In the field of technology, every day new inventions are introduced in the society for promotion human beings life. By virtue of which all the citizens of society are facilitated according to their needs of life style. Most of the people from developed countries are benefited in all ways of life due to their nonstop efforts and struggle in the field of technology. However some are completely denied due to lack of awareness and lacking of technical education in the subject field. The handicapped people are not very well explored in each part of world, especially third world countries by the researchers. So we can claim it, for their weaknesses and so called interest to understand more about the handicapped people worldwide. To understanding about such people will provide us with opportunities to excel in the subfield. There is a big gap between the handicapped and society which causes to cut them off from society. This gap needs to be filled in, while carrying out researches in the desired fields. Our research area is related to ticket reservation machine for the visually impaired people, to make the process easy for them to buy ticket at their own from the ticketing machine. After studying different articles on the subject, it is proved that many inventions have already been done by researchers and others are in progress for helping out the handicapped people. We have presented screen prototypes of the interface of the ticketing machine for the visually impaired people. We collected many hardware devices as one kit which can be use in the machine for the visually impaired users. It will enhance their power of visual sense to perform tasks at their own. There are some principles to follow in building up any system for visually impaired or blind people. If followed these principles in true sense it will facilitate to make new interface designs for interaction with visually impaired or blind users in friendly way. In this way we can overcome the shortcomings between normal and visually impaired people, which will be a great achievement to serve the deprived people.

Delayed access to antenatal care (ANC) has been linked to maternal and foetal mortality and morbidity. Early and regular attendance of antenatal care by pregnant women is very important as it could identify birthing complications and includes amongst others, measuring of blood pressure to exclude pregnancy induced hypertension and measuring of weight to exclude intrauterine growth restriction. The purpose of the study was to explore the factors contributing to late antenatal booking around Thulamahashe local area so that interventions can be done to ensure that all pregnant women start antenatal care as soon as they miss a period, at twelve weeks at the most or before 20 weeks of gestation. The study was conducted at Thulamahashe local area which consists of 4 eight hour clinics and 1 twenty- four hours community health centre, at Bushbuckridge sub district, Ehlanzeni district, Mpumalanga province in South Africa. Data was collected using a researcher designed questionnaire which is a list of questions which were asked from respondents and which gave indirect measures of the variables under investigation. The structured questionnaire consisted of both open and close ended questions, which were used to collect information directly from pregnant women. The population of the study was pregnant women who had started antenatal care after 20 weeks of gestation, who were 18 years and above. The sample size consisted of 25 pregnant women who had booked late for antenatal care who were drawn from each facility by simple random sampling method and the total sample size was 127 respondents. The results indicated that most women initiated ANC later than the recommendations by World Health Organization (WHO) which is less than twelve weeks of gestation. Factors that were identified as associated with late antenatal booking were midwives’ attitude distance to the clinic, poor infrastructure, unplanned pregnancy, lack of education and unemployment. / Health Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)

[pt] Este estudo busca compreender os fatores que influenciam a intenção de compra e o boca-a-boca positivo de sites de reserva online. Essa análise é feita para entender os motivos que levam as pessoas a aderir este tipo de serviço através da internet, mesmo tendo o meio online aproximado os consumidores de turismo de seus fornecedores, como sites de hotéis e companhias aéreas. Busca se explicar, portanto, quais são os principais motivos de atração deste tipo de serviço. Dessa forma, é proposto um modelo para avaliar como os construtos de comunicabilidade, complexidade, vantagem relativa e risco percebido, mediados pela atitude, influenciam a intenção de compra e o boca-a-boca positivo. O modelo foi testado por meio de uma equação estrutural, com dados coletados através de um questionário aplicado de forma online para a avaliação de cada construto. Os resultados obtidos confirmam a confiança do modelo e as hipóteses apresentadas, com um bom nível de explicação das variáveis dependentes. O estudo apresenta elementos consistentes que podem ser trabalhados pelas empresas que atuam neste segmento, para impulsionar a utilização e propagação dos sites de reservas, e também pontos de atenção que devem ser considerados pelos concorrentes deste tipo de serviço. Assim, é apresentado um modelo parcimonioso, que explica consistentemente a intenção de compra e o boca-a-boca positivo de sites de reservas online. / [en] This study aimed at understanding the factors that influence the purchase intention and the positive word-of-mouth of online booking sites. The purpose was to understand the reasons that lead people to use and recommend this type of service in the internet, even though the online media approached tourism consumers from their suppliers, such as hotel websites and airlines. Therefore, it tries to explain what the main reasons for attraction of this type of service. In this way, a model is proposed to evaluate how the constructs of perceived risk, complexity, relative advantage and communicability, mediated by attitude, influence the intention to purchase and the positive word-of-mouth. The model was tested using a structural equation, with data collected through an online questionnaire administered in order to evaluate each construct. The results confirm the confidence of the model and support the research hypotheses, with a good level of explanation of the dependent variables. The study presents consistent elements that can be considered by the companies that are in this segment to boost the use and the positive world of mouth of reservation sites, as well as points of attention that should be considered by the competitors of this type of service. Thus, a parsimonious model is presented, which consistently explains the purchase intention and the positive word-of-mouth of online booking sites.

