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The Sino-U.S. relations tumbled during the Trump Administration. The talk of decoupling permeated the decision-making circle in Washington D.C. Many factors have contributed to the free fall. The roles Congress has played are undoubtedly one of them. Based on the new institutionalist approach, this study provides three analyses of recent China-related legislative activities. First, the historical analysis of legislative data illustrates a surge in congressional activism on China-related legislative activities. Second, the content analysis reveals some of the triggers in the deterioration of bilateral relations in recent years. Third, the political analysis of the critical congressional players and the structures and procedures Congress created provides some insight into the domestic and political logic of the congressional crusade against China. Finally, the paper ends with assessing the impact of the surge in Congressional activism on the new Biden Administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUBSTANCE abuse prevention, SUBSTANCE abuse -- Law & legislation, CONFIDENCE intervals, RESEARCH methodology, RULES, HEALTH outcome assessment, DESCRIPTIVE statistics, STATISTICAL sampling, POLICY sciences, CONTENT analysis, ODDS ratio, MEDICAL research, FEDERAL government, and DIFFUSION of innovations

Background and Aims: The growing body of research evidence on substance use and substance use disorder (SU/SUD) prevention could be leveraged to strengthen the intended impact of policies that address SU/SUD. The aim of the present study was to explore how research was used in United States federal legislation that emphasized SU/SUD prevention. Design: Using a mixed‐methods approach, we assessed whether the use of research predicted a bill's legislative progress. We randomly sampled 10 bills that represented different types of research keywords to examine how research was used in these bills, applying content analysis. Setting: United States Congress. Participants/Cases: Federal legislation introduced between the 101st and the 114th Congresses (1989–2017; n = 1866). Measurements The quantitative outcome measures were bills' likelihood of passing out of committee and being enacted. Qualitative outcomes included the ways research was used in legislation. Findings Bills that used any research language were 2.2 times more likely to pass out of committee (OR = 2.18; 95% CI, 1.75, 2.72) and 82% more likely to be enacted (OR = 1.82; 95% CI, 1.23, 2.69) than bills not using research language. Bills using dissemination words were 57% more likely to pass out of committee (OR = 1.57; CI, 1.08, 2.28) and analysis words were 93% more likely (OR = 1.93; 95% CI, 1.51, 2.47) than bills not using dissemination or analysis words. Research was used to (i) define the problem to justify legislative action, (ii) address the problem by providing funding, and (iii) address the problem through industry regulations. However, there was a lack of research use that targets underlying risk and protective factors. Conclusions: In the US Congress, substance use and substance use disorder prevention bills that use research language appear to be more likely to progress in the legislative cycle than bills that do not, suggesting that legislation using research may be viewed as more credible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ARTIFICIAL organs and CONFERENCES & conventions

HT

Date	Event	Venue	Contact
6-10 September 2022	48th Annual Congress of the European Society for Artificial Organs (ESAO)	Krems, Austria
10-14 September 2022	29th International Congress of The Transplantation Society	Buenos Aires, Argentina
14-17 September 2022	33rd Annual ELSO Conference	Boston, MA, USA

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TRIALS (Law), CONVERSATION analysis, and LINGUISTICS

Through a 'micro' and 'macro' level analysis, this study focuses on elements of questioning and question design in the Senate Judiciary hearing conducted for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Specifically, two lines of questioning are analyzed: that of Kamala Harris, D. California, and that of Ted Cruz, R. Texas. Through an analysis that builds heavily on prior research that uses Conversation Analysis (CA) to understand the news interview, this study attempts to expand such research to institutional talk done by politicians in Congress. The analysis portion of the paper investigates, on a 'micro' level, the linguistic elements at play in each line of questioning. In the discussion section, a 'macro' level analysis situates the findings of this paper within the broader US political climate among the public and in terms of the growing conservatism of the Supreme Court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MEDICAID beneficiaries, MEDICAL care, MEDICAL personnel, MILITARY hospitals, UNITED States armed forces, MEDICAL quality control, and MILITARY dependents

Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that those receiving direct care were younger, had a highe proportiong of females, and were healthier than MHS beneficiaries receiving private care or the general civilian population. Costs for breast cancer care in the Military Health System: an analysis by benefit type and care source. The role of direct care federal health systems, including the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the Indian Health Service (IHS), and the Military Health System (MHS), have long been a topic of debate in Congress and policy circles concerning access, cost, and quality. For the comparison between direct care and private care, those receiving direct care were also less senior in their military careers. [Extracted from the article]

SPIES, LIBERTY, COURTS-martial & courts of inquiry, BRITISH monarchy, AMERICAN identity, MILITARY policy, and CAMPAIGN funds

