Reassessing the History of U.S. Hazardous Waste Disposal Policy - Problem Definition, Expert Knowledge and Agenda-Setting

The authors show that in the 1940\u27s technical consensus began to develop about the effects of land-based waste disposal on groundwater degradation. They go on to explain why this understanding was only slowly reflected in federal legislation

Conservative controlled states cut infrastructure and welfarespending in response to increased exposure to global trade

The past year has seen growing controversy over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal which is currently being negotiated between 12 countries, the U.S. included. Concerns about economic dislocation stemming from similar trade deals often lead social democratic governments to increase spending on welfare programs to compensate citizens. Given the lack of a U.S. social democratic party, the response of state governments to global economic liberalization is often quite different. In new research, Brian Krueger and Ping Xu find that when exposed to higher levels of international trade, left-leaning state governments maintain their levels of welfare and infrastructure spending, while conservative administrations decrease it. They explain these differing reactions may be partly explained by the increasing levels of policy polarization in state governments

Characterization of Cre recombinase activity for in vivo targeting of adipocyte precursor cells.

The increased incidence of obesity and metabolic disease underscores the importance of elucidating the biology of adipose tissue development. The recent discovery of cell surface markers for prospective identification of adipose precursor cells (APCs) in vivo will greatly facilitate these studies, yet tools for specifically targeting these cells in vivo have not been identified. Here, we survey three transgenic mouse lines, Fabp4-Cre, PdgfRα-Cre, and Prx1-Cre, precisely assessing Cre-mediated recombination in adipose stromal populations and mature tissues. Our data provide key insights into the utility of these tools to modulate gene expression in adipose tissues. In particular, Fabp4-Cre is not effective to target APCs, nor is its activity restricted to these cells. PdgfRα-Cre directs recombination in the vast majority of APCs, but also targets other populations. In contrast, adipose expression of Prx1-Cre is chiefly limited to subcutaneous inguinal APCs, which will be valuable for dissection of APC functions among adipose depots

Trade Exposure and the Polarization of Government Spending in the American States

Studies of economic globalization and government spending often view the United States as an outlier case. Surprisingly, ours is the first empirical study to take advantage of the variation in U.S. states’ exposure to global markets, ideological orientations of the governments, and the relative size of the public sector, to assess the role of trade exposure on government spending in the American states. Using state-level data from the past three decades, we use error correction models (ECMs) to test three competing globalization theories. We find that the effect of trade exposure on government spending varies across states. Our results suggest that when conservatives control state governments, high levels of trade exposure negatively relate to changes in public expenditures such as welfare and infrastructure. With liberal governments in power, trade exposure does not accelerate state spending growth in welfare and infrastructure, which diverges from the pattern found in European social democracies

The Application of CRISPR Technology to High Content Screening in Primary Neurons

Axon growth is coordinated by multiple interacting proteins that remain incompletely characterized. High content screening (HCS), in which manipulation of candidate genes is combined with rapid image analysis of phenotypic effects, has emerged as a powerful technique to identify key regulators of axon outgrowth. Here we explore the utility of a genome editingapproach referred to as CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspersed Palindromic Repeats) for knockout screening in primary neurons. In the CRISPR approach a DNA-cleaving Cas enzyme is guided to genomic target sequences by user-created guide RNA (sgRNA), where it initiates a double-stranded break that ultimately results in frameshift mutation and loss of protein production. Using electroporation of plasmid DNA that co-expresses Cas9enzyme and sgRNA, we first verified the ability of CRISPR targeting to achieve protein-level knockdown in cultured postnatal cortical neurons. Targeted proteins included NeuN (RbFox3) and PTEN, a well-studied regulator of axon growth. Effective knockdown lagged at least four days behind transfection, but targeted proteins were eventually undetectable by immunohistochemistry in \u3e 80% of transfected cells. Consistent with this, anti-PTEN sgRNA produced no changes in neurite outgrowth when assessed three days post-transfection. When week-long cultures were replated, however, PTEN knockdown consistently increased neurite lengths. These CRISPR-mediated PTEN effects were achieved using multi-well transfection and automated phenotypic analysis, indicating the suitability of PTEN as a positive control for future CRISPR-based screening efforts. Combined, these data establish an example of CRISPR-mediated protein knockdown in primary cortical neurons and its compatibility with HCS workflows

Does Global Market Integration Weaken Opinion-Policy Congruence in the American States?

