Calculating likelihood ratios for forensic speaker comparisons using phonetic and linguistic parameters

The research presented in this thesis examines the calculation of numerical likelihood ratios using phonetic and linguistic parameters derived from a corpus of recordings of speakers of Southern Standard British English. The research serves as an investigation into the development of the numerical likelihood ratio as a medium for framing forensic speaker comparison conclusions. The thesis begins by investigating which parameters are claimed to be the most useful speaker discriminants according to expert opinion, and in turn examines four of these ‘selected/valued’ parameters individually in relation to intra- and inter-speaker variation, their capacities as speaker discriminants, and the potential strength of evidence they yield. The four parameters analyzed are articulation rate, fundamental frequency, long-term formant distributions, and the incidence of clicks (velaric ingressive plosives). The final portion of the thesis considers the combination of the four parameters under a numerical likelihood ratio framework in order to provide an overall likelihood ratio. The contributions of this research are threefold. Firstly, the thesis presents for the first time a comprehensive survey of current forensic speaker comparison practices around the world. Secondly, it expands the phonetic literature by providing acoustic and auditory analysis, as well as population statistics, for four phonetic and linguistic parameters that survey participants have identified as effective speaker discriminants. And thirdly, it contributes to the forensic speech science and likelihood ratios for forensics literature by considering what steps can be taken to conceptually align the area of forensic speaker comparison with more developed areas of forensic science (e.g. DNA) by creating a human-based (auditory and acoustic-phonetic) forensic speaker comparison system

Creating research-ready partnerships: The initial development of seven implementation laboratories to advance cancer control

BACKGROUND: In 2019-2020, with National Cancer Institute funding, seven implementation laboratory (I-Lab) partnerships between scientists and stakeholders in \u27real-world\u27 settings working to implement evidence-based interventions were developed within the Implementation Science Centers in Cancer Control (ISC3) consortium. This paper describes and compares approaches to the initial development of seven I-Labs in order to gain an understanding of the development of research partnerships representing various implementation science designs. METHODS: In April-June 2021, members of the ISC3 Implementation Laboratories workgroup interviewed research teams involved in I-Lab development in each center. This cross-sectional study used semi-structured interviews and case-study-based methods to collect and analyze data about I-Lab designs and activities. Interview notes were analyzed to identify a set of comparable domains across sites. These domains served as the framework for seven case descriptions summarizing design decisions and partnership elements across sites. RESULTS: Domains identified from interviews as comparable across sites included engagement of community and clinical I-Lab members in research activities, data sources, engagement methods, dissemination strategies, and health equity. The I-Labs use a variety of research partnership designs to support engagement including participatory research, community-engaged research, and learning health systems of embedded research. Regarding data, I-Labs in which members use common electronic health records (EHRs) leverage these both as a data source and a digital implementation strategy. I-Labs without a shared EHR among partners also leverage other sources for research or surveillance, most commonly qualitative data, surveys, and public health data systems. All seven I-Labs use advisory boards or partnership meetings to engage with members; six use stakeholder interviews and regular communications. Most (70%) tools or methods used to engage I-Lab members such as advisory groups, coalitions, or regular communications, were pre-existing. Think tanks, which two I-Labs developed, represented novel engagement approaches. To disseminate research results, all centers developed web-based products, and most (n = 6) use publications, learning collaboratives, and community forums. Important variations emerged in approaches to health equity, ranging from partnering with members serving historically marginalized populations to the development of novel methods. CONCLUSIONS: The development of the ISC3 implementation laboratories, which represented a variety of research partnership designs, offers the opportunity to advance understanding of how researchers developed and built partnerships to effectively engage stakeholders throughout the cancer control research lifecycle. In future years, we will be able to share lessons learned for the development and sustainment of implementation laboratories

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Reference Sample Size and the Computation of Numerical Likelihood Ratios Using Articulation Rate

This paper explores the effects of variability in the amount of reference data used in quantifying the strength of speech evidence using numerical likelihood ratios (LRs). Monte Carlo simulations (MCS) are performed to generate synthetic data from a sample of existing raw local articulation rate (AR) data. LRs are computed as the number of reference speakers (up to 1000), and the number of tokens per reference speaker (up to 200) is systematically increased. The distributions of same-speaker and different-speaker LRs and system performance (log LR cost (Cllr) and equal error rate (EER)) are assessed as a function of the size of the reference data. Results reveal that LRs based on AR are relatively robust to small reference samples, but that system calibration plays an important role in determining the sensitivity of the LRs to sample size

Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), Far Detector Technical Design Report, Volume I Introduction to DUNE

International audienceThe preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early universe, the dynamics of the supernovae that produced the heavy elements necessary for life, and whether protons eventually decay—these mysteries at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early evolution of our universe, its current state, and its eventual fate. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is an international world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions as it searches for leptonic charge-parity symmetry violation, stands ready to capture supernova neutrino bursts, and seeks to observe nucleon decay as a signature of a grand unified theory underlying the standard model. The DUNE far detector technical design report (TDR) describes the DUNE physics program and the technical designs of the single- and dual-phase DUNE liquid argon TPC far detector modules. This TDR is intended to justify the technical choices for the far detector that flow down from the high-level physics goals through requirements at all levels of the Project. Volume I contains an executive summary that introduces the DUNE science program, the far detector and the strategy for its modular designs, and the organization and management of the Project. The remainder of Volume I provides more detail on the science program that drives the choice of detector technologies and on the technologies themselves. It also introduces the designs for the DUNE near detector and the DUNE computing model, for which DUNE is planning design reports. Volume II of this TDR describes DUNE's physics program in detail. Volume III describes the technical coordination required for the far detector design, construction, installation, and integration, and its organizational structure. Volume IV describes the single-phase far detector technology. A planned Volume V will describe the dual-phase technology