Federal Government Funding Research Articles

Fundamental comminution efficiency gains with the CAHM platform technology

ABSTRACT The Conjugate Anvil Hammer Mill (CAHM) is a platform technology invented by Lawrence Nordell that embodies Dr Klaus Schönert’s guiding principles for highly efficient comminution into a series of commercial, production-scalable devices across multiple product size ranges. Schönert demonstrated that unconfined, compression breakage of single particles (or thin particle beds) between parallel plates produces the most energy efficient particle breakage. The CAHM Mark 1 Prototype and the MonoRoll are 2 new comminution devices that leverage these fundamental principles to produce comparable breakage at a fraction of the energy consumed by SAG mills, Ball mills or even High Pressure Grinding Rolls. The CAHM machine prototype has been tested at feed rates in excess of 60 t/h and is robust enough to be operated at a mine site for a pre-commercial demonstration. The MonoRoll is a 2 t/h retrofit of an existing pilot-scale ball mill. A mining industry consortium led by the Canada Mining Innovation Council and supported by Quebec and Federal government funding has designed, fabricated and tested both prototype machines over the last 4 years. Beyond the dramatic energy savings, implementing these technologies will generate additional benefits from simpler circuits and reduced scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions. This paper reviews the design of these 2 prototypes in the context of Schönert’s fundamental principles for efficient breakage.

Rating the Delivery Rate of TETfund Projects in South-East Nigerian State Universities

The study evaluates the completion rates of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) projects in South-East State Universities, highlighting the importance of timely completion for high-quality education and university infrastructure development in Nigeria's impoverished economic situation, where inadequate funding is common. The study was conducted in five South-East Nigerian state universities targeting the 6662 population. The analysis used SPSS, resulting in 35.5% of the sample. The results showed that the duration of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) projects has influenced project completion rates in South-East Nigerian universities. 28% of respondents believe that time duration has led to some universities losing TETfund project approval, while 42% believe it has increased the likelihood of receiving more projects from TETfund. The test hypotheses confirmed that TETfund time duration has significant positive effect on the completion rate of projects. The model summary showed that time duration has caused some state universities to lose TETfund project approval, while it has continued to give universities the chance for more projects from TETfund. The study also highlighted the role of time to TETfund in ensuring projects approved must be completed at the appropriate time, which it assumes. The results showed that the F-value is the Mean Square Regression (3863.049), which is statistically significant (Sig =.000). The study suggests that State University management should maintain TETfund project duration due to high Federal Government funds and enforce stronger rules for project quality.

How much is invested in obesity prevention in Australia? An analysis of major research and Federal Government funding, 2013–2022

How much is invested in obesity prevention in Australia? An analysis of major research and Federal Government funding, 2013–2022

Pandemic relief spending by New York local governments

COVID-19 federal government funding, especially the State and Local Fiscal Relief Funds (SLFRF) from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), passed in 2021, encouraged communities to invest in infrastructure, resilience and equity. US community development funding has been on a competitive basis the past 40 years, but the American Rescue Plan (ARPA) changed that by providing funds to every local government in the US. A history of austerity since the Great Recession may limit the ability and capacity of local governments to use ARPA funds for transformative change. We surveyed local officials in New York State in late 2021 and early 2022 regarding how they planned to spend their ARPA funds. We model differences between rural and urban governments. Rural governments were more likely to hire expert consultants, develop ARPA specific plans, and participate in regional collaboration. Regression models show these community capacity features also led to more resilience-related investments. The ARPA program wanted local governments to be transformative in addressing equity, and our models find community engagement is key to such transformative change. To move from resilience to transformation requires both community capacity and citizen engagement.

