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Sales forecasting is an essential tool for the planning function of corporate restaurant management. Accurate sales forecasts allow functional areas, such as marketing, advertising, human resources, and finance, to effectively develop programs to advance the company. Examples of these programs include budgets, promotion and advertising campaigns, training programs, and capital equipment proposals. Research in restaurant sales forecasting will aid restaurant corporations in properly allocating resources for more efficient utilization. Utilizing a descriptive sales forecasting benchmarking model developed by Mentzer et al. (1996; 1999), and adapting the model into the restaurant industry, the research sought to determine the relationship that the dimensions of the sales forecasting benchmarking model (functional integration, approach, systems, and performance measurement) had with level of accuracy of the sales forecast and level of managers'; satisfaction with the sales forecasting process. The adapted model addressed two research questions. The first question was what is the relationship of the four dimensions of the sales forecasting benchmarking process (Mentzer et al., 1996; 1999) with the level of accuracy of the sales forecast in the commercial restaurant setting? The second question was what is the relationship of the four dimensions of the sales forecasting benchmarking process (Mentzer et al., 1996; 1999) with the level of managers' satisfaction with their sales forecasting process in the commercial restaurant setting? A qualitative research methodology combining McCracken's (1988) 4-step method of inquiry and Strauss & Corbin's (1990) grounded theory research methodology allowed investigation of this phenomena. Two propositions guided the research and a scheme was developed that allowed for analyzing the company participants based on the constructs of functional integration, approach, systems, and performance measurement, level of accuracy of the sales forecast and level of managers' satisfaction with the sales forecasting process. The analysis revealed that there was a relationship between the dimensions of the sales forecasting benchmarking model and the level of managers' satisfaction with the sales forecasting process. The analysis also revealed that the constructs of performance measurement and level of accuracy of the sales forecast might actually be one construct. Another dimension emerged, training, and scenarios were developed to relate training to the original dimensions. Recommendations were developed based on the research findings and hypotheses were developed based on the propositions. The findings suggest that there is a positive correlation between the dimension of the sales forecasting benchmarking model and the level of managers' satisfaction with the sales forecasting process. That is to say the more evolved a company may be in a dimension, the higher the level of managers' satisfaction with the sales forecasting process. / Ph. D.

This study explored multiple predictors of sexual well-being in a sample of 253 single, sexually active undergraduate females at a public Mid-Atlantic university. Several factors were identified from past research that might impact sexual well-being: casual sex, sexual agency, sexual attitudes, and sexual desire. Of the four factors, only sexual agency and sexual attitudes were found as significant predictors of sexual well-being. The results suggest that -- of single, sexually active undergraduate females -- those with a greater sense of agency and choice in their sexual interactions and those who maintain more open attitudes toward casual sex have a higher level of sexual well-being. Agency and openness may be important factors in the development of sexual well-being for young women. Limitations of the study, as well as implications for future research and psychoeducational and therapeutic interventions, are addressed. / Master of Science

