<p>This study examines how consumers perceive the overall quality and similarity/fit of the brand extensions (Nike camera, Nike socks, and Nike golf balls) in relation to the original brand (Nike athletic shoes) and how these perceptions influence their attitudes towards the extensions. The researcher proposes that the perceived overall quality of the brand extensions will be congruent to that of the original brand and that the attitude towards the brand extensions will be favourable only when there is a perceived similarity/fit between the brand extensions and the original brand. In order to get these insights, the study surveyed 147 undergraduate and postgraduate students from the University of the Western Cape across all faculties. A non-probability convenience sampling method was used to access respondents. To collect data, qualitative and quantitative methods were employed using a questionnaire which consisted of open-ended and closed-ended questions in the form of free associations technique and 5-point Likert scales. The data gathered was analysed by means of descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation coefficient. The findings indicate two things. (1) respondents only perceived Nike socks&rsquo / overall quality to be congruent to the original brand, Nike athletic shoes. (2) respondents only perceived Nike socks to be strongly similar to the original brand, Nike athletic shoes.</p>

<p>Nearly one-third of the world&rsquo / s tortoises live in South Africa, but little is known about their habitat requirements and feeding ecology. Chersina angulata, the angulate tortoise, is endemic to&nbsp / southern Africa, with a wide distribution along the western and southern coasts. Because this tortoise occupies a number of different habitat types, it has always been considered a generalist&nbsp / herbivore, although little is known about its&nbsp / diet and other needs. This study evaluates the habitat characteristics and feeding ecology of C. angulata at two study sites in the southwestern&nbsp / &nbsp / &nbsp / Cape, the West Coast National Park (WCNP) and Dassen Island (DI). The WCNP is a large conserved area in the Fynbos biome, along the southwestern coast of South Africa, whereas DI is a&nbsp / small offshore island with low floral and faunal diversity, just south of the WCNP. The efficacy of three methods used to study the feeding ecology of herbivores, focal observations, macroscopic faecal analysis and histological analysis of scats, was evaluated. Plant cover, species diversity, and the variety of growth forms were substantially larger at the WCNP than on DI.&nbsp / In the WCNP, shrubs and grasses were the dominant growth forms but the vegetation also included herbs, succulents, restios, sedges and parasitic plants. A few perennial species such as&nbsp / the grass Ehrharta villosa, shrubs such as Helichrysum niveum, Nylandtia spinosa and Rhus spp., and succulents such as Carpobrotus edulis and Ruschia spp., provided most of the plant&nbsp / cover. DI had a depauperate flora, consisting of succulents and herbs, and ephemeral plants contributed more than perennials did to plant cover throughout the year. The succulents Mesembryanthemum crystallinum and Tetragonia fruticosa provided most of the cover on DI. Angulate tortoises are herbivores and 72 diet plants in 32 plant families were identified to the&nbsp / species or genus level. Several diet species, however, could not be identified. In&nbsp / addition to angiosperms, the tortoises&rsquo / diet included mosses, mushrooms, insects,snails and animal faeces.&nbsp / The most important growth forms in the diet were herbs and grasses. The diet of the WCNP tortoises was more diverse than the diet of DI tortoises, but the number of principal food items in&nbsp / the diet did not differ between the two sites. Over an annual cycle, WCNP tortoises had four principal food plants while DI tortoises had five principal food plants. At both sites, principal food&nbsp / &nbsp / plants changed with the season and few plants remained principal food items in more than one season. Cynodon dactylon was a principal food item in three of the four seasons in the WCNP, whereas Trachyandra divaricata was a principal food plant each season on DI. Most principal food plants were grass or herb species but the sedge Ficinia nigrescens, and a succulent that&nbsp / could be identified only to the family level (Aizoaceae), featured strongly in the spring diets of DI and WCNP tortoises, respectively.&nbsp / The three study methods did not provide the same type or quality of information about the feeding ecology of angulate tortoises. The small size and wary nature of angulate tortoises compromised focal studies because it was often not possible to see&nbsp / what the tortoises ate. This method, however, provided the interesting observation that rabbit&nbsp / faecal pellets contributed nearly 30% to summer and autumn diets on DI when food was scarce.