Towards an automatic speech recognition system for use by deaf students in lectures

According to the Royal National Institute for Deaf people there are nearly 7.5 million hearing-impaired people in Great Britain. Human-operated machine transcription systems, such as Palantype, achieve low word error rates in real-time. The disadvantage is that they are very expensive to use because of the difficulty in training operators, making them impractical for everyday use in higher education. Existing automatic speech recognition systems also achieve low word error rates, the disadvantages being that they work for read speech in a restricted domain. Moving a system to a new domain requires a large amount of relevant data, for training acoustic and language models. The adopted solution makes use of an existing continuous speech phoneme recognition system as a front-end to a word recognition sub-system. The subsystem generates a lattice of word hypotheses using dynamic programming with robust parameter estimation obtained using evolutionary programming. Sentence hypotheses are obtained by parsing the word lattice using a beam search and contributing knowledge consisting of anti-grammar rules, that check the syntactic incorrectness’ of word sequences, and word frequency information. On an unseen spontaneous lecture taken from the Lund Corpus and using a dictionary containing "2637 words, the system achieved 815% words correct with 15% simulated phoneme error, and 73.1% words correct with 25% simulated phoneme error. The system was also evaluated on 113 Wall Street Journal sentences. The achievements of the work are a domain independent method, using the anti- grammar, to reduce the word lattice search space whilst allowing normal spontaneous English to be spoken; a system designed to allow integration with new sources of knowledge, such as semantics or prosody, providing a test-bench for determining the impact of different knowledge upon word lattice parsing without the need for the underlying speech recognition hardware; the robustness of the word lattice generation using parameters that withstand changes in vocabulary and domain

Modeling Dependencies in Natural Languages with Latent Variables

In this thesis, we investigate the use of latent variables to model complex dependencies in natural languages. Traditional models, which have a fixed parameterization, often make strong independence assumptions that lead to poor performance. This problem is often addressed by incorporating additional dependencies into the model (e.g., using higher order N-grams for language modeling). These added dependencies can increase data sparsity and/or require expert knowledge, together with trial and error, in order to identify and incorporate the most important dependencies (as in lexicalized parsing models). Traditional models, when developed for a particular genre, domain, or language, are also often difficult to adapt to another. In contrast, previous work has shown that latent variable models, which automatically learn dependencies in a data-driven way, are able to flexibly adjust the number of parameters based on the type and the amount of training data available. We have created several different types of latent variable models for a diverse set of natural language processing applications, including novel models for part-of-speech tagging, language modeling, and machine translation, and an improved model for parsing. These models perform significantly better than traditional models. We have also created and evaluated three different methods for improving the performance of latent variable models. While these methods can be applied to any of our applications, we focus our experiments on parsing. The first method involves self-training, i.e., we train models using a combination of gold standard training data and a large amount of automatically labeled training data. We conclude from a series of experiments that the latent variable models benefit much more from self-training than conventional models, apparently due to their flexibility to adjust their model parameterization to learn more accurate models from the additional automatically labeled training data. The second method takes advantage of the variability among latent variable models to combine multiple models for enhanced performance. We investigate several different training protocols to combine self-training with model combination. We conclude that these two techniques are complementary to each other and can be effectively combined to train very high quality parsing models. The third method replaces the generative multinomial lexical model of latent variable grammars with a feature-rich log-linear lexical model to provide a principled solution to address data sparsity, handle out-of-vocabulary words, and exploit overlapping features during model induction. We conclude from experiments that the resulting grammars are able to effectively parse three different languages. This work contributes to natural language processing by creating flexible and effective latent variable models for several different languages. Our investigation of self-training, model combination, and log-linear models also provides insights into the effective application of these machine learning techniques to other disciplines

Incorporating Punctuation Into the Sentence Grammar: A Lexicalized Tree Adjoining Grammar Perspective

