An Acoustic Phonetic Analysis of Mandarin English Vowel Spaces

Abstract The objective of this project is to investigate whether or not Mandarin speakers produce English vowels intelligibly. This research replicates the methodology used by Peterson and Barney (1952) and Hillenbrand et al (1995) in their studies of General American English and Midwest English. In this study, 20 Mandarin speakers of English (10 males and 10 females) are asked to read 11 words contain all 11 English phonetic vowels. The participants in the study are college-aged students studying at Saint Cloud State University. They are divided into 4 subgroups based on their genders Length of Residency (LOR) in the USA. The four subgroups are as follows: Five males with LOR \u3c 1 year Five males with LOR \u3e 1 year Five females whose LOR \u3c 1 year Five females whose LOR \u3e1 year Their speech samples were recorded using the same laptop (Model: MacBook Air; System: OS X Yosemite; Version: 10.10.5). The acoustic phonetic software Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2018) is used for data collecting and measuring. The data is annotated and collected manually. The acoustic correlates measured are: F0, F1, F2, F3, Duration, and Intensity. F1 and F2 are mostly focused in this research because they are the most robust cues for assessing the intelligibility of vowels. These measurements are used to determine whether or not the vowels produced by the participants mask each other. Masking thresholds are based on Koffi (2017). The effect of masking on intelligibility is assessed using Catford’s (1987) Relative Functional Load calculations. Acoustic vowel spaces are created to help visualize how the various vowels produced by Mandarin speakers of English compare with those produced by their GAE counterparts. The analysis shows that intelligibility is severely compromised in the following vowel pairs: [ɪ] vs. [e], [u] vs. [ʊ], and [ɛ] vs. [æ]. Other vowel pairs are challenging but our data indicates that these are the vowels that the 20 participants have hard time producing irrespective of their LOR in the USA. Finally Pedagogical implications and applications are drawn for teaching these vowels to Mandarin speakers of English

Optimal acquisition policy for a supply network with discount schemes and uncertain demands.

This study uses a mathematical programming approach in which a series of Mixed Integer Non-Linear Programming (MINLP) models are developed to represent a supply network for a manufacturer dealing with various quantity or volume discount schemes from suppliers, as well as incorporating uncertain product demands that follow Normal distributions. Furthermore, the manufacturer\u27s optimal acquisition policy and production level are obtained simultaneously by solving the models with an objective of maximizing the expected value of the manufacturer\u27s profit. Although complicated by the employment of an integration function, the mathematical models are solved by a GAMS program with integrated SBB, CONOPT, MINOS, and SNOPT solvers working in collaboration. This research is one of the few studies in this field to use commercial optimization software for solving such complex mathematical models. The MINLP models and the GAMS solution program are applied in two real-world cases, and the preliminary results justify the capabilities of both the mathematical models and the GAMS solution program. Numerical analysis supports the managerial implications regarding the acquisition policy, and the comparison between the quantity discount and the volume discount. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2006 .M3. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-01, page: 0438. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2005

