This dissertation constitutes an interdisciplinary approach to electronic narratives, which explores the impact of recent technological developments in the literary field. The work of theorists and scholars such as Henry Jenkins, Jean Baudrillard, Lev Manovich, Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Erving Goffman, Sherry Turkle, George Landow, Marie-Laure Ryan and Espen Aarseth, among many others, are applied to the study of how key sociological and narratological concepts acquire new meanings when implemented in an electronic environment. More specifically, this research provides evidence of how emerging media culture challenges the traditional concepts of authorship, textuality, fictionality, sequential structure, and readership, with tendencies toward anonimity, pseudonymity, collaborative authorship, hypertextual narrative structures, and the reader's involvement in the creative process. Chapter One lays out the methodology used for the study of blog-fictions. This chapter proposes an interdisciplinary approach to blogging which combines the contributions made in several fields of study within digital humanities: computer-mediated communication theory, hypertext theory, Internet ethnography, social network theory, narratology of hypertext, research on blogging and Web 2.0, ludology and performance studies. The purpose of this chapter is to conceptualize the study of blog-fictions both as an expression of information society in its current state, and as a new fictional genre that challenges traditional narrative concepts. In Chapter Two ("Blogosphere: a network of social convergences"), the center of analysis concerns the study of the blogger as a social type who reproduces its social life on the Internet. This chapter studies the peculiar and new ways in which bloggers communicate with each other and create social networks through the production and distribution of texts, hyperlinks, and multimedia artifacts. Chapter Three presents a theory of the blog-text focussing on its structure and defining features. Finally, Chapter Four analyzes how the socio-aesthetic and narrative concepts studied in previous chapters are reflected in blog-novels written in Spanish by Argentinean author Hernan Casciari. This research contributes to literary studies in general by acknowledging that electronic fictions and blog-fictions constitute an emerging literary genre with its own identifiable features, and are molded by the culture of the information society.

The world is drowning in data. The recent explosion of web publishing, XML data, bioinformation, scientific data, image data, geographical map data, and even email communications has put a strain on our ability to manage the information contained there. In general, the influx of massive data sets for all kinds of data present a number of difficulties with storage, organization of information, and data accessibility. A primary computing challenge in these cases is how to compress the data but still allow it to be queried quickly.In real-life situations, many instances of data are highly compressible, presenting a major opportunity for space savings. In mobile applications, such savings are critical, since space and the power to access information are at a premium. In a streaming environment, where new data are being generated constantly, compression can aid in prediction as well. In the case of bioinformatics, understanding succinct representations of DNA sequences could lead to a more fundamental understanding of the nature of our own "data stream," perhaps even giving hints on secondary and tertiary structure, gene evolution, and other important topics.In this thesis, we focus our attention on the important problem of <i>compressed text indexing<\i>, where the goal is to compress a text document and allow arbitrary searching for patterns in the best possible time <i>without first decompressing the text<\i>. We develop a number of compressed data structures that either solve this problem directly, or are used as smaller components of an overall text indexing solution. Each component has a number of applications beyond text indexing as well. For each structure, we provide a theoretical study of its space usage and query performance on a suite of operations crucial to access the stored data. In each case, we relate its space usage to the <i>compressed size of the original data</i> and show that the supported operations function in near-optimal or optimal time. We also present a number of experimental results that validate our theoretical findings, showing that our methodology is competitive with the state-of-the-art. / Dissertation

