Captioning and Subtitling for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Audiences

Captioning and Subtitling for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Audiences is a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of captioning and subtitling, a discipline that has evolved quickly in recent years. This guide is of a practical nature and contains examples and exercises at the end of each chapter. Some of the tasks stimulate reflection on the practice and reception, while others focus on particular captioning and SDH areas, such as paralinguistic features, music and sound effects.The requirements of d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences are analysed in detail and are accompanied by linguistic and technical considerations. These considerations, though shared with generic subtitling parameters, are discussed specifically with d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences in mind. The reader will become familiar with the characteristics and needs of d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences, and the diversity – including cultural and linguistic differences – within this group of people. Based on first-hand experience in the field, the book also provides a step-by-step guide to making live performances accessible to d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences. As well as exploring all linguistic and technical matters related to the creation of captions, aspects related to the overall set up of the captioned performance are discussed. The guide will be valuable reading to students of audiovisual translation at undergraduate and postgraduate level, to professional subtitlers and captioners, and to any organisation or venue that engages with d/Deaf and hard of hearing people. ; Captioning and Subtitling for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Audiences is a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of captioning and subtitling

Alter versus Alterssimulation : Effekte von Alter und Alterssimulation auf kognitive und motorische Leistungen, Selbstwahrnehmung, Entscheidungsverhalten und motorisches Lernen

Altwerden geht mit einer Vielzahl biologischer Veränderungsprozesse und einer verminderten Leistungsfähigkeit in unterschiedlichen Domänen einher. So unterscheiden sich junge und ältere Erwachsene in ihren sensorischen, motorischen und kognitiven Fähigkeiten sowie in ihrer Selbstwahrnehmung, ihrem motorischen Entscheidungsverhalten und beim Erlernen von Bewegungen. Die Gründe für diese altersbedingten regressiven Veränderungen lassen sich stark vereinfacht ausgedrückt in zugrundeliegende Verschlechterungen bei peripheren Prozessen (z. B. Sensorik) und zentralen Mechanismen (z. B. Informationsverarbeitung) unterteilen. Veränderungen in der Körperperipherie sollen durch das Tragen von Alterssimulationsanzügen nachgeahmt werden können. Die Ganzkörperanzüge sollen die gängigsten körperlichen Einschränkungen des Alters, wie nachlassende Seh- und Hörkraft und beeinträchtigte Greif- und Gangbewegungen, simulieren. Sie ermöglichen demnach die Untersuchung von eher peripheren Faktoren im Verhältnis zu zentralen/kognitiven Faktoren. In dieser Dissertation wurde den Fragen nachgegangen, ob 1) das Tragen von einem Alterssimulationsanzug bei jungen Erwachsenen zu quantifizierbaren Leistungseinbußen in verschiedenen Domänen führt und 2) nachlassende kognitive Leistungen bei älteren Erwachsenen mit nachlassenden motorischen Lernleistungen korrelieren. In drei Experimenten wurde untersucht, inwiefern sich der Altersanzug auf die motorische und kognitive Leistung sowie die Selbstwahrnehmung (Beitrag 3), das motorische Entscheidungsverhalten in unterschiedlichen Aufgabenkontexten (Beitrag 2) und das motorische Sequenzlernen bei jungen Erwachsenen auswirkt (Beitrag 1). In Beitrag 4 wurde anhand einer einfachen Sequenzbewegung evaluiert, inwiefern kognitives und motorisches Altern zusammenhängen und welchen Einfluss die Ausführungsgeschwindigkeit auf die Lernleistung älterer Erwachsener hat. Die Ergebnisse der Beiträge 1 bis 3 zeigen, dass das Ausmaß der Leistungseinbußen in den unterschiedlichen Domänen maßgeblich von der durchzuführenden Aufgabe abhängt. In Beitrag 3 konnten starke Effekte des Anzuges auf die motorischen und kognitiven Leistungen sowie die Selbstwahrnehmung der jungen Erwachsenen gefunden werden. In Beitrag 2 zeigte sich, dass das Entscheidungsverhalten junger Erwachsener nicht nur durch den Anzug, sondern auch durch die Aufgabencharakteristik der motorischen Aufgaben beeinflusst wird. Beitrag 1 konnte keinen Effekt des Altersanzuges auf die motorische Lernleistung der jungen Erwachsenen zeigen. Gezeigt wurde jedoch, dass ein Teil der Varianz der motorischen Lerndefizite bei älteren Erwachsenen durch reduzierte kognitive Leistungen erklärt werden kann. Dies wird durch die Ergebnisse von Beitrag 4 gestützt, die verdeutlichen, dass es bei älteren Erwachsenen einen Zusammenhang zwischen der nachlassenden Informationsverarbeitungsgeschwindigkeit und Defiziten beim motorischen Sequenzlernen gibt. Der Befund ist unabhängig von der Ausführungsgeschwindigkeit

