This report targets a specific problem for recommender algorithms which is the new item problem and propose a method with sentiment analysis as the main tool. Collaborative filtering algorithms base their predictions on a database with users and their corresponding ratings to items. The new item problem occurs when a new item is introduced in the database because the item has no ratings. The item will therefore be unavailable as a recommendation for the users until it has gathered some ratings. Products that can be rated by users in the online community often has experts that get access to these products before its release date for the consumers, this can be taken advantage of in recommender systems. The experts can be used as initial guides for predictions. The method that is used in this report relies on sentiment analysis to translate written reviews by experts into a rating based on the sentiment of the text. This way when a new item is added it is also added with the ratings of experts in the field. The result from this study shows that the recommender algorithm slope one can generate more reliable recommendations with a group of expert users than without when a new item is added to the database. The expert users that is added must have ratings for other items as well as the ratings for the new item to get more accurate recommendations. / Denna rapport studerar påverkan av problemet med nya objekt i rekommendationsalgoritmen Slope One och en metod föreslås i rapporten för att lösa det specifika problemet. Problemet uppstår när ett nytt objekt läggs till i en databas då det inte finns några betyg som getts till objektet/produkten. Då rekommendationsalgoritmer som Slope One baserar sina rekommendationer på relationerna mellan användares betyg av filmer så blir träffsäkerheten låg för en rekommendation av en film med få betyg. Metoden som föreslås i rapporten involverar attitydanalys som det huvudsakliga verktyget för att få information som kan ersätta faktiska betyg som användare gett en produkt. När produkter kan bli betygsatta av användare på olika forum på internet så finns det ofta experter får tillgång till produkten innan den släpps till omvärlden, den information som dessa experter har kan användas för att fylla det informationsgap som finns när ett nytt objekt läggs till. Dessa experter kommer då initiellt att användas som guide för rekomendationssystemet. Så när ett nytt objekt läggs till så görs det tillsammans med betyg från experter för att få mer träffsäkra rekomendationer. Resultatet från denna studie visar att Slope One genererar mer träffsäkra rekommendationer då en ny produkt läggs till i databasen med ett antal betyg som genererats genom attitydanalysanalys på experters textrecensioner. Det är värt att notera att ett betyg enbart för dessa expertanvändare inte håller utan experterna måste ha betyg av andra produkter inom samma område för kunna influera rekommendationer för den nya produkten.

Att arbeta hållbart blir allt viktigare, inte minst i byggbranschen som länge har kämpat för att skapa säkra arbetsplatser. För att vara en attraktiv arbetsgivare måste företag arbeta med hållbarhet ur fler aspekter av sina anställdas hälsa. Tillsammans med ökade krav på hållbarhet ökar även förväntningarna på mående på arbetsplatsen. Företag har goda skäl att ta hänsyn till detta även ur en produktivitetssynpunkt då forskning visat både att arbetet påverkar hur anställda mår och att deras mående påverkar deras prestation och i förlängningen projektets produktivitet. Studiens syfte är att bättre förstå hur projektorganisationer och dess medlemmar arbetar för att etablera socialt hållbara arbetsprocesser i uppstarten av produktion i ett infrastrukturprojekt. För att göra det kommer framväxten av rutiner samt vilka konsekvenser tröghet och splittring får för projektmedlemmarna studeras med fokus på välmående. I en kvalitativ intervjustudie undersöktes uppstarten av produktion i tre infrastrukturprojekt i Stockholm. Det visade sig att välmående och andra mjuka parametrar är mycket viktiga för projektens medlemmar och att rutiner i uppstarten av produktion inte reflekterar det. En del av orsaken kan förklaras ur ett rutinperspektiv: organisationen har en tröghet som gör det svårt för dem att byta ut sina rutiner och en ibland även splittring som gör det svårt att komma överens om gemensamma rutiner. Det är lättare för projektmedlemmarna att arbeta mot kortsiktiga mål än mot långsiktiga mål vilket blir tydligt när det kommer till arbete med välmående och andra mjuka parametrar. / Working sustainably is becoming significantly more important, especially in the construction industry which has struggled to create safe working environments for a long time. In order to be an attractive employer companies must work with sustainability from many aspects of their employees’ health. Sustainability demands have increased along with expectations of well-being in the workplace. Companies have reason to consider this also from a productivity perspective, research has shown that work affects the well-being of employees and well-being affects their performance which in turn affects project productivity. The purpose of this study is to better understand how project