With hundreds of millions of users reporting locations and embracing mobile technologies, Location Based Services (LBSs) are raising new challenges. In this dissertation, we address three emerging problems in location services, where geolocation data plays a central role. First, to handle the unprecedented growth of generated geolocation data, existing location services rely on geospatial database systems. However, their inability to leverage combined geographical and textual information in analytical queries (e.g. spatial similarity joins) remains an open problem. To address this, we introduce SpsJoin, a framework for computing spatial set-similarity joins. SpsJoin handles combined similarity queries that involve textual and spatial constraints simultaneously. LBSs use this system to tackle different types of problems, such as deduplication, geolocation enhancement and record linkage. We define the spatial set-similarity join problem in a general case and propose an algorithm for its efficient computation. Our solution utilizes parallel computing with MapReduce to handle scalability issues in large geospatial databases. Second, applications that use geolocation data are seldom concerned with ensuring the privacy of participating users. To motivate participation and address privacy concerns, we propose iSafe, a privacy preserving algorithm for computing safety snapshots of co-located mobile devices as well as geosocial network users. iSafe combines geolocation data extracted from crime datasets and geosocial networks such as Yelp. In order to enhance iSafe's ability to compute safety recommendations, even when crime information is incomplete or sparse, we need to identify relationships between Yelp venues and crime indices at their locations. To achieve this, we use SpsJoin on two datasets (Yelp venues and geolocated businesses) to find venues that have not been reviewed and to further compute the crime indices of their locations. Our results show a statistically significant dependence between location crime indices and Yelp features. Third, review centered LBSs (e.g., Yelp) are increasingly becoming targets of malicious campaigns that aim to bias the public image of represented businesses. Although Yelp actively attempts to detect and filter fraudulent reviews, our experiments showed that Yelp is still vulnerable. Fraudulent LBS information also impacts the ability of iSafe to provide correct safety values. We take steps toward addressing this problem by proposing SpiDeR, an algorithm that takes advantage of the richness of information available in Yelp to detect abnormal review patterns. We propose a fake venue detection solution that applies SpsJoin on Yelp and U.S. housing datasets. We validate the proposed solutions using ground truth data extracted by our experiments and reviews filtered by Yelp.

La thèse est une étude génétique des œuvres de l’écrivain sicilien Gesualdo Bufalino (1920-1996). À travers l’analyse du processus d’écriture, ce travail reconstruit la genèse des toutes les œuvres terminées par Bufalino pendant sa jeunesse et jusqu’à son exorde, en 1981, avec le roman Diceria dell’untore. Les sondages effectués dans les archives conservant les matériaux génétiques de Bufalino nous a permis d’anticiper la phase créative de Bufalino aux années 1955-65. Nous avons notamment identifié dans un roman inédit, Il guazzabuglio, qui remonte à 1977, une sorte de canevas où de réservoir, d’où l’écrivain tira des thèmes ou des séquences narratives pour d’autres œuvres. Ce roman toujours considéré comme inachevé non seulement fut complété par Bufalino, mais il fut aussi étroitement lié à la genèse des deux premiers romans, Diceria dell’untore (1981) et Argo il cieco (1984), d’une part, et avec Qui pro quo (1991) et Tommaso e il fotografo cieco (1996), le dernier roman de Bufalino qui peut être considéré́ comme sa réécriture. Les œuvres achevées et publies de 1981 jusqu’à sa mort, en 1996, ont été le résultat d’un processus créatif commencé pendant sa jeunesse et poursuivi pendant tout sa vie. La reconstruction de la genèse des ouvrages rédigés avant 1981, est accompagnée de la reconstruction de la biographie intellectuelle de Bufalino à travers l’étude des sources et documents d’archive. / The thesis is a genetic study of the works of the Sicilian writer Gesualdo Bufalino (1920-1996). Through the analysis of the writing process, this study reconstructs the genesis of all the works completed by Bufalino during his youth and up until his debut in 1981, with the novel Diceria dell'untore. The research carried out in the archives which hold the genetic materials of Bufalino enabled us to date the creative phase of Bufalino in the period 1955-65. In particular, we have identified in an unpublished novel, Il guazzabuglio, dating back to 1977, a kind of canvas or reservoir, from which the writer drew themes or narrative sequences for other works. This novel, still considered unfinished, was not only completed by Bufalino, but was also closely linked to the genesis of the first two novels, Diceria dell'untore (1981) and Argo il cieco (1984), on the one hand, and to Qui pro quo (1991 and Tommaso e il fotografo cieco (1996), Bufalino’s last novel which can be considered its rewriting. The works completed and published from 1981 until his death in 1996, were the result of a creative process begun during his youth and continued throughout his life. The reconstruction of the genesis of the works written before 1981 is accompanied by the reconstruction of the intellectual biography of Bufalino through the investigation of sources and archive documents.

