Constitutional Impediments to Decentralization in the World\u27s Largest Federal Country

Decentralization is often advocated as a means of improving local democracy and enhancing what economists call allocative efficiency. In federal countries, where power is already divided between national and state governments, decentralization involves the devolution of power from state to local governments. The world’s largest federal country, India, took an unusual step to advance decentralization: it passed the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act to confer constitutional status on municipalities. However, India’s efforts to promote the devolution of power through a national urban renewal scheme have not succeeded for three reasons. The first is that India’s decentralization process is incomplete. Political decentralization has been stymied by the language of the constitutional amendment itself; administrative decentralization has been hampered by the comparative advantage of entrenched state-level institutions; and fiscal decentralization has not occurred because financial responsibility—but not significant revenue—has been devolved. The second reason is that decentralization has been undertaken in a top-down manner, which has exacerbated Center-state relations and mitigated the goal of allocative efficiency. Third is the relative weakness of local governance structures, which has created a Catch-22 situation: as long as the local governments lack significant capacity, the states are reluctant to devolve power to them. Additional effort needs to be directed towards an effective model of cooperative federalism. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi poised to create “smart cities” and promote urban renewal, it is critical to understand why India’s prior decentralization efforts have largely failed. The lessons learned over the past decade are an important guide to the future of cities in India as well as in other federal countrie

Phonetic & Phonological Salience Effects in Different Speech Processing Tasks

This paper provides evidence for both effects of both phonetic and phonological salience in speech processing. Results from three experiments are presented, each examining the relative processing of two speech sounds by speakers of two different languages. In each experiment, one of the two sounds is more phonetically salient and the other is more phonologically salient given the morphophonological patterning of one of the langauges. Phonetic salience effects emerged in shorter-term tasks and phonological salience effects emerged in tasks that were longer-term and that required more phonological processing

Providing a Meaningful Opportunity for Release: A Proposal for Improving Washington\u27s Miller-Fix

Miller v. Alabama1 set forth new constitutional requirements that necessitated changes in Washington State’s sentencing law for children. In response, the Washington legislature passed RCW 9.94A.730: a parole statute that presumptively releases children who committed crimes after they have served twenty years. Unless the parole board finds they are more likely than not to commit a future crime if released, the Miller-fix statute requires that eligible petitioners are released. The parole board has wide discretion in determining whether someone is more likely than not to commit a future crime because the statute provides no guidance about how to make this prediction. It is nearly impossible to determine what someone will do in the future, and justifications for continuing to incarcerate an individual convicted of a crime as a child after they have served a twenty-year sentence are limited. Therefore, this Comment argues that the Washington legislature should instead require that sentences for children are twenty years or shorter

Reimagining Ability, Reimagining America: Teaching Disability in United States History Classes

In service to the FAIR Education Act (2012) and the awareness-raising mission of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2008), this project reviews historical and educational literature about disability in the United States and provides a curriculum guide for teaching Human Rights Education (HRE) and disability studies (DS) at the high school level in California. This project traces the historical development of deficit attitudes toward disability back to the colonial era, uncovering the dichotomy between the vast resources in DS and the ableist omission of disability from K-12 curricula. Survey data and interviews further show how teachers lack the resources or knowledge to incorporate disability history into their syllabi despite their willingness to engage in the topic. In response to participants’ expressing the need for primary source materials and professional development resources related to disability, “Reimagining America: Reading U.S. History through Human Rights and Critical Disability Studies” was created, containing a glossary of key terms, an accessibility checklist, and a standards-aligned syllabus with seven lesson plans for bringing HRE and DS into an 11th- grade U.S. History course. Suggestions are provided for bringing DS into other core classes in K-12 settings

