Privatization Research Articles

Nothing to hide: How governments justify the adoption of ag-gag laws.

Mainstream practices for producing meat, eggs, and dairy raise numerous concerns regarding public health, animal welfare, and environmental integrity. However, governments worldwide have expanded anti-whistleblower legislation that constrains informed public debate. Since 2019, several Canadian provinces have adopted so-called "ag-gag" laws designed to prevent hidden-camera investigations on farms and meat processing facilities. How do governments across Canada justify ag-gag laws as serving the public interest? To what extent do agricultural industry interests shape government adoption of ag-gag laws? Using Freedom of Information requests and debate records from provincial legislatures, we find that biosecurity is the most prominent justification for ag-gag laws, and that governments exhibit a close, collaborative relationship with industry actors. This case demonstrates that when it comes to contested sites of capital accumulation, governments are drawing on new spatial-legal tools to protect the status quo interests of private industry by dissuading dissent, debate, and public scrutiny.

Pandemic Exercises: Lessons for a New Era in Pandemic Preparedness.

We led the last large-scale exercise conducted by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security before the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite COVID-19, pandemic exercises are more necessary than ever to prevent the loss of hard-fought gains achieved during COVID-19, keep policymakers from assuming all pandemics will be like COVID-19, and encourage continued engagement from policymakers in strengthening health resilience rather than returning to a cycle of panic and neglect. Pandemic exercises can also advance new solutions necessary to effectively meet the challenge of a future pandemic. Over 2 decades, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security has developed and conducted 6 large-scale, high-level tabletop pandemic exercises. These exercises and others were designed to increase policy focus on the most critical needs in pandemic preparedness and heighten the urgency for making these changes in the near future. Pandemic experts and policymakers alike have highlighted the importance of exercises to ensure that all key actors involved in pandemic response-including the government, healthcare, public health, emergency response, and private business and industry sectors-understand both the best practices and policies to pursue before a pandemic and what to do once a pandemic occurs. These advance efforts can enhance planning, resource allocation, and coordination ahead of time and identify unique gaps and barriers. This commentary describes the approach we have developed to create and conduct such exercises and highlights key considerations that were important to successful outcomes.

The evaluation of competition effect on rail fares using the difference-in-difference method through symmetric and lagged spans

Long-distance railway markets in Europe have become more competitive since the EU liberalisation packages. Countries like Austria, Czechia, Sweden, and Italy have experienced sustained competition, providing valuable insights into how open-access competition works. Italy's non-subsidised high-speed competition is especially interesting to study. While some researchers have studied the minimum price changes before and after a newcomer enters a route, more is needed about the duration of the effect and the impact on all fare types. Our paper estimates the competition's impact by observing the price dynamics of the incumbent company (Trenitalia) for different fare types over an extended period. We examine the Turin-Milan-Venice route where the competitor (Italo) entered the market during observation. We distinguish between different fare types through detailed descriptive analyses of the incumbent company's price behaviour. Using the difference-in-difference method, we obtain estimates of the effect for different time spans and check their robustness.Two methods are used to design difference-in-difference models: a “classical approach” that compares symmetrical intervals before and after entry and another approach based on the comparison of lagged intervals. The second method compares the specific span with the corresponding one, a year before to exclude the seasonal component. Our findings reveal significant price-reduction effects compared to the price dynamics in other market routes where competition had been introduced.

Business continuity management deployment, community resilience, and organisational resilience in private industry response to 2011 Ayutthaya flooding

AbstractThis research aims to investigate the role of community resilience in the relationship between business continuity management and organisational resilience, the focus on a real‐world event (flooding) and its impact on a community provides a concrete context that adds relevance to the study. To complete this research, a quantitative research design was used. A firm‐level survey of private industrial firms in Ayutthaya Province (n = 211) was conducted. Variables included three clusters of business continuity management practices, community resilience, and organisational resilience. The data were then analysed using descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling. The results showed that business continuity management practices contributed to organisational resilience. There were also interaction effects between community resilience and business continuity management practices, indicating that community resilience moderated the effect of business continuity management practices on organisational resilience following the floods. The study is the first to test the role of community resilience in the effectiveness of business continuity management practices on organisational resilience. This contributes to the research by providing a better explanation of how communities and organisations interact in organisational disaster response. The study only investigated a single context of disaster response (firms previously affected by the 2011 Ayutthaya flooding). The research focuses on industrial manufacturing and service firms and does not include retail firms. The research was conducted in historic perspective. Development of organisational resilience is affected by community resilience. Therefore, supporting community resilience through infrastructure, institutions, and other mechanisms is key for post‐disaster economic recovery. This provides a further reason for developing community resilience.

