748 research outputs found
After Self-Imitation Prosodic Training L2 Learners Converge Prosodically to the Native Speakers
Little attention is paid to prosody in second language (L2) instruction, but computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) offers learners solutions to improve the perception and production of L2 suprasegmentals. In this study, we extend with acoustic analysis a previous research showing the effectiveness of self-imitation training on prosodic improvements of Japanese learners of Italian. In light of the increased degree of correct match between intended and perceived pragmatic functions (e.g., speech acts), in this study, we aimed at quantifying the degree of prosodic convergence towards L1 Italian speakers used as a model for self-imitation training. To measure convergence, we calculated the difference in duration, F0 mean, and F0 max syllable-wise between L1 utterances and the corresponding L2 utterances produced before and after training. The results showed that after self-imitation training, L2 learners converged to the L1 speakers. The extent of the effect, however, varied based on the speech act, the acoustic measure, and the distance between L1 and L2 speakers before the training. The findings from perceptual and acoustic investigations, taken together, show the potential of self-imitation prosodic training as a valuable tool to help L2 learners communicate more effectively
Dynamics of short-term cross-dialectal accommodation. A study on Grison and Zurich German
This study investigates whether rhythmic features are object of accommodation between Grison and Zurich German (henceforth GRG and ZHG) speakers, insomuch as it was previously observed for vowel formants. Cross-dialectal rhythmic accommodation and its evoking/inhibiting factors (e.g., acoustic distance vs dialect markedness, new vs previously heard words) were examined in a corpus of pre-and post-dialogue recordings, performed by 18 pairs of GRG and ZHG speakers. Three rhythmic measures were designed which were based on cross-dialectal timing differences related to intervocalic sonorants gemination, open syllable lengthening and reduction of word-final vowels
Speakers are more cooperative and less individual when interacting in larger group sizes
Introduction: Cooperation, acoustically signaled through vocal convergence, is facilitated when group members are more similar. Excessive vocal convergence may, however, weaken individual recognizability. This study aimed to explore whether constraints to convergence can arise in circumstances where interlocutors need to enhance their vocal individuality. Therefore, we tested the effects of group size (3 and 5 interactants) on vocal convergence and individualization in a social communication scenario in which individual recognition by voice is at stake. Methods: In an interactive game, players had to recognize each other through their voices while solving a cooperative task online. The vocal similarity was quantified through similarities in speaker i-vectors obtained through probabilistic linear discriminant analysis (PLDA). Speaker recognition performance was measured through the system Equal Error Rate (EER). Results: Vocal similarity between-speakers increased with a larger group size which indicates a higher cooperative vocal behavior. At the same time, there wasan increase in EER for the same speakers between the smaller and the largergroup size, meaning a decrease in overall recognition performance. Discussion: The decrease in vocal individualization in the larger group size suggests thatingroup cooperation and social cohesion conveyed through acoustic convergence have priority over individualization in larger groups of unacquainted speakers
The expression of certainty and uncertainty in social communication campaigns
This study represents the final step in a wide research intended to compare\ud
the print, television and radio advertising campaigns on issues of racism and\ud
immigration, launched in Italy since 1990s. Verifying whether the\ud
communicative process, the linguistic and extra-linguistic features\ud
expressing the status of the foreigners, the kind of relationship between\ud
natives and non natives and the social roles assigned to immigrants in the\ud
social communication campaigns vary in accordance to the kind of the\ud
advertising agency (governmental/ non governmental/ private bodies), and\ud
to the Italian political context (left wing/ right wing) we determine the way the advertising agencies express the degree of certainty and uncertainty towards the message they are conveying to Italian hearers and readers
