"Similarity is a central cognitive mechanism for humans which enables a broad range of perceptual and abstraction processes, including recognizing and categorizing objects, drawing parallelism, and predicting outcomes. It has been studied computationally through models designed to replicate human judgment. The work presented in this dissertation leverages general purpose semantic networks to derive similarity measures in a problem-independent manner. We model both general and relational similarity using connectivity between concepts within semantic networks. Our first contribution is to model general similarity using concept connectivity, which we use to partition vocabularies into topics without the need of document corpora. We apply this model to derive topics from unstructured dialog, specifically enabling an early literacy primer application to support parents in having better conversations with their young children, as they are using the primer together. Second, we model relational similarity in proportional analogies. To do so, we derive relational parallelism by searching in semantic networks for similar path pairs that connect either side of this analogy statement. We then derive human readable explanations from the resulting similar path pair. We show that our model can answer broad-vocabulary analogy questions designed for human test takers with high confidence. The third contribution is to enable symbolic plan repair in robot planning through object substitution. When a failure occurs due to unforeseen changes in the environment, such as missing objects, we enable the planning domain to be extended with a number of alternative objects such that the plan can be repaired and execution to continue. To evaluate this type of similarity, we use both general and relational similarity. We demonstrate that the task context is essential in establishing which objects are interchangeable."

Using a probabilistic approach for exploring latent patterns in high-dimensional co-occurrence data, topic models offer researchers a flexible and open framework for soft-clustering large data sets. In recent years, there has been a growing interest among marketing scholars and practitioners to adopt topic models in various marketing application domains. However, to this date, there is no comprehensive overview of this rapidly evolving field. By analyzing a set of 61 published papers along with conceptual contributions, we systematically review this highly heterogeneous area of research. In doing so, we characterize extant contributions employing topic models in marketing along the dimensions data structures and retrieval of input data, implementation and extensions of basic topic models, and model performance evaluation. Our findings confirm that there is considerable progress done in various marketing sub-areas. However, there is still scope for promising future research, in particular with respect to integrating multiple, dynamic data sources, including time-varying covariates and the combination of exploratory topic models with powerful predictive marketing models.

This thesis presents a comprehensive study of the Japanese double-ga construction and offers an explanation as to why the Japanese double-ga construction does not allow scrambling. In chapter 2, the particle-ga and the particle-wa are defined as the focus marker and the topic marker respectively. The different shades of meaning that both particles have are also explained. Chapter 3 illustrates the Japanese double -ga construction. Chapter 4 deals with the impossibility of scrambling in the double-particle constructions. A strong parallelism is shown between the double-ga construction and the double-wa construction. The claim is that there are three "pragmatic slots" that the particle-ga and -wa can occupy in the sentence. The rigid-fixed-order of these three slots contributes to the prohibition of scrambling.

When arbitration is conducted online, some inherent, fundamental issues arise which could potentially undermine the enforceability of the final award under the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards of 1958, the “New York Convention” (NYC). The study identifies four key challenges which a winning party seeking the enforcement of an electronic award according to the NYC might face with relation to the enforcement of that award: the validity of electronic arbitration agreements, the enforceability of consumer arbitration agreements concluded online, obstacles arising out of the conduct of the arbitration procedures online and the issue of electronic authentication of the final award. The study first critically analyses the NYC, to identify some key problems in relation to each of the said issues which might compromise or undermine the enforcement of awards rendered in online arbitration; it then makes suggestions as to some possible amendments to the NYC. The study then goes on to consider these issues in the context of the applicable law before the Dubai and DIFC Courts as the enforcement courts, to examine their ability to enforce such an award. The study concludes with several recommendations for both practice and law reform in the jurisdictions discussed, in relation to each issue. The study is original in that it is the first comprehensive analysis of all the said issues, from formation of the arbitration agreement, through various stages of online procedures, to the final enforcement of the award, within the examined jurisdictions. Further, the recommended changes would help to improve the efficiency and reliability of the courts of Dubai and DIFC with regard to the enforceability of an award given via online arbitration. This is a particularly important issue in light of the current and anticipated growth in the prominence of the identified jurisdictions as financial and business centres, the centrality of international arbitration to international business and the fundamental need for confidence in the enforceability of the courts and arbitration awards.

