Fraudulent Contracting of Work: Sham Companies (Austria, Estonia and Italy)

[Excerpt] Among the fraudulent contracting of work practices, one of the most difficult to identify is the creation of sham companies (usually, in another country). Sham companies are essentially new entities created to disguise the real employer. Creating a company, even abroad, is – of course – legal and may well be institutionally and economically advisable. However, when the only purpose of its creation is to benefit from more favourable regulations relating to labour and tax (and not to develop an activity in the country), then questions should be asked about the ‘genuine’ nature of the company. The Eurofound study Exploring the fraudulent contracting of work in the European Union emphasises that the term ‘sham contracting’ or ‘sham companies’ embraces a diversity of fraudulent practices, embedded in different institutional contexts (Eurofound, 2016a).1 Fraudulent practices are perpetrated for different purposes, the most important of which are to avoid paying, or to save, employment-related taxes and social security contributions, and to evade employers’ liability towards employees. Beyond some recent analysis of ‘letter-box’ companies,2 there is not much research into sham contracting or sham companies. In addition, EU legislation has not played any role in this respect. Sham companies share the common goal of disguising the real employer. This can be achieved through different mechanisms such as: the creation of companies without assets, generally within subcontracting chains commercial or civil law contracts between companies where employees are misrepresented as contractors or company owners workers’ cooperatives, where workers lack actual control over the organisation’s decisions

Study on Flexural Properties of Reinforced Spontaneous Combustion Gangue Concrete Beams

In this paper, the flexural properties of three kinds of reinforced spontaneous combustion gangue concrete (RSCG) beams and one group of reinforced normal concrete (RNC) beam are investigated experimentally by comparison. Three kinds of RSCG beams are constructed with 100% spontaneous combustion gangue fine aggregate, coarse aggregate or both of them and one group conventional concrete beam is constructed with natural aggregates. Effects of different combinations of aggregates on flexural properties of reinforced concrete structural elements are studied under the same conditions, including longitudinal reinforcement ratio, concrete strength grade and section size of member. The experimental cracking moment, ultimate moment and deflection under normal service state of the beams are analyzed according to theories and methods of the present code to evaluate the applicability of present code for RSCG beams. In addition, through ANSYS finite element simulation, flexural properties of the RSCG beams are analyzed. And comparing experimental results with calculated and simulated results, respectively. The results show that flexural features of RSCG beams are similar with RNC beams, and flexural property formulas for conventional concrete beams are also suitable for RSCG beams. Furthermore, simulating results also agree well with test results. It is feasible to use spontaneous combustion gangue aggregate in reinforced concrete structures under the proper design as well as within the proper limit of application

Light Management in Silicon Nanostructures for Photovoltaics

The main challenge with the use of silicon for photovoltaics is that silicon is not a strong absorber of sunlight in the near-infrared region. Conventional silicon photovoltaics are thus typically of thicknesses 200 to 300 _m to ensure the absorption of most sunlight. However, single crystalline silicon solar cells require expensive manufacturing methods. So current solar cell technology is not as competitive as that of traditional energy sources. To promote and increase the silicon solar cell capacity, costs need to drop below $1/W. Increasing absorption of light in the absorber layers is critical issue for achieving high efficiency silicon solar cells. Various light trapping methods have been developed, experimentally and computationally. Light trapping with sub-wavelength nanostructures involves coupling light into localized resonant modes and guided resonance modes in active region to increase absorption. Nanophotonic light trapping strategies have used structuring of the silicon itself or patterning of dielectric materials on front and back of silicon. In order to continue developing cheap and high efficiency silicon solar cells, we studied several anti-reflection and light trapping structures with lower cost and higher absorption. First of all, tapered nanocone structure was proposed and studied and then fabricated via Bosch process. Secondly, high refractive index nanosphere scheme was investigated as a light trapping strategy which does not create new surface or interface and is easy to fabricate. Then inverse woodpile and woodpile photonic crystal structures were studied and proven to have superior light trapping ability due to the ability to engineer the photonic density of states. Finally, ultrathin silicon was fabricated via wet etching method, and then high refractive index nanosphere layers were coated and the power conversion efficiency was increased by 26.5%. Furthermore, metal nanomesh was used as front contact to substitute traditional indium tin oxide, and the power conversion efficiency was increased by 53% due to high haze factor and lower sheet resistance of the metal nanomesh. More importantly, with the metal nanomesh as front contact, the ultrathin silicon solar cells showed superior flexibility

Linkage between surface energy balance non‐closure and horizontal asymmetric turbulent transport

A number of studies have reported that the traditional eddy covariance (EC) method generally underestimated vertical turbulent fluxes, leading to an outstanding non-closure problem of the surface energy balance (SEB). Although it is recognized that the enlarged surface energy imbalance frequently coincides with the increasing wind shear, the role of large eddies in affecting the SEB remains unclear. On analyzing data collected by an EC array, considerable horizontal inhomogeneity of kinematic heat flux is observed. The results show that the combined EC method that incorporates the spatial flux contribution increases the kinematic heat flux by 21% relative to the traditional EC method, improving the SEB closure. Additionally, spectral analysis indicates that large eddies with scales ranging from 0.0005 to 0.01 (in the normalized frequency) mainly account for the horizontal inhomogeneity of kinematic heat flux. Under unstable conditions, this process is operating upon large eddies characterized by enlarged asymmetric turbulent flux transport. With enhanced wind shear, the increment of flux contribution associated with sweeps and ejections becomes disproportionate, contributing to the horizontal inhomogeneity of kinematic heat flux, and thus may explain the increased SEB non-closure

