Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy: How a Government for the People, Failed the People

Despite having the potential to significantly reduce the passage of many lethal diseases and devastating birth defects, mitochondrial replacement therapy—a controversial medical procedure in which mitochondrial RNA from a healthy female replaces the mitochondrial RNA from the intended mother in vitro—will have no place in the United States anytime soon. Under the guise of purported safety concerns and ethical dilemmas, the Republican Congress used its “power of the purse” to halt any and all research furthering mitochondrial replacement therapy, notwithstanding the fact that many leaders in the medical community have advocated for further research. Several developed countries have already implemented limited applications of the procedure. However, as long as Congress continues to abuse its constitutional appropriations power in a manner inconsistent with the original intent of the framers, policies that can greatly benefit society as a whole will be sacrificed in the name of partisanship and narrow-mindedness

Superintendent Recruitment: Effects of Superintendent Job Status, School Councils (Principal Selection Models), District Wealth, and Signing Bonus on Applicant Rating of the Job

This nearly perfect replicated study (Millay, 2003) was a superintendent recruitment simulation with the purpose of investigating factors that influence recruiting qualified individuals to serve as district superintendents of public schools. The study was a factorial experiment involving a four-way 2 x 2 x 2 x (3 x S) fixed-factor betweenwithin analysis of variance (ANOVA) which yielded 24 cells. The participants in the study were Kentucky Superintendents (N = 72) and individuals in Kentucky certified to be a school superintendent (N = 72) but employed in another position. The between-groups variables were superintendent job status (superintendent, certified), district wealth (high, low), and signing bonus (yes, no). The within-groups repeated measures variable was school councils (decentralized, centralized, and hybrid). Each study participant rated three jobs; one job located in a district with decentralized school governance conducted through school councils; a second with centralized school governance conducted through the district central office; and finally a hybrid model where the superintendent joins the school council with a single vote for the position of principal. The dependent variable was an additive composite score of applicant rating of the job of superintendent. Descriptive statistics revealed a small representation of minorities and females. Superintendents rated jobs in centralized districts much higher than hybrid and decentralized districts. Certified participants rated jobs in hybrid districts slightly higher than centralized districts. Job status, signing bonus, and school councils were all three highly statistically significant for likelihood to interview and accept a superintendent position. Three two-way interactions were statistically significant for the likelihood to interview when signing bonus and job status variables were in the job description, the likelihood to accept a superintendent position when district wealth and job status were in the job description, and the likelihood to accept a superintendent position when district wealth and school council were in the job description. There was a three-way interaction among job status, district wealth, and signing bonus

The Effect of Selective Data Omission on Type I Error Rates: A Simulation Study

There do not exist widely accepted guidelines or standards for identification and removal of outlying data in empirical research. There are sometimes significant incentives for researchers to discover particular research results. Researchers have been observed to use flexibility in outlier omission to selectively omit data in search of statistically significant findings. The degree to which this practice can affect the credibility of research findings is unknown. This study uses Monte Carlo simulation to estimate the propensity of certain types of selective outlier omission to inflate type I error rates in regression models. Simulations are designed to analyze posttest only control group design with no underlying intervention effect, such that any statistically significant findings represent type I errors. Omission of observations is simulated in an exploratory manner, such that observations are omitted and regressions are run iteratively until either a type I error is made or until a maximum trimming threshold is reached, whichever occurs first. Omission of observations based on z-score thresholds, a common research practice in some disciplines, is simulated. Additionally, omission from only of one tail of data—simulating the removal of only “disconfirming” observations—is analyzed. Simulations are performed using a variety of sample sizes and with samples drawn from several underlying population distributions. In all simulations, type I error rates are inflated; type I error rates are found to range from 7.86% to 100%, compared to the expected 5% in the absence of data omission

Can the stock market tell bank supervisors anything they don't already know?

This article provides evidence consistent with recent policy proposals calling for a greater role for market forces in promoting a safe and sound financial system. The authors' empirical results indicate a measure of expected default probability distilled from equity prices helps predict the financial condition of individual banking organizations, as reflected in their supervisory ratings. Moreover, the stock market data have predictive power over and above the information in the quarterly financial statements available to supervisors between inspections. These findings suggest financial markets can provide useful information to supplement supervisory assessments, particularly between inspections, and point to the value of additional research to further clarify the information content of market prices and quantities.Banks and banking ; Bank examination ; Bank supervision

The Tenders: Embrasures in the Fort’s Collapse

The Tenders: Embrasures in the Fort\u27s collapse (zoom edition) is an simultaneous multi-channel mixed reality performance that engages with structures of the fort and the home, combining remote live performance and augmented reality poetics with 3d scans of the site of Fort Dearborn, an early American garrison out of which the city of Chicago was incorporated. Juxtaposing excavations of urban monuments with scans of the bedazzled home of self-taught artist, Loy Bowlin, who embodied the persona of the original rhinestone cowboy , The Tenders seeks to invert and queer colonial narratives lodged deep within the American imaginary

An Economic Analysis of Carbon Sequestration for Wheat and Grain Sorghum Production in Kansas

This study examined the economic potential with and without carbon credit payments of two crop and tillage systems in South Central Kansas that could reduce carbon dioxide emissions and sequester carbon in the soil. Experiment station cropping practices, yield data, and soil carbon data for continuously cropped wheat and grain sorghum produced with conventional tillage and no-tillage from1986 to 1995 were used to determine soil carbon changes and to develop enterprise budgets to determine expected net returns for a typical dryland farm in South Central Kansas. No-till had lower net returns because of lower yields and higher overall costs. Both crops produced under no-till had higher annual soil C gains than under conventional tillage. Carbon credit payments may be critical to induce farm managers to use cropping practices, such as no-till, that sequester soil carbon. The carbon credit payments needed will be highly dependent on cropping system production costs, especially herbicide costs, which substitute for tillage as a means of weed control. The C values estimated in this study that would provide an incentive to adopt no-tillage range from $0 to$95.991ton/year, depending upon the assumption about herbicide costs. In addition, if producers were compensated for other environmental benefits associated with no-till, carbon credits could be reduced.carbon credit value, carbon sequestration, grain sorghum, no-tillage, wheat, Crop Production/Industries,