Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons^™

Polio Eradication: How The War On Terror Has Led To The Persistence Of Polio In Afghanistan, Pakistan, And Nigeria, John Michel Rouhana

Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society

In 1988, the World Health Organization (WHO) initiated a campaign to eradicate the polio virus from the world population (Bari 2006). Since 1988, the WHO has used polio vaccines to successfully interrupt transmission of the disease to new individuals in all but three countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria (WHO 2012). This paper examines how The War on Terror, stated by President George W. Bush to be a war against every terrorist group of global reach and the governments that support these groups, has led the populations of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria, as well as vaccinators and health officials in these …

The Global Ability To Respond: Applying Sars Knowledge To H1n1 And Beyond, Meaghan Drees

Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society

Influenza outbreaks may be alarming, but they are nothing new in the 21^st century. At this point, the various strains of influenza have broken into cities and homes, acted as silent killers by causing fear, death and destruction, and spreading uncontrollably. This repetitive cycle arouses the question of when people will learn how to take care of these epidemics. Well, according to Flahault and Zylberman, knowledge may not be the only factor necessary to stop influenza from disrupting lives. The authors reveal that “Influenza epidemics occur regularly and prediction of their conversion to pandemics and their impact is …

The Birth Control Cascade: How The Policies Affect Access, And Access Affects Outcome, Meghan Nestor

Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society

With the passing of Affordable Care Act (ACA) in August 2012, oral contraception has become free for all women with a prescription. Unfortunately, many women in the United States are without health insurance making it difficult to benefit from the new law. Many states’ intended restrictions on the ACA make it difficult for women to access birth control. Birth control methods, which are now considered part of standard preventative health care, give women the ability to make their own decisions about family planning. Increased access to birth control can also change many of the grim statistics related to rates of …

The Individual Mandate: The Ultimate Conservative Idea, Erin Ellwanger

Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society

The individual mandate is perhaps the most contested and least popular provision of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA). The mandate, which requires most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, was put in the ACA as a means to increase the number of Americans with access to health care insurance. A poll taken by Gallup in February 2012 revealed that 72% of Americans view the individual mandate as unconstitutional (Gallup poll, 2012). This extreme opposition towards the mandate intrigued me and I was interested in learning where this negativity was stemming from and why it seemed to …

The Effects Of Pre-Existing Illnesses On Pediatric Acute Respiratory Infections In South Africa, Haley Dumke

Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society

The intent of this study was to explore the effect of pre-existing illnesses on acute respiratory infections, focusing on HIV and malnutrition as infection development risk factors in South African children. It investigates the economic burden imposed by these infections and analyzes how the country’s current socio-economic situation plays a major part in propagating infection development. Pneumonia and RSV were individually examined for their current role in the disease burden and potential methods for reducing incidence of pediatric respiratory infections were evaluated based on effectiveness and affordability for the country of South Africa. Data for this paper was compiled mainly …

The Danger Of Duality: Medicare And Medicaid As A Double Threat, Erica Barnum

Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society

My paper discusses the topic of dual eligible beneficiaries – a group of some nine million individuals that has rightly earned a reputation for being the most costly, frail, sickly, and vulnerable population. Individuals are considered “dual eligible” when they qualify for the benefits of both government programs of Medicare and Medicaid. The main problem within the dual eligible arena is the lack of coordination between these two programs – the federal government wholly funds Medicare but Medicaid is a joint federal-state program that varies from state to state. Because these programs were not designed to work together and sometimes …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of A Clinic-Based Diabetes Management Program In A Community Setting, Justin Lupone

Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society

Diabetes in the United States occurs in approximately 8% of adults.[i] Diabetes, if not treated, can lead to many health problems such as blindness or loss of physical functioning, sometimes leading to amputation. However, Type 2 diabetes can be cured or kept under control through effective diabetes management. Many Type 2 diabetes patients let their diabetes become out of control through at risk behaviors, such as smoking, and poor diet, which in turn can lead to a worsening of their condition. With effective disease management, patients can avoid more severe effects of the disease and have higher quality of …

Research Brief: "Family And Couples Treatment For Newly Returning Veterans", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This brief summarizes a scholarly article of the same name. It reviews research which analyzes how veterans readjust post-deployment during OEF/OIF when they come back home to their families.

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

We launched the New England Journal of Public Policy (NEJPP) in 1985 when Edmund Beard was director of the then-John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs. An Institute Senior Fellow at the time, I was founding editor and continued in that capacity until the last issue was published in 2007.

We remained closed over the last 6 years for all the usual reasons, which are encapsulated in one word: money, or rather lack thereof.

