Automatic speech recognition with deep neural networks for impaired speech

The final publication is available at https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-49169-1_10Automatic Speech Recognition has reached almost human performance in some controlled scenarios. However, recognition of impaired speech is a difficult task for two main reasons: data is (i) scarce and (ii) heterogeneous. In this work we train different architectures on a database of dysarthric speech. A comparison between architectures shows that, even with a small database, hybrid DNN-HMM models outperform classical GMM-HMM according to word error rate measures. A DNN is able to improve the recognition word error rate a 13% for subjects with dysarthria with respect to the best classical architecture. This improvement is higher than the one given by other deep neural networks such as CNNs, TDNNs and LSTMs. All the experiments have been done with the Kaldi toolkit for speech recognition for which we have adapted several recipes to deal with dysarthric speech and work on the TORGO database. These recipes are publicly available.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile in its westernmost biogeographical limit (northwestern Alboran Sea): Meadows characterisation, phenology and flowering events

Mateo-Ramírez A, Urra J, Rueda J, Marina, Bañares-España E, García Raso E. (2016) Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile in its westernmost biogeographical limit (northwestern Alboran Sea): Meadows characterisation, phenology and flowering events. Front. Mar, Sci. Conference Abstract: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.05.00055Posidonia oceanica is a Mediterranean endemic seagrass species that forms meadows covering ca. 2.5–4.5 millions of hectares, representing ca.25 % of the infralittoral and shallow circalittoral (down to 50m) bottoms of the Mediterranean. This seagrass is considered a habitat-engineer species and provides an elevated number of ecosystem services. In addition the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 2008/56/EC) includes seagrass like elements to evaluate the “Good Environmental Status” of the European coasts. Information about their phenological characteristic and structure of the meadows is needed for indicator estimations in order to establish their conservation status. The studied meadows are located in the westernmost limit of the P. oceanica distribution (North-western Alboran Sea) in the vecinity of the Strait of Gibraltar, an Atlantic-Mediterranean water transition area. Four sites were selected from East to West: Paraje Natural de Acantilados de Maro-Cerro Gordo (hereafter Maro), Special Area of Conservation “Calahonda” (hereafter Calahonda), Site of Community Importance Estepona (hereafter Estepona) and Punta Chullera (hereafter Chullera) where P. oceanica present their westernmost meadows. Phenological data were recorded from mid November to mid December in P. oceanica patches located at 2 – 3 m depth. At each site three types of patches (patch area 2 m2, large patches) were sampled. At each patch and site, 3 quadrants of 45 x 45 cm were sampled for shoot and inflorescences density measurements. In each quadrant, 10 random shoots were sampled for shoot morphology (shoot height and number of leaves). Shoot and inflorescences densities were standardized to squared meters. All the studied P. oceanica meadows develop on rocks and they present a fragmented structure with a coverage ranging between ca. 45% in Calahonda and Estepona and ca. 31% in Maro. The meadows of Chullera are reduced to a few small - medium patches with areas ranging between 0.5-1.5 m2 (Fig. 1). The meadows of Chullera and Estepona presented similar values of shoot density (ca. 752 – 662 shoots m-2, respectively) and leaf height (ca. 25 cm). Similarly, the Calahonda and Maro meadows also showed similar values of shoot density (ca. 510 – 550 shoots m-2, respectively) but displaying lower values than those of sites located closer to the Strait of Gibraltar. Regarding patch sizes and leaf height, the longest leaves (ca. 25 cm) were found in medium and large patches, but the number of leaves per shoot were higher in the small and the medium size patches (ca. 6.3 leaves per shoot). Flowering was only detected at the Calahonda meadows with maximum values of ca. 330 inflorescences m-2 (115.2 ± 98.2 inflorescences m-2, n= 9; mean ± SD) (Fig.1). Inflorescence density was not significant different among patches of different sizes. In the Alboran Sea and unlike the studied meadows, extensive beds of P. oceanica occur at the National Park of Cabo de Gata (northeastern Alboran Sea), but from east to west (Strait of Gibraltar), meadows are gradually fragmenting and their depth range decrease from 30m to 2m depth between Cabo de Gata and Chullera, respectively. Probably, the Atlantic influence and the characteristic oceanographic conditions of the Alboran Sea (i.e., higher turbidity, higher water turbulence) represent a developmental limiting factor for P. oceanica at higher depths. Similarities between the meadows located closer to Strait of Gibraltar (Chullera and Estepona) were detected as well as between those more distant (Calahonda and Maro). The first ones showed higher values of shoot densities and leaf heights than the formers, which could be relating to the higher hydrodynamic exposure found at Chullera and Estepona meadows. Regarding flowering events, sexual reproduction in P. oceanica is not common in different locations of the Mediterranean Sea. The available information seems to indicate that flowering represent an irregular event and it is related to high seawater temperature. In fact, the flowering episodes that occurred in Calahonda in November 2015, match with the warmest year ever recorded. This is the third flowering event registered in these meadows located close to the westernmost distributional limit of P. oceanica (Málaga, Alboran Sea), which could indicates that these meadows presents a healthy status. Furthermore, the absence of significant differences in relation to inflorescence density between patches of different sizes may be indicating that the fragmentation does not necessarily influence on the flowering of this seagrass species.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Helitransporte medicalizado: Situación actual en España y análisis de los últimos doce años de actividad en Andalucía