Land-use intensity and soil properties shape the composition of fungal communities in Mediterranean peaty soils drained for agricultural purposes
Multiple Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Consortia Enhance Yield and Fatty Acids of Medicago sativa: A Two-Year Field Study on Agronomic Traits and Tracing of Fungal Persistence
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are promoted as biofertilizers due to potential benefits in crop productivity, and macro- and microelement uptake. However, crop response to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation is context-dependent, and AMF diversity and field establishment and persistence of inoculants can greatly contribute to variation in outcomes. This study was designed to test the hypotheses that multiple and local AMF inoculants could enhance alfalfa yield and fatty acids (FA) compared to exotic isolates either single or in the mixture. We aimed also to verify the persistence of inoculated AMF, and which component of the AMF communities was the major driver of plant traits. Therefore, a field experiment of AMF inoculation of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) with three single foreign isolates, a mixture of the foreign isolates (FMix), and a highly diverse mixture of local AMF (LMix) was set up. We showed that AMF improved alfalfa yield (+ 68%), nutrient (+ 147% N content and + 182% P content in forage), and FA content (+ 105%). These positive effects persisted for at least 2 years post-inoculation and were associated with enhanced AMF abundance in roots. Consortia of AMF strains acted in synergy, and the mixture of foreign AMF isolates provided greater benefits compared to local consortia (+ 20% forage yield, + 36% forage N content, + 18% forage P content, + 20% total FA in forage). Foreign strains of Funneliformis mosseae and Rhizophagus irregularis persisted in the roots of alfalfa 2 years following inoculation, either as single inoculum or as a component of the mixture. Among inoculants, F. mosseae BEG12 and AZ225C and the FMix exerted a higher impact on the local AMF community compared with LMix and R. irregularis BEG141. Finally, the stimulation of the proliferation of a single-taxa (R. irregularis cluster1) induced by all inoculants was the main determinant of the host benefits. Crop productivity and quality as well as field persistence of inoculated AMF support the use of mixtures of foreign AMF. On the other hand, local mixtures showed a lower impact on native AMF. These results pave the way for extending the study on the effect of AMF mixtures for the production of high-quality forage for the animal diet
Resource Constrained Semantic Segmentation for Waste Sorting
This work addresses the need for efficient waste sorting strategies in
Materials Recovery Facilities to minimize the environmental impact of rising
waste. We propose resource-constrained semantic segmentation models for
segmenting recyclable waste in industrial settings. Our goal is to develop
models that fit within a 10MB memory constraint, suitable for edge applications
with limited processing capacity. We perform the experiments on three networks:
ICNet, BiSeNet (Xception39 backbone), and ENet. Given the aforementioned
limitation, we implement quantization and pruning techniques on the broader
nets, achieving positive results while marginally impacting the Mean IoU
metric. Furthermore, we propose a combination of Focal and Lov\'asz loss that
addresses the implicit class imbalance resulting in better performance compared
with the Cross-entropy loss function.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
“Young” and “Old” Voices: the prosodic auto-transplantation technique for speaker’s age recognition
The present study is intended to figure out the extent to which
prosody and intonation affect listeners’ ability to estimate the
speaker’s age. The performance of a 40-year old anchorman
and another by the same speaker at the age of 80 were spectroacoustically
analyzed in order to identify the prosodic features
of a “young” and an “old” voice. The results of the analysis
have shown significant differences between the two voices on
a suprasegmental level. To test the effects of these differences
on a perceptual level, through the prosodic transplantation
technique, the F0 values and the durations of segments and
silences were transferred from the “young” to the “old” voice
and viceversa. Two age recognition tests, based on original
and transplanted voices, were administered to Italian listeners.
