Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PRODUCTION PLANNING HYPOTHESIS: EVIDENCE FROM PALATALIZATION IN AMERICAN ENGLISH

The study examines palatalization in American English (the Buckeye corpus) to test the predictions of the Production Planning Hypothesis: its prediction is that the rate of palatalization is positively correlated with smoothed conditional probability of the palatalizing context. We controlled for target segment, height of the vowel, grammar, speech rate,gender and age by including them as covariates in the mixed effects binomial logistic regression model. The statistically significant effect of probability is in line with our prediction. This substantiates the claim that the size of the planning window increases the likelihood of reduction processes. Our findings provide further evidence for Production Planning Hypothesis from a non-reductory process.
Differential effects of prosodic boundary on glottalization of word-initial vowels in Korean

This study explores how the voice quality of word-initial vowels is modified by prosodic boundary in Korean. Prosodic boundary effects were examined where the boundaries were aligned with syntactic junctures, resolving structural ambiguity of coordinate structures ( Noun1-hako Noun2 animjʌn Noun3 , ‘N1-and N2 or N3’). Results showed asymmetrical effects depending on whether the test word was a noun or a function word. Vowels tended to be glottalized less for N2 but more for animjʌn (‘or’) phrase-initially (at the Intonational-Phrase boundary) than phrase-medially. Notably, however, in the less glottalized case, there was much larger preboundary lengthening, compared to the more glottalized case. These results indicate that word-initial vowels are not necessarily glottalized to provide an invariant prosodic boundary marker. Rather, the modification of voice quality, we suggest, is modulated systematically by an optimization of the phonetics-prosody interplay that takes into account the relative contribution of available prosodic/segmental cues to signal prosodic structure.
A MEMS Sensor Based on A Laterally Movable Gate Field-Effect Transistor (LMGFET) with A Novel Decoupling Sandwich Structure

This paper presents the development of a novel micro force sensor based on a laterally movable gate ﬁeld-effect transistor (LMGFET). A precise electrical model is proposed for the performance evaluation of small-scale LMGFET devices and exhibits improved accuracy in comparison with previous models. A novel sandwich structure consisting of a gold cross-axis decoupling gate array layer and two soft pho-toresistive SU-8 layers is utilized. With the proposed dual-differential sensing conﬁguration, the output current of the LMGFET lateral operation under vertical interference is largely eliminated, and the relative output error of the proposed sensor decreases from 4.53% (traditional differential conﬁguration) to 0.01%. A practicable fabrication process is also developed and simulated for the proposed sensor. The proposed LMGFET-based force sensor exhibits a sensitivity of 4.65 l A (cid:1) nN (cid:3) 1 , which is comparable with vertically movable gate ﬁeld-effect transistor (VMGFET) devices, but has an improved nonlinearity of 0.78% and a larger measurement range of ±5.10 l N. These analyses provide a comprehensive design optimization of the electrical and structural parameters of LMGFET devices and demonstrate the proposed sensor’s excellent force-sensing potential for biomedical micromanipulation applications. (cid:1) 2022 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier LTD on behalf of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Higher Education Press Limited Company. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
The Role of Prosody and Beat Gesture in Enhancing Memory for Discourse Information in Mandarin

Both auditory (e.g., prosody) and visual cues (e.g., beat gesture) available in communication are important for listeners to comprehend discourse, given that speech is multimodal. While a vast amount of research has been devoted to investigating the role of prosody in discourse comprehension, it is surprising that relatively little research has been conducted to uncover how visual cues interact with auditory cues given the importance of visual cues in speech processing. This paper examines the roles of prosodic prominence and beat gesture in the memory for discourse information in Mandarin. A dominant role of prosody but not beat gesture was found in facilitating the memory for discourse information. This study contributes significantly to our limited knowledge of multimodal comprehension of focus, and how cues from multilevel sources are integrated.
Reinforcement Learning-Based Receiver for Molecular Communication with Mobility

