Speech Prosody: The Musical, Magical Quality of Speech

When we speak, we can vary how we use our voices. Our speech can be high or low (pitch), loud or soft (loudness), and fast or slow (duration). This variation in pitch, loudness, and duration is called speech prosody. It is a bit like making music. Varying our voices when we speak can express sarcasm or emotion and can even change the meaning of what we are saying. So, speech prosody is a crucial part of spoken language. But how do speakers produce prosody? How do listeners hear and understand these variations? Is it possible to hear and interpret prosody in other languages? And what about people whose hearing is not so good? Can they hear and understand prosodic patterns at all? Let’s find out!

Relationship between Event Prevalence Rate and Gini Coefficient of Predictive Model

Predictive models are currently used for early intervention to help identify patients with a high risk of adverse events. Assessing the accuracy of such models is a crucial part of the development process. To measure the predictive performance of a scoring model, quantitative indices such as the K-S statistic and C-statistic are used. This paper discusses the relationship between Gini coefficients and event prevalence rates. The main contribution of the paper is the theoretical proof of the relationship between the Gini coefficient and event prevalence rate.

Personality economics: An investigation of how personality develops and how it predicts decisions

<p>This thesis is the product of three research papers, of which each one forms a paper of this thesis. In thefirst paper, I study how people’s personality evolves and whether it is shaped by family dynamics,specifically by the sex of one’s siblings. Researchers developed a good understanding of the importanceof personality for people’s lives but know very little how this personality is shaped. The first paperinvestigates whether growing up with a sister instead of a brother might be a cause of different personalitydevelopment. In the second paper, I study two specific personality traits, locus of control and risktolerance, as predictors of decisions under risk. Although we know risk is a crucial part of our lives, we stillhave not determined how to define and measure risk attitudes properly. The second paper delves deeperinto this topic and shows how risk tolerance and locus of control predict risky decisions in an experimentand in real-world choices and gives some additional insight into the measurement of risk attitudes. In thispaper I also studied other personality traits, which turned out to have no important role with regards todecisions under risk. In the third and last paper, I study property insurance decisions with data collectedin an experiment. I designed and coded the experiment and collected this data partially in a computer laband partially online. This project investigates what behavioral and financial factors influence propertyinsurance decisions, especially the choice to insure with fixed-price long-term contracts.</p>

Personality economics: An investigation of how personality develops and how it predicts decisions

<p>This thesis is the product of three research papers, of which each one forms a paper of this thesis. In thefirst paper, I study how people’s personality evolves and whether it is shaped by family dynamics,specifically by the sex of one’s siblings. Researchers developed a good understanding of the importanceof personality for people’s lives but know very little how this personality is shaped. The first paperinvestigates whether growing up with a sister instead of a brother might be a cause of different personalitydevelopment. In the second paper, I study two specific personality traits, locus of control and risktolerance, as predictors of decisions under risk. Although we know risk is a crucial part of our lives, we stillhave not determined how to define and measure risk attitudes properly. The second paper delves deeperinto this topic and shows how risk tolerance and locus of control predict risky decisions in an experimentand in real-world choices and gives some additional insight into the measurement of risk attitudes. In thispaper I also studied other personality traits, which turned out to have no important role with regards todecisions under risk. In the third and last paper, I study property insurance decisions with data collectedin an experiment. I designed and coded the experiment and collected this data partially in a computer laband partially online. This project investigates what behavioral and financial factors influence propertyinsurance decisions, especially the choice to insure with fixed-price long-term contracts.</p>

The sanctity of goddesses: an insight into the worship of Bà Tổ Cô in Northern Vietnam

In Vietnam, a country where religious expression is widespread, many gods and goddesses are commonly worshipped. Among those, Bà Tổ Cô (Family Goddess) is widely worshipped in the North of Vietnam due to her exceptional background as unmarried, young, and having spiritual roots, unlike other national and heroic figures. This article examines the sanctity of the Family Goddess by decoding the terms, worshippers, beliefs and practices, sacred encounters and supports. The research is a final result of decade-long field trips, archival study, and in-depth interviews with various stakeholders. The research findings show that the veneration of the Family Goddess in Northern Vietnam is a continuity of a long-standing tradition of worshipping female deities in Asia and thus emphasising the need to maintain this unique intangible heritage as a crucial part of Vietnamese cultural diversity.

