The role of television in the 1958 Massachusetts democratic gubernatorial campaign.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Overcoming Corruption and War -- Lessons from Ukraine\u27s ProZorro Procurement System

After the 2014 uprising against widespread corruption under former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych, a group of civic activists and data experts decided to overhaul government procurement. Their efforts produced an open-source e-procurement system, ProZorro (“transparency” in Ukrainian), and a community of citizens and government buyers, Dozorro (“watchdog” in Ukrainian), that analyzes contracting data, flags high-risk deals and irregularities, and reports them to government authorities. Created with the help of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the U.S. Agency for International Development, ProZorro has helped Ukraine save almost $6 billion in public funds since October 2017, according to the December 2021 U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption. Resilient in the chaos of war, ProZorro offers many lessons. It offers technical insights useful for any procurement system. For example, in many ways it is more transparent, and better integrated with commercial marketplaces, than the U.S. system. ProZorro also shows how important transparency can be to the strength and integrity of a procurement system. Finally, the system’s sheer endurance – it continues to flourish in the face of a violent attack from Russia – teaches volumes about the patriotism and dedication of those procurement officials behind the ProZorro system. ProZorro was born of many Ukrainians’ intense frustration with a closed and corrupt system of procurement. Launched as a private effort and then adopted by the Ukrainian government, the system was built on principles of impartial decision-making and transparency – key ingredients to any post-Soviet reform. Despite Ukraine’s broader slide back into corruption after its 2014 revolution, ProZorro has persisted as a highly successful tool against corruption, as a means of broadening businesses’ participation in government procurement, and as a reminder of transparency’s importance in reinforcing confidence in government

Assessing Accommodation Suppliers' Perceptions of Climate Change Adaptation Actions on Koh Phi Phi Island, Thailand

Koh Phi Phi Don is among the most visited island tourism destinations in Thailand. Due to the island’s topography and development patterns, most accommodation suppliers on the island are likely to be exposed to a range of climate change impacts, particularly sea-level rise, which can pose a severe risk to the local tourism operations. This study aimed to explore perceptions of climate change adaptation actions in response to impacts typically associated with climate change. This study, furthermore, investigated possible obstacles, barriers, and incentives influencing decision-making processes of accommodation owner-managers (the private sector) to adapt to climate change. The investigation builds on 81 surveys and 12 in-depth interviews. The findings provide evidence that most of the sampled businesses already implemented (consciously or not) climate change adaptation measures, such as insurance coverage, water treatment appliances, and staff training on emergency responses. Through a concentration of power on the island, their action is hindered, which creates a barrier to a sustainable and climate risk-informed development pathway

Residential building and occupant vulnerability to pyroclastic density currents in explosive eruptions

International audienceA major hazard during the eruption of explosive volcanoes is the formation of pyroclastic density currents (PDCs). Casualties and physical building damage from PDCs are caused by the temperature, pressure, and particle load of the flow. This paper examines the vulnerability of buildings and occupants to the forces imposed by PDCs along with associated infiltration of PDC particle and gas mixtures into an intact building. New studies are presented of building and occupant vulnerability with respect to temperature, pressure, and ash concentration. Initial mitigation recommendations are provided

Tourism development from disaster capitalism

This research note focuses on the impact of tourism development from disaster capitalism as expressed by post-disaster land grabs and forced population displacement. Case studies highlighted are India, Thailand and Sri Lanka following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; Honduras after Hurricane Mitch in 1998; and Barbuda following Hurricane Irma in 2017, demonstrating how disaster capitalism continues to be in play. The examples draw on disaster research to show how tourism development from disaster capitalism leads to more disasters. Long-standing disaster research can assist tourism researchers in identifying how to counter harmful post-disaster tourism development

Local expert experiences and perceptions of environmentally induced migration from Bangladesh to India

