Using sentiment and social network analyses to predict opening-movie box-office success

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-60).In this thesis, we explore notions of collective intelligence in the form of web metrics, social network analysis and sentiment analysis to predict the box-office income of movies. Successful prediction techniques would be advantageous for those in the movie industry to gauge their likely return and adjust pre- and post-release marketing efforts. Additionally, the approaches in this thesis may also be applied to other markets for prediction as well. We explore several modeling approaches to predict performance on the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) prediction market as well as overall gross income. Some models use only a single movie's data to predict its future success, while other models build from the data of all the movies together. The most successful model presented in this thesis improves on HSX and provides high correlations/low predictive error on both HSX delist prices as well as the final gross income of the movies. We also provide insights for future work to build on this thesis to potentially uncover movies that perform exceptionally poorly or exceptionally well.by Lyric Doshi.M.Eng

HR’s Role in Managing Employee Expectations During an Acquisition: A Case Study Approach

It would be agreed that HR, leadership, culture and communication all have contributory and overlapping roles to play in the success of an acquisition. This study attempts to explore the role of HR in greater depth. Commencing with the structure of the HR department within ACons, we come to understand the hype behind the trend in mergers and acquisitions as inorganic modes of growth being employed by companies. With HR being accountable towards the success and factors of acquisitions, we proceed to appreciate the role of HR within organizations where it differentiates between operational and strategic purposes and how this contributes to the overall performance of the organization. Using Ulrich’s model, HR as a function involves four simultaneous roles – Strategic Partner, Administrative Expert, Employee Champion and Change Agent. Our study then continues to explore the interconnected relationship between HR, psychological contract of employees and the organization’s business strategies. Based on how these psychological contracts are maintained and if there is a breach or violation, there can be a positive and negative impact to the organization. Schuler and Jackson propose a three stage model of M&A which identifies HR’s role throughout the stages – (i) precombination, (ii) integration and (iii) solidification and advancement of the new entity. Data from the interviews is analysed on an emerging basis using Grounded Theory. Using open coding, axial coding and selective coding till a saturation point is reached, the story that emerges is analyzed to obtain an insight into how critical HR’s role is during ACons’ acquisition process

RIGHT PARA DUODENAL HERNIA: A CASE REPORT

Paraduodenal hernia (PDH), a rare congenital anomaly, is a type of internal hernia which occurs due to a defect in the reduction and rotation of the midgut. On anatomical and embryological basis, PDH can be broadly divided into right- and Left PDH. Right PDH is rarer than its counterpart. We present a case of Right PDH. The patient presented with a history of pain in abdomen since last 1 year with intermittent episodes of vomiting. Patient was admitted in various institutions previously but was managed conservatively. On investigation patient was diagnosed to have right side paraduodenal hernia on CT abdomen. The jejunal loops had herniated through the fossa of Waldeyer. Jejunal loops reduced from the hernia sac and sac excised, fibrotic edges incised and defect widened. Post operatively recovery was uneventful. The rarity of this condition and the need for early diagnosis, to prevent the high risk of bowel obstruction and strangulation, makes PDH one of the difficult challenges for the clinicians

Managing Employee Expectations During An Acquisition: A Case Study Approach

Over the last decade, Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) have been viewed as a popular strategy for growth, diversification and achieving a more global presence. Despite the growing number of transactions worldwide, the rate of failure reported has been rather high. The failure has been attributed to many reasons such as leadership, communication, culture and the list goes on. During these trying times, management of the employees’ expectations is pivotal. This Management research focuses to uncover the key factors which are essential in managing employee expectations during an acquisition. The research is centered on ACons, a technical consulting firm operating within the purview of the Oil and Gas Industry that was fully acquired by AComp, a multinational company in July, 2009. A qualitative research was conducted using an interpretivist-constructivist paradigm and Grounded Theory. Semi structured in-depth interviews were utilized to elicit the experience, feeling and perceptions of the selected employees before and after the acquisition period. These findings were then used as a means to determine whether there was any breach or violation to the psychological contract of the employees. The findings revealed four key themes which were failure of human resource, lack of communication, lack of leadership and cultural mismatch. The outcomes suggest that the acquisition as a whole would have been a complete success if the key themes identified had been adhered to from the onset of the acquisition process. This would have ensured minimum impact to the employees’ psychological contract, further ensuring that it continuously remains in a “balanced” state and the acquisition process is smooth and successful

Hospitalization Rates, Prevalence of Cardiovascular Manifestations, and Outcomes Associated With Sarcoidosis in the United States

