Component Depreciation: A Tax Planning Strategy for Small Businesses

Recent federal   court  and  Internal  Revenue  Service  (IRS)  decisions  have  opened  up  an excellent  opportunity for   both  small  and  large  businesses  to  once  again  use  component depreciation,  thus  accelerating  depreciation  deductions  and reducing  cost  of buildings and improvements  in present  value terms.   Minor changes in the design or in the procedures followed  in purchasing  a building make it possible  to shorten the depreciable lives of portions of the "building". The savings can easily exceed the additional design, construction, and bidding costs especially if the changes are minor. Small business owners,  who may  not always retain  a fulltime  tax  advisor,  should  be  aware  that  it  is  necessary  to  involve  a  tax consultant at the beginning of the design process for construction projects or early in the search for  a building purchase

Mortality and health among internally displaced persons in western Kenya following post-election violence, 2008: novel use of demographic surveillance

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate mortality and morbidity among internally displaced persons (IDPs) who relocated in a demographic surveillance system (DSS) area in western Kenya following post-election violence. METHODS: In 2007, 204 000 individuals lived in the DSS area, where field workers visit households every 4 months to record migrations, births and deaths. We collected data on admissions among children 5 years (53%) than among regular DSS residents (25-29%) (P < 0.001). Internally displaced children < 5 years of age did not die at higher rates than resident children but were hospitalized at higher rates (RR: 2.95; 95% CI: 2.44-3.58). CONCLUSION: HIV-infected internally displaced adults in conflict-ridden parts of Africa are at increased risk of HIV-related death. Relief efforts should extend to IDPs who have relocated outside IDP camps, particularly if afflicted with HIV infection or other chronic conditions

A first appraisal of prognostic ocean DMS models and prospects for their use in climate models

Ocean dimethylsulfide (DMS) produced by marine biota is the largest natural source of atmospheric sulfur, playing a major role in the formation and evolution of aerosols, and consequently affecting climate. Several dynamic process-based DMS models have been developed over the last decade, and work is progressing integrating them into climate models. Here we report on the first international comparison exercise of both 1D and 3D prognostic ocean DMS models. Four global 3D models were compared to global sea surface chlorophyll and DMS concentrations. Three local 1D models were compared to three different oceanic stations (BATS, DYFAMED, OSP) where available time series data offer seasonal coverage of chlorophyll and DMS variability. Two other 1D models were run at one site only. The major point of divergence among models, both within 3D and 1D models, relates to their ability to reproduce the summer peak in surface DMS concentrations usually observed at low to mid- latitudes. This significantly affects estimates of global DMS emissions predicted by the models. The inability of most models to capture this summer DMS maximum appears to be constrained by the basic structure of prognostic DMS models: dynamics of DMS and dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), the precursor of DMS, are slaved to the parent ecosystem models. Only the models which include environmental effects on DMS fluxes independently of ecological dynamics can reproduce this summer mismatch between chlorophyll and DMS. A major conclusion of this exercise is that prognostic DMS models need to give more weight to the direct impact of environmental forcing (e.g., irradiance) on DMS dynamics to decouple them from ecological processes