Racism and Aids: African Origin Theories of HIV-1

The AIDS epidemic, first discovered in the United States in 1981, has caused a great deal of speculation with regard to the origins of both the HIV-1 retrovirus and the early pathways for the epidemic itself. The African origins theory is the most widely accepted origin theory for HIV-1 in the West. This theory is based upon six assertions, all of which either lack evidence or, when evidence has been present, these assertions have been contradicted. The African origins theory is unsubstantiated. The African origins theory is based not upon scientific logic but rather upon victim-blaming, the attempt to define the other as the cause of disease, and racism

The influence of fertilizers on the Vitamin-B content of wheat

Cover title.Bibliography: p. 40-41.Mode of access: Internet

Ground-water quality and its relation to land use on Oahu, Hawaii, 2000-01

Shipping list no.: 2005-0044-P. "National Water-Quality Assessment Program." Includes bibliographical references (pages 55-57). Also available via Internet at the USGS web site. Address as of 01/07/05: http://water.usgs.gov/pubs/wri/wri034305/pdf/wri034305.pdf; current access available via PURL.Water quality in the main drinking-water source aquifers of Oahu was assessed by a one-time sampling of untreated ground water from 30 public-supply wells and 15 monitoring wells. The 384 square-mile study area, which includes urban Honolulu and large tracts of forested, agricultural, and suburban residential lands in central Oahu, accounts for 93 percent of the island’s groundwater withdrawals. Organic compounds were detected in 73 percent of public-supply wells, but mostly at low concentrations below minimum reporting levels. Concentrations exceeded drinking-water standards in just a few cases: the solvent trichloroethene and the radionuclide radon-222 exceeded Federal standards in one public-supply well each, and the fumigants 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane (DBCP) and 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP) exceeded State standards in three public-supply wells each. Solvents, fumigants, trihalomethanes, and herbicides were prevalent (detected in more than 30 percent of samples) but gasoline components and insecticides were detected in few wells. Most water samples contained complex mixtures of organic compounds: multiple solvents, fumigants, or herbicides, and in some cases compounds from two or all three of these classes. Characteristic suites of chemicals were associated with particular land uses and geographic locales. Solvents were associated with central Oahu urban-military lands whereas fumigants, herbicides, and fertilizer nutrients were associated with central Oahu agricultural lands. Somewhat unexpectedly, little contamination was detected in Honolulu where urban density is highest, most likely as a consequence of sound land-use planning, favorable aquifer structure, and less intensive application of chemicals (or of less mobile chemicals) over recharge zones in comparison to agricultural areas. For the most part, organic and nutrient contamination appear to reflect decades-old releases and former land use. Most ground water ages were decades old, with recharge dates ranging from pre-1940 to the present, and with most dates falling within the 1950s to 1980s time span. Several widely detected compounds were discontinued as long ago as the 1970s but have yet to be flushed from the ground-water system. Although large tracts of land in central Oahu have been converted from agriculture to residential urban use since the 1950s, water quality in the converted areas still more closely reflects the former agricultural land. It appears to be too early to detect a distinct water-quality signature characteristic of the newer urban use, although several urban turfgrass herbicides in use for just 10 years or so were detected in monitoring wells and may represent early arrivals of urban contaminants at the water table

Beyond Partisanship: Outperforming the Party Label with Local Roots in Congressional Elections

While factors like partisanship are increasingly decisive in congressional elections, they do not fully explain variation in constituency support between similarly situated incumbents. I argue that legislators’ reelection success is also influenced by the depth of their local, pre-Congress roots in the district they represent. I theorize that this local connection offers practical advantages to incumbents, such as built-in grassroots political infrastructure in their districts. Shared local identity also allows legislators to relate to their voters on a dimension that is uniquely suited to cross-cut partisanship and qualify them to represent their particular constituents. Therefore, I argue that local roots outperform their district’s partisan expectations – and more specifically, their party’s presidential nominees. Using an original dataset of nearly 3,000 House incumbents from 2002 to 2018 and novel measures of their preexisting local roots in their districts, I find that deeply rooted incumbents outperform their party’s presidential nominees in their districts by an average of about five additional points, even after controlling for partisanship and other crucial factors. I also find that this impact grows as the depth of local roots among a district’s voters increases. These results indicate that even in an era of congressional politics largely defined by partisanship and presidential loyalty, dyadic district connections like local ties can break through and affect legislators’ standing among their constituents

