Alaska native corporations: participation, purpose, and performance in for-profit indigenous businesses

Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) were established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971 to extinguish Indigenous land claims in the state of Alaska, as well as to provide for the economic and social wellbeing of Alaska Natives. However, ANCs’ governance practices and performance record offer a mixed record of their ability to incorporate the voice of their Indigenous shareholders and to fulfill a broad mandate for economic and social wellbeing among Alaska Natives. This exploratory, sequential, mixed methods study examines the relationship between shareholder participation, purpose, and performance in ANCs. Synthesizing theories from multiple domains, this study clarifies what is meant by inclusive governance. Additionally, it offers a new understanding of individual-level and firm-level benefits of shareholder participation, as well as an emergent model of the antecedents of inclusive governance, centered on shareholder participation. It advances an understanding of the motivations for stakeholder participation embedded in the context of Indigenous organizations. For a practitioner audience, this study offers advice to enable a more inclusive, participatory governance process in Indigenous and non-Indigenous businesses alike. It describes how a participatory process may help to allay the concerns of some shareholder groups and may maximize both the objective and perceived benefits of corporate social responsibility practices

Modelling time-varying gravity fields from Level-1B GRACE data using mascons

PhD ThesisAs an alternative to spherical harmonics, mass concentration (mascon) parameters have been successfully applied to the recovery of time-varying gravity (TVG) fields from the GRACE satellite mission. However, before meaningful mass anomalies can be estimated, the noise and errors inherent in the solutions needs to be quantified and appropriate procedures adopted for mitigation. The uniqueness of the mascon methodology is the capability to mitigate noise and errors using spatial and temporal constraints, which can be adapted and tailored to any geophysical signal of interest. Therefore, in the first instance, this work was motivated by the need to improve the accuracy of GRACE TVG fields by understanding the effect of noise and errors. This study then aims to validate mascons for recovery of basin scale inter-annual mass variability at a 10 day temporal resolution. Newcastle University’s orbit determination software, Faust, was modified to allow for estimation of mascon parameters including: modelling of accelerometer bias values; mascon parameterisation; and processing based on short-arc gravity field recovery and KBRR data. Accuracy assessments were undertaken using simulations in the presence of realistic noise facilitating the comparison of mascons and spherical harmonic coefficients, including an assessment of potential limitations associated with each technique. Comparisons with time-series derived from CSR RL05 Level-2 data validated the mascon TVG field recovery, before estimation of the mass change of Antarctica, Greenland and Alaska. Several hydrological basins, including the Amazon and Indus were also assessed before the GRACE trends resulting from the Sumatra earthquake of 2004 were investigated. While only provided for validation, these comparisons provide confidence in the mascon mass estimates. Between January 2003 and December 2013 a mass change of -83 ± 12 Gt/year and -242 ± 7 Gt/year were estimated for Antarctica and Greenland respectively by linear regression using mascons with a 10 day temporal resolution. Overall, the work undertaken in this thesis provides evidence of the improved accuracy achievable when using mascon parameters to estimating TVG fields from Level-1B GRACE data. ii As part of this work a processing methodology to estimate mascon parameters from Level-1B GRACE data using Newcastle University’s orbit determination software Faust has been established and documented. This leaves the University well placed to continue processing mascon solutions from Level-1B GRACE data and to estimate mascon solutions from the GRACE-FO mission. Through simulations, mascon parameters were found to offer advantages over spherical harmonics for the mitigation of noise and for improving the temporal and spatial recovery of the TVG field from GRACE. The mascon constraint matrix allowed more signal to be preserved up to degree ~35. Using basin constraints, simulation revealed that the constraint matric can be tuned to recovery the gravity changes resulting from any geophysical phenomena of interest. Basin constraints were found to optimise the signal recovery of GLDAS and a known mass change signal over Antarctica and Greenland. A novel way to create realistic noise and errors in the KBRR measurement was also documented. Generating monthly and 10 day mascon solutions using real data revealed that the noise and errors in mascon solutions is comparably lower than in CRS RL05 solution while also validating the mascon methodology established here. Comparison to published mass trends to those estimated using mascon parameters showed that the estimation of mascon parameters has application in the study of mass change in the cryosphere, hydrological applications and for the study of the co-seismic mass changes resulting from earthquakes.NERC

