Zeitschriftenartikel zum Thema „United States. Post-War Programs Committee“

Abstract: During the late 1950s, prompted by the US State Department, an interracial group of national leaders of women's organizations in the United States formed the African Women's Committee to reach out to their African counterparts in the wake of successful independence movements throughout the continent. After consulting with numerous African women and leading experts on Africa, the committee initiated a program that brought groups of African women to the United States for short training programs designed to strengthen their leadership skills through both coursework and immersion in women's organizations. This article examines the assumptions both groups of women brought to their interactions and the ways the program changed during this period as a response to racist encounters in the US, new teachers in the classes and African women's evaluations of their experiences.

This paper summarizes the presentations and discussions of a virtual stakeholder meeting on Refugee Resettlement in the United States which built on the foundation of the May 2019 workshop represented in this special issue. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and hosted by the Committee on Population (CPOP) of the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on Dec 1–2, 2020, 1 the meeting convened migration researchers, representatives of US voluntary resettlement agencies, and other practitioners to consider the role of migration research in informing programs serving refugees and migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing an emphasis on bringing global learning to those on the ground working with refugees. The goal of CPOP's work in this area has always been to build bridges between communities of research and practice and to create a dialogue for a shared agenda. We present the goals and framework for the 2020 meeting, followed by a summary of each of the four sessions and themes that emerged from these discussions. The paper ends by considering effective ways of amplifying the role of research in refugee policy and programs of refugee resettlement in the United States and how demographers and population researchers might contribute to this goal.

Abstract Background Pharmacists with residency training in infectious diseases (ID) optimize antimicrobial therapy outcomes in patients and support antimicrobial stewardship programs. The purpose of this study was to describe the learning experiences currently being offered in post-graduate year-2 (PGY-2) ID pharmacy residency programs. Methods A 19-item, cross-sectional, multi-centered, electronic survey was distributed via e-mail to pharmacy residency program directors (RPDs) of all 101 accredited and nonaccredited PGY-2 ID residency programs in the United States. Programs were identified via the ASHP, ACCP, and SIDP residency directories. Program characteristics inquired via the survey included required and elective learning experiences, research and teaching opportunities, and ID-related committee involvement. Results Survey responses were collected from 71 RPDs (70.3%). Most programs were associated with an academic medical center (64.8%), focused primarily in adult ID (97.2%), and accepted one resident per year (91.6%). Forty-eight (67.6%) institutions also offered an ID physician fellowship program. Microbiology laboratory, adult antimicrobial stewardship (AS), and adult ID consult learning experiences were required in 98.6% of residency programs. Only 28.2% of responding programs required pediatric AS and pediatric ID consult rotations. Greater than 90% of RPDs reported that the resident managed bone and joint, lower respiratory tract, sepsis, urologic, and skin and soft-tissue infections at least once weekly. Travel medicine, parasitic infections, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C were either rarely or never encountered by the resident in 77.5%, 76%, 66.2%, and 50.7% programs, respectively. Residents were frequently involved in AS committees (97.2%), pharmacokinetic dosing of antimicrobials (83.1%), precepting pharmacy trainees (80.3%), and performing research projects (91.5%). Conclusion PGY-2 ID pharmacy residency programs in the United States demonstrated consistency in required adult ID consult, antimicrobial management activities, AS committee service, and teaching and research opportunities. Pediatric experiences were less common. PGY-2 ID residency programs prepare pharmacists to become antimicrobial stewards, particularly in adult patients. Disclosures J. Cho, Allergan: Speaker’s Bureau, Speaker honorarium. M. Crotty, Theravance and Nabriva: Consultant, Consulting fee. E. Chahine, Merck: Speaker’s Bureau, Speaker honorarium. Allergan: Scientific Advisor, Consulting fee. J. Gallagher, Allergan, Astellas, Merck, and Melinta: Speaker’s Bureau, Speaker honorarium. Achaogen, Allergan, Astellas, Cempra, Cidara, CutisPharma, Merck, Paratek, Shionogi, Tetraphase, Theravance, and The Medicines Company: Consultant, Consulting fee. Merck: Grant Investigator, Research grant. S. Estrada, Allergan, Astellas, Merck, T2Biosystems and The Medicines Company: Speaker’s Bureau, Speaker honorarium. The Medicines Company and Theravance: Grant Investigator, Research grant. Astellas, CutisPharma, Theravance, and The Medicines Company: Consultant, Consulting fee.

Objective.To develop a method for selecting health care–associated infection (HAI) measures for public reporting.Context.HAIs are common, serious, and costly adverse outcomes of medical care that affect 2 million people in the United States annually. Thirty-seven states have introduced or passed legislation requiring public reporting of HAI measures. State legislation varies widely regarding which HAIs to report, how the data are collected and reported, and public availability of results.Design.The Maryland Health Care Commission developed an HAI Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) that consisted of a group of experts in the field of healthcare epidemiology, infection prevention and control (IPC), and public health. This group reviewed public reporting systems in other states, surveyed Maryland hospitals to determine the current state of IPC programs, performed a literature review on HAI measures, and developed six criteria for ranking the measures: impact, unprovability, inclusiveness, frequency, functionality, and feasibility. The committee and experts in the field then ranked each of 18 proposed HAI measures. A composite score was determined for each measure.Results.Among outcome measures, the rate of central line–associated bloodstream infections ranked highest, followed by the rate of post–coronary artery bypass grafting surgical-site infections. Among process measures, perioperative antimicrobial prophylaxis, compliance with central-line bundles, compliance with hand hygiene, and healthcare-worker influenza vaccination ranked highest.Conclusions.Our qualitative criteria facilitated consensus on the HAI TAC and provided a useful framework for public reporting of HAI measures. Validation will be important for such approaches to be supported by the scientific community.

Abstract:The debate over the practice of proxy adoption sheds light on changing notions of proper intercountry adoption practices and standards of family planning as they developed in the mid-twentieth century. The practice of proxy adoption was born out of a loophole in U.S. immigration legislation, initially used by Americans to adopt European orphans after World War II. After the Korean War, the practice was again utilized to bring Korean children in even greater numbers to the United States. Through proxy adoption, adoptive parents bypassed the standard checkpoints of the adoption process as established by U.S. social welfare agencies. Although initially hailed as a humane practice, proxy adoption was ultimately banned in 1961 after a successful antiproxy adoption campaign waged by a coalition of social welfare workers, Catholic leaders, and U.S. senators. The role of Catholic agencies in this debate is essential, yet remains largely unexplored. This article sheds light on this significant and underresearched history of the Catholic institutions involved in the proxy adoption debate.The Catholic agencies, namely the National Catholic Welfare Conference and the Catholic Committee for Refugees, stood apart from both the government social welfare establishment and other humanitarian actors. Their actions must instead be understood through the context of their own institutional history of domestic social welfare programs and overseas humanitarian work, dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This article analyzes their relationship with the U.S. social welfare establishment, as well as joint advocacy efforts to reform intercountry adoption practices.

Introduction: The world has undergone an educational transformation during the confinement of the year 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher education has taken an abrupt turn towards virtuality, the internationalization of research, the creation of knowledge networks and the exchange of experiences in online linking and research. Objective: The objective is to socialize experiences among optometry schools and associations of eye care professionals to show the changes in the training of optometrists post pandemic in Latin America. Methodology: Through the action-participation methodology, networks were created between 21 higher education institutions, associations and research groups and international organizations in the area of knowledge of visual health in several countries: Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, United States, Puerto Rico among others where projects in continuing education, mirror classes and through the leadership of the ethics committee of the Latin American Association of Optometry and Optics (ALDOO) and the Volunteers Optometry services for humanity (VOSH) courses were designed on the Zoom platform and Meet as part of the collaborative work of the network. Results: Through these alternatives, knowledge networks in optometry were consolidated in order to disseminate experiences in different countries. Likewise, a curricular framework was created as a guide for institutions that offer optometry with basic competencies and flexibility to allow in the future to strengthen international mobility, improve the quality of scientific writing and the creation of macro research projects that respond to the public policies of the World Health Organization. Some experiences developed within optometry programs and schools in Latin America have allowed the different actors to be articulated: teachers, administrators, students, international experts in order to build and enrich global networks and alternative virtual strategies to improve significant learning, technology transfer and local development in optometry and the development of joint research projects in order to improve the quality of publications. The objective of this article is to socialize educational experiences during the pandemic in the area of optometry. Conclusions: The trend of optometry education is to work in networks from research groups created and directed by experts, training in alternative areas such as the applications of artificial intelligence, non-technology at the service of visual health, through the delivery of mirror classes, virtual mobility of researchers and strengthening the internationalization of optometry and visual health in different academic settings. These are some of the points that the authors have been consolidating to prepare for virtuality, uniting the actors in the educational process that will undoubtedly remain over time as part of the strengthening of computer communication technologies and virtual education.

Although a number of academic research papers showcase the benefits of Open Educational Resources (OER) on student success metrics, the literature still lacks a central collection of knowledge identifying programmatic characteristics between 4 year public, 4 year private, and 2 year community colleges that support these OER initiatives in the United States. To address this gap in the literature and provide evidential statistics that suggest common programmatic characteristics, this quantitative study collected 149 survey responses from program managers of OER-related initiatives at institutions of higher education in the United States. While some previous research on this topic has focused on regional adoption or other aspects of OER usage, this research focuses on how these initiatives are started, funded, governed, and assessed. The results of this study build on existing evidence that OER programs tend to be overseen by committees, are more likely to offer incentive payments for faculty, and offer at least some form of program assessment.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Disney and other United States-based companies found themselves in the position to create a “new world order.” The National Labor Committee (NLC), Haitian grassroots labor organizers, a multimillion member international labor community, concerned shareholders, members of the U.S. Congress, and activists around the world pressured Disney to lead the way to a new global standard by paying a living wage and investing in local infrastructure wherever it did business. Whatever standards Disney enacted, they argued, the rest would follow. Rather than assume the “corporate mantle of responsibility,” Disney ran from the United States to Haiti, then to China, in search of cheap labor, a bigger profit margin, and the ability to do business without scrutiny. Seeing itself as just one entity in a global garment supply chain, Disney claimed responsibility only for licensing its brand to the contractors (U.S.-based) and subcontractors (in Haiti and later China) who handled the actual production of Disney merchandise.

A comparison of why proposed science programs succeed or fail to attract public financial support in the American political arena, this article examines three cases ranging from the 1920s to the 1950s: a unique, multi-disciplinary proposal emerging from the U.S. Navy's 1924 conference on oceanography, U.S. participation in the Second International Polar Year of 1932-1933, and U.S. participation in the International Geophysical Year of 1957-1958. Each proposal emphasized societal benefits and applications of the earth, ocean, or atmospheric sciences. Each began from the bottom up, i.e., people trained and working in the scientific disciplines originated the idea and expressed their support through reports, letters, and participation in committees or conferences. However the proposals experienced different fates. While the promoters of the International Geophysical Year succeeded in gaining relatively substantial federal support, and the backers of the Second International Polar Year gained a modest amount, the U.S. Navy failed to persuade the Coolidge White House to request congressional appropriations for an oceanographic program. The concepts and tools from policy analysis can help to explain why the proposals experienced different outcomes.

As hand-harvest labor disappeared from the American cotton fields after World War II, labor market dynamics differed between two key production regions, the South and the West. In the South, predominantly resident African Americans and whites harvested cotton, whereas in the West the labor market was composed of white residents, domestic Latino migrant workers, and Mexican nationals temporarily immigrating under the sponsorship of the U.S. government (braceros). We use newly reconstructed data for the two regions and estimate for the first time the regional causes of the demise of the hand-harvest labor force from 1949 to 1964. Whereas cheaper harvest mechanization substantially affected both regions, the downward trend in cotton prices and government programs to control cotton acreage played important roles in the disappearance of hand–harvested cotton in the South, but not in the West.

