In 2007, Mayor Thomas Menino and the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) implemented an amendment to the Boston Zoning Code Article 37 (Green Buildings) requiring new construction approved under Article 80B (Development Review and Approval: Large Project Review) be designed and built to meet the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (USGBC LEED) certification. This amendment is intended to promote green building practices in the city and reduce the environmental impacts of buildings larger than 50,000 square feet. Article 37 does not require that the buildings actually achieve LEED certification, but they need to be LEED certifiable as determined by an interagency review committee and with the endorsement of a LEED Accredited Professional. This study examines how environmental goals have been translated into policy and how this policy has affected building practice in the City of Boston. The Green Buildings amendment was enacted to help curb greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the energy consumption of the building stock and is expected to help achieve the City’s goal of reducing carbon emissions by 25% by the year 2020 and 80% by the year 2050. This is not possible without a shift in the current building and construction paradigm. Through interviews with building professionals we assess whether this building code amendment has resulted in any necessary changes in practice and whether or not those working under the standard of LEED certifiability believe it to be an effective policy.

Since the mid-century proliferation of public housing, policy makers and environmental justice advocates have exposed the fact that geographically and economically isolated public housing sites are ultimately detrimental to residents and communities. In recent years, more progressive housing policies have emphasized the importance of site location in the success of housing programs. This study explores the intersection of affordable housing policy and “food desert” research, by assessing the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program in California, with specific attention to the grocery store category within the Site Amenities section. Since the inception of the LIHTC program in 1986, the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC) has made multiple revisions to its application process. The study evaluates the current accessibility of grocery stores from LIHTC sites in Alameda and Santa Clara Counties in Northern California. It also critiques the changes in application scoring, criteria, and the indicators of food facility proximity and quality, identifying weaknesses, recommendations, and areas for further research. It finds that despite CTCAC’s efforts to improve the effectiveness of the application, there does not seem to improvement in grocery store access over time. Further research is needed to determine whether this condition is a result of a failure on the part of the application process, or of high land costs and limited availability of developable land.

At the end of the 20th century, economic and political forces converged to create an unprecedented migration of Hispanics across and within U.S. borders. Many migrated for work in new destinations like the Southeast instead of traditional regions in the Southwest. In the Southeast many communities struggled to meet the economic and social needs of its newest members of a population that grew seemingly overnight. The state-federal vocational rehabilitation system is an important service to meet the economic and social needs of people with disabilities that impair their ability to work. Current scholarship suggests Hispanics and other minorities experience disparities in the state-federal vocational rehabilitation (VR) system in access, services and outcomes. To date there are not any studies that examine the VR trends for Hispanics with disabilities in the VR system in general and or specifically compare new destinations compared to traditional settlement areas. This study used a federal archived administrative database (RSA-911) to analyze 469,427 cases over a 17-year period (1997 to 2013) of Hispanic consumers between ages 18 and 64 in the two regions. A human capital and social capital conceptual framework guided the study, as VR services can be interpreted as services that build human capital and social capital to increase economic opportunity and independence. Declines in application, services, and successful outcomes occurred, but rates significantly differed between the two immigration destination types. An overall downward trend in application rates existed. Both regions experienced increases in eligibility, though in the Southeast a much steeper increase occurred. Overall, consumers in Southwest received more services, but the Southeast had better overall rehabilitation and employment outcomes. However, both regions declined in service and outcomes of the 17-year period. In addition, consumers in both regions received significantly more human capital building services, although social capital building services had higher rates of rehabilitation and employment

Germany’s position of power within the European Union disguises how impacted the German economy was by the 2008 Financial Crisis and Europe’s subsequent Sovereign Debt Crisis. Two of Germany’s major banks-Commerzbank and Bayerische Landesbank- suffered major losses and required emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) to survive. Walter Bagehot wrote the theory underpinning lenders of last resort (LLRs) in 1873 but how has the development of systemically important banks affected the usefulness of Bagehot’s theory? This paper aims to explain why Germany is in need of updated LLR recommendations through an analysis of the ELA Germany at large, Commerzbank and Bayerische Landesbank received. It also aims to empirically prove the stigma and public distrust of ELA through a regression of Commerzbank’s daily stock returns using an augmented Fama/French model. I find that Bagehot’s theory and recommendations are out of date for our current global financial sector. I cannot empirically prove any stigma or public distrust of Commerzbank, there is no relationship between Commerzbank stock returns and the augmented Fama/French factors.

