The American Deep State

This Article, written for the Notre Dame Law Review Symposium on Administrative Lawmaking in the Twenty-First Century, considers the notion of bureaucratic depth and what it means in the American context. In what follows, I argue that the American deep state has very little in common with those regimes usually understood to harbor deep states; that, far from being shadowy or elitist, the American bureaucracy is very much a demotic institution, demographically diverse, highly accountable, and lacking financial incentives or caste proclivities to subvert popular will; that demotic bureaucratic depth of the American variety should be celebrated, not feared; and that, going forward, we need greater, not lesser, depth insofar as the American bureaucracy serves an important, salutary, and quite possibly necessary role in safeguarding our constitutional commitments and enriching our public policies

Separation of Powers and Centripetal Forces: Implications for the Institutional Design and Constitutionality of Our National-Security State

Today’s national-security state is increasingly highly concentrated, centralized, and consolidated across at least three dimensions: the public-private divide, the federal-state divide, and the political–civil servant divide within government agencies. Each of these dimensions of concentration, centralization, and consolida-tion has been individually examined. Yet notwithstanding careful study, there has been little appreciation of the potentially reinforcing effects of consolidation occurring along any two, let alone all three, of the relevant dimensions. That is to say, scholars and policymakers have generally zeroed in on only one dimension of con-solidation at a time—and they have assessed the pros and cons of public-private, federal-state, or intra-agency consolidation against what they treat as an otherwise static backdrop. his Essay insists that we need to think more capaciously and systemically—to take stock of all of the moving parts and gauge how they work together. We need to do so for purposes of smarter, more careful institutional design that accounts for the multiple dimensions on which federal executive power has become concentrated and consolidated. What’s more, we need to do so for reasons pertaining to constitu-tional separation of powers. The public-private, federal-state, and intra-agency lines of separation are each constitutionally salient. Even if the weakening or col-lapsing of any one of those lines of separation does not by itself rise to the level of a constitutional transgression, the weakening or collapsing of multiple lines of sepa-ration within a given substantive policy domain may well threaten our constitutional order. In short, this Essay proffers a multidimensional, aggregate-effects theory of constitutional structure. The sum total of individually minor incursions (on private, state, and bureaucratic autonomy) might constitute a major one as the president and her agency heads accumulate power along multiple dimensions, picking up bits and pieces from dragooned corporations, from co-opted states and municipalities, and from a defanged federal workforce effectively serving at the pleasure of the Administration

Beyond Accountability: The Constitutional, Democratic, and Strategic Problems with Privatizing War

This Article proceeds in six parts. I begin in Part II first by tracing the modern evolution of military privatization and next by discussing six contemporary case studies. Then, I attempt to locate some of the normative impulses motivating this new wave of privatization and to situate them within the broader pattern of American privatization policy; this last section serves to frame the principal conceptual differences between combat-related and more conventional forms of privatization, which will be important in understanding the unique structural harms introduced by decisions to outsource military responsibilities. In Part III, I commence with the inquiry’s critical analysis: understanding these structural harms. Then, in Part IV, I characterize how the introduction of private troops, either integrated into a larger contingent of U.S. military personnel or instructed to operate independently, creates considerable institutional harms, strategic liabilities, and morale problems. In Part V, the penultimate part, I discuss the international/diplomatic harms privatization engenders. Part VI concludes by first roughly sketching out a set of reform measures that might help to reduce the legal and symbolic status differentials between contractors and soldiers that underlie many of the manifest structural harms described above. Having proffered some reform proposals, I then consider which status disparities may prove the most difficult to eliminate. Finally, I discuss whether these reforms, if successful, might actually reduce, if not altogether destroy, military privatization’s raison d’etre

Large area, low cost solar cell development and production readiness

A process sequence for a large area ( or = 25 sq. cm) silicon solar cell was investigated. Generic cell choice was guided by the expected electron fluence, by the packing factors of various cell envelope designs onto each panel to provide needed voltage as well as current, by the weight constraints on the system, and by the cost goals of the contract

