The prediction of a company's financial health is of critical importance to a variety of stakeholders ranging from auditors, creditors, customers, employees, financial institutions and investors through to management. There has been considerable research in this field, ranging from the univariate dichotomous approach of Beaver (1966) to the multivariate multi-state approaches of Lau (1987) and Ward (1994). All of the South African studies namely, Strebel and Andrews (1977), Daya (1977), De La Rey (1981), Clarke et al (1991) and Court et al (1999), and even, Lukhwareni's (2005) four separate models, were dichotomous in nature providing either a "Healthy" or a "Failed" state; or a "Winner" or "Loser" as in the latter case. Notwithstanding, all of these models would be classified as first stage, initial screening models. This study has focused on following a two stage approach to identifying (first stage) and analysing (second stage) the States of Health in a company. It has not adopted the rigid "Healthy" or "Failed" dichotomous methodology. For the first stage, three-state models were developed classifying a company as Healthy, Intermittent or Distressed. Both three year and five year Profit after Tax (PAT) averages for Real Earnings Growth (REG) calculations were used to determine the superior definition for the Intermittent state; with the latter coming out as superior. Models were developed for the current year (Yn), one (Yn-1), two (Yn-2) and three years (Yn-3) forward using a Test sample of twenty companies and their predictive accuracy determined by using a Holdout sample of twenty-two companies and all their data points or years of information. The statistical methods employed were a Naïve model using the simple Shareholder Value Added (SVA) ratio, CHAID and MDA, with the latter providing very disappointing results - for the Yn year (five year average), the Test sample results were 100%, 95% and 95%, respectively; with the Holdout sample results being 81.3%, 83.8% and 52.5%, respectively. The Yn-1 to Yn-3 models produced very good results for the Test sample but somewhat disappointing Holdout sample results. The best two Yn models namely, the Naïve and the CHAID models, were modified so as to enable a comparison with the notable, dichotomous De La Rey (1981) model. As such, three different approaches were adopted and in all cases, both the modified Naïve (100%, 81.3%, 100%) and the modified CHAID (100%, 85.9%, 98%) produced superior results to the De La Rey model (84.8%, 62.6%, 75.3%). For the second stage, a Financial Risk Analysis Model (FRAM) using ratios in the categories of Growth, Performance Analysis, Investment Analysis and Financial Status were used to provide underlying information or clues, independent of the first stage model, so as to enable the stakeholder to establish a more meaningful picture of the company. This would pave the way for the appropriate strategy and course of action to be followed, to take the company to the next level; whether it be taking the company out of a Distressed State (D) or further improving on its Healthy status (H). / Business Management / D. BL.

The research was undertaken to analyse and evaluate the nature and quality of interactions in multicultural primary school classrooms. Special attention was focused on the influence 25 independent variables had on the dependent variable, namely group membership. Literature indicates that warm and nurturant relationships within the family help the child to achieve independence and promote social adjustment outside the home. Literature also reveals that self-acceptance and acceptance of others are dependent on the self-concept, and that acceptability in peer groups is enhanced by characteristics such as friendliness, cooperation, emotional stability and intellectual ability. It is essential to mention that some researchers claim that within multicultural classrooms, pupils often interact in racially and culturally segregated patterns. Others maintain that no racial and cultural discrimination is evident in the choice of friends in multicultural classrooms. The empirical research was undertal<.en by administering four measuring instruments, namely own designed questionnaire, the sociogram, the self-concept scale for primary school pupils and the children's personality questionnaire to 121 standard five pupils in multicultural primary schools. The administering of these instruments was aimed at determining the influence of the independent variables on the dependent variable. The stepwise discriminant analysis method revealed that of the 25 independent variables, only six, namely family background, friendship skills, gender, scholastic achievement and personality factors E (submissive versus dominant) and Q3 (undisciplined versus controlled) contributed to the variance in group membership. The multiple discriminant function was used to determine how close the individual scores of children were, in a given friendship group. The general pattern obtained, indicated that children choose each other on the basis of similar characteristics. A point that clearly came to light, is that race and language/culture do not contribute to the variance in group membership. Children formed various friendship groups across racial and cultural lines. In view of the aforementioned findings, the researcher made recommendations on ways in which parents and teachers can create suitable teaching and learning environments for children from diverse cultural milieus. / Psychology of Education / D.Ed. (Psychology of Education)

