Traffic fatalities accounted for 1.24 million lives lost in 2013 worldwide, and almost 33 thousand of those fatalities were in the U.S. in 2013. The southeastern region of the nation stands out for continuously having higher fatality rates per mile driven than the national average. If one can establish compelling relationships between various factors and fatality rates, then policies and investments can be targeted to increase the safety on the network by focusing on policies that mitigate those factors. In this research effort risk-taking characteristics are explored. These factors have not been as comprehensively reviewed as conventional factors such as vehicle and facility conditions associated with safety. The hypothesis assumes if a person exhibits risk-taking behavior, that risk-taking behavior is not limited to only one aspect of risk, but is likely to occur in multiple facets of the person's life. Some of the risk-taking characteristics explored include credit score, safety belt use, smoking and tobacco use, drug use, mental health, educational attainment, obesity, and overall general health characteristics. All risk-taking characteristics with the exception of mental health were found to have statistically significant correlations with fatality rates alone. However, when a regression model was formed to estimate fatality rates by risk-taking characteristics, only four risk-taking characteristics - credit score, educational attainment, overall poor health, and seat belt use were found to be statistically significant at an integrated level with other demographic characteristics such as unemployment levels and population born is state of residency. By identifying at-risk population segments, education, counseling, enforcement, or other strategies may be deployed to help improve travel safety.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate consumer’s attitude towards licensed products in relation to the parent brand, with respect to perceived quality, likelihood to buy and associations’ transferability. Background: Brand licensing has become one of an increasingly popular ways of stretching a brand into new product categories to reach more consumers in new markets. Despite the fact that brand licensing is less risky than building a brand from scratch, the odds that licensed products will fail are still high. That is why, it is interesting to investigate consumers’ attitudes towards brand licensing in fast moving consumer goods sector and see how perceived quality, likelihood to buy and transferability of parent brand associations will impact the licensing strategy. Method: The authors will use quantitative approach; data will be gathered using self-administered questionnaires. Furthermore, the data will be analysed using SPSS, namely by employing Spearman’s correlation. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that perceived quality, likelihood to buy and associations of the parent brand have a positive impact on the licensed products only if there is a high degree of perceived fit between the two product categories. Consumers welcome new licensed product that is in the related product category, however, the consumers appear to be sceptical to the product that is outside of the core market of the parent brand.

A Study on the Establishment of Police Work Indicator in Kaohsiung Abstract Social security is the public issue that enjoys the greatest concerns from the civil public. This study attempts to establish a set of indicators based on current situation of police patrol work and commitment in Kaohsiung, in the method of social science indicator establishment to objectively and adequately evaluate Kaohsiung police work efficiency. This essay surveys the issues concerning police work indicators referring to bibliographies of the idea of police, the procedure of patrol duty development, patrol¡¦s effectiveness on crime deterrence, type of crime and criminal indicator in Kaohsiung City. In the first part herein, the frequency of stopping, listening, and seeing while performing patrol duty by police officers serve in the eight police stations governed by Kaohsiung County Police Bureau Fengshan Police Precinct was investigated and ¡§Patrol Duty Indicator¡¨ was established accordingly. And in the second part, citizens attained the age of twenty having household registration set in Kaohsiung City were interviewed through telephone about the seriousness of different crimes on social security to have ¡§Criminal Indicator¡¨ produced. At last, the said two indicators were combined to form the Police Work Indicator. As for statistic analysis, SPSS for windows (8.0) was adopted to perform data organization and statistics. Additionally, Descriptives, Crosstabs, and £q2,Chi-square 2,Chi-square test ,test of independence were implemented to describe the condition and then make statistics of all indicators. From Patrol Duty Indicator, it¡¦s found that the efficiency of patrol duty is determined by the ¡§Unit Personnel Number¡¨ and ¡§Age of Policemen.¡¨ While assigning patrol duties, the police work agency shall take the two principal factors into consideration more carefully to have patrol duties fulfilled. In the respect of criminal indicator, it is concluded from individual comparison that the general public considers it¡¦s good regarding overall criminal indicator, and it is improved slightly concerning criminal indicator of violence. However, it¡¦s slightly worsened in relation to the criminal indicator of theft and drug addicts. The police work agency may observe changes in indicators and modify the measurements moderately. Key Words: Social Science Indicator, Descriptives, Criminal Indicator, Hot Spot Planning, Type of Crime, Patrol Duty Indicator, Variance Analysis, Correlation Analysis

This study starts from the perspective of a future increase availability of water quality data at the water treatment facility at Lovön and aims to use the existing data to identify a pattern in the role of the different sub-basin that constitute the Mälaren basin. The data are analyzed with the graphical tool of the scatterplot and a Non-linear Canonical Correlation Analysis, a variation of the classical multivariate method, that by using a neural network model is able to handle not linear relationships. From the data analysis, it is possible to identify that different areas have different contribution in shaping the water quality at the facility of Lovön, but also that this pattern of contribution is strongly affected by the season inside the analyzed year.

