The Shortsightedness of Blind Trusts

This is the published version

New Community Sponsorships for Humanitarian Immigrants: Guidance on Washington’s Practice of Law and Immigration Services Fraud Prevention Rules

Every state, including Washington, has enacted laws to protect the public from the harm caused when an unqualified person provides legal services. Each state defines the practice of law and generally limits that practice to members of the state bar association. In Washington, a complex collage of case law, statutes, and a Supreme Court rule attempt to define the practice of law, identify when the practice of law by a nonlawyer is unauthorized, and determine when public policy considerations allow such nonlawyer practice. Protecting immigrants from unauthorized practice of immigration law is a particular concern. People who claim to be qualified to help immigrants routinely victimize newcomers; others may assist in good faith. Either way, unauthorized legal representation can cause an immigrant to miss viable opportunities for protection, to be unnecessarily detained or deported, to incur penalties for filing false claims, and often to be tricked into spending thousands of dollars for such “assistance.” The Washington legislature has attempted to prevent such harms through its Immigration Services Fraud Prevention Act. The line between authorized and unauthorized practice of law, especially in the immigration context, can be thick and blurry. New federal programs that allow community financial sponsorship of immigrants fleeing war and state collapse are unintentionally contributing to this grey area. The Biden administration has recently authorized Ukrainians and others to come to the United States temporarily, but only when supported by a U.S.-based financial sponsor. A U.S.-based individual initiates the process by applying to become a financial sponsor. Like all immigration documents, this sponsorship application form can be unclear, particularly for noncitizens. Submission of the form affects an applicant’s legal rights and its completion involves the exercise of legal discretion. Individuals seeking to become financial sponsors are turning to friends and other non-lawyers for help in completing these applications. This article sheds light on the concern that a layperson’s help in completing a financial sponsor application form may represent the unauthorized practice of law in Washington, including the unauthorized provision of immigration-related services. An understanding of this issue is critical, as the Biden administration has expanded community financial sponsorship programs exponentially within the first nine months of their existence. We conclude that a layperson who assists another in completing a financial sponsorship application form is engaged in the practice of law in Washington. A layperson’s assistance that goes beyond entering objective data or language translation likely triggers a violation of Washington’s civil and criminal unauthorized practice rules, as well as its Immigration Services Fraud Prevention Act

Transmission Spectra of Transiting Planet Atmospheres: Model Validation and Simulations of the Hot Neptune GJ 436b for JWST

We explore the transmission spectrum of the Neptune-class exoplanet GJ 436b, including the possibility that its atmospheric opacity is dominated by a variety of non- equilibrium chemical products. We also validate our transmission code by demonstrating close agreement with analytic models that use only Rayleigh scattering or water vapor opacity. We find broad disagreement with radius variations predicted by another published model. For GJ 436b, the relative coolness of the planet's atmosphere, along with its implied high metallicity, may make it dissimilar in character compared to "hot Jupiters." Some recent observational and modeling efforts suggest low relative abundances of H2O and CH4 present in GJ 436b's atmosphere, compared to calculations from equilibrium chemistry. We include these characteristics in our models and examine the effects of absorption from methane-derived higher order hydrocarbons. Significant absorption from HCN and C2H2 are found throughout the infrared, while C2H4 and C2H6 are less easily seen. We perform detailed simulations of JWST observations, including all likely noise sources, and find that we will be able to constrain chemical abundance regimes from this planet's transmission spectrum. For instance, the width of the features at 1.5, 3.3, and 7 microns indicates the amount of HCN versus C2H2 present. The NIRSpec prism mode will be useful due to its large spectral range and the relatively large number of photo-electrons recorded per spectral resolution element. However, extremely bright host stars like GJ 436 may be better observed with a higher spectroscopic resolution mode in order to avoid detector saturation. We find that observations with the MIRI low resolution spectrograph should also have high signal-to-noise in the 5 - 10 micron range due to the brightness of the star and the relatively low spectral resolution (R ~ 100) of this mode.Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures, Accepted to Ap

Transcriptomics Identifies Modules of Differentially Expressed Genes and Novel Cyclotides in Viola pubescens

Viola is a large genus with worldwide distribution and many traits not currently exemplified in model plants including unique breeding systems and the production of cyclotides. Here we report de novo genome assembly and transcriptomic analyses of the non-model species Viola pubescens using short-read DNA sequencing data and RNA-Seq from eight diverse tissues. First, V. pubescens genome size was estimated through flow cytometry, resulting in an approximate haploid genome of 455 Mbp. Next, the draft V. pubescens genome was sequenced and assembled resulting in 264,035,065 read pairs and 161,038 contigs with an N50 length of 3,455 base pairs (bp). RNA-Seq data were then assembled into tissue-specific transcripts. Together, the DNA and transcript data generated 38,081 ab initio gene models which were functionally annotated based on homology to Arabidopsis thaliana genes and Pfam domains. Gene expression was visualized for each tissue via principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering, and gene co-expression analysis identified 20 modules of tissue-specific transcriptional networks. Some of these modules highlight genetic differences between chasmogamous and cleistogamous flowers and may provide insight into V. pubescens’ mixed breeding system. Orthologous clustering with the proteomes of A. thaliana and Populus trichocarpa revealed 8,531 sequences unique to V. pubescens, including 81 novel cyclotide precursor sequences. Cyclotides are plant peptides characterized by a stable, cyclic cystine knot motif, making them strong candidates for drug scaffolding and protein engineering. Analysis of the RNA-Seq data for these cyclotide transcripts revealed diverse expression patterns both between transcripts and tissues. The diversity of these cyclotides was also highlighted in a maximum likelihood protein cladogram containing V. pubescens cyclotides and published cyclotide sequences from other Violaceae and Rubiaceae species. Collectively, this work provides the most comprehensive sequence resource for Viola, offers valuable transcriptomic insight into V. pubescens, and will facilitate future functional genomics research in Viola and other diverse plant groups

