As technology continues to affect the business sector, many companies have been faced with the nesessity of transformation. Adapting to a new, more Internet based society im-plies that companies are venturing into new market channels to get their products or ser-vices out to the consumers. Simultaneously as many companies are digitalizing, they are also launching or planning to launch brand extensions. Combining the two phenomenon’s we get a corporate situation that is vaguely explored, namely how a brand extension be-tween market channels work. Further more, how can value be transferred in this process? The purpose of this thesis is to further investigate the phenomenon described above and to gain more understanding about the new situation. Therefore, the authors have chosen to conduct an empirical investigation exploring how a company can transfer brand value to a new online product or service. This was done in cooperation with the company Eniro that recently have focused their efforts from their traditional printed market channel into a digital brand extension. During the study 15 in-depth interviews with small to medium sized companies were performed, and backed up with complementary communication with managers at Eniro. Four research questions were formulated to serve as a read thread throughout the work. The main aim was to evaluate brand equity of the traditional product to then compare if this brand equity had been transferred to the new online extension. After having performed the in depth interviews with representatives from the various companies, the authors could conclude that the original product of the printed directory with the company/person Gula Sidorna held stronger brand equity than the online exten-sion despite the company’s effort to promote the extension. The authors believe the rea-sons for this could be that during the process of extending the brand, some strategic deci-sions were made that did not enable the parent brand value to be transferred to the new extension. There were however value in the new extension in terms of simplicity and speed. Being able to quickly respond to the new and dynamic market where speed to market can be an important advantage was part of the positive associations for eniro.se. In the discussion regarding the main issue of transferring brand value to a digital platform the authors found that one of the most vital aspects is having clear communication within the organisation, sending out a clear message in marketing activities, not forgetting to emphasize reliability and stability to ensure that people in all ages feel inclined to use the digital product.

