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

An equilibrium-conserving taxation scheme for income from capital

Under conditions of market equilibrium, the distribution of capital income follows a Pareto power law, with an exponent that characterizes the given equilibrium. Here, a simple taxation scheme is proposed such that the post-tax capital income distribution remains an equilibrium distribution, albeit with a different exponent. This taxation scheme is shown to be progressive, and its parameters can be simply derived from (i) the total amount of tax that will be levied, (ii) the threshold selected above which capital income will be taxed and (iii) the total amount of capital income. The latter can be obtained either by using Piketty's estimates of the capital/labor income ratio or by fitting the initial Pareto exponent. Both ways moreover provide a check on the amount of declared income from capital.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Critical hazards identification and prevention of cascading escalator accidents at metro rail transit stations

Escalator accidents not only happen frequently but also have cascading effects. The purpose of this study is to block the formation of cascading accident networks by identifying and preventing critical hazards. A modified five-step task-driven method (FTDM) is proposed to break down passenger-related cascading escalator accidents. Three complex network parameters in complex network theory are utilized to identify critical and non-critical Risk Passenger Behavior (RPB) hazards and Other Hazards related with Risk Passenger Behavior (OH-RPB) in accident chains. A total of 327 accidents that occurred in the Beijing metro rail transit (MRT) stations were used for case studies. The results are consistent in critical and non-critical RPB and OH-RPB and prove that through combination of FTDM accident investigation model and complex network analysis method, critical and non-critical RPB and OH-RPB in a complicated cascading hazards network can be identified. Prevention of critical RPB can block the formation of cascading accident networks. The method not only can be used by safety manager to make the corresponding preventive measures according to the results in daily management but also the findings can guide the allocation of limited preventive resources to critical hazards rather than non-critical hazards. Moreover, the defects of management plan and product design can be re-examined according to the research results

Unemployment: Study of Causes and Possible Solutions

The following measures against unemployment are proposed: In the short term, to promote greater income for the poorest sectors. It is shown that this can be paid with the resulting increased production, without losing income to the other economic agents. In the mid term, the creation of ad-hoc companies for investment in projects profitable but long lasting. And in the long run, the abandonment of the competitive models. As these proposals go against current ideas (liberalisation, labour market flexibility, free market, etc.), the statements are rigorously demonstrated, even at the risk of making the lecture harder. Part 1 explores the problem and uses a simple model and others heuristic arguments to create familiarity with macroeconomic models. Part 2 is a simplified summary of Macroeconomic Theory textbook. It serves as a review to the reader whose knowledge in economy are out of date, or as a first approximation to the topic if he or she does not have them. In the light of the theory, economic policies are evaluated for the Argentine case in the 90's. The work accepts the Keynesian explanation of unemployment (insufficient demand), but we disagree on its solution (public expenditure). Finally, in Part 3 we elaborate and justify the proposals.Comment: T.P.Eggarter (physicist) passed away in August 1997. This work was done during his last months of life and only locally published up to now. Work is in Spanish and could be translated upon request. Please contact E. Alvarez [email protected]

Modeling Hidden Nodes Collisions in Wireless Sensor Networks: Analysis Approach

This paper studied both types of collisions. In this paper, we show that advocated solutions for coping with hidden node collisions are unsuitable for sensor networks. We model both types of collisions and derive closed-form formula giving the probability of hidden and visible node collisions. To reduce these collisions, we propose two solutions. The first one based on tuning the carrier sense threshold saves a substantial amount of collisions by reducing the number of hidden nodes. The second one based on adjusting the contention window size is complementary to the first one. It reduces the probability of overlapping transmissions, which reduces both collisions due to hidden and visible nodes. We validate and evaluate the performance of these solutions through simulations

Sabah tercümanı

Mahmut Sadık'ın Sabah'ta tefrika edilen Sabah Tercümanı adlı romanıTefrikanın devamına rastlanmamış, tefrika yarım kalmıştır

