Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a high mortality disease, second to stroke and ischemic heart disease. This non-curable disease progressively exacerbates, leading to high personal and societal economic impact, reduced quality of life and often death. General treatment plans for COPD risk mistreating the individuals’ condition. To be effective, the treatment should be individualized following the practices of precision medicine. The aim of this thesis was to develop a data driven algorithm and system with visualization to assess individual COPD risk. With MRI body composition profile measurements, it is possible to accurately assess propensity of a multitude of metabolic conditions, such as coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes.  The algorithm and system has been developed using Wolfram Language and R within the Wolfram Mathematica framework. The algorithm calculates individualized virtual control groups metabolically similar to the patient’s body composition and spirometric profile. Using UK Biobank data, our tool was used to assess patient COPD propensity using an individual-specific virtual control group with AUROC 0.778 (female) and 0.758 (men). Additionally, the tool was used to identify new body composition profiles related to COPD and associated comorbid conditions.

abstract: Methods to test hypotheses of mediated effects in the pretest-posttest control group design are understudied in the behavioral sciences (MacKinnon, 2008). Because many studies aim to answer questions about mediating processes in the pretest-posttest control group design, there is a need to determine which model is most appropriate to test hypotheses about mediating processes and what happens to estimates of the mediated effect when model assumptions are violated in this design. The goal of this project was to outline estimator characteristics of four longitudinal mediation models and the cross-sectional mediation model. Models were compared on type 1 error rates, statistical power, accuracy of confidence interval coverage, and bias of parameter estimates. Four traditional longitudinal models and the cross-sectional model were assessed. The four longitudinal models were analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) using pretest scores as a covariate, path analysis, difference scores, and residualized change scores. A Monte Carlo simulation study was conducted to evaluate the different models across a wide range of sample sizes and effect sizes. All models performed well in terms of type 1 error rates and the ANCOVA and path analysis models performed best in terms of bias and empirical power. The difference score, residualized change score, and cross-sectional models all performed well given certain conditions held about the pretest measures. These conditions and future directions are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2015

Background. Instagram as a social media platform is used by firms as both a com- munication, marketing and promotion tool. In analyses of firms on Twitter, several authors have found connections between positive changes in stock returns and posts on Twitter regarding the firm, both from and about the firm. The research on Twit- ter is clear on the power of external and internal usage of Twitter on firm’s stocks. This thesis extends the Twitter research to Instagram. By considering a new post made on Instagram by a firm as an event, inferential tests on whether or not the post had any significant effect on the stock value for that firm were established. Objectives. This thesis aims to relate stock value changes to the publishing dates of Instagram posts for firms in the Swedish stock market. Consequently, the hypothesis to falsify is that Instagram content publishing has no effect on stock values for firms in the Swedish stock market. Methods. Both a literature review and a synthetic control group methodology is utilised. The literature review builds the foundation for selection of Instagram pub- lishing events and some of the assumptions necessary for the data analysis. The synthetic control group method allows for inferential analysis of the data by con- structing a weighted non-correlated dataset for the group under purview. Results. For four of the thirteen firms chosen in this thesis, statistical significance was found by the means of placebo t-tests. Conclusions. Signalling theory, valuation theory and the underlying assumption of market efficiency contribute to the effect to which Instagram content publishing may have on stock prices after the publishing date. The effect is potentially relevant as an indicator for investors due to the rejection of this thesis’ null hypothesis for four of the thirteen firms. However, nine cases could not reject the null hypothesis, which indicates that the effect may be negligible. / Bakgrund. Instagram är ett socialt mediaverktyg som används av flera företag för att bedriva marknadsföring och kommunikation med sina kunder. När man analy- serat företag som är aktiva på en annan social media plattform, Twitter, har flera rapporter visat på ett samband mellan postiva ändringar av aktiepriset och pub- liseringar av information angående det specifika företaget på Twitter. Detta gällde både om företaget i fråga delgav sig av information eller om en annan användare gjorde det. Forskningen visar tydligt att Twitter har en påverkan på aktiepriset. Vår forskning bygger vidare på detta antagande med inriktning på Instagram. Om man ser ett nytt inlägg på Instagram av företaget analyserat som en händelse, kan vi med ett inferentiellt avgöra om inlägget hade någon signifikant effect på deras aktievärdet. Syfte. Denna rapport avser att se om det finns något samband mellan aktieprisets ändringar och publiseringar av information för ett företag på den svenska aktiemark- naden. Hypotesen som ska falsifieras är att om ett företag på den svenska aktiemark- naden lägger upp ett inlägg med relevant information på Instagram, har det ingen påverkan på deras aktiepris. Metod. I denna studie används både en litteraturgenomgång och syntetisk kontrollgrupps- metod. Litteraturgenomgången bygger på forskning som har med vilka information- styper som tidigare visat sig ha påverkan på aktiepriset och information som gör att antaganden kring dataanalysen kan göras. Den syntetiska kontrollgrupps-metoden tillåter oss att göra inferentiell analys av data genom att skapa en viktad, icke- korrelerad datastruktur för gruppen som blir analyserad. Resultat. Fyra av de 13 företagen som valdes för denna studie visade statistisk signifikans genom ett placebo t-test. Slutsatser. Signalteori, värderingsteori och det underliggande antagandet om mark- nadseffektivitet bidrar till effekten som informationsdelning via Instagram har på aktiepriset dagarna efter publiseringsdatumet. Effekten kan potentiellt vara relevant för investerare då vi kan förkasta nollhypotesen för fyra av de tretton företagen. Däremot kunde vi för nio av de tretton företagen inte förkasta nollhypotesen, vilket kan innebära att effekten är försumbar.

