2. Clipping process (Research Assistants)

2. Clipping process (Research Assistants)

Introduction to clipping audios, file naming and usual order of administration

 

This section provides guidance for Research Assistants on clipping Connected Speech task audios, including file naming and the standard order of task administration. The same task and clipping order applies across all languages unless otherwise noted by the clinician in the last comment column of the Smartsheet.

Before April 2024 and participant BISE013 all participants were video clipped. Now we only clip audios and in specific cases we clip videos, please refer to video clipping guide: 2.2 Clipping VIDEOS Using Quicktime Player

Clipping and reclipping should always be completed in the lab. If you must work remotely, it’s essential to follow these steps since we are handling patient data:

  • Connect through the UT VPN

  • Work in a private, secure location

  • Use headphones to protect audio confidentiality

  • Delete all audios and videos from the computers and Trash before finishing your shift

The usual task orders are organized by:

  • Set 1 + 3

  • Set 2 + 3

  • Mid-treatment (Clinical Trial/Therapy only)

  • EB1/EB2 (Non-R01 participants only)

Important:
Per Decision 20241003, always prioritize clipping Pre, Post, and Follow-up sessions. Mid-treatment sessions should be clipped only if specified for a research need or if all other samples are clipped. This structure ensures consistency, clarity, and efficient data handling across all projects.

Clipping process (important! read before starting to clip)

Usual order of task administration and clipping

Guide on how to clip audios




Steps

Process

To Do



1

Look for the assigned Patient

Access the Clipping reports enter to each report to see which samples are remaining to clip. Those reports are a summarized version of the main Connected Speech Smartsheets and the data comunicates automatically (if you fill the reports out the data will appear in the main smartsheets)

20251023 note: filter removed from the reports for acoustic check task, Arely please add again once task is complete

Spanish CS Speech Data Analysis,Catalan CS Speech Data Analysis, or English CS Speech Data Analysis Smartsheet

  1. Make sure the clinician associated with the patient has uploaded the audio to box; this can be found under the column "Audios uploaded and copied to box" and that your name appears in the "RA student" column

  2. Under the column "Enrolled in Study," check type of study





1.1

Access the Transcription Folder that Corresponds with the Patient's Enrollment in the Study

  1. Select the appropriate Transcription Folder based on the patient's enrollment:

    1. Therapy trial or Observational trial


    2. Spanish, Catalan, or English



      (This can be found highlighted in yellow under the "Transcriptions" column)


      Here you will find the audios:



1.2

Download the audio file (or files)

  1. Download the audio file associated with the patient.

  2. The patient code will be the first part of the title (ex: BISE004_BACC003_CS1_Cat_Obs1part1_20230515.wav)



2

Open Audacity

Open Audacity Version 3.4.2

*If audacity is showing an error page when trying to import audio files, follow the instructions using the following link to install the FFmpeg plug-in: https://support.audacityteam.org/basics/installing-ffmpeg





2.1

Open the patient audio file

  1. On audacity, look for the tab "File/Activo," then select "open/abrir" from the drop-down menu




    1. Choose the patient audio file you wish to clip from your downloads

  2. Once you've located the patient audio in Audacity, click "open/abrir"




3

Clipping audio files in Audacity:
Listen to the audio file

  1. Listen to the audio sample by pressing

    on the top left-hand corner.

    1. Listen until you've reached the beginning of a task, then press "Control +B" to clip the audio (Make sure to press both buttons at the same time)

    2. Make sure to check that there is no clinician speech!





3.1

Name the task

1. Use the Naming Convention associated with the task and enter it into the purple box:


***Note that all Non-R01 and R01 patients will have set 3 in addition to Set 1 or Set 2, and Pre-R01s will only have set 3***



3.2

Listen to the audio until the patient has finished the task

  1. After the patient has finished the task, press "Control + B" and enter "ZZZ" into the purple box.





  2. **Note for the "KINDNESS" and "BRIDGE" tasks, you will need to clip each individual question associated with the task (ie: there should be 9 total clippings for the one task)