Fat Cats and Thin Kittens: Are People Who Make Large Campaign Contributions Different?

Critics of campaign finance in the United States often direct their fire toward contributors who make large donations. Critics charge that large contributions are unfair, unrepresentative, and undemocratic. Accordingly, they push for "reforms" that would favor small contributions over large, and public money over private donations. Survey data on contributors contradict that stereotype of contributors of large amounts and their effects on American politics. Overall, "fat cats" differ less from contributors of smaller amounts than critics have alleged. The differences that do exist are mostly unsurprising and generally small in magnitude. Survey results show that both policy liberalism and Democratic partisanship are well represented among contributors of large sums.The supporters of McCain-Feingold argue that new restrictions on large contributions will profoundly alter American politics for the better. Their claims have no basis in fact. New laws aimed at restricting large donations in favor of smaller ones will have little effect on practical politics

Racial Disparity and the Death Penalty

McAdams examines the rhetoric and data supporting the mass market version of the racial disparity thesis. The system is racist in that it punishes those who kill whites more severely than those who kill blacks

Interplanetary Electric Propulsion Uranus Mission Trades Supporting the Decadal Survey

The Decadal Survey Committee was tasked to develop a comprehensive science and mission strategy for planetary science that updates and extends the National Academies Space Studies Board s current solar system exploration decadal survey. A Uranus orbiter mission has been evaluated as a part of this 2013-2022 Planetary Science Decadal Survey. A comprehensive Uranus orbiter mission design was completed, including a broad search of interplanetary electric propulsion transfer options. The scope of interplanetary trades was limited to electric propulsion concepts, both solar and radioisotope powered. Solar electric propulsion offers significant payloads to Uranus. Inserted mass into the initial science orbit due is highly sensitive to transfer time due to arrival velocities. The recommended baseline trajectory is a 13 year transfer with an Atlas 551, a 1+1 NEXT stage with 15 kW of power using an EEJU trajectory and a 1,000km EGA flyby altitude constraint. This baseline delivers over 2,000kg into the initial science orbit. Interplanetary trajectory trades and sensitivity analyses are presented herein

Formulation development of a recombinant protein based non-replicating rotavirus (NRRV) vaccine candidate: Antigen-adjuvant-preservative interactions

Rotavirus is the leading cause of acute diarrhea and gastroenteritis among infants and young children worldwide. Over 215,000 children under five years of age die from rotavirus infection each year, mostly in developing world1. Currently two live attenuated oral rotavirus vaccines are available globally (Rotarix® and RotaTeq®) to reduce the burden of this disease with an efficacy of \u3e90% in developed countries2. Vaccine efficacy is lower, however, in developing countries due to a variety of factors3. To this end, a non-replicating rotavirus (NRRV) vaccine candidate, containing three recombinant protein antigens (P2-VP8-P[4], P2-VP8-P[6] and P2-VP8-P[8]), is being developed by PATH and its partners as a trivalent vaccine for use in the developing world4. This trivalent rotavirus vaccine candidate includes the three antigens from the most prevalent serotypes associated with \u3e90% of rotavirus gastroenteritis worldwide. In the present study, the following formulation development issues were examined: (1) establish stability-indicating physicochemical assays for a NRRV protein antigen (P[8]) bound to an aluminum hydroxide adjuvant (Alhydrogel®), which include primary and higher-order structures, chemical and conformational stability of the protein on Alhydrogel, and the ability to desorb the antigen from Alhydrogel; (2) examine the adsorptive capacity and coefficients of Alhydrogel® for the P[8] antigen in several candidate drug product formulations; (3) investigate the effects of binding to Alhydrogel® and the addition of two antimicrobial preservatives (2-phenoxyethanol or thimerosal) on the structural integrity and conformational stability of P[8], the latter of which were found to be potent destabilizers of the antigen; and (4) monitor the real-time and accelerated storage stability over 3 months of P[8] bound to Alhydrogel® in several candidate formulations with and without thimerosal at different temperatures. In the absence of preservative, the P[8] protein antigen was overall stable with only a small amount of Asn deamidation observed in samples stored under real-time (4˚C) or accelerated (25˚C) temperatures. Similarly, little (if any) changes were observed in the real-time stability of the antigen on Alhydrogel® in the presence of thimerosal. Under accelerated storage temperatures (25 or 37˚C) however, the preservative caused an increase in inter-molecular disulfide bonding, decrease of apparent enthalpy as measured by DSC, and a decrease in in-vitro antigenicity. Similar stability studies are currently ongoing with the P[4] and P[6] protein antigens. Acknowledgements: Funding provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation References: 1. Tate et al 2016. Clinical Infectious Diseases 62:S96-S105 2. Tissera et al. 2017. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics 13(4):921-927 3. Glass et al. 2014. Journal of Infection 68: S9-S18. 4. Groome et al. 2017. Lancet Infectious Diseases17(8): 843-853

New Interactions: The relationship between journalists and audiences mediated by Google Glass

From the first studies of wearables inside MIT’s Media Lab decades ago to the smartwatches and smartglasses sold these days as consumer devices, wearables provide clues to better understand new paths to record and distribute information. Google Glass was one of the first immersive products, allowing users to capture and stream information to the Web, creating screen-based micro-interactions displayed in front of the user’s eye or sent to their smartphone. The first-person perspective is not new, but network-enabled Glass creates a novel state of streamed information and images, potentially making the journalist an avatar of the audience. Possibilities also lay in the development of Glass-specific ambient or calm communications—providing users with seamless information updates. Our study explores how Glass, attached to the head of the journalist-broadcaster, creates alternative behaviours in those captured due to its almost-invisible camera. These and other aspects of Glass will be explored during this paper, recalling experiences made across multiple test beds in the United Kingdom, Porto Alegre, Brazil and the Sahara Desert. The lessons acquired from these experiences allow us to understand not only new ways to inform, but new relationships between journalists, newsrooms and the public