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Implementation of a speech recognizer and synthesizer for the physically challenged
Speech Recognition and Speech Synthesis are two complementary technologies that are used in systems to which the human voice serves as input or output. People with physical, motor disabilities prefer systems that can be driven by their voice than using the strenuous, usual and standard input-output devices such as keyboard, mouse and monitor. Solutions under the umbrella of “Assistive Technology” are designed to support people with disabilities to overcome the difficulties in handling their diurnal chores. Present-day commercial speech processing systems have received wider customer acceptance, yet not suitable for people with speech disabilities. It is observed that present-day speech recognizers fail to recognize voices with distortions, misrepresentations and deformations. The unintelligibility of the input voice limits the use of off-the-shelf speech processing products by the speech-impaired user community. In such scenarios, the speech processing systems require alterations to become suitable for the specialised user group. Techniques of adaptation are popular in the field of speaker recognition, which can be applied in the domain of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). The main aim of this research is to model a speaker adaptive system for the speech-disabled users with articulation disorders and neurologically-based disorders due to illnesses like cerebral palsy. -
Implementation of speech recognizer and synthesizer for the physically challenged
Speech Recognition and Speech Synthesis are two complementary technologies that are used in systems to which the human voice serves as input or output. People with physical, motor disabilities prefer systems that can be driven by their voice than using the strenuous, usual and standard input-output devices such as keyboard, mouse and monitor. Solutions under the umbrella of Assistive Technology are designed to support people with disabilities to overcome the difficulties in handling their diurnal chores. Present-day commercial speech processing systems have received wider customer acceptance, yet not suitable for people with speech disabilities. It is observed that present-day speech recognizers fail to recognize voices with distortions, misrepresentations and deformations. The unintelligibility of the input voice limits the use of off-the-shelf speech processing products by the speech-impaired user community. In such scenarios, the speech processing systems require alterations to become suitable for the specialised user group. Techniques of adaptation are popular in the field of speaker recognition, which can be applied in the domain of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). The main aim of this research is to model a speaker adaptive system for the speech-disabled users with articulation disorders and neurologically-based disorders due to illnesses like cerebral palsy. The problem context for this research work is two-fold: accepting the incomprehensible speech input and transforming the same into a more understandable speech. The first portion is to adapt a speech recognizer and verify the recognition accuracy; the second portion is to substitute the recognized words with a better- comprehensible voice. Due to the medical requirements of the research subjects, collecting and using live speech data of individuals is an onerous task with complex infrastructure. Also, the collection and storage of patients data are restricted by ethical procedures. Hence, the data created by various Universities, following the standard procedures in a noise-free environment are used for this research work. Experiments are conducted on the voice data sets in order to improve the recognition accuracy for speakers uttering individual words. The Speech Recognizer is implemented using Hidden Markov Models and Speech Synthesizer is implemented using a pattern-searching algorithm on a database with text input and voice output (concatenative synthesis). The adaptation techniques, viz., Maximum Likelihood Linear Regression (MLLR) and Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) are applied in a pipeline with adjusted language model and pronunciation dictionary. This has reduced the Word Error Rates (WER) of recognizing the incoherent speech. In the process of adaptation, the parameters of the acoustic model of a generic speech recognizer are altered using the feature vectors generated from the training data set applying maximum likelihood linear regression. Parameters of this updated model are then used as informative priors to MAP adaptation. Speech Synthesizer, i.e., the Text-to-Speech system then translates the recognized text into a more-intelligible voice which is clearer to the listeners. The simulation with test data sets measured the effectiveness of the combined algorithm proposed here; it produced improvements in recognition accuracy from 43% (for a speaker with 93% speech intelligibility) to 90% (for a speaker with 2% speech intelligibility). An analysis of the improvement in recognition accuracy and speed of recognition for each speaker reveals that the proposed methodology is more effective for severely dysarthric speakers than those with less speech impairments, making the proposed model socially significant. -
Heat and Mass Transfer Analysis of Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Nanofluids in The Presence of Motile Microorganisms
