Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. / Relationships between the United States and its worldwide network of allies has, since the inception of NATO, greatly revolved around the United States' ability and desire to permanently station troops oversees. Since 1941, the United States has entered into these basing agreements for a variety of strategic and sometimes political reasons. From NATO's inception, and as the cornerstone of its defensive structure, the United States has combined the idea of sending troops to different regions of the world with a global basing strategy founded on the concepts of overlapping protection and deployability. At times, to gain access to areas of strategic interest, the United States has offered aid and economic assistance along with a military presence. In other cases, positively affecting the political climate of the country was the stated goal of troop presence. This thesis will examine the effects of basing in Greece and Spain in order to uncover lessons learned which might be applied to the new US global basing plan and current troop positioning activities in Kyrgyzstan. In both cases the United States worked with openly dictatorial governments for the purposes of basing and did not foster the long term political situation initially desired. / Captain, United States Army

This study develops the first measurement instrument designed to accompany the concept of competency basing in counselor training. In so doing, the study screens and validates a list of skills most essential to an effective counselor. The problem of this study is to develop and validate an instrument for the measurement of competencies of school counselors. The instrument developed and validated by this study is especially designed to delineate the specific skills which best represent the competencies necessary for a well-qualified counselor.

O preço é um dos principais aspectos determinantes para a escolha dos produtos pelos compradores. Fatores como maior diferenciação dos produtos, desenvolvimentos tecnológicos e globalização da economia fizerem com que o preço ganhasse importância, pois é um dos elementos chave para alcançar o volume de vendas desejado e por impactar nos lucros e na rentabilidade das empresas. Além disso, as estratégias de precificação são fundamentais para a consolidação de um posicionamento de mercado adequado. Sendo assim, este trabalho analisou as estratégias e os processos de precificação utilizados em 153 empresas afiliadas ao Sindicato das Indústrias Metalúrgicas e de Material Elétrico de Caxias do Sul (SIMECS), verificando a relação das decisões de preço com o desempenho destas empresas. Como método de pesquisa, foi realizada uma pesquisa quantitativo-descritiva do tipo survey com os responsáveis pelo processo de precificação destas empresas. Para a análise dos resultados, foi empregada a Análise Fatorial a Análise de Variância (ANOVA) e Análise de Cluster Os principais resultados sugerem que as empresas tendem a considerar como principal método de definição de preços o preço baseado em custos. No entanto, existem diferenças entre as estratégias de preços utilizadas e diferenças nos desempenhos apresentados entre os ramos de atividade, bem como no porte das empresas pesquisadas, definido pela separação em três grupos de empresas ou clusters sendo que o Cluster concentra as empresas de menor porte com menor desempenho e os demais Clusters com um desempenho superior. Além disso, os dados sugerem que empresas que pertencem ao Cluster 2 e ao Cluster que conseguem captar melhor o valor percebido dos clientes, aliado a uma estratégia de preços altos, apresentam um melhor desempenho diante dos seus principais concorrentes. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2015-06-08T16:14:30Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Evandro Busata Saciloto.pdf: 1733087 bytes, checksum: d0a8acfb43c74b74aa5c00d9cbf4f2fb (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-08T16:14:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Evandro Busata Saciloto.pdf: 1733087 bytes, checksum: d0a8acfb43c74b74aa5c00d9cbf4f2fb (MD5) / The price is one of the main aspects when costumers are choosing products. Factors such as a higher level of differentiation of products, technological developments and globalization of the economy increased the importance of price, because it is a key element in order to reach the sales amount desired as well as for having an impact in the profitability of the companies. Furthermore, the pricing strategies are paramount for a suitable market positioning consolidation. Therefore, this paper has analysed the strategies and the processes of pricing of 153 companies that are part of the Sindicato das Indústrias Metalúrgicas e de Material Elétrico de Caxias do Sul (SIMECS), verifying the relationship between pricing decision make and their performance. As for the research method, a survey was conducted with a quantitative approach and descriptive study with the persons responsible for the pricing process in their respective enterprises. The analysis of the results used the Factor Analysis, Variance Analysys (ANOVA) and Cluster Analysis. The main results suggest that enterprises tend to consider as a main method of pricing definition a cost based method. However, there are differences in the price strategies and performance verified in different fields of economic activity as well as in the size of the companies researched, defined by the segregation in the three different groups of companies in which the Cluster 1 concentrates the companies of lower performance and smaller size and the other Cluster concentrate the companies of superior performance. Moreover, the data suggest that companies that manage to better understand the perceived value of the customers, allied to strategies of higher prices present an improved performance when compared to their main competitors.

