In this work we made an attempt to predict the upwards/downwards movement of the S&P 500 index from the news articles published by Bloomberg and Reuters. We employed the SVM classifier and conducted multiple experiments aiming at understanding the shape of the data and the specifics of the task better. As a result, we established the common evaluation settings for all our subsequent experiments. After that we tried incorporating various features into the model and also replicated several approaches previously suggested in the literature. We were able to identify some non-trivial dependencies in the data which helped us achieve a high accuracy on the development set. However, none of the models that we built showed comparable performance on the test set. We have come to the conclusion that whereas some trends or patterns can be identified in a particular dataset, such findings are usually barely transferable to other data. The experiments that we conducted support the idea that the stock market is changing at random and a high quality of prediction may only be achieved on particular sets of data and under very special settings, but not for the task of stock market prediction in general. 1

The three structural possibilities marking a noun with an English article are a, the, and Ø (the absence of an article). Although these structural possibilities are simple, they encode a multitude of semantic and pragmatic functions, and it is these complex form-function interactions that this study explores and explains using a semantic map model. The semantic map that is proposed contains three dimensions, which I refer to as Grammatical Number, Referentiality, and Discourse Mode. Each of these dimensions contains a number of further semantic values or pragmatic functions - which I will label "attributes" - that are implicated in English article choice. Various semantic map versions are tested and compared with a methodological approach that uses data collected in a controlled protocol from an elicited conversational discourse. The version that performed best is used as a basis for proposing a comprehensive semantic map that includes the following dimensions and dimensional attributes: a Number dimension with 3 attributes (singular, plural, and uncountable); a Referentiality dimension with 11 attributes, including 7 referential attributes that describe kinds of identifiability (proper names, shared lexis, shared speech situation, frame, current discourse, identifiable to speaker only ["new reference"], and identifiable to neither speaker nor listener [non-specific]) as well as 4 non-referential attributes (categorization, general non-referential expressions, finite verb [verb-object] "noun incorporation", and idioms); and a Discourse Mode dimension with 4 attributes (headline, immediacy, normal, and reintroducing). This model of English articles contributes to the field of research on articles as well as to the field of English language instruction and learning. In addition, it is suggested that the methodological paradigm used to test the semantic map model may be useful as an experimental paradigm for testing semantic maps of other constructions and languages.

I wrote this thesis to deepen my knowledge about the sponsored articles' market. Indeed, I'm working for one year in a company which is selling sponsored articles on blogs to announcers, it's why I decided to focus on the blogosphere to understand how its rising influence allowed the apparition of the sponsored articles' market. Moreover, I tried to propose solutions to improve the performance of my company on this market. In this paper, I describe what a blog is, how is it possible to classify them, the impact of these websites on the society but also the structure of the sponsored articles market. Precisely, we explain how the law responds to this evolution, who are the main actors on this market with for example intermediary's agencies putting in relation blogs and brands as my company Buzzea does. Also, I presented a survey conducted toward blogs by my company to understand how they are perceiving the sponsored articles. To conclude this paper, I enhance some solutions that my company could implement to be more competitive in this market.

Thesis (M.A. (Psychology)) --University of Limpopo, 2015 / The aim of the study was to explore the psychological profiles of perpetrators of domestic violence as represented in newspaper articles. An archival research approach was chosen as the appropriate design for the present study. The researcher accessed and studied all newspaper articles from two daily newspapers reporting on domestic violence over a two-year period (that is, from January 2011 up to December 2012). A total of 98 newspaper articles (sixty from the Sowetan newspaper, and 38 thirty eight from the Daily Sun newspaper) covering the period under review were retrieved. The data was captured on a self-developed data record sheet. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data. The results were analysed and presented using frequency tables, descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations. The results of the study showed that the majority of the victims of domestic violence were women with little education and skills. Assault, attempted murder and murder were found to be the forms of violence perpetrated against the victims. The majority of the perpetrators (70.4%) were males, with higher education and skills. Some of the perpetrators were represented in the newspaper articles as being emotionally troubled (69.4%), passively aggressive (11.2%), mentally disturbed (5.1%) and socially deviant (3.1%). The majority of the mental health problems that were associated with the perpetrators of domestic violence included depression, borderline personality and acute psychosis. A number of triggers were found to lead to domestic violence. These included family arguments, jealousy, substance abuse, and criminal behaviour. Based on the above results, the study is concluded by recommending anger and stress management as some of the programmes that the government could introduce to minimise domestic violence.

No description available.

