Return-Free Filing: What Is It, and How Will It Affect the Tax Preparer Profession and Taxpayers in General?

This paper investigates what return-free filing is and how, if it is implemented in the United States, it will affect the tax preparer profession and taxpayers. In this paper we look at two systems, currently in use in other countries, which have been evaluated by the IRS: exact withholding system and the tax agency reconciliation system. Either system, if implemented, will most likely affect only the simplest returns, as anyone who has capital gains, certain credits, business income, etc. will still be required to file a return. The effects of such a system will vary greatly depending on the individual situations. The effects of the implementation of a return –free filing system on the tax preparer profession is more difficult to judge since there will still be many people who will want their returns prepared by professional tax preparers

Differential Information Use for Near and Distant Decisions

a b s t r a c t Whether choosing a cell phone, a senator, or a kitchen appliance, consumers today quickly find themselves awash in information from commercials, magazines, and websites. Whereas some of this information is broad, decontextualized, and abstracted across multiple individuals and instances, other information is more closely tied to a single experience within one specific context. The present research asks: under what circumstances do people rely on abstracted averages, and when are they swayed by another individual's particular experience? Across three studies, we show that temporal distance increases the relative weight placed on aggregate vs. individualized information when participants are asked to choose between two sleeping pills, migraine medications, or kitchen appliances, and that this process impacts not only evaluation but also willingness to pay and choice. Potential implications for evaluation, decision-making, and base-rate utilization are discussed

Witnessing and re-enacting in Cambodia: reflection on shifting testimonies

Thirty years after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) how do Cambodians cope with the traumatic legacy of Pol Pot's reign of terror? What forms does witnessing take on in post-socialist and transitional Cambodia as senior Khmer Rouge leaders await prosecution at the Cambodian Tribunal? The paper examines aspects of witnessing in today's Cambodia, expressing each in its own way the idea of the 'shifting' of witnessing: the transformation of testimonies due to time passing and contrasted systems of justice through a comparison of testimonies in the trial of the 'Pol Pot/Ieng Sary clique' (1979) and the current Cambodian Tribunal; the complex forms of witnessing emerging from participatory projects developed with Western authors in 'We want (u) to know' (documentary movie made by an international film crew with the inhabitants of the village of Thnol Lok in 2009) and 'Breaking the silence' (theatre play realised by the Dutch dramaturge Annemarie Prins that premiered in Phnom Penh in 2009 and toured Cambodia in the following years); the relationship between documentary and legal forms of witnessing through the example of Vann Nath, a survivor of S-21/Tuol Sleng, the prison where the Khmer Rouge tortured and killed thousands of their fellow countrymen. The paper analyses the difficulty Western organisers of participatory projects experienced in applying the hybrid model of transitional justice to sociocultural contexts of witnessing. Nevertheless it points out their contribution to processes of 'recognition beyond recognition' in which cultural differences in coming to terms with historical trauma are expressed and recorded

Use of Hemagglutinin Stem Probes Demonstrate Prevalence of Broadly Reactive Group 1 Influenza Antibodies in Human Sera.

A better understanding of the seroprevalence and specificity of influenza HA stem-directed broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) in the human population could significantly inform influenza vaccine design efforts. Here, we utilized probes comprising headless, HA stabilized stem (SS) to determine the prevalence, binding and neutralization breadth of antibodies directed to HA stem-epitope in a cross-sectional analysis of the general population. Five group-1 HA SS probes, representing five subtypes, were chosen for this analyses. Eighty-four percent of samples analyzed had specific reactivity to at least one probe, with approximately 60% of the samples reactive to H1 probes, and up to 45% reactive to each of the non-circulating subtypes. Thirty percent of analyzed sera had cross-reactivity to at least four of five probes and this reactivity could be blocked by competing with F10 bNAb. Binding cross-reactivity in sera samples significantly correlated with frequency of H1H5 cross-reactive B cells. Interestingly, only 33% of the cross-reactive sera neutralized both H1N1 and H5N1 pseudoviruses. Cross-reactive and neutralizing antibodies were more prevalent in individuals >50 years of age. Our data demonstrate the need to use multiple HA-stem probes to assess for broadly reactive antibodies. Further, a universal vaccine could be designed to boost pre-existing B-cells expressing stem-directed bNAbs

Cambodian Higher Education Governance: The Politics of Global Summitry and Clientelism

This chapter uses the concepts of “global summitry” and “clientelism” to theorize higher education governance in Cambodia. After reviewing the history of higher education since the 1960s, the chapter analyzes the country’s experiences amid regional attempts to harmonize standards, degree structures, quality assurance systems, and credit systems in Southeast Asia. Rather than explicit intervention into Cambodia’s higher education sector as has been historically common, the contemporary order transmits policy and governance practices through various regional and international forums, creating a seemingly homogenous system of higher education. External influence through global summitry, however, must be paired with a recognition of the prevalence of clientelism. By exploring the case of the Accreditation Council of Cambodia, higher education governance is shown to reproduce the engrained system of clientelism, empowering elites and contributing further to systems of informal patronage. The chapter concludes with recent (up to April 2016) developments in higher education governance, offering some observations and obstacles for future development in the sector

The NMDA agonist D-cycloserine facilitates fear memory consolidation in humans

Animal research suggests that the consolidation of fear and extinction memories depends on N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA)- type glutamate receptors. Using a fear conditioning and extinction paradigm in healthy normal volunteers, we show that postlearning administration of the NMDA partial agonist D-cycloserine (DCS) facilitates fear memory consolidation, evidenced behaviorally by enhanced skin conductance responses, relative to placebo, for presentations of a conditioned stimulus (CS) at a memory test performed 72 h later. DCS also enhanced CS-evoked neural responses in a posterior hippocampus/collateral sulcus region and in the medial prefrontal cortex at test. Our data suggest a role for NMDA receptors in regulating fear memory consolidation in humans

Priming Immunization with DNA Augments Immunogenicity of Recombinant Adenoviral Vectors for Both HIV-1 Specific Antibody and T-Cell Responses

Induction of HIV-1-specific T-cell responses relevant to diverse subtypes is a major goal of HIV vaccine development. Prime-boost regimens using heterologous gene-based vaccine vectors have induced potent, polyfunctional T cell responses in preclinical studies.The first opportunity to evaluate the immunogenicity of DNA priming followed by recombinant adenovirus serotype 5 (rAd5) boosting was as open-label rollover trials in subjects who had been enrolled in prior studies of HIV-1 specific DNA vaccines. All subjects underwent apheresis before and after rAd5 boosting to characterize in depth the T cell and antibody response induced by the heterologous DNA/rAd5 prime-boost combination.rAd5 boosting was well-tolerated with no serious adverse events. Compared to DNA or rAd5 vaccine alone, sequential DNA/rAd5 administration induced 7-fold higher magnitude Env-biased HIV-1-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses and 100-fold greater antibody titers measured by ELISA. There was no significant neutralizing antibody activity against primary isolates. Vaccine-elicited CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cells expressed multiple functions and were predominantly long-term (CD127(+)) central or effector memory T cells and that persisted in blood for >6 months. Epitopes mapped in Gag and Env demonstrated partial cross-clade recognition.Heterologous prime-boost using vector-based gene delivery of vaccine antigens is a potent immunization strategy for inducing both antibody and T-cell responses.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00102089, NCT00108654