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\"The changing economic environment for the consumer that is emerging from the wreckage of the financial credit crunch plays directly into the importance of food spending. This is certainly true from the perspective of food prices in the short run, but also from the perspective of sustainability and reducing the impact of the environmental credit crunch. The economic changes we experience now have a bearing on our ability to manage the environmental credit crunch that looms. Food Policy and the Environmental Credit Crunch: From Soup to Nuts elaborates on the issues addressed in the authors' first book, From Red to Green?, and asks whether the financial credit crunch could ameliorate or exacerbate the emergent environmental credit crunch. The conclusion drawn here is that a significant and positive difference could be made by changing some of the ways in which we procure, prepare, and consume our food. Written by an economist and an investment professional, this book addresses the economic and environmental implications of how we treat food. The book examines each aspect of the 'food chain', from agriculture, to production and processing, retail, preparation, consumption and waste. \"-- Provided by publisher.

Before the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), most children in low-income families were already eligible for public insurance through Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program. Increased coverage observed for these children since the ACA's implementation suggest that the legislation potentially had important spillover or \"welcome mat\" effects on the number of eligible children enrolled. This study used data from the 2013-15 American Community survey to provide the first national-level (analytical) estimates of welcome-mat effects on children's coverage post ACA. We estimated that 710,000 low-income children gained coverage through these effects. The study was also the first to show a link between parents' eligibility for Medicaid and welcome-mat effects for their children under the ACA. Welcome-mat effects were largest among children whose parents gained Medicaid eligibility under the ACA expansion to adults. Public coverage for these children increased by 5.7 percentage points-more than double the 2.7-percentage-point increase observed among children whose parents were ineligible for Medicaid both pre and post ACA. Finally, we estimated that if all states had adopted the Medicaid expansion, an additional 200,000 low-income children would have gained coverage.

The role of the cellular microenvironment in enabling metazoan tissue genesis remains obscure. Ctenophora has recently emerged as one of the earliest-branching extant animal phyla, providing a unique opportunity to explore the evolutionary role of the cellular microenvironment in tissue genesis. Here, we characterized the extracellular matrix (ECM), with a focus on collagen IV and its variant, spongin short-chain collagens, of non-bilaterian animal phyla. We identified basement membrane (BM) and collagen IV in Ctenophora, and show that the structural and genomic features of collagen IV are homologous to those of non-bilaterian animal phyla and Bilateria. Yet, ctenophore features are more diverse and distinct, expressing up to twenty genes compared to six in vertebrates. Moreover, collagen IV is absent in unicellular sister-groups. Collectively, we conclude that collagen IV and its variant, spongin, are primordial components of the extracellular microenvironment, and as a component of BM, collagen IV enabled the assembly of a fundamental architectural unit for multicellular tissue genesis. The emergence of the diversity of multicellular animals involved cells joining together to form tissues and organs. The ‘glue’ that enabled the cells to work together is made of rope-like molecules called collagen, which assemble into scaffolds. These smart scaffolds tether proteins forming basement membranes that connect cells, provide strength to tissues, and transmit information that influences how the cells behave. How did collagen evolve over millions of years to enable the ever-increasing complexity, size and diversity of animals? To investigate, Fidler, Darris, Chetyrkin et al. explored the tissues of the most ancient of currently living animals – the comb jellies and sponges. This revealed that among all the collagens that make up the human body, a type called collagen IV was a key innovation that enabled single celled organisms to evolve into multicellular animals. Collagen IV, as molecular glue, enabled the formation of a fundamental architectural unit of basement membrane and cells that allowed multicellular tissues and organs to evolve. The findings presented by Fidler, Darris, Chetyrkin et al. pose questions about how collagen IV glues cells together, and how information is stored in the rope-like scaffolds to influence cell behavior. Understanding these processes could ultimately lead to the development of new treatments for diseases in which the collagen smart scaffolds play a key role, such as in kidney diseases and cancer.

Basement membrane, a specialized ECM that underlies polarized epithelium of eumetazoans, provides signaling cues that regulate cell behavior and function in tissue genesis and homeostasis. A collagen IV scaffold, a major component, is essential for tissues and dysfunctional in several diseases. Studies of bovine and Drosophila tissues reveal that the scaffold is stabilized by sulfilimine chemical bonds (S = N) that covalently cross-link methionine and hydroxylysine residues at the interface of adjoining triple helical protomers. Peroxidasin, a heme peroxidase embedded in the basement membrane, produces hypohalous acid intermediates that oxidize methionine, forming the sulfilimine cross-link. We explored whether the sulfilimine cross-link is a fundamental requirement in the genesis and evolution of epithelial tissues by determining its occurrence and evolutionary origin in Eumetazoa and its essentiality in zebrafish development; 31 species, spanning 11 major phyla, were investigated for the occurrence of the sulfilimine cross-link by electrophoresis, MS, and multiple sequence alignment of de novo transcriptome and available genomic data for collagen IV and peroxidasin. The results show that the cross-link is conserved throughout Eumetazoa and arose at the divergence of Porifera and Cnidaria over 500 Mya. Also, peroxidasin, the enzyme that forms the bond, is evolutionarily conserved throughout Metazoa. Morpholino knockdown of peroxidasin in zebrafish revealed that the cross-link is essential for organogenesis. Collectively, our findings establish that the triad—a collagen IV scaffold with sulfilimine cross-links, peroxidasin, and hypohalous acids—is a primordial innovation of the ECM essential for organogenesis and tissue evolution.

