Contesting the vision: Mahathirism, the power bloc and the crisis of hegemony in Malaysia

Abstract available: p.

Interview with John Hilley by Brien Williams

Biographical NoteJohn L. Hilley was born on October 22, 1947, to Dorothy and William Hilley in Tampa, Florida. His father was in the Air Force, so his family moved frequently. In eleventh grade he attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and went on to Princeton University. He taught for a few years, then returned to Princeton to earn a Ph.D. in economics. He taught at Lehigh University, receiving tenure, then moved to Washington, D.C. He began work at the Congressional Budget Office and then transitioned to the Senate Budget Committee, becoming staff director under Senator Sasser. In January of 1991, he became Senator Mitchell’s chief of staff and continued in that role until Mitchell’s retirement in 1995. He subsequently served briefly as chief counsel to Senator Daschle in the Majority Leader’s Office. From 1996 to 1998, he worked as senior advisor and head of legislative affairs for President Clinton. He has been the executive vice president of the National Association of Securities Dealers and the chairman and CEO of NASDAQ International. SummaryInterview includes discussion of: Hilley’s education; work at the Congressional Budget Office and the Senate Budget Committee; working for Senator Sasser; the role of the budget in legislation; Mitchell’s mental abilities; the majority leadership race; Mitchell’s work ethic and dedication to Maine; the different elements of the majority leader’s work; the activities of the Maine staff, the floor staff, the whip operation, the Senate administrative staff, and the Senate parliamentarian; Mitchell’s and Dole’s agreement to no surprises; the difference between Mitchell and Byrd as leader; the transition from Martha Pope to Hilley as chief of staff and what the chief of staff role entailed; the majority leader’s working with the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee; key senators with whom Mitchell built relationships; Mitchell and Senator Sarbanes sharing cucumber sandwiches; Mitchell’s even-keeled temperament; the staff’s access to Mitchell; staff meetings; when Hilley used Mitchell’s hideaway to take naps after an illness; a maneuver they used to defeat a capital gains tax cut and Senator Bentsen’s loyalty to Mitchell; the first Iraq War; the change in the majority leader’s role when President Clinton came into office; the Clinton administration’s stimulus bill, the subsequent deficit reduction package and how it brought out the partisan divide in the Senate; the Clinton administration’s initial blunders; Hillary Clinton’s health care package; the 1994 crime bill; Mitchell’s relationship with President Clinton and communication with the White House; Mitchell’s office’s relationship with the House; Mitchell’s style of running meetings; Mitchell’s dealings with the press; the budget and the meetings at Andrews Air Force Base; Senator Byrd’s giving John Sununu a dressing down at Andrews Air Force Base; Mitchell’s retirement; Senator Daschle as Mitchell’s successor; Mitchell’s humor; Hilley’s wish that Mitchell had been president; Senator Dole’s humor; the present day lack of moderates in both parties; Harry Reid’s job today and the Obama administration’s endeavors; how the question of who holds the presidency is inextricably linked to what came before

Mountain Rivers Reveal the Earthquake Hazard of Geologic Faults in Silicon Valley

The 1989, Mw = 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake resulted in tens of lives lost and cost California almost 3% of its gross domestic product. Despite widespread damage, the earthquake did not clearly rupture the surface, challenging the identification and characterization of these hidden hazards. Here, we show that they can be illuminated by inverting fluvial topography for slip-and moment accrual-rates—fundamental components in earthquake hazard assessments—along relief-generating geologic faults. We applied this technique to thrust faults bounding the mountains along the western side of Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area, and discovered that these structures may be capable of generating a Mw = 6.9 earthquake every 250–300 years based on moment accrual rates. This method may be deployed broadly to evaluate seismic hazard in developing regions with limited geological and geophysical information

Identification of Dw1, a Regulator of Sorghum Stem Internode Length

Sorghum is an important C4 grain and grass crop used for food, feed, forage, sugar, and biofuels. In its native Africa, sorghum landraces often grow to approximately 3-4 meters in height. Following introduction into the U.S., shorter, early flowering varieties were identified and used for production of grain. Quinby and Karper identified allelic variation at four loci designated Dw1-Dw4 that regulated plant height by altering the length of stem internodes. The current study used a map-based cloning strategy to identify the gene corresponding to Dw1. Hegari (Dw1dw2Dw3dw4) and 80M (dw1dw2Dw3dw4) were crossed and F2 and HIF derived populations used for QTL mapping. Genetic analysis identified four QTL for internode length in this population, Dw1 on SBI-09, Dw2 on SBI-06, and QTL located on SBI-01 and SBI-07. The QTL on SBI-07 was ~3 Mbp upstream of Dw3 and interacted with Dw1. Dw1 was also found to contribute to the variation in stem weight in the population. Dw1 was fine mapped to an interval of ~33 kbp using HIFs segregating only for Dw1. A polymorphism in an exon of Sobic.009G229800 created a stop codon that truncated the encoded protein in 80M (dw1). This polymorphism was not present in Hegari (Dw1) and no other polymorphisms in the delimited Dw1 locus altered coding regions. The recessive dw1 allele found in 80M was traced to Dwarf Yellow Milo, the progenitor of grain sorghum genotypes identified as dw1. Dw1 encodes a putative membrane protein of unknown function that is highly conserved in plants

Relative expression of <i>Dw1</i> in stem internodes.

<p>RNA was extracted from a full length internode (Mature), the lower half of an elongating internode, and the upper half of an elongating internode for each parental genotype (n = 3 each). Relative expression was determined by qRT-PCR using the ΔΔCt method with 18S rRNA as the normalizer and the sample from 80M mature tissue as the calibrator.</p

Distribution of <i>Dw1</i> Coding Sequence Variants in Sorghum Genotypes.

<p>The polymorphism number corresponds to the number in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0151271#pone.0151271.t004" target="_blank">Table 4</a>.</p

QTL for Average Internode Length Identified in the Entire Population of Hegari x 80M F₂.

<p>QTL for Average Internode Length Identified in the Entire Population of Hegari x 80M F₂.</p

Stem internode length QTL identified in a population from Hegari x 80M.

<p>F₂ plants from a cross of Hegari and 80M (n = 218) were grown in the greenhouse and the length of each internode was measured. The average internode length was used to map QTL. (A) The resulting graph shows four QTL, including <i>Dw1</i> and <i>Dw2</i>. The x-axis is the genetic map and the y-axis is the LOD score. The boxes above each trait identify the <i>Dw</i> loci, if any, the percentage of the variation explained by the QTL, and the location of the peak LOD value. (B) Photograph of Hegari (left) and 80M. (C) Photograph of F₅ plants that are <i>Dw1Dw1</i> (left), <i>Dw1dw1</i> (center), and <i>dw1dw1</i> (right) in otherwise uniform genetic backgrounds at the other loci that affect internode length.</p