US Case Study Research Articles

National Public Health Dashboards: Protocol for a Scoping Review.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of robust public health data systems and the potential utility of data dashboards for ensuring access to critical public health data for diverse groups of stakeholders and decision makers. As dashboards are becoming ubiquitous, it is imperative to consider how they may be best integrated with public health data systems and the decision-making routines of diverse audiences. However, additional progress on the continued development, improvement, and sustainability of these tools requires the integration and synthesis of a largely fragmented scholarship regarding the purpose, design principles and features, successful implementation, and decision-making supports provided by effective public health data dashboards across diverse users and applications. This scoping review aims to provide a descriptive and thematic overview of national public health data dashboards including their purpose, intended audiences, health topics, design elements, impact, and underlying mechanisms of use and usefulness of these tools in decision-making processes. It seeks to identify gaps in the current literature on the topic and provide the first-of-its-kind systematic treatment of actionability as a critical design element of public health data dashboards. The scoping review follows the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines. The review considers English-language, peer-reviewed journal papers, conference proceedings, book chapters, and reports that describe the design, implementation, and evaluation of a public health dashboard published between 2000 and 2023. The search strategy covers scholarly databases (CINAHL, PubMed, Medline, and Web of Science) and gray literature sources and uses snowballing techniques. An iterative process of testing for and improving intercoder reliability was implemented to ensure that coders are properly trained to screen documents according to the inclusion criteria prior to beginning the full review of relevant papers. The search process initially identified 2544 documents, including papers located via databases, gray literature searching, and snowballing. Following the removal of duplicate documents (n=1416), nonrelevant items (n=839), and items classified as literature reviews and background information (n=73), 216 documents met the inclusion criteria: US case studies (n=90) and non-US case studies (n=126). Data extraction will focus on key variables, including public health data characteristics; dashboard design elements and functionalities; intended users, usability, logistics, and operation; and indicators of usefulness and impact reported. The scoping review will analyze the goals, design, use, usefulness, and impact of public health data dashboards. The review will also inform the continued development and improvement of these tools by analyzing and synthesizing current practices and lessons emerging from the literature on the topic and proposing a theory-grounded and evidence-informed framework for designing, implementing, and evaluating public health data dashboards. DERR1-10.2196/52843.

Reconceptualizing educational interpreting: A case study in US K–12 classrooms

Reconceptualizing educational interpreting: A case study in US K–12 classrooms

A tool for assessing the sensitivity of soil-based approaches for quantifying enhanced weathering: a US case study

Enhanced weathering (EW) of silicate rocks spread onto managed lands as agricultural amendments is a promising carbon dioxide removal (CDR) approach. However, there is an obvious need for the development of tools for Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) before EW can be brought to scale. Shifts in the concentration of mobile elements measured in the solid phase of soils after application of EW feedstocks can potentially be used to track weathering and provide an estimate of the initial carbon dioxide removal of the system. To measure feedstock dissolution accurately it is necessary to control for the amount of feedstock originally present in the sample being analyzed. This can be achieved by measuring the concentration of immobile detrital elements in soil samples after feedstock addition. However, the resolvability of a signal using a soil mass balance approach depends on analytical uncertainty, the ability to accurately sample soils, the amount of feedstock relative to the amount of initial soil in a sample, and on the fraction of feedstock that has dissolved. Here, we assess the viability of soil-based mass-balance approaches across different settings. Specifically, we define a metric for tracer-specific resolvability of feedstock mass addition (φ) and calculate the feedstock application rates (a) and dissolution fractions (b) required to resolve EW. Applying calculations of a, b, and φ to a gridded soil database from the contiguous USA in combination with known compositions of basalt and peridotite feedstocks demonstrates the importance of adequately capturing field heterogeneity in soil elemental concentrations. While EW signals should be resolvable after ~1–3 years of basalt feedstock addition at common application rates for most agricultural settings with adequate sampling protocols, resolving EW in the field is likely to be challenging if uncertainties in tracer concentrations derived from field-scale heterogeneity and analytical error exceed 10%. Building from this framework, we also present a simple tool for practitioners to use to assess the viability of carrying out soil-based EW MRV in a deployment-specific context.

