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The EASZY assay is a mechanism-based in vivo screening assay designed to detect endocrine active chemicals acting as agonist through estrogen receptors (ERs), by inducing the expression of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) driven by the cyp19a1b promoter. The EASZY assay allows for the detection of estrogenic activity of chemicals on transgenic tg(cyp19a1b:GFP) Zebrafish embryos exposed for 96 hours during the embryonic stages of development. At the end of the experiment, the fluorescence of each newly hatched eleutheroembryo is measured using fluorescence microscope. Because the skull of early developmental stages of zebrafish is transparent, GFP is observed, imaged and quantified in vivo. The intensity of fluorescence is then quantified using image analysis software.
The RTgill-W1 cell line assay describes a 24-well plate format fish cell line acute toxicity test using the permanent cell line from rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) gill, RTgill-W1. After 24 h of exposure to the test chemical, cell viability is assessed based on three fluorescent cell viability indicator dyes, measured on the same set of cells. Resazurin enters the cells in its non-fluorescent form and is converted to the fluorescent product, resorufin, by mitochondrial, microsomal or cytoplasmic oxidoreductases. A reduction in the fluorescence of resorufin indicates a decline in cellular metabolic activity, including disruption of mitochondrial membranes. The data are expressed as the percent cell viability of unexposed control values versus the test chemical concentration. The resulting concentration-response curves serve to determine the effective concentrations causing 50% loss in cell viability, i.e. the EC50 value.
The test is designed to (i) predict fish acute toxicity in product testing; (ii) range-finding and pre-screening before conducting a full fish acute or other fish-based toxicity test; (iii) generation of toxicity information to be used for hazard assessment in combination with other lines of evidences (e.g., Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships (QSAR), weight of evidence (WoE)) within Integrated Testing Strategy (ITS)/Integrated Approach to Testing and Assessment (IATA).
Nuclear power plants are used extensively as base load sources of electricity. This is the most economical and technically simple mode of operation. In this mode, power changes are limited to frequency regulation for grid stability purposes and shutdowns for safety purposes.
However for countries with high nuclear shares or desiring to significantly increase renewable energy sources, the question arises as to the ability of nuclear power plants to follow load on a regular basis, including daily variations of the power demand.
This report considers the capability of nuclear power plants to follow load and the associated issues that arise when operating in a load following mode. The report was initiated as part of the NEA study “System effects of nuclear power”. It provided a detailed analysis of the technical and economic aspects of load-following with nuclear power plants, and summarises the impact of load-following on the operational mode, fuel performance and ageing of large equipment components of the plant.
What knowledge do teachers need for 21st century teaching? Today, teachers have an important role in guiding and shaping students’ use of digital tools and optimising the educational benefits of their digital experiences. They are also agents of inclusive, equitable education and ambassadors of embracing diversity as an enriching element of our societies.
To fulfil these roles teachers need to be experts of teaching and learning, and base their practice on a specialised and updated body of knowledge. However, there is a great need for a better understanding of the knowledge and skills that teaching in the 21st century requires. This is the ambition for the next cycle of the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) and its new Teacher Knowledge Survey (TKS) assessment module.
Studying teaching as a knowledge profession across education systems is as challenging as it is important. This publication aims to contribute to this challenging endeavour by summarising the state-of-art on teacher knowledge and its measurement across systems. It discusses cutting-edge methodologies and designs and outlines implications for research as well as policies and practices for strengthening knowledge-based and evidence-informed practices in schools.
Vocational education and training (VET) plays a central role in preparing young people for work, developing the skills of adults and responding to the labour-market needs of the economy. Teachers and leaders in VET can have an immediate and positive influence on learners’ skills, employability and career development. However, when compared to general academic programmes, there is limited evidence on the characteristics of teachers and institutional leaders in VET and the policies and practices of attracting and preparing them. VET teachers require a mix of pedagogical skills and occupational knowledge and experience, and need to keep these up to date to reflect changing skill needs in the labour market and evolving teaching and learning environments. This report fills the knowledge gap on teachers and leaders in VET, and produces new insights into what strategies and policies can help develop and maintain a well-prepared workforce. It zooms in on VET teacher shortages; strategies for attracting and retaining teachers; initial training and professional development opportunities for teachers; the use of innovative technologies and pedagogical strategies; and the important role of institutional leaders and strategies for better preparing and supporting them.
Developing, promoting and maintaining a good professional teaching workforce from primary to upper secondary education is a policy imperative for education systems around the world. The data drawn from the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) can help policy makers and education practitioners design policies and practices that enhance teaching across education levels. This report presents TALIS 2018 findings for countries and economies that took part in the primary and upper secondary education survey. It focuses on the following research questions: What are the levels of teachers’ and school leaders’ professionalism in primary and upper secondary education? What are some of the educational challenges unique to each education level? What are the factors that could explain differences in the levels of professionalism across education levels? The findings offer a broader view of teachers and school principals across all levels of compulsory education and the similarities and differences in the issues they face. The report also offers policy reflections on these findings.
