Evaluating consumer price perception: a mental accounting and frame dependent perspective

In this thesis, we evaluate consumer purchase behaviour from the perspective of heuristic decision making. Heuristic decision processes are quick and easy mental shortcuts, adopted by individuals to reduce the amount of time spent in decision making. In particular, we examine those heuristics which are caused by framing – prospect theory and mental accounting, and examine these within price related decision scenarios. The impact of price framing on consumer behaviour has been studied under the broad umbrella of reference price, which suggests that decision makers use reference points as standards of comparison when making a purchase decision. We investigate four reference points - a retailer's past prices, a competitor's current prices, a competitor's past prices, and consumers' expectation of immediate future price changes, to further our understanding of the impact of price framing on mental accounting, and in turn, contribute to the growing body of reference price literature in Marketing research. We carry out experiments in which levels of price frame and monetary outcomes are manipulated in repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). Our results show that where these reference points are clearly specified in decision problems, price framing significantly affects consumers' perceptions of monetary gains derived through discounts, and leads to reversals in consumer preferences. We also found that monetary losses were not sensitive to price frame manipulations.

Mackey topology on locally convex spaces and on locally quasi-convex groups. Similarities and historical remarks

A counterpart of the Mackey–Arens Theorem for the class of locally quasi-convex topological Abelian groups (LQC-groups) was initiated in Chasco et al. (Stud Math 132(3):257–284, 1999). Several authors have been interested in the problems posed there and have done clarifying contributions, although the main question of that source remains open. Some differences between the Mackey Theory for locally convex spaces and for locally quasi-convex groups, stem from the following fact: The supremum of all compatible locally quasi-convex topologies for a topological abelian group G may not coincide with the topology of uniform convergence on the weak quasi-convex compact subsets of the dual groupG∧. Thus, a substantial part of the classical Mackey–Arens Theorem cannot be generalized to LQC-groups. Furthermore, the mentioned fact gives rise to a grading in the property of “being a Mackey group”, as defined and thoroughly studied in Díaz Nieto and Martín-Peinador (Proceedings in Mathematics and Statistics 80:119–144, 2014). At present it is not known—and this is the main open question—if the supremum of all the compatible locally quasi-convex topologies on a topological group is in fact a compatible topology. In the present paper we do a sort of historical review on the Mackey Theory, and we compare it in the two settings of locally convex spaces and of locally quasi-convex groups. We point out some general questions which are still open, under the name of Problems.

Caracterización de bacterias filamentosas en el funcionamiento de un reactor aerobio de la planta de tratamiento de aguas residuales de origen cervecero

La actividad industrial y el desarrollo material y económico, han traído como consecuencia la contaminación del aire, agua y el suelo; lo que ocasiona modificaciones físicas químicas y biológicas que han producido un deterioro en la calidad del agua, dando como resultado problemas de contaminación que afectan tanto la productividad de los sistemas como la salud humana. A las aguas de composición variada provenientes de uso municipal, industrial, comercial, agrícola, pecuario, o de cualquier otra índole, ya sea privada o pública que han sufrido una degradación o alteración en su calidad original se le conoce como agua residual. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo “Caracterizar las bacterias filamentosas en el funcionamiento de un reactor aerobio de la planta de tratamiento de aguas residuales de origen cervecero” para ello se estudió durante varios meses los parámetros físico-químicos y biológicos para poder así controlar de las bacterias filamentosas y así evitar en un futuro problemas de operación o poder controlar su crecimiento y por ende, ecológicos dentro del sistema de lodos activados. La identificación se realizó tomando muestras en el reactor aerobio y realizándole la tinción de Gram para posteriormente ser vistos en un microscopio de una resolución de 100x; luego se caracterizaron las bacterias juntas con los parámetros de operación del tanque de lodos por muestra y los resultados encontrados fueron la presencia de filamentos Microtrix Parvicella, Tipo 021N, y Sp1 (llamada así por no ser identificada, ni encontrada en la literatura), esta es una nueva especie encontrada, ya que es propia de este reactor aerobio y crecen principalmente en aguas cerveceras y por deficiencia de nutrientes en el sistema. Este trabajo nos permitió conocer la dinámica que existe entre los parámetros fisicoquímicos y los microorganismos que se encuentran en un biorreactor Aerobio. Esto nos llevó a comprender mejor el funcionamiento de estos sistemas dentro de plantas de aguas residuales de tipo industrial. ABSTRACT Industrial activity and the physical and economic development have resulted in contamination of air, water and soil, causing physical chemical and biological changes that have produced deterioration in water quality, resulting in pollution problems affects the productivity of the systems and human health. A varied composition waters from municipal, industrial, commercial, agricultural, livestock, or any other use, whether private or public who have suffered a degradation or alteration in their original quality is known as residual water. This work aims to "characterize filamentous bacteria in the operation of an aerobic reactor plant wastewater treatment brewer origin" for this physicochemical and biological parameters were studied for several months to thereby control bacteria stringy and avoid future problems in operation or to control their growth and thus ecological This work aims to "characterize filamentous bacteria in the operation of an aerobic reactor plant wastewater treatment brewer origin" for this physicochemical and biological parameters were studied for several months to thereby control bacteria stringy and avoid future problems in operation or to control their growth and thus ecological within the activated sludge system. This work allowed us to understand the dynamics between physicochemical parameters and microorganisms found in an aerobic bioreactor. This led us to better understand the operation of these systems within plants industrial wastewater.

Quantitative phase Analisis: A comparative study of Mo and Cu strictly monochromatic radiations

A comparison of the Rietveld quantitative phase analyses (RQPA) obtained using Cu-Kα1, Mo-Kα1, and synchrotron strictly monochromatic radiations is presented. The main aim is to test a simple hypothesis: high energy Mo-radiation, combined with high resolution laboratory X-ray powder diffraction optics, could yield more accurate RQPA, for challenging samples, than well-established Cu-radiation procedure(s). In order to do so, three set of mixtures with increasing amounts of a given phase (spiking-method) were prepared and the corresponding RQPA results have been evaluated. Firstly, a series of crystalline inorganic phase mixtures with increasing amounts of an analyte was studied in order to determine if Mo-Kα1 methodology is as robust as the well-established Cu-Kα1 one. Secondly, a series of crystalline organic phase mixtures with increasing amounts of an organic compound was analyzed. This type of mixture can result in transparency problems in reflection and inhomogeneous loading in narrow capillaries for transmission studies. Finally, a third series with variable amorphous content was studied. Limit of detection in Cu-patterns, ~0.2 wt%, are slightly lower than those derived from Mo-patterns, ~0.3 wt%, for similar recording times and limit of quantification for a well crystallized inorganic phase using laboratory powder diffraction was established ~0.10 wt%. However, the accuracy was comprised as relative errors were ~100%. Contents higher than 1.0 wt% yielded analyses with relative errors lower than 20%. From the obtained results it is inferred that RQPA from Mo-Kα1 radiation have slightly better accuracies than those obtained from Cu-Kα1. This behavior has been established with the calibration graphics obtained through the spiking method and also from Kullback-Leibler distance statistic studies. We explain this outcome, in spite of the lower diffraction power for Mo-radiation (compared to Cu-radiation), due to the larger volume tested with Mo, also because higher energy minimize pattern systematic errors and the microabsorption effect.

The use of mo and cu monochromatic radiations for quantitative phase analysis: study of the accuracy

