Optimized Performance of One-Bed Adsorption Cooling System

Adsorption cooling system can be driven by solar energy or waste heat, so it will effectively reduce fossil fuel consumptions when total system is well-designed. On the other hand, the system tends to have a large size, which will be an obstacle to install adsorption cooling systems to small to medium scale cooling demands, such as automobiles, houses, or shops. The study was aiming at the reduction of system size of adsorption cooling systems for refrigeration and air-conditioning applications. To simplify the system, we investigated one-bed configuration of adsorption cooling system. In general, one-bed adsorption cooling system would result in a large temperature fluctuation at chilled water outlet. To overcome that drawback and to maximize the cooling capacity, the cycle time, namely, pre-heating, desorption, pre-cooling, and adsorption times, of one-bed adsorption cooling system was optimized. In case of two-bed adsorption cooling system, two adsorbers operates in reverse phase each other, which means that the degree of freedom for cycle time optimization is two. In case of one-bed adsorption cooling sytem, four processes can be independently optimized. In our study, activated carbon-ethanol pair was chosen as the adsorbent-refrigerant pair because of a high adsorption capacity of activated carbons against ethanol. Using adsorption isotherms and kinetic data of activated carbon-ethanol pair measured by our research group, a lumped parameter model of one-bed adsorption cooling system was developed. The four parameters of cycle time were optimized using global optimization method, and the optimal time settings were effectively found. The results showed the effect of cycle time optimization on the cooling performance of one-bed adsorption cooling system

A rule based prosody model for Turkish text-to-speech synthesis

Ovaj članak predstavlja naš novi prozodijski model u sustavu za sintezu turskog teksta u govor (TTS). Nakon razvijanja TTS sustava vođenog parametrijskim osobinama koje se sastoje od promjena trajanja, visine i jačine glasa, pokušavamo postaviti neka prozodijska pravila kako bi se povećala prirodnost našeg sintetizatora. Budući da u turskom jeziku glagoli koji se sprežu mogu biti samostalne rečenice uz sufikse koji im se dodaju, sastavljamo perceptualni prozodijski model definiranjem pravila o obrascima naglasaka kod sprezanja glagola. Sistematski su se proučavali potvrdni, negativni i upitni (i potvrdni i negativni) oblici mnogih glagola. Nisu se proučavali samo glagoli već, na isti način, i neke fraze kako bi se postigla ispravna prozodija. Prema rezultatima testova slušanja, definirana pravila zasnovana na promjenama trajanja, visine i jačine glasa, dovode do perceptualno bolje govorne sinteze, naime u prosjeku do 1,78/5,0 poboljšanja u CMSO testu (Comparative Mean Opinion Score). To poboljšanje predstavlja uspjeh našeg novog prozodijskog modela.This paper presents our novel prosody model in a Turkish text-to-speech synthesis (TTS) system. After developing a TTS system driven by parametric features consisting of duration, pitch and energy modifications, we try to figure out some prosody rules in order to increase the naturalness of our synthesizer. Since the inflected verbs in Turkish can be stand-alone sentences with the suffixes they take, we build a perceptual prosody model by defining rules on the stress patterns of verb inflections. Affirmative, negative and interrogative (both positive and negative) forms of many verbs were examined in a systematic way. Not only verbs, but in the same way, some phrases were examined for obtaining a proper prosody. According to the results of listening tests, the defined rules based on duration, pitch and energy modification weights, result in perceptually better speech synthesis, namely about 1,78/5,0 improvement in average in the CMOS (Comparative Mean Opinion Score) test. This improvement shows the success of our novel prosody model

A rule based prosody model for Turkish text-to-speech synthesis

Ovaj članak predstavlja naš novi prozodijski model u sustavu za sintezu turskog teksta u govor (TTS). Nakon razvijanja TTS sustava vođenog parametrijskim osobinama koje se sastoje od promjena trajanja, visine i jačine glasa, pokušavamo postaviti neka prozodijska pravila kako bi se povećala prirodnost našeg sintetizatora. Budući da u turskom jeziku glagoli koji se sprežu mogu biti samostalne rečenice uz sufikse koji im se dodaju, sastavljamo perceptualni prozodijski model definiranjem pravila o obrascima naglasaka kod sprezanja glagola. Sistematski su se proučavali potvrdni, negativni i upitni (i potvrdni i negativni) oblici mnogih glagola. Nisu se proučavali samo glagoli već, na isti način, i neke fraze kako bi se postigla ispravna prozodija. Prema rezultatima testova slušanja, definirana pravila zasnovana na promjenama trajanja, visine i jačine glasa, dovode do perceptualno bolje govorne sinteze, naime u prosjeku do 1,78/5,0 poboljšanja u CMSO testu (Comparative Mean Opinion Score). To poboljšanje predstavlja uspjeh našeg novog prozodijskog modela.This paper presents our novel prosody model in a Turkish text-to-speech synthesis (TTS) system. After developing a TTS system driven by parametric features consisting of duration, pitch and energy modifications, we try to figure out some prosody rules in order to increase the naturalness of our synthesizer. Since the inflected verbs in Turkish can be stand-alone sentences with the suffixes they take, we build a perceptual prosody model by defining rules on the stress patterns of verb inflections. Affirmative, negative and interrogative (both positive and negative) forms of many verbs were examined in a systematic way. Not only verbs, but in the same way, some phrases were examined for obtaining a proper prosody. According to the results of listening tests, the defined rules based on duration, pitch and energy modification weights, result in perceptually better speech synthesis, namely about 1,78/5,0 improvement in average in the CMOS (Comparative Mean Opinion Score) test. This improvement shows the success of our novel prosody model