This study was designed to explore the literature on competitive food policy implementation (CFPI); examines demographic and school factors associated with CFPI; and explores the experiences of school leaders and staff in CFPI using a proposed theoretical framework to guide the research. Competitive foods are those sold in vending machines, a la carte settings, fundraisers, class parties and other venues which compete with foods offered through the national school lunch and breakfast programs. Competitive foods have traditionally been of low nutritional value and high energy density. CFPI may be effective in reducing student calorie intake and BMI. However, evaluation of competitive food policy effectiveness is difficult due to variability in policy implementation. A theoretical framework is needed to guide research on CFPI. This research was a mixed methods study including a review of the literature, quantitative secondary analysis, and a qualitative content analysis of transcripts from semi-structured interviews with school personnel to understand their experience with CFPI. First, a systematic review of the research literature on CFPI was conducted. Demographic and school factors, policy features, and school and parent/community-level factors that impact CFPI were identified. Second, the association of multiple demographic and school factors with CFPI scores was examined. CFPI scale (overall) and sub-scales (“inside” and “outside” school) were developed and validated to evaluate CFPI effectiveness in Kentucky middle and high schools (N=640, grades 5-12). The scales were based on responses to 8 questions on competitive food practices from a 2011 School Tobacco and Wellness Policy biannual survey conducted by the University Of Kentucky College Of Nursing Tobacco Policy Research Program. Student BMI tracking and presence of a written wellness policy predicted higher scores on the overall CFPI scale (BMI OR=2.06, p=0.001; Wellness OR=1.74, p=0.02), inside subscale scores (BMI OR=2.46, p<0.0001; Wellness OR=1.58, p=0.05), and outside subscale scores (BMI OR=2.27, p=0.03; Wellness OR=1.54, p=0.0005). Greater county-level adult obesity rates predicted lower overall CFPI scores (OR=0.93, p=0.02). Private school status predicted lower scores on inside CFPI subscale scores (OR=0.47, p=0.004). Third, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 school personnel to explore CFPI. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and content analysis was conducted. Kentucky schools were stratified into four groups based on school level (middle or high) and CFPI scores (high or low). Sixteen schools were randomly selected for each of the four groups. A total of eight schools, two from each group, agreed to participate. The interview guide was based on a proposed CFPI framework based on implementation science, educational and organizational theory research. Six key themes emerged: internal/external forces enabling CFPI; internal and external obstacles to CFPI; key organizational values; organization value of CFPI; methods that organizations use to communicate organizational values; and CFPI policies and procedures. Findings were discussed in the context of the proposed theoretical framework. Implications for policy, practice and future research are presented.

The purpose of the research was to conduct a study of the impact of gentrification on the Metropolitan Atlanta area. This research focused on the policies that influenced or affected recipient communities because of gentrification. These changes are attributed to residents relocating from various sections of a transitioned community to another community. Available research, however, does not fully address the new challenges recipient communities face because of a boost in its population. Current research does not fully address the pressure on recipient communities’ resources due to (possible) lack of housing, schools, transportation, and social services because of an influx of citizens; nor does the current research fully address an overall strategy to sustainable community and economic development for recipient communities.

Conditionality has always been a feature of welfare benefit entitlements in the United Kingdom – however, over time, the extent to which conditionality has been exercised in order to change behaviour has drastically increased through the severity of sanctions. Universal Credit, the most recently enacted welfare programme in the UK, has strengthened conditionality even further through even more ambitious expectations, as well as stricter regulations and punishments. The mission of UC is to tackle worklessness, welfare dependency, and poverty by decreasing unemployment and thus, the number of people on benefits. Although UC may have been successful in addressing the first two issues, it is important to recognise that as a welfare policy and a response to poverty, UC is supposed to protect and benefit the wellbeing of people. My findings contradict this idea – UC has failed to address poverty in many ways, by defining poverty through a narrow and solely quantitative lens, by focusing on incentivising employment amongst benefit claimants as a solution to poverty, and by insufficiently accommodating for the needs of marginalised groups. Even so, conditional welfare policies have become the norm, a tool of many Conservative leaders in the United Kingdom. This is where the social policy focus has shifted. My thesis found that while UC and conditional welfare policies may achieve their stated goals of reducing unemployment and the number of benefit claimants, they do not adequately address the issue of poverty, as they ignore structural causes of poverty and disadvantage amongst marginalised communities.

