Recently, consumers have witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of product placements that occur across all forms of media. Despite this enthusiastic use of product placements, researchers have not determined whether or not this form of advertising produces profitable outcomes for featured brands. In the framework presented here, I have sought to outline how basic cognitive processes may be used to account for some of the divergent consequences that occur for product placements. Unlike other frameworks that treat memory as a separate outcome of product placements, I conceptualize memory as nonanalytically influencing other more critical outcomes such as brand evaluation and selection. The nonanalytic influence of memory is hypothesized as occurring via an attribution that is made about the ease experienced when processing a brand that has been previously encountered. To examine whether this nonanalytic framework, or an alternative framework that rests on more deliberate, analytic processing, can be used to account for the various consequences that arise after a product placement, four studies were conducted. In each of these studies, participants were presented with a narrative containing a number of brand presentations. Later, participants completed tasks that assessed memory and brand preferences across the various studies. In the first two studies, the impact of the presentation of a brand within a narrative was examined. These studies revealed that a nonanalytic influence of memory was observed, but only when there was a match in modalities across the product placement event and the manner in which more critical outcomes are obtained. Thus, fluency-based perceptual processing was found to nonanalytically influenced participants’ brand preferences. Extending these findings, Experiments 3 and 4 examined whether this nonanalytic influence of memory would still exert its effect on brand preferences when deliberate influences, which were guided by immersion and persuasion knowledge, were manipulated. Rather than brand preferences being guided by a deliberate and analytic assessment of the brand, brand ratings were guided by nonanalytic memory influences. However, this influence only emerged when fluent processing of the brand was not attributed to the prior presentation of the brand during the narrative.

The aim of coding theory is to design codes which can achieve the fundamental limits of communication [52] and yet are simple to implement. On average randomly constructed codes can achieve this goal, but with a decoding complexity that is impractical. Consequently, highly structured codes with practical decoding algorithms have been extensively studied. Unfortunately the vast majority of these codes do not approach capacity. Recent advances involving simple 'random like' codes with practical iterative decoding algorithms have closely approached capacity as the blocklength increases. This thesis investigates single parity check (SPC) product codes and introduces the class of randomly interleaved (RI) SPC product codes. It will be shown that RI SPC product codes can asymptotically force the probability of error to zero, at code rates up to capacity, for almost all codewords. Furthermore the structure of these codes allows a very simple, sub-optimal, iterative decoding algorithm to be used. This thesis also derives an asymptotic analysis on SPC product codes from the decoding point of view. It is shown that the probability of error can be driven to zero, as the blocklength increases, for signal to noise ratios within 2dB of capacity on the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. Simulation results for both SPC and RI SPC product codes in an AWGN channel are presented. These results indicate that RI SPC product codes perform very well, typically within 1.5dB of capacity over a wide range of blocklengths and code rates. Further analysis on the weight enumerator of finite length RI SPC product codes is used to confirm the error floor of these codes. Extensions to parallel and serially concatenated SPC product codes are also investigated. Simulation results show an advantageous trade-off between code rate, blocklength and performance for three dimensional parallel concatenated SPC product codes. The design of irregular SPC product codes is also considered, and some simulation results are presented.

Denna rapport är en del av examination till Högskoleingenjörsprogrammet i maskinteknik på Karlstads universitet. Examensarbetet gick ut på att ta fram ett nytt koncept för en tailcutter åt Valmet AB Karlstad som är en viktig del i en mjukpappersmaskin vid upp- och omstart av maskinen. Men det skall även ge studenten färdigheter som kommer till nytta i det senare arbetslivet. Till kraven som ställdes på det nya konceptet hörde att den skulle vara billigare än dagens konstruktion, gräns för maximal nedböjning på 5 mm, att konstruktionen skulle vara enkel och pålitligt samt att den skulle vara utformad så att den skulle passa in i små utrymmen och olika montageplatser. Det gjorde arbetet mångsidigt och intressant. Beräkningar på hållfasthet gjordes för att säkerställa att den maximala nedböjningen inte överskreds och inga egenfrekvenser som är kritiska uppstår, samtidigt applicerades hela produktutvecklingsprocessen vilket bidrog till kvalitetssäkring under hela arbetets gång. Efter ett tidskrävande konceptval med hjälp av beslutsmatriser och plus- minuslistor togs det fram ett förslag på hur lösningen kunde se ut. Resultatet är ett kolfiberrör med kringkonstruktioner som är av plast (PTFE) i största del, förflyttningen möjliggörs av en standard linjärenhet som drivs med rem av en servomotor för att kunna positionsbestämma dysa via pulsräkning. Den valda plasten är resistent mot de flesta kemikalier som kan tänkas finnas i pappersmaskinmiljö. En spiralslang (tryckluftsslang) matar vattnet till dysan och tack vare att slangen fungerar som en fjäder så följer den dysan när denna traverserar. Tillverkningskostnaden för det nya konceptet uppskattas till ca 110000 kr. detta är en minskning med 42 procent jämfört med dagens konstruktion. Lösningsförslaget är optimerat för DFM/DFA och är servicevänlig. Då arbetet var omfattande kunde inga specificeringar göras och en del av konstruktionen hanns inte med, där finns det goda möjligheter för vidare arbete. / This report is part of the examination for Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the Karlstad University. The thesis is done for Valmet AB Karlstad and describes the development of a new concept for a tailcutter which is an important part of a tissue machine when starting up and restarting the machine. But it will also give the student skills that will be useful when getting employed. Some specifications for the new concept were that it had to be cheaper than the current design, deflection lower than 5 mm over the whole length. The design should be simple and reliable and it should be designed so that it would fit into small spaces and different mounting places. All those different requirements made this thesis varied and interesting. Calculations of strength were made to ensure that the deflection and the eigenfrequency of the beam was at an acceptable level, a product development process was used to get a quality assurance through-out the whole project. After a time-consuming selection using Pugh matrix and plus -minus lists a concept was taken. The result is a carbon fiber tube with plastic (PTFE) constructions around it holding the linear unit. This unit is a standard linear device that operates with a belt and a servo motor, this makes it possible to determine the position of nozzle via pulsing. The selected plastic is resistant to most chemicals that can be found in the environment. A pneumatic coil hose is feeding water to the nozzle, the hose acts like a spring that follows the nozzle when it traverses. The manufacturing cost of the new concept is estimated at about 110 000 SEK. This is a decrease of 42 percent compared to today's construction. The proposed solution is optimized for DFM / DFA and it is also optimized for serviceability. The problem was so comprehensive which made it impossible to specify all details, this gives great opportunities for further work to continue from this thesis.

