In this paper we evaluate the WER improvement from modeling pronunciation probabilities and word-specific silence probabilities in speech recognition. We do this in the context of Finite State Transducer (FST)-based decoding, where pronunciation and silence probabilities are encoded in the lexicon (L) transducer. We describe a novel way to model word-dependent silence probabilities, where in ad...

Lei Jin argues in her paper, "Silence and Sound in Kurosawa's Throne of Blood," that silence and sound are employed as vehicles to explore the major themes of Kurosawa's Throne of Blood, fate, ambition, and destruction. By examining closely a few dramatic moments of the film, Lei demonstrates that silence and the interaction between silence, natural sound, and Noh music enhance the effect of Ku...

The purpose of this exploratory study is threefold: first, to analytically explore the boundary conditions of the robust existence of spiral of silence; second, to gauge how social interactions influence the formation of spiral of silence; third, to analyze the dynamic characteristics of the process in the aspect of size-dependent and time heterogeneity. By proposing an agent-based model of spi...