Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons^™

Evaluating The Impact Of Off-Farm Decisions On Federal Government Program Utilization And Financial Success For Missouri's Beginning Farmers, Lyndsey Ann Parker

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Farmers and ranchers will have to increase production by approximately 70% by the year 2050 according to the American Farm Bureau Federation (2017). People in the agriculture industry face several challenges from start-up costs to limited land availability (Ahearn, 2011). There are federal and state government programs available to assist with some of these challenges but bring their own hardships as well. This study measures off-farm decisions that affect financial performance and utilization of government programs for Missouri’s farmers and ranchers. Three types of financial performance of Missouri farms are prioritized in this study, liquidity (current ratio), solvency (debt-to-asset ratio), …

Us Strategic Culture, Homeland Ballistic Missile Defense, And Mutual Vulnerability, Jacob T. Blank

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Strategic scholars have long understood the indispensable linkage between culture and security policymaking. By shaping the perceptions through which decision-makers formulate security policy, strategic culture analysis adds vital context to the perilously difficult science of understanding and predicting state security outputs. One area where this analytical framework fails to generate the expected result is American missile defense policy. Salient themes of US strategic culture, including an optimistic and problem-solving mindset, positive role of machines, and ahistorical exceptionalism, are reflected in the American way of war – a technologically driven, leadership casualty averse, moralistic, apolitical, and firepower focused enterprise. These factors …

Public Policy Syllabus, Duran A. Fiack

Open Educational Resources

The syllabus is designed for an introductory course that focuses on the basics of public policy. The course is composed of three modules. In Module I, The Study of Public Policy, the basics of public policy and the key actors and institutions involved in the policymaking process are introduced and discussed. In Module II, Public Policy Analysis, students are introduced to theories concerning the process through which policy is developed, implemented, and changed, a framework for analyzing and assessing public policy decision-making, and the tools that are used to address policy problems. In Module III, Substantive Areas …

(Re)Empowering The Community: A Case Study Of Namibia's Legal Evolution Of Wildlife Governance, Stefan Carpenter

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Article will introduce the theoretical foundation of the CBC [Community-Based Conservation] approach. It will then use Namibia as a case study to both: (a) illustrate the sort of historical, political, and economic drivers that motivate the adoption of CBC across the global south, and (b) highlight the existence of potential structural weaknesses present in even the most lauded CBC programs. Finally, this Article will present some of the common theoretical and results-based criticisms of CBC and discuss broader lessons that can be drawn from the Namibian experience. The analyses in this Article draw from academic literature, Namibia’s statutes and …

From The Northern Plains To The Carolina Coast: An Environmental Perspective On Nationwide Injunctions, Daniel Z. Tick

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Note offers a perspective on nationwide injunctions informed by a selection of environmental cases from roughly the last two decades. In doing so, it attempts to draw broader conclusions about when, if ever, federal courts should prohibit the enforcement of environmental policies nationwide. This Note proceeds as follows: Part I defines “nationwide injunction,” discusses the recent history of nationwide injunctions against the federal executive branch, and describes the absence of a clear legal standard governing nationwide relief. Part II examines six environmental cases in which plaintiffs have sought, or federal courts have ordered, nationwide relief. Part III suggests that, …

Diagonal Federalism: How States Should Respond To Inconsistent Federal Climate Change Mitigation Policy, Michael Arnone

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Note will argue that diagonal federalism—a model of governance in which states partner with one another and local governments to pursue shared policy goals—is an ideal response to inconsistent climate change mitigation policy by the Federal Government. Part I provides an overview of the foundations of American environmental policy, how that policy is predicated on federal-state partnership, and the historical precedent for state-led action on climate change mitigation policy. Part II discusses how and why federal environmental policy, and by extension, federal climate change mitigation policy, has been so inconsistent. Part III illustrates how collaboration between the Federal Government …

Structural Violence & Small Victories: Political Epidemiology Of Hiv Among Msm In Nigeria, 2000-2010, Debbie A. Dada

Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award

No abstract provided.

