Clear Modifications Research Articles

Approaching speech intelligibility enhancement with inspiration from Lombard and Clear speaking styles

Lombard and Clear speech represent two acoustically and perceptually distinct speaking styles that humans employ to increase intelligibility. For Lombard speech, increased spectral energy in a band spanning the range of formants is consistent, effectively augmenting loudness, while vowel space expansion is exhibited in Clear speech, indicating greater articulation. On the other hand, analyses in the first part of this work illustrate that Clear speech does not exhibit significant spectral energy boosting, nor does the Lombard effect invoke an expansion of vowel space. Accordingly, though these two acoustic phenomena are largely attributed with the respective intelligibility gains of the styles, present analyses would suggest that they are mutually exclusive in human speech production. However, these phenomena can be used to inspire signal processing algorithms that seek to exploit and ultimately compound their respective intelligibility gains, as is explored in the second part of this work. While Lombard-inspired spectral shaping has been shown to successfully increase intelligibility, Clear speech-inspired modifications to expand vowel space are rarely explored. With this in mind, the latter part of this work focuses mainly on a novel frequency warping technique that is shown to achieve vowel space expansion. The frequency warping is then incorporated into an established Lombard-inspired Spectral Shaping method that pairs with dynamic range compression to maximize speech audibility (SSDRC). Finally, objective and subjective evaluations are presented in order to assess and compare the intelligibility gains of the different styles and their inspired modifications.

Can older adults enhance the intelligibility of their speech?

Speech understanding difficulties for older adults (OAs) are well documented. Very little is known about whether age-related changes affect their speech production as well. Intelligibility of conversational and clear speech sentences produced by five OA talkers was examined. The results of the sentence-in-noise listening tests revealed that OAs enhanced their intelligibility for young adult (YA) listeners through clear speech modifications. Importantly, though, OAs were less effective at improving their speech to benefit listeners compared to YA talkers [reported in Smiljanic and Bradlow, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 118(3), 1677-1688 (2005)]. The results suggest that auditory and cognitive changes across lifespan can affect OA's speech patterns and intelligibility.

An acoustic–phonetic comparison of the clear speaking styles of Finnish–English late bilinguals

Research on clear speech, an intelligibility-enhancing speaking style, has proposed that global clear speech modifications which make speech more perceptible in adverse conditions are language-independent, while the more fine-grained segmental clear speech modifications, which enhance the salience of phonological contrasts, are language-specific [Bradlow & Bent, 2002. The clear speech effect for non-native listeners. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 112, 272–284]. This study assessed the claim by contrasting the clear speech strategies used by twelve Finnish–English late bilinguals in their two languages, using spontaneous speech and sentence reading tasks. Their global clear speech modifications were also compared to those of native English speakers. Global measures included mean energy between 1 and 3kHz, f0 median and range, and speech rate, while segmental measures included VOT for initial stop consonants and spectral and temporal characteristics for two vowel contrasts. Findings generally support the hypothesis that global enhancements are language-independent: most of the global clear speech modifications were consistent across languages. However, segmental enhancements were not consistently language-dependent: the late bilinguals enhanced stop voicing contrasts according to the language being spoken, but vowels were modified similarly in the clear speaking style of both languages. The global clear speech strategies of late bilinguals were found to approximate those of native English speakers.

Infrasound production by bolides: A global statistical study

We have examined a dataset consisting of 71 bolides detected by satellite sensors, which provide energy and location estimates, with simultaneous measurements of the same events on 143 distinct waveforms. These bolides have total source energies ranging from 0.02kt TNT equivalent yield to ≈20kt and probable diameters of order a few meters on average. We find that it is possible to detect large events with energies of ≈20kt or more globally. Infrasonic detections of these events for stratospheric arrivals have ranges between 350–17,000km and show clear wind-related amplitude modifications. We find that our period–yield relations are virtually identical to that found from AFTAC nuclear test data with the most robust period–yield correlation found for those events having multiple station averaged periods. We have also found empirical expressions relating maximum expected detection range for infrasound as a function of energy and low and high frequency cut-off as a function of energy. Our multi-variate fits suggest that 12 yield-scaling is most appropriate for long range bolide infrasound measurements with a distance scaling exponent of ≈1.1 best representing the data. Our best-fit wind correction exponent is a factor of ≈3 smaller than found by previous studies which we suggest may indicate a decrease in the value of k with range. We find that the integral acoustic efficiency for bolides is ≥0.01% with a best lower limit estimate nearer 0.1%. Finally, we conclude that a range independent atmosphere implementation of the normal-mode approach to simulate bolide amplitudes is ineffective at large ranges due to the large change in atmospheric conditions along source-receiver paths.

