CAUSALITY, MEMORY ERASING AND DELAYED CHOICE EXPERIMENTS

Comment on [R.L. Ingraham, Phys. Rev. A 50, 4502 (1994)]. Ingraham suggested ``a delayed-choice experiment with partial, controllable memory erasing''. It is shown that he cannot be right since his predictions contradict relativistic causality. A subtle quantum effect which was overlooked by Ingraham is explained.Comment: 4 pages, LaTe

Tax Professionals\u27 Perceptions of Small Business Tax Law Complexity

The author’s report in this article on their study in questionnaire format that tested the perception of 89 small-business tax practitioners regarding the com- plexity of 37 tax provisions. They found overwhelming consistency on the five most complex and five least complex small-business tax provisions with partner- ships, estate and gift valuations, tax-deferred ex- changes, frequency of law changes, and retirement plans topping the hit parade. Progressive tax rates, estimated taxes, Social Security/self-employment taxes, corporate capital gain provisions, and cash ver- sus accrual method were uniformly and consistently perceived as the least complex. These results have tax policy implications. According to the authors, for ex- ample, a House bill to move S corporations to a part- nership regime may not be optimal from the simplifi- cation perspective. The authors question whether familiarity with an issue results in lower perception of complexity. There is some discussion in the tax policy literature about tiering (different tax rules for small versus large companies). That policy seems to have made certain tax areas (cash versus accrual, deprecia- tion, installment sales, and possibly corporate alterna- tive minimum tax and uniform capitalization (UNI- CAP) less complex for small-business practitioners

Glucose-fructose likely improves gastrointestinal comfort and endurance running performance relative to glucose-only

This study aimed to determine whether glucose-fructose (GF) ingestion, relative to glucose-only, would alter performance, metabolism, gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, and psychological affect during prolonged running. On two occasions, 20 runners (14 men) completed a 120-min submaximal run followed by a 4-mile time trial (TT). Participants consumed glucose-only (G) or GF (1.2:1 ratio) beverages, which supplied ~1.3 g/min of carbohydrate. Substrate use, blood lactate, psychological affect [Feeling Scale (FS)], and GI distress were measured. Differences between conditions were assessed using magnitude-based inferential statistics. Participants completed the TT 1.9% (−1.9; −4.2, 0.4) faster with GF, representing a likely benefit. FS ratings were possibly higher and GI symptoms were possibly-to-likely lower with GF during the submaximal period and TT. Effect sizes for GI distress and FS ratings were relatively small (Cohen’s d = ~0.2 to 0.4). GF resulted in possibly higher fat oxidation during the submaximal period. No clear differences in lactate were observed. In conclusion, GF ingestion – compared with glucose-only – likely improves TT performance after 2 h of submaximal running, and GI distress and psychological affect are likely mechanisms. These results apply to runners consuming fluid at 500– 600 mL/h and carbohydrate at 1.0–1.3 g/min during running at 60–70% VO2peak

Glucose-fructose likely improves gastrointestinal comfort and endurance running performance relative to glucose-only

This study aimed to determine whether glucose-fructose (GF) ingestion, relative to glucose-only, would alter performance, metabolism, gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, and psychological affect during prolonged running. On two occasions, 20 runners (14 men) completed a 120-min submaximal run followed by a 4-mile time trial (TT). Participants consumed glucose-only (G) or GF (1.2:1 ratio) beverages, which supplied ~1.3 g/min of carbohydrate. Substrate use, blood lactate, psychological affect [Feeling Scale (FS)], and GI distress were measured. Differences between conditions were assessed using magnitude-based inferential statistics. Participants completed the TT 1.9% (−1.9; −4.2, 0.4) faster with GF, representing a likely benefit. FS ratings were possibly higher and GI symptoms were possibly-to-likely lower with GF during the submaximal period and TT. Effect sizes for GI distress and FS ratings were relatively small (Cohen’s d = ~0.2 to 0.4). GF resulted in possibly higher fat oxidation during the submaximal period. No clear differences in lactate were observed. In conclusion, GF ingestion – compared with glucose-only – likely improves TT performance after 2 h of submaximal running, and GI distress and psychological affect are likely mechanisms. These results apply to runners consuming fluid at 500– 600 mL/h and carbohydrate at 1.0–1.3 g/min during running at 60–70% VO2peak

Tax Complexity and Small Business: A Comparison of the Perceptions of Tax Agents in the United States and Australia

There is ongoing pressure in both the United States and Australia to simplify their respective tax systems, particularly in regard to small business taxpayers. In the case of both regimes, if substantial progress is to be made towards simplification, the areas of greatest need and the necessary reforms will require careful evaluation. The views of tax agents (practitioners) are highly relevant to the implementation of successful reform in that both regimes rely on self-assessment. It was considered that by undertaking a cross-jurisdictional comparison a greater understanding of complexity, from the perspective of tax agents, could be gained and that, the consideration of alternate treatments could better inform tax policymakers. That is, what can we learn from each other? The article; compares and contrasts the perceptions of practitioners on small business tax complexity based on a questionnaire instrument conducted in the US and an electronic survey and case study conducted in Australia. Tax practitioners in the US consistently rated the areas of partnerships, estate, and gift valuations, tax deferred exchanges, frequency of law changes and retirement plans as the most complex and progressive tax rates, estimated taxes, social security/self-employment taxes, corporate capital gain provisions and cash v accrual method as the least complex. In comparison, Australian practitioners found the frequency of change, the volume of legislative material and the effect of change on other aspects of taxation (including reporting) to be the major causes of complexity. Capital gains tax provisions were regarded as complex as were self-managed superannuation funds and trusts, but similar to US tax practitioners, Australian tax agents did not find the use of tax rates or accounting methods to be complex. The policy implications of these findings are discussed for both regimes, including the implications of having small business-specific rules. Reprinted by permission of the publisher