Native and Non-Native Speaker Judgements on the Quality of Synthesized Speech

The difference between native speakers' and non-native speak- ers' naturalness judgements of synthetic speech is investigated. Similar/difference judgements are analysed via a multidimen- sional scaling analysis and compared to Mean opinion scores. It is shown that although the two groups generally behave in a similar manner the variance of non-native speaker judgements is generally higher. While both groups of subject can clearly distinguish natural speech from the best synthetic examples, the groups' responses to different artefacts present in the synthetic speech can vary

An Annotated Checklist of the Freshwater Fishes of Texas, with Keys to Identification of Species

Forty-five families and 247 species of fishes are known to inhabit the freshwaters of Texas. We report on the distribution and status of these fishes and provide a key to their identification. Of the native fishes originally found in Texas, five taxa, Notropis orca (phantom shiner), Notropis simus simus (Rio Grande bluntnose shiner), Cyprinella lutrensis blairi (Maravillas red shiner), Gambusia amistadensis (Amistad gambusia) and Gambusia georgei (San Marcos gambusia) are apparently extinct, and three, Oncorhynchus clarki virginalis (Rio Grande cutthroat trout), Hybognathus amarus (Rio Grande silvery minnow) and Gambusia senilis (blotched gambusia) appear to be extirpated from the state. More than 20 percent of the remaining primary freshwater species appear to be in some need of protection.Integrative Biolog

(WP 2005-05) Assessing the Determinants of Willingness to Pay for Urban Flood Control: The Role of Locational, Demographic and Attitudinal Factors

The urbanization of urban watersheds can influence flooding risks. Traditional Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood risk maps identify 100 year floodplains. These maps are updated infrequently. However, as a community urbanizes, flood risks can change, especially for downstream residents. Thus, one would expect that the willingness to pay (WTP) to prevent the worsening of flooding risk would depend in part on the location of the household in the community and their associated flooding risk. Economists and regional scientists have evaluated the role played by traditional demographic factors. However, attitudinal factors measuring community norms, political philosophy, and other psychological factors that may be unique to the individual have not received the same level of scrutiny. Milwaukee, WI has experienced major flooding events, classified as floods with an expected frequency of once every 100 years or less, in 1986 and most recently in 1997 and 1998. In this study, 1000 residents of the Menomonee watershed in Milwaukee were interviewed in a two-wave panel survey (i.e., telephone interviews took place in 2000 and 2001) to determine their willingness to pay for a referendum which would prevent flood risks from worsening. The interviews queried respondents about their attitudes concerning flooding and ecological risks, political beliefs, information seeking behavior, and other psychological factors unique to the respondent. Information was also gathered on demographic characteristics of the respondent, and also that individuals address. The address was geocoded and hydrologic modeling was used to determine the unique flood risk associated with the residence. A willingness to pay function was estimated using Tobit analysis. Preliminary findings indicated that all three categories of factors influence willingness to pay, with psychological factors and flood risk factors having a relatively strong impact on willingness to pay

Urban Watershed/Water Body Restoration - The Driving Forces

Urban streams are used for several purposes. Some uses are conflicting and some are complementary. The use of urban water bodies and the resolution of conflicts is driven by anthropogenic and biocentric/ecocentric interests that must be optimized and the conflicts resolved. This article examines and analyzes land ethics (biocentric) and socio-economic (anthropocentric) drives for stream restoration of urban watersheds located in the Milwaukee (WI) metropolitan area. The basins experienced increased flooding, significant degradation of sediment and water quality, and loss of aquatic species, all due to urbanization. It was found that the primary drivers for restoration of urban streams are the ethical attitudes of population towards the ecocentric benefits of restoration in combination with a desire for flood control. A Contingent Valuation Survey of citizens residing in two Milwaukee watersheds revealed that those who see the watershed in ecocentric terms appear to have a greater Willingness to Pay for watershed/water body improvements than those who see the benefits solely in anthropogenic terms of reduction of flood damages

Moses Mendelssohn's Approach to Jewish Integration in Light of His Reconciliation of Traditional Judaism and Enlightenment Rationalism

