Budgetary and Distributional Effects of Adopting the Chained CPI

[Excerpt] This report examines the budgetary and distributional effects of using what is referred to as the Chained Consumer Price Index (C-CPI-U or chained CPI) as the official measure of inflation for adjusting federal revenue and spending programs for inflation. This report begins by describing general issues with measuring inflation before looking at concerns with the traditional CPI and the chained CPI. The report then examines the budgetary and distributional effects of adopting the chained CPI before offering some concluding observation

The Effect of Base-Broadening Measures on Labor Supply and Investment: Considerations for Tax Reform

[Excerpt] This report attempts to show how options to broaden the tax base by placing limitations on itemized deductions can potentially work against the expansionary effects of reducing marginal tax rates. After base-broadening tax reform taxpayers may face lower statutory marginal rates but some taxpayers—those who itemize—may have more of their income is subject to tax, effectively increasing their marginal tax rates. The report also addresses other common base-broadening provisions that increase the effective marginal tax rate on the return to capital

Tax Rates and Economic Growth

[Excerpt] This report summarizes the evidence on the relationship between tax rates and economic growth, referring in a number of cases to more-detailed CRS reports. Potentially negative effects of tax rates on economic growth have been an issue in the debate about whether to increase taxes to address the budget deficit and whether to broaden the base and lower the rates with tax reform. After first distinguishing between short-run counter-cyclical considerations and long-run growth effects, the following section provides some historical data on tax rates and measures of factor supply and growth. This report then reviews the empirical evidence on the major contributors to growth. The final section concludes with a review of dynamic scoring issues

Overview of the Federal Tax System

The major sources of federal tax revenue are individual income taxes, Social Security and other payroll taxes, corporate income taxes, excise taxes, and estate and gift taxes. This report describes the federal tax structure, provides some statistics on the tax system as a whole, and presents analysis of selected tax concepts

Distortion Costs of Taxing Wealth Accumulation: Income Versus Estate Taxes

Recently, attention has focused on the estate tax. To date, however, the debate over estate taxes has been nearly devoid of standard considerations of deadweight loss. We develop a framework for computing the deadweight loss of a revenue-neutral switch from an estate tax to a capital income tax, focusing on the potential lifetime behavioral responses in anticipation of paying the estate tax, while requiring relatively few parameters to estimate. We conclude that eliminating the estate tax and replacing the revenue with that from a capital income tax will likely enhance economic efficiency. Specifically, using our baseline parameter estimates we estimate that the mean decrease in deadweight loss is $0.018 per dollar of wealth. There is, however, considerable heterogeneity in the estimated impact. Importantly, our estimates are based on data that do not contain the 'super-rich' who are most highly affected by the estate tax.

End of life care: an educational pathway for community nurses.

This article reports on an innovative educational pathway for district and community nurses aimed at enhancing confidence and competence in dealing with end of life care (EoLC). Nurses were aligned with a mentor from a specialist palliative care team and, after completing a training needs analysis, created their own development plan. Participants undertook a range of formal and informal education, and a rise in confidence was identified, specifically in communication skills and symptom management. Such practice-based education may offer a powerful and convenient approach to EoLC education for community staff. Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/phc2014.02.24.1.18.e80

Spiders from Some Pacific Islands, Part V

A collection of spiders from various Pacific islands was entrusted to me for examination by the Director of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu, to whom I am indebted. There were 146 tubes, mostly containing a number of specimens, and they had been collected by different people at different times from islands between New Caledonia in the west and Tahiti in the east. Five new species are described and also four allotypes, and a number of additions to faunal lists have been made. The islands, or island groups, ' will be mentioned in alphabetical order, and the descriptions given at the end. Unless otherwise stated the specimens are in the Bernice P. Bishop Museum

Effects of radiation on the leach rates of vitrified radioactive waste

This report reviews the possible effects of both radiation damage to the glass and of radiolysis of the leachant on the leaching behaviour of vitrified radioactive waste. It has been stimulated particularly by recent papers, which have suggested that the leach rates of glasses will be enhanced by large factors after a ‘critical’ dose of radiation from alpha decays. These experiments have been conducted at highly accelerated rates using ion beams. The relationship between these experiments and the situation in vitrified waste has been assessed, taking into account the fact that experiments using alpha emitters incorporated in the glass have failed to find significantly enhanced leach rates after doses about five times larger than those equivalent to this ‘critical’ dose. It is concluded that these differences are observed partly because the ion beam experiments are carried out at such high dose rates that some recovery effects important at lower rates do not come into play. In the case of experiments with 2 keV argon ions, surface effects other than genuine radiation damage must be taken into account. In practice, if water has penetrated the canister, vitrified waste will be irradiated in the presence of the leaching solution. Enhancements of the leach rate due to the transient effects of radiation in the solid are shown to be completely negligible. The effects of radiolysis of the leaching solution and of any air in contact with the solution have also been considered in some detail and related to recent experiments by McVay and Pederson. It is shown that these radiolysis effects will not lead to any situations requiring special precautions in practice, although changes in surface leach rate by small factors can be expected under some circumstances. Any effect of irradiation on leach rates must be seen in the context of a waste repository. Along with other studies we hold the view that the rate of loss of material will be limited by the access of water to the repository, and will therefore depend on the effective saturation solubility of the glass in the leachant, not on the leach rate as usually determined in laboratory tests. Radiation damage is not expected to change the saturation solubility by more than a factor of two or three

