How do we maintain our own authentic voice while still being a productive member of a group? How do we not lose our voice and our meaning to the collective? This thesis is a series of stories that examines one student's experience with the intersection of music, education, technology, and personal life. It is a document of resonance, identifying interdisciplinary events and ideas that amplify each other, helping the student to extract and apply meaning in times of hope and challenge, peace and chaos, and serenity and sorrow, using the Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) approach. The chapters shape the explorations. The first chapter of this thesis expresses the importance of Listening to our own voice. Chapter 2 explores Dissonance, the tension that challenges us to examine what we believe to be true in our own voice. The third chapter examines Empowerment, looking to the head, heart and gut, carried on our breath, to find success by using our own authentic voice. Chapter 4 looks at Liberation, and the steps we take to reclaim our voice when it is being suppressed. Chapter 5 shares the healing power of music, examining its relationship to Memory. The last chapter attempts to pull all of these ideas together by exploring the relationship between personal Identity and Belonging.

This project explores the unseen (that which is not considered) in relation to the idea of the existence of another dimension of language. It considers the possibility that, in regard to language, some essential component may have been omitted or unperceived. Through works of art this project explores possibilities for the visual signification of this information. My interest is in exploring ways in which these qualities can be recovered by creating representational codes of the unseen, which evoke a potential for an inclusive language. My enquiry focuses on sound with particular emphasis on 'voice' as a way in which to explore these concepts through visual means. Voice is considered as something which projects or articulates or otherwise could be described as 'speaking'. For example voice is considered in relation to thought, and also the human experience of sound in space. This includes sound generated by self, intrinsic and extrinsic to the body. Voice plays two roles - one as a space from which to retrieve the unseen, and the other as a drawing tool - a way in which to represent what seems unrepresentable.

During phonation, the vocal folds collision during the glottal closure is considered to be a risk factor for pathological development. This thesis is aimed at designing a dependable finite element analysis (FEA) model of the vocal folds for frequency and dynamic analysis and for calculating the impact stress between the vocal folds during glottal closure. A three-dimensional model with irregular geometry and a layered structure was designed. The measured viscoelastic properties of the vocal-fold mucosa and the transverse isotropic elastic properties of the vocal fold muscle are applied to the model. The boundary conditions are assumed to be fixed on lateral, anterior and posterior surfaces based on anatomical structure analysis. This model is symmetrical about the right and left vocal folds.The frequency and dynamic characters are presented using the software ABAQUS. The FEA model is validated by both experimental modal analysis (EMA) model results and in-vivo experimental results from the literature.In the vibration analysis, the eigenfrequency and eigenmode of the FEA model are determined. The model results compare well with the experiments performed on a silicone vocal fold model. The eigenmodes show the vibration direction at different excitation frequencies. In the closure process, the closure and collision dynamic results are obtained. The results show that: (1) the closure process is independent of the subglottal pressure; (2) the glottal opening amplitude and closing velocity vary approximately linear with the subglottal pressure; (3) the maximum impact stress occurs on the mid area of the inferior surfaces; (4) the impact stress is approximately linear with the subglottal pressure; and (5) the impact stress will cause vocal fold tissue damage when the subglottal pressure is over 800 Pa.It is anticipated that the model will help to identify voice disorders such as vocal-fold paralysis and vocal-fold nodules.

