Force Effort Research Articles

Creation of a regional hazardous drug handling task force.

A regional task force of health-system pharmacy leaders was created to assist with successful adoption of United States Pharmacopeia (USP) general chapter <800>. A group of pharmacy leaders in the Kansas City region identified potential benefits to healthcare personnel and patients if hazardous drug handling procedures were standardized. A task force was created, a preimplementation survey was distributed, and meetings were held monthly to discuss sections of USP <800> identified as the most challenging to implement. The task force focused on an assessment of risk tool, hot topics, cleanroom design, and a detailed analysis of controversial medications. After the first year of meetings, a postimplementation survey was distributed, and the results were analyzed. The task force created significant value for the participants and achieved the goal of facilitating efficient USP <800> implementation resulting in greater compliance and consistency across the multiple health systems represented. Over 5,100 beds and 200 clinic sites were affected by this task force's efforts. Nearly three-fourths (73%) of respondents reported that the task force was "extremely helpful," and the majority (64%) of respondents adopted most or all (81%-100%) of the task force's assessment of risk choices. Prioritization of tasks, information sharing, and decision-making were areas where the individual leaders were most supported. Creating a structure to eliminate barriers and facilitate collaboration among regional pharmacy leaders provided a framework for successful implementation of USP <800> requirements. This interdependent leadership model produced innovative and standardized solutions and should be considered when addressing complicated initiatives that impact the profession.

The control, content, and consequences of edTPA: World language teacher educators’ perceptions

AbstractImplemented in almost 900 teacher education programs across 41 states and the District of Columbia, edTPA is marketed as a content‐specific, standardized portfolio assessment of beginning teacher performance. However, concerns about edTPA and its content specificity are pervasive. To that end, the researchers surveyed teacher educators with World Language (WL) edTPA experience (N = 88) to ascertain their perceptions of the assessment, including its impact on teacher candidates, teacher education programs, and clinical placements as well as the resources required, support experienced, and consequences perceived as a result of its implementation. Using a framework of teacher education accountability, the researchers explored issues of control, content, and consequences related to power relationships and the WL edTPA, centering on the assessment's intended content specificity, while recounting an ACTFL task force's efforts in 2016 to influence the assessment's content.

The Phoenix Rises

Abstract : The story of how this acquisition rebounded from brink of extinction to a model of reduced-cost and ahead-of-schedule production illustrates how determination, use of integrated product teams, executive officer system, and process approach to manufacturing can produce results. Secretary of Air Force, Dr. Sheila Widnall, used to joke that phrase, the troubled C-17 program was really all one word. Accordingly, there are many accounts describing how C-17 Globemaster III airlifter got into trouble. Surprisingly, no one has tried to capture specifics of even more remarkable story of how C-17 got out of trouble. This article will tell that story. The authors begin with a short description of aircraft and requirement for it. Then, to put ultimate success of this major acquisition in proper context, they provide a brief review of program's troubled past. Following this review, they cover salient events in Pentagon, offices, and McDonnell Douglas plant that substantially contributed to remarkable turnaround. The authors conclude with an in-depth look at lessons learned that could benefit other programs. The C-17 aircraft is U.S. Air Force's effort to develop a modern airlifter capable of meeting worldwide air mobility needs of DoD. In late 1970s, need for an aircraft capable of carrying large payloads to austere fields remained. The aircraft was specifically designed to carry modern combat weapons of U.S. ground forces directly into airfields near conflict. This capability is known as direct delivery. Perhaps most important, C-17 would also provide a way to move outsize cargo (very large equipment like M-1A Abrams tank, or Multiple Launch Rocket System -- equipment that cannot fit on today's C-141s or C-130s) for inter- and intratheater airlift.

Measuring mental disorders: The failed commensuration project of DSM-5

Commensuration – the comparison of entities according to a common quantitative metric – is a key process in efforts to rationalize medicine. The push toward evidence-based medicine and quantitative assessment has led to the proliferation of metrics in healthcare. While social scientific attention has revealed the effects of these metrics once institutionalized – on clinical practice, on medical expertise, on outcome assessment, on valuations of medical services, and on experiences of illness – less attention has been paid to the process of developing metrics. This article examines the attempt to create severity scales during the revision to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as a case of failed commensuration. Using data from interviews with participants in the DSM-5 revision (n = 30), I reconstruct the problems that emerged in the DSM-5 Task Force's effort to develop viable psychometric instruments to measure severity. Framed as a part of a “paradigm shift” in psychiatry, the revision produced ad hoc, heterogeneous severity scales with divergent logics. I focus on two significant issues of metric construction in this case – diagnostic validity and clinical utility. Typically perceived as technical and conceptual challenges of design, I show how these issues were infused with, and undermined by, professional political dynamics, specifically tensions between medical researchers and clinicians. This case reveals that, despite its association with objectivity and transparency, commensuration encompasses more than identifying, operationalizing, and measuring an entity; it demands the negotiation of extra-scientific, non-empirical concerns that get written into medical metrics themselves.