Studies on noise robust automatic speech recognition

Noise in everyday acoustic environments such as cars, traffic environments, and cafeterias remains one of the main challenges in automatic speech recognition (ASR). As a research theme, it has received wide attention in conferences and scientific journals focused on speech technology. This article collection reviews both the classic and novel approaches suggested for noise robust ASR. The articles are literature reviews written for the spring 2009 seminar course on noise robust automatic speech recognition (course code T-61.6060) held at TKK

Understanding the Moon through the integration of diverse datasets

Sponsored by Lunar and Planetary Institute, Museum of Northern Arizona, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S. Geological Survey, FlagstaffConveners, Lisa Gaddis and Charles K. ShearerPARTIAL CONTENTS: A Multispectral Analysis of the Flamsteed Region of Oceanus Procellarum / D.J. Heather, S.K. Dunkin, P.D. Spudis, and D. B.J. Bussey--Petrogenesis of Magnesian-Suite Troctolites and Norites / P.C. Hess and E.M. Parmentier--Ages of Oceanus Procellarum Basalts and Other Nearside Mare Basalts / H. Hiesinger and J.. Head III--High-Resolution Mapping of Lunar Crustal Magnetic Fields: Correlations with Albedo Markings of the Reiner Gamma Class / L.L. Hood, A. Yingst, D.L. Mitchell, R.P. Lin, M. Acuna, and A.B. Binder--Solar-Wind-Implanted Volatiles in the Lunar Regolith / J.R. Johnson, T.D. Swindle, and P.G. Lucey--Thorium Enrichment Within the Procellarum KREEP Terrane: The Record in Surface Deposits and Significance for Thermal Evolution / B.L. Jolliff, J.J. Gillis, and L.A. Haskin

Interactive Pattern Recognition applied to Natural Language Processing

This thesis is about Pattern Recognition. In the last decades, huge efforts have been made to develop automatic systems able to rival human capabilities in this field. Although these systems achieve high productivity rates, they are not precise enough in most situations. Humans, on the contrary, are very accurate but comparatively quite slower. This poses an interesting question: the possibility of benefiting from both worlds by constructing cooperative systems. This thesis presents diverse contributions to this kind of collaborative approach. The point is to improve the Pattern Recognition systems by properly introducing a human operator into the system. We call this Interactive Pattern Recognition (IPR). Firstly, a general proposal for IPR will be stated. The aim is to develop a framework to easily derive new applications in this area. Some interesting IPR issues are also introduced. Multi-modality or adaptive learning are examples of extensions that can naturally fit into IPR. In the second place, we will focus on a specific application. A novel method to obtain high quality speech transcriptions (CAST, Computer Assisted Speech Transcription). We will start by proposing a CAST formalization and, next, we will cope with different implementation alternatives. Practical issues, as the system response time, will be also taken into account, in order to allow for a practical implementation of CAST. Word graphs and probabilistic error correcting parsing are tools that will be used to reach an alternative formulation that allows for the use of CAST in a real scenario. Afterwards, a special application within the general IPR framework will be discussed. This is intended to test the IPR capabilities in an extreme environment, where no input pattern is available and the system only has access to the user actions to produce a hypothesis. Specifically, we will focus here on providing assistance in the problem of text generation.Rodríguez Ruiz, L. (2010). Interactive Pattern Recognition applied to Natural Language Processing [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/8479Palanci

