Department Of Commerce Research Articles

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on commercial airlines in the United States and implications for the kidney transplant community.

Many deceased-donor and living-donor kidney transplants (KTs) rely on commercial airlines for transport. However, the coronavirus-19 pandemic has drastically impacted the commercial airline industry. To understand potential pandemic-related disruptions in the transportation network of kidneys across the United States, we used national flight data to compare scheduled flights during the pandemic vs 1-year earlier, focusing on Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) pairs between which kidneys historically most likely traveled by direct flight (High Volume by direct Air transport OPO Pairs, HVA-OPs). Across the United States, there were 39% fewer flights in April 2020 vs April 2019. Specific to the kidney transportation network, there were 65.1% fewer flights between HVA-OPs, with considerable OPO-level variation (interquartile range [IQR] 54.7%-75.3%; range 0%-100%). This translated to a drop in median number of flights between HVA-OPs from 112 flights/wk in April 2019 to 34 in April 2020 (P<.001), and a rise in wait time between scheduled flights from 1.5hours in April 2019 (IQR 0.76-3.3) to 4.9hours in April 2020 (IQR 2.6-11.2; P<.001). Fewer flights and longer wait times can impact logistics as well as cold ischemia time; our findings motivate an exploration of creative approaches to KT transport as the impact of this pandemic on the airline industry evolves.

Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State (2020 Edition)

Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State (2020 Edition)

Sustainable Oyster Aquaculture, Water Quality Improvement, and Ecosystem Service Value Potential in Maryland Chesapeake Bay

The United States has a $16 billion seafood deficit that the U.S. Department of Commerce and states are attempting to close by legislative policies, encouraging expansion of aquaculture in the United States. One of these policies, the 2011 National Shellfish Initiative, recognizes the benefits to water quality of cultivation of bivalve shellfish aquaculture in addition to the provision of seafood product. More recently, research addressing these policies has resulted in approval of the use of harvested oysters as a nutrient best management practice in the Chesapeake Bay region. Also discussed, but not yet fully implemented, is the inclusion of oyster growers in nutrient credit trading programs where economic compensation is provided to oyster growers for the nutrient removal ecosystem service that their oysters provide. This study used field sampling and a local-scale oyster production model to compare water quality, oyster production, and oyster associated nitrogen removal at two bottom and four water-column Maryland Chesapeake Bay oyster farms. Objectives were to highlight differences in water quality (i.e., oyster food), resultant differences in oyster production, and differences in estimated oyster-associated nutrient removal among farms. An avoided, or replacement, cost economic valuation analysis was performed to also compare the potential payment to the oyster growers for the nutrient removal service if they were included in a fully developed nutrient credit trading program. Production at the six sites varied from 1.78 to 25 metric tons of harvestable oysters acre–1 y–1. Oyster filtration–related N removal was estimated to be at a range of 28–457 kg N acre–1 y–1. The potential economic value of the total N removed by a farm was estimated to be at a range of $0.56 × 103–$12,446 × 103 y–1 among farm sites, depending on the alternative management measure used to assign the value.

Low-income Families Guide Innovation: Application of Human-Centered Design

The Prosperity Agenda (TPA) is a nonprofit organization whose human-centered design process centers on the belief that all people are resilient and resourceful. From 2016 to 2019, with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, they collaborated with the Washington State Department of Commerce to design and implement a new program to encourage two-generational savings among families receiving social welfare assistance. Innovative classroom events focused on savings were a direct outgrowth of TPA’s work with families experiencing poverty. The positive results of the yearlong pilot confirmed the idea that an intervention rooted in human-centered design and guided by both the experiential wisdom of low-income families and the deep expertise of event facilitators would help families build financial resilience.

