The central theme is the study of error propagation effects in decision feedback equalizers (DFEs). The thesis contains: a stochastic analysis of error propagation in a tuned DFE; an analysis of the effects of error propagation in a blindly adapted DFE; a deterministic analysis of error propagation through input-output stability ideas; and testing procedures for establishing correct tap convergence in blind adaptation. To a lesser extent, the decision directed equalizer (DDE) is also treated.¶ Characterizing error propagation using finite state Markov process (FSMP) techniques is first considered. We classify how the channel and DFE parameters affect the FSMP model and establish tight bounds on the error probability and mean error recovery time of a tuned DFE. These bounds are shown to be too conservative for practical use and highlight the need for imposing stronger hypotheses on the class of channels for which a DFE may be effectively used.¶ In blind DFE adaptation we show the effect of decision errors is to distort the adaptation relative to the use of a training sequence. The mean square error surface in a LMS type setting is shown to be a concatenation of quadratic functions exposing the possibility of false tap convergence to undesirable DFE parameter settings. Averaging analysis and simulation are used to verify this behaviour on some examples.¶ Error propagation in a tuned DFE is also examined in a deterministic setting. A finite error recovery time problem is set up as an input-output stability problem. Passivity theory is invoked to prove that a DFE can be effectively used on a channel satisfying a simple frequency domain condition. These results give performance bounds which relate well with practice.¶ Testing for false tap convergence in blind adaptation concludes our study. Simple statistic output tests are shown to be capable of discerning correct operation of a DDE. Similar tests are conjectured for the DFE, supported by proofs for the low dimensional cases.

This thesis investigated the congruence of an organisation to its intended target markets. It was hypothesised that the internal activities of an organisation are, potentially, structured in response to its market dynamics with the ultimate aim of achieving the organisational objective(s). Market fit has been conceptualised to represent the fit of an organisation to its operating market environment. The information for this study was collected from senior marketing decision makers, using a self-administered questionnaire. The sample comprised 216 companies from a mix of industries and organisational sizes in Australia. There is evidence to suggest that the association of market orientation and business performance is inconsistent under different business operating circumstances, due to the exclusion of the influence of key environmental moderators. The model of market fit attempts to overcome this condition. The results suggest that market fit is associated with measures of business performance, and the levels of association are different from those related to the market orientation measures, reflecting the influence of moderators. The categories of environmental moderators contributing at different levels to the market fit measure include: (1) marketing planning, (2) implementation of marketing decisions, (3) market orientation, (4) market strength, (5) generic strategies, (6) organisational culture, (7) familiarity with the marketing audit, and (8) the external environment. The marketing audit procedure has been recommended as a tool to assist with the establishment and maintenance of market fit. The results of this study indicate that organisational familiarity with, and the conduct of, the marketing audit periodically are low, and that market fit may be a better predictor of business performance, than is market orientation.

This thesis explores the ways in which health promotion campaigns presuppose the pregnant subject and how main stream health promoters construct theories and practices of empowerment, health literacy and rationality. Two Western Australian main stream health promotion campaigns directed at pregnant women in the period 1996 to 1997 (the time of interviewing) and still current at time of writing, will be analysed and comparisons made with the development of health promotion theory and practice generally. The normalisation of medicallscientific approaches toward pregnancy care and behaviour will be illustrated by providing examples from health promotion literature, medical and health journals, popular pregnancy books, magazines and newspaper stories. The assumption that health literacy is the major attribute necessary to enable empowerment is intenogated and the limitations of this perspective illustrated. The second part of the thesis deals more directly with the interview material and illustrates how the women interviewed related to, and engaged with, main stream health information. The diversity with the group of middle class women interviewed is highlighted, and the diferent pfulosophical positions they occupy in relation to main stream health information explored. The complexity and contextual situatedness of women's decision making in relation to notions about health literacy, rationality and empowerment is outlined. The concluding chapters of the thesis discuss the most recent developments in main stream health promtion theory, examining the limitations of social capital theory, social marketing and other health promotion strategies. The conclusion imagines the possible benefits for women as health subjects and main stream health promoters as experts, in rethinking rationality and re-supposing women as positive health subjects that are promising rather than permanently risky and in need of improvement.

This thesis develops a framework for making ecologically sustainable decisions. It is an integrative thesis that draws its data from the fundamental concepts underlying the disciplines of psyschology, linguistics and biology. Its orientation is essentially theoretical, but its application is practical. It is presented in three parts. Part 1 sets out the theoretical context and proposes a basis for understanding decision-making processes in an interactive, evolutionary context. This part focuses particularly on subjective factors that play a role when an organism is in the process of making a decision. Part 1 provides an underpinning for the core of the thesis. Part 2 forms this core. It considers the context in which decisions are made and overviews current decision-making frameworks that aim at ecologically sustainable outcomes. It proposes a process of metabolic mapping of materials and energy flows across integrated socio-political bioregions as a basis for decision-making. Part 3 considers the implications of the approach in terms of its utility, reliability and validity. This part also looks at the role of ethics in decision-making and outlines the strengths and weaknesses of the new approach. The principle rinding is that research and decision-making are fundamentally distinct, often confused concepts. An integrative approach to decision-making is required to counter the increasing fragmentation in research and professional and administrative specialisation. A research tool that bridges the plethora of theoretical orientations is proposed. This involves the use of a semantic metalanguage to capture meaning in a rigorous and verifiable way. Such a metalanguage gives us a means of understanding the subjective experience of organisms, and in particular, their subjective perception of reality which guides their decision-making. A second finding is that, unlike research, which necessarily involves a process of context reduction, sound decision-making necessarily involves a process of context augmentation. And finally it proposes a method of metabolic mapping on a bioregional basis operating under the principle of subsidiarity as the most appropriate route towards sustainable decision-making.

