Policy Research Organizations Research Articles

Evaluation of Transborder Crimes in Nigeria

Transborder crimes are criminal activities that transverse borders of two or more countries. Notable crimes that flourish across Nigerian’s borders are illicit drug trafficking, Terrorism, proliferation of small arms and light weapons ( SALWs), Human trafficking, internet fraud, oil theft, smuggling of goods among others. All these activities have precipitated security and economic complications across West Africa sub region. The 2022 Global peace Index ranked Nigeria 143 among 163 independent Nations and Territories according to the level of peacefulness while Cato Institute a Washington DC based public policy research organization rated Nigeria as the most unsafe place on earth after Iraq. This phenomenal rise of criminal ratings of Nigeria had attracted local and international attentions of scholars, policy makers and governments. Thus, this study investigates Transborders crimes in Nigeria using qualitative research methodology by reviewing the existing literature and conducting in-depth interviews of 85 informants selected randomly from government establishments and among stakeholders in Nigeria. The study relied on rational choice theory and behavioural theory as theoretical frameworks. The study revealed that Transborder crimes thrive across the West African nations because of many factors which include but not limited to the implementation of ECOWAS protocol on free movement of persons and goods, porous borders, youth unemployment, poverty, poorly trained and ill-equipped security personnel, corruption, poor inter-agency coordination and collaboration. The study concluded that despite various measures by the Nigerian government and International organizations like ECOWAS, UNO, AU to checkmate the scourge, the desired results have not been achieved. The study therefore recommended effective border monitoring and management, job creation, community policing initiative, increased military actions and surveillance, among others as panacea to Transborder crimes detection, reduction and prevention.

Canadian K-12 Schooling During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons and Reflections

The COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented disruption to education and schooling at the end of the 2019-20 school year. Operating in a context of great uncertainty, education leaders were tasked with making key decisions with potentially far-reaching impacts on the educational and mental and physical health of students and families. Drawing on 9 cross-sectoral focus groups with school board administrators, representatives from education industry partners, and K-12 educational policy research organizations, this paper provides a historical record of the evolution of decision-making and points to promising lines of inquiry and lessons that can be learned from this moment in education.

Agro-Industrial Food Waste as a Low-Cost Substrate for Sustainable Production of Industrial Enzymes: A Critical Review

The grave environmental, social, and economic concerns over the unprecedented exploitation of non-renewable energy resources have drawn the attention of policy makers and research organizations towards the sustainable use of agro-industrial food and crop wastes. Enzymes are versatile biocatalysts with immense potential to transform the food industry and lignocellulosic biorefineries. Microbial enzymes offer cleaner and greener solutions to produce fine chemicals and compounds. The production of industrially important enzymes from abundantly present agro-industrial food waste offers economic solutions for the commercial production of value-added chemicals. The recent developments in biocatalytic systems are designed to either increase the catalytic capability of the commercial enzymes or create new enzymes with distinctive properties. The limitations of low catalytic efficiency and enzyme denaturation in ambient conditions can be mitigated by employing diverse and inexpensive immobilization carriers, such as agro-food based materials, biopolymers, and nanomaterials. Moreover, revolutionary protein engineering tools help in designing and constructing tailored enzymes with improved substrate specificity, catalytic activity, stability, and reaction product inhibition. This review discusses the recent developments in the production of essential industrial enzymes from agro-industrial food trash and the application of low-cost immobilization and enzyme engineering approaches for sustainable development.

STRESS AMONG LADY HEALTH WORKERS: A SPECIAL REVIEW OF PAKISTAN

Lady health workers are playing a central role for community health, upgrading of nations, all over Pakistan, particularly their role for polio eradication. Lady health workers faced whole set of troubles, in equally in their family as well as in their professional lives. They take part in their duty as a companion, mothers as well as an earner. Objectives of research are to explain in what ways lady health works feel stress. To unpack the causes of stress: among lady health workers. There is review of 22 research papers related to lady health workers ‘fields activities and stress felt during job while maintaining their customary role that overlap responsibilities. Hence, customary laws are one of them means of stress. To working lady health workers, encompass through. The current review article focuses on working lady health workers stress, several aspects in their work setting, which is grounded in their nature of work, whereas during hard-to-reach pockets during community engagement activities face issues related to negative attitude that also increase the stress. After reading the maximum research papers it is concluded that there is lack of research on issues faced by LHV’s. Policy makers and research organization are not taking actual information on the base of subjectivity that may be differ at al level, so the papers explained regards the managerial issue’s, low educated LHV’s. Government new policies and less educated LHV’s that facing issue regarding data sharing and field work. Keywords: Stress, Lady health workers, Community development, Rural areas, Campaign