“What distinguishes the American Indians from other native groups is . . . the nature of their relationship with a government which, while protecting their welfare and their rights, is committed to the principles of tribal self-government and the legal equality of races.”Felix S. Cohen, Chairman, Board of Appeals, United States Department of Interior (1942)“[T]he objective of Congress is to make the Indians self-supporting and into good individual American citizens . . . . You cannot have a good American citizen . . . unless you have a good citizen of the State.”United States Representative Antonio M. Fernández (D., New Mexico) (1949)“While all this red tape is being untangled, one in need dies without assistance.”David A. Johnson, Sr., Governor and Chairman of the Gila River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (1949)These three quotations come from a period in modern American history often remembered for economic depression and war, but perhaps most remarkable for the accompanying changes in governance. Building on Progressive Era innovations, America's federal system became ever more “cooperative”— that is, marked by intricate federal-state personnel and revenue sharing. Meanwhile, Americans witnessed the steady expansion of central state authority. By the 1940s, neither the states nor the federal government enjoyed many areas of exclusive jurisdiction. The federal and state governments' relationships with their subjects were similarly in flux, and the stakes were high. As a result of New Deal social welfare programs, as well as numerous war-related measures, the benefits of state and national citizenship had expanded by the late 1940s. The burdens of citizenship had expanded, too, in the form of higher and broader taxation, compulsory military service, and more government oversight. The stage was set for fierce conflicts over the borders of the nation's political communities and the terms of belonging.

The cultural fission created by the controversy over birth control and abortion, as Juvenal's satiric comment above indicates, has a long and bitter history. The emergence of the modern state, however, transformed cultural differences into political acrimony as reproduction rights became public policy. In the United States, reproductive rights in the post-World War II period became a matter of political controversy when the federal government began to fund family planning programs domestically and abroad in the 1960s.

Compared to other representative indepedence movements, Ilhan New’s activity as a chairman of the Korea Economic Society has received less attention than it deserves. In order to create positive public opinion about Korea in the U.S Ilhan New insisted on the necessity to utilize Korean military power during the Pacific War and on Korean’s capability of building and running their nation post-war. It played a positive role in encouraging the U.S. policy toward Korea to be more beneficial to Korea. However, Ilhan New judged that working through Planning and Research Board and the United Korean Committee in America Mission, to which he belonged, to be limited. Therefore, he created the Korea Economic Society as a non-profit organization. The Korea Economic Society’s main activity was to publish it’s own journal called Korea Economic Digest. It supplemented the limitations of Ilhan New’s previous press strategy that used only Korean activists and KED’s writers consisted of many American experts on Korea. These writers supported Ilhan New’s independence movement and attempted to persuade the U.S. government-related ministries and public-private agencies by citing Korea’s strengths and potential values as seen by non-Koreans. In other words, the Korea Economic Society could be considered a valuable association in that sense that defended and promoted Korea through journalism in response to the U.S. government’s tendency to draw negative conclusions through public researches on Korea during the Pacific War period. In addition, it was unique because it was a private association that reflected New Ilhan’s special independence movement strategy which was to promote Korea through the journalism.

Cuba has had many challenges to healthcare and education, particularly for its urban poor and rural citizens. The healthcare and education programs were restructured following the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro in 1959. The United States imposed an embargo on the country and ceased diplomatic relations in 1961. With the support of the Soviet Union, Cuba established programs that provide free healthcare and free education to all from preschool through university. The literacy rate in Cuba exceeds 99%. Its programs in health diplomacy and literacy promotion have worldwide recognition. With the end of the Cold War, Cuba was able to continue its programs of healthcare and education without Soviet support. In July 2015 a group of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and hearing specialists visited Cuba to gain an understanding of the Cuban health diplomacy and education systems for persons with communication disorders. This article will look at healthcare services, health diplomacy, services for the deaf, and education in Cuba. With brief review of Cuba pre-and post-revolution it will present a review of Cuba healthcare and education today and a look at the future as the United States moves toward normalization of relations with Cuba.

The decision by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to launch a war against Vietnam in early 1979 has not been subject to scrutiny until now. The decision was shaped in part by the deteriorating relationship between Beijing and Hanoi, by Vietnam's new alliance with the Soviet Union, and by Vietnam's regional hegemony, but it also stemmed from the PRC's effort to improve its strategic position in the world. Three events took place in Beijing in December 1978 that also had an important impact on China's decision to go to war: Deng Xiaoping's reascendance to the top leadership at the Third Plenum of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Beijing's adoption of economic reform as the highest national priority, and the normalization of China's relationship with the United States. Deng Xiaoping, as a chief architect of China's national strategy in the immediate post-Mao era, played a dominant role in China's decision to go to war.

IntroductionPrior to the Suez crisis of 1956, the United Nations found itself restricted in its military response to threats to international peace and security. The authors of the UN Charter had originally called for member states to make armed forces available to the UN Security Council under a set of special agreements to be concluded in the post-war period. These would furnish the UN with the military means to take collective action against aggression which was to be the essential precondition of the success of the UN. The body responsible for the conclusion of these special agreements under Article 43 of the UN charter was the Military Staff Committee (MSC), which comprised the Chiefs of Staff of the five permanent members of the Security Council. However, the divisions of the developing Cold War permeated the MSC from 1946 and it became clear that there were major differences amongst the permanent members on the military role that the UN should play in the post-war international system. As a result, the Article 43 special agreements were stillborn and the UN was left without a formal system to provide it with its own armed forces.

The article aims at providing a genealogical discourse analysis of the document United States Objectives and Programs for National Security, known as NSC 68, with a particular focus on the role that the discourse of NSC 68 played at the outset of the Cold War. The analytical basis of the research is the post-structuralist Foucauldian discourse analysis and the realist paradigm of international relations theory. These tools are applied to reveal the repercussions that the discourse of this document constituted, and, at the same time, the subject knowledge it offered to the U.S. political leaders. Via the scientific method of comparison, analysis and synthesis, the paper highlights the importance and role of the aforementioned discourse in formulating ideological differences and in the interpretation of threats when identifying state’s attitude and position in a new world of bipolar division.

In 1945, world leaders gathered in San Francisco to sign the United Nations Charter, which laid the blueprint for today's international system. The institutional architecture that was built around the United Nations, including its specialized agencies (such as the World Bank and World Health Organization) and funds and programs (such as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)), survived the Cold War and seemed to have hit its stride in the immediate post-Cold War era. Yet the global distribution of power has changed, states are no longer the sole actors in international affairs, and the very idea of global governance is being called into question. Not surprisingly, there is much questioning of whether the institutional architecture that was built almost seventy-five years ago is still fit for purpose. Policymakers are rightly focused on reform of that architecture. Rather than tinkering at the margins, this panel was conceived with a more radical agenda. If the UN did not exist today, would we create it? If so, what would it look like?

Public diplomacy in its many forms proved a great asset for the United States during the Cold War. A new book by Yale Richmond, a retired U.S. official who for many years was involved with policy toward the Soviet Union, including U.S. Soviet exchanges, highlights the importance of the “cultural” dimension of the Cold War. Richmond focuses on the U.S. side of the U.S. Soviet exchanges, but he also provides interesting comments about Soviet policy, drawing on newly declassified materials from the former Soviet archives. The exchanges, information programs, and other activities undertaken by the U.S. Information Agency and the Department of State played a crucial role in spreading democratic ideas and values within the Soviet bloc. Candid and balanced broadcasts were far more effective than the heavy—handed propaganda that was used initially. The record of public diplomacy during the Cold War provides some important lessons for U.S. foreign policy makers in the post—Cold War world.

Land-grant universities, through the 4-H program, have offered support and partnership to the military since World War I. More recently, the U. S. Army, Air Force, and 4-H have partnered to provide military installation youth programs involving over 7,000 youth in 4-H clubs in the United States and abroad. Military youth and families, not affiliated with Base or Post installations, were extended similar support as an aftermath of September 11, 2001. All youth involved through military outreach are enrolled as 4-H members through their respective counties integrating them into local, state, regional, and national 4-H activities and events. Authors share their experience developing relationships with their Air Force partner in implementing positive youth development programs, and explain how these actions resulted in successful funding for increased outreach.

Abstract In 1942 over 110,000 Japanese Americans were evacuated from the West Coast to ten inland, barbed wire-enclosed relocation centers in the name of national security. Agriculture was a key component of the eight arid to semiarid centers located in the western United States. Each center’s agricultural program included produce for human consumption, feed crops, and livestock. Some centers also grew seed, ornamental, and war crops. Evacuees raised and consumed five types of livestock and sixty-one produce varieties, including many traditional foods. Seasonal surpluses were preserved, shipped to other centers, or sold on the open market. Short growing seasons, poor soils, initially undeveloped lands, pests, equipment shortages, and labor issues hampered operations. However, imprisoned evacuee farmers proved that diverse agricultural programs could succeed in the harsh settings primarily because of labor-intensive farming methods, ingenuity, and the large markets provided by the centers. These agricultural programs played major roles in feeding, providing meaningful employment, and preparing evacuees for life outside the centers, and readied lands for post-war "homesteaders."

Contemporary political events in Palestine and the United States have drawn renewed interest in the long history of militant Black-Palestinian solidarity. Although many historical accounts typically begin in the post-1967 Arab-Israeli War moment with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Black Panthers in Algiers, this article traces a foundational period of Black radical coalition building with Palestine through Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. In doing so, it privileges systems of intergenerational exchange and emphasizes the ways in which broader political developments, from Egyptian anti-imperialism to the birth of the Third World project, helped establish the basis for the Black Power movement’s identification with Palestine. The article argues that the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X’s border crossing and concomitant efforts to forge ties with Arab-world liberation movements explicitly rendered Palestine a referent of the Black Radical Tradition.

This paper is a straightforward account of the historic figures whom the author met in the post-war psychoanalytic scene in Europe and in the United States of America. The author's views on these figures are presented, and on the events which occurred in those years. They now represent for her ‘A World of Yesterday’, in which she gradually came to assume her role as psychoanalyst. Her reflections show a lifelong concern with defending human rights in the early stages of life, as in her first organization of a Mental Health Unit within the pediatric department of her university (Rome) when she returned from the USA in 1950. They also reflect her more recent role as a psychoanalyst on the National Committee of Bioethics and her clinical and theoretical work concerned with the early development of mental life, growth, child abuse, pre-object relatedness and regression.

