Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'General preferences'
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Kang, Jong-Gu. "General equilibrium with heterogeneous preferences." Thesis, University of Essex, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.397699.
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Yasgur, Stuart. "Reasons, rationality and preferences." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2011. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/411/.
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The theory of choice receives formal treatment in decision theory, game theory and substantial parts of economics. However there is cause for concern that the formal treatment of the subject has advanced beyond the substantive grounds on which it relies. For, the formal theories fundamentally rely on a concept of preference, which is itself lacking a viable substantive interpretation. Indeed the challenges to the substantive interpretation of ‘preference’ threaten to undermine the standard arguments used to justify the completeness and transitivity conditions on which Preference Theories rely. This discussion will explore whether a conception of rationality, anchored in a larger conception of practical reasoning, can justify the completeness and transitivity conditions. Specifically, this dissertation will draw on recent developments in philosophy of law, action theory and ethics to enumerate a conception of practical reasoning that takes reasons to be the basic normative concept. It will then seek to offer an account of rationality that is distinct from, but complementary to, the role of reasons. And from this foundation develop an account of preferences that includes many of the characteristics of standard accounts, yet is situated within this broader context. From this vantage point, the discussion will explore possible justifications for the completeness and transitivity conditions. Ultimately, it will be argued that both can be justified – though with different force – in specified domains. While the discussion will primarily focus on the justification of the completeness and transitivity conditions, it is in part motivated by the goal of exploring the connections between the treatment of choice in the distinct fields associated with Preference Theories and action theory broadly defined. In so doing, the hope is to suggest that there is promise in drawing together formal and substantive treatments of choice which is deserving of greater attention.
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Blackburn, Douglas W. "Three essays on investor preferences." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2007. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3277982.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, 2007.Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-09, Section: A, page: 3999. Advisers: Charles Trzcinka; Andrey Ukhov. Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 5, 2008).
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Vukovic, Jovana. "Vocal and facial attractiveness : general preferences and individual differences." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2010. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=136840.
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To date, the majority of research on attractiveness judgements has focused on identifying factors that influence judgements of facial attractiveness. This thesis reports a series of empirical studies that investigated the extent to which factors that are known to influence women’s preferences for masculine characteristics in men’s faces (e.g., measures of women’s attractiveness and personality traits attributed to masculine men) also influence women’s preferences for masculine characteristics in men’s voices. These studies suggest that own attractiveness and perceptions of personality traits have similar effects on women’s face and voice preferences. Additionally, further studies demonstrated that vocal cues signal information about women’s long term health and facial attractiveness and suggested that women’s masculinity preferences are affected by their circum-menopausal status (pre-menopausal versus post-menopausal). Collectively, these findings present new evidence for the utility of deriving predictions about attractiveness judgements from evolutionary theories of mate choice.
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Grillos, Tara. "Participation, Power and Preferences in International Development." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:23845452.
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Participatory development is widely touted as the remedy for ineffective and disempowering top-down development models of the past. However, participation can take many different forms, so an important open question for effective delivery of development assistance is: Which forms of participation influence which development outcomes under which circumstances? In this dissertation, I identify six key areas of research related to participatory development: the initial adoption of a participatory institution, the decision by individuals to participate or not, the direct outcomes of the participatory process, the effects on participants themselves, changes in the process over time, and carefully selected comparisons across contexts. I then make specific contributions to three of these areas through empirical research.
The first essay, Popular Participation, Reciprocity Norms and Conservation Incentives in Bolivia, examines the decision to participate. In it, I compare the characteristics of participants and non-participants in a compensation program for environmental conservation in Bolivia, and I show that in addition to material incentives, social embeddedness plays a role in motivating participation. The second essay, Poverty Targeting and Elite Capture in Participatory Planning in Indonesia, addresses the direct outcomes of participation. In it, I examine the geographical distribution of the outcomes of a participatory planning process in Indonesia, and I show that the benefits are captured most by the least poor areas, but that this occurs in ways distinct from how capture is typically conceived. The third essay, Gender Inequality and the Multi-Dimensionality of Power in Northern Kenya, addresses the effects of participation on the empowerment of participants themselves. In it, I assess the impact on women’s empowerment of a program meant to enhance women’s political participation in northern Kenya, and I find that while the program largely fails to promote political participation, it has an impact on women’s empowerment within the household, very likely due to a component of the program which engaged directly with men.
Overarching themes that emerge across these studies include (1) the importance of increased conceptual clarity not only with respect to the various forms that participation can take and the various goals it can be invoked to seek, but also regarding various hypothesized effects of and motivations for participation, (2) the potential relevance of the implementing agency and its relationship with pre-existing, overlapping social institutions, and (3) the usefulness of engaging with literature on psychology and behavioral economics. Understudied areas for future research include the evolution over time of a particular participatory process and more systematic comparisons of participatory processes across settings.Public Policy
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Rhodes, Christopher. "Political Christianity: Internal Organization, Preferences and Church Political Activity." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:14226091.
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This dissertation examines the role of internal structure of religious organizations
in influencing these organizations’ interactions with incumbent governments and ultimately determining the political activities of religious groups. This dissertation fits within a body of literature known as the political economy of religion. I expand upon this literature by examining religious groups in terms of internal organization, focusing on Christian churches in Africa, with Kenya as my primary case country.
The central argument of this dissertation is that churches (national-level denominations) with certain organizational features – centralized leadership, authoritarian decision-making procedures, and lack of internal accountability mechanisms – are more likely to have friendlier interactions with governments and therefore tend to adopt more pro-government political stances compared to churches that lack these features. This relationship operates through two mechanisms. First, centralized churches possess negotiation advantages over decentralized churches. Second, centralized, authoritarian churches can more easily be co-opted by incumbent governments. The dissertation also expand upon existing literature by offering a fuller and more nuanced understanding of the preferences of governments and churches vis-à-vis one another, proposing that churches seek to maximize number of church members, member faithfulness, and resources, while governments seek ideological support, citizen mobilization, and social service provision from churches.
These arguments are examined by historical comparative case studies of five of the largest Christian denominations in Kenya over the course of the country’s first three post-independence presidents. Through qualitative historical analysis, combined with information gathered through fieldwork in Kenya, the dissertation demonstrates how the preferences of these churches and governments, mediated through the internal organizations of the churches, influenced church-state relations and ultimately determined the churches’ political stances. The impact of internal organization is greater than factors such as ethnicity or theological conservatism/liberalism.
The dissertation tests these arguments through a quantitative analysis of church political orientation using national-level data on Christian churches and countries across Africa from independence through 2010. The results of the statistical analyses show significant effects of organizational features such as centralization, consistent with the arguments made concerning Kenya. The dissertation then gives brief qualitative analysis of church-state relations for several of the African churches included in the quantitative dataset.
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Nahm, Alison. "Measuring Political Preferences of the U.S. Voting Population." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:14398553.
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Political polarization is a common topic in the news and media, but not much has been done to understand the distribution of the preferences of the U.S. voting population. Political scientists have drawn different conclusions on the current state of political polarization within the U.S. voting population based on survey data and basic spatial voting models. In this work, I present a spatial voting model that analyzes voting data at a more fine-grained level in order to use Bayesian techniques to infer the underlying distribution of political preferences of the population. Further, I verify these results by comparing it to alternative public opinion measurements and measuring the accuracy in completing prediction tasks. This work adds a new perspective to the current discussion within the political science community of the recent trends of political polarization.
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Tongsiri, Sirinart. "Valuing preferences for EQ-5D health states in the Thai general population." Thesis, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (University of London), 2009. http://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/4647105/.
