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BACKGROUND: The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) continues to prioritize research to better understand the health effects resulting from exposure to mixtures of chemical and nonchemical stressors. Mixtures research activities over the last decade were informed by expert input during the development and deliberations of the 2011 NIEHS Workshop "Advancing Research on Mixtures: New Perspectives and Approaches for Predicting Adverse Human Health Effects." NIEHS mixtures research efforts since then have focused on key themes including a) prioritizing mixtures for study, b) translating mixtures data from in vitro and in vivo studies, c) developing cross-disciplinary collaborations, d) informing component-based and whole-mixture assessment approaches, e) developing sufficient similarity methods to compare across complex mixtures, f) using systems-based approaches to evaluate mixtures, and g) focusing on management and integration of mixtures-related data. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to describe NIEHS driven research on mixtures and combined exposures over the last decade and present areas for future attention. RESULTS: Intramural and extramural mixtures research projects have incorporated a diverse array of chemicals (e.g., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, botanicals, personal care products, wildfire emissions) and nonchemical stressors (e.g., socioeconomic factors, social adversity) and have focused on many diseases (e.g., breast cancer, atherosclerosis, immune disruption). We have made significant progress in certain areas, such as developing statistical methods for evaluating multiple chemical associations in epidemiology and building translational mixtures projects that include both in vitro and in vivo models. DISCUSSION: Moving forward, additional work is needed to improve mixtures data integration, elucidate interactions between chemical and nonchemical stressors, and resolve the geospatial and temporal nature of mixture exposures. Continued mixtures research will be critical to informing cumulative impact assessments and addressing complex challenges, such as environmental justice and climate change. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP14340, Introduction Biomonitoring programs (1-3) indicate that people experience diverse chemical exposures from their use of personal care and household products, diet, lifestyle choices, occupational exposures, and incidental contact with environmental [...]

The Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting Model (HWRF) was the flagship hurricane model at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction for 16 years and a state-of-the-art tool for tropical cyclone (TC) intensity prediction at the National Weather Service and across the globe. HWRF was a joint development between NOAA research and operations, specifically the Environmental Modeling Center and the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. Significant support also came from the National Hurricane Center, Developmental Testbed Center, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, universities, cooperative institutes, and the TC community. In the North Atlantic basin, where most improvement efforts focused, HWRF intensity forecast errors decreased by 45%-50% at many lead times between 2007 and 2022. These large improvements resulted from increases in horizontal and vertical resolution, as well as advances in model physics and data assimilation. HWRF intensity forecasts performed particularly well over the Gulf of Mexico in recent years, providing useful guidance for a large number of impactful landfalling hurricanes. Such advances were made possible not only by significant gains in computing but also through substantial investment from the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: HWRF is considered one of the most important and successful ocean-coupled, regional numerical weather prediction models. This work documents HWRF forecast performance for TCs in the North Atlantic since its operational inception (2007-22). Track, intensity, and storm size (wind radii) forecasts all showed significant error reductions and skill improvements, including 45%-50% lower intensity errors. HWRF intensity forecasts showed marked improvement for rapid intensification events, especially in the Gulf of Mexico, where numerous impactful TCs made landfall throughout HWRF's lifetime. HWRF's impressive performance led to its expanded use as guidance for official TC forecasts and as a research tool across the TC community. These successes paved the way for NOAA's next-generation hurricane model, the Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System. KEYWORDS: Extreme events; Hurricanes/ typhoons; Tropical cyclones; Short-range prediction; Model evaluation/ performance; Numerical weather prediction/ forecasting, 1. Introduction (the rise of dynamical hurricane models at NOAA) Tropical cyclone (TC) forecast errors have markedly decreased over the past two decades, largely due to improved numerical weather prediction [...]

