NPLDA: A Deep Neural PLDA Model for Speaker Verification

The state-of-art approach for speaker verification consists of a neural network based embedding extractor along with a backend generative model such as the Probabilistic Linear Discriminant Analysis (PLDA). In this work, we propose a neural network approach for backend modeling in speaker recognition. The likelihood ratio score of the generative PLDA model is posed as a discriminative similarity function and the learnable parameters of the score function are optimized using a verification cost. The proposed model, termed as neural PLDA (NPLDA), is initialized using the generative PLDA model parameters. The loss function for the NPLDA model is an approximation of the minimum detection cost function (DCF). The speaker recognition experiments using the NPLDA model are performed on the speaker verificiation task in the VOiCES datasets as well as the SITW challenge dataset. In these experiments, the NPLDA model optimized using the proposed loss function improves significantly over the state-of-art PLDA based speaker verification system.Comment: Published in Odyssey 2020, the Speaker and Language Recognition Workshop (VOiCES Special Session). Link to GitHub Implementation: https://github.com/iiscleap/NeuralPlda. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2001.0703

Scaffolding in Narrative Learning: Appraisal Analysis in Teachers' Talk

Engagement is one of appraisal dimensions introduced by Martin and White (2005) that is used to analyze the stances which a teacher takes, both in relation to the students and the visual-verbal components in texts and the way of the teacher align or dis-align the students. This paper explores the interaction between a teacher and thirty-two junior high school students in learning narrative texts. The focus of this study is on the stages of scaffolding to help the students to cope with narrative texts. This study employs classroom discourse analysis particularly appraisal analysis on engagement elements in teacher's talk. The findings of this study depict that in teaching the students, the teacher uses different kinds of engagement systems of heterogloss (contract and expand) to take particular stance to mediate the students with teaching materials. The heterogloss is also used to guide the students in exploring the learning materials. Practically, the result of the study is beneficial for the EFL teachers as a reference in teaching narrative texts

The Space They Take: Evaluating Historically White Fraternities through Critical Race Theory

Fraternities and sororities are not often thought of as the starting points for social justice education, especially not historically White fraternities and sororities. In this paper, I outline the missions and values of a select group of historically White fraternities to better understand the foundation from which they are starting their organization. I give an overview of Critical Race Theory (CRT) that gives context for how critical race theory can work in higher education. I conclude with recommendations for reworking historically White fraternities with a CRT lens; recommendations are written for national organizations and students, and then for professional staff working with fraternities and sororities, especially historically White fraternities

Ensemble decision systems for general video game playing

Ensemble Decision Systems offer a unique form of decision making that allows a collection of algorithms to reason together about a problem. Each individual algorithm has its own inherent strengths and weaknesses, and often it is difficult to overcome the weaknesses while retaining the strengths. Instead of altering the properties of the algorithm, the Ensemble Decision System augments the performance with other algorithms that have complementing strengths. This work outlines different options for building an Ensemble Decision System as well as providing analysis on its performance compared to the individual components of the system with interesting results, showing an increase in the generality of the algorithms without significantly impeding performance.Comment: 8 Pages, Accepted at COG201

Guide to using Evidence in Higher Education

This Guide to Using Evidence has been designed to, to support and encourage students and students’ association and union staff to actively engage with data and evidence. It offers an accessible introduction to a range of key ideas and concepts and a range of activities which allow readers to develop their own thinking and confidence in key areas. The ambition of its authors, QAA Scotland and the students who reviewed early drafts, is that students and students’ association and union staff will reach for this resource as they prepare for committees, devise new campaigns, deliver services, and do all of the other things they do to enhance students’ experiences and outcomes. Underpinning all of this is a belief that students themselves, the institutions they are working with, and the sector as a whole, are better served when students are, and are seen to be, agents in the ‘data landscape’, not just subjects of it. Engaging with this Guide will help students and students’ association and union staff to develop that sense of agency in themselves and foster it in others. This Guide is a product of a student-led project coordinated by QAA Scotland as part of the Evidence for Enhancement Theme (2017-20)

Museums as disseminators of niche knowledge: Universality in accessibility for all

Accessibility has faced several challenges within audiovisual translation Studies and gained great opportunities for its establishment as a methodologically and theoretically well-founded discipline. Initially conceived as a set of services and practices that provides access to audiovisual media content for persons with sensory impairment, today accessibility can be viewed as a concept involving more and more universality thanks to its contribution to the dissemination of audiovisual products on the topic of marginalisation. Against this theoretical backdrop, accessibility is scrutinised from the perspective of aesthetics of migration and minorities within the field of the visual arts in museum settings. These aesthetic narrative forms act as modalities that encourage the diffusion of ‘niche’ knowledge, where processes of translation and interpretation provide access to all knowledge as counter discourse. Within this framework, the ways in which language is used can be considered the beginning of a type of local grammar in English as lingua franca for interlingual translation and subtitling, both of which ensure access to knowledge for all citizens as a human rights principle and regardless of cultural and social differences. Accessibility is thus gaining momentum as an agent for the democratisation and transparency of information against media discourse distortions and oversimplifications