Horizontal curves are a contributing factor for numerous deaths on roadways. The curve characteristics dictate the severity of the curve and require the driver to be more attentive while driving. To address this issue, advisory speeds are posted on horizontal curves to warn drivers to slow down for their safety. There are six main procedures to assign advisory speeds. This paper focuses on two of these methods, finds a connection between the two, and develops an Android Application that can be used to determine an advisory speed for a curve. In this work, a brief summary of the six existing methods for advisory speed assignment are discussed. Pros and cons are included for each for comparison purposes. Next, two of these methods are highlighted by applying them in the field. Data is collected and a relationship between them is determined. Using this relationship, an Android Application is created and the various details of the design process are described. This Application, called CurveAdvisor, allows the user to assign the appropriate advisory speed on a desired horizontal curve. An analysis is then conducted to test the effectiveness of CurveAdvisor. Results indicate that CurveAdvisor is successful in many cases. Finally, contributions and suggestions for future work are included. / Master of Science

This study is an investigation into the middle school counseling programs that facilitate the early adolescent need to belong to a group. Particular focus is on the effectiveness of teacher-advisory programs, peer mediation programs, and group counseling programs, and how all three programs work together as components of a comprehensive middle school guidance program. Factors associated with successful implementation of these programs and the role of the middle school counselor in the implementation these three programs were also examined. Five middle schools were studied, using qualitative interviews of principals, counselors, and teachers. A focus group of seven to ten students was conducted at each middle school. Results provide a look at several different ways to combine the three programs in a middle school, along with factors for successful implementation. / Ph. D.

Public education is a cornerstone of our democracy and social advancement. However, current Vermont graduation rates would indicate that public education at the high school level does not address the needs of all twenty-first century learners. Research has revealed that personalization and creating a connected environment are promising innovations for improving education for all students. One structure that supports personalization, high school advisory, provides each student with an adult advisor that knows them well through their high school years. This research on high school advisory in Vermont was divided in two phases: 1) an assessment of the current state of advisory in all Vermont public high schools, and 2) a qualitative study that focused on the perceptions of students, advisors and administrators in 4 Vermont high schools with established advisory programs. In the second phase, a phenomenological framework was used to examine the perceptions of how advisory impacted academics, connectedness and the personalization of the high school experience. Document review, focus forum groups and interviews with the sixteen students, eight advisors and four administrators were conducted over a six-month period. Findings demonstrated that 53 out of 62 high schools in Vermont had some form of advisory program. In the study of four schools, over two-thirds of the students perceived that their high school advisory positively impacted their academic achievement. Advisors and administrators were less clear about the impact, however. Furthermore student-to-student connectedness was described positively by three-quarters of the students. The connection between advisory and personalization of education was the least clear both among students and advisors. All administrators and three-quarters of the advisors felt that in the future, personalization would become an integral part of the advisory program with the advent of Vermont Act 77, the 2013 legislation that mandates personalized learning plans and multiple pathways to graduation. Finally, there was considerable agreement in three schools that a significant roadblock to implementing effective advisories was a lack of support for advisory in the following areas: purpose, time, training and materials.

