cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
New Highly Efficient High-Breakdown Estimator of Multivariate Scatter and Location for Elliptical Distributions
Creators: name: Fishbone, Justin A.
name: Mili, Lamine
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Statistics Theory (math.ST)
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: High-breakdown-point estimators of multivariate location and shape matrices, such as the MM-estimator with smooth hard rejection and the Rocke S-estimator, are generally designed to have high efficiency at the Gaussian distribution. However, many phenomena are non-Gaussian, and these estimators can therefore have poor efficiency. This paper proposes a new tunable S-estimator, termed the S-q estimator, for the general class of symmetric elliptical distributions, a class containing many common families such as the multivariate Gaussian, t-, Cauchy, Laplace, hyperbolic, and normal inverse Gaussian distributions. Across this class, the S-q estimator is shown to generally provide higher maximum efficiency than other leading high-breakdown estimators while maintaining the maximum breakdown point. Furthermore, its robustness is demonstrated to be on par with these leading estimators while also being more stable with respect to initial conditions. From a practical viewpoint, these properties make the S-q broadly applicable for practitioners. This is demonstrated with an example application -- the minimum-variance optimal allocation of financial portfolio investments.
Profile Popularity in a Business-oriented Online Social Network
Creators: name: Strufe, Thorsten
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: Computers and Society (cs.CY)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Analysing Online Social Networks (OSN), voluntarily maintained and automatically exploitable databases of electronic personal information, promises a wealth of insight into their users' behavior, interest, and utilization of these currently predominant services on the Internet. To understand popularity in OSN, we monitored a large sample of profiles from a highly popular network for three months, and analysed the relation between profile properties and their impression frequency. Evaluating the data indicates a strong relation between both the number of accepted contacts and the diligence of updating contacts versus the frequency of requests for a profile. Counter intuitively, the overall activity, gender, as well as participation span of users have no remarkable impact on their profile's popularity.
Balancing the Budget: Feature Selection and Tracking for Multi-Camera Visual-Inertial Odometry
Creators: name: Zhang, Lintong
name: Wisth, David
name: Camurri, Marco
name: Fallon, Maurice
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Robotics (cs.RO)
subject: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: We present a multi-camera visual-inertial odometry system based on factor graph optimization which estimates motion by using all cameras simultaneously while retaining a fixed overall feature budget. We focus on motion tracking in challenging environments, such as narrow corridors, dark spaces with aggressive motions, and abrupt lighting changes. These scenarios cause traditional monocular or stereo odometry to fail. While tracking motion with extra cameras should theoretically prevent failures, it leads to additional complexity and computational burden. To overcome these challenges, we introduce two novel methods to improve multi-camera feature tracking. First, instead of tracking features separately in each camera, we track features continuously as they move from one camera to another. This increases accuracy and achieves a more compact factor graph representation. Second, we select a fixed budget of tracked features across the cameras to reduce back-end optimization time. We have found that using a smaller set of informative features can maintain the same tracking accuracy. Our proposed method was extensively tested using a hardware-synchronized device consisting of an IMU and four cameras (a front stereo pair and two lateral) in scenarios including: an underground mine, large open spaces, and building interiors with narrow stairs and corridors. Compared to stereo-only state-of-the-art visual-inertial odometry methods, our approach reduces the drift rate, relative pose error, by up to 80% in translation and 39% in rotation.
description: Video at https://youtu.be/cLWeAT72e0U
The patient with dementia in sub-acute geriatric rehabilitation hospitals: a critical ethnography
Creators: name: Digby, Robin
Publisher: name: Monash University
Year: 2017
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: Introduction
 This study investigated the care of people with dementia in sub-acute geriatric rehabilitation hospitals. Sub-acute care encompasses rehabilitation, palliative care, geriatric evaluation and management (GEM) and psychogeriatric care (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2012b, p. 13) and is known as intermediate care in the United Kingdom (Nancarrow, 2007). The patients in sub-acute geriatric rehabilitation facilities have complex needs associated with chronic medical conditions related to ageing, and treatment is delivered by a multidisciplinary team. It has been previously reported that people with dementia can deteriorate cognitively and physically while in hospital are poorly supported by the hospital system (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2015), have a negative experience of care (Cowdell, 2010b), and that nurses find caring for people with dementia a stressful experience (Griffiths, Knight, Harwood, & Gladman, 2014).
 Aims
 The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of people with dementia and nurses in sub-acute geriatric rehabilitation hospitals in order to offer a critical perspective of the widely reported poor care received by such patients. A further aim was to focus attention on the cultural and organisational factors which influenced care.
 Method
 This study used a qualitative design employing critical ethnography as the methodology. The data was collected in five wards in two metropolitan hospitals in Melbourne, Australia in 2014. Conversational semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 inpatients with dementia and 29 nurses who volunteered to participate. In addition 120 hours of observation took place in the wards and patient progress notes and documentation was examined.
 Findings
 The findings of this study indicated that patients with dementia felt alienated in the hospital environment, were bored, homesick and often did not know why they were there. Nurses reported feeling over-worked, poorly supported and under-prepared educationally for the role. Nurse and patient participants described the efficiency-driven organisational focus as having a detrimental effect on caring practices. This view has also led many nurses to see patients with dementia as unworthy, and the patients themselves to feel alienated.
 Conclusion
 As the number of people with dementia in the community continues to rise, a focus on supporting patients and the nurses who care for them in sub-acute care is critical in order to concurrently improve the outcomes for patients and job satisfaction for the nurses.
Designing a Legal Vehicle for Social Enterprises: An Issue Spotting Exercise
Creators: name: Loric, Aurélien
Publisher: name: Columbia Journal of Tax Law
Year: 2014

