• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.95-105
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• 2006

The primary goal of therapeutic intervention in dysarthric speakers is to increase the speech intelligibility. Decision of critical features to increase the intelligibility is very important in speech therapy. The purpose of this study is to know the effects of pitch increasing training (PIT) on speech of a subject with Parkinson's disease (PD). The PIT program is focused on increasing pitch while a vowel is sustained with the same loudness. The loudness level is somewhat higher than that of the habitual loudness. A 67-year-old female with PD participated in the study. Speech therapy was conducted for 4 sessions (200 minutes) for one week. Before and after the treatment, acoustic, perceptual and speech naturalness evaluation was peformed for data analysis. Speech and voice satisfaction index (SVSI) was obtained after the treatment. Results showed Improvements in voice quality and speech naturalness. In addition, the patient's satisfaction ratings (SVSI) indicated a positive relationship between improved speech production and their (the patient and care-givers) satisfaction.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.499-511
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• 2008

The major focus of this study is to evaluate a newly developed stream naturalness index system 'Habitat-riparian Indexing System (HIS).' There have been many studies that have assessed stream naturalness in order to provide information required for restoration. The results of these studies were enough for the purpose of the studies; however, the methodologies were limited especially with respect to rapid measurement and the representation of ecological habitats. Therefore, we derived crucial variables from a popularly utilized method and merged them with other criteria obtained from overseas approaches, resulting in the development of the HIS method. The stability of HIS was evaluated by comparing the results with the Stream Naturalness Index (SNI) of Cho (1997). We monitored 100 stream sites in the Nakdong River system using the two different methods for two sampling periods (spring and autumn), and the results were compared using statistical analyses. The determination coefficients between the index values from two methods were c.a. 0.6 for both seasons, and statistics revealed that HIS had a relatively higher stability, providing index values for stream environments. The results of this work suggest a possibility of the utility of HIS for other stream habitats.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.107-121
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• 2023

The assessment of perceived naturalness aims to elucidate the human perception and explain the interaction between natural environments and humans. The perception of ecological assets that exhibit distinct characteristics within a specific region can manifest in various representations. Based on the users' perceptions and interviews regarding ecological assets, this study assessed the perceived naturalness from a cultural services perspective. Specifically, the discussions on Ansan City's ecological assets and revolved around the inherent value of naturalness in dimensions, such as the necessity for conservation and the sustainable development of ecological assets, the perception of ecosystem benefits, the representativeness as a local asset, and usability. Subsequently, the Q method was employed to present 25 representative ecological assets to 25 users. As a result, user groups with different value systems for each question were identified, and hypothetical personas for cultural service enjoyment were distinguished. The most representative persona among the 25 users was identified as AWP (a type that values the conservation of aquatic ecosystems, prefers waterfront landscapes, and enjoys walking). Since perceived naturalness is conceptually similar to the "benefits perceived by users" in evaluating ecosystem services, it can provide more practical evaluation criteria for cultural services.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Environment and Ecology Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.243-246
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• 2009

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.67-76
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• 2024

Recent advances in text-to-speech (TTS) technology have significantly improved the quality of synthesized speech, reaching a level where it can closely imitate natural human speech. Especially, TTS models offering various voice characteristics and personalized speech, are widely utilized in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI) tutors, advertising, and video dubbing. Accordingly, in this paper, we propose a one-shot multi-speaker TTS system that can ensure acoustic diversity and synthesize personalized voice by generating speech using unseen target speakers' utterances. The proposed model integrates a speaker encoder into a TTS model consisting of the FastSpeech2 acoustic model and the HiFi-GAN vocoder. The speaker encoder, based on the pre-trained RawNet3, extracts speaker-specific voice features. Furthermore, the proposed approach not only includes an English one-shot multi-speaker TTS but also introduces a Korean one-shot multi-speaker TTS. We evaluate naturalness and speaker similarity of the generated speech using objective and subjective metrics. In the subjective evaluation, the proposed Korean one-shot multi-speaker TTS obtained naturalness mean opinion score (NMOS) of 3.36 and similarity MOS (SMOS) of 3.16. The objective evaluation of the proposed English and Korean one-shot multi-speaker TTS showed a prediction MOS (P-MOS) of 2.54 and 3.74, respectively. These results indicate that the performance of our proposed model is improved over the baseline models in terms of both naturalness and speaker similarity.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.70-76
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• 2009

In speech communications in noisy environments, speech intelligibility is seriously degraded due to the masking effect of ambient noise. In this paper, a new method to improve speech intelligibility in noisy environments is proposed. Based on the perception theory that the temporal envelope plays a major role in determining intelligibility, the proposed method uses a novel operation that enhances the fluctuation of band-wise temporal envelope and also contains pitch enhancement for improving speech naturalness. In addition, a new subjective evaluation scheme employing binaural listening is proposed in order to measure more reliable performance. The subjective performance measured with the proposed scheme shows that the proposed method improves both intelligibility and naturalness in various environments, whereas a function parameter can control the performance trade-off between intelligibility and naturalness.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.5 no.1 s.9
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• pp.35-44
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• 1999

