Much of the data found on the world wide web is in numeric, tabular, or other nontextual format (e.g., weather forecast tables, stock market charts, live sensor feeds), and thus inaccessible to non-experts or laypersons. However, most conventional search engines and natural language processing tools (e.g., summarisers) can only handle textual input. As a result, data in non-textual form remains largely inaccessible. Concept-to-text generation refers to the task of automatically producing textual output from non-linguistic input, and holds promise for rendering non-linguistic data widely accessible. Several successful generation systems have been produced in the past twenty years. They mostly rely on human-crafted rules or expert-driven grammars, implement a pipeline architecture, and usually operate in a single domain. In this thesis, we present several novel statistical models that take as input a set of database records and generate a description of them in natural language text. Our unique idea is to combine the processes of structuring a document (document planning), deciding what to say (content selection) and choosing the specific words and syntactic constructs specifying how to say it (lexicalisation and surface realisation), in a uniform joint manner. Rather than breaking up the generation process into a sequence of local decisions, we define a probabilistic context-free grammar that globally describes the inherent structure of the input (a corpus of database records and text describing some of them). This joint representation allows individual processes (i.e., document planning, content selection, and surface realisation) to communicate and influence each other naturally. We recast generation as the task of finding the best derivation tree for a set of input database records and our grammar, and describe several algorithms for decoding in this framework that allows to intersect the grammar with additional information capturing fluency and syntactic well-formedness constraints. We implement our generators using the hypergraph framework. Contrary to traditional systems, we learn all the necessary document, structural and linguistic knowledge from unannotated data. Additionally, we explore a discriminative reranking approach on the hypergraph representation of our model, by including more refined content selection features. Central to our approach is the idea of porting our models to various domains; we experimented on four widely different domains, namely sportscasting, weather forecast generation, booking flights, and troubleshooting guides. The performance of our systems is competitive and often superior compared to state-of-the-art systems that use domain specific constraints, explicit feature engineering or labelled data.

Idag lever vi i ett samhälle som digitaliseras allt mer och mer. Från att handeln för 20 år sedan enbart utfördes i fysiska butiker till att konsumenter idag hemma från tv-sofforna enkelt kan beställa hem produkter via e-handel. Digitaliseringen har främjat handel på internet och gjort att e-handeln har etablerats på modemarknaden. Även sättet som konsumenter handlar, alltså köpprocessen, har påverkats av samhällets digitalisering. Enligt Workman och Studak (2006) består köpprocessen av följande fem steg: behovsidentifikation, informationssökning, alternativutvärdering, köp och utvärdering av köp. En annan aspekt som uppsatsen undersöker är livsstil och då relaterat till familje- och arbetssituation för Generation X och Y. Generation X och Y är ett utgångsläge i uppsatsen. Generation X är födda under mitten av 1960-talet till början av 1980-talet och kännetecknas av att vara karriärsinriktade med begränsad fritid. Internetanvändningen för generationen sker främst i samband med informationssökning och som verktyg, exempelvis e-mail. Generation Y är födda i början av 1980-talet till 1990-talets mitt. Generationen karaktäriseras av att vara flitiga internetanvändare som är relativt högutbildade, då majoriteten har eftergymnasial utbildning. Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka om köpprocessen skiljer sig mellan Generation X och Y utifrån livsstil, samt om det påverkar konsumenters val av köp i fysisk butik eller via e- handel. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att köpprocessen ser likvärdig ut för de båda generationerna. Däremot skiljer sig generationerna åt när det kommer till hur faktorerna i köpprocessens tredje steg, alternativutvärdering, prioriteras. Å andra sidan är båda generationerna eniga om att pris är den högst prioriterade faktorn. När det kommer till val mellan köp i fysiska butiker och via e-handel visar resultatet att valet inte enbart har med generation och livsstil att göra. Däremot kan slutsats dras att vanor, värderingar och individuella preferenser har större påverkan på vart köp utförs, i fysisk butik eller via e- handel, än vad livsstil samt konsumenters generation har. / Today we are living in a society that is becoming more and more digitalized. Only 20 years ago all kind of fashion trading took place in physical stores. Today, 20 years later, consumers can easily through the Internet purchase products from their couches in front of the TV. The digitalization has encouraged commerce on the Internet, which has established e-commerce on the fashion market. The way consumers shop, in other words the buying process, has been affected by the digitalization in society. According to Workman and Studak (2006) the buying process consists of the five steps: need identification, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase and evaluation of purchase. Another aspect that this essay examines is the lifestyle of Generation X and Y related to family- and work situation. This essay is based on Generation X and Y. Generation X was born in the middle of the 1960 to the beginning of the 1980. The generation is characterized for being very focused on their career, which limit their leisure time. The Internet usage of the generation is mainly in relation to information search and as a tool, for example e-mail. Generation Y was born in the beginning of the 1980 to the middle of the 1990. The generation is known for using Internet frequently and is highly educated, since the majority of the generation has a post-secondary education. The purpose of this essay is to examine if the buying process differentiates between Generation X and Y based on lifestyle, and if this influences the choice consumers make between purchase in physical store or through e-commerce. The result of the study demonstrates that the buying processes of both generations are equal. However, the generations differentiate in the third step of the buying process, alternative evaluation, when it comes to priority of different variables. On the other hand, the generations were united about that price is the highest prioritized variable. When it comes to the choice between purchases in physical stores or through e-commerce the result presents that the choice does not only depend on what generation or lifestyle consumers has. Nevertheless, a conclusion can be that habit, values and individual preferences have bigger impact on where the purchases are executed, in physical stores and through e-commerce, than what lifestyle and generation have.

