Being able to predict stock prices might be the unspoken wish of stock investors. Although stock prices are complicated to predict, there are many theories about what affects their movements, including interest rates, news and social media. With the help of Machine Learning, complex patterns in data can be identified beyond the human intellect. In this thesis, a Machine Learning model for time series forecasting is created and tested to predict stock prices. The model is based on a neural network with several layers of Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and fully connected layers. It is trained with historical stock values, technical indicators and Twitter attribute information retrieved, extracted and calculated from posts on the social media platform Twitter. These attributes are sentiment score, favourites, followers, retweets and if an account is verified. To collect data from Twitter, Twitter’s API is used. Sentiment analysis is conducted with Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner (VADER). The results show that by adding more Twitter attributes, the Mean Squared Error (MSE) between the predicted prices and the actual prices improved by 3%. With technical analysis taken into account, MSE decreases from 0.1617 to 0.1437, which is an improvement of around 11%. The restrictions of this study include that the selected stock has to be publicly listed on the stock market and popular on Twitter and among individual investors. Besides, the stock markets’ opening hours differ from Twitter, which constantly available. It may therefore introduce noises in the model. / Att kunna förutspå aktiekurser kan sägas vara aktiespararnas outtalade önskan. Även om aktievärden är komplicerade att förutspå finns det många teorier om vad som påverkar dess rörelser, bland annat räntor, nyheter och sociala medier. Med hjälp av maskininlärning kan mönster i data identifieras bortom människans intellekt. I detta examensarbete skapas och testas en modell inom maskininlärning i syfte att beräkna framtida aktiepriser. Modellen baseras på ett neuralt nätverk med flera lager av LSTM och fullt kopplade lager. Den tränas med historiska aktievärden, tekniska indikatorer och Twitter-attributinformation. De är hämtad, extraherad och beräknad från inlägg på den sociala plattformen Twitter. Dessa attribut är sentiment-värde, antal favorit-markeringar, följare, retweets och om kontot är verifierat. För att samla in data från Twitter används Twitters API och sentimentanalys genomförs genom VADER. Resultatet visar att genom att lägga till fler Twitter attribut förbättrade MSE mellan de förutspådda värdena och de faktiska värdena med 3%. Genom att ta teknisk analys i beaktande minskar MSE från 0,1617 till 0,1437, vilket är en förbättring på 11%. Begränsningar i denna studie innefattar bland annat att den utvalda aktien ska vara publikt listad på börsen och populär på Twitter och bland småspararna. Dessutom skiljer sig aktiemarknadens öppettider från Twitter då den är ständigt tillgänglig. Detta kan då introducera brus i modellen.

The purpose of this study was to examine how the safety was regarded by the public at three differently located bus stops in Umeå’s local bus traffic. Umeå is in the context a medium sized town located in the northern of Sweden.    The study was conducted through interviews at bus stops in three different locational districts within Umeå’s municipal borders. Vasaplan, Ålidhem and Röbäck. The bus stops differentiate from one another through means of population density, location, repute, and the availability of amenities in the area. A total of 38 recipients was interviewed at these bus stops, the questions asked to the recipients treated how the safety was perceived according to the time of the day at each location, if they had been exposed to or observed any alarming events at the bus stops as well as which attributes, they thought could increase or decrease said safety at the bus stop.    The data has been analyzed through the theoretical approaches of grounded theory. The result concludes that there are differences in the perceived safety between the bus stops. Röbäck was in many regards considered the safest bus stop. Whereas the definition in the safety between Vasaplan and Ålidhem was more difficult to define. The result also contains the attributes which the recipients have opinionated contributed most to the safety at the bis stop in both a positive and a negative way. The safety at the bus stop was largely dependent upon the time of the day, as evenings were when most recipient felt unsafe in the transit environments.

Purpose: The purpose of this explanatory study is to extend the knowledge of how to develop an employer value proposition that conveys an attractive employer brand. Literature Review: Literature reviewed for this study includes the concepts of employer brand, employee value proposition, and different aspects of work attributes (i.e. interest value, social value, economic value, development value, and application value) that together form perceived employer attractiveness. Further literature that is reviewed includes the concepts of attitudes and the hierarchy of effects. Methodology: A mixed-method approach with a deductive logic of inquiry was adopted for this explanatory study, for which primary data of both quantitative and qualitative nature were collected from engineers, through the conduction of web-based self-completion questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Findings: The study found that the involvement and motivation level behind the hierarchy of effects had a significant impact on the perceived value of one of the categories of the work attributes reflecting the employer's attractiveness, whilst the perceived value of the other work attributes included in the study were not expected to increase or decrease in combination with the intensity towards job search activities. It was also found that the attitudes towards the behavior of applying for a job, measured through the involvement and motivation level towards job search activities, were shifting within the target group, hence influencing their perceived employer attractiveness. Further on, the study showed a consistent high perceived value of all work attributes that were studied, in terms of what work attributes to include in the employer value proposition. Meanwhile, a multidimensional nature of the perceptions on employer attractiveness was also acknowledged, which hence could be crucial in developing an employer value proposition that stands out on the employer market.

