Over the years emojis have become a fundamental and natural part in online based communication. Due to this emojis have also entered the judicial system by appearing in several court cases, used as evidence for or against intent to commit crime. This essay studies relevant cases presented in Swedish trials to better understand how emojis are interpreted and processed within Swedish law. Additional interviews help to further examine possible approaches for a more trustworthy emoji-interpretation by the judicial system. The essays main findings further indicate that emojis are complex when used as evidence. This due to their ambiguity as well as not yet being an established part in court cases - furthermore complicating the judicial process of decoding these symbols. In addition, the essay finds that emojis' meanings are largely tied to culture and are also often platform-based. In order to avoid misunderstandings and wrongful decoding from litigators, this essays results proposes two main solutions: (1) organizations such as Unicode, as well as different platforms, should have a greater responsibility when technically standardizing emojis, to reduce misunderstandings. (2) Courts should at a higher rate introduce experts, such as linguists or emoji-experts, to ensure that emojis are decoded in a proper way.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第20098号 / 情博第630号 / 新制||情||109(附属図書館) / 33214 / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科システム科学専攻 / (主査)教授 石井 信, 教授 松田 哲也, 教授 加納 学 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DFAM

The purpose of this study was to examine the preliminary psychometrics to revisions to the decoding subtest of the Predictive Early Assessment of Reading and Language (PEARL) dynamic assessment and to further examine the predictive validity of the language subtest of the PEARL. Specific aims were to (a) determine if kindergarten students made gains on the PEARL decoding subtest from pretest to a delayed standard posttest and to a delayed novel posttest, indicating that floor effects were mitigated, (b) to examine if there was variance in the delayed standard posttest and novel posttest scores, (c) to determine if there was adequate fidelity of administration and adequate inter-rater reliability of a delayed standard posttest and a delayed novel decoding posttest, and (d) to examine the sensitivity of the language subtest of the PEARL dynamic assessment. The PEARL Dynamic Assessment was administered to 34 kindergarten students from one elementary school who were identified as at-risk from the DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) composite score (Good et al., 2004). Of those 34 students, the PEARL identified seven students at risk for decoding and 11 students at risk for language. The PEARL dynamic assessment contains two brief subtests, a decoding subtest and a language subtest. Both subtests use a pretest, teach, posttest format. Results indicated that the delayed standard posttest correct sounds were significantly different from the pretest correct sounds. The delayed novel posttest correct sounds were significantly different from the pretest correct sounds. For the delayed standard posttest correct words there was a significant difference when compared to the pretest correct words. The delayed posttest novel words were not significantly different from the pretest words. Fidelity of administration was calculated from ten separate administrators, with 100% fidelity of administration for nine of those administrations. The point-to-point interrater reliability of the delayed posttest sounds, and novel sounds was 94% and the point-to-point interrater reliability of the total words read correctly was 94%. Results indicated that the PEARL correctly identified 9/11 students as having language disorder, yielding a sensitivity index of 82%. The findings suggest that the modification to the decoding subtest of the PEARL has preliminary evidence of validity and reliability, and that the language subtest of the PEARL may be a valid tool to identify kindergarten students at risk for language disorder.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the associations among teacher ratings of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptomology and executive functioning (EF) skills with reading comprehension and its underlying components reflected in the Simple View of Reading (SVR) including decoding and language comprehension ability. A total of 27 second grade (n = 10), third grade (n = 12), and fourth grade (n = 5) students were recruited for the study. Standardized assessment measures were used to capture word reading, decoding, reading comprehension, semantics, grammar, listening, phonological processing, and working memory. Teacher questionnaires were used to assess ADHD symptomology and EF ability in participants. Correlation analyses were conducted to explore the associations among teacher ratings of EF and ADHD, reading comprehension, and its subskills outlined in the SVR. A series of hierarchical regression analyses were performed to identify whether teacher ratings of ADHD or EF added unique variance to reading comprehension after controlling for word level reading and language comprehension skills. Results from the current study give further support for the SVR as an effective model for conceptualizing reading comprehension. An association between EF difficulties and poor word reading, in addition to weaker reading comprehension skills, was identified. These findings highlight the need for further research examining the role that EF plays in reading comprehension and its underlying components in order to better support struggling readers. / Graduate

Reading may be viewed as an invisible skill, and some may even consider it a passive skill. However, reading is an active and complex skill. It requires one to use a wide range of skills simultaneously to achieve fluency. Hence, it is crucial to learn and use strategies to master such a complex skill. Today, research states that fluent reading includes using top-down and bottom-up strategies, or an interactive approach, to truly become a fluent reader. In fact, research has shown the effects that all three models have had on students. More specifically, L1 studies have shown positive effects in using phonics instruction (a type of bottom-up model) on students' reading fluency. Although this is true, there has been little research in L2 settings that investigates the effects that phonics instruction has had on L2 learners. It seems that L2 reading curricula focus on teaching top-down strategies in hopes that students implicitly learn bottom-up strategies. In reality, students may need to experience a transitional phase where they explicitly learn phonics and how to decode words in order to become fluent readers. The current study seeks to explore whether implementing extended explicit systematic phonics instruction in an L2 setting facilitates reading fluency. Thus, the goal of this study was to investigate whether extended explicit systematic phonics instruction would affect L2 students' reading fluency in terms of decoding, reading rate and comprehension. Two groups of students participated in this study; an experimental group who received extended explicit systematic phonics instruction and a control group who did not receive the treatment. Two types of exams were administered. One exam indicated that phonics instruction helped students read words accurately, but the second exam illustrated that phonics instruction did not make a difference in decoding, reading rate and comprehension. These results suggest further exploration on the topic.

