Disturbances, prescribed fire, and invasion by exotic plants in a xeric mixed-oak and oak-pine dominated area of the Ridge and Valley in eastern West Virginia

This document discusses three fire and exotic invasive plant related research studies that were conducted in an area of the Ridge and Valley dominated by xeric mixed-oak and oak-pine forest communities. The first study characterizes the timing, frequency, and magnitude of canopy disturbances in the study area by investigating demographic (age distributions), anatomical (growth increment patterns), and structural (diameter distributions) evidence. In addition to the general reconstructed disturbance history, the potential link between overstory tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima (P. Mill.) Swingle) populations and prior forest management disturbances (i.e. harvesting) is investigated. This study indicates an uneven-aged structure resulting from multiple disturbances of varying intensities throughout the area. One study area-wide disturbance event was identified around the turn of the 20 th century. The majority of the areas where tree-of-heaven has ascended into the main canopy are either in harvested areas, or along roads. Native ground-layer vegetation around the main tree-of-heaven stems is in danger of being severely impacted by vegetative reproduction.;In the second study, the relationship between plot-level three-year post-fire bole scorch height, or stem-bark char, parameters (independent variables) and other fire intensity variables (litter consumption, thermocouple temperature, and sapling mortality) are investigated. This study indicates that neither overstory nor sapling bole scorch height variables are significantly related to thermocouple temperature measurements. The sum of the sapling scorch heights is significantly related to litter consumption, but only accounts for 11 % of the variation. However, all bole scorch height variables are significantly related to sapling mortality one growing season after the fire. This further illustrates the usefulness of scorch height as an estimator of relative fire intensity.;The third study examines the effects of a prescribed fire on understory exotic invasive plants. In this study, several analytical methods were employed to determine if: (1) abundance and importance increased following the fire, (2) relative fire intensity played a role, and (3) environmental variables were related to populations. The results indicated that only one species, tree-of-heaven, showed significantly higher abundance and importance following the prescribed fire. The results also implied that moister areas, where understory species richness was higher and where relative fire intensity was lower, provided a favorable microsite for the exotic invasive species. Furthermore, environmental factors played more of a role than relative fire intensity in determining the probability of presence of exotic invasive plants in the understory

Tax Aspects of Doing Business with the People’s Republic of China

Before 1979, the People’s Republic of China did not have a logical system of taxing foreign business. That summer, a few selected American tax professors met with Chinese tax officials to explain the complexities of source rules, foreign tax credits, and tax treaties. That gave Chinese officials a detailed knowledge of intricate tax issues, and they have used this knowledge to develop China’s new tax system. Since 1979, China’s tax structure has conformed to generally accepted international structures with the adoption of three important taxes affecting foreign business activity. At first, China’s statutes and regulations did not clearly explain the tax consequences of common business transactions as a result of differences in statutory interpretation by Western-trained lawyers. Recently, Chinese guidance has become more lucid, which makes tax planning more feasible. Going forward, foreign businesses should avoid zeroing out their Chinese income tax (which should be creditable against their home country income tax) in order to build goodwill by contributing to the Chinese government. The goodwill gained from paying taxes to China will provide potential future business opportunities in the country. This article presents a general overview of the Chinese tax structure for foreign businesses. Part II discusses the individual income tax, the industrial and commercial tax, the joint venture income tax, and the foreign enterprise income tax. This section also briefly examines property taxes and taxes on vehicles and shipping income. Part III analyzes the effect of these taxes on business in China. This section reviews the practices of Chinese tax authorities regarding: (1) representative offices and business agents, (2) consignment sales and service centers, (3) compensation trade, (4) cooperative ventures, (5) contracted projects, and (6) equity joint ventures. The article concludes by explaining that while the major aspects of China’s foreign business tax structure are in place, tax officials will likely deviate from the mainstream to help China emerge as an intellectual world leader on tax issues

Why More Employers Are Getting SALT-y on Remote Work Arrangements

This article explores the consequences of the extreme increase in remote work, due to the pandemic, on state taxation. Discussed in the article is state sourcing and apportioning of nonresident wage income, employer withholding tax obligations, and corporate tax nexus. The authors predict an increase in litigation as a result of states seeking to retain the ability to tax nonresident wages. For example, New York considers employees to be working in-state (and thus subject to taxation) even when they are not physically present in New York so long as they are working remotely for reasons of personal convenience. But, the authors argue, the pandemic should be an exception: if an employee’s New York office is closed they have no choice but to work remotely. Furthermore, Massachusetts has issued an emergency rule that continues to treat nonresident employees as though they continue to commute into Massachusetts, even though they currently work from home. This, the article urges, is constitutionally problematic. Some states have altered employer wage withholding obligations to ensure that remote employees are taxed based on where they commuted to prior to the pandemic: Massachusetts, Mississippi, and South Carolina are states that have enacted temporary trailing nexus policies. Illinois, Minnesota, and Maryland have indicated that employers are subject to wage withholding obligations if their employees are working remotely in those states. This article stresses that employers must know where their employees are working remotely from in order to comply with these obligations. Finally, it is uncertain how the increase in remote work will affect corporate tax nexus. While case law supports subjecting out-of-state corporations to taxation as a result of in-state remote employees, it is not clear how the pandemic, and the temporary nature of today’s remote work, will be treated by the law. While the District of Columbia, Indiana, North Dakota, and South Carolina have clarified that corporate tax nexus will not be imposed due to the current circumstances, many states have remained silent on the matter. As a result, taxpayers are left to speculate about their compliance obligations

