Phono-articulatory variations of women in reproductive age and postmenopausal

Human verbal expression requires coordinated interaction among cortical, neuromuscular, and peripheral events. It is affected by hormonal factors and shows different characteristics in reproductive age and postmenopausal women. The present study compared phono-articulatory characteristics between women in reproductive age postmenopausal. Acoustic variations in fundamental frequency, voice sustenance, formants, vocal intensity, and verbal diadochokinesis were measured. Forty-five women in reproductive age with regular menstrual cycles and taking no hormonal contraceptives and 45 postmenopausal women receiving no hormonal replacement therapy for at least 3 years were interviewed, and their verbal productions were tape-recorded. Acoustic analyses were performed using the Kay Elemetrics Motor Speech Profile (Lincoln Park, NJ). Student t test was employed to compare data between the two groups when they presented normal distribution and Mann-Whitney test when they were asymmetrical. Results showed a greater variability in vocal sustenance, less variation in formants, and verbal diadochokinesis in postmenopausal women. There were no significant variations in fundamental frequency and vocal intensity. These results emphasize the need of a multidisciplinary integrated research, when assessing phono-articulatory processes after the menopause. A better understanding in this field will make it possible to elaborate strategies to offer a better life quality for postmenopausal women.     

Influence of body position on breathing and its implications for the evaluation and treatment of speech and voice disorders

This paper examines how breathing differs in the upright and supine body positions. Passive and active forces and associated chest wall motions are described for resting tidal breathing and speech breathing performed in the two positions. Clinical implications are offered regarding evaluation and treatment of breathing behavior in clients with speech and voice disorders.     

The singing/acting child: a speech-languagepathologist''s perspective

Performance-oriented children who encounter voice problems benefit from a team approach to intervention. Developmental and psychosocial issues in addition to the acquisition of information and vocal skills must be addressed. This article presents information from a speech-language pathologist's perspective and includes some examples of clinical approaches and strategies. The importance of building motivation to change vocal habits and the need for the child to develop insight and self-evaluation strategies is emphasized.     

Speech acts, commitment and multi-agent communication

The principle aim of this paper is to reconsider the suitability of Austin and Searle’s Speech Act theory as a basis for agent communication languages. Two distinct computational interpretations of speech acts are considered: the standard “mentalistic” approach associated with the work of Cohen and Levesque which involves attributing beliefs and intentions to artificial agents, and the “social semantics” approach originating (in the context of MAS) with Singh which aims to model commitments that agents undertake as a consequence of communicative actions. Modifications and extensions are proposed to current commitment-based analyses, drawing on recent philosophical studies by Brandom, Habermas and Heath. A case is made for adopting Brandom’s framework of normative pragmatics, modelling dialogue states as deontic scoreboards which keep track of commitments and entitlements that speakers acknowledge and hearers attribute to other interlocutors. The paper concludes by outlining an update semantics and protocol for selected locutions. Rodger Kibble is a Lecturer in the Department of Computing, Goldsmiths College, University of London. He has worked as a researcher at the Information Technology Research Institute, University of Brighton, and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He received his PhD from the Centre for Cognitive Science in the University of Edinburgh in 1997. He has published conference papers and journal articles in the formal semantics of natural language, natural language generation, anaphora resolution, dialogue modelling, argumentation and multi-agent communication; and coedited Information Sharing: Reference and Presupposition in Language Generation and Interpretation (CSLI, 2002).     

无机物对淀粉塑料力学性能影响的研究进展

淀粉以其来源广、成本低、可完全降解的特点已成为制备生物可降解塑料的重要来源。近年来,淀粉塑料的研究和应用发展迅速,其核心是不断提高其各项使用性能(如力学、耐水性能等)。当前,无机或矿物填料被广泛应用于复合材料中来提高材料的性能,本文主要根据无机物的种类不同,综述了典型的氧化物、氢氧化物,以及碳酸盐、硅酸盐、磷酸盐等盐类对淀粉塑料力学性能的影响,归纳了近期的研究成果,分析了该领域研究的热点和难点,并对今后的发展趋势提出了展望。     

Edge detector tolerant to object defocusing

Different methods for edge extraction have been studied in the past years. In a recent paper we have presented a rotation-invariant edge extractor based on a spiral phase filter placed in the frequency plane of a convergent correlator. In this architecture, the axial position of the output plane strongly depends on the axial position of the object. This condition limits the processing of three dimensional objects, because only a narrow axial region of the object would be correctly imaged to the output. The other axial regions of the target yield defocused results. Likewise, a rather small axial misalignment of planar scenes could produce completely inaccurate correlations. Besides, annular pupils have been widely used to regulate the depth of focus (DOF) and the transversal resolution of optical systems. In this paper we present a novel filter that combines the advantages of a spiral phase-based edge extractor and those of an axial-apodizing annular pupil. This design allows edge extraction of objects in a widened axial range. Numerical simulations and experimental results that demonstrate edge extraction with improved tolerance to defocusing are presented.     

注意力机制融合前端网络中间层的语声情感识别

为了使机器能够更好地理解人的情感并改善人机交互体验,可对语声特征及分类网络进行融合以提升情感识别性能。本文从网络融合的角度,把基于梅尔倒谱系数和逆梅尔倒谱系数的二维卷积神经网络和基于散射卷积网络系数的长短期记忆网络作为前端网络,提取前端网络的中间层作为话语级的特征表示,利用压缩-激励(SE)通道注意力机制对前端网络的中间层的权重进行调整并融合,然后由深度神经网络后端分类器输出情感分类结果。在汉语情感数据集中进行五折交叉验证的对比实验,实验结果表明,基于SE通道注意力机制的网络融合方式可以有效地利用不同前端网络在语声情感识别任务中的优势,提高语声情感识别的准确率。     

Chinese speech intelligibility at different speech sound pressure levels and signal-to-noise ratios in simulated classrooms

The speech intelligibility in classroom can be influenced by background-noise levels, speech sound pressure level (SSPL), reverberation time and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The relationship between SSPL and subjective Chinese Mandarin speech intelligibility and the effect of different SNRs on Chinese Mandarin speech intelligibility in the simulated classroom were investigated through room acoustical simulation, auralisation technique and subjective evaluation. Chinese speech intelligibility test signals recorded in anechoic chamber were convolved with the simulated binaural room impulse responses, and then reproduced through the headphone by different SSPLs and SNRs. The results show that Chinese Mandarin speech intelligibility scores increase with increasing of SSPLs and SNRs within a certain range in simulated classrooms. Chinese Mandarin speech intelligibility scores have no significant difference with SNRs of no less than 15 dBA under the same reverberation time condition.