Air Force Service Procurement

Air Force Service Procurement

To satisfy requirements in the fiscal year 2002 National Defense Authorization Act (U.S. Congress, 2001) to improve the acquisition of services by the Department of Defense, the Air Force established a Program Executive Officer for Combat and Mission Support (AFPEO/CM) who is responsible for management and oversight of a well-defined portfolio of Air Force services acquisition activities. This office is the single point of contact for Air Force services acquisition inquiries and is also responsible for developing long-range plans for cost-effective acquisition of services. To fulfill its responsibilities, the AFPEO/CM needs metrics to help it monitor compliance with statutory requirements, needs to respond to congressional inquiries about specific acquisitions, and needs to effectively manage Air Force services acquisition activities and organizations. RAND Project AIR FORCE was asked to help develop a portfolio of ‘overarching’ measures that will allow the AFPEO/CM to assess the health of Air Force acquisition activities, diagnose problems, and target improvement efforts. This report describes our recommendations. To help develop this portfolio of metrics, we considered the experience of commercial firms, which have long had a ‘strategic’ view of purchasing direct materials (goods) because they are direct inputs to production, but have only recently explored applying such approaches to purchasing services. Through interviews with well-respected chief purchasing officers and other executives involved in service acquisitions, through conference participation, and through a review of the business literature, we found that commercial firms are beginning to manage their service acquisitions in a manner similar to their acquisition of direct materials.

Air Force Service Procurement

Photosynthesis, Energy from the Sun - Volume I

Photosynthesis, Energy from the Sun - Volume I

The Proceedings of the 14th International Congress on Photosynthesis is a record of the most recent advances and emerging themes in the discipline. This volume contains over 350 contributions from some 800 participants attending the meeting in Glasgow, UK in July 2007. These range from summary overview presentations from plenary speakers to expanded content of posters presented by students and their supervisors featuring the most recent achievements in photosynthesis research. In the words of Professor Eva-Mari Aro, President of the international Society of Photosynthesis Research 2004-7, Having been taken for granted for centuries, research in photosynthesis has now become a matter of utmost importance for the future of planet Earth Major initiatives are underway that will use research into natural and artificial photosynthesis for sustainable energy production . . These volumes thus provide a glimpse of the future, from the molecule to the biosphere

Photosynthesis, Energy from the Sun - Volume I

Concurring Opinion Writing on the U.S. Supreme Court

Concurring Opinion Writing on the U.S. Supreme Court

When justices write or join a concurring opinion, they demonstrate their preferences over substantive legal rules. Concurrences provide a way for justices to express their views about the law, to engage in a dialogue of law with each other, the legal community, the public, and Congress. This important study is the first systematic examination of the content of Supreme Court concurrences. While previous work on Supreme Court decision making focuses solely on the outcome of cases, Pamela C. Corley tackles the content of Supreme Court concurring opinions to show the reasoning behind each justices decision. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis, Concurring Opinion Writing on the U.S. Supreme Court offers a rich and detailed portrait of judicial decision making by studying the process of opinion writing and the formation of legal doctrine through the unique lens of concurrences.

Concurring Opinion Writing on the U.S. Supreme Court

Rock Mechanics

Rock Mechanics

Rock Mechanics: Achievements and Ambitions contains the papers accepted for the 2nd ISRM International Young Scholars Symposium on Rock Mechanics, which was sponsored by the ISRM and held on 1416 October 2011 in Beijing, China, immediately preceding the 12th ISRM Congress on Rock Mechanics.

Rock Mechanics

Materials for High Temperature Power Generation and Process Plant Applications

Materials for High Temperature Power Generation and Process Plant Applications

These proceedings contain the papers covering materials for high temperature power plant and process plant applications presented at Materials Congress 98 Frontiers in Material Science and Technology. The selected papers are largely in the form of critical reviews covering the development of materials for both current and future applications.

Materials for High Temperature Power Generation and Process Plant Applications

Insect Life Cycles

Insect Life Cycles

The International Congress of Entomology holds regular symposia on insect life-cyles every four years. This book arose from papers contributed by most of the speakers at the latest symposium held in Vancouver, BC (Canada), July 1988. This volume provides a diverse array of studies on insect life-cycle evolution which can be broken down into three main levels of approach: (a) comparisons of genetic variation and covariation underlying life-cycle traits; (b) comparisons of variable phenotypes within and among populations of the same and/or related species; and (c) comparisons of habitat-specific traits regardless of relatedness. While the material is particularly relevant to scientists and researchers within this field, both undergraduate and graduate level students will find the material relevant to their studies.

Insect Life Cycles

Justice Perverted

Justice Perverted

Over the past quarter century Congress, state legislatures and the courts have radically reshaped America’s laws dealing with sex offenders in an effort to reduce the prevalence of sex offenses. Most convicted sex offenders must now register with the authorities, who then make information about them available to the public. Possession of child pornography has been made an extremely serious crime often punishable by prison sentences that dwarf those meted out to child molesters, rapists, robbers, and even killers. Federal law now imposes a minimum sentence of ten years in prison for those convicted of using the internet to attempt to lure minors for sex. And the federal government and 20 states have ‘sexually violent predator’ laws that allow the indefinite civil commitment of convicted sex offenders to secure institutions for treatment after they have served their full criminal sentences.All of these changes in sex offender law, as well as numerous others, have been based at least in part on input from psychology, psychiatry and the social sciences. Moreover, enforcement and administration of many of these laws relies to a large extent on the efforts of mental health professionals. However, many questions about this involvement remain largely unanswered. Are these laws supported by empirical evidence, or even by well-reasoned psychological theories? Do these laws actually work? Are mental health professionals capable of reliably determining an offender’s future behavior, and how best to manage it? Finally, are experts capable of providing effective treatment for sex offenders — i.e., treatment that actually reduces the likelihood that an identified sex offender will re-offend?In Justice Perverted, Charles Patrick Ewing poses these difficult questions and others that few in either law or psychology have asked, much less tried to answer. Drawing on research from across the social and behavioral sciences, he weighs the evidence for the spectrum of sex offense laws, to occasionally surprising results. A rational look at an intensely emotional subject, Justice Perverted is an essential book for anyone interested in the science behind public practice.

Justice Perverted