Video surveillance systems have been popular as a security tool for years, and the technological development helps monitoring accident-prone areas with the help of digital image processing.A thermal and a visual camera are being used in the surveillance project. The thermal camera is sensitive to the heat emitted by objects, and it is essential to employ the thermal camera as the visual camera is only useful in the presence of light. These cameras do not provide images of the same resolution. In order to extract the region of interest (ROI) of the visual camera, the images of these cameras need to have the same resolution; therefore the thermal images are processed in order to have the same size as the visual image.The ROI extraction is needed in order to reduce the data that needs to be transmitted. The region of interest is extracted from the visual image and the required processes are mostly done on the thermal image as it has lower resolution and therefore requires less computational processing. The image taken from the thermal camera is up scaled by using the nearest neighbor algorithm and it is zero-padded to make the resolutions of the two images equal, and then the region of interest is extracted by masking the result with the related converted version of visual image to YCbCr color space.

Doctor of Philosophy / Hospitality Management / SooCheong Jang / Deborah Canter / The physical environment may be an important determinant of customer satisfaction and subsequent behavior when services are consumed primarily for hedonic purposes and customers spend moderate to long periods of time in the physical surroundings. An example of this phenomenon would be in an upscale restaurant setting. This study explored the domain of the physical environment in an upscale restaurant context to develop a DINESCAPE scale. Relevant literature was reviewed on architecture, environmental psychology, psychology, operations management, and marketing, highlighting empirical and theoretical contributions. Conceptualization and operationalization of the DINESCAPE dimensions is presented, and the procedures used in constructing and refining a multiple-item scale to assess DINESCAPE in an upscale restaurant setting are described. DINESCAPE is a six-factor scale that was developed to measure facility aesthetics, ambience, lighting, service product, layout, and social factors. Evidence of the scale’s reliability, validity, and factor structure is presented, along with potential applications of the scale. The second phase of the study attempted to build a conceptual model of how the DINESCAPE factors influenced customers’ behavioral intentions through their emotions. The Mehrabian-Russell environmental psychology model was adopted to explore the linkage of the six dimensions of DINESCAPE to customers’ emotional states (pleasure and arousal) and the linkage between pleasure and arousal with customers’ behavioral intentions. Structural equation modeling was used to test the causal relationships among the hypothesized relationships. Results revealed that facility aesthetics, ambience, and social factors affected the level of customers’ pleasure and ambience and social factors influenced the amount of arousal. In addition, pleasure and arousal had significant effects on subsequent behavioral intentions in the context of upscale restaurant. Finally, implications for restaurateurs and researchers were discussed.

Globally, there is a growing demand for food away from home as a result of higher incomes, changes in consumption patterns, changes in household composition, and the time pressures created by dual-working families. The foodservice industry has become highly competitive as the number of foodservice outlets has increased to meet the demand. In order to succeed in such a competitive industry, restaurant operators need to understand the factors (and their relative importance) that influence restaurant patrons’ decision when selecting a restaurant. The demand for ethnic foods has also increased, in New Zealand and worldwide, due to the influences of ethnic diversity, overseas food and cultural experiences, and media exposure. Despite the importance of restaurant choice criteria and a growth in popularity of ethnic foods, published research on consumers’ restaurant selection behaviour that focuses on the ethnic segment is relatively limited. Furthermore, there are no published empirical studies on ethnic restaurant choice behaviour in New Zealand. This research aims to fill these gaps in the literature by empirically identifying the factors that influence a decision to dine at an upscale ethnic restaurant, their relative importance, as well as their relationships with dining occasion and consumer characteristics. Focus group discussions and the literature review helped identify a set of restaurant choice factors. A mail survey was used to collect the data. Factor analysis was used to refine the restaurant choice factors, and logistic regression analysis identified the five significant factors that influence consumers’ decision. These are: Dining Experience, Social Status, Service Quality, Food Quality, and Value for Money, listed in order of their importance. The results of t-tests and ANOVA suggested that consumers perceived the restaurant choice factors differently based on their demographic characteristics. The results of this study contribute to the marketing theory by providing an empirical framework of consumer selection behaviour in New Zealand upscale ethnic dining establishments. The study will also assist marketing practitioners and operators of ethnic restaurants to develop their strategies and offer the attributes that attract and retain customers.

