Government Scientists Research Articles

Family-Related Determinants and Implications of Low Female Enrolment in Electrical Trade in Adamawa State

This study determined the perceived family-related determinants and implications of low enrolment of female students in electrical trade in technical colleges of Adamawa State. Two research questions were answered and two null hypotheses formulated to guide the study were tested at 0.05 level of significance. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of 13 Electrical Installation and Maintenance Work Trade (EIMWT) teachers and 129 parents of National Technical Certificate Two (NTCII) EIMWT students (either father or mother) in three Government Science Technical Colleges of Adamawa State. There was no sampling done as the entire population was used. A researcher developed 20-item questionnaire was used for the collection of data. Three lecturers from Electrical Technology Education Department of Modibbo Adama University Yola, validated the questionnaire. A reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was established to be 0.87 using Cronbach Alpha method. The research questions were answered using weighted mean while t-test of independent samples was used to test the hypotheses. The study revealed low contribution from the female gender to family income in households and increased level of dependency of the female gender on the males in Adamawa State as major perceived family-related implications. The study therefore recommended among others that Adamawa State Government in collaboration with corporate bodies should embark on an awareness campaign in order to enlighten parents and family members on the prospects of EIMWT especially to female gender. The study concludes that mechanisms should be put in place to improve female enrolment into EIMWT as a way of investing in the education of females in view of breaking cycles of poverty and social vices that the females might be lured into.

The Menghidupkan Kembali Spirit Politik Ilmu Pemerintahan

Ilmu pemerintahan pada dasarnya adalah ilmu yang mempelajari ilmu politik, dimana dalam seberapa aspek dari ilmu pemerintahan seperti teori, metode dan metodologi tidak jauh berbeda dengan ilmu politik. Tulisan ini mencoba menjelaskan dan menjabarkan hubungan antara ilmu pemerintahan dengan ilmu politik. Sejauh ini ilmu pemerintahan hanya mempelajari birokrasi, administrasi publik, manajemen dan kebijakan publik. Dengan hanya dipamahi sebagai ilmu administrasi membuat ilmu pemerintahan hanya menjadi seperti ilmu perkantoran. Hal tersebut dikarenakan adanya warisan kolonial dan suburnya neoliberalisme. Untuk itu tulisan ini akan mencoba menghidupkan kembali roh ilmu politik ke dalam ilmu pemerintahan yang akan menjelaskan bahwasannya pada realitasnya aspek pemerintahan sangat dipengaruhi oleh aspek politik. Dan memberikan sebuah alternatif baru terhadap eksistensi ilmu pemerintahan yang berbasis untuk memuliakan rakyat.

Dekolonisasi dan Indegenisasi Ilmu Pemerintahan

Sindrom pasca-kolonial sulit dilepaskan pada negara-negara berkembang. Hampir semua bidang kehidupan masih terkoneksi dengan praktik-praktik kolonialisasi, tak terkecuali perkembangan Ilmu Pemerintahan. Perkembangan modernitas dan globalisasi pada dunia ketiga semakin membuat teori-teori ilmu sosial lokal menjadi terpinggirkan. Perkembangan Ilmu Pemerintahan tidak cukup mampu menjelaskan arah perkembangan global dan menjawab problematika lokal, secara akademis dan praktis. Seperti pada penggunaan konsepsi Ilmu Pemerintahan dari perspektif bestuurskunde, American politics, dan good governance adalah contoh formula peradaban barat, yang ditransmisikan dalam bentuk kolonialisme akademik. Eksistensi Ilmu Pemerintahan secara akademik dan praktis penting untuk mentransformasi model kearifan lokal sebagai perspektif baru. Kearifan ilmiah sebagai sumber inspirasi Ilmu pemerintahan secara akademis dan praktis harus dibebaskan dan dipribumisasi dalam menjawab problematika pemerintahan. Metode penelitian bersifat deskriptif kualitatif dengan pendekatan dekolonisasi. Teknik pengolahan data melalui dialektika pragmatik, dengan memformulasikan sintesis keilmuan baru. Hasil studi ini menegaskan bahwa Ilmu Pemerintahan sebagai pengetahuan pembebasan harus ditransformasi dari semangat liberasi (dekolonisasi) menuju diskursus ilmiah khas kearifan lokal keindonesiaan (indigenisasi). Kearifan lokal keindonesiaan seperti konsepsi Wanua di Soppeng, Sulawesi Selatan, dan Pamong Praja-Birokrasi Jawa, Budaya Politik Bugis-Makassar, sampai model kebijakan Kerajaan Mataram Islam adalah wujud keilmuan pemerintahan Indonesia sebagai khazanah kearifan ilmiah. Strategi dekolonisasi dan indegenisasi Ilmu Pemerintahan, dibutuhkan untuk menjelaskan problematika kepemerintahan yang tidak dapat dijelaskan keilmuan lain. Karena Ilmu Pemerintahan bukan sekedar untuk meningkatkan keterampilan pejabat pemerintah atau untuk menginspirasi praktik-praktik pelayanan pemerintahan, tetapi juga untuk membangun tradisi politik dan birokrasi yang berbasis pada realitas sosialnya.

