Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 314-326). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Problem: Research shows that it is crucial to acknowledge the information search step to understand consumer decision-making. Moreover, consumers‟ buying behavior is affected by their brand awareness. A problem is however that there exist a gap in previous research on understanding the consumers‟ actual behavior and why they choose certain platforms for their information gathering. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to get an understanding of consumers‟ information gathering process about cosmetic products and in turn to what extent that can create brand- awareness and attitudes. The thesis aims at filling the gap of truly understanding consumers inter-action in media and their behavior. The target audience to be stud-ied is young women, age 18-26, in the cosmetic industry. The inten-tion is to take an exploratory research view and to understand how this group of customers behave and also to describe why that is the reason. Methodology: To meet the purpose of the thesis, a qualitative research design was chosen since it allows the participants to express their opinions, re-flections and feelings as well as truly understanding the target in the way it enables deeper discussions. Three focus groups were con-ducted with young female consumers, and one in-depth interview was held with the partner company The Body Shop. The data was color-coded and presented separately in the result section, so that every participant‟s opinion was visible, before combining the results with theoretical reasoning in the analysis section. Conclusion: This study shows that young female consumers spend most of their information search on Instagram and Youtube since it is quick, fun and give inspiration, but they also value recommendations from friends. On all platforms they highly value a feeling of personal rela-tionships. Regarding brand- awareness and attitudes, it was found that brands are for the most part very important for the young fe-male consumers and they learn about brands both in their infor-mation search online and offline when talking to friends or visiting stores.

This study examines subsistence-settlement systems and residential mobility of prehistoric Jomon hunter-gatherers in Japan. Raw data were collected from Moroiso Phase (ca. 5000 B.P.) sites of the Early Jomon Period in the Kanto and Chubu regions. Many archaeologists have assumed that the Jomon people were sedentary inhabitants of large villages, occupied throughout the year. However, recent developments in Jomon studies suggest that we must reevaluate the assumption of Jomon sedentism. In this study, Moroiso Phase settlement patterns, including intersite lithic assemblage variability, site size and site location, are examined in the context of an ethnographic model of hunter-gatherer subsistence-settlement systems. The results indicate that the Moroiso Phase settlement patterns correspond very closely to those of hunter-gatherers who are relatively sedentary but move their residential bases seasonally. Changes of settlement patterns over time within the Moroiso Phase are also examined, and the results are explained in relation to changes in the natural environment.

Wireless sensor networks have many sensor devices that send their data to the sink or base station for further processing. This is called direct delivery. But this leads to heavy traffic in the network and as the nodes are limited with energy, this decreases the lifetime of the network. So data aggregation technique is introduced to improve the lifetime. This technique aggregates or merges the multiple incoming packets in to single packet and forwards it to sink. There is different data aggregation techniques based on the topology of the network. This report clearly explains the purpose of data aggregation and gathering in WSN, data aggregation in flat networks and data aggregation in hierarchical networks, different data aggregation techniques in cluster based networks, chain based, tree based and grid based networks. Data aggregation technique can successfully minimize the data traffic and energy consumption only when it is carried out in a secure manner. Part2 of the survey explains the possible attacks that affect data aggregation in wireless sensor network. The secure data aggregation techniques in wireless sensor networks are also discussed in this report.

The relationships between and among questions from a survey in three different areas, namely food and food related health, food safety and hygiene, and information gathering concerning food, with the main focus on the first two areas, are investigated. Data from older people have been analyzed. The questions are both about knowledge and behavior in relation to the areas mentioned above. Earlier studies have shown that people in general do not know about or act according to dietary advises about health and hygiene. The results from this study show that there are fairly strong correlations for all groups but men when it comes to knowledge and behavior about fruit and vegetable consumption. The results also show a significant association between fruit and vegetable consumption and gender and that women consume more than men. A factor model estimating the relationships between health, hygiene and information shows that the fitted factor model can be considered having an acceptable fit, with at least two variables, knowledge about the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables to eat per day and trust for grocery stores concerning food and health, being classified as good indicators.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 166-181). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2008. / "May 2008." Includes bibliographical references. Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A. (Journalism & Media Studies)) - Rhodes University, 2008. / A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies.

Undergraduate honors paper--Mount Holyoke College, 2009. Dept. of History. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-163).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Davis, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 234-256).