Arizona: Round 1 - State-Level Field Network Study of the Implementation of the Affordable Care Act

This report is part of a series of 21 state and regional studies examining the rollout of the ACA. The national network -- with 36 states and 61 researchers -- is led by the Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York, the Brookings Institution, and the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania.A number of decisions helped set the stage for Arizona's implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These decisions and the dynamics that led to them reflect a complex mix of intergovernmental political calculation and pragmatic public policy, past and present, which frame the state's capacity for implementing ACA in Arizona

Nitrogen geochemistry of a Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary site in New Zealand

Nitrogen in the basal layer of the K-T boundary clay at Woodside Creek, New Zealand, has an abundance of 1100 ppm, a 20-fold enrichment over Cretaceous and Tertiary values. The enrichment parallels that for Ir and elemental carbon (soot); all decrease over the next 6 mm of the boundary clay. The C/N ratio, assuming the nitrogen to be associated with organic rather than elemental carbon, is approximately 5 for the basal layer compared to 20 to 30 for the remainder of the boundary clay. The correlation between N and Ir abundances appears to persist above the boundary, implying that the N is intimately associated with the primary fallout and remained with it during the secondary redeposition processes that kept the Ir abundance relatively high into the lowermost Tertiary. Apparently the basal layer of the boundary clay represents the accumulation of a substantial quantity of N with an isotopic composition approximately 10 percent heavier than background delta value of N-15 values. If the boundary clay represents an altered impact glass from a meteorite impact than it probably denotes a time period of less than 1 year. Therefore, the changes in nitrogen geochemistry apparently occurred over a very short period of time. The high abundance of N and the correspondingly low C/N ratio may reflect enhanced preservation of organic material as a result of the rapid sweepout and burial of plankton by impact ejecta, with little or no bacterial degradation. It is conceivable that the shift in delta value of N-15 may represent an influx of nitrogen from a different source deposited contemporaneously with the impact ejecta. An interesting possibility is that it may be derived from nitrate, produced from the combustion of atmospheric nitrogen

Groupoid normalisers of tensor products: infinite von Neumann algebras

The groupoid normalisers of a unital inclusion $B\subseteq M$ of von Neumann algebras consist of the set $\mathcal{GN}_M(B)$ of partial isometries $v\in M$ with $vBv^*\subseteq B$ and $v^*Bv\subseteq B$. Given two unital inclusions $B_i\subseteq M_i$ of von Neumann algebras, we examine groupoid normalisers for the tensor product inclusion $B_1\ \overline{\otimes}\ B_2\subseteq M_1\ \overline{\otimes}\ M_2$establishing the formula$$ \mathcal{GN}_{M_1\,\overline{\otimes}\,M_2}(B_1\ \overline{\otimes}\ B_2)''=\mathcal{GN}_{M_1}(B_1)''\ \overline{\otimes}\ \mathcal{GN}_{M_2}(B_2)'' $$ when one inclusion has a discrete relative commutant $B_1'\cap M_1$ equal to the centre of $B_1$ (no assumption is made on the second inclusion). This result also holds when one inclusion is a generator masa in a free group factor. We also examine when a unitary $u\in M_1\ \overline{\otimes}\ M_2$ normalising a tensor product $B_1\ \overline{\otimes}\ B_2$ of irreducible subfactors factorises as $w(v_1\otimes v_2)$ (for some unitary $w\in B_1\ \overline{\otimes}\ B_2$and normalisers$v_i\in\mathcal{N}_{M_i}(B_i)$). We obtain a positive result when one of the$M_i$is finite or both of the$B_i$are infinite. For the remaining case, we characterise the II$_1$factors$B_1$for which such factorisations always occur (for all$M_1, B_2$and$M_2$) as those with a trivial fundamental group.Comment: 22 page

Heat budget observations for the FIRE/SRB Wisconsin experiment region from October 9 through November 2, 1986

A map and concise tables are presented which show locations, pixel size, and heat budget products from the NOAA-9 satellite for the FIRE/SRB Wisconsin experiment region during the period 9 October through 2 November 1986. In addition to the operational standard products, a narrowband albedo parameter is calculated and presented based on values from AVHRR band 1. This parameter is useful in identifying and/or quantifying clouds on a global basis using a polar-stereographic grid system

Taking Heisenberg's Potentia Seriously

It is argued that quantum theory is best understood as requiring an ontological duality of res extensa and res potentia, where the latter is understood per Heisenberg's original proposal, and the former is roughly equivalent to Descartes' 'extended substance.' However, this is not a dualism of mutually exclusive substances in the classical Cartesian sense, and therefore does not inherit the infamous 'mind-body' problem. Rather, res potentia and res extensa are proposed as mutually implicative ontological extants that serve to explain the key conceptual challenges of quantum theory; in particular, nonlocality, entanglement, null measurements, and wave function collapse. It is shown that a natural account of these quantum perplexities emerges, along with a need to reassess our usual ontological commitments involving the nature of space and time.Comment: Final version, to appear in International Journal of Quantum Foundation