China-US tax treaty FAQ

本文针对F-1学生用到China-US treaty时的一些问题。关于留美学生报税更详细的说明请见这里 什么人适用China-US treaty? 在中国签美国签证（F-1，J-1）者。中国公民在作为另一B国的resident来美不适用中美treaty，但适用B国-US treaty。F2，J2不适用。F2在美转F1不适用。但转后如回国呆够一年，再签F1来美则适用 $5,000的treaty exemption是否包含在我收到的W-2里了？ 首先算一下所有W-2和1042-S中的Gross income减去Federal withhold和State withhold后是否就是你一年从学校收到的钱。如果不足的话可能有W-2或1042-S还没有收到，要问学校的payroll office 收到W-2 only：包含，box 1减$5,000后填到收入中 收到W-2 + $5,000的1042-S：不包含，W-2 box 1直接填到收入中 1042-S的收入是否都免税？ 看box 1的income code： code 15: scholarship or fellowship全免；包括拿的奖学金，还有一些grant（比如开会的travel grant） code 19: Compensation during training or while gaining experience减5000；RAship/TAship属于这种情况 code 18: teaching全免3年（J签证）； 其他有些code（比如50）不免 Treaty免税的收入是否应该填在Wage里（1040-NR第8项 / 1040-NR-EZ第3项）？ 否，应该填在income exempted by treaty一项中（1040-NR第22项 / 1040-NR-EZ第6项），不参与最右边一列的加和 注意：州税填法可能不一样，如纽约州IT-201，treaty所免收入同时加到item 1和17里 1040-NR Schedule IO – Item L [...]

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玩具DIY

这里分享一下三个月前做实验道具的经历，挺有趣的。先上成品图： 在我写完实验计划之后先是想找人做这些盒子的，不过怕解释不清我的意图，所以最后决定自己做啦。很幸运地联系到了建筑系的Alice，她给我很多关于买材料的建议，还帮我切了木头。这几个盒子当中最后一个小房子是买现成的，不是做滴~ 材料：Balsa木，复合板，木柄，透明塑料板，Velcro（中文叫“尼龙搭扣”，就是衣服上鞋上能搭起来能拉开的那个），铰链，彩色纸工具：聚氨酯胶（polyurethane adhesive），白胶，切塑料板专用刀，砂纸，颜料，刷子，刀，尺，笔 Balsa木（巴尔沙木）软，易塑，顺木纹用一般小刀就可以切开。Alice说建筑模型主要都用的这种木头。复合板便宜，在这的建材市场2英尺见方的板才花了2刀多。原来我是想在盒子上盖玻璃的，后来导购说透明塑料更好，安全结实，完全透明。强度有10倍玻璃、20倍、50倍的。就是切的时候要用专门的刀，还不好切。白胶用来胶木头，聚氨酯胶用来连接木头和金属/塑料。 第一步设计图纸啦，然后把每个零件编号、画到木头上。 第二步切割。康奈尔Rand Hall有个木工房，不过只给建筑系用，所以这步是Alice帮我完成的:p大零件是用切床切的。这里我有个失误：切床的刀刃是有厚度的，最薄也要将近3毫米，等于切完后这3毫米是要损失掉的。我画木头的时候没有留出这些富余，结果切完等于每块都小了一些，只能现场再调整。小零件以及打孔是用一个装着电锯的仪器切的，没有刀刃厚度的问题。切完后用一个像旋转砂纸的机器打磨。那玩意儿满是木屑，呛人。塑料板是我自己切的。根据建材市场导购的介绍，我用尺子和专用刀在要切的位置上反复划痕，痕迹有大概板厚度的1/3的时候就可以放到桌沿上折断，清脆的“啪”一声就好啦。切面一般都是很平的。不过划痕很难划透，要在板上打洞可是苦了去了。我为打一个洞折腾了一晚上。 第三步拼接，第四步上色——这两步是和在一起的，因为都装完也就不好抹颜料了。没什么技术难度，就是花些时间，因为每个零件粘好或者上好色都要等它干。我的三个盒子是轮流做的，需要一点流程优化管理呵呵~ 最后一步调整。刚做完的盒子有些地方没有达到我的设计意图。一个重要问题是紫盒子的滑梯部分：原本在复合板上木头片是能滑下去的，结果涂上颜料后摩擦系数变大滑不下去了@@ 我试了增加一点坡度，或者在坡面上涂点油之类的，都不解决问题。最后是在斜坡上贴了张彩纸，就能滑下去了。所以紫盒子的滑梯面上颜色是有些不同滴:p  此外橙盒子上的Velcro插销、紫盒子的手柄和绿盒子旁边的插槽最初都有些问题，经过试验和改进逐步变好些了。到现在还是有一个问题没完全解决：谁知道在木头之间涂点什么东西能使移动更顺滑么？ 恩，制作过长大概就是这样了。盒子做好后的三个月里我测了大概20多个2岁孩子，喜忧参半。喜的是多数小孩对这些盒子很感兴趣，能集中注意在任务上。忧的是盒子经常坏：木头做的本来就不是很牢，移动也不太顺滑，2岁小孩精细动作还做不好而是喜欢使蛮力，最后结果就是会坏掉。尤其容易弄坏的是橙盒子上的Velcro插销和绿盒子上用Balsa木做的T型爬犁。关于小孩子玩玩具的目的我有一个假设——他们的主要目标是要把玩具所有的可能状态（affordance）都试出来，而这些状态中“坏掉”无疑是最令人兴奋的了。

