Immigrant legislation, across and within the United States

State governments are now the principal source of immigrant legislation in the US. Existing research presents contradictory findings concerning the sources of pro- and anti-immigration state legislation. However, research has not adequately accounted for the multidimensional nature of immigrant legislation and the fact that many variables hypothesized to affect state legislation encompass both within-state, time-varying effects and time-invariant, cross-sectional effects. Measurement and research design strategies to address these problems are applied to a dataset of state immigrant legislation approved between 2005 and 2012. The findings are important because they show that partisan, demographic, and economic effects are often different within versus across states and may differently affect the volume versus the relative tenor of legislative output

Slips of the Tongue: The Facts and a Stratificational Model

Paper by Gary S. Dell and Peter A. Reic

Human responses to Florida red tides : policy awareness and adherence to local fertilizer ordinances

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2014. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science of The Total Environment 493 (2014): 898-909, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.06.083.To mitigate the damages of natural hazards, policy responses can be beneficial only if they are effective. Using a self-administered survey approach, this paper focuses on the adherence to local fertilizer ordinances (i.e., county or municipal rules regulating the application of fertilizer to private lawns or facilities such as golf courses) implemented in jurisdictions along the southwest Florida coast in response to hazardous blooms of Florida red tides (Karenia brevis). These ordinances play a role in the context of evolving programs of water pollution control at federal, state, water basin, and local levels. With respect to policy effectiveness, while the strength of physical linkages is of critical importance, the extent to which humans affected are aware of and adhere to the relevant rules, is equally critical. We sought to understand the public’s depth of understanding about the rationales for local fertilizer ordinances. Respondents in Sarasota, Florida, were asked about their fertilizer practices in an area that has experienced several major blooms of Florida red tides over the past two decades. A highly educated, older population of 305 residents and “snowbirds” reported relatively little knowledge about a local fertilizer ordinance, its purpose, or whether it would change the frequency, size, or duration of red tides. This finding held true even among subpopulations that were expected to have more interest in or to be more knowledgeable about harmful algal blooms. In the face of uncertain science and environmental outcomes, and with individual motivations at odds with evolving public policies, the effectiveness of local community efforts to decrease the impacts of red tides may be compromised. Targeted social-science research on human perceptions about the risks of Florida red tides and education about the rationales for potential policy responses is warranted.This work was funded under sponsorship of the National Science Foundation (NSF), awards #1009106 and #1004181and the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), award # R21ES017413-01A2. Fleming received support from the European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund (European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School)

A whole-genome approach to identifying protein binding sites: promoters in Methanocaldococcus (Methanococcus) jannaschii

We have adapted an electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) to isolate genomic DNA fragments that bind the archaeal transcription initiation factors TATA-binding protein (TBP) and transcription factor B (TFB) to perform a genome-wide search for promoters. Mobility-shifted fragments were cloned, tested for their ability to compete with known promoter-containing fragments for a limited concentration of transcription factors, and sequenced. We applied the method to search for promoters in the genome of Methanocaldococcus jannaschii. Selection was most efficient for promoters of tRNA genes and genes for several presumed small non-coding RNAs (ncRNA). Protein-coding gene promoters were dramatically underrepresented relative to their frequency in the genome. The repeated isolation of these genomic regions was partially rectified by including a hybridization-based screening. Sequence alignment of the affinity-selected promoters revealed previously identified TATA box, BRE, and the putative initiator element. In addition, the conserved bases immediately upstream and downstream of the BRE and TATA box suggest that the composition and structure of archaeal natural promoters are more complicated

The human health effects of Florida Red Tide (FRT) blooms : an expanded analysis

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2014. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Environment International 68 (2014): 144-153, doi:10.1016/j.envint.2014.03.016.Human respiratory and digestive illnesses can be caused by exposures to brevetoxins from blooms of the marine alga Karenia brevis, also known as Florida red tide (FRT). K. brevis requires macro-nutrients to grow; although the sources of these nutrients have not been resolved completely, they are thought to originate both naturally and anthropogenically. The latter sources comprise atmospheric depositions, industrial effluents, land runoffs, or submerged groundwater discharges. To date, there has been only limited research on the extent of human health risks and economic impacts due to FRT. We hypothesized that FRT blooms were associated with increases in the numbers of emergency room visits and hospital inpatient admissions for both respiratory and digestive illnesses. We sought to estimate these relationships and to calculate the costs of associated adverse health impacts. We developed environmental exposure-response models to test the effects of FRT blooms on human health, using data from diverse sources. We estimated the FRT bloom-associated illness costs, using extant data and parameters from the literature. When controlling for resident population, a proxy for tourism, and seasonal and annual effects, we found that increases in respiratory and digestive illnesses can be explained by FRT blooms. Specifically, FRT blooms were associated with human health and economic effects in older cohorts (≥ 55 years of age) in six southwest Florida counties. Annual costs of illness ranged from $60,000 to$700,000 annually, but these costs could exceed $1.0 million per year for severe, long-lasting FRT blooms, such as the one that occurred during 2005. Assuming that the average annual illness costs of FRT blooms persist into the future, using a discount rate of 3$2-24 million.This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation under NSF/CNH Grant No. 1009106.L.E. Fleming acknowledges support from the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund Convergence Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly

CHANS : Florida red tides and coastal populations as a coupled nature-human system

Presented at the Seventh Symposium on Harmful Algae in the U.S., Sarasota, FL, 27-31 October 2013.Coupled nature-human (CNH) systems are now the focus of a growing number of inter-disciplinary research programs worldwide. As implied by the term “coupled,” these systems in-volve interactions between humans and nature, often affecting the dynamic characteristics of each component. Both natural and social scientists are engaged in developing a deeper un-derstanding of these dynamics, focusing on the linkages and feedbacks affecting the trajectories of coupled system behavior. Several researchers have begun to identify the generic aspects of nature-human couplings. Many of these aspects have been adapted from the field of ecology, where the dynamic characteristics of ecological systems have been studied for decades. These aspects include system heterogeneity, time lags, reciprocal feedbacks, thresholds, surprises, legacies, and resilience. The presence of such aspects has implications for the stability and persistence of particular ecosystem states, leading potentially to further implications for human heath and welfare. This talk reviews a specific type of natural hazard-human coupling that relates to coastal blooms of toxic marine algae, drawing examples primarily from human interactions with blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate Karenia brevis from the eastern Gulf of Mexico. This talk introduces a set of HAB Symposium “speed” presentations relating to different aspects of an ongoing multi-institutional and inter-disciplinary research project that examines Florida red tides as a type of CNH system. We present examples of the generic aspects of CNH systems in the context of Florida red tides, and we discuss also some of the challenges involved in compiling relevant data to support our analytical efforts

A cost–benefit analysis of acclimation to low irradiance in tropical rainforest tree seedlings: leaf life span and payback time for leaf deployment

The maintenance in the long run of a positive carbon balance under very low irradiance is a prerequisite for survival of tree seedlings below the canopy or in small gaps in a tropical rainforest. To provide a quantitative basis for this assumption, experiments were carried out to determine whether construction cost (CC) and payback time for leaves and support structures, as well as leaf life span (i) differ among species and (ii) display an irradiance-elicited plasticity. Experiments were also conducted to determine whether leaf life span correlates to CC and payback time and is close to the optimal longevity derived from an optimization model. Saplings from 13 tropical tree species were grown under three levels of irradiance. Specific-CC was computed, as well as CC scaled to leaf area at the metamer level. Photosynthesis was recorded over the leaf life span. Payback time was derived from CC and a simple photosynthesis model. Specific-CC displayed only little interspecific variability and irradiance-elicited plasticity, in contrast to CC scaled to leaf area. Leaf life span ranged from 4 months to >26 months among species, and was longest in seedlings grown under lowest irradiance. It was always much longer than payback time, even under the lowest irradiance. Leaves were shed when their photosynthesis had reached very low values, in contrast to what was predicted by an optimality model. The species ranking for the different traits was stable across irradiance treatments. The two pioneer species always displayed the smallest CC, leaf life span, and payback time. All species displayed a similar large irradiance-elicited plasticity

Endogenous Syngap1 Alpha Splice Forms Promote Cognitive Function and Seizure Protection

Altres ajuts: NIH grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH096847, MH108408, MH115005, MH113949, MH105400); National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS064079); Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD089491); National Institute for Drug Abuse (DA034116, DA036376); Autism Speaks Weatherstone Pre-Doctoral fellowship (10646); Training fellowship from the Leon and Friends Charitable Foundation.Loss-of-function variants in SYNGAP1 cause a developmental encephalopathy defined by cognitive impairment, autistic features, and epilepsy. SYNGAP1 splicing leads to expression of distinct functional protein isoforms. Splicing imparts multiple cellular functions of SynGAP proteins through coding of distinct C-terminal motifs. However, it remains unknown how these different splice sequences function in vivo to regulate neuronal function and behavior. Reduced expression of SynGAP-α1/2 C-terminal splice variants in mice caused severe phenotypes, including reduced survival, impaired learning, and reduced seizure latency. In contrast, upregulation of α1/2 expression improved learning and increased seizure latency. Mice expressing α1-specific mutations, which disrupted SynGAP cellular functions without altering protein expression, promoted seizure, disrupted synapse plasticity, and impaired learning. These findings demonstrate that endogenous SynGAP isoforms with α1/2 spliced sequences promote cognitive function and impart seizure protection. Regulation of SynGAP-α expression or function may be a viable therapeutic strategy to broadly improve cognitive function and mitigate seizure