La explotación de las artes en la promoción de la Marca Finlandia: análisis crítico del discurso multimodal

En este trabajo de fin de máster se investiga qué impacto tuvo la Marca Finlandia en el uso de las artes finlandesas en Focus – economía y tecnología, una revista publicada por el Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores de Finlandia durante los años más profundos de la crisis económica 2008-2013. En 2008 el Ministro de Asuntos Exteriores de entonces, Alexander Stubb, designó una delegación para desarrollar la marca país de Finlandia, fruto de un proceso del que se presentó en 2010 un documento llamado Tehtävä Suomelle! (¡Misión para Finlandia!), cuyo objetivo fue concretar el diseño y las funciones de la Marca Finlandia. Este trabajo se enfoca en la utilización del arte y de artistas finlandeses en el material creado para apoyar la promoción de la imagen del país y, en última instancia, su competividad económica. Para tener en cuenta el contexto del material objeto de estudio, presentamos el concepto de la marca país y distintos planteamientos teóricos para su realización. Siendo una estrategia estatal polémica, recorremos los puntos de crítica más importantes sobre esta práctica promocional. También nos familiarizamos con la historia de la promoción nacional antes de introducir el presente proyecto, la Marca Finlandia, y sus objetivos. En la parte teórica se presentan los conceptos relevantes para el estudio: el discurso y su análisis crítico, enfatizando su capacidad ideológica para mantener y crear relaciones del poder muy a menudo desiguales. Ya que nuestro material de estudio empírico está compuesto de publicaciones físicas con dimensiones textuales, visuales y hápticas, nuestro método de investigación es observar críticamente estas relaciones desde la perspectiva multimodal. En la parte empírica del trabajo analizamos la composición de la comunicación multimodal del material imprimido, producido por el Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores de Finlandia y sus socios de cooperación. Las revistas anuales Focus– Economía y tecnología se enfocan en noticias y artículos sobre los sectores de la economía y tecnología, pero también incluyen contenido sobre el diseño, la música, la moda, la arquitectura y la danza finlandeses. En nuestro análisis recorremos los campos verbales y visuales utilizados en las revistas para investigar de qué manera se presentaban las artes finlandesas en la operación de Marca Finlandia. Detectamos representaciones textuales, resaltaciones visuales y la combinación de ambos, lo que servía a las metas preterminadas y la imagen requerida por la delegación diseñadora de la marca país. Las revistas compartían el discurso en común que corría paralelo con los objetivos de la Marca Finlandia, que a su vez se puede ver como parte del discurso hegemónico neoliberal en general.

Interaction techniques with novel multimodal feedback for addressing gesture-sensing systems

Users need to be able to address in-air gesture systems, which means finding where to perform gestures and how to direct them towards the intended system. This is necessary for input to be sensed correctly and without unintentionally affecting other systems. This thesis investigates novel interaction techniques which allow users to address gesture systems properly, helping them find where and how to gesture. It also investigates audio, tactile and interactive light displays for multimodal gesture feedback; these can be used by gesture systems with limited output capabilities (like mobile phones and small household controls), allowing the interaction techniques to be used by a variety of device types. It investigates tactile and interactive light displays in greater detail, as these are not as well understood as audio displays. Experiments 1 and 2 explored tactile feedback for gesture systems, comparing an ultrasound haptic display to wearable tactile displays at different body locations and investigating feedback designs. These experiments found that tactile feedback improves the user experience of gesturing by reassuring users that their movements are being sensed. Experiment 3 investigated interactive light displays for gesture systems, finding this novel display type effective for giving feedback and presenting information. It also found that interactive light feedback is enhanced by audio and tactile feedback. These feedback modalities were then used alongside audio feedback in two interaction techniques for addressing gesture systems: sensor strength feedback and rhythmic gestures. Sensor strength feedback is multimodal feedback that tells users how well they can be sensed, encouraging them to find where to gesture through active exploration. Experiment 4 found that they can do this with 51mm accuracy, with combinations of audio and interactive light feedback leading to the best performance. Rhythmic gestures are continuously repeated gesture movements which can be used to direct input. Experiment 5 investigated the usability of this technique, finding that users can match rhythmic gestures well and with ease. Finally, these interaction techniques were combined, resulting in a new single interaction for addressing gesture systems. Using this interaction, users could direct their input with rhythmic gestures while using the sensor strength feedback to find a good location for addressing the system. Experiment 6 studied the effectiveness and usability of this technique, as well as the design space for combining the two types of feedback. It found that this interaction was successful, with users matching 99.9% of rhythmic gestures, with 80mm accuracy from target points. The findings show that gesture systems could successfully use this interaction technique to allow users to address them. Novel design recommendations for using rhythmic gestures and sensor strength feedback were created, informed by the experiment findings.

