Brief Amicus Curiae of the Honorable Margaret W. Hassan Governor of the State of New Hampshire in Support of the Plaintiffs/Cross-Appellants

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT The Governor confines her argument in this amicus brief to whether the superior court correctly concluded that the education tax credit program enacted under RSA § 77-G violates Article 83 insofar as it permits organizations authorized to receive donations subsidized by the credit to use those donations to fund student scholarships to religious, non-public schools. In the Governor’s view, the superior court’s finding of unconstitutionality was correct. In its text, structure, and history (including its interpretive history), the New Hampshire Constitution significantly differs from the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause with respect to the question whether revenue generated through taxation—i.e., public funds—may be used to subsidize student scholarships to religious, non-public schools. Accordingly, more permissive federal court precedents interpreting the Establishment Clause should have little bearing on this question. Under the New Hampshire Constitution, the answer to the question is “no”; public funds may not be used to subsidize student scholarships to religious, non-public schools. Public financial support of religious schools would not only violate the constitutional rights of New Hampshire taxpayers who do not wish their tax dollars to subsidize the operation of such schools, but it also would necessitate additional public regulation of the affairs of religious schools. Either way, the result would be a dangerous state entanglement in religion that is inconsistent with New Hampshire’s Constitution and traditions. The question therefore becomes whether the superior court correctly concluded that revenue raised and appropriated through the tax credit program enacted pursuant to RSA § 77-G constitutes “money raised by taxation” within the meaning of Article 83. The superior court’s conclusion was correct. The monies made available to schools through RSA § 77-G are monies raised by taxation. The legislature has appropriated a portion of New Hampshire’s tax dollars to pay for scholarships to religious schools through the tax credit program. Any other conclusion would require this Court to bless a formalistic and functionally meaningless distinction between tax dollars appropriated directly by the State, and tax dollars directed to religious schools through the tax credit program legislation. Such a crabbed reading of the Article 83 guarantee would jeopardize both the hallowed underpinnings of religious tolerance and freedom, and the prohibition against entanglement made sacred by our New Hampshire Constitution. This Court should not vindicate a formalism that would enable an easy end-run around a basic constitutional limit on the power of the State with respect to taxpayer funds. Finally, the violation of Article 83 occasioned by RSA § 77-G is no mere technical breach of the wall of separation between church and state. The Governor views tax incentives as appropriate tools of public policy when revenues are allocated to constitutional uses. Moreover, nothing prevented individuals or businesses from contributing to private religious schools of choice—and from enjoying the federal tax benefits of such contributions— before RSA § 77-G was adopted, and nothing prevents them from doing so now. Yet § 77-G creates a vehicle by which substantial sums of public revenue raised through the taxation of New Hampshire citizens would be diverted to religious, non-public institutions. Such a financially imprudent diversion of scarce tax dollars would undermine the State’s ability to meet its other obligations in the coming years, including the provision of an adequate education for all New Hampshire children; providing New Hampshire’s civil and criminal justice systems with adequate resources to ensure the delivery of justice in New Hampshire; and maintaining the health, safety and wellbeing of New Hampshire’s citizens. The superior court’s order should be affirmed

Does landscape-scale conservation management enhance the provision of ecosystem services?

Biodiversity conservation approaches are increasingly being implemented at the landscape-scale to support the maintenance of metapopulations and metacommunities. However, the impact of such interventions on the provision of ecosystem services is less well defined. Here we examine the potential impacts of landscape-scale conservation initiatives on ecosystem services, through analysis of five case study areas in England and Wales. The provision of multiple ecosystem services was projected according to current management plans and compared with a baseline scenario. Multicriteria analysis indicated that in most cases landscape-scale approaches lead to an overall increase in service provision. Consistent increases were projected in carbon storage, recreation and aesthetic value, as well as biodiversity value. However, most study areas provided evidence of trade-offs, particularly between provisioning services and other types of service. Results differed markedly between study areas, highlighting the importance of local context. These results suggest that landscape-scale conservation approaches are likely to be effective in increasing ecosystem service provision, but also indicate that associated costs can be significant, particularly in lowland areas

Development of a patient-administered self-assessment tool (SATp) for follow-up of colorectal cancer patients in general practice

BACKGROUND: Treatment for colorectal cancer (CRC) may result in physical, social, and psychological needs that affect patients' quality of life post-treatment. A comprehensive assessment should be conducted to identify these needs in CRC patients post treatment, however, there is a lack of tools and processes available in general practice. AIMS: This study aimed to develop a patient-completed needs screening tool that identifies potentially unmet physical, psychological, and social needs in CRC and facilitates consultation with a general practitioner (GP) to address these needs. METHODS: The development of the self-assessment tool for patients (SATp) included a review of the literature; face and content validity with reference to an expert panel; psychometric testing including readability, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability; and usability in clinical practice. RESULTS: The SATp contains 25 questions. The tool had internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.70-0.97), readability (reading ease 82.5%), and test-retest reliability (kappa 0.689-1.000). A total of 66 patients piloted the SATp. Participants were on average 69.2 (SD 9.9) years old and had a median follow-up period of 26.7 months. The SATp identified a total of 547 needs (median 7 needs/per patient; IQR [3-12.25]). Needs were categorised into social (175[32%]), psychological (175[32%]), and physical (197[36%]) domains. CONCLUSION: SATp is a reliable self-assessment tool useful for identifying CRC patient needs. Further testing of this tool for validity and usability is underway

Heart rate and body temperature responses to extreme heat and humidity with and without electric fans