Text communication is often perceived as lacking some components of communication that are essential in sustaining interaction or conversation. This interaction incoherency tends to make text communication plastic. It is traditionally devoid of intonation, pitch, gesture, facial expression and visual or auditory cues. Nevertheless, Instant Messaging (IM), a form of text communication is on the upward uptake both on PCs and on mobile handhelds. There is a need to rubberise this plastic text messaging to improve co-presence for text communications thereby improving synchronous textual discussion, especially on handheld devices. <br /> <br /> One element of interaction is gesture, seen as a natural way of conversing. Attaining some level of interaction naturalism requires improving synchronous communication spontaneity, partly achieved by enhancing input mechanisms. To enhance input mechanisms for interactive text-based chat on mobile devices, there is a need to facilitate gesture input. Enhancement is achievable in a number of ways, such as input mechanism redesigning and input offering adaptation. This thesis explores affective gesture mode on interface redesign as an input offering adaptation. This is done without a major physical reconstruction of handheld devices.<br /> <br /> This thesis presents a text only IM system built on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE). It was developed with a novel user-defined hotkey implemented as a one-click context menu to &ldquo / fast-track&rdquo / text-gestures and emoticons.<br /> <br /> A hybrid quantitative and qualitative approach was taken to enable data triangulation. Results from experimental trials show that an Affective Gesture (AG) approach improved IM chat spontaneity/response. Feedback from the user trials affirms that AG hotkey improves chat responsiveness, thus enhancing chat spontaneity.

The aim of the research was to explore the relationship between the use of SMS communication by adolescents and their perceived feelings of loneliness. The SMS seems to be the new communication medium for young people as they are most comfortable with and enthusiastic about this technology and its applications. The adolescent stage is characterised by the building of own social networks, the definition of boundaries between themselves and parents, self-presentation constructed on a social stage in relation to others and characterised by the development of romantic attachments, feelings of anxiety, self-esteem development and maintenance which may result in feelings of isolation and loneliness. Loneliness can be defined as an emotional and cognitive reaction to having fewer and less satisfying relationships than one desires. This includes the absence or self-perceived absence of satisfying social relationships and the unpleasant experience that occurs when a person's network of social relations is deficient in some important way. The motivation for this research was to get insight into the relationship between the use of SMS communication and loneliness in the South African context. An internet search on the 13th February 2006 indicated that no research has yet been done on the relationship between the use of the SMS and loneliness of adolescents in South Africa. An availability sample was used. One hundred and seventeen Grade 11 and 12 learners from two schools in the North West Province participated in the research project. An explanatory cross-sectional survey design with features of qualitative data analysis was used in this investigation. Three methods were used to obtain data, namely the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3), Satisfaction with Life Scale as well as a self-compiled questionnaire. After scoring the UCLA scale the researcher determined which of the participants had the highest level of loneliness and the lowest level of loneliness. Two groups were chosen, each consisting or 15 learners, according to the highest and lowest scores on the loneliness scale respectively. These two groups represented the top and bottom 14% of the sample. The data obtained from the self-compiled questionnaire and Satisfaction with Life scale were qualitatively compared. Analysis of the data indicated that there might be a relationship between the experience of loneliness and the following: gender; number of siblings; involvement in romantic relationships; amount of money spent on bill (financial constraints); quantity of SMS messages sent and received; need to stay in contact with friends over the weekend; reasons for sending SMS messages; feelings regarding sending or receiving SMS messages; feelings regarding no response to SMS messages; feeling with regard to not receiving SMS messages from a friend for a long time; initiating of friendships via cellphone and the SMS rather than face-to-face communication. Suggestions for future research projects were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Clinical Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007

My research explores the interrelationship between Norwegian folk music and Norwegian jazz from 1945 to 1995 (with updates to 2002) and assesses the extent to which the results can now be considered as constituting an indigenous art form. A short historical overview of Norwegian geography and history contextualises the development of Norwegian folk music and, in particular, its musical characteristics. It is argued that the geographical remoteness of many Norwegian communities isolated the local culture from the rest of the land's population, a situation which continued until collectors such as Lindeman and Sandvik began their tours of the landlying districts from about 1830 and 1900 respectively, collecting material and comparing it with what was discovered elsewhere. The end of World War II heralded the start of an important phase of development in Swedish jazz, which began to cultivate a Scandinavian style of performance and a Scandinavian repertoire. In Norway, some years later, jazz musicians were influenced by indigenous folk music and the principal folk music types that provided inspiration are scrutinised. I then concentrate on defining a Scandinavian jazz style and a recognisable Norwegian variant. The importance of the Lydian mode in Norwegian music is discussed, and the theories of Geirr Tveitt and George Russell receive critical evaluation in relation to Norwegian jazz. Jan Garbarek's composition Molde Canticle is analysed, as is one of its successors, the album Uncharted Land. The contributions of ECM and Manfred Eicher are evaluated, and I conclude with a survey of the contributions of other central figures in the combined field of Norwegian folk music and jazz.

