CHORUS Deliverable 3.3: Vision Document - Intermediate version

The goal of the CHORUS vision document is to create a high level vision on audio-visual search engines in order to give guidance to the future R&D work in this area (in line with the mandate of CHORUS as a Coordination Action). This current intermediate draft of the CHORUS vision document (D3.3) is based on the previous CHORUS vision documents D3.1 to D3.2 and on the results of the six CHORUS Think-Tank meetings held in March, September and November 2007 as well as in April, July and October 2008, and on the feedback from other CHORUS events. The outcome of the six Think-Thank meetings will not just be to the benefit of the participants which are stakeholders and experts from academia and industry – CHORUS, as a coordination action of the EC, will feed back the findings (see Summary) to the projects under its purview and, via its website, to the whole community working in the domain of AV content search. A few subjections of this deliverable are to be completed after the eights (and presumably last) Think-Tank meeting in spring 2009

Students' drafting strategies and text quality

The study reports an analysis of the drafts produced by two groups of students during an exam. Drafts were categorized as a function of some of their graphic features (e.g. their length), and of their different planning strategies used for their production (e.g. note draft, organized draft, composed draft). Grades obtained by the students on their essays related to the different categories of drafts. Results show that 2/3 of both groups of students made some kinds of draft. Drafts mostly consisted of note drafts or long composed drafts. Very few consisted of organized drafts. However, students that wrote these latter drafts obtained the best ratings. Drafting strategy was homogeneous for half of the students who used one category. The other half successively used two drafting modes. In that case they mostly associated writing with jotting down notes or with some marks of organization. Here, again, students who organized, even partially, their drafts obtained the highest grades. Very few corrections were brought to the long drafts and they concerned the surface (spelling or lexicon), not the content or the plan. This research shows that only a limited number of students used an efficient drafting (organized draft) even though such a strategy is generally associated with the highest ratings

Bazaar Transnational Drafting: An Analysis of the GNU Public License Version 3 Revision Process

This Article will step through the drafting process and compare bazaar and cathedral modes of drafting to determine if a bazaar mode can efficiently produce a legal instrument that crosses legal regimes. As the title suggests, the bazaar process analysis case will be the GNU General Public License version 3 (the GPLv3) Revision Process. A comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the bazaar mode of drafting to the cathedral mode of drafting will hopefully demonstrate the overall value of a transnational bazaar process like the GPLv3 Revision Process

Multimodal Definition: The Multiplication of Meaning in Electronic Dictionaries

With the popularity of electronic dictionaries, multimodality plays an increasingly important role in lexicography. To broaden the horizons of e-dictionary definitions, this article argues for the establishment of a new term, multimodal definition, as a key component of multimodal lexicography. This term integrates verbal definitions and the complementary multimodal resources from a holistic viewpoint of meaning. In a multimodal definition, a dynamic meaning ecology can be formed, with two critical variables functioning, (semiotic) mode selection and intermodal synergy. In this ecology, meaning expressed verbally can be multiplied in four dimensions: content, form, space and time. Future directions for research are discussed, including dictionary user studies and multimodal corpora. The findings of this article shed light on the construction of a theoretical model for e-lexicography which remains an urgent task in the ongoing digital revolution.Keywords: Multimodality, multimodal definition, multimodal lexicography, e-dictionary, mode selection, intermodal synergy

A Microgenetic Analysis of the Development of Thematic Coherence Between the Topic Sentence and Supporting Ideas in the English Academic Paragraph: A Case Study of a Saudi Female Writer

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)This thesis explores the developmental pathway of thematic coherence among one Saudi female student in a foundational second language (L2) writing composition course, contributing to the field of L2 academic writing by offering a rich description of writing development. Despite a rapid increase in enrollment in the past 10 years, students from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) remain an understudied L2 learner population. In addition, although a number of studies have explored coherence among L2 learners of English, such research focuses either on the linguistic features utilized by learners to ensure cohesion or on the contrast between L2 learners’ cohesive devices and that of professional standards. To date, no studies offer insight into learners’ developmental trajectory toward greater competency in producing coherent academic paragraphs. The present study proposes an alternative approach by analyzing academic paragraphs in light of the definition of thematic coherence as a general-to-particular structure of ideas, i.e., a flow of information to form a superordinate-subordinate structure in which subordinate ideas support the abstract, overarching assertion. Further, the study uses the methodology of a microgenetic analysis to facilitate the tracing of the history of mediation and micro-changes in the focal learner’s written production over time as it relates to the proposed definition of thematic coherence. Each of the written drafts of paragraphs produced by the focal student is analyzed in sequence. An analysis of qualitative data is presented to contextualize and describe the focal learner’s experience in the instructional context and how this is interconnected to the development of her written paragraphs. The results showed an increase in the student’s ability to produce academic paragraphs with a general-to-particular structure, particularly during mediation that was rich with metalinguistic terminology that also created opportunities to collaboratively construct meanings of such terms. A main contribution to L2 academic writing this study offers is a rich description of a student’s developing skills in producing academic paragraphs. An implication is that to nurture academic writing skills, such as thematic coherence among students from KSA, instruction must be attentive to the developmental stages this student population progresses through

