The impacts of branding and shopping experience on consumers in luxury retail: A comparative study with reference to Harrods and Selfridges

2019 dissertation for MSc. The current global business environment is characterized by extreme competition; this is so due to the advent of technology. More so, the current economic environment has been improved vastly when compared to decades before. Demand has improved; customers have more money to spend. However, there is also a change in customers taste, they have become more sophisticated, and acquiring the customers alone has become a tough hurdle to cross. Firms have to device ways to get these customers, and these ways includes branding, and customer experience. The main purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the impacts of branding and shopping experience in customer loyalty in luxury retail sector of the United Kingdom. In the bit to extensively cover the topic and get deeper insight, the researcher adopted a mixed approach to examine the case study “Harrods and Selfridges” the biggest luxury retailers in the UK. The findings in this paper, attempt to contribute to the luxury retail industry and recommended actionable pathways or strategies to enable the firms in question perform better in light of global competition

A Review of the Conceptual Issues, Social Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Efforts Relating to Rape in Nigeria

Rape is an endemic criminal sexual behaviour in Nigeria and its  perpetration not only violates survivors‘ dignity but also compromises their health and wellbeing. The rape-related data used in this traditional literature review are derived mainly from small-scale surveys conducted in Nigeria. The deviant behaviour could be perpetrated against both males and females of various socio-demographic characteristics; however, it is young females that are disproportionately more affected. The determinants of rape include factors that are associated with adverse social, cultural and economic conditions. In Nigeria the prevention and control of the practice involve stakeholders such as parents, Non-governmental Organisations, religious institutions, government ministries as well as government agencies that constitute the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system uses existing legal statutes on rape to arrest, prosecute, adjudicate, and punish offenders. The barriers to the control and prevention of rape in Nigeria include the following: inappropriate perception; social stigmatization; under-reporting; and cumbersome legal requirements needed to establish a case of rape. Strategies with potentials for curbing rape in the country include public enlightenment, multi-sectoral action, advocacy, amendment of rape-related laws; training targeted at personnel in health care and criminal justice systems and formulation of evidence-based policies.Keywords: Determinants of Rape, Rape-related laws, Rape prevention and control, Rape in NigeriaLe viol est un comportement sexuel criminel endémique au Nigéria et sa perpétration non seulement porte atteinte à la dignité des survivantes, mais compromet également leur santé et leur bien-être. Les données relatives au viol utilisées dans cette revue de la documentation traditionnelle proviennent principalement des enquêtes à petite échelle menées au Nigéria. Le comportement déviant pourrait être perpétré contre des hommes et des femmes de diverses caractéristiques   sociodémographiques; cependant, ce sont les jeunes femmes qui sont disproportionnellement plus touchées. Les déterminants du viol comprennent des facteurs associés à des conditions sociales, culturelles et économiques défavorables. Au Nigéria, la prévention et le contrôle de cettepratique impliquent des parties prenantes telles que les parents, les organisations non gouvernementales, les institutions religieuses, les ministères gouvernementaux ainsi que les agences gouvernementales qui constituent le système de justice pénale. Le système de justice pénale utilise les lois en vigueur sur le viol pour arrêter, poursuivre, juger et punir les contrevenants. Les obstacles au contrôle et à la prévention du viol au Nigéria sont les suivants: perception inappropriée; stigmatisation sociale; sousdéclaration; et les exigences juridiques lourdes nécessaires pour établir un cas de viol. Les stratégies susceptibles de mettre un terme au viol dans le pays comprennent la sensibilisation du public, l'action multisectorielle, le plaidoyer, la modification des lois relatives au viol; formation destinée au personnel des systèmes de santé et de justice pénale et la formulation des politiques fondées sur des données factuelles.Mots-clés: Déterminants du viol, Lois relatives au viol, Prévention et contrôle du viol, Viol au Nigéri

Are The Laws for Us or Against Us? Reinventing Environmental Sanitation Laws in Nigeria

