The President’s Immigration Accountability Executive Action of November 20, 2014: Overview and Issues

[Excerpt] On November 20, 2014, President Obama announced his Immigration Accountability Executive Action which revises some U.S. immigration policies and initiates several programs, including a revised border security policy for the Southwest border; deferred action programs for some unauthorized aliens; revised interior enforcement priorities; changes to aid the entry of skilled workers; the promotion of immigrant integration and naturalization; and several other initiatives the President indicated would improve the U.S. immigration system. The most controversial among these provisions will grant deferred action to as many as 5 million unauthorized aliens. The President announced the executive action through ten Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memoranda, two White House memoranda, and three Department of Labor (DOL) fact sheets. According to the President, the actions were taken in response to the absence of legislation addressing major problems within the immigration system. The President has stated that his actions are temporary, and that his successor can rescind them. Those opposed to the executive actions argue they were taken largely for political purposes. They contend that once granted, such temporary measures would be difficult to revoke. Separately, a debate has arisen as to whether the President has the legal authority to take such actions, with the Administration and others arguing the President’s actions fall within his authority, and many in Congress arguing the President has overstepped it. That debate and its attendant legal questions are beyond the scope of this report. As the Administration proceeds to implement the executive actions, some in Congress have vowed to halt some or all of them

Adoption of Goat Production Technology and Its Impact Among Rural Farmers in Nawalparsi District of Nepal

Nayabelhani VDC of Nawalparasi district was chosen to judge the effectiveness of goat production technology supported by Heifer International Nepal. Field survey with before and after approach was employed in the study. Information obtained from Stratified random sampling technique from 90 households with structured questionnaire and was compared with the baseline data. Adoption index was calculated through scoring technique after content validation. Participatory rural appraisal for problems identification. The research revealed that the extent of adoption of scientific goat production technology after project was higher than before project (80% Vs 32%, P<0.01). Further, the average herd size after the project was slightly decreased from 6.585 to 5.677 while the kid mortality dropped from 15% to 11%. The average number of kidding in 2 years was increased from 2 to 3 and the average number of kids per kidding was increased from 1 to 2. Goats were more frequently marketed at an average age of 12 months with an average weight of 24kg after the project. Similarly, the average annual income from the goat per household was found to be almost doubled from Nrs. 8,489 to Nrs. 15,084. Predator was found to be the most serious problem out of seven identified problems

Immigration Legislation and Issues in the 114th Congress

The House and the Senate have considered immigration measures on a variety of issues in the 114th Congress. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (P.L. 114-113) extends four immigration programs through September 30, 2016: the EB-5 immigrant investor Regional Center Pilot Program, the E-Verify employment eligibility verification system, the Conrad State program for foreign medical graduates, and the special immigrant religious worker program. P.L. 114-113 also contains provisions on the Visa Waiver Program and certain nonimmigrant visa categories. Other enacted immigration-related measures include the Border Jobs for Veterans Act of 2015 (P.L. 114-68) on border security personnel, the Adoptive Family Relief Act (P.L. 114-70) on intercountry adoption, and the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (P.L. 114-92) on the Afghan special immigrant visa program. The House has passed several other immigration-related bills. Among them are the Northern Border Security Review Act (H.R. 455), the Preclearance Authorization Act of 2015 (H.R. 998), the Border Security Technology Accountability Act of 2015 (H.R. 1634), the Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act (H.R. 3009), and the American SAFE Act of 2015 (H.R. 4038). H.R. 998 has also been reported by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. In addition, various bills on border security, interior enforcement, visa security, and asylum, among other issues, have been considered by a House or Senate committee. Border security- related measures have been reported or ordered to be reported by the House Homeland Security Committee (H.R. 399, H.R. 3583, H.R. 3586), or the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (S. 750, S. 1808, S. 1864,S. 1873). Interior enforcement provisions are included in bills ordered to be reported by the House Judiciary Committee (H.R. 1147, H.R. 1148, H.R. 1153) or reported by the House Appropriations Committee (H.R. 3128). S. 1635, as reported by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also contains interior enforcement- related provisions. Several of these interior enforcement bills also contain key provisions on other immigration issues. Among the other issues addressed in these bills are employment eligibility verification (H.R. 1147); visa security and naturalization (H.R. 1148); and expedited removal, asylum, parole, and unaccompanied alien children (H.R. 1153). H.R. 1149, as ordered to be reported by the House Judiciary Committee, also addresses unaccompanied alien children. This report discusses these and other immigration-related issues that have received legislative action or are of significant congressional interest in the 114th Congress. Department of Homeland Security appropriations are addressed in CRS Report R44053, Department of Homeland Security Appropriations: FY2016, and, for the most part, are not covered here

Current-Induced Step Bending Instability on Vicinal Surfaces

We model an apparent instability seen in recent experiments on current induced step bunching on Si(111) surfaces using a generalized 2D BCF model, where adatoms have a diffusion bias parallel to the step edges and there is an attachment barrier at the step edge. We find a new linear instability with novel step patterns. Monte Carlo simulations on a solid-on-solid model are used to study the instability beyond the linear regime.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Effect of Integrated Plant Nutrient Management System in Quality of Mandarin Orange (Citrus Reticulata Blanco)

