Tax competition and investment in the EMU : the case of the cash flow income tax in Greece

This paper addresses the issue of the urgent need for the capital income tax restructuring in Greece in order the country to meet its recent exposure to the EMU tax competition (as accentuated by the economic globalization). The unsuccessful income tax harmonization in the European Union (EU) has intensified tax competition among the member countries, entailing reduction of effective tax rates. Such a tax competition is an inescapable policy for the countries adhered to the basic structure of income tax as internationally applied. However, this is quite painful for countries of high taxation and public debt, like Greece. On the other hand, the fundamental restructuring of the Greek income tax towards the Cash Flaw Income Tax, effected on the basis of equal revenue yield, seems to offer the country the necessary tax competitive advantage against the competitors in the EMU. Under such restructuring, the domestic or imported income and profits invested in Greece will be dispensed with the indigenous equity and efficiency deficiencies of the current tax system (since they will be relieved of any tax burden), thus making the economy attractive of funds on a tax induced basis (without discriminating between current and future consumption). To this end, the paper examines the relative merits of such a policy in the domestic and international setting of Greece, purporting to constitute a starting point for a thorough examination in this respect.peer-reviewe

The sabre in 19th century Greece

This article gives a brief overview on Greek sabre sources with a special focus on Philipp Müller’s and Nikolaos Pyrgos’ treatises. The article does not aim to give a complete list of treatises neither to analyze the any of the mentioned books in details – rather it aims to give an insight in those two books which might have had the most important impact on the development of the Greek sabre fencing in the 18th and 19th Centuries

The Effect of Parietal Glutamate/GABA Balance on Test Anxiety Levels in Early Childhood in a Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Study

The increased prevalence of test anxiety in our competitive society makes it a health issue of public concern. However, its neurobiological basis, especially during the years of formal education, is currently scant. Previous research has highlighted the association between neural excitation/inhibition balance and psychopathology and disease. We examined whether the glutamate/GABA profile tracks test anxiety levels in development, using a cross-sectional and longitudinal design in a cohort spanning from early childhood to early adulthood (N = 289), reassessed approximately 21 months later (N = 194). We used magnetic resonance spectroscopy to noninvasively quantify glutamate and gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels in the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and the middle frontal gyrus. We show that the glutamate/GABA balance within the IPS relates to current individual variation in test anxiety levels and predict future test anxiety approximately 21 months later. Critically, this relationship was observed during early childhood but not during the later developmental stages. Our results extend the use of the excitation/inhibition balance framework to characterize the psychopathology mechanisms of test anxiety, an underexplored yet widespread and debilitating condition that can impact early child development. Our findings provide a better understanding of the neurotransmitter basis underlying the emergence of anxiety disorders during development

3D shape based reconstruction of experimental data in Diffuse Optical Tomography

Diffuse optical tomography (DOT) aims at recovering three-dimensional images of absorption and scattering parameters inside diffusive body based on small number of transmission measurements at the boundary of the body. This image reconstruction problem is known to be an ill-posed inverse problem, which requires use of prior information for successful reconstruction. We present a shape based method for DOT, where we assume a priori that the unknown body consist of disjoint subdomains with different optical properties. We utilize spherical harmonics expansion to parameterize the reconstruction problem with respect to the subdomain boundaries, and introduce a finite element (FEM) based algorithm that uses a novel 3D mesh subdivision technique to describe the mapping from spherical harmonics coefficients to the 3D absorption and scattering distributions inside a unstructured volumetric FEM mesh. We evaluate the shape based method by reconstructing experimental DOT data, from a cylindrical phantom with one inclusion with high absorption and one with high scattering. The reconstruction was monitored, and we found a 87% reduction in the Hausdorff measure between targets and reconstructed inclusions, 96% success in recovering the location of the centers of the inclusions and 87% success in average in the recovery for the volumes

The impact of a lack of mathematical education on brain development and future attainment

Formal education has a long-term impact on an individual’s life. However, our knowledge of the effect of a specific lack of education, such as in mathematics, is currently poor but is highly relevant given the extant differences between countries in their educational curricula and the differences in opportunities to access education. Here we examined whether neurotransmitter concentrations in the adolescent brain could classify whether a student is lacking mathematical education. Decreased γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) concentration within the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) successfully classified whether an adolescent studies math and was negatively associated with frontoparietal connectivity. In a second experiment, we uncovered that our findings were not due to preexisting differences before a mathematical education ceased. Furthermore, we showed that MFG GABA not only classifies whether an adolescent is studying math or not, but it also predicts the changes in mathematical reasoning ∼19 mo later. The present results extend previous work in animals that has emphasized the role of GABA neurotransmission in synaptic and network plasticity and highlight the effect of a specific lack of education on MFG GABA concentration and learning-dependent plasticity. Our findings reveal the reciprocal effect between brain development and education and demonstrate the negative consequences of a specific lack of education during adolescence on brain plasticity and cognitive functions

Gradient Bounds and Liouville theorems for Quasi-linear equations on compact Manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature

In this work we establish a gradient bound and Liouville-type theorems for solutions to Quasi-linear elliptic equations on compact Riemannian Manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature. Also, we provide a local slitting theorem when the inequality in the gradient bound becomes equality at some point. Moreover, we prove a Harnack-type inequality and an ABP estimate for the gradient of solutions in domains contained in the manifold.Comment: 12 page

Air Pollution: Sources and Global Statistics

Air pollution is called the presence of any kind or form of substances, noise or radiation found in the atmosphere in such a quantity, concentration or duration capable of causing harm in human health, living organisms and ecosystems. By understanding the reasons behind the increase of air polluting substances in the atmosphere, we may have better chances of solving the problem in the future