&nbsp / Rabbit faeces may not only provide a source of nutrients but may also supplement the microflora, required to digest cellulose, in the tortoises&rsquo / guts. Macroscopic evaluation of the tortoises&rsquo / &nbsp / scats appeared to be an ineffective method to identify diet plants, and the bulk of the scat mass could not be identified. This indicates&nbsp / that angulate tortoises either selected food low in fibrous&nbsp / content or that the digestive system of the tortoises dealt efficiently with tough plant material. The macroscopic method was the only method that highlighted the large contribution of&nbsp / fruits / seeds to the diet of angulate tortoises. Since the tortoises digested many seeds only partially, or not at all, C. angulata is potentially an important agent of seed dispersal in the southwestern Cape. The macroscopic study showed that on DI, sand made up 28% of the scat mass in spring, whereas sand never made a substantial contribution to the scat composition of WCNP tortoises. Lithophagy may be an important strategy in a depauperate habitat, such as DI, because the abrasive action of sand may help with the digestion of tough plants, or the sand may&nbsp / provide the tortoises with important minerals that are deficient in their food plants.The histological analysis of scats provided the most comprehensive diet list for C. angulata. Selection indices&nbsp / based on data from the histological analysis indicated that angulate tortoises were highly selective in their food choice. Most of the principal food items were selected out of proportion to their&nbsp / availability and the tortoises avoided the most abundant plants in their habitats. Several factors, such as palatability, accessibility and profitability, may have influenced their food choice. The proportional similarity indices for WCNP and DI tortoises, respectively, were 0.31 and 0.16, confirming that C. angulata is a food specialist and not a food generalist as was previously thought. This factor should be considered in the management of this species and in future conservation planning of its habitat.&nbsp / &nbsp / </p>

Les différences hommes/femmes sont un présupposé que nous considérons souvent comme une évidence. Les similitudes, en revanche, sont présentées comme des particularités propres à certains individus. Elles ne sont souvent pas perçues comme une caractéristique humaine intrinsèque. Il existe cependant un rapport entre similitude et différence. Ce qui sépare fondamentalement les similitudes des différences c'est le point de vue de l'observateur : celui qui décide ce à quoi il va accorder de l'importance, non pas en fonction de critères scientifiques et objectifs, mais plutôt en fonction de croyances et de présupposés. Les scientifiques, eux-mêmes, ne sont pas à l'abri de ce biais, et ce, en dépit du fait que les différences sont scientifiquement observables et mesurables. L'importance qu'on leur accorde n'est pas plus réelle que les similitudes auxquelles on accorde, en revanche, beaucoup moins de valeur, d'attention et que l'on étudie beaucoup moins, mais qui seraient néanmoins mesurables. / Gender differences are a presupposition that we often take for granted. Similarities, however, are presented as the particular traits of individuals. Often they are not perceived as an inherent human characteristic. But there is a relationship between similarity and difference. What fundamentally separates the similarities from the differences is the viewpoint of the observer: The importance accorded to the one or the other is not based on scientific and objectives criteria, but rather the observer's beliefs and assumptions. Scientists themselves are not immune to this bias, even though the differences are scientifically observable and measurable. The significance of differences is no more real than that of similarities which, nonetheless, are granted much less value, attention, and are less often studied, although they are measurable.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

通訊技術的演化與智慧型手機的普及，改變了人際溝通的方式與手機的應用情境，在此變動快速的行動運算時代，欲研究探討使用者的行為模式，必須建立一個包含硬體、軟體與使用者社群的實驗平台，以量化的數據補強質性的觀察，準此，本論文將以現有之平台為基礎，強化其功能與易用性，方便其他研究者觀察資料的概況，並擷取符合某些條件之資料，此外，我們採用3-gram之應用程式序列，作為行為模式(behavior pattern)之特徵定義，配合不同的應用程式被使用之頻率，在相似度比較上進行不同比重的加權，根據實驗結果，可大致對使用者進行初步的分類，亦可利用此指標，針對已分類過的使用者更進一步探討之間的歧異程度。 / The rapid evolution of information technology and prevalence of smart-phones have changed the way people communicate. To effectively observe and investigate user behavior in this new era of mobile computing, an experimental platform that consists of hardware devices, software applications and user groups is essential. In this thesis, we enhance and extend the functions of a user log collection and analysis system to facilitate quick overview of the recorded data and allow flexible query/extraction of desired data segments for further processing. In addition, we employ 3-gram app log sequence as the main feature to characterize user behavior. A similarity measure that takes into account the relative app usage frequency has been defined to compare and classify users and their usage patterns. Experimental results indicate that this measure can effectively distinguish users of different traits given enough time period of observation.