Nepal is a major producer among top twenty producing country of mandarin orange in the world. The productivity of the mandarin orange is very low as compared to other developed countries. Nutrient management is the serious problem in most of the orchard along the country. The experiment was conducted in Baglung district of Gandaki Province, Nepal in 2017 to study the effect of Integrated Plant Nutrient Management System (IPNMs) in quality parameters of mandarin orange. Seven group of treatment were assigned for experiment. All treatments were replicated three times in randomized complete block design. The fruits of T4 (Integrated nutrient) have greater fruit diameter: 5.26 cm, weight: 83.32 g total soluble solid: 14.53 brix % and lower titratable acidity: 0.846%. Fruits of T7 have more peel percentage (26.07%). These all findings indicate, integrated plant nutrient management system governs the quality of fresh mandarin orange

The Prevalence and Reasons for Interruption of Antituberculosis Treatment by Patients at Mbekweni Health Centre in King Sabata Dalidyebo (KSD) District in the Eastern Cape Province

Background: In spite of effective therapy, tuberculosis (TB) is still a major health problem in developing countries. In 1993, therefore, the World Health Organization declared TB a global emergency. In South Africa, TB is one of the most prevalent diseases, with an incidence of 556 per 100 000 population. In spite of free TB drugs in the public service and the directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) strategies, there is still a high prevalence of TB and a high treatment interruption rate in rural South Africa. Methods: The objectives of this study were to establish the prevalence of TB and reasons for the interruption of TB treatment by patients attending Mbekweni Health Centre in King Sabata Dalidyebo (KSD) district in the Eastern Cape province. This was a cross- sectional study in which data were collected from 15 July 2004 to 15 January 2005 from patients who were on TB treatment and interrupted their treatment between 6 August 2001 and 30 December 2003. Results: Of the 255 TB patients who attended for treatment, 121 (47.5%) had interrupted their treatment. Reasons given for interrup- tion included change of living place (18.96%), no money to go to the clinic (15.52%), feeling better (13.78%), side effects of the drug (6.90%), did not know the treatment course (5.17%), physical disability either old or too sick to collect treatment and nobody to help (5.17%), clinic too far (1.73%), drug not available in the clinic (13.83%) and no reasons (8.62%). Conclusion: The prevalence of treatment interruption was high in this study. Change of living place, lack of money for visiting the clinic to collect treatment, feeling better, and no drugs at the clinic were the major reasons given for interruption of treatment. Ensuring the availability of TB drugs at the health centre/clinic, patient education about TB and strengthening the DOTS programme, including a stipend for the DOTS supervisors, would help to reduce the prevalence of treatment interruption. South African Family Practice Vol. 50 (6) 2008: pp. 47-47

On generalized cluster algorithms for frustrated spin models

Standard Monte Carlo cluster algorithms have proven to be very effective for many different spin models, however they fail for frustrated spin systems. Recently a generalized cluster algorithm was introduced that works extremely well for the fully frustrated Ising model on a square lattice, by placing bonds between sites based on information from plaquettes rather than links of the lattice. Here we study some properties of this algorithm and some variants of it. We introduce a practical methodology for constructing a generalized cluster algorithm for a given spin model, and investigate apply this method to some other frustrated Ising models. We find that such algorithms work well for simple fully frustrated Ising models in two dimensions, but appear to work poorly or not at all for more complex models such as spin glasses.Comment: 34 pages in RevTeX. No figures included. A compressed postscript file for the paper with figures can be obtained via anonymous ftp to minerva.npac.syr.edu in users/paulc/papers/SCCS-527.ps.Z. Syracuse University NPAC technical report SCCS-52

Land Use /Land Cover Driven Surface Energy Balance and Convective Rainfall Change in South Florida

Modification of land use/land cover in South Florida has posed a major challenge in the region’s eco-hydrology by shifting the surface-atmosphere water and energy balance. Although drainage and development in South Florida took place extensively between the mid- and late- 20th century, converting half of the original Everglades into agricultural and urban areas, urban expansion still accounts for a dominant mode of surface cover change in South Florida. Changes in surface cover directly affect the radiative, thermophysical and aerodynamic parameters which determine the absorption and partitioning of radiation into different components at the Earth surface. The alteration is responsible for changing the thermal structure of the surface and surface layer atmosphere, eventually modifying surface-induced convection. This dissertation is aimed at analyzing the extent and pattern of land cover change in South Florida and delineating the associated development of urban heat island (UHI), energy flux alteration, and convective rainfall modification using observed data, remotely sensed estimates, and modeled results. Urban land covers in South Florida are found to have increased by 10% from 1974 to 2011. Higher Landsat-derived land surface temperatures (LST) are observed in urban areas (LSTu-r =2.8°C) with satisfactory validation statistics for eastern stations (Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient =0.70 and R2 =0.79). Time series trends, significantly negative for diurnal temperature range (DTR= -1°C, p=0.005) and positive for lifting condensation level (LCL \u3e 20m) reveal temporal and conspicuous urban-rural differences in nocturnal temperature (ΔTu-r = 4°C) shows spatial signatures of UHI. Spatially higher (urban: 3, forest: 0.14) and temporally increasing (urban: 1.67 to 3) Bowen’s ratios, and sensible heat fluxes exceeding net radiation in medium and high-intensity developed areas in 2010 reflect the effect of urbanization on surface energy balance. Radar reflectivity-derived surface-induced convective rainfall reveals significantly positive mean differences (thunderstorm cell density: 6/1000 km2and rain rate: 0.24 mm/hr/summer, p \u3c 0.005) between urban and entire South Florida indicating convective enhancement by urban covers. The research fulfils its two-fold purposes: advancing the understanding of post-development hydrometeorology in South Florida and investigating the spatial and temporal impacts of land cover change on the microclimate of a subtropical city