Intestacy Concerns for Same-Sex Couples: How Variations in State Law and Policy Affect Testamentary Wishes

As the number of same-sex couples increases in the United States, concerns regarding the evolution of federal and state law, with respect to rights for same-sex couples, also continue to rise. As marriage is not always available to same-sex couples, they often face very different legal issues than couples in a traditional marriage. Because marriage is typically not a legal cause of action, the question of a marriage’s validity often arises incidentally to another legal question, such as the disposition of a decedent’s estate

Intestacy Concerns for Same-Sex Couples: How Variations in State Law and Policy Affect Testamentary Wishes

As the number of same-sex couples increases in the United States, concerns regarding the evolution of federal and state law, with respect to rights for same-sex couples, also continue to rise. As marriage is not always available to same-sex couples, they often face very different legal issues than couples in a traditional marriage. Because marriage is typically not a legal cause of action, the question of a marriage’s validity often arises incidentally to another legal question, such as the disposition of a decedent’s estate

Master of Science

thesisGlaciers have been retreating since the end of the little ice age, and their retreat "has increased dramatically since the 1980s. Some of the glaciers that are retreating are" "within national parks and are main visitor attractions. For example, visitors come from" "around the United States to experience Exit Glacier at Kenai Fjords National Park (KEFJ)" "and due to its accessibility, Exit Glacier provides a unique experience for visitors to" "easily approach and view a glacier. Exit Glacier has, however, been retreating, decreasing" "in volume, and continuing to move away from the original trail that initially led park" "visitors to the glacier. This study investigated this phenomenon with the purpose to" "understand how Exit Glacier’s potential continued retreat might influence visitor" "behavior, experiences, and preferences. The researcher used onsite quantitative" "questionnaires (n = 539) and computer-altered photographs of potential glacier recession" "(n = 10) to identify visitor responses to Exit Glacier’s retreat. The results indicate that" "visitors found current conditions moderately acceptable and found extreme recession" "primarily unacceptable. Visitors were most likely to be displaced during extreme" "recession and as visitors’ beliefs in climate change increased their acceptability of" "recession conditions decreased.

Toward a Synthesis of Two Accounts of Discourse Structure

... In this paper, we argue that the main theories representing these two approaches, RST (Mann and Thompson 1988) and G&S (Grosz and Sidner 1986), make similar claims about how speakers' intentions determine a structure of their discourse. The similarity occurs because the nucleus-satellite relation among text spans in RST corresponds to the dominance relation among intentions in G&S. Building on this similarity, we sketch a partial mapping between the two theories to show that the main points of the two theories are equivalent. Furthermore, the additional claims found in only RST or only G&S are largely consistent. The issue of what structure is determined by semantic (domain) relations in the discourse and how this structure might be related to the intentional structure is discussed. We suggest the synthesis of the two theories would be useful to researchers in both natural language interpretation and generation

Using Discourse Analysis and Automatic Text Generation to Study Discourse Cue Usage

Our two stage methodology for the study of cue usage coordinates an exhaustive corpus analysis with a system for text generation. Coding of the corpus uses Relational Discourse Analysis, a synthesis of two previous accounts of discourse structure. In the first stage of our study, hypotheses about cue usage are evaluated and refined using the corpus analysis. Several initial results concerning how cues mark segment structure are presented here. In the second stage of our study, the results of the corpus analysis are used to determine a set of heuristics to be implemented in a system for text generation. The automatic generation of texts is then used to exercise and further evaluate the heuristics for cue placement. Discourse cues play a crucial role in many discourse processing tasks, including plan recognition (Litman & Allen 1987), anaphora resolution (Grosz & Sidner 1986), and generation of coherent multisentential texts (Elhadad & McKeown 1990; Rosner & Stede 1992; Scott & de Souza..

