Post-WWII Redistribution in the US: the Role of the Boom Cycle

This paper explores the impact of wartime military spending on postwar U.S. fiscal policy, with a particular focus on the “ratchet effect” in taxes and transfers. Through econometric analysis, we investigate how changes in defense spending during and after conflicts shape long-term federal transfer and tax policies, emphasizing the asymmetric influence of economic growth cycles on defense budgets. Our findings challenge conventional perspectives, showing that economic booms reinforce the fiscal structures established in wartime, resulting in sustained increases in federal transfers and tax revenues. Conversely, during economic downturns, we observe a “reverse ratchet” effect, where increases in defense spending lead to higher transfers and decreased revenues, as fiscal resources are reallocated to stabilize household incomes

Post-WWII redistribution in the US: the role of the boom cycle

This paper explores the impact of wartime military spending on postwar U.S. fiscal policy, with a particular focus on the “ratchet effect” in taxes and transfers. Through econometric analysis, we investigate how changes in defense spending during and after conflicts shape long-term federal transfer and tax policies, emphasizing the asymmetric influence of economic growth cycles on defense budgets. Our findings challenge conventional perspectives, showing that economic booms reinforce the fiscal structures established in wartime, resulting in sustained increases in federal transfers and tax revenues. Conversely, during economic downturns, we observe a “reverse ratchet” effect, where increases in defense spending lead to higher transfers and decreased revenues, as fiscal resources are reallocated to stabilize household incomes

A potent betulinic acid analogue ascertains an antagonistic mechanism between autophagy and proteasomal degradation pathway in HT-29 cells

Betulinic acid (BA), a member of pentacyclic triterpenes has shown important biological activities like anti-bacterial, anti-malarial, anti-inflammatory and most interestingly anticancer property. To overcome its poor aqueous solubility and low bioavailability, structural modifications of its functional groups are made to generate novel lead(s) having better efficacy and less toxicity than the parent compound. BA analogue, 2c was found most potent inhibitor of colon cancer cell line, HT-29 cells with IC50 value 14.9 μM which is significantly lower than standard drug 5-fluorouracil as well as parent compound, Betulinic acid. We have studied another mode of PCD, autophagy which is one of the important constituent of cellular catabolic system as well as we also studied proteasomal degradation pathway to investigate whole catabolic pathway after exploration of 2c on HT-29 cells. Mechanism of autophagic cell death was studied using fluorescent dye like acridine orange (AO) and monodansylcadaverin (MDC) staining by using fluorescence microscopy. Various autophagic protein expression levels were determined by Western Blotting, qRT-PCR and Immunostaining. Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM) was used to study the colocalization of various autophagic proteins. These were accompanied by formation of autophagic vacuoles as revealed by FACS and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Proteasomal degradation pathway was studied by proteasome-Glo™ assay systems using luminometer.The formation of autophagic vacuoles in HT-29 cells after 2c treatment was determined by fluorescence staining – confirming the occurrence of autophagy. In addition, 2c was found to alter expression levels of different autophagic proteins like Beclin-1, Atg 5, Atg 7, Atg 5-Atg 12, LC3B and autophagic adapter protein, p62. Furthermore we found the formation of autophagolysosome by colocalization of LAMP-1 with LC3B, LC3B with Lysosome, p62 with lysosome. Finally, as proteasomal degradation pathway downregulated after 2c treatment colocalization of ubiquitin with lysosome and LC3B with p62 was studied to confirm that protein degradation in autophagy induced HT-29 cells follows autolysosomal pathway. In summary, betulinic acid analogue, 2c was able to induce autophagy in HT-29 cells and as proteasomal degradation pathway downregulated after 2c treatment so protein degradation in autophagy induced HT-29 cell

Behavioral Alterations of Spatial Cognition and Role of the Apolipoprotein E-ε4 in Patients with MCI Due to Alzheimer’s Disease: Results from the BDSC-MCI Project

Background: Beyond memory deterioration, spatial disorientation may occur along the continuum of normal aging-dementia of Alzheimer's type. The present study aims at detecting behavioral disorders of spatial cognition in prodromal Alzheimer's disease (AD) and verifying the association between Apolipoprotein E-epsilon 4 (ApoE-epsilon 4) genotype and gait patterns during a real-world naturalistic task. Methods: A sample of 58 elderly participants, of which 20 patients with mild cognitive impairment with CFS biomarker evidence of AD, 23 individuals with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), and 15 healthy controls (HCs), was tested by a modified version of the Detour Navigation Test (DNT-mv). Generalized linear models were run to explore the association between group belonging and wrong turns (WTs)/moments of hesitation (MsH) as behavioral disorientation scores of the DNT-mv as well as the effect of ApoE-epsilon 4 genotype on time and walking speed registered by a smartphone app providing GPS tracking of body movement around urban environments. Results: Patients with MCI due to AD reported more WTs than individuals with SCD and HCs. Further, the ApoE-epsilon 4 genotype determined a lower capacity in spatial information processing, influencing gait during naturalistic spatial navigation tasks. Conclusions: Behavior alterations of spatial cognition can be detected ecologically in prodromal AD. The use of technological solutions supporting gait analysis may help in corroborating the experimental observation

Analysis of the Influence of Lunar Cycle on the Frequency of Spontaneous Deliveries: A Single-centre Retrospective Study

