Mask estimation based on sound localisation for missing data speech recognition

ABSTRACT This paper describes a perceptually motivated computational auditory scene analysis (CASA) system that combines sound separation according to spatial location with 'missing data' techniques for robust speech recognition in noise. Missing data time-frequency masks are produced using cross-correlation to estimate interaural time differenre (ITD) and hence spatial azimuth; this is used to determine which regions of the signal constitute reliable evidence of the target speech signal. Three experiments are performed that compare the effects of different reverberation surfaces, localisation methods and azimuth separations on recognition accuracy, together with the effects of two post-processing techniques (morphological operations and supervised learning) for improving mask estimation. Both post-processing techniques greatly improve performance; the best performance occurs using a learnt mapping

Colorado Native Plant Society Newsletter, Vol. 4 No. 2, March-April 1980

The Colorado Native Plant Society Newsletter will be published on a bimonthly basis. The contents will consist primarily of a calendar of events, notes of interest, editorials, listings of new members and conservation news. Until there is a Society journal, the Newsletter will include short articles also. The deadline for the Newsletter is one month prior to its release.https://epublications.regis.edu/aquilegia/1018/thumbnail.jp

Gender, foundation degrees and the knowledge economy

This article questions the concept of ‘education for employment’, which constructs a discourse of individual and societal benefit in a knowledge‐driven economy. Recent policy emphasis in the European Union promotes the expansion of higher education and short‐cycle vocational awards such as the intermediate two‐year Foundation Degree recently introduced into England and Wales. Studies of vocational education and training (VET) and the knowledge economy have focused largely on the governance of education and on the development and drift of policy. Many VET programmes have also been considered for their classed, raced and gendered take‐up and subsequent effect on employment. This article builds on both fields of study to engage with the finer cross‐analyses of gender, social class, poverty, race and citizenship. In its analysis of policy texts the article argues that in spite of a discourse of inclusivity, an expanded higher education system has generated new inequalities, deepening social stratification. Drawing on early analyses of national quantitative data sets, it identifies emerging gendered, classed and raced patterns and considers these in relation to occupationally and hierarchically stratified labour markets, both within and without the knowledge economy

Exploring access to end of life care for ethnic minorities with end stage kidney disease through recruitment in action research

BACKGROUND: Variation in provision of palliative care in kidney services and practitioner concerns to provide equitable access led to the development of this study which focussed on the perspectives of South Asian patients and their care providers. As people with a South Asian background experience a higher risk of Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) and end stage kidney failure (ESKF) compared to the majority population but wait longer for a transplant, there is a need for end of life care to be accessible for this group of patients. Furthermore because non English speakers and people at end of life are often excluded from research there is a dearth of research evidence with which to inform service improvement. This paper aims to explore issues relating to the process of recruitment of patients for a research project which contribute to our understanding of access to end of life care for ethnic minority patients in the kidney setting. METHODS: The study employed an action research methodology with interviews and focus groups to capture and reflect on the process of engaging with South Asian patients about end of life care. Researchers and kidney care clinicians on four NHS sites in the UK recruited South Asian patients with ESKF who were requiring end of life care to take part in individual interviews; and other clinicians who provided care to South Asian kidney patients at end of life to take part in focus groups exploring end of life care issues. In action research planning, action and evaluation are interlinked and data were analysed with emergent themes fed back to care providers through the research cycle. Reflections on the process of patient recruitment generated focus group discussions about access which were analysed thematically and reported here. RESULTS: Sixteen patients were recruited to interview and 45 different care providers took part in 14 focus groups across the sites. The process of recruiting patients to interview and subsequent focus group data highlighted some of the key issues concerning access to end of life care. These were: the identification of patients approaching end of life; and their awareness of end of life care; language barriers and informal carers' roles in mediating communication; and contrasting cultures in end of life kidney care. CONCLUSIONS: Reflection on the process of recruitment in this action research study provided insight into the complex scenario of end of life in kidney care. Some of the emerging issues such as the difficulty identifying patients are likely to be common across all patient groups, whilst others concerning language barriers and third party communication are more specific to ethnic minorities. A focus on South Asian ethnicity contributes to better understanding of patient perspectives and generic concepts as well as access to end of life kidney care for this group of patients in the UK. Action research was a useful methodology for achieving this and for informing future research to include informal carers and other ethnic groups.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Special Libraries, October 1922

Volume 13, Issue 8https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1922/1007/thumbnail.jp