The Behind the Dense Fog of Sovereignty

Government Science has not become a scientific discipline and has not become a perspective in reading phenomena in society with government theories. Where the basic function of government science is to enlighten the government, it must criticize the government, not to insult and deny it, but instead have the aim to glorify, prioritize and strengthen the government. To return the science of government to the ultimate goal of a sovereign people, it is necessary to critically review it from the perspective of decolonization, reconstitution and repolitization.

On the issue of expert evaluation of the effectiveness of social work with migrants in Russia

The paper presents an analysis of the state of the sphere of social work with migrants and problems in this sphere in Russia through the prism of expert assessments obtained during interviews with employees of government bodies, non-profit organizations, volunteer movements, and scientists. The main difficulties that migrants face during the adaptation are paperwork, access to information, legal and financial difficulties, employment issues.Analysis of the opinions of experts made it possible to identify measures of social work with migrants aimed at raising awareness, legal literacy of foreign citizens, increasing their legal protection, improving access to health care and education, housing, and the labor market, improving the professional skills of migrants and their knowledge of the Russian language, the history and socio-cultural foundations of the life of Russian society.Based on the results of the interview, the recommendations of experts in the field of social work with migrants and the possibility of applying unified social work practices that can improve the effectiveness of the system of social work with migrants and their families in Russia were highlighted. According to experts, integration with the host community allows migrants to adapt faster and more efficiently. In this regard, the role of non-profit organizations (national cultural organizations for the preservation and development of cultures, the House of Friendship of Peoples) that preserve the cultures of peoples and develop a dialogue between them is growing.Experts emphasize that in the sphere of social work, both at the state level and in the work of non-profit organizations, more attention should be paid to the possibility of applying unified practices that can improve the effectiveness of the system of social work with migrants and their families in Russia.

Hermite Non-Uniformly Correlated Array Beams and Its Propagation PropertiesSupported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFA0705000), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 91750201, 11525418, 11947240, 11974218, 12004218, and 11904087), the Local Science and Technology Development Project of the Central Government (Grant No. YDZX20203700001766), and Innovation Group of Jinan (Grant No. 2018GXRC010).

We study the evolution of spectral intensity and degree of coherence of a new class of partially coherent beams, Hermite non-uniformly correlated array beams, in free space and in turbulence, based on the extended Huygens–Fresnel integral. Such beams possess controllable rectangular grid distributions due to multi-self-focusing propagation property. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that adjusting the initial beam parameters, mode order, shift parameters, array parameters and correlation width plays a role in resisting intensity and degree of coherence degradation effects of the turbulence.