The purpose of the research is to construct Operation Evaluation Indicator of Compulsory Education Advisory Group by means of CIPP Evaluation Mode. There are 4 evaluation levels, 18 evaluation items, and 63 evaluation indicators concluded through literature review, document analyses from Ministry of Education, and those concerning compulsory education advisory groups of 10 counties and cities. The researcher conducted three rounds of Delphi questionnaires through Delphi Technique counseling group with 29 persons, including administrators of Educational Bureaus of City and County Governments, scholars, professionals, curriculum supervisors, members of compulsory education advisory groups, school administrators and teachers, to seek the suitability and feasibility of evaluation indicators and to view the discrimination and internal consistency of evaluation indicators in accordance with 214 questionnaires from three counties and cities. Lastly, the researcher discussed the current condition of the operation of compulsory education advisory groups, difference of diverse Context forms, and the relativity between each level of CIPP according to returned 640 questionnaires presented to compulsory education advisers from 23 counties and cities of the whole country. Conclusions of the research are as follows: 1. Regarding implications of constructing Evaluation Indicators Operation Evaluation Indicators of Compulsory Advisory Group constructed by CIPP four evaluation levels, namely, context, input, process and product, includes 18 evaluation items, 63 evaluation indicators, provided with curriculum profession and administrative performance. 2. Regarding current condition of the organizational operation of compulsory education advisory groups from every country and city. (1) The performance of members of advisory groups in 23 counties and cities was between ¡§Conformable¡¨ and ¡§Very Conformable.¡¨ (2) As for the average score of 23 counties and cities, there¡¦s bigger difference between the country or city with the highest score and that with the lowest score. (3) The performance of four evaluation levels is divided into ¡§Context Evaluation Level,¡¨ ¡§Product Evaluation Level,¡¨ ¡§Input Evaluation Level.¡¨ and ¡§Process Evaluation Level.¡¨ (4) Among 18 evaluation items, ¡§Program Establishment¡¨ and ¡§School Consulting Service¡¨ have the best performance; ¡§Material Resources¡¨ and ¡§R&D Media Teaching Material¡¨ have the worst performance. 3. Regarding performance difference in whole Evaluation of compulsory education advisory groups under different Context variables. (1) As for comparison between compulsory education advisory groups of metropolitan counties and cities, there¡¦s no outstanding difference in the whole evaluation, but there¡¦re outstanding differences in the performance of ¡§Action Research¡¨ and ¡§Execution Features¡¨ among 18 evaluation items. (2) As for comparison between compulsory education advisory groups of municipalities and those of non-municipalities, there¡¦re outstanding differences in whole evaluation and advisory groups of municipalities score higher than those of non-municipalities. However, if it¡¦s compared with evaluation items, 10 evaluation items in total had outstanding differences, and 8 evaluation items did not. (3) As for comparison of having full-time advisers or not, there¡¦re outstanding differences in the performance of whole evaluation, evaluation levels, and evaluation items and the performance of compulsory education advisory groups with full-time advisers was better than those without full-time advisers. (4) As for comparison between ¡§Pass¡¨ and ¡§Pass after amendment¡¨ types examined by Ministry of Education in 2006, there¡¦re outstanding differences in the performance of whole evaluation, and compulsory education advisory groups which ¡§Pass¡¨ the examination performed better than those ¡§Pass after amendment.¡¨ But if it¡¦s compared with evaluation items, 15 evaluation items in total had outstanding differences, but there¡¦re no outstanding difference in ¡§Relevant backup,¡¨ ¡§Assistance in teachers¡¦ growth of profession,¡¨ and Execution features of counties and cities.¡¨ 4. Regarding the correlation between Product Evaluation Level and Context, Input, and Process Evaluation Levels (1) It shows positive correlation between Product Evaluation Level and Context, Input, Process Evaluation Levels. (2) It shows outstandingly positive correlation between Product Evaluation Level and 13 evaluation items of other three evaluation levels. According to conclusions of the research, here are suggestions to Ministry of Education, Education Bureau and Advisory Group of each county and city as below 1. Suggestions to Ministry of Education (1) Apply evaluation indicators developed by the research (2) Continue providing financial resources for Advisory Group of each county and city (3) Promote legalization of Advisory Group (4) Encourage Advisory Group of each county and city to innovate and establish features actively 2. Suggestions to Education Bureaus of counties and cities (1) Recruit full-time advisors (2) Construct human resources managing system for advisors (3) Establish self-evaluation mechanism of Advisory Groups of counties and cities (4) Construct the stage of ¡§Self-fulfillment¡¨ for advisers 3. Suggestions to Advisory Group of each county and city (1) Establish professional image of advisers as ¡§Expert Teacher¡¨ (2) Establish the mechanism of emotional interdependence and lateral communication between advisers (3) Continue promoting consulting service to school teachers (4) Strengthen advisers¡¦ abilities of applying information media.

