Paralympic cultures: disability as paradigm

This is an article about the Paralympic Games of summer 2012 and the experience of watching them. It rehearses the use of disability as political and cultural identity in relation to theatre and performance studies. Disability identity is not an identity based on similitude, but is a complex and nuanced relationship between singularity of embodied social experience and glimmers of common ground. Taking the works of Rod Michalko and Petra Kuppers as a representative foundation of disability studies, the article offers disability as an epistemological standpoint, a way of thinking, and not an object of thought. The argument works through close readings of three examples to introduce the theatre and performance studies reader to the notion of disability as a paradigm for the consideration of ideas of difference, similitude and identity. The process of reading the Paralympics from the perspective of a disabled person, bike riding sports fan and disability performance scholar gestures to the scope and potential of disability performance studies. The article accumulates three examples of one disabled person navigating a complex set of positions, all of which are iterations of disability. Whilst this critical approach might imply solipsism, the article also considers disability as community

Clustering based on Random Graph Model embedding Vertex Features

Large datasets with interactions between objects are common to numerous scientific fields (i.e. social science, internet, biology...). The interactions naturally define a graph and a common way to explore or summarize such dataset is graph clustering. Most techniques for clustering graph vertices just use the topology of connections ignoring informations in the vertices features. In this paper, we provide a clustering algorithm exploiting both types of data based on a statistical model with latent structure characterizing each vertex both by a vector of features as well as by its connectivity. We perform simulations to compare our algorithm with existing approaches, and also evaluate our method with real datasets based on hyper-textual documents. We find that our algorithm successfully exploits whatever information is found both in the connectivity pattern and in the features

Traceability Links Recovery among Requirements and BPMN models

Tesis por compendio[EN] Throughout the pages of this document, I present the results of the research that was carried out in the context of my PhD studies. During the aforementioned research, I studied the process of Traceability Links Recovery between natural language requirements and industrial software models. More precisely, due to their popularity and extensive usage, I studied the process of Traceability Links Recovery between natural language requirements and Business Process Models, also known as BPMN models. In order to carry out the research, I focused my work on two main objectives: (1) the development of the Traceability Links Recovery techniques between natural language requirements and BPMN models, and (2) the validation and analysis of the results obtained by the developed techniques in industrial domain case studies. The results of the research have been redacted and published in forums, conferences, and journals specialized in the topics and context of the research. This thesis document introduces the topics, context, and objectives of the research, presents the academic publications that have been published as a result of the work, and then discusses the outcomes of the investigation.[ES] A través de las páginas de este documento, presento los resultados de la investigación realizada en el contexto de mis estudios de doctorado. Durante la investigación, he estudiado el proceso de Recuperación de Enlaces de Trazabilidad entre requisitos especificados en lenguaje natural y modelos de software industriales. Más concretamente, debido a su popularidad y uso extensivo, he estudiado el proceso de Recuperación de Enlaces de Trazabilidad entre requisitos especificados en lenguaje natural y Modelos de Procesos de Negocio, también conocidos como modelos BPMN. Para llevar a cabo esta investigación, mi trabajo se ha centrado en dos objetivos principales: (1) desarrollo de técnicas de Recuperación de Enlaces de Trazabilidad entre requisitos especificados en lenguaje natural y modelos BPMN, y (2) validación y análisis de los resultados obtenidos por las técnicas desarrolladas en casos de estudio de dominios industriales. Los resultados de la investigación han sido redactados y publicados en foros, conferencias y revistas especializadas en los temas y contexto de la investigación. Esta tesis introduce los temas, contexto y objetivos de la investigación, presenta las publicaciones académicas que han sido publicadas como resultado del trabajo, y expone los resultados de la investigación.[CA] A través de les pàgines d'aquest document, presente els resultats de la investigació realitzada en el context dels meus estudis de doctorat. Durant la investigació, he estudiat el procés de Recuperació d'Enllaços de Traçabilitat entre requisits especificats en llenguatge natural i models de programari industrials. Més concretament, a causa de la seua popularitat i ús extensiu, he estudiat el procés de Recuperació d'Enllaços de Traçabilitat entre requisits especificats en llenguatge natural i Models de Processos de Negoci, també coneguts com a models BPMN. Per a dur a terme aquesta investigació, el meu treball s'ha centrat en dos objectius principals: (1) desenvolupament de tècniques de Recuperació d'Enllaços de Traçabilitat entre requisits especificats en llenguatge natural i models BPMN, i (2) validació i anàlisi dels resultats obtinguts per les tècniques desenvolupades en casos d'estudi de dominis industrials. Els resultats de la investigació han sigut redactats i publicats en fòrums, conferències i revistes especialitzades en els temes i context de la investigació. Aquesta tesi introdueix els temes, context i objectius de la investigació, presenta les publicacions acadèmiques que han sigut publicades com a resultat del treball, i exposa els resultats de la investigació.Lapeña Martí, R. (2020). Traceability Links Recovery among Requirements and BPMN models [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/149391TESISCompendi

