The Effect of Malaria on Settlement and Land Use: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon

We estimate the effect of malaria on settlement and land use patterns in the Brazilian Amazon, where potential settlers were randomly assigned to plots in a newly opened settlement area. The random assignment allows us to estimate the risk of malaria on each plot based only on its characteristics. Using survey data, we find that a high malaria risk significantly reduces the probability that a plot is inhabited. Using satellite images, we find that a high malaria risk does not reduce forest clearance or crop coverage on a plot. Non-resident farming substitutes for physical inhabitation when malaria risk is high.malaria, settlement, land use, Brazil, Amazon

Key issues of central and local government finance in the People's Republic of China

Fiscal decentralization has been established in the People's Republic of China (PRC), but crises emerge at the local government level due to remaining problems of the fiscal administration system of tax allocation and the impact of replacing the business tax with a value added tax. The PRC taxation system requires readjustment and local governments have begun to focus on innovative financing models. The main path to stable and sustainable government finances is to maintain the general public budget and the government fund budget. The present study shows that use of innovative fundraising and financing channels will lead to the upgrading of local government infrastructure and public service. Suggestions for enhancing local government fiscal stability and sustainability include: reducing the fiscal burden at the local level by standardizing and legalizing outlay responsibilities at all government levels; forming a long-term fiscal growth mechanism by establishing a modern taxation system; establishing a standardized and predictable transfer payment system by introducing block transfer payments and prioritized transfer payments as a basis for a stable growth mechanism for general transfer payments; promoting public-private partnership legislation to encourage participation of social capital and maximize the multiplier effect of public expenditure; and improving the mid-term budget and debt-annexed budget and establishing a government planning mechanism for investment and debt financing of major infrastructure construction projects

Safety Model Checking with Complementary Approximations

Formal verification techniques such as model checking, are becoming popular in hardware design. SAT-based model checking techniques such as IC3/PDR, have gained a significant success in hardware industry. In this paper, we present a new framework for SAT-based safety model checking, named Complementary Approximate Reachability (CAR). CAR is based on standard reachability analysis, but instead of maintaining a single sequence of reachable- state sets, CAR maintains two sequences of over- and under- approximate reachable-state sets, checking safety and unsafety at the same time. To construct the two sequences, CAR uses standard Boolean-reasoning algorithms, based on satisfiability solving, one to find a satisfying cube of a satisfiable Boolean formula, and one to provide a minimal unsatisfiable core of an unsatisfiable Boolean formula. We applied CAR to 548 hardware model-checking instances, and compared its performance with IC3/PDR. Our results show that CAR is able to solve 42 instances that cannot be solved by IC3/PDR. When evaluated against a portfolio that includes IC3/PDR and other approaches, CAR is able to solve 21 instances that the other approaches cannot solve. We conclude that CAR should be considered as a valuable member of any algorithmic portfolio for safety model checking

The Unique Study of Talent Cultivation for English Major in Private Universities of China

The paper focused on the research of talent cultivation for English major in the universities of China, especially in private universities. It is often criticized that the English major makes no difference from public English or English training. The main problems of English major at present in China Universities are in its personnel cultivating program, and course design. These problems are shown in the paper mainly by case studies, literature research from the authors’ teaching experience. To solve these problems, the traditional English major must make some tentative innovation and improvement. For the personnel cultivating, it must make a balance between specialists and generalists. For the major setup, it should make refinement in different fields and aspects to let the students make a choice according to their own interests and characteristics, so the paper proposed the mechanism of general enrollment and stratified cultivating. For the course design, it is necessary to make a change from “learning English” to “learning in English”. Learning English mainly lies with students. The learning process, especially the skill-based learning, mainly lies in the learners themselves, while the task of the teacher plays the role of mentor and supervisor. Learning in English is the main direction of English teachers’ efforts. It is the main mission of the teachers of English major to teach humanities courses in full English, cultivate students’ critical thinking in teaching, and let students actively participate in classroom interaction. With these changes, the English major can strive to achieve its own development by being unique and new

Universal health coverage: The case of China

In less than a decade, China transformed its inadequate, unjust health care system in order to provide basic universal health coverage (UHC) for its people. What forces made it possible for China to achieve this? What kind of transformation took place? What are the impacts of these policy changes? What can we learn from China? Moreover, while China has achieved UHC in basic health services, this does not mean that everyone has equal access to the same quality of affordable health care. This paper, which uses a theory of political economy to analyse China´s policy changes and accomplishments, consists of four main sections. Section I reviews the historical development of the Chinese health care system from the 1950s through the 1990s, tracing the serious consequences of the policy shift in the 1980s when the health care system and health care delivery became privately financed and commercialized. Section II analyses the political economy factors that drove and shaped the reform of the Chinese health system, focusing on the politics, institutions and actors that synergistically led to the establishment of UHC in 2009. In this section, we modified slightly John Kingdon´s theory and used it to examine four main streams of forces to explain how China´s reform came about. (1) The problem stream shows how Chinese political leaders recognized a serious, widespread public discontent regarding health and then diagnosed the root causes of these health problems. (2) The policy stream examines how major stakeholders in the health sector proposed, and heatedly debated, different policy options based on their vested interests and ideologies. (3) The financial stream highlights how China´s health policy was driven by fiscal constraints. (4) The politics stream analyses the political factors that influenced the agenda setting and policy formulation of UHC in authoritarian China, albeit with limited political transparency. The paper tracks these streams with historical evidence to conclude that the policy changes for UHC in China were established by the convergence of these four streams. Section III presents the policy outcomes - the current financing structure of the UHC (i.e., the three different insurance schemes, their benefit packages, and key companion programmes to assure the supply of basic services). Based on quantitative evidence, we summarize the impacts of China´s UHC in terms of equitable access to health care, quality and affordability of health care, health outcomes, and financial risk protection from high and/or catastrophic medical expenses. Although China´s UHC was a great achievement, stark disparities remain between urban and rural residents in China, along with high health expenditure inflation rates arising from inefficiency and waste in the health care system. In section IV, we discuss the remaining challenges for China´s health care system and comment on the potential lessons of the Chinese experience for other nations

