A distributional analysis of substituting a value-added tax for the current federal tax system

The growing public dissatisfaction with the current federal tax system and the ongoing national debt crisis are generating serious consideration of alternative consumption tax systems, especially the value-added tax (VAT hereafter). The purpose of this study is to objectively evaluate the distributional effects of both the current federal tax system and the alternative value-added tax system it is intended to (partially) replace. This study finds some evidence that the current federal tax system becomes significantly more progressive over the period of 2005 and 2009 under the annual income approach, which is contrary to the prior research findings that the current federal tax system became less progressive from 1960 to 2004 (Piketty and Saez, 2007). A potential explanation for this result is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, Public Law 111-5). This Act made several changes that lowered individual income taxes in 2009. Also, when only considering households who pay payroll taxes (defined as working families in the paper), the current federal tax system is significantly less progressive, even regressive for year 2005, under the annual income approach. However, there is no significant difference about the progressivity level under the lifetime income approach for both full sample and subsample with only working families. The broad-based value-added tax system is regressive under both the annual and lifetime income approaches; nonetheless, it is significantly less regressive under the lifetime income approach. The narrow-based value-added tax systems (such as zero ratings and universal rebate) significantly alleviate the regressivity of the VAT under both the annual and lifetime income approaches. The narrow-based value-added tax system becomes progressive under the lifetime income approach, but it is still significantly less progressive than the current federal tax system. And the partial substitution of the current federal tax system with the VAT (such as the combination of narrow-based VAT and federal personal income tax system) is proportional under annual income approach and progressive under the lifetime income approach. The current study also analyzes the distributional effects of both systems based on age groups and locations (urban vs. rural). The results show that the progressivity levels among different age groups and locations are significantly different for both the current federal tax system and the alternative value-added tax system. Specifically, the current federal tax system for households with heads between 35 and 55 is proportional, instead of progressive, under the annual income approach

Removal of 17α-ethynylestradiol from aqueous solutions by a hybrid PAC/UF process

This study investigated the removal of 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) from water using activated carbon adsorption and powdered activated carbon/ultrafiltration (PAC/UF). EE2 was easily adsorbed by PAC. The adsorption of EE2 fitted the Freundlich model well. The influences of initial EE2 concentration, filtration rate, PAC dose, natural organic matter (NOM), and sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) were investigated. The EE2 concentration and filtration rate had no significant effect on EE2 removal, whereas the addition of PAC had a significant effect on EE2 removal. The removal rate of EE2 increased dramatically from 7.01% to 80.03% as the PAC dose was increased from 0 to 10 mg/L. Both SDBS and NOM decreased the EE2 removal efficiency. The removal efficiency of EE2 in the PAC/UF process decreased from 86.77% to 42.64% as the SDBS concentration was increased from 0 to 50 mg/L. It was concluded that activated carbon adsorption and PAC/UF can be used for the effective removal of EE2 from water.Keywords: 17-α-ethynylestradiol, adsorption, ultrafiltration, PAC/UF process, removal efficienc

An Assessment Of Patterns Of Coauthorship For Academic Accountants Within Premier Journals Edited Outside The U.S.: Evidence From 1995 - 2009

Research inaccounting indicates that accounting faculty publish less in their elitejournals than marketing, management, and finance faculty publish in theirrespective elite journals (Swanson, 2004). This paper investigates co-authorshipratios for twelve premier non-U.S. edited accounting and finance journals overthe fifteen year period from 1995 to 2009. Our results suggest that for the years considered, the aggregate co-authorshipratio for non-U.S. premier accounting journals has increased significantly.Also our findings indicate that the financial accounting specialization has thehighest level of co-authorship. Additionally, the co-authorship ratio for Top25 non-U.S. universities is not significantly different than that of lowerranked non-U.S. academic institutions. We also observe that co-authorship among non-U.S. researchers is lowerthan that of U.S. researchers. The findings of this study indicate that trendsof increasing co-authorship among non-U.S. premier accounting journals areconsistent with those of U.S. premier accounting journals

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE SEISMIC DAMAGE OF AEOLIAN SAND CONCRETE COLUMNS WITH DIFFERENT REINFORCEMENTS

Aeolian sand is a kind of natural material with abundant reserves and a low price. Many scholars have conducted extensive studies on the engineering applications of aeolian sand. This paper addresses the seismic damage behaviour of aeolian sand concrete columns to promote the application of aeolian sand in frame structures. A total of 5 aeolian sand concrete column specimens with different reinforcements were studied using cyclic loading tests. The failure modes, stiffness degradation, bearing capacity, hysteresis peculiarity, ductility, and energy consumption of the specimens were analysed and compared. Then, applicable damage models of the specimens were proposed. The study results prove that the seismic damage behaviour of the specimens increases with the increase of longitudinal reinforcement percentage and with the transverse steel ratio when the replacement percentage of aeolian sand is constant. Additionally, the damage model which is revised in this paper agrees well with the test results. It can be used to assess the degree of damage to the aeolian sand concrete columns