In the weeks before it declared independence, the Continental Congress was already at work building the institutions it would need to maintain the new republic. In June 1776, a committee was appointed to explore linking the 13 provincial legislatures in a Confederation. Another was tasked to consider how the United Colonies, soon to become the United States of America, could protect itself against Great Britain by striking treaties with European powers. But before these committees were formed, the Congress first appointed a "Committee on Spies" to deal with a chronic problem: how the law should treat "persons giving intelligence to the enemy, or supplying them with provisions." The resolutions that were the Committee's answer re-defined the law of treason, substituting a new notion of American sovereignty in place of the allegiance that had been owed the British monarchy. They drew a bright line between those lukewarm or hostile to the Revolution, and the new American identity embraced by its supporters. And they placed limits on the military's ability to try civilians charged with spying by court-martial, setting a precedent for American military justice. This paper argues that the impact of the Committee's work has been under-examined, as has been its influence on George Washington and the evolving American policy of military deference to civil authority in matters of justice. It explores how the Committee's "Resolves" prompted the creation of new treason statutes in nearly all the United "States," which in turn prompted hundreds of prosecutions. The paper revises scholars' views on how and why the Spies Committee was formed. It traces the Committee's contribution to language incorporated by the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution's article on treason, drafted 13 years later by a scholar who had been a Spies Committee member. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Constitution's division of powers from which E. Corwin famously asserted an "invitation to struggle" in the making of US foreign policy (1957, 171) has become overshadowed by partisan conflict in the contemporary era. Although much of the extant literature points to Congress's subsidiary role in foreign policy relative to the presidency-centered model, the appeal of partisanship has worked to further deepen congressional abrogation and extend presidential unilateralism (Lindsay in Congress and the politics of U.S. Foreign Policy. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1994; Kriner in After the rubicon: congress, presidents, and the politics of waging war. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2010; Potter in Pres Stud Quart 46(4):849–867, 2016). Our analysis illustrates a puzzle. On one hand, there are growing levels of majority support in the USA for political leadership on the world stage. But on the other hand, our analysis of congressional behavior such as voting, lawmaking, and oversight shows relatively clear patterns of congressional decline—Congress no longer exercises much of its power in foreign affairs, neither in form or substance. Partisan incentives for congressional abdication to the presidency carry at least one additional risk we point to: Congressional capitulation from its constitutional duty places democracy in the jeopardy that the Framers' design was intended to prevent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COGNITION disorders, LEWY body dementia, DEMENTIA patients, ALZHEIMER'S disease, VASCULAR dementia, OLDER patients, APOLIPOPROTEIN E4, and ACETYLCHOLINESTERASE

We evaluated the effect of Acetyl-cholinesterase-inhibitors (AChEIs) on cognitive decline and overall survival in a large sample of older patients with late onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD), vascular dementia (VD) or Lewy body disease (LBD) from a real world setting. Patients with dementia enrolled between 2005 and 2020 by the "Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers" were analysed; the mean follow-up period was 7.9 years. A 1:1 propensity score matching was performed generating a cohort of 1.572 patients (786 treated [AChEIs +] and 786 not treated [AChEIs-] with AChEIs. The MMSE score was almost stable during the first 6 years of follow up in AChEIs + and then declined, while in AChEIs− it progressively declined so that at the end of follow-up (13.6 years) the average decrease in MMSE was 10.8 points in AChEIs- compared with 5.4 points in AChEIs + (p < 0.001). This trend was driven by LOAD (Δ-MMSE:−10.8 vs. −5.7 points; p < 0.001), although a similar effect was observed in VD (Δ-MMSE:−11.6 vs. −8.8; p < 0.001). No effect on cognitive status was found in LBD. At multivariate Cox regression analysis (adjusted for age, gender, dependency level and depression) a strong association between AChEIs therapy and lower all-cause mortality was observed (H.R.:0.59; 95%CI: 0.53–0.66); this was confirmed also in analyses separately conducted in LOAD, VD and LBD. Among older people with dementia, treatment with AChEIs was associated with a slower cognitive decline and with reduced mortality, after a mean follow-up of almost eight years. Our data support the effectiveness of AChEIs in older patients affected by these types of dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the deadliest cancers worldwide, associated with a 98% loss of life expectancy and a 30% increase in disability-adjusted life years. Image-based artificial intelligence (AI) can help improve outcomes for PDAC given that current clinical guidelines are non-uniform and lack evidence-based consensus. However, research on image-based AI for PDAC is too scattered and lacking in sufficient quality to be incorporated into clinical workflows. In this review, an international, multi-disciplinary team of the world's leading experts in pancreatic cancer breaks down the patient pathway and pinpoints the current clinical touchpoints in each stage. The available PDAC imaging AI literature addressing each pathway stage is then rigorously analyzed, and current performance and pitfalls are identified in a comprehensive overview. Finally, the future research agenda for clinically relevant, image-driven AI in PDAC is proposed. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), estimated to become the second leading cause of cancer deaths in western societies by 2030, was flagged as a neglected cancer by the European Commission and the United States Congress. Due to lack of investment in research and development, combined with a complex and aggressive tumour biology, PDAC overall survival has not significantly improved the past decades. Cross-sectional imaging and histopathology play a crucial role throughout the patient pathway. However, current clinical guidelines for diagnostic workup, patient stratification, treatment response assessment, and follow-up are non-uniform and lack evidence-based consensus. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can leverage multimodal data to improve patient outcomes, but PDAC AI research is too scattered and lacking in quality to be incorporated into clinical workflows. This review describes the patient pathway and derives touchpoints for image-based AI research in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional expert panel. The literature exploring AI to address these touchpoints is thoroughly retrieved and analysed to identify the existing trends and knowledge gaps. The results show absence of multi-institutional, well-curated datasets, an essential building block for robust AI applications. Furthermore, most research is unimodal, does not use state-of-the-art AI techniques, and lacks reliable ground truth. Based on this, the future research agenda for clinically relevant, image-driven AI in PDAC is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

