Antiretroviral therapy has given hope and expectations for a better life to HIV positive individuals, however, HIV medication cannot be effective without HIV positive individuals’ compliance to it. This study investigated the ways in which living with HIV and taking medication is located within the psychological, social and cultural context of everyday life and relationships in Greece. It also examined gender and identity issues, which make compliance/non-compliance understandable from the HIV positive peoples’ perspective. In addition, emphasis was given to locating compliance to medical regimes in which the perspectives of HIV positive persons were prioritised and understood in relation to relationships with health care professionals. A mixed methods approach was undertaken to provide understanding of compliance and non-compliance factors to HIV medication in a holistic way. A self-completed questionnaire was used to examine the psychosocial factors underpinning compliance to medication. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were used to explore issues of identity, gender, relationship between doctors and patients and social understandings of HIV. Finally, self-completed weekly diaries were used to document compliance actions, thoughts and feelings in order to reveal the ways medical regimes fit into everyday life. The study was conducted in three Public Hospitals, one Governmental Hospice and one Non-governmental Organization. Eighty (63 males and 17 females) Greek HIV positive patients completed the questionnaire. Interview sample consisted of 7 and 3 males and females respectively. Finally, 6 Greek HIV positive males and 3 females completed the diaries of the research. The questionnaire data was analysed using descriptive statistics via SPSS 11. In addition, a range of non-parametric tests (Mann Whitney and Kruskal Wallis) were used in order to check if ordinal variables influence compliance with HIV medication. Finally linear regression analysis was used in order to establish the influence of factors on compliance with HIV medication. Interviews and the diaries data were analysed though thematic analysis, focusing on identification of patterns and behaviours which were then interpreted in terms of themes. The findings of the study indicated that, when support was given from life partners compliance with HV medication was increased. However, when support was given from family members, compliance with HIV medication was decreased. According to the findings, family dynamics have changed in several cultures over recent decades, partner roles have changed especially in the west and in Mediterranean societies. In regards to 6 medicalization in everyday life, the study showed that when individuals were experiencing side effects, or had fears of future side effects, religious issues (punishment for homosexuality), loss of one’s freedom due to medication, non-compliant behaviours could occur. Finally, the study indicated that some HIV positive individuals perceived their health levels as good and believed that not taking medication once or twice a week was a compliant behaviour. Hence, false perceptions regarding health levels and compliance issues could lead to non-compliant behaviours. A further examination on the communication patterns of the family system and its impact on HIV positive individuals is recommended as it is clearly not very helpful any more. Further exploration of the general socio-cultural positioning of Greece is recommended as certain HIV positive individuals coped with HIV diagnosis and taking medication, by rejecting it. Finally, the need for psychological support is recommended as it is very rarely provided within the Greek health care system.

"Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de LL.M. en droit option droit des technologies de l'information" / La question posée est: le vote par internet à distance est-il conforme aux exigences du droit électoral québécois et canadien? Ce mémoire procède en trois étapes. Premièrement, nous déterminons quels sont les principes directeurs qui assurent à une élection sa légitimité. Deuxièmement, nous raffinons notre recherche en ne conservant que les principes qui demeurent pertinents dans un contexte électronique. Le vote doit répondre aux principes suivants: suffrage universel, périodicité, égalité, secret, liberté, sécurité et transparence du processus. Troisièmement, nous transposons les étapes du cycle électoral sur internet. Les problématiques identifiées relèvent davantage de facteurs politiques que techniques ou juridiques. Ainsi la cryptographie et l'introduction du vote individuel multiple, qui n'enregistre que le dernier vote effectué, serviraient la confidentialité du vote. La sécurité du processus pourrait être atteinte notamment par des mesures de protection physique des serveurs, une chaîne de contrôles continue et la diffusion du code source du logiciel du vote. L'accès à la technologie serait accru par la mise en place d'un réseau gratuit de points d'accès publics à internet et des activités de formation. Quant à l'accès aux handicapés, la conformité du logiciel de vote à des principes reconnus d'accessibilité y contribuerait. Pour l'identification, la stratégie des secrets partagés, entre électeurs et autorité électorale, permettrait de dématérialiser cette étape. En conclusion, les lois électorales ne s'opposent pas, dans leur esprit, au vote par internet à distance. Il suffirait de les actualiser dans leur forme. / To come to an answer, this thesis employed a three step approach; firstly, we determined the guiding principles which ensure an election's legitimacy. Secondly, we refined our research by retaining only the principles relevant in an electronic context. The vote must abide by the following principles: Vote for all, periodicity, equality, secrecy, freedom, safety and transparency of the process. Thirdly, we transposed the stages of the electoral cycle on the Internet. The identified problems are more political than they are legal or technical. For instance, the confidentiality of the vote can be helped with the use of cryptography, and the introduction of the multiple individual vote, which would make it possible to record only the last vote cast. The safety of the process can be reached by measures of physical protection of the servers, a continuous control mechanism and an access to the source code of the voting software. Accessibility to the technology could be increased with a network of public access points to the Internet, and with education clinics. With respect to the handicapped voters, the voting software should comply with recognised principles of accessibility. To identify the voters, shared secrecies between the voter and the electoral authorities could allow a dematerialisation of this procedure. In conclusion, the spirit of our electoral laws would allow for the introduction of an Internet voting process.

The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Change Version (SADS-C), the Social Adjustment Scale-Patient Version II (SAS-PATII) and the Command Hallucination Questionnaire (CAQ) were administered to 86 psychotic inpatients to investigate the relationship between command hallucinations, aggressive behavior, and compliance. Two SADS-C items ("severity of hallucinations" and "depersonalization") were useful as indicators of command hallucinations. Ninety-two percent had complied with their command at least once in the past month. Three SADS-C variables related to compliance with command hallucinations were identified: middle insomnia, the belief that the voice was acting in your best interest, and overt irritability. The patients' level of distortion of reality did not appear to influence compliance rates. Results also indicated that patients who experience command hallucinations were not significantly more or less dangerous than other psychotic inpatients.

The present study empirically investigates the level of compliance by listed Indian firms with disclosure requirements of Indian Accounting Standards. India’s Accounting Standards have been gradually converging with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) since 2001. India currently stands on the verge of adopting the International standards. Indian companies are working fervently towards adopting IFRS. This provides an extraordinary research environment to assess the level of compliance during this transitional time as well as lending an opportunity for a post adoption study. This study addresses two research questions developed to review annual reports of 156 listed Indian firms to determine (1) their current level of compliance with selected disclosure requirements of Indian Accounting Standards, and (2) key corporate characteristics that affect their level of compliance. The data used for the study pertains to the financial year 2009-2010 and utilizes disclosure and compliance index methodology to calculate the level of disclosure. Overall, the findings of this study indicate none of the companies in the sample was fully compliant with the mandatory requirements of the Indian Accounting Standards. On average, level of disclosure made by Indian companies based on selected mandatory disclosures is 70.91%. Nevertheless, the disclosure levels were on an average comparable to results from similar studies conducted in other developing countries. Moreover, results indicated a strong and positive association between level of disclosure and the size, profitability and timeliness of reporting of the sample companies.

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.