Resource
2011 EN
Leslie T. Payton
: The USMC Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) is commonly referred to as the nation's 911 force. It must be capable of executing a full spectrum of missions from low-intensity humanitarian assistance and noncombat evacuations to high-intensity major combat operations. The structure and equipment are designed around this multimission requirement. However, the USMC owns the fixed-winged Shadow unmanned aircraft system (UAS), and is in the process of acquiring a small fixed-wing UAS, the small tactical UAS (STUAS) to provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. The USMC is also researching a cargo resupply UAS based on helicopter technology. The USMC focus on single mission UAS does not fit with the MEU's mission requirements. This thesis will examine MEU mission requirements and recommend a UAS capability set that best supports MEU operations. From this recommended set of requirements, the thesis will use a cost analysis to determine a future UAS program of record.
Naval Postgraduate School
Resource
2011 EN
Serkan Kilitci · Muzaffer Buyruk
: Today, Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) provide significant supporting capabilities in military operations worldwide. When UGVs are used to their full potential, the number of casualties is decreased and the combat effectiveness of warfighters is increased. UGVs are being developed in different sizes to meet different mission capability requirements. The employment of available UGVs and the development of new UGV capabilities have been rising steadily. Countries have started giving more importance to UGVs, and they are now being employed all over the world. The Turkish Ministry of National Defense (MND) can use the advantages of UGVs in a number of ways to assist in its efforts against terrorist activities. The purpose of this MBA project is to conduct an analysis of the best available UGV in the current market with respect to the requirements of the Turkish MND. After providing some background and market research on UGVs, we will explore their capabilities and their capability gaps in regard to the requirements of the Turkish MND. In the end, this project will determine the best available near-term UGV for the Turkish MND by employing the Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) method of the U.S. Defense Acquisition System.
Naval Postgraduate School
Resource
2011 EN
Priscilla D. Jones
: The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, had a profound impact on the nation's economy and governmental organization; on its budgets for national defense; and on the mission of its armed forces, particularly the U.S. Air Force. Even the date--9/11--quickly became iconic, and without the hijackings, the first three major U.S. military operations of the new century would not have been launched: Operation Noble Eagle, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The U.S. Air Force has played an important role in all three. The 9/11 attacks precipitated the launch of Operation Noble Eagle and obliged the U.S. Air Force to deploy forces to protect the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Hawaii, and Guam against additional air attacks. The nature, timing, and effectiveness of the air defense response initiated by the Northeast Air Defense Sector on the morning of September 11 depended on many factors. Several were partly or entirely outside the control of the U.S. Air Force, such as the speed of the attacks and the tactics of the hijackers; the knowledge, experience, intuition, and initiative of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) personnel; and the involvement and actions of those higher up the civilian chain of command. But the air defense response depended perhaps most on the effectiveness of the communications, coordination, and interaction within and between the FAA on the one hand and NORAD and NEADS on the other.
Resource
2011 EN
Thomas G. McFall · Dennis La
: The purpose of this research is to conduct an in-depth analysis of services acquisition management practices in the Army. The objective of the research project is to build on the understanding developed in prior research projects and generate a data collection instrument that will identify the factors that promote or obstruct the use of best practices in acquisition management. The study will help build upon identifying factors that influence the efficiency and effectiveness of service contracts. In this study, data was collected from two Army contracting offices. This study serves as a pilot for future research to be conducted at the remaining Mission and Installation Contracting Command offices. The findings of the research show that service type affects contract characteristics and management practices. The study also demonstrates that there is a relationship between capacity and management practices. These findings show that the performance of service contracts can be improved through enhanced contract management process capabilities.
Naval Postgraduate School
Journals
2011 EN
Barbara C. Hellier
The USDA-ARS National Plant Germplasm System is charged with the preservation of economically important crop plants and their wild relatives. Curators in the System strive to develop collections capturing the genetic diversity of each species. One mechanism for filling gaps in collections is through plant exploration. The USDA-ARS National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Plant Exchange Office administers funding and coordinates plant explorations for the System. In the past decade, there have been 38 collecting missions in Central Asia and the Caucasus. This area is rich in plant biodiversity and is a center of diversity for many crop species and their wild relatives. The author has had the opportunity to participate in four explorations in the area focusing on wild crop relatives. This included a trip to Kazakhstan targeting Russian dandelion, Taraxacum kok-saghyz L.E. Rodin, a source of natural rubber. In this mission, a total of 22 accessions of T. kok-saghyz and six accessions of other Taraxacum species were collected.
