<div>Multi-model inference covers a wide range of modern statistical applications such as variable selection, model confidence set, model averaging and variable importance.</div><div>The performance of multi-model inference depends on the availability of candidate models, whose quality has been rarely studied in literature. In this dissertation, we study genetic algorithm (GA) in order to obtain high-quality candidate models. Inspired by the process of natural selection, GA performs genetic operations such as selection, crossover and mutation iteratively to update a collection of potential solutions (models) until convergence. The convergence properties are studied based on the Markov chain theory and used to design an adaptive termination criterion that vastly reduces the computational cost. In addition, a new schema theory is established to characterize how the current model set is improved through evolutionary process. Extensive numerical experiments are carried out to verify our theory and demonstrate the empirical power of GA, and new findings are obtained for two real data examples. </div>

Sexual assault (SA) has been associated with various negative psychological consequences for survivors. Recent studies have shown an association between the history of sexual assault and sexual dysfunction among female survivors of sexual victimization. Specifically, sexual assault survivors experience difficulties with aspects of sexual functioning, sexual satisfaction, and sexual self-schemas (Rellini & Meston, 2011). The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between sexual victimization severity and sexual functioning and sexual satisfaction. In addition, we tested a sequential mediational model in which sexual self-schema followed by depressive and PTSD symptoms would mediate the relationship between sexual victimization severity and sexual satisfaction and sexual functioning. Seventy-three female college students with a history of sexual victimization were asked to complete a series of self-report questionnaires designed to assess the history of sexual victimization, sexual functioning, sexual satisfaction, sexual self-schemas and psychological distress levels (i.e., depression and posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity). Results revealed no significant associations between severity of sexual victimization and sexual satisfaction and sexual functioning. Additionally, our sequential mediational models, in which sexual self-schema followed by depressive and PTSD symptoms would mediate the relationship between sexual victimization severity and sexual satisfaction and functioning were non-significant. Our findings may have been limited due to the lack of variability in sexual victimization severity. Future studies further investigating the role of sexual self-schema, depression, and PTSD on sexual functioning and sexual satisfaction among sexual assault survivors are warranted.

Young's schema theory offers a theoretical approach that relates negative childhood experiences, temperament, and early maladaptive schema, to the experience of negative affect and/or depression in adulthood. However, despite the widespread use of schema therapy in clinical practice, little research has explored the pathways theorized by Young. This study explored the pathways posited by Young and colleagues looking at the direct and indirect relationships among negative childhood experience, temperament, early maladaptive schema, and the experience of negative affect in adulthood. Self-report data were collected from 365 undergraduate students. Results demonstrated consistent and robust direct relationships between temperament and negative affect, as well as indirect relationships between temperament and/or NCE, schema, and the outcome of negative affect. Results, though mixed, reveal strengths of the schema therapy model and provide suggestions for future research.

The current study was an investigation of the self-schema and social comparison theories of the development of body dissatisfaction. Social comparison stimuli, consisting of photographs of women, were piloted and selected to form 3 stimuli sets: upward comparison, downward comparison, and no comparison. A priming manipulation consisting of an imagery exercise intended to prime participants appearance self-schema was also piloted. Participants completed state measures of body image and mood at pretest, were given the priming manipulation and the social comparison stimuli, then completed posttest measures of mood and body image, as well as providing demographic information. Results indicated no significant interaction between priming and social comparison and no significant main effect for priming. However, there was a significant effect of social comparison, such that those in the downward comparison condition showed decreased body dissatisfaction and negative mood. Results are discussed in the context of self-schema theory and social comparison, and suggestions are given for future research that might further shed light on these topics.

AIM The purpose of this experiment is to assess whether the advantages of variable practice are due to schema formation or to enhanced information processing (contextual interference) alone. DESIGN The design involved a 2 (mode; cognitive and motor) x 5 (practice schedule; blocked, random, constant distance one, constant distance two, and constant distance three) between subjects design resulting in ten groups. One hundred participants were randomly chosen from Human Movement students at Australian Catholic University and assigned to each of the ten groups (n=10). The cognitive mode involved the participants having to recognise the appropriate target from three geometrical shapes (triangle, square or circle), the triangle being the target in every case. The motor mode involved the participants having to tap on the target among three boxes that was merely filled in. The experiment consisted of ninety (3 blocks of 30) acquisition trials followed by ten transfer trials to a novel movement. MAIN HYPOTHESIS It was hypothesised that if facilitated transfer to a novel target occurs through schema formation, then there would be no differences between the motor groups and their corresponding cognitive groups. However, if facilitated transfer to a novel target occurs through enhanced information processing, then there would be differences between the motor groups and their corresponding cognitive groups. RESULTS Statistical analysis revealed a contextual interference effect for participants involved in the cognitive mode, in that the cognitive blocked group outperformed the cognitive random group in acquisition, but the reverse was the case in transfer. In the motor mode, the motor blocked group outperformed the motor random group in acquisition, and repeated the performance in transfer. CONCLUSION The results appear to indicate that for simple motor tasks it is the amount of variability of practice that is important for transfer to a novel task, while for tasks with a cognitive component, the schedule of practice is critical.

