How legislators respond to localized economic shocks: evidence from Chinese import competition

We explore the effects of localized economic shocks from trade on roll-call behavior and electoral outcomes in the US House, 1990–2010. We demonstrate that economic shocks from Chinese import competition—first studied by Autor, Dorn, and Hanson—cause legislators to vote in a more protectionist direction on trade bills but cause no change in their voting on all other bills. At the same time, these shocks have no effect on the reelection rates of incumbents, the probability an incumbent faces a primary challenge, or the partisan control of the district. Though changes in economic conditions are likely to cause electoral turnover in many cases, incumbents exposed to negative economic shocks from trade appear able to fend off these effects in equilibrium by taking strategic positions on foreign-trade bills. In line with this view, we find that the effect on roll-call voting is strongest in districts where incumbents are most threatened electorally. Taken together, these results paint a picture of responsive incumbents who tailor their roll-call positions on trade bills to the economic conditions in their districts

The majority-party disadvantage: revising theories of legislative organization

Dominant theories of legislative organization in the U.S. rest on the notion that the majority party arranges legislative matters to enhance its electoral fortunes. Yet, we find little evidence for a short-term electoral advantage for the majority party in U.S. state legislatures. Furthermore, there appears to be a pronounced downstream majority-party disadvantage. To establish these findings, we propose a technique for aggregating the results of close elections to obtain as-if random variation in majority-party status. We argue that the results from this approach are consistent with a phenomenon of inter-temporal balancing, which we link to other forms of partisan balancing in U.S. elections. The article thus necessitates revisions to our theories of legislative organization, offers new arguments for balancing theories, and lays out an empirical technique for studying the effects of majority-party status in legislative contexts

Fish -- More Than Just Another Commodity

This brief highlights the contribution of wild capture fisheries to nutritional security in fish dependent developing countries. It is intended to stimulate debate around two broad themes: (1) when should the focus of fisheries policies be on local food security and human well-being as opposed to revenue generation, and (2) how does the current research agenda, with its emphasis on environmental and economic issues, assist or impair decision making processes

An economic analysis of a pneumococcal vaccine programme in people aged over 64 years in a developed country setting.

BACKGROUND: Polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccination for older adults is being introduced in developed country settings. Evidence of protection by this vaccine against pneumococcal pneumonia, or confirmation that illness and death from bacteraemia are prevented, is currently limited. Decisions are often made based on partial information. We examined the policy implications by exploring the potential economic benefit to society and the health sector of pneumococcal vaccination in older adults. METHODS: A model to estimate the potential cost savings and cost-effectiveness of a polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccine programme was based on costs collected from patients, the literature, and routine health-services data. The effect of a pneumococcal vaccine (compared with no vaccination) was examined in a hypothetical cohort aged over 64 years. The duration of protection was assumed to be 10 years, with or without a booster at 5 years. RESULTS: If it were effective against morbidity from pneumococcal pneumonia, the main burden from pneumococcal disease, the vaccine could be cost-neutral to society or the health sector at low efficacy (28 and 37.5%, respectively, without boosting and with 70% coverage). If it were effective against morbidity from bacteraemia only, the vaccine's efficacy would need to be 75 and 89%, respectively. If protection against both morbidity and mortality from pneumococcal bacteraemia was 50%, the net cost to society would be 2500 pounds per year of life saved ( 3365 pounds from the health-sector perspective). Results were sensitive to incidence, case-fatality rates, and costs of illness. CONCLUSIONS: A vaccine with moderate efficacy against bacteraemic illness and death would be cost-effective. If it also protected against pneumonia, it would be cost-effective even if its efficacy were low

C3TM: CEI CCD charge transfer model for radiation damage analysis and testing

Radiation induced defects in the silicon lattice of Charge Couple Devices (CCDs) are able to trap electrons during read out and thus create a smearing effect that is detrimental to the scientific data. To further our understanding of the positions and properties of individual radiation-induced traps and how they affect space- borne CCD performance, we have created the Centre for Electronic Imaging (CEI) CCD Charge Transfer Model (C3TM). This model simulates the physical processes taking place when transferring signal through a radiation damaged CCD. C3TM is a Monte Carlo model based on Shockley-Read-Hall theory, and it mimics the physical properties in the CCD as closely as possible. It runs on a sub-electrode level taking device specific charge density simulations made with professional TCAD software as direct input. Each trap can be specified with 3D positional information, emission time constant and other physical properties. The model is therefore also able to simulate multi-level clocking and other complex clocking schemes, such as trap pumping

A shared role for sonic hedgehog signalling in patterning chondrichthyan gill arch appendages and tetrapod limbs.