American Society for Horticultural Science
Journals
2011 EN
Ellen M. Bauske · Lelia Kelly · Kerry Smith
+3 more
ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS. technology, coordination, management, supervision, web, county, online classroom SUMMARY. Extension Master Gardener (EMG) volunteers are key to effective dissemination of horticultural information to the public. The goal of this workshop was to identify techniques to increase the capacity and effectiveness of EMG volunteers. The workshop focused on projects and tools that reduce the administrative burden of managing volunteers, increase the scope of issues that volunteers are prepared to address, and pool volunteer efforts and resources across county lines. Two online systems for managing and reporting EMG volunteer activities were described. Both systems are intuitive, user-friendly, and updated without the assistance of web managers. Regional web-based, advanced training on specific topics was used to expand educational messages of EMG volunteers and eliminate the costs associated with face-to-face training. Presentations were made using distance learning technologies and resources were shared online. Hosting agents tailored hands-on supporting activities to meet local needs. Volunteers expanded extension outreach by answering noncommercial landscape and garden telephone questions. Many of the administrative, logistical, and resource burdens associated with the EMG helpline phone service were overcome by working across county lines, standardizing training, centralizing supporting resources, and clustering volunteers into regional telephone helpline offices. Other projects and tools presented in the workshop focused on the need to affirm and/or foster the volunteers’ connection with the university and the outreach mission of Cooperative Extension.
American Society for Horticultural Science
Journals
2011 EN
Karl Foord · David C. Zlesak · Tom Bartholomay
+1 more
An online survey of readers of the University of Minnesota Extension's electronic Yard & Garden Newsletter (Y&G News) revealed significant differences between respondents on the basis of current employment and Master Gardener affiliation. Fifty-three percent of the respondents were general public (GP); 31% were Master Gardener trained (MGT), followed by full-time horticultural employees (FTE) and part-time horticultural employees (PTE) , each of whom made up to 8% of the 500 readers who responded to the survey. Overall, respondents indicated a high level of satisfaction with the newsletter (4.8 out of 5.0), and 81% indicated that the newsletter had provided them with “specific information that they found extremely valuable” in the past 2 years. PTE and MGT respondents rated the newsletter as significantly more useful than did the GP. FTE placed greatest value on timely information related to pest control. GP subscribers indicated that annuals and perennials were the horticultural topics they were most interested in for future issues. All subscribers highly value the newsletter for its usefulness and timeliness and indicated that the newsletter improved their ability to make horticultural decisions. Ninety-nine percent would recommend the newsletter to a friend. The mission of the Y&G News and content changes based on survey responses and available resources are discussed.
American Society for Horticultural Science
Journals
2011 EN
Nick Robinson
The Indian Supreme Court has rightly been pointed to as an example of a global trend in the increase in the power of courts. This article argues that it is the mandate for a controlled revolution laid out in the Indian Constitution, combined with the shortcomings of India's representative institutions and the Supreme Court’s relatively unique institutional structure, which has led the Court to enlarge its role. The article examines the Court’s basic structure doctrine and right to life jurisprudence, which exemplify this expanded mission, and argues that the Court justified this jurisprudence not only with a wide reading of the Indian Constitution, but also with an appeal to broad, almost metaphysical, principles of civilization or good governance. The Court's interventions have not been without critics (who raise accountability, capacity, competency, and constitutional legitimacy concerns), but the Court’s wide-reaching jurisprudence has proved remarkably stable. The article finishes by examining parallel interventions in other parts of the world that suggest India's experience is part of and helps explain a larger global phenomenon of the rise of rule through good governance courts.
Social Science Electronic Publishing
Journals
2011 EN
Roger Coffin
Corporations have the right, under the United States Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. FEC, to make independent political expenditures in federal elections. Most public corporations are subject to some level of federal or state regulation of their business practices. Because regulations are the by-product of the political process, shouldn’t public companies exercise their right to influence the process by which regulations are created? This paper analyzes Citizens United from a corporate governance perspective and asserts that corporate political speech is a necessary fact of life for many public corporations. Additionally, the paper adds a new set of empirical findings to the literature which demonstrates that the decision in Citizens United and the associated right to speech does not have an adverse effect on the market value of firms. The paper further argues that Citizens United was based on assumptions regarding corporate governance’s ability to protect shareholders who may have opposing political beliefs. These assumptions do not hold true in the modern corporate marketplace. I argue that the personal political predictions of shareholders are largely irrelevant to the larger mission of the corporation - which is to enhance long-term shareholder financial value. Shareholders should not, as has been proposed, be given express rights to approve or disapprove political speech. To grant such rights would unnecessarily encroach into legitimate business judgment by adding another layer of shareholder sovereignty in addition to those granted by recent Congressional and regulatory action. Even assuming that corporations do not possess all of the attributes of natural persons for whom political speech rights were designed, corporate participation in the political process should be welcomed by shareholders who have economic incentives to gain, and by the public, who will benefit from the enrichment of political discourse.
Social Science Electronic Publishing
Journals
2011 EN
Moïse Sagamba · Oleg Shchetinin · Nurmukhammad Yusupov
The mission of microfinance is generally perceived as compensation for the failure of the mainstream financial institutions to deliver access to finance to the poor. Microloan officers have significant influence on microloans allocation as they contact loan applicants and process information inside microfinance institutions (MFIs). We conduct a choice experiment with microloan officers in Burundi to determine which clients are preferred for microloan allocation and whether the less advantaged are indeed targeted. The results suggest that the allocation of microloans is slightly in favor of the less advantaged, whereas the main determinant is the quality of the applicants' business projects. Somewhat surprisingly, we find only small differences in the determinants of the targeted groups between non-profit and profit-seeking MFIs.
Social Science Electronic Publishing