• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.23-29
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• 2019

This study acoustically examines the quality of fricatives produced by ten dysarthric speakers with cerebral palsy. Previous similar studies tend to focus only on sibilants, but to obtain a better understanding of how dysarthria affects fricatives we selected a range of samples with different places of articulation and voicing. The Universal Access (UA) Speech database was used to select thirteen words beginning with one of the English fricatives (/f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ð/). The following four measurements were taken for both dysarthric and healthy speakers: phoneme duration, mean spectral peak, variance and skewness. Results show that even speakers with mild dysarthria have significantly longer fricatives and a lower mean spectral peak than healthy speakers. Furthermore, mean spectral peak and variance showed significant group effects for both healthy and dysarthric speakers. Mean spectral peak and variance was also useful for discriminating several places of articulation for both groups. Lastly, spectral measurements displayed important group differences when taking severity into account. These findings show that in general there is a degradation in the production of fricatives for dysarthric speakers, but difference will depend on the severity of dysarthria along with the type of measurement taken.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.327-353
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• 2022

With the development of technology and media and the pursuit of non-face-to-face due to the corona pandemic, the influence of live commerce, a real-time streaming shopping channel, is growing. Starting from China, the popularity of live commerce is growing all over the world, and it has become an interesting topic among many practitioners and researchers. However, compared to its popularity, there are few studies on live commerce. Therefore, we build a theoretical model in terms of IT affordance such as visibility, guidance shopping, trading, and meta-voicing and investigate how live commerce affects engagement with customers. We empirically measure 428 individuals who have used live commerce using survey data. In addition, we conduct four types of scenario experiments on whether social cues on exposures of other consumers, influence customer engagement. Our results show that trading affordance has the most significant effect. This shows that the live commerce platform may want to devise a program that helps make payment easier for users who prefer a quick and simple process. Our study contributes to the literature by presenting the importance of IT affordance for live commerce.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.65-73
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• 2010

No systematic study has examined the relationship between acoustic variability and /w/-deletion in Korean. Most previous studies on /w/-deletion have described /w/-variants in categorical terms, i.e., /w/-deletion or a full glide (Silva 1991; Kang 1997; Yun 2005). These studies are based either on impressionistic judgements without a systematic acoustic analysis or on an exclusive examination of internal acoustic variability of /w/ such as F2, without examining the availability of external acoustic cues such as voice onset time (VOT) of a consonant. However, given the important influence of the adjacent sounds for segmental realizations, it is necessary to examine possible acoustic variability in the differentiation of /w/-variants. The present study aims to address this issue by evaluating the acoustic properties of /CwV/, including VOT and formant transitions. In the analysis, 432 tokens in word-initial position (216 /CwV/ words and 216 /CV/ words) were examined. The results indicated that /w/ exhibits four different variants. Firstly, /w/ is realized as a full glide. Such a variant is characterized by a VOT difference and significant differences in F1 and F2 at voicing onset compared with /CwV/ and /CV/. Secondly, /w/ can be maintained but coarticulated with the following vowel. Such a variant is demonstrated by differences in VOT and F2. Thirdly, /w/ is categorically deleted, which is indicated by the absence of any differences in VOT, F1, and F2. Fourthly, /w/ overlaps a consonant. The F2 difference without VOT difference is manifested in the variant. In contrast to VOT, F1, and F2 differences, pitch plays little role in determining /w/-variants in Korean. These findings suggest that allophones can be produced along a gradient continuum of acoustic cues, exhibiting sounds intermediate between the full realization of a given category and its deletion. Furthermore, each variant can be cued by a set of internal and external acoustic cues.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.203-217
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• 2008

The number of Asian women immigrants in Korea is getting bigger and it's important to note that their communication problem in Korean causes not only the difficulty of adapting to Korean society but their children's speech-language disorder. To date there is little research on their acoustics characters and articulatory errors. Therefore, this study focuses on acoustic characters and articulatory error patterns of the women immigrants from Japan and Philippine based on the theory of "contrastive analysis". The subjects were 16 Japanese women immigrants(age: 42.5$\pm$4.4) and 14 Philippine women immigrants(age: 31.64$\pm$6.7) and control group consisted of 10 Korean women(age: 28.3$\pm$1.2). Speech and hearing of all subjects and control group were within normal limits. Speech samples were analyzed in a computer using CSL and data analysis was done on FFT widow for F1, F2, F3 of vowels and on wideband spectrogram for VOT of plosives and africatives. The results of this study were like this; For Japanese women immigrants, they had different articulatory patterns of /e/, /a/, /u/, /o/, /$\varepsilon$/, /m/ from those of Koreans and showed articulatory errors on the fortis and aspirated sounds. The reason is Japanese has only two distinctive characters for plosives and affricates; voicing and voiceless. The Philippine women immigrants also showed the same error patterns as the Japanese women immigrants. Especially the errors on aspirated sounds were prominent because their mother tongue has no distinctive characters about aspirated sounds. For vowels, they showed errors of /a/, /o/, /c/.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.274-274
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• 1996