This annual publication provides details of taxes paid on wages in OECD countries. It covers personal income taxes and social security contributions paid by employees, social security contributions and payroll taxes paid by employers, and cash benefits received by workers. It illustrates how these taxes and benefits are calculated in each member country and examines how they impact household incomes. The results also enable quantitative cross-country comparisons of labour cost levels and the overall tax and benefit position of single persons and families on different levels of earnings. The publication shows average and marginal effective tax rates on labour costs for eight different household types, which vary by income level and household composition (single persons, single parents, one or two earner couples with or without children). The average tax rates measure the part of gross wage earnings or labour costs taken in tax and social security contributions, both before and after cash benefits, and the marginal tax rates the part of a small increase of gross earnings or labour costs that is paid in these levies.
Taxing Wages 2021 includes a special feature entitled: “Impact of COVID-19 on the Tax Wedge in OECD Countries”.
The report provides an overview of the tax measures introduced during the COVID-19 crisis across almost 70 jurisdictions, including all OECD and G20 countries and 21 additional members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting. It examines how tax policy responses have varied across countries and evolved over the last year. It also offers some guidance as to how tax policy responses could be adapted to address the short-term challenges countries face and outlines future work that the OECD will be undertaking to help countries reassess their tax and spending policies in the longer run.
A key part of the OECD/G20 BEPS Project is addressing the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy. In October 2021, over 135 jurisdictions joined a ground-breaking plan to update key elements of the international tax system which is no longer fit for purpose in a globalised and digitalised economy. The Global Anti-Base Erosion Rules (GloBE) are a key component of this plan and ensure large multinational enterprise pay a minimum level of tax on the income arising in each of the jurisdictions where they operate. More specifically, the GloBE Rules provide for a co-ordinated system of taxation that imposes a top-up tax on profits arising in a jurisdiction whenever the effective tax rate, determined on a jurisdictional basis, is below the minimum rate. This report delineates the scope and sets out the operative provisions and definitions of the GloBE Rules. These rules are intended to be implemented as part of a common approach and to be brought into domestic legislation as from 2022.
This report is the ninth edition of the OECD's Tax Administration Series. It provides internationally comparative data on aspects of tax systems and their administration in 59 advanced and emerging economies. The publication presents the results of the 2020 International Survey on Revenue Administration (ISORA), a multi-organisation international survey to collect national-level information and data on tax administration governed by four partner organisations: CIAT, the IMF, IOTA and the OECD. As with the previous survey round, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) also participated in ISORA 2020 along with the four partner organisations.
The publication is structured around nine chapters that examine and comment on tax administration performance and trends up to the end of the 2019 fiscal year, and it includes a variety of examples supplied by tax administrations to highlight recent innovations and good practices. The publication also has two annexes containing all the ISORA 2020 data, which form the basis of the analysis in the report, as well as the details of the administrations that participated in this publication.
The objective of this note is to provide information needed to explore points of synergies and facilitate collaboration amongst Swiss foundations and official development agencies supporting education. The note captures previously non-existent quantitative and qualitative data from Swiss foundations active in education in developing countries and developed countries. It provides insight into the educational purposes and geographies supported by Swiss philanthropy and digs deeper into Swiss foundations’ collaboration with other private or bi- and multi-lateral funders, foundations’ engagement in advocacy, and their approaches to learning. In order to complement these findings, the note sets out data on Swiss official development assistance (ODA) for education to identify common geographical and thematic priorities.
This profile provides a concise and policy-relevant overview of health and the health system in Sweden as part of the broader series of the State of Health in the EU country profiles. It provides a short synthesis of: the health status in the country; the determinants of health, focussing on behavioural risk factors; the organisation of the health system; and the effectiveness, accessibility and resilience of the health system. This edition has a special focus on the impact of COVID‑19.
This profile is the joint work of the OECD and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, in co-operation with the European Commission.
This report analyses planned infrastructure projects, decision-making frameworks related to infrastructure development and strategic planning documents in the six countries of the EU Eastern Partnership: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. It compares current investment flows with countries' national development objectives to identify misalignments and provides policy-makers with recommendations to improve the integration of climate change and other environmental concerns into infrastructure development decision-making processes. The report presents a comprehensive overview of infrastructure investment, primarily in the transport and energy sectors, throughout the region and identifies the risks and opportunities emerging from current investment patterns.
