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The U.S. coal industry is in the midst of a transition. Changes in regulation and technological innovation from other fossils and renewables have affected its competitiveness. These could have significant impacts on the labor market where jobs could be lost. In this study, we investigate how changes in employment in the coal industry affect wages in 20 industries in 10 U.S. coal producing states. We assess how these transitions impact welfare programs, since coal producing regions are associated with higher poverty levels. Results show that in the long run, migration of coal workers decreased wages in the construction, manufacturing sectors. Point estimates reveal that an increase in separations of coal workers increase Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) caseloads. In states where coal mining has a smaller contribution to GDP, an increase in coal employment increases SNAP caseloads.

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"This book explores the work of five influential pro-BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) queer academic activists-Sarah Schulman, Jasbir Puar, Angela Davis, Dean Spade, and Judith Butler-each of whom exemplify different ideological and critical practices around anti-Zionism"--

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) engage in less physical activity than typically-developing peers. This can result in serious negative consequences for individual well-being and may contribute to the physical, behavioral, and emotional challenges associated with ASD. This study explored the potential benefits of trainer-led, individualized, physical fitness sessions specialized for ASD. Eleven individuals (ages 7–24 years) with ASD were assessed at baseline and following 15 fitness sessions. Participants demonstrated improvements in core and lower-body strength and reductions in restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, along with non-significant but marked reductions in issues with daytime sleepiness. Results suggest the merit of specialized fitness programs and emphasize the need for larger and more rigorous research studies on this topic. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Contactless services have become a common way for public libraries to provide services. As a result, the strategy used by public libraries in China will effectively stop the spread of epidemics caused by human touch and will serve as a model for other libraries throughout the world. The primary goal of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of the contactless service measures provided by large Chinese public libraries for users in the pandemic era, as well as the challenges and countermeasures for providing such services. The data for this study was obtained using a combination of website investigation, content analysis, and telephone interviews for an analytical survey study of 128 large public libraries in China. The study finds that touch-free information dissemination, remote resources use, no-touch interaction self-services, network services, online reference, and smart services without personal interactions are among the contactless services available in Chinese public libraries. Exploring the current state of contactless services in large public libraries in China will help to fill a need for empirical attention to contactless services in libraries and the public sector. Up-to-date information to assist libraries all over the world in improving their contactless services implementation and practices is provided. © 2022.

We present high-precision measurements of elliptic, triangular, and quadrangular flow v2, v3, and v4, respectively, at midrapidity for identified hadrons π, p, K, φ, Ks, Λ as a function of centrality and transverse momentum in Au+Au collisions at the center-of-mass energy sNN=200 GeV. We observe similar vn trends between light and strange mesons which indicates that the heavier strange quarks flow as strongly as the lighter up and down quarks. The number-of-constituent-quark scaling for v2, v3, and v4 is found to hold within statistical uncertainty for 0-10%, 10-40%, and 40-80% collision centrality intervals. The results are compared to several viscous hydrodynamic calculations with varying initial conditions, and could serve as an additional constraint to the development of hydrodynamic models. © 2022 American Physical Society.

