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State governments have the purview to interpret federal special education policies as they see fit. Interpretations of these policies to music education rarely are addressed within state special education policy. The authors selected four states to analyze and compare state special education policies; Illinois, Michigan, Texas, and Virginia. Policies highlighted by the authors include funding, LRE, access to information, and professional development. The authors outline how these policies may apply to music education settings and what music educators can do to more fully support students with disabilities. Additionally, the authors offer policy and practice recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review paper provides an in‐depth analysis of the current status, challenges, and strategies for improvement within the fish feed industry in East Africa, focusing on Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. Aquaculture production in these countries is experiencing steady growth, driven by increasing demand for fish and fish products for both nutritional and economic purposes. Despite the market facilitating the transition from extensive to semi‐intensive and moderately intensive farming systems across the four countries, the sector's progress is hampered by a lack of sustainable, locally produced, high‐quality, and cost‐effective fish feeds tailored to different developmental stages of fish. Despite the evident need, there is a notable scarcity of comprehensive reviews addressing the regional perspective of fish feed due to heightened cross‐border trade driven by the soaring demand and increased installation of cages in Lake Victoria, as well as in inland dams and reservoirs. This paper addresses critical challenges, such as regional scarcity and limited access to quality feed ingredients, regulatory obstacles, insufficient quality control measures, infrastructure constraints, and a lack of awareness and understanding of feed management and formulation. To overcome these challenges, the paper recommends fostering collaboration to establish a robust regional fish feed supply chain, investing in research and development initiatives, advocating for policy reforms and regulatory support, and compliance with East African Community quality standards for fish feed. Moreover, there is an urgent need to enhance human resource capacity through training and extension services, promote public investment support, strengthen sector institutions and industry associations, conduct training and awareness programs for feed providers, and improve storage facilities to maintain feed quality. The paper provides policymakers with valuable insights to inform targeted interventions that will catalyze positive transformation within the fish feed industry in East Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to simulate the effect of land revenue policy reform in China under the shock of tax policy reform. To this end, this research has built a computable general equilibrium model and collected data from China's input–output table for 2017 to construct the China land revenue social accounting matrix for 2017. Five scenarios of land reform policy have been considered. The first scenario concerns a reduction in the construction land supply; the simulation shows that the reform will lead to increasing real estate prices, which will result in a crowding-out effect for the manufacturing industry. The second scenario involves levying a property tax nationwide, which will restrain the trend of the increase in the real estate price and increase the local governments' revenue, although household income and economic growth will be restrained. The third scenario has to do with a reduction in the deed tax. The simulation shows that this reform can alleviate the negative impact on the economy. The fourth scenario is related to a combination of the first and second scenarios, which will lead to a decrease in employment demand and an increase in land financial revenue. Finally, the fifth scenario is also a combined policy involving the first, second and third scenarios, which will result in higher urban and rural household income than the fourth scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a corpus analysis of academic integrity policies from Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) worldwide, exploring how they address the issues posed by technological threats, such as Automated Paraphrasing Tools and generative-artificial intelligence tools, such as ChatGPT. The analysis of 142 policies conducted in November and December 2022, and May 2023 reveals a gap regarding the mention of AI and associated technologies in the available academic integrity policies. Despite the growing prevalence of these tools in the 6-month period since the release of ChatGPT, no HEIs had produced revised academic integrity policies. Content analysis of 53 guidance documents produced by HEIs suggests an overall positive focus of Gen AI tools, yet advises caution. This study suggests a modification to Bretag et al.'s (Int J Educ Integr 7, 2011) exemplary academic integrity model, introducing "Technological Explicitness" — emphasizing the need to include explicit guidelines about new technologies in academic integrity policies. These results underscore the urgent need for HEIs to revise their academic integrity policies, considering the evolving landscape of AI and its implications for academic integrity. This paper argues for a multifaceted approach to deal with the issues of integrating technology, education, policy reform, and assessment restructuring to navigate these challenges while upholding academic integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social, economic, and technological challenges have imposed transformations of the long-term care services in order to improve the system efficiency, the quality of services and the satisfaction of bene­ficiaries. The article aims to provide a review of the policy reforms and performance of the long-term care system in Romania. To support the effects of these transformations, a review of the scientific lit­erature was conducted. We then highlighted charac­teristics of the current long-term care system that are evolving in response to the changing social and economic environment. Several issues related to the public financing, labor force, quality assurance, and unmet needs are discussed.The analysis suggests that evaluation of the long-term care system in terms of sustainability, health and quality of life of beneficiaries and their families impose a good coverage with long-term care quali­ty services. Policy makers should ensure adequate collection of data to substantiate further policy measures, as well as full implementation of the long-term care policy.

