Procedures for Contested Election Cases in the House of Representatives

Under the U.S. Constitution, each House of Congress has the express authority to be the judge of the "elections and returns" of its own Members. Although initial challenges and recounts for the House are conducted at the state level, under the state's authority to administer federal elections, continuing contests may be presented to the House, which, as the final arbiter, may make a conclusive determination of a claim to the seat. This report describes these procedures

Tigard Microgrid Feasibility Study

68 pagesThe information presented in this report was collected through interviews with significant stakeholders from the City of Tigard, Portland General Electric (PGE), real estate developers, business owners, and specialists from the Energy Trust of Oregon (ETO). The University of Oregon, in partnership with the City of Tigard, has synthesized this information to build a feasibility study for the deployment of solar microgrids in the city. This project seeks to answer the fundamental question: How can Tigard deploy microgrids using distributed renewable energy generation and battery storage at both the building and district scale to provide equity, resiliency, economic, and sustainability benefits to the public, local businesses, the city, and the utility company and its grid? Across the world, renewable resources are being deployed at ever increasing rates to replace fossil fuel generation sources in the race to achieve net‐zero carbon emissions. This adoption has been encouraged in the United States by a rapid decrease in technology costs and favorable policies at the federal and state levels. Solar power’s low cost, limited maintenance demands, and infinitely renewable energy source make it a perfect solution for building resilience in preparation for emergencies. Tigard and the rest of the Pacific Northwest are under the constant threat of wildfires and face the possibility of a massive Cascadia earthquake, which was famously reported on by The New Yorker magazine in 2015 (1). To prepare for this possibility, Tigard is exploring the case for creating a single user microgrid (SUM) that would provide energy to the public library, which will serve as the emergency operations center in times of need. In an effort to achieve Tigard’s sustainability objectives and transform the city into a clean energy leader in Oregon, the team is also exploring the expansion of this microgrid to include the Hunziker Core, a light industrial and manufacturing district located just north of the library. The core is dominated by warehouses and large commercial buildings with vast surface parking lots that provide opportunity for rooftop and ground mounted canopy solar. The district scale application of microgrid technology creates benefits for the grid, the utility, the owner of the generating assets, the City, and local businesses, particularly those that value resilient power. This multi‐user microgrid (MUM) is, however, the most complex system to fund and manage because of the potential number of generating facilities, owners, and user profiles. The implementation of the district scale MUM could be facilitated by the City’s enthusiastic endorsement and extensive cooperation from the utility, PGE

A longer vernal window: The role of winter coldness and snowpack in driving spring thresholds and lags

Climate change is altering the timing and duration of the vernal window, a period that marks the end of winter and the start of the growing season when rapid transitions in ecosystem energy, water, nutrient, and carbon dynamics take place. Research on this period typically captures only a portion of the ecosystem in transition and focuses largely on the dates by which the system wakes up. Previous work has not addressed lags between transitions that represent delays in energy, water, nutrient, and carbon flows. The objectives of this study were to establish the sequence of physical and biogeochemical transitions and lags during the vernal window period and to understand how climate change may alter them. We synthesized observations from a statewide sensor network in New Hampshire, USA, that concurrently monitored climate, snow, soils, and streams over a three-year period and supplemented these observations with climate reanalysis data, snow data assimilation model output, and satellite spectral data. We found that some of the transitions that occurred within the vernal window were sequential, with air temperatures warming prior to snow melt, which preceded forest canopy closure. Other transitions were simultaneous with one another and had zero-length lags, such as snowpack disappearance, rapid soil warming, and peak stream discharge. We modeled lags as a function of both winter coldness and snow depth, both of which are expected to decline with climate change. Warmer winters with less snow resulted in longer lags and a more protracted vernal window. This lengthening of individual lags and of the entire vernal window carries important consequences for the thermodynamics and biogeochemistry of ecosystems, both during the winter-to-spring transition and throughout the rest of the year

Legislative Options After Citizens United v. FEC: Constitutional and Legal Issues

In Citizens United v. FEC, the Supreme Court invalidated two provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), finding that they were unconstitutional under the First Amendment. In response to the Supreme Court's ruling, various proposals have been discussed and legislation has been introduced in the 111th Congress. This report provides an analysis of the constitutional and legal issues raised by several proposals, organized by regulatory topic: increasing disclaimer requirements, increasing disclosure for tax-exempt organizations, requiring shareholder notification and approval, restricting U.S. subsidiaries of foreign corporations, restricting political expenditures by government contractors and grantees, taxing corporate independent expenditures, and providing public financing for congressional campaigns. The report also addresses amending the Constitution

