Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Public works'

Thesis (MPA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The basic principles of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) include “an integrated and sustainable programme” and “a people-driven process”. Section 2.3 of the RDP identifies the National Public Works Programme (NPWP) as a key implementation strategy of the RDP, with the primary purpose of creating jobs and providing community infrastructure, in a manner that impacts on the socio-economic conditions of the poor (ANC, 1994:1-18). The NPWP was operationalised in late 1995 as a Community Based Public Works Project (CBPWP) to carry out this broad mandate. Government was faced by numerous challenges in the form of poverty, joblessness, a shrinking economy and lack of job-related skills. The expectations were also high that after long years of struggle and suffering, an ANC-led Government would deliver a better life soon. Wittingly or unwittingly, in the face of these challenges and mounting expectations, Government rushed to deliver a better life through school feeding schemes, free health care to children under the age of six and to pregnant women and allocated about R250m to the Department of Public Works to deliver a job creation and poverty relief programme. It was this rush that saw the Government losing sight of important conditions for sustainable delivery of goods and services. The purpose of the study is to show that the Community Based Public Works Programme of the Department of Public Works, which was implemented in Groutville in 1996, failed to bring about visible change. The starting point is to create a contextual framework for the research problem and the suggested answer (Bless & Higson - Smith, 1995:37), which is established through various means in the sections that follow. The first part, the literature review, offers both conceptual and operational definitions (Bless & Higson - Smith, 1995:35-37) of key concepts or variables that form elements of the research problem and the proposed hypothesis. Methodology and research design outlines the process, procedure and instruments used to test the hypothesis. The section on data analysis gives an overview on how data on the general field of interest (Brynard & Hanekom, 1997:48-50), community development (De Beer & Swanepoel, 1998:17-28), is filtered to focus on the National Public Works Programme (NPWP) and the Community Based Public Works Programme (CBPWP) as strategies for community development , using Groutville as a case study. As part of data analysis, using the model of Brynard & Hanekom (1997:54-55) viewpoints of authors on community development are integrated in the context of the results and data obtained. Finally, the study outlines and discusses the results and recommendations. The reliability and generalizability of the findings is based on consistence between the findings of this particular study and the CASE/ILO Report, on the one hand, and the empirical evidence as provided by grassroots structures and as observed by the researcher. The study finds that while the project succeeded in targeting women and youth, employment opportunities could not be sustained. In addition there is no evidence of training and the ability of employees to use skills gained during the life of the project to earn a decent living. Finally, the study also finds that one of the major failures of the CBPWP, in addition to a lack of sustainability, was that it was not co-ordinated and integrated with other local development initiatives such as the Masakhane Campaign, the Clean and Green Campaign and the Local Economic Development Plan. The study concludes by suggesting recommendations, which include: - • The need to redefine sustainability in a way that does not emphasize the quality and life span of infrastructure but prioritizes the beneficiaries’ ability to use the infrastructure and skills gained to engage in productive economic activities; • Recognize local leadership and built capacity before a project is introduced; • Focus, as part of capacity building, on institutional development and organizational development for local communities; • Communicate and seek consensus on the goals and intended objectives of the programme; • Link national programmes with local economic development plans and initiatives and education and training for life-long employment.