Thesis (M. Sc.)(Consumer science)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: Arwen P. Mohun, Dept. of History. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-56).

by John R. Hauser and Glen L. Urban. / Bibliography: leaves 1-2 (2nd group).

Introduction: Currently, 1 in 7 children are classified as obese, which represents an obesity rate two times higher than that of the last 25 years. Part of the solution to address the positive energy balance underlying weight gain is to target the specific eating behaviours and factors that lead to food intake. One widely used tool to measure eating behaviour is the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ). Objective: The primary objective of this study was to validate scores of the 21-item Child version of the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-R21 C), by examining validity evidence and reliability of TFEQ-R21 C responses in a sample of Canadian children and adolescents. The secondary aim was to examine the associations between the TFEQ-R21 C factors and body mass index (BMI) z-scores and food/taste preferences. Methods: The participants consisted of a sample of 158 children, 63 boys (mean age: 11.5 ± 1.6 years) and 95 girls (mean age: 11.9 ± 1.9 years), recruited from English schools in the Ottawa area. To assess eating behaviour, participants filled out the TFEQ-R21 C, the Power of Food Scale, and the Leeds Food Preference Questionnaire. Height and weight measurements were taken using a stadiometer and a digital scale. An exploratory factor analysis with oblique rotation and an item analysis were conducted to determine the factor structure and validity of the questionnaire. A median split on Cognitive Restraint (CR), Internal Uncontrolled Eating (UE 1), External Uncontrolled Eating (UE 2), and Emotional Eating (EE) was used to dichotomize factor-based scores into high and low categories for each factor, to allow for group comparisons. Bivariate correlations explored relationships between weight, BMI and BMI z-score, and food and taste preference, by sex and age group. To determine if BMI, BMI z-scores, and food/taste preferences were associated with factor scores of the TFEQ-R21 C, two-way ANOVAs were conducted. Results: The exploratory factor analysis replicated the Emotional Eating (EE) and Cognitive Restraint (CR) scales of the original TFEQ-R21, whereas the global factor of Uncontrolled Eating (UE) produced two subscales: Internal Uncontrolled Eating (UE 1) and External Uncontrolled Eating (UE 2). Item 17 did not load onto any of the factors and was subsequently removed. The four-factor model, with item 17 removed (FFEQ-R21 C: 20-item Child version Four-Factor Eating Questionnaire), accounted for 41.2% of the common variance in the data and showed good internal consistency (α= 0.81). The factors of UE 1 (r= 0.27, p<0.001), UE 2 (r= 0.36, p<0.0001), and CR (r= 0.20, p= 0.04) correlated significantly with EE. Younger children reported higher UE 1 scores [F(1,143)= 3.99, p=0.048, f2= 0.028] and CR scores [F(1,143)= 3.99, p= 0.001, f2= 0.089]. Boys who reported a high UE 1 scores had a significantly higher weight [F(1,58)= 6.44, p=0.014, f2= 0.117 ] and BMI z-scores [F(1,58)= 4.45, p=0.039, f2=0.083], compared to those who reported low UE 1 scores. Children with overweight or obesity [F(1,143)= 2.75, p<0.001. f2= 0.035] reported higher EE scores, compared to children of normal weight. Children with high UE 1 scores reported greater preference for high protein and fat foods, and high fat savoury (HFSA) and high fat sweet (HFSW) foods, compared to those with low UE 1 scores. Higher preference for high protein, fat, and carbohydrate foods, and HFSA, HFSW, and low fat savoury foods (LFSA) foods was found in children with high UE 2 scores, compared to those with low UR 2 scores. Children and adolescents with low CR scores reported greater preference for high protein, carbohydrate, and fat foods, compared to those who reported high CR scores. Discussion: This study showed adequate reliability and validity evidence of the TFEQ-R21 C scores, and that the questionnaire is best represented by a 20-item four-factor model in our sample. The FFEQ-R21 C was able to identify relevant eating behaviour traits associated with higher BMI z-scores and food preferences in both sexes and age groups, which were mainly in accordance with previous findings in children and adolescents. These results support the utility of the questionnaire for the assessment and identification of problematic eating behaviour and food preferences in the Canadian pediatric population. Younger children reported higher influence of the psychological constructs of eating behaviour (CR, UE 1, UE 2, and EE), compared to older children. This study provides preliminary evidence that FFEQ-R20 is a reliable and valid self-report tool to measure eating behaviour in children and adolescents to characterize those at higher risk for excess weight. However, further research is needed to examine the validity of the questionnaire in larger samples and in other geographical locations across Canada, as well as the inclusion of extraneous variables such as parental eating behaviour, socioeconomic status, and physical activity levels.

