The most recent round of the assessment, PISA 2015, focused on 15-year-olds’ science literacy, defined as "the ability to engage with science-related issues, and with the ideas of science, as a reflective citizen".

More than half a million 15-year-olds took part in the OECD’s latest global education survey, known as PISA. The main focus was on science, an increasingly important part of our economic and social lives.

Register for a webinar "PISA 2015: Q&A Session Closing the Achievement Gap" with Andreas Schleicher (December 15th, 14h Paris time)

There is little doubt that in OECD countries, the chances for boys and girls to succeed and contribute to society have become more equal over the past century.

24 May 2017: PISA 2015 Results (Volume IV): Students’ Financial Literacy explores students’ experience with and knowledge about money and provides an overall picture of 15-year-olds’ ability to apply their accumulated knowledge and skills to real-life situations involving financial issues and decisions.

Emily appears to be braless in the snap as she poses in what appears to be a delicate negligee. She gazes seductively into the camera in the snap.

The finding could explain several mysteries, including why children are unlikely to die from COVID-19.

Whether it's off-screen or on-screen mothers don't have it easy. It's taken Bollywood a long time to get their idea of a mom right, so on this mother's day let's look at some of the actresses who gave 'mother' a whole new dimension.

This comprehensive review of compact city policies will provide food for thought for national, sub-national and municipal governments as they seek to address their economic and environmental challenges through the development and implementation of spatial strategies.

This project aims to support the Slovak Republic as it seeks to create a clear rationale for the Regional Development Agencies Integrated Network which currently comprises 38 agencies.

Climate change combined with rapid population increases, economic growth and land subsidence could lead to a more than 9-fold increase in the global risk of floods in large port cities between now and 2050.

The last decade has seen considerable policy attention to the social economy and its contribution to employment, in particular as regards the inclusion and empowerment of vulnerable workers and the provision of appropriate working conditions.

This expert seminar aims to get a better understanding of the features, limitations and preliminary findings from the use of SIBs, and to a lesser extent, of DIBs in developing countries from a multidimensional and multi-stakeholder perspective.

We are looking for national and sub-national policies and initiatives for social enterprise creation and development. The focus will be placed on initiatives funded by the European Social Fund, by other EU funds and programmes, by Member States and sub-national authorities and NOT on examples of successful social enterprises.

The OECD LEED Programme launches this "Call for Initiatives" to extract what local authorities and other actors know works, what the new scenario is demanding and how equipped they are to respond. We are interested in learning from the experiences of EU member countries, the wider OECD area as well as other countries.

The OECD Trento Centre organised five sessions within the 2018 Festival of Economics on Technology and Jobs on 1-3 June 2018. OECD and intenational experts along with high level government representatives discussed the impact of new technologies on jobs and its effect on local economies and policies and what regions and regional policy can do to narrow economic gaps and promote productivity catching-up.

The conference will cover developments and the state-of-the art of environmental microbiology, as it is applied for biotechnological purposes, and the role of genetic engineering of micro-organisms intended for use in the environment, now and in the near future.

The OECD Environmental Risk Assessment Toolkit describes the work flow for environmental risk assessment and management of chemicals with links to available OECD material relevant for the different steps in risk assessment and management. This new version of the Toolkit is more interactive and has added functionalities. It will be populated with additional tools and case studies in the future.

This document presents the outcomes of the 3rd OECD Biopesticide Seminar, held in 2011, that focused on the topic of “botanicals” (also known as plant extracts). The Seminar reviewed a number of scientific and regulatory issues related to the “characterisation and analyses of botanicals for the use in plant protection products”.

This document includes a table which summarises descriptions of existing models and tools used for exposure assessment, as well as responses to a 2010 survey – conducted by the OECD Task Force on Exposure Assessment - upon which the table was based. The summary table and the responses are also available in the OECD Environmental Risk Assessment Toolkit (http://envriskassessmenttoolkit.oecd.org/).

This document provides guidance for performing an exposure assessment based on environmental monitoring data.It covers topics such as environmental levels and distribution of contaminants, ways of using monitoring data in exposure assessments for differing purposes, the collection of data, quality of monitoring activities, as well as several examples of data compilation in member countries and their use in exposure assessment.

This guidance document intends to provide an insight into which pieces of information that are necessary to identify and document an adverse outcome pathway (AOP) and how to present them. The AOP concept has been developed as a means of providing transparent mechanistic justification and weight-of-evidence to reduce uncertainty in the predictions for complex toxicological endpoints.

This biocide document provides guidance on the conduct of laboratory and field tests aimed to assess the efficacy of anti-ants baits for indoor use. A bait contains one or more insecticidal active ingredients combined with food for garden ants.

This document follows on from a report entitled Important Issues on Risk Assessment of Manufactured Nanomaterials [ENV/JM/MONO(2012)8]. This report identified a range of issues which the WPMN considered important in risk assessment and which should be addressed in the future. It summarised results of a survey which was circulated to delegations of the WPMN, methodologies used to analyze the survey, and the identified priorities.

This Biosafety document aims to serve as an aid to risk assessors and regulators; providing guidance on handling the aspects of an environmental safety assessment, accessing and using information in situations of low-level presence (LLP) of transgenic plants in seed and grain commodities.

The OECD is to review its chemical hazard assessment programme with the aim of providing a more specialised service for member countries from 2015.

The OECD has published a guidance for characterising oleochemical substances. The method presented gives guidance on how these complex substances can be characterised in a way that their composition is accurately and consistently reflected to ensure that substances with the same chemical composition, manufactured in different countries, can be characterised with the same description for hazard assessment purposes.

