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Acting Cabinet Secretaries and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment
Get PDFThe Twenty-Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution contains a mechanism that enables the Vice President, with the support of a majority of the Cabinet, to temporarily relieve the President of the powers and duties of the Presidency. The provision has never been invoked, but was actively discussed by multiple Cabinet Secretaries in response to President Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021. News reports indicate that at least two Cabinet Secretaries—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin—tabled these discussions in part due to uncertainties about how to operationalize the Amendment. Specifically, the Secretaries were concerned that the text of the Amendment did not specify whether Acting Cabinet Secretaries (of which there were three at the time) should be included in the vote. This Article considers that question in light of both the commonlaw and Supreme Court of the United States precedent, concluding that Acting Secretaries should indeed be counted. However, the Article also highlights the political risks caused by the text’s ambiguity and proposes a legislative solution to sidestep the issue
Going the Extra Mile: Expanding the Promoting Affordable Housing Near Transit Act
Get PDFThe Promoting Affordable Housing Near Transit Act (“Act”), introduced in Congress in June 2021 and signed into law six months later, proposes a goal of balancing the disproportionately-high costs of housing and transportation felt by lower-income families by combining these resources in one project: transit-oriented housing developments. Middle-income and wealthy suburbanites have ready access to cities by car, but lower-income urbanites lack access to the suburbs without a private vehicle. While the goal of the Act recognizes this disparate outcome, the Act’s failure to include expansion of mass transit into the suburbs will continue to restrict low-income minorities to urban centers, failing to do more than place a band-aid on a decades-long issue. As jobs increasingly move to the suburbs, placing affordable housing in those areas and creating a transit option for urban dwellers offers a more equitable choice in housing for low-income households. The Act should be amended to require expansion of mass transportation into the suburbs, creating an interconnected system between cities, the suburbs, and suburban neighborhoods. The goal of this Comment is to take the techniques employed in two of the nation’s best transit cities and combine them with the affordability focus of the Act, leading to positive economic development that includes low-income households.
The issue of limited affordable housing is multidimensional, requiring a correspondingly complex solution for this historic problem. Thus, the focus of this Comment touches on just one problematic environment and one potential solution. This Comment uses major metropolitan cities and their surrounding suburbs as the basis of analysis, not to the exclusion of other localities but in recognition of the unsuitability of a one-size-fits-all solution.
It is also important to note here that while the focus of the divide in this Comment is on socioeconomic status and not race, the two are inextricably linked. The history of racial segregation in the United States contributes to the disparity between the racial makeup of the country and of its socioeconomic classes. As you will see, many of the facially socioeconomic decisions made in the last century act as a mask for racially motivated animus. While the examples and solutions provided in this Comment do not focus on the racial disparity in these developments, it must be understood that these implications always lurk beneath the surface. Part I of this Comment will give a brief overview of the history of residential segregation in the United States and how transportation policies contributed to the concentration of poverty in one area, namely urban city centers. This historical overview focuses on mid-twentieth century America, specifically during the post-World War II era where housing subsidies became more abundant and, increasingly, a covert form of discrimination. This Part concludes by discussing why public transportation has failed to make its way to the suburbs and why its expansion into these areas is necessary for the Act’s success.
Part II expounds upon the particulars of the Act and its proposed implementation in the current transportation and housing framework. Finally, Part III offers examples of successful transit-oriented development projects and suggestions of how expansion into the suburbs and multimodal transportation options can cement the Act’s success. This Part proposes amending the Act to mandate that federal transit projects affected by the Act include transportation expansion into the suburbs. While the Act in its current form does not exclude the suburbs from transit development, neither does it set forth an objective to promote it. Because most mass transit exists in major metropolitan areas, the Act should demand inclusion of the suburbs in these new developments to help bridge the divide between urban and suburban communities. Lastly, this Part addresses critiques of current approaches to the housing shortage, such as mixed-income communities, and articulates why the proposals in. this Comment can mitigate some of these concerns
Alexander Forrester\u27s Chancery Reports
Get PDFThis is a new edition of Alexander Forrester\u27s Chancery reports. It is based upon the best manuscript copy that has survived, Lincoln\u27s Inn MSS. Misc. 52 and Misc. 54, and the first printed edition. The edition that was first published in 1741 included only the cases from 1732 to 1739. Compared to the copy in Lincoln\u27s Inn, they are not much different in quality from each other. The cases in the 1741 edition are the basis for this edition as far as they go. The learned apparatus of the third edition by John Griffith Williams (d. 1799) has not been reprinted here, as it is easily accessible elsewhere..
