Greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere play an important role in regulating surface temperatures. The UK is signatory to international agreements that legally commit the UK to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, and there is a scientific and political need to better understand greenhouse gas sources on regional scales. The current methods used to provide greenhouse gas emission inventories rely on ‘bottom-up’ techniques and have large associated errors. However, it is also possible to use observations of atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and models of atmospheric transport to link the observations with source regions in order to estimate emissions in a ‘top-down’ approach. The key findings presented in this thesis are (a) UK emissions can be retrieved from the Angus tall tower in Scotland using the NAME inversion technique at a finer spatial resolution than has previously been reported using similar ‘top-down’ inverse methods; (b) atmospheric measurements from the Angus tall tower in Scotland have been used for the first time with the NAME inversion technique in order to estimate UK emissions of methane, nitrous oxide and sulfur hexafluoride for the years 2006 to 2009; (c) increasing the number of towers in UK network substantially increases the spatial resolution of greenhouse gas emission estimates. The errors and uncertainties associated with the NAME inversion over the UK domain are discussed and potential future improvements to this approach are presented. Overall, the work presented in this thesis has contributed to our understanding of the spatial and inter-annual variability of UK greenhouse gas emissions.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Business / Master / Master of Philosophy

There is common theme within the literature that a store represents the tangible and intangible values of the company's commercial and retail organisational philosophy. Given this, it could be considered as a brand, with all the associated competitive advantages that correspond to this entity. Operationally, a store's brand competitiveness can be viewed from the image it transmits and the impact it has in the minds of consumers. However, as markets and consumer tastes vary between countries, there have been calls for further inquiry into how the domestic store brand image, with its inherited competitive advantage, can be transferred abroad. A means for achieving this is via a standardised transfer strategy. In the international marketing literature, standardisation is referred to as the identical offering of the entire marketing mix in several different countries. Likewise, within the context of retail intenationalisation, standardisation is defined as the faithful replication of a successful domestic store concept abroad. Despite all the citations found within the wider literature on international retailing the notion of standardisation lacks of clear definition when concern upon the transfer of store brand image. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to provide an insight into the debate of store brand image standardisation in international retailing. From the limitations identified in the existing literature, a new research framework is proposed for examining store brand image standardisation. The framework includes the conventional 'Store Image per se' comparative process, where examination is undertaken from a store image attribute perspective between markets. In addition, two new elements are introduced. First, the comparative process of 'Relative Marketplace', where a comparison of the domestic and foreign store image is conducted within their relative markets. Second, the 'Store Image Dimension perspective', where the two comparative processes, 'Store Image per se' and 'Relative Marketplace', are examined after the store image attributes have been aggregated into broader dimensions. This proposed framework was employed to examine the store image transferability of the Spanish limited line food discounter DIA. Through a pluralist methodological approach of both qualitative and quantitative methods, a shopper survey was conducted in Spain (the home market) and Greece (a host market) to measure the company's store brand image between and within its marketplaces. From the juxtaposition of the three components of the proposed framework, the results indicate that store brand image standardisation should be examined from an 'Absolute,' and 'Relative' standpoint. Moreover, depending on the standpoint undertaken to examine the transfer of the store brand image, standardisation can be conceptualised in three ways. 'Absolute Standardisation': A standard to be applied by faithfully replicating the store's domestic image into a host market; 'Core Standardisation': A standard to be secured by faithfully replicating the store's domestic unique selling proposition, that satisfies the needs of global markets while maintaining intact the company's entire concept; and 'Relative Standardisation': A standard to be achieved by faithfully replicating the store's domestic positioning into the host market. It is argued that these three aspects of store brand image standardisation should not be viewed as distinctive concepts, but rather as a transitional process of two ends of the same continuum.

