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It has been suggested 'expert systems' might have a significant role in the future through enabling many more people to access human experts. It is, therefore, important to understand how potential users interact with these computer systems. This study investigates the effect of extension agents' attitudes towards the features and use of an example expert system for rice disease diagnosis and management(POSOP). It also considers the effect of extension agents' personality traits and intelligence on their attitudes towards its use, and the agents' perception of control over using it. Answers to these questions lead to developing better systems and to increasing their adoption. Using structural equation modelling, two models - the extension agents' perceived usefulness of POSOP, and their attitude towards the use of POSOP, were developed (Models ATU and ATP). Two of POSOP's features (its value as a decision support tool, and its user interface), two personality traits (Openness (0) and Extraversion (E)), and the agents' intelligence, proved to be significant, and were evaluated. The agents' attitude towards POSOP's value had a substantial impact on their perceived usefulness and their attitude towards using it, and thus their intention to use POSOP. Their attitude towards POSOP's user interface also had an impact on their attitude towards its perceived usefulness, but had no impact on their attitude towards using it. However, the user interface did contribute to its value. In Model ATU, neither Openness (0) nor Extraversion (E) had an impact on the agents' perceived usefulness indicating POSOP was considered useful regardless of the agents' personality background. However, Extraversion (E) had a negative impact on their intention to use POSOP in Model ATP indicating that 'introverted' agents had a clear intention to use POSOP relative to the 'extroverted' agents. Extension agents' intelligence, in terms of their GPA, had neither an impact on their attitude, nor their subjective norm (expectation of 'others' beliefs), to the use of POSOP. It also had no association with any of the variables in both models. Both models explain and predict that it is likely that the agents will use POSOP. However, the availability of computers, particularly their capacity, are likely to impede its use. Although the agents believed using POSOP would not be difficult, they still believed training would be beneficial. To be a useful decision support tool, the expert system's value and user interface as well as its usefulness and ease of use, are all crucially important to the preliminary acceptance of a system. Most importantly, the users' problems and needs should be assessed and taken into account as a first priority in developing an expert system. Furthermore, the users should be involved in the system development. The results emphasise that the use of an expert system is not only determined by the system's value and its user interface, but also the agents' perceived usefulness, and their attitude towards using it. In addition, the agents' perception of control over using it is also a significant factor. The results suggested improvements to the system's value and its user interface would increase its potential use, and also providing suitable computers, coupled with training, would encourage its use.

The current study examined the role of two different methods of sign presentation on signed and spoken language acquisition of toddlers aged two to four years with Down syndrome (DS). The aim of this study was to determine if a method commonly used by native signers/Deaf mothers (referred to in this study as signing to maintain joint attention (SMJA)) was more effective than the method commonly used by hearing mothers and speech-language pathologists (referred to in this study as the triangular method of signing). Both methods were compared in a within-subject design for effects on the participants’ total number of words signed and/or spoken, unique words signed and/or spoken, and parent report of novel word acquisition. Although the sample size was small, clear trends were seen suggesting SMJA may result in greater increases in early language acquisition for toddlers with DS. These results are consistent with considerations regarding the DS phenotype. The use of signing takes advantage of strengths in gesture and visual-spatial short-term memory. More specifically, the use of SMJA addresses weaknesses in attentional capacity by allowing the child to attend to the object and referent without disruption, thereby maintaining joint attention and supporting language acquisition.

