How speaker tongue and name source language affect the automatic recognition of spoken names

In this paper the automatic recognition of person names and geographical names uttered by native and non-native speakers is examined in an experimental set-up. The major aim was to raise our understanding of how well and under which circumstances previously proposed methods of multilingual pronunciation modeling and multilingual acoustic modeling contribute to a better name recognition in a cross-lingual context. To come to a meaningful interpretation of results we have categorized each language according to the amount of exposure a native speaker is expected to have had to this language. After having interpreted our results we have also tried to find an answer to the question of how much further improvement one might be able to attain with a more advanced pronunciation modeling technique which we plan to develop

Observation of an optical event horizon in a silicon-on-insulator photonic wire waveguide

We report on the first experimental observation of an optical analogue of an event horizon in integrated nanophotonic waveguides, through the reflection of a continuous wave on an intense pulse. The experiment is performed in a dispersion-engineered silicon-on-insulator waveguide. In this medium, solitons do not suffer from Raman induced self-frequency shift as in silica fibers, a feature that is interesting for potential applications of optical event horizons. As shown by simulations, this also allows the observation of multiple reflections at the same time on fundamental solitons ejected by soliton fission.SCOPUS: ar.jhttp://www.opticsexpress.org/abstract.cfm?URIinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Physical origin of higher-order soliton fission in nanophotonic semiconductor waveguides

Supercontinuum generation in Kerr media has become a staple of nonlinear optics. It has been celebrated for advancing the understanding of soliton propagation as well as its many applications in a broad range of fields. Coherent spectral broadening of laser light is now commonly performed in laboratories and used in commercial white light sources. The prospect of miniaturizing the technology is currently driving experiments in different integrated platforms such as semiconductor on insulator waveguides. Central to the spectral broadening is the concept of higher-order soliton fission. While widely accepted in silica fibers, the dynamics of soliton decay in semiconductor waveguides is yet poorly understood. In particular, the role of nonlinear loss and free carriers, absent in silica, remains an open question. Here, through experiments and simulations, we show that nonlinear loss is the dominant perturbations in wire waveguides, while free-carrier dispersion is dominant in photonic crystal waveguides

Evaluating the innovation box tax policy instrument in the Netherlands, 2007-13

Patent boxes are tax incentive schemes aimed at stimulating research and development (R&D) in firms by providing favourable tax rates to profits that can be linked to a specific immaterial asset, such as a patent. Because these profits are often hard to separate from other firm profits, patent boxes have been argued to be prone to tax shifting of firms, and tax competition between nations, as they might shift the location of the profits without affecting the location of R&D activities. Whether or not this occurs may also depend on conditions set in the patent box. We evaluate the innovation box policy instrument in the Netherlands, which is essentially a patent box, but without the formal requirement of a patent. We ask whether the innovation box has an effect on local R&D investment of the firm ('additionality'), thereby putting the hypothesis of tax shifting to the test. We find that the innovation box indeed has a positive effect on R&D investment, but the average firm that uses the policy tends to use only a part of the tax advantage for extra R&D investment

VSX J003909.7+611233: a new slowly pulsating B (SPB) star in Cassiopeia?

We report the discovery of a new 13th magnitude variable star in Cassiopeia close to the variable KP Cas.Analysis of six days of intensive photometry shows a regular, near sinusoidal modulation with an amplitude of 0.024 mag and a period of 0.43815(31)d.Although its colour indicates a spectral type around F0 the star probably suffers up to 2−2.5 magnitudes of extinction, so could be an Aor B-type star. Given the period, the low amplitude, the shape of the lightcurve and the probable spectral type we consider it most likely to be a slowly pulsating B-type (SPB) star.The variable has been registered in the International Variable Star Index with the identifier VSX J003909.7+611233

Dispersive wave emission and supercontinuum generation in a silicon wire waveguide pumped around the 1550 nm telecommunication wavelength

We experimentally and numerically study dispersive wave emission, soliton fission and supercontinuum generation in a silicon wire at telecommunication wavelengths. Through dispersion engineering, we experimentally confirm a previously reported numerical study [1] and show that the emission of resonant radiation from the solitons can lead to the generation of a supercontinuum spanning over 500 nm. An excellent agreement with numerical simulations is observed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure