Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Unilateral measures'

Objectives:Following the loss of vestibular function, some patients functionally improve and are minimally bothered by their loss of peripheral function while others remain more symptomatic and are unable to return to their activities of daily living. To date, the mechanisms for functional improvement remain poorly understood. The purpose of the present study was to examine the association between corrective saccades and measures of handicap, dynamic visual acuity, gait, and falls. Design:A retrospective chart review was performed to identify patients who were diagnosed with unilateral or bilateral vestibular hypofunction and who also completed a baseline vestibular rehabilitation evaluation. A total of 82 patients with unilateral vestibular hypofunction and 17 patients with bilateral vestibular hypofunction were identified. The video head impulse test results for each patient were grouped based on the type of presenting saccades. Specifically, the saccade grouping included the following: (1) covert, (2) overt, or (3) a combination of both types of saccades. Results:The results show that covert saccades are associated with better performance on measures of dynamic visual acuity, gait, and balance in patients with unilateral vestibular hypofunction. Patients exhibiting overt saccades or combination of both covert and overt saccades were more often found to have an abnormal gait speed and be characterized as being at risk for falls using the Dynamic Gait Index. We observed no differences in physical function for those patients with bilateral vestibular hypofunction as a function of saccade grouping. Conclusions:When comparing saccade groups (covert, overt, or combination of both), patients with unilateral vestibular hypofunction and covert saccades demonstrated better performance on standard baseline physical therapy measures of dynamic visual acuity and gait and balance. We did not observe any significant associations between saccade group and physical function in patients with bilateral vestibular hypofunction; however, additional studies are needed with adequate sample sizes. Our findings may suggest that corrective saccade latency in patients with unilateral vestibular hypofunction is related to measures of physical function. The extent to which saccade latency has the potential to be a useful target for vestibular rehabilitation is still to be determined and may be promising target to improve functional outcomes.

Background. Handball is a fast paced sport, with high velocity movements performed in a predominantly unilateral plane. In order to make training as specific as possible to on court movements, resistance training programmes should involve exercises that reflect the speed and stance of how they will be performed during gameplay however, working velocities are rarely prescribed due to the lack of research in the area. Aim. The aim of this study was (1) to determine the effect of three different training modes; unilateral high velocity (UHV), bilateral high velocity (BHV) and bilateral slow velocity (BSV) on vertical loaded and unloaded jumps, sprint, agility and balance. (2) To determine if any of these interventions had more of an effect when compared to each other. Methods. 29 women from four teams in the Swedish Elitserien participated in a 16-week intervention study. Teams were assigned to either UHV, who performed unilateral exercises with a high intended movement velocity, BHV, bilateral exercises at a high intended movement velocity, or BSV, who continued their regular bilateral slow velocity training. Power was assessed pre- and post-intervention by loaded vertical squat jump and countermovement jump (CMJ) both unilaterally and bilaterally. Performance assessments were conducted through 20m Sprints, agility T-test and Y-balance test. Effect sizes were calculated to determine the magnitude of differences from pre- to post-intervention in three training modes. One-way ANOVA determined if the group interactions were significant. Results. All three training modes increased their power output to varying levels and effect sizes. The UHV group demonstrated large effect sizes for all improvements in power output, whilst the BHV and BSV groups ranged from trivial to large. UHV got significantly faster at reaching time to peak velocity in unilateral and bilateral measures compared to both BHV and BSV (p=<0.05). Conclusion. The results suggest that a 16-week resistance training intervention regardless of stance improves power however to varying magnitudes. The high velocity groups showed greater improvements in measures of power and performance. This study suggests that resistance training at a high intended movement velocity may be beneficial for improving power and performance in elite women’s handball players.

Includes bibliographical references.
The preamble of the Agreement establishing the WTO, the so called Marrakesh Agreement, points out the general significance of environmental protection and sustainable development. The WTO law contains several provisions concerning the environment. However, it is not yet finally clarified in how far WTO Members can adopt measures to protect the environment where those measures have trade restricting effects. This question is particularly problematic where a Member implements such a measure unilaterally and the measure affects other countries’ policies. The question at stake is to what extent Member States can unilaterally adopt measures to protect the environment where those measures have extraterritorial effect, i.e. where those measures require other states to change their policies in order to gain access to the importing country’s market. The GATT/WTO adjudicating body had to deal with two disputes addressing this issue, namely the Tuna-Dolphin dispute5 and the Shrimp-Turtle case. These two disputes are of outstanding importance for the issue of unilateral measures with extraterritorial effect to protect the environment. Both disputes dealt with the question whether import embargoes, that were inconsistent with Article XI of the GATT for they imposed quantitative import restrictions, could be justified under Article XX (g) of the GATT as measures to conserve exhaustible natural resources. The two decisions interpreted Article XX of the GATT, particularly paragraph g of that provision, differently. The question whether countries can unilaterally adopt measures to protect the environment where those measures have extraterritorial effect must be analysed against the backdrop of both WTO jurisprudence and general principles of international law.

