Search

Summary: This study conducts a pilot test analyzing reports from New York, New Jersey, and California and uses textual analytics to reengineer government performance audit reporting. It advocates a performance audit database that can facilitate easier access and extract relevant information from lengthy reports in a timely manner. The study presents a framework to identify the commonalities and differences in terminologies used by sampled states, evaluates and extracts relevant content from the reports according to Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards requirements, and constructs a taxonomy specific to government performance audits. Furthermore, this study investigates the disclosure quality by examining linguistic and similarity features, such as report length, specificity, readability, comprehensibility, and content similarity. This paper raises attention to a key legislative task that requires reporting reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic fluorinated compounds have been detected in various environmental media and biota. Some of these compounds are regulated locally (e.g., perfluorononanoic acid maximum contaminant level in drinking water by the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection), nationally (e.g., perfluorooctanoic acid maximum acceptable concentration in drinking water by Health Canada), or internationally (e.g., Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants). Globally, regulators and researchers seek to identify the organic fluorinated compounds associated with potential adverse effects, bioaccumulation, mobility, and persistence to manage their risks, and, to understand the beneficial attributes they bring to products such as first responder gear, etc. Clarity is needed to determine the best analytical method for the goal of the analyses (e.g., pure research or analysis to determine the extent of an accidental release, monitoring groundwater for specific compounds to determine regulatory compliance, and establish baseline levels in a river of organic fluorinated substances associated with human health risk prior to a clean‐up effort). Analytical techniques that identify organic fluorine coupled together with targeted chemical analysis will yield information sufficient to identify public health or environmental hazards. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:331–351. © 2020. W.L. Gore & Associates Inc. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). KEY POINTS: This paper provides new and important clarity on fluorine‐containing compounds, their uses, toxicological, chemical, and physical properties in relation to environmental occurrence, analysis, and how the interpretation of the analytical data is critical to effective regulation. To effectively protect public health and the environment, efforts must focus on those fluorinated compounds that pose the greatest risk, which necessitates an understanding of exposure pathways and determination of the concentration of the hazardous substance therein. Since national and internationally accepted standards do not always exist, this paper addresses analytical approaches so that fluorinated organic compounds can be identified and quantified appropriately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports that the New Jersey Law Institute is very much interested in the application of automatic searching devices to legal literature. A series of brief mimeographed papers has been prepared, discussing various phases of the problems such as "The Structure of Systems for Automatic Literature Searches," which discusses requirements for the successful use of automatic search devices; "Analysis of Some Problems in Probability Arising from Automatic Literature Searching"; and "Some Problems in Search Cost as Measured in Work and Time."

The Dr. James Still Historic Office and Homestead—home to a nineteenth century, self‐educated, African American doctor, born to formerly captive parents, who would go on to become the third largest landowner in a predominantly White rural community in Southern New Jersey—has been the focus of the Dr. James Still Community Archaeology Project (DJSCAP) since 2013. This paper, however, shifts the target of archaeological exploration and asks what we can glean from the actors in and around the site. Using data collected by DJSCAP, this chapter critically examines how a community comes to understand and commemorate their efforts to protect and preserve Dr. Still's meritocratic narrative via a material engagement with the site. Reflecting on the simultaneous navigation of the past, present, and future via objects, the chapter explores how "things" such as donations and donor plaques do the social work of volunteering, informing perceptions of effort, talent, memory, and entitlement around the site. Using materiality theory and an archaeological lens attuned to nowness, this chapter identifies key instances in which the articulation of bodies, ideas, objects, and labor generate fascinating insights into the theorization of meritocracy as a moral economy that underpins volunteering. This contemporary archaeological approach uncovers the materiality of austerity, informing how communities navigate systemic failures in heritage site management through individual and collective efforts that I call meritocratic stewardship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stockton University is a mid‐size liberal arts institution in Southern New Jersey. Degree seekers must complete required course work in both liberal studies and core, specialized areas, such as business, health sciences, hospitality, education, social and behavioral sciences, or organizational leadership. Stockton emphasizes Essential Learning Outcomes (ELOs) in undergraduate programs, aligning them to course goals and program outcomes. Faculty implement ELOs in many courses, across disciplines, providing students with opportunities to generalize ELOs in different contexts, in meaningful and relevant ways. Electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) are used to give students opportunities to develop their own personal profiles and expand their goal setting practices, by choosing artifacts that most represent who they are as learners and who they will be as future employees. Students enrolled in the courses included in this case study were encouraged to maintain an electronic portfolio that facilitates skill acquisition of reflective thought, self‐assessment, authentic learning, self‐determination, critical thinking and problem solving in preparation to successfully participate in a 21st century global world. Together with ELOs, ePortfolios give students a means of promoting their value to a future employer. This paper explores multiple case studies through courses that have integrated ELOs and ePortfolios for the purpose of assessing student growth, course objectives, program outcomes, or accreditation assessment. The case studies highlight the use of ELOs merged with ePortfolios for: first‐year students and their involvement in campus and course activities to assess personal and academic growth; first‐year students and the development of their research and information literacy skills to assess academic growth and course objectives; upper level undergraduate students and reflective assessment of student growth and course outcomes; and graduate students and reflective assessment of student growth and evidence for documenting accreditation standards. Examples of how ELOs and ePortfolios can be merged for different disciplines, and different student levels, are explored in detail. Suggestions for additional opportunities to embed ELOs into ePortfolios are discussed and provided for faculty who are interested in the utilization of these merged concepts for the assessment of student growth, course objectives, program outcomes and accreditation standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an abstract of the study `Excessive gestational weight gain and chronic disease risk,' by T.O. Scholl, M.L. Hediger and J.I. Schall. Highlights of the Camden Study of pregnancy in urban, low-income women in New Jersey; Influence of gestational weight gain on change in weight and the site of fat deposition over two consecutive pregnancies.