Submitted by Ana Carla Almeida (ana.almeida@ucsal.br) on 2016-10-06T18:03:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAOMarluzePereira.pdf: 2042501 bytes, checksum: 146161fc980bdc7867296d7aa900b6b3 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Emília Carvalho Ribeiro (maria.ribeiro@ucsal.br) on 2016-11-25T21:47:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAOMarluzePereira.pdf: 2042501 bytes, checksum: 146161fc980bdc7867296d7aa900b6b3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-25T21:47:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAOMarluzePereira.pdf: 2042501 bytes, checksum: 146161fc980bdc7867296d7aa900b6b3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-22 / A partir da novidade urbanística, em Salvador-BA, dos condomínios residenciais fechados de alto padrão - os quais trazem para dentro de seus muros serviços antes só disponíveis através de uma circulação na cidade -, este estudo investiga as narrativas de pais moradores nestes locais acerca do significado da cidade. O advento destes condomínios implica, ao mesmo tempo, em uma novidade no modo de vida das famílias. Ancorados em uma reflexão sobre os cuidados com seus filhos, a relação família e cidade surge nas narrativas dos pais revelando o impacto citadino e a importância da cidade para a vida das famílias. Conduzido a partir da fundamentação teórica da Psicologia Cultural, este estudo investigou os significados de cidade a partir das temporalidades trazida nas narrativas, analisando a dinâmica deste signo enquanto mediador e regulador semiótico. Buscando responder aos princípios da ciência idiográfica, foi realizado um estudo de casos múltiplos de cunho narrativo. Partindo da categoria ‘psicologia popular’ foi proposto o Modelo Dinâmico das Três Dimensões básicas do signo cidade - a dimensão territorial, a social e a política -, a fim de analisar e compreender o significado daquilo que narravam enquanto cidade, ao se referirem à experiência de cidade. Como resultado da aplicação do modelo às significações de cidades narradas, chegou-se à identificação de diferentes dinâmicas entre as dimensões territorial, social e política, a partir da temporalidade a que o signo era referido. Além das temporalidades de passado, presente e futuro foi também construída, nas narrativas, uma cidade atemporal, reveladora da força promotora do signo em estudo. A dinâmica do signo cidade revelou na temporalidade de futuro a predominância da dimensão política, da qual a significação de cidade se mostrou como um produto. Significadas em narrativas únicas, foi evidenciado um mecanismo de cristalização de significação através da retroalimentação semiótica entre a dimensão política e a dimensão social. Esta “armadilha semiótica” revelou contribuir para um cenário pessimista quanto ao futuro da cidade, consequência de um esvaziamento das alternativas de ação de cunho coletivo pelo indivíduo. Foram destacados, nas narrativas, os processos semióticos de canonicidade na cultura pessoal e sua relação com a cultura coletiva. Demonstrando a dinâmica do modelo da bilateralidade na transferência da cultura, a novidade semiótica foi trazida com exemplos que evidenciaram a construção de significados de cidade a partir do seu desenvolver no tempo da entrevista, com a entrada de novos elementos semióticos nas reflexões. Este resultado evidenciou a possibilidade da geração do novo e sua potencialidade em flexibilizar as narrativas únicas. / The residential gated upscale condos - which bring within its walls services previously available only through city circulation – represents, in Salvador Bahia, an urban novelty and, at the same time, a new families’ way of life. This study investigates narratives of parents, residents in these places, about the significance of the city. Anchored in a reflection on children caring, the relationship between family and city emerges in the parents´ narratives revealing the impact and importance of the city to families’ lives. This study investigated the meanings of city from temporalities brought in narratives, analyzing the dynamics of this sign as a mediator and semiotic regulator, according to the theoretical perspective of the Cultural Psychology. Seeking to meet the principles of idiographic science a multiple case study was performed, based on narrative interviews. From the category 'folk psychology' a Dynamic Model of Three Basic Dimensions of the sign city - the territorial dimension, the social and political - was proposed in order to analyze and understand the meaning of what they narrated as a city, while referring to the experience of city. As a result of the model, applying to narratives about the meanings of cities, we found out the identification of different dynamics between the territorial, social and political dimensions, according to which temporality the sign was related to. Besides the past, present and future temporalities there was also constructed through narratives, a timeless city, revealing the strength of the sign under study as a promoter sign. In the future’s temporality the dynamic of the sign city revealed the political dimension dominance, leading to the significance of the city as a product of this dimension. There was an evidenced of a meaning crystallization mechanism through semiotic feedback between the political dimension and the social dimension. This “semiotic trap" seemed to contributed to a pessimistic view about city´s future, due to a fading of collective actions alternatives to individual. The narratives underscore the semiotic processes of canonicity in personal culture and its relationship with the collective culture. Demonstrating the dynamics of bilateralism transfer of culture model, the semiotics novelty was brought through narrative examples, demonstrating the meaning construction of the city sign while interview was taking place. The entry of new semiotic elements in the reflections, demonstrated the possibility of the new semiotic generation and its potential to ease the unique narratives.

After dedicating over two years to pursuing an MFA degree focused on ceramics and sculpture, I find myself transported back to a familiar setting from my past: a tableau reminiscent of what remained in the dining space after four young children finished a meal and exited the room. Revisiting the scene recalls happy times despite the disorder. What helped maintain my sanity during the relentless repetition of the every-day-long task was the realization that every day, innocents are learning to become aware of the world around them. For my thesis exhibition, I created a tableau as a loud reminder of those messier times in my home. My exhibition features an oversized wooden toddler's chair and table, surrounded by scattered meal-time remnants exaggerated in scale predominantly crafted from ceramic. The food items are strewn about in seemingly random arrangements, creating a chaotic still life. Perhaps the disproportionate size of the furniture and the disorderliness subconsciously acknowledge the monumental challenge of caring for children, a task that once felt never-ending but has since become a distant memory. Viewers may find solace in the mundane subject matter and in the ease of recognizing the familiar elements on display.