Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons^™

Media, Military, Militarism: Media Consumption, Awareness Of U.S. Military Foreign Policy, And Support For War, Daniel James Patten

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the relationship between the media, attitudes towards supporting war, and military awareness. Online survey data were collected from a four-year university located in a heavily militarized area. This study found that having knowledge of Afghanistan and Iraq War facts negatively affected one's decision to support war and was the strongest predictor of this decision. The media was not found to be a significant predictor impacting this knowledge when controlling for other variables. Political ideology and other related variables were found to be more influential of this knowledge. These findings imply that the public may be imprudently supporting …

Analysis Of Urban And Rural Data For Various Nebraska Geographies: 2010, David J. Drozd

Past Publications

Value‐added analysis of 2010 Census urban/rural data for various Nebraska geographies

Committing To Equal Opportunity, Elizaveta Minko

Honors Theses and Capstones

The main goal of this research paper was to examine whether the New Hampshire funding system of public education is effective in providing equal educational opportunities to all children. The findings from the quantitative and qualitative analyses of this research study suggest that, despite a historically increasing role of the state government, New Hampshire’s funding system of public education has not proven to be effective in providing the opportunity of an adequate education to students in poor districts, and gaps in student achievement persist between poor and wealthier districts. The underlying problems of the funding structure are explored, and, finally, …

Massachusetts And The Financial Crisis, College Of Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Financial Services Forum Publications

Although Massachusetts suffered the consequences of the crisis along with the rest of the US economy, the state weathered the storm relatively well. Now, with the impact of the policies still playing out, there are encouraging signs of recovery which may provide much needed relief for all.

State Weakness In Post-Communist Romania And The Legacy Of Communism, Marian Negoita

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper examines the, effect of communist regimes on postcommunist state weakness through a detailed case study of the Romanian political system. The central claim is that the totalitarian, NeoStalinist communist Romanian regime was responsible for the postcommunist state weakness. Through such measures as cadre rotation, the "blending" of state and Party structures, and planning, the Romanian state apparatus was transformed into a servile conveyor belt for Nicolae Ceausescu's orders and ensured the hollowing-out of the state. This proved a major factor during the post-communist transformation, paving the way to post-communist patronage networks linking politicians, enterprise managers, and the state.

A Comparative Analysis Of The Transitional Effect Of Democratic Regime Change On Human Rights Development, Alana Mcelhinney

Political Science Theses and Capstones

It has been a long-standing topic of discussion within the field of political science on the extent to which the establishment of democratic regime characteristics influences the development of human rights. While there is considerable research in the areas of democracy and human rights, what the literature lacks is research towards the growth of democratic regime characteristics being causal to the development of human rights practices. This analysis shows that a transition in democratic regime characteristics is directly linked to the development of human rights. After completing case-study analysis and developing causal theory I take data from the years 1981 …

Fitness Tax Credits: Costs, Benefits, And Viability, Daniel M. Reach

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

As the number of overweight and obese Americans rises, it becomes increasingly clear that Americans need further incentives to stimulate lasting lifestyle changes. Tax incentives focused on exercise, which have been largely unexplored to this point, are an effective response to the growing obesity problem in the United States that would largely avoid the political opposition that tax policies focused on diet have encountered. In addition, they would also provide a more palatable solution for the taxpayer beneficiaries with a relatively low impact on government revenues. Viable tax incentives to encourage greater fitness include tax credits and sales tax breaks, …

Foreclosing Foreclosure: Escaping The Yawning Abyss Of The Deep Mortgage And Housing Crisis, Aleatra P. Williams

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

In 2007, Rick Sharga, vice president of marketing at RealtyTrac, stated that with more stringent lending and underwriting standards, “we will likely see a significant foreclosure decrease” within the next three years. However, a sustained and considerable decrease in foreclosures has yet to occur. In fact, the real estate market downfall and resulting mortgage and housing crisis have proven to be wider, deeper, and more serious than first anticipated. Since 2007, millions of homeowners faced, and continue to face, foreclosure proceedings. To provide protections for homeowners, federal and state actors have attempted regulatory and legislative solutions to stem the foreclosure …

