PRESIDENTIAL-CONGRESSIONAL RELATIONS IN US FOREIGN POLICY DECISION-MAKING: A THEORETICAL TREATISE

The present paper aims to offer a conceptual exploration of the Presidential-Congressional relations in the US foreign policy decision-making. The US foreign policy decision-making arguably takes place within a functional synthesization of compromised bureaucratic rationality on the one hand, and the ideological, partisan and institutional interests and tendencies of individuals in possession of power on the other. In such a setting, the argument being put forth is that the Presidency is generally situated and equipped reasonably the best to deal with foreign affairs while the gamut of the Congressional authority in foreign policy varies based on the type of decisions made, playing a key role in distribution of resources to achieve particular objectives. In other words, the process of US foreign policy decision-making occasionally lacks the essential structural efficiency to prevent the executive branch from circumventing the Constitution. An executive branch operating in secrecy without legislative accountability is undoubtedly dangerous; therefore, a host of specialized means and preventive measures are required to be taken and practiced in order to avoid such danger and help keep US political structure in checks and balances. Attempt is made to contextualize this argument within a) the domain of decision-making theoretical models presented by G. Allison, and then b) rather practical discussions on requirements of foreign policy proposed by L. Hamilton followed by, c) a brief overview on actual developments affecting power relations in US foreign policy after the Cold War

The relationships between accessibility and crash risk from social equity perspectives: A case study at the Rotterdam-The Hague metropolitan region

Traflic safety and accessibility have been two important subjects in transportation research. On the one hand traffic crashes bring about high societal costs and serious health risks for urban road users. The cost oftraffic crashes is estimated to be 17 billion euros per year only in the Netherlands while over 600 people were killed in traffic, of whom 229 were cyclists and 195 were car users [l, 2]. Accessibility, on the other band, is regarded as one of the indicators of the quality of the transport system serving the public. There is comprehensive literature investigating the relationship between traffic crashes and factors associated with traffic, roadway design, built environment, and human factors. Similarly, several studies assessed and evaluated accessibility levels of individuals, communities, and regions by utilizing the aforementioned. factors. Nevertheless, there is a scarcity ofliterature investigating the relationships between accessibility and traffic safety. This is especially surprising considering that both subjects are associated with a similar set of factors, including land use and transport systems, as weil as individual and temporal factors [3-7]. The relationships between accessibility and traffic safety can be an adverse one; for example, improved accessibility by increasing the travel speeds (i.e., declining travel time) intensifies the crash risks which also deteriorates equity. Furthermore, levels ofboth accessibility and traffic safety are not homogeneous throughout urban areas and among different population groups. Based on the literature, it is obvious that accessibility is associated with economic equity [8]. lt is revealed that accessibility of lower-income groups is substantially worse than the higher-income groups as these groups have less mobility [9]. Previous studies also showed. that lower-income groups usually suffer from traffic safety problems more than other socio-economic groups [10-12]. Therefore, this research aims to address the aforementioned gap in the literature in understanding the relationships between accessibility levels and traffic safety with a focus on social equity perspecti.ves. For this purpose, a Gravity model and risk exposure evaluation approaches are utilix.ed to analyze traffic safety and accessibility to jobs by bicycle via extending the traditional definition of accessibility based on only travel time or proximity to a location

Analyzing the impacts of built environment factors on vehicle-bicycle crashes in Dutch cities

Cycling safety policy and research have mostly focused on cycling infrastructure, cyclists' behavior, and safety equipment in the past decades. However, the role ofbuilt environment characteristics (BECs) in the safety of cyclists has not yet been fully examined. For the Netherlands, this is rather surprising given the significant modal share of bicycles in daily trips, the importance attributed to urban spatial planning, and it being one of the most planned countries in the world. Despite the considerable improvements that have ta1cen place in traffic safety over the decades, the ( actual) number of cyclist deaths between 2011 and 2020 increased by on average 2% per year; the cyclists bad a major portion oftraffic death (followed by passenger cars); also, almost onethird of traffic death happened in built-up a.reas (about 25% of fatalities occurred on 50km/h roads in urban areas) in this period. Considering the aim of construction of on average 75,000 new homes per year until 2025, as weil as promoting bicycle use in as a healthy and sustainable mode of transport in the N etherlands, underst.anding the relationships between the BECs and cycling safety is invaluable for improving the safety of cyclists

Detection and quantification of Streptococcus pneumoniae from Iranian patients with pneumonia and individual carriers by real time PCR

The aim of this study was to develop a real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for quantitative detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae from clinical respiratory specimens. Initially, 184 respiratory specimens from patients with community acquired pneumonia (CAP) (n = 129) and 55 cases with hospital associated pneumonia (HAP) were bacteriologically investigated. To check the colonization status among the healthy individuals, 32 preschool and 31 adults were screened in parallel. All specimens were cultured on selective culture media to isolate S. pneumoniae, Legionella spp. and Mycoplasma spp. A 166 bp fragment corresponding to cbp A gene of S. pneumoniae was amplified from clinical specimens using Taqman probe real time PCR. Culture showed 14, but real time PCR showed 15 specimens as being positive for S. pneumoniae. The specificity and sensitivity of real time PCR was 99.14% and 100 respectively. Co-infections of S. pneumoniae with Legionella pneumophila, Chlamydophila pneumoniae, Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus were observed in 5 cases (35.72%). S. pneumoniae was counted <103 cfu/ml from the co-infected cases. Using real time PCR, a cutoff of 103cfu/ml is introduced to differentiate colonization from infection in respiratory tract. This is the first report on the prevalence CAP with S. pneumoniae in Iran (12.40%).Key words: Streptococcus pneumoniae, community acquired pneumonia (CAP), real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), choline binding protein A (cbp A)