Impact of Tax reforms in Government of Indias Indirect Tax Collections with Special Reference to Year 2000-2020

In this paper, an attempt has been made to analyse the implications of tax reforms after the economic liberalization in 1991 with respect to collection of indirect tax revenue of the Government of India during the last two decades (2000-20). The composition of indirect tax revenue of the Government has undergone a drastic change during the last two decades. Post implementation of the GST Act, the levy of Central Excise has been restricted to petroleum and tobacco products and GST has evolved as the major contributor to the indirect tax revenue collections followed by the Customs Duty. Comparative analysis of indirect tax collections of the Central Government with respect to its growth, share in gross tax revenue, percentage of GDP and composition has been done for the period from 2000-01 to 2019-20. The current study has revealed the growth rate of indirect taxes has not only been uneven but also declined during the year 2001-02, 2008-09 and 2009-10. The share of indirect tax in the gross tax revenue has also gradually declined from 63% in 2000-01 to 46% in 2019- 20%. The indirect tax-GDP ratio has remained stagnant in the range of 3.5 to 5.5 % during the last two decades.

Applying Institutional Ethnography to Childcare

This research applies institutional ethnography to childcare by employing participant observation, interviews and text examination at two childcare research sites. The initial focus of this work describes the daily happenings in childcare utilizing a grounded theory approach and makes connections between what happens in childcare and the structures and institutions that dictate those experiences. The construction of work was found to be a major contributor to childcare experiences. I conclude with an examination of U.S. childcare policy and suggestions for improving these policies and offerings.

Alternative splicing analysis benchmark with DICAST

Alternative splicing is a major contributor to transcriptome and proteome diversity in health and disease. A plethora of tools have been developed for studying alternative splicing in RNA-seq data. Previous benchmarks focused on isoform quantification and mapping. They neglected event detection tools, which arguably provide the most detailed insights into the alternative splicing process. DICAST offers a modular and extensible framework for the analysis of alternative splicing integrating 11 splice-aware mapping and eight event detection tools. We benchmark all tools extensively on simulated as well as whole blood RNA-seq data. STAR and HISAT2 demonstrated the best balance between performance and run time. The performance of event detection tools varies widely with no tool outperforming all others. DICAST allows researchers to employ a consensus approach to consider the most successful tools jointly for robust event detection. Furthermore, we propose the first reporting standard to unify existing formats and to guide future tool development.

Effect of Brewing Water on the Antioxidant Capacity of Green Tea Infusion with DPPH Assay

Brewing water plays a crucial role in flavor and potential healthy functions of tea infusion. In this study, seven water samples with different physicochemical properties were selected to brew green tea. Results showed that the brewing water with higher minerals level and pH value would reduce the yield of catechins in tea infusion, which in turn caused the decrease of antioxidant activity to a large extent. Besides, it was found that EGCG, as a major contributor to the antioxidant activity of green tea infusion, was influenced differently by different metal ions, among which Ca2+/Mg2+ could enhance the antioxidant activity of EGCG solutions with different concentration through synergistic effect, particularly Ca2+, and the effect was more markable at a higher EGCG concentration. These results offered theoretical direction to the selection of tea brewing water for consumers and gave a new sight to the effects of metal ions on the antioxidant capacity of EGCG.

Air Pollution and Climate Change

Climate records kept worldwide clearly show that ongoing changes are happening in our eco-systems. Such climate changes include temperature, precipitation, or sea level, all of which are expected to keep changing well into the future, thereby affecting human health, the environment, and the economy. The natural causes by themselves are not able to describe these changes, so to understand these, scientists are using a combination of state-of-the-science measurements and models. Human activities are a major contributor due to the release of different air contaminants through various activities. Air pollution is one case-in-point, a human-made factor that contributes to climate change by affecting the amount of incoming sunlight that is either reflected or absorbed by the atmosphere. An overview of modeling techniques used to relate air quality and climate change is presented. The discussion includes the role of air pollution levels affecting the climate. Emerging topics such as black carbon (BC), fine particulate matters (PMs), role of cook stove, and risk assessment are also covered.

Activation of the α1β2γ2L GABAA Receptor by Physiological Agonists

The Cl− permeable GABAA receptor is a major contributor to cellular inhibition in the brain. The receptor is normally activated by synaptically-released or ambient GABA but is sensitive to a number of physiological compounds such as β-alanine, taurine, and neurosteroids that, to various degrees, activate the receptor and modulate responses either to the transmitter or to each other. Here, we describe α1β2γ2L GABAA receptor activation and modulation by combinations of orthosteric and allosteric activators. The overall goal was to gain insight into how changes in the levels of endogenous agonists modulate receptor activity and influence cellular inhibition. Experimental observations and simulations are described in the framework of a cyclic concerted transition model. We also provide general analytical solutions for the analysis of electrophysiological data collected in the presence of combinations of active compounds.

Microstructure–Mechanical Properties and Application of Magnesium Alloys

Transport is a major contributor to CO2 emissions and is considered the most urgent global climate problem [...]

Attentional bias modification for chocolate: Sham-n training as a new control group

Although attentional bias modification has been shown effective in several appetitive domains, results have been mixed. A major contributor seems to be the choice of control condition. The aim of the present study was to compare attentional bias modification for chocolate against a new control condition, sham-n (neutral or no-contingency) training. Using a modified dot probe protocol, participants (N = 192; 17–30 years) were randomly trained to attend to chocolate pictures, avoid chocolate pictures, or received sham-n training. In the attend and avoid conditions, stimulus pairs consisted of one chocolate and one non-chocolate picture, and probes replaced most often (90/10) chocolate or non-chocolate pictures, respectively. In the sham-n training condition, stimulus pairs consisted of two chocolate or two non-chocolate pictures, and probes replaced pictures within pairs with equal frequency (50/50). Attentional bias for chocolate increased following attend training, decreased following avoidance training, and did not change following sham-n training. The findings clearly demonstrate that both attend and avoidance training alter (in opposite direction) attentional bias for chocolate, whereas sham-n training is inert. This makes sham-n training particularly promising for use in clinical samples who tend to show strong initial biases.

A syntactic complexity analysis of translational English across genres

This study compares the syntactic complexity between translational and non-translational English across four genres (i.e. fiction, news, general prose, and academic prose) and examines the connections between various forms and degrees of syntactic complexity measures and explicitation. Fourteen syntactic complexity indices were examined based on a one-million-word translational English corpus (COTE) and a one-million-word non-translational English corpus (i.e. FLOB), respectively. This study shows that syntactic explicitation in translations varies with the formality of discourse. The most significant complexity difference between translational vis-à-vis non-translational English is found in fiction, which is regarded as the major contributor to translational English syntactic complexity. No significant difference in syntactic complexity was observed between the two types of academic English texts. Translational English news and general prose stand between fiction and academic texts. Translational fiction and news are characterised by more phrasal complexity features such as coordinate and complex nominal phrases, and a key indicator of translational English general prose complexity is subordination. The findings of this study will help students of translation to make informed decisions on the arrangement of sentence structures when given texts of different genres.

Robert L. Smith: Visionary Leader, Extraordinary Mentor, & Beloved Colleague

This remembrance of Dr. Robert L. Smith, 63rd President of the American Counseling Association, contains recollections, tributes, and anecdotes about the life career of a major contributor to the profession of counseling. Dr. Smith's roles as collaborator and mentor are evidenced in the words of students, colleagues, and leaders. He founded the International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors and served as Executive Director of the organization. Personal qualities enabled Dr. Smith to share his gifts with those he mentored. His influence in counselor education will continue through the lives of those who knew and loved him.