STRATEGI KOTA PEKALONGAN DALAM PENGEMBANGAN WISATA KREATIF BERBASIS INDUSTRI BATIK

Perkembangan pariwisata kreatif berbasis industri batik di Kota Pekalongan dapat dikatakan maju, terutama setelah UNESCO menetapkan Kota Pekalongan sebagai salah satu kota kreatif di dunia pada tahun 2010. Oleh karena itu melalui penelitian ini, diharapkan dapat dilakukan penggalian pembelajaran dari Kota Pekalongan tentang strategi-strateg yang telah dilakukan oleh para pelaku pariwisata kreatif berbasis industry batik. Untuk dapat mencapai tujuan tersebut, penelitian ini menggunakan metode penelitian studi kasus kualitatif. Data primer yang dibutuhkan dikumpulkan melalui kegiatan observasi kegiatan pada museum batik dan kampung batik, serta wawancara terhadap pemangku kebijakan, pengelola museum dan pelaku industri batik. Sedangkan data sekunder telah dikumpulkan dari instansi-instansi yang terkait. Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa wisata kreatif berbasis batik ini sangat unik dan memiliki kedudukan yang strategis di Kota Pekalongan yang merupakan saah satu sentra industri batik di Pulau Jawa. Wisata kreatif bukan hanya diversifikasi produk yang akan memberikan nilai tambah bagi pelaku industri namun juga menjadi upaya bagi pelestarian batik dengan adanya kegaiatan aktif untuk memperkenalkan batik terutama bagi generasi muda. Selain itu penelitian ini juga menemukan bahwa pemerintah daerah, pelaku industri batik, dan pelaku wisata kreatif di Pekalongan telah melaksanakan beberapa strategi pengembangan wisata kreatif. Strategi-strategi ini bersifat fisik dan non-fisik dengan skala internasional, nasional, kota, maupun lokal yaitu di sekitar kampung batik. Diharapkan strategi-strategi ini dapat disusun dan dilaksanakan secara berlanjut dan komprehensif sehingga semakin banyak masyarakat yang memperoleh dampak positif dari upaya pengembangan wisata kreatif batik khususnya di Kota Pekalongan. Perkembangan pariwisata kreatif berbasis industri batik di Kota Pekalongan dapat dikatakan maju, terutama setelah UNESCO menetapkan Kota Pekalongan sebagai salah satu kota kreatif di dunia pada tahun 2010. Oleh karena itu melalui penelitian ini, diharapkan dapat dilakukan penggalian pembelajaran dari Kota Pekalongan tentang strategi-strateg yang telah dilakukan oleh para pelaku pariwisata kreatif berbasis industry batik. Untuk dapat mencapai tujuan tersebut, penelitian ini menggunakan metode penelitian studi kasus kualitatif. Data primer yang dibutuhkan dikumpulkan melalui kegiatan observasi kegiatan pada museum batik dan kampung batik, serta wawancara terhadap pemangku kebijakan, pengelola museum dan pelaku industri batik. Sedangkan data sekunder telah dikumpulkan dari instansi-instansi yang terkait. Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa wisata kreatif berbasis batik ini sangat unik dan memiliki kedudukan yang strategis di Kota Pekalongan yang merupakan saah satu sentra industri batik di Pulau Jawa. Wisata kreatif bukan hanya diversifikasi produk yang akan memberikan nilai tambah bagi pelaku industri namun juga menjadi upaya bagi pelestarian batik dengan adanya kegaiatan aktif untuk memperkenalkan batik terutama bagi generasi muda. Selain itu penelitian ini juga menemukan bahwa pemerintah daerah, pelaku industri batik, dan pelaku wisata kreatif di Pekalongan telah melaksanakan beberapa strategi pengembangan wisata kreatif. Strategi-strategi ini bersifat fisik dan non-fisik dengan skala internasional, nasional, kota, maupun lokal yaitu di sekitar kampung batik. Diharapkan strategi-strategi ini dapat disusun dan dilaksanakan secara berlanjut dan komprehensif sehingga semakin banyak masyarakat yang memperoleh dampak positif dari upaya pengembangan wisata kreatif batik khususnya di Kota Pekalongan.

Briefing: “Participative approaches to characterize socio-ecological systems and analyze governance of natural resources”

Generating collective action to manage natural resources has been, in recent years, a concern and a challenge for academia, international cooperation, the state, non-government organizations, and the communities. Many development and research projects seek to establish strategies from the characterization of the socio-ecosystems for the conservation and adequate use of resources. However, no methodological processes are available from external entities that enable implementing participative approaches that generate real appropriation by the communities, making joint decisions regarding the different conservation strategies. The projects continue being imposed and with partial participation of the communities and players. In the Colombian case of the COMET-LA Project, we have developed a methodological strategy from the participative approaches, adding the experience the team of researchers from the Faculty of Environmental and Rural Studies, Department of Rural and Regional Development at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana has had in participative research processes and in the use of participative tools to analyze collective action in the management of natural resources (Maya et al., 2001; 2002; 2003a; 2003b 2006; 2008; Maya, 2007; Maya and Ramos, 2010)

MAI KA PIKO A KE MOLE: CLEARING PATHS AND INSPIRING JOURNEYS TO FULFILL KULEANA THROUGH ʻĀINA EDUCATION

Ph.D

Earthquake recurrence as a record breaking process

Extending the central concept of recurrence times for a point process to recurrent events in space-time allows us to characterize seismicity as a record breaking process using only spatiotemporal relations among events. Linking record breaking events with edges between nodes in a graph generates a complex dynamical network isolated from any length, time or magnitude scales set by the observer. For Southern California, the network of recurrences reveals new statistical features of seismicity with robust scaling laws. The rupture length and its scaling with magnitude emerges as a generic measure for distance between recurrent events. Further, the relative separations for subsequent records in space (or time) form a hierarchy with unexpected scaling properties

Development of a tailored, telehealth intervention to address chronic pain and heavy drinking among people with HIV infection: integrating perspectives of patients in HIV care.

BACKGROUND: Chronic pain and heavy drinking commonly co-occur and can infuence the course of HIV. There have been no interventions designed to address both of these conditions among people living with HIV (PLWH), and none that have used telehealth methods. The purpose of this study was to better understand pain symptoms, patterns of alcohol use, treatment experiences, and technology use among PLWH in order to tailor a telehealth intervention that addresses these conditions SUBJECTS: Ten participants with moderate or greater chronic pain and heavy drinking were recruited from a cohort of patients engaged in HIV-care (Boston Alcohol Research Collaborative on HIV/AIDS Cohort) and from an integrated HIV/primary care clinic at a large urban hospital. METHODS: One-on-one interviews were conducted with participants to understand experiences and treatment of HIV, chronic pain, and alcohol use. Participants’ perceptions of the infuence of alcohol on HIV and chronic pain were explored as was motivation to change drinking. Technology use and treatment preferences were examined in the fnal section of the interview. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and uploaded into NVivo® v12 software for analysis. A codebook was developed based on interviews followed by thematic analysis in which specifc meanings were assigned to codes. RESULTS: A number of themes were identifed that had implications for intervention tailoring including: resilience in coping with HIV; autonomy in health care decision-making; coping with pain, stress, and emotion; understanding treatment rationale; depression and social withdrawal; motives to drink and refrain from drinking; technology use and capacity; and preference for intervention structure and style. Ratings of intervention components indicated that participants viewed each of the proposed intervention content areas as “helpful” to “very helpful”. Videoconferencing was viewed as an acceptable modality for intervention delivery CONCLUSIONS: Results helped specify treatment targets and provided information about how to enhance intervention delivery. The interviews supported the view that videoconferencing is an acceptable telehealth method of addressing chronic pain and heavy drinking among PLWH.UH2 AA026192 - NIAAA NIH HHSPublished versio