Plugging the Tax Leak: An Analysis of North Carolina’s Local Sales Tax Redistribution Policy

Amid rising concerns over the urban-rural divide, taxation equity, revenue generation, and local tax leakage, several states are contemplating measures to support jurisdictions perceived as bearing the brunt of evolving economic landscapes. In 2015, North Carolina introduced a system for local sales tax revenue sharing, wherein each county contributed to a pool of local sales tax revenue, subsequently redistributed among 79 of the 100 counties. This policy aimed to address tax leakage by ensuring that half of the base local sales tax remained at the point of sale, with the other half distributed on a per capita basis. In this analysis, we evaluate the policy’s effectiveness in achieving this equilibrium and identify limitations and shortcomings

High On A Windy Hill

Title with shield frame and downward pointing triangleshttps://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/12143/thumbnail.jp

Love Somebody

Photograph of Doris Day and Buddy Clarkhttps://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/7894/thumbnail.jp

Impact of education and training on type of care provided by community-based breastfeeding counselors: a cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Studies using community-based breastfeeding counselors (CBBCs) have repeatedly shown positive impact on breastfeeding initiation, exclusivity and duration, particularly among low-income mothers. To date, there has not been a comprehensive study to determine the impact of CBBC attributes such as educational background and training, on the type of care that CBBCs provide.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a cross-sectional study of a convenience sample of CBBCs to ascertain the influence of counselor education and type of training on type of support and proficiency of CBBCs in communities across the United States. Invitations to participate in this online survey of CBBCs were e-mailed to program coordinators of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), La Leche League, and other community-based health organizations, who in turn invited and encouraged their CBBCs to participate. Descriptive analysis was used to describe participants (N = 847), while bivariate analysis using χ²test was used to examine the differences between CBBC education, training received and breastfeeding support skills used. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the independent determinants of specific breastfeeding support skills.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The major findings from the research indicate that overall, educational attainment of CBBCs is not a significant predictor for the curriculum used in their training and type of support skills used during counseling sessions, but initial training duration was positively associated with the use of many breastfeeding support skills. Another major influence of counselor support to clients is the type of continuing education they receive after their initial training, with higher likelihood of use of desirable support skills associated with counselors continuing their breastfeeding education at conferences or trainings away from their job sites.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results show that different programs use different training curricula to train their CBBCs varying in duration and content. Counselor education is not a significant predictor of the type of training they receive. Continuing breastfeeding education is a significant determinant of type of counseling techniques used with clients. Further research is therefore needed to critically examine the content of the various training curricula of CBBC programs. This may show a need for a standardized training curriculum for all CBBC programs worldwide to make CBBCs more proficient and efficient, ensuring successful and optimum breastfeeding experiences for mothers and their newborns.</p

Risk factors for malnutrition among children 5-years and younger in the Akuapim-North District in the eastern region of Ghana

Malnutrition remains a significant public health problem in developing countries. The aim of this study was to identify risk factors for malnutrition among preschool children in the Akwapim-North District in the Eastern Region of Ghana. This was a cross-sectional study. Mothers who brought their children to the ＂Well Baby Check-up＂ clinics were invited to participate. Anthropometric measurements (weight and height/length) and blood hemoglobin were measured. Mothers also completed a questionnaire consisting of closed and open-ended questions. A total of 305 pre-school-age children were included in this study. Of this sample, 43.3% were males, and 56.7% were females. The prevalence of wasting, stunting, and underweight was 6.2, 11.4 and 7.3%, respectively. The majority of the children (80.7%) were anemic. Children who were exclusively breastfed for 6 months showed slightly lower prevalence of both anemia (75.5% vs. 89.0%) and stunting (8% vs. 13%) but not wasting (8.3% vs. 4.3% ) or underweight (8.3% vs. 5.2%) compared to their mixed feeding counterparts. Children under 12 months of age showed a higher prevalence of wasting (9.4%) compared to other age groups. Children from homes with electricity showed lower prevalence of stunting (9.7% vs. 17.6%, p = 0.050), and children from households with a radio showed lower prevalence of wasting (5.3% vs. 19.0%, p = 0.033). Nutrition education encouraging exclusive breastfeeding and adequate provision of animal protein to preschool children is important in semi-rural and farming communities in developing countries such as Ghana in order to combat the prevalence of childhood malnutrition (stunting, wasting, underweight and anemia)

The clearing of discs around late type T Tauri stars: constraints from the infrared two colour plane

We have undertaken SED modeling of discs around low mass T Tauri stars in order to delineate regions of the infrared two colour plane (K - [8] versus K - [24]) that correspond to discs in different evolutionary stages. This provides a ready tool for classifying the nature of star-disc systems based on infrared photometry. In particular we demonstrate the distinct loci followed by discs that undergo `uniform draining' (reduction in surface density by a spatially uniform factor) from those that clear from the inside out. We draw attention to the absence of objects on this `draining locus' in those star forming regions where the 24um sensitivity would permit their detection, as compared with the ~20 objects in these regions with colours suggestive of inner holes. We thus conclude that discs predominantly clear from the inside out. We also apply our classification of the infrared two colour plane to stars of spectral type M3-M5 in the IC 348 cluster and show that some of its members (dubbed `weak excess' sources by Muzerolle et al 2010) that had previously been assumed to be in a state of clearing are instead likely to be optically thick discs in which the dust is well settled towards the mid-plane. Nevertheless, there are many discs in a state of partial clearing in IC 348, with their abundance (relative to the total population of disc bearing stars) being around four times higher than for comparable stars in Taurus. However, the number of partially cleared discs relative to the total number of late type stars is similarly low in both regions (10 and 20 % respectively). We therefore conclude that IC 348 represents a more evolved version of the Taurus population (with more of its discs being highly settled or partially cleared) but that the timescale for clearing is similarly short (a few times 10^5 years) in both cases.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted, MNRA

Galaxy Merger Rates up to z ~ 3 using a Bayesian Deep Learning Model: A Major-Merger classifier using IllustrisTNG Simulation data

Merging is potentially the dominate process in galaxy formation, yet there is still debate about its history over cosmic time. To address this we classify major mergers and measure galaxy merger rates up to z $\sim$ 3 in all five CANDELS fields (UDS, EGS, GOODS-S, GOODS-N, COSMOS) using deep learning convolutional neural networks (CNNs) trained with simulated galaxies from the IllustrisTNG cosmological simulation. The deep learning architecture used is objectively selected by a Bayesian Optmization process over the range of possible hyperparameters. We show that our model can achieve 90% accuracy when classifying mergers from the simulation, and has the additional feature of separating mergers before the infall of stellar masses from post mergers. We compare our machine learning classifications on CANDELS galaxies and compare with visual merger classifications from Kartaltepe et al. (2015), and show that they are broadly consistent. We finish by demonstrating that our model is capable of measuring galaxy merger rates, $\mathcal{R}$, that are consistent with results found for CANDELS galaxies using close pairs statistics, with $\mathcal{R}(z) = 0.02 \pm 0.004 \times (1 +z) ^ {2.76 \pm 0.21}$. This is the first general agreement between major mergers measured using pairs and structure at z < 3.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Ap

Valuative invariants for polymatroids

Many important invariants for matroids and polymatroids, such as the Tutte polynomial, the Billera-Jia-Reiner quasi-symmetric function, and the invariant $\mathcal G$ introduced by the first author, are valuative. In this paper we construct the $\Z$-modules of all $\Z$-valued valuative functions for labeled matroids and polymatroids on a fixed ground set, and their unlabeled counterparts, the $\Z$-modules of valuative invariants. We give explicit bases for these modules and for their dual modules generated by indicator functions of polytopes, and explicit formulas for their ranks. Our results confirm a conjecture of the first author that $\mathcal G$ is universal for valuative invariants.Comment: 54 pp, 9 figs. Mostly minor changes; Cor 10.5 and formula for products of $u$s corrected; Prop 7.2 is new. To appear in Advances in Mathematic

CELLObration

https://dc.ewu.edu/music_performances/1683/thumbnail.jp

Development of the Teacher Efficacy Toward Providing Physical Activity in the Classroom Scale

The overall aim for this study was to create and validate an instrument that helps researchers measure and better understand classroom teachers’ efficacy toward providing physical activity throughout the school day. The development of the Teacher Efficacy Toward Providing Physical Activity in the Classroom Scale (TETPPACS) occurred in two phases. First, in study one, after item development and face validity review, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted with pilot data (N = 320) to discover the factor structure of the TETPPACS. Second, with a follow-up sample (N = 192), a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to confirm the factor structure and measurement quality of the instrument. The final bi-factor model with three efficacy-specific constructs and the general efficacy construct resulted in an acceptable fitting two-group configural model across elementary and high school teachers ( =363.791; CFI=.91; TLI=.87; SRMR=.066; RMSEA=.081). The results of this study suggest the new TETPPACS is a valid and reliable instrument to measure classroom teacher’s efficacy toward providing physical activity during the school day. This instrument can help researchers further investigate how teacher efficacy relates to implementation and facilitation of physical activity experiences throughout the school day