Background: Transthyretin amyloidosis cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) is a life-threatening, irreversible condition, which can lead to heart failure (HF) and, ultimately, heart transplant or death. Despite the recent approval in United States of a TTR stabilizer (VYNDAQEL®-tafamidis meglumine;VYNDAMAX™-tafamidis) for the treatment of ATTR-CM, disease progression still occurs. This study aims to determine if treatment with AKCEA-TTR-LRx (ION-682884), an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO), is safe and superior to placebo in reducing the risk of cardiovascular (CV) death or CV clinical events in patients with hereditary (hATTR-CM) or wild-type ATTR-CM (wtATTR-CM). Study Design and Methods: AKCEA-TTR-LRx (ION-682884) is a follow-on compound that incorporates the Ligand-Conjugated Antisense (LICA) technology; in this case, a triantennary N-acetyl galactosamine (GalNAc) moiety which targets the asialoglycoprotein receptors (ASGPR) expressed abundantly on the hepatocyte cell surface. In comparison to inotersen, its parent compound, ION-682884 requires a lower dose and frequency of administration (27-fold smaller; 45mg SC Q4W) to achieve a similar reduction in ATTR, providing greater patient convenience. ION-682884-CS2 (EudraCT No: 2019-002835-27) is a Phase 3 global, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study assessing the efficacy and safety of AKCEA-TTR-LRx (ION-682884) in hATTR-CM or wtATTR-CM patients receiving available background standard of care (SoC) therapy. Approximately 750 patients with a history of HF due to ATTR-CM will be randomized 1:1 to receive AKCEA-TTR-LRx (ION-682884) or placebo administered by subcutaneous injection once every 4 weeks. The main inclusion criteria include confirmed diagnosis of ATTR-CM by tissue biopsy or positive PYP/DPD scan, end-diastolic interventricular septum thickness of >12mm, NT-proBNP >600 pg/mL, NYHA class I-III and 6-minute walk distance (6MWD) >150 m. The main exclusion criteria include estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 30 mL/min/1.73m2, platelet count below the low limit of normality and urine protein/creatinine ratio (UPCR) ≥ 1000 mg/g. Patients are allowed to concomitantly receive tafamidis/tafamidis meglumine as SoC for ATTR-CM, if locally approved and available, per physician's discretion. The study consists of a 120-week Treatment Period and a 20-week Post-Treatment Evaluation Period. During each study visit, subjects will undergo laboratory tests, cardiac assessments (echocardiography), and functional evaluations. Patient-reported outcomes (PRO) will also be collected. Primary efficacy endpoint is the composite of CV mortality and frequency of CV clinical events (HF-related urgent visits requiring administration of IV diuretics and/or CV-related hospitalizations) at Week 120 study visit, analyzed by the Finkelstein-Shoenfeld method. This test is based on the principle of each patient in the study being compared with every other patient in a pairwise manner in hierarchical fashion. Secondary endpoints include the change from baseline in the 6MWD, Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire score, rate of CV mortality, CV clinical events, and all-cause of mortality at Week 120. Additional exploratory endpoints include a change from baseline in cardiac imaging parameters, renal function, biomarkers, and PROs questionnaires and disease scores. An interim analysis on change from baseline in 6MWD is also planned at Week 60. All deaths and CV clinical events will be adjudicated by an independent, blinded Clinical Adjudication Committee, using predefined endpoint criteria. Conclusions: Despite recent advances, there is still a need for more efficacious, safe and convenient treatment options for ATTR-CM. The ION-682884-CS2 is a large Phase 3 trial designed to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of AKCEA-TTR-LRx (ION-682884) compared to placebo for the treatment of ATTR-CM. Figure Disclosures Falk: Ionis Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy. Gertz:Ionis/Akcea: Consultancy; Alnylam: Consultancy; Proclara: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Prothena Biosciences Inc: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy; Spectrum: Consultancy, Research Funding; Annexon: Consultancy; Appellis: Consultancy; Amgen: Consultancy; Medscape: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Physicians Education Resource: Consultancy; Abbvie: Other: personal fees for Data Safety Monitoring board; Research to Practice: Consultancy; Teva: Speakers Bureau; Johnson and Johnson: Speakers Bureau; DAVA oncology: Speakers Bureau; Pharmacyclics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; i3Health: Other: Development of educational programs and materials; Springer Publishing: Patents & Royalties; Amyloidosis Foundation: Research Funding; International Waldenstrom Foundation: Research Funding. Benson:Ionis Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding. Buchele:Ionis Pharmaceuticals: Employment. Brambatti:Ionis Pharmaceuticals: Employment. Tsimikas:Ionis Pharmaceuticals: Employment. Viney:Ionis Pharmaceuticals: Employment. Tai:Ionis Pharmaceuticals: Employment. Monteiro:Ionis Pharmaceuticals: Employment. Yang:Ionis Pharmaceuticals: Employment. O'Dea:Akcea Therapeutics: Employment. Karwatowska-Prokopczuk:Akcea Therapeutics: Employment. Schneider:Ionis Pharmaceuticals: Employment. Geary:Ionis Pharmaceuticals: Employment. Monia:Ionis Pharmaceuticals: Employment.

The authors examine the trends of Iraqi television after 2011, when the national broadcasting reached a new level. During this period, cultural programs with the aim of stabilizing the public mood and moral recovery began to be developed and popularized. The purpose of the study is to identify the features of the cultural programs of the Iraqi satellite channel, taking into account the socio-historical background. A general analysis of modern Iraqi television, which was formed after the end of the protracted military conflict with the United States, is given. The general thesis is put forward that the tense military and political situation in Iraq was naturally reflected in the airwaves of TV channels in the country, where the volume of the cultural component is extremely small. As the country goes through the post-war years, stabilizing the public mood is very important, and cultural programs can play an important role in this aspect. Modern Iraqi satellite television is in its formative and developmental stage due to external social and political factors. The research contributes to the development of scientific methodological and theoretical basis for the further study of Iraqi media.

As children's public health education in the United States became significantly invested in visual instruction and pleasurable learning experiences following World War I, these methods sought to redefine healthy bodies through a twofold approach: appeals to the burgeoning film industry and idealized celebrity bodies, and a wide-reaching program of statistical measurement initiatives. In this process the child's body was reimagined through the trope of the movie star – an immaterial and depthless projection immune from the physical effects of war – and also abstracted via mass statistical measurement programs that paralleled contemporary eugenics practices. Both methods aimed at a de-materialization of the body to ward off the painful reality of physically weak, malnourished children and the badly damaged bodies of returning veterans. Thus, post-WWI children's health education became an ambivalent corporeal topography in which the body functioned as a site of play and imaginative edification caught between the deeply misguided scientific idealism of eugenics and new forms of presenting physical perfection through modern cinema and beauty culture.

In 2015, China and other member states of the United Nations adopted the goal of eliminating dog-mediated rabies by 2030. China has made substantial progress in reducing dog-mediated human rabies since peaking with more than 3,300 reported cases in 2007. To further improve coordination and planning, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in collaboration with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, conducted a Stepwise Approach towards Rabies Elimination (SARE) assessment in March 2019. Assessment goals included outlining progress and identifying activities critical for eliminating dog-mediated rabies. Participants representing national, provincial and local human and animal health sectors in China used the SARE assessment tool to answer 115 questions about the current dog-mediated rabies control and prevention programs in China. The established surveillance system for human rabies cases and availability of post-exposure prophylaxis were identified as strengths. Low dog vaccination coverage and limited laboratory confirmation of rabid dogs were identified gaps, resulting in an overall score of 1.5 on a scale of 0 to 5. Participants outlined steps to increase cross-sectoral information sharing, improve surveillance for dog rabies, increase dog vaccination coverage, and increase laboratory capacity to diagnose rabies at the provincial level. All assessment participants committed to strengthening cross-sector collaboration using a One Health approach to achieve dog-mediated human rabies elimination by 2030.

Abstract SwedishUnder efterkrigstiden förändrades många västerländska länders kriminalpolitik i riktning mot välfärd och rehabilitering. Detta ideal fokuserade gärningsmannen, inte brottsoffret. Detta skulle snart komma att förändras. En av de första initiativ som togs för brottsoffer var brottsskadeersättning, en ekonomisk kompensation som infördes på 1960-talet. Denna artikel jämför utvecklingen av brottsskadeersättningi två länder, USA och Sverige, i relation till deras välfärds- och kriminalpolitik. Båda länderna initierade kompensationsreformer för brottsoffer ivälfärdsinstitutionella kontexter. Med stöd i en jämförande historisk fallstudiemetod visar artikeln dock att kompensationsreformerna i de två länderna skilde sig åt och kom att avspegla respektive lands välfärds- och kriminalpolitik. De första svenska kompensationsreformerna förankrades som en socialförsäkringsfråga, medan deras motsvarigheter i USA snabbt banade väg för mer straffinriktade program.Abstract EnglishIn the post-war period, many Westernized countries advanced toward more rehabilitative and welfarist ideals informing crime policies. These ideals centered on the offending individual, not the victim. This was soon to change. Victim compensation programs were one of the first initiatives taken for victims of crime with the first established in the 1960s. This paper examines and compares the development of victim compensation programs in two countries with contrasting social welfare and penal policies, the United States and Sweden. Both countries developed victim compensation programs located within welfarist administrative institutions, suggesting common penal welfare frameworks and instruments. Using the comparative historical case study method, the study finds that formative victim compensation policies in the two countries differed widely, reflecting social welfare versus remedial welfare policies, and rehabilitative versus punitive carceral frameworks, respectively. Arguments upholding penal welfarist ideals and social insurance concerns underlay the early formation of Sweden’s victim compensation program and anchored subsequent developments while, in the United States, political conditions led to a rapid trajectory in more punitive directions.

The essence of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, ratified by all member states of the United Nations in 2015, is encapsulated in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The present study examines the progress made in achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 within the context of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS), employing a business and economic perspective. The research methodology employed encompassing a comprehensive review of pertinent literature as well as a meticulous analysis of relevant documentary content. Findings from the study revealed that though businesses in BRICS countries are trying to adopt the United Nations sustainable development goal 13, But there is limited effort in Brazil in the implementation of sustainable development goal 13. In Russia most companies are committed to the implementation of united nations sustainable development goal 13, but this has been constrained by sanction and the war in Ukraine. In addition, Indian companies are fulfilling their corporate social responsibilities viewed through the United Nations sustainable development goal 13. The effort on the part of Chinese companies and the government of China in implementing the United Nations sustainable development goal 13 is commendable as various corporate social responsibility programs and public education have been implemented. In the same vein South African companies have also been seen as very active in the implementation the United Nations sustainable development goal (SDG) 13 by having very important policies built around the goal. Recommendation state that it is imperative that climate change be duly addressed within the overarching vision and objectives of the BRICS businesses as well and there should be a multi-tiered collaboration among BRICS countries to expedite the realisation of the sustainable development goals 13. Equally important harmonisation between governmental bodies, non-governmental organisations, and conscientious corporate entities can be instrumental in attaining superior outcomes regarding the sustainable development goal (SDG) 13. Future studies should include and examine more companies and additional countries in terms of overall plans for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13.

Relations between u.s. servicemen and Vietnamese civilians represent one of the most persistent cultural legacies of the Vietnam War. From brides to bar girls to crass film tropes of Vietnamese sex workers, women occupy a prominent place in the war’s memory. At the time, however, the media and u.s. government officials portrayed sex as a subtext to the larger conflict. From the outset, officials on all sides of the negotiating table struggled over how to contain the diverse impacts of the relationships on health, security, and morale. Prostitution played a central role in the debate. u.s. officials attempted to discount the significance of their impact on foreign relations and warfare, but social relationships indeed had an impact on how Americans engaged Saigon’s leaders. While scholars typically have shown the United States as the dominant power in Vietnam, sexuality became a somewhat level playing field where both governments feared the repercussions of limiting intercultural intimacy as much as they feared letting it continue. At first, the Saigon government enacted strict laws and attempted to prosecute violators, but never committed to eradication. By the war’s height u.s. officials adopted rigorous new programs which led to an Americanization of sexual and social policies regarding prostitution in Vietnam.

In this paper, welfare work at Olivetti, a former well-known Italian typewriter and office machines company, will be analysed. Welfare work at Olivetti had reached its peak in the 1950s. This was relatively late in comparison to other noteworthy enlightened welfare work initiatives in the industrialized West. The heyday of welfare work in Europe and the United States occurred during the period from 1880 until 1930. From World War II onwards, the extensive Olivetti welfare work programs were embedded in a deliberate and encompassing communitarian social philosophy. Adriano Olivetti’s main objectives were twofold: to prevent worker alienation at the shopfloor level in his factories and to resolve political and social conflict in post-war Italy. This plan was to be carried out in a sustainable way by means of strengthening regional development. Within quite a short time span, the country underwent a rapid and intensive transformation from being a traditional agrarian society into one of the leading industrialized nations of Europe. A response will be provided to the question concerning to what extent Olivetti’s experiment can be considered unique in comparison to other significant enlightened welfare work experiments that took place between 1880 and 1930. Finally, the topicality of the Olivetti experiment will be considered.

Abstract It has been concluded that until recently debates on what is understood as African Studies have involved American scholars or have been mainly located within the African Studies Association (ASA) in the USA. Lately, European scholars have begun to occupy more discursive space and challenged Afrocentric orientations as well. African Studies emerged, on the one hand, predominantly due to the states’ participation in either the colonisation or decolonisation of Africa and its people. On the other hand, powerful strategic geopolitical dimensions have motivated the emphasis on area studies and, in particular, African studies, in the United States after Second World War. It has been stated that American curricula consist of the following groups of subjects: 1) the major, i.e. the subjects which provide the required level of knowledge, abilities and skills in a particular area; 2) the minor, i.e. the subjects, that are necessary for better mastering of specialization subjects; 3) other areas of concentration, which are also a part of the curriculum (optional classes, etc.); 4) liberal studies courses, that provide mastering necessary skills and understanding of the interconnectedness of different fields of knowledge; 5) upper division courses, that are studied at the third and fourth years of study; 6) electives, which students can choose to explore new fields or expand the list of both professionally oriented and non-oriented courses. Based on the results generated by the official websites providing applicants with relevant information about degree programs, we have found out that African Studies are offered by numerous American higher education institutions, namely, Stanford University, Yale University, Columbia University in the City of New York, University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, University of Chicago, Brown University, University of Richmond, University of Kansas, University of Iowa and others. It has been indicated that African studies provide students with the understanding of the interactions among the social, economic, cultural, historical, linguistic, genetic, geopolitical, ecological and biomedical factors that shape and have shaped African societies. The interdisciplinary structure of the programs offers students an opportunity to satisfy the increasingly rigorous expectations of admissions committees and prospective employers for a broad liberal arts perspective that complements a specialized knowledge of a field. In addition, students are encouraged to pursue Study Abroad to enhance their understanding of African diasporic experiences.

