Political and Public Finance Motives for Tariffs

Governments face many constraints when making taxation decisions, including revenue needs, political objectives, and administrative capacities. Tariffs have an appealing combination of features for politicians: they provide a stream of revenue that is easy to collect, as well as satisfying political objectives in import-competing industries. This paper describes the tax structure governments choose when they are not purely benevolent. In the model the government must finance a stream of public expenditures while simultaneously seeking campaign contributions to maximize political support. The predictions of the model are consistent with observed taxation decisions in developing and industrialized countries.tariffs, political economy, development, tax regimes

Politico-Economic Determinants of American Trade Policy Attitudes

Voting behavior and constituent attitudes are central to many models of trade policy determination. Examining the demographic and economic variables that are associated with attitudes toward various trade policies can provide some insight into the public perception of globalization, and the political response to those perceptions. Using detailed response and demographic data from the Program on International Policy Attitudes survey “Americans on Globalization, Trade, and Farm Subsidies†I assess a number of potential determinants of trade policy attitudes. Educational attainment is most clearly associated with pro- trade attitudes, and party affiliation suggests a certain malleability of opinion on trade issues. In addition, there is substantial variation in the determinants of trade policy attitudes across policy variables.trade policy, globalization, policy attitudes

Near Infrared Spectroscopic Monitoring During Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing Detects Anaerobic Threshold

Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) provides assessment of the integrative responses involving the pulmonary, cardiovascular, and skeletal muscle systems. Application of exercise testing remains limited to children who are able to understand and cooperate with the exercise protocol. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) provides a noninvasive, continuous method to monitor regional tissue oxygenation (rSO2). Our specific aim was to predict anaerobic threshold (AT) during CPET noninvasively using two-site NIRS monitoring. Achievement of a practical noninvasive technology for estimating AT will increase the compatibility of CPET. Patients without structural or acquired heart disease were eligible for inclusion if they were ordered to undergo CPET by a cardiologist. Data from 51 subjects was analyzed. The ventilatory anaerobic threshold (VAT) was computed on VCO2 and respiratory quotient post hoc using the standard V-slope method. The inflection points of the regional rSO2 time-series were identified as the noninvasive regional NIRS AT for each of the two monitored regions (cerebral and kidney). AT calculation made using an average of kidney and brain NIRS matched the calculation made by VAT for the same patient. Two-site NIRS monitoring of visceral organs is a predictor of AT

Consistency between ARPES and STM measurements on SmB6_6

Strongly correlated topological surface states are promising platforms for next-generation quantum applications, but they remain elusive in real materials. The correlated Kondo insulator SmB$_6$ is one of the most promising candidates, with theoretically predicted heavy Dirac surface states supported by transport and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments. However, a puzzling discrepancy appears between STM and angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) experiments on SmB$_6$. Although ARPES detects spin-textured surface states, their velocity is an order of magnitude higher than expected, while the Dirac point -- the hallmark of any topological system -- can only be inferred deep within the bulk valence band. A significant challenge is that SmB$_6$ lacks a natural cleavage plane, resulting in ordered surface domains limited to 10s of nanometers. Here we use STM to show that surface band bending can shift energy features by 10s of meV between domains. Starting from our STM spectra, we simulate the full spectral function as an average over multiple domains with different surface potentials. Our simulation shows excellent agreement with ARPES data, and thus resolves the apparent discrepancy between large-area measurements that average over multiple band-shifted domains and atomically-resolved measurements within a single domain

Electronic band structure and carrier effective mass in calcium aluminates

First-principles electronic band structure investigations of five compounds of the CaO-Al2O3 family, 3CaO.Al2O3, 12CaO.7Al2O3, CaO.Al2O3, CaO.2Al2O3 and CaO.6Al2O3, as well as CaO and alpha-, theta- and kappa-Al2O3 are performed. We find that the conduction band in the complex oxides is formed from the oxygen antibonding p-states and, although the band gap in Al2O3 is almost twice larger than in CaO, the s-states of both cations. Such a hybrid nature of the conduction band leads to isotropic electron effective masses which are nearly the same for all compounds investigated. This insensitivity of the effective mass to variations in the composition and structure suggests that upon a proper degenerate doping, both amorphous and crystalline phases of the materials will possess mobile extra electrons

