid; [α] 20 D −44.1 ( c 3.83, MeOH); UV (MeOH) λ max (log ε) 214 (1.84), 246 (0.79), 266 (1.03); 1 H and 13 C data, see Table 1; ESIMS m/z 897.4066 [M + Na] + (calcd for C49H62O14Na, 897.4037).
Tetromycin B (5): light yellow amorphous solid; [α] 20 D −12.0 ( c 1.83, MeOH); UV (MeOH) λmax (log ε) 210 (1.42), 244 (0.59), 268 (0.55); ESIMS m/z 557.3229 [M + Na] + (calcd for C34H46O5Na, 557.3243).
3.4. Antiparasitic Activity Assays
Leishmania major promastigotes were seeded at a cell density of 1 × 10 7 cells/mL into 96-well plates in complete medium (RPMI with NaHCO3, 10% FCS, 2 mM glutamine, 10 mM Hepes pH 7.2, 100 U/mL penicillin, 50 µg/mL gentamicin, 50 mM 2-mercaptoethanol) without phenol red (200 mL), in the absence or presence of different concentrations of the compounds. These were then incubated for 24 h at 26 °C, 5% CO2 and 95% humidity. Following the addition of 20 µL of Alamar Blue, the plates were incubated again and the optical densities (ODs) measured 24 and 48 h later with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) reader (Multiskan Ascent, Germany) using a test wavelength of 540 nm and a reference wavelength of 630 nm. Absorbance in the absence of compounds was set as 100% of growth. Amphotericin B was used as a reference compound and positive control. The effects of cell density, incubation time and the concentration of DMSO were examined in control experiments. The final concentration of DMSO in the medium never exceeded 1% vol/vol and had no effect on the proliferation of extracellular or intracellular parasites. For every experiment, each drug concentration was assayed in duplicate wells [14].
Trypomastigote forms of Trypanosoma brucei subsp. brucei laboratory strain TC 221 were cultured in complete Baltz medium [80 mL Baltz medium basic solution, 0.8 mL 2-mercaptoethanol stock solution (20 mM), 0.8 mL penicillin/streptomycin (10,000 U/mL), 16 mL FCS (inactivated for 30 min at 56 °C)]. Baltz medium basic solution is composed of the following: 500 mL MEM with Earle's salts and L-glutamine, 3 g Hepes, 0.5 g monohydrate glucose, 0.110 g sodium pyruvate, 0.007 g hypoxanthine, 0.002 g thymidine, 0.0107 g adenosine, 0.0141 g bathocuproinedisulfonic acid disodium salt, 0.146 g glutamine, 5 mL sterile non-essential amino acid concentrate (100×, pH 7.5). A defined number of parasites (10 4 trypanosomes per mL) in test chambers of 96-well plates were exposed to various concentrations of the test substances (dissolved in DMSO) to make a final volume of 200 µL in duplicate. Positive (trypanosomes in culture medium) and negative controls (test substance without trypanosomes) were run simultaneously with each plate. The plates were then incubated at 37 °C in an atmosphere of 5% CO2 for a total time period of 72 h. After 24 h, 20 µL of Alamar Blue were added. The activity of the test substances was measured by light absorption using MR 700 Microplate Reader at a wavelength of 550 nm with a reference wavelength of 630 nm. The first reading was done at 48 h and subsequently at 72 h. The effect of the test substances was quantified in IC50 values by linear interpolation of three independent measurements [15].
3.5. Cytotoxicity Assays
J774.1 macrophages were cultured in complete medium (RPMI with NaHCO3, 10% FCS, 2 mM glutamine, 10 mM Hepes pH 7.2, 100 U/mL penicillin, 50 µg/mL gentamicin, 50 M 2-mercaptoethanol) without phenol red in the absence or presence of increasing concentrations of the compounds at a cell density of 1 × 10 5 cells/mL (200 µL) for 24 h at 37 °C, 5% CO2 and 95% humidity. Following the addition of 20 µL of Alamar Blue, the plates were incubated and the ODs measured at 24, 48 and 72 h. The same Alamar Blue assay previously described for Leishmania was followed. Kidney epithelial 293T cells were tested in the same manner as the macrophages but using complete DMEM medium (4.5 g/L solution of DMEM high glucose solution with sodium pyruvate but without L-glutamine, FBS superior at final concentration of 20%, 200 mM L-glutamine 100×) and cell density (2 × 10 4 cells/mL).
3.6. Protease Inhibition Assays
The fluorometric enzyme assays were performed on a Cary Eclipse fluorescence spectrophotometer (Varian, Darmstadt, Germany) using a microplate reader (excitation 365 nm, emission 460 nm). Cathepsin B and L protease inhibition assays were performed at 25 °C in 50 mM Tris-HCl buffer pH 6.2, containing 5 mM EDTA, 2 mM DTT, 200 mM NaCl, 0.005% Brij 35 as described by Vicik et al. [16–19].
