Student Number: 0514022R Masters of Arts, Department of Sociology FACULTY OF HUMANITIES SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES / This study seeks to investigate the sources and the content of sexual information available to Rwandase youths aged 15 to 20 in Impala district. The rationale of this study is that young people need to have information on sexual development, reproduction, contraception, physical changes and about sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS. By getting such information, young people are likely to avoid a number of sex-related problems, including diseases, unforeseen sexual behaviour (early sexual intercourse and unintended pregnancy). To gather data, this study used in –depth interviews with 20 youths of both sexes and 20 key informants from different groups involved in youth sexual education. The study found that there is a range of sources of sexual information in Impala district such as school, peers, church, community meetings, anti-AIDS clubs, parents and radio. The school and peers emerged as the key sources of sexual education for educated youth, while community meetings and church are pointed to be the primary sources of this information for uneducated youth. However, most youth reported having little or no sexual education from parents. Concerning the content of this information, adolescent’s reproductive health, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS, gender roles, sexual experience and practice are the most discussed, and vary depending on the source involved. The information provided by those social agents has been well appreciated by most of the youth I interviewed. However, I argue that the interpretation is different in people depending on their beliefs, background, attitudes and so on. The study concludes with a number of recommendations both for policy implications and further research.

The purpose of this Master’s thesis was to examine emerging adults’ perceptions and experiences of contribution. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with fifteen emerging adults (n= 10 female, n= 5 male) between the ages of 18 to 24 (M= 22.8, SD= 1.61). Participants were recruited through purposive (n= 7) and snowball (n= 8) sampling, where key informants (e.g., program directors, managers) from well-established community organizations helped in the referral of eligible participants. The findings revealed six major themes: (a) contribution is multifaceted, (b) multiple motivations for contributing, (c) social agents play a critical role, (d) early exposure is an important factor, (e) sport can play a key role in becoming a contributing citizen, and (f) contribution fosters the development of assets. Overall, the results from this Master’s thesis illustrate various factors that play a role in youth becoming contributing citizens as an emerging adult. Furthermore, the findings can enhance both research and applied work within the field of positive youth development, particularly related to the 5 C’s model proposed by Lerner. Keywords: positive youth development, contribution, community, motivation, social agents, sport, developmental assets

Research around the implementations of human-like interactions during conversations with embodied conversational agents is currently at the forefront of Human-Computer Interaction as a field of science. In particular, conveying politeness through verbal and nonverbal behaviors is a significant challenge when modeling life-like virtual agents, as it underlies the conventional set of unspoken rules that govern human communication. In order to assess measures of perceived persuasiveness and politeness in human-agent interaction, in this study we compare six different politeness strategies - namely Baseline, Indirect, Asking, Proposing, Commanding and Pointing - to identify which combinations of verbal and nonverbal behaviors best persuade humans in joining a virtual conversational group while immersed in Virtual Reality (VR). 