The emergence and progression of the digital economy has distorted the core principles of international taxation. Foreign multinational companies now have the ability to fundamentally operate in market jurisdictions without having a ―physical presence‖. This poses a various challenges to the current international tax regimes because it enables businesses to have a ―significant economic presence‖ without a taxable nexus. Therefore, it becomes extremely difficult to ―ring-fence‖ the digital economy. The Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has attempted to address these challenges in Action 1 of its Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) Plan report entitled ―Addressing the Tax Challenges of the Digital Economy - Action 1: 2015 Report‖. Action 1 recommended a few proposals to address the challenges presented in taxing the digital economy, but they were not agreed upon. In the absence of a consensus on the proposals in Action 1, especially from a direct tax perspective, a number of countries began to explore unilateral measures in order to protect their tax base. South Africa is referred to as the ―getaway to Africa‖ and considering South Africa‘s importance in the global economy, it is imperative to ascertain South Africa‘s approach to taxing the digital economy. This study will assess South Africa‘s approach to taxing the digital economy within the international tax spectrum. This assessment will be based on a review of the unilateral approaches taken by other jurisdictions, to determine whether South Africa has taken the correct stance in not taking direct tax measures so far, as well as to assess whether there is anything else South Africa can do to protect its tax base as it awaits global consensus on the taxation of the digital economy. The observations of this study discovered that the unilateral measures taken by the various countries have caused retaliations by trade partners, impractical implementation issues and has created greater uncertainty. This study affirms that South Africa‘s subtle approach to taxing the digital economy was correct and that the expansion of its current source taxation rules should be considered in order to protect the South African tax base whilst a ―global consensus‖ on taxing the digital economy is still to be reached.
Mini Dissertation (MPhil (International Taxation))--University of Pretoria, 2020.
pt2021
Taxation
MPhil (International Taxation)
Unrestricted

The aim of this thesis is to inform clinicians and researchers of the reliability and responsiveness of the most commonly used outcome measures in prosthetic rehabilitation in the UK. In addition, this thesis supports the call for more studies of high methodological quality to provide evidence of the psychometric properties of outcome measures of physical function in lower limb amputees. A survey (study I) of Allied Health Professionals established that the outcome measures used most often during prosthetic rehabilitation in the UK were: the Timed Up and Go (TUG), a timed walk test, the Locomotor Capability Index (LCI) and its modified version (LCI-5), the Socket Comfort Score (SCS) and the Special Interest Group in Amputee Medicine (SIGAM) Mobility Grades. A standardised quality checklist (COSMIN) was used in a systematic review (study II) to measure the methodological quality and strength of evidence of the published literature that reported on the psychometric properties of outcome measures used to measure physical function during prosthetic rehabilitation. The review found mixed methodological quality ratings and many studies with small sample sizes rendering the strength of the evidence indeterminate. A limited number of studies commented on limits of agreement and measurement error when reporting on reliability. Even fewer studies reported on responsiveness with only one reporting minimally clinically important difference (MCID) values. Values for consistency, agreement and measurement error, were calculated for the top five commonly used outcome measures as identified from the survey, using a test-retest study design with a period of 7 days between tests (study III). Minimum detectable change (MDC) values were calculated for the SIGAM, LCI-5, TUG and 2MWT. The EQ-5D-5LTM, a measure of the global health of the respondent, was also included as knowledge of its psychometric properties in a population of pwLLA is unknown. However, reliability could not be confirmed for the EQ-5D-5L or the SCS in this population. A longitudinal study (study IV), based during the early rehabilitation period (mean 84 days) following provision of a primary prosthesis, gathered data to calculate indices of responsiveness for the same six outcome measures. Effect sizes were presented for five measures: SIGAM, LCI-5, TUG, 2MWT, SCS and EQ-5D-5L. Minimal clinically important difference values were also presented for the first time for all the outcome measures in this population. A patient reported change questionnaire was used as the anchor in a Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to establish the MCID values.