Outdoor Recreation Benefits And Promotion Through A Youth-Focused Program In State Parks, Kiley Foss

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A family’s participation in outdoor recreation activities can provide numerous benefits to each individual. Children’s participation is influenced from various factors, but parents have one of the greatest influences on their child’s outdoor recreation behavior. The purpose of this study is to assess the outcomes of a statewide outdoor recreation program in relation to using state parks as outdoor wellness centers, as well as investigate the relationship between parents’ outdoor recreation participation and perception and their children’s outdoor recreation involvement. A total of 104 parents or guardians recalled their family’s participation in the Go Forth program. Those responses were analyzed …

The Axis Of Access: A Quantitative Ethnography Of Presidential Discourse On The Construct Of College Access In The United States, Pamela M. Donnelly

Theses and Dissertations

Federal discourse pertaining to college access requires clarified definition. Use of the college access construct has become commonplace, yet no unified refinement of meaning exists. This study, which covered U.S. presidential communications from January 2009 to October 2021, addressed the abstraction of language as leaders presented ideas, policies, and opinions. Observable trends impacting social mobility for students from underserved populations were of central interest. The research methodology, Quantitative Ethnography (QE), used the tool of Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA). Eight codes were identified through grounded analysis: Affordability, Pathway Program, Underserved Populations, Class Systems, Upward Mobility, Career Readiness, Trajectory, and Career Technical …

The Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool (Raft) As An Approach For Incorporating Equity Into Coastal Resilience Planning And Project Implementation, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf, Tanya Denckla Cobb, Elizabeth Andrews, Sierra Gladfelter, Gray Montrose

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

As coastal communities across the U.S. and worldwide undertake efforts to enhance their resilience to coastal hazards, they must do so while ensuring that all voices are heard, addressing and preventing disparate impacts, and, ultimately, increasing resilience in an equitable way. The Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool (RAFT) assists coastal communities in incorporating equity into resilience planning and implementation of projects to increase resilience. The RAFT includes social and economic dimensions in assessment of resilience and focuses on how localities can build resilience equitably. The RAFT process has three phases -- a scorecard assessment, development of a resilience action checklist that …

The Atlantic Surfclam Fishery And Offshore Wind Energy Development: 2. Assessing Economic Impacts, Andrew M. Scheld, Jennifer Beckensteiner, Daphne M. Munroe, Eric N. Powell, Sarah Borsetti, Eileen E. Hofmann, John M. Klinck

CCPO Publications

The Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima) fishery generates approximately USD 30 million in landings revenues annually, distributed across ports throughout the US Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Overlap between areas of Atlantic surfclam harvests and offshore wind energy leasing make the fishery vulnerable to exclusion and effort displacement as development expands in the region. An existing integrated bioeconomic agent-based model, including spatial dynamics in Atlantic surfclam stock biology, heterogeneous captain behaviour, and federal management processes, was extended to incorporate costs and revenues for fishing vessels and processors and used to evaluate the potential economic effects of offshore wind development on the …

How Policy Innovation Labs Communicate Using Twitter, Kei Schmidt

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This report consists of an analysis of the interactions and information shared between Policy Innovation Labs (PILs) and their stakeholders over the social media platform Twitter during the summer of 2020. The focus is on how the PILs use Twitter as a tool for stakeholder engagement and the information that is being shared in these interactions. To accomplish this, Twitter data for 42 US-based PILs was downloaded using NodeXL and coded using NVivo according to both method of message delivery and message content. The results show that there is two-way communication that occurred during the collection period, though PILs employed …

Opportunities And Challenges For Deploying Connected And Automated Vehicles To Address Transportation Disparities In Urban Areas, Erika Shepard, Kimberly Napoline, Frank Douma, Adeel Lari

