The speech recognition threshold (SRT) is an important measure, as it validates the pure-tone average (PTA), assists in the diagnosis and prognosis of hearing impairments, and aids in the identification of non-organic hearing impairments. Research has shown that in order for SRT testing to yield valid and reliable measures, testing needs to be performed in the patient's native language. There are currently no published materials for SRT testing in the Samoan language. As a result, audiologists are testing patients with English materials or other materials not of the patient's native language. Results produced from this manner of testing are confounded by the patient's vocabulary knowledge and may reflect a language deficit rather than a hearing loss. The present study is aimed at developing SRT materials for native speakers of Samoan to enable valid and reliable measures of SRT for the Samoan speaking population. This study selected 28 trisyllabic Samoan words that were found to be relatively homogeneous in regard to audibility and psychometric function slope. Data were gathered on 20 normal hearing native speakers of Samoan and the intensity of each selected word was adjusted to make the 50% performance threshold of each word equal to the mean PTA of the 20 research participants (5.33 dB HL). The final edited words were digitally recorded onto compact disc to allow for distribution and use for SRT testing in Samoan.

In addition to the use of pure-tones for testing hearing, speech signals are highly valuable diagnostic tools for identifying and evaluating hearing impairment. Speech audiometry involves the implementation of such signals in the measurement of hearing acuity. One aspect of speech audiometry involves assessment of the speech recognition threshold (SRT) which evaluates an individual's ability to hear and understand speech. While live speech has been used in the past to assess SRT, recorded materials are preferred and have been shown to be advantageous over live speech. High-quality digitally recorded speech audiometry materials have been available in English for some time, but assessment of individuals using speech materials from a language that they do not speak natively has been shown to be both inadequate and inaccurate. Speech audiometry materials have recently become available in many languages. Currently, however, there are no known published recordings for assessment of SRT in the Tagalog language. The goal of this study was to develop psychometrically equivalent speech audiometry materials for measuring speech recognition threshold in Tagalog. During this study Tagalog words were initially recorded by a native speaker selected for accent and vocal quality. The words were reduced down to 90 words to be evaluated in the study. Each of the 90 trisyllabic words were evaluated at 2 dB increments from -10 to 16 dB HL by 20 native Tagalog speakers, all having normal hearing. Based on the results, 34 trisyllabic Tagalog words were selected based on their familiarity to native listeners, relative homogeneity with regards to audibility and psychometric function slope. Each word was then adjusted to make the 50% performance threshold equal to the mean PTA of the 20 research participants (4.3 dB HL). The final edited words were then digitally recorded onto compact disc for distribution and for use in assessing SRT in native Tagalog speakers worldwide.

Hörselnedsättning är ett vanligt problem. Dock, på grund av dess progressiva natur är det många som kan vara omedvetna om försämringen av deras hörsel. Forskning indikerar att skyddsbeteende relaterat till hörseln ofta är korrelerat med närvaron av symptom. Man har vidare identifierat  unga vuxna studenter som en speciellt utsatt grupp då studentliv ofta involverar högljudda miljöer som kan vara skadliga för hörseln. Dessutom att unga vuxna har höga risktendenser och tar få åtgärder för att skydda sin hörsel. Dock, här finns det viss meningsskiljaktigheter i fältet huruvida man hävdar att det är en majoritet eller minoritet av studenter som är i risk av att utveckla hörselnedsättning. Det finns därtill dessutom lite data om utbredning av hörselnedsättning bland studenter och den som finns har använt metoder som inte helt lämpar sig för att utvärdera hörselnedsättning. Denna studie ämnar att utreda utbredningen av hörselnedsättning bland studenter med ett mer lämpligt test och undersöka huruvida denna grupp riskerar att utveckla hörselnedsättning eller förvärra den samt undersöka om självskattning och symptom närvaro är förbundna med skyddsbeteende. Arbetsmiljöverket föreskrifter och rekommendationer gällande bullriga miljöer i kombination med tidigare gjorda studier användes för att identifiera skadliga ljudmiljöer i studenters vardag samt lämpliga skyddsbeteende i dessa. Detta användes som basis för en webbenkät som studenterna fyllde i efter vilket de genomgick ett webbaserat hörseltest. Endast en person av 77 kunde sägas ha hörselnedsättning. Även om majoriteten inte ofta var i skadliga ljudmiljöer, när de var det använde endast ett fåtal hörselskydd och det fanns en signifikant subgrupp vars beteende innebär hög risk för hörselnedsättning. Bristen på skyddsbeteende var korrelerat med självskattning och en negativ attityd gentemot hörselskydd. 75% upplevde övergående tinnitus och 88% hade upplevt övergående tinnitus eller temporär hörselnedsättning i skadliga ljudmiljöer. Denna studie bidrar till en ökande mängd evidens som pekar på att en majoritet av studenter är i risk av att utveckla hörselnedsättning senare i livet. För att förhindra att studenters hösel förvärras behövs det nya verktyg för att öka medvetenhet kring skadliga ljudmiljöer och hörselnedsättning, för att detektera tidiga stadier av hörselnedsättning samt nya hörselskydd som studenter kan ha en positivare attityd gentemot. / Hearing impairment is a common problem. However, due to its progressive nature many might be subjected to deteriorating hearing without knowing it. In addition, research indicates that protective behavior is often correlated with the presence of a symptom, which further stresses the importance of the individual's awareness. Studies suggest that young adult students are a particular vulnerable group, as student life involves being in loud environments, potentially harmful to hearing. Also, young adults have high risk tendencies, taking few precautions to protect their hearing. However, there is disparity within the field as to whether it is a majority or minority of students that are at risk. Furthermore, there is limited research on hearing impairment within this group, and the research that has been made used less than perfect methods. This study aims to ascertain the extent of hearing impairment within this group, by using a more appropriate test than previous studies and determine whether this group is at risk of developing hearing loss or worsening the condition and if self-estimation and presence of symptoms are significant factors of protective behavior. The Swedish work environment authorities regulations and recommendation about noisy environments in combination with previous studies were used to identify potentially damaging acoustical environments and appropriate protective action. This provided a basis for the questionnaire that the students filled in. In addition, a web-based hearing test was used to ascertain hearing loss. Only one person out of 77 was found to exhibit significant hearing loss. Although the majority were not often in loud environments, few used hearing protection and there was a significant subgroup whose behavior places them at high risk of hearing loss. The lack of protective behavior was correlated with self-estimation and a negative attitude towards ear protection devices. Furthermore, 75% experienced intermittent tinnitus and 88% had experienced temporary tinnitus or hearing loss within harmful sound-environments. This study therefore aligns itself with a growing literature that indicates that a majority of students are at risk of developing hearing impairment later in life even if it does not show at this stage. To prevent further deterioration of student’s hearing, new tools to raise awareness, detect early stages of hearing loss and hearing protections that elicit positive attitudes from students needs to be developed.