Environmental sanitation has been defined as managing any aspects of a man's physical environment that might harm his physical, cognitive, or social health. Indoctrinating good environmental sanitation practices into its citizenry has been and remains a foremost concern for the Nigerian government, with several laws enacted at levels of government to achieve this target. Although there are many of these laws, compliance with environmental sanitation laws remains at its lowest ebb in Nigeria. Nigeria's current environmental sanitation situation reflects that these laws are obeyed more in abeyance, with many viewing compliances as a fool's errand rather than a necessary evil. The method used in this research is descriptive and doctrinal. This paper discusses the issue of environmental sanitation in Nigeria and examines the existing legal system for achieving a cleaner Nigeria. This paper posits that having a clean Nigeria is achievable and asserts that a bottom-up approach to environmental sanitation lawmaking in Nigeria is needed to achieve this goal. A participatory community module for sanitation lawmaking is recommended to ensure that the people understand the importance of these laws by taking ownership of the process rather than depending on the government for its actualization

Accountability Process Analysis in the TSA Policy Implementation, the Perception on the Public Sector Financial Performance in Nigeria

The study investigates government influence on the public sector with an accountability perspective, unfolding the accountability processes that underpin financial performance. Accountability is a legal and moral demand for honesty by the public sector in compliance with government financial policies and regulations to meet stakeholder expectations. Data collection was through the qualitative method; the instrument was a semi-structured interview, and the data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Ekiti State was selected as the case study; the unit of analysis is the Accountant-General office; other offices for broad data collection are the Ministry of Finance, the Auditor-General office, and the General Administration office of the government, and the respondents were experienced public servants in the state. The study revealed three processes of accountability: government intervention and revision of competencies; designing a channel of discussion on the mandate given to government agencies; and lastly, voluntary public reporting. Furthermore, financial accountability was lacking prior to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) financial policy implemented by the government. The TSA policy enhanced financial accountability and thus had a positive impact on the public sector's financial performance. It is recommended that public institutions of government regularly create a system to maintain accountability for governmental financial performance. Keywords:Accountability, Public Sector, Financial Performance, Treasury Single Account, Policy, and Government DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/14-17-01 Publication date:September 30th 202

Anisotropic structural and optical properties of a-plane (11-20) AlInN nearly-lattice-matched to GaN

We report epitaxial growth of a-plane (11-20) AlInN layers nearly-lattice-matched to GaN. Unlike for c-plane oriented epilayers, a-plane Al_{1-x}In_{x}N cannot be simultaneously lattice-matched to GaN in both in-plane directions. We study the influence of temperature on indium incorporation and obtain nearly-lattice-matched Al_{0.81}In_{0.19}N at a growth temperature of 760^{o}C. We outline a procedure to check in-plane lattice mismatch using high resolution x-ray diffraction, and evaluate the strain and critical thickness. Polarization-resolved optical transmission measurements of the Al_{0.81}In_{0.19}N epilayer reveal a difference in bandgap of ~140 meV between (electric field) E_parallel_c [0001]-axis and E_perpendicular_c conditions with room-temperature photoluminescence peaked at 3.38 eV strongly polarized with E_parallel_c, in good agreement with strain-dependent band-structure calculations

Dataset on modelling a synthetic oil rim reservoirs for optimizing oil production during gas cap blow down strategy

Oil rim reservoirs with very large gas caps, strong aquifers, and pay thickness below 30 ft. pose oil production challenges to operators. With best operational practices, very high gas oil ratios are recorded at the initial onset of oil production, thus such reservoirs are subjected to a gas cap blow down leading to an ultimate loss in oil reserves. This loss is at- tributed to a rapid and drastic drop in pressure over the productive life of the reservoir. To maximize oil production, a simulation study is focused on initiating oil wells at dif- ferent time intervals and estimating oil recoveries at these points. It is believed that the gas cap would have been blown down in time to accommodate for substantial oil produc- tion. This study presents the reservoir data (from the Niger- Delta) that can be incorporated in a black oil reservoir simu- lator (Eclipse) coupled with best production and optimization strategies (water and gas injection) for maximum oil pro- duction during gas cap blow down. The data presented will provide a detailed process developing an oil rim synthetic model, support and enhance further studies in optimizing oil production in oil rims subjected to gas cap blow down, create a template for secondary and enhanced oil recovery processes

