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SUBESCO is an audio-only emotional speech corpus for Bangla language. The total duration of the corpus is in excess of 7 hours containing 7000 utterances, and it is the largest emotional speech corpus available for this language. Twenty native speakers participated in the gender-balanced set, each recording of 10 sentences simulating seven targeted emotions. Fifty university students participated in the evaluation of this corpus. Each audio clip of this corpus, except those of Disgust emotion, was validated four times by male and female raters. Raw hit rates and unbiased rates were calculated producing scores above chance level of responses. Overall recognition rate was reported to be above 70% for human perception tests. Kappa statistics and intra-class correlation coefficient scores indicated high-level of inter-rater reliability and consistency of this corpus evaluation. SUBESCO is an Open Access database, licensed under Creative Common Attribution 4.0 International, and can be downloaded free of charge from the web link: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4526477 .

This paper presents a brief study of remarkable works done for the development of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system for Bangla language. It discusses information of available speech corpora for this language and reports major contributions made in this research paradigm in the last decade. Some important design issues to develop a speech recognizer are: levels of recognition, vocabulary size, speaker dependency and approaches for classifications; these have been defined in this paper in the order of complexity of speech recognition. It also highlights on some challenges which are very important to resolve in this exciting research field. Different studies carried out on last decade for Bangla speech recognition have been shortly reviewed in a chronological order. It was found that selection of classification model and training dataset play important roles in speech recognition.

Authors report the investigation of reversible-transient effects in photoluminescence (PL) of GaN layers in different measurement ambients including air, O, N, and H. While the presence of air and O led to similar amounts of decrease in overall luminescence, N and H produced a much smaller effect. Data on the different behaviors of the near-band-edge and the deep-level (yellow luminescence) spectral components of the luminescence with change from vacuum to the various ambient gases will be presented. A redshift of the deep-level luminescence band was noticed in O or air ambient that has been attributed to a decrease of the band bending. 21 refs.

The study deals with the effect of metal toxicity (aluminum, chromium and combination of both the metals) on seed germination, root length, shoot length, seedling length and dry biomass of Vigna radiata and V. sinensis. Chromium adversely affected the seedling by significantly reducing the growth whereas aluminum did not show such effect in both the species. Percentage of germination was good in both the species at different concentration of treatment (aluminum, chromium and combined treatment). Shoot length was also not much affected in V. sinensis as it was greatly inhibited in V. radiata. Both the species showed the purpling of stem. Dry biomass of V. radiata showed positive effect than V. sinensis. However, dry biomass decreased to a lesser extent when treated with aluminum, chromium and combined treatment as compared to control.

The present study reports the effects of different industrial soils on seedling growth of Cassia fistula L. as compared to control under natural field conditions. Growth variables i.e. seedling length, plant cover, number of leaves, leaf area, seedling fresh weight, total plant dry weight etc were recorded. Seedling length, plant cover, number of leaves, leaf area and seedling fresh weight were significantly (p<0.05) high for Shafi tannery soil as compared to control as well as other polluted soils of industrial site. The soils of Indus battery and Dal da Ltd. showed significantly (p<0.05) reduction in growth of C. fistula as compared to seedlings from other industrial soil as well as Karachi University Campus. The seedlings of C. fistula showed tolerance to Shafi tannery and Pakistan metal industrial soils as compared to seedlings grown in Dal da Ltd. and Indus Battery soils. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

SUBESCO is an audio-only emotional speech corpus for Bangla language. The total duration of the corpus is in excess of 7 hours containing 7000 utterances, and it is the largest emotional speech corpus available for this language. Twenty native speakers participated in the gender-balanced set, each recording of 10 sentences simulating seven targeted emotions. Fifty university students participated in the evaluation of this corpus. Each audio clip of this corpus, except those of Disgust emotion, was validated four times by male and female raters. Raw hit rates and unbiased rates were calculated producing scores above chance level of responses. Overall recognition rate was reported to be above 70% for human perception tests. Kappa statistics and intra-class correlation coefficient scores indicated high-level of inter-rater reliability and consistency of this corpus evaluation. SUBESCO is an Open Access database, licensed under Creative Common Attribution 4.0 International, and can be downloaded free of charge from the web

Communication plays paramount role for engineers to perform workplace jobs effectively in this modern age of industrialization. The purpose of this research paper was to determine importance of oral communication for engineers at workplace. Thirty engineers from 2 engineering organizations participated in this study. Purposive sampling method was used for data collection since respondents were drawn on specific criteria of engineers with minimum 5 years work experience. Quantitative survey based on questionnaire survey was used for data collection purpose. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 15.0). The results of the study indicated that oral communication skills such as oral presentation, participation in meetings, conversation, discussion, and negotiation skill play significant role for engineers at workplace. Thus, quantitative data analysis results indicate that oral communication skills play significant role for engineers to perform workplace jobs efficiently in this competitive work environment of organizations. However, the results of this study are consistent with other literature review findings on importance of oral communication skills for engineers at workplace.

Observations on associations between fatness and metabolic risks among South-East Asian adults have resulted in devising lower thresholds of body mass index (BMI) for them. Metabolic abnormalities, including type 2 diabetes, are now also appearing in children and are associated with obesity. There has not been much work done to identify indicators of metabolic risks among South Asian children. This study was undertaken to observe the relationship among fatness, blood lipids, and insulin resistance in Pakistani children. Fatness, lipids, and insulin resistance were assessed in 92 middle-class Pakistani school children aged 8-10 years. Height, weight, waist, hips, mid-arm circumference, and triceps skin-fold, measured in school, were used for calculating various indicators of fatness, i.e. BMI, waist hip ratio (WHR), and arm-fat percentage. Fasting blood samples were analyzed for total lipids, triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), glucose and insulin levels. Homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) index was calculated to assess insulin resistance. Two separate multiple regression models of various risk indicators (family history, sex, BMI, WHR, arm-fat percentage) showed that only arm-fat percentage had a significant positive association both with insulin levels (b=2.04, p= 0.044) andLDL (b= 2.11, p= 0.037). Only five children were overweight(BMI-for-age>85th percentile according to National Center for Health Statistics 2000 reference). Neither overweight children nor those who were in the uppermost tercile of BMI-for-age differed significantly from other children in terms of presence of higher-than-desirable values of lipids or insulin. However, compared to those in the lowest tercile, children who were in the uppermost tercile of arm-fat percentage had a significantly higher frequency of high blood cholesterol (40% vs 67%, p=0.027), high LDL (33.3% vs 61.3%, p=0.026), and markedly higher proportion above average insulin levels (16.7% vs 35.5%, p=0.083). Arm-fat percentage could be developed as a practical tool for determining the risk status of children. However, further cross-sectional assessments are needed to ascertain accurate relationships among arm-fat percentage, lipid profiles, and insulin resistance in larger and varied groups of children.

Communication plays paramount role for engineers at workplace in this modern age of globalization and industrialization. The purpose of this study was to determine importance of oral communication and oral presentation for engineers at workplace and barriers that hindered effective oral presentation performance of engineering students for workplace environment. Thirty engineers and seven engineering students participated in this study. Purposive sampling method was used for data collection purpose. Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results of the study indicated that oral communication and oral presentation plays important role for engineers at workplace and barriers for instance lack of confidence, lack of knowledge, lack of environment and lack of English language hindered effective oral presentation performance of engineering students. However, the results of this study are consistent with literature review findings on importance of oral communication and oral presentation for engineers at workplace and barriers that hamper effective oral presentation performance of engineering students.