Using forced alignment for sociophonetic research on a minority language

Until recently, large-scale phonetic analyses have been out of reach for under-documented languages, but with the advent of methodologies such as forced alignment, they have now become possible. This paper describes a methodology for applying forced alignment (using the Montreal Forced Aligner) to a speech corpus of Matukar Panau, a minority language spoken in Papua New Guinea. We obtained measurements for 68,785 vowel tokens, produced in both narrative and conversational data by 34 speakers. We examined the social conditioning on a subset of these vowels according to traditional sociolinguistic categories of age and gender, and also consider the impact of clan as a major axis of organization in this community. We show that there is a role for clan as a sociolinguistic factor in conditioning the variation observed

Review of Peak Detection Algorithms in Liquid-Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

In this review, we will discuss peak detection in Liquid-Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS) from a signal processing perspective. A brief introduction to LC/MS is followed by a description of the major processing steps in LC/MS. Specifically, the problem of peak detection is formulated and various peak detection algorithms are described and compared

Comparing the performance of forced aligners used in sociophonetic research

Forced aligners have revolutionized sociophonetics, but while there are several forced aligners available, there are few systematic comparisons of their performance. Here, we consider four major forced aligners used in sociophonetics today: MAUS, FAVE, LaBB-CAT and MFA. Through comparisons with human coders, we find that both aligner and phonological context affect the quality of automated alignments of vowels extracted from English sociolinguistic interview data. MFA and LaBB-CAT produce the highest quality alignments, in some cases not significantly different from human alignment, followed by FAVE, and then MAUS. Aligners are less accurate placing boundaries following a vowel than preceding it, and they vary in accuracy across manner of articulation, particularly for following boundaries. These observations allow us to make specific recommendations for manual correction of forced alignment.We gratefully acknowledge support from the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, and funding from a Transdisciplinary & Innovation Grant (TIG952018). We thank Robert Fromont, Debbie Loakes, and the anonymous Linguistics Vanguard reviewers for valuable feedback on the paper, as well as Miriam Meyerhoff, Jim Stanford, and Hywel Stoakes for help in formulating the ideas presented here

Comparing the performance of forced alignersused in sociophonetic research

Forced aligners have revolutionized sociophonetics, but while there are several forced aligners available, there are few systematic comparisons of their performance. Here, we consider four major forced aligners used in sociophonetics today: MAUS, FAVE, LaBB-CAT and MFA. Through comparisons with human coders, we find that both aligner and phonological context affect the quality of automated alignments of vowels extracted from English sociolinguistic interview data. MFA and LaBB-CAT produce the highest quality alignments, in some cases not significantly different from human alignment, followed by FAVE, and then MAUS. Aligners are less accurate placing boundaries following a vowel than preceding it, and they vary in accuracy across manner of articulation, particularly for following boundaries. These observations allow us to make specific recommendations for manual correction of forced alignment

Determination of the effect of brand and product identification on consumer palatability ratings of ground beef patties

Citation: Wilfong, A. K., McKillip, K. V., Gonzalez, J. M., Houser, T. A., Unruh, J. A., Boyle, E. A. E., & O'Quinn, T. G. (2016). Determination of the effect of brand and product identification on consumer palatability ratings of ground beef patties. Journal of Animal Science, 94(11), 4943-4958. doi:10.2527/jas2016-0894The objective of this study was to determine the effect of brand and product identification on consumer palatability ratings of ground beef patties. Six treatments were used in the study: 90/10 Certified Angus Beef (CAB) ground sirloin, 90/10 ground beef, 80/20 CAB ground chuck, 80/20 ground chuck, 80/20 ground beef, and 73/27 CAB ground beef. Ground beef was processed into 151.2-g patties using a patty former with 2 consecutively formed patties assigned to blind consumer testing and the following 2 assigned to informed testing. Following cooking to 74 degrees C, patties were cut into quarters and served to consumers. Consumers (n = 112) evaluated samples in 2 rounds for tenderness, juiciness, flavor liking, texture liking, and overall liking. Each trait was also rated as either acceptable or unacceptable. In the first round of testing, samples were blind evaluated, with no information about the treatments provided to consumers, but in the second round, product type and brand were disclosed prior to sample evaluation. Additionally, texture profile and shear force analyses were performed on patties from each treatment. Few differences were observed for palatability traits during blind consumer testing; however, during informed testing, 90/10 CAB ground sirloin was rated greatest (P < 0.05) for all palatability traits other than juiciness. Also, 90/10 CAB ground sirloin had increased (P < 0.05; (consumer informed score -consumer blind score)/consumer blind score) ratings for tenderness (17.4%), juiciness (36.5%), flavor liking (23.3%), texture liking (18.2%), and overall liking (24.7%) due to brand disclosure. Increased (P < 0.05) ratings were found for CAB products for multiple traits due to treatment disclosure, whereas the only non-CAB-branded product that received increased (P < 0.05) ratings during informed testing was 90/10 ground beef for tenderness and juiciness. Texture results indicated that decreased fat level increased hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess, and chewiness. These results indicate that when sampling ground beef without brand and product information, few consumers find differences in eating quality among ground beef treatments; however, when consumers are aware of the brand, fat level, and subprimal blend prior to sampling, these factors have a large impact on consumer eating satisfaction

