With growing popularity of the use of social network sites/services (SNSs) throughout the world, the global dominance of SNSs designed in the western industrialized countries, especially in the United Sates, seems to have become an inevitable trend. As internationalization has become a common practice in designing SNSs in the United States, is localization still a viable practice? Does culture still matter in designing SNSs? This dissertation aims to answer these questions by comparing the user interface (UI) designs of a U.S.-based SNS, Twitter, and a China-based SNS, Sina Weibo, both of which have assumed an identity of a “microblogging” service, a sub category of SNSs. This study employs the theoretical lens of the theory of technical identity, user-centered website cultural usability studies, and communication and media studies. By comparing the UI designs, or the “form,” of the two microblogging sites/services, I illustrate how the social functions of a technological object as embedded and expressed in the interface designs are preserved or changed as the technological object that has developed a relatively stable identity (as a microblogging site/service) in one culture is transferred between the “home” culture and another. The analysis in this study focuses on design elements relevant to users as members of networks, members of audience, and publishers/broadcasters. The results suggest that the designs carry disparate biases towards modes of communication and social affordances, which indicate a shift of the identity of microblogging service/site across cultures.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:39:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4484.pdf: 1025028 bytes, checksum: ae9cd191ad9c7aad4e6cecc2699624f1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-06-22 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The aim of this dissertation is to analyze a group of Brazilian workers who are in London doing some "unskilled job" in the service sector. It is intended to verify: the alleged reasons to migrate; how it developed throughout the process of displacement, arrival and adaptation in the new society; the working conditions that these immigrants are submitted; the social networks used to obtain and maintain the work; and the intra-Community relations. In a context of mobility of people between continents and region, social networks act as mediators that facilitate these movements, since the social contacts provide initial information to obtain access to housing, work and other material or symbolic goods. However, those individuals who "constitute social ties" are not always supportive and these links will not provide gains to all, and it may exclude some while includes others. Inserted into a new social logic and working on activities that they would not perform in their country of origin, these immigrants assume new values in relation to work, building new forms of social differentiation and justification. The research is the result of two distinct moments. First an exploratory study was conducted from an experience as student and casual worker for nine months in London, in which was developed ethnography of social relations and work in the "community" of informal Brazilian workers. Secondly, in-depth interviews were conducted in order to recover the trajectory of life of these migrant. / O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar um grupo de trabalhadores brasileiros que estão em Londres realizando trabalhos considerados desqualificados dentro do setor de serviço. Pretende-se verificar os motivos alegados para migrar, a forma como se desenvolveu todo o processo de deslocamento, chegada e adaptação na nova sociedade, as condições de trabalho a que se submetem esses imigrantes, as redes sociais utilizadas na obtenção e manutenção do trabalho, e as relações intracomunitárias. Em um contexto de crescente deslocamento de indivíduos entre regiões e continentes, as redes sociais funcionam como mediadores que facilitam esses deslocamentos, já que os contatos sociais fornecem as informações iniciais para se obter acesso à moradia, trabalho e a outros bens materiais ou simbólicos. Contudo, nem sempre esses indivíduos que constituem laços sociais são solidários e nem sempre esses laços vão proporcionar ganhos a todos, podendo excluir alguns ao mesmo tempo em que incluem outros. Inseridos em uma nova lógica social e trabalhando em atividades que não realizariam em seu país de origem, esses imigrantes assumem novos valores em relação ao trabalho, construindo novas formas de diferenciação e justificação social. A pesquisa é fruto de dois momentos distintos. Primeiro foi realizado um estudo exploratório, a partir de uma experiência como estudante e trabalhador informal durante nove meses, na cidade de Londres, na qual foi desenvolvida uma etnografia das relações sociais e de trabalho na comunidade de trabalhadores informais brasileiros. Num segundo momento, foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade com o intuito de recuperar a trajetória de vida desses trabalhadores migrantes.

