The crowding-out effect of housing subsidies on parental support: evidence from Japanese mortgage tax credits

Children may receive monetary transfers from their parents when they attempt to purchase a home. This raises the question of whether a homeownership-related subsidy provided by government displaces transfers received from parents. The purpose of this paper is to examine this question empirically, using a sample of Japanese home-buying households that are benefiting from a mortgage tax credit (MTC) as a model case. In the empirical analysis, we offer a test of the effect of the MTC on both the extensive and the intensive margins using the overall sample as well as subsample groups. The empirical results, which use the full sample, indicate that the MTC crowds out parental transfers on both the extensive and the intensive margins. In particular, the estimates of the latter suggest an approximately 100 % displacement. Subsample analysis demonstrates that the crowding-out effect is strengthened when children are young, are of low-income group, and are living in the rental sector previously.     

Shock structure deformation in plasma jet caused by strong magnetic field

The shock structure deformation in a plasma jet caused by a strong magnetic field was studied using an optical method. The plasma jet images in the enclosing vacuum chamber were taken with a digital single-lens reflex camera through a viewing window. Since the relative values of the measured light intensity are known to have a strong correlation with the number density of excited atoms, the vertical distribution of light intensity can be converted to a radial distribution of excited atom density using an Abel-inversion. The results of this conversion with a magnetic field were compared in the present experiments with those without the presence of a field. It is possible to obtain a smooth radial distribution of estimated number density using an approximate line. The density along the centerline increases obviously with the magnetic field. The minimal density point around the Mach disk was moved slightly upstream with the application of the field. The density distribution inside of the jet boundary was changed considerably by the application of the strong field. The jet boundary itself was not found to be affected significantly by the field although the boundary was found to be slightly contracted to the center axis with application of the field. It has been confirmed that the density distributions are mainly affected by the magnetic field at the corresponding location.     

Gelation effect on the synthesis of high-aspect-ratio gold nanorods

The growth process of high-aspect-ratio gold nanorods in gelled surfactant solution was studied. As for the application of gold nanorods, the surface plasmon is quite useful, whose absorption depends on their aspect ratio. Hence it is important to synthesize gold nanorods with favorable aspect ratio in high yield. For shorter nanorods (aspect ratio < -10), the synthesis and the growth mechanism have been studied well. For the longer nanorods (aspect ratio > -30), however, the growth mechanism has not yet been understood well, although it has been known that the high-aspect-ratio gold nanorods could be synthesized in high yield in gelled surfactant solution. In this paper, we studied the relationship between the growth process of high-aspect-ratio gold nanorods and the gelation of surfactant growth-solution. Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) revealed the microscopic feature of gelation as the structural transition of self-assembly of surfactant molecules from micellar to lamellar. These results will be helpful for better understanding on the growth mechanism of high-aspect-ratio gold nanorods.     

A simple diagnostic method for plasma jet in strong magnetic field

An experimental study was carried out to examine the effect of strong magnetic field on the characteristics of argon plasma jet. An approximate expression was introduced to the distribution of emission line intensity and the color intensity. The distribution of the emission intensity was compared to that of the color intensity. The modified profiles of the spectral intensity agree well with those of the color intensity. The two-point analysis, that is, a calculation method with only two selected wavelengths in Boltzmann plots, was selected in the evaluation of excitation temperature because the calculation becomes significantly simple. The lateral distribution of excitation temperature obtained from the modified intensity becomes more accurate than that without the approximation. The radial distributions of excitation temperature based on the Abel inversion can be determined by the present approximation. It is found that the simple diagnostic method can utilize for understanding the characteristics on plasma jet.     

Arsenic extraction from solid phase using a dissimilatory arsenate-reducing bacterium

We investigated the feasibility of a novel bioremedial strategy for arsenic-contaminated soil using a dissimilatory arsenate-reducing bacterium (DARB), Bacillus sp. SF-1. SF-1 was able to effectively extract arsenic from various arsenic-laden solids, via the reduction of solid-phase arsenate to arsenite, which is much less adsorptive than arsenate. The strain can be an easy-to-handle, and cost-effective bioremedial agent.     

Improvement of the traditional processing and fermentation of African oil bean (Pentaclethra macrophylla Bentham) into a food snack--'ugba'

Inocula for the improvement of the traditional production of 'ugba' were developed by attaching pure cultures of Bacillus subtilis responsible for the natural fermentation of the African oil bean seeds on cowpea granules. Changes in pH, amino-nitrogen and protease activity were used as fermentation indicators. In comparison with the natural fermentation, changes in these process variables were more pronounced. Results also showed that the production time could be significantly reduced. In addition, the overall product quality of 'ugba' produced by the developed inocula was good and highly acceptable. The cultures were stable and viable for over 6 months on the granules of cowpea.     

Interfacial reaction in bimetallic Sn/Cu thin films

Interfacial reaction in electroplated bimetallic Sn/Cu (the layer grown last is given first) thin films was studied by Auger depth profiling and X-ray diffraction measurements. Direct experimental evidence was found for the formation of intermetallic compounds in the SnCu interface, i.e. η'-Cu₆Sn₅ at room temperature and both η'-Cu₆Sn₅ and ε-Cu₃Sn at 150°C. The results of a quantitative analysis of the film composition and sputtering-induced effects are also discussed.     

A method of coding LSP residual signals using wavelets for speech synthesis

This paper presents a method of using wavelet analysis for speech coding and synthesis by rule. It is a coding system where LSP residual signal is transformed into wave‐let coefficients. As wavelet analysis is implemented effectively by filter banks, our method requires less computation than multipulse coding and others where complicated prediction procedures are essential. To achieve good‐quality speech at low bit rates, we verified allocation of different bits onto the wavelet coefficients, with more bits in lower frequencies, and less in higher. The synthesized speech by Haar wavelet with 16.538 kbit/s has nearly the same perceptual quality with 6 bits µlog PCM (66.15 kbit/s). We are convinced that the coding method of LSP residual signals using wavelet analysis is an effective approach to synthesize speech. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 148(3): 54–61, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10326