Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Apparel, Textiles, and Interior Design / Melody L. A. LeHew / The relationship between knowledge, attitudes and behavior has been a subject of interest for researchers for several decades in various fields of study. However, an inconsistency has been found from one study to another with literature showing inconclusive and inconsistent results regarding the relationship between knowledge, attitudes and behavior in general and purchase of eco-conscious apparel in particular. Literature also found perceived characteristics of innovation (PCI) to significantly influencing innovation adoption. However, research investigating the influence of eco-conscious apparel knowledge (EAK) and eco-conscious apparel attitudes (EAA) on intention to purchase eco-conscious apparel (IPEA) that includes PCI has not been conducted in any previously published studies. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the influential relationship between EAK-EAA-IPEA to understand if including PCI strengthens the inconsistent link between knowledge, attitudes and behavior as well as enhances the predictability of IPEA. The model of stages in the innovation-decision process developed by Roger’s (1983) in the diffusion of innovation theory was used as a theoretical framework for developing the model of innovation-decision process for eco-conscious apparel. Specifically, the three product characteristics used in this current study were based on the PCI (i.e., complexity, compatibility and relative advantage) explained by Rogers (1983) in his model. Two objectives were developed and tested using six research questions and pertinent hypotheses. The research relied on quantitative analysis of responses from 592 respondents to an online survey with eco-conscious knowledge, attitude and behavior questions pertaining eco-conscious apparel products. Hierarchical regression analysis, t-test and correlation analysis reveal that, inclusion of PCI significantly strengthened relationship between EAK-EAA-IPEA and also enhanced the predictability of IPEA; the ability to predict IPEA as well as strength of the link between EAK-EAA-IPEA was greater when more information was provided about eco-conscious apparel than less information; respondents have limited EAK; EAK was not a good predictor of IPEA; EAA was found to significantly predict IPEA; highly innovative respondents perceive eco-conscious apparel less complex and highly compatible and are more likely to purchase eco-conscious apparel; all three PCI were found to significantly predict IPEA; demographic variables were found to be related to only certain variables in this study.

This study examines various approaches used by companies providingsoftware-as-a-service (SaaS) in a business-to-business (B2B) environment to find a pricing strategy. To be able to meet competition in a global market, a good pricing strategy is vital. Pricing is an important part of marketing, which must be congruent with the company's overall objectives. Strategic pricing is made up of different factors represented in the strategic pricing pyramid, which is based on a value-based approach. It is paramount to know your customers and their preferences when designing a pricing strategy and selecting pricing models, price metrics, market segmentation, bundling, and price levels. After having estimated how much value a product or service creates for a customer, this must be communicated to potential customers in order to convince them to purchase your offering. Choosing the right pricing strategy is not a onetime occurrence, but an on-going process. In this qualitative study, three case studies are performed to tie theory to real world practise.

Probabilistic model checking mainly concentrates on techniques for reasoning about the probabilities of certain path properties or expected values of certain random variables. For the quantitative system analysis, however, there is also another type of interesting performance measure, namely quantiles. A typical quantile query takes as input a lower probability bound p ∈ ]0,1] and a reachability property. The task is then to compute the minimal reward bound r such that with probability at least p the target set will be reached before the accumulated reward exceeds r. Quantiles are well-known from mathematical statistics, but to the best of our knowledge they have not been addressed by the model checking community so far. In this paper, we study the complexity of quantile queries for until properties in discrete-time finite-state Markov decision processes with nonnegative rewards on states. We show that qualitative quantile queries can be evaluated in polynomial time and present an exponential algorithm for the evaluation of quantitative quantile queries. For the special case of Markov chains, we show that quantitative quantile queries can be evaluated in pseudo-polynomial time.