This Master's thesis is focused on an assessment of development on the capital market in the Czech Republic in the context of development of macroeconomic indicators. There are used correlation and regression analyses which indicate power of relation between variables and determine regression models. These regression models are used to predict future values. There are a gross domestic product, an unemployment rate, a consumer price index, a national deficit, an exchange rate CZK/EUR and interest rates (2W repo rate, a discount, a Lombard rate and PRIBOR) used as independent variables. Representatives of the capital market are a stock market index PX and a 10-Years Bond Yield, which are dependent variables. There is also a mention of the existence of relation between the Czech and foreign development because of globalization.

O estudo realizado numa indústria transformadora de papéis teve por objetivo contribuir para a evidenciação da importância do monitoramento das variáveis macroeconômicas nos sistemas de informação. Existem ferramentas tecnológicas para processar esse tipo de informação e a literatura oferece suporte para a necessidade desse monitoramento, no entanto, esta prática tem sido objeto de um número limitado de trabalhos empíricos e tem recebido relativamente pouca atenção no ambiente empresarial. Uma possível justificativa, talvez seja a complexidade e o dinamismo dos dados que, além de estarem em constante oscilação per si, interagem entre si e podem ter impactos distintos em cada um dos produtos de uma mesma empresa. A pesquisa que deu origem a esta dissertação, foi realizada como um estudo exploratório descritivo, utilizando-se métodos estatísticos para processar variáveis internas e externas para analisar a importância das variáveis macroeconômicas no gerenciamento de informações de uma empresa selecionada. Escolheu-se uma só empresa com um leque diversificado de produtos e sua relação com seu ambiente externo. Na complexidade interna do negócio foram escolhidos os produtos mais representativos da empresa e cada um deles foram explorados através de duas ferramentas de análise multivariada de dados. Primeiro, fez-se uso da correlação canônica para escolher as variáveis macroeconômicas que possuíam relação mais forte com os produtos selecionados e, em seguida, utilizou-se a regressão linear múltipla para identificar as elasticidades dos produtos em relação a cada uma das variáveis macroeconômicas. Os resultados obtidos, evidentemente, não esgotam o estudo da prática apontada, mas os objetivos propostos e alcançados pela pesquisa, evidenciaram a importância do monitoramento das variáveis macroeconômicas para o caso estudado. / The study formulated in a paper transforming industry intends to contribute in the demonstration of the importance of monitoring macroeconomic variables in Information Systems. There are technological tools to process those data and the literature offers support to this need, nevertheless the subject has receive little attention in the corporate background and was the object of few empiric papers. One reason may be the complexity and the dynamism of the data which besides being in constant oscillation interact among each other and may have distinct impacts in different products of the company. The research performed in this dissertation is categorized as a descriptive exploratory study, using statistical methods to process internal and external variables in order to analyze the importance of the macroeconomic variables in the information management in a firm of choice. It was chosen a single firm with a wide range of products and its relation with the external environment. In the internal complexity of the business it was chosen the most representative products and each one of them were analyzed trough two different multivariate data analysis. First the Canonic Correlation in order to select the macroeconomic variables with the strongest relation to the selected products, subsequently the Multiple Linear Regression with the intention of pinpointing the elasticity of the same products to each variable. The results clearly do not exhaust the subject, however corroborate with the proposed and reached objectives highlighting the importance of monitoring macroeconomic variables for the case studied.

