A Resilient Future for Coastal Communities: Federal Policy Recommendations from Solutions in Practice

Across the United States, coastal communities face increased uncertainty and risks from intensifying coastal erosion, flooding, sea level rise, and other climate change impacts. These threats need to be taken very seriously. Nearly 100 million Americans live in coastal counties making up about 30 percent of the U.S. population; another 30 million people (9 percent) live in the Great Lakes region.Through creative partnerships, innovative program design, and intentional community engagement, practitioners and researchers around the country are carrying out new work to adapt to the rapidly changing coastal environment. These efforts would be enhanced and more successful with increased support and assistance from the federal government.EESI recognized the need to educate policymakers by sharing the experiences of coastal communities that are working to adapt to climate change and enhance their resilience to severe weather and natural hazards. Between June 2019 and June 2020, EESI organized and hosted 16 in-person and online Congressional briefings, which featured 42 coastal resilience experts from Alaska, the Caribbean, Great Lakes, Gulf Coast, Hawaii, Northeast, Southeast, and West Coast. This report represents a distillation of the ideas, findings, and policy recommendations identified during EESI's Regional Coastal Resilience Congressional briefing series.Organized by six major sections—Community at the Forefront, Land Use and Development, Cultural Heritage, Climate Adaptation and Resilience Data, Disaster Preparedness, and Financing Adaptation and Resilience—this report provides a comprehensive overview of regional coastal resilience efforts based on panelists' presentations made during the briefing series. In addition to the 30 specific recommendations, this report offers six guiding principles intended to inform the implementation of coastal resilience policy:Federal policies and programs must be designed and implemented based on the climate of the future rather than the climate of the present or past.Climate justice and equity must be fully embedded into new policies and programs and incorporated into ongoing efforts.The federal government should take a leadership role in connecting science with practice, and support and expand collaborations with state, local, and tribal efforts.The federal government should take a leadership role to ensure that intra- and inter-agency coordination helps states, local governments, and tribes to access available coastal resilience resources.Federal investments in coastal communities must be leveraged to create local jobs and help develop a workforce trained in adaptation and resilience.Climate adaptation and resilience work should complement and, when possible, contribute to a decarbonized, clean energy economy.This report—designed as a usable and practical resource for Congress, federal agencies, and the public—includes 30 coastal resilience policy recommendations. These recommendations are brought to life by specific examples of climate solutions in practice today that also hold promise for the future. These various initiatives, projects, examples of community leadership, and funding mechanisms are models for the work that is still needed to accelerate resilience for all coastal communities

Non-Medical Prescription Pain Reliever Use as a Risk Factor for Suicidal Ideation

Research has shown a positive association between depression and non-medical prescription pain reliever use. Given the connection of depression to suicidality, the current research question evaluates non-medical prescription pain reliever use as an indicator of suicidal thought. Using the 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, our analysis found that non-medical use of pain relievers increased the odds for suicidal ideation (O.R. = 2.36). Future research is needed to understand the mechanisms underlying this link. Potential mechanisms include substance induced depression and non-medical pain reliever use in the context of conditions such as chronic pain

Congressional Action on Resilient Infrastructure - Areas of Progress and Future Needs

Even though the 115th Congress did not enact a comprehensive infrastructure bill as many had hoped, lawmakers passed and advanced several pieces of legislation that address resilience in homes, defense facilities, airports, and water infrastructure. Going forward, resilience should be a central goal for the new construction, repair, or modernization of any infrastructure project, from early planning, budgeting, and design, through the duration of a project's life cycle. At a minimum, Congress can require resilience metrics and mitigation strategies for federally-funded projects. Prioritizing resilience in planning decisions can help meet the challenges posed by climate change-driven events, facilitate greater resource efficiency, and promote safe, healthy, and enduring infrastructure where people can thrive. Future infrastructure investments should reflect a triple bottom line of economic, social, and environmental sustainability in a manner that equitably serves the community

Masculinity, Moral Atmosphere, and Moral Functioning of High School Football Players

