Barriers for telecommunication accessibility and needs assessment of video relay services (VRS): Utilization of VRS for the deaf community

Approximately 28 million deaf and hard-of-hearing people reside in the United States, and a majority of them benefit from Telecommunications Relay Services which is mandated by Title IV of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Title IV of ADA was drafted based on the provision for TTY services. As Video Relay Services emerged in 2002, it surpassed TTY relay services because of its efficiency compared to the traditional TTY relay. However, Video Relay Services is a relatively new relay format, and no legal mandates for VRS technologies have been established. Thus, there is a strong need for a better understanding of how VRS are utilized for further policy development. A survey study was conducted among all deaf and hard-of-hearing professionals employed at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) in Rochester, New York. Comparative quantitative analysis of whether deaf and hard-of-hearing people are satisfied with either text-based relay services or video relay services to answer the primary research question of this thesis: does VRS provide functionally equivalent telephone access for the deaf

H−C1 Maps and elliptic SPDEs with polynomial and exponential perturbations of Nelson's Euclidean free field

AbstractElliptic stochastic partial differential equations (SPDE) with polynomial and exponential perturbation terms defined in terms of Nelson's Euclidean free field on Rd are studied using results by S. Kusuoka and A.S. Üstünel and M. Zakai concerning transformation of measures on abstract Wiener space. SPDEs of this type arise, in particular, in (Euclidean) quantum field theory with interactions of the polynomial or exponential type. The probability laws of the solutions of such SPDEs are given by Girsanov probability measures, that are non-linearly transformed measures of the probability law of Nelson's free field defined on subspaces of Schwartz space of tempered distributions

Experimental Studies on the Elastic-Plastic Behavior of Braced Frames under Repeated Horizontal Loading. Part 1 Experiments of Braces with an H-shaped Cross Section in a Frame

An experimental study is conducted to obtain the hysteretic characteristics of the brace itself in a braced frame under repeated loading. Braces with an H-shaped cross section are tested in a single or a double bracing system. The effects of the slenderness ratio, the buckling plane and the local buckling are investigated. Furthermore, the fundamental properties of a brace for the formulation of the hysteretic characteristics under repeated loading are extracted

Analysis of Information Spreading by Social Media Based on Emotion and Empathy

The number of social media users has increased exponentially in recent times, and various types of social media platforms are being introduced. While social media has become a convenient communication tool, its use has caused various social problems. Some users who cannot imagine the emotions their posts may induce in readers cause what is termed as “the flaming phenomenon.” In some cases, users intentionally repeat strong remarks for self-advertisement. To identify the cause of this phenomenon, it is necessary to analyze the posted contents or the personalities of the users who cause the flaming. However, it is difficult to reach a generalized conclusion because each case varies depending on the circumstances and individual. In this chapter, we study the phenomenon of information spreading via communication on social media by conducting a detailed analysis of replies and number of retweets in Japanese, and we reveal the relation between the feedback on such posts and the emotions or empathy they result in

Effect of propranolol on regional myocardial function in anesthetized open-chest dogs with myocardial ischemia

Effects of propranolol on ischemic segmental function were studied in anesthetized open-chest dogs. Two segment-length gauges were used for measuring the regional myocardial function: one was sutured on to the left ventricular surface perfused by the anterior descending coronary artery (ischemic zone) and the other was on to that perfused by the circumflex coronary artery (normal zone). A bolus of propranolol (0.5 mg/kg) was injected into the right femoral vein. Five min later, the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) was completely occluded for one mine and thereafter released. Then a second coronary occlusion for 20 min was performed; an interval of 20 min was allowed between two occlusions. Propranolol, in the ischemic segment, apparently decreased the extent of paradoxical lengthening in the late systole following one min LAD occlusion, and facilitated improvement of segmental function after release of the occlusion. Moreover, the extent of abnormal stretching induced by 20 min occlusion during early systole, was also reduced by propranolol pretreatment. In contrast, compensatory increase in shortening by the normal segment was disturbed by propranolol. These results suggest that propranolol might exert a favourable influence on the segmental myocardial function during either transient or maintained myocardial ischemia.</p