本文的研究對象是南宋（1127-1279）至明代（1368-1644）龍泉窯宗教塑像。這裡所指的宗教塑像，是指佛教、道教和民間宗教的人物塑像。本文旨在探討宗教塑像的生產和使用情況，並特別探討當中龕像的年代和所表現的信仰。 / 本文的第一部分探討塑像的生產和使用情況。通過廣泛蒐集、對比和分析考古及傳世塑像，文章總結出龍泉窯在南宋起開始燒造宗教塑像，元代（1271-1368）時擴大規模，明中期以後停產。雖然宗教塑像並非龍泉窯的大宗產品，可是它們製作講究，經製模、模印、塑貼、雕刻、局部施釉和鬆漆多項工序，足見塑像並不因產量相對較少而顯得不重要，相反它們應是一種受到重視的產品。塑像的使用地點廣泛，除民間之外，明代宮廷也有使用。部分塑像更遠銷海外。 / 文章的第二部分集中探討龍泉窯宗教塑像中龕像的年代和所表現的信仰。鑒於收集所得的二十六尊龕像只有兩尊帶有年款，其餘龕像的年代並不明確，故此第二章首先判斷龕像的年代。通過與發掘所得的塑像及紀年龕像進行對比，文章論證這些龕像均約為明代早期的產品。此外，結合文獻和圖像，文章闡明上述龕像乃分別與道教九天應元雷聲普化天尊、佛教觀音以及觀音與道教真武組合信仰有關。 / This thesis studies religious sculptures made at the kilns in Longquan during Southern Song(1127-1279) and Ming dynasty(1368-1644). More specifically it examines sculptures from Buddhism, Daoism and popular religion. This thesis aims at investigating the production and the consumption of these sculptures, as well as elucidating religious beliefs they represent. / The first part of the thesis examines the production and the consumption of religious sculptures. Through delving into and analyzing a comprehensive collection of the excavated and extant sculptures, the thesis concludes that production of these religious sculptures first began in the Southern Song dynasty, with production scale largely increased in Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), and eventually halted in the late Ming. Albeit those religious sculptures comprise a small portion of Longquan wares, the detailed perfection in each and every step of production as demonstrated in their delicacy and exquisiteness render them significances. Furthermore, it is revealed that religious sculptures were widely used not only amongst commoners but also in the royal family of the Ming dynasty and overseas. / The second part of the thesis examines religious beliefs that 26 extant niche sculptures represent. By comparing the dated sculptures, it is justified to conclude that the religious sculptures were all produced around the early Ming dynasty. Through an integrated analysis of literatures and images, the present thesis shows that the sculptures denote different religious beliefs, namely, the belief of Heavenly Worthy of Universal Transformation of the Sound of the Thunder of Responding Origin in the Nine Heavens, Avalokiteśvara of the South Sea, as well as the association of Avalokiteśvara and the Dark Warrior. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 黃煒均. / "2012年9月". / "2012 nian 9 yue". / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-94). / Abstract in Chinese and English. / Huang Weijun. / 內容摘要 --- p.i / 謝辭 --- p.iv / 前言 --- p.1 / Chapter 一、 --- 研究回顧、 方法與目的 --- p.1 / Chapter 二、 --- 論文結構 --- p.3 / Chapter 第一章 --- 宗教塑像的生產與使用情況 --- p.5 / Chapter 一、 --- 考古及傳世塑像的整理 --- p.5 / Chapter 二、 --- 生產與使用情況的總結 --- p.12 / Chapter 第二章 --- 傳世龕像的年代 --- p.15 / Chapter 一、 --- 神龕造型的分類與辨識 --- p.15 / Chapter 二、 --- 龕像年代的斷定 --- p.17 / Chapter 第三章 --- 九天應元雷聲普化天尊龕像 --- p.24 / Chapter 一、 --- 洪武龕神祗身份的辨識 --- p.24 / Chapter 二、 --- 永樂龕神祗身份的辨識 --- p.32 / Chapter 三、 --- 神祗形象、 組合與神龕造型所表現的信仰 --- p.38 / Chapter 四、 --- 銘文與供奉的目的 --- p.44 / Chapter 第四章 --- 觀音龕像 --- p.49 / Chapter 一、 --- 觀音龕像神祗身份的辨識 --- p.49 / Chapter 二、 --- 神祗組合與神龕造型所表現的信仰 --- p.55 / Chapter 二、 --- 觀音與真武合龕神祗身份的辨識 --- p.58 / Chapter 四、 --- 神祗組合與神龕造型所表現的信仰 --- p.59 / 總結 --- p.72 / 參考書目 --- p.74 / 圖版 --- p.95

