A speech-based empathy training system - initial design insights

Empathy is an essential component of human communication since it increases our understanding and perception of others. However, studies show that students\u27 empathy skills have declined rapidly in the last decades. Against this background, practitioner reports predict that the importance of empathy will increase as a skill for successful agile teamwork in the future. Therefore, researchers have designed information systems to train empathy abilities of learners in different domains. Nevertheless, research on automated speech-based training is rather scarce. Hence, we aim to investigate how to design a speech-based empathy training system that helps students react emotionally adequately in communication. This research in progress paper presents five initial requirements that guide future research and development of a speech-based empathy training system intended to support students\u27 self-regulated learning. With this, we hope to provide guidance for the design and embedding of speech-based empathy training systems at scale

The HD(CP)² Observational Prototype Experiment (HOPE) – an overview

The HD(CP)2 Observational Prototype Experiment (HOPE) was performed as a major 2-month field experiment in Jülich, Germany, in April and May 2013, followed by a smaller campaign in Melpitz, Germany, in September 2013. HOPE has been designed to provide an observational dataset for a critical evaluation of the new German community atmospheric icosahedral non-hydrostatic (ICON) model at the scale of the model simulations and further to provide information on land-surface–atmospheric boundary layer exchange, cloud and precipitation processes, as well as sub-grid variability and microphysical properties that are subject to parameterizations. HOPE focuses on the onset of clouds and precipitation in the convective atmospheric boundary layer. This paper summarizes the instrument set-ups, the intensive observation periods, and example results from both campaigns. HOPE-Jülich instrumentation included a radio sounding station, 4 Doppler lidars, 4 Raman lidars (3 of them provide temperature, 3 of them water vapour, and all of them particle backscatter data), 1 water vapour differential absorption lidar, 3 cloud radars, 5 microwave radiometers, 3 rain radars, 6 sky imagers, 99 pyranometers, and 5 sun photometers operated at different sites, some of them in synergy. The HOPE-Melpitz campaign combined ground-based remote sensing of aerosols and clouds with helicopter- and balloon-based in situ observations in the atmospheric column and at the surface. HOPE provided an unprecedented collection of atmospheric dynamical, thermodynamical, and micro- and macrophysical properties of aerosols, clouds, and precipitation with high spatial and temporal resolution within a cube of approximately 10  ×  10  ×  10 km3. HOPE data will significantly contribute to our understanding of boundary layer dynamics and the formation of clouds and precipitation. The datasets have been made available through a dedicated data portal. First applications of HOPE data for model evaluation have shown a general agreement between observed and modelled boundary layer height, turbulence characteristics, and cloud coverage, but they also point to significant differences that deserve further investigations from both the observational and the modelling perspective

Elucidating physiology of plant mediated exchange processes using airborne hyperspectral reflectance measurements in synopsis with eddy covariance data

International audienceThe Carbo Europe Regional Experiment Strategy (CERES), conducted between May and June 2005, aims to determine a spatially resolved regional balance of carbon dioxide fluxes using different methodological approaches bundled within an international framework. In this study we elucidated several meteorological and physiological parameters determining plant mediated exchange processes using airborne hyperspectral reflectance measurements in synopsis with meteorological information like eddy flux covariance data. We used an airborne hyperspectral system to record spatial and temporal transects of vegetated areas surrounding flux tower sites in the Bordeaux / Landes Region (France). Alongside hyperspectral measurements a comprehensive range of meteorological and surface flux parameters were measured at a flux tower site within the same time frame. Unsupervised data analysis using cluster analysis was performed on predefined spectral wavelength windows. Additionally multiblock principal component analysis was used as explanatory data driven tool to reveal underlying data structures and to elucidate potential interdependencies between airborne hyperspectral reflectance data and meteorological ground measurements. In detail temporal, physiological changes in relevant ground information like temperature, humidity, vegetation mediated CO2 flux, latent heat flux or photosynthetic light use efficiency on the one hand and selected regions of the hyperspectral signatures, such as reflectance in the region of 531nm, which determines variations in the photochemical reflectance index (PRI) or in the spectral regions of chlorophyll fluorescence were examined. Unsupervised cluster analysis revealed coupled dependencies between changes in the derivate spectra in the range of 720 to 740 nm with gross photosynthetic uptake rate, global radiation and time of day. Multiblock principal component analysis revealed that first derivative reflectance in wavelengths from 500 to 540 nm and between 680 and 750 nm had higher loading values in respect to observed ground variables global radiation and gross photosynthetic uptake rate respectively. The significance of these findings is discussed