Improving interfaces for nerve repair

Autologous nerve grafts are the current gold standard for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries. However, there is a need to develop an alternative to this technique, as donor-site morbidities such as neuroma formation and permanent loss of function are a few of the limitations concerned with this technique. Artificial nerve conduits have therefore emerged as an alternative for the repair of short peripheral nerve defects of less than 30 mm, however they do not surpass autologous nerve grafts clinically. To develop a nerve conduit that supports regeneration over long nerve gaps and in large diameter nerves, researchers have focused on functionalizing of the conduits by studying the components that enhance nerve regeneration such as micro/nano-topography, growth factor delivery systems, supportive cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins as well as understanding the complex biological reactions that take place during peripheral nerve regeneration. This thesis presents strategies to improve peripheral nerve interfaces to better the regenerative potential by using dorsal root ganglions (DRGs) isolated from neonatal rats as an in vitro model of nerve regeneration. The work started off by investigating the usefulness of a frog foam protein Ranaspumin-2 (Rsn2) to coat biomaterials for compatibility, this lead to the discovery of temporary cell adhesion on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), which was investigated as a suitable tool to derive cell-sheets for nerve repair. The influence of Rsn2 anchored to specific adhesion peptide sequences, such as isoleucine-lysine-valine-alanine-valine (IKVAV), a sequence derived from laminin proven to promote cell adhesion and neurite outgrowth, was tested as a useful means to influence nerve regeneration. This approach improves the axonal outgrowth and maintains outgrowth long term. Based on the hypothesis that combinational modulation of substrate topography, stiffness and neurotrophic support, affects axonal outgrowth in whole DRGs, dissociated DRGs were used to assess if these factors similarly act at the single cell level. Rho associated protein kinase (ROCK) and myosin II inhibitors, which affect cytoskeletal contractility, were used to influence growth cone traction forces and have shown that these factors work in combination by interfering with growth cone dynamic creating a different response in axonal outgrowth at the single cell level.

Interfaces naturais : exploração e integração de plataformas em contexto educativo

Relatório de estágio para a obtenção do grau de mestre na área de Educação e Comunicação Multimédia

Design de interfaces dinâmicos em sistemas de gestão de conteúdos

Relatório de Estágio para a obtenção do grau de Mestre na área de Educação e Comunicação Multimédia

This Is a Gorgeous-looking Movie”: Multimodal Interplay between Commentary and Subject Materials in Movie Review Entertainment

The present thesis is a study of movie review entertainment (MRE) which is a contemporary Internet-based genre of texts. MRE are movie reviews in video form which are published online, usually as episodes of an MRE web show. Characteristic to MRE is combining humor and honest opinions in varying degrees as well as the use of subject materials, i.e. clips of the movies, as a part of the review. The study approached MRE from a linguistic perspective aiming to discover 1) whether MRE is primarily text- or image-based and what the primary functions of the modes are, 2) how a reviewer linguistically combines subject footage to her/his commentary?, 3) whether there is any internal variation in MRE regarding the aforementioned questions, and 4) how suitable the selected models and theories are in the analysis of this type of contemporary multimodal data. To answer the aforementioned questions, the multimodal system of image—text relations by Martinec and Salway (2005) in combination with categories of cohesion by Halliday and Hasan (1976) were applied to four full MRE videos which were transcribed in their entirety for the study. The primary data represent varying types of MRE: a current movie review, an analytic essay, a riff review, and a humorous essay. The results demonstrated that image vs. text prioritization can vary between reviews and also within a review. The current movie review and the two essays were primarily commentary-focused whereas the riff review was significantly more dependent on the use of imagery as the clips are a major source of humor which is a prominent value in that type of a review. In addition to humor, clips are used to exemplify the commentary. A reviewer also relates new information to the imagery as well as uses two modes to present the information in a review. Linguistically, the most frequent case was that the reviewer names participants and processes lexically in the commentary. Grammatical relations (reference items such as pronouns and adverbs and conjunctive items in the riff review) were also encountered. There was internal variation to a considerable degree. The methods chosen were deemed appropriate to answer the research questions. Further study could go beyond linguistics to include, for instance, genre and media studies.

HTML5 no contexto de desenvolvimento e implementação de plataformas móveis com interfaces tácteis

Dissertação apresentada ao Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Desenvolvimento de Software e Sistemas Interativos, realizada sob a orientação científica do Doutor Pedro Nuno Moreira da Silva, Professor Adjunto da Unidade Técnico-Científica de Informática do Departamento da Escola Superior de Tecnologia do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco.