Understanding and improving how humans adapt to climate change are priorities in our research community, and coastal settlements are good places to study adaptation. Severe storm events and sea‐level rise are threatening coastal communities with increasing levels of flood damage. Because ownership of coastal assets is distributed among many private and public actors, both individual property owners and public officials must take adaptive actions. This paper introduces an integrated agent‐based and hedonic pricing modeling system to simulate coastal real estate market performance under non‐equilibrium conditions that reflect the effects of storm events. The modeling system, which is used for policy analysis, is calibrated to conditions in two towns in Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA, which were badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The key findings are that (a) coastal real estate markets capitalize flood risk into property values but this discount diminishes rapidly as time passes between storm events, and (b) there is a distinct equity versus efficiency tradeoff in designing public policies to reduce the cost to society of coastal flooding. Stringent regulation of building practices reduces flood damage but drives away poorer home buyers and owners, whereas informational and incentive‐based policies are fairer but less effective. Hands‐off, market‐based retreat from risky areas is socially costly but allows less wealthy people to remain at the shore, albeit in vulnerable situations. Managed retreat should emphasize improved recreational access to coastal amenities while discouraging people from living there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the time trend coefficients in the temperatures in 48 US states using monthly data from January 1895 to December 2017, as well as in their anomalies with respect to the base period 1901–2000. For this purpose, we use techniques based on fractional integration, which is a more general approach than the standard methods used in the literature based on integer differentiation. The results indicate that with the exception of 10 states, in the remaining 38, the temperature anomalies have increased across time, with the increase being higher than the one expected under the other more standard approaches. The highest increases correspond to New Jersey and Rhode Island, with an increase of approximately 2.9°C over the last 100 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social Impact Statement: The history of blueberries highlights the agroecological systems, multispecies relationships, and socioeconomic factors that shape eating habits and commercial availability of food. In the United States, an elaborate and lucrative human‐managed crop system evolved around so‐called wild blueberries in the late nineteenth‐century. Blueberry domestication under the auspices of public‐private collaboration in the early twentieth century then established the foundation for today's global blueberry trade. Wild blueberries continued to occupy specific economic niches, however, and an uneasy dynamic developed between locally revered Vaccinium species and the commercial "blueberry." In an urbanizing world of people increasingly alienated from their food sources, blueberries provide a reminder of the intricate relationships between people and plants that shape both basic prospects of survival and specific ways of life, whether for good or for ill. Summary: This work examines blueberries' emergence as a commercial product and how it grew out of a history that involved multiple Vaccinium species and their convoluted interactions with human ecologies. It outlines the agroecology of the wild blueberry trade in nineteenth‐ and early twentieth‐century Maine, followed by blueberries' domestication and expanded commercialization in the 1910s and 1920s through a public‐private collaboration between USDA scientist Frederick V. Coville and New Jersey cranberry grower Elizabeth C. White. The complexity of blueberries' path to becoming a global commodity underscores the significance of cultural factors in determining how a singular "blueberry" came to be defined in the first place.The article uses a range of sources to document blueberries' history of commercialization from the late nineteenth century to the present. In particular, local newspapers from Maine made it possible to reconstruct the agroecology of the wild blueberry trade in the state in the period prior to 1920, while a variety of government documents and agricultural journals provided the key means for exploring blueberries' domestication and commercialization in the 1910s and 1920s.The article delineates the main features of the agroecology that defined Maine's wild blueberry crop system and the public‐private relationship surrounding the domestication and commercialization of blueberry culture in New Jersey. These histories ultimately underscore the interplay between regional cultures, processes of commodification, and a nationalizing economy that came to define the blueberry as a product in the fresh fruit market of the United States. Public‐private collaborations, cultural discourses, and the evolving market relations that came with the globalization of blueberry culture in the late twentieth and early twenty‐first centuries continue to reflect trends established earlier in the twentieth century.The article concludes that the emergence of "the blueberry" as a singular commercial product embodies a set of systems and relationships between plant species and human societies that blurs the boundaries between wild and domesticated, ranges in scale from the local to the global, and preserves niches for localism within a global commercial landscape that itself contains multiple species underneath a veneer of standardization. Today's globalized fresh blueberry thus contains within itself a long and convoluted history of cultivation, plant breeding, competing crop systems, market relations, and cultural constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how, as in the past in their home community in Mexico, Mexican immigrants in the United States use a system of flexible kinship and ritual practices to adapt to new circumstances of living and working in communities with new neighbours, new challenges and new threats. The paper focuses particularly on how the increased presence of women who have not always been a large part of the Mexican migrant community in the United States and their 'kin work' allows migrants to maintain and extend their social networks. Through various family and ritual events, migrants integrate new friends and acquaintances with new resources into their social networks and thus facilitate their survival in their new home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the interdependency of food relations through young people's accounts of food insecurity. Drawing on ethnographic research with a youth urban agriculture program in Camden, New Jersey (USA), I show how young people articulate experiences of food insecurity through the lens of maternal foodwork, describing efforts to support mothers who are struggling to provide in the context of poverty. As these teens articulate efforts to share foodwork with mothers, they not only challenge common conceptions of generational feeding relations but also reveal the inadequacy of individualizing approaches to the autonomous food consumer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the State of New Jersey alone, there were 31,534 bankruptcy petitions filed in 2012 calendar year. Similarly, as of September 30, 2013, there were 28,882 bankruptcy petitions filed in the state of New Jersey. A typical debtor who is forced into bankruptcy has substantial credit card debt and one or several mortgage liabilities. Unable to pay on the obligations as they become due, the debtor defaults. Once in default and the liability on the debts are over $14,425, creditors can file an involuntary bankruptcy petition and foreclose on the existing properties. New Jersey remains the state with the second-highest foreclosure rate behind Florida, according to CoreLogic's monthly National Foreclosure Review. Nationwide, 5.55 percent of homes are late on their mortgage payments. Moreover, if any portion of the mortgage debt is forgiven as part of the foreclosure process, it could trigger tax consequences. This paper examines what choices does a debtor have when faced with multiple delinquencies. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers both a theoretical and an empirical analysis of the effect on local property taxes of changes in aid resulting from the 1990 increase in the income tax enacted under Governor Jim Florio and the beginning of the 1994 decrease in income taxes enacted under Governor Christine Whitman. New Jersey enacted an income tax in 1976 in response to a State Supreme Court ruling that held that local taxation alone violated the requirement of the State Constitution that all children receive a "thorough and efficient" education. The law required that revenues from the income tax be dedicated solely to relief of local property taxes. Most of the relief is given as aid to local school districts. The theoretical analysis is based on general equilibrium models developed over the previous two decades. The results indicate (1) a flypaper effect for both increases and decreases in aid, which may be more pronounced for decreases, and (2) that higher income districts.

INTRODUCTION: South Asian (SA) and East Asian (EA) older adults represent the fastest‐growing racial/ethnic groups of Americans at risk for dementia. While recruiting older SA adults into a brain health study, we encountered unexpected hesitancy toward structural brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) analysis and stigmatizing attitudes related to internal locus of control (LoC) for future dementia risks. We hypothesized that support for MRI‐related research was influenced by these attitudes as well as personal MRI experience, perceived MRI safety, and concerns for personal risk for future dementia/stroke. METHODS: We developed a brief cross‐sectional survey to assess older adults' MRI experiences and perceptions, desire to learn of six incidental findings of increasing impact on health, and attitudes related to dementia (including LoC) and research participation. We recruited a convenience sample of 256 respondents (74% reporting as 50+) from the New Jersey/New York City area to complete the survey (offered in English, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish) and modeled the proportional odds (PO) for favorable attitudes toward research activities. RESULTS: Seventy‐seven SA and 84 EA respondents were analyzed alongside 95 White, Black, or Hispanic adults. White (PO = 2.54, p = 0.013) and EA (PO = 2.14, p = 0.019) respondents were both more likely than SA respondents to endorse healthy volunteers' participation in research, and the difference between White and SA respondents was mediated by the latter's greater internal LoC for dementia risks. EA respondents had more worries for future dementia/stroke than SA respondents (p = 0.006) but still shared SA respondents' lower wish (measured by proportion of total) to learn of incidental MRI findings. DISCUSSION: SA—and EA compared to SA—older adults had low desire to learn of incidental MRI findings but had different attitudes toward future dementia/stroke risks. A culturally appropriate protocol to disclose incidental MRI findings may improve SA and EA participation in brain health research. Highlights: Older Asian Americans have limited interest in incidental findings on research MRISouth Asians are most likely to attribute dementia to people's own behaviorsSouth Asians' attitudes mediate lower support for healthy volunteers in researchSouth and East Asians differ in dementia worries and research‐related attitudes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dredging and remediation of contaminated Harbor sediments requires characterization of organic pollutants. In this paper, we apply a combination of Fourier transform IR attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) and synchrotron FTIR techniques to the investigation of sediments and related materials from New York/New Jersey Harbor and other locations. The FTIR techniques give information on the functional groups of the compounds found in the sediments and make possible measurements with a spatial resolution of about 0.015 mm. Comparisons of natural organic materials namely, river and groundwater humic substances, recent marine and lacustrine sediments, and ancient sedimentary kerogen show that contaminated NY/NJ Harbor sediments display a strong and distinct absorption in their IR spectra at 2850-2950 cm−1 identified as a CH stretching band, indicative of the presence of anthropogenic hydrocarbons. We suggest that the presence of this band could be used for rapid screening for the presence of contaminant organic compounds in sediments encountered in dredging operations and/or as an indicator for the efficacy of sediment decontamination technologies used for treatment of dredged material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detecting mud hazards is a significant challenge to unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) autonomous off-road navigation. A military UGV stuck in a body of mud during a mission may need to be sacrificed or rescued, both unattractive options. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is currently developing a daytime mud detection capability under the U.S. Army Research Laboratory Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliances program using UGV-mounted sensors. To perform robust mud detection under all conditions, we expect that multiple sensors will be necessary. A passive mud detection solution is desirable to meet future combat system requirements. To characterize the advantages and disadvantages of candidate passive sensors, outdoor data collections have been performed on wet and dry soil using visible, multispectral (including near-infrared), shortwave infrared, midwave infrared, long-wave infrared, polarization, and stereo sensors. In this paper, we examine the cues for mud detection that each of these sensors provide, along with their deficiencies, and we illustrate localizing detected mud in a world model that can used by a UGV to plan safe paths. We mostly limit our examination to mud detection during the daytime under ideal conditions: isolated wet soil surrounded by dry soil during nominal weather, i.e., no precipitation, calm wind, and near-average temperatures. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic theory recognises equity dimensions of social welfare as well as efficiency issues. This paper examines three measures of equity--horizontal, vertical and locational--analysing data from the toll collections on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway. Policy implications are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data collected from a series of public auctions of used cars in New Jersey to examine how strategic bidding affects price determination in open-outcry English auctions. “Jumps” in the bidding, which occur when a new offer exceeds the old offer by more than the minimum bid increment, are highly pervasive and consistently related to the item’s presale estimated price. The size of the jumps is not affected by the selling order, however. This jump bidding pattern suggests that open-outcry auctions are more appropriately interpreted with models that assume common-item valuations rather than models assuming private valuations. ( JEL D44) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of site geomorphology and sedimentation rates as an indicator of long-term bed stability is central to the evaluation of remedial alternatives for depositional aquatic environments. In conjunction with various investigations of contaminant distribution, sediment dynamics, and bed stability in the Passaic River Estuary, 121 sediment cores were collected in the early 1990s from the lower 9.7 km of the Passaic River and analyzed for lead-210 (210Pb), cesium-137 (137Cs), and other analytes. This paper opportunistically uses the extensive radiochemical dataset to examine the spatial patterns of long-term sedimentation rates in, and associated geomorphic aspects of, this area of the river. For the purposes of computing sedimentation rates, the utility of the 210Pb and 137Cs depositional profiles was assessed to inform appropriate interpretation. Sedimentation rates were computed for 90 datable cores by 3 different methods, depending on profile utility. A sedimentation rate of 0 was assigned to 17 additional cores that were not datable and for which evidence of no deposition exists. Sedimentation patterns were assessed by grouping results within similar geomorphic areas, delineated through inspection of bathymetric data. On the basis of channel morphology, results reflect expected patterns, with the highest sedimentation rates observed along point bars and channel margins. The lowest rates of sedimentation (and the largest percentage of undatable cores) were observed in the areas along the outer banks of channel bends. Increasing sedimentation rates from upstream to downstream were noted. Average and median sedimentation rates were estimated to be 3.8 and 3.7 cm/y, respectively, reflecting the highly depositional nature of the Passaic River estuary. This finding is consistent with published descriptions of long-term geomorphology for Atlantic Coastal Plain estuaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on retention in the Rowan University undergraduate engineering program with many ‘female-friendly’ features despite its design as best practices for all students. Both male and female ‘stayers’ in the program are compared to ‘leavers’ on a variety of characteristics, including pre-college and family background, grades, satisfaction with the Rowan program, engineering self-confidence, and future expectations about their engineering major and career. Data come from a special survey of all Rowan engineering students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local SANE activists, like the rest of the peace movement of the late fifties and early sixties, were more left and more female than heretofore understood. By contrast, national SANE’s largely male, social–democratic leadership was more isolated and more autocratic than earlier portraits have acknowledged. The divisions of May 1960 arose with the group’s founding and lasted into the new decade. However, one cannot understand the divisions, and thus understand the actual history of SANE, without studying the local level. New Jersey SANE, which was always SANE’s most vibrant chapter, provides the lens through which this paper contributes to that fuller understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: This paper presents results from a process evaluation conducted by the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE). Representative samples of middle and high school superintendents, principals, lead health teachers, and HIV teachers provided information assessing whether local district policy content was consistent with the state's policy code, the dynamics of local policy development, and school district staff perceptions and practices regarding HIV education policies. NJDOE also was interested in determining: if inservice training was accessible to teachers assigned to provide HIV education; the scope and impact of HIV inservice programs; and the training needs of staff assigned to teach the HIV curriculum. Finally, NJDOE was interested in determining: local curricula scope, sequence, and approach; the extent to which local curricula were skills-based; and local expectations for instructional outcomes. As a result of the evaluation, program staff identified areas needing remediation and planned for program improvement in new areas. (J Sch Health. 2001;71(6):207-212) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: New Jersey (NJ) is home to more than 460 municipal police departments, including close to 60 with fewer than 11 officers. In total, the state spends around $3 billion per year on policing, 20% of the typical municipal budget. In recent history, seven NJ municipalities have disbanded their local force and contracted services with a neighbor. Using the bias‐corrected synthetic control method, results from this study reveal these locations saved on average $143 per person per year, close to $300,000 per municipality. There were fewer officers in the contracting force per capita postcontracting, but no effects on public safety. Contracting agencies also gained new services including a K‐9 Unit and full‐time detectives. However, the monies municipalities saved were largely used to cut taxes and fund capital improvements, not to fund reform efforts called for after the murder of George Floyd. Contracting thus was a way to maintain the status quo. Policy Implications: Interlocal police shared service agreements offer one promising model to defund the police without public safety collateral consequences. More municipalities can be encouraged to share police services by changing civil service rules and amending NJ state law, which currently limits the ability to realize cost savings. Contracts should also be required to clearly delineate service delivery and set minimum standards of service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the efforts of the faculty of the Family Institute of New Jersey in recent years to develop a collaborative family training program that takes into account issues of gender, race, culture, class, and sexual orientation. We have come to realize how strongly traditional approaches have been skewed in the direction of the dominant culture--white, male, heterosexist, and prioritizing the needs and experience of the middle and upper classes. We have attempted to modify our teaching, supervision, reading lists, and overall training approach to challenge trainees and ourselves to move toward broader, strength-based, and equity-based multicultural perspectives in our training. We describe our vision, how we incorporate it into our program structure, and a few of our training initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past 30 years in both the United Kingdom and the United States there has been an increasing emphasis on the need for the agencies, disciplines and professions who are involved in investigating child abuse allegations and in protecting children from abuse to work together, to cooperate with each other and to coordinate their responses. (See Besharov, 1990; British Paediatric Association, 1966; Kempe and Helfer, 1972; London Borough of Brent, 1985; London Borough of Greenwich, 1987). One way of achieving this has been through the use of multi-disciplinary groups. This paper will describe the initial findings from a study which aimed to examine and compare the working of two such groups, namely, case conferences in the UK and multi-disciplinary teams in one state in the United States, New Jersey. The findings from the study show that while there are some similarities between the two types of multi-disciplinary groups, there are also significant differences in functions, membership, structure of meetings and chairing. However, the major difference that emerges is the more prominent role of representatives from the legal system in New Jersey's multi-disciplinary teams compared with UK case conferences. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the debate on the relative virtues of "workfare" and examines how successful earlier workfare programs have been. The central focus of this paper is on the New Jersey General Assistance Employability Program, a workfare program imposed on New Jersey's General Assistance recipients in mid-1978. A general description of the mechanics of the New Jersey workfare program and the services offered by this program is provided. An interrupted time series regression model is presented to measure the impact of workfare on the enrollment in the General Assistance programs Results from this model allow an assessment of the cost-effectiveness of New Jersey workfare. It is found that the reduction in transfer payments generated by the program exceed its operating costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of papers that appear in the August 1985 issue of the journal "Policy Studies Review." The paper "Perspectives on Agricultural Policy, 1985," by Don Hadwiger focuses on farm policy which is aimed at ending farm subsidies based on the assumption that this will improve farm income and make farmers more efficient. The paper "Workfare in New Jersey: A Five Year Assessment," by Valerie Englander and Fred Engtander reviews the debate on the relative virtues of "workfare" and examines how successful earlier workfare programs have been. The central focus of the paper is on the New Jersey General Assistance Employability Program, a workfare program imposed on New Jersey's General Assistance recipients in mid-1978.

This paper examines, via consumer interviews, the impact of the National Association of Insurance Commissioner's Model Life Insurance Solicitation Regulation as implemented in New Jersey. A substantial portion of the insurance buyers sampled did not become aware of the provisions of the regulation aimed to improve their buying ability. Further, many life insurance buyers were not well informed concerning the nature and operation of life insurance contracts, and in particular, the life insurance policies that they had purchased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper notes that economists generally accept that locally provided public services behave as Tiebout goods while non-locally provided public services possess the properties described by Samuelson. These beliefs are held despite the absence of empirical evidence supporting this dichotomous categorization. This paper derives an empirical methodology for testing the properties possessed by a public good by noting that only Tiebout goods will necessarily display price/quantity relationships which are consistent with demand theory restrictions. The methodology is applied to a sample of New Jersey suburbs with respect to educational services and non-educational local services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that greater degrees of sunshine experienced directly are associated with greater amounts of compliance and tipping. This paper describes two studies that investigated beliefs about sunshine and tipping. The studies were conducted at a casino hotel in Atlantic City; a male server who delivered food and drinks to guests' rooms acted as the confederate. In Study 1, the server reported to guests the actual sky conditions: sunny, partly sunny, cloudy, or rainy. Tip percentages increased linearly from the worst to the best conditions. Study 2 used an experimental design. The server informed guests that the weather was either warm and sunny, cold and sunny, warm and rainy, or cold and rainy. Guests were gullible because their rooms shielded them from the actual conditions. Belief in sunny skies produced greater tip percentages. The temperature belief manipulation had no effect. This research extended previous research by showing that beliefs about weather, in addition to actual weather, can affect behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A continuing study of advanced short-channel CMOS/SOS arrays has been carried out at the RCA Microelectronics Center (MEC) and at RCA Laboratories, Princeton, NJ, since 1981. A technique to assess the reliability of a new process relatively quickly consists of high-temperature accelerated stress testing of ICs by maintaining the temperature at 200°C, while biasing half the inputs at the positive supply voltage and half at ground. The results of these accelerated stress tests together with device analysis, were used to calculate a failure rate and to determine that time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) is the principal failure mechanism. No mechanism unique to the CMOS/SOS technology has been observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the minutes of the eleventh annual meeting of The National Association for Research in Science Teaching held at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during February 25-26, 1938 and Atlantic City, New Jersey during February 27-March 1, 1938. The morning and afternoon sessions on February 25 in Philadelphia were devoted to the visiting of schools and points of historic and scientific interest in and about the city. Papers and demonstrations as printed in the program in the January 1938 issue of the official journal were discussed at the Saturday morning and afternoon session held jointly with the National Council on Elementary Science. The minutes of the business conducted during the year past were presented by the Secretary and approved without change on motion from the floor, properly seconded. The Treasurer's report was presented and, upon motion from the floor was accepted unanimously. The report of the committee on constitutional revision was called.

This paper examines the extent to which particular socialization techniques are associated with the successful transmission of mothers' educational ambitions for their children. Interviews were conducted with 524 tenth graders and their mothers, residing in eight New Jersey communities. Mothers' educational ambitions for their children were strongly and positively related to the students' own educational plans, regardless of the extent to which they provided the students with culturally enriching activities, pressured them to do well in school, or kept in touch with the schools. This suggests that parental values are transmitted in many alternative ways, rather by specific instrumental behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on American Headache Society 65th Annual Scientific Meeting June 15-18, 2023 Austin, Texas to improve the lives of people impacted by migraine and other headache disorders, by encouraging scientific research and educating physicians, health professionals and the public. Topics include Preclinical Science; Clinical Presentation or Diagnosis; Epidemiology and Health Outcomes; Headache Education and it provides information on various topics covered in publications.

