scholarly journals Rhythm Comes, Rhythm Goes: Short-Term Periodicity of Prosodic Phrasing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina Stehwien ◽  
Lars Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Prosodic Phrasing ◽  
Speech Prosody ◽  
Neurobiological Substrates ◽  
Closing The Gaps ◽  
Prosodic Boundaries ◽  
Radio News

Speech is perceived as a sequence of meaningful units. Speech prosody helps to delimit these units through pauses and acoustic modulations of pitch, amplitude and speech rate. These prosodic boundaries subdivide utterances into prosodic phrases. To be understood, prosodic phrases must obey cognitive and neurobiological constraints on the side of the listener. In particular, the neurobiological substrates of speech processing have been argued to operate periodically—with one electrophysiological processing cycle being devoted to the processing of one segment of the speech stream. We hypothesized that when processing is periodic, prosodic phrases should show periodicity as well. We investigated the periodicity of prosodic phrases in a corpus of radio news that has been manually annotated for full intonational and intermediate phrases by human experts. We find that sequences of 2 to 5 intermediate phrases are periodic at 0.8 to 1.6 Hertz within their superordinate intonation phrase. Across utterances, the exact duration of intermediate phrases fluctuates with the duration of superordinate intonation phrases, pointing to a dependence of prosodic time scales. Our findings provide evidence of short-term periodicity of prosodic phrasing within a highly specific range. While the determinants of periodicity are unknown, the results are compatible with an association between elec- trophysiological processing time scales and the phonological rhythms of language as such. This is a further step towards closing the gaps between the neurobiology of language, psycholinguistics, and linguistic description.

scholarly journals Reading Fluency in Children and Adolescents Who Stutter

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1595
Author(s):  
Mona Franke ◽  
Philip Hoole ◽  
Ramona Schreier ◽  
Simone Falk
Keyword(s):  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Matched Control ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Articulation Rate ◽  
Prosodic Phrasing ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Prosodic Boundaries ◽  
Decoding Ability

Speech fluency is a major challenge for young persons who stutter. Reading aloud, in particular, puts high demands on fluency, not only regarding online text decoding and articulation, but also in terms of prosodic performance. A written text has to be segmented into a number of prosodic phrases with appropriate breaks. The present study examines to what extent reading fluency (decoding ability, articulation rate, and prosodic phrasing) may be altered in children (9–12 years) and adolescents (13–17 years) who stutter compared to matched control participants. Read speech of 52 children and adolescents who do and do not stutter was analyzed. Children and adolescents who stutter did not differ from their matched control groups regarding reading accuracy and articulation rate. However, children who stutter produced shorter pauses than their matched peers. Results on prosodic phrasing showed that children who stutter produced more major phrases than the control group and more intermediate phrases than adolescents who stutter. Participants who stutter also displayed a higher number of breath pauses. Generally, the number of disfluencies during reading was related to slower articulation rates and more prosodic boundaries. Furthermore, we found age-related changes in general measures of reading fluency (decoding ability and articulation rate), as well as the overall strength of prosodic boundaries and number of breath pauses. This study provides evidence for developmental stages in prosodic phrasing as well as for alterations in reading fluency in children who stutter.

scholarly journals How Predictable Are the Arctic and North Atlantic Oscillations? Exploring the Variability and Predictability of the Northern Hemisphere

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 997-1014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela I. V. Domeisen ◽  
Gualtiero Badin ◽  
Inga M. Koszalka
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Prediction Models ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Ensemble Prediction ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic Oscillation

ABSTRACT The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Arctic Oscillation (AO) describe the dominant part of the variability in the Northern Hemisphere extratropical troposphere. Because of the strong connection of these patterns with surface climate, recent years have shown an increased interest and an increasing skill in forecasting them. However, it is unclear what the intrinsic limits of short-term predictability for the NAO and AO patterns are. This study compares the variability and predictability of both patterns, using a range of data and index computation methods for the daily NAO and AO indices. Small deviations from Gaussianity are found along with characteristic decorrelation time scales of around one week. In the analysis of the Lyapunov spectrum it is found that predictability is not significantly different between the AO and NAO or between reanalysis products. Differences exist, however, between the indices based on EOF analysis, which exhibit predictability time scales around 12–16 days, and the station-based indices, exhibiting a longer predictability of 18–20 days. Both of these time scales indicate predictability beyond that currently obtained in ensemble prediction models for short-term predictability. Additional longer-term predictability for these patterns may be gained through local feedbacks and remote forcing mechanisms for particular atmospheric conditions.

scholarly journals Short-Term Variations of LBV’s

1999 ◽  
Vol 169 ◽  
pp. 251-254
Author(s):  
Otmar Stahl
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Star Group ◽  
Different Time Scales

