DEFENSE ACQUISITION BEST PRACTICES: THE KNOWLEDGE-BASED APPROACH

Over the last decade, several response plans and methods have been established to reduce schedule and budget overruns in the Department of Defense’s (DOD) procurement programs. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) chose to revisit this issue in a recent study. They discovered that leveraging mature technology, having complete product designs, and having control over manufacturing processes were key to the successful development of new products. The GAO merged these principles into a single acquisition strategy known as the Knowledge-Based Approach (KBA). They assert that Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAP) that implement the KBA principles will have better program outcomes. The purpose of this research is to determine if MDAPs that meet the three basic KBA criteria outperform those that do not. MDAPs that adhered to KBA knowledge points were predicted to have lower percentages of schedule and budget overruns than those that did not. This thesis demonstrated a clear link between the KBA and program performance by using inferential testing to compare the KBA to the most recent MDAPs, thus validating the GAO’s approach, validating the research hypothesis, and promoting wider adoption of the KBA within the DOD’s acquisition community.Lieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Military Law and the Charter of Rights

Substantial re-evaluations of the rules ordering many facets of Canadian society have been required since the introduction of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, both as a consequence and in anticipation of challenges in the courts. The military community in particular has been faced with extensive difficulties because of the adoption of the Charter of Rights by its parent civilian society. The dilemma the military finds itself in stems from the creation of the Charter by civilian politicians and lawyers who had the problems of a civilian society and legal system in mind; yet it applies equally to the military.\u27 Although the Forces have adopted a number of changes in order to accommodate the Charter, there still remains a broad range of long-established military policies which could face challenges in the courts for limiting the enumerated rights in the Charter. Not only may a number of administrative practices and specific military offences be open to question, but so may the tribunals which form the very basis of military justice. Serious problems arise in trying to resolve these apparent contraventions because this conflict represents more than just a discrepancy between a particular set of laws and the Charter, rather, it is generated by a fundamental clash between the values of the military community and those of the Canadian society at large

The intrinsic rate of increase of reindeer and caribou populations in arctic environments

The intrinsic rate of increase of an animal population, rm, is specific to the environment in which it is measured. Previous estimates of maximum growth rates for reindeer and caribou Rangifer tarandus populations were based on introductions to islands with cool oceanic climates. The mean intrinsic rate of increase of 6 populations was 0.26 ranging from 0.21 on St Paul Island in the Bering Sea to 0.29 in the Barff herd on South Georgia. I calculated rm for two Rangifer populations introduced to arctic environments to determine the effect of environmental severity on the intrinsic rate of increase. Reindeer on the Belcher islands increased at rm= 0.28 and caribou on Southampton Island increased at rm = 0.23 (mean = 0.26). The lower primary productivity and longer duration of snow cover in arctic environments did not affect the intrinsic rate of increase

Genetics Analysis Workshop 16 Problem 2: tTe Framingham Heart Study Data

Genetic Analysis Workshop 16 (GAW16) Problem 2 presented data from the Framingham Heart Study (FHS), an observational, prospective study of risk factors for cardiovascular disease begun in 1948. Data have been collected in three generations of family participants in the study and the data presented for GAW16 included phenotype data from all three generations, with four examinations of data collected repeatedly for the first two generations. The trait data consisted of information on blood pressure, hypertension treatment, lipid levels, diabetes and blood glucose, smoking, alcohol consumed, weight, and coronary heart disease incidence. Additionally, genotype data obtained through a genome-wide scan (FHS SHARe) of 550,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms from Affymetrix chips were included with the GAW16 data. The genotype data were also used for GAW16 Problem 3, where simulated phenotypes were generated using the actual FHS genotypes. These data served to provide investigators with a rich resource to study the behavior of genome-wide scans with longitudinally collected family data and to develop and apply new procedures.National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (2 N01-HC-25195-06); National Institutes of Health (National Institute of General Medical Sciences R01 GM031575

Detained without trial: Fair Trials International‟s response to the European Commission‟s Green Paper on detention

The report presents the case studies of 11 individuals whose rights were infringed due to excessive and unjustified pre-trial detention. The report analyses the pre-trial detention regimes of 15 EU Member States: the Czech Republic, France, England and Wales, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. Key statistical data on rates of pre-trial detention in these and other EU countries are presented in Appendix 1. The report was submitted to the European Commission in response to its Green Paper on detention issued in 2010

The European Arrest Warrant: the role of judges when human rights are at risk

This article examines the role of the judiciary in protecting fundamental rights in European extradition cases, in particular the impact of the European Court of Human Rights' decision in Mss v Belgium and Greece

The Interpretation and Effective Implementation of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1996

The purpose of this research is to develop a plan that gives schools the opportunity to acquire knowledge of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act. The law suggests that federal agencies give surplus equipment to educational entities. It would then become the school's choice to take advantage of the opportunity. The purpose of this proposal is to develop an ongoing partnership with schools around the United States. Its attempt is to inform schools about the law and organize a plan that will allow schools to take advantage of this opportunity. It would inform teachers about available resources and expose their students to educational opportunities

EDCATS: An Evaluation Tool

The purpose of this research is to explore the development of Marshall Space Flight Center Unique Programs. These academic tools provide the Education Program Office with important information from the Education Computer Aided Tracking System (EDCATS). This system is equipped to provide on-line data entry, evaluation, analysis, and report generation, with full archiving for all phases of the evaluation process. Another purpose is to develop reports and data that is tailored to Marshall Space Flight Center Unique Programs. It also attempts to acquire knowledge on how, why, and where information is derived. As a result, a user will be better prepared to decide which available tool is the most feasible for their reports