Purpose - The purpose of this thesis is to first describe and secondly to create a deeper understanding of what purpose a store has in omnichannel retailing. It is important to clarify that the study is to be of use for companies as to help them understand their customers' perspective. And how to adapt their omnichannel strategy when one of their channels gets affected. This is to see if a new model is viable in a post pandemic world. Methodology - The study applied a qualitative method where semi-structured interviews was held with employees and with consumers. Findings - The stores’ main purpose during the pandemic has been to act as a hybrid warehouse where you can view the product before fully purchasing it or to utilise BOPIS. The store has also had to change and adapt accordingly. Ultimately the store has proven to stand firm and showed that it still has a place in the market. Practical Implications - The current pandemic has made it more important for retailers to identify when showrooming or reverse showrooming is used. Therefore, a more in-depth analysis on the different approaches to minimise the usage of showrooming and reverse showrooming is necessary. As our findings from data and literature both cases suggest that price and product evaluation are the main reasons why consumers are showrooming. We can draw the conclusion that showrooming, and reverse showrooming is used mainly because of the price and evaluation of the product. Retailers should therefore introduce sales strategies to gain customers in the competitive market and minimise the risk for customers to use showrooming or reverse showrooming. Contribution - This study contributes to the young research area by assessing the effects that showrooming and reverse showrooming may have on retailers. And how to adapt their omnichannel strategy when one of their channels gets affected.

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No / Ambulance service demand is increasing in the United Kingdom. A common speculative view makes a link between this rise in demand, deprivation, and certain medical conditions. This study explored factors infl uencing English ambulance service demand in two areas of differing socioeconomic status. Adopting a causal comparative design, the study compared the numbers of life-threatening calls that Yorkshire Ambulance Service receives and serves in two geographical areas within the Hull and East Riding area. The area of lower socioeconomic status generated signifi cantly more life-threatening calls than the area of higher socioeconomic status; these calls often supported younger patients (mean age 59 years versus 71 years) for breathing diffi culties (29% versus 14.5%) more commonly. Tackling inequality will require a whole-systems approach, effective leadership, and recognition of the benefi ts of understanding difference. A key relationship will entail engaging with seldom heard communities.

In this dissertation, the extended Melnikov's method has been applied to several nonlinear ship dynamics models, which are related to the new generation of stability criteria in the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The advantage of this extended Melnikov's method is it overcomes the limitation of small damping that is intrinsic to the implementation of the standard Melnikov's method. The extended Melnikv's method is first applied to two published roll motion models. One is a simple roll model with nonlinear damping and cubic restoring moment. The other is a model with a biased restoring moment. Numerical simulations are investigated for both models. The effectiveness and accuracy of the extended Melnikov's method is demonstrated. Then this method is used to predict more accurately the threshold of global surf-riding for a ship operating in steep following seas. A reference ITTC ship is used here by way of example and the result is compared to that obtained from previously published standard analysis as well as numerical simulations. Because the primary drawback of the extended Melnikov's method is the inability to arrive at a closed form equation, a 'best fit'approximation is given for the extended Melnikov numerically predicted result. The extended Melnikov's method for slowly varying system is applied to a roll-heave-sway coupled ship model. The Melnikov's functions are calculated based on a fishing boat model. And the results are compared with those from standard Melnikov's method. This work is a preliminary research on the application of Melnikov's method to multi-degree-of-freedom ship dynamics. In the last part of the dissertation, the method of manufactured solution is applied to systems with chaotic behavior. The purpose is to identify points with potential numerical discrepancies, and to improve computational efficiency. The numerical discrepancies may be due to the selection of error tolerances, precisions, etc. Two classical chaotic models and two ship capsize models are examined. The current approach overlaps entrainment in chaotic control theory. Here entrainment means two dynamical systems have the same period, phase and amplitude. The convergent region from control theory is used to give a rough guideline on identifying numerical discrepancies for the classical chaotic models. The effectiveness of this method in improving computational efficiency is demonstrated for the ship capsize models. / Ph. D.

