Tax Compliance and Firms' Strategic Interdependence

We focus on a relatively neglected area of the tax-compliance literature in economics, the behaviour of firms. We examine the impact of alternative audit rules on receipts from a tax on profits in the context of strategic interdependence of firms. In the market firms may compete in terms of either output or price. The enforcement policy can have an effect on firms' behaviour in two dimensions - their market decisions as well as their compliance behaviour. An appropriate design of the enforcement policy can thus have a "double dividend" by manipulating firms in both dimensions.tax compliance, evasion, oligopoly

Ultrasound array transmitter architecture with high timing resolution using embedded phase-locked loops

Coarse time quantization of delay profiles within ultrasound array systems can produce undesirable sidelobes in the radiated beam profile. The severity of these sidelobes is dependent upon the magnitude of phase quantization error - the deviation from ideal delay profiles to the achievable quantized case. This paper describes a method to improve inter channel delay accuracy without increasing system clock frequency by utilising embedded Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) components within commercial Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Precise delays are achieved by shifting the relative phases of embedded PLL output clocks in 208 ps steps. The described architecture can achieve the necessary inter element timing resolution required for driving ultrasound arrays up to 50 MHz. The applicability of the proposed method at higher frequencies is demonstrated by means of extrapolating experimental results obtained using a 5 MHz array transducer. Results indicate an increase in Transmit Dynamic Range (TDR) when using accurate delay profiles generated by the embedded PLL method described, as opposed to using delay profiles quantized to the system clock

Specimen-agnostic guided wave inspection using recursive feedback

Lamb waves, a configuration of guided waves are often applied to the inspection of plate like structures. Their complex, multi-modal nature makes them well suited to the inspection of different defects. Control over their propagation direction allows the engineer to increase inspection distance and prospectively locate the defect. Schemes already exist, but they require knowledge of material and its dispersion curves. If the material composition is not known, or external factors are effecting its speed of sound then these schemes may not be appropriate. The recursive feedback algorithm can be used to enhance guided waves in a single direction without a-priori knowledge. In recursive feedback, a guided wave is generated using the first element of an array transducer. Over several subsequent iterations, this guided wave is reinforced by re-transmitting recorded out of plane displacements. In this work, recursive feedback has been applied to two inspection problems; a contaminated kissing bond and a plate with a defect. With the kissing bond, it is shown that the the contamination can be identified as the A0 mode of generated waves are absorbed. In the defective plate, the defect direction is identified by a 10 dB increase in reflected energy when the guided waves are enhanced in one direction

From Old Labour to New Labour: a comment on Rubinstein

In a critique of our book New Labour, David Rubinstein has argued that we exaggerate the degree of difference between Old and New Labour and underplay the similarities. In this article we agree with many of the continuities that Rubinstein outlines. However, we argue that he himself gives plenty of evidence in favour of our thesis that change has been marked in many policy areas. We argue that we give a good account of the wider social factors that he says accounts for such change. In this article we offer a restatement of the view that New Labour offers a `post-Thatcherite politics. New Labour breaks both with post-war social democracy and with Thatcherism

A miniature HIFU excitation scheme to eliminate switching-induced grating lobes and nullify hard tissue attenuation

Phased array transducers are increasingly prevalent in a therapeutic contex as they facilitate precise control of the beam intensity and focus. To produce enough acoustic energy for ablation, large and costly amplifiers are required. Miniaturised switched circuits provide an alternative that is both more cost effective and more efficient. However, the high Q factor and curved geometry of a therapeutic transducer lends itself to grating lobes that deposit energy in undesirable areas when driven with switched circuitry. In this work, harmonic reduction pulse with modulation (HRPWM) is applied to a simulation of a therapeutic array. An array was simulated along with a skull that varied in attenuation. A number of switching schemes were tested and where possible, their amplitude was adjusted to reduce pressure variation in the acoustic field after propagation through the skull. Of the switched schemes tested, HRPWM performed best; reducing harmonically induced grating lobes by 12 dB and limiting pressure field variance to 0.1 dB which increases intensity at the focal point and makes therapy more efficient

Professorial roles: a study of the professorial populations within nursing and midwifery, social work and allied health professions

The professorial populations in nursing/midwifery, social work and allied health are relatively new in academia compared to longer established professions such as medicine and dentistry. Less is known about the roles, career pathways, characteristics and career aspirations of the professoriate within these emerging professions. A survey was undertaken from sample populations in each of the three professorial groups in order to obtain qualitative and quantitative data on professorial roles and activities, career pathway information and support mechanisms for professorial positions. This paper discusses the findings of the survey which relate specifically to professorial roles and activities and whether the identified roles reflect the professorial activities proposed by the National Conference of University Professors (NCUP) Other aspects of this survey including career pathways, findings relating to gender and support mechanisms will form the basis of future papers. Result

