Strategic Auditing in a Political Hierarchy: An Informational Model of the Supreme Court\u27s Certiorari Decisions

We examine how the Supreme Court uses signals and indices from lower courts to determine which cases to review. In our game theoretic model, a higher court cues from publicly observable case facts, the known preferences of a lower court and its derision. The lower court attempts to enforce its own preferences, exploiting ambiguity in cases\u27 fact patterns. In equilibrium, a conservative higher court declines to review conservative decisions from lower courts regardless of the facts of die case or the relative ideology of the judges. But a conservative higher court probabilistically reviews liberal decisions, with the audit rate tied to observable facts and the ideology of the lower court judge. We derive comparative static results and rest them with a random sample of search-and-seizure cases appealed to the Burger Court between 1972 and 1986. The evidence broadly supports the model

Clostridium difficile in Retail Meat Products, USA, 2007

To determine the presence of Clostridium difficile, we sampled cooked and uncooked meat products sold in Tucson, Arizona. Forty-two percent contained toxigenic C. difficile strains (either ribotype 078/toxinotype V [73%] or 027/toxinotype III [NAP1 or NAP1-related; 27%]). These findings indicate that food products may play a role in interspecies C. difficile transmission

An Empirical Test of the Rational Actor Theory of Litigation

This article examines the decisions of litigants in criminal cases to appeal decisions from the U.S. Courts of Appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. Using a random sample of search and seizure cases from 1962 through 1990 and a measure of the likelihood that the appeals court decision will be reversed if cert is granted, we demonstrate that litigants behave as if they rationally consider costs and benefits in their decisions to appeal. Given the extraordinary number of cases decided by lower federal courts vis-g-vis the number of cases the Supreme Court can decide, we argue that such behavior is necessary if the Supreme Court is to retain control over the federal judiciary

Understanding nutrient landscapes for giant pandas in the Qinling Mountains, China: the relationships between bamboo mineral content and giant panda habitat selection during migration

Bamboo comprises over 99 % of the diet of giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). Giant pandas face a complex nutrient landscape. They eat more than one species of bamboo and various parts of the plant, and they move seasonally to find optimal forage. Though the seasonal habitat preferences of giant pandas have long been known, the spatial and temporal nutrient gradient of bamboo between seasonal habitats remains unclear. Few studies detail the nutrient content of bamboo in relation to the seasonal habitat selection of giant pandas in the wild. In this study, we collected bamboo samples from 57 plots considering four factors (seasons, elevations, species, and plant parts). We evaluated the effect of these factors on the contents of seven bamboo mineral elements (Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, K, Ca, and Mg) and used a non–parametric ensemble tree model to model giant pandas’ presence and absence based on bamboo mineral content. Our results showed strong correlations between pairs of mineral contents (up to r = 0.69) with specific mineral elements such as Mn, consistently showing great importance in the models for differentiating the habitat selection. We also observed significant variation in mineral concentrations between seasons, bamboo species, and plant parts. Our results suggest that the studied bamboo mineral content strongly associates giant pandas’ habitat preferences. Our research may be useful for the development of conservation and reserve management strategies by providing guidelines to increase giant pandas’ opportunities to obtain sufficient nutrient within the Qinling region

Genome Sequencing and Analysis of a Type A Clostridium perfringens Isolate from a Case of Bovine Clostridial Abomasitis

Clostridium perfringens is a common inhabitant of the avian and mammalian gastrointestinal tracts and can behave commensally or pathogenically. Some enteric diseases caused by type A C. perfringens, including bovine clostridial abomasitis, remain poorly understood. To investigate the potential basis of virulence in strains causing this disease, we sequenced the genome of a type A C. perfringens isolate (strain F262) from a case of bovine clostridial abomasitis. The ∼3.34 Mbp chromosome of C. perfringens F262 is predicted to contain 3163 protein-coding genes, 76 tRNA genes, and an integrated plasmid sequence, Cfrag (∼18 kb). In addition, sequences of two complete circular plasmids, pF262C (4.8 kb) and pF262D (9.1 kb), and two incomplete plasmid fragments, pF262A (48.5 kb) and pF262B (50.0 kb), were identified. Comparison of the chromosome sequence of C. perfringens F262 to complete C. perfringens chromosomes, plasmids and phages revealed 261 unique genes. No novel toxin genes related to previously described clostridial toxins were identified: 60% of the 261 unique genes were hypothetical proteins. There was a two base pair deletion in virS, a gene reported to encode the main sensor kinase involved in virulence gene activation. Despite this frameshift mutation, C. perfringens F262 expressed perfringolysin O, alpha-toxin and the beta2-toxin, suggesting that another regulation system might contribute to the pathogenicity of this strain. Two complete plasmids, pF262C (4.8 kb) and pF262D (9.1 kb), unique to this strain of C. perfringens were identified

Clostridium difficile ribotypes in Austria: a multicenter, hospital-based survey

A prospective, noninterventional survey was conducted among Clostridium difficile positive patients identified in the time period of July until October 2012 in 18 hospitals distributed across all nine Austrian provinces. Participating hospitals were asked to send stool samples or isolates from ten successive patients with C.difficile infection to the National Clostridium difficile Reference Laboratory at the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety for PCR-ribotyping and in vitro susceptibility testing. A total of 171 eligible patients were identified, including 73 patients with toxin-positive stool specimens and 98 patients from which C. difficile isolates were provided. Of the 159 patients with known age, 127 (74.3 %) were 65 years or older, the median age was 76 years (range: 9–97 years), and the male to female ratio 2.2. Among these patients, 73 % had health care-associated and 20 % community-acquired C. difficile infection (indeterminable 7 %). The all-cause, 30-day mortality was 8.8 % (15/171). Stool samples yielded 46 different PCR-ribotypes, of which ribotypes 027 (20 %), 014 (15.8 %), 053 (10.5 %), 078 (5.3 %), and 002 (4.7 %) were the five most prevalent. Ribotype 027 was found only in the provinces Vienna, Burgenland, and Lower Austria. Severe outcome of C. difficile infection was found to be associated with ribotype 053 (prevalence ratio: 3.04; 95 % CI: 1.24, 7.44), not with the so-called hypervirulent ribotypes 027 and 078. All 027 and 053 isolates exhibited in vitro resistance against moxifloxacin. Fluoroquinolone use in the health care setting must be considered as a factor favoring the spread of these fluoroquinolone resistant C. difficile clones

Zoonotic Transfer of Clostridium difficile Harboring Antimicrobial Resistance between Farm Animals and Humans.

The emergence of Clostridium difficile as a significant human diarrheal pathogen is associated with the production of highly transmissible spores and the acquisition of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and virulence factors. Unlike the hospital-associated C. difficile RT027 lineage, the community-associated C. difficile RT078 lineage is isolated from both humans and farm animals; however, the geographical population structure and transmission networks remain unknown. Here, we applied whole-genome phylogenetic analysis of 248 C. difficile RT078 strains from 22 countries. Our results demonstrate limited geographical clustering for C. difficile RT078 and extensive coclustering of human and animal strains, thereby revealing a highly linked intercontinental transmission network between humans and animals. Comparative whole-genome analysis reveals indistinguishable accessory genomes between human and animal strains and a variety of antimicrobial resistance genes in the pangenome of C. difficile RT078. Thus, bidirectional spread of C. difficile RT078 between farm animals and humans may represent an unappreciated route disseminating antimicrobial resistance genes between humans and animals. These results highlight the importance of the "One Health" concept to monitor infectious disease emergence and the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance genes