Resumé Unfair Competition (Conception of Legal Regulation, Selected Facts in Issue) Cybersquatting - a term that is often used but less often defined. The purpose of this Thesis is to deal with this phenomenon, to try to define it and mainly to assess applicability of the legal regulation of unfair competition not only to this phenomenon but also to other unfair practices in the field of information technologies connected in some way with domain names. The Thesis has been divided into two basic parts: The first part deals with the conception of the legal regulation of unfair competition in the Czech Republic. Here, the signs of the general clause contained in Section 44(1) of the Commercial Code are discussed in detail and the doctrine of competitive relations that is mostly applied in practice is critically evaluated. The first part of this Thesis also includes a proposal for a solution to overcoming the limits of this doctrine in the form of a two-stage test of practices in commercial intercourse whose part is the proposed conception of the economic conflict of interest which allows the persons involved to take legal actions against those competitors who use unfair practices despite their company's objects being quite different. In this part, the reader can even find some de lege ferenda considerations...

The theoretical part of this work deals with the term of given name, its function and position in the Czech language system. Additionally, motivations that can play any role in naming of children are summarized. The practical part is focused on motivations applied in naming of children in Ústí nad Orlicí district at two groups of parental population. In the first group there are parents whose children were born in the period of 1960-1975 and the second group is formed by parents with children born in 2000-2012. The data from the parents were gathered using questionnaires. These two groups are compared from various points of view - used names, linguistics factors (length, sound aspects of names, relation of the given name to the family name, hypocoristics etc.) and other factors (family tradition, religion, education etc.). Also differences in the approach to male and female names are followed.

Domain names as trademarks and their protection Martin Pultzner Importance of the internet is rising year to year and the virtual presence on the world- wide-web is absolutely essential for companies trying to succeed in such a competitive and dynamic environment as we see it in the modern world of 21st century. Due to the architecture of an internet as such, only one particular domain name can be registered at the given time and no other domain name with the exactly same wording can be registered anywhere in the world at the same time. There is a strict "first-come-first served" policy, which, on the one side, grants equal and fair access to any domain name, but on the other hand creates significant room for domain speculators and other persons who intend to register domain names in a bad faith and/or only for the profit therefrom. We mainly recognize behavior called cybersquatting or typosquatting, but also others subtypes and similar types of such behavior do exist under different names. These are problematic because of the conflict of a domain name (registered by the speculator) and rights to the trademark, business name or other rights of a different person, mostly a company. Internet users can therefore be misled by the domain name, presuming that it belongs to the known company and get...