description: Social entrepreneurship is at the juncture of creative capitalism and social innovation. It aims at combining the best of two sectors, and thus is cramped in the traditional vehicles designed for either world in isolation. Although the social bottom line of these enterprises can usually meet the broad charitable purpose requirement of the Internal Revenue Code, tax-exempt vehicles have proven to be unable to hose the financial one. Conversely, the advantages of for-profits stem from their flexibility, but their failure to receive funding from tax-exempts and the lack of a social enterprise brand have made it necessary to design new vehicles.
description: Columbia Journal of Tax Law, Vol. 5 No. 1 (2014)
Nurses’ experiences of supervising nursing students who demonstrate unsafe practice on clinical placements: A systematic review
Creators: name: Bonnamy, James Richard
Publisher: name: Monash University
Year: 2017
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: Background: Nurses within the clinical environment have described difficulty evaluating nursing student performance during clinical placements, particularly when students demonstrate unsafe practice. This situation may result in an outcome where students receive a grade incongruent with their actual performance. There is a need to synthesise the findings of studies about the experience of nurses who supervise students who demonstrate unsafe practice on clinical placements so that recommendations can be made.

 Aim: The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate qualitative studies that have explored the experience of nurses who have supervised students who demonstrate unsafe practice on clinical placements. Two specific review questions were addressed that considered the experience of nurses who have supervised students who demonstrate unsafe practice on clinical placements and the reasons why nurses award pass grades to these students.

 Method: Qualitative studies that described the experience or the effects of the experience of supervising students who demonstrate unsafe practice on clinical placements were considered. Five databases were searched using a pre-defined search strategy and studies were assessed for inclusion and quality against set criteria. Data was extracted independently by two reviewers. A third reviewer facilitated resolution of any discrepancies. Data were similar enough to enable a meta-aggregation of findings into five categories from which two synthesised findings were developed.

 Results: A total of 14 studies were included in the review. Whilst the quality of the studies varied, each provided rich data for analysis. A total of 59 findings were extracted from the included studies and aggregated into five categories culminating in two synthesised findings related to nurses’ experiences of supervising students who demonstrate unsafe practice on clinical placements.

 Conclusions: This review demonstrated that nurses experienced a moral dilemma when supervising and assigning a grade to students who demonstrated unsafe practice on clinical placements. The dilemma caused significant moral distress when assigning a pass or fail grade at the end of the supervision experience. The distress was often overlooked due to a lack of debriefing for nurses who supervised these students. This lack of support resulted in nurses assigning pass grades despite having concerns about student performance. Further research is needed into the briefing and debriefing requirements of nurses who supervise students who demonstrate unsafe practice on clinical placements. This systematic review has contributed to our understanding of the experience of supervising students who demonstrate unsafe practice on clinical placements.
An exploration of participants’ experience of an intensive care nursing transition to specialty practice program
Creators: name: Auxillia Madhuvu
Publisher: name: Monash University
Year: 2017
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: Transition to Specialty Practice Programs (TSPPs) were developed to support, educate and facilitate recruitment and retention of nurses in specialised areas of practice. The intensive care nursing TSPP in this study was implemented in 2000. To date, nationally there are no studies conducted which focus on intensive care nursing TSPPs. The intensive care nursing TSPP was developed at one organisation to meet the staffing requirements of two adult intensive care units. The aim of this study was to explore the effects of an intensive care nursing TSPP offered in two intensive care units (ICUs) in one organisation

 A cross-sectional survey design was used to collect quantitative data. Data were collected from nurses who participated in the TSPP from 2005 to 2015 using an anonymous online survey. Summary statistics and chi square tests were used to analyse the data

