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Background: Nosocomial infections pose a big threat to patient safety and increased costs for society. An effective way of preventing cross-infections is to apply hygiene routines. Studies show that compliance to hygiene routines is low while there's a lack of knowledge about the best way of improving it. Aim: To investigate whether a conversation based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) could influence a nurse's compliance to hygiene routines and whether it could benefit the understanding of a nurse's compliance. Method: A quantitative and qualitative method was used in the study and included one nurse. An observation of his/her daily work at a hospital ward was carried out before and after a conversation which focused on attitude, subjective norm and perceived behaviour control. Main results: Even if compliance was good to start with it improved after the conversation. The nurse's attitude towards hygiene procedures was positive, but heavy workloads and difficulty to access materials could be a barrier. The norm in the ward was, according to the nurse, that hygiene routines were important even if some were less compliant. Conclusion: the use of TPB in a conversation could benefit the understanding of the nurse's compliance. Improvements in daily practices were noticed after the conversation, which could be due to an increased awareness of the need to perform hygiene procedures. No direct conclusions could be drawn from this study because the sample was limited, but the study provides suggestions for further research.

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The Internet has been changed not only business modeling design in the enterprises but also the lives of average citizens as much as did the telephone in the early part of the 20th century. There are some users applied the Internet for the task such as data collection, information searching and social network building. One specific application is making friends in the Internet. However, few wallow in acquaintanceship while they are surfing in the virtual world, that effects their normal social life dramatically. Researchers and social critics are debating whether the Internet is improving or harming participation in community life and social relationships. After reviewing the previous literatures, we adopt TPB (Theory of Planned Behavior) and Interpersonal Theory to explore the reasons of making friends in the Internet. This study results suggest that, first, some users extend their social network in the physical world to the Internet. Second, virtual relationship substitutes for the physical relationship. Finally, others¡¦ anxiety is increased while they were not able to satisfy the virtual acquaintanceship.

One of the pressing concerns in Dark Matter detection experiments is ensuring that the potential signal from exceedingly rare Dark Matter interactions is not obscured by background from interactions with more common particles. This work focuses on the ways in which alpha particles from primordial isotopes in the DEAP detector components can cause background events in the region of interest for Dark Matter search, based on both Monte Carlo simulations and data from the DEAP-1 prototype detector. The DEAP experiment uses liquid argon as a target for Dark Matter interactions and relies on the organic electroluminescent dye tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB) to shift the UV argon scintillation light to the visible range. The light yield and pulse shape of alpha particle induced scintillation of TPB, which is an essential input parameter for the simulations, was experimentally determined. An initial mismatch between simulated and measured background spectra could be explained by a model of geometric background events, which was experimentally confirmed and informed the design of certain parts of the DEAP-3600 detector that is under construction at the moment. Modification of the DEAP-1 detector geometry based on this model led to improved background rates. The remaining background was well described by the simulated spectra, and competitive limits on the contamination of acrylic with primordial isotopes were obtained. Purity requirements for the DEAP-3600 detector components were based on this work. The design and testing of a novel large area TPB deposition source, which will be used to make TPB coatings for the DEAP-3600 detector, is described. / Thesis (Ph.D, Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy) -- Queen's University, 2012-08-09 13:12:52.26

Background: The rapid growth and increased competition in today’s technology industry leads to a growth in consumers’ expectations on new presented products. One of the growing markets within the technology sector are wearable devices – especially smartwatches. Almost all major IT and electronic giants such as Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and Google offer smartwatches – competition is increasingly growing. Consumers benefit from the wide variety of choices while selecting a smartwatch – but what are the factors that influence them to purchase such a device?                                     Purpose: This thesis investigates the intention of German consumers to purchase smartwatches and examines the influencing factors.                  Method: In order to meet the purpose of this thesis, the authors conducted a quantitative study. The data was collected by means of an online questionnaire among German consumers and was distributed via the messenger application WhatsApp. To ensure the collection of enough responses the authors chose to apply a non-probability snowball sampling approach. Beside demographical questions and two introductory questions concerning the knowledge and the usage of smartwatches, the questionnaire consisted of eight question blocks that have been developed based on two well-established models to predict human behavior and technology adoption: Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).                     Conclusion:             The results of this study provide empirical evidence that the attitude towards using was the strongest predictor for the intention to purchase smartwatches. The outcomes further show that the attitude is influenced by the two hedonic factors perceived enjoyment and design aesthetics as well as by the utilitarian factor perceived usefulness. Out of those three factors perceived enjoyment was found to exert the strongest influence on attitude. Contrary to previous research, the results of this study could not reveal a significant influence of subjective norms on purchase intention. However, beside the attitude, perceived behavioral control was also found to influence purchase intention. The findings of this research allowed to draw a variety of theoretical and managerial implications as well as to develop possible research opportunities for future studies.