Small Public Exponent Brings More: Improved Partial Key Exposure Attacks against RSA

Let (N,e) be a public key of the RSA cryptosystem, and d be the corresponding private key. In practice, we usually choose a small e for quick encryption. In this paper, we improve partial private key exposure attacks against RSA with a small public exponent e. The key idea is that under such a setting we can usually obtain more information about the prime factor of N and then by solving a univariate modular polynomial with Coppersmith's method, N can be factored in polynomial time. Compared to previous results, we reduce the number of d's leaked bits needed to mount the attack by log_2 (e) bits. Furthermore, our experiments show that for 1024-bit N, our attack can achieve the theoretical bound on a personal computer, which verified our attack.

Revocable and Fog-Enabled Proxy Re-Encryption Scheme for IoT Environments.

As technology advances rapidly, a diverse array of Internet of Things (IoT) devices finds widespread application across numerous fields. The intelligent nature of these devices not only gives people more convenience, but also introduces new challenges especially in security when transmitting data in fog-based cloud environments. In fog computing environments, data need to be transmitted across multiple devices, increasing the risk of data being intercepted or tampered with during transmission. To securely share cloud ciphertexts, an alleged proxy re-encryption approach is a commonly adopted solution. Without decrypting the original ciphertext, such a mechanism permits a ciphertext intended for user A to be easily converted into the one intended for user B. However, to revoke the decryption privilege of data users usually relies on the system authority to maintain a user revocation list which inevitably increases the storage space. In this research, the authors come up with a fog-based proxy re-encryption system with revocable identity. Without maintaining the traditional user revocation list, the proposed scheme introduces a time-updated key mechanism. The time-update key could be viewed as a partial private key and should be renewed with different time periods. A revoked user is unable to obtain the renewed time-update key and hence cannot share or decrypt cloud ciphertexts. We formally demonstrate that the introduced scheme satisfies the security of indistinguishability against adaptively chosen identity and chosen plaintext attacks (IND-PrID-CPA) assuming the hardness of the Decisional Bilinear Diffie-Hellman (DBDH) problem in the random oracle model. Furthermore, compared with similar systems, the proposed one also has lower computational complexity as a whole.

Prevalence and factors associated with neck pain among research and development department staff in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundNeck pain is the most common musculoskeletal complexity with a high prevalence, especially in adults and the elderly.ObjectivesThe objective of our study is to investigate the prevalence and associated factors of neck pain in research and development department staff in Bangladesh.MethodologyData were collected through questionnaire-assisted interviews to investigate the prevalence and related factors of neck pain among 384 R&D employees aged 18–55 years in Bangladesh. We performed regression analysis on neck pain and associated risk factors to uncover its sociodemographic and occupational correlates.ResultsThe neck pain prevalence was high in this investigation, which is 35.7%, and of these, 27.6% affected the general working ability of the employees. The results indicated that people aged 40 to above years were more significantly to have neck pain, with an OR of 6.148 (p = 0.046), and BMI results indicated that those who were underweight were slightly significantly to have pain (p < 0.001). Again, educational qualification especially HSC or diploma OR 15.600 (p = 0.020) and those who often work on the computer were more significantly to have neck pain, with OR 8.801 (p = 0.078).ConclusionsThis study showed that the prevalence of neck pain was high among R&D workers in private industry. In this investigation, several factors associated with neck pain were found through logistic regression evaluation. The results of this study indicated that age, BMI, educational qualification, and those who frequently worked on computers had higher neck pain.

Examining the Smart-Prepaid Metering Systems in Ghana: Implications for Policy Reform

This study examined Smart-Prepaid Metering System deployed by ECG and NEDCo from the technical point of view. The analysis revealed that smart meters are far advantageous compared to traditional postpaid meters that are error prone- reading errors, generate a lot of system losses, and can be bypassed by power theft. The high losses that utility companies make because of non- payment of bills could be reduced to the barest minimum. The resistance to smart-prepaid meter adoption is due to the high bills consumers are experiencing. The rising bills were caused by the use of energy consuming appliances like electric stove, dryers, washers coupled with rise in tariff. The study recommends mass education using various fora like community engagement and electronic media to teach consumers the added values of the new meters and how to use them efficiently. Also, these meters should installed at all government institutions and private industries that have been persistently defaulting in bill payment.