Optimal harvesting of farmed salmon during harmful algal blooms

This paper studies the optimal harvesting decisions of a salmon farmer that faces the risk of harmful algal bloom as well as market uncertainty. The salmon farmer seeks to maximize the financial value of the fish farm by determining the optimal course of actions during the algal bloom, and the optimal time to harvest after the bloom. Specifically, we compare the options to perform an early harvest and to wait in order to learn about the true algal risk. We extend this framework by taking into account the option to move the salmon to an algal free location. To illustrate the results and investigate the robustness of our model, we present two case studies with realistic industry parameters from Norway and Chile. We find that there is a significant value associated with the ability of salmon farmers to actively learn about the true risk of losing the biomass. This value is strongly affected by the availability of frequent and reliable information about the algal risk emphasizing the importance of communication between industry actors, as well as facilitation of effective information flow by policy makers and research organizations.

Consumer intention to purchase GM soybean oil in China: effects of information consistency and source credibility

ABSTRACT Consumers’ potential reactions toward genetically modified (GM) foods affect their commercial feasibility and determine the decisions of economic agents. Inconsistent information on GM foods has created a sense of uncertainty in Chinese consumers’ mind. This paper studies how the information about risks and benefits of GM foods from major sources influences Chinese consumer intention to purchase GM soybean oil. This analysis uses data from a survey of 880 residents randomly sampled from 13 cities in Jiangsu province. Using a multinomial logit model, we analyze the effects of information consistency and source credibility. The results show because of new information about 17.36% of consumers increase their intention to purchase GM soybean oil, and 15.10% of consumers decrease purchase intention. Compared to consistent information, inconsistent information can maximize change of purchase intention. The attitude change is greatest when there is a moderate difference between the new information and the initial consumer attitude. Furthermore, trust in biotechnology research institutes, government departments about GM, and GM experts are easier to promote consumers to change their intention to purchase GM soybean oil in a positive direction. Finally, we discuss implications for agencies as to strengthening the regulation and supervision of information sources, and including public-involved policies. Abbreviations: GM, Genetically modified; GMOs, Genetically modified organisms; AGGMO, Center of Agriculture’s Genetically Modified Organisms’ safety management and policy research organization at Nanjing Agricultural University; MARA, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; ¥1 (RMB)≈$6.8 (USD).

Coalitions and coordination in Washington think tanks: board interlock among Washington D.C.-based policy research and planning organizations

Think tanks have become central players in the political and policy ecosystem of the United States, yet the communication and coordination strategies and connections between them remain relatively unexamined. This paper begins to remedy that by using IRS 990 data to construct and analyze the largest board interlock network among policy planning organizations to date. An analysis of 277 policy research organizations located in Washington D.C. reveals high levels of resource seeking, issue-area coordination and weak evidence of ideological coordination among these substantively important organizations in American politics.

Comments of the R Street Institute in Opposition to the Proposed Rulemaking, in Changes to the Claim Construction Standard for Interpreting Claims in Trial Proceedings Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board

The R Street Institute respectfully submits the following comments in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking dated May 9, 2018. R Street is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy research organization whose mission is to engage in policy research and outreach to promote free markets and limited, effective government. Broadly, this comment makes three recommendations in response to the Notice. 1. The Office should not proceed with its proposed rulemaking to change the claim construction standard used in post-grant proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. This is because changing the standard will: • Undermine the public interest in clarity of patents; • Create bad incentives toward ambiguity for patent applicants and holders; • Raise novel legal questions for post-grant procedure, such as the relevance of infringing products and the applicability of collateral estoppel; • Decrease certainty and predictability of claim construction outcomes; • Encourage hasty claim construction practice in district courts in efforts to preempt the Board; and • Open up the troubling possibility that a patent could be infringed by its own prior art, as a result of inconsistent claim constructions between the Board and district courts.