POLLING places, POLITICAL parties, POLITICAL elites, ELECTIONS, VOTER turnout, NOMINATIONS for office, SWING states (United States politics), and VOTE buying

But Tinubu's feat was the more remarkable given that he prevailed - against the opposition of President Buhari, vice-president Osinbajo, Senate president B Ahmad Lawan b and APC Chairman B Abdullahi Adamu b . B Campaigning has already started for the February 2023 presidential poll. b Former Lagos State Governor B Bola Tinubu b emerged the winner of the ruling All Progressives Congress ( B APC b ) party primaries held in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. [...] Their record in government is questionable but Tinubu and Abubakar are skilled at managing political parties. [Extracted from the article]

RUNOFF elections, ELECTIONS, PARTISANSHIP, DEMOCRATS (United States), VOTING, PRESIDENTIAL elections, and FEDERAL government

Recent work on American presidential elections suggests that voters engage in anticipatory balancing, which occurs when voters split their ticket in order to moderate collective policy outcomes by forcing agreement among institutions controlled by opposing parties. We use the 2021 Georgia U.S. Senate runoffs, which determined whether Democrats would have unified control of the federal government given preceding November victories by President-elect Biden and House Democrats, to evaluate support for anticipatory balancing. Leveraging an original survey of Georgia voters, we find no evidence of balancing within the general electorate and among partisans across differing model specifications. We use qualitative content analysis of voter electoral runoff intentions to support our findings and contextualize the lack of evidence for balancing withan original analysis showing the unprecedented partisan nature of contemporary Senate elections since direct-election began in 1914. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

YOUNG women, CRITICAL theory, BABY boom generation, and ELECTIONS

Critical mass theories predict that women in government will sponsor and vote for more women and feminist bills as their numbers increase. Using Voteview.com data of roll-call votes measuring left–right ideology from 1977 to 2019 this paper shows that ideological divides among women in the U.S. House of Representatives have deepened rather than veered in a liberal direction. Republican women have moved rightward over time and more conservative ones are winning elections. Belonging to a politicized generation, older Silent Generation and Boomer women are more ideologically extreme than younger women. Parties are also elevating their more ideological female members. As their numbers increase, female House members are expected to remain ideologically diverse in a polarized legislative environment. Critical mass theories are deficient in failing to place female political actors in a dynamic workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LEGISLATIVE voting, VOTING, DEMOGRAPHIC characteristics, ELECTIONS, DEMOCRATS (United States), and REPUBLICANS

Why do some members of Congress vote more on the extremes of their party than others? I argue that lawmakers representing more homogeneously white districts have greater electoral incentive to moderate their voting records, since the two parties compete more for support of white voters than for the support of minority voters. I provide evidence using roll-call votes from the U.S. House and Senate. I find members representing more homogeneously white districts have more moderate voting records, a finding that holds for Democrats and Republicans. I explore two potential mechanisms: legislator responsiveness and electoral punishment. While legislators do not seem to adjust their voting behavior in response to short-term changes in district racial composition, more homogeneously white districts are found to assess larger vote share penalties on more extreme candidates in general elections. The findings have implications for our understanding of race, representation, and electoral accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MILITARY life, LIFE partners, MILITARY dependents, DEPLOYMENT (Military strategy), and MILITARY research

The emotional cycle of deployment theorized by Logan and adapted by Pincus, House, Christenson, and Alder is often applied by academics and military support agencies to define, explain, and provide advice on the experiences and possible emotional reactions of military families during phases of deployment. Interviews with army partners showed that spatiotemporal experiences and perspectives are more complex than those afforded by the emotional cycle of deployment. This article argues that applying the concept of liminality uncovers some of this complexity, illuminating the in-between times experienced during deployments that are otherwise hidden. Army partners move through and between deployments and deployment phases haunted by specters of past and future deployments. By disrupting seemingly chronological and discrete spatiotemporal narratives, which often frame research on military families and deployment, this article demonstrates how army partners move through and between deployments and deployment stages negotiating past and future deployments. It shows how they continuously adapt and evolve practices while negotiating interpreted pasts and imagined futures in pursuit of becoming "ideal." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUBSTANCE abuse -- Psychological aspects, PUBLIC health, LIBRARY technical services, NATIONAL health services, CHILD welfare, HEALTH systems agencies, MENTAL illness, FEDERAL government, and ADULTS

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is up for some significant changes, including a long‐awaited reauthorization — in a bill under consideration in Congress. On May 6, Frank Pallone, Jr. (D–NJ) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R–Wash.), chairman and ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, released proposed legislation that would reauthorize SAMHSA and revamp many of its programs. Markups (voting by the Health Subcommittee) of the bill, the Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well‐Being Act of 2022, were scheduled for May. Changes included in the bill include changes to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]