Esta tesis trata sobre el trasplante del Budismo a España desde la óptica de los agentes adaptadores o los otros significantes. El estudio de la religión es un tema clásico en la Sociología desde sus comienzos y, durante décadas, se ha concebido como un pilar autónomo y relativamente separado de otras esferas sociales. El presente estudio parte de una perspectiva sociológica amplia, donde la religión no es una cuestión separable del resto de la sociedad. Especialmente en las últimas décadas la esfera religiosa europea ha sufrido muchos cambios, en gran medida provocados por cambios sociales asociados a la Modernización tecnológica y la configuración de un mundo global. Recientemente las tradiciones Budistas han vivido una gran expansión fuera de su contexto asiático original. La experiencia colonial y las misiones religiosas han sido importantes en el decurso de los contactos de la cultura de esta parte del planeta con las tradiciones milenarias asiáticas. Pero será a partir del siglo XIX donde se iniciará proceso de conocimiento y admiración progresivos. En la encrucijada entre la modernidad, el racionalismo, la revolución industrial y los albores de la secularización es donde el Budismo dispara su popularidad más allá de Asia. En ese punto, a finales del siglo XIX, hay una motivación intelectual, una aproximación al Budismo por la vía racional, concibiéndolo como una cosmovisión compatible con la ciencia moderna y la racionalidad ateística creciente. Será más tarde, a partir de los años 60, cuando se desarrollará la aproximación más experiencial y comenzará el auge de la meditación en los círculos contraculturales. Las tradiciones budistas se difunden por toda Europa y a finales de los 70 llegarán también a España. En este proceso de expansión mundial, las distintas tradiciones y escuelas budistas han experimentado importantes procesos de adaptación a nuevos contextos, sobretodo en países modernos e industrializados como Estados Unidos y Canadá, Australia o el continente europeo. En un mundo globalizado, altamente conectado y que favorece el contacto entre culturas diferentes, el Budismo ha dejado de ser algo exótico y lejano para algunos sectores de población de gran parte de las civilizaciones llamadas “occidentales”. En el contexto de la mundialización se desarrolla una nueva etapa: el Budismo Moderno. España no es una excepción en la expansión budista moderna y esta tesis pretende aportar una visión sociológica acerca del fenómeno budista en el contexto español. Se examina bajo la lógica de cómo la Modernización genera nuevas formas de religiosidad y espiritualidad, ofreciendo una amplia avenida para la introducción del Budismo como alternativa válida. Las nociones del supermercado religioso permiten identificar a los otros significantes (centros y maestros referentes) como la parte “proveedora”. Se utilizan las teorías del trasplante religioso y se proporciona un análisis desde la perspectiva de los centros budistas para analizar qué modelos de Budismo se generan, cómo se adaptan y qué ofrecen a los buscadores espirituales. Para ello se utilizan datos primarios que parten el Primer Censo de centros Budistas en España. Un profundo estudio en base a un cuestionario comprensivo e inédito, acompañado de entrevistas a maestros e informantes clave en el proceso de introducción del Budismo, forman la base empírica de este trabajo. Finalmente se propone un conjunto de criterios para la construcción de una tipología que clasifique y ordene las distintas aproximaciones que se originan tras el fenómeno del trasplante, dando lugar a la modelización de tres grandes modelos. La voluntad es que esta propuesta clasificatoria sea aplicable a otras cosmovisiones y otros contextos. / “Spirituality, Rationalism and Discordances: Buddhism now and here” This thesis deals with the transplantation of Buddhism to Spain under the perspective of adaptors or significant others. Buddhist traditions have recently undergone a major expansion outside its original Asian context. At the crossroads between modernity, rationalism, the industrial revolution and the dawn of secularization is where Buddhism shoots its popularity beyond Asia. By the end of the 60s will begin the meditation boom in countercultural circles, partly fuelled by contact with exiled Tibetan teachers. Buddhist traditions spread throughout Europe since the late 70's will also reach Spain. In this process of global spreading, the various Buddhist traditions and schools have experienced important adaptation to new contexts, especially in modern industrialized countries like the U.S. and Canada, Australia or Europe. Under a global configuration Buddhism is no longer exotic and distant for some sectors of "Western" countries. Spain is not an exception in modern Buddhist expansion. This thesis aims to provide a sociological approach toward the Buddhist phenomenon in the Spanish context. It examines the logic of how the modernization generates new forms of religiosity and spirituality, offering a wide avenue for the introduction of Buddhism as a valid alternative. The notions of religious supermarket enable the identification of significant others as the supply-side. Theories of religious transplantation provide a framework at organisational level to analyze the models generated, how they adapt and what they offer to spiritual seekers. To do so primary data are gathered and analysed. A thorough study based on a comprehensive questionnaire and unpublished, accompanied by interviews with teachers and key informants in the process of introduction of Buddhism, form the empirical basis of this paper. Finally, we propose a set of criteria for the construction of a typology to classify and sort the different approaches that arise after transplantation phenomenon, leading to the modelling of three models. Will this proposal is that qualifying is applicable to other worldviews and other contexts.

La tesi fa un estudi intens i crític de l'obra filosòfica del professor nordamericà John Searle, qui va formalitzar el que es coneix com "teoria dels actes de parla". Es presenta una investigació sobre els temes principals del pensament de Searle: llenguatge, ment i "background" així com les conexions que hi ha entre ells. Aquest estudi suposa una crítica a alguns aspectes poc clars de la concepció del llenguatge de Searle, i, a la vegada, una aposta a possibles solucions a aquestos aspectes.

