The identification and function of English prosodic features

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-102).This thesis contains three sets of studies designed to explore the identification and function of prosodic features in English. The first set of studies explores the identification of prosodic features using prosodic annotation. We compared inter-rater agreement for two current prosodic annotation schemes, ToBI (Silverman, et al., 1992) and RaP (Dilley & Brown, 2005) which provide guidelines for the identification of English prosodic features. The studies described here survey inter-rater agreement for both novice and expert raters in both systems, and for both spontaneous and read speech. The results indicate high agreement for both systems on binary classification, but only moderate agreement for categories with more than two levels. The second section explores an aspect of the function of prosody in determining the propositional content of a sentence by investigating the relationship between syntactic structure and intonational phrasing. The first study tests and refines a model designed to predict the intonational phrasing of a sentence given the syntactic structure. In further analysis, we demonstrate that specific acoustic cues-word duration and the presence of silence after a word, can give rise to the perception of intonational boundaries. The final set of experiments explores the relationship between prosody and information structure, and how this relationship is realized acoustically. In a series of four experiments, we manipulated the information status of elements of declarative sentences by varying the questions that preceded those sentences. We found that all of the acoustic features we tested-duration, f0, and intensity-were utilized by speakers to indicate the location of an accented element. However, speakers did not consistently indicate differences in information status type (wide focus, new information, contrastive information) with the acoustic features we investigated.by Mara E. Breen.Ph.D

Inter-transcriber reliability for two systems of prosodic annotation: ToBI (Tones and Break Indices) and RaP (Rhythm and Pitch)

Speech researchers often rely on human annotation of prosody to generate data to test hypotheses and generate models. We present an overview of two prosodic annotation systems: ToBI (Tones and Break Indices) (Silverman et al., 1992), and RaP (Rhythm and Pitch) (Dilley & Brown, 2005), which was designed to address several limitations of ToBI. The paper reports two large-scale studies of inter-transcriber reliability for ToBI and RaP. Comparable reliability for both systems was obtained for a variety of prominence- and boundary-related agreement categories. These results help to establish RaP as an alternative to ToBI for research and technology applicationsNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF grant BCS 0847653

Prosodic Effects of Discourse Salience and Association with Focus

Three factors that have been argued to influence the prosody of an utterance are (i) which constituents encode discourse-salient information; (ii) which constituents are contrastive in that they evoke alternatives; and (iii) which constituents interact with the meaning of focus operators such as only (i.e., they ‘associate’ with focus). One challenge for a better understanding of these factors and their interaction has been the difficulty of finding a way to evaluate hypotheses quantitatively, since individual variation in productions is often large enough to wash out experimental effects. In this paper, we apply a methodology introduced in [1] to control for such variation and present evidence for how the three factors interact to influence prosody in sentences containing single or multiple foci

Pre-diagnosis plasma immune markers and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in two prospective cohort studies

Inflammation and B-cell hyperactivation have been associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma development. This prospective analysis aimed to further elucidate pre-diagnosis plasma immune marker profiles associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma risk. We identified 598 incident lymphoma cases and 601 matched controls in Nurses\u27 Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study participants with archived pre-diagnosis plasma samples and measured 13 immune marker levels with multiplexed immunoassays. Using multivariable logistic regression we calculated odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals per standard deviation unit increase in biomarker concentration for risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and major histologic subtype, stratifying additional models by years ( \u3c 5, 5 to \u3c 10, \u3e /=10) after blood draw. Soluble interleukin-2 receptor-alpha, CXC chemokine ligand 13, soluble CD30, and soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor-2 were individually positively associated, and B-cell activating factor of the tumor necrosis factor family inversely associated, with all non-Hodgkin lymphoma and one or more subtypes. The biomarker combinations associated independently with lymphoma varied somewhat by subtype and years after blood draw. Of note, the unexpected inverse association between B-cell activating factor and chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma risk (odds ratio: 95% confidence interval: 0.51, 0.43-0.62) persisted more than 10 years after blood draw (odds ratio: 0.70; 95% confidence interval: 0.52-0.93). In conclusion, immune activation precedes non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis by several years. Decreased B-cell activating factor levels may denote nascent chronic lymphocytic leukemia many years pre-diagnosis

Acoustic Correlates of Information Structure.

