AGE DIFFERENCES AND MACROECONOMIC EFFECTS ON FOOD STAMP PROGRAM PARTICIPATION

Low income populations are more severely affected by economic downturns than their high income counterparts because they are at high risk of unemployment and face reduced earnings in recessions. The use of food stamp benefits and other types of welfare are one mechanism that families can use to buffer the economic shock brought about by income losses due to unemployment during a recession. As a result, during unfavorable economic conditions, low income households disproportionately rely on public assistance including food stamps. What is less understood are the differential effects of macroeconomic conditions on the participation propensities of different population subgroups. Of particular importance are differential effects by age. Depending on their age, poor workers are likely to experience different patterns of unemployment so that their welfare participation patterns also differ. For example, once older workers lose their jobs, their probability of re-employment is lower than that of their younger counterparts. The reduced expectations of re-employment coupled with fewer opportunities to invest in re-training are discouraging to older unemployed persons, often implying that job losses for older workers are permanent, and eventually lead to long term reliance on welfare programs. In contrast, younger poor workers have comparatively higher chances of re-employment and exit from welfare. Whether the age differences in welfare participation will remain unchanged during economic recessions as well is still unanswered. Understanding variations in FSP participation propensities across age groups and their dependency on macroeconomic conditions is essential to predict future demand for food stamp benefits and, by extension, other welfare programs. The continuing growth in FSP demand may point to unexpectedly large fiscal burdens for future taxpayers. Moreover, understanding differential effects of macroeconomic conditions on participation propensities for different groups will allow policy makers to better identify and eventually reach genuine needy families. Therefore, this study aims to investigate FSP participation patterns with a special emphasis on the differential impact of macroeconomic factors across several demographic groups with a particular focus on age cohort effects. Specifically, transitions into and out of FSP will be explicitly addressed using longitudinal data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) 2004 panel. To measure the impact of economic conditions, we match SIPP data with economic measures such as the unemployment rate and wages at the state level available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Using the data, monthly movements on and off of FSP of individuals is followed and categorized into entry sample and continuation sample. A household not participating in FSP in one month, and thus being part of the entry sample, can choose between entering or not entering FSP in the subsequent month. Similarly, a household enrolled in one month (and thus part of the continuation sample) can choose between either continuing to stay on FSP or exiting FSP in the next month. This gives rise to two types of transition models. The first model, referred to as the entry model, tackles the decision between entry versus non-entry into FSP, conditional on non-participation in the previous months. The second model, referred to as continuation model, addresses the decision between exiting from versus continuing FSP, conditional upon participation in the preceding month. Two transition models are estimated using probit technique while controlling for individual specific effects. This study finds several important results. First, there are significant age differences in entry into and exit from the FSP. The propensity of entry into the FSP among younger people is higher than among older people while young cohorts are more prone to exiting FSP than the oldest cohort of retired or retirement-bound people. The implication for the elderly is that once receiving FSP benefits, they are very likely to continue the FSP. Their observed low FSP participation rates can thus primarily be attributed to FSP entry barriers. Second, rising unemployment boosts FSP entry propensities and lengthens FSP spells. Changes in wage levels, however, affect neither entry nor exit propensities. Third, the effect of unemployment on FSP continuation propensities varies by age. The youngest cohort responds to increasing unemployment by drastically prolonging their FSP spells whereas the older extend their FSP spells more gradually. For the oldest cohort, FSP exit probabilities are even found to rise in association with rising unemployment, a phenomenon that can be explained by retirement and special transfer programs for the elderly.Food Stamp Program, Age, Macroeconomy, Transition, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, I38, J64,

Form Factors for Exclusive Semileptonic BB--Decays

We developed the new parton model approach for exclusive semileptonic decays of $B$-meson to $D,~D^*$ by extending the inclusive parton model, and by combining with the results of the HQET, motivated by Drell-Yan process. Without the nearest pole dominance ans\"atze, we {\bf derived} the dependences of hadronic form factors on $q^2$. We also calculated numerically the slope of the Isgur-Wise function, which is consistent with the experimental results.Comment: 20 pages, RevTex, 2 ps figure files(uuencoded in seperate file

Development of PAN (personal area network) for Mobile Robot Using Bluetooth Transceiver

In recent years, wireless applications using radio frequency (RF) have been rapidly evolving in personal computing and communications devices. Bluetooth technology was created to replace the cables used on mobile devices. Bluetooth is an open specification and encompasses a simple low-cost, low power solution for integration into devices. This research work aim was to provide a PAN (personal area network) for computer based mobile robot that supports real-time control of four mobile robots from a host mobile robot. With ad hoc topology, mobile robots may request and establish a connection when it is within the range or terminated the connection when it leaves the area. A system that contains both hardware and software is designed to enable the robots to participate in multi-agent robotics system (MARS). Computer based mobile robot provide operating system that enabled development of wireless connection via IP address

