2,481 research outputs found
State tax revenue growth and volatility
Macroeconomic conditions and tax structures jointly determine the growth and volatility of state tax revenues. Since a variety of economic conditions exist among states, government policymakers should carefully anticipate and consider the possible impacts of proposed tax reform and revenue enhancements on the long-term growth and volatility of their unique tax revenue portfolios. In the short run, states generally cannot alter the volatility and growth rates of their economies. They can, however, change the composition of their tax portfolios to minimize the effects of the business cycle on their fiscal health. For this reason, state officials need to consider the natural tendencies of their economies when formulating tax policy. For example, states with volatile economies might want tax portfolios that minimize the impact of national macroeconomic trends; those with stable economies might consider adopting more aggressive tax portfolios that optimize their tax revenue growth/volatility combinations.Taxation ; State finance ; Revenue
Dispersity-Driven Melting Transition in Two Dimensional Solids
We perform extensive simulations of Lennard-Jones particles to study
the effect of particle size dispersity on the thermodynamic stability of
two-dimensional solids. We find a novel phase diagram in the dispersity-density
parameter space. We observe that for large values of the density there is a
threshold value of the size dispersity above which the solid melts to a liquid
along a line of first order phase transitions. For smaller values of density,
our results are consistent with the presence of an intermediate hexatic phase.
Further, these findings support the possibility of a multicritical point in the
dispersity-density parameter space.Comment: In revtex format, 4 pages, 6 postscript figures. Submitted to PR
Achievement of Low Emissions by Engine Modification to Utilize Gas-to-Liquid Fuel and Advanced Emission Controls on a Class 8 Truck
A 2002 Cummins ISM engine was modified to be optimized for operation on gas-to-liquid (GTL) fuel and advanced emission control devices. The engine modifications included increased exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), decreased compression ratio, and reshaped piston and bowl configuration
Dynamical completions of generalized O'Raifeartaigh models
We present gauge theory completions of Wess-Zumino models admitting
supersymmetry breaking vacua with spontaneously broken R-symmetry. Our models
are simple deformations of generalized ITIY models, a supersymmetric theory
with gauge group Sp(N), N+1 flavors plus singlets, with a modified tree level
superpotential which explicitly breaks (part of) the global symmetry. Depending
on the nature of the deformation, we obtain effective O'Raifeartaigh-like
models whose pseudomoduli space is locally stable in a neighborhood of the
origin of field space, or in a region not including it. Hence, once embedded in
direct gauge mediation scenarios, our models can give low energy spectra with
either suppressed or unsuppressed gaugino mass.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figure; v3: reference adde
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Exome sequencing of Finnish isolates enhances rare-variant association power.
Exome-sequencing studies have generally been underpowered to identify deleterious alleles with a large effect on complex traits as such alleles are mostly rare. Because the population of northern and eastern Finland has expanded considerably and in isolation following a series of bottlenecks, individuals of these populations have numerous deleterious alleles at a relatively high frequency. Here, using exome sequencing of nearly 20,000 individuals from these regions, we investigate the role of rare coding variants in clinically relevant quantitative cardiometabolic traits. Exome-wide association studies for 64 quantitative traits identified 26 newly associated deleterious alleles. Of these 26 alleles, 19 are either unique to or more than 20 times more frequent in Finnish individuals than in other Europeans and show geographical clustering comparable to Mendelian disease mutations that are characteristic of the Finnish population. We estimate that sequencing studies of populations without this unique history would require hundreds of thousands to millions of participants to achieve comparable association power
Radiative B-decay as a test of CKM unitarity
We point out that is a sensitive probe of possible violation of CKM unitarity. We
compute in a minimal extension of the Standard Model containing an
additional isosinglet charge () quark, which leads to a deviation from
CKM unitarity.Comment: 11 pages (Latex) + 4 postscript figures (compressed, tared,
uuencoded) included at the end of the paper - [please check before printing
that the uncompressed fig2.ps and fig3.ps files do not contain blank lines in
the beginning], CERN-TH.7294/94, MPI-PhT/94-3
Magnetic Flux Cancellation in Ellerman Bombs
Ellerman Bombs (EBs) are often found to be co-spatial with bipolar photospheric magnetic fields. We use Hα
imaging spectroscopy along with Fe I 6302.5 Å spectropolarimetry from the Swedish 1 m Solar Telescope (SST),
combined with data from the Solar Dynamic Observatory, to study EBs and the evolution of the local magnetic
fields at EB locations. EBs are found via an EB detection and tracking algorithm. Using NICOLE inversions of the
spectropolarimetric data, we find that, on average, (3.43 ± 0.49) × 1024 erg of stored magnetic energy disappears
from the bipolar region during EB burning. The inversions also show flux cancellation rates of 1014–1015 Mx s−1
and temperature enhancements of 200 K at the detection footpoints. We investigate the near-simultaneous flaring
of EBs due to co-temporal flux emergence from a sunspot, which shows a decrease in transverse velocity when
interacting with an existing, stationary area of opposite polarity magnetic flux, resulting in the formation of the
EBs. We also show that these EBs can be fueled further by additional, faster moving, negative magnetic flux
regions
A Search for Electron Antineutrino Appearance at the 1 Scale
The MiniBooNE Collaboration reports initial results from a search for
oscillations. A signal-blind analysis was
performed using a data sample corresponding to protons on
target. The data are consistent with background prediction across the full
range of neutrino energy reconstructed assuming quasielastic scattering, MeV: 144 electron-like events have been observed in this
energy range, compared to an expectation of events. No
significant excess of events has been observed, both at low energy, 200-475
MeV, and at high energy, 475-1250 MeV. The data are inconclusive with respect
to antineutrino oscillations suggested by data from the Liquid Scintillator
Neutrino Detector at Los Alamos National Laboratory.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 table
Quantitative, Architectural Analysis of Immune Cell Subsets in Tumor-Draining Lymph Nodes from Breast Cancer Patients and Healthy Lymph Nodes
Background: To date, pathological examination of specimens remains largely qualitative. Quantitative measures of tissue spatial features are generally not captured. To gain additional mechanistic and prognostic insights, a need for quantitative architectural analysis arises in studying immune cell-cancer interactions within the tumor microenvironment and tumor-draining lymph nodes (TDLNs). Methodology/Principal Findings: We present a novel, quantitative image analysis approach incorporating 1) multi-color tissue staining, 2) high-resolution, automated whole-section imaging, 3) custom image analysis software that identifies cell types and locations, and 4) spatial statistical analysis. As a proof of concept, we applied this approach to study the architectural patterns of T and B cells within tumor-draining lymph nodes from breast cancer patients versus healthy lymph nodes. We found that the spatial grouping patterns of T and B cells differed between healthy and breast cancer lymph nodes, and this could be attributed to the lack of B cell localization in the extrafollicular region of the TDLNs. Conclusions/Significance: Our integrative approach has made quantitative analysis of complex visual data possible. Our results highlight spatial alterations of immune cells within lymph nodes from breast cancer patients as an independent variable from numerical changes. This opens up new areas of investigations in research and medicine. Future application of this approach will lead to a better understanding of immune changes in the tumor microenvironment and TDLNs, and how they affect clinical outcome
Measurement of the neutrino component of an anti-neutrino beam observed by a non-magnetized detector
Two independent methods are employed to measure the neutrino flux of the
anti-neutrino-mode beam observed by the MiniBooNE detector. The first method
compares data to simulated event rates in a high purity \numu induced
charged-current single \pip (CC1\pip) sample while the second exploits the
difference between the angular distributions of muons created in \numu and
\numub charged-current quasi-elastic (CCQE) interactions. The results from
both analyses indicate the prediction of the neutrino flux component of the
pre-dominately anti-neutrino beam is over-estimated - the CC1\pip analysis
indicates the predicted \numu flux should be scaled by , while
the CCQE angular fit yields . The energy spectrum of the flux
prediction is checked by repeating the analyses in bins of reconstructed
neutrino energy, and the results show that the spectral shape is well modeled.
These analyses are a demonstration of techniques for measuring the neutrino
contamination of anti-neutrino beams observed by future non-magnetized
detectors.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, published in Physical Review D, latest version
reflects changes from referee comment
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