Call Me, Beep Me, If You Want to Reach Me: Utilizing Telemedicine to Expand Abortion Access

In June 2022, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The decision confirmed what the public already knew. An anonymously leaked draft version of what ultimately became Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion had braced the country for Dobbs’s keyholding. Overturning decades of precedent, the Court found that there is no right to abortion in the United States Constitution. Shortly thereafter, states began implementing restrictions and near-total bans on abortion. These laws had an immediate effect on the safety of pregnant people. In Tennessee, a state where abortion is now outlawed, one woman had to brave a six-hour ambulance drive, with rising blood pressure and signs of kidney failure, to North Carolina to abort a nonviable fetus. The abortion landscape post Dobbs is riddled with inequitable access to reproductive healthcare-—healthcare which is vital to patients’ health and survival. But even in states where abortion is legal, a gap remains: without meaningful access to abortion service providers, a right to abortion is in name only. Those seeking an abortion face two critical problems: validating their right to an abortion and finding meaningful access to effectuate that right. Addressing the former problem, several states have successfully passed state constitutional amendments protecting abortion since Dobbs. A checkerboard, state-centric approach to abortion protection, however, only amplifies accessibility issues for those in abortion-restricted states or in remote areas without access to abortion providers. Addressing the latter problem, some administrative action has attempted to curb the abortion access issue. The Biden Administration has authorized the use of telemedicine to conduct abortion consultations and prescriptions for abortion pills. While this administrative action does work for patients of today, the impact is only temporary. Administrative solutions are conducted at the behest of political power. Any antiabortion president could direct the agency to reverse course. A permanent solution that addresses both problems is needed. This Note suggests that federal legislation codifying telemedicine abortion procedures into statutory law solves both the problem of legitimizing a right to abortion and finding meaningful access to the procedure. Telemedicine is one of the easiest ways to reach patients in parts of the country, like Guam, with limited access to in-person abortion providers. By grounding the right to abortion in federal, statutory law, Congress sets a mandatory “floor” for abortion rights that states may not overly restrict. This solution, by nature of being a legislative, rather than a judicial, proposal, will ensure consistent access to abortion. Ultimately, federal codification is the most practical way to protect a vital aspect of reproductive healthcare in the United States

Social Action Meets Social Media: Environmental Justice in West Virginia

This article presents a case study of a community organizing effort known as Citizens Actively Protecting the Environment (CAPE). Led by rural West Virginians in response to the Elk River chemical spill of 2013, this environmental justice movement was novel in that it harnessed social media, specifically Facebook, to catalyze advocacy and change efforts in a rural area. The literature on environmental health disparities and environmental justice in rural communities is reviewed. Then authors describe how resident-led organizing in rural areas was effective in promoting environmental justice. Details of the CAPE project are presented, as well as ways social media can catalyze and augment environmental justice organizing efforts in rural communities. Implications for social work researchers and practitioners are presented

A geochemical study of the winonaites: Evidence for limited partial melting and constraints on the precursor composition

The winonaites are primitive achondrites which are associated with the IAB iron meteorites. Textural evidence implies heating to at least the Fe, Ni–FeS cotectic, but previous geochemical studies are ambiguous about the extent of silicate melting in these samples. Oxygen isotope evidence indicates that the precursor material may be related to the carbonaceous chondrites. Here we analysed a suite of winonaites for modal mineralogy and bulk major- and trace-element chemistry in order to assess the extent of thermal processing as well as constrain the precursor composition of the winonaite-IAB parent asteroid. Modal mineralogy and geochemical data are presented for eight winonaites. Textural analysis reveals that, for our sub-set of samples, all except the most primitive winonaite (Northwest Africa 1463) reached the Fe, Ni–FeS cotectic. However, only one (Tierra Blanca) shows geochemical evidence for silicate melting processes. Tierra Blanca is interpreted as a residue of small-degree silicate melting. Our sample of Winona shows geochemical evidence for extensive terrestrial weathering. All other winonaites studied here (Fortuna, Queen Alexander Range 94535, Hammadah al Hamra 193, Pontlyfni and NWA 1463) have chondritic major-element ratios and flat CI-normalised bulk rare-earth element patterns, suggesting that most of the winonaites did not reach the silicate melting temperature. The majority of winonaites were therefore heated to a narrow temperature range of between ∼1220 (the Fe, Ni–FeS cotectic temperature) and ∼1370 K (the basaltic partial melting temperature). Silicate inclusions in the IAB irons demonstrate partial melting did occur in some parts of the parent body (Ruzicka and Hutson, 2010), thereby implying heterogeneous heat distribution within this asteroid. Together, this indicates that melting was the result of internal heating by short-lived radionuclides. The brecciated nature of the winonaites suggests that the parent body was later disrupted by a catastrophic impact, which allowed the preservation of the largely unmelted winonaites. Despite major-element similarities to both ordinary and enstatite chondrites, trace-element analysis suggests the winonaite parent body had a carbonaceous chondrite-like precursor composition. The parent body of the winonaites was volatile-depleted relative to CI, but enriched compared to the other carbonaceous classes. The closest match are the CM chondrites; however, the specific precursor is not sampled in current meteorite collections

