This paper describes the process of building HMM-based speech synthesis system (HTS) voices for our participation in the Blizzard Challenge 2009. Out of the two languages required (English and Mandarin Chinese) we only built three Mandarin Chinese voices for main hub (MH) and two spoke (MS1 and MS2) tasks. According to the evaluation results, our MH voice got 3 points for both mean opinion scor...

This paper gives an overview over the progression and results of the VODIS (Voice-operated Driver Information Systems) project, a EU-funded project with participation of many industrial and academic partners within Europe. It describes the architecture and functionality of a driver information prototype system that is able to control telephone and audio devices, but also goes beyond these appli...

Although the importance of patient participation is acknowledged in today's healthcare, many challenges remain before patient participation can become an integral part of care provision. The ward round has traditionally been the forum for crucial decisions about patient care, but often with limited possibilities for patient participation. As part of the process of improving patient participatio...

As universities embrace widening participation, we are starting to observe sector-wide awarding gaps, and with student continuation within Engineering & Technology as one of the lowest in Higher Education (HE), it would appear that our current curricular is not always effective for attainment a diverse body. This paper highlights external driving forces related participation HE how this influen...

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to verify possible changes in depression and vocal quality in older-adults who engaged in a two-year choir singing activity. Methods: This study has a longitudinal and experimental design. The study group consisted of older-adults, 8 males and 36 females, ranging from 60 to 80 years of age, with an average of 67 years. Depression symptoms and voice quality ...

BACKGROUND Few studies have investigated the effectiveness of multifaceted interventions from the study participants' perspective. We conducted qualitative interviews to understand patients' experiences with a multifaceted blood pressure (BP) control intervention involving interactive voice response technology, home BP monitoring, and pharmacist-led BP management. In the randomized study, the i...

Unlike traditional firms, open collaborative systems rely on volunteers to operate, and many communities struggle to maintain enough contributors to ensure the quality and quantity of content. However, Wikipedia has historically faced the exact opposite problem: too much participation, particularly from users who, knowingly or not, do not share the same norms as veteran Wikipedians. During its ...

The aim of this study was to provide nursing students with an experiential learning opportunity which simulated living with the challenge of voice hearing. The purpose was to access understanding and insights of nursing students who completed "Hearing Voices that are Distressing: A Training Experience and Simulation for Students" (Deegan, 1996). Using a narrative research design and a convenien...

Art education has a range of purposes. is said to support students explore, interpret, ask critical questions, communicate and realise ideas, experiment, take risks, collaborate, tell stories and/or engage in social political actions. In this paper, we consider whether educational researchers have the same capacious view students’ potential capacities for involvement. We bring results Rapid Evi...

This paper describes a system based on a 360-degree camera with a single microphone that detects speech activity in a roundtable context for the purpose of estimating discourse participation status information for each member present. We have obtained 97% accuracy in detecting participants and have shown that the use of non-verbal and backchannel speech information is a useful indicator of part...