The non-Verbal Structure of Patient Case Discussions in Multidisciplinary Medical Team Meetings

Meeting analysis has a long theoretical tradition in social psychology, with established practical rami?cations in computer science, especially in computer supported cooperative work. More recently, a good deal of research has focused on the issues of indexing and browsing multimedia records of meetings. Most research in this area, however, is still based on data collected in laboratories, under somewhat arti?cial conditions. This paper presents an analysis of the discourse structure and spontaneous interactions at real-life multidisciplinary medical team meetings held as part of the work routine in a major hospital. It is hypothesised that the conversational structure of these meetings, as indicated by sequencing and duration of vocalisations, enables segmentation into individual patient case discussions. The task of segmenting audio-visual records of multidisciplinary medical team meetings is described as a topic segmentation task, and a method for automatic segmentation is proposed. An empirical evaluation based on hand labelled data is presented which determines the optimal length of vocalisation sequences for segmentation, and establishes the competitiveness of the method with approaches based on more complex knowledge sources. The effectiveness of Bayesian classi?cation as a segmentation method, and its applicability to meeting segmentation in other domains are discusse

Temporal entrainment in overlapping speech

Wlodarczak M. Temporal entrainment in overlapping speech. Bielefeld: Bielefeld University; 2014

Section-by-section analysis of linguistic fluency in learner language

In this corpus-based study we explore three measurements of L2 fluency – articulation rate, filler particles, and pauses –, both within and between two registers of spontaneous dialogues spoken by Polish learners of German. The measurements are assessed both in toto (as calculated over the whole dialogue) and in parte (as calculated for specific sections). The sections are identified on a quantitative tier that divides the dialogue into four parts, and qualitatively on two linguistically-informed tiers, comprising sections based on dialogue move and task. We challenge the assessment of fluency as an average measurement over the entire dialogue, showing that a sectionwise analysis offers a better understanding of similarities and differences both within and between the two registers.Peer Reviewe

Effects of talk-spurt silence boundary thresholds on distribution of gaps and overlaps

Wlodarczak M, Wagner P. Effects of talk-spurt silence boundary thresholds on distribution of gaps and overlaps. In: Bimbot F, ed. Speech in Life Sciences and Human Societies. Vol. 2. Red Hook, NY: Curran; 2014: 1434-1437

Protocols for voice/data integration in a CDMA packet radio network.

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1999.Wireless cellular communications is witnessing a rapid growth in, and demand for, improved technology and range of information types and services. Future third generation cellular networks are expected to provide mobile users with ubiquitous wireless access to a global backbone architecture that carries a wide variety of electronic services. This thesis examines the topic of multiple access protocols and models suitable for modem third-generation wireless networks. The major part of this thesis is based on a proposed Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol for a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) data packet radio network, as CDMA technology is proving to be a promising and attractive approach for spectrally efficient, economical and high quality digital communications wireless networks. The proposed MAC policy considers a novel dual CDMA threshold model based on the Multiple Access Interference (MAl) capacity of the system. This protocol is then extended to accommodate a mixed voice/data traffic network in which variable length data messages share a common CDMA channel with voice users, and where the voice activity factor of human speech is exploited to improve the data network performance. For the protocol evaluation, the expected voice call blocking probability, expected data throughput and expected data message delay are considered, for both a perfect channel and a correlated Rayleigh fading channel. In particular, it is shown that a significant performance enhancement can be made over existing admission policies through the implementation of a novel, dynamic, load-dependent blocking threshold in conjunction with a fixed CDMA multiple access threshold that is based on the maximum acceptable level of MAl