Ribosomes translate the genetic information contained in mRNAs into protein by linking together amino acids with the help of aminoacyl-tRNAs. In bacteria, protein synthesis stalls when the ribosome reaches the 3'-end of truncated mRNA transcripts lacking a stop codon. Trans-translation is a conserved bacterial quality control process that rescues stalled ribosomes. Transfer-messenger RNA (tmRNA) and its protein partner SmpB mimic a tRNA by entering the A site of the ribosome and accepting the growing peptide chain. The ribosome releases the truncated mRNA and resumes translation on the tmRNA template. The open reading frame found on tmRNA encodes a peptide tag that marks the defective nascent peptide for proteolysis. A stop codon at the end of the open reading frame allows the ribosome to be recycled and engage in future rounds of translation.The entry of tmRNA into stalled ribosomes presents a challenge to our understanding of ribosome function because during the canonical decoding process, the ribosome specifically recognizes the codon-anticodon duplex formed between tRNA and mRNA in the A site. Recognition of proper base-pairing leads to conformational changes that accelerate GTP hydrolysis by EF-Tu and rapid accommodation of the tRNA into the ribosome for peptidyl transfer. The puzzle is that tmRNA enters stalled ribosomes and reacts with the nascent peptide in the absence of a codon-anticodon interaction. Instead, SmpB binding in the decoding center begins the rescue process, but it has been unclear how SmpB licenses tmRNA entry into stalled ribosomes. We analyzed a series of SmpB and ribosomal RNA mutants using pre-steady-state kinetic assays for EF-Tu activation and peptidyl transfer. Although the conserved 16S nucleotides A1492 and A1493 play an essential role in canonical decoding, they play little or no role in EF-Tu activation or peptidyl transfer to tmRNA. In contrast, a third nucleotide, G530, stacks with the side chain of SmpB residue His136, inducing conformational changes that lead to GTP hydrolysis by EF-Tu. A portion of the C-terminal tail forms a helix within the mRNA channel, monitoring the length of mRNA bound in the ribosome to avoid aborting productive protein synthesis. Helix formation in the mRNA channel is essential for accommodation and peptidyl transfer, but not for GTP hydrolysis. We show that conserved residues in the tail are essential for EF-Tu activation, accommodation, or translocation to the P site. Our findings lead to a clearer model of how the tmRNA-SmpB complex enters stalled ribosomes.

<P> For over six decades, the theory and design of radar systems have been dominated by probability theory and statistics, information theory, signal processing and control. However, the similar encoding-decoding property that exists between the visual brain and radar has been sadly overlooked in all radar systems. This thesis lays down the foundation of a new generation of radar systems, namely cognitive radar, that was described in a 2006 seminal paper by Haykin. Four essential elements of cognitive radar are Bayesian filtering in the receiver, dynamic programming in the transmitter, memory, and global feedback to facilitate computational intelligence. All these elements excluding the memory compose a well known property of mammalian cortex, the perception-action cycle. As such, the cognitive radar that has only this cycle is named as the basic cognitive radar (BCR). For t racking applications, t his thesis presents the underlying theory of BCR, with emphasis being placed on the cubature Kalman filter to approximate the Bayesian filter in the receiver, dynamic optimization for transmit-waveform selection in the transmitter, and global feedback embodying the transmitter , the radar environment, and the receiver all under one overall feedback loop. </p> <p> Built on the knowledge learnt from the BCR, this thesis expands the basic perception-action cycle to encompass three more properties of human cognition , that is, memory, attention, and intelligence. Specifically, the provision for memory includes the three essential elements, i. e. , the perceptual memory, executive memory, and coordinating perception-action memory that couples the first two memories. Provision of the three memories adds an advanced version of cognitive radar, namely the nested cognitive radar (NCR) in light of the nesting of three memories in the perception-action cycle. </p> <p> In this thesis, extensive computer simulations are also conducted to demonstrate the ability of this new radar concept over a conventional radar structure. Three important scenarios of tracking applications are considered, they are (a), linear target tracking; (b), falling object tracking; and (c), high-dimensional target tracking with continuous-discrete model. All simulation results confirm that cognitive radar outperforms the conventional radar systems significantly. </p> <p> In conducting the simulations, an interesting phenomenon is also observed, which is named the chattering effect. The underlying physics and mathematical model of this effect are discussed. For the purpose of studying the behaviour of cognitive radar in disturbance, demonstrative experiments are further conducted. Simulation results indicate the superiority of NCR over BCR and t he conventional radar in low, moderate and even strong disturbance. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第24931号 / 情博第842号 / 新制||情||141(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科知能情報学専攻 / (主査)教授 神谷 之康, 教授 熊田 孝恒, 教授 西田 眞也 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DFAM

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