Molecular communication (MC) is getting closer to becoming a next-generation communication technology with many applications in life sciences and other industrial applications. Multiple techniques have been proposed on how to design MC receivers depending on the channel characteristics. Experimentally, first testbeds also demonstrate the potentialities for communication using molecules as carriers. In this paper, we focus on developing a reinforcement learning (RL)-based receiver, targeting a realistic scenario with testbed measurements, and addressing transmitter mobility. Leveraging on reported solutions for machine learning (ML) methods, we demonstrate the usability of an RL agent to synchronize the receiver to the received signal. We evidence the learning capabilities of the agent to compensate for the impact of mobility, achieving a low probability of missed detection and small misalignment with the symbol time.
COMPARING APPLES TO ORANGES - ASYNCHRONY IN JAW & LIP ARTICULATION OF SYLLABLES

This study examines jaw and lip aperture characteristics of syllables. High correlations were found between velocity and displacement of opening/ closing of lips and jaw, similar to previous studies. However, lip aperture opening velocity changed as a function of manner and voicing of syllable onset while jaw opening velocity, except for a plosive onset, did not change. In addition, differences were found in timing between jaw opening and lip aperture opening, and the amount of difference varied as a function of syllable type (open/closed) and voicing/ manner of the consonant. Our interpretation of the asynchronous patterns of lip and jaw articulation is that the jaw is the syllable articulator and the lips are the syllable onset/coda articulators. The findings of this study have application to language acquisition as well as to stuttering research.
Allelopathic effect of different solvent extracts of Turnera subulata Sm. leaves against selected plants and weed

Nor Atirah, M. A. , Yusoff, N. , Shaffiq, S.M.A., Mohd Fahmi, A. B. & Chuah, T. S. (2023). Allelopathic effect of different solvent extracts of Turnera subulata Sm. leaves against selected plants and weed. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 29 (3) , 490–500 Allelopathy had been identified as an alternative in minimize the dependency of herbicide in controlling weed. There has been limited research performed on Turnera subulata Sm. , despite the exploration of allelopathy in the Passifloraceae family. In this research, the allelopathic effect of T. subulata leaf extracts was investigated on bioassay species of mustard, wheat grass, and weedy rice under laboratory conditions using various solvents, including water, methanol, ethyl acetate, and hexane. The experiments were conducted in different concentrations; 0.1, 1, 10, 50, and 100 mg/ml leaf extracts in five replicates. The total phenolic and flavonoid compounds of both leaf extracts were also determined. T. subulata leaf extracts significantly reduced the growth of bioassay species at 50 and 100 mg/ml. At 100 mg/ml, off-white Turnera aqueous extract suppressed the most in root length of mustard, followed by the yellow Turnera , with 92% and 89% of inhibition, respectively, compared to the control. Aqueous extracts had the strongest inhibitory effect on the root growth of all species. The degree of phytotoxic activity of different solvent extracts on both yellow and off-white T. subulata can be classified in the order of decreasing inhibition as follows: water > methanol > ethyl acetate > hexane. When evaluated at 0.1 and 1.0 mg/ml of all solvents, there was a substantial stimulatory effect on the root and shoot growth of the bioassay species. The allelopathic activities of T. subulata leaf extract greatly depended on extract concentrations, bioassay species, and solvent types. These findings can be used as a benchmark for future weed management strategies.
The Implementation Success of Technology-Based Counseling in Dementia Care: Scoping Review

