Variation In Speech Research Articles

A Fine-Tuned CatBoost-Based Speech Disorder Detection Model

The classification of speech disorders (SDs) is crucial for treating children with speech impairment (SI). An automated SD classification can assist speech therapists in rendering services to children with SI in rural areas. Automated techniques for detecting SDs provide objective assessments of speech attributes, including articulation, fluency, and prosody. Clinical examinations and quantitative assessments provide an in-depth understanding of the patient’s speaking abilities and limitations. Existing deep learning (DL) models for SD detection often lack generalization across diverse populations and speech variations, leading to suboptimal performance when applied to individuals with different linguistic backgrounds or dialects. This study introduces a DL-based model for classifying normal and abnormal speeches using voice samples. To overcome the overfitting and bias, the authors construct convolutional neural network models with the weights of MobileNet V3 and EfficientNet B7 models for feature extraction (FE). To improve performance, they integrate the squeeze and excitation block with the MobileNet V3-based FE model. Similarly, the EfficientNet B7-model-based FE is improved using the structure pruning technique. The enhanced CatBoost model differentiates the normal and abnormal speeches using the extracted features. The experimental analysis is performed using the public dataset that contains 4620 utterances of healthy children and 2178 utterances of children with SI. The comparative study reveals the exceptional performance of the proposed SD classification model. The model outperforms the current SD classification models. It can be employed in clinical settings to support speech therapists. Substantial training with diverse voice samples can improve the generalizability of the proposed model.

Neurogenic Bladder: A Rare Autonomic Sign in a Patient With Preserved Speech Variant (Zappella Variant) Rett Syndrome

Background: Rett syndrome is characterized by the loss of speech and purposeful hand movements, ambulation problems, and typical hand stereotypies. Preserved speech variant Rett syndrome (Zappella Variant) is a much less common form where speech is relatively preserved, from words to simple sentences. Lower urinary tract dysfunction and neurogenic bladder due to autonomic involvement have been only rarely reported in Rett syndrome. We aimed to emphasize neurogenic bladder due to autonomic dysfunction, which has very rarely been reported in the literature, in a patient with preserved speech variant Rett syndrome, a rare form of the Rett syndrome. Case presentation: A 7-year-old female patient who had been diagnosed with severe vesicoureteral reflux and neurogenic bladder when 11 months old due to the inability to urinate was suspected of suffering from Rett syndrome after intense eye contact and the stereotypic movement of hand wringing were observed. The patient could talk with phrases and walk and had purposeful hand movements. The presence of the c.961C>T (p.Arg321Trp) mutation in the C terminal region of the MECP2 gene was demonstrated with Sanger sequencing. The patient is currently 13 years old and is receiving special education and continues to be monitored for chronic renal disease at the pediatric nephrology department. Conclusion: The presence of hand stereotypies and intense eye pointing could indicate the Zappella variant Rett syndrome in a female patient who has developmental problems, can talk, has purposeful hand skills. Rett syndrome patients can also have lower urinary tract dysfunction although this is less common than cardiac, respiratory and gastrointestinal autonomic involvement. The development of intermittent urinary retention and vesicoureteral reflux may be associated with neurogenic bladder caused by autonomic involvement should be considered in these patients and one must be aware of the complications.

Examining Illocutionary Acts: Male and Female Judges’ Comments on Indonesia’s Next Top Model

This article delves into the linguistic and discursive aspects of communication, exploring the application of theories proposed by J.L. Austin (1975) and John Searle (1969) to understand the illocutionary acts employed by the male and female judges in Indonesia's Next Top Model. Within the context of reality television, where judgments and critiques are integral components, the language used by judges holds particular significance. This study aims to delve into the illocutionary acts employed by male and female judges in the popular television show "Indonesia's Next Top Model Cycle 3." The research method for this study employed a qualitative research approach, involved describing data from real-life situations or phenomena in their natural context within the reality show to explore the nuances and meanings of illocutionary acts in judges' comments. A sample of episodes from Indonesia's Next Top Model Cycle 3 was selected for analysis, ensuring representation of both male and female judges' comments. The dataset consisted of 266 utterances, 132 utterances from male judges' comments and 134 utterances from female judges' comments. In this study, it is found that the female judges had a greater variety of speech acts where they used all types of speech acts when giving comments. Whereas male judges only used three types of speech acts. The most dominant type of speech act of both male and female judges is assertives/representatives. It is inferred that both male and female judges are having or showing a confident and forceful personality in their utterances. In this study, it can also be seen that female judges are more to the point or overt than male judges.

