This study investigates the nature of semantic compatibility between constructions and lexical items that occur in them in relation with language use, and the related concept, coercion, based on a usage-based approach to language, in which linguistic knowledge (grammar) is grounded in language use. This study shows that semantic compatibility between linguistic elements is a gradient phenomenon, and that speakers’ knowledge about the degree of semantic compatibility is intimately correlated with language use. To show this, I investigate two constructions of English: the sentential complement construction and the ditransitive construction. I observe speakers’ knowledge of the semantic compatibility between the constructions and lexical items and compared it with empirical data obtained from linguistic corpora and experiments on sentence processing and acceptability judgments. My findings specifically show that the relative semantic compatibility of the lexical items and the construction is significantly correlated with the frequency of use of their co-occurrences and the processing effort and speakers’ acceptability judgments for the co-occurrences. The empirical data show that a lexical item and a construction which are less than fully compatible can be actually used together when the incompatibility is resolved. The resolution of the semantic incompatibility between the lexical item and its host construction has been called coercion. Coercion has been invoked as a theoretical concept without being examined in depth, particularly without regard to language use. By correlating degree of semantic compatibility with empirical data of language use, this study highlights that coercion is an actual psychological process which occurs during the composition of linguistic elements. Moreover, by examining in detail how the semantics of a lexical item and a construction interact in order to reconcile the incompatibility, this study reveals that coercion is semantic integration that involves not only dynamic interaction of linguistic components but also non-linguistic contexts. Investigating semantic compatibility and coercion in detail with empirical data tells about the processes by which speakers compose linguistic elements into larger units. It also supports the assumption of the usage-based model that grammar and usage are not independent, and ultimately sheds light on the dynamic aspect of our linguistic system.

This study investigates the nature of semantic compatibility between constructions and lexical items that occur in them in relation with language use, and the related concept, coercion, based on a usage-based approach to language, in which linguistic knowledge (grammar) is grounded in language use. This study shows that semantic compatibility between linguistic elements is a gradient phenomenon, and that speakers’ knowledge about the degree of semantic compatibility is intimately correlated with language use. To show this, I investigate two constructions of English: the sentential complement construction and the ditransitive construction. I observe speakers’ knowledge of the semantic compatibility between the constructions and lexical items and compared it with empirical data obtained from linguistic corpora and experiments on sentence processing and acceptability judgments. My findings specifically show that the relative semantic compatibility of the lexical items and the construction is significantly correlated with the frequency of use of their co-occurrences and the processing effort and speakers’ acceptability judgments for the co-occurrences. The empirical data show that a lexical item and a construction which are less than fully compatible can be actually used together when the incompatibility is resolved. The resolution of the semantic incompatibility between the lexical item and its host construction has been called coercion. Coercion has been invoked as a theoretical concept without being examined in depth, particularly without regard to language use. By correlating degree of semantic compatibility with empirical data of language use, this study highlights that coercion is an actual psychological process which occurs during the composition of linguistic elements. Moreover, by examining in detail how the semantics of a lexical item and a construction interact in order to reconcile the incompatibility, this study reveals that coercion is semantic integration that involves not only dynamic interaction of linguistic components but also non-linguistic contexts. Investigating semantic compatibility and coercion in detail with empirical data tells about the processes by which speakers compose linguistic elements into larger units. It also supports the assumption of the usage-based model that grammar and usage are not independent, and ultimately sheds light on the dynamic aspect of our linguistic system.

