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A FILM OF ONE’S OWN: SIGNIFICANCE OF PERSONAL SPACE AND WOMEN’S AUTONOMY IN GRETA GERWIG’S LADY BIRD (2017) AND BARBIE (2023)
No full textVirginia Woolf once said “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction” in her groundbreaking essay A Room of One’s Own (Woolf 1929, p3). Contemplating on the obstacles that women in academia are forced to overcome in order to reach the similar recognition as their male counterparts, Woolf stressed the significance of women’s acquiring their private, personal space, that allows them to be free of the responsibilities that the patriarchal world imposes onto them. Considering that she wrote this essay right at the beginning of Hollywood’s Golden Age, would it be possible for us to apply Woolf’s ideas into the new medium of cinematic world? Suppose that Greta Gerwig, Hollywood’s new name of feminist film, attempted to answer that question!
As Judith Mayne wrote “the novel provides a model of the connection between art and industry later expanded by the cinema” (Mayne 1981, p29), this research examines the extent to which Greta Gerwig, as a feminist script writer and director, continued Woolf’s ideas on female authorship and developed them into a new medium. While applying close reading to the films Greta Gerwig wrote and directed herself – her debut coming of age film Lady Bird (2017) and the box-office record breaker Barbie (2023), I explored the extent to which the themes of public and private spaces, and the significance of women having personal space remain prominent in both of the works. Laura Mulvey’s essay “Visual Pleasures and Narrative Cinema” (1989) was also applied in order to evaluate the portrayal of women on screen. Gerwig’s intentional allusion to Woolf, Mulvey, and other feminist film scholars can be traced from the extensive analysis of narration and her choice of cinematic techniques as well, thus giving us opportunity to evaluate the portrayal of women on screen from the perspective of a female director, who aims to the audience of female spectators
ENHANCING AMBIENT ASSISTED LIVING WITH MULTI-MODAL VISION AND LANGUAGE MODELS: A NOVEL APPROACH FOR REAL-TIME ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR DETECTION AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE
No full textThe global demographic forecast predicts a surge to over 1.9 billion individuals by 2050, escalating the demand for efficient healthcare delivery, particularly for the elderly and disabled, who frequently require caregiving due to prevalent mental and physical health issues. This demographic trend underscores the critical need for robust long-term care services and continuous monitoring systems. However, the efficacy of these solutions is often compromised by caregiver overload, financial constraints, and logistical challenges in transportation, necessitating advanced technological interventions. In response, researchers have been refining ambient assisted living (AAL) environments through the integration of human activity recognition (HAR) utilizing advanced machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) techniques. These methods aim to reduce emergency incidents and enhance early detection and intervention. Traditional sensor-based HAR systems, despite their utility, suffer from significant limitations, including high data variability, environmental interference, and contextual inadequacies. To address these issues, vision language models (VLMs) enhance detection accuracy by interpreting scene contexts via caption generation, visual question answering (VQA), commonsense reasoning, and action recognition. However, VLMs face challenges in real-time application scenarios due to language ambiguity and occlusions, which can degrade the detection accuracy. Large language models (LLMs) combined with text-to-speech (TTS) and speech-to-text (STT) technologies can facilitate direct communication with the individual and enable real-time interactive assessments of a situation. Integrating real-time conversational capabilities via LLM, TTS, and STT into VLM framework significantly improves the detection of abnormal behavior by leveraging a comprehensive scene understanding and direct patient feedback, thus enhancing the system's reliability. A qualitative evaluation showed high system usability results in a subjective questionnaire during real-time experiments with participants. A quantitative evaluation of the developed system demonstrated high performance, achieving detection accuracy and recall rates of 93.44\% and 95\%, respectively, and a specificity rate of 88.88\% in various emergency scenarios before interaction. After the interaction stage, the performance was boosted to 100\% accuracy due to increased context from user's responses. Furthermore, the system not only effectively identifies emergencies but also provides contextual summaries and actionable recommendations to caregivers and patients. The research introduces a multimodal framework that combines VLMs, LLMs, TTS, and STT for real-time abnormal behavior detection and assistance. This study aims to develop a comprehensive framework that overcomes traditional HAR and AAL limitations by integrating instructions-driven VLM, LLM, human detection, TTS, and STT modules to enhance emergency response efficiency in home environments. This innovative approach promises substantial advancements in the field of AAL by providing timely and context-aware detection and response in emergencies
