Adolescence is an important developmental period where friendships become important for social emotional adjustment. Given the importance of friendships in adolescence, the current study explored the relation between popularity and internalizing problems and whether friendship qualities mediated this relation. The present study aimed to answer the following research question: What is the mediating role of friendship qualities in the relationship between perceived popularity and internalizing symptoms? Data from the National Institute of Child Health and Development – Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development were analyzed. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results indicate that adolescents who rated themselves as being high in popularity also reported higher levels of positive friendship qualities. A significant relationship was also found among perceived popularity and internalizing problems such that adolescents who rated themselves as being high in popularity were also reported by their mothers as having lower levels of internalizing problems. Contrary to what was expected, validation and caring significantly mediated the relationship between popularity and anxiety/depression and social problems such that as popularity goes up, so does anxiety/depression, and social problems. Results found conflict and betrayal mediates the relation between popularity and thought problems suggesting adolescents that believe they are popular experience less conflict and betrayal and fewer thought problems. Additionally, conflict resolution, companionship, and recreation each mediated the relationship between popularity and social problems. This suggests that having a friend you can rely on for companionship, recreation and conflict resolution serves as a buffer from the negative consequences of social problems. Help and guidance as a mediator resulted in a positive relation between popularity and social problems which was unexpected. Results support claims that popularity relates to having high quality friendships that protect against internalizing problems. These findings emphasize the importance of understanding outcomes for adolescent adjustment in relation to forming and maintaining positive relationships with peers.

In den vielfältigen Genres der Musikgeschichte gab und gibt es zahlreiche soziokulturell und politisch bestimmte Grenzen, die entscheidende Auswirkungen auf die Funktion, die Strukturierung und die Darbietungsweisen von Musik haben. Damit ist ein bis heute virulentes Problem benannt: Wie verfestigt sind solche Grenzziehungen, primär zwischen den ›popular‹ und den ›artifiziell‹ definierten Kulturen? Da musikalische Grenzüberschreitungen immer auch auf – partiell gravierende – soziale Spannungsverhältnisse verweisen, können diese nicht aus rein ästhetischer Sicht verstanden werden. / Throughout history, a multitude of musical genres have been shaped by numerous boundaries, set by political and socio-cultural constraints, which have had decisive consequences for the functions, structure, and modes of the presentation of music. This raises a problem still virulent today: how entrenched are such demarcations, primarily those between so-called »popular« vs. »high« cultures? Since transgressions of such generic boundaries always reflect social tensions, sometimes grave ones, these »border crossings« generally have relevance and meaning beyond the merely aesthetic.

How to design effective persuasive information security messages to motivate individuals’ engagement in recommended protective security behaviors has become a top priority in the information security field. Although fear appeals have been shown to be an effective means to influence individuals’ security-related protective behaviors, recent information security research has called for a deeper understanding of recipients’ information processing of messages to design effective fear appeals. Previous IS security research has explored two individuals’ information processing routes of security messages, the central route, and the peripheral route, and has investigated the impacts of central variables, perceived argument quality, and peripheral variables, perceived source credibility, on individuals’ security protective behaviors. However, it is not clear how personal disposition influences the process. Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), this dissertation identifies need for cognition as an important factor that influences employees’ information processing (Study 1). Results show that need for cognition significantly moderates the relationship between perceived security argument quality and individuals’ behavioral intention. In addition, although most of the previous research has emphasized the importance of perceived argument quality (the central route) in influencing individuals’ security protective behaviors, the understanding of how to improve individuals’ perception of argument quality is far from conclusive. Thus this dissertation takes the view that the preference matching between message characteristics and recipients’ preference is one of the key mechanisms that increase individuals’ perceived security argument quality and behavioral intention. In particular, I conducted a multi-group experiment design to examine how preference matching, the matching between the rhetoric of a security message and recipients’ preferences for rhetoric (Study 2), influences individuals’ perception of security argument quality and behavioral intention to adopt the recommended security behavior. I found that preference matching significantly influences perceived argument quality and behavioral intention. The results have important theoretical and practical implications for designing effective information security messages to improve information security management in both personal and work environments