 The response rate was at least 51.8% (n=86). Most of the TSPP participants had medical nursing experience (n=35, 40.7%) or surgical nursing experience (n=35, 40.7 %) prior to enrolling into the program. Findings revealed that most of the participants (n=66, 76.7%) were still working in ICU. More than half (n=57, 77%) of the participants were working in the ICU for more than two years post program. The majority of the participants (n=60, 69.8%) undertook post graduate education post TSPP.
 The findings of this study will inform nurses who want to commence nursing in ICU, nurse educators and organisations about the progress of TSPP participants post completion. Further studies on different organisations or nationwide will add to the results of this study.
Supplementary document for In vitro and in vivo NIR Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging with a time-gated SPAD camera - 5768918.pdf
Creators: name: Smith, Jason
name: Rudkouskaya, Alena
name: Gao, Shan
name: Gupta, Juhi
name: Ulku, Arin
name: Bruschini, Claudio
name: Charbon, Edoardo
name: Weiss, Shimon
name: Barroso, Margarida
name: Intes, Xavier
Publisher: name: Optica Publishing Group
Year: 2022
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: Supplementary material
Determining the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of a compacted sand-bentonite mixture under constant volume and free-swell conditions
Creators: name: Cui, Yu-Jun
name: Tang, Anh-Minh
name: Loiseau, Cyril
name: Delage, Pierre
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Geophysics (physics.geo-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Highly compacted sand-bentonite mixtures are often considered as possible engineered barriers in deep high-level radioactive waste disposals. In-situ, the saturation of these barriers from their initially unsaturated state is a complex hydro-mechanical coupled process in which temperature effects also play a role. The key parameter of this process is the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of the barrier. In this paper, isothermal infiltration experiments were conducted to determine the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity according to the instantaneous profile method. To do so, total suction changes were monitored at different locations along the soil specimen by using resistivity relative humidity probes. Three constant volume infiltration tests were conducted showing, unexpectedly, a decrease of the hydraulic conductivity during infiltration. One test performed under free-swell conditions showed the opposite and standard trend. These observations were interpreted in terms of microstructure changes during wetting, both under constant volume and free swell conditions.
The Influence of Historical Tax Law Developments on Anglo-American Laws and Politics
Creators: name: Cockfield, Arthur J.
name: Mayles, Jonah
Publisher: name: Columbia Journal of Tax Law
Year: 2014

description: This article highlights the influence of historical Anglo-American tax law developments on the formation of new political institutions and laws. In critical periods of English and U.S. history, individuals rebelled against arbitrary royal taxes. In turn, they demanded new tax laws that became embedded in documents from the Magna Carta to the English Bill of Rights to the Declaration of Independence that promoted democratic constraints on the use of state power to assess and collect taxes. Over time, the idea that individuals are entitled to equal treatment under the law, and possess inalienable human rights, emerged in part as a result of these tax law developments. The discussion in this article supports the view that pragmatic concerns over property and taxation drove important English and American political and legal reforms.
description: Columbia Journal of Tax Law, Vol. 5 No. 1 (2014)
Critical Care Nurses' Knowledge and Confidence in Arrhythmia Interpretation
Creators: name: Kerbage, Samira Hamadeh
Publisher: name: Monash University
Year: 2019
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: Background: Previous studies have revealed a knowledge gap in arrhythmia identification amongst critical care nurses. This deficit may affect their propensity to recognise early signs of patients’ deterioration and have adverse impact on survival. No Australian studies have described critical care nurses’ level of arrhythmia knowledge or how that knowledge affected their confidence.
 Aim: To describe the level of arrhythmia knowledge and confidence demonstrated by critical care nurses.
 Design and Methods: A descriptive quantitative study design was conducted using a two- part self-reporting survey. Part one collected participant demographic data and overall confidence while part two used the Keller Assessment Rating Tool to collect data on participant rhythm interpretation and confidence levels. Non-probability sampling resulted in 32 participants from a single site. Non parametric statistics were used to analyse the data and Spearman’s rho was utilized to examine correlations between variables.
 Results: The majority of participants were females (n=31, 96.9%) with median age of 42 years; (IQR=34-52) with six to ten years of experience (n=15, 46.9%). Poor scores were achieved in interpreting intermediate and advanced ECG strips. A positive monotonic relationship between the ranks of knowledge and confidence was detected. Median knowledge scores increased with years of experience and number of ECGs interpreted per month and decreased with level of ECG difficulty.
 Conclusion: This study identified gaps in participants’ arrhythmia knowledge despite being generally confident in ECG interpretation. Participants identified shockable rhythms accurately but could not recognise other fatal arrhythmias. Further research is required to generalise findings.
Income Tax Treaty Policy in the 21st Century: Residence vs. Source
Creators: name: Wells, Bret
name: Lowell, Cym H.
Publisher: name: Columbia Journal of Tax Law
Year: 2014

