Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications

The Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions with Biomedical Applications (MAVEBA) workshop came into being in 1999 from the particularly felt need of sharing know-how, objectives and results between areas that until then seemed quite distinct such as bioengineering, medicine and singing. MAVEBA deals with all aspects concerning the study of the human voice with applications ranging from the neonate to the adult and elderly. Over the years the initial issues have grown and spread also in other aspects of research such as occupational voice disorders, neurology, rehabilitation, image and video analysis. MAVEBA takes place every two years always in Firenze, Italy

Design da interação na Web pragmática : reduzindo barreiras semióticas na colaboração mediada pela Web

Orientador: Maria Cecília Calani BaranauskasTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: Web e suas tecnologias de base facilitam interações entre pessoas que alguns anos atrás não eram imagináveis. A colaboração é um tipo importante de interação que tem um propósito. Pessoas de diferentes contextos sociais e culturais, e com diferentes preferências e habilidades, podem colaborar mediadas pela Web. A colaboração muitas vezes acontece em contextos heterogêneos, que são definidos tanto pelas situações atuais dos parceiros na colaboração, quanto pelas experiências passadas, sejam elas individuais ou coletivas. A Web como um meio/uma mídia tem um impacto na colaboração e facilita certos aspectos da colaboração enquanto dificulta outros. Adotando uma perspectiva informada pela Web Pragmática, nesta tese investigamos questões da colaboração mediada pela Web, relacionadas com o Design da Interação. Nosso objetivo principal é entender barreiras semióticas da colaboração mediada pela Web e propor uma abordagem ao Design da Interação que reduza tais barreiras. Barreiras semióticas são barreiras relacionadas à comunicação, mediação e representação. Estas barreiras surgem na colaboração mediada pela Web pois muitos mecanismos da comunicação interpessoal face-a-face não estão disponíveis. Dependendo do contexto, barreiras semióticas frequentemente exercem um impacto negativo à colaboração; entretanto, em alguns casos o impacto pode ser positivo também. A abordagem ao Design da Interação aqui proposta tem suas bases na Web Pragmática e utiliza a Semiótica Organizacional e a Teoria da Atividade como referenciais teórico-metodológicos. As investigações teóricas contaram com uma contrapartida em termos de um embasamento em práticas reais através da participação em um projeto de pesquisa no domínio da educação inclusiva. Materializamos a abordagem proposta no design de um protótipo e na implementação de uma ferramenta correspondente ao protótipo, que apoia uma prática de profissionais no domínio da educação inclusiva. Além disso, propusemos e conduzimos um método de avaliação guiada pela pragmática dentro do contexto de um estudo de caso longitudinal. O design do protótipo, a implementação da ferramenta e a avaliação conduzida fornecem evidências de que a abordagem proposta ao Design da Interação guiada pela pragmática contribui para a redução de barreiras semióticas e para a promoção da colaboração mediada pela WebAbstract: The Web and its underlying technologies enable interactions among people that were unimaginable a few years ago. An important type of purposeful interaction is collaboration. Mediated by the Web, people from different social and cultural backgrounds, with different needs, preferences and capabilities can collaborate with each other. Collaboration often takes place in heterogeneous contexts that are not only defined by the actual situations of the collaboration partners, but also by individual and collective past experiences. The Web as a medium has an impact on collaboration and facilitates or enables certain aspects of collaboration while making others more difficult. In this PhD thesis we investigate Interaction Design related questions about web-mediated collaboration under a Pragmatic Web perspective. Our prime objective is to understand semiotic barriers to web-mediated collaboration and propose an approach to Interaction Design that reduces these barriers. Semiotic barriers are barriers related to communication, mediation and representation. These barriers emerge during web-based collaboration since many mechanisms of interpersonal face-to-face communication are not available. Depending on the context, semiotic barriers often have a negative impact on collaboration, but in some cases they might also have positive effects. The approach to Interaction Design proposed in this PhD thesis is rooted in the Pragmatic Web and uses Organizational Semiotics and Activity Theory as its theoretical and methodological frames of reference. The theoretic investigations were practically grounded in real world practices by participating in a research project in the domain of inclusive education. We materialized the proposed approach in the design of a prototype and the implementation of the corresponding tool that supports a practice of inclusive education professionals. Furthermore we proposed and applied a pragmatics-driven evaluation method in a longitudinal case study. Prototype design, tool implementation, and the conducted evaluation provided evidence that the proposed approach to pragmatics-driven Interaction Design can reduce semiotic barriers and thus promote web-mediated collaborationDoutoradoCiência da ComputaçãoDoutor em Ciência da Computaçã

