Using the language laboratory to develop the listening ability of adult learners of English by means of practice in the perception of stress

This thesis is concerned with specific aspects of two general problems : firstly, the inability of teachers and students to utilize the potential of the language laboratory to maximum effect, and secondly, the inability of many learners of English to acquire a confident understanding of spoken English. The language laboratory was designed as a class teaching aid according to certain principles of language learning and its use is limited and defined by the facilities it provides and the conditions upon its use. Since supplementary use of the language laboratory may lead to under-exploitation of facilities, there needs to be investigation into areas of language training, suggested by current research in related fields, in which the language laboratory can play a fully integrated training role. Recent work on speech perception and child language development suggests that stress and rhythm, as prosodic features, are important perceptual factors in the rapid and efficient understanding of connected English speech, and, consequently, that an absence of accurate stress perception may reduce the listener's decoding ability. An attempt is made in this thesis to develop materials for training in stress perception, and to test techniques for their exploitation which are especially suited to use in the language laboratory. The thesis begins with a consideration of problems and aims, and than continues in Chapter Two with a review of the main issues regarding language laboratory use found in the literature. There then follows a discussion on the exploitation of specific facilities offered by the language laboratory, and the conditions upon their successful use. In Chapter Three, teacher and student use of the language laboratory is observed and assessed in live sessions in four language schools in Britain. The following two chapters, Chapter Four and Chapter Five, are concerned with the perception of stress and rhythm, and its role in understanding connected English speech. After a brief review of the literature and research on models of speech perception and understanding, and on child language development, in which their relevance to second language learning is discussed, recent research is presented, which indicates the importance of stress and rhythm in the accurate decoding of connected speech. Its bearing on second language training is considered, together with the problems of testing listening comprehension. There follow the reports of a series of experiments in which the ability of native speakers and learners of English to perceive and produce different spacing and pacing patterns of stress was tested, as well as the effect of varying the spacing and pacing of stress on the understanding of connected speech. The next two chapters, Chapter Six and Chapter Seven, link language laboratory use and stress perception in the design of a battery of materials, the purpose of which is to train learners in the perception of stress at word and utterance levels. The battery, in the form of a complete course, is then tested in order to assess its value in improving listening comprehension ability in learners of English, and the degree to which it exploits language laboratory facilities. The final chapter, Chapter Eight, attempts to relate the conclusions formed to the larger process of receptive and productive language development within the language laboratory context, and to the place of the stress perception materials in a complete language course

Modelling serial order in behaviour: studies of spelling

Serial order in behaviour remains an interesting problem for computational modelling in psychology, especially for connectionist approaches. The 'Competitive Queuing' (CQ) approach to sequence generation has the advantage of accounting for a number of common features apparent in several different types of serial behaviour. This thesis addresses the general account which the CQ approach can give for constraints on serial errors within sequences by developing models of an acquired disorder of spelling, 'graphemic buffer disorder' (GBD). Two approaches to the development of a simple initial model of GBD into more complex models are demonstrated, and are related to the general problem of accounting for serial category constraints in sequencing. The initial CQ model of GBD is based on an existing model of speech production with minimal spelling-specific changes. A number of shortcomings are identified in the I performance of this model, in particular the inability to distinguish consonant and vowel letters, which prevents a striking feature of GBD errors - the preservation of consonant/vowel status - from being modelled. An analysis of the general problem of adding domain-specific constraints to CQ models suggests two approaches to improving the initial model. Two alternative extended models are thus advanced. The first is a development of the initial model incorporating an external template to specify consonant/vowel information. Simulations with this model demonstrate a much improved fit to :the data. The second model" develops a novel architecture, generalising the CQ approach to multi-layer networks. The model is less detailed but demonstrates the correct general features of the GBD error pattern. The relationship between the models is discussed and possible future research directions are identified