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die basiese beginsels van die Heropbou en Ontwikkelingsprogram (HOP) sluit ‘n geïntegreerde volhoubare program en ‘n gemeenskapsgeïnspireerde proses in. Die Nasionale Openbare Werke Program (NOWP) is as ‘n sleutel implementeringstrategie geïdentifiseer in klousule 2.3 van die HOP met die primêre doel om werkverskaffing en die voorsiening van infrastruktuur aan die gemeenskap te lewer. Die primêre doel is om ‘n impak te lewer op die sosio-ekonomiese toestand van die hulpbehoewende persoon. (ANC, 1994:1-18). Die NOWP is in 1995 as ‘n Gemeenskapsgebaseerde Openbare Werke Program in werking gestel om hierdie breë mandaat uit te voer. Die Staat was gekonfronteer met verskeie uitdagings wat onder andere armoede, werkloosheid, ‘n krimpende ekonomie en die gebrek aan toepaslike werksgeoriënteerde vaardighede ingesluit het. Hoë verwagtinge is van die ANC regering gekoester om na die lang jare van stryd en lyding ‘n beter lewe vir almal te verseker. Wetende of onwetende, in die aangesig van al hierdie uitdagings en verwagtinge, het die Staat beleid bepaal wat daarop gemik was om dienstelewering te versnel ten einde ‘n beter lewe te waarborg. Hierdie beleid het voedingskemas by skole en gratis gesondheidsorg aan kinders onder die ouderdom van ses jaar en verwagtende vroue verskaf. Daar is ook ‘n bedrag van R250 miljoen bewillig aan die Departement van Openbare Werke om ‘n armoedeverligting en werkverskaffingsprogram daar te stel. Dit was as gevolg van hierdie druk waaronder die Staat verkeer het, dat die belangrike vereistes vir volhoubare lewering van goedere en dienste uit die oog verloor is. Die doel van hierdie studie is om te bewys dat die Gemeenskapsgebaseerde Openbare Werke Program, soos onder andere geïmplementeer in Groutville in 1996, nie daarin geslaag het om enige merkbare veranderinge teweeg te bring nie. Die aanvangspunt vir hierdie studie is om ‘n kontekstuele raamwerk vir die navorsingsprobleem daar te stel, met toepaslike moontlike oplossings, (Bless & Higson - Smith, 1995:37), wat geskep is deur verskeie middele te ondersoek in die gedeeltes wat volg. Die eerste gedeelte, naamlik die literatuurstudie, verskaf konseptuele en algemene gebruiksdefinisies (Bless & Higson - Smith, 1995:35-37) van sleutelkonsepte of veranderlikes wat die kritiese elemente van die navorsingsprobleem en die voorgestelde hipotese vorm. Die metodiek en navorsingsontwerp-raamwerk omskryf die proses, prosedure en instrumente wat gebruik is om die hipotese te toets. Die gedeelte oor data-analise gee ‘n oorsig oor hoe die data wat betrekking het op die algemene veld van belangstelling (Brynard & Hanekom, 1997:48- 50), naamlik gemeenskapsontwikkeling (De Beer & Swanepoel, 1998:17-28) gefiltreer is om te fokus op die Nasionale Openbare Werke Program en die Gemeenskapsgebaseerde Openbare Werke Program wat as strategieë vir gemeenskapsontwikkeling in die Groutville gevallestudie gebruik is. As deel van die data-analise is die Bryard & Hanekom (1997:54- 55) model gebruik om verskillende standpunte van verskeie skrywers aangaande gemeenskapsontwikkeling te integreer met die resultate en die inligting wat ingesamel is. Die laaste afdeling bespreek die bevindinge en maak aanbevelings. Bevindinge in hierdie studie gemaak kan as algemeen betroubaar beskou word. Die stelling word gebaseer op die feit dat ‘n konsekwente ooreenstemming telkemale verkry is tussen die bevindinge van die spesifieke studie soos vervat in die CASE/ILO - verslag, en die empiriese bewyslewering, soos voorsien deur voetsoolvlak gemeenskapstrukture en soos waargeneem deur die navorser. Bevindinge van die studie sluit die volgende in; die Groutville projek het daarin geslaag om vroue en die jeug te betrek, maar dit kon nie daarin slaag om volhoubare werkverskaffing te verskaf nie. Daar kon ook geen bewys gevind word dat opleiding plaasgevind het nie, en die werknemers wat vaardighede aangeleer het gedurende die verloop van die projek, kon nie hul vermoë bewys om hierdie vaardighede sodanig aan te wend om ‘n ordentlike bestaan te voer nie. Ten slotte het die studie bevind dat een van die hoof tekortkominge van die GBOWP was, tesame met die gebrek aan volhoubaarheid van die program, die gebrek aan ko-ordinasie en integrering met ander plaaslike ontwikkelingsinisiatiewe, soos onder andere die Masakhane projek, die “Clean and Green” projek en die plaaslike ekonomiese ontwikkelingsplan. Die laaste gedeelte van die studie stel die volgende aanbevelings voor: • Om volhoubaarheid op plaaslike vlak so te definieër dat die klem nie geplaas word op die lewensverwagting van infrastruktuur nie, maar dat voorkeur eerder verleen word aan die vermoë van die gemeenskap om hierdie infrastruktuur te gebruik, en die vaardighede wat aangeleer is in die proses, om betrokke te raak in produktiewe volhoubare ekonomiese aktiwiteite; • Om plaaslike leierskap te erken, en om toepaslike bekwaamhede op te bou, voordat ‘n projek aangebied en geïmplementeer word; • As deel van die opbou van bekwaamhede, moet klem geplaas word op institusionele en organisatoriese ontwikkeling van plaaslike gemeenskappe; • Eenstemmigheid moet verkry word rakende die doelwitte van die program; • Skakel nasionale programme in by plaaslike ekonomiese ontwikkelingsplanne en inisiatiewe, en verseker opvoeding en opleiding vir lewenslange indiensneming.