Efficiency improvement of product definition and verification through Product Lifecycle Management

The correct and complete geometrical definition of a product is nowadays a critical activity for most companies. To solve this problem, ISO has launched the GPS, Geometrical Product Specifications and Verification, with the goal of consistently and completely describe the geometric characteristics of the products. With this project, it is possible to define a language of communication between the various stages of the product lifecycle based on "operators": these are an ordered set of mathematical operations used for the definition of the products. However, these theoretical and mathematical concepts require a level of detail and completeness of the information hardly used in usual industrial activities. Consequently in industrial practice the definition and verification of products appears to be a slow process, error-prone and difficult to control. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is the activity of managing the company's products throughout their lifecycle in the most efficient way. PLM describes the engineering aspects of the products, ensuring the integrity of product definition, the automatic update of the product information and then aiding the product to fulfil with international standards. Despite all these benefits, the concepts of PLM are not yet fully understood in industry and they are difficult to implement for SME's. A first objective of this research is to develop a model to depict and understand processes. This representation is used as a tool during the application of a case study of a whole set of a GPS standards for one type of tolerance. This procedure allows the introduction of the GPS principles and facilitates its implementation within a PLM process. Until now, PLM is presented on isolated aspects without the necessary holistic approach. Furthermore, industry needs people able to operate in PLM context, professional profiles that are not common on the market. There is therefore an educational problem; besides the technical knowledge, the new profile of engineers must be also familiar with the PLM philosophy and instruments to work effectively in a team. With the aim of solving this problem, this thesis presents a PLM solution that gives the guidelines for a correct understanding of these topic

How Librarians Can Help Improve Law Journal Publishing

Librarians are well positioned to improve law journal publishing and help it evolve in the ever-changing digital environment. They can provide student editors with advice on a variety of issues such as copyright, data preservation, and version control. Librarians can also help journals adopt technical standards and improve the discoverability and usability of journal content. While few libraries will be able to adopt all these suggestions, a checklist of ideas is provided to help librarians select those that are most suitable to their libraries and journals

A Microgenetic Analysis of the Development of Thematic Coherence Between the Topic Sentence and Supporting Ideas in the English Academic Paragraph: A Case Study of a Saudi Female Writer

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)This thesis explores the developmental pathway of thematic coherence among one Saudi female student in a foundational second language (L2) writing composition course, contributing to the field of L2 academic writing by offering a rich description of writing development. Despite a rapid increase in enrollment in the past 10 years, students from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) remain an understudied L2 learner population. In addition, although a number of studies have explored coherence among L2 learners of English, such research focuses either on the linguistic features utilized by learners to ensure cohesion or on the contrast between L2 learners’ cohesive devices and that of professional standards. To date, no studies offer insight into learners’ developmental trajectory toward greater competency in producing coherent academic paragraphs. The present study proposes an alternative approach by analyzing academic paragraphs in light of the definition of thematic coherence as a general-to-particular structure of ideas, i.e., a flow of information to form a superordinate-subordinate structure in which subordinate ideas support the abstract, overarching assertion. Further, the study uses the methodology of a microgenetic analysis to facilitate the tracing of the history of mediation and micro-changes in the focal learner’s written production over time as it relates to the proposed definition of thematic coherence. Each of the written drafts of paragraphs produced by the focal student is analyzed in sequence. An analysis of qualitative data is presented to contextualize and describe the focal learner’s experience in the instructional context and how this is interconnected to the development of her written paragraphs. The results showed an increase in the student’s ability to produce academic paragraphs with a general-to-particular structure, particularly during mediation that was rich with metalinguistic terminology that also created opportunities to collaboratively construct meanings of such terms. A main contribution to L2 academic writing this study offers is a rich description of a student’s developing skills in producing academic paragraphs. An implication is that to nurture academic writing skills, such as thematic coherence among students from KSA, instruction must be attentive to the developmental stages this student population progresses through