Redistributive effects of alternative indirect tax reforms for Brazil

This paper investigates the extent to which redistributive goals can be reached in Brazil through the indirecttax system. The equivalent variation measure of consumer surplus is used to estimate the gains and losses of different household groups resulting from alternative tax reforms. The overall effect of each reform is evaluated on the basis of a Bergson-Samuelson social welfare function. The results suggest that substantial changes in the existing rate structure - particularly the introduction offood subsidies - would be required in order to secure significant welfare improvements for low income classes

Spartan Daily, May 11, 1979

Volume 72, Issue 65https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/6493/thumbnail.jp

A workflow language for research e-infrastructures

AbstractResearch e-infrastructures are "systems of systems," patchworks of resources such as tools and services, which change over time to address the evolving needs of the scientific process. In such environments, researchers carry out their scientific process in terms of sequences of actions that mainly include invocation of web services, user interaction with web applications, user download and use of shared software libraries/tools. The resulting workflows are intended to generate new research products (articles, datasets, methods, etc.) out of existing ones. Sharing a digital and executable representation of such workflows with other scientists would enforce Open Science publishing principles of "reproducibility of science" and "transparent assessment of science." This work presents HyWare, a language and execution platform capable of representing scientific processes in highly heterogeneous research e-infrastructures in terms of so-called hybrid workflows. Hybrid workflows can express sequences of "manually executable actions," i.e., formal descriptions guiding users to repeat a reasoning, protocol or manual procedure, and "machine-executable actions," i.e., encoding of the automated execution of one (or more) web services. An HyWare execution platform enables scientists to (i) create and share workflows out of a given action set (as defined by the users to match e-infrastructure needs) and (ii) execute hybrid workflows making sure input/output of the actions flow properly across manual and automated actions. The HyWare language and platform can be implemented as an extension of well-known workflow languages and platforms

Arrows for knowledge-based circuits

Knowledge-based programs (KBPs) are a formalism for directly relating agents' knowledge and behaviour in a way that has proven useful for specifying distributed systems. Here we present a scheme for compiling KBPs to executable automata in finite environments with a proof of correctness in Isabelle/HOL. We use Arrows, a functional programming abstraction, to structure a prototype domain-specific synchronous language embedded in Haskell. By adapting our compilation scheme to use symbolic representations we can apply it to several examples of reasonable size

Compactified symplectic leaves in bundle moduli spaces

Let $\mathcal{E}$ be a rank-2 vector bundle over an elliptic curve $E$, decomposable as a sum of line bundles of degrees $d'>d\ge 2$, and $\mathcal{L}$ the determinant of $\mathcal{E}$. The subspace $L(\mathcal{E})\subset \mathbb{P}^{n-1}\cong \mathbb{P}\mathrm{Ext}^1(\mathcal{L},\mathcal{O}_E)$ consisting of classes of extensions with middle term isomorphic to $\mathcal{E}$ is one of the symplectic leaves of a remarkable Poisson structure on $\mathbb{P}^{n-1}$ defined by Feigin-Odesskii/Polishchuk, and all symplectic leaves arise in this manner, as shown in earlier work that realizes $L(\mathcal{E})$ as the base space of a principal $\mathrm{Aut}(\mathcal{E})$-fibration. Here, we embed $L(\mathcal{E})$ into a larger, projective base space $\widetilde{L}(\mathcal{E})$ of a principal $\mathrm{Aut}(\mathcal{E})$-fibration whose total space consists of sections of $\mathcal{E}$. The embedding realizes $L(\mathcal{E})\subset \widetilde{L}(\mathcal{E})$ as a complement of an anticanonical divisor $Y$ (one of the main results), and we give an explicit description of the normalization of $Y$ as a projective-space bundle over a projective space. For $d=2$ $\widetilde{L}(\mathcal{E})$ is one of the three Hirzebruch surfaces $\Sigma_i$, $i=0,1,2$; we determine which occurs when and hence also the cases when $L(\mathcal{E})$ is affine. Separately, we prove that for $d<\frac n2$ the singular locus of the secant slice $\mathrm{Sec}_{d,z}(E)\subset \mathbb{P}^{n-1}$, the portion of the $d^{th}$ secant variety of $E$ consisting of points lying on spans of $d$-tuples with sum $z\in E$, is precisely $\mathrm{Sec}_{d-2}$. This strengthens result that $L(\mathcal{E})$ is smooth, appearing in prior joint work with R. Kanda and S.P. Smith.Comment: 32 pages + reference

A Dual System Model of Risk and Time Preferences

Discounted Expected Utility theory has been a workhorse in economic analysis for over half a century. However, it cannot explain empirical violations of \u27dimensional independence\u27 demonstrating that risk interacts with time preference and time interacts with risk preference, nor does it explain present bias or magnitude-dependence in risk and time preferences, or correlations between risk preference, time preference, and cognitive reflection. We demonstrate that these and other anomalies are explained by a dual system model of risk and time preferences that unless models of a rational economic agent, models based on prospect theory, and dual process models of decision making

Quantum electron transport in models of nanoparticles using matrix algebra and renormalization group methods

A general expression for quantum transmission of non-interacting spinless electrons through models of a fully connected network of sites that can be regarded as a nanoparticle is obtained using matrix algebra. This matrix algebra method leads to the same results given by the Green’s function method without requiring the mathematical sophistication as required by the later. The model of the nanoparticle in this study comprises a single linear array of atoms that profile the input and output leads connected to a fully connected blob of atoms. A simple tight-binding Hamiltonian motivates the quantum transmission in the discrete lattice system. If there are n atoms in the nanoparticle, the methodology requires the inverse of a n × n matrix. The solution is obtained analytically for different cases: a single atom in the nanoparticle, a single dangle atom, n fully connected atoms in a meanield type cluster with symmetric input and output connections, and the most general case where the n fully connected atoms can be connected arbitrarily to the input and output leads. A numerical solution is also provided for the case where the intra-bonds among the atoms in the nanoparticle are varied (a case with notully connected atoms). The expression for the transmission coefficient thus obtained using the matrix method is compared with the transmission coefficients derived using the real space Renormalization Group method and the Green’s function method

CWU Faculty Senate Minutes - 05/19/1976

These are the official Central Washington University Faculty Senate Minutes for the 05/19/1976 regular meeting

Symplectic Groups, Symplectic Spreads, Codes, and Unimodular Lattices

AbstractIt is known that the symplectic groupSp2n(p) has two (complex conjugate) irreducible representations of degree (pn+1)/2 realized overQ(−p), provided thatp≡3mod4. In the paper we give an explicit construction of an odd unimodularSp2n(p)·2-invariant lattice Δ(p,n) in dimensionpn+1 for anypn≡3mod4. Such a lattice has been constructed by R. Bacher and B. B. Venkov in the casepn=27. A second main result says that these lattices are essentially unique. We show that forn≥3 the minimum of Δ(p,n) is at least (p+1)/2 and at mostp(n−1)/2. The interrelation between these lattices, symplectic spreads of Fp2n, and self-dual codes over Fpis also investigated. In particular, using new results of U. Dempwolff and L. Bader, W. M. Kantor, and G. Lunardon, we come to three extremal self-dual ternary codes of length 28