M dwarfs are favorable targets for exoplanet detection with current instrumentation, but stellar companions can induce false positives and inhibit planet characterization. Knowledge of stellar companions is also critical to our understanding of how binary stars form and evolve. We have therefore conducted a survey of stellar companions around nearby M dwarfs, and here we present our new discoveries. Using the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument at the 4.3 m Lowell Discovery Telescope, and the similar NN-EXPLORE Exoplanet Stellar Speckle Imager at the 3.5 m WIYN telescope, we carried out a volume-limited survey of M-dwarf multiplicity to 15 parsecs, with a special emphasis on including the later M dwarfs that were overlooked in previous surveys. Additional brighter targets at larger distances were included for a total sample size of 1070 M dwarfs. Observations of these 1070 targets revealed 26 new companions; 22 of these systems were previously thought to be single. If all new discoveries are confirmed, then the number of known multiples in the sample will increase by 7.6%. Using our observed properties, as well as the parallaxes and 2MASS K magnitudes for these objects, we calculate the projected separation, and estimate the mass ratio and component spectral types, for these systems. We report the discovery of a new M-dwarf companion to the white dwarf Wolf 672 A, which hosts a known M-dwarf companion as well, making the system trinary. We also examine the possibility that the new companion to 2MASS J13092185-2330350 is a brown dwarf. Finally, we discuss initial insights from the POKEMON survey. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly altered the world as we know it. Service delivery for the instrumental evaluation of dysphagia in hospitalized patients has been significantly impacted. In many institutions, instrumental assessment was halted or eliminated from the clinical workflow, leaving clinicians without evidence-based gold standards to definitively evaluate swallowing function. The aim of this study was to describe the outcomes of an early, but measured return to the use of instrumental dysphagia assessment in hospitalized patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data was extracted via a retrospective medical record review on all patients on whom a swallowing consult was placed. Information on patient demographics, type of swallowing evaluation, and patient COVID status was recorded and analyzed. Statistics on staff COVID status were also obtained. Over the study period, a total of 4482 FEES evaluations and 758 MBS evaluations were completed. During this time, no staff members tested COVID-positive due to workplace exposure. Results strongly support the fact that a measured return to instrumental assessment of swallowing is an appropriate and reasonable clinical shift during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Drawing on samples from Canada, Pakistan, China, the US, and Brazil comprising over 800 employees, we examined whether servant leaders (SL) - characterized as putting the needs of others above their own - promote employees’ well-being via autonomous motivation, accounting for employees’ power distance and collectivism values as moderating variables. Autonomous motivation, a type of self-regulation, sustains one’s well-being. Personal values facilitate one’s work behaviors cross-culturally. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) results confirmed matrix invariance of all the measures. The path and moderation analyses result using multilevel structural equation modeling (SEM) supported the positive direct and indirect paths among SL, autonomous motivation, and psychological well-being across the five cultures; Collectivistic value negatively moderated the relationship between servant leadership and autonomous motivation across the Chinese and US samples. In addition, with only a limited number of items, measurements of SL and vitality achieved scalar invariance. ANOVA test results also confirmed the significant comparative differences in these two variables among the cultural groups. Findings in this research provided robust and empirical support for the motivational effects of the servant leadership theory across the globe. Theoretical and practical implications for evidence-based cross-cultural management practices and future directions for leadership training in diverse cultural contexts are discussed.

The origin of the term “social work” has long been misattributed to the 1907 work of economist Simon Patten. While Patten’s contribution to social work is important, though mostly forgotten, the term had been used long before regarding the work of nuns and settlement workers. Quoting archival and historical findings, this article traces the origin, evolution, and widespread use of the term “social work.” The words of the early founders of social work are utilized to tell the story of how the work of persons doing “the social work” of the church or settlement evolved into the name of the profession. These shifts in terminology in social work’s early history have influenced the subsequent direction of the field up to the present day. © 2022, Western Michigan University. All rights reserved.

Pharmaceutical products, including active pharmaceutical ingredients and inactive ingredients such as packaging materials, have raised significant concerns due to their persistent input and potential threats to human and environmental health. Discourse on reducing pharmaceutical waste and subsequent pollution is often limited, as information about the toxicity of pharmaceuticals in humans is yet to be fully established. Nevertheless, there is growing awareness about ecotoxicity, and efforts to curb pharmaceutical pollution in the European Union (EU), United States (US), and Canada have emerged along with waste disposal and treatment procedures, as well as growing concerns about impacts on human and animal health, such as through antimicrobial resistance. Yet, the outcomes of such endeavors are often disparate and involve multiple agencies, organizations, and departments with little evidence of cooperation, collaboration, or oversight. Environmental health disparities occur when communities exposed to a combination of poor environmental quality and social inequities experience more sickness and disease than wealthier, less polluted communities. In this paper, we discuss pharmaceutical environmental pollution in the context of health disparities and examine policies across the US, EU, and Canada in minimizing environmental pollution.

