The influence of top-down expectations on the perception of syllable prominence

Arnold D, Wagner P. The influence of top-down expectations on the perception of syllable prominence. In: Proceedings of the 2nd ISCA Workshop on Experimental Linguistics (ExLing 2008). 2008: 25-28.In our study we use the experimental framework of priming to manipulate our subjects‘ expectations of syllable prominence in sentences with a well-defined syntactic and phonological structure. It shows that it is possible to prime prominence patterns and that priming leads to significant differences in the judgment of syllable promi- nence. Key words: Top-Down, Priming, Syllable Prominence, Perceptio

Obtaining prominence judgments from naïve listeners – Influence of rating scales, linguistic levels and normalisation

A frequently replicated finding is that higher frequency words tend to be shorter and contain more strongly reduced vowels. However, little is known about potential differences in the articulatory gestures for high vs. low frequency words. The present study made use of electromagnetic articulography to investigate the production of two German vowels, [i] and [a], embedded in high and low frequency words. We found that word frequency differently affected the production of [i] and [a] at the temporal as well as the gestural level. Higher frequency of use predicted greater acoustic durations for long vowels; reduced durations for short vowels; articulatory trajectories with greater tongue height for [i] and more pronounced downward articulatory trajectories for [a]. These results show that the phonological contrast between short and long vowels is learned better with experience, and challenge both the Smooth Signal Redundancy Hypothesis and current theories of German phonology

Comparing word and syllable prominence rated by naïve listeners

Prominence has been widely studied on the word level and the syllable level. An extensive study comparing the two approaches is missing in the literature. This study investigates how word and syllable prominence relate to each other in German. We find that perceptual ratings based on the word level are more extreme than those based on the syllable level. The correlations between word prominence and acoustic features are greater than the correlations between syllable prominence and acoustic features

Linking science to technology: using bibliographic references in patents to build linkage schemes.

In this paper, we develop and discuss a method to design a linkage scheme that links the systems of science and technology through the use of patent citation data. After conceptually embedding the linkage scheme in the current literature on science-technology interactions and associations, the methodology and algorithms used to decelop the linkage scheme are discussed in detail. The method is subsequently tested on and applied to subsets of USPTO patents. The results point to highly skewed citation distributions, enabling us to discern between those fields of technology that are highly science-interactive and those fields where technology develoment is highly independent from the scientific literature base.Science; Patents; Systems; Data; Algorithms; Distribution;

The effect of priming on the correlations between prominence ratings and acoustic features

Arnold D, Wagner P, Möbius B. The effect of priming on the correlations between prominence ratings and acoustic features. In: Prosodic Prominence: Perceptual and Automatic Identification (Speech Prosody 2010 Workshop). 2010: W1.02.In previous research we showed that the priming paradigm can be used to significantly alter the prominence ratings of subjects. In that study we only looked at the changes in the subjects’ ratings. In the present study, we analyzed the acoustic parameters of the stimuli used in the priming study and investigated the correlation between prominence ratings and acoustic parameters. The results show that priming has a significant effect on these correlations. The contribution of acoustic features on perceived prominence was found to depend on the prominence pattern. If a dominantly prominent syllable is present in a given utterance, f0 and intensity contribute most to the perceived prominence, while duration contributes most when no syllable is dominantly prominent. Index Terms: syllable, prominence, priming, acoustic correlate

Dendritic cell populations in patients with self-reported food hypersensitivity

Self-reported hypersensitivity to food is a common condition and many of these patients have indications of intestinal immune activation. Dendritic cells (DCs) are recognized as the most potent antigen-presenting cells involved in both initiating immune responses and maintaining tolerance. The aims of this study were to evaluate the DC populations with their phenotype and T cell stimulatory capacity in patients with food hypersensitivity and to study its relationship with atopic disease. Blood samples from 10 patients with self-reported food hypersensitivity, divided into atopic and nonatopic subgroups, and 10 gender- and age-matched healthy controls were analyzed by flow cytometry using the Miltenyi Blood Dendritic cells kit. Monocyte-derived DCs (moDCs) were evaluated concerning their phenotype and T cell stimulatory capacity. DC populations and cell surface markers were not significantly different between patients and healthy controls, but moDCs from atopic patients expressed significantly more CD38 compared to moDCs from nonatopic patients. Moreover, lipopolysaccharide stimulated moDCs from atopic patients produced significantly more interleukin-10 compared to nonatopic patients. CD38 expression was correlated to total serum immunoglobulin E levels. These findings support the notion of immune activation in some patients with self-reported food hypersensitivity. They need to be confirmed in a larger cohort

Dendritic cell populations in patients with self-reported food hypersensitivity

18th United European Gastroenterology Week, October 23-27, 2010publishedVersio