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Today’s global economy offers more opportunities, but is also more complex and competitive than ever before. This fact leads to a wide range of research activity in different fields of interest, especially in the so-called high-tech sectors. This book is a result of widespread research and development activity from many researchers worldwide, covering the aspects of development activities in general, as well as various aspects of the practical application of knowledge

A survey on perceived speaker traits: personality, likability, pathology, and the first challenge

The INTERSPEECH 2012 Speaker Trait Challenge aimed at a unified test-bed for perceived speaker traits – the first challenge of this kind: personality in the five OCEAN personality dimensions, likability of speakers, and intelligibility of pathologic speakers. In the present article, we give a brief overview of the state-of-the-art in these three fields of research and describe the three sub-challenges in terms of the challenge conditions, the baseline results provided by the organisers, and a new openSMILE feature set, which has been used for computing the baselines and which has been provided to the participants. Furthermore, we summarise the approaches and the results presented by the participants to show the various techniques that are currently applied to solve these classification tasks

Diphthong Synthesis using the Three-Dimensional Dynamic Digital Waveguide Mesh

The human voice is a complex and nuanced instrument, and despite many years of research, no system is yet capable of producing natural-sounding synthetic speech. This affects intelligibility for some groups of listeners, in applications such as automated announcements and screen readers. Furthermore, those who require a computer to speak - due to surgery or a degenerative disease - are limited to unnatural-sounding voices that lack expressive control and may not match the user's gender, age or accent. It is evident that natural, personalised and controllable synthetic speech systems are required. A three-dimensional digital waveguide model of the vocal tract, based on magnetic resonance imaging data, is proposed here in order to address these issues. The model uses a heterogeneous digital waveguide mesh method to represent the vocal tract airway and surrounding tissues, facilitating dynamic movement and hence speech output. The accuracy of the method is validated by comparison with audio recordings of natural speech, and perceptual tests are performed which confirm that the proposed model sounds significantly more natural than simpler digital waveguide mesh vocal tract models. Control of such a model is also considered, and a proof-of-concept study is presented using a deep neural network to control the parameters of a two-dimensional vocal tract model, resulting in intelligible speech output and paving the way for extension of the control system to the proposed three-dimensional vocal tract model. Future improvements to the system are also discussed in detail. This project considers both the naturalness and control issues associated with synthetic speech and therefore represents a significant step towards improved synthetic speech for use across society

Understanding interactions in interpreted triadic medical consultations in primary care

Communication is one of the core clinical skills and has been taught at medical schools in many countries for some 30 years. However, the use of ad hoc and professional interpreters in medical consultations has imposed new challenges on the medical professionals’ communication skills and medical education. Traditional communication models have not provided guidance for working with different types of interpreters. Researchers and educators have been striving to develop new communication models to guide education and practice. However, these models are limited in many ways. This research points out that more research is needed to provide a better understanding of interpreted medical consultations, especially of people’s verbal behaviour in talk-in-interaction. Based on this, a more effective communication model can be developed to remedy the limitations the current models have. Therefore, the research has two goals: namely, to develop a better understanding of the interpreted medical consultation and to develop communication skills for work with interpreters. Using conversation analysis (CA) the research investigated 7 naturally recorded GP consultations involving either ad hoc or professional interpreters. Three languages, Slovak, Mirpuri Punjabi and Urdu, were included. GP interviews and focus groups were conducted for member checking and enhancing the validity of the research results. The research has investigated the turn-taking and turn-design of the interpreted medical consultations and established two theoretical frameworks which provide a generic understanding of the participants’ verbal behaviour in the interaction. Based on the frameworks this research has developed 12 communication strategies orienting to behavioural change of the doctor so as to improve the overall communication. The strategies are useful not only for the training of GPs but also other medical professionals and professional interpreters

