• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.13-20
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• 2023

This study explores the potential of automated speech recognition (ASR) in assessing English learners' pronunciation. We employed ASR technology, acknowledged for its impartiality and consistent results, to analyze speech audio files, including synthesized speech, both native-like English and Korean-accented English, and speech recordings from a native English speaker. Through this analysis, we establish baseline values for the word error rate (WER). These were then compared with those obtained for human raters in perception experiments that assessed the speech productions of 30 first-year college students before and after taking a pronunciation course. Our sub-group analyses revealed positive training effects for Whisper, an ASR tool, and human raters, and identified distinct human rater strategies in different assessment aspects, such as proficiency, intelligibility, accuracy, and comprehensibility, that were not observed in ASR. Despite such challenges as recognizing accented speech traits, our findings suggest that digital tools such as ASR can streamline the pronunciation assessment process. With ongoing advancements in ASR technology, its potential as not only an assessment aid but also a self-directed learning tool for pronunciation feedback merits further exploration.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.35 no.7C
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• pp.604-610
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• 2010

In this paper we proposed FSFN (Filter bank sub-band energy subtraction based CLSFN) method to improve the recognition performance of the existing CLSFN (Cepstral distance and Log-energy based Silence Feature Normalization). The proposed FSFN reduces the energy of noise components in filter bank sub-band domain when extracting the features from speech data. This leads to extract the enhanced cepstral features and thus improves the accuracy of speech/silence classification using the enhanced cepstral features. Therefore, it can be expected to get improved performance comparing with the existing CLSFN. Experimental results conducted on Aurora 2.0 DB showed that our proposed FSFN method improves the averaged word accuracy of 2% comparing with the conventional CLSFN method, and FSFN combined with CMVN (Cepstral Mean and Variance Normalization) also showed the best recognition performance comparing with others.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.71-87
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• 2024

In this paper, we adopt the MF-DCCA (Multifractal Detrended Cross-Correlation Analysis) method to study the nonlinear correlation between the returns of financial stock markets and investors' sentiment index (SI). The return series of Shanghai Securities Composite Index (SSEC) of China, Shenzhen Securities Component Index (SZI) of China, Nikkei 225 Index (N225) of Japan, and Standard & Poor's 500 Index (S&P500) of the United States are adopted. Firstly, we preliminarily analyze the correlation between SSEC and SI through the Pearson correlation coefficient. In addition, by MF-DCCA, we observe a power-law correlation between investors' sentiment index and SSEC stock market returns, with a significant multifractal correlation. Besides, SI series and SSEC return series have positive persistence. We compare the differences in multifractal cross-correlation between SI and stock return sequences in different markets. We found that the values of SZI-SI in terms of cross-correlation persistence and cross-correlation strength are relatively close to those of SSEC-SI, while the H_xy(2), ∆H_xy, and ∆α_xy of N225-SI and S&P500 are much smaller than those of SSEC-SI and SZI-SI. This reason is related to the fact that the investors' sentiment index originated from the Shanghai Composite Index Tieba. The SI is obtained through natural language processing method. Finally, we study the rolling of H_xy(2) and ∆α_xy. Results indicate that the macroeconomic environment may cause fluctuations in two sequences of H_xy(2) and ∆α_xy.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.17-29
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to find out the effects of depression on older adults' metamemory and memory performances. The subjects of the study consisted of 103 older adults over the age of 60 who are living in Kangwon Province. Some data were collected by means of the interview method, using questionnaires for metamemory (MIA questionnaire by Hultsch, et al., 1988), and depression(GDS by Yesavage and Sheikl, 1986). Other data were collected by a testing method on the memory performance, such as the immediate word recall task, the delayed word recall task, the word recognition task(Elderly Verbal Learning Test by Kyung Mi Choi, 1998), and the face recognition task(Face Recognition Task tool developed by this study). The results of this study were as follows: 1) The average point of depressed older persons' metamemory is 3.2 on a 5 point scale and was significantly lower than nondepressed older persons' point of 3.6. Looking into each sub-concept of metamemory, depressed persons' points are higher in terms of task(4.1), but are lower in terms of change(2.3), locus(2.6), and strategy(2.9) in comparison with nondepressed persons' points. 2) Depressed older persons' memory performances are all significantly lower than nondepressed person's, especially in terms of face recognition task(t=7.26, p<.0082) and word recognition task(t=6.58, p<.01). 3) In both depressed and nondepressed persons, metamemory has a close correlation with all memory tasks. In particular, depressed older persons' correlation is higher across the board, especially in memory self-efficacy of metamemory(r=.36 - .49) in comparison with nondepressed persons. 4) According to the results of analysis on the relations between metamemory and memory performances of each memory task using canonical analysis, in the case of depressed older persons, strategy, locus, capability and task have high correlation with word recognition task and delayed word recall task. Also in the case of nondepressed persons, achievement, strategy, change and locus variable have high correlation with face recognition task and immediate word recall task. As mentioned above, depression variables have a negative effect on older persons' metamemory and memory performance. In conclusion, when we care for depressed older persons with less memory ability, we have to consider the outcomes of this study are relevant. In addition, it is necessary to develop nursing intervention in order to prevent memory loss and improve memory performance in depressed older persons.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.521-524
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• 2009