An Inconvenient Lie: Big Tobacco Was Put On Trial For Denying The Effects Of Smoking; Is Climate Change Denial Off-Limits?, Elizabeth Dubats

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Plaintiffs have made several notable attempts to bring nuisance, trespass, and negligence suits against major sources of greenhouse gas emissions for climate change related injuries. While climate change is a widely recognized environmental issue, courts have refused to recognize it as a basis for a valid cause of action in tort, finding either petitioners lack standing to bring the claim, or that the claim raises political questions that should not be addressed by the judiciary. Some more recent climate change tort claims have also included allegations of fraud on the part of the hydrocarbon industry for actively perpetuating misinformation about …

Are Telecommuting And Personal Travel Complements Or Substitutes?, Pengyu Zhu

Public Policy and Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

Whether telecommuting and personal travel are complements or substitutes is a key question in urban policy analysis. Urban planners and policy makers have been proposing telecommuting as part of travel demand management (TDM) programs to reduce congestion. Based on small samples, several empirical studies have found that telecommuting has a substitution effect (although small) on commute travel, and have thus argued that policies promoting telecommuting might be promising in reducing travel. Using data from the 2001 and 2009 National Household Travel Surveys (NHTS), this study involves two large national samples to try to more accurately identify the impact of telecommuting …

Institute Brief: Effective Training For Employment Consultants: Job Development And Support Strategies, Amy Gelb, Derek Nord, Alberto Migliore, John Butterworth

The Institute Brief Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

This Institute Brief summarizes the key elements of a training and support approach designed to improve job development practices. Employment Consultants who participated supported more individuals to enter employment, and supported people to achieve higher-quality jobs with more hours and higher levels of pay, than a control group who had not yet received training.

Rapid Re-Housing Of Families Experiencing Homelessness In Massachusetts: Maintaining Housing Stability, Tim H. Davis, Terry S. Lane

Center for Social Policy Publications

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (“Recovery Act”) provided $1.5 billion for the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP), a temporary program that addressed both homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing of families already experiencing homelessness. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) allocated $44.5 million, including $26.1 million to individual Massachusetts communities and $18.4 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Of its funds, the state allocated $8.3 million for rapid re-housing of families who were living in shelters or motels.

This report explores the experiences of 486 of these families who received rapid re-housing assistance …

Creating A Benefit Index For Targeting Investment In Pedestrian Connectivity Improvements East Bayside Neighborhood: Portland, Me, Damon Yakovleff

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

This project demonstrates how a GIS-based analysis of pedestrian accessibility to selected amenities from locations in and around the East Bayside neighborhood of Portland, Maine can help identify and guide decisions about public investment in improving such access. Two street network configurations are analyzed: the current (2011) condition, and a hypothetical configuration including several connectivity improvements currently under discussion or in the process of construction. The GIS tools are used to calculate the network distances between the centroid of the area’s census blocks and two amenities: the nearest full-service grocery store, and an outdoor fitness station available to the public. …

A Comparison Of Logistics Strategies And Integration In The U.S. And Ghana, Michael A. Mcginnis, John E. Spillan, Ali Kara, King Obed Domfeh (Dok)

Journal of Transportation Management

This manuscript empirically compares logistics strategies and outcomes in Ghanaian and U.S. firms to test the underlying factor structure and measurement equivalences of the Bowersox/Daugherty model and its relationship with critical success factors. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from Ghanaian and American logistics managers. Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), we compared the three dimensions of Overall Logistics Strategy (OLS) - Process Strategy, Market Strategy, and Information Strategy – in the two countries. A structural equation model (SEM) was then used to assess the impact of OLS on perceived organizational competitiveness in the two countries. Although the economic, …

Assessing The Strategic Evolution Of U.S. Low Cost Airlines In The Post-9/11 Environment, Carl A. Scheraga, Paul Caster

Journal of Transportation Management

It has been suggested in the literature that low-cost airlines have, in varying degrees, departed from the original low-cost model introduced by Southwest Airlines. This study provides a multi-year analysis in the post-9/11 time period, for the years 2004-2009, of the demonstrated strategic positioning choices of U. S. low-cost airlines. The sample utilized is restricted to U. S. low-cost carriers so as not to conflate operating environments. Furthermore, a quantitative methodology is employed to measure effectively these choices and to facilitate inter-airline comparisons. Airlines, as part of their strategic planning process, articulate positions with regard to cost leadership, product differentiation, …