Bidirectional clear speech perception benefit for native and high-proficiency non-native talkers and listeners: Intelligibility and accentedness

This study investigated how native language background interacts with speaking style adaptations in determining levels of speech intelligibility. The aim was to explore whether native and high proficiency non-native listeners benefit similarly from native and non-native clear speech adjustments. The sentence-in-noise perception results revealed that fluent non-native listeners gained a large clear speech benefit from native clear speech modifications. Furthermore, proficient non-native talkers in this study implemented conversational-to-clear speaking style modifications in their second language (L2) that resulted in significant intelligibility gain for both native and non-native listeners. The results of the accentedness ratings obtained for native and non-native conversational and clear speech sentences showed that while intelligibility was improved, the presence of foreign accent remained constant in both speaking styles. This suggests that objective intelligibility and subjective accentedness are two independent dimensions of non-native speech. Overall, these results provide strong evidence that greater experience in L2 processing leads to improved intelligibility in both production and perception domains. These results also demonstrated that speaking style adaptations along with less signal distortion can contribute significantly towards successful native and non-native interactions.

Proteomics analysis of Bifidobacterium longum NCC2705 growing on glucose, fructose, mannose, xylose, ribose, and galactose

To investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying carbohydrate uptake and connected metabolic pathways of Bifidobacterium longum NCC2705, the proteomic profiles of bacteria grown on different carbon sources including glucose, fructose, mannose, xylose, ribose, and galactose were analyzed. Our results show that all sugars tested were catabolized via the bifid shunt. Sixty-eight proteins that exhibited changes in abundance of threefold or greater were identified by MS. A striking observation was the differential expression of proteins related to the pyruvate metabolism. Further analysis of acetic acid and lactic acid in the culture supernatants by HPLC at the end of fermentation showed that more lactic acid was produced during growth on fructose, ribose, xylose, galactose and more acetic acid was produced during the fermentation of glucose and mannose. Growth experiments revealed that B. longum NCC2705 preferentially used fructose, ribose, xylose, and galactose with higher growth rates over glucose and mannose. Furthermore, five proteins (GroEL, Eno, Tal, Pgm, and BL0033) exhibited clear phosphorylation modifications at serine and/or tyrosine residues. BL0033, a component of an ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter, was significantly more abundant in bacteria grown on fructose and, to a lesser extent, ribose and xylose. RT-PCR analysis revealed that all genes of the ABC transporter are induced in the presence of these sugars suggesting that BL0033, BL0034, BL0035, and BL0036 constitute an ABC transporter with fructose as preferred substrate.

Europium(III) complexed by HPSEC size-fractions of a vertisol humic acid: Small differences evidenced by time-resolved luminescence spectroscopy

The size fractionation of a humic acid (HA) by high performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) was used as a proxy for the filtration effect during HA transport through a porous medium with minimum specific chemical interactions. The modification of the Eu(III)–HA complexes’ formation with the different size-fractions, as compared to the bulk HA, was studied in time-resolved luminescence spectroscopy (TRLS). Clear modifications in Eu(III)–HA complexes’ structures were shown and related to the molecular characteristics of the separated size-fractions. The properties of most of size-fractions did not induce a major alteration of the affinity towards Eu(III). Only the most hydrophilic fractions eluted in the tail of the chromatographic peak, representing about 11% of total fractions-weight, gave some significantly different parameters. Using a simplistic complexation model, it was found that the available complexation sites decreased with the size reduction of humic fractions.

