Educational Quality and County Government Services: Rural Nebraskans\u27 Perceived Impacts of Recent and Proposed Legislation

Many changes have been occurring in rural Nebraska in the area of local finances. Recent school finance legislation has changed the formula that distributes state aid to schools (LB 806) and also imposed new property tax levy limits on school districts (LB 1114). Discussions have also arisen about consolidating county offices and services. Given all these changes, how do rural Nebraskans feel about these issues? How do they feel the new school finance legislation has affected the quality of education in their local school district? Do they support the consolidation of certain county government offices and services with a neighboring county? How do they feel the consolidation of these offices and services will impact the quality of the services they provide? This report details results of 3,036 responses to the 1999 Nebraska Rural Poll, the fourth annual effort to take the pulse of rural Nebraskans. Respondents were asked a series of questions about local finance issues including: their perceptions of the impacts of the new school finance legislation, whether or not they support the consolidation of various county offices and services, and how they feel consolidation would impact the offices’ ability to carry out their functions. Comparisons are made among different subgroups of the respondents, e.g., comparisons by community size, region, income, occupation, etc. Based on these analyses, some key findings emerged: • Forty-three percent of rural Nebraskans believe the quality of education in their local school district has not changed as a result of the changes to the school aid formula. Thirty-four percent believe the quality of education has either greatly decreased or decreased somewhat as a result of these changes, and twenty-three percent believe the quality of education has increased. • Over one-half of rural Nebraskans believe the property tax levy limits have not changed the quality of education in their local school district. Thirty-three percent believe these limits have caused the quality of education to decline, and nine percent believe they have caused the quality to increase. • Respondents with higher educational levels were more likely than those with less education to believe the levy limits had caused the quality of education in their school district to decrease. Forty-six percent of the respondents with a graduate degree believed the levy limits had caused the quality of education to decline in their local school district, but less than one-third of those who had not attended college shared this opinion. • Although the pattern was not entirely consistent, there was some tendency for the following groups to be the most concerned about the quality of education being affected by changes in the school aid formula as well as property tax levy limits: those who have children at home; those who are married; and those age 30 to 49. • Most rural Nebraskans oppose the consolidation of county offices and services. Over onehalf of the respondents opposed the consolidation of six of the eight offices or services listed. The remaining two offices had over forty percent opposing their consolidation. • Most rural Nebraskans believe the consolidation of various county offices with a neighboring county would negatively affect their ability to carry out their functions if they were located in the neighboring county. Over one-half of the respondents believed the consolidations would have a negative impact for seven of the eight offices or services listed. • The two offices and services receiving the most support for consolidation are the county weed superintendent and county jail. Thirty-nine percent supported the consolidation of the county weed superintendent office and thirty-six percent supported the consolidation of the county jail. Support for consolidating the six remaining offices ranged from 21% to 30%. • The offices or services receiving the most opposition toward consolidation are the county sheriff, county treasurer, and county clerk. The proportions opposing the consolidation of each of these offices were 67%, 63% and 61%, respectively. Additionally, at least two-thirds of the respondents believed these offices would lose some of their ability to carry out their functions if they were consolidated and located in a neighboring county. • The groups most likely to oppose consolidation - regardless of the specific office or service under consideration - included the following: those living in communities with less than 500 people, women, those age 65 and older, persons with incomes less than $20,000, the widowed respondents, and those whose education had not gone beyond the high school level

The United States, PMSCs and the state monopoly on violence: Leading the way towards norm change

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2013 Sage.The proliferation of private military and security companies (PMSCs) in Iraq and Afghanistan has raised many questions regarding the use of armed force by private contractors. This article addresses the question of whether the increased acceptance of PMSCs indicates a transformation of the international norm regarding the state monopoly on the legitimate use of armed force. Drawing on theoretical approaches to the analysis of norm change, the article employs four measures to investigate possible changes in the strength and meaning of this norm: modifications in state behaviour, state responses to norm violation, the promulgation of varying interpretations of the norm in national and international laws and regulations, and changes in norm discourse. Based on an analysis of empirical evidence from the United States of America and its allies, the article concludes that these measures suggest that the USA is leading the way towards a transformation of the international norm of the state monopoly on violence, involving a revised meaning. Although this understanding has not yet been formally implemented in international law, it has allowed a growing number of countries to tolerate, accept or legalize the use of armed force by PMSCs in the international arena.The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt

Development of a Hand-Held, Flexible Eddy Current Probe for Inspection of Curving Surfaces

To enable GE Aircraft Engines to meet stringent engine inspection requirements a new eddy current inspection technology has been developed — the Eddy Current Array Probe (ECAP) [1]. The ECAP is based upon flexible micro-fabricated eddy current sensor elements that are capable of conforming to complex geometries. The technology has been used quite successfully by GE Aircraft Engines to inspect fracture critical aircraft engine components in a manufacturing environment

Current advances on Talbot–Lau x-ray imaging diagnostics for high energy density experiments (invited)

