Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Expressiveness'

The development of formal methods and theories for the construction and analysis of concurrent systems has been a subject of increased interest, particularly in the last decade. Amongst the most recognized and studied theories is the pi-calculus and its family of languages. The pi-calculus is a language for describing and reasoning about mobile systems, that is, systems in which the topology of the communications network is dynamic and not fixed a priori. Examples of such systems include mobile phone networks and the TCP/IP protocol that underlies the Internet. Another paradigm for concurrency is known as Concurrent Constraint Programming or CCP for short. This is a particularly attractive model because of its close ties with Logic and its declarative style. In this thesis a survey of the pi-calculus family and the CCP family is presented, emphasizing the relations both within each family and between the two paradigms. In particular we explore the question of whether CCP supports mobility.

The article deals with the expressiveness of blurbs. Closely considered are items of emotional syntax. The article singles out and analyzes the range of syntactical means of expressing emotions in blurbs. Herewith much attention is given to the peculiarities of dominant stylistic techniques used in this type of discourse.

A third defining dimension of identity has been proposed in addition to those of exploration and commitment. This study set out to demonstrate a relationship between identity scores as measured by the Extended Objective Measure of Ego-Identity Status and the third defining dimension, personal expressiveness, as measured by the Personal Expressiveness Activities Questionnaire. Results demonstrated a strong relationship between identity scores and expressiveness with a significant positive correlation between the achievement subscores and expressiveness, and significant negative correlations between the moratorium, foreclosure, and the diffusion subscores. The results appear to validate that expressiveness is indeed a third defining dimension of identity, however recommendations are made based on this study's findings regarding the adequacy of Waterman's Seven-Category Paradigm. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed.

A very recent and exciting new area of research is the application of Concurrency Theory tools to formalize and analyze biological systems and one of the most promising approach comes from the process algebras (process calculi). A process calculus is a formal language that allows to describe concurrent systems and comes with well-established techniques for quantitative and qualitative analysis. Biological systems can be regarded as concurrent systems and therefore modeled by means of process calculi. In this thesis we focus on the process calculi approach to the modeling of biological systems and investigate, mostly from a theoretical point of view, several promising bio-inspired formalisms: Brane Calculi and k-calculus family. We provide several expressiveness results mostly by means of comparisons between calculi. We provide a lower bound to the computational power of the non Turing complete MDB Brane Calculi by showing an encoding of a simple P-System into MDB. We address the issue of local implementation within the k-calculus family: whether n-way rewrites can be simulated by binary interactions only. A solution introducing divergence is provided and we prove a deterministic solution preserving the termination property is not possible. We use the symmetric leader election problem to test synchronization capabilities within the k-calculus family. Several fragments of the original k-calculus are considered and we prove an impossibility result about encoding n-way synchronization into (n-1)-way synchronization. A similar impossibility result is obtained in a pure computer science context. We introduce CCSn, an extension of CCS with multiple input prefixes and show, using the dining philosophers problem, that there is no reasonable encoding of CCS(n+1) into CCSn.

A very recent and exciting new area of research is the application of Concurrency Theory tools to formalize and analyze biological systems and one of the most promising approach comes from the process algebras (process calculi). A process calculus is a formal language that allows to describe concurrent systems and comes with well-established techniques for quantitative and qualitative analysis. Biological systems can be regarded as concurrent systems and therefore modeled by means of process calculi. In this thesis we focus on the process calculi approach to the modeling of biological systems and investigate, mostly from a theoretical point of view, several promising bio-inspired formalisms: Brane Calculi and k-calculus family. We provide several expressiveness results mostly by means of comparisons between calculi. We provide a lower bound to the computational power of the non Turing complete MDB Brane Calculi by showing an encoding of a simple P-System into MDB. We address the issue of local implementation within the k-calculus family: whether n-way rewrites can be simulated by binary interactions only. A solution introducing divergence is provided and we prove a deterministic solution preserving the termination property is not possible. We use the symmetric leader election problem to test synchronization capabilities within the k-calculus family. Several fragments of the original k-calculus are considered and we prove an impossibility result about encoding n-way synchronization into (n-1)-way synchronization. A similar impossibility result is obtained in a pure computer science context. We introduce CCSn, an extension of CCS with multiple input prefixes and show, using the dining philosophers problem, that there is no reasonable encoding of CCS(n+1) into CCSn.

Before we describe the difficulties that appear when translating texts of the sport discourse, let us characterize the type of discourse itself. It should be noted here this type has not been studied comprehensively yet. The researchers note it does not correspond to all the features of the institutional discourse. And we did not manage to find its clear definitions. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/34686

This thesis studies logics which express properties on programs. These logics were originally intended for the formal verification of programs with pointers. Overall, no automated verification method will be proved tractable here- rather, we give a new insight on separation logic. The complexity and decidability of some essential fragments of this logic for Hoare triples were not known before this work. Also, its combination with some other verification methods was little studied. Firstly, in this work we isolate the operator of separation logic which makes it undecidable. We describe the expressive power of this logic, comparing it to second-order logics. Secondly, we try to extend decidable subsets of separation logic with a temporal logic, and with the ability to describe data. This allows us to give boundaries to the use of separation logic. In particular, we give boundaries to the creation of decidable logics using this logic combined with a temporal logic or with the ability to describe data.

The purpose of this research was to examine significant change, if any, in instrumental and expressive traits during adulthood. The research was designed to test the assumption that chronological age and psychosocial stage are related to instrumentality and expressiveness.The present study utilized the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) and a personal information questionnaire. The research question was: Are there differences in traits of instrumentality and expressiveness at different stages of adult development?Three hundred sixty-three men and women between the ages of 20 and 70 participated in the study. The sample included 164 men and 197 warren. Participants were members of volunteer organizations. They were assigned to different groups based on age and psychosocial development.Four 3 x 3 Analyses of Variance procedures were performed. There were three levels of age: (1) 20-35, (2) 36-50, and (3) 51-70. Categorization of psychosocial stage included: (1) no children, (2) children from birth to graduation from high school, and (3) all children graduated from high school. Sex was not combined, rather separate analysis was performed on each sex. The dependent variables were expressiveness and instrumentality as defined by scores on the Personal Attributes Questionnaire. The following effects were studied:(1) Effects of age and psychosocial stage on traits of instrumentality in men.(2) Effects of age and psychosocial stage on traits of expressiveness in men.(3) Effects of age and psychosocial stage on traits of instrumentality in women.(4) Effect of age and psychosocial stage on traits of expressiveness in women.The results of the research indicated that traits of instrumentality and expressiveness in men and women do not change significantly during adulthood. No significant differences were found in men or women with regard to age and psychosocial development on traits of instrumentality and expressiveness.