Punctuation helps us to structure, and thus to understand, texts. Many uses of punctuation straddle the line between syntax and discourse, because they serve to combine multiple propositions within a single orthographic sentence. They allow us to insert discourse-level relations at the level of a single sentence. Just as people make use of information from punctuation in processing what they read, computers can use information from punctuation in processing texts automatically. Most current natural language processing systems fail to take punctuation into account at all, losing a valuable source of information about the text. Those which do mostly do so in a superficial way, again failing to fully exploit the information conveyed by punctuation. To be able to make use of such information in a computational system, we must first characterize its uses and find a suitable representation for encoding them. The work here focuses on extending a syntactic grammar to handle phenomena occurring within a single sentence which have punctuation as an integral component. Punctuation marks are treated as full-fledged lexical items in a Lexicalized Tree Adjoining Grammar, which is an extremely well-suited formalism for encoding punctuation in the sentence grammar. Each mark anchors its own elementary trees and imposes constraints on the surrounding lexical items. I have analyzed data representing a wide variety of constructions, and added treatments of them to the large English grammar which is part of the XTAG system. The advantages of using LTAG are that its elementary units are structured trees of a suitable size for stating the constraints we are interested in, and the derivation histories it produces contain information the discourse grammar will need about which elementary units have used and how they have been combined. I also consider in detail a few particularly interesting constructions where the sentence and discourse grammars meet-appositives, reported speech and uses of parentheses. My results confirm that punctuation can be used in analyzing sentences to increase the coverage of the grammar, reduce the ambiguity of certain word sequences and facilitate discourse-level processing of the texts

The influence of consumer personality on sustainable consumption intention in respect of clothing witheco-labelson the german market

The use of eco-labels in the fashion industry has been in the focus of science and practice for several years due to the increasing sustainable awareness of society and the significant contri-bution to global environmental pollution of this industry. However, it is still unclear how com-panies can use these labels in a target group-specific way. This dissertation investigates the influence of consumers’ personality traits on their preference for purchasing eco-labelled cloth-ing in the German market. For this purpose, the preference of eco-labels is measured using a choice experiment together with the moderation of the big five personality traits. The results from applied t-tests and repeated measure ANCOVAs (N = 129) indicate that there is a signif-icant preference for eco-labels when consumers choose between clothes with eco-labels and no labels. Moreover, this preference is still present for equally priced products with eco-labels and labels with the term sustainability. Furthermore, it could be examined that only the personality trait openness has a significant influence on the preference for eco-labelled clothing when peo-ple have the choice between eco-labels and no label. This preference is even present among open-minded people when they have the choice between clothing with eco-labels having a sus-tainable price surcharge and a label with the term sustainability. Therefore, companies should focus on open-minded people to encourage them to demand eco-labeled clothing.A utilização de etiquetas ecológicas na indústria da moda tem estado no centro da ciência e da prática durante vários anos devido à crescente consciência sustentável da sociedade e à contribuição significativa desta indústria para a poluição ambiental global. Porém, ainda não é claro como as empresas podem utilizar estas etiquetas de forma específica para cada grupo-alvo. Esta dissertação investiga a influência dos traços de personalidade dos consumidores na sua prefe-rência pela compra de vestuário com etiquetas ecológicas no mercado alemão. Para tal, a pre-ferência pelas etiquetas ecológicas é medida numa experiência de escolha juntamente com a moderação dos cinco grandes traços de personalidade. Os resultados dos testes-t aplicados e das ANCOVAs de medidas repetidas(N= 129) indicam que existe uma preferência significa-tiva por etiquetas ecológicas quando os consumidores escolhem entre vestuário com e sem eti-quetas ecológicas. Além disso, esta preferência ainda está presente para produtos de preço igual com etiquetas ecológicas e etiquetas com o termo sustentabilidade. Além disso, poder-se-ia notar que apenas o traço de personalidade abertura à experiênciatem uma influência significa-tiva na preferência por roupa com etiqueta ecológica quando as pessoas têm a escolha entre etiquetasecológicas e sem etiqueta. Esta preferência está presente nas pessoas abertas à expe-riência mesmo quando têm a escolha entre uma roupacom etiquetas ecológicas com uma so-bretaxa de preço sustentável e uma etiqueta com o termo sustentabilidade. Por conseguinte, as empresas devem concentrar-se nas pessoas com abertura à experiência para encorajar a exigência de vestuário com etiquetas ecológicas