Assays with falcipain-2 and rhodesain were performed in 50 mM acetate buffer pH 5.5 with 5 mM DTT, 5 mM EDTA, 200 mM NaCl, and 0.005% Brij 35. The substrate (Cbz-Phe-Arg-AMC for all four enzymes) and inhibitor stock solutions were prepared in DMSO (10% final concentration) and were diluted with assay buffer. The final substrate concentrations for the inhibition assays were 10.0 µM (RD), 25 µM (FP-2), 6.25 µM (CL), and 100 µM (CB).
The fluorometric SARS-CoV PL protease inhibition assays were performed at 25 °C in a 20 mM Tris-HCl buffer pH 7.5, containing 0.1 mM EDTA, 1 mM DTT, 200 mM NaCl, and 0.005% Brij 35. The final substrate concentration (Z-Arg-Leu-Arg-Gly-Gly-AMC-acetate salt) was 50 µM. Assays with SARS-CoV main protease were done in 20 mM Tris buffer pH 7.5 with 0.1 mM EDTA, 1 mM DTT, and 200 mM NaCl. The substrate used was Abz-Ser-Val-Thr-Leu-Gln-Ser-Tyr(NO2)-Arg, TFA salt (Abz, anthranilic acid) at 50 µM final substrate concentration (excitation 325 nm, emission 425 nm).
First, compounds were tested at 100 µM final concentration. For compounds showing considerable inhibition at this concentration (>50%), inhibition kinetics were analyzed in detail. Progress curves of substrate hydrolysis in absence or presence of inhibitor were monitored over a period of 10–40 min. For compounds showing non-time dependent inhibition the residual enzyme activities vi (obtained from the slopes of the progress curves) were fit to the inhibitor concentrations using the Dixon equation vi = vo/(1 + I/Ki app ), and correction to zero substrate concentration by the
Cheng-Prusoff equation [20,21] for competitive inhibitors: Ki = Ki app /(1 + [S]/Km). For compounds showing time-dependent inhibition the progress curves were fit to the exponential equation: y = limit × (1 − exp(−kobs × t)) + offset yielding the pseudo-first order rates of inhibition kobs. These were then fit to the inhibitor concentrations with kobs = ki × I/(Ki app + I) yielding ki and Ki app ; Ki app values were corrected to zero substrate concentration by: Ki = Ki app /(1 + [S]/Km) and k2nd was calculated from k2nd = (ki/Ki). The Km values used to correct Ki app values were determined in previous work: 0.9 µM (RD), 21.5 (FP-2), 6.5 (CL), 150 (CB), 850 (SARS-CoV PL pro ). The program GraFit (Erithacus Software Ltd., version 5.0.13) was used to calculate the inhibition constants.
4. Conclusions
These results presented herein highlight the importance of marine actinomycetes for drug discovery, as shown here by the identification of four structurally new tetromycin derivatives and a previously known compound, tetromycin B, from the marine sponge-derived isolate, Streptomyces axinellae. Antiparasitic activities against the causative agent of African sleeping disease, Trypansoma brucei, were reported. Furthermore, the compounds showed time-dependent inhibition of cathepsin L-like proteases with Ki values in the low micromolar range.
The selectivity for cathepsin-like enzymes gives a good starting point for further studies with the aim to elucidate the moiety of the inhibitors responsible for inhibition (probably the tetronic acid moiety), to improve selectivity between mammalian and parasite enzymes, which may lead to less cytotoxicity, and to enhance inhibition potency. Furthermore, additional targets within the parasites, have to be taken into account. In Trypanosoma brucei, e.g., the cathepsin-B like protease TbCatB is also known to be essential for the parasite's life cycle, and activity against this protease could contribute to the antiparasitic activities of the compounds. Finally, future work will also address stereochemical aspects.
Acknowledgements
We thank A. Stich (Medical Mission Hospital, Würzburg) for his continuous efforts to raise awareness of tropical parasitic diseases, M.K. Harper (University of Utah) and U. Abdelmohsen (University of Würzburg) for insightful comments on the manuscript. Financial support was provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft SFB 630 TP A5 to U. Hentschel, TP A4 to T. Schirmeister, TP A2 to G. Bringmann, and NIH Grant CA36622 to C.M. Ireland.
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© 2011 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
Samples Availability: Available from the authors.
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THE STATE EX REL. CLAUGUS FAMILY FARM, L.P. v. SEVENTH DISTRICT COURT OF APPEALS ET AL.
