articles+ search results

AGRICULTURE, FARMS, FOOD relief, FARM produce, FOOD crops, MONOCULTURE agriculture, and PROCESSED foods

Since then, the Farm Bill has grown immensely to include programs such as soil conservation, crop insurance, forest and wetland protection, nutrition and food assistance, and most recently climate change. Approximately every 5 years the Congress of the United States goes through the challenging process of setting national policy for agriculture that determines funding priorities and programs for the following 5 years. To do this, farmers must be encouraged to shift to practices that build healthy soils that hold water, resist erosion, and keep carbon in the ground. [Extracted from the article]

RANDOM graphs, REGULAR graphs, GRAPH connectivity, ASYMPTOTIC distribution, MATHEMATICIANS, and CENTRAL limit theorem

Given a connected graph $H$ which is not a star, we show that the number of copies of $H$ in a dense uniformly random regular graph is asymptotically Gaussian, which was not known even for $H$ being a triangle. This addresses a question of McKay from the 2010 International Congress of Mathematicians. In fact, we prove that the behavior of the variance of the number of copies of $H$ depends in a delicate manner on the occurrence and number of cycles of $3,4,5$ edges as well as paths of $3$ edges in $H$. More generally, we provide control of the asymptotic distribution of certain statistics of bounded degree which are invariant under vertex permutations, including moments of the spectrum of a random regular graph. Our techniques are based on combining complex-analytic methods due to McKay and Wormald used to enumerate regular graphs with the notion of graph factors developed by Janson in the context of studying subgraph counts in $\mathbb {G}(n,p)$. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UNITED States senators, CONVERSATION analysis, LITERATURE, and VIDEOS

Using conversation analysis, this article examines how questioners manage resistant responses in the context of U.S. Senate hearings. In particular, we examine how questioning Senators use explicit metacommentary – a turn constructional practice in which speakers offer 'on-record' comments on the manner in which a prior turn was formulated – to manage a recipient's resistant responses to polar questions. Within these contexts, metacommentary becomes a resource for highlighting the preference organization of the original question and challenging the adequacy of the recipient's response. The analysis shows how metacommentary not only serves to guide a question recipient toward producing an adequate response, but additionally works to register the questioning Senator's stance toward the inadequacy of the response while highlighting this inadequacy for both the co-present audience and viewers of these publicly televised hearings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UNITED States presidential election, 2020, ELECTIONS, PRIMARIES, POLITICAL campaigns, POLITICAL endorsements, and PARTISANSHIP

In the 2022 midterm elections, Donald Trump made a slew of high-profile endorsements, continuing a trend of prolific endorsement activity established during his time in office. While existing works have largely focused on presidential campaigning in congressional races from sitting presidents, little is known about the effects of this continued activity once a president has left office. This paper therefore assesses trends in President Trump's endorsements across three election cycles (2018–2022), testing whether the types of candidates that Trump chose to endorse and the engagement and electoral effects of these endorsements changed over time. Across all election cycles, his endorsements produced little benefit for candidates in the general election. Endorsed candidates did not benefit financially and collectively received an aggregate vote share penalty of approximately 1.5 percentage points. However, endorsed candidates received a consistent and substantial electoral benefit in Republican primary elections, with these benefits growing marginally over time. Trump's endorsements came increasingly early in the election cycle, with an increased focus on backing likely winners and rewarding political allies during the primaries. As such, significant changes in the types of candidates receiving endorsements after President Trump left office highlight an important shift in post-presidency endorsement strategy, where partisan electoral goals were secondary to a strategic focus on retaining personal influence within the Republican party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GENDER affirmation surgery, RHINOPLASTY, BREAST implants, HEALTH care teams, COVID-19 pandemic, PLASTIC surgery, and MAMMAPLASTY

DIGITAL technology, INVESTORS, BUSINESS enterprises, LEGISLATIVE committees, and CHIEF executive officers

The trading app Robinhood proclaims to be "on a mission to democratise finance for all," but, during the GameStop Revolution of January 2021, Robinhood prohibited its users from selling GME. For a vocal group of users, this restricted access revealed that Robinhood's democratising mission was a farce, and they took to Reddit to critique the company's actions. Subsequent regulatory hearings were held, including a series by the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services that included testimony from the CEOs of both Robinhood and Reddit. We contend that participants' arguments reflect rhetorical strategies used by technological innovators, users, and the institutions that regulate them to manage public engagement in the name of "democracy." Using discourse from CEOs, policy makers, and redditors, we suggest that understanding the GameStop Revolution as a crisis of public engagement helps to theorise how digital publics form, how they are engaged, and how they negotiate public access and input into online infrastructures. We argue that Congressional testimony reflects critical digital publics that are necessary prerequisites for democratising digital infrastructure. While these arguments centre on the economic and the digital universe, we suggest that the insights can inform broader questions about public engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PAY equity, GENDER stereotypes, REPRODUCTIVE rights, SELF-presentation, and VIRTUAL communities

Persistent gender stereotypes portray women as pleasant and polite, but in the wake of the #MeToo movement and polarized politics, female candidates are turning to Twitter and they aren't hiding their frustration. Congressional candidates use Twitter to connect with voters, but political stalemates over health care, reproductive rights, and pay equity are the fodder for female candidates' emotionally charged rhetoric on Twitter. Women are running and winning at rates comparable to men, but female candidates are relying on emotional appeals in distinct ways from their male counterparts. We use a dataset of tweets by candidates for the U.S. House from 2016–2020 to evaluate gender-based differences in the emotional appeals candidates make on Twitter. We find that women running for office adopt a unique style of angry emotional appeals on Twitter, as female candidates defy stereotypes by incorporating more angry rhetoric in their tweets. These differences persist after accounting for differences in party, electoral success, district competitiveness, and other potential confounds. Our research demonstrates that women seeking congressional office act differently than men in their self-presentation online, and offers insight into how anger has become central to online messaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This issue of JORH explores various concerns related to the care of the elderly within a number of countries (namely China, India, Iran, Israel, Turkey, USA). Issues relating to Women's Health are also considered across the life span but particularly with regard to gynaecology, paediatrics, cancer, mental health and wellbeing. Research is presented on the empirical measurement of religion, spirituality and health with scales developed and/or tested in Iran, India, Haiti, Taiwan, Jordan and the Netherlands. Finally, readers are reminded of the 9th European Congress on Religion, Spirituality and Health (ECRSH) during May 2024, 16-18th at the Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg, Austria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FEDERAL government, REFORMS, and VOTING

Federal systems tend to have two venues of representation to ensure that both the people as a whole and the constituent units are represented at the federal level. While this double representation is put forward as a basic (normative) feature of federal systems, little to no empirical research has been conducted on this issue. This contribution therefore studies the representation of the people as a whole and of the constituent units in the Belgian House of Representatives by means of a representative claims analysis of 4,757 oral parliamentary questions. As federal systems tend to be dynamic, the analysis is based on six periods of federal reform through which Belgium decentralized. Our findings show that, over time, the representation of the constituent units increased and exceeded the representation of the people, providing unique empirical input for the debate about the idea that federalism is by definition beneficial for democracy. We problematize our results from a democratic point of view, as—despite being able to vote—the people as a whole are hardly any more represented by the House. Going beyond the Belgian case, we argue that processes of federalization should address the adequate representation of both the constituent units and the people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TUBULINS, AXONAL transport, MICROTUBULE-associated proteins, CAENORHABDITIS elegans, MUTANT proteins, COATED vesicles, AXONS, POLYMERSOMES, and UMBILICAL arteries

Axonal transport is key to neuronal function. Efficient transport requires specific motor-cargo association in the soma, yet the mechanisms regulating this early step remain poorly understood. We found that EBP-1, the C. elegans ortholog of the canonical-microtubule-end-binding protein EB1, promotes the specific association between kinesin-3/KIF1A/UNC-104 and dense core vesicles (DCVs) prior to their axonal delivery. Using single-neuron, in vivo labeling of endogenous cargo and EBs, we observed reduced axonal abundance and reduced secretion of DCV cargo, but not other KIF1A/UNC-104 cargoes, in ebp-1 mutants. This reduction could be traced back to fewer exit events from the cell body, where EBP-1 colocalized with the DCV sorting machinery at the trans Golgi, suggesting that this is the site of EBP-1 function. EBP-1 calponin homology (CH) domain was required for directing microtubule growth on the Golgi, and mammalian EB1 interacted with KIF1A in an EBH-domain-dependent manner. Loss- and gain-of-function experiments suggest a model in which both kinesin-3 binding and guidance of microtubule growth at the trans Golgi by EBP-1 promote motor-cargo association at sites of DCV biogenesis. In support of this model, tethering either EBP-1 or a kinesin-3/KIF1A/UNC-104-interacting domain from an unrelated protein to the Golgi restored the axonal abundance of DCV proteins in ebp-1 mutants. These results uncover an unexpected role for a microtubule-associated protein and provide insights into how specific kinesin-3 cargo is delivered to the axon. • EBP-1/EB1 is enriched near DCV biogenesis sites in C. elegans neurons • ebp-1 mutants have reduced DCV delivery from cell body to axon • EB1 interacts with kinesin-3, and EBP-1 orients microtubule growth on the Golgi • Recruiting kinesin-3 to the Golgi restores DCVs to the axon in ebp-1 mutants Kinesins must load cargo in the neuronal cell body prior to transporting it to synapses. Park et al. find that Golgi-enriched microtubule end-binding protein 1 interacts with kinesin-3 and orients microtubule growth on the Golgi to promote the association of the motor with nascent dense core vesicles, thereby ensuring their axonal delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RADIOACTIVE wastes, RADIOACTIVE waste repositories, RADIOACTIVE waste disposal, COMPACTING, SALT, PACKAGING waste, and ROCK properties

Salt formations are a promising host rock for the disposal of heat-emitting nuclear waste due to their ability to heal fractures, high thermal conductivity, and near-zero permeability. This study investigates the concept of waste emplacement in salt formations by placing waste packages in drifts and backfilling them with crushed salt. The aim is to minimize fracturing and restore the initial properties of the host rock. One of the key issues in assessing the safety and performance of nuclear waste repositories in salt is determining the reconsolidation rate of the crushed salt backfill, which has been traditionally predicted using the C-WIPP model. However, this model was calibrated using data from uniaxial oedometer lab tests, where specimens with high initial porosity values have been compacted to medium porosity values. The observed compaction behavior has then been extrapolated to the low porosity range, leading to a prediction of rapid full reconsolidation of the backfill in less than 20 years. In contrast, the new C-WIPP/TUC model used in this study was calibrated for the medium porosity range, between 17% and 8%, based on more suitable triaxial lab tests. Using coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical (THM) simulations with the TOUGH-FLAC simulator, it was found that the C-WIPP/TUC model predicts a slower reconsolidation rate of the backfill compared to the C-WIPP model, with an average porosity of the backfill remaining roughly 10 times that of natural salt after 10,000 years. The effects of the relatively slow reconsolidation of the crushed salt backfill on the THM behavior of the repository are also examined, highlighting the importance of accurately capturing the behavior of crushed salt for the study of the long-term integrity of a nuclear waste repository in salt. • Comparison of crushed salt constitutive models C-WIPP and C-WIPP/TUC. • Coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical modeling of geologic nuclear waste disposal in salt. • CWIPP predicts full reconsolidation of the backfill in less than 20 years. • C-WIPP/TUC predicts slower reconsolidation: 10 more porosity after 10,000 years. • Slow reconsolidation affects temperature, saturation degree, pore pressure, and stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congressional oversight is a potentially potent tool to affect policy making and implementation by executive agencies. However, oversight of any agency is dispersed among several committees across the House and Senate. How does this decentralization affect the strategic incentives for oversight by each committee? And how do the strategic incentives of oversight committees align with the collective interest of Congress as a whole? We develop a formal, spatial model of decentralized oversight to investigate these questions. The model shows that when committees have similar interests in affecting agency policy, committees attempt to free ride on each other, and oversight levels are inefficiently low. But if committees have competing interests in affecting agency policy, they engage in “dueling oversight” with little overall effect, and oversight levels are inefficiently high. Overall, we contend that committee oversight incentives do not generally align with the collective interests of Congress, and the problem cannot be easily solved by structural changes within a single chamber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

POLITICAL science, CAMPAIGN funds, METADATA, POLITICAL action committees, LEGISLATIVE bills, and LEGISLATORS

