Browse by: "2006"

Many chemicals are used to produce hundreds of thousands of different goods, from cars and computers to synthetic fabrics, kitchen appliances and paints. Through green procurement (GP) it is possible to reduce risks that arise from the use of chemical products by encouraging the use of chemical products which have low impact on human health and the environment throughout their life cycle, and discouraging the use of chemical products with a high impact. However, given the large number and variety of available chemical products and the differing priorities of product users, it is challenging to compare and select products for green procurement...

The gender breakdown in higher education in Canada and other western countries has switched from an imbalance in favour of men to an imbalance in favour of women over the last two decades. Programs to attract women into higher education have worked very well. At the University of Guelph for example, 70% of the students are women. Should educators be concerned about this phenomenon? Are there short- and long-term negative effects of gender imbalance? If so, what can and should educators do about the imbalance? Should programs to attract men into higher education be implemented? What accessibility steps can be taken to create a gender balance in higher education? This article explores the changes in the gender profile at universities and colleges in Canada, the United States, and other countries. Potential economic, social, and political causes and effects of gender imbalance are proposed. Accessibility techniques that could be used to create gender balance in university and college programs are explored.

Some of the recent “hype” about how advances in technology are forging a “new economy” has evaporated. Interest in “dot.com” start-up companies in the US has waned with the decline in stock market valuations. Some of the more extravagant claims – in particular, that the “new economy” would see the end to recessions – have been tempered by the recent slowdown in the US economy.

This study resulted from a discussion at the June 2002 meeting of the OECD/NEA Nuclear Science Committee, at which it was first suggested to set up a project to address very high burn-ups (specifically average discharge burn-ups in the range 60-100 GWd/t). The outcome was the setting-up in 2003 of the Expert Group on Very High Burn-ups in LWRs, which was charged with the single task of delivering a state-of-the-art report on high burn-ups in LWRs. It was felt that the report should concentrate on LWRs because that is where the bulk of experience and knowledge resides, but much of the analysis will also be applicable to other reactor types, even if not all the details are transferable.

This report presents the VVER MOX Core Computational Benchmark Specification and Results, which was proposed as a benchmark within the OECD/NEA Expert Group on Reactor-based Plutonium Disposition (TFRPD). Benchmark results, obtained using three computer codes, are presented. The codes include: the MCU Monte Carlo code (Kurchatov Institute, Russian Federation), RADAR (Kurchatov Institute, Russian Federation), and the MCNP Monte Carlo code (GRS, Germany). The codes use different methods and different nuclear data. A comparison of the results shows good agreement among the various codes.

In the recent past, the analysis of plant transients and the analysis of reactor core behaviour were performed separately. Usually, the core was represented by a point kinetics model to analyse plant transients and, for the core physics calculations, boundary conditions were imposed at the inlet and the outlet of the core. In reality, these boundary conditions depend on the power generation in the core. To ensure a realistic description of the physical phenomena in an accident analysis, the application of coupled codes is required. In recent years code developers began coupling three-dimensional (3-D) neutron kinetics codes with advanced thermal-hydraulics system codes. Such complex computer codes allow modelling of the entire reactor system, including a 3-D neutronics core. When reactivity initiated accidents with an asymmetric neutron flux distribution in the core are analysed, only such coupled codes are capable of estimating the real feedback effects. These codes can perform safety analyses in order to replace the conservative estimations with best-estimate calculations.

This report provides guidance to members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) on using ODA more effectively to mobilise private investment for development (investment-enhancing ODA). It focuses on how development agencies can help influence the conditions that lead to increased levels of private investment and on how investment can better contribute to the achievement of broader societal goals, including poverty reduction. A fundamental objective is to help staff in development agencies, both in headquarters and the field, to pursue a more strategic and co-ordinated approach when they design and deliver investment-enhancing ODA.

This report presents numerous examples of the variety of tools for presenting and illustrating PRTR data and the types of uses of PRTR data in OECD member countries. It presents examples of uses for the purposes of the public, community groups, industry, the government, and academic and independent research institutions. The intent of this report is not to describe all of the many programmes, activities, and tools that use PRTR data, but to present examples in each category to illustrate the wide variety of current and evolving uses of such data.

Uganda’s economy has undergone major fluctuations from a vibrant economy in the 1960s, to suffering severe macroeconomic imbalances in the 1970s and 1980s, to enjoying an economic revival since the late 1980s. A key focus of recent public financial management reforms has been to improve macroeconomic performance and ensure strict budgetary discipline, in particular through the use of a three-year rolling budgetary plan as early as 1992/93. However, problems with the cash budgeting system undermined efforts to improve budget planning, requiring complementary reforms to cash management and commitment control systems. Reforms have also focused on poverty reduction, expenditure efficiency and effectiveness, financial management and accountability, and transparency and openness.

This paper aims to identify a few features of institutions and policies in the Dutch public sector that can be characterised as “typically Dutch” and that, moreover, may be considered as worthy of further thought, or perhaps even as a source of inspiration, for countries that are presently thinking about the modernisation of their public sector. This aim implies two limitations that ought to be emphasised at the outset...

The network of senior budget officials (SBO) was launched in 1980 as an ad hoc response to the budget stress that beset most developed countries in the aftermath of oil price shocks, high inflation, and economic stagnation.

The idea of an entrepreneurial university caught on fast after the American sociologist Burton R. Clark published his books on entrepreneurship in universities (Creating Entrepreneurial Universities, 1998; Sustaining Changes in Universities, 2004). Inspired by the alluring of the notion of an entrepreneurial university, and by decreasing levels of state funding for universities, we undertook a study on four very active ECIU universities (ECIU = European Consortium of Innovative Universities, www.eciu.org). To evaluate and quantify their level of entrepreneurship, we extracted from Burton Clark’s case studies twenty organisational practices against which a University’s entrepreneurship can be measured. These twenty practices or factors in effect formed the basis for an entrepreneurship audit. During a series of interviews, the extent to which the universities are seen as entrepreneurial by the interviewees was surveyed. We showed that the practices have been implemented only to various degrees and rather unsystematically. There are important differences among the universities, to some extent depending on the level of ambition that each university has regarding each practice. There are also important similarities; especially that entrepreneurship within universities has to be welcomed and facilitated top-down, but organically occurs and develops bottom-up. Implementing entrepreneurship at universities is thus about stimulating a culture of organic intrapreneurship and we provide practical recommendations and further research options to that effect.

This paper explores the relationship between the diversity within a higher education system and five key factors, namely: the environment, policy intervention, funding, competition and co-operation, and ranking. The exploration is based on the extent to which higher education systems, particularly those of Australia and New Zealand, have accommodated distinctive forms of higher education institutions characterised by the older traditional university at one extreme, and the newer university of technology at the other. Twelve interdependent propositions on diversity are proposed and discussed. These propositions indicate the ways in which each of the five key factors may influence institutional diversity or convergence. In the majority of circumstances, the convergent tendencies of institutions will predominate unless very specific environmental and economic conditions prevail, and/or specific directed policy is implemented.