Genome sequences of four cluster P mycobacteriophages

Four bacteriophages infecting Mycobacterium smegmatis mc2155 (three belonging to subcluster P1 and one belonging to subcluster P2) were isolated from soil and sequenced. All four phages are similar in the left arm of their genomes, but the P2 phage differs in the right arm. All four genomes contain features of temperate phages

A TESS Dress Rehearsal: Planetary Candidates and Variables from K2 Campaign 17

We produce light curves for all ∼34,000 targets observed with K2 in Campaign 17 (C17), identifying planet candidates, eclipsing binaries, and other periodic variables. The forward-facing direction of the C17 field means follow-up can begin immediately now that the campaign has concluded and interesting targets have been identified. The C17 field has a large overlap with C6, so this latest campaign also offers an infrequent opportunity to study a large number of targets already observed in a previous K2 campaign. The timing of the C17 data release, shortly before science operations begin with the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), also lets us exercise some of the tools and methods developed for identification and dissemination of planet candidates from TESS. We find excellent agreement between these results and those identified using only K2-based tools. Among our planet candidates are several planet candidates with sizes <4 R ⊕ and orbiting stars with Kp ≲ 10 (indicating good RV targets of the sort TESS hopes to find) and a Jupiter-sized single-transit event around a star already hosting a 6 day planet candidate

Measuring the availability of human resources for health and its relationship to universal health coverage for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: Human resources for health (HRH) include a range of occupations that aim to promote or improve human health. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the WHO Health Workforce 2030 strategy have drawn attention to the importance of HRH for achieving policy priorities such as universal health coverage (UHC). Although previous research has found substantial global disparities in HRH, the absence of comparable cross-national estimates of existing workforces has hindered efforts to quantify workforce requirements to meet health system goals. We aimed to use comparable and standardised data sources to estimate HRH densities globally, and to examine the relationship between a subset of HRH cadres and UHC effective coverage performance. Methods: Through the International Labour Organization and Global Health Data Exchange databases, we identified 1404 country-years of data from labour force surveys and 69 country-years of census data, with detailed microdata on health-related employment. From the WHO National Health Workforce Accounts, we identified 2950 country-years of data. We mapped data from all occupational coding systems to the International Standard Classification of Occupations 1988 (ISCO-88), allowing for standardised estimation of densities for 16 categories of health workers across the full time series. Using data from 1990 to 2019 for 196 of 204 countries and territories, covering seven Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) super-regions and 21 regions, we applied spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression (ST-GPR) to model HRH densities from 1990 to 2019 for all countries and territories. We used stochastic frontier meta-regression to model the relationship between the UHC effective coverage index and densities for the four categories of health workers enumerated in SDG indicator 3.c.1 pertaining to HRH: physicians, nurses and midwives, dentistry personnel, and pharmaceutical personnel. We identified minimum workforce density thresholds required to meet a specified target of 80 out of 100 on the UHC effective coverage index, and quantified national shortages with respect to those minimum thresholds. Findings: We estimated that, in 2019, the world had 104·0 million (95% uncertainty interval 83·5–128·0) health workers, including 12·8 million (9·7–16·6) physicians, 29·8 million (23·3–37·7) nurses and midwives, 4·6 million (3·6–6·0) dentistry personnel, and 5·2 million (4·0–6·7) pharmaceutical personnel. We calculated a global physician density of 16·7 (12·6–21·6) per 10 000 population, and a nurse and midwife density of 38·6 (30·1–48·8) per 10 000 population. We found the GBD super-regions of sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and north Africa and the Middle East had the lowest HRH densities. To reach 80 out of 100 on the UHC effective coverage index, we estimated that, per 10 000 population, at least 20·7 physicians, 70·6 nurses and midwives, 8·2 dentistry personnel, and 9·4 pharmaceutical personnel would be needed. In total, the 2019 national health workforces fell short of these minimum thresholds by 6·4 million physicians, 30·6 million nurses and midwives, 3·3 million dentistry personnel, and 2·9 million pharmaceutical personnel. Interpretation: Considerable expansion of the world's health workforce is needed to achieve high levels of UHC effective coverage. The largest shortages are in low-income settings, highlighting the need for increased financing and coordination to train, employ, and retain human resources in the health sector. Actual HRH shortages might be larger than estimated because minimum thresholds for each cadre of health workers are benchmarked on health systems that most efficiently translate human resources into UHC attainment