Advertising is constantly surrounding us in different shapes, meaning that companies need to stand out in order to invoke people's attention. Advertising reflects the society's current norms which means that the media and society's values affect each other (Fagerström & Nilsson, 2008). Women have for a long time been objectified and presented in stereotypical roles since sexism is a common component in advertising (Grau & Zotos, 2016). An industry that is frequently being accused of promoting an asymmetrical image of women's bodies is the fast fashion industry (Fay & Price, 1994). It is crucial in both a societal- and business perspective to take responsibility when it comes to sexism in advertising. This study aims to examine female consumers attitudes towards quality attributes in advertising within the female fast fashion industry. Given the research purpose of this thesis, the research questions are: 1) How can the quality attributes in the female fast fashion industry be used to satisfy women as customers? 2) How does quality attributes contribute to customer (dis-)satisfaction in the female fast fashion industry? A preliminary study was organized to state consumers’ different attributes of sexism to use in the questionnaire. Followed by this was the main study with Kano pair questions that included 201 respondents. The pair questions were formulated by the attributes identified in the preliminary study. This study shows how all the presented attributes (“Size zero”, “White people”, “CIS-person”, “Functional variation”, “Unrealistic ideals”, “High level of nudity”, “Erotic way”, “Sexual desire”, “Body focus”, “Behind or breasts” and “Lips or mouth”) were classified as “Reversed” which is an indication of dissatisfaction and an urge for the attribute to be the opposite. This thesis demonstrates the relationship between the quality attributes and theories regarding objectification and portrayal of women. The customers’ attitudes towards the quality attributes correlate with the consequences as results of advertising in a sexist way. Businesses within the female fast fashion industry can prioritise the customer requirements for their advertisements in all assistance measurement and estimation of customer satisfaction in order to rise above the current way of advertising and become more customer oriented and to take responsibility and participation in the development of a gender equal society.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / New nurses report feeling unprepared, incompetent, and highly stressed, contributing to first-year turnover rates of 25% in some healthcare organizations. Turnover, combined with a preparation-practice gap, has alerted advocacy organizations and researchers to recommend the development of nurse residency programs. Nurse residency programs are a post-graduate training period where new nurses receive enhanced clinical education in the healthcare setting. While highly variable in structure and attributes, programs usually include educational sessions, clinical immersion, and role socialization opportunities. Evidence supports that new nurses participating in nurse residency programs experience positive outcomes, including increased confidence, competence, and decreased turnover rates. Despite this, only half of the hospitals nationwide have implemented a program with most designed around a single health system mission. This dissertation study aimed to identify the attributes of nurse residency programs influencing the newly licensed registered nurse. An integrative review of the literature and evolutionary concept analysis was completed to examine the state of the science of nurse residency programs. Findings revealed a lack of conceptual and theoretical design and variability among program structures, creating a gap in the literature about the attributes of programs that are most influencing new nurses. Based on the literature's noted gaps, a qualitative description study was conducted. Purposive sampling strategies were used to recruit nurses who recently completed varied program models across the United States. New nurses reported the attributes of programs and described how those positively and negatively influenced the transition to practice experience. The overarching themes revealed that new nurses need a cadre of highly supportive individuals across the clinical and educational continuum who espouse astute interpersonal and communication skills. New nurses desire engaging activities with intra and interprofessional team members for clinical skill application, knowledge advancement, and role socialization. New nurses need the structure of meetings at times and in a sequence conducive to learning; and for preceptorship experiences to be facilitated by trained preceptors, on a unit, and of a length that supports confidence for autonomous practice. Future research will include the development and testing of an evaluation tool based on the findings from this study.

No description available.

In the workflow of computational fluid dynamics, geometry preparation is commonly the most time-consuming step. For a fast CFD simulation, automatic surface reconstruction to obtain 3D city models for a chosen area is essential. To address this need, a literature study was conducted to map available data suitable for 3D city models. The properties investigated included geographical coverage, resolution, accuracy and licensing. A surface reconstruction using different topographical data was conducted using the 3D finite element mesh generator Gmsh and various GIS analysis tools. The findings of the literature study found no global data enabling a fully automatic solution with sufficient results. However, the open geographic database OpenStreetMap has potential for future work. Today, the method developed in this project is restricted to country-by-country applications and uses a terrain model, LiDAR data and building footprints as input data. The generated 3D city model has a level of detail 1.2, consisting of valid geometries without self-intersection, overlapping or gaps. The method is a semi-automatic workflow with a time consumption of less than one hour, from the extraction of data to a simulation-ready 3D city model. The model shows satisfactory agreement with the reference material but needs improvements regarding the detail of height setting, for more accurate airflow simulations. The method contributes to the field of automatic 3D city model reconstruction. Future work includes improvement regarding level of detail and automation of data attainment.