Triacylglycerol synthesis by PDAT1 in the absence of DGAT1 activity is dependent on re-acylation of LPC by LPCAT2

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The <it>Arabidopsis thaliana dgat1 </it>mutant, <it>AS11</it>, has an oil content which is decreased by 30%, and a strongly increased ratio of 18:3/20:1, compared to wild type. Despite lacking a functional DGAT1, <it>AS11 </it>still manages to make 70% of WT seed oil levels. Recently, it was demonstrated that in the absence of <it>DGAT1</it>, <it>PDAT1 </it>was essential for normal seed development, and is a dominant determinant in <it>Arabidopsis </it>TAG biosynthesis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Biochemical, metabolic and gene expression studies combined with genetic crossing of selected <it>Arabidopsis </it>mutants have been carried out to demonstrate the contribution of <it>Arabidopsis </it>PDAT1 and LPCAT2 in the absence of DGAT1 activity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Through microarray and RT-PCR gene expression analyses of <it>AS11 </it>vs. WT mid-developing siliques, we observed consistent trends between the two methods. <it>FAD2 </it>and <it>FAD3 </it>were up-regulated and <it>FAE1 </it>down-regulated, consistent with the <it>AS11 </it>acyl phenotype. <it>PDAT1 </it>expression was up-regulated by <it>ca </it>65% while <it>PDAT2 </it>expression was up-regulated only 15%, reinforcing the dominant role of <it>PDAT1 </it>in <it>AS11 </it>TAG biosynthesis. The expression of <it>LPCAT2 </it>was up-regulated by 50-75%, while <it>LPCAT1 </it>expression was not significantly affected. <it>In vitro </it>LPCAT activity was enhanced by 75-125% in microsomal protein preparations from mid-developing <it>AS11 </it>seed <it>vs </it>WT. Co-incident homozygous knockout lines of <it>dgat1</it>/<it>lpcat2 </it>exhibited severe penalties on TAG biosynthesis, delayed plant development and seed set, even with a functional PDAT1; the double mutant <it>dgat1/lpcat1 </it>showed only marginally lower oil content than <it>AS11</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Collectively, the data strongly support that in <it>AS11 </it>it is <it>LPCAT2 </it>up-regulation which is primarily responsible for assisting in PDAT1-catalyzed TAG biosynthesis, maintaining a supply of PC as co-substrate to transfer <it>sn</it>-2 moieties to the <it>sn</it>-3 position of the enlarged <it>AS11 </it>DAG pool.</p

Deployable Optical Receiver Array Cubesat

Small satellites and cubesats often have low data transmission rates due to the use of low-gain radio links in UHF and S bands. These links typically provide up to only 1 Mbps for communication between the ground and LEO, limiting the applications and mission operations of small satellites. Optical communication technology can enable much higher data rates and is rapidly gaining hold for larger satellites, including for crosslinks within SpaceX’s Starlink constellation and upcoming NASA deep space missions. However, it has been difficult to implement on small satellites and cubesats due to the need for precision pointing on the order of arcseconds to align the narrow optical laser beam between terminals--a laser transmitter in LEO may yield a footprint less than 100 meters wide at its receiving ground station. We report the development of a 3U cubesat to demonstrate new optical communication technology that eliminates precision pointing accuracy requirements on the host spacecraft. The deployable optical receiver aperture (DORA) aims to demonstrate 1 Gbps data rates over distances of thousands of kilometers. DORA requires an easily accommodated host pointing accuracy of only 10 degrees with minimal stability, allowing the primary mission to continue without reorienting to communicate and/or enabling small satellite missions using low-cost off-the-shelf ADCS systems. To achieve this performance, DORA replaces the traditional receiving telescope on the spacecraft with a collection of wide-angle photodiodes that can identify the angle of arrival for incoming communication lasers and steer the onboard transmitting laser in the corresponding direction. This work is motivated by NASA’s plans for a lunar communications and navigation network and supported by NASA’s Space Technology Program (STP). It is ideally suited for crosslink communications among small spacecraft, especially for those forming a swarm and/or a constellation, and for surface to orbit communications. We will implement the deployable optical receiver aperture and miniature transmission telescope as a 1U payload in the 3U cubesat and conduct the demonstration flight in LEO. Future implementations of the DORA technology are expected to further enable omnidirectional receiving of multiple optical communications simultaneously and accommodate multiple transmitting modules on a single cubesat