Within the framework of the Story Model of juror decision making, using an actual personal injury automobile accident case, this thesis investigated the influence of mock jurors??? emotional response to an injured plaintiff on decisions about defendant liability and the plaintiff???s contributory negligence as well as the efficacy of procedural legal safeguards to control any such biases. Study One validated the Story Model of juror decision making in individual decisions, and revealed that mock jurors failed to consider the requisite legal elements in rendering a verdict. Study Two ascertained participants??? affective response to a mock trial in which evidence relevant to liability was held constant and the severity of the plaintiff???s injuries differed. A multiple mediator model revealed that sympathy for the plaintiff and anger toward the defendant mediated the relation between injury severity and determinations of the relative culpability of the parties. Study Three demonstrated that mock jurors exposed to emotionally evocative damages evidence constructed stories about the defendant???s liability and the plaintiff???s contributory negligence that differed from those constructed in response to emotionally neutral evidence. Study Four showed that the process of group deliberation failed to correct the misuse of evidence relevant to damages in liability decisions. However, Study Five demonstrated that judicial admonitions both acknowledging mock jurors??? emotional response to the evidence and explaining why this response was irrelevant to judgments of liability moderated the influence of emotional states on decisions about liability and contributory negligence. Study Six indicated that jury-eligible citizens??? conceptions of negligence law closely matched the normative model of negligence law, and that their mental models of negligence cases that ended successfully for the plaintiff featured more severely injured plaintiffs than those that ended unsuccessfully for the plaintiff. These studies addressed analytical and methodological weaknesses in previous research, resolved conflicting findings on fusion of liability and damages, provided direct empirical support for the central premise of the Story Model of juror decision making, and advanced knowledge on the influence of emotion on decisions in civil legal cases.

Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2007. / Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 58 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MCur. (Faculty of Health Sciences))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references.

<p><p>The amount of electronics in vehicles is growing quickly, thus systems are becoming increasingly complex making the engineering of these software intensive systems more and more difficult. In particular, an architecture supporting the business goals is a prerequisite for successful design.</p><p>In this thesis two case studies have been made including three automotive companies with purpose to investigate the key issues related to real-world decisions when developing Electrical and Electronic (E/E) system architectures in the automotive industry.</p><p>The results show that many of the identified issues relate to non technical areas such as organization, process, methods and tools, and management. Examples of identified issues are the deficient understanding of the electrical system and software at management level, and the lack of a specific process for architecture development. To cope with these issues we suggest the following actions: Educate management, increase the use of structured decision making, improve the architecture development process, clarify responsibilities in the organization and clarify development strategies.</p><p>As a possible solution to one of the suggested actions we have developed a method to evaluate how new functionality is successfully integrated into an existing architecture. Themethod is a combination of the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method, ATAM, and the Analytical Hierarchy Process, AHP. The method firstly supports a structured way of listing system goals, and secondly, it also supports the making of design decisions.</p></p> / Business Oriented Concept Development of Electronic System Architecture and Platforms in Vehicles

<p><strong>Date: </strong>2009-06-02<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Program: </strong>International Marketing<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Authors: </strong>Anantaya Ponbamrungwong & Sirada Chandsawang<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Title: </strong>The impact of brand on Thai female consumer in purchase decision of foreign makeup product<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Research Question: </strong>Does brand equity affect Thai female consumer in foreign makeup product purchase?<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Purpose: </strong>to investigate the effect of brand on consumer purchasing decision of foreign makeup product. The outcome of the research would be beneficial to marketing professionals especially in Thai cosmetics-makeup industry to understand the target consumer-based brand equity regarding their purchasing decision<strong>.</strong></p><p><strong>Method: </strong>The concepts of Brand equity and Purchase decision are chosen to study behavior of the target respondents; Thai female consumers who live in Bangkok, Thailand on their purchase decision of buying foreign makeup products.</p><p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> Brand equity does not totally affect Thai female consumer in their purchasing decision of buying foreign make up products. However, the respondents have the concept of brand equity: brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand associations and perceived quality in their mind but they did not generally relate the whole concepts to make a final purchase decision of foreign makeup products.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> Cosmetic, Makeup products, Brand equity, Purchase decision</p>

<p>The thesis report investigates the important steps related to the decision making of IT</p><p>outsourcing. Mostly organizations do not achieve their expected goals from IT outsourcing</p><p>due to the complexity of decision making process. The main purpose of this thesis, thus, is to</p><p>describe the necessary steps of IT outsourcing decision making, reveal both major reasons for</p><p>taking such a decision and main risks involved with it. As secondary data source, books and</p><p>some previous research papers on the issue have been used in order to give better</p><p>understanding of the thesis topic. To collect relevant empirical data, a questionnaire was sent</p><p>to a range of Swedish and Pakistani companies. The thesis report shows that, a successful and</p><p>effective IT outsource decision requires a clear vision of the issue and of the effects that such</p><p>a decision may bear with it.</p>