Parents and Children Making Connections – Highlighting Attention (PCMC-A) is a dual-generation intervention program for families from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds that includes parenting training for parents and attention training for preschool-aged children. PCMC-A has been shown to impact brain function for selective attention in children, the ability to enhance relevant information and suppress competing, distracting information. With the goal of increasing our understanding of how PCMC-A operates to promote gains in child brain function for selective attention, the main objective of this dissertation was to test intervention-related changes in supportive parenting behaviors as an explanatory mechanism for the effect of PCMC-A on neural indices of selective attention. To better understand the profile of those who benefit from PCMC-A to different extents, we also examined moderators of the effect of PCMC-A on supportive parenting and on child brain function for selective attention. These questions were examined as part of the randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of PCMC-A on Head Start preschoolers and their parents, employing a multi-method approach. We found that participation in PCMC-A led to increases in specific aspects of supportive parenting behaviors coded from observed parent-child interactions, which were moderated by child and mother characteristics at the pre-assessment, including mother reports of child behavior problems, child age, and maternal interactive language use. We also replicated with a larger sample an effect of PCMC-A on child selective attention measured using the event-related potential technique, which was moderated by mother reports of child social skills at the pre-assessment. Even though we documented changes in both of these outcomes as a function of PCMC-A, we did not find evidence that changes in supportive parenting explained gains in child selective attention, suggesting that other explanatory mechanisms may be at play. Together, the findings of the present dissertation characterize the effect of PCMC-A on supportive parenting behaviors and child selective attention, begin to paint a picture of the families who benefit most and least from this intervention, and contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms through which PCMC-A impacts child brain function for selective attention. This dissertation includes unpublished co-authored material.

Background: New ventures face manifold challenges. Literature has already examined many of the challenges that founders of new firms might encounter during the start-up phase. Studies have been investigating traits of the founders as well as traits of the organizations, and linked them to success or failure of the firm. The areas of founder’s human capital and vision and the firm’s employee selection criteria and leadership style have often been taken into consideration. Nevertheless, there is no framework connecting all these areas with a focus on how they influence each other, leaving criteria as success or failure beside.Purpose: This study aims for creating a framework connecting the areas of start-up-founder’s human capital and vision and the venture’s employee selection criteria and leadership style. It seeks to provide answers to the following research questions: (1) “How does start-up founder’s human capital influence the creation of a vision, the choice of leadership style and the selection of employees?” and (2) “How does start-up founder’s vision influence the choice of leadership style and the selection of employees?”Method: To answer the research questions, a multiple-case study was conducted. We created a topic guide and gathered qualitative data through conducting in-depth interviews. The respondents were mainly operating their new venture in the area of Jönköping. After coding and contextualizing our data, we analyzed it.Conclusion: Human capital was influencing all other areas through either active avoidance or repetition of behaviors already employed in the past. We found major differences of the visions of new ventures. Therefore, we started differentiating between a “business-vision” and a “mission-vision”. “Mission-vision” start-ups choose their employees according to personality and give them a voice in the firm, therefore fostering a transformational leadership style. “Business-vision” start-ups on the other side hire applicants based on skills, to fulfil very defined tasks based on deadlines and therefore performing a transactional approach.

abstract: This study investigated the relationship between school start times and academic and school behavioral outcomes among adolescents. Academic achievement test data from five high schools in a Southwestern school district were compared prior- and post- a school start time change. Behavioral discipline reports were also examined to determine if earlier start times resulted in more behavioral problems for students. Results indicated minimal changes in academic achievement scores, with some significant differences between school start times when examining students' performance by pass/fail categories. Behaviorally, there were statistically significant differences between school start times with regards to high frequency referrals (i.e., attendance-related and defiance and disrespect towards authority), and total Office Discipline Referrals. Results are discussed in relationship to previous research on sleep and school start times along with the implications for adolescent school performance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Psychology 2014