The impact of care competency training for primary care nurses in South Africa

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-200).To effectively support the primary health care transformation of the South African health system, human resource development is needed. Nurses, at the forefront of primary care service delivery, urgently need support and advancement to fulfill their role. This study aimed to investigate the impact of core competency training on primary care nurse competence. To begin this investigation, a framework or core competencies was generated through two reference group meetings. This work was followed by a Delphi study to further define core competence in primary care nursing and how best to measure such competence. Nine core competencies were defined which led to the development and piloting of a core competency evaluation tool including a self-lest and observation tool. This early work was followed by the implementation and evaluation of a novel core-competency training program. This program was implemented within district health systems with working clinic nurses. It involved tour distinct sites in three different provinces. A total of 162 nurses took part in the study, including an intervention and reference group. The goal was to assess the impact of training in a real world setting. Using the self-lest and observation tools, this study showed that competence does improve with this type of training. Additionally, competence is most reliably assessed through observation since test familiarity and possible contamination decrease the usefulness of repeated self-test measures. Further assessment or this novel training program and ref1nement of the measurement tool are recommended. This study can serve to inform health policies, particularly regarding human resource development within emerging district health systems. It provides a practical and effective training approach for increasing nurse performance of primary care core competencies

MUFAN, a computer program for the analysis of multi-loop fluid flow systems

MUFAN program for determining pressures, flow rates, and pressure drops in systems involving one dimensional incompressible steady state fluid flo

The impact of care competency training for primary care nurses in South Africa

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-200).To effectively support the primary health care transformation of the South African health system, human resource development is needed. Nurses, at the forefront of primary care service delivery, urgently need support and advancement to fulfill their role. This study aimed to investigate the impact of core competency training on primary care nurse competence. To begin this investigation, a framework or core competencies was generated through two reference group meetings. This work was followed by a Delphi study to further define core competence in primary care nursing and how best to measure such competence. Nine core competencies were defined which led to the development and piloting of a core competency evaluation tool including a self-lest and observation tool. This early work was followed by the implementation and evaluation of a novel core-competency training program. This program was implemented within district health systems with working clinic nurses. It involved tour distinct sites in three different provinces. A total of 162 nurses took part in the study, including an intervention and reference group. The goal was to assess the impact of training in a real world setting. Using the self-lest and observation tools, this study showed that competence does improve with this type of training. Additionally, competence is most reliably assessed through observation since test familiarity and possible contamination decrease the usefulness of repeated self-test measures. Further assessment or this novel training program and ref1nement of the measurement tool are recommended. This study can serve to inform health policies, particularly regarding human resource development within emerging district health systems. It provides a practical and effective training approach for increasing nurse performance of primary care core competencies

Editorial.

Welcome to the third issue of our journal . We are delighted to feature in this issue two peer-reviewed papers looking in detail at some of the outcomes of the ring-fenced money used for researcher development in the UK under the guise of Roberts funding. In her paper looking at impact of the training provided by this funding on late stage doctoral student researchers, Walsh and colleagues draw our attention to detailed analysis of impact via a variety of evaluation approaches. She also alerts us to the question of whether such development programmes should run alongside the traditional apprenticeship style training of such students. The second paper by Heading and colleagues provides a detailed example of a development programme event in information management and provides further evidence for impact of such training. Bai and Hudson move the focus to the research –teaching nexus and highlight the difficulty for TEFL staff in Chinese HEIs to develop a research strand in their careers. The importance in developing research capacity, providing support and mentoring to such staff is shown to be pivotal in their development. Finally conceptions of research from a variety of viewpoints are analyzed by Pitcher. Pitcher considers how the PhD itself, alongwith how the knowledge and outcomes of PhD research are perceived. In a preliminary survey of students on these matters, Pitcher highlights the importance of alignment with these concepts between student and supervisor thus avoiding difficulties between apprentice and supervisor as the research progresses which might inhibit development

Ambiguity in Speaking Chemistry and other STEM Content: Educational Implications

Ambiguity in speech is a possible barrier to the acquisition of knowledge for students who have print disabilities (such as blindness, visual impairments, and some specific learning disabilities) and rely on auditory input for learning. Chemistry appears to have considerable potential for being spoken ambiguously and may be a barrier to accessing knowledge and to learning. Educators in chemistry may be unaware of, or have limited awareness of, potential ambiguity in speaking chemistry and may speak chemistry ambiguously to their students. One purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of potential ambiguity in speaking chemistry and other STEM fields and the ramifications of ambiguity. Another purpose is to introduce rules (known as MathSpeak) for non-ambiguous speaking of mathematics that could be adapted for use in chemistry. Reducing ambiguity in speaking chemistry may enhance learning of chemistry and could encourage students who have blindness, visual impairments, and/or other print disabilities to pursue careers in STEM fields