Studien syftar till att klargöra och undersöka attribut som kan ha relevant betydelse för den unga kundens kvalitetsupplevelse av den personliga servicen i fast fashion-butiker. Denna studie baseras på kvantitativ metod med en deduktiv ansats. Hypoteser har formats som en metod att testa det teoretiska ramverket. Hypoteserna testas genom en webbenkät, som besvaras av 210 respondenter. Studien visar att det inte finns en korrelation mellan det initiala mötet med personalen och den upplevda servicekvaliten för den unga kunden i fast fashion-butiker. Tjänstvillighet och kunskap har dock båda signifikant korrelation med den upplevda servicekvaliteten för den unga kunden i fast fashion-butiker.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / November 04-07, 1991 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / There exists today, numerous off-the-shelf hardware solutions for the generation of simulated telemetry data streams. The ability to rapidly develop engineering models to drive the data contents of the telemetry is restricted by the lack of contemporary CASE tools. This paper presents an object-oriented Graphical User Interface (GUI) approach to generation of mathematical models in order to reduce the time required for model generation to a fraction of today’s development time, eliminate the need to write substantial amounts of software, and allow reuse of model objects in a manner consistent with the GUI cut, paste, and copy metaphors.

Course/ Level: 2FE21E, Bachelor thesis Authors: Evelin Gimbergsson & Sandra Lundberg Tutor: Viktor Magnusson Examiner: Åsa Devine Title: Work values of Generation Z: A quantitative study explaining different groups of Generation Z’s work values. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explain how the work values differ within different groups of Generation Z. Hypotheses: H1: Depending on major individuals value different work values. H2: Depending on gender individuals value different work values. Theory: Intrinsic, Extrinsic, Altruistic, Status-associated and Social work values. Methodology: Questionnaire Conclusion: Based on the findings, H1 was rejected and H2 was accepted. Keywords Employer branding, Generation Z, Work values, Intrinsic work values, Extrinsic work values, Altruistic work values, Status-associated work values and Social work values.

Problemformulering: Arbetsmarknaden präglas idag av ett påtagligt generationsskifte, när personer födda på 80- och 90-talet med utmärkande egenskaper successivt kommer ta en större roll i arbetslivet. Personernas egenskaper kan komma att påverka hur de upplever olika styrmedel vilket ökar behovet för organisationer att förstå dessa för att kunna anpassa sin styrning. Syfte: Genom att skaffa en ökad förståelse för de egenskaper människor födda under 80- och 90-talet besitter och hur det påverkar deras uppfattning av styrmedel är syftet med studien att undersöka denna grupps uppfattning av olika styrmedel. Metod: En kvalitativ datainsamling genomfördes. Vidare applicerades teori kring styrmedel för att på så sätt erhålla en förståelse kring hur dessa individer upplever styrmedel utifrån utmärkande egenskaper. Resultat: Studien visar att de egenskaper som 80- och 90-talister besitter kan ha en inverkan på deras upplevelse av styrmedel samt att företag kan tänka sig anpassa deras styrmedel efter dessa individer.