This dissertation analyses the origin, purposes, nature, operation and achievements of the Commonwealth's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works (Public Works Committee - PWC), and assesses its utility to parliament. The PWC originated in 1913 as a permanent committee of parliamentarians established to examine government proposals for public works, and report on them to parliament. Its purpose is to provide detailed data on works proposals in order to allow informed voting. In the process parliament also achieves a degree of control over government - ministers and public servants. Unlike most parliamentary audit of government expenditure, the PWC scrutinises proposals before works are built. It is a joint, statutory, scrutiny committee. The proper role for parliamentary committees in general is the checking of government, through influence, criticism, scrutiny, and publicity. The PWC is assessed against this role through an analysis of its legislation and operation, and interviews with involved parliamentarians and bureaucrats. Criteria used include adequacy of evidence obtained, precision and clarity of reports, and degree of influence on government and acceptance of recommendations. In these terms the PWC has little effect in controlling policy making by the executive government - cabinet and ministers. Moreover, specific amendment of its act together with the consequential effects of nominally unrelated legislation, have reduced the scope of Committee activities to an estimated less than half of all Commonwealth public works. This trend is continuing under current policies of corporatising departmental activities and excluding the resulting statutory corporations from PWC examination. These moves prevent parliament playing its proper role in the governance of the country. However, within the ambit of its powers, the PWC generally rates highly against the above criteria, and exerts a significant degree of parliamentary control over government administration - the public service - in the implementation of public works.

The purpose of this thesis is to determine the importance of abnormally low tenders for Turkey, understand the problems created by abnormally low tenders, find reasons of them, develop various methods in reducing abnormally low tender problem and determine the most appropriate method. In this thesis, reasons of abnormally low tenders in Europe and Turkey were investigated. Various recommendations were developed for solving the problem and validity of these solutions was investigated. Different results were obtained due to the different social structure of countries. Besides, abnormally low tender evaluation questionnaire was used to find reasons of abnormally low tenders in Turkey. This questionnaire reached to 430 firms or people and by detailed analysis of questionnaire, reasons of abnormally low tenders were found out and some solution methods were proposed.

The author explains what «diligent bidder» means during bidding processes. First, he starts analyzing some civil law matters as due diligence and compliance with obligations. Then, he states his position about whether the consultation during bidding processes is a right or an obligation for the bidder, and under what conditions it would work. Furthermore, he explains the relevance of identifying strict liability on developing the technical file to set the compensation of damages. Finally, the author offers some cases to determine when contractors are «diligent bidders» and when they are not. He points out that when contractors are «diligent bidders», the owner must take full responsibility; on the other hand, when they are not «diligent bidders» and they partially caused the damage, the judge or the arbitrator should reduce the compensation.
El autor aborda el tema relacionado al «postor razonable» en los procesos de selección de obra pública. Su aproximación al tema parte por analizar aspectos civiles relacionados con la diligencia y el cumplimiento de obligaciones. Asimismo, presenta su posición respecto de si la formulación de consultas es una obligación o un derecho de los postores, y en qué casos se aplicaría. Además, explica porqué es importante determinar la responsabilidad objetiva en la elaboración del expediente técnico, a la hora de determinar el resarcimiento del daño. Al finalizar, presenta algunos criterios que deberían ser tomados en cuenta para analizar cuándo nos encontramos frente a un «postor razonable», y cuándo no. Explica que de encontrarnos frente a un «postor razonable», el contratante deberá asumir la responsabilidad total por los errores; sin embargo, en caso se determine que el «postor no fue razonable» y que eso contribuyó a generar el daño, entonces el juez o árbitro deberán reducir el resarcimiento.