Με την πραγματικότητα των υπέρογκων και ολοένα αυξανόμενων πηγών κειμένου στο διαδίκτυο, καθίστανται αναγκαία η ύπαρξη μηχανισμών οι οποίοι βοηθούν τους χρήστες ώστε να λάβουν γρήγορες απαντήσεις στα ερωτήματά τους. Η δημιουργία περιεχομένου, προσωποποιημένου στις ανάγκες των χρηστών, κρίνεται απαραίτητη σύμφωνα με τις επιταγές της συνδυαστικής έκρηξης της πληροφορίας που είναι ορατή σε κάθε ``γωνία'' του διαδικτύου. Ζητούνται άμεσες και αποτελεσματικές λύσεις ώστε να ``τιθασευτεί'' αυτό το χάος πληροφορίας που υπάρχει στον παγκόσμιο ιστό, λύσεις που είναι εφικτές μόνο μέσα από ανάλυση των προβλημάτων και εφαρμογή σύγχρονων μαθηματικών και υπολογιστικών μεθόδων για την αντιμετώπισή τους. Η παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή αποσκοπεί στο σχεδιασμό, στην ανάπτυξη και τελικά στην αξιολόγηση μηχανισμών και καινοτόμων αλγορίθμων από τις περιοχές της ανάκτησης πληροφορίας, της επεξεργασίας φυσικής γλώσσας καθώς και της μηχανικής εκμάθησης, οι οποίοι θα παρέχουν ένα υψηλό επίπεδο φιλτραρίσματος της πληροφορίας του διαδικτύου στον τελικό χρήστη. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, στα διάφορα στάδια επεξεργασίας της πληροφορίας αναπτύσσονται τεχνικές και μηχανισμοί που συλλέγουν, δεικτοδοτούν, φιλτράρουν και επιστρέφουν κατάλληλα στους χρήστες κειμενικό περιεχόμενο που πηγάζει από τον παγκόσμιο ιστό. Τεχνικές και μηχανισμοί που σκοπό έχουν την παροχή υπηρεσιών πληροφόρησης πέρα από τα καθιερωμένα πρότυπα της υφιστάμενης κατάστασης του διαδικτύου. Πυρήνας της διδακτορικής διατριβής είναι η ανάπτυξη ενός μηχανισμού συσταδοποίησης (clustering) τόσο κειμένων, όσο και των χρηστών του διαδικτύου. Στο πλαίσιο αυτό μελετήθηκαν κλασικοί αλγόριθμοι συσταδοποίησης οι οποίοι και αξιολογήθηκαν για την περίπτωση των άρθρων νέων προκειμένου να εκτιμηθεί αν και πόσο αποτελεσματικός είναι ο εκάστοτε αλγόριθμος. Σε δεύτερη φάση υλοποιήθηκε αλγόριθμος συσταδοποίησης άρθρων νέων που αξιοποιεί μια εξωτερική βάση γνώσης, το WordNet, και είναι προσαρμοσμένος στις απαιτήσεις των άρθρων νέων που πηγάζουν από το διαδίκτυο. Ένας ακόμη βασικός στόχος της παρούσας εργασίας είναι η μοντελοποίηση των κινήσεων που ακολουθούν κοινοί χρήστες καθώς και η αυτοματοποιημένη αξιολόγηση των συμπεριφορών, με ορατό θετικό αποτέλεσμα την πρόβλεψη των προτιμήσεων που θα εκφράσουν στο μέλλον οι χρήστες. Η μοντελοποίηση των χρηστών έχει άμεση εφαρμογή στις δυνατότητες προσωποποίησης της πληροφορίας με την πρόβλεψη των προτιμήσεων των χρηστών. Ως εκ' τούτου, υλοποιήθηκε αλγόριθμος προσωποποίησης ο οποίος λαμβάνει υπ' όψιν του πληθώρα παραμέτρων που αποκαλύπτουν έμμεσα τις προτιμήσεις των χρηστών. / With the reality of the ever increasing information sources from the internet, both in sizes and indexed content, it becomes necessary to have methodologies that will assist the users in order to get the information they need, exactly the moment they need it. The delivery of content, personalized to the user needs is deemed as a necessity nowadays due to the combinatoric explosion of information visible to every corner of the world wide web. Solutions effective and swift are desperately needed in order to deal with this information overload. These solutions are achievable only via the analysis of the refereed problems, as well as the application of modern mathematics and computational methodologies. This Ph.d. dissertation aims to the design, development and finally to the evaluation of mechanisms, as well as, novel algorithms from the areas of information retrieval, natural language processing and machine learning. These mechanisms shall provide a high level of filtering capabilities regarding information originating from internet sources and targeted to end users. More precisely, through the various stages of information processing, various techniques are proposed and developed. Techniques that will gather, index, filter and return textual content well suited to the user tastes. These techniques and mechanisms aim to go above and beyond the usual information delivery norms of today, dealing via novel means with several issues that are discussed. The kernel of this Ph.d. dissertation is the development of a clustering mechanism that will operate both on news articles, as well as, users of the web. Within this context several classical clustering algorithms were studied and evaluated for the case of news articles, allowing as to estimate the level of efficiency of each one within this domain of interest. This left as with a clear choice as to which algorithm should be extended for our work. As a second phase, we formulated a clustering algorithm that operates on news articles and user profiles making use of the external knowledge base of WordNet. This algorithm is adapted to the requirements of diversity and quick churn of news articles originating from the web. Another central goal of this Ph.d. dissertation is the modeling of the browsing behavior of system users within the context of our recommendation system, as well as, the automatic evaluation of these behaviors with the obvious desired outcome or predicting the future preferences of users. The user modeling process has direct application upon the personalization capabilities that we can over on information as far as user preferences predictions are concerned. As a result, a personalization algorithm we formulated which takes into consideration a plethora or parameters that indirectly reveal the user preferences.