Emerging Role of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts-Derived Exosomes in Tumorigenesis

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are the most important component of the stromal cell population in the tumor microenvironment and play an irreplaceable role in oncogenesis and cancer progression. Exosomes, a class of small extracellular vesicles, can transfer biological information (e.g., proteins, nucleic acids, and metabolites as messengers) from secreting cells to target recipient cells, thereby affecting the progression of human diseases, including cancers. Recent studies revealed that CAF-derived exosomes play a crucial part in tumorigenesis, tumor cell proliferation, metastasis, drug resistance, and the immune response. Moreover, aberrant expression of CAF-derived exosomal noncoding RNAs and proteins strongly correlates with clinical pathological characterizations of cancer patients. Gaining deeper insight into the participation of CAF-derived exosomes in tumorigenesis may lead to novel diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets in human cancers.

Uncomfortable Territory

This chapter reviews the historical and cultural emergence of the categories of LGBTQ+ identities and seeks to understand why knowing this background matters for the work of designing inclusive policies and welcoming school spaces: focusing on the normative system that produces and polices sexual and gender “deviance” is a crucial part of understanding what we are trying to change. The chapter will also provide an overview of the approaches to gender creative children in order to illustrate why affirming someone's gender entails engaging with the assumptions behind the concept of gender itself. It will argue that expanding the possibilities of gender identification additionally positively impacts not only queer students, but all of us. It provides readers the chance to think about how deeply their own gender runs through their assumptions and to understand what is at stake for this culture when we ask to include LGBTQ+ identities in school curricula and policies.

Pupil Examination in Children

Pupillary evaluation is a crucial part of every pediatric eye exam. It provides information about the structure of the eye as well as the afferent and efferent function of the eyes. It remains a quick and efficient test in the ocular evaluation. This chapter reviews the relevant neuroanatomy and the different components of the pupillary exam. The light-reflex and swinging flashlight tests are reviewed, as well as how a reverse afferent pupillary defect is detected. Clinical examples and pearls are provided to help the reader better understand the different aspects of the exam.

Evaluating Accessibility and Usability of Airline Websites

The website has become a crucial part of digitalization. In recent years, the airline sector has shifted to online platforms in order to expand its client base and provide consumers with timely information and services. Usability and accessibility are essential aspects of web quality that influence consumer acquisition and retention. As a result, the purpose of this study is to assess the quality of Turkish airline websites. The website is assessed based on its accessibility, usability, and readability utilizing online automated techniques. Finally, internet tools are used to assess the mobile-friendliness of websites. According to the findings, none of the Turkish airline websites meet the WCAG 2.0 accessibility criteria and have severe usability problems.

Visual Data Analysis Technology Based on Data Center

Today, people are in an information explosion society, and visualization technology(VT) is an inevitable product of the development of the information society. With the emergence of multimedia products such as computers, networks, and communications, humans are paying more and more attention to data processing. Many countries in the world have already begun research in this area and have achieved remarkable results. VT is a core part of data analysis, also known as information processing and storage technology. It has a very extensive and important application in the field of data management. However, because the key information hidden in the data is often immersed in the massive data, it is necessary to filter the data information efficiently, and the visualization data analysis technology is a crucial part. This article adopts the experimental analysis method, which aims to provide a new method to solve the problems of traditional technology and the challenges that may arise in the future by further understanding the existing visual data analysis technology and development trend. According to the research results, the recognition rate of the optimized color visualization features under different classifiers is higher than that of the original emotional features. It can be seen that visual analysis technology is not limited to data sets with physical meaning, but can also be applied to abstract feature sets such as emotional features.