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"Epidemics and the Modern World explores the relationships between epidemics and key themes in modern history. Our institutions, colonial structures, relationships to animals, and perceptions of suffering, sexuality, race, and disability have all shaped - and been shaped by - these significant medical events. This book uses 'biographies' of epidemics such as plague, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS to explore the impact of disease on the development of modern societies from the fourteenth century to the present. Drawing on the most recent science of genetics, microbiology, and climatology, this text includes 'Science Focus' boxes that discuss important scientific concepts and technologies. Structured workshop sections with engaging primary sources help readers develop skills of interpretation and gain knowledge of key historical events. Epidemics and the Modern World assumes no prior experience with the history of science or medicine and is accessible for undergraduate students, while its challenging approach to the history of the modern world will engage readers of all levels and all interests."--

Goodwill reflects the positive consumer association with a business. Goodwill thus overlaps with trademarks and other related assets. This close association impedes the separation of goodwill value from such related assets. Difficulties thus arise when the tax law treats goodwill more (or less) favorably than related intangible assets.For instance, the tax law previously denied any depreciation deductions for goodwill. Business buyers thus often allocated their costs away from goodwill and towards related assets like depreciable customer lists. The IRS responded with the initial "goodwill hunting" wave, challenging taxpayers' low goodwill valuations. Congress addressed this litigious area in 1993 with new, matching depreciation rules for purchased goodwill and related intangible assets.But the goodwill hunting problem remains, albeit with reversed roles, due to other provisions which treat goodwill more favorably than other intangibles. Taxpayers now overstate goodwill with the government in defense against this second goodwill hunting wave. For instance, U.S. corporations inflate goodwill on transfers to foreign subsidiaries given a special gain avoidance rule on such transfers for goodwill. While recent regulations have lessened these particular attempts, the Treasury Department's limited authority prevented a full response for these subsidiary transfers. In addition, similar inconsistent tax rules incentivize high goodwill claims by taxpayers to obtain either more favorable capital gains rates or better foreign tax credit usage.This Article proposes four precise fixes to counteract these negative goodwill manipulations. These changes efficiently draw upon existing tax provisions. Such utilization of tried and tested provisions counteracts the status quo bias against untested reform proposals. These four changes together forge a common theme: the pressing need for a more uniform tax treatment of goodwill and other closely-related intangibles. With these changes, Congress would restore the positive association of goodwill back to the tax law.

This study determined the influence of the learner factors on Soldier attitudes toward the use of serious gaming for U.S. Army training and leader development. It extended Selwyn's work (Selwyn, 1997a, 1997b, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2013; Selwyn, Gorard, Furlong, & Madden, 2003) identifying or measuring attitude toward using a technology and Bonanno and Kommers (2008) work extending Selwyn's work to measure the influence of learner factors on those attitude components toward the use of Army serious gaming for instructional purposes. The population studied was 709 Active duty U.S. Army Soldiers. This quantitative non-experimental descriptive research design methodology used a 21-item instrument derived from items created and validated by Selwyn and other researchers and modified by Bonanno and Kommers (2008). The revised instrument corrected Bonanno and Kommers items that combined two or more attitudinal objects in a single question that might have resulted in a response bias. It used terms familiar to the population to define more precisely their attitude toward Army Serious Gaming (ASG). This study found no statistically significant difference between active duty U.S. Army Soldiers in their general attitude toward Army Serious Gaming (ASG) based on their gender, age or military class. This study found statistically significant differences in their general attitude toward ASG between active duty U.S. Army Soldiers based on their education level and perceived gaming competence. Statistically significant differences between active duty U.S. Army Soldiers within specific affective, perceived control, perceived usefulness, and behavioral attitude constructs toward ASG are discussed.

The author reviews the primary frameworks through which North American sociologists have conceived of the relation between formal education and culture and explains how sociologists' preponderant conception of formal schooling as an individual-level phenomenon and a metrical quantity has come to constrain intellectual progress in much of the subfield. The author offers two analytic strategies that might help loosen this constraint.

The author reviews the primary frameworks through which North American sociologists have conceived of the relation between formal education and culture and explains how sociologists' preponderant conception of formal schooling as an individual-level phenomenon and a metrical quantity has come to constrain intellectual progress in much of the subfield. The author offers two analytic strategies that might help loosen this constraint. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2008 The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]

Recent intellectual and political forces have moved the consumption tax to the forefront of tax policy debate. Since traditional flat-rate consumption taxes like the VAT raise serious distributional concerns, tax scholars have responded with innovative progressive consumption taxes. Two such taxes - the Hybrid Approach and the X-tax - were independently analyzed in a recent symposium on fundamental tax reform. These two proposals contain striking similarities. Both would tax individuals at progressive rates on their wages, with a separate tax on consumption less wages. Important differences exist, though, regarding the latter tax. The Hybrid Approach would impose such tax on individuals while the X-tax contemplates a VAT-like tax on all businesses. The X-tax and the Hybrid Approach are intriguing as they address the distributional objections to conventional consumption taxes. Standing alone, however, each raises problematic implementation tradeoffs. On the one hand, the X-tax simplifies individual tax reporting compared to the Hybrid Approach and current law. On the other hand, the X-tax would change current law significantly more than the Hybrid Approach, thereby exacerbating transition costs. Blending the respective strengths of the X-tax and the Hybrid Approach, I propose a new consumption tax consisting of three parts: a progressive wage tax, a business tax solely on corporations, and a limited individual tax on consumption less wages. This combination minimizes both individual tax reporting and changes to current law, thereby easing the way to a more equitable, efficient, and administrable tax system.