The Religious Right in Court: the Decision Making of Christian Evangelicals in State Supreme Courts

Much has been written recently about the emergence of evangelicals and others often labeled the new Religious Right in American politics. However, little attention has been paid to whether officials who have been socialized in the denominations characterized as being part of this Religious Right actually behave differently in office from those brought up in other religious traditions. The present study begins such an inquiry by examining differences in the voting behavior of state supreme court justices in three issue areas. Evangelical justices were found to be significantly more conservative than mainline Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish justices in death penalty, gender discrimination, and obscenity cases throughout the time period from 1970 to 1993. These findings suggest that religious affiliation is an indicator of a source of judicial values that is independent of partisan sources of values that have been discovered in previous research

Clostridium difficile in Retail Meat Products, USA, 2007

To determine the presence of Clostridium difficile, we sampled cooked and uncooked meat products sold in Tucson, Arizona. Forty-two percent contained toxigenic C. difficile strains (either ribotype 078/toxinotype V [73%] or 027/toxinotype III [NAP1 or NAP1-related; 27%]). These findings indicate that food products may play a role in interspecies C. difficile transmission

InSight's Reconstructed Aerothermal Environments

The InSight spacecraft was proposed to be a build-to-print copy of the Phoenix vehicle due to the knowledge that the lander payload would be similar and the trajectory would be similar. However, the InSight aerothermal analysts, based on tests performed in CO2 during the Mars Science Laboratory mission (MSL) and completion of Russian databases, considered radiative heat flux to the aftbody from the wake for the first time for a US Mars mission. The combined convective and radiative heat flux was used to determine if the as-flown Phoenix thermal protection system (TPS) design would be sufficient for InSight. All analyses showed that the design would be adequate. Once the InSight lander was successfully delivered to Mars on November 26, 2018, work began to reconstruct the atmosphere and trajectory in order to evaluate the aerothermal environments that were actually encountered by the spacecraft and to compare them to the design environments.The best estimated trajectory (BET) reconstructed for the InSight atmospheric entry fell between the two trajectories considered for the design, when looking at the velocity versus altitude values. The maximum heat rate design trajectory (MHR) flew at a higher velocity and the maximum heat load design trajectory (MHL) flew at a lower velocity than the BET. For TPS sizing, the MHL trajectory drove the design. Reconstruction has shown that the BET flew for a shorter time than either of the design environments, hence total heat load on the vehicle should have been less than used in design. Utilizing the BET, both DPLR and LAURA were first run to analyze the convective heating on the vehicle with no angle of attack. Both codes were run with axisymmetric, laminar flow in radiative equilibrium and vibrational non-equilibrium with a surface emissivity of 0.8. Eight species Mitcheltree chemistry was assumed with CO2, CO, N2, O2, NO, C, N, and O. Both codes agreed within 1% on the forebody and had the expected differences on the aftbody. The NEQAIR and HARA codes were used to analyze the radiative heating on the vehicle using full spherical ray-tracing. The codes agreed within 5% on most aftbody points of interest.The LAURA code was then used to evaluate the conditions at angle of attack at the peak heating and peak pressure times. Boundary layer properties were investigated to confirm that the flow over the forebody was laminar for the flight.Comparisons of the aerothermal heating determined for the reconstructed trajectory to the design trajectories showed that the as-flown conditions were less severe than desig

Understanding nutrient landscapes for giant pandas in the Qinling Mountains, China: the relationships between bamboo mineral content and giant panda habitat selection during migration

Bamboo comprises over 99 % of the diet of giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). Giant pandas face a complex nutrient landscape. They eat more than one species of bamboo and various parts of the plant, and they move seasonally to find optimal forage. Though the seasonal habitat preferences of giant pandas have long been known, the spatial and temporal nutrient gradient of bamboo between seasonal habitats remains unclear. Few studies detail the nutrient content of bamboo in relation to the seasonal habitat selection of giant pandas in the wild. In this study, we collected bamboo samples from 57 plots considering four factors (seasons, elevations, species, and plant parts). We evaluated the effect of these factors on the contents of seven bamboo mineral elements (Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, K, Ca, and Mg) and used a non–parametric ensemble tree model to model giant pandas’ presence and absence based on bamboo mineral content. Our results showed strong correlations between pairs of mineral contents (up to r = 0.69) with specific mineral elements such as Mn, consistently showing great importance in the models for differentiating the habitat selection. We also observed significant variation in mineral concentrations between seasons, bamboo species, and plant parts. Our results suggest that the studied bamboo mineral content strongly associates giant pandas’ habitat preferences. Our research may be useful for the development of conservation and reserve management strategies by providing guidelines to increase giant pandas’ opportunities to obtain sufficient nutrient within the Qinling region

Genome Sequencing and Analysis of a Type A Clostridium perfringens Isolate from a Case of Bovine Clostridial Abomasitis

Clostridium perfringens is a common inhabitant of the avian and mammalian gastrointestinal tracts and can behave commensally or pathogenically. Some enteric diseases caused by type A C. perfringens, including bovine clostridial abomasitis, remain poorly understood. To investigate the potential basis of virulence in strains causing this disease, we sequenced the genome of a type A C. perfringens isolate (strain F262) from a case of bovine clostridial abomasitis. The ∼3.34 Mbp chromosome of C. perfringens F262 is predicted to contain 3163 protein-coding genes, 76 tRNA genes, and an integrated plasmid sequence, Cfrag (∼18 kb). In addition, sequences of two complete circular plasmids, pF262C (4.8 kb) and pF262D (9.1 kb), and two incomplete plasmid fragments, pF262A (48.5 kb) and pF262B (50.0 kb), were identified. Comparison of the chromosome sequence of C. perfringens F262 to complete C. perfringens chromosomes, plasmids and phages revealed 261 unique genes. No novel toxin genes related to previously described clostridial toxins were identified: 60% of the 261 unique genes were hypothetical proteins. There was a two base pair deletion in virS, a gene reported to encode the main sensor kinase involved in virulence gene activation. Despite this frameshift mutation, C. perfringens F262 expressed perfringolysin O, alpha-toxin and the beta2-toxin, suggesting that another regulation system might contribute to the pathogenicity of this strain. Two complete plasmids, pF262C (4.8 kb) and pF262D (9.1 kb), unique to this strain of C. perfringens were identified

Diabetes and Driving

Of the nearly 19 million people in the U.S. with diagnosed diabetes (1), a large percentage will seek or currently hold a license to drive. For many, a driver's license is essential to work; taking care of family; securing access to public and private facilities, services, and institutions; interacting with friends; attending classes; and/or performing many other functions of daily life. Indeed, in many communities and areas of the U.S. the use of an automobile is the only (or the only feasible or affordable) means of transportation available. There has been considerable debate whether, and the extent to which, diabetes may be a relevant factor in determining driver ability and eligibility for a license. This position statement addresses such issues in light of current scientific and medical evidence. Sometimes people with a strong interest in road safety, including motor vehicle administrators, pedestrians, drivers, other road users, and employers, associate all diabetes with unsafe driving when in fact most people with diabetes safely operate motor vehicles without creating any meaningful risk of injury to themselves or others. When legitimate questions arise about the medical fitness of a person with diabetes to drive, an individual assessment of that person's diabetes management—with particular emphasis on demonstrated ability to detect and appropriately treat potential hypoglycemia—is necessary in order to determine any appropriate restrictions. The diagnosis of diabetes is not sufficient to make any judgments about individual driver capacity. This document provides an overview of existing licensing rules for people with diabetes, addresses the factors that impact driving for this population, and identifies general guidelines for assessing driver fitness and determining appropriate licensing restrictions