Neuropeptide Y-Y2 receptor knockout mice: influence of genetic background on anxiety-related behaviors

Neuropeptide Y (NPY) has been extensively studied in relation to anxiety and depression but of the seven NPY receptors known to date, it is not yet clear which one is mainly involved in mediating its effects in emotional behavior. Mice lacking the NPY-Y2 receptors were previously shown to be less anxious due to their improved ability to cope with stressful situations. In the present study, the behavioral phenotype including the response to challenges was analyzed in NPY-Y2 knockout (KO) mice backcrossed in to congenic C57BL/6 background. In the elevated plus-maze (EPM) and the forced swim test (FST), the anxiolytic-like or antidepressant-like phenotype of the NPY-Y2 KO mice could not be confirmed, although this study differs from the previous one only with regard to the genetic background of the mice. In addition, no differences in response to acute stress or to the antidepressant desipramine in the FST were detected between wild type (WT) and NPY-Y2 KO animals. These results suggest that the genetic background of the animals appears to have a strong influence on the behavioral phenotype of NPY-Y2 KO mice. Additionally, to further characterize the animals by their biochemical response to a challenge, the neurochemical changes induced by the anxiogenic compound yohimbine were measured in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of NPY-Y2 KO and compared to WT mice. Dopamine (DA) levels were significantly increased by yohimbine in the WT but unaffected in the KO mice, suggesting that NPY-Y2 receptor exerts a direct control over both the tonic and phasic release of DA and that, although the anxiety-like behavior of these NPY-Y2 KO mice is unaltered, there are clear modifications of DA dynamics. However, yohimbine led to a significant increase in noradrenaline (NA) concentration and a slight reduction in serotonin concentration that were identical for both phenotypes.

Abundancia relativa y uso de microhábitat de la rana Geobatrachus walkeri (Anura: Strabomantidae) en dos hábitats en Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia

Geobatrachus walkeri belongs to a monotypic frog genus endemic to the San Lorenzo area, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. This species has been categorized as endangered because of its small distribution area and the decline in the extent and quality of its habitat. It inhabits two forest types with different composition and structure, the native secondary forest and a pine plantation (dominated by Pinus patula). To compare the relative abundance and microhabitat use of this species in these habitat types, 30 quadrants/environment were distributed randomly. The individual number, microhabitat use and other aspects of its natural history were registered using visual encounter surveys in both sites, including non-sampled areas in the quadrants. The relative abundance of frogs was significantly different between habitats and among seasons. The highest abundance of G. walkeri relative to the total area was found in the pine plantation, being 2.3 times higher than in the natural forest. More frogs were significantly found during the rainy season; nevertheless, active individuals were also found during the dry season. Significant differences were found in the microhabitat use with respect to the forest type and season. The most frequently microhabitat used in the two forest types was the pine leaf-litter; besides, in the native forest, the microhabitat occupied more frequently presented medium and large size stones. Geobatrachus walkeri is a successful species in pine plantations, associated permanently to its leaf-litter environment where it seems to develop its entire life cycle. The clear modifications in the soils and water, derived from the introduction of the pine plantation in this area, seem not to have negatively affected the conservation and successful maintenance of this species.

Proteomic Analysis of the Enterococcus faecalis V583 Strain and Clinical Isolate V309 under Vancomycin Treatment

To understand the molecular mechanisms of bacteria resistance to glycopeptides, we obtained proteomic profiles of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis V583 (reference strain) and V309 (clinical isolate) passaged with and without the drug. The specificity and reversibility of vancomycin resistance genes induced in V583 and V309 were further studied over time. By semiquantitative RT-PCR of vancomycin-treated versus untreated samples of both strains, 28 (V583) or 20 (V309) up-regulated proteins, 8 (V583) or 6 (V309) down-regulated proteins, and 1 (V583) or 4 (V309) proteins with mobility changes in 2-DE gel analysis were identified. Some of these proteins have known vancomycin resistance functions or are related to virulent factors, stress, metabolism, translation, and conjunction, which would help Enterococcus survive under drug selection. Vancomycin induced specifically and reversibly VanA, VanX, VanB, and VanXB. Notably, 6 proteins (Pgm, Ldh, Gap-2, RpsB, EF2076, and sex pheromone cAD1 precursor lipoprotein) exhibited clear post-translational modifications. Vancomycin induced phosphorylation of Ser/Thr in Ldh, Gap-2, and sex pheromone cAD1 precursor lipoprotein (EF3256), newly identified here as enterococcal phosphoproteins. Our data suggest that phosphorylated EF3256 is normally active in E. faecelis, whereas EF3256-P together with oppA-like protein may play a key role in the regulation of pheromone and transmission of conjugation plasmids.

