“A Free-Range Chicken that Can Run Wherever the Majority Wants It To”: Budget Reconciliation and the Contemporary U.S. Senate

Since its early uses in the early 1980s, the budget reconciliation process has played an important role in how the U.S. Congress legislates. Because the procedures protect certain legislation from a filibuster in the Senate, the reconciliation rules both shape, and are shaped by, the upper chamber in significant ways. After providing a brief overview of the process, I discuss first how partisanship in the Senate has affected the use of the reconciliation procedures. Next, I describe two sets of consequences of the contemporary reconciliation process, on negotiation and on policy design. I conclude with some observations about the relationship of reconciliation to the prospects for broader procedural change in the Senate.

4. The Council of the European Union:

The Council is an institution of day-to-day policymaking in which the interests of member state governments are represented by cabinet ministers who meet, according to their policy portfolio, in different Council configurations and within the Eurogroup. According to the Treaty of Lisbon, the Council has a dual mandate. It acts as a legislative organ as well as an executive and policy-coordinating institution. This dual role is reflected in the organization and meeting practices of the different Council configurations. Those groupings of ministers dealing primarily with executive decisions and policy coordination tend to meet more often and are regarded as being more senior than those formations of the Council which engage predominantly in legislative decision-making. As a legislative institution, the Council has increasingly acquired features of an upper chamber in a bicameral separation of powers system, working in tandem with the European Parliament. In contrast, Council decision-making relating to executive issues and policy coordination in important policy domains, such as economic governance and foreign policy, is closely aligned with the European Council. In these areas, the Council can be considered to constitute, together with the Commission, a collective EU executive.

Case Report On: Complete Heart Block

When the electrical signal normally does not travel from the atria, the upper chambers of the heart, to the ventricles, or lower chambers, full heart block occurs. During surgery, the atrio ventricular (AV) node is weakened and complete heart block can result. Often, complete heart block occurs naturally without surgery [1]. Patient History: Heart block is an irregular heart rhythm where the heart (bradycardia) beats too slowly. In this condition, between the upper chamber (atria) and the lower chamber (ventricles), the electrical signals that tell the heart to contract are partially or completely blocked. Present history- The patient 71-year old male who was admitted to hospital on date 25/11/2019 with the chief complaint was severe chest pain, breathlessness, excessive palpitation, vertigo, and sweating since in 4 months. Conclusion: The patient was admitted in the hospital with the chief complaint of severe chest pain, breathlessness, excessive palpitation, vertigo and sweating since 4 months and his condition was very critical and the patient was admitted in AVBR Hospital and immediate treatment was started.

Design of a Platelet-Mediated Delivery System for Drug-Incorporated Nanospheres to Enhance Anti-Tumor Therapeutic Effect

The objective of this study is to construct a platelet-mediated delivery system for drug-incorporated nanospheres. Nanospheres of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA-NS) with different sizes and surface properties were prepared by changing the preparation parameters, such as the type of polymer surfactant, the concentration of polymer surfactant and PLGA, and the stirring rate. When incubated with platelets, PLGA-NS prepared with poly(vinyl alcohol) suppressed the platelet activation. Scanning electron microscopic and flow cytometry examinations revealed that platelets associated with PLGA-NS (platelet hybrids, PH) had a similar appearance and biological properties to those of the original platelets. In addition, the PH with PLGA-NS specifically adhered onto the substrate pre-coated with fibrin to a significantly great extent compared with PLGA-NS alone. When applied in an in vitro model of tumor tissue which was composed of an upper chamber pre-coated with fibrin and a lower chamber culturing tumor cells, the PH with PLGA-NS incorporating an anti-tumor drug were delivered to the tumor cells through the specific adhesion onto the upper chamber and, consequently, drug release from the upper chamber took place, resulting in the growth suppression of tumor cells. It is concluded that the drug delivery system based on PH is promising for tumor treatment.

