THE STUDY OF SOUND AESTHETICS BASED ON THE NARRATIVES OF RADIO DRAMA

Abstract. The present study has been performed aiming at adopting a novel approach towards the sound aesthetics of radio dramas based on narrative analysis. In this regard, there is a question raised as to how can the audio elements be applied in order to maximally beautify the radio dramas based on the narratives they deliver? By narrative, the linear and nonlinear recounting of events is intended in the present study. The linear narrative is the one told based on the order and sequence of the events and the nonlinear narrative is the one in which the temporal and special constituents have been displaced. The contents of six radio drama were purposively selected and investigated based on narrativeanalysis method. The present study presents analyses of two radio dramas. The dramas utilized herein are inter alia the narratives told based on a nonlinear recounting of the events. Three indicators, i.e. Genette’s theory of order, continuation and repetition, have been combined with the aesthetical audio elements like repetition of sound, sound perspective and the speed with which sound is broadcasted. The sound design can make use of each of the audio design elements, like effect, music, voice and silence, based on the temporal and spatial components of the narrative. That is to say that the retrospective and futuristic approaches of the narratives should be firstly determined and thenthe aesthetical components of the audio elements can be taken into consideration based on the narrative’s timing. Also, the settings of the events are associated with the perspective’s aestheticism. The audio elements helped by the temporal disorders, repetition of the events and the duration which every incident lasts can add to the creation of new concepts. Based on perspective as an audio element in radio dramas, a sort of abstract location and also an actual locality should be taken into account for the temporal disorders. The perspective elements associated with the creativity of the designer and his or her perception of the elements’ arrangement (effect, music, voice and silence) areemployed to create a type of locus that can be completely existent in the outside world and/or be completely symbolic. Moreover, the repetition of the sound, musical and verbal effects can provide for the spatial container of the retroactive narratives.Keywords: narrative, sound aesthetics, sound design, radio drama

Defining CSFs for information systems strategic planning in holding companies: a case study of an Iranian managerial holding company (system group)

Holding companies (HCs) differ in their nature and behavior from other types of companies. Their role is to support, control and budget their subsidiaries. In general, HCs do not compete directly with one another, as it is difficult to find two HCs with the same product and service portfolios. Competition occurs instead at the subsidiary level against companies, which may or may not be part of other HCs, in overlapping markets with similar products and services. This concept of competition, which differs from that of typical commercial companies, is central to the development of HC strategies for supporting and controlling their subsidiaries. Information Systems Strategic Planning (ISSP) attempts to align information systems strategy with business strategy by directing the investment in information systems so as to satisfy strategic goals. Traditionally, ISSP methodologies have addressed the definition of information systems for Strategic Business Units (SBU). This research demonstrates, using a case study of an Iranian Managerial Holding Company, how ISSP can be applied instead to Strategic Business Processes (SBP). It illustrates how to define Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and Information System Needs (ISN) on Strategic Processes instead of Strategic Units. Moreover, this study combines the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) with a statistical questionnaire survey to define strategic processes

Stimulation Effect of Low Level Laser Therapy on Sciatic Nerve Regeneration in Rat

Introduction: Recent studies exhibited that low-level laser therapy (LLLT) accelerates regeneration process of injured peripheral nerve tissue. The objective  of  this study  was investigat the effect of LLLT (780 nm) on regeneration of the injured right sciatic nerve of male Wistar rat.Methods: In this research work, the effect of LLLT (780nm) on the regeneration process and reconstruction of peripheral in injured right side sciatic nerve was investigated. Twelve adult male Wistar rats underwent surgery in aseptic condition under general anesthesia to induce a lesion to their right side sciatic nerve. Only the experimental group was treated by laser, before suturing the location. The damaged nerve was directly irradiated with (2J, 100 mW, 40 s). Irradiation procedure terminated on 21 days with little improvement (4 J, 200 mW, 40 s) across the skin surface of experimental group. Rats were selected randomly from each group to be sacrificed on different periods and histopathological examination was carried out on the extracted   nerves.Results:  Significant acceleration of revascularization and angiogenesis of the injury site was observed in the experimental group. Furthermore, a reduction of hemorrhages and increase in blood supply was observed. Also, Wallerian degeneration decreased while higher axonal density compared to the control rats was  observed. Moreover, the cross-section analysis of the injured area on the 14th and 21st days as  post-surgery showed that the nerve sheath diameter in the lesion area of the experimental group was reduced.  While the ratio between thicknesses increased in the control group.Conclusion: The current study suggests that laser phototherapy at 780 nm could accelerate the regeneration process of injured peripheral nerves tissue

Design and Printing of a Low-Cost 3D-Printed Nasal Osteotomy Training Model: Development and Feasibility Study.

BACKGROUND: Nasal osteotomy is a commonly performed procedure during rhinoplasty for both functional and cosmetic reasons. Teaching and learning this procedure proves difficult due to the reliance on nuanced tactile feedback. For surgical simulation, trainees are traditionally limited to cadaveric bones, which can be costly and difficult to obtain. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to design and print a low-cost midface model for nasal osteotomy simulation. METHODS: A 3D reconstruction of the midface was modified using the free open-source design software Meshmixer (Autodesk Inc). The pyriform aperture was smoothed, and support rods were added to hold the fragments generated from the simulation in place. Several models with various infill densities were printed using a desktop 3D printer to determine which model best mimicked human facial bone. RESULTS: A midface simulation set was designed using a desktop 3D printer, polylactic acid filament, and easily accessible tools. A nasal osteotomy procedure was successfully simulated using the model. CONCLUSIONS: 3D printing is a low-cost, accessible technology that can be used to create simulation models. With growing restrictions on trainee duty hours, the simulation set can be used by programs to augment surgical training

An ANFIS-based cache replacement method for mitigating cache pollution attacks in Named Data Networking

Named Data Networking (NDN) is a candidate next-generation Internet architecture designed to overcome the fundamental limitations of the current IP-based Internet, in particular strong security. The ubiquitous in-network caching is a key NDN feature. However, pervasive caching strengthens security problems namely cache pollution attacks including cache poisoning (i.e., introducing malicious content into caches as false-locality) and cache pollution (i.e., ruining the cache locality with new unpopular content as locality-disruption). In this paper, a new cache replacement method based on Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) is presented to mitigate the cache pollution attacks in NDN. The ANFIS structure is built using the input data related to the inherent characteristics of the cached content and the output related to the content type (i.e., healthy, locality-disruption, and false-locality). The proposed method detects both false-locality and locality-disruption attacks as well as a combination of the two on different topologies with high accuracy, and mitigates them efficiently without very much computational cost as compared to the most common policies

On the use of convolutional neural networks for robust classification of multiple fingerprint captures

Fingerprint classification is one of the most common approaches to accelerate the identification in large databases of fingerprints. Fingerprints are grouped into disjoint classes, so that an input fingerprint is compared only with those belonging to the predicted class, reducing the penetration rate of the search. The classification procedure usually starts by the extraction of features from the fingerprint image, frequently based on visual characteristics. In this work, we propose an approach to fingerprint classification using convolutional neural networks, which avoid the necessity of an explicit feature extraction process by incorporating the image processing within the training of the classifier. Furthermore, such an approach is able to predict a class even for low-quality fingerprints that are rejected by commonly used algorithms, such as FingerCode. The study gives special importance to the robustness of the classification for different impressions of the same fingerprint, aiming to minimize the penetration in the database. In our experiments, convolutional neural networks yielded better accuracy and penetration rate than state-of-the-art classifiers based on explicit feature extraction. The tested networks also improved on the runtime, as a result of the joint optimization of both feature extraction and classification