Domestic macroeconomic sources of the USA–China trade conflict

PurposeTrade relations between China and the USA have been marked by conflict, especially since China’s membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO). These conflicts have been analyzed from a variety of perspectives, including the loss of jobs in the USA due to Chinese imports, competition in high technology sectors and the balance of trade. Conceptual frameworks have employed models of domestic differences as well as models of international power distribution. Among domestic differences examined are the existence of state-owned enterprises in China compared to the domination of the USA economy by private firms, the large role of the Communist Party in China and the influence of labor and environmental and labor groups in the USA. Power distribution theories focus on the systemic effects of the distribution of power on trade openness and on the pattern of intra-bloc versus between-bloc trade. This paper aims to examine the role of macroeconomic policy factors in China and the USA, in particular, the role of national patterns of savings, investment and consumption (both private and government). The paper concludes that insofar as the balance of trade is an important component of the trade conflict, domestic macroeconomic factors continue to be important. The resolution of the conflict will have to take into account the respective macroeconomic policies of China and the USA.Design/methodology/approachThe design is an analytic case study of US–China trade relations with a particular focus on the balance of trade. The conceptual framework employed involves an analysis of macroeconomic policy categories, especially the overall pattern of savings (household, firm and government), investment and consumption. Process tracing over time since China's membership in the WTO is carried out with an eye toward the relationship between the balance of trade and macroeconomic policy.FindingsThe main findings are that there is a strong relation between the respective macroeconomic policies of the USA and China and their trade relations. The domestic political economy of the USA encourages consumption and a low rate of savings. The opposite is true of China where household income is low by design and national savings are high. China depends on the USA to consume what is not consumed domestically. The USA depends on Chinese imports for additional consumption encouraged by its low rate of savings. The two economies are locked in a mutual dependence.Research limitations/implicationsKey research implications are that there should be more focus on domestic macroeconomic policies since these are the root causes of the trade imbalance. This is not to say that trade frictions centering on jobs, subsidies and competition in high technology are unimportant. However, without the resolution of differences in the management of macroeconomic policies, trade conflicts between the USA and China will continue.Practical implicationsPractical implications are huge, in some ways much more important than the academic implications. Macroeconomic policy differences in savings, investment, government spending, taxation and infrastructure are important. Furthermore, there are available tools in both China and the USA to manage the macroeconomy, particularly, monetary and fiscal policy.Social implicationsOne implication of this paper is that satisfaction or dissatisfaction of workers is dependent on income distribution which in turn affects trade. Treatment of people in different socioeconomic categories, such as the elderly, the young, and those at working age are a function of macroeconomic policies.Originality/valueMany people have written about macroeconomics. It is a conventional subfield of economics. The originality of this paper lies in its advocacy of a shift of focus and attention and in the argument that traditional macroeconomics is related to trade. Despite its importance, macroeconomics has not been the center of attention for most political scientists, though economists have made it more central.

Slow violence to disasters: Exploring racialized topographies and contextualizing social vulnerability to flood and other environmental risks

In traditional disaster scholarship, social vulnerability is a framework that leverages individual variables to explore stratification in the instance of disaster. As this body of literature has grown, we have lost more context as to why these variables are used within various applications. However, slow violence is another framework that does not necessarily focus on disasters traditionally but provides the social and political context to understand why certain individuals may be of greater risk. In this article, we combine social vulnerability and slow violence in a framework to demonstrate how individuals and groups are not inherently vulnerable to hazards. We leverage documentation from public media and related literature to contextualize the history of slow violence in two US case studies, Bonton - Texas and North Brentwood - Maryland. Despite the spatial differences between the two African-American communities, they share many similarities in how planning policy, practice, and implementation, over time, perpetrate slow violence through urban form and create social vulnerabilities and ultimately, disasters. We hope future literature can utilize the combined framework included in this manuscript to investigate and explain how a community's vulnerable predisposition to disaster is created by social and political forces at the community-level.