The International Safety Management (ISM) Code was introduced in 1998 in response to a number of high-profile maritime disasters, with the aim of establishing minimum standards for the safe operation of ships and creating an enhanced safety culture. It was the first piece of legislation introduced by the International Maritime Organisation that demanded a change in the behaviour and attitude of the international maritime community. Whilst there is no doubt that the ISM Code has been successful at improving maritime safety, there is now an increasing problem with complacency. The aim of this thesis is to consider how complacency with the ISM Code in the UK can be tackled by using reformed corporate manslaughter legislation. This thesis adopts a Safety Culture Theory approach and uses a multi-model research design methodology; a doctrinal model and a socio-legal model. The thesis hypothesis and the author's proposed corporate manslaughter reforms are tested through case studies and a survey. The thesis proposes the introduction of secondary individual liability for corporate manslaughter, in addition to existing primary corporate liability. If the proposed provisions were to be implemented, a gap in the law would be filled and, for the maritime industry, both the ship company and its corporate individuals would be held accountable for deaths at sea that are attributable to non-implementation of the ISM Code. It is suggested that this would deter further ISM complacency and so encourage the ISM Code’s intended safety culture. This thesis contributes to the intellectual advancement of the significant and developing interplay between criminal and maritime law, by adding to the scholarly understanding of the safety culture operating within the international maritime community, and examining how corporate manslaughter legislation could be used to improve implementation of the ISM Code. It offers sound research for consideration by legal researchers and scholars, and also by those working within the field of maritime safety regulation.

It is generally assumed that the EU law regime excludes arbitration from its scope, since issues of EU law must be resolved within the EU legal order, according to the wording of the Treaties and the case law of the CJEU. It is also assumed that courts offer adequate and effective protection to litigants, thus arbitration does not make any further contribution to parties. This thesis challenges these ontological assumptions, using the case of bank depositors, and aims to investigate whether courts within the EU protect bank depositors effectively or whether arbitration would offer further protection. For this purpose, the nature of bank deposits is considered, and the approach of courts and arbitrators towards depositors are comparatively analysed, based on effectiveness of protection, as the appropriate tool of assessment. The findings of this examination lead to the final research question regarding the role, if any, of arbitration within the EU legal order and the relationship between arbitration and litigation, in particular within the context of the global financial crisis. Thus, the central argument of this thesis is that, if it is accepted that arbitration does have a place in the EU legal order, and based on the argument that bank deposits qualify as investment, bank depositors can enjoy the protection offered by international investment arbitration, which can protect them more effectively than litigation The originality of this work centers around three points. Firstly, this thesis aims to use the principle of effectiveness in a substantial sense rather than its procedural meaning, considering whether individuals do not only access the justice, but also being remedied effectively. Secondly, this thesis argues that bank deposits can be treated as investment, thus depositors could enjoy further protection offered by investment law. Finally, the thesis supports that the EU law regime does have some place available for arbitration, albeit its traditional exclusion, especially during the particular period of the financial crisis.

