Eric Shinseki’s failure at the Department of Veterans Affairs shows the difficulty in evaluating transformational public sector executives

Shortly after his election President Obama nominated former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, Eric Shinseki, to head the beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs. Despite Shinseki’s reputation as a transformational leader, he largely failed to transform the Department of Veterans Affairs, and resigned in early 2014. Montgomery Van Wart writes that Shinseki’s example shows how difficult it is to be a transformational administrative leader, and the difficulties there are in evaluating them

Kali Gandaki: The Road from Lower Mustang to a Global Food Market

Development in Nepal continues to be a major issue in both metropolitan and rural areas of the country. Of the many obstacles standing in the way of this objective, one of the most challenging is the mountainous geography that shapes the country’s lands, culture, and people. To overcome this obstacle, Nepal has followed many other developing countries by making rural road development a main priority in hopes of increasing connectivity, travel, trade, education, and accessibility to other benefits. One such example of this is the Kali Gandaki road in Lower Mustang. The purpose of this research paper is to identify how the creation of the Kali Gandaki road has changed consumption habits and trade habits of villages in Lower Mustang. Although it is recognized importation of global food products has increased, it has yet to be determined if this is due to a change in local diet or demand from foreign tourism

In Search of a “Fair Explanation”: Helping Young People to Consider the Possibilities, Limitations, and Risks of Computer- and Data-Mediated Systems

Significant resources have been directed towards K-12 computing and data education over the past ten years, as part of what has come to be known as the CSforAll initiative. This initiative has focused on raising awareness of computing education among parents and students, developing situated learning progressions that resonate with many different interests and pursuits, training teachers, and addressing issues of underrepresentation in computing among females and racial minorities. In this dissertation, I argue that as the CSforAll initiative continues to expand, it is important for the education community to also reflect on the forms of knowledge that are believed to be essential, and the presumed benefits of computing and data education. Specifically, how might the goal of producing citizens with robust computing and data literacies change what is considered to be fundamental to a computing education; as well as the kinds of contexts in which computing and data science are situated?I use the term sociotechnical literacy to name this vision for computing education, which I define as a broad set of social and technical practices, strategies, ideas, and dispositions that can help people to reason about the computer-mediated systems that shape their everyday lives. As the term suggests, I argue that it is important for learners to engage with technical ideas as well as their social applications and implications. To examine what this might mean for teaching and learning, I describe two design experiments that I conducted with young people (ages 14 – 22). Each approach aimed to make the applications of computing primary (rather than treating applications as the backdrop from which the abstractions of computation are motivated), so that learners could examine some of the specific ways in which data and computing might be directed to particular goals, subject to real possibilities and constraints, and in relation to alternative forms of participation. I examine the possibilities and limitations of each approach. I also analyze some of the assumptions that framed the design experiments – which were naïve, but also reflective of a broader ethos that pervades CSforAll. I reflect on what these studies collectively reveal about the possibilities, limitations, and risks of data and computing, as situated in the lives of young people; as well as what this might mean for helping young people develop a robust sociotechnical literacy. There are very real limits to what can be accomplished with computing and data alone. There are also significant benefits and risks associated with the many sociotechnical systems that shape our lives. As such, I argue that rather than positioning computing education as a remedy to various social ills, we instead offer young people a fair explanation of what computing is and is not capable of, grounded within specific contexts involving real people. I conclude with what this fair explanation might include, and how it might be fostered

Keep Calm and Move to Bulgaria. Social behavior in a Culturally Diverse Bulgarian Village

Because the European Union is expanding its cultural diversity is becoming increasingly complex. An example of this complexity is the small and secluded village of Paskalevets in Bulgaria. The population of 150 consists of at least eight different nationalities. This cultural diversity is rather new. People from the USA, the UK, France, Ireland, and Germany have started settling there during the last ten years. Although cultural diversity is often managed by different policies and models, Paskalevets' diversity is not subjected to any policy. Cultural identities are not institutionally embedded. This empirical research focuses on inter-cultural social behavior in a non-regulated culturally diverse situation. Interviews and observations in Paskalevets describe that social behavior. Analysis shows that language, economic status, and historical and political background influence the inhabitants' behavior and create a social imbalance in the village. Conclusions about social behavior are that the size of the village and its population, together with its unregulated cultural diversity, hinders integration and facilitates discrimination and social inequality. It results in social fragmentation characterized by isolation and seclusion of the various cultural groups, mainly divided into natives and foreigners. There are exceptions but because of unsolved cultural differences, they're fragile