Les comportement épistémiques, mobiles et spatiaux sont omniprésent dans les systèmes distribués aujourd’hui. La nature intrinsèque épistémique de ces types de systèmes provient des interactions des éleménts qui en font parties. La plupart des gens sont familiarisés avec des systèmes numériques où les utilisateurs peuvent partager ses croyances, opinions et même des mensonges intentionnels (des canulars). Aussi, les modèles de ces systèmes doivent tenir compte des interactions avec d’autres de même que leur nature distribués. Ces comportements spatiaux et mobiles font part d’applications où les données se déplacent dans des espaces (peut-être imbriqués) qui sont définis par, par exemple, cercles d’amis, des groupes, ou des dossiers partagés. Nous pensons donc qu’une solide compréhension des notion d’espaces, de mobilité spatial ainsi que le flux d’information épistémique est cruciale dans la plupart des modèles de systèmes distribués de nos jours.Les systèmes de contrainte (sc) fournissent les domaines et les opérations de base pour les fondements sémantiques de la famille de modèles déclaratifs formels de la théorie de la concurrence connu sous le nom de programmation concurrent par contraintes (pcc). Les systèmes des contraintes spatiales (scs) représentent des structures algébriques qui étendent sc pour raisonner sur les comportement spatiaux et épistémiques de base tel que croyance et l’extrusion. Les assertions spatiales et épistémiques peuvent être vues comme des modalités spécifiques. D’autres modalités peuvent être utilisées pour les assertions concernant le temps, les connaissances et même pour l’analyse des groupes entre autres concepts utilisés dans la spécification et la vérification des systèmes concurrents.Dans cette thèse nous étudions l’expressivité des systèmes de contraintes spatiales dans la perspective générale du comportement modal et épistémique. Nous montrerons que les systèmes de contraintes spatiales sont assez robustes pour capturer des modalités inverses et pour obtenir de nouveaux résultats pour les logiques modales. Également, nous montrerons que nous pouvons utiliser les scs pour exprimer un comportement épistémique fondamental comme connaissance. Finalement, nous donnerons une caractérisation algébrique de la notion de l’information distribuée au moyen de constructions sur scs
Epistemic, mobile and spatial behaviour are common place in today’s distributed systems. The intrinsic epistemic nature of these systems arises from the interactions of the elements taking part of them. Most people are familiar with digital systems where users share their beliefs, opinions and even intentional lies (hoaxes). Models of those systems must take into account the interactions with others as well as the distributed quality these systems present. Spatial and mobile behaviour are exhibited by applications and data moving across (possibly nested) spaces defined by, for example, friend circles, groups, and shared folders. We therefore believe that a solid understanding of the notion of space and spatial mobility as well as the flow of epistemic information is relevant in many models of today’s distributed systems.Constraint systems (cs’s) provide the basic domains and opera- tions for the semantic foundations of the family of formal declarative models from concurrency theory known as concurrent constraint programming (ccp). Spatial constraint systems (scs’s) are algebraic structures that extend cs’s for reasoning about basic spatial and epistemic behaviour such as belief and extrusion. Both spatial and epistemic assertions can be viewed as specific modalities. Other modalities can be used for assertions about time, knowledge and even the analysis of groups among other concepts used in the specification and verification of concurrent systems.In this thesis we study the expressiveness of spatial constraint systems in the broader perspective of modal and epistemic behaviour. We shall show that spatial constraint systems are sufficiently robust to capture inverse modalities and to derive new results for modal logics. We shall show that we can use scs’s to express a fundamental epistemic behaviour such as knowledge. Finally we shall give an algebraic characterization of the notion of distributed information by means of constructors over scs’s

Probabilistic graphical models are currently one of the most commonly used architectures for modelling and reasoning with uncertainty. The most widely used subclass of these models is directed acyclic graphs, also known as Bayesian networks, which are used in a wide range of applications both in research and industry. Directed acyclic graphs do, however, have a major limitation, which is that only asymmetric relationships, namely cause and effect relationships, can be modelled between their variables. A class of probabilistic graphical models that tries to address this shortcoming is chain graphs, which include two types of edges in the models representing both symmetric and asymmetric relationships between the variables. This allows for a wider range of independence models to be modelled and depending on how the second edge is interpreted, we also have different so-called chain graph interpretations. Although chain graphs were first introduced in the late eighties, most research on probabilistic graphical models naturally started in the least complex subclasses, such as directed acyclic graphs and undirected graphs. The field of chain graphs has therefore been relatively dormant. However, due to the maturity of the research field of probabilistic graphical models and the rise of more data-driven approaches to system modelling, chain graphs have recently received renewed interest in research. In this thesis we provide an introduction to chain graphs where we incorporate the progress made in the field. More specifically, we study the three chain graph interpretations that exist in research in terms of their separation criteria, their possible parametrizations and the intuition behind their edges. In addition to this we also compare the expressivity of the interpretations in terms of representable independence models as well as propose new structure learning algorithms to learn chain graph models from data.

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática
In the ever more competitive market, companies are forced to reduce their operational costs and innovate. In order to do that, some companies successfully adopted new approaches, some of them using domain specific languages (DSL), building their entire system and all the respective layers in less time and more focused in their business. Frequently, the application business layer interacts with the data layer through SQL queries, in order to obtain or modify data. There are some products in the market that try to make life easier for developers, allowing them to get the data using the features of visual query builders, also available in standard SQL. However, it is not expectable that every possible query can be written through these visual query builders, which leads us to the following questions "What should and what can easily be supported by visual query builders?". These questions are relevant in order to help improving the experience of developers and save them time. This work aims to study and analyse techniques that help detecting patterns in structured data and, afterwards, propose a suitable way to view and manage the visualization of the occurrence of such detected patterns. In order to help identify the most frequent patterns and thus contribute to solve the above questions, with this conjunction of topics we expect to provide a way to improve the experience of understanding a large amount of data in a particular context. Once understood some patterns that could be present in the data and their importance, we are ready to propose a new model in the context of OutSystems Agile PlatformTM, in terms of their visual query builder, aiming to increase its value, improve its expressiveness and offer a powerful visual way to build queries.

У роботі основна увага приділяється прояву виразності в текстах погодних умов за допомогою графічних пристроїв. Графічні стилістичні пристрої використовуються для покращення інформації про прогноз погоди, що забезпечує нове уявлення про його зміст, що робить презентацію форми невидимими.
The paper focuses on the manifestation of expressiveness in weather forecast texts by means of graphic devices. Graphic stylistic devices are used for weather forecast information to be better understood providing new insight in its content, making the form presentation far from being trite.

The main motivations for studying reversible computing comes from the promise that reversible computation (and circuits) would lead to more energy efficient computers. Besides circuits, nowadays, reversibility is studied in many other domains. This thesis studies the expressiveness of the causalconsistent reversibility (a well-known notion of reversibility for concurrent systems) in CCS and π-calculus. First, we show that by means of encodings, LTSs of Reversible CCS (introduced by Danos and Krivine) and CCS with Communications Keys (introduced by Phillips and Ulidowski) are isomorphic up to some structural transformations of processes. An explanation of this result is the existence of one causality notion in CCS. In π-calculus, two forms of dependences between the actions give rise to different causal semantics. The main difference is how the parallel extrusion of the same name is treated. We consider three approaches to parallel extrusion problem represented with causal semantics introduced by Boreale et al; Crafa et al; and Cristescu et al. To study them, we devise a framework for reversible π-calculi, parametric with respect to the data structure used to keep track of information about a name extrusions. We show that reversibility induced by our framework is causally-consistent and prove causal correspondence between the semantics given by Boreale et al, and the corresponding instance of the framework.

Higher-order process calculi are formalisms for concurrency in which processes can be passed around in communications. Higher-order (or process-passing) concurrency is often presented as an alternative paradigm to the first order (or name-passing) concurrency of the pi-calculus for the description of mobile systems. These calculi are inspired by, and formally close to, the lambda-calculus, whose basic computational step ---beta-reduction--- involves term instantiation. The theory of higher-order process calculi is more complex than that of first-order process calculi. This shows up in, for instance, the definition of behavioral equivalences. A long-standing approach to overcome this burden is to define encodings of higher-order processes into a first-order setting, so as to transfer the theory of the first-order paradigm to the higher-order one. While satisfactory in the case of calculi with basic (higher-order) primitives, this indirect approach falls short in the case of higher-order process calculi featuring constructs for phenomena such as, e.g., localities and dynamic system reconfiguration, which are frequent in modern distributed systems. Indeed, for higher-order process calculi involving little more than traditional process communication, encodings into some first-order language are difficult to handle or do not exist. We then observe that foundational studies for higher-order process calculi must be carried out directly on them and exploit their peculiarities. This dissertation contributes to such foundational studies for higher-order process calculi. We concentrate on two closely interwoven issues in process calculi: expressiveness and decidability. Surprisingly, these issues have been little explored in the higher-order setting. Our research is centered around a core calculus for higher-order concurrency in which only the operators strictly necessary to obtain higher-order communication are retained. We develop the basic theory of this core calculus and rely on it to study the expressive power of issues universally accepted as basic in process calculi, namely synchrony, forwarding, and polyadic communication.

