17 ways to say yes:Toward nuanced tone of voice in AAC and speech technology

People with complex communication needs who use speech-generating devices have very little expressive control over their tone of voice. Despite its importance in human interaction, the issue of tone of voice remains all but absent from AAC research and development however. In this paper, we describe three interdisciplinary projects, past, present and future: The critical design collection Six Speaking Chairs has provoked deeper discussion and inspired a social model of tone of voice; the speculative concept Speech Hedge illustrates challenges and opportunities in designing more expressive user interfaces; the pilot project Tonetable could enable participatory research and seed a research network around tone of voice. We speculate that more radical interactions might expand frontiers of AAC and disrupt speech technology as a whole

Learning and interaction in groups with computers: when do ability and gender matter?

In the research reported in this paper, we attempt to identify the background and process factors influencing the effectiveness of groupwork with computers in terms of mathematics learning. The research used a multi-site case study design in six schools and involved eight groups of six mixed-sex, mixed-ability pupils (aged 9-12) undertaking three research tasks – two using Logo and one a database. Our findings suggest that, contrary to other recent research, the pupil characteristics of gender and ability have no direct influence on progress in group tasks with computers. However, status effects – pupils' perceptions of gender and ability – do have an effect on the functioning of the group, which in turn can impede progress for all pupils concerned

The reform of the English National Health Service: professional dominance, countervailing powers and the buyers’ revolt

The 2012 English Health and Social Care Act marked a fundamental reform of statutory healthcare in England in ways which elevated the interests of the government over the interests of patients or the professions, and which undermined traditional alliances between professions and patients. Drawing on a countervailing powers framework we present a thematic analysis of parliamentary papers, press releases and other publicly available materials produced across the reform process by four key actors in the healthcare field—the government, medical profession, patients and ‘for profit’ providers. This analysis explores how the pursuit of sectional interests by these actors may have acted to constrain potential alliances and ultimately contributed to the enactment of the legislation by default. This conclusion has relevance for other Beveridge model healthcare systems undergoing health and social care reform under the auspices of austerity

Vortex line in a neutral finite-temperature superfluid Fermi gas

The structure of an isolated vortex in a dilute two-component neutral superfluid Fermi gas is studied within the context of self-consistent Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory. Various thermodynamic properties are calculated and the shift in the critical temperature due to the presence of the vortex is analyzed. The gapless excitations inside the vortex core are studied and a scheme to detect these states and thus the presence of the vortex is examined. The numerical results are compared with various analytical expressions when appropriate.Comment: 8 pages, 6 embedded figure

A laboratory based system for Laue micro x-ray diffraction

A laboratory diffraction system capable of illuminating individual grains in a polycrystalline matrix is described. Using a microfocus x-ray source equipped with a tungsten anode and prefigured monocapillary optic, a micro-x-ray diffraction system with a 10 mum beam was developed. The beam profile generated by the ellipsoidal capillary was determined using the"knife edge" approach. Measurement of the capillary performance, indicated a beam divergence of 14 mrad and a useable energy bandpass from 5.5 to 19 keV. Utilizing the polychromatic nature of the incident x-ray beam and application of the Laue indexing software package X-Ray Micro-Diffraction Analysis Software, the orientation and deviatoric strain of single grains in a polycrystalline material can be studied. To highlight the system potential the grain orientation and strain distribution of individual grains in a polycrystalline magnesium alloy (Mg 0.2 wt percent Nd) was mapped before and after tensile loading. A basal (0002) orientation was identified in the as-rolled annealed alloy; after tensile loading some grains were observed to undergo an orientation change of 30 degrees with respect to (0002). The applied uniaxial load was measured as an increase in the deviatoric tensile strain parallel to the load axis (37 References)

Habit, Memory, and the Persistence of Socialist-Era Street Names in Postsocialist Bucharest, Romania

The critical study of toponymy has paid considerable attention to the renaming of urban places following revolutionary political change. Such renaming is intended to institutionalize a new political agenda through shaping the meanings in everyday practices and landscapes. Renaming, however, might not always be successful, and this article examines this issue with reference to a market in Bucharest, Romania. Originally named Piaţa Moghioroş during the socialist era to commemorate a leading Communist Party activist, the market was renamed in the postsocialist period. Yet, more than two decades on, the original name remains in widespread everyday use. Using a mixed-method approach, we seek to advance the critical toponymies literature by exploring the persistence of the socialist-era name within everyday practice. Although many authors have highlighted the issue of popular resistance to an unpopular renaming, we find little evidence of conscious resistance, and instead we explore the importance of habit within everyday practices as an explanation, drawing on an understanding of habit derived from sociocognitive psychology. This perspective proposes that habits are stable and hard to break if the broader context in which they are situated is stable. We suggest that this explanation, rather than popular contestation, has more to offer in understanding the persistence of the toponym Piaţa Moghioroş. We thus highlight the importance of considering how the “users” of place names react to the changes of such names and create their own meanings in relation to them in ways unintended by elites

Dissociative electron attachment to the H2O molecule. II. Nuclear dynamics on coupled electronic surfaces within the local complex potential model

We report the results of a first-principles study of dissociative electron attachment to H2O. The cross sections are obtained from nuclear dynamics calculations carried out in full dimensionality within the local complex potential model by using the multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree method. The calculations employ our previously obtained global, complex-valued, potential-energy surfaces for the three (doublet B1, doublet A1, and doublet B2) electronic Feshbach resonances involved in this process. These three metastable states of H2O- undergo several degeneracies, and we incorporate both the Renner-Teller coupling between the B1 and A1 states as well as the conical intersection between the A1 and B2 states into our treatment. The nuclear dynamics are inherently multidimensional and involve branching between different final product arrangements as well as extensive excitation of the diatomic fragment. Our results successfully mirror the qualitative features of the major fragment channels observed, but are less successful in reproducing the available results for some of the minor channels. We comment on the applicability of the local complex potential model to such a complicated resonant system.Comment: Corrected version of Phys Rev A 75, 012711 (2007