The last 100 years have seen biblical studies practically dominated by diachronic/historical methodologies, Amos studies have a long tradition of being read within a diachronic framework. The result of this has been an unfortunate fragmentation of the text. Within the last 40 years or so there has been a resurgence of literary studies that treat the text wholistically. Nevertheless, in research that has been done in literary studies a divergence with regard to the structure of the book as well as the function and meaning of some of its units still exists. For this reason it is necessary to approach the problem from a fresh perspective. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate the literary unity of Amos 3-6. In my work I show not only the legitimacy, but also the superiority of a synchronic reading of Amos 3-6 when reading the text as a whole. The book of Amos enjoys perhaps the most scholarly interest among all of the twelve prophets, which has resulted in a large body of secondary literature. Within the book of Amos, chapters 3-6 provide a closed unit which contains the major message of the book. For this reason, these four chapters afford a suitable text to apply my reading as well as a platform on which to dialogue with secondary sources. The methodology used in this thesis is a close reading of the present form of the Masoretic Text. A major part of the work is structural analysis. Through the analysis I was able to identify meaningful units that I used for my reading of the text. In this reading I looked at keywords and semantic fields, themes, repetition, parallelism, imagery, speakers and addressees, rhetorical techniques and the overall flow of the text. In my study I have shown how Amos 3-6 should be divided into three independent yet closely related units: Amos 3:1-15; 4:1-13 and 5:1-6:14. Recognition of the structure and craftsmanship of the text draws out the singular message of Amos 3-6; that Israel could no longer avoid Yahweh’s judgment for their oppression of the poor. Even if my main conclusion is similar both to scholars who work in diachronic as well as synchronic studies, my conclusion treats the entirety of Amos 3-6 and concludes that all units within it are vital to the whole and contribute to this message of judgment. My thesis offers a solution to the fragmentary text resultant from diachronic methods as well as a corrective to synchronic readings that inadequately structure the book, resulting in an unsatisfactory overall picture of the structure and meaning of Amos 3-6.

Ingeniera Civil Industrial / La industria de las telecomunicaciones está en constante crecimiento debido al desarrollo de las tecnologías y a la necesidad creciente de las personas de estar conectadas. Por lo mismo es que presenta un alto grado de competitividad y los clientes son libres de elegir la opción que más les acomode y cumpla con sus expectativas. De esta forma la predicción de fuga, y con ello la retención de clientes, son factores fundamentales para el éxito de una compañía. Sin embargo, dados los altos grados de competitividad entre las distintas empresas, se hace necesario innovar en cuanto a modelos de fuga utilizando nuevas fuentes de información, como lo son las llamadas al Call Center. Es así como el objetivo general de este trabajo es medir el impacto que generan las llamadas realizadas en el Call Center en la predicción de fuga de los clientes. Para lograr lo anterior se cuenta con información de las interacciones que tienen los clientes con el Call Center, específicamente el texto de cada llamada. Para extraer información sobre el contenido de las llamadas se aplicó un modelo de detección de tópicos sobre el texto para así conocer los temas tratados y utilizar esta información en los modelos de fuga. Los resultados obtenidos luego de realizar diversos modelos logit de predicción de fuga, muestran que al utilizar tanto la información de las llamadas como la del cliente (demográfica y transaccional), el modelo es superior en accuracy en un 8.7% a uno que no utiliza esta nueva fuente de información. Además el modelo con ambos tipos de variables presenta un error tipo I un 25% menor a un modelo que no incluye el contenido de las llamadas. Tras los análisis realizados es posible concluir que las llamadas al Call Center sí son relevantes y de ayuda al momento de predecir la fuga de un cliente, ya que logran aumentar la capacidad predictiva y ajuste del modelo. Además de que entregan nueva información sobre el comportamiento del cliente y es posible detectar aquellos tópicos que puedan estar asociados con la fuga, lo que permite tomar acciones correctivas.

