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Droughtscape, Winter 2021, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

DroughtScape, Winter 2021

Patterns Of Genetic Divergence Across Geographically Variable Populations Of Xanthisma Gracile (Asteraceae), Lavanya Challagundla, Lisa E. Wallace

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Premise of research. Numerous biotic and abiotic factors can contribute to local selection and lead to geographic structure and genetic divergence between populations. The southwestern United States contains many distinctive plant communities, ranging from woodlands to desert scrub, that are shaped by species adapting to local variation in elevation, precipitation, seasonality, and soils. Given this variation, species occurring across diverse habitats are expected to harbor high genetic diversity and exhibit significant genetic differences associated with environmental variation.

Methodology. Here, we studied the genetic divergence of populations of Xanthisma gracile (Asteraceae) across Arizona using amplified fragment length polymorphisms and evaluated associations …

Recognizing The Role Of Inspectors General In The U.S. Government's Cybersecurity Restructuring Task, Amy Gaudion

Faculty Scholarly Works

Months prior to the 2015 public disclosure of a data breach at the U.S. government’s Office of Personnel and Management (OPM), the Office of the Inspector General for OPM issued a report that identified significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in a number of the agency’s information systems and IT security programs. In response to the 2020 SolarWinds supply chain hack, attributed to Russia, calls are underway for inspectors general to conduct audits and inspections and to review prior inspector general assessments of information systems and vulnerabilities at federal agencies. The use of inspectors general to assess information system vulnerabilities and …

“The Spirit Of Revolution:” The Impact Of Rum On The Formation Of The United States, Charles Streator

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores the impact of rum, be it the distillation, consumption, or trade of it, upon the formation of the American Revolution and the desire of American Colonists for independence. Through the analysis of three distinct subfactors: rum as an economic force, rum as a political tool, and the cultural and societal impacts of the rum trade and its subsequent removal from the American ethos, this project contends that rum as a commodity became a driving factor in the creation of the United States. While much has been written on the roles of stamps, sugar, and tea in the …

The Covid-19 Crisis And The Federal Reserve's Policy Response, Richard H. Clarida, Burcu Duygan-Bump, Chiara Scotti

Documents

No abstract provided.

Latin American Immigrants: A Cry For Liberation, Julio César De León

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

The United States, due to its economic stability and abundant opportunities (among other reasons), has attracted many immigrants from across the globe, but particularly those from Latin America. The reality is that while many immigrate under more favorable circumstances, the majority of Latinos/as (usually the ones most in need) embark on a dangerous journey, overcoming the difficulties they encounter on the way. Although there is great hope in having arrived to the U.S., for those who make it to the other side of the frontier, their suffering often continues as their social status becomes that of undocumented immigrants. Through the …

The Right To Healthcare – Does The Social Doctrine Of The Catholic Church Assist Or Inhibit The Implementation Of Universal Healthcare In The United States?, Leonardo D. Mendoza

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

In recent years, American society has placed an emphasis on the right to healthcare. In the American political arena, the debate over healthcare has caused division between the political left and right. It has created factions within political parties and social movements. The healthcare debate was one of many prominent issues in what is perhaps the most consequential election in modern American history. This paper will focus on the right to healthcare from the perspective of the Catholic Social Tradition. It will evaluate the ways in which the Catholic tradition can influence the public discourse on the right to healthcare …

A Transdisciplinary Analysis Of Just Transition Pathways To 100% Renewable Electricity, Adewale Aremu Adesanya

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The transition to using clean, affordable, and reliable electrical energy is critical for enhancing human opportunities and capabilities. In the United States, many states and localities are engaging in this transition despite the lack of ambitious federal policy support. This research builds on the theoretical framework of the multilevel perspective (MLP) of sociotechnical transitions as well as the concept of energy justice to investigate potential pathways to 100 percent renewable energy (RE) for electricity provision in the U.S. This research seeks to answer the question: what are the technical, policy, and perceptual pathways, barriers, and opportunities for just transition to …

A Management Checklist For Primary Care Practice Mergers, Expansions, Or Acquisitions – Critical Components For Financial Planning, Space And Staffing Management, Training And Start-Up, Tamara El-Amoor

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Rapid Deployment Of A Statewide Covid-19 Echo Program For Frontline Clinicians: Early Results And Lessons Learned., Anna L. Steeves-Reece, Nancy C Elder, Tuesday A Graham, Miriam L Wolf, Isabel Stock, Melinda M Davis, Ronald D Stock

Project ECHO Bibliography

No abstract provided.