O transporte de minérios através do bombeamento de polpa é relevante em escala mundial. No Brasil este modo de transporte é muito importante devido à enorme produção mineral e suas distâncias continentais. E, o bombeamento de polpa em planta é ainda mais importante pois é uma operação diária que afeta a todos os envolvidos. A motivação para este estudo foi providenciar para a Escola Politécnica uma estação de bombeamento capaz de levantar os parâmetros do escoamento necessários para o correto dimensionamento das linhas de polpa. Esta dissertação descreve a montagem de dois loops (3\'\' e 4\'\'), devidamente instrumentado e com a aquisição direta dos dados via computador. Os loops foram dimensionados, os componentes, bomba e instrumentos adquiridos, o loop montado, calibrado e colocado em marcha. Esta dissertação registra esta experiência e discute as dificuldades encontradas, na expectativa de que este sistema de bombeamento venha a ser útil para futuros pesquisadores. A Escola Politécnica agora dispõe de um loop de bombeamento de polpa mineral adequado para a determinação de parâmetros hidráulicos, pesquisa e suporte para futuros projetos. / Ore transportation via slurry pumping is relevant in a world scale. In Brazil, due to its huge mineral production and continental distances, mineroducts are an important transportation mode. And, in plant slurry pumping is still more important as it is a dayby- day operation that affects everybody. The motivation for this study was to provide Escola Politécnica (USP) of a convenient pumping station (loop) able to measure the necessary flow parameters for proper design of slurry lines. This dissertation describes the design of two loops (3\'\' and 4\'\') full instrumented and with direct data acquisition via computer. The loops have been sized, components, pump and instruments purchased, erected and started-up. This dissertation registers this experience and discusses the difficulties found, in the expectative can become useful for other researches. Escola Politécnica has now a proper slurry pumping loop for hydraulic determinations, research and for support of future projects.

Submitted by Isaac Francisco de Souza Dias (isaac.souzadias@ufpe.br) on 2016-07-07T18:40:49Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação Julliana Melo - Times.pdf: 2376859 bytes, checksum: d48b49e600f24789b26dc66a89f1f59e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-07T18:40:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação Julliana Melo - Times.pdf: 2376859 bytes, checksum: d48b49e600f24789b26dc66a89f1f59e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-15 / A granulação aeróbia surge como melhoria ao sistema de lodos ativados convencional, aumentando a retenção de biomassa no sistema e possibilitando a remoção simultânea de nutrientes e matéria orgânica. No entanto, são poucos os trabalhos que utilizam esgoto sanitário em escala piloto. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo investigar a influência de diferentes trocas volumétricas em reatores em bateladas sequenciais (RBS’s) como condição operacional para o desenvolvimento de grânulos aeróbios no tratamento de esgoto doméstico diluído. Considerando que o processo de granulação aeróbia ocorre sob condições operacionais específicas, foi utilizada como estratégia metodológica dois RBS’s com diferentes trocas volumétricas, RBS1 de 59% e RBS2 de 71%. Também utilizou-se velocidade de aeração entre 1,2 e 1,4 cm.s-1, relação altura diâmetro de 10, e tempo de sedimentação final entre 10 e 15 minutos, para ambos os reatores. Foram observadas oscilações no comportamento dos sólidos suspensos e redução da retenção celular associadas ao curto tempo de sedimentação. A observação de grânulos aeróbios foi possível após 71 dias de operação para o RBS1 e 91 dias de operação para o RBS2. Percebeu-se a estabilização da idade do lodo em aproximadamente 6,3 dias no RBS1 e, no RBS2, valores próximos a 1 dia, indicando a menor retenção de biomassa neste reator. Em termos de eficiência de remoção de DQOs, DQOt, NH4+ e NTK, a troca volumétrica de 59% (RBS1) apresentou resultado de 72 ± 10%, 65 ± 21%, 48 ± 29% e 50 ± 34%, respectivamente, enquanto a troca de 71% (RBS2) apresentou 65 ± 12%, 58 ± 21%, 28 ± 26% e 30 ± 24%, respectivamente. Devido a não maturação dos grânulos, e a consequente ausência de microzonas anaeróbias, não foi observada remoção de fósforo em ambos os reatores. Ao final deste trabalho, verificou-se a viabilidade do processo de granulação utilizando esgoto doméstico diluído como substrato sem a presença de inóculo. Também foi possível verificar que com a utilização de troca volumétrica menor este processo é qualitativamente melhor, apresentando granulação mais rápida, presença de lodo com melhor sedimentabilidade e maior remoção de NH4+ e NTK. / Aerobic granulation could to improve the conventional activated sludge system increasing the biomass retention in the system and enabling the simultaneous removal of organic matter and nutrients. However, few research has been reported using domestic wastewater in pilot scale. This study aims to investigate the influence of different volumetric changes in sequencing batch reactors (SBR's) as operating condition for development of aerobic granules in treatment of diluted domestic wastewater. Whereas aerobic granulation process occurs under specific operating conditions, then as a methodological strategy were used two SBRs with different volumetric changes, SBR1 59% and SBR2 71%. Aeration rate of 1.2 to 1.4 cm.s-1, ratio of height: diameter of 10 and the final sedimentation time between 10 and 15 minutes for both reactors were used as parameters. During the experiment if was possible to observe fluctuations in the behavior of the suspended solids and reduction of cell retention associated to sedimentation short time. The observation of aerobic granules was possible after 71 days of operation for SBR1 and 91 days to SBR2. The sludge age stabilized at approximately 6.3 days in the SBR1 and 1 day to SBR2, indicating the lowest retaining biomass in this reactor. In terms of CODs, CODt, NH4+ and NTK removal efficiency, the volumetric exchange of 59% (SBR1) showed results of 72 ± 10%, 65 ± 21%, 48 ± 29% and 50 ± 34%, respectively, while the volumetric exchange of 71% (SBR2) showed results 65 ± 12%, 58 ± 21%, 28% ± 26 and 30 ± 24%, respectively. Due to the non-maturation of granules and the consequent lack of anaerobic micro-zones, phosphorus removal was not observed in both reactors. The end of this study found the viability of the granulation process using domestic wastewater diluted as a substrate without the presence of inoculum. This study also observed that using lower volumetric exchange this process is qualitatively better, with faster granulation, better sludge settleability and increase in nitrogen removal.

