Joint speech and overlap detection: a benchmark over multiple audio setup and speech domains

Voice activity and overlapped speech detection (respectively VAD and OSD) are key pre-processing tasks for speaker diarization. The final segmentation performance highly relies on the robustness of these sub-tasks. Recent studies have shown VAD and OSD can be trained jointly using a multi-class classification model. However, these works are often restricted to a specific speech domain, lacking information about the generalization capacities of the systems. This paper proposes a complete and new benchmark of different VAD and OSD models, on multiple audio setups (single/multi-channel) and speech domains (e.g. media, meeting...). Our 2/3-class systems, which combine a Temporal Convolutional Network with speech representations adapted to the setup, outperform state-of-the-art results. We show that the joint training of these two tasks offers similar performances in terms of F1-score to two dedicated VAD and OSD systems while reducing the training cost. This unique architecture can also be used for single and multichannel speech processing

A Developmental Study of the Neural Circuitry Mediating Motor Inhibition in Bipolar Disorder

OBJECTIVE: Despite increased interest in the developmental trajectory of the pathophysiology mediating bipolar disorder (BD), few studies compare adults and youths with BD. Deficits in motor inhibition are thought to play an important role in the pathophysiology of BD across the age spectrum. Here we compare neural circuitry mediating this process in youths vs. adults with BD and healthy volunteers. METHOD: fMRI data from 89 subjects (16 BD youth, 23 BD adults, 21 healthy children, 29 healthy adults) were acquired while subjects performed the stop-signal task. RESULTS: During failed inhibition, an age group x diagnosis interaction manifested in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), with child BD participants showing hypoactivation relative to healthy children and adult BD, and adult BD showing hyperactivation relative to healthy adults. During successful inhibition, a main effect of diagnosis emerged in the right nucleus accumbens and left ventral prefrontal cortex, with bipolar individuals, irrespective of age, showing less activation than healthy participants. CONCLUSIONS: Child BD and adult BD both show ACC dysfunction during failed motor inhibition, although the nature of that dysfunction differs between groups. Adults and youth with BD show similar deficits in nucleus accumbens and ventral prefrontal cortex activation during successful inhibition. Therefore, while subcortical and VPFC hypoactivation is present in BD across the lifespan, ACC dysfunction varies developmentally, with reduced ACC activation in child BD and increased activation in adult BD during failed inhibition. Longitudinal fMRI studies on the developmental trajectory of the neural circuitry mediating motor inhibition in BD are warranted

Consequences of the size structure of fish populations for their effects on a generalist avian predator

Size-structured interspecific interactions can shift between predation and competition, depending on ontogenetic changes in size relationships. I examined the effects of common carp (Cyprinus carpio), an omnivorous fish, on the reproductive success of the red-necked grebe (Podiceps grisegena), an avian gape-limited predator, along a fish size gradient created by stocking distinct age-cohorts in seminatural ponds. Young-of-the-year (0+) carp were an essential food source for young grebes. Only adult birds were able to consume 1-year-old (1+) fish, while 2-year-old (2+) fish attained a size refuge from grebes. Amphibian larvae were the principal alternative prey to fish, followed by macroinvertebrates, but the abundance of both dramatically decreased along the carp size gradient. Fledging success was 2.8 times greater in ponds with 0+ versus 1+ carp; in ponds with 1+ carp, chicks received on average 2.6–3 times less prey biomass from their parents, and over 1/3 of broods suffered total failure. Breeding birds avoided settling on 2+ ponds. These results show that changes in prey fish size structure can account for shifts from positive trophic effects on the avian predator to a negative impact on the predator’s alternative resources. However, competition did not fully explain the decrease in grebe food resources in the presence of large fish, as carp and grebes overlapped little in diet. In experimental cages, 1+ carp totally eliminated young larvae of amphibians palatable to fish. In field conditions, breeding adults of palatable taxa avoided ponds with 1+ and older carp. Non-trophic interactions such as habitat selection by amphibians or macroinvertebrates to avoid large fish may provide an indirect mechanism strengthening the adverse bottom-up effects of fish on birds

Hairdressing : Guild of hair design

Image of a man with a moustache holding a microphone and a person bowing their head beside him