New Observations of the Interstellar Medium in the Lyman Break Galaxy MS 1512-cB58

We present the results of a detailed study of the interstellar medium of MS 1512-cB58, an L* Lyman break galaxy at z = 2.7276, based on new spectral observations obtained with the Echelle Spectrograph and Imager on the Keck II telescope at 58 km/s resolution. We focus in particular on the chemical abundances and kinematics of the interstellar gas and our main findings are as follows. Even at this relatively early epoch, the ISM of this galaxy is already highly enriched in elements released by Type II supernovae; the abundances of O, Mg, Si, P, and S are all about 2/5 of their solar values. In contrast, N and the Fe-peak elements Mn, Fe, and Ni are underabundant by a factor of about 3. Based on current ideas of stellar nucleosynthesis, these results can be understood if most of the metal enrichment in cB58 has taken place within the last 300 million years, the timescale for the release of N from intermediate mass stars. cB58 appears to be an example of a galaxy in the process of converting its gas into stars on a few dynamical timescales; quite possibly we are witnessing the formation of a galactic bulge or an elliptical galaxy. The energetic star formation activity has stirred the interstellar medium to high velocities of up to 1000 km/s. The net effect is a bulk outflow of the ISM at a speed of 255 km/s and at a rate which exceeds the star formation rate. It is unclear whether this gas will be lost or retained by the galaxy. We point out that the chemical and kinematic properties of cB58 are markedly different from those of most damped Lyman alpha systems at the same redshift.Comment: 38 pages, LaTeX, 9 Postscript Figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Sections 3.3 and 5.3 expanded, and two additional figures included, following referee's repor

Effects of wind energy development on survival of female greater prairie-chickens

The potential effects of wind energy development on wildlife have received increased attention over the past decade. In Kansas, optimal sites for wind energy development often overlap with preferred habitats of greater prairie-chickens Tympanuchus cupido. Our goal was to determine whether wind energy development affected survival of female prairie-chickens in a grassland ecosystem, assessing one potential impact of wind on an upland gamebird of conservation concern. We focused primarily on the response of female prairie-chickens to wind energy development because population dynamics of prairie-chickens are primarily determined by female demography. We monitored prairie-chickens at a wind facility in Kansas during a 2-year pre-construction (2007–2008) and a 3-year post-construction period (2009–2011). We used data from 220 radio-marked females to calculate weekly survival and hazard rates. We used cause of death for 81 mortality events to test for changes in the proportion of mortalities attributed to mammalian predators, avian predators and collisions. We observed an unexpected increase in annual survival during the post-construction period (0·57) compared with the pre-construction period (0·32). Distance from home range centroid to the nearest wind turbine site had no effect on weekly survival of females. Collision mortality events were rare, and most were associated with fences or transmission lines and not turbine blades. Most female mortality was due to predation (c. 90%). Differences in annual survival were driven by a higher risk of mortality during lekking activity in March and April during the pre-construction period (weekly hazard rate = 0·050–0·062) compared with the post-construction period (hazard rate = 0·012–0·021). We observed no change in the proportion of mortalities attributed to different causes between the two treatment periods. Synthesis and applications. Development of a wind energy facility had no negative effect on survival of female prairie-chickens. The results of our field study indicate that greater prairie-chickens are less sensitive to wind energy development than lesser prairie-chickens Tympanuchus pallidicinctus and greater sage-grouse Centrocercus urophasianus are to oil and gas development. We have strong evidence that survival increased after wind energy development, and hypothesize that energy development affected the local predator community, resulting in an indirect effect of decreased predation risk during the post-construction period