A produção científica de uma área do conhecimento aparece em diferentes formatos e é disponibilizada de forma essencialmente distribuída por entre revistas, anais, teses, dissertações e outros formatos característicos utilizados pela comunidade científica para a sistematização de seu discurso. Uma federação de bibliotecas digitais oferece uma arquitetura da informação que tem por finalidade facilitar a agregação de diferentes tipos de documentos disponibilizados, facilitando termos acesso a esses documentos, bem como a seus metadados descritores, formando, desse modo, verdadeiras estruturas de apoio ao desenvolvimento de pesquisas e análises científicas dos documentos que por ali circulam. Já a análise de redes sociais vem se mostrando um importante objeto de pesquisa da área da Ciência da Informação nas últimas décadas, tendo sido apropriada ainda de forma preliminar pela comunidade científica brasileira. Como forma de ampliar o conhecimento e experimentações com o uso da análise de redes sociais e identificar seu potencial analítico em relação ao que poderíamos coletar de informações de uma federação de bibliotecas digitais, tivemos por objetivo neste trabalho utilizar a análise de rede para mapear os padrões, tendências e estratégias de conectividade de dois planos de relacionamento entre pesquisadores: a coautoria em documentos oriundos de revistas científicas e a participação em bancas de defesas de teses e dissertações. Além disso, buscamos mapear as causas sociais e políticas dos padrões de rede identificados, colocando em evidência um uso crítico e contextualizado dos indicadores estruturais e dinâmicos de redes utilizados neste trabalho. Utilizamos como caso a biblioteca digital federada Univerciencia.org, uma biblioteca especializada na área de Ciências da Comunicação, tendo fornecido como fonte de dados 49 revistas científicas da área com 9864 documentos e 12 bibliotecas digitais de teses e dissertações com 1961 documentos. Os resultados apontam que os movimentos geradores e constituintes das redes sociais em nossos dois planos de análise são fortemente determinados por uma racionalidade característica da política científica do campo da Comunicação e da ciência de modo geral. / The scientific production of an area of knowledge appears in different formats and is available in a distributed mainly through journals, proceedings, theses, dissertations and other typical formats used by the scientific community for the systematization of his speech. A federation of digital libraries offers an information architecture that aims to facilitate the aggregation of different types of documents available, facilitating access to those documents and their metadata descriptors, forming thus real structures to support the development of research and analysis of scientific documents that circulate through there. The analysis of social networks has proven an important subject of research in the area of Information Science and in recent decades have been appropriate even in a preliminary way by the Brazilian scientific community. As a way to increase knowledge and experimentation with the use of social network analysis and identify his potential analytical, the objective of this work was use network analysis to map the patterns , trends and connectivity strategies between two planes of relation between researchers: co-authoring of documents from scientific journals and participation in defenses of theses and dissertations. Furthermore, we seek to map the social and political causes of network patterns identified, highlighting a critical use of structural and dynamic indicators. We use as case Univerciencia.org federated digital library, a library specialized in the field of Communication Sciences and provided as a source of data collected 49 scientific journals in the area with 9864 documents and 12 digital libraries of theses and dissertations with 1961 documents. The results show that the generative movements and constituents of social networks in our two levels of analysis are strongly determined by a characteristic rationality of science policy in the field of communication and science in general.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the phonetic production of fricatives across differing word positions and task types. Further knowledge about the fricative production of second language learners of English would potentially improve the ability to teach correct pronunciation and improve the productivity of second language programs. All participants in this study were native speakers of Mandarin Chinese with English as their second language. A total of 12 subjects participated, all of whom had English proficiency ratings ranging from novice to advanced. The speakers were between 21-51 years of age, with each speaker having between 2 to 6 years of experience learning English in their country of origin. Using acoustic and spectral moment analyses, the acoustic nature of four types of fricative productions (/f/, /θ/, /s/, and /ʃ/) were analyzed as a function of linguistic task type and word position. Although a number of measures were found to differ significantly as a function of word position and task type, the majority of statistical analyses were not found to be significant. This lack of significance may be due to the specific methodology used, the speakers’ atypical voicing patterns, and/or decreased length of sound productions. Findings of this study may indicate that second language learners’ production of fricatives vary minimally across differing word positions and task types.

