Strategic Concealment: Locating Armed Private Contractors in State Foreign Policy

The global expansion of armed private contractors has led to a revived interest in researching armed private contracting firms, especially investigating how their personnel have functioned as an extension of state foreign policy. However, the literature on the industry contains a confusing diversity of terms when reviewing such firms, whether private military company, private security company, private military security company, or even just mercenary. Using the Singer (2010) ‘tip of the spear’ typology, I analyze the distinctions across armed private contracting firms and discuss the differences between armed private contractors and conventional militaries, armed private contractors and mercenaries, and highlight the differences between private military companies and private security companies. I find several substantive distinctions, including recruitment and retainment, rent-seeking behavior and compliance with international regulations, and expected threat environment, respectively. Armed private contracting firms will continue to influence international security dynamics and necessitate further research and attention

Best Practices among Certain Classes of Pennsylvania Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs)

The researchers originally became aware of the existence of DMOs (previously known as tourism promotion agencies or TPAs) when reading materials in the Gettysburg Times. The two student-authors plan to work in local government following graduation, and they were curious about perspectives shared in the Gettysburg Times about the local DMO. Thereafter, a representative from the Gettysburg Borough Council approached the faculty-author about conducting research on DMOs’ policies, procedures, and practices, and, relatedly, the “pillow tax,” a hotel room occupancy tax that is administered by counties and disbursed to DMOs, among others. Specifically, the Borough Council representative was curious about best practices with respect to allocation of the pillow tax; how DMOs use pillow tax revenue; and how DMOs account for such use. The Borough representative also was curious about general business practices among DMOs. The faculty-author applied for and obtained approval from the Gettysburg College Institutional Review Board for research among Pennsylvania DMOs and their representatives on these issues. This white paper briefly summarizes the history of the relationship between Pennsylvania DMOs and the pillow tax then describes the researchers’ methodology. Next, the white paper describes what Study DMOs appear to believe are best practices, or most commonly accepted practices, in six categories: Boards of Directors; Revenue; Grant Making; Spending; Assessment; and Future Planning. All data are reported in aggregate to minimize the risk of revealing individually identifiable data. These findings may inform DMO, community, and county decision-making

A Trifecta of Challenges for Veterans Treatment Courts

This chapter examines veterans treatment court operations15 years after the first veterans court appeared to recommend three areas of focus for development to improve procedural justice and increase implementation fidelity

Critical Care Teamwork in the Future: The Role of TeamSTEPPS^® in the COVID-19 Pandemic and Implications for the Future

At our institution, we observed inconsistency in the application of structural facilitators for interprofessional teamwork such as handoffs and communication of contingency planning, complete formation and engagement of teams on interprofessional rounds, regular situation monitoring, interprofessional huddles, use of “check back” during code situations, and standard debriefings after codes and procedures (TeamSTEPPS®). To enhance team performance, we piloted TeamSTEPPS® training and reinforcement for all healthcare team members in the medical intensive care unit (MICU), inclusive of trainees, advanced practice providers (APPs), nurses, and respiratory therapists rotating through the unit. Seven months after the training launch, the initial COVID-19 surge interrupted the reinforcement stage of the pilot providing an opportunity to study the retention of TeamSTEPPS® principles and its potential role in response to a crisis. We conducted interprofessional focus groups after a year of crisis management during the pandemic. Themes revealed how TeamSTEPPS® training impacted teamwork and communication, as well as factors that influenced the use of TeamSTEPPS®. This work points to the value of team training in unexpected scenarios. Additional studies at multiple sites are needed to determine scalability for all MICU teams or for onboarding new team members

Contributions of Flowering Time Genes to Sunflower Domestication and Improvement

Determining the identity and distribution of molecular changes leading to the evolution of modern crop species provides major insights into the timing and nature of historical forces involved in rapid phenotypic evolution. In this study, we employed an integrated candidate gene strategy to identify loci involved in the evolution of flowering time during early domestication and modern improvement of the sunflower (Helianthus annuus). Sunflower homologs of many genes with known functions in flowering time were isolated and cataloged. Then, colocalization with previously mapped quantitative trait loci (QTLs), expression, or protein sequence differences between wild and domesticated sunflower, and molecular evolutionary signatures of selective sweeps were applied as step-wise criteria for narrowing down an original pool of 30 candidates. This process led to the discovery that five paralogs in the FLOWERING LOCUS T/TERMINAL FLOWER 1 gene family experienced selective sweeps during the evolution of cultivated sunflower and may be the causal loci underlying flowering time QTLs. Our findings suggest that gene duplication fosters evolutionary innovation and that natural variation in both coding and regulatory sequences of these paralogs responded to a complex history of artificial selection on flowering time during the evolution of cultivated sunflower