O preço é um dos principais aspectos determinantes para a escolha dos produtos pelos compradores. Fatores como maior diferenciação dos produtos, desenvolvimentos tecnológicos e globalização da economia fizerem com que o preço ganhasse importância, pois é um dos elementos chave para alcançar o volume de vendas desejado e por impactar nos lucros e na rentabilidade das empresas. Além disso, as estratégias de precificação são fundamentais para a consolidação de um posicionamento de mercado adequado. Sendo assim, este trabalho analisou as estratégias e os processos de precificação utilizados em 153 empresas afiliadas ao Sindicato das Indústrias Metalúrgicas e de Material Elétrico de Caxias do Sul (SIMECS), verificando a relação das decisões de preço com o desempenho destas empresas. Como método de pesquisa, foi realizada uma pesquisa quantitativo-descritiva do tipo survey com os responsáveis pelo processo de precificação destas empresas. Para a análise dos resultados, foi empregada a Análise Fatorial a Análise de Variância (ANOVA) e Análise de Cluster Os principais resultados sugerem que as empresas tendem a considerar como principal método de definição de preços o preço baseado em custos. No entanto, existem diferenças entre as estratégias de preços utilizadas e diferenças nos desempenhos apresentados entre os ramos de atividade, bem como no porte das empresas pesquisadas, definido pela separação em três grupos de empresas ou clusters sendo que o Cluster concentra as empresas de menor porte com menor desempenho e os demais Clusters com um desempenho superior. Além disso, os dados sugerem que empresas que pertencem ao Cluster 2 e ao Cluster que conseguem captar melhor o valor percebido dos clientes, aliado a uma estratégia de preços altos, apresentam um melhor desempenho diante dos seus principais concorrentes. / The price is one of the main aspects when costumers are choosing products. Factors such as a higher level of differentiation of products, technological developments and globalization of the economy increased the importance of price, because it is a key element in order to reach the sales amount desired as well as for having an impact in the profitability of the companies. Furthermore, the pricing strategies are paramount for a suitable market positioning consolidation. Therefore, this paper has analysed the strategies and the processes of pricing of 153 companies that are part of the Sindicato das Indústrias Metalúrgicas e de Material Elétrico de Caxias do Sul (SIMECS), verifying the relationship between pricing decision make and their performance. As for the research method, a survey was conducted with a quantitative approach and descriptive study with the persons responsible for the pricing process in their respective enterprises. The analysis of the results used the Factor Analysis, Variance Analysys (ANOVA) and Cluster Analysis. The main results suggest that enterprises tend to consider as a main method of pricing definition a cost based method. However, there are differences in the price strategies and performance verified in different fields of economic activity as well as in the size of the companies researched, defined by the segregation in the three different groups of companies in which the Cluster 1 concentrates the companies of lower performance and smaller size and the other Cluster concentrate the companies of superior performance. Moreover, the data suggest that companies that manage to better understand the perceived value of the customers, allied to strategies of higher prices present an improved performance when compared to their main competitors.

This investigation is being made in an effort to determine the probable effects on the Southwest of the basing-point changes recently instigated as a result of the Federal Trade Commission rulings.

This thesis examines the historical development and current state of amendment law in the Australian patent system. Initial research on modern amendment cases immediately showed that the confused, inconsistent and complex state of the law is a significant problem. There is a plethora of different analytical tools and legal tests being applied to assess an amendment, yet they were developed in a different area of patent law, that of fair basing. Such tools and tests are ill equipped to provide any real assistance to decision-makers faced with assessing an amendment. In fact, they seem to lead decision-makers away from applying the correct investigation as set out in the amendment provisions of the legislation. The thesis examines the history of amendment law so as to place its discussion of the current problems in context and provide a better understanding of why the problems arose. Four major events are discussed in the thesis. Together, these events have shaped Australian amendment law over the past century: (i) the development and introduction of the “substantially larger than or substantially different from” test into the British and Australian statutory amendment provisions; (ii) the development and introduction of the concept of fair basing into British and Australian patent law; (iii) the development and introduction of the modern British and Australian statutory test for amendments and the tiered amendment scheme; and (iv) the analogies drawn in modern British and Australian cases between fair basing and amendment that ultimately led to fair basing tests being cross-applied in Australia to assess the allowability of amendments. The thesis shows how the very harsh early British treatment of requests for amendment ultimately led to statutory change. It also locates, for the first time, the common law origins of the notion of “fair basing.” The 1949 British legislation implemented a new and different statutory test that was intended to liberalise the whole area of amendment law. It also added the requirement of “fair basing” into the legislation. However, the thesis shows that this last development occurred via well-intentioned legislators with a significant misunderstanding of patent law. The notion of fair basing injected a great deal of uncertainty into an area of law that was previously settled. Theoretically, and in practical application, it caused problems. Then, when decision-makers sought guidance on the new amendment provision, they applied the tests developed in fair basing cases to assess amendments, with the consequent deleterious effects. The Australian experience largely mirrored the British experience until 1977 when the British Act changed. The significance of the thesis is that it clearly demonstrates that the currently accepted dogma – that fair basing is equivalent to the “in substance disclosure” statutory test for amendments, so fair basing tests can be used to assess amendment – is unsound. The thesis isolates the problems inherent in the dogma and the examination of relevant case law confirms the main hypothesis that the current approach should be rejected. It simply operates to the prejudice of inventors, their competitors, the public and the patent system itself. Most importantly, the thesis shows that reform is urgently needed. Some possibilities for reform are suggested.

