<p>Environment friendly, so called green marketing has become a discussed subject and companies are constantly trying to find the best ways to reach the customers with their green message. A trademark is considered to be able to work as a source of information and risk reducer for customers, which can be a step towards green communication. Customers are becoming more demanding and they have started to pay more attention to the environment. What is important with trademarks is how customers perceive them, what the image of the trademark is. The aim of this study is to find out and compare how two multinational car manufacturers, Honda and Renault, have used their strategic trademark in order to create a “green” image. By green image meaning so called goods that are being perceived as environmental friendly by the customers. The research study took place in Worcester and Birmingham in England, during the spring 2009. A questionnaire was designed in order to find out how people perceive these two trademarks and how aware they are of the “environmental contribution” that is being made by these companies. The question we wanted to find a respond to where “Have the automobile companies Honda and Renault achieved to deliver their environmental message to their customers?” The results from this illustrates that both companies need to increase their communication with the customers, and that attributes like price and quality are more important than “environmental responsibility”. This study is based on only Honda and Renault and has not taken the rest of the automobile industry into consideration.</p>

Environment friendly, so called green marketing has become a discussed subject and companies are constantly trying to find the best ways to reach the customers with their green message. A trademark is considered to be able to work as a source of information and risk reducer for customers, which can be a step towards green communication. Customers are becoming more demanding and they have started to pay more attention to the environment. What is important with trademarks is how customers perceive them, what the image of the trademark is. The aim of this study is to find out and compare how two multinational car manufacturers, Honda and Renault, have used their strategic trademark in order to create a “green” image. By green image meaning so called goods that are being perceived as environmental friendly by the customers. The research study took place in Worcester and Birmingham in England, during the spring 2009. A questionnaire was designed in order to find out how people perceive these two trademarks and how aware they are of the “environmental contribution” that is being made by these companies. The question we wanted to find a respond to where “Have the automobile companies Honda and Renault achieved to deliver their environmental message to their customers?” The results from this illustrates that both companies need to increase their communication with the customers, and that attributes like price and quality are more important than “environmental responsibility”. This study is based on only Honda and Renault and has not taken the rest of the automobile industry into consideration.

Notions "attractiveness" and "friendliness" in the context of a tourism destination are currently not too researched and developed. Due to increasing competition in the tourism market, tourism destination try to determine the level of their general attractiveness and try to identify specific factors, that determine whether the target visitors consider just this destination as attractive and friendly. Although they are an important indicators, for destination management as well as for public management and regional development, the approaches to their measurement are not generally accepted and identified, because they are subjective focused and specific characterized. This diploma thesis provides fundamental and comprehensive overview of attractiveness and friendliness tourist destination measured approaches.

Problem: Environmental awareness was rated as the most current trend in 2006 by the readers of Swedish newspaper DN (Olausson, 2007), and in 2005 97 per cent of the Swed-ish population thought that environmental issues will have or already have had an influence on Sweden (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, 2005). Higher awareness about environmental issues leads to more environmental friendly products and new processes by companies for lower consumption of energy and harmful materials. However, the impor-tance of the contribution of households and electronics on the environment seems to be underestimated. Therefore, it is of importance to understand how consumers consider the environmental friendliness of electronic products, and computers in specific for this thesis. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how consumers value environmental friendliness when buying computers and how this influences their purchase decision. Method: In order to achieve the purpose stated, a conjoint analysis was first made through an experiment in order to see how the consumer make trade-offs between certain attributes of computers. After the experiment, respondents were asked to answer a questionnaire which has been used to connect computer purchasing and environmental values to con-sumer behaviour theories. Conclusions: The assumption on environmental friendliness being the least valued attrib-ute by consumers has not been supported by the results of the conjoint analysis done; in fact it has instead portrayed environmental friendliness as the second most important, be-fore price and performance, only after accessories. The results have also shown that envi-ronmental friendliness was appreciated in a computer, and that its existence in a computer affects the purchase decision positively. The results of the post-experiment questionnaire have illustrated that environmental friendliness of computers has a strong effect on the purchase decision when combined with other attributes, although it may not be regarded of high value by itself. While a computer by it self are likely to satisfy needs as low as social need, the environmental friendliness of computers appears to satisfy esteem needs. It has also been demonstrated that social factors could have strong effects on purchasing of green computers if more and better information were available. Further, moral obligations and at-titude to behaviour factors concerning green computers seem to be strong, while perceived control and subjective norms appear to be low in today’s society.

This thesis demonstrates the performance of Probabilistic Early Response TCP (PERT), a new TCP congestion control, for video streaming. As a delay based protocol, it measures the delay at the end host and adjusts the congestion window accordingly. Our experiments show that PERT improves video delivery performance by decreasing the fraction of packets delivered late. Furthermore, our Linux live streaming test indicates that PERT is able to reduce the playback glitches, when high resolution video is delivered over a link with non-zero packet loss. In order to operate PERT at higher thoughputs, we design PERT to work with Acknowledgement (ACK) coalescing at the receiver. ACK coalescing makes data transfers burstier and makes it hard to estimate delays accurately. We apply TCP pacing to fix this issue, and validate its effectiveness in the aspects of throughput, packet loss and fairness. Our experiment results also show that PERT with Delayed ACK and Pacing is more friendly, and therefore more suitable when multiple traffic flows are competing for limited bottleneck bandwidth or sharing the same router buffer.