Path Calculations and Option Pricing

The thesis is worked in the areas of the intersection of probability, combinatorics and analytical combinatoric. The research is motivated from the need of producing new methodologies and financial models in global market resulted from the lesson of 2007-2009 global financial market and a quantum tool called Feynman path integral method which has been applied to model path-dependent option pricing model by Hao and Utev. Path calculation method deal with models by analysing each possible individual asset price paths which broaden the methodology of modelling financial market and can solve some unusual or complex models which is difficult to model by using non path-dependent calculation method. My research has focused on developing combinatorial structure and path calculation methods and then apply them to model individual share price path and calculate option prices. The share price can be modelled as a path with a given share price changes and the expiry date. We have applied Flajolet symbolic method, generating functions and path calculation method to model a set of typical finite restricted share price paths with restriction not allowing k consecutive down steps and derived a calculation of option prices in the model. Besides, applying the Flajolet symbolic method, we constructed a relationship between individual share price and generating function, analysed the transformed share price paths via different operations on generating functions. In addition, we applied path calculation method to solve winning probability in the classical gambler ruin problem which contributes the same result as the solution solved by establishing the recurrence equation method. Furthermore, we have solved a different gambler's ruin problem using the path calculation method which cannot be solved by the recurrence equation method. Counting paths with combinatoric can be studied from two ways, one way is to label and the other is computation. Labelling is a part of representation of objects. We have developed a graphical theoretical construction of individual share price path via general binary trees and matroid. In addition, We have developed a method to solve some kinds of pattern avoiding path counting combinatorial problem by modifying certain probability methods. Two working papers including modelling of paths via matroids and counting via Markov-type technique is now being produced. </div

phylogenetic methods and sensitivity tests

Complete data used in Wang and Graeme's paper, including following files: data matrix of Mesozoic birds, age of the terminal taxa, most parsimonious trees, code in R analysis, and the complete results of the sensitive tests

Prediction of prognosis and immune landscape in cervical cancer based on heat shock protein-related genes

Objective: Heat shock proteins (HSPs) play key roles in the malignant transformation and progression of many tumors. However, the effectiveness of using HSP-related genes to predict the prognosis of patients with cervical cancer (CC) remains elusive. We aimed to delineate the prognosis and biological significance of HSP-related genes in CC. Methods: We collected the transcriptional and clinical data of CC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and searched for HSP-related genes in the literature. LASSO and univariate/multivariate Cox regression analyses were utilized to screen genes; 12 genes were found to be related to CC survival, and a prediction model was built. The effectiveness of the model was confirmed using TCGA and GEO, and it was found to be an independent predictor of CC. The nomogram is plotted. The prognostic model was further visualized using calibration curves, which showed good agreement with the predicted outcomes at 1-, 3, and 5 years. Results: We found that low-risk patients had higher immune cell infiltration and stronger immune function, and according to the immunophenoscore and TIDE scores, the low-risk group tended to respond more to immunotherapy. Additionally, we used the GDSC database to predict drug sensitivity in patients with different prognostic risks. Conclusion: In summary, we built a good model to help predict the prognosis of CC patients and provide a reference for personalized treatment and medication for different patients.</p

A new adult specimen of the basalmost ornithuromorph bird <i>Archaeorhynchus spathula</i> (Aves: Ornithuromorpha) and its implications for early avian ontogeny

<p>Most living birds characteristically grow rapidly and reach adult size within a year. Nevertheless, little is known about how such an advanced developmental strategy evolved despite many discoveries of early fossil birds. Here we assess the long-bone histology from a new adult specimen of <i>Archaeorhynchus spathula</i>, the basalmost taxon of Ornithuromorpha. Ornithuromorpha is the most inclusive clade containing extant birds but not the Mesozoic Enantiornithes. Histological analysis reveals that the cortex is composed of parallel-fibred bone with three lines of arrested growth, indicative of slow and annually interrupted growth for this taxon. Such bone histology is significantly different from that of other known basal ornithuromorphs, but resembles that of enantiornithines, which leads us to suggest protracted slow growth in the common ancestor of Ornithuromorpha and Enantiornithes. The fusion sequence of the tarsometatarsus between Enantiornithes and Ornithuromorpha has long been hypothesized to be different and regarded as indicative that enantiornithines are not close relatives of ornithuromorphs. Due to a lack of fossils recording early ontogenetic stages, little is known about the development of the tarsometatarsus in basal ornithuromorphs, making this hypothesis impossible to test. Here we show that the fusion sequence of the tarsometatarsus in <i>Archaeorhynchus</i> is similar to that of enantiornithines, and that the proximal-early fusion in tarsometatarsus represents a plesiomorphic trait for basal birds. Our findings also shed light on ontogenetic variation of sternal morphology, which highlights the importance of ontogeny in the taxonomic and phylogenetic study of early birds.</p