Campaign contributions are a staple of congressional life. Yet, the search for tangible effects of congressional donations often focuses on the association between contributions and votes on congressional bills. We present an alternative approach by considering the relationship between money and legislators' speech. Floor speeches are an important component of congressional behavior, and reflect a legislator's policy priorities and positions in a way that voting cannot. Our research provides the first comprehensive analysis of the association between a legislator's campaign donors and the policy issues they prioritize with congressional speech. Ultimately, we find a robust relationship between donors and speech, indicating a more pervasive role of money in politics than previously assumed. We use a machine learning framework on a new dataset that brings together legislator metadata for all representatives in the US House between 1995 and 2018, including committee assignments, legislative speech, donation records, and information about Political Action Committees. We compare information about donations against other potential explanatory variables, such as party affiliation, home state, and committee assignments, and find that donors consistently have the strongest association with legislators' issue-attention. We further contribute a procedure for identifying speech and donation events that occur in close proximity to one another and share meaningful connections, identifying the proverbial needles in the haystack of speech and donation activity in Congress which may be cases of interest for investigative journalism. Taken together, our framework, data, and findings can help increase the transparency of the role of money in politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HARDNESS, HOMOGENEITY, ANISOTROPY, ULTIMATE strength, and MECHANICAL alloying

An extruded ZK60 Mg alloy was processed by multi-directional forging (MDF) for up to 9 passes at a temperature of 473 K. The microstructure, hardness homogeneity, texture, and mechanical properties of the alloy were examined on the transverse and longitudinal sections of the extruded and MDF-processed samples. Microstructural observations revealed that a fine-grained and homogeneous microstructure was achieved after 9 passes of MDF in all three mutually perpendicular planes (A, B, and C) of the processed billet. Mechanical properties were determined using the shear punch testing (SPT) method, and hardness homogeneity was studied by Vickers microhardness measurements. The ultimate shear strength (USS) decreased from 186.8 MPa in the as-extruded condition to 154.7 MPa after 3 MDF passes, due to the overcoming of texture softening to the strengthening by grain refinement. The ZK60 alloy showed anisotropic behavior in terms of USS and hardness, measured on the three A, B, and C planes after 3 and 6 MDF passes. The observed differences in the measured properties, however, almost vanished after 9 MDF passes because of homogeneity in the microstructure and texture. Vickers microhardness measurements revealed that the material has excellent uniformity in hardness throughout the billet after 9 MDF passes in all planes, due to a fully recrystallized homogeneous microstructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For severe anterior glenoid bone loss due to recurrent shoulder instability, the Latarjet procedure offers a dynamic sling effect in addition to bone augmentation. Yet, it heavily alters the surrounding anatomy, while fixation and graft union issues are also common.The purpose of this study was to compare a novel printed 3-dimensional (3D) partial glenoid arthroplasty (PGA) implant with the classic Latarjet procedure. It was hypothesized that by replicating the original glenoid geometry and preserving soft tissue anatomy, PGA may better reproduce normal joint kinematics. In addition, the locking screw construct may offer stronger fixation.Controlled laboratory study.A total of 14 matched cadaveric shoulders were tested. The PGA implant was 3D printed in titanium based on preoperative computed tomography. The intact, 25% anterior glenoid bone loss, and postoperative states were tested in the scapular and coronal planes. The following parameters were measured: articular surface area and stepoff, rotational range of motion and the humeral head apex position during rotation, and load and linear stiffness at 25% anterior translation and at 2-mm construct displacement.The baseline dimensions of the glenoid articular surface were comparable between the groups. The articular surface area after PGA was significantly larger (P = .006) with less articular stepoff (P = .030). PGA better approximated the intact state’s external (P = .006) and total (P = .019) rotational range of motion in the scapular plane. The course of the humeral head apex after PGA better followed that of the intact state (P < .001). Resistance against anterior translation after PGA was not significantly different compared with after the Latarjet procedure. Greater linear stiffness (P = .031) and loading (P = .002) at 2-mm construct displacement were demonstrated in the PGA group.In addressing anterior glenoid bone loss, PGA better approximated intact glenohumeral joint kinematics compared with the Latarjet procedure with less articular stepoff in a cadaveric model. PGA was comparable in resisting anterior translation while being significantly stronger against loading at 2-mm construct displacement. Further clinical studies are warranted to validate this novel procedure.A 3D-printed PGA implant may offer an alternative treatment option for severe glenoid bone loss due to shoulder instability, overcoming the previous drawbacks of the Latarjet procedure, including altered kinematics, fixation failure, and hardware issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BUDGET, POOR people, BUDGET cuts, PUBLIC spending, and FEDERAL budgets

The article offers a look at some important issues affecting science that are pending before the U.S. Congress as it tries to agree on spending levels for the 2024 fiscal year. It includes a new bill to replace the 2018 Farm Bill, several bills that would ban federal funding for gain-of-function (GOF) studies that alter the characteristics of pathogens, and a bill aimed at preventing adversaries, such as China, from using U.S.-funded research to undermine national security.

HIGH dose rate brachytherapy, BIOMEDICAL materials, DRUG dosage, RADIOACTIVE substances, and TREATMENT effectiveness

For high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy treatments, where large doses are delivered in each fraction of treatment, it is critical to ensure that treatments are delivered according to the written directive because even small deviations in the treatment can lead to excessive dose to unwanted areas or critical structures. Against our best efforts, these deviations do occur and every fiscal year, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is required to compile a report listing all Abnormal Occurrences (AOs) to the U.S. Congress. An AO is defined as "an unscheduled event that the NRC determines to be significant from the standpoint of public health or safety." An AO is considered as the highest level of incidence related to the use of radioactive materials for medical purposes. In this study we have reviewed and analyzed NRC reports for AOs related to HDR brachytherapy. "The Report to the Congress on Abnormal Occurrences" documents were collected from year 2000 to 2020. These reports were reviewed and data was collected regarding all of the AOs related to HDR brachytherapy procedures. Information on the location, date, source, prescription, delivered dose, description and cause of the event, adverse clinical outcomes, and follow-up actions was recorded. The collected data was then analyzed to look for commonalities and trends. It was found that over the past 20 years, there have been 62 AOs for HDR brachytherapy procedures. All 62 events (21 GYN, 18 breast, 8 lung, 6 intravascular, and 9 miscellaneous) were considered AOs because they met the NRC criteria of an event that results in a dose equal to or greater than 10 Gy to any other organ or tissue and/or an event where the prescribed dose or dosage is delivered to the wrong treatment site. 56.5% of the events occurred during the first half of the 10 year period while the reaming 43.5% of events occurred during the second half. 80.7% of the AOs were due to incorrect dwell position of the source. The two most common reasons for incorrect dwell position were mistakes in entering or correcting default values in the TPS/console and equipment failure (usually due to incorrect applicator assembly). Another common cause was incorrect catheter length and labeling. In all events except for two, one where the patient moved and the applicator became dislodged and a second where the high arterial pressure and torturous arterial path in the patient causes the catheter to kink, the errors could have been prevented with a more thorough independent second check. AOs in HDR brachytherapy are still occurring and many of the events that occurred in the latter half of the time period studied were similar to those that occurred during the first half. A majority of the AOs occurred due to human errors. The lesson to be learned from the past 20 years is that most AOs might be avoided or reduced by using second checks, improving communication between physicists, therapists, and physicians, and implementing "time out" practices before starting treatment. It is important to learn lessons from previous mistakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ACID-base imbalances, BLOOD coagulation factors, VETERINARY critical care, LUNGS, TRACHEA, GERMAN shepherd dog, and VETERINARY medicine

Disease categories included: S ( I n i = 459, 29.8%); U ( I n i = 211, 13.7%); CV ( I n i = 52, 3.4%); M ( I n i = 817, 53.1%). EVALUATING THE EFFICACY OF SHELF STABLE BLOOD PRODUCTS FOR RESUSCITATION IN A CANINE HEMORRHA... Ryan M SP 1 sp , Ford R SP 2 sp , Hall K SP 1 sp , Venn E SP 3 sp , Hoareau G SP 2,4 sp SP 1 sp Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA SP 2 sp University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA SP 3 sp U.S. Army Institute for Surgical Research, San Antonio, Texas, USA SP 4 sp The Nora Eccles-Harrison Cardiovascular and Research Training Institute, University of Utah, School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA B Introduction b : Hemorrhagic shock is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in canine trauma patients. Listing of Small Animal IVECCS Abstracts (in alphabetical order of presenter) ORAL PRESENTATIONS POINT-OF-CARE FELINE SERUM AMYLOID A AND FSAA:ALBUMIN RATIO IN CATS Allen AA, Destefano IM, Rozanski EA Tufts University, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Grafton, Massachusetts, USA B Introduction b : Feline serum amyloid A (fSAA) is an inflammatory biomarker that increases early in a variety of diseases. Seventy-eight dogs received treatment for hypocoagulability and hemorrhage including transfusion of packed red blood cells ( I n i = 45), plasma products ( I n i = 28), or fresh whole blood ( I n i = 6); administration of tranexamic acid ( I n i = 37); and surgical hemostasis ( I n i = 21). [Extracted from the article]

PARTISANSHIP, UNITED States legislators, PUBLIC opinion, ELECTORAL coalitions, POLARIZATION (Social sciences), and POLITICAL communication

Contemporary public opinion in the United States has been characterized by affective polarization and the nationalization of political behavior. In this paper, we examine whether local framing can decrease voters' reliance on national partisan identities when evaluating their representatives in the United States Congress. Relying on both an experimental study and observational data from senators' Facebook posts, we find evidence that "talking local" is an effective means for representatives to bypass the "perceptual screen" of partisanship. Candidates who "go local" in their communication style are able to expand their electoral coalition by appealing to independents and outpartisans alike. Observational findings suggest that many politicians, especially those representing competitive districts, are aware of this and "go local" strategically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

REVERSE total shoulder replacement, TORQUE, ROTATOR cuff, TENDONS, and ROTATIONAL motion

Introduction: Limitation of active Internal Rotation (IR) following Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty (RSA) in patients with massive Rotator Cuff Tears (mRCTs) with subscapularis insufficiency remains a challenge. Recently, RSA with Latissimus dorsi and Teres major (LDTM) transfer in patients with limited active IR has been demonstrated as a reliable treatment option. The purpose of this study was to biomechanically compare the IR torque following LDTM transfer with RSA in mRCT with subscapularis insufficiency to RSA without tendon transfer. Methods: Eight cadaveric shoulders were tested (mean age: 64.5 ± 1.9 years) using a custom shoulder testing system that permits loading conditions of mRCT with subscapularis insufficiency. Two conditions were tested and compared. The first condition was RSA alone and the second condition was RSA with LDTM transfer. RSA with a medialized glenoid and lateralized humerus design was used for all specimens. The specimens were tested at 0°, 20° and 40° abduction at three different muscle loads: baseline, double, and triple, while the Teres minor and deltoid loads were kept constant. IR torque was measured with a torque wrench at 0°, 20°, and 40° abduction and 60° and 45° IR positions. Force required for anterior dislocation was measured at 20° abduction and 10° IR position. Results: RSA with LDTM transfer had significantly higher IR torque at all abductions and muscle loading compared with RSA without transfer (average at all positions; RSA without transfer: 0.80 ± 0.02 Nm, LDTM transfer for all loads: 1.43 ± 0.10 Nm). RSA with LDTM transfer (91.4 ± 3.9 N) needed higher force for anterior dislocation compared to RSA alone (89.4 ± 4.1 N), but there was no significant difference. Conclusion: LDTM transfer with RSA increases IR torque compared to RSA without tendon transfer in a cadaveric model. LDTM transfer with RSA may be a reliable treatment option for patients with mRCT and subscapularis insufficiency who are expected to have limited active IR following RSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTERNET forums, AMPHIBIAN declines, AMPHIBIANS, RESEARCH questions, REPRODUCTIVE technology, and GEOLOGICAL surveys