CLAH Lecture: Harrods Buenos Aires. The Case of the Unwanted Dresses, 1912–1940

ABSTRACTIn 1912, a small department store called Harrods opened in Buenos Aires, one that by the 1920s expanded to almost a city block. Although named after the founder of the London store, the manager of Harrods London, Richard Burbidge, his son Woodman, and a few board members planned the purchase of land and opened the business, and then presented it to the entire London board. Unfamiliar with Buenos Aires, believing that women consumed more than men, and presuming that upper-class women there had the same consumer desires of those in England, the store opened catering to the upper-class female population and focused on readymade dresses. And, to the great surprise of the local manager, women of all classes did not want these dresses because they preferred to purchase cloth and take it to their dressmakers.The dilemma facing Harrods Buenos Aires, detailed in company reports in the archive of Harrods London and in scans of Buenos Aires Harrods archives in the possession of British bookseller Jennifer Wilton-Williams, show that sales reports, rather than studies of the Argentine market like those published by the US Department of Commerce, shaped the new department store's response. Until the 1940s, Harrods Buenos Aires focused on the sale of less expensive articles that came from its dining room, its cosmetics department, and infants’ and children's clothing. Furthermore, employees purchased more than 40 percent of the clothing. Originally imagined as the flagship of the upper-class female shopper, it ended up as a store for the middle class, especially women who bought gifts and enjoyed being seen in the dining room. It closed in 1998.

A Divergent Path: Korean American Politics in an Age of Globalization

In a globalizing world, Korean Americans political participation is being increasingly shaped not only by their demand for empowerment in the United States―the nation of their citizenship―but also by their desire to manage their increasingly transnational lives and to fully maximize economic opportunities on the other side of the Pacific. While finding meaningful political power in the diverse and contentious American society has been a slow process, Korean Americans have found much more success in the interstitial political space of globalization and transnationalism. Within the past two decades, Korean Americans have been wooed by the South Korean government and the U.S. Departments of State and Commerce for various political and policy objectives. More specifically, this paper examines three specific laws and policies that demonstrate this transpacific turn in Korean American politics: 1) Overseas Korean Act (1999); 2) Visa Waiver Program (2008); and 3) Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement (2012). This shift in the political orientation of Korean Americans signals the increasing importance of transnational dynamics in ethnic political incorporation.

Analisis Pengaruh Penerapan Good Corporate Governance Terhadap Pertumbuhan Modal Koperasi

The purpose of this reseach is to analyze whether the application of corporate governance principles have an influence on the performance of Cooperatives. This study was conducted on 132 Cooperatives which reported the financial reports of 2015 until 2016 to Department of Industry, Commerce, and Cooperatives of Pemalang District (DESPERINDAGKOP). The approach used was a purposive sampling. The collected data was then analyzed using multiple regressions. The result of this reseach showed that transparency, accountability, independence and fairness partially have a significant positive effect on capital growth, while responsibility does not have it. The obstacles found in this study were the financial reports which were used in only two years. Therefore, it presents far less accurate figure in relation with the performance measurement of cooperatives.

Convergence Science to Transform Biomedicine: A Narrative Review

Recently convergence science was proposed and promoted in a large report from US National Science Foundation and Department of Commerce (NSF/DOC). The report was entitled "converging technologies for improving human performance. "It was dealing with converging of four technologies as: Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information technology and Cognitive science (NBIC). The report has gained tremendous popularity throughout the academia and scientific world. On Dec 2015 in a monthly meeting of the department of basic science of Iran Academy of Medical Science, the report of NSF/DOC on NBIC has been discussed. A working group has been established for more discussion and application in Iran. Several seminars in this regard have been performed, and presently this technology has been started as pilot in some technical universities in Iran. After US National Research Council (NCR) in the year 2014 and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on convergence in biomedicine, the concept opened a new gate to approach solving medical and health care problems; the convergence technology in biomedical sciences has become interested and gained great popularity among the working group of convergence science in academy of medical science. This technology can lead to advances in fighting chronic diseases such as cancer, dementia, psychiatric disorders, disease of aging and others. The following is summary of proposed discussions in several gathered groups of scientists in this field.

