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Although substantial attention has focused on efforts by the new Administration to block environmental policies, climate politics have been contentious in the US since well before the election of Donald Trump. In this paper, we extend previous work on empirical examinations of echo chambers in US climate politics using new data collected on the federal climate policy network in summer 2016. We test for the similarity and differences at two points in time in homophily and echo chambers using Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM) to compare new findings from 2016 to previous work on data from 2010. We show that echo chambers continue to play a significant role in the network of information exchange among policy elites working on the issue of climate change. In contrast to previous findings where echo chambers centered on a binding international commitment to emission reductions, we find that the pre-existing echo chambers have almost completely disappeared and new structures have formed around one of the main components of the Obama Administration’s national climate policy: the Clean Power Plan. These results provide empirical evidence that science communication and policymaking at the elite level shift in relation to the policy instruments under consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To describe the association between active, environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure and the prevalence of eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD) in the U.S. pediatric population. Study Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: U.S. representative demographic and audiometric data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES);2005–2010. Subjects and Methods: The study consisted of 2,977 children aged 12–19 years. ETD was defined as middle ear pressure <100mm H20. ETS was defined as non-active smoking in individuals with serum cotinine over the limit of detection (≥0.015 ng/mL) and <10 ng/mL(N = 1559). Results: The prevalence of ETD was 6.1%. After multivariate adjustment for age, sex, body mass index, education level, ethnicity, or having a cold, sinus problem or earache during the last 24 hours, compared to unexposed children, the odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of ETD for those exposed to ETS ages 12–15 in the first, second and third tertile of cotinine concentrations were, respectively, 1.38 (0.53–3.60), 0.99 (0.53–3.60) and 2.67 (1.12–6.34). Similarly, the odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of ETD for those exposed to ETS ages 16–19 in the first, second and third tertile of cotinine concentrations were, respectively, 1.28 (0.48–3.41), 0.99 (0.40–2.48) and 2.86 (1.19–6.88). Conclusion: These data suggest that children and adolescents exposed to high concentrations of ETS may have an increased prevalence of ETD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]