Discussion Group Report: Prevention & Enforcement

New Mexico has a mix of ethical canons and statutes, including the Government Conduct Act, the Procurement Code, Financial Disclosure Act, and others. The Judicial branch has its own code of conduct, as does the Legislative branch. The Government Conduct Act encourages Executive branch agencies to develop and maintain agency specific codes of conduct. It is important to note the distinction between ethical canons, which could result in administrative discipline or sanctions, and criminal/civil statutory provisions, violations of which can result in criminal fines, penalties, etc. This report provides a brief summary of the existing ethics laws, mechanisms for enforcement, and responsibility for ethics education, by branch of government. Next, problem areas are addressed before presenting recommendations

Subcommittee Report on Legislative Compensation

Currently, under Section 1-19-29.1 NMSA 1978 legislators may use campaign funds for expenditures \u2026 reasonably related to performing the duties of office held, including mail, telephone, and travel expenditures to serve constituents, but excluding personal and legislative session living expenses\u27. An unintended consequence of allowing campaign funds for performance of duties of the office may be that a legislator(s) may be dependent in some measures on funds given to them by third parties who have specific interests they are promoting or supporting. In addition to the perception that legislators may be receiving contributions for political consideration, there is an even greater issue of fairness to those who have chosen to serve the public in our \u27citizen legislatures\u27. This report presents three options for modifying rules governing legislative compensation and provides positives and negatives for each option.\u2

Subcommittee Report on Campaign Finance

New Mexico is one of a minority of 13 states that do not limit most campaign contributions. The United States Supreme Court has recognized that such limits may serve a states compelling interest in preventing corruption and the appearance of corruption in the political process. The Supreme Court has also concluded that reasonable contribution limits do not violate the United States Constitution. This report details several options for the Task Force\u27s consideration, as well as the subcommittee\u27s recommendations. In the 2005 Campaign Disclosure Project — Grading State Disclosure Report, New Mexico received a grade of F for its campaign disclosure law. It received an A for its electronic filing program, but accessibility of content and online usability received an F. While New Mexico has a campaign finance law that contains standard provisions found in other states, the results of this report suggest that there is much more that can be done to strengthen our existing legal framework in this area. This report provides some options for consideration.\u2

Automating the integration of clinical studies into medical ontologies

A popular approach to knowledge extraction from clinical databases is to first define an ontology of the concepts one wishes to model and subsequently, use these concepts to test various hypotheses and make predictions about a person’s future health and wellbeing. The challenge for medical experts is in the time taken to map between their concepts/hypotheses and information contained within clinical studies. Presently, most of this work is performed manually. We have developed a method to generate links between Risk Factors in a medical ontology and the questions and result data in longitudinal studies. This can then be exploited to express complex queries based on domain concepts, to extract knowledge from external studies

Impact of Social Determinants of Health on Healthcare Disparities in Florida

Objective Healthcare disparities disproportionately affect underserved and marginalized communities due to social determinants of health (SDoH), contributing to significant differences in health outcomes and life expectancy within different communities in Florida. This observational study aimed to understand the impact of SDoH, such as race/ethnicity, income level, and education attainment on healthcare access in Florida. Methods Self-reported data from the 2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System were pooled to evaluate disparities in healthcare access by race/ethnicity, income, and education level in Florida. Results Health status and healthcare access vary based on characteristics related to SDoH, including race/ethnicity, income level, and educational attainment. Health status and healthcare access increased with income and education attainment. There were no significant disparities in health status and healthcare access among racial and ethnic groups. Conclusion While race and ethnicity were not significant predictors of health status nor healthcare access, income level and education were positively correlated which may be related to policy including Florida\u27s lack of Medicaid expansion or population characteristics such as health-seeking behaviors. Understanding the prevalence of healthcare disparities based on SDoH can inform and support the implementation of evidence-based strategies for improving the accessibility and affordability of culturally competent care for underserved populations

Subcommittee Report on the Establishment of a State Ethics Commission

The establishment of a State Ethics Commission relates directly to ethics reform in the state of New Mexico. Such a commission does not exist in New Mexico, the establishment of which would represent a tangible and concrete manifestation of a state commitment to ethics reform, as well as the top-down expectation that state officials (elected or otherwise) will be held to the highest standard of conduct in the performance of their duties. In addition, while New Mexico does have statutory proscriptions against certain kinds or conduct or requiring other kinds of conduct (i.e., the Government Conduct Act, the Procurement Act, Campaign Practices Act), there is no common set of ethical guidelines that apply uniformly to all executive agencies, elected officials, and employees. Moreover, there is no agency or organization that is charged with receiving reports of ethical misconduct, investigating such reports, and taking action as necessary, including disciplinary action. A state ethics commission could be established to do exactly that. This report reviews the options for establishing a state ethics commission and provides recommendations

Mapping longitudinal studies to risk factors in an ontology for dementia

A common activity carried out by healthcare professionals is to test various hypotheses on longitudinal study data in an effort to develop new and more reliable algorithms that might determine the possibility of developing certain illnesses. The In-MINDD project provides input from a number of European dementia experts to identify the most accurate model of inter-related risk factors which can yield a personalised dementia risk quotient and profile. This model is then validated against the large population-based prospective Maastricht Aging Study (MAAS) dataset. As part of this overall goal, the research presented in this paper demonstrates how we can automate the process of mapping modifiable risk factors against large sections of the aging study and thus, use information technology to provide more powerful query interfaces

Application of two-photon absorption laser induced fluorescence to validate actinometry measurements of absolute atomic oxygen number density based on improved EEDFs obtained from PIC simulations.

Actinometry is a non-invasive optical technique that allows absolute atomic oxygen density determination within a plasma provided certain conditions are met. However, the technique is sensitive to to the accuracy of the Electron Energy Distribution Function (EEDF). A Maxwellian distribution is often used for actinometry calculations, but this is typically just an approximation. A Particle in Cell (PIC) code is used to try and generate a more accurate EEDF to improve the actinometry results. To do this the electron density in the plasma is measured using a hairpin probe and compared to the electron density predicted by the PIC code. The code is adjusted to get a reasonable agreement with the hairpin probe electron densities. The corresponding EEDF from the PIC code is then used in the actinoometry model to calculate the atomic oxygen density in the plasma. The actinometry results are compared to oxygen density measurements made using Two-photon Absorption Laser Induced Fluorescence to validate the actinometry results

Ethylene signalling affects susceptibility of tomatoes to Salmonella

Fresh fruits and vegetables are increasingly recognized as important reservoirs of human pathogens, and therefore, significant attention has been directed recently to understanding mechanisms of the interactions between plants and enterics, like Salmonella. A screen of tomato cultivars for their susceptibility to Salmonella revealed significant differences in the ability of this human pathogen to multiply within fruits; expression of the Salmonella genes (cysB, agfB, fadH) involved in the interactions with tomatoes depended on the tomato genotype and maturity stage. Proliferation of Salmonella was strongly reduced in the tomato mutants with defects in ethylene synthesis, perception and signal transduction. While mutation in the ripening-related ethylene receptor Nr resulted only in a modest reduction in Salmonella numbers within tomatoes, strong inhibition of the Salmonella proliferation was observed in rin and nor tomato mutants. RIN and NOR are regulators of ethylene synthesis and ripening. A commercial tomato variety heterozygous for rin was less susceptible to Salmonella under the greenhouse conditions but not when tested in the field over three production seasons