Content Centric Networking (CCN) est une architecture pour l'Internet du futur. CCN inclut des fonctionnalités de cache dans tous les noeuds du réseau. Son efficacité dépend largement de la performance de ses stratégies de cache. C'est pour cela que plusieurs études proposent des nouvelles stratégies de cache pour améliorer la performance d'un réseau CCN. Cependant parmi toutes ces stratégies, ce n'est pas évident de décider laquelle fonctionne le mieux. Il manque un environnement commun pour comparer ces stratégies. De plus, il n'est pas certain que ces approches soient les meilleures alternatives pour améliorer la performance du réseau. Dans cette thèse, on vise le problème de choisir les meilleures stratégies de caches pour CCN et les contributions sont les suivantes. On construit un environnement commun d'évaluation dans lequel on compare via simulation les stratégies de caches disponibles: Leave Copy Everywhere (LCE), Leave Copy Down (LCD), ProbCache, Cache "Less For More" et MAGIC. On analyse la performance de toutes ces stratégies et on décide la meilleure stratègie de cache pour chaque scénario. Ensuite, on propose deux stratégies de cache basées sur la popularité pour CCN. On commence avec un étude de la popularité de contenu et on présent la stratégie Most Popular Caching (MPC). MPC privilèges la distribution de contenu populaire dans les caches afin d'ameliorer les autres stratégies de cache. Dans une deuxième étape, on présent une stratègie de cache basé dans l'information des réseaux sociaux: Socially-Aware Caching Strategy (SACS). SACS privilèges la distribution de contenu publié par les utilisateurs les plus importantes / Content Centric Networking (CCN) is a new architecture for a future Internet. CCN includes in-network caching capabilities at every node. Its effciency depends drastically on performances of caching strategies. A lot of studies proposing new caching strategies to improve the performances of CCN. However, among all these strategies, it is still unclear which one performs better as there is a lack of common environment to compare these strategies. In this thesis, we address the challenge of selecting the best caching strategies for CCN. The contribution of this thesis are the following. We build a common evaluation scenario and we compare via simulation the state of the art caching strategies: Leave Copy Everywhere (LCE), Leave Copy Down (LCD), ProbCache, Cache "Less" For More and MAGIC. We analyze the performance of all the strategies in terms of Cache Hit, Stretch, Diversity and Complexity, and determine the cache strategy that fits the best with every scenario. Later on, we propose two novel caching strategies for CCN based on popularity. First, we study popularity of content and we present Most Popular Caching (MPC) strategy. MPC privileges distribution of popular caches into the caches and thus, it overcomes other caching strategies. Second, we present an alternative caching strategy based on social networks: Socially-Aware Caching Strategy (SACS). SACS privileges distribution of content published by influential users into the network. Both caching strategies overcome state of the art mechanisms and, to the best of our knowledge, we are the first to use social information to build caching strategies

在閱覽有關狄更斯的研究的過程中，我發現大多數的學者通常都很有默契的迴避一個事實：狄更斯不但是個名作家，同時也是個成就顯著的表演者。其中只有米勒(Melvin H. Miller)堅稱狄更斯的雙領域成就其實是缺一不可的。 然而米勒的發言並未引起其他學者的注意，即便後來柯林斯(Philip Collins)稍稍提到狄更斯雙領域的關聯，多數學者依舊保持沉默。但我認為柯林斯的論點實在太過草率，所以我轉向昂格(W. J. Ong)的口述理論，希望能藉由昂格的理論發掘狄更斯雙成就的關聯。 一如我所預期，狄更斯有意圖地結合口述傳統與文學性：一方面，狄更斯小說中的口述傳統幫助讀者更快適應新的故事表現方式；另一方面，文字所帶來的抽象思考形成了狄更斯所有作品的架構主幹。最後，狄更斯有意圖地演出他的作品，這三者的結合便使狄更斯能夠隨心所欲地游走在文字及口語表現之中。 接著，費娜根(Ruth Finnegan)的口述理論提醒了我所有文本的功能性的重要。我有點驚訝的發現狄更斯對於口說力量的強烈信仰和世界上其他地方的口語文化不謀而合。藉著費娜根的協助，我指出狄更斯作品中的高度互文性是造成維多利亞大眾無從意識到狄更斯所做的偉大嘗試，也就是試圖結合口述性及文學性。最後，藉著福洛克(Deborah Vlock)的觀點「狄更斯的小說能夠視覺地、口語地、及敘述地被表現」，我相當有信心地作結：狄更斯結合口述性及文學性的意圖正是他深受維多利亞大眾喜愛的主因。 / In reviewing papers related to Charles Dickens, I find that scholars tend to avoid the truth that Dickens is not only a famous writer but a very distinguished performer; only Melvin H. Miller, a contemporary of Dickens, asserts that Dickens’s two careers are indispensible to each other. After Miller’s remarks there’s a long-lasting silence until Philip Collins slightly touches this issue. Yet, not very satisfied with Collins’s hasty judges, I turn to W. J. Ong’s oral theory in order to figure out what is the connection between Dickens’s writing career and speaking achievement. As I expected, Dickens’s writing is a combination of orality and literacy: on the one hand, orality in Dickens’s novels familiarizes the reader with the new style of story-telling; on the other hand, modern consciousness, the product of writing technology, frames Dickens’s texts with logic and lineal thinking. Dickens’s intention to enact his texts finally results in his ability to freely present a text with either written words or spoken words. Later, Ruth Finnegan’s theory reminds me of the significance of functional value of texts. I’m kind of surprised to find that Dickens’s strong belief in oral power is very identical with other oral people’s in the globe. With Finnegan’s great help, I’m encouraged to conclude that it is the intertexuality that makes the Victorian unaware of Dickens’s combining his writing, acting, and speaking. Finally, Deborah Vlock’s remark that Dickens’s novels are “visually, vocally, and narratively written” strengthens my confidence in concluding that the combination of orality and literaty is the secret Dickens’s popularity.