Ετεροεπίταξη InN πάνω σε υποστρώματα πυριτίου (111) και σαπφείρου επιπέδου-R

Among the group-III nitride (III-N) semiconductors, InN has been the leaststudied and also the most complex. However, InN is a promising material for sub-THz electronic devices due to the very high values of its electron low-field mobility(14,000 cm2/V.s) and maximum drift velocity (5.2 x 107 cm/s). InN and InN-richalloys are also very interesting for optoelectronic devices in the IR wavelength regionof telecommunications, as well as tandem solar cell applications, due to its 0.65 eVbandgap. This PhD dissertation is based on the study of plasma assisted molecularbeam epitaxy (PAMBE) of InN on Si (111) and r-plane (1102) sapphire substrates.Epitaxial growth on silicon is interesting for low cost production and/or monolithicintegration with Si integrated circuits (ICs). Growth of a-plane InN on r-plane (1102)sapphire substrates can be used for realizing quantum well heterostructures, free frompolarization induced electric fields. Also, it has been theoretically predicted thatnitrogen stabilized non-polar surfaces could be free from electron accumulation.Direct InN growth on Si (111), using the optimum conditions for InN growthon GaN (0001) – substrate temperature 400-450oC and stoichiometric III/V flux ratio– results to 3D growth mode and porous columnar InN epilayers with bad adhesion atthe InN/Si interface. A two-step growth process was developed, consisting ofnucleating a very thin InN layer on Si at low temperature under N-rich growthconditions, and the growth of the main epilayer at the optimum InN (0001) growthconditions. The fast coalescence of the initial 3D islands of InN results to acontinuous 20 nm InN film on the Si (111) surface with low 10 x 10 μm2 AFM rmssurface roughness of 0.4 nm, which allows the main epilayer to be overgrown in stepflowgrowth mode, achieving an atomically smooth surface. The fast coalescence alsoassists defects annihilation near the InN/Si interface and 0.5 μm films exhibitedthreading dislocation (TD) density of 4.0x109 cm-2 for the edge-type and 1.7x109 cm-2for the screw-type TDs. Similar defect densities were determined by TEM for InNfilms grown after initial deposition of an AlN/GaN nucleation layer on Si. However,those films exhibited significantly better electron mobility and lower crystal mosaicityaccording to XRD rocking curves.The experiments of InN growth on r-plane (1102) Al2O3 substrates revealedthat different InN crystallographic orientations could be realized depending on theInN nucleation conditions. Single crystal cubic (001) InN was grown on r-planesapphire by using one-step growth at ~ 400oC, while polar c-plane (0001) orsemipolar s-plane (1011) InN were observed by using a two-step growth process withInN nucleation at low temperature under N-rich or near stoichiometric III/V flux ratioconditions, respectively. Pure a-plane (1120 ) InN films were realized only when aplaneGaN or AlN nucleation-buffer layers were initially grown on r-plane sapphire.The structural quality of the a-plane InN films improved with increasing epilayerthickness, which is attributed to interaction and annihilation of defects. However, thegrowth of a-plane InN proceeds in 3D growth mode resulting to increasing surfaceroughness with increasing film thickness. A comparative study of the thicknessdependent electrical properties of a-plane InN films grown on r-plane Al2O3 and cplanefilms grown on GaN/Al2O3 (0001) templates was carried out by roomtemperature Hall-effect measurements. For both InN orientations, a rather linearincrease of the electron sheet density (NS) with increasing thickness, consistent with aconstant bulk concentration around 1 x 1019 cm-3 was observed. However, the electron mobilities of the c-plane InN films were more than three times those of the a-planefilms, attributed to the presence of higher dislocation density (1.4 x 1011 cm-2) in thea-plane InN films. The analysis of the Hall-effect measurements, by considering thecontribution of two conducting layers, indicates a similar accumulation of lowmobility electrons with NS > 1014 cm-2 at the films’ surface/interfacial region for boththe a- and c-plane InN films. In general, similar electron concentrations weremeasured for all the different orientation InN films (polar c-plane, non-polar a-plane,semi-polar s-plane and cubic (001) InN). This suggests that similar surface/interfacialelectron accumulation occurs independently of the InN crystallographic orientation,and the bulk donors are not related to the threading dislocations, since significantvariations of defect densities occur for the different InN orientations. A SIMSinvestigation of a c-plane InN film exhibiting electron concentration of 1.09 x 1020cm-3 excludes hydrogen as the possible donor since its concentrations was 6.5x1018cm-3. Only oxygen approached a concentration level near 1020 cm-3 and this might bethe unintentionally incorporated donor.Finally, the spontaneous growth of InN nanopillars (NPs) on Si (111) and rplanesapphire substrates was investigated. Optimization of the different growthparameters resulted to well-separated (0001) InN NPs on Si (111) that exhibitedphotoluminescence. Almost in all cases, the growth rate of the InN NPs along the caxisis multiple of the In-limited growth rate. A non-uniform amorphous SixNy layerwas inevitable under unoptimised growth conditions, leading to frequently observedNP misorientation (tilt) on Si substrates. Only c-axis oriented InN NPs were formedon the r-plane sapphire substrates.In conclusion, the thesis has created new scientific knowledge for theheteroepitaxy of InN on Si (111) and (1102) sapphire. Comparison with c-plane InNgrown on GaN (0001) allowed the generic characteristics of InN to be extracted fromthe orientation-dependent ones

