Chris Koski

Examining state environmental regulatory policy design

Abstract This paper develops a scheme for characterizing variation in the structure of state environmental regulatory policy design. The rules, policy tools and incentives built into regulatory policies affect the manner in which policies are implemented, and, ultimately, the actions of target populations toward the ambient environment. Variation in state concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) regulation is examined as a specific case of subnational regulatory policy design. These operations can have substantial environmental impacts on local communities and large cumulative impacts on waterways. Using a content analysis of CAFO policy across states, the paper shows state policy designs to vary on three dimensions: scope, stringency and prescription. This research calls attention to the use of more detailed measures of environmental policy design rather than unitary measures typically used in environmental policy research.

Diffusion tensor imaging of the pediatric optic nerve: Intrinsic and extrinsic pathology compared to normal controls

To establish normative magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (MRDTI) data in the pediatric optic nerve and compare to pathologic conditions both intrinsic and extrinsic to the anterior optic nerve pathway.

Punctuated Budgets and Governors’ Institutional Powers

State budgets are flexible: In the same year, some budget categories dramatically rise or fall, whereas others closely follow the previous year’s appropriation. Public policy scholars label a budget that contains mainly small scale changes interspersed with dramatic fluctuations as punctuated. This research seeks to identify the determinants of these punctuated budgets in the American states. What causes both incremental and large scale budgetary change? We argue that a governor’s agenda setting and veto powers increase the extent to which state budgets are punctuated. First, institutionally strong governors can dominate budgetary agendas but are subject to heightened information costs. Second, strong governors can also block legislative alternatives, but thereby induce transactions costs that hinder fiscal policy adjustments. The article analyzes these institutional constraints at the American state level using maximum likelihood estimation on panel data from 1983 to 1999. We make two contributions to the study of American public policy. First, we offer a broad empirical analysis of the causes of punctuated change. Second, we present a method by which to measure punctuated distributions over time. This method can be applied to other areas of public policy research.

Linear Longitudinal Decline in Fractional Anisotropy in Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Background and Purpose:As potential therapies aimed at halting or slowing the decline in upper motor neuron function in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or primary lateral sclerosis (PLS) are developed, a quantitative method for monitoring response will be necessary. Measurement of fractional anisotropy (FA) using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) over time should parallel functional decline from upper motor neuron degeneration in these patients.Patients and Methods:Two patients with definite ALS were imaged at 3.0 T and FA values were obtained in the corticospinal tract every 3 months for 1 year. The FA values were compared to normal age-matched controls.Results:Both patients showed linear decreases in FA values over time with R2 values ranging from 0.93 to 0.99. The decline became statistically significant over the course of the study. Qualitative decreases in anisotropy were also evident on FA maps.Conclusion:If these trends can be validated in greater numbers of patients, DTI may serve as an objective quantitative biomarker for disease progression in patients with upper motor neuron disease.ZusammenfassungHintergrund und Ziel:Da potentielle Therapien entwickelt werden, welche auch auf die Beendigung oder Verlangsamung der Funktionsminderung der oberen Motoneuronen bei Patienten mit amyotrophischer Lateralsklerose (ALS) oder primärer Lateralsklerose (PLS) abzielen, ist eine quantitative Methode zur Reaktionskontrolle erforderlich. Die Messung der fraktionalen Anisotropie (FA) mittels Diffusions-Tensor-Bildgebung (DTI) im Zeitablauf bei diesen Patienten sollte dem funktionalen Rückgang der Degeneration der oberen Motoneuronen entsprechen.Patienten und Methodik:Zwei Patienten mit nachgewiesener ALS wurden einer Bildgebung mit 3,0 T unterzogen, und 1 Jahr lang wurden alle 3 Monate die FA-Werte im Tractus corticospinalis gemessen. Die FA-Werte wurden mit gesunden, altersentsprechenden Kontrollpersonen verglichen.Ergebnisse:Mit R2-Werten im Bereich von 0,93–0,99 wiesen beide Patienten im Zeitablauf eine lineare Abnahme der FA-Werte auf. Im Verlauf der Studie wurde die Abnahme statistisch signifikant. In den FA-Maps zeigten sich zudem qualitative Rückgänge der Anisotropie.Schlussfolgerung:Wenn sich diese Tendenzen bei einer größeren Anzahl von Patienten nachweisen lassen, kann die DTI bei Patienten mit oberer Motoneuronerkrankung als objektiver quantitativer Biomarker für den Krankheitsfortschritt dienen.