On 1 September 2021, the remnants of Hurricane Ida transformed into a lethal variant of tropical cyclone in which unprecedented short‐duration rainfall from clusters of supercells produced catastrophic flooding in watersheds of the Northeastern US. Short‐duration rainfall extremes from Ida are examined through analyses of polarimetric radar fields and rain gauge observations. Rainfall estimates are constructed from a polarimetric rainfall algorithm that is grounded in specific differential phase shift (KDP) fields. Rainfall accumulations at multiple locations exceed 1000‐year values for 1–3 hr time scales. Radar observations show that supercells are the principal agents of rainfall extremes. Record flood peaks occurred throughout the eastern Pennsylvania—New Jersey region; the peak discharge of the Elizabeth River is one of the most extreme in the eastern US, based on the ratio of the peak discharge to the sample 10‐year flood at the gaging station. As with other tropical cyclones that have produced record flooding in the Northeastern US, Extratropical Transition was a key element of extreme rainfall and flooding from Ida. Tropical and extratropical elements of the storm system contributed to extremes of atmospheric water balance variables and Convective Available Potential Energy, providing the environment for extreme short‐duration rainfall from supercells. Key Points: Remnants of Hurricane Ida produced unprecedented short‐duration rainfall extremes at 1–3 hr time scaleSupercells were the principal agents of extreme rainfall and floodingExtratropical Transition of Ida contributed to the environment of record short‐duration rainfall [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In all, 13 stream water‐quality parameters, including specific conductance (SC), pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), three nutrients, and six major ions were compared between the northern bedrock and southern coastal plain regions of New Jersey, USA and related to watershed‐disturbance gradients characterized by the percentage of urban land, impervious surface (IS), agriculture, and altered land (sum of urban land and agriculture) in the watersheds. SC, DO, calcium, magnesium, sodium, and chloride concentrations were greater in the north. DOC was higher and pH was lower in the south. Nutrient, potassium, and sulfate concentrations did not differ between regions. Regional water‐quality differences are attributed to geologic setting and land use. Except for DO in southern streams, all water‐quality parameters were related to urban land, agriculture, or both. Significant correlations between urban land and IS and water‐quality variables were similar in both regions with differences in unitless correlation coefficients ranging from 0.00 to 0.06. Compared to urban land and agriculture, relationships between most water‐quality variables and altered land were stronger in the south. The extent of urban and agricultural lands in the watersheds did not differ by region. Altered land was correlated with urban land in both regions and with agriculture only in the south. Although focused on New Jersey, this study has broader implications for watershed planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The largest aggregation of spawning American horseshoe crabs in the world occurs in Delaware Bay and supports one of the largest concentrations of shorebirds in the western hemisphere where the birds feed on horseshoe crab eggs during migration. Unregulated harvest in the 1990s is associated with the decline of shorebird populations using the bay, but corresponding baseline information on the horseshoe crab egg food supply that supported peak shorebird populations has been lacking.Past and current measurements of horseshoe crab eggs in the bay indicate that abundance in the 1980s was an order of magnitude greater (x̄ = 156,600/m2) than present‐day estimates (2015–2021 x̄ = 10,243/m2). An additional egg prevalence index, which characterizes the timing and magnitude of horseshoe crab egg output, revealed a similar pattern of higher prevalence in the 1980s (0.89, 95% confidence interval 0.81–0.94) compared with the recent 2015–2021 interval (0.52, 95% confidence interval 0.43–0.60).Declines of egg and shorebird abundance occurred shortly after horseshoe crab harvest reached its peak. Red knot aerial survey counts have stabilized at 30% of the baseline population while ruddy turnstone counts are 40% of baseline estimates. Initially these species were evenly distributed between the New Jersey and Delaware coasts but both species have trended toward predominately occupying New Jersey beaches.A lack of recovery of horseshoe crab egg and shorebird abundance suggests that horseshoe crab harvest management has stabilized populations but progress toward population recovery has been limited. Impacts from bycatch, the pharmaceutical industry and other potential population impacts must be better quantified and mitigated, if necessary, to promote the recovery of horseshoe crab populations. Measurements of horseshoe egg prevalence and abundance are essential metrics for tracking the progress toward management goals for improving shorebird habitat quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study investigated if subjective socioeconomic status (SSS) is related to self‐rated health (SRH) and objective indicators of health in people with and without intellectual disability. Methods: Participants were 217 adults with, and 2350 adults without intellectual disability in Jersey. In the intellectual disability sample, 85 (39.2%) participants consented independently, while 132 (60.8%) participants consented through proxy procedures. The MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status was used to measure SSS. The Euro‐Qol EQ‐5D‐5L and a five‐point scale ranging from poor to excellent health were used to measure SRH. Results: Higher SSS and younger age were predictors of better SRH for the proxy‐report intellectual disability group. Being employed was associated with higher EQ‐5D‐5L index values for all intellectual disability groups. Conclusion: As SSS was only related to SRH in the proxy intellectual disability group, further research with a larger intellectual disability sample is needed to explore its utility further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trees and shrubs in suburban forests can be subject to chronic herbivory from abundant white‐tailed deer, influencing survival, growth, secondary metabolites, and ecological success in the community. We investigated how deer affect the size, cover, and metabolomes of four species in the understory of a suburban forest in central New Jersey, USA: the woody shrubs Euonymus alatus and Lindera benzoin, the tree Nyssa sylvatica, and the semi‐woody shrub Rosa multiflora. For each species, we compared plants in 38 16 m2 plots with or without deer exclosure, measuring proportion cover and mean height after 6.5 years of fencing. We scored each species in all plots for deer browsing over 8 years and assessed selection by deer among the species. We did untargeted