The purpose of this study is to find the bi-polar adjectives for rural stream landscape evaluation by the semantic differential scale and to suggest the major determinants of visual preference in rural stream landscapes. For this, the bi-polar adjectives for rural stream landscape evaluation was found by the method of the reliability test, and the spatial image was analyzed by the factor analysis. The level of visual preference was measured by slide simulation test, and these data were analyzed by the multiple regression. The major findings of this study can be summarized as follows : 1) Of the bi-polar adjectives expressing psychological and physical characteristics, the hi-polar adjectives which demonstrated reliability and consistency run as follows : Bi-polar adjectives expressing psychological characteristics : 'calm-bustling', 'unfamiliar-familiar', 'still-active','depressing-brisk', 'discomfortable-comfortable', 'suppressed-free', 'lifeless-living', 'quiet-noisy', 'unpleasant-pleasant'. Bi-polar adjectives expressing physical characteristics : 'artificial-natural', 'narrow-wide', 'rocky-not rocky', 'desolate-fertile', 'dirty-clean', 'enclosed-open', 'flat-steep', 'not gravelly-gravelly', 'thicketed-not thicketed', 'not weedy-weedy'. 2) Two factors, the harmony and the movement, were derived from the factor analysis for the psychological variables. Three factors, the naturalness, the rock, and the vegetation, were derived from the factor analysis for the physical variables. 3) Rural stream landscape types were classified into four types by the multi-dimensional scaling method. Type III, IV obtained higher rank of visual preference and type I, II obtained lower. 4) For all types, the factors determining the level of visual preference were found to be the harmony, the naturalness, and the vegetation. The visual preference determinants of rural stream landscape need to be considered in improving or restoring the rural stream landscapes.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.11-26
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• 1994

The criteria which have been used for the assessment of wildlife conservation values and particularly botanical values during the last decade, 1969~1986, were reviewed in order to select an appropriate set of criteria applicable for Korea. Fifteen studies, including studies of particular sites reviews of ecological evaluation are reviewed. Four criteria, rarity, diversity, size & extent and naturalness were used in more than half of these studies reviewed. The sixteen components were arranged with the scale of the sites, in view of the Korean situation. The human Interference, ecological fragility. as well as rarity, etc. were major components to be considered at small scale sites. In the contrary, area, diversity position in ecological and geographical unit, and naturalness, etc. considered the major components at larger scale sites. The components such as uniqueness, typicalness, research and educational, etc. were considered both applicable. Although this criteria should be tested by applications in the field and amended there after, It will be one of the first-step to evaluate of the protected areas, as well as specific plant species in the future.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.390-407
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• 2020

This study was carried out to evaluate the restoration effect in the restored Yangjae stream and to draw up an adaptive management plan based on the results. As the result of evaluation on the restoration effect, the restored Yangjae stream was evaluated with low naturalness in both terms of the morphology of the stream and the composition and spatial distribution of vegetation. The diverse functional groups were introduced in the vegetation restoration, but the flooding regime, which is significant in the spatial distribution of riparian vegetation, were not correctly reflected. Exotic species or species that were not ecologically suitable for the location were introduced on the embankment and thus a measure to improve those problems is required. As the ecological principle was not reflected in the restoration plan, the stream was constructed as the double terrace structure. Therefore, the width of the waterway was narrowed further, and the waterfront was not designed to accommodate changes from flooding disturbance, making the micro-topography of the stream simpler and the naturalness lower. The adaptive management plan was prepared to improve those problems, and a plan for creating an ecological network was recommended to enhance the restoration effect.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.105-114
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• 2021

This study aims to evaluate the differences in visual images due to the variations in the silhouette and jacket type of men's suits. Six samples were used for this study: 3 examples had variations in the silhouette while 2 variations were in the jacket type. They were evaluated using a 7-point rating scale and a survey was conducted among 80 fashion students. The data was analyzed by Factor Analysis, ANOVA, Scheffé Test, and the MCA method. This study's results are as follows: 1) According to Factor Analysis, the components of visual evaluation by the silhouette and the jacket type of men's suit were classified into: attractiveness, masculinity, practicality, and naturalness. Among these factors, attractiveness and masculinity were evaluated to be the most important factors. 2) Men's suits with a single-breasted jacket had a simple and practical images in fitted and boxy silhouettes. Double-breasted jacket suits showed sexy, refined, and chic images in the fitted and slim silhouettes, and expressed an adult, profound, and conservative images in the boxy and fitted silhouettes. 3) The silhouette and the jacket type of men's suit interacted with masculinity and the practicality. Fitted and slim silhouette suits had different images that looked adult, profound, and conservative depending on the jacket type, but the boxy silhouette suit did not show the same effect. 4) According to the MCA on the attractiveness and the naturalness, the jacket type affected the visual image of men's suit more than the silhouette. Double-breasted jacket suits had more sexy, refined, and chic image than the single-breasted jacket suits. Men's suits with a single-breasted jacket had a more comfortable and natural image than those with a double breasted jacket.