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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
11

An analysis of the taxability of illegal activities in South Africa / Orlando Christian Streicher

Streicher, Orlando Christian January 2015 (has links)
The South African Income Tax Act (58 of 1962) does not specifically deal with the tax treatment of receipts resulting from illegal activities. Expenditure resulting from illegal activities is also only partly dealt with in terms of Section 23(o) of the Income Tax Act. This has resulted in uncertainty pertaining to the normal income tax treatment of illegal activities within a South African context. In response to this, the South African Revenue Service has issued a draft interpretation note dealing with the tax consequences of embezzlement and theft of money for both the victim as well as the offender during 2013. This draft interpretation note also deals with the normal tax consequences of illegal receipt in the hands of the thief. In an attempt to evaluate this draft interpretation note to clarify the tax consequences of illegal activities in South Africa, the meaning of illegal receipts is firstly determined. Subsequently the concept of „illegal receipts‟ is measured against the definition of „gross income‟ contained in Section 1 of the Income Tax Act. Expenditure relating to illegal activities is also analysed and measured against the general deduction formula contained in Section 11(a) of the Income Tax Act. Relevant principles established from general case law applicable to the definition of gross income as well as the general deduction formula is analysed to determine its applicability within the context of illegal receipts and expenditure. Also, principles established through case law, both nationally and internationally, specifically applicable to the taxation of illegal activities were analysed to establish guidelines that could be applied to clarify the taxability of illegal activities within a South African context. / MCom (South African and International Tax), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015
12

Understanding Posttraumatic Growth Among Individuals with Cancer: The Role of Social Support and Unsupportive Interactions

Balliet, Wendy 28 April 2010 (has links)
The experience of being diagnosed with and treated for cancer is an extremely stressful experience for most individuals. Historically, the literature on stress and coping has focused on negative outcomes, such as depression and anxiety, in relation to one‘s experience with cancer. Under-represented in the literature has been a theoretical framework that examines positive and transformative experiences that may occur throughout the cancer experience. The current study assessed interpersonal variables that rarely have been investigated in relation to one‘s experience with cancer (i.e., received social support and unsupportive interactions) and their association with depressive symptoms, positive emotion, and posttraumatic growth in a sample of men and women recently diagnosed with cancer. The main research design was cross-sectional (although longitudinal analyses were conducted on an exploratory basis), and self-report data were collected from 60 participants who had been diagnosed with cancer on average 5.68 months prior to data collection. Contrary to hypotheses, hierarchical regression equations indicated that received social support was not related to any of the outcome variables. However, unsupportive responses from a main support person were found to be significantly and positively related to participants‘ reports of depressive symptoms and posttraumatic growth within the context of their cancer experience. A major contribution of the present study is that it called attention to the importance of studying unsupportive interactions separately from social support. Moreover, this is the first study to investigate the relationship between unsupportive interactions and posttraumatic growth in a sample of recently diagnosed cancer patients. Findings were surprising in that the more unsupportive responses individuals with cancer received from a main support person, the more personal growth they reported. The results from the present study have important research and clinical implications for understanding the relationship between unsupportive interactions and posttraumatic growth among men and women who have been diagnosed with cancer.
13

Non-systematic differences between British and American pronunciation

ŠMAHOVÁ, Alžběta January 2019 (has links)
This diploma thesis occupies itself with non-systematic differences between British and American English. In its initial section, this thesis outlines the historical background, the origins of American English and its influence of British English. Subsequently, the systematic differences are defined, in order to distinguish them from the non-systematic ones. The comparison of two regional varieties is done on the basis of two respective pronunciation norms, i.e. Received Pronunciation for British English and General American for American English. The main part of the thesis is focused on the identification of isolated examples of dissimilarity which follow from the irregularities of both systems. An alphabetical list of transcribed words, personal or geographical names organized into segmental and suprasegmental areas is included in the Appendix.
14

