scholarly journals A comparison of three speaker-intrinsic vowel formant frequency normalization algorithms for sociophonetics

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne H. Fabricius ◽  
Dominic Watt ◽  
Daniel Ezra Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Research Tool ◽  
Test Cases ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Formant Frequency ◽  
Vowel Formant ◽  
Normalization Methods ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Received Pronunciation ◽  
Existing Data ◽  
Better Than

AbstractThis article evaluates a speaker-intrinsic vowel formant frequency normalization algorithm initially proposed in Watt & Fabricius (2002). We compare how well this routine, known as the S-centroid procedure, performs as a sociophonetic research tool in three ways: reducing variance in area ratios of vowel spaces (by attempting to equalize vowel space areas); improving overlap of vowel polygons; and reproducing relative positions of vowel means within the vowel space, compared with formant data in raw Hertz. The study uses existing data sets of vowel formant data from two varieties of English, Received Pronunciation and Aberdeen English (northeast Scotland). We conclude that, for the data examined here, the S-centroid W&F procedure performs at least as well as the two speaker-intrinsic, vowel-extrinsic, formant-intrinsic normalization methods rated as best performing by Adank (2003): Lobanov's (1971) z-score procedure and Nearey's (1978) individual log-mean procedure (CLIHi4 in Adank [2003], CLIHi2 as tested here), and in some test cases better than the latter.

The Effects of Changes in Hearing Status in Cochlear Implant Users on the Acoustic Vowel Space and CV Coarticulation

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 552-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harlan Lane ◽  
Melanie Matthies ◽  
Joseph Perkell ◽  
Jennell Vick ◽  
Majid Zandipour
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Formant Frequency ◽  
Direct Role ◽  
Hearing Status ◽  
Vowel Formant ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
English Vowels ◽  
Deaf Adults ◽  
Second Formant

In order to examine the role of hearing status in controlling coarticulation, eight English vowels in /bVt/ and /dVt/ syllables, embedded in a carrier phrase, were elicited from 7 postlingually deafened adults and 2 speakers with normal hearing. The deaf adults served in repeated recording sessions both before and up to a year after they received cochlear implants and their speech processors were turned on. Each of the two hearing control speakers served in two recording sessions, separated by about 3 months. Measures were made of second formant frequency at obstruent release and at 25 ms intervals until the final obstruent. An index of coarticulation, based on the ratio of F2 at vowel onset to F2 at midvowel target, was computed. Changes in the amount of coarticulation after the change in hearing status were small and nonsystematic for the /bVt/ syllables; those for the /dVt/ syllables averaged a 3% increase—within the range of reliability measures for the 2 hearing control speakers. Locus equations (F2 at vowel onset vs. F2 at vowel midpoint) and ratios of F2 onsets in point vowels were also calculated. Like the index of coarticulation, these measures tended to confirm that hearing status had little if any effect on coarticulation in the deaf speakers, consistent with the hypothesis that hearing does not play a direct role in regulating anticipatory coarticulation in adulthood. With the restoration of some hearing, 2 implant users significantly increased the average spacing between vowels in the formant plane, whereas the remaining 5 decreased that measure. All speakers but one also reduced vowel duration significantly. Four of the speakers reduced dispersion of vowel formant values around vowel midpoint means, but the other 3 did not show this effect.

scholarly journals Perceptual validation of vowel normalization methods for variationist research

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Santiago Barreda
Keyword(s):  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Vowel Formant ◽  
Normalization Methods ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Vowel Normalization ◽  
Uniform Scaling ◽  
Do So

AbstractThe evaluation of normalization methods sometimes focuses on the maximization of vowel-space similarity. This focus can lead to the adoption of methods that erase legitimate phonetic variation from our data, that is, overnormalization. First, a production corpus is presented that highlights three types of variation in formant patterns: uniform scaling, nonuniform scaling, and centralization. Then the results of two perceptual experiments are presented, both suggesting that listeners tend to ignore variation according to uniform scaling, while associating nonuniform scaling and centralization with phonetic differences. Overall, results suggest that normalization methods that remove variation not according to uniform scaling can remove legitimate phonetic variation from vowel formant data. As a result, although these methods can provide more similar vowel spaces, they do so by erasing phonetic variation from vowel data that may be socially and linguistically meaningful, including a potential male-female difference in the low vowels in our corpus.

