Recent accounting scandals and current global financial crisis have brought new demands on the whole corporate world. The call for better corporate governance is strengthening in all business areas including tax. Tax non -- compliance brings substantial risks for both tax payers and tax revenue authorities. The way how companies manage their tax risks can significantly influence their overall financial performance and reputation. The paper deals with issues of tax non -- compliance as a lack of good corporate governance practice. The main goal of the paper is to put tax into the concept of corporate governance. Moreover, the paper deals with the concept of tax risk management as a way of how tax compliance in general could be enhanced and introduces the current international practice in this field.

M.Sc. (Med.), Dept. of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, School of Therapeutic Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011

Student Number : 9803027N - MA research report - School of Psychology - Faculty of Humanities / The recent introduction of antiretroviral treatment (ART) to the public health sector has meant that for millions of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-positive patients this deadly disease has been transformed into a chronic condition. There has been much research done internationally on adherence to ART but in South Africa there has been little investigation in this area. This study aimed to bridge this gap by exploring expert and patient opinions and recommendatio ns regarding adherence to antiretroviral medication. To attain this, four experts and seven patients were interviewed using a semistructured interview schedule. The experts had worked within the HIV field for at least two years while the patients had been chosen from public antiretroviral roll-out programmes and had been on ART for at least six months. These interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. The transcriptions were then explored for themes using thematic content analysis. These themes were categorised and discussed under four broad categories: patients’ perceptions of barriers to adherence, patients’ recommendations for improving adherence, experts’ perceptions of barriers to adherence and experts’ recommendations for improving adherence.

The impact of AIDS and the dread of acquiring HIV infection from patients have led to the resurgence in infection-control practices among health care workers. Recent reports of blood-borne pathogen transmission in health care settings, including oral health, have caused considerable public health concern. Transmission has been reported from patient to patient, patient to health care workers, but rarely from health care worker to patient. The risks of dental clinicians acquiring serious infections have been well documented but the risk to dental assistants has received less attention, especially in South Africa. Aim: To assess infection-control practices of dental assistants and their level of adherence to universal precautions in public health care facilities in Limpopo Province. Objectives: To establish the prevalence and the type of occupational exposures among dental assistants working in public health care facilities in Limpopo Province. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among dental assistants in Limpopo Province in 2005. The study population comprised all 73 employees who performed the functions of a dental assistant in public dental facilities. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information regarding work experiences and training, infection-control practice and knowledge, and the nature, incidences and reporting of any occupational exposures they had experienced. A follow-up telephone call was made to these dental assistants, after they had received the questionnaire, to re-iterate the importance of the survey and to request them to complete and return the questionnaire in the prepaid envelope they had been given. The facilities were clustered according to the six districts in Limpopo Province. Ethical approval was given by the University of the Witwatersrand and the Department of Health and Welfare in Limpopo Province. Results: Fifty-nine dental assistants returned the completed questionnaire, giving a response rate of 80.8%. Epi Info Version 3.3.2 programme was used to analyze the data. The majority of respondents were female (95%), with a mean age of 40.2 years (age range 23-54). More than 90% of the respondents had no formal training for their occupation, half (49.1%) did not have any health training, 22% were auxiliary nurses, 18.6% were “correspondence-trained” assistants who had been trained via distance learning and had no practical clinical training and only 10.2% of the respondents had received training at a technikon or university . The majority of the dental facilities (57.6%) had one dental assistant working alone, followed by those with two or three assistants (39.5%). The number of respondents assisting more than two oral clinicians in a day was 93.3%. The mean number of clinicians assisted per day was 3.8. The total numbers of dental assistants who experienced occupational exposures while working at the various dental clinics were 26 (44.1%), with 11.5% experiencing multiple injuries within the preceding six months. Auxiliary nurses and trained assistants were significantly more likely than untrained assistants to be aware of universal precautions, their protective effects, needle stick protocols, and of the need for personal protective equipments to be worn for all procedures (p=0.001). Compliance with infection-control practices was low overall. More than twothirds of the assistants routinely wore gloves during procedures. The lowest compliance reported was the use of protective eye shields, whilst more than 62.7% were not vaccinated against hepatitis B virus. More than two-thirds of the assistants were injured in the process of removing and or cleaning instruments; 65.3% of the injuries were direct punctures. Twenty-three percent did not report the injury. The risk of injury for the untrained assistants was 9.9 times higher than that for auxiliary nurses, p=0.008. A small percentage (23.8%) of those with sharp injuries was placed on antiretroviral drugs. Surprisingly, a significant high percentage of respondents were given wound cleaning only as treatment of their occupational exposures (78.4%) and sharp injuries (83%). Conclusion and recommendation More than 90% of the respondents had no formal training for their occupation. Dental assistants were understaffed and had increased workload. The greatest incidence of injury was associated with the handling of sharp objects, and this included recapping used needles. Occupational exposures to infectious material were found to be relatively high whilst compliance to some basic infection-control guidelines was low among dental assistants. The training of dental assistants should be regulated. More suitably qualified dental assistants should be appointed and existing ones should be given inservice training on the importance of infection-control practices and compliance with universal precautions.

