James R. Harrington

Background: Powassan virus (POWV) is the only tick-borne encephalitis-group flavivirus endemic to the United States (U.S.) and is an increasingly serious public health threat. Reported U.S. cases remain relatively few but have grown steadily—from fewer than two annually before 2005 to a record 60 in 2024—and neuroinvasive disease carries a 10–15% case fatality with lasting neurological sequelae in roughly half of the survivors. Examining POWV through a One Health lens, we conducted a scoping review of its ecological and zoonotic drivers, its interactions with co-circulating tick-borne pathogens, its full clinical spectrum, and its distinction from other tick-borne diseases. Methods: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidance, we searched PubMed/MEDLINE, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveillance databases, state health-department publications, and vetted public-health news through early 2026. The review was conducted as an AI-integrative partnership among the authors, the Global Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology Online Network (GIDEON) database, and Claude (Anthropic), enabling a synthesis of human-curated archival records collected over six years alongside the published literature; this yielded over 200 sources, almost half unavailable through an AI search alone. Results: POWV is maintained in a sylvatic cycle involving I. scapularis ticks, small-mammal reservoirs, and incidental human spillover. Its clinical spectrum spans asymptomatic seroconversion to fatal meningoencephalitis; prodromal fever, headache, vomiting, and fatigue may progress to encephalitis, seizures, aphasia, cranial-nerve palsies, paralysis, and ataxia—the most severe neurological syndrome among U.S. tick-borne diseases. Cases cluster in the northeastern and Great Lakes states, with older males disproportionately affected, while viral evidence extends to the mid-Atlantic, southern, and western regions. POWV is distinguished by its flaviviral etiology, short (as little as 15 min) transmission window, absence of a characteristic rash, and complete antibiotic resistance. Of the 48 states surveyed, only 7 published POWV data. Conclusions: POWV is an escalating One Health threat driven by expanding vector tick ranges, land-use and climate change, and wildlife–human interface dynamics. Enhanced cross-sector surveillance integrating human, animal, and environmental monitoring, alongside improved public-health data reporting, is urgently needed.

We study rare special cases of existing employers opting into Social Security. We use restricted teacher-level data from Texas to analyze how public school districts that opt into Social Security handle the increased tax burden. Using event study and synthetic control methods, we find suggestive evidence that districts gradually reduce salary growth over time and reach a long-run salary difference that matches or exceeds the Social Security tax. We do not find evidence of changes in teacher employment. These results reveal potential implications of the Social Security opt-in for currently uncovered public sector workers, as well as local and state governments.

While the recent literature acknowledges the importance of performance appraisal fairness in high-performing organizations, one of the major challenges facing human resource management (HRM) is establishing both an effective and a fair performance appraisal system; yet little is known about the key organizational and psychological factors that affect employees’ perception of performance appraisal fairness, especially in public organizations. In regards to employees’ perception of performance appraisal fairness, most studies have focused on the structural factors rather than the cognitive or psychological perspectives. Particularly, one of the key overlooked factors driving employees’ perceived fairness of performance appraisal is psychological contract fulfillment, which describes the expectations between an employee and the employer and what each gives and expects in return from the other. This study examines whether psychological contract fulfillments are associated with employees’ perceived fairness of performance appraisals in U.S. federal agencies. Using the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, this study finds that psychological contract fulfillments have a positive impact on federal employees’ perceived fairness of performance appraisals.