45 people were asked to walk towards the group with a specific scenario in mind, and answered questions on the perceived politeness of the agents inviting them. Results show that direct strategies are more persuasive than indirect ones, and the more imposing ones among them are perceived as more offensive, less friendly and inhibiting the interactant’s freedom of action. Additionally, strategies are less effective when participants feel more immersed in VR. We conclude that those giving the counterpart a higher freedom of action are most effective in conveying politeness, while those involving no behavior at all are least effective. / Forskning kring hur samtalsagenter kan förses med mer mänskliga beteenden under konversationer befinner sig i den vetenskapliga framkanten nar det galler människa-datorinteraktion. Det galler särskilt avseende att förmedla artighet genom verbala och icke-verbala beteenden hos realistiska virtuella agenter eftersom det finns en uppsättning bakomliggande oskrivna regler som styr mänsklig kommunikation. For att kunna utreda den upplevda förmågan att övertyga och att vara artig i människa-agentinteraktion sa har i denna studie sex olika strategier for artighet utvärderats, nämligen: Startläge, Indirekt, Frågande, Föreslående, Befallande och Utpekande. Ambitionen ar att kunna identifiera vilka kombinationer av verbala och icke-verbala beteenden som på basta satt övertygar människor att ansluta till en samtalande grupp i Virtual Reality (VR). 45 personer ombads att gå fram till en grupp med en särskild avsikt och därefter besvara frågor om den uppfattade artigheten nar de virtuella agenterna inviterade dem. Resultaten visar att direkta strategier uppfattas som mer övertygande an indirekta och de framfusiga som mer förolämpande, mindre vanliga och att de begränsar den interagerandes handlingsfrihet. Utöver detta sa ar alla strategier mindre effektiva i direkt förhållande till hur immersiv upplevelsen i VR ar. Vi kan sammanfattningsvis saga att de strategier som ger den interagerande större frihetsgrader ar mer effektiva att förmedla artighet, medan de som ar betydligt mer subtila ar minst effektiva.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / No processo de (re) produção do espaço urbano há lugares que são mais valorizados que outros em função de suas características. O recorte desse estudo compreendeu uma área que incluiu partes dos bairros: Aeroporto, Cauamé, Jardim Floresta e Caranã, localizados nas zonas urbanas norte/oeste da cidade de Boa Vista-RR. O objetivo geral da pesquisa foi realizar um estudo sobre a (re) produção do espaço urbano em Boa Vista-RR, tendo por foco a valorização do espaço, no bairro Aeroporto e entorno, numa escala temporal compreendido de 2000 a 2015. No que diz respeito aos procedimentos metodológicos numa primeira etapa, iniciou-se apresentando uma pesquisa bibliográfica discorrendo sobre os conceitos de espaço, bem como identificando os agentes sociais promotores do espaço urbano que atuaram nesse processo. A partir da aplicação de questionário, buscou-se verificar a percepção da população sobre valorização do espaço urbano local. Os resultados levaram a identificar que ao longo de 15 anos, as mudanças que emergiram na cidade no que se referia ao desenvolvimento urbano e da economia, por exemplo, refletiram de forma significativa, tanto no crescimento, quanto na valorização do espaço urbano. / In the process of (re) production of the urban space there are places that are more valued than others in terms of their features The outline of this study comprised an area that includes parts of the districts: Aeroporto, Cauamé, Jardim Floresta and Caranã, located in the northern and western urban zone of the city of Boa Vista-RR. The overall objective of the research was to conduct a study on the (re) production of urban space in Boa Vista-RR, with the focus on the valorization of the space of the district Aeroporto and the surrounding neighborhood, on a timescale ranging from 2000 to 2015. With regard to the methodological procedures as a first step, it started presenting a literature discussing the concepts of space, as well as identifying the social agents promoters of the urban space that acted in this process. From the application survey, we sought to verify the perception of the population on the valorization of the local urban space. The results led to identify that over 15 years, the changes that have emerged in the city when it came to urban development and the economy, for example, they reflected significantly, both in growth and in valorization of the urban space.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-04T21:36:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 17 / Nenhuma / Os riscos ambientais fabricados pelo desenvolvimento urbano e industrial são multiplicados quando se trata de derivados de petróleo. A questão central em referência aos riscos na cidade de Ca-noas é a existência de plantas industriais com várias denominações, refinaria, unidade termoelétrica, terminais e os dutos. A decisão sobre as instalações de plantas industriais, com produtos derivados do petróleo e de gás, junto aos terminais de dutos são decorrentes de acordos entre corporações interna-cionais. Os gestores locais por lei nacional deveriam participar da aprovação e em especial da coorde-nação da audiência pública para definir