Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons^™

Military Service: Migration And A Path To Middle Class Status, Harry Franqui-Rivera

CUNY Centro, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies

The role of military service in spreading the Puerto Rican diaspora is an understudied phenomenon of relevance for understanding the Puerto Rican migration and its settlement patterns in the U.S. Active duty military personnel, veterans, and their families have dispersed the Puerto Rican population beyond what has been considered as traditional centers of Puerto Rican migration. New York, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts continue to host the largest populations of Puerto Ricans stateside. But large Puerto Rican communities have formed and are thriving around military bases in el Nuevo South (the former original confederate states), the Midwest, and Western …

The Role Of Research In Mine Action: A Response To Gasser, Ian Mclean, Rebecca Sargisson

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Some years ago, a businessman came to me and said that he would like to start commercially farming lobsters, something that had not been attempted at the time. His key question was, “How long will the development research take?”

“I would think two to four years before a scaling-up exercise to make it commercially viable,” I answered.

Looking genuinely surprised he replied, “Really! I was thinking it should take about two weeks.”

This anecdote portrays a problem that emerges in almost every area of human enterprise. Those-who-do want and need to do right now. Those-who-create need time to design, build, …

Draft Allocation Report : Pearl Oyster (Pinctada Maxima) : Resource : By The Integrated Fisheries Allocation Advisory Committee, Department Of Fisheries

Fisheries Management Papers

No abstract provided.

A Review Of Size Limits For Finfish In Western Australia : Discussion Paper, Department Of Fisheries

Fisheries Management Papers

No abstract provided.

Policy On The Application Of Fish Size Limits In Western Australia, Department Of Fisheries

Fisheries Management Papers

No abstract provided.

Adapting The Erw Community To Combat Ied Threats, Brad Alford, Michael Kennedy

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

In Iraq and other regions soon to be liberated from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), recovery and stability efforts are hindered by improvised explosive devices (IED), which threaten civilians returning home and/or assisting with reconstruction. According to Relief Web, the Anbar Provincial Council “discourage[d] the premature return of internally displaced persons (IDP) to Fallujah due to the remaining IEDs left behind by the Islamic state of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) militants.”This threat, coupled with the consequences of an asymmetrical conflict, has changed the operating environments encountered by organizations that respond to explosive remnants of war (ERW). …

Welcome To Dignity, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Amnesty International's Empty Promises: Decriminalization, Prostituted Women, And Sex Trafficking, Darren Geist

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Through a close examination of Amnesty International’s (Amnesty) own arguments and sources, this paper demonstrates that Amnesty’s proposal to decriminalize prostitution or “sex work” will harm those it claims to help. It concludes that the best available evidence indicates that decriminalization of prostitution would: increase sex trafficking, leave prostituted women or “sex workers” more vulnerable to violence, and reduce access to healthcare, protection, and services. Prostituted women primarily enter the industry at a young age, often suffering from a history of sexual and physical abuse, coming from marginalized and vulnerable communities, and driven by emotional and economic desperation. It is …

Coalition For Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, Vol 41-Xx, No. 11, Coalition For Prisoners' Rights

Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletters

Some More of How It Already Is Now

Tras la Victoria de Trump Aumenta el Valor de las Acciones de Compañías Carcelarias Lucrativas y de Contratistas Militares

Incarcerated Lives Matter

The 153rd Death Row Exoneree

Perspectives On The Development Of A Local Food System: The Case Of Dayton, Ohio, Diana Cuy Castellanos, John C. Jones, Joanne Christaldi, Katherine A. Liutkus

Health and Sport Science Faculty Publications

Multiple sectors play vital roles in a community’s development and maintenance of a sustainable local food system. This study explored the perceptions of twenty-two representatives from the civil society, public, and private sectors in Dayton, Ohio, about the development of the region’s local food system. The researchers employed grounded theory methodology for data collection and analysis. Core themes from the participants of each sector group emerged from the data and areas of convergence and divergence among groups were reported.