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Health care expenditures have been increasing rapidly. Economic evaluation can be used to aid decision making on resource allocations to secure a more efficient use of scarce resources. In cost-utility analysis, one method used to measure health outcomes is the Quality adjusted life year (QALY). Given the wide differences in clinical settings, health systems and religious beliefs, "utility" scores should be derived from the local population. This thesis aims to estimate population-based preference scores for health from the Thai general population. The generic health description EQ-SO is used as a proxy to describe health. This measure was selected because it has been translated officially into Thai and the measure seems to be straightforward to use. A representative sample was randomly recruited using a stratified four-stage sampling method. A series of pilot studies were conducted to develop the interview protocol based on the Measurement and Valuation in Health (MVH) protocol. A group of interviewers were employed and extensively trained to interview the respondents. A sample of 1,409 Thai respondents was interviewed during May - August 2007 in 17 provinces in face-to-face interviews. Eighty-six health states, classified into twelve sets, were used in the interview. logical inconsistency was identified when a higher score was given to a poorer state. The greatest number of inconsistent responses was identified in the scores derived using the Time trade-off (nO) interview. A Negative binomial regression model was used to analyse the determinants of the numbers of inconsistencies. Elderly respondents and those with a lower education level tend to make more inconsistent responses. A Random effects model was used to estimate the model to predict the preference scores. The best model was chosen on the basis of logical inconsistency in the predicted scores, model robustness, parsimony and the responsiveness of the predicted scores. The best model is the model using the variables from Dolan 1997 model estimated from the scores given by the respondents with fewer than 11 inconsistencies. The model still suffers from heteroskedasticity, and floor and ceiling effects were identified. The Thai scores and the scores derived from respondents in the other five countries were extensively compared to examine the extent of the differences. It seems that the Thai scores are more similar to those of the UK. A costutility analysis of the prevention and control measures for cervical cancer in Thailand was used to demonstrate the difference of cost per QALYs if the scores from other countries were used to approximate the Thai preferences. The thesis makes a number of contributions. The modelled scores are the first original population-based preference scores on health derived from the Thai general population. The determinants of logical inconsistency were examined, as well as an exploratory qualitative interview to learn the strategies that respondents employed to cope with the preference interview. Three reasons are identified to explain the high level of inconsistent responses. Respondents may: (1) have difficulties imagining themselves living in the hypothetical states; (2) use only part of the given information in the health cards or add other information to assist their decisions; and (3) have difficulties in trying to understand the elicitation methods, especially the no. Including the inconsistent responses had, to some extent, significant impacts on the model specifications and the modelled scores. Exclusion of the scores from the highly inconsistent respondents was justified because the scores may not represent their preferences towards health. The results from this thesis should be taken into account for future surveys to be successfully administered. Close collaborations with the field coordinators and arrangement of appropriate interview settings contribute greatly to the success of the survey.
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Gampa, Anup. "Comparing the Social Preferences of Therapeutic Community Participants to General Population Controls." The Ohio State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1316551143.
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Bibona, Kevin. "Examination of the communication practices and preferences between orthodontists and general dentists." VCU Scholars Compass, 2014. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/3336.
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The purposes of this study were to evaluate if orthodontists’ and general dentists’ perceptions of how often, under what circumstances, and by which media orthodontists communicated with general dentists were similar, and to determine if orthodontists were meeting the communication needs of general dentists. Orthodontists (N=1,000) and general dentists (N=1,000) throughout the United States were randomly selected to participate in a web-based and mailed survey, respectively. The results indicated that the orthodontists communicated with general dentists using the type of media the general dentists preferred to use. As treatment complexity increased, orthodontists shifted from one-way forms of communication to two-way forms of communication (P < .05). Both orthodontists and general dentists reported that orthodontists’ communication regarding white spot lesions was inadequate. When treating patients with missing or malformed teeth, orthodontists reported they sought input from the general dentists at higher rate than the general dentists reported (P < .005).
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Bates, John Michael. "The PUWP's preferences in the contemporary Polish novel, 1959-1985." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1997. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1166/.
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The thesis seeks to account for the development of the Party's views of the contemporary novel and its expectations of the form after Socialist Realism (1949-1955). The course of development of Party requirements of the form is traced from 1959, when the Party announced its new operative ideology at the Third Congress, to its last major statement of demands at the Party Writers' Conference of February 1985. One of the salient features of the thesis is the attempt to reconstruct Party thinking on the novel through access to hitherto unknown materials for the period from the Party and Censorship Office archives. This enables the lack of specificity inherent in the Party's formulations after the demise of Socialist Realism to be countered, and a more definite account of the progression of Party thinking to be delineated. Chapter 1 defines, firstly, the administrative structures within which writers were required to operate - the Writers' Union, Ministry of Culture, the Central Committee's Cultural Department and, finally, the Censorship Office. Secondly, it considers the positive mechanisms devised by the state to encourage novel-writing on favoured topics, and thirdly, the aims of the Party's cultural programme. Chapter 2 provides a general cultural background of the period, describing the development of the term 'committed literature', which was most frequently used by writers and politicians in their deliberations on the nature and direction literature was to take. This development was influenced by the increasing restrictions which the authorities placed upon writers' freedom of interpretation. These concerned, above all, the problem of alienation in socialist society. Chapter 3-5 discuss six works in relation to the administrative structures and the major political issues of the period. In Chapter 3, the question of the Party's initial definition of the extent of freedoms is considered in relation to Roman Bratny's Szczes lwi, torturowani (1959) and Jerzy Putrament's Pasierbowie (1963).
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Mayer, Mary C. "Andragogical preferences of adult basic education students a test of Knowles' model." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/5322.
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Simons, Katherine. "Food preferences and compliance with dietary advice among patients of a general practice." Thesis, University of Exeter, 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.277188.
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McKinstry, Brian. "Patients' preferences for general practitioners' dress, mode of address, age and consulting style." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/21409.
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This thesis presents four related pieces of research around the theme of how doctors present themselves to, and are perceived by, patients in the general practice consultation. The first study used photographs to examine patients' preferences for the way their general practitioners dress. It showed that patients preferred their doctors to dress in a formal or traditional way. Forms of dress associated with social success (a smart suit) and medical expertise (white coat) were found to be particularly popular. The second study used structured questionnaires to examine patients' preferences for how they wish to address and be addressed by their general practitioner. It showed that, while many patients were willing to have doctors refer to them by first name, they are unwilling to use the doctor's own first name. This may suggest willingness by patients to accord their general practitioner higher social status than themselves, or at least show deference to medical knowledge by use of the title. The third study also used structured questionnaires to explore patients' attitudes to the age of their doctor. The results of this study were inconclusive. Older doctors were accorded more positive attributes, and were considered to have more authority than younger doctors, but the distinction between age groups was most strongly influenced by the perception of younger doctors being up to date in their medical knowledge and the perceived greater experience of older doctors than any difference in authority. These three pieces of research suggested the possibility that, at least some patients, sought a doctor who presented as an expert or authoritative figure, and possibly a maternal/paternal figure, willing to take control of the consultation. This ran contrary to the prevailing view among medical educators that decision making in the consultation should almost always be shared between doctor and patient. This latter view appeared to be held on ideological grounds.
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Kwanashie, Augustine. "Efficient algorithms for optimal matching problems under preferences." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2015. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6706/.