Higher-order process calculi are formalisms for concurrency in which processes can be passed around in communications. Higher-order (or process-passing) concurrency is often presented as an alternative paradigm to the first order (or name-passing) concurrency of the pi-calculus for the description of mobile systems. These calculi are inspired by, and formally close to, the lambda-calculus, whose basic computational step ---beta-reduction--- involves term instantiation. The theory of higher-order process calculi is more complex than that of first-order process calculi. This shows up in, for instance, the definition of behavioral equivalences. A long-standing approach to overcome this burden is to define encodings of higher-order processes into a first-order setting, so as to transfer the theory of the first-order paradigm to the higher-order one. While satisfactory in the case of calculi with basic (higher-order) primitives, this indirect approach falls short in the case of higher-order process calculi featuring constructs for phenomena such as, e.g., localities and dynamic system reconfiguration, which are frequent in modern distributed systems. Indeed, for higher-order process calculi involving little more than traditional process communication, encodings into some first-order language are difficult to handle or do not exist. We then observe that foundational studies for higher-order process calculi must be carried out directly on them and exploit their peculiarities. This dissertation contributes to such foundational studies for higher-order process calculi. We concentrate on two closely interwoven issues in process calculi: expressiveness and decidability. Surprisingly, these issues have been little explored in the higher-order setting. Our research is centered around a core calculus for higher-order concurrency in which only the operators strictly necessary to obtain higher-order communication are retained. We develop the basic theory of this core calculus and rely on it to study the expressive power of issues universally accepted as basic in process calculi, namely synchrony, forwarding, and polyadic communication.

An understanding of cryptographic protocols requires that we examine the knowledge of protocol participants and adversaries: When a participant receives a message, does she know who sent it? Does she know that the message is fresh, and not merely a replay of some old message? Does a network spy know who is talking to whom? This thesis studies logics of knowledge and cryptography. Specifically, the thesis addresses the problem of how to make the concept of knowledge reflect feasible computability within a Kripke-style semantics. The main contributions are as follows. 1. A generalized Kripke semantics for first-order epistemic logic and cryptography, where the later is modeled using private constants and arbitrary cryptographic operations, as in the Applied Pi-calculus. 2. An axiomatization of first-order epistemic logic which is sound and complete relative to an underlying theory of cryptographic terms, and to an omega-rule for quantifiers. Besides standard axioms and rules from first-order epistemic logic, the axiomatization includes some novel axioms for the interaction between knowledge and cryptography. 3. Epistemic characterizations of static equivalence and Dolev-Yao message deduction. 4. A generalization of Kripke semantics for propositional epistemic logic and symmetric cryptography. 5. Decidability, soundness and completeness for propositional BAN-like logics with respect to message passing systems. Completeness and decidability are generalised to logics induced from an arbitrary base of protocol specific assumptions. 6. An epistemic definition of message deduction. The definition lies between weaker and stronger versions of Dolev-Yao deduction, and coincides with weaker Dolev-Yao regarding all atomic messages. For composite messages, the definition withstands a well-known counterexample to Dolev-Yao deduction. 7. Protocol examples using mixes, a Crowds style protocol, and electronic payments.
QC 20100524

The requirements for real-time systems in safety-critical applications typically contain strict timing constraints. The design of such a system must be subject to extensive validation to guarantee that critical timing constraints will never be violated while the system operates. A mathematically rigorous technique to do so is to perform a schedulability analysis for formally verifying models of the computational workload. Different workload models allow to describe task activations at different levels of expressiveness, ranging from traditional periodic models to sophisticated graph-based ones. An inherent conflict arises between the expressiveness and analysis efficiency of task models. The more expressive a task model is, the more accurately it can describe a system design, reducing over-approximations and thus minimizing wasteful over-provisioning of system resources. However, more expressiveness implies higher computational complexity of corresponding analysis methods. Consequently, an ideal model provides the highest possible expressiveness for which efficient exact analysis methods exist. This thesis investigates the trade-off between expressiveness and analysis efficiency. A new digraph-based task model is introduced, which generalizes all previously proposed models that can be analyzed in pseudo-polynomial time without using any analysis-specific over-approximations. We develop methods allowing to efficiently analyze variants of the model despite their strictly increased expressiveness. A key contribution is the notion of path abstraction which enables efficient graph traversal algorithms. We demonstrate tractability borderlines for different classes of schedulers, namely static priority and earliest-deadline first schedulers, by establishing hardness results. These hardness proofs provide insights about the inherent complexity of developing efficient analysis methods and indicate fundamental difficulties of the considered schedulability problems. Finally, we develop a novel abstraction refinement scheme to cope with combinatorial explosion and apply it to schedulability and response-time analysis problems. All methods presented in this thesis are extensively evaluated, demonstrating practical applicability.

In this study an attempt was made to measure the effects of verbal discussion on musical expressiveness. Subjects (N =30) were all members of a conservatory symphony orchestra. The subjects were divided into three groups: Group 1 was a listening and discussion group; Group 2 listening only; and Group 3 control group, no treatment. The study used a pre- and post-test design in which all the subjects were requested to play a given melody twice. Analysis of the data, using two-tailed t tests and ANOVAs, revealed no statistically significant differences among the three groups for the effect of verbal discussion on expressiveness. The subjects' self-reports, however, illustrated that they perceived a difference in their expressive playing.

UML and use case modeling have the last few years received much attention. Use cases are used to describe the functional requirements of a system and a use case diagram shows the relationships among use cases and actors within a system. The semantics of use case diagrams are, however, often unclear. The aim of this dissertation is to point out ambiguities and limited expressiveness present in the current use case notation of UML and to indicate in which directions remedies to these deficiencies may be sought.

Problems reported by researchers were identified and presented to a set of use case practitioners. Then a proposal of possible improvements of the use case notation, which should reduce the ambiguities and increase the expressiveness in the notation, was developed. To place some measurements on the value the proposal can have in practice, it was also presented to a set of practitioners.

The proposal provides a suggestion of how to model various tricky situations in a use case diagram. Furthermore, the dissertation gives insight on how the use case technique is used in practice. Practitioners argue that the use case specifications are more important than the use case diagrams. They also argue that the purpose of use case diagrams is to describe a system's main functionalities and not details, and that as few use case relationships as possible should be used in use case diagrams.

This study investigated associations between parents' expressed emotion during a series of play tasks with their child, and psychological assessments of parent, child, and family functioning. Parent and child dyads included 41 families with a child between ages 4 and 12 who sought a developmental assessment at the Youth and Family Development Program laboratory at Florida International University. Videotaped dyadic play tasks were rated, using an Emotional Expressiveness Rating Scale (EERS) developed for this study, for parents' communication of criticism, hostility, emotional over-involvement, indifference, and warmth toward their child. Associations between parent expressed emotion and parent, child, and family functioning were assessed. Negative expressed emotion in parents, particularly criticism, was correlated with externalizing child problems, high parental stress, and family conflict; parent warmth was correlated with parents' feeling rewarded by their child, and with family cohesion. The implications for mental health research and practice with parents and children are discussed.

