The effects of supplemental income and labor productivity on metropolitan labor cost differentials

A discussion of the effects that the combination of supplemental income and labor productivity have on the measurement of metropolitan labor-cost differentials in manufacturing, using data from the 20 largest SMSAs.Cleveland (Ohio) ; Labor productivity - Cleveland (Ohio) ; Wages - Cleveland (Ohio) ; Regional economics

Tom Luce testimony to Integration Revenue Task Force (2011)

Tom Luce’s testimony to Integration Revenue Task Force on Minnesota School

Local Revenue Hills: A General Equilibrium Specification with Evidence from Four U.S. Cities

We provide estimates of the impact and long-run elasticities of tax base with respect to tax rates for four large U.S. cities: Houston (property taxation), Minneapolis (property taxation), New York City (property, general sales, and income taxation), and Philadelphia (property, gross receipts, and wage taxation). Results suggest that all four of our cities are near the peaks of their longer-run revenue hills. Equilibrium effects are observed within three to four fiscal years after the initial increase in local tax rates. A significant negative impact (current period) effect of a balanced budget increase in city property tax rates on city property base is interpreted as a capitalization effect and suggests that marginal increases in city spending do not provide positive net benefits to property owners. Estimates of the effects of taxes on city employment levels for New York City and Philadelphia the two cities for which employment series are available show the local income and wage tax rates have significant negative effects on city employment levels.

Genesee County Metropatterns

Repor

Local Revenue Hills: Evidence from Four U. S. Cities

We provide estimates of the impact and long-run elasticities of tax base with respect to tax rates for four large U.S. cities: Houston (property taxation), Minneapolis (property taxation), New York City (property, general sales, and income taxation), and Philadelphia (property, gross receipts, and wage taxation). Results suggest that three of our cities are near the peaks of their revenue hills; Minneapolis is the exception. A significant negative effect of a balanced budget increase in city property tax rates on city property base is interpreted as a capitalization effect and suggests that marginal increases in city spending do not provide positive net benefits to property owners. Estimates of the effects of taxes on city employment levels for New York City and Philadelphia -- the two cities for which employment series are available -- show the local income and wage tax rates have significant negative effects on city employment levels.Local Taxation, City Fiscal Policy, Urban Economic Development

Wisconsin Metropatterns

Repor

Floating polygon soup

International audienceThis paper presents a new representation called floating polygon soup for applications like 3DTV and FTV (Free Viewpoint Television). This representation is based on 3D polygons and takes as input MVD data. It extends the previously proposed polygon soup representation which is appropriate for both compression, transmission and rendering stages. The floating polygon soup conserves these advantages while also taking into account misalignments at the view synthesis stage due to modeling errors. The idea for reducing these misalignments is to morph the 3D geometry depending on the current viewpoint. Results show that artifacts in virtual views are reduced and objective quality is increased

Compact quad-based representation for 3D video

International audienceThe context of this study is 3D video. Starting from a sequence of multi-view video plus depth (MVD) data, the proposed quad-based representation takes into account, in a unified manner, different issues such as compactness, compression, and intermediate view synthesis. The representation is obtained into two steps. Firstly, a set of 3D quads is extracted by using a quadtree decomposition of the depth maps. Secondly, a selective elimination of the quads is performed in order to reduce inter-view redundancies and thus provide a compact representation. Experiments on two real sequences show good quality results at the rendering stage and a small data overload compared to mono-view video

Autologous transplantation of culture-born myofibroblasts into intact and injured rabbit ligaments

Purpose: The myofibroblast, a contractile fibroblastic cell expressing α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), has been reported to play a role in ligament healing. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of transplanting culture-derived myofibroblasts in injured rabbit medial collateral ligaments (MCL) and in intact anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL). Methods: Fibroblasts isolated from the iliotibial band were cultured in the presence of transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGF-β1) for fivedays and analysed for α-SMA expression. In a concentration of TGF-β1 ≥ 10ng/ml, the differentiation rate into myofibroblast was 90%. After labelling with PKH26, α-SMA -positive cells were transplanted in intact ACL and in injured MCL of ten rabbits. Results: Survival of PKH-26+ cells was seen in all intact and damaged ligaments one day after injection. The density of PKH-26+ cells had decreased at seven days postinjection in both ligaments. Double-positive PKH-26+/α-SMA+ cells were only observed in injured MCL at sevendays postinjection. Moreover, we found that genetically modified fibroblasts differentiate into myofibroblasts and can be transplanted into ligaments. Conclusions: Our data demonstrate that culture-born myofibroblasts survive and maintain α-SMA expression up to one week after transplantation. This study provides the first insight into the feasibility of transplanted mechanically active cells for ligament reconstructio