“We don’t want to be the bad guys”: Exploring the future of international oil companies in a ‘well below 2 degrees’ world

Meeting the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement necessitates large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The emissions of the global oil industry contribute significantly to global warming, and the traditional business models of oil companies are incompatible with a sustainable energy transition. International oil companies (IOCs), which include some of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world, continue to generate enormous profits from fossil fuels while facing growing public criticism and pressure to change in response to the climate crisis. There is no clear pathway to a more sustainable future. To address this issue, this thesis explores from several angles what meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement might mean for IOCs. The thesis first examines how professionals working in the oil industry make sense of the contradiction between the IOC business model and the urgency of climate change mitigation. A novel framework of employee responses to the oil-climate tension is developed based on in-depth interviews with 12 professionals. Against this background, the thesis explores potential outcomes for IOCs’ business models and geopolitical and market positions. Insights from industry interviews are combined with literature to produce comprehensive typologies of the strategy and diversification options available for IOCs in a sustainable energy transition. The options are discussed in the context of their business potential, ability to reduce carbon emissions, and strategic fit to oil industry skills and assets. The geopolitical positions of IOCs in the energy transition are researched through 12 further expert interviews. Potential changes in IOC market positions in the energy transition are explored with a novel proof-of-concept model of the upstream oil market and an original data set constructed from publicly available sources. This thesis makes clear that while IOCs can contribute to the energy transition through diversification, changes to the core fossil fuel business are also needed for alignment with the Paris Agreement goals. IOCs stand to lose out in the energy transition, as a sustained decrease in oil demand would lead them to lose both market share and geopolitical influence relative to national oil companies. Overall, the oil industry is not on track to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and needs to prepare better for the scenarios studied in this thesis.Open Acces

Market Valuation of Ethics: How Valuation Multiples are Affected by Investors’ Ethical Perception

Previous research has focused on the correlation between CSR and returns, whilst considerably less efforts have been undertaken to investigate whether CSR affects a company’s valuation. Therefore this paper focus on investigating the correlation between these two variables. This is done by comparing valuation multiples of constructed indices consisting of bad and socially responsible companies to relevant benchmarks chosen by industry and geographical characteristics. The Socially Responsible Index (SRINDEX) consists of the 53 best companies concerning CSR reputation, whilst the Bad Brake and Sakkestad Index (BBSINDEX) consists of 39 companies where the opposite is true. Matched pairs analyses are performed to investigate differences over a 20-year period. It is found that there are variations in valuation multiples (P/E, P/B and EV/EBITDA) due to investors’ ethical perception, and that these come in the form of premiums for both the SRINDEX and BBSINDEX. This indicates that managers can, ceteris paribus, maximise company value either through outstanding CSR efforts, or by completely neglecting CSR

Identification and correction of speech repairs in the context of an automatic speech recognition system

Recent advances in automatic speech recognition systems for read (dictated) speech have led researchers to confront the problem of recognising more spontaneous speech. A number of problems, such as disfluencies, appear when read speech is replaced with spontaneous speech. In this work we deal specifically with what we class as speech-repairs. Most disfluency processes deal with speech-repairs at the sentence level. This is too late in the process of speech understanding. Speech recognition systems have problems recognising speech containing speech-repairs. The approach taken in this work is to deal with speech-repairs during the recognition process. Through an analysis of spontaneous speech the grammatical structure of speech- repairs was identified as a possible source of information. It is this grammatical structure, along with some pattern matching to eliminate false positives, that is used in the approach taken in this work. These repair structures are identified within a word lattice and when found result in a SKIP being added to the lattice to allow the reparandum of the repair to be ignored during the hypothesis generation process. Word fragment information is included using a sub-word pattern matching process and cue phrases are also identified within the lattice and used in the repair detection process. These simple, yet effective, techniques have proved very successful in identifying and correcting speech-repairs in a number of evaluations performed on a speech recognition system incorporating the repair procedure. On an un-seen spontaneous lecture taken from the Durham corpus, using a dictionary of 2,275 words and phoneme corruption of 15%, the system achieved a correction recall rate of 72% and a correction precision rate of 75%.The achievements of the project include the automatic detection and correction of speech-repairs, including word fragments and cue phrases, in the sub-section of an automatic speech recognition system processing spontaneous speech