This report investigates the possibilities to model the causal effect of treatment within the insurance domain to increase return on investment of sales through telemarketing. In order to capture the causal effect, two or more subgroups are required where one group receives control treatment. Two different uplift models model the causal effect of treatment, Class Transformation Method, and Modeling Uplift Directly with Random Forests. Both methods are evaluated by the Qini curve and the Qini coefficient. To model the causal effect of treatment, the comparison with a control group is a necessity. The report attempts to find the optimal treatment group allocation in order to maximize the precision in the difference between the treatment group and the control group. Further, the report provides a rule of thumb that ensure that the control group is of sufficient size to be able to model the causal effect. If has provided the data material used to model uplift and it consists of approximately 630000 customer interactions and 60 features. The total uplift in the data set, the difference in purchase rate between the treatment group and control group, is approximately 3%. Uplift by random forest with a Euclidean distance splitting criterion that tries to maximize the distributional divergence between treatment group and control group performs best, which captures 15% of the theoretical best model. The same model manages to capture 77% of the total amount of purchases in the treatment group by only giving treatment to half of the treatment group. With the purchase rates in the data set, the optimal treatment group allocation is approximately 58%-70%, but the study could be performed with as much as approximately 97%treatment group allocation.

<p>Promotion of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF), (giving breast milk only without any solids or liquids), has proved to be very challenging in the South African context, although this infant feeding practice has been found to protect babies against diarrhoea and respiratory tract infections and to carry a lower risk of HIV infection than mixed feeding (breastfeeding combined with formula or solids). Study design: The PROMISE-EBF study is a multi-country cluster randomised trial to examine peer support to promote exclusive breastfeeding in Africa. For the South African site in the PROMISE-EBF study, three sites, Paarl, Rietvlei and Umlazi, were selected because of their different geographic settings and each site operated as a separate stratum for cluster selection and randomisation purposes. The clusters were then randomised into intervention and control arms making a total of 17 clusters in each arm. HIV positive and negative women in the intervention arm received support on their choice of infant feeding from the peer supporters who visited them at their homes while the women in the control group only received the standard infant feeding counselling and support provided by health care&nbsp / workers at health facilities. Data collection: Mothers were interviewed at recruitment during the antepartum period to establish eligibility, obtain informed consent and data on socio-economic status. Home visits were scheduled for data collection by trained data collectors at 3, 6, 12 and 24 weeks after birth. Analysis of results: This mini-thesis was a secondary analysis of the PROMISE-EBF data focusing on the South African data only. The data was adjusted for clustering and analysed using SAS. Comparison of variables between the intervention and control groups within sites was done. Results: A significant difference, regarding counselling and infant feeding practices, was observed among all women who received peer support compared to those who received the standard antenatal counselling, with more women in the intervention group (20.5%) practising EBF than those in the control group (12.8%) by Week 3. When the women‟s HIV status was considered, more than 65% of HIV positive and 40% of HIV negative women practised MF and EFF (giving formula milk only with no breast milk) throughout the study, respectively, regardless of the group they were in. For women who hadintended to practise EBF at recruitment, 33% in the control group and 20% in the intervention group actually practised EBF by Week 3. Regarding disclosure and feeding choice, 77.4% of women who had disclosed their HIV status actually practised MF versus 8.6% who practised EBF by Week 3.Conclusion: Community peer counselling should be strengthened as the results from this study showed that a high percentage of women who practised EBF were those who had received counselling, irrespective of their HIV status. The high percentage of HIV positive women who practised high risk feeding, despite receiving infant counselling, is of concern. Disclosure of the women‟s HIV status did not translate to them practising low risk infant feeding methods, which may suggest that there are other issues that determine the women‟s choice of infant feeding.</p>

