Native & non-native perception of casual speech : English & Catalan/

Consultable des del TDXTítol obtingut de la portada digitalitzadaUn aspecto fundamental en la percepción del habla es cómo se transforma la señal acústica en unidades significativas y se reconocen palabras. El habla coloquial se ve frecuentemente afectada por procesos de reducción fonética que son comunes y productivos, p.e., asimilación, lenición, elisión, etc. Los oyentes (nativos), sin embargo, pueden reconocer fácilmente las consecuencias acústicas de estos procesos y entender el mensaje del hablante. Este estudio examina el procesamiento del habla informal por parte de nativos y no nativos. Estudios sobre el Modelo de Asimilación Perceptivo ('Perceptual Assimilation Model,' p.e., Best, 1995) muestran que los hablantes tienden a asimilar los sonidos de una lengua extranjera (L2) a la categoría más próxima en su lengua materna (L1) y que la percepción de los sonidos de la L2 se puede predecir en base a cómo se asimilan a los sonidos de la L1. Este estudio elabora las predicciones de PAM y las extiende al procesamiento del habla coloquial en inglés y catalán por parte de hablantes nativos y no-nativos. En particular, examina si los hablantes no nativos tienen más facilidad para interpretar los procesos de reducción en la L2 que también se dan en su lengua (L1) en contextos parecidos (mismo proceso, mismo contexto), que procesos que se dan en contextos distintos (mismo proceso, contexto distinto) o procesos de la L2 que no ocurren en la L1 (proceso distinto). Con este objetivo, una frase en inglés, Is your friend the one that can't go to bed by ten, y una frase en catalán, Em sap greu que cap del dos xicots no em pugui donar un cop de mà, que presentaban diversos casos de asimilación, lenición y elisión, fueron segmentadas en fragmentos de 80 ms como en Shockey (1997, 1998, 2003). Los fragmentos se presentaron a 24 hablantes nativos (12 ingleses y 12 catalanes), y 24 no nativos (12 catalanes y 12 ingleses) con un nivel avanzado de la L2. Las respuestas se analizaron en función del reconocimiento de palabras y de las «confusiones.» Los resultados muestran que los hablantes no nativos presentan porcentajes de reconocimiento de palabras más bajos y el reconocimiento ocurre más tarde en general, además de más procesamiento de abajo hacia arriba ('bottom-up' o procesamiento fonético), tanto para los datos del inglés como del catalán. Los resultados también muestran que los no nativos son mejores a la hora de reconocer palabras reducidas por procesos existentes en la L1 en el mismo contexto, que por procesos que se dan en un contexto distinto o por procesos que no se dan en la L1. También se han identificado otros factores importantes en el reconocimiento del habla reducida, en particular factores relacionados con la frecuencia. Por último, se considera cómo los resultados contribuyen a la modelización del procesamiento del habla.A fundamental problem concerning speech perception is how listeners transform the acoustic signal into meaningful units and recognize words. Normal speech is often (heavily) affected by common, productive reduction processes, e.g., assimilation, weakening, deletion, etc. Despite this, (native) listeners are easily able to undo the acoustic consequences of these processes and understand the speaker's intended message. This study examines native and non-native processing of casual speech. Research related to the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM, e.g., Best, 1995) evidences that listeners tend to assimilate foreign sounds to the closest L1 category and that perception of L2 sounds may be predicted on the basis of how they assimilate to L1 sounds. This study extends the predictions of PAM to the processing of English and Catalan casual speech in native and non-native speakers. Specifically, it examines whether non-natives are better at interpreting the results of common L2 reduction processes that occur in contexts similar to the L1 (same process, same context) than L2 processes which occur in different contexts (same process, different context) or L2 processes which do not occur in the L1 (different process). A highly reduced English sentence, Is your friend the one that can't go to bed by ten, and Catalan sentence, Em sap greu que cap dels dos xicots no em pugui donar un cop de mà, affected by assimilation, weakening, and deletion, were gated in 80 ms steps as in Shockey (1997, 1998, 2003). Gates were presented to 24 natives (12 English and 12 Catalan) and 24 non-natives (12 Catalan and 12 English) with an advanced command of the language. Responses were examined in terms of successful recognition and «confusions.» Results show that non-native speakers exhibit generally lower and later lexical recognition, in addition to greater bottom-up (phonetic processing) than native speakers, both for the English and Catalan data. Moreover, the data bear out that non-natives are generally better at recognizing words affected by reduction processes existing in the L1 in the same context, than those occurring in a different context or not occurring in the L1. Other factors, particularly frequency, were identified as also important. Finally, the results are considered in terms of relevant issues in speech processing modeling