Socially Responsible Business Schools: A Proposed Model

El propòsit d'aquesta tesi és investigar i descriure els necessaris canvis en la gestió de les escoles de negocis per arribar a ser institucions socialment responsables, i proposa com implementar el procés de canvi. Sustenta que l'educació en gestió responsable no és exclusivament una qüestió curricular, sinó que ha d'involucrar la institució en la seva totalitat perquè els estudiants es formin com a líders responsables i ètics, i proposa un model per a la transformació de les escoles de negocis cap a aquest objectiu. Aquesta tesi està constituïda per vuit articles acadèmics sobre aquest tema; el primer il•lustra la profusió de definicions, teories i enfocaments relacionats amb la Responsabilitat Social Corporativa. El segon article va contribuir a la millor comprensió de la importància de la Responsabilitat Social Universitària a través d'una revisió de la literatura sobre els seus orígens i evolució. En un següent article, titulat Escoles de Negocis Socialment Responsables: Les parts interessades demanen accions urgents, es va investigar si les parts interessades retroalimenten als degans amb suficients arguments per al canvi, i si els requisits d'acreditació de l’AACSB són coherents amb la necessària millora en l'educació de l'ètica empresarial i la responsabilitat social. Les conclusions d'aquest article van portar a la creació d'una cercle virtuós en L'avaluació d'un cercle virtuós per a escoles de negocis socialment responsables, en el qual es proposa a PRME com a centre d'unió amb les principals acreditadores i enquesta / rànquing del Beyond Grey Pinstripes (BGP), per impulsar de forma sinèrgica la transformació de les escoles de negocis. El següent article tracta sobre l'avaluació de requisits per a la classificació en el rànquing BGP, i analitza la metodologia de l'enquesta, ja que és l'única que se centra en els plans d'estudi i continguts de recerca en ètica, responsabilitat social i sostenibilitat de les escoles de negocis. Amb la convicció de la necessària transformació d'aquestes escoles, va seguir un article sobre Un canvi estratègic en les escoles de negocis per a l'educació en ètica empresarial, responsabilitat social i sostenibilitat. L'article següent va ser un co-escrit sobre l'educació empresarial responsable: No una qüestió curricular, sinó una raó de ser de les escoles de negocis, que ha posat èmfasi en la importància de desenvolupar una identitat en les escoles de negocis en relació amb l'ètica i la responsabilitat social. Finalment, tots les aportacions d'aquesta tesi culminen en la proposta d'Un model per a la transformació de les escoles de negocis en institucions socialment responsables, que centra a les persones com la raó última de tota activitat escolar, dirigint totes les polítiques i estratègies cap a una gestió socialment responsable en què les dimensions de l'ètica, responsabilitat social i sostenibilitat són incorporades i integrades en tots els aspectes de l'organització.El propósito de esta tesis es investigar y describir los necesarios cambios en la gestión de las escuelas de negocios para llegar a ser instituciones socialmente responsables, y propone cómo implementar el proceso de cambio. Sustenta que la educación en gestión responsable no es exclusivamente una cuestión curricular, sino que debe involucrarse la institución en su totalidad para que los estudiantes se formen como líderes responsables y éticos, y propone un modelo para la transformación de las escuelas de negocios hacia ese objetivo. La tesis está constituida por ocho artículos; el primero ilustra la abundancia de definiciones, teorías y enfoques relacionados con la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa, a través de una revisión de literatura. El segundo artículo contribuye a la comprensión de la importancia de la Responsabilidad Social Universitaria mediante una revisión de la literatura sobre sus orígenes y evolución. Un siguiente artículo, titulado Escuelas de Negocios Socialmente Responsables: Las partes interesadas demandan acciones urgentes, se refiere a los argumentos con los que las partes interesadas demandan cambios a los decanos, y enfatiza la insuficiencia de los requisitos de acreditación de AACSB para mejorar la formación con principios éticos y de responsabilidad social. Las conclusiones de este artículo llevan a la creación de un círculo virtuoso en La