Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

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<p dir="ltr"><b>ABSTRACT</b></p><p dir="ltr"><b>Background</b></p><p dir="ltr">Alcohol use disorder (AUD) poses negative health and social consequences, and is costly to affected individuals, loved ones, and society (Whiteford et al., 2013). It is a chronic neuropsychiatric disorder, associated with impaired decision making and altered functional connectivity patterns in the brain. Many studies have shown changes in the brain and behaviors after sustained abstinence using within-participant design or between-participant design comparing participants in recovery versus healthy controls (Muller & Meyerhoff, 2021; Wilcox et al., 2019). The purpose of this study was to investigate brain differences between participants in recovery and participants who are actively drinking. Specifically, this study evaluated within- and between-network resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) strengths in the context of the triple network model, which focuses on three key networks for complex perceptual, emotional and behavior processing as well as introspection, theory of mind and self-awareness; the salience network (SN), the central executive network (CEN), and the default mode network (DMN) (Menon, 2019). Moreover, this study assessed the relationship between impulsive choices in temporal decision-making and changes in resting-state functional connectivity patterns in these networks.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Methods</b></p><p dir="ltr">This study included two groups: the Recovery Group and the Drinking Group. The Recovery Group included participants who were starting recovery (within one year), met AUD diagnosis criteria or showed lifetime heavy drinking behaviors during a 12-month period, received treatment for substance use disorder for alcohol and/or illicit drugs, and showed ongoing intentions and efforts to maintain recovery (n=18, 6 females, mean age=32.4±7.4, 17 White, mean years of education=14.5±3.1, average days of abstinence prior to interview days=78.2±45.7). The Drinking Group included participants who were currently drinking that met diagnosis criteria for AUD or showed heavy drinking behaviors (n=49, 24 females, mean age=31.7±6.4, 29 White, mean years of education=13.6±2.3). Participants underwent an initial screen day where structured interviews were conducted to evaluate the number of lifetime AUD criteria and prior drinking patterns. On the study day, participants completed computer tasks and questionnaires prior to their functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) sessions. Participants in the Recovery Group received a virtual reality (VR) intervention targeting future self-continuity where they interacted with avatars that are versions of themselves (present self and future selves in recovery and relapsed) prior to MRI sessions. All participants completed baseline Delay Discounting (DD) to measure intertemporal choice preferences prior to the fMRI sessions and prior to the VR intervention for the Recovery Group.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Results</b></p><p dir="ltr">This study did not find any significant differences in within- and between-network rsFC strength of regions of interest of this study within the triple networks between participants in recovery and those who were actively drinking. The study found that participants in recovery showed a greater preference for delayed rewards (measured by DD task) compared to participants who are actively drinking. Additionally, measures of self-reported impulsivity and impulsive decision-making were associated with resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) strength between regions within the Salience Network (SN), and between the SN and Central Executive Network (CEN). Specifically, baseline delayed reward preference was positively associated with the rsFC between two SN hubs: left dorsal anterior insula (dAIC) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). The rsFC between the left dACC (SN) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC; CEN) negatively associated with subscales (including negative urgency, lack of perseverance, and lack of premeditation) of self-reported impulsivity measured by the Urgency-Premeditation-Perseverance-Sensation Seeking-Positive Urgency (UPPS-P) impulsive behavior scale. Together, these results suggested that there was an emerging pattern where enhanced the rsFC strength in these regions associated with higher impulsive tendencies. The exploratory analysis showed that the rsFC strength between the right precuneus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) was related to abstinence length in participants in recovery.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Conclusions</b></p><p dir="ltr">These findings indicated that participants in recovery exhibited higher delayed reward preference compared to participants who were actively drinking, alongside a significant relationship between measures of impulsivity and the rsFC within the SN and between the SN and CEN. These results highlighted the importance of the SN and its dynamic interaction with the CEN in self-reported impulsivity and impulsive decision making in addiction. Additionally, this study found that within-network functional connectivity strength in the DMN was related to abstinence length, suggesting that repairment in the rsFC strength within DMN might be integral to the process of addiction recovery.</p><p><br></p>