Building the UK vision of a driverless future: A Parliamentary Inquiry case study

The UK Government has endorsed the case for autonomous vehicle (AV) technology and its economic benefits in its industrial strategies since 2013. In late 2016 the Science and Technology Committee in the House of Lords (the legislature’s upper chamber) conducted an Inquiry into the policy. We conduct a content analysis of the text corpus of the Inquiry. Drawing from theories of sociotechnical change we explore how it contributes to building a vision of a future AV world embedded in a national economic and technological project. The technology is framed as a solution to societal grand challenges and the Inquiry corpus is dominated by actors committed to the project. Alternative visions, including sceptical interpretations, are present in the corpus, but rare, reflecting the selection process for contributions to the Inquiry. Predominantly, the corpus represents the public as deficient: dangerous drivers, unaware of promised benefits and unduly anxious about the unfamiliar. Their views are marginal in this Parliamentary Inquiry’s findings. AV technology is one of several possible means to pursue wider mobility policy goals of greater safety, affordability, access and sustainability. Our analysis suggests that the pursuit of an AV future risks becoming a goal in itself instead of a means to these broader societal goals.

A feasibility study to determine the use of baited pots in Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) fisheries, supported by the use of underwater video observations

High incidental catches of Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) in Nunavut’s Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) fishery has led to studies on the feasibility of capturing Greenland halibut with baited pots. In this study, catch rates among six experimental pots are compared. In addition to this, underwater video observations of Greenland halibut interacting with two of these experimental pot types are quantified in order to help provide recommendations on future pot designs. Catch rates of Greenland halibut differed among pots with different entrance mesh types, and none of the pots produced substantial amounts of bycatch. Strings of pots were deployed within a narrow corridor between baited gillnets targeting Greenland halibut, which may have affected catch results. Video observations revealed Greenland halibut entangled by their teeth significantly more often in entrance funnels constructed with 50 mm than with 19 mm clear monofilament netting and the entrance rate was 45% higher with the 19 mm netting. Greenland halibut that successfully entered a pot repeatedly became entangled by their teeth in 58 mm netting used in the side and end panels and in a horizontal panel used to separate the pot into a lower and upper chamber. The majority (80%) of Greenland halibut were observed to approach a pot against the current. The downstream entrance was aligned with the current in 52% of the observed Greenland halibut approaches. Seventy percent of entry attempts and 67% of successful entries occurred when fish approached against the current and when the entrance was aligned with the current. These observations lead to recommendations that future studies consider developing a four entrance pot to ensure an entrance is always aligned with bottom currents. Based on these observations of entanglements, it is recommended to use 19 mm clear monofilament netting in the entrance funnel, 100 mm polyethylene netting in the exterior panels, and 19 mm polypropylene netting in the horizontal panel when targeting Greenland halibut. Three Greenland sharks were observed interacting with the pots in the video sets, but none were captured or damaged the pots during the potting experiments, providing validity to the use of pots to mitigate the capture of Greenland shark in Nunavut territorial waters.

Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów 1572–1668

In 1572–1668 the Sejm of the Commonwealth of Two Nations underwent constant evolution. The greatest changes occurred at the time of the first interregnum (1572–74) after the death of the last Jagiellonian monarch – Zygmunt Augustus (1572). This was the time of the emergence of two types of new Sejms (convocation and election ones), functioning exclusively during the interregnum. The Henrician Articles (1574) resolved that the Sejm was to debate only for six weeks, and that the monarch was compelled to convoke it at least once every two years. The extraordinary Sejm was established in 1613 – it could be convened in cases of urgent needs and it sat for two or three weeks. The Parliament was composed of three estates: the king, the Senate, and the deputies as well as two chambers. The upper chamber (Senate) consisted of senators nominated by the monarch on a lifelong basis, and the lower chamber (Chamber of Deputies) – of deputies of the noble estate elected at pre-Sejm sejmiks (Polish: sejmiki). An integral part of the Parliament was composed of the Sejm court, both appellant and trying gravest crimes. The Crown and Lithuanian Tribunal, established in 1578–81, assumed appellation competences from the Sejm court. Tribunal judges were elected every year for a year-long term of office at special sejmiks known as deputational or deputy (judicial), which constituted a forum; here deputies presented to the voters accounts of their parliamentary activity. At the turn of 1591, post-Sejm or relational (debriefing) sejmiks were convened after the closure of the Sejm debates; here deputies presented reports concerning their parliamentary activities. The growing composition of the Parliament was associated with an expansion of state territory as a result of victorious wars waged against Muscovy. New bishoprics, voivodeships, and sejmiki were established. There were 140 senators in 1572, and 150 during the 1630s. Analogously, the number of deputies grew from 166 to 180. The Sejm acted upon the basis of a consensus, and thus was obligated to take into account the stand of the minorities. In 1652, the protest of a single deputy for the first time rendered further Sejm debates impossible. From then on, the Polish-Lithuanian Parliament constantly succumbed to a degradation process.

The effect of ultrafiltration transmembrane permeation on the flow field in a surrogate system of an artificial kidney

Renal Replacement Therapies generally associated to the Artificial Kidney (AK) are membrane-based treatments that assure the separation functions of the failing kidney in extracorporeal blood circulation. Their progress from conventional hemodialysis towards high-flux hemodialysis (HFHD) through the introduction of ultrafiltration membranes characterized by high convective permeation fluxes intensified the need of elucidating the effect of the membrane fluid removal rates on the increase of the potentially blood-traumatizing shear stresses developed adjacently to the membrane. The AK surrogate consisting of two-compartments separated by an ultrafiltration membrane is set to have water circulation in the upper chamber mimicking the blood flow rates and the membrane fluid removal rates typical of HFHD. Pressure drop mirrors the shear stresses quantification and the modification of the velocities profiles. The increase on pressure drop when comparing flows in slits with a permeable membrane and an impermeable wall is ca. 512% and 576% for $ \mathrm{CA}22/5\%{\mathrm{SiO}}_2 $ and $ \mathrm{CA}30/5\%{\mathrm{SiO}}_2 $ membranes, respectively.

Senat w czasie panowania Wazów – jego miejsce w systemie parlamentarnym Rzeczypospolitej

The article analyses selected problems pertaining to the Senate – the upper chamber in the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Two Nations during the reign of the Vasa dynasty (1587–1668). The author characterises the Senate by discussing nominations, numbers, and precedence of the senators. Moreover, he presents certain aspects associated with the role and activity of the senators in the course of the pre-Sejm campaign and during Sejm debates. While describing the work carried out by the Polish-Lithuanian Parliament the author draws attention to the less than imposing attendance, the significance of senatorial wota (opinions and commentaries of senators), and the positive impact exerted by the Senate in the final phase of the Sejm – the conclusion. Upon the basis of the conducted analyses it becomes obvious that the Senate performed, not only in the course of the debates held by the Sejm, several roles – that of a parliamentary estate, an ‘intermediary estate’, and a guardian of law.

2020 Constitutional Reform and Center-Region Relations in Russia

This article examines 2020 constitutional reform in Russia. The amendments recently were approved on July, 1st by nation-vide vote. The purpose of the article is to analyze center-region trends in Russia and how they are reflected in the proposed constitutional amendments. The prospective changes in regional representation in the federal decision-making process shall also be discussed. The article shows how chaotic decentralization during the 90-s was replaced by a trend of centralization. The 2020 constitutional reform reflects a further strengthening of this centralization trend. The problems faced by the Russian regions are left unresolved. It is becoming an overcentralized country. The amended Russian Constitution envisages a reformed role for the Russian State Council. It is supposed to be defined in the Constitution as a consultative body by the President and is expected to be formed of regional leaders. At the same time, the Federal Council of the Federal Assembly (the upper chamber of the Russian parliament), which represents the different constituencies, is also set to be reformed. However, after the reform some of its powers shall be restricted. The changes to regional representation in the federal decision-making process has a controversial and inconsistent character and inevitably supports the general trend towards centralization.