The Long and the Short End of the Term Structure of Policy Rules

We first document a large secular shift in the estimated response of the entire term structure of interest rates to inflation and output in the United States. The shift occurred in the early 1980s. We then derive an equation that links these responses to the coefficients of the central bank's monetary policy rule for the short-term interest rate. The equation reveals two countervailing forces that help explain and understand the nature of the link and how its sign is determined. Using this equation, we show that a shift in the policy rule in the early 1980s provides an explanation for the observed shift in the term structure. We also explore a shift in the policy rule in the 2002-2005 period and its possible effect on long-term rates.

COVID-19 Impact on Lifestyle and Psychosocial Issues

COVID-19 is a pandemic that hit the United States recently in early 2020 affecting individuals with regards to behavior, healthcare, education, recreation and social interaction, and employment and economic impact. The purpose of this study was to survey San Bernardino residents to identify, describe, and evaluate the impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on their lives to understand their needs and to plan for future pandemics. This exploratory study used a qualitative method to collect data from 12 respondents in video interviews. A major finding was that, regarding behavior, most if not all participants had behavior changes to comply with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. A second major finding, in the area of healthcare, was that eight participants reported a negative change in mental health, three reported a positive change, and one participant reported no change. It was found that all interviewees and/or their family members were impacted with educational changes, a transition from in-person classes to virtual learning. A major implication of this study is that social workers can become more aware of the ways in which individuals were affected by the pandemic, which will allow socials workers to better assist individuals. The findings of this research will guide systems, such as schools and employment agencies, to be prepared, such as better management of funding, providing adequate personnel training, and ensuring everyone’s health, mental health, and safety in a pandemic

Learning through an Aboriginal language: The impact on students’ English and Aboriginal language skills

Aboriginal communities across Canada are implementing Aboriginal language programs in their schools. In the present research, we explore the impact of learning through an Aboriginal language on students’ English and Aboriginal language skills by contrasting a Mi’kmaq language immersion program with a Mi’kmaq as a second language program. The results revealed that students in the immersion program not only had stronger Mi’kmaq language skills compared to students in the second language program, but students within both programs ultimately had the same level of English. Immersion programs can simultaneously revitalize a threatened language and prepare students for success in mainstream society.Keywords: Aboriginal language, bilingual education, immersion, language of instructionDes communautés autochtones partout au Canada mettent en œuvre des programmes de langue autochtone dans leurs écoles. Dans la présente recherche, nous explorons l'impact de l'apprentissage à travers une langue autochtone, sur les compétences des élèves en langue anglaise et autochtone, en comparant un programme d'immersion en langue Mi'kmaq, avec un programme en langue Mi'kmaq comme langue seconde. Les résultats ont révélé que non seulement les étudiants du programme d'immersion avaient des compétences plus solides en langue Mi'kmaq que les étudiants du programme de langue seconde, mais aussi que les étudiants au sein des deux programmes avaient le même niveau d'anglais. Les programmes d'immersion peuvent simultanément revitaliser une langue menacée et préparer les élèves à réussir dans la société.Mots-clés: langue autochtone, éducation bilingue, immersion, langue d'enseignemen

Challenges of Integrating an Evidence-based Intervention in Health Departments to Prevent Excessive Gestational Weight Gain among Low-income Women

To examine health departments’ (HD) capacity to adapt and implement an intervention to prevent excessive gestational weight gain

ISS Utilization

Research and technology opportunities onboard the International Space Station provide an unparalleled opportunity to understand how gravity influences physical and life sciences in a lab environment, as well as the Space Station’s location in low earth orbit provides a proving ground for materials testing, technology advancement, and Earth and space observations. Our panel represents a wide array of experts to introduce us to this extraordinary capability to advance mankind using the ISS research and development platform

The New Distribution: Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Large Distribution Warehouse Premises in England and Wales

This research addresses the deficit of empirical investigation of changes in industrial and warehouse property markets in the UK. It uses business rates (rating list) data for England and Wales to reveal changes in the quantum and distribution of premises over the last decade. Spatio-temporal analysis using geographical information systems identifies where new industrial and warehouse premises have been developed and examines spatial changes in the distribution of premises between the two sectors. The research focuses on the development of new large distribution warehouses (LDWs) to investigate whether there is a new pattern of warehouse premises located in close proximity to junctions on the national highway network. Findings confirm the emergence of a dynamic distribution warehouse property market where “super sheds” have been developed in areas with high levels of multi-modal connectivity. The comprehensive spatio-temporal analysis of all industrial and warehouse premises in England and Wales reconfigures the previously recognised Midlands “Golden Triangle” of distribution warehouses to a “Golden Pointer” and reveals the emergence of a rival “Northern Dumbbell” of distribution warehouse premises in the North of England. Further analysis using isochrones confirms that 85% of the population of Great Britain is situated within four hours average heavy goods vehicle drive time of these two concentrations of super sheds and over 60% of all LDWs floorspace is within 30 minutes’ drive of intermodal rail freight interchanges

