Spoken affect classification : algorithms and experimental implementation : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Machine-based emotional intelligence is a requirement for natural interaction between humans and computer interfaces and a basic level of accurate emotion perception is needed for computer systems to respond adequately to human emotion. Humans convey emotional information both intentionally and unintentionally via speech patterns. These vocal patterns are perceived and understood by listeners during conversation. This research aims to improve the automatic perception of vocal emotion in two ways. First, we compare two emotional speech data sources: natural, spontaneous emotional speech and acted or portrayed emotional speech. This comparison demonstrates the advantages and disadvantages of both acquisition methods and how these methods affect the end application of vocal emotion recognition. Second, we look at two classification methods which have gone unexplored in this field: stacked generalisation and unweighted vote. We show how these techniques can yield an improvement over traditional classification methods

Towards Indonesian Speech-Emotion Automatic Recognition (I-SpEAR)

Even though speech-emotion recognition (SER) has been receiving much attention as research topic, there are still some disputes about which vocal features can identify certain emotion. Emotion expression is also known to be differed according to the cultural backgrounds that make it important to study SER specific to the culture where the language belongs to. Furthermore, only a few studies addresses the SER in Indonesian which what this study attempts to explore. In this study, we extract simple features from 3420 voice data gathered from 38 participants. The features are compared by means of linear mixed effect model which shows that people who are in emotional and non-emotional state can be differentiated by their speech duration. Using SVM and speech duration as input feature, we achieve 76.84% average accuracy in classifying emotional and non-emotional speech.Comment: 4 pages, 3 tables, published in 4th International Conference on New Media (Conmedia) on 8-10 Nov. 2017 (http://conmedia.umn.ac.id/) [in print as in Sept. 17, 2017

Affective neuroscience, emotional regulation, and international relations

International relations (IR) has witnessed an emerging interest in neuroscience, particularly for its relevance to a now widespread scholarship on emotions. Contributing to this scholarship, this article draws on the subfields of affective neuroscience and neuropsychology, which remain largely unexplored in IR. Firstly, the article draws on affective neuroscience in illuminating affect's defining role in consciousness and omnipresence in social behavior, challenging the continuing elision of emotions in mainstream approaches. Secondly, it applies theories of depth neuropsychology, which suggest a neural predisposition originating in the brain's higher cortical regions to attenuate emotional arousal and limit affective consciousness. This predisposition works to preserve individuals' self-coherence, countering implicit assumptions about rationality and motivation within IR theory. Thirdly, it outlines three key implications for IR theory. It argues that affective neuroscience and neuropsychology offer a route towards deep theorizing of ontologies and motivations. It also leads to a reassessment of the social regulation of emotions, particularly as observed in institutions, including the state. It also suggests a productive engagement with constructivist and poststructuralist approaches by addressing the agency of the body in social relations. The article concludes by sketching the potential for a therapeutically-attuned approach to IR

Never Being Able to Say You’re Sorry: Barriers to Apology By Leaders in Group Conflicts

Conner and Jordan discuss three implications of the foregoing analysis for leaders, peacemakers, and scholars interested in apology as an instrument to advance justice, prevent destructive conflict, and promote cooperation. First, an effective apology is likely to occur only after other changes have softened up negative attitudes between the groups--referred to here as ripeness. Second, even with a degree of ripeness, apology is unlikely without a window of opportunity, a confluence of circumstances that permits the leader to limit the scope of the apology so as not to concede too much. Third, even if these conditions are satisfied, words alone are not enough for an apology to be effective

Never Being Able to Say You’re Sorry: Barriers to Apology By Leaders in Group Conflicts

Conner and Jordan discuss three implications of the foregoing analysis for leaders, peacemakers, and scholars interested in apology as an instrument to advance justice, prevent destructive conflict, and promote cooperation. First, an effective apology is likely to occur only after other changes have softened up negative attitudes between the groups--referred to here as ripeness. Second, even with a degree of ripeness, apology is unlikely without a window of opportunity, a confluence of circumstances that permits the leader to limit the scope of the apology so as not to concede too much. Third, even if these conditions are satisfied, words alone are not enough for an apology to be effective