Background Implementing technology-based counseling as a complex intervention in dementia care poses challenges such as adaptation to stakeholders’ needs and limited resources. While studies have examined the effectiveness of technology-based counseling, its successful implementation remains largely unexplored. Objective We aimed to review the knowledge about the implementation success of technology-based counseling interventions for people with dementia and their informal caregivers. Methods We conducted a scoping review and systematically searched CINAHL, the Cochrane Library including the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Web of Science Core Collection databases (April 2021) in combination with citation searching and web searching (November 2021). Studies reporting on technology-based counseling interventions for people with dementia or their informal caregivers were included, irrespective of the design. We used the conceptual framework for implementation outcomes to operationalize implementation success and applied the outcomes acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, feasibility, fidelity, implementation cost, penetration, and sustainability as categories to inform data extraction. We identified dimensions within the categories and synthesized results narratively and graphically. Results We included 52 publications reporting on 27 technology-based counseling interventions. The studies were conducted in 9 countries and published between 1993 and 2021. As the design of the included studies varied, the number of participants and the type of data reported varied as well. The intervention programs were heterogeneous and ranged from single counseling interventions (such as helpline services) to counseling as part of a multicomponent program. Telephone, email, videoconferencing, social media (respectively chats), and web-based platforms were used for delivering counseling. We found data on appropriateness for all interventions and data on acceptability for most interventions, describing aspects such as consumer-perceived usefulness and helpfulness of services, as well as satisfaction. Information on the other categories of adoption, feasibility, fidelity, implementation cost, penetration, and sustainability was fragmented. Conclusions The scope and depth of information on conceptual categories of the implementation success of technology-based counseling for people with dementia and informal caregivers varied. The data only partially covered the concept of implementation success, which highlights the need for a systematic evaluation accompanying the implementation. The application of theoretical approaches for implementation and adherence to the framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions are required to promote the implementation of complex interventions and to comprehensively assess implementation success. Trial Registration PROSPERO CRD42021245473; https://www.crd. york.ac. uk/prospero/display_record. php? RecordID=245473
SEGMENTAL ACCURACY AND L2 INTELLIGIBILITY: NATIVE AND NONNATIVE LISTENERS’ PERSPECTIVES

This study investigated the contribution of listeners’ L1 and stimulus properties to the perception of L2 speech. Thirty-nine listeners from five L1 backgrounds (native English, Korean, Mandarin, Indonesian, Turkish) completed a minimal-pairs forced choice task recorded by twenty Korean EFL talkers; the percentage of accurate word identification (i.e., intelligibility) was measured across listeners. Stimulus properties were measured by error coding focusing on ten target phonemes. Moderate to strong intergroup correlations suggested similarities in listeners’ perceptions regardless of L1 backgrounds. No evidence for interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit (ISIB) was found for the nonnative listeners; in fact, native listeners always outperformed the nonnative listeners who shared (Korean) and did not share L1 with the talkers. Consonant errors (but not vowel errors) were linked to lower intelligibility. The effect of stimulus properties was further discussed in relation to the role of L1 Korean-specific interlanguage features in listeners' perception of L2 speech.
Two-year intercomparison of three methods for measuring black carbon concentration at a high-altitude research station in Europe

Black carbon (BC) is one of the most important climate forcer with severe health effects. Large uncertainties in radiative forcing estimation and health impact assessment arise from the fact that there is no standardised method to measure BC mass concentration. This study presents a two-year comparison of three state-of-the-art BC measurement techniques at the high-altitude research station Pic du Midi located in the French Pyrenees at an altitude of 2877 m above sea level. A recently upgraded aethalometer AE33, a thermal-optical analyzer Sunset and a single-particle soot photometer SP2 were deployed to 5 measure simultaneously the mass concentration of equivalent black carbon (M eBC ), elemental carbon (M EC ) and refractory black carbon (M rBC ), respectively. Significant deviations in the response of the instruments were observed. All techniques responded to seasonal variations of the atmospheric changes in BC levels and exhibited good correlation during the whole study period. This indicates that the different instruments quantified the same particle type, despite the fact that they are based on different physical principles. However the slopes and correlation coefficients varied between instrument pairs. The largest 10 biases were observed for the AE33 with M eBC values that were around 2 times greater than M rBC and M EC values. The principal reasons of such large discrepancy was explained by the too low MAC and C values recommended by the AE33 manufacturer and applied to the absorption coefficients measured by the AE33. In addition, the long-range transport of dust particles at PDM in spring caused significant increases in the bias between AE33 and SP2
COARTICULATION AND CONTRAST IN A VOWEL HARMONY SYSTEM: COARTICULATORY PROPENSITY IN KHALKHA MONGOLIAN V-C-V SEQUENCES