The HD(CP)2 Observational Prototype Experiment HOPE - an overview

The "HD(CP)2 Observational Prototype Experiment" (HOPE) was executed as a major 2-month field experiment in Jülich, Germany, performed in April and May 2013, followed by a smaller campaign in Melpitz, Germany in September 2013. HOPE has been designed to provide a critical evaluation of the new German community atmospheric Icosahedral non-hydrostatic (ICON) model at the scale of the model simulations and further to provide information on land-surface-atmospheric boundary layer exchange, cloud and precipitation processes as well as on sub-grid variability and microphysical properties that are subject to parameterizations. HOPE focuses on the onset of clouds and precipitation in the convective atmospheric boundary layer. The paper summarizes the instrument set-ups, the intensive observation periods as well as example results from both campaigns.HOPE-Jülich instrumentation included a radio sounding station, 4 Doppler lidars, 4 Raman lidars (3, 3, and 4 of these provide temperature, water vapor, and particle backscatter data, respectively), 1 water vapour differential absorption lidar, 3 cloud radars, 5 microwave radiometers, 3 rain radars, 6 sky imagers, 99 pyranometers, and 5 Sun photometers operated in synergy at different supersites. The HOPE-Melpitz campaign combined ground-based remote sensing of aerosols and clouds with helicopter- and balloon-based in-situ observations in the atmospheric column and at the surface.HOPE provided an unprecedented collection of atmospheric dynamical, thermodynamical, and micro- and macrophysical properties of aerosols, clouds and precipitation with high spatial and temporal resolution within a cube of approximately 10 × 10 × 10 km3. HOPE data will significantly contribute to our understanding of boundary layer dynamics and the formation of clouds and precipitation. The datasets are made available through a dedicated data portal

Large-eddy simulations over Germany using ICON: a comprehensive evaluation

Large-eddy simulations (LES) with the new ICOsahedral Non-hydrostatic atmosphere model (ICON) covering Germany are evaluated for four days in spring 2013 using observational data from various sources. Reference simulations with the established Consortium for Small-scale Modelling (COSMO) numerical weather prediction model and further standard LES codes are performed and used as a reference. This comprehensive evaluation approach covers multiple parameters and scales, focusing on boundary-layer variables, clouds and precipitation. The evaluation points to the need to work on parametrizations influencing the surface energy balance, and possibly on ice cloud microphysics. The central purpose for the development and application of ICON in the LES configuration is the use of simulation results to improve the understanding of moist processes, as well as their parametrization in climate models. The evaluation thus aims at building confidence in the model's ability to simulate small- to mesoscale variability in turbulence, clouds and precipitation. The results are encouraging: the high-resolution model matches the observed variability much better at small- to mesoscales than the coarser resolved reference model. In its highest grid resolution, the simulated turbulence profiles are realistic and column water vapour matches the observed temporal variability at short time-scales. Despite being somewhat too large and too frequent, small cumulus clouds are well represented in comparison with satellite data, as is the shape of the cloud size spectrum. Variability of cloud water matches the satellite observations much better in ICON than in the reference model. In this sense, it is concluded that the model is fit for the purpose of using its output for parametrization development, despite the potential to improve further some important aspects of processes that are also parametrized in the high-resolution model