In the Nordic countries a new and liberal view on marriages came in the mid-1910s. In Sweden a new divorce law, with a no-fault ground proceeded a new marital law in 1920. In the new law both parents had equal rights to the custody of the children. Before this the father automatically got the custody of the children if he wasn’t unfit. From the late 19th century it became more common that the mother got the custody.  In this study I have gone through the testimonies in a divorce process, from 1929 to 1932, where the father, the doctor in Strängnäs, had asked for a divorce an also the custody of the two underage children. In this process both parent mobilize their social network and through the study of their testimony we get a picture of a well-educated middle class family’s life and how the contemporary society’s view on the qualities a good mother and father would have. Also if the testimonies had an impact on the decision of the courts. In Strängnäs the Municipal Court, Rådhusrätten, first ruled in favor for the mother and then granted both parents the custody of one child each, a boy and a girl, based on the children’s gender. Both parents appealed to a higher court, Svea hovrätt, which ruled in favor of the mother based on the children’s age and well-being.

abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore features of Supplemental Educational Services (SES) implementation at the district level. In the study beliefs, goals, and actions of district office administrators were analyzed against the backdrop of changing federal guidelines and challenges faced by SES implementers across Arizona. The case study focuses on implementation in the 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2009-2010 school years. The study uses the 2005 and 2009 Department of Education guidelines, survey responses from Arizona district and school implementers, as well as documents and interviews from an urban Arizona case district. The study separates the implementation activities into task areas, which are analyzed separately. Using a loose coupling perspective, the separate task areas are furthered used as coupling domains and represented in social network graphs. Results show that the case district personnel were highly focused on their primary role, maintaining district compliance with federal guidelines. The district personnel employed several changes over the case study period to centralize their control of SES operations within district. The employment and training of site level coordinators was the most impactful of the strategies. As boundary spanners, the coordinators allowed greater access to information, oversight, and influence at the site level. Despite the growing capacity and earnest efforts of the district personnel, the case district was still very far from being able to measure or assess the impact of SES on student achievement. Centralization in the scholastic task areas was relatively low, and had marginal changes over the case study period. Years into the program, there was still no avenue to accurately gauge the effectiveness. As the district personnel were chiefly concerned with compliance, they had suspended judgment on the program and focused primarily on improving their processes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2011

abstract: Services outsourcing is a prevalent yet problematic phenomenon. On the one hand, more and more firms are outsourcing services function. On the other hand, we are faced with many services outsourcing failures. This research attempts to uncover some of the omitted causes of services outsourcing failure. It extends a conceptual paper that used social network theory to examine the shifting of the triadic relationship structures among the service buyer, service supplier and the buyer's customers at different stages of the services outsourcing arrangements and its performance implications. This study empirically examines these performance implications. Specifically, this research defines the concept of bridge transfer, which denotes the weakening and dissolution of operational ties between the service buyer firms' and their end customers and the appearing and strengthening of operational ties between the service supplier firms and the end customers. It also empirically derives a measurement scale for this new construct. Further, the effects of bridge transfer on supplier's appropriation behavior, buyer's cost of quality and end customers' quality perception are examined in the context of customer facing services and are contrasted with those entail little or no customer interactions. In addition, the moderating roles of buyer-supplier relationship on the effects of bridge transfer are also examined. An Internet-based survey was administered to firms affiliated with CAPS Research and the Institute of Supply Management as the primary data source (n=137). Principal Component Analyses were used to derive a composite score for each of the model construct. Then linear regressions were used to detect the effects of bridge transfer on services outsourcing outcomes and to detect the moderating role of buyer-supplier relationships on these effects. The results show that bridge transfer is positively correlated to suppliers' appropriate behavior and negatively correlated to end customer's quality perception in the context of customer facing services. The effects of bridge transfer are not found for services that entail little or no interactions with the end customers. Instead, buyer-supplier relationship is found to be a key influencing factor to services outsourcing outcomes in this context. This study helps to pinpoint some of the omitted causes of services outsourcing failures and shed light on how to manage services outsourcing for success. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Business Administration 2011