Ces cinquante dernières annéees, les ordinateurs ont occupé une place toujours plus importante dans notre vie quotidienne. On les retrouve aujourd’hui présents dans de nombreuses applications, sous forme de systèmes enfouis. Ces applications sont parfois critiques, dans la mesure où toute défaillance du système informatique peut avoir des conséquences catastrophiques, tant sur le plan humain que sur le plan économique.

Nous pensons par exemple aux systèmes informatiques qui contrôlent les appareils médicaux ou certains systèmes vitaux (comme les freins) des véhicules automobiles.

Afin d’assurer la correction de ces systèmes informatiques, différentes techniques de vérification Assistée par Ordinateur ont été proposées, durant les trois dernières

décennies principalement. Ces techniques reposent sur un principe commun: donner une description formelle tant du système que de la propriété qu’il doit respecter, et appliquer une méthode automatique pour prouver que le système respecte la propriété.

Parmi les principaux modèles aptes à décrire formellement des systèmes informatiques, la classe des systèmes de transition bien structurés [ACJT96, FS01] occupe une place importante, et ce, pour deux raisons essentielles. Tout d’abord, cette classe généralise plusieurs autres classes bien étudiées et utiles de modèles à espace

d’états infini, comme les réseaux de Petri [Pet62](et leurs extensions monotones [Cia94, FGRVB06]) ou les systèmes communiquant par canaux FIFO avec pertes [AJ93]. Ensuite, des problèmes intéressants peuvent être résolus algorithmiquement sur cette classe. Parmi ces problèmes, on trouve le probléme de couverture, auquel certaines propriétés intéressantes de sûreté peuvent être réduites.

Dans la première partie de cette thèse, nous nous intéressons au problème de couverture. Jusqu’à présent, le seul algorithme général (c’est-à-dire applicable à n’importe quel système bien structuré) pour résoudre ce problème était un algorithme dit en arrière [ACJT96] car il calcule itérativement tous les états potentiellement non-sûrs et vérifie si l’état initial du système en fait partie. Nous proposons Expand, Enlarge and Check, le premier algorithme en avant pour résoudre le problème de couverture, qui calcule les états potentiellement accessibles du système et vérifie si certains d’entre eux sont non-sûrs. Cette approche est plus efficace en pratique, comme le montrent nos expériences. Nous présentons également des techniques permettant d’accroître l’efficacité de notre méthode dans le cas où nous analysons des réseaux de Petri (ou

une de leurs extensions monotones), ou bien des systèmes communiquant par canaux FIFO avec pertes. Enfin, nous nous intéressons au calcul de l’ensemble de couverture pour les réseaux de Petri, un objet mathématique permettant notamment de résoudre le problème de couverture. Nous étudions l’algorithme de Karp & Miller [KM69], une solution classique pour calculer cet ensemble. Nous montrons qu’une optimisation de cet algorithme présenté dans [Fin91] est fausse, et nous proposons une autre solution totalement neuve, et plus efficace que la solution de Karp & Miller.

Dans la seconde partie de la thèse, nous nous intéressons aux pouvoirs d’expression des systèmes bien structurés, tant en terme de mots infinis que de mots finis. Le pouvoir d’expression d’une classe de systèmes est, en quelque sorte, une mesure de la diversité des comportements que les modèles de cette classe peuvent représenter. En ce qui concerne les mots infinis, nous étudions les pouvoirs d’expression des réseaux de Petri et de deux de leurs extensions (les réseaux de Petri avec arcs non-bloquants et les réseaux de Petri avec arcs de transfert). Nous montrons qu’il existe une hiérarchie stricte entre ces différents pouvoirs d’expression. Nous obtenons également des résultats partiels concernant le pouvoir d’expression des réseaux de Petri avec arcs de réinitialisation. En ce qui concerne les mots finis, nous introduisons la classe des langages bien structurés, qui sont des langages acceptés par des systèmes de transition bien structurés étiquettés, où l’ensemble des états accepteurs est clos par le haut. Nous prouvons trois lemmes de pompage concernant ces langages. Ceux-ci nous permettent de réobtenir facilement des résultats classiques de la littérature, ainsi que plusieurs nouveaux résultats. En particulier, nous prouvons, comme dans le cas des mots infinis, qu’il existe une hiérarchie stricte entre les pouvoirs d’expression des extensions des réseaux de Petri considérées.
Doctorat en sciences, Spécialisation Informatique
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO
Este trabalho está inserido no contexto de ambientes de autoria e execução hipermídia, sendo as linguagens declarativas para autoria de documentos o seu foco principal. Partindo de um estudo sobre linguagens de descrição de arquitetura (ADL), utilizadas para especificar arquiteturas de sistemas de software, esta tese identificou facilidades presentes em ADLs que poderiam ser aplicadas ao domínio hipermídia, com vantagens. Tendo como objetivo aumentar a expressividade e o reuso na especificação de relações em linguagens de autoria hipermídia, este trabalho introduziu o conceito de conector hipermídia, que tem função semelhante a dos conectores em ADLs, ou seja, a de representar relações entre componentes de um documento. Além de conectores, este trabalho também introduziu o conceito de template de composição hipermídia, que tem função semelhante a dos estilos arquiteturais em ADLs, ou seja, a de representar estruturas genéricas de nós e elos que podem ser reutilizadas em vários documentos distintos. Para realizar a validação dos conceitos apresentados, a versão 2.0 da linguagem de autoria hipermídia NCL - Nested Context Language, baseada no modelo conceitual NCM - Nested Context Model, foi desenvolvida e integrada ao sistema hipermídia HyperProp, incorporando as novas facilidades. A linguagem NCL 2.0 foi desenvolvida utilizando uma estrutura modular, seguindo os princípios adotados pelo W3C. Sendo assim, seus módulos para especificação de conectores e templates de composição, chamados XConnector e XTemplate respectivamente, podem ser incorporados a outras linguagens existentes, como por exemplo, XLink, XHTML e SMIL, usadas para autoria de documentos na Web. Esta tese também propõe extensões a essas linguagens, exemplificadas pela incorporação das facilidades de XConnector e XTemplate ao padrão XLink.
This work is related to hypermedia authoring and execution environments, and its main focus is declarative document authoring. Starting from studies about architectural description languages (ADL), which are used for specifying software system architectures, this thesis identified facilities found in ADLs that could be applied to the hypermedia domain, with advantages. Aiming at improving the expressiveness and reuse in the specification of relations in hypermedia authoring languages, this work introduced the concept of hypermedia connector, which has a role similar to ADL connectors, that is, representing relations among components of a document. Besides connectors, this work also introduced the concept of hypermedia composite template, which has a role similar to architectural styles in ADLs, that is, representing generic structures of nodes and links that can be reused in several distinct documents. As a validation of the proposed concepts, the 2.0 version of the NCL - Nested Context Language - hypermedia authoring language, based on the NCM - Nested Context Model - conceptual model, was developed and integrated to the HyperProp hypermedia system, incorporating the new facilities. The NCL 2.0 language was developed using a modular structure, following the principles adopted by the W3C - World-Wide Web Consortium. Thus, its modules for the specification of connectors and templates, respectively called XConnector and XTemplate, can be incorporated to other existent languages, such as XLink, XHTML and SMIL, used for web document authoring. This thesis also proposes extensions to these languages, exemplified by the incorporation of XConnector and XTemplate facilities into the XLink standard.