<p>Problem: Environmental awareness was rated as the most current trend in 2006 by the readers of Swedish newspaper DN (Olausson, 2007), and in 2005 97 per cent of the Swed-ish population thought that environmental issues will have or already have had an influence on Sweden (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, 2005). Higher awareness about environmental issues leads to more environmental friendly products and new processes by companies for lower consumption of energy and harmful materials. However, the impor-tance of the contribution of households and electronics on the environment seems to be underestimated. Therefore, it is of importance to understand how consumers consider the environmental friendliness of electronic products, and computers in specific for this thesis.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how consumers value environmental friendliness when buying computers and how this influences their purchase decision.</p><p>Method: In order to achieve the purpose stated, a conjoint analysis was first made through an experiment in order to see how the consumer make trade-offs between certain attributes of computers. After the experiment, respondents were asked to answer a questionnaire which has been used to connect computer purchasing and environmental values to con-sumer behaviour theories.</p><p>Conclusions: The assumption on environmental friendliness being the least valued attrib-ute by consumers has not been supported by the results of the conjoint analysis done; in fact it has instead portrayed environmental friendliness as the second most important, be-fore price and performance, only after accessories. The results have also shown that envi-ronmental friendliness was appreciated in a computer, and that its existence in a computer affects the purchase decision positively. The results of the post-experiment questionnaire have illustrated that environmental friendliness of computers has a strong effect on the purchase decision when combined with other attributes, although it may not be regarded of high value by itself. While a computer by it self are likely to satisfy needs as low as social need, the environmental friendliness of computers appears to satisfy esteem needs. It has also been demonstrated that social factors could have strong effects on purchasing of green computers if more and better information were available. Further, moral obligations and at-titude to behaviour factors concerning green computers seem to be strong, while perceived control and subjective norms appear to be low in today’s society.</p>

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第17550号 / 工博第3709号 / 新制||工||1565(附属図書館) / 30316 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科建築学専攻 / (主査)教授 門内 輝行, 教授 髙田 光雄, 教授 神吉 紀世子 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

Les enfants ont leur propre point de vue sur les environnements architecturaux et urbains dans lesquels ils vivent. Leur point de vue est intéressant et important à connaitre car différent de celui des adultes. Néanmoins, l’enfant et son environnement sont rarement au centre des théories influençant ou développant la notion de « child-friendliness » environnementale, développée par M. Kyttä (Kyttä, 2002, 2003, 2004) dans la continuité de la théorie des affordances (Gibson, 1966, 1979/1986). Cependant, ce n’est qu’en partant de cette position-là qu’une proposition scientifiquement et empiriquement approuvée, mettant à l’épreuve cette notion est possible. En nous intéressant aux environnements quotidiens d’un territoire rural et agricole japonais, prédéfini, sur une base théorique, comme « child-friendly » par excellence, nous testons la façon dont il est vécu par ses petits habitants, et comment il reflète leurs expériences environnementales. Ainsi, à l’école élémentaire d’Ishigure, nous avons enquêté 115 élèves âgés de 7 à 12 ans, qui, sous forme de dessin et en suivant un questionnement précis, nous ont décrit leurs trajets de la maison à l’école, leurs façons de vivre et d’expérimenter les lieux d’activités parascolaires, ainsi que les bâtiments de la maison et de l’école. En engageant la perception (tant la nôtre, au cours de la phase de l’étude du terrain existant, que celle des enfants) et la représentation, à travers les interprétations et les analyses de dessins (environ 700 dessins récoltés), nous arrivons premièrement à comprendre le rapport des élèves aux espaces en question, pour ensuite intervenir sur notre notion de départ. Les résultats directs mettent alors en évidence le rapport entre la « child-friendliness » environnementale et la perception des environnements quotidiens. Ainsi, la thèse approfondit les connaissances sur la construction enfantine de la représentation spatiale dans une zone rurale japonaise, explore les expériences environnementales des enfants y habitant et redéfinit le cadre factoriel du concept de la « child-friendliness » environnementale. / Children see the architectural and urban environments in which they live from their own unique perspectives. It is interesting and important to know their point of view, with respect to how it differs from the perspectives of the adults. A child and its environment is rarely focused upon within the theories influencing the concept of the environmental “child-friendliness”, which was developed by M. Kyttä (Kyttä, 2002, 2003, 2004), and in line with the theory of affordances (Gibson, 1966, 1979/1986). However, it is only from this position that can be made possible the scientifically and empirically approved proposition testing this concept. In our studies, we focused on the lives and lifestyles found within agricultural, Japanese areas. Basing upon existing theories, we predefined it as a “child-friendly” environment and we analyzed the lives of the young inhabitants and how this was reflected in their environmental experiences. To this end, we investigated 115 children in the age between 7 and 12 years in the Ishigure elementary school. Using a form of drawing, which was followed by a detailed questionnaire, we described their journey from home to school, their way of living, and their experiences with extracurricular activities, as well as home and school buildings. Using perception (ours, in the phase of studying existing areas, as well as the one of children) and representation, through the interpretation and analyzes of drawings (approximately 700 drawings collected), we defined the relation of students to the areas we studied and we redefined the concept of the environmental “child-friendliness”. Our results highlight the relationship between the environmental “child-friendliness” and the perception of everyday life environments. This thesis also applies itself to areas of knowledge in the field of children’s construction of spatial representation within the Japanese agricultural areas, and which explores environmental experience of children living there, while redefining the factorial framework of the environmental “child-friendliness” concept.