H
USTACK ET AL
., A
PPELLANTS
,v. B
ECK
E
NERGY
C
ORPORATION
, A
PPELLEE
[Cite asState ex rel. Claugus Family Farm, L.P. v. Seventh Dist. Court of
Appeals,145 Ohio St.3d 180, 2016-Ohio-178.]
Oil and gas leases—Class certification—Validity of leases—Covenant to reasonably develop the land—Delay rentals do not extend beyond the fixed term of a lease.
(Nos. 2014-0423 and 2014-1933—Submitted December 15, 2015—Decided January 21, 2016.)
N
I M
ANDAMUS
and P
ROHIBITION.
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Monroe County, Nos. 12 MO 6, 13 MO 2, 13 MO 3, and 13 MO 11, 2014-Ohio-4255.
_____________________
FRENCH, J.
{¶ 1} These consolidated actions, an original action in this court and an appeal of a judgment of the Seventh District Court of Appeals, address the interpretation of a number of nearly identical oil and gas leases. The appeal challenges the Seventh District's interpretation of the leases in a class action. The original action seeks writs of prohibition and mandamus. In the original action, relator, Claugus Family Farm, L.P. ("Claugus Family"), an absent and unnamed plaintiff in the class action, challenges the Seventh District's order tolling the leases in the class action.
{¶ 2} We affirm the judgment of the court of appeals in case No. 2014-1933, because the leases set forth a definite period of ten years in which development must occur. We also deny a writ of mandamus or of prohibition in case No. 2014-
.
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0423 because Claugus Family had an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law by moving to intervene in the appeal and because the Seventh District did not patently and unambiguously lack jurisdiction to issue an order tolling the leases pending appeal. Finally, we deny Beck Energy Corporation's motions to toll the terms of the leases.
Statement of Facts
Hustack v. Beck Energy Corp., case No. 2014-1933 ("the appeal")
{¶ 3} In September 2011, appellants, Larry A. and Lori Hustack, along with Clyde A. and Molly A. Hupp, who did not remain parties to the lawsuit when the complaint was amended, filed suit against appellee, Beck Energy Corporation, in the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas. The Hustacks are successors in interest to lessors who signed a lease known as a "Form G&T (83) lease" with Beck Energy in 2008. The lease contains blank lines for the lessors' names, for the period during which a well was to be commenced unless delay rental—that is, an amount paid to the landowner in lieu of development—was paid, for the amount of the delay rental, and for other information.
{¶ 4} The complaint sought a judgment declaring that the Form G&T (83) leases were void as against public policy and to quiet title. A subsequently amended complaint asserted claims on behalf of a class of over 400 Monroe County landowners ("the landowners") who had signed Form G&T (83) leases with Beck Energy. 1
{¶ 5} In February 2012, the landowners moved for summary judgment. In July 2012, the trial court granted summary judgment to the named plaintiffs, finding that the Form G&T (83) leases were void because they were leases in perpetuity in violation of Ohio public policy. Beck Energy appealed that judgment.
1 After the landowners filed the complaint, Beck Energy assigned certain mineral rights to XTO Energy, Inc. Beck Energy retained a royalty interest in the leases and agreed to defend title to the leases against any claims.
{¶ 6} The landowners then filed a motion for class certification under Civ.R. 23(B)(2). On October 1, 2012, Beck Energy moved to toll the operation of the original leases. In February 2013, the trial court granted class certification under Civ.R. 23(B)(2), noting that 415 landowners in Monroe County and 200 to 300 landowners in other counties were affected.
{¶ 7} Beck Energy appealed the order certifying the class, and the court of appeals remanded for the trial court to define the class more clearly. The trial court redefined the class as all Ohio lessors subject to a Form G&T (83) lease with Beck Energy on whose land no preparations for drilling had occurred. The court also applied its entry granting summary judgment to all members of the class as it existed on September 29, 2011, the date an amended complaint asserted class claims. Beck Energy again appealed the class certification, but that appeal was unsuccessful, and Beck Energy has not sought further review of that issue. Hupp v. Beck Energy Corp., 2014-Ohio-4255, 20 N.E.3d 732, ¶ 76 (7th Dist.).
{¶ 8} In June 2013, the landowners unsuccessfully sought the trial court's approval of notice to the class and Beck Energy's list of the class of lessors.
{¶ 9} In July 2013, on Beck Energy's motion, the trial court tolled the leases of only the named plaintiffs pending the outcome of Beck Energy's appeal on the merits. Beck Energy appealed the tolling order.
{¶ 10} The Seventh District issued an order on September 26, 2013, modifying the trial court's tolling order to include all class members as of October 1, 2012, the date Beck Energy first moved to toll the terms of the leases.
