Background: The term Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is a relatively new concept within the financial industry. However, there are a couple of issues connected to the ESG score and sustainable finance. Thus, there is an ongoing conflict between creating economic value, which is the main task for managers, as well as tackling ethical issues such as ESG. Purpose: The purpose of this report is to investigate if there is a correlation between ESG scores and financial performance measures. The measures analysed are, Return on Assets (ROA), Retention Ratio (RET), Operating Cash-Flow (CF) and Debt-Equity (DE), for listed companies in Sweden and the UK. Method: To see if there is a correlation between ESG and financial performance, a Pooled OLS Regression and Fixed Effect Regression Model (FE) was used. The data was collected from the Thomson Reuters datastream, where 75 companies listed on the OMXSLCGI in Sweden and 75 companies listed on the FTSE100 in the UK, was retrieved. Conclusion: The regression results indicated a positive correlation between CF and ESG for both the FE regression and the Pooled OLS for the Swedish middle-ranked companies, as well as a positive correlation between DE and ESG for the lower-ranked Swedish companies. For the UK, no significant variables were found. Because of the limited significant results, this thesis found that there is yet no apparent correlation between the ESG score and financial performance based on the four years analyzed.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an important social problem, but historically the scientific research has focused mostly on the female victims. Several reviews exist on female victims, but no on male victims. The prevalence rates presented in the literature are very heterogeneous, which has been explained by variations in methodology, a lack of a clear recognized definition and a missing golden standard. This thesis reviews prevalence rates in studies on IPV with a male victim, and answers the following questions; (1) What are the total prevalence rates in relation to the different study characteristics and do we see any significant differences within these characteristics? (2) How does the definition of intimate partner violence and study characteristics affect the prevalence rate? (3) What type of relationship do we see between the quality of studies and prevalence rate?A systematic review has been carried out resulting in 49 relevant studies on male victims of IPV. The data from these 49 studies have been extracted based on the operationalization of “definition” in categories of type of violence, type of instrument and number of survey questions and in the operationalization of study quality based on a quality index by Looney et al. (2000). A students t-test and linear regression models was conducted to answer the research questions. This study finds that men are more often victims of psychological violence than physical violence, which is in contrast to female victims. The study also finds that the introduction of each of the definition-variables results in higher prevalence rates. This indicates, that factors related to the definition are important elements in the study of IPV prevalence in male victims.

Non-inferiority tests are well developed for randomized parallel group trials where the control and experimental groups are independent. However, these tests may not be appropriate for assessing non-inferiority in correlated one-to-many matched data. We propose a new statistical test that extends Farrington-Manning’s (FM) test to the case where many (≥1) control subjects are matched to each experimental subject. We conducted a Monte Carlo simulation study to compare the size and power of the proposed test with tests developed for clustered one-to-one matched pair data and tests based on generalized estimating equations (GEE). For various correlation patterns, the sizes of tests developed for clustered matched pair data and GEE-based tests are inflated when applied to the case where many control subjects are matched to each experimental subject. The size of the proposed test, on the other hand, is close to the nominal level for a variety of correlation patterns. There is a debate in the literature regarding whether or not statistical tests appropriate for independent samples can be used to assess the statistical significance of treatment effects in propensity-score matched studies. We used Monte Carlo simulations to examine the effect on assessing non-inferiority via risk difference when a method for independent samples (i.e. FM test) is used versus when a method for correlated matched samples is used in propensity-score one-to-many matched studies. If propensity-score matched samples are well-matched on baseline covariates and contain almost all of the experimental treated subjects, a method for correlated matched samples is preferable with respect to power and Type I error than a method for independent samples. Sometimes there are more experimental subjects to choose from for matching than control subjects. We conducted a Monte Carlo simulation study to compare the size and power of the previously mentioned tests when many (≥1) experimental subjects are matched to each control subject. In this case, the Nam-Kwon test for clustered data performs the best in controlling the type I error rate for a variety of correlation patterns. Therefore, the appropriate non-inferiority test to use for correlated matched data depends, in part, on the sample size allocation of subjects.

