<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> The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of social dominance orientation (SDO) and right wing authoritarianism (RWA) on discrimination in the face of a threat to either resources or in-group identity. SDO can be viewed as the attitudinal manifestation of realistic conflict theory (RTC) while RWA can be viewed as that of social identity theory (SIT). An online survey was administered to 631 college students assessing prejudice, SDO, and RWA. Emails were sent from a fictitious campus organization to 503 participants who agreed to be contacted for a subsequent study. The emails manipulated either a threat to resources by offering a scholarship or a threat to in-group identity by offering an invitation to join a culturally based campus club and were incorrectly addressed to a male target with either a Muslim or European-American name. It was made clear that if the email had been sent in error, it was necessary to return it to the source or the recipient would lose his chance to receive these opportunities. Return rates were recorded as a behavioral measure of discrimination. Overall, it was expected that more emails addressed to the European American target would be returned than emails addressed to the Muslim target (H1). Based on RCT, it was also expected that in the face of a threat to resources (scholarship offer) participants high in SDO would be less likely to return emails addressed to the Muslim target than participants high in RWA (H2). Finally, based on SIT, it was expected that in the face of a threat to in-group identity (membership invitation), participants high in RWA would be less likely to return emails addressed to the Muslim target than participants high in SDO (H3). In both instances interactions were anticipated between the target and the attitudinal measure (SDO or RWA). Although the results were not statistically significant for the hypotheses, marginally significant results were observed and some interesting trends were noted. Additionally, prejudice against Muslims was found to have significant effects on email return rates.</p>

<p> Food security and food sovereignty are being integrated into policy frameworks around the world, predominantly in the countries of Latin America. In 2013, Peru was on the cusp of approving a national policy and national law relating to food security and food sovereignty. Engaging food regime analysis as introduced by Harriet Friedmann and Philip McMichael to historicize the political economy of the global food system, I document how food sovereignty challenges the neoliberal policy paradigm in Peru and simultaneously risks cooptation into the neoliberal food regime, arguing that the final result of food sovereignty being excluded from any officially approved law in Peru represents the preservation of food sovereignty's radical nature and resistance to cooptation. Using the theory of "neoliberal multiculturalism" by Charles Hale, I show that the strategies of participation and construction used in the Peruvian food policy-making process open new alternatives beyond the assumed binary of cooptation or resistance in the institutionalization of a social movement platform. This thesis, developed in the midst of the policy debate in Peru, is a timely and relevant study that has implications for food policy processes around the world. With the emergence of more initiatives in Latin America and beyond to institutionalize the food sovereignty framework into national policy, careful analysis of the risks, challenges, and opportunities of doing so will inform future efforts. </p>

<p> Current economic development policy is unevenly effective across Appalachia. At the root of this policy is the annual determination of County Economic Status, a metric intended to measure performance in relation to the rest of the nation. This designation, calculated from income, unemployment and poverty data, is deeply flawed. Understanding how public investment and economic accessibility interact can yield improved results when implementing development policies and funding initiatives aimed at the region. Failure to recognize the assets and challenges unique to the region, coupled with an imperfect understanding of the regional interactions between local economies, have led to mis-targeted programs and unsatisfactory results. </p><p> A comprehensive examination of how public and private facilities interact to improve the overall well-being of a region in terms of the spatial patterns of accessibility and investment can increase understanding of the role of public investment in Appalachia, and improve program targeting. An economic accessibility model is generated and evaluated at the community level, and evaluated in conjunction with public investment practices, to uncover important information about the effectiveness of development efforts and the evolution of economic regions.</p>

Thèse (M.Serv.Soc.)--Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), 2008. / Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 1 février 2007). In ProQuest dissertations and theses. Publié aussi en version papier.

