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1. A Large Inclusive Study of Human Listening Rates

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174018  

   Bragg, Danielle; Bennett, Cynthia; Reinecke, Katharina; Ladner, Richard (April 2018, Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2018))

   As conversational agents and digital assistants become increasingly pervasive, understanding their synthetic speech becomes increasingly important. Simultaneously, speech synthesis is becoming more sophisticated and manipulable, providing the opportunity to optimize speech rate to save users time. However, little is known about people’s abilities to understand fast speech. In this work, we provide the first large-scale study on human listening rates. Run on LabintheWild, it used volunteer participants, was screen reader accessible, and measured listening rate by accuracy at answering questions spoken by a screen reader at various rates. Our results show that blind and low-vision people, who often rely on audio cues and access text aurally, generally have higher listening rates than sighted people. The findings also suggest a need to expand the range of rates available on personal devices. These results demonstrate the potential for users to learn to listen to faster rates, expanding the possibilities for human-conversational agent interaction. 

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2. Book Design, Attention, and Reading Performance: Current Practices and Opportunities for Optimization

   Godwin, K.; Eng, C.; Murray, G.; Fisher, A.V. (July 2019, Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society)

   Becoming a proficient reader is a critical skill that supports future learning. Toward the end of the primary grades, reading becomes increasingly automatized, and children begin to transition from learning-to-read to reading-to-learn. Yet, the design of beginning reader books may be suboptimal for novice readers. Colorful illustrations that contain irrelevant information (i.e., seductive details) presented in close proximity to the text may increase attentional competition between these sources of information; thus, hampering decoding and reading comprehension. Study 1 examines this hypothesis by experimentally manipulating components of the book design (e.g., presence/absence of seductive details) and investigating its effect on attention and reading performance in first grade students. In Study 2, we conduct an analysis in which we identify common design features in books for beginning readers and examine the prevalence of design features that were fmmd to tax attention in Study 1 and in prior research. Collectively this work identifies an important opportunity in which instructional materials can be optimized to better support children as they learn-to-read. 

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3. On the Capacity of Intensity-Modulation Direct-Detection Gaussian Optical Wireless Communication Channels: A Tutorial

   https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2021.3120087  

   Chaaban, A. (January 2022, IEEE Communications surveys and tutorials)

   Optical wireless communication (OWC) using intensity-modulation and direct-detection (IM/DD) has a channel model which possesses unique features, due to the constraints imposed on the channel input. The aim of this tutorial is to overview results on the capacity of IM/DD channels with input-independent Gaussian noise as a model of OWC channels. It provides the reader with an entry point to the topic, and highlights some major contributions in this area. It begins with a discussion on channel models and how this IM/DD Gaussian channel model comes about, in addition to an explanation of input constraints. Then, it discusses the capacity of the single-input single-output channel, its computation, and capacity bounds and asymptotic capacity results. Then, it extends the discussion to the multiple-input multiple-output setup, and reviews capacity bounds for this channel model. Finally, it discusses multi-user channels modelled as a broadcast channel (downlink) or a multiple-access channel (uplink), with their associated capacity bounds. 

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4. Physical modeling of nucleosome clustering in euchromatin resulting from interactions between epigenetic reader proteins

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2317911121  

   Wakim, Joseph G; Spakowitz, Andrew J (June 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   Euchromatin is an accessible phase of genetic material containing genes that encode proteins with increased expression levels. The structure of euchromatin in vitro has been described as a 30-nm fiber formed from ordered nucleosome arrays. However, recent advances in microscopy have revealed an in vivo euchromatin architecture that is much more disordered, characterized by variable-length linker DNA and sporadic nucleosome clusters. In this work, we develop a theoretical model to elucidate factors contributing to the disordered in vivo architecture of euchromatin. We begin by developing a 1D model of nucleosome positioning that captures the interactions between bound epigenetic reader proteins to predict the distribution of DNA linker lengths between adjacent nucleosomes. We then use the predicted linker lengths to construct 3D chromatin configurations consistent with the physical properties of DNA within the nucleosome array, and we evaluate the distribution of nucleosome cluster sizes in those configurations. Our model reproduces experimental cluster-size distributions, which are dramatically influenced by the local pattern of epigenetic marks and the concentration of reader proteins. Based on our model, we attribute the disordered arrangement of euchromatin to the heterogeneous binding of reader proteins and subsequent short-range interactions between bound reader proteins on adjacent nucleosomes. By replicating experimental results with our physics-based model, we propose a mechanism for euchromatin organization in the nucleus that impacts gene regulation and the maintenance of epigenetic marks. 

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5. Reflecting on the Role of Gender and Race in Speech-Language Pathology

   https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_PERSP-22-00019  

   Holt, Yolanda (December 2022, Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups)

   Purpose:The presented work was invited following the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association SIG 19 Virtual Talk “Speech Science in Diverse Populations” that occurred on September 2, 2021. The purpose of this article was to introduce the historical and theoretical frameworks of gender and race from a decidedly North American (United States) perspective to an audience that may be less familiar with those topics as they relate to the practice of communication sciences and disorders. Race and gender are huge topics. Entire fields of study and lifetimes of work are dedicated to understanding these constructs. Therefore, it is hoped that this brief review of race and gender will prompt the reader to evaluate how the two constructs are used to categorize people and whether being a member of a marginalized or a minoritized group affects the person's access to or use of intervention services. A critical theoretical discussion of race and gender is beyond the scope of this text. In this limited space, this work presents an overview of current and historical discussions of gender and race and a challenge to the reader to accept that their perspective is indebted to a specific belief system. In the United States, that belief system often evaluates human differences into binary categories on a weighted continuum. Speech-language professionals often use that continuum to identify and measure difference into either acceptable variation or disorder. Conclusions:The profession of speech-language pathology was established during a time when variation from middle-class White American communication norms was frequently defined as undesirable and sometimes as disordered. The communities and individuals we encounter deserve to be accepted as they are. We must resolve to expect and accept wide variation in human communication without pathologizing its existence, to expand our thinking about disorder in speech and hearing science, and to accept culturally competent communicators as competent communicators. 

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