This Study examines the grades of students using study skill methods and those who do not. The experiment consists of giving the treatment group the opportunity to use well- known study techniques. The Control group could only read the material. Both groups were given ten minutes to read a pre-selected text. The text consisted of an 1,807 word lesson on the, "Technical Training Management System." Each group was given five minutes to take a twenty item quiz. Fifty-five students in the control group were limited to only reading the material. Fifty-six students in the treatment group could choose between highlighting, note-taking, and underlining. The results of the test scores were compared using a t - test for dependent samples. One week later, the same students in each group were re-tested, using the same quiz they had taken earlier. Students had five minutes to review study material. Study material for the treatment group included the same material they had annotated earlier. The Results from each group wascompared. Efforts were made to avoid potential flaws in previous studies, thereby producing more viable results. Results of this study indicate there is no significant difference between the grades of students who use the aforementioned forms of text annotation and those who do not.

Syftet med föreliggande uppsats är att undersöka hur gymnasieelever närmar sig det vetenskapliga skrivandet. Studien undersöker även elevers diskursiva och kritiska kompetens. Bakgrunden till undersökningen utgörs av reformen som genomfördes i gymnasieskolan 2011 och dess nya krav på vetenskaplighet i text inom svenskämnet. Den tidigare forskningen som gjorts på området visar att gymnasieelever har en relativt låg diskursiv och kritisk kompetens. Tidigare studier visar även att elever inte har verktygen som krävs för att skriva vetenskapliga texter. Dessa studier att samtliga genomförda innan reformen 2011. Metoden i den här studien utgörs av kvalitativa fokusgruppsintervjuer och analys av elevskrivna PM. Resultatet visar att eleverna kan tillämpa regler för vedertagna referenssystem. Dock har vissa elever svårt att göra korrekta referatannonseringar vid ett par tillfällen. Eleverna kan klargöra för flera konkreta strategier för att kritiskt granska källors tillförlitlighet. De närmar sig det vetenskapliga skrivande med genomtänkta strategier och kan applicera de skriftspråkliga normer som gäller för ett PM på en mer generell nivå. I jämförelse med den tidigare forskningen visar eleverna en högre diskursiv och kritisk kompetens.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / Influencing one's adversary has always been an objective in warfare. However, to date the majority of influence operations have been geared toward the masses or to very small numbers of individuals. Although marginally effective, this approach is inadequate with respect to larger numbers of high value targets and to specific subsets of the population. Limited human resources have prevented a more tailored approach, which would focus on segmentation, because individual targeting demands significant time from psychological analysts. This research examined whether or not Information Technology (IT) tools, specializing in text mining, are robust enough to automate the categorization/segmentation of individual profiles for the purpose of psychological operations (PSYOP). Research indicated that only a handful of software applications claimed to provide adequate functionality to perform these tasks. Text mining via neural networks was determined to be the best approach given the constraints of the profile data and the desired output. Five software applications were tested and evaluated for their ability to reproduce the results of a social psychologist. Through statistical analysis, it was concluded that the tested applications are not currently mature enough to produce accurate results that would enable automated segmentation of individual profiles based on supervised linguistic processing. / Captain, United States Marine Corps / Lieutenant, United States Navy