The media industry has during the last decade migrated services from dedicated medianetworks to more shared resources and lately also the public internet and public data centers. Inorder to cater for such transition, several protocols have been designed to meet the demand forhigh-quality media transport over lossy infrastructure, protocols such as SRT and RIST. Thepurpose of Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) and Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) is tohave all vendors of broadcasting equipment support an interoperable way of communication. Thelack of interoperability locks consumers into one particular vendor’s family of products - most oftenthis equipment only supports a proprietary technology. Interoperability creates a more competitivemarket space which benefits consumers and gives vendors an incentive to be more innovative intheir solutions. The purpose of this thesis is to assess the performance of these protocols by comparing theirperformance to a proprietary solution (named ÖÖÖ in this thesis and seen as an establishedsolution in the industry). The challenge is to test these protocols in a lab environment, but have theresults represent real-world use. For this, a large subset of samples is needed along with samplesmeasured over a long period. This sampling was made possible by writing a script which automatesthe sampling process. The results indicate that the versions of RIST and SRT tested in this thesis to some extentcompare well to the selected established protocol (ÖÖÖ). In many scenarios, SRT even did muchbetter, mainly when a line with a single feed was tested. For instance, when the network suffered a2% drop rate and utilized retransmission SRT performed the best and was the only protocol whichhad some samples where no packets were dropped during one hour of measurements. Whenrunning all three protocols at the same time, SRT also did the best in a network with up to 12% droprate. The results in this thesis should give a broadcaster an idea of which of these protocols willfulfill their requirements in a broadcast application. / I mediabranschen finns det en efterfrågan på utrustning som har inslag av interoperabilitet.Anledningen till detta är att någon som köper produkter från en viss återförsäljare inte vill låsas in idenna återförsäljares ”ekosystem” i flera år framöver. Då en studio sällan uppgraderar hela sinproduktionskedja på samma gång ger interoperabilitet möjligheten att köpa utrustning från andraåterförsäljare när man ska uppgradera något i produktionslinan. Detta leder till en merkonkurrenskraftig marknad samt ger incentiv till nya innovativa lösningar. Detta examensarbete går ut på att utvärdera lösningar som tagits fram för att främjainteroperabilitet och jämföra dem med en existerande proprietärlösning. Reliable Internet StreamTransport (RIST) och Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) är två protokoll som tagits fram för just dettasyfte. Utmaningen med att utvärdera dessa protokoll är att i en labbmiljö få resultat som reflekteraranvändandet av protokollen i verkligheten. Detta har gjorts med hjälp av ett program som tagitsfram i detta examensarbete. Med detta program har testandet kunnat automatiseras. Resultaten i detta examensarbete visar potential hos båda RIST och SRT. SRT är i vissascenarion till och med bättre än den proprietära lösningen. Protokollen visar något buggigtbeteende i vissa instanser, såsom att i vissa fal sluta fungera och inte kunna återgå till normalfunktion utan manuell interaktion. Allt som allt är dock protokollen i de flesta fallen testade i dettaexamensarbete ett godtyckligt alternativ till den jämförda proprietära lösningen.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is adopted fast and wide across consumer industries and digital marketing. This new technology has the potential to enhance online customer experience and outcomes of customer experience. However, research relating to the impact of AI is still developing and empirical evidence sparse. Taking a consumercentred approach and by adopting Social Response Theory as theoretical lens, this research addresses an overall research question pertaining to the implications of online customer experience with AI on consumer behaviour. A quantitative research strategy with positivist approach is adopted to gather a large sample (n= 489) of online consumers who have previously interacted with AI-enabled technology. The collected data is analysed statistically utilising Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Empirical findings show strong positive effects of anthropomorphism of AI, para-social interaction with AI, and performance expectancy of AI on all three customer experience dimensions of informativeness, entertainment and social presence. Additionally, there is strong statistical support for the positive effect of informativeness and social presence on continued purchase intentions (β= .379 and β= .315), while the effects of entertainment are less strong. The mediating effects of customer experience have been assessed, highlighting social presence as most important mediator. This research contributes to knowledge by extending previous customer experience theory and quantifying the influence of online customer experience with AI on purchase intentions and eWOM. The theoretical insights also translate into direct implications for marketing practice relating to the design, integration, and implementation of more consumer- and outcome-oriented AI applications. / Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences studentship

