Canadian health professionals are involved in humanitarian assistance and development work in many regions of the world. They participate in primary health care, immunization campaigns, feeding programs, rehabilitation and hospital-based care. In the course of their work clinicians are frequently exposed to complex ethical issues. This thesis examines how health workers experience ethics in the course of humanitarian assistance and development work. A qualitative study was conducted to consider this question. Five core themes emerged from the data including experiencing a tension between respecting local customs and imposing values, knowing how to respond when basic care is impossible, addressing differing understandings of health and illness, questions of identity for health workers, and issues of trust and distrust. Recommendations are made for standards and organizational strategies that could help aid agencies better support and equip their staff as they respond to ethical issues.

<p> The purpose of this study was to understand earned income tax credit (EITC) policy influences on the development of economic mobility for individuals receiving EITC. Policymakers have declared that improving the economic mobility of low-wage workers a major objective of the EITC. This study addressed identifying factors that contribute to economic mobility, and testing the punctuated equilibrium theory to determine whether exogenous forces influence EITC policymakers' decisions. </p><p> Utilizing the survey data of 2,252 EITC respondents from the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, California, the study found that saving, education, race, and being banked were factors contributing to economic mobility. Age was not a factor contributing to economic mobility. Results from testing the punctuated equilibrium theory indicated that at the .05 level there was not a significant association between exogenous forces and EITC policymaking decisions. </p>

<p> This dissertation assesses the impact of structural constraints to participation on residents of a rural non-core county and members of a local grassroots organization in conjunction with the measurement of grassroots members for the presence of transformative leaning. This study is motivated by three research questions: (1) To what extent may the presence of structural constraints to participation in community action activities be found in adult residents of a rural non-core county? (2) To ;what extent may the presence of structural constraints to participation in community action activities be found in members of a local grassroots organization? (3) How many members of a local grassroots show evidence of the 10 phases found in transformative learning? Theoretical foundations for this work are based upon the following research; Theodori's (2008) analysis of structural constraints to participation in community action activities , Mezirow's (2009) development of transformative learning theory in adult populations, and King's (2009) Learning Activities Survey as a measurement of transformative learning. Purposefully obtained data were collected from the general population to establish a measurement of structural constraints to participation. </p><p> Within the grassroots organization survey data were used to determine the presence of structural constraints to participation and transformative learning. The findings utilizing regression analysis suggest significance for structural constraints to participation in the general population is minimal, and not significant at all in member of the grassroots organization. Transformative learning in members of the grassroots organization was confirmed by significance for 5 of the 15 variables analyzed. The results were contrary to expectation; yet, these conclusions do contain important implications for those involved in community development.</p>

<p> There is substantial cost in the hiring and training of a correctional officer, with a high rate of turnover compounding these costs. While pre-employment psychological screening is suggested as one method to prevent these losses, mandates to screen are not as common in corrections as they are in law enforcement. Further, minimal research has examined the validity of psychological testing in correctional officers. This dissertation examined pre-employment psychological screening for 421 correctional officers hired by one of three upstate New York sheriff's departments. Assessments were conducted by Public Safety Psychology, PLLC from March, 1997 to June, 2012. T scores and risk estimates from the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) and Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), DQ admission and problem points from the Personal History Questionnaire (PHQ) and Psychological History Questionnaire (PsyQ) and the psychologist's recommendation were used as predictors of supervisor rating and job status. Utilizing logistic regression and controlling for agency of hire, high ratings by the psychologist, high scores on PAR-H and low scores on BOR-S from the PAI were associated with satisfactory supervisor ratings. Multinomial logistic regression revealed that being non-White, having a lower rating by the psychologist, higher To and Ai scores and lower So scores from the CPI, and more General problem points on the PsyQ were predictive of officers who were fired compared to being currently employed. Furthermore, previous law enforcement experience, being younger, lower Gi, So and Wo scores on the CPI, higher To and Sc scores on the CPI, and lower probability of substance abuse issues as based on the PAI and PHQ were predictive of officers quitting rather than staying on the job. Limitations and future directions are discussed.</p>

<p> This research tests and answers the main question: Should the Environmental Protection Agency&rsquo;s Policy on the Technical Impracticability Waivers be changed? This research uses public and private databases for collecting information on the Comprehensive Environmental Recovery and Liability Act sites with Technical Impracticability Waivers and examines the process the Environmental Protection Agency uses to make Technical Impracticability Waivers evaluations. Existing data demonstrates the Environmental Protection Agency has been very conservative and has granted few Technical Impracticability Waivers over the last 30 years. Several arguments for changing Environmental Protection Agency&rsquo;s policy are made. A comparison of approved Technical Impracticability Waivers sites and sites that meet the criteria for approval but have not been submitted for the waiver are used in this research. The results indicate that the policy should be changed. A policy change would be beneficial to appropriate funds to the more complex and critical sites. A change in policy would also save taxpayers funds instead of being spent on experimentation on sites that are impracticable to clean up, these funds would go to more critical sites. The research also shows a need for collecting a database of sites that Environmental Protection Agency has rejected for a Technical Impracticability Waiver.</p>

