• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.1-7
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relations between phonetic differences among Korean learners' production of English front vowels, pronunciation intelligibility and speaking proficiency test score. To do so, thirty Korean university students were asked (1) to read English text book paragraphs and (2) describe a picture. Two English native raters and one Korean rater evaluated Korean subjects' English pronunciation intelligibility and speaking. In addition, subjects' English vowel productions were acoustically analyzed(F0, F1, F2, vowel duration, intensity). The results of the study show that the vowel quality and pitch of the unstressed vowels and lax vowel are related to the pronunciation intelligibility. In addition, the scores of pronunciation intelligibility and speaking are highly related.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.61-68
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• 2017

The aim of this study is to investigate the prosodic aspects of ambiguous sentences in Korean produced by Chinese Korean Learners (L1: Chinese, L2: Korean). In Korean, sentence ambiguity can be caused by homonym or syntactically ambiguous structure. In spoken language however all ambiguity can be resolved by different prosodic features according to the meaning that they transmit. In this study we examined whether Chinese Korean Leaners also distinguish, in production, ambiguous sentences on the basis of prosodic characteristics. For this study 4 Korean natives speakers and 10 advanced Chinese Korean learners participated in the production test. The material analysed constituted 10 Korean sentences in which 6 sentences are lexically ambiguous and 4 sentences contain structural ambiguity. The results show that Korean native speakers produced ambiguous sentences by different prosodic structure depending on their semantic and syntactic structure. Chinese speakers also show distinct prosodic structure for different ambiguous sentences in most cases. But in the phonetic realization, the internal pitch range was greater for Korean native speakers than Chinese learners.

• 재활복지
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.165-186
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to compare adults' with intellectual disabilities voice pitch between who have choir experiences and those who do not. Participants were a total of 21 male adults with intellectual disabilities (12 choir group members and 9 non-choir group). Praat test was conducted to compare the characteristics of pitch, produced by the participants while they were singing in their comfortable pitch range. The results showed that the range of melodic contour in the choir group was broader and higher than those of the non choir group. Participants in the choir group produced a lower pitch in the beginning note, and they produced a higher pitch compared to the non-choir group on the highest and lowest note of the song. An analysis on the pitch of the individual note that the participants produced revealed a gap between the expected pitch notes and the actual notes produced while singing. In all syllables of the song, participants in the choir group showed higher accuracy of the pitch production, and significantly more accurate on the perfect fifth and eighth intervals. Regarding to the relative pitch, participants in the choir group produced significantly more accurate notes on perfect fifth, perfect fourth, and perfect eighth intervals. Findings of the study suggest that constant singing experience enable them to have pitch training. It also implies for further studies regarding to singing abilities of adults with intellectual disabilities.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.704-709
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• 2004

This paper presents the laser processing to adjust the roll and pitch directions of the flex suspension assembly for hard disk drive production. The adjustment is accomplished using a number of laser beam projections that can be approximated using the regression model of the existing measured roll and pitch directions. Information derived from the analysis can be applied to control the quality of flex suspension assembly. The performances of the proposed technique were observed using the flex suspension assembly plant in Thailand as an illustrative case study. The experimental results are given to support the improving manufacturing yields and some economic benefits of the proposed technique.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.81-88
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• 2014

The normal aging process on speech production and these changes are perceived by listeners. This study examined whether age perception changed under various conditions of prosodic manipulations in normal listeners, comparing the prosodic changes according to age and sex in adulthood. The older and younger voices were resynthesized by manipulation of the speaking rate and pitch to shift the perceived age of the groups toward each other. Two-way repeated ANOVA were conducted to determine if the prosodic type of resynthesized cue resulted in a significant shift in perceived age of young and old voices. The manipulation of the speaking rate resulted in a significant shift in perceived age for the older and younger groups. A significant shift in age estimates was not observed for the younger male group when pitch was manipulated. There were significant gender-by-age group interactions for prosodic manipulation type. Age-related changes in the prosodic properties of speech may ultimately influence speech perception.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.7-20
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• 2014

The optimal woodchip production system was developed and the production cost of a forest woodchip fuel was calculated for utilizing the pitch pine, which covers around 480,000ha nationwide. the marginal price of the woodchip fuel considering the factor of supply price, electricity and heat selling price as well as capacity factor were suggested and the economic sensitivity analysis was conducted for various scenario. The most important variable which determine economic feasibility was a fuel cost for the power generation facility. If the electricity price is higher than the current SMP(System Marginal Price) or the capacity factor is higher than 80%, there fully is a benefit to consume the woodchip fuels produced in the suggested production system in this study. In addition, the additional benefit becomes more obvious when considering REC(Renewable Energy Certificate) and CDM(Clean Development Mechanism). Therefore, it is strongly suggested for domestic power generation sector to utilize the forest biomass fuel to achieve the obligatory target of RPS.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.28-37
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• 2013

This paper presents a fault-tolerant control technique for wind turbine systems with sensor and actuator faults. The control objective is to maximize power production and minimize turbine loads by calculating a desired pitch angle within their limits. Any fault with a sensor and actuator can cause significant error in the pitch position of the corresponding blade. This problem may result in insufficient torque such that the power reference cannot be achieved. In this paper, a fault-tolerant control technique using a robust dynamic inversion observer and control allocation is employed to achieve successful pitch control despite these faults in the sensor and actuator. The observer based detection method is used to detect and isolate sensor faults by checking whether errors are larger than threshold values. In addition, the control allocation technique is adopted to tolerate actuator fault. Control allocation is one of the most commonly used fault-tolerant control techniques, especially for over-actuated systems. Further, the control allocation method can be used to achieve the power reference even in the event of blade actuator fault by redistributing the lost torque due to erroneous pitch position into non-faulty blade actuators. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through simulations with a benchmark model of the wind turbine.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.195-213
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• 2014

Recently, the horizontal axis rotor performance optimizer (HARP_Opt) tool was developed in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA. This innovative tool is becoming more popular in the wind turbine industry and in the field of academic research. HARP_Optwas developed on the basis of two fundamental modules, namely, WT_Perf, a performance evaluator computer code using the blade element momentum theory; and a genetic algorithm module, which is used as an optimizer. A pattern search algorithm was more recently incorporated to enhance the optimization capability, especially the calculation time and consistency of the solutions. The blade optimization is an aspect that is highly dependent on experience and requires significant consideration on rotor control strategies, wind data, and generator type. In this study, the effects of rotor control strategies including fixed speed and fixed pitch, variable speed and fixed pitch, fixed speed and variable pitch, and variable speed and variable pitch algorithms on optimal blade shapes and rotor performance are investigated using optimized blade designs. The effects of environmental wind data and the objective functions used for optimization are also quantitatively evaluated using the HARP_Opt tool. Performance indices such as annual energy production, thrust, torque, and roof-flap moment forces are compared.

• 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.

• Carbon letters
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.262-267
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• 2014

Pyrolized fuel oil (PFO) was reformed by novel electron beam (E-beam) radiation, and the elemental composition, chemical bonds, average molecular weight, solubility, softening point, yields, and density of the modified patches were characterized. These properties of modified pitch were dependent on the reforming method (heat or E-beam radiation treatment) and absorbed dose. Aromaticity ($F_a$), average molecular weight, solubility, softening point, and density increased in proportion to the absorbed dose of E-beam radiation, with the exception of the highest absorbed dose, due to modification by free radical polymerization and the powerful energy intensity of E-beam treatment. The H/C ratio and yield exhibited the opposite trend for the same reason. These results indicate that novel E-beam radiation reforming is suitable for the preparation of aromatic pitch with a high ${\beta}$-resin content.