Thesis advisor: Henry I. Braun / Sponsored by OECD, PIAAC represents the first attempt to assess adult problem solving in technology-rich environments (PS-TRE) on an international scale that is comparable cross-culturally and cross-nationally. The objectives of this study are to study (1) the distributions of PS-TRE proficiency scores across 14 selected countries and (2) within each country, the associations between PS-TRE proficiency scores and the different formats of adult education and training (AET) participation. Using data on full-time professionals (at least 25 years old) from these countries, propensity score weighting was applied to estimate the associations between the different formats of AET participation and their PS-TRE proficiency scores. To place these estimates in context, parallel analyses were conducted – one with the sample of full-time associates in the 14 selected countries and the other with full-time professionals’ Literacy and Numeracy proficiency scores as measured by PIAAC. The results showed that after controlling for socio-demographic background, occupational categories, use of key information-processing skills (both at home and at work), as well as use of generic workplace skills, no consistent pattern was found across the 14 selected countries. At the individual country level, scattered significant relationships were identified. For example, in Denmark, both formats of AET participation (vs. None) are significantly and positively associated with full-time professionals’ PS-TRE proficiency scores and their probability of scoring in the top quartile of the PS-TRE distribution (p < .01). While in the United States, Formal AET (vs. None) is significantly and positively associated with full-time associates’ PS-TRE proficiency scores and their probability of scoring in the top quartile of the PS-TRE distribution (p < .01). The variations in relationships between the different formats of AET participation and working adults’ skills proficiency across domains and samples indicate the necessity of conducting qualitative research on AET programs in individual countries. Furthermore, to provide recommendations tailored to the specific needs of each country, a fine-grained classification of AET programs based on the OECD guideline was suggested. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

The problem of this investigation was the construction and evaluation of a score card for evaluating the field work experience in recreation. The instrument was constructed after studying nationally adopted accreditation standards, criteria, guidelines and evaluations of professional preparation programs. This investigation concludes that of twenty-five items which made up the original instrument, twenty-four remained after two evaluations by a panel of experts. A method was developed to score the instrument according to maximum score and percentage compliance score for each section of the instrument. It is the recommendation of this investigation that the score card be field tested and become part of a total score card for evaluating the professional preparation program in recreation.

A common impairment after a traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a deficit in emotional recognition, such as inferences of others’ intentions. Some researchers have found these impairments in 39\% of the TBI population. Our research information needed to make inferences about emotions and mental states comes from visually presented, nonverbal cues (e.g., facial expressions or gestures). Theory of mind (ToM) deficits after TBI are partially explained by impaired visual attention and the processing of these important cues. This research found that patients with deficits in visual processing differ from healthy controls (HCs). Furthermore, we found visual processing problems can be determined by looking at the eye tracking data developed from industry standard eye tracking hardware and software. We predicted that the eye tracking data of the overall population is correlated to the TASIT test. The visual processing of impaired (who got at least one answer wrong from TASIT questions) and unimpaired (who got all answer correctly from TASIT questions) differs significantly. We have divided the eye-tracking data into 3 second time blocks of time series data to detect the most salient individual blocks to the TASIT score. Our preliminary results suggest that we can predict the whole population's impairment using eye-tracking data with an improved f1 score from 0.54 to 0.73. For this, we developed optimized support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF) classifier.

abstract: This study was designed to examine the associations between food skills, resilience, and coping during the Covid-19 pandemic. Between April and June of 2020, a sample of 154 students, faculty, and staff from Arizona State University were surveyed. Each respondent was administered a survey containing demographic questions, a food skill questionnaire, and the 14-item Resilience Scale (RS). Results indicate that food skill was correlated with resilience (p<0.001) at an r=0.364 and r2=0.1243 and that resilience was correlated with coping during the Covid-19 pandemic (p<0.001) at an r=0.455. Correlations were also run between resilience score and the separate domains of food skill score: all domains remained significantly associated with resilience score (p<0.001) with a r=0.340 and r2=0.1173 for ‘Food Selection and Planning,’ r=0.312 and r2=0.0958 for ‘Food Preparation,’ and r=0.294 and r2=0.0767 for ‘Food Safety.’ Data seems to be consistent with contemporary research suggesting positive associations between diet quality and physiological resilience and positive associations between resilience and coping during the Covid-19 pandemic. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Nutrition 2020