<p> The Nigerian government has emplaced counterterrorism policy measures to combat Boko Haram terrorism since the group became violent in 2010. However, there is a gap in the understanding of how these policies were developed and implemented. Such knowledge may offer suggestions as to how these policies can be improved. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore and describe the development and implementation of counterterrorism policy towards Boko Haram in Nigeria during 2009&ndash;2015. Scott&rsquo;s institutional theory and Baumgartner&rsquo;s punctuated equilibrium theory constituted the study&rsquo;s theoretical foundation. Interview data were collected from individuals selected using a purposive and criterion sampling strategy who played prominent roles in the development and implementation of the policy as well as those who were its beneficiaries. Data were analyzed using content analysis and coding. Key findings from this study provide an understanding of how the policy was developed and how it is being implemented and might be improved. Recommendations include the development of a holistic strategy involving both soft and hard approaches. Collaboration between stakeholders in the security sector and key community leaders in northeast Nigeria is crucial to active counterterrorism effort. The insights from the study on Nigeria&rsquo;s past counterterrorism policy development and implementation may assist policy makers in making improvements in their mechanisms and strategies for actively fighting Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria. Policy makers in other African countries may also find the outcomes of this study useful as they provide a potential blueprint for counterterrorism policy development and implementation.</p><p>

<p> The Civil Rights Act was enacted more than 5 decades ago, and its provisions forbade discrimination on the basis of race in hiring, promoting, and firing. Yet some researchers argue that racial discrimination issues are still prevalent in the United States. They contend that modern racial discrimination is more covert and takes the form of racial microaggressions, which are subtle conscious or unconscious insults and derogatory attitudes directed towards minorities. Researchers have not fully addressed the prevalence of racial microaggressions in U.S. workplaces, however. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of naturalized African-Americans regarding racial microaggressions in U.S. federal agencies. The research problem was examined through the lens of critical race theory. Ten participants from the Social Security Administration were selected using snowball sampling. Data were collected through semi structured phone interviews and then examined using thematic content analysis to identity key concepts and develop a coding structure, from which 9 themes emerged. Findings revealed that participants experienced racial microaggressions in the form of bias, prejudice, false assumptions, nepotism, favoritism, and unfair denial of opportunities for promotion and professional development while at work, which affected their morale and productivity. This study may contribute to positive social change by helping leaders of U.S. federal agencies to understand their multicultural and diverse workforce and work environment. U.S. government officials could also use this study as a basis for policy decisions that may improve racial relations in U.S. federal agencies.</p><p>

<p> Intergenerational ethnic health disparities among Asian American young adults have been attributed to cultural, socio-environmental and dietary changes. The relationship between acculturation levels, social media use and dietary outcomes were analyzed using data collected from 137 Asian American young adults in California through an online survey distributed on social media and on-campus recruitment. Correlational analyses, <i>t</i>-tests and hierarchical linear regression were used to observe the predictability of (1) acculturation, (2) social media, and (3) both variables on Fruits and Vegetables (F&amp;V) outcomes. Most participants were bicultural, had daily social media use and 3.88 F&amp;V servings consumed. Acculturation levels significantly predicted F&amp;V servings, but not when adjusted for age and education level. No significant relationship was found between acculturation and social media use or social media use and F&amp;V outcomes. Food purchasing and health-information seeking behaviors were explored, reflecting possible implications involving online health literacy and multidimensional acculturation measures for future health and media studies.</p><p>

