Rhythm-Flexible Voice Conversion without Parallel Data Using Cycle-GAN over Phoneme Posteriorgram Sequences

Speaking rate refers to the average number of phonemes within some unit time, while the rhythmic patterns refer to duration distributions for realizations of different phonemes within different phonetic structures. Both are key components of prosody in speech, which is different for different speakers. Models like cycle-consistent adversarial network (Cycle-GAN) and variational auto-encoder (VAE) have been successfully applied to voice conversion tasks without parallel data. However, due to the neural network architectures and feature vectors chosen for these approaches, the length of the predicted utterance has to be fixed to that of the input utterance, which limits the flexibility in mimicking the speaking rates and rhythmic patterns for the target speaker. On the other hand, sequence-to-sequence learning model was used to remove the above length constraint, but parallel training data are needed. In this paper, we propose an approach utilizing sequence-to-sequence model trained with unsupervised Cycle-GAN to perform the transformation between the phoneme posteriorgram sequences for different speakers. In this way, the length constraint mentioned above is removed to offer rhythm-flexible voice conversion without requiring parallel data. Preliminary evaluation on two datasets showed very encouraging results.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to SLT 201

The Antecedents and Consequences of RFID Technology Adoption for China’s Logistics Companies

With the fast growth in China’s economy, the logistics industry in China is set to take off, and more and more logistics companies begin to adopt innovative logistics technologies. RFID technology has been regarded as an important innovative application in logistics operations and supply chain management. This paper aims to study the antecedents and consequences of RFID technology adoption from the perspective of technological innovation by conducting a questionnaire survey on China’s logistics companies. The factors influencing RFID technology adoption consist of organizational and environmental dimensions. Research findings reveal that organizational encouragement for innovation, quality of human capital, organizational accumulation of related knowledge, perceived environmental uncertainty, and governmental support exhibit significant influences on the willingness to adopt RFID technology. Logistics companies with higher levels of willingness to adopt RFID technology will be associated with better supply chain performance

An Empirical Study on Logistics Service Providers’ Intention to Adopt Green Innovations

This study examines six factors that will influence the intention to adopt green innovations for logistics service providers. The determinant factors include technological, organizational and environmental dimensions. The data came from the questionnaire survey on logistics companies in Taiwan, and 162 samples were analyzed. According to the survey results, all the factors have positive influences on the intention to adopt green practices. Explicitness and accumulation of green practices, organizational encouragement, quality of human resources, environmental uncertainty and governmental supports exhibit significant influences on the willingness to adopt green practices.This study examines six factors that will influence the intention to adopt green innovations for logistics service providers. The determinant factors include technological, organizational and environmental dimensions. The data came from the questionnaire survey on logistics companies in Taiwan, and 162 samples were analyzed. According to the survey results, all the factors have positive influences on the intention to adopt green practices. Explicitness and accumulation of green practices, organizational encouragement, quality of human resources, environmental uncertainty and governmental supports exhibit significant influences on the willingness to adopt green practices.This study examines six factors that will influence the intention to adopt green innovations for logistics service providers. The determinant factors include technological, organizational and environmental dimensions. The data came from the questionnaire survey on logistics companies in Taiwan, and 162 samples were analyzed. According to the survey results, all the factors have positive influences on the intention to adopt green practices. Explicitness and accumulation of green practices, organizational encouragement, quality of human resources, environmental uncertainty and governmental supports exhibit significant influences on the willingness to adopt green practices

Technological Innovation for China’s Logistics Industry

China’s logistics industry has started to pay attention to adopt more efficient logistics technologies to provide better services for their customers. This paper employes the questionnaire survey to study the factors influencing the adoption of technological innovations by logistics service providers in China as well as the influences of technological innovation on supply chain performance. Technological innovations are categorized into data acquisition technologies, information technologies, warehousing technologies, and transportation technologies. The results show that the adoption of technological innovations is significantly influenced by technological, organizational and environmental factors, and adopting innovative technologies will increase supply chain performance for the logistics industry in China.China’s logistics industry has started to pay attention to adopt more efficient logistics technologies to provide better services for their customers. This paper employes the questionnaire survey to study the factors influencing the adoption of technological innovations by logistics service providers in China as well as the influences of technological innovation on supply chain performance. Technological innovations are categorized into data acquisition technologies, information technologies, warehousing technologies, and transportation technologies. The results show that the adoption of technological innovations is significantly influenced by technological, organizational and environmental factors, and adopting innovative technologies will increase supply chain performance for the logistics industry in China.China’s logistics industry has started to pay attention to adopt more efficient logistics technologies to provide better services for their customers. This paper employes the questionnaire survey to study the factors influencing the adoption of technological innovations by logistics service providers in China as well as the influences of technological innovation on supply chain performance. Technological innovations are categorized into data acquisition technologies, information technologies, warehousing technologies, and transportation technologies. The results show that the adoption of technological innovations is significantly influenced by technological, organizational and environmental factors, and adopting innovative technologies will increase supply chain performance for the logistics industry in China