Gender equality reforms implemented across various parliaments around the world have diversified. Introducing the thematic issue Gender Equality Reforms in Parliaments, we trace the context of making parliamentary institutions more gender-sensitive. We highlight both international organizations' top-down efforts and grassroots movements' bottom-up approaches and emphasize the complexities of descriptive, substantive, and symbolic representation. We argue that next to the broader setting, feminist institutionalism provided a critical lens to examine these relationships while acknowledging the need for gender-sensitive parliaments that prioritize gender equality. We illuminate contributions from both the Global South and North and pay particular attention to "extraordinary cases" as well as methodological, theoretical, and conceptual innovations, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in institutionalizing gender equality in diverse political contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politicians must navigate the complexities of social policy reform to ensure sustainable fiscal policies while considering their impact on citizens. News media play a crucial role as a source of political information, influencing public attitudes towards policy changes through selective framing of issues. This study focuses on how European news media frame the controversial policy reform of raising the retirement age, and explores factors that potentially explain variations in framing across contexts. Using a manual content analysis of newspapers in Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom over the period 2011–2020 (n = 1059 articles), we examine country-, newspaper-, and time-related factors to explain the relative presence of issue-specific diagnostic and prognostic frames in European news coverage of pension reform. While the results show that all three types of factors determine the coverage of the reform measure to some extent, in particular variations across newspapers and over time are prevalent. The most striking differences are that left-leaning newspapers emphasize frames related to inequality, and that over time, framing crystallizes into a more concentrated set of diagnostic and prognostic frames. This article sheds light on European news coverage of a much-debated policy issue and its contextual dependency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development has gender equality as one of its primary objectives. Although many countries have implemented policy changes aimed at addressing gender inequality, the issue of limited access to employment opportunities for women remains prevalent. This study investigates (1) the underlying beliefs held by hotel managers regarding the hiring of women, (2) the role of different pressures in increasing women participation, and (3) potential conflicts between policy reforms and manager beliefs. Three studies on the hospitality sector in Egypt were conducted using a mixed-methods approach. The first study involves interviews with 32 managers, the second is a quantitative analysis of data from 200 managers, and the third consists of in-depth interviews with 20 experts. Our findings demonstrate: (1) thirteen key female-hiring beliefs, which inform hotel managers' hiring decisions; (2) perceived policy pressures play a significant role in the hiring of more women, but managers' attitudes remain the most important determinant; and (3) four conflicts between policy-level reforms and managerial beliefs may arise, attenuating female hiring. This research creates a scenario-based model and proposes potential remedies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commencement speakers, business leaders, and the popular press tell us that failure has at least one benefit: It fuels success. Does it? Across 11 studies, including a field study of medical professionals, predictors overestimated the rate at which people course correct following failure (Studies 1–4). Predictors overestimated the likelihood that professionals who fail a professional exam (e.g., the bar exam, the medical boards) pass a retest (Studies 1a, 1b, and 2a), the likelihood that patients improve their health after a crisis (e.g., heart attack, drug overdose; Studies 2b and 6), and the probability, more generally, of learning from one's mistakes (Studies 3–5). This effect was specific to overestimating success following failure (Study 4) and erasing mention of an initial failure that had actually occurred corrected the problem (Studies 2a and 2b). The success overestimate was due, at least in part, to the belief that people attend to failure more than they do (Studies 5 and 6). Correcting this overestimate had policy implications. Citizens apprised of the sobering true rate of postfailure success increased their support for rehabilitative initiatives aimed at helping struggling populations (e.g., people with addiction, ex-convicts) learn from past mistakes (Studies 7a–7c). Public Significance Statement: Our culture teaches that failure has, at least, one silver lining: It is a steppingstone to success. Is it? Across 11 studies, people in the lab and professionals in the field overestimated the rate at which health failures, professional failures, educational failures, and failures in a real-time task were followed by success. People thought that tens of thousands of professionals who fail standardized tests would go on to pass (who do not), that tens of thousands of people with addiction would get sober (who do not), and that tens of thousands of heart failure patients would improve their health (in fact, they do not). Overestimating success following failure had key policy implications. Apprising citizens of the true, lower-than-expected rate at which success occurs on the heels of failure increased support for policy initiatives aimed at helping criminals and people in the throes of drug addiction learn and grow from past mistakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was aimed at investigating the behavioral intention towards and factors influencing adoption of organic soil nutrient management by paddy farmers, consequent to the banning of agro-chemicals in April 2021 in Sri Lanka. A questionnaire survey, supplemented by key informant discussions was used to collect the primary data after six months of the banning when farmers were preparing for the next Maha season (starting from November 2021). Paddy farmers (N=120) from the Mahailluppallama irrigation block of the Mahaweli system H in Anuradhapura district were randomly selected as the respondents. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used as the conceptual framework of the study. The study revealed that the majority (85%) of farmers did not agree with the sudden decision of the government to ban agro- chemicals to enable a complete transformation of agriculture to one that is totally organic. Only 11% of the farmers preferred a fully organic paddy production system. The majority (58%) preferred to use both organic and inorganic fertilizers. However, 31% of the farmers preferred conventional farming as usual. Perceived difficulties were the major barriers for farmers to use organic fertilizers. Attitude on production, age, perceived knowledge of organic agriculture, and farming income significantly affected (P < 0.1) paddy farmers’ intention to adopt organic fertilizers. It is concluded that a scientifically designed gradual transition would be more appropriate for nutrient management in paddy cultivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social, economic, and technological challenges have imposed transformations of the long-term care services in order to improve the system efficiency, the quality of services and the satisfaction of beneficiaries. The article aims to provide a review of the policy reforms and performance of the long-term care system in Romania. To support the effects of these transformations, a review of the scientific literature was conducted. We then highlighted characteristics of the current long-term care system that are evolving in response to the changing social and economic environment. Several issues related to the public financing, labor force, quality assurance, and unmet needs are discussed. The analysis suggests that evaluation of the long-term care system in terms of sustainability, health and quality of life of beneficiaries and their families impose a good coverage with long-term care quality services. Policy makers should ensure adequate collection of data to substantiate further policy measures, as well as full implementation of the long-term care policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residential care services are under increasing pressure to lower service provision costs while maintaining quality of care. Using a translog cost function, this paper examines the relationship between cost, quality and output in England's learning disability (LD) residential care sector. It finds genuine but diminishing economies of scale in LD residential care services vis-à-vis output (i.e., care weeks). However, some variation exists: higher-quality LD residential care homes appear to have larger economies of scale than lower-quality ones. Supplementary regression analysis, examining quality-size, further finds quality (a) is negatively associated with LD care homes of six or fewer beds; (b) shows no association with homes of more than six beds. These findings enhance residential care literature and raise the possibility that, by promoting the establishment of larger high-quality care homes, cost savings may be achieved without sacrificing quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hospice care amongst the elderly is not uncommon, as it specifically focuses on improving and supporting the lives of those who are either terminally ill or unable to support themselves. Over one million individuals are admitted into hospice care centers every year, and the numbers have only increased with time. However, this increase in patient quantity is accompanied with a higher risk of elder abuse within the hospice industry as a whole, as demonstrated by the five million older Americans who are abused every year. 1 Elder abuse within hospice settings is a public health issue that is not widely discussed. The abuse can appear in many forms and in all locations of patient care, from the home environment to hospice facilities. Elder abuse is wide ranging and includes physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, as well as neglect and abandonment. Older individuals, especially those who depend on care from others, are especially vulnerable to such abuse. In this literature review, we aim to uncover the truth about elder abuse in various healthcare settings. We begin with current research findings and general knowledge about elder abuse. Next, we address nonprofit versus for-profit hospice centers, as well as the responsibilities of the healthcare team to speak out against abuse. In doing so, we then propose direct, actionable solutions that are in the process or being implemented or should be implemented in order to prevent further abuse of the elderly.

AbstractIn recent years, vocational education reform has become an issue of common concern for the government, academia, and the education sector, as the difficulty in finding employment for Chinese university students and the labor shortage of senior technical personnel continue to intensify. This study conducted a systematic review of the literature on vocational education reform in the past decade, analyzing 61 pieces of literature from two major aspects, namely reform research objects and reform research directions, during the period of 2014–2023. The results of the analyses show that the current major directions of vocational education reform are the combination of teaching and practice, multi-skilling, teacher enhancement, and policy reform. The main research objects include overall vocational education, hierarchical vocational education, professional and curricular reforms, and reform studies for different provinces and regions.