ФРАЗЕОЛОГИЯЛЫҚ БІРЛІКТЕРДІҢ КӨРКЕМ МӘТІНДЕГІ ҚОЛДАНЫСЫ

Abstract. The article discusses the use of phraseological units in a literary text. It is obvious that the winged words, Proverbs, sayings, sentimental reasoning, thoughtful, key examples, phraseologisms found in our language are all stable expressions due to their own characteristics, thoroughness of the phrase, constancy, etc. Scientists also study the conditions of Use and different transformations of phraseological units, their variability in speech and text. The article discusses the fact that phrases that come mainly from Kazakh phraseology in the form of wisdom, testament, proverbs are also widely used in language use. It is obvious that these studies attach special importance to the study of phraseology in conjunction with the worldview, cultural, historical, spiritual, material values of the nation. In the analysis of the semantic features of phraseology found in works of art, there is a comprehensive coverage of the human factor in the language. There are specific examples of positive and negative emotions that occur in a person, his speech skills, personal qualities of this character, social status in the public environment, mood, etc.are conveyed by figurative phraseological (stable) phrases in the language. A review of research on phraseology is also carried out, it is analyzed whether the definition of the stylistic functions of phraseology allows us to more deeply reveal the features of the author's creative methods, master the skill of accurate creation of artistic images and images using the artistic means of the language.

Let There Be Sound: Reconstructing High Quality Speech from Silent Videos

The goal of this work is to reconstruct high quality speech from lip motions alone, a task also known as lip-to-speech. A key challenge of lip-to-speech systems is the one-to-many mapping caused by (1) the existence of homophenes and (2) multiple speech variations, resulting in a mispronounced and over-smoothed speech. In this paper, we propose a novel lip-to-speech system that significantly improves the generation quality by alleviating the one-to-many mapping problem from multiple perspectives. Specifically, we incorporate (1) self-supervised speech representations to disambiguate homophenes, and (2) acoustic variance information to model diverse speech styles. Additionally, to better solve the aforementioned problem, we employ a flow based post-net which captures and refines the details of the generated speech. We perform extensive experiments on two datasets, and demonstrate that our method achieves the generation quality close to that of real human utterance, outperforming existing methods in terms of speech naturalness and intelligibility by a large margin. Synthesised samples are available at our demo page: https://mm.kaist.ac.kr/projects/LTBS.

The Correlation Between Awareness and Oral Communication Competency in Students of X from Ages 13 to 18

The research aims to frame an individual's awareness of being monitored as potentially exclusive in altering the quality of one's oral communicative speech by controlling other extraneous factors and isolating the aforementioned variable of interest. A mixed, qualitative, and quantitative method study was conducted by quantifying the qualitative data collected during voluntary interviews. A total of 14 subjects were engaged in the quantitative part of this research study, interview. The results showed that the Hawthorne Effect has a positive and negative relationship between awareness and efficacy in ameliorating speech disfluencies. However, it is not necessarily negatively moderated by the magnitude of explicitness of their state of being monitored. As with any dependent measures, variability in speech is one concern as it may obscure potential differences or indicators due to speech disfluencies for other diseases. Because this study validated that the number of speech disfluencies one exhibits are moderately dependent on the state of awareness, such may be a problem depreciating the credibility of diagnosis of speech disfluencies or other relevant ailments. Exploring this field will advance the contemporary understanding of speech disfluencies, the Hawthorne effect, and the nudge theory.

