Contexts, codes and online communications – a case study exploring issues related to using CMCs in a drama education project

Many educators are currently interested in using computer-mediated communications (CMCs) to support learning and creative practice. In my work I have been looking at how we might create drama through using cyberspaces, working with teachers and students in secondary school contexts. In trying to understand issues that have arisen and ways of working with the data I have found a number of frameworks helpful for analysing the online interactions. These frameworks draw from O'Toole's work on contexts negotiated in the creation of drama and other frameworks drawn from Wertsch, Bakhtin and Vygotsky's work on speech utterances, dialogic processes and internalisation of learning. The contexts and factors which must be negotiated in online communications within learning contexts are quite complex and educators may need to provide parameters and protocols to ensure appropriate languages, genres and utterances are utilised. The paper explores some of the types of languages, genres and utterances that emerged from a co-curricula drama project and issues that arose, including the importance of establishing processes for giving and receiving critical feedback This paper is of relevance to those whose research strategies may involve the use of computer-mediated communications as well as those utilising cyberspaces in educational contexts.

Sustainable innovation for Queensland’s housing design : a case study

This research provides an assessment tool that assists the selection process of sustainability in detached suburban housing. It investigates the implications of using different design and construction methods including architecturally designed houses, developer housing and prefabricated houses. The study simulates one example of the three types of houses that have been chosen to fulfil a real client brief on a real site on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland Australia. Criteria for sustainability assessment are formulated based on literature reviews, exemplar designs and similar research projects for which the houses can be adequately evaluated. This criterion covers aspects including energy use, materials and thermal performance. The data is collected using computer models and sustainability assessment software to compare and draw conclusions on the success of each house. Our study indicates that architecturally designed housing with prefabricated building techniques are a better alternative to generic developer style housing. Our research provides an insight into the implications of three key elements of sustainability including energy use, materials and thermal performance. Designers, builders, developers and home-buyers are given an insight into some options currently available on the housing market and how the choices made during early design stages can provide a more positive environmental impact.

A Likelihood-Maximizing Framework for Enhanced In-Car Speech Recognition Based on Speech Dialog System Interaction

Speech recognition in car environments has been identified as a valuable means for reducing driver distraction when operating noncritical in-car systems. Under such conditions, however, speech recognition accuracy degrades significantly, and techniques such as speech enhancement are required to improve these accuracies. Likelihood-maximizing (LIMA) frameworks optimize speech enhancement algorithms based on recognized state sequences rather than traditional signal-level criteria such as maximizing signal-to-noise ratio. LIMA frameworks typically require calibration utterances to generate optimized enhancement parameters that are used for all subsequent utterances. Under such a scheme, suboptimal recognition performance occurs in noise conditions that are significantly different from that present during the calibration session – a serious problem in rapidly changing noise environments out on the open road. In this chapter, we propose a dialog-based design that allows regular optimization iterations in order to track the ever-changing noise conditions. Experiments using Mel-filterbank noise subtraction (MFNS) are performed to determine the optimization requirements for vehicular environments and show that minimal optimization is required to improve speech recognition, avoid over-optimization, and ultimately assist with semireal-time operation. It is also shown that the proposed design is able to provide improved recognition performance over frameworks incorporating a calibration session only.

From News Blogs to News on Twitter: Gatewatching and Collaborative News Curation

This chapter, explores the role of the second tier of independent news blogs as it developed in the years following the Seattle WTO protests in 1999, and outlines the practice of gatewatching as a key element of news bloggers’ activities. We critique perceptions of the news blogosphere as an echo chamber or filter bubble whose discussions about current events are detached from journalistic coverage, and demonstrate instead the close interconnections between independent news bloggers and professional journalists in the wider media ecology. Finally, we sketch the gradual transition and broadening of gatewatching practices in the news blogosphere towards the collaborative curation of news sharing in contemporary social media spaces, and outline the further research questions which emerge from such transformations of the flows of news and discussion.