Dating Victorians: an experimental approach to stylochronometry

A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ofthe University of LutonThe writing style of a number of authors writing in English was empirically investigated for the purpose of detecting stylistic patterns in relation to advancing age. The aim was to identify the type of stylistic markers among lexical, syntactical, phonemic, entropic, character-based, and content ones that would be most able to discriminate between early, middle, and late works of the selected authors, and the best classification or prediction algorithm most suited for this task. Two pilot studies were initially conducted. The first one concentrated on Christina Georgina Rossetti and Edgar Allan Poe from whom personal letters and poetry were selected as the genres of study, along with a limited selection of variables. Results suggested that authors and genre vary inconsistently. The second pilot study was based on Shakespeare's plays using a wider selection of variables to assess their discriminating power in relation to a past study. It was observed that the selected variables were of satisfactory predictive power, hence judged suitable for the task. Subsequently, four experiments were conducted using the variables tested in the second pilot study and personal correspondence and poetry from two additional authors, Edna St Vincent Millay and William Butler Yeats. Stepwise multiple linear regression and regression trees were selected to deal with the first two prediction experiments, and ordinal logistic regression and artificial neural networks for two classification experiments. The first experiment revealed inconsistency in accuracy of prediction and total number of variables in the final models affected by differences in authorship and genre. The second experiment revealed inconsistencies for the same factors in terms of accuracy only. The third experiment showed total number of variables in the model and error in the final model to be affected in various degrees by authorship, genre, different variable types and order in which the variables had been calculated. The last experiment had all measurements affected by the four factors. Examination of whether differences in method within each task play an important part revealed significant influences of method, authorship, and genre for the prediction problems, whereas all factors including method and various interactions dominated in the classification problems. Given the current data and methods used, as well as the results obtained, generalizable conclusions for the wider author population have been avoided

Migrants and Health Care: Responses by European Regions

This paper includes 11 regional reports with detailed information on health systems, rules and initiatives relating to migrants' health

Forecasting: theory and practice

Forecasting has always been in the forefront of decision making and planning. The uncertainty that surrounds the future is both exciting and challenging, with individuals and organisations seeking to minimise risks and maximise utilities. The lack of a free-lunch theorem implies the need for a diverse set of forecasting methods to tackle an array of applications. This unique article provides a non-systematic review of the theory and the practice of forecasting. We offer a wide range of theoretical, state-of-the-art models, methods, principles, and approaches to prepare, produce, organise, and evaluate forecasts. We then demonstrate how such theoretical concepts are applied in a variety of real-life contexts, including operations, economics, finance, energy, environment, and social good. We do not claim that this review is an exhaustive list of methods and applications. The list was compiled based on the expertise and interests of the authors. However, we wish that our encyclopedic presentation will offer a point of reference for the rich work that has been undertaken over the last decades, with some key insights for the future of the forecasting theory and practice

Multiple territories in dispute : water policies, participation and Mapuce indigenous rights in Patagonia, Argentina