O mercado globalizado trouxe ao cenário brasileiro produtos provenientes de diversos países, sejam esses montados, desenvolvidos ou fabricados em mais de um país. Diante disso, surge a necessidade de entender como o consumidor percebe esses produtos importados e qual o seu comportamento diante desses. Para entender o comportamento do consumidor foi investigado o efeito do país de origem na percepção do consumidor, e sua relação com a qualidade percebida, disposição de preço a pagar, intenção de compra, abertura cultural e etnocentrismo, em um cenário considerado emergente no Brasil, que é o da cerveja especial. Dando sequência ao estudo, o mesmo foi realizado por meio de um método experimental, com um design 4 (País de Orígem: China, Alemanha, Brasil e sem identificação) x 1 (Produto: cerveja especial pilsen), compondo, dessa forma, quatro grupos experimentais. A pesquisa foi realizada através de um questionário com escalas do tipo Likert de sete pontos, que foi disponibilizado junto a uma prova de cerveja especial e um cartão contendo informações da cerveja e do país de fabricação. Por seguinte, para análise dos dados, foi realizada uma abordagem estatística quantitativa onde o processamento dos dados ocorreu por meio de uma análise multivariada de variância, aplicando-se testes post-hoc. A amostra foi composta por 159 respondentes que foram distribuídos nos quatro grupos experimentais. Os resultados comprovam que o efeito país de origem atua de forma significante na qualidade percebida, disposição de preço a pagar e intenção de compra dos consumidores, e que o consumidor brasileiro apresenta uma baixa pré-disposição ao protecionismo do consumo de produtos nacionais, bem como está aberto a experienciar interações com culturas estrangeiras. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2017-06-22T17:13:56Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Michel Gehlen Bassani.pdf: 2455156 bytes, checksum: c526a4c8940224ce6f28cd362e37b9cc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-22T17:13:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Michel Gehlen Bassani.pdf: 2455156 bytes, checksum: c526a4c8940224ce6f28cd362e37b9cc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-06-22 / Globalized market has brought products from different countries to the Brazilian scene, whether assembled, developed or manufactured in more than one country. Given this, the need arises to understand how the consumer perceives these imported products and what their behavior is in front of them. In order to understand consumer behavior, we investigated the effect of country-of-origin on consumer perception and its relationship with perceived quality, price-willingness to pay, purchase intent, cultural openness and ethnocentrism, in a market considered to be emerging in Brazil, which is speciality beer. Study was conducted by means of an experimental method, with a design 4 (Country of Origin: China, Germany, Brazil and no-ID) x 1 (Product: speciality pilsen beer), thus composing four experimental groups. Research was carried out through a questionnaire with seven-point Likert kind scale, which was made available with a speciality beer tasting and a card containing beer and country information. For data analysis, a quantitative statistical approach was performed with data processed through multivariate analysis of variance, applying post-hoc tests. The sample consisted of 159 respondents who were distributed in the four experimental groups. Results show that the country-of-origin effect plays a significant role in the perceived quality, willingness to pay and consumers' purchase intentions as well as that Brazilian consumer presents low bias towards protectionism (when it comes to consumption of domestic products), being open to experiencing interactions with foreign cultures.