Policy research and analysis organizations: an account of recent experiences and some predicaments in Ethiopia

Drawing from interviews, archival documents and a range of other sources, this article takes stock of key public policy research and analysis organizations in Ethiopia. It sheds light on the significance of professionalization of policy analysis and its contributions to closing the gap between knowledge and policymaking, offers insights into improved policymaking, hints and lessons for better institutionalization of policy analysis and research. The paper also points to the inauspicious environment in which non-government and university based policy research organizations operate, and touches on the negligible influence that the latter have on policymaking. The central thesis of this article is, therefore, professionalization of policy analysis can achieve a measure of excellence: 1) when there is a permissive environment whereby a given policymaking system permits a constant flow of innovative policy ideas and gives access to policy relevant information; and 2) when the scholars in the policy research institutes maintain standards of objectivity, autonomy and freedom from political partisanship. Keywords: policy research and analysis organizations, policy analysis, bridging the gap between knowledge and policy making, institutionalization of policy analysis, Ethiopia

A Conversation with Emery Neal Castle

This article presents the transcript of an interview with the eminent economist, Emery Neal Castle. Emery discusses his youth in rural Kansas and how it shaped him and his career. After several years in the US Army Air Force during World War II, Emery returned to Kansas State University for his undergraduate studies and then completed his PhD at Iowa State University. He eventually landed at Oregon State University (OSU) in the mid-1950s, where he taught farm management and developed early courses in water resource economics. Emery and colleagues nurtured what became a world-renowned resource economics program at OSU. Emery also spent a decade running the nonprofit public policy research organization Resources for the Future in Washington, DC. Throughout his long career, Emery made significant contributions to three subfields of applied economics: farm management, resource economics, and rural studies. Emery has received numerous awards for his impact on the profession and the agricultural economy.

Current Status and Strategies of Rainbow Trout <i>Oncorhynchus mykiss</i> Farming in India

Rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss has established itself as prime cultivable coldwater species in the Indian Himalayan regions and now farmed on commercial scale. Its production has increased markedly in last ten years (2004 - 2016) from 147.0 to 842.0 tonnes, with a growth rate of 31 percent per annum. Availability of technical know-how of trout farming, breeding and artificial diets has immensely helped in promoting aquaculture of trout in the country. Northwestern Himalayan region is the major producer of rainbow trout (81.2%) while contribution from central and northeastern regions of the country is meagre. In spite of increase in production in recent years, number of issues such as improvement in infrastructure and culture practices in terms of broodstock management, feeding, stock handling and health management need consideration. Supply of inputs such as seed and feed as well as marketing was identified as major constraints in the expansion of trout farming in India. Further increase in total production requires more ingenious and scientific ways of rainbow trout farming which have been highlighted in the present article. For sustainable development of rainbow trout farming in India, constant support and cohesion of policy makers, research organizations and concerned line departments is important.

The Central Role of Physician Leadership for Driving Change in Value-Based Care Environments.