a localização o grau dos riscos e os benefícios, pois respondem quando há acidentes ou desastres. A presença de equipamentos são o sinal do tempo, signos que co-municam a racionalidade do mundo contemporâneo e que se impõem sobre as áreas urbanas produzin-do novas formas de segregação, incertezas e riscos trazem o temor do desastre químico. Por isso o levantamento das ameaças foi u / The environmental risks produced by urban and industrial development are multiplied when it comes to petroleum and its derivative products. The main question in reference to the risks in the city of Canoas is the existence of industrial plants with various denominations, re-finery, power plant unit, terminals, and pipelines. The decision on the facilities of industrial plants, with oil products and gas terminals along the pipeline are the result of agreements be-tween international corporations. The local managers, according to national law should be in-volved in the approval and coordination of special public hearings to set the location, the de-gree of risk, and benefits, for they are the ones responsible when there are accidents or disas-ters. The presence of equipment is a sign of new times, signs that communicate the rationality of the modern world and which are necessary in urban areas creating new forms of segrega-tion, uncertainties, and risks bringing on fear of chemical disaster. That is why the rem

Online social networks (OSNs) have seen a remarkable rise in the presence of automated social agents, or social bots. Social bots are the new computing viral, that are surreptitious and clever. What facilitates the creation of social agents is the massive human user-base and business-supportive operating model of social networks. These automated agents are injected by agencies, brands, individuals, and corporations to serve their work and purpose; utilising them for news and emergency communication, marketing, social activism, political campaigning, and even spam and spreading malicious content. Their influence was recently substantiated by coordinated social hacking and computational political propaganda. The thesis of my dissertation argues that automated agents exercise a profound impact on OSNs that transforms into an array of influence on our society and systems. However, latent or veiled, these agents can be successfully detected through measurement, feature extraction and finely tuned supervised learning models. The various types of automated agents can be further unravelled through unsupervised machine learning and natural language processing, to formally inform the populace of their existence and impact.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:13:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2006- Cesar Augusto Da Ros.pdf: 8517371 bytes, checksum: 2a0778913577d99b72967c390d056a45 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-08-30 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / This paper analyzes the dynamics of implementation of the agrarian policies in Rio Grande do Sul from 1999 to 2002. In this period the simultaneous presence of two distinctive governmental strategies for the widening of the access to land in this State was observed. The first strategy was led by the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB) and focused on two lines of action: a) the policy of the settlements implemented by the Regional Superintendency of INCRA; b) the agrarian credit program from the Land Bank (Banco da Terra), implemented by the Regional Delegation of MDA. The second strategy was led by the government of Ol?vio Dutra and it purposed at implementing a state policy of settlements and resettlements and at assisting claims from several kinds of public. The emphasis of the analyses carried out throughout this thesis is placed on the attempt to understand the dynamics of the actions developed within the scope of the federal and state government agrarian policies and of the relationships between both governments and the main social agents present on the field of agrarian conflicts. In this sense, the different governmental strategies are analyzed in an articulate way with the political struggle between social agents about the gaucho agrarian issue. On a first moment, the paper presents a comprehensive historical panel on the complexity and heterogeneity of the agrarian problems that arose in the state, highlighting their connection to the rise of the social agents participating in the political struggle within the field of agrarian conflicts. On a second moment, the paper seeks to analyze the internalization of the agrarian conflicts within the scope of the governments (federal and