Sheep Updates 2009

This session covers seven papers from different authors: 1. Scouring Management and Worm Control, Brown Besier, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 2.Breeding sheep for resistance to breech strike:- Selection results in WA, LJE Karlsson, JC Greeff & AC Schlink, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 3.Future Ewe - matching genetics to the production system, Mark Ferguson, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 4. Within-flock selection of ewes: opportunities for gains in reproduction, Greg Leeand Sue Hatcher, NSW Department of Primary Industries & Australian CRCforSheep Industry Innovation (Orange) 5. Managing Merinos on Murrayfield, Bruce Michael, Murryfield, Bruny Island, Tasmania 6. Managing [breech] flystrike in [unmulesed] sheep, Rob Woodgate, Darren Michael, Mandy Curnow and Julia Smith, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia 7. Value of Pregnancy Scanning and Differential Feeding of Dry, Single amd Twin Ewes, John Young, Farming Systems Analysis Service, Kojonup, WA, Andrew Thompson, Chris Oldham Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australi

The Development of a Coordinated Database for Water Resources and Flow Model in the Paso Del Norte Watershed

This report fulfills the deliverables required by the cooperative agreement between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Texas Agricultural Experiment Station (TAES/03-PL-02: Modification No. 2) on behalf of the Paso del Norte Watershed Council. Tasks accomplished in this phase include (a) review of hydrological models in the region; (b) conceptual model of the Rio Grande flow; and (c) linkage protocol of the coordinated database and hydrological models. In addition, a training workshop on the RiverWare model was offered to regional water stakeholders. Twenty-four trainees attended the workshop at New Mexico State University on December 15-17, 2004. The Project Team also provided review on the FLO-2D model simulation of the Rio Grande flood control scenarios at the U.S. IBWC on August 3, 2005, review of QA/QC procedures of the real-time data collection, and assessment of regional orthophotographic images in 2005. This Project was conducted by researchers at Texas A&M University (TAMU) and New Mexico State University (NMSU) under the direction of Zhuping Sheng of TAMU. It was developed to enhance the coordinated database, which was originally developed by the Paso del Norte Watershed Council with support of El Paso Water Utilities to fulfill needs for better management of regional water resources and to expand the Upper Rio Grande Water Operations Model (URGWOM) to cover the river reaches between Elephant Butte Dam, New Mexico and Fort Quitman, Texas. In Phase I of this Project (TAES/03-PL-02), hydrological data needed for flow model development were compiled and data gaps were identified. The objectives of this phase were to develop a conceptual model of the Rio Grande flow between Elephant Butte Dam and American Dam by using data collected in the first development phase of the PdNWC/Corps Coordinated Water Resources Database and to enhance the data portal capabilities of the PdNWC Coordinated Database Project. The first part of this report (corresponding to Task Five of the contract for the Development of a Coordinated Database and GIS for Water Related Resources in the Rio Grande Watershed, written by Sue Tillery, Phillip King and Zhuping Sheng), summarizes the hydrological models developed for surface water and groundwater flows and management of regional water resources in terms of model configuration, advantages, and limitations of each modeling approach. This part of the report also identifies and verifies the availability of relevant hydrological data needed for development of the RiverWare model, especially hydrology of drain return flows. Based on previous modeling studies, the authors evaluated reasonable simplifications (through the use of look-up tables or similar tools) of interaction of surface and groundwater within the Mesilla Basin and Rincon Valley and developed the RiverWare conceptual model for the Rio Grande flow for the selected reaches and within the limits of available data. The second part of this report was written by C. Brown and B. Creel and summarizes the data portal enhancements to the PdNWC Coordinated Database for its linkage to the URGWOM development. This part of the report describes enhancements to the data portal capabilities of the Project through the development of a low-end user interface that would serve GIS-based graphics of each data set and enhanced metadata of relevant data sets. A literature search of bibliographic resources detailing GIS-based hydrologic modeling in the Paso del Norte region and linkages to these resources are provided via portions of the Project website

The Development of a Coordinated Database for Water Resources and Flow Model in the Paso Del Norte Watershed (Phase III) Part II Availability of Flow and Water Quality Data for the Rio Grande Project Area