Journal of Law and Mobility

As the development and testing of connected and automated vehicles (CAV) accelerates, it is important for government stakeholders, planners, and policymakers to have a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities CAVs will bring to infrastructure, communities, and lifestyles. There is general consensus among scholars and transportation practitioners that CAV will “disrupt” transportation systems, land use patterns, and socioeconomic power structures as they exist today.The implications of CAV on transportation infrastructure have been the subject of numerous academic and professional studies, suggesting both positive and negative effects may occur. Furthermore, in an American context, transportation planning has historically contributed to …

The Gender Bias Burden On Business: Women's Access To Credit In Bahrain, Sandra J. Thiman

Mary Ann Bolton Undergraduate Research Award

Entrepreneurship is essential to virtually every economy; however, Bahraini women face many challenges accessing business development. In particular, a major constraint for these women is their access to capital support. In 2020, the government signed a law prohibiting gender-based discrimination in access to credit to help the issue; nonetheless, its effectiveness has yet to be systematically examined. Using data from several sources, I test whether the law significantly affected the gender gap in borrowing for business purposes while controlling for other variables. Importantly, I find that women’s labor force participation is a significant factor in reducing the borrowing gap between …

Understanding Public Support For Foreign Aid: A Cross-National Analysis, Erika Manning

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This thesis examines how public support for bilateral foreign aid in democratic donor countries, namely the United States and South Korea, is influenced by various methods of policy framing. Despite the benefits of bilateral aid to both donor and recipient countries, public support for distributing it has been on the decline due to fears that aid is ineffective. However, this trend may also be the product of the publics’ perceptions of where aid is going and for what purpose. To determine the effects of type of aid and perceptions of recipient countries on support for foreign aid, I conducted a …

An Index Of Community Priorities To Inform Local Governance In New Haven, Max E. Teirstein

Library Map Prize

Environmental justice screening and mapping tools visually depict the distribution of environmental justice burden across a geographic area. How that burden is measured varies according to location—different communities face different challenges, and a mapping tool that represents the landscape of environmental justice in one community may not adequately capture the distribution of EJ burden in another area. Who decides what “burden” means for each community? In this study of environmental justice in New Haven, CT, I argue that it is residents and local community leaders whose perspectives are most critical to how environmental justice is defined. I create a census …

Integrating Carbon Pricing Approaches, Amay Shah

CMC Senior Theses

Concerns about global climate change and its effects have been steadily growing around the world in recent years. The Paris Agreement has laid out ambitious targets for countries to cut their emissions in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Carbon pricing mechanisms are an inventive instrument that can help achieve these emissions reductions by placing a price on greenhouse gas emissions, creating incentives for organizations to reduce their emissions. These mechanisms can also help enable the transfers from wealthy nations to developing nations that will be essential for ensuring a …

An Analysis Of Georgia Mothers Who Gave Birth In 2015 And 2016 Without Receiving Prenatal Care, Joncel Stephens, Shanta R. Dube, Merrilee Gober

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Background: The present study characterizes the population of women residing in the state of Georgia who did not receive prenatal care before giving birth to a live infant. The association between mother’s place of residence (rural/non-rural) and preterm delivery was also examined.

Methods: This study examined data obtained from the Georgia Department of Public Health which includes data for 7,062 mothers who did not receive prenatal care before giving birth to a live infant in Georgia in the years 2015 and 2016. Data on the resulting births was also studied. Descriptive analyses of the following variables were used …

Can Mini Grant Programs Address Community Health Improvement Plans In Rural Areas? A Local Evaluation, Kelley Ditzel, Cameron Watts

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Background: In the rural community of Hancock County, Georgia, it became apparent in the summer of 2017 that outside help was necessary to address the failing health and education problems plaguing this area. The North Central Health District received Healthcare Georgia Foundation grant leading to the creation of the Hancock Health Improvement Partnership (HHIP) composed of 11 community leaders who developed the Community Health Improvement Plan to positively impact their county.