There is a growing demand for faster, improved data and voice services in rural areas without modern telecom infrastructure. A wireless network is often the only feasible solution for providing network access in this environment, due to the sparse populations and difficult natural conditions. A system solution that incorporates the Multipoint Communication System (MCS) algorithm created by TRLabs into the available IEEE 802.11b Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) devices was proposed and studied in this thesis. It combines the advantages of both systems, that is, the MCS capability of integrating Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and data services and the IEEE 802.11b standard, currently the most widely used in WLAN products. A system test bed was set up inside Network Simulator-2 (NS-2). The data and VoIP performance was tested. Modifications to the original MCS algorithm to improve system performance were made throughout this thesis. In a constant rate radio channel, data performance (throughput and transmission efficiency) was measured using the original MCS algorithm, which was comparable to the standard Distribution Coordination Function (DCF) operation of IEEE 802.11b when both were simulated at similar conditions. On an 802.11b platform, the Automatic Rate Fallback (ARF) feature was incorporated into the original MCS algorithm. However, when clients with different data rates were present in the same channel, all the clients involved received unacceptably low and equal data throughput, dragged down by the low rate clients. A modified MCS data polling algorithm was proposed with the capability of repeated polling, which eliminated the negative effect of low rate clients in a multi-rate channel. In addition, the original MCS algorithm was modified to be more efficient in the voice polling process. The voice performance and data throughput were tested at various conditions. However, the one-by-one polling still resulted in very low voice transmission efficiency. The time wasted became more severe with increasing relay distance and channel rate (only 8.5% in an 11 Mbps channel at 30 km). A new voice handling process similar to Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) mode was implemented and simulated. Its voice efficiency can be kept at 25% at any setting of relay distance and channel rate. Data transmission in the same channel can also benefit from using the new voice scheme. The normalized saturation throughput could be improved by 13.5% if there were 40 voice clients involved in an 11 Mbps channel at the relay distance of 15 km, compared to the original MCS algorithm. More improvement in voice efficiency, voice capacity, and data throughput can be achieved at longer relay distance, or with more voice calls set up.

There is a growing demand for faster, improved data and voice services in rural areas without modern telecom infrastructure. A wireless network is often the only feasible solution for providing network access in this environment, due to the sparse populations and difficult natural conditions. A system solution that incorporates the Multipoint Communication System (MCS) algorithm created by TRLabs into the available IEEE 802.11b Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) devices was proposed and studied in this thesis. It combines the advantages of both systems, that is, the MCS capability of integrating Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and data services and the IEEE 802.11b standard, currently the most widely used in WLAN products. A system test bed was set up inside Network Simulator-2 (NS-2). The data and VoIP performance was tested. Modifications to the original MCS algorithm to improve system performance were made throughout this thesis. In a constant rate radio channel, data performance (throughput and transmission efficiency) was measured using the original MCS algorithm, which was comparable to the standard Distribution Coordination Function (DCF) operation of IEEE 802.11b when both were simulated at similar conditions. On an 802.11b platform, the Automatic Rate Fallback (ARF) feature was incorporated into the original MCS algorithm. However, when clients with different data rates were present in the same channel, all the clients involved received unacceptably low and equal data throughput, dragged down by the low rate clients. A modified MCS data polling algorithm was proposed with the capability of repeated polling, which eliminated the negative effect of low rate clients in a multi-rate channel. In addition, the original MCS algorithm was modified to be more efficient in the voice polling process. The voice performance and data throughput were tested at various conditions. However, the one-by-one polling still resulted in very low voice transmission efficiency. The time wasted became more severe with increasing relay distance and channel rate (only 8.5% in an 11 Mbps channel at 30 km). A new voice handling process similar to Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) mode was implemented and simulated. Its voice efficiency can be kept at 25% at any setting of relay distance and channel rate. Data transmission in the same channel can also benefit from using the new voice scheme. The normalized saturation throughput could be improved by 13.5% if there were 40 voice clients involved in an 11 Mbps channel at the relay distance of 15 km, compared to the original MCS algorithm. More improvement in voice efficiency, voice capacity, and data throughput can be achieved at longer relay distance, or with more voice calls set up.

Academic scientific language is characterized by an impersonal and objective style. Due to this and the typical high information density of academic language, this style typically contains a high rate of noun phrases and passive structures. This is also true for the German scientific study Gefühlte Opfer, Illusionen der Vergangenheitsbewältigung by Ulrike Jureit and Christian Schneider. The first aim of this essay was to translate one chapter from the aforementioned book into Swedish and adapt the target language to culturally match a reader who would appreciate a text on German post-war history and sociology. The second aim was to quantify and analyse all occurrences of passive voice and similar structures. More specifically, the following research questions were investigated: How is the passive formed in the source and target language respectively? How often is a corresponding passive used in the translation? How often is a passive sentence translated into an active structure? There are many different ways of expressing the passive in German: the so-called Vorgangspassiv featuring the auxiliary werden, the so-called Zustandspassiv with sein, and finally passive-like constructions. There are corresponding ways to form the passive in Swedish, that is, structures with the auxiliaries bli and vara, but the more common way to express the passive voice is the morphological s-passive. Passive-like constructions can be found in Swedish as well. The most common passive structure in the source text, the werden-passive, was in most cases translated into the typical Swedish s-passive. The sein-passive was more often translated into a similar structure in the target text. All in all, almost a third of the passive voice sentences were translated into active structures. Keywords: translation, passive voice, academic language