Diverses investigacions del desenvolupament infantil han estudiat la capacitat dels nens i de les nenes de comprendre que l'emoció que algú mostra pot ser diferent de com es sent aquesta persona realment. Aquests estudis han utilitzat bàsicament situacions d'engany, on els seus protagonistes tenien un motiu per a amagar la seva emoció interna a un observador. Els resultats suggereixen que la capacitat infantil de comprendre que algú pugui amagar com es sent realment és molt rudimentària als 4 anys, mentre que als 6 anys ja són capaços d'articular-la en paraules. L'objectiu de la nostra recerca era comparar la comprensió de la distinció entre l'emoció externa i l'emoció interna en situacions d'engany amb situacions de joc de ficció, on aquesta habilitat encara no havia estat estudiada. La nostra hipòtesi era que els infants comprendrien aquesta distinció més fàcilment en situacions de joc de ficció que en situacions d'engany. Un total de 337 infants de 4 a 12 anys participaren en l'estudi. Els resultats mostren que, tal com ocorre en situacions d'engany, els infants de 4 anys tenen dificultats en comprendre que quan algú simula una emoció dins del joc de ficció, la seva emoció interna pot ser diferent de l'emoció que es mostra, fet que posa en dubte que la comprensió del joc de ficció en aquesta edat tingui una naturalesa metarepresentacional. Als 6 anys, els infants comencen a comprendre aquesta distinció en situacions de joc de ficció, no obstant, la realització de la tasca és pitjor quan l'emoció que es simula és positiva que quan aquesta és negativa. Una possible explicació és que els infants comprenen que el joc de ficció pot ser utilitzat com una forma de canviar les emocions negatives. A més, també hem estudiat la comprensió de les conseqüències que té simular una emoció en les creences dels observadors. Els resultats suggereixen que entre els 4 i els 8 anys existeix un canvi fonamental en la comprensió infantil dels efectes que tenen les expressions emocionals fictícies en els observadors de les situacions de joc de ficció / Several investigations have studied children's understanding that external and internal emotion might be different. These studies have basically used deception stories whose protagonists had a reason to hide their internal emotion to an observer. Their results suggest that children's capacity to understand that people can hide the way they feel is very rudimentary at the age of 4, whereas 6 year-olds are already capable of articulate this comprehension in words. The aim of the present research is to compare children's understanding of the distinction between external and internal emotion in deception situations with pretend play situations, where this understanding has not yet been studied. Our main hypothesis was that children would understand better this distinction in pretend play situations rather than in deception situations. A total of 337 children aged from 4 to 12 participated in the study. The results show that, as occurs in deception situations, 4-year-olds have difficulties in understanding that emotions expressed in pretend play may not correspond to internal emotions, which questions that these children understand pretend play in a metarepresentational way. At the age of 6, children start to understand the distinction between external and internal emotions in pretend play situations, however, it is more difficult for them to solve the tasks when the simulated emotion is positive rather than negative. A possible explanation is that children assume that pretend play might be used as a tool to change negative internal emotions. Furthermore, we also studied the effects of simulating an emotion on the observer's beliefs. Results suggest that between the ages of 4 and 8 exists a fundamental change in children's understanding of the effects that simulated emotional expressions have in the observers of pretend play situations.

Rivers and streams are sensitive to alterations in their watersheds and one of the greatest disturbances is from urban development. An urban stream channel in the Atlanta metropolitan area in the Georgia Piedmont was studied to establish the nature of adjustment the channel form was experiencing. This study compared a degraded channel with a channel influenced by stabilization efforts in the same stream reach, in order to investigate the behavior of channel adjustments towards a greater stability. Measurements of the short-term changes in channel cross-sectional area and bed-material volume, following a series of threshold flow events, were taken in the reach and the variation in bed sediment texture was also investigated. Results showed that channel banks were stable compared to more mobile beds and that urban effects continued to dictate sedimentation. Rehabilitation measures were aggrading channels in their reaches and were likely perpetuating the instability of upstream channels.

<p>As technology continues to affect the business sector, many companies have been faced with the nesessity of transformation. Adapting to a new, more Internet based society im-plies that companies are venturing into new market channels to get their products or ser-vices out to the consumers. Simultaneously as many companies are digitalizing, they are also launching or planning to launch brand extensions. Combining the two phenomenon’s we get a corporate situation that is vaguely explored, namely how a brand extension be-tween market channels work. Further more, how can value be transferred in this process?</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to further investigate the phenomenon described above and to gain more understanding about the new situation. Therefore, the authors have chosen to conduct an empirical investigation exploring how a company can transfer brand value to a new online product or service. This was done in cooperation with the company Eniro that recently have focused their efforts from their traditional printed market channel into a digital brand extension. During the study 15 in-depth interviews with small to medium sized companies were performed, and backed up with complementary communication with managers at Eniro. Four research questions were formulated to serve as a read thread throughout the work. The main aim was to evaluate brand equity of the traditional product to then compare if this brand equity had been transferred to the new online extension.</p><p>After having performed the in depth interviews with representatives from the various companies, the authors could conclude that the original product of the printed directory with the company/person Gula Sidorna held stronger brand equity than the online exten-sion despite the company’s effort to promote the extension. The authors believe the rea-sons for this could be that during the process of extending the brand, some strategic deci-sions were made that did not enable the parent brand value to be transferred to the new extension. There were however value in the new extension in terms of simplicity and speed. Being able to quickly respond to the new and dynamic market where speed to market can be an important advantage was part of the positive associations for eniro.se. In the discussion regarding the main issue of transferring brand value to a digital platform the authors found that one of the most vital aspects is having clear communication within the organisation, sending out a clear message in marketing activities, not forgetting to emphasize reliability and stability to ensure that people in all ages feel inclined to use the digital product.</p>