AbstractIn the years between World War I and World War II in the United States, public and religious educators engaged in an extended struggle to define the appropriate nature of character education for American youth. Within a post-war culture agonizing over the sanctions of moral living in the wake of mass violence and vanishing certitudes, a group of conservative educators sought to shore up traditional values through the construction of morality codes defining the characteristics of the “good American.” At the same time, a group of liberal progressive educators set forth a vigorous critique of these popular character education programs. This article analyzes the nature of this liberal critique by looking at one leading liberal spokesperson, George Albert Coe. Coe taught at Union Theological Seminary and Teachers College, Columbia University, and used his platform in these institutions to forge a model of character education derived from the combined influences of liberal Protestantism and Deweyan progressive education. Coe posited a two-pronged vision for American moral education rooted in the need for both procedural democracy (collaborative moral decision making) and a democratic social order. Utilizing this vision of the “democracy of God,” Coe demonstrated the inadequacies of code-based models, pointing in particular to the anachronism of traditional virtues in a world of social interdependence, the misguided individualism of the virtues, and the indoctrinatory nature of conservative programs. He proposed that youth be allowed to participate in moral experimentation, adopting ideals through scientific testing rather than unthinking allegiance to authoritative commands. Expanding the meaning of morality to include social as well as personal righteousness, he also made character education a vehicle of social justice. In the end, I contend that Coe's democratic model of character education, because of its scientific epistemological hegemony and devaluing of tradition, actually failed to promote a truly democratic character.

The rise of the global university is often associated with the concomitant wave of late twentieth-century neoliberalism and privatization and correlated with universities embracing “corporate” models of governance. However, it is a phenomenon with roots in the earliest years of the Cold War that emerged out of a set of institutions and policies with diplomatic rather than explicitly economic aims. Notable among these were the programs aimed at bringing foreign students and scholars to the United States and exporting American-style educational experiences abroad. While only a fraction of these foreign visitors had the US government as their primary financial sponsor, they as a class became the object onto which political values of a particular era were projected, from the postwar internationalism of the Truman years to the Great Society liberalism of Lyndon B. Johnson to the free market ethos of Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan. The decentralized and privatized means by which policy makers administered these measures obscured the degree to which they influenced the shape of the higher education system and their wider impacts on the American economy and society. This article explores international educational exchange as a critical element of American universities’ evolving public identity during the Cold War and post–Cold War periods and as an example of the governmental use of the university as an agent of state power and as a tool of political ideology.

The nineteen seventies number among the most interesting periods of post-war times. They included the Vietnam war, the Hippie movement in the United States, the Socialist movement in Western Europe and the policy of ‘Détente’ in the East-West relationships. It was the extra-parliamentary opposition that gave birth to the extreme-left (terrorist) movements in Germany and worker protests in Poland, which, in turn, set about fighting the authorities and changing the relationships in their country. It was a time of rapid, dynamic changes and involvement. In the opinion of the participants in those processes themselves, they brought about a release, they constituted an apotheosis of a freedom such as they would probably never again experience in their lifetimes. These were the years of anti-authoritarian rebellion, of risking one’s own life and of international contacts of various kinds; they were the years which were to change the two countries and their history forever. The Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Faction) in Germany and the Workers’ Defence Committee in Poland were the two groups which spurred the great mobilisation of the societies in both countries. They provoked the events which were talked about, which were lived, the events which, transforming themselves into a great cause-and-effect machine, introduced changes that gave rise to effects, we have continued to experience to this day. Both groups had a similar genesis; they were rooted in political opposition and revolutionary purpose and they brought about immense consequences for the two societies, for politicians and for history.

The largest gap between national regulation and transnational economic organization is in the agro-food sector. This gap is the legacy of the post-World War II food regime, whose implicit rules gave priority to national farm programs (including import controls and export subsidies); placed the United States at the center; generated chronic surpluses; and allowed international power to take the unusual form of subsidized exports of surplus commodities, particularly wheat. The author analyzes the emergence and contradictions of the postwar food regime as a tension between replication and integration of national agro-food sectors, often interpreted as “export of the U.S. model.” By the early 1970s, replication led to international economic conflict, while transnational corporations found national regulatory frameworks to be obstacles to further integration of a potentially global agro-food sector. A new axis between Asian import countries and new agricultural countries, such as Brazil, has destabilized the Atlantic-centered food regime, without creating a new regime. Alternative future regimes are identified, based on the shift from agriculture to food, employment, and land use as political issues: private global regulation or democratic regulation of nested, regional agro-food economies, federated at the international level.

Flea-borne typhus, due to Rickettsia typhi and R. felis, is an infection causing fever, headache, rash, and diverse organ manifestations that can result in critical illness or death. This is the second part of a two-part series describing the rise, decline, and resurgence of flea-borne typhus (FBT) in the United States over the last century. These studies illustrate the influence of historical events, social conditions, technology, and public health interventions on the prevalence of a vector-borne disease. Flea-borne typhus was an emerging disease, primarily in the Southern USA and California, from 1910 to 1945. The primary reservoirs in this period were the rats Rattus norvegicus and Ra. rattus and the main vector was the Oriental rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis). The period 1930 to 1945 saw a dramatic rise in the number of reported cases. This was due to conditions favorable to the proliferation of rodents and their fleas during the Depression and World War II years, including: dilapidated, overcrowded housing; poor environmental sanitation; and the difficulty of importing insecticides and rodenticides during wartime. About 42,000 cases were reported between 1931–1946, and the actual number of cases may have been three-fold higher. The number of annual cases of FBT peaked in 1944 at 5401 cases. American involvement in World War II, in the short term, further perpetuated the epidemic of FBT by the increased production of food crops in the American South and by promoting crowded and unsanitary conditions in the Southern cities. However, ultimately, World War II proved to be a powerful catalyst in the control of FBT by improving standards of living and providing the tools for typhus control, such as synthetic insecticides and novel rodenticides. A vigorous program for the control of FBT was conducted by the US Public Health Service from 1945 to 1952, using insecticides, rodenticides, and environmental sanitation and remediation. Government programs and relative economic prosperity in the South also resulted in slum clearance and improved housing, which reduced rodent harborage. By 1956, the number of cases of FBT in the United States had dropped dramatically to only 98. Federally funded projects for rat control continued until the mid-1980s. Effective antibiotics for FBT, such as the tetracyclines, came into clinical practice in the late 1940s. The first diagnostic test for FBT, the Weil-Felix test, was found to have inadequate sensitivity and specificity and was replaced by complement fixation in the 1940s and the indirect fluorescent antibody test in the 1980s. A second organism causing FBT, R. felis, was discovered in 1990. Flea-borne typhus persists in the United States, primarily in South and Central Texas, the Los Angeles area, and Hawaii. In the former two areas, the opossum (Didelphis virginiana) and cats have replaced rats as the primary reservoirs, with the cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis) now as the most important vector. In Hawaii, 73% of cases occur in Maui County because it has lower rainfall than other areas. Despite great successes against FBT in the post-World War II era, it has proved difficult to eliminate because it is now associated with our companion animals, stray pets, opossums, and the cat flea, an abundant and non-selective vector. In the new millennium, cases of FBT are increasing in Texas and California. In 2018–2019, Los Angeles County experienced a resurgence of FBT, with rats as the reservoir.

This study juxtaposes Mahvish Rukhsana Khan’s powerful memoir My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me (2008) with the post-9/11 rhetoric of political leaders and the mainstream media in the United States during the first decade of the twenty-first century. In her work, Khan exposes the extreme, dehumanizing conditions endured by military prison detainees – many of whom Khan argues were falsely arrested – and advocates for their right to receive fair hearings. The several examples of evident torture revealed by the interviewed detainees throughout the text contrast sharply with the rhetoric from speeches and interviews of early twenty-first century American political leaders, such as President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, and the news coverage from neoliberal media outlets like CNN and Fox News. Similarly, the brutal representations in Khan’s memoir contrast with the largely positive depictions of torture in popular films and television programs. To support the validity of Khan’s claims, the article will also consider the available War on Terror-era interrogation logs from the Guantanamo Bay military prison camp. This study seeks to illustrate the ability of prevailing power structures to interpellate consumers of mass media while simultaneously suggesting that literature possesses a unique potential to challenge dominant discourses, as it has done throughout history. Finally, this paper argues that works by Khan and other Muslim American authors have the power to disrupt the current racist and xenophobic episteme and challenge the ideological consensus fostered by mainstream media.

