Deficit politics and democratic unity: the saga of Tip O\u27Neill, Jim Wright, and the conservative Democrats in the House of Representatives during the Reagand Era

The Reagan Era featured partisan clashes, controversy over fiscal policy, and a time of trial for the Democratic Party and its claim of diversity. This dissertation examines the efforts of the House Democratic Leadership to build party unity and to enhance its operating methods in battles with the Reagan administration over fiscal policy and the future of the United States. The House Democratic Leadership was challenged by the conservative Democrats. In 1980, the conservatives formed the Conservative Democratic Forum (CDF). Acting as a quasi-third party, the CDF was instrumental in passage of Reagan\u27s economic program in 1981. Afterwards, the CDF was unable to maintain its coalition with Reagan and the Republicans or to act as a quasi-third party. Many conservative Democrats became disillusioned with the large deficits produced by Reaganomics. Conservative Democrats had to decide whether to work within the Democratic Party, become Republicans, or isolate themselves from influence. Meanwhile, the House Democratic Leadership was retooling its methods. The Caucus was revived. It was used to promote discussion and find consensus among the diverse array of liberals, moderates, and conservatives. The Leadership followed a moderate approach to building party unity that encouraged, but did not compel, party loyalty. The House Democrats worked to find budget policies that could satisfy all members while simultaneously confronting the worsening fiscal crisis. By the late 1980s, important trends had appeared. The House Democrats enjoyed greater party unity, and conservatives had found opportunities to exercise influence within the Democratic Party. The Democrats had shown a willingness to reduce popular spending and to confront the growing national debt and debt service payments. On the other hand, Reagan failed to act upon his earlier rhetoric about the need for a balanced budget and the danger of deficit spending. He failed to act as a constructive participant in the budget process for much of his administration and created a political atmosphere that inhibited fiscal responsibility. The result was a virtual tripling of the national debt and a more partisan political environment

a pilot study

Background Due to its high allergenic potential Ambrosia artemisiifolia has become a health threat in many European countries during the last few decades. Hence, several cities and communities initiated ragweed eradication campaigns. In Berlin, Germany, so-called Ambrosia scouts are being assigned the task of finding and eliminating this weed. We sought to evaluate the potential risk of sensitization and allergy in these individuals. Findings In order to assess the risk of sensitization and allergy, we followed-up 20 Ambrosia scouts by skin-prick test with inhalant allergens, immunoserological and pulmonary function tests. Additionally, medical conditions were evaluated by a questionnaire especially designed for this study. Despite close contact to ragweed over a median duration of 13.8 months, none of the participants became sensitized or allergic to ragweed. One individual developed a clinical non- relevant sensitization towards the taxiconomically-related plant mugwort. A decline in relative FEV1 was most probably due to heavy smoking. Conclusions Our surprising findings suggest that intensive contact and exposure to high ragweed pollen concentrations do not necessarily result in sensitization and/or allergy, meaning that the allergenic potential of this weed might be lower than hitherto expected. However, it is also conceivable that continuous exposure to high allergen levels induced tolerance in the ragweed workers. Due to the relatively small number of subjects studied, our results might be biased and therefore investigations on larger study groups are needed

Halbierte Höhlenbärenfersen aus Westfalen und Süddeutschland.

Es werden fünf halbierte Fersenbeine (Calcaneum) von Höhlenbären aus der Balver-Höhle in Südwestfalen beschrieben. Als Vergleich werden gleiche Fundstücke aus drei verschiedenen Höhlen in Süddeutschland erwähnt. Die Frage ist, ob Fraßreste von Höhlenhyänen oder Artefakte vorliegen. Da an den Fundstücken aus der Balver Höhle keine Fraßspuren nachweisbar sind, wie etwa Eindrücke der Eckzähne, nimmt der Verfasser mit Vorbehalt an, daß es Artefakte gewesen sein könnten, zumal er an den Knochenstücken Hiebspuren von schärferen Steinen wahrzunehmen glaubt. Als evtl. Verwendungszweck können Fellglätter angenommen werden oder aber die distalen, knopfähnlichen abgeschlagenen Enden können vielleicht als Spielknöchelchen oder als Jagdtrophäen verwendet worden sein. Im letzteren Falle evtl. durchlocht als Kette getragen wurden. Sicherlich befinden sich in magazinierten Knochenbeständen der Sammlungen gleiche halbierte Fersenbeine.researc

