10,388 research outputs found

    Being Comes from Not-being: Open-vocabulary Text-to-Motion Generation with Wordless Training

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    Text-to-motion generation is an emerging and challenging problem, which aims to synthesize motion with the same semantics as the input text. However, due to the lack of diverse labeled training data, most approaches either limit to specific types of text annotations or require online optimizations to cater to the texts during inference at the cost of efficiency and stability. In this paper, we investigate offline open-vocabulary text-to-motion generation in a zero-shot learning manner that neither requires paired training data nor extra online optimization to adapt for unseen texts. Inspired by the prompt learning in NLP, we pretrain a motion generator that learns to reconstruct the full motion from the masked motion. During inference, instead of changing the motion generator, our method reformulates the input text into a masked motion as the prompt for the motion generator to ``reconstruct'' the motion. In constructing the prompt, the unmasked poses of the prompt are synthesized by a text-to-pose generator. To supervise the optimization of the text-to-pose generator, we propose the first text-pose alignment model for measuring the alignment between texts and 3D poses. And to prevent the pose generator from overfitting to limited training texts, we further propose a novel wordless training mechanism that optimizes the text-to-pose generator without any training texts. The comprehensive experimental results show that our method obtains a significant improvement against the baseline methods. The code is available at https://github.com/junfanlin/oohmg

    Learning disentangled speech representations

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    A variety of informational factors are contained within the speech signal and a single short recording of speech reveals much more than the spoken words. The best method to extract and represent informational factors from the speech signal ultimately depends on which informational factors are desired and how they will be used. In addition, sometimes methods will capture more than one informational factor at the same time such as speaker identity, spoken content, and speaker prosody. The goal of this dissertation is to explore different ways to deconstruct the speech signal into abstract representations that can be learned and later reused in various speech technology tasks. This task of deconstructing, also known as disentanglement, is a form of distributed representation learning. As a general approach to disentanglement, there are some guiding principles that elaborate what a learned representation should contain as well as how it should function. In particular, learned representations should contain all of the requisite information in a more compact manner, be interpretable, remove nuisance factors of irrelevant information, be useful in downstream tasks, and independent of the task at hand. The learned representations should also be able to answer counter-factual questions. In some cases, learned speech representations can be re-assembled in different ways according to the requirements of downstream applications. For example, in a voice conversion task, the speech content is retained while the speaker identity is changed. And in a content-privacy task, some targeted content may be concealed without affecting how surrounding words sound. While there is no single-best method to disentangle all types of factors, some end-to-end approaches demonstrate a promising degree of generalization to diverse speech tasks. This thesis explores a variety of use-cases for disentangled representations including phone recognition, speaker diarization, linguistic code-switching, voice conversion, and content-based privacy masking. Speech representations can also be utilised for automatically assessing the quality and authenticity of speech, such as automatic MOS ratings or detecting deep fakes. The meaning of the term "disentanglement" is not well defined in previous work, and it has acquired several meanings depending on the domain (e.g. image vs. speech). Sometimes the term "disentanglement" is used interchangeably with the term "factorization". This thesis proposes that disentanglement of speech is distinct, and offers a viewpoint of disentanglement that can be considered both theoretically and practically

    From wallet to mobile: exploring how mobile payments create customer value in the service experience

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    This study explores how mobile proximity payments (MPP) (e.g., Apple Pay) create customer value in the service experience compared to traditional payment methods (e.g. cash and card). The main objectives were firstly to understand how customer value manifests as an outcome in the MPP service experience, and secondly to understand how the customer activities in the process of using MPP create customer value. To achieve these objectives a conceptual framework is built upon the Grönroos-Voima Value Model (Grönroos and Voima, 2013), and uses the Theory of Consumption Value (Sheth et al., 1991) to determine the customer value constructs for MPP, which is complimented with Script theory (Abelson, 1981) to determine the value creating activities the consumer does in the process of paying with MPP. The study uses a sequential exploratory mixed methods design, wherein the first qualitative stage uses two methods, self-observations (n=200) and semi-structured interviews (n=18). The subsequent second quantitative stage uses an online survey (n=441) and Structural Equation Modelling analysis to further examine the relationships and effect between the value creating activities and customer value constructs identified in stage one. The academic contributions include the development of a model of mobile payment services value creation in the service experience, introducing the concept of in-use barriers which occur after adoption and constrains the consumers existing use of MPP, and revealing the importance of the mobile in-hand momentary condition as an antecedent state. Additionally, the customer value perspective of this thesis demonstrates an alternative to the dominant Information Technology approaches to researching mobile payments and broadens the view of technology from purely an object a user interacts with to an object that is immersed in consumers’ daily life

