This article examines tribal governance and its relationship with the U.S. government through the lens of laws and treaties. There are more than 550 American Indian and Alaska Native tribes in the United States. Tribes are sovereigns having their own governance structures, with rich cultures that are intertwined with the founding of our nation. This calls for a renewed awareness of tribes by the field of public administration, requiring careful consideration and respect of tribal cultural, historic, and social values, which are an integral part of tribal governance.

The mission operations directorate (MOD) at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) is responsible for the planning and operation of human space flight missions. MOD is being challenged with sustaining and developing new operations capabilities to support increasingly demanding requirements and to improve its processes to accomplish these missions at higher levels of safety, mission success, and effectiveness. Automation is being considered as an enabling technology to meet the aforementioned challenges. The synergistic combination of flight controllers and intelligent software providing the function of 'operations assistants' (OA) is being pursued as the key implementation of this technology in the Mission Control Center (MCC).The flight control team (FCT) assesses the condition and operability of the major systems such as electrical power, thermal control, life support, communications, altitude control, and data handling at MCC. OA assist the flight controllers with their tasks of monitoring the status and health of the flight systems. They also help maintain the flight controller's awareness of the operations being performed during the mission and help assure that operational objectives are being met. The station duty officer (SDO) performs the lead operations role for the International Space Station (ISS) during quiescent times when FCT and the flight director are off-duty. SDOs assess the condition and operability of the major ISS systems. This assessment involves monitoring and controlling several periodic processes on systems such as the electrical power, thermal control, life support, communications, altitude control, and data handling systems. The SDO is also responsible for coordinating operations with the Russian FCT. The OA will help the SDO maintain an awareness of all the processes performed on board and will assist with the responses to anomalous conditions. The OA for this position will support the concept of reduced control center staffing during quiescent times. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to present a unique two-stage specification methodology that combines data flow diagrams and petri nets and (2) to apply the proposed methodology in a complex space station system. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

No abstract

No abstract

The issue of solid waste management in Indian country is multidimensional in scope because it affects more than just regulatory concerns. There are more than 550 federally recognized Alaska Native and American Indian Tribes in the United States. Tribes are sovereign nations that have a special relationship to the federal government and a unique legal status. The environmental problems faced by tribes are many, and it is only fair that tribes, as sovereigns, specify the levels of protection on their lands. The one-size-fits-all regulatory approach to environmental problems and solid waste management in particular does not work and often leads to conflict between tribes and the federal and state governments. Inherent tensions also exist between tribes and various levels of government concerning jurisdiction of lands and managing solid waste. These intergovernmental relationships are often complex and present unique challenges to all. More research needs to be done on targeting resources to meet the capacity-building needs of tribes, as well as the overall environmental management needs of Indian country under the federal trust obligation. Successful intergovernmental relationships can be fostered through partnership arrangements between tribes and federal, state, and local governments. In the area of solid waste such partnerships have worked. It requires that all levels of government deal with tribes with careful consideration of their cultural, historic, and socioeconomic aspects, which are often intertwined.