Do-it-yourself (DIY) is the practice of household members undertaking home improvement or maintenance on their own, instead of hiring professional help. While DIY is a substantial and steadily growing cultural and economic phenomenon in several developed countries, in India, it is still in a stage of infancy. The objective of this research is to understand whether DIY can be introduced and developed in India as a significant consumer activity based on an understanding of the DIY markets in developed countries (like USA, UK & France) and the business models in place to service them. The concept of DIY started sometime in middle of the 20th century in the USA and it eventually spread to UK and rest of Europe in the later part of the century. Currently, in most developed countries DIY constitutes a significant portion of the Home Improvement and repair Market and there are specialized organized retail chains to cater to the DIY demand. In India and most developing countries, DIY is not an established practice and does not contribute at all to the Home Improvement and repair Market. Organized retail in most developing countries is very small and most of the Home Improvement Market is serviced through local decorative and hardware distribution outlets. Brazil is an exceptional case due to its large organized retail structure for servicing the home improvement market. Organized retail to service the Home Improvement and repair Market in China has started in a big way and is witnessing exponential growth year on year. Similar phenomenon has started in India as well. However, both in China and India, there is no specific demand for DIY products and the same clearly needs to be created. Existing research literature on DIY, focuses mainly, on the determination of variables that influence the decision to take up a DIY or a home improvement project. Apart from this, a large number of business reports and studies profiling specific DIY markets are available over the internet. Work has also been done to trace and record the history of DIY and its impact on culture and society. While there has been some research work carried out that deals with the development of strategy for DIY markets in developed countries, no such work has been done in the context of developing countries. The purpose of this research is to do just that but the scope is limited to household painting and carpentry. The pilot study (focussed group discussions) and the questionnaire survey reveal that, in India, there is a clear bias against DIY mainly on account of perceived lack of time and knowledge. But it is possible to define a demographic profile of people that will show the highest inclination towards DIY. The survey reveals that this profile varies depending on the type of the DIY activity (Electrical, Plumbing, Indoor Painting, Outdoor Painting, carpentry and Gardening). The final part of the research involves the formulation of a holistic marketing strategy, based on the research findings and the understanding of prevalent business models to service DIY in developed countries, to create and service demand for DIY products related to household painting and carpentry in India.