Computational Controversy

Climate change, vaccination, abortion, Trump: Many topics are surrounded by fierce controversies. The nature of such heated debates and their elements have been studied extensively in the social science literature. More recently, various computational approaches to controversy analysis have appeared, using new data sources such as Wikipedia, which help us now better understand these phenomena. However, compared to what social sciences have discovered about such debates, the existing computational approaches mostly focus on just a few of the many important aspects around the concept of controversies. In order to link the two strands, we provide and evaluate here a controversy model that is both, rooted in the findings of the social science literature and at the same time strongly linked to computational methods. We show how this model can lead to computational controversy analytics that have full coverage over all the crucial aspects that make up a controversy.Comment: In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Social Informatics (SocInfo) 201

Understanding construction delay analysis and the role of pre-construction programming

Copyright © 2013, American Society of Civil Engineers. This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below.Modern construction projects commonly suffer from delay in their completions. The resolution of time and cost claims consequently flowing from such delays continues to remain a difficult undertaking for all project parties. A common approach often relied on by contractors and their employers (or their representatives) to resolve this matter involves applying various delay analysis techniques, which are all based on construction programs originally developed for managing the project. However, evidence from literature suggests that the reliability of these techniques in ensuring successful claims resolution are often undermined by the nature and quality of the underlying program used. As part of a wider research carried out on delay and disruption analysis in practice, this paper reports on an aspect of the study aimed at exploring preconstruction stage programming issues that affect delay claims resolutions. This aspect is based on an in-depth interview with experienced construction planning engineers in the United Kingdom, conducted after an initial large-scale survey on delay and disruption techniques usage. Summary of key findings and conclusions include: (1) most contractors prefer to use linked bar chart format for their baseline programs over conventional critical path method (CPM) networks; (2) baseline programs are developed using planning software packages. Some of these pose difficulties when employed for most delay analysis techniques, except for simpler ones; (3) manpower loading graphs are not commonly developed as part of the main deliverables during preconstruction stage planning. As a result, most programs are not subjected to resource loading and leveling for them to accurately reflect planned resource usage on site. This practice has detrimental effects on the reliability of baseline programs in their use for resolving delay claims; and (4) baseline program development involves many different experts within construction organizations as expected, but with very little involvement of the employer or its representative. Active client involvement is however quite important as it would facilitate quick program approval/acceptance before construction, a necessary requirement for early delay claims settlement, which otherwise are often left unresolved long after the delaying events with the potential of generating into expensive disputes. The study results provide a better understanding of the key issues that need attention if improvements are to be made in delay claim resolutions. Additional research focusing on the testing of these results using a much larger sample and rigorous statistical analysis for generalization purposes would be helpful in advancing the limited knowledge of this subject matter

The socio-political bases of willingness to join environmental NGOs in China: a study in social cohesion

This article examines willingness to join China’s emerging green movement through an analysis of data from the China General Social Survey of 2006. A question asked about environmental NGO membership shows that whilst only one per cent of respondents claim to be members of an environmental NGO, more than three fifths say they would like to join one in future if there is an opportunity, slightly less than one fifth reject the idea, and the remainder are don’t knows. The paper tests explanations of willingness to join based on instrumentality, ideology, social identity and social capital networks. It finds that instrumental considerations dominate, although ideology, identity and networks contribute incrementally. The conclusion considers the usefulness of willingness to join as an indicator of social cohesion within the framework of a wider effort to evaluate social quality

Northern Eskimo Law Ways and Their Relationship to Contemporary Problems of "Bush Justice": Some Preliminary Observations on Structure and Function

This paper describes the how the basic values, personality, and culture of Northern (Inupiat) Eskimos contribute to attitudes toward conflict and their society’s capacity to resolve conflict. The paper analyzes the influence of Anglo-American agents of change on that capacity and, especially, the legal system and procedures that developed in the post-contact use of the village council to resolve disputes. It discusses the formal intervention of state law through the magisterial system and its interaction with Eskimo law ways that the village council encouraged. A comparison of village councils and magistrate courts points out the apparent success of the councils due to their unique fit with Eskimo values and expectations. Finally, shortcomings of .the current magistrate system are analyzed with recommendations for policy adaptations.Introduction / The Genesis of Eskimo Law Ways in Aboriginal Conflict Resolution / Aboriginal Eskimo Conflict Resolution: An Overview / American Intervention and Eskimo Law Ways / The Village Council / The Contemporary Period: The Magistrate System / Implications for Bush Justice / Conclusion / Bibliograph