The effect of branding on consumer palatability ratings of beef strip loin steaks

Citation: Wilfong, A. K., McKillip, K. V., Gonzalez, J. M., Houser, T. A., Unruh, J. A., Boyle, E. A. E., & O'Quinn, T. G. (2016). The effect of branding on consumer palatability ratings of beef strip loin steaks. Journal of Animal Science, 94(11), 4930-4942. doi:10.2527/jas2016-0893The objective of this study was to determine the influence of knowing the brand or USDA grade on consumer palatability ratings of beef strip loin steaks. Strip loins were selected to represent 5 USDA grades and brands, USDA Select, Choice, Prime, Certified Angus Beef (CAB; upper 2/3 Choice), and Select, from carcasses of cattle classified as Angus on the basis of phenotype. After 21 d of aging, 2.5-cmthick steaks were cut, consecutively cut steaks were paired for consumer evaluation. Consumer panelists (n = 112) evaluated samples for tenderness, juiciness, flavor liking, and overall liking. Additionally, consumers rated each palatability trait as either acceptable or unacceptable. Samples were fed in 2 rounds on the same day: blind and informed testing. In the first round, blind testing, consumers were served 1 sample from each treatment, with no product information provided. In the second round, consumers were informed of the brand or quality grade prior to sampling. During blind testing, CAB rated similar (P > 0.05) to Choice for all palatability traits; however, CAB rated greater P 0.05) for all traits when tested blind, but Angus Select was rated greater (P 0.05) when brand was disclosed. Brand knowledge increased (P 0.05) in the percentage of Choice and Select samples rated as acceptable for all palatability traits. These data indicate that Prime, CAB, and Angus Select steaks receive an increase in consumer palatability perception, or "brand lift," which does not occur for Choice and Select beef

Feeding microalgae meal (All-G Rich (TM); Schizochytrium limacinum CCAP 4087/2) to beef heifers. I: Effects on longissimus lumborum steak color and palatibility

Citation: Phelps, K. J., Drouillard, J. S., O'Quinn, T. G., Burnett, D. D., Blackmon, T. L., Axman, J. E., . . . Gonzalez, J. M. (2016). Feeding microalgae meal (All-G Rich (TM); Schizochytrium limacinum CCAP 4087/2) to beef heifers. I: Effects on longissimus lumborum steak color and palatibility. Journal of Animal Science, 94(9), 4016-4029. doi:10.2527/jas2016-0487The objective of this study was to examine effects of 4 levels of microalgae meal (All-G Rich, Schizochytrium limacinum CCAP 4087/2; Alltech Inc., Nicholasville, KY) supplementation to the diet of finishing heifers on longissimus lumborum (LL) steak PUFA content, beef palatability, and color stability. Crossbred heifers (n = 288; 452 +/- 23 kg initial BW) were allocated to pens (36 pens and 8 heifers/ pen), stratified by initial pen BW (3,612 +/- 177 kg), and randomly assigned within strata to 1 of 4 treatments: 0, 50, 100, and 150 g . heifer(-1) . d(-1) of microalgae meal. After 89 d of feeding, cattle were harvested and LL were collected for determination of fatty acid composition and Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF), trained sensory panel evaluation, and 7-d retail color stability and lipid oxidation analyses. Feeding microalgae meal to heifers increased (quadratic, P 0.25) but tended (P = 0.10) to increase total PUFA in a quadratic manner (P = 0.03). Total omega-6 PUFA decreased (linear, P = 0.01) and total omega-3 PUFA increased (quadratic, P 0.16); however, off-flavor intensity increased with increasing concentration of microalgae meal in the diet (quadratic, P 0.19); therefore, the negative effects of microalgae on color stability were not due to fiber metabolism differences. Feeding microalgae meal to finishing heifers improves PUFA content of beef within the LL, but there are adverse effects on flavor and color stability

