Syftet med denna undersökningen är att genom det sociologiska perspektivet symbolisk interaktionism, undersöka hur användare av det sociala nätverket Instagram upplever aktiviteten som ett meningsfullt inslag i sin vardag. För att uppnå syftet utformades följande frågeställningar: På vilket sätt upplevs aktiviteten på Instagram som meningsfull? Vilka normer och förväntningar uppstår i aktiviteten? Hur anpassas aktiviteten efter dessa normer och förväntningar? Metod: Kvalitativ metod där användare av Instagram har intervjuats angående sina subjektiva uppfattningar om aktivitetens meningsfullhet. Intervjusvaren analyserades därefter genom det sociologiska perspektivet symbolisk interaktionism, med betoning på Erving Goffmans bidrag till detta. Resultat: Intervjupersonerna upplever aktiviteten på Instagram som meningsfull då det ger dem bekräftelse och skapar en känsla av gemenskap. I aktiviteten på Instagram skapas vidare en förväntan om att uttrycken ska vara roliga, kreativa och inspirerande, vilket innebär att uttryck som inte uppfyller detta sållas bort. Intervjupersonerna anpassar således ständigt sin aktivitet i strävan efter bekräftelse. Slutsats: Instagram är ett meningsfullt inslag i vardagen då aktiviteten uppfyller flera, grundläggande mänskliga behov. Detta sker dock inte villkorslöst, då man som användare behöver leva upp till de normer och förväntningar som skapas i aktiviteten för att uppleva denna som meningsfull. / The aim of this study is that by the sociological perspective of symbolic interactionism, investigate how users of the social network Instagram is experiencing activity therein as a meaningful element in their everyday lives. The questions asked were: In what way is activity on Instagram perceived as meaningful ? Which standards and expectations develop through the activity? How does the activity adapt to these standards and expectations ? Methods: Qualitative methods in which users of Instagram has been interviewed about their subjective perceptions of the meaning of the activity. Interview responses were then analyzed through the symbolic interactionism perspective, with emphasis on Erving Goffman's contribution to this. Results: The interviewees perceive the activity on Instagram as meaningful as it gives them confirmation and creates a sense of community. Activity on Instagram is expected to be fun, creative and inspiring, which means that expressions that do not meet these requirements are screened out. The interviewees are constantly adapting their activity to that expectation in their quest for confirmation. Conclusion: Instagram is a meaningful part of daily life as the activity meets several basic human needs. However, this is not unconditional, as the users need to live up to the standards and expectations that are created in the activity in order to experience this as meaningful.

This doctoral thesis examines how modernisation affects and is affected by existing local culture and identity. It is about the relation between the social and mental barriers experienced, expressed and manifested in the social culture of local community, and modernisation’s dynamic powers over time. The thesis deals with different time periods from the 1800’s until today with regard to expressions and consequences of modernity. People during the societal transformation of Sweden in the 19th and 20th centuries are culturally depicted from a micro-perspective. An overall perspective for the analysis of modernity uses the concepts of basal and variable modernity, borrowed from the historian of ideas Sven-Eric Liedman. The perspective makes possible the separation between on the one hand the structural modernisation within the fields of economy, technology and natural sciences, and on the other hand the cultural modernity manifested in conceptions of the world, politics, existential viewpoints, aesthetic expressions and social culture. Within the first-mentioned fields, where basal modernity dominates, a uniform and cumulative developmental pattern emerges as well as an almost self-propelled continuity toward the next innovation or stage of development. Within the latter fields, however, a non-uniform pattern emerges, where modernisation is constantly the object of alternative interpretations and attitudes. This variable modernity is characterised by a cultural struggle between conflicting ideologies and strategies in relation to ongoing modernisation. Different individuals and groups position themselves between acceptance and resistance, progressiveness and the critique of civilisation, the preservation of traditions and the will to change. In this course of events new affinities and identifications, but also new dissociations and antagonisms are created in local social contexts. Modernity leads both to the obliteration of boundaries and to the emergence of new social and mental boundaries. This process can also lead to existing geographical borders being charged with a new ideological content so their importance is revitalised.