LSTM Deep Neural Networks Postfiltering for Improving the Quality of Synthetic Voices

Recent developments in speech synthesis have produced systems capable of outcome intelligible speech, but now researchers strive to create models that more accurately mimic human voices. One such development is the incorporation of multiple linguistic styles in various languages and accents. HMM-based Speech Synthesis is of great interest to many researchers, due to its ability to produce sophisticated features with small footprint. Despite such progress, its quality has not yet reached the level of the predominant unit-selection approaches that choose and concatenate recordings of real speech. Recent efforts have been made in the direction of improving these systems. In this paper we present the application of Long-Short Term Memory Deep Neural Networks as a Postfiltering step of HMM-based speech synthesis, in order to obtain closer spectral characteristics to those of natural speech. The results show how HMM-voices could be improved using this approach.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Formal Results Regarding Metric-Space Techniques for the Study of Astrophysical Maps

We extend a newly developed formal system for the description of astrophysical maps. In this formalism, we consider the difference between maps to be the distance between elements of a pseudometric space (the space of all such maps). This ansatz allows us to measure quantitatively the difference between any two maps and to order the space of all maps. For each physical characteristic of interest, this technique assigns an ``output'' function to each map; the difference between the maps is then determined from the difference between their corresponding output functions. In this present study, we show that the results of this procedure are invariant under a class of transformations of the maps and the domains of the maps. In addition, we study the propagation of errors (observational uncertainties) through this formalism. We show that the uncertainties in the output functions can be controlled provided that the signal to noise ratios in the original astrophysical maps are sufficiently high. The results of this paper thus increase the effectiveness of this formal system for the description, classification, and analysis of astrophysical maps.Comment: 30 pages Plain Tex, submitted to ApJ, UM-AC 93-1

Magic, categorization and folk metaphysics. Towards cognitive theory of magic

It is the aim of this work to interpret magical thinking as a strong tendency towards categorization, towards simplification of an infinitely diverse reality and of its modifications, and its reduction to a limited number of static prototypes. In magical thinking similitude and contact (adjacency) are not only crucial principles of the human cognition; moreover they have their ontological dimensions: they direct the course of the world. Numerous examples of human conduct that are motivated by the laws of magic can be found not only in systems and their elements mentioned in canonical studies of magic (J.G. Frazer, M. Mauss etc.) or in Eliade's phenomenology of religion, but also in texts concerning European medieval and folk culture (A.J. Gurevich) or contemporary popular culture (astrology, prophecies etc.). Different phenomena of magical thinking like recurring time, imitations of extra-mundane models or of the past deeds can be described and explained by means of cognitivism. Various forms of popular metaphysics are also based on the tendency towards categorization. It is the tendency to eliminate everything particular and variable, and to inspell what is general and certain. Magical thinking does not acknowledge coincidence or probability, since everything is considered here necessary and can be instantly explained. A key to the definition of what is magic can be found in the elementary principles that drive human cognition. These principles can be summarized in the categories of difference and similitude on the one hand, and of contact (affinity) on the other. The cognitive meaning of these categories is rather apparent in the linguistic theory of Ferdinand de Saussure. According de Saussure, difference is essential to any linguistic system and it is inevitably interlinked with similitude