We now resume publication of the Journal in an online form, and invite you to scroll through different issues to get some idea of the breadth …

Foreword, Winston E. Langley

New England Journal of Public Policy

Change is a fundamental feature of life and living; without it, few things would survive, and fewer, if any, would thrive. The New England Journal of Public Policy has undergone a change, having elected to assume an electronic form. Since coming into being in this form three months ago, the success it has realized with its earlier issues has been remarkable. It is as if it were being waited on.

In the month of December 2012, for example, the journal was the second most popular publication series on ScholarWorks at the University of Massachusetts Boston, with a total of 2,783 …

The Economic Context: Growing Disparities Of Income And Wealth, Chuck Collins

New England Journal of Public Policy

In the last few years, poverty rates have remained constant in the New England states. The effort to reduce poverty in New England and the United States has been thwarted by trends of growing income and wealth inequality. Since the late 1970s, the real incomes for the majority of U.S. households have remained stagnant or fallen. During the same time, asset ownership has become dramatically more unequal, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few has increased. The causes of this accelerated inequality are complex, but underlying the picture are a series of rule changes, both public …

Devolution: The Retreat Of Government, Judith Kurland

New England Journal of Public Policy

Devolution as practiced in much of the world is decentralization of program authority and responsibility to achieve greater administrative efficiency or program standards. Devolution as practiced by the Bush administration and the Republican Congress is not that, nor is it a diminution of federal power and the strengthening of states’ rights. Rather, it is a radical restructuring of government to prevent the expenditure of funds for traditional Democratic programs of the New Deal and the Great Society, and to prohibit states from being either more generous in social programs or more stringent in regulating industry than this administration desires.

This …

Rusticus: Notes On Class And Culture In Rural New Hampshire, Donald Hall

New England Journal of Public Policy

Old New Hampshire Highway Number Four was incorporated by an act of the New Hampshire legislature in the autumn of 1800. It wound out of Portsmouth, a seaport that once rivaled Boston, drove west through Concord, north past Penacook, through Boscawen, Salisbury, Andover, and Wilmot on its way to Lebanon and the Connecticut River. These names string history like beads. The Penacook tribe assembled each year on the banks of the Merrimack at the site of the present town that bears their name. I grew up thinking Boscawen an unusual Indian name; it is Cornish, surname of an admiral victorious …

On Dumpster Diving, Lars Eighner

New England Journal of Public Policy

Lars Eighner became homeless in 1988 after leaving a job he had held for ten years as an attendant at a state hospital in Austin, Texas. He lives in a small apartment in Austin and continues to scavenge. This article was originally published in the Fall 1990 issue of The Threepenny Review. Reprinted with permission.

This article originally appeared in a 1992 issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy (Volume 8, Issue 1): http://scholarworks.umb.edu/nejpp/vol8/iss1.

Green Mind Gray Yard: Micro Scale Assessment Of Ecosystem Services, Erin Jolene Kirkpatrick

Dissertations and Theses

There is a spatial mismatch between the size of the area where people are living and the extent of land needed to ecologically support developed areas. More people are living in urban areas than any time in history, and the resources need to support cities have had to expand to try and meet the demands of increasing urban populations. However, areas of opportunity exist for urban areas to begin to positively contribute towards the available resources in a region. Because a large portion of urban areas is within private control, gaining a baseline understanding of how residents interact with ecosystem …

Introduction, Ira A. Jackson

New England Journal of Public Policy

When Padraig O'Malley informed me that the New England Journal of Public Policy that he edited so wisely and well for nearly 25 years was about to resume publication—albeit, electronically—I was thrilled and really overjoyed. As a new (interim) dean of a school of policy and global studies at a public research university, who wouldn't be excited about re-launching a journal that has been a crossroads between the academy and policymakers, a meeting ground between theory and politics, a safe place to explore relevant ideas that matter from a variety of valued perspectives?

