The lack of preparedness by local communities in the event of a biological attack is a predicament that will result in chaos and an increase in casualties. Assessing city preparedness is essential in the event of a biological attack. The potential for an enormous number of casualties is real; it is imperative, therefore, for local communities to be prepared in the event of a biological attack. This descriptive single case study investigated whether one city in the southeastern United States is prepared for a biological attack. System theory provided the theoretical framework for this research, with the unit of analysis being the local Emergency Operations Center, which is responsible for coordination, preparation, and oversight in the event of such a disaster. Data were collected from interviews, documents, public records, and participant observation. Pattern matching and comparative analysis were utilized to analyze data that was collected in this research. This examination of the preparedness of the city for a biological attack is critical because any lack of preparedness would be devastating to the community. The findings of this study revealed that the city is prepared for a biological attack and that the recommendations and best practices identified in this study such as the utilization of virtual technology during a biological attack, the ability to perform random biological exercises, investments in laboratories, bioterrorism training for citizens, and establishing global partnerships in combating bioterrorism, promote social change, and will result in saving lives in the event of a biological attack. This research contributes to social change by promoting security improvements and identifying a model of preparedness for other cities in their own preparation for a biological attack.

Effect of Military Law Enforcement Interviews on Victims of Military Sexual Trauma by Paul Brian Broner MS, Chaminade University, 2011 BA, Chaminade University, 2004 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Criminal Justice Administration Walden University May 2018

Foodborne illness is a persistent problem in the food service industry. Restaurant inspections reveal that only 60-70% of restaurants are in compliance with health code requirements, which vary from state to state and county to county. In Maryland, 5 of the state's 24 counties have a requirement that restaurants classified as medium- or high-priority food establishments must employ certified food managers (CFMs). It is unknown how this requirement has influenced the operation of the affected restaurants and the extent to which the requirement has resulted in improved food handling safety. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the effectiveness of CFMs in reducing the incidence of foodborne illness in Maryland counties. The study was based on the theory of planned behavior. The study was also based on the relationship between foodborne illness outbreaks and the presence of CFMs and the role such managers can play in reducing those outbreaks. Data were collected from the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reports regarding foodborne illness outbreaks from 2004 to 2013. A total of 288 establishments were selected for analysis. Data analysis involved comparing results for the 5 counties that require CFMs with the 19 counties that lack this requirement. Results showed a significance difference of 0.008 (95% CI, 0.005), z = 4.71, p = 0.000 in the proportion of foodborne illness outbreaks between county restaurants that require CFMs and those without such a requirement. Social change implications include the potential to reduce the incidence of foodborne illness, thereby contributing to improved public health. The patrons who live in Maryland counties without onsite CFMs risk exposure to foodborne illness more than those living in counties with CFMs.

Since the implementation of the USA Patriot Act in October 2001, public trust in the U.S. federal government to protect individuals' right to privacy has been affected negatively. Many studies have addressed this topic, but few have delved deeply into the reasons behind the distrust. The purposes of this qualitative study were, to explore the perceptions and attitudes of U.S. citizens regarding the effect of the USA Patriot Act on their right to privacy, to determine whether a loss of trust in the government occurred, and to identify the factors contributing to the lack of trust. The theoretical foundation for this study was Rawl's Social Perspective of Public Trust, Sax's Augmentation of Social Contract Theory, and Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior. The central research question pertained to the views of U.S. citizens about the federal government's use of electronic surveillance to monitor their communication without their knowledge. A generic qualitative study design was employed using purposeful, semi-structured interviews of 20 purposely sampled adult male and female U.S. citizens. Data from the interviews were coded and categorized for thematic analysis. When confronted with the lesser known specifics of the electronic surveillance provision of the USA Patriot Act, participants were more likely to reject the government interference as an invasion of privacy. This study can provide guidance for the democratic basis of policymaking designed to protect U.S. citizens. The implication for social change includes providing information to policymakers of both the US and organizations of various sizes regarding the polarized views and lack of trust pertaining to electronic surveillance among U.S. public. This information can be used to implement program or campaign to foster trust.