Restoration Through Regeneration: An Analysis Of Agriculture In The United States, Rebecca Norine Graham

Capstone Showcase

The industrialization of agriculture in the mid-twentieth century has revolutionized global food systems, with enough food produced annually to sustain 10 billion people on a planet of only 7.8 billion people. Such a high-yielding agricultural system comes at a great cost to the Earth’s ecosystem, as industrialized farming has taken on factory-like production methods. Particularly harmful is the livestock sector, with ruminating animals such as cattle contributing to rising global temperatures and environmental degradation. The environmental destruction caused by industrialized animal agriculture can be halted and ultimately reversed through regenerative agriculture. Regenerative agriculture is a restorative farming practice that promotes …

Anticipating Elite Capture: The Social Devaluation Of Municipal Tap Water Users In The Phoenix Metropolitan Area, Alexandra Brewis, Katie Meehan, Melissa Beresford, Amber Wutich

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Characterizing subcultural models of tap water derived from interviews from 154 respondents in four neighbourhoods in the urban Southwestern United States, we identify sources of public discourses that support and anticipate passive elite capture. In accord with predictions, social devaluation of those who use tap water is situated with residents of a privileged exclusive community sector. This suggests the value of a broader conceptualization and an empirical model of elite capture in water resources: not just as a physical deviation of resources, but also as a discursive devaluation of public resources by specifically elite populations.

Rethinking China Trade Policy: Lessons Learned And Options Ahead, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Looking back at the China trade policy of the Trump administration, the biggest lesson is that unilateralism simply doesn’t work, at least not against a major power like China. Despite the tumultuous two-and-half-year trade war and the Phase 1 deal hailed as an “unprecedented” deal promising “a more balanced trade relationship and a more level playing field for American workers and companies,” there has been little progress on the issues U.S. businesses and the Trump administration objected to in China’s trade and economic policies. It is not only the U.S. government that needs a more viable approach. Many companies would …

Transgender Rights & The Eighth Amendment, Jennifer Levi, Kevin M. Barry

Faculty Scholarship

The past decades have witnessed a dramatic shift in the visibility, acceptance, and integration of transgender people across all aspects of culture and the law. The treatment of incarcerated transgender people is no exception. Historically, transgender people have been routinely denied access to medically necessary hormone therapy, surgery, and other gender-affirming procedures; subjected to cross-gender strip searches; and housed according to their birth sex. But these policies and practices have begun to change. State departments of corrections are now providing some, though by no means all, appropriate care to transgender people, culminating in the Ninth Circuit’s historic decision in Edmo …

Erasing Evidence Of Historic Injustice: The Cannabis Criminal Records Expungement Paradox, Julie E. Steiner

Faculty Scholarship

Cannabis prohibition and its subsequent enforcement have yielded an epic societal tragedy. The decision to criminalize cannabis was a paradigm-shifting moment in legal history because it converted lawful medicinal or intoxicant seeking conduct into criminal activity, inviting government intrusion into matters previously self-controlled.

Scholars increasingly recognize that prohibition was built upon a decades-long, false, media-driven narrative that “marijuana” was one of society’s worst menacing enemies. Using overtly racist propaganda, the narrative successfully captured the audience, fomenting public anxiety and unfairly demonizing cannabis and its users. This misinformation campaign ultimately led to its current status as prohibited under the federal Controlled …

A Snowball Effect: A Pandemic’S Impacts On Household Food Insecurity In The United States, Sidie Sahid Sisay

Dissertations and Theses

Economic insecurity exists whenever income sources are uncertain, and this is a failure of a fundamental human right. The Covid-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented disruptions to the US economy and has created unparalleled food insufficiency and economic hardships. Before the pandemic, household food insufficiency existed but downplayed in the political arena. In 2019, 10.5 percent of households in the US lived in extreme poverty and were food insecure, the lowest since 1959, but the pandemic has had devastating effects on household food insufficiency. This paper uses nationally representative data from the Census Bureau’s weekly household pulse survey, coupled with standard …

On The Joint Role Of Non-Hispanic Black Race/Ethnicity And Weight Status In Predicting Postmenopausal Weight Gain, Christopher N Ford, Shine Chang, Alexis C Wood, Joann E Manson, David O Garcia, Helena Laroche, Chloe E Bird, Mara Z Vitolins

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Objectives: To determine how baseline weight status contributes to differences in postmenopausal weight gain among non-Hispanic Blacks (NHBs) and non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs).

Methods: Data were included from 70,750 NHW and NHB postmenopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study (WHI OS). Body Mass Index (BMI) at baseline was used to classify women as having normal weight, overweight, obese class I, obese class II or obese class III. Cox proportional hazards was used to estimate the hazard of a 10% or more increase in weight from baseline.