The main topic of this diploma thesis is the complete design of the web application for booking and selling package tours and other related services offered by the travel agency. The first part of this thesis describes the theory basis for the proposition, creation (production) and the implementation of the web applications with the emphasis on the methodology and technology used in this diploma thesis. The second part of the thesis consists of an analysis of current state in the travel agency and this analysis is the foundation of the last part of this thesis which contains the design of the design web application.

Les notions de plateforme, de marché bifaces ou même multi-faces sont aujourd’hui au cœur des discussions économiques du fait de l’explosion du e-commerce lié à l’essor des nouvelles technologies de l’information. Ces plateformes en lignes offrent de nouvelles opportunités et soulèvent de nombreuses questions (stratégie tarifaire, règlementation, etc.). Les deux premiers chapitres de cette thèse s’intéressent aux plateformes de réservation en ligne et plus particulièrement à l’impact concurrentiel des clauses de parités tarifaire. Ces dernières, mises en place par les plateformes, imposent aux vendeurs de proposer son bien ou service via la plateforme au meilleur prix disponible sur tous les autres canaux de ventes. Dans le premier chapitre, je montre que, d'un point de vue théorique, l'effet concurrentiel des clauses de parité est majoritairement négatif mais peut devenir positif en fonction du pouvoir de négociation de chacun des acteurs. Dans un second temps, une analyse empirique reposant sur une base de données unique de plus de 6 millions de prix, me permet de montrer que la suppression des clauses de parité à Paris a engendré une baisse tarifaire moyenne des hôtels de -3,1% à - 4,5%. Cette baisse peut en partie s'expliquer par une augmentation des stratégies de discrimination tarifaire. En effet, les hôtels ont augmenté de 1,4 à 2,3% la discrimination entre plateformes et ils ont augmenté de 2,1% à 3,6% leurs stratégies de discrimination inter-temporelle. Le dernier chapitre de cette thèse est dédié à l'analyse des amendes décidées par l'Autorité de la Concurrence entre 2006 et 2018 pour des pratiques de cartels. Nous montrons que ces amendes sont sous optimales car elles ne satisfassent pas les critères de dissuasion et de compensation. / The Internet technology and the web economy create new types of markets and new relationships between market players. The majority of these new markets can be associated to platforms where two or more sides of the same market meet. Such “multi-sided” industries raise specific issues. Determining the optimal pricing strategy for both the platform and the users selling goods through the platform is one of the main challenges of this new economy. The first two chapters of my thesis analysis Price Parity Agreement (PPA) from a theoretical and an empirical point of view. I first study the effect of Price Parity Agreements from a theoretical perspective. I demonstrate that PPAs on the online booking market are detrimental to consumers if platforms have most of the bargaining power. They attenuate competition between platforms, lead to higher commission fees and higher hotel rooms’ prices. However, MFN clauses may also be welfare improving when hotels own the bargaining power and competition between them is high. The second chapter is dedicated to an empirical analysis of the effects of PPAs. Using a before-after design and controlling for external shocks, I demonstrate that the end of Price Parity Agreements imposed by public authorities to OTAs causes a decrease of about 3.1% to 4.5% in the average level of prices set by hotels. This decrease may be explained by an increase of price discrimination. I show that the level of price discrimination across OTAs increases by 2.3% to 1.4% after the drop of Price Parity Agreements and that the degree of inter-temporal price discrimination also increases by 3.6% to 2.1%. The last chapter of my thesis is focused on the analysis of the financial fines imposed by the French Autorité de la Concurrence to cartels in France between 2006 and 2018. We show that the level of these fines is sub-optimal and doesn’t meet the deterrence objective in the majority of the cases.