    Investigating and mitigating the role of neutralisation techniques on information security policies violation in healthcare organisations

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    Healthcare organisations today rely heavily on Electronic Medical Records systems (EMRs), which have become highly crucial IT assets that require significant security efforts to safeguard patients’ information. Individuals who have legitimate access to an organisation’s assets to perform their day-to-day duties but intentionally or unintentionally violate information security policies can jeopardise their organisation’s information security efforts and cause significant legal and financial losses. In the information security (InfoSec) literature, several studies emphasised the necessity to understand why employees behave in ways that contradict information security requirements but have offered widely different solutions. In an effort to respond to this situation, this thesis addressed the gap in the information security academic research by providing a deep understanding of the problem of medical practitioners’ behavioural justifications to violate information security policies and then determining proper solutions to reduce this undesirable behaviour. Neutralisation theory was used as the theoretical basis for the research. This thesis adopted a mixed-method research approach that comprises four consecutive phases, and each phase represents a research study that was conducted in light of the results from the preceding phase. The first phase of the thesis started by investigating the relationship between medical practitioners’ neutralisation techniques and their intention to violate information security policies that protect a patient’s privacy. A quantitative study was conducted to extend the work of Siponen and Vance [1] through a study of the Saudi Arabia healthcare industry. The data was collected via an online questionnaire from 66 Medical Interns (MIs) working in four academic hospitals. The study found that six neutralisation techniques—(1) appeal to higher loyalties, (2) defence of necessity, (3) the metaphor of ledger, (4) denial of responsibility, (5) denial of injury, and (6) condemnation of condemners—significantly contribute to the justifications of the MIs in hypothetically violating information security policies. The second phase of this research used a series of semi-structured interviews with IT security professionals in one of the largest academic hospitals in Saudi Arabia to explore the environmental factors that motivated the medical practitioners to evoke various neutralisation techniques. The results revealed that social, organisational, and emotional factors all stimulated the behavioural justifications to breach information security policies. During these interviews, it became clear that the IT department needed to ensure that security policies fit the daily tasks of the medical practitioners by providing alternative solutions to ensure the effectiveness of those policies. Based on these interviews, the objective of the following two phases was to improve the effectiveness of InfoSec policies against the use of behavioural justification by engaging the end users in the modification of existing policies via a collaborative writing process. Those two phases were conducted in the UK and Saudi Arabia to determine whether the collaborative writing process could produce a more effective security policy that balanced the security requirements with daily business needs, thus leading to a reduction in the use of neutralisation techniques to violate security policies. The overall result confirmed that the involvement of the end users via a collaborative writing process positively improved the effectiveness of the security policy to mitigate the individual behavioural justifications, showing that the process is a promising one to enhance security compliance

    Freelance subtitlers in a subtitle production network in the OTT industry in Thailand: a longitudinal study

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    The present study sets out to investigate a subtitle production network in the over-the-top (OTT) industry in Thailand through the perspective of freelance subtitlers. A qualitative longitudinal research design was adopted to gain insights into (1) the way the work practices of freelance subtitlers are influenced by both human and non-human actors in the network, (2) the evolution of the network, and (3) how the freelance subtitlers’ perception of quality is influenced by changes occurring in the network. Eleven subtitlers were interviewed every six months over a period of two years, contributing to over 60 hours of interview data. The data analysis was informed by selected concepts from Actor-Network Theory (ANT) (Law 1992, 2009; Latour 1996, 2005; Mol 2010), and complemented by the three-dimensional quality model proposed by Abdallah (2016, 2017). Reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2019a, 2020b) was used to generate themes and sub-themes which address the research questions and tell compelling stories about the actor-network. It was found that from July 2017 to September 2019, the subtitle production network, which was sustained by complex interrelationships between actors, underwent a number of changes. The changes affected the work practices of freelance subtitlers in a more negative than positive way, demonstrating their precarious position in an industry that has widely adopted the vendor model (Moorkens 2017). Moreover, as perceived by the research participants, under increasingly undesirable working conditions, it became more challenging to maintain a quality process and to produce quality subtitles. Finally, translation technology and tools, including machine translation, were found to be key non-human actors that catalyse the changes in the network under study