{¶ 11} Exactly one year later, on September 26, 2014, the Seventh District held that the trial court had misinterpreted the lease provisions and Ohio case law and had erred in concluding that the Form G&T (83) lease was a perpetual lease that was void ab initio as against public policy. 2014-Ohio-4255, 20 N.E.3d 732, ¶ 104. The lease, according to the Seventh District, has a primary term of a definite duration and a secondary term that extends the lease if certain conditions are met,
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but allows the payment of delay-rental provisions only during the primary term. In addition, the Seventh District held that the trial court erred in concluding that the lease was subject to implied covenants and that Beck Energy had breached the implied covenant to develop. Id. at ¶ 122.
{¶ 12} The parties stipulated to tolling the leases between Beck Energy and the class pending a timely appeal to this court. The landowners then sought review of the Seventh District's judgment regarding the validity of the lease as well as the tolling of the leases of the unnamed class members. On January 28, 2015, we granted jurisdiction on only the following two propositions of law, see Hupp v. Beck Energy Corp., 141 Ohio St.3d 1454, 2015-Ohio-239, 23 N.E.3d 1196:
[I.] An oil and gas lease which can be maintained indefinitely without development is a perpetual lease that is void as against public policy. That a lease purports to establish a fixed term is of no consequence if the duration of that term can be extended without development.
[II.] Where the express terms of an oil and gas lease effectively allow the lessee to postpone development indefinitely, and any stated time limits can be unilaterally extended by the lessee in perpetuity without any development, the lease is subject to an implied covenant of reasonable development notwithstanding a general disclaimer of all implied covenants.
State ex rel. Claugus Family Farm, L.P. v. Seventh Dist. Court of Appeals, case No. 2014-0423 ("the original action")
{¶ 13} Claugus Family, which was not a named plaintiff in the appeal, owns a tract of land in Monroe County. A prior owner of the land had signed a Form G&T (83) lease with Beck Energy. According to Claugus Family, during the first ten years of the lease on its property, no well was drilled, no oil or gas was produced, Beck Energy did not search for oil or gas, and Beck Energy expressed no intent regarding future production. Claugus Family claims that the lease expired on February 3, 2014.
{¶ 14} On September 30, 2013, in anticipation of the expiration of the Beck Energy lease, Claugus Family signed an oil and gas lease with Gulfport Energy Corporation ("Gulfport") for the same property. The Gulfport lease allowed 90 days for Gulfport to review the title to the property for defects and 180 days for Claugus Family to cure any title defects. Claugus Family asserts that Gulfport, upon being told of the tolling order in the appeal, informed Claugus Family that the tolling order was a title defect.
{¶ 15} Claugus Family then filed a complaint in this court naming the Seventh District Court of Appeals and three judges on that court as respondents. Beck Energy has been granted leave to intervene in the action.
{¶ 16} Claugus Family asserts that the order in the appeal tolled its lease with Beck Energy retroactively to October 1, 2012, without notice. Claugus Family claims that the tolling order negatively affected the value of its property, violated its right to due process, and violated the rights of other landowners and that it might expose the landowners to liability for breach of contract. Claugus Family claims that it had or has no plain and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law.
{¶ 17} Claugus Family requests an order prohibiting the enforcement of portions of the September 2013 tolling order and an order vacating the order to the extent that it applies to Claugus Family as an unnamed class member. Beck Energy, on the other hand, claims that Claugus Family breached its lease by entering into the Gulfport lease because the Beck Energy lease prohibited the lessor from entering into any other oil and gas lease while the lease was in effect.
{¶ 18} On September 3, 2014, we granted an alternative writ and scheduled submission of evidence and briefing in the original action. 140 Ohio St.3d 1409,
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2014-Ohio-3785, 15 N.E.3d 879. On February 3, 2015, we consolidated the original action and the appeal for oral argument and decision. 141 Ohio St.3d 1461, 2015-Ohio-370, 24 N.E.3d 1180.
Analysis
Hustack v. Beck Energy Corp., case No. 2014-1933—the appeal
{¶ 19} The landowners challenge two holdings of the Seventh District Court of Appeals regarding the Form G&T (83) leases. In their first proposition of law, the landowners assert that the Form G&T (83) lease can be maintained indefinitely without developing the land and is therefore a perpetual lease that is void as against public policy. In the second proposition of law, the landowners challenge the Seventh District's refusal to hold that the lease was subject to an implied covenant of reasonable development. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of the Seventh District.
Is the Form G&T (83) oil and gas lease void as against public policy?