This presents the preliminary results from work in progress of a paired study of the acquisition of voiceless stops by Spanish speakers learning English, and American English speakers learning Spanish. For this study the hypothesis was that the American speakers would have no difficulty suppressing the aspiration in Spanish unaspirated stops; the Spanish speakers would have difficulty acquiring the aspiration necessary for English voiceless stops, according to Eckman's Markedness Differential Hypothesis. The null hypothesis was proved. All subjects were given the same set of disyllabic real words of English and Spanish in carrier phrases. The tokens analyzed in this report are limited to word-initial voiceless stops, followed by a low back vowel in stressed syllables. Tokens were randomized and then arranged in a list with the words appearing three separate times. Aspiration was measured from the burst to the onset of voicing(VOT). Both the first language (Ll) tokens and second language (L2) tokens were compared for each speaker and between the two groups of language speakers. Results indicate that the Spanish speakers, as a group, were able to reach the accepted target language VOT of English, but English speakers were not able to reach the accepted range for Spanish, in spite of statistically significant changes of p<.OOl by speakers in both groups of learners. A closer analysis of the speech samples revealed wide variability within the speech of native speakers of English. Not only is variability in English due to the wide range of VOT (120 msecs. for English labials, for example) but individual speakers showed different patterns. These results are revealing for the demands requied in experimental designs and the number of speakers and tokens requied for an adequate description of different languages. In addition, a simple report of means will not distinguish the speakers and the respective language learning situation; measurements must also include the RANGE of acceptability of VOT for phonetic segments. This has immediate consequences for the learning and teaching of foreign languages involving aspirated stops. In addition, the labelling of spoken language in speech technology is shown to be inadequate without a fuller mathematical description.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.6-11
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• 2010

Amid the rapid transitions in both local and international markets, the Korean dental industry is facing more challenges than at any time in its history. This paper tried to address some of the key issues faced by the industry as well as the policy issues and I direction of implementation that the Korean Dental Association (KDA) is expected to tackle. First, the direction of reforming the country's health insurance system was examined with emphasis on the expected changes in and improvement of the fee-for-service reimbursement system (FFSRS) and medical reimbursement system (MRS). With FFSRS, the most urgent issue would be ameliorating the current lop-sided, unreasonable reimbursement system that prevents suppliers from voicing their opinions. To help achieve that goal, the limited authority and responsibility of the president of National Health Insurance Corporation (NHIC) as one of the contract-making parties must be clarified. In addition, the functions of NHIC's Health Insurance Finance Committee must be restricted; at the same time, the panel organization of the Health Insurance Policy Review Committee needs to be reformed to embrace greater democracy. As with MRS, the government is considering a block budget bill to help promote efficiency in employing and managing the health insurance fund. Policymakers must understand that the implementation of such proposal could exacerbate an already dire situation. Improving MRS requires meeting the following preconditions: (a) the structurally vicious cycle of small charge-small salary needs to be resolved, and a certain percentage of fee raise must be guaranteed on a yearly basis to help adjust the fee system to a more realistic level; (b) the supply-and-demand balance in producing health care professionals must be improved including the prevention of oversupply of doctors, nurses, etc., and; (c) institutional strategies must be provided to enhance the quality of medical care and ensure academic advancement in health care disciplines.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.112-116
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• 2015

Background and Objectives : Aerodynamic analysis is an examination which provides information regarding various vocalization measures indicating laryngeal efficiency. Voice evaluation using such examination must be capable of distinguishing between normal to abnormal voice. It also observes variables on aerodynamic characteristics by gender in regards to patients of vocal disorders, especially of vocal cord paralysis and vocal polyp, and compares the conditions before and after surgery. This paper therefore, seeks to build a framework for establishing standard levels of aerodynamical characteristic on vocal disorders. Subjects and Methods : The study was intended for a total number of 20 patients with vocal polyp or unilateral vocal cord paralysis. Those with the vocal polyp underwent laryngomycroscopy surgery and the vocal cord paralysis, vocal fold injection using Restylane. Aerodynamic analysis fulfilled the Maximum sustained Phonation (MXPH) and Voicing Efficiency (VOEF) by using PAS Model 6600 (KayPENTAX, USA). Results : In MXPH, increase in PHOT were evident with vocal polyp after surgery. As for patients with vocal cord paralysis, MAXDB, MEADB, DHODB, PHOT all have increased and MEAP, PEF, MEAF decreased after surgery. In VOEF, patients with vocal cord paralysis who underwent surgery showed increase in MAXDB, MEADB, DHODB, FET100, ARES, but decreases in PEF, TARF. Conclusion : Overall, it can be concluded that patients with the vocal polyp and vocal cord paralysis seemed to get closer to the normal values after than before surgery in majority of measures. This confirms that the function of their vocal cord has improved nearly to normality through operations.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.61-70
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• 2012