    Management Matters : Organizational Storytelling within the Anthroposophical Society in Sweden

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    The Anthroposophical Society, founded by the Austrian polymath Rudolf Steiner, came to Sweden in 1913, but for the generation of present-day Swedish Anthroposophists whose voices are heard in this study, the great flowering of the movement occurred in the second half of the twentieth century. The movement had by then expanded into a large milieu with many largely independent enterprises and institutions, from the formal organization itself, to various schools, farms, shops, medical facilities, etc., all based on interpretations of Steiner’s legacy. Since then, many members of the movement feel, there has been a decline. A movement of this size and complexity can be seen as a large organization with a corporate-like structure. Taking its point of departure in ideas from the vast field of organization studies, and specifically in the study of storytelling as part of the creation of a corporate culture where many voices and many perspectives co-exist, this study investigates how Anthroposophists in Sweden, both rank and-file members and some who served in leadership positions, tell the story of the putative Golden Age, decline, and projected future of Anthroposophy in Sweden. Twenty-eight interviews were collected, recurrent themes identified, and the plots of the various individual stories analyzed by means of a version of the actantial model developed by the semioticist Algirdas Greimas. The basic storyline, of which the interviewees’ individual stories constitute variations, is that the Golden Age, when charismatic leaders could draw crowds of enthusiastic young people and a vibrant Anthroposophical milieu was built up, came to an end with the demise of those leaders. The present, i.e., the time at which the interviews were conducted, is narratively framed as a period of sharp decline. The vistas for the future come across in most stories as quite bleak. An actantial analysis reveals that the past, an epoch that is on one hand held up as a shining example is on the other hand also described as a time characterized by innumerable problems and conflicts. Disagreement is rampant regarding the reasons for the current decline, and a vast number of problems are identified in the individual narratives. The future is for some interviewees impossible to speculate about, whereas others have specific suggestions for change. These suggestions, when held up against each other, show that there is no unified vision of what the necessary changes might be or who must bring them about. The interviewees agree that Anthroposophy plays a vital role as a spiritual path. When asked how they would describe Anthroposophy and what it more specifically can offer, answers diverge, but substantive descriptions of core concepts or practices are rarely alluded to. Rather, their explanations of what Anthroposophy is are in almost all cases metaphorical or negative, i.e., they represent Anthroposophy as elusive or undefinable. Interviewees can suggest that the lack of a clear Anthroposophical “brand” is a major reason for its current perceived crisis. An analysis of the ways in which Rudolf Steiner is portrayed in the interview material shows that there are a variety of descriptions of him rather than a unified representation of a charismatic leader that members can rally around. This, the study suggests, is because four different forms of charisma can be distinguished on theoretical grounds, and the particular form that permeates the narratives collected for this study does not readily support the dissemination of a