Effects of temperature and storage duration on quality of an insect artificial diet.

Artificial diets are widely used to produce insects for research and education programs. Completed diets, in which the diets are fully made from individual ingredients and ready to use, often have high water activity, making them vulnerable to degradation. Proper storage is critical to maintaining diet quality, yet the storage conditions are not well investigated. In this study, we characterized the effects of storage conditions (temperatures and storage duration) on the quality of a diet capable of rearing both specialist and generalist insect species. The completed diet, produced by both private industry and a USDA-Agricultural Research Service laboratory, was exposed to varying temperatures during a 24-hour transit over 1600km. After transit, it was stored at 4°C for a total storage period of 28 days. In a separate experiment, the completed diet was stored immediately after diet production at five fixed temperatures (-20, 4, 22, 25, and 33°C) for up to 28 days. For both experiments, at 5 intervals after storage (1, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days), diet quality was accessed by life history parameters (survival, molting, and weight) of western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte) larvae, the most serious maize pest in the United States. Our results showed that exposure to varying temperatures between -2°C and 27°C for 24 hours had no significant impact on diet quality. However, extended storage (beyond 24 hours) at any of the fixed temperatures negatively affected diet quality. Insects reared on diets stored for over 24 hours at fixed temperatures ranging from -20°C to 33°C had significant declines in performance. Among the tested temperatures, -20°C and 4°C were found to be the most effective for preserving diet quality. At these low temperatures, there were no significant changes in insect weight and survival for diets stored within 21 and 28 days, respectively, though molting was significantly reduced within 7 days of storage. These findings provide the base of information on the storage conditions for completed diets, supporting the production of healthy insects.

Space Security and the Law of International Space Cooperation: The Need for Leadership and Coordination

In recent times space exploration and technological advancements hold prominent importance, the merger of space security and international collaboration must be paid attention too. Whereby, during the recent advancements in space technologies which include the proliferation of satellite and emergence of various space programs, the non-commercial and sustainable utilization of space must be taken care of. This paper explores and access the methodologies adopted and put into motion by nation having a well-established space program to address the difficulties faced while maintaining the space security along with ongoing space explorations. This research study will also pay emphasis towards analysing the already existing legal framework which directly governs various outer space activities, international organizations, role of governments and private industry players towards shaping of governance in outer space. In order to build trust and furthering the shared objectives in outer space and resolution of disputes among nation states, emphasis on how significant and valued international cooperation and diplomacy can prove to be. The various risks factors such as deliberate actions which are testing of anti-satellite weapons and dispersion of space debris in high volumes that the assets in space encounter are explored in this research. This study also discusses about case studies that have impacted the outer space and space explorations and other space missions positively as well as negatively in past instances. This study concludes the necessity of proactive leadership and teamwork in addressing the issue of space security and the legislation of international space cooperation. Roles of significant stakeholders, implementation of future course of actions with necessary changes to guide and provide policymakers in understanding the complexity of space reforms for peaceful utilization of outer space for both current and future human race.

Building meaningful collaboration in conservation genetics and genomics

AbstractGenetic diversity is the foundation of biodiversity, and preserving it is therefore fundamental to conservation practice. However, global conservation efforts face significant challenges integrating genetic and genomic approaches into applied management and policy. As collaborative partnerships are increasingly recognized as key components of successful conservation efforts, we explore their role and relevance in the Australian context, by engaging with key entities from across the conservation sector, including academia, botanic gardens, herbaria, seed banks, governmental/non-governmental organisations, private industry, museums, Traditional Owners, Indigenous rangers, and zoos and aquaria. By combining perspectives from these entities with comprehensive literature review, we identified five guiding principles for conservation genetic and genomic research and explored the different elements of, and approaches to, collaboration. Our reflections suggest that there is a substantial overlap in research interests across the Australian conservation sector, and our findings show that collaboration is increasing. We discuss approaches to building collaborative partnerships, the reciprocal benefits of collaborating, and some remaining challenges associated with data generation, data collection, and cross-cultural considerations. We emphasise the need for long-term national resourcing for sample and data storage and consistency in collecting, generating and reporting genetic data. While informed by the Australian experience, our goal is to support researchers and practitioners to foster meaningful collaborations that achieve measurable management outcomes in conservation genetics and genomics, both in Australia and globally.