‘Let’s talk! What will you say to me … ?’: comparing spontaneous dyad-focused maternal speech to singleton and dizygotic twin infants at home

ABSTRACT We compared dyad-focused maternal speech (protoconversations and maternal speech describing the dyad) in interactions of mothers with their twin and singleton infants. Nine twins and nine singletons, coming from urban areas of Crete (Greece), were video-recorded at home in spontaneous face-to-face interactions with their mothers, from the 2nd to the 6th month at 30-day intervals. Continuous micro-analysis revealed that the following: (a) variations in proto-conversations favoured singleton compared to twin infants; (b) twin and singleton mothers addressed different, but possibly of equivalent communicative significance, verbal comments to their infants within protoconversations; (c) both twin and singleton mothers showed age-variant efforts for conversation with their young infants. Though we showed quantitative variations of maternal dyad-focused speech between mother-singleton infant and mother-twin infant dyads, both singleton and twin mothers used devices of equivalent communicative significance and age-variant attempts to respond sensitively to their infants’ expressive behaviours according to the latter’s age-related motives for communication.

Improved emotion differentiation under reduced acoustic variability of speech in autism

BackgroundSocio-emotional impairments are among the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the actual knowledge has substantiated both altered and intact emotional prosodies recognition. Here, a Bayesian framework of perception is considered suggesting that the oversampling of sensory evidence would impair perception within highly variable environments. However, reliable hierarchical structures for spectral and temporal cues would foster emotion discrimination by autistics.MethodsEvent-related spectral perturbations (ERSP) extracted from electroencephalographic (EEG) data indexed the perception of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, neutral, and sadness prosodies while listening to speech uttered by (a) human or (b) synthesized voices characterized by reduced volatility and variability of acoustic environments. The assessment of mechanisms for perception was extended to the visual domain by analyzing the behavioral accuracy within a non-social task in which dynamics of precision weighting between bottom-up evidence and top-down inferences were emphasized. Eighty children (mean 9.7 years old; standard deviation 1.8) volunteered including 40 autistics. The symptomatology was assessed at the time of the study via the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition, and parents’ responses on the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales. A mixed within-between analysis of variance was conducted to assess the effects of group (autism versus typical development), voice, emotions, and interaction between factors. A Bayesian analysis was implemented to quantify the evidence in favor of the null hypothesis in case of non-significance. Post hoc comparisons were corrected for multiple testing.ResultsAutistic children presented impaired emotion differentiation while listening to speech uttered by human voices, which was improved when the acoustic volatility and variability of voices were reduced. Divergent neural patterns were observed from neurotypicals to autistics, emphasizing different mechanisms for perception. Accordingly, behavioral measurements on the visual task were consistent with the over-precision ascribed to the environmental variability (sensory processing) that weakened performance. Unlike autistic children, neurotypicals could differentiate emotions induced by all voices.ConclusionsThis study outlines behavioral and neurophysiological mechanisms that underpin responses to sensory variability. Neurobiological insights into the processing of emotional prosodies emphasized the potential of acoustically modified emotional prosodies to improve emotion differentiation by autistics.Trial registrationBioMed Central ISRCTN Registry, ISRCTN18117434. Registered on September 20, 2020.

Acoustic indicators of voice quality in the context of social support

Is social support communicated throught the subtle, yet powerful, acoustic variations in speech? This study attempted to answer this question by testing whether acoustic parameters vary when expressing social support. Participants underwent an experiment in which they watched video testimonials of a woman describing either a neutral subject or a sensitive, emotionally-charged experience. After this, participants provided voice messages to the person appearing in the testimony. Employing the openSMILE toolkit, we extracted from these speech responses the Geneva Minimalistic Acoustic Parameter Set (GeMAPS), a set of emotion-related acoustic features. Our investigation reveals an acoustic profile characteristic of supportive speech, distinguished by changes in the Alpha ratio, spectral slope, and the Hammarberg index — parameters representing the high-frequency content and spectral balance. These acoustic differences not only help to differentiate supportive utterances but also characterize its voice quality, thereby enhancing the emotional richness of this affective stance. Our research findings have potential applications in therapeutic and communication settings and open avenues for further exploration in speech science.