In 2013, it was reported that about 1 of every 3 U.S. adults has hypertension. Of these 70 million individuals, approximately 50% have their blood pressure under control. Achieving hypertension control, especially in at-risk populations, requires a multipronged approach that includes lifestyle modifications and pharmacological treatment. As provider groups, hospital systems, and integrated delivery networks optimize their care processes to promote population health activities in support of the accountable care organization (ACO) model of care, managing hypertension and other chronic diseases will be essential to their success. A critical aspect of managing populations in an ACO environment is optimization of care processes among providers to increase care efficiency and improve patient outcomes. Launched in 2013, Measure Up/Pressure Down is a 3-year campaign developed by the American Medical Group Foundation (AMGF) to reduce the burden of high blood pressure. The goal of the campaign is for participating medical groups, health systems, and other organized systems of care to achieve hypertension control for 80% of their patients with high blood pressure by 2016, according to national standards. The role of physician leadership at Cornerstone Health Care (CHC) and Summit Medical Group (SMG) in facilitating organizational change to improve hypertension management through the implementation of the Measure Up/Pressure Down national hypertension campaign is examined. Using patient stratification via its electronic health record, SMG identified 16,000 patients with hypertension. The baseline percentage of hypertension control for this patient population was 66%. Within 7 months, SMG was able to meet the 80% goal set forth by the AMGF's Measure Up/Pressure Down campaign. CHC diagnosed 25,312 patients with hypertension. The baseline percentage of hypertension control for this subgroup of patients was 51.5% when the initiative was first implemented. To date, the organization has achieved 72% hypertension control for at-risk patients and continues work towards the 80% campaign goal. The implementation of the Measure Up/Pressure Down campaign by CHC and SMG provides some valuable lessons. To further explore important aspects of successfully implementing the Measure Up/Pressure Down campaign in real-world settings, 6 key themes were identified that drove quality improvement and may be helpful to other organizations that implement similar quality improvement initiatives: (1) transitioning to value-based payments, (2) creating an environment for success, (3) leveraging program champions, (4) sharing quality data, (5) promoting care team collaboration, and (6) leveraging health information technology. The strategies employed by SMG and CHC, such as leveraging data analysis to identify at-risk patients and comparing physician performance, as well as identifying leaders to institute change, can be replicated by an ACO or a managed care organization (MCO). An MCO can provide data analysis services, sparing the provider groups the analytic burden and helping the MCO build a more meaningful relationship with their providers. No outside funding supported this project. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The authors are members of the Working Group on Optimizing Medication Therapy in Value-Based Healthcare. Odgen is employed by Cornerstone Health Care; Brenner is employed by Summit Medical Group; and Penso is employed by American Medical Group Association. Lustig, Westrich, and Dubois are employed by the National Pharmaceutical Council, an industry-funded health policy research organization that is not involved in lobbying or advocacy. Study concept and design were contributed by Lustig, Penso, Westrich, and Dubois. Lustig, Ogden, Brenner, and Penso collected the data, and data interpretation was performed by all authors. The manuscript was written primarily by Lustig, along with the other authors, and revised by Lustig, Penso, Westrich, and Dubois, assisted by Ogden and Brenner.

Book Review: The National Origins of Policy Ideas: Knowledge Regimes in the United States, France, Germany, and Denmark by John L. Campbell and Ove K. Pedersen

John L. Campbell and Ove K. Pedersen The National Origins of Policy Ideas: Knowledge Regimes in the United States, France, Germany, and Denmark, Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 2014; 401 pp: 978069116116-7 (pbk) $29.95 Within the closely related fields of international relations (IR) and international political economy (IPE), a hallmark of the last two decades has been the rise to prominence of constructivism as a key theoretical tradition. This has established itself more strongly in IR, where constructivism as a research programme is now taken to be one of the three mainstream traditions, along with realism and liberalism. Indeed, a consequence of this has been more recent attempts to re-emphasise the critical-theoretical foundations of constructivism, more in line with the classic philosophy of the social science approach of (for example) Berger and Luckmann than the widespread dilution that has occurred via debates with realists and liberals. In IPE, the rise of constructivism came later, and is also more weakly established as a research programme. This has meant that thorough, philosophically reflective, constructivist IPE accounts are virtually non-existent. Instead, we have had a number of well-known and well-written studies which nevertheless retreat significantly from the classic premises of constructivism to a considerably narrower focus on the importance of ideas in and of themselves, i.e. independent of other factors and processes. This has led to a significant bias in constructivist IPE towards an account of policy paradigms in national and international arenas, rather than the socially constructed and artificial nature of social and political life per se (for example, see Blyth 2013; Broome & Seabrooke 2014; Chwieroth 2010). As such, The National Origins of Policy Ideas is to be welcomed, for it provides a far more comprehensive approach than is usually the case, and in this sense it is closer in spirit to economic sociology and organisation studies than IPE. Campbell and Pedersen thus offer a much needed challenge to literatures in IPE and also in comparative political economy, and they point out early in the book that 'those who have shown that ideas are important have paid remarkably little attention to how these ideas are produced and disseminated in the first place' (p. 2; original emphases). As such, they focus 'on how policy research organizations like think tanks, government research units, political party foundations, and others that produce and disseminate policy ideas are organized, operate, and have changed during the past 30 years or so' (p. 3). Hence the term 'knowledge regime' rather than 'policy paradigm', for a study of the latter presupposes a critical understanding of the former. Campbell and Pedersen use this approach to achieve two main, more concrete goals. First, to provide an in-depth account of the evolution of knowledge regimes in four countries--the USA, France, Germany and Denmark--in lengthy and multifaceted chapters. Second, to reflect on these case studies in order to comment in two further chapters, on the limits to convergence in the contemporary, globalising period due to the nationally specific nature of the knowledge regimes, and on the degrees to which knowledge regimes are influential in different societies. On the first goal, my main interest was in the chapter on Germany. Many accounts of change in the German political economy have either viewed ideas/knowledge as mere instruments of broader strategic interactions between political actors or in narrow, policy-specific terms--both of which miss the bigger picture. It is thus often difficult to find analyses that combine detailed discussion of knowledge regimes with a political economy approach. Here, Campbell and Pedersen fall short of a fully satisfactory analysis (see below for more), but this is not for want of trying, and ultimately their thick descriptions of different modes of knowledge production and dissemination--for instance, party foundations and advocacy organisations--take them well beyond much of the literatures we have to date on the German knowledge regime. …