Design and implementation of an isolated-word Turkish speech recognition system with data augmentation

Bu çalışmada toplamda doksan iki adet sesli komuttan oluşan bir yalıtık sözcüklü Türkçe konuşma tanıma sistemi tasarlanmış ve gerçekleştirilmiştir. Sistem, destek vektör makinesi (SVM) tabanlı olup, eğitimde kullanılan veri kümesi kaydedilen konuşmaların yapay olarak çeşitlendirilip artırılmasıyla elde edilmiştir. Farklı yapay veri oranlarının tanıma başarımı üzerindeki etkisi incelenmiştir. Akustik öznitelik olarak, mel frekansı kepstral katsayıları (MFCC) kullanılmıştır. Ayrıca, ses aktivitesi tespitinin ve MFCC katsayılarının tanıma başarımına etkileri de irdelenmiştir. Sonuçta doksan iki yalıtık komut için ortalama %92.6’lık doğrulukla çalışan bir konuşma tanıma sistemi geliştirilmiştir.In this study, an isolated-word Turkish speech recognition system comprising of ninety-two voiced commands has been designed and implemented. The system is support vector machine (SVM) based and the data set used in training has been obtained by augmenting the original recordings artificially. The effect of different augmented data amounts on recognition performance has been examined. As acoustic features, mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) were used. Moreover, the effects of voice activity detection and MFCCs on recognition performance have also been investigated. In the end, 92.6% recognition accuracy on average has been obtained for ninety-two isolated commands

A rare case of cervical epidural extramedullary plasmacytoma presenting with monoparesis

Multiple myeloma and other plasma cell disorders are characterized by production of a large number of plasma cells in the bone marrow. On the other hand, plasmacytoma results from proliferation of abnormal plasma cells in the soft tissue or skeletal system. Neurological complications are frequently observed in these diseases. The most commonly known complications among those complications are spine fractures, spinal cord compressions, and peripheral neuropathies. Although neurological involvements are common in plasmacytomas, extramedullary spinal epidural localizations have been reported very rarely. In this case report, we aimed to present a plasmacytoma case that presented with acute onset of upper extremity monoparesis. A 40-year-old woman was admitted to our clinic with complaints of sudden weakness and numbness in her left arm following neck and left arm pain. Emergency cervical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed an epidural mass and the patient underwent emergency surgery. The patient showed improvement post-operatively and the pathology was reported as plasmacytoma. Following hematology consultation, systemic chemotherapy was initiated and radiotherapy was planned after wound healing

Incidence, hospital costs and in-hospital mortality rates of surgically treated patients with traumatic cranial epidural hematoma

Background: In this study, the patients who were operated in two clinics due to traumatic cranial epidural hematoma (EDH) were assessed retrospectively and the factors that increase the costs were tried to be revealed through conducting cost analyses. Methods: The patients who were operated between 2010 and 2016 with the diagnosis of EDH were assessed in terms of age, sex, trauma etiology, Glasgow coma scale (GCS) at admission, the period from trauma to hospital arrival, trauma-related injury in other organs, the localization of hematoma, the size of hematoma, length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), length of antibiotherapy administration, number of consultations conducted, total cost of in-hospital treatments of the patients and prognosis. Results: Distribution of GCS were, between 13-15 in 18 (36%) patients, 9-13 in 23 (46%) patients and 3-8 in 9 (18%) patients. The reasons for emergency department admissions were fall from high in 29 (58%) patients, assault in 11 (22%) patients and motor vehicle accident in 10 (20%) patients. The average cost per ICU stay was 2838 $(range=343-20571$). The average cost per surgical treatment was 314 $. ICU care was approximately 9 times more expensive than surgical treatment costs. The mortality rate of the study cohort was 14% (7 patients). Conclusion: The prolonged period of stay in the ICU, antibiotherapy and repeat head CTs increase the costs for patients who are surgically treated for EDH

Incidence, hospital costs and in-hospital mortality rates of surgically treated patients with traumatic cranial epidural hematoma

Background: In this study, the patients who were operated in two clinics due to traumatic cranial epidural hematoma (EDH) were assessed retrospectively and the factors that increase the costs were tried to be revealed through conducting cost analyses.Methods: The patients who were operated between 2010 and 2016 with the diagnosis of EDH were assessed in terms of age, sex, trauma etiology, Glasgow coma scale (GCS) at admission, the period from trauma to hospital arrival, trauma-related injury in other organs, the localization of hematoma, the size of hematoma, length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), length of antibiotherapy administration, number of consultations conducted, total cost of in-hospital treatments of the patients and prognosis.Results: Distribution of GCS were, between 13-15 in 18 (36%) patients, 9-13 in 23 (46%) patients and 3-8 in 9 (18%) patients. The reasons for emergency department admissions were fall from high in 29 (58%) patients, assault in 11 (22%) patients and motor vehicle accident in 10 (20%) patients. The average cost per ICU stay was 2838 $(range=343-20571$). The average cost per surgical treatment was 314 $. ICU care was approximately 9 times more expensive than surgical treatment costs. The mortality rate of the study cohort was 14% (7 patients).Conclusion: The prolonged period of stay in the ICU, antibiotherapy and repeat head CTs increase the costs for patients who are surgically treated for EDH