This paper provides an introduction to a new tool that is designed to provide operationally useful vulnerability information to National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecasting Offices (WFOs). The Brief Vulnerability Overview Tool (BVOT) is a shapefile containing local known, spatially specific, and weather-hazard-related vulnerabilities in a format that is easily integrated into the existing forecasting, warning, and decision support responsibilities and tasks of NWS WFO meteorologists. The methods for gathering vulnerability data and then building a BVOT for a WFO leverage and strengthen the relationships that NWS WFOs already have with their local emergency managers (EMs) and core partners to work together to identify operationally useful, local vulnerability knowledge. The BVOT is populated with discrete, known vulnerabilities to provide NWS meteorologists spatial situational awareness of those people, places, and things of greatest concern to their core partners. Crucially, the BVOT is a subsample of all potential vulnerabilities; its primary purpose is to make meteorologists aware of those weather-hazard-specific vulnerabilities that, as we posed to them, "keep them awake at night." Here, we describe the development of the BVOT as a social science-informed operational tool; how the BVOT methods have evolved and how it can be integrated into the culture of the NWS as a tool for building and maintaining relationships with partners; and how the BVOT is designed to be used and its impact on operational decision-making as observed in NOAA's Hazardous Weather Testbed. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Operational meteorologists in the National Weather Service often rely on everyday knowledge of vulnerabilities to shape their messaging to communities threatened by hazardous weather. This study seeks to test methods that will permit meteorologists to work with local communities and emergency managers to collect knowledge about local vulnerabilities so that they can be formally shared and integrated into everyday operations. The results of this research provide an illustrative pathway demonstrating how social science-informed research can be used to improve meteorological operations. Future work should investigate how other findings from social science can be translated into real, operational impacts. KEYWORDS: Social science; Operational forecasting; Communication/ decision-making; Decision support; Vulnerability, 1. BVOT: An inductive approach to actionable vulnerability decision support The mission of the U.S. NWS is to "provide weather, water, and climate data, forecasts, warnings, and impact-based decision support [...]

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS) has been providing national, regional, and local climate services for more than 20 years. The NWS climate services building blocks consist of service provision infrastructure, partnership and outreach, discovery of user needs and requirements, and service delivery at national, regional, local, and tribal levels. To improve services, the NWS climate services program accelerated user engagement through customer surveys, workshops, and collaborations. Since 2002, the annual Climate Prediction Applications Science Workshop has developed a community of climate information producers and users through sharing of climate science applications, decision support tools, and effective communication practices. Although NWS had been producing operational climate monitoring and prediction products for several decades, the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (U.S. Public Law 115-25) specifically mandated that NWS deliver services at subseasonal to seasonal time scales, including periods from two weeks to two years. Looking ahead, both the Department of Commerce (DOC) and NOAA have included climate services in their new 2022-26 strategic plans, including DOC's goal to address the climate crisis through mitigation, adaptation, and resilience efforts and NOAA's initiatives to build a Climate Ready Nation (CRN). The NWS Climate Services Program supports these strategic goals and CRN initiatives through integrating climate information into Impact-based Decision Support Services, the most critical element for implementation of the NWS strategy for a Weather-Ready Nation. This includes application of state-of-the-art climate monitoring and prediction products to the most societally relevant impacts while empowering regional and local climate delivery of enhanced services. KEYWORDS: Climate; Climate records; Climate services; Decision making; History; Societal impacts, 1. History of the NWS regional and local climate services The year 2023 marked the twentieth anniversary of the regional and local climate services infrastructure established in the National Oceanic [...]

Recycling PET bottles has set a standard for other industries, but PET thermoforms are still gaining momentum. This industry segment is paving the way for a new landscape in PET [...]

The office of Governor-General, previously analysed by Sir Paul Hasluck and Sir Zelman Cowen, has evolved as part of the 'Australianisation of the Crown' since 1901. It has been consolidated [...]

Abstract The Affordable Care Act (ACA) included financial and regulatory incentives and goals for states to bolster their health insurance rate review programs, increase their anticipated loss ratio requirements, expand [...]

Abstract States increasingly use managed care for Medicaid enrollees, yet evidence of its impact on health care outcomes is mixed. This research studies county-level Medicaid managed care (MMC) penetration and [...]

