Visual Rulemaking

Federal rulemaking has traditionally been understood as a text-bound, technocratic process. However, as this Article is the first to uncover, rulemaking stakeholders—including agencies, the President, and members of the public—are now deploying politically tinged visuals to push their agendas at every stage of high-stakes, often virulently controversial, rulemakings. Rarely do these visual contributions appear in the official rulemaking record, which remains defined by dense text, lengthy cost-benefit analyses, and expert reports. Perhaps as a result, scholars have overlooked the phenomenon we identify here: the emergence of a visual rulemaking universe that is splashing images, GIFs, and videos across social media channels. While this new universe, which we call “visual rulemaking,” might appear to be wholly distinct from the textual rulemaking universe on which administrative law has long focused, the two are not in fact separate. Visual politics are seeping into the technocracy. This Article argues that visual rulemaking is a good thing. It furthers fundamental regulatory values, including transparency and political accountability. It may also facilitate participation by more diverse stakeholders—not merely regulatory insiders who are well-equipped to navigate dense text. Yet we recognize that visual rulemaking poses risks. Visual appeals may undermine the expert-driven foundation of the regulatory state, and some uses may threaten or outright violate key legal doctrines, including the Administrative Procedure Act and longstanding prohibitions on agency lobbying and propaganda. Nonetheless, we conclude that administrative law theory and doctrine ultimately can and should welcome this robust new visual rulemaking culture

Visual Rulemaking

Visual politics are seeping into the technocracy. Rulemaking stakeholders—including agencies, the President, and members of the public—are deploying politically tinged visuals to push their agendas at every stage of high-stakes, often virulently controversial, rulemakings. These images, GIFs, and videos usually do not make it into the official rulemaking record, so this new “visual rulemaking” world has not been discussed much by scholars or others. In this article, we explore the new visual rulemaking culture that emerged in Obama’s presidency, providing examples and discussing relevant policy implications. Although we recognize some risks, we argue that, on balance, visual rulemaking is a good thing because it can further transparency, accountability, and participation. Our article is adapted from a much longer one, Visual Rulemaking, 91 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1183-1278 (2016)

A case–control study of incident rheumatological conditions following acute gastroenteritis during military deployment

Objectives The aim of this study was to assess the risk of incident rheumatological diagnoses (RD) associated with self-reported diarrhoea and vomiting during a first-time deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. Such an association would provide evidence that RD in this population may include individuals with reactive arthritis (ReA) from deployment-related infectious gastroenteritis. Design This case–control epidemiological study used univariate and multivariate logistic regression to compare the odds of self-reported diarrhoea/vomiting among deployed US military personnel with incident RD to the odds of diarrhoea/vomiting among a control population. Setting We analysed health records of personnel deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, including responses on a postdeployment health assessment and medical follow-up postdeployment. Participants Anonymous data were obtained from 891 US military personnel with at least 6 months of medical follow-up following a first-time deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan in 2008–2009. Cases were defined using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) diagnosis codes; controls had an unrelated medical encounter and were representative of the study population. Main outcome measures The primary measure was an association between incident RD and self-reported diarrhoea/vomiting during deployment. A secondary measure was the overall incidence of RD in this population. Results We identified 98 cases of new onset RD, with a total incidence of 161/100 000 persons. Of those, two participants had been diagnosed with Reiter\u27s diseasei (3.3/100 000 persons) and the remainder with non-specific arthritis/arthralgia (157.5/100 000 persons). The OR for acute diarrhoea was 2.67 (p=0.03) after adjusting for important covariates. Conclusions Incident rheumatological conditions, even those classified as ‘non-specific,’ are significantly associated with prior severe diarrhoea in previously deployed military personnel, potentially indicating ReA and need for preventive measures to reduce diarrhoeagenic bacterial exposures in military personnel and other travellers to the developing regions

Comparing, contrasting, and integrating dissemination and implementation outcomes included in the RE-AIM and Implementation Outcomes Frameworks

