This cross cultural study compares the fairness perceptions of New Zealand and Malaysian individual taxpayers of their respective income tax systems, and investigates the consequences of those perceptions, together with other important variables, on their compliance behaviour. A theoretical framework was developed based on Equity Theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The study’s hypotheses were tested using the responses to questionnaire surveys (which included two scenarios) and in-depth telephone interviews, which were conducted sequentially in both countries. Partial Least Squares and thematic analysis were used to analyse the surveys and interviews data, respectively. The results suggest that Malaysian taxpayers have significantly better perceptions of fairness of their income tax systems than their New Zealand counterparts, yet New Zealand taxpayers are more compliant. The most consistently important factor in explaining taxpayers’ compliance behaviour across the two countries is their attitude towards compliance, followed by subjective norms. Fairness perceptions, which are highly influenced by their tax knowledge and perceived complexity of the tax system, are also influential, particularly in the understating other incomes scenario. This cross-cultural study demonstrates that regardless of the differences between the two countries under study (in relation to economies, cultures and ethnicities), taxpayers generally respond in quite similar ways when it comes to meeting their tax obligations.

L'huile d'olive est un élément important de l'alimentation méditerranéenne. Cependant lorsqu'une huile vieillit, elle se dégrade et perd ses propriétés. Il est donc important de connaitre l'évolution de la composition de l'huile en fonction de ses conditions de stockage et de fabrication. Ce suivi a été effectué sur deux huiles de fabrication différente, une huile fruité vert et une huile fruité noir, obtenue à partir d'olive à maturité que l'on a laissé fermenter quelques jours. De manière à obtenir rapidement des vieillissements poussés, ces deux huiles ont été vieillies artificiellement, par procédé thermique , et par procédé photochimique. Ces vieillissements ont été réalisés sur des volumes différents de manière à déterminer l'impact du rapport surface/masse. En parallèle, des échantillons de chacune des deux huiles ont été conservés durant 24 mois dans des conditions de stockage différentes déterminées à l'aide d'un plan d'expériences. Les paramètres influençant le plus la conservation de l'huile d'olive sont l'apport en oxygène, la luminosité et la température. Ces influences ont été déterminées à partir du suivi des principaux paramètres de qualité La réponse des plans a permis de mettre en évidence des interactions entre ces différents paramètres. L'analyse de la composition de l'huile ainsi que de tous les critères de qualité demande beaucoup de temps et consomme une grande quantité de solvant. Afin de pallier à ces désagréments, les résultats ont également été utilisés pour construire des modèles chimiométriques permettant de déterminer ces grandeurs à partir des spectres proche et moyen infrarouge des échantillons. / Olive oil is an important component of the Mediterranean diet. When oil ages, it deteriorates and loses its properties. It is therefore important to know the evolution of the oil composition according to the conditions of storage and manufacturing. This monitoring was carried out on two different oils manufacturing, green fruity oil obtained from olives harvested before maturity, and black fruit oil obtained from olives harvest at maturity and fermented for few days under controlled conditions. To obtain quickly pushed aging, these two oils were artificially aged by heat process (heated to 180 °C under supply of O2), and photochemical process (under an UV lamp and under supply of O2). These aging were performed on different volumes to determine the impact of surface/weight ratio. In parallel, samples of both oils were stored for 24 months under different storage conditions determined using an experimental design. The parameters affecting the most the conservation of olive oil are oxygen, light and temperature. These influences were determined from the monitoring of key quality criteria. Response of experimental design helped to highlight the interactions between these different parameters. The analysis of the oil composition as well as all the quality criteria requires a large amount of solvents and a lot of time consumer. To overcome these inconveniences, chemometric models has been built to determine these criteria from the near and mid-infrared spectra of samples. Natural aging is very little advanced in comparison to accelerated aging, so predictive models were established from the results of natural aging and accelerated separately.

