This thesis extends a previous pilot study with children who stutter (CWS) to include children with specific language impairment (CSLI). The current study examines lexical-semantic organization in these two clinical populations in hopes of comparing and contrasting behavioral profiles. The study employed a list-recall task to assess the lexical-semantic organization of 9 CWS, 5 CSLI, and 20 typically developing children matched for age and vocabulary. Similar to previous investigations, our child participants demonstrated the well-documented list position effects. With regard to recall accuracy, by-participant analyses revealed significant differences between CSLI and their age-matched peers; however, they did not reveal significant differences between the CWS and either of their control groups nor between the CSLI and CWS groups. Further, inspection of error distribution suggested significant differences in the number and types of errors the CSLI and control groups produced. The prevalence of unrelated and previous list errors in CSLI suggest that deficits in inhibitory processes as well as perseveration may have affected their performance. Areas of overlap and divergence in the profiles of CWS and CSLI indicate continuity in the degree of lexical-semantic weakness as well as differences in lexical retrieval and executive functions among CSLI and CWS. / text

Στις μέρες μας η χρήση των κινητών συσκευών έχει σημειώσει αλματώδη ανάπτυξη και έχει γίνει αναπόσπαστο κομμάτι της καθημερινότητάς μας. Οι κινητές συσκευές με το πλήθος διαθέσιμων εφαρμογών και δυνατοτήτων που διαθέτουν, καθώς και με τη δυνατότητα πρόσβασης στο Διαδίκτυο, τείνουν να αντικαταστήσουν τους ηλεκτρονικούς υπολογιστές καθώς και μια πληθώρα άλλων συσκευών. Στην παρούσα μεταπτυχιακή διπλωματική εργασία προτείνουμε και υλοποιούμε ένα σύστημα, το οποίο κινείται στα πλαίσια των τεχνολογιών κινητού υπολογισμού και σχεδιάστηκε για να χρησιμοποιείται από τους χρήστες προκειμένου να δέχονται προτάσεις προς επιλογή σχετικά με ταινίες. Το σύστημα αποτελείται από μία κινητή συσκευή η οποία επικοινωνεί με μια οντολογία με χρήση της τεχνολογίας των web services. Όταν ο χρήστης συνδέεται στο λογαριασμό του έχει τη δυνατότητα να πραγματοποιήσει δύο διαδικασίες οι οποίες λειτουργούν με διαφορετικό αλγόριθμο συστάσεων. Στόχος μας είναι να ελέγξουμε κατά πόσο ένα σύστημα συνεργατικών συστάσεων είναι πιο αποδοτικό από ένα σύστημα που λαμβάνει υπόψη το προσωπικό προφίλ ενός χρήστη. Στην παρούσα περίπτωση διαλέξαμε έναν συγκεκριμένο αριθμό ταινιών με παρόμοιο κριτήριο για χρονολογίες από το 2006 έως το 2014. Εφαρμόσαμε τον αλγόριθμο συνεργατικής σύστασης για ταινίες από το 2006 έως το 2010 και τον αλγόριθμο που βασίζεται στο προφίλ μόνο του συνδεδεμένου χρήστη για ταινίες από το 2011 έως το 2014 λαμβάνοντας μια αξιολόγηση για το καθένα. / Nowadays, the use of mobile devices has rapidly developed and has become an integral part of our daily lives. Mobile devices have now a great number of applications and features available, along with the internet accessibility, they tend to replace not only computers but also a variety of other devices. In this master thesis, we propose and implement a system that runs in the context of mobile computing technologies and is designed to be used in order to present to the user all the recommended for him movies. This program consists of a mobile device that communicates with an ontology through a web service. When the user signs in to his account, has the ability to hold two processes each one operating with a different recommendation engine. Our intention is to check whether a collaborative recommendation engine is more efficient than a system which takes into account only the personal profile of a user. In this case study we chose a certain number of films based on a standard for a period of time, from 2006 to 2014. We applied the collaborative recommendation engine to movies from 2006 to 2010 and the algorithm based on the profile of the user signed–into movies released from 2011 to 2014 taking an assessment for each.

