Maybe Just a Little Bit Special, After All?

The attitude—common among tax professionals—that tax is special (mostly because of its supposedly unique complexity), and that special legal rules should apply in the tax context, has been described and excoriated by scholars as tax exceptionalism or tax myopia. The Supreme Court dealt tax exceptionalism a grievous blow in its 2011 opinion in Mayo Foundation for Medical Education & Research v. United States, in which it held that the Chevron standard for determining the validity of regulations applied in tax just as it applied in other fields. One commentator gleefully celebrated Mayo as the death knell of tax exceptionalism, declaring, The tax world finally recognized a stark fact of life in 2011: Tax law is not special. This Article offers, with numerous hedges and qualifications, a defense of the exceptionalists and of exceptionalism. It makes three points for the defense. First, it is not so much tax professionals who think tax is special; rather, the view of tax as a thing apart is held most strongly by everyone else. Second, to the extent tax professionals do believe that tax is special, they resemble antitrust lawyers who think that antitrust is special, bankruptcy lawyers who think that bankruptcy is special, and so on. In other words, there is nothing exceptional about tax exceptionalism. And, finally, to the extent tax professionals not only think tax is special but also think it is more special than, say, antitrust lawyers think that antitrust is special, they may not be altogether wrong. Maybe tax really is just a little bit special, after all

On Kazhdan's Property (T) for the special linear group of holomorphic functions

We investigate when the group $SL_n(\mathcal{O}(X))$ of holomorphic maps from a Stein space $X$ to SL_n (\C) has Kazhdan's property (T) for $n\ge 3$. This provides a new class of examples of non-locally compact groups having Kazhdan's property (T). In particular we prove that the holomorphic loop group of SL_n (\C) has Kazhdan's property (T) for $n\ge 3$. Our result relies on the method of Shalom to prove Kazhdan's property (T) and the solution to Gromov's Vaserstein problem by the authors.Comment: 5 page

The perceived restorativeness of gardens

Natural environments have been found more restorative than built environments but studies have also highlighted mixed built and natural environments. The aims were to examine the perceived restorativeness of gardens, and evaluate the performance of the Perceived Restorativeness Scale, PRS, when applied to two examples from the same mixed built natural scene type rather than to a contrast between built and natural. The results show that the gardens are perceived restorative and the PRS also proved itself capable of discriminating between the two gardens. This points to the PRS being a useful tool and emphasizes the shortcomings of broad scene type definitions. The results show that one scene type can include environments that are significantly different in perceived restorativeness. This underlines the need to collect data on a greater number of both different scene types and examples within every type, as well as to have more controlled definitions of content and scene types to understand the relationship between the physical expression of a place and its potential of being restorative. The results show that the PRS is sensitive to place characteristics at subscale level, showing a high Being away score for both gardens and a Scope score that differed substantially. The results show a high correlation between restorativeness and preference

Factorization of symplectic matrices into elementary factors

We prove that a symplectic matrix with entries in a ring with Bass stable rank one can be factored as a product of elementary symplectic matrices. This also holds for null-homotopic symplectic matrices with entries in a Banach algebra or in the ring of complex valued continuous functions on a finite dimensional normal topological space.Comment: 9 page

On the behavior of strictly plurisubharmonic functions near real hypersurfaces

We describe the behavior of certain strictly plurisubharmonic functions near some real hypersurfaces in ℂ n , n≥3. Given a hypersurface we study continuous plurisubharmonic functions which are zero on the hypersurface and have Monge-Ampère mass greater than one in a one-sided neighborhood of the hypersurface. If we can find complex curves which have sufficiently high contact order with the hypersurface then the plurisubharmonic functions we study cannot be globally Lipschitz in the one-sided neighborhoo

Health and Security - HIV/AIDS in Post-apartheid South Africa

In a strange and awkward way the transition to democracy in South Africa have occurred simultaneously as the HIV/AIDS epidemic firmly and steadily have strengthen its grip around the country. HIV/AIDS have become security a process referred to as securitization. With security theory provided by the Copenhagen School a theoretical framework is constructed discussing the possibilities and pros and cons of health securitization. By studying the events in the most recent South African history dating from 1994 ? 2004 the author wants to show the dynamics of the securitization process of HIV/AIDS. The study shows that HIV/AIDS has a very complex relation to the South African society. Remnants of apartheid, traditional beliefs, tensions between the developed and developing world on who has the right answers, and political scandals and inaction have all formed the South African HIV/AIDS discourse. The result of this discourse is shown in how HIV/AIDS and those infected by HIV and those with AIDS are treated by the rest of the society

The role of sarcoplasmic calcium in skeletal muscle training adaptation

Current research shows a clear correlation between strong mitochondrial capacity, healthy muscle and general public health. A sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of a whole host of so called ‘western diseases’, while an active lifestyle reduce the risk of said diseases. Thus, well-functioning muscles are a necessity for general health. So far endurance exercise is the most effective method to improve muscle function. This thesis will focus on the cellular mechanisms that regulate muscle performance and how these can be improved. In the first study, we show that supplemented dietary nitrate enhances Ca2+ handling and submaximal force in mouse fast twitch muscle. Continuing this, in study two, we show that the increased submaximal force enhances voluntary activity in mice, presumably due to a shifted perceived effort of running. In study three we show that mild stress from cold exposure can enhance mitochondrial biogenesis resulting in improved fatigue resistance without exercise. The cold environment seems to induce a sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ leak in the skeletal muscle. In study four we investigated why short (180s) high intensity interval training works better for enhancing endurance than regular low-intensity exercise. We show that oxidants formed during exercise causes ryanodine receptor modifications, which result in a SR Ca2+ leak and this in turn likely triggers transcription to improved mitochondrial capacity. In study five we show that inducing a mild SR Ca2+ leak, either with exercise or pharmacological tools, drive mitochondrial biogenesis. In study six we show that a in a model of ageing, a degenerative mitochondrial problem causes myopathy via reduced SR Ca2+ release. Ca2+ is a central player in muscle function. This thesis shows that diet, exercise and age have the ability to affect skeletal muscle Ca2+ handling. Most importantly, Ca2+ signals can improve mitochondrial function, resulting in improved muscle function. However degenerative mitochondria causes reduced Ca2+handling that leads to muscle weakness. This is one of the reasons an active lifestyle is so important for the elderly, because it improves the mitochondrial function rather than being degraded. Perhaps in the future, inducing a small SR Ca2+ leak could minimize some of the risks associated with sedentary lifestyle

Justice after Conflict : Human Rights in a Dilemma

This essay explores the concept of restorative justice in post-conflict reconciliation environments. Through a human rights perspective the author sees a conflict between restorative justice and retributive justice. This is presented in a theoretical framework for post-conflict reconciliation. To more explicitly illustrate the advantages of restorative justice the example of South Africa is used. The transition from apartheid to democracy that was facilitated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the 1990's is an example of where tribunals like Nuremburg after World War II would most likely have had sever and dire consequences in form of a racially fueled civil war. This eventuality is something that human rights advocates must not forget when the discourse today almost entirely is focused on tribunals and particularly the International Criminal Court, in other words retributive justice