Este trabajo de investigación pretende demostrar la importancia del EWOM en el proceso de decisión de compra de booking hotelero. Los constantes avances tecnológicos han creado plataformas digitales, respecto a hospedajes, como las páginas de reseñas, que permiten a los usuarios compartir sus experiencias a través de comentarios, calificaciones, entre otros, generando así el EWOM, el cual es el boca a boca digital. Por ende, este fenómeno, en el sector turístico, podría influir durante el proceso de compra de un usuario en la elección de reservar un establecimiento hotelero. Posteriormente, se analizarán diferentes opiniones de usuarios junto a simulaciones de reserva de hospedajes que se realizaron a lo largo del trabajo de investigación para identificar los descubrimientos más relevantes en cuanto al proceso de decisión de compra online durante la reserva de un hospedaje, en estas páginas de reseñas de hoteles y por ende, dichas páginas puedan conocer qué elementos intervienen durante este proceso y trabajar en ello para enriquecer la compra del usuario. / This research work aims to demonstrate the importance of EWOM in the hotel booking purchase decision process. The constant technological advances have created digital platforms, regarding lodgings, such as the review pages, which allow users to share their experiences through comments, ratings, among others, thus generating the EWOM, which is digital word of mouth. Therefore, this phenomenon, in the tourism sector, could influence the choice of booking a hotel establishment during the purchase process of a user. Subsequently, different user opinions will be analyzed together with accommodation reservation simulations that were carried out throughout the research work to identify the most relevant discoveries regarding the online purchase decision process during the reservation of an accommodation, in these pages of hotel reviews and therefore, these pages can find out what elements are involved during this process and work on it to enrich the user's purchase. / Trabajo de investigación

Thesis (MPH.) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Background: Late antenatal care (ANC) booking delays treatment and management of high-risk pregnancies, which may result to maternal deaths. Early ANC booking has been found to be effective in most of the pregnancy related risk factors that can be detected and managed at early stages of pregnancy. Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence and factors contributing to late ANC booking amongst pregnant women in primary health care facilities at Dikgale-Mamabolo local area. Methods: Quantitative cross-sectional research approach was used. The study was conducted at Dikgale-Mamabolo local area, which consists of seven clinics at Polokwane, Limpopo province in South Africa. Only three clinics were purposefully selected for the study. The population of the study included pregnant women who were 18 years and above. The sample size consisted of 238 pregnant women who came for ANC services in primary health care facilities during the period of the study. Convenience sampling method was used to select pregnant women from the population. Data was collected using an adapted questionnaire. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPPS) version 25. Results: The results indicated that 86% of pregnant women booked antenatal care before five months gestational age and 14% booked after five months gestational age. Factors contributing to late ANC booking amongst pregnant women were marital status, educational level, employment status, mode of transport to clinic, lack of information, cultural beliefs, long distance to the clinic, long waiting time in the clinic and clinic operating hours. Conclusion: Late ANC booking remains a major public health issue. The study showed that lack of information and cultural beliefs are major contributing factors to late ANC booking. It is recommended that awareness campaigns should be conducted in the community and schools to empower women with knowledge about ANC services.