organizations and its members work to establish socially sustainable work processes in the start-up of production in an infrastructure project. To do so the development of routines along with the consequences of inertia and fragmentation have on the members of the project will be investigated, with a focus on well-being. In a qualitative interview study, the start of production in three infrastructure projects in Stockholm were investigated. It turned out that well-being and other soft parameters are very important to the project members and that project routines in the start of production do not reflect that. Partly the reasons for this can be explained from a routine perspective: the organization contains inertia which makes it difficult for them to change routines, in some cases they are also fragmented which makes it difficult to agree upon common routines. It is easier for the members of the projects to work towards short term goals than long term goals, which becomes clear when it comes to work aimed towards well-being and other soft parameters.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (1999, 2011) recommends no screen time for children under two years and limited screen time for three- and four-year-olds. Despite these recommendations, most young children have easy access to various types of screens. In particular, children*s use of mobile media, including tablets and other touch screen devices, is increasing (Common Sense Media, 2013). Even though scholars have highlighted positive uses for mobile media (Christakis, 2014; Radesky, Schumacher, & Zuckerman, 2015) and there are recommendations in place for using mobile media with young children in active, open-ended ways (NAEYC & Fred Rogers Center, 2012), there has been very limited research conducted on the impact of mobile media on young children*s development. What is more, as early childhood professionals are beginning to incorporate mobile media into their classrooms, they are struggling with the ability to use these devices in developmentally appropriate ways (Marklund, 2015; Nuttall, Edwards, Mantilla, Grieshaber, & Wood, 2015). The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the efficacy of using different types of mobile media apps to increase the receptive and expressive vocabulary development of preschool children living in economically disadvantaged communities. Children and teachers in four Head Start classrooms participated in the quasi-experimental study, which included an eight-week intervention in which the children interacted with one of two types of apps: one classroom used direct instruction vocabulary apps (n = 16) and one classroom used open-ended vocabulary apps (n = 15). Two classrooms served as control groups (n = 18; n = 14) which used apps that were chosen by the Head Start program with no specific instructional method. Children*s vocabulary was assessed pre- and post-intervention. To assess receptive vocabulary, the PPVT-4 (Dunn & Dunn, 2007) and an iPad Receptive Vocabulary Assessment (Vatalaro, 2015a) were used. To assess expressive vocabulary, the EVT-2 (Williams, 2007) and an iPad Expressive Vocabulary Assessment (Vatalaro, 2015b) were used. Using a repeated measures analysis of variance with split plot analysis, children who used direct instruction apps performed statistically significantly higher on the PPVT-4 than children who used open-ended apps. Children in the direct instruction app group also performed statistically significantly higher than both control groups on the iPad Receptive Vocabulary Assessment. There were no statistically significant differences between groups for receptive vocabulary as measured by the EVT-2. However, when children were credited for describing a function instead of the iPad vocabulary word, the analysis of the iPad Expressive Vocabulary Assessment revealed that the children using direct instruction apps performed statistically significantly higher than children using open-ended apps and the children in one of the control groups. A secondary purpose of the present study was to examine the use of apps in mobile media by Head Start teachers. The teachers in the two intervention classrooms participated in weekly meetings with the primary researcher for support in using mobile media in their classrooms in order to ensure that the child intervention was carried out with fidelity. After analyzing data from teachers* self-report daily logs across the eight-week intervention, it was determined that the children received instruction on the assigned apps in both intervention classrooms. Although caution is given to the findings due to some limitations such as the quasi-experimental choice of a research design and the number of participants, the present study contributed to the early childhood research literature with the findings that interactive, animated apps which provide the meanings of vocabulary words in a direct instruction manner may have the ability to increase a child*s receptive vocabulary, and to increase a child*s descriptive definitions of iPad functions. This information increases the chance that teachers in Head Start will begin using direct instruction apps, in the hope of increasing a child*s vocabulary knowledge.