Avui en dia, la música està esbiaixada cap al consum d'alguns artistes molt populars. Per exemple, el 2007 només l'1% de totes les cançons en format digital va representar el 80% de les vendes. De la mateixa manera, només 1.000 àlbums varen representar el 50% de totes les vendes, i el 80% de tots els àlbums venuts es varen comprar menys de 100 vegades. Es clar que hi ha una necessitat per tal d'ajudar a les persones a filtrar, descobrir, personalitzar i recomanar música, a partir de l'enorme quantitat de contingut musical disponible. Els algorismes de recomanació de música actuals intenten predir amb precisió el que els usuaris demanen escoltar. Tanmateix, molt sovint aquests algoritmes tendeixen a recomanar artistes famosos, o coneguts d'avantmà per l'usuari. Això fa que disminueixi l'eficàcia i utilitat de les recomanacions, ja que aquests algorismes es centren bàsicament en millorar la precisió de les recomanacions. És a dir, tracten de fer prediccions exactes sobre el que un usuari pugui escoltar o comprar, independentment de quant útils siguin les recomanacions generades. En aquesta tesi destaquem la importància que l'usuari valori les recomanacions rebudes. Per aquesta raó modelem la corba de popularitat dels artistes, per tal de poder recomanar música interessant i desconeguda per l'usuari. Les principals contribucions d'aquesta tesi són: (i) un nou enfocament basat en l'anàlisi de xarxes complexes i la popularitat dels productes, aplicada als sistemes de recomanació, (ii) una avaluació centrada en l'usuari, que mesura la importància i la desconeixença de les recomanacions, i (iii) dos prototips que implementen la idees derivades de la tasca teòrica. Els resultats obtinguts tenen una clara implicació per aquells sistemes de recomanació que ajuden a l'usuari a explorar i descobrir continguts que els pugui agradar. / Actualmente, el consumo de música está sesgada hacia algunos artistas muy populares. Por ejemplo, en el año 2007 sólo el 1% de todas las canciones en formato digital representaron el 80% de las ventas. De igual modo, únicamente 1.000 álbumes representaron el 50% de todas las ventas, y el 80% de todos los álbumes vendidos se compraron menos de 100 veces. Existe, pues, una necesidad de ayudar a los usuarios a filtrar, descubrir, personalizar y recomendar música a partir de la enorme cantidad de contenido musical existente. Los algoritmos de recomendación musical existentes intentan predecir con precisión lo que la gente quiere escuchar. Sin embargo, muy a menudo estos algoritmos tienden a recomendar o bien artistas famosos, o bien artistas ya conocidos de antemano por el usuario.Esto disminuye la eficacia y la utilidad de las recomendaciones, ya que estos algoritmos se centran en mejorar la precisión de las recomendaciones. Con lo cuál, tratan de predecir lo que un usuario pudiera escuchar o comprar, independientemente de lo útiles que sean las recomendaciones generadas. En este sentido, la tesis destaca la importancia de que el usuario valore las recomendaciones propuestas. Para ello, modelamos la curva de popularidad de los artistas con el fin de recomendar música interesante y, a la vez, desconocida para el usuario.Las principales contribuciones de esta tesis son: (i) un nuevo enfoque basado en el análisis de redes complejas y la popularidad de los productos, aplicada a los sistemas de recomendación,(ii) una evaluación centrada en el usuario que mide la calidad y la novedad de las recomendaciones, y (iii) dos prototipos que implementan las ideas derivadas de la labor teórica. Los resultados obtenidos tienen importantes implicaciones para los sistemas de recomendación que ayudan al usuario a explorar y descubrir contenidos que le puedan gustar. / Music consumption is biased towards a few popular artists. For instance, in 2007 only 1% of all digital tracks accounted for 80% of all sales. Similarly, 1,000 albums accounted for 50% of all album sales, and 80% of all albums sold were purchased less than 100 times. There is a need to assist people to filter, discover, personalise and recommend from the huge amount of music content available along the Long Tail.Current music recommendation algorithms try to accurately predict what people demand to listen to. However, quite often these algorithms tend to recommend popular -or well-known to the user- music, decreasing the effectiveness of the recommendations. These approaches focus on improving the accuracy of the recommendations. That is, try to make accurate predictions about what a user could listen to, or buy next, independently of how useful to the user could be the provided recommendations. In this Thesis we stress the importance of the user's perceived quality of the recommendations. We model the Long Tail curve of artist popularity to predict -potentially- interesting and unknown music, hidden in the tail of the popularity curve. Effective recommendation systems should promote novel and relevant material (non-obvious recommendations), taken primarily from the tail of a popularity distribution. The main contributions of this Thesis are: (i) a novel network-based approach for recommender systems, based on the analysis of the item (or user) similarity graph, and the popularity of the items, (ii) a user-centric evaluation that measures the user's relevance and novelty of the recommendations, and (iii) two prototype systems that implement the ideas derived from the theoretical work. Our findings have significant implications for recommender systems that assist users to explore the Long Tail, digging for content they might like.