Capitalizing on Community Resources to Build Specialized Behavioral Health Services Together with Persons who are Deaf, Deafblind or Hard of Hearing.

There are relatively few counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers who specialize in serving people who are Deaf, Deafblind or hard of hearing in the United States. Professionals that serve minority populations are often an insular group. They tend to network most often with fellow professionals who understand the language and cultural needs of their service population. Such specialized behavioral health providers rarely have the opportunity to interface with “mainstream” program planners, funders and administrators. Consequently, new recovery agendas, best practice models and community reintegration ideas are only slowly integrated into the care of persons who are Deaf, Deafblind or hard of hearing. We describe the development and implementation of a task force comprised of “front line” providers, administrators, county government officials, advocates and consumers that has made strides toward effective change in a local behavioral health care system. Methods employed, successes, barriers and other reflections on the task force’s efforts also are described.

Governing carbon, transforming forest politics: A case study of Indonesia's REDD+ Task Force

AbstractThe Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus (REDD+) programme seeks to reshape the way we value, govern and interact with forests. Rather than managing forests according to interests in timber, conservation, land or livelihoods, REDD+ encourages forms of forest management that prioritise carbon. While international negotiations are shaping the rules of the programme, how it takes place on the ground will depend on its interpretation and implementation in different places. In this paper, we are interested in how the REDD+ Task Force (Satgas REDD+), an ad hoc body formed by presidential decree to design and implement REDD+ readiness activities in Indonesia, has attempted to mainstream the programme from 2010 to 2013. We develop a governmentality approach to focus on how the Task Force sought to introduce REDD+ carbon rationalities to forest politics. Based on extended ethnographic research, we identify three strategies: adopting and promoting the carbon discourses circulating among global REDD+ communities; making carbon visible and governable through mapping technologies; and implementing participatory technologies to encourage pro‐REDD+ subjectivities. In some ways, the Task Force has been successful in building awareness about forest carbon among forest stakeholders in Indonesia. National civil society organisations, in particular, appear to be supportive of REDD+; however, they emphasise ‘co‐benefits’ framed as ‘Beyond Carbon’, informed by social and environmental justice. For others, however, forests remain sources of timber and land, and new strategies are required if REDD+ is to have substantial impacts on forest governance in Indonesia. The Task Force's efforts reveal the difficult and contested processes through which global climate change programmes come to be embedded in national arenas.

Abstract LB-48: The survivorship and advocacy task force model at Breast Cancer Connections

Abstract This poster demonstrates that an advocacy program can facilitate effective collaboration between a non-profit cancer support organization and the cancer research community. The evolution and scaling of the Survivorship and Advocacy Task Force Model is illustrated so that it can be replicated by other non-profit disease support organizations. Breast Cancer Connections (BCC), is a non-profit breast cancer resource center serving people touched by breast cancer in the San Francisco Bay Area and globally via the Internet and the telephone Helpline. BCC provides personalized information, support, and connections to other local and national resources in an atmosphere of warmth, sensitivity, and understanding. BCC was founded in 1993, by a surgeon and her patient who saw a need to augment what was being offered through the medical model. With more than 35 programs and services, all offered at no charge, BCC remains a vital and unique resource. Prompted by the requirement for patient advocate and survivor involvement in the research grant application process (California Breast Cancer Research Program, DoD, Susan G. Komen for the Cure) as well as by the increasing needs of breast cancer survivors, BCC formed the Survivorship and Advocacy Task Force (SATF) in 2008. The dual purpose of the SATF is to provide input and review to researchers applying for research grants and to assist BCC in developing services and programs that will improve the lives of breast cancer survivors. Task Force members who participate in reviewing research grants must be active research advocates and have formal training in the language and concepts of breast cancer research (such as Project LEAD Institute) or a Ph.D. in a discipline relevant to breast cancer research.The poster author chairs the BCC's SATF with five active members. The Task Force's efforts include meeting the PI to hear about the research, providing input to the PI on the research from the patient/survivor perspective, reviewing the grant proposal, refining the language of the lay abstract, writing a letter of support to accompany the grant proposal, and participating in the research if the research application is accepted. Current collaborators include breast cancer researchers from Stanford University, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and University of California, San Francisco. As funding agencies increase their requirements for advocate involvement and as awareness of the importance of survivorship continues to grow, requests for SATF participation continues to increase. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-48. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-LB-48