Prior to the eighteenth century, European Jews lived in separate communal structures at the discretion of their host countries.1 A very few found places of influence and wealth as "court Jews" and lived as aristocrats, but their acceptance in society was limited, subject to official approval, and came at a price.2 There had always been opportunities for Jews to integrate into European society, albeit not without complication, via assimilation and conversion.3 But the ability to enter the social order as Jews and find a place to belong without rejecting their heritage and religion proved elusive. The emergence of modem Europe posed a threat to individuals of many religious traditions, not just Jews. The rise of Enlightenment rationalism struck at the foundation of all revealed religion. But Jews, being outside the 'Christian' consensus, faced especially difficult obstacles in navigating the currents of contemporary thought if they sought to integrate into European society. The first Jew to achieve success in large measure in this endeavor was Moses Mendelssohn

Let Every Soul Be Subject : Northern Evangelical Understandings of Submission to Civil Authority, 1763-1863

Evangelical Christians represented a growing and influential subset of American Protestantism in the northern colonies of British America at the time of the War for Independence. Almost a century later, when southern states chose to secede from the Union, evangelical Christianity embodied the most vital expression of American religion, having been widely spread across the nation by decades of revivals. Central to their faith was a commitment to the authority of the Bible in every area of life, including political life. The New Testament seemed to command Christians to obey civil authorities. So, why did northern evangelicals overwhelmingly support the rebellion against English rule, but later criticize southern Christians for rebelling against the Union? Or why, on the other hand, were both of these actions not equally rebellious against civil authority? This dissertation argues that northern evangelical Christians employed Romans 13:1-7 between 1763 and 1863 as a political text either to resist or to promote submission to civil authority in pursuit of an America whose greatness as a democratic republic would be defined primarily by its religious character as an evangelical Protestant Christian nation. The chronological scope of this project spans the century between the end of French and Indian or Seven Years War (1763)—a crucial turning point in Colonial America’s sense of identity in relation to Great Britain—and President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (1863)—a crucial turning point in America’s sense of identity over the issue of slavery. Thus, the work explores the debate over American identity during the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries from a prominent religious perspective in light of changing understandings of the concept of submission to civil authority. The author views Romans 13:1-7 as a pivotal New Testament text informing evangelical Christian political theory in America between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Convictions forged by northern evangelicals in the colonial era regarding America’s status as “chosen” by God, and their attempts to construct a Christian democratic republic on this basis in the nineteenth century drove conscientious adherents of biblical authority to debate and periodically reassess the meaning of these verses in the American context. In this way, evangelicals contributed to the development of a concept that historians would later call “American exceptionalism.” Northern evangelicals, in particular, hoped to define America’s uniqueness by the degree to which those in civil authority reflected and reinforced Protestant Christian values and wedded these to American democratic republican identity. So long as the United States government fostered the attainment of their religious ideal for the nation, northern evangelicals promoted virtually absolute submission to civil authority on the basis of the command, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers,” found in Romans 13:1. But when they perceived the state to threaten their goal of a national Christian identity, highly qualified explanations of Romans 13:1 prevailed in northern evangelical pulpits and publications

Moses Mendelssohn\u27s Approach to Jewish Integration in Light of His Reconciliation of Traditional Judaism and Enlightenment Rationalism

Prior to the eighteenth century, European Jews lived in separate communal structures at the discretion of their host countries.1 A very few found places of influence and wealth as court Jews and lived as aristocrats, but their acceptance in society was limited, subject to official approval, and came at a price.2 There had always been opportunities for Jews to integrate into European society, albeit not without complication, via assimilation and conversion.3 But the ability to enter the social order as Jews and find a place to belong without rejecting their heritage and religion proved elusive. The emergence of modem Europe posed a threat to individuals of many religious traditions, not just Jews. The rise of Enlightenment rationalism struck at the foundation of all revealed religion. But Jews, being outside the \u27Christian\u27 consensus, faced especially difficult obstacles in navigating the currents of contemporary thought if they sought to integrate into European society. The first Jew to achieve success in large measure in this endeavor was Moses Mendelssohn