AbstractInternational trade, a cornerstone of the global economy, has witnessed substantial growth since the start of the 21st century. This expansion, largely driven by liberalizing policies and supported by initiatives like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, has deeply integrated economies worldwide, making trade a substantial part of global gross domestic product (GDP). However, this growth also spotlights cultural, social, and environmental consequences. Studies indicate that trade is responsible for up to 70% of global environmental impacts, often transferring burdens from “developed” to “developing” nations. While trade bolsters economies, it also poses risks to people, nature, and the planet. In this article, I introduce the Planetary Welcare compass, an innovative framework designed to navigate these multifaceted challenges and drive transformative change. This framework integrates diverse perspectives on development, equity, sustainability, and planetary health into five interconnected principles: enhancing well-being, promoting balanced consumption, fostering accountability with integrity, embracing rooted globalism, and championing environmental stewardship. The article delves into the foundation of this framework and applies it to the overarching strategies of both the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Fair Trade Charter (IFTC), highlighting their divergent approaches and associated challenges. In conclusion, the Planetary Welcare compass offers a comprehensive set of principles to guide and assess production and consumption systems, including trade policies and agreements. It suggests a significant shift from the traditional welfare-state model toward a broader focus on planetary health, equity, and sustainability, ushering in the emergence of a “Welcare state” paradigm for a just and sustainable future.

Amidst global sustainability challenges across domains such as energy, water, and transportation, China's urbanisation process presents unique socio-economic dynamics, particularly following the Reform and Opening Up policy. The existing literature has not fully captured the complex interplay between urban growth and sustainability challenges in China, nor has it adequately explored the phased nature of urbanisation informed by evolving policies. This paper provides a comprehensive review of China's urban transition, emphasising its evolution since the Reform and Opening Up policy. Through systematic analysis, it delineates the multifaceted nature of urbanisation, reflecting on policy impacts and socio-economic shifts. Findings indicate transformative urban growth characterised by new challenges in environmental sustainability, social equity, and urban–rural integration. The research unveils the transition to a human-centric urban development model, highlighting policy shifts towards sustainable practices. The results suggest a nuanced urban–rural convergence, advocating for participatory governance and balanced growth. The unique contribution of this study lies in its empirical and theoretical examination of China's urbanisation within a global context, offering a critical perspective on policy formulation and sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

States and colleges nationwide are adopting corequisite reforms, where students assessed as not meeting college-readiness standards concurrently enroll in developmental and college-level coursework. Leveraging frame analysis—an approach drawn from collective action research—and interviews with 49 actors at 16 community colleges implementing a statewide corequisite mandate, we examine how institutional actors construct meaning of the status quo and reformed dev-ed systems and how they assign responsibility for solving identified problems. Examining the microprocesses experienced by institutional agents may explain the lack of buy-in among college personnel responsible for implementing dev-ed reform—surprising given growing evidence of the effectiveness of corequisites—and variation in reform take-up. Our findings on the frames used by implementing actors illuminate individual-level processes underlying lags in reform implementation and, for policymakers and administrators, can inform potential counterframes to spur further action and overcome resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Monetary policies are very important in bank-oriented economies, and the government adjusts the policies of other areas based on the money market. The inadequacies that have directly or indirectly affected the performance of monetary policy makers in Iran over the past three decades have had destructive effects on the country's economy. Therefore, in the present study, a comprehensive policy model has been presented in order to reform the banking system of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Methods: This study was conducted with the aim of designing a model of organizational happiness among the employees of the Ministry of Energy. The current research is considered a mixed research method in terms of purpose, applied research type, method type, and data collection method. The statistical population in the qualitative part includes 20 experts and in the quantitative part it includes all the employees of the country's banking system, from which a sample of 384 people was selected. The main tool of data collection in the field section includes a semi-structured interview (in the qualitative section) and a researcher-made questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed using the content validity method. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated to evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was more than 0.7, which shows that the questionnaire has good reliability. Partial least squares technique and SmartPLS software were used to test the hypotheses. In the qualitative part, foundational data theory and MAXQDA software are used. Results: In the qualitative part, foundational data theory and Max Kyuda software are used. Based on the results of qualitative analysis, there are six categories of main factors including background factors (upstream documents), causal factors (organizational factors, human resource factors and management factors), central phenomenon (banking system reform), interventionist (politicization of the administrative system and resistance against change), strategies (policy reform) and outcomes (quality of working life, improvement of customer experience and improvement of financial and non-financial performance) were identified as the main components of the comprehensive policy model for reforming the banking system. The results of the hypothesis test in the quantitative part showed that the components of conditions, including organizational factors, human resources factors, and management factors, have an effect on the reform of the banking system; Resistance to change, politicization of the system, reform of the banking system and upstream documents have a significant impact on strategies (reform policy). It was also found that the reform policy has a positive and significant impact on all three consequences of the model, including the quality of work life (employees), improving the customer experience (customers), and the financial and non-financial performance of the bank (organization). Conclusions: The results obtained in this research, while strengthening the domestic literature about banking system policymaking, provide practical guidelines for reforming the banking system to senior managers of the country's banking system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms often oppose costly public policy reforms—but under what conditions may they come to support such reforms? Previous scholarship has taken a predominantly static approach to the analysis of business positions. Here, we advance a dynamic theory of change in business policy positions that explains how business may shift from opposing to supporting new regulation over the course of multiple rounds of policymaking. We identify three sets of drivers and causal mechanisms behind business repositioning related to political, policy, and market change. We argue that political mechanisms can shift opposition to "strategic support" for reform, whereas policy and market mechanisms may shift opposition or strategic support toward "sincere support." We examine the reconfiguration of business interests and policy positions in the context of three decades of US climate politics, focusing on the oil and gas, electricity, and auto sectors. Our dynamic theory of business positions moves beyond the dualism that views business as either opposing or supporting public interest regulation. We thus advance our understanding of why initial business opposition can incrementally turn into strategic or sincere support for policy reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Path dependence has become a multi-disciplinary concept, employed across various literatures to explain why the past matters for decision-making. Debate within 'new institutionalist' scholarship has provided a detailed critique of the term over several decades. Some scholars argue that it is hampered by poor conceptual clarity and highlight its limitations in explaining institutional reform. Yet, this paper demonstrates how neglecting antecedent conditions and associated decision pathways is particularly inappropriate for politico-spatial issues like disaster risk and natural resource governance. Doing so risks omitting key material and perceptual contingencies influencing contemporary institutions. Examining southeast Queensland's flooding disaster of 2011, the paper proposes that path contingency provides a useful theoretical bridge between institutionalist theories of stability and reform, and the geographic contexts within which disaster risk governance proceeds. The analysis then addresses the potential generalisability of path contingency beyond its application to disaster management, for consideration across a broader range of institutionalist research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay offers an overview of the state and perspectives of comparative economics in Europe. The starting point is the publication of the collected works of Mario Nuti, but the overview covers several Handbooks and collections as well as individual contributions. The big picture of the post-transition period highlights the relevance of "old" comparative economics, especially when interpreting illiberal practices in the post-communist Europe and the debate on the nature and limitations of the Chinese market socialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender equality reforms implemented across various parliaments around the world have diversified. Introducing the thematic issue Gender Equality Reforms in Parliaments, we trace the context of making parliamentary institutions more gender-sensitive. We highlight both international organizations’ top-down efforts and grassroots movements’ bottom-up approaches and emphasize the complexities of descriptive, substantive, and symbolic representation. We argue that next to the broader setting, feminist institutionalism provided a critical lens to examine these relationships while acknowledging the need for gender-sensitive parliaments that prioritize gender equality. We illuminate contributions from both the Global South and North and pay particular attention to “extraordinary cases” as well as methodological, theoretical, and conceptual innovations, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in institutionalizing gender equality in diverse political contexts.

Barth et al. (2021) published an article in this journal identifying ten topics in the field of child welfare that are frequently discussed among professionals, advocates, and researchers in an effort to shape discussions of practice and policy reform. Concerned that these discussions are often poorly informed by the research evidence, Barth et al. intended to offer a corrective to these common, erroneous narratives. The Editor-in-Chief, Bruce Thyer, asked for suggestions for commentators and then invited some number of respondents to offer their perspectives on the original article. Here, we respond to each of the submitted papers, highlighting areas of agreement, and addressing other topics where we—sometimes sharply—disagree. We welcome an ongoing, fact-based, respectful dialogue to help shape child welfare reform. Efforts to improve the child welfare system are urgently needed; we stand by our view that large-scale practice and policy reform, in particular, must be guided by the best available research evidence.