Abstract The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented hierarchical condition category (HCC) models in 2004 to adjust payments to Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to reflect enrollees' expected health [...]

b. Professional and Organizational Expertise In so stating, the Court in Sitz relied heavily on another, quasi-inquisitorial theme: the conception of law enforcement activities, particularly at the operational rather than [...]

To demonstrate the specific nature of „ the duties of the administrative judge“in countries such as France, it is necessary to refer to historical and geographical analysis. The reasons for the existence of the administrative judge in many democratic countries as well as in those nearing democracy are shown. Furthermore, the differences and specificities of the administrative judge in relation to other judges are emphasised.

Canada's Clarity Act, an act governing the process and practice of future referendums on Quebec sovereignty, has managed to find its way into the discourse, discussion and debate surrounding the 18 September 2014 referendum in Scotland. This article explores the notion of 'clarity' as it is being applied to the Scottish referendum, the consequences of this emergent ethos and how the question itself has become a preoccupation for both Separatists and Unionists alike. Having taken form in Canada, and now being utilised by lawmakers in the UK, the 'clarity ethos', as we argue below, is altogether an unattainable ideal. Subject to interpretative/cognitive bias, referendum questions, and how they are formulated, deserve the same level of analysis as the debate and discussion precipitating them. Keywords: Clarity Act, Quebec sovereignty, Scottish referendum, clarity ethos, Mr. Speaker, my colleague mentioned a sword of Damocles a few times. Would he not agree that, in 1995, the Parizeau government held a sword of Damocles over Quebeckers' heads? [...]

This study results from several years of research related to fair housing issues. by a research team comprised of several relevant stakeholders. The research team, comprised of several relevant stakeholders, [...]

IV. THE EEOC'S SYSTEMIC LITIGATION The three case studies discussed above illustrate the variety of types of injunctive relief obtained by the EEOC during our study period. One could find [...]

Like all long political years, the year 2014 did not begin on January 1st; rather, 2014politically began at the end of May with the Taksim events. Nevertheless, the year may end on an optimistic note. It could be said that, unless the date of the upcoming general elections change, the long political year of 2014 will extend to June 2015. Had the government been overthrown by the police-judiciary coup in December 17th., Turkey would have been sentenced to a neo-tutelage regime for many years to come. The first phase of the tripartite elections race in Turkey ended with Erdogans victory. The upcoming presidential elections in August 2014 will be the second phase. The March 30 elections clearly demonstrated that the AK Party will continue to play an important part in Turkey's political scene for years to come., Some political years are longer than others. Turkey witnesses a long political year every decade or so. The first half of the 19th century had several of these long political [...]

I. Introduction II. Intervention in Domestic Affairs III. Recognition IV. Diplomacy V. Relational Contract Theory VI. International Law and Mass Atrocities VII. Conclusion I. Introduction The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) [...]

Attorneys' fees fuel litigation, yet little is known about fees. Fee data are rarely available in the United States or in English rule, loser-pays jurisdictions. This Article analyzes fee awards [...]

ABSTRACT With increasing frequency, many important revenue laws, such as the Affordable Care Act and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, begin as "shell bills. " The Origination Clause [...]

B. Deviations from the Gatekeeper Ideal The analysis above paints a rosy portrait of the myriad ways an ideal agency vested with a full set of wholesale or retail gatekeeper [...]

Abstract This Article evaluates Congress' constitutional authority to resurrect the "compelling state interest" test in the context of local zoning and landmark ordinances that impose a substantial burden on religious [...]

The constitutional justification for the principle of legality has been transformed. Its original basis in a positive claim about authentic legislative intention has been repudiated. Statutes today are so far-reaching [...]

ABSTRACT The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has exclusive jurisdiction over patent appeals and, as a consequence, the last word on many legal issues important to innovation [...]

Whereas Congress has increasingly turned to administrative agencies to regulate complex technical areas, the patent system has remarkably remained an outlier. In the patent arena, the judiciary--not a federal agency--is [...]