檢視現今戶政機關的生態吾人當可發現戶政人員的流動性高，無法留任優秀之人才，此間接地影響了為民服務的品質與效率。若能藉由瞭解戶政人員對工作生活品質的知覺為何，進而瞭解其與組織承諾的關聯性，並採取相關的管理作為，必能強化戶政機關人力資源運用的效能。為求創造高品質的服務態度，以順應顧客導向的潮流，打造充滿活力與競爭力的戶政機關，故進行本研究。 本研究係以臺北市政府所屬各區戶政事務所之在職人員為問卷調查對象。除應用文獻探討法，建構本研究架構與研究假設，並採用問卷調查法，以內容包含工作生活品質量表、組織承諾量表與戶政人員基本資料等三部分之問卷為研究工具，採普查方式實施問卷測試，問卷總共發出679份，實際回收542份，問卷回收率為80％，有效問卷為480份。分別以描述性統計分析、t檢定、單因子變異數分析、雙因子變異數分析、皮爾森積差相關、多元逐步迴歸分析等方法，敘寫分析結果與結果驗證，據以提出結論與建議。 本研究發現，在工作生活品質方面：以「人際關係及參與感」、「工作內容及尊榮感」等構面的知覺滿意度最高；在組織承諾方面：以「努力承諾」構面的程度最高；在個人屬性方面：對於工作生活品質的滿意度與組織承諾的程度上，男性均高於女性；已婚者均高於未婚者；薦任職務編制者均高於委任職務編制者；行政人員均高於後線業務人員及櫃檯服務人員；主管人員均高於非主管人員。工作生活品質及其「人際關係及參與感」、「公平性」、「工作內容及尊榮感」、「工作環境」、「俸給福利」等五個構面均與組織承諾有顯著相關性。對於組織承諾的預測方面，一般而言，以「工作內容及尊榮感」的預測力最佳，其次依序為「工作環境」、「人際關係及參與感」及「俸給福利」。 戶政人員的工作生活品質確實會影響其對組織之承諾，且工作生活品質滿足感與組織承諾呈正向關係，即工作生活品質滿足感愈高者，其組織承諾亦愈高。因此，建議戶政機關採取適當的管理作為，藉由提升工作生活品質知覺程度，使戶政人員認為在戶政機關服務是一項正確選擇，值得為戶政機關付出心力，且以身為戶政人員的一份子為榮，願意繼續留在戶政機關服務。 / Examining the environment of today’s household registration office, we concluded that the turnover of household registration officers has effects on quality and efficiency of the civil service indirectly. If we can understand household registration officers’ perception of the quality of working life, we will be able to comprehend its connection to organizational commitment and take relevant management actions so as to strengthen the human resources efficiency of household registration office. For creating high quality service attitude to customers and following the customer-oriented trend, the purpose of this study is to establish a dynamic and competitive household registration office. The subjects of the study were employees in every household registration offices of Taipei City Government. Besides using literature review to construct research framework and hypotheses, this study adopted survey techniques as a research tool with questionnaire that contained scales of quality of working life and organizational commitment, and basic information of household registration officers. With the method of general census, 679 copies of questionnaire were mailed; after retrieving 542 copies, we had a return rate of 80% with effective questionnaires of 480 copies. Descriptive statistics analysis, t- test, one-way ANOVA, two-way ANOVA, Pearson’s product-moment correlation and multiple stepwise regression analysis were used for analyzing the data, verifying the results and consequently addressing the conclusions and suggestions. This study found that employees perceived the most satisfaction in the aspects of “interpersonal relationship and participation” and “job description and sense of honor” in quality of working life; and exhibited the highest level in the aspect of “hard-working promises” in organizational commitment. As to personal attributes: for the satisfaction of quality of working life and the level of organizational commitment, males were higher than females; married were higher than unmarried; the ones with recommended appointment position were higher than with ordinary appointment position; administrative staffs were higher than duty executives and staffs at counters; managers were higher than non-management personnel. There are significant correlation among organizational commitment, quality of working life and five aspects of “interpersonal relationship and participation”, “fairness”, “job description and sense of honor”, “work environment”, “wage and benefits”. As to the projection of organizational commitment in general, “job description and sense of honor” ranks the first, followed with “work environment”, “interpersonal relationship and participation” and “wage and benefits”. Quality of working life for household registration officers indeed has effects on their organizational commitment; and moreover, there is positive correlation between quality of working life and organizational commitment, that is, the more they are satisfied with quality of working life, the more they make commitment to the organization. Thus, we recommend that the household registration office shall adopt appropriate management actions by promoting the perception of quality of working life to convince the household registration officers that their decision to work here is a wise one; to encourage them it is worthy of devoting time and energy on the job; to assure them it is a privilege as part of the household registration officers and finally keep and retain them in the household registration office.

Diss. Stockholm : Stockholms universitet, 2008.

Zugl.: Bonn, University, Diss., 2004.

