AbstractWhile the stability of legislation is one of the fundamental issues in political theory, comparative and quantitative analyses on the subject are in short supply in the political science literature. In this article, we propose a novel measurement scheme for legislative stability, and we also introduce a Legislative Stability Index (LSI) developed to this end. In terms of empirical evidence, our index relies on the number of legislative amendments adopted within the span of an electoral cycle, as well as the breadth of issues the amendments touch on. It is based on the frequency with which laws are amended after their adoption. Our approach uses a new law-amendment edge-type network for a new Hungarian legislative database. Amendment-type connections are discovered by an automated dictionary-based text mining method. We tested the applicability of our index in various regression models. Results show that the legislative term, the length of the law and the way it was adopted were the most significant variables in explaining variation in the stability of legislation.
The presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater was first reported in March 2020. Over the subsequent months, the potential for wastewater surveillance to contribute to COVID-19 mitigation programmes has been the focus of intense national and international research activities, gaining the attention of policy makers and the public. As a new application of an established methodology, focused collaboration between public health practitioners and wastewater researchers is essential to developing a common understanding on how, when and where the outputs of this non-invasive community-level approach can deliver actionable outcomes for public health authorities. Within this context, the NORMAN SCORE "SARS-CoV-2 in sewage" database provides a platform for rapid, open access data sharing, validated by the uploading of 276 data sets from nine countries to-date. Through offering direct access to underpinning meta-data sets (and describing its use in data interpretation), the NORMAN SCORE database is a resource for the development of recommendations on minimum data requirements for wastewater pathogen surveillance. It is also a tool to engage public health practitioners in discussions on use of the approach, providing an opportunity to build mutual understanding of the demand and supply for data and facilitate the translation of this promising research application into public health practice. ; All authors wish to thank the WWTP operators for providing samples. LL, AH and MV would like to acknowledge the VINNOVA (Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems) DRIZZLE – Centre for Stormwater Management (Grant no. 2016-05176) and the technical expertise provided by the Stormwater&Sewers network, Nireas-International Water Research Center of the University of Cyprus would like to thank the Sewerage Board of Limassol-Amathus (SBLA), the Sewerage Board of Nicosia (SBN) and the Paralimni Sewerage Board (PSB) for the provision of influent samples, for the purpose of performing this work. MPD wishes to thank COVIDBENS Inv04020 financed by EDAR Bens S.A, A Coruña, FYL wishes to thank Z Cetecioglu Gurol (KTH) and P Haglund (Umeå University) and TM would like to acknowledge financial support from APVV-19-0250, PP-COVID-20-0019, ASS8 and VIR-SCAN. Authors from the Univ Jaume LB, FH, MB and RdL acknowledge the financial support from Dirección General del Agua, Generalitat Valenciana, to develop the project "Covid_Wastewater", as well as the help E. Santateresa and N. Zamorano from FACSA, for the invaluable support in performing this work. RdL. was funded through a Beatriz Galindo Fellowship of the Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional, Spanish Government (BEAGAL18/00042). TM wishes to thank the generous support of the Operational Program Integrated Infrastructure for the project "Strategic research in the field of SMART monitoring, treatment and preventive protection against coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) ", Project no. 313011ASS8 (co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund) and the project VIR-SCAN - Wastewater monitoring data as an early warning tool to alert COVID-19 in the population (EOSCsecretariat.eu has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Program call H2020-INFRAEOSC- 05-2018-2019, grant Agreement number 831644). SK (IBISS) acknowledges the financial support from Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Republic of Serbia grant No 451-03-9/2021-14/ 200007.
