The study sample was composed of 110 teaching faculty at Vernon College, a multi-campus northwest Texas community college in Wichita Falls, TX. Participants completed two surveys: the Socio-communicative Orientation Scale (SCO) and the Teacher Satisfaction Scale (SAT). Demographic information was collected as well for generalizability purposes. As measured by the SCO, communicator style is a multi-dimensional concept including aspects of assertiveness and responsiveness communication behaviors; the assertiveness and responsiveness dimensions acted as independent variables. Instructor job satisfaction acted as the independent variable. The strength of the independent variables was measured separately in ratio to job satisfaction. Regression analysis results demonstrated that the assertiveness dimension of instructor communicator style is not a statistically significant contributor to instructor satisfaction. However, the responsiveness dimension can explain 12% of the variance in instructor job satisfaction. Beta weight and structure coefficient analysis confirmed the initial regression results for both independent variables. Further, commonality analysis clarified that the two independent variables within the study are in fact orthogonal in nature, meaning that they do not overlap and are not correlated. Hence, the responsiveness dimension of instructor communicator style is directly related to relationship building in an educational context and may be considered in professional development activities. With respect to sampling methods and use of the SAT instrument, recommendations for future research are included as well.

Increases in bandwidth and computational speed lead to growing interests in real-time audio and video communication over the Internet. With dramatic increase in wireless access recently, a challenging problem associated with audio and video communication lies in how to cope with packet loss and achieve acceptable video quality at the receiver and utilizing the limited wireless bandwidth efficiently. In this paper, we implement a system, Personal Mobile Communicator, to offer video and audio streaming communication. We employ MPEG-4 and GSM to compress video and audio data. MPEG-4 and GSM provide the standardized technological elements to compress video and audio data. MPEG-4 also takes a number of steps to enable robust transmission of compressed video data over noisy communication channels. We implement error resilience tools for reliable transmission and error concealment technologies to provide better video quality when error occurred. The goal of this paper, we design a communication system that is suitable for communication over wireless channel and offer a verification platform for further research.

To date, no studies have established the relationship between early communication characteristics for young children with significant disabilities and later language development. This study characterized communication for toddlers (n = 60) fitting this profile and their parents prior to a language intervention utilizing an observational coding scheme and tested whether child and parent communication characteristics were predictive of performance on oral language measures. Language transcripts were coded for child mode and pragmatic function and parent response to the utterance child utterances. Results indicated that children used contact gestures, answering and commenting at the highest rates relative to other communication characteristics. Parents utilized a related response type for 52% of child utterances. Hierarchical regressions revealed that sophisticated gesture usage, word usage, and sophisticated function rate were predictive of expressive oral language performance. Sophisticated gesture usage, sophisticated function rate, and parent MLU were predictive of receptive oral language performance.

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To date, no studies have established the relationship between early communication characteristics for young children with significant disabilities and later language development. This study characterized communication for toddlers (n = 60) fitting this profile and their parents prior to a language intervention utilizing an observational coding scheme and tested whether child and parent communication characteristics were predictive of performance on oral language measures. Language transcripts were coded for child mode and pragmatic function and parent response to the utterance child utterances. Results indicated that children used contact gestures, answering and commenting at the highest rates relative to other communication characteristics. Parents utilized a related response type for 52% of child utterances. Hierarchical regressions revealed that sophisticated gesture usage, word usage, and sophisticated function rate were predictive of expressive oral language performance. Sophisticated gesture usage, sophisticated function rate, and parent MLU were predictive of receptive oral language performance.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the overall role of a Communicator within a civil society organization (CSO). The aim was to clarify the role of a Communicator by examining the daily functions, the approach applied, abilities required, as well as skills employed. In addition, the study focused on CSO organizational structure and leadership with respect to the role of the Communicator. To do so, the author studied her own functioning in the role of CSO Communicator. The triangulated qualitative research approach applied primarily participant observation, exercised through unobtrusive measures. The results showed support for the approach of a Business Communicator.

Early human language technology systems were designed in a monolithic fashion. As these systems became more complex, this design became untenable. In its place, the concept of distributed processing evolved wherein the monolithic structure was decomposed into a number of functional components that could interact through a common protocol. This distributed framework was readily accepted by the research community and has been the cornerstone for the advancement in cutting edge human language technology prototype systems.The Defense Advanced Research Program Agency (DARPA) Communicator program has been highly successful in implementing this approach. The program has fueled the design and development of impressive human language technology applications. Its distributed framework has offered numerous benefits to the research community, including reduced prototype development time, sharing of components across sites, and provision of a standard evaluation platform. It has also enabled development of client-server applications with complex inter-process communication between modules. However, this latter feature, though beneficial, introduces complexities which reduce overall system robustness to failure. In addition, the ability to handle multiple users and multiple applications from a common interface is not innately supported. This thesis describes the enhancements to the original Communicator architecture that address robustness issues and provide a multiple multi-user application environment by enabling automated server startup, error detection and correction. Extensive experimentation and analysis were performed to measure improvements in robustness due to the enhancements to the DARPA architecture. A 7.2% improvement in robustness was achieved on the address querying task, which is the most complex task in the human language technology system.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / This thesis sought to design and implement a low-cost, portable, Free-Space Optics (FSO) communications device for Ethernet applications. Under some circumstances such a device would have utility at a Combat Operations Center (COC), a Field Artillery Position, or wherever else fiber optic cable is used in garrison or field. The design was based on commercial off the shelf components originally designed for fiber optic applications. Based on a 155 megabits per second (Mbps) media converter, the design used two fiber optic transceivers, coupled to collimating lenses to pass data over free-space. Sustained data rate of 100 Mbps was achieved with full network functionality on the optical bench with a low-power (0.5mW) laser diode transmitter without focusing optics on the receiver. The laser diode power(mounted on device), was measured with acceptable losses up to 300 ft during testing using a photodiode with focusing optics. The findings indicate that the system with proper collecting optics could be optimized for free-space communication at short to moderate ranges. / Captain, United States Marine Corps

This article elucidates the professional dialogue between student teacher and supervisor and it´s conditions as a supervising method in professional academic education. The aim of the study is to discuss how students articulate the conditions of the professional dialogue and the positioning of themselves and supervisors are made. The student taped discussions were analysed. Inspired by positioning theory we analysed the students discussions in order to interpret and elevate patterns showing the conditions concerning the professional dialogues for the students teacher education. The main findings are the students positioning themselves as listener and the supervisor is positioned as communicator of rights, obligations and oughtness. The communicator is positioned to a great number of responsibilities in the professional dialogues and the listener is positioned themselves passive. The professional experienced knowledge and the scientific knowledge will integrate in professional dialogues to challenge the students in their future profession. The contents, form and function of the professional dialogue are situated the students workplace. The conditions of the professional dialogue may vary due to the specific terms that the supervisor have.

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