Lyonsia hyalina Conrad possesses “radial mantle glands” of a complex structure located deep within the periostracal groove. They occur along the mantle edge in alignment with slightly raised striations of the periostracum, are deeply staining and are composed of three cell types. Secretory and supportive cells, which are flask-shaped, alternate throughout the gland, while a third cell type is ovoid and borders the gland. A sulfated mucopolysaccharide is secreted over the periostracum by the glands and functions in adhesion of sand grains to the shell.

We report the results of a study with proton-induced X-ray emissions (PIXE) of the distribution and concentration of 15 chemical elements (Na to Sr in periodic chart) in four microstructural and two mineralogical regions of shell of rapidly growing adult oysters [Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin)]. Hatchery-raised oysters were grown in Broadkill Estuary, Delaware, USA, for 16 wk in summer 1978. Their valve edges were filed as a marker, and the oysters were replaced in the estuary, where they grew rapidly. Shell deposited after marking had a normal microstructure and mineralogy after a narrow zone of disturbance. After 17 d oysters were sacrificed, and different mineralogical and microstructural regions of valves of three oysters, and parts of valves of two oysters, were analyzed for the elements Na to Sr. Quadrats (2.5 × 0.45 mm) included three calcitic groups (prismatic, foliated, chalky) and one aragonitic (myostracal) microstructural group; four quadrats were on the exterior and five on the interior of right and left valves. Inhalant and exhalant margins of valves and ground right and left valves of one oyster were also analyzed. Elemental chemistry of different regions of shell varied among the three microstructural groups within the single calcitic polymorph, between aragonitic and calcitic regions, and between exhalant and inhalant margins of the valves. Elements were most concentrated in the prismatic region of the right valve. Element concentrations were similar in ground right and left valves, except for higher levels of Si, Fe, and Zn in the right valve (corresponding to their high contents in prismatic shell) and of Cl in the left valve (reflecting high concentration in chalky shell, abundant in this valve). Na, Mg, Cl, Cr, Cu, Zn and Br were more concentrated in prismatic than in foliated shell. Chalky shell contained higher concentrations of Na than did prismatic shell, and high concentrations (but lower than in prismatic shell) of Mg, Cl, Ti, Mn, Fe, Zn and Br. Element concentration in myostracum was approximately the same as, or lower than, in foliated shell, except for Sr, which was higher than that in any other shell group. In the right valve most elements were concentrated in inhalant margins, and on the left valve, in exhalant margins. With increased weathering of the exterior surface of prismatic shell, Mg, Si, and Mn increased in concentration and Na, Al, Cl, Ti, Cr, Fe, Br, and Sr decreased.

A freshwater bioprobe, combining the Asiatic Clam, Corbicula fluminea (Müller) and the laser microprobe mass spectrometer (LAMMA), can determine anthropogenic chemical contamination of freshwater systems. Laser generated mass spectra from the periostracal layers of clams contaminated with either a salt, potassium bromide, or an aromatic compound, phenol, produce distinctive mass spectral signatures that are different from uncontaminated clams. Uncontaminated clams have characteristic signatures with distinctive spectral peaks less than m/z 41; while exposed clams have many strong peaks well above this m/z. This freshwater bioprobe, using LAMMA to analyze the surface of clams, can be used as a screening tool for monitoring the water-treatment systems, for determining the source of contaminated baseflow and return flow discharge to streams, and for monitoring the water chemistry of a body of water. This system exploits the facility of using the shell instead of soft tissue with the LAMMA and has potential to detect anthropogenically-derived chemical stress.

Aqueous-phased xenobiotic contaminant exposure can biochemically modify newly generated periostracum of the Asian freshwater bivalve,Corbicula fluminea. Laser-induced desorption of partially polymerized periostracum produces spectra distinguishable from mass spectral images generated from uncontaminated periostracum. Organic xenobiotic contamination putatively impedes full polymerization of the periostracin protein. The detection of the effects of pollution on periostracum by the laser microprobe mass analyzer constitutes a novel bioprobe for the definitive but qualified detection of xenobiotic contamination.

