不同手机及不同通信网络通话录音质量评析

目的为送检手机通话录音质量的审查提供理论依据。方法提出一种定量化的语音检材质量评价标准,并对不同手机及不同通信网络下的录音进行质量评价。该标准基于主流鉴定设备,涵盖了声学语谱图共振峰个数及数值、基频参数、区域平均频谱等分析方法以及声纹比对测试。结果实验结果显示,不同条件下得到的通话录音质量存在一定的差异性,会对声纹图谱鉴定产生一定影响,但并不会造成本质性差异。结论语音同一认定中,对基于移动通信网络获取的检材录音应考虑到通话语音质量的差异性对检验的影响,并在鉴定分析中加以评估和克服。     

正常、大声两种说话状态下语音的声学差异及对声纹鉴定的影响

本文主要通过对正常、大声两种说话状态下的普通话中三个单元音[a]、[i]、[u]的声强、时长、基频、谐波振幅差值、共振峰等声学参数的分析,综合比较了各参数的变化规律,发现大声说话时的语音并非正常语音的简单放大,二者不仅在声强上存在差别,同时在频率域上也发生了重要变化。同一人不同状态下发音的频谱特征差异性较大,同种状态下发音的相似性、可比性较强,为此,声纹鉴定中应尽量选取状态相同的语音进行比对。     

正常、大声两种说话状态下语音的声学差异及对声纹鉴定的影响

本文主要通过对正常、大声两种说话状态下的普通话中三个单元音[a]、[i]、[u]的声强、时长、基频、谐波振幅差值、共振峰等声学参数的分析,综合比较了各参数的变化规律,发现大声说话时的语音并非正常语音的简单放大,二者不仅在声强上存在差别,同时在频率域上也发生了重要变化。同一人不同状态下发音的频谱特征差异性较大,同种状态下发音的相似性、可比性较强,为此,声纹鉴定中应尽量选取状态相同的语音进行比对。     

手机通话语音的实验研究

当前,手机通话语音已成为司法语音鉴定中最为常见的一种语音形式。本研究从手机通信系统的信道特点出发,分析手机通话语音的声谱特点和共振峰频率变化等情况;同时还比较了不同通话网络、不同通话方式及不同手机的通话语音特点。实验发现,手机通话语音与直接录音语音有明显的变化,主要表现在高低频信息的带宽滤波效应、高低频共振峰的漂移、语音质量、音色、韵律特征等方面;还发现,不同手机通话条件下的语音变化程度不同。最后,讨论了手机通话语音变化对说话人鉴定的影响及鉴定中的注意事项。     

降噪处理及其对语音的影响

司法声学中有两种导向的降噪处理模式：一是在语音内容辨听鉴定中。通过降噪处理，减弱噪声的掩蔽效应。提高语音听觉的清晰度和可懂度：另一种是在说话人鉴定中，通过降噪处理，减弱噪声对语音声学特征的干扰。使语图更为清晰可辨。本实验中。录制了日常生活中经常遇到的20余种噪声。通过混音，对每一个噪声合成出四个等级信噪比的含噪语音声样。然后，利用STC降噪系统、Adobe Audition软件和VS6．0语音工作站，分别对含噪语音进行降噪处理。实验发现。经过降噪处理，多数声样的噪声掩蔽效应能够减弱．部分声样的宽带语图得到改善。最后讨论了降噪处理对语音的影响及利用降噪语音进行说话人鉴定的注意事项。     

电子伪装语音的变声规律研究

本文以目前社会上流行的两款不同类别的电子伪装语音器材为对象,对多名实验对象变声前、后的声学特征(基频、共振峰、声调、能量和过零率等)进行了深入的实验分析。实验结果和分析表明,变声相对于原声,其声学特征变化是有规律的,根据这一声学特征变化规律,对变声语音逆变声就能得到与原声符合很好的恢复语音,这为深入开展对经过电子伪装的语音进行同一人鉴定奠定了基础。     

电子伪装语音的变声规律研究

本文以目前社会上流行的两款不同类别的电子伪装语音器材为对象,对多名实验对象变声前、后的声学特征（基频、共振峰、声调、能量和过零率等）进行了深入的实验分析。实验结果和分析表明,变声相对于原声,其声学特征变化是有规律的,根据这一声学特征变化规律,对变声语音逆变声就能得到与原声符合很好的恢复语音,这为深入开展对经过电子伪装的语音进行同一人鉴定奠定了基础。     

