Expressive Speech Synthesis for Critical Situations

Presence of appropriate acoustic cues of affective features in the synthesized speech can be a prerequisite for the proper evaluation of the semantic content by the message recipient. In the recent work the authors have focused on the research of expressive speech synthesis capable of generating naturally sounding synthetic speech at various levels of arousal. Automatic information and warning systems can be used to inform, warn, instruct and navigate people in dangerous, critical situations, and increase the effectiveness of crisis management and rescue operations. One of the activities in the frame of the EU SF project CRISIS was called "Extremely expressive (hyper-expressive) speech synthesis for urgent warning messages generation''. It was aimed at research and development of speech synthesizers with high naturalness and intelligibility capable of generating messages with various expressive loads. The synthesizers will be applicable to generate public alert and warning messages in case of fires, floods, state security threats, etc. Early warning in relation to the situations mentioned above can be made thanks to fire and flood spread forecasting; modeling thereof is covered by other activities of the CRISIS project. The most important part needed for the synthesizer building is the expressive speech database. An original method is proposed to create such a database. The current version of the expressive speech database is introduced and first experiments with expressive synthesizers developed with this database are presented and discussed

Music on the Move

Digital materials related to this title can be found on the Fulcrum platform via the following citable URL: https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.9853855Additional materials and teacher resources can be found at http://musiconthemove.orgThis book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem)—a collaboration of the Association of American Universities, the Association of University Presses, and the Association of Research Libraries—and the generous support of The Ohio State University Libraries. Learn more at the TOME website, available at: https://openmonographs.org.Migration. Colonialism in Indonesia: Music Moving with an Occupying Force; The Romani Diaspora in Europe: Mutual Influences; The African Diaspora in the United States: Appropriation and Assimilation -- Mediation. Sound Recording and the Mediation of Music; Music and Media in the Service of the State -- Mashup. Composing the Mediated Self; Copyright, Surveillance, and the Ownership of Music; Localizations: Mediated Selves Mixing Musics -- Conclusion: Violence, Difference, and Peacemaking in a Globalized World

Challenges of Central European Security: Critical Insights

This book employs various theories of contemporary security studies to explore some of the most important and most common security issues in Central Europe at this time. Individual chapters of the book adhere mainly to European branches of critical and constructivist security studies, through which they look at some of the salient topics of Central European security politics.The distinction between internal and external security issues is employed throughout the book for analytical purposes.Tato kniha zkoumá za pomoci teorií současných bezpečnostních studií některé z nejdůležitějších bezpečnostních problémů dnešní střední Evropy. Jednotlivé její kapitoly vycházejí především z různých evropských kritických a konstruktivistických přístupů ke studiu bezpečnosti, které jsou následně aplikovány na charakteristická témata středoevropské bezpečnosti. Pro analytické účely kniha rozlišuje mezi vnitřními a vnějšími bezpečnostními tématy

Music on the Move

"Music is a mobile art. When people move to faraway places, whether by choice or by force, they bring their music along. Music creates a meaningful point of contact for individuals and for groups; it can encourage curiosity and foster understanding; and it can preserve a sense of identity and comfort in an unfamiliar or hostile environment. As music crosses cultural, linguistic, and political boundaries, it continually changes. While human mobility and mediation have always shaped music-making, our current era of digital connectedness introduces new creative opportunities and inspiration even as it extends concerns about issues such as copyright infringement and cultural appropriation. With its innovative multimodal approach, Music on the Move invites readers to listen and engage with many different types of music as they read. The text introduces a variety of concepts related to music’s travels—with or without its makers—including colonialism, migration, diaspora, mediation, propaganda, copyright, and hybridity. The case studies represent a variety of musical genres and styles, Western and non-Western, concert music, traditional music, and popular music. Highly accessible, jargon-free, and media-rich, Music on the Move is suitable for students as well as general-interest readers.

The ‘White’ Mask and the ‘Gypsy’ Mask in Film

The study ventures into a topic that has been so far largely neglected in film studies: the ‘gypsy’ phantasm on the big screen. It reconstructs the history of ‘gypsy’ representations in film since the birth of the medium providing a systematic film-theoretical analysis of their aesthetic and social functions. Based on a corpus of over 150 works from European and US cinema, it is shown that ‘gypsy’-themed feature films share the pattern of an ‘ethno-racial’ masquerade, irrespective of the place and time of their origin. The author thus expands the research, concentrated until now in the field of literature, with another art form, film, opening up new dimensions of (popular) cultural antigypsyism.Die Studie widmet sich einem in der Filmwissenschaft bislang vernachlässigten Thema: dem ‚Zigeuner‘-Phantasma auf der Kinoleinwand. Sie verbindet die Rekonstruktion der Geschichte der ‚Zigeuner‘-Darstellungen im Film seit den Anfängen des Mediums mit einer systematischen filmtheoretischen Verortung ihrer ästhetischen und gesellschaftlichen Funktion. Auf der Grundlage von über 150 Werken aus dem europäischen und US-amerikanischen Kino wird aufgezeigt, dass den ,Zigeuner‘-Spielfilmproduktionen unabhängig von Ort und Zeit ihrer Entstehung das Grundgerüst einer ,ethno-rassischen‘ Maskerade gemeinsam ist. Damit erweitert die Autorin die bisherigen, auf das Gebiet der Literatur konzentrierten Forschungen um ein weiteres Medium, den Film, und erschließt neue Dimensionen des (populär-)kulturellen Antiziganismus

Structural indicators for inclusive systems in and around schools. Analytical Report