Identifying standard and simple designs of Power-to-Methanol processes: The costs of complexity reduction

First industrial-scale Power-to-Methanol plants are starting to be deployed in various geographic locations to tackle the problem of high greenhouse gas emissions of the predominantly fossil-based production of methanol. With the aim to speed up the deployment by streamlining their engineering and construction, we explore the potential of reducing the complexity of designs to be distributed across locations with different renewable energy conditions. A multi-objective optimization-based method incorporating a broad process network for early-stage process synthesis is proposed, which by determining the installed capacities of technologies from the chemical production, utility and storage subsystems, identifies alternative designs with different levels of complexity along two dimensions: 1) the number of different technologies used, 2) standardization of designs across different locations. The method was applied to case studies, which paired together design locations with either wind- or solar-dominant renewable resource conditions in the US and Chile for standardization. As per the method, the increases of methanol production costs due to reduced design flexibility, inherently bound to complexity reduction, were quantified and Pareto fronts were constructed. These uncovered the possibility to significantly reduce the complexity of the designs with only small increases of the production costs. By comparing the results of the case studies under different cost and operation scenarios, we characterized general aspects, which need to be considered for such design simplification. One of the main outcomes were the quantified cost-increases due to standardization, which were around 7 and 15 % relative to the specifically designed plants for each location in the US and Chile case studies respectively. A subsequent analysis of the economies of numbers through learning rates reported in academic literature suggested that the proposed standardization, even across extremely different locations, could compensate these cost-increases and be economically beneficial. Yet, more specific data on achievable cost-reductions are needed, requiring more interaction with the industry and further research, for which we highlighted promising directions.

Design of a supply chain network for chemicals from biomass using green electrochemistry

Increasing concern about the environmental impact of industrial activities has prompted a shift to renewable energy sources and the development of environmentally conscious supply chains. In this regard, electrochemistry has shown promise for converting biomass into specialty chemicals in distributed facilities that exploit renewable energy resources. To examine the impact of electrochemistry technology on optimal supply chain configuration, we formulate a mixed-integer linear programming model to optimize the locations and capacities of distributed facilities for converting biomass to chemicals. The economic objective of the supply chain design model is to minimize the totalannualcost of producing chemicals from biomass-derived glucose and delivering them to market. To analyze the trade-off between environmental andeconomicconsiderations, we also consider an environmental objective of minimizing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The results of a US case study indicate that, while cost is minimized by constructing one large facility, GHG emissions are lowered by a distributed configuration. Varying the setting of a process design parameter expands the Pareto frontier along which decision-makers can choose a configuration according to their preferences between economic and environmental criteria.

Novel semi-quantitative risk model based on AHP: A case study of US driving risks

Road safety is a priority, worldwide. The European Commission aims to reduce fatalities by 2030. The same goal was set for the US. These goals stem from the World Health Organization's (WHO's) broader global context, which has distinctly emphasized a substantial reduction in road traffic injuries. Although different risk factors were observed in different geographical locations, the major risk factors for all locations were similar. They involve influencing human behavior, such as speeding or driving. Several methods have been used to better understand and extract risk factors. However, the complexity of road traffic implies the need for a multi-criteria method. As a result, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) has emerged as a potential method for this type of risk. The AHP is commonly associated with the use of qualitative methods such as surveys. We propose a novel semi-quantitative multi-criteria risk model (SMCRisk) based on the AHP, deployed in a quantitative and partially qualitative manner by adding a severity factor. The multi-level framework differentiates between the driver's behavior and the driver's state. Our method results correspond to a real situation and confirm that driver behavior and state are major risk factors. In future, this method will lay the foundation for integrating a fully quantitative method by considering the potential use of data originating directly from the IoT, which is a part of our research on holistic risk assessment.