Thesis advisor: David S. Vanderhooft / I contend that Ezekiel's portrait of the Glory represents an understanding of Yahweh's earthly presence that is markedly different from how the earthly divine presence is understood in Deuteronomistic Name theology. As formulated in Deuteronomy and maintained in the Deuteronomistic History, "Name theology" understands the divine earthly presence to be restricted to the "one place that Yahweh will choose," which is designated as the Jerusalem Temple. Contrary to traditional scholarly understanding, this does not divorce Yahweh from his Temple and place him in Heaven alone, and does not relegate the Temple to symbolic status only. Rather, Name theology not only affirms the divine presence in the Temple, but views it as the only legitimate location for that presence. From his position of exile, Ezekiel depicts the Glory with no exclusive connection to the Temple or the land; the Glory vacates the Temple to allow for its destruction and appears outside sanctified precincts in Babylonia, where God disputes the Jerusalemites' contention that the exiles are now far from him (Ezek 11:15-16). I maintain that Ezekiel's portrait of the Glory finds its inspiration in the Priestly account of the Exodus wanderings before the Tabernacle's existence; in Priestly tradition, this was the only time the Glory appeared outside sanctified precincts. These appearances occurred outside Israel, amidst dislocation, with no physical sanctuary - a situation homologous to Ezekiel's own. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Thesis submitted in full fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy (Marketing) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. November 2017. / With increased competition in the banking industry, particularly in developing economies, United Bank of Africa Plc (UBA) in Nigeria has been thriving. The bank is a multinational financial services provider, which operates in 22 African countries. It also has offices in the US, UK and France. UBA has about 626 global branches and serves more than seven million retail, commercial and corporate global customers. Positioned as a pan-African bank, the UBA Group is firmly in the forefront of driving the renaissance of the African economy. It is also well positioned as a one-stop financial services institution, with growing reputation as the face of banking on the African continent. UBA Plc has grown over the years from being just a brand name to a house hold name in Nigeria. In 2011, it was reported that UBA’s total assets was worth about $12.3 billion. The bank is also gearing to be one of the dominant and leading banking brands in Africa. While the measurement of UBA’s asset worth is important as it reveals information of its financial performance, it can be more important to measure the worth of its intangible assets, which is being captured from the assessment of its brand equity. Brand equity does not only comprise of an organization’s intangible assets, but does reflect the values consumers hold of a brand and can also secure long-term commercial and competitive advantages for companies. With the notion that the value or power of a brand lies in what customers perceive in their minds concerning the brand, most studies have measured brand equity mainly from the customer-based brand equity (CBBE) perspective using Aaker’s (1996a) and Keller’s (1998) models. Aaker’s (1996a) model is however considered to be the most comprehensive CBBE model and it measures brand equity from five dimensions – brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, brand loyalty and proprietary assets. While CBBE can secure long-term market performance, it is being recommended that the contribution of employee-based brand equity (EBBE) should also be measured. This is particularly important in the service sector, such as banking, where “what is delivered is less important than how it is delivered”. More so, with the increasing importance of internal branding, there is a need to measure EBBE, which assesses how knowledgeable, happy and committed employees are willing to deliver on the brand promises to build brand equity. v In addition to the importance of measuring both CBBE and EBBE, there is also the need to further compare the extent to which both CBBE and EBBE predict market performance, an outcome anticipated, but rarely empirically tested. This study therefore employs Aaker’s (1996) CBBE model and Kwon’s (2013) EBBE model to examine the sources of UBA’s CBBE and EBBE respectively and the extent to which each of the equities drive market performance indicators, such as consumer purchase intention, willingness to pay a price premium and brand preference. A positivist research paradigm with a quantitative survey of 182 UBA employees and 178 UBA customers were used to test the hypotheses. The relationships hypothesized in the conceptual model were empirically tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results indicated that the conceptual model satisfactorily fitted the data and provided reasonable explanations among variables. In terms of the relationships, it was found that UBA’s CBBE was accounted for by brand associations or image and brand loyalty. UBA’s overall CBBE positively and significantly affected all the market performance indicators of purchase intention, willingness to pay a price premium and brand preference. UBA’s EBBE which was found to be positively and significantly driven by role clarity and brand commitment could only positively and significantly predict the bank customers’ willingness to pay a price premium. Conclusively, it was found that while UBA’s EBBE make some contribution to the bank’s market performance, its CBBE is the major driver of its performance. This study theoretically contributes by not only empirically testing Aaker’s (1996b) CBBE and Kwon’s (2013) EBBE in the Nigeria’s banking sector, but by also showing how both models explain market performance. Practically, the study reveals sources of CBBE and EBBE, which not only UBA should prioritize in improving their market performance, but other service sectors in Nigeria and the continent should take special note of. Keywords: Brand equity, customer-based brand equity (CBBE), employee-based brand equity (EBBE), United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, market performance, structural equation modelling (SEM), consumer purchase intention, willingness to pay a price premium and brand preference / GR2018