En la presente Tesis Doctoral se ensaya una disolución del problema mente-cerebro, así como un replanteamiento del problema mente-cuerpo, a través de un estudio de la idea de epigénesis. Exploramos tres momentos clave en su fundamentación filosófica: la embriología alemana del XVIII, la histología/biología del XIX y la neurología, filosofía de la mente y biología evolutiva del XX. Al unísono de su estudio introducimos nuestro planteamiento epigenético del problema mente-cuerpo: la mente no es una sustancia, pero tampoco, como lo quiere el materialismo eliminacionista, un mito: es un proceso dinámico que emerge del complejo funcionar del organismo que conforman el cerebro/sistema nervioso en sus ricas interrelaciones en y con el cuerpo, y de éste con el medio natural y cultural. Cuerpo y cerebro se entrelazan al son de procesos no sólo genéticos, sino también epigenéticos, a través de los cuales las funciones mentales pueden emerger y terminar siendo operativas. / This Ph.D. essays a dissolution of the mind-brain problem, and offers a reformulation of the mind-body problem through the study of the idea of epigenesis. We explore three key moments in its philosophical grounding: XVII century´s German Biology, XIX´s Histology and Biology and XX´s Neurology, Philosophy of Mind and Evolutionary Biology. Paralelly, we introduce our epigenetic approach to the mind-body problem: mind is not a substance as defined by the Cartesian tradition, but neither a myth, as eliminativism sees it: it as a dynamical process which emerges from the complex operations maintained both in the organism (conformed by the rich interrelationships between the brain/nervous system and the body), and the ones maintained with the environment (both natural and cultural) by it as a whole. Body and brain intertwine inseparably not only by genetic processes, but also epigenetic ones, through which the mental functions can emerge and end up being operative.

La presente tesis constituye un intento de fundamentar la posibilidad y la existencia de un amor verdaderamente desinteresado entre las personas. Teniendo en cuenta la conocida controversia entre las posturas 'física' y 'extática' a este respecto, se busca encontrar una respuesta intermedia que, por una parte, afirme la posibilidad de un verdadero desinterés en el amor y, por otra, no excluya la legitimidad del amor a uno mismo y la absoluta necesidad de algún modo de referencia al sujeto amante para que pueda surgir cualquier amor.Nuestra investigación quiere demostrar que esa respuesta intermedia se encuentra positiva y firmemente fundada en el pensamiento de Santo Tomás de Aquino. Para el Angélico, el amor "no es otra cosa que complacencia del apetito en el bien" (Cf. Summa Theol., q.26, aa. 1 y 2 c.); y en torno a este concepto de 'complacencia' gira todo nuestro estudio acerca de las causas y los efectos propios del amor.Basándose en la noción de amor como complacencia es posible comprender que el amor pueda ser realmente desinteresado. La complacencia es un cierto 'reposo' o 'quietud' del afecto en el bien, es la 'aprobación' del apetito ante lo que se presenta como bueno. Y existe un modo determinado de apetito (la voluntad) que puede reposar en el bien y aprobarlo afectivamente (es decir, puede complacerse en el bien) meramente por el hecho de ser un bien. En otras palabras, entendiendo el amor como cierta complacencia, queda fundado un modo de amor que tiene por motivo la sola perfección entitativa del bien, y no el provecho que el amante pueda sacar de aquel bien. Pero, a la vez, el concepto de 'complacencia amorosa' permite incluir en el amor una referencia necesaria y permanente al sujeto amante: lo amado es algo unido al amante por el mismo hecho de que le complace; el bien amado es siempre algo que el afecto amante 'aprueba' y que, por lo mismo, se encuentra ya, de algún modo, unido al amante como por cierta presencia real.Además, a partir del concepto de amor como 'complacencia en el bien', hemos podido deducir otras múltiples consecuencias sumamente interesantes para la reflexión filosófica y teológica; así, por ejemplo, la afirmación del amor natural a Dios por encima del amor natural a uno mismo, la legitimidad del amor a uno mismo dentro del orden recto del amor y la estrecha relación entre la virtud y el amor al bien de la virtud. Por otra parte, la necesidad de un análisis de las causas y efectos propios del amor, nos ha exigido un estudio detallado de la constitución del subsistente personal, de su voluntad y su capacidad de elección libre, al igual que una reflexión más detenida acerca de la amistad. Siguiendo también en esto el pensamiento del doctor Angélico, nuestra tesis presenta una nueva perspectiva en la comprensión de la dignidad de la persona y de la intervención de la libertad en el acto voluntario: la dignidad de la persona, la fuerza de su voluntad y la posibilidad de su libertad vienen a encontrar su raíz más profunda en la ordenación que la persona y todas sus facultades tienen hacia el Bien Universal. De aquí que todo nuestro estudio venga a culminar en una profundización acerca del acto de contemplación, en el cual la criatura alcanza, por el conocimiento y el amor, aquel bien al cual se ordena todo su ser.

