Barriers to Charitable Nonprofit Access and Advocacy amid a Pandemic: A Case Study of the Louisiana State Legislature

Research has long established nonprofit organizations’ vital role advocating for the needs of vulnerable populations before legislative policymakers. In the best of times, it is difficult for 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofits employing grassroots advocacy to mobilize vulnerable constituencies to compete with 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) advocacy and special interest groups. The latter organizations inherently have greater flexibility and resources to lobby lawmakers directly, permitting greater access to influencing the policy agenda. Through a multi-method case study of the 2020 regular session of the Louisiana State Legislature, this article demonstrates how the COVID-19 pandemic’s unique contextual conditions made legislative advocacy more difficult than usual for charitable nonprofits promoting a progressive policy response to the pandemic within a politically conservative state. Conducted through interviews with nonprofit leaders and an analysis of legislative records and committee hearings, the case study reveals specific barriers that hampered charitable nonprofits’ access to the legislative process, including physical capacity restrictions and health concerns, as well as issues with virtual legislative protocols and conservative committee chairs’ discretion to ignore remote testimony. The article analyzes how these barriers negatively impacted charitable nonprofits’ ability to advocate for vulnerable populations and explores potential implications for equitable political participation and response to the pandemic

Social Support and Self-Care of Patients with Heart Failure

Background Social support can influence treatment adherence of patients with chronic illnesses, which may explain the positive effects of social support on heart failure (HF) outcomes. Purpose To investigate the effects of social support among patients with HF, we examined whether aspects of social support were associated with self-care, including medication adherence, dietary adherence, and HF symptom monitoring functions. Methods We recruited 74 patients with HF from cardiology clinics of a Veterans Affairs Medical Center and a university-affiliated hospital, and tested the relationships between social support and the patients\u27 self-care. Results Consistent with previous research in older adults, family members, especially spouses, were often involved in the medical care of patients with chronic HF and provided a range of levels of support to patients. Self-care was generally poor, as measured across several self-care domains. Perceived social support was moderately associated with relatively better self-reported medication and dietary adherence, and other aspects of self-care such as daily weighing. Conclusions These findings suggest that a relatively higher level of self-care is an important correlate of social support and may explain how social support influences HF outcomes. This study also suggests that family members should play a greater part in clinical care focused on improving self-care

The Surface Array planned for IceCube-Gen2

IceCube-Gen2, the extension of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, will feature three main components: an optical array in the deep ice, a large-scale radio array in the shallow ice and firn, and a surface detector above the optical array. Thus, IceCube-Gen2 will not only be an excellent detector for PeV neutrinos, but also constitutes a unique setup for the measurement of cosmic-ray air showers, where the electromagnetic component and low-energy muons are measured at the surface and high-energy muons are measured in the ice. As for ongoing enhancement of IceCube’s current surface array, IceTop, we foresee a combination of elevated scintillation and radio detectors for the Gen2 surface array, aiming at high measurement accuracy for air showers. The science goals are manifold: The in-situ measurement of the cosmic-ray flux and mass composition, as well as more thorough tests of hadronic interaction models, will improve the understanding of muons and atmospheric neutrinos detected in the ice, in particular, regarding prompt muons. Moreover, the surface array provides a cosmic-ray veto for the in-ice detector and contributes to the calibration of the optical and radio arrays. Last but not least, the surface array will make major contributions to cosmic-ray science in the energy range of the transition from Galactic to extragalactic sources. The increased sensitivities for photons and for cosmic-ray anisotropies at multi-PeV energies provide a chance to solve the puzzle of the origin of the most energetic Galactic cosmic rays and will serve IceCube’s multimessenger mission

Mechanical design of the optical modules intended for IceCube-Gen2

IceCube-Gen2 is an expansion of the IceCube neutrino observatory at the South Pole that aims to increase the sensitivity to high-energy neutrinos by an order of magnitude. To this end, about 10,000 new optical modules will be installed, instrumenting a fiducial volume of about 8 km3. Two newly developed optical module types increase IceCube’s current sensitivity per module by a factor of three by integrating 16 and 18 newly developed four-inch PMTs in specially designed 12.5-inch diameter pressure vessels. Both designs use conical silicone gel pads to optically couple the PMTs to the pressure vessel to increase photon collection efficiency. The outside portion of gel pads are pre-cast onto each PMT prior to integration, while the interiors are filled and cast after the PMT assemblies are installed in the pressure vessel via a pushing mechanism. This paper presents both the mechanical design, as well as the performance of prototype modules at high pressure (70 MPa) and low temperature (−40∘C), characteristic of the environment inside the South Pole ice