The Evolving Tax System of the People’s Republic of China

In 1980, the People’s Republic of China adopted an income tax on joint ventures and individuals. These two taxes have created great speculation since the passage of the Chinese Joint Venture Law in 1979, which created rules and procedures for foreign investors. Much of this interest arises due to the common misconceptions surrounding China’s tax structure. After the enactment of the two aforementioned taxes, eleven distinct taxes exist in China. This article examines the consolidated industrial and commercial tax and various income taxes, which are most relevant to foreigners. Section I describes the consolidated industrial and commercial tax. Section II explains the industrial and commercial income tax. Sections III and IV detail the individual income tax and joint venture income tax. Section V analyzes the tax regime that applies to China’s “free trade” zones. Section VI discusses whether the individual and joint venture income taxes can be credited as a United States foreign tax credit. This section further examines the modifications necessary for China to implement its own foreign tax credit, and the differences between the OECD and United Nations tax treaty models. The article concludes by lauding the important achievement of implementing new tax laws on joint ventures and individuals, and explaining that the Chinese tax system will become more sophisticated as China’s tax officials become more experienced

Light-ion production in the interaction of 96 MeV neutrons with oxygen

Double-differential cross sections for light-ion (p, d, t, He-3 and alpha) production in oxygen, induced by 96 MeV neutrons are reported. Energy spectra are measured at eight laboratory angles from 20 degrees to 160 degrees in steps of 20 degrees. Procedures for data taking and data reduction are presented. Deduced energy-differential and production cross sections are reported. Experimental cross sections are compared to theoretical reaction model calculations and experimental data at lower neutron energies in the literature. The measured proton data agree reasonably well with the results of the model calculations, whereas the agreement for the other particles is less convincing. The measured production cross sections for protons, deuterons, tritons and alpha particles support the trends suggested by data at lower energies.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Ion counting efficiencies at the IGISOL facility

At the IGISOL-JYFLTRAP facility, fission mass yields can be studied at high precision. Fission fragments from a U target are passing through a Ni foil and entering a gas filled chamber. The collected fragments are guided through a mass separator to a Penning trap where their masses are identified. This simulation work focuses on how different fission fragment properties (mass, charge and energy) affect the stopping efficiency in the gas cell. In addition, different experimental parameters are varied (e. g. U and Ni thickness and He gas pressure) to study their impact on the stopping efficiency. The simulations were performed using the Geant4 package and the SRIM code. The main results suggest a small variation in the stopping efficiency as a function of mass, charge and kinetic energy. It is predicted that heavy fragments are stopped about 9% less efficiently than the light fragments. However it was found that the properties of the U, Ni and the He gas influences this behavior. Hence it could be possible to optimize the efficiency.Comment: 52 pages, 44 figure

Sensitivity of measured fission yields on prompt-neutron corrections

The amount of emitted prompt neutrons from the fission fragments increases as a function of excitation energy. Yet it is not fully understood whether the increase in \nu(A) as a function of E_{n} is mass dependent. The share of excitation energies among the fragments is still under debate, but there are reasons to believe that the excess in neutron emission originates only from the heavy fragments, leaving \nu_{light}(A) almost unchanged. In this work we investigated the consequences of a mass-dependent increase in \nu(A) on the final mass and energy distributions. The assumptions on \nu(A) are essential when analysing measurements based on the 2E-technique. This choice showed to be significant on the measured observables. For example, the post-neutron emission mass yield distribution revealed changes up to 10-30%. The outcome of this work pinpoint the urgent need to determine \nu(A) experimentally, and in particular, how \nu(A) changes as a function of incident-neutron energy. Until then, many fission yields in the data libraries could be largely affected, since they were analysed based on another assumption on the neutron emission.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Proc. 2013 International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science & Technology (ND2013), March 4-8, 2013, New York, USA, to be published in Nuclear Data Sheet

Large induced optical activity in the conduction band of polyaniline doped with (1S)-(+)-10-camphorsulfonic acid

A large induced CD is found in the conduction band of polyaniline doped with optically active camphorsulfonic acid. In films obtained by spin-coating from a m-cresol soln., the chiral dopant induces chirality within the main chain of polyaniline. No other combinations of achiral conducting polymers and chiral dopants have been found that show induced optical activity in their conduction band