The current research is directed at providing validated guidelines to direct the integration of audio into human-system interfaces. This work first discusses the utility of integrating audio to support multimodal human-information processing. Next, an auditory interactive computing paradigm utilizing Speech, Earcons, Auditory icons, and Spatial audio (SEAS) cues is proposed and guidelines for the integration of SEAS cues into multimodal systems are presented. Finally, the results of two studies are presented that evaluate the utility of using SEAS cues, developed following the proposed guidelines, in relieving perceptual and attention processing bottlenecks when conducting Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) control tasks. The results demonstrate that SEAS cues significantly enhance human performance on UAV control tasks, particularly response accuracy and reaction time on a secondary monitoring task. The results suggest that SEAS cues may be effective in overcoming perceptual and attentional bottlenecks, with the advantages being most revealing during high workload conditions. The theories and principles provided in this paper should be of interest to audio system designers and anyone involved in the design of multimodal human-computer systems.

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The mental space in which the architect formulates, tests, and cultivates an idea is deformed by memory, so that nothing projected into this space is bereft of association. However, neither is this space constrained by physical reality, allowing the architect a certain freedom to visualize the totality of an object and the world in which it is projected, simultaneously and in suspension: a space between memory and imagination. Memories and experiences layer richness upon this inner world and form the context for its manifestation; its realization. The deliberate and conscientious curation of this inner world-- the architect as archivist of memory and experience-- is an essential practice for the development of the architect and the worlds in which they operate. / Master of Architecture

Denna studie handlar primärt om social hållbarhet som är ett stort och omfattande begrepp. I dagens stadsplanering används begreppet i ett bredare perspektiv. Studien har som syfte att fokusera mer ingripande på social hållbarhet för enskilda multifunktionella byggnader, genom att samla in kunskap om ämnet och belysa innebörden. De valda multifunktionella byggnaderna är Icon i Växjö och Spektrum i Göteborg. Syftet med denna studie är att genom forskning och utvärdering konkretisera människans dagliga behov och hur de kan tillgodoses i en multifunktionell byggnad samt dess bidragande roll för ett socialt hållbart kvarter. Målet är att få en tydligare uppfattning om vilken påverkan den multifunktionella byggnaden har på ett kvarter. Genom utformning och tillämpning av ett verktyg som tagits fram inom ramen för den aktuella studien skall byggnadens sociala hållbarhet kunna utvärderas utifrån människans vardagliga liv, behov och intressen.  Intervjuer med ansvariga projektledare, arkitekter, handledare och sakkunniga har tillsammans med insamling av vetenskapliga rapporter, studiebesök, enkät och observationer varit centrala tillvägagångssätt för studien. Att arbeta mot en mer blandad bebyggelsemiljö och byggnader som har olika verksamheter som samsas är idag alltmer förekommande för att uppnå ett livligare och trevligare stadsrum. Utifrån studiens utformade verktyg har respektive multifunktionell byggnad fått olika sociala poäng som baseras på storlek, verksamheter, tillgänglighet och multifunktionalitet. Studien visar att respektive multifunktionell byggnad har givit mervärde till sitt område. / This study focuses primarily on social sustainability, which is a large and comprehensive concept. In today's urban planning, social sustainability is used on a broader perspective. The study aims to focus more on the concept for individual multifunctional buildings by gathering knowledge about the subject and highlight the meaning. The chosen multifunctional buildings are Icon in Växjö and Spektrum in Gothenburg. The purpose of this study is, through research and evaluation, to concretize people's daily needs and how they can be met in a multifunctional building and its contribution to a socially sustainable neighbourhood. The goal is to get a better understanding of which impact the multifunctional building has on its block. The goal is also designing and application of a tool developed in the context of the current study and to use this tool to evaluate the building's social sustainability based on people's everyday lives, needs and interests. Interviews with responsible project managers, architects, supervisors and other experts, together with the gathering of scientific reports, study visits, questionnaires and observations, has been the studies central approach. Working towards a more mixed urban environment and buildings that have different operation that are combined is nowadays increasingly common for a livelier and more enjoyable urban space. Based on the study´s designed tool, each multifunctional building has received different social points that depends on size, operations, availability and multifunctionality. The study shows that each multifunctional building has added value to its area.

