Policy entrepreneurship in UK central government: The behavioural insights team and the use of randomized controlled trials

What factors explain the success of the UK Cabinet Office’s Behavioural Insights Team? To answer this question, this article applies insights from organizational theory, particularly accounts of change agents. Change agents are able—with senior sponsorship—to foster innovation by determination and skill: they win allies and circumvent more traditional bureaucratic procedures. Although Behavioural Insights Team is a change agent—maybe even a skunkworks unit—not all the facilitating factors identified in the literature apply in this central government context. Key factors are its willingness to work in a non-hierarchical way, skills at forming alliances, and the ability to form good relationships with expert audiences. It has been able to promote a more entrepreneurial approach to government by using randomized controlled trials as a robust method of policy evaluation

Linear force device

The object of the invention is to provide a mechanical force actuator which is lightweight and manipulatable and utilizes linear motion for push or pull forces while maintaining a constant overall length. The mechanical force producing mechanism comprises a linear actuator mechanism and a linear motion shaft mounted parallel to one another. The linear motion shaft is connected to a stationary or fixed housing and to a movable housing where the movable housing is mechanically actuated through actuator mechanism by either manual means or motor means. The housings are adapted to releasably receive a variety of jaw or pulling elements adapted for clamping or prying action. The stationary housing is adapted to be pivotally mounted to permit an angular position of the housing to allow the tool to adapt to skewed interfaces. The actuator mechanisms is operated by a gear train to obtain linear motion of the actuator mechanism

New York\u27s Juvenile Offender Law: An Overview and Analysis

In response to the public outrage over the light sentencing of some of New York City\u27s juvenile offenders who had committed heinous crimes, the legislature enacted the Crime Package Bill which made revisions to the entire justice system. The result was that New York was provided with some of the harshest juvenile justice systems in the country. This Article argues that the system is both ineffective and inefficient. First, the Article examines the historical development of the juvenile system, then the more recent reforms of the system, and finally the problems created by the Crime Package Bill

The Spectropolarimetric Evolution of V838 Monocerotis

I review photo-polarimetric and spectropolarimetric observations of V838 Mon, which revealed that it had an asymmetrical inner circumstellar envelope following its 2nd photometric outburst. Electron scattering, modified by pre- or post-scattering H absorption, is the polarizing mechanism in V838 Mon's envelope. The simplest geometry implied by these observations is that of a spheroidal shell, flattened by at least 10% and having a projected position angle on the sky of $\sim37^{\circ}$. Analysis of V838 Mon's polarized flux reveals that this electron scattering shell lies interior to the envelope region in which H$\alpha$ and Ca II triplet emission originates. To date, none of the theoretical models proposed for V838 Mon have demonstrated that they can reproduce the evolution of V838 Mon's inner circumstellar environment, as probed by spectropolarimetry.Comment: 8 pages, to appear in ASP Conf. Ser., The Nature of V838 Mon and Its Light Echo, eds. R.L.M. Corradi and U. Munar

Propertius Book IV: Themes and Structures

published or submitted for publicatio

Truncated fractional moments of stable laws

Expressions are given for the truncated fractional moments $E X_+^p$ of a general stable law. These involve families of special functions that arose out of the study of multivariate stable densities and probabilities. As a particular case, an expression is given for $E(X-a)_+$ when $\alpha > 1$

A Monetary Misunderstanding: \u3cem\u3eSmith v. Gilmore\u3c/em\u3e and Baltimore\u27s Place in Turn of the 19th Century Globalization

As the young United States entered the 19th century, the City of Baltimore had become a major center of America’s international commerce. Baltimore had quickly risen from a relatively small town on the Chesapeake Bay to the home of the country\u27s third busiest trading port and one of its fastest growing cities in less than two decades. The case of Smith v. Gilmor (M.D. 1816), a lawsuit between two prominent Baltimore merchants, was emblematic of the early days of globalization and the confusion this clash of cultures caused in the world of international trade. The controversy in this case is placed over the backdrop of how the merchants and sailors of Baltimore helped to expand America’s economic influence across the globe during the early years of the nation despite the overwhelming power of the old European trading monopolies