Developing a Multicriteria Model for Use as a Highway Assessment Technique

INTRODUCTION This paper is concerned with the development of a simple multicriteria model for use as a priority assessment technique (PAT) by Local authority transport planners faced with the problem of identifying which of a range of highway investment proposals should be implemented. The project of which it forms a part has involved three main phases: Phase I - a review and critique of PATS developed by British local authorities; Phase II - the application of a representative sample of PATS to a set of six highway schemes, together with an analysis of the different scheme rankings which emerged; Phase III - the construction, based upon the experience of phases I and II together with knowledge of recent developments in multicriteria analysis, of a computer-based PAT. An account of the outcome of the first two phases of the project is given in Simon (1987); more detailed information is available in Simon (1986a,b; 1987)

Athlete Portrait Series

These are a few photos of some athletes I got to work with in my time at Cal Poly. I took this opportunity to shoot these athletes in a studio, rather than in the outdoors where I usually capture them in action

Teachers’ Tales Go Online: Digitizing Oral Histories on Cassettes

For a time beginning in the 1970s, cassette tapes were very popular for recording oral histories. Today, these cassettes have exceeded their expected lifespan. Photographs, newspapers, and yearbooks fill many online repositories, but libraries and archives may find themselves wondering how to digitize an audio collection. This article presents a case study of one librarian’s effort to run a pilot digitization project for twenty-one oral history cassettes

The Behavior Of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles In Polymer Electrolyte Membranes In Ex-situ And In-situ Fuel Cell Durability Tests

Fuel cells are known for their high efficiency and have the potential to become a major technology for producing clean energy, especially when the fuel, e.g. hydrogen, is produced from renewable energy sources such as wind or solar. Currently, the two main obstacles to wide-spread commercialization are their high cost and the short operational lifetime of certain components. Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells have been a focus of attention in recent years, due to their use of hydrogen as a fuel, their comparatively low operating temperature and flexibility for use in both stationary and portable (automotive) applications. Perfluorosulfonic acid membranes are the leading ionomers for use in PEM hydrogen fuel cells. They combine essential qualities, such as high mechanical and thermal stability, with high proton conductivity. However, they are expensive and currently show insufficient chemical stability towards radicals formed during fuel cell operation, resulting in degradation that leads to premature failure. The incorporation of durability improving additives into perfluorosulfonic acid membranes is discussed in this work. iv Cerium oxide (ceria) is a well-known radical scavenger that has been used in the biological and medical field. It is able to quench radicals by facilely switching between its Ce(III) and Ce(IV) oxidation states. In this work, cerium oxide nanoparticles were added to perfluorosulfonic acid membranes and subjected to ex-situ and in-situ accelerated durability tests. The two ceria formulations, an in-house synthesized and commercially available material, were found to consist of crystalline particles of 2 – 5 nm and 20 – 150 nm size, respectively, that did not change size or shape when incorporated into the membranes. At higher temperature and relative humidity in gas flowing conditions, ceria in membranes is found to be reduced to its ionic form by virtue of the acidic environment. In ex-situ Fenton testing, the inclusion of ceria into membranes reduced the emission of fluoride, a strong indicator of degradation, by an order of magnitude with both liquid and gaseous hydrogen peroxide. In open-circuit voltage (OCV) hold fuel cell testing, ceria improved durability, as measured by several parameters such as OCV decay rate, fluoride emission and cell performance, over several hundred hours and influenced the formation of the platinum band typically found after durability testing