FDA Public Workshop Summary: Advancing Animal Models for Antibacterial Drug Development.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hosted a public workshop entitled "Advancing Animal Models for Antibacterial Drug Development" on 5 March 2020. The workshop mainly focused on models of pneumonia caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii The program included discussions from academic investigators, industry, and U.S. government scientists. The potential use of mouse, rabbit, and pig models for antibacterial drug development was presented and discussed.

Restrictions on the Use of Public Health Research at US Government Agencies in the Name of Transparency

Transparency measures at government agencies are essential in order to ensure scientific integrity and public trust in the government’s scientific output. Agency scientists, supported by a commitment to a rigorous independent science process, scientific integrity policies, and appropriate transparency measures, should be trusted to analyze available data and issue policies that consider and value the weight of the evidence. We evaluated how recent initiatives at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Interior (DOI) would block the agencies from using many kinds of scientific studies vital to decisionmaking, including studies that rely on personal health data, confidential business information, intellectual property, or older studies for which the authors or data sources may not be accessible. Comparing requirements for industry and all other submissions, we found that these proposals would protect industry data and confidential business information more adequately than public health information. Both directives would allow agencies to use the degree to which the underlying data is public to judge a study’s credibility, which would mean many types of studies done in the environmental health field would be discounted. We analyzed how the placement of unnecessary restrictions on the kinds of studies that agencies can consider stands to affect decisionmaking on everything from air pollution standards to water quality issues to chemical regulation in consumer products. The speaker will discuss the difference between genuine transparency needs in government science and these two misguided agency rules. Examples of how these policies could impact the foundation of public environmental and public health protection will be outlined and alternative recommendations for improved government scientific transparency that is protective of public health will be laid out.

Safeguarding Science from Attack: Data and Trends from the Trump Administration and How to Strengthen the Role of Science-Based Decisionmaking

Background/Aim: Protecting the environment and public health often depends on the effective incorporation of science into the federal decisionmaking process. However, the Trump administration has undermined these safeguards such that environmental hazards like air pollution and harmful chemicals are increasingly affecting communities across the US. It is worth analyzing how science is being attacked by the Trump administration and how to strengthen the role of science in the decisionmaking process. Methods: We created a searchable public database to track and analyze attacks on science that have occurred since the inauguration of the Trump administration. A rigorous and systematic set of criteria were used to assess what constitutes an attack on science and how to categorize the attack. Results: Over one hundred attacks on science have been carried out by dozens of federal agencies that follow six trends: anti-science rules, censoring scientists, manipulating studies, making data inaccessible or halting its collection, politicizing funding, sidelining scientific advisory committees, and restricting conference attendance. Conclusions: Our analysis suggests that attacks on science follow a set of patterns that future presidential administrations can guard against. By analyzing data and trends associated with the Trump administration’s attacks on science, we offer specific policy recommendations to combat them, including restoring the role of scientific experts in policymaking, bolstering scientific integrity, improving public access to government research, strengthening conflicts of interest policies, restoring protections for government scientists, encouraging public engagement in the rulemaking process, and safeguarding fundamental processes of a healthy democracy.

Exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 mortality in the United States

United States government scientists estimate that COVID-19 may kill tens of thousands of Americans. Many of the pre-existing conditions that increase the risk of death in those with COVID-19 are the same diseases that are affected by long-term exposure to air pollution. We investigated whether long-term average exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 death in the United States. We collected data for more than 3,000 counties in the United States (representing 98% of the population) up to April 22, 2020. We fit negative binomial mixed models using county-level COVID-19 deaths as the outcome and county-level long-term average of PM2.5 as the exposure. In the main analysis, we adjusted by 20 potential confounding factors including population size, age distribution, population density, time since the beginning of the outbreak, time since state’s issuance of stay-at-home order, hospital beds, number of individuals tested, weather, and socioeconomic and behavioral variables such as obesity and smoking. We included a random intercept by state to account for potential correlation in counties within the same state. We conducted more than 68 additional sensitivity analyses. We found that an increase of only 1 μg/m3 in PM2.5 is associated with an 8% increase in the COVID-19 death rate (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2%, 15%). The results were statistically significant and robust to secondary and sensitivity analyses. A small increase in long-term exposure to PM2.5 leads to a large increase in the COVID-19 death rate. Despite the inherent limitations of the ecological study design, our results underscore the importance of continuing to enforce existing air pollution regulations to protect human health both during and after the COVID-19 crisis. The data and code are publicly available so our analyses can be updated routinely.