Open-plan offices are widely used by companies today. There is also secluded rooms in the form of group and meeting rooms, although these are often limited in numbers. Not being able to book these rooms when needed leads to problems planning for example customer meetings. Which is also a problem for students in the school world. Today there is a number of studie rooms at Royal Institute of Technology in Kista, school for information and communication technology, where none of them are bookable. Earlier there where bookable studie rooms in the library and in other parts of the school, but such a system is no longer available because of the new facilities. The result of this is that students at the school are not able to plan their studies in an effective way because they do not know if they have a suitable place to study at between lectures or exercises. Because of this there is a need for a system that can provide students the opportunity to book a studie room. The thesis documents the development of a booking system prototype for study rooms. The prototype have been developed with HTML, PHP, PostgreSQL, JavaScript och Ajax. The thesis contains a literature studie of the current booking systems available. An analysis and an evaluation of these systems have been used as a foundation for the development. Interviews of students have been used as a data collection method. Summarizing the students opinion gave an indication of what is required by the system in terms of functionality and the user interface. The project also describes the working methods that have been used. The project resulted in a prototype for the booking system, where users can see all the available study rooms, make a booking, confirm the booking and remove their bookings. The prototype uses a database that is fully modified. The result from an evaluation of the prototype indicates what aspects that needs to be improved in future work. / I dagsläget är öppna kontorslandskap vanligt förekommande hos företag. Det finns avskilda platser i form av grupp- och mötesrum, dessa är dock allt som oftast begränsade till antal. Att inte kunna boka dessa rum vid behov leder till svårigheter att planera till exempel kundmöten. Problemet att kunna boka ett avskilt rum vid behov finns även inom skolvärlden. På Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH) i Kista, skolan för information och kommuniktionsteknik, finns det ett antal grupprum där inga av dem är bokningsbara. Det har tidigare funnits bokningsbara grupprum i biblioteket och i andra delar av skolan men idag saknas ett sådant system på grund av nya lokaler. Detta resulterar i att studenter inte kan planera sina studier på ett effektivt sätt då de inte vet om de har en lämplig studieplats mellan föreläsningar. Därför finns det ett stort behov av ett system där studenterna kan boka grupprummen. Uppsatsen dokumenterar utvecklingen av en prototyp ett bokningssystem för grupprum som gjorts med hjälp av HTML, PHP, PostgreSQL, JavaScript och Ajax. Arbetet beskriver även de arbetsmetoder som använts under arbetets gång. Uppsatsen inkluderar en undersökning av bokningssystem som finns idag. Som datainsamlingsmetod har även intervjuer av studenter använts. Utvärderingen av bokningssystemen som finns idag tillsammans med resultatet av intervjuerna gav en indikation om vad som krävs av bokningssystemets användargränssnitt och funktionalitet. Arbetet resulterade i en prototyp av bokningssystemet där användaren kan se vilka grupprum som är lediga, boka grupprum, kvittera bokningar och ta bort bokningar. Prototypen använder en databas som modellerats och implementerats. En evaluering av prototypen resulterade i vad som kan förbättras i ett framtida arbete.

Ongoing research suggests decentralized solutions based on blockchain for vehicle sharing scenario, to solve the fairness and privacy violation issues in centralized platforms. Users can transfer funds and execute decentralized applications, called smart contracts, in these blockchain­based platforms. Among them, several smart contract schemes are designed for the booking and payment functionality, e.g. dPACE [21] and Sc2Share [50]. Renters and vehicle owners can directly interact with these deployed smart contracts and finish booking, driving and payment, combined with existing vehicle access protocols like HERMES [66]. However, current smart contracts for booking and payment only consider to be executed on the root chain, called Layer­1. In this way, the execution waiting times are too long and transaction fees incurred by the blockchain are too high. Such problems in vehicle sharing can be mitigated by executing smart contracts on Layer­ 2 of blockchain, which is an efficient off­chain technology whose purpose is to scale blockchain transaction capacity while retaining the decentralization benefits of the blockchain. This thesis aims to build a smart contract for booking and payment in vehicle sharing scenario, and use different Layer­2 technologies to test it. First, we design an improved smart contract based the Sc2Share’s structure. The improved points are: 1. Store previous renters’ information, including deposit amount and other booking details, to support sustainable usage in each vehicle. 2. Optimize dispute settlement, to handle malicious behaviors in rental process. 3. Add more events emission for better monitoring the state of vehicle. Then, we pick four representative Layer­2 schemes in latest Layer­2 technologies to compare fee costs. Our smart contract is tested on the representative schemes and a comparison between them is sorted out. We follow the whole steps in booking and payment to measure the performance and fee cost between different Layer­2 schemes. Besides, we also execute the smart contract on Layer­1 as a comparison. The result shows that the contract is executed at different costs in different Layer­2 technologies, but the costs are significantly lower and executions confirmation are faster than Layer­1. This implies that our smart contract with Layer­2 technologies can mitigate the problems mentioned before. / Pågående forskning föreslår decentraliserade lösningar baserade på blockchain för rättvisa och integritetsproblem i centraliseradeplattformar. Användare kan överföra pengar och köra decentraliserade applikationer, så kallade smarta kontrakt, i dessa blockchain­baserade plattformar. Bland dem är flera smarta avtalsscheman designade för boknings­och betalningsfunktionaliteten, e.g. dPACE [21] och Sc2Share [50]. Hyresgäster och fordonsägare kan interagera direkt med dessa implementerade smarta kontrakt och avsluta bokning, körning och betalning, kombinerat med befintliga fordonsåtkomstprotokoll som HERMES [66]. Men nuvarande smarta kontrakt för bokning och betalning anses endast utföras på rotkedjan, kallad Layer­1. På så sätt blir exekveringsväntetiderna för långa och transaktionsavgifterna för blockkedjan för höga. Sådana problem i fordonsdelning kan mildras genom att utföra smarta kontrakt på Layer­2 av blockchain, som är en effektiv off­chain­teknologi vars syfte är att skala blockchain­transaktionskapaciteten samtidigt som blockkedjans decentraliseringsfördelar bibehålls. Detta examensarbete syftar till att bygga ett smart kontrakt för bokning och betalning i fordonsdelningsscenariot, och använda olika Layer­2­teknologier för att testa det. Först designar vi ett förbättrat smart kontrakt baserat på Sc2Shares struktur. De förbättrade punkterna är: 1. Lagra tidigare hyresgästers information, inklusive depositionsbelopp och andra bokningsdetaljer, för att stödja hållbar användning i varje fordon. 2. Optimera tvistlösning för att hantera skadligt beteende i uthyrningsprocessen. 3. Lägg till fler händelseutsläpp för bättre övervakning av fordonets tillstånd. Sedanväljer vi fyra representativa Layer­2­scheman i de senaste Layer­2­teknologierna för att jämföra avgiftskostnaderna. Vårt smarta kontrakt testas på representativa system och en jämförelse mellan dem reds ut. Vi följer hela stegen i bokning och betalning för att mäta prestanda och avgiftskostnad mellan olika Layer­2­scheman. Dessutom utför vi också det smarta kontraktet på Layer­1 som en jämförelse. Resultatet visar att kontraktet utförs till olika kostnader i olika Layer­2­teknologier, men kostnaderna är betydligt lägre och utförandebekräftelsen går snabbare än Layer­1. Detta innebär att vårt smarta kontrakt med Layer­2­teknologier kan mildra de problem som nämnts tidigare.