Real-time generation and adaptation of social companion robot behaviors

Social robots will be part of our future homes. They will assist us in everyday tasks, entertain us, and provide helpful advice. However, the technology still faces challenges that must be overcome to equip the machine with social competencies and make it a socially intelligent and accepted housemate. An essential skill of every social robot is verbal and non-verbal communication. In contrast to voice assistants, smartphones, and smart home technology, which are already part of many people's lives today, social robots have an embodiment that raises expectations towards the machine. Their anthropomorphic or zoomorphic appearance suggests they can communicate naturally with speech, gestures, or facial expressions and understand corresponding human behaviors. In addition, robots also need to consider individual users' preferences: everybody is shaped by their culture, social norms, and life experiences, resulting in different expectations towards communication with a robot. However, robots do not have human intuition - they must be equipped with the corresponding algorithmic solutions to these problems. This thesis investigates the use of reinforcement learning to adapt the robot's verbal and non-verbal communication to the user's needs and preferences. Such non-functional adaptation of the robot's behaviors primarily aims to improve the user experience and the robot's perceived social intelligence. The literature has not yet provided a holistic view of the overall challenge: real-time adaptation requires control over the robot's multimodal behavior generation, an understanding of human feedback, and an algorithmic basis for machine learning. Thus, this thesis develops a conceptual framework for designing real-time non-functional social robot behavior adaptation with reinforcement learning. It provides a higher-level view from the system designer's perspective and guidance from the start to the end. It illustrates the process of modeling, simulating, and evaluating such adaptation processes. Specifically, it guides the integration of human feedback and social signals to equip the machine with social awareness. The conceptual framework is put into practice for several use cases, resulting in technical proofs of concept and research prototypes. They are evaluated in the lab and in in-situ studies. These approaches address typical activities in domestic environments, focussing on the robot's expression of personality, persona, politeness, and humor. Within this scope, the robot adapts its spoken utterances, prosody, and animations based on human explicit or implicit feedback.Soziale Roboter werden Teil unseres zukünftigen Zuhauses sein. Sie werden uns bei alltäglichen Aufgaben unterstützen, uns unterhalten und uns mit hilfreichen Ratschlägen versorgen. Noch gibt es allerdings technische Herausforderungen, die zunächst überwunden werden müssen, um die Maschine mit sozialen Kompetenzen auszustatten und zu einem sozial intelligenten und akzeptierten Mitbewohner zu machen. Eine wesentliche Fähigkeit eines jeden sozialen Roboters ist die verbale und nonverbale Kommunikation. Im Gegensatz zu Sprachassistenten, Smartphones und Smart-Home-Technologien, die bereits heute Teil des Lebens vieler Menschen sind, haben soziale Roboter eine Verkörperung, die Erwartungen an die Maschine weckt. Ihr anthropomorphes oder zoomorphes Aussehen legt nahe, dass sie in der Lage sind, auf natürliche Weise mit Sprache, Gestik oder Mimik zu kommunizieren, aber auch entsprechende menschliche Kommunikation zu verstehen. Darüber hinaus müssen Roboter auch die individuellen Vorlieben der Benutzer berücksichtigen. So ist jeder Mensch von seiner Kultur, sozialen Normen und eigenen Lebenserfahrungen geprägt, was zu unterschiedlichen Erwartungen an die Kommunikation mit einem Roboter führt. Roboter haben jedoch keine menschliche Intuition - sie müssen mit entsprechenden Algorithmen für diese Probleme ausgestattet werden. In dieser Arbeit wird der Einsatz von bestärkendem Lernen untersucht, um die verbale und nonverbale Kommunikation des Roboters an die Bedürfnisse und Vorlieben des Benutzers anzupassen. Eine solche nicht-funktionale Anpassung des Roboterverhaltens zielt in erster Linie darauf ab, das Benutzererlebnis und die wahrgenommene soziale Intelligenz des Roboters zu verbessern. Die Literatur bietet bisher keine ganzheitliche Sicht auf diese Herausforderung: Echtzeitanpassung erfordert die Kontrolle über die multimodale Verhaltenserzeugung des Roboters, ein Verständnis des menschlichen Feedbacks und eine algorithmische Basis für maschinelles Lernen. Daher wird in dieser Arbeit ein konzeptioneller Rahmen für die Gestaltung von nicht-funktionaler Anpassung der Kommunikation sozialer Roboter mit bestärkendem Lernen entwickelt. Er bietet eine übergeordnete Sichtweise aus der Perspektive des Systemdesigners und eine Anleitung vom Anfang bis zum Ende. Er veranschaulicht den Prozess der Modellierung, Simulation und Evaluierung solcher Anpassungsprozesse. Insbesondere wird auf die Integration von menschlichem Feedback und sozialen Signalen eingegangen, um die Maschine mit sozialem Bewusstsein auszustatten. Der konzeptionelle Rahmen wird für mehrere Anwendungsfälle in die Praxis umgesetzt, was zu technischen Konzeptnachweisen und Forschungsprototypen führt, die in Labor- und In-situ-Studien evaluiert werden. Diese Ansätze befassen sich mit typischen Aktivitäten in häuslichen Umgebungen, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf dem Ausdruck der Persönlichkeit, dem Persona, der Höflichkeit und dem Humor des Roboters liegt. In diesem Rahmen passt der Roboter seine Sprache, Prosodie, und Animationen auf Basis expliziten oder impliziten menschlichen Feedbacks an

