Production of Bangla stops by native English speakers learning Bangla: An acoustic analysis

Differences in the phonetic and phonological systems of Bangla and English result in negative transfer in the Bangla stop productions of native English speakers. The phonetic realizations of Voice and Aspiration and their interactions with each other are the key factors in this. A production study was carried out focusing on sixteen of the twenty Bangla stops that are distinguished by a four-way voice/aspiration contrast at four different places of articulation, providing a contrastive acoustic analysis of the pronunciation of L1 and L2 adult speakers. Data containing these stops in an intervocalic environment in word-initial, word-medial, and word-final positions was elicited by digital recording from twelve native Bangla speakers and twelve native English speakers. The data from the L1 speakers was analyzed to investigate production characteristics related to the following acoustic variables: vowel voicing onset time, closure duration, closure voicing, preceding vowel duration, and duration of aspiration noise. The data from the L2 speakers was then analyzed using the same variables. The primary acoustic correlates of Voice and Aspiration in Bangla were found to be closure voicing and vowel voicing onset time, respectively, and the interaction of these two variables made a clear distinction between the four stop classes of Bangla: voiceless unaspirated, voiceless aspirated, voiced unaspirated, and voiced aspirated. Evidence was found supporting the work of various researchers who have suggested that a [breathy voice] feature is not necessary for a phonological description of the Indo-Aryan languages. The stop productions of the native English speakers indicated a conceptual awareness of the four stop classes, but it was also clear that they lacked a native-like control of the Voice and Aspiration features and their specific interactions with each other. The degree to which the L2 productions of the four stop classes were different from those of the L1 was directly correlated to each class’s similarity to English phonological patterns, providing evidence of certain predictable aspects of L1 transfer. In order to fully apply the results of this study in a pronunciation acquisition context, perceptual studies will need to be done to identify the salience of these acoustic variables for both L1 and L2 speakers. Perceptual studies involving L1 speakers may also give a greater understanding to the ongoing discussion on the best phonological description of the four-way stop systems of the Indo-Aryan languages

Comparing Perceived College Persistence Between Students Taking Online or Residential Dual Enrollment in High School

Dual enrollment and online education are two factors of education that have become prevalent over the past decade. This rapid growth has resulted in higher attendance rates, but also higher dropout rates. It is the students’ persistence to graduation that demands the attention of all stakeholders. There is an abundance of research showing the value of dual enrollment leading to student success at the collegiate level, but the purpose of this study is to differentiate between online and residential dual enrollment. This study used a causal comparative design to compare the two group means of first-year residential college students taking online dual enrollment courses or residential dual enrollment courses in high school. The research took place at a faith-based university. A survey was sent out to over 4,000 first-year residential students, creating a sample size of 222 students after removing unqualified participants. A t-test was used to determine that there was no significant difference in favorability scores between students taking online dual enrollment and residential dual enrollment. Prior research shows that the location of learning does not drastically affect the outcome, which is also the result of this study. It is apparent that the differences between online and face-to-face interaction continue to decrease with the advancement of technology. For future research, it is recommended to follow students through to graduation, as this study only looks at the favorability scores from an instrument predicting the likelihood to persist

Creating a Healthy Workplace Culture Using an Appreciative Inquiry 4-D Cycle

This study describes the second year of an ongoing partnership between an urban drug court (UDC) and a research university with very high research activity. The purpose of the second year of our study was to engage an appreciative inquiry (AI) Learning Team in all stages of the AI 4-D Cycle to discover the positive core of their work history and work relationships to create a healthy UDC workplace culture. Nine purposively selected participants were engaged in all four stages of the AI 4-D Cycle. There were four findings. Participants (a) developed a strong sense of personal and collective empowerment; (b) created a compelling vision for healthy workplace culture; (c) created a blueprint to achieve their vision of a healthy workplace culture; and (d) generated important action steps to implement a healthy workplace culture. The application to practice of using an AI 4-D Cycle provides managers in both private and public organizations with strategies to create healthy workplace cultures