state) and of the state authorities responsible for the implementation of agrarian policies, in a more recent historical background. In this sense the paper shows that the tensions produced by the political struggle between the social agents caused direct repercussions on the character of the adopted agrarian policies, as well as on its rate, extension and on the definition of the instruments used. The way in which the governments of Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Ol?vio Dutra diagnosed the nature of the agrarian problem and its possible solutions was intimately related with the nature of their political projects and with the composition of the social forces which supported their mandates. The comparison of their general agenda on agrarian policies with the results obtained in this period confirms that perception. / Este trabalho analisa a din?mica de implementa??o das pol?ticas agr?rias no Rio Grande do Sul durante os anos de 1999 a 2002. Neste per?odo observou-se a presen?a simult?nea de duas estrat?gias governamentais distintas para a amplia??o do acesso a terra no estado. A primeira delas foi conduzida pelo governo Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB) e se concentrou em duas linhas de atua??o: a) a pol?tica de assentamentos implementada pela Superintend?ncia Regional do INCRA; b) o programa de cr?dito fundi?rio o Banco da Terra, implementado pela Delegacia Regional do MDA. A segunda foi conduzida pelo governo Ol?vio Dutra e se objetivou na implementa??o de uma pol?tica estadual de assentamentos e reassentamentos, al?m de ter concentrado as suas a??es no atendimento das reivindica??es de diversos tipos de p?blico. A ?nfase das an?lises realizadas ao longo desta tese centra-se na tentativa de compreender a din?mica das a??es desenvolvidas no ?mbito das pol?ticas agr?rias dos governos federal e estadual e das rela??es de ambos com os principais agentes sociais presentes no campo dos conflitos agr?rios. Neste sentido, as diferentes estrat?gias governamentais s?o analisadas de forma articulada ? luta pol?tica travada entre os agentes sociais em torno da quest?o agr?ria ga?cha. Num primeiro momento, o trabalho apresenta um painel hist?rico abrangente sobre a complexidade e heterogeneidade dos problemas fundi?rios que se constitu?ram no estado, evidenciando a sua conex?o com a emerg?ncia dos agentes sociais que participam das lutas pol?ticas no interior do campo dos conflitos agr?rios. Num segundo momento, o trabalho procura analisar a internaliza??o dos conflitos fundi?rios no ?mbito dos governos (federal e estadual) e das inst?ncias estatais respons?veis pela implementa??o das pol?ticas agr?rias, numa conjuntura hist?rica mais recente. Nesta dire??o o trabalho demonstra que as tens?es produzidas pela luta pol?tica travada entre os agentes sociais repercutiram diretamente no car?ter das pol?ticas agr?rias adotadas, assim como, no seu ritmo, extens?o e na defini??o dos instrumentos utilizados. O modo pelo qual os governos Fernando Henrique Cardoso e Ol?vio Dutra diagnosticaram a natureza do problema agr?rio e, as suas poss?veis solu??es, estavam intimamente relacionados ? natureza dos seus projetos pol?ticos e ? composi??o das for?as sociais que deram sustenta??o aos seus mandatos. O cotejamento das diretrizes gerais das suas pol?ticas agr?rias e dos resultados alcan?ados no per?odo confirma essa percep??o.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-13T17:10:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FabianaMM_DISSERT.pdf: 4388914 bytes, checksum: 14a7e7684ec0454798a3e3f4641314b9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-26 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / This work aims to conduct an analysis on the production of space and the dynamics between social agents that act and interact, albeit in different ways, in the production and re-production space in the Neighborhood Potengi in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte. The neighborhood is undergoing a process of dynamism undeniable and has a daily marked by heterogeneity, especially as a neighborhood in transition. So your analysis, from the perspective of the dialectical method, contributes to the understanding of the production space can be analyzed through the study of the forms and content, and may contribute to its real apprehension. After all, the city reflects forms, assumes functions, features and content that dynamic influences and is influenced by human relationships. Thus, this research seeks to analyze the production of space, based on the observation and study of the rich daily life of different social agents that operate within concrete quoted / Este