De março de 2010 a dezembro de 2012, o Observatório de Comunicação, Liberdade de Expressão e Censura (OBCOM) da Universidade de São Paulo (USP) desenvolveu a pesquisa Opinião Pública e Censura no Mundo Contemporâneo. Para abarcar a complexidade e a diversidade de pontos de vista, diferentes instrumentos de investigação foram empregados, dentre eles, a produção de vídeo-entrevistas. Consideramos relevante avivar o debate a incorporação da linguagem audiovisual ao trabalho de pesquisa empírica no âmbito das Ciências Humanas e Sociais tanto para ressaltar quanto justificar possibilidades renovadas de postura, abordagem, interação e divulgação de nossa produção científica. O processo desta proposta audiovisual em seus aspectos epistemológicos, teóricos e técnicos foi o objeto deste trabalho. Partindo da experiência de produção, a metodologia que adotamos converge com experiências contemporâneas da Antropologia, Ciências Sociais, Cinema e Documentário. Sendo assim, a construção da pesquisa colocou em relevo as questões: a) O debate sobre a incorporação das imagens ao trabalho científico e a validade de uma metodologia na pesquisa empírica com audiovisual; b) O questionamento do uso de mídias a partir das Ciências da Comunicação; c) Como o audiovisual foi incorporado em uma pesquisa sobre Opinião Pública e suas possibilidades de análises; d) As renovadas posturas de abordagem, interação e divulgação da produção científica contemporânea. / From March 2010 to December 2012, the Universitys of São Paulo Observatório de Comunicação, Liberdade de Expressão e Censura (OBCOM), developed the research Public Opinion and Censorship in Contemporary World (Opinião Pública e Censura no Mundo Contemporâneo). To arrest the complexity and the diversity of different points of view, multiple investigations apparatus were used, such as the video-recording production. We considered relevant, to enliven the debate, the implantation of audiovisual language in the empiric research work inside Humanities studies. This would justify the renewed possibilities of stance, approach, interaction and disclosing of scientific production and also, would highlight them. The process of this audiovisual proposal in its epistemological, technical and theoretical aspects is the object of this paper. Based on the production experience, we adopt a methodology that converges with contemporary experiences in Anthropology, Social Sciences, Cinema and Documentary. In light of this evidence, the main questions that the research points at are: a-) the debate about the images incorporation in scientific work and the validation of a methodology in empiric research with audiovisual resources; b-) the questioning of media uses in Communication Sciences; c-) how audiovisual resources were used in a research about public opinion and how we can analyze them; d-) the renewed stances of approach, interaction and divulgation of contemporary scientific production.

Cette thèse s’intéresse à l’émergence des théorisations accompagnant le développement du monde de la communication en entreprise et dans les organisations. Communication est entendu ici comme un domaine professionnel de métiers et d’activités économiques, avec parfois un mode d’organisation de services en entreprise, parfois un secteur économique d’agences. En faisant ce travail de retour « généalogique », cette thèse s’intéresse dès lors aussi aux formations et aux recherches, progressivement installées dans un contexte universitaire : l’émergence de la « communication organisationnelle. Cette analyse généalogique est ici menée de manière comparative dans deux pays-nations : le Brésil et la France. Revenir sur ces moments où se développent les Relations Publiques, le Journalisme d’Entreprise, la Communication d’Entreprise, la ou les « Communication (s) Organisationnelle(s), amène à s’intéresser aux Etats-Unis, lieu d’émergence de pratiques et d’organisations professionnelles ainsi que de théorisations qui ont fait date, ont été exportées, ont fait modèle.Il s’agit aussi de décrire l’émergence et le développement de la « communication organisationnelle » au Brésil (souvent dans le cadre de la « communication sociale » et de l’étude des Relations Publiques, avec l’apparition de l’appellation « communication organisationnelle » en 1985) et en France (un peu plus de vingt ans après la création en 1975 d’une nouvelle discipline « Sciences de l’information et de la communication »). L’analyse de l’institutionnalisation d’un champ académique de recherches montre, c’est un élément essentiel, que les cadres nationaux des disciplines universitaires conduisent à des théorisations différentes. Les traditions théoriques, non seulement divergent en termes d’appui sur des interdisciplinarités différentes mais aussi en termes de construction de rapports sociaux entre les universitaires eux-mêmes et les mondes qu’ils observent, auxquels souvent ils contribuent. Certains, par la formation à la recherche et la consultance sont plus proches des approches a mélioratives souvent qualifiées de « fonctionnalistes », d’autres sont dans une distance critique et doivent trouver les modes d’accès et de suivi des évolutions tant des organisations que de leurs communications. Une approche particulière, la « Communication intégrée », développée universitairement au Brésil et encore défendue aux USA et en France par des agences et des professionnels nous permet de montrer dans le dernier chapitre de cette thèse comment les effets différenciés de l’institutionnalisation, dans les deux pays, pour la « communication organisationnelle », aboutissent à deux théorisations divergentes portées par des acteurs aux traditions et enjeux sans commune mesure. / This thesis focuses on the emergence of theories accompanying the development of the communication world in companies and organizations. Communication is here understood as a professional field of trades and economic activities, sometimes with a mode of service organization in business and sometimes an economic sector of agencies. By doing this "genealogical" feedback work, this thesis has also looked into training and research in an academic context: i.e. the emergence of "organizational communication". Genealogical analysis has been done comparing two countries: Brazil and France. Studying periods when Public Relations, Corporate Journalism, Corporate Communication, or "Organizational Communication (s)" were created has led us to look at the place where practices, professional organizations as well as theorizing have emerged, have been exported, have modeled, i.e. the United