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No / Enhancement in productivity and cost effectiveness of high value manufacturing requires a process based management strategy. This paper introduces a Manufacturing Failure Mode Avoidance (MFMA) framework based on 4 high level process steps and underpinned by a sequence of engineering and process analysis tools to support a structured function-based decomposition of complex manufacturing processes and a continuous flow of information towards the development of robust control plans. The approach draws from experience in the automotive industry, where Failure Mode Avoidance (FMA) has been strategically adopted to achieve a step change in the effectiveness of business and engineering processes associated with the product creation processes. The paper presents a case study of the deployment of the MFMA framework to an aircraft manufacturing process followed by a broader discussion of the strength of the approach and its generic applicability to complex high value manufacturing engineering.

South Africa has adopted a general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) as one of the methods to combat the innovative tax avoidance schemes into which taxpayers may enter. Nevertheless, since its introduction it has undergone numerous amendments due to weaknesses highlighted by its failures in court. Yet, since its most recent amendment in 2006, the efficacy of the South African GAAR has not been established as it has not been tested in the courts. This study addresses this concern by employing a ‗structured pre-emptive analysis‘ to identify the weaknesses of the South African GAAR when compared to its New Zealand counterpart. This approach is essentially qualitative and combines the typical doctrinal or black letter law approach used in law with that of reform-oriented approaches. Firstly, the South African and New Zealand GAARs were analysed and compared using a doctrinal approach to gain an understanding of the interpretation and application of the two GAARs. This allowed for the identification of weaknesses in the South African GAAR, whilst also making suggestions for its improvement. Thereafter, the South African GAAR was applied to the facts of a case from New Zealand by making use of a reform-oriented methodological approach. In applying the South African GAAR to the facts of the case, a framework of the South African GAAR was used to enhance the reliability of the findings by reducing subjectivity and improving replicability. The findings from the doctrinal and reform-oriented approaches revealed the weaknesses in the current South African GAAR when compared to its New Zealand counterpart. These weaknesses may be addressed in three ways. Firstly, guidance should be provided in order to address uncertainties in the interpretation and application of the South African GAAR so as to prevent inconsistencies that may limit its efficacy. Secondly, the purpose requirement and tainted elements could be consolidated into one requirement, where the presence of one of the tainted elements informs the objective purpose of the arrangement. Thirdly, the purpose requirement should be amended so that it need not be the sole or main purpose, but rather should be one of the purposes, provided it was not merely incidental. It is acknowledged that while the South African and New Zealand GAARs are directed to achieve the same end, the proposals for amendment would arguably go some way towards improving the efficacy of the South African GAAR. / Mini Dissertation (MCom (Taxation))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Taxation / MCom (Taxation) / Unrestricted

Tax avoidance is a key international tax issue. Combating tax avoidance has been placed high on the agenda by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and other tax authorities in the world. This research report will examine how the judgments of certain South African cases would have been different if the anti-avoidance provisions in sections 80A to 80L were applied instead of those in section 103(1).

ITC/USA 2008 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fourth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 27-30, 2008 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / UUV homing and docking and UAV collision avoidance are two seemingly separate research topics for different applications. Upon close examination, these two are a pair of dual problems, with interesting correspondences and commonality. In this paper, we present the theoretical analysis, signal processing, and the field experiments of these two algorithms in UAV and UUV applications in homing and docking as well as collision avoidance.