Software testing is crucial for uncovering software defects and ensuring software reliability. Symbolic execution has been utilized for automatic test generation to improve testing effectiveness. However, existing test generation techniques based on symbolic execution fail to take full advantage of programs’ rich amount of documentation specifying their input constraints, which can further enhance the effectiveness of test generation. In this paper we present a general approach, Document-Assisted Symbolic Execution (DASE), to improve automated test generation and bug detection. DASE leverages natural language processing techniques and heuristics to analyze programs’ readily available documentation and extract input constraints. The input constraints are then used as pruning criteria; inputs far from being valid are trimmed off. In this way, DASE guides symbolic execution to focus on those inputs that are semantically more important. We evaluated DASE on 88 programs from 5 mature real-world software suites: GNU Coreutils, GNU findutils, GNU grep, GNU Binutils, and elftoolchain. Compared to symbolic execution without input constraints, DASE increases line coverage, branch coverage, and call coverage by 5.27–22.10%, 5.83–21.25% and 2.81–21.43% respectively. In addition, DASE detected 13 previously unknown bugs, 6 of which have already been confirmed by the developers.

Large multi-national corporations experience more and more pressure to maintain good relationships with their stakeholders, including employees. Concurrent with this, the focus of Corporate Communication management has shifted from pure communication management to relationship management. Lonmin Platinum, a mining company within the South African mining and minerals sector is no exception in this regard. In fact, due to the apartheid legacy and government regulations that are aimed at safety and equity, it is especially difficult to manage employee relationships in the mining industry. Apart from historical and environmental factors, Lonmin Platinum's task is further complicated by its diverse work-force. At the time of the study the work-force of approximately 20 000 employees consisted of literate, semiliterate and illiterate employees. In addition, the company comprised five business units, each with their own corporate identity. In order to manage relationships effectively, a company needs to understand the nature and quality of its relationships as well as which factors might influence its stakeholder relationships. Studies have already indicated that a company's corporate identity can contribute to the stakeholders' images of the company. Over time, the image impacts on the company's reputation and consequently on the stakeholders' relationships with the company. In the case of a company such as Lonmin Platinum, with an endorsed corporate identity, it can be expected that corporate identity will also play a role in the nature and quality of relationships, including employee relationships. Previous studies have investigated the link between corporate identity and relationships focussing on communication, and on behaviour elements of identity. Up until now, no examples of research of the possible influence of symbolic corporate identity elements on relationships in the South African mining industry could be traced. Against this background, the following research question was asked: What is the relationship between employees' perceptions of symbolic corporate identity elements and employer-employee relationships at Lonmin Platinum? Semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews and quantitative questionnaires were applied as data collection methods. The results confirmed that Lonmin Platinum did not have a good relationship with its employees in general. The lack of trust was seen as one of the most apparent problems. It also seemed that the employees did not understand the company's endorsed corporate identity. They, for example, did not understand the company structure and identified themselves more with the symbolic corporate identity of their respective business units than with the company itself. With regard to the correlation between symbolic corporate identity and relationships, this study indicated a relationship between employees' perceptions of how effective the company reached it objectives and the quality of its employee relationships. Company objectives, such as a safe working environment, a healthy working environment, socioeconomic empowerment and accountability, as well as a company that unites its workforce and creates a family feeling amongst the employees impacted most on employee relationships. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Communication Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Thomas Pynchon’s novel, The Crying of Lot 49, details Oedipa Maas’ quest to unearth a possibly centuries-old clandestine mail system, the Trystero. Oedipa is immersed in notions of sociality and she must navigate the social landscape, searching for clues as to the existence of the social system. In her quest she assumes the role of a detective who searches for meaning, as she looks for clues and questions others who might potentially be privy to the secrets of the Trystero. She necessarily performs the process of symbolic exchange with those she encounters in an attempt at ascertaining some greater meaning within the world that she thinks might lie behind the Trystero. In this, the nature of the circulation of meaning is revealed as a cultural construct.