The diversity visa (DV) lottery was created as part of a larger immigration bill in 1990 in order to diversify an immigrant pool that has favored Asian and Hispanic immigrants since the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Traditional research on the national security ramifications of immigration policy has focused on highly publicized issues, such as illegal immigration and asylum and amnesty programs, to the exclusion of the risks of fraud and terrorism inherent in the DV lottery. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the national security vulnerabilities of the DV lottery. Open-ended interviews were conducted with a snowball sample of 10 foreign service officers who adjudicate lottery visas for U.S. immigration from nations designated as state sponsors of terror. Guided by the framework of systems theory and the theory of constraints, content analysis was employed to reveal patterns and themes in the data. The findings were consonant with the framework, revealing the barriers and vulnerabilities of the DV lottery. Other findings showed both that the DV lottery has a negative impact on U.S. national security and fraud remains a serious concern, and yet there was no consensus on the scope and origin of potential terrorist threats. Recommendations include increasing collaboration and integration among agencies implementing the DV lottery, developing information-sharing agreements with other countries, and taking measures to eliminate fraud. The implications for social change include informing the public, immigration agencies, academics, and policy makers about the vulnerability of the DV lottery to fraud and misrepresentation; enhancing the debate about balancing immigration policies and national security; and possibly ending the DV lottery.

Microplastics have increased water pollution, particularly in urban areas like Chicago. The purpose of this study was to explore how conflicts of interests and belief systems among different stakeholders can impede efforts for developing or revising plastic pollution mitigating laws. The theoretical foundation was Sabatier's advocacy coalition framework, which addresses public policies from the perspective of individual or organizational convictions. The research question addressed how policy makers can build coalitions among diverse stakeholders to formulate policies aimed at reducing microplastic pollution. A qualitative case study design included a document review and 12 semistructured interviews of participants drawn from 3 major different stakeholder groups. The interview data were transcribed, inductively coded and subjected to thematic analysis. The study showed universal stakeholder interest for the need for increased research on how microplastic pollution affects aquatic and human life. The results pointed to a moderate intensity of conflict among different stakeholders which enhances the likelihood for formulating microplastic pollution control policy. The study findings also show that policy-oriented learning can enhance increased stakeholder cooperation and lead to policy change on efforts to control microplastic pollution in waterways. Implications of the study for positive social change include increasing awareness of the sources and effects of plastic pollution, which may facilitate stakeholder cooperation and engineer the societal pressure required for formulating environmental and ecosystem protection policies. The result may be an improved environment and a reduction on the dangers of the plastic pollutants to aquatic and human lives.