metabolomics by sampling leaves from three plants of each species in an equal number of fenced and unfenced plots, conducting chloroform–methanol extractions followed by LC–MS/MS, and conducting statistical analysis on MetaboAnalyst. The proportion of a species browsed ranged from 0.24 to 0.35. Nyssa sylvatica appeared most selected by and susceptible to deer; in unfenced plots, both its cover and mean height were significantly lower. Only cover or height was lower for E. alatus and L. benzoin in unfenced plots, while R. multiflora height was greater. The metabolomic analysis identified 2333 metabolites, which clustered by species but not fencing treatment. However, targeted analysis of the top metabolites grouped by fencing for all samples and for each species alone and was especially clear in N. sylvatica, which also grouped by fencing using all metabolites. The most significant metabolites that were upregulated in fenced plants include some involved in defense‐related metabolic pathways, e.g., monoterpenoid biosynthesis. In overbrowsed suburban forests, variation of deer impact on species' ecological success, potentially mediated by metabolome‐wide chemical responses to deer, may contribute to changes in community structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses ten case studies to illustrate the information needs, various communication approaches, and the communicator's role in explaining environmental health risks from a variety of hazards, to a variety of audiences, over time frames from days to years, using in person consultation, lectures, zooms, and email formats. Events often had a long history before the communication began and may have had a long tail afterward. Audiences may be public officials, companies, workers, communities, or individuals. Each individual may have their own understanding or mental model regarding the hazard, exposure, and risk. The communicator's role or intention may be to reassure an audience that has unrealistic exaggerated concerns or fears or to protect a client if the fears are realistic. Or it may be altruistic to inform a complacent audience to take the risks it faces more seriously. Although risk assessment research has advanced the techniques for communicating abstruse probabilities to audiences with low numeracy, in my experience, audiences are unimpressed by precise‐sounding probability numbers, and are more interested in whether exposure is occurring or may occur and how to stop it. Often audiences have reason to be outraged and may be more concerned about punishing wrong doers than about the hazard itself, particularly when the exposure is past and cannot be undone. Thus, there is a difference between discussing the riskiness of a situation (risk communication) and what you are going to do about the situation (risk management). Risk communication is successful when the audience responds as intended, calming down or taking action. These case studies are drawn from a large number of risk communication experiences that I and my Rutgers colleagues have engaged in over the past four decades. Through the 20th century, New Jersey was the most densely industrialized State in United States. New Jersey experienced growth of the chemical and petrochemical industries and the unfortunately profligate disposal of toxic wastes. Having the most Superfund sites of any state is a dubious distinction, but New Jersey also has the most experience in evaluating and responding to these hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We designed a survey to measure public preferences for management actions at ports that would reduce negative risk perceptions, increase competence‐based trust, and overall provide port managers with opportunities to build communication channels with surrounding populations. A total of 511 people who lived in a 45‐square mile area of New Jersey containing over 300,000 people and a dozen large and small ports responded to solutions that offered independent science support, provided ongoing public health surveillance, and economic assistance for local communities. Environmental health concerns about air, noise, fires, port security, and protection against climate‐related impacts were major correlates of these preferences. Yet many residents recognized economic benefits associated with nearby ports and many either trusted port management or were neutral and felt not well informed. Those who had a personal or family connection to the port were stronger port supporters. The most important finding and challenge for port managers is building ongoing relationships with the majority of nearby residents who are not aware of port activities, which presents an opportunity for increasing trust through proactive outreach and listening to nearby community representatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the literature on the pathways of incorporation of undocumented immigrants in the United States by providing insights into the perspectives of street‐level bureaucrats implementing policies seeking to increase college access at the state level. Results from a survey of public school counselors in New Jersey show that most counselors have limited knowledge of the policies that affect undocumented students' access to college, whether those policies concern attendance or eligibility for in‐state tuition and financial aid. Those who are familiar with these laws have usually sought specific professional development on their own rather than relying on training provided by their employers. The results also indicate that counselors who work in urban areas and in majority‐Latino institutions had greater knowledge of these policies than those working in suburban and rural areas or in predominantly white schools. This article highlights the role of place in the bureaucratic incorporation of undocumented immigrants at the state level, specifically investigating the type and level of services that this group receives in the public education system. We also contribute to the public policy literature by showing the effects of ad hoc implementation of inclusive policies by street‐level bureaucrats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretically speaking, heavy tax rates on gambling should dampen growth of the casino revenues. Indeed, a cursory glance at data across U. S. states suggests that more jobs and income are generated directly by the gaming industry when lower tax rates are applied. Using a detailed computable general equilibrium model, we evaluate the effects of a proposed machine-based casino on New Jersey's economy as well as on the state's existing set of casino resorts in Atlantic City. We find few winners other than the state's tax coffers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The Clifton area of Nottingham with a total population of nearly 20 000 and a child population of 4500. Aim To track the changes in clinical services provided by community paediatricians in Clifton from 1983 to 1999. Methods The paper tracks changes through a series of reports produced over time by the paediatricians working in the