LBV’s are variable on many different time scales from weeks to years or even decades. The typical LBV variations on timescales of years or longer are covered in the paper by Humphreys (this volume). Here I discuss variations of LBV’s on timescales from weeks to years.Most classes of stars are little studied on these timescales. This also holds true for LBV’s. Therefore the hot star group of the Landessternwarte Heidelberg Started a monitoring program of a few bright LBV’s (and other objects) using the 70cm-telescopes at the Landessternwarte and later the ESO 50cm-telescope at La Silla. For more details about the project see the paper by Kaufer (this volume).

scholarly journals Good vibrations: A review of vocal expressions of positive emotions

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roza G. Kamiloğlu ◽  
Agneta H. Fischer ◽  
Disa A. Sauter
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotion ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Acoustic Features ◽  
Speech Prosody ◽  
Nonverbal Vocalizations ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Vocal Expressions

AbstractResearchers examining nonverbal communication of emotions are becoming increasingly interested in differentiations between different positive emotional states like interest, relief, and pride. But despite the importance of the voice in communicating emotion in general and positive emotion in particular, there is to date no systematic review of what characterizes vocal expressions of different positive emotions. Furthermore, integration and synthesis of current findings are lacking. In this review, we comprehensively review studies (N = 108) investigating acoustic features relating to specific positive emotions in speech prosody and nonverbal vocalizations. We find that happy voices are generally loud with considerable variability in loudness, have high and variable pitch, and are high in the first two formant frequencies. When specific positive emotions are directly compared with each other, pitch mean, loudness mean, and speech rate differ across positive emotions, with patterns mapping onto clusters of emotions, so-called emotion families. For instance, pitch is higher for epistemological emotions (amusement, interest, relief), moderate for savouring emotions (contentment and pleasure), and lower for a prosocial emotion (admiration). Some, but not all, of the differences in acoustic patterns also map on to differences in arousal levels. We end by pointing to limitations in extant work and making concrete proposals for future research on positive emotions in the voice.

scholarly journals Verbal Short-Term Memory and Motor Speech Processes in Broca’s Aphasia

1995 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Goerlich ◽  
I. Daum ◽  
I. Hertrich ◽  
H. Ackermann
Keyword(s):  
Word Length ◽  
Articulatory Suppression ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Phonological Similarity ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Motor Speech ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Control Subjects ◽  
Broca’S Aphasia

The present study investigated the relationship between verbal short-term memory and motor speech processes in healthy control subjects and five patients suffering from Broca's aphasia. Control subjects showed a phonological similarity effect, a word length effect and an articulatory suppression effect, supporting the hypothesis of a phonological store and an articulatory loop component of short-term memory. A similar effect of phonological similarity was observed in the aphasic patients, while the effects of word length and articulatory suppression were reduced. In control subjects, measures of short-term memory were correlated to measures of motor speech rate only if speech rate was assessed in more complex conditions (such as sentence rather than syllable repetition). There was also evidence of an association of speech impairment and short-term memory deficits in the aphasic patients.

scholarly journals Photometric studies of Be star variability

1994 ◽  
Vol 162 ◽  
pp. 299-300
Author(s):  
John R. Percy
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
Balmer Line ◽  
Radial Pulsation ◽  
Be Stars ◽  
Photometric Study ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Hot Stars ◽  
Be Star ◽  
Short Term Variability

Be stars are hot stars which have shown emission in at least one Balmer line on at least one occasion. As the definition implies, the Be phenomenon can be variable with time: on time scales of days to decades as the circumstellar disc develops and disperses; on time scales of days to months in a few Be stars which are interacting binaries; on time scales of 0.2 to 2 days due to non-radial pulsation or possibly rotation. The Be stars are worthy of photometric study because they are bright and numerous; the nature of the short-term variability is not yet agreed upon; the cause of the development of the disc - and its relationship to the short-term variability - is also not yet known.

scholarly journals Short-Term and Long-Term Surface Soil Moisture Memory Time Scales Are Spatially Anticorrelated at Global Scales

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 1165-1182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaighin A. McColl ◽  
Qing He ◽  
Hui Lu ◽  
Dara Entekhabi
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Satellite Observations ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Memory Time