The thesis is dealing with university students' point of view on primary education. It reveals teachers' influence on the responders' attitudes to primary schools, on their study and professional orientation, and on the reasons of popularity of nature historical education at primary schools and biological education at secondary schools. A questionnaire for university students, who studied biological, humanistic, pedagogical and non pedagogical subjects at that time, was an important part of the thesis. A comparison between the different groups of students was drawn within the questionnaire survey. It determined the relation between the responders' contemporary branch of study, gender and their attitude to the biological education.

The target of the thesis Relation between Textual Devices and Popularity of Media Text on the Example of Radio Series "Tlučhořovi" is to reveal if there exist any connection between significant textual devices used in the series and its popularity and success. As methods there are used semiotic analysis of sample of the series episodes and "respondent interview" with the listeners. In the first there is focus mainly on particular textual devices and in the second on what respondents consider to be reasons why they do listen to the series. Significant textual devices are one of the central themes of cultural studies and this work sets itself a task to deduce from findings conclusion which would be generalizable to relation between media texts and their audiences universally.

La presente investigación se realizó con la finalidad de conocer los factores considerados exitosos por la productora Tondero, tales como el argumento narrativo, dentro de este la auto representación y las características principales del actor con reconocida trayectoria, como es la de la popularidad, en sus producciones nacionales de género comedia. Por otra parte, se realizará un análisis comparativo de las películas "Asu Mare 1" y "Soltera Codiciada", en las cuales se presentan dichos factores que confirman la acogida de las películas de Tondero y les permiten ser exitosas.  Por último, se utilizó la técnica cualitativa con un paradigma interpretativo para poder llevar a cabo esta investigación, la cual es de suma importancia, ya que permite realizar una comparación con las perspectivas del público brindadas a través de las entrevistas semiestructuradas y el análisis de contenido de contenido propuesto por el investigador en las películas anteriormente mencionadas. / The present investigation was carried out with the purpose of knowing the factors considered successful by the producer Tondero as the narrative argument, within this the self-representation and the main characteristics of the actor with a recognized trajectory, such as popularity, in his national productions. of comedy genre. On the other hand, a comparative analysis will be made of the films "Asu Mare 1" and "Soltera Codiciada", in which these factors are presented that confirm the acceptance of the Tondero films and allow them to be successful. Finally, the qualitative technique with an interpretive paradigm was used to carry out this research, which is of utmost importance, since it allows a comparison to be made with the perspectives of the public provided through semi-structured interviews and content analysis. of content proposed by the researcher in the films mentioned above. / Trabajo de investigación

The aim of the thesis is to answer the question how differ the attitudes of zoologists and general public on suitability of various mammals kept in zoos. The theory of cultural stereotypes is theoretical starting point where i assume that evaluation is influenced on the basis of cultural stereotypes among general public (n = 100) versus expert evaluation of graduates of zoology (n = 60). Questionnaire with a scale enumeration concerning the assessment of the suitability of selected groups of mammals for breeding in zoos was used as the main data collection instrument. Results of the survey showed that experts evaluated the suitability of mamals for breeding in zoo more positive than laymens in general. According general public were equines and rodents rated as relatively unsuitable for breeding in zoos in comparison with expert evaluation. Elephant, orangutan, platypus, tiger, bear and cheetah were rated as relatively suitable for breeding in zoos by general public against expert evaluation. The possible interpretation might be that these mammals belong to the most popular and therefore respondents want to experience personal contact with them. Statistical testing found no gender differences in the rating. Key words: zoos, public attitudes, zoologists' attitudes, mammals, cultural stereotypes,...