In the realm of corporate booking platforms, interface design plays a pivotal role in user satisfaction and efficiency. An identified issue concerning the usability of a prominent multinational's platform, used for scheduling workstations and meeting rooms, forms the basis for this investigation. Given the intertwined complexity of enhancing user experience and adhering to company-specific requirements, the problem remains largely unaddressed, marking its suitability and significance for a Master's thesis exploration. A user-centered design methodology, driven by comprehensive usability testing, iterative wireframing, prototyping, and consistent user feedback, was the primary approach to tackling this issue. The developed prototype demonstrated notable improvements over the existing platform in usability measures such as error reduction, task completion time, and an elevated System Usability Scale (SUS) score. These enhancements hint at potential efficiency and satisfaction boosts for the users, possibly leading to increased productivity and cost-effectiveness for the company. This investigation provides a valuable case study for integrating user-centered design principles in a corporate setting, laying a foundation for similar future endeavors. / När det gäller bokningsplattformar för företag spelar gränssnittsdesignen en avgörande roll för användarnas nöjdhet och effektivitet. En identifierad fråga om användbarheten hos ett framstående multinationellt företags plattform, som används för schemaläggning av arbetsstationer och mötesrum, ligger till grund för denna undersökning. Med tanke på den sammanflätade komplexiteten i att förbättra användarupplevelsen och följa företagsspecifika krav förblir problemet i stort sett obehandlat, vilket markerar dess lämplighet och betydelse för en magisteruppsats. En användarcentrerad designmetod, som drivs av omfattande användbarhetstester, iterativ wireframing, prototyping och konsekvent användarfeedback, var det primära tillvägagångssättet för att ta itu med detta problem. Den utvecklade prototypen uppvisade betydande förbättringar jämfört med den befintliga plattformen när det gäller användbarhetsmått som minskning av fel, tid för att slutföra uppgiften och en förhöjd poäng på System Usability Scale (SUS). Dessa förbättringar tyder på potentiella effektivitets- och nöjdhetsökningar för användarna, vilket kan leda till ökad produktivitet och kostnadseffektivitet för företaget. Denna undersökning utgör en värdefull fallstudie för integrering av användarcentrerade designprinciper i en företagsmiljö och lägger en grund för liknande framtida insatser.