I am a faculty member at the Open University of Israel, the Mathematics and Computer science Department. I'm an interdisciplinary dreamer, eager to combine knowledge from different aspects. I'm fascinated by the discoveries that lie behind speaking in dialogues and free conversations, by following the flow of prosody and acoustic features.
Early and adequate diagnosis of speech disorders can contribute to the quality of the treatment a... more Early and adequate diagnosis of speech disorders can contribute to the quality of the treatment and thus to treatment success rates. Using acoustic analysis of the speech of children with speech disorders may aid therapists in the diagnostic process by identifying the acoustic characteristics that are unique to a specific disorder and that distinguish it from normal speech development. The purpose of this work is to investigate the feasibility of the automatic detection of speech disorders based on children’s voices. In this preliminary study, using a dataset of utterance recordings of 24 children whose mother tongue is Hebrew, we propose an automatic system that may facilitate accurate speech assessment by therapists by providing a preliminary diagnosis and explainable insights about the model’s predictions. We built a serial, two-step network that is both powerful and possibly interpretable. The first step can model the complex relations between acoustic features and the speech di...
In this paper we present a proof-of-concept study which aims to model a conceptual framework to a... more In this paper we present a proof-of-concept study which aims to model a conceptual framework to analyze structures of dialogues. We demonstrate our approach on a specific research question – how speaker’s role is realized along the dialogue? To this end, we use a unified set of Map Task dialogues that are unique in the sense that each speaker participated twice – once as a follower and once as a leader, with the same interlocutor playing the other role. This pairwise setting enables to compare prosodic differences in three facets: Role, Speaker, and Session. For this POC, we analyze a basic set of prosodic features: Talk proportions, pitch, and intensity. To create comparable methodological framework for dialogues, we created three plots of the three prosodic features, in ten equal sized intervals along the session. We used a simple distance measure between the resulting ten-dimensional vectors of each facet for each feature. The prosodic plots of these dialogues reveal the interact...
10th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2020, 2020
In this paper, we suggest methods to trace the flow of the use of filled pauses over the course o... more In this paper, we suggest methods to trace the flow of the use of filled pauses over the course of the conversation. Beyond using a normalized time with respect to each session's duration, we calculated the accumulative number of filled pauses and the accumulative number of words per speaker, whenever the speaker has expressed a filled pause or a new word. We then computed the ratio between these values at each such point in time, resulting in relative filled pauses use. The output produces a visualization of the global contour slopes that represents each speaker and the dynamics between the two speakers, in terms of the relative filled pauses use. The dialogues are taken from MaTaCOp, the Hebrew map-task corpus, in which each speaker participated twice, once as a leader and once as a follower. Findings suggest that there are significant differences between two different speakers in the same session. We did not find a difference in the use of filled pauses between the same speaker in different roles. Moreover, the use of filled pauses shows convergence. These findings strengthen previous studies on the influence of sociolinguistic variables on the use of Filled Pauses.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are in the spotlight due to the wide-spreading file-sharing applicati... more Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are in the spotlight due to the wide-spreading file-sharing applications. Many file-distributing algorithms have been suggested and implemented. The various solutions need to cope with a heterogeneous and unstable environment, where peers can arrive and depart at a high rate (churn). Sometimes cooperation cannot be assumed. These issues make the structured attitude less practical. Even some of
This study examines the diversity of silences in unbalanced dialogues, i.e. dialogues between spe... more This study examines the diversity of silences in unbalanced dialogues, i.e. dialogues between speakers with different participation levels: responder and reporter. We examined two genres: therapeutic sessions and private dialogues that are based on this responder-reporter structure. When looking at silences versus speech ratios, we found no differences between the genres nor between the roles. However, when grouping the silences by their types: Pauses (intra-speaker silences), gaps (interspeakers’ silences) and silences that occur in the vicinity of speech overlaps, we found that the silence duration of pauses are role dependent in both genres, while the silence duration of gaps were found genre dependent, but not role dependent. Moreover, speech rate was not found genre dependent. It seems that although silences in unbalanced dialogues vary considerably, genre and speaker’s role are influential.
Data routing in wireless sensor networks has attracted much research interest in recent years. Or... more Data routing in wireless sensor networks has attracted much research interest in recent years. Orthogonal Rendezvous Routing Protocol (ORRP) [1] was recently proposed and analyzed for use in wireless mesh networks. The protocol is based on a simple idea that two pairs of orthogonal lines in a plane intersect with a high probability and it utilizes the directional antennas for
ABSTRACT We present a distributed algorithm for assignment of transmission rights in a mobile mul... more ABSTRACT We present a distributed algorithm for assignment of transmission rights in a mobile multi-hop radio network. The proposed algorithm assigns a timeslot to each link forming a short cyclic TDMA. The resulting assignment allows collision free spatial reuse of the radio channel. The algorithm supports continuous slot assignment adaptation to topological changes while maintaining the collision free property. The adaptation process, which is an integral part of the link assignment algorithm, requires the participation of only the immediate neighbors of the change causing node. The adaptation to topological changes is accomplished in linear time and implemented in the order of their occurence in the network.
This paper deals with a pie allocation problem to users, who are divided intosharing groups, that... more This paper deals with a pie allocation problem to users, who are divided intosharing groups, that are not necessarily disjoint. The pie is allocated among the groups, rather than the users. The portion of a sharing group is a public good for its members, that is, all of them can enjoy it. A non-cooperative game for allocating the pie and
Patients with carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii-positive clinical cultures during a pr... more Patients with carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii-positive clinical cultures during a prior hospitalization were screened using high sensitivity methods upon first readmission. Of 38 patients, 31.6% screened positive; 42% screened positive within 2 months from discharge, and 14% screened positive more than 5 months from discharge. Carriage was persistent up to 285 days.