CAPES / Pesquisadores têm concentrado esforços, nos últimos 20 anos, aplicando a transformada wavelet no processamento, filtragem, reconhecimento de padrões e na classificação de sinais biomédicos, especificamente em sinais de eletroencefalografia (EEG) contendo eventos característicos da epilepsia, as espículas. Várias famílias de wavelets-mães foram utilizadas, mas sem um consenso sobre qual wavelet-mãe é a mais adequada para essa finalidade. Os sinais utilizados apresentam uma gama muito grande de eventos e não possuem características padronizadas. A literatura relata sinais de EEG amostrados entre 100 a 600 Hz, com espículas variando de 20 a 200 ms. Nesse estudo foram utilizadas 98 wavelets. Os sinais de EEG foram amostrados de 200 a 1 kHz. Um neurologista marcou um conjunto de 494 espículas e um conjunto de 1500 eventos não-espícula. Esse estudo inicia avaliando a quantidade de decomposições wavelets necessárias para a detecção de espículas, seguido pela análise detalhada do uso combinado de wavelets-mães de uma mesma família e entre famílias. Na sequência é analisada a influência de descritores e o uso combinado na detecção de espículas. A análise dos resultados desses estudos indica que é mais adequado utilizar um conjunto de wavelets-mães, com vários níveis de decomposição e com vários descritores, ao invés de utilizar uma única wavelet-mãe ou um descritor específico para a detecção de espículas. A seleção desse conjunto de wavelets, de níveis de decomposição e de descritores permite obter níveis de detecção elevados conforme a carga computacional que se deseje ou a plataforma computacional disponível para a implementação. Como resultado, esse estudo atingiu níveis de desempenho entre 0,9936 a 0,9999, dependendo da carga computacional. Outras contribuições desse estudo referem-se à análise dos métodos de extensão de borda na detecção de espículas; e a análise da taxa de amostragem de sinais de EEG no desempenho do classificador de espículas, ambos com resultados significativos. São também apresentadas como contribuições: uma nova arquitetura de detecção de espículas, fazendo uso da análise de discriminante linear; e a apresentação de um novo descritor, energia centrada, baseado na resposta dos coeficientes das sub-bandas de decomposição da transformada wavelet, capaz de melhorar a discriminação de eventos espícula e não-espícula. / Researchers have concentrated efforts in the past 20 years, by applying the wavelet transform in processing, filtering, pattern recognition and classification of biomedical signals, in particular signals of electroencephalogram (EEG) containing events characteristic of epilepsy, the spike. Several families of mother-wavelets were used, but there are no consensus about which mother-wavelet is the most adequate for this purpose. The signals used have a wide range of events. The literature reports EEG signals sampled from 100 to 600 Hz with spikes ranging from 20 to 200 ms. In this study we used 98 wavelets. The EEG signals were sampled from 200 Hz up to 1 kHz. A neurologist has scored a set of 494 spikes and a set 1500 non-spike events. This study starts evaluating the amount of wavelet decompositions required for the detection of spikes, followed by detailed analysis of the combined use of mother-wavelets of the same family and among families. Following is analyzed the influence of descriptors and the combined use of them in spike detection. The results of these studies indicate that it is more appropriate to use a set of mother-wavelets, with many levels of decomposition and with various descriptors, instead of using a single mother-wavelet or a specific descriptor for the detection of spikes. The selection of this set of wavelets, decomposition level and descriptors allows to obtain high levels of detection according to the computational load desired or computing platform available for implementation. This study reached performance levels between 0.9936 to 0.9999, depending on the computational load. Other contributions of this study refer to the analysis of the border extension methods for spike detection; and the influences of the EEG signal sampling rate in the classifier performance, each one with significant results. Also shown are: a new spike detection architecture by making use of linear discriminant analysis; and the presentation of a new descriptor, the centred energy, based on the response of the coefficients of decomposition levels of the wavelet transform, able to improve the discrimination of spike and non-spike events.