INTRODUCCIÓN • Los servicios de emergencia médica con helicópteros, en adelante HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) son una herramienta consolidada en la asistencia sanitaria extra-hospitalaria y un componente esencial dentro de un sistema integral de emergencias. • Deben ser diseñados para mejorar la accesibilidad al diagnóstico y el tratamiento especializado en procesos severos y de rápido deterioro. • Deberían aportar el mejor tratamiento in situ con un elevado nivel de competencia y proporcionar una reducción del tiempo de traslado al centro de referencia. OBJETIVOS: • Describir las características y actividad global en 2014 de los helicópteros medicalizados de España. • Analizar la evolución de la actividad de los helicópteros de emergencias médicas (HEMS) en Andalucía entre 2003 y 2014. • Analizar las características así como el abordaje terapéutico de los traumatismos graves atendidos por los HEMS en Andalucía en 2013 y 2014. METODOLOGÍA: • Estudio descriptivo transversal mediante cuestionario semiestructurado a un profesional de cada helicóptero medicalizado de España: Se incluyen 31 helicópteros de emergencia médica, 4 de rescate medicalizado y 6 multi-propósito. • Estudio descriptivo retrospectivo de los registros de las demandas asistenciales asignadas a los HEMS en Andalucía entre 2003 y 2014. • Estudio descriptivo retrospectivo de las historias clínicas realizadas por los HEMS en Andalucía en 2013-14 a traumatismos graves, definido por la escala de trauma score revisada. RESULTADOS: • Se obtienen datos de actividad sanitaria de 35 helicópteros. En 2014 recibieron 10.824 activaciones y completaron 8.893 asistencias, el 79% primarias. Trasladaron 7.056 pacientes. Las facilidades HEMS de 65 hospitales de referencia fueron: 69% con helipuerto propio, 38% transferencia directa y el 45% homologados para operación nocturna. • En Andalucía en el periodo 2003-14 los HEMS recibieron 19.793 activaciones y completaron 14.646 asistencias, el 82% primarias. 8.792 pacientes fueron trasladados en helicóptero. Hay una reducción de la actividad desde 2007 paralela a la disminución de los accidentes de tráficos. • En 2013 y 2014 los helicópteros andaluces atendieron 700 pacientes con traumatismos. En 565 registros pudo calcularse el trauma score (RTS-T) que fue menor de 12 en 112 casos que consideramos graves. De ellos, el 47% fue ocasionado por accidente de transporte, el traumatismo craneal fue el más frecuente alcanzando el 67%. El 68% de los pacientes graves precisó una intubación orotraqueal en la escena. La mortalidad durante la asistencia fue del 9’8% para los pacientes graves frente al 0’4% de aquellos que consideramos no graves. CONCLUSIONES: • Los HEMS en España han tenido un notable desarrollo en los últimos 16. Años aunque la disponibilidad de HEMS nocturno es aun baja. Existe gran variabilidad entre los sistemas adoptados en cada comunidad autónoma. El equipamiento de seguridad del personal sanitario de muchas bases no alcanza estándares internacionales. • El rescate medicalizado está disponible sólo en 5 comunidades autónomas cuya gran experiencia puede guiar la introducción en otras. • Los HEMS de Andalucía tienen una elevada actividad global, con un notable incremento en el periodo 2003-2014. La misiones más frecuentes fueron la asistencia primaria a traumatismos, especialmente cráneo-encefálicos. La actividad a primarios alcanzó el máximo en 2007 y descendió en paralelo a los accidentes de trafico. En el periodo se triplicaron las cancelaciones a misiones primarias y se duplicaron los traslados interhospitalarios. • Existe gran variabilidad en la especialización del personal sanitario así como en el volumen y tipo de demandas realizadas en las diferentes bases HEMS de Andalucía. • Es necesario incrementar la cantidad y la calidad de helisuperficies de los hospitales de referencia en Andalucía para que permitan la transferencia sin ambulancia. • Son necesarios nuevos estudios que comparen la morbi-mortalidad y los tiempos de las asistencias realizadas por HEMS y por ambulancias terrestres