本研究旨在探討臺灣的大學生連接詞的理解與使用。除比較大學生對「句內」及「句間」連接詞的使用外，所閱讀文章內容的熟悉與否是否影響其使用連接詞，以及英文能力與連接詞使用能力之間的相關性，也是本研究的重點所在。 　　一百三十五位國立臺灣工業技術學院大一學生參與此研究。其測驗結果顯示：（一）英文能力愈強者，使用連接詞的能力也愈強；（二）「句間」連接詞比「句內」連接詞較難理解使用；（三）對文章內容的熟悉並未顯著幫助受試者選用正確連接詞。 / The present study was designed to investigate college-level Chinese students' use of English conjunctions at the intra- and inter-sentential levels, the interaction of content familiarity and use of conjunctions, and the relationship between English proficiency and ability to use conjunctions. It aimed at understanding their weakness in using conjunctions and in comprehending expository texts, and thus providing some pedagogical implications for teaching English conjunctions and reading comprehension. 　　One hundred and thirty-five freshmen at National Taiwan Institute of Technology participated in the present study. One hundred and three of them were engineering majors and thirty-two of them were business majors. They were given a simulated TOEFL test and a conjunction test. The conjunction test was composed of a sentence-completion test, which was designed to test subjects' ability to use conjunctions within sentences (intrasentential), and a three-passage rational multiple-choice cloze, which was designed to measure subjects' ability to use conjunctions in extended discourses (intersentential) and the interaction of content familiarity and the ability to use conjunctions. 　　The results showed that (1) college-level Chinese students were more competent in using English conjunctions at the intrasentential level than at the intersentential level, (2) most of the subjects did not seem to comprehend logical development better and thus did not use conjunctions more accurately in content-familiar texts than in content unfamiliar texts, and (3) subjects with higher level of English proficiency exhibited greater ability in using conjunctions both intrasententially and intersententially.

本研究旨在探討記者寫作新聞時可能經歷的思考過程。與一般歸納式研究不同的是，本研究採取演繹式的研究途徑，嘗試以各相關領域的理論（包括認知科學、語言學、心理語言學、新聞學等）為基礎，推演出一個理論上的新聞寫作歷程模式。 　　本研究以語言學中的轉換概念(transformation)作為寫作模式的基礎。將新聞寫作視為記者從長期記憶的基模知識中，提取適當命題出來，經過種種轉換規則的處理，而轉換成為新聞文本的過程。轉換出來的新聞文本，在內容上呼應基模的命題層次結構；在結構及風格上符合新聞寫作的特殊要求。此外，新聞寫作是在情境影響下進行的活動，因此在模式中也討論情境因素對新聞寫作轉換過程的影響。 　　為補文獻推演的不足，本研究也進行一個很小的個案研究，請一位報社記者實際採訪一則新聞，並於採訪完後寫一則新聞稿。在記者寫稿時，以放聲思考法及寫作後立即追溯訪問法探測記者寫新聞時的思考過程。個案研究的資料作為本研究模式的參考。 　　最後本研究針對模式無法研究的部份，對未來研究提出幾點建議。並且就本研究所推演出的理論模式，對新聞寫作教學提出一些建議。 / The purpose of this article is to unviel the mysterious process of newswriting. Different from other inductive research, article employs the deductive approach. The author tries to construct a theoretical model on the basis of theories in relevant fields, including cognitive science, linguistics, psycholinguistics and journalistics. The central concept of this model is "transformation" borrowed from linguistics, viewing newswriting process as pro- positions retrived from schema in long-term memory, transformed by various rules, and finally presented as news text. After the process of transformation, the content of news text corresponds to the propositional levels of schema, and the sturcture as well as style of news text conform to the professional requirements of newswriting. In addition, this article also discusses the influence of context in the transforming process of newswriting. In order to improve the thoroughness of the model, the author conducted a simple case study. The author invited a reporter to attend a conference and requested her to write a piece of news about the conference. In order to probe the thinking process,the reporter was requested to think aloud during writing, and was interviewed immediately after writing. The data of case study was used for reference. In the last part of this article, the author makes some suggestions for future research and for the educator of news- writing according to the theoretical model in this article.

