Solvable Potentials from Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics

A recurrence relation of Riccati-type differential equations known in supersymmetric quantum mechanics is investigated to find exactly solvable potentials. Taking some simple {\it ans\"atze}, we find new classes of solvable potentials as well as reproducing the known shape-invariant ones.Comment: 14 pages, Late

State Funding for Special Education in Oregon : Calculating Cost Differentials of special education for handicapped students in Oregon school districts

A general principle of school finance is that the cost of the educational program is influenced by varying characteristics of students and school districts. This raises the question of whether state allocation policies should reflect the additional costs associated with particular educational programs, such as special education for handicapped students, vocational, compensatory, bilingual education, and gifted and talented education programs as well as cost differences associated with size, salaries, and related issues. Thus, it is essential for state government to identify cost differentials for special education programs in terms of various school districts to determine the importance of such differences and the possibility of adjusting formulas to reflect these differences. Higher levels of government intervene for special education in terms of social justice and social stability. The state of Oregon has a special interest, due in part to Measure 5, in identifying methods for allocating funds to support special education. There are several approaches to estimate cost differences due to special education, such as the resource-cost model and the resource-input methodology. Among the various methods for calculating the additional costs of special education, a cost function method has the potential to adjust for educational outcomes. However, estimating a cost function presents substantial empirical problems. In this study I estimate the additional cost of special education for handicapped students among Oregon school districts using a cost function method. In this process, by controlling for certain variables in a cost function, estimates of how locally specific characteristics, such as economies of scale, affect costs are investigated as well. The empirical results based on the 128 school districts show that there is no statistically significant evidence of a relationship between educational outcome and educational costs. The results are more consistent with an interpretation that schools spend the money available than they are with an interpretation that expenditures create well-defined impacts on measures of school performance. It implies it is very difficult, if not impossible, to apply a cost function method to determine appropriate state aid levels

Education Policy and Industrial Development: The Cases of Korea and Mexico

After many scholars studies, it has been suggested that among several facts of economic growth, Koreas relatively intensive investment in education made its fast economic growth possible. This study started from the question of whether large education expenditure automatically leads to a fast economic growth. We suggest that the expenditure must be allocated to the education level that is in accordance with the industrial policy, which in turn must consist with the countrys economic development stage. In Korea, the education sector supplied workers with adequate level of education that was required in each stage of development, whereas in Mexico, the supply of workers by education level was mismatched with the demand for labor derived from the industrial structure at each development stage. We conclude that not only the size of the expenditure but also its efficient use is important to guarantee the positive effects of education expenditure on economic growth

Comparison of the characteristic features of bonghan ducts, blood and lymphatic capillaries

Objective: To show that the characteristic morphological and ultrastructural features of a Bonghan corpuscle and duct presented here are consistent with the description given in the early reports of Bonghan Kim. Materials and Methods: We compared the morphological aspects of Bonghan ducts with those of blood and lymphatic capillaries on the ultrastructural level to display the manifestly distinctive nature of the Bonghan system. Results: The walls of the ductules were observed to be composed of a single layer of endothelial cells with characteristic rod-shaped nuclei and were not surrounded by a basal lamina or by accessory cells, such as pericytes or smooth muscle cells. The abluminal cell membranes of Bonghan ductules were not attached by anchoring filaments to the fibers of extracellular matrices as observed in lymphatic capillaries

Observation of Coiled Blood Plexus in Rat Skin with Diffusive Light Illumination

AbstractBlood plexuses are characteristic anatomical features of acupuncture points (APs). We developed an optical technique using diffusive light illumination to increase the brightened area of skin for observation of the blood plexuses in skin. We found that the blood plexuses were coiled blood vessels which came out of the perforations in the fascia of muscle. The coiled vessels could be straightened by stretching the skin. We observed a series of blood plexuses at the putative APs along the left and right kidney meridian lines in the abdominal skin of rats. In addition, the locations of the plexuses on the muscle fascia were just above the putative acupuncture muscle channels along the kidney meridians. Furthermore, immunohistochemical analysis of the skin specimens of the plexuses revealed its neurovascular bundle nature as expected from known anatomical features of the APs

Advanced Harmony Search with Ant Colony Optimization for Solving the Traveling Salesman Problem

We propose a novel heuristic algorithm based on the methods of advanced Harmony Search and Ant Colony Optimization (AHS-ACO) to effectively solve the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). The TSP, in general, is well known as an NP-complete problem, whose computational complexity increases exponentially by increasing the number of cities. In our algorithm, Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is used to search the local optimum in the solution space, followed by the use of the Harmony Search to escape the local optimum determined by the ACO and to move towards a global optimum. Experiments were performed to validate the efficiency of our algorithm through a comparison with other algorithms and the optimum solutions presented in the TSPLIB. The results indicate that our algorithm is capable of generating the optimum solution for most instances in the TSPLIB; moreover, our algorithm found better solutions in two cases (kroB100 and pr144) when compared with the optimum solution presented in the TSPLIB