Children with ASD often display behavior problems that can lead to daily academic and social disruptions. Many teachers and therapists have sought to create classroom interventions that improve the length of time a child stays seated and focused on the required task. This has led to the introduction of stability balls as an alternative seating method for children, both on the autism spectrum and with other needs. This study used a multiple baseline design and duration data to evaluate the effects of stability ball seating on attending and in-seat behavior for children with ASD who received ABA therapy in their homes. The intervention replaced their standard seating method with a stability ball. In the final phase participants chose their own seating method before beginning table work to assess preference. Following intervention the stability ball was found to increase both attending and in-seat durations for children with ASD.

Many children are exposed to excessively technology. Such use of technology may lead to health issues including obesity, attention deficits, and sleep disorders. Research has shown that parameters of reinforcement, such as quality and delay, may influence how children allocate their preferences. One way to drive preference away from high-tech toys may be to arrange delays to reinforcement following such selections and immediate reinforcement for an alternative response. In Experiment 1, four subjects who preferred high-tech leisure items over low-tech leisure items were identified through the pair-stimulus preference assessments. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that all subjects were sensitive to delay to reinforcement. When delays were implemented following selection of high-tech items, preference shifted from high-tech to low-tech leisure items at different delays.

Today’s logistics practices are moving from inventory-based push supply chains to replenishment-based pull supply chains, leading to a lower and less centralized inventory, smaller shipment sizes, and more just-in-time deliveries. As a result, industries are now demanding greater reliability in freight transportation. Delays and uncertainty in freight transportation translate directly into additional inventory, higher manufacturing costs, less economic competitiveness for businesses, and higher costs of goods that are being passed on to the consumers. Given the growing demand in freight transportation, the emerging needs to better understand freight behavior for better policy and investment decisions, and the increasing role of reliability in freight transportation, this research aims at providing a) better understanding of how the freight system users value travel time reliability in their transportation decisions, and b) advanced methods in quantifying the user’s willingness to pay for the improvement of transportation related attributes, particularly travel time reliability. To understand how the freight industry values travel time reliability in their transportation decisions, and particularly the presence of user heterogeneity, this research designed and conducted a stated preference (SP) survey for freight users in road transportation. Based on the feedback received during the pilot stage, reliability was measured as the standard deviation of travel time and presented as a frequency of on-time and late delivery in the choice scenarios. The survey collected 1,226 responses from 159 firms in Florida between January and May 2016 via online and paper methods. Various modeling approaches were explored to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) measures among freight users, including multinomial logit (MNL) and mixed logit model. Market segmentation and interaction modeling techniques were employed to investigate preference variations among user groups, commodity groups, product type, and various other shipment characteristics, including shipping distance and weight. In general, across all groups in the sample, values of $37.00 per shipment-hour ($1.53 per ton-hour) for travel time savings and $55.00 per shipment-hour ($3.81 per ton- hour) for improvements of reliability were found in this research. Furthermore, while investigating the effects of shipping characteristics on the user’s preference in WTP, the results suggested that shipping distance and weight were the two most important variables. The results of the study help advance the understanding of the impact of the performance of transportation systems on freight transportation, which will lead to policy and investment decisions that better serve the needs of the freight community.

Restoration landscape theories propound the observation that landscape mitigates human emotion, mental functioning, and behaviour. Those environments that positively affect these spheres are called "restorative". In recent years, many attempts have been made to quantify restorative landscapes, so that landscape architects and others can replicate them in the manipulated environment. An understanding of how certain combinations of landscape attributes affect humans is important in knowing the ramifications of certain designs. A major finding in recent years is that preferred landscapes—or those high in scenic beauty—are generally more restorative than less-attractive environments. One realm of the environment not dealt with, however, is the sacred landscape. One reason for this is the relative difficulty in narrowing down the term “sacred” to something measurable. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the nature of sacred landscapes, and then to test sacred landscapes against preferred landscapes to measure their restorative potential. This testing involved subjecting participants to a psychological stressor, and then exposing them to slides rated highly in either sacredness or preference. A control group was also tested, but viewed a blank screen rather than images. Implications of this research impact both researchers and practitioners in the fields of landscape architecture, environmental psychology, public land management, and visual resource management. This study found that sacred landscapes are very restorative, although not quite as restorative as environments that rate highly in scenic beauty. This confirms previous research efforts, and opens the study of restorative environments to other landscape typologies as well. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

