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Kyushu University, 会議名: 言語資源活用ワークショップ2018, 開催地: 国立国語研究所, 会期: 2018年9月4日-5日, 主催: 国立国語研究所 コーパス開発センター, 英語における前置詞句のアクセントは、非英語母語話者にとって、学習が難しい点の一つとなる。本研究では、Kishida et al. （2016）が提案した起点移動因子分析という分析手段を用い、前置詞と直後の名詞又は名詞句からなる前置詞句に着目して、前置詞句の音響的特徴および知覚的な役割を調べることを目的とする。前置詞句の役割を明らかにするために、英語母語話者三名（男1名、女2名）が発話したイギリス英語音声データベースを構築し、研究を行った。収録された音声に対し、音素ごとにラベルを付けた。前置詞句を含む対象音声を20臨界帯域に分割して、因子分析を行った。そこから、３因子を抽出した。3300Hz を超える周波数範囲と密接に関連するhigh factorの因子得点は、前置詞よりも名詞句の方が明らかに高いという結果が得られた。しかし、これ以外の因子得点については、明確な差が出なかった。以上の分析により、3300Hz以上のhigh factorは名詞句を知覚する際、重要な役割を果たしていることを示唆している。

Kyushu University, National University of Ireland, Galway, 会議名: 言語資源活用ワークショップ2018, 開催地: 国立国語研究所, 会期: 2018年9月4日-5日, 主催: 国立国語研究所 コーパス開発センター, 英語学習者にとって、子音連結を適切に発音・知覚することは大切である。本研究では、英語母語話者が発話した英語音声を録音し、その音響的特徴の分析を行った。英語音節の頭子音連結や、頭子音とその次の母音をスペクトル変化の観点から調べ、録音した音声のスペクトル変化を因子分析した。得られた３因子から鳴音性と密接に関連する２つの因子が取り出された。一方の因子得点が高い場合、もう一方の因子得点は0に近く、因子空間におけるその散布図はL字型のように分布した。単語ごとの頭子音連結から母音に移る際の因子得点はこのL字型分布に沿って変化することが分かった。この際に、頭子音連結はL型の中央部に分布し、最も点が密集したのは、角の点に当たる原点の近くだった。第一子音から第二子音の間で、因子得点は統計的に有意に変化するが、第二子音から母音の間では因子得点に有意差はなかった。子音-子音-母音連結(CCV連結)の各音素に鳴音性と特に相関の高いmid-low factorの特徴がよく反映されていることが分かった。

A newly developed factor analysis, origin-shifted factor analysis, was compared with a normal factor analysis to analyze the spectral changes of English speech. Our first aim was to investigate whether these analyses would cause differences in the factor loadings and the extracted spectral-factor scores. The methods mainly differed in whether to use cepstral liftering and an origin shift. The results showed that three spectral factors were obtained in four main frequency bands, but neither the cepstral liftering nor the origin shift distorted the essential characteristics of the factors. This confirms that the origin-shifted factor analysis is more recommendable for future speech analyses, since it would reduce the generation of noise in resynthesized speech. Our second aim was to further identify acoustic correlates of English phonemes. Our data show for the first time that the distribution of obstruents in English speech constitutes an L-shape related to two spectral factors on the three-dimensional configuration. One factor had center loadings around 4100 Hz, while the other was bimodal with peaks around 300 Hz and 2300&thinsp, Hz. This new finding validates the use of multivariate analyses to connect English phonology and speech acoustics.

Factor analysis (principal component analysis followed by varimax rotation) had shown that three common factors appear across 20 critical-band power fluctuations derived from spoken sentences of eight different languages/dialects [Ueda et al. (2010). Fechner Day 2010, Padua.] The present study investigated the contributions of such power-fluctuation factors to speech intelligibility. The method of factor analysis was modified to obtain suitable factors for resynthesizing speech sounds as 20-critical-band noise-vocoded speech, which were used for intelligibility test. The modified factor analysis ensured that the resynthesized speech sounds did not accompany steady background noise caused by the process of data reducing. Spoken sentences of British English, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese were subjected to this modified analysis. Confirming the earlier analysis, basically the same 3 to 4 factors were revealed to be common to these languages. How many power-fluctuation factors were needed to make noise-vocoded speech intelligible was then examined. Critical-band power fluctuations of the Japanese spoken sentences were resynthesized from the obtained factors, resulting in noise-vocoded-speech stimuli, and the intelligibility of these speech stimuli was tested by twelve native Japanese speakers. Japanese mora (syllable-like phonological unit) identification performances were determined when the number of factors was 1-9. Statistically significant improvement in intelligibility was observed when the number of factors was increased stepwise up to 6. The twelve listeners identified 92.1% of the morae correctly on average in the 6-factor condition. The intelligibility improved sharply when the number of factors changed from 2 to 3. In this step, the cumulative contribution ratio of factors improved only by 9.6%, from 37.3 to 47.9%, but the average mora identification leaped from 6.9 to 69.1%. The results indicated that, if the number of factors is 3 or more, elementary linguistic information is preserved in noise-vocoded speech.

