2,940 research outputs found
Perceptual adaptation to speech in calibrated noise
Perceptual adaptation to a talker allows listeners to efficiently resolve inherent ambiguities present in the speech signal introduced by the lack of a one-to-one mapping between acoustic signals and intended phonemic categories across talkers. In ideal listening environments, preceding speech context has been found to enhance perceptual adaptation to a talker. However, little is known regarding how perceptual adaptation to speech occurs in more realistic listening environments with background noise. The current investigation explored how talker variability and preceding speech context affect identification of phonetically-confusable words in adverse listening conditions. Our results showed that listeners were less accurate and slower in identifying mixed-talker speech compared to single-talker speech when target words were presented in multi-talker babble, and that preceding speech context enhanced word identification performance under noise both in single- and mixed talker conditions. These results extend previous findings of perceptual adaptation to talker-specific speech in quiet environments, suggesting that the same underlying mechanisms may serve to perceptually adapt to speech both in quiet and in noise. Both cognitive and attentional mechanisms were proposed to jointly underlie perceptual adaptation to speech, including an active control process that preallocates cognitive resources to processing talker variability and auditory streaming processes that support successful feedforward allocation of attention to salient talker-specific features
"Human security" and the challenge of automobile and road traffic safety: a cultural historical perspective
"The worldwide enhancement of road traffic safety is one aspect of the UN agenda on 'human security'. The article examines the history of road traffic safety and the development of automobile safety technologies since the mid twentieth century with a strong focus on West Germany. From a historical perspective there are two reasons why the UN agenda includes the enhancement of road traffic safety. Firstly the development of road traffic safety is a 'success story' in industrialized countries even though there are still high death rates globally. Secondly, the enhancement of road safety is linked to advanced civil societies with all their stakeholders, and strengthening civil society is a key concern of the UN worldwide. Beyond that, automobility is a symbol of modernity. Discourses about automobile safety inform us about the conceptions and regulation of individual freedom and security in different societies. Moreover, new safety technologies such as the safety belt modify the interactions between human beings and machines and thus the idea of freedom, autonomy and responsibility." (author's abstract)"Die weltweite Verbesserung der Verkehrssicherheit ist Teil der UN-Agenda zur 'menschlichen Sicherheit'. Der Artikel beleuchtet die Geschichte der Verkehrssicherheit und der EinfĂŒhrung neuer Sicherheitstechnologien seit der Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts mit einem Schwerpunkt auf Entwicklungen und Debatten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Zwei historische GrĂŒnde lassen sich erkennen, warum die Verkehrssicherheit in das UN-Konzept aufgenommen wurde: Erstens ist trotz der heute noch weltweit gravierenden Zahl von Verkehrstoten die Verbesserung der Verkehrssicherheit in den westlichen Industrienationen eine 'Erfolgsgeschichte'. Zweitens steht die Verbesserung der Verkehrssicherheit in einem engen Zusammenhang mit der Ausbildung moderner Zivilgesellschaften. AutomobilitĂ€t ist darĂŒber hinaus ein Symbol der Moderne. Anhand der Diskurse ĂŒber automobile Sicherheit lassen sich unterschiedliche Gesellschaftskonzeptionen und der Wandel der Regulierung von individueller Freiheit und Sicherheit verfolgen. Neue Sicherheitstechnologien, wie etwa der Sicherheitsgurt, implizieren zudem eine verĂ€nderte Beziehung zwischen Mensch und Maschine und geben Aufschluss ĂŒber den Wandel der Vorstellung von Freiheit, Autonomie und Verantwortung." (Autorenreferat
Subjective Annotation for a Frame Interpolation Benchmark using Artefact Amplification
Current benchmarks for optical flow algorithms evaluate the estimation either
directly by comparing the predicted flow fields with the ground truth or
indirectly by using the predicted flow fields for frame interpolation and then
comparing the interpolated frames with the actual frames. In the latter case,
objective quality measures such as the mean squared error are typically
employed. However, it is well known that for image quality assessment, the
actual quality experienced by the user cannot be fully deduced from such simple
measures. Hence, we conducted a subjective quality assessment crowdscouring
study for the interpolated frames provided by one of the optical flow
benchmarks, the Middlebury benchmark. We collected forced-choice paired
comparisons between interpolated images and corresponding ground truth. To
increase the sensitivity of observers when judging minute difference in paired
comparisons we introduced a new method to the field of full-reference quality
assessment, called artefact amplification. From the crowdsourcing data, we
reconstructed absolute quality scale values according to Thurstone's model. As
a result, we obtained a re-ranking of the 155 participating algorithms w.r.t.