Membrane transporters in drug development

Membrane transporters can be major determinants of the pharmacokinetic, safety and efficacy profiles of drugs. This presents several key questions for drug development, including which transporters are clinically important in drug absorption and disposition, and which in vitro methods are suitable for studying drug interactions with these transporters. In addition, what criteria should trigger follow-up clinical studies, and which clinical studies should be conducted if needed. In this article, we provide the recommendations of the International Transporter Consortium on these issues, and present decision trees that are intended to help guide clinical studies on the currently recognized most important drug transporter interactions. The recommendations are generally intended to support clinical development and filing of a new drug application. Overall, it is advised that the timing of transporter investigations should be driven by efficacy, safety and clinical trial enrolment questions (for example, exclusion and inclusion criteria), as well as a need for further understanding of the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion properties of the drug molecule, and information required for drug labelling. © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited

Development and characterization of epoxy nanocomposites based on nano-structured oil palm ash.

The aim of this study is to utilize the bio-agricultural waste as filler material for composite production which are abundantly available and low cost compared to the silica, alumina etc. The lacks of sufficient scientific information about the utilization of the oil palm ash (OPA) on composites production were the driving force for the choice of this work. Furthermore, the effect of filler loading percentage on physical, mechanical, thermal and morphology properties of the epoxy nanocomposites were studied. It was concluded that the size of the OPA had been successfully reduced from macromolecular to the nano-size range by high energy ball milling and was confirmed by TEM analysis. The density of the nano-structured OPA filled epoxy composites revealed that increasing filler loading will eventually increase the density. The tensile and flexural strength attained maximum value when the filler loading was 3%. Also, increase in the thermal stability was observed in case of 3% filler loading and was attributed to the increase in cross-linking of the epoxy resin in the presence of nano-stuctured OPA and having minimum particle to particle interaction and well dispersed nanoparticles

Transporters in Drug Development: 2018 ITC Recommendations for Transporters of Emerging Clinical Importance

This white paper provides updated International Transporter Consortium (ITC) recommendations on transporters that are important in drug development following the 3rd ITC workshop. New additions include prospective evaluation of organic cation transporter 1 (OCT1) and retrospective evaluation of organic anion transporting polypeptide (OATP)2B1 because of their important roles in drug absorption, disposition, and effects. For the first time, the ITC underscores the importance of transporters involved in drug-induced vitamin deficiency (THTR2) and those involved in the disposition of biomarkers of organ function (OAT2 and bile acid transporters)

Targeting Primitive Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Cells by Effective Inhibition of a New AHI-1BCR-ABL-JAK2 Complex

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute following peer review. The version of record Chen, M., et al. (2013). "Targeting Primitive Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Cells by Effective Inhibition of a New AHI-1–BCR-ABL–JAK2 Complex." JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute 105(6): 405-423. is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djt006This work was funded by the Canadian Cancer Society (grant 700289), in part by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada, and the Cancer Research Society (XJ), the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute (AE, XJ, CE), Cancer Research UK Programme grant C11074/A11008 (TLH), the Glasgow Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre, which is funded by Cancer Research UK and by the Chief Scientist’s Office (Scotland), and Cancer Research UK grant C973/A9894 (JP, JS). M. Chen was supported by a fellowship from Lymphoma Foundation Canada, and P. Gallipoli was supported by Medical Research Council grant G1000288. X. Jiang was a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar

Identification of Sequence Variants in Genetic Disease-Causing Genes Using Targeted Next-Generation Sequencing

Identification of gene variants plays an important role in research on and diagnosis of genetic diseases. A combination of enrichment of targeted genes and next-generation sequencing (targeted DNA-HiSeq) results in both high efficiency and low cost for targeted sequencing of genes of interest.To identify mutations associated with genetic diseases, we designed an array-based gene chip to capture all of the exons of 193 genes involved in 103 genetic diseases. To evaluate this technology, we selected 7 samples from seven patients with six different genetic diseases resulting from six disease-causing genes and 100 samples from normal human adults as controls. The data obtained showed that on average, 99.14% of 3,382 exons with more than 30-fold coverage were successfully detected using Targeted DNA-HiSeq technology, and we found six known variants in four disease-causing genes and two novel mutations in two other disease-causing genes (the STS gene for XLI and the FBN1 gene for MFS) as well as one exon deletion mutation in the DMD gene. These results were confirmed in their entirety using either the Sanger sequencing method or real-time PCR.Targeted DNA-HiSeq combines next-generation sequencing with the capture of sequences from a relevant subset of high-interest genes. This method was tested by capturing sequences from a DNA library through hybridization to oligonucleotide probes specific for genetic disorder-related genes and was found to show high selectivity, improve the detection of mutations, enabling the discovery of novel variants, and provide additional indel data. Thus, targeted DNA-HiSeq can be used to analyze the gene variant profiles of monogenic diseases with high sensitivity, fidelity, throughput and speed