A Mobile App For Practicing Finnish Pronunciation Using Wav2vec 2.0

As Finland attracts more foreign talents, there are demands for self-learning tools to help second language (L2) speakers learn Finnish with proper feedback. However, there are few resources in L2 data in Finnish, especially focusing on the beginner level for adults. Moreover, since L2 adults are mainly busy studying or working in Finland, the application must allow users to practice anytime, anywhere. This thesis aims to address the above issues by developing a mobile app for beginner Finnish L2 learners to practice their pronunciation. The app would evaluate the users' speech samples, give feedback on their pronunciation, and then provide them with instructions in the form of text, photos, audio, and videos to help them improve their pronunciation. Due to the limited resources available, this work explores the wav2vec 2.0 model's capability for the application. We trained our models with the native Finnish speakers' corpus and used them to provide pronunciation feedback on L2 samples without any L2 training data. The results show that the models can detect mispronunciation on phoneme level about 60% of the time (Recall rate) compared to a native Finnish listener. By adding regularizations, selecting training datasets, and using a smaller model size, we achieved a comparable Recall rate of approximately 63% with a slightly lower Precision of around 29%. Compared to the state-of-the-art model in Finnish Automatic Speech Recognition, the trade-off resulted in a significantly faster response time

EFFECT OF SOME EXPERIMENTAL FACTORS ON PREPARATION OF LIQUID NATURAL RUBBER

The article presents results of effect of factors comprising the types of irradiation, the concentration of NR solution and the content of hydroperoxide in mixture on photochemical depolymerization of natural rubber. The results showed that the ultraviolet irradiation from the vapor mercury lamps (HSW-250W and HSW-125W) caused the faster rate of depolymerization than the light from  HF-500W; increasing concentration of NR in toluene leaded to decrease the rate of depolymerization; and as the content of hydroperoxide increased the rate of depolymerization was faster. Additionally, the IR spectra, 13C-NMR of products were determined and showed that the cis-1,4-isoprene structure has not been changed and there was the presence of hydroxyl-terminated groups and a few epoxy groups in chains

Difficulties of Vietnamese Students in Learning Academic Writing

Writing is consistently regarded as one of the most challenging language-learning abilities. This paper investigates the challenges Vietnamese students face in learning academic writing in English. Ninety-five students from grades 6 to 12 who have been studying English for several years were surveyed using a questionnaire. The questionnaire comprised 14 Likert-scale statements and one multiple-choice question to determine their interests, habits, and perspectives toward learning English. Most participants expressed a keen interest in learning languages but felt that their writing skills in English were not up to par, attributing this to inadequate time spent practicing. As a result, it is suggested that secondary school students in Vietnam increase their writing practice time in English and alter their learning routines and habits accordingly

Using the best - worst scale to assess the relative impact of these behaviors on other passengers on the same flight: The disruptive passenger behavior

A method called the best-worst scaling method is proposed to overcome these problems by asking respondents to make tradeoffs among the variables being assessed. This paper raises issues in respect of supplementing and developing a block of disruptive behaviors exhibited by passengers during flights and assesses the impact of these behaviors on other passengers. To illustrate the proposed method and evaluate its performance, we surveyed 240 passengers, and data from 203 survey samples were analyzed. The data analysis results revealed three behaviors that were considered the most disruptive, including (1) Threatening and causing distress, (2) Harassment and disrupting public order, and (3) Creating unsanitary conditions. This can be considered a suitable explanation with the high safety requirements of the air transport service, and the context of high expectation of post-covid hygiene and epidemiology

Impact of electronic word of mouth to the purchase intention - the case of Instagram

This research aims to discover and confirm the factors of e-WOM that influence users' shopping intentions on Instagram. The data was collected from 700 customers who belong to Gen Y and Gen Z from 18 to 39 years old who live and work in Vietnam. The research model and the scales were built from the empirical research of e-WOM from Lim (2016); Park et al. (2007); Prendergast et al. (2010). Quantitative methods were performed by Cronbach's Alpha reliability testing, EFA discovery factor analysis, regression, and ANOVA test. The research results showed that the fourth factor of e-WOM positively impacts users' purchase intent on Instagram with decreasing levels as Information Provider's Expertise, the quantity of e-WOM, and the Source credibility of e-WOM, and the quality of e-WOM, respectively. Also, users' purchase intention on Instagram under the impact of e-WOM varies by gender, but there is no difference by age and income

A Review on Convective Boiling Heat Transfer of Refrigerants in Horizontal Microfin-Tubes: A Typical Example

Understanding the Heat transfer performance of refrigerant for convective boiling in horizontal microfin tube and smooth tube is place an importance role on the designing of evaporator, the main equipment on refrigeration system. Reviewing the general concept especially the theory of boiling in the tube, the formation of the flow pattern map, the calculating procedure for heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop during boiling process of refrigerant in microfin tube. Besides, a typical example will be presented more detail in step by step to define the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop for one working condition to estimate the data results without doing experiments