A Convolutional Neural Network model based on Neutrosophy for Noisy Speech Recognition

Convolutional neural networks are sensitive to unknown noisy condition in the test phase and so their performance degrades for the noisy data classification task including noisy speech recognition. In this research, a new convolutional neural network (CNN) model with data uncertainty handling; referred as NCNN (Neutrosophic Convolutional Neural Network); is proposed for classification task. Here, speech signals are used as input data and their noise is modeled as uncertainty. In this task, using speech spectrogram, a definition of uncertainty is proposed in neutrosophic (NS) domain. Uncertainty is computed for each Time-frequency point of speech spectrogram as like a pixel. Therefore, uncertainty matrix with the same size of spectrogram is created in NS domain. In the next step, a two parallel paths CNN classification model is proposed. Speech spectrogram is used as input of the first path and uncertainty matrix for the second path. The outputs of two paths are combined to compute the final output of the classifier. To show the effectiveness of the proposed method, it has been compared with conventional CNN on the isolated words of Aurora2 dataset. The proposed method achieves the average accuracy of 85.96 in noisy train data. It is more robust against Car, Airport and Subway noises with accuracies 90, 88 and 81 in test sets A, B and C, respectively. Results show that the proposed method outperforms conventional CNN with the improvement of 6, 5 and 2 percentage in test set A, test set B and test sets C, respectively. It means that the proposed method is more robust against noisy data and handle these data effectively.Comment: International conference on Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis (IPRIA 2019

A Case Study of EFL Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices in Written Corrective Feedback

Based on a mixed-method approach, this interpretive exploratory case study aimed to identify English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions and practices in Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) in the Saudi context. The study analysed quantitative data gathered from an anonymous custom designed 15-question online survey and qualitative data from an open-ended question (at the end of the online survey) and semi-structured interviews. Participants were one hundred and eighty-four English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers (n =184) who responded to the online survey (113 females and 71 males) and 7 participants who responded to the semi-structured interview (5 males and 2 females). The study findings indicated no significant differences between male and female teachers in considering “time” as the main factor in following a particular strategy for written corrective feedback (93%). The results from the semi-structured interviews highlighted the need for further research in written corrective feedback in the Saudi context to address serious issues related to the teachers’ work-load. Some recommendations were identified for further research in written corrective feedback

Derivative Exposure and the Interest Rate and Exchange Rate Risks of U.S. Banks

This paper estimates the interest rate and exchange rate risk betas of fifty-nine large U. S. commercial banks for the period of 1975-1992, as well as the bank-specific determinants of these betas. The estimation procedure uses a modified seemingly unrelated simultaneous method that recognizes cross-equation dependencies and adjusts for serial correlation and heteroskedasticity. Overall, the exchange rate risk betas are more significant than the interest rate risk betas. More importantly, we find a link between the scale of a bank's interest rate and currency derivative contracts and the bank's interest rate and exchange rate risks. Particularly noteworthy is the influence of currency derivatives on exchange rate betas.Off-balance sheet, Bank risk Derivatives, Interest rate risk, Exchange risk exposure JEL classification: G2, Gl, F3

The Use of Describing Picture Strategy to Improve Students’ Ability in Writing Descriptive Text

This study aims to improve students’ ability in writing descriptive texts. The subjects of this study were eight grade students. Total of the students were 21. This study consisted of 2 cycles, each cycle consisting of 3 meetings. In the first cycle, the picture strategy procedures were (a) The researcher gave a picture to students, (b) the researcher asked students to write vocabularies of the picture (c) the researcher asked students to arrange vocabularies into sentences. However, steps above had not been successful to improve the students’ ability so the researcher improved steps in cycle 2 into (a) the researcher divided students into 7 groups with 3 members for each group, (b) the researcher gave the group picture, (b) The researcher asked students to discuss the picture, (c) The researcher asked students to write the vocabulary from the picture, (d) The researcher asked students to make a written description on each paper based on the written vocabulary. The steps improved in cycle 2 made students easy to write a description because they discussed the picture. Because the score in cycle 2 met the criteria, the researcher stopped the study.Arikunto. Suharsimi. 2006. Prosedur Penelitian suatu pendekatan Praktek. Jakarta: Reineka Cipta.Hornby. 2000. AS Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, 6th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Nurgyantoro, Burhan. (2010). Penilaian Pembelajaran Bahasa Berbasis Kompetensi. (cetakanke-1). Yogyakarta: BPFE-YogyakartaRofi’uddin, Ahmad  & Zuhdi, Darmiyati. 1999. Pendidikan Bahasa dan Sastra Indonesia di Kelas Tinggi. Jakarta: Dirjen Dikti.Setyadi, Bambang. Ag. 2006. Teaching English as a foreign language. Yogyakarta. Graha ilmu