Hospitality industry has a long history of providing accommodation along with recreation facilities. Resorts are a more recent phenomenon in offering similar services. The similarity stops there as the people who use resorts have different expectations and motives to be there. While hotels are mainly used by the business people and are busier during the weekdays, resorts are generally used for vacation and rest and are busy during holiday season. The difference in the clientele's motivations makes it difficult for the resort marketers to effectively position and market the property to the right segment. There have been many studies done primarily on hotel clients, while resorts have largely been neglected. This study is the first step in evaluating the level of contribution beliefs and past experiences make when Australian tourists decide on their resort accommodation purchase. To achieve this aim the Australian resort market was segmented and then every segment was tested on the model developed for the study. In this study, 412 people responded by filling out the questionnaires that were put in their rooms, by the participating resorts they were staying in. The study targeted all states and Territories of Australia. Every possible precaution was taken to maintain the anonymity of the respondents and the participating resorts to avoid compromising their financial interests. The study found four segments of resort tourists. They were named active conventionalists, young conservatives, elite regulars and veterans. The role of beliefs and past experience in purchase decision was found to be of varying degrees amongst the segments. It was also found that benefit beliefs had the bigger role in resort accommodation selection compared to normative beliefs. Control beliefs had the least role in the formation of the purchase behaviour. It was also found that while the Theory of Planned Behaviour was incapable of predicting resort accommodation purchase behaviour on its own, the addition of past behaviour to the mix increased the predictability perceptibly. The main limitation of the research was that the researcher and the respondents were far removed from each other. It is recommended that in future studies; there must be a provision for qualitative data to complement the quantitative approach. Besides this, there are many more important recommendations made relating to design and application of the questionnaire for future studies. The study also stresses that similar studies should be conducted, preferably on longitudinal basis to confirm or reject the findings of the present study. The present study contributed to the body of knowledge by providing a theoretical framework and suggesting a resort accommodation purchase predictability model incorporating beliefs and past experience of resort tourists. It also provided resort marketing planners with practical recommendations and implications in terms of attracting the right clients to their resorts as well as how to position their resorts for the intended market segment to get the best returns on their investment in marketing.

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SAMMANFATTNING Datum:                             2023-05-30 Nivå:                                Kandidatuppsats i Företagsekonomi, 15 hp Institution:                       Akademin för Ekonomi, Samhälle och Teknik,                                                                  Mälardalens Universitet Författare:                       Clara Hammarbäck & Milotte Ekermann                     Titel:                              Vad påverkas vi av vid hållbara klädval? Handledare:                    Lennart Haglund  Nyckelord:                      Köpintention, hållbarhet, miljöoro, TPB Forskningsfråga/or: Vilket samband finns det mellan konsumenters miljöoro och köpintention av hållbart producerade kläder? Vilka av de medhavda faktorerna har starkast påverkan på konsumenters köpintention? Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka vad som påverkar konsumenters köpintention gentemot hållbart producerade kläder. Genom att ställa attityd, subjektiv norm, upplevd beteendekontroll, miljöoro och klädmärkning mot varandra presenteras ett resultat som kan hjälpa förstå konsumentens köpintention. Vidare syftar studien till att bidra med kunskap till företag inom klädbranschen för att underlätta övergången till hållbart producerade kläder.  Metod: Studien baseras på en kvantitativ forskningsmetod och primärdata har samlats in via en webbaserad enkätundersökning. 96 respondenter svarade på enkätundersökningen. Vetenskapliga artiklar har använts för att kunna genomföra en operationalisering för att därigenom kunna besvara frågeställningarna genom att testa hypoteserna, men likväl för att utforma enkätfrågorna. Resultatet från enkäten analyserades med hjälp av IBM SPSS-Statistics, där en korrelations- och regressionsanalys genomfördes för att hitta eventuella samband.  Slutsats:Resultatet visar att attityd och miljöoro är de variabler som har störst påverkan på konsumentens köpintention gentemot hållbart producerade kläder, där attityd var den som påverkade mest. Subjektiv norm, upplevd beteendekontroll och grön klädmärkning visade inga signifikanta samband till köpintention.