Thèse--Geneva. / Original title, L'évolution économique et sociale dans la province du Farsistan, covered by mounted label. Bibliography: p. 138-144.

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Abstract Introduction: It has during the latest years occurred several large business scandals both abroad and in Sweden where auditors have been involved. The need for stabile conditions and well functioning professional codes of ethics for companies, especially auditing firms have been growing during the latest years. FAR has seen it as their task to define the meaning of the Swedish term ”god revisorssed”. This is specified through FAR’s nine professional codes of ethics, which came out in a new edition in 2003. The opinions about what is considered as high moral and ethical reasoning often goes apart. In previous studies it has been shown that these opinions have been affected by different factors, such as age, gender and size of the auditing firm. With this background it is interesting to examine auditor’s ethical reasoning with help of the FAR professional codes of ethics. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine and explain auditors’ ethical reasoning, and also investigate which factors that affect ethical reasoning. Method: In this study a quantitative method is used to get a broad study where general connections can be found. The data used is primary data from a survey. The survey consists of three ethical dilemmas which the respondents have to take a standpoint to and grade. The respondents also answered some general short questions about their background. The results are presented with help of mean calculations and other methods of descriptive statistics, and an interpretation of the respondents’ comments. Results: From the means that have been calculated for the three dilemmas, it is possible to draw the conclusion that the auditors in this study are relatively ethical. It is not enough to only study the mean values to determine if the auditors are ethical or not. To get a fairer point of view it is better to read the comments given by the respondents. It is by these comments that it is possible to examine how the auditors reason about ethical dilemmas. The results also show that the auditors reason different about the different professional codes of ethics. In comparison with the factors: gender, age, ethical education, experience and size of the firm with ability to ethical reasoning, a statistical connection could not be found. / Sammanfattning Inledning: Det har under de senaste åren förekommit flera stora företagsskandaler både utomlands och i Sverige där revisorer varit inblandade. För företag och då särskilt för revisionsbyråer är behovet stort av stabila förutsätt-ningar för väl fungerande och allmänt accepterade yrkesetik. FAR har sett det som sin uppgift att precisera innebörden av den lagstadgade termen god revisorssed. Detta preciseras genom FARs nio yrkesetiska regler som utkom i ny utgåva 2003. Åsikterna går ofta isär om vad som an-ses vara god etik och moral. Det har visat sig i tidigare studier att dessa åsikter kan påverkas av faktorer som till exempel kön, ålder och storlek på byrån. Med bakgrund av detta uppkom intresset för att med hjälp av FARs yrkesetiska regler undersöka revisorers förmåga till etiskt resone-mang. Syfte: Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka och förklara hur revisorer resonerar kring etik samt att utreda vilka faktorer som påverkar det etiska resonemanget. Metod: I den här studien används en kvantitativ metod för att få en bred studie där generella samband kan hittas. Den data som använts är primärdata i form av en enkätundersökning. Enkäten består av tre etiska dilemman som respondenterna ska ta ställning till och poängsätta, samt kortfrågor av generell karaktär. Resultaten presenteras med hjälp av uträkning av medelvärden och andra beskrivande statistiska instrument samt tolkning av respondenternas kommentarer. Resultat: Utifrån de medelvärden som räknats fram för de tre dilemmana går det att dra slutsatsen att revisorerna som deltagit i enkätundersökningen är relativt etiska. Det är dock inte tillräckligt att bara titta på medelvärdena för att kunna avgöra ifall revisorer är etiska. Det kan ge en mer rättvisande bild att också titta på de kommentarer som revisorerna i vissa fall har givit. Det är först då, som det är möjligt att se hur revisorn verkligen tänker kring dilemmana. Resultaten visar också att revisorerna resonerar olika kring de olika yrkesetiska reglerna. Vid en jämförelse mellan etiskt re-sonemang och faktorerna kön, ålder, etikutbildning, erfarenhet samt storlek på byrån går det inte att finna några statistiskt säkerställda sam-band.