A tendência à implantação e certificação de Sistemas de Gestão da Qualidade (SGQ) tem sido estudada pelo mundo, pois há diversos autores que citam como uma das maiores influências para a implantação desse sistema a melhora do relacionamento com o cliente. Porém, apesar da crença na relação entre a qualidade, satisfação do cliente e retorno econômico, é preciso uma melhor compreensão nesta área. Este trabalho tem por objetivo avaliar a relação entre a implantação de SGQ e a satisfação dos clientes de empreendimentos imobiliários novos na cidade de Curitiba. Para a obtenção de dados, a fim de sustentar este trabalho, realizou-se um estudo preliminar e um trabalho de levantamento quantitativo de dados. A primeira etapa buscou informações relevantes para a construção e a validação do questionário utilizado na segunda parte, a qual se destinou à captação da percepção do cliente final. Foram obtidos 386 questionários respondidos no período de março a novembro de 2013. Por meio de Análises Descritivas dos dados, verifica-se que amostra demonstra ser fiel ao universo da pesquisa, sem haver discrepâncias significativas. Para a realização da análise da amostra, considerou-se a abordagem definida pelos autores Hair et al. (2010), em que um modelo de satisfação do cliente só é plenamente compreendido quando se estuda: a variável, os construtos e os relacionamentos entre duas ou mais variáveis. Portanto, realizaram-se diversas Análises Descritivas, bem como os testes estatísticos Qui-Quadrado e Análise Discriminante, a fim de estudar as variáveis componentes da satisfação. Em seguida os constructos, os quais foram obtidos por meio da Análise Fatorial. Foram estudados por fim, a relação entre as variáveis através da Regressão Linear Múltipla dos dados. Como resultado desta pesquisa, percebeu-se que não é possível basear a conclusão final do estudo somente pela média da satisfação global, pois esta pode encobrir outros resultados. Além disso, verificou-se que as variáveis padrão do imóvel e tipo de gestão (com ou sem SGQ) podem influenciar na satisfação do cliente. Como exemplo, os participantes de empreendimentos construídos sem SGQ mostraram-se mais satisfeitos do que os daqueles construídos com SGQ e o grupo dos participantes de empreendimentos com padrão baixo, os mais insatisfeitos dentre todos os padrões. Por meio da Análise Fatorial, foram encontrados 4 fatores: a) comunicação com a empresa, b) produto, c) localização, d) projeto, bem como um fator geral, a satisfação global. Em relação à insatisfação, esta é evidente nos fatores que apresentaram maior importância, comunicação com a empresa e produto. Acredita-se que embora este estudo seja válido apenas para Curitiba, o desenvolvimento e a estrutura deste modelo oferecem uma referência consistente para a avaliação da satisfação do cliente na construção civil em outros contextos. / The tendency to implementation and certification of quality management systems have been studied around the world, many authors cite as one of the biggest influences the improve the customer relationship. Despite the belief in the link between quality, customer satisfaction and economic returns, we need to learn more about this area. The propose of this study is to evaluate customer satisfaction of new buildings in the city of Curitiba. To get the data, we conducted a preliminary study and a quantitative survey. The first step searched for information to the construction and validation of the questionnaire used in the second part, which was destined to final customer. We obtained 386 questionnaires during March to November 2013. And through descriptive data analysis, we found that sample is true to the universe studied, because there are not significant differences. To perform the analysis of the sample, we considered the approach defined by the authors Hair et al. (2010), where a model of customer satisfaction is completely understood only when we studied: the variable, constructs, and relationships between two or more variables. Therefore, we performed several descriptive analyzes and the chi-square test in order to study the variable components of satisfaction. Next the constructs, which were obtained from through factor analysis. And last, we check the relationship between variables through multiple linear regressions of the data. As a result of this work, we noticed that it is not possible to rely only on the average overall satisfaction, because it may mask other results. In addition, we found that the variables: the default of the building and type of management (with or without TQM), can influence customer satisfaction. For example, participants of buildings built without TQM are more satisfied than those built with TQM, and the group of participants of buildings of low default is the most unhappy of all the defaults. Through factor analysis, we found four factors, communication with the company, product, location, design, as well as a general factor, overall satisfaction. The dissatisfaction is evident in the two most important factors: communication with the company and product. It is believed that, although our study is valid only for Curitiba, the development and structure of this model provide a great reference for the evaluation of customer satisfaction in other settings of the construction industry. / 5000