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In this thesis we consider efficient algorithms for matching problems involving preferences, i.e., problems where agents may be required to list other agents that they find acceptable in order of preference. In particular we mainly study the Stable Marriage problem (SM), the Hospitals / Residents problem (HR) and the Student / Project Allocation problem (SPA), and some of their variants. In some of these problems the aim is to find a stable matching which is one that admits no blocking pair. A blocking pair with respect to a matching is a pair of agents that prefer to be matched to each other than their assigned partners in the matching if any. We present an Integer Programming (IP) model for the Hospitals / Residents problem with Ties (HRT) and use it to find a maximum cardinality stable matching. We also present results from an empirical evaluation of our model which show it to be scalable with respect to real-world HRT instance sizes. Motivated by the observation that not all blocking pairs that exist in theory will lead to a matching being undermined in practice, we investigate a relaxed stability criterion called social stability where only pairs of agents with a social relationship have the ability to undermine a matching. This stability concept is studied in instances of the Stable Marriage problem with Incomplete lists (smi) and in instances of hr. We show that, in the smi and hr contexts, socially stable matchings can be of varying sizes and the problem of finding a maximum socially stable matching (max smiss and max hrss respectively) is NP-hard though approximable within 3/2. Furthermore we give polynomial time algorithms for three special cases of the problem arising from restrictions on the social network graph and the lengths of agents’ preference lists. We also consider other optimality criteria with respect to social stability and establish inapproximability bounds for the problems of finding an egalitarian, minimum regret and sex equal socially stable matching in the sm context. We extend our study of social stability by considering other variants and restrictions of max smiss and max hrss. We present NP-hardness results for max smiss even under certain restrictions on the degree and structure of the social network graph as well as the presence of master lists. Other NP-hardness results presented relate to the problem of determining whether a given man-woman pair belongs to a socially stable matching and the problem of determining whether a given man (or woman) is part of at least one socially stable matching. We also consider the Stable Roommates problem with Incomplete lists under Social Stability (a non-bipartite generalisation of smi under social stability). We observe that the problem of finding a maximum socially stable matching in this context is also NP-hard. We present efficient algorithms for three special cases of the problem arising from restrictions on the social network graph and the lengths of agents’ preference lists. These are the cases where (i) there exists a constant number of acquainted pairs (ii) or a constant number of unacquainted pairs or (iii) each preference list is of length at most 2. We also present algorithmic results for finding matchings in the spa context that are optimal with respect to profile, which is the vector whose ith component is the number of students assigned to their ith-choice project. We present an efficient algorithm for finding a greedy maximum matching in the spa context — this is a maximum matching whose profile is lexicographically maximum. We then show how to adapt this algorithm to find a generous maximum matching — this is a matching whose reverse profile is lexicographically minimum. We demonstrate how this approach can allow additional constraints, such as lecturer lower quotas, to be handled flexibly. We also present results of empirical evaluations carried out on both real world and randomly generated datasets. These results demonstrate the scalability of our algorithms as well as some interesting properties of these profile-based optimality criteria. Practical applications of spa motivate the investigation of certain special cases of the problem. For instance, it is often desired that the workload on lecturers is evenly distributed (i.e. load balanced). We enforce this by either adding lower quota constraints on the lecturers (which leads to the potential for infeasible problem instances) or adding a load balancing optimisation criterion. We present efficient algorithms in both cases. Another consideration is the fact that certain projects may require a minimum number of students to become viable. This can be handled by enforcing lower quota constraints on the projects (which also leads to the possibility of infeasible problem instances). A technique of handling this infeasibility is the idea of closing projects that do not meet their lower quotas (i.e. leaving such project completely unassigned). We show that the problem of finding a maximum matching subject to project lower quotas where projects can be closed is NP-hard even under severe restrictions on preference lists lengths and project upper and lower quotas. To offset this hardness, we present polynomial time heuristics that find large feasible matchings in practice. We also present ip models for the spa variants discussed and show results obtained from an empirical evaluation carried out on both real and randomly generated datasets. These results show that our algorithms and heuristics are scalable and provide good matchings with respect to profile-based optimality.
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Irvine, Alastair D. J. "Time preferences and the patient-doctor interaction." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2018. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=238373.
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Patients' non-adherence to treatment is a widespread phenomenon in healthcare. Time preferences (how individuals value outcomes over time) are one cause for non-adherence. Using quasi-hyperbolic discounting, two options in the future are weighted consistently. However, when the early option becomes available the weighting changes. This creates the potential for non-adherence. The agency relationship that exists between patients and doctors implies hidden information. When the patient's time preferences are hidden from the doctor, the doctor must choose how to recommend treatments. Exploring how doctors make treatment decisions when time preferences are hidden from them, and how this impacts adherence, is therefore important. The first contribution of the thesis is to outline a model of the patient-doctor interaction incorporating quasi-hyperbolic discounting and hidden information. This shows that doctors should adapt to non-adherence when the probability a patient is present-biased is large enough. Secondly, a national survey of Scottish GPs explores whether doctors have different time preferences for themselves or their patients. Doctors do have the same private and professional time preferences, but value the health state differently between frames. Lastly, a laboratory experiment tests whether students in the role of a doctor adapt to non-adherence in the way predicted by the model. Students find the socially optimal level of treatment on average. Adaptation is stronger when using a performance payment, and results did not vary along demographic characteristics. The thesis highlights the importance of the patient-doctor interaction for generating nonadherence, not just patient preferences. It also shows that GPs' private time preferences may suitably substitute their preferences for patients. Finally, it points towards potential incentives for doctors to improve patient outcomes.
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Abbot, Tyler. "Heterogeneous risk preferences : theory and empirics." Thesis, Paris, Institut d'études politiques, 2019. http://www.theses.fr/2019IEPP0031.
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Cette thèse étudie la solution à plusieurs modèles de marchés financiers avec des agents hétérogènes dont le taux d'aversion au risque diffère. Le premier chapitre résout un modèle avec des marchés complets et des dividendes définis par un mouvement brownien géométrique. Le deuxième chapitre résout un modèle similaire, mais avec un dividende qui revient à sa moyenne et montre comment on peut estimer le modèle. Le troisième chapitre résout le modèle du premier chapitre quand les agents sont confrontés à des contraintes convexes de portefeuilleThis thesis studies the solution to several models of financial markets with heterogeneous agents who differ in the rate of risk aversion. The first chapter solves a model with complete markets and dividends driven by a Geometric Brownian Motion. The second chapter solves a similar model, but with a mean reverting dividend process and shows how one could estimate such a model. The third chapter solves the model of chapter one when agents face convex portfolio constraints
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Tudor, M. Scarlett. "Mechanisms that drive variation in female mating preferences in Xiphophorus malinche." Ohio : Ohio University, 2007. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1187025167.
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Maekawa, Wakako. "Policy bargaining and incompatibilities in civil wars : intervention, power-sharing, and preferences." Thesis, University of Essex, 2018. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/22746/.
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Civil wars in which conflict parties claim a regime lead to crisis at both domestic and international levels. Such claims for new regime have been a part of the democratization process throughout history. Thus, for both domestic and international participants in civil conflicts, bargaining is often a central issue. While conflict parties face pressure to cease civil war, salient issues at stake sometimes make parties less inclined to settle. Even if parties reach an agreement, in many cases, this is only a part of the long process of ending war. The outcome might also create incompatible situations for different parties, in some cases, causing another conflict. In other cases, such an outcome simultaneously solves other parties' incompatible situations. This dissertation investigates how and when politically incompatible situations in civil wars are resolved through the process of war termination. It re-examines the arguments used for international relations and civil conflict terminations with a particular focus on the subject of bargaining over political institutions, and the changing phases of termination process. Those theories are tested by using various potential outcomes as measures of conflict terminations in civil wars over government.
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Gunes, Cevriye. "Learning Style Preferences Of Preparatory School Students At Gazi University." Master's thesis, METU, 2001. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12605465/index.pdf.
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The purpose of this study was to determine the learning styles of preparatory school students from Gazi University and examine the relationship between students&rsquolearning style preferences (LSP) and faculty students will study in, gender, proficiency level of English and achievement scores on listening, reading, grammar, and writing in the English Course. The instrument, Index of Learning Styles (ILS), was administered to 367 randomly selected students. As for the data analysis, descriptive statistics portrayed the frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations, the t test was conducted to see whether students&rsquo
achievement scores differ according to their LSPs and the Crosstabs procedure was conducted to investigate whether the LSPs of the students at Gazi University differ according to faculty they will study in, gender and level of proficiency. The results indicated that there was no significant difference between students&rsquo
LSPs and faculty, gender, level and achievement scores.
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Aldaco-Glass, Christopher. "Influence of theoretical orientation on preferences for describing consumers of mental health services." Thesis, Alliant International University, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3639630.
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Psychotherapy is only as effective as the quality of its provider-patient discourse (Poland, 1968; Schwartz, 2009). It is arguable that, in the practice of psychotherapy, theoretical orientations will encapsulate common understandings of the attitude-intention-behavior process, in order to assist in the promotion and prediction of positive health outcomes; and, that personality traits, and professional and demographic characteristics will similarly influence the kind and quality of the therapeutic relationship.