Sizing and Control Algorithms of a Hybrid Energy Storage System Based on Fuel Cells

Growing consciousness of the threat posed by man-made climate change has spurred government institutions, industry, and science to find clean fuels to power economic activity. Fuel cells powered by hydrogen are one of the steps in gaining clean energy. To improve the efficiency of the fuel cell, the hybrid solutions are required. This article shows a new approach to the design and control of a hybrid energy storage system for portable applications. The methodology allows us to optimize the desired physical parameters of the elements (weight or size) in order to withstand the connected load power demand. Such an approach allows us to minimize weight, which is essential in portable systems. The methodology was proven by building a technology demonstrator. The measurements of physical objects verified the electrical parameters received during simulation and allowed a lower weight of the system, compared to the system based only on Li-ion batteries.

Predictive Scenarios of the Russian Oil Industry; with a Discussion on Macro and Micro Dynamics of Open Innovation in the COVID 19 Pandemic

The decrease in the economic activity level around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic spread has led to a sharp decrease in the crude oil price and provoked an oil war outbreak in the global energy market. The current situation has provoked the need for a total decrease in the crude oil production in the world. Considering that Russia is one of the main oil exporters on the world market, the need to determine the supply and demand levels for Russian oil is becoming relevant. The aim of the paper is to model predictive scenarios of Russian oil industry development, considering the specifics of the current economic environment given the COVID-19 pandemic. The multifactor correlation modeling method was used to form the system of indicators determining the level of demand and supply for Russian oil used and the total level of their influence. The functions determine the probability of implementing various scenarios of oil industry development depending on the predicted values of demand and supply. The three-sigma rule and the fuzzy sets method were used to estimate three scenarios of oil industry development for 2020–2021. Changes in revenues of the industry under the influence of forecast indicators of supply and demand for oil have been assessed and the probability of implementation of each of the scenarios has been reasoned. The results obtained are of a practical nature and can be used by government agencies, financial intermediaries, and scientists to diagnose Russian oil industry development. The results will be useful for oil companies to develop a strategy of open innovations for further design of the scientific information field for the effective functioning of the industry in complete uncertainty conditions.

A review on the 40th anniversary of the first regulation of drinking water disinfection by-products.

Water disinfection, primarily by chlorination, is one of the greatest achievements of public health. However, more than half a century after its introduction, studies in the 1970s reported that (a) chlorine interacted with organic matter in the water to form disinfection by-products (DBPs); (b) two DBPs, chloroform and bromoform, both trihalomethanes (THMs), were rodent carcinogens; (c) three brominated THMs were mutagenic; in six studies chlorinated drinking waters in the United States and Canada were mutagenic; and (d) in one epidemiological study there was an association between bladder cancer mortality and THM exposure. This led the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to issue its first DBP regulation in 1979. Forty years later, >600 DBPs have been characterized, 20/22 have been shown to be rodent carcinogens, >100 have been shown to be genotoxic, and 1000s of water samples have been found to be mutagenic. Data support a hypothesis that long-term dermal/inhalation exposure to certain levels of the three brominated THMs, as well as oral exposure to the haloacetic acids, combined with a specific genotype may increase the risk for bladder cancer for a small but significant population group. Improved water-treatment methods and stricter regulations have likely reduced such risks over the years, and further reductions in potential risk are anticipated with the application of advanced water-treatment methods and wider application of drinking water regulations. This 40-year research effort is a remarkable example of sustained cooperation between academic and government scientists, along with public/private water companies, to find answers to a pressing public health question.