Assessing the Cost and Value of Bibliographic Control

In June 2009, the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services Heads of Technical Services in Large Research Libraries Interest Group established the Task Force on Cost/Value Assessment of Bibliographic Control to address recommendation 5.1.1.1 of On the Record: Report of the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control, which focused on developing measures for costs, benefits, and value of bibliographic control. This paper outlines results of that task force's efforts to develop and articulate metrics for evaluating the cost and value of cataloging activities specifically, and offers some next steps that the community could take to further the profession's collective understanding of the costs and values associated with bibliographic control.

Foreign LIS degrees in contemporary US academic libraries

Purpose – The purpose of this case study is to summarize a task force's efforts to change the educational degree requirements for open librarian positions at a large university in the Midwestern USA.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the literature on degree requirements in academic libraries and the nature of LIS degrees from countries outside the USA. It analyzes 136 position advertisements for academic librarians by required terminal degree and the type and Association of Research Libraries (ARL) status of the institution.Findings – The paper concludes that, while most position advertisements do not specifically address foreign Library and Information Science (LIS) degrees, many advertisements, especially those at ARL libraries, contain flexible language that allows for degrees that are “equivalent” to the American Library Association (ALA) accredited LIS degree.Research limitations/implications – The data collected from the relatively small sample of 136 job advertisements for academic li...

Harnessing the Heavens: National Defense through Space (review)

Reviewed by: Harnessing the Heavens: National Defense through Space Donald R. Baucom Harnessing the Heavens: National Defense through Space. Edited by Paul G. Gillespie and Grant T. Weller. Chicago: Imprint Publications, 2008. ISBN 978-1-879176-45-4. Notes. Index. Pp. xi, 235. $29.95. Harnessing the Heavens is a collection of fourteen papers delivered during the twenty-first military history symposium sponsored by the History Department of the U.S. Air Force Academy. The number of papers and the shortness of this review preclude specific comment on each paper. Therefore, I shall focus on a few of the major themes and issues that emerged from the symposium. Perhaps the most significant theme is the importance of space for the United States. Thus, in "Astropolitics and Astropolitik," Everett Dolman declared: "No nation relies on space more than the United States—none is even close—and its reliance grows daily. For both its civilian welfare and military security, a widespread loss of space capabilities would prove disastrous" (p. 111). This heavy reliance on space systems leads to a major dilemma in America's national space policy. The critical nature of American space assets would seem to justify an aggressive, if not pre-emptive, approach to defense. Since China and Russia have already demonstrated an anti-satellite capability, it may well be impossible to protect American satellites without having space weapons on station and using these weapons to exert at least some control over access to space by other nations. Yet, such a policy would almost surely lead to charges that America is weaponizing space and acting imperiously regarding the rights of other nations. The drawbacks of an aggressive American space policy notwithstanding, Dolman concluded that "it is past time for the United States to realize its responsibilities and to command space." Another challenge, one with which the United States has struggled for fifty years, is developing an organizational structure to ensure efficient development and effective employment of space-based systems. While this issue is touched upon in several papers, its most thorough treatment comes in David Spires's "Recurring Themes in U.S. Air Force Space History." A critical element in the quest for a better organizational structure has been the Air Force's efforts to balance its requirements for space and air forces. Both the Spires paper and the volume introduction by Paul Gillespie and Grant Weller find a parallel between the position of the Air Force's "star warriors" and the earlier struggle of Army aviators for independence from the Army. In the final paper of this volume, Alex Roland challenges one of the fundamental assumptions about the space program—that it is ultimately about man leaving the earth, a vision that dates back as far as the second century CE. In Roland's view, human space flight entails replacing computers with people trained to act like computers while at the same time increasing the weight and complexity of space systems. Yet, without the romantic vision of "human heroics," an expression used by Howard McCurdy in his paper (p. 36), continued popular support for expensive space programs is problematical. [End Page 328] In addition to its coverage of general themes, this volume provides a wealth of information about the programs and hardware of the major space powers. Asif Siddiqi covered Soviet military and space systems in his paper, while Dean Cheng discussed the development and evolution of major Chinese space systems. Finally, Rick Sturdevant traced the emergence and evolution of American communications satellites. While Harnessing the Heavens is a major contribution to military space history, as is always the case, one can find points to criticize. Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) served as interim manager of America's space program from February 1958 to October 1958 when the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics became the National Air and Space Administration. Yet, ARPA's role is essentially unnoted. Additionally, the ABM Treaty was not terminated in 2003 as stated on page fifteen. In December 2001, the Bush administration gave the six months notification of America's intent to withdraw from the treaty as required by the treaty itself. The formal ending of the treaty came in...

