Fraudulent Contracting of Work: Sham Companies (Austria, Estonia and Italy)

[Excerpt] Among the fraudulent contracting of work practices, one of the most difficult to identify is the creation of sham companies (usually, in another country). Sham companies are essentially new entities created to disguise the real employer. Creating a company, even abroad, is – of course – legal and may well be institutionally and economically advisable. However, when the only purpose of its creation is to benefit from more favourable regulations relating to labour and tax (and not to develop an activity in the country), then questions should be asked about the ‘genuine’ nature of the company. The Eurofound study Exploring the fraudulent contracting of work in the European Union emphasises that the term ‘sham contracting’ or ‘sham companies’ embraces a diversity of fraudulent practices, embedded in different institutional contexts (Eurofound, 2016a).1 Fraudulent practices are perpetrated for different purposes, the most important of which are to avoid paying, or to save, employment-related taxes and social security contributions, and to evade employers’ liability towards employees. Beyond some recent analysis of ‘letter-box’ companies,2 there is not much research into sham contracting or sham companies. In addition, EU legislation has not played any role in this respect. Sham companies share the common goal of disguising the real employer. This can be achieved through different mechanisms such as: the creation of companies without assets, generally within subcontracting chains commercial or civil law contracts between companies where employees are misrepresented as contractors or company owners workers’ cooperatives, where workers lack actual control over the organisation’s decisions

Modeling Hidden Nodes Collisions in Wireless Sensor Networks: Analysis Approach

This paper studied both types of collisions. In this paper, we show that advocated solutions for coping with hidden node collisions are unsuitable for sensor networks. We model both types of collisions and derive closed-form formula giving the probability of hidden and visible node collisions. To reduce these collisions, we propose two solutions. The first one based on tuning the carrier sense threshold saves a substantial amount of collisions by reducing the number of hidden nodes. The second one based on adjusting the contention window size is complementary to the first one. It reduces the probability of overlapping transmissions, which reduces both collisions due to hidden and visible nodes. We validate and evaluate the performance of these solutions through simulations

Critical hazards identification and prevention of cascading escalator accidents at metro rail transit stations

Escalator accidents not only happen frequently but also have cascading effects. The purpose of this study is to block the formation of cascading accident networks by identifying and preventing critical hazards. A modified five-step task-driven method (FTDM) is proposed to break down passenger-related cascading escalator accidents. Three complex network parameters in complex network theory are utilized to identify critical and non-critical Risk Passenger Behavior (RPB) hazards and Other Hazards related with Risk Passenger Behavior (OH-RPB) in accident chains. A total of 327 accidents that occurred in the Beijing metro rail transit (MRT) stations were used for case studies. The results are consistent in critical and non-critical RPB and OH-RPB and prove that through combination of FTDM accident investigation model and complex network analysis method, critical and non-critical RPB and OH-RPB in a complicated cascading hazards network can be identified. Prevention of critical RPB can block the formation of cascading accident networks. The method not only can be used by safety manager to make the corresponding preventive measures according to the results in daily management but also the findings can guide the allocation of limited preventive resources to critical hazards rather than non-critical hazards. Moreover, the defects of management plan and product design can be re-examined according to the research results

Path Calculations and Option Pricing

The thesis is worked in the areas of the intersection of probability, combinatorics and analytical combinatoric. The research is motivated from the need of producing new methodologies and financial models in global market resulted from the lesson of 2007-2009 global financial market and a quantum tool called Feynman path integral method which has been applied to model path-dependent option pricing model by Hao and Utev. Path calculation method deal with models by analysing each possible individual asset price paths which broaden the methodology of modelling financial market and can solve some unusual or complex models which is difficult to model by using non path-dependent calculation method. My research has focused on developing combinatorial structure and path calculation methods and then apply them to model individual share price path and calculate option prices. The share price can be modelled as a path with a given share price changes and the expiry date. We have applied Flajolet symbolic method, generating functions and path calculation method to model a set of typical finite restricted share price paths with restriction not allowing k consecutive down steps and derived a calculation of option prices in the model. Besides, applying the Flajolet symbolic method, we constructed a relationship between individual share price and generating function, analysed the transformed share price paths via different operations on generating functions. In addition, we applied path calculation method to solve winning probability in the classical gambler ruin problem which contributes the same result as the solution solved by establishing the recurrence equation method. Furthermore, we have solved a different gambler's ruin problem using the path calculation method which cannot be solved by the recurrence equation method. Counting paths with combinatoric can be studied from two ways, one way is to label and the other is computation. Labelling is a part of representation of objects. We have developed a graphical theoretical construction of individual share price path via general binary trees and matroid. In addition, We have developed a method to solve some kinds of pattern avoiding path counting combinatorial problem by modifying certain probability methods. Two working papers including modelling of paths via matroids and counting via Markov-type technique is now being produced. </div

Data for: Exploration progresses and geochemical features of lacustrine shale oil in China

geochemical data used in the pape

Summary of descriptive statistics of all the measurements.

Summary of descriptive statistics of all the measurements.</p

Objective Bayesian testing for the correlation coefficient under divergence-based priors

The correlation coefficient is a commonly used criterion to measure the strength of a linear relationship between the two quantitative variables. For a bivariate normal distribution, numerous procedures have been proposed for testing a precise null hypothesis of the correlation coefficient, whereas the construction of flexible procedures for testing a set of (multiple) precise and/or interval hypotheses has received less attention. This paper fills the gap by proposing an objective Bayesian testing procedure using the divergence-based priors. The proposed Bayes factors can be used for testing any combination of precise and interval hypotheses and also allow a researcher to quantify evidence in the data in favor of the null or any other hypothesis under consideration. An extensive simulation study is conducted to compare the performances between the proposed Bayesian methods and some existing ones in the literature. Finally, a real-data example is provided for illustrative purposes.</p

tip dating p6 from Bayesian tip dating reveals heterogeneous morphological clocks in Mesozoic birds

Recently, comprehensive morphological datasets including nearly all the well-recognized Mesozoic birds became available, making it feasible for statistically rigorous methods to unveil finer evolutionary patterns during early avian evolution. Here, we exploited the advantage of Bayesian tip dating under relaxed morphological clocks to estimate both the divergence times and evolutionary rates while accounting for their uncertainties. We further subdivided the characters into six body regions (i.e. skull, axial skeleton, pectoral girdle and sternum, forelimb, pelvic girdle and hindlimb) to assess evolutionary rate heterogeneity both along the lineages and across partitions. We observed extremely high rates of morphological character changes during early avian evolution, and the clock rates are quite heterogeneous among the six regions. The branch subtending Pygostylia shows an extremely high rate in the axial skeleton, while the branches subtending Ornithothoraces and Enantiornithes show notably high rates in the pectoral girdle and sternum and moderately high rates in the forelimb. The extensive modifications in these body regions largely correspond to refinement of the flight capability. This study reveals the power and flexibility of Bayesian tip dating implemented in MrBayes to investigate evolutionary dynamics in deep time

Summary of multiple linear regression analysis for variables predicting performance on Chinese word reading efficiency.

Summary of multiple linear regression analysis for variables predicting performance on Chinese word reading efficiency.</p

Summary of hierarchical regression analysis for variables predicting performance on English word reading efficiency.

Summary of hierarchical regression analysis for variables predicting performance on English word reading efficiency.</p