Proselytising and pastoral care: chaplains in Australian government schools

ABSTRACT School chaplaincy in Australia is highly contentious. The federal government funds a chaplaincy programme in Australia’s secular public schools, which, combined with the declining influence of institutional Christianity, places Christian chaplains at the nexus of debates on the public role of religion. Yet little is known about how these chaplains integrate their religious convictions with their role. This article draws on 12 interviews with Christian chaplains, and asks: (1) how do these chaplains understand their faith within their role?; (2) how do they practice their faith through their role; and (3) how do they negotiate the ban on ‘proselytising’? This article finds that chaplains see their work as a call from God that enables a deep sense of purpose, and is also aimed at young people’s empowerment. They practically express their faith through care, bridging school and Christian communities, and prayer. Last, they practice conversations about faith, described as ‘dialogical evangelism’. Given the lack of studies of chaplaincy practice in secular contexts, this article is significant for its empirical depth, and discussion of controversial topics. It concludes by examining the significance of these findings for policy makers, and for wider debates about the interaction between religious people and secular institutions.

Government Funding of Charities Serving Indigenous Peoples

There are several reasons why governments fund charities. Relative to government ministries, charities are often better able to assess and adapt to local needs, serve vulnerable populations, and deliver culturally sensitive services where appropriate. This article investigates the funding decisions of governments by focusing on charities that provide services to Indigenous individuals. The authors use Canada Revenue Agency T3010 data on registered charities from 2003 to 2017 to extract information on charities that serve the Indigenous population and further separate this group into those located off and on reserves. Governments fund Indigenous-serving charities differently than their non-Indigenous counterparts. Being an Indigenous-serving charity is associated with a 25 percent increase in the predicted probability of receiving government support relative to non-Indigenous charities (for the reference group). Indigenous-serving charities on reserve are 17 percent <i>less likely</i> to receive public funding relative to those off reserve. Federal government funding seems to act as a catalyst for provincial and municipal funding. The authors' results lend support to the idea that governments fund charities to provide locally appropriate services to vulnerable populations.

Imagining “national” funding in the Australian federation: The Gonski Review and the Schooling Resource Standard

This paper takes the landmark review into the federal funding of schools in Australia, known as the Gonski Review (2011), as an illustrative case to demonstrate the scalar practices involved in policy production and enactment. Its primary argument is that, while its core recommendation was a needs-based funding model for the federal government funding of schools, the Gonski Review also articulates an aspiration for the translation of this funding model into a comprehensively national approach. This is done, I argue, through important practices of scalar imagining and reasoning (Papanastasiou, 2017b). However, these national aspirations sit uneasily with the realities of schooling and school funding in the Australian federation, which includes constitutional arrangements, legislation, and policy principles that distribute responsibility for funding across multiple spaces of governance. Drawing on documentary evidence, I argue that scalar tensions are produced between these national aspirations and the realpolitik of Australian federalism. By challenging “the national” as a coherent and predetermined “scale,” these findings reinforce the importance of attending to the mediating forces of subnational governments, as well as global policy influences, when thinking about policy mobilities in federations.

Canada’s Small INGOs: Growth Aspirations, Strategies, and Constraints

During the past two decades, international development non-government organizations (INGOs) have proliferated in the global North. In Canada, there are ∼1350 registered INGOs—of which, 950 were established in 2000 or later, 1192 receive no federal government funding, 1202 have annual revenues under CAD one million dollars, and 709 have no full-time employees. This new wave of Small and Medium Organizations (SMOs) epitomises the decentralisation of global development as private aid has surpassed Official Development Assistance funding. Yet, recent studies suggest SMOs have a short lifespan and fail to progress beyond service provision representing the first evolutionary stage of INGO maturation. Our study combines surveys (n: 95) and interviews (n: 18) with Canadian SMOs to explore growth aspirations along with their challenges and strategies to increase revenue. Our results show that nearly all Canadian SMOs desire organisational growth, and pursue diverse funding sources and innovative strategies to increase revenue. However, for SMOs, growth means doing more of the same thing—they are committed to improving the living conditions of their target population—which contradicts best practices to scale up INGO impact and may necessitate alternative organisational evolutionary guides for SMOs operating in this emerging development niche.