This dissertation develops a framework for modeling vehicle emissions microscopically. In addition, the framework is utilized to develop the VT-Micro model using a number of data sources. Key input variables to the VT-Micro model include instantaneous vehicle speed and acceleration levels. Estimating accurate mobile source emissions is becoming more and more critical as a result of increasing environmental problems in large metropolitan urban areas. Current emission inventory models, such as MOBILE and EMPAC, are designed for developing large scale inventories, but are unable to estimate emissions from specific corridors and intersections. Alternatively, microscopic emission models are capable of assessing the impact of transportation scenarios and performing project-level analyses. The VT-Micro model was developed using data collected at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) that included fuel consumption and emission rate measurements (CO, HC, and NOx) for five light-duty vehicles (LDVs) and three light-duty trucks (LDTs) as a function of the vehicle's instantaneous speed and acceleration levels. The hybrid regression models predict hot stabilized vehicle fuel consumption and emission rates for LDVs and LDTs. The model is found to be highly accurate compared to the ORNL data with coefficients of determination ranging from 0.92 to 0.99. The study compares fuel consumption and emission results from MOBILE5a, VT-Micro, and CMEM models. The dissertation presents that the proposed VT-Micro model appears to be good enough in terms of absolute light-duty hot stabilized normal vehicle tailpipe emissions. Specifically, the emission estimates were found to be within the 95 percent confidence limits of field data and within the same level of magnitude as the MOBILE5a model estimates. Furthermore, the proposed VT-Micro model was found to reflect differences in drive cycles in a fashion that was consistent with field observations. Specifically, the model accurately captures the increase in emissions for aggressive acceleration drive cycles in comparison with other drive cycles. The dissertation also presents a framework for developing microscopic emission models. The framework develops emission models by aggregating data using vehicle and operational variables. Specifically, statistical techniques for aggregating vehicles into homogenous categories are utilized as part of the framework. In addition, the framework accounts for temporal lags between vehicle operational variables and vehicle emissions. Finally, the framework is utilized to develop the VT-Micro model version 2.0 utilizing second-by-second chassis dynamometer emission data for a total of 60 light duty vehicles and trucks. Also, the dissertation introduces a procedure for estimating second-by-second high emitter emissions. This research initially investigates high emitter emission cut-points to verify clear definitions of high emitter vehicles (HEVs) and derives multiplicative factors for newly developed EPA driving cycles. Same model structure with the VT-Micro model is utilized to estimate instantaneous emissions for a total of 36 light duty vehicles and trucks. Finally, the dissertation develops a microscopic framework for estimating instantaneous vehicle start emissions for LDVs and LDTs. The framework assumes a linear decay in instantaneous start emissions over a 200-second time horizon. The initial vehicle start emission rate is computed based on MOBILE6's soak time function assuming a 200-second decay time interval. The validity of the model was demonstrated using independent trips that involved cold start and hot start impacts with vehicle emissions estimated to within 10 percent of the field data. The ultimate expansion of this model is its implementation within a microscopic traffic simulation environment in order to evaluate the environmental impacts of alternative ITS and non-ITS strategies. Also, the model can be applied to estimate vehicle emissions using instantaneous GPS speed measurements. Currently, the VT-Micro model has been implemented in the INTEGRATION software for the environmental assessment of operational-level transportation projects. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to appraise certain aspects of kindergarten adjustment of children in San Joaquin County, California, who had participated in the Head Start program during the 1965 eight-week session, and compare it with the adjustment of a comparable group of kindergarten children who had not had an organized preschool experience by testing at the beginning and again at the end of the kindergarten year.

Due to the adverse effects of ammonia on the environment, many governments, including Canada, have imposed new regulations to reduce the discharge of ammonia wastewater effluent into natural receiving waters, which has resulted in the upgrade of ammonia removal at water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) across the world. There is therefore a need to investigate present urban/peri-urban and rural challenges associated with municipal total ammonia (TAN) removal. In particular, there is a need to further advance and optimize technologies such as the moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) to meet these critical challenges. The first objective of this thesis is to validate an elevated loaded strategy for partial nitritation (PN) MBBR as an application for mainstream urban and peri-urban municipal wastewater treatment and to elucidate the mechanism of nitrite-oxidation suppression of this system. The second objective is to identify practical storage strategies for nitrifying MBBR units as rural municipal wastewater upgrade systems (lagoon systems), optimizing the TAN removal performance during seasonal discharge periods. In the context of the present climate change crisis and sustainable development requirements, there is an increased need for efficient TAN removal from urban and peri-urban municipal wastewaters. The application of the energy and cost-efficient partial nitritation/anammox (PN/A) technology to mainstream urban and peri-urban municipal wastewater can prove challenging because of limited ability to achieve the stable PN. Hence, there is a need for the validation of the present strategies for achieving effective and stable PN in the mainstream portion of conventional urban and peri urban WRRFs. The 45 days operation of a laboratory-scale, elevated loaded PN MBBR with average surface area loading rate (SALR) of 5.2 ± 0.1 g TAN/m²·d and a hydraulic retention time of 2h showed a successful and stable nitrite accumulation. The average surface area removal rate (SARR) of 2.3 ± 0.2 g TAN/m²·d (theoretical performance objective of 2.7 g TAN/m²·d), TAN removal efficiency of 43.1 ± 3.4% (theoretical performance objective of 53%) and NO₂- / (NO₂- + NO₃-) ratio of 82.4 ± 4.8% (theoretical performance objective of 100%) meets the