The deterioration of weakly vertical linkages in tra catfish industry in An Giang Province, Vietnam

This study analyzes the vertical linkage effectiveness between fish farmers and processing companies on the mutual beneficial relationship, knowledge transfer, quality standards, embedded services, and payment before the United State (US) Department of Commerce has decided to impose new rates of antidumping taxes on tra (Pangasius) fish fillets imported from Vietnam. After conducting the first survey of 70 fish farmers and five in-depth interviews with directors of processing enterprises, representatives of provincial authority, and experts in the field during March and April of 2012 in An Giang province, Vietnam, we found that the mutual beneficial relationship was the most influent factor to vertical linkage effectiveness. However, after new rates of antidumping duties were imposed, we conducted the second survey of 17 in-depth interviews with 12 fish farmers, four local officers and one expert during April and June of 2013 in An Giang province, and recognized that almost all vertical linkages with processing companies to export to the US market have been deteriorated and dispersed.

The Inside-Out Constitution: Department of CommercevNew York

The Court’s decisions in Trump v. Hawaii and Department of Commerce v. New York suggest an inside-out Constitution, with the Court treating the Constitution’s insiders in ways typically reserved for those outside of the scope of its full protection. The Census 2020 Case, in particular, highlights two important ways that the Court has constructed this inside-out Constitution. First, as discussed in greater detail in Part II, the decision offers a clear picture of how the Court has created almost insurmountable barriers for plaintiffs seeking to challenge White Supremacy through equal protection claims. The fate of the equal protection claim in the Census 2020 Case is a logical sequel to the fate of the First Amendment discrimination claim in the Muslim Exclusion Case, Trump v. Hawaii. Both cases illustrate the near-impossibility of vindicating claims of racial or religious animus against historically disadvantaged groups under existing constitutional antidiscrimination jurisprudence. The Department of Commerce v. New York case also illustrates how the substantive rights claims advanced by parties seeking redress for invidious racial discrimination by the government are increasingly vindicated, if they are vindicated at all, through procedural channels. But even when plaintiffs prevail in their procedural claims, as in the Census 2020 Case, the resulting remedies are no match for the underlying equality harms generated by the challenged policies. Racial animus is whitewashed. The Court never grapples with the identity-based dignity and status harms suffered by non-white plaintiffs as the result of challenged policies. As a practical matter, the Court’s failure to grapple with the equality concerns at stake result is procedural protections much narrower in scope than the underlying threats to equality require. Department of Commerce v. New York not only illustrates this point, but also provides a useful preview of how the Court will analyze the claims raised in Department of Homeland Security v. U.C. Regents.

Pelaksanaan Pengawasan dan Penegakan Hukum Izin Usaha Toko Swalayan Oleh Dinas Perdagangan Kabupaten Sukoharjo

&lt;em&gt;This study aims to determine the implementation of supervision and law enforcement of minimarkets conducted by the Department of Commerce, Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises Sukoharjo. This research is prescriptive normative legal research. This research uses primary and secondary legal material sources as well as data collection techniques using the legislative approach method. The data analysis technique in this study uses the syllogistic deduction method. This research shows that the supervision of minimarkets is carried out regularly and specifically. Periodic monitoring is carried out in accordance with plans that have been carried out. Supervision is specifically carried out when the Department of Trade, Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises get a report from the public and related agencies. Law enforcement is carried out by giving verbal warnings, warning letters up to three times, until the closure of the business.&lt;/em&gt;

Rescinding Inclusion in the Administrative State: Adjudicating DACA, the Census, and the Military’s Transgender Policy