Malgré les résultats positifs obtenus dans différentes études sur l'emploi de la réalité virtuelle pour le traitement de troubles de santé mentale, l'utilisation de cette technologie se limite essentiellement au domaine de la recherche. Plusieurs facteurs comme les coûts de l'équipement, l'attitude générale face à la réalité virtuelle ou la facilité d'utilisation perçue pourraient expliquer ce phénomène. Au lieu de présumer des facteurs potentiels associés à l'intention d'utilisation de la réalité virtuelle en clinique, il a été décidé de tester comment le Modèle d'acceptation technologique (MAT; Davis, 1989, 1993; Venkatesh, 2000) pouvait être appliqué à la réalité virtuelle. La puissance du MAT à décrire les variables impliquées dans l'intention d'utilisation d'une technologie a été validée à plusieurs reprises. Le MAT avance que l 'intention d'utilisation d'une technologie spécifique est causée par deux facteurs: la facilité d'utilisation perçue et l'utilité perçue. La facilité d 'utilisatioln perçue étant expliquée par des facteurs comme l'anxiété face à l'ordinateur, l'auto-efficacité, la perception de contrôle externe et la motivation intrinsèque. Le but de l'étude est de documenter empiriquement les facteurs pouvant avoir un impact sur l'intention d'utilisation de la réalité virtuelle dans la pratique clinique. Comme on se doit d'avoir une certaine connaissance de la réalité virtuelle pour exprimer une intention de l'utiliser, une population déjà intéressée à utiliser la réalité virtuelle a été ciblée, Les items classiques développés par Davis pour tester le MAT (1989, 1993) auprès de technologies variées ont été adaptés à la réalité virtuelle dans la pratique clinique. Un facteur coûts perçus a été ajouté au modèle proposé. Il est attendu que cette variable joue un rôle dans l'intention d'utilisation. Comme le MAT s'inspire du Modèle d'action raisonné d' Ajzen et Fishbein (1975), le rôle de l'altitude face à la réalité virtuelle comme agent médiateur entre la facilité d'utilisation perçue et l'utilité perçue sur l'intention d'utilisation. L'échantillon de l'étude comprend 141 répondants (58% femmes), d'âge moyen de 39,6 ans et d'expérience clinique moyenne de 11 ans. Les participants proviennent de milieux de pratique clinique variés: publique (31%), privé (22%), directeurs de cliniques ou de laboratoires (21%), etc. Soixante-cinq pourcent de l'échantillon a rempli une version électronique du questionnaire et 35% une version papier. La consistance interne des différentes sous-échelles étaient excellentes (α > .80 to .90). Des analyses d'équation structurelle, faites à l'aide du programme EQS, ont permis de constater que le modèle obtenu possédait de bons indices d'adéquation (NFI = .90, CFI = .98, RMSEA = .045) et que les résultats significatifs de chaque paramètre du MAT révèlent que l'intention d'utilisation de la réalité virtuelle est directement et seulement causée par l'utilité perçue (.95, p < .001). La facilité d'utilisation perçue est significativement causée par les caractéristiques du thérapeute (perception de contrôle externe, anxiété face à l'ordinateur la motivation intrinsèque) et en retour cause de façon significative l'utilité perçue (.78, p< .001). La relation directe entre facilité d'utilisation perçue et l'intention d'utilisation ne s'est pas avérée significative. Les résultats démontrent que l'intention d'utilisation de la réalité virtuelle est exclusivement prédite par l'utilité perçue. D'autres facteurs comme les coûts, l'attitude face à la réalité virtuelle et l'anxiété face à l'ordinateur ne jouent pas un rôle signification dans la décision du clinicien favorable à la réalité virtuelle d'inclure cette technologie dans sa pratique. Les résultats doivent orienter les efforts de dissémination de la réalité virtuelle en mettant l'emphase sur l'utilité de cette technologie. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Modèle d'acceptation technologique, Réalité virtuelle, Psychologie, Clinique, Traitement.

In this knowledge explosion environment, knowledge management systems increasing organizational capability and performance.This research investigates play an important role in relationships among several major factors: service quality, knowledge management system quality (include System Quality and Content Quality), system usage, organizational capability (include Agility and Innovativeness) and organizational performance. An empirical study was performed to examine their relationships. The findings show significant positive relation among Service Quality, Knowledge Management System Quality and System Usage; System Usage and Organizational Capability, and Organizational Capability and organizational performance.The result is consistent with existing literature to support the value of knowledge management systems.

With the growth of digital content industry, publishers start to provide online services for ebook search, reading and downloading. Users can access to online resources from anywhere, any place with laptop or mobile devices at any time. Nowadays more and more libraries have purchased ebooks as an important part of the library collection. To access the online resources users can link directly to publisher's ebook portal or via the OPAC system. Compared to the library circulation process, ebooks are more convenient to patrons and improve the utilization of library online resources. There are various kinds of ebooks available in the market, so libraries have to focus their investment on the most valuable online resources. Usage statistics report plays an important role in providing valuable information to libraries. It is usually based on the standard of COUNTER to generate the statistic reports, although it provides when and where users access to specific ebooks, it fails show the general topics and how they change. In this study, we introduce a post process method to weighting the LDA topic model via the usage statistic report to emphasize the changes of topic and compare it to the classification method and subject heading method in the bibliographic, namely LCC and LCSH respectively. The result show that weighted topic model significantly affect the ranking of topics, and the topic model are independent from the classification method and the subject heading method in the bibliographic record.

In a water distribution system from groundwater supply, the bulk of energy consumption is expended at pump stations. These pumps pressurize the water and transport it from the aquifer to the distribution system and to elevated storage tanks. Each pump in the system has a range of possible operating conditions with varying flow rates, hydraulic head imparted, and hydraulic efficiencies. In this research, the water distribution system of a mid-sized city in a subtropical climate is modeled and optimized in order to minimize the energy usage of its fourteen pumps. A simplified model of the pipes, pumps, and storage tanks is designed using freely-available EPANET hydraulic modeling software. Physical and operational parameters of this model are calibrated against five weeks of observed data using a genetic algorithm to predict storage tank volume given a forecasted system demand. Uncertainty analysis on the calibrated parameters is performed to assess model sensitivity. Finally, the pumping schedule for the system's fourteen pumps is optimized using a genetic algorithm in order to minimize total energy use across a 24-hour period.