A better understanding of the exchange processes taking place over the oceans is of great importance since the oceans cover about 70 % of the Earth’s surface. With better knowledge the turbulent fluxes can be more accurate parameterized, which is essential in order to improve the weather- and climate models. In this study, the non-dimensional gradient functions for water vapor (Φq) and carbon dioxide (Φc) in the marine boundary layer have principally been studied. The quality of the instrumentation used in the study has also been evaluated. The study is mainly based on tower measurements of turbulent fluxes and vertical profiles of water vapor and carbon dioxide, taken from the Östergarnsholm Island located in the Baltic Sea. The measurements have been shown to represent open-sea conditions for most situations when the winds are coming from the east-south sector, even though the measurements are obtained over land. It was found that the best fitting non-dimensional gradient functions for water vapor during unstable conditions were Φq = 2(1–18z/L)–1/2 and Φq = 1.2(1–14z/L) –1/2 at the 10 and 26 m level on the tower, respectively. No unique relationship could be established for Φq during stable conditions. Φq showed a dependence with wind direction and could for winds coming from the sector 80°– 160° be described with the relationship Φq = 1.2 + 10.7z/L during stable conditions. For the wind sector 50°– 80° the relationship for Φq was found to be Φq = 1.8 + 7.1z/L during stable conditions. A high degree of scatter was apparent in the calculated values of Φc during both stable and unstable conditions and did not seem to show any Monin-Obukhov similarity behaviour. The results indicate that there might be measurement problems with the instruments measuring the turbulent fluxes of carbon dioxide, but further studies are needed in order to draw a firm conclusion about the quality of the instruments. The profile measurements of water vapor seem to work fine, but more studies of carbon dioxide are needed before a statement can be made regarding the quality of the profile measurements of carbon dioxide. / Skiktet närmast marken kallas det atmosfäriska gränsskiktet och karaktäriseras av turbulens, dvs. oregelbundna virvelrörelser av olika storlekar som uppstår av vindens friktion mot jordytan (land eller hav) eller av luftens uppvärmning av jordytan. Genom turbulens kan utbyte av värme, vattenånga, momentum, koldioxid och andra gaser ske mellan jordytan och atmosfären. Turbulenta utbytesprocesser i det atmosfäriska gränsskiktet är viktiga att studera för att kunna beräkna ett turbulent flöde från en yta i väder- och klimatmodeller. Genom en ökad förståelse av flödena kan dessa bli mer noggrant parametriserade (dvs. en fysikalisk process som sker på en mindre skala eller är för komplex för att kunna beskrivas i en modell förenklas genom att beskriva processen med hjälp av ett antal kända parametrar som kan upplösas i modellen), vilket är grundläggande för att kunna förbättra modellerna. Flödena beräknas med hjälp av de s.k. dimensionslösa gradientfunktionerna, vilka relaterar flödet av en viss turbulent kvantitet, t.ex. värme, momentum, vattenånga, koldioxid etc., till dess vertikala gradient. Enligt Monin-Obukhovs similaritetsteori ska funktionerna vara universella och endast bero på den atmosfäriska stabiliteten. I denna studie har de dimensionslösa gradientfunktionerna för vattenånga (Φq) och koldioxid (Φc) i det marina gränsskiktet huvudsakligen analyserats. Kvaliteten på de instrument som har använts i studien har också utvärderats. I studien har främst data av turbulenta flöden och vertikala profiler av vattenånga och koldioxid använts som erhållits från ett torn på ön Östergarnsholm i Östersjön. Även om mätningarna sker över land har det visat sig att de för de flesta situationer när vinden blåser från sektorn ost-syd representerar likvärdiga förhållanden som gäller över öppet hav. Resultaten visade på att uttrycken Φq = 2(1–18z/L)–1/2 respektive Φq = 1.2(1–14z/L)–1/2 bäst beskriver de dimensionslösa gradientfunktionerna för vattenånga under instabila förhållanden på mäthöjderna 10 respektive 26 m. Något unikt uttryck för Φq under stabila förhållanden kunde inte fastställas. Φq visade ett beroende av vindriktning och kunde under stabila förhållanden beskrivas med uttrycket Φq = 1.2 + 10.7z/L för vindsektorn 80°– 160°. För vindar i sektorn 50°– 80° kunde Φq beskrivas enligt Φq = 1.8 + 7.1z/L under stabila förhållanden. En stor spridning syntes i de beräknade värdena av Φc under både stabila och instabila förhållanden och verkade inte följa Monin-Obukhov’s similaritetsteori. Resultatet tyder på att det kan vara mätproblem med de instrument som mäter de turbulenta flödena av koldioxid, men fler studier behövs för att kunna dra en definitiv slutsats om instrumentens kvalitet. Profilmätningarna av vattenånga verkar fungera bra, men fler studier om koldioxid måste utföras innan ett uttalande angående kvaliteten på profilmätningarna av koldioxid kan göras.