Publicly available datasets in health science are often large and observational, in contrast to experimental datasets where a small number of data are collected in controlled experiments. Variables' causal relationships in the observational dataset are yet to be determined. However, there is a significant interest in health science to discover and analyze causal relationships from health data since identified causal relationships will greatly facilitate medical professionals to prevent diseases or to mitigate the negative effects of the disease. Recent advances in Computer Science, particularly in Bayesian networks, has initiated a renewed interest for causality research. Causal relationships can be possibly discovered through learning the network structures from data. However, the number of candidate graphs grows in a more than exponential rate with the increase of variables. Exact learning for obtaining the optimal structure is thus computationally infeasible in practice. As a result, heuristic approaches are imperative to alleviate the difficulty of computations. This research provides effective and efficient learning tools for local causal discoveries and novel methods of learning causal structures with a combination of background knowledge. Specifically in the direction of constraint based structural learning, polynomial-time algorithms for constructing causal structures are designed with first-order conditional independence. Algorithms of efficiently discovering non-causal factors are developed and proved. In addition, when the background knowledge is partially known, methods of graph decomposition are provided so as to reduce the number of conditioned variables. Experiments on both synthetic data and real epidemiological data indicate the provided methods are applicable to large-scale datasets and scalable for causal analysis in health data. Followed by the research methods and experiments, this dissertation gives thoughtful discussions on the reliability of causal discoveries computational health science research, complexity, and implications in health science research.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-03-24T11:45:41Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Juliana Bonetti Simão.pdf: 1603825 bytes, checksum: 35c2ed5f70757990b5a59a8eaaafb0e2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-24T11:45:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Juliana Bonetti Simão.pdf: 1603825 bytes, checksum: 35c2ed5f70757990b5a59a8eaaafb0e2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-17 / Fundação São Paulo - FUNDASP / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This paper aimed at clarifying what heterosexual men and women understand by sex without commitment. Motivations, attitudes and behaviors associated with this practice were considered as categories of analysis representative of the phenomenon. The theoretical basis is that of Analytical Psychology. The quantitative method was used. The research instrument was a self-completion questionnaire distributed and applied via the internet. The study was attended by 74 women and 61 men aged between 30 and 50 years old, that have completed at least the high school and belong to the social middle class. The analysis of the results showed that, in respect to sex without commitment, men and women share the desire for encounter and pleasure. However, women expectations for the continuity of the relationship differ significantly from those of men. Men tend to seek only transitory relationships significantly more than women. The female participants, in turn, have demonstrated an ambivalence regarding the experience of sex without commitment by stating that they do not create expectations of a stable relationship and at the same time responding that even in casual sex they seek affection sharing and the continuity of the relationship. In addition, the responses of the female group showed a significantly greater involvement with the partner than the male group. The presence of a double standard with respect to social expectations related to each gender was identified. However, even if some traditional roles remain, the results showed adults that signal a change in gender relations favorable to the free expression of a sexuality modulated according to the expectations of contemporaneity / Este trabalho visou elucidar o que homens e mulheres heterossexuais adultos entendem por sexo sem compromisso. Consideraram-se as motivações, atitudes e comportamentos associados a essa prática como categorias de análises representativas do fenômeno. O embasamento teórico é o da Psicologia Analítica. Utilizou-se o método quantitativo e, como instrumento, questionário de autopreenchimento que foi distribuído e aplicado via internet. Participaram da pesquisa 74 mulheres e 61 homens de faixa etária entre 30 e 50 anos, nível de escolaridade médio ou superior e classe social média. A análise dos resultados mostrou que, no sexo sem compromisso, homens e mulheres possuem em comum o desejo pelo encontro e pelo prazer. Todavia, as expectativas femininas pela continuidade do vínculo se diferenciam significativamente das masculinas. Homens tendem a buscar relacionamentos somente passageiros significativamente mais do que as mulheres. Elas, por sua vez, demonstraram uma ambivalência com relação à vivência do sexo sem compromisso ao declararem que não criam expectativas de um relacionamento estável e, ao mesmo tempo, responderem que buscam no sexo casual troca afetiva e formação de vínculo. As respostas do grupo feminino também mostraram haver um envolvimento afetivo com o parceiro significativamente maior do que o demonstrado pelo grupo masculino. Identificou-se a presença de um duplo padrão no que diz respeito às expectativas sociais relativas a cada gênero. Contudo, ainda que subsistam alguns papéis tradicionais, os resultados levantados também evidenciam adultos que sinalizam uma mudança nas relações de gênero favorável à livre expressão de uma sexualidade modulada de acordo com as expectativas da contemporaneidade