In order to identify factors associated with on-field moral functioning among student athletes within the unique context of football, we examined masculine gender role conflict, moral atmosphere, and athletic identity. Using structural equation modeling to assess survey data from 204 high school football players, results demonstrated that moral atmosphere (i.e., the influence of coaches and teammates) was significantly associated with participants’ process of on-field moral functioning across the levels of judgment, intention, and behavior. Neither masculine gender role conflict nor athletic identity significantly predicted moral functioning, but the results indicated that participants’ identification with the athlete role significantly predicted conflict with socialized gender roles. Results suggest that in the aggressive and violent sport of football, coaches can have a direct influence on players’ moral functioning process. Coaches can also have an indirect effect by influencing all the players so that a culture of ethical play can be cultivated among teammates and spread from the top down

Risk prediction models to predict emergency hospital admission in community-dwelling adults: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Risk prediction models have been developed to identify those at increased risk for emergency admissions, which could facilitate targeted interventions in primary care to prevent these events. OBJECTIVE: Systematic review of validated risk prediction models for predicting emergency hospital admissions in community-dwelling adults. METHODS: A systematic literature review and narrative analysis was conducted. Inclusion criteria were as follows; POPULATION: community-dwelling adults (aged 18 years and above); Risk: risk prediction models, not contingent on an index hospital admission, with a derivation and ≥1 validation cohort; PRIMARY OUTCOME: emergency hospital admission (defined as unplanned overnight stay in hospital); STUDY DESIGN: retrospective or prospective cohort studies. RESULTS: Of 18,983 records reviewed, 27 unique risk prediction models met the inclusion criteria. Eleven were developed in the United States, 11 in the United Kingdom, 3 in Italy, 1 in Spain, and 1 in Canada. Nine models were derived using self-report data, and the remainder (n=18) used routine administrative or clinical record data. Total study sample sizes ranged from 96 to 4.7 million participants. Predictor variables most frequently included in models were: (1) named medical diagnoses (n=23); (2) age (n=23); (3) prior emergency admission (n=22); and (4) sex (n=18). Eleven models included nonmedical factors, such as functional status and social supports. Regarding predictive accuracy, models developed using administrative or clinical record data tended to perform better than those developed using self-report data (c statistics 0.63-0.83 vs. 0.61-0.74, respectively). Six models reported c statistics of \u3e0.8, indicating good performance. All 6 included variables for prior health care utilization, multimorbidity or polypharmacy, and named medical diagnoses or prescribed medications. Three predicted admissions regarded as being ambulatory care sensitive. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that risk models developed using administrative or clinical record data tend to perform better. In applying a risk prediction model to a new population, careful consideration needs to be given to the purpose of its use and local factors

Obama FY2017 Budget Proposal: Sustainable Energy, Buildings, Transportation and Climate

On February 9, 2016, President Obama released his $4.15 trillion fiscal year (FY) 2017 federal budget proposal, a 5 percent increase over 2016. In his final budget request, President Obama is calling for investment into clean energy research and development to double by 2021, from$6.4 billion (in 2016) to $12.8 billion. The budget seeks$7.7 billion for clean energy research at 12 federal agencies, with the Department of Energy receiving the bulk of the funding (80 percent). The extra funding would support the development of clean, renewable energies such as bioenergy, geothermal, hydrogen, solar, water, and wind, as well as clean-vehicle technologies and energy storage. The proposed 2017 budget increases the Department of Energy's (DOE) funding by 10 percent over 2016 estimated levels, raises the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) budget by 4.23 percent, and increases the Department of Transportation's (DOT) funding by 10.27 percent.This issue brief outlines the Obama administration's FY 2017 budget request for several clean energy programs within key agencies

Evolving Storage and Cyber Infrastructure at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation

This talk will describe recent developments at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation, which is funded by NASAs Science Mission Directorate, and supports the specialized data storage and computational needs of weather, ocean, and climate researchers, as well as astrophysicists, heliophysicists, and planetary scientists. To meet requirements for higher-resolution, higher-fidelity simulations, the NCCS augments its High Performance Computing (HPC) and storage retrieval environment. As the petabytes of model and observational data grow, the NCCS is broadening data services offerings and deploying and expanding virtualization resources for high performance analytics

L-arabinose co-ingestion delays glucose absorption derived from sucrose in healthy men and women : A double-blind, randomized crossover trial