El papel de la gestualidad en la estructuraci?n multimodal del discurso [recurso electr?nico]

Durante los ?ltimos a?os el an?lisis del discurso oral ha tomado un lugar importante en los estudios de la ling??stica y sobretodo en investigaciones enfocadas en el discurso en el aula. Su naturaleza en el habla permite obtener un gran abanico de elementos por analizar que marca la diferencia con el an?lisis del discurso escrito. Por otro lado, en la comunicaci?n oral el hablante est? pendiente de lo que dice con las palabras, pero no controla de la misma manera los gestos. Aspectos como la expresi?n del rostro, la orientaci?n corporal, la direcci?n de la mirada, etc., enfatizan lo que se quiere expresar en el discurso verbal. As?, los enunciados son bimodales ya que utilizan tanto la modalidad auditivo-vocal como la viso-gestual. Sin embargo, este estudio caracteriza este tipo de comunicaci?n on l t rm no ?mult mo l? o l o qu n l s urso or l l orpus que se analiza hay un canal extra de comunicaci?n como lo es el uso del tablero. Esta exploraci?n le da valor a los gestos en el ?mbito pedag?gico, pues el lenguaje no verbal puede reforzar o sustituir la expresi?n verbal y puede llegar a tener una gran injerencia en la construcci?n del sentido que los alumnos elaboran en torno a la comunicaci?n transmitida por el profesor. Teniendo en cuenta que la lecci?n es una unidad textual, esta investigaci?n busca observar y analizar c?mo los gestos contribuyen a la estructuraci?n del discurso en el aula, es decir, cu?l ser?a la marcaci?n multimodal de la estructura de la lecci?n. Se exploran dos temas centrales: el an?lisis del discurso en el aula y la gestualidad que acompa?a al habla. Para ello se utiliz? el modelo de an?lisis del discurso oral de Sinclair y Coulthard (1992) que tiene como elementos principales la lecci?n, las transacciones y los intercambios, y el modelo de an?lisis de gesticulaciones de McNeill (1998, 2005) que propone cinco dimensiones de gesticulaciones: gestos r?tmicos, gestos de?cticos, gestos ic?nicos, gestos metaf?ricos y gestos cohesivos.Se busc? determinar el papel de los gestos como marcadores o reforzadores de la estructura del discurso oral de una clase de Matem?ticas en ingl?s, dada por un docente nativo para quinto grado en un contexto educativo biling?e. Se hizo una grabaci?n de esa clase de 45 minutos, se procedi? a transcribirla en un formato de dos columnas: Profesor (con los enunciados del profesor) y Estudiantes (con las intervenciones de los estudiantes). Se observ? que el estudio del discurso oral en el aula se enriquece cuando se le a?aden elementos de an?lisis gestual en el mismo. Esta investigaci?n invita a indagar m?s sobre el papel de estos dos componentes de la interacci?n (discurso oral y gestualidad) tanto en el aula como en otras situaciones comunicativas

Multi-purpose adaptable business tier components based on Call Level Interfaces

Call Level Interfaces (CLI) play a key role in business tiers of relational and on some NoSQL database applications whenever a fine tune control between application tiers and the host databases is a key requirement. Unfortunately, in spite of this significant advantage, CLI are low level API, this way not addressing high level architectural requirements. Among the examples we emphasize two situations: a) the need to decouple or not to decouple the development process of business tiers from the development process of application tiers and b) the need to automatically adapt business tiers to new business and/or security needs at runtime. To tackle these CLI drawbacks, and simultaneously keep their advantages, this paper proposes an architecture relying on CLI from which multi-purpose business tiers components are built, herein referred to as Adaptable Business Tier Components (ABTC). Beyond the reference architecture, this paper presents a proof of concept based on Java and Java Database Connectivity (an example of CLI).

Endowing NoSQL DBMS with SQL features through standard Call Level Interfaces

To store, update and retrieve data from database management systems (DBMS), software architects use tools, like call-level interfaces (CLI), which provide standard functionalities to interact with DBMS. However, the emerging of NoSQL paradigm, and particularly new NoSQL DBMS providers, lead to situations where some of the standard functionalities provided by CLI are not supported, very often due to their distance from the relational model or due to design constraints. As such, when a system architect needs to evolve, namely from a relational DBMS to a NoSQL DBMS, he must overcome the difficulties conveyed by the features not provided by NoSQL DBMS. Choosing the wrong NoSQL DBMS risks major issues with components requesting non-supported features. This paper focuses on how to deploy features that are not so commonly supported by NoSQL DBMS (like Stored Procedures, Transactions, Save Points and interactions with local memory structures) by implementing them in standard CLI.

ABTC: multi-purpose adaptable business tier components based on Call Level Interfaces

Call Level Interfaces (CLI) are low level API that play a key role in database applications whenever a fine tune control between application tiers and the host databases is a key requirement. Unfortunately, in spite of this significant advantage, CLI were not designed to address organizational requirements and contextual runtime requirements. Among the examples we emphasize the need to decouple or not to decouple the development process of business tiers from the development process of application tiers and also the need to automatically adapt to new business and/or security needs at runtime. To tackle these CLI drawbacks, and simultaneously keep their advantages, this paper proposes an architecture relying on CLI from which multi-purpose business tiers components are built, herein referred to as Adaptable Business Tier Components (ABTC). This paper presents the reference architecture for those components and a proof of concept based on Java and Java Database Connectivity (an example of CLI).

User Interface Abstraction for enabling TV set based Inclusive Access to the Information Society

199 p.

Interfaces for Intelligent Environments

Presentaciones de la asignatura Interfaces para Entornos Inteligentes del Máster en Tecnologías de la Informática/Machine Learning and Data Mining.