National Early Warning Score (NEWS) är ett bedömningsinstrument som används inom vården för att upptäcka och varna när en patient blir kraftigt försämrad. Syftet med litteraturöversikten var att sammanställa kunskap om sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av att använda bedömningsinstrumentet NEWS. En integrerad litteraturöversikt genomfördes där 12 vetenskapliga artiklar togs ut efter en systematisk litteratursökning i PubMed och CINAHL. Av dessa var det sex med kvalitativ metod, fyra kvantitativ metod och två mixad metod, som granskades och analyserades. Analysen resulterade i fyra kategorier. Dessa var ”NEWS användes av sjuksköterskan för att observera, bedöma och planera vård”, ”NEWS kunde både vara ett stöd och skapa merarbete”, ”NEWS förbättrade kommunikationen med andra kollegor” och ” NEWS kunde främja sjuksköterskan i sin profession”. Slutsatserna som drogs var att sjuksköterskorna ansåg NEWS som användbart vid att uppfatta en patients försämring, instrumentet användes även som ett sätt att stödja en egen klinisk bedömning. Sjuksköterskorna ansåg att NEWS behövde anpassas för olika sjukdomstillstånd eftersom falska höga värden ledde till onödiga kontroller och larmutmattning. Kommunikationen mellan kollegor blev bättre och sjuksköterskorna fick stöd och bättre respons när vitalparametrar kommunicerades. Sjuksköterskorna ansåg att NEWS ökade fokuset på vitalparametrar vilket ledde till ökad kunskap om avvikelser samt stimulerade till egna bedömningar. Författarna anser att det finns behov av att arbeta särskilt med kommunikationsmetoder som införlivas med NEWS, där alla parter i vårdkedjan förstår instrumentets relevans. Detta kan förslagsvis göras i samband vid implementering av NEWS med tydliga riktlinjer kring bedömnings-instrumentet, hur det ska användas och varför.

The primary purpose of this study is to test whether a value-based investment strategy will outperform a growth-based investment strategy when applied to SAREIT investment. The secondary purpose is to assess whether the SAREIT investor can discriminate between strong and weak value-REITs through sound accounting-based fundamental analysis using the F-Score Model. Building on existing research on value-based investment strategies and market efficiency, this study offers an SAREIT perspective to the existing body of knowledge on value investing theory through portfolio selection based on P/NAV, P/E, P/CF and DY ratio analysis. The holding period returns of the respective value-based portfolios are compared to their growth-based counterparts for an examination of relative performance. The evidence from this research does not offer probabilistic support that a value-based approach to SAREIT selection and investment will outperform a growth-based approach, nor that it is possible to discriminate between financially strong and weak value-REITs through sound accounting-based fundamental analysis using the F-Score Model. Further research is required to develop the said strategies and models for application to the SAREIT sector.

This written portion of my thesis documents my process as a director in composing the Performance of Ōto Shōgo’s The Water Station in collaboration with a creative team of designers, dramaturgs, stage managers and performers. I share with the reader my processes toward fostering cohesion and collaboration among a team while composing a theatrical experience that departs from many theatrical conventions. I discuss significant learnings from several areas of dramaturgical and performance research that dovetail within the performance: aesthetics of divestiture, dramaturgy of simultaneity and composition of psychophysical score, and how I used this research to support the communication with my design, performing and managerial collaborators. This thesis includes dramaturgical research, production design process, documentation of the training and rehearsal process, and documentation of audience perception.