History navigation in location-based mobile systems

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview and comparison of concepts that have been proposed to guide users through interaction histories (e.g. for web browsers). The goal is to gain insights into history design that may be used for designing an interaction history for the location-based Tourist Information Provider (TIP) system [8]. The TIP system consists of several services that interact on a mobile device

Steuerung sprechernormalisierender Abbildungen durch künstliche neuronale Netzwerke

Im Sinne dieser Arbeit bedeutet Sprechernormalisierung eine Vorverarbeitung bzw. Filterung der aufbereiteten Eingangssignale eines automatischen Spracherkennungssystems mit dem Ziel, die Variation in den Signalen analoger Äußerungen verschiedener Sprecher zu reduzieren. Dies bewirkt eine Verminderung von Mehrdeutigkeit und dadurch eine Verbesserung der Erkennungsleistung durch den anschließenden Klassifikator.In dieser Arbeit werden Normalisierungen durch ein auf einer Hauptkomponentenanalyse der Barkspektrogramme basierendes Verfahren und durch die Abbildungen der Spektrogramme vermittels ein- und mehrschichtiger Perzeptrone untersucht. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit erfährt hierbei die Interpolierbarkeit von Nachbarschaftsbeziehungen zwischen verschiedenen Sprechern. Hierbei wird speziell darauf eingegangen, wie diese Interpolation unter Verwendung weiterer Perzeptrone ebenfalls automatisch erreicht werden kann. Die hierfür notwendige Information wird wiederum durch Barkspektrogramme sowie durch - ebenfalls aus dem Sprachsignal ermittelte - artikulatorische Parameter bereitgestellt

a methodology for understanding path dependence and path creation

Although an increasing number of studies of technological, institutional and organizational change refer to the concepts of path dependence and path creation, few attempts have been made to consider these concepts explicitly in their methodological accounts. This paper addresses this gap and contributes to the literature by developing a comprehensive methodology that originates from the concepts of path dependence and path creation – path constitution analysis (PCA) – and allows for the integration of multi-actor constellations on multiple levels of analysis within a process perspective. Based upon a longitudinal case study in the field of semiconductors, we illustrate PCA ‘in action’ as a template for other researchers and critically examine its adequacy. We conclude with implications for further path-oriented inquiries

Effect of iodine on early stage thyroid autonomy

AbstractThyroid autonomy is a frequent cause of thyrotoxicosis in regions with iodine deficiency. Epidemiological data suggest that iodide may influence the course of pre-existing thyroid autonomy.Making use of FRTL-5 cells stably expressing a constitutively activating TSH receptor mutation as an in vitro model of thyroid autonomy, we investigated the impact of iodide on proliferation, function and changes in global gene expression.We demonstrate that iodine inhibits growth in TSHR WT and L629F mutant FRTL-5 cells and downregulates e.g. protocadherin cluster (Pcdha1–13) and thyroid responsive element (Thrsp). In addition functional genes e.g. iodotyrosine deiodinase (iyd) and oncogen junB are upregulated, while sodium-iodide-symporter (Nis) and thyroid peroxidase (Tpo) are downregulated by iodide.Iodide tunes down the biological activity of autonomous thyrocytes and may thus be of therapeutic benefit not only to prevent the occurrence of somatic TSHR mutations, causing thyroid autonomy, but also to slow down the development of clinically relevant disease

Firm Expectations and News: Micro v Macro

Using firm-level data, we study how firm expectations adjust to news while accounting for a) the heterogeneity of news and b) the heterogeneity of firms. We classify news as either micro or macro, that is, information about firm-specific developments or information about the aggregate economy. Survey data for German and Italian firms allows us to reject rational expectations: Both types of news predict forecast errors at the firm level. Yet while firm expectations overreact to micro news, they underreact to macro news. We propose a general-equilibrium model where firms suffer from ‘island illusion’ to explain these patterns in the data