A report of the 2013 joint OECD/Swedish Chemicals Agency/European Commission workshop on the assessment and management of risks of microbial pesticides that resulted in 20 recommendations for approaches that could be taken now and areas for follow-up work to be undertaken by OECD or Member countries.

This document compiles information on the current methodologies, tools and models and helps readers identify appropriate models/ and methodologies for estimating substance-specific removal/emissions from wastewater treatment systems. It could support efforts to improve these models and tools.

This OECD monograph demonstrates how a chemical hazard assessment that considers and ranks all available relevant information - a so-called weight of evidence approach - can be constructed to conclude on a particular hazard endpoint for a chemical, in this case, skin sensitisation for 4-isopropylaniline.

This guidance document proposes an integrated approach on testing and assessment for skin corrosion and irritation, in view of replacing the "testing and evaluation strategy" provided in the supplement to OECD TG404 (to be updated), provides information on key performance characteristics of each information source comprising the IATA, and guidance on how to integrate information for decision making for classification and labeling.

OECD has published a report of a survey that provides information and recommendations on how to deal with stocks of “obsolete” pesticides in OECD member (and partner) countries. Such pesticides’ obsolescence can arise for a number of reasons including product deterioration, product de-registration, and product revision.

The OECD has published a report on a pilot chemical classification exercise undertaken in 2013 and ‘14. Using a number of chemical assessments agreed in the OECD hazard assessment programme, reasons why classification proposals may differ were investigated. The report concludes on the main reasons for such differences, and recommends some measures to overcome some of them.

Micro-organisms play a fundamental role in the environment. Yet their role is the result of complex biogeochemical processes by consortia of micro-organisms and the function of individual species is not clear in many cases. This publication provides an overview of the current situation and relevant developments in environmental microbiology.

This toolbox is a compilation of resources relevant to chemical substitution and alternatives assessments. Alternative assessments are processes for identifying, comparing and selecting safer alternatives to replace hazardous chemicals with the objective of promoting sustainable production and consumption.

The OECD has published guidance to facilitate the ecological risk assessment of organometallic and organic metal salt substances. A strategy is presented based on key steps that first consider the fate of these substances in the environment, the identification of moieties of concern, and subsequently the selection of an appropriate path forward to either assess the inorganic moiety and/or the individual substance.

Volume I of this series compiles the science-based consensus documents of the OECD Task Force for the Safety of Novel Foods and Feeds from 2002 to 2008.

This paper reviews and compares five case studies on quantification and economic valuation of benefits in cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) of regulating phthalates, mercury, PFOA (perfluoro-octanic acid) and its salts, NMP (1 methyl-2-pyrroloidine) and formaldehyde. The case studies had all been carried out as part of the SACAME project, and the purpose of the present paper is to draw out cross-cutting findings from these studies.

This document outlines various approaches and methodologies for the assessment of risks from combined exposures to multiple chemicals. The document draws from approaches and experience in the regulatory context, and presents elements to consider in the assessment.

Two new cases have been published that focus on use of metabolism information to support read-across and use of a combination of novel methods to identify potential endocrine disruptors, respectively. In addition a considerations document includes lessons and learnings from analysis across case studies and an analysis of uncertainties in six read-across cases.

On 27 September 2019, Anne Gourmelon of the Environment Directorate presented an overview of the various alternative test methods developed as OECD Test Guidelines and relevant guidance material to address eye irritation and serious eye damage for hazard classification of chemicals.

This document is intended to provide universal Guiding Principles that should be considered when developing or augmenting systematic approaches to Weight of Evidence (WoE) for chemical evaluation and Key Elements to formulating a systematic approach to WoE. The ultimate goal is to facilitate that regulators follow a consistent, clear and transparent delivery of evidence using the Principles and Elements described in this document.

United States recorded 1347318 Coronavirus Cases since the epidemic began, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, United States reported 78616 Coronavirus Deaths. This page includes a chart with historical data for the United States Coronavirus Cases.

Social distancing reinstated as new cases are linked to one person who might have had contact with 1,500 others

Fears for prevention and treatment of other illnesses such as malaria and dengue fever

Peer says he wants to determine how ministry can ‘deliver sustained growth and a fairer society’

1. Centre dilutes testing rules as cases rise  Mumbai Mirror
2. Government Tweaks Rules For Testing As COVID-19 Cases Rise. Details Here  NDTV
3. A week into relaxed lockdown, Centre stays on course to open  The Indian Express
4. Mild cases can be discharged without test: Health ministry  Times of India
5. Only ‘Severe’ Covid-19 Patients to be Tested Before Discharge from Hospital as India Braces for Infec...  News18
6. View Full coverage on Google News

1. Only Severe Covid-19 Patients To Be Tested Before Discharge From Hospital: Centre Revises Policy  ABP Live
2. New revised policy: No test before discharge says Health Ministry  Yahoo India News
3. Coronavirus blood-clot mystery intensifies  Nature.com
4. Coronavirus Treatment: Blood Thinners Can Boost Survival Of COVID-19 Patients, Study Reveals  Medical Daily
5. Could Blood Thinners Be Crucial For Patients With COVID-19 Related Clots?  Forbes
6. View Full coverage on Google News

1. ICICI Bank Q4 net profit rises 26% YoY to Rs 1,221 crore, misses Street estimates  Economic Times
2. ICICI Bank Q4 profit grows by 26%, misses estimates on COVID-19 provisions; NPAs dip  Moneycontrol.com
3. ICICI Bank Q4 net rises 26% to ₹1,221 crore  The Hindu
4. Why banks aren't ready for economic heavy-lifting this time around  Deccan Herald
5. ICICI Bank Q4 net up 26% at ₹1,221 cr but misses estimates on virus provisions  Livemint
6. View Full coverage on Google News