In recent years, the sales promotion techniques provided by marketing strategies has increased and has become an important factor in the fashion industry. In todays society customers have more knowledge and easier access to information online. Due to the growth of consumer awareness, businesses need to gain insight on how limited-time promotion techniques affect consumers.  Accordingly, the purpose is to gain insight and understand how millennials' impulse buying is influenced by limited-time promotion when purchasing fashion products online, and explore if hedonic and utilitarian motivation appear and lead millennials to a purchase decision. The aim is to develop a more recent and essential knowledge within this topic due to the poverty of recent studies on if limited-time promotion influences millennials impulse buying behavior.  The empirical findings that were collected using a multiple-method qualitative study of four focus-groups and six semi-structured interviews with people originated from Sweden. The findings were analyzed and discussed with the literature that have been presented to determine their similarities or differences.  The conclusion of this thesis demonstrates millennials in Sweden's awareness of businesses marketing strategies, and that they are detached to the process. Throughout the thesis, millennials' attitudes towards the businesses promotions in the market is saturated, and that they are not influenced by limited-time promotion online since the knowledge that there will soon occur a discount again. Although the increased awareness of millennials in Sweden, utilitarian and hedonic motivations tend to create impulse-buying behavior online. Furthermore, to attract millennials in Sweden some factors have been identified.

The impact of international mobility and globalization on universities has led to a greater need for students. Thus, throughout students stay in their destinatio ncountry, prospective students access a variety of sources of information and make simultaneous decisions about where to travel; decision making is required at everystage of the travel process (pre-travel, during travel, and post travel). Previous to the advent of social media dominate traditional sources of information, such as print media, educational fairs and university websites. The social media websites such as social networking (Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn,), microblogging (Twitter,Tumblr), photo sharing (Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest), Video sharing (YouTube,Facebook Live, Periscope, Vimeo) become an alternative source of university information as many young people and students engage, work and participate in this online community. The purpose of this thesis is to research the influence of social media on the decision-making process of Ethiopian educational tourists in Poland, as well as how other factors (such as others’ comments, replies, and tour reviews) influence the process of their travel decision making. The data collection tool was a survey that included demographic questions, closed ended questions, multiple choice questions, a rating scale (Likert 5 scale model), and a few open-ended questions. The survey questionnaire was completed by 137 international students. The study's findings indicate that social media has a sizable influence and role as a source of information for Ethiopian educational tourists in Poland at every stage of their travel decisionmaking process, and that other factors (such as others' comments, replies, and tourreviews) influenced their decision-making process as well. Overall, this study helps to gather insights into Ethiopian educational tourists' decision-making behavior in Poland. Due to the fact that the research will contribute cross-national knowledge about educational tourists' behavior during the travel decision-making process in a destination, it will have a significant impact on promoting domestic travel and tourism in Poland.

<p>Promoting sustainable consumption is critical to meet the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. Food systems can cause considerable environmental impacts, which are exacerbated by the rapidly increasing global population and urbanization. Policy makers are seeking strategies to promote sustainable food consumption to reduce food-related environmental footprints. However, literature assessing environmental implications of food consumption has several gaps: first, studies using national average diets or one-day dietary recall data are likely to neglect the heterogeneous food purchasing patterns in different households and over longer time spans; second, few studies have considered reducing the overall food-emissions-water-land (FEWL) impacts and the FEWL impact reduction potentials have not been fully examined due to lack of considering changing consumption patterns of food items within food groups. Additionally, knowing the environmental impacts of food consumption is only the first step towards sustainable consumption. Providing the information to consumers to guide their decision making is also critical. Ecolabels are increasingly used to inform consumers about the environmental performance of products. However, the effectiveness of ecolabels is unclear because methods used in existing studies may not show consumers’ naturalistic behavior.</p> <p> </p> <p>This dissertation aims to address these research gaps to provide better understanding of the reduction potentials and trade-offs of food environmental impacts, and the effectiveness of ecolabels to facilitate consumer decision making for sustainable consumption. To achieve the objective, a variety of models and methods are used: (1) detailed food purchasing records from 57,578 U.S. households were analyzed and a process-based life cycle assessment (LCA) model is developed to evaluate the food carbon emissions and identify reduction pathways; (2) the LCA model was then expanded to also quantify food-related blue water footprint and land footprint. The FEWL impact reduction potentials were evaluated in two dietary change scenarios: (a) only adjusting intake in each food group to the recommended amount and (b) in addition to adjusting food group intake amount, changing consumption patterns to shift towards the food item that minimizes the overall FEWL impacts within each group). A food-item level analysis was also conducted to examine the FEWL impact trade-offs associated with food item substitutions; and (3) survey and attention data were collected from 156 participants in a naturalistic shopping environment using eye tracking glasses to evaluate the effectiveness of ecolabels on informing consumers’ product selection for sustainable consumption. </p> <p> </p> <p>By assessing the environmental impacts of food consumption and the effectiveness of ecolabels, this dissertation proposed pathways to reduce food-related environmental impacts (i.e., through identifying target households and food groups for impact reduction) and strategies to improve ecolabels’ effectiveness in consumers’ decision making. The results can provide insights to policy makers to promote sustainable consumption. </p>