Human Skin/SCID Mouse Chimeras as an In Vivo Model for Human Cutaneous Mast Cell Hyperplasia

Human skin xenografted to mice with severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome (SCID) was evaluated to determine the integrity and fate of human dermal mast cells. There was an approximately 3-fold increase in number of dermal mast cells by 3 mo after engraftment (p < 0.05). These cells were responsive to conventional mast cell secretagogues and were confirmed to be of human origin by ultrastructural characterization of granule substructure and by reactivity for the human mast cell proteinase, chymase. CD1a+ Langerhans cells, also bone marrow–derived cells, failed to show evidence of concomitant hyperplasia, and increased mast cell number was not associated with alterations in number of dermal vascular profiles identified immunohistochemically for human CD31. RT-PCR analysis demonstrated human but not murine stem cell factor (SCF; also termed mast cell growth factor, c-kit ligand) mRNA in xenografts. Epidermal reactivity for stem cell factor protein shifted from a cytoplasmic pattern to an intercellular pattern by 3 mo after engraftment, suggesting a secretory phenotype, as previously documented for human cutaneous mastocytosis. The majority (>90%) of mast cells demonstrated membrane reactivity for human SCF at the time points of peak hyperplasia. These data establish SCID mouse recipients of human skin xenografts as a potential in vivo model for cutaneous mast cell hyperplasia

A practical drug discovery project at the undergraduate level

A practical drug discovery project for third-year undergraduates is described. No previous knowledge of medicinal chemistry is assumed. Initial lecture-workshops cover the basic principles; then students are asked to improve the profile of a weakly potent, poorly soluble PI3K inhibitor (1). Compound array design, molecular modelling and screening data analysis are followed by laboratory work in which each student, as part of a team, attempts to synthesise at least two target compounds. The project benefits from significant industrial support, including lectures, student mentoring and consumables. The aim is to make the learning experience as close as possible to real-life industrial situations. Forty-eight target compounds have been prepared, the best of which (5b, 5j, 6b and 6ap) improved the potency and aqueous solubility of the lead compound (1) by 100-1000 fold and 10-fold, respectively

TEF, Vol. 4 No. 1

This is the fourth issue of the annually published literary magazine TEF.https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/tef/1003/thumbnail.jp

Syntenic relationships between cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) and melon (C. melo L.) chromosomes as revealed by comparative genetic mapping

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cucumber, <it>Cucumis sativus </it>L. (2n = 2 × = 14) and melon, <it>C. melo </it>L. (2n = 2 × = 24) are two important vegetable species in the genus <it>Cucumis </it>(family Cucurbitaceae). Both species have an Asian origin that diverged approximately nine million years ago. Cucumber is believed to have evolved from melon through chromosome fusion, but the details of this process are largely unknown. In this study, comparative genetic mapping between cucumber and melon was conducted to examine syntenic relationships of their chromosomes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using two melon mapping populations, 154 and 127 cucumber SSR markers were added onto previously reported F₂- and RIL-based genetic maps, respectively. A consensus melon linkage map was developed through map integration, which contained 401 co-dominant markers in 12 linkage groups including 199 markers derived from the cucumber genome. Syntenic relationships between melon and cucumber chromosomes were inferred based on associations between markers on the consensus melon map and cucumber draft genome scaffolds. It was determined that cucumber Chromosome 7 was syntenic to melon Chromosome I. Cucumber Chromosomes 2 and 6 each contained genomic regions that were syntenic with melon chromosomes III+V+XI and III+VIII+XI, respectively. Likewise, cucumber Chromosomes 1, 3, 4, and 5 each was syntenic with genomic regions of two melon chromosomes previously designated as II+XII, IV+VI, VII+VIII, and IX+X, respectively. However, the marker orders in several syntenic blocks on these consensus linkage maps were not co-linear suggesting that more complicated structural changes beyond simple chromosome fusion events have occurred during the evolution of cucumber.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Comparative mapping conducted herein supported the hypothesis that cucumber chromosomes may be the result of chromosome fusion from a 24-chromosome progenitor species. Except for a possible inversion, cucumber Chromosome 7 has largely remained intact in the past nine million years since its divergence from melon. Meanwhile, many structural changes may have occurred during the evolution of the remaining six cucumber chromosomes. Further characterization of the genomic nature of <it>Cucumis </it>species closely related to cucumber and melon might provide a better understanding of the evolutionary history leading to modern cucumber.</p