On 7 October 1970 the Department of External Affairs issued the following press release: A steel spiked gate, a dingy corridor and a blue cubicle separate the operations centre from [...]

China's involvement in Latin America has grown steadily over the past decade but there are a number of constraints on the role of the People's Liberation Army that prevents it [...]

"Overlapping jurisdictions"--the theme of this symposium--is at the heart of some of the most volatile issues that arise under the First Amendment and attendant federal and state statutes guaranteeing religious [...]

In any given metropolitan region, scores of municipalities are locked in a zero-sum struggle for mobile sources of jobs and tax revenue. This competition appears to benefit small, homogeneous suburbs [...]

The beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s placed tremendous strain on the Food and Drug Administration, regulator of one quarter of the domestic US economy and protector of the nation's drug supply. Much has already been written on the AIDS epidemic, and this body of literature continues to expand, but careful consideration of this subject matter is of crucial significance to understanding the interaction between regulatory agencies, the executive branch, industry, and the public. Periodically, the FDA has gone through phases in which various priorities dominated. At one point or another it has distinguished itself as a regulatory agency, law enforcement agency, and science agency, depending on the political party in power, the ideology of the FDA Commissioner, and the influence of external stakeholders. The AIDS epidemic, which gave rise to a new and robust coalition of AIDS activists, reformers, and libertarians, tested the agency's institutional identity. To some commentators, the FDA's management of the AIDS crisis was a serious blunder, akin to the Reagun administration's failure. This paper contends, however, that despite the absence of presidential leadership, the FDA succeeded in rising to the challenge of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s by refashioning its existing regulatory rules, reaching out to the AIDS movement and the pharmaceutical industry, and maintaining its strong commitment to consumer protection. Le debut de l'epidemie du sida dans les annees 1980 imposa un stress enorme sur la Food and Drug Administration (FDA), agence qui regle un quart de l'economie domestique americaine et qui protege la provision des medicaments de la nation. L'epidemie du sida a deja fait couler beaucoup d'encre et cette bibliographie continue a augmenter. Toutefois, une etude soigneuse de ce sujet est d'une importance capitale pour comprendre l'interaction entre les agences regulatrices, l'organe executif du gouvernement, l'industrie et le public. Periodiquement, le FDA a traverse des phases qui etaient dominees par des priorites diverses. A un moment donne ou un autre, il a brille en tant qu'agence regulatrice, service charge de faire respecter la loi et organisme scientifique selon le parti politique au pouvoir, l'ideologie du directeur du FDA et l'influence des actionnaires externes. L'epidemie du sida qui provoqua une nouvelle et vigoureuse coalition d'activistes du sida, de reformateurs et de libertaires, mirent a l'epreuve l'identite institutionnelle de l'agence. Pour certains commentateurs, la gestion par le FDA de la crise du sida fut un gachis considerable analogue au fiasco de l'administration Reagan. Dans cette analyse, nous pretendons qu'en depit de l'absence de direction presidentielle, le FDA reussit a relever le defi de l'epidemie du sida dans les annees 1980 en refaconnant ses statuts existants, en approchant le mouvement sideen et l'industsrie pharmaceutique tout en maintenant son engagement serieux a proteger le public., While there has been much effort to refocus the FDA toward patients the past eight years, there has been relative silence from one man: Ronald Reagan. Wall Street Journal, 13 [...]

In the early 1990s, the disintegration of the Soviet Union led to concerns about proliferation, including fears about the spread of nuclear weapons expertise. The splintering of the Soviet nuclear [...]

In the work of intelligence, heroes are undecorated and unsung, often even among their own fraternity. Their inspiration is rooted in patriotism; their reward can be little except the conviction [...]

We are in the midst of a global financial crisis that is now weighing heavily on economies around the world. Although the outlook remains extremely uncertain, both the fragility of [...]

There is no doubt that the global image of the United States is not what it once was. Over the past eight years, the Bush Administration's foreign policies--Iraq, the war [...]