Impact of derived global weather data on simulated crop yields

Crop simulation models can be used to estimate impact of current and future climates on crop yields and food security, but require long-term historical daily weather data to obtain robust simulations. In many regions where crops are grown, daily weather data are not available. Alternatively, gridded weather databases (GWD) with complete terrestrial coverage are available, typically derived from: (i) global circulation computer models; (ii) interpolated weather station data; or (iii) remotely sensed surface data from satellites. The present study’s objective is to evaluate capacity of GWDs to simulate crop yield potential (Yp) or water-limited yield potential (Yw), which can serve as benchmarks to assess impact of climate change scenarios on crop productivity and land use change. Three GWDs (CRU, NCEP/DOE, and NASA POWER data) were evaluated for their ability to simulate Yp and Yw of rice in China, USA maize, and wheat in Germany. Simulations of Yp and Yw based on recorded daily data from well-maintained weather stations were taken as the control weather data (CWD). Agreement between simulations of Yp or Yw based on CWD and those based on GWD was poor with the latter having strong bias and large root mean square errors (RMSEs) that were 26–72% of absolute mean yield across locations and years. In contrast, simulated Yp or Yw using observed daily weather data from stations in the NOAA database combined with solar radiation from the NASAPOWER database were in much better agreement with Yp and Yw simulated with CWD (i.e. little bias and an RMSE of 12–19% of the absolute mean). We conclude that results from studies that rely on GWD to simulate agricultural productivity in current and future climates are highly uncertain. An alternative approach would impose a climate scenario on location-specific observed daily weather databases combined with an appropriate upscaling method

Student-Conducted Farmer Video Interviews

High school agricultural education teachers have expressed concern about the lack of easily accessible educational materials dealing with contemporary topics in sustainable agriculture. There are numerous textbooks and monographs available for farmers and students at the college level, including the highly practical resources available from the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) book series on soil fertility (Magdoff and van Es, 2010), cover crops (Bowman et al., 2007) and building a farm business (DiGiacomo et al., 2003), among others. Although these are full of color photos and easily accessible graphs and tables, they are still in the print media category. Many of today’s students, accustomed to personal electronic devices and instant access to entertaining (and hopefully educational) video material are more apt to use information from newer formats. As one student said, perhaps in jest, “If it is not online, for me it does not exist.” So we determined to meet high school students where they are. The regional SARE grant committee agreed with our assessment and a modest proposal was approved to develop accessible sustainable agriculture teaching materials for high school students. With the help of experienced Nebraska high school teachers, we selected topics that would supplement their current modules in courses and raise interest by virtually ‘bringing farmers into the classroom’. To add interest for the high school agriculture classes, students were selected to do the interviews. Questions were carefully edited by a member of the SARE grant team (Jenn Simons) and professionally produced by information technology experts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Here are the methods used and results of the project

The Challenges to Distance Education in an Academic Social Science Discipline: The Case of Political Science

This article reports the results from a national survey directed to the department chairs of political science to assess the current and future state of distance learning in that discipline. The insights of this research are relevant to all social science fields and offer important insights to other academic disciplines as well. Key findings of the study include the low utilization of distance learning courses, a low degree of importance currently attributed to distance learning and modest expectations of future growth, ambivalent acceptance of a future role for distance learning, the common use of Internet-related technologies, low levels of faculty knowledge and interest about distance learning, limited institutional support, and serious doubts about the appropriateness and quality of instruction at a distance. We propose a model of the size and scope of distance learning as a function of three factors: the capacity of distance learning technologies, market demand, and faculty and university interest in distance learning. The article concludes with suggestions of critical areas for future research in this dynamic, fluid post-secondary environment

Intersection Management, Cybersecurity, and Local Government: ITS Applications, Critical Issues, and Regulatory Schemes

This article focuses on the cybersecurity issues of intersection management—an element of transportation management systems—for local governments. Until relatively recently, concerns about and research needs for intersection cybersecurity have been largely ignored, and local governments have focused on other types of cyber threats, relying instead on private sector vendors to provide equipment that is safe against attacks. To address the gap in the literature, this article provides a short overview of the types of components used in intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and reviews the critical issues for local governments. Further, it discusses some current efforts to remediate the vulnerabilities in ITS and examines the current regulatory framework. This review of the issues is augmented by an analysis of local government perspectives using the Delphi method. The article concludes with some recommendations