The current study observes the durational interaction of tautosyllabic consonants and vowels in the word-initial position of English and Korean child-directed speech (CDS). The effect of phonological laryngeal contrasts in stops on the following vowel duration, and the effect of the intrinsic vowel duration on the release duration of preceding stops in addition to the acoustic realization of the contrastive segments are explored in different prosodic contexts - phrase-initial/medial, focal accented/non-focused - in a marked speech style of CDS. A trade-off relationship between Voice Onset Time (VOT), as consonant release duration, and voicing phonation time, as vowel duration, reported from adult-to-adult speech, and patterns of durational variability are investigated in CDS of two languages with different linguistic rhythms, under systematically controlled prosodic contexts. Speech data were collected from four native English mothers and four native Korean mothers who were talking to their one-word staged infants. In addition to the acoustic measurements, the transformed delta measure is employed as a variability index of individual tokens. Results confirm the durational correlation between prevocalic consonants and following vowels. The interaction is revealed in a compensatory pattern such as longer VOTs followed by shorter vowel durations in both languages. An asymmetry is found in CV interaction in that the effect of consonant on vowel duration is greater than the VOT differences induced by the vowel. Prosodic effects are found such that the acoustic difference is enhanced between the contrastive segments under focal accent, supporting the paradigmatic strengthening effect. Positional variation, however, does not show any systematic effects on the variations of the measured acoustic quantities. Overall vowel duration and syllable duration are longer in English tokens but involve less variability across the prosodic variations. The constancy of syllable duration, therefore, is not found to be more strongly sustained in Korean CDS. The stylistic variation is discussed in relation to the listener under linguistic development in CDS.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.28 no.3C
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• pp.239-247
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• 2003

This paper presents a dual-rate (2.4/4.0 kbps) Improved Harmonic-CELP(IHC) speech coder based on the EHC(Efficient Harmonic-CELP) which was presented by the authors. The proposed IHC employs the harmonic coding for voiced and the CELP for unvoiced segments. In the IHC, an initial voiced/unvoiced estimate is obtained by the pitch gain and energy. Then, the final V/UV mode is decided by using the frame energy contour. A new harmonic estimation combining peak picking and delta adjustment provides a more reliable harmonic estimation than that in the EHC. In addition, a noise mixing scheme in conjunction with an improved band voicing measurement provides the naturalness of the synthesized speech. To demonstrate the performance of the proposed IHC coder, the coder has been implemented and compared with the 2.0/4.0 kbps HVXC(Harmonic excitation Vector Coding) standardized by MPEG-4. Results of subjective evaluation showed that the proposed IHC coder and produce better speech quality than the HVXC, with only 40% complexity of the HVXC.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture International Edition
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• no.2
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• pp.178-184
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• 2004

The Yatomi - Aioiyama line is a city-planning road that was notified in 1957 and subsequently prepared by land readjustments. Currently, approximately 900m of road pass in the inside of the Aioiyama green area has not been constructed. The surveying briefing session for inhabitants was held in July 1992, the project was authorized by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in September 1993, and the project briefing session for inhabitants was held in September 1993. The site purchase has been completed. At the May 2000 briefing session, inhabitants of the area began voicing dissenting demanding the conservation of the natural environment of this green area. The inspector system serves as the third party, independent of both the administration and the inhabitants. Before finalizing the geometric line form of the road to be constructed, some surveys of animals and plants found along the walking trails carried out intensively in the northern area, which is approximately 50 ha, of the Aioiyama green area. The natural environment inspector submitted a plan for changing the geometric line form of the road decided upon by city planning, and it was approved by the city planning council. If the shelter structure or the retaining wall structure is adopted at the location where large slope faces are produced by excavation or landfill, and if the bridge structure is adopted at the place where stream-lines and walking trails intersect, it leads to a reduction of approximately $40\%$ in the areas for which change is planned. Furthermore, approximately $20\%$ of the area to be changed is restored by returning soil to the roof of the shelter.