The results of perceptual tests have confirmed the strict
relationship between some rhythmic and prosodic features and
the speaker’s age and have demonstrated the effectiveness of
the transplantation technique. With advancing age, articulation
rate and speech rate slow down, voice register rises and tonal
range widens. Moreover, the “old” voice is also characterized
by a higher percentage of vocalic portion which determines a
shift of the Italian rhythm towards the isomoraic pattern
Convergen rĂtmicamente los hablantes? Estudio sobre las propiedades segmentales temporales en el alemán de ZĂşrich y del cantĂłn de GrisĂłn antes y despuĂ©s de las interacciones dialĂłgicas
This paper reports on the results of a research investigating whether rhythmic features, in terms of segmental timing properties, are object of speaker’s adjustments after the exposure to a conversational partner. In the context of dialects in contact, this is crucial to understand whether rhythmic attributes may bring about language variation and change. In the context of human-machine interactions, this can benefit the design of spoken dialogues systems to achieve human-likeness. To study rhythmic accommodation, we selected a corpus of pre- and post-dialogue recordings, performed by 18 speakers of Grison and Zurich German (henceforth GRG and ZHG), two Swiss German dialects characterised by noticeable segmental and supra-segmental differences. To quantify rhythmic convergence, we designed three measures based on the segmental timing differences between the two dialects. We compared the Euclidean distances in the three measures between GRG and ZHG speakers in a pair before and after two interactions. Results reveal that dyads members do not significantly shift the production of segmental timing features after the dialogues. Neither linguistic nor social factors can account for the observed accommodation pattern. Cross-dialectal segmental timing differences, captured by the three ratio measures, may be either robust against the influence of interlocutors’ acoustic behaviour or too subtle to be perceived or retained after interactions.Este artĂculo presenta los resultados de una investigaciĂłn que examina si los rasgos rĂtmicos vinculados con las caracterĂsticas temporales segmentales sufren adaptaciones por parte del locutor despuĂ©s de cierta exposiciĂłn con un interlocutor. En un contexto de dialectos en contacto, es importante comprender la aportaciĂłn del estudio de las propiedades rĂtmicas al campo de la variaciĂłn y cambio de lengua. En un contexto de interacciĂłn persona-ordenador, esto puede beneficiar el diseño de sistemas de diálogos que logren un habla casi nativa. Para estudiar la acomodaciĂłn rĂtmica, se seleccionĂł un corpus de grabaciones recopiladas antes y despuĂ©s de un diálogo entre 18 pares de locutores de alemán del cantĂłn de GrisĂłn y de alemán de ZĂşrich (de ahora en adelante, GRG y ZHG), dos dialectos suizo-alemanes que se caracterizan por sus diferencias segmentales y suprasegmentales. Para cuantificar la convergencia rĂtmica, se usaron tres medidas basadas en las diferencias temporales segmentales entre los dos dialectos. Se comparĂł la distancia euclidiana para las tres medidas entre locutores GRG y ZHG antes y despuĂ©s de dos interacciones. Los resultados revelan que los miembros del par no cambian significativamente la producciĂłn de sus caracterĂsticas rĂtmicas temporales despuĂ©s del diálogo. NingĂşn factor lingĂĽĂstico o social permite explicar el patrĂłn de acomodaciĂłn que se observa. Las diferencias rĂtmicas temporales inter-dialectos, que se capturan con las tres medidas, son o demasiado robustas contra la influencia del comportamiento rĂtmico de los interlocutores, o demasiado sutiles para ser percibidas o recordadas despuĂ©s de las interacciones
Labeling expressive speech in L2 Italian: the role of prosody in auto-and external annotation
The present study is intended to compare two approaches of
labeling expressive corpora: auto-annotation and annotation by
external lay listeners. These two methods have been applied to
the semi-spontaneous emotional speech produced by Chinese
learners of L2 Italian, involved in the CardTask, a moodinduction
procedure that allows us to control the context of
interaction, preserving the spontaneity of reactions.
The emotional responses to the stimuli presented in the
task were the object of an auto-annotation session. The same
samples were then administered only in the auditory mode to
20 Italian and 20 Chinese lay listeners. The results of
perceptual tests have underlined some similarities and
differences between both auto- and external annotation, and
between the ratings given by external Italian and Chinese
listeners. The labels chosen by native Italians were similar to
those selected in the auto-annotation session, particularly in
the case of anxiety, fear and disgust. The correspondence
between the results of the two annotation methods may be
ascribed to the different prosodic patterns characterizing the
emotional states. The results of the annotation made by
Chinese listeners show that they found it hard to give a
specific emotional label to utterances produced in a second
language relying solely on prosodic patterns
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