How is it possible that we hear music or see paintings as expressive of affective states? How is it that this bizarre phenomenon extends to natural landscapes, atmospheres, and also to simple colours, sounds, shapes? This research aims at inquiring the phenomenon of expressiveness. In particular, it focuses on the expressiveness of inanimate objects. What is especially intriguing about expressiveness is that it mobilizes a number of issues concerning the nature of perception and that of affective experiences. Questions about the possibility that affective states such as anxiety, melancholy, sadness, solemnity, liveliness are ascribed to non-sentient beings such as artworks, represent a challenge for theories of perception on the one hand, and for theories of emotions on the other hand. Moreover, most of these questions lay at the crossroads of aesthetics and the philosophy of mind, licking the domains of developmental psychology and cognitive sciences more generally. Main players are analytic philosophers of music and aesthetics that have been dealing with this problem in recent years. Yet, also accounts elaborated within different traditions – like phenomenology and Gestalt psychology – and tracing back in time are analysed.

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2007.
Thesis research directed by: Computer Science. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO
FUNDO SETORIAL PARA DESENV. TECNOLÓGICO DAS TELECOMUNICAÇÕES
Este trabalho está inserido no contexto de ambientes de autoria e execução hipermídia, sendo as linguagens declarativas para autoria de documentos o seu foco principal. Tendo-se como objetivo aumentar a expressividade e o reuso na especificação de documentos hipermídia, este trabalho introduz as linguagens XSMIL e NCL - Nested Context Language - versão 2.1. Utilizando- se o conceito de templates, X-SMIL permite a definição de novas semânticas para composições SMIL, além dos tradicionais elementos seq, par e excl. Templates, em X-SMIL, são especificados em um perfil de XTemplate, que estende a idéia original da linguagem XTemplate de NCL. Com base nas novas facilidades para definição de templates, esse perfil foi usado para especificar a linguagem NCL 2.1. X-SMIL também permite a especificação de conectores hipermídia, tratando relações hipermídia como entidades de primeira classe - funcionalidade incorporada em XSMIL pelo uso do módulo XConnector de NCL. Outro objetivo deste trabalho é o de apresentar um framework para o processamento de documentos XML. Utilizando-se esse framework, diversos compiladores foram implementados, o que possibilitou, entre outras funcionalidades, a conversão de documentos NCL em especificações SMIL ou X-SMIL e vice-versa.
This work is related to hypermedia authoring and execution environments, and its main focus is declarative document authoring. Aiming at improving the expressiveness and reuse in the specification of hypermedia documents, this work introduces the hypermedia authoring languages X-SMIL and NCL - Nested Context Language - version 2.1. Exploiting the concept of templates, X-SMIL allows the definition of new semantics for SMIL compositions, besides its usual seq, par and excl elements. X-SMIL templates are specified using an XTemplate profile, which extends the original idea of the NCL XTemplate language. Bringing new facilities for template definitions, this new profile is used to further improve the NCL language. X-SMIL also offers support for handling hypermedia relations as first-class entities, through the use of hypermedia connectors - brought to X-SMIL via the NCL XConnector module. Another important goal of this work is to present a framework to facilitate the development of XML documents parsing and processing tools. Based on this framework, several compilers were implemented, permitting, among other features, the conversion of NCL documents into SMIL or X-SMIL specifications and vice- versa.

The formalized and algorithmic study of human language within the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) has motivated much theoretical work in the related field of formal languages, in particular the subfields of grammar and automata theory. Motivated and informed by NLP, the papers in this thesis explore the connections between expressibility – that is, the ability for a formal system to define complex sets of objects – and algorithmic complexity – that is, the varying amount of effort required to analyse and utilise such systems. Our research studies formal systems working not just on strings, but on more complex structures such as trees and graphs, in particular syntax trees and semantic graphs. The field of mildly context-sensitive languages concerns attempts to find a useful class of formal languages between the context-free and context-sensitive. We study formalisms defining two candidates for this class; tree-adjoining languages and the languages defined by linear context-free rewriting systems. For the former, we specifically investigate the tree languages, and define a subclass and tree automaton with linear parsing complexity. For the latter, we use the framework of parameterized complexity theory to investigate more deeply the related parsing problems, as well as the connections between various formalisms defining the class. The field of semantic modelling aims towards formally and accurately modelling not only the syntax of natural language statements, but also the meaning. In particular, recent work in semantic graphs motivates our study of graph grammars and graph parsing. To the best of our knowledge, the formalism presented in Paper III of this thesis is the first graph grammar where the uniform parsing problem has polynomial parsing complexity, even for input graphs of unbounded node degree.

The conciseness conjecture is a longstanding notion in computer science that programming languages with more built-in operators, that is more expressive languages with larger semantics, produce smaller programs on average. Chaitin defines the related concept of an elegant program such that there is no smaller program in some language which, when run, produces the same output. This thesis investigates the conciseness conjecture in an empirical manner. Influenced by the concept of elegant programs, we investigate several models of computation, and implement a set of functions in each programming model. The programming models are Turing Machines, λ-Calculus, SKI, RASP, RASP2, and RASP3. The information content of the programs and models are measured as characters. They are compared to investigate hypotheses relating to how the mean program size changes as the size of the semantics change, and how the relationship of mean program sizes between two models compares to that between the sizes of their semantics. We show that the amount of information present in models of the same paradigm, or model family, is a good indication of relative expressivity and average program size. Models that contain more information in their semantics have smaller average programs for the set of tested functions. In contrast, the relative expressiveness of models from differing paradigms, is not indicated by their relative information contents. RASP and Turing Machines have been implemented as Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) circuits to investigate hardware analogues of the hypotheses above. Namely that the amount of information in the semantics for a model directly influences the size of the corresponding circuit, and that the relationship of mean circuit sizes between models is comparable to the relationship of mean program sizes. We show that the number of components in the circuits that realise the semantics and programs of the models correlates with the information required to implement the semantics and program of a model. However, the number of components to implement a program in a circuit for one model does not relate to the number of components implementing the same program in another model. This is in contrast to the more abstract implementations of the programs. Information is a computational resource and therefore follows the rules of Blum’s axioms. These axioms and the speedup theorem are used to obtain an alternate proof of the undecidability of elegance. This work is a step towards unifying the formal notion of expressiveness with the notion of algorithmic information theory and exposes a number of interesting research directions. A start has been made on integrating the results of the thesis with the formal framework for the expressiveness of programming languages.

This thesis addresses the problem of output media allocation in the design of multimedia user interfaces. The literature survey identifies a formal definition of the representational capabilities of different media.as important in this task. Equally important, though less prominent in the literature, is that the correct mental model of a domain is paramount for the successful completion of tasks. The thesis proposes an original linguistic and cognitive based descriptive framework, in two parts. The first part defines expressiveness, the amount of representational abstraction a medium provides over any domain. The second part describes how this expressiveness is linked to the mental models that media induce, and how this in turn affects task performance. It is postulated that the mental models induced by different media, will reflect the abstractive representation those media offer over the task domain. This must then be matched to the abstraction required by tasks to allow them to be effectively accomplished. A 34 subject experiment compares five media, of two levels of expressiveness, over a range of tasks, in a complex and dynamic domain. The results indicate that expressiveness may allow media to be matched more closely to tasks, if the mental models they are known to induce are considered. Finally, the thesis proposes a tentative framework for media allocation, and two example interfaces are designed using this framework. This framework is based on the matching of expressiveness to the abstraction of a domain required by tasks. The need for the methodology to take account of the user's cognitive capabilities is stressed, and the experimental results are seen as the beginning of this procedure.

