Ebola and War in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Avoiding Failure and Thinking Ahead

The Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is exceptionally dangerous, occurring within active armed conflict and geopolitical volatility, including a million displaced persons. With 421 cases, 240 deaths, and the numbers increasing, this Ebola outbreak is the second deadliest in history. Recent spread to Butembo, home to 1.2 million people, raised concerns. The DRC, World Health Organization (WHO), and partners are leading a vigorous international response, yet despite deploying an experimental vaccine, cases doubled in October 2018 and many cases had unknown origin. Uncontrolled Ebola outbreaks can expand quickly, as occurred in West Africa in 2014. Averting that outcome in the DRC requires rapid action including a strengthened public health response, security, and community outreach. If violence escalates, it could compromise a fragile response. Yet resources are insufficient. The United States and other countries are not permitting personnel deployment to the epicenter, including from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and US Agency for International Development (USAID). In this Viewpoint, we review recommendations of experts convened by Georgetown University and listed at the end of this article. The United States and international community should launch high-level political mobilization, with diplomatic, human, and economic resources. It is critical to recognize that future health crises will occur in fragile, insecure settings. To prepare, the international community needs long-term planning and enhanced capacities to improve the safety and effectiveness of epidemic response operations

UV Spectroscopy of AB Doradus with the Hubble Space Telescope. Impulsive flares and bimodal profiles of the CIV 1549 line in a young star

We observed AB Doradus, a young and active late type star (K0 - K2 IV-V, P= 0.514 d) with the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph of the post-COSTAR Hubble Space Telescope with the time and spectral resolutions of 27 s and 15 km, respectively. The wavelength band (1531 - 1565 A) included the strong CIV doublet (1548.202 and 1550.774, formed in the transition region at 100 000 K). The mean quiescent CIV flux state was close to the saturated value and 100 times the solar one. The line profile (after removing the rotational and instrumental profiles) is bimodal consisting of two Gaussians, narrow (FWHM = 70 km/s) and broad (FWHM =330km/s). This bimodality is probably due to two separate broadening mechanisms and velocity fields at the coronal base. It is possible that TR transient events (random multiple velocities), with a large surface coverage, give rise to the broadening of the narrow component,while true microflaring is responsible for the broad one. The transition region was observed to flare frequently on different time scales and magnitudes. The largest impulsive flare seen in the CIV 1549 emission reached in less than one minute the peak differential emission measure (10**51.2 cm-3) and returned exponentially in 5 minutes to the 7 times lower quiescent level.The 3 min average line profile of the flare was blue-shifted (-190 km/s) and broadened (FWHM = 800 km/s). This impulsive flare could have been due to a chromospheric heating and subsequent evaporation by an electron beam, accelerated (by reconnection) at the apex of a coronal loop.Comment: to be published in AJ (April 98), 3 tables and 7 figures as separate PS-files, print Table 2 as a landscap

A study on the production and properties of secretory IgA with particular reference to recovery from and resistance to viral infections

Summary available: p. [4-5

Public Health Concerns of Cannabis in Canada: Trends in Public Opinion Before and After Legalization

With the legalization and regulation of recreational cannabis in Canada coming into effect on October 17th, 2018, Canada became just the second country in the world to legalize the longstanding prohibited substance after first being outlawed in 1923. While public opinion throughout the country had favoured the adoption of drug-law reformation for some time, limited data existed on the health-related implications and public perceptions of cannabis use before the legislation was introduced. With little to no well-documented evidence available to base their own public policy decisions on, the federal government under newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada outlined several principal objectives when committing to legalizing, regulating and restricting access to cannabis in Canada. The federal government recognised the best tactic as being a public health approach which prioritized decision making for the new regulatory system based on features that should uphold and promote the health and safety of Canadians. This research paper seeks to reflect on the effectiveness of the outlined policy objectives through public opinion by analyzing changes in annual trends pertaining to cannabis associated risks and harms. Three key areas are discussed using data from the Canadian Cannabis Survey (2017-2020) including perceptions of cannabis as being habit forming; cannabis associated risks among other substances; and opinions of cannabis specific harms. This paper ultimately argues that increased exposure to mandatory health warnings and realized effects of cannabis use increased the negative perception of cannabis smoke as being harmful, young adults as being most at risk, and cannabis as being a habit-forming substance while reducing the negative perception of cannabis compared to other substances and its effects on mental health

Electioneering Across the Ages: Examining the Application and Implication of Media-Based Mobilization in American Presidential Campaigns Post-Radio

This work follows the evolution of media-based mobilization strategies employed by presidential candidates and their campaign teams. Assessing how this practice has changed over the centuries involves examining the technologies and philosophies that underlie specific mobilization methodologies. Part of the discussion is compiled from uncovering national newspaper articles printed around Election Day each year from 1980 to 2000. Another section explores more deeply the two presidential campaigns that have occurred since the turn of the millennium

High-frequency Oscillations in Small Magnetic Elements Observed with Sunrise/SuFI

We characterize waves in small magnetic elements and investigate their propagation in the lower solar atmosphere from observations at high spatial and temporal resolution. We use the wavelet transform to analyze oscillations of both horizontal displacement and intensity in magnetic bright points found in the 300 nm and the Ca II H 396.8 nm passbands of the filter imager on board the Sunrise balloon-borne solar observatory. Phase differences between the oscillations at the two atmospheric layers corresponding to the two passbands reveal upward propagating waves at high frequencies (up to 30 mHz). Weak signatures of standing as well as downward propagating waves are also obtained. Both compressible and incompressible (kink) waves are found in the small-scale magnetic features. The two types of waves have different, though overlapping, period distributions. Two independent estimates give a height difference of approximately 450+-100 km between the two atmospheric layers sampled by the employed spectral bands. This value, together with the determined short travel times of the transverse and longitudinal waves provide us with phase speeds of 29+-2 km/s and 31+-2 km/s, respectively. We speculate that these phase speeds may not reflect the true propagation speeds of the waves. Thus, effects such as the refraction of fast longitudinal waves may contribute to an overestimate of the phase speed.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

A simple model for predicting snow albedo decay using observations from the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow-Albedo (CoCoRAHS-Albedo) Network

The albedo of seasonal snow cover plays an important role in the global climate system due to its influence on Earth’s radiation budget and energy balance. Volunteer CoCoRaHS-Albedo observers collected 3,249 individual daily albedo, snow depth, and density measurements using standardized techniques at dozens of sites across New Hampshire, USA over four winter seasons. The data show that albedo increases rapidly with snow depth up to ~ 0.14 m. Multiple linear regression models using snowpack age, snow depth or density, and air temperature provide reasonable approximations of surface snow albedo during times of albedo decay. However, the linear models also reveal systematic biases that highlight an important non-linearity in snow albedo decay. Modeled albedo values are reasonably accurate within the range of 0.6 to 0.9, but exhibit a tendency to over-estimate lower albedo values and under-estimate higher albedo values. We hypothesize that rapid reduction in high albedo fresh snow results from a decrease in snow specific surface area, while during melt-events the presence of liquid water in the snowpack accelerates metamorphism and grain growth. We conclude that the CoCoRaHS-Albedo volunteer observer network provides useful snow albedo, depth, and density measurements and serves as an effective model for future measurement campaigns

The Support-or-Advocacy Clauses

Two little known clauses of a Reconstruction-era civil rights statute are potentially powerful weapons for litigators seeking to protect the integrity of federal elections. For the clauses to achieve their potential, however, the courts will need to settle correctly a contested question of statutory interpretation: do the clauses create substantive rights, or do they merely create remedies for substantive rights specified elsewhere? The correct answer is that the clauses create substantive rights