The problem of global amphibian declines has prompted extensive research over the last three decades. Initially, the focus was on identifying and characterizing the extent of the problem, but more recently efforts have shifted to evidence‐based research designed to identify best solutions and to improve conservation outcomes. Despite extensive accumulation of knowledge on amphibian declines, there remain knowledge gaps and disconnects between science and action that hamper our ability to advance conservation efforts. Using input from participants at the ninth World Congress of Herpetology, a U.S. Geological Survey Powell Center symposium, amphibian on‐line forums for discussion, the International Union for Conservation of Nature Assisted Reproductive Technologies and Gamete Biobanking group, and respondents to a survey, we developed a list of 25 priority research questions for amphibian conservation at this stage of the Anthropocene. We identified amphibian conservation research priorities while accounting for expected tradeoffs in geographic scope, costs, and the taxonomic breadth of research needs. We aimed to solicit views from individuals rather than organizations while acknowledging inequities in participation. Emerging research priorities (i.e., those under‐represented in recently published amphibian conservation literature) were identified, and included the effects of climate change, community‐level (rather than single species‐level) drivers of declines, methodological improvements for research and monitoring, genomics, and effects of land‐use change. Improved inclusion of under‐represented members of the amphibian conservation community was also identified as a priority. These research needs represent critical knowledge gaps for amphibian conservation although filling these gaps may not be necessary for many conservation actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AIRBORNE warning & control systems, LOBBYING, NEGOTIATION, and PRESIDENTS of the United States

It was a fierce battle between the executive and the legislature, which it appeared that U.S. President Ronald Reagan would lose. Yet, he made it clear to the President where he stood on this issue.[79] President Reagan's complaint that Begin broke his promise not to lobby in Congress against the AWACS deal was unjustified and could only reflect the pressure the President was under, fighting for the approval of the AWACS deal. The AWACS was just another item on this list.[93] As an epilogue, President Reagan stated in a letter to Prime Minister Begin that while the Senate approved the President's bill for the supply of the AWACS, the Israel-United States special relationship would thrive and grow.[94] The letter could be read as a call to move forward, now that the source of friction had been removed. There is nothing in the Reagan-Begin meeting records about Begin's appearance in Congress.[78] We do not have a record of the report the President received after Lewis's meeting with Begin, but considering Reagan's disappointment, it seems that the President received the wrong message. [Extracted from the article]

FOREIGN loans and STATISTICS

Why has the United States delegated most of its crisis lending to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in recent years, although it provided large-scale bilateral bailouts to strategically important countries until the mid-1990s? Previous research on the choice of bailout strategy has failed to explain this important change, and a major problem with such research is that it has focused on executive branch preferences, overlooking those of the legislative branch. The legislature can significantly influence the choice of bailout policies, and existing research also implies that the US Congress has steered the recent change. This article hypothesizes that, caught in a dilemma between the need for bailouts and voters' opposition caused by widening inequality, Congress delegated bailouts to the IMF for blame avoidance. To test this hypothesis, the study conducts a statistical analysis of the IMF's capital increase votes and case analyses of the Mexican and Asian crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LIBRARY administration, INFORMATION science, LIBRARY conferences, INDEXING, and SUBJECT headings

Purpose: This article examines the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), which is the most used subject heading system in the world and an instance of a controlled vocabulary (CV). Design/methodology/approach: The method used to examine the system is based on both authors' subject knowledge in the field of information science (IS) and the subfield of knowledge organization (KO). Core concepts in this domain were examined (1) by checking if they are present or not in the system; (2) if not, by determining whether LCSH contains alternative terms useful for searching documents about the missing concept, by examining books indexed by the Library of Congress; (3) by identifying the semantic relations between subject headings. Findings: The results demonstrate fundamental problems in the logical consistency of the representation of IS and KO in LCSH. Practical implications: The implications for CVs in general are discussed. Originality/value: No previous study has used our method to examine LCSH's coverage of IS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BREAST cancer surgery, MAMMAPLASTY, TRANSVERSUS abdominis muscle, PATIENTS' attitudes, PLASTIC surgery, and PATIENTS' rights

Therefore, the Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act (WHCRA) of 1998 mandates insurance coverage for breast reconstruction, revision, and symmetry procedures for patients who choose to undergo mastectomies [[3]]. Members of Congress must hear plastic surgeon's and patients' perspectives about their law's effects on breast cancer patients and take action to ensure that all patients have equal and fair access to the treatment options. B Dear Editors b , Breast cancer is a significant health issue in our society, with a global incidence of 11.7% [[1]]. [Extracted from the article]

COLLEGE athletes, NEGOTIATION, LABOR laws, MANAGERS of sports teams, COLLEGE sports, ANTITRUST law, and COLLECTIVE labor agreements

This study examines the remaining options for sport managers to balance the interests of college athletes and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in regulating college athlete name, image, and likeness (NIL). The paper is divided into six substantive sections. The first section, "Background: The NCAA's Defense of NIL Restrictions," provides a brief history of the NCAA's legal defense to challenges against its NIL regulations. The second section, "U.S. Congress Is Unlikely to Regulate College Athletes' NIL Rights," addresses proposed federal legislation and Congress' willingness to regulate the use of NIL by college athletes. The third section, "The Impact of O'Bannon and Alston on NCAA's NIL Restraints," examines controlling case law, specifically O'Bannon v. NCAA and NCAA v. Alston, and how current antitrust law precedent shapes the scope by which the NCAA can regulate college athletes' NIL. The fourth section, "State Laws Regulating the NIL Marketplace," addresses state legislation regulating college athlete NIL use. The fifth section, "The Applicability of Labor Law to Regulating College Athletes' NIL," discusses the current college athlete NIL marketplace and analyzes whether labor law presents an optimal way forward for the NCAA to regulate NIL post-Alston. The sixth section, "College Athletes' Employee Status as a Pathway to Redefine the NCAA's Amateurism," concludes by examining the law's role in regulating NIL and discussing stakeholder implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PROTEIN-losing enteropathy, MEDICAL screening, RECEIVER operating characteristic curves, INTESTINAL lymphangiectasia, DOGS, and DOG bites

Background: The impact of undernutrition in dogs with protein‐losing enteropathy (PLE) caused by inflammatory enteritis, intestinal lymphangiectasia, or both and which variables are most predictive of outcome are unknown. Objectives: Develop an undernutrition screening score (USS) for use at the time of diagnosis of PLE in dogs, which is predictive of outcome. Animals: Fifty‐seven dogs with PLE prospectively recruited from 3 referral hospitals in the United Kingdom. Methods: An USS based on the presence and severity of 5 variables: appetite, weight loss, and body, muscle, and coat condition and scored out of 15, with higher scores reflecting worse undernutrition, was calculated at the time of diagnosis. Follow‐up information was obtained for at least 6 months. Results: Dogs that failed to achieve clinical remission within 6 months had higher USS at diagnosis compared with dogs that achieved remission (median, 7.5; range, 2‐14 and median, 5; range, 0‐14, respectively). The USS at diagnosis gave an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.656 for predicting nonclinical remission within 6 months, whereas a score consisting of just epaxial muscle loss and coat condition resulted in a larger AUC of 0.728. Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Of the 5 variables assessed in the USS, a combination of epaxial muscle loss and coat condition was most predictive of not achieving clinical remission within 6 months in dogs with PLE. Additional studies will help determine the effect of changes in USS and the 5 associated variables after diagnosis on outcome variables in these dogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COPTIC Christian sociology

In March 1911, representatives of the Coptic Christian community convened in Asyut in Upper Egypt to discuss perceived grievances hindering Coptic equality with the Muslim majority. Given the apparent peculiarity of the event, it has become customary to situate the 1911 Coptic congress within the context of a rapidly escalating sectarian strife in colonial Egypt following the appointment and assassination of the first Coptic prime minister, Butrus Ghali (1908–1910). Departing from this view, this article proposes to examine the Asyut congress against the backdrop of the development of the Coptic Communal Council (al-majlis al-milli) and the ensuing conflict between the lay reformists and the high clergy crystallizing at the end of the century. This study argues that the 1911 congress constitutes a link in the chain of the development of the Communal Council movement that aimed at expanding the purview and jurisdiction of the Council beyond the boundaries of the Coptic Orthodox community (taʾifa) to encompass all Egyptian Christians across geographical and denominational lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WORLD War II, RADIO stations, RADIO audiences, ANTI-imperialist movements, WAR, LISTENING comprehension, and BRITISH colonies

This article considers the Second World War's effects on radio infrastructures and listening cultures in India through a detailed analysis of two radio stations: Radio SEAC and Congress Radio. Radio SEAC was a military radio station based in Ceylon targeting British soldiers stationed in Asia. It housed what was then one of the most wide-reaching transmitters. Congress Radio was a makeshift station in Bombay run by young and largely unknown anticolonial activists. While operating on vastly different scales and with rival goals, these stations' political ambitions were surprisingly similar. Radio SEAC sought to restore confidence in the empire by invoking an old device of imperialism: what Brian Larkin calls the 'colonial sublime', the use of 'technology to represent an overwhelming sense of grandeur'. Radio SEAC's colonial sublime, however, was not aimed at colonized populations, but at disillusioned British soldiers, whose faith in the empire the station wished to revive. Congress Radio, in contrast, sought to summon what I call the 'anticolonial sublime' by deploying the aura of imperial technology against British rulers. Yet, whereas the colonial sublime required technologies to work smoothly, the anticolonial sublime did not. Congress radio broadcasters celebrated their station's faulty reception, nurturing an aesthetic of rebelliousness. Analysing these two radio projects together, the article traces how the war shaped technological infrastructures while challenging conventional understandings about how radio connects with audiences. British administrators, like anticolonial activists, sought to bring about change less through programming content than through the aura of technological prowess they hoped their stations would generate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BREAST milk, GOAT milk, and LIQUID chromatography-mass spectrometry

K.H. has received speaker honoraria and research support from Bayer, Biogen, Merck, Novartis, Sanofi Genzyme, Roche, and Teva; has received support for congress participation from Bayer, Biogen, Merck, Roche, Sanofi Genzyme, and Teva; and has served on scientific advisory boards for Bayer, Biogen, Sanofi, Teva, Roche, Novartis, and Merck. 2 The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The German Multiple Sclerosis and Pregnancy Registry (DMSKW) into which the patients were enrolled is partly supported by Almirall, Biogen, Hexal, Merck, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi Genzyme, and Teva Pharma. B Dear Editor b , In our previous publication titled "Cladribine transfer into human milk: A case report,"[1] we presented the first analysis of cladribine in human milk and reported considerably low relative infant dose (RID) of 3.06% following a 20-mg oral dose during second week of treatment. [Extracted from the article]

SCIENTIFIC community, MELANOMA, CORPORATE culture, DIVERSITY in the workplace, and SEXUAL harassment

The inaugural Diversity and Inclusion in Science Session was held during the 2021 Society for Melanoma Research (SMR) congress. The goal of the session was to discuss diversity, equity, and inclusion in the melanoma research community and strategies to promote the advancement of underrepresented melanoma researchers. An international survey was conducted to assess the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) climate among researchers and clinicians within the Society for Melanoma Research (SMR). The findings suggest there are feelings and experiences of inequity, bias, and harassment within the melanoma community that correlate with one's gender, ethnic/racial group, and/or geographic location. Notably, significant reports of inequity in opportunity, discrimination, and sexual harassment demonstrate there is much work remaining to ensure all scientists in our community experience an academic workplace culture built on mutual respect, fair access, inclusion, and equitable opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SOCIAL media, SCIENTIFIC literature, POLARIZATION (Social sciences), and POLITICAL science

Social media has become a common feature in American politics, with more frequent use among the masses and elites alike. With this increased salience, researchers have explored various aspects of social media use and its impact on political outcomes. While we know a great deal about elite adoption and use of social media platforms, we know comparatively less about why some of these social media messages 'go viral,' while others receive little to no attention. Drawing on research from the political science literature on emotional appeals, as well as work in marketing and psychology, we argue that elite messages will spread when they contain strong emotional language. Using both human and automated coding of senators' tweets, we demonstrate that elite messages that are more negative and those that contain political attacks are more likely to spread on social media. Our findings suggest that politicians have an incentive to engage in more negativity online, which might further increase affective polarization in American politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DRAFT (Military service), MILITARY service, WORLD War II, and RECRUITING & enlistment (Armed Forces)