Sammanfattning Bakgrund: Vårdrelaterade infektioner (VRI) är både ett samhällsekonomiskt problem och ett stort individuellt hälsoproblem, med förlängda vårdtider och dödsfall som följd. Preoperativa hudförberedelser är viktiga för att reducera bakterier, som då minskar risken att få VRI. Syfte: Syftet var att undersöka patienters följsamhet till de preoperativa förberedelserna som utförs i hemmet av patienten själv. Metod: En deskriptiv kvalitativ studie genomfördes. En semistrukturerade intervjuguide med öppna intervjufrågor användes. Nio personer (fem män) i åldrarna 40 – 75 (medelålder 62 år) deltog i studien. Studien genomfördes på ett universitetssjukhus i Mellansverige under våren 2019. Bekvämlighetsurval gjordes på patienter som skulle genomgå elektiv ryggkirurgi och utföra preoperativa hudförberedelser i hemmet. Manifest innehållsanalys enligt Graneheim och Lundman har använts vid analys av materialet.   Resultat: Resultatet utmynnade i tre huvudkategorier; Förståelse av syftet och en positiv inställning till de preoperativa förberedelserna, Förståelsen till given instruktion och Följsamheten följdes upp om att de preoperativa hudförberedelserna var utförda, inte hur. Slutsats: Resultatet kan förhoppningsvis fungera som underlag för utvärdering av preoperativa rutiner, med syfte att kvalitetssäkra vården för patienterna. Faktorer som tillgång till hjälp, nedsatt rörlighet och tillgång till rekommenderat medel identifierades, och hade en påverkan på uppfattningen huruvida förberedelserna gick att fullfölja eller ej. Att fråga vid uppföljningen hur duschen utfördes, inte bara fråga om den har utförts är viktig, och även att erbjuda extra tvättning utfört av vårdpersonal till de som upplevt det svårt att komma åt och/eller till de som uppgett att de inte haft någon till hjälp.

In the expanding spectrum marketplace, there has been a long term evolution towards more market€“oriented mechanisms, such as Opportunistic Spectrum Access (OSA), enabled through Cognitive Radio (CR) technology. However, the potential of CR technologies to revolutionize wireless communications, also introduces challenges based upon the potentially non€“deterministic CR behaviour in the Electrospace. While establishing and enforcing compliance to spectrum etiquette rules are essential to realization of successful OSA networks in the future, there has only been recent increased research activity into enforcement. This dissertation presents novel work on the spectrum monitoring aspect, which is crucial to effective enforcement of OSA. An overview of the challenges faced by current compliance monitoring methods is first presented. A framework is then proposed for the use of random spectral sampling techniques to reduce data collection complexity in wideband sensing scenarios. This approach is recommended as an alternative to Compressed Sensing (CS) techniques for wideband spectral occupancy estimation, which may be difficult to utilize in many practical congested scenarios where compliance monitoring is required. Next, a low€“cost computational approach to online randomized temporal sensing deployment is presented for characterization of temporal spectrum occupancy in cognitive radio scenarios. The random sensing approach is demonstrated and its performance is compared to CS€“based approach for occupancy estimation. A novel frame€“based sampling inversion technique is then presented for cases when it is necessary to track the temporal behaviour of individual CRs or CR networks. Parameters from randomly sampled Physical Layer Convergence Protocol (PLCP) data frames are used to reconstruct occupancy statistics, taking account of missed frames due to sampling design, sensor limitations and frame errors. Finally, investigations into the use of distributed and mobile spectrum sensing to collect spatial diversity to improve the above techniques are presented, for several common monitoring tasks in spectrum enforcement. Specifically, focus is upon techniques for achieving consensus in dynamic topologies such as in mobile sensing scenarios.

This dissertation explores empirically how external factors can influence the organizational structure of firms and how the structure a firm chooses can affect worker outcomes. The first chapter examines how a policy reform affected the organizational choices of firms. The MINER Act of 2006 resulted in increased scrutiny and penalties for underground coal mining operations relative to surface operations. In turn, this changed the incentives for coal preparation facilities to own these mines. Particularly, markets most affected by the reform saw an increase in ownership along an extensive margin and markets already integrated saw a decrease along an intensive margin. I argue these results reflect the competing incentives created by the policy. The increased riskiness of shut downs and flows in production resulted in preparation plants integrating with at least one mine to assure a basic level of supply. The increased regulatory liability of ownership induced by the new regulatory structure resulted in a countervailing force, reducing the intensity of integration in markets that were integrated prior to the reform. The second chapter (with David Weil) studies the prevalence of contractor utilization in the mining industry. Outsourcing of tasks has increased significantly in the underground coal mining industry over the last two decades. We hypothesize that the market and organizational incentives facing contractors increase the likelihood of injuries and fatalities to their workforce. Our results suggest increased risk exposure for mines with high contractor utilization. These findings have important implications for enforcement and public policies and extend the evidence of the adverse impact of forms of subcontracting on health and safety to the mining sector. Finally, the third chapter provides a case study of two major actors in the industry, Alpha Natural Resources and Massey Energy Company. It looks at the ownership choices the two companies have made in the past decade. Looking at these different decisions allows for the identification of contract operations that are of concern from a regulatory standpoint in this industry. This paper provides a blueprint for future research in determining the prevalence of these particular contracting arrangements in US coal mining.