Le dialogue interne (D-I) est une aptitude mentale de plus en plus utilisée chez les athlètes de haut niveau mais peu étudiée dans les sports d’équipes. Son impact mérite d’être évalué dans des contextes d’équipe durant de réelles compétitions puisque le dialogue interne de l'athlète dans un sport collectif peut influencer certaines habiletés mentales telles la prise de décisions tactiques et la focalisation sur les stimuli appropriés. Ainsi, cette étude a bénéficié de la participation de 10 joueurs de hockey élites mâles âgés de 16 à 20 ans pour examiner les effets de deux traitements distincts de D-I, un axé sur la motivation et l’autre sur l’instruction. Dans cette analyse portant sur l’efficacité des sujets à accomplir des tâches de tactique collective (effet sur processus de décision) pendant des joutes de saison régulière, tous les athlètes semblent avoir amélioré leurs performances. Généralement, le groupe s’adonnant au traitement de D-I d’instruction a largement dépassé les pourcentages de réussite de celui du D-I de motivation. Cependant, les athlètes du groupe de D-I de motivation ont eu plus de succès que prévu. Il appert aussi que le traitement de D-I d’instruction ait été plus difficile à assimiler à court terme que le traitement de motivation, mais son impact positif apparaît avoir stagné moins rapidement. Les joueurs plus expérimentés n’ont pas affiché une meilleure progression dans leurs prises de décisions comparativement aux moins expérimentés. Le D-I de motivation semble avoir eu plus d’effet que celui d’instruction lorsqu’utilisé en période de fatigue et de stress. / Self-talk (S-T) is a mental skill which is used more and more by elite athletes but there is a lack of research on its effect in team sports. Its impact deserves to be evaluated as much during team contexts and real competitions as it does in individual sports because self-talk can affect a team sport athlete's ability to perform mental skills such as good tactical decision-making and focusing on the proper stimuli. Therefore, with the participation of 10 elite hockey players varying from 16 to 20 years old, this study examines the effect of two distinct self-talk treatments, a motivational one and an instructional one. The analysis, evaluating the efficiency of the subjects' ability to accomplish collective tactics (effect on decision process) during the regular season games, has shown that all athletes showed some improvement in their performances. Generally, the group associated with the instructional self-talk treatment has proven to be considerably more effective in decision-making than the motivational group. However, the athletes from the motivational self-talk group generated better results than expected. It seems also that, in the short term, the instructional self-talk treatment was more difficult to assimilate than the motivational one but its positive impact appears to have lasted longer. Furthermore, the more experienced players did not display a better progression in their decision process compared to the less experienced ones. Also, motivational self-talk appears to have produced better effects than the instructional one when used during periods of fatigue and stress.

En Europe, la présence de grands carnivores dans des paysages anthropisés entraîne une forte compétition avec l'homme et alimente d'importantes polémiques concernant leur protection légale. La perception antagoniste de ces espèces à la fois emblématiques pour certains et sources de conflits pour d'autres, rend la gestion de leurs populations très délicate. Depuis la recolonisation spontanée du loup (Canis lupus) dans les Alpes françaises au début des années 1990, la population s'est accrue numériquement et spatialement. Parallèlement, les dégâts occasionnés par le loup sur la filière élevage ont suivi la même tendance. L'Etat met en place aujourd'hui un contrôle raisonné de la population, sous réserve que les objectifs de conservation, exigés par la Directive Habitat, soient respectés. En s'inspirant du cas d'étude du loup en France, nous proposons dans cette thèse un cadre de prise de décision structurée adapté pour la gestion et la conservation d'espèces rares et difficilement observables, protégées par des accords législatifs mais qui, dans un contexte social conflictuel, peuvent être régulées. La modélisation séquentielle du processus décisionnel s'est déroulée dans un contexte de forte incertitude selon plusieurs étapes : 1) appréhender les objectifs de conservation et/ou contrôle du loup en France pour les formaliser sous forme mathématique via une fonction d'utilité, 2) suivre la population par une méthode non-invasive pour définir des indicateurs de gestion fiables et évaluer le statut de conservation de la population, 3) coupler les mesures létales adoptées actuellement à un modèle démographique décrivant la dynamique du loup et intégrant sa structure sociale, 4) et déterminer la décision. Cette dernière étape est réalisée à l'aide d'une méthode d'optimisation qui calcule la stratégie optimale de gestion en fonction de la structure sociale de la population et des différentes sources d'incertitude accumulées à chaque étape du processus décisionnel. Nous avons choisi comme indicateur de gestion le taux de croissance, à partir duquel nous avons défini l'utilité. Cet indicateur était robuste à l'incertitude d'échantillonnage émergeant de la détection partielle et hétérogène des individus. Des analyses de sensibilité de la décision ont montré une forte influence de la fonction d'utilité sur la stratégie optimale, soulignant ainsi l'importance de définir correctement les objectifs. Nous avons également montré que la stratégie optimale était sensible aux variations des paramètres démographiques, montrant ainsi l'intérêt des méthodes de capture-marquage-recapture pour les estimer correctement. Nous discutons enfin de l'extension de notre approche à un cadre décisionnel de gestion adaptative pour traiter des problèmes de conservation dans un contexte conflictuel. / Large carnivore management in Europe is controversial because of conflictive objectives arising from the legal protection of threatened species vs. the possible necessity of culling individuals to prevent severe damages on human activities. Since the wolf recovery in the French Alps in the early 90's, the population has been numerically and spatially increasing. In parallel, livestock depredations have been following the same trend. As an EU member state, France is bound to the European Habitat Directive, which provides full protection of wolf populations and their habitat. Nevertheless, derogatory killings are allowed for individuals causing problems on livestock and some lethal control is now incorporated into the national management plan, as long as the population growth and its distribution range are not being threatened. Illustrating with the case study of the wolf in France, my dissertation proposes a structured decision making framework for the management and the conservation of elusive species that are legally protected but, in a conflictive context, are subject to population control. The sequential modeling of our decision process occurred in the following steps: 1) define the multiple objectives and formulate them in terms of a utility function, 2) monitor the population through a non-invasive approach in order to define the population conservation status, 3) build a demographic model to predict the consequences of harvesting on population dynamics and social structure, 4) obtain optimal state-dependent decisions. The last step is done with stochastic dynamic programming (SDP), acknowledged to be one of the most useful optimization methods in decision making. We provide an optimal solution for wolf management that gives the highest chance of meeting objectives, defined on population growth rate. This demographic indicator was found to be robust to sampling uncertainty arising from partial and heterogeneous detection of individuals. We ran decision sensibility analyses and found a strong effect of the utility function on the optimal strategy, highlighting the importance of defining explicit objectives. We also found that the optimal strategy was sensitive to demographic parameters, which demonstrate the general need of using solid statistical approaches to estimate them properly. This structured decision making framework can further be extended to adaptive management, acknowledged as being a convenient framework for wildlife management.

La dernière décennie a vu l'émergence d'Internet et l'apparition des applications multimédia qui requièrent de plus en plus de bande passante, ainsi que des utilisateurs qui exigent une meilleure qualité de service. Dans cette perspective, beaucoup de travaux ont été effectués pour améliorer l'utilisation du spectre sans fil.Le sujet de ma thèse de doctorat porte sur l'application de la théorie des jeux, la théorie des files d'attente et l'apprentissage dans les réseaux sans fil,en particulier dans des environnements partiellement observables. Nous considérons différentes couches du modèle OSI. En effet, nous étudions l'accès opportuniste au spectre sans fil à la couche MAC en utilisant la technologie des radios cognitifs (CR). Par la suite, nous nous concentrons sur le contrôle de congestion à la couche transport, et nous développons des mécanismes de contrôle de congestion pour le protocole TCP. / Since delay-sensitive and bandwidth-intense multimedia applications have emerged in the Internet, the demand for network resources has seen a steady increase during the last decade. Specifically, wireless networks have become pervasive and highly populated.These motivations are behind the problems considered in this dissertation.The topic of my PhD is about the application of game theory, queueing theory and learning techniques in wireless networks under some QoS constraints, especially in partially observable environments.We consider different layers of the protocol stack. In fact, we study the Opportunistic Spectrum Access (OSA) at the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer through Cognitive Radio (CR) approaches.Thereafter, we focus on the congestion control at the transport layer, and we develop some congestion control mechanisms under the TCP protocol.The roadmap of the research is as follows. Firstly, we focus on the MAC layer, and we seek for optimal OSA strategies in CR networks. We consider that Secondary Users (SUs) take advantage of opportunities in licensed channels while ensuring a minimum level of QoS. In fact, SUs have the possibility to sense and access licensed channels, or to transmit their packets using a dedicated access (like 3G). Therefore, a SU has two conflicting goals: seeking for opportunities in licensed channels, but spending energy for sensing those channels, or transmitting over the dedicated channel without sensing, but with higher transmission delay. We model the slotted and the non-slotted systems using a queueing framework. Thereafter, we analyze the non-cooperative behavior of SUs, and we prove the existence of a Nash equilibrium (NE) strategy. Moreover, we measure the gap of performance between the centralized and the decentralized systems using the Price of Anarchy (PoA).Even if the OSA at the MAC layer was deeply investigated in the last decade, the performance of SUs, such as energy consumption or Quality of Service (QoS) guarantee, was somehow ignored. Therefore, we study the OSA taking into account energy consumption and delay. We consider, first, one SU that access opportunistically licensed channels, or transmit its packets through a dedicated channel. Due to the partial spectrum sensing, the state of the spectrum is partially observable. Therefore, we use the Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) framework to design an optimal OSA policy for SUs. Specifically, we derive some structural properties of the value function, and we prove that the optimal OSA policy has a threshold structure.Thereafter, we extend the model to the context of multiple SUs. We study the non-cooperative behavior of SUs and we prove the existence of a NE. Moreover, we highlight a paradox in this situation: more opportunities in the licensed spectrum may lead to worst performances for SUs. Thereafter, we focus on the study of spectrum management issues. In fact, we introduce a spectrum manager to the model, and we analyze the hierarchical game between the network manager and SUs.Finally, we focus on the transport layer and we study the congestion control for wireless networks under some QoS and Quality of Experience (QoE) constraints. Firstly, we propose a congestion control algorithm that takes into account applications' parameters and multimedia quality. In fact, we consider that network users maximize their expected multimedia quality by choosing the congestion control strategy. Since users ignore the congestion status at bottleneck links, we use a POMDP framework to determine the optimal congestion control strategy.Thereafter, we consider a subjective measure of the multimedia quality, and we propose a QoE-based congestion control algorithm. This algorithm bases on QoE feedbacks from receivers in order to adapt the congestion window size. Note that the proposed algorithms are designed based on some learning methods in order to face the complexity of solving POMDP problems.

