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The 113th Congress has a record number of racial and ethnic minorities serving on Capitol Hill. Using the 2008 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES), we examine what this increased descriptive representation of racial minorities means for legislative responsiveness and citizen-representative communication in the U.S. House. We argue that descriptive representation will improve the constituent-legislator relationship across racial groups, but that shared race should matter more for blacks and Latinos as racial minorities unaccustomed to legislative responsiveness. Our findings follow these expectations and suggest that the presence or lack of descriptive representation is an integral part of how citizens experience representation in the U.S. House. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2008 election marked an end to the longstanding gap in the level of black and white voter turnout, offering further evidence that minority empowerment affects voter turnout. In this article, the authors move beyond a dyadic conceptualization of empowerment and argue that the level of descriptive representation within the legislative body as a whole is crucial to understanding how context affects voter turnout. They find African Americans and Latinos are more likely to vote when residing in states with increased descriptive representation in the state legislature measured by the percentage of black or Latino lawmakers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Direct democracy has been shown to increase the number and diversity of interest groups in American states, but no research has extended this finding to the individual level. Direct democracy may influence individual joining behavior through three distinct processes: first, by affecting the interest group population in a state, direct democracy should increase opportunity for joining. Second, direct democracy opens new policy areas for representation, which may increase the scope and level of political conflict and draw in new participants. Third, by providing more opportunities for involvement in policymaking, direct democracy may create a more engaged citizenry, spurring the joining of groups. We utilize data from the pooled General Social Survey merged with statelevel measures of the presence and use of the initiative process. Using multilevel modeling to test the initiative's effect on individual joining behavior, we find that the initiative does indeed foster greater levels of group membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deals with a study which described the performance of laparoscopic splenectomy at the Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1992. Indications for laparoscopic splenectomy; Complications of surgical procedures; Number of conversions to open splenectomy according to individual surgeon's experience.

Background: Cholecystectomy is now being performed on an outpatient basis at many centers. The purpose of this study was to review the results of our large experience with this procedure.Methods: Between 1990 and 1997, 2288 patients underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy at our clinic. A total of 847 (37%) were scheduled as outpatients. The selection criteria for planned outpatient laparoscopic cholecystectomy called for nonfrail patients with an ASA < 4 who were living < 2 h from the hospital. All patients received detailed preoperative instruction about outpatient laparoscopic cholecystectomy. A questionnaire was sent to 309 patients to sample their opinions.Results: Since 1993, we have increased the number of planned outpatient cholecystectomies performed at our clinic, but the percentage of cholecystectomies completed on an outpatient basis has remained approximately 60%. A total of 547 of 847 operations scheduled as outpatient procedures (74.5%) were completed as planned, and 204 patients (24%) were kept in the hospital overnight. Twenty-seven (3%) were converted to open procedures. Eighteen laparoscopic patients (2%) stayed > 1 day (range, 2-20). None of the patients died. Of the 142 patients (46%) who completed our opinion survey, 66% were happy with their experience, 32% would like to have stayed in the hospital, and 2% were undecided.Conclusion: Successful same-day surgery requires proper patient instruction, appropriate patient selection, and a low threshold to convert patients to inpatient status when the situation warrants. No major complications occurred as a result of same-day discharge, and two-thirds of the patients said that they preferred outpatient surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]