Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka hur genus framställs i fyra av Astrid Lindgrens bilderböcker. Vidare är syftet att undersöka om flickor och pojkar framställs olika i böckerna, och vilka medel som används i text och bild för att förmedla detta. Genom närläsning analyseras bilderböckerna metodiskt utifrån förutbestämda analyskategorier i texten, i detta fall de egenskaper som pojkar respektive flickor tillskrivs i text och bild. De kategorier som särskilt studeras är karaktärernas psykiska och fysiska egenskaper och sociala relationer ur ett genusperspektiv. Resultatet visar att majoriteten av de analyserade karaktärerna ser ut och beter sig på ett sätt som är förväntat av dem ur ett genusperspektiv. Det finns dock undantag där flickor utmanar det manliga idealet.

The purpose of this thesis was the further development of a rule set used in an automatic text simplification system, and the exploration of whether it is possible to improve the performance of a rule based text simplification system by manual training. A first rule set was developed from a thor- ough literature review, and the rule refinement was performed by manually adapting the first rule set to a set of training texts. When there was no more change added to the set of rules, the training was considered to be completed, and the two sets were applied to a test set, for evaluation. This thesis evaluated the performance of a text simplification system as a clas- sification task, by the use of objective metrics: precision and recall. The comparison of the rule sets revealed a clear improvement of the system, since precision increased from 45% to 82%, and recall increased from 37% to 53%. Both recall and precision was improved after training for the ma- jority of the rules, with a few exceptions. All rule types resulted in a higher score on correctness for R2. Automatic text simplification systems target- ing real life readers need to account for qualitative aspects, which has not been considered in this thesis. Future evaluation should, in addition to quantitative metrics such as precision, recall, and complexity metrics, also account for the experience of the reader.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Educational Leadership / Sarah Jane Fishback / Today, educators try to maximize eLearning effectiveness by using various methodologies to engage the learner and increase learning and recall. If educators want to be able to continue this process, new eLearning methodologies must be investigated. The aim of this study was to determine if the method in which lesson content is present can affect learning. To this end, the research question was as follows: What difference, if any, does the random placement of small paragraphs, chunks, of text make in recall and learning in eLearning lessons? The research question was answered through an experiment that entails assigning an eLearning lesson to participants. The participants were randomly divided into two groups (control and experimental). Based on their assignment, they were either presented information in static paragraphs of text centered on the eLearning screen (control), or presented with randomly placed chunks of text on each new eLearning lesson screen. Although the data analysis showed no significant difference in assessment scores for either group, there are suggestions for continued research on this topic. The importance and value of this educational medium requires the use of the best and most impactful methodologies to maximize attention, clarity, learning, and recall. More research needs to be conducted with varying forms of chunking with different populations using eye-tracking to ensure optimized educational endeavors.

This research pretends to examine the prosposal for revision of the hermeneutic project develened by Paul Ricoeur fron the viewooint of the debate between the Hermeneutic of Tradition and the Critique of Ideologies prososed by Gadamer and Habermas. The study begins discussing origins of the concept of hermeneutics and its relation to the notione of interpretation and comprehension as they appear in the thought of Heidegger, heir of a tradition which comes from Scheleiermacher and Dilthey. The study continues showing how, after a linguistic tour of philosophy, there is a growing recognition that the access to objectives comes about through a sense of good judgement in the historical world. Gadamer, after restoring the concepts of tradition and authority, show convincingly the link between historicity and comprehension. Habermas adds that he perceives a need to maintain a critical edge to human thought so that the hermeneutics not lead to a kind of linguistic idealism, once the limits of language are set aside. Placing himself in the dialogue between the hermeneutic reasoning of Gadamer and the critical reasoning of Habermas. Paul Ricoeur presents the possibility of critical-hermeneutic rational thought, developing a theory of text. To the extent that the hermentutic is an interpretation that leads to written language, it comes to possess, in itself, indications that it not only belongs to a condition of historicity, but that it also offers a critique os ideologies. What permits this is the conception of text, a model of distancing that does not alienat, while remaining autonomous in relation to the author, the occurence of the original situation, the original recipient, and in relation to any other recipient. / O presente trabalho pretende apresentar a proposta de reformulação do projeto hermenêutico desenvolvido por Paul Ricoeur a partir do debate entre a Hermenêutica das Tradições e a Crítica das Ideologias, protagonizado por Gadamer e Habermas. O texto inicia tratando da origem do conceito de hermenêutica e sua relação com as noções de interpretação e compreensão, como aparecem no pensamento de Heidegger, herdeiro da tradição que vem de chleiermacher e Dilthey. O texto segue mostrando como, depois do giro linguístico da filosofia, cresce o reconhecimento de que o acesso aos objetos se dá via sentido, num mundo histórico. Gadamer, através da reabilitação dos conceitos de tradição e autoridade, evidencia vivamente essa questão da historicidade da compreensão. Habermas, por sua vez, percebe a exigência de se manter a vertente crítica do pensamento humano, sem a qual a hermenêutica desemboca num certo idealismo linguístico, uma vez que afasta os limites da linguagem. Mediando o diálogo entre a razão hermenêutica de Gadamer e a razão crítica de Habermas, Paul Ricoeur apresenta a possibilidade da realização de uma racionalidade hermenêuticocrítica, desenvolvendo uma teoria do texto. Na medida em que a hermenêutica é interpretação orientada para a linguagem escrita, ela passa a conter, em si mesma, indicações tanto da pertença à condição de historicidade quanto da crítica das ideologias. O que permite isso é uma concepção de texto, modelo de distanciamento não-alienante, enquanto autônomo em relação ao seu autor, à situação original de realização, ao destinatário original, assim como em relação a qualquer outro destinatário.