centralized, dominant narrative.Antroposofiska Sällskapet, grundat av österrikaren Rudolf Steiner, kom till Sverige redan i 1913, men för den generation av nutida svenska antroposofer vars röster hörs i denna studie inträffade rörelsens stora blomstringstid först under nittonhundratalets andra hälft. Vid det laget hade rörelsen expanderat och blivit till en omfattande miljö med många stort sett oberoende institutioner och verksamheter, från själva det Antroposofiska Sällskapet i strikt mening till olika skolor, lantbruk, butiker, kliniker, osv., som alla byggde på tolkningar av arvet efter Steiner. Många medlemmar i rörelsen menar att det sedan dess har skett en nedgång. En rörelse med den storlek och komplexitet som det rör sig om i det aktuella fallet kan betraktas som en organisation med en företagsliknande struktur. Denna studie tar därför sin utgångspunkt i ett organisationsteoretiskt perspektiv, i synnerhet i den gren av organisationsteorin som studerar berättande som ett led i hur en organisationskultur med många samexisterande röster skapas. I det aktuella fallet handlar det om berättelser som antroposofer i Sverige, både vanliga medlemmar och personer i ledarställning, framför om den blomstringstid de menar rörelsen en gång hade, den nedgång de säger sig uppleva och den framtid de föreställer sig att antroposofin i Sverige kommer att möta. Tjugoåtta intervjuer genomfördes och de berättelser som förmedlas i dessa intervjuer analyserades med hjälp av en variant av den aktantmodell som utvecklats av semiotikern Algirdas Greimas. Den grundläggande handling man återfinner i intervjupersonernas olika berättelser är att blomstringstiden var en guldålder då karismatiska ledare kunde samla stora grupper av entusiastiska ungdomar och en levande antroposofisk miljö byggdes upp, men att denna guldålder upphörde när ledarna gick ur tiden. Nuet, alltså den tid då intervjuerna genomfördes, beskrivs i berättelserna som en tid av förfall. Framtidsutsikterna som målas upp i de flesta berättelser är dystra. Aktantanalysen visar att berättelserna om det förflutna både beskriver denna tid i mycket positiva termer och nämner otaliga problem och konflikter. Nuets påstådda förfall återkommer i de flesta berättelser, men åsikterna går vitt isär när det gäller vad nutidens problem är och vad som orsakat dem. Framtiden beskrivs av vissa intervjupersoner som omöjlig att spekulera närmare om, medan andra har specifika förslag till förändringar. Sammantaget visar analysen att det saknas en enhetlig föreställning om vad som behöver göras för att lösa rörelsens problem och vem som ska ta ansvar för dessa förändringar. Intervjupersonerna är eniga om att antroposofin spelar en viktig roll. Frågan hur de skulle beskriva antroposofin och vad den har att erbjuda besvaras på olika sätt, men sällan i termer av konkreta beskrivningar av för antroposofin centrala föreställningar eller praktiker. Tendensen är snarare att svara i metaforiska eller negativa termer, alltså genom att berätta att de menar att antroposofin inte går att definiera. Samtidigt kan intervjupersonerna förklara att bristen på en tydlig antroposofisk identitet är ett huvudskäl till vad de ser som rörelsens nuvarande kris. En analys av de sätt på vilka Rudolf Steiner beskrivs i intervjumaterialet visar att det också finns en rad divergerande uppfattningar av honom snarare än en sammanhållen beskrivning av en karismatisk ledare som medlemmarna kan samlas kring. Studien konkluderar att karisma på teoretiska grunder kan delas in i fyra olika typer, och att den specifika form av karisma som intervjuerna återspeglar inte harmonierar särskilt väl med spridandet av en centralt utformad dominerande berättelse