description: The United States has repeatedly attempted to stop tax base erosion for almost the entire post-World War I era, and yet the same problems exist today. The need for fundamental tax reform is front-page material in the major newspapers with the US transfer pricing rules and US multinationals portrayed as public enemy #1. The OECD this month issued a report entitled “Addressing Base Erosion and Profit Shifting,” and in a competing fashion several important developing countries have initiated their own pact to develop cooperative strategies on these issues outside of the framework of the OECD and UN. The attached manuscript studies the historical record and sets forth a competing model for dealing with these matters which pre-dated the existing model treaties and transfer pricing paradigm. This earlier paradigm was offered by the International Chamber of Commerce’s but was prematurely abandoned by the League of Nations in favor of the existing paradigm. In light of the fact that the existing paradigm has failed so miserably, the earlier proposal should be re-considered. In the inevitable re-examination process, there will be a fascinating range of political, economic, and business issues to be addressed. Tax administrations will need to ascertain how their resources could be redeployed to foster economic growth. MNEs will need to assess the impact of new treaty concepts on their global effective tax rate planning models. The critical question is who will initiate the evolution to come. All countries are anxious to protect their respective tax bases. At the present time, it appears that the BRICS and Source Countries have planted their stake in the sand, rejecting the existing order and declaring an intention to update the rules that apply to their own tax base defense. The OECD appears to be principally driven by the need to defend its Member country tax bases, hoping, no doubt, that BRICS and Source Countries will ultimately follow its lead. Whichever organization emerges as the new-found thought leader on these questions, it is now time to give the original International Chamber of Commerce recommendation a fair consideration on its merits (which, interestingly, addresses the current concerns of BRICS and Source Countries).
description: Columbia Journal of Tax Law, Vol. 5 No. 1 (2014)
Metagenomes of blood and psoriatic skin. Research project. Presentation and illustrations.
Creators: name: Peslyak, Mikhail
name: Korotky, Nikolay
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: bacterial DNA
bacterial products
bioinformatics
chemokines
dendritic cells
human papilloma virus
innate and adaptive response
intestinal permeability
keratinocytes
kPAMP-carriage
lipopolysaccharide
metagenome
microbiome
model of pathogenesis
monocytes
muramyl dipeptide
netosis
neutrophils
non-host DNA
PAMP-nemia
peptidoglycan
phagocytes
psoriagenic bacteria
psoriasis
psoriatic disease
sequencing
systemic psoriatic process
T-lymphocytes

description: This presentation and illustrations is Supplement A to book 10.5281/zenodo.2667680.
Magnetic fields generated by r-modes in accreting millisecond pulsars
Creators: name: Cuofano, Carmine
name: Drago, Alessandro
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: In millisecond pulsars the existence of the Coriolis force allows the development of the so-called Rossby oscillations (r-modes) which are know to be unstable to emission of gravitational waves. These instabilities are mainly damped by the viscosity of the star or by the existence of a strong magnetic field. A fraction of the observed millisecond pulsars are known to be inside Low Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs), systems in which a neutron star (or a black hole) is accreting from a donor whose mass is smaller than 1 $M_\odot$. Here we show that the r-mode instabilities can generate strong toroidal magnetic fields by inducing differential rotation. In this way we also provide an alternative scenario for the origin of the magnetars.
description: 6 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings conference "Theoretical Nuclear Physics", Cortona October 2008
The Unique Case of Treasury Regulations Issued to Prevent Abuse
Creators: name: Olsen, Jonathan
Publisher: name: Columbia Journal of Tax Law
Year: 2013