DISCRETE IMPROVED HARDY INEQUALITIES
No full textIn this thesis work, a new improved version of the discrete Hardy inequality is obtained, covering the discrete version of inequality of Frank, Laptev, and Weidl and extending on the recent results of Roychowdhury and Suragan. We establish a new result for one dimensional discrete versions for the Lq−Lp cases. We also construct the discrete Heisenberg-Pauli-Weyl uncertainty principle
DETERMINANTS OF SUPPLY FOR ENGLISH PRIVATE TUTORING: VOICES OF ENGLISH TUTORS IN KAZAKHSTAN
No full textEnglish language proficiency is highly valued in private tutoring (PT), especially for those learning it as a supplementary language. Although the global significance of English Private Tutoring (EPT) is well-known, this industry is still in its early stages of development (Yung & Hajar, 2023). This qualitative study investigated why English tutors are entering Kazakhstan’s EPT market. The study explored the factors that influence ’their decision-making processes, the role of economic considerations, and the specific English skills and competencies that are most in demand in the private tutoring market. The researcher used various data collection tools, including narrative writing and semi-structured interviews. Bray’s (2021) theoretical framework was also used to understand the phenomenon of PT from different perspectives - physical, political, economic, cultural, and pedagogical geography. The study found that the participants were motivated to become English tutors due to their flexible working hours, teaching mode, professional development, and passion for teaching. Additionally, the study discovered income disparities among English tutors caused by differing rates. The participants also mentioned the demand for productive skills in the English language, such as speaking and writing, in the private tutoring market. While some participants were willing to pursue a career as an English tutor in the future, others considered it to be a temporary job. When considering future research, it is crucial to explore income inequality among English tutors in Kazakhstan and the impact of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) on their instructional methods.
Keywords: private tutoring (PT), English private tutoring (EPT), English tutors, factors influencing teachers’ decisions, English skills, qualitative study
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHERS’ UNDERSTANDING OF EMOTIONAL NEEDS OF GIFTED STUDENTS AND THE SUPPORT THEY PROVIDE
No full textToday's approach to the education of gifted children varies from country to country. Several studies in education conducted in different countries have revealed various challenges in understanding the needs of talented students. While some countries have developed special programs or established organizations to support such students, the emotional needs of gifted students are often neglected compared to their academic needs . Consequently, when the emotional needs of gifted students are not met, this can lead to academic failure or behavioral problems . The study's purpose was to examine teachers' understanding of the emotional needs of gifted students and the emotional support they provide at the Nazarbayev Intellectual School in Petropavlovsk. To address the research questions, a qualitative research design was employed. Seven participants, including school teachers in grades 7 . Being a 7th-grade teacher is significant as they assist students in adapting to a new school environment and provide conditions to meet their needs.. Teachers, when interviewed, were found to play a significant role in forming and developing students' emotional intelligence. Most teachers recognize the importance of providing emotional support and incorporate various techniques into their lessons. It was revealed that the participants have little theoretical knowledge regarding the emotional development of students. However, they emphasize the importance of cooperation with colleagues and professional development. In their opinion, observation and conversation are the primary tools for determining emotional needs. However, despite the lack of a single definition of the emotional needs of students, teachers use similar techniques and methods. Moreover, factors that emphasize the importance of academic qualifications, professional training, and teaching experience working with gifted students have been identified.
