abstract: Branding and brand management have been top management priorities in the hotel industry. Some researchers have concluded that strong branding would be an efficient way for hotels and hotel chains to differentiate themselves from each other. Recent studies have focused on the establishment of a brand equity model and the relevant causal relationships of the model. Most of these studies have used types of desirability scales examining the importance of individual factors in measuring brand equity. However, they ignore the trade-offs that affect and characterize choice. Particularly, the personal decision process implied by the hierarchical brand equity model is absent. This study proposed two alternative measures of brand equity, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and conjoint analysis (CA), to address these limitations. The AHP and the CA were compared using several validity measures to aid in selecting efficient methods. This study examined the validity of AHP and CA under two data collection methods applied to hotel branding: paper-based survey and online survey. Result showed that the AHP data collection methods were easier, as well as with respect to saving time and costs. Results also indicated that the AHP is equivalent to the CA with respect to predictive accuracy. Practical differences for hotel branding in attribute preferences were clearly observed between the AHP and the CA. The AHP results were consistent with previous studies by awarding high importance to perceived quality and brand loyalty and lower importance to brand awareness and brand image. Managerial implications were provided for results. In terms of practicality in data collection, the study results revealed that the data gathered online leads to a slightly lower internal and predictive validity. A limitation of this study was that the two methods were not perfectly comparable. Nevertheless, the validity of both AHP and CA seems satisfactory for both methods. The study results also offer useful perspectives to consider when choosing between the two methods, as well as between AHP and CA. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Community Resources and Development 2014

Every action a person takes is determined by the result of some decision. Making simple decisions is natural and does not require additional considerations. However, in case of multiple alternatives and criteria to be considered, decision-making technique is required. The most studied and developed technique is the Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP).This thesis is focused on the practical implementation of AHP. Firstly, it defines a set of features that are necessary for the decision-making process involving several experts and additional non-functional requirements to be met. Feature comparison has shown that none of the existing applications implements all required features. Therefore, a new application is designed. Further on, the engineering process is described, including transforming functional requirements into features, features into use cases, use cases into activities diagrams. After the developed application is described screens corresponding to each use case are presented. Non-functional requirements are portability, free availability, and usability. Compliance of the developed application with these criteria is checked with tests and two user experiments.The main results of this thesis are: (i) the extension of AHP theory with external consistency check to improve the quality of final results and (ii) the developed application which meets all requirements.

Die Verarbeitung von Datenströmen rückt zunehmend in den Fokus beim Aufbau moderner Big Data Infrastrukturen. Der Praxispartner dieser Master-Thesis, die integrationfactory GmbH & Co. KG, möchte zunehmend den Big Data Bereich ausbauen, um den Kunden auch in diesen Aspekten als Beratungshaus Unterstützung bieten zu können. Der Fokus wurde von Anfang an auf Apache Flink gelegt, einem aufstrebenden Stream-Processing-Framework. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die Implementierung verschiedener typischer Anwendungsfälle des Unternehmens mithilfe von Flink und die anschließende Evaluierung dieser. Im Rahmen dessen wird am Anfang zunächst die zentrale Problemstellung festgehalten und daraus die Zielstellungen abgeleitet. Zum besseren Verständnis werden im Nachgang wichtige Grundbegriffe und Konzepte vermittelt. Es wird außerdem dem Framework ein eigenes Kapitel gewidmet, um den Leser einen umfangreichen aber dennoch kompakten Einblick in Flink zu geben. Dabei wurde auf verschiedene Quellen eingegangen, mitunter wurde auch ein direkter Kontakt mit aktiven Entwicklern des Frameworks aufgebaut. Dadurch konnten zunächst unklare Sachverhalte durch fehlende Informationen aus den Primärquellen im Nachgang geklärt und aufbereitet in das Kapitel hinzugefügt werden. Im Hauptteil der Arbeit wird eine Implementierung von definierten Anwendungsfällen vorgenommen. Dabei kommen die Datastream-API und FlinkSQL zum Einsatz, dessen Auswahl auch begründet wird. Die Ausführung der programmierten Jobs findet im firmeneigenen Big Data Labor statt, einer virtualisierten Umgebung zum Testen von Technologien. Als zentrales Problem dieser Master-Thesis sollen beide Schnittstellen auf die Eignung hinsichtlich der Anwendungsfälle evaluiert werden. Auf Basis des Wissens aus den Grundlagen-Kapiteln und der Erfahrungen aus der Entwicklung der Jobs werden Kriterien zur Bewertung mithilfe des Analytic Hierarchy Processes aufgestellt. Im Nachgang findet eine Auswertung statt und die Einordnung des Ergebnisses.:1. Einleitung 1.1. Motivation 1.2. Problemstellung 1.3. Zielsetzung 2. Grundlagen 2.1. Begriffsdefinitionen 2.1.1. Big Data 2.1.2. Bounded vs. unbounded Streams 2.1.3. Stream vs. Tabelle 2.2. Stateful Stream Processing 2.2.1. Historie 2.2.2. Anforderungen 2.2.3. Pattern-Arten 2.2.4. Funktionsweise zustandsbehafteter Datenstromverarbeitung 3. Apache Flink 3.1. Historie 3.2. Architektur 3.3. Zeitabhängige Verarbeitung 3.4. Datentypen und Serialisierung 3.5. State Management 3.6. Checkpoints und Recovery 3.7. Programmierschnittstellen 3.7.1. DataStream-API 3.7.2. FlinkSQL & Table-API 3.7.3. Integration mit Hive 3.8. Deployment und Betrieb 4. Implementierung 4.1. Entwicklungsumgebung 4.2. Serverumgebung 4.3. Konfiguration von Flink 4.4. Ausgangsdaten 4.5. Anwendungsfälle 4.6. Umsetzung in Flink-Jobs 4.6.1. DataStream-API 4.6.2. FlinkSQL 4.7. Betrachtung der Resultate 5. Evaluierung 5.1. Analytic Hierarchy Process 5.1.1. Ablauf und Methodik 5.1.2. Phase 1: Problemstellung 5.1.3. Phase 2: Struktur der Kriterien 5.1.4. Phase 3: Aufstellung der Vergleichsmatrizen 5.1.5. Phase 4: Bewertung der Alternativen 5.2. Auswertung des AHP 6. Fazit und Ausblick 6.1. Fazit 6.2. Ausblick

A nation-wide survey of hardwood flooring manufacturers was conducted in the spring of 1998. The objectives of the study were to determine the differences in beliefs towards certification between certified and non-certified hardwood flooring manufacturers and to explore the decision to certify and the implications of that decision. Those objectives were chosen because certification is a developing phenomenon of which there are some aspects that remain unknown. The survey consisted of a mail questionnaire that was sent to more than 250 hardwood flooring manufacturers. The questionnaire was used to collect demographic and attitudinal information from the respondents about certification. The second part of the research used the Analytic Hierarchy Process to model the decision process hardwood flooring manufacturers go through when deciding whether or not to certify. Data were collected as part of the mail questionnaire. The final goal of the research, to explore the experiences of certified manufacturers, was met through the use of personal interviews with the manufacturers. The results from the mail survey indicated that certified hardwood flooring manufacturers tended to be smaller than non-certified hardwood flooring manufacturers. The total amount of certified hardwood flooring produced in the U.S. in 1997 was estimated to be 435,579 bdft, roughly 0.1% of the total reported amount of hardwood flooring produced. The research also indicated that certified manufacturers felt that there was a need for certification in the U.S. and that it was the environmentally responsible thing to do, while the non-certified manufacturers felt that that was untrue. The most important factor in the non-certified manufacturers' decision whether to certify is the profit potential of the product, while the certified manufacturers based their decision to certify on the marketing advantages, image benefits, and access to new markets that the certified product provides. Overall, certified and non-certified hardwood flooring manufacturers hold widely differing views on certification, and those differing beliefs contribute to the choices each group makes. / Ph. D.