The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) has been seen by government as a poverty-alleviation initiative in which many South Africans receive training and temporary employment that assist them in enhancing their employability. This has been seen in many rural communities as assisting with development of the community. It has been emphasize that this programme boosts the local economy while at the same time providing much needed financial support to those that are faced with lack of community development and unemployment. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of the programme on community upliftment, with particular reference to community perceptions of the programme and training that is offered within the programme itself. Challenges with the implementation and execution of the programme were explored, in order to develop recommendations that will enhance the effectiveness of the programme within the local municipality. The literature study included interviews with key informants involved directly with the programme in the local municipality. A descriptive research approach within a qualitative paradigm was adopted for the study. Data was collected mainly from secondary sources. The findings of the study indicate that the Expanded Public Works Programme is the main source of employment within the local municipality, benefiting not only the beneficiaries involved in the programme, but also the community as a whole. The beneficiaries in the local area are able to sustain their needs through participating in the programme, and the community becomes safer and cleaner, with income being brought into families by participants in the programme. However, the local municipality is not achieving its set targets, and there is evidence of a lack of skills development and misuse of the beneficiaries by the local municipality officials, which is causing the programme to be ineffective.

This article describes and analyses the present conditions of the application of the Public Work Tax Deduction (PWTD) mechanism, identifying six main obstacles that difficult on a appreciable way his concrete implementation or the rate of it.For this purpose, this study has identify and analyze the 30 main highlights that conform the critical path of PWTD process, determining the actual times for his performance and comparing them with the legal times established on the PWTD actual law, and so with the optimal times reasonably according with the experience on the public management of similar work projects.
El presente artículo describe y analiza las condiciones actuales de la aplicación delmecanismo de Obras por Impuestos (OXI), identificando seis obstáculos principales que dificultan de manera apreciable su implementación concreta o la velocidad de la misma. Para efectos del presente estudio se han identificado y analizado los principales 30 hitos que conforman la ruta crítica del proceso OXI, determinando los tiempos reales para su cumplimiento y comparándolos con los tiempos legales establecidos en la normativa OXI actual, y con los tiempos óptimos estimados razonablemente de acuerdo a la experiencia en la gestión pública de proyectos similares.

East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine Library (ETSUQCOML) developed a training program to enable public libraries, public health workers, and rural hospital staff to be consumer health information providers. Four NN/LM-developed classes were taught to public libraries. Regional public library directors were invaluable in obtaining the concurrence of their boards for release time for class attendance. Classes were also developed for the public health workforce and rural hospital staff. Five-hundred thirty-three students attended the classes. Fifty-two public library workers will receive the MLA's Consumer Health Information Specialist certification. Thirty-one public libraries have joined NN/LM. All ordered MedlinePlus marketing materials for their libraries from InformationRx.org.

Includes abstract.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 352-374).
This thesis critically explores the concept of the Public Works Programme (PWP) and interrogates the social protection performance of public works programmes (PWPs) in the context of chronic poverty, with a particular focus on the fundamental questions of programme incidence and impact. It reviews PWPs from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, using original qualitative and quantitative data drawn from a range of sources, including extensive field analysis and evaluations of PWPs in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa, interviews with the major multilaterals implementing PWPs and original survey work, designed, implemented and analysed by the author in South Africa to address the empirical issues arising from the current literature regarding PWP incidence and impact, as well as a literature review of over 200 PWPs implemented in east and southern Africa, detailed case studies of six international PWPs, and a review of both the social protection and public works literature.