Les auteurs des Flugschriften mènent un combat pour la paix, chacun à sa manière. Luther veut sauvegarder la paix ; l’assemblée commune des autorités et des sujets de l’Ortenau veut rétablir la paix ; Melanchthon veut consolider la paix. De quelle paix s’agit-il ? Tout d’abord, le renoncement à la violence. Il s’agit essentiellement de sauvegarder la paix civile. Les Réformateurs, surtout Melanchthon, associent volontiers cette paix toute « extérieure » à la paix « intérieure que procure Dieu dans le cœur de celui qui place sa confiance en Lui. ». La paix ne peut pas être fondée sur un usage abusif de l’Ecriture. Luther dénonce le Droit divin qui, à ses yeux, relève d’un mésusage de l’Ecriture, et prône le « droit chrétien » : souffrir, et invoquer Dieu. L’assemblée commune des autorités et des sujets à Renchen ignore totalement ce Droit divin. Melanchthon condamne le recours à ce Droit divin. Aux arguments bibliques avancés par les paysans pour justifier leurs griefs et leur programme, Melanchthon en oppose d’autres pour récuser les XII articles. Luther le rappelle aux princes et aux seigneurs : ils doivent s’attacher à la Parole de Dieu ; qu’ils tiennent compte des articles des paysans qui sont souvent « justes et équitables » ; qu’ils engagent des négociations en vue d’une conciliation. Aux princes et aux seigneurs Melanchthon adresse ses suppliques pour assurer la paix future. Luther demande aux paysans de renoncer au Droit divin ; qu’ils adoptent le droit chrétien et qu’ils se gardent des faux prophètes ! Melanchthon déclare : le maintien de la paix implique pour le chrétien quelques renoncements et obligations. L’Ecriture condamne le recours à la violence illégitime. / The authors of the Flugschriften lead a combat for peace, each one in his own way. Luther wants to preserve the peace; the common assembly of the authorities and the subjects of the Ortenau want to re-establish the peace; Melanchthon wants to consolidate the peace. But what peace is involved here? First of all, it is a combat against violence. This is essentially about preserving civil peace. The Reformers, especially Melanchthon, happily associate this “outer peace with the “inner” peace that God brings to the heart of the one who places his confidence in Him”. Peace cannot be founded on an abusive use of Scripture. Luther denounces Divine right that, in his eyes, is a misuse of Scripture, and rather extols “Christian law”: to suffer, and to invoke God. The common assembly of the authorities and subjects in Renchen totally ignores Divine right. Melanchthon condemns any recourse to this Divine right. To the biblical arguments advanced by the peasants for justifying their grievances and their programme, Melanchthon opposes other arguments to challenge the XII articles. Luther does not forget to remind the princes and lords that they must focus on the Word of God; that they should take into account the articles of the peasantry which are often “just and equitable”. They should engage negotiations with a view to conciliation. Luther asks the peasants to renounce Divine right, that they adopt Christian law and keep themselves from false prophets! To the princes and the lords Melanchthon addresses his petitions in order to assure future peace. Melanchthon declares: Keeping the peace for the Christian involves certain renouncement and obligations.