Vyra enie obob čёnno-ličnogo značenija v russkom jazyke

Expressing generalized-personal meaning in Russian Based on data from Russian, this doctoral dissertation examines generalized-personal meaning that is, generic expressions referring to all human beings, people in general, each or any person (e.g. S vozrastom načinae cenit prostye ve či With age you start to appreciate simple things ). The study shares its basic theoretical orientation with functional approaches going from meaning to form . The objective of the thesis is to determine and describe the various linguistic means which can be used by the speaker to express generalized-personal meaning. The main material of the study consists of 2,000 examples collected from modern Russian literature, newspapers, and magazines. The linguistic means of expressing generalized-personal meaning are divided into three main classes. Morphological and lexico-grammatical means (22% of the material) include the use of personal pronouns and personal verbal endings. In Russian, all personal forms except the 3rd person singular can be used in a generalized-personal meaning. Lexical means (14% of the material) involve, above all, pronouns like vse all , ka dyj everyone , nikto no one , as well as the nouns čelovek man and ljudi people . In emotional speech, generalized-personal meaning can also be conveyed lexically by using utterances like da e idiot znaet even an idiot knows . In rhetorical questions the pronoun kto who can appear in this meaning (cf. Kto ne ljubit moro enoe?! Who doesn t like ice cream?! ). The third main class, syntactic means (64% of the material), consists of constructions in which the generic person is not expressed at the surface level. This class mainly includes two-component structures in which the infinitive relates to a modal predicative adverb (e.g. mo no can, be allowed to , nado must ), modal verb (e.g. stoit be worth(while) , sleduet must, be obliged to ), or predicative adverb ending in -о (e.g. trudno it is hard to , neprilično is not appropriate ). Other syntactic means are: one-component infinitive structures, so-called embedded structures, structures with a processual noun, passive constructions, and gerund constructions. The different forms of expression available in Russian are not interchangeable in all contexts. Even if a given context tolerates the substitution of one construction for another, the two expressions are never entirely synonymous. In addition to determining the range of forms which can express generalized-personal meaning, the study aims to compare these forms and to specify the conditions and possible restrictions (contextual, semantic, syntactic, stylistic, etc.) associated with the use of each construction. In Russian linguistics, the generalized-personal meaning has not been extensively studied from a functional perspective. The advantage of a meaning-based functional approach is that it gives a comprehensive picture of the diversity and distribution of the phenomenon.

Comparative growth and pathogenicity of geographical isolates of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum on lentil genotypes

Isolates of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum were collected from infected lentil plants from 2 agro-ecological zones of Syria and used to study their comparative growth on culture media and pathogenicity on different lentil genotypes. The growth studies were carried out on Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) growth media under laboratory conditions. Mycelial radial growth and sclerotial production were the parameters used to compare the isolates. Pathogenicity studies were carried out with selected isolates on 10 lentil genotypes, infected as detached shoots and as whole potted-plants in the plastic house. The isolates showed considerable variation in cultural characteristics through mycelial growth, mycelial pigmentation and sclerotial production in the media plates. There were significant differences in the growth and sclerotial production of most of the isolates, but no apparent correlation between mycelial growth and sclerotial production among the isolates. Genotype by isolate interactions was significant for the isolates tested for pathogenicity. These interactions, however, appeared to be caused by differences in virulence of the isolates and did not suggest the occurrence of distinct pathogenic races of the pathogen isolates.

Experimental Studies on Drop Formation at the Tip of Melting Rods

Drop formation at the conical tips of melting rods has been experimentally studied using the transparent wax-alcohol/acetonitrile system. The effects of cone angle, rod diameter, immersion depth, and bath temperature on the detached drop mass have been studied over a wide range, besides recording useful qualitative information based on visual observation. The experimental results suggest that the phenomenon of drop formation at the tip of melting rods has a close parallel with the drop formation at conical tips, at least on a qualitative basis. However, the results could not be quantified owing to difficulties in characterizing the physical properties of the system, despite efforts to minimize them.