Η αξιοποίηση του Διαδικτύου και των σχετικών τεχνολογιών από τη σύγχρονη βιομηχανική επιχείρηση αναμένεται να δημιουργήσει σημαντική προστιθέμενη αξία τόσο όσον αφορά στην εσωτερική επιχειρησιακή οργάνωση όσο και στην εφαρμογή νέων προηγμένων μοντέλων διεπιχειρησιακής ολοκλήρωσης. Έτσι καθίσταται δυνατή η διάφανη και διαλειτουργική ολοκλήρωση συστημάτων / εφαρμογών εντός της βιομηχανικής επιχείρησης που συντελεί στη σύνδεση της παραγγελίας όπως τίθεται από τον πελάτη με αυτή καθ’ εαυτή την παραγωγική διαδικασία. Κατ’ αυτόν τον τρόπο είναι εφικτό το πέρασμα από τη σημερινή κατάσταση της μαζικής παραγωγής προϊόντων στην κατάσταση της εξατομικευμένης παραγωγής επί παραγγελία. Ουσιαστικά λοιπόν η ολοκλήρωση του «πελάτη» (ατόμου ή επιχείρησης) στην όλη παραγωγική διαδικασία είναι το επόμενο βήμα πρωτοβουλιών που έχουν ήδη γνωρίσει σημαντική ανάπτυξη και οι οποίες θα μπορούσαν να ομαδοποιηθούν ως ηλεκτρονική επιχειρηματικότητα. Επιπρόσθετα, η σύγχρονη λειτουργία των επιχειρήσεων στη διεθνοποιημένη οικονομία, επιβάλλει αυξημένα επίπεδα συνεργασίας μεταξύ των επιχειρήσεων, ώστε να αξιοποιούνται τα σημεία στα οποία η κάθε μία έχει ανταγωνιστικά πλεονεκτήματα, με αποτέλεσμα οικονομίες κλίμακος και αυξημένη ανταγωνιστικότητα. Σε αυτό το πλαίσιο εντάσσονται σύγχρονες μορφές διεπιχειρησιακής οργάνωσης και λειτουργίας όπως ομαδοποιήσεις επιχειρήσεων (clusters), εικονικές (virtual) επιχειρήσεις, εκτεταμένες (extended) επιχειρήσεις, βάσει προηγμένων επιχειρησιακών μοντέλων όπως για παράδειγμα του μοντέλου συνεργατικού επιχειρείν ή συνεργατικού κατασκευάζειν. Οι ανωτέρω αναφερόμενες μορφές οργάνωσης αποτελούν μονόδρομο για μικρές σχετικά χώρες όπως η Ελλάδα, προκειμένου να υποβοηθηθούν οι Μικρές και Μεσαίες Επιχειρήσεις τους να ενταχθούν στο διεθνές γίγνεσθαι. Η εφαρμογή των ανωτέρω προηγμένων μοντέλων δεν θα ήταν εφικτή χωρίς την υποστήριξη τεχνολογιών επιχειρησιακής και διεπιχειρησιακής ολοκλήρωσης, τεχνολογιών σημασιολογικής αναπαράστασης καθώς και χωρίς το σημερινό βαθμό διείσδυσης των πληροφοριακών και επικοινωνιακών τεχνολογιών. Κλειδί για την εφαρμογή της ιδέας του συνεργατικού κατασκευάζειν είναι η διαλειτουργική ολοκλήρωση σε πραγματικό χρόνο, όπως αυτός ορίζεται στην συγκεκριμένη περίπτωση, των συστημάτων / εφαρμογών όλων των σχετικών επιπέδων της βιομηχανικής επιχείρησης η οποία αποσκοπεί στην άμβλυνση των ιεραρχικών βιομηχανικών δομών και στην ανάδειξη μιας σημασιολογικά επισημειωμένης προηγμένης βιομηχανικής δομής για την αρραγή εκτέλεση των χαρακτηριστικών για την περίπτωση αυτή επιχειρησιακών διαδικασιών. Έτσι λοιπόν, στην κατεύθυνση αυτή έρχεται να συμβάλλει η εργασία που παρουσιάζεται στα πλαίσια της παρούσας διδακτορικής διατριβής αντικείμενο της οποίας αποτέλεσε η μελέτη του προβλήματος διαλειτουργικής ολοκλήρωσης δηλ. της σημασιολογικής ενοποίησης συστημάτων / εφαρμογών της βιομηχανικής επιχείρησης υπό το πρίσμα των απαιτήσεων που τίθενται από το συνεργατικό κατασκευάζειν και η υλοποίηση πρωτότυπης καινοτομικής μεθοδολογίας εκτέλεσης των χαρακτηριστικών συνεργατικών διαδικασιών. / -

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Figure assignment entails competition between object properties on opposite sides of borders. The figure is perceived on the side of the border that wins the competition. Ample evidence indicates that configural familiarity is among the competing object properties. We investigated whether priming the semantics of a familiar object suggested along one side of a border can increase its likelihood of winning the competition. To prime the semantics, we presented brief masked exposures of object names before brief masked exposures of displays where a portion of a familiar object was suggested on one side of a central border separating two equal-area, black-and-white regions. Participants reported whether the figure lay on the left or right side of the central border and were unaware of the presence of the word prime. These experimental primes named either the Same Object (SO) or a Different Object (DO) as the familiar object suggested in the display. In the DO condition, the word named an object either in the Same Category (DO-SC) or a Different Category (DO-DC) as the familiar object suggested in the display, where superordinate category was defined as natural versus artificial objects. We also used non-words as control primes. We hypothesized that, if semantic activation influences figure assignment, participants