As the field of dissemination and implementation science matures, there are a myriad of outcomes, identified in numerous frameworks, that can be considered across individual, organizational, and population levels. This can lead to difficulty in summarizing literature, comparing across studies, and advancing translational science. This manuscript sought to (1) compare, contrast, and integrate the outcomes included in the RE-AIM and Implementation Outcomes Frameworks (IOF) and (2) expand RE-AIM indicators to include relevant IOF dissemination and implementation outcomes. Cross tabular comparisons were made between the constitutive definitions of each construct, across frameworks, to reconcile apparent discrepancies between approaches and to distinguish between implementation outcomes and implementation antecedents. A great deal of consistency was identified across approaches, including adoption (the intention, initial decision, or action to employ an evidence-based intervention), fidelity/implementation (the degree to which an intervention was delivered as intended), organizational maintenance/sustainability (extent to which a newly implemented treatment is maintained or institutionalized), and cost. The IOF construct of penetration was defined as a higher-order construct that may encompass the reach, adoption, and organizational maintenance outcomes within RE-AIM. Within the IOF approach acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility did not match constitutive definitions of dissemination or implementation but rather reflected theoretical antecedents of implementation outcomes. Integration of the IOF approach across RE-AIM indicators was successfully achieved by expanding the operational definitions of RE-AIM to include antecedents to reach, adoption, implementation, and organizational maintenance. Additional combined metrics were also introduced including penetration, individual level utility, service provider utility, organizational utility, and systemic utility. The expanded RE-AIM indicators move beyond the current approaches described within both the REAIM framework and IOF and provides additional planning and evaluation targets that can contribute to the scientific field and increase the translation of evidence into practice

Correction: Identification of specific calcitonin-like receptor residues important for calcitonin gene-related peptide high affinity binding

This is a correction article. After publication of this work [1], we became aware of the fact that Robert C. Speth was not included as an author. Dr. Speth put a considerable amount of time and effort into developing and preparing the radiopeptide used to carry out the radioligand binding studies reported in this manuscript and therefore should have originally been included as an author. We apologize to Dr. Speth for any inconvenience that this oversight might have caused and thank him for his invaluable contribution to this project

EM-mosaic detects mosaic point mutations that contribute to congenital heart disease.

BackgroundThe contribution of somatic mosaicism, or genetic mutations arising after oocyte fertilization, to congenital heart disease (CHD) is not well understood. Further, the relationship between mosaicism in blood and cardiovascular tissue has not been determined.MethodsWe developed a new computational method, EM-mosaic (Expectation-Maximization-based detection of mosaicism), to analyze mosaicism in exome sequences derived primarily from blood DNA of 2530 CHD proband-parent trios. To optimize this method, we measured mosaic detection power as a function of sequencing depth. In parallel, we analyzed our cohort using MosaicHunter, a Bayesian genotyping algorithm-based mosaic detection tool, and compared the two methods. The accuracy of these mosaic variant detection algorithms was assessed using an independent resequencing method. We then applied both methods to detect mosaicism in cardiac tissue-derived exome sequences of 66 participants for which matched blood and heart tissue was available.ResultsEM-mosaic detected 326 mosaic mutations in blood and/or cardiac tissue DNA. Of the 309 detected in blood DNA, 85/97 (88%) tested were independently confirmed, while 7/17 (41%) candidates of 17 detected in cardiac tissue were confirmed. MosaicHunter detected an additional 64 mosaics, of which 23/46 (50%) among 58 candidates from blood and 4/6 (67%) of 6 candidates from cardiac tissue confirmed. Twenty-five mosaic variants altered CHD-risk genes, affecting 1% of our cohort. Of these 25, 22/22 candidates tested were confirmed. Variants predicted as damaging had higher variant allele fraction than benign variants, suggesting a role in CHD. The estimated true frequency of mosaic variants above 10% mosaicism was 0.14/person in blood and 0.21/person in cardiac tissue. Analysis of 66 individuals with matched cardiac tissue available revealed both tissue-specific and shared mosaicism, with shared mosaics generally having higher allele fraction.ConclusionsWe estimate that ~ 1% of CHD probands have a mosaic variant detectable in blood that could contribute to cardiac malformations, particularly those damaging variants with relatively higher allele fraction. Although blood is a readily available DNA source, cardiac tissues analyzed contributed ~ 5% of somatic mosaic variants identified, indicating the value of tissue mosaicism analyses