Parallel incorporation and public law

Abstract Over the past fifty years, domestic regulators have turned to standards developed by private organizations as a means of complying with international law commitments to eliminate barriers to trade. What impact does this phenomenon of parallel incorporation, in which regulators in different countries incorporate the same private standards, have on domestic administrative law and public law? Through a case study of US and Australian regulators’ adoption of the same standards in aviation, the article exposes how parallel incorporation exacerbates existing accountability deficits of administration, contributes to the hollowing out of public capacity to review these incorporations, defies conventional understandings of delegation, and breaches basic understanding of rulemaking processes in both the United States and Australia. Using conventional administrative processes to implement solutions compelled by international commitments strains and transforms these processes. In this context, trade law imperatives result in accommodations from domestic public law not the reverse.

Deindustrialisation and the Origins of the Care Economy: Reworking Class Analysis with a US Case Study

Deindustrialisation and the Origins of the Care Economy: Reworking Class Analysis with a US Case Study

Effects of precipitation seasonality, irrigation, vegetation cycle and soil type on enhanced weathering – modeling of cropland case studies across four sites

Abstract. Enhanced weathering (EW) is a promising strategy for carbon sequestration, but several open questions remain regarding the actual rates of dissolution in conditions of natural hydroclimatic variability in comparison to laboratory experiments. In this context, models play a pivotal role, as they allow exploring and predicting EW dynamics under different environmental conditions. Here a comprehensive hydro-biogeochemical model has been applied to four cropland case studies (i.e., Sicily and the Padan plain in Italy and California and Iowa in the USA) characterized by different rainfall seasonality, vegetation (i.e., wheat for Sicily and California and corn for the Padan plain and Iowa), and soil type to explore their influence on dissolution rates. The results reveal that rainfall seasonality and irrigation when applied are crucial in determining EW and carbon sequestration dynamics, given their effect on hydrological fluxes, soil pH and weathering rate. The carbon sequestration rate was found to be strongly affected also by the background weathering flux, which is one of the main factors controlling soil pH before the olivine amendment. Regarding the US case studies, Iowa sequesters the greatest amount of CO2 if compared to California (4.20 and 2.21 kg ha−1 yr−1, respectively), and the same happens for Sicily with respect to the Padan plain (0.62 and 0.39 kg ha−1 yr−1, respectively). These low carbon sequestration values suggest that an in-depth analysis at the global scale is required to assess EW efficacy for carbon sequestration.

Modified SIR model for COVID-19 transmission dynamics: Simulation with case study of UK, US and India

Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease and has spread over more than 200 countries since its outbreak in December 2019. This pandemic has posed the greatest threat to global public health and seems to have changing characteristics with altering variants, hence various epidemiological and statistical models are getting developed to predict the infection spread, mortality rate and calibrating various impacting factors. But the aysmptomatic patient counts and demographical factors needs to be considered in model evaluation. Here we have proposed a new seven compartmental model, Susceptible- Exposed- Infected–Asymptomatic–Quarantined–Fatal–Recovered (SEIAQFR) which is based on classical Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model dynamic of infectious disease, and considered factors like asymptomatic transmission and quarantine of patients. We have taken UK, US and India as a case study for model evaluation purpose. In our analysis, it is found that the Reproductive Rate (R0) of the disease is dynamic over a long period and provides better results in model performance (>0.98 R-square score) when model is fitted across smaller time period. On an average 40%−50% cases are asymptomatic and have contributed to model accuracy. The model is employed to show accuracy in correspondence with different geographic data in both wave of disease spread. Different disease spreading factors like infection rate, recovery rate and mortality rate are well analyzed with best fit of real world data. Performance evaluation of this model has achieved good R-Square score which is 0.95−0.99 for infection prediction and 0.90−0.99 for death prediction and an average 1%−5% MAPE in different wave of the disease in UK, US and India.