This study examines how consumers perceive the overall quality and similarity/fit of the brand extensions (Nike camera, Nike socks, and Nike golf balls) in relation to the original brand (Nike athletic shoes) and how these perceptions influence their attitudes towards the extensions. The researcher proposes that the perceived overall quality of the brand extensions will be congruent to that of the original brand and that the attitude towards the brand extensions will be favourable only when there is a perceived similarity/fit between the brand extensions and the original brand. In order to get these insights, the study surveyed 147 undergraduate and postgraduate students from the University of the Western Cape across all faculties. A non-probability convenience sampling method was used to access respondents. To collect data, qualitative and quantitative methods were employed using a questionnaire which consisted of open-ended and closed-ended questions in the form of free associations technique and 5-point Likert scales. The data gathered was analysed by means of descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation coefficient. The findings indicate two things. (1) respondents only perceived Nike socks' overall quality to be congruent to the original brand, Nike athletic shoes. (2) respondents only perceived Nike socks to be strongly similar to the original brand, Nike athletic shoes. / Magister Commercii - MCom

Competition between species is believed to lead to patterns of either competitive exclusion or limiting similarity within ecological communities; however, to date the amount of support for either as an outcome has been relatively weak. The two classes of null model commonly used to assess co-occurrence and limiting similarity have both been well studied for statistical performance; however, the methods used to evaluate their performance, particularly in terms of type II statistical errors, may have resulted in the underreporting of both patterns in the communities tested. The overall purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the negative co-occurrence and limiting similarity null models to detect patterns believed to result from competition between species and to develop an improved method for detecting said patterns. The null models were tested using synthetic but biologically realistic presence-absence matrices for both type I and type II error rate estimations. The effectiveness of the null models was evaluated with respect to community dimension (number of species × number of plots), and amount of pattern within the community. A novel method of subsetting species was developed to assess communities for patterns of co-occurrence and limiting similarity and four methods were assessed for their ability to isolate the species contributing signal to the pattern. Both classes of null model provided acceptable type I and type II error rates when matrices of more than 5 species and more than 5 plots were tested. When patterns of negative co-occurrence or limiting similarity were add to all species both null models were able to detect significant pattern (β > 0.95); however, when pattern was added to only a proportion of species the ability of the null models to detect pattern deteriorated rapidly with proportions of 80% or less. The use of species subsetting was able to detect significant pattern of both co-occurrence and limiting similarity when fewer than 80% of species were contributing signal but was dependent on the metric used for the limiting similarity null model. The ability of frequent pattern mining to isolate the species contributing signal shows promise; however, a more thorough evaluation is required in order to confirm or deny its utility.