Clifton area. The 5 reports are dated 1983, 1985, 1989–91, 1995, 1999–2000. Results The child population in Clifton dropped somewhat from 4700 to 3900 during the study period. A child health clinic (CHC) with no appointment system and providing Child Health Surveillance was staffed by a senior community paediatric trainee in 1983. This had transformed into a referral clinic with an appointment system by 1995 (still staffed by the trainee). By 2000, the clinic had added a consultation element for GPs, HVs, school nurses and school support teachers for a session a week and added a clinical psychologist to its staff. Trainees staff the clinics still (a lecturer and an SHO) but an Associate Specialist session has been added to provide better continuity of care. In 1983, each infant was seen 26.7 times (range 9–51): 61% at the CHC (mostly for weighing), 31% at the GP surgery. By 1991, GPs had taken on CHS and the clinic had a formal appointment system but with a ‘drop in’ period when necessary. Total attendances dropped by almost a half between 1989 and 1991, as did those attending for immunizations. Primary care referrals accounted for 15.5% of those seen in 1991. Major diagnostic categories included weight and feeding, development, behaviour and ‘minor problems’. By 2000, there were 3 referral clinics a week with the additional consultation clinic. No CHS was provided. Developmental difficulties (61) and behaviour difficulties (60) now top the list of referral categories and the latter include self-harm, anorexia, Tourette’s, ADHD and conduct disorder, with 8 of these... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a program schedule of the thirty-second annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching on February 18-21, 1959 at the Hotel Dennis in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

This study uses state‐level staffing data to analyze the five‐year career trajectories of all 231 first‐year secondary science teachers in New Jersey who began teaching during the 2010‐2011 school year. The person‐position framework for studying teacher retention is introduced in this analysis, and the authors present a case for the importance of specifying both location and duration in empirical reporting on teacher retention, as well as distinguishing between the employers' and individual teachers' perspectives on retention. In the cohort studied here, the 5‐year retention‐by‐employer rate was 38%, but the retention‐in‐profession rate for those actively teaching was 65%. An additional 24% of science teachers changed districts during or immediately after their first year, and were retained in their second districts for four or more years. 16% of the science teachers in the cohort identified as non‐White or Hispanic and these teachers were retained at similar rates to their White/non‐Hispanic counterparts. Alternate route preparation programs attracted many more secondary science teachers who identified as non‐White or Hispanic, but teachers from these programs had a far lower 5‐year retained‐in‐profession rate (45%) than non‐White or Hispanic traditional route teachers (75%). It was more common for science teachers in higher SES districts to transfer to lower SES districts than the reverse. The position turnover rate for science teachers was slightly lower in higher SES districts. As a category, charter schools had the lowest 5‐year science teacher retention rate (13%). There was no identifiable relationship between the age, sex, subject area certification, or starting salary of science teachers and the measures of retention used in this study. The authors discuss the characterization of retention itself in research, including the use of descriptors related to retention. Implications relating to science teacher education policy are discussed, as is the future use of state‐level data systems in retention research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many water and wastewater utilities are vulnerable to cyberattacks and cyber intrusions. The COVID‐19 pandemic has exacerbated this weakness by moving water‐related employees to remote work, which has increased vulnerability to cyber threats. However, policymakers recognize the need to strengthen the cybersecurity resilience of water infrastructure, as evidenced by legislative activity. This article reviews four cases of recently adopted cybersecurity legislation at the federal and state levels. The empirical focus is on (1) the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, (2) the Internet of Things Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2020, (3) the New Jersey Water Quality Accountability Act, and (4) the New York Water Supply Emergency Plans. The legislative review recapitulates the core components of these legislative efforts to amplify strategies for securing and improving water infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plants in suburban forests of eastern North America face the dual stressors of high white‐tailed deer density and invasion by nonindigenous plants. Chronic deer herbivory combined with strong competition from invasive plants could alter a plant's stress‐ and defense‐related secondary chemistry, especially for long‐lived juvenile trees in the understory, but this has not been studied. We measured foliar total antioxidants, phenolics, and flavonoids in juveniles of two native trees, Fraxinus pennsylvanica (green ash) and Fagus grandifolia (American beech), growing in six forests in the suburban landscape of central New Jersey, USA. The trees grew in experimental plots subjected for 2.5 years to factorial treatments of deer access/exclosure × addition/no addition of the nonindigenous invasive grass Microstegium vimineum (Japanese stiltgrass). As other hypothesized drivers of plant secondary chemistry, we also measured nonstiltgrass herb layer cover, light levels, and water availability. Univariate mixed model analysis of the deer and stiltgrass effects and multivariate structural equation modeling (SEM) of all variables showed that both greater stiltgrass cover and greater deer pressure induced antioxidants, phenolics, and flavonoids, with some variation between species. Deer were generally the stronger factor, and stiltgrass effects were most apparent at high stiltgrass density. SEM also revealed that soil dryness directly increased the chemicals; deer had additional positive, but indirect, effects via influence on the soil; in beech photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) positively affected flavonoids; and herb layer cover had no effect. Juvenile trees' chemical defense/stress responses to deer and invasive plants can be protective, but also could have a physiological cost, with negative consequences for recruitment to the canopy. Ecological implications for species and their communities will depend on costs and benefits of stress/defense chemistry in the specific environmental context, particularly with respect to invasive plant competitiveness, extent of invasion, local deer density, and deer browse preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]