The impact of employability on Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences degrees in Australia

In Australia, Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) faculties are under pressure to demonstrate that their degrees result in employable graduates. Employability has become a key strategic goal of all universities and is driving federal government funding changes. We surveyed 17 Directors of Learning and Teaching in HASS across Australia’s 37 public universities to ascertain their views on how employability has affected HASS. Our thematic analysis of questionnaire results reveals a highly complex and, at times, contradictory picture of the relationship between HASS and employability.

Comment on “Higher Education in the United States: Laissez‐Faire, Differentiation, and Research”

Comment on “Higher Education in the United States: Laissez‐Faire, Differentiation, and Research”

A Wrench in the Machine

Problem, research strategy, and findings Federal, state, and local government funding helps stimulate urban development, with growth machine politics playing an important role in determining where subsidies are allocated. The U.S. Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA) was enacted to curb the role of federal subsidies in fostering development along hazardous coastal barriers, providing an opportunity to explore how local growth politics are influenced by the removal of one source of government funding. In this study, we used a series of interview-based case studies to investigate why certain areas in the CBRA developed while most did not. In most cases, the CBRA obstructed local growth coalitions, isolating landowners from the resources necessary to improve the growth potential of their land interests. However, in cases where development occurred within the CBRA, we often found evidence that powerful growth machines were able to acquire replacement subsidies from state and local governments, suggesting these actions are a key driver in overcoming the financial barriers posed by the CBRA. Takeaway for practice This study revealed how growth machines could be hampered by removing access to the financial resources of one level of government, despite the potential to be undermined by intervention at other levels. In an era of increasing coastal risks, subsidy removal can be an effective tool for managing coastal growth, even when authority over land use decisions is limited.

The ongoing narrative of Ivory‐billed Woodpecker rediscovery and support for declaring the species extinct

The Ivory‐billed Woodpecker Campephilus principalis was considered extinct by many until, in 2005, researchers announced its rediscovery in continental North America and released video evidence obtained from the state of Arkansas. This claim garnered worldwide media attention and sparked renewed interest in searching for and conserving the bird. Audio recordings from the same region, including sounds closely resembling the territorial double raps of Campephilus woodpeckers, were also released. Both the video and audio evidence, however, were challenged in several journal articles, though these critiques did not receive as much attention. We estimated that over 578 000 h were collectively spent searching for the species across the southeastern USA from 2004 to 2021, but these efforts failed to yield indisputable proof of the species' persistence. More than US$ 20.3 million in federal and state government funding was spent on the bird from 2005 to 2013, a sharp increase in expenditures from the years before the rediscovery announcement. Regardless of whether or not it was a reallocation of funds from other taxa, this money, along with other associated resources (e.g. time and human effort), would have undoubtedly benefited other underfunded threatened and endangered taxa had it not been spent on the woodpecker. Given the published criticisms and counterevidence, as well as the lack of definitive proof that the species still exists, it appears that this endeavour was driven largely by the narrative of rediscovery advanced by prominent researchers in ornithology, rather than the actual evidence, and that this probably helped to perpetuate the use of poor‐quality evidence in subsequent claims of the species' persistence. In 2021, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed an extinction declaration for the Ivory‐billed Woodpecker. Based on available information, this decision seems logical, and would close this chapter on one of the biggest losses to North American avifauna in modern history.