This paper reports three studies aimed at addressing three questions about the acoustic correlates of information structure in English: (1) do speakers mark information structure prosodically, and, to the extent they do; (2) what are the acoustic features associated with different aspects of information structure; and (3) how well can listeners retrieve this information from the signal? The information structure of subject-verb-object sentences was manipulated via the questions preceding those sentences: elements in the target sentences were either focused (i.e., the answer to a wh-question) or given (i.e., mentioned in prior discourse); furthermore, focused elements had either an implicit or an explicit contrast set in the discourse; finally, either only the object was focused (narrow object focus) or the entire event was focused (wide focus). The results across all three experiments demonstrated that people reliably mark (1) focus location (subject, verb, or object) using greater intensity, longer duration, and higher mean and maximum F0, and (2) focus breadth, such that narrow object focus is marked with greater intensity, longer duration, and higher mean and maximum F0 on the object than wide focus. Furthermore, when participants are made aware of prosodic ambiguity present across different information structures, they reliably mark focus type, so that contrastively focused elements are produced with greater intensity, longer duration, and lower mean and maximum F0 than noncontrastively focused elements. In addition to having important theoretical consequences for accounts of semantics and prosody, these experiments demonstrate that linear residualisation successfully removes individual differences in people's productions thereby revealing cross-speaker generalisations. Furthermore, discriminant modelling allows us to objectively determine the acoustic features that underlie meaning differences

Codesign and development of a primary school based pathway for child anxiety screening and intervention delivery: a protocol, mixed-methods feasibility study

INTRODUCTION: Anxiety difficulties are among the most common mental health problems in childhood. Despite this, few children access evidence-based interventions, and school may be an ideal setting to improve children's access to treatment. This article describes the design, methods and expected data collection of the Identifying Child Anxiety Through Schools - Identification to Intervention (iCATS i2i) study, which aims to develop acceptable school-based procedures to identify and support child anxiety difficulties. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: iCATS i2i will use a mixed-methods approach to codesign and deliver a set of procedures-or 'pathway'-to improve access to evidence-based intervention for child anxiety difficulties through primary schools in England. The study will consist of four stages, initially involving in-depth interviews with parents, children, school staff and stakeholders (stage 1) to inform the development of the pathway. The pathway will then be administered in two primary schools, including screening, feedback to parents and the offer of treatment where indicated (stage 2), with participating children, parents and school staff invited to provide feedback on their experience (stages 3 and 4). Data will be analysed using Template Analysis. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The iCATS i2i study was approved by the University of Oxford's Research Ethics Committee (REF R64620/RE001). It is expected that this codesign study will lead on to a future feasibility study and, if indicated, a randomised controlled trial. The findings will be disseminated in several ways, including via lay summary report, publication in academic journals and presentation at conferences. By providing information on child, parent, school staff and other stakeholder's experiences, we anticipate that the findings will inform the development of an acceptable evidence-based pathway for identification and intervention for children with anxiety difficulties in primary schools and may also inform broader approaches to screening for and treating youth mental health problems outside of clinics

School-based screening for childhood anxiety problems and intervention delivery: a codesign approach

Objectives: A very small proportion of children with anxiety problems receive evidence-based treatment. Barriers to access include difficulties with problem identification, concerns about stigma and a lack of clarity about how to access specialist services and their limited availability. A school-based programme that integrates screening to identify those children who are most likely to be experiencing anxiety problems with the offer of intervention has the potential to overcome many of these barriers. This article is a process-based account of how we used codesign to develop a primary school-based screening and intervention programme for child anxiety problems. Design: Codesign. Setting: UK primary schools. Participants: Data were collected from year 4 children (aged 8–9 years), parents, school staff and mental health practitioners. Results: We report how the developed programme was experienced and perceived by a range of users, including parents, children, school staff and mental health practitioners, as well as how the programme was adapted following user feedback. Conclusions: We reflect on the mitigation techniques we employed, the lessons learnt from the codesign process and give recommendations that may inform the development and implementation of future school-based screening and intervention programmes

Mapping genomic loci implicates genes and synaptic biology in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia has a heritability of 60-80%1, much of which is attributable to common risk alleles. Here, in a two-stage genome-wide association study of up to 76,755 individuals with schizophrenia and 243,649 control individuals, we report common variant associations at 287 distinct genomic loci. Associations were concentrated in genes that are expressed in excitatory and inhibitory neurons of the central nervous system, but not in other tissues or cell types. Using fine-mapping and functional genomic data, we identify 120 genes (106 protein-coding) that are likely to underpin associations at some of these loci, including 16 genes with credible causal non-synonymous or untranslated region variation. We also implicate fundamental processes related to neuronal function, including synaptic organization, differentiation and transmission. Fine-mapped candidates were enriched for genes associated with rare disruptive coding variants in people with schizophrenia, including the glutamate receptor subunit GRIN2A and transcription factor SP4, and were also enriched for genes implicated by such variants in neurodevelopmental disorders. We identify biological processes relevant to schizophrenia pathophysiology; show convergence of common and rare variant associations in schizophrenia and neurodevelopmental disorders; and provide a resource of prioritized genes and variants to advance mechanistic studies