Policy responses and government science advice for the COVID 19 pandemic in the Philippines: January to April 2020

In this paper we examine two policy questions about the COVID 19 pandemic in the Philippines. These are science informed policy questions that will have to take into consideration a large degree of uncertainties in outcomes. The first question is on when to lift the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) as informed by epidemiological modelling. The second deals on how the Philippines can respond to a future pandemic crisis. We review the Philippine government's responses and introduce the complicating scientific, social, and political contexts for both questions and address proposals for strengthening the science advisory structures. We propose a permanent science advisory body for emergencies with the widest source of expertise as needed.

ILMU PEMERINTAHAN: ANTI PADA POLITIK, LUPA PADA HUKUM, DAN ENGGAN PADAADMINISTRASI

Ilmu Pemerintahan (IP) adalah khas Indonesia, yang tidak dikenal di belahan dunia lain. Tetapi IP selalumemperoleh stimulus eksternal: kolonialisme, developmentalisme dan neoliberalisme. Para pendirimembuatIP untuk alasan aksiologis-praktis, tanpa disertai dengan ontologi dan epistemologi yang memadai. Secaraontologis, konsep pemerintah merupakan tradisi Anglo Saxon, tetapi pemerintahan diambil dari tradisihukum Eropa Kontinental dan bestuurskunde warisan kolonial, yang di negeri asal disebut administrasi. IPsukses mencetak banyak birokrat, tetapi ia tidak membawa roh “pemerintahan rakyat” dan tidak sanggupmencerahkan praktik pemerintahan Indonesia, melainkan hanya ikut menjaga law and order yang diwarisidari beamtenstaat kolonial. Developmentalisme dan administrasi negara datang mewarnai Orde Baru,sekaligus juga membentuk sosok IP. Dekade 1990-an Ilmu Politik datang melakukan ‘subversi’ terhadapIP, yang sanggup melucuti warna hukum, tetapi tidak merekonstruksi IP. Di era reformasi, studi politiksemakin jauh dari pemerintahan, dan IP mengikuti tradisi neoliberalisme, dengan memahami pemerintahansebagai manajemen publik dan governance. Hari ini, IP anti pada politik, lupa pada hukum, dan engganpada administrasi. Ia mengalami krisis identitas, yang tidak sanggup membedakan antara AdministrasiPublik dan IP. Krisis epistemologi juga terjadi, yakni klaim IP sebagai disiplin ilmu tidak disertai denganpenggunaan pemerintahan sebagai subjek dan perspektif untuk memahami dan menjelaskan fenomenasosia

Sublethal Endpoints in Non-target Organism Testing for Insect-Active GE Crops.

Historically, genetically engineered (GE) plants that have incorporated genes conferring insect protection have primarily used Cry proteins derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to achieve their insecticidal phenotype. As a result, regulators have developed a level of familiarity and confidence in reviewing plants incorporating these insecticidal proteins. However, new technologies have been developed that produce GE plants that incorporate pest protection by triggering an RNA interference (RNAi) response or proteins other than Bt Cry proteins. These technologies have new modes of action. Although the overall assessment paradigm for GE plants is robust, there are ongoing discussions about the appropriate tests and measurement endpoints needed to inform non-target arthropod assessment for technologies that have a different mode of action than the Bt Cry proteins. As a result, increasing attention is being paid to the use of sublethal endpoints and their value for environmental risk assessment (ERA). This review focuses on the current status and history of sublethal endpoint use in insect-active GE crops, and evaluates the future use of sublethal endpoints for new and emerging technologies. It builds upon presentations made at the Workshop on Sublethal Endpoints for Non-target Organism Testing for Non-Bt GE Crops (Washington DC, USA, 4–5 March 2019), and the discussions of government, academic and industry scientists convened for the purpose of reviewing the progress and status of sublethal endpoint testing in non-target organisms.