Constant demand for new naval and commercial vessels has created special conditions for the Government-owned Soviet shipbuilding industry, which practically has not been affected by the world shipbuilding crisis. On the other hand, such chronic diseases of the centralized economy as lack of incentive, material shortage and poor workmanship cause specific problems for ship construction. Being technically and financially unable to rapidly improve the overall technology level and performance of the entire industry, the Soviets concentrate their efforts on certain important areas and have achieved significant results, especially in welding and cutting titanium and aluminum alloys, modular production methods, standardization, etc. All productivity improvement efforts are supported by an army of highly educated engineers and scientists at shipyards, in multiple scientific, research and design institutions. Discussion Edwin J. Petersen, Todd Pacific Shipyards Three years ago I addressed the Ship Production Symposium as chairman of the Ship Production Committee and outlined some major factors which had contributed to the U.S. shipbuilding industry's remarkable achievements in building and maintaining the world's largest naval and merchant fleets during the five-year period starting just before World War II. The factors were as follows:There was a national commitment to get the job done. The shipbuilding industry was recognized as a needed national resource. There was a dependable workload. Standardization was extensively and effectively utilized. Shipbuilding work was effectively organized. Although these lessons appear to have been lost by our Government since World War II, the paper indicates that the Soviet Union has picked up these principles and has applied them very well to its current shipbuilding program. The paper also gives testimony to the observation that the Soviet Government recognizes the strategic and economic importance of a strong merchant fleet as well as a powerful naval fleet. In reviewing the paper, I found great similarity between the Soviet shipbuilding productivity improvement efforts and our own efforts or goals under the National Shipbuilding Research Program in the following areas:welding technology, flexible automation (robotics), application of group technology, standardization, facilities development, and education and training. In some areas, the Soviet Union appears to be well ahead of the United States in improving the shipbuilding process. Most noteworthy among these is the stable long-and medium-range planning that is possible by virtue of the use and adherence to the "Table of Vessel Classes." It will be obvious to most who hear and read these comments what a vast and significant improvement in shipbuilding costs and schedules could be achieved with a relatively dependable 15year master ship procurement plan for the U.S. naval and merchant fleets. Another area where the Soviet Union appears to lead the United States is in the integration of ship component suppliers into the shipbuilding process. This has been recognized as a vital step by the National Shipbuilding Research Program, but so far we have not made significant progress. A necessary prerequisite for this "supplier integration" is extensive standardization of ship components, yet another area in which the Soviets have achieved significantly greater progress than we have. Additional areas of Soviet advantage are the presence of a multilevel research and development infrastructure well supported by highly educated scientists, engineering and technical personnel; and better integration of formally educated engineering and technical personnel into the ship production process. In his conclusion, the author lists a number of problems facing the Soviet economy that adversely affect shipbuilding productivity. Perhaps behind this listing we can delve out some potential U.S. shipbuilding advantages. First, production systems in U.S. shipyards (with the possible exception of naval shipyards) are probably more flexible and adjustable to meet new circumstances as a consequence of not being constrained by a burdensome centralized bureaucracy, as is the case with Soviet shipyards. Next, such initiatives as the Ship Production Committee's "Human Resources Innovation" projects stand a better chance of achieving product-oriented "production team" relationship among labor, management, and technical personnel than the more rigid Soviet system, especially in view of the ability of U.S. shipyard management to offer meaningful financial incentives without the kind of bureaucratic constraints imposed in the Soviet system. Finally, the current U.S. Navy/shipbuilding industry cooperative effort to develop a common engineering database should lead to a highly integrated and disciplined ship design, construction, operation, and maintenance system for naval ships (and subsequently for commercial ships) that will ultimately restore the U.S. shipbuilding process to a leadership position in the world marketplace (additional references [16] and [17]).On that tentatively positive note, it seems fitting to close this discussion with a question: Is the author aware of any similar Soviet effort to develop an integrated computer-aided design, production and logistics support system? The author is to be congratulated on an excellent, comprehensive insight into the Soviet shipbuilding process and productivity improvement efforts that should give us all adequate cause not to be complacent in our own efforts. Peter M. Palermo, Naval Sea Systems Command The author presents an interesting paper that unfortunately leaves this reader with a number of unanswered questions. The paper is a paradox. It depicts a system consisting of a highly educated work force, advanced fabrication processes including the use of standardized hull modules, sophisticated materials and welding processes, and yet in the author's words they suffer from "low productivity, poor product quality, . . . and the rigid production systems which resists the introduction of new ideas." Is it possible that incentive, motivation, and morale play an equally significant role in achieving quality and producibility advances? Can the author discuss underlying reasons for quality problems in particular—or can we assume that the learning curves of Figs. 5 and Fig. 6 are representative of quality improvement curves? It has been my general impression that quality will improve with application of high-tech fabrication procedures, enclosed fabrication ways, availability of highly educated welding engineers on the building ways, and that productivity would improve with the implementation of modular or zone outfitting techniques coupled with the quality improvements. Can the author give his impressions of the impact of these innovations in the U.S. shipbuilding industry vis-a-vis the Soviet industry? Many of the welding processes cited in the paper are also familiar to the free world, with certain notable exceptions concerning application in Navy shipbuilding. For example, (1) electroslag welding is generally confined to single-pass welding of heavy plates; application to thinner plates—l1/4 in. and less when certified—would permit its use in more applications than heretofore. (2) Electron beam welding is generally restricted to high-technology machinery parts; vacuum chamber size restricts its use for larger components (thus it must be assumed that the Soviets have solved the vacuum chamber problem or have much larger chambers). (3) Likewise, laser welding has had limited use in U.S. shipbuilding. An interesting theme that runs throughout the paper, but is not explicitly addressed, is the quality of Soviet ship fitting. The use of high-tech welding processes and the mention of "remote controlled tooling for welding and X-ray testing the butt, and for following painting" imply significant ship fitting capabilities for fitting and positioning. This is particularly true if modules are built in one facility, outfitted and assembled elsewhere depending on the type of ship required. Any comments concerning Soviet ship fitting capabilities would be appreciated. The discussion on modular construction seems to indicate that the Soviets have a "standard hull module" that is used for different types of vessels, and if the use of these hull modules permit increasing hull length without changes to the fore and aft ends, it can be assumed that they are based on a standard structural design. That being the case, the midship structure will be overdesigned for many applications and optimally designed for very few. Recognizing that the initial additional cost for such a piece of hull structure is relatively minimal, it cannot be forgotten that the lifecycle costs for transporting unnecessary hull weight around can have significant fuel cost impacts. If I perceived the modular construction approach correctly, then I am truly intrigued concerning the methods for handling the distributive systems. In particular, during conversion when the ship is lengthened, how are the electrical, fluid, communications, and other distributive systems broken down, reassembled and tested? "Quick connect couplings" for these type systems at the module breaks is one particular area where economies can be achieved when zone construction methods become the order of the day in U.S. Navy ships. The author's comments in this regard would be most welcome. The design process as presented is somewhat different than U.S. Navy practice. In U.S. practice, Preliminary and Contract design are developed by the Navy. Detail design, the development of the working drawings, is conducted by the lead shipbuilder. While the detail design drawings can be used by follow shipbuilders, flexibility is permitted to facilitate unique shipbuilding or outfitting procedures. Even the contract drawings supplied by the Navy can be modified— upon Navy approval—to permit application of unique shipbuilder capabilities. The large number of college-trained personnel entering the Soviet shipbuilding and allied fields annually is mind-boggling. According to the author's estimation, a minimum of about 6500 college graduates—5000 of which have M.S. degrees—enter these fields each year. It would be most interesting to see a breakdown of these figures—in particular, how many naval architects and welding engineers are included in these figures? These are disciplines with relatively few personnel entering the Navy design and shipbuilding field today. For example, in 1985 in all U.S. colleges and universities, there were only 928 graduates (B.S., M.S. and Ph.D.) in marine, naval architecture and ocean engineering and only 1872 graduates in materials and metallurgy. The number of these graduates that entered the U.S. shipbuilding field is unknown. Again, the author is to be congratulated for providing a very thought-provoking paper. Frank J. Long, Win/Win Strategies This paper serves not only as a chronicle of some of the productivity improvement efforts in Soviet shipbuilding but also as an important reminder of the fruits of those efforts. While most Americans have an appreciation of the strengths of the Russian Navy, this paper serves to bring into clearer focus the Russians' entire maritime might in its naval, commercial, and fishing fleets. Indeed, no other nation on earth has a greater maritime capability. It is generally acknowledged that the Soviet Navy is the largest in the world. When considering the fact that the commercial and fishing fleets are, in many military respects, arms of the naval fleet, we can more fully appreciate how awesome Soviet maritime power truly is. The expansion of its maritime capabilities is simply another but highly significant aspect of Soviet worldwide ambitions. The development and updating of "Setka Typov Su dov" (Table of Vessel Classes), which the author describes is a classic example of the Soviet planning process. As the author states, "A mighty fishing and commercial fleet was built in accordance with a 'Setka' which was originally developed in the 1960's. And an even more impressive example is the rapid expansion of the Soviet Navy." In my opinion it is not mere coincidence that the Russians embarked on this course in the 1960's. That was the beginning of the coldest of cold war periods—Francis Gary Power's U-2 plane was downed by the Russians on May 1, 1960; the mid-May 1960 Four Power Geneva Summit was a bust; the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 and, in 1962, we had the Cuban Missile Crisis. The United States maritime embargo capability in that crisis undoubtedly influenced the Soviet's planning process. It is a natural and normal function of a state-controlled economy with its state-controlled industries to act to bring about the controlled productivity improvement developments in exactly the key areas discussed in the author's paper. As the author states, "All innovations at Soviet shipyards have originated at two main sources:domestic development andadaptation of new ideas introduced by leading foreign yards, or most likely a combination of both. Soviet shipbuilders are very fast learners; moreover, their own experience is quite substantial." The Ship Production Committee of SNAME has organized its panels to conduct research in many of these same areas for productivity improvement purposes. For example, addressing the areas of technology and equipment are Panels SP-1 and 3, Shipbuilding Facilities and Environmental Effects, and Panel SP-7, Shipbuilding Welding. Shipbuilding methods are the province of SP-2; outfitting and production aids and engineering and scientific support are the province of SP-4, Design Production Integration. As I read through the descriptions of the processes that led to the productivity improvements, I was hoping to learn more about the organizational structure of Soviet shipyards, the managerial hierarchy and how work is organized by function or by craft in the shipyard. (I would assume that for all intents and purposes, all Russian yards are organized in the same way.) American shipyard management is wedded to the notion that American shipbuilding suffers immeasurably from a productivity standpoint because of limitations on management's ability to assign workers across craft lines. It is unlikely that this limitation exists in Soviet shipyards. If it does not, how is the unfettered right of assignment optimized? What are the tangible, measurable results? I believe it would have been helpful, also, for the author to have dedicated some of the paper to one of the most important factors in improvement in the labor-intensive shipbuilding industry—the shipyard worker. There are several references to worker problems—absenteeism, labor shortage, poor workmanship, and labor discipline. The reader is left with the impression that the Russians believe that either those are unsolvable problems or have a priority ranking significantly inferior to the organizational, technical, and design efforts discussed. As a case in point, the author devotes a complete section to engineering education and professional training but makes no mention of education or training programs for blue-collar workers. It would seem that a paper on productivity improvement efforts in Soviet shipbuilding would address this most important element. My guess is that the Russians have considerable such efforts underway and it would be beneficial for us to learn of them.

During the Cold War, military and economic tensions between the US and the Soviet Union shaped the process of war in conflict regions in different parts of the world. The end of the Cold War in the early 1990s reshaped the balance of power in global politics, as new actors appeared on the global scene and global foreign policy shifted to mediating and providing humanitarian assistance in conflict regions zones. Humanitarianism became the method of conflict resolution, which provided humanitarian organizations, especially the religious ones among them, with the opportunity to have more influence in the outcomes of sociopolitical events occurring in the world. These dynamics impacted conflicts in Africa, especially within Sudan. This is because that era coincided with Sudan’s Second Civil War (1983-2005) between the Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Government of Sudan (GofS). During the Cold War, both the US and Russia intervened in the civil war in Sudan by providing military and economic assistance to different parties, but, again, in the post-Cold War era humanitarianism was used in relation to the civil war. Transnational religious organizations provided humanitarian assistance in the war-torn and drought-afflicted regions in Southern Sudan, and sought to help implement peace initiatives to end the war. The organizations included Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), a consortium of UN agencies and NGOs1 which was created in 1989. In addition, transnational religious groups based in the United States and Canada such as the Christian Solidarity International (CSI), the Canadian Crossroads, Catholic Relief Service, Mennonite Central Committee and the Lutheran Church got involved in humanitarian relief in Sudan. The global focus on religious humanitarianism extended to Southern Sudan as the New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC) was founded in 1989-1990 to coordinate the humanitarian assistance. Because SPLA has led the civil war on behalf of Southern Sudan and had suzerainty over territories there, the humanitarian organizations had to build relationships with the SPLA to deliver relief through Southern Sudan and negotiate peace initiatives. This article analyzes how the transnational activities of the religious humanitarian groups shaped the evolution of SPLA from 1990 to 2005, with a particular focus on the US and Canadian organizations. We will see that the organizations influenced SPLA in a manner that impacted the civil war both in positive and negative ways. The organizations were ambivalent as, on one hand, they aggravated the conflict and, on the other hand influenced the development of both Church and non-Church related peace initiatives. Their humanitarian work was intricate as the civil war itself became more complex due to political issues that involved slavery, and oil extraction in Southern Sudan by US and Canadian multinational oil companies. All the parties involved took action to help end the civil war, but they all sought to serve their own interests, which jeopardized the possibility of a lasting peace. Thus, the interpretation of that history provides ways to help solve the current armed conflict in South Sudan.

Throughout the United States, concern is growing among educators about the numbers of students in secondary schools who do not read well. In response, committed and well-meaning educators are increasingly advocating remedial reading courses for struggling adolescent readers. In this article, Cynthia Greenleaf, Ruth Schoenbach, Christine Cziko, and Faye Mueller offer an alternative vision to remedial reading instruction. The authors describe an instructional framework — Reading Apprenticeship — that is based on a socially and cognitively complex conception of literacy, and examine an Academic Literacy course based on this framework. Through case studies of student reading and analyses of student survey and test score data, they demonstrate that academically underperforming students became more strategic, confident, and knowledgeable readers in the Academic Literacy course. Students in Academic Literacy gained on average what is normally two years of reading growth within one academic year on a standardized test of reading comprehension. Student reflections, interviews, and pre-post surveys from Academic Literacy revealed students' new conceptions of reading for understanding, their growing interest in reading books and favorite authors, their increasing repertoires of strategies for approaching academic reading, and their emerging confidence in themselves as readers and thinkers. They argue for investing resources and effort into demystifying academic reading for their students through ongoing, collaborative inquiry into reading and texts, while providing students with protected time for reading and access to a variety of attractive texts linked to their curriculum. This approach can move students beyond the "literacy ceiling" to increased understanding, motivation, opportunity, and agency as readers and learners. These findings challenge the current policy push for remedial reading programs for poor readers, and invite further research into what factors create successful reading instruction programs for secondary school students.