This empirical study investigates language use and collaborative learning in informal non-classroom settings by learners of German as a Foreign Language (GFL). I examine learner interactions resulting from a language course requirement for which small groups of students composed a role-play to be performed in front of the class. Bridging the two research traditions of activity theory and the socio-interactionist approach, my research starts with an analytical focus on speech events as they are embedded in an object-oriented educational activity. The activities are further analyzed using a conversation analytic (CA) approach within the socio-interactionist framework by focusing on the ways participants construct knowledge of the second language (L2) through word searches and the re-use of word search solutions. I also examine the role of voice when participants speak German, and the role of non-target languages in L2 learning. The video-recorded peer-to-peer interactions are the substantial part of the dataset for analysis. The data also include questionnaires, class observations and interviews, stimulated interviews, and in-class presentations that further inform the analysis. The data were gathered during the Fall 2007 semester with learners from two beginners courses of GFL. Two groups of three and two students, respectively, were chosen for closer analysis from among 31 students and 9 instructors participating in the study. This research found that students’ past individual and group histories serve as resources for the formation of the German role-play which becomes an analytical achievement based on shared understanding of the object at all phases of its construction, including the storyline and the formulation of the text in L2. Learners engage each other in learning, simultaneously displaying different kinds of expertise linked to task instructions, the circumstances of the context, speakers' biographies, and learning histories. The artifacts (e.g. textbook and dictionary) serve to support the authoritative knowledge when negotiating different types of expertises. Similarities in dealing with language problems could be observed in that participants learned lexical items by solving language problems, whereby the solution-word becomes a resource for further learning to produce the same item in different types of talk. Also, voices show up as the social facets of the construction of the knowledge in L2. Speaking voices gave learners the opportunity to practice varieties of vernacular German and to negotiate their discursive identities in the new language. Non-target languages provided cognitive support in solving problems with L2, serve social functions such as interpersonal work and expression of public self-image, and proved to be an essential tool enabling participants to work in the pursuit of the object of the activity as a collective achievement.

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In this research, we integrate the voice commands technique into Google Map. It means that we can control part of the movements for Google Map search without using the mouse or keyboard but with voice. Our voice command system is built on the client side. The biggest different between our system and state-of-the-art real-time speech processing system is that all the computation about the speech process always work on the client side. For our corpus, we choose the Top100 scenic spots in Taiwan and some specific control commands as our training data. In the experiment of our research, we make use of the different ways to train the acoustic models and design dictionary and language models to estimate the efficiency on our system. Actual usage in the system, we can move the map center to the specific location sequentially by voice command operations for location, control and coordinate. we estimate the overall search process time on some specific locations by different users. It spends 20.8 seconds in average which spends most of time in recording stage.

Youth-adult partnerships are collaborations between adults and youth in the decision-making and planning processes. When adults enable youth to be a part of the decision-making and planning processes, youth voice, empowerment, and participation become important tools for facilitating engagement. Better understanding these processes can be beneficial for practitioners and programmers. Incorporating these tools increases support and opportunity for youth developmental benefits and increases program retention rates. This thesis focuses on better understanding the relationship between youth voice, empowerment, and participation and critical factors in developing youth engagement and utilizing the power of adult-youth partnerships in youth development. A preliminary model of Systematic Degree of Engagement specifying the relationship between youth voice, empowerment, and participation has been developed and discussed. One of the key issues in developing the model has been that existing literature has rarely made distinctions between voice, empowerment, and participation. The terms have been used interchangeably and, when distinctions have been made, overlaps between the terms have not been fully explored. Therefore, this thesis built on existing literature by defining distinctions among these constructs. After distinctions between concepts were made a model was derived: Systematic Degree of Engagement. From this research, program designers are able to develop programs and assess existing programs that foster youth engagement. Researchers benefit from this thesis in understanding the distinctions in voice, empowerment, participation, and engagement. The findings of this thesis are the distinctions in terminology of voice, empowerment, participation, and engagement; as well as, a model illustrating these terms independence and inter-relatedness.