An Analysis of a Cash Flow Tax for Small Business

This paper analyses whether it might be possible to design a cash flow tax (CFT) for small businesses in New Zealand to replace the existing income tax. Certainly, it is feasible to design the core rules of a CFT that applies to new small businesses. As with all examples of a CFT, these rules are very simple and easy to understand and apply. Integration with existing Goods and Services Tax and Pay-As- You-Earn systems provides significant simplification potential. Designing a set of rules to define what is a “small business” is possible, although there is a risk that these rules would involve some arbitrary features. The main barrier to a CFT relates to the transition from an income tax. Research in New Zealand and overseas has been unable to develop a workable set of rules that involve acceptable fiscal, economic and compliance costs. Designing a set of transition rules from a CFT to an income tax for businesses that cease to be small also appears to be an insurmountable task. Even if the considerable difficulties with a transition could be overcome, integrating a CFT into a world where most of the economy is subject to an income tax would also pose difficulties. There is a risk that the rules needed to maintain CFT treatment on distributions to owners and financers, while at the same time protecting the income tax base, might negate significant portions of the simplification gains from a CFT. Given these difficulties, an income tax will remain necessary, if the Government wants some progressivity in the tax system and to apply “ability to pay“ to determine tax liabilities.Cash flow tax; small business; tax policy

A bayesian analysis of beta testing

In this article, we define a model for fault detection during the beta testing phase of a software design project. Given sampled data, we illustrate how to estimate the failure rate and the number of faults in the software using Bayesian statistical methods with various different prior distributions. Secondly, given a suitable cost function, we also show how to optimise the duration of a further test period for each one of the prior distribution structures considered

Power Aware Learning for Class AB Analogue VLSI Neural Network

Recent research into Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) has highlighted the potential of using compact analogue ANN hardware cores in embedded mobile devices, where power consumption of ANN hardware is a very significant implementation issue. This paper proposes a learning mechanism suitable for low-power class AB type analogue ANN that not only tunes the network to obtain minimum error, but also adaptively learns to reduce power consumption. Our experiments show substantial reductions in the power budget (30% to 50%) for a variety of example networks as a result of our power-aware learning

Aspects of discontinuous precipitation reactions in Ag-7.5Cu

Since the crystallographic orientation of a cellular colony derives from the grain it grows away from, experimental interest in discontinuous precipitation (DP) has centred on how nucleation and growth rates are affected by the misorientation of the initiating grain boundary. There has been little attention paid to the nature of the interface at the reaction front. Ageing experiments on Ag-7.5Cu at 2500C showed there to be two DP colony populations with distinctly different growth behaviours. EBSD studies have shown that as the colonies grow there is a build-up of misorientation behind the reaction front and eventually the fast growing colonies are surrounded by interfaces close to particular low Σ coincident site lattice (CSL) misorientations with respect to the grain into which they are growing. On the other hand, slow growing colonies are characterised by misorientations close to a different set of low ΣCSLs. The growth mechanisms behind this behaviour will be discussed

Energy storage in the UK electrical network : estimation of the scale and review of technology options

This paper aims to clarify the difference between stores of energy in the form of non-rechargeable stores of energy such as fossil-fuels, and the storage of electricity by devices that are rechargeable. The existing scale of these two distinct types of storage is considered in the UK context, followed by a review of rechargeable technology options. The storage is found to be overwhelmingly contained within the fossil-fuel stores of conventional generators, but their scale is thought to be determined by the risks associated with long supply chains and price variability. The paper also aims to add to the debate regarding the need to have more flexible supply and demand available within the UK electrical network in order to balance the expected increase of wind derived generation. We conclude that the decarbonisation challenge facing the UK electricity sector should be seen not only as a supply and demand challenge but also as a storage challenge. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

A Review of ISO New England's Proposed Market Rules

This report reviews the proposed rules for restructured wholesale electricity markets in New England. We review the market rules, both individually and collectively, and identify potential problems that might limit the efficiency of these markets. We examine alternatives and identify the key tradeoffs among alternative designs. We believe that the wholesale electricity market in New England can begin on December 1, 1998. However, improvements are needed for long-run success. We have identified four major recommendations: 1. Switch to a multi-settlement system. 2. Introduce demand-side bidding. 3. Adopt location-based transmission congestion pricing, especially for the import/export interfaces. 4. Fix the pricing of the ten minute spinning reserves.Auctions; Multiple Object Auctions; Electricity Auctions

Power scalable implementation of artificial neural networks

As the use of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) in mobile embedded devices gets more pervasive, power consumption of ANN hardware is becoming a major limiting factor. Although considerable research efforts are now directed towards low-power implementations of ANN, the issue of dynamic power scalability of the implemented design has been largely overlooked. In this paper, we discuss the motivation and basic principles for implementing power scaling in ANN Hardware. With the help of a simple example, we demonstrate how power scaling can be achieved with dynamic pruning techniques