PIPPET 1 tar avstamp i 10 olika spår eller riktningar som är tongivande för mitt konstnärsskap. Av 10 spår valdes 3 slumpmässigt ut; Öknen, Humorn och Språket. De övriga finns nämnda i uppsatsens appendix. Då min konstnärliga praktik är projektbaserad och diskparat både i estetik och koncept, syftar detta till att bena ut min egen praktik för att komma närmare pudelns kärna. De olika spåren tar upp både populärkulturella och konstnärliga referenser, samt några få personliga anekdoter som har bäring för dem. Även tankar och kritiska reflektioner om egna konstverk tas upp.I "Öknen" disskuteras det sökande och det mytiska. "Humorn" kretsar kring den relativt nya teoribildningen Concrete Comedy, som utformats av konstnären och skribenten David Robbins. I "Språket" disskuteras användandet av ord och text som bilder, men bortom det typografiska och litterära.

L’étude de la compréhension de textes a toujours pris en compte les connaissances du lecteur que Le Ny (2005) définit comme des représentations vraies. Or, ces connaissances peuvent être des croyances voire des idéologies (van Dijk, 1998). Si la compréhension de textes fait appel aux connaissances spécifiques et/ou générales du lecteur en relation avec les informations contenues dans le texte pour construire une représentation cohérente, cette compréhension sera médiatisée par l’inscription idéologique du lecteur. Dans ce travail, nous avons mené trois séries d’expériences étudiant le rôle que peut jouer l’idéologie des lecteurs dans la compréhension de textes. La première série d’expériences, réalisée sur papier avec des français d’origine maghrébine, a mis en évidence grâce à deux types de textes (neutres et idéologiques) que la compréhension est sensible à l’idéologie du lecteur. La deuxième série d’expériences, implémentée sur ordinateurs, a confirmé les résultats obtenus précédemment et montré que les lecteurs n’ont pas lu ces deux types de textes aussi rapidement. Dans un souci méthodologique, nous avons élargi, dans la troisième série d’expérience, notre approche à une autre population afin de dissocier l’effet de l’origine du lecteur de celui de son idéologie. Les résultats obtenus montrent que la compréhension est sensible plus à l’idéologie du lecteur qu’à son origine. Les lecteurs qu’ils soient français de souche ou d’origine maghrébine, ont tendance à moins accepter les informations véhiculées par un texte idéologique lorsqu’elles sont en désaccord avec leurs croyances même si ces dernières sont présentes dans le texte et plausibles pour expliquer l’événement. / The study of texts comprehension has always taken into consideration the reader’s knowledge which Le Ny (2005) defines as real representations. However, this knowledge can be beliefs even ideologies (van Dijk, 1998). If the comprehension of texts appeals to the specific and\or general knowledge of the reader in connection with the information contained in the text to build a coherent representation, this comprehension would be mediatised by the reader’s ideological inscription. In this work, we have led three series of experiments studying the role that can play readers’ ideology in the comprehension of texts. The first series of experiences, realized on paper with French from Maghreb origins, put in evidence through two types of texts (neutral and ideological) that the comprehension is sensitive to reader’s ideology. The second series of experiments, implemented on computers, has confirmed the results previously obtained and has shown that the readers had not read these two types of texts so quickly. To fulfill a methodological gap, we have widened, in the third series of experiment, our approach to another population in order to dissociate the effect of the reader’s origin and that of its ideology. The results obtained show that the comprehension is much more sensitive to the reader’s ideology rather than to its origin. The readers who they are French or of Maghrebian origin, tend to accept less the information conveyed by an ideological text when they disagree with their beliefs even if these last ones are present in the text and plausible to explain the event.