This study investigates local expert perceptions of the role of environmental factors, especially in terms of contemporary climate change, in population movements from Bangladesh to India. The aim is to delve into locally held understandings of the phenomenon and to gain a better understanding of these migration processes, which are actively intertwined with local experiences. Both Indian and Bangladeshi experts were interviewed using semi-structured, in-depth interviews in order to explore insights from locally held perceptions and understandings of contextual factors. In total, 10 Bangladeshi and 15 Indian experts were interviewed, covering different disciplines, sectors, regions and job types, together providing a more complete and grounded picture of views of environmentally induced migration in Bangladesh and India. The results show that climate change is perceived by local experts as one of the key factors influencing migration in Bangladesh, both internally and externally. The interviewees, however, placed environmentally induced migration in a broader context of labour and economic migration. In particular, migration for environmental reasons in Bangladesh was evident long before the emergence of climate change as an issue. According to the interviewed experts, this does not preclude increased environmentally induced migration within and from Bangladesh in the future, but its analyses ought to be placed in historical and economical contexts

Grazing winter wheat relieves plant water stress and transiently enhances photosynthesis

In order to model the impact of grazing on wheat growth, we measured photosynthesis in the field. Grazing may affect photosynthesis as a consequence of changes to leaf water status, nitrogen content per unit leaf area (Na) or photosynthetic enzyme activity. While light-saturated CO2 assimilation rates (Asat) of field-grown wheat were unchanged during grazing, Asat transiently increased by 33-68% compared to ungrazed leaves over a two-four week period after grazing ended. Grazing reduced leaf mass per unit area, increased stomatal conductance and increased intercellular CO2 concentrations (Ci) by 36-38%, 88-169% and 17-20%, respectively. Grazing did not alter Na. Using a photosynthesis model, we demonstrated that the increase in Asat after grazing required an increase in Rubisco activity of up to 53%, whereas the increase in Ci could only increase Asat by up to 13%. Increased Rubisco activity was associated with a partial alleviation of leaf water stress. We observed a 68% increase in leaf water potential of grazed plants which could be attributed to reduced leaf area index and canopy evaporative demand, as well as increased rainfall infiltration into soil. The grazing of rain-fed grain cereals may be tailored to relieve plant water stress and enhance leaf photosynthesis

Archaeal MCM has separable processivity, substrate choice and helicase domains

The mini-chromosome maintenance (MCM) complex is the principal candidate for the replicative helicase of archaea and eukaryotes. Here, we describe a functional dissection of the roles of the three principal structural modules of the homomultimeric MCM of the hyperthermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus. Our results include the first analysis of the central AAA+ domain in isolation. This domain possesses ATPase and helicase activity, defining this as the minimal helicase domain. Reconstitution experiments show that the helicase activity of the AAA+ domain can be stimulated by addition of the isolated N-terminal half in trans. Addition of the N-terminus influences both the processivity of the helicase and the choice of substrate that can be melted by the ATPase domain. The degenerate helix-turn-helix domain at the C-terminus of MCM exerts a negative effect on the helicase activity of the complex. These results provide the first evidence for extensive regulatory inter-domain communication within the MCM complex

Residential building and occupant vulnerability to tephra fall

International audiencePlinian and subplinian volcanic eruptions can be accompanied by tephra falls which may last hours or days, posing threats to people, buildings and economic activity. Numerous historical examples exist of tephra damage and tephra casualties. The mechanisms and consequences of roof collapse from static tephra load are an important area of tephra damage requiring more research. This paper contributes to this work by estimating the structural vulnerability of buildings to tephra load based on both analytical studies and observed damage. New studies are presented of roof strengths in the area around Mt. Vesuvius in southern Italy and of field surveys undertaken in other European volcanic locations to assess building vulnerability to tephra fall. The results are a proposed set of new European tephra fall roof vulnerability curves in areas potentially threatened by explosive volcanic eruptions along with comments on the human casualty implications of roof collapse under tephra loading. Some mitigation recommendations are provided