Legitimation work in privatized criminal justice: Softening, shrinking, and signaling

How do private companies justify taking on criminal justice functions? Building on writing on legitimacy and privatization, this article describes three rhetorical practices intended to increase the legitimacy of private companies carrying out criminal justice functions: softening (obscuring the use of force); shrinking (demonstrating deference to the state); and signaling (proclaiming alignment with pro-social values). The article demonstrates the analytic utility of these categories by considering public-facing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reports produced by one prominent company in the private corrections industry (CoreCivic). The conceptual typology of legitimation work brings together several dynamics that are common in privatized criminal justice and provides an analytic toolkit for future study. A discussion considers how researchers can use this typology to examine legitimation work by other private firms and industries that engage the criminal justice system.

Challenges and Approaches to Establishing Multi-Pathogen Serosurveillance: Findings from the 2023 Serosurveillance Summit.

Multiplex-based serological surveillance is a valuable but underutilized tool to understand gaps in population-level exposure, susceptibility, and immunity to infectious diseases. Assays for which blood samples can be tested for antibodies against several pathogens simultaneously, such as multiplex bead immunoassays, can more efficiently integrate public health surveillance in low- and middle-income countries. On March 7-8, 2023 a group of experts representing research institutions, multilateral organizations, private industry, and country partners met to discuss experiences, identify challenges and solutions, and create a community of practice for integrated, multi-pathogen serosurveillance using multiplex bead assay technologies. Participants were divided into six working groups: 1) supply chain; 2) laboratory assays; 3) seroepidemiology; 4) data analytics; 5) sustainable implementation; and 6) use case scenarios. These working groups discussed experiences, challenges, solutions, and research needs to facilitate integrated, multi-pathogen serosurveillance for public health. Several solutions were proposed to address challenges that cut across working groups.

Integrating social policy dimensions into entrepreneurship education: a perspective from India

Social innovation and social enterprise are often supposed as methodological solutions to address multifaceted socio-economic problems, due to the sharing of ideas and their involvement of stakeholders from different sectors. This cooperative treatise (Ziegler in Innov Eur J Soc Sci Res 30:388–405, 2017) is striking to legislators across the political gamut. This research is therefore positioned within the broader literature on social innovation and its policy relevance; even though social innovation is not a novel thought, the application of social innovation as a policy idea and its part in relation to the restructuring of the prevailing welfare establishment has gained momentum in recent years. Hence, in their paper the authors will examine how social enterprise as a concept can act as a positive catalyst for influencing policy (i.e. public and social) in the developing world. To meet the overall aim of this paper, the authors employed a case study of India and applied a three-step approach, namely: (1) a literature review process that explored a variety of policy methods that can influence on the accomplishment and measurement of social enterprises; (2) a policy survey, which entailed desk-based searches of national and state-level policies, followed by stakeholder consultation queries to complement online results; and (3) qualitative interviews with stakeholders from government agencies and departments at national and state levels, including the Ministry of Finance, representatives of private industry, chambers of commerce, social investors, social enterprise networks, and advocacy leads. The research findings that are presented in this paper were funded by Delhi School of Public Policy and Governance, Institute of Eminence at the University of Delhi.

Circumstances and Pathological Findings in Civilian Helicopter-Related Fatalities.

Helicopters are used worldwide in a range of commercial and private industries and are particularly useful in northern Australia due to the sparse population scattered over large distances with remote regions difficult to access by any other means of transport. Nine civilian helicopter-related fatalities were reported to the Northern Territory coroner between January 2004 and December 2023. The victims were all male (age range, 34-74 years; mean, 52 years). All fatal crashes occurred in remote areas, the majority on cattle stations. Pilots were the sole occupants in 5/9 incidents; in 4 incidents, there were injured survivors. All fatal incidents involved Robinson piston engine helicopters (Robinson R44 models in 2 incidents and Robinson R22 models in the remaining 7). Scene investigations, postmortem examinations, and ancillary investigations were frequently hampered by decomposition of the remains, resulting from difficult search operations and delayed location, retrieval, and storage. Head injuries were present in all cases with chest and spinal injuries in more than half. Integrated assessment of injuries with toxicological and aviation investigations facilitated understanding of the crash dynamics.