Social media analytics is a critical research area spawned by the increasing availability of rich and abundant online user-generated content. So far, social media analytics has had a profound impact on organizational decision making in many aspects, including product and service design, market segmentation, customer relationship management, and more. However, the cybersecurity sector is behind other sectors in benefiting from the business intelligence offered by social media analytics. Given the role of hacker communities in cybercrimes and the prevalence of hacker communities, there is an urgent need for developing hacker social media analytics capable of gathering cyber threat intelligence from hacker communities for exchanging hacking knowledge and tools. My dissertation addressed two broad research questions: (1) How do we help organizations gain cyber threat intelligence through social media analytics on hacker communities? And (2) how do we advance social media analytics research by developing innovative algorithms and models for hacker communities? Using cyber threat intelligence as a guiding principle, emphasis is placed on the two major components in hacker communities: threat actors and their cybercriminal assets. To these ends, the dissertation is arranged in two parts. The first part of the dissertation focuses on gathering cyber threat intelligence on threat actors. In the first essay, I identify and profile two types of key sellers in hacker communities: malware sellers and stolen data sellers, both of which are responsible for data breach incidents. In the second essay, I develop a method for recovering social interaction networks, which can be further used for detecting major hacker groups, and identifying their specialties and key members. The second part of the dissertation seeks to develop cyber threat intelligence on cybercriminal assets. In the third essay, a novel supervised topic model is proposed to further address the language complexities in hacker communities. In the fourth essay, I propose the development of an innovative emerging topic detection model. Models, frameworks, and design principles developed in this dissertation not only advance social media analytics research, but also broadly contribute to IS security application and design science research.

This collection is an investigation of how decorative techniques and non-decorative text can create a dialogue in garments, with the body as a billboard. The work is based on two different aspects. The first one deals with the question of how people look at embellishments, and the second is the message aspect. The investigation wants to find out how we can communicate with the human body as a billboard and the topic of the communication is an idea about perfection. The writer’s dyslexia experiences are used as a recurs and gives the topic a new dimension. The work explores new ways to deal with embellishments, techniques and messages. It shows that the statement T-shirt is not the only perfect garment to decorate and that garments can communicate a message in more ways than with a flat print.

Structured probabilistic inference has shown to be useful in modeling complex latent structures of data. One successful way in which this technique has been applied is in the discovery of latent topical structures of text data, which is usually referred to as topic modeling. With the recent popularity of mobile devices and social networking, we can now easily acquire text data attached to meta information, such as geo-spatial coordinates and time stamps. This metadata can provide rich and accurate information that is helpful in answering many research questions related to spatial and temporal reasoning. However, such data must be treated differently from text data. For example, spatial data is usually organized in terms of a two dimensional region while temporal information can exhibit periodicities. While some work existing in the topic modeling community that utilizes some of the meta information, these models largely focused on incorporating metadata into text analysis, rather than providing models that make full use of the joint distribution of metainformation and text. In this thesis, I propose the event detection problem, which is a multidimensional latent clustering problem on spatial, temporal and topical data. I start with a simple parametric model to discover independent events using geo-tagged Twitter data. The model is then improved toward two directions. First, I augmented the model using Recurrent Chinese Restaurant Process (RCRP) to discover events that are dynamic in nature. Second, I studied a model that can detect events using data from multiple media sources. I studied the characteristics of different media in terms of reported event times and linguistic patterns. The approaches studied in this thesis are largely based on Bayesian nonparametric methods to deal with steaming data and unpredictable number of clusters. The research will not only serve the event detection problem itself but also shed light into a more general structured clustering problem in spatial, temporal and textual data.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (DD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Old Testament Studies / unrestricted