Employees choosing their employer rather than the employer choosing their employees have resulted in an increased interest of understanding what is requested among today's workforce. The growing generation of the labour market, Millennials, have been shown to create difficulties for organisations, in form of an increased turnover rate among them. In order to decrease the turnover rate, the purpose of this thesis is to provide a better understanding of Millennials’ preferences when choosing a company, and factors that would make them loyal. Previous theory state important factors that are affecting Millennials, but these are studies conducted in countries such as Canada, the USA, and India. Therefore, this thesis focuses on Millennials in Sweden. To gain a deeper understanding of Millennials’ preferences, semi-structured interviews, with non-standardised questions were held. To analyse the empirical data a thematic method was used. This made it easier to compare the data with previous literature. Findings suggest that relations with colleagues and managers are an important factor that affects both the choice of employer and the loyalty towards them. Moreover, psychological work environment, values, progress, and salary were mentioned as essential factors. Depending on the research question, the outcome differed. / På dagens arbetsmarknad har det visat sig att anställda väljer sin arbetsgivare, istället för att arbetsgivaren väljer sina anställda, vilket har resulterat i ett ökat intresse i vad som efterfrågas bland dagens arbetskraft. Den växande generationen på arbetsmarknaden, millenniegenerationen, har visat sig skapa svårigheter för organisationer, däribland genom ökad personalomsättning. Syftet med uppsatsen är att öka förståelsen för hur denna generation väljer en arbetsgivare och vilka faktorer som skulle bidra till deras lojalitet. Tidigare forskning har påvisat viktiga faktorer som påverkar millenniegenerationen, men denna forskning är främst utförd i Kanada, USA och Indien. Därför fokuserar detta arbete på millenniegenerationen i Sverige. För att få en djupare förståelse för generationens preferenser för en arbetsgivare utfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer med icke-standardiserade frågor och analyserades med hjälp av tematisk analys. Detta underlättade arbetet i jämförelsen mellan data och tidigare forskning. Slutsatserna av analysen var att relationer med kollegor och chefer är en viktig faktor som påverkar både valet av företag, samt lojaliteten mot dessa. Utöver det var den psykologiska arbetsmiljön, värderingar, utvecklingsmöjligheter och lön viktiga faktorer. Beroende på forskningsfrågan blev innebörden olika.

A assimetria nas preferências dos Bancos Centrais é um assunto que vem sendo muito discutido no meio acadêmico, mas até o momento essa polêmica tem se restringido a economias desenvolvidas como a canadense e inglesa. O que o texto a seguir se propõe é, em parte, tentar trazer essa discussão para o campo dos países emergentes, tomando como centro da análise a economia brasileira. Preferências assimétricas consistem num comportamento por parte da autoridade monetária que atribui perdas diferentes a desvios da taxa de inflação observada em relação à meta definida, que embora sejam de mesma magnitude apresentam sinais opostos. Replicando os testes já usados em outros estudos, o regime de Metas de Inflação é aqui abordado, iniciando sua análise sob uma ótica mais geral e depois o particularizando para a economia brasileira, desde sua concepção (em 1999 após a crise cambial de janeiro desse ano) até os dias atuais. Este comportamento assimétrico parece, ainda, ocasionar um viés inflacionário diferente daquele proposto pelo modelo KPBG (Kydland-Prescott-Barro-Gordon) que surge da ambição do Banco Central em estabelecer uma taxa de desemprego que esteja abaixo da taxa natural, num ambiente no qual as preferências, ao contrário do proposto, são quadráticas. Infelizmente, os dados brasileiros ainda não apontam na direção da assimetria, talvez por causa do tempo de implantação do regime no Brasil, talvez devido às turbulências que a economia brasileira sofreu decorrentes de crises internacionais e de suas conseqüências sobre o desempenho da política de Metas de Inflação que gerou inúmeros insucessos. No entanto, o histórico de hiperinflações e sua influência sobre as expectativas e os comportamentos dos agentes econômicos nos faz suspeitar de que dentro em breve a assimetria será não só detectada em nossa economia como também será fruto de estudos para o desenho e direcionamento da política monetária. / Central Banks preferences asymmetry is a subject that has been discussed for quite some time in academic publications. However, such controversy has been restricted to developed economies, such as the English and Canadian ones, so far. The following text intends to bring about the discussion to emerging countries, using the brazilian economy as the focus of the analysis. Asymmetric preferences can be defined as a particular behaviour of the monetary authorities that weigh differently their losses concerning inflation deviations from its predetermined target that have the same magnitude but different signs. The main tests used in other studies have been repeated here and the inflation target regime is approached, initially from a broader outlook and then specifically to the brazilian case, ever since its conception in 1999 (after the exchange rate crash in the same year) to the present day. The asymmetric behaviour seems to cause an inflationary bias different from the one proposed by the KPBG model (Kydland-Prescott-Barro-Gordon) which derives from the Central Bank ambition to establish an unemployment rate lower than its natural rate, in an environment in which preferences are quadratic. Unfortunately, brazilian data do not suggest asymmetry yet, maybe because the inflation target regime has been installed for too little time, or because of all the turmoil in the brazilian economy in recent international crisis and their consequences on the regime performance, that has been usually compromised. Nevertheless, the history of hyperinflations and their impacts on expectations and the agents behaviour raises suspicions that soon not only will asymmetry be found in our economy but it will also be studied to design monetary policy directives.