Este estudo teve como objetivo principal identificar as redes de conhecimento, que os professores de Ciências da escola básica formaram na escolha e uso de fontes de informação durante a formação acadêmica e na tomada de decisão para a elaboração do planejamento de ensino. Os procedimentos metodológicos se relacionaram a uma abordagem mista, a partir das ferramentas da Análise de Redes Sociais (ARS), que permitiu o mapeamento e a caracterização das relações existentes, sob a forma de um estudo de caso, que incluiu a aplicação de um questionário, realizado com os professores de Ciências da rede municipal de Cachoeirinha, RS, que atuam na educação básica com alunos dos anos finais no ensino fundamental. Os dados foram analisados com o uso dos softwares UCINET e NetDraw, que possibilitou a partir dos resultados revelar alguns padrões estruturais de relacionamento dos professores com as fontes em forma de rede. A fundamentação teórica desta pesquisa perpassa por autores que estudam o conceito da sociedade em rede, o ensino de ciências, as novas tecnologias e as fontes de informação no ensino. Investigou-se ainda de que forma as fontes de informação podem contribuir para o desenvolvimento do Ensino de Ciências na educação básica. Os resultados indicaram que a fonte mais utilizada durante a formação acadêmica foram as Bibliotecas e no planejamento de ensino são os livros didáticos, seguido do buscador Google.com e de jornais. Verificou-se que a escolha do professor pelo uso de determinada fonte de informação está relacionada com os recursos pedagógicos tradicionais usados no processo de ensinar e aprender e também com a visão de educação que os professores possuem. Conclui-se o estudo ao salientar o desafio da prática pedagógica, a necessidade da formação continuada dos professores em consonância com as novas tecnologias educacionais para dar conta da realidade social do aluno e avançar no processo de ensinar e apreender no âmbito das Ciências, Tecnologia e Sociedade (CTS). / This study aimed to identify the knowledge networks, the basic school science teachers formed in the choice and use of information sources during the academic and decision-making for the development of educational planning. The methodological procedures were related to a mixed approach, from the Social Network Analysis tools (SNA), which allowed the mapping and characterization of the relationship, in the form of a case study, which included a questionnaire performed with the science teachers in the municipal Cachoeirinha, RS, working in primary education with students of final years in elementary school. Data were analyzed with the use of UCINET and NetDraw software, which allowed from the results reveal some structural patterns teacher relationship with sources in network order. The theoretical basis of this research permeates authors who study the concept of the network society, science education, new technologies and information sources in teaching. Were also investigated how the information sources can contribute to the development of science education in basic education. The results indicated that the source used most during the academic training were Libraries and education planning are textbooks, followed by Google.com search engine and newspapers. It was found that the choice of the teacher by the use of a particular source of information is related to the traditional teaching resources used in the process of teaching and learning and also with the vision of education that teachers have. We conclude the study to highlight the challenge of teaching practice, the need for ongoing training of teachers in line with the new educational technologies for dealing with the social reality of the student and support the process of teaching and seize.

Uma das estratégias recentes para a prevenção do uso de drogas é a mobilização das redes sociais, por envolver diferentes segmentos da comunidade e potencializar recursos locais existentes. Considerando que a escola é referência no processo de desenvolvimento de crianças e adolescentes, estabeleceu-se como objetivo desta pesquisa, caracterizar a rede social de uma escola pública do interior do Rio Grande do Sul (RS), a fim de utilizá-la como ferramenta em intervenções voltadas para a prevenção do uso de drogas no contexto escolar. O ponto de partida foi o programa de prevenção Viva Mais na Escola, implementado no município de Nova Roma do Sul. Trata-se de um estudo transversal com amostra não probabilística de conveniência que utilizou um instrumento de mapeamento da rede. A amostra foi composta por 238 sujeitos, divididos em quatro grupos: Grupo 1: estudantes do 7º ao 9º ano do ensino fundamental e ensino médio; Grupo 2: Pais ou responsáveis; Grupo 3: Funcionários da Escola, incluindo direção, professores, administrativo, merendeiras e higienizadoras; Grupo 4: Gestores da Saúde/Assistência Social e Educação e Conselheiros do Conselheiro Municipal sobre Drogas. Os dados foram analisados utilizando o programa Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) versão 18.0. Os resultados demonstram que, enquanto 63% dos estudantes percebem a família como próxima da escola, apenas 19% dos educadores e 9,7% dos pais apontam esta proximidade. Na visão dos grupos, as instituições da comunidade são percebidas como as mais distantes ou excluídas das relações da escola; já o