Digital technologies have transformed the way people interact, work and learn. The emergency transition to online teaching and learning necessitated by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has posed a serious challenge to instructional routines of higher education systems across OECD countries. The pandemic has demonstrated the ability of higher education institutions to ensure continuity in teaching and learning, but it has also revealed that much work remains to be done to ensure digital technologies are effectively used to promote quality, efficiency and equity in higher education. This report, which focuses on the digital transformation of higher education in Hungary, is a collaboration between the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM), the Hungarian Ministry for Innovation and Technology and the OECD’s Directorate for Education and Skills. Building on stakeholder engagement and comparative analysis, the report offers an assessment of the current state of digitalisation in higher education in Hungary, identifies policy recommendations to strengthen the current policy framework supporting digitalisation, and provides suggestions to help Hungarian authorities and stakeholders develop a monitoring framework and indicators to measure the digitalisation of the higher education system.
Mainstreaming integrity policies throughout a public administration is a common challenge in many countries. Brazil’s Office of the Comptroller General (CGU) has implemented a series of measures to do so, including establishing the Public Integrity System of the Federal Executive Branch (SIPEF). This report analyses these recent developments and provides recommendations on how to better promote a culture of integrity through the Integrity Management Units with targeted support by the CGU. The report also highlights opportunities to improve the clarity and coherence of policies to promote public integrity and public ethics, manage conflicts of interest, and foster integrity risk management by streamlining these areas under the umbrella of public integrity.
Many Emerging Asian countries have been refining macroprudential policies, particularly since the Global Financial Crisis. For instance, they have developed policies targeting housing markets and broadly transposed the Basel III requirements into their national legislation. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, policy makers now need to identify emerging vulnerabilities and their associated financial stability risks and respond with the appropriate macroprudential tools.
This publication provides a detailed overview of the current macroprudential policy situation in Emerging Asian countries and explores how the macroprudential policy toolkit has evolved. The report discusses some of the most pressing challenges to financial stability, including the interaction of macroprudential policy with other policies. It also devotes special attention to macroprudential policies for emerging priorities, such as achieving green goals and updating regulatory frameworks to reflect ongoing Fintech developments. Climate change will indeed create new challenges in financial markets, while Fintech developments bring about many economic opportunities and deepen financial systems, but present a variety of novel risks requiring rapid policy responses.
The crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has been unlike any other the world has experienced, requiring social distancing and restrictions on mobility, and rendering some economic activity impossible. This publication explores and compares the characteristics that have affected the ability of firms, workers and consumers to maintain production, employment and consumption during the COVID-19 crisis, across industries and countries. It takes an analytical forward-looking perspective, considering a broad collection of indicators and evidence to guide policies. The aspects covered centre around topics of business dynamics; productivity; innovation and digital technologies; interconnectedness; inclusiveness; and skills.
The report incorporates both a short-term perspective – analysing the supply restrictions and lockdowns that have characterised containment responses – and a medium- to long-term view, focusing on changes in demand that have arisen through recessionary effects and changes in preferences.
The purpose of this publication is to provide insights to policy makers in three ways. First, by providing an overview of the different channels through which the crisis has affected firms differently across industries; then, by identifying country characteristics which may mediate these channels and mitigate or amplify the impacts of this and future shocks on the economy; and finally, by exploring systematic differences in the impact across population subgroups and the implications for policy.
In supporting children’s development, countries invest in the future successes of economies and societies. Awareness of the critical role early childhood education and care (ECEC) plays in setting a strong foundation for children’s learning, development and well-being has grown among policy makers worldwide.
The OECD Quality beyond Regulations policy review provides countries with an overview of the different dimensions of quality in ECEC. It also highlights policies that can enhance process quality in particular. From this review, emerged the present report, taking an in-depth look at Ireland's ECEC system. It outlines the sector’s main strengths and challenges, focusing on workforce development and quality assurance through monitoring and inspections. The report provides tailored policy recommendations to improve provision in line with national goals.
This guidance provides a tool governments and development co-operation can draw on in their efforts to strengthen the resilience of human and natural systems to the impacts of climate change. It highlights three aspirations to consider when planning and implementing action to build climate resilience (country ownership; inclusiveness; and environmental and social sustainability). The guidance also outlines four mechanisms (governance; sector-level approaches; finance; and monitoring, evaluation and learning) and three enablers (data and information; capacity; and technologies) in support of climate resilience, proposing concrete actions in the form of checklists.
This brochure is published within the framework of the Scheme for the Application of International Standards for Fruit and Vegetables established by OECD in 1962. It comprises explanatory notes and illustrations to facilitate the uniform interpretation of the current standard for strawberries. It demonstrates the quality parameters on high quality photographs. Thus it is a valuable tool for the inspection authorities, professional bodies and traders interested in international trade in strawberries. This brochure is trilingual (English, French, Spanish) and available in electronic format only.