Welcome back Kotter–Developing a National Allergy strategy for Australia

BackgroundAllergic diseases have become an increasing health issue worldwide, being one of the fastest growing chronic diseases in Australia and other westernized countries. In 2013, allergic diseases were reported to affect 20% of the Australian population. Despite the high prevalence there was no national strategy to address these complex health issues, to enable the health system to manage the increasing number of patients. This project aimed to develop and implement a national strategy to improve allergy management in Australia, with a view of improving the quality of life of people living with or caring for someone with allergic diseases. MethodsThe need for a national strategy to improve allergy management was identified. The Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) and Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia (A&AA) worked together as partners to progress a national strategy using a theoretical model to underpin its development. Unrestricted education grants were sought to fund engagement with stakeholder organizations for both development and implementation summits. Several stages of advocacy were undertaken. ResultsThe National Allergy Strategy was developed as a partnership between ASCIA and A&AA. The Kotter's Change Management Model provided the basis for the steps undertaken to develop and implement the National Allergy Strategy. Two Allergy Summits, one for development and the other for implementation, were held. Several events were held to advocate for federal government funding. Five individual funding grants were achieved to implement National Allergy Strategy projects addressing the most urgent issues. ConclusionThe development of the National Allergy Strategy, a partnership between ASCIA and A&AA, was important in enabling successful advocacy for funding and implementation of important Australia-wide projects. The partnership has also helped facilitate engagement with key stakeholders to help advocate for funding and provide guidance and expertise in project implementation and resource development. The National Allergy Strategy has been successful in attracting funding to implement projects and develop resources urgently needed. The National Allergy Strategy has also provided a framework and a collaborative approach, for advocacy for further funding and future work to be undertaken.

A model of police financing through income and consumption taxes

AbstractThis article studies police financing with a focus on the difference in the timing between federal and local government funds. In general, federal government funds came from income taxes collected before possible appropriative activities while local government funds came from consumption taxes collected afterwards. We find that income‐tax financing results in more workers, more police, and fewer thieves when appropriation and tax rates are the same between the two cases. Funding the police before possible appropriative activities works as a deterrence. Our findings show the complexity of studying crime and police financing even in a highly stylized model.

The Progress and Future of US Newborn Screening.

Progress in newborn screening (NBS) has been driven for 60 years by developments in science and technology, growing consumer advocacy, the actions of providers involved in the care of rare disease patients, and by federal and State government funding and policies. With the current explosion of clinical trials of treatments for rare diseases, the pressure for expansion has grown, and concerns about the capacity for improvement and growth are being expressed. Genome and exome sequencing (GS/ES) have now opened more opportunities for early identification and disease prevention at all points in the lifespan. The greatest challenge facing NBS stems from the conditions most amenable to screening, and new treatment development is that we are screening for rare genetic diseases. In addition, understanding the spectrum of severity requires vast amounts of population and genomic data. We propose recommendations on improving the NBS system and addressing specific demands to grow its capacity by: better defining the criteria by which screening targets are established; financing the NBS system’s responsiveness to opportunities for expansion, including engagement and funding from stakeholders; creating a national quality assurance, data, IT, and communications infrastructure; and improving intra-governmental communications. While our recommendations may be specific to the United States, the underlying issues should be considered when working to improve NBS programs globally.

Navigating the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme: federal versus state government funding for high-cost medicines – a problem for public hospitals.

The funding of medication supply in Australian public hospitals is divided between the federal government's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and thestate or territory government who pay for the remaining medications not covered under the PBS. For some high-cost medications, such as the monoclonal antibody blinatumomab, the current criteria for PBS funding in public hospitals are challenging. The strict requirement for inpatient admission, due to the risk of potentially serious adverse effects, alongside a lack of PBS reimbursement, while a hospital inpatient, may result in the state bearing the cost. A retrospective review of five patients receiving blinatumomab at our hospital found that, on average, patients remained inpatients for longer than that stipulated to meet PBS funding criteria, predominantly due to adverse effects associated with the medication. This resulted in the state government paying for the medication in full. The upcoming National Medicines Policy review should address the increasing complexity of new medications and their access and funding.

