Free-classification of American dialects in three conditions: natural, monotonized, and low-pass filtered speech

The dialects of American English have distinct features: these features include vowel shifts – the Northern Cities Chain Shift and the Southern Chain Shift (Labov, Ash, & Boberg 2006; Clopper, Pisoni, & deJong 2005) -- and prosodic variation, including intonation and rhythm (Clopper & Smiljanic 2011, 2015). In the current study, I ran three conditions to test which prosodic cues listeners were using when classifying talkers by regional dialect. American English has six distinct dialects: Northern, Southern, Midland, Mid-Atlantic, Western, and New-England (Labov, Ash, & Boberg 2006). Participants listened to 60 talkers, 10 from each of the six regional American English dialects, and were asked to sort the talkers into groups by dialect using free-classification. All of the talkers read the same sentence, which was manipulated in two of the three conditions. The first condition left the talkers’ voices natural and un-manipulated. The second condition monotonized all of the talkers’ voices. The third condition ran all of the talkers’ voices through a low-pass filter, which removed everything above 400 Hz. Results indicated that all participants, regardless of condition, made about 9 groups of talkers on average. Results also revealed effects of condition and talker dialect on accuracy. For the condition accuracy, the monotonized condition had the most accurate groupings, while the low-pass filtered condition had the least accurate groupings. For the talker dialect accuracy, the Western dialect had the most accurate groupings while the Southern dialect had the least accurate groupings. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) plots visualized the groupings made for each condition. In both the natural and monotonized condition, participants were using dialect and gender to sort talkers. In the low-pass filtered condition, participants were using gender and not dialect to sort talkers, and the MDS plot looked different from the other MDS plots indicating that intonation alone was not effective for dialect classification.This thesis was funded by the Undergraduate Research Scholarship.No embargoAcademic Major: Linguistic

From Leadership to Growth

The report summarises the history of and the lessons learnt during the LEAD Wales and Leading Growth leadership development programmes

SIM Wales: skills for innovation in manufacturing

The SIM Wales project was delivered by Swansea University in partnership with the Engineering Employers Forum (EEF) and Industry Wales. It was developed through consultation with a small group of manufacturers around their current challenges with implementing and managing innovation in their organisations. The project focused primarily on developing the broader organisational innovation knowledge of senior managers in ten participating manufacturers based in Wales. The project also aimed to develop the leadership and change management skills of the participants

The Living Murray NSW Market Purchase Measure: A survey of participants in permanent water trading for the environment

The Living Murray Initiative was established to recover 500 Gigalitres in average annual flows to address the declining environmental health of the Murray-Darling river system. The NSW Market Purchase Measure was initiated by the New South Wales Government as part of The Living Murray Initiative with the aim of purchasing up to 125 Gigalitres of high and medium reliability entitlements within the NSW southern connected part of the Murray-Darling Basin. The commencement of this measure provided an opportunity to survey participants in permanent water trading for an environmental outcome to determine general land use and socio-economic information as well as specific information regarding their current water use, future intentions and their opinion of the implementation of the water purchase process. The results of the survey will also assist in understanding the nature of the participants in this process relative to the broader irrigator/regional population. Importantly, the survey outcomes will help to improve understanding of participant circumstances and provide important lessons for future water purchase programs.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The ecomics of ecosystems and biodiversity: scoping the scale

The G8 decided in March 2007 to initiate a “Review on the economics of biodiversity loss”, in the so called Potsdam Initiative: 'In a global study we will initiate the process of analysing the global economic benefit of biological diversity, the costs of the loss of biodiversity and the failure to take protective measures versus the costs of effective conservation. The study is being supported by the European Commission (together with the European Environmental Agency and in cooperation with the German Government. “The objective of the current study is to provide a coherent overview of existing scientific knowledge upon which to base the economics of the Review, and to propose a coherent global programme of scientific work, both for Phase 2 (consolidation) and to enable more robust future iterations of the Review beyond 2010.

Health informatics in UK Medical Education: an online survey of current practice

OBJECTIVE: Health informatics has growing importance in clinical practice with successive General Medical Council recommendations. However, prior data suggest that undergraduate medical education largely neglects this area. An up-to-date, UK-wide view of health informatics training in medical schools is required. DESIGN: An online survey was developed using current guidance and recommendations of UK professional bodies. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Senior academic staff and health informatics educators at all 34 UK medical schools were invited to complete the survey. MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURES: Quantitative and qualitative data regarding health informatics in the undergraduate medical curriculum. RESULTS: A total of 26/34 (76%) of UK medical schools responded and 23 provided full information. Aspects most frequently mentioned were literature searching and research governance. Seventeen per cent of respondents felt there was little or no HI training, although clinical record keeping was addressed by all medical schools. Pedagogies used to teach health informatics were self-directed learning (78%) to lecture based (70%), seminars (70%), informal teaching in clinical settings (57%) and problem-based learning (22%). Health informatics was usually integrated vertically and horizontally across the curriculum (76%). Assessment and updates of the health informatics curriculum are limited (57 and 41%, respectively). Thirty-two per cent of respondents reported a low level of confidence among students to use health informatics as doctors. In the most up-to-date survey of health informatics teaching in UK medical schools, there are three major findings. First, the proportion of health informatics in the medical undergraduate curriculum is low. Second, there was variation in content, pedagogy and timing across medical schools. Third, health informatics is rarely assessed and course content is not regularly updated. CONCLUSIONS: There is a role for national guidelines and further research in this area of the curriculum which is rapidly gaining in prominence

Accessing network databases via SQL transactions in a multi-model database system

http://archive.org/details/accessingnetwork00walpN

Book Reviews

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Serum vitamin D decreases during chemotherapy: an Australian prospective cohort study

Background and Objectives: Vitamin D plays an important role in bone and muscle function, and cell prolifera-tion. The impact of chemotherapy and associated behavioural changes such as fatigue and sun avoidance on vit-amin D (25(OH) D) is unknown. This study aims to evaluate variations in serum vitamin D during chemotherapy and the predictive value of latitude, season and pre-existing vitamin D deficiency. Methods and Study Design: A 12-week prospective cohort study was conducted in chemotherapy-naïve patients in two Australian locations with different sun exposure. Vitamin D deficiency was defined as ≤ 25 nmol/L and insufficiency 26-50 nmol/L 25(OH) D. Demographics, chemotherapy regimen, nutritional status, sun exposure, geographic location, and sea-son were collected at baseline, 6 and 12 weeks after commencing chemotherapy. Results: Eighty-five patients (μ55.3±13.4 years of age; 49% female) were recruited, 96% Caucasian. Fifty-four patients were treated with cura-tive intent (mostly for breast [n=29] or colorectal [n=12] cancers). At baseline, 10 patients were vitamin D defi-cient and 33 were insufficient. Mean serum 25(OH) D (nmol/L) was higher at latitude -27.5o (Brisbane) than lati-tude -34.9o (Adelaide) (μ61.9±22.1 vs μ42.2±19.2, p < 0.001) and varied according to season (spring: μ46.9±20.3, summer: μ50.8±18.2, autumn: μ76.4±25.2, winter: μ36.5±15.7, p < 0.001). Serum 25(OH) D decreased with chemotherapy (baseline: μ49.2±22.3, 6-weeks: μ40.9±19.0, 12-weeks: μ45.9±19.7, p=0.05), with a significant and more rapid decline in winter and autumn (p=0.03). Conclusions: Chemotherapy is associated with a decrease in serum vitamin D, particularly during winter and autumn. Investigations into the underlying mechanism and as-sociated potential outcomes with this decrease requires further investigation