description: The Administrative Procedures Act prescribes procedural requirements that govern the rulemaking activities of administrative agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service. It imposes, inter alia, notice and comment requirements which an agency may only bypass for good cause. While the Treasury Department’s assertion of the good cause exception when promulgating regulations to prevent tax abuse is a plausible application of the exception, it is distinguishable from typical assertions of good cause in one critical respect. Unlike many other agencies claiming good cause to bypass the notice and comment procedure, the Internal Revenue Service’s organic statute provides a viable alternative by allowing for the retroactive application of regulations issued to prevent abuse. As a result, two functionally equivalent approaches to combat tax abuse emerge, differentiated only by the presence or absence of public participation in rulemaking processes. By comparing the public policy ramifications of these different rulemaking approaches, I contribute to key policy debates centering on administrative rulemaking procedures. I find that issuing regulations under the good cause exception provides efficiency gains, but does so at the expense of increased litigation risk and a failure to mitigate the principal-agent problem animating the rulemaking requirements in the Administrative Procedures Act. On the other hand, regulations issued retroactively reduce agency costs, provide modest efficiency gains and partially outsource the burden of compliance to interested constituents who participate in rulemaking processes. On these grounds, I conclude that Treasury’s assertion of good cause to promulgate regulations to prevent abuse is unconvincing given the viable alternative of retroactive application of finalized regulations. These conclusions are specific to the trade-offs inherent when Treasury promulgates regulations to prevent tax abuse, but also speak to IRS compliance with the Administrative Procedures Act more generally.
description: Columbia Journal of Tax Law, Vol. 4 No. 2 (2013)
Sales Tax Exceptionalism
Creators: name: Haile, Andrew J.
Publisher: name: Columbia Journal of Tax Law
Year: 2013

description: There is something different about the state sales tax, or so it seems based on judicial decisions creating unique jurisdictional and apportionment standards for the tax. This article explores the concept of “sales tax exceptionalism,” and assesses whether the special treatment afforded to the sales tax is justified by the theoretical foundations of the tax. In particular, the article examines whether theoretical justifications exist for the jurisdictional standard applied to the sales tax (a “physical presence” standard), as compared to the “economic presence” standard applied to the corporate income tax. Ultimately, the article concludes that only weak theoretical justifications support the different jurisdictional standards, and that recent changes to many states’ corporate income taxes further undercut the notion of “sales tax exceptionalism.”
description: Columbia Journal of Tax Law, Vol. 4 No. 2 (2013)
Effectiveness of interventions on the quality of life of people with major neurocognitive disorder (dementia) in residential long-term care: a systematic review
Creators: name: Cho, Kyoung Mi
Publisher: name: Monash University
Year: 2017
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: Background: Dementia is a syndrome that indicates progressive decline in a person’s cognition and functioning. The goal of dementia care needs to focus on living well with dementia, which can be measured through assessing quality of life as there is currently no cure for dementia. Objectives: The aim of this systematic review was to identify which interventions had the best outcomes to improve the quality of life of people with dementia living in residential long- term care facilities. Method: Studies that examined effects of interventions on quality of life of residents with dementia in long-term care were explored. Studies with outcomes of interventions measured using valid quality of life measurement instruments were considered eligible for this review. Published and unpublished literature from 1995 to 2014 in English was searched through electronic databases. The methodological quality of eligible studies was assessed and data of included studies were extracted by two independent reviewers using the Joanna Briggs Institute instruments. All findings were summarised in narrative form. Where the data of comparable studies lacked statistical difference, statistical pooling was used for meta-analysis with the software developed by the Joanna Briggs Institute. Result: After a comprehensive search throughout relevant databases and quality appraisal of eligible studies, 19 studies were identified for this review. Interventions were categorised into six types according to features of interventions: reminiscence, staff training, cognitive stimulation therapy, physical exercise, pharmacology-related treatment, and other interventions. The data from studies with respect to reminiscence, staff training and cognitive stimulation therapy were pooled for meta-analysis, but the pooled results did not show significant effects of intervention of interest. Conclusion: The review showed that reminiscence, staff training, physical exercise, cognitive stimulation therapy, music, companion- robot, and aromatherapy may have benefit in improving the QOL or wellbeing of people with dementia in residential long- term care, however, the evidence is of low to moderate grade. Recommendations include further research in this field and a person-centred approach to interventions and monitoring of quality of life of people in residential long-term care.
Decoupling Taxes and Marriage: Beyond Innocence and Income Splitting
Creators: name: Drumbl, Michelle Lyon
Publisher: name: Columbia Journal of Tax Law
Year: 2013