Methods: This evaluation was conducted to report the efficacy of the mini grant program developed by the HHIP, particularly how grants could best improve organizational capacity, incentivize community collaborations, …

Understanding Integral Peace Leadership In Practice: Lessons And Learnings From Women Peacemaker Narratives, Whitney Mcintyre Miller, Miznah Omair Alomair

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Integral peace leadership is an emergent framework that creates space for just change by challenging violence and aggression while building positive systems and structures. This article utilizes a deductive qualitative analysis strategy to critically examine the proposed concepts of integral peace leadership to determine their saliency for peacebuilding practice. Utilized to study these concepts are 10 Women PeaceMakers’ narratives. Results indicate that 25 of the 35 concepts studied across four quadrants were relevant in the women’s peace leadership work, with an additional six concepts revealed. The analysis demonstrates that the concepts of integral peace leadership are present in the work …

Identifying Patterns In The Structural Drivers Of Intrastate Conflict, Jonathan D. Moyer, Austin S. Matthews, Mickey Rafa, Yutang Xiong

Global and Public Affairs: Faculty Scholarship

Quantitative methods have been used to: (1) better predict civil conflict onset; and (2) understand causal mechanisms to inform policy intervention and theory. However, an exploration of individual conflict onset cases illustrates great variation in the characteristics describing the outbreak of civil war, suggesting that there is not one single set of factors that lead to intrastate war. In this article, we use descriptive statistics to explore persistent clusters in the drivers of civil war onset, finding evidence that some arrangements of structural drivers cluster robustly across multiple model specifications (such as young, poorly developed states with anocratic regimes). Additionally, …

Prevalence Of Mutations In The Pfdhfr, Pfdhps, And Pfmdr1 Genes Of Malarial Parasites Isolated From Symptomatic Patients In Dogondoutchi, Niger, Ibrahima Issa, Mahaman Moustapha Lamine, Veronique Hubert, Amadou Ilagouma, Eric Adehossi, Aboubacar Mahamadou, Neil F. Lobo, Demba Sarr, Lisa M. Shollenberger, Houze Sandrine, Ronan Jambou, Ibrahim Maman Laminou

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The effectiveness of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) depends not only on that of artemisinin but also on that of partner molecules. This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of mutations in the Pfdhfr, Pfdhps, and Pfmdr1 genes from isolates collected during a clinical study. Plasmodium genomic DNA samples extracted from symptomatic malaria patients from Dogondoutchi, Niger, were sequenced by the Sanger method to determine mutations in the Pfdhfr (codons 51, 59, 108, and 164), Pfdhps (codons 436, 437, 540, 581, and 613), and Pfmdr1 (codons 86, 184, 1034, and 1246) genes. One hundred fifty-five (155) pre-treatment samples were …

The Link Between Gentrification, Children’S Egocentric Food Environment, And Obesity, Christopher Rick, Jeehee Han, Spencer Shanholtz, Amy Ellen Schwartz

Center for Policy Research

While advocates argue that gentrification changes the neighborhood food environment critical to children’s diet and health, we have little evidence documenting such changes or the consequences for their health outcomes. Using rich longitudinal, individual-level data on nearly 115,000 New York City children, including egocentric measures of their food environment and BMI, we examine the link between neighborhood demographic change (“gentrification”), children’s access to restaurants and supermarkets, and their weight outcomes. We find that children in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods see increased access to fast food and wait-service restaurants and reduced access to corner stores and supermarkets compared to those in non-gentrifying …

Healing Racial Trauma And Reframing The Miseducation Of U.S. America: Altering Exclusionary Textbooks As A Therapeutic Experiential, Kamaria Erin Wells

Art Therapy | Master's Theses

This exploratory mixed-methods, arts-based research investigated the therapeutic impact of fusing art therapy, group therapy, altered book making and alternative therapeutic modalities on self-efficacy, self- awareness, community efficacy and awareness, and reduction of racial trauma symptomology. The intention of the study was to understand the experiences of mental health professional participants (n =5), consequent to four therapeutic group sessions. Participants disclosed experienced symptoms of race-based PTSD pre and post sessions via the University of Connecticut Racial/Ethnic Trauma Survey, in addition to qualitative data. Qualitative data consisted of artwork, written responses, and exit interviews confirming the hypothesis that this radical healing …