{¶ 20} As we have recently stated, the language of a granting clause determines the nature of an oil and gas lease and its effect on the parties' property interest in the oil and gas. Chesapeake Exploration, L.L.C. v. Buell, 144 Ohio St.3d 490, 2015-Ohio-4551, 45 N.E.3d 185, ¶ 48. An oil and gas lease typically includes a primary term, which sets forth the duration of the lease, and a secondary term, which allows the lease to be extended under certain described conditions. Id. at ¶ 77. If the conditions of the secondary term are not met, " 'the lease terminates by the express terms of the contract * * * and by operation of law and revests the leased estate in the lessor.' " Id., quoting Am. Energy Servs., Inc. v. Lekan, 75 Ohio App.3d 205, 212, 598 N.E.2d 1315 (5th Dist.1992).
{¶ 21} Long-term leases of mineral rights under which there is no development of the land are void as against public policy. Ionno v. Glen-Gery Corp., 2 Ohio St.3d 131, 134, 443 N.E.2d 504 (1983). When a lease does not require development within a definite period, a court will impose an implied covenant to reasonably develop, absent express provisions to the contrary. Id. at 132-133.
{¶ 22} The mineral lease in Ionno contained no time period in which mining operations had to commence, and the mining company had paid advance royalties for 19 years without developing the land. We stated that paying royalties could not be viewed "as a substitute for timely development" of the land. Id. at 134. We concluded, "To hold otherwise would be to reward mere speculation without development [and] would allow a lessee to encumber a lessor's property in perpetuity merely by paying an annual sum." Id.
{¶ 23} The Form G&T (83) lease states as follows:
2. This lease shall continue in force and the rights granted hereunder be quietly enjoyed by the Lessee for a term of ten years and so much longer thereafter as oil and gas or their constituents are produced or are capable of being produced on the premises in paying quantities, in the judgment of the Lessee, or as the premises shall be operated by the Lessee in the search for oil or gas and as provided in paragraph 7 following.
The Form G&T (83) lease required Beck Energy to commence a well on the leased premises within a certain time or pay a certain delay rental to the landowners, which the parties agreed was to be 12 months and $1 to $5 an acre per year, respectively.
3. This lease, however, shall become null and void and all rights of either party hereunder shall cease and terminate unless, within ___ months from the date hereof, a well shall be commenced on the premises, or unless the Lessee shall thereafter pay a delay rental of ___ Dollars each year, payments to be made quarterly until the commencement of a well. A well shall be deemed commenced when preparations for drilling have been commenced.
{¶ 24} The landowners argue that the Form G&T (83) lease does not state that development must commence during the primary term and thus that it is a perpetual lease similar to the one in Ionno. The landowners note that the lease does not use the words "primary term" or "secondary term." They argue that after the initial ten years, Beck Energy could extend the lease even if it had not developed for oil and gas, by subjectively determining that oil or gas could be produced in paying quantities and then continuing to pay delay rentals. While the language in the Form G&T (83) lease is not identical to leases in the case law, it is similar enough to justify application of that case law here.
{¶ 25} Delay-rental provisions have been interpreted to apply only during the primary term of a lease. In Brown v. Fowler, 65 Ohio St. 507, 63 N.E. 76 (1902), the lease stated that the lessees held the land for 2 years and as long thereafter as oil or gas was found in paying quantities not exceeding 25 years from the date that the lease was signed. The lease also stated that if no well was drilled within 12 months, the lease terminated unless delay rentals were paid. This court held that payment of the delay rental could not extend the lease beyond the fixed term of 2 years. Id. at 522. Accord Jacobs v. CNG Transm. Corp., 332 F.Supp.2d 759, 786 (W.D.Pa.2004) (provision obligating the lessee to pay rental or develop the leasehold is understood to be operative only during the primary term).
{¶ 26} Thus, under paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Form G&T (83) lease, the delay rental must be paid beginning one year after the lease is signed if no well is commenced in that year and payments may continue only until the tenth year of the lease.
{¶ 27} The phrase "capable of being produced," which is used in the provision under which the duration of the lease can be extended, does not extend the time during which the delay rentals can be paid. Courts that have addressed similar language have done so only when referring to whether a well, rather than undeveloped land, is capable of producing. Morrison v. Petro Evaluation Servs., Inc., 5th Dist. Morrow No. 2004 CA 0004, 2005-Ohio-5640, ¶ 39-40; Anadarko Petroleum Corp. v. Thompson, 94 S.W.3d 550, 558 (Tex.2003); Hunthauser Holdings, L.L.C. v. Loesch, D.Kan. No. Civ.A. 00-1154-MLB, 2003 WL 21981961 (June 10, 2003). And Beck Energy acknowledges that oil and gas are not "capable of being produced" if no well exists.
{¶ 28} Nor does the phrase "in the judgment of Lessee" permit the lease to continue indefinitely at Beck Energy's discretion without development of oil and gas. That phrase also applies to production from a well, not to the possibility of production from the land. Beck Energy, although it asserts that "paying quantities" are properly viewed from the lessee's perspective, also agrees that the phrase refers to its judgment regarding the capability to produce once a well has been drilled.