CAPES / Pesquisadores têm concentrado esforços, nos últimos 20 anos, aplicando a transformada wavelet no processamento, filtragem, reconhecimento de padrões e na classificação de sinais biomédicos, especificamente em sinais de eletroencefalografia (EEG) contendo eventos característicos da epilepsia, as espículas. Várias famílias de wavelets-mães foram utilizadas, mas sem um consenso sobre qual wavelet-mãe é a mais adequada para essa finalidade. Os sinais utilizados apresentam uma gama muito grande de eventos e não possuem características padronizadas. A literatura relata sinais de EEG amostrados entre 100 a 600 Hz, com espículas variando de 20 a 200 ms. Nesse estudo foram utilizadas 98 wavelets. Os sinais de EEG foram amostrados de 200 a 1 kHz. Um neurologista marcou um conjunto de 494 espículas e um conjunto de 1500 eventos não-espícula. Esse estudo inicia avaliando a quantidade de decomposições wavelets necessárias para a detecção de espículas, seguido pela análise detalhada do uso combinado de wavelets-mães de uma mesma família e entre famílias. Na sequência é analisada a influência de descritores e o uso combinado na detecção de espículas. A análise dos resultados desses estudos indica que é mais adequado utilizar um conjunto de wavelets-mães, com vários níveis de decomposição e com vários descritores, ao invés de utilizar uma única wavelet-mãe ou um descritor específico para a detecção de espículas. A seleção desse conjunto de wavelets, de níveis de decomposição e de descritores permite obter níveis de detecção elevados conforme a carga computacional que se deseje ou a plataforma computacional disponível para a implementação. Como resultado, esse estudo atingiu níveis de desempenho entre 0,9936 a 0,9999, dependendo da carga computacional. Outras contribuições desse estudo referem-se à análise dos métodos de extensão de borda na detecção de espículas; e a análise da taxa de amostragem de sinais de EEG no desempenho do classificador de espículas, ambos com resultados significativos. São também apresentadas como contribuições: uma nova arquitetura de detecção de espículas, fazendo uso da análise de discriminante linear; e a apresentação de um novo descritor, energia centrada, baseado na resposta dos coeficientes das sub-bandas de decomposição da transformada wavelet, capaz de melhorar a discriminação de eventos espícula e não-espícula. / Researchers have concentrated efforts in the past 20 years, by applying the wavelet transform in processing, filtering, pattern recognition and classification of biomedical signals, in particular signals of electroencephalogram (EEG) containing events characteristic of epilepsy, the spike. Several families of mother-wavelets were used, but there are no consensus about which mother-wavelet is the most adequate for this purpose. The signals used have a wide range of events. The literature reports EEG signals sampled from 100 to 600 Hz with spikes ranging from 20 to 200 ms. In this study we used 98 wavelets. The EEG signals were sampled from 200 Hz up to 1 kHz. A neurologist has scored a set of 494 spikes and a set 1500 non-spike events. This study starts evaluating the amount of wavelet decompositions required for the detection of spikes, followed by detailed analysis of the combined use of mother-wavelets of the same family and among families. Following is analyzed the influence of descriptors and the combined use of them in spike detection. The results of these studies indicate that it is more appropriate to use a set of mother-wavelets, with many levels of decomposition and with various descriptors, instead of using a single mother-wavelet or a specific descriptor for the detection of spikes. The selection of this set of wavelets, decomposition level and descriptors allows to obtain high levels of detection according to the computational load desired or computing platform available for implementation. This study reached performance levels between 0.9936 to 0.9999, depending on the computational load. Other contributions of this study refer to the analysis of the border extension methods for spike detection; and the influences of the EEG signal sampling rate in the classifier performance, each one with significant results. Also shown are: a new spike detection architecture by making use of linear discriminant analysis; and the presentation of a new descriptor, the centred energy, based on the response of the coefficients of decomposition levels of the wavelet transform, able to improve the discrimination of spike and non-spike events.