This research investigated methods to determine appropriate security protocols for specific wireless network applications. The specific problem being addressed was that there are tradeoffs between security, performance, and efficiency among current and proposed security protocols. Performance and efficiency issues are particularly important in wireless networks which tend to have constrained network capacity and connect to resource-limited nodes. Existing security protocols address problems such as authentication, availability, confidentiality, integrity, and non-repudiation. However, these protocols use resources and limit the efficient use of node resources. Thus, the overall objective of this research is to improve the efficiency of security mechanisms for wireless networks. A methodology was constructed to satisfy this objective and is an important contribution of this research. The methodology can be used to define the relevant operational parameters of different wireless network applications, classify wireless networks into distinct categories, incorporate appropriate security protocols to a category, and analyze the security protocols through metrics. Three groups of operational parameters were created to classify wireless networks; these are equipment, network topology, and communication characteristics. The wireless network categories include, but are not limited to, fixed broadband wireless networks, wireless local area networks, mobile ad hoc networks, and small device sensor networks. The metrics in the methodology are used to measure end-to-end data throughput and delay, efficiency and overhead, power and energy consumption, and energy consumed per packet transferred. The main advantage of this methodology is the flexibility of how constraints are considered and suitability is analyzed. This approach can identify problems from manageable categories of networks and find or create solutions for each of them. Another advantage of this methodology is that after suitable security protocols are found or created for each category, any new wireless network application that falls into an existing category may be able to use the security protocols from that category and find that they are the most suitable. Another key contribution of this research was the implementation and evaluation of a context aware and adaptive security manager (CASM) that selects appropriate protocols in real-time. CASM was developed using the methodology as a guide. Results from a resource analysis of four encryption algorithms were utilized for the design of CASM. A feasibility study of CASM was then completed. Three different experimental scenarios were used to evaluate CASM's operation. The results and analysis of the experiments indicate that the security manager functions properly and security is provided efficiently with different user settings and environments. Three schemes were deemed the best to use for the decision module of CASM. / Ph. D.

Submitted by Angela Maria de Oliveira (amolivei@uepg.br) on 2018-11-20T16:38:49Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Dinameres Antunes.pdf: 5605862 bytes, checksum: bf35e5ad3ab8103dfa374d1dd1271e7b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-20T16:38:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Dinameres Antunes.pdf: 5605862 bytes, checksum: bf35e5ad3ab8103dfa374d1dd1271e7b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-22 / O Parque Nacional dos Campos Gerais (PNCG) constitui uma importante unidade para a conservação, no entanto ainda há entraves à sua implementação, dificultando seu principal propósito, a conservação. Neste trabalho optou-se por metodologia de Análise Multicritério (AMC) para identificar as áreas críticas do PNCG, considerando os impactos de fluxos laterais direcionados às áreas naturais. Utilizouse a Análise de Entorno, AMC por AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), e álgebra de mapas para gerar cartogramas de fragilidade referente a geologia, solos, declividade, uso e ocupação da terra e distância de estradas. Comparando-se os cartogramas de fragilidade com as classes na lógica boleana, percebe-se que para algumas áreas foram obtidos valores muito próximos ao limite das classes, de maneira que foram pouco representativos da verdade de campo. Por isso, considerou-se que o emprego da lógica fuzzy permitiu a melhor visualização dos intervalos, ainda que nesta ocorra uma limitação para a quantificação dos dados. Como resultado, observou-se que as áreas mais frágeis referem-se a Formação Furnas e sedimentos recentes associados a solos mais frágeis, com declividades mais altas e uso e ocupação da terra incompatíveis com a conservação. Há estradas e interseções com a rede hidrográfica em áreas de solos, geologia, declividade e usos e cobertura da terra frágeis, este padrão espacial pode afetar os processos ecológicos, gerando fragmentação da paisagem e desequilíbrios em hábitats. Em relação às estradas, as áreas mais frágeis estão próximas aos pontos turísticos dentro do parque, como o rio São Jorge, a Cachoeira da Mariquinha e a furna Buraco do Padre. Estas áreas demandam atenção prioritária dos gestores, pois a intensidade de fluxo e mau uso podem gerar e acelerar processos de erosão e afetar a bio e geodiversidade. / The National Park of Campos Gerais (PNCG) is an important conservation unit, however it still have some difficulties towards its implementation and the achievement of its main goal, conservation. In this study we use Multicriteria Analysis to identify critical areas in PNCG considering the impacts of road lateral flux upon natural areas. It was applied buffer analysis, Multicriteria Analysis for AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) and map algebra to generate PNCG fragility cartograms related to geology, soils, slope, land use and occupation and roads distance. Comparing the fragility maps classified by bolean logic, some areas presented values very close to the class limits, so the classification was somehow far from the field veracity. As consequence, it was used fuzzy logic that showed better the class intervals, although limiting the data quantification. As results, it was observed that the most fragile areas are mainly under Furnas Formation and Recent Sediments, associated to fragile soils, higher slopes, and land use that are unsuitable for conservation. There are roads and rivers interceptions in very fragile areas, this spatial pattern could lead to fragmentation and habitat disturbances. Related to roads, the most fragile areas are close to tourist attractions inside the park as São Jorge River, Mariquinha Waterfall, “Buraco do Padre” Cave. This areas demand priority actions from the park managers so the flow intensity and bad use can origin and accelerate erosion processes, affecting geo and biodiversity.