Sekä että : Ironia koherenssina ja inkoherenssina

The interpretation of irony in this study is seen as being crucially dependent on the notion of coherence. Coherence depends on a complex interplay of contextual features, which is why all interpretations must be seen as socio-cultural processes. An utterance is perceived as coherent if it makes sense and if it hangs together. Incoherent utterances can result in an ironic interpretation; however, the incoherence must also be perceived as being intentional, and intentionality in turn is a sign of the ironist's rejecting stance. The study does not encompass the notion of irony of fate nor situational irony that is unintentional. Irony is defined in this study as a combination of five components. It is seen as (1) a negative attitude that reflects (2) the intention of the ironist, and (3) has a target and most often (4) a victim too. Essential to irony is its fifth component, the fact that one or more of these four components must be inferred from co- or context. The componential definition of irony is crucial in deciding whether an interpretation is ironic or not, and the definition makes it possible to discern the differences as well as the similarities between different kinds of irony. The method of the study is experimental: 12 Finnish newspaper texts that could be considered to be ironic were interpreted by 107 informants. The interpretation of one of the texts was based on unelicited feedback given by readers of a weekly magazine. The responses were analyzed to determine (a) whether the texts were perceived as being coherent or incoherent and (b) whether the informants appealed to any of the five components of irony. The results of the analyses of the informants' responses indicate that differences between the ironic and non-ironic interpretations of the texts can be explained in terms of whether or not the informant regarded the text as being coherent. The thesis also discusses the shortcomings of other accounts of irony: the Gricean theory of conversational implicature, speech act theory, irony as rhetoric, irony as pretense, irony as echoic mention, and irony as framing. In contrast to these other accounts, the study focuses on irony as a textual phenomenon and underlines the importance of socio-cultural context in the interpretation of irony. Key words: irony, coherence, incoherence, the componential definition of irony, interpretation of linguistic utterances.

A sequential analysis of "nú" and "núna" in Icelandic conversation

This thesis is an empirical study of how two words in Icelandic, "nú" and "núna", are used in contemporary Icelandic conversation. My aims in this study are, first, to explain the differences between the temporal functions of "nú" and "núna", and, second, to describe the non-temporal functions of "nú". In the analysis, a focus is placed on comparing the sequential placement of the two words, on their syntactical distribution, and on their prosodic realization. The empirical data comprise 14 hours and 11 minutes of naturally occurring conversation recorded between 1996 and 2003. The selected conversations represent a wide range of interactional contexts including informal dinner parties, institutional and non-institutional telephone conversations, radio programs for teenagers, phone-in programs, and, finally, a political debate on television. The theoretical and methodological framework is interactional linguistics, which can be described as linguistically oriented conversation analysis (CA). A comparison of "nú" and "núna" shows that the two words have different syntactic distributions. "Nú" has a clear tendency to occur in the front field, before the finite verb, while "núna" typically occurs in the end field, after the object. It is argued that this syntactic difference reflects a functional difference between "nú" and "núna". A sequential analysis of "núna" shows that the word refers to an unspecified period of time which includes the utterance time as well as some time in the past and in the future. This temporal relation is referred to as reference time. "Nú", by contrast, is mainly used in three different environments: a) in temporal comparisons, 2) in transitions, and 3) when the speaker is taking an affective stance. The non-temporal functions of "nú" are divided into three categories: a) "nú" as a tone particle, 2) "nú" as an utterance particle, and 3) "nú" as a dialogue particle. "Nú" as a tone particle is syntactically integrated and can occur in two syntactic positions: pre-verbally and post-verbally. I argue that these instances are employed in utterances in which a speaker is foregrounding information or marking it as particularly important. The study shows that, although these instances are typically prosodically non-prominent and unstressed, they are in some cases delivered with stress and with a higher pitch than the surrounding talk. "Nú" as an utterance particle occurs turn-initially and is syntactically non-integrated. By using "nú", speakers show continuity between turns and link new turns to prior ones. These instances initiate either continuations by the same speaker or new turns after speaker shifts. "Nú" as a dialogue particle occurs as a turn of its own. The study shows that these instances register informings in prior turns as unexpected or as a departure from the normal state of affairs. "Nú" as a dialogue particle is often delivered with a prolonged vowel and a recognizable intonation contour. A comparative sequential and prosodic analysis shows that in these cases there is a correlation between the function of "nú" and the intonation contour by which it is delivered. Finally, I argue that despite the many functions of "nú", all the instances can be said to have a common denominator, which is to display attention towards the present moment and the utterances which are produced prior or after the production of "nú". Instead of anchoring the utterances in external time or reference time, these instances position the utterance in discourse internal time, or discourse time.