BAKGRUND: Robotrådgivning kan något förenklat definieras som en digital plattform som förser kunder med en automatiserad finansiell rådgivning. Många nya aktörer har börjat tillhandahålla robotrådgivningstjänster och robotrådgivning anses ha potential att förbättra marknaden för finansiell rådgivning. Ur ett konsumentperspektiv leder robotrådgivningen till bland annat sänkta direkta kostnader i form av lägre förvaltningsavgifter. Trots sänkta direkta kostnader och övriga konsumentfördelar har kapitalinflödet till robotrådgivningstjänster inte varit omfattande. Enligt ekonomiska teorier om transaktionskostnader, väljer köpare att inte genomföra köpet av en tjänst om uppfattade transaktionskostnader förenade med själva transaktionen upplevs för höga. Därmed är det av intresse att undersöka hur konsumenter uppfattar transaktionskostnader förenade med robotrådgivningen samt hur detta påverkar intention att använda tjänsten. SYFTE: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur direkta kostnader respektive indirekta transaktionskostnader påverkar konsumenters intention att använda sig av robotrådgivning. Vidare är syftet att undersöka huruvida respondenter med en liknande intention att använda robotrådgivningstjänster delar några gemensamma drag. GENOMFÖRANDE: Data till studien har samlats in med hjälp av enkätundersökning. Enkäten har besvarats av 77 personer. För att analysera statistiska samband mellan de olika oberoende variablerna och den beroende variabeln intention har vi genomfört en multipel regressionsanalys. För att vidare analysera den insamlade datan och få ännu djupare insikter i hur respondenterna ställer sig i förhållande till robotrådgivningen har vi genomfört klusteranalys. SLUTSATS: Enligt vår studie har variablerna förtroende och mänsklig kontakt ett statistiskt signifikant samband med intentionen att använda robotrådgivning. Enligt klusteranalysen kan dessutom två konsumentprofiler urskiljas med utgångspunkt i intention att använda robotrådgivning. Direkta kostnader, vilka har undersökts med hjälp av variabeln kostnad, har inte visats ha något större inverkan på konsumenternas inställning till robotrådgivning, varför hybridlösningar enligt vår mening skulle kunna vara en möjlig lösning för att minska konsumenternas uppfattade transaktionskostnader och på det sättet öka intentionen att använda robotrådgivningstjänster. / BACKGROUND: Robo-advisory can be defined as a platform which provides customers with an automated financial advisory. A large number of new and already existing financial institutions have started providing robo-advisory services and robo-advisors are considered to have the potential to improve the market of financial services. Among other things, robo- advisory leads to decreased direct costs for consumers in terms of lower management fees. Despite the reduced direct costs and other consumer benefits, the capital inflow to robo- adivosory services has not been substantial yet. According to the economic theories in the field of transaction costs, a buyer is not going to conduct a purchase of a service if perceived transaction costs associated with the transaction itself are too high. Thus, it is essential to examine how consumers perceive transaction costs associated with robo-advisory and how that affects consumers intention to use robo-advisory-services. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to examine how direct costs and indirect transaction costs affect consumers intention to use robo-advisory. Furthermore, the purpose of this study is to examine whether consumers with a similar intention to use robo-advisory services, share any other characteristics. IMPLEMENTATION: Data for our study has been collected via survey. The survey has been answered by 77 people. To analyze possible statistical relationships between the dependent variables and the independent variable intention, we have conducted a multiple regression analysis. In order to further analyze the collected data and gain even deeper insights into how respondents stand in relation to robo-advisory, cluster analysis has been conducted. CONCLUSION: According to our results, only variables trust and human contact have a significant statistic relationship with the intention to use robo-advisory. Furthermore, by means of cluster analysis we have been able to distinguish two consumer profiles based on the dependent variable intention. Direct costs, in terms of the variable cost, have not been shown to have any substantial impact on consumers attitude towards robo-advisory. Hence, hybrid- solutions could, in our opinion, be a possible solution in order to reduce consumers perceived transaction costs, and further increase the intention to use robo-advisory.

