Unemployment Insurance in the United States: The First Half Century

Blaustein offers the definitive summary of the U.S. unemployment insurance system. This is the first of a two-volume update of Haber and Murray\u27s Unemployment Insurance in the American Economy.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1086/thumbnail.jp

Efficient Transparent Redactable Signatures with a Single Signature Invocation

A redactable signature scheme is one that allows the original signature to be used, usually along with some additional data, to verify certain carefully` specified changes to the original document that was signed, namely the removal or redaction of subdocuments. For redactable signatures, the term transparency has been used to describe a scheme that hides the number and locations of redacted subdocuments. We present here two efficient transparent redactable signature schemes, which are the first such schemes in the literature that are based solely on tools of symmetric cryptography, along with a single application of an ordinary digital signature. As with several previous schemes for redactable signatures, we sign a sequence of randomized commitments that depend on the contents of the subdocuments of the document to be signed. In order to hide their number and location, we randomize their order, and mix them with a sequence of dummy nodes that are indistinguishable from commitment values. Our first scheme uses a data structure of size quadratic in the number of subdocuments, encoding all the precedence relations between pairs of subdocuments. By embedding these precedence relations in a smaller family of graphs, our second scheme is more efficient, with expected cost linear in the number of subdocuments in the document to be signed. We introduce a quantified version of the transparency property, precisely describing the uncertainty about the number of redacted subdocuments that is guaranteed by the two schemes. We prove that our schemes are secure, i.e. unforgeable, private, and transparent, based on the security of collision-free hash functions, pseudorandom generators, and digital signature schemes. While providing such strong security, our scheme is also efficient, in terms of both computation and communication

A Molecular Dynamics Study of Monomer Melt Properties of Cyanate Ester Monomer Melt Properties

The objective of this work was to computationally predict the melting temperature and melt properties of thermosetting monomers used in aerospace applications. In this study, we applied an existing voids method by Solca. to examine four cyanate ester monomers with a wide range of melting temperatures. Voids were introduced into some simulations by removal of molecules from lattice positions to lower the free-energy barrier to melting to directly simulate the transition from a stable crystal to amorphous solid and capture the melting temperature. We validated model predictions by comparing melting temperature against previously reported literature values. Additionally, the torsion and orientational order parameters were used to examine the monomers’ freedom of motion to investigate structure–property relationships. Ultimately, the voids method provided reasonable estimates of melting temperature while the torsion and order parameter analysis provided insight into sources of the differing melt properties between the thermosetting monomers. As a whole, the results shed light on how freedom of molecular motions in the monomer melt state may affect melting temperature and can be utilized to inspire the development of thermosetting monomers with optimal monomer melt properties for demanding applications

Atomic-Level Understanding of “Asymmetric Twins” in Boron Carbide

Recent observations of planar defects in boron carbide have been shown to deviate from perfect mirror symmetry and are referred to as “asymmetric twins.” Here, we demonstrate that these asymmetric twins are really phase boundaries that form in stoichiometric B_4C (i.e., B_(12)C_3) but not in B_(13)C_2. TEM observations and ab initio simulations have been coupled to show that these planar defects result from an interplay of stoichiometry, atomic positioning, icosahedral twinning, and structural hierarchy. The composition of icosahedra in B_4C is B_(11)C and translation of the carbon atom from a polar to equatorial site leads to a shift in bonding and a slight distortion of the lattice. No such distortion is observed in boron-rich B_(13)C_2 because the icosahedra do not contain carbon. Implications for tailoring boron carbide with stoichiometry and extrapolations to other hierarchical crystalline materials are discussed

R-PEP-27, a Potent Renin Inhibitor, Decreases Plasma Angiotensin II and Blood Pressure in Normal Volunteers