Abstract Land–atmosphere feedbacks occurring on daily to weekly time scales can magnify the intensity and duration of extreme weather events, such as droughts, heat waves, and convective storms. For such feedbacks to occur, the coupled land–atmosphere system must exhibit sufficient memory of soil moisture anomalies associated with the extreme event. The soil moisture autocorrelation e-folding time scale has been used previously to estimate soil moisture memory. However, the theoretical basis for this metric (i.e., that the land water budget is reasonably approximated by a red noise process) does not apply at finer spatial and temporal resolutions relevant to modern satellite observations and models. In this study, two memory time scale metrics are introduced that are relevant to modern satellite observations and models: the “long-term memory” τL and the “short-term memory” τS. Short- and long-term surface soil moisture (SSM) memory time scales are spatially anticorrelated at global scales in both a model and satellite observations, suggesting hot spots of land–atmosphere coupling will be located in different regions, depending on the time scale of the feedback. Furthermore, the spatial anticorrelation between τS and τL demonstrates the importance of characterizing these memory time scales separately, rather than mixing them as in previous studies.

scholarly journals Short-Term Spatio-Temporal Drought Forecasting Using Random Forests Model at New South Wales, Australia

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhirup Dikshit ◽  
Biswajeet Pradhan ◽  
Abdullah M. Alamri
Keyword(s):  
Random Forest ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Drought Forecasting ◽  
Short Term ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Drought Classes ◽  
Statistical Metrics

Droughts can cause significant damage to agriculture and water resources, leading to severe economic losses and loss of life. One of the most important aspect is to develop effective tools to forecast drought events that could be helpful in mitigation strategies. The understanding of droughts has become more challenging because of the effect of climate change, urbanization and water management; therefore, the present study aims to forecast droughts by determining an appropriate index and analyzing its changes, using climate variables. The work was conducted in three different phases, first being the determination of Standard Precipitation Evaporation Index (SPEI), using global climatic dataset of Climate Research Unit (CRU) from 1901–2018. The indices are calculated at different monthly intervals which could depict short-term or long-term changes, and the index value represents different drought classes, ranging from extremely dry to extremely wet. However, the present study was focused only on forecasting at short-term scales for New South Wales (NSW) region of Australia and was conducted at two different time scales, one month and three months. The second phase involved dividing the data into three sample sizes, training (1901–2010), testing (2011–2015) and validation (2016–2018). Finally, a machine learning approach, Random Forest (RF), was used to train and test the data, using various climatic variables, e.g., rainfall, potential evapotranspiration, cloud cover, vapor pressure and temperature (maximum, minimum and mean). The final phase was to analyze the performance of the model based on statistical metrics and drought classes. Regarding this, the performance of the testing period was conducted by using statistical metrics, Coefficient of Determination (R2) and Root-Mean-Square-Error (RMSE) method. The performance of the model showed a considerably higher value of R2 for both the time scales. However, statistical metrics analyzes the variation between the predicted and observed index values, and it does not consider the drought classes. Therefore, the variation in predicted and observed SPEI values were analyzed based on different drought classes, which were validated by using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC)-based Area under the Curve (AUC) approach. The results reveal that the classification of drought classes during the validation period had an AUC of 0.82 for SPEI 1 case and 0.84 for SPEI 3 case. The study depicts that the Random Forest model can perform both regression and classification analysis for drought studies in NSW. The work also suggests that the performance of any model for drought forecasting should not be limited only through statistical metrics, but also by examining the variation in terms of drought characteristics.

scholarly journals Short-Term Radio-X-Ray Correlations of Cygnus X-1

2004 ◽  
Vol 194 ◽  
pp. 202-202
Author(s):  
T. Gleissner ◽  
J. Wihns ◽  
G. G. Pooley ◽  
M. A. Nowak ◽  
K. Pottschmidt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Noise ◽  
Correlation Coefficient ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Cross Correlation ◽  
Short Term ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Noise Statistics ◽  
Short Time

We analyze simultaneous radio-X-ray data of Cygnus X-l from the Ryle telescope (RT) and RXTE over more than 4 a. We show that apparent correlations on short time scales in the lightcurves of Cyg X-l are probably the coincidental outcome of white noise statistics.As a measure of correlation between radio and X-ray emission, we calculate the maximum cross-correlation coefficient, ccf, of simultaneous radio and X-ray lightcurves, which are rebinned to a resolution of 32 s and smoothed. Every single X-ray lightcurve segment is cross-correlated with the corresponding radio lightcurve, up to a maximum shift Δt = ±10 h.

Precursory Phenomena Possibly Related to the 2011M9.0 Off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiyasu Nagao ◽  
◽  
Yoshiaki Orihara ◽  
Masashi Kamogawa ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
Pacific Coast ◽  
Tohoku Earthquake ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Precursory Phenomena

In this article, we review papers on precursors for the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake. We discuss phenomena such as seismic, geodetic, electromagnetic, ionospheric, and macroscopic anomalies for which time scales range from a few decades to a few hours, from long-, mid- to short-term precursors. Of these, we treat ionospheric anomalies in the greatest detail. Through our review, we found that many “signals” preceded the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake.

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