The rescission of programs, policies, and practices by an incoming administration often raises legal questions. However, answers are harder to find. That is the case with the whirlwind of rollbacks proposed and implemented by the Trump administration, in areas from transgender persons in the military to asking a citizenship question on the census and terminating Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS). This Article provides a lens for assessing the legality of these seemingly precipitous moves. Viewing these abrupt paradigm shifts as threshold rescissions clarifies the legal landscape. Threshold measures govern baseline access to goods and institutions, including military service, political representation, and living and working legally in the United States. Under current case law, changes to many threshold measures would be purely discretionary, subject to very relaxed judicial review or no review at all. This Article suggests that reliance interests in threshold measures warrant a more robust judicial role in assessing the means-ends fit of proposed rescissions, equivalent to intermediate scrutiny in equal protection cases. The prior factfinding and legislative support invested in reforms slated for rescission further justify more probing judicial inquiry. The approach urged here also supplies a welcome normative dimension to scholarly discussions of administrative constitutionalism. Scholars have highlighted agency readings to expand individual rights. President Obama’s administration did this in the context of ending the military’s ban on accession and retention of transgender service members. The Trump administration now wishes to partially roll back that inclusive measure. Current officials’ approach to transgender accession and retention reveals that administrative constitutionalism is contested terrain: one administration’s salutary expansion of individual rights strikes a new administration as defaulting on responsibility, overreaching on power, and interfering with the rights of other parties. There may be common ground, including former Defense Secretary Mattis’s decision to grandfather in transgender service members who acted in reliance on the Obama administration’s reform. However, the intermediate scrutiny applied here would invalidate most other components of the Defense Department’s transgender rollback, and would require further process and explanation before upholding a citizenship question on the census or the termination of DACA and TPS. In addition, the approach taken here harmonizes with the Supreme Court's finding in the census citizenship-question case that the Commerce Department's reliance on Voting Rights Act enforcement was pretextual. Analyzing the means-ends fit of threshold rescissions promotes more effective deliberation about abrupt changes, while allowing a new administration to refine its rationale.

Mary Lowe Good (1931-2019).

Renowned chemist, respected leader, and inspiring mentor

VOLATILITY EFFECTS OF INDEX OPTIONS TRADING ON THE UNDERLYING SPOT INDEX

16Mar 2020 VOLATILITY EFFECTS OF INDEX OPTIONS TRADING ON THE UNDERLYING SPOT INDEX Khurshid Ali Ganai , Irshad Ahmad Malik and Khalid Ashraf Chisti Assistant Professor, Business Division, Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Assistant Professor, Department of Management Studies, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India. Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India.

Characterization of paste microstructure for durability properties of concrete

In this study, paste samples from different cementitious systems were characterized by using X-Ray Micro Computed Tomography (µ-CT) and Fluorescence Microscopy techniques. Quantitative and qualitative aspects of defects from paste samples were investigated to develop indicators of durability related properties of corresponding concrete samples. In the first phase of this study, hour glass shaped 3D printed molds were used to investigate five cementitious combinations consisting of three cement types (Coarse Ground portland cement, Type IL Portland Limestone Cement and Type I/II ordinary portland cement) and fly ash as a supplementary cementitious material. In the second phase, metal molds were used to compare the results of Coarse Ground portland cement with Type I ordinary portland cement, 5% of which was replaced with colloidal nanosilica. Potential correlations between paste and concrete have been presented. This work was supported by US Department of Energy and North Dakota Department of Commerce.

Power Struggle between China and the United States: Lessons of History

Fernand Braudel, the economic historian, gave a key for reading the power struggles occurring today between the United States and China. «Just as a country at the center of a world-economy can hardly be expected to give up its privileges at international level, how can one hope that the dominant groups who combine capital and state power, and who are assured of international support, will agree to play the game and hand over to someone else?» In other words, the ruling circles in the United States, the hegemonic power of today, want to keep their leadership, China, the rising and challenging power, would like to replace the USA as the hegemonic country: the trade war starting in 2018 should be analysed in this context . The paper will deal with the recent developments of this hegemonic struggle: within the American establishment, the Pentagon and the US Department of Commerce have regained control over «Wall Street» which has resulted in an updated version of the US military-industrial complex, with China replacing the USSR in a new "cold war". Complex strategies are developped on both sides, involving manufacturing, technology, trade, financial, diplomatic and military issues. Referring to this geo-economic key for reading, a number of actions taken by the US government since 2018 aims in particular at checking China’s mounting economic and financial power. For the United States, it is about challenging the development of China’s influence in the world, in particular along the new maritime Silk Roads.