in the SO and DO-SC conditions should be more likely than participants in the DO-DC condition to perceive the figure on the side where the familiar object lies following experimental primes than control primes. We did not observe differences between experimental and control prime in any condition. However, we did obtain a Prime Context Effect, in that participants were more likely to perceive the figure on the familiar side of the border in the SO and DO-SC conditions than in the DO-DC condition. The Prime Context Effect shows that participants discerned the relationship between the masked word prime and the semantics of the familiar object suggested in the display, and this led them to change their strategy on both experimental and control trials. We also found that behavior changed over the course of the experiment: Participants in the DO-DC condition perceived the figure on the familiar side of the border more often in the second half of the experiment, on both experimental and control trials. This pattern suggests that over the course of the experiment, they learned to rely more on information from the display than from the prime, perhaps by restricting their attention to the time when the figure-ground display appeared. Participants in the DO-SC condition perceived the figure on the familiar side of the border more often on experimental trials in the second half of the experiment, whereas their performance on control trials did not differ in the first and second half. We hypothesize that participants in the DO-SC condition learned to match the superordinate semantics of the experimental prime and the display, leading to semantic priming. Taken together, these results show that (1) participants can quickly learn the relationship between experimental primes and target displays and can change their strategy accordingly, and (2) semantic activation can affect figure assignment.

This dissertation examines the effects of semantic and phonetic radicals on Chinese character decoding by high-intermediate level Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learners. The results of the main study (discussed in Chapter #5) suggest that the CFL learners tested have a well-developed semantic pathway to recognition; however, their phonological pathway is not yet a reliable means of character identification. Semantic radicals that correctly pertain to character meaning facilitated reaction time in semantic categorization tasks (Experiment #1), while radicals that had no immediately interpretable relation to character meaning had a strong inhibitory effect. The relativeaccuracy of phonetic radicals (for predicting the whole-character's pronunciation) did not measurably improve homonym recognition (Experiment #2). Subjects were then tested to determine their default processing modes in Chinese character reading. In a lexical decision task (Experiment #3) wherein semantic radicals or phonological components were blurred to delay recognition, surprisingly, the subjects were significantly slower in identifying pseudo-characters when the phonological component was blurred, indicating that, despite having unreliable phonological pathways to character recognition, the subjects were still utilizing that strategy first. These results were mirrored in a sentence reading task (Experiment #4) wherein a single character had either a blurred semantic radical or phonological component. This tendency to use the less developed pathway is explained as a default means of attempting character recognition as a result of subjects gleaning orthographic information from the densely packed phonological component and as a result of L1 (English) interference predisposing subjects to phonological decoding strategies.Such a study on CFL learner reading processes is an important step towards ameliorating CFL teaching methodologies. For this reason, the author contrasts the data on CFL learners with data taken from similar experiments with native Chinese speakers (in Chapter #6) in order to demonstrate concrete differences in character reading processes which should affect teaching practices between the two groups. The authorconcludes the dissertation by making targeted recommendations for CFL pedagogical practices based upon the results of the study on the effect of character-internal features on reading patterns by non-native readers of Chinese (Chapter #8).