The hemodynamic and humoral effects of the specific human renin inhibitor R-PEP-27 were studied in six normal human subjects on low and high sodium intake diets. An intravenous infusion of R-PEP-27 (0.5 to 16 μg/min/kg body wt) reduced blood pressure in a dose-dependent fashion; the mean arterial blood pressure at the end of the infusion fell from 128 ± 4/83 ± 4 to 119 ± 3/71 ± 3 mm Hg (mean ± SEM) (P < .01) during the low sodium intake diet. R-PEP-27 had no effect on blood pressure during the high sodium intake diet. R-PEP-27 significantly reduced plasma angiotensin II and aldosterone concentrations. The temporal response to R-PEP-27 suggests that it is a shortlived although highly potent competitive inhibitor of renin; this peptide is a valuable and specific physiologic probe of the renin-angiotensin system. Am J Hypertens 1994;7:295-30

Adenosine Transporter ENT4 Is a Direct Target of EWS/WT1 Translocation Product and Is Highly Expressed in Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor

Background: Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor (DSRCT) is a highly aggressive malignancy that affects mainly adolescents and young adults. A defining characteristic of DSRCT is a specific chromosomal translocation, t(11;22)(p13;q12), that fuses EWS with WT1, leading to a production of two isoforms of chimeric transcription factor, EWS/WT1(−KTS) and EWS/WT1(+KTS). The chimeric proteins are thought to play critical roles in various stages of oncogenesis through aberrant transcription of different genes, but only a few of these genes have been identified. Methodology/Principal Findings: We report the identification of a new target of EWS/WT1, ENT4 (equilibrative nucleoside transporter 4) which encodes a pH-dependent adenosine transporter. ENT4 is transcriptionally activated by both isoforms of EWS/WT1 as evidenced by promoter-reporter and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analyses. Furthermore, ENT4 is highly and specifically expressed in primary tumors of DSRCT as well as in a DSRCT cell line, JN-DSRCT-1. Treatment of JN-DSRCT-1 cells with adenosine analogs, such as 2-chloro-2′-deoxyadenosine (2-CdA), resulted in an increased cytotoxic response in dose- and pH-dependent manner. Conclusions/Significance: Our detailed analyses of a novel target of EWS/WT1 in DSRCT reveal an insight into the oncogenic mechanism of EWS-fusion chromosomal translocation gene products and provide a new marker for DSRCT. Furthermore, identification of ENT4 as a highly expressed transcript in DSRCT may represent an attractive pathway for targeting chemotherapeutic drugs into DSRCT

Measuring the cosmological lepton asymmetry through the CMB anisotropy

A large lepton asymmetry in the Universe is still a viable possibility and leads to many interesting phenomena such as gauge symmetry nonrestoration at high temperature. We show that a large lepton asymmetry changes the predicted cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy and that any degeneracy in the relic neutrino sea will be measured to a precision of 1% or better when the CMB anisotropy is measured at the accuracy expected to result from the planned satellite missions MAP and Planck. In fact, the current measurements already put an upper limit on the lepton asymmetry of the Universe which is stronger than the one coming from considerations of primordial nucleosynthesis and structure formation.Comment: 4 pagex LaTex, 1 color postscript figure, uses epsf. Version submitted to PRL. (Bug in code fixed, new figure, conclusions unchanged

Stability of the Scalar Potential and Symmetry Breaking in the Economical 3-3-1 Model

A detailed study of the criteria for stability of the scalar potential and the proper electroweak symmetry breaking pattern in the economical 3-3-1 model, is presented. For the analysis we use, and improve, a method previously developed to study the scalar potential in the two-Higgs-doublet extension of the standard model. A new theorem related to the stability of the potential is stated. As a consequence of this study, the consistency of the economical 3-3-1 model emerges.Comment: to be published in EPJ C, 13 page

Supersymmetric One-family Model without Higgsinos

The Higgs potential and the mass spectrum of the N=1 supersymmetric extension of a recently proposed one-family model based on the local gauge group $SU(3)_c \otimes SU(3)_L \otimes U(1)_X$, which is a subgroup of the electroweak-strong unification group $E_6$, is analyzed. In this model the slepton multiplets play the role of the Higgs scalars and no Higgsinos are needed, with the consequence that the sneutrino, the selectron and six other sleptons play the role of the Goldstone bosons. We show how the $\mu$ problem is successfully addressed in the context of this model which also predicts the existence of a light CP-odd scalar.Comment: REVTeX 4, 10 pages. Included discussions about constraints coming from the rho-parameter and from Muon (g-2). References added. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.