Household Expenditure and the Income Tax Rebates of 2001

Under the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, most U.S. taxpayers received a tax rebate between July and September, 2001. The week in which the rebate was mailed was based on the second-to-last digit of the taxpayer's Social Security number, a digit that is effectively randomly assigned. Using special questions about the rebates added to the Consumer Expenditure Survey, we exploit this historically unique experiment to measure the change in consumption expenditures caused by receipt of the rebate and to test the Permanent Income Hypothesis and related models. We find that households spent about 20-40 percent of their rebates on non-durable goods during the three-month period in which their rebates were received, and roughly another third of their rebates during the subsequent three-month period. The implied effects on aggregate consumption demand are significant. The estimated responses are largest for households with relatively low liquid wealth and low income, consistent with liquidity constraints.

DNA-decorated graphene chemical sensors

Graphene is a true two dimensional material with exceptional electronic properties and enormous potential for practical applications. Graphene's promise as a chemical sensor material has been noted but there has been relatively little work on practical chemical sensing using graphene, and in particular how chemical functionalization may be used to sensitize graphene to chemical vapors. Here we show one route towards improving the ability of graphene to work as a chemical sensor by using single stranded DNA as a sensitizing agent. The resulting broad response devices show fast response times, complete and rapid recovery to baseline at room temperature, and discrimination between several similar vapor analytes.Comment: 7 pages, To appear in Applied Physics Letter

Non-Destructive Testing of Thermal Resistances for a Single Inclusion in a 2-Dimensional Domain

In this paper we examine the inverse problem of determining the amount of corrosion/disbonding which has occurred on the boundary of a single circular (or nearly circular) inclusion D in a two dimensional domain W using Cauchy data for the steady-state heat equation. We develop an algorithm for reconsructing a function which qunatifies the level of corrosion/disbonding at each point in ¶W. We also address the issue of well-posedness and develop a simple regularization scheme. Then we provide several numerical examples. We shall show a simple procedure for recovering the center of D assuming that the boundary of W and D have the same thermal conductivity

United States Food Law Update: Moving Toward a More Balanced Food Regulatory Regime

For decades, the federal government has played a significant role in promoting healthy eating. In the early 1900s, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) promoted a foundational diet of milk, proteins, fruits and vegetables, and grains. Most Americans are at least somewhat familiar, although perhaps confused, with the more nuanced healthy eating recommendations contained in the food pyramid - first employed in 1992. And virtually every American has experienced the federally supported school lunch program. In the first half of 2011, these two iconic programs underwent significant change as part of a stepped-up effort to improve the health of the country through better food choices. Part I of this article describes the MyPlate initiative that replaces the iconic USDA food pyramid and menu revisions to the national school lunch and school breakfast programs. This section also profiles administrative decisions in two school districts to ban, on health grounds, brown- bag lunches in favor of school- provided lunches. Finally, this section describes some of the challenges of implementing a rule for chain restaurant menu labeling under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

United States Food Law Update: The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, Obesity and Deceptive Labeling Enforcement

The long-awaited enactment of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the most significant amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in several decades, provides the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with significantly enhanced jurisdiction to close some of the gaps in the domestic food safety system. The enhanced FDA authority, however, will have little impact on the shared governance system at the federal level that involves multiple agencies, as the Act does not address the U.S. General Accounting Office\u27s (GAO) repeated calls for consolidation of the fragmented federal food safety system. Rather, the Act perpetuates the division of authority between the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), as well as the potential for jurisdictional gaps, overlaps and inefficiencies. Part I of this article explores not only the FSMA, but a second piece of federal legislation, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which inter alia provides support for serving locally grown food in the school lunch program. Part II provides a brief update on three ongoing food law issues: the Pelman v. McDonald\u27s Corp. obesity litigation and associated local initiatives directed at the fast food restaurant industry, legal challenges to the raw almond pasteurization rule, and an update on the FDA\u27s review of genetically engineered salmon. Part III explores in greater depth a series of public and private enforcement actions directed toward allegedly deceptive labeling

Detailed Analysis of Prehospital Interventions in Medical Priority Dispatch System Determinants

Background: Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) is a type of Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) system used to prioritize 9-1-1 calls and optimize resource allocation. Dispatchers use a series of scripted questions to assign determinants to calls based on chief complaint and acuity.Objective: We analyzed the prehospital interventions performed on patients with MPDS determinants for breathing problems, chest pain, unknown problem (man down), seizures, fainting (unconscious) and falls for transport status and interventions.Methods: We matched all prehospital patients in complaint-based categories for breathing problems, chest pain, unknown problem (man down), seizures, fainting (unconscious) and falls from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2006, with their prehospital record. Calls were queried for the following prehospital interventions: Basic Life Support care only, intravenous line placement only, medication given, procedures or non-transport. We defined Advanced Life Support (ALS) interventions as the administration of a medication or a procedure.Results: Of the 77,394 MPDS calls during this period, 31,318 (40%) patients met inclusion criteria. Breathing problems made up 12.2%, chest pain 6%, unknown problem 1.4%, seizures 3%, falls 9% and unconscious/fainting 9% of the total number of MPDS calls. Patients with breathing problem had a low rate of procedures (0.7%) and cardiac arrest medications (1.6%) with 38% receiving some medication. Chest pain patients had a similar distribution; procedures (0.5%), cardiac arrest medication (1.5%) and any medication (64%). Unknown problem: procedures (1%), cardiac arrest medication (1.3%), any medication (18%). Patients with Seizures had a low rate of procedures (1.1%) and cardiac arrest medications (0.6%) with 20% receiving some medication. Fall patients had a lower rate of severe illness with more medication, mostly morphine: procedures (0.2%), cardiac arrest medication (0.2%), all medications (28%). Unconscious/fainting patients received the following interventions: procedures (0.3%), cardiac arrest medication (1.9%), all medications (32%). Few stepwise increases in the rate of procedures or medications were seen as determinants increased in acuity.Conclusion: Among these common MPDS complaint-based categories, the rates of advanced procedures and cardiac arrest medications were low. ALS medications were common in all categories and most determinants. Multiple determinants were rarely used and did not show higher rates of interventions with increasing acuity. Many MPDS determinants are of modest use to predict ALS intervention. [West J Emerg Med. 2011;12(1):19-29.