During the manufacturing planning, multiple variants of process chains for the manufacturing of a product to be developed are generated by engineers. In order to select an optimal variant, multiple decision criteria specifying technical, ecological and economical properties of the process chains as well as multiple assessments of different domain experts have to be taken into account. The contribution of this article is a two-step approach that provides a multi-criteria multi-expert assessment of manufacturing process chains supporting the selection of an optimal process chain. A web-based software tool that implements the multi-criteria assessment of process chains is also presented.

During the manufacturing planning, multiple variants of process chains for the manufacturing of a product to be developed are generated by engineers. In order to select an optimal variant, multiple decision criteria specifying technical, ecological and economical properties of the process chains as well as multiple assessments of different domain experts have to be taken into account. The contribution of this article is a two-step approach that provides a multi-criteria multi-expert assessment of manufacturing process chains supporting the selection of an optimal process chain. A web-based software tool that implements the multi-criteria assessment of process chains is also presented.

A competitividade de uma organização e, consequentemente, sua prosperidade perante concorridos mercados, depende muito da capacidade de inovação e aprimoramento de seus produtos/serviços e processos. A procura por melhores padrões de manufatura e serviços prestados aos clientes, além das aplicações de novas técnicas gerenciais, de melhoria contínua, de otimização e de tomada de decisão, têm atraído a atenção das organizações. O esforço criativo humano deve propor abordagens de caráter competitivo, combinando ferramentas e técnicas, conhecidas ou não, a fim de melhorarem seus desempenhos. Assim, o objetivo desta tese foi propor uma estrutura analítica integrando de forma sequencial o processo de melhoria contínua DMAIC e o método de análise multicriterial para tomada de decisão Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), com vistas às aplicações em operações de distribuição física de bebidas. Em um primeiro momento, por meio de uma pesquisa bibliográfica, foi proposta uma estrutura geral, denominada Estrutura Analítica DMAIC/AHP, envolvendo as teorias supracitadas. Além disso, com o auxílio de um estudo de caso, foi proposta uma estrutura detalhada para a tentativa de melhoria da operação de distribuição física de bebidas em uma empresa na cidade de Ribeirão Preto. O foco esteve também na oportunidade de se obter maior conhecimento do processo em estudo e melhorar o embasamento para a tomada de decisão. A aplicação da estrutura analítica foi dividida em três fases: fase 1 - definições para o projeto de melhoria; fase 2 - condução do processo de melhoria em si; e fase 3 (denominada metafase) - responsável por monitorar/acompanhar as atividades do projeto. A aplicação em um caso real permitiu a proposta de atividades e ferramentas para entendimento e aperfeiçoamento do processo; além de alternativas de decisão frente aos problemas encontrados; deu embasamento para a tomada de decisão no momento de se implementarem as melhorias e apresentou instrumentos para manutenção e controle das alterações propostas no projeto. Um ganho evidente com a junção das teorias foi que houve um auxílio mútuo entre elas. Dessa forma, o processo de melhoria contínua DMAIC, por meio de suas etapas minuciosas de conhecimentos de processos e de causas de problemas, pôde embasar de forma robusta a definição do modelo hierárquico do AHP, desde o objetivo geral a ser atingido, passando pelos critérios de decisão, até se chegar às alternativas de decisão propostas para o processo em estudo. Por outro lado, como o DMAIC não apresenta um método de tomada de decisão atraente, o AHP pôde auxiliar na tomada de decisão multicriterial de forma mais organizada, consistente e assertiva. / The competitiveness of an organization and consequently its prosperity before competitive markets, depends widely on the capacity for innovation and improvement of its products/services and processes. The pursuit for better manufacturing standards and services provided to customers, in addition to the applications of new management techniques, continuous improvement, optimization and decision-making, have attracted attention of organizations. The human creative effort should propose approaches of competitive basis, combining tools and techniques, known or not, in order to improve their performance. Thus, the objective of this thesis was to propose an analytical structure integrating sequentially the process of continuous improvement DMAIC of Six Sigma and the multi-criteria analysis method for decision making Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), in order to apply in real cases in beverage industries. At first, through a literature search, it was proposed a general structure, called Analytical Structure DMAIC/AHP, involving the above theories. In addition, with a case study aid, it was proposed a detailed structure attempting to improve the operation of physical distribution for beverages in a company in the city of Ribeirão Preto. The focus was also on the opportunity to gain greater knowledge of the process under study and improve the foundation for decision making. The application of analytical structure was divided into three phases: phase 1 - definitions for the improvement project; phase 2 - implementation of the improvement process itself; and phase 3 (called metaphase) - responsible for monitoring/following the activities of the project. The application in a real case allowed the proposal of activities and tools for the understanding and improvement of the process, as well as possibilities for more alternatives to problems encountered; provided foundation for decision making at the time of implementing the improvements and presented tools for maintenance and control of changes proposed in the project. An obvious gain from the junction of the theories was that there was a mutual aid between them. Thus, the process of continuous improvement DMAIC, through its detailed stages of knowledge of processes and causes of problems could robustly base the definition of the hierarchical model of AHP, since the overall objective to be attained, passing through the decision criteria, until they get to the alternatives of decisions proposed for the process under study. On the other hand, as the DMAIC does not present an attractive method of decision-making, AHP could assist in multi-criteria decision making more organized, consistent and assertive.