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Speaking and Hearing Clearly: Talker and Listener Factors in Speaking Style Changes

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Speaking and Hearing Clearly: Talker and Listener Factors in Speaking Style Changes

An animal breeder on Darwin’s birthday

An animal breeder on Darwin’s birthday

Expression of Genes Involved in Nitrogen Assimilation and the C/N Balance Sensing in <I>Prochlorococcus</I> sp. Strain SS120

The expression of five genes involved in nitrogen assimilation in cyanobacteria, namely glnA, glsF, icd, ntcA, and glnB, encoding three key enzymes from that pathway (glutamine synthetase, glutamate synthase, isocitrate dehydrogenase) and two regulatory proteins (NtcA and PII), was studied in this work. Their changes under different conditions were analyzed by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. Nutrient limitation induced clear modifications on the expression of most studied genes: lack of nitrogen provoked an initial increase, followed by a marked decrease; in the cases of phosphorus and iron starvation, a general, stronger expression decrease was observed, particularly striking in the case of iron. Darkness and addition of the photosynthethic inhibitors DCMU and DBMIB also had a strong effect on gene expression. Methionine sulfoximine and azaserine, inhibitors of glutamine synthetase and glutamate synthase, respectively, provoked a sharp increase in icd expression. These results, together with previous studies, suggest that 2-oxoglutarate could be the molecule utilized by Prochlorococcus to sense the C/N balance. Besides, our results confirm the different regulation of nitrogen assimilation in Prochlorococcus with regard to other cyanobacteria.

The Relevance of Cluster Initiatives in Rural Areas: Regional Policy in Sweden

The relatively weak performance of sparsely populated areas has been given substantial attention in many regional, national and European Union initiatives. Many rural areas are struggling with development problems such as depopulation, advanced ageing, industrial restructuring and high levels of structural unemployment. In Sweden these issues are mainly associated with the difficulties in the non-metropolitan sparsely populated areas in the northern and southeastern parts. Here, the issue of implementing general cluster policies in sparsely populated regions in order to enhance their economic development is in focus. This research includes an overview of existing Swedish regional growth and development programmes that exemplify the current regional policies. It is found that the concepts of clusters and innovation systems have become important for policy on national and regional levels of government, but the understanding of the concepts is poor. In spite of regional variations in preconditions for cluster development, there are no clear regional modifications in the interpretation of clusters as described in the documents. One conclusion is that regional and local strategies to develop businesses in sparsely populated areas would benefit from using examples from non-metropolitan regions as a point of departure rather than using experiences drawn from high-tech industries located in metropolitan areas usually referenced in the international literature. The routine use of cluster and innovation systems in policy on the regional level underlines the need for more empirically based research on the preconditions for cluster development in sparsely populated areas.

Temporal organization of English clear and conversational speech.

This study investigated the effect of hyperarticulated, intelligibility-enhancing clear speech on temporal characteristics as reflected in number, durations, and variability of consonant and vowel intervals in sentence- and paragraph-length utterances. The results of sentence-in-noise listening tests showed a consistent clear speech intelligibility gain across the utterances of varying complexity indicating that the talkers successfully maintained clear speech articulatory modifications throughout longer stretches of speech. The acoustic analysis revealed that some temporal restructuring accompanied changes in speaking style. This temporal restructuring was observed in the insertion of consonant and vowel segments that were dropped or coarticulated in conversational speech and in an increase in the number of prosodic phrases for clear speech. Importantly, coefficients of variation (variation of consonantal and vocalic intervals normalized for changes in speaking rate) for both consonantal and vowel intervals remained stable in the two speaking styles. Overall, these results suggest that increased intelligibility of clear speech may be attributed to prosodic structure enhancement (increased phrasing and enhanced segmentability) and stable global temporal properties.