Chondrichthyans (sharks, skates, rays and holocephalans) possess paired appendages that project laterally from their gill arches, known as branchial rays. This led Carl Gegenbaur to propose that paired fins (and hence tetrapod limbs) originally evolved via transformation of gill arches. Tetrapod limbs are patterned by asonic hedgehog(Shh)-expressing signalling centre known as the zone of polarising activity, which establishes the anteroposterior axis of the limb bud and maintains proliferative expansion of limb endoskeletal progenitors. Here, we use loss-of-function, label-retention and fate-mapping approaches in the little skate to demonstrate that Shh secretion from a signalling centre in the developing gill arches establishes gill arch anteroposterior polarity and maintains the proliferative expansion of branchial ray endoskeletal progenitor cells. These findings highlight striking parallels in the axial patterning mechanisms employed by chondrichthyan branchial rays and paired fins/limbs, and provide mechanistic insight into the anatomical foundation of Gegenbaur's gill arch hypothesis.This research was supported by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship [UF130182 to JAG], by Plum foundation John E. Dowling and Laura and Arthur Colwin Endowed Summer Research Fellowships at the Marine Biological Laboratory to JAG, by a grant from the University of Cambridge Isaac Newton Trust to [14.23z to JAG], and by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [A5056 to BKH].This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from The Company of Biologists via http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/dev.13388

A Study of DFID's Support for Post-Cyclone Livelihoods Rehabilitation In Orissa, India

The recent UK Government Foresight Project on Global Food and Farming Futures recognises the intensifying pressure on the world's food system that we can expect in the next 40 years. Meeting the challenges these pressures present will require concerted effort by many research communities, among them those that focus on fisheries. In recent years there has been a growth in research pointing to the importance and potential of fisheries in a development and food security context. As a major source of animal protein, especially for poor consumers in developing countries, securing and making the most of the world's fisheries remains an important priority (Béné et al., 2007; World Bank/FAO/WorldFish, 2010). In parallel, after a period of disillusionment following the failures of investments in fisheries projects in the 1970s and 80s (Cunninghamet al., 2009; NFDS, 2009), interest in supporting this sector through foreign aid is returning. Not surprisingly, this resurgence of interest aligns with the renewed focus on agriculture and food security, following relative neglect in the 1990s (World Bank, 2008). With increasing interest in investing development aid in fisheries, it is legitimate to ask what recent research has to offer by way of guidance. In this short paper we summarise the potential significance of several emerging areas of fisheries research and management for helping secure and enhance fish supplies from wild harvesting in support of food security in the developing world. Our focus is on small-scale fisheries, for reasons summarised below, these fisheries present a critical frontier in the challenge to increase the contribution of fish to poverty reduction and sustainable development.We have selected four areas –loosely titled 'Small-scale fisheries' (highlighting gender and inland fisheries), 'Governance reform', 'Resilience in practice' and 'External drivers'. Although more conventional fisheries topics such as effort reduction, fish stock sustainability and gear technology remain important, we feel these other broad areas of inquiry offer particular promise for supporting development efforts. Our intention is to provide readers with a short accessible introduction to these topics and to provide entry points to some of the recent literature

Association between osteoarthritis and cardiovascular disease: systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: To examine for a possible relationship between osteoarthritis and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Design: A systematic review and meta-analysis Methods: Published and unpublished literature from: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library, OpenGrey and clinical trial registers. Search to 22nd November 2014. Cohort, case-control, randomised and non-randomised controlled trial papers reporting the prevalence of CVD in osteoarthritis were included. Results: Fifteen studies with 32,278,744 individuals were eligible. Pooled prevalence for overall CVD pathology in people with osteoarthritis was 38.4% (95% Confidence interval (CI): 37.2% to 39.6%). Individuals with osteoarthritis were almost three times as likely to have heart failure (Relative Risk (RR): 2.80; 95% CI: 2.25 to 3.49) or ischaemic heart disease (RR: 1.78; 95% CI: 1.18 to 2.69) compared to matched non-osteoarthritis cohorts. No significant difference was detected between the two groups for the risk of experiencing myocardial infarction or stroke. There was a three-fold decrease in the risk of experiencing a transient ischaemic attack in the osteoarthritis cohort compared to the non-osteoarthritis group. Conclusions: Prevalence of CVD in patients with OA is significant. There was an observed increased risk of incident heart failure and ischaemic heart disease in people with OA compared to matched controls. However the relationship between OA and CVD is not straight-forward and there is a need to better understand the potential common pathways linking pathophysiological mechanisms