Public Goods with Punishment and Abstaining in Finite and Infinite Populations

The evolution and maintenance of cooperation in human and animal societies challenges various disciplines ranging from evolutionary biology, to anthropology, social sciences and economics. In social interactions, cooperators increase the welfare of the group at some cost to themselves whereas defectors attempt to free-ride and neither provide benefits nor incur costs. The problem of cooperation becomes even more pronounced when increasing the number of interacting individuals. Punishment and voluntary participation have been identified as possible factors to support cooperation and prevent cheating. Typically, punishment behavior is unable to gain a foothold in a population, while volunteering alone can efficiently prevent deadlocks in states of mutual defection but is unable to stabilize cooperation. The combined effects of the two mechanisms have surprisingly different consequences in finite and infinite populations. Here we provide a detailed comparison of the two scenarios and demonstrate that driven by the inherent stochasticity of finite populations, the possibility to abstain from social interactions plays a pivotal role, which paves the way for the establishment of cooperation and punishment.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog

Численное статистическое моделирование технического состояния полиэтиленовых газопроводов

В статье проведено численное моделирование технического состояния полиэтиленовых газопроводов, приведена классификация с помощью Gaussian process classification (GPC)

Lifestyle of Shellmound Builders in Brazil (galley proofs)

The contact of inland and coastal prehistoric groups in Brazil is believed to have been restricted to regions with no geographical barrier, as is the case in the Ribeira de Iguape valley. The inland osteological collection from the riverine shellmound Moraes (5800–4500 BP) represents a unique opportunity to test this assumption for this region. Despite cultural similarities between riverine and coastal shellmounds, important ecological and site distribution differences are expected to impact on lifestyle. The purpose of this study is thus to document and interpret health and lifestyle indicators in Moraes in comparison to coastal shellmound groups. Specifically we test if the rare evidence of fish and mollusc remains in the riverine shellmound led to (a) higher caries rates and (b) lower auditory exostosis frequency and (c) if the small size of the riverine shellmound translates into reduced demographic density and thus rarity of communicable infectious diseases. Of the three hypotheses, (a) was confirmed, (b) was rejected and (c) was partly rejected. Bioanthropological similarities between Moraes and coastal shellmounds include auditory exostoses with equally high frequencies; significantly more frequent osteoarthritis in upper than in lower limbs; cranial and dental morphological affinities and low frequencies of violent trauma. However, there are also important differences: Moraes subsisted on a much broader protein diet and consumed more cariogenic food, but showed a stature even shorter than coastal groups. Thus, despite the contact also suggested by treponematoses in both site types, there was enough time for the people at the riverine site to adapt to local conditions

The design , fabrication and assembly of an asymptotic timber gridshell

This paper describes and discuss the design, fabrication and assembly of an asymptotic gridshellbuilt of plywood laths. The overall question concerns how geometry, structural action, andecient production can interplay and inform spatial design. The environment is a two-dayworkshop where architects, engineers and researchers with specialization in structural and digitaldesign cooperate with undergraduate students in a compulsory parametric design and digitalfabrication course. The gridshell shape is based on an Enneper surface of threefold rotationalsymmetry with a boundary baseplate inscribed within a circle of 4.5 m in radius. Utilizing theconcept of asymptotic curves, which are surface curves whose osculating plane coincides withthe tangent plane of the surface, the structure was built using planar straight laths of plywoodmade using manually operated drills and saws

An Evolution Based Biosensor Receptor DNA Sequence Generation Algorithm

A biosensor is composed of a bioreceptor, an associated recognition molecule, and a signal transducer that can selectively detect target substances for analysis. DNA based biosensors utilize receptor molecules that allow hybridization with the target analyte. However, most DNA biosensor research uses oligonucleotides as the target analytes and does not address the potential problems of real samples. The identification of recognition molecules suitable for real target analyte samples is an important step towards further development of DNA biosensors. This study examines the characteristics of DNA used as bioreceptors and proposes a hybrid evolution-based DNA sequence generating algorithm, based on DNA computing, to identify suitable DNA bioreceptor recognition molecules for stable hybridization with real target substances. The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) approach is applied in the proposed algorithm to evaluate the safety and fitness of the generated DNA sequences. This approach improves efficiency and stability for enhanced and variable-length DNA sequence generation and allows extension to generation of variable-length DNA sequences with diverse receptor recognition requirements

Integrating Candida albicans metabolism with biofilm heterogeneity by transcriptome mapping

This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award for Medical Mycology and Fungal Immunology 097377/Z/11/Z. We are grateful to microbiology colleagues throughout Scotland for clinical isolates collection.Peer reviewedPublisher PD