This is a final bachelor degree project for mechanical engineering. TM Design & Installation AB company needs to reduce the setup time for one end-forming machine by 50%. After some discussion and analysis, the group decides to subdivide the main problem into six sub problems. By aiming at each small problem and figure out several solutions, the group finally have concepts for the problem. The Project contains of the achievement of a design process which thanks to the theories treated in Product Development Through System Engineering and thanks to our previous knowledge and experience. By following all the steps in the books, the project leads us to the selection of final concept.

Recently, consumers have witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of product placements that occur across all forms of media. Despite this enthusiastic use of product placements, researchers have not determined whether or not this form of advertising produces profitable outcomes for featured brands. In the framework presented here, I have sought to outline how basic cognitive processes may be used to account for some of the divergent consequences that occur for product placements. Unlike other frameworks that treat memory as a separate outcome of product placements, I conceptualize memory as nonanalytically influencing other more critical outcomes such as brand evaluation and selection. The nonanalytic influence of memory is hypothesized as occurring via an attribution that is made about the ease experienced when processing a brand that has been previously encountered. To examine whether this nonanalytic framework, or an alternative framework that rests on more deliberate, analytic processing, can be used to account for the various consequences that arise after a product placement, four studies were conducted. In each of these studies, participants were presented with a narrative containing a number of brand presentations. Later, participants completed tasks that assessed memory and brand preferences across the various studies. In the first two studies, the impact of the presentation of a brand within a narrative was examined. These studies revealed that a nonanalytic influence of memory was observed, but only when there was a match in modalities across the product placement event and the manner in which more critical outcomes are obtained. Thus, fluency-based perceptual processing was found to nonanalytically influenced participants’ brand preferences. Extending these findings, Experiments 3 and 4 examined whether this nonanalytic influence of memory would still exert its effect on brand preferences when deliberate influences, which were guided by immersion and persuasion knowledge, were manipulated. Rather than brand preferences being guided by a deliberate and analytic assessment of the brand, brand ratings were guided by nonanalytic memory influences. However, this influence only emerged when fluent processing of the brand was not attributed to the prior presentation of the brand during the narrative.

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What is the relationship between a country specific image and the image of products made in that country? What is the role of country image in consumers' product valuations? While many of previous studies have examined the COO effects on consumers' overall quality perceptions of products, little work has been done on investigating the relationship between a country specific image, its product image, and consumers' purchase willingness. A prototype car product, with fictitious country of origin from Germany, Italy, Korea and Malaysia, was developed for investigating consumers' perceptions, and for defining the role of country image in consumers product evaluations. In order to generalise research findings to the global context, tests with the questionnaires are conducted from 320 undergraduate students in four countries (United Kingdom, United States, Hong Kong, and Australia). A review of the prior literature on country of origin effects, product-country images, and models of belief-attitude provided two constructs of country of origin (COO) and country of target (COT) as direction of this study. Finally, the literature review enabled the development of three main questions as basis of five hypotheses as follows; (a) Are there significant differences between consumer groups' attitudes toward a specific country and its prototype car products? (b) Are there significant differences between consumer groups' purchase willingness toward products from a specific country? (c) What is the role of country image in consumers' product evaluations? Three sets of hypotheses were tested in this study which were concerned with country image, product image, and purchase willingness as sub-constructs of COO and COT. Two statistical techniques were used to analyse the data - multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). This study contributes to the body of knowledge on country of origin in a number of specific ways: first, prototypes, rather than existing product are employed as stimuli; second, the construct of country of target (COT) was introduced and was conceptualised as a complement to that of country of origin (COO); and third, the interaction between these three elements is explored. Eventually, the finding of this research confirmed that the COT construct and its effects are potentially very important to the study of the role of country image and to business people exporting products from a particular COO.

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