STRATEGIC ALLIANCES IN BIOTECH/PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY & OPPORTUNITY AND THREAT ANALYSIS OF WESTERN-ASIAN R&D COLLABORATION

Dramatic advances in genomics and rapid progress in the Human Genome Project have resulted in a vast number of therapeutic targets available to researchers in traditional pharmaceutical and biotech companies that aim to join or serve the pharmaceutical industry. Consequently, the total number of new drug projects and the expenditure of research and development (R&D) worldwide have increased dramatically in this decade. However, despite the rising efforts (time and money) in the industry, the actual number of new drugs that reached the markets is declining year by year. To reveal the significance of strategic alliance to the value chain of biotech and pharmaceutical (bio/pharma) industry, this report reasons the demand of external R&D resources in the present circumstances through reviewing literature of bio/pharma R&D collaboration and recent news of the restructuring in this sector. This report further identifies the advantages and disadvantages of strategic alliances to bio/pharma firms by comparing with other transactions, such as mergers and acquisitions and licensing. In the circumstances of the globalizing drug market, Western bio/pharma firms are faced with strong challenges by confining their businesses to domestic markets. In addition, as many developing countries now have the honed skills and knowledge in drug discovery and development, intense competition now comes from all over the world. The later part of this report thus aims to discover whether Western bio/pharma companies could strengthen their competitiveness through the R&D collaboration with those in developing countries (the case of Asia). By detailing the biotech promoting policies and iv incentives, the development of human capital and the overall bio/pharma environment in China, India, Singapore and Taiwan, this report provides a comprehensive analysis of opportunities and threats to Western bio/pharma companies through the Western-Asian partnerships. Finally, in light of the complex value chain of drug development, this report presents the different specialties of these Asian countries and suggests the most functional and profitable types of collaboration for the Western bio/pharma companies

Effect of non-lattice oxygen on ZrO2-based resistive switching memory

ZrO2-based resistive switching memory has attracted much attention according to its possible application in the next-generation nonvolatile memory. The Al/ZrO2/Pt resistive switching memory with bipolar resistive switching behavior is revealed in this work. The thickness of the ZrO2 film is only 20 nm. The device yield improved by the non-lattice oxygen existing in the ZrO2 film deposited at room temperature is firstly proposed. The stable resistive switching behavior and the long retention time with a large current ratio are also observed. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the resistive switching mechanism agrees with the formation and rupture of a conductive filament in the ZrO2 film. In addition, the Al/ZrO2/Pt resistive switching memory is also possible for application in flexible electronic equipment because it can be fully fabricated at room temperature

Modeling and Algorithm for Multiple Spanning Tree Provisioning in Resilient and Load Balanced Ethernet Networks

We propose a multitree based fast failover scheme for Ethernet networks. In our system, only few spanning trees are used to carry working traffic in the normal state. As a failure happens, the nodes adjacent to the failure redirect traffic to the preplanned backup VLAN trees to realize fast failure recovery. In the proposed scheme, a new leaf constraint is enforced on the backup trees. It enables the network being able to provide 100% survivability against any single link and any single node failure. Besides fast failover, we also take load balancing into consideration. We model an Ethernet network as a twolayered graph and propose an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) formulation for the problem. We further propose a heuristic algorithm to provide solutions to large networks. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme can achieve high survivability while maintaining load balancing at the same time. In addition, we have implemented the proposed scheme in an FPGA system. The experimental results show that it takes only few μsec to recover a network failure. This is far beyond the 50 msec requirement used in telecommunication networks for network protection

Key Factors to Increasing Free Cash Flow for Manufacturers Utilizing Lean Production: An AHP-DEMATEL Approach

This paper aims to apply AHP and DEMATEL to analyze the key factors and interrelationships of lean production to increase free cash flow for manufacturers. The AHP hierarchy was determined through literature and interviews with leading management experts. The assessment criteria were categorized into five major criteria and 15 sub-criteria, including production, sales, human resources, R&D, and finance. According to the AHP results, the first eight key factors were identified as the key factors to increasing cash flow for manufacturers who utilized lean production. DEMATEL was used to identify the interactions among the eight key factors and further identify the four more important ones. The four key factors are strategic planning, strategic deployment, leadership, and goal orientation. This paper proposes management implications and improvement suggestions for the four key factors and their interactions