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The Affordable Care Act included a sales tax on medical devices that is supposed to help pay for the expansion of health insurance coverage. But the tax is being levied on some devices, such as ultrasound scanners, that are used to diagnose and treat animals instead of humans.

On this edition of All Songs Considered: Swedish pop artist Mapei; the young Australian rapper Remi; Berlin-based trip-hop artist Perera Elsewhere, and Russian indie pop musician Tati Ana. Plus, the psychedelic rock group Of Montreal channels the Rolling Stones on a new album.

Japan and Finland ranked at the top in most areas of the OECD study of 22 countries, while Italy and Spain consistently scored at the bottom.

Smart, who was held captive for nine months at age 14, describes the 2002 ordeal in a new memoir called My Story. She's now an advocate for children's safety education and says "the best punishment" she can give her abusers is to move on with her life and be happy.

Sexual violence appears to have roots in adolescence, so researchers asked teenagers and young adults if they'd ever forced someone to have sexual activity against their will. About 1 in 10 had. Psychological pressure was the most common tactic.

The duo incorporates many genre influences to fit its hard-edged pop sound. Critic Will Hermes says the formula still works on Bitter Rivals, which finds the two musicians trying to expand their boundaries even further.

An estimated 278 people in multiple states have been sickened by an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant salmonella linked to raw chicken. Despite stories suggesting otherwise, USDA says its work on the outbreak hasn't been hampered by the federal government shutdown. CDC is calling back about 30 furloughed staffers to help with its response.

Speaker John Boehner issued a direct challenge to President Obama, saying history is on the side of Republicans. Dozens of other times, Boehner said, government funding has been used as leverage, and it will not be different this time around.

Scientists who do research in Antarctica have just learned that the shutdown will effectively cancel all of their planned fieldwork on the icy continent this year. All research activities not essential to human safety and the preservation of property will be stopped.

This week, All Things Considered is talking with leaders from different faiths about their perspectives on an afterlife. Mufti Asif Umar says Muslims believe that a person who enters paradise will find whatever he or she desires waiting there.