Cette thèse montre comment le calcul formel permet la manipulation d'une grande classe de suites et fonctions solutions d'opérateurs linéaires, la classe des fonctions holonomes. Celle-ci contient de nombreuses fonctions spéciales, en une ou plusieurs variables, et de nom- breuses suites de la combinatoire. Un cadre théorique est tout d'abord introduit pour algorith- miser les propriétés de clôture de la classe holonome, pour y permettre un test à zéro et pour unifier les calculs différentiels sur les fonctions et les calculs de récurrences sur les suites. Ces méthodes s'appuient sur des calculs par une extension de la théorie des bases de Gröbner dans un cadre de polynômes non commutatifs, les polynômes de Ore. Deux types d'algorithmes de sommation et d'intégration symboliques définies et indéfinies sont ensuite développés, dont la justification théorique fait appel à la théorie des D-modules holonomes. Les premiers ont recours à une élimination polynomiale non commutative par bases de Gröbner ; les seconds à des algo- rithmes de résolution de systèmes fonctionnels linéaires en leurs solutions fractions rationnelles. Bien plus que la recherche de formes closes, l'objectif est de pouvoir continuer à calculer avec la représentation implicite des objets holonomes même en l'absence de formes explicites. Ce type de calculs permet en particulier la preuve automatique d'identités sommatoires et intégrales. Une implantation de ces algorithmes dans le système de calcul formel Maple a permis de donner la première preuve automatique d'identités jusqu'à présent inaccessibles par le calcul formel.

SammanfattningTitel: Om individer får förberedande information om att arbeta i grupp, kan detta då ses kunna förändra deras upplevelse av att arbeta i grupp?Författare: Hayat Ashkar och Görgen Jansson Handledare: Ilkka Henrik Mäkinen Examinator: Hedvig EkerwaldLärosäte: Uppsala Universitet Datum: 5/1 2015Bakgrunden till den här studien bygger på tidigare forskning som visat att om en vårdsökande i väntan på sin läkartid får hjälp till självhjälp får denna patient ut mer av behandlingen, jämfört med en patient som endast fått vänta på sitt läkarbesök. Det kan då tolkas som att någon form av självhjälp, förberedelse, innan behandlingen är gynnsamt.Detta ledde till en tanke om samma princip kan gälla för grupparbeten. Om individer som ska genomföra ett grupparbete får information om att arbeta i grupp, en förberedelse, kan det då förbättra deras upplevelse av att arbeta i grupp? Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om kunskap om socialpsykologiska begrepp kan ge någon inverkan på elevers upplevelser till att arbeta i grupp. För att undersöka om så var fallet genomfördes ett experiment med tre olika gymnasieklasser. Deltagarna fick genomföra ett grupparbete och därefter svara på en enkät som mätte deras upplevelse av arbetet. I nästa steg fick en grupp, experimentgruppen, lyssna på en föreläsning om socialpsykologiska begrepp för att därefter återigen genomföra ett grupparbete och besvara samma enkät igen. En annan grupp, kontrollgruppen, fick inte lyssna på föreläsningen men göra allt övrigt experimentgruppen gjorde, ett grupparbete med enkät samt ett grupparbete till med enkät.De teoretiska begrepp som använts för att analysera resultatet är bland annat, definition av situationen, priming och Hawthorneeffekten. Resultatet tyder på att en förändring i upplevelsen av grupparbete skett hos både experimentgruppen och kontrollgruppen, dock var den större hos experimentgruppen. / AbstractTitle: If individuals get an information about how to work in a group, could that change their experience about cooperation?Authors: Hayat Ashkar and Görgen JanssonMentor: Ilkka Henrik MäkinenSeat of learning: Uppsala UniversityDate: 5/1 2014The background to this study is based on studies that have shown that if a patient while waiting for a doctor's appointment gets help to self-help, the patient will assimilate more of the treatment than a patient who only has to wait for their doctor’s appointment. That can then be interpreted as any kind of stimuli (self-help) before treatment is favourable.That led to a wonder if the same principle might apply to work in groups. If individuals who are going to do cooperation receive information about working in groups, in terms of social psychology concepts, could that improve their ability to work in a group? The purpose of this paper is to examine whether knowledge in social psychological concepts can be seen to give any impact on students' experiences and attitudes towards working in groups. To examine this, an experiment with different high school classes was conducted. In the experimental group the students implemented a group project and then answered a questionnaire that measured the students' experience of the work. In the next step they had to listen to a lecture about social psychological concepts. After that they did another group project and answered the same questionnaire again. In the control group the students did just the same except listening to the lecture about social psychological concepts.The theoretical concepts used include social negotiation, definition of the situation and priming. The results of this study show that the experimental group showed a consistently higher average current experience of group work. That indicates that a process of change begins in the participants. It can be explained by priming.