The diploma thesis inquires into the consumer behavior in the market of wedding services and its aim is to identify and analyze the buyer decision process. The theoretical part inquires into the characteristics of consumer behavior. The practical part describes the wedding market. Next main part is based on the results of marketing research, which took the form of a questionnaire survey. The results are analyzed and presented in detail. The conclusion outlines the marketing recommendations for vendors operating in this market.

O aprendizado por reforço é uma técnica bem sucedida, porém lenta, para treinar agentes autônomos. Algumas soluções baseadas em políticas parciais podem ser usadas para acelerar o aprendizado e para transferir comportamentos aprendidos entre tarefas encapsulando uma política parcial. No entanto, geralmente essas políticas parciais são específicas para uma única tarefa, não levam em consideração recursos semelhantes entre tarefas e podem não corresponder exatamente a um comportamento ideal quando transferidas para outra tarefa diferente. A transferência descuidada pode fornecer más soluções para o agente, dificultando o processo de aprendizagem. Sendo assim, este trabalho propõe uma maneira de descobrir e reutilizar de modo probabilístico políticas parciais orientadas a objetos aprendidas, a fim de permitir melhores escolhas de atuação para o agente em múltiplas tarefas diferentes. A avaliação experimental mostra que a proposta é capaz de aprender e reutilizar com sucesso políticas parciais em diferentes tarefas. / Reinforcement Learning is a successful yet slow technique to train autonomous agents. Option-based solutions can be used to accelerate learning and to transfer learned behaviors across tasks by encapsulating a partial policy. However, commonly these options are specific for a single task, do not take in account similar features between tasks and may not correspond exactly to an optimal behavior when transferred to another task. Therefore, careless transfer might provide bad options to the agent, hampering the learning process. This work proposes a way to discover and reuse learned objectoriented options in a probabilistic way in order to enable better actuation choices to the agent in multiple different tasks. The experimental evaluation show that the proposal is able to learn and successfully reuse options across different tasks.