Direct synthesis of methanol from methane/water-vapor mixture has a high possibility to realize a highly sophisticated energy utilization system with exergy regeneration. However, this process can never occur by conventional thermochemical methods due to the large increase of Gibbs free energy. In this study, the direct synthesis of methanol from methane/water-vapor mixture has been successfully realized by low-temperature and nonequilibrium plasma chemical reactions using a newly developed ultra-short pulse plasma, and effects of reaction time, peak voltage, pulse width and initial gas composition on the methanol formation characteristics have been clarified. In the case of spatially uniform pulse-glow plasma, maximum yield of 0.2% and maximum selectivity of 3% have been achieved. The time dependent change of emission intensity for CH radicals also showed the advantage of using ultra-short pulsed voltage for high energy input into the reaction field. Further, the methanol synthesis has been significantly improved by use of a newly found "filamentary" discharge mode which is realized by adjusting gas pressure and pulse parameters of peak voltage, pulse width and pulse frequency, and much higher values of 0.52% and 10% for methanol yield and selectivity have been attained, respectively. It has been also found that the mixing of rare gas largely enhances the methanol yield and its mechanism is discussed.

今回我々は種々の治療を試みたが, 治療に抵抗性で全身の著明な出血傾向を呈したITPの患者にtherapeutic plasmapheresis (TPP) による治療を行い, 血小板を増加させた上で摘脾を施行し, 持続的な血小板数の増加を認めたので報告する.症例は23歳, 男性, 特別な誘因なく歯肉出血, 全身紫斑が認められ, 血小板数0.1×104/mm3と著明に減少していたため, 濃厚血小板液20パックずつ3日間輸血, ハイドロコルチゾン500mg, プレドニゾロン60mg, メチルプレドニゾロン1gの投与をうけたが血小板数は0.1×104/mm3と効果なく, 入院となった.入院時, 鼻出血少量, 歯肉出血, 血尿, 黒褐色便, 全身に散在性の点状出血, 紫斑が多数認められるなど, 出血傾向が著明であり, 抗血小板抗体は陰性であったが, PA-lgG 390.1ng/107 cellsと明らかに上昇していた. また, 骨髄穿刺所見から, megakaryocyteの増加が認められたため, ITPと診断した. メチルプレドニゾロン大量療法として, メチルプレドニゾロン1,000mg/dayから漸次減量して投与を行い, γ-グロブリン大量療法として乾燥pH4処理ヒト免疫グロブリン2.5g×20V静注するも血小板数は最高1.2×104/mm3までしか改善せず, 出血傾向が持続したため, エンドキサン1,000mg/day投与を行ったが, 症状改善が得られないため, TPP施行に踏切った. その後血小板の上昇傾向が認められ, 計6回施行した. その間血小板数のピーク値は10.4×104/mm3であったが, 再び血小板数減少傾向となったため, 血小板数6.1×104/mm3の状態で脾臓摘出術を施行したところ, 血小板は著明に増加し血小板67.2×104/mm3となったため, 退院となった.

Mechanical and electromagnetic properties of the silver-sheathed BSCCO-2223 tape for SMES have been examined. The tensile-stress dependent Jc at 77K of the silver-sheathed BSCCO-2223 tape was measured. The data indicate the characteristic Ic reduction is noted at ~60MPa stress. The alternating current loss of the coil, 50mm winding o.d., ~50mm height, was measured by a lock-in-amplifier. The AC loss is estimated about 5*105W/m3 at 0.5T and at 1Hz which are operational conditions of the test coll(100J) for SMES. It is considered that the silver-sheathed BSCCO tape will be useful for SMES.

Automated measurement of trypsin inhibitor in urine was performed with good precision using the COBAS FARA. Elevated levels of both trypsin inhibitor in urine and acute phase proteins in serum were shown in most cases of major abdominal surgery. We suggest that the automated assay of urinary trypsin inhibitor might be useful for the clinical diagnosis of acute phase response.

Urinary trypsin inhibitor (UTI) is glycoprotein which is excreted in urine small amount in healthy subjects. Faarvang reviewed in 1965 that excretion of UTI in urine increased during various disease states, such as, bacterial infection, malignant neoplasma with metastasis, myocardial infarction, surgical operation, normal pregnancy, acute pancreatitis, and renal diseases.Thereafter, studies were carried out to investigate the apparent polymorphism of UTI, and to determine and characterize the amino acid sequence and cDNA structure of UTI. In addition to trypsin-inhibitory activity, UTI has been elucidated to have many biological activities including; inhibition of proteinases other than trypsin, stabilization of shock, improvement of acute pancreatitis, and endothelial cell growth factor. In recent works, however, UTI seems seldom to be cited in relation to an acute phase reactant.We were able to carry out the automated measurement of UTI which was suggested to be useful for clinical diagnosis of acute phase of various conditions and renal diseases.