SUMMARY The names of colours in the Lithuanian dialects have not been investigated at all; therefore, the topic of the present work for Master of Arts “The Names of Colours in Dialects” is relevant and important. The aim of the work is to investigate and describe the names of colours in dialects. The main objectives of the work: 1) to identify the frequency of the use of the names of colours; 2) to identify the kind of things the characteristic colour of which is marked by the names of colours; 3) to identify the semantic contents of the names of colours. The methods of the work: descriptive, statistical, the method of semantic analysis. The material has been selected from 6 dialectal dictionaries: “Dictionary of Daukšiai Region” by V. Labutis; “Dictionary of Druskininkai Dialect” by G. Naktinienė, A. Paulauskienė, V. Vitkauskas; “Dictionary of Lazūnai Dialect” by J. Petrauskas, A. Vidugiris, “Dictionary of North East Dūnininkai Subdialects” by V. Vitkauskas; Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 of “Dictionary of Zanavykai Subdialect” by R. Bacevičiūtė, G. Čepaitienė, V. Sakalauskienė, J. Švambarytė, K. Vosylytė; “Dictionary of Zietela Subdialect” by A. Vidugiris. The object of the work: 1) combinations in which certain two denotats are compared according to the common feature of a colour; 2) usually metaphoric combinations epithet + noun marking a characteristic feature (the combinations in which the name of a colour has a secondary meaning have been rejected); 3) metaphoric derivatives... [to full text]

The last three decades has seen the successful development of many high-throughput technologies that have revolutionised and transformed biological research. The application of these technologies has generated large quantities of data allowing new approaches to analyze and integrate these data, which now constitute the field of Systems Biology. Systems Biology aims to enable a holistic understanding of a biological system by mapping interactions between all the biochemical components within the system. This requires integration of interdisciplinary data and knowledge to comprehensively explore the various biological processes of a system. Ontologies in biology (bio-ontologies) and the Semantic Web are playing an increasingly important role in the integration of data and knowledge by offering an explicit, unambiguous and rich representation mechanism. This increased influence led to the proposal of the Semantic Systems Biology paradigm to complement the techniques currently used in Systems Biology. Semantic Systems Biology provides a semantic description of the knowledge about the biological systems on the whole facilitating data integration, knowledge management, reasoning and querying. However, this approach is still a typical product of technology push, offering potential users access to the new technology. This doctoral thesis presents the work performed to bring Semantic Systems Biology closer to biological domain experts. The work covers a variety of aspects of Semantic Systems Biology: The Gene eXpression Knowledge Base is a resource that captures knowledge on gene expression. The knowledge base exploits the power of seamless data integration offered by the semantic web technologies to build large networks of varied datasets, capable of answering complex biological questions. The knowledge base is the result of the active collaboration with the Gastrin Systems Biology group here at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. This resource was customised by the integration of additional data sets on users’ request. Additionally, the utility of the knowledge base is demonstrated by the conversion of biological questions into computable queries. The joint analysis of the query results has helped in filling knowledge gaps in the biological system of study. Biologists often use different bioinformatics tools to conduct complex biological analysis. However, using these tools frequently poses a steep learning curve for the life science researchers. Therefore, the thesis describes ONTO-ToolKit, a plug-in that allows biologists to exploit bio-ontology based analysis as part of biological workflows in Galaxy. ONTO-ToolKit allows users to perform ontology-based analysis to improve the depth of their overall analysis Visualisation plays a key role in aiding users understand and grasp the knowledge represented in bio-ontologies. To this end, OLSVis, a web application was developed to make ontology browsing intuitive and flexible. Finally, the steps needed to further advance the Semantic Systems Biology approach has been discussed. / Semantic Systems Biology

