Recent U.S. Trade Policy and its Global Implications

The purpose of this paper is to describe United States trade policy since World War II, and to assess the possibility for ongoing U.S.trade-policy leadership. U.S. trade policy has shown remarkable consistency since World War II. It has never been as purely free-trade-focussed as some commentators suggest, but it has not recently shifted toward isolationism as dramatically as alarmists fear. It has almost always been best described as "open, but fair," with injury to import competitors being the measure of "fairness." The general consistency of U.S. trade policy over time is quite remarkable given the frequent change of political party in power, especially in the executive branch, but also in the Congress. U.S. trade-policy leadership seems still potentially strong despite a decline in U.S. hegemony. It is clearly strong in a protectionist direction.Any shift toward aggressive insularity justifies parallel trade-policy aggression in the eyes of trading partners. It is arguably strong ina liberalizing direction as well. The U.S. seems ideally poised for aggressive trade-policy peacemaking; perhaps multilaterally, but perhaps also bilaterally; perhaps with its traditional industrial trading partners, but perhaps also with Japan and newly industrializing Asian countries that play so importanta role in U.S. trade, and that, on many matters,may be closer in spirit to U.S. economic philosophy than Europe, Canada, or Latin America.

Micro-mechanical analysis of damage growth and fracture in discontinuous fiber reinforced metal matrix composites

The near-crack-tip stresses in any planar coupon of arbitrary geometry subjected to mode 1 loading may be equated to those in an infinite center-cracked panel subjected to the appropriate equivalent remote biaxial stresses (ERBS). Since this process can be done for all such mode 1 coupons, attention may be focused on the behavior of the equivalent infinite cracked panel. To calculate the ERBS, the constant term in the series expansion of the crack-tip stress must be retained. It is proposed that the ERBS may be used quantitatively to explain different fracture phenomena such as crack branching

Explaining Public Attitudes on State Legislative Professionalism

Scholars have long argued that state legislative professionalism, or the provision of staff, legislator salary, and session length, has behavioral incentives for legislators and implications for legislative capacity. Scant attention, however, has been devoted to public attitudes on the provision of these legislative resources. Using survey data on preferences for features associated with a citizen legislature versus a professional legislature, we examine the contours of public attitudes on professionalism and test models on the factors associated with these attitudes. Results suggest partisanship, trust, and approval of the local delegation matter, but the factors differ by the legislative professionalism of the respondents state and for low versus high knowledge citizens.Legislative Professionalism, Public Opinion, Political Economy

Modelling a Smart Motorway

The increasing number of vehicles in the UK is putting strain on the motorway infrastructure. Smart Motorways have been implemented to reduce congestion. To test systems before they are physically built, they are simulated using objects models and GIS data. This paper has modelled a new smart traffic light system for a slip road joining a smart motorway. The smart traffic light models have been simulated alongside driver behavior models which together show that a smart traffic light system can adapt to continuously fluctuating traffic flow. The smart traffic light system reduced the number of congestion alerts by 80% on the smart motorway

Maximizing Societal Contributions of Latino Adults by Investing in Latino Children's Health Care

Focuses on the lack of preventive care and health insurance coverage for Latino children, and how this affects their health and school performance and impacts their ability to contribute as adults to California's economy and society