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Rather than being randomly wired together, the components of complex network systems are recently reported to represent a scale-free architecture, in which the node degree distribution follows power-law. While social networks are scale-free, it is natural to utilize their structural properties in some social network applications. As a result, this dissertation explores social network architectures, and in turn, leverages these architectures to facilitate some influence and information propagation applications. Social network architectures are analyzed in two different aspects. The first aspect focuses on the node degree snowballing effects (i.e., degree growth effects) in social networks, which is based on an age-sensitive preferential attachment model. The impact of the initial links is explored, in terms of accelerating the node degree snowballing effects. The second aspect focuses on Nested Scale-Free Architectures (NSFAs) for social networks. The scale-free architecture is a classic concept, which means that the node degree distribution follows the power-law distribution. `Nested' indicates that the scale-free architecture is preserved when low-degree nodes and their associated connections are iteratively removed. NSFA has a bounded hierarchy. Based on the social network structure, this dissertation explores two influence propagation applications for the Social Influence Maximization Problem (SIMP). The first application is a friend recommendation strategy with the perspective of social influence maximization. For the system provider, the objective is to recommend a fixed number of new friends to a given user, such that the given user can maximize his/her social influence through making new friends. This problem is proved to be NP-hard by reduction from the SIMP. A greedy friend recommendation algorithm with an approximation ratio of $1-e^{-1}$ is proposed. The second application studies the SIMP with the crowd influence, which is NP-hard, monotone, non-submodular, and inapproximable in general graphs. However, since user connections in Online Social Networks (OSNs) are not random, approximations can be obtained by leveraging the structural properties of OSNs. The modularity, denoted by $\Delta$, is proposed to measure to what degree this problem violates the submodularity. Two approximation algorithms are proposed with ratios of $\frac{1}{\Delta+2}$ and $1-e^{-1/(\Delta+1)}$, respectively. Beside the influence propagation applications, this dissertation further explores three different information propagation applications. The first application is a social network quarantine strategy, which can eliminate epidemic outbreaks with minimal isolation costs. This problem is NP-hard. An approximation algorithm with a ratio of 2 is proposed through utilizing the problem properties of feasibility and minimality. The second application is a rating prediction scheme, called DynFluid, based on the fluid dynamics. DynFluid analogizes the rating reference among the users in OSNs to the fluid flow among containers. The third application is an information cascade prediction framework: given the social current cascade and social topology, the number of propagated users at a future time slot is predicted. To reduce prediction time complexities, the spatiotemporal cascade information (a larger size of data) is decomposed to user characteristics (a smaller size of data) for subsequent predictions. All these three applications are based on the social network structure. / Computer and Information Science

Minion- en ordningsam vän i tvättstugan. Tvättstugan. En samhällstjänst som alla tar för givet eller en arena för dåligt beteende. Vad den än är så är den stället där beteenden som fusk med städning samt stulna tvättider och kläder sker vilket kan mynna ut i riktigt allvarliga bråk som polisanmäls. Att ändra på tvättstugan och hålla ett vakande öga över den kostar pengar och det har inte alla. Under dessa förhållanden kommer problemen som påträffas där, bara att fortsätta att existera tills alla tvättstugor stängs. Forskning har visat att bilder på ögon motarbetar beteenden som orsakar problem i tvättstugan. De skapar en omedveten känsla av övervakning som korrigerar beteenden genom medvetenheten om det dåliga beteendet, eller av rädslan att bli påkommen och bestraffad. När bilder på ögon har en så stor effekt på oss kommer en interaktiv robot försedd med ögon, röst och en snäll personlighet att ha samma effekt samt förstärka känslan av övervakning. Minion är en liten interaktiv robot som håller tvättstugans besökare sällskap och blir dess beskyddare. Minions huvuduppgift är att påminna tvättstugans besökare att de aldrig är ensamma där och därmed motarbeta dåligt beteende som förstärks på avskilda platser. Minion lyckas med det genom att kommunicera, sjunga, dansa, äta ludd från torktumlaren och berätta lite olika saker om världen och sitt eget liv. Till och med i sin tystnad orsakar Minion känslan av övervakning för den som vistas i tvättstugan. Tyvärr är den existerande prototypen bara ett skal och inte en funktionell robot, därför förklarades Minions funktioner muntligt och med hjälp av bilder under användarstudien. Minion mottogs med spänning och godkännande och det visade sig att Minions alla funktioer är relevanta och uppfylls till fullo. Minion skulle kunna vidareutvecklas till andra områden av vardagslivet där en interaktiv robot kan vara användbar, som att förbättra livskvaliteten för människor i behov av en kamrat. / Minion- an orderly friend in the common laundry room The common laundry room. A service to society that everyone takes for granted or an arena for bad behavior. In either case, it is a place where cheating with cleaning up after yourself as well as hijacking appointments and stealing other people’s belongings can lead to really serious fights that are reported to the police. Changing the common laundry room and keeping a waking eye on it, costs a lot of money something that not everyone has access to. Under these circumstances, the problems found there will simply go on existing until all common laundry rooms are shut down.  Research has proven that pictures of eyes can counter act behaviors similar to the ones causing trouble in the common laundry room. These pictures cause an unconscious feeling of being watched that will correct such behaviors either by creating consciousness of the bad behavior or the fear of being caught and then punished. As pictures of eyes have such a severe effect on us, an interactive robot with eyes, a voice and a kind personality will have the same effect as well as reinforce the feeling of being watched. Minion is a small interactive robot that keeps the common laundry room’s visitors company while being its patron. Minion’s main task is to remind the visitors that they are never there alone and can therefore counteract such bad behavior that is reinforced in secluded spaces. Minion succeeds in doing so by having the ability to communicate, sing, dance, eat fluff from the drier and recount facts about the world and its own life. Even while being silent it causes the same feeling of being watched for the ones being in the common laundry room with it. Unfortunately the existing prototype is that only of a shell and not a fully functional robot, as of which Minion’s functions had to be explained through pictures and reenactments during the user study that was made. Minion was embraced with excitement and approval and the case study proved that all of Minion’s functions are relevant as well as completely fulfilled. Minion could be further developed to other areas of daily life where an interactive robot could be of some use, such as in improving the quality of life for people in need of a companion.

