Water Planning Law and Government, November 2008

Water planning efforts typically identify problems and needs. But simply calling attention to issues is usually not enough to spur action; the end result of many well-intentioned planning efforts is a report that ends up gathering dust on a shelf. Vague recommendations like “Water conservation measures should be implemented” usually accomplish little by themselves as they don’t assign responsibility to anyone. Success is more likely when an implementation strategy — who can and should do what — is developed as part of the planning process. The more detailed and specific the implementation strategy, the greater the chance that something will actually be done.

Benefit News: Employee Benefit News, Department of Administrative Services, December 2015

Benefit News, brought to you by the DAS Benefits Team, providing you with the most up-to-date information about the state of Iowa’s employee benefits.

Impact of the Spanish smoking law on exponsure to secondhand smoke in offices and hospitality venues: before-and-after study

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: A smoking law was passed by the Spanish Parliament in December 2005 and was enforced by 1 January 2006. The law bans smoking in all indoor workplaces but only in some hospitality venues, because owners are allowed to establish a smoking zone (venues>100 m2) or to allow smoking without restrictions (venues<100 m2). The objective of the study is to assess the impact of the Spanish smoking law on exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) in enclosed workplaces, including hospitality venues. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study design is a before-and-after evaluation. We studied workplaces and hospitality venues from eight different regions of Spain. We took repeated samples of vapor-phase nicotine concentration in 398 premises, including private offices (162), public administration offices (90), university premises (43), bars and restaurants (79), and discotheques and pubs (24). RESULTS: In the follow-up period, SHS levels were markedly reduced in indoor offices. The median decrease in nicotine concentration ranged from 60.0% in public premises to 97.4% in private areas. Nicotine concentrations were also markedly reduced in bars and restaurants that became smoke-free (96.7%) and in the no-smoking zones of venues with separate spaces for smokers (88.9%). We found no significant changes in smoking zones or in premises allowing smoking, including discotheques and pubs. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, this study shows the positive impact of the law on reducing SHS in indoor workplaces. However, SHS was substantially reduced only in bars and restaurants that became smoke-free. Most hospitality workers continue to be exposed to very high levels of SHS. Therefore, a 100% smoke-free policy for all hospitality venues is required.

Who is afraid of the big bad ban? An evaluation of the effects of the Spanish clean air law on expenditure at hospitality venues

Background:In January 2011 Spain modified clean air legislation in force since 2006, removing all existing exceptions applicable to hospitality venues. Although this legal reform was backed by all political parties with parliamentary representation, the government's initiative was contested by the tobacco industry and its allies in the hospitality industry. One of the most voiced arguments against the reform was its potentially disruptive effect on the revenue of hospitality venues. This paper evaluates the impact of this reform on household expenditure at restaurants and bars and cafeterias. Methods and empirical strategy:We use micro-data from the Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares (EPF) for years 2006 to 2012 to estimate "two part" models where the probability of observing a positive expenditure and, for those who spend, the expected level of expenditure are functions of an array of explanatory variables. We apply a before-after analysis with a wide range of controls for confounding factors and a flexible modeling of time effects.Results:In line with the majority of studies that analyze the effects of smoking bans using objective data, our results suggest that the reform did not cause reductions in households' expenditures on restaurant services or on bars and cafeteria services.

Das geplante "Datenschutz-Gesetz": eine Bedrohung der medizinisch-epidemiologischen Forschung in der Schweiz? [The proposed law on safeguarding of data: a threat to medical-epidemiologic research in Switzerland?].

The draft of the new law on the confidentiality of personal data severely curtails medical and epidemiological research. This might be detrimental and dangerous to public health. The project therefore has to be amended.

Benefit News: Employee Benefit News, Department of Administrative Services, January 2016

Benefit News, brought to you by the DAS Benefits Team, providing you with the most up-to-date information about the state of Iowa’s employee benefits.

The slow transformation of Swiss federal administrative elites

This article sets out to study the profile of Swiss administrative elites at federal level by showing how their profile has evolved in the light of what has come to be known as the wave of New Public Management (NPM), which has benefited from a very fertile ground in Switzerland. These elites correspond to a specific institutional order, in relation to specific organizational structures and workings, and have specific characteristics in terms of career paths and academic background. However, the administrative reforms that have been rolled out since the 1980s have transformed the institutional order within which executives of the federal administration evolve. This article analyses the extent to which these transformations have had an impact on the characteristics of these elites, through indicators such as academic capital, social capital, and career path within and outside the administration. The results show a slow but significant transformation in the profiles of these elites towards an increasing managerialization, reflecting that of the context in which they evolve.Points for practitioners The relationship between politics and the administration is naturally shaped by individuals but is closely dependent on the profiles of the players. They are currently undergoing a transformation in the wake of administrative reforms, and also of the changing profiles of both the political and administrative players. Gaining an insight into the slow transformation of the profiles of administrative elites therefore sheds light on the political-administrative nexus. The gradual managerialization of the administrative elite highlighted in this article also allows for a better understanding of which professional experiences, qualifications and skills are valued today within the senior civil service in Switzerland.