Dietary interventions to delay carbohydrate digestion or absorption can effectively prevent hyperglycaemia in the early postprandial phase. L-arabinose can specifically inhibit sucrase. It remains to be assessed whether co-ingestion of L-arabinose with sucrose delays sucrose digestion, attenuates subsequent glucose absorption and impacts hepatic glucose output. In this double-blind, randomised crossover study, we assessed blood glucose kinetics following ingestion of a 200-ml drink containing 50 g of sucrose with 7·5 g of L-arabinose (L-ARA) or without L-arabinose (CONT) in twelve young, healthy participants (24 ± 1 years; BMI: 22·2 ± 0·5 kg/m2). Plasma glucose kinetics were determined by a dual stable isotope methodology involving ingestion of (U-13C6)-glucose-enriched sucrose, and continuous intravenous infusion of (6,6–2H2)-glucose. Peak glucose concentrations reached 8·18 ± 0·29 mmol/l for CONT 30 min after ingestion. In contrast, the postprandial rise in plasma glucose was attenuated for L-ARA, because peak glucose concentrations reached 6·62 ± 0·18 mmol/l only 60 min after ingestion. The rate of exogenous glucose appearance for L-ARA was 67 and 57 % lower compared with CONT at t = 15 min and 30 min, respectively, whereas it was 214 % higher at t = 150 min, indicating a more stable absorption of exogenous glucose for L-ARA compared with CONT. Total glucose disappearance during the first hour was lower for L-ARA compared with CONT (11 ± 1 v. 17 ± 1 g, P < 0·0001). Endogenous glucose production was not differentially affected at any time point (P = 0·27). Co-ingestion of L-arabinose with sucrose delays sucrose digestion, resulting in a slower absorption of sucrose-derived glucose without causing adverse effects in young, healthy adults

Quantifying the production of plant pollen at the farm scale

Summary: Plant pollen is rich in protein, sterols and lipids, providing crucial nutrition for many pollinators. However, we know very little about the quantity, quality and timing of pollen availability in real landscapes, limiting our ability to improve food supply for pollinators. We quantify the floral longevity and pollen production of a whole plant community for the first time, enabling us to calculate daily pollen availability. We combine these data with floral abundance and nectar measures from UK farmland to quantify pollen and nectar production at the landscape scale throughout the year. Pollen and nectar production were significantly correlated at the floral unit, and landscape level. The species providing the highest quantity of pollen on farmland were Salix spp. (38%), Filipendula ulmaria (14%), Rubus fruticosus (10%) and Taraxacum officinale (9%). Hedgerows were the most pollen‐rich habitats, but permanent pasture provided the majority of pollen at the landscape scale, because of its large area. Pollen and nectar were closely associated in their phenology, with both peaking in late April, before declining steeply in June and remaining low throughout the year. Our data provide a starting point for including pollen in floral resource assessments and ensuring the nutritional requirements of pollinators are met in farmland landscapes

Safety assessment of probiotics for human use

The safety of probiotics is tied to their intended use, which includes consideration of potential vulnerability of the consumer or patient, dose and duration of consumption, and both the manner and frequency of administration. Unique to probiotics is that they are alive when administered, and unlike other food or drug ingredients, possess the potential for infectivity or in situ toxin production. Since numerous types of microbes are used as probiotics, safety is also intricately tied to the nature of the specific microbe being used. The presence of transferable antibiotic resistance genes, which comprises a theoretical risk of transfer to a less innocuous member of the gut microbial community, must also be considered. Genetic stability of the probiotic over time, deleterious metabolic activities, and the potential for pathogenicity or toxicogenicity must be assessed depending on the characteristics of the genus and species of the microbe being used. Immunological effects must be considered, especially in certain vulnerable populations, including infants with undeveloped immune function. A few reports about negative probiotic effects have surfaced, the significance of which would be better understood with more complete understanding of the mechanisms of probiotic interaction with the host and colonizing microbes. Use of readily available and low cost genomic sequencing technologies to assure the absence of genes of concern is advisable for candidate probiotic strains. The field of probiotic safety is characterized by the scarcity of studies specifically designed to assess safety contrasted with the long history of safe use of many of these microbes in foods