In order to reach the Swedish environmental quality objectives, the Environmental ProtectionAgency has expressed a desire that consumption must be highlighted. The difficulty of assessingthe environmental impact of consumption lays in various calculation approaches, but one way toillustrate consumption is life cycle assessment (LCA). IVL, Swedish Environmental ResearchInstitute (IVL) has an ongoing project together with Chalmers about Urban Metabolism, wheredifferent branches of consumption are highlighted. In the current situation, the textile industryaccounts for approximately 2-10% of Europe's environmental impacts and until now, no complete LCA model over the Swedish textile consumption has been developed. The main goal of this thesis was to develop a LCA model for the Swedish textile consumption and to study the environmental impact that the consumption entails. Using data from StatisticsSweden, net consumption between 2000 and 2013 was analysed. The results showed thatclothing and household textiles account for the largest proportion of consumed textiles (68%) and cotton, wool, viscose, polyester and nylon are the most common fibres. With the GaBi software a general life cycle model for the years 2000, 2007 and 2013 wasdeveloped. The model included 25 different clothing and household articles. For each article, themodel covers raw material extraction, product manufacturing, use phase and waste management.The environmental impact categories; Acidification Potential (AP), Eutrophication Potential(EP), Global Warming Potential (GWP), Human Toxicity Potential (HTP), TerrestrialEcotoxicity Potential (TETP) as well as energy and water use were analysed. The model showedthat the production phase (including raw material production) has a great influence on theenvironmental impacts, but the use phase was equally important in certain impact categories.The major processes affecting the life cycle were energy use in manufacturing of the fabric,production of natural fibres, detergent as well as energy consumption in tumble dryers. Withconscious decisions the consumer has great opportunities to influence the overall environmentalimpacts. In addition, increased recycling and reuse can potentially decrease the environmentalimpacts from the production stage. The model is considered good enough for the results to be reliable and useful in order to predictthe environmental impacts of the Swedish textile consumption. The results are also validatedwith results from other studies which increases credibility. / Det står idag klart att endast två av Sveriges 16 miljömål kommer att nås till 2020. För attSverige ska uppnå sina miljömål har Naturvårdsverket uttryckt en önskan om att konsumtionmåste belysas. Svårigheten med konsumtionens miljöpåverkan är att den inte kan mätas direktmen ett sätt att angripa problemet är att studera konsumtion genom livscykelanalys.IVL, Svenska Miljöinstitutet (IVL), har tillsammans med Chalmers ett pågående projekt omUrban Metabolism där olika typer av konsumtion nu belyses. Textilier är en typ av konsumtionoch i Europa står den marknaden för 2-10 % av den totala miljöpåverkan. Då textilkonsumtionenär relativt stor i Europa är det därför intressant att studera hur den svenska textilkonsumtionenser ut. Denna studie ämnade att skapa en modell för svensk textilkonsumtion och studera dessmiljöeffekter. Med data från Statistiska centralbyrån kunde nettokonsumtionen mellan 2000-2013 beskrivas. Statistiken visade att kläder och hushållstextilier står för den största delenkonsumerade textilier (68 %) och att bomull, ull, viskos, polyester och nylon är de fibrer somanvänds mest. Med programvaran GaBi gjordes en generell livscykelanalysmodell för åren 2000, 2007 och2013. 25 olika kläder och hushållsartiklar ingick och processerna råvaruframställning,tillverkning av produkt, användning och avfallshantering studerades.Miljöpåverkanskategorierna försurning, övergödning, global uppvärmning, humantoxicitet,ekotoxicitet samt energi-och vattenanvändning analyserades och resultatet visade attproduktionsfasen (inklusive råvaruframställning) har stor påverkan på resultatet. I vissakategorier var även användningsfasen en betydande faktor. De processer som påverkadelivscykelanalysen mest var energianvändningen i tygtillverkningen och naturfibrerna samttvättmedlet och energianvändningen hos torktumlaren i användningsfasen. Med medvetna valhar konsumenten stor möjlighet att påverka de övergripande miljöeffekterna och med en ökadåtervinning och återanvändning kan miljöeffekterna i produktionsfasen minska. Modellen som togs fram är inte fulländad och vissa processer kan förbättras för att utvecklamodellen vidare. Däremot antas modellen vara tillräckligt bra för att resultatet ska vara trovärdigtoch användbart i syfte att studera den svenska textilkonsumtionens miljöeffekter. Resultaten kandessutom styrkas med resultat från andra studier vilket ökar trovärdigheten.

