Predictability effects in adult-directed and infant-directed speech: Does the listener matter?

A well-known effect in speech production is that more predictable words tend to be phonetically reduced. Recent work has suggested that predictability effects result from hardwired properties of the language production system, rather than active modulation by the talker to accommodate the listener. However, these studies investigated only minor manipulations of listener characteristics. Here, we examine predictability effects with two very different listener populations: adults and preverbal infants. Using mixed effects regressions on spontaneous speech corpora, we compare the effect of word frequency, probability in context, and previous mention on word duration in adult-directed and infant-directed speech. We find that the effects of preceding context and word frequency differ according to listener. Contrary to previous work, these results suggest that talkers do modulate the phonetic effects of predictability based on listener characteristics. To our knowledge, this study is also the first published analysis of predictability effects in infant-directed speech

1953-11-28, Albert to Joan

https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/ajsedlacek_collection/1001/thumbnail.jp

Writing a Trans History of HIV/AIDS in Britain, 1985-1996: Writing a Trans History of AIDS in Britain, 1985-1996

There is currently no trans history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Britain, despite modern transgender people being considered an ‘at-risk’ group. This thesis represents a first attempt to construct this history, focusing on archives over oral histories to contend head-on with how this history has been systemically un-seen. Analysing British gay and transfeminine organisations in the 1980s and 1990s – namely, comparing the relationship between The London TV/TS Group and the Lesbian and Gay Switchboard - this thesis argues that the pathological gaze of ‘transsexuality’ through the panopticon of NHS Gender Clinics prohibited subjects from conceiving trans people as susceptible to HIV/AIDS. In the style of Jules Gill-Peterson, this thesis introduces the framework of ‘transsexual eugenics’: the roots of transsexual medicine lay in eugenic science, and I argue that this relationship with eugenicism enforced its patients to rescind all attachments to life beyond heteronormativity, and AIDS was conceived as the antithesis of normativity through popular associations with homosexuality and sex work. After Chapter One establishes the theoretical basis in postcolonial and transgender theory, Chapter Two expands on ‘transsexual eugenics’ through arguing the largest trans organisations during the AIDS epidemic were too intertwined with Gender Clinics to realise their internalisation of eugenic rhetoric, thus rendering AIDS unthinkable alongside a diagnosis of transsexuality. Chapter Three concludes by analysing the reciprocal relationship between the London TV/TS Group and Switchboard to conclude that the transmission of eugenicist Gender Clinic rhetoric from the Group into Switchboard prevented Switchboard from delivering AIDS sexual health information to trans callers. This thesis hopes to inspire historical interest in the British trans history of HIV/AIDS, as well as further critiques of mid-twentieth century transsexual medicine

