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When addressing complex societal problems, public regulation is increasingly complemented by private regulation. Extant literature has provided valuable insights into the effectiveness of such complex governance structures, with most empirical studies focusing on how public regulation influences private regulation. Conversely, the impact of private on public regulation is less well studied. Here, we investigate this impact with a focus on technological change as possible mechanism. Based on a case study of energy efficiency in buildings in Switzerland, we find evidence of a symbiotic interaction between public and private regulation that leads to ratcheting-up of regulatory stringency. We identify technological change as the mechanism linking private and public regulation. We discuss the relevance of our findings for governance literature and regulators., Regulation & Governance, 15 (3), ISSN:1748-5983, ISSN:1748-5991

Background Novel messenger RNA (mRNA)-based vaccines play an important role in current vaccination campaigns against SARS-CoV-2. They are highly efficacious and generally well tolerated. Vaccination in patients with immune-mediated kidney diseases is recommended. A number of cases with de novo or relapsing glomerulonephritis shortly after vaccine application have been reported, some of which presented with gross haematuria. Methods We collected 10 cases of macrohaematuria following mRNA-based severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccination at our tertiary care institution and referring centres. Additionally, we pooled all 25 published cases from the literature with ours to analyse their clinical characteristics. Results Most macrohaematuria episodes (72.2%) began within 2 days after vaccination, the majority after the second dose. In some individuals, repeated episodes occurred after subsequent doses of the same vaccine. A total of 65.7% of patients never had macrohaematuria before. A total of 45.7% were known to suffer from immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN); the rest had no prior renal diagnosis. IgAN was the most frequent new diagnosis, but anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis and anti-glomerular basement membrane disease were also identified. Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurred in 28.6% of patients, with an increase in serum creatinine not meeting Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes AKI criteria in 28.6%. Treatment ranged from conservative management, renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system inhibitors, steroids and cyclophosphamide to plasmapheresis. While renal outcomes were mainly favourable in isolated IgAN, they were poor in patients with additional or isolated small vessel vasculitis. Conclusion Awareness of gross haematuria after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is important. Close follow-up and additional work up, particularly in individuals without known underlying kidney disease or worsening renal function, is essential. For patients with vaccine-associated macrohaematuria, an alternative vaccine class might be considered for subsequent vaccinations.

Despite the prominence of exogenous factors in theories of policy change, the precise mechanisms that link such factors to policy change remain elusive: The effects of exogenous factors on the politics underlying policy change are not sufficiently conceptualized and empirically analyzed. To address this gap, we propose to distinguish between truly exogenous factors and policy outcomes to better understand policy change. Specifically, we combine the Advocacy Coalition Framework with policy feedback theory to conceptualize a complete feedback loop among policy, policy outcomes, and subsequent politics. Aiming at theory‐building, we use policy feedback mechanisms to explain why advocacy coalitions change over time. Empirically, we conduct a longitudinal single case study on policy‐induced technological change in the German energy subsystem, an extreme case of policy outcomes, from 1983 to 2013. First, using discourse network analysis, we identify four patterns of actor movements, explaining coalition decline and growth. Second, using process tracing, we detect four policy feedback mechanisms explaining these four actor movements. With this inductive mixed‐methods approach, we build a conceptual framework in which policy outcomes affect subsequent politics through feedback mechanisms. We develop propositions on how coalition change and feedback mechanisms explain four ideal‐typical trajectories of policy change., Policy Studies Journal, 48 (4), ISSN:0190-292X, ISSN:1541-0072

The successful implementation of the Paris Agreement requires substantial energy policy change on the national level. In national energy policy-making, climate change mitigation goals have to be ba...

Phasing out coal is a crucial lever in reaching international climate targets. However, the resulting jobs losses might trigger voter backlash, making phase-outs politically costly. Here, we present an analysis of the electoral response to coal mining job losses in US presidential elections using matched and bordering difference-in-difference estimators. Our findings confirm that fossil fuel phase-outs can result in voter backlash. In our main specification, we find a four percentage-point (pp) increase in the Republican vote share in 2012 (range across specs. = 3.6 pp-4.5 pp), declining to 3.2 pp in 2016 (range across specs. = 3.2 pp-4.2 pp), in counties suffering from coal mining job loss. The estimated electoral response is around three times as large as the number of jobs lost. We observe this response only in places where there was significant job loss, where these jobs accounted for a large share of locally available jobs and where income levels were low. Relative party strengths do not influence the results., Environmental Research Letters, 17 (9), ISSN:1748-9326, ISSN:1748-9318

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 39, ISSN:2210-4224

While the past decade of transitions scholarship has increasingly acknowledged the centrality of politics, key questions on transition politics deserve further research. Here, we develop a heuristic framework from the discipline of political science that separates transition politics into the classic categories of interests, ideas, institutions, as well as elite and mass politics. Based on this framework, we conduct a review of existing transitions literature on politics. We find that some areas of our framework are better covered than others. For instance, while the institutional foundations of elite politics are relatively well researched, there are only few studies on interests and ideas in mass politics. In geographical and sectoral terms, research is biased toward energy transitions in Europe and North America. Based on our review, we map areas for future research we believe to be indispensable to better understand varieties of transition politics., Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 41, ISSN:2210-4224