Conselho Municipal sobre Drogas (67%) e a Assistente Social (66%) são situados como os mais próximos. A relação com o setor da saúde precisa ser fortalecido, pois os pais o situam distante da escola (58%) e para os educadores ele está distante (35%) ou tem baixo grau de proximidade (31%). Espera-se, a partir deste estudo, contribuir para o fortalecimento das políticas públicas preventivas em nível local e, em especial, qualificar o programa Viva Mais na Escola. / One of the recently drug usage prevention strategy is the social networking mobilization, as it evolves different segments of the community and potentiate local existent resources. Considering that school is reference in the process of children and teenager’s development, it has been stablished, as aim of this research, to characterize the social network of a public school from southern Brazil country side, in order to use it as a tool in interventions regarding drug usage preventions inside school environment. The starting point was the “Viva Mais na Escola” prevention program, implemented in the County of Nova Roma do Sul. Is about Cross-sectional study with a nonprobabilistic convenience sample, which used a networking mapping tool. The sample was composed by 238 people, divided in four groups: Group 1: students from the 7th to the 9th grade of elementary school and high school. Group 2: parents or responsible ones. Group 3: School Staff including principal, teachers, office staff, kitchen staff and cleaning staff. Group 4: Representatives of public settings (municipal health/social assistance and educational managers and councilors of the Municipal Council on Drugs). For the data analysis processing it has been used the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 18.0. The results show that while 63% of students perceive the family close to the school, only 19% of the educators and 9,7% of the parents fell the same way. Through these group points of view, the institutions from the community are seen as the most distance or excluded from school’s relationships; on the other hand, the Municipal Council About Drugs (67%) and Social Assistance (66%) are classified as the closest ones. The relationship with the health department has to be strengthened, because parents see it distant from school (58%) and for the educators it is very distant (35%) or it has a lower degree of proximity (31%). From this study is expected to contribute for the strengthening of public preventions politics at a local level and, specially, to qualify the “Vida Mais na Escola” program.

The use of social network services (SNS) has exponentially grown especially among younger generations. Facebook (FB) use today constitutes a part of many university students’ everyday life. At the same time, research interest for self-compassion has grown tremendously. High self-compassion is associated with high subjective well-being (SWB), while high FB use has shown association with lower SWB. The effect of interaction between FB use and self-compassion in predicting SWB has thus far not been tested. This study examined if FB use correlated with SWB, if self-compassion correlated with SWB, and if the level of self-compassion had a moderating effect between FB use and SWB. A survey containing measures of frequency and duration of FB use, Self-Compassion Scale - Short Form, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and Satisfaction With Life Scale was administered to Swedish university students (N = 231, M age = 24.84, SD = 5.9). A hierarchal regression analysis was used to test if FB use and self-compassion interacted to predict SWB. The regression analysis showed that only self-compassion significantly predicted SWB. This study suggests that frequency and duration of FB use might not be enough to predict SWB. Future research could benefit from mapping more precisely what kind of FB use is beneficial or non-beneficial for user well-being. Also, future research could benefit from considering type of FB use in interaction with the level of self-compassion in predicting SWB. / Användandet av sociala medier (SNS) har växt kraftigt bland yngre generationer. Facebook (FB) användande utgör idag en del av många universitetsstudenters vardagliga liv. Samtidigt har forskningsintresset kring self-compassion vuxit. Hög self-compassion är associerat med högt subjektivt välbefinnande (SWB) medan högt FB-användande har visat associationer med lägre SWB. Effekten av interaktion mellan FB-användande och self-compassion för att predicera SWB har ej tidigare studerats. Denna studie undersökte korrelation mellan FB-användande och SWB, korrelation mellan self-compassion och SWB, samt om self-compassion hade en modererande effekt mellan FB-användande och SWB. En enkät innehållande mätning av frekvens och duration av FB-användande, Self-Compassion Scale - Short Form, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule och Satisfaction With Life Scale administrerades till svenska universitetsstudenter (N = 231, M age = 24.84, SD = 5.9). Hierarkisk regressionsanalys användes för att undersöka om interaktion mellan FB-användande och self-compassion kunde predicera SWB. Regressionsanalysen visade att endast self-compassion signifikant kunde predicera SWB. Resultatet föreslår att frekvens och duration av FB-användande möjligtvis inte är tillräckligt för att predicera SWB. Framtida studier kan med fördel mer utförligt undersöka vilken typ av FB-användande som har fördelaktig eller icke-fördelaktig effekt på SWB, samt ta hänsyn till typ av FB-användande och nivå av self-compassion i interaktion för att predicera SWB.