基于深度卷积神经网络的语音降噪研究

目的为了提高实际工作中获取到的音频资料中语音的质量,降低噪声对语音质量及可懂度的影响,提出了一种基于深度卷积神经网络的语音降噪模型。方法该模型通过卷积、加偏置、批量归一化、Relu激活的多层循环结构,能够有效地对低信噪比条件下语音中的洗衣机噪声、鼓掌噪声、汽车内部噪声等多种常见的环境噪声进行降噪处理。结果最终含噪语音经过模型处理后的MOS评分达到3.91分,其中最高分4.05分,最低分3.81分。结论该模型能够切实提高含噪语音的质量及可懂度,对于实际的公安工作、智慧警务建设、语音分析、语音文本识别等具有重要的意义和价值。     

利用共振峰相对强度特性鉴别双胞胎语音

话者鉴别的一个基本前提是“个体间的语音差异大于个体的语音变异”。本文对30对双胞胎正常朗读语音的共振峰强度特性进行了定量测量、比较、分析,统计得出了共振峰相对强度特性在检验双胞胎语音中的置信度与判阈。     

语音同一性鉴定中同声同韵异调音节的可比性定性研究

目的明确利用同声同韵异调音节进行语音同一性鉴定的可行性。方法利用VS-99语音工作站对普通话同声同韵异调音节的共振峰等特性进行定性分析。结果得出了阳平音节韵母共振峰与上声音节韵母非嘎裂声处共振峰的可比性强,阴平音节韵母与去声音节韵母在前半部分共振峰的可比性强等一些规律性认识。结论为利用同声同韵异调音节进行语音同一性鉴定提供了客观依据。     

Bhartṛhari and Maṇḍana on Avidyā

The concept of avidyā is one of the central categories in the Advaita of Śaṇkara and Maṇḍana. Shifting the focus from māyā, interpreted either as illusion or as the divine power, this concept brings ignorance to the forefront in describing duality and bondage. Although all Advaitins accept avidyā as a category, its scope and nature is interpreted in multiple ways. Key elements in Maṇḍana’s philosophy include the plurality of avidyā, individual selves as its substrate and the Brahman as its field (viṣaya), and the distinction in avidyā between non-apprehension and misapprehension. A closer investigation shows that Maṇḍana is directly influenced by Bhartṛhari’s linguistic non-dualism in developing the concept of avidyā. This study also compares other key constituents such as vivartta and pariṇāma that are relevant to the analysis of avidyā. As the concept of counter-image (pratibimba) emerges as a distinct stream of Advaita subsequent to Maṇḍana, this study also compares the application of pratibimba in the writings of Bhartṛhari and Maṇḍana.     

Unraveling the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Kāvyaprakāśa</Emphasis>: Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa’s idiosyncratic sequence of topics in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Candrāloka</Emphasis>

In his twelfth century alaṃkāraśāstra, the Candrāloka, Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa reverses the sequence of topics found in Mammaṭa’s Kāvyapr-akāśa, an earlier and immensely popular work. With such a structural revisionism, Jayadeva asserts the autonomy of his own work and puts forth an ambitious critique of earlier approaches to literary analysis. Jayadeva investigates the technical and aesthetic components of poetry in the first part of the Candrāloka, prior to his formal semantic investigations in the latter half of the text, thus suggesting that aesthetic evaluations of poetry beneficially inform scientific investigations of language. Jayadeva’s organization of his chapters on the semantic operations, moreover, intimates that the study of suggestive and metaphoric functions of language clarifies our understanding of denotation, which is conventionally understood to be the primary and direct path of verbal designation.     

The Supreme Array Scripture: A New Interpretation of the Title “Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra”

This article argues for a new interpretation of the Sanskrit compound gaṇḍa-vyūha as it is used in the common title of the Mahāyāna text the Gaṇḍavyūha-Sūtra.The author begins by providing a brief history of the sūtra’s appellations in Chinese and Tibetan sources. Next, the meanings of gaṇḍa (the problematic member of the compound) are explored. The author proposes that contemporary scholars have overlooked a meaning of gaṇḍa occurring in some compounds, wherein gaṇḍa can mean simply “great,” “big” or “massive.” This general sense is particularly common in the compound gaṇda-śaila (a “massive rock” or “boulder”) and is found in such texts as the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the Harivaṃśa and the Harṣacarita. Following the discussion of Gaṇḍa, the author examines the term vyūha (“array”) as it is used in the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra. The article concludes with the suggestion that a more appropriate translation of the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra would be “The Supreme array Scripture.”     