O mercado globalizado trouxe ao cenário brasileiro produtos provenientes de diversos países, sejam esses montados, desenvolvidos ou fabricados em mais de um país. Diante disso, surge a necessidade de entender como o consumidor percebe esses produtos importados e qual o seu comportamento diante desses. Para entender o comportamento do consumidor foi investigado o efeito do país de origem na percepção do consumidor, e sua relação com a qualidade percebida, disposição de preço a pagar, intenção de compra, abertura cultural e etnocentrismo, em um cenário considerado emergente no Brasil, que é o da cerveja especial. Dando sequência ao estudo, o mesmo foi realizado por meio de um método experimental, com um design 4 (País de Orígem: China, Alemanha, Brasil e sem identificação) x 1 (Produto: cerveja especial pilsen), compondo, dessa forma, quatro grupos experimentais. A pesquisa foi realizada através de um questionário com escalas do tipo Likert de sete pontos, que foi disponibilizado junto a uma prova de cerveja especial e um cartão contendo informações da cerveja e do país de fabricação. Por seguinte, para análise dos dados, foi realizada uma abordagem estatística quantitativa onde o processamento dos dados ocorreu por meio de uma análise multivariada de variância, aplicando-se testes post-hoc. A amostra foi composta por 159 respondentes que foram distribuídos nos quatro grupos experimentais. Os resultados comprovam que o efeito país de origem atua de forma significante na qualidade percebida, disposição de preço a pagar e intenção de compra dos consumidores, e que o consumidor brasileiro apresenta uma baixa pré-disposição ao protecionismo do consumo de produtos nacionais, bem como está aberto a experienciar interações com culturas estrangeiras. / Globalized market has brought products from different countries to the Brazilian scene, whether assembled, developed or manufactured in more than one country. Given this, the need arises to understand how the consumer perceives these imported products and what their behavior is in front of them. In order to understand consumer behavior, we investigated the effect of country-of-origin on consumer perception and its relationship with perceived quality, price-willingness to pay, purchase intent, cultural openness and ethnocentrism, in a market considered to be emerging in Brazil, which is speciality beer. Study was conducted by means of an experimental method, with a design 4 (Country of Origin: China, Germany, Brazil and no-ID) x 1 (Product: speciality pilsen beer), thus composing four experimental groups. Research was carried out through a questionnaire with seven-point Likert kind scale, which was made available with a speciality beer tasting and a card containing beer and country information. For data analysis, a quantitative statistical approach was performed with data processed through multivariate analysis of variance, applying post-hoc tests. The sample consisted of 159 respondents who were distributed in the four experimental groups. Results show that the country-of-origin effect plays a significant role in the perceived quality, willingness to pay and consumers' purchase intentions as well as that Brazilian consumer presents low bias towards protectionism (when it comes to consumption of domestic products), being open to experiencing interactions with foreign cultures.

Les sens complémentaires en arabe sont multiples et variés. Outre les aspects syntaxiques, nous relevons des aspects sémantiques propres à chaque complément. L’introduction de l’un de ces sens dans la phrase l'enrichit et entraîne des précisions qui se rattachent au verbe. Les grammairiens classiques parlent des (mafûîät) ou encore des (manûübät) noms au cas accusatif, ils s'intéressent ainsi au traits formels des compléments. Les rhétoriciens soulignent les traits sémantiques. Ils insistent sur le sens de la restriction déterminative qu’exerce le complément sur le verbe. Une approche critique démontre que les compléments en arabe jouent un rôle important dans l'éclaircissement du sens de l’action. C’est donc le verbe qui sélectionne le sens complémentaire convenable. En arabe moderne (dans les écritures contemporaines) l’usage des compléments ne s’écarte pas loin de l'usage classique. Les auteurs sont soumis aux règles de la théorie grammaticale des premiers siècles. Toutefois, il existe certains aspects d'évolution qui reviennent, soit au choix libre de l’écrivain, soit à l’évolution interne de la langue elle-même. / The complements in arabic are multiple and various. Besides syntactic aspects, we put a spot light on the Semantic aspects of each complement. The insertion of such complement to the sentence enriches the meaning by adding precisions related to the verb. The classical grammarians talk about (mafülät) or (manlïlübäù) nouns that finish by the short vowel (a). They are also interested by the formal character of these complements. The rhetoricians highlight the Semantic character. They emphasize on the meaning of the deeming restriction that the complement exerts on the verb. A critical approach shows/proves that the complements in Arabic have an important role in the understanding of the action meaning. Consequently, it is the verb that selects the adequate complementary meaning. In modem Arabic, like in contemporary writings, the usage of complement does not differ from the traditional and classical usage. The authors are subject to the rules of grammatical theory of the early centuries. However, there are some aspects of evolution that are back either at the discretion of the writer, or at the internal evolution of the language itself.

Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. / This thesis examines the U.S. policy for employing military forces across the globe. The major transformational trends in improving U.S. military capabilities over the past two decades, and the changing international security environment have impacted the way in which American leaders focus on the global military posture strategy. The American military interventions in Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan help determine whether the United States has demonstrated true global reach capability without the advantage of permanent forward operating bases. The Philippines-U.S relationship provides an opportunity to assess whether the United States has demonstrated the capability and commitment to defend its national interests and its ally and to maintain peace and stability despite the removal of major U.S. bases. U.S. capability and commitment may allow greater flexibility in choosing alternatives to the current policy of permanent forward basing around the globe.