evaluación de un círculo virtuoso para escuelas de negocios socialmente responsables, en el que se propone a PRME como centro de unión con las principales acreditadoras y la encuesta/ranking de Beyond Grey Pinstripes (BGP), para impulsar de forma sinérgica la transformación de las escuelas de negocios. El siguiente artículo trata sobre la Evaluación de requisitos para la clasificación en el ranking BGP y analiza la metodología de la encuesta, ya que es la única que se centra en los planes de estudio y contenidos de investigación en ética, responsabilidad social y sostenibilidad. Un siguiente artículo propone Un cambio estratégico en las escuelas de negocios para la educación en ética empresarial, responsabilidad social y sostenibilidad. El artículo que sigue, escrito en coautoría sobre la Educación empresarial responsable: No es una cuestión curricular, sino una razón de ser de las escuelas de negocios, hace hincapié en la importancia de desarrollar una identidad en relación con la ética y responsabilidad social. Por último, todos los aportes culminan en la propuesta de Un modelo para la transformación de las escuelas de negocios en instituciones socialmente responsables, que centra a las personas como la razón última de toda actividad escolar, con políticas y estrategias dirigidas hacia una gestión socialmente responsable en que las dimensiones de la ética, responsabilidad social y sostenibilidad son integradas en todos los aspectos de la organización.The purpose of this thesis is to explore and describe what changes are necessary in the management of business schools in order for them to become socially responsible institutions, and how can the needed process of change be implemented. The thesis upholds that education in responsible business does not depend exclusively on curriculum, but should expand its scope to involve the entire institution towards the objective of educating students for becoming responsible and ethical business leaders. Consequently, a model is proposed for the transformation of a business school into a socially responsible institution. The thesis is paper-based, and comprises eight academic contributions; the first one consists in a literature review on Corporate Social Responsibility which reveals the profusion of related definitions, theories, approaches, and their development. The second paper contributes to the significance and better understanding of University Social Responsibility through a literature review of its origins and evolution. A following article, Socially Responsible Business Schools: Collective stakeholders’ voices demand urgent actions, addresses key stakeholders’ arguments that provide deans with plenty of criteria for change, and stresses the insufficiency of AACSB’s accreditation requirements to improve business ethics and social responsibility education. The conclusions of this article prompted a Virtuous circle for socially responsible business schools, which is constructed with PRME, the leading accreditation bodies, and the Beyond Grey Pinstripes (BGP) ranking for synergistically impelling the transformation of business schools. Inasmuch as the BGP survey and its Global 100 ranking form part of the proposed virtuous circle, a following article, Assessing what it takes to earn a Beyond Grey Pinstripes Ranking, addresses its significance and methodology, since it is the only one that focuses on the curricula and research content of ethics, social responsibility, and sustainability in MBA programmes. The need for the transformation of business schools is thus confirmed, and with this conviction in mind, a paper on A strategic change at business schools towards business ethics, social responsibility, and sustainability education ensued. The next article was co-authored on Responsible business education: Not a question of curriculum but a raison d’être, which stresses the importance of developing an identity in business schools in relation to ethics and social responsibility. Finally, the contributions of this thesis culminate in a proposal of A model for the transformation of business schools into socially responsible institutions, which centres people as the ultimate reason of all school activity, directing all policies and strategies towards a responsible management in which the dimensions of ethics, social responsibility, and sustainability are embedded and integrated in all aspects of the organisation