The utilisation of navigation systems in cars has given rise to road safety concerns, and the design and functionality of such systems must therefore be adjusted to the users’ needs, since they have to divide their attention between driving and the operation of the navigation system. The study was aimed at finding the optimum system response time (SRT) which would enable a driver to focus as much as possible on the road while attaining an efficient task completion time using an electronic navigational system. The research project consists of two separate experiments and was completed by 10 subjects. Experiment 1 included a temporal reproduction task and a secondary memory task. The subjects had to memorise two symbols and then reproduce six time spans ranging from 1 to 30 s to provide a baseline measurement of their time estimation abilities. Experiment 2 consisted of a simulated automobile driving task. While driving in the simulator the subjects completed a memorising task displayed on a touch screen. The task was presented with seven different system response times (SRTs) ranging from 0 to 30 s. The effects of different SRTs on the eye movement from road to monitor, regarding the duration of fixation and the frequency of change were evaluated. The distribution of gazes to the secondary task was analysed to provide information about the time estimation performance in the driving simulator. Other dependent variables tested were the accuracy of selected items, memory game performance, drive performance and the subjective state of the test person. The results of this study can be employed to find the optimum duration of inter-task delays for in-vehicle technical devices. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

L'arithmétique des ordinateurs est une branche de l'informatique qui traite des systèmes de représentation des nombres, des algorithmes arithmétiques et de leurs implantations matérielles ou logicielles. Cette thèse porte sur l'étude et l'implantation matérielle d'opérateurs pour l'évaluation de fonctions pour des applications spécifiques en traitement du signal et des images et en cryptographie. La première partie présente des opérateurs d'évaluation de fonctions basés sur des approximations polynomiales qui demandent peu de matériel. La seconde partie étudie la génération automatique d'opérateurs à base d'additions et décalages (type SRT) pour l'évaluation de certaines fonctions algébriques. Enfin, la dernière partie présente une implantation efficace et compacte des fonctions de hachage cryptographique de la famille SHA-2. Les différents opérateurs proposés dans cette thèse ont tous été validés sur des circuits FPGA.

L'arithmétique des ordinateurs est une branche de l'informatique qui traite des systèmes de représentation des nombres, des algorithmes arithmétiques et de leurs implantations matérielles ou logicielles. Cette thèse porte sur l'étude et l'implantation matérielle d'opérateurs pour l'évaluation de fonctions en traitement du signal et des images. Sont présentés successivement un générateur d'opérateurs optimisés pour la division, des études portant sur un algorithme d'évaluation de fonctions au moyen d'approximations par fractions rationnelles, et des opérateurs d'évaluation de fonctions basés sur des approximations polynomiales qui demandent peu de matériel. Les différents opérateurs proposés dans cette thèse ont tous été validés sur des circuits FPGA.

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The utilisation of navigation systems in cars has given rise to road safety concerns, and the design and functionality of such systems must therefore be adjusted to the users’ needs, since they have to divide their attention between driving and the operation of the navigation system. The study was aimed at finding the optimum system response time (SRT) which would enable a driver to focus as much as possible on the road while attaining an efficient task completion time using an electronic navigational system. The research project consists of two separate experiments and was completed by 10 subjects. Experiment 1 included a temporal reproduction task and a secondary memory task. The subjects had to memorise two symbols and then reproduce six time spans ranging from 1 to 30 s to provide a baseline measurement of their time estimation abilities. Experiment 2 consisted of a simulated automobile driving task. While driving in the simulator the subjects completed a memorising task displayed on a touch screen. The task was presented with seven different system response times (SRTs) ranging from 0 to 30 s. The effects of different SRTs on the eye movement from road to monitor, regarding the duration of fixation and the frequency of change were evaluated. The distribution of gazes to the secondary task was analysed to provide information about the time estimation performance in the driving simulator. Other dependent variables tested were the accuracy of selected items, memory game performance, drive performance and the subjective state of the test person. The results of this study can be employed to find the optimum duration of inter-task delays for in-vehicle technical devices. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)