Three of the most notable English women authors, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and George Eliot, explore similar themes of the individual, particularly the young woman, in relation to a hierarchical, patriarchal society, more specifically a crumbling paternalist society. My focus is on three Victorian novels' representations of society's transformation from a paternalistic nature to one of greater individualism; and in particular, I explore how women defined for themselves positions of power within these structures. So this study is twofold, one on representations of gender and the other of class; for the two are inseparable in discussing power relationships of Victorian women. Austen, Bronte, and Eliot understood and, to some degree, accepted the pervasive paternal values. Their novels, however, do not advocate radical social change; rather, their heroines willingly turn to domesticity. I aim to argue that each author, although dissatisfied with aspects of society, did not desire to radically alter women's role within society. The fictitious lives they created became both a representation and a critique of the ideologies surrounding them. The texts of Emma, Jane Eyre, and Middlemarch are representative of traditional social norms and yet question some of the culture's dominant codes, especially in relation to paternalism and gender. What strikes me about these novels is that although the female characters are limited by society, they are not ineffectual. Rather the authors portray women in control of their lives and able to make choices for themselves within the framework of society. My research includes social, philosophical, and political attitudes of the decades in which each novel was written, as well as personal philosophies held by Austen, Bronte, and Eliot in relation to gender and class and the influence of these philosophies in their art. Finally, my reading of the texts explicates evidences of the culture's and author's attitudes in relation to paternalism and gender.

South African courts face a challenge in the application of intra and extra-texual aids in constitutional interpretation. Given that the 1993 and 1996 Constitutions have brought about a new era in the exercise of human rights, the challenge that the courts face is to strike a balance between individual and communitarian values. I have argued that the African concept of ubuntu which was included in the 1993 Constitution and impliedly included in the 1996 Constitution should be applied as a constitutional value and interpretive aid. This argument is fortified by the 1996 Constitution's frequent reference to human dignity, which is accorded full meaning by ubzmtu.mtu. This concept is further examined with a vie-..v to linking it vvith African jurisprudence which is characterised by the exercise of individual human rights within the context of a group. In conclusion proposals on the way forward in the application of ubuntu are / Law / LL.M.

本研究目的在於了解市面上英語教學雜誌中，如何再現文化相關的議題。其中，英語教學雜誌使用甚麼方式來再現不同文化和它們所呈現的內容為何為本研究的軸心。此研究採用質化的文本分析法細讀從2009年6月號到2010年5月號的兩本初級英語教學雜誌---"大家說英語"和"ABC互動英語雜誌"的文化內容。 研究發現兩本雜誌都使用描述性文章(descriptive text)和圖片來敘文化相關的議題，而呈現的文化內容多以節慶、旅遊、文學等主題為主；"大家說英語"著重在美國生活文化的介紹；而"ABC互動英文雜誌"則以本土化來結合異國文化。 / This study aims to seek what and how culture-related contents are represented and introduced in English learning materials. Two best-selling English learning magazines targeting at basic-level English learners are selected—“Let’s Talk in English” and “ABC Interactive English Magazine”. Through integrating and re-categorizing the classification of cultural themes developed by Fleewelling (1994), Pesola (1991), Robinson (1982), and Chen (2002), the study creates a new system to classify different culture-related topics. Combining with textual analysis, the study examines the forms used to show culture-related topics, the representation of different cultural themes, and the balance of introducing different cultures. Moreover, the similarities and differences in terms of the way both English learning magazines represent cultural themes are addressed. The result shows that informative text, contextualized practice, vocabulary, and pictures are forms commonly used by both magazines. In Let’s Talk in English (LTE), various forms are adopted in introducing the same topic; while ABC Interactive English Magazine (ABC) uses only one form on each topic. Both magazines include big C themes, i.e. politics, economy, and literature and small c themes such as celebration of holidays and traveling. However, LTE uses examples concerning American lifestyles to illustrate these themes, whereas ABC combines more different foreign and local cultures in representing culture-related topics. The findings also suggest the diversity and immediacy of English learning magazines on the representation of culture-related topics.

South African courts face a challenge in the application of intra and extra-texual aids in constitutional interpretation. Given that the 1993 and 1996 Constitutions have brought about a new era in the exercise of human rights, the challenge that the courts face is to strike a balance between individual and communitarian values. I have argued that the African concept of ubuntu which was included in the 1993 Constitution and impliedly included in the 1996 Constitution should be applied as a constitutional value and interpretive aid. This argument is fortified by the 1996 Constitution's frequent reference to human dignity, which is accorded full meaning by ubzmtu.mtu. This concept is further examined with a vie-..v to linking it vvith African jurisprudence which is characterised by the exercise of individual human rights within the context of a group. In conclusion proposals on the way forward in the application of ubuntu are / Law / LL.M.