Language as chunks, not words

Many people think of language as words. Words are small, convenient units, especially in written English, where they are separated by spaces. Dictionaries seem to reinforce this idea, because entries are arranged as a list of alphabetically-ordered words. Traditionally, linguists and teachers focused on grammar and treated words as self-contained units of meaning, which fill the available grammatical slots in a sentence. More recently, attention has shifted from grammar to lexis, and from words to chunks. Dictionary headwords are convenient points of access for the user, but modern dictionary entries usually deal with chunks, because meanings often do not arise from individual words, but from the chunks in which the words occur. Corpus research confirms that native speakers of a language actually work with larger “chunks” of language. This paper will show that teachers and learners will benefit from treating language as chunks rather than words.

Semantic and organization considerations in database conceptual modelling : the Semantic Conceptual Organizational Model (SECOM)

This thesis presents a new approach to designing large organizational databases. The approach emphasizes the need for a holistic approach to the design process. The development of the proposed approach was based on a comprehensive examination of the issues of relevance to the design and utilization of databases. Such issues include conceptual modelling, organization theory, and semantic theory. The conceptual modelling approach presented in this thesis is developed over three design stages, or model perspectives. In the semantic perspective, concept definitions were developed based on established semantic principles. Such definitions rely on meaning - provided by intension and extension - to determine intrinsic conceptual definitions. A tool, called meaning-based classification (MBC), is devised to classify concepts based on meaning. Concept classes are then integrated using concept definitions and a set of semantic relations which rely on concept content and form. In the application perspective, relationships are semantically defined according to the application environment. Relationship definitions include explicit relationship properties and constraints. The organization perspective introduces a new set of relations specifically developed to maintain conformity of conceptual abstractions with the nature of information abstractions implied by user requirements throughout the organization. Such relations are based on the stratification of work hierarchies, defined elsewhere in the thesis. Finally, an example of an application of the proposed approach is presented to illustrate the applicability and practicality of the modelling approach.

Access to start up finance for ethnic minority graduate entrepreneurs in the West Midlands: a gendered perspective

This aim of this paper, from a study funded by the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE), is to explore access to finance for ethnic minority graduate entrepreneurs (EMGEs) with a particular focus on comparisons between different ethnic groups, and men and women. The authors interviewed selected individuals based upon a review of literature on finance for ethnic minority enterprise. A number of key results from the survey, in that EMGEs: • use external finance significantly (more so than non graduates) and encounter barriers in accessing finance at start-up, in particular those belonging to poor families. • rely excessively on personal savings and family finance, at the start-up and long after the start-up stage, that has implications for the optimal capital structure. • start up businesses that are, on average, larger than non-graduate enterprises and have the potential to reduce economic inactivity amongst the ethnic population. • have, in contrast to general graduate start-ups, a high level of unemployment, take a longer period of time to enter employment and there is a higher level of dissatisfaction with career progression. These findings raise the question whether the right financial advice is taken and whether this behaviour constrains EMGEs' expansion.

Intermediation for technology diffusion and user innovation in a developing rural economy:a social learning perspective

Technology intermediaries are seen as potent vehicles for addressing perennial problems in transferring technology from university to industry in developed and developing countries. This paper examines what constitutes effective user-end intermediation in a low-technology, developing economy context, which is an under-researched topic. The social learning in technological innovation framework is extended using situated learning theory in a longitudinal instrumental case study of an exemplar technology intermediation programme. The paper documents the role that academic-related research and advisory centres can play as intermediaries in brokering, facilitating and configuring technology, against the backdrop of a group of small-scale pisciculture businesses in a rural area of Colombia. In doing so, it demonstrates how technology intermediation activities can be optimized in the domestication and innofusion of technology amongst end-users. The design components featured in this instrumental case of intermediation can inform policy making and practice relating to technology transfer from university to rural industry. Future research on this subject should consider the intermediation components put forward, as well as the impact of such interventions, in different countries and industrial sectors. Such research would allow for theoretical replication and help improve technology domestication and innofusion in different contexts, especially in less-developed countries.

Fast and efficient user pairing and power allocation algorithm for non-orthogonal multiple access in cellular networks

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is emerging as a promising multiple access technology for the fifth generation cellular networks to address the fast growing mobile data traffic. It applies superposition coding in transmitters, allowing simultaneous allocation of the same frequency resource to multiple intra-cell users. Successive interference cancellation is used at the receivers to cancel intra-cell interference. User pairing and power allocation (UPPA) is a key design aspect of NOMA. Existing UPPA algorithms are mainly based on exhaustive search method with extensive computation complexity, which can severely affect the NOMA performance. A fast proportional fairness (PF) scheduling based UPPA algorithm is proposed to address the problem. The novel idea is to form user pairs around the users with the highest PF metrics with pre-configured fixed power allocation. Systemlevel simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is significantly faster (seven times faster for the scenario with 20 users) with a negligible throughput loss than the existing exhaustive search algorithm.