Recommendation systems serve to users of e-commerce applications for individual recommendations to certain products or services based on their preferences. The aim of this thesis is to create a module of recommender system. The work includes analysis of recommendation systems and the methods used in these systems, including a description of the calculations. This work also solves the cold start problem, which is a problem when generation of some good recommendations for the new user is needed, but the recommendation system has no or little information about this user. Based on analysis is in this thesis designed module for recommender system, which is applicable e.g. internet for e-commerce or other internet-based application. Part of this module is the realization of a platform Apache Mahout, which some parts are built on a distributed computing platform Apache Hadoop project. Furthermore, in this work, on the aforementioned platform Mahout, selected methods of calculating the similarity using selected criteria (e.g. the average time for a recommendation, and the number of users for who have not been able to generate recommendations) are tested.

In this dissertation, we experimentally examine individual preferences of effort, including time and risk preferences. In Chapter 3, we find that at least in certain settings and mindsets, individuals are very patient in their time preferences for effort, choosing to distribute effort evenly over time periods. However, they do not always live up to the stated plans, suggesting dynamic inconsistency or possibly two separate decision-making systems in the mind. This relates to our model in Chapter 2: a dual-self model of allocating effort between time periods in working toward a larger goal including incomplete information between different mindsets in the same person. Chapter 4 examines the risk preferences for effort, as a measurement of the utility function of effort, and finds that in this setting, subjects are very risk-averse over effort, compared to their preferences over money: they greatly avoid the possibility of having to complete a large number of tasks. These experiments and model help provide an understanding of how individuals allocate the scarce resource of time and energy to tasks they must complete.

The visual appearance of video game characters carries great importance in regards to how a player perceives them. This also holds true for characters that are meant to represent the player in games, their avatars. In this thesis, the topic of preferences regarding visual appearance in relation to age of player avatars is explored. Interviews were held with participants from two age demographics in order to find potential differences and analyse them. The two age demographics consisted of middle aged swedes and young adult swedes. In the interviews, the respondents were given choices between eight different characters sketches. These eight sketches consisted of two groups, one meant to appear as being in the same age group as the young adult swedes and one meant to appear as being part of the middle aged swedes age group. After having made their choices, the respondents were asked to explain the motivation behind them. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the thought process that fueled their answers, the respondents were also prompted to answer question regarding their gaming habits, and their preferences in characters in other mediums than games. Results from the interviews indicated that there were trends in the choices made by the participants that differed between the two demographics. A majority of the demographic consisting of young adult swedes chose characters that were designed to appear closer to their age. Similarly, a majority of the middle aged demographic chose characters that were designed to appear closer to their age group. In short, a majority of the participants from both demographics showed a preference towards characters that were closer to their own age group.