Overall benthic macroinvertebrate biodiversity, along with laternulid density, was higher closer to mangroves but relative infaunal invertebrate dominance increased along a transect that transcended a hummock closer to the mangrove forest, across an open sand fl at, and terminated in another isolated humMock farther from the fringing forest. A population of the anomalodesmatan bivalve Laternula truncata (Lamarck, 1818) was examined in a mangrove sand fl at in Kungkrabaen Bay, Thailand, to determine population size, cohort distribution, and basic relationships with sediment and infaunal macroinvertebrate biodiversity. Relatively high densities of L. truncata were found in muddy sands, often deeply buried in or close to tangled rootlet mats of the mangrove trees Avicennia alba Blume, 1827, and A. marina (Forsskal) Vierhapper, 1907, along isolated mangrove hummocks. They were less common in open areas of the mangrove fl at. This population of L. truncata was relatively evenly distributed across size classes, minus the smallest sizes, suggesting continuous recruitment with a possible loss of recent recruits or recruitment. Overall benthic macroinvertebrate biodiversity, along with laternulid density, was higher closer to mangroves but relative infaunal invertebrate dominance increased along a transect that transcended a hummock closer to the mangrove forest, across an open sand fl at, and terminated in another isolated hummock farther from the fringing forest. A nearby population of L. cf. corrugata (Reeve, 1863) inhabited a distinctly different habitat. Laternula cf. corrugata was shallowly buried and dwelt in the mangrove forest proper among different species of mangroves and in sandier sediments. Behavioural observations of both laternulids indicated that both were capable of reburying, with smaller specimens more rapidly, albeit still slowly, succeeding in full re-entry into the sediment. Larger specimens of L. truncata were incapable of reburial. Morphological, ecological, and behavioural distinctions between L. truncata and L. cf. corrugata are considered in light of their habitat differences, confusion within laternulid systematics, and diffi culty in resolving the taxonomy of the latter species.

Temperature is a determinant environmental variable in metabolic rates of organisms ultimately influencing important physiological and behavioural features. Stressful conditions such as increasing temperature, particularly within high ranges occurring in the summer, have been suggested to induce flotation behaviour in Corbicula fluminea which may be important in dispersal of this invasive species. However, there has been no experimental evidence supporting this hypothesis. It was already proven that C. fluminea drift is supported by a mucilaginous drogue line produced by mucocytes present in the ctenidia. Detailed microscopic examination of changes in these cells and quantification of clam flotation following one, two and three weeks of exposure to 22, 25 and 30°C was carried out so that the effects of increasing water temperatures in dispersal patterns could be discussed. Results show that changes in temperature triggered an acceleration of the mucocytes production and stimulated flotation behaviour, especially following one week of exposure. Dilution of these effects occurred following longer exposure periods. It is possible that these bivalves perceive changing temperature as a stress and respond accordingly in the short-term, and then acclimate to the new environmental conditions. The response patterns suggest that increasing water temperatures could stimulate C. fluminea population expansion.

The Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) market has become an increasingly important vehicle for alternative investment for equity investors. While existing research examining the cross-section of REIT returns usually employs standard risk factors in the in-sample models, it can only show the ex-post performance of REIT portfolios. The goal of our paper is to examine the ex-ante performance of REIT portfolios (i.e., the ability of investors to earn abnormal returns in real time). We employ the out-of-sample methodology of Cooper, Gutierrez, and Marcum (2005), and show that ex-ante performance of REIT portfolios is rather weak. For about half of our 19-year sample over the period of 1999 to 2017, the portfolio performances of REITs chosen ex-ante do not beat the performances of the FTSE-NAREIT or the CRSP Equal-Weighted index. After adjusting for transaction costs, the REIT portfolios significantly further underperform their benchmarks. Overall, our findings suggest that the market is relatively efficient in the REIT sector, and it is difficult for investors to devise trading strategies that improve the ex-ante performance of REIT portfolios, based on standard risk factors.