This paper estimates regional tornado risk from records of past events using statistical models. First, a spatial model is fit to the tornado counts aggregated in counties with terms that control for changes in observational practices over time. Results provide a long-term view of risk that delineates the main tornado corridors in the United States where the expected annual rate exceeds two tor...

While in every organization corporate culture and history change over time, intentional efforts to identify performance problems are of particular interest when trying to understand the current state of an organization. The results of past improvement initiatives can shed light on the evolution of an organization, and represent, with the advantage of perfect hindsight, a learning opportunity fo...

For many years the coordination of surveys in Australia has been encouraged through the placement and connection to the growing network of survey marks (SMs) in each state. The connection of cadastral surveys to the survey mark infrastructure has facilitated the improvement and maintenance of other spatial databases such as the Digital Cadastral Data Bases (DCDB’s). These networks of survey mar...

The health crisis in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) presents enormous challenges to the public health workforce, which is ill equipped to respond. Since the fate of SSA is central to the health and well-being of all regions, a long-term effort is now required to strengthen the public health workforce in SSA. This will require major support from national governments and a wide variety of international...

We propose transaction cost economics theory as a tool for exploring when school administrators rely on information from two types of sources: internal sources like their own colleagues, and external sources like researchers and government agencies. The theory’s application is illustrated in a comparative case study of two public school districts in Michigan. Consistent with the theory’s predic...

The Continuous Work History Sample (CWHS) is the oldest major continuous longitudinal sample data source in the Federal statistical system. It was developed to fulfill the need for statistics to be used in planning and operating the old-age insurance system established by the Soda1 Security Act of 1935. This Act led to the establishment of one of the most extensive sets of administrative record...

Purpose – Managing and maintaining infrastructure assets are one of the indispensible tasks for many government agencies to preserve the nations’ economic viability and social welfare. To reduce the expenditures over the life-cycle of an infrastructure asset and extend the period for which the asset performs effectively, proper repair and maintenance are essential. While repair, maintenance, mi...

Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) has become the greatest problem facing many urban and semi-urban areas in Nigeria, although to varying degrees. This study suggests the various steps and approaches to combat the menace in Akure in the southwest zone of Nigeria. Such approaches include creation of special agencies for the collection, recycling and conversion of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)...

Histories of the global smallpox eradication programme have tended to concentrate on the larger national formations in Africa and Asia. This focus is generally justified by chroniclers by the fact that these locations contributed a major share of the world’s annual tally of variola, which meant that international agencies paid a lot of attention to working with officials in national and local g...

Outsourcing IT services is a common practice for many governments. This case study shows that outsourcing of elections is not without risk. Studying electronic voting in the Netherlands through documents obtained with Freedom of Information requests, we see that government agencies at both local and national level lacked the necessary knowledge and capability to identify appropriate voting tech...