Increased genetic marker density reveals high levels of admixture between red deer and introduced Japanese sika in Kintyre, Scotland

Hybridization is a natural process at species range boundaries, but increasing numbers of species are hybridizing due to direct or indirect human activities. In such cases of anthropogenic hybridization, subsequent introgression can threaten the survival of native species. To date, many such systems have been studied with too few genetic markers to assess the level of threat resulting from advanced backcrossing. Here, we use 44,999 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the ADMIXTURE program to study two areas of Scotland where a panel of 22 diagnostic microsatellites previously identified introgression between native red deer (Cervus elaphus) and introduced Japanese sika (Cervus nippon). In Kintyre, we reclassify 26% of deer from the pure species categories to the hybrid category whereas in the NW Highlands we only reclassify 2%. As expected, the reclassified individuals are mostly advanced backcrosses. We also investigate the ability of marker panels selected on different posterior allele frequency criteria to find hybrids assigned by the full marker set and show that in our data, ancestry informative markers (i.e. those that are highly differentiated between the species, but not fixed) are better than diagnostic markers (those markers that are fixed between the species) because they are more evenly distributed in the genome. Diagnostic loci are concentrated on the X chromosome to the detriment of autosomal coverage

Validity and repeatability of the EPIC physical activity questionnaire: a validation study using accelerometers as an objective measure

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A primary aim of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort study is to examine the association between total physical activity levels (comprising occupational, household and recreational activity) and the incidence of cancer. We examined the validity and long-term repeatability of total physical activity measurements estimated from the past-year recall EPIC questionnaire, using accelerometers as an objective reference measure.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Participants included 100 men and 82 women aged 50–65 years. Criterion validity was assessed by comparing the physical activity estimates from the EPIC questionnaire with total activity estimated from the average of three separate 7-day accelerometer periods during the same (past-year) period. Long-term repeatability of the EPIC questionnaire was assessed by comparing the responses from the baseline and 10-month administrations. Past-year EPIC estimates were also compared with the Friedenreich Lifetime Total Physical Activity Questionnaire to examine whether recent activity reflected lifetime activity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Accelerometer total metabolic equivalent (MET)-hours/week were positively associated with a total physical activity index (Spearman rank correlation ρ = 0.29, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.15, 0.42) and with non-occupational activity estimated in MET-hours/week (ρ = 0.21, 95% CI 0.07, 0.35). Stratified analyses suggested stronger correlations for non-occupational activity for participants who were male, had a lower BMI, were younger, or were not full-time workers, although the differences in correlations between groups were not statistically significant. The weighted kappa coefficient for repeatability of the total physical activity index was 0.62 (95% CI 0.53, 0.71). Spearman correlations for repeatability of components of activity were 0.65 (95% CI 0.55, 0.72) for total non-occupational, 0.58 (95% CI 0.48, 0.67) for recreational and 0.73 (95% CI 0.66, 0.79) for household activity. When past-year activity was compared to lifetime estimates of activity, there was fair agreement for non-occupational (ρ = 0.26) activity, which was greater for household activity (ρ = 0.46) than for recreational activity (ρ = 0.21).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our findings suggest that the EPIC questionnaire has acceptable measurement characteristics for ranking participants according to their level of total physical activity. The questionnaire should be able to identify the presence or absence of reasonably strong aetiological associations when either recent or long-term activity is the responsible factor.</p

Wolbachia and DNA barcoding insects: patterns, potential and problems

Wolbachia is a genus of bacterial endosymbionts that impacts the breeding systems of their hosts. Wolbachia can confuse the patterns of mitochondrial variation, including DNA barcodes, because it influences the pathways through which mitochondria are inherited. We examined the extent to which these endosymbionts are detected in routine DNA barcoding, assessed their impact upon the insect sequence divergence and identification accuracy, and considered the variation present in Wolbachia COI. Using both standard PCR assays (Wolbachia surface coding protein – wsp), and bacterial COI fragments we found evidence of Wolbachia in insect total genomic extracts created for DNA barcoding library construction. When >2 million insect COI trace files were examined on the Barcode of Life Datasystem (BOLD) Wolbachia COI was present in 0.16% of the cases. It is possible to generate Wolbachia COI using standard insect primers; however, that amplicon was never confused with the COI of the host. Wolbachia alleles recovered were predominantly Supergroup A and were broadly distributed geographically and phylogenetically. We conclude that the presence of the Wolbachia DNA in total genomic extracts made from insects is unlikely to compromise the accuracy of the DNA barcode library; in fact, the ability to query this DNA library (the database and the extracts) for endosymbionts is one of the ancillary benefits of such a large scale endeavor – for which we provide several examples. It is our conclusion that regular assays for Wolbachia presence and type can, and should, be adopted by large scale insect barcoding initiatives. While COI is one of the five multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) genes used for categorizing Wolbachia, there is limited overlap with the eukaryotic DNA barcode region