2D-IR spectroscopy of proteins in H2O – a perspective

The form of the amide I infrared absorption band provides a sensitive probe of the secondary structure and dynamics of proteins in the solution phase. However, the frequency coincidence of the amide I band with the bending vibrational mode of H2O has necessitated the widespread use of deuterated solvents. Recently, it has been demonstrated that ultrafast 2D-IR spectroscopy allows the detection of the protein amide I band in H2O-based fluids, meaning that IR methods can now be applied to study proteins in physiologically relevant solvents. In this perspective, we describe the basis of the 2D-IR method for observing the protein amide I band in H2O and show how this development has the potential to impact on areas ranging from our fundamental appreciation of protein structural dynamics to new applications for 2D-IR spectroscopy in the analytical and biomedical sciences. In addition, we discuss how the spectral response of water, rather than being a hindrance, now provides a basis for new approaches to data pre-processing, standardisation of 2D-IR data collection and signal quantification. Ultimately, we visualise a direction of travel towards the creation of 2D-IR spectral libraries that can be linked to advanced computational methods for use in high-throughput protein screening and disease diagnosis

Shining a light on clinical spectroscopy : translation of diagnostic IR, 2D-IR and Raman spectroscopy towards the clinic

In recent years, the application of vibrational spectroscopy in biomedical research has rapidly expanded; covering aspects of pharmaceutical development, to point-of-care technologies. Vibrational spectroscopy techniques such as Fourier-transform IR (FTIR), and Raman spectroscopy have been at the forefront of this movement, with their complementary information able to shine light onto a range of medical applications. As a relative newcomer to biomedical applications, two-dimensional (2D)-IR is also gaining traction in the field. Here we describe the recent development of these techniques as analytical tools in medical science, and their relative advancements towards the clinic

2D-infrared spectroscopy of proteins in water : using the solvent thermal response as an internal standard

Ultrafast two-dimensional infrared (2D-IR) spectra can now be obtained in a matter of seconds, opening up the possibility of high-throughput screening applications of relevance to the biomedical and pharmaceutical sectors. Determining quantitative information from 2D-IR spectra recorded on different samples and different instruments is however made difficult by variations in beam alignment, laser intensity, and sample conditions. Recently, we demonstrated that 2D-IR spectroscopy of the protein amide I band can be performed in aqueous (H2O) rather than deuterated (D2O) solvents, and we now report a method that uses the magnitude of the associated thermal response of H2O as an internal normalization standard for 2D-IR spectra. Using the water response, which is temporally separated from the protein signal, to normalize the spectra allows significant reduction of the impact of measurement-to-measurement fluctuations on the data. We demonstrate that this normalization method enables creation of calibration curves for measurement of absolute protein concentrations and facilitates reproducible difference spectroscopy methodologies. These advances make significant progress toward the robust data handling strategies that will be essential for the realization of automated spectral analysis tools for large scale 2D-IR screening studies of protein-containing solutions and biofluids

Irruptions: evidence for breeding season habitat limitation in Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus)

Effective management of wildlife populations requires identification of the factors limiting their growth. The Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) is an imperiled, disturbance-dependent, shorebird species that nests on broad, sparsely vegetated beaches, sandbars, and lakeshores. In areas minimally affected by human use, plover habitat loss occurs through vegetation encroachment and erosion. Alternatively, habitat availability may be increased by sand deposition caused by storm- or flood-induced sediment transport or scouring that removes vegetation, or by receding lake levels. To test the hypothesis that plover populations are limited by available breeding habitat, we estimated the amount of habitat available before and after four significant storm and flooding events (i.e., disturbance) by classifying pre- and postdisturbance aerial imagery. We then evaluated the population changes that occurred after disturbance-related habitat alterations. Additionally, we report on population changes from four population increases that occurred after habitat creation events for which we did not have imagery suitable for classification. The storm and flood effects considered were those from hurricanes and nor’easters on barrier islands of Virginia, North Carolina, New York, and Maryland, USA, and those from floods and high water output from the Gavins Point Dam on the Missouri River between South Dakota and Nebraska, USA. The amount of nesting habitat increased 27–950% at these sites, and plover populations increased overall 72–622% after these events (increase of 8–217 pairs in 3 to 8 years after the disturbance, average 12–116% increase annually). The demographic changes were driven by productivity in some cases and probably by increases in immigration in others, and occurred simultaneously with regional increases. Our results support our hypothesis that the focal plover populations were at or near carrying capacity and are habitat limited. Currently, human interventions such as beach stabilization, the construction of artificial dunes, and dams reduce natural disturbance, and therefore, the carrying capacity, in many plover breeding areas. If these interventions were reduced or modified in such a way as to create and improve habitat, plover populations would likely reach higher average numbers and the potential for achieving recovery goals would be increased