The CRUTEM4 land-surface air temperature data set:Construction, previous versions and dissemination via Google earth

The CRUTEM4 (Climatic Research Unit Temperature, version 4) land-surface air temperature data set is one of the most widely used records of the climate system. Here we provide an important additional dissemination route for this data set: online access to monthly, seasonal and annual data values and time series graphs via Google Earth. This is achieved via an interface written in Keyhole Markup Language (KML) and also provides access to the underlying weather station data used to construct the CRUTEM4 data set. A mathematical description of the construction of the CRUTEM4 data set (and its predecessor versions) is also provided, together with an archive of some previous versions and a recommendation for identifying the precise version of the data set used in a particular study

Fiscal illusion and cyclical government expenditure: State government expenditure in the United States

© 2016 Scottish Economic Society. A well-established literature argues that fiscal illusion increases the level of government expenditure. This article focuses on the proposition that fiscal illusion also influences the cyclicality of government expenditure. Predictions are formed with reference to government reliance on high income elasticities of indirect tax revenues and on intergovernmental transfers. Predictions are tested with reference to the expenditures of 36 states in the United States from 1980 to 2000. Government expenditures are more likely to be procyclical when citizens systematically underestimate the cost of taxation

'Leaning against an open door' : ideology and the cyclicality of public expenditure

When is government expenditure likely to be procyclical? While economists tend to anticipate counter-cyclical expenditure, recent studies report procyclical expenditure. This paper explores the impact of political ideology on the cyclicality of government expenditure. Predictions are tested with reference to government expenditure in the USA between 1950 and 2008. The likelihood of procyclical expenditure increases if groups that press for increased public expenditure are ‘... leaning against an open door’

The Renormalized Thermal Mass with Non-Zero Charge Density

The linear $\delta$ expansion is used to obtain corrections up to O$(\delta^2)$ to the self-energy for a complex scalar field theory with a $\lambda (\phi^{\star}\phi)^2$ interaction at high temperature and non-zero charge density. The calculation is done in the imaginary-time formalism via the Hamiltonian form of the path integral. Nonperturbative results are generated by a systematic order by order variational procedure and the dependence of the critical temperature on the chemical potential $\mu$ is obtained.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Consequence for Wavefunction Collapse Model of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Experiment

It is shown that data on the dissociation rate of deuterium obtained in an experiment at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory provides evidence that the Continuous Spontaneous Localization wavefunction collapse model should have mass--proportional coupling to be viable.Comment: 8 page

Reviews

Steve McDowell and Phil Race, 500 Computing Tips for Trainers, London: Kogan Page, ISBN: 0–7494–2675–6. Paperback, 160 pages, £15.99

The works metallurgist: An evaluation of a CAL package on phase diagrams

The Works Metallurgist is used in the Open University course: Materials — Engineering and Science. It is being evaluated as part of a larger study of CAL teaching in Science and Technology at the Open University. With 540 students, the course provides a sufficiently large sample for a range of evaluation methods to be employed in a variety of settings (e.g. home, residential school). The methods used include questionnaires, attitude scales and pre/post achievement tests, observations and interviews. The focus of the evaluation exercise is on the effectiveness of CAL in contributing to student learning. The issue of the educational quality of the program and its instructional features are considered in this paper, in association with the goals of the program

Taxes and Ownership Structure: Corporations, Partnerships and Royalty Trusts

This paper investigates the effect of taxes on the equilibrium ownership structure of productive assets. Ownership structure includes the traditional choice between debt and equity financing, but also the larger choice between corporate and partnership forms. A key feature of these alternative forms is that corporations are subject to taxation at both the corporate and investor levels, whereas partnerships are not. At the same time, depreciation and interest tax shields are taken at the corporate tax rate for corporate assets and at investors' tax rates for partnership assets. We find that assets endowed with excess non-interest tax deductions are best held in partnership form by high tax bracket investors. Assets whose allowed deductions are low enough to generate a net tax liability in corporate formare best held as partnerships by low tax bracket investors. All other assets are held in the corporate sector and are financed in a manner consistent with Miller's(1977) capital structure equilibrium.We argue that our analysis illuminates the tax aspects of such transactionsas mergers and sales or spin-offs of corporate assets to partnerships and royalty trusts. We also show that our results afford a simple characterization of the lease or buy decision.

Laminarisation in strongly accelerated boundary layers

Imperial Users onl

Reviews

Martin Oliver (ed.), Innovation in the Evaluation of Learning Technology, London: University of North London, 1998. ISBN: 1–85377–256–9. Softback, 242 pages, £15.00