Post-ischemia depression (PID) is a condition that affects approximately 30% of survivors from stroke or cardiac arrest and has an important impact on patients’ quality of life. Previous studies support important roles of the endocannabinoid (eCB) system in depression and brain ischemia. This study attempts to link all three variables together by investigating the role and mechanism of eCB signaling in the development of PID. A global ischemia + hypotension model was used to induce a PID phenotype in CD1 mice. Three ischemic time frames were tested, and even though all three could induce significant cell death in the CA1 region of the hippocampus, only the 15-minute time point led to an increased immobility time on the forced swimming test (FST). The main goal of this study was to investigate the effect of a cannabinoid type-I receptor (CB1R) antagonist/inverse agonist, AM281, on the development of two depressive symptoms: anhedonia, measured with the sucrose preference test (SPT), and behavioral despair, measured with the FST. AM281 administration was able to significantly reduce the symptoms of anhedonia and behavioural despair. Subsequently, the mechanism behind this antidepressant-like effect was investigated. Administration of bicuculine with AM281 did not significantly affect the antidepressant effect on the FST, therefore suggesting that AM281 does not act on GABAergic synapses. A similar protocol was adopted with NVP-AM077, where its administration combined with AM281 was able to block the effect of AM281, thus confirming the importance of glutamatergic synapses for the antidepressant effect of AM281. Furthermore, the administration of a TAT-GLUR2 peptide did not significantly affect the effect of AM281, implying that the astroglial cell-mediated LTD (long-term depression) at glutamatergic synapses is not involved in the antidepressant effects of AM281. Finally, a bilateral intra-BLA (basolateral nucleus of the amygdala) administration of AM281 was able to reduce the immobility time on the FST. In conclusion, these results highlight the important contribution of BLA glutamatergic synapses to the antidepressant-like effect conferred by AM281.

A topic of this thesis is an analysis of customer preferences in relation to products and services of the company REX Controls s.r.o. that focuses mainly on industrial automation and control systems. The goal of this thesis is to find preferred attributes when acquiring a control system and determine a level of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Product attributes are determined by conducting semi-structured interviews. Analysis of customer preferences is based on a consumer research. Within the survey are involved two groups of experts on automation and regulation. Evaluation of the collected data is performed by using statistical tools. The results of the analysis and formulated recommendations for the company, which could help to achieve its objectives, are discussed in the conclusion part.

This thesis discuss the topic of the recruitment marketing, with it's principles, functioning, goals and instruments. Topic is separated into two parts, external a nd internal. These parts are analysed out below. The usage of the recruitment marketing is described on the sample of the company IKEA, Czech republic. The tesis is finished in the project of the recruitment strategy for mentioned firm, which is based on the results of the accomplished research.

The aim of this thesis is to obtain comprehensive results for the population of the Czech Republic in the field of human values, value preferences and value charts by using results from conducted research and data from previous studies. Also an important objective of this thesis is to show the economic behavior of people in the Czech Republic at the time of the financial and economic crisis. As a theoretical basis for the practical part, three major, interrelated areas have been selected: economic behavior, focused on principles of individual decision-making and on media and their possible impact on the economy; life values; and economic development as a source of changes in economic behavior in terms of development on the labour market, development of education and development of ecology. Empirical part, which is called Research - changes in value preferences, is at first focused on the formulation of hypotheses, which relate to the issue, and on the creation of the questionnaire. The analysis and the interpretation of results can be considered as a pivotal chapter of the practical part of this thesis.It is divided into several sub-chapters according to the examined area.

This diploma thesis is concerned with the use of the choice experiment method for modelling travel behaviour. The main scope of this diploma thesis is to find the main attributes for the individual's decision making about the student's choice of mean of transport. The models have been applied to long intercity trips between Prague and Brno. The model specification combines trip-based characteristics with socioeconomic characteristics. There are numerous European and US studies which have been conducted in a national context. In recent years, studies have been implemented also in the Czech Republic, but none of them focus on the specific segment of students. The principles of the choice experiment come out from the Lancaster' characteristics theory of value and random utility theory. The multinominal logit is used to the choice experiment analysis.

This master thesis deals with the analysis of fresh juice and smoothie market in the Czech Republic. The goal of this thesis is to investigate the market of both fresh bars and fresh juices and smoothies that can be bought in the store. Another goal is to determine consomer's needs on this market. For the purpose of finding out those information, a quiestionnare was compiled. The questionnaire was targeting young people age between 20 and 30 years who either live or at least spend most of their time in big cities. The results of the questionnaire then served as a starting point for further analysis. During working on this paper I was doing a regular storecheck in the 4 most visited grocery chains. For a deeper understanding of the target group, two focus groups were held. First one was targeting people that are regularly buying fresh juices and smoothies in grocery chains. Second one targeted the contrary -- people that have never bought such drinks. Reults of all research that were carried out served as a starting point for further recommendation.