Cyclic properties of sand:dynamic behaviour for seismic applications

Seismic wave propagation in granular soils can induce large strain amplitudes in case of strong earthquakes. Seismic motions are irregular in frequency content and in amplitude, and have three different components in orthogonal directions. In this context, the main objective of this PhD research deals with nonlinear effects observed in granular soils under such complex loadings. The assumptions and simplifications usually considered for representing seismic loadings are evaluated, focusing on two main aspects: (i) cyclic stress frequency applied to the sample (ii) superposition of two independent stresses. For that purpose, the nonlinear behaviour of two different sands, Leman Sand and Fonderie Sand, is explored with cyclic and seismic triaxial tests. These tests are performed with unidirectional or bidirectional loadings, at medium to high strain amplitude, and in the earthquake frequency range. A dynamic triaxial press was developed to perform such tests, with dry and undrained saturated sand samples. Axial and lateral stresses can be applied independently with large amplitudes for various loading shapes. An innovative non-contact measurement technique was developed to continuously monitor the sample radius; this testing equipment is based on three laser sensors, set up around the triaxial cell, which detect the position of the sample surface thanks to optical triangulation. The obtained data are processed through a complex calibration system to provide the radial strain evolution at mid-height of the sample. The mounting structure supporting the sensors allows precise positioning and is equipped for manual vertical scanning of the sample profile. The first triaxial tests are performed with classical cyclic loadings, to characterize the behaviour of the two sands in pseudo-dynamic conditions. These dry and undrained saturated tests allow to describe the decrease of stiffness which leads to failure of the sand sample. Failure of undrained saturated sand occurs by liquefaction. Dry and undrained cyclic tests performed on Leman Sand at various frequencies from 0.1 to 6.5 Hz show that the behaviour of this granular material is frequency-dependent at medium to large strains. Sand stiffness, which depends on stress conditions, seems to influence the extent of frequency effects on soil behaviour: for tests with lower stiffness, the soil response to low frequency is significantly amplified (i.e. higher strain amplitude, more pore pressure increase, etc.) compared to the high frequency range. The overall rate-sensitivity may be enhanced by the angularity of the grains. Other cyclic undrained saturated tests on Leman Sand demonstrate that the superposition of two different loadings, one axial and one lateral (bidirectional tests), induce coupling effects in the nonlinear soil response. Bidirectional effects result in an amplification of the sand response until the occurrence of cyclic liquefaction. The phase angle between axial and lateral stresses is the key parameter influencing the coupling. Moreover, the comparison between unidirectional and bidirectional irregular seismic loadings show that bidirectional conditions slightly influence undrained sand response, with conditions of amplification very similar to cyclic tests. Experimental results are finally modelled with the linear equivalent method and with a multi-mechanism elastoplastic model (ECP Hujeux). Nonlinear effects observed in laboratory experiments, and particularly the increase of strain amplitude leading to cyclic liquefaction of dense sand, are well captured by the elastoplastic model. The linear equivalent method gives a very crude approximation, even at medium strain level, and is not suitable for accurate evaluation of stiffness degradation observed during our cyclic tests. To conclude, assessing the behaviour of granular soils under earthquake loadings requires to take into account the nonlinear features of sand behaviour in terms of pore pressure generation and strain amplitude. In particular, frequency content and bidirectional loadings influence the sand response for medium to large strains. These experimental results could be considered for improving the analysis of strong ground motions. They constitute an important contribution for promoting more accurate nonlinear modelling of site effects in natural sands

Adaptation and Augmentation: Towards Better Rescoring Strategies for Automatic Speech Recognition and Spoken Term Detection