Charles Davenant (1656-1714) – English pamphleteer and politicians

The subject of this research is the biography of the English thinker, pamphleteer and politician Charles Davenant (1656-1714). The author examines Davenant&amp;rsquo;s life and activity, as well as factors that affected his career and determined the peculiarities of his writings. Different stages of his biography, particularly participation in the political struggle of England of the late XVII &amp;ndash; early XVIII centuries are reviewed. Special attention is paid to the role of Davenant as the author of pamphlets and political treatises. The evolution of his views throughout a lifetime is being traced. In the course of this research, the author applies historical-biographical method, reconstructs his life circumstances, specifics and results of activity of the thinker in the context of his era. The novelty is defined by the relevance of studying C. Davenant&amp;rsquo;s heritage within the framework of English culture of the turn of XVII &amp;ndash; XVIII centuries. The biography of Charles Davenant is still not covered within the Russian literature; as well as foreign authors did not give due attention to his career. The conclusion is made that Davenant&amp;rsquo;s career significantly influences the content and theme of his works. The acquired knowledge and experience from working in the departments of commerce and finances led him to development of the technique of &amp;ldquo;political arithmetic&amp;rdquo;. It is also noteworthy that Davenant&amp;rsquo;s political alignment shifted in accordance with his career pursuits, which should be taken into account in further analysis of his views.

Forecasting CO2 emissions in Chinas commercial department, through BP neural network based on random forest and PSO

In recent years, with the worsening of the global climate problem, the issue of CO2 emissions has gradually attracted people's attention. Accurately predicting CO2 emissions and analyzing its change trends are important elements in addressing climate issues at this stage. Although the predecessors have done a lot of research on CO2 emissions and also established some prediction models, few people have adopted quantifiable methods to select prediction indicators and studied the CO2 emissions of commercial department. So this paper establishes a novel BP neural network prediction model based on the index quantization ability of random forest and the performance optimization ability of PSO. For further strengthening the prediction accuracy, several improvements have been made to PSO. Finally, the validity of the model is tested using panel data from 1997 to 2017 of the Chinese commercial sector. The results as follows: (1) Compared with other parallel models, the newly established hybrid forecasting model can more accurately predict the CO2 emissions of China's commercial department. (2) The prediction indexes selected after quantification based on the random forest can improve the prediction accuracy. (3) These improvements of PSO in this paper can greatly enhance the prediction effect of the hybrid prediction model.

Procrastination at the Patent Office?

Pointing to a limited set of statistics suggesting that examiners turn in much of their work product at the end of quota periods, the Commerce Department has recently raised concerns over examiner procrastination and its consequences for examination quality. End-loading of review completions alone, however, is not dispositive evidence of procrastination. In this paper, we confirm that examiners complete a substantial percentage of reviews at the end of both bi-weekly and quarterly quotas and then proceed to test for additional markers that may separate a procrastination explanation for these findings from a range of alternative theories. Among other tests explored in this regard, we predict and find evidence of an immediate spike in end-loading upon the onset of examiner telecommuting, a change in work environments that likely exacerbates self-control problems. Our findings support a procrastination interpretation for at least some portion of the observed end-loading of reviews, with our outcomes analysis suggesting that the predominant consequence of this behavior for examination quality is an increase in examination durations.

Arkema alleges refrigerant dumping by China

Arkema has filed an antidumping petition with the US International Trade Commission regarding imports of the fluorocarbon refrigerant R-32 (difluoromethane) from China. Arkema, which is the sole US producer of the refrigerant, at a plant in Calvert City, Kentucky, says US imports of R-32 shot up 900%, to about 15,000 metric tons per year, between 2016 and 2019. R-32 is used mostly in refrigerant blends. To circumvent US antidumping duties on blends from China, Arkema claims, foreign producers established US blending operations that allowed them to import unblended material into the US at below-market prices. The US Commerce Department appears to be closing the loophole. It has issued a preliminary ruling to impose antidumping duties on R-32 and R-125 (pentafluoroethane) from China. A final ruling is due in April.