Responding to COVID-19 through Surveys of Public Servants

Responding to COVID-19 presents unprecedented challenges for public sector practitioners. Addressing those challenges requires knowledge about the problems that public sector workers face. This Viewpoint essay argues that timely, up-to-date surveys of public sector workers are essential tools for identifying problems, resolving bottlenecks, and enabling public sector workers to operate effectively during and in response to the challenges posed by the pandemic. This essay presents the COVID-19 Survey of Public Servants, which is currently being rolled out in several countries by the Global Survey of Public Servants Consortium to assist governments in strategically compiling evidence to operate effectively during the COVID-19 pandemic.     

钢桥面沥青铺装裂缝处治技术效果评价

为了对钢桥面沥青铺装裂缝修复效果进行评价,通过沥青混合料小梁疲劳试验,分析无裂缝小梁和修复后小梁的疲劳性能以及不同裂缝槽口型式对修复后小梁疲劳性能的影响.试验表明,修复后小梁的极限弯拉强度与无裂缝小梁相比下降不明显,修复后小梁的疲劳寿命有较大程度下降;全断面修复使用性能较部分断面修复更为优异.不同槽口型式修复小梁试验结果表明,10 mm×10 mm、20 mm×10 mm槽口型式修复效果更佳.     

Living with COVID-19: Subjective Well-Being in the Second Phase of the Pandemic

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - While there is ample evidence of the decline in mental health among youth during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, less is known about the determinants of...     

Water tariff conflict resolution through indigenous participation in tri-water sector partnerships: Dalun cluster communities in northern Ghana

The paper examines how the perceived ownership of a water resource negatively influenced local people's attitudes towards payment of potable water tariffs and exacerbated conflicts between water users and service providers in the Dalun community of the northern region of Ghana. The paper presents a case study of how community participation and endogenous approaches to conflict resolution contributed to payment of water tariffs. The findings show that the establishment of a tri-water sector partnership (TWSP), consisting of the Ghana Water Company Ltd (GWCL), private sector development practitioners, and community water boards, led to positive mediation of water tariff conflicts using the institution of chieftaincy. Alternative, endogenous conflict resolution methods combined with modern methods in a tripartite partnership showed promise as an approach to managing conflicts in water projects and in broader poverty reduction efforts.     

Developing Sentencing Guidelines in Massachusetts: A Work in Progress

Sentencing guidelines legislation is currently under consideration by the Massachusetts legislature. This paper discusses the process used by the Massachusetts Sentencing Commission in formulating the sentencing guidelines legislation. The conceptual model and key substantive considerations associated with the sentencing guidelines are summarized, with special attention to two salient issues – intermediate sanctions and mandatory sentencing and their relationship to the sentencing guidelines. The paper concludes with a discussion of the reactions to the guidelines legislation and the prospects for passage.     

Patterns of Truthfulness

The encounter of Advaitins with bhakti represented a new departure, in seventeenth century India, and gave birth to a new style in philosophy. It was a time when rational inquiry emancipated itself to a certain extent from the tradition of commentaries and exegesis. But we should not confuse two different ideas of rationality. Using one’s own reason in religious matters is one thing, and this is what the new philosophers did in India; spreading the lights of Reason is another thing, and this was not an issue in India.