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This article provides an introduction to the articles submitted to the special issue of Trends in Organised Crime on ‘Organised Crime in Latin America’. The aim of the special issue is to draw together novel empirical research findings and theoretical accounts on various aspects of organised crime in the particular geographic context.

This article provides an introduction to the articles submitted to the special issue of Trends in Organised Crime on ‘Organised Crime in Latin America’. The aim of the special issue is to draw together novel empirical research findings and theoretical accounts on various aspects of organised crime in the particular geographic context.

The increasing trends in GHG emissions over the last 40 years due to the economic growth are aggravating the effects of Climate Change. A way to stabilise and reverse these effects is through the decarbonisation of energy systems and the transition to a low carbon economy; however, this requires time and involves costly investments. The gradual transition to a low carbon economy demands the development and implementation of new technologies as well as policies that will exploit the potential of the technology mix in the least cost for society. Cost effectiveness has been used as an indicator for giving such insights to decision and policy makers. In planning such futures, models are being widely used providing input to assess the developments need to be undertaken taking into account policy and technology interactions. In this study we used OPERA optimisation model in order to study the Dutch energy system regarding the cost effectiveness of technologies under different policy pathways for 2030. Four scenarios were studied representing possible pathways with regard to the climate and energy targets. In particular renewable energy, primary energy savings and final energy savings targets were investigated along with the non-ETS emission reduction targets. Aim of the research was to provide a method to examine how the interactions among the scenario objectives and the assessed technologies affect the ranking of the latter using as indicator their cost effectiveness. The shadow prices of the assessed targets were used as a proxy to estimate the cost effectiveness of technologies as well as the interactions among the objectives of each scenario. The analysis suggests that the scoring of each technology is highly dependent on its influence on the scenario objectives. Providing such ranking can be proved really useful for policy makers because the alignment or misalignment of technologies with the policy objectives can be predicted. Hence, technological lock-ins can be avo

The increasing trends in GHG emissions over the last 40 years due to the economic growth are aggravating the effects of Climate Change. A way to stabilise and reverse these effects is through the decarbonisation of energy systems and the transition to a low carbon economy; however, this requires time and involves costly investments. The gradual transition to a low carbon economy demands the development and implementation of new technologies as well as policies that will exploit the potential of the technology mix in the least cost for society. Cost effectiveness has been used as an indicator for giving such insights to decision and policy makers. In planning such futures, models are being widely used providing input to assess the developments need to be undertaken taking into account policy and technology interactions. In this study we used OPERA optimisation model in order to study the Dutch energy system regarding the cost effectiveness of technologies under different policy pathways for 2030. Four scenarios were studied representing possible pathways with regard to the climate and energy targets. In particular renewable energy, primary energy savings and final energy savings targets were investigated along with the non-ETS emission reduction targets. Aim of the research was to provide a method to examine how the interactions among the scenario objectives and the assessed technologies affect the ranking of the latter using as indicator their cost effectiveness. The shadow prices of the assessed targets were used as a proxy to estimate the cost effectiveness of technologies as well as the interactions among the objectives of each scenario. The analysis suggests that the scoring of each technology is highly dependent on its influence on the scenario objectives. Providing such ranking can be proved really useful for policy makers because the alignment or misalignment of technologies with the policy objectives can be predicted. Hence, technological lock-ins can be avo

A vast body of literature exists showing functional and structural dysfunction within the brains of patients with disorders of consciousness. However, the function (fluorodeoxyglucose FDG-PET metabolism)–structure (MRI-diffusion-weighted images; DWI) relationship and how it is affected in severely brain injured patients remains ill-defined. FDG-PET and MRI-DWI in 25 severely brain injured patients (19 Disorders of Consciousness of which 7 unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, 12 minimally conscious; 6 emergence from minimally conscious state) and 25 healthy control subjects were acquired here. Default mode network (DMN) function–structure connectivity was assessed by fractional anisotropy (FA) and metabolic standardized uptake value (SUV). As expected, a profound decline in regional metabolism and white matter integrity was found in patients as compared with healthy subjects. Furthermore, a function–structure relationship was present in brain-damaged patients between functional metabolism of inferior-parietal, precuneus, and frontal regions and structural integrity of the frontal-inferiorparietal, precuneus-inferiorparietal, thalamo-inferioparietal, and thalamofrontal tracts. When focusing on patients, a stronger relationship between structural integrity of thalamo-inferiorparietal tracts and thalamic metabolism in patients who have emerged from the minimally conscious state as compared with patients with disorders of consciousness was found. The latter finding was in line with the mesocircuit hypothesis for the emergence of consciousness. The findings showed a positive function–structure relationship within most regions of the DMN. Hum Brain Mapp 37:3707–3720, 2016.