title: Natural language processing in speech understanding systems

authors: Holmes, Geoffrey

subjects: Machine learning

abstract: Speech understanding systems (SUS's) came of age in late 1971 as a result of a five year development programme instigated by the Information Processing Technology Office of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the Department of Defense in the United States. The aim of the programme was to research and develop practical man-machine communication systems. It has been argued since, that the main contribution of this project was not in the development of speech science, but in the development of artificial intelligence. That debate is beyond the scope of this paper, though no one would question the fact that the field to benefit most within artificial intelligence as a result of this programme is natural language understanding. More recent projects of a similar nature, such as projects in the United Kingdom's ALVEY programme and Europe's ESPRIT programme have added further developments to this important field. This paper presents a review of some of the natural language processing techniques used within speech understanding systems. In particular, techniques for handling syntactic, semantic and pragmatic information are discussed. They are integrated into SUS's as knowledge sources. The most common application of these systems is to provide an interface to a database. The system has to perform a dialogue with a user who is generally unknown to the system. Typical examples are train and aeroplane timetable enquiry systems, travel management systems and document retrieval systems.

text: Natural language processing in speech understanding systems Speech understanding systems (SUS's) came of age in late 1971 as a result of a five year development programme instigated by the Information Processing Technology Office of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the Department of Defense in the United States. The aim of the programme was to research and develop practical man-machine communication systems. It has been argued since, that the main contribution of this project was not in the development of speech science, but in the development of artificial intelligence. That debate is beyond the scope of this paper, though no one would question the fact that the field to benefit most within artificial intelligence as a result of this programme is natural language understanding. More recent projects of a similar nature, such as projects in the United Kingdom's ALVEY programme and Europe's ESPRIT programme have added further developments to this important field. This paper presents a review of some of the natural language processing techniques used within speech understanding systems. In particular, techniques for handling syntactic, semantic and pragmatic information are discussed. They are integrated into SUS's as knowledge sources. The most common application of these systems is to provide an interface to a database. The system has to perform a dialogue with a user who is generally unknown to the system. Typical examples are train and aeroplane timetable enquiry systems, travel management systems and document retrieval systems.

year: 1992

title: A supercapacitor technique for efficiency improvement in linear regulators

authors: Kularatna, Nihal

subjects: engineering

abstract: Paper describes a novel supercapacitor based approach to recover the wasted energy in linear regulators. In this US patent pending technique, a single supercapacitor or an array of supercapacitors could be coupled with a linear series or shunt regulator, where the supercapacitors are charged by the input current of the regulator. This supercapacitor technique, by maintaining the dropout voltage limit before a new capacitor is placed in the series path, recovers the energy and does not use the supercapacitors for voltage conversion. Average efficiency of the overall circuit is improved by a significant amount, while maintaining the useful hall marks of a linear regulator. An example of a 12 to 5 volt proof of concept circuit is detailed with an overall efficiency improvement from 42% to over 78%. The technique is versatile, and, can be developed further to compete with the higher efficiency switching power supplies.

text: A supercapacitor technique for efficiency improvement in linear regulators Paper describes a novel supercapacitor based approach to recover the wasted energy in linear regulators. In this US patent pending technique, a single supercapacitor or an array of supercapacitors could be coupled with a linear series or shunt regulator, where the supercapacitors are charged by the input current of the regulator. This supercapacitor technique, by maintaining the dropout voltage limit before a new capacitor is placed in the series path, recovers the energy and does not use the supercapacitors for voltage conversion. Average efficiency of the overall circuit is improved by a significant amount, while maintaining the useful hall marks of a linear regulator. An example of a 12 to 5 volt proof of concept circuit is detailed with an overall efficiency improvement from 42% to over 78%. The technique is versatile, and, can be developed further to compete with the higher efficiency switching power supplies.

year: 2009

title: Barriers and facilitators of access to psychological services for indigenous populations: A scoping review and thematic analysis

authors: Plessas, Anna

abstract: Background:
The extent to which behavior-analytic interventions are offered to Indigenous populations across CANZUS in accessible and culturally appropriate ways is unknown. We conducted a scoping review with a thematic analysis of the extant literature to find: (1) what are the barriers and facilitators for providing effective and equitable delivery of psychological services (with a behavioral component) to Indigenous populations; and (2) what tools and practices exist for an effective and equitable service delivery.
Methods:
We systematically reviewed Medline, CINAHL, PubMed, PsycInfo, Web of science, Ovid and INNZ databases between 1990 and 2020. For the scoping review, we adhered to the JBI methodological approach (2015) and the PRISMA strategy for the identification, selection, and appraisal of the reviewed articles. A total of 1265 unique articles met the criteria for the screening by title; 238 by abstract; 57 were included for full text assessment; and 37 were included in the final analysis.
Results:
Three themes were revealed to account for the barriers and facilitators of culturally friendly practices: (1) connecting practices are about interactions shaping the relationship between service provider and service client; (2) innovative practices test new approaches and innovations that could facilitate access to psychological services and overcome barriers, and (3) reflective practices are about critically examining the processes and actions undertaken toward effective cultural adaptation of services.
Conclusions:
Our analysis suggests that the level of success in bringing together services and the recipients of treatment (connection), showing flexibility and persistence in finding solutions (innovation) and examining the role of our behaviors in reaching our goals (reflection) is determined by the providers' action in the aforementioned three dimensions of practice.

text: Barriers and facilitators of access to psychological services for indigenous populations: A scoping review and thematic analysis Background:
The extent to which behavior-analytic interventions are offered to Indigenous populations across CANZUS in accessible and culturally appropriate ways is unknown. We conducted a scoping review with a thematic analysis of the extant literature to find: (1) what are the barriers and facilitators for providing effective and equitable delivery of psychological services (with a behavioral component) to Indigenous populations; and (2) what tools and practices exist for an effective and equitable service delivery.
Methods:
We systematically reviewed Medline, CINAHL, PubMed, PsycInfo, Web of science, Ovid and INNZ databases between 1990 and 2020. For the scoping review, we adhered to the JBI methodological approach (2015) and the PRISMA strategy for the identification, selection, and appraisal of the reviewed articles. A total of 1265 unique articles met the criteria for the screening by title; 238 by abstract; 57 were included for full text assessment; and 37 were included in the final analysis.
Results:
Three themes were revealed to account for the barriers and facilitators of culturally friendly practices: (1) connecting practices are about interactions shaping the relationship between service provider and service client; (2) innovative practices test new approaches and innovations that could facilitate access to psychological services and overcome barriers, and (3) reflective practices are about critically examining the processes and actions undertaken toward effective cultural adaptation of services.
Conclusions:
Our analysis suggests that the level of success in bringing together services and the recipients of treatment (connection), showing flexibility and persistence in finding solutions (innovation) and examining the role of our behaviors in reaching our goals (reflection) is determined by the providers' action in the aforementioned three dimensions of practice.

year: 2021