published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy

Η έρευνα στην παρούσα εργασία εστιάζει στην εξόρυξη γνώμης/ συναισθήματος. Στόχος είναι η θεωρητική μελέτη των γλωσσολογικών τεχνικών και πόρων που χρησιμοποιούνται στη διαδικασία της εξόρυξη γνώμης/ συναισθήματος και η υλοποίηση μέρους ενός συστήματος για την δημιουργία ενός τέτοιου γλωσσολογικού πόρου. Η εφαρμογή που αναπτύχθηκε στα πλαίσια της εργασίας επιτρέπει στους χρήστες να «ψηφίζουν» για την πολικότητα επιθέτων (αν το επίθετο έχει θετική, αρνητική ή ουδέτερη έννοια) της ελληνικής γλώσσας σε μια 5-βάθμια κλίμακα (από -2 έως 2). / This essay focuses on opinion/sentiment mining. It aims in a theoretical study of computational linguistic means and techniques that are used in the process of opinion/sentiment mining and in the development of a part of a system to implement such a linguistic mean. The application developed in the frame of this essay allows users to vote in a 5-scale (from -2 to 2) the polarity (positive, negative, neutral) of Greek adjectives.

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With America’s recent needs for creating jobs, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, and becoming "energy independent" from foreign nations, the large-scale deployment of solar energy projects has been proclaimed a solution for rapidly generating "clean" energy. Federal agencies have been mandated by law to expedite the siting of utility-scale solar energy projects (USSEPs) on public lands. In particular, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has focused on USSEP development by creating a national solar energy program as well as state-specific programs for encouraging USSEP development, and has thus far approved two USSEPs in Arizona. Although operational USSEPs do not emit greenhouse gases, they are not completely benign to the environment. USSEPs incur negative impacts on soils, vegetation, air quality, and other natural and cultural resources. Because USSEPs have the potential to mitigate climate change, yet incur other negative environmental impacts, the reaction of citizen stakeholders such as environmental advocates to public lands USSEP development has been mixed. Environmental advocate groups have both encouraged BLM to build USSEPs, and filed lawsuits discouraging project development. In light of the ability of environmental advocates to influence USSEP development, this study explored the complex opinions of members of environmental organizations, conservation groups, watershed initiatives, and solar industry professionals regarding USSEP development on Arizona public lands. Through a review of relevant literature, a content analysis of BLM environmental review documents, and the distribution and statistical analysis of an opinion survey, the study provides insight into the implications of the current BLM Arizona siting process and specific, up-to-date stakeholder perspectives. The results indicate that while BLM Arizona siting policies do attempt to address environmental concerns, significant concerns about the current USSEP siting process remain, and that environmental advocates' support for public lands USSEPs is lower than their support for renewable energy development in general. Stakeholders reported having low levels of three items: knowledge of current solar technologies, understanding of the current federal USSEP siting process, and confidence that the government will appropriately site solar energy projects. Addressing those items may alleviate tensions between stakeholders and public lands decision-makers, resulting in faster and more environmentally responsible USSEP siting.

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This study involved an investigation of the perceptions that social workers and occupational health nurses have, of clinical and counselling psychologists, psychiatrists, physicians, and priests. The present study includes a sample of social workers and occupational health nurses in the Pietermaritzburg region. Subjects were required to i) rate their confidence in the ability of each of these professionals to treat 5 clinical cases, ii) rate their confidence in each of the professionals to help them with their own problems iii) rate each of the 5 cases in terms of the severity of each case, iv) rate each of these practitioners on 11 personal qualities developed by Webb and Speer (1986), and v) choose from a list of 10 professions the one they would like their off-spring to persue. Repeated measures anovas, Tukey's HSD test, and descriptive statistics, were used to analyse the data. The results indicated that the sample i) was moderately confident in the abilities of psychologists to treat 5 cases ii) was moderately confident in the abilities of psychologists to treat their own problems, iii) rated case 3 as being most severe and psychiatrists as being more competent to treat this 'severe' case, iv) rated psychologists quite favourably in terms of personal qualities, and chose engineers and accountants above psychologists. Further analysis revealed that in certain instances, the sample appeared to have a preference for counselling psychologists over clinical psychologists, and rated mental health professionals more favourably than non-mental health professionals. The results also indicated that the sample appeared to lack clarity about the roles, functions and skills of psychologists. Implications for the job security of psychologists, and the need for educational and public relations efforts are discussed. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.