Seguint una concepció clàssica de la Intel•ligència Artificial (aquella que es posava com horitzó una definició dels mecanismes cognitius i la seva implementació en computadors), aquesta tesi s'endinsa en el problema de l'organització del coneixement. En especial, es posa atenció a la memòria semàntica i el coneixement lingüístic, intentant esbrinar de quina forma emergeixen les relacions semàntiques entre paraules. Per assolir aquests objectius es recorre a tres fonts principals: la utilització de dades empíriques provinents de la psicolingüística i la neuropsicologia; l'ús de la metodologia de sistemes complexes (física estadística) per la construcció de models i simulació de dinàmiques; i finalment l'aprofitament de les tecnologies al nostre abast tant per l'obtenció de noves dades (Internet) com una capacitat d'emmagatzemament suficient i velocitat de processament per al tractament de dades massives. D'aquest punt de vista arrelat en la Ciència Cognitiva en poden sorgir aplicacions fortament vinculades a problemes vigents en l'àmbit de Ciències de la Computació, com són l'extracció d'informació no supervisada, l'enriquiment de bases de dades i recursos lingüístics electrònics (Wikipedia, WordNet, etc.) i la millora de sistemes de consulta (query-based systems). Al Capítol 2 s'estableixen les bases metodològiques que han servit per construir la resta del treball. El Capítol 3 es dedica a aclarir (i) quina mena de dades s'han emprat (i s'empren) en l'estudi a gran escala del llenguatge i els fenòmens cognitius que l'envolten; i (ii) es revisen els treballs més destacables que s'han fet fins al moment actual al voltant del llenguatge i la cognició. Al Capítol 4 s'introdueix el Random Inheritance Model, que representa un intent per comprendre com emergeixen la similitud semàntica entre paraules i les categories semàntiques. Els resultats es comparen amb dades empíriques basades en les respostes de subjectes humans. Al Capítol 5 presentem un model de degradació semàntica que emula processos neurodegeneratius i prediu acuradament, a nivell qualitatiu, les observacions experimentals amb malalts d'Alzheimer que s'han fet en l'àmbit de la neuropsicologia. En aquests processos degeneratius convergeixen interessos multidisciplinars, que van de la mateixa cognició al fenomen de percolació en física estadística. El Capítol 6 queda finalment dedicat a una reflexió global d'aquesta memòria. / Following a classical conception of Artificial Intelligence (one that aims a definition of cognitive mechanisms and their implementation in computers), this thesis explores the problem of knowledge organization. In particular, it draws attention to the linguistic and semantic memory, trying to find out how semantic relations emerge between words. To achieve these objectives, we rely on three main sources: use of empirical data from psycholinguistics and neuropsychology; the use of complex systems (statistical physics) methodology to build and simulate dynamic models; and finally the utilization of technologies at our disposal both for obtaining new data (Internet) as well as sufficient storage capacity and processing speed for massive data manipulation. From this point of view, rooted in Cognitive Science, many applications may arise, some of them strongly linked to current problems in the field of Computer Science, such as unsupervised information extraction, enrichment of databases and language electronic resources (Wikipedia, WordNet, etc.). and improve consultation systems (query-based systems). In Chapter 2 the methodologies that have helped build the rest of the work are established. Chapter 3 is devoted to clarify (i) the kind of data that have been used in the large-scale study of language and cognitive phenomena around it, and (ii) review some of the major contributions to the date about language and cognition. In Chapter 4 the Random Inheritance Model is introduced, which represents an attempt to understand how does semantic similarity between words and semantic categories emerge. Results are compared with empirical data obtained from responses with human subjects. In Chapter 5 we present a model of semantic degradation which emulates neurodegenerative processes, and predicts experimental observations from Alzheimer's Disease patients in the field of neuropsychology. In the study of such degenerative processes different multidisciplinary interests converge, ranging from cognition itself to percolation theory in statistical physics. Chapter 6 is finally devoted to a global reflection of this memory.