A critical need exists for innovations in education that increase the recruitment of high school students from diverse backgrounds into the biomedical research workforce. Aspirnaut is one model that addresses this challenge.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) required coordination between Marketplaces, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in an effort to streamline application processes and improve enrollment. We use 2013-2018 data from the American Community Survey and difference-in-difference models to estimate the relationship between Marketplace policy and increases in Medicaid/CHIP coverage observed among pre-ACA eligible children after the implementation of the ACA (“welcome mat effects”). Our sample includes non-disabled, citizen children (0-18) at 139-250% FPL who were Medicaid-/CHIP-eligible before (and after) the implementation of the ACA. Marketplace policies studied include state-based versus federally-facilitated, and whether the Marketplace had authority to directly enroll Medicaid-/CHIP-eligible applicants into public coverage. Models also control for ACA adult Medicaid expansion policy and provide the first estimates in this literature for non-expansion states. Welcome mat effects were present among all Marketplace and expansion policy categories. However, public coverage increased more in states that empowered their Marketplace to enroll publicly-eligible applicants directly into Medicaid/CHIP and these results were driven by enrollment policy, not by choice of state-based versus federal based Marketplaces. Welcome mat effects were largest in expansion states (for most years) and among children whose parents did not hold employer-sponsored insurance coverage. Ranging from 9 to 13 percentage points, these estimates are larger than those found among other subgroups of children in the welcome mat literature. Although there is evidence of lagged effects for both welcome mat effects and the role of Marketplace policy in non-expansion states, by 2018 we find no differences in these measures by expansion policy.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has dramatically increased the number of low-income nonelderly adults eligible for Medicaid. Starting in 2014, states can elect to cover individuals and families with modified adjusted gross incomes below a threshold of 133 percent of federal poverty guidelines, with a 5 percent income disregard. We used simulation methods and data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to compare nondisabled adults enrolled in Medicaid prior to the ACA with two other groups: adults who were eligible for Medicaid but not enrolled in it, and adults who were in the income range for the ACA's Medicaid expansion and thus newly eligible for coverage. Although differences in health across the groups were not large, both the newly eligible and those eligible before the ACA but not enrolled were healthier on several measures than pre-ACA enrollees. Twenty-five states have opted not to use the ACA to expand Medicaid eligibility. If these states reverse their decisions, their Medicaid programs might not enroll a population that is sicker than their pre-ACA enrollees. By expanding Medicaid eligibility, states could provide coverage to millions of healthier adults as well as to millions who have chronic conditions and who need care. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Communication is essential for safe, effective patient care. In perioperative services, where interdisciplinary teamwork is crucial, communication breakdowns may lead to increased errors, decreased staff member satisfaction, and poor team performance. This process improvement project focused on instituting perioperative huddles for two months and measuring the effect that they had on staff members’ satisfaction, engagement, and communication effectiveness. We used validated, Likert‐style survey tools to gauge participants’ satisfaction, level of engagement, communication practices, and opinions about the value of huddles before and after implementation, in addition to an open‐ended descriptive question in the postsurvey. Sixty‐one participants completed the presurvey and 24 participants completed the postsurvey. Scores across all categories increased post huddle implementation. Benefits of the huddles noted by participants included timely and consistent messaging, sharing essential information, and increased feelings of connection between perioperative leaders and staff members.

Public health insurance for low-income children in the US is primarily available through Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Mixed eligibility occurs when there is a mix of either \"Medicaid- and CHIP-eligible\" children or a mix of \"eligible and ineligible\" children in the family. The authors used data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component for 2001-2012 to examine insurance coverage, access to care, and health care use for eligible children in families with mixed-eligible siblings compared to those in families where all siblings were eligible for one program. They found that mixed eligibility has a significant dampening effect for eligible children in families with a mix of eligible and ineligible siblings. These children were more likely to be uninsured and less likely to have a usual source of care, less likely to have any preventive dental or well-child visits during the year, and less likely to fully adhere to recommended preventive dental and well-child visits than eligible children with all-Medicaid- or all-CHIP-eligible siblings.

From an eco-spectatorial perspective, every live theatrical event is an ecosystem – a fusion of production, reception, society, and the environment. In Timothy Morton’s phrase from Being Ecological (2018), live theatre is ‘an experiential space’. When theatre (whatever its subject matter) is recognized as ecological, flows of energy, matter, and ideas come into view, as the combined life force driving the whole. In 2016, Carl Lavery asked, of the relationship between performance and the environmental crisis, ‘What Can Theatre Do?’ As a keen reader of nature writing, with a long-standing interest in eco-spectatorship, I see parallels between theatre and nature writing. Yet, a nature/culture divide separates the two fields. In this article, I experimentally conjoin them, in the hope of seeing more clearly what theatre might do. My opening paragraphs set the ecocritical scene. A shift in style brings in nature writing as a practical experiment in spectatorship. I explore several recent examples of live theatre, as a spectator: the RSC/Good Chance 2024 production of Kyoto ; the 2024 revival of Complicité’s 1999 devised production Mnemonic ; Kae Tempest’s 2021 play Paradise (National Theatre); and the RSC’s 2023 Theatre Green Book production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.