This thesis explores the application of personal construct psychology and the repertory grid to performance management in a technical consulting organisation. The research examines what is important for a manager in assessing work performance and how each manager's mental model for performance compares with his/her peers. Managers acting as raters are the critical link in the observation and assessment of performance and in the feedback process. Rater observations and judgements are affected by their personal mental models regarding what is important. These views may or may not accord with those of their peers, resulting in inconsistency and unfair assessments, or with what the organisation's strategy demands. Understanding rater views on what is important, and how well these align with strategy, is a key to ensure that the appraisal process supports, rather than hinders, both individual and organisational needs. Each manager's personal constructs relating to appraisal were elicited through a repertory grid interview. The elicited constructs were taken together and categorised to derive broad performance categories summarising the views of the entire management team. Each individual's personal constructs were then allocated to the relevant common category to develop a view of how each manager related to the group's overall approach to appraisal. A measure for the importance of each category in making performance judgments (importance score) was derived based on the correlation of the constructs in each category with an overall performance construct. A second measure of a manager's preparedness to discriminate between levels of performance was also derived (discriminant score) based on the variation in each manager's construct structure. In keeping with the personal construct psychology approach, the process emphasizes the importance of discussion with the individual concerned to verify the sorting and ranking pro cess. A ranking process to establish the overall management group priorities for judging performance (team mental models) was demonstrated and a charting process was developed to facilitate presentation and discussion of the results. The research has demonstrated the strength of the repertory grid process as a means of getting at a rater's framework for thinking about appraisal and provides a way to identify possible voids or blind spots in a rater's approach. Understanding the most important categories of performance used by raters provides an opportunity for management to determine whether these are likely to achieve the objectives of the company, and if necessary, to introduce and inculcate different approaches.

L'analyse et l'approximation de solutions des Equations Differentielles Stochastiques (E.D.S.) possédant des coefficients discontinus est un sujet qui n'a pas ete traité de facon pleinement satisfaisante. Ce problème devient particulierement motivant lorsque l'on cherche à approcher, par des méthodes de Monte-Carlo, les solutions de certaines Equations aux Derivées Partielles (E.D.P) qui font également intervenir des coefficients discontinus. C'est par exemple le cas, bien connu en Physique, des E.D.P.s avec opérateur sous forme divergence (O.F.D.) dont les coefficients sont discontinus et que nous étudions dans ce mémoire : les discontinuités traduisent alors les irrégularités du milieu dans lequel évolue le système étudié. Cette thèse propose de nouveaux résultats pour l'analyse et l'approximation de solutions des E.D.S. qui sont reliées à un O.F.D. dont les coefficients sont discontinus. Les aspects statistiques des modèles en jeu sont également étudiés.

Ce travail de these se situe dans le cadre du projet Guide dont le but est la conception et la realisation dun systeme reparti fournissant un support d'objets partages persistants. Dans une premiere partie, cette these etudie les problemes poses par la conception d'un tel systeme, les differentes approches rencontrees dans les systemes existants illustrant cette etude. La seconde partie est consacree a la presentation du travail realise dans le cadre du projet Guide. Un noyau de systeme appele Eliott a ete realise sur le micro-noyau Mach 3.0 et fournit le support necessaire aux langages orientes-objets utilises pour la programmation dapplications reparties. Le noyau Eliott gere a la fois la persistance des objets et le partage des objets entre les structures d'execution. Les objets sont regroupes en grappes, ce qui permet de les gerer plus efficacement dans le systeme ; ils peuvent etre deplaces entre les grappes. Les structures d'execution sont des espaces dadressage repartis partages par plusieurs flots dexecution ; les objets sont lies dynamiquement dans ces espaces d'adressage. Pour assurer un niveau de protection minimum, le systeme isole les objets afin d'eviter qu'une erreur dans un programme puisse perturber d'autres objets. Un schema dadressage a la Multics a ete defini afin deviter une interpretation systematique des appels de methode. Des mecanismes de controle des droits d'acces fondes sur des listes dacces sont integres a ce schema d'adressage et permettent la construction de sous-systemes proteges mutuellement mefiants. La realisation de ces mecanismes a ete effectuee sans degrader l'efficacite de l'appel de methode. La verification de la protection genere un cout supplementaire lors du premier appel qui est interprete, mais aucun cout pour les appels suivants.