Methodology for Distributing a VAT

Proposes a revised methodology for analyzing the distributional effects of a value-added tax - the economic burden placed on households of different income levels and demographics - as well as on government revenues and spending and capital

Learning From the Community: Effective Financial Management Practices in the Arts

Provides financial management practices identified from a survey of directors at leading arts organizations, in order to understand how their practices could be used across the arts sector. Includes a framework for developing self-assessment tools

Implications of Different Bases for a VAT

Analyzes options for a value-added tax: a low rate on a broad base to meet deficit reduction targets; a high rate on a narrow base that excludes items disproportionately consumed by lower-income households; or a broad base with a targeted rebate

Using a VAT for Deficit Reduction

Examines implications of imposing a value-added tax, compared with increasing individual income tax rates (including capital gains tax), such as the distribution of the tax burden on households, distortions on economic decisions, and government costs

Using a VAT to Reform the Income Tax

Analyzes a proposal to simplify the tax system and improve economic incentives by adopting a value-added tax, removing most current taxpayers from income tax rolls, reforming the corporate income tax, and lowering the top individual and corporate rates

Reducing the Deficit by Increasing Individual Income Tax Rates

Estimates impact on debt-to-GDP ratio of raising all individual income tax rates, including the capital gains tax; raising the top three rates and leaving capital gains rate unchanged; and raising the top two rates and leaving capital gains unchanged

Long distance decoy state quantum key distribution in optical fiber

The theoretical existence of photon-number-splitting attacks creates a security loophole for most quantum key distribution (QKD) demonstrations that use a highly attenuated laser source. Using ultra-low-noise, high-efficiency transition-edge sensor photodetectors, we have implemented the first version of a decoy-state protocol that incorporates finite statistics without the use of Gaussian approximations in a one-way QKD system, enabling the creation of secure keys immune to photon-number-splitting attacks and highly resistant to Trojan horse attacks over 107 km of optical fiber.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Strengthening Institutions for Stakeholder Involvement and Ecosystem-Based Management in the US Arctic Offshore

Due to their unique characteristics, the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas have escaped many, though not all, of the problems encountered in more temperate seas. For most of the 20th century, multi-year sea ice provided a barrier to significant industrial activity in the Arctic Ocean. Even though the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas have not been managed seas, per se, the area has been governed under a patchwork of policy regimes relating to regional Outer Continental Shelf land claims, marine mammal conservation, environmental pollution, coastal development and eventually pan-Arctic governance through the Arctic Council. As the open water period available to industrial use increases, new users are expected to follow. As in other parts of the United States, many human uses of the Alaskan marine environment are governed by a patchwork of rules stemming from various sectors of the federal, state, and local governments. Significant and emerging challenges include: climate change and the restructuring of seasonal sea ice habitats, ocean acidification, growing marine traffic and the prevention of oil spills in a challenging operating environment. Here we explore how innovations in ocean governance incorporating principles of ecosystem-based management, participatory democracy and complex systems can protect ocean resources and mitigate conflict.Ye

Pesticide leaching in Danish groundwater: identification of vulnerable areas

In Denmark the supply of drinking water is based almost solely on groundwater. During the past few decades Danish groundwater monitoring has encountered numerous instances of pollution with pesticides and their metabolites (GEUS 2003a). As a result, some hundreds of abstraction wells out of about 8000 in general water supply have been closed. With this background, there is a particular concern for reducing the leaching of pesticides into the groundwater. In the present study an approach for identification of areas potentially prone to pesticide leaching is described. The potential risk of leaching of pesticides from agricultural areas into groundwater is minimised through a procedure of approval; however, some leaching still occurs (GEUS 2003b). The Danish counties are therefore obliged to identify areas where there is a particular risk of pesticide leaching, and where restrictions in use of pesticides may be introduced to reduce the risk (Miljøstyrelsen 2000). The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) and the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences (DJF) have carried out a project, focusing on sandy agricultural areas, that attempts to establish the necessary background knowledge for identifying areas particularly prone to pesticide leaching. The project aims to distinguish vulnerable and less vulnerable areas, both locally and nationwide, in a cost-effective way