The theoretical part concerns with the issues of managing human resources, the methods of selection of the new employees, as well as trends in human resources management and also by modern recruitment, the social networks. The application part consists of several sections. At the beginning of this part the chosen company is described, then an internal system of selection and recruitment with a questionnaire survey in Dura Automotive, which were attended by technical and economic employees from various departments. Furthermore, a statistical analysis of the data was carried out when it was investigated whether there is a verifiable relation between two attributes from the questionnaire survey. Based on the results of the questionnaire survey were made several suggestions, which could improve an efficiency of the analyzed processes.

As tecnologias de informação e comunicação (TIC) abrem importantes possibilidades para a aprendizagem de Matemática. Para tanto, é essencial que os professores tenham oportunidades para se prepararem. Considerando que a formação de professores de Matemática é um processo contínuo, o objetivo geral desta tese foi construir uma proposta de formação continuada, para os egressos da licenciatura em Matemática do IF Fluminense, no início de sua prática docente e, analisar a influencia dessa formação na prática docente. A proposta foi denominada T-PROIM – Tecnologias na Prática docente de pROfessores Iniciantes de Matemática. Essa visou a possibilitar a integração das TIC à prática docente e fundamentou-se na teoria vygotskyana, em particular, na importância do contexto social e da mediação para o desenvolvimento dos processos psicológicos superiores. A pesquisa foi de caráter qualitativo por meio de um estudo de caso. As técnicas de coleta de dados foram questionário, entrevistas, observação e conteúdos postados na rede social na Internet. O estudo desenvolvido, entre 2008 e 2011, compõe-se de uma revisão teórica sobre os temas: formação de professores, em particular da formação continuada relacionada às TIC e ao processo de ensino e aprendizagem de Matemática; letramento digital; redes sociais focalizando as interações e o capital social; comunidades e personal learning environment. A análise de todos os dados sinalizou que o processo de letramento digital é pré-condição para o alcance dos objetivos da formação T-PROIM. Confirmou a importância do sujeito mais experiente nas interações e das relações entre os pares. A flexibilidade da formação e da configuração de recursos da RSI pelos professores foi considerada importante para o contexto educacional, pois permitiu atender particularidades de cada professor e de seu contexto docente. A possibilidade de compartilhar informações criou um espaço menos formal para contexto educacional, esse serviu como motivação para as atividades formais. Além disso, a análise possibilitou identificar dimensões do capital social nas atividades presenciais e nos conteúdos postados na rede. Essas dimensões contribuíram para aumentar a confiança no uso pedagógico das TIC e promover o desenvolvimento pessoal, social e cognitivo dos professores. Enfim, a formação T-PROIM influenciou a prática docente dos professores. / Information and communication technologies (ICT) have opened important possibilities for the learning of Mathematics. For this reason, it is important that teachers have the opportunity to be prepared. Considering that Math teachers education is a continuous process, the general objective of this thesis was to present a proposal for continuing education for former students of Mathematics Education at IF Fluminense, in the beginning of their teaching carreer, and to analyze the influence of such experience in their practice. The proposal is named T-PROIM – Tecnologias na Prática docente de pROfessores Iniciantes de Matemática (Technologies in the Teaching Practice of Beginning Teachers of Math). This aimed at enabling the integration of ICT into the teaching practice, and was based on the vygotskian theory, mainly on the importance of social context, and of mediation in the development of higher order psychological processes. A qualitative research was carried through a case study in which data were collected from a questionnaire, interviews, observation and content posted on an internet social network (ISN). The study, developed from 2008 through 2011, presents a theoretical review of the following topics: teachers education, notably continuing education related to the ICT, and to the process of teaching and learning Mathematics; digital literacy; social networks with focus on interactions and social capital; communities and personal learning environments. Data analysis showed that digital literacy was a precondition to reach the objectives of T-PROIM, and confirmed the relevance of more experienced individuals in the interactions and relationships among participants. The flexibility of the program and the configuration of resources by teachers in the ISN were considered important for the educational context, as it enabled catering for the individual needs of each teacher and of his/her teaching situation. The possibility of sharing information created a less formal space for educational purposes, which served as motivation for formal activities. In addition, the analysis allowed for the identification of the dimensions of social capital in face to face activities and contents posted in the network. Such dimensions contributed to improve confidence in the pedagogical use of ICT, and to promote personal, social and cognitive development of teachers. In brief, the experience with T-PROIM influenced the subjects’ teaching practice.