Evaluation of six presumptive tests for blood, their specificity, sensitivity, and effect on high molecular-weight DNA

Luminol, leuchomalachite green, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, Hemident, and Bluestar are all used as presumptive tests for blood. In this study, the tests were subjected to dilute blood (from 1:10,000 to 1:10,000,000), many common household substance, and chemicals. Samples were tested for DNA to determine whether the presumptive tests damaged or destroyed DNA. The DNA loci tested were D2S1338 and D19S433. Leuchomalachite green had a sensitivity of 1:10,000, while the remaining tests were able to detect blood to a dilution of 1:100,000. Substances tested include saliva, semen, potato, tomato, tomato sauce, tomato sauce with meat, red onion, red kidney bean, horseradish, 0.1 M ascorbic acid, 5% bleach, 10% cupric sulfate, 10% ferric sulfate, and 10% nickel chloride. Of all the substances tested, not one of the household items reacted with every test; however, the chemicals did. DNA was recovered and amplified from luminol, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, and Bluestar, but not from leuchomalachite green or Hemident.     

Turning a Madhyamaka Trick: Reply to Huntington

Huntington (2007); argues that recent commentators (Robinson, 1957; Hayes, 1994; Tillemans, 1999; Garfield and Priest, 2002) err in attributing to Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti a commitment to rationality and to the use of argument, and that these commentators do violence to the Madhyamaka project by using rational reconstruction in their interpretation of Nāgārjuna’s and Candrakīrti’s texts. Huntington argues instead that mādhyamikas reject reasoning, distrust logic and do not offer arguments. He also argues that interpreters ought to recuse themselves from argument in order to be faithful to these texts. I demonstrate that he is wrong in all respects: Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti deploy arguments, take themselves to do so, and even if they did not, we would be wise to do so in commenting on their texts.     

Monks Who Have Sex: Pārājika Penance in Indian Buddhist Monasticisms

In the study of Buddhism it is commonly accepted that a monk or nun who commits a pārājika offence is permanently and irrevocably expelled from the Buddhist monastic order. This view is based primarily on readings of the Pāli Vinaya. With the exception of the Pāli Vinaya, however, all other extant Buddhist monastic law codes (Dharmaguptaka, Mahāsāṅghika, Mahīśāsaka, Sarvāstivāda and Mūlasarvāstivāda) contain detailed provisions for monks and nuns who commit pārājikas but nevertheless wish to remain within the saṅgha. These monastics are not expelled. Rather, they are granted a special status known as the śikṣādattaka. In this paper I explore the rules. concerning pārājika penance and the śikṣādattaka with specific regard to monastic celibacy. Given that five out of six extant law codes recognise this remarkable accommodation to the rule of celibacy, I argue that we must look to Vinayas other than the Pāli Vinaya if we are to arrive at a nuanced and representative view of Indian Buddhist monasticism.

Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 C.E.)

     

Family breakdown and the ‘Welfare Child’ in 19th and 20th century Britain

This article traces new cycles of interest in past children as distinct from past childhood. Recent work highlighting that a conceptualisation of childhood existed even in periods with few written records closes the chapter begun by Philippe Ariès in 1960. Instead, there has been a new surge of interest in children on the edges of family life, as well as children in similarly liminal positions between the worlds of adults and children: runaways, delinquents and orphans. Several themes in the literature are identified, based on the conflicting ideas of ‘body/mind’, ‘victim/threat’, ‘needs/rights’. It is noted that researchers are using more imaginative ways of reaching the lived experience of children than the family or institutional framework, and that an increasing link is drawn between historical and modern concerns such as child abuse and the care of ‘at risk’ children.     

The Mūlāvidyā Controversy Among Advaita Vedāntins: was Śaṅkara Himself Responsible?

The concept of avidyā or ignorance is central to the Advaita Vedāntic position of Śȧnkara. The post-Śaṅkara Advaitins wrote sub-commentaries on the original texts of Śaṅkara with the intention of strengthening his views. Over the passage of time the views of these sub-commentators of Śaṅkara came to be regarded as representing the doctrine of Advaita particularly with regard to the concept of avidyā. Swami Satchidanandendra Saraswati, a scholar-monk of Holenarsipur, challenged the accepted tradition through the publication of his work Mūlāvidyānirāsaḥ, particularly with regard to the avidyādoctrine. It was his contention that the post-Śaṅkara commentators brought their own innovations particularly on the nature of avidyā. This was the idea of mūlāvidyā or ‘root ignorance’, a positive entity which is the material cause of the phenomenal world. Saraswati argues that such an idea of mūlāvidyā is not to be found in the bhāṣyas (commentaries) of Śaṅkara and is foisted upon Śaṅkara. This paper attempts to show that although Śaṅkara may not have explicitly favoured such a view of mūlāvidyā, his lack of clarity on the nature of avidyā left enough scope for the post-Śaṅkara commentators to take such a position on avidyā.     