The overview of social security reforms between the 90's and 2000

The present study aims to study the successive and debatable reforms that the Brazilian Social Security system has undergone since its formatting in its current form and constitutionalization, concluding that despite the variety of speeches in favor and against the 2019 Social Security Reform, it is It is possible to observe that all political parties that assumed the Executive Branch of the Federal Government imposed reforms or changes to the social protection system. It will be analyzed whether the social protection system really needs the reforms introduced. To achieve the intended objective, the methodology applied is the theoretical review of Social State theories.

Socioeconomic and geographic variations of disabilities in India: evidence from the National Family Health Survey, 2019–21

BackgroundIncreasing disability is of global and national concern. Lack of evidence on disability across socioeconomic groups and geographic levels (especially small areas) impeded interventions for these disadvantaged subgroups. We aimed to examine the socioeconomic and geographic variations in disabilities, namely hearing, speech, visual, mental, and locomotor, in Indian participants using cross-sectional data from the National Family Health Survey 2019–2021.MethodsUsing data from 27,93,971 individuals, we estimated age-sex-adjusted disability rates at the national and sub-national levels. The extent of socioeconomic variations in disabilities was explored using the Erreygers Concentration Index and presented graphically through a concentration curve. We adopted a four-level random intercept logit model to compute the variance partitioning coefficient (VPC) to assess the significance of each geographical unit in total variability. We also calculated precision-weighted disability estimates of individuals across 707 districts and showed their correlation with within-district or between-cluster standard deviation.ResultsWe estimated the prevalence of any disability of 10 per 1000 population. The locomotor disability was common, followed by mental, speech, hearing, and visual. The concentration index of each type of disability was highest in the poorest wealth quintile households and illiterate 18 + individuals, confirming higher socioeconomic variations in disability rates. Clusters share the largest source of geographic variation for any disability (6.5%), hearing (5.8%), visual (24.3%), and locomotor (17.4%). However, States/Union Territories (UTs) account for the highest variation in speech (3.7%) and mental (6.5%) disabilities, where the variation at the cluster level becomes negligible. Districts with the highest disability rates were clustered in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Punjab. Further, we found positive correlations between the district rates and cluster standard deviations (SDs) for disabilities.ConclusionsThough the growing disability condition in India is itself a concerning issue, wide variations across socioeconomic groups and geographic locations indicate the implementation of several policy-relevant implications focusing on these vulnerable chunks of the population. Further, the critical importance of small-area variations within districts suggests the design of strategies targeting these high-burden areas of disabilities.

Novel Genetic and Phenotypic Expansion in Ameliorated PUF60-Related Disorders.

Heterozygous variants in the Poly(U) Binding Splicing Factor 60kDa gene (PUF60) have been associated with Verheij syndrome, which has the key features of coloboma, short stature, skeletal abnormalities, developmental delay, palatal abnormalities, and congenital heart and kidney defects. Here, we report five novel patients from unrelated families with PUF60-related disorders exhibiting novel genetic and clinical findings with three truncating variants, one splice-site variant with likely reduced protein expression, and one missense variant. Protein modeling of the patient's missense variant in the PUF60 AlphaFold structure revealed a loss of polar bonds to the surrounding residues. Neurodevelopmental disorders were present in all patients, with variability in speech, motor, cognitive, social-emotional and behavioral features. Novel phenotypic expansions included movement disorders as well as immunological findings with recurrent respiratory, urinary and ear infections, atopic diseases, and skin abnormalities. We discuss the role of PUF60 in immunity with and without infection based on recent organismic and cellular studies. As our five patients showed less-severe phenotypes than classical Verheij syndrome, particularly with the absence of key features such as coloboma or palatal abnormalities, we propose a reclassification as PUF60-related neurodevelopmental disorders with multi-system involvement. These findings will aid in the genetic counseling of patients and families.

ETHNOLECTS IS THE STUDY OF ETHNIC DIALECTS

The article deals with the problems of dialect which is a variety of language that is characteristic of a particular group among the language speakers. The groups of people who are the speakers of a dialect are usually bound to each other by social identity. This is what differentiates a dialect from a register or a discourse, where in the latter case, cultural identity does not always play a role. Summing up the results, it can be concluded that dialects are speech varieties that have their own grammatical and phonological rules, linguistic features, and stylistic aspects, but have not been given an official status as a language.