The current research was interested in investigating whether there were meaningful relationships between the language or labels used to describe consumers of mental health services and the primary theoretical orientation of the clinician. This was accomplished through examination of descriptor preference of consumers. Descriptors that were examined varied in terms of personable descriptors (e.g., the use of a client's initials) versus more traditional labels (e.g., patient and client abbreviations). Participants indicated preference by selecting descriptor words in case study vignettes in two repeated measures of least and most preferred options. Theoretical orientations surveyed were categorized as action-based (e.g., CBT, SBT, ABA, and systemic), insight-based (e.g., psychodynamic and humanistic), and other, which included integrative and crisis-based interventions used in medical environments.
Results indicated there were differences in the patterns of most and least preferred, depending on theoretical orientation. Insight-based practitioners demonstrated a greater bias against the use of initials and a bias away from the use of patient, whereas Action-based practitioners most preferred initial descriptors. These findings were in direct contrast to previous health care quality studies on physician provider populations, which, in general, opted for maintaining the use of traditional monikers. Further results indicated trends in term preference and demographic and professional variables. For example, related to Gender, men showed a preference for the term patient, whereas women did not. Additionally, older and more experienced clinicians were less biased against the use of the more traditional client. Findings were explained in terms of the differences in the primary foci of services between mental health and physician providers and in terms of the underlying objective in the training of psychotherapy to cultivate heightened listening skills and sensitivity towards the quality of therapeutic discourse.
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Nava, Fischer Evelyn. "Discursive framings, normative preferences and the reception of global standards : the case of the regulation of South Indian animal food farming." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2013. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/47676/.
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When talking about the importance of the agri-food production environment and the application of food safety and sanitary measures in it, a list of growing unfortunate related events come to mind such as: the rise of diseases coming from farming production, the rocketing of environmental degradation and overexploitation of genetic farmed pools, the economically important agri-food scares and overall, the opacity of agri-food production and regulation. This thesis examines the divergence between legal measures and legal application of global agri-food standards as a legitimacy crisis and has a twofold aim. First it aims to illustrate the role that regulatory legitimacy plays in effective compliance by studying the construction of regulatory legitimacy as a discursive practice. Second, and as a result of this the thesis asks how South Indian animal farming systems and international safety and sanitary measures construct their environmental normative legitimacy and introduce some implications for the animal farming/public health international debate. In this social constructivist approach, the thesis applies a combination of environmental discourse and framing analysis –discursive framings- to empirically study the construction of (non) formally binding norms in agri-food environments. These ´discursive framings´ it is argued, help represent the architectures of green compliance embedded in agro-environmental narratives, uncovered through the uses of language. In this way, framings help detect a variety of forms of (non) endorsement of safety and sanitary measures by regulatory stakeholders and with it, their role in ´racing standards to the top or to the bottom´ in agri-food regulation. An exploratory study comparing documents about safety and sanitary measures (believed to reinforce levels of safety and sanitary compliance in trade conflicts) in international dispute resolutions and interviews of key stakeholders in the field (believed to reflect safety and sanitary compliance in animal farming practice) in South India are conducted. The comparison of expected compliance between dispute formal documents and transcripts of actors under potential regulation provides insight into the discursive constitutions of legal and social safety and sanitary standards. It also informs on a number of counterproductive effects (cooptation, substitution or dilution of regulatory measures) when poor translation of normative preferences from global sanitary provisions of market access into the subnational agri-food environment begins to take place. The thesis empirically demonstrates how present public understandings of WTO-SPS Agreements in India have the potential to induce existent food safety and sanitary compliance into a race to the bottom increasing diseases from farmed animals in this country: given the consistent constellation of discursive voids that have left scientific knowledge out of agro-ecological and animal health present concerns, subnationally and internationally. The conceptual framework, the primary and secondary data and the analyses account for this complexity, namely, the convergences and voids left among discursive constellations of green compliance and their roles in existing models of agri-food regulation. Finally, the thesis presents the contributions to the study of Dryzek´s environmental discourses that a constructivist research like this can make to the study of legitimacy crises and efficacious regulation in general and between international market access, public health and the ago-environment in India (the case studied here) in particular.
23
Anderson, Shonda Renee. "Preferences of US, EU, Honduran, and Chinese undergraduates for cloning." Thesis, Kansas State University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/8635.
Full textAbstract:
Master of ScienceDepartment of Agricultural Economics
John A. Fox
The concept of animal cloning was first introduced to the public’s attention in 1996 with the birth of “Dolly the Sheep,” the first mammal to be cloned. Now, after more than a decade the technology has reached a point of feasibility on a commercial scale. With the publication of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration risk assessment on animal cloning in 2008, a report that concluded that the technology was safe and posed no risk to consumers, the issue has received renewed attention. In this thesis I use survey data to examine attitudes to the use of cloning in animal food production among samples of college students in the U.S., Ireland, France, Honduras, and China. Stated likelihood of consuming meat products from cloned animals is correlated with individual characteristics including socio-demographic variables (gender, and farming background) and attitudinal variables measuring concern about various food technologies. In addition, using ordered logit modeling, we examine how respondents might change their probability of consuming cloned products after being provided with information about scientific assessments about the safety of cloning and possible price reductions for cloned products. The analysis shows that: a) respondents in the U.S. and Honduras were more likely than those in other countries to indicate that they would consume cloned products, b) on average, respondents in all countries increased their stated likelihood of consuming cloned products when informed that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Food Safety Authority had assessed cloned foods as safe for human consumption, and c) individuals who were opposed to cloning on moral grounds were significantly less likely to consume cloned product and furthermore were less likely to respond positively to information about the safety of cloning.
24
Murray, Thomas. "New techniques for estimating household climate preferences (and the benefits and costs of climate change)." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2013. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/4272/.
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In order to make an informed decision on the optimal reduction in greenhouse gas emissions it is necessary to understand fully the damage costs of climate change. However, current modelling techniques fail to provide adequate emphasis on important components of the costs and benefits of avoided climate change. This approach risks over or underestimating true damage costs. Disregard for the amenity value that climate may hold and assumptions that restrict geographic mobility and determine the rate of social discounting may all contribute to significant error. Using spatial variations as an analogue for future climate change, this thesis finds that climate is important in determining the desirability of migration destinations and holds substantial amenity value. It also concludes that more work is required to be confident in assuming an elasticity of marginal utility equal to unity. Alternative techniques, including subjective wellbeing and hypothetical equivalence scales, are utilised to avoid having to make potentially restrictive assumptions on preferences for climate. Finally, this thesis stresses the importance of accounting for measurement error in cross-sectional survey data on household income. It seeks to inform how an econometrician can seek to implement appropriate instrumental variables to overcome this error.
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Nelson, Julia Ellen 1959. "differences in learning style preferences, environmental press perceptions, and job satisfaction between surgical intensive care and general surgical unit nurses." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/558149.
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Olwert, Craig Thomas. "A Computable General Equilibrium Model of the City with Optimization of its Transportation Network: Impacts of Changes in Technology, Preferences, and Policy." The Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1269369926.
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Tekiner, Aylin. "The Relationship Between Perceptual And Social Learning Styles And Multiple Intelligences And Their Effects On English Proficiency Of Turkish Young Adults Learning English As A Foreign Language." Master's thesis, METU, 2005. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12606705/index.pdf.
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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationships between preferences of multiple intelligences, perceptual and social learning styles, and English as foreign language proficiency. Two self-report questionnaires were administered to a total of 123 participants. The results showed that dominant intelligence preference was inter-personal and major learning-style preference was kinesthetic. Pearson correlation results revealed statistically significant positive relations between interpersonal intelligence and group learning stylelinguistic intelligence and individual learning style
logical-mathematical intelligence and individual learning style
intra-personal intelligence and individual learning style
inter-personal intelligence and kinesthetic learning style in addition to negative relations between interpersonal intelligence and individual learning style
musical intelligence and individual learning style, and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence and tactile learning style. This indicates that pedagogical implications should consider individuals&rsquo
intelligences and learning style preferences, and further studies are needed to investigate the interactions among preferences of styles and intelligences. Finally, multiple regression results showed that logical-mathematical intelligence preference and visual learning style preference were the primary contributors to the English proficiency. Since no previous research was found comparing preferences of multiple intelligences and perceptual and social learning styles of foreign language learners, this study provided data-driven evidence for the interrelations between them. Those relationships as well as factorial structure for preferences for multiple intelligences and learning styles were discussed. Moreover, the need for further development of the questionnaires and the need for mixed method data collection were emphasized. Implications for interactions among learning styles and multiple intelligences were discussed.