µL

Owing to the booming development of the WWW, it creates many new challenges for information filtering. Information Filtering (IF) is an area of research that develops tools for discriminating between relevant and irrelevant information. IF can find good matches between the web pages and the users' information needs. Users first give descriptions about what they need, i.e., user profiles, to start the services. A profile index is built on these profiles. A series of incoming web pages will be put into the matching process. Each incoming web page is represented in the same form of the user profile. In this way, the users who are interested in an incoming web page can be identified by comparing the descriptions of the web page with each user profile. At last, the web page will be recommended to the users whose profiles belong to the filtered results. Therefore, a critical issue of the information filtering service is how to index the user profiles for an efficient matching process. When we index the user profile, we can reduce the costs of storage space and the processing time for modifying the user profiles. In this thesis, first, we propose a count-based tree method, which takes the count of each keyword into consideration, to reduce the large storage spaces as needed by the tree method. Next, three large-itemset-based methods are proposed to reduce the storage space, which are called the count-major large itemset method, the weighted large itemset method and the hybrid method. In these three large-itemset-based methods, we first cluster profiles with similar interests into the same group. Next, for each cluster, we apply the mining association rules techniques to help us to construct the index strategies. We design three methods by using the idea of the Apriori algorithm which is one of well-known approaches in mining association rules. But, we modify the minimum support and the goal in the Apriori algorithm. We may not always output the large itemset Lk. That is, we may only use Lw, where w < k. In summary, the cost of storage spaces of our four methods are less than that of the tree method proposed by Yan and Garcia-Molina. According to our simulation results, each of our four methods may provide the best result when different input data sets. Next, we propose a large-itemset-based approach to the incremental update of the index structure for storing keywords to reduce the update cost. When someone's interests are often changed, we must care about the way how to provide the low update cost of the index structure. We take the weight of each keyword into consideration. That is, each keyword can be distinguished the long-term interest which has weight above the threshold from the short-term interest which has weight below the threshold. Owing to that the probability of modifying the short-term interests is higher than that of modifying the long-term interests, we can update the short-term interests locally. According to our simulation results, our method really can reduce the update cost as needed by Wu and Chen' methods.

With the rapid and constant changes taking place in information technology and internet, only firms participating in the creation and utilization of knowledge can hope to obtain the advantageous position in today¡¦s knowledge-based economy. Thus, the issues surrounding knowledge management (KM) have attracted more and more concern from both industry and academia. To add value with KM, we need KMS, which involve the application of IT systems and other organizational resources to manage knowledge strategically, are a relatively recent phenomenon. The goal of this research is to find the significant factors that link with KMS use and individual performance by using diamond model and contingency theory, which emphasizes the importance of fit. We combine with three distinct factors of compatibility, including (1) Technology - Task Compatibility (2) Technology - People Compatibility (3) Technology - Organization Compatibility, to mold an integrated model. An empirical survey methodology is applied to test the research model and seven hypotheses are developed in this study, and then we use PLS to analyze it. The results reveal that Technology-Task compatibility contributes most to the use of KMS. It implies that KMS should fulfill the task needs of users, and therefore, people will use more functions of the KM systems frequently. Besides, Technology-People compatibility has similar effect on the use of KMS. This suggests that it will enhance the usage if the KMS is more compatible with users¡¦ past experience and value. We also found that Technology - Organization compatibility has least impact on usage, but it still needed to take into consideration and worthy to discuss in the future research. In sum, unlike much prior research that has focused on only a limited aspect of compatibility, we provide a more comprehensive conceptual definition that disaggregates the content of compatibility into three distinct and separable constructs and the findings of this study provides some suggestions for the KMS research.

Recent developments in video technology have opened up the possibility for people to watch movies in many different ways. For example one person may use a kinetoscope. Others may go to cinemas or join in a movie festival, yet others use a DVD player, watch them on the internet or even on mobile devices. Do movie fans use all or a number of these ways or just pick one of them? How do they select the way they watch the movies? What factors influence them in this selection? These are the important questions which this research addresses. This research utilises product attributes to collect the data from 531 respondents surveyed in Kaohsiung City and analysed by statistics using quantitative empirical methods. It finds that consumers¡¦ preferences for the product attributes and for the movie seeing are related to their lifestyles and demographic variables, and there is a level of significance in these factors: self-benefit, cheerful mind, efficiency, level of socialisation, and economics, in the product attribute for each consumer cluster based on lifestyle. In the preference of product usage, there is the level of significance in these factors: ¡§cinema, and legal and illegal download from the internet¡¨. However, there is no level of significance in these factors: ¡§cable TV, video and disk rent, video and disk purchase, and illegal copy purchase¡¨. Further, in product attribute related to demographic statistical variables, there is separately a level of significance in these factors: gender, education background, marriage, children-raising, and career, in self-benefit, cheerful mind, efficiency, and level of socialisation. And in the relationship of the preference of product usage and demographic statistical variables, there is a significant correlation between most demographic statistical variables and certain preferences of product usage. Keywords: Product Attribute, Preference of Usage, Movie Viewing Products, Lifestyle, Demographics.