Vowel harmony has been understood to emerge when listeners fail to perceptually compensate for acoustic variation due to coarticulation. Assuming such an account, what explains the maintenance of non-harmonic domains in the grammar? Towards understanding this, we examine coarticulation within a synchronic system with well-established patterns of harmony and non-harmony. In Khalkha Mongolian, vowels in non-compound words share the features [ATR] and [round], harmony operating in the carryover (left-to-right) direction. The high-front vowel /i/ does not participate in harmony, giving “non-harmonic” VCV sequences. We quantify coarticulatory variation by comparing dependencies in first-and second-formant frequencies (F1&F2) of vowels in harmonic vs non-harmonic VCV sequences. Unlike the former, the latter show greater coarticulation in the anticipatory (right-to-left) direction—opposite to that of vowel harmony. /i/, which is transparent to harmony, demonstrates high coarticulatory resistance [1]. We argue that in systems where vowel harmony is well-established, synchronic patterns of coarticulatory propensity serve to limit feature-sharing in non-harmonic domains.
WORD-LEVEL PROMINENCE AND “STRESS DEAFNESS” IN MALTESE-ENGLISH BILINGUALS

This study investigates “stress deafness” in bilingual speakers of Maltese and Maltese English. Although both reportedly have lexical stress, the acoustic cues to prominence appear to be relatively weak. Further, word-initial pitch peaks make pitch an unreliable cue to lexical stress, which can be elsewhere in the word. In a sequence recall task, we show that speakers dominant in Maltese exhibit a classic “stress deafness” effect, similar to speakers of French. Speakers who identify as balanced or Maltese English dominant have more diverse results and do not show such a strong tendency towards “stress deafness”. These speakers may rely on their exposure to other varieties of English to identify (and recall) word prominences. This study suggests that the nature of stress in Maltese might need to be revisited.
PHONOLOGICAL AND SOCIOPHONETIC INFORMATION IN DYSARTHRIC SPEECH: A FIRST ARTICULATORY INVESTIGATION ON ITALIAN

In Italian, alveolar plosives and fricatives are different phonemes, and in some varieties the formers may be realized as aspirated consonants, which represent sociophonetic markers. Dysarthric speakers may experience different types of difficulty in producing the segments mentioned above, as fricatives are known to require finer supralaryngeal control than plosives, and a specific synchronization of laryngeal and supralaryngeal gestures is required in producing aspirated plosives. In this paper, plosives, fricatives, and plosive aspiration phases are acoustically and articulatorily investigated in Parkinsonian dysarthric Italian speakers and matching controls. Research questions concern both aspects of motor control strategies in consonant production, and possible differences in the realization of phonemic distinctions and sociophonetic markers. Results suggest that, even if fricatives and plosives are kept different, the disease seems to have a stronger impact on the production of the latter. Changes may regard both the realization of phonemic distinctions and the production of sociophonetic markers.
TOP-DOWN EFFECTS OF LEXICAL PITCH ACCENT ON PHONETIC CATEGORIZATION IN JAPANESE

Although recent studies have shown that spoken word recognition is achieved with reference to not only segmental but also lexical prosodic information, the role of lexical prosody in speech perception is not well established. The present study investigated whether Japanese pitch accent has effects on phonetic categorization of voiceless–voiced continua (e.g., tansu LHH – dansu LHH, in which only tansu LHH “wardrobe” is a real word, and tansu HLL – dansu HLL, in which only dansu HLL “dance” is a real word). The results demonstrated that listeners were inclined to identify the voicing of the initial consonant so that the entire input resulted in a real word with consideration of pitch accent information. This suggests that Japanese pitch accent has a top-down effect on phonetic categorization, providing further evidence that lexical prosody plays a role in spoken word recognition in Japanese.
NON-PULMONIC INITIATION IN HUMAN BEATBOXING: A REAL-TIME MRI STUDY