Theories of economic globalization suggest that public opinion-public policy congruence should be affected by a state\u27s degree of integration with international markets. With as much attention researchers have given to the opinion-policy linkage in the American states, it is surprising that this literature has neglected these well-known globalization frameworks. We take advantage of the wide variation in U.S. states’ integration in global markets, public policies, and political orientations of citizens, to assess whether global market integration depresses the association between citizen opinion and public policies. Using three decades of state-level data, our results suggest that high global market integration does not attenuate the relationship between state opinion and state public spending. Not only does this finding run counter to the well-known policy convergence thesis, but our results also suggest that the association between opinion and policy in the American states may be strongest under conditions of high global market integration

Assessing Dimensions of the Security-Liberty Trade-off in the United States

The trade-off between security and liberty has been a leading frame for understanding public opinion about domestic surveillance policies. Most of the empirical work explicitly examining whether individuals meet the trade-off framework’s core attitudinal assumptions comes from European studies. This study uses a survey of US residents to assess the veracity of the assumptions embedded in the trade-off framework, namely whether domestic counterterrorism policies are simultaneously viewed as improving security and decreasing liberty. We find that the vast majority of US respondents do not meet the basic attitudinal assumptions of the trade-off frame. Next, we evaluate the source of these attitudes with a focus on whether attitudes toward surveillance policies merely relate to core political values or whether they also depend on the messages from political leaders. We find that both political values and opinion leadership shape these attitudes. Finally, because general attitudes towards surveillance and privacy often fail to have practical implications, we assess whether these attitudes matter for understanding the structure of policy support. Our results show that heightened terrorism threat positively associates with increased support for counterterrorism policies only when people believe these policies are effective security tools

Media framing and public support for China’s social credit system: An experimental study

Although China’s social credit system (SCS) is widely portrayed by Western media as repressive surveillance, recent studies show that it receives high levels of support among Chinese citizens. Previous research suggests that people support the SCS because they lack knowledge about the system. This study further examines the roles of media framing (Western vs Chinese framing) and monitored behaviors (financial vs social behaviors). The results from a survey experiment conducted in China (N = 1600) demonstrate that when exposed to Western framing, public support for the SCS is lower, but only when participants are informed that the SCS monitors social behavior. By contrast, when people are told that the SCS focuses on financial behavior, Western framing exposure is not associated with low levels of public support. The findings suggest that an expansion to social domains and exposure to Western media framing will likely result in decreased support for the system

Optogenetic Interrogation of Functional Synapse Formation by Corticospinal Tract Axons in the Injured Spinal Cord

To restore function after injury to the CNS, axons must be stimulated to extend into denervated territory and, critically, must form functional synapses with appropriate targets. We showed previously that forced overexpression of the transcription factor Sox11 increases axon growth by corticospinal tract (CST) neurons after spinal injury. However, behavioral outcomes were not improved, raising the question of whether the newly sprouted axons are able to form functional synapses. Here we developed an optogenetic strategy, paired with single-unit extracellular recordings, to assess the ability of Sox11-stimulated CST axons to functionally integrate in the circuitry of the cervical spinal cord. Initial time course experiments established the expression and function of virally expressed Channelrhodopsin (ChR2) in CST cell bodies and in axon terminals in cervical spinal cord. Pyramidotomies were performed in adult mice to deprive the left side of the spinal cord of CST input, and the right CST was treated with adeno-associated virus (AAV)–Sox11 or AAV–EBFP control, along with AAV–ChR2. As expected, Sox11 treatment caused robust midline crossing of CST axons into previously denervated left spinal cord. Clear postsynaptic responses resulted from optogenetic activation of CST terminals, demonstrating the ability of Sox11-stimulated axons to form functional synapses. Mapping of the distribution of CST-evoked spinal activity revealed overall similarity between intact and newly innervated spinal tissue. These data demonstrate the formation of functional synapses by Sox11-stimulated CST axons without significant behavioral benefit, suggesting that new synapses may be mistargeted or otherwise impaired in the ability to coordinate functional output. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT As continued progress is made in promoting the regeneration of CNS axons, questions of synaptic integration are increasingly prominent. Demonstrating direct synaptic integration by regenerated axons and distinguishing its function from indirect relay circuits and target field plasticity have presented technical challenges. Here we force the overexpression of Sox11 to stimulate the growth of corticospinal tract axons in the cervical spinal cord and then use specific optogenetic activation to assess their ability to directly drive postsynaptic activity in spinal cord neurons. By confirming successful synaptic integration, these data illustrate a novel optogenetic-based strategy to monitor and optimize functional reconnection by newly sprouted axons in the injured CNS

The Preliminary Design of a Standardized Spacecraft Bus for Small Tactical Satellites

Current satellite design philosophies concentrate on optimizing and tailoring a particular satellite bus to a specific payload or mission. Today\u27s satellites take a long time to build, checkout, and launch. An alternate approach shifts the design paradigm to one that focuses on access to space, enabling tactical deployment on demand and the capability to put current payload technology into orbit, versus several years by today\u27s standards, by which time the technology is already obsolete. This design study applied systems engineering methods to create a satellite bus architecture that can accommodate a range of remote sensing mission modules. System-level and subsystem-level tradeoffs provided standard components and satellite structures, and an iterative design approach provided candidate designs constructed with those components. A cost and reliability trade study provided initial estimates for satellite performance. Modeling and analysis based upon the Sponsor\u27s objectives converged the designs to an optimum solution. Major products of this study include not only a preliminary satellite design to meet the sponsor\u27s needs, but also a software modeling and analysis tool for satellite design, integration, and test. Finally, the report provides an initial implementation scheme and concept for operations for the tactical support of this satellite system