Key Components of Immigration Reform: An Analysis of the Economic Effects of Creating a Pathway to Legal Status, Expanding High-Skilled Visas, & Reforming Lesser-Skilled Visas

As the policy debate continues in Washington, DC and throughout the nation, this study shows the state- and national-level economic effects of key components of immigration policy reform. This report evaluates the economic implications of the Path to Legal Status, high-skilled (H-1B) visa expansion, and changes in lesser-skilled visa programs (H-2A, H-2B, and W-1 Visas). The authors use a REMI PI+ model of all 50 states and the District of Columbia to show the macroeconomic effects of the policy changes over the period of 2014 to 2045. PI+ is a multiregional macroeconomic model that has been used in thousands of national and regional economic studies, including studies of other elements of immigration reforms in the United States. Thiis report details the macroeconomic effects of each policy on the national and state level. Key summary macroeconomic indicators include employment, gross domestic (state) product, and personal income. It also provides employment effects by industry for the United States, and a complete set of state-level fact sheets which present results for each policy and all 50 states and the District of Columbia

A large scale height galactic component of the diffuse 2-60 keV background

The diffuse 2-60 keV X-ray background has a galactic component clearly detectable by its strong variation with both galactic latitude and longitude. This galactic component is typically 10 percent of the extragalactic background toward the galactic center, half that strong toward the anticenter, and extrapolated to a few percent of the extragalactic background toward the galactic poles. It is acceptably modeled by a finite radius emission disk with a scale height of several kiloparsecs. The averaged galactic spectrum is best fitted by a thermal spectrum of kT about 9 keV, a spectrum much softer than the about 40 keV spectrum of the extragalactic component. The most likely source of this emission is low luminosity stars with large scale heights such as subdwarfs. Inverse Compton emission from GeV electrons on the microwave background contributes only a fraction of the galactic component unless the local cosmic ray electron spectrum and intensity are atypical

Investigation of the behavior of the aqueous I3-I2-I system following intense irradiation

NOTE: Text or symbols not renderable in plain ASCII are indicated by [...]. Abstract is included in .pdf document. Acidified aqueous solutions containing [...], [...], and [...] have been irradiated by a high intensity flash lamp and the resulting change in the optical density of the solution has been observed spectrophotometrically as a function of time after the flash. Immediately following the flash, there is an increase in the optical density of the solution. This is attributed to the photochemical production of the diiodide ion, [...], by reaction (1) and/or reaction (2) and (3). [...] [...] [...]. The disappearance of the colored species, in about 1.5--8 milliseconds after the flash, has been found to be kinetically of the second order with respect to that species and has been explained in terms of the recombination of [...], principally by equation (4). [...] [...] [...]. On the basis of these assumptions, the value of [...] has been determined at wave lengths 365 mmu. and 435 mmu. for [...] ranging from [...] to [...] M. The experimental dependence of the rate of disappearance of [...] on [...] has been found to agree qualitatively with the theoretical equation: [...]. The calculated value of [...] has been found to vary with the wave length of the light used to observe the reaction as predicted by the equation: [...]. The presence of [...] in concentrations about [...] caused a slight increase in the value of [...], which was attributed to one or both of the reactions: [...] [...]. [...] in concentrations less than [...] appeared to decrease the rate of disappearance of [...]; for this anomalous effect no explanation is given. Experiments performed in which a large percentage of the light absorbed by [...] was cut off by filters produced correspondingly smaller phenomena but gave no conclusive evidence as to the relative proportion of [...] and [...] dissociated by the irradiation. An extensive summary of data is presented

Stream chemistry and hydrologic pathways during snowmelt in a small watershed adjacent Lake Superior

In regions with airborne contaminants and large snowpacks, there is concern over the impact that snowmelt chemical pulses - periods of sharp increase in meltwater solute concentration - could have on aquatic resources during spring runoff. A major variable in determining such an effect is the flow path of snowmelt solutes to the stream or lake. From December 1988, to late April 1989, the quality and quantity of precipitation, snowmelt, soil solution and streamwater were measured in a 176-ha gauged watershed on the south shore of Lake Superior. The main objectives were to (1) examine the change in flow path meltwaters take to the stream during distinct winter and spring hydrologic periods, (2) quantify ecosystem-level ion budgets prior to, during, and following snowmelt, and (3) examine if streamwater chemistry might be a sensitive indicator of change in ecosystem flow paths. Prior to peak snowmelt, groundwater made up 80% of stream discharge. During peak snowmelt, the groundwater level rose to the soil surface resulting in lateral water movement through near-surface macropores and as overland flow. Near the end of snowmelt, melt-waters exerted a piston action on deeper soil solution again increasing its relative contribution to streamwater discharge. Net groundwater drawdown during the study resulted in streamwater discharge about equal to precipitation inputs. Unfrozen soils and brief mid-winter thaws resulted in steady snowmelt throughout early and mid-winter. The snowpack lost \u3e 50% of most ions prior to the period of major snowmelt and high stream discharge in late March and early April. Snowmelt and streamwater NO3- and NH4 pulses occurred before the period of overland flow and peak streamwater discharge (April 4-24). During overland flow, stream discharge of total N, P, DOC, and AI peaked. Nutrient budgets computed for distinct hydrologic periods were much more helpful in explaining ecosystem pathways and processes than were changes in solute concentration. For the study period, watershed base cation (CB) discharge was 23 times input and SO42- discharge exceeded input by 42%. H+ was the most strongly conserved ion with output \u3c 0.2% of input. Also conserved were NH4+ with only 1.4% of input leaving the ecosystem and NO3- with output equal to 9.4% of input