Student mentoring to enhance graduates’ employability potential

This paper considers whether the adoption of a subject-specific, classroom-based, voluntary extra-curricular student mentoring scheme could provide an effective mechanism and andragogic approach to enhance higher education students’ employability potential pre-graduation.Over the three-year pilot, 26 more advanced (second to fourth year) undergraduate students actively mentored nearly 400 first year undergraduate students during workshops delivered annually within forensic and policing focused courses. In total, 17 mentors anonymously completed online, post-scheme surveys. Survey data was quantitatively analysed to evaluate the scheme, establish which skills and attributes mentors had developed and investigate whether mentors could appropriately identify example skills within professional terminology used during employer recruitment. In addition, this paper reflects on the implementation of remote student mentoring during the COVID-19 pandemic and its adoption within a blended learning framework.The results from this research strongly support mentoring as an effective mechanism to develop undergraduate employability skills, significantly developing mentors’ self-confidence and self-efficacy in their interpersonal and communication skills. Although mentors were aware of university graduate attributes and thought they could evidence these with appropriate examples, in practice this was not necessarily the case. As a result, a framework is proposed to enable mentors to identify their skills and how they may align with competencies sought by relevant forensic and policing employers. However, other andragogic practices may need to be implemented to maximise the potential for successful graduate employment.     

Vedic Language and Vaiṣṇava Theology:Madhva’s Use of Nirukta in his Ṛgbhāṣya

This article explores the way in which Madhva (1238–1317), the founder of the Dvaita Vedānta system of Hindu thought, reformulates the traditional exegetic practice of nirukta or “word derivation” to validate his pluralistic, hierarchical, and Vaiṣṇava reading of the Ṛgvedic hymns. Madhva’s Ṛgbhāṣya (RB) is conspicuous for its heavy reliance on and unique deployment of this exegetical tactic to validate several key features of his distinctive theology. These features include his belief in Viṣṇu’s unique possession of all perfect attributes (guṇaparipūrṇatva) and His related conveyability by all Vedic words (sarvaśabdavācyatva). Such an understanding of Vedic language invokes the basic nirukta presupposition that words are eternally affiliated with the meanings they convey. But it is also based onMadhva’s access to a lexicon entitled Vyāsa’s Nirukti with which his critics and perhaps even his commentators seem to be unfamiliar.While the precise status of this text is the subject of ongoing debate, Madhva’s possession of special insight into the sacred canon is established in part by his unique claim to be an avatāra of the wind god Vāyu and a direct disciple of Viṣṇu Himself in the form of Vyāsa₁. Thus, Madhva’s use of nirukta invokes his personal charisma to challenge not only conventional understandings of the hymns but traditional exegetic norms. Madhva’s provision of an alternative tradition of nirukta provoked sectarian debate throughout the Vijayanagara period over the extent to which one could innovate in established practices of reading the Veda. Articulating the Veda’s precise authority was a key feature of Brahmin debates during this period and reflects both the empire’s concern with promoting a shared religious ideology and the competition among rival Brahman sects for imperial patronage that this concern elicited. By looking at how two of Madhva’s most important commentators (the 14^th-century Jayatīrtha and the 17^th-century Rāghavendra) sought to defend his niruktis, this article will explore how notions of normative nirukta were articulated in response to Madhva’s deviations. At the same time, however, examining Madhva’s commentators’ defense of his niruktis also demonstrates the extent to which Madhva actually adhered to selected exegetic norms. This reveals that discomfort with Madhva’s particular methods for deriving words stemmed, in part, from a more general ambivalence towards this exegetical tactic whose inherent open-endedness threatened to undermine the fixity of the canon’s very substance: its language. Vyāsa’s Nirukti is one of several ”unknown sources” cited in Madhva’s commentaries whose exact status continues to be debated. Some scholars (e.g. Rao, Sharma, Siauve) maintain that these texts are part of a now lost Pāṅcarātra tradition that Madhva is attempting to preserve. This may be true for many of these citations. However, in addition to claiming to be both an avatāra of Vāyu and Viṣṇu-as-Vyāsa’s student, Madhva states in several places (e.g., VTN 42, RB 162) that the canon has suffered loss during transmission and that only Viṣṇu can reveal it in its entirety. Thus, it is possible that Madhva intends texts like Vyāsa’s Nirukti to be viewed as part of an ongoing and corrective revelation, a notion that is compatible with many Vaiṣṇava traditions (Halbfass, 1991: 4).