Outlook on the future role of robots and AI in material recovery facilities: Implications for U.S. recycling and the workforce

This study offers a comprehensive discussion of the future role of robots and artificial intelligence (AI) in U.S. recycling under different policy environments and its impact on the workforce. The state of recycling in the U.S. is changing rapidly, with techno-economic developments transforming the efficacy and sustainability of recycling and the workforce it employs. This study describes the technical, social, and policy drivers that influence U.S. municipal solid waste (MSW) management and explores pathways for more sustainable outcomes by focusing on different technology options for the sorting of recyclables in material recovery facilities (MRFs). This study presents four distinct scenario storylines for U.S. recycling by 2050 that contrast recycling and robotic futures, particularly with MRFs that maximize material recovery, worker experience, and economic competitiveness, respectively. This study finds that a recycling scenario defined by strong policy support for recycling and the addition of increasingly flexible, collaborative technology in the form of robotics coupled with AI-driven vision systems, offers the greatest potential for better results. Less certain is the role of MRFs by 2050 based on the full cost for public actors and substantial changes in private industry. Insights from this study can directly inform future techno-economic analyses, technology decisions, and policy recommendations.

Policy Learning and the Diffusion of Autonomous Vehicle Policy in the American States

This study examines the multifaceted mechanisms driving the adoption of autonomous vehicle (AV) policy in the United States. Drawing from diffusion and network governance theories, it explores the intricate interplay between state governments, private industry, and shared mobility services in shaping AV policies. Several states like California, Nevada, and Texas have emerged as frontrunners in AV testing and innovation. However, policymakers grapple with unique challenges related to AV technology, including safety, liability, and infrastructure enhancement, necessitating innovative policy solutions. As AVs signify a transformative shift in transportation, state governments assume a pivotal role in policy innovation and experimentation. Using a blend of dyadic quantitative analysis and qualitative interviews, this study examines to what extent policy learning predominantly drives AV policy adoption. In doing so, we explore specific diffusion mechanisms, including policy learning and competitive dynamics, to understand how they shape the early adoption of AV policies across states. We find substantial evidence for interstate learning facilitated by intergovernmental organizations and the private sector.

Sending the Right Signals: A Theoretical Model to Understand How Interpretative Leadership Capacity Advances Cross-Sector Collaboration

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are increasingly asked to facilitate cross-sector collaboration between state, private industry, and nonprofit actors and organizations. Growing evidence indicates certain contexts and conditions support cross-sector col-laboration more than others. However, there is still limited understanding of how, spe-cifically, process and practice produce leadership activity necessary to advance cross-sector collaboration. The purpose of this study is to examine illustrations of how the leadership practice of interpretative signaling emerges in facilitated committees work-ing to enable cross-sector collaboration. Relying on a Leadership-as-Practice (LAP) frame, this video ethnography of Collaborative Leadership Learning Group (CLLG) sessions establishes a theoretical model helpful to capturing how everyday dialogic, re-lational, and socio-material interactions emerge leadership between committee mem-bers attempting to enable cross-sector collaboration. Leadership practice was primarily connected to informal authority that was dispersed through networks of people and community systems. Four forms of interpretative signaling are illustrated as a general practice in the theoretical model.

Methodology for the design of a nanosatellite telecommunication system in S-Band based on Software for Digital Mission Engineering

Abstract A trend in the development of nanosatellite platforms for technology demonstration has increased in both private industry and academic projects. Communication link design plays a crucial role in the success of space missions, enabling efficient and reliable data transmission between satellites and ground stations. In this context, the use of advanced tools such as System Tool Kit (STK) has gained significant importance by enabling a comprehensive analysis of the technical and operational aspects of the communication link. In an effort to make the future design of the communications subsystem payload on a nanosatellite more efficient and accessible, this paper shows a methodology for the efficient use of STK to perform link analysis.

Corporate structure, partial privatization, and wage inequality: Evidence from China's split share structure reform

This paper examines the effects of privatizing China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) on wage distribution and the welfare of the economy. Privatizing profitable SOEs can narrow wage inequality and improve welfare, and it is however accompanied by a business dynamism effect that can widen the skilled-unskilled wage gap. Using China's split share structure reform in 2005 as a quasi-natural experiment, we empirically demonstrate for profitable SOEs a positive relationship between partial privatization and wage gap. Our findings are consistent with the plan to wind down unprofitable SOEs that would not survive without government subsidies.