Effect of reduced winter precipitation and increased temperature on watershed solute flux, 1988-2002, Northern Michigan

Since 1987 we have studied weekly change in winter (December-April) precipitation, snowpack, snowmelt, soil water, and stream water solute flux in a small (176-ha) Northern Michigan watershed vegetated by 65-85 year-old northern hardwoods. Our primary study objective was to quantify the effect of change in winter temperature and precipitation on watershed hydrology and solute flux. During the study winter runoff was correlated with precipitation, and forest soils beneath the snowpack remained unfrozen. Winter air temperature and soil temperature beneath the snowpack increased while precipitation and snowmelt declined. Atmospheric inputs declined for H+, NO 3- , NH 4+ , dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), and SO 42- . Replicated plot-level results, which could not be directly extrapolated to the watershed scale, showed 90% of atmospheric DIN input was retained in surface shallow ( \u3c 15 cm deep) soils while SO 42- flux increased 70% and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) 30-fold. Most stream water base cation (C B), HCO 3- , and Cl- concentrations declined with increased stream water discharge, K+, NO 3- , and SO 42- remained unchanged, and DOC and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) increased. Winter stream water solute outputs declined or were unchanged with time except for NO 3- and DOC which increased. DOC and DIN outputs were correlated with the percentage of winter runoff and stream discharge that occurred when subsurface flow at the plot-level was shallow ( \u3c 25 cm beneath Oi). Study results suggest that the percentage of annual runoff occurring as shallow lateral subsurface flow may be a major factor regulating solute outputs and concentrations in snowmelt-dominated ecosystems. © Springer 2006

Open Systems Architecture in a COTS environment

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, CaliforniaA distributed architecture framework has been developed for NASA at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) as the basis for developing an extended series of space mission support data systems. The architecture is designed to include both mission development and operations. It specifically addresses the problems of standardizing a framework for which commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) applications and infrastructure are expected to provide most of the components of the systems. The resulting distributed architecture is developed based on a combination of a layered architecture, and carefully selected open standards. The layering provides the needed flexibility in mission design to support the wide variability of mission requirements. The standards are selected to address the most important interfaces, while not over constraining the implementation options.International Foundation for TelemeteringProceedings from the International Telemetering Conference are made available by the International Foundation for Telemetering and the University of Arizona Libraries. Visit http://www.telemetry.org/index.php/contact-us if you have questions about items in this collection

Effects of acid deposition on watershed ecosystems of national parks in the great lakes basin

Legally protected national parks provide an appropriate substrate for essential long-term study of ecosystem structure and function, and for detecting trends in natural and human-induced stress. The absence of unplanned site manipulation in such areas is especially valuable for such research. Our present research has two major components. The first is the long-term ecosystem-level study of the effects of atmospheric contaminants on ecosystem processes. The overall objective is to evaluate ecosystem aquatic/terrestrial linkages and their role in establishing aquatic ecosystem sensitivity to anthropic atmospheric inputs. Four watershed/lake ecosystems, representative of much of the region\u27s diversity, are under study. Two mature boreal sites on Isle Royale are characterized by first-order perennial surface stream input and lake outflow. Two additional mainland northern hardwood sites, one with shallow soils and one with soils derived from glacial till, are characterized by sensitive aquatic systems. One site is in a private reserve and the other in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Surface outflow is gaged by Parshall flume and stage height recorder. Meteorological stations record variables for estimating evapotranspiration. One-tenth ha plots have been established in all watersheds and three sites have had intensive study of precipitation modification by canopy and forest soil

Nitrogen mineralization in boreal forest stands of isle royale, Northern Michigan

The correlation of soil temperature and moisture with inorganic N concentrations and net mineralization beneath major species types in mature boreal and northern hardwood forests was examined over a two year period. Soils beneath species types where the canopy was dominated by Betula papyrifera, Picea glauca, Alnus rugosa or, in northern hardwoods, Acer saccharum were studied. Net NO3- mineralization varied by species type and net total inorganic nitrogen (N) mineralization varied by month and the interaction of species type with month. Soil NO3- concentration and NO3- mineralization were correlated for spruce, and inversely correlated for alder and maple. Soil NH4+ concentration and NH4+ mineralization were inversely correlated for alder and maple. In laboratory temperature and moisture treatments of birch, spruce and maple soils, NH4+ and total inorganic N-mineralization increased with temperature. The response to moisture was most evident for NO3- mineralization in maple soils