Hypersonic strike systems have become a driving force in the development of offensive weapons. Academic literature offers two perspectives on the prospects of their impact on the military-strategic situation. One approach tends to position hypersonic weapons as a revolutionary technology, while the other proceeds from the premise that hypersonic strike systems represent an evolutionary development of offensive systems. The objective of this article is to establish the specifics and limits of the hypersonic weapons impact on the existing military-strategic balance. The paper analyzes the problem of hypersonic weapons classification, their role and place in military strategy, as well as the evolution and prospects of the Russian, U.S. and Chinese programs on hypersonic weapons. The authors conclude that the advantages of hypersonic weapons cannot automatically be transformed into a guaranteed success amid a full-scale military conflict and are largely available to other strike systems based on less advanced technological solutions. The key scenario, where the benefits of hypersonic weapons can be realized the most, is a limited conflict, in which they are used for the surprise defeat of highly-protected priority targets and the establishment of theater domination. This is evidenced by the hypersonic development programs of the leading military powers – Russia, the United States, and China, – each of which is more or less committed to developing medium- and short-range systems. The implications of the unfolding hypersonic arms race for strategic stability are ambiguous. On the one hand, forward deployment of such systems increases the risks of escalation; reduced flight time to enemy strategic infrastructure facilities encourages the adversary to adopt more aggressive retaliation postures based on the principle of launch-on-warning rather than post-attack. On the other hand, the possession of hypersonic weapons by both sides in the same theater increases their mutual vulnerability and can thus play a stabilizing role.

Background: Music therapy began in the United States after World War II when community musicians went to veterans’ hospitals to provide live music to those experiencing post-war trauma. Music therapy programs continue to utilize community musicians who provide live music to patients in treatment centers to supplement formal music therapy sessions by credentialed professionals. Little evidence has been gathered regarding the potential ability of these live music performances to decrease the anxiety levels of oncology patients during chemotherapy treatments. Purpose: To determine if listening to live music performed by community musicians decreases oncology patient anxiety levels during chemotherapy treatments in an outpatient infusion center. Method: This quasi-experimental study involved an experimental group who listened to live music by community musicians and a control group who did not listen to live music during a single chemotherapy treatment for 30 minutes. Pre- and post-test measures of blood pressure, pulse, respiration per minute, and responses to the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (ie, common measures of anxiety) were collected by a registered nurse on all participants. The sample included 60 participants (30 control and 30 experimental). Demographic information for the participants was: (1) 60% were male and 40% were female; (2) 73% were Caucasian and 27% were African American; (3) the mean age was 62 years; and (4) 100% had a cancer diagnosis. Results: Independent sample t-test was conducted to determine if there were differences in the amount of change for dependent variables. Significance was set at P<.05. Results revealed a significantly higher score difference in the experimental group when compared to the control group for pulse, respiration per minute, and systolic blood pressure (Table 1). Conclusion: Listening to live music by community musicians can decrease oncology patient anxiety levels during chemotherapy treatments as evidenced by significant decreases in pulse, respiration per minute, and systolic blood pressure. Additional studies may examine if greater decreases in anxiety levels are achieved by the implementation of formal music therapy sessions by credentialed professionals.

Like most of the once down-trodden colonized nations, China’s key historical project of the last 150 years has been to enforce modernization. The aim and mechanism of modernization has generally been simplified as industrialization, a process China has pursued since the mid-19th century. Wen Tiejun portrays China’s development in the last 150 years as ‘the four phases of industrialization of a peasant state’ with the ultimate aim of becoming a powerful modern state to counter European and Japanese imperialism, and later the United States’ embargo during the Cold War. The first attempt was the Yang Wu Movement initiated by the Qing dynasty from 1850 to 1895; the second the industrialization policy pursued by the Republican government from 1920s to the 1940s; the third the “state primitive accumulation of capital” practiced by the Communist Party regime from the 1950s to the 1970s; and the fourth the reform and open-door policy promoted by Deng Xiaoping since the late 1970s (Wen 2001). There has been intellectual consensus on modernization calling out for radical social reform in China in the 20th century. Since the 1920s all major intellectual thought has been in agreement that China needs a thorough social overhaul. The only difference was whether the model should be American capitalism or Russian socialism. Among these radical ideas and social programs, the rural reconstruction movement during the 1920s-30s represented by Liang Shuming and James Yen was a social initiative that was much neglected. It is of particular relevance to reconsider this intellectual heritage in post-development China. We will turn to this later in this essay.

Problem statement. Because of the military aggression of the Russian Federation, the Ukrainian people and the authorities face demanding challenges regarding the reconstruction of the country. One of the main priorities during the recovery in the post- war period is to find new, alternative sources of financing, in particular, using the advantages of public and private partnership (PPP). Analysis of recent research and publications. The proposals of Ukrainian and foreign researchers and practitioners regarding the PPP mechanism application for implementing the reconstruction of public and industrial buildings, construction and management of new highways, and other projects may be valuable for post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. Additional research on the PPP specifics in martial law and the post-war period is necessary to improve the regulatory and institutional support of public and private partnership and investment activities. Highlighting the previously unsolved parts of the general problem. Identification of opportunities for increasing the transparency of relevant measures, improving legislation related to the PPP, including in the field of concession instruments, development of proper institutional support for the PPP are significant areas of research related to the further development of public and private partnership in Ukraine, in particular, in the conditions of martial law and the post-war period. Presentation of the main material. Restoring the functioning of critical infrastructure facilities as soon as possible and gradual reconstruction of other objects which are necessary for the full life of the country are the essential tasks of Ukraine. It is not possible to put the financial burden only on the state and local budgets in a short period. Private investments should be attracted through the PPP mechanism, which, according to the experience of other countries, is one of the most effective ways to attract funds for developing the infrastructure and providing services to consumers in many fields. The experience of countries that have rebuilt their national economies after military conflicts in recent decades is helpful. The legislation of the Republic of Serbia uses the term "Public contract" and the concept of public and private partnership, which enables central and local authorities to meet infrastructure needs. The use of PPP in this country allows attracting private capital for construction and operation of roads, schools, water supply, landfills, and other projects in a lack of budgetary funds. The experience of other countries in promoting PPP development shows the effectiveness of the functioning of specialized institutions. For example, the Kosovo PPP Committee promotes and supports the implementation of PPP in many sectors of the economy to provide more efficient infrastructure and public services at a lower cost. According to the analysis of international experience, the most common reconstruction projects using PPP in the world are those implemented in the road and transport infrastructure, port, railway, and aviation activities, pipeline infrastructure development, stadiums, etc. The historical example of the aid of the United States of America to European countries after the Second World War is valuable. Accordingly, it is institutionally appropriate to provide help to Ukraine through a specialized agency with the participation of donor countries and in agreement with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Similarly to the "Marshall Plan", it would be appropriate for aid recipients to provide detailed plans and reports on investment projects and the progress of their implementation to the created agency that would establish and regulate the relevant criteria and requirements. Creating the national coordinating body in Ukraine, developing a strategy and determining priorities for the country’s recovery, and forming the central and regional project management teams are necessary steps for combining public finance and private investment. It is essential, in particular, in conditions of concession, which provide for the transfer of the state or municipal property to a private investor for temporary use. Moreover, there should be provided the availability of information and transparency of the activities of relevant institutions and equal opportunities for potential private investors to participate in PPP projects for restoring Ukrainian facilities. Conclusions and prospects for further research. The public and private partnership mechanism aims at increasing the efficiency and quality of the implementation of reconstruction projects and commissioning the new facilities within the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. The transparency of investment activities based on the PPP mechanism and the rational distribution of powers in cooperation with interested parties should play an important role. The experience of European countries that carried out reconstruction after military conflicts indicates the feasibility of developing institutional support for the PPP mechanism and transparency of information and activities of the relevant institutions. It is advisable to conduct further research on the problems of reconstruction of Ukraine involving the public and private partnership mechanism by improving the institutional support of investment processes in Ukraine.

The article is devoted to the activities of «Voice of America» in one of the most difficult periods for this organization – 1945–1953. The difficulty of the existence of «Voice of America» in the specified period was explained by the fact that having fulfilled its task – opposition to German and Italian propaganda during the Second World War – «Voice of America» faced the threat of extinction. The purpose of the article is to consider the struggle of «Voice of America» for its existence, to show the problems «Voice of America» faced during the period of being under the State Department jurisdiction, as well as the role of the latter in preserving this radio broadcast. The article analyzes the American and Ukrainian developments regarding the research topic and emphasizes the significant positive changes currently observed in the Ukrainian scientific environment regarding the research topic. It is noted that the post-war events in the world and the immediate beginning of the «Cold War» contributed to solving the question of the feasibility of the existence of «Voice of America», as some political circles began to see in «Voice of America» a new tool for countering Soviet propaganda. Therefore, the question about the need to continue foreign information operations as an integral part of conducting foreign affairs arose on the agenda, especially considering the nature of international relations after the end of the war. It is indicated that despite the obvious advantage of «Voice of America» existence, a certain skepticism was observed among congressmen. It resulted in the reduction of funding for «Voice of America» activities which led to a reduction in staff, broadcasting hours, variety of programs, etc. Special attention is drawn to William Benton, Assistant Secretary of State of the United States, the man who single-handedly saved the «Voice of America» from complete disappearance. The methodological basis of the article was the principle of historicism, a systematic approach, problem-chronological and descriptive methods. The scientific novelty consists in a step-by-step examination of the problems faced by the «Voice of America» in the specified period, showing the role of W. Benton in preserving the existence of the radio station, as well as in refuting the thesis regarding the absolute informational independence of the «Voice of America» from the US government. It is noted that the «Voice of America» in 1945–1953 still tried to reflect American foreign policy from the official American point of view. However, it was more independent in criticizing the domestic political situation.

O artigo busca fazer reflexões sobre o atual estágio da governança pública nas relações internacionais. Na perspectiva do Direito Internacional, a Carta das Nações Unidas, de 1945, é a Constituição da sociedade internacional dos Estados. Elaborada após a 2ª Guerra Mundial, a Carta prevê a conformação de uma estrutura burocrática global sem precedentes na história, tendo em vista que os cinco principais órgãos da ONU (AGNU, CSNU, SGNU, CIJ e ECOSOC) acondicionam sob suas esferas uma variedade de órgãos subsidiários, agências especializadas, departamentos, programas fundos, organizações relacionadas, comissões regionais e escritórios. Em conjunto, essas instituições conformam o cerne da atual administração pública internacional. O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar os argumentos que sustentam essas duas teses: a da constitucionalização das relações internacionais; e a da gradual institucionalização de uma administração pública nas relações internacionais, de que a ONU é um elemento central. Existe, porém, uma problemática: a ausência de uma identificação subjetiva cosmopolita (perspectiva de um “cidadão do mundo”) que legitime essas duas teses. A ONU não se apoia sobre os pilares da legitimidade popular. Tampouco existe uma solidariedade comunitária global amplamente difusa a ponto de reunir todos os povos do mundo em torno de um projeto de Constituição mundial. Nesse sentido, será aqui discutida a possibilidade de o pós-nacionalismo conferir legitimidade à ONU como ponto focal de uma governança pública global constitucionalmente estabelecida. Palavras-chaves: Nações Unidas; Constituição internacional; administração pública internacional. Abstract: This article seeks to make reflections on the current stage of public governance in international relations. From the perspective of international law, the Charter of the United Nations, of 1945, is the Constitution of the international society of States. Drawn up after World War II, the Charter provides for the formation of an unprecedented global bureaucratic structure, considering that the five major UN bodies – UNGA, UNSC, UNSG, ICJ and ECOSOC – condition under their guardianship a variety of subsidiary bodies, specialized agencies, funds, departments, programs, related organizations, regional commissions and offices. Together, these institutions constitute the core of the current international public administration. The purpose of this article is to present the arguments supporting these two theses: the constitutionalization of international relations; and the gradual institutionalization of a public administration between nation States. There is, however, a problematic little examined by legal experts: the absence of social and cultural substrate that legitimize the thesis of an international Constitution. The UN is not ideologically based on the idea of nation or of popular legitimacy, such as supported by national democratic States and their constitutions. In this sense, this article will analyze the possibility of a “post-national” ideology giving certain legitimacy to UN global public governance structure as a constitutionally established system. Keywords: United Nations; international Constitution; international public administration. Recebido em: fev/2016; Aprovado em: abr/2017.