Algorithms to predict speech intelligibility are useful tools for reliable, low-cost, and repeatable assessment of speech processing technologies, thus replacing costly and time-consuming subjective tests. Of particular practical interest is their application for hearing-impaired listeners, such as cochlear implant (CI) users, where speech enhancement is a possible way to reduce the gap to the higher scores achieved by normal hearing listeners. An additional feature that such measures may possess is the non-intrusiveness, which refers to the capacity of providing a speech intelligibility prediction without the need of a priori information, such as clean reference signals. This thesis includes behavioural and numerical experiments designed to investigate how speech intelligibility in unilateral and bilateral CI users can be predicted via objective measures. It is hypothesised that accurate predictions of speech intelligibility scores can be obtained by incorporation of CI-specific features into the proposed objective measures. In Chap. II, several intrusive measures originally developed for normal hearing listeners are employed to predict the speech intelligibility of unilateral CI users. A non-intrusive measure is also proposed and evaluated against other non-intrusive and intrusive measures, and shown to achieve good performance in noisy and reverberant environments. This measure relies on temporal envelopes and uses filterbanks that were derived for CI users of the Nucleus Freedom. In Chap. III, a non-intrusive measure of the bilateral advantage to speech intelligibility in CI is proposed and evaluated against simulated and publicly available data. As a first step, a non-intrusive model is developed that can predict the binaural advantage to speech intelligibility in normal hearing listeners. Behavioural data was collected in order to validate the accuracy of the model’s predictions. Both the normal hearing and the CI versions of the model measured the contribution of two psychoacoustic phenomena: the better ear effect, and the binaural unmasking. For the CI version of the model, the computation of these two contributions were modified to incorporate known limitations of the electric hearing, such as reduced time and frequency resolution, and the poor sensitivity to interaural time differences. With these modifications, also the CI version of the proposed model yielded accurate predictions of speech intelligibility scores obtained from simulated and subjective data. In Chap. IV, one of the unilateral intrusive measures described in Chap. II is used to optimise the parameters of a filterbank with respect to speech intelligibility in a simulated CI hearing environment. Across the unilateral and bilateral/binaural investigations, it can be concluded that temporal envelope modulations, amongst other factors, play a major role in predicting speech intelligibility for CI users. This is also the case for predictions for normal hearing subjects, and a few models already exist that use alterations in the temporal envelopes domain to predict the effect on speech intelligibility. However, this study shows that not all information employed by current models is necessary for such predictions. Non-intrusive models, such as those described in Chap. I and II, can be as accurate as models that require complete information of target and interferers signals. This means that that these measures could be applied to speech enhancement, providing a quick and inexpensive way to improve current settings in modern CI.

“The Protection of the European Strategic Sectors”. The kind of protection that is at the heart of this doctoral thesis is the defence of the strategic companies established in the European Union (EU) from takeovers by foreign investors, that is to say investors from countries which are not part of the European Economic Area. This work aims, on the one hand, at outlining the main features of a screening mechanism of foreign investments at the EU level and, on the other, at identifying the proper legal basis in the EU Treaties for its establishment. Chapter 1 contains a non-exhaustive list of the European strategic sectors which consist in all the economic sectors in which the EU or its Member States have adopted rules to limit foreign investors’ right to acquire participations in strategic companies for reasons of public security. Indeed, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) used the expression “strategic sectors” in relation to undertakings whose activities are deeply linked to the protection of public security. The EU notion of public security contains both internal and external security, but also the production of goods and the supply of services which are essential for the very existence of a country. Chapter 2 provides a comparative study of the present situation of strategic enterprises’ protection in three EU Member States (Germany, Italy and France). It shows that a fragmented landscape of foreign investment control rules adopted by national authorities represents both a constraint to an efficient internal market of capital movements, and a limit to an effective protection of the European strategic sectors. By contrast, an EU foreign investment control mechanism could lead to a less fragmented system of strategic companies’ protection, which would be able to encourage foreign investments. At the same time, a single EU body of foreign investment control should be more efficient in order to protect EU public security. Moreover, unlike Member States measures such as “golden shares”, this mechanism could enjoy a greater degree of compatibility with the fundamental freedoms of the Treaties. In effect, the CJEU recognises a “presumption of conformity” with the freedoms of movement to the EU secondary legislation which pursues objectives of general interest like the protection of public security. Chapter 3 analyses the most significant experience of foreign investment control at the global level, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, in order to understand if it could be a suitable model for the establishment of a similar body in the EU, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the EU (CFIEU). Once outlined the key aspects of the CFIEU, chapter 3 focuses on the search of the most proper legal basis in the EU Treaties for its establishment. The study tries to demonstrate that Article 207(2) TFEU on unilateral measures of Common Commercial Policy (CCP) could be the right legal basis for the creation of the CFIEU. Indeed, after the Lisbon Treaty, the CCP has become an exclusive competence of the EU which also encompasses the admission and the treatment of foreign direct investments. In conclusion, chapter 3 tries to figure out the implications of the establishment of the CFIEU both on Member States competences (especially their exclusive competence on national security by virtue of Article 4 TEU), and on the international obligations undertaken by the EU towards third countries, with particular reference to the World Trade Organisation rules and international investment law.