{¶ 29} The landowners also argue that paragraphs 7 and 8 of the lease allow the "indefinite extension of the Lease without any drilling." But neither paragraph is applicable unless drilling has occurred. Paragraph 7 states that the lease terminates after the plugging of a well that is dry, unless Beck drills another well within a year or resumes paying delay rentals at the end of that year. Paragraph 8 addresses a producing well that stops producing or whose products cannot be marketed. Because delay rentals can be paid only during the first ten years of the lease, the lease cannot be extended indefinitely.
{¶ 30} For all these reasons, we conclude that the Form G&T (83) lease cannot be extended beyond the ten years set forth in the primary term without development of oil or gas. The lease is not void as against public policy.
Is the Form G&T (83) oil and gas lease subject to an implied covenant of reasonable development?
{¶ 31} Courts have sometimes imposed upon the parties to oil and gas leases an implied covenant to develop in a reasonable period of time, but only when the lease fails to refer specifically to the timeliness of development. We will not impose an implied covenant to develop when the lease requires that development must commence within a certain period or when the lease specifies that no implied covenant shall be read into the agreement. Ionno, 2 Ohio St.3d at 132, 443 N.E.2d 504 (implied covenant to reasonably develop the land imposed in lease); Beer v. Griffith, 61 Ohio St.2d 119, 399 N.E.2d 1227 (1980), paragraph two of the syllabus ("Absent express provisions to the contrary, an oil and gas lease includes an implied covenant to reasonably develop the land"); Harris v. Ohio Oil Co., 57 Ohio St. 118, 128, 48 N.E. 502 (1897) ("The implied covenant [of reasonable development] arises only when the lease is silent on the subject").
{¶ 32} The Form G&T (83) lease at issue here requires that development commence within ten years, and thus it is not a lease in perpetuity like the lease at issue in Ionno. In addition, there is specific language in the lease that disclaims any implied covenants.
{¶ 33} For these reasons, we hold that the Seventh District correctly held that the leases preclude the imposition of an implied covenant to develop within the primary term of the lease.
State ex rel. Claugus Family Farm, L.P. v. Seventh Dist. Court of Appeals, case No. 2014-0423—the original action
{¶ 34} In the original action, Claugus Family seeks a writ of prohibition to permanently enjoin the Seventh District from enforcing its order tolling the leases as to Claugus Family and a writ of mandamus directing the Seventh District to vacate the tolling order as to Claugus Family.
{¶ 35} To be entitled to a writ of prohibition, Claugus Family must establish that (1) the court of appeals is about to exercise or has exercised judicial power, (2) the exercise of that power is unauthorized by law, and (3) denying the writ would result in injury for which no other adequate remedy exists in the ordinary course of law. State ex rel. Bell v. Pfeiffer, 131 Ohio St.3d 114, 2012-Ohio-54, 961 N.E.2d 181, ¶ 18. Even if Claugus Family has an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law, it may be entitled to a writ if the court of appeals "patently and unambiguously" lacked jurisdiction. Chesapeake Exploration, L.L.C. v. Oil & Gas Comm., 135 Ohio St.3d 204, 2013-Ohio-224, 985 N.E.2d 480, ¶ 11.
{¶ 36} Similarly, to be entitled to extraordinary relief in mandamus, Claugus Family must establish a clear legal right to the requested relief, a clear legal duty on the part of the court of appeals to provide it, and the lack of an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law. State ex rel. Waters v. Spaeth, 131 Ohio St.3d 55, 2012-Ohio-69, 960 N.E.2d 452, ¶ 6. Claugus Family must prove that it is entitled to the writ by clear and convincing evidence. Id. at ¶ 13.
{¶ 37} We conclude that Claugus Family is not entitled to a writ of mandamus or of prohibition. First, it had an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law by moving to intervene in the appeal. State ex rel. Denton v. Bedinghaus, 98 Ohio St.3d 298, 2003-Ohio-861, 784 N.E.2d 99, ¶ 28 (intervention in an action against a child-support obligor was an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law for a bailor seeking release of funds that had been confiscated by a court to pay the obligor's child-support arrearages); State ex rel. Gaydosh v. Twinsburg, 93 Ohio St.3d 576, 578, 757 N.E.2d 357 (2001) (intervention in a declaratory-judgment action is an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law that precludes the issuance of a writ of mandamus); State ex rel. Bennett v. Lime, 55 Ohio St.2d 62, 63, 378 N.E.2d 152 (1978) (court may deny a writ of mandamus when parties could have intervened in a previously filed declaratory-judgment action).
