<p>In this master thesis project quantitative testing in a truck simulator with 22 participants were conducted during which ten in-vehicle variables were measured. Examples of measured variables are steering wheel torque, lateral position and yaw angle. These measured variables were then used to calculate 17 independent variables that all to some extent explain the sleepiness level of the driver. The drivers’ sleepiness level was measured using the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) in order to judge the performance of the independent variables. The combination of the 17 independent variables that best explain the sleepiness level of the driver is then extracted using multiple regression analysis with forward selection.</p><p>Sometimes some of the independent variables are not defined; therefore different models were created to handle all possible combinations of valid and invalid independent variables. The final system uses six different models to predict the sleepiness level of the driver.</p><p>The performance of the final system showed promising results. The system can correctly classify the drivers in approximately 87% of the cases. The number of occasions when the system classify the driver as sleepy when he/she is still alert is very low, approximately 0.7%.</p>

The real estate market has been of great interest since the rise in home foreclosures in US, which started in the late 2006. The purpose of this thesis is to examine a possible relationship between the factors presented in DiPasquale and Wheaton’s (1996) model which explains the market linkages between the property market and asset market, and the Swedish real estate companies listed on the Swedish stock market OMX. The real estate stock market is, divided in to groups of 3, which represented the dependent variable. The repo rate, CPI, expected inflation, macro index, disposable income, GDP and a real estate price index are the explanatory variables. Stockholm Stock Market All- Share Index (OMXSPI) is also included as a possible explanatory variable. The main findings in most of the estimations for the groups and years, is that the OMXSPI is of significance at the 10 percent level. The other variables did not show any significant result based on the 10 percent significance level, According to the results it seems like the volatility has increased over time in the real estate stock market with respect to the OMXSPI. That is; the risk has increased significantly from the period 1996-1999 to the later periods.

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between school connectedness and participation in extracurricular activities. A current gap in the research prevents a complete understanding of the relationship between extracurricular participation and school connectedness; therefore, this study aimed to bridge this gap. It is reasonable to suggest that by simply improving the amount, type, and availability of activities, schools have the potential to help students become more motivated in their role as both a student and a community member. The objective was to provide further support to research implying that increased participation in school-based extracurricular activities improves and encourages school connectedness among students. Overall, the study was aimed at examining what factors predict school connectedness.<p> Data for this study were collected in a survey format from 252 grade 11 and grade 12 students from several rural Saskatchewan schools. A sequential multiple regression was performed to predict school connectedness. After adjusting for various sociodemographic characteristics, two independent variables predicted school connectedness: health-risk behaviours and extracurricular participation. This research was able to show that beyond factors such as age, gender, grade, and participation in health-risk factors, students who reported being involved in extracurricular activity reported higher scores of school connectedness. Extracurricular participation was associated positively with school connectedness, indicating that participating in extracurricular activities increases school connectedness. Health-risk factors were negative predictors of school connectedness. That is, students who reported participating in health-risk behaviours reported lower school connectedness scores. First Nations students report lower school connectedness scores than Caucasian students. The limitations, directions for future research and implications for practice of these findings are discussed.

In this master thesis project quantitative testing in a truck simulator with 22 participants were conducted during which ten in-vehicle variables were measured. Examples of measured variables are steering wheel torque, lateral position and yaw angle. These measured variables were then used to calculate 17 independent variables that all to some extent explain the sleepiness level of the driver. The drivers’ sleepiness level was measured using the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) in order to judge the performance of the independent variables. The combination of the 17 independent variables that best explain the sleepiness level of the driver is then extracted using multiple regression analysis with forward selection. Sometimes some of the independent variables are not defined; therefore different models were created to handle all possible combinations of valid and invalid independent variables. The final system uses six different models to predict the sleepiness level of the driver. The performance of the final system showed promising results. The system can correctly classify the drivers in approximately 87% of the cases. The number of occasions when the system classify the driver as sleepy when he/she is still alert is very low, approximately 0.7%.

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between school connectedness and participation in extracurricular activities. A current gap in the research prevents a complete understanding of the relationship between extracurricular participation and school connectedness; therefore, this study aimed to bridge this gap. It is reasonable to suggest that by simply improving the amount, type, and availability of activities, schools have the potential to help students become more motivated in their role as both a student and a community member. The objective was to provide further support to research implying that increased participation in school-based extracurricular activities improves and encourages school connectedness among students. Overall, the study was aimed at examining what factors predict school connectedness.<p> Data for this study were collected in a survey format from 252 grade 11 and grade 12 students from several rural Saskatchewan schools. A sequential multiple regression was performed to predict school connectedness. After adjusting for various sociodemographic characteristics, two independent variables predicted school connectedness: health-risk behaviours and extracurricular participation. This research was able to show that beyond factors such as age, gender, grade, and participation in health-risk factors, students who reported being involved in extracurricular activity reported higher scores of school connectedness. Extracurricular participation was associated positively with school connectedness, indicating that participating in extracurricular activities increases school connectedness. Health-risk factors were negative predictors of school connectedness. That is, students who reported participating in health-risk behaviours reported lower school connectedness scores. First Nations students report lower school connectedness scores than Caucasian students. The limitations, directions for future research and implications for practice of these findings are discussed.