BAKGRUND: Den automatiserade ekonomiska rådgivningen i form av robotrådgivning är ett nytt fenomen som funnits på den svenska marknaden i knappt 15 år. Den tidigare populära traditionella rådgivningen har i takt med robotrådgivningens framfart fått ett konkurrenskraftigt alternativ. Förtroende anses vara en av de viktigaste aspekterna för individen när det kommer till valet av ekonomisk rådgivare, men trots att flera studier gjorts inom förtroendeområdet vid ekonomisk rådgivning saknas det fortfarande kunskap om vilka faktorer som förklarar förtroendet till robotrådgivning. Således finns incitament för att täcka den kunskapslucka som idag finns gällande individer som ej aktivt använder sig av robotrådgivare.    SYFTE: Syftet med studien är att skapa förståelse kring vilka faktorer som förklarar svenska individers förtroende till robotrådgivning utifrån ett icke-användande perspektiv, samt hur dessa faktorer främjar eller hämmar förtroendet till tjänsten.   GENOMFÖRANDE: Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer med individer som ej aktivt använder robotrådgivning men som ändå besitter kunskap om hur tjänsten fungerar. Respondenterna fick genom intervjuerna besvara fördjupande frågor om specifika förtroendefaktorer samt hur de uppfattar förtroendet till robotrådgivning.   SLUTSATS: Studiens resultat utifrån den insamlade empirin visade att respondenterna har ett högt förtroende till robotrådgivning där kompetens och följdriktighet visade sig vara de främst främjande faktorerna till förtroendet. Kommunikation var delvis främjande, delvis hämmande, medan medkänslan i och med sin avsaknad vid robot-rådgivning framhävdes som en svagt främjande faktor. Anseende, bemötande, kostnad och transparens lyftes också som förklarande förtroendefaktorer till robotrådgivning. / BACKGROUND: The automated financial advisor in the form of robo-advisors is a new phenomenon that has existed in the Swedish market for almost 15 years. The already popular traditional financial advisory has, in step with the progress of robo-advisory, been given a competitive alternative. Trust is considered as one of the most important aspects for the individual when it comes to choosing financial advisors, but despite several studies done in the area of ​​trust in financial advisory, there is still a lack of knowledge about which factors are explaining trust in robo-advisory. Thus, there are incentives to cover the knowledge gap that currently exists for individuals who do not actively use robo-advisory.   AIM: The aim with this thesis is to gain knowledge about which factors are explaining individuals’ trust in robo-advisors from a non-user perspective, as well as to investigate in what way these factors might enable or disable the trust in the service.    COMPLETION: To fulfill the aim of this study, a qualitative method has been implemented through semi-structured interviews with individuals that do not actively use a robo-advisor. Through the interviews, the respondents were asked to answer in-depth questions about specific trust factors and how they perceive the trust in robo-advisory.   CONCLUSION: The overall results of the study based on the collected empirical data showed that the respondents have a high level of trust in robo-advisory, where competence and consistency proved to be the main enabling factors for trust. Communication was partly enabling, partly disabling, while compassion, due to its lack within robo-advisory, was emphasized as a vague promoting factor. Reputation, treatment, cost and transparency were also highlighted as explanatory factors of trust in robo-advisory.

The object of the work was to analyze the current status of advisory services supply and their assessment on the basis of demand from enterpreneurs in agriculture. Within the framework of the analysis investigation via questionnaire was conducted among enterpreneurs. The collected data then compared to find out whether the purpose of the advisory service has been fulfilled.

