Area-specific subsidies and population dynamics: Evidence from the Australian zone tax offset

This paper studies the effect of the zone tax offset (ZTO), a place based income subsidy implemented in rural Australia since 1945. The policy was intended to improve the welfare of inhabitants and provide an incentive for settlement. Our empirical approach exploits the geographical discontinuity in the eligibility for the subsidy to identify its causal effect on population growth. Using data on population by locality from the historical censuses we find that the ZTO had a positive but only temporary effect on population growth in the targeted areas.     

Allocation of assembly tolerances to minimize costs

The cost and quality of an assembly depend on the processes used to manufacture its components. The specific processes and process settings are often dictated by the tolerances on the components. One long-standing challenge is allocating the assembly tolerance to components. Many methods have been proposed, most of which endeavor to minimize cost. We propose a tolerance allocation method that minimizes cost by jointly considering process variation and tolerance specifications. A cost model including processing cost, scrap cost, and quality loss is employed. The cost is minimized by a heuristic strategy. An overrunning clutch assembly case study is used to evaluate the method.     

Crosslinking effect on polydimethylsiloxane elastic modulus measured by custom‐built compression instrument

A macroscopic compression test utilizing a simple custom‐built instrument was employed to measure polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastic modulus. PDMS samples with varying crosslinking density were prepared with the elastomer base to the curing agent ratio ranging from 5 : 1 to 33 : 1. The PDMS network elastic modulus varied linearly with the amount of crosslinker, ranging from 0.57 MPa to 3.7 MPa for the samples tested. PDMS elastic modulus in MPa can be expressed as 20 MPa/PDMS base to curing agent ratio. This article describes a simple method for measuring elastic properties of soft polymeric materials. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 41050.     

The OpenView Enterprise Management Framework

In OpenView, Hewlett-Packard has concentrated on creating a multivendor management platform for TCP/IP-based internets. This plays to the company's strengths in LAN management, where it has been a major player in the LAN protocol analyzer market since the early 1980s, and its expertise in TCP/IP, which the company had been using internally since the early 1980s.     

Thermodynamics of high-temperature aluminum,zirconium, and yttrium hydroxide and oxyhydroxide vapor species

Thermodynamic parameters are reported for gaseous hydroxides and oxyhydroxides of Al, Zr, and Y. The structures and vibrational frequencies are calculated using density functional theory with the B3LYP functional. This yields entropies at 298.15 K and heat capacities. The enthalpies are calculated from appropriate reactions and the CCSD(T) (Coupled Cluster, Singles, Doubles, and perturbative Triples) approach. The hydroxide groups are treated as hindered rotors for all species. The results are compared to the limited experimental and theoretical calculations for these species. Finally, the data are put into a database for a free-energy minimizer and the vapor pressures for each species are compared.     

Shhedding New Light on the Role of Hedgehog Signaling in Corneal Wound Healing

The cornea, an anterior ocular tissue that notably serves to protect the eye from external insults and refract light, requires constant epithelium renewal and efficient healing following injury to maintain ocular homeostasis. Although several key cell populations and molecular pathways implicated in corneal wound healing have already been thoroughly investigated, insufficient/impaired or excessive corneal wound healing remains a major clinical issue in ophthalmology, and new avenues of research are still needed to further improve corneal wound healing. Because of its implication in numerous cellular/tissular homeostatic processes and oxidative stress, there is growing evidence of the role of Hedgehog signaling pathway in physiological and pathological corneal wound healing. Reviewing current scientific evidence, Hedgehog signaling and its effectors participate in corneal wound healing mainly at the level of the corneal and limbal epithelium, where Sonic Hedgehog-mediated signaling promotes limbal stem cell proliferation and corneal epithelial cell proliferation and migration following corneal injury. Hedgehog signaling could also participate in corneal epithelial barrier homeostasis and in pathological corneal healing such as corneal injury-related neovascularization. By gaining a better understanding of the role of this double-edged sword in physiological and pathological corneal wound healing, fascinating new research avenues and therapeutic strategies will undoubtedly emerge.     