O trabalho avalia a importância dos atributos que afetam a dinâmica da água subsuperficial, em 4 níveis de escala, para a região entre São Carlos e Ribeirão Preto, nordeste do Estado de São Paulo. A área é constituída, principalmente, por arenitos da formação Botucatu e basaltos da formação Serra Geral, recobertos por materiais inconsolidados, com espessura variando de 1 a 20 m. O estudo na escala 1:100.000 considerou 27 atributos, incluindo características dos materiais geológicos, geomorfologia, precipitações e fontes de contaminação. A técnica AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) foi utilizada para determinar o potencial relativo em termos de contaminação das águas subsuperficiais. Os resultados indicaram que o risco atual de contaminação das águas subsuperficiais é relativamente baixo, devendo ser analisado com maior detalhe para algumas bacias consideradas de risco mais acentuado. Foram realizados levantamentos em escala 1:10.000 e 1:20.000 para as bacias hidrográficas do córrego do Vaçununga (cidade de Luis Antônio) e Ribeirão do Tamanduá (próximo às cidades de Cravinhos e Serrana), respectivamente. Estas bacias foram selecionadas a partir do estudo em escala 1:100.000 devido as suas características ambientais. Foram selecionados 12 cenários de chuvas para avaliar a relação entre infiltração e escoamento superficial utilizando os modelos de infiltração de Morel - Seytoux & Khanji (1976) e Chu (1978). Os valores de descarga nos exutório e análise de recessão nestas bacias foram medidos por 2 anos. A bacia hidrográfica do córrego do esgoto (próximo a Ribeirão Preto) foi selecionada para a modelagem numérica (escala 1:1.000) por apresentar o maior índice potencial ao evento de contaminação das águas subsuperficiais na escala 1:100.000. A modelagem auxiliou na definição da direção do fluxo e indicou tendências de migração dos contaminantes oriundos do lixão instalado nesta bacia (modelagem de fluxo e de transporte). / This work presents the results obtained from integrated assessment of the attributes related to groundwater dynamic in 4 scales in the São Carlos and Ribeirão Preto region, northeast of State of São Paulo, Brazil. This area is constituted of sandstones of the Botucatu formation and basalt of the Serra Geral formation. Unconsolidated materials cover these rocks with thickness varying from 1 to 20 m. For 1:100.000 scale were considered 27 attributes of the geological materials, geomorphology, rainfall and pollutant sources. The AHP method (Analytic Hierarchy Process) was used to determine the relative degree in terms of groundwater contamination potential. The results show that the risk level for groundwater contamination is predominately low, and few basins are classified with high risk level. Studies were developed in 1:20.000 and 1:10.000 scales for córrego do Vaçununga (city of Luis Antônio) and ribeirão do Tamanduá (near to cities of Cravinhos e Serrana) basins, respectively. These basins were selected from the study in 1:100.000 scale due to environmental characteristics. It were considered 12 rainfall scenarios to evaluate the infiltration and overland flow rates using the Morel - Seytoux & Khanji (1976) and Chu (1978) model\'s, and recession and discharge rates were measured for 2 years. The córrego do esgoto basin (next to city of Ribeirão Preto) was selected for numerical modelling at 1:1.000 scale to simulate the groundwater flow and contaminantplumes, because it presented highest risk level in the 1:100.000 study.