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Twitter has become a popular data source in the recent decade and garnered a significant amount of attention as a surrogate data source for many important forecasting problems. Strong correlations have been observed between Twitter indicators and real-world trends spanning elections, stock markets, book sales, and flu outbreaks. A key ingredient to all methods that use Twitter for forecasting is to agree on a domain-specific vocabulary to track the pertinent tweets, which is typically provided by subject matter experts (SMEs). The language used in Twitter drastically differs from other forms of online discourse, such as news articles and blogs. It constantly evolves over time as users adopt popular hashtags to express their opinions. Thus, the vocabulary used by forecasting algorithms needs to be dynamic in nature and should capture emerging trends over time. This thesis proposes a novel unsupervised learning algorithm that builds a dynamic vocabulary using Probabilistic Soft Logic (PSL), a framework for probabilistic reasoning over relational domains. Using eight presidential elections from Latin America, we show how our query expansion methodology improves the performance of traditional election forecasting algorithms. Through this approach we demonstrate how we can achieve close to a two-fold increase in the number of tweets retrieved for predictions and a 36.90% reduction in prediction error. / Master of Science

No / Occupational discrimination and segregation along gendered lines continue to be seen as problematic throughout the UK and the USA. Women continue to be attracted to occupations that are considered to be women's work, such as clerical, secretarial and personal service work, and inequalities persist even when women enter traditional male domains such as management Work psychology's chief, though indirect, contribution to this field has been through personnel selection research, where methods aimed at helping organizations to make more fair and unbiased selection decisions have been carefully examined. Our aim in this paper is to argue that, on their own, such methods can make very little difference to the position of women (and other minorities) in work organizations. The processes that are fundamental to organizational attraction and adjustment cannot, we contend, be understood adequately through reductionist approaches that treat organizational and individual characteristics as context independent realities. Drawing on critical management research and using the specific example of police work, we argue that work roles and work identities can be more fruitfully understood as social constructions that, when deconstructed, illuminate more powerfully how processes that lead to the relative subordination of women (and other groups) are both reproduced and challenged.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

The research presents a study of ethnic homophily, i.e. the tendency of agents to be connected to similar others, in the school context. It uses two observations of the complete social network of a cohort of Swedish students (n=115) in a secondary school. The study analyses the scope of the selective attachment and the student’s possible motivations to seek similarity, as well as its interrelation to homophily induced by structural organization or foci. It focuses in the interrelation between the individual motivation to seek similarity and how the context of opportunity is organized. Sociometric data was collected during a school year and the model is based in crosscuts of the friendship network. Homophily in respect to ethnic origin was found in the first time point, with students making connections within the in-group. The effect of ethnic homophily seems to decrease between the time points, with evidence of an effect of structural constraints that gained importance over time. Results suggest that organisational divisions in classrooms play a decisive role in the pattern of friendship connections in the school

According to the theses that regional identification is a complex phenomenon this paper presents a method to examine interactions between single regional identifications. The methodological background is introduced as a \"principle of personality\" that is based on the understanding of identification as a structural phenomenon. It is argued, that all elements of that structure have to be taken into account by specifying the interrelations between the single identifications. Using questionnaire data concerning regional identification the analysis is going to be represented on a population of 18 years old youngsters of Saxony by focusing on the relation between the specific structure of identification and xenophobia. First it is shown, that one can find a heterogeneous set of structures of regional identifications. Secondly it is argued, that the proposed way of analysing identification supplies more information about its characteristics and correlations to other personal habits than bivariate strategies.

The diploma thesis covers the theme of mutual influence of assessment, self-evaluation and social position of a student in lower secondary level classes. Focus lies also on the relationship of the studied phenomena to sex of the respondents. The data from the social relationship study are analyzed thoroughly to disclose the social structure of the studied classes. The thesis is divided into two parts, a theoretical part and a practical part. The theoretical part deals with assessment and its specifics, functions, types, forms, phases and also with self-evaluation. The topic of social group is then developed focusing on different kinds of social groups, the position and the role of the member of a group and social norms. As the third topic, the bachelor thesis concerns with a school class and its specifics, factors determining its status, the position and the role of a student in a class and also with the methods of analyzing a school class. The last topic of the theoretical part are general features of psychological development, its determiners, and life stages of psychological development with special regard to puberty. In the practical part there are presented the results of research which was realized with the students of sixth grade, respectively seventh grade classes at lower secondary...

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T19:34:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernando Leite Morais.pdf: 569661 bytes, checksum: ae0bfad9e14bf381d90063e9670a3420 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-11-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The language of a determined group is what it characterizes it how such. She manifests herself through several uses in several situations. According to the use of the language for the group, him if it transforms in standards that regulate the communication. Each linguistic community regulates his language through specific characteristics, for example, the slangs use criptológicas to be communicated. From the point of view of the vocabulary, the slang is a basic caraterística between the communication of the funkeiros. The slang has two perspectives: the common slang and that of group. It is aimed, with this study, defines the social group funk, funk sets out the "standard" and the slang as basic elements for construction of the language of the linguistic community. The slang favors to the group a more free communication, which secures the protection of the group and not participants of the group it imposes a limit to. The obscene vocabulary and the Marks (products names, persons or category) also are of our interest in the present study. Basing us on studies of Preti (1983, 1984, 1994, 2004), whose works are references in the explanation and "slangy" clarity of the subject and obscene vocabulary ; of Coseriu (1979) to explain the question of the "standard" and his variations; of Horton and Hunt (1980) to explain what he is social group and Maingueneau (2013) as for the studies of the "Marks" that represent products of consumption like, in case of the funk, motorcars, motorbikes, garment and props of luxury, is that there will happen the explanation of the basic elements for the development of this work. The study also tends to show that the linguistic variation is made perceptible in the letters of funk analysed / A linguagem de um determinado grupo é o que o caracteriza como tal. Ela se manifesta por meio de diversos usos em diversas situações. Conforme o uso da linguagem pelo grupo, ele se transforma em normas que regulam a comunicação. Cada comunidade linguística regula sua linguagem por meio de características específicas, por exemplo, a utilização de gírias criptológicas para se comunicar. Do ponto de vista do vocabulário, a gíria é uma caraterística fundamental entre a comunicação dos funkeiros. A gíria possui duas perspectivas: a gíria vulgar e a de grupo. Objetiva-se, com este estudo, definir o grupo social funk, explicitar a norma e a gíria como elementos fundamentais para construção da linguagem da comunidade linguística funk. A gíria propicia ao grupo uma comunicação mais livre, o que assegura a proteção do grupo e impõe um limite aos não participantes do grupo. O vocabulário obsceno e as Marcas (nomes de produtos, pessoas ou categoria) também são de nosso interesse no presente estudo. Baseando-nos em estudos de Preti (1983, 1984, 1994, 2004), cujas obras são referências na explanação e clareza do tema gíria e vocabulário obsceno ; de Coseriu (1979) para esclarecer a questão da norma e suas variações; de Horton & Hunt (1980) para esclarecer o que é grupo social e Maingueneau (2013) quanto aos estudos das Marcas que representam produtos de consumo como, no caso do funk, automóveis, motos, vestimenta e adereços de luxo, é que se dará o esclarecimento dos elementos fundamentais para o desenvolvimento deste trabalho. O estudo também tende mostrar que a variação linguística se faz perceptível nas letras de funk analisadas