This paper develops a sufficient statistics framework for analyzing the welfare effects of disability insurance (DI). We derive social‐optimality conditions for the two main DI policy parameters: (i) eligibility rules and (ii) benefit levels. Applying this framework to two restrictive DI reforms in Austria, we find that tighter DI eligibility rules triggered higher fiscal cost savings and lower insurance losses. Hence, tighter DI eligibility rules dominate DI benefit reductions in scaling back the Austrian DI system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, several studies have indicated that there is a considerable mismatch between the specific set of skills that employers require and the ones that university graduates have to offer. The 2023 report from the World Economic Forum lists 10 core skills that are sought after by global organizations, six of which are categorized under social-emotional learning. As part of its National Employment Strategy 2031, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) aims to build a knowledge-based economy and increase labor productivity. This communicative piece proposes a policy reform across higher education institutions in the United Arab Emirates, seizing as an opportunity the country’s growing commitment to increase talent attraction and retention in the rapidly evolving workplace. Seeing the significant association between social-emotional competencies and thriving in dynamic professional settings, the article highlights the prevalence of mental health disorders among the general youth in the UAE, the government’s commitment towards awareness and prevention of mental health disorders, the relevance of social-emotional competencies for employability and adaptability in the rapidly evolving workplace, the importance of introducing lessons and training in mindfulness-based social-emotional learning (MBSEL) to build the youth’s adaptability in an ever-changing job landscape, and practical measures that can be taken at the institutional level within the UAE context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent punishment and society scholarship has addressed the limits of policy reforms aimed at reducing mass incarceration in the U.S. This work has focused in particular on the political dimensions of penal legal reform and policy-making, and the compromises and shortcomings in those processes. Nearly absent in this scholarship, however, has been empirical and theoretical engagement with the role of front-line prosecutors as facilitators and/or resistors to downsizing efforts. Using the case of the U.S. federal criminal legal system's modest efforts to decrease the system's racially disparate and punitive outcomes, this paper elucidates the fragile nature of such reforms by delineating the critical role that front-line prosecutors play in maintaining punitive approaches. Focusing specifically on federal prosecutorial policy and practices in the Trump era, I draw on a subset of data from an interdisciplinary, multi-methodological project set in distinct federal court jurisdictions in the U.S. to examine how front-line prosecutors were able to quickly reverse course on reform through the use of their uniquely powerful charging and plea-bargaining tools. My findings illustrate how federal prosecutors pursued more low-level defendants, and utilized statutory "hammers," including mandatory minimums and mandatory enhancements to ensure harsh punishments in a swift return to a war-on-crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The water system of Beijing is a coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) featured by the interactions of the two components. An integrated system dynamics (SD) model is adopted to analyze the systematic structure of CHANS for megacities. The feedback and interactive relationships for different components can be fully understood through this model. The novelty of this study is reflected in the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods adopted to simulate and analyze the structure of water demands in Beijing using the SD model. The driving forces of water demand and their effects on water demand variation are obtained based on both the modeling results and the literatures. The structural change in water use of Beijing showed the following trends: total water demand was stable; industrial and agricultural water demands decreased; domestic water demand rapidly increased. Implications, such as adjusting macroeconomic structure, keeping population growth stable, promoting new and advanced technologies' application, and encouraging the use of economic lever measures, are valuable lessons should be taken by other megacities with similar water shortages as Beijing. Only with the government, the public and the enterprises effectively working together will the water shortage problems be solved in such megacities like Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious education leaders promote the religious identity of the school as well as foster a sense of connectedness through building school community. However, these leaders who play a key role in this area are at times the ones who feel the least connected to the school community and are more likely than other leaders to resign from the position prior to completing their full term. One of the things principals of schools fear the most is the resignation of the religious education leader in their school (Crotty 2005). The high turnover rate of these leaders and the dearth of applicants to fulfil this role have resulted in less experienced personnel being appointed to these positions. Religious education leaders themselves as well as principals are concerned with the lack of suitable successors willing to take on the role. They want successors who are experienced and capable of senior leadership. Over the past decade the religious education leadership policy reforms and initiatives from diocesan based centralised authorities for Catholic education across Australia have attempted to address these concerns. Drawing on the insights from a study into the kinds of support religious education leaders need to do their job effectively, this chapter explores the general limitations of these policies and proposes some recommendations for policy reform that will sustain Religious Education Leadership as a viable career pathway.