Kernel weight contribution to yield genetic gain of maize: a global review and US case studies.

Over the past century of maize (Zea mays L.) breeding, grain yield progress has been the result of improvements in several other intrinsic physiological and morphological traits. In this study, we describe (i) the contribution of kernel weight (KW) to yield genetic gain across multiple agronomic settings and breeding programs, and (ii) the physiological bases for improvements in KW for US hybrids. A global-scale literature review concludes that rates of KW improvement in US hybrids were similar to those of other commercial breeding programs but extended over a longer period of time. There is room for a continued increase of kernel size in maize for most of the genetic materials analysed, but the trade-off between kernel number and KW poses a challenge for future yield progress. Through phenotypic characterization of Pioneer Hi-Bred ERA hybrids in the USA, we determine that improvements in KW have been predominantly related to an extended kernel-filling duration. Likewise, crop improvement has conferred on modern hybrids greater KW plasticity, expressed as a better ability to respond to changes in assimilate availability. Our analysis of past trends and current state of development helps to identify candidate targets for future improvements in maize.

Trivial Tripwires?: Military Capabilities and Alliance Reassurance

How can states most effectively reassure their allies? Existing studies assessing signals of commitment focus on the role of resolve in making assurances credible. This sidelines important questions about the role of capability. We argue that reassurance effectiveness is the product of both capability and resolve, and suggest that high resolve cannot offset low capability. We introduce a new typology of reassurance measures based on the interaction of military capability and resolve, and test which types of measures are most reassuring using an original survey fielded on European foreign policy experts and a case study of US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization reassurance initiatives in the Baltics. We find that high-resolve, low-capability signals such as tripwire forces in allied territory are not viewed as any more reassuring than high-capability, low-resolve signals such as forces stationed offshore. Our study casts doubt on the reassurance value of tripwires and contributes to scholarship on interstate signaling.

Engaged Intermediaries to Bridge the Gap between Scientists, Educational Practitioners and Farmers to Develop Sustainable Agri-Food Innovation Systems: A US Case Study

This article analyses the role of intermediaries’ engagements to bridge the gaps between research, education and practice in the processes of knowledge production needed for the shift to sustainable agri-food systems. It is based on an immersive study of an intermediary organization in the USA, including comprehensive interviews with the staff of the organization about their professional activities, their career paths, their close and longstanding professional relationships, and their values. Three characteristics of engaged intermediaries are identified, which can be positive add-ons for bridging activities: they consider farmers and scientists as equal contributors to the production of knowledge; they are involved in multiple life-worlds: for instance, being both a farmer and an outreach specialist or scientist; and they are closely associated with movements furthering the development of local and sustainable agri-food systems and an equitable sharing of knowledge. The article addresses topics often neglected in the innovation systems literature: the experience, social relations and political engagement of intermediary actors.

A transitionmanagement framework to stimulate a circular phosphorus system.

As the global population is projected to increase by two billion people by 2050, so will the demand for phosphorus (P), an essential nutrient for all living organisms and a major driver of eutrophication. To sustainably meet these challenges, we apply the conceptual framework of transition management (TM) to demonstrate how the trajectory of the current linear P use system could be strategically shifted toward a more circular P system. We present US case studies to examine P transitions management in intensive agriculture, wastewater disposal, and food waste management. Our goal is twofold. By first understanding past transitions in P management in the USA, we can build upon these insights for future management. This can then be applied to other global regions such as developing countries to bypass stages of transition as they intensify agriculture, incorporate sewers into cities, and expand waste management, to avoid becoming entrenched in unsustainable P management. We suggest how spaces for experimentation and collaboration can be created, how and which actor networks can be mobilized, and what action strategies and policies can be recommended to accelerate their transition to P sustainability. Our case studies show that while substantial improvements have been made, the transition toward a circular economy of P is far from complete. Our findings point to the value of utilizing TM for future progress in the US Development of TM frameworks for managing P in other regions of the world may enable them to achieve sustainable P development faster and more effectively than the USA.