trabalho objetiva realizar uma an?lise sobre a produ??o do espa?o e a din?mica existente entre os agentes sociais que atuam e interagem, embora de maneiras distintas, na produ??o e re-produ??o espacial no Bairro Potengi em Natal, Rio Grande do Norte. O bairro vive um processo de dinamismo incontest?vel e possui um cotidiano marcado pela heterogeneidade, destacando-se como um bairro em transi??o. Portanto, sua an?lise, sob a perspectiva do m?todo dial?tico, contribui para a compreens?o de que a produ??o espacial pode ser analisada atrav?s do estudo das formas e dos conte?dos, podendo contribuir para a sua real apreens?o. Afinal, a cidade reflete formas, assume fun??es, apresenta conte?dos e essa din?mica influi e ? influenciada pelas rela??es humanas. Assim, esta pesquisa busca analisar a produ??o do espa?o, com base na observa??o e no estudo do rico cotidiano dos distintos agentes sociais concretos que atuam no espa?o citado

O presente trabalho possui como foco de estudo a análise da representação de papéis temáticos desempenhados por atores sociais, em redações escritas nos moldes da produção textual exigida pelo Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (Enem). Nesse sentido, o participante deve produzir um texto em prosa, do tipo dissertativo-argumentativo, na modalidade escrita formal da Língua Portuguesa, sobre o tema indicado de modo que apresente uma ou mais propostas de intervenção social para o(s) problema(s) discutido(s) no texto elaborado e que respeite os direitos humanos. Nosso corpus foi composto por 1.405 redações com conteúdo equivalente a 367.565 tokens (total de palavras) e 22.707 types (total de palavras distintas), produzidas entre 2009 e 2014, com as características exigidas pelo Enem e que estão disponíveis no Banco de redações (http://educacao.uol.com.br/bancoderedacoes/) do site UOL Educação (http://educacao.uol.com.br/), o qual possui uma seção especializada em produção textual que disponibiliza propostas de redação para os internautas assim como realiza a correção de vários textos enviados pelos interessados. Diante disso, nosso principal objetivo foi compreender os usos das representações para atender aos requisitos da prova pelo viés de teorias, metodologias e trabalhos da Linguística Cognitiva, especificamente quanto à Gramática de Papéis (CANÇADO, 2000; 2008), da Análise Crítica do Discurso, especialmente sobre a representação de atores sociais (van LEEUWEN, 1996; 2008), da Linguística Sistêmico-Funcional (HALLIDAY e MATTHIESSEN, 2004) e da Linguística de Corpus (NOVODVORSKI, 2008; 2013 e BERBER SARDINHA, 2004; 2009), tanto em pesquisa baseada em corpus quanto guiada pelo corpus com o auxílio de ferramentas do programa WordSmith Tools®, versão 6.0 (SCOTT, 2012). Assim, conheceu-se as características da proposição para a produção textual do Enem, a principal prova do Brasil que possibilita o ingresso no ensino superior, e os aspectos relevantes de textos elaborados nesse contexto. Assim, realizamos uma análise que nos permitiu identificar e descrever quais os principais papéis temáticos desempenhados pelos atores sociais por nós selecionados de nosso corpus de estudo, essa análise perpassou pela identificação de campos semânticos e investigação das relações semânticas constituídas entre os verbos (processos) e seus sujeitos e complementos (argumentos, atores sociais ou participantes). / This work has as focus of study the analysis of thematic roles representation performed by social actors in texts written according to the patterns demanded by the Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (Enem). Such examination demands the participant to produce an argumentative dissertation, in prose, using the formal register of Portuguese language, and considering a suggested theme. Also, it is necessary for the participant to present one or more intervention proposals to the problem(s) discussed in the text, having in mind the respect for human rights. Thus, in order to develop the present work, it was used a corpus of study composed by 1.405 texts. Their content was equivalent to 367.565 tokens (running words) and 22.707 types (distinct words), produced between 2009 and 2014, and followed the characteristics demanded by Enem, which are available in Banco de redações (http://educacao.uol.com.br/bancoderedacoes/) from UOL Educação website (http://educacao.uol.com.br/). This website has a section specialized in text production where thematic proposals are provided, and which correct many texts sent by web surfers. Accordingly, the goal of this work was to comprehend the use of representations in order to meet the Enem examination requirements. For this purpose, this research was