Academic literature on the topic 'Gibberish'

This Article examines Congress’s decades-long attempt to ensure that securities class action lawsuits of national importance are litigated in federal courts. The intent is limiting strike suits. Congress attempted to curtail strike suits through the enactment of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (“PSLRA”). The PSLRA required heightened pleading requirements to ensure the validity of federal securities class actions. Instead of solving the dilemma, plaintiffs circumvented the PSLRA by bringing fraud cases as state law claims. To combat the circumvention of the PSLRA, Congress enacted the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act (“SLUSA”). SLUSA federally preempted state law claims based on alleged misrepresentations, untrue statements, or omissions of material facts, requiring them to be brought in federal court. However, SLUSA did not address the concurrent jurisdiction provision of the Securities Act of 1933. This created an anomaly whereby many federal claims under the 1933 Act were brought in state courts, while state fraud claims were required to be brought in federal court. Congress could have addressed this enigma when it enacted the Class Action Fairness Act (“CAFA”). Instead, CAFA, which reformed class actions generally, exempted most securities class actions from its rules. In 2018, the Supreme Court decided Cyan v. Beaver County and allowed 1933 Act claims covered by SLUSA to continue to be brought in state courts. The Court was silent on non-covered securities. This Article recommends how Congress can accomplish its goal of forcing important securities class actions into federal courts.