The Public Works Loan Board 1817-1876 and the financing of public infrastructure. The Public Works Loan Board was formed in 1817, mainly to lend money to finance public infrastructure. Nearly 200 years later, the PWLB is the major source of loans to finance local government infrastructure. Yet no history has been written of the PWLB, and there is very little mention of the PWLB in academic literature. This thesis therefore relies on the unused PWLB archive to explore five case studies of lending to mine owners, turnpike trusts, poor law unions, local boards of health and local school boards. The first two case studies cover the PWLB’s first ten years, and show that its lending to mine owners and turnpike trusts was too limited to have much impact. It is also clear that the PWLB was acting like a cautious commercial provider of loans at the prevailing market interest rates. Even so, it made losses because of parliamentary and Treasury actions. In the last three case studies, the PWLB’s role changed materially, as it became a provider of low interest rate loans to public bodies. In this role the PWLB became an agent of a central government that was compelling local government to invest heavily in workhouses, water supply and sewer facilities, and elementary schools. The result was that PWLB lending soared and was profitable, and public infrastructure investment rose sharply. The case studies highlight the characteristics that determined the success or failure of the PWLB. They also chart the major movement of power from local authorities to central government. The PWLB provided more than half of the finance for the building of workhouses, schools, and water and sewer facilities during three critical periods. The PWLB was therefore essential to the success of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, the 1870 Elementary Education Act and the 1872 Public Health Act. By 1876, the PWLB had become an important provider of finance for public infrastructure provision.

The historic tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between 46 State Attorneys General and the tobacco industry in 1999 had a range of consequences. It resulted in the closure of tobacco industry policy groups that undermined public health, sharply reduced tobacco marketing using cartoon characters (eg, Joe Camel) and paid product placement in television, film and other media, and created a new nonprofit foundation whose primary goal was to educate youth and prevent them from initiating tobacco use. It also resulted in more than $206 billion in resources being allocated to states, subject to appropriation by state legislators and governors. This enabled states to recoup the cost of medical and other treatment expenditures for tobacco‐related illness.1 However, by 2018, only 2.6% of the $206 billion in settlement and tobacco state taxes had been used for tobacco‐related harm mitigation or prevention.

Statistics bear out the dire need for civic education and engagement within our nation’s libraries, those free and “equalizing” institutions that traditionally afforded opportunities assisting in the development of civically astute individuals. Per our founding principles, libraries and librarians remain responsible for instituting programming that assists in the development of capable citizens who actively participate in political life, hence ensuring the perpetuation and positive evolvement of our governmental system and its resulting law. Public and school libraries must return to a targeted emphasis on the provision of services that develop critical thinking opportunities steeped in civic intent and purpose. Examples include civic-oriented instruction, debate, communication, service and public policy facilitation, and forum building.

In this report, the main Income Tax aspects related to the concessions of public infrastructure and of public services regulated by Supreme Decrete N° 059-96-PCM are analyzed. Hence, the applicable rules for investments made by the concessionaires and the treatment of self- sustained and co-financed concessions will be examined. To conclude this report, legislative changes that, in opinion of the authors would help provide greater security to the current regime on benefit of the Peruvian State and the investors, are suggested.
En este artículo se analiza el tratamiento para fines del Impuesto a la Renta de las concesiones de obras públicas de infraestructura y de servicios públicos regulados por el Decreto Supremo N° 059-96-PCM, que rige la entrega de las referidas concesiones. Así, se examina el régimen aplicable a las inversiones realizadas por los concesionarios, el tratamiento de las concesiones auto-sostenibles y las concesiones cofinanciadas. Para culminar este artículo, se proponen cambios legislativos que, en opinión de los autores, ayudarían a dotar de mayor seguridad al régimen actual en beneficio del Estado peruano y de los inversionistas.

We outline four connections between xenophobia and punitiveness toward criminals in a national sample of Americans. First, among self-identified whites xenophobia is more predictive of punitiveness than specific forms of racial animus. Second, xenophobia and punitiveness are strongly connected among whites, but are only moderately and weakly related among black and Hispanic Americans, respectively. Third, among whites substantial proportions of the variance between sociodemographic, political, and religious predictors of punitiveness are mediated by levels of xenophobia. Finally, xenophobia is the strongest overall predictor of punitiveness among whites. Overall, xenophobia is an essential aspect of understanding public punitiveness, particularly among whites.

Discuss recommendations of the ASPPH Task Force on Public Health Initiatives to Address the Opioid Crisis. Learn from members of the academic public health community other/alternative public health initiatives to address the crisis.

This paper explores the relationship between the Tennessee sex offender registry and suicidality. The research looks at the registry as a factor in suicidality among offenders by identifying cause of death of offenders on the Tennessee registry between 2011 and 2016. An Internet search engine was used to determine causes of death from a list of offenders from the TBI, which included 434 men and women who died while registered. Findings and implications for intervention and policy will be discussed.