Tobacco smoking in Canada has decreased over the last 20 years but remains persistent in lower socioeconomic status (SES) groups. The current study is an examination of tobacco smoking among lower SES Canadians that seeks to explore the social context of tobacco smoking from the perspective of those individuals who participate in it. This study utilized in-depth interviews with nine working class males from the Greater Vancouver and the Capital Regional Districts. It followed the phenomenological method in attempting to understand the experience of a working class smoker, reading that analysis through a Bourdieusian conceptual framework. This framework served to define the social context in terms of multiple symbolic economies bounded by symbolic boundaries, providing a coherent geography within which to locate the experiences. The study finds that within the working class symbolic economy, tobacco smoking is seen as legitimate and is enmeshed within conceptions of leisure, of self and intimately tied to other culturally-mediated commodities such as alcohol and other drugs. The findings further indicate that tobacco smoking in and of itself is not a cultural capital, but becomes culturally relevant when it is performed correctly. Correct performance requires adherence to certain rules, however, the best performance of smoking is done when it is presented as natural. Tobacco smoking, the findings indicate, is so “taken-for-granted” that unless one is a committed, ‘real’ smoker all others, social smokers included, are considered non-smokers. Through sharing and semi-ritualized consumption, tobacco smoking helps to reinforce reciprocal relationships that strengthen potentially insecure social bonds. Finally, working class males present themselves as self-reliant individuals that find cessation aids and therapies to be an embarrassment to their conception of self, thus to use cessation aids is to admit failure. The implication of these findings is that tobacco persistence exists within a classed symbolic economy that is simply not reached by current tobacco cessation programs and health research. To be effective then, such programs need to take into account the value and role tobacco smoking plays within this economy. / Graduate

In the afterglow of Japan’s dramatic economic growth during the post-war period, the growth mentality is still apparent in contemporary Japan. The powerful business communities that helped the industrialization of the country are still structurally interconnected with the political elites. As a result, the growth interests of the corporations are reflected in industrial and environmental policies. Public opinion is deliberately shaped to allow the growth ideology while the environment is used as a symbol to be protected. This thesis will analyse how public opinion and responses are manipulated so that the growth goals are achieved under the guise of national benefit. This thesis will examine two cases of growth politics: nuclear policy and the Eco Town project in Japan to analyse the influence of the growth mentality and the linkages. The conclusion is that if Japan continues to overreach for economic growth at the cost of the environment and if public scrutiny is kept to a minimum, Japan will fail to secure either economic or environmental sustainability. / Graduate / 0615 / nao57526@hotmail.com

The constant improvements in device integration, the development of new technologies and the emergence of new design techniques call for flexible, maintainable and robust software tools. The generic nature of compiler-compiler systems, with their semi-formal specifications, can help in the construction of those tools. This thesis describes the Wright editor generator which is used in the synthesis of language-based graphical editors (LBGEs). An LBGE is a programming environment where the programs being manipulated denote pictures. Editing actions can be specified through both textual and graphical interfaces. Editors generated by the Wright system are specified using the formalism of attribute grammars. The major example editor in this thesis, Stick-Wright, is a design entry system for the construction of VLSI circuits. Stick-Wright is a hierarchical symbolic layout editor which exploits a combination of text and graphics in an interactive environment to provide the circuit designer with a tool for experimenting with circuit topologies. A simpler system, Pict-Wright: a picture drawing system, is also used to illustrate the attribute grammar specification process. This thesis aims to demonstrate the efficacy of formal specification in the generation of software-tools. The generated system Stick-Wright shows that a text/graphic programming environment can form the basis of a powerful VLSI design tool, especially with regard to providing the designer with immediate graphical feedback. Further applications of the LBGE generator approach to system design are given for a range of VLSI design activities.