This dissertation examines the dynamic of metropolitan governance in terms of interlocal contractual arrangements that govern the delivery of collective goods by local government. It views a metropolitan area as buzzing with contractual activities and observes that these activities are nested at different levels in a web of interlocal relations in an action arena. That is, local governments involved in contractual activities are connected through their contractual arrangements--forming what we refer to as institutional ties. An interconnected network of institutional ties represents a pattern of relations between local governments. Such a network structure is not static but evolves over time. These changes can be purely structural--explained by an endogenous mechanism such as a transitivity form of network structure, or exogenous, explained by such factors as a local government's political institutions (form of government or levels of government), geographical proximity, and demographic characteristics. In order to understand the different forms of formal and informal institutional arrangements that directly influence the formation of institutional ties, and indirectly, the formation of metropolitan governance, this dissertation is guided by four research questions: (1) what are the many forms of institutional arrangements used by local governments to govern their transactions? (2) through what process do institutional arrangements become acceptable by involved parties? (3) how and why could the stability of institutional arrangements in governing interlocal relations be undermined? and (4) how would a new form of institutional arrangement be established? While the first two sets of questions attempt to identify and examine the many types of interlocal contractual arrangements, the last two sets explain how the established institutional arrangements might be changed. The substantive focus of this dissertation is in the realm of public safety which, once produced, will be consumed by others at no additional marginal cost. There are a range of interlocal contractual arrangements found in the area of public safety, and Florida provides a research opportunity to examine the extent by which these arrangements have been used by local governments. To capture the multiple types of interlocal contractual arrangements used by local governments to govern their transactions, we classify them into two general forms: restrictive and adaptive contractual arrangements. The first analysis of this dissertation explores factors that explain local governments' institutional choice. The empirical results show that vertical intergovernmental relations involving municipal and county governments generally employed a restrictive rather than adaptive form of interlocal contracting. The analysis also shows that the characteristics of goods and services as the product of transaction costs influenced the forms of interlocal contractual arrangements in the provision of public safety. Functional service area and the number of collaborators involved also play an important role in explaining a local government's decisions to enter into particular forms of interlocal contractual arrangements. We then focused on the adaptive and restrictive forms of contractual arrangements as distinctive action arenas in the provision of public safety. Each form of contractual arrangement is treated as a distinctive form of metropolitan governance; and we seek to analyze their formation over a period of time using the network software for longtidudinal data sets called SIENA. For this particular analysis, four major metropolitan areas in Florida were selected: Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach MSA, Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater MSA, Orlando-Kissimmee MSA, and Duval-Jacksonville MSA. The analysis is designed to test two general propositions: the credibility-clustering and the information bridging hypotheses. The empirical results suggest that localities generally prefer to form a set of densely-connected institutional ties in the provision of public safety presumably for their ability to enforce credible commitment in the implementation of contractual activities. When outcomes of goods and services are difficult to measure requiring local governments to establish institutional ties based on the adaptive form of contractual arrangements, the empirical evidence supports the prediction of the credibility-clustering hypothesis that such metropolitan governance structures would be influenced by a dense network structure. On the other hand, the evidence seems to refute the information-bridging hypothesis that a sparse network structure exists in metropolitan governance that is based on a restrictive form of contractual arrangements. A set of institutional ties that consists of a restrictive form of contractual arrangements generally would display a densely-connected network structure rather than a sparse network structure. Other findings include the importance of multilateral agreements in influencing the dynamic process of institutional ties. That is, the transaction costs of multilateral agreement can lead to a crowding-out of bilateral agreements. The political institutions and local community characteristics also have an impact on the dynamic development of metropolitan governance. / A Dissertation submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2006. / Date of Defense: August 1, 2006. / Regional Governance, Interlocal Agreement, Network Analysis, Institutional Collective Action / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard C. Feiock, Professor Directing Dissertation; John T. Scholz, Outside Committee Member; Frances S. Berry, Committee Member; Ralph S. Brower, Committee Member.

No description available.

No description available.

In this study, I employed a mixed-method design to understand how nonprofit resource centers originate, operate, and evolve using a transaction cost framework to evaluate both sides of the supply vs. demand equation. The quantitative study of 125 nonprofits identified and assessed demand side factors of need, benefits and barriers. This study found that nonprofit resource centers can structure their agency design to enhance likelihood of survival. The national qualitative study of 25 nonprofit resource centers found that supply side factors of leadership, funding, and stakeholder engagement were more significant to organizational development and progression through the life cycle model. This study initially undertook an inductive approach to assess these organizations’ dynamically evolving identities as they transitioned through the nonprofit life cycle stages. A relationship between life cycle stage and organizational identity was established based on common drivers. A theoretical typology of power, autonomy and organizational development was postulated. / A Dissertation submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / July 21, 2017. / Network Management, Nonprofit, Nonprofit Management, Nonprofit Resource Center, Organizational Development, Organizational Identity / Includes bibliographical references. / Ralph Brower, Professor Directing Dissertation; Irene Padavic, University Representative; David Berlan, Committee Member; Francis S. Berry, Committee Member.