Effect of Noble Element Alloying on Passivity and Passivity Breakdown of Ni

Welding of stainless steels can generate welding fumes containing carcinogenic hexavalent chromium (Cr^+6). To mitigate this problem, a new Ni-Cu-Pd welding consumable alloy has been developed. The addition of a small amount of Cu and Pd in Ni enhances the galvanic compatibility of Ni with stainless steels and improves its localized corrosion behavior. In this paper, the artificial pit electrode technique and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used to study the benefits of Cu and Pd alloying. The passive film on Ni-10Cu-1Pd alloy mainly consisted of outer Ni-hydroxide and inner oxide, and the noble elements Pd and Cu apparently did not contribute to the formation of the passive film. However, Pd catalyzed the reduction of Cu at the bottom of artificial pits, which enhanced the cathodic reaction and thus ennobled the protection potential, making stable pit growth more difficult. This catalytic effect of Pd also prevented the propagation of deep pits in a test using a thin foil crevice sample.Financial support of the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) through project WP-1415 is greatly appreciated

Quantum State Discrimination with General Figures of Merit

We solve the problem of quantum state discrimination with "general (symmetric) figures of merit" for an even number of symmetric quantum bits with use of the no-signaling principle. It turns out that conditional probability has the same form for any figure of merit. Optimal measurement and corresponding conditional probability are the same for any monotonous figure of merit.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Time dependent CP asymmetry in B0→ρ0γB^0 \to \rho^0 \gamma decay to probe the origin of CP violation

Since the CP violation in the $B$ system has been investigated up to now only through processes related to the $B$--$\bar{B}$ mixing, urgently required is new way of study for the CP violation and establishing its origin in the $B$ system independent of the mixing process. In this work, we explore the exclusive $B^0 \to \rho^0 \gamma$ decay to obtain the time-dependent CP asymmetry in $b \to d$ decay process in the standard model and the supersymmetric model. We find that the complex RL and RR mass insertion to the squark sector in the MSSM can lead to a large CP asymmetry in $b \to d \gamma$ decay through the gluino-squark diagrams, which is not predicted in the Standard Model induced by the $B$--$\bar{B}$ mixing.Comment: 10 pages, 4 eps figure

Better Bell Inequality Violation by Collective Measurements

The standard Bell inequality experiments test for violation of local realism by repeatedly making local measurements on individual copies of an entangled quantum state. Here we investigate the possibility of increasing the violation of a Bell inequality by making collective measurements. We show that nonlocality of bipartite pure entangled states, quantified by their maximal violation of the Bell-Clauser-Horne inequality, can always be enhanced by collective measurements, even without communication between the parties. For mixed states we also show that collective measurements can increase the violation of Bell inequalities, although numerical evidence suggests that the phenomenon is not common as it is for pure states.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures and 1 table; references update

Stochastic reconstruction of sandstones

A simulated annealing algorithm is employed to generate a stochastic model for a Berea and a Fontainebleau sandstone with prescribed two-point probability function, lineal path function, and ``pore size'' distribution function, respectively. We find that the temperature decrease of the annealing has to be rather quick to yield isotropic and percolating configurations. A comparison of simple morphological quantities indicates good agreement between the reconstructions and the original sandstones. Also, the mean survival time of a random walker in the pore space is reproduced with good accuracy. However, a more detailed investigation by means of local porosity theory shows that there may be significant differences of the geometrical connectivity between the reconstructed and the experimental samples.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Threshold Effects in the Decay of Heavy b' and t' Quarks

A sequential fourth generation is still viable, but the t' and b' quarks are constrained to be not too far apart in mass. The t'{\to}bW and b'{\to}tW decay channels are still being pursued at the Tevatron, which would soon be surpassed by the LHC. We use a convolution method with up to five-body final state to study t' and b' decays. We show how the two decay branches for m_{b'} below the tW threshold, b'{\to}tW^* and t^*W, merge with b'{\to}tW above the threshold. We then consider the heavy-to-heavy transitions b'{\to}t^{\prime(*)}W^{(*)} (or t'{\to}b^{\prime(*)}W^{(*)}), as they are not suppressed by quark mixing. We find that, because of the threshold sensitivity of the branching fraction of t'{\to}b'W^* (or b'{\to}t'W^*), it is possible to measure the strength of the CKM mixing element V_{t'b} (or V_{tb'}), especially when it is rather small. We urge the experiments to pursue and separate the t'{\to}b'W^* (or b'{\to}t'W^*) decay in their search program