C-arm Cone Beam CT (CBCT) systems – due to compact size, flexible geometry and low radiation exposure – inaugurated the era of on-board 3D image guidance in therapeutic and surgical procedures. Leksell Gamma Knife Icon by Elekta introduced an integrated CBCT system to determine patient position prior to surgical session, thus advancing to a paradigm shift in facilitating frameless stereotactic radiosurgeries. While CBCT offers a quick imaging facility with high spatial accuracy, the quantitative values tend to be distorted due to various physics based artifacts such as scatter, beam hardening and cone beam effect. Several 3D reconstruction algorithms targeting these artifacts involve an accurate and fast segmentation of craniofacial CBCT images into air, tissue and bone. The objective of the thesis is to investigate the performance of deep learning based convolutional neural networks (CNN) in relation to conventional image processing and machine learning algorithms in segmenting CBCT images. CBCT data for training and testing procedures was provided by Elekta. A framework of segmentation algorithms including multilevel automatic thresholding, fuzzy clustering, multilayer perceptron and CNN is developed and tested against pre-defined evaluation metrics carrying pixel-wise prediction accuracy, statistical tests and execution times among others. CNN has proven its ability to outperform other segmentation algorithms throughout the evaluation metrics except for execution times. Mean segmentation error for CNN is found to be 0.4% with a standard deviation of 0.07%, followed by fuzzy clustering with mean segmentation error of 0.8% and a standard deviation of 0.12%. CNN based segmentation takes 500s compared to multilevel thresholding which requires ~1s on similar sized CBCT image. The present work demonstrates the ability of CNN in handling artifacts and noise in CBCT images and maintaining a high semantic segmentation performance. However, further efforts targeting CNN execution speed are required to utilize the segmentation framework within real-time 3D reconstruction algorithms. / C-arm Cone Beam CT (CBCT) system har tack vare sitt kompakta format, flexibla geometri och låga strålningsdos startat en era av inbyggda 3D bildtagningssystem för styrning av terapeutiska och kirurgiska ingripanden. Elektas Leksell Gamma Knife Icon introducerade ett integrerat CBCT-system för att bestämma patientens position för operationer och på så sätt gå in i en paradigm av ramlös stereotaktisk strålkirurgi. Även om CBCT erbjuder snabb bildtagning med hög spatiel noggrannhet så tenderar de kvantitativa värdena att störas av olika artefakter som spridning, beam hardening och cone beam effekten. Ett flertal 3D rekonstruktionsalgorithmer som försöker reducera dessa artefakter kräver en noggrann och snabb segmentering av kraniofaciala CBCT-bilder i luft, mjukvävnad och ben. Målet med den här avhandlingen är att undersöka hur djupa neurala nätverk baserade på faltning (convolutional neural networks, CNN) presterar i jämförelse med konventionella bildbehandlings- och maskininlärningalgorithmer för segmentering av CBCT-bilder. CBCT-data för träning och testning tillhandahölls av Elekta. Ett ramverk för segmenteringsalgorithmer inklusive flernivåströskling (multilevel automatic thresholding), suddig klustring (fuzzy clustering), flerlagersperceptroner (multilayer perceptron) och CNN utvecklas och testas mot fördefinerade utvärderingskriterier som pixelvis noggrannhet, statistiska tester och körtid. CNN presterade bäst i alla metriker förutom körtid. Det genomsnittliga segmenteringsfelet för CNN var 0.4% med en standardavvikelse på 0.07%, följt av suddig klustring med ett medelfel på 0.8% och en standardavvikelse på 0.12%. CNN kräver 500 sekunder jämfört med ungefär 1 sekund för den snabbaste algorithmen, flernivåströskling på lika stora CBCT-volymer. Arbetet visar CNNs förmåga att handera artefakter och brus i CBCT-bilder och bibehålla en högkvalitativ semantisk segmentering. Vidare arbete behövs dock för att förbättra presetandan hos algorithmen för att metoden ska vara applicerbar i realtidsrekonstruktionsalgorithmer.