<p> This dissertation examines how state policymakers develop, evaluate, and select tax policy options, based on case studies of tax policy decisions in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia from 2007 to 2010.</p><p> States have been the main locus of tax policy change in the U.S. in recent years, varying widely in their choices of which taxes to raise or cut, and whether to adjust tax rates or the tax base. Because public finance and budgeting research has focused largely on appropriations, as well as tax decisions at the federal level, the dissertation seeks to expand the knowledge base about state tax policy formulation. This is a critically important policy area because state tax systems are threatened by the growth of services, the advent of electronic commerce, capital flows that cross state and national borders, and the aging of the population.</p><p> Based on a mixed-methods research strategy involving documentary evidence as well as interviews with 10 to 15 key policy participants in each state, the dissertation found that the three states vary widely in their capacity to generate and refine tax policy options, reflecting ideological and institutional differences. Nevertheless, the states were very similar in one respect: each state made only tangential efforts to expand its tax base and curtail tax expenditures during the worst fiscal crisis in decades. This pattern suggests that it will be difficult for states to carry out the reformers' mantra to broaden tax bases and lower tax rates, a conclusion that is supported by national data.</p><p> The case study states also relied heavily on "selective parity" &ndash; aligning their tax rates and tax bases with at least some neighboring jurisdictions or comparable states &ndash; in making tax policy choices. This practice suggests that states will avoid the gridlock that has marked federal tax policy, because the widespread use of benchmarking provides a rationale for tax increases as well as cuts, while still serving as a moderating factor that pulls states toward regional or national means. States are picking spots on a spectrum of service levels and tax burdens that reflect voter preferences but are also constrained by national and regional norms.</p><p> A general hierarchy of taxes constructed from the case studies and also reflected in national data shows that narrowly-targeted levies (such as health facility taxes) and "sin" taxes (such as cigarette taxes) were the most likely to be increased, while broad-based taxes with the strongest revenue performance (such as the personal income tax) were the least likely to be increased. This pattern reinforces the conclusion that states are neglecting the long-term revenue capacity of their tax systems, a finding that is reinforced by a continuous stream of small tax cuts granted in each state, interrupted periodically by larger tax increases &ndash; a pattern of "punctuated incrementalism". </p>

<p> Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play a major role in disasters around the world. As they carry out disaster work NGOs are often grouped together as the "NGO sector," although their varied size, scope, focus and country of origin make generalizations difficult. Coordinating NGO disaster work has been an ongoing challenge for governments and for NGOs themselves for reasons ranging from the wishes of NGO funders to uncertainty about what coordination means to competition for funds. </p><p> This thesis uses a complex adaptive system (CAS) framework to understand how NGOs may coordinate their own work. A complex adaptive system is made up of a set of independent agents that interact with each other to form a whole entity without the benefit of an explicit central control mechanism. </p><p> The qualitative study carried out semi-structured interviews with 16 NGOs active in disaster in Honduras to explore to what extent their interactions conformed to six characteristics of complex adaptive systems - 1) schemata; 2) self-organization; 3) communication and information; 4) rules; 5) learning and adaptation; and 6) aggregate outcomes, and relations with government. </p><p> Results of the interviews showed that many NGOs have multiple links among themselves with active communication channels that depend heavily on personal relationships. Interviews showed that collaboration among NGOs has increased over the past decade, although the degree of cooperation among them was inconsistent. Interviewees found it difficult to name an aggregate system-wide outcome. Government relations were found to be mixed - many NGOs had both positive and negative things to say about their relationships with government. </p><p> The NGOs were found to have both characteristics of a CAS and factors that did not fit a CAS description. NGOs must continually invest energy to maintain a system because entropic forces away from increased organization remain strong.</p>

<p> A state and year fixed effects model is developed to analyze the influence of state unemployment insurance taxes and state workers' compensation costs on temporary help services employment concentration. Using state level panel data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, state unemployment insurance tax factors are found to have significant effects on temporary help services employment concentration. Workers' compensation costs had a significant effect on temporary help services employment concentration during the Great Recession, but not before. Because temporary help services jobs represent low quality jobs relative to traditional direct-hire jobs, state unemployment insurance taxes, through their impact on temporary help services employment concentration, contribute to a decrease in job quality. The results of the analysis suggest that the effects of policy factors on job quality merit further analysis.</p>

<p> While South Korea is ranked high in education, economies and technological development, the level of South Koreans' happiness has not grown simultaneously. This fact contradicts the common sense that improvements in living standards, such as income or education, lead to gains in happiness or individual wellbeing. In order to examine the phenomenon of decreasing perceived individual wellbeing in light of increasing income levels, I analyze the relationship between societal expectations/pressure and happiness in South Korea, using data from the World Value survey conducted in 2010. The uniquely high concentration on human capital in South Korea has played a major factor for extreme competitiveness. Since the financial crisis in 1997, the competitive job market has produced few job opportunities, which has caused a high level of social pressure. The major finding of this study is that the impact of societal expectations on unhappiness increases as people get older and it is more powerful among people of lower income. Also, social pressure has a greater negative effect on happiness for females than males in South Korea. Even when controlling for independent variables, including job security, wages, and high living costs, I show social pressure to have a first order impact on perceived well-being among Korean citizens. From a policy perspective, low levels of happiness can ultimately cause social instability and loss of human capital. Expected policy implications are increasing the number of college entrance exams and fostering work life balance initiatives. In this sense, the findings of this paper can serve as a guideline for the South Korean government not only to improve the overall economic productivity of South Korean society, but also enhance the quality of life along important societal dimensions.</p>

<p> Prior research has identified a variety of common correlates between food security and depression but oftentimes the data used in these analyses are not representative of the US or do not consider multiple categorical levels of the focal variables. Using data from the 2009-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination (NHANES), this study sought to examine the relationship between four levels of food security - full, marginal, low and very low - and depression. The findings indicate low and very low food security are significantly related to an increased risk of depression, while marginal food security is not significantly different from full food security. Inclusion of interaction effects between food security and gender as well as food security and having a child/children were not found to be a significant improvement to the model.</p>