Monophthongal vowel changes in Received Pronunciation: an acoustic analysis of the Queen's Christmas broadcasts

2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 63-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Harrington ◽  
Sallyanne Palethorpe ◽  
Catherine Watson
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Formant Frequency ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Second Formant ◽  
High Vowels ◽  
Received Pronunciation ◽  
Over Time

In this paper we analyse the extent to which an adult's vowel space is affected by vowel changes to the community using a database of nine Christmas broadcasts made by Queen Elizabeth II spanning three time periods (the 1950's; the late 1960's/early 70's; the 1980's). An analysis of the monophthongal formant space showed that the first formant frequency was generally higher for open vowels, and lower for mid-high vowels in the 1960's and 1980's data than in the 1950's data, which we interpret as an expansion of phonetic height from earlier to later years. The second formant frequency showed a more modest compression in later, compared with earlier years: in general, front vowels had a decreased F2 in later years, while F2 of the back vowels was unchanged except for [u] which had a higher F2 in the 1960's and 1980's data. We also show that the majority of these Fl and F2 changes were in the direction of the vowel positions of 1980's Standard Southern British speakers reported in Deterding (1997). Our general conclusion is that there is evidence of accent change within the same individual over time and that the Queen's vowels in the Christmas broadcasts have shifted in the direction of a more mainstream form of Received Pronunciation.

scholarly journals A Longitudinal Study of Very Young Children's Vowel Production

2014 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca W. McGowan ◽  
Richard S. McGowan ◽  
Margaret Denny ◽  
Susan Nittrouer
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
Formant Frequency ◽  
Formant Frequencies ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Speech Data ◽  
Regional Dialect ◽  
Acoustic Analyses ◽  
English Dialect ◽  
Existing Data

Purpose Ecologically realistic, spontaneous, adult-directed, longitudinal speech data of young children were described by acoustic analyses. Method The first 2 formant frequencies of vowels produced by 6 children from different American English dialect regions were analyzed from ages 18 to 48 months. The vowels were from largely conversational contexts and were classified according to dictionary pronunciation. Results Within-subject formant frequency variability remained relatively constant for the span of ages studied. It was often difficult to detect overall decreases in the first 2 formant frequencies between ages 30 and 48 months. A study of the movement of the corner vowels with respect to the vowel centroid showed that the shape of the vowel space remained qualitatively constant from 30 through 48 months. Conclusions The shape of the vowel space is established early in life. Some aspects of regional dialect were observed in some of the subjects at 42 months of age. The present study adds to the existing data on the development of vowel spaces by describing ecologically realistic speech.

scholarly journals mtDNAcombine: tools to combine sequences from multiple studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor F. Miller ◽  
Andrea Manica
Keyword(s):  
Sequence Data ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Bayesian Skyline Plot ◽  
Model Organisms ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Data Handling ◽  
Online Database ◽  
Genetic Studies ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Existing Data

Abstract Background Today an unprecedented amount of genetic sequence data is stored in publicly available repositories. For decades now, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been the workhorse of genetic studies, and as a result, there is a large volume of mtDNA data available in these repositories for a wide range of species. Indeed, whilst whole genome sequencing is an exciting prospect for the future, for most non-model organisms’ classical markers such as mtDNA remain widely used. By compiling existing data from multiple original studies, it is possible to build powerful new datasets capable of exploring many questions in ecology, evolution and conservation biology. One key question that these data can help inform is what happened in a species’ demographic past. However, compiling data in this manner is not trivial, there are many complexities associated with data extraction, data quality and data handling. Results Here we present the mtDNAcombine package, a collection of tools developed to manage some of the major decisions associated with handling multi-study sequence data with a particular focus on preparing sequence data for Bayesian skyline plot demographic reconstructions. Conclusions There is now more genetic information available than ever before and large meta-data sets offer great opportunities to explore new and exciting avenues of research. However, compiling multi-study datasets still remains a technically challenging prospect. The mtDNAcombine package provides a pipeline to streamline the process of downloading, curating, and analysing sequence data, guiding the process of compiling data sets from the online database GenBank.

scholarly journals A Novel LSTM Model with Interaction Dual Attention for Radar Echo Extrapolation

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 164
Author(s):  
Chuyao Luo ◽  
Xutao Li ◽  
Yongliang Wen ◽  
Yunming Ye ◽  
Xiaofeng Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Weather Forecast ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Learning Techniques ◽  
Radar Echo ◽  
Hidden States ◽  
Better Than

The task of precipitation nowcasting is significant in the operational weather forecast. The radar echo map extrapolation plays a vital role in this task. Recently, deep learning techniques such as Convolutional Recurrent Neural Network (ConvRNN) models have been designed to solve the task. These models, albeit performing much better than conventional optical flow based approaches, suffer from a common problem of underestimating the high echo value parts. The drawback is fatal to precipitation nowcasting, as the parts often lead to heavy rains that may cause natural disasters. In this paper, we propose a novel interaction dual attention long short-term memory (IDA-LSTM) model to address the drawback. In the method, an interaction framework is developed for the ConvRNN unit to fully exploit the short-term context information by constructing a serial of coupled convolutions on the input and hidden states. Moreover, a dual attention mechanism on channels and positions is developed to recall the forgotten information in the long term. Comprehensive experiments have been conducted on CIKM AnalytiCup 2017 data sets, and the results show the effectiveness of the IDA-LSTM in addressing the underestimation drawback. The extrapolation performance of IDA-LSTM is superior to that of the state-of-the-art methods.