O uso de dados biométricos da face para verificação automática de identidade é um dos maiores desafios em sistemas de controle de acesso seguro. O processo é extremamente complexo e influenciado por muitos fatores relacionados à forma, posição, iluminação, rotação, translação, disfarce e oclusão de características faciais. Hoje existem muitas técnicas para se reconhecer uma face. Esse trabalho apresenta uma investigação buscando identificar uma face no banco de dados ORL com diferentes grupos de treinamento. É proposto um algoritmo para o reconhecimento de faces baseado na técnica de subespaço LDA (PCA + LDA) utilizando uma rede neural SOM para representar cada classe (face) na etapa de classificação/identificação. Aplicando o método do subespaço LDA busca-se extrair as características mais importantes na identificação das faces previamente conhecidas e presentes no banco de dados, criando um espaço dimensional menor e discriminante com relação ao espaço original. As redes SOM são responsáveis pela memorização das características de cada classe. O algoritmo oferece maior desempenho (taxas de reconhecimento entre 97% e 98%) com relação às adversidades e fontes de erros que prejudicam os métodos de reconhecimento de faces tradicionais. / The use of biometric technique for automatic personal identification is one of the biggest challenges in the security field. The process is complex because it is influenced by many factors related to the form, position, illumination, rotation, translation, disguise and occlusion of face characteristics. Now a days, there are many face recognition techniques. This work presents a methodology for searching a face in the ORL database with some different training sets. The algorithm for face recognition was based on sub-space LDA (PCA + LDA) technique using a SOM neural net to represent each class (face) in the stage of classification/identification. By applying the sub-space LDA method, we extract the most important characteristics in the identification of previously known faces that belong to the database, creating a reduced and more discriminated dimensional space than the original space. The SOM nets are responsible for the memorization of each class characteristic. The algorithm offers great performance (recognition rates between 97% and 98%) considering the adversities and sources of errors inherent to the traditional methods of face recognition.