High-sensitivity troponin I concentrations are a marker of an advanced hypertrophic response and adverse outcomes in patients with aortic stenosis

Aims: High-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (cTnI) assays hold promise in detecting the transition from hypertrophy to heart failure in aortic stenosis. We sought to investigate the mechanism for troponin release in patients with aortic stenosis and whether plasma cTnI concentrations are associated with long-term outcome. Methods and results: Plasma cTnI concentrations were measured in two patient cohorts using a high-sensitivity assay. First, in the Mechanism Cohort, 122 patients with aortic stenosis (median age 71, 67% male, aortic valve area 1.0 ± 0.4 cm2) underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance and echocardiography to assess left ventricular (LV) myocardial mass, function, and fibrosis. The indexed LV mass and measures of replacement fibrosis (late gadolinium enhancement) were associated with cTnI concentrations independent of age, sex, coronary artery disease, aortic stenosis severity, and diastolic function. In the separate Outcome Cohort, 131 patients originally recruited into the Scottish Aortic Stenosis and Lipid Lowering Trial, Impact of REgression (SALTIRE) study, had long-term follow-up for the occurrence of aortic valve replacement (AVR) and cardiovascular deaths. Over a median follow-up of 10.6 years (1178 patient-years), 24 patients died from a cardiovascular cause and 60 patients had an AVR. Plasma cTnI concentrations were associated with AVR or cardiovascular death HR 1.77 (95% CI, 1.22 to 2.55) independent of age, sex, systolic ejection fraction, and aortic stenosis severity. Conclusions: In patients with aortic stenosis, plasma cTnI concentration is associated with advanced hypertrophy and replacement myocardial fibrosis as well as AVR or cardiovascular death

Evidence for the Gompertz Curve in the Income Distribution of Brazil 1978-2005

This work presents an empirical study of the evolution of the personal income distribution in Brazil. Yearly samples available from 1978 to 2005 were studied and evidence was found that the complementary cumulative distribution of personal income for 99% of the economically less favorable population is well represented by a Gompertz curve of the form $G(x)=\exp [\exp (A-Bx)]$, where $x$ is the normalized individual income. The complementary cumulative distribution of the remaining 1% richest part of the population is well represented by a Pareto power law distribution $P(x)= \beta x^{-\alpha}$. This result means that similarly to other countries, Brazil's income distribution is characterized by a well defined two class system. The parameters $A$, $B$, $\alpha$, $\beta$ were determined by a mixture of boundary conditions, normalization and fitting methods for every year in the time span of this study. Since the Gompertz curve is characteristic of growth models, its presence here suggests that these patterns in income distribution could be a consequence of the growth dynamics of the underlying economic system. In addition, we found out that the percentage share of both the Gompertzian and Paretian components relative to the total income shows an approximate cycling pattern with periods of about 4 years and whose maximum and minimum peaks in each component alternate at about every 2 years. This finding suggests that the growth dynamics of Brazil's economic system might possibly follow a Goodwin-type class model dynamics based on the application of the Lotka-Volterra equation to economic growth and cycle.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables. LaTeX. Accepted for publication in "The European Physical Journal B

An Adaptive Array Excitation Scheme for the Unidirectional Enhancement of Guided Waves

Control over the direction of wave propagation allows an engineer to spatially locate defects. When imaging with longitudinal waves, time delays can be applied to each element of a phased array transducer to steer a beam. Because of the highly dispersive nature of guided waves, this beamsteering approach is sub-optimal. More appropriate time delays can be chosen to direct a guided wave if the dispersion relation of the material is known. Existing techniques however need a priori knowledge of material thickness and acoustic velocity, which changes as a function of temperature and strain. The scheme presented here does not require prior knowledge of the dispersion relation or properties of the specimen to direct a guided wave. Initially, a guided wave is generated using a single element of an array transducer. The acquired waveforms from the remaining elements are then processed and re-transmitted; constructively interfering with the wave as it travels across the spatial influence of the transducer. The scheme intrinsically compensates for the dispersion of the waves and thus can adapt to changes in material thickness and acoustic velocity. The proposed technique is demonstrated in simulation and experimentally. Dispersion curves from either side of the array are acquired to demonstrate the schemes ability to direct a guided wave in an aluminium plate. Results show that uni-directional enhancement is possible without a priori knowledge of the specimen using an arbitrary pitch array transducer. Experimental results show a 34 dB enhancement in one direction compared with the other