Gli agenti virtuali sono sempre più utilizzati come mentori nelle interazioni umane simulate che formano all’utilizzo di strategie di comunicazione efficaci. Tuttavia, replicare un livello di somiglianza umana soddisfacente rimane una sfida. In particolare, l'effetto Uncanny Valley si riferisce alla spiacevole sensazione provata dall’utente che interagisce con un Agente Virtuale dall’aspetto non del tutto realistico (Seyama & Nagayama, 2007). La letteratura ha descritto diversi fattori intervenienti, comprese le caratteristiche statiche e dinamiche dell'Agente, ma anche differenze individuali nel grado di predisposizione ad antropomorfizzare un Agente (ad esempio, Epley, Waytz, & Cacioppo, 2007; Kätsyri, Förger, Mäkäräinen e Takala, 2015). Negli ultimi decenni, i videogiochi hanno rappresentato una fonte di intrattenimento per un numero crescente di persone e l'obiettivo di questa tesi è stato quello di confermare se le abitudini di gioco potessero essere considerate tra i fattori intervenienti. L'industria dei videogiochi ha guidato l'innovazione tecnologica che consente la sintesi vocale e facciale ad alta fedeltà di Agenti Virtuali in prodotti di intrattenimento. Tali tecnologie spesso non sono disponibili per i laboratori di ricerca più piccoli che fanno affidamento su risorse limitate. Pertanto, la presente tesi ha esplorato anche la possibilità di individuare elementi essenziali che non richiedono interventi costosi in termini di denaro e tempo ma che possono aumentare la percezione della qualità dell’Agente Virtuale. Oggetto principale di questa tesi è stato ENACT (Marocco, Pacella, Dell'Aquila, & Di Ferdinando, 2015), un'interazione umana simulata online per la formazione di strategie di negoziazione. In ENACT, i partecipanti hanno cinque turni di conversazione con un agente virtuale che comunica attraverso una combinazione di quattro diverse espressioni facciali, 24 gesti e 10 diverse posture del corpo e direzioni dello sguardo. La presente tesi comprende due studi sperimentali, che esplorano l'efficacia dell’implementazione di funzionalità a basso budget negli Agenti Virtuali, i.e., battiti di ciglia casuali (blinking) e una comunicazione vocale non semantica (gibberish) che accompagni la comunicazione scritta. Due campioni, rispettivamente, di 50 e 60 partecipanti maschi, tutti di età compresa tra i 18 ei 35 anni, sono stati reclutati e preliminarmente suddivisi in giocatori abituali e non abituali in base alle loro ore di gioco settimanali medie. Una volta assegnati in modo casuale al gruppo sperimentale o di controllo, i partecipanti hanno interagito con l'Agente virtuale e hanno completato i questionari relativi alla sua valutazione e alla qualità percepita di ENACT come prodotto educativo. I risultati indicano che la semplice introduzione di battiti di ciglia in momenti casuali dell'interazione con un agente virtuale sembra influenzare moderatamente la percezione dell'utente del realismo dell’Agente. Inoltre, nei casi in cui i moderni motori vocali di sintesi vocale non sono disponibili, sembra consigliabile fare affidamento su una forma di comunicazione di solo testo per gli agenti virtuali invece di una comunicazione basata su incomprensioni. I risultati suggeriscono anche che le abitudini di gioco potrebbero avere un ruolo di mediazione nella percezione delle qualità degli agenti virtuali. Tuttavia, le abitudini di gioco potrebbero non semplicemente imporre standard più elevati ai giocatori, i quali, invece, potrebbero sperimentare la zona del "troppo reale per il comfort" in modo diverso, assegnando di conseguenza diversi standard sociali attesi e aspettative normative agli agenti virtuali con cui interagiscono. Tali risultati confermano che la percezione della somiglianza umana di un Agente è una questione complessa e dimensionale, e quindi la necessità di includere la precedente alfabetizzazione di gioco nei fattori che intervengono nella percezione della stranezza.
Virtual Agents have been increasingly used as deliverers of notions in Simulated Human Interactions training effective communication strategies. Nevertheless, replicating the level of human-likeness required to "convince users (…) that a virtual human is the real thing" (Ruhland et al., 2015) remains a challenge. In particular, the Uncanny Valley effect refers to the observer's unpleasant impression of a virtual being with an almost, but not entirely, realistic human form (Seyama & Nagayama, 2007). Previous literature has described several intervening factors in the perception of uncanniness, including the Agent's static and dynamic features, but also individual differences in the degree of predisposition to anthropomorphize an Agent (e.g., Epley, Waytz, & Cacioppo, 2007; Kätsyri, Förger, Mäkäräinen, & Takala, 2015). During the last decades, video games have been representing an entertainment source for a growing number of people, and this dissertation's objective has been to confirm whether game habits might be considered among intervening factors. The video game industry has been driving technological innovation allowing for high-fidelity face and voice synthesis of Virtual Agents in Entertainment products. Such technologies are often not available to smaller research laboratories relying on limited resources. Therefore, the present dissertation has also explored the possibility of identifying "easy wins" on the short development run, essential elements that do not require expensive interventions in terms of money and time but can increase the perception of the Virtual Agent's quality. ENACT (Marocco, Pacella, Dell'Aquila, & Di Ferdinando, 2015), an online Simulated Human Interaction for the training of Negotiation strategies, has been used as the main object of this dissertation. In ENACT, trainees take five conversation turns with a Virtual Agent that communicates through a combination of four different facial expressions, 24 gestures, and ten different body postures and gaze directions. The present dissertation includes two experimental studies, exploring the effectiveness of low budget implementations of Virtual Agent’s features, i.e., random eye blinks and spoken gibberish accompanying written communication. Two samples of, respectively, 50 and 60 male participants, all aged between 18 and 35, have been recruited and preliminarily divided into habitual video game players and non-habitual video game players according to their mean weekly gameplay hours. Once randomly assigned to the experimental or control group, participants interacted with the Virtual Agent and completed the questionnaires related to its uncanniness evaluation and ENACT's perceived quality as an educational product. Results indicate that the mere introduction of eye blinks in random moments of the interaction with a Virtual Agent seems to moderately affect the user's perception of the Agents' realism. Moreover, in cases when modern text-to-speech voice engines are not available, it seems advisable to rely on a text-only form of communication for Virtual Agents instead of a gibberish-based communication. Results also suggest that video game habits might have a mediating role in the perception of Virtual Agents' qualities. Nevertheless, game habits might not simply posit higher standards to players but, instead, they might experience the "too real for comfort" zone differently, consequently assigning different expected social standards and normative expectations to Virtual Agents they interact with. Such results confirm that the perception of an Agent's human-likeness is a complex and dimensional matter, therefore including previous gaming literacy into the factors intervening in the perception of uncanniness.

