CUCHILD: A Large-Scale Cantonese Corpus of Child Speech for Phonology and Articulation Assessment

This paper describes the design and development of CUCHILD, a large-scale Cantonese corpus of child speech. The corpus contains spoken words collected from 1,986 child speakers aged from 3 to 6 years old. The speech materials include 130 words of 1 to 4 syllables in length. The speakers cover both typically developing (TD) children and children with speech disorder. The intended use of the corpus is to support scientific and clinical research, as well as technology development related to child speech assessment. The design of the corpus, including selection of words, participants recruitment, data acquisition process, and data pre-processing are described in detail. The results of acoustical analysis are presented to illustrate the properties of child speech. Potential applications of the corpus in automatic speech recognition, phonological error detection and speaker diarization are also discussed.Comment: Accepted to INTERSPEECH 2020, Shanghai, Chin

Multidisciplinary perspectives on automatic analysis of children's language samples : where do we go from here?

BACKGROUND : Language sample analysis (LSA) is invaluable to describe and understand child language use and development for clinical purposes and research. Digital tools supporting LSA are available, but many of the LSA steps have not been automated. Nevertheless, programs that include automatic speech recognition (ASR), the first step of LSA, have already reached mainstream applicability. SUMMARY : To better understand the complexity, challenges, and future needs of automatic LSA from a technological perspective, including the tasks of transcribing, annotating, and analysing natural child language samples, this article takes on a multidisciplinary view. Requirements of a fully automated LSA process are characterized, features of existing LSA software tools compared, and prior work from the disciplines of information science and computational linguistics reviewed. KEY MESSAGES : Existing tools vary in their extent of automation provided across the process of LSA. Advances in machine learning for speech recognition and processing have potential to facilitate LSA, but the specifics of child speech and language as well as the lack of child data complicate software design. A transdisciplinary approach is recommended as feasible to support future software development for LSA.https://karger.com/fplhj2023Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC)Speech-Language Pathology and Audiolog

BioVisualSpeech: Deployment of an Interactive Platform for Speech Therapy Sessions With Children

Sigmatism is a speech sound disorder (SSD) that prevents people from correctly pro- nouncing sibilant consonant sounds ([Z], [z], [S] and [s]). If left untreated, it can negatively impact children’s ability to communicate and socialize. Parents are advised to seek speech therapy for their kids whenever they are not reaching the milestones that are expected of their age, and while the exercises employed in speech therapy sessions are vital for the treatment of these disorders, they can also become repetitive. BioVisualSpeech is a research project that explores ways to provide biofeedback in speech therapy sessions through the usage of serious games. An example of this is the BioVisualSpeech Therapy Support Platform, an interactive tool that contains many types of games in one place, and which children can play in therapy sessions and at home by using the computer’s microphone to capture their voices. However, because the platform was developed in an academic context, it was important for us to adapt this system to the context of real life in collaboration with speech-language pathologists (SLPs). To achieve this, we set the goal of deploying the platform to SLPs’ computers. For that we first reengineered the system to turn it into an in-session focused application, instead of a system where children can practice with SLPs and at home. In addition, we also integrated Windows Speech Recognition into the platform, made the system easier to install and capable of collecting data from players, such as voice productions that could be used in the future to train better classification models, and other objective parameters concerning game performance. Our deployment with SLPs was accompanied by the questionnaires, documentation and data collection protocol needed to proceed with: firstly, the further validation of the platform along with two of its games and, secondly, the design of a user study focused on gathering voice productions from children. In the end, not only did we get promising results regarding the validation of the platform, but SLPs also got the opportunity to own a system that can continue to be used, and distributed by future researchers, even after the termination of this project.O sigmatismo é uma perturbação da fala que impede quem sofre deste de pronunciar corretamente as consoantes sibilantes ([Z], [z], [S] and [s]). Se deixado por tratar, este pode ter um impacto negativo na habilidade das crianças de comunicar e socializar. Pais destas crianças são aconselhados a procurar consultas de terapia da fala para os seus filhos, e enquanto que os exercícios utilizados durante as sessões de terapia da fala são vitais para o tratamento de perturbações, estes também correm o risco de se tornarem repetitivos. BioVisualSpeech é um projeto de investigação que explora formas de fornecer bio- feedback em sessões de terapia da fala através de jogos sérios. Um exemplo destes é a Plataforma de Apoio à Terapia da Fala da BioVisualSpeech, um sistema que contém vários tipos de jogos que as crianças podem jogar em sessões de terapia e em casa, utilizando para isso o microfone do computador para capturarem as suas vozes. Contudo, visto que a plataforma foi desenvolvida num contexto académico, era importante adaptá-la ao contexto do mundo real em colaboração com terapeutas da fala e da linguagem (TFLs). Assim, o objetivo desta dissertação foi implantar a plataforma para os computadores de TFLs. Para isso foi primeiro preciso mudar o foco da plataforma de modo a se tornar numa aplicação de apoio às sessões de terapia, exclusivamente. Para além disto, também se integrou o Sistema de Reconhecimento de Voz do Windows na plataforma, tornou-se o sistema mais fácil de instalar e capaz de recolher dados dos jogadores, como produções de voz que podem no futuro ser utilizadas para treinar melhores classificadores de fala, e outros parâmetros objetivos sobre os jogos. A implantação com TFLs foi acompanhada pelos questionários, documentação e protocolo necessários para proceder com: primeiro, a validação da plataforma e dois dos seus jogos e, segundo, o desenho de um estudo focado na recolha de produções de voz de crianças. No final, não só foram obtidos resultados promissores no que toca à validação da plataforma, mas os TFLs também tiveram a oportunidade de ficar com um sistema que pode continuar a ser utilizado mesmo depois deste projeto acabar