O estudo realizado numa indústria transformadora de papéis teve por objetivo contribuir para a evidenciação da importância do monitoramento das variáveis macroeconômicas nos sistemas de informação. Existem ferramentas tecnológicas para processar esse tipo de informação e a literatura oferece suporte para a necessidade desse monitoramento, no entanto, esta prática tem sido objeto de um número limitado de trabalhos empíricos e tem recebido relativamente pouca atenção no ambiente empresarial. Uma possível justificativa, talvez seja a complexidade e o dinamismo dos dados que, além de estarem em constante oscilação per si, interagem entre si e podem ter impactos distintos em cada um dos produtos de uma mesma empresa. A pesquisa que deu origem a esta dissertação, foi realizada como um estudo exploratório descritivo, utilizando-se métodos estatísticos para processar variáveis internas e externas para analisar a importância das variáveis macroeconômicas no gerenciamento de informações de uma empresa selecionada. Escolheu-se uma só empresa com um leque diversificado de produtos e sua relação com seu ambiente externo. Na complexidade interna do negócio foram escolhidos os produtos mais representativos da empresa e cada um deles foram explorados através de duas ferramentas de análise multivariada de dados. Primeiro, fez-se uso da correlação canônica para escolher as variáveis macroeconômicas que possuíam relação mais forte com os produtos selecionados e, em seguida, utilizou-se a regressão linear múltipla para identificar as elasticidades dos produtos em relação a cada uma das variáveis macroeconômicas. Os resultados obtidos, evidentemente, não esgotam o estudo da prática apontada, mas os objetivos propostos e alcançados pela pesquisa, evidenciaram a importância do monitoramento das variáveis macroeconômicas para o caso estudado. / The study formulated in a paper transforming industry intends to contribute in the demonstration of the importance of monitoring macroeconomic variables in Information Systems. There are technological tools to process those data and the literature offers support to this need, nevertheless the subject has receive little attention in the corporate background and was the object of few empiric papers. One reason may be the complexity and the dynamism of the data which besides being in constant oscillation interact among each other and may have distinct impacts in different products of the company. The research performed in this dissertation is categorized as a descriptive exploratory study, using statistical methods to process internal and external variables in order to analyze the importance of the macroeconomic variables in the information management in a firm of choice. It was chosen a single firm with a wide range of products and its relation with the external environment. In the internal complexity of the business it was chosen the most representative products and each one of them were analyzed trough two different multivariate data analysis. First the Canonic Correlation in order to select the macroeconomic variables with the strongest relation to the selected products, subsequently the Multiple Linear Regression with the intention of pinpointing the elasticity of the same products to each variable. The results clearly do not exhaust the subject, however corroborate with the proposed and reached objectives highlighting the importance of monitoring macroeconomic variables for the case studied.

Genome-wide associations studies (GWASs) have identified hundreds of loci that are strongly associated with coronary artery disease and its risk factors. However, the causal variants and genes remain unknown for the vast majority of the identified loci. Zebrafish model systems coupled with clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-C–associated 9 (CRISPR Cas-9) mutagenesis have enabled the possibility to systematically characterize candidate genes in GWAS-identified loci. In this thesis, canonical correlation analysis (CCA) was used to identify putative causal genes in multiplexed genetic screens for atherogenic traits in zebrafish larvae in an efficient manner. The two datasets used in this thesis contained genes and phenotypes obtained through sequencing and high-throughput imaging of fish larvae. Dataset 1 contained (7 genes, 11 phenotypes, n = 384) and dataset 2 (4 genes, 11 phenotypes, n = 384). CCA’s multiple genes vs. multiple phenotype analysis in dataset 1 identified the genes met, pepd, timd4 and vegfa to have an association with the total cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, corrected lipid disposition, as well as co- localization of (macrophage and lipid deposition,) (neutrophils and lipid deposition) and (macrophage and neutrophils). In dataset 2, CCA found previously reported correlation of genes apobb1 and apoea with total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein and triglycerides as well as co localization of neutrophils and lipids. In comparison with hierarchical linear model, CCA represents a powerful and promising tool to identify causal genes for cardiovascular diseases in data from zebrafish model systems.

