The Bondholder’s Budget: Connecticut’s Experiment in Tax and Expenditure Limits

In 2017, Connecticut enacted new fiscal restrictions to cap state spending, revenue volatility, appropriations, and bonding, which were to be “locked” in bond covenants and enforced via contract. This marks a startling turn in state tax and expenditure limits (TELs). Peer states have statutory or constitutional guardrails on the budgeting process, but none hands such great control to the bondholders. Now, using the threat of a lawsuit, Connecticut’s bondholders can block lawmakers from amending the fiscal caps as economic circumstances evolve over time. Far from a budgetary best practice, the fiscal restrictions are likely to impair Connecticut’s long-term economic health. Accordingly, this Paper presents several strategies for safely exiting the “bond lock” covenants and restoring budgetary control to the General Assembly

A comparative view of glacial and periglacial landforms on Earth and Mars

This paper emphasizes the importance of using terrestrial analogues to improve our understanding of the role of ice on Mars through its associated landforms. We discuss terrestrial regions and techniques that can help understand Martian icy environments, and highlight the necessity to explore the Martian cryosphere as the next natural step

Influenza Vaccine Uptake in the United States before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic, along with disruptions to routine medical care, brought renewed urgency to public health messaging about the importance of influenza vaccination. This retrospective cohort study used a database of linked claims and electronic medical record data to evaluate clinical and demographic characteristics and influenza vaccination history associated with changes in influenza vaccine uptake following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Influenza vaccine uptake was examined in six seasons (2015–2016 through 2020–2021). Individuals were grouped by vaccination history in the five seasons before 2020–2021. Characteristics of 2020–2021 vaccinated vs. unvaccinated individuals were compared, stratified by vaccination history. Overall influenza vaccination uptake was highest in 2020–2021 (35.4%), following a trend of increasing uptake since 2016–2017 (31.4%). Uptake in 2020–2021 was observed in all age groups except ≥65 years, and the increase was particularly notable in individuals <18 years. In the previous five seasons, individuals ≤17 and >65 years, White, and Asian individuals were most likely, while 18-to-49-year-olds and those with fewer comorbidities were least likely, to be consistently vaccinated. Influenza vaccination status in 2020–2021 aligned with vaccination history; few differences in patient characteristics (age, comorbidities, state of residence) were observed when stratified by vaccination history

Who loved you best?

Gift of Dr. Mary Jane Esplen.Piano vocal ukulele [instrumentation]C major [key]Moderato [tempo]Popular song [form/genre]Woman; photograph: Sam Lanin's orchestra [illustration]Starmer [engraver]Publisher's advertisement on front inside cover & back cover [note

Population genomics supports speciation with gene flow, not genomic islands of differentiation, in sky-island populations of southwestern white pine

This file contains background, inferences and hypothesis testing results, and conclusions based on demographic modeling analyses conducted on ddRAD-seq SNP data from southwestern white pine (<i>Pinus strobiformis</i>) core and periphery (hybrid zone) lineages, plus limber pine (<i>P. flexilis</i>), presented in the format of a scientific poster. The first author (JCB) recently presented this poster to colleagues at the Evolution 2017 Meeting held from June 23-27 in Portland, OR. Results shown here form the demographic modeling portion of a broader integrative project studying ecological speciation and the influence of hybridization in maintaining species boundaries in the southwestern white pine–limber pine study system using i) species distribution modeling and niche divergence tests, ii) demographic modeling (statistical phylogeography), and iii) Bayesian genomic cline analysis.<br

Unexpected earthquake hazard revealed by Holocene rupture on the Kenchreai Fault (central Greece): Implications for weak sub-fault shear zones

High-resolution elevation models, palaeoseismic trenching, and Quaternary dating demonstrate that the Kenchreai Fault in the eastern Gulf of Corinth (Greece) has ruptured in the Holocene. Along with the adjacent Pisia and Heraion Faults (which ruptured in 1981), our results indicate the presence of closely-spaced and parallel normal faults that are simultaneously active, but at different rates. Such a configuration allows us to address one of the major questions in understanding the earthquake cycle, specifically what controls the distribution of interseismic strain accumulation? Our results imply that the interseismic loading and subsequent earthquakes on these faults are governed by weak shear zones in the underlying ductile crust. In addition, the identification of significant earthquake slip on a fault that does not dominate the late Quaternary geomorphology or vertical coastal motions in the region provides an important lesson in earthquake hazard assessment.This work forms part of the NERCand ESRC-funded project ‘Earthquakes Without Frontiers’, and was partly funded by the NERC grant ‘Looking Inside the Continents from Space’