Results: In both crude and adjusted models, NHBs were more likely to experience …

Clinical Prediction Rule For Sars-Cov-2 Infection From 116 U.S. Emergency Departments 2-22-2021, Jeffrey A. Kline, Stacey House, Et Al.

Open Access Publications

OBJECTIVES: Accurate and reliable criteria to rapidly estimate the probability of infection with the novel coronavirus-2 that causes the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) and associated disease (COVID-19) remain an urgent unmet need, especially in emergency care. The objective was to derive and validate a clinical prediction score for SARS-CoV-2 infection that uses simple criteria widely available at the point of care.

METHODS: Data came from the registry data from the national REgistry of suspected COVID-19 in EmeRgency care (RECOVER network) comprising 116 hospitals from 25 states in the US. Clinical variables and 30-day outcomes were abstracted from medical records …

Characteristics And Outcomes Among Us Patients Hospitalized For Ischemic Stroke Before Vs During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Adam De Havenon, John P. Ney, Brian Callaghan, Samuel Hohmann, Ernie Shippey, Shadi Yaghi, Mohammad Anadani, Jennifer J. Majersik

Open Access Publications

Importance: After the emergence of COVID-19, studies reported a decrease in hospitalizations of patients with ischemic stroke (IS), but there are little to no data regarding hospitalizations for the remainder of 2020, including outcome data from a large cohort of patients with IS and comorbid COVID-19.

Objective: To assess hospital discharge rates, demographic factors, and outcomes of hospitalization associated with the COVID-19 pandemic among US patients with IS before vs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design, Setting, and Participants: This retrospective cohort study used data from the Vizient Clinical Data Base on 324 013 patients with IS at 478 nonfederal hospitals …

Immunological Findings And Clinical Outcomes Of Infants With Positive Newborn Screening For Severe Combined Immunodeficiency From A Tertiary Care Center In The U.S., Vasudha Mantravadi, Jeffrey J Bednarski, Michelle A Ritter, Hongjie Gu, Ana L Kolicheski, Caroline Horner, Megan A Cooper, Maleewan Kitcharoensakkul

Open Access Publications

The implementation of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) newborn screening has played a pivotal role in identifying these patients early in life as well as detecting various milder forms of T cell lymphopenia (TCL). In this study we reviewed the diagnostic and clinical outcomes, and interesting immunology findings of term infants referred to a tertiary care center with abnormal newborn SCID screens over a 6-year period. Key findings included a 33% incidence of non-SCID TCL including infants with novel variants in

Cost Burden Of Post-Transplant Lymphoproliferative Disease Following Kidney Transplants In Medicare-Eligible Patients By Survival Status, Allyson Hart, Yoon Son Ahn, Crystal Watson, Melissa Skeans, Arie Barlev, Bryn Thompson, Vikas R Dharnidharka

Open Access Publications

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Patients diagnosed with post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD) experience high mortality within the first 2 years of diagnosis; however, few data exist on the economic burden of PTLD in these patients. We determined the healthcare resource utilization (HRU) and cost burden of post-kidney transplant PTLD and evaluated how these differ by survival status.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Utilizing data from the United States Renal Data System and the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, we identified 83,818 Medicare-covered kidney transplant recipients between 2007 and 2016, of which 347 had at least one Medicare claim during the first year after diagnosis …

Risk Factors For Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Regional United States Case-Control Study., Angeline S Andrew, Walter G Bradley, Daniel Peipert, Tanya Butt, Kwadwo Amoako, Erik P Pioro, Rup Tandan, John Novak, Adam Quick, K Doug Pugar, Komal Sawlani, Bashar Katirji, Todd A Hayes, Pamela Cazzolli, Jiang Gui, Paul Mehta, D Kevin Horton, Elijah W Stommel

Ambulatory and Primary Care Articles

Most amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) cases are considered sporadic, without a known genetic basis, and environmental exposures are thought to play a causal role. To learn more about sporadic ALS etiology, we recruited n = 188 ALS patients from northern New England and Ohio and matched controls 2:1 from the general population of the same regions. Questionnaires evaluated the association between a variety of lifestyle, behavioral (ie, hobbies and activities), and occupational factors and the risk of ALS, including the duration of time between exposure and ALS onset, and exposure frequency. Head trauma was associated with increased ALS risk (adjusted …

One Child Town: The Health Care Exceptionalism Case Against Agglomeration Economies, Elizabeth Weeks

Scholarly Works

This Article offers an extended rebuttal to the suggestion to move residents away from dying communities to places with greater economic promise. Rural America, arguably, is one of those dying places. A host of strategies aim to shore up those communities and make them more economically viable. But one might ask, “Why bother?” In similar vein, David Schleicher’s provocative 2017 Yale Law Journal article, Stuck! The Law and Economics of Residential Stagnation urged dismantling a host of state and local government laws operating as barriers to migration by Americans from failing economies to robust agglomeration economies. But Schleicher said little …

The Association Of Pre-Kidney Transplant Dialysis Modality With De Novo Posttransplant Heart Failure, Colin R Lenihan, Sai Liu, Medha Airy, Carl Walther, Maria E Montez-Rath, Wolfgang C Winkelmayer

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) after kidney transplantation is a significant but understudied problem. Pretransplant dialysis modality could influence incident HF risk through differing cardiac stressors. However, whether pretransplant dialysis modality is associated with the development of posttransplant HF is unknown.

