3,583 research outputs found
Governance Issues for Health Insurance Exchanges
Outlines considerations for states in deciding how to structure a health insurance exchange, as well as issues of funding sources, operational flexibility, political independence and accountability, management structure, and sub-state dimensions
Parton distributions with threshold resummation
We construct a set of parton distribution functions (PDFs) in which
fixed-order NLO and NNLO calculations are supplemented with soft-gluon
(threshold) resummation up to NLL and NNLL accuracy respectively, suitable for
use in conjunction with any QCD calculation in which threshold resummation is
included at the level of partonic cross sections. These resummed PDF sets,
based on the NNPDF3.0 analysis, are extracted from deep-inelastic scattering,
Drell-Yan, and top quark pair production data, for which resummed calculations
can be consistently used. We find that, close to threshold, the inclusion of
resummed PDFs can partially compensate the enhancement in resummed matrix
elements, leading to resummed hadronic cross-sections closer to the fixed-order
calculation. On the other hand, far from threshold, resummed PDFs reduce to
their fixed-order counterparts. Our results demonstrate the need for a
consistent use of resummed PDFs in resummed calculations.Comment: 43 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in JHE
Method for carbon dioxide splitting
A method for splitting carbon dioxide via a two-step metal oxide thermochemical cycle by heating a metal oxide compound selected from an iron oxide material of the general formula AxFe3-xO4, where 0≦x≦1 and A is a metal selected from Mg, Cu, Zn, Ni, Co, and Mn, or a ceria oxide compound of the general formula MaCebOc, where
Transport and Spectroscopic Studies of the Effects of Fullerene Structure on the Efficiency and Lifetime of Polythiophene-based Solar Cells
Time-dependent measurements of both power conversion efficiency and
ultraviolet-visible absorption spectroscopy have been observed for solar cell
blends containing the polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) with two
different functionalized C60 electron acceptor molecules: commercially
available [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) or [6,6]-phenyl C61
butyric acid octadecyl ester (PCBOD) produced in this laboratory. Efficiency
was found to decay with an exponential time dependence, while spectroscopic
features show saturating exponential behavior. Time constants extracted from
both types of measurements showed reasonable agreement for samples produced
from the same blend. In comparison to the PCBM samples, the stability of the
PCBOD blends was significantly enhanced, while both absorption and power
conversion efficiency were decreased.Comment: manuscript submitted to Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cell
Symmetric derivatives of parametrized quantum circuits
Symmetries are crucial for tailoring parametrized quantum circuits to
applications, due to their capability to capture the essence of physical
systems. In this work, we shift the focus away from incorporating symmetries in
the circuit design and towards symmetry-aware training of variational quantum
algorithms. For this, we introduce the concept of projected derivatives of
parametrized quantum circuits, in particular the equivariant and covariant
derivatives. We show that the covariant derivative gives rise to the quantum
Fisher information and quantum natural gradient. This provides an operational
meaning for the covariant derivative, and allows us to extend the quantum
natural gradient to all continuous symmetry groups. Connecting to traditional
particle physics, we confirm that our covariant derivative is the same as the
one introduced in physical gauge theory. This work provides tools for tailoring
variational quantum algorithms to symmetries by incorporating them locally in
derivatives, rather than into the design of the circuit.Comment: 22+20 pages, 6+1 figure
Five-State Study of ACA Marketplace Competition
The health insurance marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) were intended to broaden health insurance coverage by making it relatively easy for the uninsured, armed with income-related federal subsidies, to choose health plans that met their needs from an array of competing options. The further hope was that competition among health plans on the exchanges would lead to lower costs and higher value for consumers, because inefficient, low-value plans would lose out in the competitive market place. This study sought to understand the diverse experience in five states under the ACA in order to gain insights for improving competition in the private health insurance industry and the implementation of the ACA.In spring 2016, the insurance marketplaces had been operating for nearly three full years. There were numerous press stories of plans' decisions to enter or leave selected states or market areas within states and to narrow provider networks by including fewer choices among hospitals, medical specialists, and other providers. There were also beginning to be stories of insurer requests for significant premium increases. However, there was no clear understanding of how common these practices were, nor how and why practices differed across carriers, markets, and state regulatory settings.This project used the ACA Implementation Research Network to conduct field research in California, Michigan, Florida, North Carolina, and Texas. In each state, expert field researchers engaged directly with marketplace stakeholders, including insurance carriers, provider groups, state regulators, and consumer engagement organizations, to identify and understand their various decisions. This focus included an effort to understand why carriers choose to enter or exit markets and the barriers they faced, how provider networks were built, and how state regulatory decisions affected decision-making. Ultimately, it sought to find where and why certain markets are successful and competitive and how less competitive markets might be improved.The study of five states was not intended to provide statistically meaningful generalizations about the functioning of the marketplace exchanges. Rather, it was intended to accomplish two other objectives. First, the study was designed to generate hypotheses about the development and evolution of the exchanges that might be tested with "harder" data from all the exchanges. Second, it sought to describe the potentially idiosyncratic nature of the marketplaces in each of the five states. Political and economic circumstances may differ substantially across markets. Policymakers and market participants need to appreciate the nuances of different local settings if programs are to be successful. What works in Michigan may not work in Texas and vice versa. Field research of this sort can give researchers and policymakers insight into how idiosyncratic local factors matter in practice.In brief, our five states had four years of experience in the open enrollment periods from 2014 through 2017. The states array themselves in a continuum of apparent success in enhancing and maintaining competition among insurers. California and Michigan appear to have had success in nurturing insurer competition, in at least the urban areas of their states. Florida, North Carolina, and Texas were less successful. This divergence is recent, however. As recently as the 2015 and 2016 open enrollment periods, all of the states had what appeared to be promising, if not always robust, insurance competition. Large changes occurred in the run-up to the 2017 open enrollment period
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