In this study, we demonstrate a high-performance solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) atomic switching device with low SET/RESET voltages (0.25 and -0.5 V, respectively), high on/off-current ratio (10), excellent cyclic endurance (>10), and long retention time (>10 s), where poly-4-vinylphenol (PVP)/poly(melamine-co-formaldehyde) (PMF) is used as an SPE layer. To accomplish these excellent device performance parameters, we reduce the off-current level of the PVP/PMF atomic switching device by improving the electrical insulating property of the PVP/PMF electrolyte through adjustment of the number of cross-linked chains. We then apply a titanium buffer layer to the PVP/PMF switching device for further improvement of bipolar switching behavior and device stability. In addition, we first implement SPE atomic switch-based logic AND and OR circuits with low operating voltages below 2 V by integrating 5 × 5 arrays of PVP/PMF switching devices on the flexible substrate. In particular, this low operating voltage of our logic circuits was much lower than that (>5 V) of the circuits configured by polymer resistive random access memory. This research successfully presents the feasibility of PVP/PMF atomic switches for flexible integrated circuits for next-generation electronic applications.

Since the 1980s, state governments have been using private debt collection agencies as facilitators and expediters in the delinquent tax collection process. The use of private collection agencies incorporates administrative effectiveness, efficiency, and procedural fairness, which can lead to an increase in revenues without affecting either the tax base or rate while protecting taxpayers. Using state-level panel data for the years 2000 to 2011, the administrative effectiveness outcome is that private collectors do not reduce the aggregate delinquent tax inventory, but the administrative efficiency outcome is that private collectors reduce collection cost. For procedural fairness, private collectors have a positive effect on the number of tax appeals filed in a state tax department with a Republican governor; however, they decrease the number of tax appeals filed with an outside-independent tax appeal agency.

We question why some state legislatures responded to public discourse promptly while other state legislatures resist change. We use the choice of performance-based budgeting (PBB) to set the stage in answering this compelling question. We employ a logit model as a discrete event history analysis (EHA). We use the EHA to determine how and what variables influence the probability of an organization’s qualitative change (or “event”) at a given point in time. In this study, the organizations are states, and the event to be analyzed is the enactment of PBB law. Our data set is a modified panel of 50 states between the years 1993 and 2008. We study the factors that would influence state legislators to pass PBB laws across the nation. While our empirical result shows that political preferences are not statistically significant factors for states to pass PBB law, state legislators seem to favor the factors associated with the financial management explanation to adopt PBB. Also, the factors of path dependence and mimicking influence states to adopt PBB.

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