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Auditory Free Classification of Gender Diverse Speakers
No full textAuditory attribution of speaker gender has historically been assumed to operate within a binary framework. The prevalence of gender diversity and its associated sociophonetic variability motivates an examination of how listeners perceptually represent these diverse voices. Utterances from 30 transgender (1 agender individual, 15 non-binary individuals, 7 transgender men, and 7 transgender women) and 30 cisgender (15 men and 15 women) speakers were used in an auditory free classification paradigm, in which cisgender listeners classified the speakers on perceived general similarity and gender identity. Multidimensional scaling of listeners’ classifications revealed twodimensional solutions as the best fit for general similarity classifications. The first dimension was interpreted as masculinity/ femininity, where listeners organized speakers from high to low fundamental frequency and first formant frequency. The second was interpreted as gender prototypicality, where listeners separated speakers with fundamental frequency and first formant frequency at upper and lower extreme values from more intermediate values. Listeners’ classifications for gender identity collapsed into a one-dimensional space interpreted as masculinity/femininity. Results suggest that listeners engage in fine-grained analysis of speaker gender that cannot be adequately captured by a gender dichotomy. Further, varying terminology used in instructions may bias listeners’ gender judgements
There Is Still Plenty of Room at the Bottom: Feynman\u27s Vision of Quantum Computing 65 Years Later
No full textIn 1959, Nobelist Richard Feynman gave a talk titled There\u27s plenty of room at the bottom , in which he emphasized that, to drastically speed up computations, we need to make computer components much smaller -- all the way to the size of molecules, atoms, and even elementary particles. At this level, physics is no longer described by deterministic Newton\u27s mechanics, it is described by probabilistic quantum laws. Because of this, computer designers started thinking how to design a reliable computer based on non-deterministic elements -- and this thinking eventually led to the modern ideas and algorithms of quantum computing. So, we have a straight path of speeding up computations: by learning how to use molecules, atoms, and then elementary particles as building blocks of a computational device. But what if we reach the size of an elementary particle? At first glance, it may seem that we will then reach an absolute limit of how fast a computer can be. However, as we show in this paper, we can potentially speed up computations even further -- by using the internal structure of elementary particles: e.g., the fact that protons and neutrons consist of quarks. Interestingly, the corresponding mathematics is very similar to what is called color optical computing -- the use of light of different colors in computations
How to Make a Decision under Interval Uncertainty If We Do Not Know the Utility Function
No full textDecision theory describes how to make decisions, in particular, how to make decisions under interval uncertainty. However, this theory\u27s recommendations assume that we know the utility function -- a function that describes the decision maker\u27s preferences. Sometimes, we can make a recommendation even when we do not know the utility function. In this paper, we provide a complete description of all such cases
In-between frame generation for 2D animation using generative adversarial networks
Get PDFTraditional 2D animation remains a largely manual process where each frame in a video is hand-drawn, as no robust algorithmic solutions exist to assist in this process. This project introduces a system that generates intermediate frames in an uncolored 2D animated video sequence using Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN), a deep learning approach widely used for tasks within the creative realm. We treat the task as a frame interpolation problem, and show that adding a GAN dynamic to a system significantly improves the perceptual fidelity of the generated images, as measured by perceptual oriented metrics that aim to capture human judgment of image quality. Moreover, this thesis proposes a simple end-to-end training framework that avoids domain transferability issues that arise when leveraging components pre-trained on natural video. Lastly, we show that the two main challenges for frame interpolation in this domain, largemotion and information sparsity, interact such that the magnitude of objects\u27 motion across frames conditions the appearance of artifacts associated with information sparsity
Manipulation Of The Magnetic Properties Of Van Der Waals Materials Through External Stimuli
Get PDFA new revolutionary application dependent on the electron spin to carry information with greater efficiency in data storage, transfer, and processing, will rely heavily on 2D magnets and the ability to effectively control their electron spins and engineer their properties. Previously, magnetic thin films were heavily studied to achieve this goal, however, these materials came with pitfalls and lacked naturally occurring 2D magnetism. The recent discovery of intrinsic magnetism in few-layered van der Waals (vdW) magnets has inspired researchers to extensively study them because of the feasibility to exfoliate them down to a monolayer. Due to this dimensionality factor, vdW magnets are susceptible to external stimuli opening a new avenue of exploration in the field of 2D magnets. However, the magnetic ordering temperature of these 2D vdW magnets remain quite low (\u3c80 K) for real-world applications. Many research groups began engineering the magnetic properties of these 2D vdW magnets in their few-layered forms to enhance their ordering temperature without understanding how external stimuli affects a many-layered structure first. In this dissertation, two forms of external stimuli are implemented on various bulk vdW magnets. Optical excitation is shown to enhance the magnetization of a quasi-2D vdW magnet CrX3 (X = Cl, I) by targeting its exchange interactions and is corroborated through Electron Spin Resonance spectroscopy. A sub-picosecond optical excitation of another quasi-2D vdW magnet Mn3Si2Te6 (MST) reveals a coherent oscillatory mode that couples directly to the magnetic ordering. Lastly, proton irradiation takes advantage of the spin-lattice coupling in MST and reveals an enhancement in the magnetization at a particular proton fluence through the modification of the exchange interaction. The results presented in this dissertation demonstrate the feasibility to use external stimuli upon quasi-2D vdW magnets and use their exchange interactions as a tunable knob to control their magnetic properties
Towards an Optimal Design: What Can We Recommend to Elon Musk?
Get PDFElon Musk\u27s successful move fast and break things strategy is based on the fact that in many cases, we do not need to satisfy all usual constraints to be successful. By sequentially trying smaller number of constraints, he finds the smallest number of constraints that are still needed to succeed -- and using this smaller number of constrains leads to a much cheaper (and thus, more practical) design. In this strategy, Musk relies on his intuition -- which, as all intuitions, sometimes works and sometimes doesn\u27t. To replace this intuition, we propose an algorithm that minimizes the worst-case cost of finding the smallest number of constraints
How Can We Explain Empirical Formulas for Shrinkage Cracking of Cement-Stabilized Pavement Layers
Get PDFIn pavement construction, one of the frequent defects is shrinkage cracking of the cement-stabilized pavement layer. To minimize this defect, it is important to be able to predict how this cracking depends on the quantities describing the pavement layer and the corresponding environment. Cracking is usually described by two parameters: the average width of the crack and the crack spacing. Empirical analysis shows that the dependence of the width on all related quantities is described by a power law. Power laws are ubiquitous in physics, they describe a frequent case when the dependence is scale-invariant -- i.e., does not change if we change the measuring units. However, for crack spacing, the dependence is more complex: namely, the dependence of the logarithm of spacing is described by a power law. In this paper, we provide a possible explanation for this more complex dependence
Sense of Belonging of Undergraduate African American Students at PWIS
No full textDespite policies such as Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, there are still racist systems that lay the foundation of higher education institutions that serve as barriers to the educational attainment of African American students (Harper et al., 2009). The racist nature of education systems causes the constant use of deficit lenses to view African American people. Consequently, African American people have always been viewed as less than and not as smart as White people. This has created and shaped the past and present inequities that serve as barriers to the educational attainment of African American students. These inequities are highlighted through the experiences and lack of retention of undergraduate African American students at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Consistently, PWIs receive low enrollment of undergraduate African American students, and many who attend report experiencing racism and discrimination on campus (Harper et al., 2009)