<p>Promotion of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF), (giving breast milk only without any solids or liquids), has proved to be very challenging in the South African context, although this infant feeding practice has been found to protect babies against diarrhoea and respiratory tract infections and to carry a lower risk of HIV infection than mixed feeding (breastfeeding combined with formula or solids). Study design: The PROMISE-EBF study is a multi-country cluster randomised trial to examine peer support to promote exclusive breastfeeding in Africa. For the South African site in the PROMISE-EBF study, three sites, Paarl, Rietvlei and Umlazi, were selected because of their different geographic settings and each site operated as a separate stratum for cluster selection and randomisation purposes. The clusters were then randomised into intervention and control arms making a total of 17 clusters in each arm. HIV positive and negative women in the intervention arm received support on their choice of infant feeding from the peer supporters who visited them at their homes while the women in the control group only received the standard infant feeding counselling and support provided by health care&nbsp / workers at health facilities. Data collection: Mothers were interviewed at recruitment during the antepartum period to establish eligibility, obtain informed consent and data on socio-economic status. Home visits were scheduled for data collection by trained data collectors at 3, 6, 12 and 24 weeks after birth. Analysis of results: This mini-thesis was a secondary analysis of the PROMISE-EBF data focusing on the South African data only. The data was adjusted for clustering and analysed using SAS. Comparison of variables between the intervention and control groups within sites was done. Results: A significant difference, regarding counselling and infant feeding practices, was observed among all women who received peer support compared to those who received the standard antenatal counselling, with more women in the intervention group (20.5%) practising EBF than those in the control group (12.8%) by Week 3. When the women‟s HIV status was considered, more than 65% of HIV positive and 40% of HIV negative women practised MF and EFF (giving formula milk only with no breast milk) throughout the study, respectively, regardless of the group they were in. For women who hadintended to practise EBF at recruitment, 33% in the control group and 20% in the intervention group actually practised EBF by Week 3. Regarding disclosure and feeding choice, 77.4% of women who had disclosed their HIV status actually practised MF versus 8.6% who practised EBF by Week 3.Conclusion: Community peer counselling should be strengthened as the results from this study showed that a high percentage of women who practised EBF were those who had received counselling, irrespective of their HIV status. The high percentage of HIV positive women who practised high risk feeding, despite receiving infant counselling, is of concern. Disclosure of the women‟s HIV status did not translate to them practising low risk infant feeding methods, which may suggest that there are other issues that determine the women‟s choice of infant feeding.</p>

Magister Public Health - MPH / Promotion of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF), (giving breast milk only without any solids or liquids), has proved to be very challenging in the South African context, although this infant feeding practice has been found to protect babies against diarrhoea and respiratory tract infections and to carry a lower risk of HIV infection than mixed feeding (breastfeeding combined with formula or solids). Study design: The PROMISE-EBF study is a multi-country cluster randomised trial to examine peer support to promote exclusive breastfeeding in Africa. For the South African site in the PROMISE-EBF study, three sites, Paarl, Rietvlei and Umlazi, were selected because of their different geographic settings and each site operated as a separate stratum for cluster selection and randomisation purposes. The clusters were then randomised into intervention and control arms making a total of 17 clusters in each arm. HIV positive and negative women in the intervention arm received support on their choice of infant feeding from the peer supporters who visited them at their homes while the women in the control group only received the standard infant feeding counselling and support provided by health care workers at health facilities. Data collection: Mothers were interviewed at recruitment during the antepartum period to establish eligibility, obtain informed consent and data on socio-economic status. Home visits were scheduled for data collection by trained data collectors at 3, 6, 12 and 24 weeks after birth. Analysis of results: This mini-thesis was a secondary analysis of the PROMISE-EBF data focusing on the South African data only. The data was adjusted for clustering and analysed using SAS. Comparison of variables between the intervention and control groups within sites was done. Results: A significant difference, regarding counselling and infant feeding practices, was observed among all women who received peer support compared to those who received the standard antenatal counselling, with more women in the intervention group (20.5%) practising EBF than those in the control group (12.8%) by Week 3. When the women's HIV status was considered, more than 65% of HIV positive and 40% of HIV negative women practised MF and EFF (giving formula milk only with no breast milk) throughout the study, respectively, regardless of the group they were in. For women who hadintended to practise EBF at recruitment, 33% in the control group and 20% in the intervention group actually practised EBF by Week 3. Regarding disclosure and feeding choice, 77.4% of women who had disclosed their HIV status actually practised MF versus 8.6% who practised EBF by Week 3.Conclusion: Community peer counselling should be strengthened as the results from this study showed that a high percentage of women who practised EBF were those who had received counselling, irrespective of their HIV status. The high percentage of HIV positive women who practised high risk feeding, despite receiving infant counselling, is of concern. Disclosure of the women's HIV status did not translate to them practising low risk infant feeding methods, which may suggest that there are other issues that determine the women's choice of infant feeding. / South Africa