Analysis of the present (and impact) of women in business organizations in contemporany Spanish democracy. The impact of Spanish law of equality reviewed

Since its approval, in 2007, the Spanish Law of Equality (LO 3/2007) has been the target of many scholars on gender issues. Those analyses (and those previous to the first observable results of the Spanish Law of Equality), have largely prioritized political representative institutions and political parties as the main arenas to assess the impact of the new regulation. Nevertheless, to make a comprehensive analysis of the increase and impact of the presence of women in contemporary democracies one cannot exclude the existence of many other crucial actors in our pluralist systems, such as business organizations.In this line, in order to widen the knowledge on the presence of women in Spanish contemporary democracy, as well as to further assess the impact of Spanish Law of Equality on the presence of women in economic and political life, our paper will look at the gender bias of the executive committees in the Spanish Chambers of Commerce and business associations during the period 20010-2012. By placing those actors at the front sight, we aim to contribute with new empirical insights to the current debate on this topic.

Eighty-Sixth General Assembly House Code of Ethics (House Resolution 5) Adopted 2-3-2015, February 3, 2015

Eighty-Sixth General Assembly House Code of Ethics (House Resolution 5) Adopted 2-3-2015. Every legislator and legislative employee has a duty to uphold the integrity and honor of the general assembly, to encourage respect for the law and for the general assembly, and to observe the house code of ethics. The members and employees of the house have a responsibility to conduct themselves so as to reflect credit on the general assembly, and to inspire the confidence, respect, and trust of the public. The following rules are adopted pursuant to chapter 68B of the Code, to assist the members and employees in the conduct of their activities.

Eighty-Sixth General Assembly Senate Code of Ethics (Senate Resolution 4-Adopted 2-4-2015), February 4, 2015

Eighty-Sixth General Assembly Senate Code of Ethics (Senate Resolution 4-Adopted 2-4-2015)Every legislator owes a duty to uphold the integrity and honor of the general assembly, to encourage respect for the law and for the general assembly and the members thereof, and to observe the legislative code of ethics.

Weber's law in decision making: integrating behavioral data in humans with a neurophysiological model

Recent single-cell studies in monkeys (Romo et al., 2004) show that the activity of neurons in the ventral premotor cortex covaries with the animal's decisions in a perceptual comparison task regarding the frequency of vibrotactile events. The firing rate response of these neurons was dependent only on the frequency differences between the two applied vibrations, the sign of that difference being the determining factor for correct task performance. We present a biophysically realistic neurodynamical model that can account for the most relevant characteristics of this decision-making-related neural activity. One of the nontrivial predictions of this model is that Weber's law will underlie the perceptual discrimination behavior. We confirmed this prediction in behavioral tests of vibrotactile discrimination in humans and propose a computational explanation of perceptual discrimination that accounts naturally for the emergence of Weber's law. We conclude that the neurodynamical mechanisms and computational principles underlying the decision-making processes in this perceptual discrimination task are consistent with a fluctuation-driven scenario in a multistable regime.

Review of Automated Vehicle Technology: Policy and Implementation Implications; Version 1.0; RB28-015, 2016

This report provides recommendations for the state of Iowa over the next five years in regards to automated vehicle policy development. These administrative, planning, legal, and community strategy recommendations for government agencies include: • Encouraging automation by preparing government agencies, infrastructure, leveraging procurement, and advocating for safety mandates • Adjusting long range planning processes by identifying and incorporating a wide range of new automation scenarios • Beginning to analyze and, as necessary, clarify existing law as it apples to automated driving • Auditing existing law • Enforcing existing laws • Ensuring vehicle owners and operators bear the true cost of driving • Embracing flexibility by giving agencies the statutory authority to achieve regulatory goals through different means, allowing them to make small-scale exemptions to statutory regimes and clarifying their enforcement discretion • Thinking locally and preparing publicly • Sharing the steps being taken to promote (as well as to anticipate and regulate) automated driving • Instituting public education about automated vehicle technologies.