Discovering Booming Bio-entities and Their Relationship with Funds

With the increasing pressure on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget nowadays, it is such a major challenge to cut waste and improve efficiency in the research funding allocation. To meet this challenge, this paper explores research hotspots and disciplinary trends of the biomedical area, and discusses the relationship between these factors and the government funding, thereby uncovering biomedical hotspots of interest to academia and the evolution law of the U.S. federal government funding through an entitymetrics analysis. Considering that the rapid proliferation of biomedical literature provides large amounts of information resources for knowledge discovery, entities extracted from articles in PubMed and NIH-funded projects during 1988–2017 are taken as experimental data. They are divided into four categories: species, diseases, genes, and drugs. Subsequently, a comparative analysis of entity trajectories in the four domains is performed, which includes occurrence frequency calculations of disease entities to explore frequency variation trends in high-frequency entities and the situation of the distribution of research funds. Finally, we conduct an evolutionary analysis of two sides, respectively: the relationship between research popularity and the amount of funding; the relationship between research popularity and the number of funded projects. The results suggest that research on gene and disease entities is at the stage of rapid development. Diseases with high prevalence rate and mortality and diseases associated with genetic factors will be the emphasis of research trends in the future. The distribution of NIH grant appears obvious long tail effect and can influence overall trends in the heat of research topics.. We also find that there is a strong linear correlation between the research popularity of bio-entities, and the amount and number of funding grants, respectively. However, the impact of the amount and number of grant funds on the entity research popularity is decreasing. The above results indicate the extensive applicability of entitymetrics in funding research.

Inequality in out of pocket fees, government funding and utilisation of maternal health services in Australia

This study aimed to assess the distribution of service utilisation, out-of-pocket fees and government funding for maternal health care in Australia by socioeconomic group. A large linked administrative dataset was utilised. Women were grouped into socioeconomic quintiles using an area-based measure of socioeconomic status. Descriptive statistics were used to quantify the distribution of number of services, out of pocket fees, and government funding by socioeconomic quintile. Needs-adjusted concentration indices (CINA) were utilised to quantify inequity.The mean out of pocket fees for women of least socioeconomic advantage was $1,026 and for women of most socioeconomic advantage the mean was $2,432 (CINA 0.093, 95% CI: 0.088 – 0.098). However, use of many services were higher for women of most socioeconomic advantage: private obstetrician (CINA: 0.035, 95% CI: 0.032 – 0.038), other specialist services (CINA: 0.089, 95%CI: 0.083 – 0.094), and diagnostic and pathology tests (CINA: 0.027, 95%CI: 0.025 – 0.030). Federal government funding through Medicare was distributed towards women of most socioeconomic advantage (CINA: 0.036, 95%CI: 0.033 – 0.039); whereas government public hospital funding was skewed towards women of least socioeconomic advantage (CINA: -0.05, 95%CI: -0.057 - -0.046). Future policy changes in Australia's healthcare system need to ensure that women of least socioeconomic advantage have adequate access to maternity and early childhood care, and out of pocket fees are not an access barrier.

White spaces for innovation in tertiary education: Australian public provider perspectives

ABSTRACT Over the last twenty years, tertiary education in Australia has radically changed. Major growth in the sector and federal government policy and funding changes have resulted in an increase of providers and a diversification of the quality of education available on the market, particularly in vocational education. Although change presents insecurity and ambiguity for education providers, it also presents an opportunity for proactive and adaptable providers to transform and disrupt the sector by designing an innovative value creation strategy to diversify or target their offering. To understand the current landscape, this paper explores the business models of 50 Australian tertiary education providers and groups these into seven business model typologies. Focusing on public vocational education providers, the paper identifies the ability of their current business model to meet skills-based gaps in the future, including their future customers, and states potential ‘white space’ opportunities for innovation.

HENRIQUE MORIZE AND THE ECLIPSE OF MAY 1919: THE NATIONAL OBSERVATORY OF BRAZIL, THE SOLAR CORONA, AND PURE SCIENCE

The role of the French-Brazilian astronomer Henrique Morize in the organization of the Brazilian expedition to Sobral, Ceará, in northeastern Brazil, to observe the total solar eclipse of 29 May 1919, is discussed. Morize's goal was to show that the National Observatory of Brazil was capable of performing scientific tasks, which it did not always have the opportunity to do because of inconstant Federal Government funding. Correspondence, articles, and statements by Morize and his colleagues, especially the report he wrote about the eclipse, are exploited to demonstrate the importance of this event to his career.