description: Fourteen years ago, members of Congress sympathetically listened as divorcees testified to their struggles to raise children while being pursued by the Internal Revenue Service for tax debts, often unknown to them, that were attributable to their ex-husbands’ income. Rather than adopting one of many proposals to end joint and several liability, Congress instead elected to expand the grounds on which these individuals could seek relief from such liability. Since that time, taxpayers have seen a steady expansion of the grounds for so-called “innocent spouse relief” that has evolved through a combination of legislative, administrative, and judicial action. Yet the process for relief remains time-consuming, inefficient, and unpredictable. The majority of initial requests for innocent spouse relief are denied. The taxpayer can appeal administratively and also seek judicial review if relief is denied, but sometimes will spend several years and untold resources in pursuit of a claim that may ultimately be unsuccessful. The process is also a questionable use of Internal Revenue Service personnel, in that it frequently calls upon these employees to address the most intimate aspects of a failed relationship, including spousal abuse, addictions, and mental health problems. These employees often must make a determination based upon a “he-said, she-said” presentation of the facts—an odd task for an agency charged with enforcing the revenue laws. This article visits the historic rationales for joint and several liability, both in light of the flawed relief process and also in the context of modern-day American society, in which married couples constitute only half of all households and cohabitation is increasingly more common. I conclude that Congress should eliminate the “married” filing statuses and require each married individual to file a separate return. If it did so, joint liability and the innocent spouse relief process would both cease to exist. The historical policy justifications for imposing joint and several liability are no longer rational in light of changed demographics and technological advances. Rather than an “unusual privilege,” which it was long said to be, filing jointly has become a risky conundrum, particularly for low-income taxpayers. As the nation debates tax reform, it is appropriate to rethink the policy of retaining the “married” filing statuses in light of the ways in which family structures, society, and the Internal Revenue Code have changed since joint and several liability was introduced in 1938.
description: Columbia Journal of Tax Law, Vol. 4 No. 1 (2013)
Taxing Cash
Creators: name: Benshalom, Ilan
Publisher: name: Columbia Journal of Tax Law
Year: 2013

description: The cash economy enables, or at least significantly simplifies, many tax evasion schemes. This is not surprising; after all, cash transactions can go unreported and therefore remain concealed from both regulators and creditors. The tax collector operates as both a creditor and a regulator, which means that cash transactions impose negative externalities on tax collection and administration. These externalities could be corrected through a relatively simple Pigovian tax that would be imposed, prior to cash-mediated transactions, every time cash was withdrawn from the financial system. Tax authorities would not collect any tax when cash would be deposited. This article argues that such a cash tax would make tax collection both easier and more accurate. If a cash tax were imposed, most of the legitimate economy would shift to non-cash exchange methods. In such a setting, cash transactions would be effectively limited to two categories: low-value transactions and transactions that benefit from the anonymity associated with cash. Transactions associated with tax evasion and other types of criminal activities likely comprise most of the latter category. Hence, because cash would comprise a relatively small portion of the formal economy’s turnover, there are good reasons to believe that cash owners operating in the underground economy would be unable to roll over most of the cash-tax burden. This means that most of the cash-tax incidence would fall on those who use cash to engage in tax evasion or other forms of unreported behaviors. Such a cash tax would therefore reduce the lack-of-tax benefit associated with cash-based tax evasion along with the inequities and inefficiencies associated with it. Furthermore, it would allow policymakers to comprehensively address the externalities associated with unreported transactions in the cash economy.
description: Columbia Journal of Tax Law, Vol. 4 No. 1 (2013)
Graphene Mode-Locked Ultrafast Laser
Creators: name: Sun, Z.
name: Hasan, T.
name: Torrisi, F.
name: Popa, D.
name: Privitera, G.
name: Wang, F.
name: Bonaccorso, F.
name: Basko, D. M.
name: Ferrari, A. C.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Graphene is at the center of a significant research effort. Near-ballistic transport at room temperature and high mobility make it a potential material for nanoelectronics. Its electronic and mechanical properties are also ideal for micro and nanomechanical systems, thin-film transistors and transparent and conductive composites and electrodes. Here we exploit the optoelectronic properties of graphene to realize an ultrafast laser. A graphene-polymer composite is fabricated using wet-chemistry techniques. Pauli blocking following intense illumination results in saturable absorption, independent of wavelength. This is used to passively mode-lock an Erbium-doped fibre laser working at 1559nm, with a 5.24nm spectral bandwidth and ~460fs pulse duration, paving the way to graphene-based photonics.
Highlights and Challenges: the Landscape of Services in DARIAH-DE and CLARIAH-DE
Creators: name: Rißler-Pipka, Nanette
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Research Data Infrastructure

description: DARIAH-DE is one of the initial national nodes of the DARIAH-ERIC and was continued via project-based funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in three phases from 2011 to 2019. During this long period many important services were created and maintained. Apart from the actual production and creation of new services a concept to measure the service life cycle and the impact of each service was developed. In 2019 DARIAH-DE partly merged into CLARIAH-DE and was continued as an operating cooperation by most of the initial partners until 2021. The challenges of sustainability, changing funding programs and a highly dynamic and heterogeneous community are leading us to an exciting future.
title: The development of religious separatism in the Diocese of Canterbury : 1590-1660
Creators: name: Acheson, R. J
Publisher: name: University of Kent
Year: 2022