Do the electoral incentives of political leaders influence who is compelled to serve in the military? We argue that conscription policy is designed by political actors who care about winning elections. In wartime, politicians face the twin threats of military and electoral defeat. Therefore, they will shield swing communities, who hold considerable sway over the outcome of elections, from some costs of military service. We leverage a novel database of 9.2 million U.S. service-members during World War II. We find that counties that narrowly voted for President Roosevelt and Democratic members of Congress had substantially fewer conscripts in the Army during 1942, 1943, and 1945. Substantively, 139,000 fewer soldiers—six times the number of soldiers who landed at Normandy—were enlisted from swing counties than expected. Our findings imply that democratic leaders do not want to lose re-election during wartime, and in doing so sacrifice democratic norms of fairness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MICROBLOGS, DEMOCRACY, POLARIZATION (Social sciences), and AUTHORITARIANISM

During his tenure in office, President Trump made repeated attacks on democratic norms and practices in his public statements, in particular via Twitter. Does this type of anti-democratic rhetoric lead to an erosion of citizens' democratic attitudes? We argue that reactions to Trump's rhetoric are not likely to be uniform given the highly polarized political climate in the United States. In order to test this theoretical proposition, we fielded a survey experiment on a module of the 2019 Cooperative Congressional Election Study. Treated respondents were exposed to a range of tweets sent by President Trump attacking three critical institutions of a liberal democracy (the media, Congress, and the Courts). We find limited evidence that Trump's rhetoric leads to an erosion of democratic attitudes. On the contrary, the results suggest there is significant pushback against anti-democratic messages, especially among Democrats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PRIMARIES, WORKING class, POLITICAL candidates, and POLITICAL science

How do working class candidates perform in primary elections? Working class candidates rarely emerge, but existing evidence suggests workers perform as well as white-collar candidates once on the ballot. However, this evidence comes from studies of general elections. It is unknown whether these findings extend to other types of elections like primaries, where candidates compete without the political and financial backing of a party. We collect and analyze novel data describing the occupational background of all candidates who competed in U.S. House primaries between 2008 and 2016. The results show that working class candidates received an average vote share 24 percentage points lower than nonworkers and are 31 percentage points less likely to win their primaries. Controlling for other candidate, contest, and district characteristics helps to attenuate the performance gap. We find mixed evidence that fundraising and prior officeholding experience moderates workers' performance, but weak or no evidence that voter bias, party affiliation, or primary type do so. The study suggests that workers struggle to compete in primaries and calls for further research explaining what prevents workers from winning public office. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FEDERAL budgets, PRESIDENTS of the United States, LEGISLATIVE bodies, and GOVERNMENT agencies

How do the prospects for executive branch coordination affect legislatures' willingness to expand or contract budgets for public agencies? A theory is advanced stating the conditions whereby Congress expands and contracts the budgets of U.S. federal executive agencies based upon the type of presidential loyalty displayed by agency heads, as well as whether Congress's policy interests are aligned with or opposed by presidents. One aspect of the theory posits that executive agencies' budgets exhibit relatively lower volatility in response to unreliable executive agency heads when Congress is controlled by a different party than the president compared to instances of unified party government. The evidence offers compelling, albeit mixed, support for the theory's testable predictions while gleaning novel empirical insights for understanding how the prospects for executive branch coordination via leadership appointees affect the contingent nature of Congress's decisions in shaping the funding of U.S. federal executive agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FEDERAL budget laws, AUTHORITY, PRESIDENTS of the United States, and POLITICAL development

The recent centennial of the 1921 Budget and Accounting Act presents an opportunity to reconsider the importance of the federal executive budget to American political development. Of particular interest is the apparent shift in political authority from Congress to the president that is sometimes attributed to the Act. The 1921 Act generally marks the rise of the modern presidency, where the president received a durable grant of authority. We examine the congressional hearings and debates regarding the budget process from 1919 to 1921 to assess Congress's expectations of the new budget system it was creating. We show that Congress expected to benefit from the executive budget process and did not view it as a threat to its budget authority. Congress recognized that the executive branch had influence in the budget process, but it preferred presidential influence to department heads' influence. The 1921 Act, at least initially, enhanced the budgeting capacities of both the president and Congress in mutually beneficial ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PRICES, STOCK index futures, OPTIONS (Finance), and FUTURES

We provide explicit approximation formulas for VIX futures and options in forward variance models, with particular emphasis on the family of so-called Bergomi models: the one-factor Bergomi model, the rough Bergomi model, and an enhanced version of the rough model that can generate realistic positive skew for VIX smiles–introduced simultaneously by De Marco and Guyon at the Bachelier World Congress 2018, that we refer to as 'mixed rough Bergomi model'. Following the methodology set up in previous works of Gobet and Miri on asymptotic approximations for integrated diffusion processes, we derive weak approximations for the law of the VIX, leading to option price approximations under the form of explicit combinations of Black–Scholes prices and greeks. As new contributions, we cope with the fractional integration kernel appearing in rough models, and treat the case of non-smooth payoffs, so as to encompass VIX futures, call, and put options. We stress that our approach does not rely on small maturity asymptotics, and can therefore be applied to any VIX option maturity. Our results are illustrated by several numerical experiments over a wide range of model parameter configurations, and by calibration tests to VIX market data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HISTORICAL source material, FRONTIER & pioneer life, AFRICAN American women, and FATHER-child relationship

In a number of U.S. history classrooms in various high schools in a large metropolitan area, I have witnessed teachers using I American Progress i to illustrate manifest destiny in the 1840s. Sourcing I American Progress i and giving the picture a cursory reading raises major challenges to its use in studying manifest destiny. The Library of Congress description dates the painting's creation as being more than two decades after the first phase of manifest destiny. Google manifest destiny pictures and the first visual seen is I American Progress i . [Extracted from the article]

INTERNATIONAL obligations, LAW reform, DATABASES, TRANSPARENCY in government, and ACQUISITION of data

The treaty process specified in Article II of the Constitution has been dying a slow death for decades, replaced by various forms of "executive agreements." What is only beginning to be appreciated is the extent to which both treaties and executive agreements are increasingly being overshadowed by another form of international cooperation: nonbinding international agreements. Not only have nonbinding agreements become more prevalent, but many of the most consequential (and often controversial) U.S. international agreements in recent years have been concluded in whole or in significant part as nonbinding agreements. Despite their prevalence and importance, nonbinding agreements have not traditionally been subject to any of the domestic statutory or regulatory requirements that apply to binding agreements. As a result, they have not been centrally monitored or collected within the executive branch, and they have not been systematically reported to Congress or disclosed to the public. Recent legislation addresses this transparency gap to a degree, but substantial gaps remain. This Article focuses on the two most significant forms of nonbinding agreements between U.S. government representatives and their foreign counterparts: (1) joint statements and communiques; and (2) formal nonbinding agreements. After describing these categories and the history of nonbinding agreements and their domestic legal basis, the Article presents the first empirical study of U.S. nonbinding agreements, drawing on two new databases that together include more than three thousand of these agreements. Based on this study, and on a comparative assessment of the practices and reform discussions taking place in other countries, the Article considers the case for additional legal reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MAGISTRATES & magistrates' courts, JUDGES, DISTRICT courts, and RESOLUTION (Civil law)

The article discusses the role of Magistrate Judges in federal cases in the District of Utah. Topics explored include the referral of non-dispositive matters in cases by the District Judge to the Magistrate Judge for resolution, the duties of these judges according to the Federal Magistrates Act of 1968 created by the U.S. Congress, and the referral of civil cases under the Magistrate Judge Utilization Plan.

Does joining a party faction in Congress enhance or undermine a member’s lawmaking effectiveness? Prior research suggests that factions can help members electorally in signaling their distinct ideological positions to potential political supporters. By contrast, we examine the nine largest ideological caucuses over the past quarter century to test three hypotheses about the conditional lawmaking benefits of faction membership: (1) that benefits from faction membership are limited to those in the minority party; (2) that members of ideologically centrist factions gain the greatest benefits; and (3) that sizable factions exploit their pivotal positions to help their members achieve legislative victories. We find support for only the first of these three conjectures, consistent with the argument that factions offer valuable resources to those in the minority party and that majority-party leaders counter the proposals arising from their own party’s factions. The fact that faction membership offers no significant lawmaking benefit to majority-party legislators challenges conventional wisdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

George Antonovich Gamow (1904–1968) and Ralph Asher Alpher (1921–2007) were associates from 1942 until 1968. In this paper, we examine an intense period of collaboration at George Washington University. Our inquiry pivots on a collection of 53 letters and postcards in the Library of Congress (LoC) that Alpher received from Gamow during his absences from Washington DC. In order to set our examination of the letters in their historical context, we present brief biographies of Gamow and Alpher, summarise the state that nuclear astrophysics had already reached by 1945, and examine the initial impact of the αβγ paper. We conducted detailed analysis of twenty of the LoC letters which documents successive attempts by Alpher and Gamow to address the deficiencies in their model of primordial element building by neutron-capture in the big bang. We give a detailed account of the interactions between Gamow writing from Los Alamos, New Mexico, and his two co-workers Alpher and Robert Herman in Washington DC. The correspondence brings their enthusiasm and commitment to life as they react to the advances and setbacks they encountered. Our narrative illustrates the remarkable partnership that Gamow and Alpher shared, a this was, infused with friendship and therein scientific discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UNITED States presidential election, 2020, LEGISLATIVE voting, PRIMARIES, ELECTIONS, and REPUBLICANS

In early 2021, members of Congress cast a series of high-profile roll call votes forcing them to choose between condoning or opposing Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Substantial majorities of House Republicans supported Trump, first by opposing the certification of electoral votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania on January 6th, then by opposing the president's impeachment for inciting the attack on the US Capitol, and then by opposing a bill that would have created a national commission to investigate the events of January 6th. We examine whether the House Republicans who voted to support Trump in 2021 were rewarded or punished in the 2022 congressional midterm elections. We find no evidence that members who supported Trump did better or worse in contested general election races. However, Trump supporters were less likely to lose primary elections, more likely to run unopposed in the general election, more likely to run for higher office, and less likely to retire from politics. Overall, there seem to have been no significant political costs and some significant rewards in 2022 for House Republicans who supported Trump's undemocratic behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the strategic use of contract and in‐house lobbyists by interest groups in response to shifting policy agendas. The role that lobbyists play in the policy process changes based on the policy agenda. Most of the time, subsystems manage small changes to public policy, rewarding actors with long‐term relationships. Organizations with a deep interest in the issue area maintain permanent lobbying presences, earning some degree of privilege over policymaking. However, when the broader macropolitical agenda lurches toward the issue, new participants become involved. New participants often lack the lobbying expertise of the in‐house lobbyists of established actors. Contract lobbyists play a critical role in providing spare capacity on‐demand, allowing participants not normally involved in subsystems to lobby. They also allow the best‐resourced actors, who may employ a long‐term lobbying presence, to further expand it when necessary. We test this theory using a new dataset of the lobbying content of 1,370,396 bill mentions in U.S. lobbying disclosure reports by 11,842 organizations from 2006 to 2016. We compare their policy agenda to that of the U.S. Congress. We find strong evidence that organizations hire contract lobbyists to respond to brief moments of agenda setting while permanent in‐house lobbyists have a more stable agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AFLATOXINS, FLUORESCENCE, REGRESSION analysis, STATISTICAL correlation, QUANTITATIVE research, CORN seeds, CORN, and CORN disease & pest control

This image clearly depicts the research process of this article. Through the image, the data processing flow can be seen, and the proposed algorithm framework can be quickly understood. This image can help readers quickly understand the work of this article and assist them in better reading. [Display omitted] • Developing the under sampling stacking algorithm for imbalanced data. • The classification models were optimized to improve modeling efficiency and speed using ANOVA. • Constructing a new machine learning model based on boosting and stacking to improve the prediction performance of the regression model. • Providing the theoretical basis for developing new AFB1 detection and estimation methods for the maize industry. The most widespread, toxic, and harmful toxin is aflatoxins B1 (AFB1). The fluorescence hyperspectral imaging (HSI) system was employed for AFB1 detection in this study. This study developed the under sampling stacking (USS) algorithm for imbalanced data. The results indicated that the USS method combined with ANOVA for featured wavelength achieved the best performance with the accuracy of 0.98 for 20 or 50 μg /kg threshold using endosperm side spectra. As for the quantitative analysis, a specified function was used to compress AFB1 content, and the combination of boosting and stacking was used for regression. The support vector regression (SVR)-Boosting, Adaptive Boosting (AdaBoost), and extremely randomized trees (Extra-Trees)-Boosting were used as the base learner, while the K nearest neighbors (KNN) algorithm was used as the meta learner could obtain the best results, with the correlation coefficient of prediction (R p) was 0.86. These results provided the basis for developing AFB1 detection and estimation technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rudolf Smits (1907–1972) was a Latvian diplomat stranded in the United States after the Soviet invasion of his country in 1941. Seeking new employment, he began work at the Library of Congress later that same year. Smits labored on a number of projects in the area of government and periodical bibliography, but he found his unique place in the library profession in the creation of bibliographies and union catalogs of Soviet publications. The bibliographies and catalogs were funded by various government agencies as a result of the intensive U.S. Cold War interest in the Soviet Union. This article traces the biography and career of Rudolf Smits with a discussion of several key Slavic reference tools developed by Smits or under his supervision, including the Cyrillic Union Catalog, the Monthly List of Russian Accessions and Half a Century of Soviet Serials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COMMUNITIES, DIRECTLY observed therapy, TUBERCULOSIS, COMMUNITY health workers, MIDDLE-income countries, and GREY literature