Currently 884 million people worldwide are living without access to an improved source of drinking water (WHO/UNICEF, 2011). Piped-water on premises is the ultimate goal of World Health Organization (WHO) due to the ability to treat all of the water and distribute it safely in pressurized pipes. However, Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS) is an option for improving the quality of drinking water where that infrastructure is not yet developed, especially where there is a risk of recontamination between point of collection and point of use (Clasen, 2006). This study analyzed one such HWTS, the ceramic pot water filter. The study compared the hydraulic properties of the FilterPure (FP) and Potters for Peace (PFP) ceramic pot filters through a thirteen-month field study in the Dominican Republic and laboratory studies at the University of South Florida. In the field study 55 filters were tested for first hour flow rate and hydraulic conductivity. Eight first hour flow rate tests were conducted in the field on one month intervals during months 7- 13. FP filters had an average first hour flow rate of 553 ml/hr and PFP Filters had a first hour flow rate of 395 ml/hr. No significant change in first hour flow rate was observed over time in FP filters. PFP experienced an average increase of 31 ml/hr per month during the seven-month testing period. Falling head tests were conducted on four filters in the laboratory and the flow rate was modeled to determine hydraulic conductivity. Hydraulic conductivity values for FP filters ranged from k = 0.0495 - 0.0831 cm/hr and for PFP filters ranged from k = 0.0136 - 0.0389 cm/hr. Eight out of 29 (26%) Potters for Peace filters in the field had first hour flow rates of less than 250 ml/hr by month nine of the study and had to be replaced and removed from the study. In total 24 of 55 (44%) filters (8 FP and 16 PFP) had to be removed from the study due to several reasons discussed in this thesis.

The fact that household customers are central in the discussion of future sustainable energy systems compels the Swedish electricity retail companies to provide strategies in order to successfully follow the trends on the electricity market. The purpose of this thesis is to complement the electricity retail companies’ understanding of how they are able to enter a sustainable and close business relationship with these customers. The purpose is fulfilled by the analysis of how relationship concepts impact the development of demand response specifically. The information has been collected through a case study of Smart Customer Gotland, via interviews with people who have great experience from the field and via a survey directed towards the customers. The results indicate that there is a major difference in both of the actors’ visions regarding the relationship. The company desires to enter a position where less support and high customization is available. Customers instead want more personal support because of their lack of knowledge and uncertainty of new systems. To succeed, the companies have to consider the fundamental influencing incentives, economy and comfort, while also maintaining the customers’ trust. The most essential parts of the context specific relationship exchange are product exchange, information exchange, and social exchange. These should be directed towards maintaining and increasing the trust from customers. Focusing the resources earlier used for marketing, on these exchanges to make the current customers more satisfied will open up for using word-of mouth primarily from early adopters. Continued work with these early adopters will also increase companies’ knowledge, which is important for the companies to strategically develop its business towards the market of smart energy solutions.

Measures of American inequality offer sparse coverage of subnational units and rely on surveys of self-reported family and household incomes. This dissertation details the development of new inequality datasets at the county, state, and national levels from alternative lenses: sector wages; industry earnings; and average incomes. Sector and industry data are particularly rich, detailed, consistent, and reliable. These new metrics from underutilized data sources contribute to debates over the lived effects of inequality. American economic inequality concentrates in some places more than others, arising from different causes. This dissertation considers ecological associations between inequality, voter turnout, and election outcomes at the state and county levels and multilevel models of individual participation and candidate preference, with voters nested within their state contexts. Aggregate voter turnout has been lower in states with higher levels of income inequality for the last several presidential elections, though this relationship did not strengthen with rising inequality. Likewise, some inequalities have strong associations with state- and county-level presidential election outcomes in certain years, but the patterns are irregular. Multilevel models of voters in states do not indicate a strong relationship among inequality per se and individual behavior. / text

After World War II in the United States, the household refrigerator and freezer became interwoven into a domestic reality defined by consumption, mechanical innovation, and a tension between spatial isolation and cultural interconnectivity. This thesis positions narrative Hollywood cinema, television and print media as the dominant sites where the refrigerator and freezer’s social identities were formed and negotiated. These productions employ the devices to explore postwar family gender roles, the influence of culture industries and consumer economies within the home, and technological fantasies and fears. They also illustrate a fertile conversation between household media technologies and kitchen accessories. As a result, viewing the refrigerator and freezer through film and television representations substantially alters existing conclusions over who interacted with the objects on an everyday basis, and their effect for a culture increasingly reliant upon appliances to provide basic human needs and generate a satisfying, entertaining lifestyle. / text

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences