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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
781

Modelling preferences in economics

Baldwin, Elizabeth January 2014 (has links)
This thesis considers the economics of preferences in two different contexts. First it examines damages from climate change. I argue that our ignorance of the welfare implications of higher levels of warming, as well as scientific uncertainty in precisely what might trigger these scenarios, imply that our tastes and beliefs are incomplete (in the sense of Galaabaatar and Karni, 2013). That is, there are many 'plausible' ways to evaluate a given scenario. In Chapter 1, then, I develop this theory, and use it to formally separate climate impacts into three sorts: those understood well, those understood badly, and those representing the worst possible scenario. I provide a generalisation of the 'dismal theorem' of Weitzman (2009a), and address the question of policy choice: prices versus quantities (cf. Weitzman, 1974). Chapter 2 is an example of the analysis propounded in Chapter 1. I explore the sensitivity of the social cost of carbon to assumed damages from 4C warming, to the assumed extent of CO2 emissions, and to the modelling of the climate and carbon cycles. The analysis shows that differing prior assumptions can alter our evaluation of policy by orders of magnitude. The second part of this thesis regards preferences for indivisible goods. In Chapter 3, which is joint work with Paul Klemperer, I introduce to this field the 'tropical hypersurface', being those prices at which an agent's demand changes. Simple geometric features of this set tell us the precise trade-offs that interest the agent. Thus we develop a new taxonomy of valuations, `demand types'; familiar notions such as substitutes and complements are examples. Finally, we provide a necessary and sufficient condition on these `demand types' for existence of competitive equilibrium, which implies several existing results, as well as new and quite different examples.
782

#KeepItReal: discursive constructions of authenticity in South African consumer culture

Plüg, Simóne Nikki January 2019 (has links)
Writers as diverse as Oscar Wilde (1915), Matthew Arnold (1960), Erich Fromm (1997) and a proliferation of contemporary self-help gurus, variously assert that it is preferable for people to focus on “being”, or to value “who you are”, instead of emphasising “having” or the material possessions you have acquired. These discourses assert that individuals content with “being” are happier and more fulfilled than those involved in the constant (and alienating) motion of acquiring material goods as representations of themselves (de Botton, 2004; Fromm, 1997; James, 2007). This thesis provides an in-depth critical exploration of one of these ideal “ways of being”: authenticity. It does not seek to discover what authenticity is in an empirical sense, nor to define what it should be in a normative sense, but to map the cultural work done by changing and often contradictory discourses of personal authenticity. More specifically, this study uses a qualitative research design, social constructionist theoretical framework, and discourse analytic method to critically discuss the discursive constructions of subject authenticity in South African brand culture. The sample consisted of (1.) ten marketing campaigns of several large, mainstream brands, which were popular in South Africa from 2015 to 2017, and (2.) fifteen smaller South African “craft” brands popular in the “artisanal” context. The analysis is presented in two distinct, but interrelated, sections (namely, Selling Stories and Crafting Authenticity), where the relevant discourses of authenticity for each data set are explored in depth. Through this analysis the thesis provides a critical discussion of the ways in which these discourses of authenticity work to produce and maintain, (or challenge and subvert), subject positions, ideologies, and power relations that structure contemporary South African society.
783

Habitatový model čolka horského a obecného jako indikátor efektivnosti dotačních titulů pro vznik nových vodních těles

KADLČKOVÁ, Eva January 2017 (has links)
This master thesis deals with the potential of GIS to provide a sophisticated model of newt occurence that would allow an evaluation of appropriateness of state driven subsidies granted to build new water tanks. The main purpose was especially to show what parameters that determine presence of newts should be further implemented into the founding documentation of environmental projects aimed to support amphibian populations.
784

Desenho urbano, satisfação e preferência na urbanização de orlas fluviais degradadas

Andrade, Luciana Almeida de January 2015 (has links)
A reabilitação de orlas fluviais degradadas encontra-se em fase de grande prosperidade no Brasil. O estudo de medidas de reabilitação e dos fatores que definem seu sucesso são temas frequentemente debatidos na ciência. No entanto, esse debate está, geralmente, centrado em parâmetros mais facilmente mensuráveis que aderem à objetividade científica, ignorando, muitas vezes, aspectos mais subjetivos como a estética da paisagem ou o valor recreativo que poderiam ser identificados a partir da percepção dos indivíduos. Desta forma, o objetivo principal desta pesquisa é gerar subsídios para a elaboração de projetos de urbanização de orlas fluviais por meio da identificação dos níveis de satisfação e das preferências dos indivíduos em relação aos aspectos de desenho urbano dessas áreas. A estratégia de pesquisa adotada foi um estudo de caso realizado em uma área de orla fluvial degradada localizada no campus do Vale da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul em Porto Alegre-RS. Os métodos de coleta de dados englobam levantamento de arquivo, levantamento físico, observação e questionário com uso de simulações. Os resultados indicam que as preferências dos indivíduos envolvem ambientes com grandes áreas alagadas, mas mantendo uma proporção equilibrada com as áreas secas, margens com aspecto visual mais natural, alta densidade de vegetação arbórea de grande porte, distribuição desta vegetação de forma a criar grandes áreas sombreadas e ensolaradas, maior aceitação de equipamentos de lazer ativo do que passivo, distribuição de vias para automóveis acompanhando o traçado dos cursos d’água e trilhas e ciclovias próximas e distantes da água. / The rehabilitation of degraded waterfronts is in great prosperity phase in Brazil. The study of rehabilitation measures and the factors that determine their success are frequently debated topics in science. However, this debate usually focus on easily measurable parameters that fits the scientific objectivity, often ignoring subjective aspects such as landscape aesthetic or recreational value, that could be identified by the perception of individuals. Thus, the main goal of this research is to provide support for the development of waterfront urbanization plans by identifying the levels of satisfaction and preferences of individuals in relation to urban design aspects of these areas. The research strategy adopted was a case study in a degraded riverfront area located on the Vale campus of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre-RS. Data collection methods include file and physical survey, observation and questionnaire using simulations. The results indicate that the preferences of individuals involve environments with large wetlands, while maintaining a balanced proportion to the dry areas, banks presenting a higher natural appearance, high density of large tree vegetation, vegetation distribution that allows to create large shaded and sunny areas, greater acceptance of active leisure activities than passive, distribution of streets following the route of waterways and trails and bicycle paths near and far from the water.
785

The Affect Heuristic in Consumer Evaluations

King, Jesse Stocker, 1982- 06 1900 (has links)
xv, 145 p. : ill. (some col.) / This dissertation examines the role of affect in consumer judgments in two essays. The first essay explores the use of affect as a heuristic basis for judgments of the risks and benefits associated with new products. Current perspectives regarding the processes by which consumers make decisions about the adoption of innovations maintain that it is largely a cognitive process. However, the four studies that make up the first essay suggest that consumer assessments of the risks and benefits associated with product innovations are often inversely related and affectively congruent with evaluations of those innovations. The results support and extend previous research that has investigated the affect heuristic in the context of social hazards. The findings further indicate that more affectively extreme evaluations are associated with increasingly disparate assessments of risk and benefit. The results indicate that this relationship is consistent across a variety of products and product categories. Together, these findings challenge traditional conceptualizations of innovation adoption decision making and suggest that cognitive models alone are insufficient to explain innovation adoption decisions. The second essay investigates if processing fluency - the difficulty associated with processing information - may serve as an input to the affect heuristic and subsequent judgments of risk and benefit. Recently, Song and Schwarz investigated the relationship between differences in fluency and perceptions of risk. Their results suggested that fluency experiences influence risk perception through differences in familiarity and not as the result of fluency-elicited affect. The three studies included in the second essay re-examine those results in an effort to clarify the role of affect as a basis for perceptions of risk. The findings document a previously unreported reversal in preference for less fluent stimuli and suggest that fluency-elicited affect can explain the relationship between processing experiences and perceptions of risk. The results have important theoretical implications for our understanding of how people derive meaning from fluency experiences and for the role of fluency-elicited affect as a basis for judgments of risk and benefit. / Committee in charge: David Boush, Chairperson; Robert Madrigal, Member; Joan Giese, Member; Paul Slovic, Outside Member
786

Modes de gestion des offreurs et déterminants de l'offre dans le secteur des EHPAD / Management types of directors and supply determinants in the French Nursing Homes sector