METHODS: We used the US Renal Data System to assemble a cohort of 27,701 patients who underwent their first kidney transplant in the USA between the years 2005 and 2012 and who had Medicare fee-for-service coverage for >6 months preceding their transplant date. Patients with any HF diagnosis prior to transplant were excluded. Detailed baseline patient characteristics and comorbidities were …

Prevalence And Factors Associated With Nafld Detected By Vibration Controlled Transient Elastography Among Us Adults: Results From Nhanes 2017–2018, Xiaotao Zhang, Natalia I Heredia, Maya Balakrishnan, Aaron P Thrift

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is increasingly common in the adult population. In the United States, the overall burden of NAFLD is unknown due to challenges with population-level NAFLD detection. The purpose of this study was to estimate prevalence of NAFLD and significant NAFLD fibrosis and identify factors associated with them in the U.S.

METHODS: Data came from the 2017-2018 cycle of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We defined NAFLD by controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) scores of ≥248 dB/m in absence of excessive alcohol use and viral hepatitis. We defined significant fibrosis as Vibration controlled transient elastography (VCTE) …

Alcohol Consumption And The Risk Of Gastric Intestinal Metaplasia In A Us Veterans Population, Hudson M Holmes, Andre G Jove, Mimi C Tan, Hashem B El-Serag, Aaron P Thrift

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Chronic alcohol use is a risk factor for non-cardia gastric adenocarcinoma. However, it is less well understood whether alcohol use is a risk factor for premalignant mucosal changes, namely gastric intestinal metaplasia. We examined the association between various parameters of alcohol use and risk of gastric intestinal metaplasia.

METHODS: We used data from 2084 participants (including 403 with gastric intestinal metaplasia) recruited between February 2008-August 2013 into a cross-sectional study at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston, Texas. All participants underwent a study upper endoscopy with systematic gastric mapping biopsies. Cases had intestinal metaplasia on …

Influenza Vaccination For The Prevention Of Cardiovascular Disease In The Americas: Consensus Document Of The Inter-American Society Of Cardiology And The Word Heart Federation, Álvaro Sosa Liprandi, María Inés Sosa Liprandi, Ezequiel José Zaidel, Gabriel M Aisenberg, Adrián Baranchuk, Eduardo Costa Duarte Barbosa, Gabriela Borrayo Sánchez, Bryce Alexander, Fernando Tomás Lanas Zanetti, Ricardo López Santi, Ana Girleza Múnera-Echeverri, Pablo Perel, Daniel Piskorz, Carlos Enrique Ruiz-Mori, Jorge Saucedo, Osiris Valdez, José Ramón González Juanatey, Daniel José Piñeiro, Fausto J Pinto, Fernando Stuardo Wyss Quintana

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular mortality is decreasing but remains the leading cause of death world-wide. Respiratory infections such as influenza significantly contribute to morbidity and mortality in patients with cardiovascular disease. Despite of proven benefits, influenza vaccination is not fully implemented, especially in Latin America.

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to develop a regional consensus with recommendations regarding influenza vaccination and cardiovascular disease.

METHODS: A multidisciplinary team composed by experts in the management and prevention of cardiovascular disease from the Americas, convened by the Inter-American Society of Cardiology (IASC) and the World Heart Federation (WHF), participated in the process and the formulation of …

The Impact Of The Pandemic And The Fed's Muni Program On Illinois Muni Yields, Robert Bernhardt, Stefania D'Amico, Santiago I. Sordo Palacios

Documents

No abstract provided.

The Eighth Report Of The Congressional Oversight Commission, United States: Congressional Oversight Commission

Documents

No abstract provided.

Ypfs Lessons Learned Oral History Project: An Interview With Claudia Sahm, Claudia Sahm, Mercedes Cardona

Documents

Suggested Citation Form: Sahm, Claudia, 2022. “Lessons Learned Interview by Mercedes Cardona, December 22, 2020.” Yale Program on Financial Stability Lessons Learned Oral History Project. Transcript. https://ypfs.som.yale.edu/library/ypfs-lesson-learned-oral-history-project-interview-claudia-sahm