The prior forty-one issues of the New …

Aids: An Overview, Loretta Mclaughlin

New England Journal of Public Policy

"We stand nakedly in front of a very serious pandemic, as mortal as any pandemic there ever has been," said Halfdan Mahler, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO). "I don't know of any greater killer than AIDS, not to speak of its psychological, social and economic maiming. Everything is getting worse and worse with AIDS and all of us have been underestimating it, and I in particular. We're running scared. I cannot imagine a worse health problem in this century." When asked to compare AIDS to other epidemics, such as smallpox, that have infected and killed over the course …

Changing Policy Without Changing Law: Addressing Climate Change Under The Clean Air Act, Philip Wallach

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

The evolution of our national climate change policy at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from the 1990s-2000s, is marked by a backdrop of congressional inaction. In 2007, litigation (Massachusetts v. EPA) required the EPA to re-interpret the Clean Air Act to also apply to greenhouse gases. This presentation will include a summary of the legal arguments in that case, and the narrow Supreme Court decision that supported the petitioners; a review of the legal and practical challenges emanating from this ruling; and consideration of the EPA's impact on continuing legislative debates. The speaker will explore the impact of this decision …

Examining Mainecare’S Coverage Options Under The Affordable Care Act, Erika C. Ziller Phd, Trish Riley

Population Health & Health Policy

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was designed to achieve nearly universal access to health coverage in the United States—in part by standardizing Medicaid eligibility across the country so that each state’s program would cover individuals with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL), or $15,856 for an individual and $32,499 for a family of four in 2013 (see Figure 1).i However, in June 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that states could not be required to broaden Medicaid and retained the decision as a state option. States that choose to participate may do so by amending their state …

Track I Diplomacy And Civil Society In Cyprus: Reconciliation And Peacebuilding During Negotiations, Elicia Keren Reed

Dissertations and Theses

This paper examines the relationship between Track I Diplomacy and Civil Society in Cyprus. Cyprus has been a divided island for over 45 years despite numerous attempts at reconciliation on the societal level and ongoing negotiations on the diplomatic level. It was the aim of this study to examine the ways in which both civil societies and their leaders do or have worked together, if at all, to negotiate a political solution or reconciliation between the two communities. Interviews were conducted on both sides of the cultural divide and within both political and civil society sectors. Those interviews were coded, …

Public Policy: Community Safety Through Breed Bans?, Deirdre S. Franklin

Animals and Public Policy Collection

The research performed provided several insights and outcomes that were anticipated in the research question. By analyzing the effects of breed specific legislation (BSL) and the statistics relative to dog bites, dog shelters and rescue groups, it became clear that the BSL does not work. This case study provides extensive proof to support this conclusion.

Research Brief: "Cognitive Behavioral Treatment For Post-Traumatic Nightmares: An Investigation Of Predictors Of Dropout And Outcome", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This brief is about the cognitive behavior treatment outcomes and drop outs of Vietnam veterans with PTSD who experience nightmares. In policy and practice, various socialization strategies should be implemented by clinics based on veterans' levels of traumatic history, and veterans' families should work to create a positive view of therapy; policymakers should provide support for these therapies and the training of clinicians to provide them. Suggestions for future research include having a more generalizable population in the study, examining the impact of the study's exclusion criteria, and the impact of psychotropic medicines on treatment outcome.

Recurrent Coastal Flooding: How Should Virginia Respond?, Molly Mitchell Rogerro

March 13, 2013: Regional Sea Level Rise Assessment, Adaptation and Flood Mitigation Projects

No abstract provided.

City Of Norfolk Coastal Flood Mitigation Program, Brian Joyner

March 13, 2013: Regional Sea Level Rise Assessment, Adaptation and Flood Mitigation Projects

No abstract provided.

Forum Notes, Hr Adaptation Forum

March 13, 2013: Regional Sea Level Rise Assessment, Adaptation and Flood Mitigation Projects

No abstract provided.

Asbpa Sea Level Rise Findings, Maura Boswell

March 13, 2013: Regional Sea Level Rise Assessment, Adaptation and Flood Mitigation Projects

No abstract provided.

Willoughby Spit Shoreline Improvement Project Of Ocean View Beach, Maura Boswell

March 13, 2013: Regional Sea Level Rise Assessment, Adaptation and Flood Mitigation Projects

No abstract provided.

Agenda, Hr Adaptation Forum

March 13, 2013: Regional Sea Level Rise Assessment, Adaptation and Flood Mitigation Projects

No abstract provided.

Usace Flood Risk Management Partners In Shared Responsibility, Michelle Hamor

March 13, 2013: Regional Sea Level Rise Assessment, Adaptation and Flood Mitigation Projects

No abstract provided.

A Network Analysis Of Social Balance In Conflict In The Maghreb, Eric A. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

This work offers the U.S. military and national security structure a methodology to analyze tension within signed networks based on social balance theory, presents a process to partition a signed network to identify likely subsets within the network, and pinpoints unique actors and relationships based on the structure of the network. Relationships identified to cause increased tension within the network are discovered and analyzed. Identifying this tension provides analysts with insight into the complexities of the network and potential relationships to target to stabilize or destabilize a network. Two Social Network Analysis models have been developed analyzing the relationships of …