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, YEAR. / Title from screen (viewed on August 26, 2009). Department of English, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Jane E. Schultz, Jonathan R. Eller, Robert Rebein. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-83).

This essay is a theoretical qualitative study, which examines the possibility for a spelling reform into English. The history of orthographical changes into British English, as well as Brown’s categorisation of spelling reforms, is reviewed. Four spelling reform proposals are analysed and compared.  Additionally, the social discourses of Eira, which are relevant to a spelling reform, are analysed and discussed with regard to English. There is only speculation as to why no modern day spelling reform has been implemented in British English, but it is connected to its historical events, the social discourses and the implementation process. Spelling reform into English is theoretically feasible, but it depends on the implementation strategies and support from those who wish to perform such a change.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis examines Mark Twain’s use of the dialectic between the characters Huck and Jim to illuminate Jim’s humanity in the classic novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Over the course of their adventure, Huck learns that Jim is a human being and not property. This realization leads Huck to choose to assist Jim in his escape from captivity, and risk eternal damnation according to his religious beliefs. Huck’s decision is driven by the friendship that develops between him and his fellow fugitive on their adventure. Jim’s kindness and stewardship also provide a stark contrast to the treachery of the characters on the banks of the river. Twain thus crafts a message that slavery and race discrimination are wrong without taking the tone of an abolitionist, combining an amusing children’s story with a profound social message. Although definitive proof of his intention to do so has never been found, human friendship is the sliver of common ground Twain used to reach across the profound racial gap in the United States in the late 19th century. The analysis takes place in four parts: (1) a comparison of AHF to other nineteenth century works that featured slavery to establish it as unique among those works; (2) an analysis of the aforementioned dialectic from a modern text of the novel featuring previous deleted parts from the early manuscript; (3) a review of the critical response to the novel which reveals that if Twain was trying to send a message of racial equality, he was not doing so overtly; and (4) a conclusion in which I posit that Twain found a creative solution to a social problem and cite critical discourse that notes Twain’s course of action. This yielded a work that was both more widely read and timeless than a work that confronted slavery directly. Chapters one, three and four utilize critical dialogue and history from print and digital sources. Jane E. Schultz, Ph.D., Professor

Le genre représente l'un des sujets les plus populaires dans les discussions sur les romans de Margaret Atwood. Les Testaments, le roman le plus récent d'Atwood, n’est pas d’exception. La plupart de ces études, cependant, sont dépourvues d'une étude politique dédiée analysant les systèmes et les gouvernements et leur rôle dans la création de la condition actuelle. Par conséquent, le but de cette étude est d'adopter une approche différente et de se concentrer sur le régime de Gilead en tant que système politique et de l'analyser sous le prisme d'une théorie politique dédiée. En choisissant le politique plutôt que le politique, cette recherche peut aller au-delà de l'action et enquêter sur l’incitation et le principal moteur des actions du régime de Gilead, qui ne sont pas nécessairement sexospécifiques. La recherche actuelle se concentre sur le concept de politique de Carl Schmitt et analyse les relations ami-ennemi et les raisons de sa production telles qu'elles se manifestent dans le roman. Étant donné que la théorie de Schmitt ne suffit pas à couvrir les compréhensions multidimensionnelles et radicalement différentes du politique, la lecture des Testaments basée sur la définition du terme de Hannah Arendt est nécessaire. La définition d'Arendt se concentre sur le politique comme une force de manipulation et un contrat partagé entre les individus. Elle distingue le social et le politique et explique la fonction du politique dans l'espace public et privé. Bien que le genre ne soit pas une priorité absolue pour lire Les Testaments dans cette recherche, il est également discuté en fonction de ses relations avec le politique. Les résultats indiquent que, pour Gilead, le maintien du pouvoir et de la sécurité, ainsi que la manipulation de l'espace privé pour garantir la souveraineté, importent plus que le genre. De plus, le roman, tout en discutant des horreurs genrées du régime religieux de Gilead, tente d'attirer notre attention sur l'importance d'étudier les gouvernements plutôt que les sociétés et les discours seuls. Mots-clés : politique, souveraineté, espace public, espace privé, ami, ennemi / Gender represents one of the most popular topics in discussions of Margaret Atwood’s novels. The Testaments, Atwood’s most recent novel, is no exception. Most of these studies, however, are devoid of a dedicated political study that analyzes the systems and governments and their role in creating the present condition. Hence, the purpose of this study is to take a different approach and focus on the Gilead regime as a political system and analyze it through the lens of dedicated political theory. By choosing the political instead of political, this research can move beyond the action and investigate the incentives and the main driving force behind the actions of Gilead’s regime, which are not necessarily gender-oriented. The present research focuses on Carl Schmitt’s concept of the political and analyzes friend-enemy relationships and the reasons behind its production as manifested in the novel. Since Schmitt’s theory is not enough to cover the multi-dimensional and drastically different understandings about the political, reading The Testaments based on Hannah Arendt’s definition of the term is necessary. Arendt’s definition focuses on the political as a manipulative force and a shared contract between the individuals. She distinguishes the social and the political and explains the function of the political in the public and private space. While gender is not a top priority to read The Testaments in this research, it is also discussed based on its relations to the political. The results indicate that, for Gilead, sustaining power and security, as well as the manipulation of private space for securing sovereignty, matters more than gender. Furthermore, the novel, while discussing the gendered horrors of Gilead’s religious regime, tries to attract our attention to the importance of studying governments rather than societies and discourses alone. Keywords: the political, sovereignty, public space, private space, friend, enemy