Producción CientíficaTalbot–Lau x-ray interferometry is a refraction-based diagnostic that can map electron density gradients through phase-contrast methods. The Talbot–Lau x-ray deflectometry (TXD) diagnostics have been deployed in several high energy density experiments. To improve diagnostic performance, a monochromatic TXD was implemented on the Multi-Tera Watt (MTW) laser using 8 keV multilayer mirrors (Δθ/θ = 4.5%-5.6%). Copper foil and wire targets were irradiated at 1014–1015 W/cm2. Laser pulse length (∼10 to 80 ps) and backlighter target configurations were explored in the context of Moiré fringe contrast and spatial resolution. Foil and wire targets delivered increased contrast <30%. The best spatial resolution (<6 μm) was measured for foils irradiated 80° from the surface. Further TXD diagnostic capability enhancement was achieved through the development of advanced data postprocessing tools. The Talbot Interferometry Analysis (TIA) code enabled x-ray refraction measurements from the MTW monochromatic TXD. Additionally, phase, attenuation, and dark-field maps of an ablating x-pinch load were retrieved through TXD. The images show a dense wire core of ∼60 μm diameter surrounded by low-density material of ∼40 μm thickness with an outer diameter ratio of ∼2.3. Attenuation at 8 keV was measured at ∼20% for the dense core and ∼10% for the low-density material. Instrumental and experimental limitations for monochromatic TXD diagnostics are presented. Enhanced postprocessing capabilities enabled by TIA are demonstrated in the context of high-intensity laser and pulsed power experimental data analysis. Significant advances in TXD diagnostic capabilities are presented. These results inform future diagnostic technique upgrades that will improve the accuracy of plasma characterization through TXD

A bootstrap approach for assessing the uncertainty of outcome probabilities when using a scoring system

Background: Scoring systems are a very attractive family of clinical predictive models, because the patient score can be calculated without using any data processing system. Their weakness lies in the difficulty of associating a reliable prognostic probability with each score. In this study a bootstrap approach for estimating confidence intervals of outcome probabilities is described and applied to design and optimize the performance of a scoring system for morbidity in intensive care units after heart surgery. Methods: The bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap method was used to estimate the 95% confidence intervals of outcome probabilities associated with a scoring system. These confidence intervals were calculated for each score and each step of the scoring-system design by means of one thousand bootstrapped samples. 1090 consecutive adult patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft were assigned at random to two groups of equal size, so as to define random training and testing sets with equal percentage morbidities. A collection of 78 preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative variables were considered as likely morbidity predictors. Results: Several competing scoring systems were compared on the basis of discrimination, generalization and uncertainty associated with the prognostic probabilities. The results showed that confidence intervals corresponding to different scores often overlapped, making it convenient to unite and thus reduce the score classes. After uniting two adjacent classes, a model with six score groups not only gave a satisfactory trade-off between discrimination and generalization, but also enabled patients to be allocated to classes, most of which were characterized by well separated confidence intervals of prognostic probabilities. Conclusions: Scoring systems are often designed solely on the basis of discrimination and generalization characteristics, to the detriment of prediction of a trustworthy outcome probability. The present example demonstrates that using a bootstrap method for the estimation of outcome-probability confidence intervals provides useful additional information about score-class statistics, guiding physicians towards the most convenient model for predicting morbidity outcomes in their clinical context

Bad news from Fallujah

This study uses the thematic analysis developed by the Glasgow University Media Group to explore how the US, UK and German national press covered the US/Coalition assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah in November 2004. The study relies on quantitative and qualitative full text content analyses to assess 428 news, editorial and commentary items. The article suggests that, while government and military officials of the US/Coalition had argued the military ‘operation’ was necessary to secure Iraq and defeat an ‘insurgency’, organisations and actors from Iraqi society refer to the ‘operation’ as ‘collective punishment’ and a ‘massacre’ that targeted the Iraqi population. The article investigates how the press represented each of these perspectives. The findings suggest that the press overemphasised the US/Coalition perspective despite striking counter evidence. Critical aspects of coverage largely focused on tactical elements of the military dimension of the event. The article concludes that such findings are in accord with hegemonic models of media performance

Are Good Intentions Good Enough?: Informed Consent Without Trained Interpreters

OBJECTIVE: To examine the informed consent process when trained language interpreters are unavailable. BACKGROUND: Ensuring sufficient patient understanding for informed consent is especially challenging for patients with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). While US law requires provision of competent translation for LEP patients, such services are commonly unavailable. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: Qualitative data was collected in 8 prenatal genetics clinics in Texas, including interviews and observations with 16 clinicians, and 30 Latina patients. Using content analysis techniques, we examined whether the basic criteria for informed consent (voluntariness, discussion of alternatives, adequate information, and competence) were evident for each of these patients, contrasting LEP patients with patients not needing an interpreter. We present case examples of difficulties related to each of these criteria, and compare informed consent scores for consultations requiring interpretation and those which did not. RESULTS: We describe multiple communication problems related to the use of untrained interpreters, or reliance on clinicians’ own limited Spanish. These LEP patients appear to be consistently disadvantaged in each of the criteria we examined, and informed consent scores were notably lower for consultations which occurred across a language barrier. CONCLUSIONS: In the absence of adequate Spanish interpretation, it was uncertain whether these LEP patients were provided the quality and content of information needed to assure that they are genuinely informed. We offer some low-cost practice suggestions that might mitigate these problems, and improve the quality of language interpretation, which is essential to assuring informed choice in health care for LEP patients