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Whorton, Carly. "Consumers' perceptions and preferences for sustainably-produced fruits and vegetables: the case of organic, local, and small farm." Thesis, Kansas State University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/8725.
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Master of ScienceDepartment of Agricultural Economics
Vincent R. Amanor-Boadu
This study focuses on determining what key differences predispose a consumer to regularly purchase and be willing to pay a premium for sustainably-produced fruits and vegetables. Organic, local, and small farm are the three cases used in the study. The research used a structured questionnaire to conduct an online survey of U.S. internet users with email addresses in the spring of 2011 with logit and ordered logit regression used as the analytical tools. Cost was the most important factor for consumers who did not purchase organic and local products more frequently while unavailability was the principal reason for not consuming produces from small farms. The study showed consumers of small farm products often (98.5 percent of the time) consume local fruits and vegetables also but not the other way around. The relevant socio-economic factors for determining organic purchasing frequency were gender, household size, and education. For small farm they were the ability to influence local change and the respondents’ frequency of purchase of local products. Socio-economic characteristics did not prove to be a factor in local purchasing decisions. Regular purchasers of organic fruits and vegetables provided a consistent perception of organic products with the USDA certified organic definition. Local consumers reported that taste and freshness are the most defining characteristics of local products while small farm consumers could not provide a clear picture of the definitional statements defining fruits and vegetables produced by a small farm. This implied that there is need for more work by small farm producers to differentiate themselves in the market. On the contrary, both local and organic producers have a clear point of differentiation to reach their customers. Industry marketing efforts can be greatly improved by focusing on the characteristics of the consumers they are trying to reach. Our results can be further investigated by completing the following recommendations. First, to conduct more targeted studies such as interviews or focus groups, second, to gain a deeper understanding of how consumers perceive these attributes and third to conduct a comprehensive study on the similarities and differences between small farm and local consumers.
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Tsunoda, Tomoko. "Visual and emotional environmental interpretation of landscapes and nature scenes by American and Japanese elementary school children." Thesis, Manhattan, Kan. : Kansas State University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/489.
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Trautman, Linda. "The impact of race upon legislators' policy preferences and bill sponsorship patterns: the case of Ohio." The Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1189032351.
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Ford, Stacey L. "When Women Swipe Right and Men Swipe Left: An Exploration of the Online Dating Preferences and Desirability of African American Women." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2020. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1703371/.
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The purpose of this research study was to conduct an exploration of the dating preferences of African American women and U.S. men between the ages of 30-74 years old. This research focuses on the dating preferences and desirability of African American women and if they are influential on the high unmarried rates of African American women. A weighted stratified sampling of 2,800 personal advertisements of African American, Asian, Latino and White men and women from Match.com were collected to conduct the research. The five research hypotheses of this study were tested using frequency and percentage distribution, logistic regression and cross-tabulation models. The findings partially support the hypotheses African American women are more likely to prefer a mate with a bachelor's degree or higher and African American women are more likely to prefer a mate of the same race compared to U.S. women of other races. The findings also suggested non-African American men are less likely to have an interest in dating African American women and non-African American men, who are interested in dating African American women, are less likely to prefer women with a bachelor's degree or higher or a more socially desirable body type.
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Golgelioglu, Ozlem. ""." Master's thesis, METU, 2006. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/2/12607523/index.pdf.
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The aim of this thesis is to analyze the political behavior and party preferences of the voters at the 3 November 2002 elections in terms of the concept &ldquoNew Political Behavior&rdquo
. The structure of this thesis is as follows: In the first chapter, the basic theoretical framework of the concept political behavior is examined. In this chapter, the concept &ldquo
new political behavior&rdquo
is discussed in detail. In the second chapter, the political environment, institutions, traditions and transformation of the Turkish political system are analyzed. The empirical part of this thesis has examined the applicability of the concept &ldquo
new political behavior&rdquo
on 3 November 2002 with an analysis of the interviews which are made in Tire. The main conclusion of this study is that, the traditional approaches remained limited in explaining the picture that has emerged after 3 November 2002 elections, and the consequences of 3 November 2002 elections can be evaluated as evidence of a just occurring phenomena &ldquo
new political behavior concept&rdquo
, by emphasizing the similarities rather than differences between the findings and the concept.
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Bernardino, Joao Pedro Ramalho. "Does positional consumption generate technological innovation?" Master's thesis, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/3143.
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Mestrado em EconomiaPositional consumption led by wants linked to status concerns arguably does not produce welfare gains to society and is a source of economic inefficiency. While some authors propose policy remedies to bring a better collective outcome, others argue that they would cause more damage than benefits. One of the most important arguments against intervention is that positional consumption generates innovation, thereby producing wider economic benefits. This work aims to contribute to the discussion by studying the relation between positional consumption and technological innovation. It departs from commonly accepted theoretical assumptions on elements structuring the relation, and infers on its causes and possible outcomes. Besides achieving a better comprehension of the process, results indicate that positional consumption is likely to generate lower benefits from technological innovation than alternative resource allocations of material nature. This conclusion is founded on three arguments, related to the relative role of technological innovation as a marketing strategy in positional markets, the exigency of positional consumers towards the material achievements of innovations, and the ability of those innovations to deliver welfare gains.
O consumo positional orientado por anseios de estatuto nao produz, de forma plausível, ganhos de bem-estar para a sociedade, e e nesse caso uma fonte de ineficiencia económica. Enquanto que alguns autores propõem políticas para corresponder a este problema, outros argumentam que estas causariam mais danos do que benefícios. Um dos argumentos mais relevantes contra a intervencao política e o de que o consumo posicional gera inovacao, dessa forma produzindo benefícios economicos mais vastos. O presente trabalho pretende contribuir para esta discussão atraves do estudo da relacao entre o consumo posicional e a inovação tecnologica. Para tal, parte-se de pressupostos teoricos comummente aceites sobre elementos que estruturam a relacao em questao, e infere-se sobre as suas causas e consequencias. Para alem de permitir uma melhor compreensãao do processo, os resultados do estudo indicam que o consumo posicional gera, provavelmente, menos benefícios sobre a inovaçcãao tecnoloígica do que alternativas de afectaçcaão de recursos de natureza material. Esta conclusaão funda-se em três argumentos, relacionados com o papel relativo da inovacão tecnolígica como estratégia de marketing em mercados posicionais, com a exigencia dos consumidores posicionais sobre o desempenho material das inovaçcãoes, e com a capacidade das in-ovacçãoes geradas pelo consumo posicional para oferecerem benefícios de bem-estar.
34
Perrin, Nancy Ann. "The general recognition theory of preference : a new theory of choice /." The Ohio State University, 1986. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487267546981579.
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Faustino, Rui Alexandre Rodrigues Veloso. "Essays in macroeconomics." Doctoral thesis, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/20576.
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Doutoramento em EconomiaThis thesis has as its object of study the way consumer preferences affect structure and market power, measured through the markups of the firms that compete in it. By modifying the way consumer preferences are defined, it is possible to generate endogenous markups that significantly alter the responses of macroeconomic variables generated by different shocks. The thesis consists of three essays, the first of which analyzes the dynamics of markups in durable and nondurable consumption over the economic cycle and their response to shocks. For this, I take a New Keynesian model with durable goods and modified to include the habit formation at both types of goods. Depending on how the habit formation over durable consumption is defined, the model is able to replicate the responses of consumption variables, markups and prices observed in the data.The second essay deals with the effort made by consumers to compare prices between various sellers over the economic cycle. From microdata for the US, it is shown that increases in individuals’ hourly compensation translate into reductions in time spent comparing prices. From this, a mechanism is presented to generate countercyclical responses of the time spent in price comparison by consumers. When incorporated into general equilibrium models, this mechanism is capable of generating an amplifying effect on the responses of the main macroeconomic variables. Finally, a general equilibrium model is presented where the number of firms, varieties and quality of the consumed products are determined endogenously. Through the model, it is possible to analyze the dynamics of product creation and destruction, as well as the changes in their quality during the economic cycle, and their impact on the dynamics of the main macroeconomic variables.
