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Zuckerberg Facebook post celebrating Facebook\u27s 20 year anniversary with a montage of Facebook\u27s history
No full textQuaternary Ammonia Compounds in Disinfectant Products: Evaluating the Potential for Promoting Antibiotic Resistance and Disrupting Wastewater Treatment Plant Performance
Get PDFQuaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) are a class of compounds that were widely used as disinfectants during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to be used as disinfecting agents. After consumer usage, QAC concentrations are diluted in wastewater as they enter wastewater treatment plants. At sub-inhibitory concentrations, QACs may have unintended repercussions, including increased antibiotic resistance and inhibition of process performance in wastewater treatment plants. This review first summarizes how QACs inhibit bacteria and then highlights the mechanisms by which QACs can promote antibiotic resistance in general. Reported environmental concentrations of QACs are compared to concentrations that are suspected to impact antibiotic resistance, and the role QACs may have on antibiotic resistance proliferation in wastewater treatment is addressed. Finally, the specific impacts that QACs can have on biological wastewater processes (activated sludge and anaerobic digestion) are reviewed. We highlight key research gaps along with recommendations for future research. Of particular interest, research is needed to elucidate the relationship between the chemical structure of QACs and impacts on antibiotic resistance as well as process performance in wastewater treatment plants. Finally, the ability to mitigate (reverse) these impacts if QACs are removed needs to be determined
Environmental Drivers Impact the Accumulation and Diversity of Antibiotic Resistance in Green Stormwater Infrastructure
No full textAntibiotic resistance poses an urgent public health concern, with the environment playing a crucial role in the development and dissemination of resistant bacteria. There is a growing body of research indicating that stormwater is a significant source and transport vector of resistance elements. This research sought to characterize the role of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI), designed for stormwater infiltration, in accumulating and propagating antibiotic resistance in the urban water cycle. Sampling included 24 full-scale GSI systems representing three distinct types of GSI - bioswales, bioretention cells, and constructed wetlands. The results indicated that GSI soils accumulate antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) at elevated concentrations compared to nonengineered soils. Bioretention cells specifically harbored higher abundances of ARGs, suggesting that the type of GSI influences ARG accumulation. Interestingly, ARG diversity in GSI soils was not impacted by the type of GSI design or the diversity of the microbial community and mobile genetic elements. Instead, environmental factors (catchment imperviousness, metals, nutrients, and salts) were identified as significant drivers of ARG diversity. These findings highlight how environmental selective pressures in GSI promote ARG persistence and proliferation independently of the microbial community. Therefore, GSI systems have the potential to be a substantial contributor of abundant and diverse ARGs to the urban water cycle
Fostering Flexibility: How Medicare Advantage Potentially Accelerated Telehealth Benefits
No full textIn 2018, the US Congress enacted a policy permitting Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to cover telehealth services in a beneficiary’s home and through audio-only means as part of the basic benefit package of services, where prior to the policy change such benefits were only allowed to be covered as a supplemental benefit. MA plans were afforded 2years of lead time for strategizing, negotiating, and capital investment prior to the start date (January 1, 2020) of the new coverage option. Our data analysis found basic benefit telehealth was offered by plans comprising 71% of enrollment in 2020 and increased to 95% in 2021. At the same time, remote access telehealth was offered as a supplemental benefit for 69% of enrollees in 2020, a decrease of 23% compared to 2019. These efforts by MA plans may have enabled traditional Medicare (TM) to leverage an existing telehealth infrastructure as a solution to the access issues created by public health policies requiring sheltering in place and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The success of this MA policy prompts consideration of additional flexibility beyond the standard basic benefit package, and whether such benefits reduce costs while improving access and/or outcomes in the context of a managed care environment like MA. Subject to oversight, such flexibility could potentially improve value in MA, and facilitate future changes in TM, as appropriate
Mitigating Organizational Conspiracy Beliefs Through Strategic Internal Communication and Employee–Organization Relationships (EOR) in the Workplace
No full textThe purpose of this study is to explore how strategic internal communication and the quality of employee – organization relationship (EOR) can reduce organizational conspiracy beliefs among employees and thus prevent the negative outcomes thereof in the workplace. Using a national survey (N = 810) of full-time employees in the United States, this study found that high-quality EOR based on two-way symmetrical communication with employees is likely to reduce the potential for conspiracy theories and, in turn, for turnover intentions in the workplace. This finding provides meaningful insight into how internal communication managers can mitigate negative employee outcomes that are closely associated with organizational conspiracy theories in the workplace, namely by practicing strategic internal communication and developing high-quality EOR. This study theoretically advances conspiracy theory research by offering a theoretical explanation for belief systems of conspiracy theories that also considers strategic internal communication and the quality of EOR
No Orthopathy without Orthoaesthesis: On the Necessity of Negative Effort
No full textTheologians have become increasingly attentive to the role emotion and experience must play in theological reflection. Several thinkers have recently done so by appropriating and developing Jon Sobrino’s understanding of orthopathy, or “right affect.” A close examination of these efforts, however, reveals inconsistencies in the way the category is understood and deployed. This article redresses these inconsistencies by complementing orthopathy with orthoaesthesis, or “right perception.” The article opens by considering various appeals to orthopathy before suggesting how William James’s theory of emotion might provide the category with clarifying content. The second stage engages Simone Weil and Iris Murdoch as practitioners of orthoaesthesis. Special attention is given to Murdoch’s “techniques” aimed at transforming how practitioners perceive reality. With Murdoch’s guidance, the article contends that orthopathy is ineluctably bound to and not possible without orthoaesthesis. The article concludes with a constructive proposal to show how orthoaesthesis-orthopathy contributes to a Christian theological anthropology
The Impact of Armed Conflict on Inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): An Analysis of Conflict Over Government, Conflict Over Territory, and FDI
No full textWe examine the relationship between armed conflict and foreign direct investment (FDI) in host countries. With data from 113 nations from 1984 to 2014, system GMM and macro-panel CCEMG estimators show that intrastate armed conflict decreases FDI in conflict-ridden hosts. Further, we distinguish two types of armed conflict – conflict over government and conflict over territory. Conflict over government has significant short-term and long-term negative impacts on FDI, while the effect of territorial conflicts appears insignificant. Our results also suggest that armed conflict\u27s harmful impact on FDI mainly occurs in middle- and low-income host countries
Fostering Flexibility: How Medicare Advantage Potentially Accelerated Telehealth Benefits
No full textIn 2018, the US Congress enacted a policy permitting Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to cover telehealth services in a beneficiary’s home and through audio-only means as part of the basic benefit package of services, where prior to the policy change such benefits were only allowed to be covered as a supplemental benefit. MA plans were afforded 2 years of lead time for strategizing, negotiating, and capital investment prior to the start date (January 1, 2020) of the new coverage option. Our data analysis found basic benefit telehealth was offered by plans comprising 71% of enrollment in 2020 and increased to 95% in 2021. At the same time, remote access telehealth was offered as a supplemental benefit for 69% of enrollees in 2020, a decrease of 23% compared to 2019. These efforts by MA plans may have enabled traditional Medicare (TM) to leverage an existing telehealth infrastructure as a solution to the access issues created by public health policies requiring sheltering in place and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The success of this MA policy prompts consideration of additional flexibility beyond the standard basic benefit package, and whether such benefits reduce costs while improving access and/or outcomes in the context of a managed care environment like MA. Subject to oversight, such flexibility could potentially improve value in MA, and facilitate future changes in TM, as appropriate