This dissertation deals with the analysis of heat and mass transfer in Newtonian and newlinenon-Newtonian nanoand#64258;uid in the presence of motile microorganisms. The major application of the and#64258;uids in heat and mass transfer process is its capability to conduct heat. Hence, the and#64258;uids act as a source that conducts heat and cools down the temperature of the appliance. Whereas, the capacity of heat conductance is low in case of regular and#64258;uids, hence the concept of nanoand#64258;uids was introduced whose thermal conductivity is more when compared to regular and#64258;uids. The high thermal conductivity of nanoparticles helps in conducting more heat and the property of and#64258;uid to and#64258;ow helps the nanoparticles to and#64258;ow all over the desired surface and conduct heat. During the process of nanoand#64258;uid and#64258;ow, the nanoparticles undergo random motion that is termed as Brownian motion and they also experience the thermophoretic force that causes the nanoparticles to move from hotter region to colder region. Further, the presence of nanoparticles would either result in sedimentation or formation a layer of nanoparticles over the surface. This layer of nanoparticles adhered to the surface creates corrosion. Hence, it is important to prevent the nanoparticles from forming its layer over the surface and also the sedimentation of nanoparticles must be avoided to have no blockages in the system. Hence in this regards, self propelled microorganisms newlineare allowed to swim in the nanoand#64258;uid which in turn constitutes bioconvection. Considering these assumptions, problems in this dissertation are modelled such that it deals with the analysis of bioconvection caused due to the swimming of microorganisms in the and#64258;ow newlineof nanoand#64258;uid. The mathematical models of the and#64258;ow, heat and mass transfer of Newtonian and non Newtonian nanoand#64258;uids are designed using the partial differential equations with various assumptions to achieve realistic results. -
Impact of photographs and its placement in news articles on readers /
The research is carried out to study the impact of photographs and its placement on readers in newspapers. The photographs and headline are the heavyweights, more than any other element they attract attention. This study tries to focus on the role of photographs in newspaper articles on its readers. It evaluates on the terms of its placement as well. Photographs in newspapers are researched through semiotics analysis, content analysis and other qualitative techniques. This study is undertaken in both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The researcher has used the random sampling technique with a sample size of 108. The analysis is also made on the basis of in-depth interview with experienced and seasoned members of print organisations. -
THE INFLUENCE OF HYPNOTIC RELAXATION ON STRESS AMONG BSc. NURSING STUDENTS
The study aims to understand the influence of hypnotic relaxation on stress among BSc. Nursing Students. It tries to find out whether hypnotic suggestions can be useful in dealing with stressful events in their hospital and study level experiences. Convenience sampling technique was employed. The GHQ -12 was administered as a screening tool to the 1st and 2nd year nursing students from NIMHANS. 60 BSc. nursing students were selected after GHQ screening. These 60 participants responded as having high perceived stress and divided into two groups. The experimental group had 30 participants and control group had 30 participants. Post assessment indicated that the experimental group who were provided with regular hypnotic relaxation had significantly reduced their perceived stress. Key Words: Hypnotic Relaxation, Stress, BSc. Nursing Students. -
CONTENT ANALYSIS OF EDUCATION NEWS AND SPECIAL FEATURES - A CASE STUDY ON TIMES OF INDIA
Education, in any form of media is an aspect for the audience and it is immensely newsworthy. When the broadcast media counterparts are dominating the print scene, it is important that the newspapers introduce new sections to attract the audience and increase readership. Times of India, the leading Indian English daily is known for its innovative features and stylish presentation. The researcher will look at the serious side of the newspaper and try to establish the efforts and the ideas gone behind covering the education subject and establishing a trust between its readers on education. The researcher will try to identify and analyze the different kinds of features and articles which are constantly placed for the education section and which are different from any other daily newspaper. The paper tries to find out how effective these segments on education can be on the readers. -
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Experiences of mindfulness-based relapse prevention on the smoking behaviour of working women