LEVIATHAN AND KRAKEN: STATES, CORPORATIONS, AND POLITICAL ECONOMY

ABSTRACTIn our politico‐philosophical bestiary, no monster has historically been more prominent than the Leviathan, the whale of the Book of Job, transformed by Hobbes, which has long been ubiquitous as a metaphor or as a signifier in all intellectual traditions touching upon the political. Like the state itself, we argue, the Leviathan has played an outsized role in the way we theorize and imagine relations of sovereignty in the world. This essay seeks to add a new hermeneutical creature to the bestiary: the Kraken. Said to be huge and to lurk in Norway's icy waters, the Kraken first emerged in the accounts of natural philosophers in the eighteenth century, at the very moment when political economy was becoming the premier science of governance in Europe. Leviathan is an emblem of a kind of state that no longer exists and has never existed, and it remains our most potent emblem of the state's reification, a relentlessly compelling figure that has long blinded historians to alternate sovereignties within, across, and outside the physical territories of states. From stateless financial capital to multinational corporations acting like states on the world stage, such forms of sovereignty are an essential feature of the global politics we are now living. These forms are not new, nor is their emblem: the Kraken.

The early years of Sequoia and Kings Canyon Science: Building a research program

This paper provides a history of the development of the scientific research program at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (SEKI) during the period 1968–1994 from the perspective of one of the scientists involved. The years following the 1968 hiring of Bruce Kilgore as the first park-based research scientist at SEKI saw the growth of a research program that included three permanent research-grade scientists and their support staff. This nucleus was successful in attracting both outside funding and leading university and government scientists to work on issues of importance to the parks and to society at large, topics that included fire ecology and management, black bears, wilderness impacts, acid deposition, and climate change. During this time the SEKI scientists’ role expanded from one focused primarily on the personal research on issues of immediate importance to the park, to increasing responsibilities for marketing and coordinating a growing program of collaborative research that also addressed regional and national priorities. This, in turn, required that the park scientists increasingly become generalists, able to converse in a number of scientific disciplines as well as communicate with non-scientists. Finally, keys to success and lessons learned are discussed.

International aid, trade and investment and access and allocation

The access to goods and their allocation (who gets what, when, where and how) is one of the analytical problems of the 2009 Earth System Governance (ESG) Science and Implementation Plan (Biermann, in: Earth System Governance project report, IHDP no. 1, International Human Dimensions Program, Bonn). The 2009 Science Plan distinguishes three dimensions of access: fair outcomes, adequate pathways and effective reallocation. This paper answers the question: how have scholars used concepts related to access and allocation in their research related to international aid, trade and investment. In other words, what have we learnt from the environmental governance literature about who gets what, when and why in the areas of international trade, aid or investment? To date there has not been an attempt to synthesise the findings of this research and this is the gap that this paper addresses. The paper first highlights the key themes in the literature on access and allocation from a justice perspective. It analyses the literature of the ESG and related communities over the last 10 years on international aid, trade, and investment, drawing out the important issues and findings. This study found that most papers applied empirical case study methodologies, highlighted how governance deficits contributed to environmental injustice and were normatively premised on the need to solve the particular and case based problems of global inequality related to resource use and distribution. However, existing studies fell short of identifying the conceptual preconditions and ideal parameters for fair access and allocation of environmental resources in international economic systems. Future research is needed on the extent, nature and causes of the underlying normative and structural elements of the international economic systems that entrench unfair access and allocation of environmental goods and services; on the nature and protagonists of environmental rights and duties and on the elements of governance that may guarantee fair access and allocation in international trade, aid and investment.

Information Seeking Behaviour of Post Graduate Students of Government Science College, Bangalore: A Study

This Study was designed to examine information seeking behaviour of PG Students at Government Science College Library, Bangalore. The study intended with an aim to explore the information usage among PG students. Closed ended questionnaire was used to collect the data from respondents. A total of 200 samples out of 319 students. Among the200 hundred questionnaires distributed, 127 were completely answered and returned. The findings of this study revealed the information needs of PG students in Government Science College. The majority of students who are visiting library are females; also, the majority of the PG students are visiting library once in a week. The main purpose of the visit to the library is for accessing exam related information for their study.