On the Performance of In-Body RF Localization Techniques

Swar, Pranay P 01 June 2012 (has links)
"Localization inside the human body using Radio Frequency (RF) transmission is gaining importance in a number of applications such as Wireless Capsule Endoscopy. The accuracy of RF localization depends on the technology adopted for this purpose. The two most common RF localization technologies use Received Signal Strength (RSS) and Time-Of-Arrival (TOA). This research first provides bounds for accuracy of localization of a Endoscopy capsule inside the human body as it moves through the gastro-Intestinal track with and without randomness in transmit power using RSS based localization with a triangulation algorithm. It is observed that in spite of presence of a large number of anchor nodes; the localization error is still in range of few cm, which is quite high; hence we resort to TOA based localization. Due to lack of a widely accepted model for TOA based localization inside human body we use a computational technique for simulation inside and around the human body, named Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD). We first show that our proprietary FDTD simulation software shows acceptable results when compared with real empirical measurements using a vector network analyzer. We then show that, the FDTD method, which has been used extensively in all kinds of electromagnetic modeling due to its versatility and simplicity, suffers seriously because of its demanding requirement on memory storage and computation time, which is due to its inherently recursive nature and the need for absorbing boundary conditions. In this research we suggest a novel computationally efficient technique for simulation using FDTD by considering FDTD as a Linear Time Invariant (LTI) system. Then we use the software to simulate the TOA of the narrowband and wideband signals propagated inside the human body for RF localization to compare the accuracies of the two using this method. "
15

Analysis and Optimization of Empirical Path Loss Models and Shadowing Effects for the Tampa Bay Area in the 2.6 GHz Band

Costa, Julio C 21 March 2008 (has links)
This thesis analyzes the wireless propagation modeling of a 2.6 GHz band channel around the Tampa Bay area. Different empirical models are compared against measured data, and an adapted model, specific for the Tampa Bay area, is presented that builds on the accuracy of existing models. The effects of the propagation characteristics along bridges are also discussed, and a two-slope model is presented. The proposed models are based on a simple linear regression method, and statistical tests are evaluated for reliability thereof. The analysis also investigates the statistical properties of shadowing effects imposed on the wireless channel. The spatial correlation properties of shadowing effects are investigated in detail, and an extension of existing correlation models for shadowing effects is suggested where the correlation properties are studied in different distance ranges rather than the whole service coverage area.
16

Defining Britain's Most Appealing Voice : An Accent Profile of Sir Sean Connery

Hill, Christopher January 2007 (has links)
<p>The aim of this paper is to explore the features that combine to make up the distinctive accent of the actor Sir Sean Connery. This study outlines the subject’s basic vowel system and compares it to data collected on the vowel systems of Received Pronunciation (RP) and Scottish Standard English (SSE) from previous research (Stuart-Smith 1999, Hawkins & Midgely 2005, Fisk 2006). Furthermore, this essay examines the degree to which other elements associated with SSE are present in the subject’s accent. These features include the Scottish Vowel Lengthening Rule (SVLR), the presence of dark /l/, rhoticity and T-glottalling. It is hypothesised that the subject speaks a modified variety of SSE yet retains the aforementioned qualities typically associated with SSE.</p><p>The speech analysis software programs Wavesurfer (version 1.4.7.) and Praat (version 4.4.33.) were used to analyse sections of sound taken from a speech given by the subject at an awards ceremony. Instrumental analysis of this nature was deemed appropriate in order to establish a high degree of objectivity in this study. Of the wide range of recorded material available the subject’s acceptance speech was judged most suitable for analysis. This is a passage of spontaneous speech as opposed to a movie script, where the subject talks of his background and career.</p><p>Having analysed the subject’s accent in this way, certain sociolinguistic implications can be drawn. The results suggest that Sir Sean Connery does indeed speak a variety of SSE however rather surprisingly the subject’s accent appears quite typical of his Edinburgh origins. The vowel system not only identifies the subject as an SSE speaker but also indicates traces of his working-class background e.g., the frontal quality to Connery’s realisation of /u/ and his low /I/ are typical of a working-class SSE speaker. Moreover, the general low quality found in Connery’s basic vowel system can be interpreted as revealing a little of his working-class origins.</p><p>Evidence of the other features associated with SSE was also found in the subject’s accent. Durational evidence indicates (albeit tentatively at this stage) that the SVLR operates within his accent while dark /l/ and t-glottalling were also observed.</p><p>While it is also apparent that Connery speaks a rhotic variety of English it is the nature and variety of his /r/ production that is most interesting. The subject appears to produce a retroflex realisation of /r/ which affects other consonants in its environment. This /r/ may be indicative of an earlier Irish influence over Connery’s accent.</p><p>It should be stated that due to the nature and the limited size of this study, all findings are preliminary and more research is needed into this area before any firm conclusions can be drawn.</p>
17

Improving WiFi positioning through the use of successive in-sequence signal strength samples