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Submitted by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2017-12-21T18:03:56Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertação - Janiel M. dos Santos.pdf: 1303124 bytes, checksum: 92eab239c46bd44d736df8430f688f9c (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2017-12-21T18:04:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertação - Janiel M. dos Santos.pdf: 1303124 bytes, checksum: 92eab239c46bd44d736df8430f688f9c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-21T18:04:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertação - Janiel M. dos Santos.pdf: 1303124 bytes, checksum: 92eab239c46bd44d736df8430f688f9c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-10-02 / FAPEAM - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas / The growing production of multimedia content on the web has stimulated studies related to the improvement of the strategies responsible for the organization and recovery of this content in the applications. Among the several strategies, the assignment of a set of tags to an object expressing its content, called the tagging process, has been the subject of recent studies, mainly associative methods that are based on the exploration of co-occurrence patterns of tags. Although associative methods present state of the art results, few investigate the behavior of this type of recommendation in a state in which the object is being inserted into the system and has no previously associated information, characterized as cold start problem. To investigate the behavior of strategies in a cold start, its main motivation is to improve the quality of the recommendations, especially when the strategies are dependent on the information provided by the publishers of the content. This work presents an associative tags recommendation strategy that explores the concept of context graphs through the integration of co-occurrence and tags relevance metrics with the collaborative knowledge of existing relationships between concepts found in Wikipedia articles. With the balance in the valorization of the candidate tags for the recommendation, the proposed strategy obtained improvement in the quality of the re-commendation of the tags in videos that have a median number of tags. / A crescente produção de conteúdo multimídia na web tem estimulado estudos relacionados ao aprimoramento das estratégias responsáveis pela organização e recuperação desse conteúdo nas aplicações. Dentre as diversas estratégias existentes, a atribuição de um conjunto de etiquetas a um objeto expressando o seu conteúdo, denominada de processo de etiquetagem, têm sido objeto de estudos recentes, principalmente os métodos associativos que exploram padrões de coocorrência. Apesar dos métodos associativos apresentarem resultados estado da arte, poucos exploram o comportamento desse tipo de recomendação em um estado em que o objeto está sendo inserido no sistema e não possui informações previamente associadas, caracterizado como problema de cold start. Investigar o comportamento das estratégias, em um estado de cold start, tem como motivação principal melhorar a qualidade das recomendações, principalmente quando as estratégias ficam dependentes das informações fornecidas pelos publicadores do conteúdo. Nesta dissertação apresenta-se uma estratégia de recomendação associativa de etiquetas que explora o conceito de grafos de contexto, por meio da integração da coocorrência e métricas de relevância de etiquetas com o conhecimento colaborativo dos relacionamentos existentes entre conceitos presentes nos artigos da Wikipédia. Com o equilíbrio na valorização das etiquetas candidatas a recomendação, a estratégia proposta obteve melhoria na qualidade da recomendação das etiquetas em vídeos que possuem uma quantidade mediana de etiquetas.