This thesis is about the multiple territories which dispute the shape and control of the development of the Trahunco-Quitrahue watershed, at Cerro Chapelko, Neuquén province in Argentinean Patagonian. Built into these disputes are the struggles of Mapuce peoples -indigenous peoples of the region- for the recognition in practice of their indigenous rights and the implications these have for natural resources management policies and actions, as well as for participation in decision-making processes. This study began focusing on a proposal of local and provincial water agencies to resolve local water demands by creating a water users association proposed for a small watershed49, the Trahunco stream in San Martín de los Andes (SMA), Patagonia. This territory was claimed by Mapuce communities and hosted several tourism enterprises. As fieldwork developed, the unravelling of the multiple realities involved in the water policy process, whether through the WUA or outside of it, made me broaden the scope of the research. The interethnic character of the site is reflected in its multiple actors, which include among others, tourism investors and allied businessmen, employees and administrators of an International Ski resort, different state agencies relating to the use and control of water resources and the impact of development projects - and two Mapuce indigenous communities, one of them very active in a Mapuce political organisation. All have different views, interests, possibilities and rights in respect to how development is to be defined. Therefore, once into the writing of this text, I decided that the notion of territory was the most appropriate for bringing together into the analysis the multiple dimensions intertwined at this local water policy implementation process. Territory is a concept that allows articulating the processes of social interactions and relationships, disputes for resource uses and control and, identity formation. The main questions of the research are: -What are the social interfaces of the WUA in San Martín de los Andes and how and why are the different meanings, projects and representations negotiated? -What are the processes involved in creating alternative policy spaces as Mapuce countertendencies for furthering their indigenous rights and their notions of territory? For answering these and other nested questions, I followed an actor-oriented perspective which engages with ethnographic research and participant observation as one of my main research strategies. This implied social interaction with the groups researched within their daily activities, gathering information in a systematic, non intrusive way, in order to get a view from ‘within’ the location selected for study. It required entering the fieldwork without a “formal hypothesis” but only with a preliminary comprehension of the problem to be studied. These notions guided the first steps of fieldwork, allowing for an accommodation to the circumstances found and the identification of what the actors consider as the problem around the topic of my interest as a researcher. My primary interest was to do research on the processes of genesis and implementation of a Water Users Association. While doing participant observation I combined a number of research techniques such as informal and formal discussions, individual interviews and meetings with focus groups. Attendance at local meetings, works and other events such as street protests, celebrations, markets, also drew attention to some aspects of the research and led me to new, unexpected insights and questions. For carrying out the fieldwork of this research, several periods of time were spent at San Martín de los Andes: seven months during 2001, three months in 2004 and shorter (one or two weeks) visits in 2003, 2006 and 2007. During the year between September 2006 and August 2007, I was working as a consultant within the Directorate of Indigenous Peoples and Natural Resources, at the National Secretariat of Environment and Sustainable Development. In this opportunity I worked closely to the Director, who is also one of the main Mapuce representatives of the political organisation whose actions this study focuses on. In this period, I met and shared discussions with many indigenous people's representatives and other Mapuce actors. This study analyses Mapuce peoples struggles for carving alternative policy spaces for enforcing indigenous rights and establish a ‘new relationship with the state’. For doing so, I firstly focused on a participatory water intervention in which a variety of actors were involved. Acknowledging the politics of participation in policy processes aiming to regulate the management of such vital resource led me to other arenas of action where actors excluded from the formal intervention, were actually generating new spaces of negotiation, not without conflicts. The social fields of interaction and dispute related to territory and sovereignty in Cerro Chapelko, at San Martín de los Andes, in the province of Neuquén are contextualized in the historically constructed cultural repertoires which influence today’s relationships between the hegemonic elites in power, other members of society and the Mapuce indigenous peoples of the region. Despite the formal recognition of indigenous rights in the national Constitution and the state’s agreements to International Conventions, the indigenous peoples of Argentina do not have access to their enforcement. Contemporary debates about the pre-existence of indigenous peoples in the region still influence the practical recognition of their rights. This is not a minor issue due to the relevance it has for exercising the autonomy in their territories. This permeates into the workings of state institutions involved in water, natural resources and environment management and control. At local level, the study focuses in the particular workings of such institutions in the process of implementation of a participatory water policy that brings together the multiple users at the watershed level, leading to the creation of a Water Users Association. The dynamics of this process reveal the processes of inclusion and exclusion that emerge out of these interfaces, so much related to the denial or ignorance of indigenous rights. The study shows how contemporary local state agencies manage to reproduce the state’s historical notion of territory as a homogenizing process of control and the denial of the rights of indigenous peoples. The exclusion of Mapuce political organisation from the scheme to develop a Water Users Association was not a cul-de-sac for them to pursue their political project. The strategies and tactics that the Mapuce deployed to create alternative policy spaces for their exercise of territoriality, which is a main element of their struggle for the recognition of indigenous rights, resulted a much more effective way for their participation in decision making. The construction of these countertendencies, that Mapuce call in general ‘the new relationship with the state’, emerge as alternative modernities which by incorporating difference into policy agendas and institutions, start to put in practice a recognition that in general is still only on paper. Therefore, the watershed is a site where multiple notions of territory are being disputed through different means and for different interests. Tourism developments advance their economic territorial projects supported by the sector’s businesses at local and regional level, The state, which influences the control through interventions as tools, shapes the territory sometimes favouring such projects. Mapuce people’s community members and political organisation, and their allies from different civil society sectors, claim their rights to participate in such definitions and propose new forms of participation. The meanings of ‘participation’ therefore, become a central issue of debate among these different actors struggling to get their notions on the political agenda. A main issue for getting indigenous rights right therefore, is the notion of differential modes of citizenship rooted in the concept of autonomy expressed within a pluri-national state, whose institutions and parliament should include Mapuce -and other peoples, as such. This is the issue from which all other aspects of indigenous rights unfold, therefore, constituting the motor of Mapuce peoples political movement. However, state institutions approach participation as an invitation to stakeholders to be informed on policy programmes and actions. Participation is reduced to a method or technique even in the best of the cases. From the discourses of state functionaries and legal advisors, in this study it becomes clear that the issue of differentiated citizenship is not incorporated into how institutions work. The coexistence of multiple territories without conflict requires that the state and wider society acknowledge in practice these rights the Mapuce are defending. Otherwise, the meanings of participation that are embedded in institutional practices that in fact over-rule or ignore these rights, most probably will continue to generate conflicts and disputes. <br/

A Statistical Approach to the Alignment of fMRI Data

Multi-subject functional Magnetic Resonance Image studies are critical. The anatomical and functional structure varies across subjects, so the image alignment is necessary. We define a probabilistic model to describe functional alignment. Imposing a prior distribution, as the matrix Fisher Von Mises distribution, of the orthogonal transformation parameter, the anatomical information is embedded in the estimation of the parameters, i.e., penalizing the combination of spatially distant voxels. Real applications show an improvement in the classification and interpretability of the results compared to various functional alignment methods