The European Hematology Association Roadmap for European Hematology Research: a consensus document.

The European Hematology Association (EHA) Roadmap for European Hematology Research highlights major achievements in diagnosis and treatment of blood disorders and identifies the greatest unmet clinical and scientific needs in those areas to enable better funded, more focused European hematology research. Initiated by the EHA, around 300 experts contributed to the consensus document, which will help European policy makers, research funders, research organizations, researchers, and patient groups make better informed decisions on hematology research. It also aims to raise public awareness of the burden of blood disorders on European society, which purely in economic terms is estimated at €23 billion per year, a level of cost that is not matched in current European hematology research funding. In recent decades, hematology research has improved our fundamental understanding of the biology of blood disorders, and has improved diagnostics and treatments, sometimes in revolutionary ways. This progress highlights the potential of focused basic research programs such as this EHA Roadmap.The EHA Roadmap identifies nine 'sections' in hematology: normal hematopoiesis, malignant lymphoid and myeloid diseases, anemias and related diseases, platelet disorders, blood coagulation and hemostatic disorders, transfusion medicine, infections in hematology, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. These sections span 60 smaller groups of diseases or disorders.The EHA Roadmap identifies priorities and needs across the field of hematology, including those to develop targeted therapies based on genomic profiling and chemical biology, to eradicate minimal residual malignant disease, and to develop cellular immunotherapies, combination treatments, gene therapies, hematopoietic stem cell treatments, and treatments that are better tolerated by elderly patients.

International Futures (IFs) and integrated, long-term forecasting of global transformations

The International Futures (IFs) long-term global forecasting system, with a development history spanning 40 years, has deep roots in world modeling and integrated assessment modeling. Its highly integrated models span demographics, economics, education, health, governance, agriculture, energy, infrastructure and the environment. The open-source system is available for stand-alone use and on the web with an interactive interface and a large supporting database. IFs users represent education, government (national and international), non-governmental organizations, firms, and policy research organizations. This paper uses IFs to provide Base Case forecasts of global transformations that appear to be unfolding in human development (special attention to education and aging), social development (distribution and power), and the relationship of humans with their environment (advancing mastery and sustainability challenges). It illustrates scenario analysis with alternative forecasts of global poverty, carbon emissions, global patterns of national governance, the human development index, and food and agricultural development. The paper concludes by noting that such modeling and forecasting, while much advanced since the 1970s, still marries craft-like art with advancing science.

The Perspectives of Policy Researchers: A Synthesis of Special Issue Contributions

This article summarizes the divergent perspectives found across the 14 articles written by individuals from three types of policy research organizations—think tanks, regional collaborative organizations, and university-based institutes and centers—for this special issue of the Community College Journal of Research and Practice. It concludes with a reflection on what was learned and what may be expected in the future.

