Forward: Symposium on State Sales Tax

One of the most remarkable developments in state finance is the rapidity with which the retail sales tax has become the most important fixture in the revenue system. Practically unknown a quarter century ago, by five years later in 1935 the tax yielded $284 million, slightly less than 13 per cent of state tax collections --unemployment compensation taxes aside. Last year, state sales tax revenues amounted to$2.6 billion, or about 23 per cent of state tax collections. For the future the prospect is that sooner or later all but a few, if indeed not all the states, will be in this tax field. A symposium on the subject is most timely, and the editors of the Vanderbilt Law Review and its contributors are to be congratulated on this undertaking. It is true that considerable progress has been made toward solving many of the problems found in the early days of the sales tax-- the taxation of sales involving interstate elements, the extent of the obligation of sellers to collect use taxes, and the tax status of sales on federal areas, to name but a few. Administrative methods have improved considerably and with few exceptions the tax has gradually won acceptance in the states where it is imposed. Nevertheless, there are a number of points where the statutes, inter-governmental relations and administrative methods may be substantially improved, and a review and reappraisal of the type that follows might well encourage an effort to achieve desirable improvements and refinements

Utilization of community resources in the intermediate grades.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

On Travelling Waves for the Stochastic Fisher–Kolmogorov–Petrovsky–Piscunov Equation

This paper is concerned with properties of the wave speed for the stochastically perturbed Fisher–Kolmogorov–Petrovsky–Piscunov (FKPP) equation. It was shown in the classical 1937 paper by Kolmogorov, Petrovsky and Piscunov that the large time behavior of the solution to the FKPP equation with Heaviside initial data is a travelling wave. In a seminal 1995 paper Mueller and Sowers proved that this also holds for a stochastically perturbed FKPP equation. The wave speed depends on the strength σ of the noise. In this paper bounds on the asymptotic behavior of the wave speed c (σ) as σ→0 and σ→∞ are obtained.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45134/1/10955_2005_Article_5960.pd

The Impact of Simulated Kraft Substrates on Consumer Attention at the Point of Sale

In order to remain on store shelves and stay competitive among the overwhelming number of packaged goods on today’s shelves, companies continue to cut packaging material and increase sustainability. Current packaging has made use of a variety of paperboard materials including Solid Bleached Sulfate (SBS), Coated Recycled Board (CRB) and Uncoated Recycled Board (URB), also known as Kraft. While both SBS and CRB feature a smooth, white printing surface ideal for high quality graphics, Kraft is typically associated with a dull printing surface and lower-quality graphics. Companies and brands interested in marketing to the eco-friendly consumer are printing a simulated Kraft look on SBS and CRB board rather than utilizing a natural Kraft substrate. The packages printed on natural Kraft substrate (URB) or simulated Kraft substrate (CRB) may or may not affect attention of the consumer when shopping. This research sought to investigate this by using eye-tracking metrics collected from participants in a retail-shopping environment. Statistical analysis yielded no significant difference for participant’s attention when shopping for packages made from (URB) or (CRB). This study illustrates how consumer attention can factor into purchasing products packaged with Kraft substrate compared to products packed with simulated Kraft substrate

Working with Climate Projections to Estimate Disease Burden: Perspectives from Public Health

There is interest among agencies and public health practitioners in the United States (USA) to estimate the future burden of climate-related health outcomes. Calculating disease burden projections can be especially daunting, given the complexities of climate modeling and the multiple pathways by which climate influences public health. Interdisciplinary coordination between public health practitioners and climate scientists is necessary for scientifically derived estimates. We describe a unique partnership of state and regional climate scientists and public health practitioners assembled by the Florida Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) program. We provide a background on climate modeling and projections that has been developed specifically for public health practitioners, describe methodologies for combining climate and health data to project disease burden, and demonstrate three examples of this process used in Florida

Strong interlayer coupling in van der Waals heterostructures built from single-layer chalcogenides