Cheung Chun Yiu. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-69). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction and Literature Review / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- Literature review --- p.4 / Chapter 2 --- "Model of tax compliance, with strategic involvement of tax practitioner" / Chapter 1. --- Introduction / Chapter 1.1 --- Background --- p.8 / Chapter 1.2 --- A brief review game theoretical tax compliance model --- p.9 / Chapter 2. --- The Model --- p.16 / Chapter 3. --- Equilibrium conditions --- p.22 / Chapter 4. --- Conclusion --- p.29 / Chapter 3 --- "A further analysis of the model of tax compliance, with strategic involvement of tax practitioner" / Chapter 1. --- Further analysis with a defined form cost function --- p.30 / Chapter 2. --- Different level of participation of tax practitioner --- p.41 / Chapter 3. --- "Different level of the marginal cost/benefit of ""disparity"" between taxpayer and practitioner" --- p.45 / Chapter 4. --- Conclusion --- p.48 / Chapter 4 --- "Model of tax compliance,tax practitioner as an information provider" / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.50 / Chapter 2. --- Basic model for tax compliance --- p.51 / Chapter 3. --- Model for tax compliance with tax practitioner --- p.58 / Chapter 4. --- Professional fee policy --- p.64 / Chapter 5 --- Conclusion --- p.66 / Reference --- p.68

Background. Hypertension carries a high risk of cardiovascular complications. Patient medication non-compliance has been identified to be an major factor for suboptimal blood pressure control in clinical practice. Different strategies have been proposed to improve patient medication compliance but their effects on clinical outcomes were inconsistent. Methods . A telephone survey was conducted to examine patient medication compliance with anti-hypertensive drugs in Hong Kong. I then established a Pharmacist-managed Compliance Clinic in a public out-patient setting and provided individualized patient education to non-compliant patients identified by physicians. A telephone follow-up was arranged at 4-week after intervention followed by a more in-depth reassessment on subsequent physician clinic visit day. The immediate endpoint was patient compliance rate. Intermediate endpoint was systolic and diastolic blood pressure control. Other outcome measures were control of other cardiovascular risk factors and level of healthcare resources utilization. / Conclusion. Pharmacist-managed Compliance Clinic is effective in improving patient medication compliance and has positive impact on clinical outcomes. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) / Results. A total of 853 patients were successfully contacted and completed the patient survey. According to our definition, 80.4% of patients interviewed were considered to be compliant. Factors associated with medication compliance included multiple drug therapy, presence of drug adverse effects, patient's awareness of preventive nature of medication, rapport between patient and physician, and full-time working status. A causal model was successfully established with latent factors identified for medication non-compliance. The factors included patient's functional status, provision of health advice and concern from physician, and patient's knowledge regarding reasons for drug taking. Another two hundreds hypertensive patients were followed at the Pharmacist-managed Compliance Clinic. On average, each patient attended 1.3 pharmacist visits. The non-compliance rate fell from 100% to 20% after a single pharmacist intervention. Significant improvement was observed in patients' mean blood pressures readings as well as the diabetic and lipid control. Positive impacts on healthcare resources utilization were also observed. / Chan Man Chi Grace. / "June 2005." / Adviser: Juliana C.N. Chan. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: B, page: 3730. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 126-151). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Tax authorities utilize a wide range of instruments to motivate honest taxpaying ranging from strict audits to fair procedures or personalized support, differing from country to country. However, little is known about how these different instruments and taxpayers' trust influence the generation of interaction climates between tax authorities and taxpayers, motivations to comply, and particularly, tax compliance. The present research examines the extended slippery slope framework (eSSF), which distinguishes tax authorities' instruments into different qualities of power of authority (coercive and legitimate) and trust in authorities (reasonbased and implicit), to shed light on the effect of differences between power and trust. We test eSSF assumptions with survey data from taxpayers from three culturally different countries (N = 700) who also vary concerning their perceptions of power, trust, interaction climates, and tax motivations. Results support assumptions of the eSSF. Across all countries, the relation of coercive power and tax compliance was mediated by implicit trust, which leads to an antagonistic climate and enforced motivation. The connection from legitimate power to tax compliance is partially mediated by reason-based trust. The relationship between implicit trust and tax compliance is mediated by a confidence climate and committed cooperation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.