<p>Abstract</p><p>Introduction: It has during the latest years occurred several large business scandals both abroad and in Sweden where auditors have been involved. The need for stabile conditions and well functioning professional codes of ethics for companies, especially auditing firms have been growing during the latest years. FAR has seen it as their task to define the meaning of the Swedish term ”god revisorssed”. This is specified through FAR’s nine professional codes of ethics, which came out in a new edition in 2003. The opinions about what is considered as high moral and ethical reasoning often goes apart. In previous studies it has been shown that these opinions have been affected by different factors, such as age, gender and size of the auditing firm. With this background it is interesting to examine auditor’s ethical reasoning with help of the FAR professional codes of ethics.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine and explain auditors’ ethical reasoning, and also investigate which factors that affect ethical reasoning.</p><p>Method: In this study a quantitative method is used to get a broad study where general connections can be found. The data used is primary data from a survey. The survey consists of three ethical dilemmas which the respondents have to take a standpoint to and grade. The respondents also answered some general short questions about their background. The results are presented with help of mean calculations and other methods of descriptive statistics, and an interpretation of the respondents’ comments.</p><p>Results: From the means that have been calculated for the three dilemmas, it is possible to draw the conclusion that the auditors in this study are relatively ethical. It is not enough to only study the mean values to determine if the auditors are ethical or not. To get a fairer point of view it is better to read the comments given by the respondents. It is by these comments that it is possible to examine how the auditors reason about ethical dilemmas. The results also show that the auditors reason different about the different professional codes of ethics. In comparison with the factors: gender, age, ethical education, experience and size of the firm with ability to ethical reasoning, a statistical connection could not be found.</p> / <p>Sammanfattning</p><p>Inledning: Det har under de senaste åren förekommit flera stora företagsskandaler både utomlands och i Sverige där revisorer varit inblandade. För företag och då särskilt för revisionsbyråer är behovet stort av stabila förutsätt-ningar för väl fungerande och allmänt accepterade yrkesetik. FAR har sett det som sin uppgift att precisera innebörden av den lagstadgade termen god revisorssed. Detta preciseras genom FARs nio yrkesetiska regler som utkom i ny utgåva 2003. Åsikterna går ofta isär om vad som an-ses vara god etik och moral. Det har visat sig i tidigare studier att dessa åsikter kan påverkas av faktorer som till exempel kön, ålder och storlek på byrån. Med bakgrund av detta uppkom intresset för att med hjälp av FARs yrkesetiska regler undersöka revisorers förmåga till etiskt resone-mang.</p><p>Syfte: Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka och förklara hur revisorer resonerar kring etik samt att utreda vilka faktorer som påverkar det etiska resonemanget.</p><p>Metod: I den här studien används en kvantitativ metod för att få en bred studie där generella samband kan hittas. Den data som använts är primärdata i form av en enkätundersökning. Enkäten består av tre etiska dilemman som respondenterna ska ta ställning till och poängsätta, samt kortfrågor av generell karaktär. Resultaten presenteras med hjälp av uträkning av medelvärden och andra beskrivande statistiska instrument samt tolkning av respondenternas kommentarer.</p><p>Resultat: Utifrån de medelvärden som räknats fram för de tre dilemmana går det att dra slutsatsen att revisorerna som deltagit i enkätundersökningen är relativt etiska. Det är dock inte tillräckligt att bara titta på medelvärdena för att kunna avgöra ifall revisorer är etiska. Det kan ge en mer rättvisande bild att också titta på de kommentarer som revisorerna i vissa fall har givit. Det är först då, som det är möjligt att se hur revisorn verkligen tänker kring dilemmana. Resultaten visar också att revisorerna resonerar olika kring de olika yrkesetiska reglerna. Vid en jämförelse mellan etiskt re-sonemang och faktorerna kön, ålder, etikutbildning, erfarenhet samt storlek på byrån går det inte att finna några statistiskt säkerställda sam-band.</p>