Early and adequate diagnosis of speech disorders can contribute to the quality of the treatment a... more Early and adequate diagnosis of speech disorders can contribute to the quality of the treatment and thus to treatment success rates. Using acoustic analysis of the speech of children with speech disorders may aid therapists in the diagnostic process by identifying the acoustic characteristics that are unique to a specific disorder and that distinguish it from normal speech development. The purpose of this work is to investigate the feasibility of the automatic detection of speech disorders based on children’s voices. In this preliminary study, using a dataset of utterance recordings of 24 children whose mother tongue is Hebrew, we propose an automatic system that may facilitate accurate speech assessment by therapists by providing a preliminary diagnosis and explainable insights about the model’s predictions. We built a serial, two-step network that is both powerful and possibly interpretable. The first step can model the complex relations between acoustic features and the speech di...
In this paper we present a proof-of-concept study which aims to model a conceptual framework to a... more In this paper we present a proof-of-concept study which aims to model a conceptual framework to analyze structures of dialogues. We demonstrate our approach on a specific research question – how speaker’s role is realized along the dialogue? To this end, we use a unified set of Map Task dialogues that are unique in the sense that each speaker participated twice – once as a follower and once as a leader, with the same interlocutor playing the other role. This pairwise setting enables to compare prosodic differences in three facets: Role, Speaker, and Session. For this POC, we analyze a basic set of prosodic features: Talk proportions, pitch, and intensity. To create comparable methodological framework for dialogues, we created three plots of the three prosodic features, in ten equal sized intervals along the session. We used a simple distance measure between the resulting ten-dimensional vectors of each facet for each feature. The prosodic plots of these dialogues reveal the interact...
10th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2020, 2020
In this paper, we suggest methods to trace the flow of the use of filled pauses over the course o... more In this paper, we suggest methods to trace the flow of the use of filled pauses over the course of the conversation. Beyond using a normalized time with respect to each session's duration, we calculated the accumulative number of filled pauses and the accumulative number of words per speaker, whenever the speaker has expressed a filled pause or a new word. We then computed the ratio between these values at each such point in time, resulting in relative filled pauses use. The output produces a visualization of the global contour slopes that represents each speaker and the dynamics between the two speakers, in terms of the relative filled pauses use. The dialogues are taken from MaTaCOp, the Hebrew map-task corpus, in which each speaker participated twice, once as a leader and once as a follower. Findings suggest that there are significant differences between two different speakers in the same session. We did not find a difference in the use of filled pauses between the same speaker in different roles. Moreover, the use of filled pauses shows convergence. These findings strengthen previous studies on the influence of sociolinguistic variables on the use of Filled Pauses.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are in the spotlight due to the wide-spreading file-sharing applicati... more Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are in the spotlight due to the wide-spreading file-sharing applications. Many file-distributing algorithms have been suggested and implemented. The various solutions need to cope with a heterogeneous and unstable environment, where peers can arrive and depart at a high rate (churn). Sometimes cooperation cannot be assumed. These issues make the structured attitude less practical. Even some of
This study examines the diversity of silences in unbalanced dialogues, i.e. dialogues between spe... more This study examines the diversity of silences in unbalanced dialogues, i.e. dialogues between speakers with different participation levels: responder and reporter. We examined two genres: therapeutic sessions and private dialogues that are based on this responder-reporter structure. When looking at silences versus speech ratios, we found no differences between the genres nor between the roles. However, when grouping the silences by their types: Pauses (intra-speaker silences), gaps (interspeakers’ silences) and silences that occur in the vicinity of speech overlaps, we found that the silence duration of pauses are role dependent in both genres, while the silence duration of gaps were found genre dependent, but not role dependent. Moreover, speech rate was not found genre dependent. It seems that although silences in unbalanced dialogues vary considerably, genre and speaker’s role are influential.
Data routing in wireless sensor networks has attracted much research interest in recent years. Or... more Data routing in wireless sensor networks has attracted much research interest in recent years. Orthogonal Rendezvous Routing Protocol (ORRP) [1] was recently proposed and analyzed for use in wireless mesh networks. The protocol is based on a simple idea that two pairs of orthogonal lines in a plane intersect with a high probability and it utilizes the directional antennas for
ABSTRACT We present a distributed algorithm for assignment of transmission rights in a mobile mul... more ABSTRACT We present a distributed algorithm for assignment of transmission rights in a mobile multi-hop radio network. The proposed algorithm assigns a timeslot to each link forming a short cyclic TDMA. The resulting assignment allows collision free spatial reuse of the radio channel. The algorithm supports continuous slot assignment adaptation to topological changes while maintaining the collision free property. The adaptation process, which is an integral part of the link assignment algorithm, requires the participation of only the immediate neighbors of the change causing node. The adaptation to topological changes is accomplished in linear time and implemented in the order of their occurence in the network.
This paper deals with a pie allocation problem to users, who are divided intosharing groups, that... more This paper deals with a pie allocation problem to users, who are divided intosharing groups, that are not necessarily disjoint. The pie is allocated among the groups, rather than the users. The portion of a sharing group is a public good for its members, that is, all of them can enjoy it. A non-cooperative game for allocating the pie and
Patients with carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii-positive clinical cultures during a pr... more Patients with carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii-positive clinical cultures during a prior hospitalization were screened using high sensitivity methods upon first readmission. Of 38 patients, 31.6% screened positive; 42% screened positive within 2 months from discharge, and 14% screened positive more than 5 months from discharge. Carriage was persistent up to 285 days.
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