Regeneration Criteria for Adaptive Reuse of the Waterfront Ecosystem: Learning from the US Case Study to Improve European Approach

The article addresses the contemporary debate on urban and environmental regeneration, investigating the need to establish new criteria to implement the defence of coastal ecosystems by climate problems. The research looks at coastal vulnerabilities, starting with the environmental fragility of flooding, as an opportunity to regenerate waterfront ecosystems. The research aim concerns the analysis of US advanced regeneration practices to learn and transfer the principles derived from them to the European context. This transferability takes place through the construction of regeneration criteria for the coastal ecosystems rebalancing. The regeneration criteria are resulted from an ecosystem reading of the winning projects of the Rebuild by Design competition. These practices represent in the scientific literature an exceptional example of a holistic response to the problem of post-disaster intervention. These cases offer an integrated response in terms of processes, investments, the duration of the design and realization. In addition, these cases simultaneously address multiple vulnerabilities, making it possible to extrapolate from their analysis specific directions to replicate in contexts where even just one of the critical issues exist. The methodological analyses exploit the focus emerged from the scientific literature on environmental vulnerabilities, technological innovation, and stakeholder involvement. The results are regeneration criteria able to verify the appropriateness of ecosystem anti-flooding strategies. Comparing the results with the most recent US and the EU strategic documents, the regeneration criteria demonstrate their relevance and coherence with the international priorities as well as their potential transferability to the European context.

Institutional Barriers in the Coproduction of Knowledge for Transportation Planning

ABSTRACT Barriers to an inclusive planning process include institutional context shaped by organizational structures, interactions between professionals outside of their disciplines, and practices. We seek to understand the extent planners and modelers privilege certain types of data and knowledge in practice. The article presents a US case study of Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, drawing from analyses of planning documents, interviews with transportation planners, modelers, and residents. We focus on the privileges given to knowledge derived from transport prediction models within an existing institutional context – over more grounded and specific experiential knowledge. We find that breaking down institutional barriers, specifically those tied to legitimacy, is a precursor to inclusion. Furthermore, tools and techniques selected in the planning process are as equally important as the participants invited to the table.

Wrestling with imponderables: assessing perceptions of biological-weapons utility

Understanding states’ perception of biological-weapons (BW) utility is key to understanding the motivations behind states’ development, possession, and use of these weapons. The calculations underlying a determination of utility are complex, having to balance threat perceptions, national scientific and industrial capacities, diplomatic relations, and the importance of prohibitory norms. Case studies of the former US and British offensive BW programs, beginning in World War II, illustrate how perceptions of BW utility evolve under wartime circumstances. The US case also illustrates how perceptions of BW utility heightened during periods of international tension, namely the Korean War and early in the John F. Kennedy administration. Both the US and UK examples also demonstrate how possession of nuclear weapons affected perceptions of BW utility and the role of BW in military doctrine. Given the prohibitions on BW development and possession, BW utility today is limited to small-scale, covert operations, including assassinations, much like the recent assassinations and attempted assassinations conducted by North Korea and Russia. Unlike chemical weapons, BW have the additional characteristics of delaying the onset of effects, mimicking natural diseases, and foiling attribution efforts.

Tweeted, deleted: An exploratory study of the US government’s digital memory holes

Deletion is part of the Internet’s history and predates Twitter. Today, research on the laws underlying and facilitating government social media use and deletion practices has remained limited. The question of how government agencies create their own Twitter archives and subsequently institutionalize cultural memory has also been largely unexplored. Drawing on a US case study, I argue that the lack of a standardized federal policy has led to the creation of myriad digital “memory holes” of varying porosities. I show that, when systematically drafted and deployed, research based on the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) can serve as a generative method of unearthing deleted tweets and memory narratives that might otherwise be inaccessible. Finally, I build on the US case study by offering pathways for other new media scholars to examine and trace tweeting and deleting by government employees in other jurisdictions.