Economic Impact of Infrastructure Investment

Infrastructure investment has received renewed interest as of late, with both President Trump and some Members of Congress discussing the benefits of such spending. The condition and performance of infrastructure is thought to affect the economic well-being of countries in a number of ways. This report provides an overview of the trends surrounding infrastructure investment in the United States and examines the potential impact of additional infrastructure investments on economic output and employment

U.S. International Corporate Taxation: Basic Concepts and Policy Issues

Recent deficit reduction and tax reform plans have included broad proposals to reform the U.S. international corporate tax system. These proposals have raised concerns over how changing the way American multi-national corporations are taxed could impact the deficit and debt, domestic job markets, competitiveness, and the use of corporate tax havens, among other things. An informed debate about how to reform the system governing the taxation of U.S. multi-national corporations requires careful consideration of these issues, as well as a basic understanding of several features of the current system. This report provides a general introduction to the basic concepts and issues relevant to the U.S. international corporate tax system. The explanations provided in this report emphasize the underlying concepts of the international tax system and are intended to be as simplified as possible. There are of course important and complex technical details that would need to be considered carefully if reform of the current system were to be implemented effectively and efficiently. These important technical details, however, are beyond the scope of this report. Where appropriate, references to other CRS products are provided within the report. A list of related CRS products and other suggested readings on international corporate taxation may also be found at the end of the report

Filtering of the Color Images Distorted by Impulse Noise

The paper deals with color image filtering distorted by impulse noise. The component, transformation, and vector filtering are analyzed. The filters are evaluated besides the classical criteria (mean absolute error and mean square error), and by the color difference criterion. Moreover, use of the impulse detectors in the color image filtration is analyzed

Time delays and system response times in human-computer interaction

This study sought to determine a type of graphical representation of system response time that would be most beneficial to the user in terms of task performance. Specifically, I examined which type of progress bar would allow the user to return to working with the system most efficiently while performing other concurrent tasks, and how well the user performed these tasks. The different types of progress bars studied included segmented and continuous progress presentations, and linear, accelerating, and decelerating progress behaviors. The results indicate that different representations of system response time affected performance on the two tasks, with the continuous progress bar resulting in the best performance out of the two progress bar types and the linear behavior resulting in the best performance out of the behaviors. The results also show that different progress bar speeds and types should be used depending on the desired effect of the progress bar on users

Verbes positionnels: Derivation, sémantique et fonctionnement

This research is based on the universal theory of the lexical-semantic category of causation. Taking into account the absence of the grammatical category of causation in German and Ukrainian, I consider the possibility that it is compensated by the corresponding word-formation category comprised positional derived causative verbs. They semantically encode the change of the body position of animate beings as well as the location of inanimate objects in space. Although the positional verbs have been described in many languages, the semantic features of positional causative verbs have never been previously investigated in German and Ukrainian, which accounts for the novelty of the research. The derivation and semantics of positional derived causative verbs are analyzed to show how typologically different languages, on the one hand, have similarity in expressing the basic concepts of positional causative situation. But on the other hand, they differ in the spatial representation.Este artículo se basa en la teoría universal de la categoría de causalidad léxico-semántica y su carácter específico. Teniendo en cuenta la ausencia de la categoría gramatical de la causación en ambos idiomas, considero la posibilidad de que se compense con la categoría de formación de palabras correspondiente comprendida por los verbos causativos derivados de la posición. Los verbos causales posicionales se utilizan en este estudio como un término general que se refiere a una clase de verbos causales que codifican semánticamente la postura corporal estática o la posición de los seres animados o la ubicación estática de los objetos inanimados en el espacio. Aunque los verbos de posición se han descrito en muchos idiomas, sus características semánticas nunca se han explorado en alemán y ucraniano. La derivación y la semántica de los verbos causativos derivados de la posición se analizan para mostrar cómo lenguajes tipológicamente diferentes, por un lado, tienen similitud en la expresión de los conceptos básicos de la situación causal posicional. Pero, por otro lado, difieren en la representación espacial.Cet article est basé sur la théorie du caractère universel de la catégorie de causalité lexico-sémantique et de son caractère spécifique. Compte tenu de l’absence de la catégorie grammaticale de causalité dans les deux langues, j’envisage la possibilité qu’elle soit compensée par la catégorie de formation de mots correspondante, constituée par les verbes causatifs dérivés positionnels. Les verbes causatifs de position sont utilisés dans cette étude comme un terme générique qui désigne une classe de verbes causatifs qui encodent sémantiquement la positional corporelle statique ou la position des êtres animés ou la position statique des objets inanimés dans l'espace. Bien que les verbes de position aient été décrits dans de nombreuses langues, leurs caractéristiques sémantiques n’ont jamais été explorées auparavant en allemand et en ukrainien. La dérivation et la sémantique des verbes causatifs dérivés positionnels sont analysées pour montrer comment des langues typologiquement différentes, d'une part, ont une similitude dans l'expression des concepts de base de situation causative positionnelle. Mais d'un autre côté, ils diffèrent dans la représentation spatiale

From mental health industry to humane care : suggestions for an alternative systemic approach to distress

The article proposes a rough outline of an alternative systemic approach to mental health issues and of a more humane mental health care system. It suggests focusing on understanding mental distress as stemming from problems in living, using medications as agents facilitating psychotherapy, or as a last resort and short-term help, according to the principles of harm reduction. It argues that understanding drugs as psychoactive substances and studying the subjective effects they produce could lead to better utilization of medications and improvements in terms of conceptualizing and assessing treatment effects. Qualitative research could be particularly useful in that regard. It also advocates a radical departure from current diagnostic systems and proposes a synthesis of already existing alternatives to be used for both research and clinical purposes. Accordingly, a general idea for an alternative mental health care system, based on a combination of Open Dialogue Approach, Soteria houses, individual and group psychotherapy, cautious prescribing, services helping with drug discontinuation, peer-led services and social support is presented. The proposition could be seen as a first step towards developing a systemic alternative that could replace the currently dominating approach instead of focusing on implementing partial solutions that can be co-opted by the current one