A History of Woodland Dynamics in the Owyhee’s: Encroachment, Stand Closure, Understory Dynamics, and Tree Biomass

Piñon and juniper woodlands in the cold desert of the Intermountain West occupy over 44.6 million acres (Miller and Tausch 2001). These woodlands are commonly associated with sagebrush communities forming a mosaic of shrub-steppe and woodland across the region. Numerous studies have documented the recent expansion (since the late 1800’s) of these woodlands that has resulted in the replacement of shrub-steppe communities. Recent debate has challenged the degree of expansion in terms of percent of new areas occupied by trees and the increase in total population of piñon and juniper since the late 1800’s. Various interest groups have become concerned over the limited scientific evidence documenting the expansion of these conifers at a broad scale (in other words, landscapes or across entire woodlands) in the Intermountain Region. The fear of many groups is historic woodlands that occupied landscapes prior to Eurasian settlement in the late 1800’s are being burned, cut, and chained in the name of restoration

Human Reliability Analysis using a Human Factors Hazard Model

Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) has found application within a diverse set of engineering domains, but the methods used to apply HRA are often complicated, time-consuming, costly to apply, specific to particular (i.e., nuclear) applications, and are not suitable for direct comparison amongst themselves. This paper proposes a Human Factors Hazard Model (HFHM), which builds an HRA method from the tools of Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Event Tree Analysis (ETA), and a novel model of considering serial Human Error Probability (HEP) more relevant to psychomotor-intensive industrial and commercial applications such as manufacturing, teleoperation, and vehicle operation. The HEP approach uses Performance Shaping Factors (PSFs) relevant to human behavior, as well as specific characteristics unique to a system architecture and its corresponding operational behavior. The HFHM tool is intended to establish a common analysis approach, to simplify and automate the modeling of the likelihood of a mishap due to a human-system interaction during a hazard event. The HFHM is executed commercial software tools (MS Excel and SysML) such that trade and sensitivity studies can be conducted and iterated automatically. The results generated by the HFHM can be used to guide risk assessment, safety requirements generation and management, design options, and safety controls within the system design architecting process. Verification and evaluation of the HFHM through simulation and subject matter expert evaluation illustrate the value of the HFHM as a tool for HRA and system safety analysis in a set of key industrial applications

Hilbert schemes of 8 points

The Hilbert scheme H^d_n of n points in A^d contains an irreducible component R^d_n which generically represents n distinct points in A^d. We show that when n is at most 8, the Hilbert scheme H^d_n is reducible if and only if n = 8 and d >= 4. In the simplest case of reducibility, the component R^4_8 \subset H^4_8 is defined by a single explicit equation which serves as a criterion for deciding whether a given ideal is a limit of distinct points. To understand the components of the Hilbert scheme, we study the closed subschemes of H_n^d which parametrize those ideals which are homogeneous and have a fixed Hilbert function. These subschemes are a special case of multigraded Hilbert schemes, and we describe their components when the colength is at most 8. In particular, we show that the scheme corresponding to the Hilbert function (1,3,2,1) is the minimal reducible example.Comment: 28 pages; Rewrote introduction and reorganized parts of the paper, some minor errors have been fixe

"Cold turkey" works best for smoking cessation

"Cold turkey" works best for smoking cessation. PRACTICE CHANGER: Counsel patients who want to quit smoking that abrupt smoking cessation is more effective for long-term abstinence than taking a gradual approach. STRENGTH OF RECOMMENDATION: B: Based on one well-designed, randomized controlled trial

What’s in It for Me? Reciprocal Exchanges between Underwriters and Venture Capitalists

In this article, we examine the impact of repeat interactions between VCs and underwriters. Past research has suggested that such interactions build trust and may contribute to more equitable treatment of issuing firms. We adopt an alternative perspective and suggest that these repeat interactions are characterized by reciprocal exchanges facilitated by opportunistic behavior from the VC. Our analysis demonstrates that VCs and underwriters interact in order to appropriate greater value from the IPO. This article provides a more complete understanding of repeat interactions between the VC and the underwriter by identifying characteristics of the relationship that have an impact on the value of the IPO