Interest rate risk and other determinants of post WWII U.S. government debt/GDP dynamics

This paper uses a sequence of government budget constraints to motivate estimates of returns on the U.S. Federal government debt. Our estimates differ conceptually and quantitatively from the interest payments reported by the U.S. government. We use our estimates to account for contributions to the evolution of the debt-GDP ratio made by inflation, growth, and nominal returns paid on debts of different maturities.Holding period returns, capital gains, inflation, growth, debt- GDP ratio, government budget constraint

Accounting for the federal government's cost of funds

This article describes and defends the authors' corrections to the federal government's flawed measure of its cost of funds. Further, it examines how the maturity structure of the debt influences the way inflation risk and interest rate risk are shared by the government and its creditors.Gross domestic product ; Inflation (Finance) ; Interest rates

A Coupled Quantum Otto Cycle

We study the 1-d isotropic Heisenberg model of two spin-1/2 systems as a quantum heat engine. The engine undergoes a four-step Otto cycle where the two adiabatic branches involve changing the external magnetic field at a fixed value of the coupling constant. We find conditions for the engine efficiency to be higher than the uncoupled model; in particular, we find an upper bound which is tighter than the Carnot bound. A new domain of parameter values is pointed out which was not feasible in the interaction-free model. Locally, each spin seems to effect the flow of heat in a direction opposite to the global temperature gradient. This seeming contradiction to the second law can be resolved in terms of local effective temperature of the spins

Do Job, Age, and Place of Residence Matter for Gaming Activity? A Study of the Mid-Colorado River Communities

A household survey in the mid-Colorado River communities of Laughlin, Nevada and Bullhead City, Arizona examined local residents\u27 gaming activities. A censored regression analysis distinguished between factors affecting gaming participation versus expenditures. Results suggest that gaming behavior can often be predicted with knowledge of individuals\u27 residence, workplace, and other household demographic characteristics. Both local government agencies and casino managers can use the results to make better-informed decisions

Emancipatory Blockchain Provenance in Global Development

This work examines the development, implementation, and impact of Provenance Proof, a blockchain platform developed for marginalized members of the artisanal gemstone mining industry. We explore the origin and motivation of the program, its growth and impact, and the challenges that continue to hinder its mission. Using an interpretive qualitative methodology, we make use of data from artisanal miners, NGOs, blockchain technology firms, jewelry designers, retailers, and others in the form of interviews, media, websites, presentations, and gemstone conferences. We find that despite strong funding and technical development, sustained usage among artisanal miners remains low. We identify both positive steps and challenges to successful and sustained deployment and augment the macro-level Framework of Blockchain-Supported Development

The National Virtual Observatory

As a scientific discipline, Astronomy is rather unique. We only have one laboratory, the Universe, and we cannot, of course, change the initial conditions and study the resulting effects. On top of this, acquiring Astronomical data has historically been a very labor-intensive effort. As a result, data has traditionally been preserved for posterity. With recent technological advances, however, the rate at which we acquire new data has grown exponentially, which has generated a Data Tsunami, whose wave train threatens to overwhelm the field. In this conference proceedings, we present and define the concept of virtual observatories, which we feel is the only logical answer to this dilemma.Comment: 5 pages, uses newpasp.sty (included), to appear in "Extragalactic Gas at Low Redshfit", ASP Conf. Series, J. S. Mulchaey and J. T. Stocke (eds.

Neural delays shape selectivity to interaural intensity differences in the lateral superior olive

Neurons in the lateral superior olive (LSO) respond selectively to interaural intensity differences (IIDs), one of the chief cues used to localize sounds in space. LSO cells are innervated in a characteristic pattern: they receive an excitatory input from the ipsilateral ear and an inhibitory input from the contralateral ear. Consistent with this pattern, LSO cells generally are excited by sounds that are more intense at the ipsilateral ear and inhibited by sounds that are more intense at the contralateral ear. Despite their relatively homogeneous pattern of innervation, IID selectivity varies substantially from cell to cell, such that selectivities are distributed over the range of IIDs that would be encountered in nature. For some time, researchers have speculated that the relative timing of the excitatory and inhibitory inputs to an LSO cell might shape IID selectivity. To test this hypothesis, we recorded from 50 LSO cells in the free-tailed bat while presenting stimuli that varied in interaural intensity and in interaural time of arrival. The results suggest that, for more than half of the cells, the latency of inhibition was several hundred microseconds longer than the latency of excitation. Increasing the intensity to the inhibitory ear shortened the latency of inhibition and brought the timing of the inputs from the two ears into register. Thus, a neural delay of the inhibition helped to define the IID selectivity of these cells, accounting for a significant part of the variation in selectivity among LSO cells

Wnt5a causes ROR1 to complex and activate cortactin to enhance migration of chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells (CLL) migrate between the blood and lymphoid tissues in response to chemokines. Such migration requires structured cytoskeletal-actin polymerization, which may involve the protein cortactin. We discovered that treatment of CLL cells with Wnt5a causes Receptor tyosin kinase-like orphan receptor 1 (ROR1) to bind cortactin, which undergoes tyrosine phosphorylation at Y421, recruits ARHGEF1, and activates RhoA, thereby enhancing leukemia-cell migration; such effects could be inhibited by cirmtuzumab, a humanized mAb specific for ROR1. We transfected the CLL-cell-line MEC1 with either full-length ROR1 or various mutant forms of ROR1 to examine the structural features required for binding cortactin. We found that the proline-rich domain (PRD) was necessary for ROR1 to recruit cortactin. We generated MEC1 cells that each expressed a mutant form of ROR1 with a single amino-acid substitution of alanine (A) for proline (P) in potential SH3-binding sites in the ROR1-PRD at positions 784, 808, 826, 841, or 850. In contrast to wild-type ROR1, or other ROR1P=>A mutants, ROR1P(841)A failed to complex with cortactin or ARHGEF1 in response to Wnt5a. Moreover, Wnt5a could not induce MEC1-ROR1P(841)A to phosphorylate cortactin or enhance CLL-cell F-actin polymerization. Taken together, these studies show that cortactin plays an important role in ROR1-dependent Wnt5a-enhanced CLL-cell migration