Notre travail de recherche vise deux objectifs étroitement liés. Le premier consiste à proposer une aide à l’évaluation des écrits scientifique et pour cause : le nombre de publication augmente, les limites entre les domaines deviennent floues, et il devient difficile de trouver des publications pertinentes si bien qu’un besoin pratique d’évaluation surgit. Il s’agit aussi de trouver les moyens d’une aide à l’expertise, appuyée sur des indices discursifs permettant d’aider le lecteur à repérer les points clés d’une publication (phase préalable à une évaluation) notamment à travers l’identification du problème de recherche. Ces indices qui annoncent la formulation du problème de recherche dans les articles scientifiques sont repérables sous forme de « formules de discours ». Notre recherche ne s’étend pas sur la formulation de la problématique scientifique au vu de la complexité de cette notion et de la difficulté de la définir d’un point de vue de l’extraction d’information. Nous proposons une modélisation de ces formules de discours que nous avons intégrée dans l’analyseur syntaxique Xerox Incremental Parser (XIP) sous forme de règles de reconnaissance. Nous avons utilisé un corpus d’articles de recherche en sciences de l’éducation extraits du corpus Scientext pour y détecter ces formules de discours. Le choix du domaine est motivé par ma participation au projet européen EERQI dont le but est de renforcer et d’améliorer la visibilité mondiale et la compétitivité de la recherche européenne en éducation. Différentes approches méthodologiques ont été adoptées afin de procéder à une étude linguistique fine de ces formules dîtes de discours entre autres : l’analyse de discours (M. Pecman, 2004, K. Hyland, 2005, Á. Sándor, A. Kaplan, G. Randeau, 2006, D. Siepman, 2007, A. Tutin, 2007-2010), robust parsing (S. Aït-Mokhtar, J. Chanod, R. Roux, 2002). Il s’agit donc de mettre en œuvre une approche applicative en vue de l’aide à la lecture experte à travers l’identification, la typologie et le fonctionnement des associations lexicales véhiculant le problème de recherche. / Our research focuses on two interrelated objectives. The first one aims at providing assistance to the evaluation of scientific writings because of; the numbers of publication, which keep on rising, the boundaries between the areas become and it's becoming more and more difficult to find relevant publications so as the practical need for assessments is appearing as unavoidable. We also have to find new ways to help the evaluation of the research work, through a wide range of indications different from those usually used for research assessment, notably, through the identification of the research problem. These indications that announce the formulation of the research problem in scientific articles can be identified as "speech formulas." Our research does not extend to the formulation of the scientific problem because of the complexity of this concept and the difficulty of defining it from the point of view of information extraction. We propose a model of the speech forms that we have integrated into the parser Xerox Incremental Parser (XIP) in pattern recognition rules. We used a corpus of Educational Sciences Research articles from the Scientext corpus to detect these speeches formulas. The choice of field is motivated by my participation in the European project EERQI which aims to strengthen and enhance the worldwide visibility and competitiveness of European research in education. Different methodological approaches were adopted to perform a fine linguistic study of these formulas as: discourse analysis (Mr. Pecman, 2004, K. Hyland, 2005, Á, Sándor A. Kaplan, G. Randeau, 2006, D. Siepman, 2007, A. Tutin, 2007-2010), robust parsing (S. Aït-Mokhtar, J. Chanod, R. Roux, 2002). Thus, the goal is to implement an applicative approach aiming at helping expert reading through the identification, typology and functioning of lexical associations which convey the research problem.

During the so-called ‘golden age’ of piracy that occurred in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, several thousands of men and a handful of women sailed aboard pirate ships. The narrative, operational techniques, and economic repercussions of the waves of piracy that threatened maritime trade during the ‘golden age’ have fascinated researchers, and so too has the social history of the people involved. Traditionally, the historiography of the social history of pirates has portrayed them as democratic and highly egalitarian bandits, divided their spoil fairly amongst their number, offered compensation for comrades injured in battle, and appointed their own officers by popular vote. They have been presented in contrast to the legitimate societies of Europe and America, and as revolutionaries, eschewing the unfair and harsh practices prevalent in legitimate maritime employment. This study, however, argues that the ‘revolutionary’ model of ‘golden age’ pirates is not an accurate reflection of reality. By using the ‘articles’ or shipboard rules created by pirates, this thesis explores the questions of pirates’ hierarchy, economic practices, social control, and systems of justice, and contextualises the pirates’ society within legitimate society to show that pirates were not as egalitarian or democratic as they have been portrayed, and that virtually all of their social practices were based heavily on, or copied directly from, their experiences in legitimate society, on land and at sea. In doing so, this thesis argues that far from being social revolutionaries, pirates sought to improve their own status, within the pre-existing social framework of legitimate society.