Semiotic machines : software in discourse

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (p. 245-259).This study develops new theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of software as a medium of communication. This study analyses voting software, educational software, search engines, and combat and narrative in digital games. In each case it investigates how proprietary software affords discourse, and suggests a way of characterising users’ experience of this discourse. These affordances constitute the rules of communication, or ‘rules of speaking’, ‘rules of seeing’, and ‘writing-rights’ which proprietary software makes available to users, situating them within specific power-relations in the process

What not to do with words: Uses of Speech Act Theory in Biblical Hermeneutics

This thesis examines some of the ways in which a particular theory of language known as Speech Act theory has been used as a hermeneutic tool, in particular in relation to Biblical hermeneutics. It begins by outlining the context in which the theory was conceived, and gives a brief description of Speech Act theory and some of its problems. Thereafter, some specific problems relating to the theory’s use as a Biblical hermeneutical tool are explored. These are, firstly, the fact that Speech Act theory relates explicitly to spoken language, but is being proposed as a textual tool; secondly that the nature of the relationship assumed in the theory, between intention and meaning, is compromised within the theory, and that the assumption of a ‘sender view of meaning’ often made by its advocates undercuts the most interesting implications of the theory; and thirdly that the concept of uptake, integral to the theory, is an inadequate substitute for the concept of understanding. All of these problems are identified as fundamental flaws in Speech Act theory, that compromise its usefulness as a hermeneutic tool, particularly given that the theory is being used to buttress ideas of authorial revelation. This thesis also examines the relationship between meaning and significance proposed in the work of E D Hirsch and adopted as a supplement to Speech Act theory, and finds in this distinction also similar weaknesses. However, this does not mean that the concept of revelation is untenable, and the thesis proposes an alternative view of revelation and authorial meaning, using the linguistic theories of Mikhail Bakhtin and Valentin Volosinov, and based on co-operation between author and community. This proposal is claimed to be more hermeneutically appropriate and it is asserted that it also gives a far better theological account of the nature and work of the Holy Spirit

The form and communicative impact of Shona advertisements: a discourse analytical approach

This study sought to investigate and to record any recurring patterns in the form and communicative impact of Shona advertisements. Motivation to carry out the study came from a realisation of a growing interest in using the Shona language for advertising and the fact that very few studies have been done on Shona advertisements. For methodology, examples of Shona advertisements were qualitatively analysed using some communications and discourse analysis approaches of the speech act theory and text linguistics. A structured interview with advertising agencies randomly selected and a questionnaire on the impact of advertisements were also used. The findings of the research included that Shona was used in advertisements in order to reach out to the majority of the Zimbabwean population. In addition, Shona was also found to have been developed enough to handle formal issues like advertisements. This finding further shows that Shona advertisements reflect an instance of diglossia leakage from Shona L(ow) to Shona H(igh). Another finding is that Shona advertisements reflect some characteristics of the Shona speech community in form. These include code-switching, slang and word- division problems. An innovation in code-switching noted in some Shona advertisements is the use of three languages, namely, English, Shona and Ndebele in one advertisement. It was also established that everything about the elements of Shona advertisements communicate. For instance, the message may be visual, tactile and olfactory. It also emerged that the Shona commercial advertisements had a presenting and a hidden agenda at the same time. To achieve this the advertisements used persuasive techniques such as advertising claims, cultural hooks and personalities as spokespersons. It was also noted that most readers of advertisements do not interpret them up to the hidden persuaders but end with the direct meaning. On the other hand the Shona advertisements that gave information such as health issues have no hidden agenda. One recommendation made is that advertisements be read and studied to raise the level of awareness about the persuasive techniques used in order to distinguish between misleading advertising and those that give useful information. Some recommendations were made for future research such as carrying out similar studies of informal Shona advertisements, advertisements by n'angas/inyangas (traditional healers), prophets and political campaigns.African LanguagesM.A. (African Languages

Contesting Security and the Binding Effect in the US and the UK Discourse and Policy of “War on Terror”: A Theoretical and Empirical Exploration through a Dialogical-Relational Framework