Feeding microalgae meal (All-G Rich (TM); Schizochytrium limacinum CCAP 4067/2) to beef heifers. II: Effects on ground beef color and palatability

Citation: Phelps, K. J., Drouillard, J. S., O'Quinn, T. G., Burnett, D. D., Blackmon, T. L., Axman, J. E., . . . Gonzalez, J. M. (2016). Feeding microalgae meal (All-G Rich (TM); Schizochytrium limacinum CCAP 4067/2) to beef heifers. II: Effects on ground beef color and palatability. Journal of Animal Science, 94(9), 4030-4039. doi:10.2527/jas2016-0488The objective of this study was to examine the effects of feeding microalgae meal (All-G Rich, Schizochytrium limacinum CCAP 4087/2; Alltech Inc., Nicholasville, KY) to finishing heifers on 85% lean and 15% fat (85/15) ground beef PUFA content, palatability, and color stability. Crossbred heifers (n = 288; 452 +/- 23 kg initial BW) were allocated to pens (36 pens and 8 heifers/pen), stratified by initial pen BW (3,612 +/- 177 kg), and randomly assigned within strata to 1 of 4 treatments: 0, 50, 100, and 150 g center dot heifer(-1) center dot d(-1) of microalgae meal. After 89 d of feeding, a subset of heifers (3/pen) was harvested and the rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and vastus intermedius were collected for processing into ground beef. At 42 d postmortem, 85/15 ground beef was formulated and formed into 112-g patties and fatty acid composition, subjective palatability, and 96-h retail color stability analyses were conducted. Increasing dietary microalgae meal concentration increased ground beef 20: 5n-3 and 22: 6n-3 fatty acids (quadratic, P 0.12). Feeding microalgae meal affected (P = 0.02) b* at 24 h and decreased (linear, P = 0.08) b* at 48 h. From h 0 to 36 of display, microalgae affected redness of patties (P 0.20) but tended to affect (P = 0.10) cohesiveness scores. As the amount of microalgae meal fed to heifers increased, beef flavor intensity decreased (linear, P < 0.01) and off-flavor intensity increased (quadratic, P < 0.05). Surface oxymyoglobin and metmyoglobin were impacted by microalgae meal from 12 to 36 h of display (P < 0.01). From 48 to 84 h of display, feeding microalgae meal to heifers decreased (linear, P < 0.09) surface oxymyoglobin and increased (linear, P < 0.02) surface metmyoglobin of patties. Although feeding microalgae meal to heifers increases the PUFA content of 85/15 ground beef, there are undesirable effects on flavor and color stability

A Bioinspired Astrocyte-Derived Coating Promotes the In Vitro Proliferation of Human Neural Stem Cells While Maintaining Their Stemness

The repair of neuronal tissue is a challenging process due to the limited proliferative capacity of neurons. Neural stem cells (NSCs) can aid in the regeneration process of neural tissue due to their high proliferation potential and capacity to differentiate into neurons. The therapeutic potential of these cells can only be achieved if sufficient cells are obtained without losing their differentiation potential. Toward this end, an astrocyte-derived coating (HAc) was evaluated as a promising substrate to promote the proliferation of NSCs. Mass spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used to characterize the HAc. The proliferation rate and the expression of stemness and differentiation markers in NSCs cultured on the HAc were evaluated and compared to the responses of these cells to commonly used coating materials including Poly-L-Ornithine (PLO), and a Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (HiPSC)-based coating. The use of the HAc promotes the in vitro cell growth of NSCs. The expression of the stemness markers Sox2 and Nestin, and the differentiation marker DCX in the HAc group was akin to the expression of these markers in the controls. In summary, HAc supported the proliferation of NSCs while maintaining their stemness and neural differentiation potential