Understanding Supply Chain Security Strategy, Zachary Williams, Jason E. Lueg, Sean P. Goffnett, Stephen A. Lemay, Robert L. Cook

Journal of Transportation Management

In the post-9/11 environment, organizations are acutely aware of the need to secure their supply chains from risks of being a target of, or an unwilling participant in, a terror attack. However, supply chain security (SCS) comes at a cost and increasing levels of protection have increasing levels of costs to the firm. So some firms engage in strategic initiatives to secure the supply chain (SC) while others do not; and each firm engages in varying degrees of activities to ensure SCS. Therefore, in this study, the researchers sought to explore what types of SCS strategies exist. The researchers analyze …

The Role Of Returns Management Orientation, Internal Collaboration, And Information Support In Reverse Logistics, Enping (Shirley) Mai, Haozhe Chen, Kenneth Anselmi

Journal of Transportation Management

While reverse logistics has gained significant interest in recent years, the research on its antecedents is still far from comprehensive. The current study utilizes data collected from China to empirically test a conceptual model that is developed based on the resource based view of the firm. It is proposed that returns management orientation, internal collaboration, and information support are important predictors of reverse logistics performance. The structural equation modeling analysis supports these proposed relationships. Furthermore, the current study also confirms the positive relationship between a firm’s reverse logistics performance and market performance.

(Re)Considering The Third Sector, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Richard Cornuelle’s Reclaiming the American Dream: The Role of Private Associations and Voluntary Associations (RtAD) has been subjected to numerous interpretations in the more than half a century since its original publication in 1965. In this conference paper, the continuing importance of this work is reconsidered. Several of the issues that Cournelle raised are still important today. Thus, the label Independent Sector offers one possible solution to the continuing question of how to refer to the third sector.

The Politics Of H-1b Visa Limits, Fang Fang

Political Science Theses and Capstones

In recent years, the number of H-1B Visa (Temporary Work Visa) issued has increased tremendously. Various lobbying groups are devoted to persuading Congress to revise immigration laws and to increase the work visa issuance cap. The purpose of my study is to find out the how the H-1B Visa policy is effected by analyzing the lobbying expenditures of different economic sectors. Although there are abundant studies on the factors that affect immigration policies, there are few studies that concentrate specifically on the H-1B Visa. I combined campaign finance data and annual work visa data to assess the relationship between lobbying …

Unemployed Veterans During A Recession: Factors Affecting The Completion Rate Of The Vocational Rehabilitation And Employment Program, Chris Witt

Political Science Theses and Capstones

The purpose of my research is to determine what factors affect the outcome of the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program. Previous literature examines individuals from each state in various stages of the program to determine which factors cause their individual outcome. Although previous research covered a broad spectrum of factors there still remains a lack of significant evidence to determine the observed outcome. I added state expenditures to the previous data to attempt to determine whether or not there is a correlation between funding and the completion of the program. I used the Department of Veteran Affairs 2007 Veterans Employability …

The Effects Of Tribal Governments On Reservation Poverty Rates, Heather Raisch

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Poverty rates on Indian reservations are far higher than the national average. Since Tribal Governments have at least some control over these reservations, to what extent are they to blame for these higher than average poverty rates? I look at each reservation and their type of government, constitution, policies and demographics to analyze the causes of their poverty as it relates to tribal government. There are many other pieces of research that are similar to this, but none looking specifically at the overall effects the government has on its community. My hypothesis is that communities with higher poverty rates tend …

Cover & Front Matter

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Deterring And Dissuading Nuclear Terrorism, John J. Klein

Journal of Strategic Security

While nuclear deterrence theory may be well-suited to dealing with nuclear-armed states, its suitability for deterring nuclear terrorism has frequently been questioned since 9/11. While terrorist organizations do not necessarily act uniformly or according to the same underlying beliefs, many of the most aggressive organizations are motivated by an ideology that embraces martyrdom and an apocalyptic vision.1 This ideology may be based on religion or a desire to overthrow a government. Consequently, terrorists motivated by ideology who intend to use a stolen or improvised nuclear device against the United States or its interests may not care about the resulting military …

Policy Intervention In Fata: Why Discourse Matters, Nazya Fiaz Dr.