Sephton, Carmen Ling. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-144). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter A. --- Acknowledgement --- p.ii / Chapter B. --- Abstract in English --- p.iii / Chapter C. --- Abstract in Chinese --- p.v / Chapter D. --- Table of Contents --- p.vii / Chapter E. --- List of Abbreviations --- p.xii / Chapter D. --- Table of Contents / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Basic background of TCM --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2 --- Choosing TCM Over Western Medication --- p.6 / Chapter 1.3 --- TCM Clinical Trials --- p.7 / Chapter 1.4 --- Evidence Based Medicine and Good Clinical Practice --- p.11 / Chapter 1.5 --- Outline of ICH GCP guidelines used for evaluation --- p.15 / Chapter 2. --- Aim and Objectives --- p.18 / Chapter 3. --- Method --- p.19 / Chapter 3.1 --- Rational for choosing the two studies for comparison --- p.21 / Chapter 3.2 --- Literature Search --- p.25 / Chapter 4. --- Method - Traditional Chinese Medicine clinical trial --- p.27 / Chapter 4.1 --- Protocol Development --- p.27 / Chapter 4.2 --- Consent Form Development --- p.28 / Chapter 4.3 --- Ethics Committee Submission and Approval --- p.29 / Chapter 4.4 --- Case Report Form Development --- p.29 / Chapter 4.5 --- Investigator Folder Development --- p.32 / Chapter 4.6 --- GCP Documentation Collection and Development --- p.33 / Chapter 4.6.1 --- Curriculum Vitae Collection --- p.33 / Chapter 4.6.2 --- Site Personnel Log --- p.34 / Chapter 4.6.3 --- Subject Screening Log --- p.34 / Chapter 4.6.4 --- Subject Identification Code List --- p.35 / Chapter 4.6.5 --- Subject Enrolment Log --- p.35 / Chapter 4.7 --- Medication --- p.36 / Chapter 4.7.1 --- Capsules --- p.36 / Chapter 4.7.2 --- Randomisation Code --- p.39 / Chapter 4.7.3 --- Labelling of Study Medication --- p.40 / Chapter 4.7.4 --- Storage --- p.40 / Chapter 4.7.5 --- Drug Accountability --- p.40 / Chapter 4.8 --- Investigator Brochure --- p.41 / Chapter 4.9 --- Monitoring --- p.41 / Chapter 5. --- Method - Western medication clinical trial --- p.42 / Chapter 5.1 --- Protocol Development --- p.42 / Chapter 5.2 --- Consent Form Development --- p.43 / Chapter 5.3 --- Ethics Committee Submission and Approval --- p.43 / Chapter 5.4 --- Case Report Form Development --- p.43 / Chapter 5.5 --- Investigator Folder Development --- p.44 / Chapter 5.6 --- GCP Documentation Collection and Development --- p.44 / Chapter 5.6.1 --- Curriculum Vitae Collection --- p.44 / Chapter 5.6.2 --- Site Personnel Log --- p.45 / Chapter 5.6.3 --- Subject Screening Log --- p.45 / Chapter 5.6.4 --- Subject Identification Code List --- p.45 / Chapter 5.6.5 --- Subject Enrolment Log --- p.45 / Chapter 5.7 --- Medication --- p.46 / Chapter 5.7.1 --- Tablets --- p.46 / Chapter 5.7.2 --- Randomisation Code --- p.46 / Chapter 5.7.3 --- Labelling of Study Medication --- p.47 / Chapter 5.7.4 --- Storage --- p.47 / Chapter 5.7.5 --- Drug Accountability --- p.48 / Chapter 5.8 --- Investigator Brochure --- p.48 / Chapter 5.9 --- Monitoring --- p.48 / Chapter 6. --- Results & Discussion --- p.49 / Chapter 6.1 --- Protocol Development --- p.49 / Chapter 6.2 --- Consent Form Development --- p.59 / Chapter 6.3 --- Case Report Form Development --- p.65 / Chapter 6.4 --- Ethics Committee --- p.67 / Chapter 6.5 --- Investigator Folder Development --- p.68 / Chapter 6.6 --- GCP Documentation --- p.68 / Chapter 6.7 --- Medication --- p.69 / Chapter 6.7.1 --- Study Medication --- p.69 / Chapter 6.7.2 --- Randomisation Code and Code Break Envelops --- p.71 / Chapter 6.7.3 --- Labelling --- p.71 / Chapter 6.7.4 --- Storage --- p.73 / Chapter 6.8 --- Investigator Brochure (IB) --- p.73 / Chapter 6.9 --- Monitoring Visits --- p.75 / Chapter 6.9.1 --- Source document verification --- p.76 / Chapter 6.10 --- Results of Literature Search --- p.80 / Chapter 7. --- Discussion --- p.95 / Chapter 7.1 --- Discussion on the implementation of GCP in the two clinical trials evaluated --- p.95 / Chapter 7.2 --- Role and Importance of the Study Monitor & Results of Source Document Verification --- p.99 / Chapter 7.3 --- Blinding & randomisation procedures --- p.103 / Chapter 7.4 --- Good clinical Practice & TCM clinical trials --- p.103 / Chapter 7.5 --- Performing Literature Search in Preparation for TCM Clinical Trials --- p.110 / Chapter 7.6 --- Standardisation of Herbs and GMP Issues --- p.112 / Chapter 7.7 --- TCM Medical Practitioner (Investigator) Selection --- p.116 / Chapter 7.8 --- Method of Diagnosis --- p.117 / Chapter 7.9 --- Randomisation & Blind Assessment (placebo or control treatment) --- p.118 / Chapter 7.10 --- Adverse Events in TCM Clinical Trials --- p.122 / Chapter 7.11 --- Other Issues or Considerations & Future Work to be Performed at the CPSU --- p.122 / Chapter 8. --- Conclusion --- p.125 / Chapter 9. --- Reference List --- p.127 / Chapter 10. --- Appendices --- p.145