Mainstream climate policy discourse obscures power disparities between those who contribute the most to climate change and those who are hit the hardest, particularly in discussions regarding the appropriate targets for intervention, including behavioral change. We reflect and critique this obfuscation of power in policy debates, and as a corrective, we identify actors with high levels of climate responsibility and high capacity for mitigation and adaptation, and that intersect different scales of social organization. We visually map these overlaps to spur productive dialogue and generate new policy ideas to target the worst violators first and encourage action for others where it is rooted in what capacities they have. We include examples of how power disparities reflect and produce complex climate injustices, underscoring the importance of conceptualizing power through a multiscalar lens for fair and effective climate policy.

In recent years, several studies have indicated that there is a considerable mismatch between the specific set of skills that employers require and the ones that university graduates have to offer. The 2023 report from the World Economic Forum lists 10 core skills that are sought after by global organizations, six of which are categorized under social-emotional learning. As part of its National Employment Strategy 2031, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) aims to build a knowledge-based economy and increase labor productivity. This communicative piece proposes a policy reform across higher education institutions in the United Arab Emirates, seizing as an opportunity the country’s growing commitment to increase talent attraction and retention in the rapidly evolving workplace. Seeing the significant association between social-emotional competencies and thriving in dynamic professional settings, the article highlights the prevalence of mental health disorders among the general youth in the UAE, the government’s commitment towards awareness and prevention of mental health disorders, the relevance of social-emotional competencies for employability and adaptability in the rapidly evolving workplace, the importance of introducing lessons and training in mindfulness-based social-emotional learning (MBSEL) to build the youth’s adaptability in an ever-changing job landscape, and practical measures that can be taken at the institutional level within the UAE context.

This work investigates the Italian judicial system and discusses the designing of a policy reform to boost the efficiency of courts, considering the human resources available as well as the expenditure generated by the process to deliver justice. The authors present the benchmarks and shed light on how policy makers embarking on such a process of reform may be misled by inappropriate model definition. In detail, the authors propose a comparative analysis of technical efficiency (TE) scores computed using data envelopment analysis, adopting the same output (number of settled cases) and two alternative sets of inputs (judicial expenditure and human resources). According to the results, without considering the information extracted from the two complementary benchmark analyses, policy makers might be misled in the reform process. Regarding the elements that affect the performance of courts, it may be possible to improve the efficiency of judicial districts by working on judicial procedures. Hence, these are the domains where interventions by policy makers may prove successful. As for policy implications, the models and benchmarks presented here could be used to devise a reform of the judicial system aimed at enhancing its TE, while also keeping public expenditure under control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State policymakers in the United States have in recent years experimented with new initiatives to change the procedures used by public institutions to assess and assign academically underprepared students to non-credit developmental education (or remedial) courses. This study explores whether the most recent developmental education reform in Floridas—Senate Bill 1720 has affected student enrollment in the Florida College System (FCS) institutions and whether the enrollment effects vary by race/ethnicity and age. Through a difference-in-differences analysis, we did not find statistically significant effects of the reform on the college enrollment in Florida, neither on the racial or age compositions of the student population, compared to non-Florida institutions in the surrounding region. These null results provide valuable implications for policy and research consideration in Florida and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that physical education (PE) needs to adapt to meet societies' changing needs and increased diversity amongst pupils. However, despite growing pressure from often competing sectoral interests, educational reforms, and new curricula directed at PE to bring about such changes, research has not seen a more profound impact. Many policy initiatives often impact PE teachers, which means they are responsible for implementing desired changes. Therefore, it is somewhat surprising how research has paid limited attention to PE teachers' decision-making processes regarding the envisaged change. To address this shortfall of understanding, this study's aim is to explore PE teachers' decision-making processes and how they relate to external pressures, interests, and reforms. To meet this aim, this article draws on an institutional logics perspective and uses data collected from semi-structured interviews with 16 PE teachers. Findings show how four institutional logics guide PE teachers' decision-making processes: (a) a democracy logic, (b) an investment logic, (c) a professional logic, and (d) a bureaucracy logic. The results also show that, beyond the fact that logics legitimise certain decisions, they delegitimise other decisions, which requires PE teachers to navigate between logics in their decision-making processes. This navigating process requires PE teachers to handle multiple and incompatible ideas about what good PE is and how to conduct it. This knowledge, if utilised, can increase alignment between policy content and implementers' interpretations, which may mitigate resistance to policy reforms and stimulate intended implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]