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS OF PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE EXTENSION: THE CASE OF THE A‐10 AIRCRAFT

Firms are faced with challenging decisions when capital equipment reaches the end of its designed service life. This research examines the risks of deciding to extend the retirement date of a capital asset in terms of performance and cost and offers recommended actions to mitigate this risk. Through study of the United States Air Force's A‐10 aircraft, the authors analyze one example of decreased performance and increased costs experienced when supply chain implications are not explicitly considered when making service life extension decisions. In this case, the Air Force's efforts to save money through life extension of existing aircraft actually exceeded the seemingly enormous initial investment of acquiring new aircraft. Arguments are presented suggesting the Air Force, in particular, may reap benefits from forming supply chain relationships and creating continuity plans to manage problems such as parts shortages and cost increases when extending the use of capital assets beyond its intended service life.

Transcultural Nursing Society Position Statement on Human Rights

In 2006, the Transcultural Nursing Society created a business plan with a firm commitment to social change and the support of human rights. One of the primary goals of the plan was to seek recognition from the United Nations as a Human Rights Organization. As a first step in articulating this goal, the board of trustees of TCNS tasked a small group of Transcultural Nursing Scholars to develop a position statement. This article is the culmination of the collaborative task force's efforts to define how TCNS seeks the fulfillment of human rights for people of all cultures worldwide.

Recent Activities Show Achievements In Reaching Key APA Goals

Recent Activities Show Achievements In Reaching Key APA Goals

Leveling the Playing Field: Creating Funding Equity through Student-Based Budgeting

When the Cincinnati Public Schools devised a reform strategy for improving student performance, it became clear that the district's traditional budgeting system was inadequate. The authors trace the district's process of moving to a system of student-based budgeting: funding children rather than staff members and weighting the funding according to schools' and students' needs. THE INCREASING local and national focus on accountability has districts and states scrambling to develop ways to hold all schools to the same high standards. But demanding equivalent achievement levels across all of a district's schools makes no sense if the financial resources are unevenly allocated and the schools aren't given the flexibility to use those resources in ways that address their own academic priorities and the particular needs of their students. Most discussion about funding has focused on differences in levels of funding between districts, and it is often assumed that funds are distributed evenly to schools within districts. But recent research highlights startling differences within districts, with some schools receiving as much as 60% more funding than others with similar categories and numbers of students.1 The role of the district in ensuring a high-quality education for all students is the principal focus of School Communities That Work: A National Task Force on the Future of Urban Districts.2 This article was prepared in conjunction with the Task Force's efforts to understand, support, and develop the work of urban education systems that are seeking to level the educational playing field for all students in their jurisdictions. Seeking Resource Equity Redistributing resources within a district can be a painful and controversial task and can result in the loss of cherished programs and staff. But the equitable distribution of funds creates the basis for real equality of opportunity for all students, and the process of creating such can bring a district to a much clearer sense of purpose and strategy. The Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) discovered the payoff -- and the pain -- when the district overhauled its inequitable school funding system in the midst of implementing an ambitious, long-range reform strategy that focused on accountability. Between 1998 and 2001, the district made the transition to a student-based budgeting formula that eliminated dramatic variation in funding levels between schools within the system. Beginning in 2002-03, the only differences in school funding were to be those driven by student need. Cincinnati's process highlights the need for widespread community support and bold leadership from the administration and the school board. It also helps to clarify the idea of resource equity and its connection to other critical elements of a districtwide strategy for improving student performance. In this article, we use the CPS experience with student-based budgeting to show how funding and flexibility are inextricably linked to accountability and excellence. Then we focus on the reasons some schools get more than others, not only in Cincinnati but in most school districts. We show how CPS used student-based budgeting to distribute dollars more fairly and to create more flexibility in their use. Finally, we include a set of questions to ask in your own districts and states. Students First: Cincinnati's Reform Strategy Begun by Superintendent Michael Brandt and continued under the leadership of Superintendent Steven Adamowski, Cincinnati's strategic school reform plan, known as Students First, has been implemented over the past five years with the involvement of the entire community. A moral imperative for more equitable funding between schools and for more school-level flexibility in the use of funds gradually emerged from the interaction of the plan's four components: * Establish standards for student performance. …