The Geographic and Social Distance in Finance

Our research interests lie in studying the economic behavior, choices, and actions of individuals given their geographical and Social proximity to others, and analyze the consequences of such decisions to the financial health and survival of households, firms, and the macro economy. Network analysis and spatial econometrics take account of information spill-overs and constraints of behaviors as consequence of the geographical and Social distance between and among individuals. In this research, we apply those techniques to analyze aspects of corporate governance and explanations for the recent housing crisis. The literature on principle-agent problems has devoted most of its attention to aligning the CEOfs incentives with public shareholders. The problems resulting from directorsf excessive loyalty to CEOs are largely ignored. In the first essay of the dissertation, we apply Social network analysis to study the effectiveness of independent directors in directing the firm. We define powerful independent directors to be those with high Social network centrality, and thus high Social influence over their peers. We show that boards dominated by powerful independent directors are less likely to demonstrate excessive loyalty to CEOs. They carry out the duties of monitoring and advising more effectively, resulting in superior financial performance and higher firm value. In the second and third essays of the dissertation, we study how financial risks are spread by proximity and contagion. Given advancing technology and globalization, financial markets are ever-more linked. We examine Rajanfs (2010) gcredit for incomeh hypothesis as a root cause of U.S. mortgage defaults during the financial crisis of 2008. Over the past several decades, as U.S. household income became more unequal, those with stagnant incomes took on high leverage to boost their consumption to keep up with their wealthier neighbors. We provide empirical support for the credit for income hypothesis using household-level data showing that default is highest for middle-income, low-educated borrowers ,, precisely the ones with stagnating income. We also apply spatial models to identify the ghot spotsh of defaults. We use Spatial Statistics (Anselin, 1988, 1990) to analyze data of residential foreclosures at county level to account for the unusual concentration of foreclosures observed in the south Pacific, east North Central, and south Atlantic regions. We find that spatial correlation plays an important role in explaining the large number of mortgage foreclosures that are clustered strongly in those regions. Moreover, default contagions are more severe at counties with younger households and largely usage of variable loans

Lecturing, Discussion, or Interaction: The Heterogenous Effects of Teaching Methods on Academic Achievements of Junior Secondary School Students

Currently, the traditional teacher lecturing-dominated instruction remains the prevalent teaching method in Chinese basic education. In recent years, as a result of the deepening curriculum reform, teachers have increased the use of group discussion in classroom teaching. In this article, teaching methods were classified into three categories: teacher lecturing, group discussion, and teacher-student interaction. Based on the baseline survey and follow-up data of China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), the study used the difference-in-differences (DID) model and the PSM (propensity score matching) -DID model to examine the respective effects of the three teaching approaches on student academic achievements in Chinese, mathematics, and English

Quality Control Considering Assembly Order for Two Stage Processes

Variation reduction in multistage assembly processes is an important but challenging issue for quality control. It is desirable to minimize the final product variance from a system level. Fruitful research has been conducted on this issue based on the fixed assembly order. However, the variability of parts can be affected by different assembly order. In this paper, we propose a quality control strategy that takes into account the assembly order in two stage assembly processes. Specifically, we analyzed the relationship between the final product variation targets and the assembly order. A case study in conducted on a two stage assembly process of vessel diaphragm to illustrate the developed methodology.disastrous

Rapid and Specific Detection of All Known Nipah virus Strains’ Sequences With Reverse Transcription-Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification

Nipah virus (NiV) is a zoonotic virus and can be transmitted through contaminated food or directly between people. NiV is classified as a Biosafety Level 4 agent, not only because of its relatively high case fatality rate, but also because there is no vaccine or other medical countermeasures and it appears to be transmitted by fomites/particulates. The development of rapid detection assay for NiV is of great importance because no effective field test is currently available. In this study, an isothermal (65°C) reverse transcription-loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) method was developed, targeting the nucleocapsid protein (N) gene, for the rapid detection of NiV, and was compared with conventional RT-PCR. Three pseudoviruses of NiV N gene representing all known strains were constructed to replace live NiV. A set of RT-LAMP primers, targeting a highly conserved region of the N gene in the viral genome was designed to identify all known NiV strains. Sensitivity tests indicated that the detection limit of the RT-LAMP assay was approximately 100 pg of total NiV pseudovirus RNA, which is at least 10-fold higher than that of conventional RT-PCR. Specificity tests showed that there was no cross-reactivity with nucleocapsid protein gene of Hendra virus, Newcastle disease virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, or Influenza A virus. The RT-LAMP assay provides results within 45 min, and requires no sophisticated instruments, except an isothermal water bath or metal bath with 1 μl calcein indicator. An analysis of the clinical samples showed that the assay had good stability. In conclusion, systematic experiments have shown that the RT-LAMP assay developed here effectively detects three NiV pseudoviruses representing all known strains of NiV, with high specificity, sensitivity and stability