the visual quality of the interpolated frames. This re-ranking not only shows
the necessity of visual quality assessment as another evaluation metric for
optical flow and frame interpolation benchmarks, the results also provide the
ground truth for designing novel image quality assessment (IQA) methods
dedicated to perceptual quality of interpolated images. As a first step, we
proposed such a new full-reference method, called WAE-IQA. By weighing the
local differences between an interpolated image and its ground truth WAE-IQA
performed slightly better than the currently best FR-IQA approach from the
literature.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1901.0536
Vahemere piirkonna geneetiline kujunemine enne meie ajaarvamist: fookusega Apenniini poolsaarele
VĂ€itekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsiooneRohkearvulised ja erisugused uuringud on panustanud meie arusaamisesse inimajaloost. Inimasustuse ajalugu Euroopas sisaldab mitmeid etappe, sealhulgas kĂŒttide-korilaste LÀÀne-Euraasias elamine paleoliitikumis, pĂ”lluharimise ja karjakasvatuse kasutuselevĂ”tt lĂ€bi kontaktide Levantist ja Anatooliast (LÀÀne-Aasia) Euroopasse rĂ€nnanud inimestega ja Ponto-Kaspia stepirahvaste migratsioon. Enamik senistest uuringutest on keskendunud ĂŒldistele geneetilistele muutustele Euroopas ja nende seostele arheoloogiliste tĂ”endite ja ajalooliste sĂŒndmustega. Sellegi poolest on mĂ”ned Euroopa piirkonnad jĂ€tkuvalt vĂ€heuuritud ja neile keskendumine vĂ”ib aidata tĂ€ita lĂŒnki inimeste rĂ€ndeajaloos.
See doktoritöö keskendub geneetilise ja sotsiaalse struktuuriga seotud muutustele Apenniini poolsaarel viimase jÀÀaja maksimumi lĂ”pust Rooma vabariigi loomiseni umbes 2000 aastat tagasi. Uuringu tarbeks genereeriti ĂŒlegenoomsed andmed inimsĂ€ilmetest, mis pĂ€rinesid mitmetest arheoloogilistest leiukohtadest. Neid andmeid analĂŒĂŒsiti varem avaldatud Euraasia ĂŒlegenoomsete andmete kontekstis, et uurida ammuste populatsioonide geneetilist ĂŒlesehitust ja selle muutusi lĂ€bi aja. LĂ”plik andmestik koosneb Euraasia indiviididest, kes pĂ€rinevad paleoliitikumist (43â5 tuhat aastat enne meie aega) rauaajani (1100â700 aastat enne meie aega).
Tulemused nĂ€itavad, et Apenniini poolsaart on mĂ”jutanud jĂ€rjestikused migratsioonid, mis peegelduvad tĂ€napĂ€eva itaallaste geenitiigis ja on jĂ€tnud jĂ€lje kultuuri. TĂ€psemalt saabus eneoliitikumi-pronksiaja ĂŒleminekul stepist pĂ€rit inimestega uus geneetiline komponent ning matmiskombestikus toimunud muutused viitavad muudatustele ka sotsiaalses struktuuris. Rauaajal vĂ”ib Apenniini poolsaare kaguosas nĂ€ha erinevaid pĂ€ritolumustreid, millest nĂ€htub suur geneetiline varieeruvus.Numerous and varied genetic studies have given a new insight into our understanding of the human past. The human history of Eurasia includes multiple stages of habitation such as hunter-gatherers living in Western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic, the first contact between non-local people from the Levant and Anatolia with the introduction of agriculture and domestication to the local people during the Neolithic, and the arrival of âSteppeâ people from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. Most of the studies have been focused on the wider spectrum of genetic changes in Eurasia and the connection with archaeological evidence and historical events. However, some areas of Eurasia are still understudied, and their exploration will add more knowledge to the open gaps in the human migration history.
Therefore, this thesis focuses on the genetic and social structure-related changes of ancient human individuals from the Italian Peninsula between the last glacial maximum and ~2,000 years ago parallel with the beginning of the Roman Republic For the study, genome-wide data is generated from human remains excavated from several archaeological sites. This data is analysed in the context of previously published genome-wide data of Eurasia to study the genetic compositions and changes thereof of the ancient individuals over time. The final dataset consists of individuals from Eurasia dated between the Palaeolithic (43,000-5,000 BCE) and Iron Age (1,100-700 BCE).
The results show that the Italian Peninsula has been shaped by continuous migration events reflected in the gene pool of present-day Italians and leaving their marks on the cultures. In particular, during the Chalcolithic/Bronze Age transition, a new genetic component arrived with the Steppe people suggesting possible social structural changes seen in burial practises. In the Iron Age period, the high genetic heterogeneity is seen in the divergence of the ancestral components presented in the Southeastern Italian Peninsula.https://www.ester.ee/record=b550499
Recovering Missing Coefficients in DCT-Transformed Images
A general method for recovering missing DCT coefficients in DCT-transformed
images is presented in this work. We model the DCT coefficients recovery
problem as an optimization problem and recover all missing DCT coefficients via
linear programming. The visual quality of the recovered image gradually
decreases as the number of missing DCT coefficients increases. For some images,
the quality is surprisingly good even when more than 10 most significant DCT
coefficients are missing. When only the DC coefficient is missing, the proposed
algorithm outperforms existing methods according to experimental results
conducted on 200 test images. The proposed recovery method can be used for
cryptanalysis of DCT based selective encryption schemes and other applications.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Efficient organization of the farm industry in the North Central Region of the United States in 1980
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