Four hundred and eight casual relief teachers (CRTs) and 670 permanent teachers from government, independent, and Catholic primary schools and secondary schools in and around metropolitan Melbourne were surveyed using the researcher-developed Issues in Teaching Questionnaire (ITQ) in order to assess their attitudes, perceptions, and experiences in relation to 10 areas of concern including: job security, provisions and facilities, information and communication, lesson management, status, relationships with the school community, relationships with students, student management, job satisfaction, and job stress. These 10 areas of concern were derived from the literature regarding casual relief teaching, which comprised of various anecdotal, published, and unpublished sources. Classical test theory methods (e.g., Cronbach¡¦s ƒÑ and exploratory factor analysis) were used to determine the psychometric properties of the survey instrument, which indicated that the ITQ pos sessed excellent internal reliability and construct validity, and confirmed the existence of an ¡§in-class¡¨ factor and an ¡§out-of-class¡¨ factor. Using descriptive and multivariate inferential statistics, the responses of the CRTs and the permanent teachers were analysed. By comparison with the other group characteristics, employment status (i.e., CRT or permanent teacher) was the best predictor of scores on the ITQ. The CRTs reported significantly more positive attitudes, perceptions, and experiences regarding job stress (i.e., less job stress) compared with the permanent teachers, whereas the permanent teachers reported significantly more positive attitudes, perceptions, and experiences across all other areas of concern compared with the CRTs. When the responses of the CRTs and the permanent teachers were compared on a scale of magnitude (i.e., effect size), much larger effects were observed for the ¡§out-of-class¡¨ concerns (e.g., Information and Communication, Provisions and Facilities, Lesson Manageme nt, Relationships with the School Community, Status, Job Security, and Job Satisfaction subscales) compared with the ¡§in-class¡¨ concerns (e.g., Relationships with Students, Student Management, and Job Stress subscales). Although many parallels were found between the CRTs and the permanent teachers in terms of their general classroom concerns, substantial differences existed between the two groups in relation to their concerns in the wider school context. Of particular importance were the considerable differences between the CRTs and the permanent teachers in terms of their employment conditions, and how they are currently being accommodated in schools and integrated into school communities. In these regards, CRTs are not receiving professional parity with their permanent counterparts. Overall, the results of this study (a) provide evidence of a psychometrically sound instrument for assessing the attitudes, perceptions, and experiences of CRTs and permanent teachers across a range of school settings, (b) hi ghlight the importance of employment status (i.e., CRT or permanent teacher) as a predictor of the ITQ subscales compared with the other group characteristics, and (c) present comprehensive and convincing evidence on the similarities and differences between the teaching experiences of CRTs and permanent teachers.

Urban bicycling is a big growing trend between men and women across the world. People seem to have become more aware of the numerous benefits of riding a bike, as well as more health oriented and environmentally friendly. Sweden is one of the countries with so called strong bicycle culture.  You can ride a bicycle almost anywhere, at any time of the year, and without spending a fortune. Cycling builds strength in a holistic manner since every single part of the body is involved in cycling. I choose to look into women cycling habit in Sweden. With my design I want to encourage woman’s cycling activity by offering comfortable design solutions to their clothing. The project focuses on the active years of a woman’s life, in average the age of 20- 45. The seasons considered are spring- autumn with the temperature range between 20°-5°C. The final design solutions will be applicable in the everyday life of a woman that is both looking to look fashionable and comfortable on the bike. The project intends to deliver a capsule collection where 3 to 5 outfits will be translated into 3D, prototyped and manufactured. One main reason for investigating such a matter is today’s very widely explored awareness of sustainability.  The project aims to encourage more sustainable design processes for the fashion market as well as eco lifestyle for women who choose to ride bikes instead of cars more often. It will propose a new possible design development process in which the user is more involved and can give some input, that way delivering a needed, better fitted and better sold product. The new design solution should satisfy the target group with a quality product that is not only comfortable and functional but also lasting for a long time. The final design will of course consider the esthetical feminine sophisticated look. Through this project I am looking to bring more comfort in the movement and functional detailing to non-sportswear. I want to investigate something apart from traditional sportswear, something that has not been considered much before; to incorporate functional sporty features and details to a more casual wear. I want to make use of special fabrics and develop new cuts, pockets, pleats and adjust patterns so that the final prototype would feel sporty but will look casual. Emphasis will be placed on developing understanding of fabric characteristics, accessing sources and knowledge and understanding of technological developments to inform innovative design. The purpose of the project is to develop a heightened awareness of the design methodologies available today that can be applied in fashion industry. This thesis will incorporate the traditional design development process applied in fashion and the user centered design method applied mostly in service and product design. Through research and prototyping, the aim will be to deliver a design that has been developed considering in a higher range user’s needs and preferences. User centred design is mainly looking to understand the user’s needs, wants and desires in order to improve the new design and human experience. When it comes to fashion, people are all individuals; they all have different needs and preferences. It is nearly impossible to try and satisfy them all, especially in mass produced fashions however the design development should in a way or another allow some user input. As little as suggestions on detailing, finishing features comfort and fit preferences could make a great difference for the success of the new design. Choosing to do a fashion project I initially wanted to investigate the problems with bad fit and uncomfortable women’s wear designs nowadays. With that in mind I was still missing a context, which clothes exactly and why. This is when I started to investigate specifically what women wear every day when riding bikes in the cities. Together with the city cycling trend, grows the demand for more comfort and function in the everyday clothes.  Clothing that can stay true to both performance and style is in big demand today as with clothes that look good both on and off the bike, there’s no need to have to change out of your cycling gear when you arrive at your destination. You can ride to work feeling comfortable and leave the office in style in the same set of clothes.