Analysis of the backpack loading efects on the human gait

Gait is a simple activity of daily life and one of the main abilities of the human being. Often during leisure, labour and sports activities, loads are carried over (e.g. backpack) during gait. These circumstantial loads can generate instability and increase biomechanicalstress over the human tissues and systems, especially on the locomotor, balance and postural regulation systems. According to Wearing (2006), subjects that carry a transitory or intermittent load will be able to find relatively efficient solutions to compensate its effects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Realia, Style and the Effects of Translation in Literary Texts:: A Case Study of Cien Años de Soledad and its English and French Translations

Gabriel García Márquez, in an interview with Plinio Apuleyo, described Cien Años de Soledad as a “poetical synthesis of the tropic”, which he accomplished by putting together “a few scattered elements, but united by a very subtle and real subjective coherence” (Apuleyo Mendoza, 1993, p. 17). Considering this idea, we could identify the two most important elements for the writer when conceiving the novel: first, the specific poetical language, which we could name as “style”, and second, that coherent subjective reality, which is reached, together with stylistic features, with elements of his local reality, some of which are referred to in this research as Realia. The poetical style of the novel is characterized by, among other stylistic features, the frequent use of a regional and familiar register, which contribute to build up its specific tone and atmosphere. The Realia refer to and describe a local reality at the same time that they participate in the configuration of the narrative world. Both elements, being language and culture specific respectively, could be problematic in a process of translation. Given the importance of these language features in the composition of the novel, the question about their interlingual transfer results relevant for the reception and interpretation of the novel in translation. How did translators achieve the transfer of such strong contextual-dependent elements? Could the readers of those translations experience the effect of nostalgia, familiarity and even intimacy as many of the Spanish version readers claim to feel each time they read the novel? My objective with this dissertation is to analyze stylistic issues and Realia used by Gabriel García Márquez in Cien Años de Soledad (1967) and their translation into French (1968) and English (1970). This analysis aims to determine the effect spectrum of the translation formulations in the recreation of the novel in both target languages (TLs). It is important to mention that even if this analysis is developed within some relevant issues of translation studies, its purpose is not to extensively discuss abstract translation theories. Additionally, being the focus linguistic constructions that could be problematic in a process of translation between the ST and the selected TTs, the selection of Realia and Style features follows this aim, leaving outside the analysis many other narrative elements of GGM’s fictional universe. Moreover, the analysis of style features is a mere observation and a hypothesis about the translations. I do not pretend to reduce the universe of style mechanisms used in the novel to the selected categories and annotations that I made in this thesis. These discussions, which exceed the borders of our proposal, are potential material for further research. How do we plan to achieve the objectives of our research? In a first moment, with a theoretical exploration of the key discussions and problematics about literary translation and about this specific novel. Later on, with the selection of examples of both Realia and Style features and their subsequent analysis as textual units using a comparative-descriptive model. And, additionally, by considering as causal conditions - following the causal model - the shifts, contrasts and modifications carried out by the formulations in both target texts as well as extra textual issues affecting the way the translators decided on these formulations. With the results of the comparative and causal analysis in hand, we are able to arrive at a characterization of the effect spectrum of the translation formulations in both translated texts.:CHAPTER I-Introduction CHAPTER II- The original is unfaithful to the translation: a theoretical approach on literary translation issues 1.Literary translation: a cultural and linguistic