Introduction In June 2021, United Nations (UN) Member States committed to ambitious targets for scaling up community-led responses by 2025 toward meeting the goals of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. These targets build on UN Member States 2016 commitments to ensure that 30% of HIV testing and treatment programmes are community-led by 2030. At its current pace, the world is not likely to meet these nor other global HIV targets, as evidenced by current epidemiologic trends. The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to further slow momentum made to date. The purpose of this paper is to review available evidence on the comparative advantages of community-led HIV responses that can better inform policy making towards getting the world back on track. Methods We conducted a scoping review to gather available evidence on peer- and community-led HIV responses. Using UNAIDS’ definition of ‘community-led’ and following PRISMA guidelines, we searched peer-reviewed literature published from January 1982 through September 2020. We limited our search to articles reporting findings from randomized controlled trials as well as from quasi-experimental, prospective, pre/post-test evaluation, and cross-sectional study designs. The overall goals of this scoping review were to gather available evidence on community-led responses and their impact on HIV outcomes, and to identify key concepts that can be used to quickly inform policy, practice, and research. Findings Our initial search yielded 279 records. After screening for relevance and conducting cross-validation, 48 articles were selected. Most studies took place in the global south (n = 27) and a third (n = 17) involved youth. Sixty-five percent of articles (n = 31) described the comparative advantage of peer- and community-led direct services, e.g., prevention and education (n = 23) testing, care, and treatment programs (n = 8). We identified more than 40 beneficial outcomes linked to a range of peer- and community-led HIV activities. They include improved HIV-related knowledge, attitudes, intentions, self-efficacy, risk behaviours, risk appraisals, health literacy, adherence, and viral suppression. Ten studies reported improvements in HIV service access, quality, linkage, utilization, and retention resulting from peer- or community-led programs or initiatives. Three studies reported structural level changes, including positive influences on clinic wait times, treatment stockouts, service coverage, and exclusionary practices. Conclusions and recommendations Findings from our scoping review underscore the comparative advantage of peer- and community-led HIV responses. Specifically, the evidence from the published literature leads us to recommend, where possible, that prevention programs, especially those intended for people living with and disproportionately affected by HIV, be peer- and community-led. In addition, treatment services should strive to integrate specific peer- and community-led components informed by differentiated care models. Future research is needed and should focus on generating additional quantitative evidence on cost effectiveness and on the synergistic effects of bundling two or more peer- and community-led interventions.

The purpose of the article is to study the conceptual foundations of local economic development in different countries of the world and provide recommendations on the possibility of adapting foreign experience for Ukraine. The article proposes the author’s own definition of the concept of «ensuring local economic development» from the point of view of a hierarchical approach as a system of public-managerial actions, measures and decisions aimed at increasing economic activity and satisfying local interests. The article explores the conceptual foundations of local economic development in the USA, Canada and Poland. Countries have different priorities, plans and areas of activity in local economic development, but it is common to take into account the economic realities of globalization, the balance of interests of a wide range of all stakeholders and partners, planning, the strategic nature of initiatives and the lack of unification of approaches to local economic development. The policy of ensuring local economic development in the United States in the context of modern challenges is being modernized, along with traditional instruments, novel methods of supporting local economic development appear. And the federal government plays a decisive and unique role in this process, developing policies of various influences on the regions and territories of the country based on their economic realities. Interesting conceptual directions for ensuring local economic development of Canadian territories in the current conditions are the conceptions of economic self-dependence and economic self-sufficiency, which are based on reducing dependence on the State-controlled subsidies, subventions, other economies, etc. The major role in the local economic development plays the Department of Regional and Local Development of Canada and Canadian Regional Development Agencies. Ensuring local economic development in Poland depends on the economic policies pursued by public authorities at the central, regional and local levels. Here it is worth noting a synchronized and proactive approach to the formation of strategic priorities, which includes taking into account the logical, spatial, temporal correspondence of all strategic attributes to achieve overall coherence of development directions at the national, regional and local levels, as well as significant support and financial assistance on the part of the European Union in the implementation of strategic goals of local economic development. Based on foreign experience, Ukraine needs to carry out the transformation of the State regional policy in order to develop and implement programs for the post-war recovery of regional economies. Local governments should focus on developing their own local economic development policy, which would be in line with the State regional policy of post-war recovery.