The development of the instrumentation and control system for a palm kernel nuts drier

The electronic instrumentation system for a palm kernel drier was designed, constructed, tested and found to perform satisfactorily. Type K thermocouple was used to monitor the temperature of the drying chamber. A control circuit for presetting and regulating the temperature of the drier was also developed. This permits the temperature of the drying chamber to be fixed between ambient temperature and 100°C. Keywords: thermocouple, elecronic instrumenetation, control circuits, drier Nigeria Journal of Pure and Applied Physics Vol. 4(1) 2005: 46-5

A taxa de ocupação em hotelaria : relação dos eventos e preços com o controle de efeitos sazonais

Monografia (graduação)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade, Departamento de Administração, 2010.O presente trabalho objetiva analisar se a estratégia de precificação e de realização de eventos em um hotel influenciam sua taxa de ocupação de clientes. Para tanto, foram analisadas as variáveis preço médio efetivo pago pelo hóspede, sazonalidade diária, sazonalidade mensal e eventos realizados no Centro de Eventos do mesmo complexo que o Hotel. Os dados foram coletados do sistema da empresa estudada e montado um banco de dados para ser feita análise da regressão múltipla. Além da análise individual das variáveis, foi feito o controle das variáveis de sazonalidade a fim de investigar melhor o impacto do preço e eventos na taxa de ocupação. A análise concluiu que os eventos possuem grande impacto e são o maior responsável pelo aumento da taxa de ocupação. A partir dos resultados obtidos, orienta-se futuras pesquisas em hotelaria com foco na análise da taxa de ocupação e atenção,por parte dos gestores do Hotel, para a realização de eventos para que captem reservas e assim aumentem sua taxa de ocupação

Design And Performance Characteristics Of Palm Kernel Nuts Drier

A cabinet drier with dimensions 0.82m x 0.45m x 0.52m, having four trays and capable of drying 4kg of palm kernel nuts per hour was constructed. A control circuit to regulate the temperature of the heating chamber was installed in the appropriate parts of the drier. Using electrical heating, hot air is produced and allowed to flow through the product in order to remove the moisture. The drier was heavily lagged to conserve heat. The electronic instrumentation section of the drier has a digital display unit that allows the temperature of the drying chamber to be read. This drier was found to work satisfactorily, achieving complete drying of the nuts within the temperature range of 80oC to 100oC under 60 minutes of its operation without discolouration of the nuts or the resultant extracted oil. The maximum production requirement was 40kg per day on the basis of an 8- hour shift. The drier is also suitable for drying several agricultural products under varying temperature condition. Key words: control circuit, cabinet drier, agricultural products, temperature, digital display. Nig. J. of Pure & Appl. Physics Vol.3 2004: 8-1