The TALP–UPC Spanish–English WMT biomedical task: bilingual embeddings and char-based neural language model rescoring in a phrase-based system

This paper describes the TALP–UPC system in the Spanish–English WMT 2016 biomedical shared task. Our system is a standard phrase-based system enhanced with vocabulary expansion using bilingual word embeddings and a characterbased neural language model with rescoring. The former focuses on resolving outof- vocabulary words, while the latter enhances the fluency of the system. The two modules progressively improve the final translation as measured by a combination of several lexical metrics.Postprint (published version

Environmental change rate and dispersion pattern modulate the dynamics of evolutionary rescue of the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa

The rate of biodiversity loss is so high that some scientists affirm that we are being witnesses of the sixth mass extinction. In this situation, it is necessary to ask the following question: can the organisms be able to resist the environmental changes that are taking place? Recent studies have shown the possibility of a population recovering from a stress situation through evolutionary rescue (ER) events. These events depend on the size of the population, its previous history and the rate of the environmental change. The aim of this work is to add more knowledge about the ER dynamics creating stress situations with selective agents (sulphur and salinity) and using the toxic cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa as a model organism. The experiments are based on exposing populations to severe stress and analyze the effect of previous dispersal events and deterioration rates on the occurrence of ER events among populations. The model consists in three different rates of environmental change (constant, slow and fast; under salinity stress we only used the first two treatments) and three dispersal models (isolated, local or global). In total, 324 and 720 populations were exposed to stressful conditions caused by sulphur and salinity, respectively. The results showed that the dispersal modes and the environmental deterioration rates modulated the occurrence of ER events. It has been observed that dispersal favours ER events for both selective agents. Regarding the rate of environmental change, we observed an increase of ER events under constant changes in the populations exposed to sulphur stress. However, ER events were higher when there was previous deterioration (i.e., slow environmental change rate) under saline stress. As a conclusion, ER events in M. aeruginosa depend on selective agent, being the probability higher for salinity than for sulphur. Thus, it could be hypothesized that general conclusions in ER studies must take into account the selective agent.This work has been financially supported by the projects CGL2014- 53682-P (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad) and CGL2017-87314-P (Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad), and the Universidad de Málaga, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Effects of the super bialkali photocathode on the performance characterictics of a position-sensitive depth-of-interaction PET detector module

Super Bialkali (SBA) photocathode is a new technology that improves the spectral response characteristics of position sensitive PMTs, boosting their quantum efficiency up to 35%. In this experiment, two SBA tubes were introduced into a production line of PET detectors mixed with the regular tubes. The detectors were assembled using the standard factory protocols for detector mounting, calibration and testing. We report an evaluation of the improvement introduced by the SBA photocathode comparing the spatial and energy resolution and the depth-of-interaction (DOI) performance of PET detector modules with DOI capabilities.We conclude that the superior performance of the SBA tube may enable the use of arrays with a larger number of crystals of smaller footprint, thus potentially improving the detector intrinsic spatial resolution without degrading the energy resolution or the phoswich (DOI) discrimination capability.This work was supported in part by the CENIT Program (Ministerio de Industria), Comunidad de Madrid program ARTEMIS-P2009/DPI-1802, TEC2007-64731/TCM (Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia), and the RETIC-RECAVA, ISCIII. The contribution of J. Seidel wa supported in whole or in part with federal funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, under Contract HHSN261200800001E.Publicad