In der Mobilitätsforschung entstand in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten eine breite Wissensbasis für das Verständnis von Verkehrsursachen und Zusammenhängen, die das Verkehrsverhalten determinieren. Mit der Entwicklung von Verkehrsmodellen lag das Forschungsinteresse zunächst primär bei Ökonomen und Ökonometrikern sowie Verkehrsingenieuren. Bald kamen andere Wissenschaftsbereiche wie die Psychologie oder die Geowissenschaften hinzu, welche sich in der Folge zunehmend mit dem Thema Mobilität befassten und die zur Erklärung des menschlichen Verhaltens ganz unterschiedliche Methoden und Maßstäbe nutzten. Heute versuchen zumeist handlungsorientierte Ansätze, auf Individualebene, Faktoren zu bestimmen, die Aufschluss über die Verhaltensvariabilität in der Bevölkerung geben und damit einen möglichst großen Beitrag zur Varianzaufklärung leisten. Werden Einflussfaktoren in geeigneter Weise identifiziert und quantifiziert, können Defizite und Chancen erkannt und das Verhalten steuernde Maßnahmen entworfen werden. Mit deren Hilfe wird ungewollten Entwicklungen entgegengesteuert. Junge Erwachsene stellen aufgrund ihrer sehr unterschiedlichen Phasen im Lebenszyklus, z. B. gerade anstehender oder abgeschlossener Ausbildung, Umzug in eine eigene Wohnung, Familiengründung, Neuorientierung in Arbeitsroutinen oder das Einleben in ein anderes Lebensumfeld einer fremden Stadt, intuitiv eine sehr heterogene Gruppe dar. Die Modellierung des Verhaltens ist für diese Altersgruppe besonders schwierig. Aus der Komplexität dieser Problemstellung heraus ist ersichtlich, dass fundierte Analysen zur Mobilität junger Erwachsener notwendig sind, um verkehrsplanerische Defizite aufzudecken und Chancen zu erkennen. Der methodische Schwerpunkt des Beitrages liegt auf der Bildung einer Typologie des Verkehrsverhaltens junger Erwachsener. Die verwendete Datengrundlage ist das „Deutsche Mobilitätspanel – MOP“. Dabei wird der Versuch unternommen, zunächst Variablen aller relevanten Dimensionen des handlungsorientierten, aktivitätsbasierten Verkehrsverhaltens zusammenzustellen und für eine entsprechende Analyse aufzubereiten. Im Anschluss werden geeignete und in den Sozialwissenschaften erprobte Verfahren zur Ähnlichkeitsmessung eingesetzt, um möglichst verhaltensähnliche Personen zu typologisieren. Im Weiteren finden konfirmatorische Analysetechniken Anwendung, mit deren Hilfe Verhaltenshintergründe erklärt und inferenzstatistisch geprüft werden. Als Ergebnis wird eine clusteranalytische Typologisierung vorgestellt, die im Anschluss anhand soziodemografischer Indikatoren und raumstruktureller Kriterien der Lagegunst beschrieben wird. Aufgrund der gewonnenen Erkenntnisse können objektive und im Idealfall quantifizierbare, d. h. prognosefähige Merkmale zur Bildung verkehrssoziologischer und weitgehend verhaltensähnlicher Personengruppen genutzt werden. / Over the last few decades of mobility research, a wide base of knowledge for understanding travel determinants and causal relationships in mobility behavior has been established. The development of travel models was at first of interest primarily to economists and econometricians as well as transportation engineers. They were soon joined by other scientific areas such as psychology or the geosciences, which as a result increasingly addressed the theme of mobility and used quite different methodologies and criteria for explaining human behavior. Today, activity-oriented approaches generally attempt to determine individual-level factors that provide information on behavioral variability within the population, thereby contributing greatly to explaining variances. If explanatory factors can be properly identified and quantified, then deficiencies and opportunities can be recognized and measures for influencing behavior can be conceptualized. With their help, undesirable developments can be avoided. Because of their highly differing stages in life, e.g. upcoming or recently completed education, moving into their own apartment, starting a family, becoming oriented in a work routine or adapting to a new environment in a different city, young adults are intuitively a very heterogeneous group. Modeling the behavior of this age group is particularly difficult. This problem makes it clear that founded analysis of the mobility of young adults is necessary in order to recognize deficiencies and opportunities in transportation planning. The methodological focus of this work is on creating a typology of young adults’ travel behavior. The base data is from the “Deutsches Mobilitätspanel – MOP” (German Mobility Panel). An attempt is made to gather and prepare all relevant dimensions of decision-oriented, activity-based travel behavior for a corresponding analysis. Afterward, appropriate and proven methods from the social sciences are used to test for similarity in order to identify groups of persons which are as behaviorally homogeneous as possible. In addition, confirmatory data analysis is utilized which helps explain and test, through inferential statistics, determinants of behavior. The resulting typology from the cluster analysis is presented and followed by a description using sociodemographic indicators and spatial criteria of accessibility. The findings make it possible to use objective and, ideally, quantifiable and therefore forecastable characteristics for identifying sociological population groups within which similar travel behavior is displayed.