Background Digitalization have been affecting the world industries the past years. With this, Banks have been digitizing their products and services for their customers to be competitive in the sector. The investment advisement has been a part of this digitization. Banks nowadays compete with robo-advising, which originates from the USA. In Sweden this is relatively new for both the banks and the customers, and therefore has some challenges to face, before it can replace the traditional investment advising. Purpose The purpose of the study is to investigate and compare the robo-advisement to the traditional investment advising, but also to explore if the users of the robo-advice thinks if it is enough developed to replace the traditional investment advising.  Method To achieve the results for our study, we have chosen a qualitative method with the use of semi-structured interviews with ten respondents which meets the requirements to participate in the interview for the study’s purpose. To give a brief overview of the respondents answers we will conclude them into tables, and to attain the purpose of the study we will analyze the results with the theories used in our study and previous research in the subject. Conclusion After analyzing the results we have come to a conclusion that the robo-advice need to be more developed due to its incompatible function to process the information from the users to offer them a complete investment advisement. Therefore the robo-advisory is not yet ready to replace the traditional investment advising but could still be used as a good complement together with the physical interaction of the users and investing advisors. This because of the time efficiency of the robo-advisement and the traditional investment advisors capability to build a relationship and create trust in between them.

No description available.

Bakgrund: I mötet med vården upplever många patienter att kommunikationen och bemötandet brister. Den nya Patientlagen är avsedd för att förbättra situationen. Patientklagomål som har skickats in till patientnämnden kan hjälpa till att förstå faktorer och hinder som finns och vilka delar av Patientlagen som behöver implementeras bättre för att förbättra kvalitet av vården för alla. Syfte: Att granska klagomål om kommunikation inkomna till en patientnämnd vad gäller bakgrundsfaktorer bland patienterna, analysera anmälningarna utifrån Patientlagens bestämmelser samt undersöka vilka åtgärder de har lett till. Metod: En empirisk studie med beskrivande design med en kvantitativ ansats användes. Materialet samlades in från en patientnämnds databas i Sverige. Alla ärenden som handlade om kommunikation på ett sjukhus i Mellansverige och som kom in under 2015 inkluderades. Resultat: I de flesta fall anmälde patienten själv (72,7 %) händelsen och de var ofta kvinnor (61,7 %). Medelåldern på de som anmälde var 44 år. Det verksamhetsområde som gav flest anmälningar var ortopedi (13,7 %). Anmälningarna visade problem med att uppfylla Patientlagens kapitel om inledande bestämmelser, information, samtycke och delaktighet. Patientnämnden hade kontakt med vården i över hälften av fallen samtidigt som en femtedel av anmälningarna inte ledde till någon åtgärd. Slutsats: I vården finns det brister på hur Patientlagens krav uppfylls för till exempel information, samtycke och delaktighet. Mer uppmärksamhet borde ges till att utveckla fungerande kommunikation mellan vården, patienten och anhöriga. / Background: There is a lot of room for improvement in how patients experience their communication with the health care providers. The new Patient Law is intended to improve the situation. Patient complaints that are submitted to the Patient Advisory Committee can help to understand the factors and barriers that exist and which parts of the Patient Law that need more implementation to make health care better for all. Objective: This study examined complaints about communication that had been sent in to one Patient Advisory Committee in Sweden. From the complaints the study examined who makes the complaint (patient/relative, gender and age), in which care unit most of the complaints occur in and to which paragraphs of the Patient Law the complaint could be classified into. Finally the study examined what measures had been taken because of the complaints. Method: An empirical study with descriptive design with quantitative approach was used. The complaints were gathered from one Patient Advisory Committees database. All complaints concerning communication in one hospital in Sweden that were sent in during 2015 were included. Results: In the majority of all cases the patient reported the complaints themselves (72,7 %) and they were mostly women (61,7 %) The average age of those whom the complaints were about was 44 years. The care unit that got most complaints was orthopedics (13,7 %). The reports showed problems implementing Swedish Patient law’s chapter on initial regulations, information, consent and participation. The Patient Advisory Committee had contact with the health care providers in over 50 % of the cases but in 20 % of the cases the complaints did not lead to any measures. Conclusion: There are a lot of deficiencies in adhering to the Patient Laws requi,,rements for instance for information, approval and participation and more attention should be given to developing a well-functioning communication between the health care personnel, the patient and the relatives.