description: The first part of this study concentrates on too development of conventicling and attempts to analyse the line dividing those private assemblies of a non-separatist nature from their separatist counterparts. It is argued that although there were signs of nascent separatism in the Diocese of Canterbury prior to the reign of Charles I, the port of Sandwich being notable within this context, rapid growth of separatism was very much a feature of the late 1620s and 1630s. Much of the evidence for this part of the study is taken from an exhaustive examination of the Ecclesiastical Records in the form of Visitation Comperta and entries in the Acta Curiae Books. Two definite areas of separatist activity emerge as a result of this investigation; the Weald and East Kent. In the case of the former, the process by which Puritan nonconformity developed into outright covenanted separatism is analysed with reference to the experience of the conventiclers of the parishes of Sutton Valence and Egerton, and the role of the Sutton Valence chandler, John Turner, is shown to be of especial importance. The methodology that has been employed has been consciously restrictive; no attempt has been made to analyse the socio-economic determinants that might lie behind provincial dissent, nor, largely as a result of lack of manuscript evidence, has any microscopic examination of a dissenting community been attempted. The aim of the study has been to concentrate closely on the developmental aspect of separatism over a given period of time. Consequently, the second part of the thesis looks in some depth at the growth of the radical sects and of the Congregationalists, Baptists, and Quakers in the Diocese during the Interregnum, demonstrating, where possible, the links of these various groups and denominations with their earlier separatist roots.
Diffraction Tomography, Fourier Reconstruction, and Full Waveform Inversion
Creators: name: Faucher, Florian
name: Kirisits, Clemens
name: Quellmalz, Michael
name: Scherzer, Otmar
name: Setterqvist, Eric
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Numerical Analysis (math.NA)
subject: Analysis of PDEs (math.AP)
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: In this paper, we study the mathematical imaging problem of diffraction tomography (DT), which is an inverse scattering technique used to find material properties of an object by illuminating it with probing waves and recording the scattered waves. Conventional DT relies on the Fourier diffraction theorem, which is applicable under the condition of weak scattering. However, if the object has high contrasts or is too large compared to the wavelength, it tends to produce multiple scattering, which complicates the reconstruction. We give a survey on diffraction tomography and compare the reconstruction of low and high contrast objects. We also implement and compare the reconstruction using the full waveform inversion method which, contrary to the Born and Rytov approximations, works with the total field and is more robust to multiple scattering.
description: 32 pages, 21 figures
Cartelizing Taxes: Understanding the OECD’s Campaign against “Harmful Tax Competition”
Creators: name: Morriss, Andrew P.
name: Moberg, Lotta
Publisher: name: Columbia Journal of Tax Law
Year: 2013

description: Formed in 1961 to promote global economic and social well-being, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has become the collective voice of rich countries on international tax issues. After an initial focus on improving commerce through addressing double taxation issues, the organization shifted to a focus on restricting tax competition and increasing automatic exchanges of tax information. In this paper we analyze the reasons for this shift in policy focus. After describing the history of the OECD’s work on taxation, we examine the OECD’s project against “harmful tax competition” as it has played out since its launch in the 1990s. We analyze the mechanisms behind the project from a public choice perspective. While typical economic models portray tax competition as a prisoner’s dilemma between governments, a more powerful perspective is of the incentives of politicians and bureaucrats. We conclude that the project against tax competition is an example of the interplay between the interests of politicians and international bureaucrats. The OECD project illustrates the role that international organizations play in competition among interest groups.
description: Columbia Journal of Tax Law, Vol. 4 No. 1 (2013)
The Earned Income Tax Credit, Low-Income Workers, and the Legal Aid Community
Creators: name: Schneller, Jonathan P.
name: Chilton, Adam S.
name: Boehm, Joshua L.
Publisher: name: Columbia Journal of Tax Law
Year: 2012