Submitted by Johnsson Rodrigo (r.johnsson@gmail.com) on 2013-09-02T12:00:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 UESLEI.pdf: 2544719 bytes, checksum: 7b1f27c224c9b43ce55b5caf8f0d7c3f (MD5)
Approved for entry into archive by Alda Lima da Silva(sivalda@ufba.br) on 2013-09-26T18:22:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 UESLEI.pdf: 2544719 bytes, checksum: 7b1f27c224c9b43ce55b5caf8f0d7c3f (MD5)
Made available in DSpace on 2013-09-26T18:22:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 UESLEI.pdf: 2544719 bytes, checksum: 7b1f27c224c9b43ce55b5caf8f0d7c3f (MD5)
CNPq
Geodia gibberosa é uma das espécies que apresentam as maiores distribuições geográfica e batimétrica em comparação com suas congêneres. Com variações significativas na morfologia externa e no conjunto espicular, é considerada uma espécie com alto grau de polimorfismo e, muitas vezes, de difícil identificação. Tais características têm levado diversos pesquisadores a questionar os limites de sua variabilidade e a levantar hipóteses acerca da existência de espécies crípticas. Com o presente estudo, se objetivou avaliar o status taxonômico dessa espécie, aliando informações de morfologia e de biologia molecular, a qual empregou a utilização dos marcadores mitocondriais COI (subunidade I da citocromo c oxidase) e ATP6 (subunidade 6 da ATP sintase). Embora tenham sido observadas variações na morfologia das espículas e registradas categorias de megaescleras nunca vistas no holótipo, não foi possível encontrar nenhum padrão que possibilitasse a separação de G. gibberosa em espécies morfologicamente distintas. Contudo, através das ferramentas moleculares, foi determinada a existência de, pelo menos, três clados fortemente suportados, possibilitando a aceitação da hipótese de que G. gibberosa representa um complexo de espécies. Acrescido a isso, no presente trabalho, é descrita uma nova espécie de Geodia para a costa da Venezuela, com a apresentação de uma chave taxonômica para as 12 espécies nominais agora válidas que ocorrem no Caribe, e registrada a primeira ocorrência de Pachymatisma johnstonia para o oceano Atlântico ocidental.
Salvador

碩士
國立中山大學
海洋生物科技暨資源學系研究所
94
Investigation on the chemical constituents of the Formosan soft coral Sinularia gibberosa, collected by hand using scuba off the coast of Kenting, had led to the isolation of seven new cembranoids , gibberorenes A-G（2-8）, three new sterols, gibberoketosterol B（10）, gibberoepoxysterol（11）, gibberoketosterol C （12） along with two known compounds, (1Z,3E,7E,11S,12S,14S)-11,12-epoxycembra-1,3,7 -trien-14-ol（1）and gibberoketosterol（9）. The structures of 1-12 were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analysis, including IR, MS, 1D, and 2D NMR. Cytotoxicities of 1-12 against a limited panel of cancer cell lines were also evaluated. Among these metablites, compounds 9 and 11 were found to exhibit moderate cytotoxicity toward MCF-7, A549, MDA-MB-231, and HepG2 tumor cells. The ability of 9 and 10 to inhibit the pro-inflammatory iNOS and COX-2 expression of LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophage cells has been also estimated.

碩士
國立中山大學
海洋資源學系研究所
89
In our continuing study on the chemical constituents of Taiwanese soft corals, the EtOAc extracts of a gorgonian coral Isis hippuris and a alcyonarian coral Sinularia gibberosa were investigated, respectively. Seven compounds, including 3α,11β-dihydroxy-24-methyl-22,25epoxy-5α- furostan-18,20β-lactone (1), 3-acetyl-2-deacetyl-22R-hippurin-1 (2), hippuristerone F (3), hippurin-1 (4), 22-epi-hippurin-1 (5), 3-acetyl-2- desacetyl-22-epi-hippurin-1 (6) and 2-desacetyl-22-epi-hippurin-1 (7) were isolated from I. hippuris. Three metabolites, 3β,11-dihydroxy-24- methylene-9,11-secocholest-5-en-9-one (8), 3β,11-dihydroxy-24-methyl-9, 11-secocholest-5-en- 9-one (9) and 3β-hydroxy-11-acetoxy-24-methylene-9, 11-secocholest-5-en-9-one (10) were isolated from S. gibberosa. Among them, compounds 1–3, are new products. All metabolites 1–10 are steroids. The structures of 1–10 were determined by physical and spectral analysis, including IR, MS, 1D NMR (1H, 13C) and 2D NMR ( 1H-1H COSY, HMQC, HMBC and NOESY ) and by comparison with the related physical and spectral data of the known compounds. The cytotoxicity of the isolates against the P-388 ( mouse lymphocytic leukemia ), A-549 ( human lung adenocarcinoma ) and HT-29 ( human colon adenocarcinoma ) cancer cell lines were studied. Compound 9 and 10 showed significant cytotoxicity against P-388 cancer cell line. Metabolites 6 and 8 showed significant cytotoxicity against P-388 and HT-29 cancer cell lines. Compound 2, 4 and 5 exhibited potent cytotoxicity against the growth of P-388, A-549 and HT-29 cancer cell lines.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
海洋研究所
89
Colonies of Sinularia gibberosa which have the function of cementing the coenenchymal spicules as spiculite in the bases of colonies, were collected from Nanwan Bay. Morphology of cells or tissues and the ultrastructure of spicules from top to base in the colonies were observed by transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy to confirm the model of spicule formation. The concentration, length and length-width ratio of coenenchymal spicules in different portions from the top and the base of colonies were measured and the relationships between the formation of spiculite and the spicule- related tissues and spicule in different portion were discussed. The results of electron microscopic studies confirm that the model of spicule formation in this species is a transient intracellular step followed by a more complex and longer process of extracellular growth. During the intracellular growth, the vesicles with calcified crystals are formed by primary sclerocytes in a single cell, then enter the mesoglea and proceed to develop. Secondary sclerocytes deposit the calcium carbonate on the surface of the calcified crystals with multicellular ways. The developing crystals are combined as larger spicules. Other smaller crystals are also combined on the spicular surface to create complex tubercles. As a result, the tissue in the base of a colony shows some special granules or vesicles presented between spicules. This may be related to the bladed, botryoidal or pillar crystals that cement the spicules. An analysis of spicular concentration shows significant differences between different portions of colonies and a trend of increasing downward to the base of colonies, suggesting the accumulation of coenenchymal spicules toward the bases of colonies. The analysis of spicular length shows that longer spicules (>2.0 mm) were mainly distributed on the top of colonies and the spicular length near the base of colonies were concentrated in the size class 1.0-1.5 mm. The length-width ratio of coenenchymal spicules also shows significant differences and decreases toward the base of colonies. It suggests that longer and thinner coenenchymal spicules are distributed near the top of colonies, while shorter and wider ones are near the base of colonies. The coenenchymal spicules might be absorbed and recalcified by secondary sclerocyte during growth of colonies.