Subtitling for deaf children: Granting accessibility to audiovisual programmes in an educational way

This thesis is a contribution towards the subtitling practice of audiovisual programmes for deaf children. It starts by offering an overview of relevant research on Subtitling for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing (SDH), conducted both in the UK and abroad. A descriptive and comprehensive study on how children’s programmes broadcast in British television are subtitled for deaf children constitutes the starting point of the project. In an attempt to gain an understanding on how deaf children read subtitles, the linguistic difficulties encountered in the acquisition of a spoken language as well as their reading characteristics are examined. In doing so, contributions from both Deaf Studies and Audiovisual Translation are considered. Deaf children are placed in their social context and the different types of hearing loss, prelingual and postlingual deafness, and cochlear implantation are discussed. Education for the deaf is also tackled, encompassing the history, philosophies and current trends. The ultimate aim of the project is to contribute to the subtitling practice of deaf children by conducting empirical analysis. Hands-on research is conducted with a group of deaf children recruited from a mainstream school. Case studies are used in the piloting leading to the main experiment, which consists of exploring techniques to enhance word recognition and content comprehension. The findings of the main experiment, analysed using statistics, and the children's feedback, obtained orally at the end of the main activity and presented in a narrative form, are discussed as a contribution towards future research

Neuronal Correlates of Perceptual Salience in Local Field Potentials in the Primary Visual Cortex

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Attention Restraint, Working Memory Capacity, and Mind Wandering: Do Emotional Valence or Intentionality Matter?

Attention restraint appears to mediate the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and mind wandering (Kane et al., 2016). Prior work has identifed two dimensions of mind wandering—emotional valence and intentionality. However, less is known about how WMC and attention restraint correlate with these dimensions. Te current study examined the relationship between WMC, attention restraint, and mind wandering by emotional valence and intentionality. A confrmatory factor analysis demonstrated that WMC and attention restraint were strongly correlated, but only attention restraint was related to overall mind wandering, consistent with prior fndings. However, when examining the emotional valence of mind wandering, attention restraint and WMC were related to negatively and positively valenced, but not neutral, mind wandering. Attention restraint was also related to intentional but not unintentional mind wandering. Tese results suggest that WMC and attention restraint predict some, but not all, types of mind wandering

TOWARDS STEADY-STATE VISUALLY EVOKED POTENTIALS BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACES FOR VIRTUAL REALITY ENVIRONMENTS EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT INTERACTION

In the last two decades, Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) have been investigated mainly for the purpose of implementing assistive technologies able to provide new channels for communication and control for people with severe disabilities. Nevertheless, more recently, thanks to technical and scientific advances in the different research fields involved, BCIs are gaining greater attention also for their adoption by healthy users, as new interaction devices. This thesis is dedicated to to the latter goal and in particular will deal with BCIs based on the Steady State Visual Evoked Potential (SSVEP), which in previous works demonstrated to be one of the most flexible and reliable approaches. SSVEP based BCIs could find applications in different contexts, but one which is particularly interesting for healthy users, is their adoption as new interaction devices for Virtual Reality (VR) environments and Computer Games. Although being investigated since several years, BCIs still poses several limitations in terms of speed, reliability and usability with respect to ordinary interaction devices. Despite of this, they may provide additional, more direct and intuitive, explicit interaction modalities, as well as implicit interaction modalities otherwise impossible with ordinary devices. This thesis, after a comprehensive review of the different research fields being the basis of a BCI exploiting the SSVEP modality, present a state-of-the-art open source implementation using a mix of pre-existing and custom software tools. The proposed implementation, mainly aimed to the interaction with VR environments and Computer Games, has then been used to perform several experiments which are hereby described as well. Initially performed experiments aim to stress the validity of the provided implementation, as well as to show its usability with a commodity bio-signal acquisition device, orders of magnitude less expensive than commonly used ones, representing a step forward in the direction of practical BCIs for end users applications. The proposed implementation, thanks to its flexibility, is used also to perform novel experiments aimed to investigate the exploitation of stereoscopic displays to overcome a known limitation of ordinary displays in the context of SSVEP based BCIs. Eventually, novel experiments are presented investigating the use of the SSVEP modality to provide also implicit interaction. In this context, a first proof of concept Passive BCI based on the SSVEP response is presented and demonstrated to provide information exploitable for prospective applications