Background: Tuberculosis is a significant global public health threat, especially in countries with limited resources. To improve tuberculosis care, the World Health Organization emphasizes the importance of considering a TB patient's journey across a variety of connected settings and facilities. A systematic review was conducted to map previously conducted studies to identify existing community TB implementation models, their effectiveness on cost, and treatment outcomes. Methods: Systematic search through various electronic databases MEDLINE, EBSCO (PsycINFO and CINAHL), Cochrane Library, EMBASE, WHO Regional Databases, gray literature, and hand-searched bibliographies was performed. Articles published in English between the years 2000 and 2022 with a substantial focus on community TB implementation models were considered for inclusion. Studies were excluded if the intervention was purely facility-based and those focusing exclusively on qualitative assessments. Two reviewers used standardized methods to screen titles, abstracts, and data charting. Included studies were assessed for quality using ROBINS-I and ROB 2. Analysis of study results uses a PRISMA flow diagram and quantitative approach. Results: A total of 6982 articles were identified with 36 meeting the eligibility criteria for analysis. Electronic medication monitors showed an increased probability of treatment success rate (RR 1.0–4.33 and the 95% CI 0.98–95.4) in four cohort studies in low- and middle-income countries with the incremental cost-effectiveness of $434. Four cohort studies evaluating community health worker direct observation therapy in low- and middle-income countries showed a treatment success risk ratio of up to 3.09 with a 95% CI of 0.06–7.88. (32,41,43,48) and incremental cost-effectiveness up to USS$410. Moreover, four comparative studies in low- and middle-income countries showed family directly observed treatment success risk ratio up to 9.07, 95% CI of 0.92–89.9. Furthermore, four short message service trials revealed a treatment success risk ratio ranging from 1.0 to 1.45 (95% CI fell within these values) with a cost-effectiveness of up to 350I$ compared to standard of care. Conclusions: This review illustrates that community-based TB interventions such as electronic medication monitors, community health worker direct observation therapy, family directly observed treatment, and short message service can substantially bolster efficiency and convenience for patients and providers while reducing health system costs and improving clinical outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AMYOTROPHIC lateral sclerosis, LITERATURE reviews, EPIDEMIOLOGY, and U.S. dollar

Objective: This review sought to gain a comprehensive, up-to-date understanding of the epidemiology and cost and healthcare resource use (HCRU) burden of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in the US, at a patient and national level. Methods: A targeted literature review (TLR) to identify epidemiological evidence (prevalence, incidence, mortality, survival), and systematic literature review (SLR) to identify cost and HCRU data published since January 2016, were performed. MEDLINE databases and Embase searches were conducted in January 2021. Key congresses (2019–2020) and bibliographies of relevant SLRs were hand-searched. Two high-quality SLRs were reviewed for additional cost data published between January 2001–2015. Registry and database studies were prioritized for epidemiological evidence. To allow comparison between studies in this publication, only evidence from the US was considered, with costs inflated to the 2020/2021 cost-year and converted to US dollars. Results: Eight studies from the epidemiology TLR, and eighteen from the cost and HCRU SLR, were extracted. Reported ALS incidence in the US was ∼1.5 per 100,000 person-years, and point prevalence ranged from 3.84–5.56 per 100,000 population. Total US national costs spanned ∼$212 million-∼$1.4 billion USD/year, and variably consisted of direct costs associated with HCRU and indirect costs. Conclusions: The national cost of ∼$1.02 billion USD/year (estimated using a prevalence of 16,055 cases) best aligns with prevalence estimates found in the TLR (equating to ∼13,000–18,000 cases). However, large-scale, population-based studies are necessary to precisely assess US epidemiology of ALS and capture all costs needed to inform cost-effectiveness models and resource planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ROTATOR cuff, TENDONS, KINEMATICS, ROTATIONAL motion, and SUPRASPINATUS muscles

Introduction: Latissimus dorsi and teres major (LDTM) tendon transfer has demonstrated better clinical outcomes compared to Latissimus dorsi (LD) transfer for irreparable anterosuperior cuff (subscapularis/supraspinatus) tears; however, the biomechanical effects of these procedures are unknown. Therefore, the objective of this study was to compare kinematics and internal rotation of LDTM transfer to LD transfer for anterosuperior cuff tear. Methods: Eight cadaveric shoulders were tested in four conditions; (1) intact, (2) anterosuperior rotator cuff tear, (3) LDTM transfer, and (4) LD transfer. Glenohumeral kinematics and internal rotation at 0°, 30°, and 60° of glenohumeral abduction in the scapular plane were measured. Muscle loading was applied based on physiological cross-sectional area ratios with three muscle loading conditions to simulate potentially increased tension due to the advanced insertion site of the transferred tendons. Results: The anterosuperior rotator cuff tear leads to a significant superior shift of the humeral head compared to intact at 0° and 30° abduction (p < 0.039). Both the LDTM (p < 0.047) and LD transfers (p < 0.032) significantly shifted the humeral head inferiorly compared to the tear condition.; however, the LDTM transfer shifted the head in the anteroinferior direction compared to the LD transfer at 60° abduction and 30° ER (p < 0.045). Both LDTM and LD transfer significantly increased internal resting rotation (p < 0.008) and maximum internal rotation (p < 0.008) compared to anterosuperior rotator cuff tear and intact at 30° and 60° abduction. LDTM transfer resulted in a significant internal resting rotation compared with the LD transfer at 30° abduction with double muscle loading (p = 0.02). At 0° abduction, the LDTM transfer (p < 0.027) significantly increased maximum internal rotation compared to anterosuperior rotator cuff tear and intact. Conclusion: Although both LDTM and LD tendon transfer improved the abnormal humeral head apex position and internal rotation compared with the tear condition, the LDTM transfer was biomechanically superior to the LD transfer in a cadaveric model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CLIMATE change, WAR on poverty (United States), WELFARE state, WILDFIRES, HURRICANES, and COVID-19 pandemic

The article examines the impact of climate change on U.S. anti-poverty programs. Topics include how various levels of government utilize welfare programs in response to extreme weather events such as hurricanes and wildfires; highlights weaknesses in the current system, with a focus on Congress and recent recovery efforts, including insights from pandemic response; and an agenda for adapting U.S. welfare programs to address the challenges posed by climate change.

BANKRUPTCY courts, DEBTOR & creditor, JUDICIAL discretion, LOAN reimbursement, and UNITED States. Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention & Consumer Protection Act of 2005

Congress enacted the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA) with the express purpose of limiting the number of consumer debtors eligible to file a Chapter 7 case, which typically lasts only a few months and eliminates the debtor’s unsecured debts. Under BAPCPA, bankruptcy courts must determine the size of a consumer’s household to determine whether the consumer is eligible for Chapter 7. If the consumer is ineligible, they must instead file a Chapter 13 case and commit to a five-year debt repayment plan. Because Congress failed to define the term “household” in BAPCPA, courts have developed numerous approaches to determine household size that are often applied unfairly to debtors with non-traditional families. For example, after filing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case, one debtor learned that her five children—two biological children and three stepchildren—counted as only 2.59 members of her household, even though all five children lived with her at least half the year and she cared for them the same. This decrease in household size significantly reduced the debtor’s allowed standardized expenses and thereby caused her projected disposable income to substantially increase. Financially distressed debtors in this position are then required to pay much more to unsecured creditors through a repayment plan and, as a result, suffer a financial penalty imposed by bankruptcy courts. The fractionalization of a debtor’s underage children is just one illustration of the modern family debacle some bankruptcy courts have created as they struggle to decide which of the debtor’s loved ones counts as household members under BAPCPA. In turn, this Article—in keeping with one of BAPCPA’s objectives of removing judicial discretion by way of objective standards—proposes that Congress amend BAPCPA to define the term “household” to create a presumption in favor of counting typical household occupants (e.g., under-age biological and stepchildren who are part-time residents) as full household members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

VOCABULARY, FAST subject headings, METADATA, and MUSICAL performance

This special issue on the "Implementation of Faceted Vocabularies: An Introduction" focuses on strategies and methods for implementing faceted vocabularies in MARC and non-MARC environments in library related settings. The following introduction provides a brief description of each article in the issue. The articles are grouped around three themes: Introduction to Faceted Vocabularies, Faceted Application of Subject Terminology (FAST), and Genre Terms and Other Faceted Vocabularies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LIBRARIES, LEADERSHIP, FAST subject headings, BIBLIOGRAPHIC databases, and CHRONOLOGY

This paper is the result of a request from Library of Congress leadership to assess pre-coordinated versus post-coordinated subject cataloging. It argues that the disadvantages of pre-coordinated subject strings are perennial and continue to hinder progress, while the advantages of post-coordinated subject cataloging have expanded, resulting in new opportunities to serve the needs of catalogers and end users alike. The consequences of retaining pre-coordinated headings will have long-term impacts that heavily out-weigh the short-term challenges of transitioning to new cataloging practices. By implementing post-coordinated, faceted vocabularies, the Library of Congress will be investing in the future of libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FAST subject headings, SYNTAX (Grammar), and TERMS & phrases

This is an overview of the development of FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology) from its inception in the late 1990s, through its development and implementation to the work being undertaken by OCLC and the FAST Policy and Outreach Committee (FPOC) to develop and promote FAST. FPOC members explain how FAST is used by institutions in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They cover their experience of implementing FAST and the benefits they have derived. The final section considers the value of FAST as a faceted vocabulary and the potential for future development and linked data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

VOCABULARY, TEXTBOOKS, and TERMS & phrases

This article discusses the practical application of faceted vocabularies to the cataloging of textbooks. Consistent application of faceted vocabularies, specifically Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials (LCGFT) and Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms (LCDGT), would enhance the discovery of these resources. Alternatives to special cases in Subject Heading Manual H 2187 are proposed. A case study demonstrating the application of LCDGT is provided. Figures illustrate the results of the proposed best practices. The article includes four tables that are designed to streamline term assignments. Consistent cataloging of genre and audience prepares legacy records for future automated enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EMIGRATION & immigration, VOCABULARY, SYNDICATES (Finance), and DEMOGRAPHY

There has been a continued effort among cataloging communities to implement new fields and subfields in MARC 21 to support more structured data that benefit end users. In the current article, we describe how the Orbis Cascade Alliance integrated fields and subfields of this type into Primo VE, in order to provide faceted vocabularies and other facets within the discovery interface that were otherwise unavailable from the vendor. We discuss challenges in migrating the normalization rules behind the facets, the extent to which they are being utilized by member institutions, and possible next steps for promoting their use more extensively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MEDICAL quality control, LENGTH of stay in hospitals, HEALTH services accessibility, CORONARY artery bypass, OPERATIVE surgery, SYSTEMATIC reviews, MEDICAL care costs, PATIENT satisfaction, COMMUNITY health services, LUNG tumors, POPULATION geography, KIDNEY transplantation, DESCRIPTIVE statistics, and PATIENT safety