Cette recherche vise à comprendre la relation existante entre l’innovation de services et l’internationalisation, à savoir, comment les entreprises obtiennent des avantages compétitifs sur les marchés internationaux grâce à l'innovation dans le secteur des services aux entreprises.Nous avons testé la relation entre l'innovation et la performance internationale, avons évalué l'impact de l'innovation par rapport à d'autres avantages internationaux. Symétriquement, nous avons également vérifié dans quelle mesure le processus d'internationalisation peut être un puissant moteur d'innovation pour les entreprises de services. Après le développement d'un modèle théorique, nous avons procédé à une enquête téléphonique auprès de 807 entreprises de services exportatrices. Les répondants cible de l'enquête étaient des cadres supérieurs de sociétés de services internationalisés en France. 51 réponses exploitables ont été reçues. Les données recueillies ont été analysées par Modélisation des Équations Structurelles (SEM), en utilisant la méthode Partial Least Square. Le modèle testé montre que l'innovation de service a une influence positive sur le développement international et que la compétence internationale, obtenue sur les marchés étrangers, stimule la dynamique de l'innovation dans les entreprises de services. Le modèle proposé met en évidence les capacités de R & D (organisationnelle), relationnelles, les TIC, la compétence internationale, l’innovation de service et l’expérience internationale comme facteurs qui influent les résultats des entreprises internationalisées, ou plus précisément, la performance international. / This research deals with service innovation and internationalization: how firms perform on international markets and get an edge thanks to innovation on service concept or service process. We tested the relationship between innovation and international performance, assessed the impact of innovation compared to other international advantages. Symmetrically, we also checked how far the internationalization process can be a powerful driver of innovation for service firms. After the development of a theoretical model, data were collected from a telephone survey. The target respondents of the survey were senior executives of internationalized service companies in France. Out of the 807 companies which were contacted, 51 usable responses were received. The data collected were analyzed by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), using the Partial Least Square method. The tested model shows that service innovation has a positive influence on international development and that the international competence, obtained in foreign markets, drives the dynamics of innovation in services company. The model proposed highlights the capabilities for R & D (organizational), relational, ICT, international competence, service and international experience as factors that impact the final results of internationalized companies, or more specifically, the international performance.

The aim of this thesis is to identify factors that affect the university students&rsquo / acceptance of multi-purpose Smart Cards. The findings of this study will be beneficial to facilitate the use of Smart-Card enabled system both n universities and in other institutions which either have these systems in use or plan to invest on these systems in the future. The research methodology employed within this study is based on quantitative methods. A survey instrument comprising 51 5-point Likert-type questions has been developed and applied to 207 university Middle East Technical University students. The data collected has been analyzed using Exploratory Factor Analysis to categorize factors having items. According to analysis results, the data classified under 5 factors / Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Behavioral Intention, Anxiety, and Technological Complexity. Then, the relations between these 5 factors identified and a measurement model was created. For assessing the proposed model Discriminant and Convergent Validity scores were calculated by Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Then, Structural Equation Modeling was conducted with Partial Least Squares for validating the model&rsquo / s estimated influence. The study has shown that the main Technology Acceptance Model constructs fit for determining the university students&rsquo / intention of Smart Card usage except for Perceived Ease of Use over Behavioral Intention. Moreover, study showed that Anxiety and Technological Complexity were the external factors that have effect on willingness of using multi-purpose Smart Cards. If students have Anxiety, this affects their perception of easiness of the system and it has negative indirect effect on the perceived usefulness and direct effect on intention. Technological Complexity is another factor which has direct affect on the perception of easiness and usefulness and intention.

To significantly improve the early detection of cervical precancers and cancers, LightTouch™ is under development by SpectRx Inc.. LightTouch™ identifies cancers and precancers quickly by using a spectrometer to analyze light reflected from the cervix. Data from the spectrometer is then used to create an image of the cervix that highlights the location and severity of disease. Our research is conducted to find the appropriate models that can be used to generate map-like image showing disease tissue from normal and further diagnose the cervical cancerous conditions. Through large work of explanatory variable search and reduction, logistic regression and Partial Least Square Regression successfully applied to our modeling process. These models were validated by 60/40 cross validation and 10 folder cross validation. Further examination of model performance, such as AUC, sensitivity and specificity, threshold had been conducted.