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le contexte de l’analyse et de la classification de signaux électroencéphalogrammes (EEG) par des méthodes d’analyse discriminante. Ces signaux multi-capteurs qui sont, par nature, très fortement corrélés spatialement et temporellement sont considérés dans le plan temps-fréquence. En particulier, nous nous intéressons à des signaux de type potentiels évoqués qui sont bien représentés dans l’espace des ondelettes. Par la suite, nous considérons donc les signaux représentés par des coefficients multi-échelles et qui ont une structure matricielle électrodes × coefficients. Les signaux EEG sont considérés comme un mélange entre l’activité d’intérêt que l’on souhaite extraire et l’activité spontanée (ou "bruit de fond"), qui est largement prépondérante. La problématique principale est ici de distinguer des signaux issus de différentes conditions expérimentales (classes). Dans le cas binaire, nous nous focalisons sur l’approche probabiliste de l’analyse discriminante et des modèles de mélange gaussien sont considérés, décrivant dans chaque classe les signaux en termes de composantes fixes (moyenne) et aléatoires. Cette dernière, caractérisée par sa matrice de covariance, permet de modéliser différentes sources de variabilité. Essentielle à la mise en oeuvre de l’analyse discriminante, l’estimation de cette matrice (et de son inverse) peut être dégradée dans le cas de grandes dimensions et/ou de faibles échantillons d’apprentissage, cadre applicatif de cette thèse. Nous nous intéressons aux alternatives qui se basent sur la définition de modèle(s) de covariance(s) particulier(s) et qui permettent de réduire le nombre de paramètres à estimer. / The present thesis finds itself within the framework of analyzing and classifying electroencephalogram signals (EEG) using discriminant analysis. Those multi-sensor signals which are, by nature, highly correlated spatially and temporally are considered, in this work, in the timefrequency domain. In particular, we focus on low-frequency evoked-related potential-type signals (ERPs) that are well described in the wavelet domain. Thereafter, we will consider signals represented by multi-scale coefficients and that have a matrix structure electrodes × coefficients. Moreover, EEG signals are seen as a mixture between the signal of interest that we want to extract and spontaneous activity (also called "background noise") which is overriding. The main problematic is here to distinguish signals from different experimental conditions (class). In the binary case, we focus on the probabilistic approach of the discriminant analysis and Gaussian mixtures are used, describing in each class the signals in terms of fixed (mean) and random components. The latter, characterized by its covariance matrix, allow to model different variability sources. The estimation of this matrix (and of its inverse) is essential for the implementation of the discriminant analysis and can be deteriorated by high-dimensional data and/or by small learning samples, which is the application framework of this thesis. We are interested in alternatives that are based on specific covariance model(s) and that allow to decrease the number of parameters to estimate.