Patz et al1 described the projected effects of more prolonged and severe heat waves on human health. A simple, low-cost cooling device is an electric fan. A Cochrane review2 concluded “no evidence currently exists supporting or refuting the use of electric fans during heat waves” for mortality and morbidity. However, public health guidance typically warns against fan use in hot weather. Recommended upper limits range from 32.3°C (90°F) at 35% relative humidity (RH) to the high 90s (96-99°F; 35.6-37.2°C, no RH stated2). The skin-to-air temperature gradient reverses with rising environmental temperature, causing dry heat transfer toward the body via convection rather than away from it. Fan use would increase this dry heat transfer, potentially accelerating body heating3,4; however, the efficiency of sweat evaporation from the skin would be simultaneously increased. Thus, fans could still improve net heat loss. Sweat evaporation declines with increasing humidity, so in more humid environments fans may not prevent heat-induced elevations in cardiovascular (heart rate, HR) and thermal (core temperature) strain. This study examined the influence of fan use on the critical humidities at which hot environments can no longer be physiologically tolerated without rapid increases in HR and core temperature

Should electric fans be used during a heat wave?

Heat waves continue to claim lives, with the elderly and poor at greatest risk. A simple and cost-effective intervention is an electric fan, but public health agencies warn against their use despite no evidence refuting their efficacy in heat waves. A conceptual human heat balance model can be used to estimate the evaporative requirement for heat balance, the potential for evaporative heat loss from the skin, and the predicted sweat rate, with and without an electrical fan during heat wave conditions. Using criteria defined by the literature, it is clear that fans increase the predicted critical environmental limits for both the physiological compensation of endogenous/exogenous heat, and the onset of cardiovascular strain by an air temperature of ~3-4°C, irrespective of relative humidity (RH) for the young and elderly. Even above these critical limits, fans would apparently still provide marginal benefits at air temperatures as high as 51.1°C at 10%RH for young adults and 48.1°C at 10%RH for the elderly. Previous concerns that dehydration would be exacerbated with fan use do not seem likely, except under very hot (>40°C) and dry (<10%RH) conditions, when predicted sweat losses are only greater with fans by a minor amount (~20-30 mL/hour). Relative to the peak outdoor environmental conditions reported during ten of the most severe heat waves in recent history, fan use would be advisable in all of these situations, even when reducing the predicted maximum sweat output for the elderly. The protective benefit of fans appears to be underestimated by current guidelines

Interlaboratory proficiency tests in measuring thermal insulation and evaporative resistance of clothing using the Newton-type thermal manikin

Clothing acts as an important barrier for heat and vapour transfer between a human body and the environment. Parameters that could describe that transfer include, i.a. the thermal insulation (the so-called dry heat exchange) and the evaporative resistance (the so-called wet heat exchange). Once the above mentioned parameters are determined, it is possible to consciously adapt clothing ensembles to the existing thermal environment in the workplace. In order to validate the mentioned method of thermal insulation and evaporative resistance measurements, the proficiency tests (PT) were organised. The main goal of the PT was to compare thermal insulation and evaporative resistance for one set of clothing using the Newton-type thermal manikin. In total, 4 laboratories participated in the PT study. The reference value of the thermal insulation (It) and evaporative resistance (Ret) were calculated as the mean of all the results. The assessment criteria included: a permissible error for thermal insulation and evaporative resistance measurements was 4% and 10%, respectively. Calculations included, i.a., z-scores and indicators, such as the interlaboratory coefficient of variation or the reproducibility limit. The results contribute to the worldwide discussion on standardised studies of evaporative resistance of clothing

Designing for comfort in shared and automated vehicles (SAV): a conceptual framework

To date, automotive design and research is heavily biased towards the driver. However, with the rapid advance of vehicle automation, the driving task will increasingly being taken over by a machine. Automation by itself, however, will not be able to tackle the transport challenges we are facing and the need for shared mobility is now widely recognized. Future mobility solutions are therefore expected to consist of Shared and Automated Vehicles (SAV). This means that the passenger experience will take center stage in the design of future road vehicles. Whereas at first sight this may not appear to be different to the experience in other modes of transport, automation and shared mobility introduce different psychological, physical and physiological challenges. These are related to the fact that the occupant is no longer in control, has to put his or her life in the hands of a computer, while at the same time expects such future vehicles to render travel time more efficient or pleasurable and engage in so-called non-driving related tasks. Taking inspiration from work conducted in the field of aircraft passenger comfort experience, we discuss major comfort factors in the context of SAV and highlight both similarities and differences between transport modes. We present a human centered design framework to assist both the research agenda and the development of safe, usable, comfortable, and desirable future mobility solutions

The biophysical and physiological basis for mitigated elevations in heart rate with electric fan use in extreme heat and humidity.

Electric fan use in extreme heat wave conditions has been thought to be disadvantageous because it might accelerate heat gain to the body via convection. However, it has been recently shown that fan use delays increases in heart rate even at high temperatures (42 °C) in young adults. We here assess the biophysical and physiological mechanisms underlying the apparently beneficial effects of fan use. Eight males (24 ± 3 y; 80.7 ± 11.7 kg; 2.0 ± 0.1 m(2)) rested at either 36 °C or 42 °C, with (F) or without (NF) electric fan use (4.2 m/s) for 120 min while humidity increased every 7.5 min by 0.3 kPa from a baseline value of 1.6 kPa. Heart rate (HR), local sweat rate (LSR), cutaneous vascular conductance (CVC), core and mean skin temperatures, and the combined convective/radiative heat loss (C+R), evaporative heat balance requirements (Ereq) and maximum evaporative potential (Emax) were assessed. C+R was greater with fan use at 36 °C (F 8 ± 6, NF 2 ± 2 W/m(2); P = 0.04) and more negative (greater dry heat gain) with fan use at 42 °C (F -78 ± 4, NF -27 ± 2 W/m(2); P  0.05). These results suggest that the delayed increase in heart rate with fan use during extreme heat and humidity is associated with improved evaporative efficiency