S
UPREME
C
OURT OF
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HIO
{¶ 38} The Seventh District issued the tolling order in the appeal on
September 26, 2013. Claugus Family admitted that its counsel found out about the order sometime in October 2013. The Seventh District did not issue its decision on
the merits of the appeal until September 26, 2014. Claugus Family could have moved to intervene in the appeal when it learned of the tolling order or in the next
11 months. Claugus Family thus had an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law.
{¶ 39} Second, the Seventh District had jurisdiction to issue an order to maintain the status quo during the course of the appeal, and the tolling order did that. Indeed, Claugus Family does not argue that the Seventh District lacked jurisdiction to issue the order, let alone that it patently and unambiguously lacked such jurisdiction.
{¶ 40} For these reasons, we deny both writs.
Motion for a tolling order
{¶ 41} Finally, Beck Energy has filed a motion in each case to toll the terms of the Form G&T (83) leases as to all members of the class. Having held that the leases are valid, we deny the motions for a tolling order.
Conclusion
{¶ 42}
Because the Form G&T (83) lease sets forth a definite period during which development must occur, we affirm the judgment of the Seventh District
Court of Appeals in case No. 2014-1933.
{¶ 43} We deny writs of mandamus and prohibition in case No. 2014-0423 because Claugus Family had an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law by moving to intervene in the appeal and because the court of appeals did not patently and unambiguously lack jurisdiction to issue an order tolling the leases.
{¶ 44}
Finally, we deny Beck Energy's motions to toll the terms of the leases.
Writs and motions denied and judgment affirmed.
O'CONNOR, C.J., and LANZINGER, KENNEDY, and O'NEILL, JJ., concur.
PFEIFER and O'DONNELL, JJ., concur in part and dissent in part.
_________________
PFEIFER, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part.
{¶ 45} I concur in the portion of the majority opinion that addresses the validity of the leases. They are not perpetual. I dissent from everything else. Over the years, I have been generous with criticism of various legal analyses of my colleagues; spirited dissent is a well-understood, constructive part of deciding important matters in a court of last resort. I have been more circumspect with respect to our trial courts, which often have to render quick decisions on complex matters without the benefit of colleagues to help them thread the various legal needles. Today I take aim below as well.
{¶ 46} This case is an all-too-real modern Jarndyce and Jarndyce. The attorney for Claugus Family Farm, L.P. ("Claugus") ably and successfully argued before this court that the Beck Energy leases were valid. He did so while sitting at the same table as an attorney who argued that the Beck Energy leases were perpetual and therefore invalid. Meanwhile, Beck Energy's attorney argued that Claugus's interests, as an unnamed class member, were skillfully and properly represented by the Hupps' attorney, who was arguing directly contrary to Claugus's expressed interests. Because a class was certified and the leases tolled, Claugus estimates that it will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars based on losing the lease it negotiated with Gulfport. We have no way of knowing the total extent of the economic carnage wrought on the 700 or so other landowners in Monroe County and elsewhere in southeastern Ohio that are affected by this decision. The ultimate irony, which you might think would only happen in a fictional case, is that the Hupps, the lead plaintiffs in the class-action case, are no longer parties to the suit. It's as if the Hupps' attorney, who made the ridiculous argument that the leases
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were perpetual, made that argument just so he could initiate a Civ.R. 23(B)(2) suit, thereby adding significant numbers to his oil-and-gas client base. It is as if the Hupps and Beck Energy were part of a scheme to extend the Beck leases by subterfuge—by making a specious argument about the validity of the leases and tolling them—instead of extending the leases the old-fashioned way, by working the land that is the subject of the leases. Beck Energy becomes the undisputed winner of this case, whether by hook or by crook, because it assigned the disputed leases to XTO Energy for $84 million. Claugus and other unnamed parties seeking relief from this court were told below that they should have intervened in the Seventh District—and that remains the best option they have—to have intervened when they did not have notice. It is laughable. Jarndyce indeed.
{¶ 47} "Unorthodox" does not adequately describe what happened in the courts below. The trial court certified the class after deciding, on summary judgment, that the Beck Energy leases were invalid. Not to be outdone, on September 26, 2013, the court of appeals, instead of decertifying the class as requested by Beck Energy, tolled all Beck Energy leases for both the named and unnamed plaintiffs as of October 1, 2012. This reversed the trial court, which though it unreasonably certified the class, at least had the sense to realize that parties with notice of the suit should be treated differently from those without notice. The court of appeals then ruled in Hupp v. Beck Energy Corp., 2014-Ohio4255, 20 N.E.3d 732, ¶ 76 (7th Dist.), determining that the Beck Energy leases are not perpetual, but nevertheless continued the tolling for both named and unnamed plaintiffs until such date as this court accepted jurisdiction. It is as if everyone associated with this case is determined to extend the leases for the benefit of Beck Energy and to the detriment of Claugus.