necessary requirement to support subsequent cost-efficient anammox process. Biofilm analyses of the laboratory-scale, elevated loaded PN MBBR indicated that the attached biofilm was thick and dense, stable biofilm that did not show and biofilm loss or washout. Biofilm cell viability analyses was indicative of an active biofilm. The ratio of AmoA gene targets of the ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in the MBBR biofilm to the targeted gene region of the Nitrospira nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) population demonstrates that NOB activity suppression of this technology was the dominant mechanism of nitrite-oxidation in the elevated loaded PN MBBR system. In North America, the TAN removal performance of waste stabilization ponds (also termed wastewater treatment lagoon systems), which are widely applied as rural WRRFs, is often not stable due to seasonal temperature variations. Nitrifying MBBR as an upgrade TAN removal unit has been successfully applied to improve TAN removal during winter. However, re-seeding the nitrifying MBBR biofilm during each seasonal operation period is not sustainable. There is therefore an urgent need for optimizing storage strategies of nitrifying MBBR carriers when used as TAN removal upgrade systems of rural WRRFs. The study of storage strategies for nitrifying MBBR as lagoon upgrading systems indicated the batch storage of the nitrifying MBBR biofilms with intermittent aeration could be an effective storage strategy for short-term (12 weeks) storage. Carriers stored in continuous flow aerated condition was shown to be the second most suitable storage method for nitrifying MBBR carriers for systems exposed to less than 12 weeks of storage. Carriers stored in dry condition, batch aerated conditions without flow, and continuous flow aerated condition for long-term (over 18 weeks) failed to achieve full nitrification following 18 days of operation conditions. Carriers stored in dry condition did not successfully achieve full nitrification for short-term and long-term storage and may not be applied to store full nitrification MBBR carriers. The study suggested that, compared to re-seeding start up strategy of the lagoon upgrading nitrifying MBBR biofilm, the use of the appropriate storage strategies, such as batch aerated conditions without flow, has the potential to shorten the start-up time and save energy during the non-discharge periods.

Purpose: The paper aims to identify the ecological orientations of the Swedish start-ups and explore the opportunities and challenges to determine their environmental sustainability actions. Methods: The study used a qualitative method for conducting this exploratory type of research. This paper focused mainly on primary data; semi-structured interviews were conducted on ten Swedish start-ups to explore their sustainable environmental practices. Finally, the collected data were analyzed through cross-case analyses. Findings: Firstly, the findings of the paper posit that the ten Swedish start-ups belong to eco-dedicated, eco-open and eco-reluctant orientations according to their business practices. Secondly, the study explores that saving cost for long run, reusability of components, and the best use of available resources are major opportunities whereas the prime challenges are the additional cost of eco-friendly solutions, customers' price sensitiveness and market competition. And thirdly, the study determines sustainability actions of three categories of start-ups that are self-motivated, hybrid and government support driven.  Contribution: This study contributes to the knowledge of environmental sustainability practices of Swedish start-ups through the lens of ecological orientation. The sole focus on environmental sustainability dimension enhances the theoretical understanding of the start-ups’ actions according to their ecological orientations. Further, this paper equips academic researchers with valuable information of Swedish start-ups’ environmental sustainability actions and help to determine the contribution of the start-ups in environmental sustainability continuum. Moreover, the findings inform about the benefits of environmentally sustainable practices for new businesses. The paper also provides multifaceted information to the business managers about the sustainability actions of start-ups as per their ecological orientations. Conclusions: The result of the study shows that eco-dedicated start-ups are proactive in case of pursuing the environmental sustainability actions while eco-open businesses incorporate both self-driven and regulatory actions. And the sustainability actions of eco-reluctant startups are dependent on the government supports and regulations.

The thesis focuses on the integration of sustainability in the early stages of startups by developing a new framework. Given the resource constraints and focus on viability, it might be difficult for startups to consider sustainability at these early stages. A literature review revealed a lack of information on this subject. The research investigates the sustainability-related challenges startups face, identifies factors for sustainable business models using expert interviews and literature review. Due to the lack of information related to sustainable early stages start-ups, the author analyses basic principles related to start-ups and sustainability. The author looks into holistic approach to sustainability since a fragmental approach to sustainability risks harming the ecosystem while improving some metrics without systemic overview. Life-centred design is an emerging design approach that focuses on the well-being of all life forms and the health of our planet, thus making a shift from just human-centred design. The life-centred design was taken into consideration since it covers different aspects of sustainability as well as ethics and provides practical guidance for the designing process. Based on literature review and expert interviews the framework was formulated. The developed solution was tested with three early-stage startups, providing practical insights. The author analyses the findings and concludes that start-ups which have sustainability as a core value proposition are already sustainable and their sustainable impacts potentially scales with their product growth. At the same time for these types of start-ups it’s vital to consider additional value for the customer apart from sustainable value. For the start-ups with core value not directly related to sustainability, the sustainability can be embedded within a lean approach and aligning sustainability with their business goals if it doesn't require sacrificing limited resources such as money. Finally, the author suggests tools that raise awareness of participants and can be useful for holistic picture, based on findings during the workshop.

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