In this issue of Journal of Disaster Research, we introduce nine papers on societal responses to recent catastrophic disasters with special focus on long-term recovery processes in Japan and the United States. As disaster impacts increase, we also find that recovery times take longer and the processes for recovery become more complicated. On January 17th of 1995, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit the Hanshin and Awaji regions of Japan, resulting in the largest disaster in Japan in 50 years. In this disaster which we call the Kobe earthquake hereafter, over 6,000 people were killed and the damage and losses totaled more than 100 billion US dollars. The long-term recovery from the Kobe earthquake disaster took more than ten years to complete. One of the most important responsibilities of disaster researchers has been to scientifically monitor and record the long-term recovery process following this unprecedented disaster and discern the lessons that can be applied to future disasters. The first seven papers in this issue present some of the key lessons our research team learned from the studying the long-term recovery following the Kobe earthquake disaster. We have two additional papers that deal with two recent disasters in the United States – the terrorist attacks on World Trade Center in New York on September 11 of 2001 and the devastation of New Orleans by the 2005 Hurricane Katrina and subsequent levee failures. These disasters have raised a number of new research questions about long-term recovery that US researchers are studying because of the unprecedented size and nature of these disasters’ impacts. Mr. Mammen’s paper reviews the long-term recovery processes observed at and around the World Trade Center site over the last six years. Ms. Johnson’s paper provides a detailed account of the protracted reconstruction planning efforts in the city of New Orleans to illustrate a set of sufficient and necessary conditions for successful recovery. All nine papers in this issue share a theoretical framework for long-term recovery processes which we developed based first upon the lessons learned from the Kobe earthquake and later expanded through observations made following other recent disasters in the world. The following sections provide a brief description of each paper as an introduction to this special issue. 1. The Need for Multiple Recovery Goals After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, the long-term recovery process began with the formulation of disaster recovery plans by the City of Kobe – the most severely impacted municipality – and an overarching plan by Hyogo Prefecture which coordinated 20 impacted municipalities; this planning effort took six months. Before the Kobe earthquake, as indicated in Mr. Maki’s paper in this issue, Japanese theories about, and approaches to, recovery focused mainly on physical recovery, particularly: the redevelopment plans for destroyed areas; the location and standards for housing and building reconstruction; and, the repair and rehabilitation of utility systems. But the lingering problems of some of the recent catastrophes in Japan and elsewhere indicate that there are multiple dimensions of recovery that must be considered. We propose that two other key dimensions are economic recovery and life recovery. The goal of economic recovery is the revitalization of the local disaster impacted economy, including both major industries and small businesses. The goal of life recovery is the restoration of the livelihoods of disaster victims. The recovery plans formulated following the 1995 Kobe earthquake, including the City of Kobe’s and Hyogo Prefecture’s plans, all stressed these two dimensions in addition to physical recovery. The basic structure of both the City of Kobe’s and Hyogo Prefecture’s recovery plans are summarized in Fig. 1. Each plan has three elements that work simultaneously. The first and most basic element of recovery is the restoration of damaged infrastructure. This helps both physical recovery and economic recovery. Once homes and work places are recovered, Life recovery of the impacted people can be achieved as the final goal of recovery. Figure 2 provides a “recovery report card” of the progress made by 2006 – 11 years into Kobe’s recovery. Infrastructure was restored in two years, which was probably the fastest infrastructure restoration ever, after such a major disaster; it astonished the world. Within five years, more than 140,000 housing units were constructed using a variety of financial means and ownership patterns, and exceeding the number of demolished housing units. Governments at all levels – municipal, prefectural, and national – provided affordable public rental apartments. Private developers, both local and national, also built condominiums and apartments. Disaster victims themselves also invested a lot to reconstruct their homes. Eleven major redevelopment projects were undertaken and all were completed in 10 years. In sum, the physical recovery following the 1995 Kobe earthquake was extensive and has been viewed as a major success. In contrast, economic recovery and life recovery are still underway more than 13 years later. Before the Kobe earthquake, Japan’s policy approaches to recovery assumed that economic recovery and life recovery would be achieved by infusing ample amounts of public funding for physical recovery into the disaster area. Even though the City of Kobe’s and Hyogo Prefecture’s recovery plans set economic recovery and life recovery as key goals, there was not clear policy guidance to accomplish them. Without a clear articulation of the desired end-state, economic recovery programs for both large and small businesses were ill-timed and ill-matched to the needs of these businesses trying to recover amidst a prolonged slump in the overall Japanese economy that began in 1997. “Life recovery” programs implemented as part of Kobe’s recovery were essentially social welfare programs for low-income and/or senior citizens. 2. Requirements for Successful Physical Recovery Why was the physical recovery following the 1995 Kobe earthquake so successful in terms of infrastructure restoration, the replacement of damaged housing units, and completion of urban redevelopment projects? There are at least three key success factors that can be applied to other disaster recovery efforts: 1) citizen participation in recovery planning efforts, 2) strong local leadership, and 3) the establishment of numerical targets for recovery. Citizen participation As pointed out in the three papers on recovery planning processes by Mr. Maki, Mr. Mammen, and Ms. Johnson, citizen participation is one of the indispensable factors for successful recovery plans. Thousands of citizens participated in planning workshops organized by America Speaks as part of both the World Trade Center and City of New Orleans recovery planning efforts. Although no such workshops were held as part of the City of Kobe’s recovery planning process, citizen participation had been part of the City of Kobe’s general plan update that had occurred shortly before the earthquake. The City of Kobe’s recovery plan is, in large part, an adaptation of the 1995-2005 general plan. On January 13 of 1995, the City of Kobe formally approved its new, 1995-2005 general plan which had been developed over the course of three years with full of citizen participation. City officials, responsible for drafting the City of Kobe’s recovery plan, have later admitted that they were able to prepare the city’s recovery plan in six months because they had the preceding three years of planning for the new general plan with citizen participation. Based on this lesson, Odiya City compiled its recovery plan based on the recommendations obtained from a series of five stakeholder workshops after the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu earthquake. <strong>Fig. 1. </strong> Basic structure of recovery plans from the 1995 Kobe earthquake. <strong>Fig. 2. </strong> “Disaster recovery report card” of the progress made by 2006. Strong leadership In the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake, local leadership had a defining role in the recovery process. Kobe’s former Mayor, Mr. Yukitoshi Sasayama, was hired to work in Kobe City government as an urban planner, rebuilding Kobe following World War II. He knew the city intimately. When he saw damage in one area on his way to the City Hall right after the earthquake, he knew what levels of damage to expect in other parts of the city. It was he who called for the two-month moratorium on rebuilding in Kobe city on the day of the earthquake. The moratorium provided time for the city to formulate a vision and policies to guide the various levels of government, private investors, and residents in rebuilding. It was a quite unpopular policy when Mayor Sasayama announced it. Citizens expected the city to be focusing on shelters and mass care, not a ban on reconstruction. Based on his experience in rebuilding Kobe following WWII, he was determined not to allow haphazard reconstruction in the city. It took several years before Kobe citizens appreciated the moratorium. Numerical targets Former Governor Mr. Toshitami Kaihara provided some key numerical targets for recovery which were announced in the prefecture and municipal recovery plans. They were: 1) Hyogo Prefecture would rebuild all the damaged housing units in three years, 2) all the temporary housing would be removed within five years, and 3) physical recovery would be completed in ten years. All of these numerical targets were achieved. Having numerical targets was critical to directing and motivating all the stakeholders including the national government’s investment, and it proved to be the foundation for Japan’s fundamental approach to recovery following the 1995 earthquake. 3. Economic Recovery as the Prime Goal of Disaster Recovery In Japan, it is the responsibility of the national government to supply the financial support to restore damaged infrastructure and public facilities in the impacted area as soon as possible. The long-term recovery following the Kobe earthquake is the first time, in Japan’s modern history, that a major rebuilding effort occurred during a time when there was not also strong national economic growth. In contrast, between 1945 and 1990, Japan enjoyed a high level of national economic growth which helped facilitate the recoveries following WWII and other large fires. In the first year after the Kobe earthquake, Japan’s national government invested more than US$ 80 billion in recovery. These funds went mainly towards the repair and reconstruction of infrastructure and public facilities. Now, looking back, we can also see that these investments also nearly crushed the local economy. Too much money flowed into the local economy over too short a period of time and it also did not have the “trickle-down” effect that might have been intended. To accomplish numerical targets for physical recovery, the national government awarded contracts to large companies from Osaka and Tokyo. But, these large out-of-town contractors also tended to have their own labor and supply chains already intact, and did not use local resources and labor, as might have been expected. Essentially, ten years of housing supply was completed in less than three years, which led to a significant local economic slump. Large amounts of public investment for recovery are not necessarily a panacea for local businesses, and local economic recovery, as shown in the following two examples from the Kobe earthquake. A significant national investment was made to rebuild the Port of Kobe to a higher seismic standard, but both its foreign export and import trade never recovered to pre-disaster levels. While the Kobe Port was out of business, both the Yokohama Port and the Osaka Port increased their business, even though many economists initially predicted that the Kaohsiung Port in Chinese Taipei or the Pusan Port in Korea would capture this business. Business stayed at all of these ports even after the reopening of the Kobe Port. Similarly, the Hanshin Railway was severely damaged and it took half a year to resume its operation, but it never regained its pre-disaster readership. In this case, two other local railway services, the JR and Hankyu lines, maintained their increased readership even after the Hanshin railway resumed operation. As illustrated by these examples, pre-disaster customers who relied on previous economic output could not necessarily afford to wait for local industries to recover and may have had to take their business elsewhere. Our research suggests that the significant recovery investment made by Japan’s national government may have been a disincentive for new economic development in the impacted area. Government may have been the only significant financial risk-taker in the impacted area during the national economic slow-down. But, its focus was on restoring what had been lost rather than promoting new or emerging economic development. Thus, there may have been a missed opportunity to provide incentives or put pressure on major businesses and industries to develop new businesses and attract new customers in return for the public investment. The significant recovery investment by Japan’s national government may have also created an over-reliance of individuals on public spending and government support. As indicated in Ms. Karatani’s paper, individual savings of Kobe’s residents has continued to rise since the earthquake and the number of individuals on social welfare has also decreased below pre-disaster levels. Based on our research on economic recovery from the Kobe earthquake, at least two lessons emerge: 1) Successful economic recovery requires coordination among all three recovery goals – Economic, Physical and Life Recovery, and 2) “Recovery indices” are needed to better chart recovery progress in real-time and help ensure that the recovery investments are being used effectively. Economic recovery as the prime goal of recovery Physical recovery, especially the restoration of infrastructure and public facilities, may be the most direct and socially accepted provision of outside financial assistance into an impacted area. However, lessons learned from the Kobe earthquake suggest that the sheer amount of such assistance may not be effective as it should be. Thus, as shown in Fig. 3, economic recovery should be the top priority goal for recovery among the three goals and serve as a guiding force for physical recovery and life recovery. Physical recovery can be a powerful facilitator of post-disaster economic development by upgrading social infrastructure and public facilities in compliance with economic recovery plans. In this way, it is possible to turn a disaster into an opportunity for future sustainable development. Life recovery may also be achieved with a healthy economic recovery that increases tax revenue in the impacted area. In order to achieve this coordination among all three recovery goals, municipalities in the impacted areas should have access to flexible forms of post-disaster financing. The community development block grant program that has been used after several large disasters in the United States, provide impacted municipalities with a more flexible form of funding and the ability to better determine what to do and when. The participation of key stakeholders is also an indispensable element of success that enables block grant programs to transform local needs into concrete businesses. In sum, an effective economic recovery combines good coordination of national support to restore infrastructure and public facilities and local initiatives that promote community recovery. Developing Recovery Indices Long-term recovery takes time. As Mr. Tatsuki’s paper explains, periodical social survey data indicates that it took ten years before the initial impacts of the Kobe earthquake were no longer affecting the well-being of disaster victims and the recovery was completed. In order to manage this long-term recovery process effectively, it is important to have some indices to visualize the recovery processes. In this issue, three papers by Mr. Takashima, Ms. Karatani, and Mr. Kimura define three different kinds of recovery indices that can be used to continually monitor the progress of the recovery. Mr. Takashima focuses on electric power consumption in the impacted area as an index for impact and recovery. Chronological change in electric power consumption can be obtained from the monthly reports of power company branches. Daily estimates can also be made by tracking changes in city lights using a satellite called DMSP. Changes in city lights can be a very useful recovery measure especially at the early stages since it can be updated daily for anywhere in the world. Ms. Karatani focuses on the chronological patterns of monthly macro-statistics that prefecture and city governments collect as part of their routine monitoring of services and operations. For researchers, it is extremely costly and virtually impossible to launch post-disaster projects that collect recovery data continuously for ten years. It is more practical for researchers to utilize data that is already being collected by local governments or other agencies and use this data to create disaster impact and recovery indices. Ms. Karatani found three basic patterns of disaster impact and recovery in the local government data that she studied: 1) Some activities increased soon after the disaster event and then slumped, such as housing construction; 2) Some activities reduced sharply for a period of time after the disaster and then rebounded to previous levels, such as grocery consumption; and 3) Some activities reduced sharply for a while and never returned to previous levels, such as the Kobe Port and Hanshin Railway. Mr. Kimura focuses on the psychology of disaster victims. He developed a “recovery and reconstruction calendar” that clarifies the process that disaster victims undergo in rebuilding their shattered lives. His work is based on the results of random surveys. Despite differences in disaster size and locality, survey data from the 1995 Kobe earthquake and the 2004 Niigata-ken Chuetsu earthquake indicate that the recovery and reconstruction calendar is highly reliable and stable in clarifying the recovery and reconstruction process. <strong>Fig. 3.</strong> Integrated plan of disaster recovery. 4. Life Recovery as the Ultimate Goal of Disaster Recovery Life recovery starts with the identification of the disaster victims. In Japan, local governments in the impacted area issue a “damage certificate” to disaster victims by household, recording the extent of each victim’s housing damage. After the Kobe earthquake, a total of 500,000 certificates were issued. These certificates, in turn, were used by both public and private organizations to determine victim’s eligibility for individual assistance programs. However, about 30% of those victims who received certificates after the Kobe earthquake were dissatisfied with the results of assessment. This caused long and severe disputes for more than three years. Based on the lessons learned from the Kobe earthquake, Mr. Horie’s paper presents (1) a standardized procedure for building damage assessment and (2) an inspector training system. This system has been adopted as the official building damage assessment system for issuing damage certificates to victims of the 2004 Niigata-ken Chuetsu earthquake, the 2007 Noto-Peninsula earthquake, and the 2007 Niigata-ken Chuetsu Oki earthquake. Personal and family recovery, which we term life recovery, was one of the explicit goals of the recovery plan from the Kobe earthquake, but it was unclear in both recovery theory and practice as to how this would be measured and accomplished. Now, after studying the recovery in Kobe and other regions, Ms. Tamura’s paper proposes that there are seven elements that define the meaning of life recovery for disaster victims. She recently tested this model in a workshop with Kobe disaster victims. The seven elements and victims’ rankings are shown in Fig. 4. Regaining housing and restoring social networks were, by far, the top recovery indicators for victims. Restoration of neighborhood character ranked third. Demographic shifts and redevelopment plans implemented following the Kobe earthquake forced significant neighborhood changes upon many victims. Next in line were: having a sense of being better prepared and reducing their vulnerability to future disasters; regaining their physical and mental health; and restoration of their income, job, and the economy. The provision of government assistance also provided victims with a sense of life recovery. Mr. Tatsuki’s paper summarizes the results of four random-sample surveys of residents within the most severely impacted areas of Hyogo Prefecture. These surveys were conducted biannually since 1999,. Based on the results of survey data from 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2005, it is our conclusion that life recovery took ten years for victims in the area impacted significantly by the Kobe earthquake. Fig. 5 shows that by comparing the two structural equation models of disaster recovery (from 2003 and 2005), damage caused by the Kobe earthquake was no longer a determinant of life recovery in the 2005 model. It was still one of the major determinants in the 2003 model as it was in 1999 and 2001. This is the first time in the history of disaster research that the entire recovery process has been scientifically described. It can be utilized as a resource and provide benchmarks for monitoring the recovery from future disasters. <strong>Fig. 4.</strong> Ethnographical meaning of “life recovery” obtained from the 5th year review of the Kobe earthquake by the City of Kobe. <strong>Fig. 5.</strong> Life recovery models of 2003 and 2005. 6. The Need for an Integrated Recovery Plan The recovery lessons from Kobe and other regions suggest that we need more integrated recovery plans that use physical recovery as a tool for economic recovery, which in turn helps disaster victims. Furthermore, we believe that economic recovery should be the top priority for recovery, and physical recovery should be regarded as a tool for stimulating economic recovery and upgrading social infrastructure (as shown in Fig. 6). With this approach, disaster recovery can help build the foundation for a long-lasting and sustainable community. Figure 6 proposes a more detailed model for a more holistic recovery process. The ultimate goal of any recovery process should be achieving life recovery for all disaster victims. We believe that to get there, both direct and indirect approaches must be taken. Direct approaches include: the provision of funds and goods for victims, for physical and mental health care, and for housing reconstruction. Indirect approaches for life recovery are those which facilitate economic recovery, which also has both direct and indirect approaches. Direct approaches to economic recovery include: subsidies, loans, and tax exemptions. Indirect approaches to economic recovery include, most significantly, the direct projects to restore infrastructure and public buildings. More subtle approaches include: setting new regulations or deregulations, providing technical support, and creating new businesses. A holistic recovery process needs to strategically combine all of these approaches, and there must be collaborative implementation by all the key stakeholders, including local governments, non-profit and non-governmental organizations (NPOs and NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), and the private sector. Therefore, community and stakeholder participation in the planning process is essential to achieve buy-in for the vision and desired outcomes of the recovery plan. Securing the required financial resources is also critical to successful implementation. In thinking of stakeholders, it is important to differentiate between supporting entities and operating agencies. Supporting entities are those organizations that supply the necessary funding for recovery. Both Japan’s national government and the federal government in the U.S. are the prime supporting entities in the recovery from the 1995 Kobe earthquake and the 2001 World Trade Center recovery. In Taiwan, the Buddhist organization and the national government of Taiwan were major supporting entities in the recovery from the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake. Operating agencies are those organizations that implement various recovery measures. In Japan, local governments in the impacted area are operating agencies, while the national government is a supporting entity. In the United States, community development block grants provide an opportunity for many operating agencies to implement various recovery measures. As Mr. Mammen’ paper describes, many NPOs, NGOs, and/or CBOs in addition to local governments have had major roles in implementing various kinds programs funded by block grants as part of the World Trade Center recovery. No one, single organization can provide effective help for all kinds of disaster victims individually or collectively. The needs of disaster victims may be conflicting with each other because of their diversity. Their divergent needs can be successfully met by the diversity of operating agencies that have responsibility for implementing recovery measures. In a similar context, block grants made to individual households, such as microfinance, has been a vital recovery mechanism for victims in Thailand who suffered from the 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami disaster. Both disaster victims and government officers at all levels strongly supported the microfinance so that disaster victims themselves would become operating agencies for recovery. Empowering individuals in sustainable life recovery is indeed the ultimate goal of recovery. <strong>Fig. 6.</strong> A holistic recovery policy model.