From Tempera to Ink to Code traces the remediation of Orthodox icons. It examines icons’ unexplored, other media: cheap print, the book and digital media. Its interdisciplinary, cross-medial approach draws upon the fields of media studies, art history, art practice, religious studies, history and bibliography to establish an alternative way of viewing and understanding the icon beyond its original medium. The study focuses on the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God as one of the most venerable Russian Orthodox icons. It traces the Vladimir icon’s process of remediation from tempera on wooden panel to loose print, to bound codex and to digital form. It brings into focus the icon’s less researched, mass-produced media and applies the methods of art historical and bibliographic research to all media in question with equal scrutiny and attention. The dissertation provides a new way of looking at the storage, handling and display of icons in all their media. It categorizes the icon’s media into two groups: display media (tempera icons and loose prints) and storage/cache media (books and digital images). The display media invite veneration and thereby retain an “aura,” in the terminology of Walter Benjamin and David Morgan. Storage media, on the other hand, discourage veneration and, so, accrue no such aura. The study concludes that the loss of an object’s aura happens in unexpected aspects of remediation—in the binding, coding and, in a word, storing of information. The relationship that the study draws between the codex and hard drive has important implications for both book history and media studies, whereas its discussion of remediation, veneration and aura offer valuable contributions to the fields of iconology and iconography.

Notre contribution porte sur les processus de conceptualisation et de modélisation de la matière et de ses transformations en chimie. Elle s'articule autour de deux parties. Une première partie consistant en une analyse du type sémioépistémologique de ce processus pendant la période fin XVIIIe - début XIXe siècles. Nous mobilisons pour cela la théorie sémiotique de C.S. Peirce comme cadre d'analyse. Elle a permis de resituer l'expérimental de la chimie comme étant un ensemble de signes qui prolonge le théorique en même temps qu'il le fonde. Le signe iconique loin d'être signe d'une pensée primitive apparait comme une véritable néo écriture, un instrument heuristique privilégié utilisé par les chimistes pour sonder la matière à la recherche d'indices sur une structure pouvant rendre compte de son comportement, il leur a permis, après de nombreuses controverses, d'aboutir à une structure particulaire, et de construire les concepts d'atome, la molécule et son atomicité. Une deuxième partie où l'analyse sémio-épistémologique a constitué notre cadre théorique pour une transposition didactique de ce contexte. Notre question de recherche est de savoir si le signe iconique, comme défini au sens peircien, peut être mobilisé de manière spontanée par les élèves de 13-15 ans pour construire un raisonnement en chimie, et s'il peut les aider à accéder à l'infiniment petit sur la base de ce contexte transposé ? Nous avons alors élaboré un corpus de 20 séquences d'enseignement engageant les élèves dans une démarche qui nécessite la construction de modèles évolutifs. Nos résultats permettent de dire que le signe iconique loin d'être un moyen pédagogique de transmission facilité, un auxiliaire didactique est au contraire un instrument heuristique privilégié dans la construction des connaissances par les élèves, comme il l'est chez le chimiste / Our contribution focuses on the process of conceptualization and modeling of matter and its transformations in chemistry. It consists of two parts. A first part consisting of an analysis of the semio-epistemological type of this process during the late 18th - early 19th centuries. We mobilize for this semiotic theory of C.S. Peirce as a framework for analysis. It allowed to relocate the experimental chemistry as being a set of signs that extends the theoretical at the same time that he founded. The iconic sign far from signs of a primitive thought appears as a true neo writing, a privileged heuristic instrument used by chemists to probe the matter for clues on a structure that can make account of his behavior, he allowed them, after much controversy, lead to a particulate structure, and build the concepts of atom, the molecule and its atomicity. A second part where the semio-epistemological analysis was our theoretical framework for a didactic transposition of this context. Our research question is to know if the sign iconic, as defined in the peircien sense, can be mobilized spontaneously by students from ages 13-15 to build reasoning in chemistry, and if he can help in accessing the infinitely small on the basis of this converted context? We then developed a corpus of 20 sequences of teaching engaging students in a process that requires the construction of evolutionary models. Our results to say that the iconic sign far from a pedagogical means of transmission facilitated, a teaching assistant is instead a heuristic instrument in the construction of knowledge by students, as it is at the chemist