The nature of the embodiement of choreutic units in contemporary choreography

Rudolf Laban's original choreutic concepts are too complex, in both his practice and his writings, to be usable for the analysis of contemporary choreography in the form in which he left them. The central hypothesis of this research is that a broadening, disintegration and reassembling of his material provides a rich resource. When seen in context with the spatial practice of other dance artists, teachers and theorists, it is possible to conceive of this resource as central to an analysis which reveals the choreutic content and style of a work. The analytic components are choreutic units and their manner of materialisation through body design, spatial progression, spatial tension and spatial projection. An analytic method, devised through the formation of a notation entitled Ch/U.M/m, is described and used. A dance work 'Going for a Walk with a Line' was created to illustrate five choreutic units, in variety. It is documented and analysed with video/computer graphic aid. The choreutic content of three choreographies - Humphrey's 'Day on Earth', Nijinska's 'Les Noces' and Grossman's 'Couples' is discerned from the Ch/U.M/m analysis and their choreutic style is compared, A secondary topic in the research is an investigation into the adequacy of the present fragmentary documentation methods, including dance notation, film/video, words, for dance in general and for this research in particular

A Portfolio of Academic, Therapeutic Practice and Research Work Including an Investigation Into Living Apart Together: An Alternative to Remarriage in Later Life.

The process of becoming a counselling psychologist brings with it a deep sense of self-awareness and reflection. This portfolio endeavours to capture and reflect on my personal and professional development over my three years on the PsychD psychotherapeutic and counselling training course at the University of Surrey. The portfolio focuses on the academic, therapeutic practice and research work compiled during the training and a compilation of selected works are shown in this portfolio. Academically, it covers three essays, which focus on relationships - the relationship between couples and the therapeutic relationship between client and counselling psychologist. The first two papers focus on older adults and how counselling psychologists can work with this client group. The topics covered include lifespan development, transference and countertransference within the psychodynamic model and homework tasks in the cognitive behavioural therapy framework. The theoretical perspectives covered include humanistic models, psychodynamic approaches and cognitive-behaviour therapy approaches. These are set within specific placements, which illustrate how my interactions with clients have been informed and structured in the various therapeutic settings. Three research pieces were engaged with, including a literature review that examines ‘Living Apart Together' (LAT) relationships as an alternative to remarriage or cohabitation after divorce or widowhood in later life. This was followed by an explorative study into five participants’ experience of their LAT relationship and uses interpretative phenomenoiogicai analysis. The third research paper explores the experiences of business travellers in relation to finding a work/life balance. Thematic analysis was used to explore how the participants’ experience the interface between work and family and how they experience their time apart and together with their family

Making Waves: Intra-actions with Educational Media at the National Film Board of Canada from 1960-2016

This dissertation aims to excavate the narrative of educational programming at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) from 1960 to 2016. The producers and creative staff of Studio G the epicentre of educational programming at the NFB for over thirty years produced extraordinarily diverse and innovative multimedia for the classroom. Multimedia is here understood as any media form that was not film, including filmstrips, slides, overhead projecturals, laserdiscs and CDs. To date, there have been no attempts to document the history of educational programming at the NFB generally, nor to situate the history of Studio G within that tradition. Over the course of five years, I have interviewed thirty-four NFB technicians, administrators, producers and directors in the service of creating a unique collective narrative tracing the development of educational media and programming at the NFB over the past fifty-six years and began to piece together an archive of work that has largely been forgotten. Throughout this dissertation, I argue that the forms of media engagement pioneered by Studio G and its descendants fostered a desire for, and eventually an expectation for specific media affordances, namely the ability to sequence or navigate media content, to pace ones progress through media, to access media on demand and to modify media content. As new waves of mediated practices emerge throughout the time-period here covered, the complex interconnections between media innovation and pedagogical practice are revealed to be deeply interwoven within the political, social and economic pressures of particular historical moments. The first of these waves focuses on the media produced by Studio G primarily during the tumultuous 1960s to the mid-1980s. The second wave (early-1980s to mid-1990s) marks the shifts in practices and social expectations with the rise of the PC computer. The third wave (mid-1990s to 2004) recognizes yet another shift as Internet technologies and the privileging of consumer expectation eclipsed what were by then seen as dated practices. In the fourth wave (2004 to 2016), the NFBs focus on interactivity is co-opted as a strategy of audience engagement in an ever-more competitive media landscape. The four affordances are realized to a greater and lesser degree in each of these waves. The narrative of the NFBs production of educational multimedia provides an ideal lens through which to identify and more deeply understand the nuanced and complex intra-action between technology, practice and society in which the interface is revealed to be far from neutral