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Preventive maintenance (PM) is defined as regularly scheduled maintenance actions based on average failure rates. A properly implemented PM strategy can provide many benefits to an organization in terms of extending equipment life, optimizing resource expenditures, and balancing work schedules. Periodic evaluation of a PM strategy can help identify ways to improve efficiencies and maximize effectiveness. This research effort was accomplished by performing a case study of the United States Air Force's infrastructure and facility PM program known as the Recurring Work Program (RWP). The methodology consisted of two phases. The first phase, intended to develop an understanding of the gap between the current program and what it needs to become, consisted of two segments: data collection and a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis. Data was collected during 25 interviews with a wide variety of Air Force members highly experienced with the RWP. Using the interview data, the SWOT analysis compared the state of the current program to relevant maintenance management theory and best practices from industry; this analysis resulted in the identification of one strength, six weaknesses, eight opportunities, and seven threats to the RWP. The second phase of the methodology consisted of developing a model to bridge the gap between the current RWP and what it needs to become. It resulted in eight Focus Areas (FAs) that were based on the findings from the SWOT analysis; each FA represents a unique theme of practical recommendations for improving the program. As a result of this research, maintenance managers have a practical tool to help evaluate and modernize their facilities and infrastructure PM strategy. Additionally, the Air Force has a model for modernizing its RWP.

The Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters is administered by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), a trilateral institution established by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States as part of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC). The CEC received 55 submissions from June 1995 to May 2006, although these remain to be substantially discussed in the literature. This study fills in some of the gaps through an analysis of the submission process from an actor and results-based perspective. Two guiding questions form the basis for this article: What are some key demographic or geographical differences among "whistle-blowers" and has the submission process achieved its goals? The conclusion is that key differences among submitters are due to such interlinked factors as gender, place, and issue, which should be more carefully considered by the CEC and other related institutions to enhance effectiveness.

This article recognises the paucity of scholarly work on environmental governance in Latin America. More specifically, it is hypothesised that community-based forest management in Mexico serves as an ideal case of ecologically beneficial and democratic decision-making, or ecological democracy. After introducing some of the relevant literature, this hypothesis is tested through a comparison of two indigenous forest-based communities in Oaxaca's Sierra Norte. Four key themes primarily emerged from semi-structured interviews, participant observation and other data collection techniques: local governance, equitable decision-making, forest management and environmental awareness. In comparing these two Mexican communities, this article aims to extend ideas of ecological democracy by linking empirical findings to political ecology theory and community forestry literature. While it is true that ecological democracy in Mexico has been facilitated under certain socio-cultural conditions, it is concluded that it can be simultaneously hindered. The empirical findings provide an analytical framework for subsequent research on ecological democracy in Latin America.

International audience ; Unlike several previous efforts that have discussed ecological forms of democracy in vague or esoteric terms, this article elucidates key factors that may affect the realization of ecological democracy. In the first section, ecological democracy is defined as an alternative democratic model that 1) strives to incorporate interested citizens into environmental decision-making, and 2) lacks structural features that systematically concentrate environmental amenities into the hands of particular social groups, while imposing environmental and ecological degradation on others. This leads to a discussion of several hindering and facilitating factors that either thwart or encourage ecological democracy. Two examples in support of this discussion on ecological democracy are provided: border contamination due to heavy industrial use along the US-Mexican border, and community forestry in the southeastern state of Oaxaca. By analyzing relevant factors that either have prevented or encouraged democratic environmental decision-making, this research will serve to improve environmental policy formulation and governance.

Unlike several previous efforts that have discussed ecological forms of democracy in vague or esoteric terms, this article elucidates key factors that may affect the realization of ecological democracy. In the first section, ecological democracy is defined as an alternative democratic model that 1) strives to incorporate interested citizens into environmental decision-making, and 2) lacks structural features that systematically concentrate environmental amenities into the hands of particular social groups, while imposing environmental and ecological degradation on others. This leads to a discussion of several hindering and facilitating factors that either thwart or encourage ecological democracy. Two examples in support of this discussion on ecological democracy are provided: border contamination due to heavy industrial use along the US-Mexican border, and community forestry in the southeastern state of Oaxaca. By analyzing relevant factors that either have prevented or encouraged democratic environmental decision-making, this research will serve to improve environmental policy formulation and governance.

Data from the 1999-2000 Annual Survey of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and Youth (GRI Annual Survey; Gallaudet Research Institute, 2000) are systematically compared with those summarized by the U.S. Department of Education (2001, 2002) in the Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to estimate the degree to which findings based on the GRI Annual Survey sample are likely to be representative of the population of deaf and hard of hearing children and youth served under IDEA. An appropriate weighting system is then applied to provide more nationally representative estimates of the characteristics of deaf and hard of hearing students served under IDEA and, more important, to provide a better national description of these students and the services they receive than would otherwise be available.

This paper examines personal experience as both a sociologist and forester collecting data in the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico. It builds on writings where researchers have taken an introspective or auto/biographical approach to problematizing their own involvement. My findings illustrate that demographic and social features such as gender, nationality, and language can both hinder and privilege social science research. Moreover, this paper disputes the contention that expertise in a given specialty automatically makes for good field research. Depending upon the type of research and the questions being addressed, previous professional experience may actually hinder the building of rapport in certain cases. Genuine efforts to engage in local discourse can ultimately serve to improve fieldwork, and contribute to mutual understanding.