Smoking is the highest cause of preventable deaths in the world. The number of working women prone to addiction is high due to the levels of stress witnessed. The number of working women who have taken up to smoking has increased and is said to increase by 20 percent by the year 2025 if not addressed. Mindfulness, a Buddhist meditative technique helps with managing addiction to nicotine. Mindfulness based relapse prevention has showed promise to reduce relapse levels amongst people who smoke. The primary objective of the study is to check the experiences of mindfulnessbased relapse prevention (MBRP) on the smoking behaviour of working women in India. An embedded experimental design was carried out on eight working women who were selected using purposeful sampling. The participants went through eight two- hourly sessions of MBRP therapy, one session a week. Three sets of interviews (pre-intervention, mid intervention and post-intervention) were conducted including pre and post-test to check the levels of abstinence self-efficacy, mindfulness, perceived stress and craving. Follow up was carried out one week, one, two and six months post intervention. Thematic analysis was used for interpretation of qualitative data and paired sample t test was used for analysis of quantitative data. Themes that emerged were experiences with the habit of smoking, which included history of newlineinitiation, reasons for smoking, transformation seen and history of quit attempts. Four weeks into the intervention the themes that emerged were impactful components within self, supporting outcomes of practice and challenging experiences. Post the intervention experiencing changes, experiencing challenges through the intervention and strategies for abstinence and continued practice emerged. Mindfulness and abstinence self-efficacy had risen whereas craving and stress had reduced. Follow up at one week showed no changes in results. One and two months follow up showed newlinereduced practice hours of mindfulness with no full-blown relapse. -
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Development and Efficacy of Parenting Skill Training for Mothers of Adolescents in Kerala
The primary objective of this research is to develop and assess the effectiveness of an intervention program tailored for mothers of adolescents in Kerala to strengthen their parenting skills. The digital age and unique socio-cultural context present new challenges in child-rearing, and existing parenting programs fall short of addressing these evolving issues. The study employed a mixed-method framework with specific objectives to fill this research gap. The research unfolded in three phases. The initial stage encompassed comprehensive interviews with ten mothers and their adolescents, utilizing a constructionist model for thematic analysis. It unveiled five main and 22 sub-themes, shedding light on mothers' and adolescents' needs and challenges in Kerala. The second phase focused on designing an intervention module specifically suited to address the needs and challenges identified in the qualitative phase. The study used a pre-test, post-test, and experimental design with a control group for the third phase. The researcher used the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire, the Family Environmental Scale, and the Parental Satisfaction Scale to measure the efficacy of the training. The results presented significant improvements in parenting practices in the experimental group, particularly in positive parenting and mothers' involvement with their children. Corporal punishment and inconsistent discipline decreased, while family environment and parenting satisfaction increased. This study contributes substantially to the mental health field by offering an evidence-based program to assist mothers in navigating parenting challenges during adolescence. This intervention aims to improve family dynamics and adolescent well-being. It is a valuable resource for trainers seeking to facilitate behavioral changes within the target groups. -
Empirical analysis of antecedent and mediators on turnover intention of educators in higher educational institutions
Employees are undoubtedly the key intangible asset to any organization. Fundamentally employees are the building blocks and they are the brand ambassadors of their organization to the society. Therefore, considering competition in today's world, retaining key employees is of genuine concern for every organization. Among many perils that organizations wrestle with, turnover intention is a persistent and pervasive issue that every organization has to face irrespective of the type and size of the organization. -
Design, Synthesis, and Applications of Carbon Dots with Controlled Physicochemical Properties
Modification of carbon dots (CDs) is essential to enhance their photophysical newlineproperties and applicability. Physical (e.g., composite material blending, coreshell architecture) and chemical (e.g., doping, surface passivation) methods exist to modify CDs. Different precursors can impart varied functionalities and heteroatomic dopants on CDs. Despite several modification strategies, the reproducibility and scalability of CDs still need to be improved. Newer approaches for modifying CDs are thus essential to ensure lab-to-lab and batchto-batch consistency. Our study focused on developing novel strategies for the physicochemical modifications of CDs. The theoretical simulation we performed for surface-functionalised CDs with the aid of density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory helped to predict the mechanism of photoluminescence (PL) and to analyse the effect of hydrogen bonding on the newlineproperties of CDs (Chapter 3). We have developed a novel and general method for preparing amine functionalized CDs from modified paper precursors (Chapter 4). This strategy allows us to prepare CDs with customized functionalities, alleviating the post-synthesis modification. A novel ionimprinting strategy involving CDs synthesised from modified paper precursors newlinewas also developed through our research (Chapter 5). In another work, we utilized silk fibers as a matrix for immobilising CDs (Chapter 6). CDs prepared from mulberry leaves were fed to silkworms to produce CD-embedded silk fibres, which could be used to detect dopamine. In addition, we prepared CDs newlinefrom an unreported natural source (frankincense), which were used to detect lead ions (Chapter 7). We demonstrated the heavy metal sensing application of these newlineCDs in combination with a UV-light LED chip and a smartphone, which is relevant in resource-limited areas. The research results presented in the thesis are expected to inspire further investigations and applications related to CDs. -