The zheng is a Chinese string instrument classified as a plucked zither. Since the 1950s, when the instrument began to be taught in music conservatories in China, there has been a need to better understand the various approaches to zheng performance expressiveness. The modernization of Chinese music, driven by social, cultural and political factors, has witnessed the rise of contemporary zheng composition, performance techniques and changing music aesthetics. This thesis adopts an integrative approach, examining how knowledge of zheng performance techniques as informed by folk music tradition and aesthetics, can enhance performance expressiveness when interpreting pieces in the contemporary zheng repertoire. The thesis draws upon ethnographic fieldwork in China, which included intensive zheng training with zheng Master Gao Wugang, participant observation of zheng concert performances, and interviews with representative figures within the zheng field along with my own reflections on the learning and practice processes. This thesis is supported by my final lecture recital video.

Digital musical instruments pose a number of unique challenges for designers and performers. These issues stem primarily from the lack of innate physical connection between the performance interface and means of sound generation, for the latter is usually dematerialised. Thus, this relationship must instead be explicitly determined by the designer, and can be essentially any desired. However, many design issues and constraints remain poorly understood, from the nature of control to the provision of performer-instrument feedback. This practice-based research contends that while the digital and acoustic domains are so different as to be fundamentally incompatible, useful antecedents for digital musical instruments can be found in the histories of electronic music. Specifically, it argues that the live electronics of David Tudor are of particular prescience. His home-made circuits offer an electronic music paradigm quite antithetical to both the familiar keyboard interface and the electronic music studios that grew up in the years after World War II, and are seen to embody a number of aspirational qualities. These include performer-instrument interaction more akin to steering rather than fine control, the potential for musical outcomes that are unknown and unknowable in advance, and distinct instrumental character. This leads to the central contribution of this research; the development of a Tudor-inspired conceptual framework that can inform how digital musical instruments are designed, played, and evaluated. To enable more detailed and nuanced discussion, the framework is broken down into a series of sub-themes. These include both design issues such as nuance, plasticity and emergence, and human issues such as experience, expressiveness, skill, learning, and mastery. The notion of sketching in hardware and software is also developed in relation to the rapid iteration of multiple designs. Informed by this framework, seven new digital musical instruments are presented. These instruments are tested from two different perspectives, with the personal experiences of the author supplemented with data from a series of smallscale user studies. Particular emphasis is placed on how the instruments are played, the music they can produce, and their capacity to convey the musical intentions of the performer (i.e. their expressiveness). After the evaluation of the instruments, the Tudorian framework is revisited to form the basis of the conclusions. A number of modifications to the original framework are proposed, from the addition of a dialogical model of performerinstrument interaction, to the situation of digital musical instruments within a wider musical ecology. The thesis then closes with a suggestion of possibilities for future research.

