Biomarker reveals HIV's hidden reservoir.

Determining the total amount of HIV DNA in people undergoing antiretroviral therapy could accelerate the development of novel therapies and potential cures for HIV infection

Why the extensive use of executive orders by state governors may not be a threat to democracy

Like the president, state Governors frequently make use of executive orders in order to pursue their agendas. But do these unilateral actions undermine democracy? No, argue Alexandra G. Cockerham and Robert E. Crew, Jr, who find that legislatures can be willing to delegate policy-making authority to governors if they are of the same party or if the legislature is fragmented

Why term limits may mean leaders are less likely to strike legislative deals.

For many, term limits are a way of checking the power of government executives. In new research, Alexandra G. Cockerham challenges these assumptions. Analyzing bargaining between the legislature and executive across states with and without gubernatorial term limits, she finds that such limits mean that governors are more likely to take unilateral action. By contrast, executives who are not term-limited are likely to be more experienced in bargaining and have a greater incentive to maintain a good relationship with the legislature

The Social and Political Dimensions of the Ebola Response: Global Inequality, Climate Change, and Infectious Disease

The 2014 Ebola crisis has highlighted public-health vulnerabilities in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea – countries ravaged by extreme poverty, deforestation and mining-related disruption of livelihoods and ecosystems, and bloody civil wars in the cases of Liberia and Sierra Leone. Ebola’s emergence and impact are grounded in the legacy of colonialism and its creation of enduring inequalities within African nations and globally, via neoliberalism and the Washington Consensus. Recent experiences with new and emerging diseases such as SARS and various strains of HN influenzas have demonstrated the effectiveness of a coordinated local and global public health and education-oriented response to contain epidemics. To what extent is international assistance to fight Ebola strengthening local public health and medical capacity in a sustainable way, so that other emerging disease threats, which are accelerating with climate change, may be met successfully? This chapter considers the wide-ranging socio-political, medical, legal and environmental factors that have contributed to the rapid spread of Ebola, with particular emphasis on the politics of the global and public health response and the role of gender, social inequality, colonialism and racism as they relate to the mobilization and establishment of the public health infrastructure required to combat Ebola and other emerging diseases in times of climate change

The Covid-19 pandemic shows the power and limits of American federalism

While there has been a great deal of attention paid to how President Trump has responded to the Covid-19 pandemic, Alexandra Cockerham and Robert E. Crew Jr. argue that, to get a true sense of the country’s response, we should look at the actions of state governors and mayors within states. While the federal government has tried to coordinate some efforts, federalism has meant that governors and local administrators have been able to adapt their responses, with the hardest hit states like New York setting a precedent for others

Transfer lubrication techniques in a stick slip situation.

The thesis describes a theoretical and experimental investigation into the transfer lubrication technique as a means of eliminating stick slip vibratory motion. The experimental apparatus consisted of a replaceable disc fastened to a rotor supported in air journal bearings. The disc was driven rotationally via an elastic member and radially loaded by two diametrically opposed pistons pneumatically pressed against the disc circumference. A metal piston pressed against the metal disc induced the stick slip motion whilst the other piston consisted of a dry lubricant compact providing for the transfer of solid lubricant to the metal junction. Instrumentation was incorporated in order to measure appropriate stick slip properties and the major parameters of the system were varied.Unlubricated stick slip experimental results have been compared with analyses based upon upper and lower bound linearised dynamic friction models. Corresponding theoretical stability relationships have been developed for transfer lubricated conditions and experimental comparison also made. In additiondetailed circumstances whereby stick slip motion is successfully eliminated by transfer lubrication have been defined including limiting load ratio and oil contamination conditions

Transfer lubrication techniques in a stick slip situation.

The thesis describes a theoretical and experimental investigation into the transfer lubrication technique as a means of eliminating stick slip vibratory motion. The experimental apparatus consisted of a replaceable disc fastened to a rotor supported in air journal bearings. The disc was driven rotationally via an elastic member and radially loaded by two diametrically opposed pistons pneumatically pressed against the disc circumference. A metal piston pressed against the metal disc induced the stick slip motion whilst the other piston consisted of a dry lubricant compact providing for the transfer of solid lubricant to the metal junction. Instrumentation was incorporated in order to measure appropriate stick slip properties and the major parameters of the system were varied.Unlubricated stick slip experimental results have been compared with analyses based upon upper and lower bound linearised dynamic friction models. Corresponding theoretical stability relationships have been developed for transfer lubricated conditions and experimental comparison also made. In additiondetailed circumstances whereby stick slip motion is successfully eliminated by transfer lubrication have been defined including limiting load ratio and oil contamination conditions

New Sites/Sights: Exploring the White Spaces of Organization

Contemporary organization is increasingly understood as contingent and improvisational - and immersed in complex and shadowy realities where customary assumptions about the space and time of organization no longer hold. This Special Issue invites organization studies into an ambivalent space of sites/sights in organization, the double-play of this modest conceptual proposal necessary in order to open up the complex folding of the epistemological and the ontological in organization today. In this introduction we seek to establish and position a distinctive approach to what we claim to be ‘white spaces’ in organization. We show that any adequate treatment of these white spaces compels a significant breaching of the disciplinary norms of organization studies. Our argument derives from a consideration of a range of recently emerging concepts and analyses in the study of organization, all of which are suggestive of crisis and of emerging (anti-)forms of organization. This edition of Organization Studies publishes six papers and three originally commissioned book reviews that help advance this emerging problematic in organization, and which in their various ways extend our understanding of possible organizing futures. </jats:p

Endurance, resistance and resilience in the South African health care system: case studies to demonstrate mechanisms of coping within a constrained system

BACKGROUND: South Africa is at present undertaking a series of reforms to transform public health services to make them more effective and responsive to patient and provider needs. A key focus of these reforms is primary care and its overburdened, somewhat dysfunctional and hierarchical nature. This comparative case study examines how patients and providers respond in this system and cope with its systemic demands through mechanisms of endurance, resistance and resilience, using coping and agency literatures as the theoretical lenses. METHODS: As part of a larger research project carried out between 2009 and 2010, this study conducted semi-structured interviews and observations at health facilities in three South African provinces. This study explored patient experiences of access to health care, in particular, ways of coping and how health care providers cope with the health care system’s realities. From this interpretive base, four cases (two patients, two providers) were selected as they best informed on endurance, resistance and resilience. Some commentary from other respondents is added to underline the more ubiquitous nature of these coping mechanisms. RESULTS: The cases of four individuals highlight the complexity of different forms of endurance and passivity, emotion- and problem-based coping with health care interactions in an overburdened, under-resourced and, in some instances, poorly managed system. Patients’ narratives show the micro-practices they use to cope with their treatment, by not recognizing victimhood and sometimes practising unhealthy behaviours. Providers indicate how they cope in their work situations by using peer support and becoming knowledgeable in providing good service. CONCLUSIONS: Resistance and resilience narratives show the adaptive power of individuals in dealing with difficult illness, circumstances or treatment settings. They permit individuals to do more than endure (itself a coping mechanism) their circumstances, though resistance and resilience may be limited. These are individual responses to systemic forces. To transform health care, mutually supportive interactions are required among and between both patients and providers but their nature, as micro-practices, may show a way forward for system change