Narratives of conflict regarding the connections between science and religion receive considerable attention in multiple forums of public discourse. These discussions tend to focus on philosophical, abstract, and/or polemical, rather than empirical issues. Data from a 2007 national survey indicate that a relatively small proportion of American adults perceive incompatibility between science and religion. Those who do are divided evenly into groups privileging science and privileging religion. These groups are markedly different with regard to sociodemographic and religious characteristics. Overall, I advocate a theoretical perspective on “science and religion” that is culturally constructionist, but methodologically empiricist.

We outline four connections between xenophobia and punitiveness toward criminals in a national sample of Americans. First, among self-identified whites xenophobia is more predictive of punitiveness than specific forms of racial animus. Second, xenophobia and punitiveness are strongly connected among whites, but are only moderately and weakly related among black and Hispanic Americans, respectively. Third, among whites substantial proportions of the variance between sociodemographic, political, and religious predictors of punitiveness are mediated by levels of xenophobia. Finally, xenophobia is the strongest overall predictor of punitiveness among whites. Overall, xenophobia is an essential aspect of understanding public punitiveness, particularly among whites.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2009.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-116).
That the road is a symbol of the prowess of the nation-state seems tautological, a uni"ed phenomenon of political symbolism that manifests as an infrastructural network. When subjected to a close historical examination, the texture of this tautology begins to disintegrate; the road emerges as a nuanced geographical object created by the state. On one hand, the newly independent India of 1947 attempted to presence itself within its jurisdiction through the road, laying administrative claim to any territory that it could pave. On the other, the state, through the road, had to contend with the topography of its land, its ancient and tenuous geological formations, the stretching and creeping of its mountains, and other vagaries of nature. This had to be done within the framework of a nation violently birthed from two hundred years of colonial rule, its limited economic resources, cement shortages, lack of technical expertise, and contingencies of available infrastructural networks. The state's attempt at being modern, doing modernity, emerged in the details of road making. In the 1960s research projects investigating rigid and flexible pavements were funded, street-paint and signage was experimented with, traffic studies and parking geometry was produced, and new mixes of concrete were developed; the state's modernity manifested as a central research institute whose task it was to rationalize existing knowledge, and produce new knowledge about roads and road building. The studies, reports, and handbooks produced by their research institutes represent the state's desired discourse of rational modernity.
(cont.) Yet, in reading this material against the grain, reading it textually, a counter discourse of the difficulty of deploying modernity in a country like India. I argue that the road can be read as an archive, a repository of 1960s India's governmental desire.
by Ateya A. Khorakiwala.
S.M.

Between 1938 and 1950, Henry Moore worked on four public commissions for four widely divergent educational establishments, each one representing a different strand of educational provision as it existed in Britain in the years either side of the Second World War. The first commission was for a series of reliefs to decorate the side of the Senate House building at the heart of the University of London’s new Bloomsbury campus. It was commissioned by the campus’ architect Charles Holden who had provided Moore with his first public commission a decade earlier. The second was for a sculpture to populate the front of a revolutionary new ‘Village College’ in Cambridgeshire devised by the educationalist Henry Morris and designed by the architects Walter Gropius and Maxwell Fry. Neither of these commissions came to fruition, but the extent and the significance of Moore’s preparatory works produced towards them demand more attention than they have received to date. Moore’s work towards a sculpture depicting a ‘family group’ for the Impington Village College would ultimately come to resolution for the Barclay School in Stevenage, one of the first Secondary Modern schools built in England after the war and the implementation of the 1944 Education Act. Finally, whilst working on these two interlinked commissions in the months immediately following the end of war, Moore produced a reclining figure in stone for the grounds of the Dartington School, an experimental and independent co-educational college in Devon set up by the philanthropic educationalists Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst. With this thesis I will explore the significance of this series of public commissions and the figures who commissioned them in the context of educational and cultural reform as it was planned for and implemented in these years. Each of Moore’s resultant drawings and sculptures speak directly of and to the moments and the meanings of their inception, their forms representative of both his attitude to the potentiality of public art and the extent of his visual vocabulary, traceable through the nexus of Moore’s experience of education as it developed in the first half of the twentieth century.