The use of conversational agents has increased across the world. From providing automated support for companies to being virtual psychologists they have moved from an academic curiosity to an application with real world relevance. While many researchers have focused on the content of the dialogue and synthetic speech to give the agents a voice, more recently animating these characters has become a topic of interest. An additional use for character animation technology is in the film and video game industry where having characters animated without needing to pay for expensive labour would save tremendous costs. When animating characters there are many aspects to consider, for example the way they walk. However, to truly assist with communication automated animation needs to duplicate the body language used when speaking. In particular conversational agents are often only an animation of the upper parts of the body, so head motion is one of the keys to a believable agent. While certain linguistic features are obvious, such as nodding to indicate agreement, research has shown that head motion also aids understanding of speech. Additionally head motion often contains emotional cues, prosodic information, and other paralinguistic information. In this thesis we will present our research into synthesising head motion using only recorded speech as input. During this research we collected a large dataset of head motion synchronised with speech, examined evaluation methodology, and developed a synthesis system. Our dataset is one of the larger ones available. From it we present some statistics about head motion in general. Including differences between read speech and story telling speech, and differences between speakers. From this we are able to draw some conclusions as to what type of source data will be the most interesting in head motion research, and if speaker-dependent models are needed for synthesis. In our examination of head motion evaluation methodology we introduce Forced Canonical Correlation Analysis (FCCA). FCCA shows the difference between head motion shaped noise and motion capture better than standard methods for objective evaluation used in the literature. We have shown that for subjective testing it is best practice to use a variation of MUltiple Stimuli with Hidden Reference and Anchor (MUSHRA) based testing, adapted for head motion. Through experimentation we have developed guidelines for the implementation of the test, and the constraints on the length. Finally we present a new system for head motion synthesis. We make use of simple templates of motion, automatically extracted from source data, that are warped to suit the speech features. Our system uses clustering to pick the small motion units, and a combined HMM and GMM based approach for determining the values of warping parameters at synthesis time. This results in highly natural looking motion that outperforms other state of the art systems. Our system requires minimal human intervention and produces believable motion. The key innovates were the new methods for segmenting head motion and creating a process similar to language modelling for synthesising head motion.

O estudo realizado numa indústria transformadora de papéis teve por objetivo contribuir para a evidenciação da importância do monitoramento das variáveis macroeconômicas nos sistemas de informação. Existem ferramentas tecnológicas para processar esse tipo de informação e a literatura oferece suporte para a necessidade desse monitoramento, no entanto, esta prática tem sido objeto de um número limitado de trabalhos empíricos e tem recebido relativamente pouca atenção no ambiente empresarial. Uma possível justificativa, talvez seja a complexidade e o dinamismo dos dados que, além de estarem em constante oscilação per si, interagem entre si e podem ter impactos distintos em cada um dos produtos de uma mesma empresa. A pesquisa que deu origem a esta dissertação, foi realizada como um estudo exploratório descritivo, utilizando-se métodos estatísticos para processar variáveis internas e externas para analisar a importância das variáveis macroeconômicas no gerenciamento de informações de uma empresa selecionada. Escolheu-se uma só empresa com um leque diversificado de produtos e sua relação com seu ambiente externo. Na complexidade interna do negócio foram escolhidos os produtos mais representativos da empresa e cada um deles foram explorados através de duas ferramentas de análise multivariada de dados. Primeiro, fez-se uso da correlação canônica para escolher as variáveis macroeconômicas que possuíam relação mais forte com os produtos selecionados e, em seguida, utilizou-se a regressão linear múltipla para identificar as elasticidades dos produtos em relação a cada uma das variáveis macroeconômicas. Os resultados obtidos, evidentemente, não esgotam o estudo da prática apontada, mas os objetivos propostos e alcançados pela pesquisa, evidenciaram a importância do monitoramento das variáveis macroeconômicas para o caso estudado. / The study formulated in a paper transforming industry intends to contribute in the demonstration of the importance of monitoring macroeconomic variables in Information Systems. There are technological tools to process those data and the literature offers support to this need, nevertheless the subject has receive little attention in the corporate background and was the object of few empiric papers. One reason may be the complexity and the dynamism of the data which besides being in constant oscillation interact among each other and may have distinct impacts in different products of the company. The research performed in this dissertation is categorized as a descriptive exploratory study, using statistical methods to process internal and external variables in order to analyze the importance of the macroeconomic variables in the information management in a firm of choice. It was chosen a single firm with a wide range of products and its relation with the external environment. In the internal complexity of the business it was chosen the most representative products and each one of them were analyzed trough two different multivariate data analysis. First the Canonic Correlation in order to select the macroeconomic variables with the strongest relation to the selected products, subsequently the Multiple Linear Regression with the intention of pinpointing the elasticity of the same products to each variable. The results clearly do not exhaust the subject, however corroborate with the proposed and reached objectives highlighting the importance of monitoring macroeconomic variables for the case studied.