Government programs headed by recess appointees have poorer performance than those managed by non-recess appointees and careerists

American politics is polarized as never before, something that is also reflected in Congress. This polarization means that it has become increasingly difficulty for the Executive to gain approval for their government appointments in the Senate. One way that the President can circumvent this problem is to make appointments whilst the Senate is in recess. But what are the consequences of recess appointments? In new research, Susan M. Miller finds that government programs managed by recess appointees are associated with lower performance than those managed by non-recess appointments and career professionals. She argues that, in light of these findings, reforms such as last year’s move to limit the threat of filibuster for executive and some judicial positions may be a step in the right direction towards reducing the Executive’s need to make recess appointments

Federal agencies can ‘buy’ support in states, especially among citizens with whom they are ideologically aligned

Every year, federal agencies award around $1 trillion in grants and contracts. How do these awards influence public support for government agencies? In new research that examines how citizens evaluate the performance of seven federal agencies, Susan M. Miller finds that when an agency spends more money in a state, citizens’ evaluations of that agency improve. When citizens and an agency are ideologically aligned, the probability that citizens approve of an agency’s performance can increase by as much as 29 percentage points

The genus Sipha Passerini (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in North America

Five species of the aphid genus Sipha Passerini (Hemiptera: Aphididae) are reported in North America and are reviewed herein. Of these species, three are adventive species and include: Sipha elegans del Guercio, Sipha glyceriae (Kaltenbach), and Sipha maydis Passerini. Sipha maydis was discovered in California in 2007 and now has been found in Georgia. The genus also includes two native species: Sipha agropyronensis (Gillette) and Sipha flava (Forbes). Sipha maydis can be distinguished easily from all the other species in the genus that occur in North America because it is black. All the species except S. agropyronensis have been implicated in damage to crop plants. A key to the apterae and alatae of Sipha found in North America is included

Party power in the U.S. house : discharge petitions, agenda control, and conditional party government

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on August 23, 2010).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Dissertation advisor: Dr. L. Marvin Overby.Vita.Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2010.In the study of legislatures, the effect of parties on legislative organization and behavior is generally considered under the broad precepts of two party-based theories: conditional party government theory (CPG) and party cartel theory. While complimentary in many ways, these two theories have disparate expectations for the majority party's ability to keep measures off the floor (i.e., negative agenda control).Advocates of CPG suggest that negative agenda control varies with intra-party preference cohesion and inter-party preference distinction, while proponents of cartel theory contend that this type of agenda control is relatively constant over time. This latter expectation is primarily tested by looking at the majority party's ability to resist rolling efforts on final passage votes. However, there are other ways to conceptualize negative agenda control, thus, prompting questions about the stability of different indicators of this type of power. In this project, I propose that some manifestations of negative agenda control are not constant, and vary by the extent to which the conditions of CPG are met. To evaluate this claim, I examine the conditional nature of the majority party's control over participation in discharge efforts, a form of negative agenda control, in the U.S. House from 1931-2006. This project presents a more nuanced picture of how the majority party's power is restricted when the conditions of CPG are met to a lesser extent, and furthers our understanding of party power in the U.S. House.Includes bibliographical references

The Impact of Organized Interests on Eligibility Determination: The Case of Veterans' Disability Compensation

A bureaucracy has a profound impact on public policy when it determines eligibility for government programs. Organized interest groups can increase the amount of information the target population has about the program, help applicants with their applications, and work to inform policy makers when the process is not working well. By doing these things, interest groups can affect how government programs are implemented. In this paper, we investigate the influence of veterans' interest groups on eligibility determinations in the Veterans' Disability Compensation (VDC) program across the fifty U.S. states to determine whether variations in veterans' organizations can explain why VA programs are implemented differently across the states. We find that the strength of veterans' groups affect demand for, access to, and effectiveness of the Veterans' Disability Compensation program. In states where veterans' groups have greater resources, more veterans file claims, more applications are approved, and, interestingly, the Veterans' Administration makes fewer errors in their eligibility decisions. We find no evidence, however, that the strength of veterans groups explain variation in the number of claims that are appealed, the percent of claims that are pending over 120 days, or the average disability rating given to successful claimants.Includes bibliographical reference