This report fulfills the deliverables required by the cooperative agreement between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Texas AgriLife Research (TAES/03-PL-02: Modification No. 3) on behalf of the Paso del Norte Watershed Council. Tasks accomplished in this phase include (a) assess the data availability for expansion of the URGWOM model, identify data gaps, generate data needed from historic data using empirical methods, compile and verify the water quality data for reaches between the Elephant Butte reservoir, New Mexico and Fort Quitman, Texas; (b) develop the RiverWare physical model for the Rio Grande flow for the selected reaches between Elephant Butte Reservoir and El Paso, beginning with a conceptual model for interaction of surface water and groundwater in the Rincon and Mesilla valleys, and within the limits of available data; (c) implement data transfer interface between the coordinated database and hydrologic models. This Project was conducted by researchers at Texas A&M University (TAMU) and New Mexico State University (NMSU) under the direction of Zhuping Sheng of TAMU and J. Phillip King of New Mexico State University. It was developed to enhance the coordinated database, which was originally developed by the Paso del Norte Watershed Council with support of El Paso Water Utilities to fulfill needs for better management of regional water resources and to expand the Upper Rio Grande Water Operations Model (URGWOM) to cover the river reaches between Elephant Butte Dam, New Mexico and Fort Quitman, Texas. In Phases I and II of this Project (TAES/03-PL-02), hydrological data needed for flow model development were compiled and data gaps were identified and conceptual model was developed. The objectives of this phase were to develop a physical model of the Rio Grande flow between Elephant Butte Dam and American Dam by using data collected in the first development phase of the PdNWC/Corps Coordinated Water Resources Database and to enhance the data portal capabilities of the PdNWC Coordinated Database Project. This report is Part II of a three part completion report that combines data compilation of the Phase I report prepared by Sue Tillery and J. Phillip King and part of the completion report for Phase III prepared by Z. Sheng, J.P. King and B. Creel. It identifies and evaluates the availability of historical flow and water quality data that has been collected at different sites along the Rio Grande between Elephant Butte Dam, New Mexico and Fort Quitman, Texas. This includes monitoring sites from associated canals, drains, and dams along the Rio Grande. Flow data for the years from 1908 through 2002 and water quality data for the years 1938 to 2005 collected periodically by different agencies include historic chemical analytical results and real-time monitoring values. This report includes a description of the agencies that collected water quality data, a summary of the sites found along the Rio Grande, and finally a data matrix and parameter summary for each site. Data downloaded were collected from the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC), El Paso, Texas; US Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Elephant Butte Irrigation District (EBID), El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1, and Parsons Engineering Science, Inc. compiled for the New Mexico-Texas Water Commission by contract through El Paso Water Utilities

The Development of a Coordinated Database for Water Resources and Flow Model in the Paso Del Norte Watershed (Phase III) Part I Lower Rio Grande Flood Control Model [LRGFCM] RiverWare Model Development

This report fulfills the deliverables required by the cooperative agreement between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Texas AgriLife Research (TAES/03-PL-02: Modification No. 3) on behalf of the Paso del Norte Watershed Council. Tasks accomplished in this phase include (a) assess the data availability for expansion of the URGWOM model, identify data gaps, generate data needed from historic data using empirical methods, compile and verify the water quality data for reaches between the Elephant Butte Reservoir, New Mexico and Fort Quitman, Texas; (b) develop the RiverWareTM physical model for the Rio Grande flow for the selected reaches between Elephant Butte Reservoir and El Paso, beginning with a conceptual model for interaction of surface water and groundwater in the Rincon and Mesilla valleys, and within the limits of available data; (c) implement data transfer interface between the coordinated database and hydrologic models. This Project was conducted by researchers at Texas A&M University (TAMU) and New Mexico State University (NMSU) under the direction of Zhuping Sheng of TAMU and J. Phillip King of New Mexico State University. It was developed to enhance the coordinated database, which was originally developed by the Paso del Norte Watershed Council with support of El Paso Water Utilities to fulfill needs for better management of regional water resources and to expand the Upper Rio Grande Water Operations Model (URGWOM) to cover the river reaches between Elephant Butte Dam, New Mexico, and Fort Quitman, Texas. In Phases I and II of this Project (TAES/03-PL-02), hydrological data needed for flow model development were compiled and data gaps were identified and conceptual model development. The objectives of this phase were to develop a physical model of the Rio Grande flow between Elephant Butte Dam and American Dam by using data collected in the first development phase of the PdNWC/Corps Coordinated Water Resources Database and to enhance the data portal capabilities of the PdNWC Coordinated Database Project. This report is Part I of a three part completion report for Phase III and describes the development of RiverWare model of Rio Grande flows and a coordinated database for water related resources in the Rio Grande watershed. The RiverWare physical model for Rio Grande flows included selected reaches between Elephant Butte Reservoir and El Paso using historical data from 1985 to 1999. A conceptual model for interaction of surface and groundwater was developed using an ARIMA time-series transfer function analysis. ARIMA transfer functions are used as a means to estimate the interactions of surface and groundwater. Forecasting drain flows from diversion flows is demonstrated as a statistically valid method, and provides results highly correlated with the historic values

Donning the ‘slow professor’: A feminist action research project

Corporatization of Higher Education has introduced new performance measurements as well as an acceleration of academic tasks creating working environments characterised by speed, pressure and stress. This paper discusses findings from a qualitative, feminist participatory action research (PAR) study undertaken by an interdisciplinary team of women academics at a modern, corporate university in England. The study illuminates how corporatized HE erodes faculty autonomy, degrades learning environments, damages professional satisfaction and health. Strategies for resistance and liberation developed through the PAR process are discussed