Complex decay chains of top and bottom squarks

Current searches for the top squark mostly focus on the decay channels of $\tilde{t}_1 \rightarrow t \chi_1^0$ or $\tilde{t}_1 \rightarrow b \chi_1^\pm \rightarrow bW \chi_1^0$, leading to $tt/bbWW+\not\mathrel{E}_T$ final states for top squark pair production at the LHC. In supersymmetric scenarios with light gauginos other than the neutralino lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), different decay modes of the top squark could be dominant, which significantly weaken the current top squark search limits at the LHC. Additionally, new decay modes offer alternative discovery channels for top squark searches. In this paper, we study the top squark and bottom squark decay in the Bino-like LSP case with light Wino or Higgsino next-to-LSPs (NLSPs), and identify cases in which additional decay modes become dominant. We also perform a collider analysis for top squark pair production with mixed top squark decay final states of $\tilde{t}_1 \to t {\chi}_2^0 \to th {\chi}_1^0$, $\tilde{t}_1 \to b {\chi}_1^\pm \to bW {\chi}_1^0$, leading to the $bbbbjj\ell+\not\mathrel{E}_T$ collider signature. The branching fraction for such decay varies between 25\% and 50\% for a top squark mass larger than 500 GeV with $M_2=M_1+150$ GeV. At the 14 TeV LHC with 300 ${\rm fb}^{-1}$ integrated luminosity, the top squark can be excluded up to about 1040 GeV at the 95\% C.L., or be discovered up to 940 GeV at 5$\sigma$ significance.Comment: 28 pages, 13 figure

The Large Decline in Production of Meretorix lusoria in KUWANA and Corresponding Measures Taken by the Fishery Association

KUWANA Hamaguri (Meretorix lusoria), formerly famous for being the most productive in Japan because of the existence in Kuwana of vast shallows spread across the estuaries of three big rivers (the Kiso, Nagara and Ibi), is now on the brink of extinction, so that even people in KUWANA lament that they cannot eat "true" KUWANA Hamaguri. This article, based on my own research in AKASUKA, a fishery village specializing in Meretorix lusoria, tries to explain the reasons for and the actual circumstances of this decline in Meretorix lusoria, as well as the strategic countermeasures taken by the Fishery Association in KUWANA. This study shows the crises and contradictions existing in the industrial development of Japan, which were so rapidly realized at the expense of natural and traditional resources. The reasons for the reduction include many factors. First, practically "free" fishing, which has reduced the natural stock of Meretorix lusoria. Second, public pollution, which has chemically affected Meretorix lusoria and its environment. Third, reclamation of land from the sea for cultivation, dredging and deepening of the estuaries, and the sinking of the sea ground, all these caused a reduction in the vast shallows which had been spread across the estuaries of the three rivers and offered a natural medium for Meretorix lusoria. The most important among these was however the construction of low-lying paddy fields between 1966 and 1974 covering 444 ha. This project led to the near disappearance of the breeding environment for Meretorix lusoria. Besides, the reclaimed land, called KISOZAKI, has not been cultivated, having lost its agricultural land value. This big public project is an example of Japanese public enterprise undertaken sometimes with no clear vision about the nature of public enterprise. To boost production, the Fishery Association has taken measures to foster the breeding of clams through artificial fertilization and the establishment of immature clam beds. However, artificial fertilization technology..

Exploring infrared wavelength matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization of proteins with delayed-extraction time-of-flight mass spectrometry

AbstractWe report a study of the application of delayed extraction (DE) to infrared-wavelength matrix-assisted time-of-flight mass spectrometry (IR-MALDI-TOF-MS) of proteins. The shapes of the spectral peaks obtained with DE-IR-MALDI-MS are compared with those obtained from the same samples and matrix using continuous extraction (CE) IR-MALDI-MS. Application of DE results in significant improvements in the peak resolution, revealing spectral features (in proteins with molecular masses <12 kDa) that were not resolved in the corresponding CE-IR-MALDI mass spectra. Particularly significant is a series of peaks on the high mass side of the protonated protein peaks that arise through replacement of protons by adventitious sodium ions in the sample. We deduced that these sodium replacement species are a significant contributer to the broad tails (and resulting peak asymmetries) that are a feature of the DE-IR-MALDI mass spectra of proteins with molecular masses ≥17 kDa. The peak width reduction observed in IR-MALDI by DE suggests that, as in UV-MALDI, the initial velocity distribution for ions produced in the MALDI process contributes to the peak broadness in the CE mass spectra. In a systematic comparison between DE UV-MALDI and DE IR-MALDI, we determined that photochemical matrix adduction is present in UV-MALDI but absent in IR-MALDI. In addition, we find that protein ions produced by IR irradiation are less internally excited (i.e., cooler), exhibiting less fragmentation, more Na+ replacement and/or unspecified noncovalent adduction, and more heme adduction with apomyoglobin. Thus, IR-MALDI appears to be a softer means for producing gas-phase protein ions than is UV-MALDI. It will be of considerable practical interest to determine whether large protein ions produced by IR-MALDI are sufficiently cool to survive transport through reflecting TOF mass spectrometers (without loss of small neutral species such as H2O, NH3, and CO2) and the extended time periods required for detection by quadrupole ion trap and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass analyzers