La parla és una de les formes de comunicació més naturals i directes entre éssers humans, ja que codifica un missatge i també claus paralingüístiques sobre l’estat emocional del locutor, el to o la seva intenció, esdevenint així fonamental en la consecució d’una interacció humà-màquina (HCI) més natural. En aquest context, la generació de parla expressiva pel canal de sortida d’HCI és un element clau en el desenvolupament de tecnologies assistencials o assistents personals entre altres aplicacions. La parla sintètica pot ser generada a partir de parla enregistrada utilitzant mètodes basats en corpus com la selecció d’unitats (US), que poden aconseguir resultats d’alta qualitat però d’expressivitat restringida a la pròpia del corpus. A fi de millorar la qualitat de la sortida de la síntesi, la tendència actual és construir bases de dades de veu cada cop més grans, seguint especialment l’aproximació de síntesi anomenada End-to-End basada en tècniques d’aprenentatge profund. Tanmateix, enregistrar corpus ad-hoc per cada estil expressiu desitjat pot ser extremadament costós o fins i tot inviable si el locutor no és capaç de realitzar adequadament els estils requerits per a una aplicació donada (ex: cant en el domini de la narració de contes). Alternativament, nous mètodes basats en la física de la producció de veu s’han desenvolupat a la darrera dècada gràcies a l’increment en la potència computacional. Per exemple, vocals o diftongs poden ser obtinguts utilitzant el mètode d’elements finits (FEM) per simular la propagació d’ones acústiques a través d’una geometria 3D realista del tracte vocal obtinguda a partir de ressonàncies magnètiques (MRI). Tanmateix, atès que els principals esforços en aquests mètodes de producció numèrica de veu s’han focalitzat en la millora del modelat del procés de generació de veu, fins ara s’ha prestat poca atenció a la seva expressivitat. A més, la col·lecció de dades per aquestes simulacions és molt costosa, a més de requerir un llarg postprocessament manual com el necessari per extreure geometries 3D del tracte vocal a partir de MRI. L’objectiu de la tesi és afegir expressivitat en un sistema que genera veu neutra, sense haver d’adquirir dades expressives del locutor original. Per un costat, s’afegeixen capacitats expressives a un sistema de conversió de text a parla basat en selecció d’unitats (US-TTS) dotat d’un corpus de veu neutra, per adreçar necessitats específiques i concretes en l’àmbit de la narració de contes, com són la veu cantada o situacions de suspens. A tal efecte, la veu és parametritzada utilitzant un model harmònic i transformada a l’estil expressiu desitjat d’acord amb un sistema expert. Es presenta una primera aproximació, centrada en la síntesi de suspens creixent per a la narració de contes, i es demostra la seva viabilitat pel que fa a naturalitat i qualitat de narració de contes. També s’afegeixen capacitats de cant al sistema US-TTS mitjançant la integració de mòduls de transformació de parla a veu cantada en el pipeline del TTS, i la incorporació d’un mòdul de generació de prosòdia expressiva que permet al mòdul de US seleccionar unitats més properes a la prosòdia cantada obtinguda a partir de la partitura d’entrada. Això resulta en un framework de síntesi de conversió de text a parla i veu cantada basat en selecció d’unitats (US-TTS&S) que pot generar veu parlada i cantada a partir d'un petit corpus de veu neutra (~2.6h). D’acord amb els resultats objectius, l’estratègia de US guiada per la partitura permet reduir els factors de modificació de pitch requerits per produir veu cantada a partir de les unitats de veu parlada seleccionades, però en canvi té una efectivitat limitada amb els factors de modificació de les durades degut a la curta durada de les vocals parlades neutres. Els resultats dels tests perceptius mostren que tot i òbviament obtenir una naturalitat inferior a la oferta per un sintetitzador professional de veu cantada, el framework pot adreçar necessitats puntuals de veu cantada per a la síntesis de narració de contes amb una qualitat raonable. La incorporació d’expressivitat s’investiga també en la simulació numèrica 3D de vocals basada en FEM mitjançant modificacions de les senyals d’excitació glotal utilitzant una aproximació font-filtre de producció de veu. Aquestes senyals es generen utilitzant un model Liljencrants-Fant (LF) controlat amb el paràmetre de forma del pols Rd, que permet explorar el continu de fonació lax-tens a més del rang de freqüències fonamentals, F0, de la veu parlada. S’analitza la contribució de la font glotal als modes d’alt ordre en la síntesis FEM de les vocals cardinals [a], [i] i [u] mitjançant la comparació dels valors d’energia d’alta freqüència (HFE) obtinguts amb geometries realistes i simplificades del tracte vocal. Les simulacions indiquen que els modes d’alt ordre es preveuen perceptivament rellevants d’acord amb valors de referència de la literatura, particularment per a fonacions tenses i/o F0s altes. En canvi, per a vocals amb una fonació laxa i/o F0s baixes els nivells d’HFE poden resultar inaudibles, especialment si no hi ha soroll d’aspiració en la font glotal. Després d’aquest estudi preliminar, s’han analitzat les característiques d’excitació de vocals alegres i agressives d’un corpus paral·lel de veu en castellà amb l’objectiu d’incorporar aquests estils expressius de veu tensa en la simulació numèrica de veu. Per a tal efecte, s’ha usat el vocoder GlottDNN per analitzar variacions d’F0 i pendent espectral relacionades amb l’excitació glotal en vocals [a]. Aquestes variacions es mapegen mitjançant la comparació amb vocals sintètiques en valors d’F0 i Rd per simular vocals que s’assemblin als estils alegre i agressiu. Els resultats mostren que és necessari incrementar l’F0 i disminuir l’Rd respecte la veu neutra, amb variacions majors per a alegre que per agressiu, especialment per a vocals accentuades. Els resultats aconseguits en les investigacions realitzades validen la possibilitat d’afegir expressivitat a la síntesi basada en corpus US-TTS i a la simulació numèrica de veu basada en FEM. Tanmateix, encara hi ha marge de millora. Per exemple, l’estratègia aplicada a la producció numèrica de veu es podria millorar estudiant i desenvolupant mètodes de filtratge invers així com incorporant modificacions del tracte vocal, mentre que el framework US-TTS&S es podria beneficiar dels avenços en tècniques de transformació de veu incloent transformacions de la qualitat de veu, aprofitant l’experiència adquirida en la simulació numèrica de vocals expressives.
El habla es una de las formas de comunicación más naturales y directas entre seres humanos, ya que codifica un mensaje y también claves paralingüísticas sobre el estado emocional del locutor, el tono o su intención, convirtiéndose así en fundamental en la consecución de una interacción humano-máquina (HCI) más natural. En este contexto, la generación de habla expresiva para el canal de salida de HCI es un elemento clave en el desarrollo de tecnologías asistenciales o asistentes personales entre otras aplicaciones. El habla sintética puede ser generada a partir de habla gravada utilizando métodos basados en corpus como la selección de unidades (US), que pueden conseguir resultados de alta calidad, pero de expresividad restringida a la propia del corpus. A fin de mejorar la calidad de la salida de la síntesis, la tendencia actual es construir bases de datos de voz cada vez más grandes, siguiendo especialmente la aproximación de síntesis llamada End-to-End basada en técnicas de aprendizaje profundo. Sin embargo, gravar corpus ad-hoc para cada estilo expresivo deseado puede ser extremadamente costoso o incluso inviable si el locutor no es capaz de realizar adecuadamente los estilos requeridos para una aplicación dada (ej: canto en el dominio de la narración de cuentos). Alternativamente, nuevos métodos basados en la física de la producción de voz se han desarrollado en la última década gracias al incremento en la potencia computacional. Por ejemplo, vocales o diptongos pueden ser obtenidos utilizando el método de elementos finitos (FEM) para simular la propagación de ondas acústicas a través de una geometría 3D realista del tracto vocal obtenida a partir de resonancias magnéticas (MRI). Sin embargo, dado que los principales esfuerzos en estos métodos de producción numérica de voz se han focalizado en la mejora del modelado del proceso de generación de voz, hasta ahora se ha prestado poca atención a su expresividad. Además, la colección de datos para estas simulaciones es muy costosa, además de requerir un largo postproceso manual como el necesario para extraer geometrías 3D del tracto vocal a partir de MRI. El objetivo de la tesis es añadir expresividad en un sistema que genera voz neutra, sin tener que adquirir datos expresivos del locutor original. Per un lado, se añaden capacidades expresivas a un sistema de conversión de texto a habla basado en selección de unidades (US-TTS) dotado de un corpus de voz neutra, para abordar necesidades específicas y concretas en el ámbito de la narración de cuentos, como son la voz cantada o situaciones de suspense. Para ello, la voz se parametriza utilizando un modelo harmónico y se transforma al estilo expresivo deseado de acuerdo con un sistema experto. Se presenta una primera aproximación, centrada en la síntesis de suspense creciente para la narración de cuentos, y se demuestra su viabilidad en cuanto a naturalidad y calidad de narración de cuentos. También se añaden capacidades de canto al sistema US-TTS mediante la integración de módulos de transformación de habla a voz cantada en el pipeline del TTS, y la incorporación de un módulo de generación de prosodia expresiva que permite al módulo de US seleccionar unidades más cercanas a la prosodia cantada obtenida a partir de la partitura de entrada. Esto resulta en un framework de síntesis de conversión de texto a habla y voz cantada basado en selección de unidades (US-TTS&S) que puede generar voz hablada y cantada a partir del mismo pequeño corpus de voz neutra (~2.6h). De acuerdo con los resultados objetivos, la estrategia de US guiada por la partitura permite reducir los factores de modificación de pitch requeridos para producir voz cantada a partir de las unidades de voz hablada seleccionadas, pero en cambio tiene una efectividad limitada con los factores de modificación de duraciones debido a la corta duración de las vocales habladas neutras. Los resultados de las pruebas perceptivas muestran que, a pesar de obtener una naturalidad obviamente inferior a la ofrecida por un sintetizador profesional de voz cantada, el framework puede abordar necesidades puntuales de voz cantada para la síntesis de narración de cuentos con una calidad razonable. La incorporación de expresividad se investiga también en la simulación numérica 3D de vocales basada en FEM mediante modificaciones en las señales de excitación glotal utilizando una aproximación fuente-filtro de producción de voz. Estas señales se generan utilizando un modelo Liljencrants-Fant (LF) controlado con el parámetro de forma del pulso Rd, que permite explorar el continuo de fonación laxo-tenso además del rango de frecuencias fundamentales, F0, de la voz hablada. Se analiza la contribución de la fuente glotal a los modos de alto orden en la síntesis FEM de las vocales cardinales [a], [i] y [u] mediante la comparación de los valores de energía de alta frecuencia (HFE) obtenidos con geometrías realistas y simplificadas del tracto vocal. Las simulaciones indican que los modos de alto orden se prevén perceptivamente relevantes de acuerdo con valores de referencia de la literatura, particularmente para fonaciones tensas y/o F0s altas. En cambio, para vocales con una fonación laxa y/o F0s bajas los niveles de HFE pueden resultar inaudibles, especialmente si no hay ruido de aspiración en la fuente glotal. Después de este estudio preliminar, se han analizado las características de excitación de vocales alegres y agresivas de un corpus paralelo de voz en castellano con el objetivo de incorporar estos estilos expresivos de voz tensa en la simulación numérica de voz. Para ello, se ha usado el vocoder GlottDNN para analizar variaciones de F0 y pendiente espectral relacionadas con la excitación glotal en vocales [a]. Estas variaciones se mapean mediante la comparación con vocales sintéticas en valores de F0 y Rd para simular vocales que se asemejen a los estilos alegre y agresivo. Los resultados muestran que es necesario incrementar la F0 y disminuir la Rd respecto la voz neutra, con variaciones mayores para alegre que para agresivo, especialmente para vocales acentuadas. Los resultados conseguidos en las investigaciones realizadas validan la posibilidad de añadir expresividad a la síntesis basada en corpus US-TTS y a la simulación numérica de voz basada en FEM. Sin embargo, hay margen de mejora. Por ejemplo, la estrategia aplicada a la producción numérica de voz se podría mejorar estudiando y desarrollando métodos de filtrado inverso, así como incorporando modificaciones del tracto vocal, mientras que el framework US-TTS&S desarrollado se podría beneficiar de los avances en técnicas de transformación de voz incluyendo transformaciones de la calidad de la voz, aprovechando la experiencia adquirida en la simulación numérica de vocales expresivas.
Speech is one of the most natural and direct forms of communication between human beings, as it codifies both a message and paralinguistic cues about the emotional state of the speaker, its mood, or its intention, thus becoming instrumental in pursuing a more natural Human Computer Interaction (HCI). In this context, the generation of expressive speech for the HCI output channel is a key element in the development of assistive technologies or personal assistants among other applications. Synthetic speech can be generated from recorded speech using corpus-based methods such as Unit-Selection (US), which can achieve high quality results but whose expressiveness is restricted to that available in the speech corpus. In order to improve the quality of the synthesis output, the current trend is to build ever larger speech databases, especially following the so-called End-to-End synthesis approach based on deep learning techniques. However, recording ad-hoc corpora for each and every desired expressive style can be extremely costly, or even unfeasible if the speaker is unable to properly perform the styles required for a given application (e.g., singing in the storytelling domain). Alternatively, new methods based on the physics of voice production have been developed in the last decade thanks to the increase in computing power. For instance, vowels or diphthongs can be obtained using the Finite Element Method (FEM) to simulate the propagation of acoustic waves through a 3D realistic vocal tract geometry obtained from Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). However, since the main efforts in these numerical voice production methods have been focused on improving the modelling of the voice generation process, little attention has been paid to its expressiveness up to now. Furthermore, the collection of data for such simulations is very costly, besides requiring manual time-consuming postprocessing like that needed to extract 3D vocal tract geometries from MRI. The aim of the thesis is to add expressiveness into a system that generates neutral voice, without having to acquire expressive data from the original speaker. One the one hand, expressive capabilities are added to a Unit-Selection Text-to-Speech (US-TTS) system fed with a neutral speech corpus, to address specific and timely needs in the storytelling domain, such as for singing or in suspenseful situations. To this end, speech is parameterised using a harmonic-based model and subsequently transformed to the target expressive style according to an expert system. A first approach dealing with the synthesis of storytelling increasing suspense shows the viability of the proposal in terms of naturalness and storytelling quality. Singing capabilities are also added to the US-TTS system through the integration of Speech-to-Singing (STS) transformation modules into the TTS pipeline, and by incorporating an expressive prosody generation module that allows the US to select units closer to the target singing prosody obtained from the input score. This results in a Unit Selection based Text-to-Speech-and-Singing (US-TTS&S) synthesis framework that can generate both speech and singing from the same neutral speech small corpus (~2.6 h). According to the objective results, the score-driven US strategy can reduce the pitch scaling factors required to produce singing from the selected spoken units, but its effectiveness is limited regarding the time-scale requirements due to the short duration of the spoken vowels. Results from the perceptual tests show that although the obtained naturalness is obviously far from that given by a professional singing synthesiser, the framework can address eventual singing needs for synthetic storytelling with a reasonable quality. The incorporation of expressiveness is also investigated in the 3D FEM-based numerical simulation of vowels through modifications of the glottal flow signals following a source-filter approach of voice production. These signals are generated using a Liljencrants-Fant (LF) model controlled with the glottal shape parameter Rd, which allows exploring the tense-lax continuum of phonation besides the spoken vocal range of fundamental frequency values, F0. The contribution of the glottal source to higher order modes in the FEM synthesis of cardinal vowels [a], [i] and [u] is analysed through the comparison of the High Frequency Energy (HFE) values obtained with realistic and simplified 3D geometries of the vocal tract. The simulations indicate that higher order modes are expected to be perceptually relevant according to reference values stated in the literature, particularly for tense phonations and/or high F0s. Conversely, vowels with a lax phonation and/or low F0s can result in inaudible HFE levels, especially if aspiration noise is not present in the glottal source. After this preliminary study, the excitation characteristics of happy and aggressive vowels from a Spanish parallel speech corpus are analysed with the aim of incorporating this tense voice expressive styles into the numerical production of voice. To that effect, the GlottDNN vocoder is used to analyse F0 and spectral tilt variations associated with the glottal excitation on vowels [a]. These variations are mapped through the comparison with synthetic vowels into F0 and Rd values to simulate vowels resembling happy and aggressive styles. Results show that it is necessary to increase F0 and decrease Rd with respect to neutral speech, with larger variations for happy than aggressive style, especially for the stressed [a] vowels. The results achieved in the conducted investigations validate the possibility of adding expressiveness to both corpus-based US-TTS synthesis and FEM-based numerical simulation of voice. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement. For instance, the strategy applied to the numerical voice production could be improved by studying and developing inverse filtering approaches as well as incorporating modifications of the vocal tract, whereas the developed US-TTS&S framework could benefit from advances in voice transformation techniques including voice quality modifications, taking advantage of the experience gained in the numerical simulation of expressive vowels.