Cement hydration is a very complex process in which crystalline phases are dissolving in water and after supersaturation hydrated crystalline and amorphous phases precipitate. Great efforts are being made to develop analytical tools to accurately quantify these processes and X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRPD) combined with Rietveld methodology is a suitable tool to quantify these complex mixtures and their time evolutions. However, some problems/drawbacks should be overcome to fully apply it to cement pastes characterization in order to get accurate phase analyses. In order to tackle this issue, a comparison of the Rietveld quantitative phase analyses (RQPA) obtained using Cu-Kα1, Mo-Kα1, and synchrotron strictly monochromatic radiations of three set of mixtures with increasing amounts of a given phase (spiking-method) is presented. The main aim is to test a simple hypothesis: high energy Mo-radiation, combined with high resolution laboratory X-ray powder diffraction optics, could yield more accurate RQPA, for challenging samples, than well-established Cu-radiation procedure(s). Firstly, a series of crystalline inorganic phase mixtures with increasing amounts of an analyte was studied in order to determine if Mo-Kα1 methodology is as robust as the well-established Cu-Kα1 one. Secondly, a series of crystalline organic phase mixtures with increasing amounts of an organic compound was analyzed. This type of mixture can result in transparency problems in reflection and inhomogeneous loading in narrow capillaries for transmission studies. Finally, a third series with variable amorphous content was studied. Limit of detection in Cu-patterns, ~0.2 wt%, are slightly lower than those derived from Mo-patterns, ~0.3 wt%, for similar recording times and limit of quantification for a well crystallized inorganic phase using laboratory powder diffraction was established ~0.10 wt%. From the obtained results it is inferred that RQPA from Mo-Kα1 radiation have slightly better accuracies than those obtained from Cu-Kα1. The results obtained in the previous comparison have been taken into account to obtain accurate RQPA, including the amorphous component with internal standard methodology, of hydrating cement pastes. The final goal of this second study was understanding the early-stage hydration mechanisms of a variety of cementing systems (Ordinary Portland Cement or Belite Alite Ye’elimite cement) as a function of water content, superplasticizer additives and type and content of sulfate source. In order to do so, X-ray powder diffraction data were taken in-situ with the humidity chamber coupled to the Mo-Kα1 powder diffractometer. Some results of this ongoing investigation will be reported and discussed.

Enseñanza de la multiplicación desde un enfoque constructivista en tercero y cuarto año de Educación General Básica

La presente investigación tiene como objetivo demostrar teóricamente la importancia de la enseñanza de la multiplicación a partir de un enfoque constructivista en el tercero y cuarto año de Educación General Básica, años en los que esta enseñanza se profundiza. En efecto, este trabajo monográfico busca responder a las siguientes interrogantes: ¿En qué consiste la multiplicación y su proceso? ¿Cuál es la diferencia de enseñar la multiplicación desde un enfoque tradicional y un enfoque constructivo? Según la Actualización y Fortalecimiento Curricular (2010): ¿Cómo se debe desarrollar su proceso de enseñanza? ¿Qué estrategias se pueden utilizar para trabajar en la comprensión de la multiplicación en el tercero y cuarto año de Educación General Básica? Para responder estas preguntas se recurre a la revisión de información bibliográfica procedente de revistas, libros y artículos de diferentes autores, que facilitan cumplir con los objetivos planteados. Finalmente, se concluye que la enseñanza - aprendizaje basada en los lineamientos del enfoque pedagógico constructivista tiene como resultado la comprensión que los estudiantes necesitan tener hacia la multiplicación para poder utilizarla en su vida académica y cotidiana. Por tal razón se afirma que, la importancia de enseñar la multiplicación desde un enfoque constructivista se fundamenta en que este lineamiento pedagógico propende el uso de dicha operación matemática en la resolución de problemas, desarrollando así su pensamiento lógico – matemático y el razonamiento, a diferencia de lo que ocurre con el tradicionalismo en el que se memoriza por corto plazo.

Internação compulsória e o respeito à autonomia da população em situação de rua usuária de álcool e outras drogas sob o olhar da equipe do consultório na rua do Plano Piloto DF

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Bioética, 2016.

Metodologia para elaboração de glossários bilíngues para a Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária – ANVISA

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Letras, Departamento de Línguas Estrangeiras e Tradução, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos da Tradução, 2016.

Aplicação do modelo de Pólya na resolução de problemas de processo : um estudo envolvendo alunos do 2.º ano do 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico

Relatório de Estágio apresentado à Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Educação Pré-Escolar e Ensino do 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico.

The Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association

Annually, the association publishes a journal, The Proceedings, which consists of papers presented at the annual meeting. The Protestant Missionary in China: Problems of the First Treaty Period, 1842-1860 by Gordon K. Harrington French Communism and the Non-Communist Intellectuals, 1949 by Frederick F. Ritsch The Charles Town Board of Police, 1780-1782: A Study in Civil Administration under Military Occupation by George S. McCowen, Jr. Racism in the Administrations of Governor Cole Blease by Ronald D. Burnside The Twentieth Century: Age of the Dictators by Preston W. Slosson

Proyecto de mejoramiento para la estacion de servicio "La Americana S.A.S"

