The Role of the State in Idaho Land Use Planning

Prior to the recession of 2009-10, Idaho was the sixth fastest growing state by population in the country. Even as the economic downturn reduces the pressures of growth, Idaho\u27s diverse cities and counties continue strive for thoughtful planning that will reflect their community values and needs. This White Paper will examine the role of the state in local land use planning by (1) comparing Idaho\u27s structure to those of states with a more pronounced role in land use planning and (2) discussing the attitudes of Idaho city officials, planners and members of the real estate and development communities about the potential role of the state in Idaho’s local land use planning processes

Why some tribal governments are more likely to partner with state and local law enforcement than others.

In many respects, Indian lands in the US can be considered to be a country within a country. With many tribal governments having their own law enforcement agencies there is a risk of jurisdictional conflict with agencies outside of Indian Country. Thaddieus W. Conner and Stephanie L. Witt take a close look at cross-deputization agreements between law enforcement agencies which allow officers from tribal, state, and local agencies to actively respond to issues regardless of jurisdictional boundaries. They find that the major determinants of such cooperation are the presence of Indian gaming, higher rates of violent crime, as well as organizational resources and capacity

Urban West Revisited: Governing Cities in Uncertain Times

Urban West Revisited offers a colorful primer on challenges faced by elected officials in midsized western cities. Featuring ten bellwether cities—Boise, Eugene, Modesto, Pueblo, Reno, Salem, Salt Lake, Spokane, Tacoma, and Tempe—the exploration finds common problems and hard-fought solutions in difficult times.https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/fac_books/1365/thumbnail.jp

Providing Shelter for the Homeless: Faith-Based Organizations as Instruments of the Public Good

Networked public service delivery requires attention to accountability and implementation in the public interest. Using the case of transitional housing in a western US community, we review the challenges of goal incongruence between network members and the resulting management problems. In addition, this case illustrates the role that local governments may play in promoting the primacy of one network member over others through collaborations, contract arrangements and nonmonetary resources and the resulting political and judicial difficulties. The complexity of networked service delivery is compounded when the individual missions of network members supersede public policy goals. In many communities, FBOs, as critical partners in a social service delivery network, may face great variation in expectations about how their organizational mission/faith relates to policy goals. Effective network coordination demands that each network partner recognizes and adapts, when appropriate, to the differing missions/goals of other network partners. However, when public resources are used to bolster the stability of alternative service providers, especially faith-based providers, governmental partners must maintain adequate oversight, with or without the benefit of specific contract provisions

Is It Us? Is It Them? Or is It This Place?: Predicting Civility in State Legislatures

While many scholars and analysts have observed a decline in civility in recent years, there have been few examinations of how political, economic, and institutional structures may partially explain inter-state differences in these trends. We suggest three potential explanations: (1) institutional structures, such as legislative professionalism and gubernatorial power, have created different contexts in which legislators build and maintain inter-personal relationships; (2) partisan competition has led to less bipartisan cooperation and contributed to strained relationships between members of different parties; and, (3) economic inequity and change has contributed to economic anxiety among citizens, contributing to conflict in legislative bodies as elected officials attempt to navigate emerging policy challenges. To test these explanations, we develop an innovative measure of civility using a national survey of lobbyists and a partial Multilevel Regression and Poststratification (MRP) design. Findings suggest that there is some validity to all three explanations, and signifying that civility is at least partially a result of structural issues

Nineteen Years of Public Opinion: The Boise State University Annual Public Policy Survey

Evidence suggests that public opinion has a significant and measurable impact on legislative, executive, and citizen interaction. The state of Idaho is no exception. In this white paper, we examine a sample of the opinions of Idahoans, as expressed in the Public Policy Survey, over the past nineteen years

Building on the past, shaping the future: The environmental mutagenesis and genomics society

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97167/1/em21765.pd

Genome-wide association study of borderline personality disorder reveals genetic overlap with the bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and major depression

Borderline personality disorder (BOR) is determined by environmental and genetic factors, and characterized by affective instability and impulsivity, diagnostic symptoms also observed in manic phases of Bipolar Disorder (BIP). Up to 20% of BIP patients show comorbidity with BOR. This report describes the first case-control genome-wide association study (GWAS) of BOR, performed in one of the largest BOR patient samples worldwide. The focus of our analysis was: (i) to detect genes and gene-sets involved in BOR; and (ii) to investigate the genetic overlap with BIP. As there is considerable genetic overlap between BIP, Major Depression (MDD) and Schizophrenia (SCZ) and a high comorbidity of BOR and MDD, we also analyzed the genetic overlap of BOR with SCZ and MDD. GWAS, gene-based tests,and gene-set-analyses were performed in 998 BOR patients and 1,545 controls. LD score regression was used to detect genetic overlap between BOR and these disorders. Single marker analysis revealed no significant association after correction for multiple testing. Genebased analysis yielded two significant genes: DPYD (p=4.42x10-7) and PKP4 (p=8.67x10-7); and gene-set-analysis yielded a significant finding for exocytosis (GO:0006887, pFDR=0.019). Prior studies have implicated DPYD, PKP4 and exocytosis in BIP and SCZ. The most notable finding of the present study was the genetic overlap of BOR with BIP (rg=0.28 [p=2.99x10-3]), SCZ (rg=0.34 [p=4.37x10-5]), and MDD (rg=0.57 [p=1.04x10-3]). Our study is the first to demonstrate that BOR overlaps with BIP, MDD and SCZ on the genetic level. Whether this is confined to transdiagnostic clinical symptoms should be examined in future studies

DNA methylation-based classification of central nervous system tumours.

Accurate pathological diagnosis is crucial for optimal management of patients with cancer. For the approximately 100 known tumour types of the central nervous system, standardization of the diagnostic process has been shown to be particularly challenging-with substantial inter-observer variability in the histopathological diagnosis of many tumour types. Here we present a comprehensive approach for the DNA methylation-based classification of central nervous system tumours across all entities and age groups, and demonstrate its application in a routine diagnostic setting. We show that the availability of this method may have a substantial impact on diagnostic precision compared to standard methods, resulting in a change of diagnosis in up to 12% of prospective cases. For broader accessibility, we have designed a free online classifier tool, the use of which does not require any additional onsite data processing. Our results provide a blueprint for the generation of machine-learning-based tumour classifiers across other cancer entities, with the potential to fundamentally transform tumour pathology

Meta-analysis of epigenome-wide associations between DNA methylation at birth and childhood cognitive skills

Cognitive skills are a strong predictor of a wide range of later life outcomes. Genetic and epigenetic associations across the genome explain some of the variation in general cognitive abilities in the general population and it is plausible that epigenetic associations might arise from prenatal environmental exposures and/or genetic variation early in life. We investigated the association between cord blood DNA methylation at birth and cognitive skills assessed in children from eight pregnancy cohorts within the Pregnancy And Childhood Epigenetics (PACE) Consortium across overall (total N = 2196), verbal (total N = 2206) and non-verbal cognitive scores (total N = 3300). The associations at single CpG sites were weak for all of the cognitive domains investigated. One region near DUSP22 on chromosome 6 was associated with non-verbal cognition in a model adjusted for maternal IQ. We conclude that there is little evidence to support the idea that variation in cord blood DNA methylation at single CpG sites is associated with cognitive skills and further studies are needed to confirm the association at DUSP22.Peer reviewe