The data suggests that the types of emotional support in the lesson depend on teachers' understanding of students' socio-emotional development. The study's results can be useful for both researchers and practitioners
BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS TO COMBAT CORRUPTION: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
No full textIn this study, I explore the potential of behavioral interventions as complementary tools to deter corrupt behavior. By conducting an online between-subject experiment with 482 participants recruited from the Prolific.com platform, I test the effectiveness of moral reminder (prompting participants to reflect on their ethical standards), commitment (asking participants to promise that they will report honestly) and moral warning (explicitly requesting honesty and warning about the unethical nature of misreporting) nudges in reducing dishonesty. Participants play a ten-round mind game, guessing a randomly generated number from 1 to 6 in each round, with the opportunity to misreport to increase their earnings. Results indicate that commitment and moral warning nudges significantly reduce cheating, consistent with predictions of the reputational model, which posits that behavioral interventions can increase the perceived risk of detection by making this risk salient. Unlike the mind game, where participants only risk reputational losses if caught cheating (due to the absence of monetary punishments), real-life bureaucrats not only risk their reputation but also face substantial penalties if detected. Therefore, in real world contexts, using behavioral interventions may contribute to reducing corruption by amplifying the perceived risk of getting caught
DETERMINATION OF MAGMA COMPOSITION USING COMPOSITIONAL VARIATIONS OF OLIVINE IN SERPENTINITES, KEMPERSAI MASSIF, KAZAKHSTAN
No full textSerpentinites are widely recognized as important hosts for understanding mantle processes and magmatic evolution. This study focuses on the compositional variations of olivine in serpentinites collected from the Aktobe region within the Kempirsai Massif in the Southern Ural Mountains of Kazakhstan. The objective of this research is to investigate the applicability of olivine chemistry as a tool for interpreting the composition of the parent magma and the associated tectonic setting. Samples were collected from the Kempersai Massif, an area known for its complex geological history and the presence of serpentinites. Three samples, referred to as AK-3, AK-4, and AK-6, were taken from thin sections obtained from serpentinite rock formations in the research area. These particular samples were selected for their high concentration of olivine. The samples were then examined using scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) to analyze the major cation elements present in the olivine crystals. Notably, efforts were made to select large olivine crystals of approximately 200 microns to ensure their magmatic origin and minimize the influence of secondary processes. Initial results show some small differences in the composition of olivine in the samples that were studied. The differences seen in the chemistry of olivine give clues about the range of magma sources and processes at work in the Kempersai Massif. These variations could indicate the process by which magma is formed, such as different levels of partial melting. It is noteworthy that the high Forsterite (Fo) content (≥ .88-.92) shows that the olivine grains in these samples are magmatic and preserve the original magmatic composition. Understanding the petrogenetic processes preserved in olivine compositions is crucial for reconstructing the magmatic evolution of the Kempirsai Massif and the Southern Ural Mountains region. By decrypting the origins and changes of magmas, this study enhances our comprehension of the geological dynamics in the area and its impact on mineral exploration and resource assessment in comparable geological settings
DEVELOPMENT OF A SMART REFLECTIVE SURFACE-ENABLED SYSTEM FOR WIRELESS NETWORKS
No full textIn the modern world of rapidly evolving technologies, wireless communications development is focused on facilitating higher data rates and better quality of service. Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) allow control beyond the physical layer, the wireless medium, which is a big leap in developing sub-5GHz technology. An extensive review of RIS aspects, its working principles, and applications in wireless networks is provided in this thesis. A literature survey was done to identify the RIS prototyping challenges and controller selection factors. The study describes the prototype of the RIS system integrated with the controller, highlighting the hardware limitations and measurement setup requirements. Although the accurate measurement of the RIS was not done promptly in this study, the initial testing and experimental design give valuable insight into future studies, which may include scaling the RIS system, improving the indicating board, and optimizing the algorithm
STUDY AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ADVANCED ALGORITHMS FOR SPEECH ENHANCEMENT
No full textThis report presents a study of speech
enhancement algorithms aimed at reducing ambient noise and improving speech quality. The report focuses on traditional methods such as
spectral subtraction as well as advanced methods based on adaptive filters. Implementation of these algorithms was done using MATLAB and
evaluation was done using objective
measures such as Perceptual Speech
Quality Score (PESQ) and Short-Term
Objective Intelligibility (STOI). The results indicate the effectiveness of these
algorithms in improving speech signals