This study analyzed whether African American students in the Atlanta University Center schools were knowledgeable about public health policies and programs concerning abused and neglected children. Two hundred and one (201) participants were selected utilizing convenience sampling. The study surveyed males and females of which 91% were African American students. A survey questionnaire was utilized to collect data. The findings of the study indicated that a majority or 57.2% of the students were not knowledgeable about public health policies for abused and neglected children. However, a majority of the students indicated that they were knowledgeable about public health problems and programs for this population. A majority or 84.1% indicated that they were not abused and neglected as children, but a significant percentage or 15.9% indicated that they were abused and neglected. When the chi square test for significance was applied, the null hypothesis was accepted indicating that there was no statistically significant evidence at the .05 level of probability that the students were abused and neglected when they were children.

This thesis covers how global mercury emissions are effecting the Great Lakes region, specifically focusing on Minnesota. Minnesota is sensitive to mercury due to its abundant waters and love of fishing. Establishing state regulation and diversifying the State's economy only addresses a small percentage of emitted mercury prominent in Minnesota. Therefore, Minnesota must look to and promote out of State regulation to significantly decrease mercury exposure.

This dissertation examines the effect of regulations, resource and referral agencies, and subsidies on price and quality of care in child care centers. This research is based on a carefully developed conceptual framework that incorporates the factors affecting the demand and supply of child care. The first step in developing this framework is sketching out the structural equations. The structural equations help us understand the underlying behavior of individuals and firms making a decision. The exogenous variables are vector of attributes relating to family characteristics, child characteristics, regulations, subsidy, community characteristics and prices of inputs. Based on the structural equations, reduced form equations are estimated to find the effect of each of the exogenous variables on each of the endogenous variables. Reduced form equations help us answer public policy questions. The sample for this study is from the 1990 Profile of Child Care Settings (PCCS) data in which 2,089 center based programs were interviewed. Child/Staff Ratio (Group Level): Results indicate that among subsidies, only the state subsidy per child in poverty has a significant effect on the child/staff ratio at the group level. Presence of resource and referral agencies also increase the child/staff ratio at the group level. Also when the maximum center group size regulation for 25-36 months becomes more stringent, the child/staff ratio at the group level decreases. Child/Staff Ratio (Center Level): When the regulations for the maximum child/staff ratio for age groups 13-24 months and 37-60 months become lax, the child/staff ratio for the center increases. As the regulation for maximum group size for infants becomes stringent, the child/staff ratio decreases. An interesting finding is that as the regulations for maximum group size for age groups 13-24 months and 25-36 months become stringent, the child/staff ratio for the center increases. Another significant finding is that when a center is located in a rural area the child/staff ratio is significantly lower. Center Weighted Average Hourly Fees: Maximum group size regulations for age groups 25-36 months and 37-60 months have a negative effect on center hourly fee. Maximum child staff regulations for age groups 13-24 months and 37-60 months have a negative effect on center hourly fee. Maximum child staff regulations for age groups 0-12 months and 25-36 months have a positive effect on center hourly fee. Findings also indicate that the center average hourly price is lower when there is a resource and referral agency present. Cost adjusted prekindergarten funds and JOBS child care subsidies have a negative effect on average hourly fee. Cost adjusted social services block grant and state subsidy per child in poverty have a positive effect on the average hourly price. A major finding of this dissertation is the interaction of subsidy and regulatory variables. Another major finding is that child/staff ratio at the group level is lower when there is an interaction between geographic location and nature of center sponsorship.