The Effects of Engaging in Yoga Practice on Reducing Blood Pressure

The purpose of this study was to collect and synthesize evidence from studies examining the relationship between yoga practice and reduction of blood pressure in individuals with hypertension. The PubMed and CINAHL databases were searched using limiters which included humans, English language, peer-reviewed journal articles, full text available, and time restraints from 2010-2020. Eight studies were selected for review. Following yoga intervention, the average decrease is systolic blood pressure among these studies was 4.91 mmHg, a 3.6 percent decrease from the baseline systolic blood pressure measurements conducted before the introduction of yoga. Diastolic blood pressure was also recorded and a decrease of 1.45 mmHg, a change of 1.7% from the baseline diastolic readings was noted. In five of the eight studies included in this review, decreases in both systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure were recorded following yoga. Considering these results, yoga appears to be an effective method of reducing blood pressure among hypertensive patients. Blood pressure control through yoga has implications in reducing patients needs for antihypertensive medications and the reduction of the practice of polypharmacy in patients

The effects of low doses of ionising radiation on the viability of mammalian cells

The clonogenic response of V79-379A cells to single doses of X-rays (0.01-10 Gy) and neutrons (0.02-3 Gy) was determined using a computerised microscope (DMIPS) for locating and identifying cells. Survival estimates over the X-ray dose range 1 Gy to 10 Gy showed a good fit to a Linear-Quadratic (LQ) model. For X-ray doses below 0.6 Gy, an increased X-ray sensitivity was observed, with survival below the LX prediction. This phenomenon was not seen withneutrons, and cell survival decreased exponentially with dose. The increased X-ray effectiveness was reflected by a decrease in the RBE from -4.1 to 1.7 as the X-ray dose decreased from 1 Gy to below 0.05 Gy. Comparing the survival measurements from a DMIPS recognition assay with those obtained from a conventional assay suggest that this phenomenon cannot be attributed to the use of the recognition assay for measuring cell survival. Experiments performed on synchronised populations of cells indicate that the low-dose X-ray hypersensitivity is unlikely to be due to either cell cycle effects or a static subpopulation of X-ray sensitive cells. The X-ray dose response over the range 0.04-1 Gy was altered by repair modifiers in three ways. 3-aminobenzamide reduced the increase in radioresistance that occurred in non drug-treated cells as the X-ray dose was increased over the range 0.2-0.6 Gy, but did not affect the response below 0.2 Gy. Exposure to P-ara-A sensitised the cells to X-rays over the whole dose range (0.04-1 Gy) but did not prevent an increase in radioresistance with increasing X-ray dose. Hydrogen peroxide increased the radioresistance of cells to subsequent doses of X-rays below 0.6 Gy. The dose response was also modified by X-rays; a 0.05 Gy, 0.2 Gy or 1 Gy X-ray 'priming' treatment, given 4-6 hours before the 'test' doses of X-rays, eliminated the low-dose X-ray hypersensitivity that was seen in cells not given the priming treatment. This was not seen when the priming dose was administered 24 hours before the subsequent 'test' X-ray doses. These data are consistent with a hypothesis that the increase in radioresistance as the X-ray dose increases from 0.2-0.6 Gy is due to the manifestation of "induced repair" or a stress response: low doses (0.2 Gy) is there sufficient damage to trigger the protective mechanism. An induced-repair model fitted to the X-ray data predicts that repair is activated in the dose range 0.2-0.6 Gy with a 2 fold decrease in the sensitivity between the very low-dose response (0.6 Gy). Treatment with the protein synthesis inhibitor, cycloheximide, following a single dose of radiation reduced the increase in radioresistance that is seen normally over the X-ray dose range 0.2-0.6 Gy. Similarly, cycloheximide present during the interval between a priming dose and a subsequent X-ray dose eliminated the effect of the priming treatment. These data suggest that de novo protein synthesis is required to express the protective mechanism, possibly for the production of repair enzymes. A novel protein was detected in an irradiated sample of cells (1 Gy of X-rays) using 2D gel electrophoresis that was not present in unirradiated cells. These data appear to indicate that an inducible radioprotective mechanism exists in V79-379A cells that is triggered by H2O2 or small radiation doses and requires the synthesis of new proteins to induce radioresistance, possibly through a biochemical pathway affected by 3AB. The mechanism is induced within 4 hours of being triggered but is absent after 24 hours