Background Man, since ancient times, has been convinced of, and has researched scientific evidence that the barometric and gravitational forces play an important role in structural and biological variation of the planets, influencing the various forms of life. In particular, the synergistic relationships between variations in atmospheric pressure and gravitational forces on human gestation period have been the subject of rigorous observations and statistical calculations, which have not led to a universal conclusion in literature.Objectives The aim of our work was to check whether there is a higher incidence of spontaneous deliveries, during the periods of full Moon than during the other phases of the Moon.Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of 327 non-induced vaginal deliveries in a year, divided by month. We subsequently analyzed the incidence of these deliveries during periods of full Moon Vs other lunar phases.Results We evidenced a statistically significant difference between the annual total spontaneous deliveries happened in full Moon periods Vs all other Moon phases (T= 2,3946; p=0,0256). However, we reported a discordant trend of deliveries in full Moon period, depending on each considered month.Conclusion Since these differences were found both in increase and decrease, it is unacceptable the assumption of a linear correlation between periods of full Moon and increased frequency of spontaneous deliveries. For this reason, our data allow us to conclude that there is no need to increase the number of doctors and midwives in obstetric units during these periods.Kathmandu University Medical Journal Vol.12(4) 2014; 233-23

Umbilical hernia rupture with evisceration of omentum from massive ascites: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>The incidence of hernias is increased in patients with alcoholic liver disease with ascites. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of an acute rise in intra-abdominal pressure from straining for stool as the cause of a ruptured umbilical hernia.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>An 81-year-old Caucasian man with a history of alcoholic liver disease presented to our emergency department with an erythematous umbilical hernia and clear, yellow discharge from the umbilicus. On straining for stool, after initial clinical assessment, our patient noted a gush of fluid and evisceration of omentum from the umbilical hernia. An urgent laparotomy was performed with excision of the umbilicus and devitalized omentum.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We report the case of a patient with a history of alcoholic liver disease with ascites. Ascites causes a chronic increase in intra-abdominal pressure. A sudden increase in intra-abdominal pressure, such as coughing, vomiting, gastroscopy or, as in this case, straining for stool can cause rupture of an umbilical hernia. The presence of discoloration, ulceration or a rapid increase in size of the umbilical hernia signals impending rupture and should prompt the physician to reduce the intra-abdominal pressure.</p

Identifying frequency decorrelated dust residuals in B-mode maps by exploiting the spectral capability of bolometric interferometry

Astrophysical polarized foregrounds represent the most critical challenge in Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) B-mode experiments. Multi-frequency observations can be used to constrain astrophysical foregrounds to isolate the CMB contribution. However, recent observations indicate that foreground emission may be more complex than anticipated. We investigate how the increased spectral resolution provided by band splitting in Bolometric Interferometry (BI) through a technique called spectral imaging can help control the foreground contamination in the case of unaccounted Galactic dust frequency decorrelation along the line-of-sight. We focus on the next generation ground-based CMB experiment CMB-S4, and compare its anticipated sensitivities, frequency and sky coverage with a hypothetical version of the same experiment based on BI. We perform a Monte-Carlo analysis based on parametric component separation methods (FGBuster and Commander) and compute the likelihood on the recovered tensor-to-scalar ratio. The main result of this analysis is that spectral imaging allows us to detect systematic uncertainties on r from frequency decorrelation when this effect is not accounted for in component separation. Conversely, an imager would detect a biased value of r and would be unable to spot the presence of a systematic effect. We find a similar result in the reconstruction of the dust spectral index, where we show that with BI we can measure more precisely the dust spectral index also when frequency decorrelation is present. The in-band frequency resolution provided by BI allows us to identify dust LOS frequency decorrelation residuals where an imager of similar performance would fail. This opens the prospect to exploit this potential in the context of future CMB polarization experiments that will be challenged by complex foregrounds in their quest for B-modes detection.Comment: 13 Pages, 15 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to A&

Spectral Imaging with QUBIC: building frequency maps from Time-Ordered-Data using Bolometric Interferometry

The search for relics from the inflation era in the form of B-mode polarization of the CMB is a major challenge in cosmology. The main obstacle appears to come from the complexity of Galactic foregrounds that need to be removed. Multi-frequency observations are key to mitigating their contamination and mapping primordial fluctuations. We present "Spectral-Imaging", a method to reconstruct sub-frequency maps of the CMB polarization within the instrument's physical bandwidth, a unique feature of Bolometric Interferometry that could be crucial for foreground mitigation as it provides an increased spectral resolution. Our technique uses the frequency evolution of the shape of the Bolometric Interferometer's synthesized beam to reconstruct frequency information from the time domain data. We reconstruct sub-frequency maps using an inverse problem approach based on detailed modeling of the instrument acquisition. We use external data to regularize the convergence of the estimator and account for bandpass mismatch and varying angular resolution. The reconstructed maps are unbiased and allow exploiting the spectral-imaging capacity of QUBIC. Using end-to-end simulations of the QUBIC instrument, we perform a cross-spectra analysis to extract a forecast on the tensor-to-scalar ratio constraint of σ(r)=0.0225 after component separation

Spectral Imaging with QUBIC: building astrophysical components from Time-Ordered-Data using Bolometric Interferometry

The detection of B-modes in the CMB polarization pattern is a major issue in modern cosmology and must therefore be handled with analytical methods that produce reliable results. We describe a method that uses the frequency dependency of the QUBIC synthesized beam to perform component separation at the map-making stage, to obtain more precise results. We aim to demonstrate the feasibility of component separation during the map-making stage in time domain space. This new technique leads to a more accurate description of the data and reduces the biases in cosmological analysis. The method uses a library for highly parallel computation which facilitates the programming and permits the description of experiments as easily manipulated operators. These operators can be combined to obtain a joint analysis using several experiments leading to maximized precision. The results show that the method works well and permits end-to-end analysis for the CMB experiments, and in particular, for QUBIC. The method includes astrophysical foregrounds, and also systematic effects like gain variation in the detectors. We developed a software pipeline that produces uncertainties on tensor-to-scalar ratio at the level of σ(r)∼0.023 using only QUBIC simulated data