Policy Snapshot: Current State Efforts, Action, And Progress On Key Issues,, Center For Women In Politics And Public Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

Policy Snapshot created for the New England Women's Police Conference 2016: Ensuring Economic Equality for All Women and Their Families.

The 2016 Election: Women In The Massachusetts Legislature, Center For Women In Politics And Public Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

This Fact Sheet offers an analysis of female representation in the Massachusetts Legislature, as of the 2016 Election.

Recovery For All? A Snapshot Of Women’S Economic Status In New England, Ann Bookman, Christa Kelleher, Kristin Smith

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

This November 2016 report, based on pre-recession and post-recession earnings data from the American Community Survey, demonstrates that while women’s overall earnings are now higher than pre-recession levels, other key indicators demonstrate a growing wage gap for many women—especially minorities and low-wage workers.

Minority women in New England who are employed full-time, year-round earned 62 percent as much as white men, both before and after the recession. While the gap between minority women’s and white women’s earnings decreased in Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island after the recession, it stayed the same in Massachusetts and widened in Connecticut and Vermont. …

Were High-Poverty Districts In Texas Disproportionally Impacted By State Funding Cuts? School Finance Equity In Texas Following The Great Recession, David S. Knight

Policy Briefs

While almost all states cut education funding following the Great Recession, and few have restored budgets back to pre-recession levels, there is little understanding among policy makers about how state funding cuts were distributed across districts.

When Texas cut K-12 education budgets by $4 billion in 2011, legislators reached a compromise over whether to cut funding evenly for all districts, or whether to protect high-need districts. This policy brief shows that despite state legislators’ efforts, the highest-poverty districts in Texas experienced a disproportionate share of the recessionary budget cuts. Although this trend holds nationally, the funding gap between rich and …

Control Of The Public Health It Physical Infrastructure: Findings From The 2015 Informatics Capacity And Needs Assessment Survey, Kelley Chester, Barbara L. Massoudi, Gulzar H. Shah

Health Policy & Management: Faculty Publications (2006-2018)

Background: Despite improvements in information technology (IT) infrastructure in public health, there is still much that can be done to improve the adoption of IT in state and local health departments, by better understanding the impact of governance and control structures of physical infrastructure.

Objective: To report out the current status of the physical infrastructure control of local health departments (LHDs) and to determine whether there is a significant association between an LHD's governance status and control of the physical infrastructure components.

Design: Data came from the 2015 Informatics Capacity and Needs Assessment Survey, conducted by Georgia Southern University in …

Assessing Skills And Capacity For Informatics: Activities Most Commonly Performed By Or For Local Health Departments, Kate Drezner, Lisa Mckeown, Gulzar H. Shah

Health Policy & Management: Faculty Publications (2006-2018)

Objective: To describe the informatics activities performed by and for local health departments.

Design: Analysis of data from the 2015 Informatics Capacity and Needs Assessment Survey of local health departments conducted by the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health at Georgia Southern University in collaboration with the National Association of County & City Health Officials.

Participants: 324 local health departments.

Main Outcome Measure(s): Informatics activities performed at or for local health departments in use and analysis of data, system design, and routine use of information systems.

Results: A majority of local health departments extract data from information systems (69.5%) and …

Public Health Staff Development Needs In Informatics: Findings From A National Survey Of Local Health Departments, Barbara L. Massoudi, Kelley Chester, Gulzar H. Shah

Health Policy & Management: Faculty Publications (2006-2018)

Context: Public health practice is information-intensive and information-driven. Public health informatics is a nascent discipline, and most public health practitioners lack necessary skills in this area.

Objective: To describe the staff development needs of local health departments (LHDs) related to informatics.

Design: Data came from the 2015 Informatics Capacity and Needs Assessment Survey, conducted by Georgia Southern University in collaboration with the National Association of County & City Health Officials.

Participants: A total of 324 LHDs from all 50 states completed the survey (response rate: 50%).