Toiminta ja tarkoite : Tutkimus suomen pronominista

The study describes the use and meaning of the Finnish demonstrative pronouns, focus being on the pronoun "tämä" (roughly 'this'). The Finnish demonstrative system is a three way one, the other two demonstratives are "tuo" ('that') and "se" ('it'). The data consisted of 12 half hours of video- and tape-recorded face-to-face and telephone conversations. The method for the study was ethnomethodological conversation analysis (CA); in addition to CA, the theoretical framework consisted of functional linguistics and linguistic anthropology. First, the study dealt with the syntactic distribution of the three demonstratives. The pronouns were analysed according to whether they are before or after the verb, and whether they compose an NP on their own or are determinants of a lexical NP. The study suggested that the form and the placement of the NP presents the referent as continuous/discontinuous or given/new. Givenness of a referent was defined as "identified adequately for the purposes of the on-going action". The so-called dislocated utterances were considered separately. It was found that left-dislocations are used for inserting referents in a particular relation to the on-going activity. Right-dislocations offer a solution for the sometimes competing motivations of newness and continuity: they are used for securing the identifiability of a referent that is implied to be continuous. Second, the study focussed on analysing the meaning of the pronouns according to three dimensions of reference: referential, indexical and relational. It was found that the demonstratives can organize interactional or spatial context. When organizing interactional context, the demonstrative pronouns express the role of identifying the referent in relation to the on-going activity. The pronoun "tämä" expresses that the referent is referentially open and the characterization of the referent is given in the on-going turn. Furthermore, it expresses asymmetry of the indexical ground: it expresses that the participants of a conversation do not share a mutual understanding of the activity at that particular time. In addition, the referent of the pronoun "tämä" is central for understanding the on-going action. Centrality could be understood as the relational feature of the pronoun. However, it is a consequence of the referential and indexical features of "tämä". The pronoun "tuo" also expresses referential openness, but it implies indexical symmetry. The pronoun "se" implies that the referent is known enough, and implies indexical symmetry. When used spatially, the pronouns may refer to a physical space or to a situation. They express or imply that the speaker is inside or outside the referent. The pronoun "tämä" implies inclusion, and the pronoun "tuo" expresses exclusion.

Päivä päivältä enemmän ja enemmän : Suomen toistokonstruktioita

Day by day more and more. Repetitive constructions in Finnish The study describes syntactic repetition in Finnish. Under investigation are short repetitive constructions in which the construction is connected by a morpheme, for example, päivä päivältä day by day , uudelleen ja uudelleen again and again . The study is a qualitative corpus-based study. It has three study questions. First, the study analyses the grammatical structure of repetitive constructions. Secondly, repetition is an iconic phenomenon, and the study investigates the motivation for repetition. Why and where is repetition used? Thirdly, the study will tentatively explain the syntactic productivity of the constructions. Syntactic repetition has semantic and pragmatic functions of which three are the most interesting. Firstly, it changes the aspectual interpretation of utterances. Durative situations become continuative, and semelfactive iterative. Secondly, repetition is also used to intensify expressions. Thirdly, repetition can be used to express superlative meanings. Repetition has many pragmatic functions. For example, it carries affective meanings in conversation. Repetition can also be used as an expressive tool in narrative contexts.

