Surveying Citizens: A Handbook for Municipal Officials Who Want to Know What Their Citizens Think

This handbook describes the process getting valid and reliable information from a citizen survey. It\u27s intended for readers who don\u27t have a substantial background in survey research or statistics. The basic premise is simple: Do it right or don\u27t bother to do it at all. The necessary steps to do it right allow for few shortcuts in planning, designing and implementing a high-quality citizen survey or in analyzing responses. Following the procedures and suggestions described here should yield questions that are valid (measures what you want to measure), reliable (consistent), and useful (results that relate to the survey objectives

Surveying Citizens: A Handbook for Municipal Officials Who Want to Know What Their Citizens Think (1995)

Doing a citizen survey can be as simple as determining a random sampling and making some phone calls - or it can be a time-consuming and costly project to help decision makers set the direction for your community\u27s future. The approach you take depends on the results you want. Some chapters of this publication are simple and offer easy-to-understand instructions for less-complicated surveys. Other chapters, particularly 5 and 6, offer for those interested much more detail, including statistical explanations and detailed descriptions of software uses. Don\u27t let it throw you if we\u27ve got more information here than you need. Simply use what you need - and go do a surve

Identification and Validation of Novel Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers for Staging Early Alzheimer's Disease

Ideally, disease modifying therapies for Alzheimer disease (AD) will be applied during the 'preclinical' stage (pathology present with cognition intact) before severe neuronal damage occurs, or upon recognizing very mild cognitive impairment. Developing and judiciously administering such therapies will require biomarker panels to identify early AD pathology, classify disease stage, monitor pathological progression, and predict cognitive decline. To discover such biomarkers, we measured AD-associated changes in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteome.CSF samples from individuals with mild AD (Clinical Dementia Rating [CDR] 1) (n = 24) and cognitively normal controls (CDR 0) (n = 24) were subjected to two-dimensional difference-in-gel electrophoresis. Within 119 differentially-abundant gel features, mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) identified 47 proteins. For validation, eleven proteins were re-evaluated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Six of these assays (NrCAM, YKL-40, chromogranin A, carnosinase I, transthyretin, cystatin C) distinguished CDR 1 and CDR 0 groups and were subsequently applied (with tau, p-tau181 and Aβ42 ELISAs) to a larger independent cohort (n = 292) that included individuals with very mild dementia (CDR 0.5). Receiver-operating characteristic curve analyses using stepwise logistic regression yielded optimal biomarker combinations to distinguish CDR 0 from CDR>0 (tau, YKL-40, NrCAM) and CDR 1 from CDR<1 (tau, chromogranin A, carnosinase I) with areas under the curve of 0.90 (0.85-0.94 95% confidence interval [CI]) and 0.88 (0.81-0.94 CI), respectively.Four novel CSF biomarkers for AD (NrCAM, YKL-40, chromogranin A, carnosinase I) can improve the diagnostic accuracy of Aβ42 and tau. Together, these six markers describe six clinicopathological stages from cognitive normalcy to mild dementia, including stages defined by increased risk of cognitive decline. Such a panel might improve clinical trial efficiency by guiding subject enrollment and monitoring disease progression. Further studies will be required to validate this panel and evaluate its potential for distinguishing AD from other dementing conditions

Recycling program design, management, and participation: a national survey of municipal experience. by David H. Folz

tag=1 data=Recycling program design, management, and participation: a national survey of municipal experience. by David H. Folz tag=2 data=Folz, David H. tag=3 data=Public Administration Review, tag=4 data=51 tag=5 data=3 tag=6 data=May/June 1991 tag=7 data=222-231. tag=8 data=RECYCLING tag=10 data=How can municipalities maximize and sustain citizen participation in solid waste recycling programs? tag=11 data=1991/3/9 tag=12 data=91/0806 tag=13 data=CABHow can municipalities maximize and sustain citizen participation in solid waste recycling programs

Vote Centers as a Strategy to Control Election Administration Costs

The rising costs of election administration in an era of fiscal stress have motivated some local officials to test the feasibility of ideas for reducing election costs while enhancing voter convenience and perhaps even increasing voter turnout. One such pilot project in a suburban community in the South involved replacing precinct-based voting on election day with a vote center that all voters could use regardless of their precinct of residence. A comparison of election costs across two municipal elections showed that replacing precinct-based voting with an election day vote center resulted in substantial cost savings. While there was no statistical difference in voter turnout in municipal elections held before and after implementation of the pilot project, voters were highly satisfied with the convenience of the vote center as well as other aspects of their voting experience. The findings suggest that an election day vote center can be a viable strategy to control election costs and enhance voters’ perceptions of the convenience of voting

Supplementary_Material - The Value Added by Professional Certification of Municipal Finance Officers

<p>Supplementary_Material for The Value Added by Professional Certification of Municipal Finance Officers by David H. Folz, and Chris Shults in State and Local Government Review</p