Aktuelle zentralörtliche Entwicklungen im Saarland — Erste Ergebnisse einer empirischen Studie

This article presents the results of an investigation of the central places in the federal state Saarland. With this, it is elaborated both on the centrality of offers on basis of the dispersion factor and on the centrality of demand due to a quantitative-empirical investigation. Compared to survey conducted in 1977 certain changes concerning centrality have been turned out in the Saarland. Those changes can also be found in the current regional development plan: The interlacing fields on tier of the secondary centres are indistinct, interlacing fields on tier of the basic centres let to prove, numerous basic centres and secondary centres follow their normative function only inadequately. Due to the clear modifications of the centrality of numerous places a continuous monitoring of the centrality is suggested as an instrument of the politics deliberation.

Mineralogical reactions in the Tournemire argillite after in-situ interaction with steels

Steels are possible materials for high level radioactive waste containers used in long term geological disposal in argillaceous environments. Under chemical conditions of a deep repository, the release of iron from these canisters could modify the properties of clay minerals. Thereby, many batch experiments have been realized on argillite under disposal conditions. The French Institute of Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety conducts an experimental program on steel/argillite interactions in underground natural conditions in its Tournemire experimental site (Aveyron, France). In order to determine these interaction processes, the present study focuses both on petrography and mineralogy characterization of modifications in the argillite in contact with steel samples. The accurate study of the argillite and steels after 6 years of contact indicates no significant changes for the argillite in contact with the stainless steels. For the argillite in contact with the carbon steels both numerous steel corrosion evidences and clear textural, petrographic, mineralogical and chemical modifications of the initial nature of the argillite are observed. The Fe°/argillite contacts indicate the development of a Fe-rich front within the argillite resulting from the iron diffusion from the corroded steel and which is connected with mineralogical changes of the initial argillite. This Fe-enrichment is accompanied by crystallization of significant amounts of goethite/lepidocrocite (FeOOH) and some traces of magnetite near the steel surface. The formation of Fe-rich phases within the argillite is associated with dissolution–crystallization processes. Thus, after bulk sample XRD and SEM data, these processes consist in dissolution of calcite, phyllosilicate (I/S) and pyrite and crystallization of some traces of gypsum and melanterite.

Clear speech intelligibility and accentedness ratings for native and non-native talkers and listeners

This study investigated how native language background (L1) interacts with speaking style in determining levels of speech intelligibility. In four experiments, we explored whether native and non-native hyper-articulation clear speech strategies provide similar intelligibility benefits for native and high proficiency non-native listeners. The sentence-in-noise perception results revealed that native speech was preferred over non-native speech by both listener groups even when non-native talkers and listeners shared the same L1. Clear speech was shown to be beneficial for both the native and fluent non-native listeners. However, non-native clear speech enhanced intelligibility less than native clear speech, supporting the hypothesis that clear speech production strategies involve enhancement of language-specific phonological contrasts. In order to assess the relationship between objective intelligibility measures and subjective accentedness ratings, we obtained accentedness ratings of native and non-native conversational and clear speech by native and non-native listeners. The results showed that objective intelligibility and subjective accentedness were independent. Overall, these results provide strong evidence that clear speech involves language-specific modifications. Nevertheless, native and high proficiency non-native clear speech modifications are generally helpful for both native and high proficiency non-native listeners even when the objective intelligibility and subjective accentedness levels diverged for various listener and talker groups.

Results of treatment in a 6-month movement and sports therapy rehabilitation program of children with cerebral palsy

The dynamic gait patterns in 9 children with cerebral palsy aged from 8 to 13 years was evaluated with a force plate before and after 6 months of movement- and sportstherapy. After the therapy clear modifications were found in timeparameters. The outstanding parameter was the vertical ground reaction force, which showed a positive increment in all important characteristics.

Vocal tract and register changes analysed by real-time MRI in male professional singers—a pilot study

Changes of vocal tract shape accompanying changes of vocal register and pitch in singing have remained an unclear field. Dynamic real-time magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was applied to two professional classical singers (a tenor and a baritone) in this pilot study. The singers sang ascending scales from B3 to G#4 on the vowel /a/, keeping the modal register throughout or shifting to falsetto register for the highest pitches. The results show that these singers made few and minor modifications of vocal tract shape when they changed from modal to falsetto and some clear modifications when they kept the register. In this case the baritone increased his tongue dorsum height, widened his jaw opening, and decreased his jaw protrusion, while the tenor merely lifted his uvula. The method used seems promising and should be applied to a greater number of singer subjects in the future.