Geoarchaeology and Heritage Management:Identifying and Quantifying Multi-Scalar Erosional Processes at Kisese II Rockshelter, Tanzania

Natural and anthropogenically induced soil erosion can cause serious loss of the archaeological record. Our work shows the value of multi-scalar geoarchaeological study when excavating and re-excavating rockshelters in a highly dynamic sedimentary environment where erosion is prominent. Here we present our work on Kisese II rockshelter, Tanzania, originally excavated in the 1950s and largely unpublished, that preserves an important Pleistocene-Holocene archaeological record integral to understanding the deep history of the Kondoa Rock-Art World Heritage Center. Unlike rockshelters in quiescent tectonic settings, like much of central Europe or South Africa, Kisese II exists in highly dynamic sedimentary environments associated with the active tectonics of the Great Rift Valley system exacerbated by human-induced environmental and climate change. We report on our 2017 and 2019 exploratory research that includes integrated regional-, landscape-, and site-scale geoarchaeological analyses of past and present sedimentary regimes and micromorphological analyses of the archaeological sediments. Historical records and aerial photographs document extensive changes in vegetation cover and erosional regimes since the 1920s, with drastic changes quantified between 1960 and 2019. Field survey points to an increased erosion rate between 2017 and 2019. To serve future archaeologists, heritage specialists, and local populations we combine our data in a geoarchaeological catena that includes soil, vegetation, fauna, and anthropogenic features on the landscape. At the site, micromorphological coupled with chronological analyses demonstrate the preservation of in situ Pleistocene deposits. Comparison of photographs from the 1956 and 2019 excavations show a maximum sediment loss of 68 cm in 63 years or >10% of >6-m-thick sedimentary deposit. In the studied area of the rockshelter we estimate ∼1 cm/yr of erosion, suggesting the ongoing removal of much of the higher archaeological sediments which, based on the coarse stratigraphic controls and chronology of the original Inskeep excavations, would suggest the loss of much of the archaeological record of the last ∼4000 years. These multi-scalar data are essential for the construction of appropriate mitigation strategies and further study of the remaining stratigraph

Pulsars as the Source of the WMAP Haze

The WMAP haze is an excess in the 22 to 93 GHz frequency bands of WMAP extending about 10 degrees from the galactic center. We show that synchrotron emission from electron-positron pairs injected into the interstellar medium by the galactic population of pulsars with energies in the 1 to 100 GeV range can explain the frequency spectrum of the WMAP haze and the drop in the average haze power with latitude. The same spectrum of high energy electron-positron pairs from pulsars, which gives rise to the haze, may also generate the observed excesses in AMS, HEAT and PAMELA. We discuss the spatial morphology of the pulsar synchrotron signal and its deviation from spherical symmetry, which may provide an avenue to determine the pulsar contribution to the haze.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures. Corrected errors in fig 1-3 and added discussion of the detailed spatial morphology of the haze signa

Determinants of Inapparent and Symptomatic Dengue Infection in a Prospective Study of Primary School Children in Kamphaeng Phet, Thailand

Dengue viruses are a major cause of illness and hospitalizations in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Severe dengue illness can cause prolonged hospitalization and in some cases death in both children and adults. The majority of dengue infections however are inapparent, producing little clinical illness. Little is known about the epidemiology or factors that determine the incidence of inapparent infection. We describe in a study of school children in Northern Thailand the changing nature of symptomatic and inapparent dengue infection. We demonstrate that the proportion of inapparent dengue infection varies widely among schools during a year and within schools during subsequent years. Important factors that determine this variation are the amount of dengue infection in a given and previous year. Our findings provide an important insight in the virus-host interaction that determines dengue severity, how severe a dengue epidemic may be in a given year, and important clues on how a dengue vaccine may be effective

The International Consortium Investigating Neurocognition in Bipolar Disorder (ICONICâ BD)

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148257/1/bdi12748.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148257/2/bdi12748_am.pd