{¶ 48} Moreover, the requirements of Civ.R. 23 on joinder are not met. The class is not so large that joinder of all parties is impracticable. The questions of law are not common to all parties. At least one party, Claugus, believed its lease with
Beck Energy was valid and was prepared to abide by its terms. As noted above, the class argued before this court that the Beck Energy leases were perpetual and, therefore, invalid. How can the class properly protect Claugus and other unnamed, unnotified parties who may believe in the validity of their own leases? Given that, how can the class be certified? This opposing point of view by unnamed proposed plaintiffs, who lacked notice, means that Civ.R. 23(A)(2), (3), and (4) could not possibly be met. Unfortunately, the trial court did not even inquire into this issue. Furthermore, it is clear that the certification of the class resulted in the denial of due process to Claugus (no notice and no opportunity to opt out) and adversely affected the property and contract rights of Claugus and other similarly situated unnamed class members. On this basis alone, this court should grant the writs and relief sought by Claugus.
{¶ 49} A postscript in keeping with the trials and tribulations of Jarndyce and Jarndyce. When the attorney for the named, but no longer present, plaintiffs filed this action in September 2011, West Texas Intermediate oil was $85.62 per barrel. When tolling began in October 2012, the price was $89.52; when the trial court granted class certification, it was $95.30; when the Seventh District issued the tolling order in September 2013, it was $106.31; in September 2014, when the Seventh District decided the Hupp case, oil was at $93.35; when this court accepted jurisdiction of the appeal in January 2015, oil stood at $47.60; and today as we decide this case, the price is hovering below $30 per barrel. See http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=crude-oil-west-texasintermediate&months=120 (accessed Jan. 19, 2016). Natural-gas prices have also crashed during the course of this litigation. See http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=naturalgas&months=120 (accessed Jan. 19, 2016). Although the true cost of production for eastern Ohio shale oil and gas is unknowable by this court, it is generally regarded to be significantly above current market prices.
{¶ 50} Who are the winners in this case? As noted, the undisputed winner is Beck Energy, which presciently unloaded its leases to XTO Energy for $89 million at a time when prices were significantly higher than they are now. It is possible that XTO Energy will be able to develop some of the leased properties, whether to block competitors or because of proximity to previously installed pipelines. For many of the unnamed class plaintiffs, the future is cloudy at best, though a winning scenario is difficult to imagine. We know that none of them will be able, based on today's market prices, to lease their property to Gulfport or other oil and gas producers for the $7,000 per acre that Claugus had negotiated. And we know that they won't be able to do that because of a specious argument made by a lawyer in Akron, Ohio, who took a swing for the bleachers on behalf of over 700 property owners without their knowledge or consent.
{¶ 51} We all have regrets, usually because of something we did wrong, something we could and should have done differently. In this case, the landowner families affected regret that the courts of Ohio did not protect them from the machinations of a lawyer who did not even represent them. They will drink their morning coffee, dreaming of what might have been, of what this court could and should have done.
O'DONNELL, J., concurs in the foregoing opinion.
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Critchfield, Critchfield & Johnston, Ltd., Daniel H. Plumly, and Andrew P. Lycans, for relator in case No. 2014-0423.
Michael DeWine, Attorney General, and Sarah Pierce and Tiffany Carwile, Assistant Attorneys General, for respondents in case No. 2014-0423.
Slater & Zurz, L.L.P., Richard V. Zurz Jr., and Mark A. Ropchock, for appellants in case No. 2014-1933.
Krugliak, Wilkins, Griffiths & Dougherty Co., L.P.A., Scott M. Zurakowski, William G. Williams, Gregory W. Watts, and Aletha M. Carver, for appellee in case No. 2014-1933 and intervening respondent in case No. 2014-0423.
Reed Smith, L.L.P., and Kevin C. Abbott; and Brouse McDowell, L.P.A., and Clair E. Dickinson, in support of respondents in case No. 2014-0423 and urging affirmance in case No. 2014-1933 for amicus curiae XTO Energy, Inc.
Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease, L.L.P., John K. Keller, and Timothy B. McGranor in support of respondents in case No. 2014-0423 and urging affirmance in case No. 2014-1933 for amici curiae Ohio Oil and Gas Association, Enervest, Ltd., Artex Oil Company, Artex Energz Group, L.L.C., Sierra Buckeye, L.L.C., Eclipse Resources Corporation, and Hilcorp Energy Company.
Burleson, L.L.P., Kevin L. Colosimo, Kristin M. McCormish, Michael Vennum, and Daniel P. Craig, in support of intervening respondent in case No. 2014-0423.
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