Profiling fluency: an analysis of individual variation in disfluencies in adult males

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Kirsty McDougall, and Martin Duckworth, ‘Profiling fluency: An analysis of individual variation in disfluencies in adult males’, Speech Communication, Vol. 95:16-27, December 2017, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2017.10.001. Under embargo. Embargo end date: 10 April 2019. This manuscript version is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License CC BY NC-ND 4.0, (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.Individual variation in non-fluency behaviour in normally fluent (NF) adults, is investigated. Differences among speakers in the usage of a range of features such as filled and silent pauses, sound prolongations, repetition of phrases, words or part-words, and self-interruptions is explored in the spontaneous speech of 20 male speakers of Standard Southern British English from the DyViS database. The speech analysed is semi-spontaneous, and taken from a simulated police interview task. A taxonomy of fluency features for forensic analysis (TOFFA) was applied to this speech data. The rate of occurrence of each feature per 100 syllables is calculated for each speaker. Results show that individuals vary considerably in the rates of these fluency features occurring in their speech and that between-speaker differences are present in the types of features speakers produce. Implications of the significance of these findings for forensic phonetics are discussed.Peer reviewe

The very recent fall and rise of Harris Tweed

In September 2009, the UK's BBC4 televised Tweed, the story of an iconic, indigenous, handwoven fabric-Harris Tweed. This article is edited from the transcript of the program, written by Ian Denyer

Telephone Transmission and Earwitnesses: Performance on Voice Parades Controlled for Voice Similarity.

The effect of telephone transmission on a listener's ability to recognise a speaker in a voice parade is investigated. A hundred listeners (25 per condition) heard 1 of 5 'target' voices, then returned a week later for a voice parade. The 4 conditions were: target exposure and parade both at studio quality; exposure and parade both at telephone quality; studio exposure with telephone parade, and vice versa. Fewer correct identifications followed from telephone exposure and parade (64%) than from studio exposure and parade (76%). Fewer still resulted for studio exposure/telephone parade (60%) and, dramatically, only 32% for telephone exposure/studio parade. Certain speakers were identified more readily than others across all conditions. Confidence ratings reflected this effect of speaker, but not the effect of exposure/parade condition.ESRC; British AcademyThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Karger via http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/00043938

Tissues and industrial co-products formed during alginate extraction from <i>Laminaria hyperborea</i> provide different metabolite profiles depending on harvest season

The metabolic profiles of different tissues and industrially relevant co-products of alginate extraction from Laminaria hyperborea samples harvested in different seasons were assessed using Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry (HILIC-MS). Positive and negative mode MS data, predicted exact mass data and matching with database and literature searches, allowed the putative identification of 57 major metabolites. The metabolites ranged from known and abundant components (e.g., iodide, mannitol, and various betaines) to components not previously noted in this species and 11 major components which could not be identified. The levels of these components varied between tissues and co-products with some metabolites seemingly specific to certain samples. The components also varied between winter and summer harvested material, perhaps reflecting seasonality in their biosynthesis and accumulation in the tissues and co-products. The approach applied in this work could assess when components of potential specific commercial interest were maximally accumulated and help plan the most efficient exploitation of the harvested biomass. It could also be used to define variation in components in L. hyperborea from different locations or potential biotopes of this species. This initial work extends our ability to understand the phenotype of seaweeds whilst also identifying new components and new commercial opportunities

Aryl hydrocarbon receptor activation during in vitro and in vivo digestion of raw and cooked broccoli (brassica oleracea var. Italica)

Broccoli is rich in glucosinolates, which can be converted upon chewing and processing into Aryl hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR) ligands. Activation of AhR plays an important role in overall gut homeostasis but the role of broccoli processing on the generation of AhR ligands is still largely unknown. In this study, the effects of temperature, cooking method (steaming versus boiling), gastric pH and further digestion of broccoli on AhR activation were investigated in vitro and in ileostomy subjects. For the in vitro study, raw, steamed (t = 3 min and t = 6 min) and boiled (t = 3 min and t = 6 min) broccoli were digested in vitro with different gastric pH. In the in vivo ileostomy study, 8 subjects received a broccoli soup or a broccoli soup plus an exogenous myrosinase source. AhR activation was measured in both in vitro and in vivo samples by using HepG2-Lucia™ AhR reporter cells. Cooking broccoli reduced the AhR activation measured after gastric digestion in vitro, but no effect of gastric pH was found. Indole AhR ligands were not detected or detected at very low levels both after intestinal in vitro digestion and in the ileostomy patient samples, which resulted in no AhR activation. This suggests that the evaluation of the relevance of glucosinolates for AhR modulation in the gut cannot prescind from the way broccoli is processed, and that broccoli consumption does not necessarily produce substantial amounts of AhR ligands in the large intestine

Category is... Staff and student experiences of Rainbow Office Hours

In this paper we present staff and student experiences of "Rainbow Office Hours", a distinct, safe space for LGBTQ+ community engagement in higher education, challenging traditional professional identity boundaries and promoting visibility and representation. Originating at the University of Glasgow in 2019, students are invited to attend specific times labelled as Rainbow Office Hours with an LGBTQ+ member of staff to discuss anything LGBTQ+ related. This initiative has helped foster an inclusive campus climate, underscoring the need for broader institutional support for LGBTQ+ identities. We advocate for integrating queer perspectives across academic disciplines, emphasising the critical role of representation in educational environments and critiquing the prevailing heteronormative and cisnormative institutional cultures that discourage the integration of sexual and gender minority issues into academia. We cannot, and will not, leave who we are at the door when we arrive at work

Maternal mental health:a key area for future research among women with congenital heart disease

In this viewpoint, we respond to the recently published national priorities for research in congenital heart disease (CHD) among adults, established through the James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership, with specific attention to priority 3 (mental health) and priority 5 (maternal health). Our recent policy impact project explored how maternal mental health is currently addressed in adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) services in the National Health Service, identified gaps and discussed possible ways forward. Our multidisciplinary discussion groups, which included women with lived experience of CHD and pregnancy, cardiology and obstetrics clinicians and medical anthropologists, found that while pregnancy and the postnatal period increase the mental health challenges faced by women with CHD, current services are not yet equipped to address them. Based on this work, we welcome the prioritisation of both mental health and maternal health in ACHD, and suggest that future research should focus on the overlaps between these two priority areas

Long-term supplementation with anthocyanin-rich or -poor Rubus idaeus berries does not influence microvascular architecture nor cognitive outcome in the APP/PS-1 mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease

Disruption of microvascular architecture is a common pathogenic mechanism in the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Given the anti-angiogenic activity of berry (poly)phenols, we investigated whether long-term feeding of Rubus idaeus (raspberries) could ameliorate cerebral microvascular pathology and improve cognition in the APP/PS-1 mouse model of AD. Male C57Bl/6J mice (50 wild type, 50 APP/PS-1) aged 4-months were fed for 24-weeks, with a normal diet enriched with either 100 mg/day glucose (control diet) or supplemented with glucose and freeze-dried anthocyanin-rich (red) or -poor (yellow) raspberries (100 mg/day) and assessed/sampled post intervention. Cerebral microvascular architecture of wild-type mice was characterised by regularly spaced capillaries with uniform diameters, unlike APP/PS-1 transgenic mice which showed dysregulated microvascular architecture. Long-term feeding of raspberries demonstrated limited modulation of microbiota and no substantive effect on microvascular architecture or cognition in either mice model although changes were evident in endogenous cerebral and plasmatic metabolite