Social impact bond feasibility study AEIPS intervention: housing first

AEIPS is a Portuguese social organization promoting the integration of people with mental health illnesses and/or substance abuse in the community through the intervention model Housing First. The philosophy of Housing First aims at lifting people out of their homelessness status by providing instant access to individualized and permanent housing as well as support services. Housing First projects from all over the world have proved very positive results in terms of residential stability and community integration of its participants. This feasibility study evaluates the suitability of using a Social Impact Bond to fund the Housing First intervention of AEIPS in Portugal

Interpretaciones que amenazan al derecho tributario. Tendencias actuales y análisis crítico

Tras introducir al lector en el inmenso y proceloso mundo de la hermenéutica jurídica, el artículo expone una descripción crítica y actual de ciertas formas de interpretación que se constituyen en verdaderas amenazas para el Derecho Tributario, pues, al dejar desprovisto de todo límite al proceso interpretativo, y por ende, al intérprete de la norma tributaria, vulneran e irrespetan principios y garantías fundamentales propias del Derecho fiscal. La finalidad del estudio presentado es doble: por una lado busca advertir, prevenir y corregir aquellas malas prácticas interpretativas de la norma jurídico tributaria. Y, por el otro, propone un sistema integral conforme al cual debe realizarse la interpretación e integración de la ley tributaria, o al menos tenerse presente para ello

Elusión tributaria y normas antielusivas: su tratamiento en el derecho comparado. Algunas conclusiones al respecto

Luego de ofrecer una visión particular del concepto de elusión tributaria, el artículo analiza el tratamiento que se ha dado en el Derecho Comparado a las medidas/normas antielusivas, agrupando a los ordenamientos estudiados en los dos sistemas jurídicos de mayor trascendencia en la actualidad: El Sistema Jurídico Romanista o Civil Law y el Sistema jurídico Anglosajón o Common Law. El propósito de este estudio y la forma de plantearlo así, además de proporcionar una visión esquemática de la manera en que ciertos Estados han combatido el fenómeno elusivo de impuestos, es obtener algunas conclusiones que permitan evaluar la situación existente en nuestro país y la conveniencia o no de su modificación

Attention allocation in complementary joint action: How joint goals affect spatial orienting

When acting jointly, individuals often attend and respond to the same object or spatial location in complementary ways (e.g., when passing a mug, one person grasps its handle with a precision grip; the other receives it with a whole-hand grip). At the same time, the spatial relation between individuals’ actions affects attentional orienting: one is slower to attend and respond to locations another person previously acted upon than to alternate locations (“social inhibition of return”, social IOR). Achieving joint goals (e.g., passing a mug), however, often requires complementary return responses to a co-actor’s previous location. This raises the question of whether attentional orienting, and hence the social IOR, is affected by the (joint) goal our actions are directed at. The present study addresses this question. Participants responded to cued locations on a computer screen, taking turns with a virtual co-actor. They pursued either an individual goal or performed complementary actions with the co-actor, in pursuit of a joint goal. Four experiments showed that the social IOR was significantly modulated when participant and co-actor pursued a joint goal. This suggests that attentional orienting is affected not only by the spatial but also by the social relation between two agents’ actions. Our findings thus extend research on interpersonal perception-action effects, showing that the way another agent’s perceived action shapes our own depends on whether we share a joint goal with that agent

Viscoelastic behavior in discrete element method realized by interparticle Maxwell-Zener model

The discrete element method describes the motion of granular structures numerically. Each particle is considered as a discrete element. Combining springs and dashpot for the normal contact forces, viscoelastic behavior represented by rheological models is realized via a nonlinear Maxwell–Zener model in a dynamic routine. For individual contacts and large particle structures, this model is compared to the Hertzian contact model for elastic behavior and studied with respect to rate dependence and the effect of model parameters

Interactions between genes and environmental factors in asthma and atopy: new developments

Asthma and associated phenotypes are complex traits most probably caused by an interaction of multiple disease susceptibility genes and environmental factors. Major achievements have occurred in identifying chromosomal regions and polymorphisms in candidate genes linked to or associated with asthma, atopic dermatitis, IgE levels and response to asthma therapy. The aims of this review are to explain the methodology of genetic studies of multifactorial diseases, to summarize chromosomal regions and polymorphisms in candidate genes linked to or associated with asthma and associated traits, to list genetic alterations that may alter response to asthma therapy, and to outline genetic factors that may render individuals more susceptible to asthma and atopy due to environmental changes