Proximity scaling (i.e., multidimensional scaling and related methods) is a versatile statistical method whose general idea is to reduce the multivariate complexity in a data set by employing suitable proximities between the data points and finding low-dimensional configurations where the fitted distances optimally approximate these proximities. The ultimate goal, however, is often not only to find the optimal configuration but to infer statements about the similarity of objects in the high-dimensional space based on the the similarity in the configuration. Since these two goals are somewhat at odds it can happen that the resulting optimal configuration makes inferring similarities rather difficult. In that case the solution lacks "clusteredness" in the configuration (which we call "c-clusteredness"). We present a version of proximity scaling, coined cluster optimized proximity scaling (COPS), which solves the conundrum by introducing a more clustered appearance into the configuration while adhering to the general idea of multidimensional scaling. In COPS, an arbitrary MDS loss function is parametrized by monotonic transformations and combined with an index that quantifies the c-clusteredness of the solution. This index, the OPTICS cordillera, has intuitively appealing properties with respect to measuring c-clusteredness. This combination of MDS loss and index is called "cluster optimized loss" (coploss) and is minimized to push any configuration towards a more clustered appearance. The effect of the method will be illustrated with various examples: Assessing similarities of countries based on the history of banking crises in the last 200 years, scaling Californian counties with respect to the projected effects of climate change and their social vulnerability, and preprocessing a data set of hand written digits for subsequent classification by nonlinear dimension reduction. (authors' abstract) / Series: Discussion Paper Series / Center for Empirical Research Methods

本研究目的旨在探討國中教師甄選口試，背景變項（口試委員特徵、應試者特徵、應試者學經歷）及口試委員心理因素（應試者儀容舉止、應試者受喜愛程、應試者教師專業、口試委員類我效應），如何影響國中教師甄選口試評價結果以及這些因素與口試評價結果間的因果關係模式。 本研究採用問卷調查法進行，研究工具為「口試評量表」。資料蒐集的對象以93年度台北縣、台北市及桃園縣擔任國中教師甄選之口試委員為對象。參與本研究之口試委員共78位，每位口試委員口試應試者的人數3至23人不等，共回收口試評量表883份，有效量表844份。每位口試委員填答之量表以10份作為本研究原始資料選取之基準，共選入有效量表570份進行資料分析。 根據資料分析的結果，本研究獲致結論如下：（1）口試委員口試經驗、教育程度、職務，應試者教育背景、任教領域等背景變項對口試評價結果有顯著影響。（2）本研究建構之「國中教師甄選口試決策模式」，獲得實證資料驗證。模式中各心理因素對口試評價結果之總效果以口試委員類我效應最強，其餘依次是應試者受喜愛程度、應試者教師專業、應試者儀容舉止。 / The purpose of my study aimed at investigating how the background variables (interviewer characteristics, applicant characteristics, the educational background and past experience of the applicants), the interviewer’s psychological factors (the appearance and behavior of the applicants, the likability of applicants, teacher specialty of the applicants, and the perceived similarity of the interviewer), influence the interview assessment of the teacher selection in junior high school. And how the relations of cause-effect modeling between those mentioned-above factors and the result of interview assessment are formed. The survey is used and the instrument is the Interview Assessment Form. The objects of data-gathering are those who are the interviewers of junior high school teacher selection in Taipei County, Taipei City, or in Taoyuan County, in 2004. A total of 78 interviewers participate in my research, and each interviewer has 3 to 23 interviewees. Thus, a total of 883 Interview Assessment Forms are collected, 844 of which are effective forms. The average ten Assessment Forms answered by each interviewer are chosen as the standard of the choice of original data, and a total of 570 effective Assessment Forms are selected for data analysis. According to the result of data analysis, the conclusions of my research are as follows: (1) Such background variables as the interviewer’s interview experience, level of education, job position, the educational background of the applicants, and teaching fields have significant influences upon the result of interview assessment. (2) The decision model of the interview of junior high school teacher selection well developed in study is verified by well-examined data. From the analysis of Structural Equation Modeling, the strongest influence of the psychological factors upon the total effect of interview assessment is the interviewer’s perceived similarity, followed by the likability of applicants, teacher specialty of the applicants, and the appearance and behavior of the applicants.