In the realm of therapeutic horseback riding one becomes aware of the idiosyncratic way in which each unique individual depicts his or her experience of a therapeutic riding endeavor. This study focuses on the meanings attributed to therapeutic riding in the lives of children with cerebral palsy because the complementary use of horses in therapy with these children may be of great importance to the medical fraternity. This exploration investigated the influence of the children's relationship with a horse, and the parents' perception of horseriding as a complementary therapy to occupational- and physiotherapy. The theoretical background and a literature review on therapeutic horseback riding and cerebral palsy were presented in this study. This study followed a holistic, ecosystemic epistemology. Both a qualitative approach and a quantitative approach were adopted as two complementary sides of a more encompassing whole and provided rich descriptions of the context and research process. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This thesis examines a range of folkloric customs and beliefs that play a pivotal role in Hardy's fiction: overlooking, sympathetic magic, hag-riding, tree ‘totemism', skimmington-riding, bonfire nights, mumming, May Day celebrations, Midsummer divination, and the ‘Portland Custom'. For each of these, it offers a background survey bringing the customs or beliefs forward in time into Victorian Dorset, and examines how they have been represented in written texts – in literature, newspapers, county histories, folklore books, the work of the Folklore Society, archival documents, and letters – in the context of Hardy's repeated insistence on the authenticity of his own accounts of these traditions. In doing so, the thesis both explores Hardy's work, primarily his prose fiction, as a means to understand the ‘folklore' (a word coined in the decade of Hardy's birth) of southwestern England, and at the same time reconsiders the novels in the light of the folkloric elements. The thesis also argues that Hardy treats folklore in dynamic ways that open up more questions and tensions than many of his contemporaries chose to recognise. Hardy portrays folkloric custom and belief from the perspective of one who has lived and moved within ‘folk culture', but he also distances himself (or his narrators) by commenting on folkloric material in contemporary anthropological terms that serve to destabilize a fixed (author)itative narrative voice. The interplay between the two perspectives, coupled with Hardy's commitment to showing folk culture in flux, demonstrates his continuing resistance to what he viewed as the reductive ways of thinking about folklore adopted by prominent folklorists (and personal friends) such as Edward Clodd, Andrew Lang, and James Frazer. This thesis seeks to explore these tensions and to show how Hardy's efforts to resist what he described as ‘excellently neat' answers open up wider cultural questions about the nature of belief, progress, and change.

One of the purposes of this study is to develop a vision system consisting of 3 inexpensive, commercial cameras. The system is intended to be used for tracking the motion of objects in a large calibration volume, typically 6.5 m. wide and 0.7 m. high. Hence, a mechanism is designed and constructed for the calibration of the cameras. The second purpose of the study is to develop an algorithm, which can be used to obtain the kinematic data associated with a rigid body, using a vision system. Special filters are implemented in the algorithm to identify the 3 markers attached on the body. Optimal curves are fitted to the position data of the markers after smoothing the data appropriately. The outputs of the algorithm are the position, velocity and acceleration of any point (visible or invisible) on the body and the angular velocity and acceleration of the body. The singularities associated with the algorithm are also determined. Using the vision setup and the developed algorithm for tracking the kinematics of a rigid body, the motions of the saddles of different horses are investigated for different gaits. Similarities and differences between horses and/or gaits are analyzed to lead to quantitative results. Using the limits induced by the whole body vibration of humans, for the first time in the world, daily, allowable riding time and riding distances are determined for different horses and gaits. Furthermore, novel, quantitative horse comfort indicators are proposed. Via the experiments performed, these indicators are shown to be consistent with the comfort assessment of experienced riders. Finally, in order to implement the algorithms proposed in this study, a computer code is developed using MATLAB&reg / .

The topic of the master thesis is design of the new building of the equestrian center with the stable for horses. The thesis is divided into two main parts. The first part deals with development of the horse breeding and buildings for breeding horses. In the second part of the master thesis there is a proposal for the new equestrian center with stable for horses. The new equestrial center is a fictious building located on the real estate in the village of Mokrý Lom.

In the realm of therapeutic horseback riding one becomes aware of the idiosyncratic way in which each unique individual depicts his or her experience of a therapeutic riding endeavor. This study focuses on the meanings attributed to therapeutic riding in the lives of children with cerebral palsy because the complementary use of horses in therapy with these children may be of great importance to the medical fraternity. This exploration investigated the influence of the children's relationship with a horse, and the parents' perception of horseriding as a complementary therapy to occupational- and physiotherapy. The theoretical background and a literature review on therapeutic horseback riding and cerebral palsy were presented in this study. This study followed a holistic, ecosystemic epistemology. Both a qualitative approach and a quantitative approach were adopted as two complementary sides of a more encompassing whole and provided rich descriptions of the context and research process. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)