In response to concerns about healthcare access and long wait times within the Veterans Health Administration (VA), Congress passed the Choice Act of 2014 and the Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks (MISSION) Act of 2018 to create a program for patients to receive care in non-VA sites of care, paid by VA. Questions remain about the quality of surgical care between these sites in specific and between VA and non-VA care in general. This review synthesizes recent evidence comparing surgical care between VA and non-VA delivered care across the domains of quality and safety, access, patient experience, and comparative cost/efficiency (2015 to 2021). Eighteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Of 13 studies reporting quality and safety outcomes, 11 reported that quality and safety of VA surgical care were as good as or better than non-VA sites of care. Six studies of access did not have a preponderance of evidence favoring care in either setting. One study of patient experience reported VA care as about equal to non-VA care. All 4 studies of cost/efficiency outcomes favored non-VA care. Based on limited data, these findings suggest that expanding eligibility for veterans to get care in the community may not provide benefits in terms of increasing access to surgical procedures, will not result in better quality, and may result in worse quality of care, but may reduce inpatient length of stay and perhaps cost less. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PRESIDENTIAL system, CABINET officers, POLITICAL opposition, GOVERNMENT policy, and INCUMBENCY (Public officers)

How does the execution of horizontal accountability mechanisms affect cabinet members' instability? This article analyzes distinct features of no-confidence motions (NCMs) in presidential systems, using a mixed-method research design that identifies elements of legislative control mechanisms in Peruvian and Colombian polities. Although the congress in presidential systems rarely approves NCMs, high salience policy shocks trigger their proposal, resulting in the dismissal or resignation of the cabinet member in question. Those results are subtle opportunities for opposition legislators to indicate the incompetence of the incumbent government in particular policy areas. This study contributes to understanding how contextual factors affect the effectiveness of the check and balance principle in presidential systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NEGOTIATION, FEDERAL aid, GOVERNMENT programs, DESIGN conferences, DEMOGRAPHIC characteristics, and COALITION governments

In the United States, state and local governments receive over $700 billion annually in federal grants, yet relatively little is known about how Congress designs these programs. I formalize a theory of congressional bargaining over grants and test the theory using an original dataset of Senate amendments. The results suggest that congressional rules and political considerations shape, and at times distort, federal grant programs. While grant programs may be intended to improve education or provide health care, I find that members of Congress treat these programs as opportunities to procure more funding for their constituents. Further, I show how coalitions are shaped by the status quo policy and the distribution of population, poverty, and other demographic characteristics across states. These results have important implications for our understanding of the policymaking process and who benefits from federal programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PSYCHOLOGICAL burnout, CONVENIENCE sampling (Statistics), NURSING students, UNDERGRADUATES, STUDENTS, and CONCEPT mapping

Burnout is a health problem that affects professionals and students or professionals in training, especially those in health areas. For this reason, it is necessary that it is properly identified to prevent the impact it can have on the work and personal areas of the people who suffer from it. The aim of this work is to study the convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity of the Cuestionario Burnout Granada-University Students. The sample consisted of 463 undergraduate nursing students, selected by non-probabilistic convenience sampling, who participated voluntarily and anonymously in the study. The mean age of the participants was 21.9 (5.12) years, mostly female (74.1%), single (95.8%), and childless (95.6%). Information was collected face-to-face, and the instruments were completed on paper. Comparisons were made in the three dimensions of burnout of the CBG-USS between students with and without burnout, finding statistically significant differences in all three dimensions: Emotional Exhaustion (p < 0.001, d = 0.674), Cynicism (p < 0.001, d = 0.479), and Academic Efficacy (p < 0.001, d = −0.607). The Cuestionario Burnout Granada-University Students presents adequate reliability and validity indices, which demonstrates its usefulness in the identification of burnout. This syndrome has traditionally been measured in professionals, but students also present burnout, so it is necessary to have specific burnout instruments for students, since the pre-work situation and stressors of students are different from those of workers. In order to work on the prevention of university burnout, it is essential to have specific instruments for professionals in training that help in the detection of students with burnout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SOCIAL choice, AUTHORITARIANISM, SEPARATION of powers, EXECUTIVE power, and DEMOCRACY

Much early public choice theory focused on alleged pathologies of democratic legislatures, portraying them as irrational, manipulable, or subject to capture. Recent years have seen the emergence of a new strand of argument, reaffirming the old skepticism of legislatures but suggesting that transferring power from legislatures to chief executives offers a solution. Just as the earlier prescriptions ignored the pathologies of the agencies empowered to check and constrain legislatures, so the new scholarship overlooks the pathologies of executive power. The primary sources of congressional dysfunction call for reforms that would strengthen Congress instead of hobbling it in new ways that exacerbate the drift toward authoritarian presidentialism in the American system. Executive aggrandizement is a consequence of decades of institutional malfunction, worsened by right-wing attacks on legislative capacity. This has been the enduring impact of the public choice movement since the 1950s, but its twenty-first century offshoot is especially malign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CONFERENCES & conventions, CATALYSIS, POLLUTION, INTERNAL combustion engines, and HETEROGENEOUS catalysis

Roland Dauphin (Concawe) presented an online tool to quantify the net greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions based on a sophisticated life cycle analysis. This special issue of I Topics in Catalysis i gathers the proceedings of the 12th International Congress on Catalysis and Automotive Pollution Control (CAPoC12) held at the Université Libre de Bruxelles from August 29th to 31st 2022. It is the organizers' firm conviction that the synergistic interaction of its attending protagonists was key to the success of CAPoC meetings and, more generally, to the improvement of catalysis-based technology for emission control. [Extracted from the article]

INTERNATIONAL relations, TREATIES, STATE governments, GOVERNMENT accountability, VOTERS, and STATE power

U.S. law allocates power to conduct foreign relations primarily to the federal government, but it is well known that states routinely maintain foreign relations of their own. Much of this activity appears to result in legal and political commitments, whether in the form of “sister state” agreements or binding pledges to cooperate on discrete issues such as investment, environmental protection, and transportation. These commitments are at least loosely comparable to international treaties and may either advance or disserve state and national interests. Yet very little is known about the commitments that are in force. For the most part, neither federal nor state law requires states to publish them or even report them to Congress or the executive branch. Few state agencies voluntarily post pertinent information online. Legal database companies have not included the commitments in their catalogs. And academic research has not served as an adequate, alternative source of transparency. The resulting uncertainty about modern practice inhibits the accountability of state governments to their voters, complicates any effort on the part of state officials to learn best practices, and impedes enforcement of the Article I Treaty Clause and the Compact Clause of the U.S. Constitution, both of which circumscribe state power in this area. This Article resolves the present uncertainty by providing fresh transparency on state commitments with the national, regional, and local governments of foreign sovereigns. Through freedom-ofinformation requests to every major executive department and agency in each of the fifty states, I obtained a trove of hundreds of previously unpublished commitments, including many that appear to advance state and national interests in underappreciated ways, along with some that operate in significant tension—if not outright conflict—with federal law or foreign policy. The Article analyzes this collection to reveal new trends, promote accountability, identify lessons for negotiators, and facilitate norm consolidation in domestic law. The Article concludes by proposing measures to strengthen the legality and transparency of future commitments [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ITCHING, ENDOTOXINS, MACROPHAGE colony-stimulating factor, BLUE light emitting diodes, BLOOD cell count, and MEDICAL sciences

Non-life-threatening adverse reactions occurred in 9/20 dogs (45%) including hypersalivation, lip smacking and restlessness attributed to nausea (five dogs), injection site pruritus (three dogs), and self-limiting diarrhoea and lethargy (one dog). In this report, two ovariohysterectomised dogs (six-year-old Shetland sheepdog and 14-year-old shih tzu dog) from separate households developed extensive, noninflammatory alopecia on the trunk, tail and proximal limbs within 10 months after starting oral estriol supplementation for urinary incontinence at labelled doses. As the treatment and bandaging protocol as well as the allergy treatment otherwise were completely identical, and the surgery happened at the same time of year, this major difference (also to expected standard laser wound recovery times) appeared impressive as the dog served as its own control group. E. J. Rosser College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA The objective was to examine the dermatohistopathological and immunohistochemical features of skin biopsies from 10 food-allergic dogs. Eight lesional skin samples from eight PF dogs and five healthy site-matched samples from five healthy dogs were evaluated for 20 immune markers using quantitative real-time PCR. [Extracted from the article]

Taking as its starting point the nursery rhyme about the old woman who swallowed a fly, this autoethnographic performance text presents a fable of an old woman who first becomes invisible and then realizes that she can reclaim her power, but only once she rids herself of all the “rubbish” she has consumed. The text adopts the traditional format of a play script and references core themes of critical performance studies—gender, power, the body, presence, and meaning. Preserving the integrity of the play script as a literary form, there are no references; however, readers will recognize the implicit theoretical moves in the text. Readers may also note the inevitable challenge of translating the body-in-performance from stage to page. The text was performed by the author for a panel conceived and convened by Bryant Alexander, for the 19th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GAMES, BOOLEAN functions, and VOTING

Many real-world voting systems consist of voters that occur in just two different types. Indeed, each voting system with a "House" and a "Senate" is of that type. Here we present structural characterizations and an explicit enumeration formula for these so-called bipartite simple games. This formula extends some partial enumerations of simple games related to completeness or the number of minimal winning coalitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CYTOTOXIC T lymphocyte-associated molecule-4, GENE expression profiling, IMMUNE checkpoint proteins, PROTEIN-tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and MELANOMA

Outcomes for patients with melanoma have improved over the past decade with the clinical development and approval of immunotherapies targeting immune checkpoint receptors such as programmed death-1 (PD-1), programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) or cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4). Combinations of these checkpoint therapies with other agents are now being explored to improve outcomes and enhance benefit-risk profiles of treatment. Alternative inhibitory receptors have been identified that may be targeted for anti-tumor immune therapy, such as lymphocyte-activation gene-3 (LAG-3), as have several potential target oncogenes for molecularly targeted therapy, such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Unfortunately, many patients still progress and acquire resistance to immunotherapy and molecularly targeted therapies. To bypass resistance, combination treatment with immunotherapies and single or multiple TKIs have been shown to improve prognosis compared to monotherapy. The number of new combinations treatment under development for melanoma provides options for the number of patients to achieve a therapeutic benefit. Many diagnostic and prognostic assays have begun to show clinical applicability providing additional tools to optimize and individualize treatments. However, the question on the optimal algorithm of first- and later-line therapies and the search for biomarkers to guide these decisions are still under investigation. This year, the Melanoma Bridge Congress (Dec 1st–3rd, 2022, Naples, Italy) addressed the latest advances in melanoma research, focusing on themes of paramount importance for melanoma prevention, diagnosis and treatment. This included sessions dedicated to systems biology on immunotherapy, immunogenicity and gene expression profiling, biomarkers, and combination treatment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the conditional effects of legislator gender, party, and key district-level characteristics on patterns of roll-call votes. I propose and test a theory of legislative freedom conceptualized as a member of Congress’s ability to defect from their party in roll-call votes. I argue that women members of Congress (MCs) will be more able to exercise legislative freedom in women-friendly districts. I expect both Democratic and Republican women MCs representing women-friendly districts will be more likely than those representing districts that are less women-friendly to defect from party and that the women-friendly district effect will be stronger for Republican women MCs. To test these hypotheses, I use roll-call voting data, women-friendly district data (Palmer and Simon 2006), and original data collected on members of the U.S. House beginning with the 103rd Congress. In this paper, I further explore the proposed theory of legislative freedom to examine recent high-profile cases of women MCs defecting from the Republican party and the conditions in which they exercise this freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SPRING

TRUST, LITERACY programs, MEDICAL personnel, VACCINES, and SELF-efficacy

On 12 September 2022, attendees of the 16th Vaccine Congress in Riva del Garda, Italy were invited to attend a roundtable session entitled multi-sectoral actions to build trust at the local and community level to promote vaccine acceptance to participate in a discussion aimed at defining strategies and recommendations to support efforts that build community vaccine confidence. Presenters from the Vaccine Confidence Project and the New York Vaccine Literacy Campaign shared research and data point on the current state of vaccine confidence worldwide as well as global examples of "success stories" to prompt discussion. The group's key recommendations include prioritizing multi-sectoral responses and trust-building through policy and legislation, engaging with trusted local stakeholders, improving convenience, combating misinformation and empowering healthcare professionals to improve vaccine confidence. This report summarizes the considerations, recommendations, and suggested strategies discussed during the session, as prepared by the presenters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This piece serves as introduction for the Special Issue: “‘I don’t know why she swallowed the fly’: On Dubious Cures and Drastic Measures in Post (?) Pandemic Times.” A panel presented at the 2023 International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry. Each of 10 performative and poetic essays respond to the prompt and speak to issues of agism, sexism, gender-bias, homophobia, violence, pharmaceutical consumption, medical industry bias, the social construction and consumption of lies, and the potentials of utopian dreams as strategies of intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NEW START Treaty, 2010

The article reports on a U.S. Department of State report issued to Congress in January 2023 accusing Russia of non-compliance with the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, as well as Russia's subsequent suspension of its participation in the treaty.

