4,419 research outputs found
I Voted : Examining the Impact of Compulsory Voting on Voter Turnout
Over the past few decades, falling voter turnout rates have induced governments to adopt compulsory voting laws, in order to mitigate issues such as the socioeconomic voter gap and to bring a broader spectrum of voters into the fold. This paper presents evidence that the introduction of mandatory voting laws increases voter turnout rates by 13 points within a particular country through an entity- and time-fixed effect panel model. Moreover, it includes a discussion of the implications of adopting mandatory voting policies within the United States, finding that compelling citizens to vote would have increased participation rates to over 90 percent in the past four presidential elections
The Role of Ultrafiltration in Patients with Decompensated Heart Failure
Congestion, due in large part to hypervolemia, is the primary driver of heart failure (HF) admissions. Relief of congestion has been traditionally achieved through the use of loop diuretics, but there is increasing concern that these agents, particularly at high doses, may be deleterious in the inpatient setting. In addition, patients with HF and the cardiorenal syndrome (CRS) have diminished response to loop diuretics, making these agents less effective at relieving congestion. Ultrafiltration, a mechanical volume removal strategy, has demonstrated promise in achieving safe and effective volume removal in patients with cardiorenal syndrome and diuretic refractoriness. This paper outlines the rationale for ultrafiltration in CRS and the available evidence regarding its use in patients with HF. At present, the utility of ultrafiltration is restricted to selected populations, but a greater understanding of how this technology impacts HF and CRS may expand its use
Partial DNA Assembly: A Rate-Distortion Perspective
Earlier formulations of the DNA assembly problem were all in the context of
perfect assembly; i.e., given a set of reads from a long genome sequence, is it
possible to perfectly reconstruct the original sequence? In practice, however,
it is very often the case that the read data is not sufficiently rich to permit
unambiguous reconstruction of the original sequence. While a natural
generalization of the perfect assembly formulation to these cases would be to
consider a rate-distortion framework, partial assemblies are usually
represented in terms of an assembly graph, making the definition of a
distortion measure challenging. In this work, we introduce a distortion
function for assembly graphs that can be understood as the logarithm of the
number of Eulerian cycles in the assembly graph, each of which correspond to a
candidate assembly that could have generated the observed reads. We also
introduce an algorithm for the construction of an assembly graph and analyze
its performance on real genomes.Comment: To be published at ISIT-2016. 11 pages, 10 figure
Heavy-element yields and abundances of Asymptotic Giant Branch models with a Small Magellanic Cloud metallicity
We present new theoretical stellar yields and surface abundances for
asymptotic giant branch (AGB) models with a metallicity appropriate for stars
in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC, , [Fe/H] ). New
evolutionary sequences and post-processing nucleosynthesis results are
presented for initial masses between 1 and 7, where the
7 is a super-AGB star with an O-Ne core. Models above
1.15 become carbon rich during the AGB, and hot bottom burning
begins in models . We present stellar surface abundances
as a function of thermal pulse number for elements between C to Bi and for a
selection of isotopic ratios for elements up to Fe and Ni (e.g.,
C/C), which can be compared to observations. The integrated
stellar yields are presented for each model in the grid for hydrogen, helium
and all stable elements from C to Bi. We present evolutionary sequences of
intermediate-mass models between 4--7 and nucleosynthesis results
for three masses () including -process elements for
two widely used AGB mass-loss prescriptions. We discuss our new models in the
context of evolved AGB stars and post-AGB stars in the Small Magellanic Clouds,
barium stars in our Galaxy, the composition of Galactic globular clusters
including Mg isotopes with a similar metallicity to our models, and to
pre-solar grains which may have an origin in metal-poor AGB stars.Comment: 19 pages, accepted for publication in MNRA
A practical multi-spectrum Hadamard Transform Spectrometer
A Hadamard Transform Spectrometer (HTS) which simultaneously obtains fifteen infrared spectra, each having 255 spectral elements was constructed. Spectra are obtained essentially in real time through use of a minicomputer with 8K words of memory and a CRT display. This permits operation of the instrument in the field
Uncertainties in stellar evolution models: convective overshoot
In spite of the great effort made in the last decades to improve our
understanding of stellar evolution, significant uncertainties remain due to our
poor knowledge of some complex physical processes that require an empirical
calibration, such as the efficiency of the interior mixing related to
convective overshoot. Here we review the impact of convective overshoot on the
evolution of stars during the main Hydrogen and Helium burning phases.Comment: Proc. of the workshop "Asteroseismology of stellar populations in the
Milky Way" (Sesto, 22-26 July 2013), Astrophysics and Space Science
Proceedings, (eds. A. Miglio, L. Girardi, P. Eggenberger, J. Montalban
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