No description available.

Cancer is a global risk for human wellness and health. Dietary habits could profoundly affect the risk of certain cancer, such as colorectal cancer (CRC) (Platz, 2000). CRC has listed the third leading cancer among male and female in the United States (Stewart, 2014). Surprisingly, the consumption of dietary fiber has an inverse correlation with the mortality of CRC (Song, 2018). However, most Americans do not consume enough dietary fiber to meet the recommended level of dietary fiber intake (Clemens, 2012; Lee-Kwan, 2017). Hence, it is reasonable to increase the nutrient density, i.e., dietary fiber, of current food model. Xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS), an emerging prebiotics, showed multiple advantages over fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) and inulin. For example, Hsu et al. (2004) reported XOS are more effective than FOS on increasing Bifidobacterium level in rat cecum (Hsu, 2004). It is also suggested that dietary fiber and phenolic compounds have synergistic effect on promoting gut health (Uehara, 2001; Matsukawa, 2009). Therefore, the application of XOS into a polyphenol-dense food vehicle (strawberry puree) could be a viable way to promote gastrointestinal health and help reduce CRC risk. First, the effect of xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS) incorporation on the quality attributes of strawberry puree was investigated. Rheological properties, color and physicochemical characteristics and composition such as water activity, pH, and total soluble solids, were investigated to determine the maximum XOS content that can be incorporated into the strawberry pure without significantly altering the original properties of samples. Based on the collected data, adding xylo-oligosaccharides greater than 7.5% w/w will significantly change the quality attributes of the strawberry puree including its rheological characteristics, color profile, water activity, and total soluble solids. The addition of XOS at 2.5% and 5% w/w did not significantly alter overall quality attributes of strawberry puree. Second, the effects of heat treatment (HTST, 75℃, 15s and UHT, 121℃, 2s) and storage condition (storage time: 1, 15, and 36 days; storage temperature: 4℃ and 55℃) on the quality attributes of xylo-oligosaccharides enhanced strawberry puree was studied (texture, color water activity, total soluble solids, and pH). In addition, the physicochemical (total phenolic, tannin, flavonoids contents, and antioxidant activity) evolution was studied. A 9-point Hedonic test was conducted to evaluate the sensory properties (overall, texture, color, appearance, sweetness, aroma, flavor) of purees (with and without XOS, 5%w/w) under different thermal treatments. Briefly, all nutritional attributes were retained better under cold storage (4 ℃) as compared to high-temperature storage (55 ℃). The result revealed that thermal treatment and high storage temperature showed an inverse correlation with puree consistency. As for chemical analysis, intense thermal treatment (UHT) caused the most degradation in TPC, TFC and tannin level. However, such treatments (UHT) helped significantly increase the measurable antioxidant level. For other physicochemical properties, processing methods (HTST / UHT) and high storage temperature exhibited more significance in changing the color profiles of the specimen than XOS incorporation. Overall, the addition of XOS up to 5% w/w could increase nutritional value of strawberry puree as well as consumer preference without significantly compromising quality attributes. Based on instrumental and sensory analysis, HTST treated strawberry puree with XOS incorporation (5% w/w) meet the standard of sensorial attributes of fresh puree with improved shelf-life stability and fiber concentration.

Frozen, thawed and osmotically-dehydrated highbush (HB) (Vaccinium corymbosum) and rabbiteye (RB) (V. virgatum) blueberries were analyzed under a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to observe microstructural differences in their skin. Rabbiteye blueberries of both frozen, thawed and osmotically-dehydrated treatments, had thicker skins than highbush blueberries. Rabbiteye blueberries, collected from local farms, packed and blast frozen (PBF), had thinner skins than individually quick-frozen (IQF) blueberries. Washing berries prior to freezing had no effect on skin thickness. Sensory analysis of samples determined there were no differences (p > 0.05) between PBF and IQF methods and species with respect to skin intactness, grittiness, sweetness, and blueberry flavor. IQF berries obtained from one farm had tougher skin (p ≤ 0.05) than other berries regardless of treatment. RB were rated lower in juiciness and higher in grittiness than HB berries whereas LH berries were rated lower in shriveling and higher in skin intactness.