The Composition of Hyperacute Serum and Platelet-Rich Plasma Is Markedly Different despite the Similar Production Method

Autologous blood derived products, such as platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) are widely applied in regenerative therapies, in contrast to the drawbacks in their application, mainly deriving from the preparation methods used. Eliminating the disadvantages of both PRP and PRF, hyperacute serum (HAS) opens a new path in autologous serum therapy showing similar or even improved regenerative potential at the same time. Despite the frequent experimental and clinical use of PRP and HAS, their protein composition has not been examined thoroughly yet. Thus, we investigated and compared the composition of HAS, serum, PRP and plasma products using citrate and EDTA by simple laboratory tests, and we compared the composition of HAS, serum, EDTA PRP and plasma by Proteome Profiler and ELISA assays. According to our results the natural ionic balance was upset in both EDTA and citrate PRP as well as in plasma. EDTA PRP contained significantly higher level of growth factors and cytokines, especially platelet derived angiogenic and inflammatory proteins, that can be explained by the significantly higher number of platelets in EDTA PRP. The composition analysis of blood derivatives revealed that although the preparation method of PRP and HAS were similar, the ionic and protein composition of HAS could be advantageous for cell function

Who wants a progressive income tax? Determinants of tax-policy preferences in post-socialist Eastern Europe

Using multi-level modeling, this study investigates the determinants of public opinion on personal income taxation (PIT) in Central and Eastern European countries. The analysis finds that socio-economic and demographic variables, such as household income, occupational social class, and age, are important in determining PIT preferences. However, beliefs about fairness and perceptions of corruption also play a significant role. Support for progressive taxation decreases with the acceptance of income differences as a reward for talent and effort. Also, distrust of the legal system and a conviction that tax authorities treat certain people more favorably than others increase support for progressive taxation, although this latter effect is constrained to the less affluent. These results indicate that progressive PIT might be understood by the public as a corrective measure vis-à-vis inequalities arising due to corruption. The study finds little evidence for the importance of country-level variables, such as income inequality or the institutional features of income tax systems. Nevertheless, there is a moderately strong association between overall economic development and average support for progressive taxation. The public in less developed post-socialist countries are more in favor of non-redistributive forms of taxation, such as the flat tax and lump-sum taxation. This tendency may reflect their increased willingness to accept neoliberal reforms under circumstances of growing pressure to improve the international competitiveness of the domestic economy

Making Increased Retirement Age Acceptable: The Impact of Institutional Environment on Public Preferences for Pension Reforms

Population ageing is likely to have a long-lasting negative impact on the financial sustainability of European pension systems. As a reaction to this, some European nations have adopted automatic adjustment mechanisms that connect the amount of starting pensions to the development of demographic and economic factors, such as life expectancy and the old-age dependency ratio. Lacking such measures, other countries account for the financial problems of their public payas- you-go pension schemes by ad hoc amendments to their national legislation. This paper provides empirical evidence that national legislation linking life expectancy at retirement age and the level of old-age pensions attenuates opposition against reforms seeking increases to the statutory retirement age. Using multinomial logit models fitted on individual- level survey data, I analyze the probability that individuals accept a potential increase in retirement age among respondents in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. The results show that national institutional contexts explicitly binding pensions to the development of life expectancy attenuate opposition against a potential increase in the statutory retirement age. The implications of the study are of particular importance for policy- makers looking to resolve the problem of constantly increasing oldage dependency ratios in Europe. This requires the application of an incentive structure that increases the acceptability of later withdrawal from the labour market. Analyzing survey data from the late 2000s, this study demonstrates that an explicit attachment between the level of starting pensions and life expectancy at retirement age is particularly useful in motivating longer working careers when life expectancy is on the rise

The Effect of the Formula Apportionment of the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base on Tax Revenue in the Slovak Republic

This paper evaluates the impact of the European Commission’s Proposal for a Council directive on the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) (COM(2011) 121/4). We analyze the impact of the apportionment formula to be applied to the CCCTB on the revenues of the Slovak state budget. The sample of our analysis is composed of eleven transnational corporations operating in the Slovak Republic and other EU member states. The results indicate a decrease in tax revenues under the proposed CCCTB system in comparison to the current national tax legislation. By contrast, according to the data available, the likelihood that Slovakia will benefit from the CCCTB system by collecting more taxes seems to be low

The Effect of the Formula Apportionment of the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base on Tax Revenue in the Slovak Republic

This paper evaluates the impact of the European Commission’s Proposal for a Council directive on the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) (COM(2011) 121/4). We analyze the impact of the apportionment formula to be applied to the CCCTB on the revenues of the Slovak state budget. The sample of our analysis is composed of eleven transnational corporations operating in the Slovak Republic and other EU member states. The results indicate a decrease in tax revenues under the proposed CCCTB system in comparison to the current national tax legislation. By contrast, according to the data available, the likelihood that Slovakia will benefit from the CCCTB system by collecting more taxes seems to be low

Is the Egg Basket Worth Its Price? The Fiscal Implications of Pension Privatization in Eastern Europe

This paper discusses the policy lessons learned from the two waves of pension reforms in Eastern European EU member states. It focuses, in particular, on the changing approach to the fiscal implications of pension privatization. In the next section, we provide an overview of the two waves of pension reforms as well as the political and economic factors that conditioned the outcomes. Then, we focus on the problem of financing the funding gap related to the diversion of contributions from the public pension system to private schemes, a key issue that was sidestepped in the first wave of reforms, largely because of a lack of understanding of the problem. The funding gap was underestimated, mainly because of a mistaken argument that explicit debt can be ignored as it replaces implicit debt. The third section addresses the actual solutions to this problem, showing that it remained largely unresolved in the first wave of reform, despite the learning process that accompanied the implementation of pension privatization. The final section then discusses the new rationale that informs the second wave of reforms: the ‘diversification argument’. Its growing importance in the policy debate indicates a learning process in which many of the myths that influenced the policy debates in the first wave of reforms were dispelled. However, the diversification argument itself can be seen as old wine in new bottles because its underlying rationale is largely based on one of the myths of the first wave of reforms — that is, the assumption that pre-funding can hedge against the macroeconomic shock induced by demographic ageing. Once this and other misunderstandings are put aside, what remains as a rationale for pension privatization in the second wave is not so much a positive-economics argument, but a mistrust of the state and collective provisions of social insurance. The comparison of the costs and benefits of diversification thus suggests that the second proverbial basket comes at a rather steep price