Sibille, Romain 08 July 2015 (has links)
En France, 75% des établissements spécialisés dans la prise en charge des personnes dépendantes sont désormais des EHPAD. Créé dans le but de rationaliser l’offre, cet agent interroge sur sa capacité à être efficient. Dans cette thèse, le comportement des directeurs d’EHPAD est analysé de manière à identifier de nouveaux leviers d’amélioration des performances de ces établissements. L’hypothèse principale est que les directeurs adoptent des pratiques de gestion alternatives, ce qui s’explique par des différences dans leurs caractéristiques professionnelles. Une analyse exploratoire a permis de confirmer l’existence d’une grande diversité des comportements gestionnaires. Des analyses statistiques menées à partir d’une enquête originale appariée à l’enquête EHPA ont permis de dresser une typologie des modes de gestion des directeurs et de mettre en évidence l’importance de la formation de ces derniers pour expliquer leurs stratégies de gestion dans le domaine des ressources humaines. Ces résultats ouvrent de nouvelles perspectives de politique publique pour améliorer l’efficience du secteur. / In France, 75% of the establishments specialized in the care for dependant people are EHPADs. These structures were created with the aim to rationalize the offer in this sector, but remain economically inefficient. Throughout this thesis we attempt to identify how the nursing homes’ directors could be used as a lever to improve performances. We assumed that, facing similar constraints, directors adopt alternative strategies because they have different preferences, correlated with their professional characteristics. We carried out an exploratory survey that shows the directors make different management choices. The data of an original survey among a sample of EHPAD managers matched to the EHPA database was then mobilized. We identified four types of managers: the “nurses”, the “moderns”, the “bureaucrats” and the “conformists”. Finally, we focused on three management options concerning the nurses’ timetables, the bonus policy and the training policy. In all three cases, the choices are determined by the managers’ characteristics. These results open up new perspectives for public authorities to improve the efficiency of EHPADs.
787

Modelando preferências dependentes de contexto : a importância da moralidade no ato da escolha

Godoy, Daniel Voigt January 2016 (has links)
O presente trabalho desenvolve um modelo capaz de descrever preferências dependentes de contexto, buscando superar as limitações impostas pela abordagem da preferência revelada. O espaço informacional no ato da escolha é ampliado através da incorporação de uma segunda dimensão, na forma de um novo tipo de utilidade, dita social ou moral, representativa do contexto no qual a escolha é realizada. As dimensões são assumidas incomensuráveis entre si, uma característica típica de escolhas que envolvem questões morais. A impossibilidade de comparação entre duas alternativas, cada qual superior à outra em uma dimensão distinta, é resolvida através de uma simetria rotacional capaz de preservar a relação sujacente entre ambas utilidades. O modelo é baseado, fundamentalmente, nos trabalhos de Amartya Sen (1974, 1977, 1993, 1997) e Amitai Etzioni (1986), incorporando conceitos de utilidade moral (ETZIONI, 1986), dependência de contexto no ato da escolha (SEN, 1993, 1997), inescapabilidade ou urgência da escolha (SEN, 1997), auto-imposição de limites à escolha (SEN, 1997; ETZIONI, 1986), commitment, entendido como divisão entre escolha e bem-estar (SEN, 1977) e flexibilidade cognitiva dos indivíduos (ARIELY, 2012). / In this work, we develop a model that is able to describe context-dependent preferences, trying to overcome the limitations given by the revealed preference approach. The informational space in the act of choice is broadened by incorporating a second dimension, as a new type of utility, called social or moral, representing the context within the choice is made. The dimensions are deemed incommensurable, a typical characteristic of moral-related choices. The impossibility of comparison between two alternatives, where each alternative is the superior one in a different dimension, is resolved through a rotational symmetry able to preserve the underlying relationship between the two utilities. The model is fundamentally based on the works of Amartya Sen (1974, 1977, 1993, 1997) and Amitai Etzioni (1986), making use of the concepts of moral utility (ETZIONI, 1986), context-dependency in the act of choice (SEN, 1993, 1997), inescapability or urgency of the choice (SEN, 1997), self-imposing limits to choice (SEN, 1997; ETZIONI, 1986), commitment, understood as a wedge between choice and welfare (SEN, 1977) and the cognitive flexibility of the individuals (ARIELY, 2012).
788

Postprandiální termofílie u gekončíka nočního (\kur{Eublepharis macularius}) / Postprandial termophily in leopard gecko (\kur{Eublepharis macularius}).

