How The Mountain West States Voted In 2016: A Post-Election Analysis of Trends, Demographics, and Politics in America’s New Swing Region

Brookings Mountain West and the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs hosted a panel of experts in state and regional politics and history to examine election returns and exit polling and provide a first-read of the 2016 election. The Mountain West is now one of the nation’s most contested political regions. Its population growth and ever-shifting demographics make the region harder to predict and most susceptible to political swings. Five states in the Southern Mountain West – Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah – now hold more electoral votes than all individual states except Texas and California. In our current political climate these 37 electoral votes can determine the majority in the U.S. Senate and the presidency of the United States

The presence of disseminated tumour cells in the bone marrow is inversely related to circulating free DNA in plasma in breast cancer dormancy.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to gain insight into breast cancer dormancy by examining different measures of minimal residual disease (MRD) over time in relation to known prognostic factors. METHODS: Sixty-four primary breast cancer patients on follow-up (a median of 8.3 years post surgery) who were disease free had sequential bone marrow aspirates and blood samples taken for the measurement of disseminated tumour cells (DTCs), circulating tumour cells (CTCs) by CellSearch and qPCR measurement of overlapping (96-bp and 291-bp) amplicons in circulating free DNA (cfDNA). RESULTS: The presence of CTCs was correlated with the presence of DTCs measured by immunocytochemistry (P=0.01) but both were infrequently detected. Increasing cfDNA concentration correlated with ER, HER2 and triple-negative tumours and high tumour grade, and the 291-bp amplicon was inversely correlated with DTCs measured by CK19 qRT-PCR (P=0.047). CONCLUSION: Our results show that breast cancer patients have evidence of MRD for many years after diagnosis despite there being no overt evidence of disease. The inverse relationship between bone marrow CK19 mRNA and the 291-bp amplicon in cfDNA suggests that an inverse relationship between a measure of cell viability in the bone marrow (DTCs) and cell death in the plasma occurs during the dormancy phase of breast cancer

The motivations for the adoption of management innovation by local governments and its performance effects

This article analyses the economic, political and institutional antecedents and performance effects of the adoption of shared Senior Management Teams (SMTs) – a management innovation (MI) that occurs when a team of senior managers oversees two or more public organizations. Findings from statistical analysis of 201 English local governments and interviews with organizational leaders reveal that shared SMTs are adopted to develop organisational capacity in resource‐challenged, politically risk‐averse governments, and in response to coercive and mimetic institutional pressures. Importantly, sharing SMTs may reduce rather than enhance efficiency and effectiveness due to redundancy costs and the political transaction costs associated with diverting resources away from a high‐performing partner to support their lower‐performing counterpart

Nonprofits as Policy Solutions to the Burden of Government by Herrington J. Bryce

Bryce, H. J. (2017). Nonprofits as policy solutions to the burden of government. Boston, MA: De Gruyter. $39.99 (paperback), ISBN: 978-1-5015-0579-9

Equity planning and community economic development : the case of Côte des Neiges-Notre Dame de Grâce

The developed world has witnessed high levels of economic growth, however, the benefits of this growth have not been felt evenly across communities and nations. Moreover, despite the efforts of locally based community organisations, marginalised communities remain unable to access many mainstream social and economic resources. This thesis links the Equity Planning Model with Community Economic Development (CED) as a way for urban planners and CED practitioners to better meet the needs of marginalised groups and communities. This thesis provides an analysis of the district that identifies marginalised communities according to social and economic factors, within the district of Côte des Neiges-Notre Dame de Grâce in Montreal, and provides an indication of the residents socio-economic needs and goals. From this, a framework for an economic development plan is articulated that uses small businesses for community development. This framework (1) identifies the marginal communities in the district, (2) identifies three development goals, and (3) provides recommendations, based on these goals, for the three small business start-up organisations in the district. The methods used in this thesis demonstrate how, by specifically identifying the needs of marginalised groups, economic development plans can ensure that such groups gain access to social and economic opportunities

Do local taxes and 'market' pressures shape the strategic decisions of municipalities.

Do local taxes and 'market' pressures shape the strategic decisions of municipalities

Big data in the public sector: Lessons for practitioners and scholars

In this essay, we consider the role of Big Data in the public sector. Motivating our work is the recognition that Big Data is still in its infancy and many important questions regarding the true value of Big Data remain unanswered. The question we consider is as follows: What are the limits, or potential, of Big Data in the public sector? By reviewing the literature and summarizing insights from a series of interviews from public sector Chief Information Officers (CIOs), we offer a scholarly foundation for both practitioners and researchers interested in understanding Big Data in the public sector.</p

The Political-Economy of Property Taxation and Land Taxation

A key motivation for this study is the perceived gap between the theoretical benefits of the property and land tax and its application in practice. The next section summarizes several of the components characterizing this gap. The paper then proceeds by describing some of the elements that make the local tax system complex. This complexity suggests the importance of the local media frame. That is, faced with a highly complex issue, the local media will select and focus on only a few components of these issues. The fourth section of this paper then describes the methodological approach employed in this study to identify the presence and content of the local media frames. Findings from the analysis and the implications thereof are discussed in the paper’s final two sections.Property Taxation, Land Taxation, political economy of property taxation