Active Transportation and Health Effects of Safe Routes to Schools (SR2S) Projects and Planning

On July 29, 2005 Congress passed the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), the federal government’s transportation bill, in part, designating $612 million over five years to go to a relatively new funding program: Safe Routes to School (SR2S). The legislation mandated that state departments of transportation (DOTs) receive annual funding in an amount proportional to the number of primary and middle school grade children enrolled in their states. State DOTs could then grant that money to state, local, and regional agencies, as well as non-profit organizations to fund SR2S programs. Improving public health (and increasing active transportation) is both an explicit and implicit factor motivating this piece of legislation. In the years since its passage into law, the effectiveness of SR2S projects at improving public health have been tested and researched. This perspective documents our current state of understanding of the effects of SR2S projects on public health and active transportation in the U.S

Knowledge transfer processes in PFI/PPP: critical success factors

Successful knowledge transfer is an important process which requires continuous improvement in today’s knowledge-intensive economy. However, improving knowledge transfer processes represents a challenge for construction practitioners due to the complexity of knowledge acquisition, codification and sharing. Although knowledge transfer is context based, understanding the critical success factors can lead to improvements in the transfer process. This paper seeks to identify and evaluate the most significant critical factors for improving knowledge transfer processes in Public Private Partnerships/Private Finance Initiatives (PPP/PFI) projects. Drawing upon a questionnaire survey of 52 construction firms located in the UK, data is analysed using Severity Index (SI) and Coefficient of Variation (COV), to examine and identify these factors in PPP/PFI schemes. The findings suggest that a supportive leadership, participation/commitment from the relevant parties, and good communication between the relevant parties are crucial to improving knowledge transfer processes in PFI schemes. Practitioners, managers and researchers can use the findings to efficiently design performance measures for analysing and improving knowledge transfer processes

Rhode Island Report on the Judiciary 1987

As Chief Justice my overall goal is to make the courts more responsive to the needs of those they serve. This goal is shared by the judges, administrators and court staff, and to achieve it the courts must focus on the following: increasing the public\u27s understanding of the system, improving programs to assist victims and, most important, eliminating delays. During 1987, with the support of the other chief judges, the courts have made advances in all three of these areas. The following are some of the highlights

Improving public understanding of software engineering

This article outlines the issues presented by the public understanding of software engineering. Bypublic understanding I mean the appreciation or knowledge of a discipline by people in general,other than those with a specialised education or training in the area. The article concludes with aprogramme of action that addresses public understanding of software engineering and can form thebasis for a debate on this topic

People in public health. Expert hearings: a summary report

People in Public Health is a national study that is looking at how volunteers and lay workers are involved in improving health in their communities. The study’s main aim is to improve understanding of how to support lay people in their many and varied public health roles. In June 2008, three expert hearings were held so that the research team could listen to the views of people with specialist knowledge or practical experience of working in this way. Fifteen experts were invited from around the country to talk about how and why lay people get involved in public health, why the work they do is important and what the main barriers are. Our experts included lay people active in their communities, university researchers, people working in the health service (NHS), local government and the voluntary sector. While some talked about their experience of specific projects, others made more general points about services and support. All the expert hearings were held in public and there were opportunities for discussion

PERAN STRATEGIS MANAJEMEN HUMAS DAN LAYANAN PUBLIK DALAM MENINGKATKAN KUALITAS PENDIDIKAN DI SEKOLAH

This study aims to analyze the strategic role of public relations management and public services in improving the quality of education in schools. The research method used is library research or library research. Through this approach, researchers conduct a search and analysis of literature sources that are relevant and related to the research topic. Effective public relations management can strengthen school relationships with stakeholders and increase understanding of education goals, policies, and programs. In addition, this research also studies the role of public services in providing quality services to the school community. The results of this study provide a more comprehensive understanding of the importance of effective management of public relations and public services in improving the quality of education, as well as providing practical recommendations for practitioners and decision makers in the field of education to improve existing policies and practices