Selecting the best prediction from a set of candidates is an essential problem for many spoken language processing tasks, including automatic speech recognition (ASR) and spoken keyword spotting (KWS). Generally, the selection is determined by a confidence score assigned to each candidate. Calibrating these confidence scores (i.e., rescoring them) could make better selections and improve the system performance. This dissertation focuses on using tailored language models to rescore ASR hypotheses as well as keyword search results for ASR-based KWS. This dissertation introduces three kinds of rescoring techniques: (1) Freezing most model parameters while fine-tuning the output layer in order to adapt neural network language models (NNLMs) from the written domain to the spoken domain. Experiments on a large-scale Italian corpus show a 30.2% relative reduction in perplexity at the word-cluster level and a 2.3% relative reduction in WER in a state-of-the-art Italian ASR system. (2) Incorporating source application information associated with speech queries. By exploring a range of adaptation model architectures, we achieve a 21.3% relative reduction in perplexity compared to a fine-tuned baseline. Initial experiments using a state-of-the-art Italian ASR system show a 3.0% relative reduction in WER on top of an unadapted 5-gram LM. In addition, human evaluations show significant improvements by using the source application information. (3) Marrying machine learning algorithms (classification and ranking) with a variety of signals to rescore keyword search results in the context of KWS for low-resource languages. These systems, built for the IARPA BABEL Program, enhance search performance in terms of maximum term-weighted value (MTWV) across six different low-resource languages: Vietnamese, Tagalog, Pashto, Turkish, Zulu and Tamil

The Essential HBO Reader

The founding of Home Box Office in the early 1970s was a harbinger of the innovations that transformed television as an industry and a technology in the decades that followed. HBO quickly became synonymous with subscription television and became the leading force in cable programming. Having interests in television, motion picture, and home video industries was crucial to its success. HBO diversified into original television and movie production, home video sales, and international distribution as these once-separate entertainment sectors began converging into a global entertainment industry in the mid-1980s. HBO has grown from a domestic movie channel to an international cable-and-satellite network with a presence in over seventy countries. It is now a full-service content provider with a distinctive brand of original programming and landmark shows such as The Sopranos and Sex and the City. The network is widely recognized for its award-winning, innovative and provocative programming, including dramatic series such as Six Feet Under and The Wire, miniseries such as Band of Brothers and Angels in America, comedies such as Curb Your Enthusiasm and Def Comedy Jam, sports shows such as Inside the NFL and Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, documentary series such as Taxi Cab Confessions and Autopsy, and six Oscar-winning documentaries between 1999 and 2004. In The Essential HBO Reader, editors Gary R. Edgerton and Jeffrey P. Jones bring together an accomplished group of scholars to explain how HBO’s programming transformed the world of cable television and how the network continues to shape popular culture and the television industry. Now, after more than three and a half decades, HBO has won acclaim in four distinct programming areas—drama, comedy, sports, and documentaries—emerging as TV’s gold standard for its breakout series and specials. The Essential HBO Reader provides a comprehensive and compelling examination of HBO’s development into the prototypical entertainment corporation of the twenty-first century. Describes the complexities and ambiguities of the channel, its history, its unique business model, and its individual programs. Gary Edgerton and Jeffrey Jones have assembled a dream team of television scholars, some of whom have been paying attention to HBO since its debut in 1972. There are a lot of essay collections about television out there these days --Robert J. Thompson Director, Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture Sy This is a splendid collection of scholarship and critical thinking. The authors have managed to tame and corral a very important aspect of American media history and yet allowed it to remain daring and unconventional. --Terry Lindvall, author of Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C. S. Lewis In the ever-expanding universe of cable, satellite and digital broadcasting, the authors explore how HBO fights to remain the frontrunner in innovative programming. Essential reading! --Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, author of At the Picture Show: Small Town Audiences and Coeditors Edgerton and Jones have added a critical component to the study of television and American culture. The result is a fascinating book that is indeed essential reading for anyone with an interest in media history. --Mary Ann Watson, author of Defining Visions: Television and the American Experi Comprehensive and informative on a topic that deserves to be analyzed in-depth. HBO really did write an important new chapter in television history and has not received the scholarly attention that is its due. --Michael T. Marsden, coeditor of In the Eye of the Beholder: Critical Perspectives “An important assessment of the original programming HBO has created in the past few decades—how these programs are derived and what impact they have had. Recommended.”—Choice Because Edgerton and Jones offer such a thorough treatment of HBO\u27s programming, their volume is a useful addition to a growing number of books about American television in the \u27post-network\u27 era. --American Studieshttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_american_popular_culture/1014/thumbnail.jp