Between history and memory: ambivalent longing in the work of Seth

The work of Canadian cartoonist Seth positions itself between history and memory, and in doing so gives rise to a range of ambivalent impulses, chief among them an ambivalent longing for the past. Seth suggests that “the whole process of cartooning is dealing with memory,” and by consistently drawing attention to the narrative representation of the past, his comics reveal the extent to which the making of history is an act of great artifice. In its exploration of what Walter Benjamin calls “the mysterious work of remembrance—which is really the capacity for endless interpolation into what has been,” Seth’s work exhibits a complicated nostalgia, well aware of its own reactionary, restorative and nationalistic inclinations and able to channel them toward productive ends. Seth’s ironic, humorous and metafictional approaches to memory, remembrance and longing for the past reveal that his attitude toward these closely related subjects is deeply ambivalent. He nimbly mobilises history, (auto)biography, anecdote, documentary and other parallel modes. This investigation seeks to understand the ways in which his appropriation of such historicising discourses substantiates the powerful evocations of longing, loss and memory that characterise his fiction. Memory is here conceived not just as an invisible, ubiquitous mental phenomenon that reflects our experience of time and relation to the past, but as a medium, an art – and one which is in many ways akin to Seth’s mode of expression. The fundamental operation of comics, as a visual medium, initiates and makes space for narrative interpolations in a way that is not only comparable to but in a certain sense mimics the historical interpolations of memory; in both cases, longing is spurred by incompleteness. Seth turns the medium of memory on itself, using it as an instrument to examine the processes of remembrance and making history

Developing a measure of L2 learners’ productive knowledge of English collocations

Obtaining accurate measurements of L2 learners’ productive knowledge of collocations has proven difficult. The goal of the work reported in this thesis was to develop and test a means of eliciting from learners a reliable and representative sample of their productive knowledge of collocations. The two main methods typically used for this purpose are demonstrated to suffer from a number of drawbacks, yet one instrument is identified as having potential. This instrument, LexCombi, originally devised by Barfield (2009a), presents noun cues to learners and asks for three collocates in response to each cue, which are then evaluated as either canonical or not. In this thesis, LexCombi is taken forward and, through an iterative series of empirical studies, developed further. Specifically, after trialling LexCombi and exploring how learners interact with it, the format is adapted to more clearly guide respondents towards producing collocations; the scoring of learners’ responses is reviewed to gain a more complete picture of learners’ knowledge; and a new set of cue words is trialled and selected to resolve a number of issues identified with the original cues. After this development process, an empirical evaluation of the final form of the instrument, LexCombi 2, is conducted and its capacity to provide useful data on learners’ productive knowledge of collocations is evaluated. Following this, the empirical data is used to consider what can be learned about collocation knowledge using LexCombi 2. Explorations include the relationship between collocation knowledge and general L2 proficiency, the types of words that are used as responses to LexCombi 2, and how LexCombi 2 scores are affected by different conceptions of collocation. Finally, the thesis considers the overall significance of this work for our understanding of collocation knowledge more generally