description: The Earned Income Tax Credit (“EITC”) is the largest U.S. welfare program, with twenty-four million low-income Americans receiving $60 billion of disbursals in 2009. Through the EITC, working Americans with little or no tax liability can receive up to nearly $6,000 in refundable tax credits each year. Over the past two decades, policymakers have increasingly favored the EITC over direct-transfer welfare programs, citing its lower administrative expense (as recipients “self-certify” by filing taxes) and incentives for recipients to work. Despite its political appeal, the EITC suffers deep structural flaws. Largely because EITC claimants have little guidance in navigating the difficult filing process, they are subject to high rates of IRS audits and rescission of benefits with penalties and interest. This proliferation of EITC-related controversies has created an immense need for legal assistance, yet low-income tax law largely remains a peripheral concern within the legal aid community. In this article, we suggest a comprehensive and achievable set of reforms that the IRS and legal services organizations can enact to improve the EITC’s efficacy and fairness.We first describe how the complexity of EITC eligibility criteria creates a tremendous burden for low-income Americans, as they frequently lack advice in tax filing and cannot afford legal representation in the event of a controversy with the IRS. We then outline measures that the IRS should implement to make the EITC more accessible and understandable to those qualifying for the credit, reducing the chance of an audit and loss of benefits. In particular, we focus on improving the tax filing process, making EITC audits more manageable for recipients, instituting less adversarial procedures for EITC-related Tax Court proceedings, and changing certain organizational structures within the IRS. Finally, we propose several practical ways that the legal aid community can enhance its support of EITC recipients confronting an IRS audit or Tax Court action. Most importantly, we argue that EITC assistance warrants greater Congressional funding and higher strategic and budgetary priority within legal aid organizations, given that the EITC is now far larger than the direct-transfer welfare programs on which legal aid lawyers have traditionally focused.
description: Columbia Journal of Tax Law, Vol. 3 No. 2 (2012)
Random Convex Hulls and Extreme Value Statistics
Creators: name: Majumdar, Satya N.
name: Comtet, Alain
name: Randon-Furling, Julien
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: Probability (math.PR)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: In this paper we study the statistical properties of convex hulls of $N$ random points in a plane chosen according to a given distribution. The points may be chosen independently or they may be correlated. After a non-exhaustive survey of the somewhat sporadic literature and diverse methods used in the random convex hull problem, we present a unifying approach, based on the notion of support function of a closed curve and the associated Cauchy's formulae, that allows us to compute exactly the mean perimeter and the mean area enclosed by the convex polygon both in case of independent as well as correlated points. Our method demonstrates a beautiful link between the random convex hull problem and the subject of extreme value statistics. As an example of correlated points, we study here in detail the case when the points represent the vertices of $n$ independent random walks. In the continuum time limit this reduces to $n$ independent planar Brownian trajectories for which we compute exactly, for all $n$, the mean perimeter and the mean area of their global convex hull. Our results have relevant applications in ecology in estimating the home range of a herd of animals. Some of these results were announced recently in a short communication [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 103}, 140602 (2009)].
description: 61 pages (pedagogical review); invited contribution to the special issue of J. Stat. Phys. celebrating the 50 years of Yeshiba/Rutgers meetings
Quantifying the Personal Income Tax Benefits of Backdating: A Canada – US Comparison
Creators: name: Compton, Ryan A.
name: Nicholls, Christopher C.
name: Sandler, Daniel
name: Tedds, Lindsay M.
Publisher: name: Columbia Journal of Tax Law
Year: 2012

description: This paper contrasts the post-tax returns of backdated at-the-money options to currently-dated in-the-money options (with the same strike price as the backdated options) and demonstrates that a Canadian executive can earn a significantly larger after-tax return from backdated options compared to a US executive. We tie this to the favorable Canadian tax treatment of executive options relative to their treatment in the United States. The comparison suggests that the personal tax regime may have been one of the factors which impacted the desire to receive backdated options in lieu of other forms of compensation in Canada but not so in the United States.
description: Columbia Journal of Tax Law, Vol. 3 No. 2 (2012)
Dynamics of a deformable self-propelled domain
Creators: name: Hiraiwa, T.
name: Ohkuma, T.
name: Ohta, T.
name: Matsuo, M. Y.
name: Sano, M.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
subject: Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We investigate the dynamical coupling between the motion and the deformation of a single self-propelled domain based on two different model systems in two dimensions. One is represented by the set of ordinary differential equations for the center of gravity and two tensor variables characterizing deformations. The other is an active cell model which has an internal mechanism of motility and is represented by the partial differential equation for deformations. Numerical simulations show a rich variety of dynamics, some of which are common to the two model systems. The origin of the similarity and the difference is discussed.
description: 6 pages, 6 figures
Tax Liability for Wage Theft
Creators: name: Pandya, Sachin S.
Publisher: name: Columbia Journal of Tax Law
Year: 2012

description: This paper shows how, under existing tax law, illegal wage underpayment by an employer (sometimes called “wage theft”) may generate employer tax liability for unreported income or disallowed business expense deductions. Given that the tax authority needs information from the underpaid worker to prove such liability, the paper identifies two ways that a worker can transmit that information to a tax authority: becoming a tax informant, or bringing a qui tam action under a state false claims act. Finally, the paper discusses possible influences on the decision of the unpaid worker to inform on the employer to the tax authority, and considers the conditions under which a tax authority is likely to audit an employer based on such information. In so doing, the paper identifies a new approach to combating wage theft and an undiscovered implication of basic income tax law.
description: Columbia Journal of Tax Law, Vol. 3 No. 2 (2012)