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The article focuses on the challenges faced by Haitian workers in the Dominican Republic's sugarcane industry, highlighting issues such as low pay, poor living conditions, and historical contexts of labor exploitation. Topics include the historical background of labor relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the impact of political and economic crises on migration patterns, and the struggles of migrant workers in the sugarcane sector.

The article focuses on debunking claims made by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and others that Catholic humanitarian organizations, like Annunciation House and Casa Alitas, facilitate illegal border crossings and contribute to the immigration crisis. It argues that these organizations provide essential support to legally processed asylum seekers and fill gaps left by inadequate government resources, emphasizing the humanitarian and legal roles they play rather than any illicit activities.

The article discusses U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's plans to implement stricter immigration policies, including mass deportations, through key appointments like former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Thomas D. Homan and activist Stephen Miller. Topics include the anticipated impact on immigrant communities, concerns from advocacy and religious organizations, and potential changes to immigration programs like Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

The article highlights how intensified U.S.-Mexico border enforcement strategies have contributed to a rise in migrant deaths despite failing to deter unauthorized crossings. Topics include the dangers migrants face due to stricter border policies, the undercounting of migrant fatalities by U.S. authorities, and recommended measures to improve migrant safety and death tracking.

The article focuses on the growing support for a ballot measure in Arizona that would establish a state constitutional right to abortion until fetal viability, sparking resistance from pro-life Latinas who aim to oppose the initiative. Topics include the linguistic framing of abortion debates, shifting attitudes among Latino communities towards abortion, and concerns among pro-life advocates about the potential consequences of expanding abortion rights.

Essential genes often play key roles in biological processes and mutations in these genes will have a great impact on an organism’s survival and reproduction. Studying lethal phenotypes will provide important information about the function of the gene product and direct gene therapy. Traditionally, essential genes have been identified through single-gene knockout experiments, transposon mutagenesis, or antisense RNA inhibitions. However, experimental methods are expensive, labor-intensive, and time-consuming. In addition, such experiments are not always possible as the vast majority of microorganisms are unculturable. Computational methods for genome-scale essential gene prediction, aided bythe explosion of genome-scale data provided by high-throughput technologies in recent years, provide an alternative way to study essential genes. Constraint-based modeling and machine learning technology have been used in this area and achieved promising results. Information such as protein sequence, network topology, gene expression data and other features have been used to predict essential genes. In this article, we will review recent bioinformatics progresses in the prediction of gene essentiality, including databases, computational methods, the most commonly used features, machine learning classifier comparisons, and feature selection. Finally, we will discuss the challenges and future directions of the field.

Coastal, reef-associated and deepwater (15 m) seagrass habitats form a large and ecologically important community on the Queensland continental shelf. Broad-scale resource inventories of coastal seagrasses were completed in the 1980s and were used in marine park and fisheries zoning to protect some seagrasses. At least eleven of the fifteen known species in the region reach their latitudinal limits of distribution in Queensland and at least two Halophila species may be endemic to Queensland or northeastern Australia. The importance of seagrasses to Dugongs Dugong dugon, Green Turtles Chelonia mydas and commercially valuable prawn fisheries, will continue to strongly influence directions in seagrass research and conservation management in Queensland. Widespread loss of seagrasses following natural cyclone and flood events in some locations has had serious consequences to regional populations of Dugong. However, the impacts to Queensland fisheries are little studied. Agricultural land use practices may exacerbate the effects of natural catastrophic events, but the long-term impacts of nutrients, pesticides and sediment loads on Queensland seagrasses are also unknown. Most areas studied are nutrient limited and human impacts on seagrasses in Queensland are low to moderate, and could include increases in habitat since modern settlement. Most impacts are in southern, populated localities where shelter and water conditions ideal for productive seagrass habitat are often targets for port development, and are at the downstream end of heavily modified catchments. For Queensland to avoid losses experienced by other states, incremental increases in impacts associated with population and development pressure must be managed. Seagrass areas receive priority consideration in oil spill management within the Great Barrier Reef and coastal ports. Present fisheries legislation for marine plant protection, marine parks and area closures to trawl fishing help protect inshore seagrass prawn nursery and Dugong feeding habitat, but seagrasses in deep water do not yet receive any special zoning protection. Efficacy of the various Local, State and Commonwealth Acts and planning programmes for seagrass conservation is limited by the expanse and remoteness of Queensland's northern coast, but is improving through broad-based education programmes. Institutional support is sought to enable community groups to augment limited research and monitoring programmes with local "habitat watch" programmes. Research is helping to describe the responses of seagrass to natural and human impacts and to determine acceptable levels of changes in seagrass meadows and water quality conditions that may cause those changes. The management of loss and regeneration of sea grass is benefiting from new information collected on life histories and mechanisms of natural recovery in Queensland species. Maintenance of Queensland's seagrasses systems will depend on improved community awareness, regional and long-term planning and active changes in coastal land use to contain overall downstream impacts and stresses.