The dissertation takes a multivariate approach to answer the question of how applicant age, after controlling for other variables, affects employment success in a public organization. In addition to applicant age, there are five other categories of variables examined: organization/applicant variables describing the relationship of the applicant to the organization; organization/position variables describing the target position as it relates to the organization; episodic variables such as applicant age relative to the ages of competing applicants; economic variables relating to the salary needs of older applicants; and cognitive variables that may affect the decision maker's evaluation of the applicant. An exploratory phase of research employs archival data from approximately 500 decisions made in the past three years to hire or promote applicants for positions in one public health administration organization. A logit regression model is employed to examine the probability that the variables modify the effect of applicant age on employment success. A confirmatory phase of the dissertation is a controlled experiment in which hiring decision makers from the same public organization perform a simulated hiring decision exercise to evaluate hypothetical applicants of similar qualifications but of different ages. The responses of the decision makers to a series of bipolar adjective scales add support to the cognitive component of the theoretical model of the hiring decision. A final section contains information gathered from interviews with key informants. Applicant age has tended to have a curvilinear relationship with employment success. For some positions, the mean age of the applicants most likely to succeed varies with the values of the five groups of moderating variables. The research contributes not only to the practice of public personnel administration, but is useful in examining larger public policy issues associated with an aging workforce.

The purpose of this study was to determine if the political culture of the Miami Cuban exile community was a significant factor in creating the environment that led to the 1996 fiscal crisis of the City of Miami. The study performed an ethnographic case study that utilized a triangulation strategy which included both qualitative and quantitative methods. Focus groups were conducted to ascertain qualitative and quantitative data as to differences among ethnic and generational groups regarding notions of governance, public administration practices, and overall political values and core beliefs. Quantitative data was obtained through a five year and seven month review of newspaper articles from two periodicals based in Miami-Dade County. A review was also conducted of secondary data in audit and management reports, blue ribbon commission studies, Certified Public Manager (CPM) enrollment, and legal case decisions to examine the administrative practices of the City of Miami leading up to and subsequent to its fiscal crisis. The study found that a political subculture of caudillismo was present in Cuban exile core areas of Miami that appears to have had an influence on the administrative practices and notions of governance that led to the fiscal crisis. The author concludes that an imported foreign political culture has imposed itself as a subculture in core areas of the exile community and that the operationalization of this subculture has manifested itself in non-mainstream notions of governance and public administration practices.

No description available.

No description available.

Kommunikationen har en central roll i samhällsplaneringen och används för att skapa visioner och mål, kommunicera till invånare och påverka beslut. I samband med Stockholmsförhandlingen hade kommunikationen stor betydelse för att lyckas förmedla behovet av tunnelbana. De konsulter som arbetar professionellt med kommunikation och anlitas för att formulera argumentationen förknippas ofta med lobbyism. När jag först började studera ämnet uppfattade jag att det finns olika definitioner av lobbyism och begreppet används slarvigt för att uttrycka aktioner som egentligen bör skiljas åt. Ett närbesläktat begrepp är public affairs, en tjänst som erbjuder kommunikativ rådgivning i påverkansarbete. Det här arbetet handlar om politisk konsultverksamhet och fokuserar på tjänsten public affairs, och kommunen som uppdragsgivare. Utgångspunkten är ett samarbete mellan en kommun och en konsultbyrå inom public affairs i Stockholmsförhandlingen. Syftet är att undersöka kommunikationskonsultens roll, vilka möjligheter och varför det finns ett behov i den kommunala planeringen. För att kunna besvara mina frågeställningar föregås arbetet av litteraturstudier om planeringen som politisk aktivitet, det demokratiska styrelseskicket, den kommunala planeringen, lobbying och public affairs samt politisk konsultverksamhet. Sedan följer min empiriska studie som är baserad på fem intervjuer med konsulter inom public affairs, och tjänstemän från kommun och Regeringskansliet. Teori och empiri sammanvävs i analysen för att försöka besvara arbetets syfte och frågeställningar. Arbetet avslutas med en diskussion om resultat och metodval samt en slutsats. Huvudresultatet som presenteras i slutsatsen blev att kommunikationskonsulter kan möjliggöra ett bättre samtal med medborgare, något som inte överensstämmer med den kritik som teoridelen lyfter fram.