States.This thesis also describes the emergence and development of "organizational communication" in Brazil (often in the context of "social communication" and the study of public relations -the designation "organizational communication" appeared in 1985) and in France (more than twenty years after the creation of the research field "Information and Communication Sciences" in 1975). Analyzing the institutionalization of an academic field of research shows that university leaders have brought about different theorizations –and it is essential. Theoretical traditions not only diverge in support of interdisciplinary nature, but also in terms of building social relations among the academics, the worlds they observe and to which they often contribute. Some of them, through research and consultancy, are often closer to the "functionalist" approach than to advocacy; others maintain a critical distance and need to find ways to access and monitor changes in both organizations and their communication. The Brazilian "Integrated Communication” approach", still academically defended in the USA and France both by agencies and professionals, has enabled us to show, in the last chapter, how the differentiated effects of institutionalization for "organizational communication" in both countries has led to two divergent stakes and theorizations supported by classic researchers. / Esta tese enfoca o surgimento das teorias que acompanham o desenvolvimento do mundo da comunicação nas empresas e dentro das organizações. A comunicação é compreendida aqui como um campo profissional de negócios e de atividades econômicas, às vezes como um modo de organização de serviços de empresas, às vezes como um setor econômico de agências. Ao fazer este trabalho de retorno “genealógico”, esta tese também se preocupa desde já com as formações e as pesquisas, instaladas progressivamente dentro do contexto acadêmico : o surgimento da “comunicação organizacional”. Esta análise genealógica é realizada aqui de forma comparativa em dois países-nação: Brasil e França. Voltar a momentos onde se desenvolvem as Relações Públicas, ao Jornalismo Corporativo, Comunicação de Empresa, ou a (s) “Comunicação (ões) Organizacional (is)” desenvolvem, leva a se interessar aos Estados Unidos, local de emergência das práticas e das organizações profissionais, bem como da teorização que foram feitas, foram exportadas e servem como modelo. Se trate também de descrever o surgimento e o desenvolvimento da "comunicação organizacional" no Brasil (muitas vezes no contexto da "comunicação social" e do estudo das relações públicas, com o surgimento da denominação da "comunicação organizacional"em 1985) e na França (um pouco mais tarde vinte anos após a criação em 1975 de uma nova disciplina "Ciências da Informação e da Comunicação "). A análise da institucionalização de um campo acadêmico de pesquisa mostra ser um elemento essencial, que os quadros nacionais das disciplinas universitárias conduzem a diferentes teorizações. As tradições teóricas não são apenas divergentes em termos de apoio a interdisciplinaridades diferente, mas também em termos de construção de relações sociais entre os próprios acadêmicos e os mundos que os observam, ao qual contribuem frequentemente. Alguns, através da formação à pesquisa e a consultoria estão mais perto de abordagens melhorativas freqüentemente denominadas “funcionalistas”, outras se colocam em uma distância crítica e devem encontrar formas de acessos para seguir as evoluções tanto nas organizações quanto de suas comunicações. Uma abordagem especial, “Comunicação Integrada”, desenvolvida universitariamente no Brasil e ainda defendida nos EUA e na França por agências e pour profissionais nos permite de mostrar no último capítulo desta tese como os efeitos diferenciados da institucionalização, dentro dos dois países, para a “comunicação organizacional”, levaram a duas teorias divergentes realizadas por atores pelas tradições e desafios sem nenhuma medida comum. / Esta tesis se centra en la aparición de teorías que acompañan el desarrollo del mundo de la comunicación en empresas y organizaciones. La comunicación se entiende aquí como un campo profesional de oficios y actividades económicas, a veces con un modo de organización de servicios en empresas, a veces un sector económico de agencias. Al hacer este trabajo de retorno "genealógico", esta tesis también está interesada en la formación y la investigación, instalada gradualmente en un contexto académico universitario: el surgimiento de la "comunicación organizacional". Este análisis genealógico se realiza aquí de manera comparativa en dos estados-nación: Brasil y Francia. Retornar a estos momentos en que se desarrollan las Relaciones Públicas, el Periodismo Corporativo, la Comunicación Empresarial la o las "Comunicación (es) Organizacional (es)", lleva a interesarse a los Estados Unidos, lugar de emergencias prácticas y de organizaciones profesionales así como de las teorizaciones que se han hecho, se han exportado, han sido modelo. También se trata de describir el surgimiento y desarrollo de la "comunicación organizacional" en Brasil (a menudo en el contexto de la "comunicación social" y el estudio de las relaciones públicas, con la aparición del nombre " comunicación organizacional " en 1985) y en Francia (poco más de veinte años después de la creación en 1975 de una nueva disciplina" Ciencias de la Información y la Comunicación "). El análisis de la institucionalización de un campo académico de investigación muestra, es un elemento esencial, que los marcos nacionales de las disciplinas académicas llevan a diferentes teorías.Las tradiciones teóricas no sólo divergen en términos de apoyo a las diferentes interdisciplinaridades sino también en términos de construcción de relaciones sociales entre los propios académicos y los mundos que observan, a los que a menudo contribuyen. Algunos, a través de la formación en investigación y consultoría, están más cerca de los enfoques de mejora a menudo denominados "funcionalistas", otros están en una distancia crítica y deben encontrar formas de acceder y supervisar los cambios en ambas organizaciones y sus comunicaciones. Un enfoque especial, "Comunicación Integrada", desarrollada en Brasil y aún defendido en Estados Unidos y Francia por agencias y profesionales, nos permite mostrar en el último capítulo de esta tesis cómo los efectos diferenciados de la institucionalización en ambos países, para la "comunicación organizacional", llevan a dos teorías divergentes llevadas a cabo por actores con tradiciones y apuestas inigualables.

