Pulmonary giant cells and their significance for the diagnosis of asphyxiation

This study was performed to prove whether the detection of polynuclear giant cells in lungs is useful for the diagnosis of asphyxiation due to throttling or strangulation. Therefore, lung specimens of 54 individuals with different natural and unnatural causes of death were investigated. In most lungs examined numerous alveolar macrophages with 1-2 nuclei were found. Polynuclear giant cells, which were arbitrarily defined as alveolar macrophages containing 3 or more nuclei, were observed in all groups investigated except in the cases of hypoxia due to covering the head with plastic bags. Apparent differences between the other groups in particular an increased number in cases of throttling or strangulation, could not be observed. Immunohistochemical investigations confirmed the hypothesis that the observed polynuclear giant cells were derived from alveolar macrophages. The immunohistochemical analysis of the proliferation marker antigen Ki 67 revealed no positive reaction in the nuclei of polynuclear giant cells indicating that these cells had not developed shortly before death by endomitosis as an adaptative change following reduction in oxygen supply. The results provide evidence that the detection of pulmonary polynuclear giant cells cannot be used as a practical indicator for death by asphyxiation due to throttling or strangulation

Determinants of the Variability of Corporate Effective Tax Rates (ETRs): Evidence for the Netherlands

A sizeable portion of US research has tried to assess the ‘fairness’ of the corporate income tax system, that is: are companies treated in a non-discriminatory way under the corporate income tax system. Similar research has, however, never taken place in the Netherlands. The goal of this paper is to address this shortcoming. This paper examines whether an association can be found between the variation in average effective tax rates (ETRs) among Dutch companies and company characteristics such as size, asset mix, extent of foreign operations, performance, leverage, being a public company and being a listed company. Controls are used for net operating loss status, negative tax expense status, and interaction between firm size and net operating loss status and negative tax expense status. The results in the paper are based on an analysis of a pooled panel of company-level data from financial statements in the CD-ROM REACH A datafile for five years, 1994 to 1998. In this paper two financial statement based ETR measures are used. One ETR measure is based on income before taxes and another ETR measure is based on cash flow. Results from a fixed effects generalised linear model provide support for the conclusion that, after controlling for indirect effects, the taxation of corporate profits in the Netherlands is fairly neutral. These results are supported by additional sensitivity analysis.microeconomics ;

Explicit, Implicit and Total Taxes in the Corporate Sector: Evidence for the Netherlands

This paper provides empirical evidence on the existence of implicit taxes in the corporate sector. With this finding, it provides support for the offsetting nature of explicit versus implicit taxes. Governments continuously provide tax preferences (tax incentives) to firms to induce these firms to alter their investment, production and financing decisions to reallocate resources towards outcomes that the government prefers. Tax preferences lead to lower explicit tax rates for firms that make use of these preferences. However (see Scholes and Wolfson (1992) and Wilkie (1992)), economic theory suggests that in equilibrium all firms must earn the same after-tax return (e.g. ROE). Hence high (low) implicit taxes (tax preference induced adjustments of pre-tax returns) can be expected for firms with low (high) explicit taxes. This paper uses financial statements of 123 listed firms for six years (1991-1996) to provide empirical evidence on the existence of implicit taxes in the corporate sector in the Netherlands. The paper finds that the inverse relation between implicit and explicit taxes exists, but is not a strong as expected, suggesting market frictions that prevent the equalisation of after-tax returns.microeconomics ;

Problems and hopes in nonsymmetric gravity

We consider the linearized nonsymmetric theory of gravitation (NGT) within the background of an expanding universe and near a Schwarzschild mass. We show that the theory always develops instabilities unless the linearized nonsymmetric lagrangian reduces to a particular simple form. This form contains a gauge invariant kinetic term, a mass term for the antisymmetric metric-field and a coupling with the Ricci curvature scalar. This form cannot be obtained within NGT. Based on the linearized lagrangian we know to be stable, we consider the generation and evolution of quantum fluctuations of the antisymmetric gravitational field (B-field) from inflation up to the present day. We find that a B-field with a mass m ~ 0.03(H_I/10^(13)GeV)^4 eV is an excellent dark matter candidate.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure. Based on two talks by the authors at the 2nd International Conference on Quantum Theories and Renormalization Group in Gravity and Cosmology (IRGAC) 2006, Barcelon

Relativistic eikonal approximation in high-energy A(e,e'p) reactions

A fully relativistic model for the description of exclusive (e,e'p) reactions off nuclear targets at high energies and momentum transfers is outlined. It is based on the eikonal approximation for the ejectile scattering wave function and a relativistic mean-field approximation to the Walecka model. Results for ^{12}C(e,e'p) and ^{16}O(e,e'p) differential cross sections and separated structure functions are presented for four-momenta in the range 0.8 \leq Q^{2} \leq 20 (GeV/c)^{2}. The regions of applicability of the eikonal approximation are studied and observed to be confined to proton knockout in a relatively small cone about the momentum transfer. A simple criterium defining the boundaries of this cone is determined. The Q^2 dependence of the effect of off-shell ambiguities on the different (e,e'p) structure functions is addressed. At sufficiently high values of Q^2 their impact on the cross sections is illustrated to become practically negligible. It is pointed out that for the whole range of Q^2 values studied here, the bulk of the relativistic effects arising from the coupling between the lower components in the wave functions, is manifesting itself in the longitudinal-transverse interference term.Comment: 13 pages,11 figure

High voltage solid-state relay

Hybrid microelectronics relay has characteristics significantly superior to conventional solid state relays. Relay provides 2500 Vdc input to output isolation and operates from high threshold logic signal to switch load of 400 Vdc at 2 mA. Technology should be of interest to manufacturers of discrete components

Strongly anisotropic roughness in surfaces driven by an oblique particle flux

Using field theoretic renormalization, an MBE-type growth process with an obliquely incident influx of atoms is examined. The projection of the beam on the substrate plane selects a "parallel" direction, with rotational invariance restricted to the transverse directions. Depending on the behavior of an effective anisotropic surface tension, a line of second order transitions is identified, as well as a line of potentially first order transitions, joined by a multicritical point. Near the second order transitions and the multicritical point, the surface roughness is strongly anisotropic. Four different roughness exponents are introduced and computed, describing the surface in different directions, in real or momentum space. The results presented challenge an earlier study of the multicritical point.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, REVTeX

Renormalized field theory and particle density profile in driven diffusive systems with open boundaries

We investigate the density profile in a driven diffusive system caused by a plane particle source perpendicular to the driving force. Focussing on the case of critical bulk density $\bar{c}$ we use a field theoretic renormalization group approach to calculate the density $c(z)$ as a function of the distance from the particle source at first order in $\epsilon=2-d$ ($d$: spatial dimension). For $d=1$ we find reasonable agreement with the exact solution recently obtained for the asymmetric exclusion model. Logarithmic corrections to the mean field profile are computed for $d=2$ with the result $c(z)-\bar{c} \sim z^{-1} (\ln(z))^{2/3}$ for $z \rightarrow \infty$.Comment: 32 pages, RevTex, 4 Postscript figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.