Robust Audio Adversarial Example for a Physical Attack

We propose a method to generate audio adversarial examples that can attack a state-of-the-art speech recognition model in the physical world. Previous work assumes that generated adversarial examples are directly fed to the recognition model, and is not able to perform such a physical attack because of reverberation and noise from playback environments. In contrast, our method obtains robust adversarial examples by simulating transformations caused by playback or recording in the physical world and incorporating the transformations into the generation process. Evaluation and a listening experiment demonstrated that our adversarial examples are able to attack without being noticed by humans. This result suggests that audio adversarial examples generated by the proposed method may become a real threat.Comment: Accepted to IJCAI 201

Middle Management in Agriculture: Roles, Functions, and Practices

The role of middle managers in agriculture and agribusiness has been neglected by applied - as well as disciplinary - research, while gaining increasing importance in practice. This study provides an overview of middle management research and analyzes middle managers' authority in human resource decision-making and human resource management practices based on in-depth interviews analyzed through a grounded theory approach. Results show that these middle managers use both traditional and participative management practices to accomplish organizational goals, but would benefit from training tailored to their industry and specific needs.Case study research method, grounded theory, human resource management (HRM) practices, middle manager, supervisor, supervisory function, Agribusiness, Labor and Human Capital,

Varieties of Ritual Theory & Information Technology Implementation

This paper draws on contemporary ritual theory from two different disciplines and research traditions to show howrituals can affect IT projects. These theories suggest that commonplace project activities, such as signoffs and scopechanges, have symbolic and emotional effects that not only persist, but also accumulate from one occurrence to thenext. The analysis extends our understanding of ritual in IT projects and has practical implications for IT managers

Evaluating large language models' ability to understand metaphor and sarcasm using a screening test for Asperger syndrome

Metaphors and sarcasm are precious fruits of our highly-evolved social communication skills. However, children with Asperger syndrome are known to have difficulties in comprehending sarcasm, even if they possess a certain level of verbal IQ sufficient for understanding metaphors. Given that, a screening test that scores the ability to understand metaphor and sarcasm has been used to differentiate Asperger syndrome from other symptoms exhibiting akin external behaviors (e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder). This study uses the standardized test to examine the capability of recent large language models (LLMs) in understanding human nuanced communication. The results divulged that, whereas their ability to comprehend metaphors has been improved with the increase of the number of model parameters, the improvement in sarcasm understanding was not observed. This implies that an alternative approach is imperative to imbue LLMs with the capacity to grasp sarcasm, which has been associated with the amygdala, a pivotal cerebral region for emotional learning, in the case of humans

Considering Visual Artifacts in IT Cultures

Visuals carry cultural codes that communicate and reinforce cultural values and assumptions. Visual artifacts such as Powerpoint presentations are a ubiquitous feature in organizational life, but they are not yet widely studied. This paper presents a framework for analyzing visual artifacts that draws on concepts from visual and social science methods. In IT organizations and occupations, visual artifacts are useful tools for introducing, discussing and legitimating cultural assumptions and values for multiple audiences within technology organizations. To gain additional insight into IT culture, researchers should focus on visual artifacts as they are used in professions and organizations in IT

IteraTTA: An interface for exploring both text prompts and audio priors in generating music with text-to-audio models

Recent text-to-audio generation techniques have the potential to allow novice users to freely generate music audio. Even if they do not have musical knowledge, such as about chord progressions and instruments, users can try various text prompts to generate audio. However, compared to the image domain, gaining a clear understanding of the space of possible music audios is difficult because users cannot listen to the variations of the generated audios simultaneously. We therefore facilitate users in exploring not only text prompts but also audio priors that constrain the text-to-audio music generation process. This dual-sided exploration enables users to discern the impact of different text prompts and audio priors on the generation results through iterative comparison of them. Our developed interface, IteraTTA, is specifically designed to aid users in refining text prompts and selecting favorable audio priors from the generated audios. With this, users can progressively reach their loosely-specified goals while understanding and exploring the space of possible results. Our implementation and discussions highlight design considerations that are specifically required for text-to-audio models and how interaction techniques can contribute to their effectiveness.Comment: Accepted to the 24th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR 2023

Two Techniques for Qualitative Data Analysis: Computer-Based Analysis Tools

Numerous innovative techniques for qualitative data analysis have been emerging and gaining consideration and acceptance in IS research. Amongtheseareanalyticinduction,hermeneutics,ethnography,participantobservation,contentanalysis,groundedtheory, case studies and action research

Teaching “people networking” skills for CIS students

Recent research on organizational social networks has continued to emphasize the importance of networks for individual as well as organizational performance in the U.S. Given the importance of networks and networking, we argue that IT students must learn networking skills in addition to technical skills in order to better understand the role of technology in organizations and to increase their chances of success in their careers. The goal of this paper is to describe a teaching module that we developed for CIS undergraduate students to improve their networking skills

Finding Common Ground: Collaboration Across the Disciplines in the Scholarship of Teaching

Many recent writings on the scholarship of teaching discuss the need to locate this scholarship within the disciplines. The authors argue that while scholarship within the disciplines is important, it should not come at the expense of work across the disciplines. They demonstrate the usefulness of cross-disciplinary collaboration for the scholarship of teaching and learning through the specific example of how collaboration contributed to their understanding of the role of such scholarship in the teaching of mathematics and negotiations courses. The authors also outline some of the pitfalls of cross-disciplinary collaboration, and they offer suggestions for beginning collaborative initiatives