博士
國立中山大學
海洋生物科技暨資源學系研究所
95
Marine organisms have attracted much attention as potential source for drugs over recent years. Soft corals have yielded many bioactive metabolites. Some of them have been examined for their pharmacological properties. For the process of drug discovery, we have examined bioactive metabolites from the organic extracts of two soft corals Sinularia gibberosa and Sarcophyton sp. collected off Formosan coast. This study had led to the isolation of forty-two natural products (1–42), including one new β-caryophyllene-type sesquiterpenoid (1), four new xeniaphyllane-type norditerpenoids (2, 14, 16, and 17), fourteen new xeniaphyllane-type diterpenoids (3–13 and 18–20), one novel nor-humulene (15), seven new xeniaphyllane-type diterpenoids (21–26) with cyclic peroxyhemiketal (3,6-dihydro-1,2-dioxin-3-ol) moiety, and one new steroid (27), along with five known compounds (28–32) from Sinularia gibberosa. Three new cembrane-type diterpenoids (33–35), along with seven known cembranolides (36–42) were isolated from Sarcophyton sp. The structures of metabolites 1–42 including their stereochemistry have been established by detailed spectroscopic analyses, particularly mass, 2D NMR (1H–1H COSY, HMQC, HMBC, and NOESY) spectroscopy and by comparison with the related physical and spectral data from other known compounds. In above metabolites, two compounds (8, 9) exhibited cytotoxicity against the growth of MCF-7, Hep 3B, Ca9-22 cancer cell lines. Furthermore, nine compounds (4, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 21, 31, 39) exhibited cytotoxicity against the growth of MDA-MB-231, Hep G2 and A-549 cancer cell lines.

碩士
國立東華大學
海洋生物科技研究所
101
Soft corals have been found to be a rich source of bioactive secondary metabolites. In order to discover and develop new drug from cultured soft coral, we have searched the bioactive metabolites from the organic extracts of two cultured soft corals Lobophytum crassum and Sinularia gibberosa. This study led to the isolation of six natural products (1–6), including three new 3,14-ether linkage-related cembranoids (1–3), along with three known compounds (4–6) from Lobophytum crassum. In addition, the soft coral Sinularia gibberosa yielded a new natural product 11,12-epoxy-13,14-dihydroxycembrene-C (7) and five known metabolites, (1E,3E,7E,11E)-(14R)-cembra-1,3,7,11-tetraen-14-ol (8)、flaccidoxide (9)、flaccidoxide-13-acetate (10)、gibberoketosterol (11)、gibberoketosterol B (12). The cytotoxicities of compounds 1–12, compound 1 was found to inhibition against the growth of DLD-1 and HL-60 cancer cell lines and compound 2 exhibited weak cytotoxic activity against HL-60 cancer cell lines. Furthermore, the anti-inflammatory activity of 1–5 against the accumulation of pro-inflammatory iNOS and COX-2 proteins in RAW264.7 macrophage cells stimulated with LPS was evaluated using immunoblot analysis. At a concentration of 10 µM, compounds 1–5 did not inhibit COX-2 and iNOS proteins expression relative to the control cells stimulated with LPS only.