Human genetic history on the Tibetan Plateau in the past 5100 years
No full textUsing genome-wide data of 89 ancient individuals dated to 5100 to 100 years before the present (B.P.) from 29 sites across the Tibetan Plateau, we found plateau-specific ancestry across plateau populations, with substantial genetic structure indicating high differentiation before 2500 B.P. Northeastern plateau populations rapidly showed admixture associated with millet farmers by 4700 B.P. in the Gonghe Basin. High genetic similarity on the southern and southwestern plateau showed population expansion along the Yarlung Tsangpo River since 3400 years ago. Central and southeastern plateau populations revealed extensive genetic admixture within the plateau historically, with substantial ancestry related to that found in southern and southwestern plateau populations. Over the past ~700 years, substantial gene flow from lowland East Asia further shaped the genetic landscape of present-day plateau populations. The high-altitude adaptive EPAS1 allele was found in plateau populations as early as in a 5100-year-old individual and showed a sharp increase over the past 2800 years
Bone Biology: From a to Zebrafish Authors and reviewers
No full textEven though humans look different from other animals like fish, birds, or snakes, we all have a skeleton that gives our bodies shape, protects our internal organs from harm, and helps us move. Animals with a skeleton and a backbone are called vertebrates. Because all skeletons are built from bones, scientists can learn a lot about human bones by studying them in other vertebrates, including fish. Zebrafish are one vertebrate used by scientists to study how bones are made, age, and are repaired by the body. One cool fact about zebrafish is that they can regrow their tails, including the bones, if they get bitten off by another fish. Scientists can also use zebrafish to learn how new medicines can maintain bone health, or how to fix bones after an accident or disease. In this article, we will discuss how scientists can work with zebrafish to learn about bone biology and health
Building the next generation of virtual cells to understand cellular biology
No full textCell science has made significant progress by focusing on understanding individual cellular processes through reductionist approaches. However, the sheer volume of knowledge collected presents challenges in integrating this information across different scales of space and time to comprehend cellular behaviors, as well as making the data and methods more accessible for the community to tackle complex biological questions. This perspective proposes the creation of next-generation virtual cells, which are dynamic 3D models that integrate information from diverse sources, including simulations, biophysical models, image-based models, and evidence-based knowledge graphs. These virtual cells would provide statistically accurate and holistic views of real cells, bridging the gap between theoretical concepts and experimental data, and facilitating productive new collaborations among researchers across related fields
Myo19 tethers mitochondria to endoplasmic reticulum-associated actin to promote mitochondrial fission
Get PDFMitochondrial homeostasis requires a dynamic balance of fission and fusion. The actin cytoskeleton promotes fission, and we found that the mitochondrially localized myosin, myosin 19 (Myo19), is integral to this process. Myo19 knockdown induced mitochondrial elongation, whereas Myo19 overexpression induced fragmentation. This mitochondrial fragmentation was blocked by a Myo19 mutation predicted to inhibit ATPase activity and strong actin binding but not by mutations predicted to affect the working stroke of the motor that preserve ATPase activity. Super-resolution imaging indicated a dispersed localization of Myo19 on mitochondria, which we found to be dependent on metaxins. These observations suggest that Myo19 acts as a dynamic actin-binding tether that facilitates mitochondrial fragmentation. Myo19-driven fragmentation was blocked by depletion of either the CAAX splice variant of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)- anchored formin INF2 or the mitochondrially localized F-actin nucleator Spire1C (a splice variant of Spire1), which together polymerize actin at sites of mitochondria–ER contact for fission. These observations imply that Myo19 promotes fission by stabilizing mitochondria–ER contacts; we used a split-luciferase system to demonstrate a reduction in these contacts following Myo19 depletion. Our data support a model in which Myo19 tethers mitochondria to ER- associated actin to promote mitochondrial fission
News Media Coverage of Childcare: How U.S. Local TV News Framed the Problem Before and During the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic
No full textEarly care and education (ECE), or the care young children receive before entering formal schooling, can take multiple forms and is delivered in different settings, such as a center, church, or public school. Federal and state governments regularly fund ECE programs and policies through the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act (CCDBG). Many families, however, face significant challenges in access, cost, and quality of ECE programs, and ECE professionals report substantial challenges in the workplace (e.g., inadequate training) and beyond (e.g., low wages). Policies addressing issues related to ECE were proposed in 2021, but stalled on the U.S. federal policy agenda. In this study, we examine the ECE content of local television news coverage both for its representations of and for its potential influences on ECE policy agendas. We use data from local stations affiliated with the major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX) in media markets across the U.S., airing before and during the pandemic. We analyze elements of coverage that could affect public recognition of ECE-related issues, including how problems were framed (e.g., news coverage highlighting scandals or adverse events at ECE facilities) and solutions identified (e.g., public policy). We find that during 2018 and 2019, more coverage highlighted scandalous activity than public policy. The reverse was true, however, during the early period of the pandemic (from mid-March through June of 2020). Researchers and health professionals were seldom included in stories in either sample, and very few stories offered context about the benefits of ECE for health and well-being. These coverage patterns have implications for the public’s understanding of ECE policy and the perceived need for reform. Policymakers, advocates, and researchers looking to advance support for ECE should consider ways to use local television news to present health and policy-relevant information to broad segments of the public
Tree of Clarifications: Answering Ambiguous Questions with Retrieval-Augmented Large Language Models
No full textQuestions in open-domain question answering are often ambiguous, allowing multiple interpretations. One approach to handling them is to identify all possible interpretations of the ambiguous question (AQ) and to generate a long-form answer addressing them all, as suggested by Stelmakh et al., (2022). While it provides a comprehensive response without bothering the user for clarification, considering multiple dimensions of ambiguity and gathering corresponding knowledge remains a challenge. To cope with the challenge, we propose a novel framework, Tree of Clarifications (ToC): It recursively constructs a tree of disambiguations for the AQ—via few-shot prompting leveraging external knowledge—and uses it to generate a long-form answer. ToC outperforms existing baselines on ASQA in a few-shot setup across the metrics, while surpassing fully-supervised baselines trained on the whole training set in terms of Disambig-F1 and Disambig-ROUGE. Code is available at https://github.com/gankim/tree-of-clarifications
Sharp Estimates of the Solutions to Bézout’s Polynomial Equation and a Corona Theorem
No full textThe main result of this paper is a corona theorem for the multipliers of a class of de Branges–Rovnyak spaces. A key to this involves estimates for the solutions to the classical Bézout equation that are analogous to Carleson’s solution to the corona theorem