guided by the bias of theory, methodology and works from Cognitive Linguistics, specifically in which concerns to Grammar of roles (CANÇADO, 2000; 2008). Also, it was based on works from Critical Discourse Analyses, specially about the representation of social agents (van LEEUWEN, 1996; 2008), from Functional-systemic Linguistics (HALLIDAY e MATTHIESSEN, 2004) and from the Corpus Linguistics (NOVODVORSKI, 2008; 2013 e BERBER SARDINHA, 2004; 2009). It was considered both researches based on and guided by corpus, with the aid of the tools provided by the software WordSmith Tools® 6,0 version (SCOTT, 2012). In light of this, it was possible to recognize the characteristics of the proposition to the text production of Enem – considered the most important examination in Brazil that enable the entry into higher education – as well as relevant aspects of texts approached in this context. Therefore, it was accomplished an analysis that allowed to identify and to describe the main thematic roles performed by the social actors selected from this work's corpus of study. This analysis went through the identification of semantic fields and the investigation of the semantic relation constituted between verbs (processes) and its subjects and complements (arguments, social actors, and participants). / Dissertação (Mestrado)

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-11T13:40:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 telamon seg.pdf: 1528859 bytes, checksum: 428809aa48a0533c7ca4aebacfb3ff11 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-06-30 / This paper deals with residential segregation in the City of Manaus. Having in mind the contemporary question of urban social segregation, it specially examines matters of social classes and spatial distribution. Traditionally, Brazilian growth model has been characterized by the social exclusion of growing portions of the society, where a small portion of the population has access to the bulk of income and wealth, including proper housing, urban infrastructure and other basic services like education and health, whereas the great majority of the population is deprived from the access to those minimum basic needs. In this research, we followed two empirical studies that emphasize some aspects that seem particularly important for the understanding of its current trends and the problems affecting the quality of life, spatial segregation and social exclusion: Conjunto Nova Cidade, located in the north zone of Manaus and Condomínio Ponta Negra Village, located in the east zone of Manaus are models of how public intervention and a correct urban planning can materialize social power in the cities. The way the mechanisms of social control, over public investments, works in these areas, will be analyzed in order to verify how economic policies match with social objectives and the promotion of more concrete actions conducted by the Government in order to rearrange the city s urban space and spatial segregation inside Manaus City. / Este trabalho trata da segregação residencial na cidade de Manaus. Assim como nas demais cidades brasileiras, a construção do espaço urbano manauense caracteriza-se pela segregação residencial, polarizada pelas classes sociais. Na divisão social da cidade, as áreas consideradas nobres, onde há uma predominância da população de alto poder aquisitivo, verifica-se a existência dos equipamentos urbanos, enquanto que na periferia distante, onde há uma tendência à concentração dos segmentos de baixo poder aquisitivo, a autoprodução das moradias, senão, a única solução para o défcit habitacional, associada aos padrões mínimos de infra-estrutura urbana. Neste estudo, tomou-se como referência empírica dois empreendimentos residenciais que expressam a dinâmica da segregação residencial: o Conjunto Nova Cidade, situado na Zona Norte e o Condomínio Ponta Negra Village, situado na Zona Oeste da cidade de Manaus. Ambos materializam a espacialização do poder social nas cidades, combinada com a intervenção pública e a gestão do planejamento urbano pelo Estado. Nessa perspectiva, o eixo da abordagem trilhado propõe ir além da aparência estática do espaço construído. Pretende contemplar a dinâmica das relações sociais e a compreensão de que a produção do espaço urbano é um reflexo da sociedade, daí ser desigual e mutável. A forma como essas áreas residenciais foram concebidas pelos agentes sociais que fazem e refazem a cidade, revela por meio de estratégias e ações concretas, o marco jurídico que regula a segregação residencial, conduzido pelo poder estatal - protagonista principal, na (re)localização do espaço urbano e, sobretudo, das classes sociais na cidade.