published_or_final_version / Chemistry / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Computer Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The solar photovoltaic industry has many barriers to overcome before it can become a technically and economically competitive generation source including (1) lowering true generation costs, (2) decreasing reliance from government subsidies, and (3) developing a suitable energy storage solution. Current unsubsidized costs of electricity from solar photovoltaic sources range from 24.0 to 58.3¢/kWh. Subsidies bring the generation costs down to as low as 11¢/kWh, competitive with the average retail price of electricity in certain parts of the country. Current subsidy policies used to encourage technology development may generate more profits rather than research and innovation. The most optimistic predictions for solar photovoltaics include a convergence of a steep and prolonged rise in the cost of fossil-fuel based generation with a deep and prolonged decrease in the cost of photovoltaic generation by 2019. Deviation from optimal conditions will prolong the delay the crossover until at least 2021 and possibly beyond 2030. The development of a solution to store excess electricity when the sun is available during the day for use at night is necessary for photovoltaic electricity to become a dominant generation source. / text

The ability of nanoparticles to stabilize oil/water emulsions provides many interesting opportunities for the petroleum industry. Emulsions can be used as a displacing fluid for enhanced oil recovery to improve sweep efficiencies. Emulsions can be used to improve conformance control by effectively blocking thief zones in reservoirs with a high degree of heterogeneity. As shown in this thesis emulsions can be used to deliver fluids that contact and mobilize residual oil. It is imperative to understand emulsion behavior in porous media for design purposes in enhanced or improved oil recovery processes involving emulsions. Nanoparticle-stabilized oil-in-water emulsions were continuously generated by co-injecting aqueous nanoparticle dispersion and oil through a beadpack. There exists a critical shear rate below which a stable emulsion will not be generated. The critical shear rate increased with decreasing bead size. Above the critical shear rate, the droplet size of the generated emulsion was a function of shear rate and decreased with increasing shear rate. The stable emulsions were characterized by their droplet size and rheology. The emulsion viscosity was highly dependent upon droplet size and not the bulk oil viscosity in the emulsion. The emulsions were highly shear thinning and emulsions with smaller droplets were more viscous than emulsions with larger droplets. Highly stable emulsions that were generated by co-injection were collected, separated from excess phase(s) and injected into beadpacks. In most experiments the injected emulsion coalesced into the bulk fluids. Whether the bulk fluids generated a new emulsion in the bead pack depended on the shear rate, bead size, and initial saturation of the beadpack. Different beadpack experiments showed the transition from one flow regime to a second flow regime as the slow movement of a coalescence/regeneration front propagated through the beadpack. Coreflood experiments confirmed the mechanisms hypothesized for the beadpack emulsion injection experiments. When a stable emulsion was injected the effluent emulsion rheology and droplet size were altered solely as a result of being forced through sandstone cores, not because of fluids contacted within the core. The shear rate controlled whether the emulsion coalesced and produced no effluent emulsion, regenerated into an emulsion with larger droplets, or regenerated into an emulsion with smaller droplets. Oil recovery experiments showed that nanoparticle-stabilized oil-in-water emulsion increased the recovery of oil compared to a waterflood for cores with immobile and mobile oil. The mechanism is the coalesced oil droplets form a flowing phase that is miscible with oil present in the core and thus achieves a much more efficient displacement. The possible continuous generation and coalescence of droplets may have increased the apparent viscosity, improving the sweep efficiency of the emulsion injection. A novel oil recovery mechanism was shown in imbibition experiments where nanoparticle dispersion was used to displace oil. Large shear rates coupled with the affinity for nanoparticles at the oil water interface enabled residual oil to be mobilized, or for residual oil blobs to spawn smaller droplets that are stabilized by the nanoparticles and thus can be transported with the dispersion through the core. / text