What's in a Name?

The topic of tax behavior always stirs attention among scholars, professionals, national and international authorities, organizations, and citizens alike since it is a complex matter. There are four types of tax behavior acknowledged in the literature, namely voluntary tax compliance, enforced tax compliance, tax avoidance, tax evasion. The complexity of tax behavior stems from the fact that there are a manifold of factors influencing it, from economic to psychological ones. The chapter surveys relevant sources on tax behavior in the quest for eliciting the impact of ethnic diversity on tax compliance. At the same time, the difference between countries are also addressed.

Case Study of Selected Nature Swimming Pools in the South Moravian Region

Nature swimming pools are a sought-after alternative to conventional swimming pools. Their natural water purification system, without the need for chemicals, is beneficial to health and environmentally friendly. Designing such a nature swimming pool is a complex matter because it requires coordination of a number of effects, which can easily cause an imbalance in the entire system. This work uses the case study method to analyse the overall condition of three nature swimming pools in the South Moravian Region during the second half of the swimming pool operation season.

Functional Nanoscale Phase Separation and Intertwined Order in Quantum Complex Materials

Nanoscale phase separation (NPS), characterized by particular types of correlated disorders, plays an important role in the functionality of high-temperature superconductors (HTS). Our results show that multiscale heterogeneity is an essential ingredient of quantum functionality in complex materials. Here, the interactions developing between different structural units cause dynamical spatiotemporal conformations with correlated disorder; thus, visualizing conformational landscapes is fundamental for understanding the physical properties of complex matter and requires advanced methodologies based on high-precision X-ray measurements. We discuss the connections between the dynamical correlated disorder at nanoscale and the functionality in oxygen-doped perovskite superconducting materials.

Turnover in life strategies recapitulates microbial succession on synthetic marine particles

Particulate organic matter (POM) in the ocean sustains diverse communities of bacteria that mediate the remineralization of organic complex matter. However, the variability of these particles and of the environmental conditions surrounding them present a challenge to the study of the ecological processes shaping particle-associated communities and their function. In this work, we utilise data from experiments in which coastal water communities were grown on synthetic particles to ask which are the most important ecological drivers of their assembly and associated traits. Combining 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing with shotgun metagenomics, together with an analysis of the full genomes of a subset of isolated strains, we were able to identify two-to-three distinct community classes, corresponding to early vs. late colonizers. We show that these classes are shaped by environmental selection (early colonizers) and facilitation (late colonizers), and find distinctive traits associated with each class. While early colonizers have a larger proportion of genes related to uptake of nutrients, motility and environmental sensing with few pathways enriched for metabolism, late colonizers devote a higher proportion of genes for metabolism, comprising a wide array of different pathways including metabolism of carbohydrates, amino acids and xenobiotics We find evidence in selected metabolic pathways for the existence of a trophic-chain topology connecting both classes. The interpretation of these traits suggests a distinction between early and late colonizers analogous to other classifications found in the literature, and we discuss connections with the classical distinction between r- and K-strategists.

Diversiteit en complexiteit van kennis in zorginteracties

The empirical papers in this special issue show that how knowledge is made relevant and negotiated in interaction is a complex matter. Traditionally, research on knowledge conceptualizes knowledge as being distributed across patients and health care providers, who respectively have access to experiential knowledge and medical knowledge of illness. In this view, both forms of knowledge then need to be transferred from one party to the other. However, our contributions show that interactions are more complex in many ways. First of all, there are more actors involved in medical interaction, such as translators and family members, who each uniquely contribute to what knowledge is constructed and how. Secondly, the forms and domains of knowledge cannot be reduced to medical and experiential knowledge, but for instance also concern knowledge on how health care interactions are structured. Thirdly, knowledge is not only about informing the other party in interaction but is for instance also used to account for decisions or to seek alignment. In this contribution we explore how these insights can inform future research and how it can help deepen our understanding of patient centredness and shared decision making in health care communication.

Topological braiding and virtual particles on the cell membrane

Braiding of topological structures in complex matter fields provides a robust framework for encoding and processing information, and it has been extensively studied in the context of topological quantum computation. In living systems, topological defects are crucial for the localization and organization of biochemical signaling waves, but their braiding dynamics remain unexplored. Here, we show that the spiral wave cores, which organize the Rho-GTP protein signaling dynamics and force generation on the membrane of starfish egg cells, undergo spontaneous braiding dynamics. Experimentally measured world line braiding exponents and topological entropy correlate with cellular activity and agree with predictions from a generic field theory. Our analysis further reveals the creation and annihilation of virtual quasi-particle excitations during defect scattering events, suggesting phenomenological parallels between quantum and living matter.

Time and Eternity in Origen’s Thinking as Work Paradigm of Thought for Contemporary Society

"Time has always been one of the top priorities and permanent concerns of humanity. It is a controversial and difficult subject to the frame by the philosophers of Antiquity and by the scientists of our day. The problem of defining time has raised questions about the essence, origin, content, meaning and value of time. Studies of Time represent a complex and ever-actual subject. Over time, different attempts to define time have been made, all referring only to a certain kind of time and not to time itself. In this regard, Solomon Marcus said the following: “As easily as we intuit it, as difficult as we conceptualize it, no one has been able to define it”[1], showing the difficulty of trying to define this strange impenetrable category. Thus, people know how to quantify the time elapsed between two events, but they do not know how to define it or explain time as a “moment.”[2] To live time is natural and easy, but when it is meant to be questioned and discussed, it turns into a misleading, imprecise, even more complex matter. “Even the modern attempts of time measurement, which today seems to us to be a common fact, has a history of the most complicated and contradictory thinking “[3]. The questions: what is time? and does Eternity exist? remain the main work paradigm of thought for Contemporary Society."

Suppressive Antibiotic Treatment in Prosthetic Joint Infections: A Perspective

The treatment of prosthetic joint infections (PJIs) is a complex matter in which surgical, microbiological and pharmacological aspects must be integrated and, above all, placed in the context of each patient to make the best decision. Sometimes it is not possible to offer curative treatment of the infection, and in other cases, the probability that the surgery performed will be successful is considered very low. Therefore, indefinite administration of antibiotics with the intention of “suppressing” the course of the infection becomes useful. For decades, we had little information about suppressive antibiotic treatment (SAT). However, due to the longer life expectancy and increase in orthopaedic surgeries, an increasing number of patients with infected joint prostheses experience complex situations in which SAT should be considered as an alternative. In the last 5 years, several studies attempting to answer the many questions that arise on this issue have been published. The aim of this publication is to review the latest published evidence on SAT.