We propose a modiŽ cation of local polynomial time series regression estimators that improves efŽ ciency when the innovation process is autocorrelated. The procedure is based on a pre-whitening transformation of the dependent variable that must be estimated from the data. We establish the asymptotic distribution of our estimator under weak dependence conditions. We show that the proposed estima...

In this contribution, a time-varying linear prediction method is applied to speech processing. In contrast to the commonly used linear prediction approach, the proposed time-varying method considers the continuous time evolution of the vocal tract and, additionally, avoids block-wise processing. On the assumption that the linear predictor coefficients evolve linearly in sections and continuousl...

Does current research on the Classical sonata apply to Romantic modifications of the form? Although Hepokoski and Darcy amply demonstrate the increasing frequency of ambiguous or missing points of sectional closure, they do not address the possibility that this " extreme " and " unthinkable " Classical technique might not bear the same weight in the Romantic sonata. Even a cursory examination o...

In recent years, corpus phonetics has become a rapidly expanding field. However, the lack of appropriate tools for automatic acoustic analysis hinders further development of the field. In this paper, we present a methodological study on the automatic extraction of vowel formants using both robust linear predictive coding (RLPC; Lee, 1988) and dynamic formant tracking (Talkin, 1987). Acoustic da...

In this fourth report of the Navigator Network notable trends in emerging areas of science and technology and their associated policy implications include: • Recognition of the importance of climate change and the limits of growth more generally continue to have a wide impact on scientific, technological and policy development. • Energy security concerns continue to drive renewable energy resea...

iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank to my thesis supervisor Assoc. Prof. Levent M. Arslan for his guidance and support. It was a great pleasure to work with him during this thesis and in all the projects we have been involved in the last three years. I would like to thank Prof. reading my thesis and participating in my thesis committee. I would like to thank to my family and to Aylin for...

The time derivatives of speech energy, such as the delta and the delta-delta log energy, have been known as critical features for automatic speech recognition (ASR). However, their discriminative ability in lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) could be limited or even becomes harmful because of the corruption of energy contour. By taking the advantage of the spectral characteristic of in-car noise...

Is (sub)urban forest diversity shaped by previous land use? This study was designed to quantitatively assess the impacts of subdivision development on urban tree-species composition in two Canadian cities: Halifax, Nova Scotia, and London, Ontario. The main goal was to determine whether cities with contrasting pre-urbanized or pre-settlement landscapes—woodlands in Halifax and agricultural fiel...