A survey and comparison of luxury item ownership in the eighteenth century Dutch Cape Colony

What we know about the material culture of eighteenth century Cape Colony settlers is mostly limited to qualitative evidence found in official documents, letters, travel accounts and other correspondence. This paper uses a new quantitative source – the MOOC probate inventories – to ascertain the nature, growth and distribution of luxury good ownership in the Cape Colony. The survey reveals a marginal increase over the course of the eighteenth century in per capita ownership, although the trend masks greater movements within different wealth groups, which supports the notion of high inequality within the European society at the Cape. Yet, even given such inequality, the evidence suggests that even the poorest had access to the most basic amenities. In fact, comparisons with European and North American regions suggest that the Cape settlers were often more affluent, refuting the notion that the Cape Colony was an “economic and social backwater”.South Africa, Cape Colony, French Huguenots, VOC, wine, slaves

Discriminant analysis under the common principal components model

For two or more populations of which the covariance matrices have a common set of eigenvectors, but different sets of eigenvalues, the common principal components (CPC) model is appropriate. Pepler et al. (2015) proposed a regularised CPC covariance matrix estimator and showed that this estimator outperforms the unbiased and pooled estimators in situations where the CPC model is applicable. This paper extends their work to the context of discriminant analysis for two groups, by plugging the regularised CPC estimator into the ordinary quadratic discriminant function. Monte Carlo simulation results show that CPC discriminant analysis offers significant improvements in misclassification error rates in certain situations, and at worst performs similar to ordinary quadratic and linear discriminant analysis. Based on these results, CPC discriminant analysis is recommended for situations where the sample size is small compared to the number of variables, in particular for cases where there is uncertainty about the population covariance matrix structures

Bilateral tax treaties: is sufficient relief provided in triangular tax situations?

Thesis (M.Com. (Taxation))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Accountancy, 2014.With the international platform for cross border investment and economic development growing year on year at a steady pace, it has become apparent that bilateral income tax treaties do not always operate effectively in multilateral tax situations. Global transactions involving more than two states are certainly not uncommon and it could be said that the most fundamental issue in international taxation is double taxation resulting from the taxing rights of different tax jurisdictions that ‘overlap’ with regard to, generally speaking, one taxpayer or one declared income stream. Multilateral tax situations, commonly known as triangular cases, occur where tax incidence on a particular stream of income is triggered in three countries. These situations typically arise where a person who is a tax resident in two respective countries for tax purposes (a dual resident), or a person who is a tax resident in one country and has a permanent establishment in another, is earning revenue of which the source is in a third country. Taxing rights and jurisdictions of the three countries involved could potentially be in conflict with each other and therefore such situations may bring about lawful international triangular taxation or double taxation which will inevitably discourage enterprises from continuing investment and development internationally. Broad multilateral treaties in the income tax arena are not common1, and most treaties are still of a bilateral nature, i.e. generally addressing tax scenarios where only two specific countries are involved. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (’the OECD’)Model Tax Convention states this: There are no reasons to believe that the conclusion of a multilateral tax convention involving all Member countries could now be considered practicable. The Committee therefore considers that bilateral conventions are still a more appropriate way to ensure the elimination of double taxation at the international level.

Socio-ecological influences on physical activity in primary school children: a view from South Africa

Includes bibliographical referencesThe prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity has increased substantially globally with a concurrent decline in both children's physical activity and fitness levels. The socio-ecological model proposes that health behaviour, such as physical activity, is influenced by multiple factors, at an individual, social and environmental level. However, there seems to be a lack of consensus in the current literature on the factors influencing physical activity in different settings (e.g. school, neighbourhood), and across a wide range of socio-economic conditions. To our knowledge, there are no data available on the role of different environmental factors (within the school and the neighbourhood environment) in relation to children's physical activity in a South African setting. Therefore, one of the key aims of this thesis was to assess the effectiveness of a novel intervention on fitness, measures of physical activity and factors that influence physical activity. Specifically, this thesis assessed the effectiveness of a school-based, curriculum-grounded, educator-focused intervention designed to increase physical activity and healthy eating in South African primary school students in low income settings, on fitness levels and physical activity related knowledge, attitudes and behaviour (Chapter 2). Additionally, this thesis examined factors within the school environment associated with observed physical activity in children during in-school break time, self-report activity, and moderate- to -vigorous, in-school objectively-measured activity (Chapter 3-5). Furthermore, this thesis assessed the influences of parental perceptions and the neighbourhood environment on children's physical activity (Chapter 6). The overarching aim of this thesis is to examine the association between environmental constructs (physical spatial and built environment, social environment, and policy environment) and children's physical activity

Maintaining Quantum Coherence in the Presence of Noise through State Monitoring

Unsharp POVM measurements allow the estimation and tracking of quantum wavefunctions in real-time with minimal disruption of the dynamics. Here we demonstrate that high fidelity state monitoring, and hence quantum control, is possible even in the presence of classical dephasing and amplitude noise, by simulating such measurements on a two-level system undergoing Rabi oscillations. Finite estimation fidelity is found to persist indefinitely long after the decoherence times set by the noise fields in the absence of measurement.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

A randomized control trial investigating the effects of a play-informed care-giver implemented home-based intervention on playfulness for HIV positive children aged 10 months to 8 years on HAART from a low socio-economic status

Introduction: Play is foundational to learning and well-being, and prepares children for functional participation later in life. Playfulness forms a critical aspect to play, and describes a general disposition to play. There is currently no reported research study on playfulness levels for children with HIV/AIDS. The play needs of this population are therefore not adequately understood. The play-informed caregiver implemented home-based intervention (PICIHBI) was developed by pediatric occupational therapists as part of occupation-centred occupational therapy practice. PICIHBI appears to have potential for promoting play and development in children with HIV/AIDS who have been on Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Treatment (HAART) since early childhood. The current study forms part of a larger project investigating the effects of a play-informed caregiver implemented home-based intervention on participation outcomes for HIV positive children on HAART and living in families with low socio-economic status (SES). Objectives: This study aimed to establish a playfulness profile for HIV positive children on HAART as well as compare differences in playfulness between children with HIV on HAART since early childhood attending traditional one-on-one occupational therapy, and those attending PICIHBI