Post-structuralist IR has often treated foreign policy/security discourses and their effects on policy through a “representational model”, i.e. how one dominant representation makes possible particular policy outcomes. However, in a longitudinal analysis, where the concern with “outcome” is already about continuity/change, this model is restricting and must be replaced by a model integrating multiple voices and contestations, and looking for non-linear mechanisms of long-term constraints. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is, first, to develop a theoretical-analytical framework suitable for an explicit interest in contestations and tracing constraints; and second, in an illustrative-explorative study, to apply such relational-dialogical framework to “war on terror” in the US and the UK (2001-2012). Bakhtinian Dialogism occupies an important status in the framework; therefore, a broader aim is to demonstrate how a “dialogical turn” inspired by the philosophy of Mikhail Bakhtin and his circle would enrich debate. Developments of the past decade – increased anti-war critique, change of governments in the US and the UK, and protracted withdrawal – provide new grounds for a longitudinal inquiry into “war on terror”. Moving beyond the question how “war on terror” was initially constructed and legitimised, scholarly attention must focus on a longitudinal inquiry into why “war on terror” endured. In this respect, the formidable deconstructions of official discourses by anti-war critique have received marginal attention in IR. The empirical part explores how critical discourses have contested the official narratives; how the latter have engaged with them as well as with moderate deliberative critique, and to what effect for continuity/change, to understand whether and how successive governments in the US and the UK have been discursively constrained (bound) in their attempts to change policy. Without claiming to be a comprehensive explanation, it locates and interprets patterns and logics within the discursive exchanges, delineating potential routes contributing to constraints and hence continuation. Thus, on the one hand, destabilising critique was shattering the foundations of the official “war on terror” narratives without fully re-inscribing the dislocated space with new imaginings, thus inviting official representatives to re-claim such space. On the other hand, deliberative voices were pushing for the realisation of the promises inherent in the official discourse, demanding “winning” the (albeit “mistaken”) war, thus inviting for continued engagement.University of Exeter Department of Politics Partial BursaryUniversity of Exeter Full International Studentshi

Towards a General Framework for Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Digital rights management (DRM) can be defined as a technology that enables persistent access control. The common understanding of DRM is that of a technology that enables means to thwart piracy of digital multimedia through limiting how the media is used by the consumer. It can be observed that many of these restrictions can be applied to any type of data. Therefore, it should be possible to create a two part DRM system -- a common DRM system that enforces the basic access controls (such as read, write and execute) and an application specific DRM system that enforces the application specific access controls (such as print and play). The aim of this dissertation is to create such a framework for distribution independent DRM systems. Most vendors promote DRM as a copyright protection mechanism, and thus consumers expect a number of rights that are allowed by copyright legislation, but which are not available for the DRM protected media. However, DRM is not an enforcement of copyright law, but rather an enforcement of a licensing regime. Thus, there is incorrect (and possibly false) marketing of DRM enabled media from the vendors of DRM enabled media, leading to dissatisfied consumers. We think that one of the main reasons for the current situation, is that there is no defined legal framework governing the operation of DRM systems. In this dissertation, we address this gap, by developing a legal framework for DRM systems as one of the components of our DRM framework. Negotiation can be defined as the process which leads to the conclusion of a contract. Since DRM is the enforcement of licensing agreements, there is a need to cater for negotiation protocols in DRM systems. Negotiations provide the consumer with the power to request different rights packages, especially when consumers have a legitimate need for rights not granted normally to other consumers (for example, disabled consumers have needs that may not be met with standard rights set). Negotiations also allow the possibility for the licensors to extract the maximum value from the consumers. For this reason, the inclusion of negotiation protocols in DRM systems can become a powerful tool, and in this dissertation we present the first negotiation protocols for DRM systems. Even though the definition of DRM as an access control model has existed since at least 2002, there has been no formal description of DRM as an access control model. Thus, there are no formal models for any of the rights expression languages which express DRM access control policies, and various authors have commented on ambiguities present in interpretation and enforcement of licenses expressed in these languages -- a result of a lack of formal definition of these languages. In this dissertation, we develop a formal model for a Licensing Rights Expression Language (LiREL), which is designed to provide a mechanism to express access control policies which are also sound legal license documents. Our formal model also discusses the enforcement of the access control policies, and is thus the first formal model for DRM as a mechanism for access control. Access control is a two part process: authentication of the parties involved and authorisation of the parties to access the resources. Authorisation in DRM provides some unique challenges: there is a need to support multiple platforms, without guaranteed network connectivity and minimal trust between the parties involved. For this reason, the associated authentication framework becomes more complex. While many access control models define user management as part of their model, we have taken a different approach, and removed user management from the core DRM system. Instead, our authorisation process requires a trusted verification of the user's credentials and then decides on the access control request. For this reason, our user authentication framework is ticket based, and shares similarities to Kerberos tickets. DRM also requires a strong data identity management. However, all the current identity systems for data do not provide verification service for data identity. For this reason, we developed Verifiable Digital Object Identity (VDOI) System, to address this gap. These components are combined towards a general framework for digital rights management that advances the understanding, organisation and implementation of DRM compared to approaches or solutions which are currently available