ISEL: An e-Taxation System for Employers

In 2008 the State of Geneva modified its regulation on taxation at source in order to collect electronic fiscal data from employers. Indeed the latter provide data on their employees directly to the tax administration (AFC) and furthermore pay taxes to the State on behalf of their employees. They subtract the corresponding amounts from employees' income and refund that money to the fiscal administration. The taxation at source system is applied to foreigners who work in Switzerland or who receive Swiss pensions, to people who live in Geneva but work in other Cantons, as well as to performers, artists or speakers who work occasionally in Geneva. More than 12'000 companies and 117'000 employees are concerned by the scheme, and large companies provide data on several thousand employees. In the past these files provided by employers were handled semi-automatically by the AFC (at best). The new system (called ISEL for Impôt à la Source En Ligne) offers employers two electronic channels to provide data on employees: file transfer (.XSD) and internet e-form. This case study describes the ISEL project and its context, and discusses the issues raised by the introduction of this e-taxation system. On the human side, our paper takes a qualitative approach, based on interviews of various stakeholders involved in the project. They were asked questions on ISEL's functionality, usability, performance, and so on. On the technical side, the paper presents the architecting principles of the e-government approach in Geneva (Legality, Responsibility, Transparency and Symmetry) and the workflow that was implemented on top of AFC's legacy system.private public partnership; tax collection; e-services; e-government; data exchange; architecture; usability

Sled acceleration control for low speed impact testing and transient response studies

Whiplash Associated Disorder is the most common soft-tissue injury arising from low-speed car crashes (Siskind et al. 2013). To better understand whiplash injury mechanisms in the head-neck system, a sled was acquired. The sled was previously controlled in open loop mode, without any feedback of the resulting motion. The aim of this project is to safely control the motion and acceleration of the sled in order to be able to generate reproducible acceleration profiles.FSR (Fondation Sécurité Routière

Does AIDS involve some collusion by the neuro-immune system because of positive learning of the disarmament strategy?

International audienceKorzybski's general semantics recommends considering living beings as organisms-as-a-whole in their environment. Our cognitive abilities, specific to the human species, have thus to be taken into account. In this framework we establish a semantic similarity between particular stressful events of the 20th century and AIDS in which the immune-deficiency-caused is semiotically seen as a biological state of disarmament of the organism. It then appears that : - at the extent of the worldwide propagation of the pandemic, the disarmament concept was valued as a hopefully survival strategy because of the media coverage of the Cold War and of the associated threat of nuclear annihilation, - at the extent of the African regions of origin of the different HIV strains, the best survival behavior of slaves fits the disarmament concept. These observations suggest that AIDS could benefit from some collusion by the neuro-immune system because of positive learning of the semiotic concept of disarmament, thus making the terrain favorable to the germ in response to intense stress. The disease would then result from a conditioning process based on semiotics and involve some confusion at the level of the unconscious cognitive system between disarmament toward outside the body and disarmament toward inside the body. This hypothesis is discussed within a multidisciplinary perspective considering the specificities of our modern lifestyles, the cybernetic ability of signs to control metabolism and behavior, and the recent advances of epigenetics and cognition sciences. This hypothesis may explain the multiple cross-species transmissions of the immunodeficiency virus into humans during the 20th century. Further research is suggested for evaluating this hypothesis

Understanding access to the labour market through migration channels

The mobility of the ‘highly skilled’ has become widely researched but only a few researchers have approached this category of migrants from a critical perspective. This article argues that understanding how ‘highly skilled migrants’ are constructed necessitates considering the conditions in which migration takes place as well as the perceptions and practices associated with these conditions. It uses the concept of ‘migration channels’ to investigate the enabling and disabling factors associated with different migration situations. The analysis draws on biographic interviews with highly educated migrants in Switzerland, and supplements these with expert interviews and ethnographic observations of people working in institutions that support, guide, or control migrants’ access to the labour market. The article shows that categories of migrants are artificial and often do not coincide with lived realities. Migrants actively develop strategies to achieve their personal aspirations, but they also depend on the opportunities available in their environment. The concept of ‘migration channels’ enables us to capture this interplay between structures and agency by showing how different actors shape the opportunities and constraints faced by different groups of migrants, and how migrants actively deal with them. This concept thus fosters a critical yet empathic understanding of migration experiences

L'attractivité de la Suisse - un facteur surévalué / Überbewertete Attraktivitätsdiskussion

Die Gründe, warum Menschen in ein bestimmtes Land fliehen sind höchst komplex. Entgegen der Wahrnehmung vieler Politikerinnen und Politiker haben die sozialen Leistungen, die ein Aufnahmeland zur Verfügung stellt, meist keinen grossen Einfluss darauf. Les raisons qui poussent les personnes à fuir et à se réfugier dans un pays donné sont multiples, complexes et souvent sans grand lien avec le type de prestations sociales qu’offrent les pays de destination, contrairement à ce que semblent penser l’opinion publique et de nombreux groupes de la sphère politique

Steps toward crab conservation in Chesapeake Bay

Blue crabs have increased in abundance in Chesapeake Bay since 1941, but In that year an acute shortage developed which threatened the entire fishery. \u27IThe serious decline of the fishery, which began in 1940, demonstrated the necessity of finding a way of assuring rapid recovery and preventing a recurrence of similar shortages. One significant step in this direction was taken by the Commission of Fisheries of Virginia in 1941, upon the request of the Hampton Crab Packers Association. A large sanctuary was established at the mouth of the bay, closed to crab fishing during July and August, to protect egg-bearing or sponge crabs. This brood-stock area, containing about 400 square miles, was continued during 1942, and in 1943 the closed season was extended to include April, May, and June. The possible effectiveness of the sanctuary for increasing and maintaining the crab population became promptly a subject of considerable debate