Thesis advisor: James M. O'Toole / This dissertation investigates the Holy Name Society, a Catholic men's confraternity that thrived in early-to-mid twentieth-century America, aimed at addressing perceived problems of modernity by curbing blasphemous speech and bringing men back to the regular attendance to the sacraments of the faith. A dual focus on the local Holy Name movement in Boston and the national campaign uncovers the linkages within the organization as its numbers and purposes expanded. Blending the perspective of lived religion with the methods of social and cultural history, the study explores social relationships of Holy Name men pertaining to race, gender, family, and children, and it shows that the institution was the main lens through which its members translated their faith into their daily lives. Holy Name men, for example, entered into the era of Catholic Action long before historians understand that movement to have begun. The institution served as the Catholic counterpart to the predominantly Protestant push for muscular Christianity, combining corporate faith practice with publicly oriented events such as massive rallies and parades. As such, the society became a mouthpiece of the laity, lashing out against anti-Catholic bigotry, defining American Catholic patriotism anew, and offering a particularly strong anticommunist stance. The study uncovers new dimensions in the relationships between the clergy and the laity, it shows that liberal concepts of racial equality came early and met with mixed success in the organization, and it reveals that Catholic laymen at midcentury bore a tremendous responsibility as defenders of their nation, church, wives, and children. The domestic role of Holy Name men, moreover, was much more engaged and leadership-oriented than traditional "separate spheres" assumptions about gender and family relations might suggest. The overarching result is that the study conclusively shows that many of the dramatic changes commonly attributed to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council were in fact underway long before the 1960s. The distinctive era of Holy Name practice described here, however, had begun to decline by the late 1940s, a process accelerated the following decade by the relative decline of Catholic devotional life and larger social forces such as suburbanization. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

Historicamente somos identificados a partir do corpo, mais especificamente da genitália que nos classifica no padrão binário de gênero, masculino e feminino. Ao longo da história da humanidade, esta regra padroniza as formas de ser e viver e prescreve a constituição dos sujeitos, das identidades, do sexo e da sexualidade, adquirindo estatuto de verdade. Uma das grandes questões a orientar a identidade civil é o sexo. Travestis e transexuais que transitam ou atravessam as fronteiras definidas pelas normativas de sexo e gênero, caso queiram mudar de nome, têm como exigência a autorização judicial. Realizei uma pesquisa qualitativa, com o objetivo de analisar os discursos jurídicos em acórdãos de retificação de registro civil de transexuais e travestis no Tribunal de Justiça de São Paulo. O referencial teórico utilizado foram os estudos de gênero, ferramentas conceituais de Michel Foucault e aportes do campo do direito. Analisei 45 acórdãos do órgão superior do judiciário paulista do período de 2000 a 2015. Para analisar o material, tomei como inspiração Spink, ao construir de mapas temáticos. Os resultados sinalizam que as decisões, tanto para acolher, como para negar os pedidos, utilizam os saberes jurídicos e especialmente saberes médicos, pautados em um modelo biomédico de concepção da transexualidade e travestilidade. Como consequência desta fundamentação, observamos que, no campo do Direito, cristaliza-se uma concepção que moraliza e transforma as identidades de gênero não hegemônicas em patologias, como a de travestis e transexuais / Historically we are identified by our bodies, more specifically by our genitalia that classifies us in the binary gender pattern, male and female. In the course of mankinds history, this rule standardizes the ways to see and live and prescribes the constitution of subjects, identities, gender and sexuality, acquiring status of truth. On of the great questions to orient civil identity is gender. Tranvestites and transsexuals that walk by or trespass the boundaries defined by the norms of sex and gender, in case they want to change their names, have, as a demand the judiciary authorization. We conducted a qualitative research, with the intent of analyzing the judiciary speeches in judgement of retification of civil records of transsexuals and tranvestites on the São Paulo Court of Law. The theoretical referential utilized were the studies of gender, conceptual tools os Michel Foucault and contribution of the Law field. I have analyzed 45 judgements of São Paulos superior court, between 2000 and 2015. In order to analyze the material, we took as inspiration the methodology proposed by Spink, when constructing thematic maps. The results signal that the decisions, both to accomodate and to deny the requests, utilize judicial, and especially medical, knowledge, lined in a biomedical modelo f the conception of transsexuality and travesty. As a consequence of this fundamentation, we observe that, in Law, there is a crystalization that moralizes and transforms the gender identities not hegemonics in pathologies, like the ones of the tranvestites and transsexuals