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PFAS regulation. Should they stay, or should they go? Legislative insights offer answers to common questions. Per- and poly-fluoroalkyi substances (PFAS) are synthetic compounds with many societal uses. Applications from [...]

Introduction [??] BY PETER VAN DOREN In June, the Supreme Court overturned Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, a 1984 decision that instructed courts to defer to agencies' interpretations of [...]

In his 2022 Labor Day address, President Joe Biden said that the United States "has the highest drug prices in the world, and there is no reason for it." Similar [...]

For years, congressional Republicans have sought unsuccessfully to pass the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act. While various iterations of the bill have been proposed, the [...]

This past summer, Republican presidential nominee and ex-president Donald Trump floated the idea of replacing the federal personal income tax with import tariffs. The idea has since been memory-holed; somebody [...]

Keywords: psychoanalysis, religion, vestigial state theory, Naomi Goldenberg is professor of religious studies in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. Following graduate studies at Princeton and the [...]

This article examines the gendered subjectivity of the Nigerian woman in the militarized space of Boko Haram. Through the use of rape and other forms of physical and emotional abuse, Boko Haram militants have transformed abducted women into weapons in war. Referring to the traumatic experiences of the female protagonists in Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani's Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree (2018) and Patience Ibrahim's A Gift from Darkness (2016), this article demonstrates how the female body becomes a battleground for settling masculinist quarrels. Using a feminist postcolonial and womanist conceptual framework, this article explores the Nigerian woman's survival wisdom in terrorism and her quest for self-healing and agency within the militarized masculinist space of Boko Haram. It is observed that African women's resilience and rebellion against sexual terrorism and masculinist violence is a womanist tendency., INTRODUCTION: THIRD-GENERATION NIGERIAN WAR NARRATIVES First- and second-generation Nigerian war narratives prominently address the genocidal Nigeria-Biafra War (1967-70). Flora Nwapa's Never Again (1975) and Wives at War and Other Stories [...]

As I reflect on my journey through higher education, I find myself looking back on a career that began in the small, rural community of Calhoun in Lowndes County, Alabama. [...]

Flexible packaging enhances our daily lives by protecting the food and goods we buy However, as new trends emerge, sustainability remains crucial in film-layer packaging. Layering multiple materials - PE, [...]

Extreme precipitation over a 2-week period can cause significant impacts to life and property. Trustworthy and easy-to-understand forecasts of these extreme periods on the subseasonal-to-seasonal time frame may provide additional time for planning. The Prediction of Rainfall Extremes at Subseasonal to Seasonal Periods (PRES2iP) project team conducted three workshops over 6 years to engage with stakeholders to learn what is needed for decision-making for subseasonal precipitation. In this study, experimental subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) forecast products were designed, using knowledge gained from previous stakeholder workshops, and shown to decision-makers to evaluate the products for two 14-day extreme precipitation period scenarios. Our stakeholders preferred a combination of products that covered the spatial extent, regional daily values, with associated uncertainty, and text narratives with anticipated impacts for planning within the S2S time frame. When targeting longer extremes, having information regarding timing of expected impacts was seen as crucial for planning. We found that there is increased uncertainty tolerance with stakeholders when using products at longer lead times that typical skill metrics, such as critical success index or anomaly correlation coefficient, do not capture. Therefore, the use of object-oriented verification that allows for more flexibility in spatial uncertainty might be beneficial for evaluating S2S forecasts. These results help to create a foundation for the design, verification, and implementation of future operational forecast products with longer lead times, while also providing an example for future workshops that engage both researchers and decision-makers. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: There has been an increase in demand for forecasts between the 10- and 14-day weather forecast time frame and 1-3-month seasonal time frame with respect to periods of extreme precipitation among decision-makers, yet this relies on trustworthy and usable forecasts. In this study, experimental forecast products were designed and shown to decision-makers to evaluate the products for two 14-day extreme precipitation period scenarios. Participants preferred a combination of map products, daily regional products, and text narratives with anticipated impacts when making decisions at long lead times. These results help to create a foundation for the design and implementation of future operational forecast products with longer lead times, while also providing an example for future workshops that engage both researchers and decision-makers. KEYWORDS: Social Science; Extreme events; Precipitation; Communications/ decision making, 1. Introduction Skillful prediction of extreme precipitation periods, defined in Dickinson et al. (2021), is a topic of significance for a variety of sectors, including civil protection (e.g., Curriero et [...]

Exploring Unprecedented Extremes What: Facing the urgent challenge of extreme weather and climate-related events, our societal frameworks for 'resilience' and 'adaptation' are proving to be insufficient. This paper introduces the [...]

Improving Climate Models and Projections Using Observations Workshop 2023 What: More than 70 experts from research and operational centers came together in a hybrid meeting held at the Massachusetts Institute [...]

Sewage sludge is an important soil conditioner, and source of nutrients with a potential for use in agriculture. However, such benefit needs to be weighed against the risks due to the presence of heavy metals, and other substances that may endanger human health, plants, soil and the ecosystem. This research had the objective of evaluating the agricultural potential of sewage sludge together with the risks that may be present in use. Samples of sewage sludge from seven wastewater treatment plants in Eswatini were analyzed for selected physical and chemical parameters, and heavy metal concentrations using commonly established laboratory procedures. The analysis results indicated that, sludge samples exhibited high organic matter content, cation exchange capacity, macro nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus and micro nutrients (trace metal elements) needed for plant growth. Anaerobically digested sludge samples showed higher carbon to nitrogen ratio because of biomass loss in the form of methane and carbon dioxide. The heavy metal concentrations are all within safe limits except the sludge from Matsapha area that had levels of chromium, and nickel above regulatory limits. With respect to their heavy metal contents, most of the sludge samples would qualify as Class A sludge ready to be used as organic fertilizer for agriculture without regular monitoring of heavy metals in the soil to which they are applied. The study results indicated the importance of sewage sludge for their agricultural potential through supplementation of both micro and macro nutrients needed for plant growth, for improving the soil properties such as water holding capacity and permeability, through the increase of organic matter content, and retention of nutrients due to the high cation exchange capacity. All these benefits are realized with sewage sludge being a lower cost alternative to commercial fertilizers. Moreover, the low concentration of heavy metals present in the sludge presents lower risk that may arise in the course of utilizing the sludge as agricultural supplement. Key words: Agriculture, fertilizer, heavy metals, nutrient, sewage, sludge, nitrogen, phosphorous, INTRODUCTION Sewage sludge is known to contain nutrients and trace elements that are required for growing plants. It is also a good soil conditioner that offers comparative advantages over mineral [...]

The world experienced an unprecedented health shock (COVID-19) which caught everyone by surprise, and destabilized many sectors, especially the agri-food sector. This unpleasant situation caused upset in the food production and distribution chain, and continues to threaten the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 2 which underscores zero hunger in society. Many people in South Africa were disproportionately affected with severe consequences on their livelihood activities, food security status, health status, and general welfare conditions; and as a result, social relief intervention was put in place or expanded. This study examined the factors influencing rural households' food security status among the recipients of social relief grants in rural areas of South Africa. The study used a secondary dataset from Wave 5 of National Income Dynamics Study - Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM). The research applied descriptive statistics to describe the respondents' socio-economic characteristics, and pattern of income flow. Food Insecurity Access Scale was employed to investigate the respondents' food security status, while multinomial logistic regression was used to explore the determinants of food security. The results showed that the majority of the respondents were black (99%), female-headed (54.15%), dwelling in flats (74.01%), with secondary education (88.6%), and heavily dependent on government grants (58.61%). Also, most households were food secure (71.69%) during the pandemic. Moreover, households headed by men were more food secure (62.84%) compared to the ones headed by the female counterparts (37.08). Multinomial regression estimates revealed that formal education (p Key words: Covid-19, social grant, rural households, food security, South Africa, INTRODUCTION Covid-19 health shock was pivotal in exacerbating food shortages and general welfare distress, especially in the global south countries [1]. The pandemic undermined the drive by the United Nations [...]