La estación de servicio “La Americana S.A.S” ha sido una de las primeras estaciones de servicio ubicada en Bucaramanga, dedicada a la comercialización y distribución tanto de gasolina como de los diferentes repuestos y accesorios para los vehículos, razón por la cual desde su fundación y hasta nuestros días, ha venido prestando un servicio destacado, efectivo y cumpliendo siempre con la demanda del mercado proporcionalmente a su consumo. Del mismo modo dicha experiencia dentro de este sector ha producido que con el transcurrir de los años, algunos entes privados y gubernamentales en su mayoría hayan querido hacer acuerdos y negociaciones organizacionales con dicha estación de servicio; claramente este tipo de alianzas estratégicas y negociaciones son de gran importancia ya que le dan el reconocimiento respectivo a La Americana y es así como esta organización recibe periódicamente ganancias y dineros fijos. Resultado de los acuerdos anteriormente mencionados, cabe resaltar que la mayoría de las ventas que realiza esta estación de servicio son producto de las compras hechas por los vehículos pertenecientes a las entidades gubernamentales y privadas en convenio; es importante mencionar que todas estas ventas se realizan vía crédito y por ende la cancelación del servicio correspondiente se hace uno o dos meses luego de prestado el servicio. Así mismo también se ha logrado evidenciar que el consumo por parte de los automóviles particulares con el transcurrir del tiempo se ha disminuido drásticamente debido a diversos factores (geográficos, competitivos y de procesos) tanto internos como externos y siendo una razón para que el total de las ventas y posteriores utilidades no sea el esperado. De continuar esto así en un futuro la empresa podría incurrir en serios problemas que afecten su participación dentro de este mercado. La alta dependencia de las ventas a crédito (entidades públicas y privadas) y la disminución continúa de las ventas de contado (particulares) está ocasionando que la Americana desde ya hace un tiempo tenga baja liquidez financiera y baja rotación de inventarios, así como la disminución considerada de sus utilidades, razón por la cual creemos que la implementación de un modelo de mercadeo así como la creación de un sistema para el conteo y supervisión de los inventarios ayudara a La Americana a poder superar esta pequeña crisis y poder ser una empresa perdurable durante los próximos años .

Aplicaciones de los modelos de predicción bio-inspirados en la administración

Las organizaciones y sus entornos son sistemas complejos. Tales sistemas son difíciles de comprender y predecir. Pese a ello, la predicción es una tarea fundamental para la gestión empresarial y para la toma de decisiones que implica siempre un riesgo. Los métodos clásicos de predicción (entre los cuales están: la regresión lineal, la Autoregresive Moving Average y el exponential smoothing) establecen supuestos como la linealidad, la estabilidad para ser matemática y computacionalmente tratables. Por diferentes medios, sin embargo, se han demostrado las limitaciones de tales métodos. Pues bien, en las últimas décadas nuevos métodos de predicción han surgido con el fin de abarcar la complejidad de los sistemas organizacionales y sus entornos, antes que evitarla. Entre ellos, los más promisorios son los métodos de predicción bio-inspirados (ej. redes neuronales, algoritmos genéticos /evolutivos y sistemas inmunes artificiales). Este artículo pretende establecer un estado situacional de las aplicaciones actuales y potenciales de los métodos bio-inspirados de predicción en la administración.

Augmented Lagrangian method with nonmonotone penalty parameters for constrained optimization

At each outer iteration of standard Augmented Lagrangian methods one tries to solve a box-constrained optimization problem with some prescribed tolerance. In the continuous world, using exact arithmetic, this subproblem is always solvable. Therefore, the possibility of finishing the subproblem resolution without satisfying the theoretical stopping conditions is not contemplated in usual convergence theories. However, in practice, one might not be able to solve the subproblem up to the required precision. This may be due to different reasons. One of them is that the presence of an excessively large penalty parameter could impair the performance of the box-constraint optimization solver. In this paper a practical strategy for decreasing the penalty parameter in situations like the one mentioned above is proposed. More generally, the different decisions that may be taken when, in practice, one is not able to solve the Augmented Lagrangian subproblem will be discussed. As a result, an improved Augmented Lagrangian method is presented, which takes into account numerical difficulties in a satisfactory way, preserving suitable convergence theory. Numerical experiments are presented involving all the CUTEr collection test problems.

Algorithmic assistance to the optimization process in vehicle routing problems

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Maschinenbau, Diss., 2013