Policy ideas, knowledge regimes and comparative political economy

Despite much attention to how ideas affect policy making, where these ideas come from is a blind spot in comparative political economy. We show that an important source of policy ideas are knowledge regimes—fields of policy research organizations. We show as well that the organization of knowledge regimes is heavily influenced by the organization of their surrounding political economies such that knowledge regimes have particular national characters. Furthermore, when people perceive that the utility of their knowledge regime for the rest of the political economy breaks down, they often try to restore it by transforming their knowledge regimes, albeit in waysthat are still shaped by the surrounding political and economic institutions. The effectiveness of their efforts is not guaranteed. The argument is based on an analysis of the evolution of knowledge regimes since the 1970s in the USA, France and Germany. Theoretical implications are explored for two literatures in comparative political economy: ideational analysis and the varieties of capitalism.

More than a Job: Final Results from the Evaluation of the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) Transitional Jobs Program

This report presents the final results of the evaluation of the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO). CEO is one of four sites in the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project, sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with additional funding from the U.S. Department of Labor. MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan social and education policy research organization, is leading the evaluation, in collaboration with the Urban Institute and other partners.Based in New York City, CEO is a comprehensive employment program for former prisoners — a population confronting many obstacles to finding and maintaining work. CEO provides temporary, paid jobs and other services in an effort to improve participants’ labor market prospects and reduce the odds that they will return to prison. The study uses a rigorous random assignment design: it compares outcomes for individuals assigned to the program group, who were given access to CEO’s jobs and other services, with the outcomes for those assigned to the control group, who were offered basic job search assistance at CEO along with other services in the community.The three-year evaluation found that CEO substantially increased employment early in the follow-up period but that the effects faded over time. The initial increase in employment was due to the temporary jobs provided by the program. After the first year, employment and earnings were similar for both the program group and the control group.CEO significantly reduced recidivism, with the most promising impacts occurring among a subgroup of former prisoners who enrolled shortly after release from prison (the group that the program was designed to serve). Among the subgroup that enrolled within three months after release, program group members were less likely than their control group counterparts to be arrested, convicted of a new crime, and reincarcerated. The program’s impacts on these outcomes represent reductions in recidivism of 16 percent to 22 percent. In general, CEO’s impacts were stronger for those who were more disadvantaged or at higher risk of recidivism when they enrolled in the study.The evaluation includes a benefit-cost analysis, which shows that CEO’s financial benefits outweighed its costs under a wide range of assumptions. Financial benefits exceeded the costs for taxpayers, victims, and participants. The majority of CEO’s benefits were the result of reduced criminal justice system expenditures.

Mentoring Policy Research Organizations: Project Evaluation Results

The international community has identified a positive link between good governance and economic development. There is an increasing appreciation of the effective role that local policy research organizations (PROs) in transition and developing countries can play in providing evidence-based policy recommendations as the basis for sound legislation and in assessing the efficacy of existing programs. Capacity building programs for PROs are seen as a key component of growth strategies. The donor community has responded with support for such efforts, which take many forms. On the other hand, the evaluation of the effectiveness of these capacity building and mentoring programs has been inadequate. This article presents the evaluation of one program, focusing on two important capacity building program outcomes: improved research capacity and greater effectiveness in the policy arena. A reflexive design is used. The results suggest the program’s approach is promising.

What Makes a Successful Policy Research Organization in Transition and Developing Countries?

Identifying the attributes of policy research organizations (PROs) associated with their success in the policy process is a very important task. Having the answer could help guide the way PROs organize their policy research, staffing, and communications to be more effective. Similarly, supporters of PRO development in transitional and less developed countries could better structure their assistance programs to such organizations. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of factors associated with PROs in transition and developing countries being successful in the policy arena. The analysis employs a unique data set using responses from a survey of policy community participants in 19 countries on the effectiveness of 34 PROs. Five dimensions of success are analyzed. A principal finding is that it is possible to establish statistically significant relationships between indicators of PRO success, on the one hand, and the attributes of policy research organizations, the way the operate, and the environments in which they operate, on the other.