Ícones urbanos são elementos que compõem a paisagem de grandes metrópoles globais na forma de atributos que as tornam singulares e especiais no bojo de processos articuladores de fluxos socioeconômicos em que a simbologia se faz relevante na cultura visual. Diante da história de São Paulo, desde a pequena aglomeração, em 1554, até a primeira década do século XXI, em que fases marcadas se sucederam, nossos questionamentos se concentram na perspectiva pela qual os ícones urbanos são representativos para a produção da imagem da metrópole de São Paulo, por quê o uso da memória coletiva se constitui como um instrumento de legitimação e como os agentes hegemônicos de mercado se beneficiam desse processo excludente de elaboração das representações sociais do espaço urbano. A opção abrangente do período histórico analisado se deu em virtude de viabilizar o objetivo geral de analisar os ícones urbanos na história de São Paulo, considerando as representatividades históricas desde sua fundação, em 1554 até a primeira década do século XXI, sob a ótica da exclusão nas representações sociais, sobretudo em relação à memória coletiva, proporcionando a estruturação de uma cronologia em que ícones urbanos surgiram, se fixaram e até deixaram de existir, no movimento de expansão urbana de São Paulo. A pesquisa privilegiou, além das fontes bibliográficas, um rico material iconográfico, em que o cartão-postal foi o elemento principal. Além disso, entrevistas com representantes de órgãos públicos e privados vinculados ao turismo, bem como de projetos de resgate da memória foram realizados para compreender os ícones urbanos na metrópole de São Paulo. No processo em que ícones urbanos podem ser considerados sínteses de espaços urbanos como grandes metrópoles globais, eles são dotados de funções de divulgar uma totalidade que, no caso de São Paulo, oculta outras facetas em que há discrepâncias sociais latentes, privilegiando espaços em que o poder hegemônico de mercado é dominante. Desta forma, o debate acerca dos ícones urbanos na metrópole de São Paulo traz instigantes reflexões sobre a fragmentação das relações sociais no espaço urbano e seus significados. / Urban icons are elements that compose the landscape of major global cities as attributes that make them unique and special in the core processes for articulating socio economic flows in which the symbolism becomes relevant visual culture. Given the history of São Paulo, from the small crowd in 1554 until the first decade of this century, which market succeeding phases, our questions focus on the perspective through which urban icons are representative for the production of the image of the metropolis São Paulo, why the use of collective memory is constituted as an instrument of legitimacy exclusive on the social representations of urban space. A comprehensive choice of historical period analyzed occurred due to reaching the overall goal of analyzing the urban icons in the history of São Paulo, considering the historical representativeness since its founding in 1554 until the first decade of this century, from the perspective of exclusion in social representations especially in relation to collect memory, providing a chronology of the structure in which urban icons appeared, and settled until there are no longer in the movement of urban sprawl of São Paulo. The research focused, in addition to bibliographical sources a rich iconographic material where the postcard was the main element. Furthermore, interviews with representatives of public and private agencies related to tourism as well as projects to rescue the memory were performed to understanding the urban icons in metropolis of São Paulo. In the process of urban icons that can be considered as a synthesis of urban global big cities, they are equipped with functions to disclose all that in the case of São Paulo hidden in other facets are there discrepancies hidden social emphasizing areas where hegemonic power of the market is dominant. Thus, the debate about the urban icons in the metropolis of São Paulo features provocative reflections on the fragmentation of social relations in urban space and its meaning.