Journal of Strategic Security

Despite years of wide-scale counterterrorism measures in Pakistan's FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas), the injection of substantial funds, and the "close" collaboration between the United States and Pakistan, the ugly truth is that the extremism and militancy in FATA continues to recruit members. Moreover, there is little indication that the killing of Usama bin Ladin will have any significant effect on reducing support for militancy. While taking stock of these realities, this article will not seek to rehash the many successes and failures of the counterterrorist operations in FATA. Instead, its purpose will be to argue that while the causes …

A Systems-Based Approach To Intelligence Reform, Austen Givens

Journal of Strategic Security

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 prompted the most comprehensive changes to the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) since its creation via the National Security Act of 1947. Recent structural and organizational reforms, such as efforts to enhance information sharing and recruit speakers of hard-target languages, have also triggered new challenges to successful transformation. In light of the systemic problems facing the IC, this paper argues that systems engineering, a discipline increasingly useful in organizational change, offers a more efficient, holistic approach to the intelligence reform process than the status quo. Systems engineering views the IC as an integrated and …

Tls Newsletter Volume 6, Edition 7 April, 2012, Unf Transportation And Logistics Society

Transportation & Logistics Society Newsletter

Inside the Newsletter: TLS General Meeting and elections for 2012-2013. T&L Flagship Spring Banquet held on April 26, 2012. Upcoming Events for March and April. TLS President's Corner welcoming TLS members. In the know on Summer Internships and photos from 2011-2012

Learnlocal| Place - Based Education Community Planning Meets Classroom Education, Holli Andrews

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

Partnerships between planners and high school teachers add a dynamic element to local planning. Youth who are engaged in community-driven efforts provide a fresh perspective for long-term objectives. They are not inhibited by the old ways of doing things. They exhibit ownership in the conditions of their community, and they show enthusiasm for becoming involved. Young people bring modern ideas to the planning table. Planner-teacher partnerships enhance opportunities for broad community development as well. By bringing local planning into classroom education, there is an opportunity to increase the level of participation through parents, family members, caregivers and youth groups. With …

Autism Insurance Coverage : Which State Policies Work And Why?, Elizabeth Ivy Homan

Honors Theses

In the spring of 2011, Virginia's legislature passed its first autism insurance mandate via Senate Bill 1062 and House Bill 2467. As a legislative intern for Senator Janet Howell - the primary sponsor of SB 1062 - I was able to track the mandate from beginning to end. I observed conferences between Senator Howell and representatives from autism advocacy groups, I sat in on various Senate and House committee meetings, I carefully reviewed changes in the mandate's text when Senator Howell compressed her two original autism bills into one new bill in order to match Delegate Greason's HB 2467, and …

Faktor Faktor Yang Mempengaruhi Upaya Penanganan Pra Bencana Kebakaran Di Tingkat Komunitas : Studi Kasus Pada Masyarakat Rw 02, Kelurahan Karang Anyar, Kecamatan Sawah Besar, Jakarta Pusat, Steven Steven

Jurnal Ilmu Kesejahteraan Sosial

No abstract provided.

Peningkatan Pengetahuan Pengasuhan Orangtua Untuk Mewujudkan Kesejahteraan Anak Usia 5 Dan 6 Tahun : Action Research Pada Komunitas Ibu-Ibu Semai Benih Bangsa (Sbb) Tapos, Depok, Annisah Annisah

Jurnal Ilmu Kesejahteraan Sosial

This research discusses about the lack of knowledge in the SBB Tapos parenting and its association with child welfare. This study explains not only how these problems occurred, but also the potential of what society has to address the problem, and how to overcome them. Overcoming ofproblems conducted with the participation of target communities in a program of action in the form of social action. This research is an applied research that is processed in a qualitative way so that describes each stage of parenting knowledge improvement that has been done. The results of this study show a change in …