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This thesis is an intersectional reading of William Faulkner’s novels The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930) and Sanctuary (1931). This paper employs theories of masculinity and queer theory to examine the masculinities in the novels and their connection to blackness. It proceeds from Judith Butler’s book Bodies that Matter. The thesis focuses on the mixture of race, class, gender and sexuality in the novels. I claim that race sometimes is a mask for gender, class and sexuality in these texts. I argue that certain white characters are depicted as Afro-Americans because of their unmanly behavior and/or queer sexuality or low class. For masculinity theory I have used Jørgen Lorentzen and Claes Ekenstam’s concept of manly and unmanly, described in the anthology Män i Norden Manlighet och modernitet 1840-1940. I have also used Craig Thompson Friend’s Southern Masculinity: Perspectives on manhood in the South since Reconstruction and WJ Cash’s The Mind of the South. For the queer theory, I have used Judith Butler’s theories described in Gendertrouble and Bodies that Matter. / Den här uppsatsen är en intersektionell läsning av William Faulkners romaner The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930) och Sanctuary (1931). Den här uppsatsen använder sig av maskulinitetsteori och queerteori för att undersöka maskuliniteterna i romanerna och deras förbindelse till svarthet. Den utgår från Judith Butlers bok Bodies that Matter. Uppsatsen fokuserar på blandningen av ras, klass, genus och sexualitet i texterna. Jag påstår att ras ibland agerar som en mask för genus, klass och sexualitet i de här texterna. Jag menar att vissa vita romanfigurer skildras som afroamerikaner på grund av sitt omanliga beteende och/eller queera sexualitet eller låga klass. Till maskulinitetsteorin har jag använt mig av Jørgen Lorentzen och Claes Ekenstams begrepp manlig och omanlig, beskrivna i antologin Män i Norden Manlighet och modernitet 1840-1940. Jag har även använt Craig Thomson Friends Southern Masculinity: Perspectives on manhood in the South since Reconstruction och WJ Cashs The Mind of the South. Till queer teorin har jag använt Judith Butlers teorier beskrivna i Gendertrouble och Bodies that Matter.

The worlds of Dickens's novels and of Darwin's science reveal striking similarity in spite of their involvement in different areas. The similarity comes from the fact that they shared the ethos of Victorian society: laissez-faire capitalism. In The Origin of Species, which was published on 1859, Charles Darwin theorizes that nature has evolved through the rules of natural selection, survival of the fittest, and the struggle for existence. Although his conclusion comes from the scientific evidence that was acquired from his five-year voyage, it is clear that Dawinian nature is reflected in cruel Victorian capitalism. Three novels of Charles Dickens which were published around 1859, Bleak House, Hard Times, and Our Mutual Friend, share Darwinian aspects in their fictional worlds. In Bleak House, the central image, the Court of Chancery as the background of the novel, resembles Darwinian nature which is anti-Platonic in essence. The characters in Hard Times are divided into two groups: the winners and the losers in the arena of survival. The winners survive in Coketown, and the losers disappear from the city. The rules controlling the fates of Coketown people are the same as the rules of Darwinian nature. Our Mutual Friend can be interpreted as a matter of money. In the novel, everything is connected with money, and the relationship among people is predation to get money. Money is the central metaphor of the novel and around the money, the characters kill and are killed like the nature of Darwin in which animals kill each other. When a dominant ideology of a particular period permeates ingredients of the society, nobody can escape the controlling power of the ideology. Darwin and Dickens, although they worked in different areas, give evidence that their works are products of the ethos of Victorian England.