IP QOS: traveling in first class on the Internet

The concept of quality of service-that is, the network capability to provide a nondefault service to a subset of the aggregate traffic-has now entered the IP lexicon. The author surveys the history of this development from the Internet's original passenger-class-only, best-effort protocol suite. He concludes with a review of the current Internet Engineering Task Force's efforts in the Differentiated Services (DiffServ) working group.

Clashes: Air Combat Over North Vietnam, 1965-1972

This classic work, which is part of the Marine Corps' reading list, makes full use of declassified US documents to offer the first comprehensive study of fighter combat over North Vietnam. Marshall Michel's balanced, exhaustive coverage describes and analyses both Air Force and Navy engagements with North Vietnamese MiGs, but also includes discussions of the SAM threat and US countermeasures, laser-guided bombs and US attempts to counter the MiG threat with a variety of technological equipment. Beginning with the first air-to-air engagements of Operation Rolling Thunder in 1965, Marshall Michel describes the initial American successes against the MiGs and the stunning turn of events in late 1967 when the North Vietnamese began shooting down more US aircraft than they lost. He explains how in 1968, at the end of Rolling Thunder, the US Air Force ignored problems with their tactics, formations and missiles, while the US Navy undertook a complete reassessment of its air-to-air operations and formed its famous Topgun course. The second part of the book, covering Operation Linebacker in 1972, examines the results of these two approaches and how the Navy scored heavily against the MiGs while the Air Force continued to suffer losses to MiG-21s. Michel offers extraordinary insights into events that lead to this situation and the Air Force's efforts to reverse the trend. Accessible yet professional, Clashes is filled with valuable lessons that are as valid today as they were in the 1960s and 1970s. This book includes 15 photographs and 45 drawings and maps, including diagrams of both American and North Vietnamese formations and tactics.

Arizona's Elementary Foreign Language Mandate, Phase I: Now That We Have It, What Shall We Do?*

ABSTRACT This article describes the Elementary Foreign Language Task Force's efforts once the Arizona State Board of Education passed a mandate requiring that all elementary schools teach a foreign language. The Task Force identified the essential components of an effective program: 1) coordination; 2) commitment; 3) integration of foreign language with other subjects; 4) goals; 5) staffing; 6) materials; 7) instructional principles; 8) examples of delivery systems; 9) articulation; 10) grades involved; 11) languages to be taught; 12) funding and legislation; 13) evaluation plan; 14) methods of implementation. The Arizona Task Force reviewed several existing programs with national prominence. These preliminary review effortsle d to a proposed model in which Arizona's school districts were to decide the target language of instruction once they identified curricular and personnel resources. In response, Northern Arizona University launched a strong teacher‐training effort during the summer of 1992. As a result, many of Arizona's children currently benefit from foreign language instruction.

Methods of single fiber evaluation

AbstractResearch and development directed at improved fibers and fibrous materials normally utilizes relatively conventional apparatus for fiber, yarn, and fabric characterization. When desired, material properties are dictated by end‐use requirements which represent extremes in temperature resistance, strength‐to‐weight ratio, high impact velocities, etc.; novel equipment and techniques are likely to be necessary for such research. This is the case with the Air Force's effort in the area of materials evaluation. Techniques now in use are, for the most part, suitable for materials being researched, but improvements must be made for the next generation of fibrous materials. New methods of characterization will be needed to overcome shortcomings of present techniques and to adapt to an ever‐increasing requirement for the properties of all types of materials. For example, evaluation of thermally stable abrasion‐resistant finishes will require long‐term, high temperature flex testing. The laboratory equipment herein described represents a small fraction of the total in‐house capability of the Air Force Materials Laboratory for conducting exploratory research and development on advanced fibrous materials for aerospace systems.