International evidence indicates that school systems need to change in order to tackle early school leaving and improve social inclusion in education and society. Policy-makers and school actors require practical tools to assist them in this process, made all the more urgent by the EU2020 headline target to reduce early school leaving. This report develops such practical tools; it is designed to inform strategic policy and practice by offering an innovative framework of structural indicators for early school leaving prevention and inclusion in school. It draws upon key European Council and Commission policy documents on early school leaving prevention, and also on the Paris Declaration 2015 on promoting common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education, which includes a focus on social marginalization

Rethinking musical modernism

Зборник који је пред читаоцима садржи радове претходно представљене на међународном научном скупу Музички модернизам - нова тумачења који је у организацији Музиколошког института САНУ и одељења ликовне и музичке уметности САНУ одржан у Београду од 11. до 13. октобра 2007. године. Чињеницом да је радни језик скупа био енглески, објашњава се објављивање текстова на том језику (с једним оправданим изузетком). Циљ скупа био је да се подстакну и прикажу нова сагледавања стваралаштва музичког модернизма, сложеног покрета чије је деловање обележило развој музике скоро целог XX века, а првенствено да се на свеж начин протумаче естетичке дилеме и расправе о карактеристикама, смислу и значењу разноврсних и често контрадикторних стремљења у овом раздобљу. Тематски спектар приказаних радова био је изузетно широк: кретао се од преиспитивања музичког модернизма помоћу категорија носталгије и присвајања, преко сагледавања односа центара и периферије, до разматрања сложених веза између модернизма и политике. Као што смо и очекивали, пажња је била усмерена не само на значајне личности и појаве у међународним музичким токовима, већ и на оне у српској музици. Аутори радова нису себи поставили циљ - нити су то могли - да понуде чврсте закључке, дефиниције, класификације. Уместо тога, они су донели вишеслојна и иновативна разматрања ове узбудљиве уметничке епохе окренуте будућности и прогресу, из перспективе XXI века који је остао без многих илузија, неминовно остављајући широк простор за нова тумачења.The articles collected in this volume were presented at the conference Rethinking Musical Modernism that took place in Belgrade from 1 1-13 October 2007 and was or ganised by the Institute of Musicology and the Department of Fine Arts and Music of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The working language of the conference was English which explains the publication of the contributions in that language (with one justifiable exemption). As the title of the conference indicates, the main aim of the organisers was to stimulate novel investigation of musical Modernism. The papers were thus focused on discussions of the ideas, characteristics, and meanings of the diverse and often contra dictory tendencies that existed in that period. The thematic scope of the papers was wide: from new approaches to musical Modernism using the categories of nostalgia and appropriation, and novel observations on the relationship between centres and peripheries, to questioning of the ties between Modernism and politics, the problems of terminology, and analysis of important aspects of the modernist achievements on the international and Serbian modernist scene. The contributors did not - and could not - pursue the aim of reaching firm conclusions, definitions, and classifications. They instead offered rich and complex examinations of this exciting musical epoch turned toward the future and progress, seen from the perspective of the disillusioned twenty-first century, necessarily leaving vast space for new rethinking.Зборник радова са научног скупа одржаног од 11. до 13. октобра 2007. годин

A COMPARISON BETWEEN MOTIVATIONS AND PERSONALITY TRAITS IN RELIGIOUS TOURISTS AND CRUISE SHIP TOURISTS

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the motivations and the personality traits that characterize tourists who choose religious travels versus cruises. Participating in the research were 683 Italian tourists (345 males and 338 females, age range 18–63 years); 483 who went to a pilgrimage travel and 200 who chose a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea. Both groups of tourists completed the Travel Motivation Scale and the Big Five Questionnaire. Results show that different motivations and personality traits characterize the different types of tourists and, further, that motivations for traveling are predicted by specific —some similar, other divergent— personality trait

Andrew G. Grutka, First Bishop of the Diocese of Gary, Indiana (1957 to 1984): Where There is Charity, There is God.

Andrew G. Grutka (1908 to 1993), son of Slovak immigrants, grew up in a working-class, immigrant neighborhood in Joliet, Illinois. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1933 and was consecrated the first Bishop of the Diocese of Gary, Indiana in 1957. His impact was felt locally, nationally, and internationally. He crossed interreligious, interracial and civic boundaries to address religious, social and civic affairs that anticipated many themes of the Second Vatican Council, including racial justice and charity, yet very little is written about him in the histories of American religious life and thought. The virtue of Christian Charity and his image of humanity as God’s Mosaic were at the heart of his teaching and ministry. His episcopal motto, “Where There is Charity, There is God,” reflected his core belief that “charity is meaningless until it is applied to dealings with our neighbor, and then it becomes a vibrant force. His pastoral letter on racial justice, his address at Vatican II on racism, his leadership to promote and oversee the establishment of the Institute of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Rome, and his ministry as Episcopal Advisor for the American Catholic Correctional Chaplains Association demonstrates his comprehensive commitment to justice. After the introduction, Chapter One focuses on his family origins, education and theological formation. Chapters Two and Three examine his pastoral and civic experiences and his selection as bishop. Chapter Four focuses on the establishment of the Gary diocese and Grutka’s first five years of Episcopal leadership and priorities. Chapter Five concentrates on his involvement in the Second Vatican Council and race relations in the 1960s. Chapter Six examines the implementation of several post-conciliar initiatives. Chapter Seven examines the challenges that Grutka faced in the post-conciliar years into the second half of his episcopacy through his retirement and death. This dissertation is a biographical study that uses an historical-critical method to examine Grutka’s thought, leadership and life in light of the American Catholic experience in the mid-twentieth century. The successes, limitations and efforts of this Catholic leader provide valuable lessons for today