A mobile Deep Sparse Wavelet autoencoder for Arabic acoustic unit modeling and recognition

In this manuscript, we introduce a novel methodology for modeling acoustic units within a mobile architecture, employing a synergistic combination of various motivating techniques, including deep learning, sparse coding, and wavelet networks. The core concept involves constructing a Deep Sparse Wavelet Network (DSWN) through the integration of stacked wavelet autoencoders. The DSWN is designed to classify a specific class and discern it from other classes within a dataset of acoustic units. Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) and perceptual linear predictive (PLP) features are utilized for encoding speech units. This approach is tailored to leverage the computational capabilities of mobile devices by establishing deep networks with minimal connections, thereby immediately reducing computational overhead. The experimental findings demonstrate the efficacy of our system when applied to a segmented corpus of Arabic words. Notwithstanding promising results, we will explore the limitations of our methodology. One limitation concerns the use of a specific dataset of Arabic words. The generalizability of the sparse deep wavelet network (DSWN) to various contexts requires further investigation “We will evaluate the impact of speech variations, such as accents, on the performance of our model, for a nuanced understanding.

A Systematic Literature Review on Acoustic of Speech Variables for Measuring Cognitive Function

A Systematic Literature Review on Acoustic of Speech Variables for Measuring Cognitive Function

Speech Act in a Courtroom: An Analysis of Chris Watts’ Trial

The utterances produced by participants in a trial relates to their role and the trial stage. Therefore, everyone involved in the trial will produce a variety of speech acts. This research aims to describe the types of speech act in Chris Watts’ trial and to describe the functions of the speech act used in the trial. The analysis is based on Searle's theory of speech act (1979). The researchers used descriptive qualitative method to describe the types of speech act and the functions of the speech acts by analyzing each utterance produced by all of the participants in courtroom. The finding shows that there are 176 utterances of speech acts which consist of 79 representatives, 23 directives, 14 commissives, 51 expressive, and 9 declarations. The researchers also found 26 functions of speech act. The dominant speech act in Chris Watts’ trial is representative, because all the participants give statements of fact about the case during the trial. Moreover, the most frequently used function of speech act in Chris Watts’ trial is stating, because, most of the participants' utterance is used to state their belief and thought regarding Chris Watts’ case. In this research, the specific position of the speaker in the courtroom creates specific function of speech act used. The witnesses’ utterance is used to condemn the defendant, the judge’s utterance is used to sentence the defendant, while the prosecutor’s utterance is used to restate the witness’s statement.

Toxic Speech and Limited Demand for Content Moderation on Social Media

When is speech on social media toxic enough to warrant content moderation? Platforms impose limits on what can be posted online, but also rely on users’ reports of potentially harmful content. Yet we know little about what users consider inadmissible to public discourse and what measures they wish to see implemented. Building on past work, we conceptualize three variants of toxic speech: incivility, intolerance, and violent threats. We present results from two studies with pre-registered randomized experiments (Study 1, $ N=\mathrm{5,130} $ ; Study 2, $ N=\mathrm{3,734} $ ) to examine how these variants causally affect users’ content moderation preferences. We find that while both the severity of toxicity and the target of the attack matter, the demand for content moderation of toxic speech is limited. We discuss implications for the study of toxicity and content moderation as an emerging area of research in political science with critical implications for platforms, policymakers, and democracy more broadly.

Analisis Tindak Tutur Ilokusi dalam Video “Merdeka Belajar” pada Kanal Youtube KEMENDIKBUD RI