Dehydration of seabird prey during transport to the colony: effects on wet weight energy densities

1987 ◽  
Vol 65 (11) ◽  
pp. 2822-2824 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Montevecchi ◽  
J. F. Piatt
Keyword(s):  
Water Content ◽  
Dry Weight ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Fresh Weight ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Wet Weight ◽  
Cautious Interpretation ◽  
Existing Data

We present evidence to indicate that dehydration of prey transported by seabirds from capture sites at sea to chicks at colonies inflates estimates of wet weight energy densities. These findings and a comparison of wet and dry weight energy densities reported in the literature emphasize the importance of (i) accurate measurement of the fresh weight and water content of prey, (ii) use of dry weight energy densities in comparisons among species, seasons, and regions, and (iii) cautious interpretation and extrapolation of existing data sets.

scholarly journals Meta-Analysis Combining New and Existing Data Sets Confirms that the TERT–CLPTM1L Locus Influences Melanoma Risk

2012 ◽  
Vol 132 (2) ◽  
pp. 485-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew H. Law ◽  
Grant W. Montgomery ◽  
Kevin M. Brown ◽  
Nicholas G. Martin ◽  
Graham J. Mann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Melanoma Risk ◽  
Existing Data

scholarly journals PRIORITIZATION OF COMBINATORIAL TEST CASES BY INCREMENTAL INTERACTION COVERAGE

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 1427-1457 ◽  
Author(s):  
RUBING HUANG ◽  
XIAODONG XIE ◽  
DAVE TOWEY ◽  
TSONG YUEH CHEN ◽  
YANSHENG LU ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Test Case ◽  
Test Cases ◽  
New Strategy ◽  
Testing Cost ◽  
Test Prioritization ◽  
Interaction Testing ◽  
Parameter Interactions ◽  
Combinatorial Interaction Testing ◽  
Alternative Assumption ◽  
Better Than

Combinatorial interaction testing is a well-recognized testing method, and has been widely applied in practice, often with the assumption that all test cases in a combinatorial test suite have the same fault detection capability. However, when testing resources are limited, an alternative assumption may be that some test cases are more likely to reveal failure, thus making the order of executing the test cases critical. To improve testing cost-effectiveness, prioritization of combinatorial test cases is employed. The most popular approach is based on interaction coverage, which prioritizes combinatorial test cases by repeatedly choosing an unexecuted test case that covers the largest number of uncovered parameter value combinations of a given strength (level of interaction among parameters). However, this approach suffers from some drawbacks. Based on previous observations that the majority of faults in practical systems can usually be triggered with parameter interactions of small strengths, we propose a new strategy of prioritizing combinatorial test cases by incrementally adjusting the strength values. Experimental results show that our method performs better than the random prioritization technique and the technique of prioritizing combinatorial test suites according to test case generation order, and has better performance than the interaction-coverage-based test prioritization technique in most cases.

Effects of Long-Term Tracheostomy on Spectral Characteristics of Vowel Production

1991 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 1057-1065 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Saletsky Kamen ◽  
Ben C. Watson
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Tract ◽  
Spectral Characteristics ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
Formant Frequency ◽  
Motor Patterns ◽  
Spectral Parameters ◽  
Oral Motor ◽  
Vowel Space

This study investigated the effects of long-term tracheostomy on the development of speech. Eight children who underwent tracheotomy during the prelingual period were compared to matched controls on selected spectral parameters of the speech acoustic signal and standard measures of oral-motor, phonologic, and articulatory proficiency. Analysis of formant frequency values revealed significant between-group differences. Children with histories of long-term tracheostomy showed reduced acoustic vowel space, as defined by group formant frequency values. This suggests that these children were limited in their ability to produce extreme vocal tract configurations for vowels /a,i,u/ postdecannulation. Oral motor patterns were less mature, and sound substitutions were not only more variable for this group, but also reflected a persistent overlay of maladaptive compensations developed during cannulation.

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