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Two more rejections…

The second to last rejection was from Autism.  It was after the third resubmission of the manuscript, and the whole process took almost one year.  The reviews for the first two revisions were quite possitive, giving an illusion that the paper will be accepted after addressing all the comments.  I tried really hard to address them–or at least clarify these [...]

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Fridays with Kids (10)

O had saw me from the window when I ride to the Racker Center today. When Alisa asked him "what’s outside the window" later in the day, he said "Yue’s bike"—the boy gives surprises every time! A new event was added to the circle time today. Jena prepared pictures of different songs; each kid chose [...]

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Fridays with kids (9)

This morning the temperature is about 10°C below zero. Many things can freeze in this temperature, including the bike rack on the bus and my nose when cycling down the hill. All children in Racker Center went on a bus to Ithaca College today—they have a weekly swimming course there in Wednesdays, and because of [...]

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Fridays with Kids (8)

The last portait is for D, a child from Korea. D is quite different from the others—he is quite, sweet, and less likely to get excited. When he’s upset he would cry, but never shout at others or throw things to the ground. Thus it is easy to keep him calm and safe. However, D’s [...]

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Fridays with Kids (7)

This is a quite day because only 3 children with autism came. Alisa did a yearly assessment for O, and I watched it. O was good at most intellectual questions (body parts, colors, etc.), and he is superior in matching letters with sounds (e.g., A for /a:/). Jenna said most children learn the sounds of [...]

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Fridays with Kids (6)

The teachers of the hippo class took turns to take care of children—for each half an hour each teacher is responsible for one or two children, helping them to do daily routines and training them, and then they rotate. Today is the first day that I enter this rotation, which means I also take some [...]

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Fridays with Kids (5)

Yesterday at the visit to Dr. Hudenko’s lab two things impressed me most. The first is that children with autism produce less non-vocal (social) laughter but more vocal ("geniun") laughter than typically developing children. The second is that people generally like those "geniun" laughter better. C, a girl with autism in Racker Center, perfectly demonstrated [...]

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稿子又给打回来了

恩，还是大三时候的孤独症稿子。 投Autism这已经是第六个杂志了，前五个都拒掉了。Autism第一次给的反馈是revised revision，看起来挺有希望的。我也是逐条逐条地按照反馈意见改的。结果换来的意见是have undergone minor (but not significant) modification following my previous review@@ 真崩溃。 回过头看实验的过程还是太糙了。没有加Developmental Delay的控制组，孤独症组的人数也少。最后要得结论其实挺牵强的，所以掩饰了半天实质性问题还是会被揪出来。当时总以为自己有想法就牛了，可以快点出成果了。呵呵，说起来苏老师也太惯着我了。出来看看，谁不是又有想法又用功的。而且到头来还是用功比较重要。 三年了啊，弹指一挥间。不过还有时间，有机会。Do serious work. 引一段《心理学职业之路》上Henry L. Roediger III的话，共勉~ If I had to put my finger on two characteristics that predict academic success, the two would be achievement motivation (how much you really want to do this and how hard you [...]

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