Semiconductor heterostructures are the fundamental platform for many important device applications such as lasers, light-emitting diodes, solar cells and high-electron-mobility transistors. Analogous to traditional heterostructures, layered transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) heterostructures can be designed and built by assembling individual single-layers into functional multilayer structures, but in principle with atomically sharp interfaces, no interdiffusion of atoms, digitally controlled layered components and no lattice parameter constraints. Nonetheless, the optoelectronic behavior of this new type of van der Waals (vdW) semiconductor heterostructure is unknown at the single-layer limit. Specifically, it is experimentally unknown whether the optical transitions will be spatially direct or indirect in such hetero-bilayers. Here, we investigate artificial semiconductor heterostructures built from single layer WSe2 and MoS2 building blocks. We observe a large Stokes-like shift of ~100 meV between the photoluminescence peak and the lowest absorption peak that is consistent with a type II band alignment with spatially direct absorption but spatially indirect emission. Notably, the photoluminescence intensity of this spatially indirect transition is strong, suggesting strong interlayer coupling of charge carriers. The coupling at the hetero-interface can be readily tuned by inserting hexagonal BN (h-BN) dielectric layers into the vdW gap. The generic nature of this interlayer coupling consequently provides a new degree of freedom in band engineering and is expected to yield a new family of semiconductor heterostructures having tunable optoelectronic properties with customized composite layers.Comment: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/04/10/1405435111.abstrac

Serine/threonine acetylation of TGFbeta-activated kinase (TAK1) by Yersinia pestis YopJ inhibits innate immune signaling

The Gram-negative bacteria Yersinia pestis, causative agent of plague, is extremely virulent. One mechanism contributing to Y. pestis virulence is the presence of a type-three secretion system, which injects effector proteins, Yops, directly into immune cells of the infected host. One of these Yop proteins, YopJ, is proapoptotic and inhibits mammalian NF-kappaB and MAP-kinase signal transduction pathways. Although the molecular mechanism remained elusive for some time, recent work has shown that YopJ acts as a serine/threonine acetyl-transferase targeting MAP2 kinases. Using Drosophila as a model system, we find that YopJ inhibits one innate immune NF-kappaB signaling pathway (IMD) but not the other (Toll). In fact, we show YopJ mediated serine/threonine acetylation and inhibition of dTAK1, the critical MAP3 kinase in the IMD pathway. Acetylation of critical serine/threonine residues in the activation loop of Drosophila TAK1 blocks phosphorylation of the protein and subsequent kinase activation. In addition, studies in mammalian cells show similar modification and inhibition of hTAK1. These data present evidence that TAK1 is a target for YopJ-mediated inhibition

Rehabilitation strategies following oesophagogastric and Hepatopancreaticobiliary cancer (ReStOre II) : a protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Curative treatment for upper gastrointestinal (UGI) and hepatopancreaticobiliary (HPB) cancers, involves complex surgical resection often in combination with neoadjuvant/adjuvant chemo/chemoradiotherapy. With advancing survival rates, there is an emergent cohort of UGI and HPB cancer survivors with physical and nutritional deficits, resultant from both the cancer and its treatments. Therefore, rehabilitation to counteract these impairments is required to maximise health related quality of life (HRQOL) in survivorship. The initial feasibility of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation programme for UGI survivors was established in the Rehabilitation Strategies following Oesophago-gastric Cancer (ReStOre) feasibility study and pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT). ReStOre II will now further investigate the efficacy of that programme as it applies to a wider cohort of UGI and HPB cancer survivors, namely survivors of cancer of the oesophagus, stomach, pancreas, and liver. METHODS: The ReStOre II RCT will compare a 12-week multidisciplinary rehabilitation programme of supervised and self-managed exercise, dietary counselling, and education to standard survivorship care in a cohort of UGI and HPB cancer survivors who are > 3-months post-oesophagectomy/ gastrectomy/ pancreaticoduodenectomy, or major liver resection. One hundred twenty participants (60 per study arm) will be recruited to establish a mean increase in the primary outcome (cardiorespiratory fitness) of 3.5 ml/min/kg with 90% power, 5% significance allowing for 20% drop out. Study outcomes of physical function, body composition, nutritional status, HRQOL, and fatigue will be measured at baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1), and 3-months follow-up (T2). At 1-year follow-up (T3), HRQOL alone will be measured. The impact of ReStOre II on well-being will be examined qualitatively with focus groups/interviews (T1, T2). Bio-samples will be collected from T0-T2 to establish a national UGI and HPB cancer survivorship biobank. The cost effectiveness of ReStOre II will also be analysed. DISCUSSION: This RCT will investigate the efficacy of a 12-week multidisciplinary rehabilitation programme for survivors of UGI and HPB cancer compared to standard survivorship care. If effective, ReStOre II will provide an exemplar model of rehabilitation for UGI and HPB cancer survivors. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, registration number: NCT03958019, date registered: 21/05/2019