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Cookies är idag ett utbrett fenomen som nyttjas vid digital insamling av information. Informationen som samlas in är ofta av personlig karaktär och används bland annat för att individanpassa användarupplevelser på webbsidor. Ovissheten kring digital insamling av personlig information skapar en oro som idag är mycket omdebatterad. Detta arbete utgörs av en kvantitativ studie med syfte att undersöka möjliga samband mellan universitetsstudenters medvetenhet, attityd och beteende gällande digital insamling av information. Undersökningen består av en onlinebaserad enkät. Det insamlade materialet har analyserats utifrån det teoretiska ramverket Communication Privacy Management (CPM) med hjälp av analysmetoden Partial Least Squares (PLS) samt IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) för att finna relevanta samband. Resultat påvisade att majoriteten universitetsstudenter känner till fenomenet cookies, men färre känner till dess användningsområden. Det konstaterades även att medvetenhet kring cookies har en påverkan på både beteende och attityd. Det fastställdes även att oavsett om universitetsstudenter har en negativ attityd förändras inte dess beteende. / Cookies are a widespread phenomenon and the main technique for digital collection of information. The collected information is often of personal nature and is used, among other things, to personalize user experiences on web pages. The uncertainty regarding digital collection of personal information creates privacy concerns that is significantly debated today. This essay consists of a quantitative study with the aim to investigate possible relations between university students awareness, attitude and behaviour regarding digital collection of information. The survey consist of an online-based poll. The gathered material has been analyzed by the theoretical framework Communication Communication Management (CPM) with the analysis method Partial Least Squares (PLS) and the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to find relevant relations. Results showed that the majority of university students are familiar with the phenomenon of cookies, but few are aware of its area of use. It was also found that awareness of cookies has an influence on both behaviour and attitude. It can be established that regardless of whether university students have a negative or positive attitude regarding cookies, it does not affect their behaviour.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:26:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Anderson Luis Saber Campos.pdf: 1013366 bytes, checksum: 2e9d466c92f8d404ca44d38a91e676e8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-09-11 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / From the theory on structure of capital and the application of structural equations a model was considered to evaluate the indebtedness of the public companies in Brazil. The effect of direct and indirect costs of bankruptcy, tax benefits, agency costs of free cash flow and the agency costs of borrowing. Computed the results, which was opted to analyzing an alternative model that indicates the relevance of the capital demand and offers effects in the level of companies indebtedness. One met evidences on the relevance of direct and indirect costs of bankruptcy and agency costs of borrowing in the determination of the capital structure in analyzed companies. / A partir da teoria sobre estrutura de capital e da aplicação de equações estruturais foi proposto um modelo para avaliar o endividamento das companhias abertas no Brasil. Foram considerados os efeitos das dificuldades financeiras, benefícios fiscais, agency de capital próprio e de capital de terceiros. Computado os resultados optou-se por analisar um modelo alternativo segundo o qual encontramos indícios e relevância dos efeitos da demanda e oferta de capital no nível de endividamento das empresas. Encontrou-se evidências que dificuldades financeiras e agency de capital de terceiros influem na determinação da estrutura de capital das empresas analisadas.

This work deals with fouling in the recovery boiler at Montes del Plata, Uruguay. Multivariate data analysis has been used to analyze the large amount of data that was available in order to investigate how different parameters affect the fouling problems. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Square Projection (PLS) have in this work been used. PCA has been used to compare average values between time periods with high and low fouling problems while PLS has been used to study the correlation structures between the variables and consequently give an indication of which parameters that might be changed to improve the availability of the boiler. The results show that this recovery boiler tends to have problems with fouling that might depend on the distribution of air, the black liquor pressure or the dry solid content of the black liquor. The results also show that multivariate data analysis is a powerful tool for analyzing these types of fouling problems. / Detta arbete handlar om inkruster i sodapannan pa Montes del Plata, Uruguay. Multivariat dataanalys har anvands for att analysera den stora datamangd som fanns tillganglig for att undersoka hur olika parametrar paverkar inkrusterproblemen. Principal·· Component Analysis (PCA) och Partial Least Square Projection (PLS) har i detta jobb anvants. PCA har anvants for att jamfora medelvarden mellan tidsperioder med hoga och laga inkrusterproblem medan PLS har anvants for att studera korrelationen mellan variablema och darmed ge en indikation pa vilka parametrar som kan tankas att andras for att forbattra tillgangligheten pa sodapannan. Resultaten visar att sodapannan tenderar att ha problem med inkruster som kan hero pa fdrdelningen av luft, pa svartlutens tryck eller pa torrhalten i svartluten. Resultaten visar ocksa att multivariat dataanalys ar ett anvandbart verktyg for att analysera dessa typer av inkrusterproblem.

Den mobila plånboken gör det möjligt att kunna utföra betalningar med hjälp av sin smarttelefon i butiker och har funnits tillgänglig i både Sverige och andra länder runt om i världen under en längre tid. Trots detta visar studier på att denna teknik inte har blivit accepterad av konsumenterna vilket även gör att butiker är motvilliga att investera i denna typ av teknik. Syftet med undersökningen som har genomförts i denna rapport är att delvis undersöka hur utbrett användningen av mobila plånböcker är bland studenter på Högskolan i Skövde, det huvudsakliga syftet är dock att identifiera de faktorer som påverkar konsumenternas acceptans och avsikt att använda mobila plånböcker. Att skaffa en förståelse till hur och varför en individ väljer att acceptera en ny teknik anses vara en av de viktigaste forskningsaspekterna inom informationssystem. Arbetet baseras på en undersökningsmodell som främst härstammar från UTAUT2 och där analysen av data utfördes med PLS-SEM. Resultatet från denna undersökning kan komma att hjälpa de parter och organisationer som är delaktiga i tillhandahållningen av tjänsten mobila plånböcker att identifiera vilka faktorer konsumenter anser vara viktigast för att påbörja användningen av mobila plånböcker och vad som leder till fortsatt användning. Resultatet av undersökningen visar bland annat på att upplevt värde och förväntad prestanda har störst effekt på avsikten att använda mobila plånböcker.