The following thesis is a study of how communities of Washington County, Utah developed within one of the most inhospitable deserts of the American West. A trend of reliance on public works programs during economic depressions, not only put people to work, but also provided an influx of outside aid to develop an infrastructure for future economic stability and growth. Each of these public works was carefully planned by leaders who not only saw the immediate impact these projects would have, but also future benefits they would confer. These communities also became dependent on acquiring outside investment capital from the Mormon Church, private companies and government agencies. This dependency required residents to cooperate not only with each other, but with these outside interests who now had a stake in the county's development. The construction of the Mormon Tabernacle and Temple in St. George during the 1870s made that community an important religious and cultural hub for the entire region. Large-scale irrigation and reclamation projects in the 1890s opened up new areas for agriculture and settlement. And in the 1920s and 1930s the development of Zion National Park and the construction of roads provided the infrastructure for one of the county's most important industries, tourism. Long after these projects' completion they still provided economic and cultural value to the communities they served. Some of these projects provided the infrastructural foundation that allowed Washington County communities to have greater security and control over their economic future. Over time the communities of southern Utah created dramatic reenactments and erected monuments of these very projects to celebrate and preserve the story of their construction. During the first decade of the twenty-first century Washington County has become one of the fastest growing areas in the country, and as a result public works programs continue to be important to support this growth.

Maintaining the health of Tennesseans depends heavily on a well-trained, efficient public health workforce that can work effectively in a complex environment. In order to assess the training needs of this group, the Tennessee Public Health Training Center-LIFEPATH administered a survey to all governmental public health employees in Tennessee during the summer of 2012. This instrument was modeled after previous assessments conducted by health agencies outside of Tennessee which utilized as their rubric the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals developed by the Council on Linkages between Academia and Public Health Practice. The goal of this research was to inform and streamline educational efforts of the Tennessee Department of Health (TDOH), LIFEPATH and their partners across the state by identifying specific competency driven training opportunities within the workforce. Participants were recruited via email and directed to SurveyMonkey, an online survey toolkit, where they could complete the questionnaire. Of the 5178 TDOH employees who received the recruitment email, 3086 individuals completed at least one of the competency questions for a response rate of 59.6%. The survey assigned questions pertinent to the eight core competency areas to respondents based on one of three Tiers – Tier 1: Entry Level, Tier 2: Management Level, Tier 3: Leadership Level. Once the data were collected, responses from all three tiers were dichotomized to generate a “Needs Score” which when summarized represented the percentage of responses indicating a lack of knowledge or proficiency in a competency area. Tier 1 respondents had an average needs score of 60.46% in each of the eight core competency areas. Tier 2 had an average needs score of 49.50%, and Tier 3 respondents had an average needs score of 28.91%. This trend shows that individuals in leadership positions within TDOH were more likely to be knowledgeable or proficient in the eight core competency areas. Prior to administering the survey, TDOH job classifications were submitted to an expert panel within the health department. This body was tasked with assigning tiers to specific job classifications. Previous needs assessments that used the eight core competencies had respondents self-select their tier. As a test of validity the LIFEPATH survey asked TDOH employees to select their job classification in addition to tier. A Kappa test of agreement between self-selection of tier and their actual tier determined by TDOH leadership showed moderate agreement (Kappa=0.5089), suggesting that while most respondents selected the correct tier; there remained some confusion regarding tier definitions. This must be considered when evaluating the results of previous studies that utilize only the self-selected tiers to drive their survey. This data has already begun to direct training goals at the state, regional and local levels across Tennessee and will serve as a baseline measure for future evaluations of educational programing’s impact on workforce competency.

While rankings of presidents are quite common, rankings of Supreme Court justices are much rarer. Herein we produce such rankings to see if perceived greatness on the High Court can be predicted. We do so by examining influences that indicate historical greatness for Supreme Court Justices. To accomplish this we develop a composite greatness score of all the Supreme Court Justices based on the limited previous research on the subject. Next, we examine potential determinants of such success; the time period when they sat on the Court, the length of their tenure, status as the Chief Justice, perception of quality of opinions, and the perceived quality of their appointing president. While some past research finds (limited) evidence that great presidents choose better Justices than mediocre ones, we find that more important indicators of judicial rank are longevity on the Court, serving as Chief Justice and being recognized as an important dissenter.