This thesis takes a lifespan approach to investigate attentional bias from childhood into older adulthood. Using the dot-probe task throughout, the primary aim was to identify age-related differences in attentional bias across the lifespan. Short and longer stimulus presentation times were used in some studies to investigate the time course of attentional bias. Furthermore, anxiety and executive function were measured to examine how these factors may influence attentional bias across the lifespan. Results found that children showed an attentional bias away from emotion faces which was most evident in those with low trait anxiety. Young adults attended to angry faces at the short presentation time, this was not maintained at longer presentation times. In older adults, results showed an initial avoidance of happy faces followed by a bias towards happy faces at the later presentation time. A direct comparison between children and young adults found that children showed avoidance of emotion compared to adults. A direct comparison of young and older adults found in those with higher state anxiety, young adults showed a bias towards threat at the long presentation time, whereas older adults showed a bias away from threat. Contrary to the predominant theory of attention, executive function was not found to be related to attentional bias in children or young adults. However it did influence attentional bias in older adults, where poorer inhibition was related to a bias away from the happy face. To summarise, this thesis has identified differences in attentional bias according to age and prompts further research into how age, anxiety, executive function and attentional bias may interact in a non-clinically anxious population.

Anti-depressants are commonly used to treat major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. 17% of women experience major depression during pregnancy, where up to 10% of pregnant women use antidepressants. 20% these women use Prozac (fluoxetine) to treat major depressive symptoms, which crosses the placental barrier and is present in breast milk. Little is known about how exposure to developmental fluoxetine affects adulthood behaviors such as agonistic and submissive behaviors, especially in females. Furthermore, the effects of developmental fluoxetine exposure on aggression and avoidance in Syrian hamsters have not been studied. Therefore, we explored how prenatal and perinatal exposure to fluoxetine affects adulthood aggression and avoidance in male and female Syrian hamsters. Dams were given fluoxetine via drinking water 7 days prior impregnation. Fluoxetine administration continue until offspring reached postnatal day (PD) 12. The offspring were weaned and group-housed at PD 25 and single-housed at PD 60. Animals were handled one week prior to behavioral testing. The following week, animals were tested for aggression in a neutral arena with a non-aggressive stimulus hamster of the same sex. Another group of hamsters were tested for avoidance behavior in a neutral arena 24 hours after social defeat. Duration of aggression and avoidance were quantified. There was no main effect of sex or drug nor was there an interaction. Therefore, we reject our hypothesis of prenatal and perinatal exposure to fluoxetine will affect aggression and avoidance in male and female Syrian hamsters. These findings may be due to a ceiling effect in Syrian hamsters, where the subtle effects of developmental fluoxetine exposure were not observable.

Drawing upon media agenda-setting theory and previous studies in organizational impression management, this paper empirically investigates the influence of tax avoidance news on corporate tax reporting. This study is based on the pronounced discontinuity in the amount of news articles related to tax avoidance in the United Kingdom over two periods (2010-2011 and 2012-2013). A difference-in-differences design is employed in order to enable a comparison of the media effects on those firms that have been reported in tax avoidance news versus those without media attention. Using a sample of annual reports of UK FTSE 100 companies across the period 2010 to 2013, I test the impact of tax avoidance news on quality and quantity of tax disclosure. The results suggest that the recent increase in media attention on tax avoidance does not stimulate firms to improve the quality and the quantity of tax disclosure in their corporate reporting. Rather, firms can be discouraged from discussing the most relevant tax items in their reporting, as shown in the case of financial firms which were the subject of the largest amount of tax avoidance news. (author's abstract) / Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Series

This paper investigates whether managers that have a propensity for personal tax aggressiveness are associated with tax avoidance at the firm level. Motivated by Dhaliwal, Erickson, and Heitzman (2009) and Hanlon and Heitzman (2009), I construct a measure of personally tax aggressive ("aggressive") managers and determine whether corporate tax avoidance activities increase in their presence. The results of my study indicate that aggressive managers are associated with firm-level tax avoidance. The neoclassical view would suggest that aggressive managers' tax expertise could benefit shareholders through lower tax payments. Since aggressive managers extract their personal tax savings from shareholders, non-tax agency costs potentially increase in their presence. This has implications for the association between aggressive managers and firm value. Using the framework established through the agency view of tax avoidance (Desai and Dharmapala, 2008) I find that on average the presence of aggressive managers is associated with increased firm value. However, consistent with recent research, governance is an important moderating factor whereby firm value in the presence of aggressive managers tends to increase only for relatively better-governed firms.

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