Many school-age children with language impairment (LI) have difficulties with aspects of social and emotional learning. This study was structured to evaluate one aspect of the effectiveness of a social communication intervention, the appropriate production of emotion words. Four school-aged children with LI participated in 20 sessions of story-based intervention targeting understanding and usage of emotion-based words. Emotions targeted included the emotion word categories of happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust. Because the knowledge of the emotion word categories varied from child to child, each child had different target words. The percentage of correct production of targeted emotion word categories was tracked, recorded and presented in figure format. The percentage of correct productions provided an estimation of the participants' usage and understanding of emotion-based words from session to session. Percentage of nonoverlapping data (PND) for each participant (subdivided by emotion) was calculated where appropriate as one measure of the effectiveness of the intervention. Although somewhat variable, the data showed that the children did make progress in their use of some of the emotion word categories that they did not understand at baseline. The results of the study present some promising preliminary findings.

This thesis examines the efficacy of a social communication intervention in increasing the emotion word productions in school-aged children with language impairment (LI). The study had a multiple baseline single subject design in which 5 children between the ages of 6 and 11 received 20 intervention sessions, each lasting 20 minutes. Intervention activities included reading and discussing children's books, enacting the stories using toys, and journal writing to reflect on experiences in each session. Emotion word productions during intervention sessions were coded for total productions within the categories of happiness, anger, sadness, fear, surprise, and disgust. Productions were also coded for type (spontaneous, in response to a question, cued, or imitated) and valence agreement. The percentage of non-overlapping data (PND) was calculated (measuring the overall percentage of sessions in which the participants produced more emotion words than they did in the baseline session with the most emotion word productions) in order to show efficacy of the intervention for each participant. According to PND calculations, the intervention was generally effective for 3 of the 5 children and was effective in at least one emotion category for each participant. Participants demonstrated no difficulties with valence agreement. Data regarding types of production indicated that the majority of emotion word productions during the intervention were elicited in some way rather than spontaneous. These results suggest that children with LI increased the number of emotion word productions during the intervention, but were still dependent upon the scaffolding provided by the intervention.

Children diagnosed with Language Impairment (LI) often have difficulty with aspects of social communication. This thesis evaluates the effects of a social communication intervention focused on facilitating the correct production of emotion words in four elementary school-aged children with LI. Researchers monitored changes from pretreatment baseline data, through the intervention, and ended with posttreatment follow-up data for the emotions happiness, surprise, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust. Based on baseline measures, emotion categories in which the child showed limited proficiency were targeted for the 20 intervention sessions. The emotions targeted were different for each child. Each intervention session contained a combination of storybook therapeutic strategies such as story enactment, story sharing, and modeling by the clinician to help increase the child's emotion understanding. The child participated in emotion recognition and emotion inferencing tasks. The data for each participant was analyzed individually and formatted into figures. Data analyzation was performed using percentage of non-overlapping data (PND) which provided insight into how successful the intervention was for each of the targeted emotions. The results of each child's emotion based words were varied, some participants making good progress and others showing little or no gains. These results suggest that the intervention was effective for some of the children and should continued to be refined.