Control en cascada de la temperatura de un reactor continuo de tanque agitado encamisado

Se utilizará un PLC para controlar el modelo no lineal de reactor continuo de tanque agitado encamisado simulado con LabVIEW. Desde el punto de vista del controlador, se está controlando el proceso real, pero en realidad se está controlando la implementación discreta del modelo no lineal en LabVIEW del proceso real. Se utilizará Matlab y Simulink para simular el sistema de ecuaciones diferenciales no lineales del modelo matemático, y también del modelo linealizado en torno a un punto de funcionamiento. Se implementará el modelo no lineal discreto en LabVIEW y se validará con los resultados obtenidos de la simulación con Matlab y Simulink. Además, se diseñará una interfaz de usuario atractiva y fácil de utilizar que permitirá visualizar lo que está pasando en la planta y también la configuración de los ensayos de lazo abierto y de lazo cerrado a realizar. La interfaz también permitirá la exportación de los datos de los ensayos realizados. Por último, los datos del ensayo en lazo cerrado recogidos con LabVIEW serán analizados con Matlab y Simulink para comprobar el diseño del regulador.Llácer España, J. (2018). Control en cascada de la temperatura de un reactor continuo de tanque agitado encamisado. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/101509TFG

Movilidad urbana inteligente. Retos, riesgos y regulación.

La implementación de las nuevas tecnologías a los servicios de movilidad conlleva la recogida y elaboración de información de los usuarios, creando un amplio ecosistema de datos. Más allá de lo que se pueda pensar, los datos sobre los desplazamientos de las personas arroja una valiosa información. Esto entraña grandes riesgos para con los derechos de los ciudadanos, especialmente, desde la perspectiva de la protección de datos personales.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Este trabajo se enmarca en el Proyecto de Investigación “Retos jurídicos de la aplicación de la inteligencia artificial a los desplazamientos” (B1-2022_10) concedido por el Vicerrectorado de Investigación y Transferencia de la Universidad de Málag

Ejemplos de contextos sociales en los que es importante desarrollar el pensamiento crítico de los ciudadanos

El pensamiento crítico se considera clave para que los ciudadanos puedan desenvolverse de forma adecuada en una sociedad cada vez más implicada con la ciencia y la tecnología, como mostró un estudio Delphi realizado con un panel de expertos españoles relacionados con la ciencia resaltándolo como el aspecto del ámbito científico-tecnológico con mayor consenso. Este trabajo profundiza en los contextos sociales que los expertos de dicho estudio Delphi consideraron importantes para desarrollar el pensamiento crítico. Los ejemplos propuestos se categorizaron en tres contextos (salud, medioambiente y recursos naturales) y tres niveles de relevancia en la vida (personal, social y global). Este conjunto de contextos puede ayudar a los ciudadanos a desarrollar su capacidad de pensamiento crítico, tanto en la educación formal como informal.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Full 3D-OSEM reconstruction with compressed response of the system

Proceeding of: Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, 2004 IEEE, Rome ,16-22 Oct. 2004Small animal PET scanners require high spatial resolution (< 1 mm) and good sensitivity. To obtain high resolution images, iterative reconstruction methods, like OSEM, applied to image reconstruction in three-dimensional (3D) positron emission tomography (PET), have superior performance over analytical reconstruction algorithms like FBP. However, the high computational cost of iterative methods remains a serious drawback to their development and clinical routine use. The increase in performance of current computers should make iterative image reconstruction fast enough to attain clinical viability. However, dealing with the large number of probability coefficients for the response of the system in high-resolution PET scanners becomes a difficult task that prevents the algorithms from reaching peak performance. Taking into account all possible axial, in-plane and other symmetries, we have reduced the storage needs what allows us to store the whole response of the system in dynamic memory of ordinary industry standard computers, so that the reconstruction algorithm can achieve near peak performance