Temporal Parameters of Spontaneous Speech in Forensic Speaker Identification in Case of Language Mismatch: Serbian as L1 and English as L2

Celem badania jest analiza możliwości identyfikacji mówcy kryminalistycznego i sądowego podczas zadawania pytań w różnych językach, z wykorzystaniem parametrów temporalnych. (wskaźnik artykulcji, wskaźnik mowy, stopień niezdecydowania, odsetek pauz, średnia czas trwania pauzy). Korpus obejmuje 10 mówców kobiet z Serbii, które znają język angielksi na poziomie zaawwansowanym. Patrametry są badane z wykorzystaniem beayesowskiego wzoru wskaźnika prawdopodobieństwa w 40 parach tcyh samych mówców i w 230 parach różnych mówców, z uwzględnieniem szacunku wskaźnika błędu, równiego wskaźnika błędu i Całościowego Wskaźnika Prawdopodobieństwa. badanie ma charakter pionierski w zakresie językoznawstwa sądowego i kryminalistycznego por1) ónawczego w parze jezyka serbskiego i angielskiego, podobnie, jak analiza parametrów temporalnych mówców bilingwalnych. Dalsze badania inny skoncentrować się na porównaniu języków z rytmem akcentowym i z rytmem sylabicznym. The purpose of the research is to examine the possibility of forensic speaker identification if question and suspect sample are in different languages using temporal parameters (articulation rate, speaking rate, degree of hesitancy, percentage of pauses, average pause duration). The corpus includes 10 female native speakers of Serbian who are proficient in English. The parameters are tested using Bayesian likelihood ratio formula in 40 same-speaker and 360 different-speaker pairs, including estimation of error rates, equal error rates and Overall Likelihood Ratio. One-way ANOVA is performed to determine whether inter-speaker variability is higher than intra- speaker variability across languages. The most successful discriminant is degree of hesitancy with ER of 42.5%/28%, (EER: 33%), followed by average pause duration with ER 35%/45.56%, (EER: 40%). Although the research features a closed-set comparison, which is not very common in forensic reality, the results are still relevant for forensic phoneticians working on criminal cases or as expert witnesses. This study pioneers in forensically comparing Serbian and English as well as in forensically testing temporal parameters on bilingual speakers. Further research should focus on comparing two stress-timed or two syllable-timed languages to test whether they will be more comparable in terms of temporal aspects of speech.

Influence of Seasonal Variations on In-Vitro Fertilization Success

This study was designed to investigate the influence of seasonal variations on the number of retrieved ova, fertilization rate, embryo quality rates and pregnancy rate in IVF cycles. Prospective cohort study was conducted on a total number of 2140 cycles in infertile patients undergoing their first IVF cycle between 2000 and 2007 in IVF policlinic. c2-test, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and one-way analysis of variance were used for statistical analyses. Overall fertilization rate was 77.96% and pregnancy rate 29.15±2.72% per cycle. Seasonal prevalence of pregnancy rate was highest during fall 33.8±4.5% and lowest during summer 23.4±6.2%, but these differences did not reach statistical significance. The study did not show any statistically significant differences in the number of retrieved oocyte, fertilization, and embryo quality according to season. Therefore seasonal changes should not be taken into account in everyday IVF practice

Risk Assessment of Transitional Economies by Multivariate and Multicriteria Approaches

This article assesses country-risk of sixteen Central, Baltic and South-East European transition countries, for 2005 and 2007, using multivariate cluster analysis. It was aided by the appropriate ANOVA (analysis of variance) testing and the multicriteria PROMETHEE method. The combination of methods makes for more accurate and efficient country-risk assessment.Country risk classifications and ratings involve evaluating the performance of countries while considering their economic and socio-political characteristics. The purpose of the article is to classify, and then find the comparative position of each individual country in the group of analyzed countries, in order to find out to which extent development of market economy and democratic society has been achieved.Country-risk, Transition countries, Multivariate cluster analysis, PROMETHEE method.

Analysis of the Impact of Public Education Expenditure on Economic Growth of European Union and BRICS

Knowledge is one of the key factors for the development and progress of each of the world economies. Starting with the industrial revolution, more attention and resources are invested in the development of the education system. Economies need to invest effort and resources in the education system that would allow for population to prepare for participation in the economic life of their country. This means that investing in youth education and training for work in the economy and development of young people in research, development and science would contribute to the development of new technologies and knowledge. Development of new technologies and knowledge contributes to increased competitiveness of country in the global market. This paper presents a comparative analysis of investment funds in the education systems of the European Union and BRICS, and it is shown that there is a positive correlation between public expenditure on education and the value of GDP of the country

Self-organization of charge under pressure in the organic conductor (TMTSF)2ReO4

(TMTSF)2ReO4 presents a phase coexistence between two anion orderings defined by their wave vectors q_2=(1/2,1/2,1/2) and q_3=(0,1/2,1/2) in a wide range of pressure (8-11kbar) and temperature. From the determination of the anisotropy of the conductivity and the superconducting transitions in this regime we were able to extract the texture which results from a self-organization of the orientations of the ReO4 anions in the sample. At the lowest pressures, the metallic parts, related to the q_3 order, form droplets elongated along the a-axis embedded in the semiconducting matrix associated with the q_2 order. Above 10kbar, filaments along the a-axis extend from one end of the sample to the other nearly up to the end of the coexistence regime. A mapping of the system into an anisotropic Ising lattice is satisfactory to analyze the data. satisfactory to analyze the data.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, EPL forma

Dva priloga za baroknu umjetnost u Boki kotorskoj

U prvom dijelu autor piše o glavnom oltaru u crkvi Gospe od Zdravlja u Kotoru. Mramorni oltar s kipovima sv. Jerolima, sv. Tripuna i anđela datira se – okvirno – u razdoblje oko 1700. godine i pripisuje se mletačkom kiparu Bernardu Tabaccu. Kotorski se kipovi uspoređuju s njegovim djelima u Veneciji, Bassanu i Padovi. U drugom dijelu analizira se oltarna slika Bogorodica s Djetetom, sv. Antom Padovanskim, sv. Nikolom i sv. Ambrozom iz crkve sv. Ivana u Budvi. Palu je naslikao Ivan Franjo conte Soliman (Budva?, 1716. – Venecija?, 1784.), mletački slikar bokeljskoga podrijetla. Atribucija budvanske slike temelji se na usporedbi sa Solimanovim djelima u crkvi sv. Eustahija u Dobroti (Sv. Alojzije Gonzaga, Sv. Ivan Nepomuk, Križni put) na kojima se prepoznaju odrazi Tiepolove umjetnosti u rukama ambicioznog diletanta