This study addresses the determinants of women's economic activity in three low income communities in Amman, the capital of Jordan. These communities represent what is typically referred to as "pockets of urban poverty." Besides addressing the demographic and socio-economic variables, the study identifies and includes cultural variables in a model of female labor force participation. Modern economic systems developed definitions and measurements of productivity that render the majority of women's work as non-productive. Activities within the domestic sphere that do not earn monetary returns are not measured as productive economic activities, and hence are dropped from the calculations of gross national and domestic products of most if not all developing nations. In the Arab Middle East, where women's work outside the home is relatively a recent phenomenon, labor statistics are measuring only female labor force in the "formal sector" of the labor market. The scope and magnitude of women's economic activity within the domestic sphere, or in what is termed the informal sector, is neglected, or at best, underestimated, by labor force statistics. In such cultural contexts where women's economic activity outside the home is still considered secondary to the array of their reproductive and home-related activities, the underlying thesis is that cultural factors play an important role in shaping the outcomes of women's decisions regarding labor force participation. A field survey covered the sample of adult women, aged 15 years and over. To achieve a 95% level of significance, 435 women were interviewed. Three field surveyors were trained to thoroughly probe and depict all types of economic activity for the purpose of raising cash, be it in the formal or the informal sectors of the labor market. A nested logit model assesses the effects of demographic and socio-economic variables on women's employment status. Employment status is defined as a dichotomous dependent variable indicating whether a woman does or does not work. The second step of the logit model incorporates cultural variables in addition to the demographic and socio-economic variables. Each logit run segregates women by marital status, and one run addresses the pooled sample of women, with marital status included as a predictor variable. The results indicate that age and marital status (in the pooled sample) are important variables in determining the employment status of women. The presence of a resource person to help the ever-married woman in child-care also had a significant effect on women's employment decisions. Household income, which represents the need for the woman's income, is also a significant variable. In the second step of the nested logit model, education significantly influences women's work outside the home. Segregation (a cultural variable that represented a constraint to women's work in a mixed environment) is also a significant variable in influencing women's work inside the home. This study shows that when addressing the determinants of female labor force participation, it is important to include cultural variables and assess their effect on influencing the outcome of women's decisions to undertake economic activity. Policies that seek to increase female employment need to be aware of the cultural and demographic (fertility related) considerations. Consequently, employment creation and enhancement programs need to be formulated and designed with this consideration in focus. For example, child-care facilities could be established within communities. This will free sometime of mothers with children to work outside the home, and will create child-care jobs within the community. Realizing that, due to cultural barriers, some women will still desire to only work at home, agencies providing marketing channels for such activities need to be established.

Mental health outcomes, especially post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in police have become more of a concern for law enforcement administrators, peers, family and friends. Using culture as a theoretical framework, the current cross-sectional, convergent mixed methods study explored the relationship between personal cumulative exposure to different types of critical incidents and likelihood of reporting PTSD symptoms in a sample of officers (n=71) from one municipal police department. This study also examined how personal cumulative exposure to different types of critical incidents and likelihood of reporting symptoms of PTSD may be moderated by the degree of perception of social support from friends and family. Finally, the study included a qualitative analysis of how police culture influences barriers to officers receiving mental health services. Regression models supported a significant positive relationship between cumulative exposure to various types of critical incidents experienced personally by the officer and the likelihood of reporting symptoms of PTSD. Results also showed a direct significant inverse relationship between perception of social support from family and friends and self-reported symptoms of PTSD. Social support did not moderate the relationship between personal cumulative exposure to various types of critical incidents and the likelihood of reporting symptoms of PTSD. A separate thematic analysis of officers (n=54) revealed that the culture of machismo (occupational and self) influenced officers' perception of receiving mental health services. This study highlights the need for close attention to the effects of cumulative exposure to trauma in officers and the need to advocate for strong interpersonal relationships outside of policing. Other policy implications are discussed.