Fondée par Darius Ier (522-486 av. J.-C.), Persépolis constituait une des résidences royales temporaires des souverains de l’Empire achéménide (550-330 av. J.-C.). Elle était également un centre administratif et économique, capitale d’une vaste province, la Perse, située au cœur de l’Empire. L’organisation de Persépolis reste largement méconnue de même que celle du vaste territoire, la plaine environnante, qu’elle contrôlait.Notre étude vise à mieux comprendre d’une part l’occupation du site de Persépolis qui va de la terrasse monumentale à la nécropole royale à 6 km au nord, d’autre part la mise en valeur de la plaine, en replaçant la période achéménide dans le contexte plus large du Ier millénaire av. J.-C. Dans un premier temps, l’étude prend en compte les dynamiques environnementales de la région. Les recherches sont fondées sur les méthodes de prospections archéologiques (reconnaissances à vue et méthodes géophysiques). Elle aboutit à une reconstitution d’une ville répartie en plusieurs blocs de fonctions différentes (habitats ordinaires, zones artisanales, résidences de l’élite et bâtiments de prestige) séparés les uns des autres par de vastes espaces non-bâtis mais probablement aménagés.Pour la plaine (100 km par 30 km), la prospection des sites achéménides a dû prendre en compte les graves destructions liées à la modernisation (agriculture, urbanisation, voies de communication) et s’est concentrée sur quelques sites préservés et des zones de piedmonts sélectionnées. Ces recherches ont montré une occupation très distendue essentiellement localisée dans la partie nord de la plaine et incluant la zone de Persépolis. La partie sud de la plaine était beaucoup moins exploitée. Cependant cette reconstitution doit tenir compte de la réduction sévère du potentiel archéologique, tout particulièrement dans le cadre de l’étude de l’occupation à la période achéménide, lorsque l’exploitation du sol reposait sur des installations rurales de dimensions modestes. / Founded by Darius I (522-486 BC), Persepolis represented one of the seats of the kings of the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC). Moreover, the site served as an administrative and economic centre and acted as capital for the vast province, named Persia, situated in the heart of the Empire. The spatial character of both the royal site as well as the wider hinterland it controlled, the vast surrounding plain, are however largely unknown.The study aims at providing better insight in both the occupation of the site of Persepolis, stretching from the monumental terrace to the royal necropolis 6 km farther north, along with that of the supporting plain. It therefore frames and evaluates the Achaemenid period within the context of the first millennium BC. At the outset, the study integrates the environmental dynamics of the region. The research was based on the methods of archaeological survey (field survey and geophysical methods) and allowed to reconstruct a ‘city’ composed of different functional zones (common housing, industrial quarters, elite residences, and royal monuments) separated from one another by large areas, presumably unbuilt though exploited.For the plain (100 by 30 km), the survey of Achaemenid sites was biased by the important destructions by recent development (industrialised agriculture, urbanism, transport and communication). Research has therefore been focussed on a number of preserved sites on the one hand and on selected piedmont areas on the other. These surveys brought to light a scattered occupation, predominantly situated in the northern part of the plain, also encompassing the Persepolis zone, while the southern region of the plain was less occupied. Nonetheless, this reconstruction should take into account the important reduction of archaeological potential, particularly in the case of a study focussing on the Achaemenid occupation since settlement in the wider Persepolis area was first and foremost of rural natural and of rather modest size.

Master of Science / Department of Civil Engineering / Sunanda Dissanayake / Rapid increases are estimated in the percentage of elderly among the U.S. population starting in 2010. A majority of the older Americans depend on automobiles to meet their transportation needs either because of lack of public transportation or by choice. Ninety percent of total trips made by the elderly are by personal vehicle and seventy percent of this number involves the elderly driving the vehicles. However due to the aging process, older drivers experience a natural decline in sensory, cognitive, and other mental and physical capabilities as compared to younger drivers. This situation, combined with an imperfect highway infrastructure is making older drivers one of the most critical groups in terms of highway safety, thus demanding safer driving conditions. Safety concern for older drivers arises when the fatality rate per mile driven is considered, as exposure is one of the crucial factors contributing to increased fatality risk of older drivers. Hence, exposure reported in Billion Vehicle Miles Traveled (BVMT) was considered for this study. Crash data and exposure data were used to compute the fatality rates. Sources for this data are the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and National Household Travel Survey (NHTS). A basic characteristics study was completed to compare the fatality risk of younger (16-24 yrs), middle-aged (25-64 yrs), and older drivers (65+ yrs). Crash details were screened to study the characteristics of older drivers involved in fatal crashes. Risk for older drivers due to other involved drivers of all ages divided into groups was studied to understand their distribution. A number of statistical methods like the chi-square test of independence, odds ratio and double paired comparison estimates were applied to study contributing factors of older driver’s increased fatal crash involvement. Results from the characteristics study for the elderly indicate that a majority of fatal crashes occur under daylight conditions with relatively higher seatbelt usage and non-alcoholic driving on straight level roads, which are generally considered as safer driving conditions. Other factors studied include vehicle-related variables like body type; manner of collision; roadway-related variables like roadway function class, month of the crash, and day of the week; and driver-related variables like race. Roadway functional class, vehicle body type, travel speed, number of drunk drivers, and the month in which the fatality occurred were found to have strong correlation with age of the older driver. Results from paired comparisons were used to estimate the fatality risk of older occupants as drivers and passengers under two different conditions considered simultaneously. Older drivers were found to have more fatality risk compared to older passengers. Recommended measures are also discussed to enhance older driver safety in the U.S.