Everyone can easily acquire learning materials on web environment that rapidly develops. Because the importance of English education has been emphasized day by day, many English education systems are introduced. However, previous most English education systems support only single user mode, and cannot deal with a newly coined word such as 'WIKIPEDIA'. In order to lead a user's learning ability with interest and enjoyment, this paper propose an online English word game system implementing a 'scrabble' board game. The proposed English word game system has the following characteristics. First, the proposed system supports both single user mode and multi user mode with a virtual user based on artificial intelligence. Second, the proposed system can recognize newly coined words such as 'WIKIPEDIA' by using NEVER Open API dictionary. Third, the proposed system offers familiar user interface so that a user can play the game without any manual. Therefore, it is expected that the proposed system can help users to learn English words with interest and enjoyment.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.99-132
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to propose AET (Augmented and Extended Topics), a novel method of synthesizing both LDA and BERTopic results, and to analyze the recently published LIS articles as an experimental approach. To achieve the purpose of this study, 55,442 abstracts from 85 LIS journals within the WoS database, which spans from January 2001 to October 2021, were analyzed. AET first constructs a WORD2VEC-based cosine similarity matrix between LDA and BERTopic results, extracts AT (Augmented Topics) by repeating the matrix reordering and segmentation procedures as long as their semantic relations are still valid, and finally determines ET (Extended Topics) by removing any LDA related residual subtopics from the matrix and ordering the rest of them by F₁ (BERTopic topic size rank, Inverse cosine similarity rank). AET, by comparing with the baseline LDA result, shows that AT has effectively concretized the original LDA topic model and ET has discovered new meaningful topics that LDA didn't. When it comes to the qualitative performance evaluation, AT performs better than LDA while ET shows similar performances except in a few cases.

• Archives of Metallurgy and Materials
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• v.66 no.4
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• pp.931-934
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• 2021

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have attracted substantial interest as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries because of the low cost. There have been many studies on the development of new anode materials that could react with sodium by conversion mechanism. SnO₂ is a promising candidate due to its low cost and high theoretical capacity. However, SnO₂ has the same problem as other anodes during the conversion reaction, i.e., the volume of the anode repeatedly expands and contracts by cycling. Herein, anode is composed of carbon nanofiber embedded with SnO₂ nanopowder. The resultant electrode showed improvement of cyclability. The optimized SnO₂ electrode showed high capacity of 1275 mAh g^-1 at a current density of 50 mA g^-1. The high conductivity of the optimized electrode resulted in superior electrochemical performance.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.663-667
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• 1999

In this paper, we review the conventional speaker verification algorithm and present the text-dependent speaker verification system for application over telephone lines and its result of experiments. We apply blind-segmentation algorithm which segments speech into sub-word unit without linguistic information to the speaker verification system for training speaker model effectively with limited enrollment data. And the World-mode] that is created from PBW DB for score normalization is used. The experiments are presented in implemented system using database, which were constructed to simulate field test, and are shown 3.3% EER.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.347-359
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• 2023

With the development of infrastructure, there is a critical shortage of filling materials all over the word. However, a large amount of silt accumulated in the lower reaches of the Yellow River is treated as waste every year, which will cause environmental pollution and waste of resources. Microbial induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) technology, with the advantage of efficient, economical and environmentally friendly protection, is selected to solidify the abandoned Yellow River silt with poor mechanical properties into high-quality filling material in this paper. Based on unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test, determination of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) content and scanning electron microscope (SEM) test, the effects of cementation solution concentration, treatment times and relative density on the solidification effect were studied. The results show that the loose silt particles can be effectively solidified together into filling material with excellent mechanical properties through MICP technology. The concentration of cementation solution have a significant impact on the solidification effect, and the reasonable concentration of cementation solution is 1.5 mol/L. With the increase of treatment times, the pores in the soil are filled with CaCO₃, and the UCS of the specimens after 10 times of treatment can reach 2.5 MPa with a relatively high CaCO₃ content of 26%. With the improvement of treatment degree, the influence of relative density on the UCS increases gradually. Microscopic analysis revealed that after MICP reinforcement, CaCO₃ adhered to the surface of soil particles and cemented with each other to form a dense structure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.249-249
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• 2010

We investigated novel surface treatment and its impact on silicon photovoltaic cells. Using 2-step etching methods, we have changed the nanostructure on pyramid surface so that less light is reflected. This work proposes an improved texturing technique of mono crystalline silicon surface for solar cells with sub-nanotexturing process. The nanotextured silicon surface exhibits a lower average reflectivity (~4%) in the wavelength range of 300-1100nm without antireflection coating layer. It is worth mentioning that the surface of pyramids may also affect the surface reflectance and carrier lifetime. In one word, we believe nanotextruing is a promising guide for texturization of monocrystalline silicon surface.