Sharing a polluted river network

A polluted river network is populated with agents (e.g., firms, villages, municipalities, or countries) located upstream and downstream. This river network must be cleaned, the costs of which must be shared among the agents. We model this problem as a cost sharing problem on a tree network. Based on the two theories in international disputes, namely the Absolute Territorial Sovereignty (ATS) and the Unlimitted Territorial Integrity (UTI), we propose three different cost sharing methods for the problem. They are the Local Responsibility Sharing (LRS), the Upstream Equal Sharing (UES), and the Downstream Equal Sharing (DES), respectively. The LRS and the UES generalize Ni and Wang ("Sharing a polluted river", Games Econ. Behav., 60 (2007), 176-186) but the DES is new. The DES is based on a new interpretation of the UTI. We provide axiomatic characterizations for the three methods. We also show that they coincide with the Shapley values of the three different games that can be defined for the problem. Moreover, we show that they are in the cores of the three games, respectively. Our methods can shed light on pollution abatement of a river network with multiple sovereignties

Multi-Fields Modulation of Physical Properties of Oxide Thin Films

Oxide thin films exhibit versatile physical properties such as magnetism, ferroelectricity, piezoelectricity, metal-insulator transition (MIT), multiferroicity, colossal magnetoresistivity, switchable resistivity, etc. More importantly, the exhibited multifunctionality could be tuned by various external fields, which has enabled demonstration of novel electronic devices. In this article, recent studies of the multi-fields modulation of physical properties in oxide thin films have been reviewed. Some of the key issues and prospects about this field are also addressed.Comment: review article, 56 pages, 18 figure

Modulation of Mitochondrial Dynamics in Neurodegenerative Diseases: An Insight Into Prion Diseases

Mitochondrial dysfunction is a common and prominent feature of prion diseases and other neurodegenerative disorders. Mitochondria are dynamic organelles that constantly fuse with one another and subsequently break apart. Defective or superfluous mitochondria are usually eliminated by a form of autophagy, referred to as mitophagy, to maintain mitochondrial homeostasis. Mitochondrial dynamics are tightly regulated by processes including fusion and fission. Dysfunction of mitochondrial dynamics can lead to the accumulation of abnormal mitochondria and contribute to cellular damage. Neurons are among the cell types that consume the most energy, have a highly complex morphology, and are particularly dependent on mitochondrial functions and dynamics. In this review article, we summarize the molecular mechanisms underlying the mitochondrial dynamics and the regulation of mitophagy and discuss the dysfunction of these processes in the progression of prion diseases and other neurodegenerative disorders. We have also provided an overview of mitochondrial dynamics as a therapeutic target for neurodegenerative diseases

NasT-Mediated Antitermination Plays an Essential Role in the Regulation of the Assimilatory Nitrate Reductase Operon in Azotobacter vinelandii

Azotobacter vinelandii is a well-studied model system for nitrogen fixation in bacteria. Regulation of nitrogen fixation in A. vinelandii is independent of NtrB/NtrC, a conserved nitrogen regulatory system in proteobacteria. Previous work showed that an ntrC mutation in A. vinelandii resulted in a loss of induction of assimilatory nitrate and nitrite reductases encoded by the nasAB operon. In addition to NtrC, several other proteins, including NasT, a protein containing a potential RNA-binding domain ANTAR (AmiR and NasR transcription antitermination regulators), have been implicated in nasAB regulation. In this work, we characterize the sequence upstream of nasA and identify several DNA sequence elements, including two potential NtrC binding sites and a putative intrinsic transcriptional terminator upstream of nasA that are potentially involved in nasAB regulation. Our analyses confirm that the nasAB promoter, P(nasA), is under NtrC control. However, unlike NtrC-regulated promoters in enteric bacteria, P(nasA) shows high activity in the presence of ammonium; in addition, the P(nasA) activity is altered in the nifA gene mutation background. We discuss the implication of these results on NtrC-mediated regulation in A. vinelandii. Our study provides direct evidence that induction of nasAB is regulated by NasT-mediated antitermination, which occurs within the leader region of the operon. The results also support the hypothesis that NasT binds the promoter proximal hairpin of nasAB for its regulatory function, which contributes to the understanding of the regulatory mechanism of ANTAR-containing antiterminators

BAKing up to Survive a Battle: Functional Dynamics of BAK1 in Plant Programmed Cell Death

In plants, programmed cell death (PCD) has diverse, essential roles in vegetative and reproductive development, and in the responses to abiotic and biotic stresses. Despite the rapid progress in understanding the occurrence and functions of the diverse forms of PCD in plants, the signaling components and molecular mechanisms underlying the core PCD machinery remain a mystery. The roles of BAK1 (BRASSINOSTEROID INSENSITIVE 1-associated receptor kinase 1), an essential co-receptor of multiple receptor complexes, in the regulation of immunity and development- and defense-related PCD have been well characterized. However, the ways in which BAK1 functions in mediating PCD need to be further explored. In this review, different forms of PCD in both plants and mammals are discussed. Moreover, we mainly summarize recent advances in elucidating the functions and possible mechanisms of BAK1 in controlling diverse forms of PCD. We also highlight the involvement of post-translational modifications (PTMs) of multiple signaling component proteins in BAK1-mediated PCD