    Use of Statistical Methods for the Analysis of Educational Data: the Role of ICTs in the Educational Context

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    [ES] En las últimas décadas, la intensificación del uso de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC) ha supuesto grandes cambios en nuestra forma de vida. En este contexto de intensa y creciente digitalización, esta tesis doctoral estudia el papel que juegan las TIC como un factor determinante del rendimiento académico de los estudiantes de educación secundaria, así como los factores que propician el uso de las TIC en el aula por parte de los docentes. La tesis se compone de tres capítulos: (1) en el primero de ellos, se analiza la relación entre distintos tipos de uso de las TIC en el contexto social y educativo y el rendimiento académico; (2) en el capítulo dos, se centra la atención en el impacto que tiene sobre el rendimiento académico el uso de las TIC en el aula para realizar tareas y ejercicios; (3) y en el capítulo tres se analizan los factores que determinan la frecuencia de uso de las TIC en el aula por parte de los docentes. Para realizar estos análisis, se estudian datos procedentes de evaluaciones educativas internacionales y nacionales mediante la aplicación de distintos métodos estadísticos: modelos multinivel, método de variables instrumentales, método de emparejamiento por puntaje de propensión, regresiones cuantílicas y técnica de imputación multivariante por ecuaciones encadenadas. Los resultados alcanzados en las distintas investigaciones proporcionan evidencia empírica novedosa que permite elaborar recomendaciones en materia de política educativa, así como abrir futuras líneas de investigación que permitirán complementar los resultados de esta tesis doctoral.[CA] En les últimes dècades, la intensificació de l'ús de les tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació (TIC) ha suposat grans canvis en la nostra forma de vida. En aquest context d'intensa i creixent digitalització, aquesta tesi doctoral estudia el paper que juguen les TIC com un factor determinant del rendiment acadèmic dels estudiants d'educació secundària, així com els factors que propicien l'ús de les TIC a l'aula per part dels docents. La tesi es compon de tres capítols: (1) en el primer d'ells, s'analitza la relació entre diferents tipus d'ús de les TIC en el context social i educatiu i el rendiment acadèmic; (2) en el capítol dos, se centra l'atenció en l'impacte que té sobre el rendiment acadèmic l'ús de les TIC a l'aula per a fer tasques i exercicis; (3) i en el capítol tres s'analitzen els factors que determinen la freqüència d'ús de les TIC a l'aula per part dels docents. Per a realitzar aquestes anàlisis, s'estudien dades procedents d'avaluacions educatives internacionals i nacionals mitjançant l'aplicació de diferents mètodes estadístics: models multinivell, mètode de variables instrumentals, mètode d'aparellament per puntuació de propensió, regressió quantílica i tècnica d'imputació multivariant per equacions encadenades. Els resultats aconseguits en les diferents investigacions proporcionen evidència empírica nova que permet elaborar recomanacions en matèria de política educativa, així com obrir futures línies d'investigació que permetran complementar els resultats d'aquesta tesi doctoral.[EN] In recent decades, the intensification of the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) has brought about major changes in our way of life. In this context of intense and increasing digitalization, this doctoral thesis studies the role of ICT as a determinant of the academic performance of secondary school students, as well as the factors that favour the use of ICT in the classroom by teachers. The thesis consists of three chapters: (1) in the first one, the relationship between different types of ICT use in the social and educational context and academic performance is analysed; (2) in chapter two, attention is focused on the impact on academic performance of the use of ICT in the classroom to carry out tasks and exercises; (3) and in chapter three, the factors that determine the frequency of ICT use in the classroom by teachers are analysed. In order to carry out these analyses, data from international and national educational assessments are studied by applying different statistical methods: multilevel models, instrumental variables method, propensity score matching method, quantile regressions and multivariate imputation technique by chained equations. The results achieved in the different investigations provide novel empirical evidence that allows us to elaborate recommendations for educational policy, as well as to open future lines of research that will allow us to complement the results of this doctoral thesis.Mi agradecimiento al Ministerio de Universidades por su apuesta en la financiación de mi proyecto de investigación mediante el contrato FPU16/04571 y por permitirme dedicarme durante estos cuatro años exclusivamente a la investigación y a la docencia universitaria. Agradezco también al Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad y al doctor Jorge Calero, investigador principal del proyecto “Evaluación de intervenciones educativas para la mejora de la calidad educativa”, por permitirme participar como miembro del equipo de trabajo en el proyecto EDU2016-76414-R y financiar la presentación de mis investigaciones en congresos nacionales e internacionales. Igualmente, agradezco a la Fundación Sabadell por otorgarme una ayuda a la investigación científica en la convocatoria 2020-2021.Gómez Fernández, NM. (2022). Use of Statistical Methods for the Analysis of Educational Data: the Role of ICTs in the Educational Context [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/181000TESI

    Fast Similarity Graph Construction via Data Sketching Techniques

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    Graphs are mathematical structures used to model objects and their pairwise relationships. Due to their simple but expressive abstract representation, they are commonly used to model various types of relations and processes in technological, social or biological systems and have found numerous applications. A special type of graph is the similarity graph in which nodes represent entities and there is an edge connecting two nodes if the two entities are similar based on some similarity measure. In a typical scenario, raw data of entities are provided in the form of a relational dataset, matrix or a tensor and a similarity graph is built to facilitate graph-based analysis like node importance, node classification, link prediction, community detection, outlier detection, and more. The ability to construct similarity graphs fast is important and with a potential for high impact, thus several approximation techniques have been proposed. In this work, we propose data sketching based methods for fast approximate similarity graph construction. Data sketching techniques are applied on the raw data and are designed to achieve desired error guarantees. They can drastically reduce the size of raw data on which we operate, allowing for faster construction and analysis of similarity graphs, but with approximate results. This is a desirable tradeoff for many applications in diverse domains. Through a thorough experimental evaluation, we demonstrate that our sketching methods outperform sensible baselines and competitor methods proposed for the problem. First, they are much faster than exact methods while maintaining high accuracy in constructing the similarity graph. Furthermore, our methods demonstrate significantly higher accuracy than competitive methods on generic graph analysis tasks. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods on different real-world graph applications
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