A Lightweight Reliably Quantified Deepfake Detection Approach, Tianyi Wang, Kam Pui Chow

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Deepfake has brought huge threats to society such that everyone can become a potential victim. Current Deepfake detection approaches have unsatisfactory performance in either accuracy or efficiency. Meanwhile, most models are only evaluated on different benchmark test datasets with different accuracies, which could not imitate the real-life Deepfake unknown population. As Deepfake cases have already been raised and brought challenges at the court, it is disappointed that no existing work has studied the model reliability and attempted to make the detection model act as the evidence at the court. We propose a lightweight Deepfake detection deep learning approach using the …

Revisiting Participatory Rural Appraisal (Pra) Related Studies And Exploring Pra's Success Determinants: A Content Analysis, Raquel Garcia-Agustin

Journal of Public Affairs and Development

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) has shown that participation in development programs in poor communities can be empowering not only for the community members but also for the development workers. However, not all PRAs have seen successes especially in fulfilling their mission to encourage real participation. Hence, it is imperative to understand whether PRA has led to adequate understanding of indigenous perspective to call for action and the interest PRA serves. This analysis aims to provide critical insights and reflections from the experiences of previously conducted PRAs. It further aims to reveal whether PRAs were used effectively and successfully according to …

Taiwanese Perceptions Of China, Taiwan, And Us Relations From 2016 To 2021, Wan-Ling Liao, Armand Christopher C. Rola

Journal of Public Affairs and Development

In 2016, a dramatic shift in Taiwan's politics caught China's attention. After the inauguration of President Tsai Ing-wen, Beijing increased the pressure on Taiwan. Aside from limiting Taiwan's international space, Beijing had taken other steps. This study aims to review the policy regarding the relationship among Taiwan, the US, and China. The primary data were gathered through interviews with Taiwanese key informants of different age groups. Secondary data were gathered from official documents, online sources, journal and news articles, and books. Based on the analysis of informants' opinions on this issue, the study found that the majority of informants prefer …

Organizational Barriers To Effective University Student Mental Health Services, Felicia Evans-Edwards

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study was focused on organizational barriers to effective university student mental health services access in the department of student resources (DSR) at a for-profit university in the northeastern United States. Once such barriers are addressed, faculty may be more successful in reaching out to students needing mental health services who are not self-identifying as needing these services. The Baldrige excellence framework guided this descriptive case study to examine the organizational barriers that prevent university leadership from creating clear policies and procedures for faculty to refer students to mental health services. Data sources included interviews with the behavioral health leader …

Understanding Police Decision-Making With Firearms: From Training To Real-Life Deployment, Alex S. Kondos

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Modern efforts involving police reform have created a need for police administrators and policymakers to address various elements of policing. Administrative and punitive policy reforms have had little effect on decreasing police shootings. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to understand the experiences of officers who have been involved in deadly force encounters in order to identify where their past training methods led to success or failures in real-life situations. The theoretical framework for this study was Janis and Mann’s conflict model of decision-making. This study involved answering the question: From the perspectives of police officers involved in shootings, …

Perspective On Macroscale Complexity In The National Transplant System, Morgan Stuart, Andrew Placona, Gabe Vece, Kelsi Lindblad, Saikou Diallo, Bob Carrico

VMASC Publications

We present a perspective of the national transplant program based on organizational theory and complexity theory, framing the system’s allocation of donor organs as an interorganizational directed multiplex of agents with diverse belief formation in a cooperative-competitive environment. Simulation and analysis of this macroscale complexity may help explain known behavioural variations across member organizations. However, the transplant community still relies on system-scale simulations since effective macroscale methodologies are not well established. Therefore, we offer this perspective of the national transplant program as a means to stimulate new methods that capture macroscale impacts of policy development for deceased donor organ allocation.