The stability of the Internet is at risk if the amount of voice and video traffic continues to increase at the current pace. While current transport layer protocols do work well for most applications, they still present some problems. TCP is reliable, tracks the state of some network conditions and reacts drastically to an indication of congestion. TCP serves data-oriented applications very well but it can lead to unacceptably low quality for streaming applications by multiplicatively reducing the congestion window upon a sign of congestion. The other main transport layer protocol, UDP, provides good service for streaming applications but is not friendly to TCP and can cause the well-known existing congestion collapse problem in the Internet. This thesis proposes a new protocol to provide a good service for voice and video applications while being friendly to TCP and solving the congestion collapse problem. The protocol utilizes a fuzzy logic controller that considers network related information to govern the applications sending rate while satisfying the users needs. Using network information such as the available bandwidth, Packet Loss Rates (PLR), and Round Trip Times (RTT) a fuzzy inference system optimizes the applications send rate to meet the requested rate in a smooth manner without wasting network resources unnecessarily. The fuzzy logic controller is designed and its performance evaluated using MATLAB model simulations. The results indicate that the fuzzy controller solves the congestion collapse problem by reducing the number of undelivered packets into the network by nearly 100%. It provides smooth transition changes as demonstrated by the controlled UDP flow utilizing an estimated 44% more of the available bandwidth to smooth the send rate than the TCP flow in a highly varying bandwidth environment. The controller also remains friendly with TCP which was demonstrated to share the bandwidth at nearly 50% with one other competing controlled UDP flow.

Magistro baigiamajame darbe nagrinėjami Lietuvos kolegijų interneto tinklapių priimtinumo vartotojams teoriniai ir praktiniai ypatumai. Darbo problema: kokie veiksniai lemia kolegijų interneto tinklapių priimtinumą vartotojams ir koks jų kokybės lygis šiose svetainėse. Objektas – Lietuvos kolegijų interneto tinklapiai ir jų priimtinumo vartotojams veiksniai. Darbo tikslas – nustatyti pagrindinius kolegijų tinklapių priimtinumo vartotojams veiksnius, sudaryti priimtinumo modelį bei atlikti kolegijų tinklapių vertinimą pagal šį modelį. Tikslui pasiekti buvo įvykdyti šie uždaviniai: atlikta mokslinės literatūros ir teisinių dokumentų analizė, išskirti kolegijų tinklapių priimtinumo vartotojams veiksniai ir elementai bei sudarytas priimtinumo modelis, atliktas bendras kolegijų tinklapių priimtinumo vartotojams empirinis tyrimas bei konkrečios kolegijos tinklapio kokybės atvejo analizė. Darbo pabaigoje pateikti kolegijų tinklapių tobulinimo pasiūlymai. Darbe panaudoti šie tyrimo metodai: mokslinės literatūros analizė, teisinių dokumentų analizė, statistinių duomenų apžvalga, lyginamoji analizė, apibendrinimas, empirinis tyrimas, anketinė apklausa, kiekybinių ir kokybinių duomenų analizė, atvejo tyrimas. Remiantis mokslinės literatūros, teisinių dokumentų bei kolegijų veiklos analize nustatyti pagrindiniai kolegijų tinklapių priimtinumo vartotojams veiksniai, sudarytas kolegijų tinklapių priimtinumo modelis bei vertinimo elementų ir kriterijų sąrašas, kuriuo efektyviai gali... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In the Master’s Thesis there are analyzed theoretical and practical user friendliness peculiarities of Lithuanian college websites. The thesis issue: what are the factors that cause the user friendliness of college websites for users and what is their quality level on these websites. The object is Lithuanian college websites and their user friendliness factors for users. The aim of the Master’s thesis is to define the key user friendliness factors of college websites for users, to complete the acceptability model and carry out the assessment of college websites according to this model. In order to achieve the following aim, there were conducted the following objectives: executed the analysis of scientific literature and legal documents, distinguished user friendliness factors and elements of college website and completed acceptability model, conducted general empirical research in the acceptability of college websites for users and the quality analysis case study of the certain college website. At the end of the final thesis there are provided development proposals for college websites. There were applied the following research methods in the thesis: analysis of scientific literature, analysis of legal documents, review of statistical data, comparative analysis, generalization, empirical research, questionnaire survey, analysis of quantitative and qualitative data and case study. Following the analysis of scientific literature, legal documents and college activities there... [to full text]