The research focuses on analyzing one part of a speech act, especially illocutions. The author analyzes how illocutions are used in a certain context in the video "Merdeka Belajar" on the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture's YouTube channel. The research aims to analyze the use of illocutionary speech acts in the video "Merdeka Belajar" on the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture's YouTube channel, with a focus on the illocutionary theory developed by J. L. Austin, which includes five main forms; representative (assertive), commissive, directive, expressive, and declarative. Research was conducted to better understand how messages and communication are conveyed in the context of the video. This research combines methodological and theoretical approaches. From a methodological aspect, the research applies qualitative methods with descriptive analysis. Theoretically, research is related to the field of pragmatics. The type of research used is a pragmatic study that uses qualitative descriptive methods which include examining documents, listening, and taking notes as data collection tools. The technique for collecting data was carried out using SBLC techniques and recording. Apart from that, the research also used the distribution and matching method for data analysis. This research is useful for knowing how to classify speech acts and increasing knowledge in the field of pragmatics, especially in illocutionary speech acts. In the results of data analysis, 41 data were found from various types of illocutionary speech acts. The number of data for each speech act, namely assertive, is 22 data, directive 7 data, declarative 2 data, commissive 1 data, and expressive 9 data. Based on the research results, the variety of speech acts that are often used in speech on the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture's YouTube channel videos are assertive speech acts. The assertive speech acts that appear in the video are statements stating, opinions, showing, reporting, speculating, mentioning, and asserting.

Analisis Tindak Tutur Ekspresif dan Direktif pada Video Edukasi Bertema Sains dalam Kanal YouTube Kok Bisa?

Language is a communication tool used to express an idea or emotion. In linguistics, language is comprehensively explored with the aim of developing understanding and is also used for research. In analyzing the meaning of language, a pragmatic understanding is required. Pragmatics is a linguistic field that examines the interplay between the function and form of speech acts. This research primarily focuses on the analysis of expressive and directive speech acts. Expressive speech acts involve utterances that convey the feelings or thoughts experienced by the speaker. On the other hand, directive speech acts involve utterances intended to encourage or trigger action from the listener. This research aims to obtain, examine, and discuss a variety of speech acts found in educational science-themed videos on the YouTube channel "Kok Bisa?". This research is a qualitative descriptive study using a theoretical approach, namely a pragmatic approach. The data used consists of a number of utterances in the videos. The data collection technique used is observation and note-taking. Data analysis is carried out using distributional and correlational techniques. Data presentation is done formally and informally. The potential value of this study lies in its capacity to offer insights to the author and researchers concerning expressive and directive speech acts found in utterances. The practical benefits of this research will be obtained by those in the field of science, educators, learners, and language researchers as a basis, reference, and teaching material concerning expressive and directive speech acts found within utterances. In the science videos on the "Kok Bisa?" YouTube channel, 26 expressive speech acts and 36 directive speech acts were identified from nine selected videos. This analysis reveals that directive speech acts in the form of questioning dominate these videos, enabling two-way interaction through viewer comments.

ГУБНІ ПРИГОЛОСНІ В МОВЛЕННІ УКРАЇНСЬКИХ АРТИСТІВ (на матеріалах аудіодекламування віршівТараса Шевченка)

The issues of language and speech variability are currently studied within sociolinguistics and socially oriented disciplines such as interlinguistics, sociophonetics, social dialectology, experimental sociolinguistics, and so on. New approaches and the tendency to multidimensional study of speech phenomena deepened the interest in studying sound changes which demonstrate greater potential of speech rather than language as a socio-historical and abstract phenomenon does. The article characterizes the speech of Ukrainian artists who voiced Shevchenko's poems using the auditory analysis of the experimental phonetic method. The selection of informants for the study of the peculiarities of the realization of the labial phonemes of the Ukrainian language was carried out taking into account the sociophonetics methodology. The selected small social group as a source of research on the allophonic variation of labial phonemes is representative from the point of view – regional (all speakers from different regions of Ukraine), age (adults, youth and children) and professional (different specializations of artists – actors, musicians, directors, announcers, etc.) criteria. Oral literary Ukrainian speech of 17 people recorded in an acoustic signal (audio) became the material for studying labial consonants. The article described the course of experimental phonetic research, focusing on the method of studying sound as a phonation unit. The results obtained during the research are summarized. The performed analysis showed that the variability of labial consonants is a consequence not only of the pronunciation norm, at the level of the language system, but also of the speaker's own experience. Therefore, in the future, the study of the variability of phonetic units, including labial consonants, should be continued taking into account psychophysiological, social, and actually linguistic determinants with the involvement of the experimental phonetic method and sociolinguistic methods.