"Ei vittu, mennään röökille" : tutkimus sitaattien tehtävistä ja tekemisestä kaunokirjallis-journalistisissa lehtijutuissa

This research deals with direct speech quotations in magazine articles through two questions: As my major research question, I study the functions of speech quotations based on a data consisting of six literary-journalistic magazine articles. My minor research question builds on the fact that there is no absolute relation between the sound waves of the spoken language and the graphemes of the written one. Hence, I study the general thoughts on how utterances should be arranged in the written form based on a large review of literature and textbooks on journalistic writing as well as interviews I have made with magazine writers and editors, and the Council of Mass Media in Finland. To support my main research questions, I also examine the reference system of the Finnish language, define the aspects of the literary-journalistic article and study vernacular cues in written speech quotations. FUNCTIONS OF QUOTATIONS. I demonstrate the results of my analysis with a six-pointed apparatus. It is a continuum which extends from the structural level of text, all the way through the explicit functions, to the implicit functions of the quotation. The explicit functions deal with the question of what is the content, whereas the implicit ones base mainly on the question how the content is presented. 1. The speech quotation is an distinctive element in the structure of the magazine article. Thereby it creates a rhythm for the text, such as episodes, paragraphs and clauses. 2. All stories are told through a plot, and in magazine articles, the speech quotations are one of the narrative elements that propel the plot forward. 3. The speech quotations create and intensify the location written in the story. This location can be a physical one but also a social one, in which case it describes the atmosphere and mood in the physical environment and of the story characters. 4. The quotations enhance the plausibility of the facts and assumptions presented in the article, and moreover, when a text is placed between quotation marks, the reader can be assured that the text has been reproduced in the authentic verbatim way. 5. Speech quotations tell about the speaker's unique way of using language and the first-hand experiences of the person quoted. 6. The sixth function of speech quotations is probably the most essential one: the quotations characterize the quoted speaker. In other words, in addition to the propositional content of the utterance, the way in which it has been said transmits a lot of the speaker's character (e.g. nature, generation, behaviour, education, attitudes etc.). It is important to notice, that these six functions of my speech quotation apparatus do not exlude one another. It means that every speech quotation basically includes all of the functions discussed above. However, in practice one or more of them have a principal role, while the others play a subsidiary role. HOW TO MAKE QUOTATIONS? It is not suprising that the field of journalism (textbooks, literature and interviews) holds heterogeneous and unestablished thoughts on how the spoken language should be arranged in written quotations, which is my minor research question. However, the most frequent and distinctive aspects can be depicted in a couple of words: serve the reader and respect the target person. Very common advice on how to arrange the quotations is − firstly, to delete such vernacular cues (e.g. repetitions and ”expletives”) that are common in spoken communication, but purposeless in the written language. − secondly, to complete the phonetic word forms of the spoken language into a more reader-friendly form (esim. punanen → punainen, 'red'), and − thirdly, to enhance the independence of clauses from the (authentic) context and to toughen reciprocal links between them. According to the knowledge of the journalistic field, utterances recorded in different points in time of an interview or a data-collecting session can be transferred as consecutive quotations or even merged together. However, if there is any temporal-spatial location written in the story, the dialogue of the story characters should also be situated in an authentic context – chronologically in the right place in the continuum of the events. To summarize, the way in which the utterances should be arranged into written speech quotations is always situationally-specific − and it is strongly based on the author's discretion.

Successful management of colletotrichum crown and stolon rot in runner production in sub-tropical Australia

Crown, stolon, and petiole rots caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (C.g.) were first identified in runner beds of the Queensland Approved Runner Scheme (QARS) in February 1989. The outbreaks occurred annually from 1990 to 1994. Minor losses in subsequent fruit crops occurred from 1990 to 1993, with 50% post-establishment losses occurring on fruit farms in southeast Queensland in 1994. The objective of this work was to provide a control strategy for the disease that would give stability to the QARS. Runner-bed trials in 1993-1994 showed that Octave® (462 g/kg prochloraz as the MnCl2 complex) was highly effective in reducing the incidence field symptoms and laboratory recovery of C.g. from symptomless petioles. A simple detached petiole laboratory test for measuring fungicide efficacy in runner bed trials and for laboratory screening of fungicides, is described. Scheme protocols were changed to require that only foundation plants from tissue culture were allowed onto QARS sites. These were to be symptomless and to have tested negative for the presence of C.g. The application of Octave® at fortnightly intervals in all QARS nurseries has reduced the level of visible symptoms and the laboratory recovery of C.g. from symptomless petioles to almost zero.