Main Outcome Measure(s): Outcome measures included LHDs' specific staff development needs related to informatics. …

Using Information Systems To Improve A Mid-Sized Local Health Department’S Effectiveness In A Time Of Rapid Change, Kay Lovelace, Gulzar H. Shah

Health Policy & Management: Faculty Publications (2006-2018)

Background: Informatics capacity building is resource and personnel intensive. Many local health departments (LHDs) face tradeoffs between using their resources to carry out existing mandates and using resources to build their capacity, for example, through informatics, to deliver essential services in a more effective and efficient manner.

Objective: The purpose of this case study is to describe how a mid-sized LHD built and used information systems to support its strategic objectives, clinical services, and surveillance.

Methods: The mid-sized LHD described here was chosen for its “best practices” in informatics capacity building and use by NACCHO's study advisory committee. To conduct …

An Iterative, Low-Cost Strategy To Building Information Systems Allows A Small Jurisdiction Local Health Department To Increase Efficiencies And Expand Services, Kay Lovelace, Gulzar H. Shah

Health Policy & Management: Faculty Publications (2006-2018)

Objective and Methods: The objective of this case study was to describe the process and outcomes of a small local health department's (LHD's) strategy to build and use information systems. The case study is based on a review of documents and semi-structured interviews with key informants in the Pomperaug District Health Department. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed.

Results and Conclusions: The case study here suggests that small LHDs can use a low-resource, incremental strategy to build information systems for improving departmental effectiveness and efficiency. Specifically, we suggest that the elements for this department's success were simple information systems, …

Retention Heterogeneity In New York City Schools, Douglas Almond, Ajin Lee, Amy Ellen Schwartz

Center for Policy Research

Performance on proficiency exams can be a key determinant of whether students are retained or "held back" in their grade. In New York City, passing the statewide proficiency exam essentially guarantees promotion, while roughly 13% of those students who fail the exam are retained. Using regression discontinuity methods, we find that female students are 25% more likely to be retained in their grade due to exam failure than boys. Hispanic students are 60% more likely and Black students 120% more likely to be retained due to exam failure (relative to White students). Poverty and previous poor performance also increase the …

The Health Care Expenditure And Income: A Global Perspective, Badi H. Baltagi, Raffaele Lagravinese, Francesco Moscone, Elisa Tosetti

Center for Policy Research

This paper investigates the long-run economic relationship between health care expenditure and income in the world using data on 167 countries over the period 1995-2012, collected from the World Bank data set. The analysis is carried using panel data methods that allow one to account for unobserved heterogeneity, temporal persistence, and cross-section dependence in the form of either a common factor model or a spatial process. We estimate a global measure of income elasticity using all countries in the sample, and for sub-groups of countries, depending on their geo-political area and income. Our findings suggest that at the global level, …

Protecting The Right To Be An American: How Pennsylvanians Perceive Homeland Security, Alexander Siedschlag

Publications

Pennsylvanians mainly see Homeland Security as a comprehensive effort of the federal government to fight terrorism at home and abroad. While it most often has a positive connotation, the multi-faceted mission space of homeland security is widely unknown.

The Academic Effects Of Chronic Exposure To Neighborhood Violence, Amy Ellen Schwartz, Agustina Laurito, Johanna Lacoe, Patrick Sharkey, Ingrid Gould Ellen

Center for Policy Research

We estimate the causal effect of repeated exposure to violent crime on test scores in New York City. We use two distinct empirical strategies; value-added models linking student performance on standardized exams to violent crimes on a student’s residential block, and a regression discontinuity approach that identifies the acute effect of an additional crime exposure within a one-week window. Exposure to violent crime reduces academic performance. Value added models suggest the average effect is very small; approximately -0.01 standard deviations in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics. RD models suggest a larger effect, particularly among children previously exposed. The marginal …

Office Of Regulatory Affairs Strategies For Building An Integrated National Laboratory Network For Food And Feed, Barbara Kowalcyk, Mark R. Mclellan, Lynn Goldman, David Goldman, Harvey T. Holmes, Connie Weaver