Although successful sustainability transitions depend on public support, we still know little about citizens' opinions on climate solutions. Existing research often focuses on the problem perception of climate change rather than analyzing attitudes toward specific climate solutions. Studies also largely use closed questions to assess public opinion, posing a problem of ecological validity. Here, we address these gaps by leveraging data from a large-scale public consultation process, the "Grand Débat National", launched by the French government in response to the Yellow Vest movement in 2019. Combining structural topic modelling, dictionary-based text analysis and qualitative coding, we map the salience and directionality of public opinion on climate solutions. We find that consultation participants perceive climate change as the most salient environmental problem. Transforming the transport and energy sectors is the most supported solution for addressing climate change. For these two sectors, substitution-based climate solutions – as opposed to sufficiency- or efficiency-based measures – are most salient. For instance, participants stress the need to expand public transport infrastructure and switch to renewable energy technologies for power generation. Our findings demonstrate a strong public consensus on most substitution-based climate solutions, except for the role of cars and nuclear energy. While most participants do not link climate solutions to specific policy instruments, we find preferences for authority-based instruments in the context of phasing out polluting technologies, and treasury-based instruments for supporting innovation and phasing in low carbon technologies., Environmental Research Letters, 17 (4), ISSN:1748-9326, ISSN:1748-9318

Energy Research & Social Science, 69, ISSN:2214-6296

Replacing coal with cleaner energy carriers is a crucial lever to reach the Paris climate targets. However, as coal decline results in local job loss, political backlash might arise, jeopardizing the clean energy transition. Yet, we lack evidence on whether such backlash exists. Here, we analyze the electoral response to coal mining job losses in the United States presidential elections from 2000 to 2016 in a panel regression and a matched difference-in-difference setting. Our results suggest an electoral response in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections specific to the loss of coal mining jobs. We estimate an increased Republican vote share of 1.2 pp in 2012 and 1.5 pp in 2016 for each 100 coal mining jobs lost. The estimated electoral response is thus almost five times as large as the numbers of jobs lost. We observe this response only in places with large job losses, where these jobs account for a large share of locally available jobs and where income levels are low. Existing relative party strengths, however, do not influence the results. Moreover, we find a spillover effect of 2.2 pp in 2016 into counties within 50 km of those affected by coal decline. We discuss the implications of these findings for coal phase-outs worldwide.

In this paper, we consider the problem of controller tuning for an operating unit in a building energy system. As an illustrative plant example we focus on a heat pump. Since the plant is in use, the tuning method is supposed to not intervene with its operation. Moreover, the tuning procedure is supposed to be online, model-free, based only on historical data and needs to provide safety guarantees of the plant in operation. In this regard, we formulate the problem as a black-box optimization and adopt safe Bayesian optimization approaches for controller parameter tuning. These approaches are relatively new to the control community and not intensively studied in control applications. Meanwhile, the underlying systems are often expensive and performing relevant experiments is time consuming. Therefore, a crucial step prior to implementation in reality is validating the methods in simulation to verify their applicability. Toward this end, we derive a physical-based model for the heat pump and identify the unknown parameters using gray-box identification methods. Given the simulation model, we tune the controller parameters in simulation for optimal performance while considering safety constraints of the system., Proceedings of the 18th European Control Conference (ECC 2019), ISBN:978-3-907144-00-8, ISBN:978-3-907144-01-5, ISBN:978-1-7281-1314-2

In this paper, we consider the problem of controller tuning for an operating unit in a building energy system. The illustrative example used here is a real heat pump located in the NEST building at Empa, Dubendorf, Zurich, with its outflow temperature controlled by a PI-controller. The plant is in use and accordingly, intervening in its normal operation is not allowed. Moreover, the model of plant is not available or it can be changed due to aging or possible modification. Accordingly, it is desired to utilize a tuning method which is model-free, operates online, does not intervene with the normal operation of the plant and use only the available historical measurement data. Additionally, it is required to guarantee the safety of the plant during the tuning procedure. In this regard, we formulate the controller tuning problem as a black-box optimization and adopt a safe Bayesian optimization approach for controller parameters tuning. In order to assess numerically the performances of the scheme, first we model the plant as a nonlinear ARX model in form of a feedforward neural network. Subsequently, we train the neural network using the available historical measurement data. Finally, the obtained model is used as an oracle in the controller tuning procedure in order to numerically verify the effectivity of the proposed approach., Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1343, ISSN:1742-6588, ISSN:1742-6596

Misfolding of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) into the scrapie prion protein (PrPSc) results in progressive, fatal, transmissible neurodegenerative conditions termed prion diseases. Experimental and epidemiological evidence point toward a protracted, clinically silent phase in prion diseases, yet there is no diagnostic test capable of identifying asymptomatic individuals incubating prions. In an effort to identify early biomarkers of prion diseases, we have compared global transcriptional profiles in brains from pre-symptomatic prion-infected mice and controls. We identified Cst7, which encodes cystatin F, as the most strongly upregulated transcript in this model. Early and robust upregulation of Cst7 mRNA levels and of its cognate protein was validated in additional mouse models of prion disease. Surprisingly, we found no significant increase in cystatin F levels in both cerebrospinal fluid or brain parenchyma of patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease compared to Alzheimer's disease or non-demented controls. Our results validate cystatin F as a useful biomarker of early pathogenesis in experimental models of prion disease, and point to unexpected species-specific differences in the transcriptional responses to prion infections.