The Inspector General (IG)'s mission is to expose fraud, waste and abuse as well as promoting efficiency in federal agencies. Each year billions of dollars are returned to the Federal government or ...are better spent based on recommendations from IGs reports. IG investigations have also contributed to the prosecution of thousands of wrongdoers including contractors and public employees. With scarce literature on Inspectors General (IGs), Apaza addresses this by looking at the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which has proven to be of significant benefit to the US government.
The conventional literature on diaspora politics tends to focus on one 'homeland' state and its relations with 'sojourning' diaspora around the world. This paper examines an instance of 'bifurcated ...homeland:' the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) since 1949. The paper investigates the changing dynamics of China's and Taiwan's diaspora policies towards Overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia throughout the Cold War and post-Cold War periods. They were affected by their ideological competition, the rise of Chinese nationalism, and the 'indigenisation' of Taiwanese identity. Illustrating such changes through the case of the KMT Yunnanese communities in Northern Thailand, this paper makes two interrelated arguments. First, we should understand relations through the lens of interactive dynamics between international system-level changes and domestic political transformations. Depending on different normative underpinnings of the international system, the foundations of regime legitimacy have changed. Subsequently, the nature of relations between the diaspora and the homeland(s) transformed from one that emphasises ideological differences during the Cold War, to one infused with nationalist authenticity in the post-Cold War period. Second, the bifurcated nature of the two homelands also created mutual influences on their diaspora policies during periods of intense competition.
The starting point for this study is the dynamic view of homeland formulated by e.g. Karol Wojtyła in his Thinking Homeland (“When I think homeland, I seek the road that cuts through mountainsides… ...it runs steeply up in each of us and does not allow to stand still”). The study focuses on two profiles of the Polish concept: the noble-intelligentsia profile and the folk-peasant profile. In the former, which continues the tradition of military legions, the relationship between people and homeland is modelled in accordance with the patriotic-heroic ethos, deriving from the Romantic tradition and focusing on active resistance and sacrifice. In the latter, the predominant mood is expiatory, connected with the responsibility for the collapase of the the 1st Polish (Nobility) Republic. This profile includes the all-national homeland, then the regional and European homeland – the ideas of the state, civic, and cultural homeland compete with one another. The folk profile of homeland derives from the tradition of Polish peasantry – peasants did not feel responsible for the collapse of the state, being de facto slaves in the Poland of nobility. The peasant ethos, based on the idea of joint work and social solidarity, is close to the positivistic spirit. It links the idea of duty (homeland can ask for sacrifice) with that of expectation (homeland should extend one’s care over people). The folk profile includes the homeland of family and home, the local homeland, the national homeland, as well as the world as people’s homeland. It is assumed that the two profiles of homeland are to a great extent complementary.
The radiation produced when an intense laser interacts with a solid target could provide a cheaper source of X-rays to synchrotrons and free-electron lasers. But they can also produce short bursts of ...gamma rays, whereas synchrotrons do not.
Statutes and regulations are frequently designed to affect the public in specific ways. But exactly how these laws ultimately impact the public often depends on how politicians go about securing ...control of the complex public agencies that implement policies, and how these organizations in turn are used to define the often-contested concept of "national security." Governing Security explores this dynamic by investigating the surprising history of two major federal agencies that touch the lives of Americans every day: the Roosevelt-era Federal Security Agency––which eventually became today's Department of Health and Human Services––and the more recently created Department of Homeland Security. By describing the legal, political, and institutional history of both organizations, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar offers a compelling account of crucial developments affecting the basic architecture of our nation. He shows how Americans end up choosing security goals not through an elaborate technical process, but in lively and overlapping settings involving conflict over statutory programs, agency autonomy, presidential power, and priorities for domestic and international risk regulation. Ultimately, as Cuéllar shows, ongoing fights about the scope of national security reshape the very structure of government and the intricate process through which statutes and regulations are implemented, particularly during––or in anticipation of––a national crisis.
This paper presents new developments in inorganic scintillators widely used for radiation detection. It addresses major emerging research topics outlining current needs for applications and material ...sciences issues with the overall aim to provide an up-to-date picture of the field. While the traditional forms of scintillators have been crystals and ceramics, new research on films, nanoparticles, and microstructured materials is discussed as these material forms can bring new functionality and therefore find applications in radiation detection. The last part of the contribution reports on the very recent evolutions of the most advanced theories, methods, and analyses to describe the scintillation mechanisms.
X-ray radiography systems are a key national security technology enabling non-invasive cargo screening. However, the scintillators currently used in these systems have limitations in performance that ...prompt research for new suitable materials. Here, in this work, crystal growth, physical properties, and optical and scintillation properties of a new halide perovskite scintillator RbSrI3 were investigated for the first time. The melting point was determined to be 453 °C. Divalent europium and ytterbium were investigated as potential luminescent activators. Light yield and energy resolution of RbSrI3:Eu 5 mol% was 78,700 ph/MeV and 2.8 % at 662 keV, and that of RbSrI3:Yb 0.5 mol% was 24,000 ph/MeV and 4.9 % at 662 keV.
Despite its increased recognition among tourism planners and destination governments, a lacuna exists regarding the motivation of diaspora tourists travelling to a destination they regard as an ...ancestral homeland. Thus, in the current research, we seek to develop and validate a scale that measures the motivations of diaspora tourists. The result of a rigorous seven-stage scale development procedure generates a five-factor structure for diaspora tourists’ motivations. The scale is successfully verified through various reliability and validity tests. This multidimensional scale of diaspora tourist motivations contributes to our understanding of the nature of diaspora tourism.
Based on archival sources and relevant literature, this paper portrays political circumstances and security situation in Western Slavonia from 1989, that is, from collapse of the communist systems in ...Europe and destabilisation of Yugoslavia by the political leadership of the Socialist Republic of Serbia, up until August 1991 when the overt Greater-Serbian Aggression started in Western Slavonia. Democratic processes in Europe also seized western Yugoslav republics, Slovenia and Croatia. These republics advocated either the restructure of Yugoslavia as a confederal state, or their independence in case that the political agreement with other republics about common state system was not feasible. Conversely, Serbian political leadership’s goal, supported by pro-Serbian oriented leadership of the federal Yugoslav People’s Army, was to impose Yugoslavia as a centralized state under the domination of Serbs, as the most numerous Yugoslav nation. After this policy failed, Serbian leadership attempted to create Greater Serbia which would comprise all territories which Serbian leadership considered as historically and ethnically a Serbian territory. Among others, that also included Western Slavonia where a certain part of population were ethnic Serbs. Part of these Serbs, as well as ethnic Serbs in certain other parts of Croatia, supported by Belgrade, gradually commenced rebellion against the Croatian authorities. Insurgency was led by representatives of Serbian Democratic Party whose centre was in town Knin. In the first phase of destabilisation the emphasis was on the thesis that the Serbs were endangered in Western Slavonia, in order to radicalize as many as possible, which was successfully implemented, and finally led to terrorist actions culminating with the open aggression in Western Slavonia.
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