Treatise on the Merino and Anglo-Merino breeds of sheep

Signatures: B-O3Reclam

Stabilization at the expense of Peacebuilding in UN peacekeeping operations: More than just a phase?

The “uploading” of stabilization to UN peacekeeping presents conceptual, political, and practical challenges to the UN's role in global governance and international conflict management. While scholarly research on stabilization has generally focused on militarization, its relationship to peacebuilding in the context of UN peacekeeping is underexplored. This article examines that relationship. A survey of UN policy frameworks highlights the simultaneous emergence of stabilization and clear expressions of peacebuilding. The article then draws on fieldwork in Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo to illustrate how stabilization is displacing peacebuilding in the practices of UN peacekeeping. The article argues that the politics of stabilization impede local forms of peacebuilding, at odds with the “Sustaining Peace” agenda, and risks jeopardizing the lauded conflict resolution potential of UN peacekeeping

Local Candidate Roots and Electoral Advantages in US State Legislatures

A growing literature has revealed a notable electoral advantage for congressional and gubernatorial candidates with deep local roots in their home districts or states. However, there is a dearth of research on the presence and impact of local roots in state legislative races. In this paper, we close that gap by demonstrating the consistent and significant electoral impacts that state legislators’ local roots have on their reelection efforts. We use data capturing a representative cross-section of state legislative incumbents (N = ~5,000) and calculate a novel index measuring the depth of their local roots modeled after Hunt’s (2022, Home Field Advantage: Roots, Reelection, and Representation in the Modern Congress) measure for the US House. We present evidence that state legislators with deep local roots in the districts they represent run unopposed in their general elections nearly twice as often as incumbents with no such roots. Of those who do attract challengers in their reelection efforts, deeply rooted incumbents enjoy an average of three extra percentage points of vote share. Our results have important implications for candidate emergence in state legislative elections during a time when so many are uncontested. They also demonstrate the limits of electoral nationalization for understanding state politics

Growing Tea with Subnational Roots: Tea Party Affiliation, Factionalism, and GOP Politics in State Legislatures

Most research has examined the influence of the Tea Party as a social movement or loose organization, but less is known about its influence within legislative party politics, especially at the state level. In this paper, we argue that in this context the Tea Party is primarily an intraparty faction that has caused significant divisions inside the Republican Party. Using an original dataset of legislators across 13 states for the years 2010 to 2013, we examine legislator and district-level characteristics that predict state legislators’ affiliation with the Tea Party. Our results reveal that in some respects legislators affiliated with the Tea Party are a far-right wing of the Republican Party. However, by other measures that capture anti-establishment political sentiment, Tea Party affiliated legislators comprise a factional group attempting to transform the Party in ways that go beyond ideology. These findings have important implications for the future prospects of the GOP

Learning and practising supply chain management strategies from a business simulation game: a comprehensive supply chain simulation

An Internet based supply chain simulation game (ISCS) is introduced and demonstrated in this paper. Different from other games and extended from the Beer Game, a comprehensive set of supply chain (SC) management strategies can be tested in the game, and these strategies can be evaluated and appraised based on the built-in Management Information System (MIS). The key functionalities of ISCS are designed to increase players SC awareness, facilitate understanding on various SC strategies and challenges, foster collaboration between partners, and improve problem solving skills. It is concluded that an ISCS can be used as an efficient and effective teaching tool as well as a research tool in operations research and management science. Problems and obstacles have been observed while engaging in the SC business scenario game. The actions proposed and implemented to solve these problems have resulted in improved SC performance