Infrastructure regulation and poverty reduction in developing countries: a review of the evidence and a research agenda

Poverty reduction is a primary goal of development policy. In large parts of the World people have to live on meagre incomes and have limited access to infrastructure services, such as mains water, safe sanitation, mains power supplies, maintained roads and telephones. In response, more and more infrastructure provision has been opened up to private investment over the last two decades and regulatory institutions have been introduced to protect the public interest in the absence of state ownership. In this paper the role of infrastructure regulation in poverty reduction is investigated drawing on the published evidence. The conclusion is that the evidence is both patchy and sometimes contradictory. There is mixed knowledge regarding the extent to which regulators address poverty issues and about the results of regulatory decisions. The paper concludes by proposing a future research agenda aimed at improving our understanding of the ways in which infrastructure regulation impacts on poverty, with the objective of improving actual regulatory policy in developing economies

Communication satisfaction among academic staff in Malaysian public universities

Communication satisfaction is of dominant position in any organization as it contributes to the effectiveness and success of an organization. The communication satisfaction of an organization may affect the atmosphere in the organization which either encourages or hinders horizontal, upward or downward communication among the employees. In organizations with defensive climates, employees have the tendency to abstain from communicating their needs, as they become very cautious in making statements, and may have low level of motivation. Organizations with understanding atmospheres inspire active participation, healthy exchange of information and constructive problems resolves. The objective of the present study is to investigate the major hindrances and problems of communication satisfaction among academic staff of Malaysian public universities and its impact on management function and organizational communication. This study is expected to investigate communication satisfaction among academics with supervisory role in the respective university. It aims to determine the patterns of communication system in universities, to analyze various challenges to the communication and to suggest ways of improving communication system. This research study would foster the knowledge and understanding of improving of communication satisfaction in academic organizations particularly tertiary institutions and would help improve productivity and harmonious working environment adopt better process and programs in order to overcome

Pediatric liver diseases: current challenges and future perspectives

Chronic liver diseases in children represent a rising problem with significant effects on public health. In fact, several pediatric liver diseases are precursors of adult chronic hepatopathies, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The prevalence of liver diseases in children is unknown. In the USA, every year, 15,000 children are hospitalized for liver diseases, but these disorders continue to be under-recognized or diagnosed late. The main reason is due to the frequent absence of symptoms in the vast majority of liver diseases, especially in the early stages. In the last few decades several advances have been made in understanding the pathogenesis of liver diseases, permitting the discovery of new therapeutic targets to treat liver diseases, thus improving the natural history of these disorders. In this article we discuss the most recent advances in the understanding of the pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of the most frequent pediatric liver diseases

Improving Earth Science Data Literacy

The improvement of scientific literacy across the public can take on a myriad of forms and activities. The vast archives of NASAs Earth science data, as one example, reflect the agencys ongoing commitment to producing the highest quality data, services and tools intended for enabling the public to understand the complexity of Earth systems. The focus of this presentation is to explore and reveal the specific strategies the NASA Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project uses to support our very large and diverse user communities access to and understanding of these science data and services. The diversity of our subject matter, spanning the whole Earth science domain, is mirrored by our user communities which are equally as broad in their needs and abilities. ESDIS and the supporting Communication Team leverages an array of internet-based tools and communication strategies to both understand actual user needs and develop optimum pathways for improving our users knowledge and understanding of the data. We will focus our limited time on a few of the high-impact activities including Webinars, or video-based, on-line, interactive discussions and presentations that since their introduction in 2013 have become a staple for user-instructor interaction via the internet. Here we discuss the types of content we produce and many lessons learned on how best to use this medium for improving user literacy on the subject at hand. In addition, we include discussion of our approach to using various social media platforms and tools to bolster the awareness of our users for data and services that are likely of interest. The ESDIS project remains active in various social media campaigns where our particular blend of science, data and tools engages new users curious of how to get their science or application started using NASA-available data. We anticipate that these examples may prove to be novel in their application to improving science literacy and skill development among the public