Throughout the Cold War antagonisms of the twentieth century, the United States (US) championed greater global economic cooperation and an embrace of free market principles to encourage economic growth. Post World War II, passage of the Bretton Woods Agreement institutionalized this political agenda effectively establishing the rules of global commerce. The result has been increased economic participation and trade liberalization. One of the last remaining vestiges of Cold War hostility and impediments to trade is the US economic embargo of Cuba, in place since 1960. Increasingly seen as a policy failure, the US has taken steps in the past two years to normalize relations with Cuba. At the same time, after extended conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, economic recession, and political polarization over the last fifteen years the US finds itself in a position of ambiguity towards additional foreign commitments. American efforts to open Cuba to two-way commerce serve both national security and economic foreign policy agendas. For Cubans, removal of the embargo represents an opportunity for normal relations with the world’s largest economy and access to capital and markets that come with it. The purpose of this study is to test the theory political economy, which attempts to understand society through the intersection of economic, political, and social functions, using US-Cuba diplomacy as a case study (Yin, 2009). Working within a multiple streams framework, the investigator examined how economic policy is changed under politically ambiguous conditions through a series of 20 semi-structured qualitative interviews and content analysis of secondary data sources (Zahariadis, 2014). Specifically, the study explored the behavior of interested individuals from the US and Cuba, so-called policy entrepreneurs, and their influence on the policymaking process during an open policy window. Research results suggest that policy entrepreneurs operate at the individual, state, and national scales of society using a variety of symbols to create and broaden opportunities for policy change. Across all three levels, US and Cuban policy entrepreneur’s behavior is guided by the search for rationality in ambiguous times, but their agency is bounded by the institutionally determined parameters of what is legally and politically acceptable.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo principal o conhecimento e o reconhecimento de dez edifícios de feições brutalistas do estado do Piauí. Por meio de um reconhecimento arquitetônico, crítico e referenciado dessas obras, construídas nas décadas de 1970 e 1980, procura-se compreender os seus valores projetuais, a relevância das mesmas na identidade da paisagem urbana em que se inserem e a origem e as peculiaridades do seu contexto de criação e implantação. Esta pesquisa leva em consideração os pormenores locais e as individuais contribuições intelectuais dos arquitetos, fatores que, vinculados a um contexto arquitetônico nacional, originaram exemplares concretos, cujos reconhecimento e interpretação se fazem necessários para melhor compreensão da cultura arquitetônica estadual e seu desdobramento nos âmbitos regional e nacional. Apesar de o caráter brutalista ser o denominador comum e o ponto de partida para o estudo do conjunto edificado, a pesquisa não se reduz a uma abordagem exiguamente estilística, pela crença de que uma categorização não é suficiente, nem mesmo determinante para a compreensão desses exemplares arquitetônicos, devendo os mesmos serem analisados como parcela do seu próprio contexto. Dessa forma, toma-se como princípio o enfoque propriamente arquitetônico da investigação, em que é \"a própria realidade da obra que se constitui objeto e oportunidade de pensamento\"(OYARZÚN; ARAVENA; QUINTANILLA et al., 2007, p. 11). Assim, por meio do estudo das obras em si, apoiado por documentos que elucidam suas características originais, realizou-se um trabalho de documentação e análise, considerando a importância desse conjunto para o patrimônio arquitetônico piauiense e para os ambientes urbanos, tendo em vista sua preservação e valorização, assim como o fortalecimento da historiografia arquitetônica piauiense. / This paper has as main purpose the acknowledgement and understanding of ten edifices of brutalist features in the state of Piauí. By meanings of architectonic, critic and referenced recognition of these buildings, constructed in the 1970s and 1980s, it is intended to comprehend its design value, their relevance in the identity of the urban landscape as well as the origin and peculiarities of their creation and implantation context. This research considers the local singularities and the individual intellectual contribution of the architects, factors which, associated to the national architectural scene, originated concrete precedent, making it necessary its interpretation and recognition to better comprehend the architectural culture of the state and its unraveling in the regional and national purview. Despite the brutalist characteristic being the common denominator and the starting point for the study of the edifice lot, the research is not reduced to a particularly stylistic approach, for believing that a mere categorization is insufficient, nor is decisive for the comprehension of this architectonic examples, these must be analyzed as a fraction of its own context. Thus being, a properly architectonic focus is taken as principle, where as \"the own reality of the product that constitutes object and opportunity of reflection\" (OYARZÚN; ARAVENA; QUINTANILLA, 2007, p.11). This way, by the study of the structure of the buildings, supported by documentation that clarify its original characteristics, a work of documentation and analysis was accomplished, considering the importance of this lot of architectonic heritage of Piauí and to other urban settlements, in behalf of its preservation and estimation, as well as the fortification of architectural historiography of Piauí.

Diet and dietary related health outcomes such as obesity and diabetes are major public health concerns. While personal choice and dietary behaviors are major influences on how an individual eats, the environment influences these choices and behaviors. The nutrition environment is one key influence and its relationship with food choice, behaviors, and socioeconomic influences is complex. Within the structure of the nutrition environment, food access and socioeconomic status compound influencing nutrition behavior and food choice. Food deserts are defined as geographic region of low access to healthy affordable food in low income areas. The USDA developed a system for the analysis of food deserts in the United States. However, the methods the USDA uses do not acknowledge potential geographical barriers present in rural mountainous regions including Appalachia. The purpose of this research is to determine whether the USDA methodology underrepresents food deserts in Appalachia and to develop a modified analysis model for the region. The region was analyzed at the census tract level using methods based on USDA guidelines for low income, rurality, and grocery store identification, then applied in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to roadway data. Network analysis of drive time from grocery stores to 20 minutes away was performed. Low income, rural census tracts with 33% of their area outside of the 20-minute drive time zone were identified as food deserts. Counties containing tracts were then compared to USDA designated counties, using the dependent variables of obesity and diabetes diagnosis rates and controlled for by county level rurality and economic distress. Of the counties designated as rural, 63 contained food deserts by the modified methods and the USDA model identified 20, there was an overlap in identification of 12 counties. There was no significant difference for 2 methods in health outcomes for the counties. In conclusion, the modified methods do identify a larger food desert region. It is crucial to understand the geographic barriers to regions when addressing nutrition environment concerns. The underrepresentation of food desert areas can leave populations and communities underserved and without much needed resources to improve their access to healthy and affordable foods.