Background: Recent trends of hospitalizations and in‐hospital mortality are not well defined in sarcoidosis. We examined aforementioned trends and prevalence of cardiovascular manifestations and explored rates of implantable cardioverter‐defibrillator implantation in hospitalizations with sarcoidosis. Methods and Results: Using data from the National Inpatient Sample, a retrospective population cohort from 2005 to 2014 was studied. To identify sarcoidosis, an International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD‐9‐CM) diagnosis code was used. We excluded hospitalizations with myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease, and ischemic cardiomyopathy. Cardiovascular manifestations were defined by the presence of diagnosis codes for conduction disorders, arrhythmias, heart failure, nonischemic cardiomyopathy, and pulmonary hypertension. A total of 609 051 sarcoidosis hospitalizations were identified, with an age of 55±14 years, 67% women, and 50% black. The number of sarcoidosis hospitalizations increased from 2005 through 2014 (138 versus 175 per 100 000, P trend<0.001). We observed declining trends of unadjusted in‐hospital mortality (6.5 to 4.9 per 100 sarcoidosis hospitalizations, P trend<0.001). Overall ≈31% (n=188 438) of sarcoidosis hospitalizations had coexistent cardiovascular manifestations of one or more type. Heart failure (≈16%) and arrhythmias (≈15%) were the most prevalent cardiovascular manifestations. Rates of implantable cardioverter‐defibrillator placement were ≈7.5 per 1000 sarcoidosis hospitalizations (P trend=0.95) during the study period. Black race was associated with 21% increased risk of in‐hospital mortality (odds ratio, 1.21; 95% confidence interval, 1.16–1.27 [P<0.001]). Conclusions: Sarcoidosis hospitalizations have increased over the past decade with a myriad of coexistent cardiovascular manifestations. Black race is a significant predictor of in‐hospital mortality, which is declining. Further efforts are needed to improve care in view of low implantable cardioverter‐defibrillator rates in sarcoidosis

Global, regional, and national burden of stroke and its risk factors, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background Regularly updated data on stroke and its pathological types, including data on their incidence, prevalence, mortality, disability, risk factors, and epidemiological trends, are important for evidence-based stroke care planning and resource allocation. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) aims to provide a standardised and comprehensive measurement of these metrics at global, regional, and national levels. Methods We applied GBD 2019 analytical tools to calculate stroke incidence, prevalence, mortality, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and the population attributable fraction (PAF) of DALYs (with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals [UIs]) associated with 19 risk factors, for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019. These estimates were provided for ischaemic stroke, intracerebral haemorrhage, subarachnoid haemorrhage, and all strokes combined, and stratified by sex, age group, and World Bank country income level. Findings In 2019, there were 12·2 million (95% UI 11·0–13·6) incident cases of stroke, 101 million (93·2–111) prevalent cases of stroke, 143 million (133–153) DALYs due to stroke, and 6·55 million (6·00–7·02) deaths from stroke. Globally, stroke remained the second-leading cause of death (11·6% [10·8–12·2] of total deaths) and the third-leading cause of death and disability combined (5·7% [5·1–6·2] of total DALYs) in 2019. From 1990 to 2019, the absolute number of incident strokes increased by 70·0% (67·0–73·0), prevalent strokes increased by 85·0% (83·0–88·0), deaths from stroke increased by 43·0% (31·0–55·0), and DALYs due to stroke increased by 32·0% (22·0–42·0). During the same period, age-standardised rates of stroke incidence decreased by 17·0% (15·0–18·0), mortality decreased by 36·0% (31·0–42·0), prevalence decreased by 6·0% (5·0–7·0), and DALYs decreased by 36·0% (31·0–42·0). However, among people younger than 70 years, prevalence rates increased by 22·0% (21·0–24·0) and incidence rates increased by 15·0% (12·0–18·0). In 2019, the age-standardised stroke-related mortality rate was 3·6 (3·5–3·8) times higher in the World Bank low-income group than in the World Bank high-income group, and the age-standardised stroke-related DALY rate was 3·7 (3·5–3·9) times higher in the low-income group than the high-income group. Ischaemic stroke constituted 62·4% of all incident strokes in 2019 (7·63 million [6·57–8·96]), while intracerebral haemorrhage constituted 27·9% (3·41 million [2·97–3·91]) and subarachnoid haemorrhage constituted 9·7% (1·18 million [1·01–1·39]). In 2019, the five leading risk factors for stroke were high systolic blood pressure (contributing to 79·6 million [67·7–90·8] DALYs or 55·5% [48·2–62·0] of total stroke DALYs), high body-mass index (34·9 million [22·3–48·6] DALYs or 24·3% [15·7–33·2]), high fasting plasma glucose (28·9 million [19·8–41·5] DALYs or 20·2% [13·8–29·1]), ambient particulate matter pollution (28·7 million [23·4–33·4] DALYs or 20·1% [16·6–23·0]), and smoking (25·3 million [22·6–28·2] DALYs or 17·6% [16·4–19·0]). Interpretation The annual number of strokes and deaths due to stroke increased substantially from 1990 to 2019, despite substantial reductions in age-standardised rates, particularly among people older than 70 years. The highest age-standardised stroke-related mortality and DALY rates were in the World Bank low-income group. The fastest-growing risk factor for stroke between 1990 and 2019 was high body-mass index. Without urgent implementation of effective primary prevention strategies, the stroke burden will probably continue to grow across the world, particularly in low-income countries.publishedVersio