Esta tese tem como objeto de estudo a forma como as preferências dos consumidores afetam a estrutura e o poder de mercado, medido através de markups, das empresas que nele concorrem. Modificando a forma como são definidas as preferências dos consumidores, é possível gerar markups endógenos e alterar significativamente as respostas de variáveis macroeconómicas a diferentes choques. A tese é composta por três ensaios, sendo que no primeiro são analisadas as dinâmicas dos markups nos bens de consumo duradouros e não duradouros ao longo do ciclo económico e a sua resposta a choques. Para isso, é apresentado um modelo Novo-Keynesiano com bens duradouros e não duradouros, modificado de forma a incluir a formação de hábitos nos dois tipos de bens. Dependendo da forma como é definida a formação de hábitos de consumo de bens duradouros, o modelo permite replicar as respostas observadas para o consumo, markups e preços. O segundo ensaio aborda o esforço despendido pelos consumidores na comparação de preços ao longo do ciclo económico. Partindo de microdados para os EUA, demonstro que aumentos da remuneração horária dos indivíduos traduzem-se em reduções no tempo despendido na comparação de preços. Em seguida, é apresentado um mecanismo capaz de gerar respostas contracíclicas do tempo despendido pelos consumidores na comparação de preços. Quando incorporado em modelos DSGE, é capaz de gerar um efeito amplificador das repostas das principais variáveis dos modelos. Por fim, é apresentado um modelo DSGE onde o número de empresas e a qualidade dos produtos consumidos são determinados de forma endógena. Através do modelo, é possível analisar as dinâmicas de criação e destruição de variedades, bem como das variações na sua qualidade durante o ciclo económico, e o seu impacto na dinâmica das principais variáveis macroeconómicas.
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36
GATTI, MONICA. "Preferenze pittoriche e personalità. Il ruolo della familiarità artistica come fattore di mediazione." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/155.
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Ciascuno di noi, posto davanti a un'opera d'arte è in grado di esprimere una preferenza, anche se non l'ha mai vista prima. Child (1965) sosteneva come in questo processo di valutazione fosse determinante il ruolo giocato dalla personalità, tuttavia l'autore aggiungeva anche che la conoscenza o l'esperienza in campo artistico potrebbero ridurre se non annullare questo effetto. Furham e Walker (2001) hanno invece sottolineato come la personalità potrebbe essere maggiormente legata allo sviluppo della familiarità artistica invece che determinare direttamente le preferenze pittoriche. Il presente lavoro si pone dunque l'obiettivo di studiare la familiarità artistica in veste di mediatore tra le variabili di personalità e le preferenze pittoriche. I risultati mettono in luce come questa mediazione avviene per la ricerca di brivido e avventura, il bisogno di chiusura cognitiva e la sensibilità estetica (fattori di bellezza classica e rapimento estatico). Sempre attraverso questi modelli di mediazione, le preferenze pittoriche sono state analizzate considerando le principali caratteristiche dello stimolo: lo stile pittorico, il soggetto rappresentato e il livello di complessità. in particolare lo stile e il soggetto hanno messo in luce interessanti differenze. Si auspicano futuri studi che tengano conto degli effetti di interazione sia tra le variabili di personalità, sia tra le caratteristiche delle opere pittoriche.Everyone could say if he likes or not a work of art, even if he never saw it before. Child (1965) stressed the importance of the personality traits for this process of evaluation, however he also suggested that personality variables become less important as knowledge of art increases. Furham e Walker (2001) proposed that personality variables predict exposure to art (galleries visited, art purchased, art studied) which in part predicts familiarity which is the most direct predictor of art preferences. The aim of this study is testing the role of artistic familiarity as mediator between personality traits (predictors) and pictorial preferences (outcome). Results show mediation for thrill and adventure seeking, need for cognitive closure and aesthetic sensitivity. Pictorial preferences are also studied in mediation models considering the characteristics of the works of art: style, represented subject and simplicity/complexity. In particular, the style and the represented subject show significant differences. Future research is needed, particularly on the study of the interaction between both personality variables and pictorial characteristics.
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Karahan, Ibrahim. "Preference-based Flexible Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithms." Master's thesis, METU, 2008. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12609578/index.pdf.
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In this study,we develop an elitist multiobjective evolutionary algorithm for approximating the Pareto-optimal frontiers of multiobjective optimization problems. The algorithm converges the true Pareto-optimal frontier while keeping the solutions in the population well-spread over the frontier. Diversity of the solutions is maintained by the territory defi
ning property of the algorithm rather than using an explicit diversity preservation mechanism. This leads to substantial computational e&
#64259
ciency. We test the algorithm on commonly used test problems and compare its performance against well-known benchmark algorithms. In addition to approximating the entire Pareto-optimal frontier,we develop a preference incorporation mechanism to guide the search towards the decision maker&
#8217
s regions of interest. Based on this mechanism, we implement two variants of the algorithm. The &
#64257
rst gathers all preference information before the optimization stage to &
#64257
nd approximations of the desired regions. The second one is an interactive algorithm that focuses on the desired region by interacting with the decision maker during the solution process. Based on tests on 2- and 3-objective problems, we observe that both algorithms converge to the preferred regions.
38
Mercado, Martínez Victor. "Ranking general de marcas chilenas 2004." Tesis, Universidad de Chile, 2004. http://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/108297.
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Akpinar, Selcuk. "Sensorimotor Performance Asymmetries And Hand Preference." Phd thesis, METU, 2011. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12613278/index.pdf.
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This dissertation presents three experiments to investigate the general distribution of hand preference across a reachable working space, as well as the effect of sensory information about the reaching hand, and if this distribution is affected by long term practice. In addition, the underlying mechanisms of hand preference behavior were investigated with the obtained kinematic data.
Experiment 1 explored the distribution of hand preferences across the workspace among non-athlete right-handed participants, as well as the role that visual feedback might play in this distribution. Experiment 2 tested the hypothesis, if occlusion of visual feedback influences hand preference, accordingly interlimb differences. The third final experiment examined the effect of long term practice on hand preference among right-handed elite fencers.
The first study showed that the choice of arms is related to the energetic cost and dynamic efficiency of the movements. The results of the second experiment displayed that the choice of hands changes under no visual feedback condition, demonstrating that the choice is active and not habitual, depending on sensorimotor performance asymmetries. The final experiment demonstrated that elite athletes have different patterns of limb selection than non- athletes. Athletes, specifically fencers, show improved coordination in their non-dominant arms, which apparently increases the selection of this arm for reaching. Overall, it was concluded that hand preference depends on sensorimotor performance asymmetries and influenced by the long term practice.
40
Sorakayala, Shashidhar. "Preferences in Musical Rhythms and Implementation of Analytical Results to Generate Rhythms." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2008. http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/884.
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Rhythm is at the heart of all music. It is the variation of the duration of sound over time. A rhythm has two components: one is the striking of an instrument – called the "onset" – and the other is silence. Historically, musical forms and works were preferred and became popular by their rhythmic properties. Therefore, to study rhythm is to study the underpinnings of all of music. In this thesis, we explore basic rhythmic preferences in traditional music and, using this as a point of reference, methods are implemented to generate similar types of rhythms. Finally, a software platform to facilitate such an analysis is developed – it is the first of its kind available to our best knowledge as this research field has only recently emerged.
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Jenkins, Morgan. "Increased knowledge about floral preservatives influences customers’ perception of the quality and value of a floral arrangement purchase." Kansas State University, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/6986.