transfer 1.1. Issues of literary translation 1.1.1. Sense Vs. form or “les belles infidèles” 1.1.2. Source or target language orientation 1.1.3. Equivalence, adaptation, approximation 1.1.4. Untranslatability 1.2. Cultural- oriented approaches 1.2.1. Rewriting and manipulation 1.2.2. The restitution of meaning 1.2.3. Skopos or functional theory 1.2.4. The translator’s invisibility 1.2.5. Integrated approach on translation: linguistics, literature and culture 2. Narrative register in translation 2.1. Referential level: Realia 2.2. Textual level: Style 3. The literary translator: individuality and style 4. Cultural translation 4.1. Cultural translation: an overview 4.2. Cultural translation and interlingual translation 4.3. Cultural translation and the translation of Realia and style CHAPTER III- Hasta las cosas tangibles eran irreales: on magical realism and Cien Años de Soledad 1. Magical realism: The background of a term 2. Subverting the real: Magical realism and its neighboring genres 3. Magical realism’s style in Cien Años de Soledad 3.1. Local color and sense of absurdity 3.2. The ‘brick tone’ 4. Historical, social and literary contextualization of Cien Años de Soledad and its translations 4.1. The writer 4.2. The novel 4.2.1. Social, political and literary panorama during the sixties 4.2.2. The plot 4.2.3. Literary construction 4.2.4. Political dimension of CAS: between reality and realism 4.3. The translations: why focusing on the English and French version? 4.3.1. The English translation: socio-cultural context of TC1 and description of TT1 4.3.2. The French translation: socio-cultural context of TC2 and description of TT2 CHAPTER IV- Macondo era entonces una aldea de veinte casas de barro y cañabrava: Realia and the foundation of the fictional world 1. The definition of Realia 2. Categorization of Realia in the novel 3. Descriptive analysis: Realia in ST and in TTs 3.1. Natural environment: vegetation 3.2. Natural environment: animals 3.3. Natural environment: geography 3.4. Social interactions: social practices 3.5. Social interaction: oral traditions 3.6. Social interactions: Forms of address 3.7. Social interactions: Politics 3.8. Material heritage: Food 3.9. Material heritage: Tools 3.10. Material heritage: Constructions 3.11. Material heritage: Ritual objects 4. Formulation techniques for translating Realia in TTs 4.1. Formulation techniques 4.1.1. Elimination 4.1.2. Adapted formulation 4.1.3. General formulation 4.1.4. Descriptive formulation 4.1.5. Denotative formulation 4.1.6. Loan formulation 4.1.7. Inferred formulation 4.1.8. Textual functional formulation 4.1.9. Borrowing formulation 4.1.10. Combinations 4.1.11. Frequency of use 4.2. Orientation 4.3. Interferences 4.3.1. Literary interferences 4.3.2. Socio-Linguistic interferences 4.3.3. Semantic interferences 4.3.4. External interferences CHAPTER V- Las claves definitivas de Melquíades: Style and the fuzziness of reality 1. Hyperbolization- Outsized reality 1.1. Adjectivisation 1.2. Natural metaphors 1.3. Fixed locutions and statements 2. Orality effect- radio bemba 2.1. Swear words 2.2. Euphemisms 2.3. Irony 2.4. Colloquial lexical choices 2.5. Neologisms 3. Summary CHAPTER VI- Macondo era ya un pavoroso remolino de polvo y escombros : The effect spectrum of translation in the novel Cien Años de Soledad 1.Gregory Rabassa’s translation: fluent, standard, exoticizing 1.1. Formulation techniques and orientation in local unities 1.2. Influences, restrictions and priorities in Rabassa’s translation of Cien Años de Soledad 1.2.1. Influences: between the actual and the implied translator 1.2.2. Textual and extra textual restrictions 1.2.3. Rabassa’s translation decisions priorities 1.3. The effect spectrum of Rabassa’s translation 1.3.1. Fluency 1.3.2. Standard register 1.3.3. Exoticization: the foreign as magical 2. Claude and Carmen Durand’s translation: colloquial, foreignizing, functional 2.1. Formulation techniques and orientations in local units 2.2.Influences,restrictions and priorities in Durand’s translation 2.2.1. Influences: between the actual and the implied translator 2.2.2. Textual and extra textual restrictions 2.2.3. Priorities for the translation decisions 2.3. The effect spectrum of Durand’s translation 2.3.1. Colloquial register 2.3.2. Foreignising 2.3.3. Functional 3. Summary CHAPTER VII- Ya nadie podia saber a ciencia cierta dónde estaban los límites de la realidad: Final considerations 1. The borders of reality: magic and realism 2. Domestication, foreignization, exoticization 3. The translator’s voice in literary criticism 4. Summary and outlook BIBLIOGRAPH