This thesis analyzes various text classification techniques in order to assess whether the knowledge of published news articles about selected companies can improve its' stock return volatility modelling and forecasting. We examine the content of the textual news releases and derive the news sentiment (po­ larity and strength) employing three different approaches: supervised machine learning Naive Bayes algorithm, lexicon-based as a representative of linguistic approach and hybrid Naive Bayes. In hybrid Naive Bayes we consider only the words contained in the specific lexicon rather than whole set of words from the article. For the lexicon-based approach we used independently two lexicons one with binary another with multiclass labels. The training set for the Naive Bayes was labeled by the author. When comparing the classifiers from the machine learning approach we can conclude that all of them performed similarly with a slight advantage of the hybrid Naive Bayes combined with multiclass lexicon. The resulting quantitative data in form of sentiment scores will be then incorpo­ rated into GARCH volatility modelling. The findings suggest that information contained in news feeds does bring an additional explanatory power to tradi­ tional GARCH model and is able to improve it's forecast. On the...

Lack of genuine concern for solid waste management practices and inefficiency of sol-id waste management system is one of the greatest environmental issues in Addis Ab-aba, Ethiopia. The Current Municipal Solid Waste Management System is extremely inefficient and ineffective. An illegal waste dumping, inefficient waste collection, and informal recycling are some of the issues that need to be immediately rectified. There-fore, this study was conducted in order to get a knowledge transfer from a developed country, Sweden, Östersund Municipality. The practical waste management and recy-cling activities undertaking in the city of Östersund have been assessed, evaluated and discussed in the study. Physical site visits, surveys, informal interviews, and group dis-cussions have also been conducted to be able to draw an immensely useful and tangi-ble recommendation for the improvement of Solid Waste Management and Recycling Scheme in Addis Ababa. Based on the experience acquired from Östersund the entire Solid Waste Management system in Addis Ababa has been evaluated and useful dis-cussions, recommendations, and conclusions have been drawn. Besides as recycling is one of the most significant waste management hierarchy components, it should have been given top priority in reducing the amount of waste generation in developing countries like Ethiopia. However, the recycling activities taking place in the country are highly limited and informal. Moreover, evaluation of the potential of recyclable wastes in Addis Ababa, discussion on how and why recycling needs to be given prece-dence and later comparison is made with Östersund Municipality in order to be able to gain knowledge from the Swedish experience. Besides, discussions were made in order to address decisive measures that need to be taken to implement the Swedish experience in the Solid Waste Management and Recycling sector in Addis Ababa Ethiopia in an environmentally friendly and economical way.