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a meal supplement fortified with micronutrients would, statistically, significantly improve the intelligence scores of Grade 3 and 4 learners. The data collection procedures in this study took the form of a pre-test – post-test control group design. The Paper and Pencil Games (PPG) Level 3, a standardised psychological test, was administered before and after the respondents were exposed to the meal supplements. For a treatment period of 16 weeks the experimental group received the meal supplement fortified with micronutrients and the control group the meal supplement without any added micronutrients. Data analysis took the form of statistical analysis to determine whether the meal supplements consumed by those in the experimental group could significantly contribute to improving their intelligence scores. The results indicated statistically significant increases in scores, between the pretest and post-test on the various scales of the PPG, of both the experimental and control group on the one hand, but no statistically significant differences between the two treatment groups on the post-test on the other. The null hypothesis that there are no (statistically significant) differences between the average post-test scores (V, NV, and T) of the experimental and control groups could not be rejected. However, the increase between the pre-test and post-test stanine scores of the two treatment groups has led to recommendations for further research. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

The aim of this investigation was to determine whether there is a significant difference in the academic achievement of sixth grade Science students when teaching styles are matched to their learning styles. The research problem is encompassed in the following question: "Is there a relationship between matching teaching and learning styles and the academic success in Science?" A quantitative approach was undertaken, specifically, the pretest-posttest control group experimental design. The population comprised of sixth grade students selected according to a non-probability sampling method of convenience. The sample comprised of two class units randomly selected. The dependent sample t-test inferential statistic was used to analyze the data collected. The results indicated a statistically significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group. The conclusion reached is that matching teaching styles to learning styles improves the academic success of sixth grade learners in Science. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Educational Psychology)

Les crises sont omniprésentes dans le monde organisationnel. Pour faire face à ces situations, les organisations se fient à leurs équipes de gestion de crise, composées habituellement de membres provenant de différents domaines et possédant divers types d’expertise, pour bien gérer ces situations. Comment les membres de ces équipes réussissent-ils ou ne réussissent-il pas à s’entendre et à cadrer collectivement une situation de crise, étant donné leurs antécédents variés? La présente étude propose de répondre à cette question à partir d’une perspective interactionnelle en analysant une sélection d’extraits audio-visuels tirés de trois exercices de gestion de crise réalisés dans la province de l’Ontario. Cinq extraits pertinents ont été retenus pour l’analyse interactionnelle qui a permis de décrire le rôle important de certaines figures dans le cadrage d’une gestion de crise. Les figures correspondent à ce qui compte dans la situation, c’est-à-dire aux préoccupations, aux intérêts et aux attentes des représentants autour de la table. Ces figures sont placées au premier plan dans le cadrage des individus et sont ensuite animées ou non par les membres du groupe de coordination communautaire. C’est seulement lorsque ces différentes préoccupations sont articulées, prises en compte et négociées que le cadrage de la situation de crise peut évoluer collectivement. / Crises are omnipresent in the organizational world. To face these situations, organizations rely on their crisis management teams, mainly made up of members from different fields and with different types of expertise, to better manage these situations. How do members of crisis management teams succeed or fail to succeed in understanding each other and in collectively framing the crisis situation, when each and everyone’s background differs? From an interactional perspective, the current study proposes to respond to this question by analyzing a selection of audiovisual excerpts taken from three crisis management exercises conducted in the province of Ontario. Five relevant excerpts were chosen for the interactional analysis, which helped describe the role certain figures play in the framing of crisis management. Figures refer to what count in a situation, in other words, the representatives’ preoccupations, interests and expectations. These figures are placed in the foreground of the individuals’ framing and are thereafter either animated or not by members of the community control group. Only when these different preoccupations are articulated, taken into account and negotiated can the framing of the crisis situation evolve collectively.