The basic strategic problems confronting the U.S. Navy during the interwar years of the 1920s and 1930s were how to move a large fleet across the Pacific, absorb or avoid [...]

Since the attack on Khobar Towers in June 1996, the Department of Defense (DoD) has made significant improvements in protecting its service members, mainly in deterring, disrupting and mitigating terrorist [...]

Although Africa has long been a low strategic priority for the United States, Washington now has a sharp and pronounced strategic interest in protecting access to rich reserves of sub-Saharan [...]

The October 2007 initial deployment of the Africa Partnership Station (APS) to the Gulf of Guinea and the coincident rollout of A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower signaled a [...]

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL, BARACK OBAMA PROMISED to bring change to Washington and a post-partisan, non-ideological approach to governing. In his first post-election press conference on November 7, he reiterated [...]

FOUR YEARS AGO, I LEFT SILICON VALLEY TO accept a presidential appointment as a White House fellow. After undergoing months of interviews and obtaining a top-secret security clearance, I moved [...]

ONE OF THE PUZZLES OF OUR AGE IS WHY AMERICANS distrust their own government so deeply. Against the inescapable and well-publicized cases of failure by the federal government must be [...]

ILLINOIS SENATOR EVERETT DIRKSEN OBSERVED 50 years ago, 'The first task of every politician is to get right with Lincoln.' As the inauguration of President Barack Obama converges with the [...]

When UN Secretary General Kofi Annan delivered his annual address to the General Assembly in 1999, he bluntly reminded the gathered heads of state of the UN's failure to act [...]

The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunization reports to the Director-General of WHO on issues ranging from vaccine research and development to immunization delivery. Its remit extends to [...]

Teacher-librarians, in addition to managing the application inventory on school computers, are often given the task of controlling computer access. Without specific education in online safety and security issues, putting [...]

A. National Legislation 1. Seychelles (a) Maritime Zones (Baselines) Order, 2008 (S.I. 88 of 2008) (1) In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 3 of the Maritime Zones Act [...]

Resolution 1874 (2009) Adopted by the Security Council at its 6141st meeting, on 12 June 2009 The Security Council, Recalling its previous relevant resolutions, including resolution 825 (1993), resolution 1540 [...]

Status of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of the Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the Convention and of the Agreement for [...]

Respiratory distress syndrome, resulting from the deficiency of endogenous surfactant, remains a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in preterm infants. Exogenous surfactant replacement therapy is one of the most widely researched areas in neonatal medicine and is now accepted as the standard of care for preventing and treating respiratory distress syndrome in these newborns. Exogenous surfactant replacement therapy has evolved in the past three decades, but controversies still exist as to the choice of preparation (i.e., is one better than the others?), dosing and volume of individual preparations, and cost. At present, animal-derived surfactants that contain proteins appear to be the choice of most clinicians; however, they may have the limitation of being derived from animal sources. This has prompted the development of newer synthetic surfactants such as lucinactant (Surfaxin[trademark], Discovery Laboratories, PA, USA), which contains the protein B mimic synthetic peptide, sinapultide. Although it is not yet commercially available or approved for clinical use by regulatory authorities, recent Phase III clinical trials with lucinactant demonstrated promising results with similar efficacy to animal-derived surfactants whilst avoiding the disadvantage associated with animal products. The availability of such a surfactant in large amounts at a relatively lower production cost should also prompt further investigations regarding expanded use of surfactants in conditions other than neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, such as meconium aspiration syndromes and pneumonia, and as a vehicle for administering drugs directly to the lungs. There are also some developments towards making aerosolized forms of surfactant, which could be administered noninvasively, thus obviating the need for endotracheal intubation and its associated complications. The purpose of this article is to provide an appraisal of the recent advances in surfactant replacement therapy and its future developments., Author(s): Mithilesh K Lal [sup.1] , Sunil K Sinha [sup.[[dagger]]] [sup.2] Keywords: Keywords prematurity; respiratory distress syndrome; surfactant; surfactant replacement therapy Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) still remains a major cause [...]