Based on Super's (1990) developmental model of career development and Spence and Helmreich's (1978) gender identity theory, this study examined the relationship between the gender-related traits of instrumentality and expressiveness and women's preferences for multiple life-career roles. Super (1990) suggested that a career, as represented by the major life roles of student, worker, citizen, homemaker, and leisurite, is influenced by sex role stereotyping and individual differences. It was hypothesized in this project that gender role orientation (levels of instrumentality and expressiveness) would have an effect on women's role preferences.Adult women (N = 100) from three medium-sized midwestern communities were recruited from churches and community sororities. The women ranged in age from 20 to 82, with a mean age of 44.8 years. A response rate of 53%% was obtained. Role preferences, as expressed by women's participation, commitment, and value expectations, were measured by Nevill and Super's (1986) Salience Inventory (SI). Gender role orientation was assessed by Spence and Helmreich's (1974) Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ). Scores on the PAQ were grouped into the categories ofandrogynous, instrumental, expressiveness, and undifferentiated by the median split technique. A demographic questionnaire was also administered.The demographic variables were grouped conceptually into five categories: personal, occupational, role satisfaction, parental influence, and spousal support for the purpose of preliminary analyses. Results of these analyses (Pearson Productmoment correlations, canonical correlations, and discriminant function analyses) revealed that personal and role satisfaction variables may moderate women's gender role orientation and role preferences. The main analyses were then conducted with three separate between-subjects MANOVAs. Although the results of the MANOVAs involving women's participation and commitment to multiple life-career roles were nonsignificant, another MANOVA involving women's value expectations was significant. Post-hoc procedures indicated that androgynous women had greater expectations of achieving their values in their work role than did instrumental women. It was also found that androgynous women had higher value expectations in the community and home roles than did undifferentiated women.A number of theoretical, empirical, and counseling implications were discussed. Limitations of the study were discussed in terms of the sample characteristics and the statistics employed.
Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Facial expressions provide valuable information in making judgments about internal emotional states. Evaluation of facial expressions can occur through mimicry processes via the mirror neuron system (MNS) pathway, where a decoder mimics a target’s facial expression and proprioceptive perception prompts emotion recognition. Female participants rated emotional facial expressions when mimicry was inhibited by immobilization of facial muscles and when mimicry was uncontrolled, and were evaluated for self-expressiveness level. A mixed ANOVA was conducted to determine how self-expressiveness level and manipulation of facial muscles impacted recognition accuracy for facial expressions. Main effects of self-expressiveness level and facial muscle manipulation were not found to be significant (p > .05), nor did these variables appear to interact (p > .05). The results of this study suggest that an individual’s self-expressiveness level and use of mimicry processes may not play a central role in emotion recognition.