This study investigates the three different stages of start-ups’ life and brings lights into the impacts of knowledge management practices on the transition processes between these stages. Start-ups are described as newly created enterprises which aim to disrupt the current state of play of the industry with their innovative products or services. During their initial stages,they demonstrate similar characteristics with temporary organizations; however, as they are developed and turn into a permanent organization the similarities start to diminish. Effects of knowledge management practices during start-up’s journey from a temporary organization to a permanent organization were explored with the guidance of the following research question:How does knowledge management influence the transition of a start-up from a temporary to a permanent organization?The term start-up and its organizational practices remain a mystery in the academic literature. Moreover, there are a limited amount of academic studies about the implementation of knowledge management model within entrepreneurial enterprises. Therefore, this thesis aims to contribute to academic studies by exploring in what extent knowledge management activities are practiced and how these practices affect the development of a start-up from a temporary organization to a permanent organization. The theoretical findings are supported by the empirical findings, and a theory is built with the accordance.Grounded theory is chosen as a research methodology for this research paper due to the lack of literature and study in this research area. Thus, first eight unstructured and then five semi-structured interviews are conducted with the chosen start-ups which have successfully finalized their initialtwostages. During the data analysis, open, axial and selective coding methods are used as it is recommended for the grounded theory.The research question is investigated and answered with the guidance of the collected data from the interviews. With the empirical study, the life-cycle of start-ups is explored. Overall, the life of an enterprise consists of three stages: existence, survival and success. Start-ups share many similarities with temporary organizations during their existence and survival phases regarding the characteristics of their teams, projects (tasks) and time limitation. However, they aim to transform into a permanent organization since their goal is to grow and assure their position in the industry. Besides, knowledge management activities, including knowledge acquiring, transformation, storage and creation, have been prioritized by various types of organizations in order to improve their practices and gain a competitive advantage over their rivals. Similarly, implementation of knowledge management activities within a start-up provides many benefits to development and improvement of the enterprise. Accordingly, it improves their organizational practices and enhances their transition process from the temporary organization to a permanent organization.

This paper explores the differences between the success of a start-up depending on support from venture capital or not. This kind of research has not been done in a Swedish context in which time to IPO was used as a measure of success for the start-up. The secondary data was collected from two stock markets representing start-ups/entrepreneurial firms, First north and Aktietorget. The sample includes 211 different start-ups with their founding years no earlier than 1999 and their IPO ranging between 2011 and 2016. A regression analysis, one-way ANOVA and t-test have been conducted for the collected data. Findings were not statistically significant and could not show any mean differences. The contributions of this study are theoretical and relate to the individual objectives of this study; 1) critically, identifying and evaluating different success factors for start-ups; 2) defining the terms venture capital and start-up; and 3) evaluating the literature on venture capital and the success of start-ups.

Advertisers setting up search engine advertising campaigns for the first time need to place bids on keywords, but typically lack experience and data to determine ranks that maximize a keyword's profit (generally referred to as a cold-start problem). This article aims at solving the problem of bidding on keywords in newly set-up search engine advertising campaigns. We suggest that advertisers collect data from the Google Keyword Planner to obtain precise estimates of the percentage increases in prices per click and clickthrough rates, which are needed to calculate optimal bids (exact approach). Together with the profit contribution per conversion and the conversion rate, the advertiser might then set bids that maximize profit. In case advertisers cannot afford to collect the required data, we suggest two proxy approaches and evaluate their performance using the exact approach as a benchmark. The empirical study shows that both proxy approaches perform reasonably well-the easier approach to implement (proxy 2) sometimes performs even better than the more sophisticated one (proxy 1). As a consequence, advertisers might just use this very simple proxy when bidding on keywords in newly set-up SEA campaigns. This research extends the stream of literature on how to determine optimal bids, which so far focuses on campaigns that are already running and where the required data to calculate bids is already available. This research offers a novel approach of determining bids when advertisers lack the aforementioned information.