Syfte: Personalomsättning är ett omfattande problem i fastighetsmäklarbranschen. Eftersom vi utbildar oss till fastighetsmäklare, är studien av intresse för oss då vi vill få insikt i personalomsättning och vilken betydelse ledarskapet har för medarbetarna.  -          Syftet med vår studie är att undersöka hur ledarskapet kan påverka personalomsättningen inom fastighetsmäklarbranschen i Sverige. Metod: Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ metod. Datainsamlingen har utförts i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Vi har utfört totalt 16 intervjuer, fördelat på 11 medarbetare och 4 ledare. 14 av intervjuerna har utförts face-to-face, och två har skett via telefon. Materialet har spelats in i samtyckte med intervjupersonerna. Materialet har sedan transkriberats, redovisats och analyserats efter Philipsons (2013) well-grounded theory.  Resultat & slutsats: Resultatet pekar på att ledarskapet har en påverkan på personalomsättningen i fastighetsmäklarbranschen. Ett coachande och demokratisk ledarskap får medarbetare att vilja stanna kvar på en arbetsplats. Förslag till fortsattforskning: Ett problem vi hade under vår studie var att samtliga ledare i vår studie hade låg personalomsättning. Vi skulle gärna se att den kommande forskningen väljer att intervjua ledare på kontor med hög personalomsättning för att identifiera hur de utövar sitt ledarskap. Ett annat problem var att vi inte hade tid att komma i kontakt med medarbetarnas tidigare ledare för att kunna jämföra deras åsikter. Det skulle vara intressant för vidare forskning. Uppsatsens bidrag: Vi har identifierat vilka som är de främsta orsakerna till att fastighetsmäklare väljer att byta arbetsgivare samt vilka ledarstilar de värderar högst

Mass shootings, whether on a smaller scale or a large scale, take place frequently (LaFraniere, Cohen, & Oppel, 2015). Yet the media only covers a small fraction of crime events, and those selected often gather large amounts of attention. This is problematic because by only focusing on the only most extreme and newsworthy cases, the media distorts the general public's understanding of crime in the United States, and a person's actual likelihood of victimization (Schildkraut & Elsass, 2016). The purpose of the proposed study is to investigate in a nationally represented sample how individuals’ causal attributions for a school shooting with an Asian shooter, as well as whether media influence moderate their attitudes toward the shooter. Participants will be subjected to one of two media conditions, editorial type news or straight news, regarding a shooting and then will answer casual attribution questions and perceptions of the shooter. Participants who judge in-group members as the shooter are predicted to more likely to attribute the crime to external than individuals who judge out-group members. Also, it is predicted that individuals who judge out-group members as a shooter will not be more likely to attribute the crime to internal factors than individuals who judge in-group members. Lastly, it is predicted that editorial type news will influence individuals to attribute the shooting more to both external and internal factors than straight news would. This study may add important information on how media should be portrayed, and further explore attributions that are made against shooters. Implications for future research are also discussed.

Sexual economics theory (SET) innebär att kvinnor kan använda sin sexualitet som resurs mot mäns materiella och emotionella resurser. Sexual double standards (SDS) innebär att män och kvinnor uppmanar män men avråder kvinnor från casual sex. Ökad medvetenhet kan leda till att skillnader mellan råd till män respektive kvinnor undviks, vilket minskar SDS och främjar jämställdhet. Studien undersökte om SET har fäste i ett samhälle som anses jämställt. Ett tillgänglighetsurval på 125 kvinnor och 75 män gjordes vid en högskola i Mellansverige. Enkätundersökningen berörde råd om casual sex, aspekter som söks i en partner samt påståenden relaterade till SET. Män uppvisade SDS eftersom de uppmanade andra män mer än de uppmanade kvinnor till casual sex. Däremot visade kvinnor tendens till omvänd SDS gällande casual sex, vilket tyder på ojämställdhet i Sverige. I framtida studier rekommenderas specificering av person som får råd, då mätningen blir mer reliabel och resultat kan generaliseras.