A study on the role of media in the promotion of the konkani language /
Traditions and language have become crucial aspects in keeping up the culture of a particular place. A language is one of the most important means through which a culture can be sustained and even prevented from dying in the light of the westernization and globalization of the society that we are living in today. One such language that has been facing immense threat against the growing strengths and forces of the Westernised world is that of Konkani, a language most typically spoken on the Western coast of India, also known as the Konkan coast. -
A COMPARITIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN HOLLYWOOD AND INDIAN MOVIES DEALING WITH THE TOPIC CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Capital Punishment is a much debated topic in the country and around the world. Films are a major of information where one can propagate an idea to a wide range of audience. Being a topic of general concern, it is important to discuss the relevance of capital punishment on screen (in a movie) and carry forth the happening debate onscreen. The paper tries to do a comparative study between English and Indian movies dealing with the topic. -
Critical analysis of computer application at secondary schools of Bangalore district
Computer is an electronic device that has the capacity to store,
retrieve and process both qualitative and quantitative information fast and accurately. Over the past few years the growth of the computer industry has been quiet remarkable and today it is the fastest growing industry in our economy. The use of computers is not restricted only to office desktops or laptops. We see the use of computers all around us. Computers have made our lives simple and very convenient by catering to our needs at a click of the mouse; we use computers practically for every activity in our lives. Computers are being used in most of the appliances or gazettes that we use in our day to day living, thereby making it the most important part of our lives. Education system is not an exception to the same. -
Efficacy of priniciple based accounting on internal governance and financial performance
The introduction of IFRS has fuelled the expectation of users of financial newlinestatements on the potential benefits of adoption. Studies have indicated the newlinebenefits of IFRS adoption such as higher comparability of financial statements among companies operating in different jurisdictions, reduces transaction costs, and access to international capital through cross border listings and greater foreign investment (Aharony, Barniv and Falk, 2010 and newlineDunne, et al. 2008). Several studies have been done to analyze the consequences of IFRS adoption on financial statement items (Lantto and Sahlstrom, 2009; Dunne et al. 2008). Most of these studies were restricted to European countries and some Australian and Canadian countries as they were the early adopters. India has planned to converge with IFRS and not adopt. Adoption means applying IFRS as issued by IASB. Convergence means India would newlineharmonize its national accounting standards in compliance with IFRS as this provides freedom to protect the local business environment. These harmonized accounting standards are notified by Ministry of Corporate Affairs and are called Ind AS. As on date 39Indian accounting standards newlineharmonized with IFRS has been notified by Ministry of Corporate Affairs newline(ICAI,2015a). A road map for convergence with IFRS was notified by Ministry of newlineCorporate Affairs in a phased manner effective April 2011 (MCA, 2010). newlineAs the deadline was not met due to various reasons, a revised notification newlineand implementation roadmap has been issued by MCA in Feb, 2015 recommending Indian Companies with a net worth of over Rs. 500 Crore to converge with IFRS with effect from 1st April 2016 (ICAI, 2014; MCA,2015). newlineThe Finance Minister had also in his budget speech of 2014-15, indicated that Indian companies have to report IFRS voluntarily from 2015-16 and mandatorily from 2016-17 to make financial statement of Indian Companies newlinecomparable to 120 countries which are already reporting and also to fulfill the commitment made to G20 nations. -
Development and effectiveness of a screening measure and a computerized cognitive remediation program for children with reading and arithmetic difficulties
Reading and arithmetic skills are considered as the foundation skills necessary for educational and vocational success. Research has outlined the important role of specific cognitive functions for efficient reading, comprehension of text and arithmetic processes. Learning difficulties have been shown to have a tremendous impact on later life, both in academics and social relationships. It therefore becomes imperative that we identify, as early as possible, children ‘at risk’ for learning difficulties and attempt to assess the relevant cognitive skills and plan and execute intervention programs to improve the efficacy of these cognitive skills. This present study has attempted to do this, keeping the Right to Intervention (RTI) model as the rationale and has focussed on designing an assessment tool along with a remediation program based on the cognitive viewpoint.