Hallström, Per, Dellrup, Per January 2006 (has links)
As portable computers and wireless networks are becoming ubiquitous, it is natural to consider the user’s position as yet another aspect to take into account when providing services that are tailored to meet the needs of the consumers. Location aware systems could guide persons through buildings, to a particular bookshelf in a library or assist in a vast variety of other applications that can benefit from knowing the user’s position. In indoor positioning systems, the most commonly used method for determining the location is to collect samples of the strength of the received signal from each base station that is audible at the client’s position and then pass the signal strength data on to a positioning server that has been previously fed with example signal strength data from a set of reference points where the position is known. From this set of reference points, the positioning server can interpolate the client’s current location by comparing the signal strength data it has collected with the signal strength data associated with every reference point. Our work proposes the use of multiple successive received signal strength samples in order to capture periodic signal strength variations that are the result of effects such as multi-path propagation, reflections and other types of radio interference. We believe that, by capturing these variations, it is possible to more easily identify a particular point; this is due to the fact that the signal strength fluctuations should be rather constant at every position, since they are the result of for example reflections on the fixed surfaces of the building’s interior. For the purpose of investigating our assumptions, we conducted measurements at a site at Växjö university, where we collected signal strength samples at known points. With the data collected, we performed two different experiments: one with a neural network and one where the k-nearest-neighbor method was used for position approximation. For each of the methods, we performed the same set of tests with single signal strength samples and with multiple successive signal strength samples, to evaluate their respective performances. We concluded that the k-nearest-neighbor method does not seem to benefit from multiple successive signal strength samples, at least not in our setup, compared to when using single signal strength samples. However, the neural network performed about 17% better when multiple successive signal strength samples were used.
18

Improving WiFi positioning through the use of successive in-sequence signal strength samples

Hallström, Per, Dellrup, Per January 2006 (has links)
<p>As portable computers and wireless networks are becoming ubiquitous, it is natural to consider the user’s position as yet another aspect to take into account when providing services that are tailored to meet the needs of the consumers. Location aware systems could guide persons through buildings, to a particular bookshelf in a library or assist in a vast variety of other applications that can benefit from knowing the user’s position.</p><p>In indoor positioning systems, the most commonly used method for determining the location is to collect samples of the strength of the received signal from each base station that is audible at the client’s position and then pass the signal strength data on to a positioning server that has been previously fed with example signal strength data from a set of reference points where the position is known. From this set of reference points, the positioning server can interpolate the client’s current location by comparing the signal strength data it has collected with the signal strength data associated with every reference point.</p><p>Our work proposes the use of multiple successive received signal strength samples in order to capture periodic signal strength variations that are the result of effects such as multi-path propagation, reflections and other types of radio interference. We believe that, by capturing these variations, it is possible to more easily identify a particular point; this is due to the fact that the signal strength fluctuations should be rather constant at every position, since they are the result of for example reflections on the fixed surfaces of the building’s interior.</p><p>For the purpose of investigating our assumptions, we conducted measurements at a site at Växjö university, where we collected signal strength samples at known points. With the data collected, we performed two different experiments: one with a neural network and one where the k-nearest-neighbor method was used for position approximation. For each of the methods, we performed the same set of tests with single signal strength samples and with multiple successive signal strength samples, to evaluate their respective performances.</p><p>We concluded that the k-nearest-neighbor method does not seem to benefit from multiple successive signal strength samples, at least not in our setup, compared to when using single signal strength samples. However, the neural network performed about 17% better when multiple successive signal strength samples were used.</p>
19

Rescuing Statistics from the Mathematicians

Bedwell, Mike 12 April 2012 (has links) (PDF)
Drawing on some 30 years’ experience in the UK and Central Europe, the author offers four assertions, three about education generally and the fourth that of the title. There the case is argued that statistics is a branch of logic, and therefore should be taught by experts in such subjects as philosophy and law and not exclusively by athematicians. Education in both Statistics and these other subjects would profit in consequence.
20

Estimation of Drone Location Using Received Signal Strength Indicator

Jagini, Varun Kumar 08 1900 (has links)
The main objective of this thesis is to propose a UAV (also called as drones) location estimation system based on LoRaWAN using received signal strength indicator in a GPS denied environment. The drones are finding new applications in areas such as surveillance, search, rescue missions, package delivery, and precision agriculture. Nearly all applications require the localization of UAV during flight. Localization is the method of determining a UAVs physical position using a real or virtual coordinate system. This thesis proposes a LoRaWAN-based UAV location method and presents experimental findings from a prototype. The thesis mainly consists of two different sections: one is the distance estimation and the other is the location estimation. First, the distance is estimated based on the mean RSSI values which are recorded at the ground stations using the path loss model. Later using the slant distance estimation technique, the path loss model parameters L and C are estimated whose values are unknown at the beginning. These values completely depend on the environment. Finally, the trilateration system architecture is employed to find the 3-D location of the UAV.

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