Les tourbières ombrotrophes, ou bogs sont particulièrement vulnérables à l’augmentation de la déposition atmosphérique d’azote. Cet apport d’un nutriment normalement limitant altère la capacité des tourbières à accumuler le carbone (C), en plus de mener à des changements de leur composition végétale. L’imagerie spectrale est une approche prometteuse puisqu’elle rend possible la détection des espèces végétales et de certaines caractéristiques chimiques des plantes, à distance. Toutefois, l’ampleur des différences spectrales intra- et interespèces n’est pas encore connue. Nous avons évalué la façon dont la chimie, la structure et la signature spectrale des feuilles changent chez Chamaedaphne calyculata, Kalmia angustifolia, Rhododendron groenlandicum et Eriophorum vaginatum, dans trois tourbières du sud du Québec et de l’Ontario, incluant une tourbière où se déroule une expérience de fertilisation à long terme. Nous avons mesuré des changements dans les traits fonctionnels dus aux différences dans la quantité d’azote disponible dans les sites. Toutefois, la déposition atmosphérique d’azote a eu relativement peu d’effet sur les spectres foliaires ; les variations spectrales les plus importantes étaient entre les espèces. En fait, nous avons trouvé que les quatre espèces ont un spectre caractéristique, une signature spectrale permettant leur identification au moyen d’analyses discriminantes des moindres carrés partiels (PLSDA). De plus, nous avons réussi à prédire plusieurs traits fonctionnels (l’azote, le carbone ; et la proportion d’eau et de matière sèche) avec moins de 10 % d’erreur grâce à des régressions des moindres carrés partiels (PLSR) des données spectrales. Notre étude fournit de nouvelles preuves que les variations intraspécifiques, causées en partie par des variations environnementales considérables, sont perceptibles dans les spectres foliaires. Toutefois, les variations intraspécifiques n’affectent pas l’identification des espèces ou la prédiction des traits. Nous démontrons que les spectres foliaires comprennent des informations sur les espèces et leurs traits fonctionnels, confirmant le potentiel de la spectroscopie pour le suivi des tourbières. / Abstract Bogs, as nutrient-poor ecosystems, are particularly sensitive to atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition. Nitrogen deposition alters bog plant community composition and can limit their ability to sequester carbon (C). Spectroscopy is a promising approach for studying how N deposition affects bogs because of its ability to remotely determine changes in plant species composition in the long term as well as shorter-term changes in foliar chemistry. However, there is limited knowledge on the extent to which bog plants differ in their foliar spectral properties, how N deposition might affect those properties, and whether subtle inter- or intraspecific changes in foliar traits can be spectrally detected. Using an integrating sphere fitted to a field spectrometer, we measured spectral properties of leaves from the four most common vascular plant species (Chamaedaphne calyculata, Kalmia angustifolia, Rhododendron groenlandicum and Eriophorum vaginatum) in three bogs in southern Québec and Ontario, Canada, exposed to different atmospheric N deposition levels, including one subjected to a 18 years N fertilization experiment. We also measured chemical and morphological properties of those leaves. We found detectable intraspecific changes in leaf structural traits and chemistry (namely chlorophyll b and N concentrations) with increasing N deposition and identified spectral regions that helped distinguish the site-specific populations within each species. Most of the variation in leaf spectral, chemical and morphological properties was among species. As such, species had distinct spectral foliar signatures, allowing us to identify them with high accuracy with partial least squares discriminant analyses (PLSDA). Predictions of foliar traits from spectra using partial least squares regression (PLSR) were generally accurate, particularly for the concentrations of N and C, soluble C, leaf water, and dry matter content (<10% RMSEP). However, these multi-species PLSR models were not accurate within species, where the range of values was narrow. To improve the detection of short-term intraspecific changes in functional traits, models should be trained with more species-specific data. Our field study showing clear differences in foliar spectra and traits among species, and some within-species differences due to N deposition, suggest that spectroscopy is a promising approach for assessing long-term vegetation changes in bogs subject to atmospheric pollution.

Researchers perform multivariate techniques MANOVA, discriminant analysis and factor analysis. The most common applications in social science are to identify and test the effects from the analysis. The use of this multivariate technique is uncommon in investigating the effects of power usage and Province in South Africa on the amounts of the five power modes. This dissertation discusses this issue, the methodology and practical problems of the three multivariate techniques. The author examines the applications of each technique in social public research and comparisons are made between the three multivariate techniques. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of both the concepts of the present multivariate techniques and the results found on the use of the three multivariate techniques in the energy household consumption. The author recommends focusing on the hypotheses of the study or typical questions surrounding of each technique to guide the researcher in choosing the appropriate analysis in the social research, as each technique has some strengths and limitations. / Statistics / M. Sc. (Statistics)