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

An interconnected network of accredited federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial laboratories is critical to ensuring the safety of the U.S. food supply and the development of the Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS). In 2004, as part of a national policy to defend the U.S. food supply against terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies, the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) was created to integrate the nation’s multilevel (i.e., federal, state, local, tribal, territorial) food-testing laboratories to detect, identify, respond to, and recover from a bioterrorism act affecting the safety of the food supply, or a public health emergency/outbreak involving …

Scientific Engagement At Fda: A Report To The Fda Science Board From The Scientific Engagement Subcommittee, Anthony Bahinski, Maria C. Friere, Mark R. Mclellan, Bruce M. Psaty, Dan M. Roden, Scott J. Steele

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Maintaining active interactions with the broad external scientific community is vital for FDA to fulfill its expanding public health mission. It is essential for the Agency to be well positioned to address emerging areas of regulatory science and rapidly advancing technologies.

Scientific engagement also helps FDA accomplish its mission by increasing awareness of FDA’s responsibilities and helping with the Agency’s critical recruitment and succession planning needs. FDA uses a range of mechanisms for scientific exchange. The Subcommittee was charged with considering:

a. how FDA can improve its interface with the outside scientific community, particularly regarding public-private partnerships (PPPs) and fellowship …

Urgent Challenges For Local Public Health Informatics, Joseph P. Gibson, Gulzar H. Shah, Laura C. Streichert, Linda Verchick

Health Policy & Management: Faculty Publications (2006-2018)

This editorial highlights the urgent challenges for local public health informatics and provides solutions to face these challenges.

The Methods Behind 2015 Informatics Capacity And Needs Assessment Study, Gulzar H. Shah

Health Policy & Management: Faculty Publications (2006-2018)

The 2015 Informatics Needs and Capacity of Local Health Departments (LHDs) survey is the most recent comprehensive source of quantitative data on LHD informatics. Conducted by the National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO), this is the third nationally representative quantitative study of LHD informatics since 2009. The previous 2 comprehensive quantitative assessments were conducted by NACCHO in 2009-2010 and 2011. Given that public health informatics is rapidly evolving, the 2015 Informatics survey is a much-needed country-wide assessment of the current informatics needs and capacities of LHDs. This article outlines detailed methodology used in the 2015 Informatics survey, …

How Acoustics In California High Performance Schools Relate To Student Achievement, Devin K. Wong

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This research project seeks to determine if students attending K–12 schools meeting a minimum standard of high performance classroom conditions in the state of California do evidence higher scholastic achievement, based on publically available results on state-wide standardized tests. In three phases, a subset of 200+ schools applying for grants dedicated to building high performance schools over the past decade was correlated with an existing database of achievement scores for all public schools in California. The criteria utilized to specify high performance classrooms was provided by the California High Performance Initiative (HPI) Grant program. Academic achievement was evaluated on a …

An Imperium Of Rights: Consequences Of Our Cultural Revolution, Steven Alan Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

The 'empowerment of rights', whether domestically or globally, presents itself in at least a double aspect: both as a cultural revolution and as a political strategy. The strategy pursued by cultural revolutionaries who equate liberalism with secularism is to turn the basic values of the West into weapons against it so that its inherent defense mechanisms will be rendered ineffective. This strategy is most apt to succeed by provoking crises of conscience through redefinitions of human rights that, in the end, lead to individual and institutional conversion. But, as Marcello Pera notes, political liberalism itself suffers from an 'ethical deficit'. …

Religious Liberty In The Early American Republic, Steven Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

The early nineteenth century in America was a period in which the idea of religious liberty came to be worked out in practice in a setting of growing diversity. The immediate effect of the dissolution of state religious establishments was to strengthen the vitality and prestige of the churches themselves. Before the end of the century, the church historian Philip Schaff could regard as normal 'a free church in a free state, or a self-supporting and self-governing Christianity in independent but friendly relation to the civil government.'