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Master of ScienceDepartment of Horticulture, Forestry, and Recreation Resources
Kimberly A. Williams
Despite extensive evidence that appropriate use of floral preservatives extends postharvest longevity of most fresh flowers, their use by traditional full-service florists has been observed to be highly variable. This research was developed to determine if knowledge about floral preservatives increases consumers’ perception of quality, purchase intention, and price of a floral arrangement. A survey was administered to 222 participants at two locations in Manhattan, Kansas during April 2010. Seventy-three percent of respondents fell within the age range of Gen Y. The survey instrument contained four levels of presentation of a floral arrangement that were associated with increasing knowledge about the use of a floral preservative on consumers’ perceptions about the quality and price of that arrangement. Results were analyzed via within-subjects ANOVA, Bonferroni post-hoc tests, t-tests, and regression analyses. Participants of the survey rated the quality of a floral arrangement higher from Level 2 (presence of floral preservative not explicit) to 3 (presence of floral preservative explicit) and Level 3 to 4 (after reading 191 word count message about floral preservative function and effectiveness). Their intent to purchase the floral arrangement generally increased with each level of presentation. Participants increased the price that they were willing to pay for the floral arrangement at each level of presentation, starting at $25.49 at Level 1 (no floral preservative use indicated) to $29.17 at Level 4. Participants were more knowledgeable about the benefits of floral preservatives and believed that floral preservatives increased the value of floral arrangements after reading a message describing their function and effectiveness more so than before reading the message. Younger participants were more willing to pay more for floral arrangements with floral preservatives than older participants. As consumers become more aware of the use of floral preservatives and more knowledgeable about how and why they are effective, they attribute higher quality to floral arrangements with preservatives, are willing to pay more for arrangements with preservatives, and their purchase intention frequency increases. Florists should consider providing a message about the function and effectiveness of floral preservatives to their customers, and then market their use of these materials.
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Pais, António José Araújo Coelho. "Comércio e desenvolvimento : a Iniciativa «Tudo Menos Armas» da EU." Master's thesis, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/19410.
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Mestrado em Desenvolvimento e Cooperação InternacionalO Sistema de Preferências Generalizadas (SPG) aparece no âmbito do Acordo Geral de Tarifas e Comércio (GATT) nos anos 70, por pressão dos Países em Desenvolvimento (PED), que lutavam por um comércio internacional mais justo e equitativo. De acordo com o princípio de não reciprocidade do GATT, nações com níveis de desenvolvimento diferentes não podem estar sujeitas às mesmas regras globais baseadas no comércio livre e por isso podem ter o direito a proteger certos sectores económicos sob pena de não se industrializarem. A Comunidade Económica Europeia (CEE), e depois União Europeia (UE), foi a primeira região do mundo a criar um SPG unilateral para os PED. Em 2001 concebeu a iniciativa «Tudo menos Armas» (EBA em Inglês) com o objetivo final de integrar os Países Menos Desenvolvidos (PMDs) no comércio internacional. Desta forma, a UE procurava promover uma maior coerência entre as suas políticas de Cooperação para o Desenvolvimento, na área da luta contra a pobreza e mais desenvolvimento sustentável e as suas políticas comerciais. Este trabalho analisa a evolução das trocas comerciais entre os PMDs e a UE durante o período 2001-2016, de modo a aferir o contributo do EBA, para a integração dos PMDs no comércio internacional e de que modo pode ou não ter contribuído para os objetivos da cooperação europeia, de redução da pobreza e desenvolvimento sustentável.
The Generalized System of PReferences (GSP) appears under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in the 1970s, under the pressure from Developing Countries, which struggled for fairer and more equitable international trade. According to the GATT principle of non-reciprocity, nations with different levels of development cannot be subject to the same global rules based on free trade and therefore they have the right to protect certain economic sectors on pain of not industrializing. The European Economic Comunity, and later the European Union (EU), was the first region in the world to create a unilateral GSP for the developing countries. In 2001 it designed the Everthing but arms Iniciative (EBA), with the ultimate goal of integrating the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) into international trade. In this way, the EU sought to promote greater coherence between its Development Cooperation policies in the area of poverty alleviation and more sustainable development and its trades policies. This paper analyzes the evolution of trade beetween LDCs and the EU over the period 2001-2016 to assess the contribution of EBA to the integration of LDCs into international trade and how it may or may not have contributed to the objectives of European Cooperation, of proverty reduction and sustainable development.
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43
Demirtas, Kerem. "An Interactive Preference Based Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm For The Clustering Problem." Master's thesis, METU, 2011. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12613290/index.pdf.
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We propose an interactive preference-based evolutionary algorithm for the clustering problem. The problem is highly combinatorial and referred to as NP-Hard in the literature. The goal of the problem is putting similar items in the same cluster and dissimilar items into different clusters according to a certain similarity measure, while maintaining some internal objectives such as compactness, connectivity or spatial separation. However, using one of these objectives is often not sufficient to detect different underlying structures in different data sets with clusters having arbitrary shapes and density variations. Thus, the current trend in the clustering literature is growing into the use of multiple objectives as the inadequacy of using a single objective is understood better. The problem is also difficult because the optimal solution is not well defined. To the best of our knowledge, all the multiobjective evolutionary algorithms for the clustering problem try to generate the whole Pareto optimal set. This may not be very useful since majority of the solutions in this set may be uninteresting when presented to the decision maker. In this study, we incorporate the preferences of the decision maker into a well known multiobjective evolutionary algorithm, namely SPEA-2, in the optimization process using reference points and achievement scalarizing functions to find the target clusters.
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Kara, Nasra Shokat. "A study of demographic and psychographic factors on preference for travel activities among international and local tourists in Tanzania." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2017. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43391/.
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Tourism destination usually viewed as a combination of places that generates not just experience but offers a memorable destination experience to the tourists. The challenge for today's tourism destination agencies is for them to offer what is needed by travellers. Currently, the tourism sector in Tanzania is in stiff competition with countries such as Kenya and South Africa in attracting more tourists. For a country to stay ahead of the competition, it is imperative for tourism stakeholders to understand various means for attracting the tourists, including the preferences for travel activities. This study aimed at offering an integrated approach to understanding tourists' travel activities and assesses its relationship with travel motivation and personality traits. Responses from a total of 431 respondents aged 18 and above was obtained through convenience sampling and used in the analysis. The study identified visiting city attractions, islands and beaches as top three preferred travel activities by tourists and visiting casinos and nightclubs as the least preferred activities. Moreover, the study examined the differences in preference for travel activities among the domestic and international travel markets. It was found that the two markets significantly differ in terms of preferences for a beach, visiting city attractions, going to nightclubs, purchasing traditional clothes and jewellery, as well as camping. Additionally, the study also examined whether demographic factors such as marital status, family size and occupation have any significant effect on preference for travel activities. Of all demographic factors, only occupation was proven to have a significant influence on activities such as visiting beaches and islands and purchasing traditional clothes. The study further tested the structural relationships between travel motivations, personality, destination image and travel activities using structural equation modelling. The main findings suggest that travel motivations and personality have an influence on preference for travel activities. More specifically, sightseeing activities were positively influenced by social, intellectual and stimulus avoidance travel motivations while outdoor activities were positively influenced by mastery competency travel motivation. Apart from travel motivations, this study also found that that closed to new experience personality positively influenced shopping activities while neurotic personality influenced sightseeing negatively. This study also examined the role of destination image in mediating the effect of travel motivation and personality in influencing travel activities. The overall finding indicated that there was only direct effect and that there was no mediation effect. Despite the fact that destination image did not mediate the former relationships it influenced sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment activities positively.
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Girardo, Benjamin. "La conditionnalité politique dans le système de préférences généralisées (SPG) de l’Union européenne : contribution à une identité de l'Union pour le développement." Thesis, Université Grenoble Alpes (ComUE), 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016GREAD008.