The Molecular Basis and Pathophysiology of Trigeminal Neuralgia

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a complex orofacial pain syndrome characterized by the paroxysmal onset of pain attacks in the trigeminal distribution. The underlying mechanism for this debilitating condition is still not clearly understood. Decades of basic and clinical evidence support the demyelination hypothesis, where demyelination along the trigeminal afferent pathway is a major driver for TN pathogenesis and pathophysiology. Such pathological demyelination can be triggered by physical compression of the trigeminal ganglion or another primary demyelinating disease, such as multiple sclerosis. Further examination of TN patients and animal models has revealed significant molecular changes, channelopathies, and electrophysiological abnormalities in the affected trigeminal nerve. Interestingly, recent electrophysiological recordings and advanced functional neuroimaging data have shed new light on the global structural changes and the altered connectivity in the central pain-related circuits in TN patients. The current article aims to review the latest findings on the pathophysiology of TN and cross-examining them with the current surgical and pharmacologic management for TN patients. Understanding the underlying biology of TN could help scientists and clinicians to identify novel targets and improve treatments for this complex, debilitating disease.     

High-Temperature Stability of Alumina in Argon and Argon/Water-Vapor Environments

The high-temperature stability of alumina (Al₂O₃) in argon and argon/water-vapor (Ar/H₂O) environments has been investigated. Samples were exposed at temperatures of 1300°C–1700°C for 10 h. The microstructure, flexural strength, and volume all showed significant changes in the Ar/H₂O environment at 1700°C. Samples also became whiter, because of the oxidation of graphite impurities that had diffused from the hot-processing dies. In the Ar/H₂O environment at 1700°C, grain-boundary etching occurred and was much more severe than in the pure-argon environment, which was very likely caused by the enhanced formation of gaseous Al(OH)₃ and Al(OH)₂ along grain boundaries. In addition, in the Ar/H₂O environment, substantial grain growth occurred in the surface vicinity. This grain growth, together with grain-boundary etching, led to a decrease in flexural strength.     

Symbolic pixel labeling for curvilinear feature detection

This paper describes a method of detecting thin curvilinear features in an image based on a detailed analysis of the local gray level patterns at each pixel. This allows operations such as thinning and gap filling to be based on more accurate information.     

Impacts of a jet''s exit flow pattern on mixing and combustion performance

The influence of modifying a jet's exit flow pattern on both the near and far-field turbulent mixing processes and on the resulting combustion performance, is explored. This reveals that, in contradiction to some common assumptions, increasing the coherence of large-scale motions can decrease molecular mixing rates, and yet can still be beneficial in some applications.

Even relatively minor changes to the exit flow pattern of a non-reacting round jet, through changes to the nozzle profile are found to propagate downstream into the far field, apparently through the underlying turbulent structure. Importantly, while a jet from a smoothly contracting nozzle is found to have higher rates of entrainment, mean spread and mean decay of the scalar field than does a long pipe jet, it has a lower rate of molecular mixing. That is, increased large-scale mixing does not necessarily result in increased fine-scale mixing. A range of devices are reviewed which enhance, or stimulate the large-scale, coherent motions in an emerging jet using acoustic, mechanical or fluidic methods. The available evidence suggests that those methods which induce instantaneously asymmetric flow structure are more effective at increasing the near-field spreading than are those which induce instantaneously axisymmetric flow structure. Only limited data are available of the effects of such near-field changes on the far-field properties. Nevertheless, the available data reveal a clear trend that this near-field flow undergoes a transition to a far-field state whose spread and decay is comparable with that of a steady jet, albeit being indelibly altered by the near-field excitation. It also suggests that “self-exciting” devices (i.e. that are not externally forced), cause a net reduction in the total entrainment relative to the unexcited jet, due to the losses induced by the device itself. Nevertheless, the changes which they can impart to the flow, such as redistributing the turbulent energy from the fine to the larger scales, can be beneficial for combustion in applications where high radiant heat transfer is desirable.

Precessing and flapping jets are found to cause an increase in flame volume relative to an equivalent simple jet (SJ), implying lower molecular mixing rates. However, importantly, this decrease in mixing is achieved with no increase in the flame length. Rather the width to length ratio of these flames is increased significantly. This is of practical significance because the length of a flame is often the limiting dimension in industrial systems. The reduced strain-rates lead to an increased presence of soot within the flame, while not, in general, significantly influencing the emission of soot from the flame. The increased volume of soot leads to increased radiation, which in turn acts to reduce flame temperature, so lowering thermal NO_x emissions through a global residence time–temperature reduction. For example, in full-scale cement kilns these burner nozzles are found to reduce NO_x emissions by around 40–60% and increase fuel efficiency (or output) by around 5–10%.