Investigating Cue Selection and Placement in Tutorial Discourse

Our goal is to identify the features that predict cue selectlob and placement in order to devise strategies for automatic text generation

Into the Mystic: ALMA ACA observations of the Mystic Mountains in Carina

We present new observations of the Mystic Mountains cloud complex in the Carina Nebula using the ALMA Atacama Compact Array (ACA) to quantify the impact of strong UV radiation on the structure and kinematics of the gas. Our Band 6 observations target CO, 13CO, and C18O; we also detect DCN J=3–2 and 13CS J=5–4. A dendrogram analysis reveals that the Mystic Mountains are a coherent structure, with continuous emission over −10.5 km s−1 < v < −2 km s−1. We perform multiple analyses to isolate non-thermal motions in the Mystic Mountains including computing the turbulent driving parameter, b, which indicates whether compressive or solenoidal modes dominate. Each analysis yields values similar to other pillars in Carina that have been observed in a similar way but are subject to an order of magnitude less intense ionizing radiation. We find no clearcorrelation between the velocity or turbulent structure of the gas and the incident radiation, in contrast to other studies targeting different regions of Carina. This may reflect differences in the initial densities of regions that go on to collapse into pillars and those that still look like clouds or walls in the present day. Pre-existing over-densities that enable pillar formation may also explain why star formation in the pillars appears more evolved (from the presence of jets) than in other heavily irradiated but non-pillar-like regions. High resolution observations of regions subject to an array of incident radiation are required to test this hypothesis

Series: Public engagement with research. Part 1: The fundamentals of public engagement with research

BACKGROUND: In the first of a four-part series, we describe the fundamentals of public engagement in primary care research. OBJECTIVES: The article's purpose is to encourage, inform and improve the researcher's awareness about public engagement in research. For a growing number of researchers, funders and patient organisations in Europe, public engagement is a moral and ethical imperative for conducting high-quality research. DISCUSSION: Starting with an explanation of the role of public engagement in research, we highlight its diversity and benefits to research, researchers and the public members involved. We summarise principles of good practice and provide valuable resources for researchers to use in their public engagement activities. Finally, we discuss some of the issues encountered when researchers collaborate with members of the public and provide practical steps to address them. Case studies of real-life situations are used to illustrate and aid understanding. CONCLUSION: We hope this article and the other papers in this series will encourage researchers to better consider the role and practice of public engagement and the potential added value to research that collaborating with the public could provide

Gender differences in perceptions of psoriatic arthritis disease impact, management, and physician interactions: results from a global patient survey

Introduction: We evaluated the impact of gender on disease severity, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), treatment management, and patient–healthcare professional (HCP) interactions from the perspectives of patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Methods: Data were collected from a global online patient survey conducted by The Harris Poll (November 2, 2017 to March 12, 2018). Eligible patients were aged ≥ 18 years, with a self-reported diagnosis of PsA for > 1 year, had visited a rheumatologist/dermatologist in the past 12 months, and had reported previously using ≥ 1 conventional synthetic or biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug. Data were stratified by gender and analyzed descriptively, inferentially by binomial (chi-square) tests, and by multivariate logistic regression models. Results: Data from 1286 patients who participated were included: 52% were female, 48% were male. Varying perceptions of disease severity between males and females were indicated by differences in symptoms leading to a diagnosis of PsA, and in symptoms reported despite treatment; more females than males reported joint tenderness, skin patches/plaques, and enthesitis. More females than males reported a major/moderate impact of PsA on their physical activity and emotional/mental well-being. Reasons for switching medication differed between genders, with more females switching because they perceived their medication to not be effective enough related to their joint symptoms. More females than males were very satisfied with their communication with their rheumatologist and were more likely to discuss the impact of PsA on their daily lives, their treatment satisfaction, and treatment goals with their rheumatologist. Conclusions:Patients’ perceptions of the impact of PsA on HRQoL, treatment management, and interactions with HCPs varied between males and females. More females than males reported major/moderate physical and emotional impacts of PsA. When treating patients, it is important for HCPs to consider the potential impact of gender on patients’ experience of PsA and its symptoms. Graphical plain language summary available for this article