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Le Système de préférences généralisées (SPG) correspond à des réductions de droits de douane offertes par des sujets de droit international pubic « développés » aux pays en développement (PED). De manière générale, la conditionnalité est, quant à elle, un mécanisme qui permet de lier l’établissement, l’approfondissement, ou le maintien d’une situation juridique à la réalisation de conditions par un ou des bénéficiaire(s). Lorsque ce mécanisme est qualifié de « politique », ses conditions ont trait à la manière de gouverner et/ou à l’orientation des affaires publiques d’un sujet de droit international public. Le SPG de l’Union européenne (UE) contient plusieurs formes de conditionnalités qui agissent dans différents domaines des politiques publiques des PED bénéficiant de cette réduction douanière. L’intérêt de cette étude est d’aborder le SPG conditionné de l’UE dans le cadre de la construction de cette organisation internationale sui generis et comme révélateur d’une conception qui lui est particulière des relations internationales pour le développement. Par un effet miroir propre à chaque acte juridique, dans quelle mesure cet acte autonome reflète-t-il certaines caractéristiques de l’Union, une certaine identité de l’Union ? Le SPG conditionné de l’UE est tout d’abord un vecteur certain d’une identité européenne du développement en raison du caractère unilatéral de sa définition et de la relative uniformité de sa mise en œuvre. Cependant, celui-ci constitue un vecteur limité et ambivalent. Limité, tout d’abord, car le SPG est un acte secondaire au sein de la politique commerciale et car sa conditionnalité politique n’est pas reproduite dans d’autres actes des relations extérieures de l’Union. Ambivalent, ensuite, car cet acte autonome peut paraître illicite dans les relations commerciales internationales, tout en renouvelant le concept de développement par le commerce au sein de l’Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC)A Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is a reduction in custom fees on exports from « developing » subjects of public international law to « developed » countries. As a general rule, conditionality is a tool used to establish, deepen or maintain a legal situation conditioned by specific behavior from it’s beneficiary(ies). This tool is qualified as « political » when it conditions governing tools and/or the public policy of a subject of public international law. The European Union’s GSP has several forms of conditionality which deal with the public of policy of the developing countries benefiting from reduced custom fees. This work aims to study the EU’s conditioned GSP in the context of this sui generis international organization’s construction and as evidence of a EU-specific conception of international relations for development. As each legal tool reflects it’s creator, how does this act reveal certain characteristics of the EU or even aspects of the EU’s identity ? The EU’s conditioned GSP is an expression of European identity as it is defined unilaterally and applied with relative uniformity. However, this expression is limited and ambivalent. First of all, limited, because the GSP is a secondary act within EU commercial policy and it’s political conditionality is not found in other elements of the EU’s foreign relations. Secondly, ambivalent, because this GSP can seem illegal in the context of international commercial relations, all the while renewing the concept of development-through-trade within the World Trade Organization (WTO)
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Tosun, Leman Pinar. "Preference For Communication Technologies: Characteristics Of Channels, Users And Communication Situations." Phd thesis, METU, 2010. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12612668/index.pdf.
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In the current study, it was aimed to explore young adults&rsquocommunication technology preferences in friendships. With this aim, two survey studies were conducted on university students. In the first study 178 students and in the second study 343 students were surveyed. The findings of both studies demonstrated that (a) face-to-face communication was the most preferred communication,(b) preference for face-to-face communication was positively associated to preference for auditory communication, and negatively associated to preference for written communication, (c) several individual difference variables contributed to relative preferences for face-to-face over mediated communication in negative situations. General &lsquo
ndividual difference variables in relation to Relative Preferences were found to fit into a two-factor higher-order structure. The higher order constructs were Social Openness (the factors tapping to individuals&rsquo
motivation to engage in interpersonal interactions even when those interactions are challenging) and Individuated Functioning (the factors tapping to individuals&rsquo
motivation for personal growth). Relative Preference increased with increases in Social Openness and in Individuated Functioning. Communicaiton-specific individual difference factors underling the associations among Social Openness, Individauted Functioning and Relative Preferences were explored. Results suggested that Social Openness &ndash
but not Individuated Functioning- was indirectly linked to Relative Preferences via Perceived Difficulty of Communication Situations (Study1)
Social Openness was indirectly, and Individuated Functioning was both directly and indirectly linked to Relative Preferences via Difficulty in Handling Negative Situations (Study 2). Theoretical and practical implications of studies were discussed considering the previous literature.
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Olson, Jeffrey C. "Comparison of Patient Factors Influencing the Selection of an Orthodontist, General Dentist, or Direct-To-Consumer Aligners for Orthodontic Treatment." VCU Scholars Compass, 2019. https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/5766.
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Purpose: To evaluate the factors that influence potential orthodontic patients choosing between an orthodontist, general dentist, and direct-to-consumer (DTC) aligners for their treatment, and to determine the demand for each provider type.
Methods: An electronic survey was administered to 250 individuals among the general population of adults in the United States. Questions were designed to determine the respondent’s level of interest in pursuing orthodontic treatment with each provider type, evaluate their current level of knowledge concerning provider options, and identify factors influencing their selection. Pearson’s chi-squared test and ANOVA were used to evaluate the factors influencing patients in their selection.
Results: When asked their preference in provider type, 43.8% of respondents selected orthodontist, 34.1% selected DTC aligners, and 22.1% selected general dentist. Among respondents with the highest level of interest in pursuing orthodontic treatment, 50% selected an orthodontist and 27% selected DTC aligners. For respondents with moderate levels of interest in pursuing treatment, only 21% selected an orthodontist and 48% selected DTC aligners. The biggest perceived advantage of treatment with an orthodontist was quality of treatment, and the biggest disadvantage was cost. For DTC aligners, the biggest perceived advantage was convenience, followed by cost, and the biggest disadvantage was quality of treatment. Among adults with children, 34% selected DTC aligners for themselves and only 16% selected DTC aligners when selecting for their children.
Conclusion: Adults in the United States have similar levels of interest in pursuing orthodontic treatment with orthodontists and DTC aligners and, to a lesser degree, general dentists. A significant portion of those who select DTC aligners for their treatment are patients who would not have otherwise undergone treatment with an orthodontist. Patients tend to select orthodontists due to quality of treatment, whereas DTC aligners are selected due to convenience, followed by cost. Even among parents who prefer DTC aligners for their own treatment, parents tend to select an orthodontist for their child’s treatment.
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Persson, Niklas. "Analysis of Emoji Usage : Differences in Preference and Function Across Genders." Thesis, Högskolan i Jönköping, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-43856.
Full textAbstract:
How do people make use of emojis in their daily computer-mediated communication? In order to obtain data, a sampling methodology was implemented in which data from 15 female and 15 male participants was used to provide reports on the differences in preference and functions of emoji usage across genders. The study found that in variety and in total, males tend to select a greater amount of emojis, in comparison to females. The participants’ reasons for using emojis in instant messages varied across the two gender groups, females focused on illustrating a state of emotion while the males focused on emphasizing a message. This partially corresponded with previous studies. The study also found that the males replace words with emojis because it is easy, fun or quick, and in order to illustrate a state of emotion, while females do not prefer to replace words with emojis. In accordance with previous findings, this study shows that in general, people prefer using emojis to complement rather than to replace words. All of the males in this study tend to make use of emojis in order to complement words, while there was a low amount of females who do not use emojis for the purpose of complementing.
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Unal, Kemal. "Is There Any Security Preference For Turkey Between The Eu And The U.s.?" Master's thesis, METU, 2005. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12606659/index.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
The recent global security challenges such as terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction etc. have altered the security perceptions of the countries. For opposing those new security threats the U.S. and the EU generated their own security discourses. Accordingly, they tackle the issues with diverging perceptions. This diversion paves the way for a debate between two sides. In the mean time, Turkey has established her security architecture in accordance with the Western international community. Nevertheless, the ongoing debate between the EU and the U.S. leaves Turkey in an uncomfortable situation. On the grounds that, the future tendency of Turkey will be dependent on the policies of the U.S. and the EU as well as Turkey's own progress. On the one hand the U.S. can present multilateral or unilateral solutions to the problems. On the other hand the EU can show an inward-looking or an outward-looking policy in international relations. The results of those policy options will be the answer of Turkey'
s probable security preference between the U.S. and the EU.
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Kirbo, A., and Earl E. Johnson. "Patient Preference for Generic Prescription Alternatives at the Initial Fitting." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2014. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/1758.
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