Mitigating Global Warming in Global Cities: Comparing Participation and Climate Change Policies of C40 Cities

Abstract Cities face similar challenges to nation-states in coming together for climate change agreements. Cities have joined trans-municipal networks to overcome these collective action problems that provide common problem definitions, policy solutions, formal channels of communication, and publicity. Analyzing the relationship between participation in a network and cities’ mitigation policies in 57 C40 member cities using ordered logit models, the article asks what effect group membership has on actual climate change mitigation actions at the city level. The results speak to the growing importance of transnational institutions in providing assistance and visibility to subnational efforts to address international issues.

Committed to protection? partnerships in critical infrastructure protection

Critical infrastructure protection policy in the United States is broad and complex. The partnership of actors lead by the Department of Homeland Security incorporates “traditional” areas of infrastructure such as water treatment plants and road construction, but also new areas such telecommunications, banking, the food supply, and information systems or “cyberinfrastrucure.” Critical infrastructure protection policy depends upon these actors working together in large, yet loose partnership to identify and mitigate risks to critical infrastructures. In many cases, however, the only thing that these actors have in common is that DHS has designated them to be “critical infrastructure.” How can DHS exhort participation on the parts of different actors? Is this exhortation working?This article examines the efforts of DHS to build a partnership for CIP by specifically looking at mechanisms by which DHS can build commitment to CIP amongst partners (in this case, actors in sectors). A broader contribution of this article, however, is to assess the relative infrastructure focus or coherence of each DHS-designated sector of CIP that is involved in the national plan to protect critical infrastructure. The article relies upon data from federal budgets, sector participant attention to CIP, congressional hearings, and public laws to examine efforts to build new or leverage existing commitment in partners for CIP. I conclude that many of DHS efforts are working, but that success in building commitment is largely confined to sectors with existing ties to earlier conceptions of CIP.

Issue expertise in policymaking

In considering issue expertise in policymaking, we unpack differences in the supply and types of expertise with attention to the presumed privileged role of the bureaucracy. Our empirical investigation is based on witness testimonies of congressional hearings for a policy area involving various forms of expertise – critical infrastructure protection policymaking. Three sets of findings stand out. One set substantiates the role of the bureaucracy as an important information conduit while also showing it is not a primary source of issue expertise. A second set shows how differences in issue maturity and salience affect the demand for and supply of expertise. A third set illustrates the influence of a small cadre of hyper-expertise in drawing attention to problems and solutions across different venues. These findings challenge the conventional view of the bureaucracy in policymaking while expanding the understanding of different sources of information and types of issue expertise in policymaking.

Regulatory Choices: Analyzing State Policy Design

Social regulatory policy designs are the outcomes of combinations of political decisions. This article addresses the factors that affect specific choices about regulatory provisions, which I term the scope, stringency, and prescription of policy design. These are investigated for American state efforts to regulate the water quality impacts of concentrated animal feeding operations. I find that Republican partisan control reduces the scope of a policy design; environmental groups work to increase design stringency, while trade groups work to reduce it; and governors use personal and formal powers to influence the prescription of regulatory provisions.

Does a Partnership Need Partners? Assessing Partnerships for Critical Infrastructure Protection

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has used a partnership planning model of implementation to address the protection of critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR). The partnership relies upon existing regulators and operators to secure CIKR with little ability of DHS to compel action. Instead, the Department of Homeland Security acts to define and draw attention to tasks related critical infrastructure protection. This article analyzes Government Accountability Office reports to characterize variations in success of the partnership by assessing the extent to which DHS has addressed key components of partnership planning: creating a structure that encourages collaboration, establishing trust across partners, monitoring partners’ performance, attending to differences in partners’ organizational culture, identifying and leveraging existing relationships among partners, and instilling a sense of a common mission in the partnership. The findings underscore the limitations of partnership approaches in addressing complex problems that lack strong leadership and clear policy goals.

Representation in Collaborative Governance: A Case Study of a Food Policy Council:

Representation is a hallmark of democratic governance. Widely studied within traditional modes of governance, representation is less studied in alternative governance settings, such as collaborative governance arrangements. Collaborative governance arrangements are specifically designed to encourage inclusion and participation among a diverse array of stakeholders in some part of the policy process. Our research contrasts different forms of representation observed in a collaborative governance arrangement and identifies factors contributing to observed patterns in representation therein. We analyze descriptive representation (i.e., “representation in form”) or substantive representation (i.e., “representation in practice”) and look for inconsistencies between them. Our case study is a regional food policy council located in the Western United States. Among our findings is that discrepancies between descriptive and substantive representation can be explained by shared goals, local norms, organizational structure, and heterogeneity in member capacity. We conclude our article with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of this research.