VETERANS, WOMEN veterans, UNITED States presidential election, 2020, MILITARY service, NATIONAL security, and UNITED States Congressional elections

Veteran women are better represented in Congress than non-veteran women, but the reasons for this are unclear. Veteran women may be better represented because they run at higher rates and in more winnable races or because their military service leaves them uniquely qualified to overcome gender and partisan stereotypes. Voters often perceive women as lacking leadership ability and ill-suited to handling national security. However, female veterans have experience that may help them overcome gendered beliefs about their abilities. Using election data from the 2012–2020 U.S. congressional elections, we test whether veteran women gain greater voter support compared to non-veteran candidates and whether veteran women running as Democrats outperform male veteran Democrats. We find only limited evidence that military service wins more votes for candidates of either gender. Among Democrats, prior military service levels the playing field between male and female candidates, but veteran women only outperform veteran men in 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

POLITICAL parties, STATE power, BY-laws, PUBLIC officers, PARTISANSHIP, and PRIMARIES

This paper considers whether the rules governing state political parties help to explain primary election outcomes. I theorize political parties will see lower levels of competition during primary elections when they have bylaws that centralize power within the state central committee. To test this expectation, I created a dataset of state-level party rules by collecting and coding provisions within the bylaws of all 100 state-level Republican and Democratic parties. I operationalize party centralization of power as whether or not elected officials are represented within each party's formal membership, their state central committee, and whether or not each party has an endorsement or neutrality policy when it comes to contested primaries. I find the centralization of party power does correlate with lower levels of competition in primary elections for the House of Representatives in 2018 and 2020. Specifically, parties are more likely to see uncontested primaries when they guarantee ex-officio state committee membership to their co-partisan elected officials and are more likely to see fewer candidates in general when they guarantee ex-officio state committee membership to their co-partisan elected officials and when they do not have rules that require the state central committee to remain neutral during contested primary elections. While evaluating the causes of this trend is beyond the scope of this paper, these findings appear to be driven by Republican primaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SURGERY, COMMUNITIES, SURGEONS, and TERMS & phrases

The term the "House of Surgery" is often used in conversation, but the origin of the phrase is not well known to most. In the following article, the origin of the phrase is explained, as is its relevance to the maintenance of a strong surgical community in today's world. In addition, examples are provided as to how each surgeon can find their own unique role in the House of Surgery, with the goal being to increase understanding and collaboration tween surgeons in all types of practice settings [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ONCOLOGIC surgery and CHINESE Exclusion Act of 1882

For this lecture, I was inspired by Dr. Bryan Richmond's Southeastern Surgical Congress presidential address, "Finding your own unique place in the house of surgery." I struggled to find my own place in cancer surgery. The choices available to me and those who came before me enabled the wonderful career I am blessed to enjoy. What I share as part of my own story. My words do not represent those of my institutions or any organizations of which I am privileged to belong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Robinson Papyri and the Mississippi Papyri were first introduced by William H. Willis at the ninth International Congress of Papyrology. This article deconstructs Willis's paper and, using archival evidence, reconstructs the provenance and makeup of these two distinct collections, moving past Willis's presentation to provide the history of both collections since 1958. The author brings to light the cross contamination and mislabeling between the Robinson and Mississippi Papyri collections caused by Willis and argues that some pieces published as "Robinson Papyri" are parts of other collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CIVIL-military relations, EXECUTIVE power, PARTISANSHIP, PUNISHMENT, PUBLIC officers, POLITICAL science, and APPOINTEES

Under what conditions are presidents more likely to remove senior defense officials from office? Using a novel data set of all senior U.S. defense officials, both civilian and uniformed military from 1947 to 2021, this article explores whether anticipated support in Congress, partisan factors, or institutional protections for the military affect observed patterns of removal for defense officials. The results suggest that presidents are more likely to remove their own appointees (or their co-partisans' appointees), but provide little evidence that presidents premise removal on anticipated partisan support for a replacement nominee in Congress. Moreover, the results suggest that military officials may have some insulation from politicization by strong forms of removal, though that protection may weaken an important aspect of civilian control of the military, the threat of punishment by removal, raising profound questions for how civilian control endures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ARTIFICIAL blood circulation, PANCREAS transplantation, REGENERATIVE medicine, and CONFERENCES & conventions

HT

Date	Event	Venue	Contact
September 17-20, 2023	European Society of Transplantation (ESOT) Congress	Athens, Greece
October 26-30, 2023	Joint Congress of the International Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association (IPITA), the International Xenotransplantation Association (IXA), and the Cell Transplant and Regenerative Medicine Society (CTRMS)	San Diego, CA, USA
October 30-November 1, 2023	Congress of the International Society for Mechanical Circulatory Support (ISMCS)	Dallas, TX, USA

ht. [Extracted from the article]

ACTORS and PUBLIC diplomacy

Leaders nearly always claim that their diplomatic campaigns are intended to attract foreign support. However, many diplomatic campaigns fail spectacularly in this regard. While these events have largely been explained as diplomatic failures, I argue that alienating the apparent target of an international diplomatic campaign can be a deliberate strategy leaders use to win domestic support. Under certain conditions, a costly backlash from a foreign actor can be a credible signal that the leader shares the domestic audience's preferences. Therefore, by intentionally provoking a backlash from a valuable foreign actor, leaders can exchange foreign condemnation for an increase in domestic support. I support this argument with evidence from Netanyahu's 2015 speech to the US Congress. I show that, as expected by this theoretical framework, Netanyahu's efforts resulted in a significant backlash among US Democrats and a corresponding increase of support among right-wing Israelis, a crucial constituency for his upcoming election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CANCER chemotherapy, CONFERENCES & conventions, ELECTROMAGNETIC fields, ELECTROPORATION, INTERPROFESSIONAL relations, PHYSICIAN practice patterns, GENETIC techniques, ONCOLOGY, and MEDICAL research

Simple Summary: Locoregional therapies play an ever-increasing role in contemporary oncology. This review provides an up-to-date, informed analysis of locoregional therapies harnessing electric pulses. Irreversible electroporation (IRE), gene electrotransfer (GET), electrochemotherapy (ECT), calcium electroporation (Ca-EP), and tumour-treating fields (TTF) are integral to the therapeutic strategy in several solid tumours, ranging from skin cancers to visceral and bone metastases. Still, despite consolidated credibility and a favourable trade-off between efficacy and side effects, these therapies face fragmentation, as shown by differences in the stage of development and regulatory approval worldwide. Here, leading experts convened at the 4th World Congress of Electroporation (Copenhagen, 9–13 October 2022) provide a coherent, updated snapshot of this field. Hopefully, these techniques' common scientific and technological ground will allow researchers to overcome knowledge barriers and develop synergistic strategies to improve patient outcomes. The 4th World Congress of Electroporation (Copenhagen, 9–13 October 2022) provided a unique opportunity to convene leading experts in pulsed electric fields (PEF). PEF-based therapies harness electric fields to produce therapeutically useful effects on cancers and represent a valuable option for a variety of patients. As such, irreversible electroporation (IRE), gene electrotransfer (GET), electrochemotherapy (ECT), calcium electroporation (Ca-EP), and tumour-treating fields (TTF) are on the rise. Still, their full therapeutic potential remains underappreciated, and the field faces fragmentation, as shown by parallel maturation and differences in the stages of development and regulatory approval worldwide. This narrative review provides a glimpse of PEF-based techniques, including key mechanisms, clinical indications, and advances in therapy; finally, it offers insights into current research directions. By highlighting a common ground, the authors aim to break silos, strengthen cross-functional collaboration, and pave the way to novel possibilities for intervention. Intriguingly, beyond their peculiar mechanism of action, PEF-based therapies share technical interconnections and multifaceted biological effects (e.g., vascular, immunological) worth exploiting in combinatorial strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LABOR laws, EMPLOYMENT at will, EMPLOYEES, MACHINISTS, and NATIONAL Labor Relations Act (U.S.)

Unlike most European countries, the United States does not generally provide "just-cause" protections for its employees, meaning most workers are employed "at will" and may be terminated for any reason whatsoever. Although federal and state laws shield many workers from discriminatory and retaliatory firings, these protections are not enough. States and municipalities can and should legislate additional safeguards, especially in low-wage industries most affected by employee turnover. This Note argues that federal labor law does not preempt state laws and city ordinances that provide just-cause protections to workers. The Note begins by reviewing at-will employment in the United States and Machinists preemption, a doctrine that precludes state and local regulation of those aspects of labor-management relations that Congress intended to be regulated by market forces. After analyzing the circuits' differing applications of the Machinists preemption doctrine, this Note argues that just-cause laws are best understood as setting permissible, minimum labor standards rather than as impermissibly interfering in the collectivebargaining process. Under such an interpretation, it follows then, that state and local just-cause laws should not be preempted by the federal National Labor Relations Act. The Note concludes by providing recommendations to states and municipalities on how best to structure their just-cause legislation, leveraging lessons learned from recent and decades-old statutes and case law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CYTOMEGALOVIRUS diseases, CYTOMEGALOVIRUSES, EVIDENCE gaps, ECONOMIC statistics, and ECONOMIC impact

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) can infect individuals at any age, including infants, who may contract it from infected mothers (congenital CMV [cCMV]). Whereas CMV infection is typically asymptomatic or causes mild illness in healthy individuals, infection can result in severe outcomes in immunocompromised individuals and in infants with cCMV. This systematic review aims to characterize the economic impact of CMV and cCMV infections. Medline, Embase, and LILACS databases were searched for publications reporting the economic impact of cCMV and CMV infections across all age groups. Manuscripts published between 2010 and 2020 from Australia, Latin America, Canada, Europe, Israel, Japan, the United States, and global (international, worldwide) studies were included; congress materials were excluded. Outcomes of interest included cCMV- and CMV-attributable direct costs/charges, resource utilization, and indirect/societal costs. Of 751 records identified, 518 were excluded based on duplication, population, outcome, study design, or country. Overall, 55 articles were eligible for full-text review; 25 were further excluded due to population, outcome, study design, or congress abstract. Two publications were additionally identified, resulting in economic impact data compiled from 32 publications. Of these, 24 publications reported cost studies of cCMV or CMV, including evaluation of direct costs/charges, healthcare resource utilization, and indirect/societal costs, and 7 publications reported economic evaluations of interventions. The populations, methods and outcomes used across these studies varied widely. CMV and cCMV infections impose a considerable economic impact on different countries, populations, and outcomes. There are substantial evidence gaps where further research is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DEPOLITICIZATION, PROSECUTION, PUBLIC prosecutors, ATTORNEYS general, POLITICAL autonomy, and POWER (Social sciences)

There is broad agreement that federal prosecutors should not use their power to pursue partisan political objectives, but there is stark disagreement about how to prevent them from abusing their power in this way. Geoffrey Berman, a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, recently argued that U.S. Attorneys should have complete autonomy and independence from the Attorney General and administration. Attorney General Bill Barr, in contrast, has insisted that Attorneys General should have full control over prosecutors so the administration can be held politically accountable. Neither view fully addresses the problem. Barr minimizes the significant risk that the Attorney General will undermine the interests of justice by doing the bidding of the administration, and Berman ignores the possibility that U.S. Attorneys will act on their own inappropriate political bias. We propose a system of checks and balances in which prosecuting a politically sensitive case would require approval from both the Attorney General and the U.S. Attorney. Recognizing Berman's argument that the greatest threat of politicization comes from the Attorney General, we offer two additional proposals to help preserve the independence and integrity of U.S. Attorneys. First, Congress should clarify that the President and Attorney General lack the authority to remove and replace U.S. Attorneys who are appointed by district courts prior to the confirmation of presidential nominees; and second, the Attorney General should be restricted from handpicking partisan prosecutors to oversee politically charged investigations and prosecutions. While there is no simple solution to the politicization of federal prosecution, restructuring prosecutorial and political power within the DOJ to reduce partisanship, both real and apparent, is, as Berman recognizes, an important component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SEROTONIN syndrome, ONLINE information services, THERAPEUTICS, COMBINATION drug therapy, SYSTEMATIC reviews, TIME, SEROTONIN, LINEZOLID, RISK assessment, DRUGS, DRUG interactions, DESCRIPTIVE statistics, MEDLINE, MOLECULAR structure, DISEASE remission, and DISEASE risk factors

Purpose: This systematic review aims to evaluate the existing evidence associating linezolid to serotonin toxicity when used as monotherapy or when co-administered with other serotonergic agents. Methods: A systematic literature search using PubMed (till March 2023), IDWeek meetings (2003–2023), the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Annual Meetings (2001–2023), and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (1999–2023) identified studies and abstracts related to linezolid and serotonin toxicity. Results: A total of 84 studies were included. The data collected in retrospective/observational studies compared the incidence of serotonin toxicity with linezolid monotherapy at 0.0050% and linezolid combination therapy at 0.0134%. All cases which discontinued linezolid and serotonergic agent/s at signs and symptoms of toxicity found symptom resolution; 75% of cases reported serotonin toxicity resolution within 24–48 h after discontinuation. Conclusion: Linezolid therapy when optimal should not be deferred due to the risk of serotonin syndrome. The data collected reveals a low prevalence of serotonin toxicity in both linezolid monotherapy and linezolid concurrent with other serotonergic agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PARTISANSHIP, FORUMS, REPRESENTATIVE government, POLARIZATION (Social sciences), PUBLIC demonstrations, and WOMEN legislators

This special issue of I The Forum i is devoted to the U.S. Congress. The issue starts by addressing the latest leadership transition in the House of Representatives, examining both the historically notable tenure of the departing Speaker and the historically exceptional process by which her successor was chosen. She concludes that the rare episode of an openly contested speakership provides valuable insight into the factional dynamics of the new House Republican majority. [Extracted from the article]

UNITED States legislators and UNITED States history

This article analyzes the record of Nancy Pelosi's four terms as Speaker of the House of Representatives. It evaluates her performance through three main lenses: as a party leader, institutional leader, and major policy-maker. Ultimately, it concludes Pelosi should be considered one of the most skilled and accomplished legislators in the history of the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RACE, CAUCUS, LIBERTY, REFORMS, CHANGE theory, BALLOTS, and LEGISLATIVE voting

For the first time in one hundred years, the 118th Congress began with a prolonged Speaker's race that required fifteen ballots to elect a Speaker. The contentious Republican debate displayed a level of personal animosity between a faction – the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) – and the majority party's chosen leader – Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) – but it also revealed a series of significant divisions within the majority party over policy, and legislative norms and practices. How do different strategies shape the capacity of factions to spur formal changes to legislative institutions? How do party leaders respond to the demands of factions that raise issues threatening to party unity and their own leadership position? In this article, I analyze the composition of defectors in the Speaker's race, the status of their rule and procedural reform agenda, and the response by McCarthy, including to committee assignments and early use of restrictive rules in the 118th Congress. I conclude with a discussion of the consequences of the HFC strategy for the contemporary U.S. House, and an emerging need to expand theories of institutional change to better integrate the behavior of both party leaders and factions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LEGISLATIVE voting, PARTISANSHIP, ELECTIONS, MODERN history, and UNITED States presidential elections

The election of a new Speaker of the House of Representatives for the 118th Congress in January 2023 stretched on for several days and 15 roll call votes—the longest contested Speaker election in modern congressional history. This article proves a two-part analysis of this unusual event. First, it reviews the procedural practice of the House for its organization at the beginning of each Congress. Second, it analyzes the operational and strategic conduct of the election, with an eye not only on the individual Members-elect and party factions operating within it, but also on the role of the non-partisan House officers managing the proceedings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PUBLIC spending, LEGISLATIVE bills, COMPUTER performance, ELECTRONIC textbooks, PARTISANSHIP, and GATEKEEPING

Scholars commonly observe that lawmaking in Congress has transitioned from the textbook system of "regular order" in which power was decentralized in committees and lawmaking followed a formal process to one of "unorthodox lawmaking" characterized by the centralization of power in party leaders and a lack of formal process. It is debated whether this change marks a decline in Congress's lawmaking capacity, or is a procedural adaptation that has allowed Congress to remain productive despite high levels of partisanship. In this article, we maintain that lawmaking in Congress varies along two dimensions: formality of process and centralization of power. We analyze non-spending bills added to omnibus appropriations packages to demonstrate that lawmaking on these bills is informal and decentralized. Rank-and-file members retain a capacity to place matters on the legislative agenda and authorizing committees retain gatekeeping and policymaking authority. The process through which add-ons are approved is also bipartisan. Our findings demonstrate that this style of lawmaking is a procedural adaptation used by members to pass legislation important to their districts and in which committees continue to play an important deliberative role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MODERATES (Political science), PARTISANSHIP, UNITED States legislators, DEMOCRATS (United States), and BIPARTISANSHIP

Passing out federal dollars to specific projects in particular districts had been a popular way for congressional leaders to build large bipartisan majorities for major bills since the very first meeting of Congress. By matching projects to districts, scholars have been able to systematically analyze which members were successful in getting their project funded. But for one year, though, the requests members submitted were never known. Using earmark requests data during the 111th Congress, we can know both the requests and the awards. Knowing the former changes our understanding of the latter. We find that the request process is largely driven by ideology, rather than electoral vulnerability. More moderate Republicans tended to seek more earmarks than their more conservative copartisans; some of whom completely opted out of the process. The effect was the opposite for Democrats, whose moderates requested fewer earmarks. When these requests are taken into consideration, the awarding process appears to be even less partisan than the raw data would suggest, confirming the bipartisan nature of the earmarking process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PARTISANSHIP, ABORTION, PRO-life movement, REPRODUCTIVE rights, GENDER, and WOMEN'S roles

I examine the partisan and gender dynamics that shape Congressional policymaking on abortion since the early 1990s. I demonstrate how the movement of abortion from an issue that split the parties to a litmus test that defines what it means to be a Democrat or Republican has impacted policymaking. I highlight the increasingly central role female lawmakers play in crafting policy and shaping party messaging. Throughout this period, Democratic women are the most aggressive proponents for abortion rights and have expanded their influence over the party's agenda. Meanwhile, Republican women were divided on the issue through the early 2000s and had limited influence on the party's decision making. Since the Tea Party wave of 2010 brought more pro-life women to office, Republican women are pivotal players and will influence the direction of party strategy and legislating in the Post-Roe environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DISABILITIES, BIPARTISANSHIP, and PEOPLE with disabilities

The politics of disability policy in the contemporary Congress confirms the observation by James Curry and Frances Lee that lawmaking largely remains a process of bipartisan accommodation. Most major disability legislation since the 1970s has passed with bipartisan sponsorship and support. One reason is that the issue affects so many Americans, including members of Congress. There have been some exceptions to this bipartisan pattern, particularly when disability policy intersects with more contentious issues. And bipartisanship does not guarantee outcomes that are satisfactory to people with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ELECTIONS, PRACTICAL politics, UNITED States presidential election, 2020, and FUNDRAISING

During the last several elections, numerous high-profile candidates for the U.S. Senate have raised a majority of their campaign funds from donors who reside in a different state. These efforts have garnered substantial media coverage and have been fodder for attacks by the candidate's opponents. Despite the increased attention to the role of out-of-state donors, it is not clear if these cases are outliers or if this is now common practice in our more nationalized electoral environment. In this paper, we examine trends in Senate candidate's fundraising from out-of-state donors between 2000 and 2020. We find that there has been a general increase over time in Senate candidates' reliance on out-of-state donations. There is, however, variation in terms of who relies heavily upon the support of a more national donor base. A Senate candidate's share of out-of-state donations varies with factors like incumbency, electoral competition, and geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COURTS, EMIGRATION & immigration, VIOLENCE, and IMPRISONMENT

In 2001, Alfredo Talamantes-Enriquez was convicted in two cases of simple battery under Georgia Law. He was sentenced to twelve months of probation for each conviction. Over fifteen years later, the U.S. government sought to deport Mr. Talamantes, arguing that his Georgia convictions made him an "aggravated felon" for immigration purposes. The aggravated felon statute provides that a non-citizen who commits a crime of violence and is sentenced to imprisonment of at least one year is deportable. It seems obvious that someone in Talamantes's position would not be an aggravated felon. Talamantes did not spend a day in jail but rather was only sentenced to probation. The government won in immigration court, however, arguing that his sentence was actually a term of imprisonment that "was allowed to be served" entirely on probation. Talamantes appealed this ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. While pending appeal, the Georgia trial court issued orders clarifying that he was only sentenced to probation. The Eleventh Circuit rejected these orders, however, and upheld the reasoning of the immigration court. This decision marks a significant injustice to noncitizens in the U.S. who are convicted of crimes. The Eleventh Circuit ignored the plain meaning of the aggravated felon statute, its own precedent, and respect for state courts' interpretations of state law. This Note dissects the grave legal and logical errors in the Eleventh Circuit's decision. It then makes recommendations for all the actors who affect immigration proceedings--federal courts, state courts, Congress, and the Attorney General--in order to prevent the unjust application of the Eleventh Circuit's decision in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SCIENTIFIC knowledge, REFLECTANCE spectroscopy, MULTISPECTRAL imaging, X-ray fluorescence, RAMAN spectroscopy, and COPYING

This paper presents the findings of the first multi-analytical investigation of the Book of Uí Mhaine, one of the largest Gaelic Books surviving from the medieval vernacular period. A combination of protein analysis, point X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), multispectral imaging (MSI), point Fiber-Optic Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS) and point Raman spectroscopy was used to perform a systematic investigation of the Book of Uí Mhaine's constituent materials, including parchment, inks and pigments. The analysis revealed that the parchment was made of calfskin, both blunt tools and Pb-containing materials were used for ruling the pages throughout the manuscript, and iron-based inks were used to write the content of the book. The decoration was restricted to the initial letters and rubrication across the body text. The decoration color palette was limited to yellow and red, comprising arsenic-, mercury- and lead-based pigments. A copper-based green pigment was found only on one folio. The scientific knowledge acquired through this multi-analytical approach complemented a substantial corpus of knowledge already built by Gaelic scholars, paleographers, codicologists and conservators. This work not only allowed for the consolidation of existing information on methods and materials used for the production of medieval Gaelic manuscripts but also laid the basis for future comparative work with other contemporary traditions in Ireland and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SPECIAL events, NODULAR iron, CAST-iron, INFORMATION scientists, and IRON founding

Virtual or hybrid events can offer some conveniences and opportunities for participation, but they are not a replacement for networking and attending a live event. During such an interaction at the AFS Metalcasting Congress while I was browsing the perimeter booths, I bumped into Rebecca Ward, Impact NDT, who I knew from an AFS Cast Iron Research Committee project from several years back. "We know that face-to-face interactions in settings like conferences matter". [Extracted from the article]

HYDRONEPHROSIS, WATCHFUL waiting, PUERPERIUM, and FOLLOW-up studies (Medicine)

Background: To determine the outcome of antenatally detected hydronephrosis in the post natal period. Objectives: To follow up all cases of Antenatally diagnosed hydronephrosis postnatally to determine the time course until spontaneous resolution of antenatal hydronephrosis and to identify the causes of hydronephrosis persisting in the postnatal period which requires early intervention. Materials and Methods: A total of 109 children with antenatal hydronephrosis were followed up with timely ultrasonography and other investigations(wherever necessary and also making a note on the various grades of hydronephrosis and their outcomes in postnatal life. Results: A total of 109 children with antenatal hydronephrosis were followed up in the current study. It was observed that most of the cases in our study were males with a M:F ration of 2.4:1. The most common cause of antenatal HUN were transient HUN(81%) followed by PUJ(10%) and VUR(3.7%).There was an increase in the number of children who resolved in the postnatal period as noted as 13.8%(15/109) children by day 7,57.8%(63/109) children by 1st month, 79.84%(87/109) children by 6th month and 87.2%(95/109)cases by 1st year. The risk of postnatal pathology increases with the severity of HN. Out of 109 babies with antenatal hydronephrosis 16 babies had persistent hydronephrosis at 1 year follow up. Conclusion: In foetuses with hydronephrosis detected in late second trimester, a thorough work up is required to rule out other anomalies and a follow up USS in third trimester can identify the progress of the same so that treatment and postnatal follow up can be planned accordingly.There is an increased risk of postnatal pathology as the grade of hydronephrosis increases. Most of the cases are managed conservatively as most of the resolve in the infancy with watchful waiting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]