Carlsbad Current, 01-13-1900

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cb_current_news/2059/thumbnail.jp

The Advocate - April 25, 1963

Original title (1951-1987)--The Advocate: official publication of the Archdiocese of Newark (N.J.)

Ursinus College Alumni Journal, August 1963

The President writes • The uses and limitations of words • Commencement 1963 • 3,032 pledge $509,081; 2,809 contribute$192,568 • Loyalty Fund committee reorganized • Joseph J. Lynch, college steward • A description of the new dining hall • Chemistry changes • NSF grants for bio profs • Teaching awards • Pilot project: Physics chemistry mathematics • The not-so-ugly American • Best track season in Ursinus history • Double your dollars • Things are looking up • Preliminary thoughts on wills • Reading, writing, and Mazurkiewicz • The augmented Roman alphabet • Edwin C. Myers, \u2764 and Frederic W. Yocum, Jr. \u2764 • Eugene J. Bradford, \u2736 • Robert A. Petersen, \u2760 • Sue Harman, \u2765 • Results of the 1963 Loyalty Fund campaign • The leaders • Contributors to the 1963 Loyalty Fund • Ursinus alumni at Methacton High School • Class notes • Weddings • Births • Necrology • Our role as alumnihttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/alumnijournal/1077/thumbnail.jp

Winona Daily News

https://openriver.winona.edu/winonadailynews/1772/thumbnail.jp

CURATION AND MANAGEMENT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE THROUGH LIBRARIES

Libraries, museums and archives hold valuable collections in a variety of media, presenting a vast body of knowledge rooted in the history of human civilisation. These form the repository of the wisdom of great works by thinkers of past and the present. The holdings of these institutions are priceless heritage of the mankind as they preserve documents, ideas, and the oral and written records. To value the cultural heritage and to care for it as a treasure bequeathed to us by our ancestors is the major responsibility of libraries. The past records constitute a natural resource and are indispensable to the present generation as well as to the generations to come. Libraries preserve the documentary heritage resources for which they are primarily responsible. Any loss of such materials is simply irreplaceable. Therefore, preserving this intellectual, cultural heritage becomes not only the academic commitment but also the moral responsibility of the librarians/information scientists, who are in charge of these repositories. The high quality of the papers and the discussion represent the thinking and experience of experts in their particular fields. The contributed papers also relate to the methodology used in libraries in Asia to provide access to manuscripts and cultural heritage. The volume discusses best practices in Knowledge preservation and how to collaborate and preserve the culture. The book also deals with manuscript and archives issues in the digital era. The approach of this book is concise, comprehensively, covering all major aspects of preservation and conservation through libraries. The readership of the book is not just limited to library and information science professionals, but also for those involved in conservation, preservation, restoration or other related disciplines. The book will be useful for librarians, archivists and conservators. We thank the Sunan Kalijaga University, Special Libraries Association- Asian Chapter for their trust and their constant support, all the contributors for their submissions, the members of the Local and International Committee for their reviewing effort for making this publication possible

Audiodeskrypcja

Praca naukowa finansowana ze środków na naukę w latach 2009-2014 jako projekt badawczy Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego nr N N104178236 pt.: „Intersemiotyczny przekład audiowizualny – opracowanie zasad polskiej audiodeskrypcji na podstawie wzorców anglojęzycznych”