Introduction: E-commerce has shown a large increase in the last years and constitutes a great portion of the market. This has led to a digital shift and more people choose to e-shop. This has affected the retail business, since there are new, more comfortable ways to buy your groceries. Furthermore, the food e-commerce differentiates from the general e-commence, since customers feel comfortable being able to smell, touch and see the groceries they are buying. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to achieve a higher and deeper knowledge of how the e-service quality affects the customers purchasing behavior in a digital food commence. Furthermore, the purpose is to identify notable factors within e-service quality which affects the customers purchasing behavior. Method: This is a qualitative study which has had an abductive approach. It is a combination between an inductive and a deductive attempt. The empirical material has been collected through six semi-structured interviews with Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Malhotra (2002) e-service quality dimensions for basis. Thereafter the empirical results were analyzed with the different steps of the buying process. Conclusion: Through this study, we noticed no significant difference between the interviewees which probably is a result of a high "internet habit". Thanks to the study, we were able to conclude that there are a number of distinct factors within the e-service quality dimensions that affects the customers purchasing behavior. Seeing that this is a subject going through constant development in contemporary with the digital evolution we find it useful to study, because the old barriers are replaced with new ones. / Bakgrund: E-handel växer drastiskt och utgör idag en större del av marknaden. Detta har lett till ett digitalt skifte och fler väljer att e-handla. Det har sin påverkan på dagligvaruhandeln eftersom det finns nya och bekväma sätt att e-handla mat på. Vidare skiljer sig e-handel av livsmedel från den generella e-handeln, vilket kan förklaras genom att livsmedel blir problematiskt att uppfatta i onlinemiljö eftersom beröring, syn och lukt ofta krävs. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att få en ökad och djupare förståelse hur e-service quality påverkar kundernas köpbeteende inom digital mathandel. Vidare är syftet att identifiera märkbara faktorer inom e-service quality som påverkar kundens köpbeteende. Metod: Detta är en kvalitativ studie som har haft ett abduktivt angreppsätt, vilket är en kombination av en induktiv och deduktiv ansats. Det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom sex semi-strukturerade intervjuer med Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Malhotra (2002) e-service quality dimensioner som grund. Därefter analyserades det empiriska resultatet med köpprocessens olika steg. Slutsats: Genom studien kan vi se att det inte fanns några markanta skillnader bland de intervjuade personerna vilket vi tror kan bero på hög internetvana. Tack vare studien så kan vise att det finns ett flertal tydliga faktorer inom e-service quality dimensionerna som påverkar kundens köpprocess. Eftersom detta är ett ämne som ständigt uppdateras i samtid med den digitaliserade utvecklingen så är det nyttigt att studera just för att de gamla barriärerna ersätts av nya.

O comportamento e o desempenho acadêmico dos alunos em cursos de Engenharia é um campo fértil, interessante e crescente de investigação. Este trabalho apresenta os resultados obtidos na análise estocástica do progresso dos alunos em 15 cursos de graduação das diferentes opções oferecidas pela Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo (EPUSP). Para realizar esta análise, foi desenvolvido um agente de avaliação aplicando-se o Processo de Decisão de Markov (PDM). Esse agente de avaliação extrai observações parciais dos estados atuais das notas dos alunos nas disciplinas cursadas e possibilita a identificação de ações adequadas para modelar autonomamente o comportamento futuro do aluno. O algoritmo aplicado estima o esforço que representa o estado cognitivo do aluno baseado em uma relação de pares estado/ação, calculada com base nas notas obtidas ao longo do período compreendido entre os 2000 e 2010. O período em que um aluno obteve uma nota de aprovação torna possível o estudo temporal desse evento, o que permite a utilização de métodos de agrupamento de dados, como os modelos ocultos de Markov, para a avaliação do comportamento das notas dos alunos durante os cursos de Engenharia. O presente estudo se fundamentou no agrupamento das notas dos alunos em três níveis para a classificação dos comportamentos das notas desses alunos. / The students behavior and academic performance in engineering programs is a fruitful field, interesting and crescent research. This paper presents the results of student progress obtained in stochastic analysis in 15 undergraduate courses of offered by the Escola Politécnica of the São Paulo University (EPUSP). An evaluation agent was developed to perform this analysis, applying the Markov Decision Process (PDM). This evaluation agent extracts partial observations of the current state of students\' grades in courses taken, enabling the identification of appropriate actions to autonomously shape the student future behaviour. The algorithm applied estimates the effort that represents the cognitive state of the student on states/action, based on the grades obtained during the period between 2000 and 2010. The period which a student received a passing grade makes possible the temporal study of this event, allowing the use of data grouping methods, such as hidden Markov models for the evaluation of the behaviours of students\' grades for the courses of engineering. This study is based on students grades at three different levels, classifying the behaviour of the notes.