<p>The real estate market has been of great interest since the rise in home foreclosures in</p><p>US, which started in the late 2006. The purpose of this thesis is to examine a possible</p><p>relationship between the factors presented in DiPasquale and Wheaton’s (1996) model</p><p>which explains the market linkages between the property market and asset market, and</p><p>the Swedish real estate companies listed on the Swedish stock market OMX. The real</p><p>estate stock market is, divided in to groups of 3, which represented the dependent</p><p>variable. The repo rate, CPI, expected inflation, macro index, disposable income, GDP</p><p>and a real estate price index are the explanatory variables. Stockholm Stock Market All-</p><p>Share Index (OMXSPI) is also included as a possible explanatory variable.</p><p>The main findings in most of the estimations for the groups and years, is that the</p><p>OMXSPI is of significance at the 10 percent level. The other variables did not show any</p><p>significant result based on the 10 percent significance level,</p><p>According to the results it seems like the volatility has increased over time in the real</p><p>estate stock market with respect to the OMXSPI. That is; the risk has increased</p><p>significantly from the period 1996-1999 to the later periods.</p>

Background: Globally tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of mortality. There is scientific evidence of sociodemographic, behavioral and health risk factors associated with TB infection and TB disease. In the United States (US), there is a low endemicity of TB and a goal of TB elimination. Objective: The primary objective of the study was to examine the correlation of TB risk factors at the state level in the US to obtain insights specific to the state of TB in the US. The risk factors examined were diabetes rates, smoking rates, alcohol abuse rates, AIDS rates, foreign-born vs. US-born, poverty as expressed by GINI and per capita income and race/ethnicity. Methods: Secondary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and US Census Bureau on line databases were used. Simple linear regression, bivariate correlation and multiple linear regression were carried out. Results: Significant correlations were found at the state level between TB disease rates and being non-Hispanic White (r=-0.856, p<0.001), foreign-born (r=0.649, p<0.001), GINI (r=0.588, p<0.001) and AIDS diagnosis rates (r=0.579, p<0.001). No significant associations were found between TB disease rates and diabetes rates, smoking rates and alcohol abuse rates. Conclusion: The focus of the fight against TB in the US should be on minority communities, those populated by the foreign-born and those with high rates of AIDS particularly where a large degree of income inequality is present.

Zugl.: Paderborn, Universiẗat, Diss., 2004.

No description available.

This thesis is a part of the water development project conducted by Svenskt Vatten, which is the Swedish Water and Wastewater Association (SWWA) as well as Tyréns, a consultancy company with offices based in Stockholm, Sweden. Prior to this thesis work, a quality assessment was conducted for some of the locations provided by municipalities in Sweden. This thesis builds upon the revised water consumption data, and also continues to work with validating and modifying the water measurement data in order to proceed with the next step of the water development project, which is to identify any trends in the temporal variation of water consumption. The main objective of this thesis work is to investigate the influence of climatic, time-related and categorical factors on water consumption data collected for different regions in Sweden, and includes a number of different sectors such as residential, industrial and agricultural water user sectors. For the analysis of data, spectral analysis and sinusoidal modelling will be applied in order to find the periodicity of the data, and then simulate the fitted sinusoidal equation to the observed water consumption data for the hourly interval period. Multiple linear regression analysis is then used to assess what independent variables such as climate, time-related and categorical variables can explain the variation in water consumption over hourly and daily periods of time.  Spectral analysis identifies high peaks in the spectral density of the data at 12 and 24 hour cycles, for the hourly water consumption data. For the total daily consumption of water, there is a peak at 7 days, which clarifies that there is a weekly pattern occurring throughout the year. The results from the simple linear regression analysis, where the linear relationship between temperature and water consumption was determined, reveals that the water consumption tends to increase within an increasing temperature, where in Lönashult, Alvesta municipality the water demand increased by 5.5% with every 2 ºC rise in temperature, at a threshold of 12 ºC. For Kalix municipality the three areas selected have around 1-2 % increase in water demand with every 2 ºC rise in temperature for the period of May to December. In Gothenburg, areas that were mixed villa areas or areas with summer homes there was a rise of around 2-12 % in water demand, however areas that are situated in the inner city Gothenburg, or that have majority student housing, the water consumption tends to decrease by 2-7% in water demand with every 2 ºC rise in temperature, with a threshold of 12 ºC. In multiple regression analysis, the hourly water consumption results in adjusted R2 values were in the range from 0.58 to 0.87 (58-87%) for the best model approach and therefore has a significant relationship between water consumption and the explanatory variables chosen for this study. For the daily water consumption, the adjusted R2 values were in the range of 0.22-0.83 (22-83%).  The adjusted R2 values are lower for certain areas and can be explained by a number of factors, such as the different variables used for the daily water consumption analysis, as variables that explain more the periodicity of the data such as the sinusoidal fitted variable and hourly or night/day changes in consumption are not included. As well as this, not all independent variables such as the climate variables were available or complete for particular time periods, and also errors in the data can lead to a significantly lower R2 value.