Postfeminism is not an ideological position or coherent theoretical framework that can be applied externally to the analysis of texts. Indeed popular postfeminism – as distinguished in this thesis from academic postfeminism – is knowable only through its workings in culture, specifically in the representation of gender in “postfeminist” media texts. Therefore, this thesis does not adopt a postfeminist position or approach to analyse the source texts, but rather seeks to identify and deconstruct a postfeminist sensibility within them. This sensibility became apparent in 1990s depictions of characters such as Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) and Ally McBeal (Calista Flockhart); however, it prevails in texts created in the current moment and inflects their representation of women. This thesis seeks to identify the themes and characteristics of this sensibility at the site of their creation – media texts representing women – expose the reasons why they are problematic, and show that the same traits exist in the texts considered here. In so doing it seeks to demonstrate that postfeminist ideals are still informing representations of women in the media. Furthermore, it seeks to demonstrate that this postfeminist sensibility, despite being a product of 1990s postfeminism and the current post/post-post-feminist moment, inflects representations of women from different time-periods, specifically from the Second World War and immediate post-war period. Because of the media’s (and specifically television’s) central role in the formation of cultural memory, this creates a lens through which women’s history and women’s historical identities are viewed in the present day. This postfeminist lens, or sensibility (Gill 2007), is thereby dehistoricised as an aspect of essential femininity. In this way the politics of the present are cast onto the past. Through this process, the events of the past are drained of any independent meaning and repurposed/redeployed to meet the needs of the present. The centrality and ubiquity of such postfeminist visions of the past is such that postfeminist discourse has become a central component of what this thesis terms, the Historical Sensibility which informs and structures historical drama on television.

This thesis addresses attitudes towards mystical theology in seventeenth-century England. While current historiography on mystical theology tends to stress its Catholic and medieval contexts, it has so far overlooked the ways in which Protestants continued to assimilate it in the early modern period. By exploring how Catholics and Protestants engaged with each other when discussing mystical theology, this thesis traces both irenic and intolerant responses to the debate. In many cases the confessional stance of the author of mystical works was seen as secondary to the spiritual benefits derived from them. Drawing on substantial archival material as well as printed works, this thesis shows that both Catholics and Protestants claimed mystical theology as their own through references to ‘mysticks’ and ‘mystical theology’. Tracing such references generates new insights into the role mystical theology played in the religious beliefs of a diverse range of groups including the English Benedictines, Familists, antinomians, Cambridge Platonists and Philadelphians. By exploring the beliefs of these diverse groups through a semantic approach we can use mystical theology to understand religious debates across the seventeenth century more broadly. As the mystical ‘way of knowing’ became associated with both Catholic and radical ‘enthusiasm’ by those seeking to discredit it, it is argued that the Philadelphian Society failed to survive largely due to their attempts to assimilate both Catholic and radical uses of mystical theology into their beliefs. This thesis rejects attempts to define or label a form of ‘mysticism’ in the period as subjective, preferring instead to understand exactly what ‘mystical theology’ and ‘mysticks’ meant to contemporaries. By showing that the identification of authors as ‘mysticks’ for the first time in the English language had its origins in the seventeenth century within diverse contexts, it also questions the usefulness of some twenty-first century labels.

Complete randomized experimental design has been a popular standard in clinical trials due to its abilities to yield a smaller bias and to provide a strong foundation for statistical inferences. However, because of ethical issues, there is a growing demand for response adaptive designs which shift the allocation probabilities such that more patients receive the better treatment. The principal idea of response adaptive designs to allocate fewer patients to treatments which appears to be inferior based on the accruing response data and information collected up to the current stage. Although they are more complex than complete randomized experiments in theory and method, adaptive designs are practically more useful. The objective of this dissertation is to develop an adaptive design, the generalized drop-the-loser rule, for comparing multiple treatments in clinical trials, including the situation where the responses of patients are delayed moderately. Asymptotic properties including strong consistency and asymptotic normality of the new design are investigated through the martingale technique. Monte Carlo simulation studies are conducted to reveal the empirical performance of this design. The new design will be potentially useful in the practical context of clinical trials. / Sun Ruibo. / "July 2006." / Adviser: Siu Hung Cheung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: B, page: 6488. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-66). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.