<p> With the goal of eliminating mother-to-child transmission by 2015, a wide range of governmental and other efforts within low- and middle-income countries have sought to provide services for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) to the estimated 1.2 million pregnant women in need. In support of this goal, the World Health Organization (WHO), as the leading normative international body in the area of evidence-based clinical guidelines, issued policy recommendations on the use of antiretroviral drugs for PMTCT. Through various mechanisms, including guidance notes and dissemination workshops, WHO supports countries to adopt and adapt the guidelines within their national policy frameworks. Through three analyses, this dissertation examines the diffusion of WHO PMTCT guidelines in five Eastern and Southern African countries over a 16-year period (1998-2013) and estimates the effect of PMTCT policy adoption on delivery of key services. </p><p> <b>The first analysis</b> of the adoption of specific PMTCT guideline updates between 1998 and 2013 seeks to ascertain which internal factors may explain why and when countries decided to adopt new technical guidance. The policy analysis shows that the five countries adopted a majority of the key international PMTCT technical guidance updates. It can be concluded that international to national policy diffusion was taking place and that national policies converged to be more similar and more in line with international guidelines over the time period studied. Variation in adoption and in the internal determinants at play in each country was minimal, making it difficult to assess the influence of determinants qualitatively. The three internal determinants that appeared to most influence adoption of key PMTCT updates were: 1) the severity of the MTCT problem 2) governance effectiveness, and 3) prior PMTCT policy adoption. The lag between adoption and implementation in these countries is discussed. The findings indicate that in the countries studied, policies promoted by WHO and other international bodies can play a critical role in supporting national policy adoption for program advancement in the area of PMTCT. </p><p> <b>The second and third analyses</b> investigate whether the completeness of a country&rsquo;s body of PMTCT-supporting policies was associated with the delivery of two key PMTCT services &ndash; the offer of an HIV test and the receipt of HIV counseling as a part of antenatal care (ANC) &ndash; in four of the five countries included in the first analysis. Two nationally representative surveys per country were used to conduct a quasi-experimental fixed-effects analysis of the role of policy in predicting a woman&rsquo;s probability of being offered an HIV test or receiving HIV counseling in ANC, controlling for other key individual- and country-level covariates. </p><p> According to the &lsquo;testing&rsquo; model, a one-unit increase in policy score was associated with a 0.042 (p&lt;0.000) increase in the probability that a woman was offered an HIV test as a part of antenatal care. According to the &lsquo;counseling&rsquo; model, a one-unit increase in policy score was associated with a 0.014 (p&lt;0.001) increase in the probability that a woman received HIV counseling as a part of antenatal care. In both the testing and counseling models, the policy/education interaction was statistically significant in the final model, with a greater policy effect estimated at among those with higher education levels. Time statistically significantly influenced the probability of the outcome, as did government health spending, governance effectiveness, and donor health spending. Further study is needed to identify the policy elements that have the most impact on improving service delivery. </p><p> <b>The three analyses</b> presented here support the premise that international health policies influence national-level policy adoption, and that national-level policy adoption in turn influences national service outputs. As countries and their development partners mobilize for the Sustainable Development Goal era, policy adoption at the international level will continue to be an important influence in national policy adoption in the area of PMTCT. This research has described a number of potential internal and external determinants that will influence national adoption in this next round of global health policy advocacy. Looking forward, this study shows that countries and their development partners should continue to invest in the work of policy adoption to complement other efforts to reach health goals, including increased government health spending.</p>

Esta pesquisa pretende analisar, a partir de um estudo de público com alunos de séries iniciais, a relação dos sujeitos com a Arqueologia e com o passado arqueológico, aquele que se refere à ocupação indígena (pré-colonial e histórica) na cidade de Londrina-Paraná estritamente. A formação deste município deu-se por meio de um projeto de colonização estrangeira, articulado pela Companhia de Terras Norte do Paraná, o que gerou exclusão e/ou negação da presença indígena. Ainda, pretende-se refletir sobre os alcances e os limites das propostas educativas de Arqueologia desenvolvidas no ambiente formal de ensino. Para alcançar estes objetivos, a metodologia utilizada está relacionada à \"ação arqueológica educativa\" constituída pelo estudo das ideias prévias do público, intervenção pedagógica e estudo das ideias pós-intervenção. Somada à investigação desenvolvida com os alunos, o trabalho tem como objetivo discutir as relações entre a Arqueologia Pública e a Educação Patrimonial e o papel da escola no que se refere à comunicação do conhecimento arqueológico. / This research aims to analyze, from a study of public with primary students, the relationship of people with the archeology and the archaeological past, to that refers to the (pre-colonial and historical) indigenous occupation in Londrina-Parana strictly. The birth of this city was given by a foreign colonization project, articulated by Companhia de Terras Norte do Paraná, which resulted in the exclusion and/or denial of indigenous presence. Also, it is intended to reflect on the reaches and limitations of the educational proposals of Archaeology developed in the formal learning environment. To achieve these objectives, the methodology used is related to \"educational archaeological action\" constituted by the study of previous ideas of the public, pedagogical intervention and post-intervention study of ideas. Added to the research undertaken with students, the study aims to discuss the relationship between the Public Archaeology and Heritage Education and the role of the school in respect to the communication of archaeological knowledge.