Acoustic features of child directed speech (CDS) in caregiver-child conversational interactions are known to capture young children’s attention to language input and facilitate language learning. Emerging evidence suggests that caregivers’ use of CDS-like features when reading to their child, known as caregiver oral reading prosody, plays an important role in supporting preschoolers’ storybook comprehension. Do associations between caregiver oral reading prosody and preschoolers’ language extend beyond real-time listening comprehension to broader language skills? Forty-one caregivers read a children’s book to their child (ages: 4–5 years) as they normally would at home. The caregivers’ oral reading prosody (i.e., intonation and timing features) was examined in relation to children’s receptive vocabulary and core language skills. Moderated mediation models then investigated possible impacts of caregiver reading skills and shared reading time on these associations. Caregiver intonation range positively related to child vocabulary and caregiver inappropriate (i.e., ungrammatical) pausing negatively related to child core language skills. Mediation models revealed that caregiver reading skills indirectly related to child language through oral reading prosody measures. Notably, the indirect effect linking caregiver reading skills to child vocabulary via caregiver intonation range was moderated by shared reading time, with the strongest effects among dyads reporting less shared reading engagement. Findings illuminate caregiver oral reading prosody as one factor linking caregiver reading skills to child language, with particular relevance among families of caregivers with reading difficulties and for those with limited shared reading opportunities.
Entrainment is a social adaptive mechanism which in human spoken interaction includes interlocutors unconsciously adjusting their vocal patterns and related behaviors to match those of their conversation partner. Entrainment offers important insights toward understanding the socio-cognitive characteristics of an individual. Quantifying entrainment patterns can also inform clinical diagnosis, long-term monitoring, and individualized interventions in neuro-developmental disorders characterized by deficits in communication and social interaction, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In this work, we model vocal entrainment in dyadic child-inclusive conversations to analyze behavioral traits of children with and without an autism diagnosis. Specifically, we explore contrastive-learning based unsupervised modeling to learn representations related to entrainment from speech features. We validate the proposed measures by using them to differentiate real conversations from simulated shuffled ones. Furthermore, we illustrate their utility in modeling various behaviors relevant to autism symptoms by correlation experiments and comparing the variation of the introduced measures in children under different demographic conditions.
Managing water infrastructure systems has become increasingly challenging due to rapid economic growth, climate change effects, and the rising frequency of extreme hydro-meteorological events. Regions located in riverine floodplains, such as deltaic and low-lying areas, are particularly vulnerable to flooding and climate-induced disruptions. In this context, there is a critical need for systematic approaches to assess and enhance the resilience of urban water systems. This study develops an integrated framework for resilience assessment by combining the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory and Interpretive Structural Modeling (DEMATEL–ISM) with a Dynamic Bayesian Network (DBN). The proposed methodology captures both the causal interdependencies among resilience parameters and their temporal evolution under varying conditions. A total of 43 parameters were identified through literature review and expert consultation and applied to a case study in the Barak Valley region of Northeast India. Data were collected from field surveys, historical records, and official reports, including those from the District Disaster Management Authority, for the period 2022–2024. The results indicate that key driving factors are primarily associated with institutional capacity, climate adaptation investments, and infrastructure development, whereas resource availability factors such as insurance mechanisms and equipment support exhibit relatively lower influence within the system. The spatial assessment further identifies Kanakpur, Dullacherra, and Lalaghat as relatively more resilient locations, while Fanai Cherra Grant and Hailakandi are found to be more vulnerable under disaster conditions. The robustness of the framework is examined by sensitivity analysis and temporal stability assessment of the survey-derived resilience estimates. The proposed framework provides a structured and data-driven tool for evaluating water system resilience and can support decision-making for climate adaptation planning in vulnerable regions.
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) has become a contested yet critical component of net-zero strategies despite its deployment consistently lagging corporate and government ambitions. This article develops and applies a comparative political economy framework to assess national CDR deployment. The framework is organised around four analytical categories – material conditions, policy settings, actor configurations, deployment realities – and is operationalised through six national case studies selected for their diversity in geography, fossil fuel dependence, and governance systems: Brazil, Italy, Malaysia, Norway, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom. Drawing on policy document analysis and project deployment data, the analysis reveals four key patterns. First, technical estimates routinely overestimate the available geological CO2 storage capacity by ignoring social and ecological constraints that would reduce storage potential by 843 GtCO2 (−85%) across the six countries. Second, the absence of separated emissions reduction and removal targets increases the risk of mitigation deterrence if hypothetical future removals are allowed to substitute for near-term emission cuts. Third, fossil fuel and financial incumbent actors control geological storage and shape regulatory decisions in emerging CDR governance that channels public funds and political attention to CCS. Fourth, operational CDR capacity (0.22-0.34 MtCO2/yr) across all six countries is dwarfed by operational CCS capacity (16.1 MtCO2/yr) with proposed CCS (371.4-415.4 MtCO2/yr) far exceeding proposed CDR deployment (28.9-29.4 MtCO2/yr) – though more complete inventories are available for industrial CCS than land-based removals, and planned capacities are not forecasts. Overall, the framework offers a diagnostic toolkit for researchers and policymakers to move beyond techno-economic assessments by revealing structural barriers to just and equitable carbon removal.
