Semi-supervised and Active-learning Scenarios: Efficient Acoustic Model Refinement for a Low Resource Indian Language

We address the problem of efficient acoustic-model refinement (continuous retraining) using semi-supervised and active learning for a low resource Indian language, wherein the low resource constraints are having i) a small labeled corpus from which to train a baseline `seed' acoustic model and ii) a large training corpus without orthographic labeling or from which to perform a data selection for manual labeling at low costs. The proposed semi-supervised learning decodes the unlabeled large training corpus using the seed model and through various protocols, selects the decoded utterances with high reliability using confidence levels (that correlate to the WER of the decoded utterances) and iterative bootstrapping. The proposed active learning protocol uses confidence level based metric to select the decoded utterances from the large unlabeled corpus for further labeling. The semi-supervised learning protocols can offer a WER reduction, from a poorly trained seed model, by as much as 50% of the best WER-reduction realizable from the seed model's WER, if the large corpus were labeled and used for acoustic-model training. The active learning protocols allow that only 60% of the entire training corpus be manually labeled, to reach the same performance as the entire data

Predicting the dissolution kinetics of silicate glasses using machine learning

Predicting the dissolution rates of silicate glasses in aqueous conditions is a complex task as the underlying mechanism(s) remain poorly understood and the dissolution kinetics can depend on a large number of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Here, we assess the potential of data-driven models based on machine learning to predict the dissolution rates of various aluminosilicate glasses exposed to a wide range of solution pH values, from acidic to caustic conditions. Four classes of machine learning methods are investigated, namely, linear regression, support vector machine regression, random forest, and artificial neural network. We observe that, although linear methods all fail to describe the dissolution kinetics, the artificial neural network approach offers excellent predictions, thanks to its inherent ability to handle non-linear data. Overall, we suggest that a more extensive use of machine learning approaches could significantly accelerate the design of novel glasses with tailored properties

PCR-based sex determination of cetaceans and dugong from the Indian seas

A sex-determination technique based on PCR amplifi- cation of genomic DNA extracted from the skin tissue has been standardized in cetaceans and dugong sam-pled from the Indian seas. A Y-chromosome-specific region (SRY or Sex-determining Y-chromosome gene) of 210–224 bp size in the genome has been amplified (only in males) using specific PCR primers. A fragment of the ZFX/ZFY (zinc finger protein genes located both on the X and Y chromosomes respectively) re-gion in the size range 442–445 bp is also amplified (in both sexes) using another pair of primers simultaneously as positive controls for confirmation of sex. Molecular sexing was standardized in spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris), bridled dolphin (Stenella attenuata), bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus), Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphin (Sousa chinensis), Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus), finless porpoise (Neopho-caena phocaenoides), sperm whale (Physeter macro-cephalus), blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera edeni) and dugong (Dugong du-gon), which are all vulnerable/endangered species pro- tected under the Indian Wildlife Act

On Rotation Distance of Rank Bounded Trees

Computing the rotation distance between two binary trees with $n$ internal nodes efficiently (in $poly(n)$ time) is a long standing open question in the study of height balancing in tree data structures. In this paper, we initiate the study of this problem bounding the rank of the trees given at the input (defined by Ehrenfeucht and Haussler (1989) in the context of decision trees). We define the rank-bounded rotation distance between two given binary trees $T_1$ and $T_2$ (with $n$ internal nodes) of rank at most $r$, denoted by $d_r(T_1,T_2)$, as the length of the shortest sequence of rotations that transforms $T_1$ to $T_2$ with the restriction that the intermediate trees must be of rank at most $r$. We show that the rotation distance problem reduces in polynomial time to the rank bounded rotation distance problem. This motivates the study of the problem in the combinatorial and algorithmic frontiers. Observing that trees with rank $1$ coincide exactly with skew trees (binary trees where every internal node has at least one leaf as a child), we show the following results in this frontier : We present an $O(n^2)$ time algorithm for computing $d_1(T_1,T_2)$. That is, when the given trees are skew trees (we call this variant as skew rotation distance problem) - where the intermediate trees are restricted to be skew as well. In particular, our techniques imply that for any two skew trees $d(T_1,T_2) \le n^2$. We show the following upper bound : for any two trees $T_1$ and $T_2$ of rank at most $r_1$ and $r_2$ respectively, we have that: $d_r(T_1,T_2) \le n^2 (1+(2n+1)(r_1+r_2-2))$ where $r = max\{r_1,r_2\}$. This bound is asymptotically tight for $r=1$. En route our proof of the above theorems, we associate binary trees to permutations and bivariate polynomials, and prove several characterizations in the case of skew trees.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figures, Abstract shortened to meet arxiv requirement