MAREČKOVÁ, Iva January 2012 (has links)
This thesis deals with the postprandial thermophilia by the species \kur{Eublepharis macularius}. Research took place in the laboratory conditions with artificially created temperature gradient. 11 individuals of different age, gender and weight were chosen for my experiment. Surveying were in progress 8 hours before and 16 hours after feeding of animals. The experiment was repeated 3 times as surveying and once as a blind test. Although the temperature preference during the individual surveyings was changing, the postprandial thermophilia was not proved by statistic assessment of the experiments for sp. Eublepharis macularius. The thesis contains a literary review about the studied species, summary of published results dealing with postprandial thermophilia observed at reptiles, methodology of the experiment, results and discussion.
789

Hodnocení úrovně stravování u vybraných skupin obyvatelstva / Evaluation of public feeding practice in selected population groups

MACH, Karel January 2013 (has links)
The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the level of feeding habits of a selected human population segment in order to assess their understanding of issues related to nutrition and to basic components in their diet. For this purpose, a measuring instrument (a questionnaire) was designed. The first part contained questions related to respondent´s eating habits preferences, while the second part of questionnaire included questions examining the level of respondent?s nutritional awareness. In total 389 questionnaires were personally administered and completed by the respondents, under supervision of teachers. On the basis of the recorded answers it was found that, when purchasing food, the interviewed persons are governed mostly by the quality of it (37%). It was also discovered that, 40% of people preferred local foods to foods from abroad. Only 13% of respondents indicated their ?always or almost always? preference for ?bio foods?. It may also be said that, the three most popular dairy products are yoghurts (80%), milk (72%) and cheeses (72%), as opposed to fermented drinks (43%), which are the least consumed dairy products. Among the most popular meats the respondents included these three categories: chicken (83%), pork (73%) and beef (47%). The least favourite meat selected by respondents was mutton and lamb (35%). It was found that, 27% of the respondents follow information presented on food packaging but also that, 16% of the respondents do not follow packaging data, at all. According to the recorded frequency of occurrence the sum of correct answers can be said that most students answer 4 questions correctly. The recorded answer frequency counts show that most respondents answered correctly the following question: "What is bio food?" (94% of respondents). The worst answered individual question had to do with choosing foods with the highest ?Vitamin C? content, with only 7% being correct. On the basis of recorded answers it may be concluded that; the food consumption was influenced by the type of school which the respondents attended; as it appears related to the respondents´ age and their individual ability to decide on their food money spending. The questions that examined the level of information have shown that, the overall percentage of correct answers was increasing depending on the age of a respondent. The total percentage of correct answers kept increasing in relation to increasing age of respondents. No influence of gender on percentage totals of correct responses was demonstrated.
790

Biotopové preference obojživelníků na vybraných lokalitách po těžbě vltavínů / Amphibian habitat preferences in selected localities after mining moldavites.

NĚMEC, Stanislav January 2013 (has links)
This thesis pursues amphibian biotop preferences in locations where moldavites were quarried in the past. Field work took place in two localities near Trhové Sviny. The first one is situated near the village of Slavče where an illegal extraction still occures,.The second locality is found by the village of Dobrkovská Lhotka. This locality was partially recultivated in 2010. The aim of this work was to establish which factors do influence different amphibian species in the both studied locations. There were found five various species of amphibians near the village of Slavče: the Common frog (Rana temporaria), the Edible frog (Pelophylax kl. esculentus), the European fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina), the European tree frog (Hyla arborea) and the Common toad (Bufo bufo). The results were statistically evaluated. Based on them it was established that the Common frog prefers the herb layer, the European Fire-bellied toad prefers semi shaded medium sized pools that do not dry up. The European tree frog and the Edible frog prefer large areas of pools and ponds. More over the edible frog demands ponds that are partially overgrown. The Common toad was represented only with one single individual. Therefore a statistical analasys could not be executed. The whole locality is negatively influenced by local inhabitants who gather here manure and organic waste from their gardens. On locality located near to Dobrkovská Lhotka was transformed from a mining landscape to a pond and three pools. All amphibian species that lived in the locality before reclamation were still present here. Occurrence of Common spadefoot (Pelobates fuscus) was confirmed by the unique finding of a tadpole. Statistical evaluation was not conducted due to the small number and variability of monitored sites.

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