The Effects of State & Local Taxes on NBA Athletes

This paper examines the history and current effects of nonresident income taxes that states impose. Also known as “jock taxes” these taxes primarily effect high income individuals such as professional athletes. After diving into the history of nonresident taxation and current use, I will examine a real life example of the effects that state and local taxes can have on a player in the National Basketball Association. By comparing two teams in states that offer vastly different tax treatments, you will be able to see the effect that jock taxes can have on a player’s decisions and the financial consequences of those decisions. Finally, a brief analysis of the NBA’s six divisions will be provided in order to determine what divisions are the most and least advantageous to play in from a tax perspective.B.S. (Bachelor of Science

Strength Training with Superimposed Whole Body Vibration Does Not Preferentially Modulate Cortical Plasticity

Paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to investigate 4 wks of leg strength training with and without whole body vibration (WBV) on corticospinal excitability and short-latency intracortical inhibition (SICI). Participants (n = 12) were randomly allocated to either a control or experimental (WBV) group. All participants completed 12 squat training sessions either with (WBV group) or without (control group) exposure to WBV (f = 35 Hz, A = 2.5 mm). There were significant (P < 0.05) increases in squat strength and corticospinal excitability and significant (P < 0.05) reductions in SICI for both groups following the 4 wk intervention. There were no differences detected between groups for any dependant variable (P > 0.05). It appears that WBV training does not augment the increase in strength or corticospinal excitability induced by strength training alone

No evidence for absence of solar dynamo synchronization

Context: The old question of whether the solar dynamo is synchronized by the tidal forces of the orbiting planets has recently received renewed interest, both from the viewpoint of historical data analysis and in terms of theoretical and numerical modelling. Aims: We aim to contribute to the solution of this longstanding puzzle by analyzing cosmogenic radionuclide data from the last millennium. Methods: We reconsider a recent time-series of $^{14}$C-inferred sunspot data and compare the resulting cycle minima and maxima with the corresponding conventional series down to 1610 A.D., enhanced by Schove's data before that time. Results: We find that, despite recent claims to the contrary, the $^{14}$C-inferred sunspot data are well compatible with a synchronized solar dynamo, exhibiting a relatively phase-stable period of 11.07 years, which points to a synchronizing role of the spring tides of the Venus-Earth-Jupiter system.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

An analysis of eye-tracking data in foveated ray tracing

We present an analysis of eye tracking data produced during a quality-focused user study of our own foveated ray tracing method. Generally, foveated rendering serves the purpose of adapting actual rendering methods to a user’s gaze. This leads to performance improvements which also allow for the use of methods like ray tracing, which would be computationally too expensive otherwise, in fields like virtual reality (VR), where high rendering performance is important to achieve immersion, or fields like scientific and information visualization, where large amounts of data may hinder real-time rendering capabilities. We provide an overview of our rendering system itself as well as information about the data we collected during the user study, based on fixation tasks to be fulfilled during flights through virtual scenes displayed on a head-mounted display (HMD). We analyze the tracking data regarding its precision and take a closer look at the accuracy achieved by participants when focusing the fixation targets. This information is then put into context with the quality ratings given by the users, leading to a surprising relation between fixation accuracy and quality ratings.We would like to thank NVIDIA for providing us with two Quadro K6000 graphics cards for the user study, the Intel Visual Computing Institute, the European Union (EU) for the co-funding as part of the Dreamspace project, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) for funding the MATEDIS ZIM project (grant no KF2644109) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for funding the project OLIVE

Rieger, Schwabe, Suess-de Vries: The Sunny Beats of Resonance

We propose a self-consistent explanation of Rieger-type periodicities, the Schwabe cycle, and the Suess-de Vries cycle in terms of resonances of various wave phenomena with gravitational forces exerted by the orbiting planets. Starting on the high-frequency side, we show that the two-planet spring tides of Venus, Earth and Jupiter are able to excite magneto-Rossby waves which can be linked with typical Rieger-type periods. We argue then that the 11.07-year beat period of those magneto-Rossby waves synchronizes an underlying conventional $\alpha-\Omega$-dynamo, by periodically changing either the field storage capacity in the tachocline or some portion of the $\alpha$-effect therein. We also strengthen the argument that the Suess-de Vries cycle appears as an 193-year beat period between the 22.14-year Hale cycle and a spin-orbit coupling effect related with the 19.86-year rosette-like motion of the Sun around the barycenter.Comment: 31 pages, 12 figure