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Each year about 400,000 trucks are involved in motor vehicle crashes. Crashes involving a car and truck have always been a major concern due to the heavy fatality rates. These types of crashes result in about 60 percent of all fatal truck crashes and two-thirds of all police-reportable truck crashes. Car-truck crashes need to be analyzed further to study the trends for a car-truck crash and develop some countermeasures to lower these crashes. Various types of car-truck crashes are analyzed in this study and the effects of various roadway/environment factors and variables related to driver characteristics in these car-truck crashes are investigated. To examine the crash characteristics and to investigate the significant factors related to a car-truck crash, this study analyzed five years of data (2000-2004) of the General estimates system of National Sampling System (GES) and the Fatality Analysis Reporting system database (FARS). All two vehicle crashes including either a car or truck (truck-truck cases excluded because of their low percentage composition) were obtained from these databases. Based on the five year data (GES/FARS) the percentage of car-truck angle collisions constituted the highest percent of frequency of all types of car-truck collisions. Furthermore, based on the 2004 GES data there is a clear trend that the frequency of angle collision increases with the increase in driver injury severity. When analyzing the GES data it was observed that the percentage of angle collisions was the highest followed by the rear end and sideswipe (same direction) collisions respectively. When the fatalities were considered (FARS database used), the percentage of angle collisions was the highest followed by head-on and rear-end collisions. The nominal multinomial logit model and logistic regression models were utilized for this analysis. Divided section, alcohol involvement, adverse weather conditions, dark lighting condition and old age of drivers had a significant effect on the car-truck crashes and were likely to increase the likelihood of a car-truck crash. Whereas dark but light conditions, young aged drivers showed a less likelihood of involving in a car-truck crash. This research is significant in providing an insight into various car-truck crash types and provides with results, which have impacted the car-truck crashes. A better understanding of the factors impacting these crashes will help in providing better countermeasures, which would result in reducing the car-truck crashes.

Fatal automobile crashes have claimed the lives of over 33,000 people each year in the United States since 1995. As in any point event, fatal crash events do not occur randomly in time or space. The objectives of this study were to identify spatial patterns and hot spots in FARS (Fatal Analysis Reporting System) fatal crash events based on temporal and demographic characteristics. The methods employed included 1) rate calculation using FARS points and average daily traffic flow; 2) planar kernel density estimation of FARS crash events based on temporal and demographic attributes within the data; and 3) two case studies using network kernel density estimation along roadways to determine hot spots fatal crashes in Jefferson County and Warren County. Rate calculation analyses revealed that travel on roads with high speed limits and winding topography led to the highest number of crashes and highest rate of fatal crashesper 1,000 daily vehicles. Planar kernel density estimation results showed temporalpatterns, revealing that ‘hot spots’ and fatalities were highest in the summer, and typically occurred from 2pm-6pm on the weekends. Further, the 16 to 25 year age group was responsible for the most significant ‘hot spots’ and the most fatal accidents. Also showing that the most significant hot spots involving alcohol occurring in close proximity to meeting places such as bars and restaurants. Finally, results from the network kernel density estimation revealed that most hot spots were in high traffic areas of where majorr oads converged with secondary roads.

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