The effect of interrogative function on intonation in spontaneous and read Finnish

Goals This study aims to map the effect of interrogative function on the intonation of spontaneous and read Finnish. Earlier research shows that the most prominent feature in Finnish question intonation is an appeal to the listener. Question word questions typically start with a high peak which is followed by falling intonation. In yes/no questions, F0 remains on a high level until the word carrying sentence stress and then falls. Final rises are mainly found in intonation clichés such as "Ai mitä?" ("What?") These earlier results are based on read speech and enacted dialogues. In this study, questions and statements found in spontaneous dialogues were compared. These utterances were also compared with read versions of the same utterances. Fundamental frequency values were compared using a mixed model. Contours were also grouped using auditory and visual inspection. Thus it was possible to compare frequencies of contour types according to utterance type and speech style. The position of questions in the F0 distribution of the whole material was also investigated in this study. Method The material consisted of four spontaneous dialogues and their read versions. The speakers were young adults from the Helsinki metropolitan area, four females and four males. The whole material was first divided into broad dialogue function categories arising from the material and F0 curves were calculated for each category. After this, 277 questions and 244 statements were selected for closer inspection. Values reflecting F0 distribution and contour shape were measured from the F0 contours of these utterances. A mixed model was used to analyse the differences. Utterance type, question type, speech style and speaker gender were used as fixed effects. The frequencies of F0 contour types were compared using a Chi square test. Additional material in this study came from eight young female speakers in central Finland. Results and conclusions In the mixed model analysis, significant differences were found both between questions and statements and between spontaneous and read speech. Generally, utterance type affected the variables reflecting contour type while speech style affected the variables reflecting F0 distribution. The effect of question type was not clearly visible. In read speech the contours resembled earlier results more closely. Speakers had different strategies in differentiating between questions and statements. In the whole material, F0 was slightly higher in questions than in statements. The effect of dialectal background could be seen in the contour types. The results show that interrogative function affects intonation in both spontaneous and read Finnish.

Kehittämisen kompastuskivet - myytit kehittämishankkeen keskusteluissa

I studied discussions during development project. Aim of the study was to analyse, what way workers represented their work: how normalized way of interpretation myths appeared in discourse and what consequences these utterances caused to drift of discussion. Change laboratory, which is a development method, is based to developmental work research methodology. Development is designed to be successful by learning activity and learning acts. Preventing factors of learning have been studied widely. Research has leaned to concept of resistance to change. Phenomenon of learning has been interpreted to be successful only if everybody has an agreement about the situation. There is also a new kind of concept of resistance. Resistance can be seen as a part of learning, normal processing of the learning activity. Another preventing factor can be seen as disorders of discourse, which are verbal ways of telling something that aren t real. Theoretically I consider these verbal ways as myth interpretations, which can be used as argumentative tools. I used analysis of discourse as an analytical method. Results of analysis revealed four different myth interpretations in workers discussions. Character of work was been described with myths unforeseen situations and disturbances are normal . Work was also described to be functional with myths system works and workers cause disturbances . Change laboratory discussions can be described as different social languages, which caused diverse perspectives to workers and researchers representations. Social languages also affected the way people analysed disturbances and system. Critical phase of change laboratory method seems to be analysis of disturbances and planning new mode of action. Myth utterances were used to reject ways of developing, analysis of system level and need of development. Myth utterances worked three different ways: ineffective, active or passive.