Human Beatboxing (HBB) is a musical technique produced by vocal tract movements. Beatboxers seem to exploit vocal tract capacities to their full extent. Thus, HBB is a good paradigm to study production mechanisms. This study uses aerodynamic and laryngoscopic along with 2D MRI data to analyze non-pulmonic initiation mechanisms during HBB production. The production of 4 professional beatboxers was analyzed while producing glottalic and lingual mechanisms. Results shows that glottalic mechanisms result from a sequence of laryngeal vertical movement, tongue root maneuvers and, sometimes, additional pharyngeal gestures to increase or decrease pressure. Lingual mechanisms were produced by front-back tongue movements to generate egressive or ingressive airflows. A reformulation of Catford model of initiation mechanisms, in terms of initiatory gestures rather than aerodynamic parameters, is proposed.
DO WORDS SING THEIR OWN TUNES? WORD-SPECIFIC PITCH REALIZATIONS IN MANDARIN AND ENGLISH

This study investigates the pitch realizations of disyllabic words in Mandarin and English spontaneous speech. From two spoken corpora, we obtained F0 measurements for Mandarin words with the Rise-Fall tonal pattern, and for English words with left stress. Analyses were conducted on the pitch contours of these words, using Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs). Pitch excursions in Mandarin were generally larger, and had narrower confidence intervals compared to English, consistent with Mandarin being a tone language. Surprisingly, for both languages, word identity accounts for a considerable amount of variance in F0, independently of other covariates such as speaker sex and speech rate. The GAMMs reveal that words have their own characteristic pitch contours, just as they have their own characteristic segmental realizations. A word’s specific F0 contour probably reflects the contexts and context-sensitive senses that are most common and characteristic for that word.
INVESTIGATING SOUND CHANGE THROUGH COMPUTATIONAL AGENT-BASED MODELLING: AN R PACKAGE

We introduce the R package soundChangeR : an implementation of a computational, agent-based model of sound change. This model rests upon ideas from exemplar theory about how the memorisation of traces of speech can result in phonetic imitation, perceptual learning, and eventually phonetic and phonological change. In theoretical views of the exemplar-based relation between speech production and perception, it has so far remained unclear whether some stored exemplars may contribute more to a listener-turned-speaker’s future production than others. Using the cognitively-inspired architecture of soundChangeR we show that it makes a difference whether the agents preferably memorise typical and/or unambiguous exemplars. Memorising only exemplars that are typical members of their phonological class can reinforce phonetic biases, whereas memorising only unambiguous exemplars creates a repulsion between phonological classes. We argue that using such computational models can lead to new theoretical insights and we encourage readers to try soundChangeR on their own data.
SPRAAKLAB: a mobile laboratory for collecting speech production data

In this paper, we discuss the specifications of a mobile laboratory, dubbed SPRAAKLAB, and how we use it for acquiring research-grade acoustic and articulatory data in the field, thereby providing access to participant populations which are otherwise hard to study. In addition, we illustrate how the mobile laboratory supports public engagement activities in combination with research data acquisition, allowing us to entertain and inform an interested audience about speech research, while simultaneously collecting speech production data from dozens of participants in a matter of days.
Grazing intensity effects on the partitioning of evapotranspiration in the semiarid typical steppe ecosystems in Inner Mongolia

Grazing intensity effects on the evapotranspiration (ET) partitioning into evaporation (E) and transpiration (T) were investigated using eddy covariance measurement data during the growing season (May to September) from 2005 to 2008 over typical steppes in Inner Mongolia, China. Four grazing intensities were examined (UG79, ungrazed since 1979; WG, winter grazed; CG, continuously grazed; HG, heavily grazed). Soil water content (SWC) significantly influenced daily T/ET by affecting T and E in different ways. On a monthly scale, T/ET at UG79 (0.46–0.77) increased with vegetation growth regardless of the uneven distribution of precipitation. The mean T/ET at UG79 for the growing season ranged from 0.50 to 0.74 for 2005 to 2008. In the normal precipitation year (2006), WG and HG reduced T/ET because they significantly reduced T through the removal of leaf area. In the dry year (2005), this negative effect on T was depressed by summer droughts, while WG and HG decreased E primarily due to the decreased interception of rainfall by the canopy. The grazing effect on T/ET was opposite to that in 2006. These results indicate that grazing effects on ET partitioning could vary with soil water conditions in the semiarid typical steppe ecosystems.