Dissertação de mestrado em European and Transglobal Business Law
Double taxation of CFC legislation needs to be eliminated in order to strike a balance between tackling BEPS activities and preserving the attractiveness of the jurisdiction applying CFC legislation. Both the OECD BEPS project and the EU ATA directive contain recommendations for the elimination of double taxation situations of CFC legislation. However, the objective of this work is to see whether unilateral domestic rules, included in CFC legislation, are enough for eliminating situations of double taxation of CFC rules and whether such situations could benefit from tax treaty relief provisions. Hence this work explores CFC legislation, in the light of the OECD Action Plan 3 and the EU ATA directive. The work also seeks to see whether CFC rules are compatible with tax treaty law and whether a treaty benefit is available. In the end, we find that unilateral domestic measures may not be enough for a full elimination of all situations of double taxation of CFC rules. Still, they are the only possible solution in the absence of a treaty benefit. However, the conclusion is aimed at answering whether unilateral domestic measures are enough and what are the possible solutions for the elimination of double taxation situations of CFC rules.
É necessário eliminar a dupla tributação das normas CFC (mecanismo de imputação de rendimentos de entidades não residentes sujeitas a um regime fiscal privilegiado) a fim de obter um equilíbrio entre as atividades do Plano BEPS e a preservação da atratividade das jurisdições que aplicam as normas CFC. Tanto o Plano BEPS da OCDE (Organização para a Cooperação e Desenvolvimento Económico) e a diretiva ATA da EU (Diretiva Antielisão Fiscal da UE) contêm recomendações para a eliminação de situações de dupla tributação das normas CFC. No entanto, o objetivo deste trabalho é verificar se as normas CFC nacionais unilaterais são suficientes para eliminar situações de dupla tributação das normas CFC e se tais situações podem beneficiar de desagradamento fiscal. Portanto, este trabalho estuda as normas CFC à luz do Plano de Ação 3 da OCDE e da Diretiva Antielisão Fiscal da UE. O trabalho também tem como objetivo verificar se as regras CFC são compatíveis com as convenções fiscais e se tais convenções atribuem algum desagradamento fiscal. No final, chegamos à conclusão de que os mecanismos nacionais unilaterais podem não ser suficientes para a eliminação total de todas as situações de dupla tributação das regras CFC. Contudo, estas normas são a única solução possível na ausência de as convenções não preverem um desagradmento fiscal. No entanto, a conclusão visa responder se os mecanismos nacionais unilaterais são suficientes e quais são as possíveis soluções para a eliminação de situações de dupla tributação das regras CFC.

Bilateral implantation of a cochlear implant (CI) after a >2 year period of unilateral hearing with a second implant has been shown to result in altered latencies in brainstem responses in children with congenital deafness. In this thesis, a neural source localization method was developed to investigate the effects of unilateral CI use on cortical development after the implantation of a 2nd CI. The electroencephalography (EEG) source localization method is based on the linearly constrained minimum variance (LCMV) vector beamformer and utilizes null constraints to minimize the electrical artifact produced by the CI. The accuracy of the method was assessed and optimized through simulations and comparisons to beamforming with magnetoencephalography (MEG) data. After using cluster analyses to ensure that sources compared across subjects originate from the same neural generators, a study was done to examine the effects of unilateral CI hearing on hemispheric lateralization to monaural responses. It was found that a >2 year period of unilateral hearing results in expanded projections from the 1st implanted ear to the contralateral auditory area that is not reversed by implantation of a 2nd CI. A subsequent study was performed to examine the effects of unilateral CI hearing on the contributions of the 1st and 2nd implanted ears to the binaural response. It was found that in children with > 2 years of unilateral hearing, the binaural response is dominated by the 1st implanted ear. Together, these results suggest that the delay between the 1st and 2nd CI should be minimized in bilateral implantation to avoid dominance of auditory pathways from the 1st implanted ear. This dominance limits developmental competition from the 2nd CI and potentially contributes to poorer performance in speech detection in noise tasks.