Toward a Model for Fisheries Social Impact Assessment

This paper presents a model for Fisheries Social Impact Assessment (SIA) that lays the groundwork for development of fisheries-focused, quantitative social assessments with a clear conceptual model. The usefulness of current fisheries SIA’s has been called into question by some as incompatible with approaches taken by fisheries biologists and economists when assessing potential effects of management actions. Our model’s approach is closer to the economists’ and biologists’ assessments and is therefore more useful for Fishery Management Council members. The paper was developed by anthropologists initially brought together in 2004 for an SIA Modeling Workshop by the National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. Opinions and conclusions expressed or implied are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policy of the National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA

The Impact of Brief Intervention Workshops on Addiction Provider Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes Toward Evidence-Based Practices

This study evaluated the impact of Motivational Interviewing (MI) and Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) workshops on post-training knowledge, skills, negative attitudes, and interest in implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs). Participants (N = 70) were primarily mental health counselor (41.4%), social workers (20.0%), substance abuse counselors (15.7%), school counselors (5.7%) and nursing professionals (4.3%) who selected the one or two day workshop for continuing education credit. Participants attended either a Basic MI training workshop (one day) or a Basic MI training plus an Advanced MI/SBIRT training workshop (two day) to assess if exposure to two EBPs would improve training outcomes. Participants in both the one day and two day workshops reported posttraining increased perceived knowledge and skills, decreased negative attitudes toward EBPs, and increased interest in implementing EBPs from pre-training to post-training. There were no differences between participants in the Basic MI or MI plus Advanced MI/SBIRT training conditions. Implications for reducing the research-practice gap in EBPs are discussed

Identifying Biomarkers and Mechanisms of Toxic Metal Stress with Global Proteomics

Hg is a wide-spread contaminant in the environment and is toxic in all of its various forms. Data suggest that RHg+ and Hg2+ are toxic in two ways. At low levels, Hg species appear to disrupt membrane-bound respiration causing a burst of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that further damage the cell. At higher Hg concentrations, RHg+ and Hg2+ may form adducts with cysteine- and selenocysteine-containing proteins in all cellular compartments resulting in their inactivation. Although these mechansims for toxicity are generally accepted, the most sensitive targets associated with these mechanisms are not well understood. In this collaborative project involving three laboratories at three institutions, the overall goal was to develop of a mass spectrometry-based global proteomics methodology that could be used to identify Hg-adducted (and ideally, ROS-damaged) proteins in order to address these types of questions. The two objectives of this overall collaborative project were (1) to identify, quantify, and compare ROS- and Hg-damaged proteins in cells treated with various Hg species and concentrations to test this model for two mechanisms of Hg toxicity, and (2) to define the cellular roles of the ubiquitous bacterial mercury resistance (mer) locus with regards to how the proteins of this pathway interact to protect other cell proteins from Hg damage. The specific objectives and accomplishments of the Miller lab in this project included: (1) Development of algorithms for analysis of the Hg-proteomic mass spectrometry data to identify mercury adducted peptides and other trends in the data. (2) Investigation of the role of mer operon proteins in scavenging Hg(II) from other mer pathway proteins as a means of protecting cellular proteins from damage

Towards a more systematic approach to secure systems design and analysis

The task of designing secure software systems is fraught with uncertainty, as data on uncommon attacks is limited, costs are difficult to estimate, and technology and tools are continually changing. Consequently, experts may interpret the security risks posed to a system in different ways, leading to variation in assessment. This paper presents research into measuring the variability in decision making between security professionals, with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of security advice given to software system designers. A set of thirty nine cyber-security experts took part in an exercise in which they independently assessed a realistic system scenario. This study quantifies agreement in the opinions of experts, examines methods of aggregating opinions, and produces an assessment of attacks from ratings of their components. We show that when aggregated, a coherent consensus view of security emerges which can be used to inform decisions made during systems design