Tax competition in federations and the welfare consequences of decentralization

This paper explores the impact of intensified tax competition within federal systems characterized by the presence of both horizontal tax externalities between the states and vertical tax externalities between states and federal government. It shows that although these point in opposite directions (horizontal towards state taxes that are too low, vertical towards state taxes that are too high), leaving the net outcome unclear, intensified tax competition always worsens their combined effect. That is, intensified lower-level tax competition—in the form of an increase in the number of lower-level jurisdictions—is sure to reduce welfare, but this is not because, as usually supposed, it makes excessively low state taxes even lower; rather, it is welfare-reducing either for that reason or because it makes excessively high state taxes even higher.Federalism; Tax competition; Vertical and horizontal externalities; Decentralization

The magnetization of sediment cores from the eastern basin of the North Atlantic Ocean

The magnetization of sediment from the eastern basin of the North Atlantic Ocean is due to magnetite. The variation of the directions of magnetization due in cores from the abyssal plains depends upon the sedimentary features which are the result of turbidity current deposition. The change in the inclination in the cores from the abyssal hills and mountains which rise from, or which surround, the Iberia plain suggests that there may be an effect dur to consolidation. The magnetic susceptibility of the sediment depends upon the amount of magnetic present and its size distribution. One test on one core suggests instability and no correlation has been found between the directions of magnetization of adjacent cores

Do the UK government's new Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) scores adequately measure primary care performance? A cross-sectional survey of routine healthcare data

BACKGROUND General practitioners' remuneration is now linked directly to the scores attained in the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF). The success of this approach depends in part on designing a robust and clinically meaningful set of indicators. The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which measures of health observed in practice populations are correlated with their QOF scores, after accounting for the established associations between health outcomes and socio-demographics. METHODS QOF data for the period April 2004 to March 2005 were obtained for all general practices in two English Primary Care Trusts. These data were linked to data for emergency hospital admissions (for asthma, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary hear disease, diabetes, stroke and all other conditions) and all cause mortality for the period September 2004 to August 2005. Multilevel logistic regression models explored the association between health outcomes (hospital admission and death) and practice QOF scores (clinical, additional services and organisational domains), age, sex and socio-economic deprivation. RESULTS Higher clinical domain scores were generally associated with lower admission rates and this was significant for cancer and other conditions in PCT 2. Higher scores in the additional services domain were associated with higher admission rates, significantly so for asthma, CHD, stroke and other conditions in PCT 1 and cancer in PCT 2. Little association was observed between the organisational domain scores and admissions. The relationship between the QOF variables and mortality was less clear. Being female was associated with fewer admissions for cancer and CHD and lower mortality rates. Increasing age was mainly associated with an increased number of events. Increasing deprivation was associated with higher admission rates for all conditions and with higher mortality rates. CONCLUSION The associations between QOF scores and emergency admissions and mortality were small and inconsistent, whilst the impact of socio-economic deprivation on the outcomes was much stronger. These results have implications for the use of target-based remuneration of general practitioners and emphasise the need to tackle inequalities and improve the health of disadvantaged groups and the population as a whole

A Conceptual Framework for B2B Electronic Contracting

Electronic contracting aims at improving existing business relationship paradigms and at enabling new forms of contractual relationships. To successfully realize these objectives, an integral understanding of the contracting field must be established. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework for business-to-business contracting support. The framework provides a complete view over the contracting field. It allows positioning research efforts in the domain, analysing them, placing their goals into perspective, and overseeing future research topics and issues. It is the basis for drawing conclusions about basic requirements to contracting systems

Emergence of long-range order in BaTiO3 from local symmetry-breaking distortions

By using a symmetry motivated basis to evaluate local distortions against pair distribution function data (PDF), we show without prior bias, that the off-centre Ti displacements in the archetypal ferroelectric BaTiO3 are zone centred and rhombohedral-like in nature across its known ferroelectric and paraelectric phases. With our newly-gained insight we construct a simple Monte Carlo (MC) model which captures our main experimental findings and demonstrate how the rich crystallographic phase diagram of BaTiO3 emerges from correlations of local symmetry-breaking distortions alone. Our results strongly support the order-disorder picture for these phase transitions, but can also be reconciled with the soft-mode theory of BaTiO3 that is supported by some spectroscopic techniques.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Human PrimPol mutation associated with high myopia has a DNA replication defect

PrimPol is a primase-polymerase found in humans, and other eukaryotes, involved in bypassing lesions encountered during DNA replication. PrimPol employs both translesion synthesis and repriming mechanisms to facilitate lesion bypass by the replisome. PrimPol has been reported to be a potential susceptibility gene associated with the development of myopia. Mutation of tyrosine 89 to aspartic acid (PrimPolY89D) has been identified in a number of cases of high myopia, implicating it in the aetiology of this disorder. Here, we examined whether this mutation resulted in any changes in the molecular and cellular activities associated with human PrimPol. We show that PrimPolY89D has a striking decrease in primase and polymerase activities. The hydrophobic ring of tyrosine is important for retaining wild-type extension activity. We also demonstrate that the decreased activity of PrimPolY89D is associated with reduced affinities for DNA and nucleotides, resulting in diminished catalytic efficiency. Although the structure and stability of PrimPolY89D is altered, its fidelity remains unchanged. This mutation also reduces cell viability after DNA damage and significantly slows replication fork rates in vivo. Together, these findings establish that the major DNA replication defect associated with this PrimPol mutant is likely to contribute to the onset of high myopia

Bifurcated polarization rotation in bismuth-based piezoelectrics

ABO3 perovskite-type solid solutions display a large variety of structural and physical properties, which can be tuned by chemical composition or external parameters such as temperature, pressure, strain, electric, or magnetic fields. Some solid solutions show remarkably enhanced physical properties including colossal magnetoresistance or giant piezoelectricity. It has been recognized that structural distortions, competing on the local level, are key to understanding and tuning these remarkable properties, yet, it remains a challenge to experimentally observe such local structural details. Here, from neutron pair-distribution analysis, a temperature-dependent 3D atomic-level model of the lead-free piezoelectric perovskite Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 (NBT) is reported. The statistical analysis of this model shows how local distortions compete, how this competition develops with temperature, and, in particular, how different polar displacements of Bi3+ cations coexist as a bifurcated polarization, highlighting the interest of Bi-based materials in the search for new lead-free piezoelectrics

Resveratrol given intraperitoneally does not inhibit the growth of high-risk t(4;11) acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells in a NOD/SCID mouse model.

The efficacy of resveratrol as a preventive agent against the growth of t(4;11) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) was evaluated in NOD.CB17-Prkdcscid/J mice engrafted with the human t(4;11) ALL SEM cell line. SEM cells were injected into the tail vein and engraftment was monitored by flow cytometry. Once engraftment was observed, mice were injected intraperitoneally with resveratrol (10 mg/kg body weight) dissolved in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) or DMSO alone (control) every other day, or vincristine (0.5 mg/kg body weight) 3 times per week for 4 weeks (n=16 per group). Comparisons of the percent of human leukemia cells in blood and survival curves showed resveratrol did not inhibit progression of the disease. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analyses of mouse sera showed resveratrol was rapidly metabolized to glucuronidated and sulfated forms 1 h post-injection, with low to no resveratrol or metabolites observed in sera by 24-48 h. These data indicate that in contrast to findings in in vitro models, parenterally administered resveratrol does not have potential as a preventive agent against high risk t(4;11) ALL