Implementation of lockout/tagout (LOTO) methodologies on production lines

With machines getting increasingly more complex, as technology advances and automation becomes an increasingly important aspect of all types of manufacturing processes, so does the complexity of engaging with machinery increase, which can lead to increased risk, and injury rates. This is particularly relevant in the packaging industry, where competition and the market’s changing demands require that package manufacturers remain flexible and efficient, which makes maintenance, changes, and improvements to machinery a common occurrence. It is then important to promote safety in the workplace, by implementing safety standards and methodologies. One such methodology is known as LOTO, or Lockout Tagout, which aims to control hazardous energies by developing blocking methods for the energies present in industrial equipment and to develop safety procedures to instruct workers on how to perform their tasks safely. In this context, this dissertation aims to use LOTO methodologies to develop a safety procedure for three different machines, located in a factory specializing in the manufacturing of metal cans used for the packaging of various products. To achieve this goal, some preliminary work was done to develop the resources needed for the implementation of LOTO methodologies, such as the improvement of the tagging system that identifies the equipment and the energy blocking points, and the acquisition of the equipment needed to correctly block and dissipate the energy present in the machines. Following these tasks, each of the three machines was individually analyzed, documenting the tasks performed by workers on the machine and the energies involved in those tasks, as well as the implementation of the needed changes and improvements. Once the needed information was gathered, a safety procedure was developed and implemented for each machine, showcasing the documented tasks, along with the energies that need to be blocked, and a guide on how to perform each task safely. The implemented changes and safety procedure seemed not to slow down the duration of tasks and were able to reduce the injury rates seen on the machine. However, due to the time constraints placed on this dissertation, and the large timescale needed to correctly evaluate rates of injury, it is suggested to collect more data after implementation of the safety procedures for a more robust conclusion.Com o avanço da tecnologia, e com a automação a tornar-se num aspeto cade vez mais importante em todos os tipos de indústrias, todos os dias as máquinas tornam-se também cada vez mais complexas, o que leva a um aumento na dificuldade e complexidade inerente em interagir com estes sistemas mecânicos, o que pode levar a um aumento nos riscos e no número de lesões. Este facto é particularmente relevante na indústria de embalagens, onde a competição e as mudanças nos requisitos do mercado exigem que os fabricantes permaneçam flexíveis e eficientes, o que torna a manutenção, alterações e melhorias em máquinas uma ocorrência comum. É então importante promover a segurança no local de trabalho, através da implementação de normas e metodologias de segurança. Uma destas metodologias de segurança é conhecida pelo nome de LOTO, ou Lockout Tagout. Esta metodologia visa controlar as energias perigosas, implementar métodos de bloqueio das energias presentes nos equipamentos industriais, e desenvolver procedimentos de segurança para instruir os trabalhadores sobre como realizar as suas tarefas com segurança. Esta dissertação tem como objetivo utilizar as metodologias LOTO para desenvolver um procedimento de segurança para três máquinas diferentes, localizadas numa fábrica que se especializa no fabrico de latas metálicas utilizadas em diversos produtos. Para tal, foram realizados alguns trabalhos preliminares de forma a desenvolver os recursos necessários para a implementação de metodologias LOTO, tais como a melhoria do sistema de etiquetagem que identifica os equipamentos e os pontos de bloqueio de energia, e a aquisição dos equipamentos necessários para corretamente bloquear e dissipar as energias presentes nas máquinas. Em seguida, cada uma das três máquinas foi analisada individualmente, documentando quais tarefas são executadas pelos trabalhadores na máquina, e quais as energias envolvidas em cada tarefa, bem como implementadas as mudanças e melhorias necessárias. Uma vez reunidas as informações necessárias, foi desenvolvido e implementado um procedimento de segurança para cada máquina, apresentando as tarefas documentadas, juntamente com as energias que precisam de ser bloqueadas, e um guia sobre como realizar cada tarefa com segurança. As mudanças implementadas e o procedimento de segurança pareceram não aumentar a duração da realização das tarefas, e conseguiram reduzir as taxas de lesões observadas nas máquinas. No entanto, devido às limitações do tempo impostas nesta dissertação, e à grande escala de tempo necessária para avaliar corretamente as taxas de lesões, sugere-se recolher mais dados após a implementação dos procedimentos de segurança para obtenção de conclusões mais robustas

ProbeGuard:Mitigating Probing Attacks Through Reactive Program Transformations

Many modern defenses against code reuse rely on hiding sensitive data such as shadow stacks in a huge memory address space. While much more efficient than traditional integritybased defenses, these solutions are vulnerable to probing attacks which quickly locate the hidden data and compromise security. This has led researchers to question the value of information hiding in real-world software security. Instead, we argue that such a limitation is not fundamental and that information hiding and integrity-based defenses are two extremes of a continuous spectrum of solutions. We propose a solution, ProbeGuard, that automatically balances performance and security by deploying an existing information hiding based baseline defense and then incrementally moving to more powerful integrity-based defenses by hotpatching when probing attacks occur. ProbeGuard is efficient, provides strong security, and gracefully trades off performance upon encountering more probing primitives

Human events reference for ATHEANA (HERA) database description and preliminary user`s manual

The Technique for Human Error Analysis (ATHEANA) is a newly developed human reliability analysis (HRA) methodology that aims to facilitate better representation and integration of human performance into probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) modeling and quantification by analyzing risk-significant operating experience in the context of existing behavioral science models. The fundamental premise of ATHEANA is that error-forcing contexts (EFCs), which refer to combinations of equipment/material conditions and performance shaping factors (PSFs), set up or create the conditions under which unsafe actions (UAs) can occur. Because ATHEANA relies heavily on the analysis of operational events that have already occurred as a mechanism for generating creative thinking about possible EFCs, a database, called the Human Events Reference for ATHEANA (HERA), has been developed to support the methodology. This report documents the initial development efforts for HERA